It was nearly morning, and the instant the sun peeked over the horizon every bird on Plit eagerly burst forth into lustrous melody. The dawn emanated pale light onto the land, illuminating, among other things, an old castle.
The castle was as breathtaking as it was immense as it bathed in the dawn’s early light. Its huge mass seemed to blot out the light up close, but from afar it was nothing less than beautiful. Within this huge castle resided Bowser, King Koopa. He and his wife Clawdia had eight children, and shared their castle with a few other close friends.
The oldest was Ludwig von, the smartest of the seven. He enjoyed music and inventing. Although his inventions most often exploded upon their first try, he never tired of it. He also composed music, ignoring many a complaint or heckle. His wild blue hair was the butt of jokes every now and then, but he didn’t mind and was very proud of it.
Jazzman von was Ludwig’s twin brother. Twins are considered a dreadful omen for Koopas, resulting in Jazzman being abandoned on Yoshi’s Island, left for dead. Luckily, some kind Yoshis brought him up as their own, never guessing that he would somehow find his way back to Bowser’s castle, but he did. Bowser wasn’t exactly fond of Jazzman, but after a failed execution, let him stay. Jazzman shared his twin’s love for music, and was almost identical to Ludwig, although his hair was black.
The third oldest was Lemmy, an easygoing Koopaling. Although he pulled the occasional prank, he much preferred to dazzle others with his acrobatic skill. Oftentimes only a blur of rainbow hair could be seen as he rolled around on his circus ball, which he liked to balance on instead of walking.
Roy seemed exactly the opposite of Lemmy. A hefty Koopaling who could outdo most anyone in a wrestling match, one of his favorite hobbies was to pick on his siblings. This was an easy task, considering he outweighed each of them. He wore dark sunglasses everywhere, saying that he had sensitive eyes.
Iggy was like a twin to Lemmy. They were both good friends, although he never picked up on the ball-riding thing. He was very similar to Lemmy in appearance, and was almost impossible to tell apart without his glasses on. Of course, his hair was a slightly different rainbow pattern, and unlike Lemmy, never rolled around on a ball.
Wendy was the only girl in all seven of the Koopalings. She was somewhat spoiled due to this, and in her younger years would throw violent tantrums to get what she wanted. It took a few years to grow out of the brat stage, though she remained spoiled from all of the royal family’s wealth. She loved to swim, one of the key reasons she inherited Water Land.
Morton Jr. was the same age as Wendy. Born later the same year, Wendy always seemed to get more attention. Feeling left out, Morton developed the unique, yet annoying, quirk of always wanting to speak. Without meaning to, he could make a sentence ramble on for hours, often changing subjects and using way too many verbs along the way.
Larry was the youngest of all his siblings. His love for plants gained him Grass Land, and he kept his blue hair combed, unlike Ludwig. Good-natured and kind, Larry’s interest in agriculture was put to good use in Grass Land, where the farming industry flourishes.
And then, there was Karma Koopa. Karma was a hybrid. This alone would have been strange enough, except she was part Yoshi, and part Koopa. Both species are mortal enemies. A mismatch of Koopa and Yoshi features, she was Ludwig’s Met, meaning that someday they would marry. If she had looked a little more like a Koopa and a little less like a Yoshi, maybe she could have gotten on Bowser’s good side, but no such luck. Few differences separated her from a normal Yoshi. Claws and a purple shell, to name a few.
Inside, all was normal by the family’s standards. Roy was chasing Iggy, who was running for dear life while Lemmy rolled alongside and tried to convince Roy to knock it off. Instead, Roy grinned and punched Lemmy’s ball. The ball bounced away and Lemmy landed on the ground, hard. Loud bangs and explosions emanated from upstairs, most likely the product of Ludwig’s latest invention.
The royal dog, Bagels Woof, was following Bowser around. She had her pet translator switched on and was asking Bowser if there was anything he needed. A favor, something to eat, anything so long as it would please Bowser.
Now, after all of this explaining about the Koopas, you might think this story was about one of them, wouldn’t you? You’d never guess that the focus would be hardly around any of them. Nope. The star of this story was up in Karma’s room, sleeping on her bed.
As Karma stepped back into her room, she was not at all surprised to find she had a visitor. What might have looked like a circular pillow at first glance was really Playful Meow, the royal cat. Playful seemed to hang around in her room habitually. He opened one eye to identify the new person in the room, then closed it again upon seeing Karma.
“Bowser is mad at me again,” she sighed as she sat down beside Playful. “You have it good, you know that?”
Realizing that he wasn’t going to get back to sleep, Playful sat up. He stretched a few times before giving Karma an inquisitive meow. Karma switched on Playful’s pet translator.
“You’d be surprised, I think,” Playful yawned. “Being a cat is harder than it looks, you know,”
“It can’t be all that hard. You’re fed three times a day, are pampered and well-cared for, and Bowser never gets mad at you.”
“Yes, he does.” Playful countered. “Remember the ‘hairball incident’?”
“Oh yeah,” Karma smiled. “He was furious.”
“Steaming mad, he was,” Playful agreed. He stretched again and hopped off the bed. Karma switched her pet communicator off as Playful left the room without another word.
“That cat,” she said to herself, and shook her head.
As Playful exited Karma’s room, he turned the corner and almost ran into Roy. He ducked to avoid a kick and continued down the hallway.
Playful counted the steps as he ran down them. 32, 33, 34... The castle was huge, but he knew it all off the back of his paw, having lived in it all his life. He wound through the next couple of rooms, finding himself exactly where he wanted to be: the kitchen.
Playful padded over to his food dish, only to find it empty. Of course it would be empty, he thought to himself, it always seems to be whenever I want to eat.
He looked around and spotted Bagels’ dish, also empty. Sighing, he sat down next to his dish, then let loose with a loud howl. A loud, lonely meow could be heard throughout a large part of the castle. No one came to his aid immediately, so he meowed again. And again. And again.
Finally, Playful could hear a padding sound accompanied by a tapping noise. The noise repeated itself again and again, getting louder each time. He stopped his howling and smiled; he could tell a Koopaling was coming. Listening intently to the rhythm, he concluded that it was Iggy who was approaching. No other Koopaling paced his footsteps to exactly that timing. Sure enough, Iggy walked into the kitchen moments later.
“Playful?” he asked, spotting the cat seated next to the empty food dish. “Was that you?”
Playful nodded his head vigorously in response.
“And I suppose you’re hungry?”
Another nod from the cat indicated that he had made the right presumption. Iggy searched through the kitchen cupboard for a moment, and finally pulled out a bag of cat food. He poured some into Playful’s dish and patted him on the head before leaving.
Playful stared at his dish, giving it a disdainful sniff. Dry cat food, not exactly his favorite. He sniffed it and decided to see if he could find some more desirable food elsewhere.
After searching numerous other rooms, he finally found some activity. Larry was upstairs in his room, tending to his plants. He didn’t seem to notice that anyone had entered his room until he felt something fuzzy rub against his leg.
“Who’s there?” he asked tensely.
He looked down, and sighed with relief. Recognizing the “intruder”, he crouched down to give him a pat.
“It’s only you,” he said, grinning.
Well, who did you think it was? Playful wondered to himself, flicking his tail in annoyance.
As if reading the cat’s mind, Larry explained. “I thought it might have been one of Ludwig’s inventions, sometimes he sends things to help me. The last one nearly obliterated one of my Piranha Plants.”
Standing up again, Larry noticed that Playful was giving him one of those looks.
“If you’re looking for food, you won’t find it here,” Larry warned, predicting a disaster for one of his plants. Playful had been known to eat some select non-biting plants when hungry. “Now shoo, I have work to do!”
Playful left the room, but stopped near the outside of the room’s doorway. When Larry turned his back, Playful crept back in as silently as possible. Staying away from the Piranha Plants, he noticed a smaller plant, with no teeth whatsoever. Thinking Larry wouldn’t miss it, he grabbed it in his mouth and made a dash for the doorway.
“Hey!” Larry exclaimed, turning around. “That’s a very rare flower!”
He made a grab for the cat, and managed to grab hold of Playful’s tail. That /hurt/! Seriously ticked, Playful turned to face Larry, growling.
Larry was somewhat intimidated by Playful now that he was hissing and growling, and tried to keep a firm grip on his tail. “Now, just give it back to me,” he tried to sound tough, “and I won’t have to get harsh with you. Daffodils are very hard to find, you know.”
“Rowr!” hissed Playful defiantly. He raised a paw and extended his claws, as if to caution Larry as to exactly what would happen to him if his tail was not released in the next ten seconds.
“I’m waiting,” said Larry angrily. “I’ll count to three, and if you don’t give it back by then, I’m going to take it by force! One… two…”
Had he had his pet translator with him, Playful would have shouted “Three!” But seeing as he didn’t, he settled with an angry growl as he swiped Larry across the face.
“Oww!” Larry moaned. He let go of Playful’s tail as he put he hands to his nose. He looked close to tears as he tenderly touched the great scratch.
That’ll teach you, Playful thought smugly. He flicked Larry with his tail before bounding out of the room, the prized Daffodil in his mouth.
Later, safely hidden in the laundry room, Playful examined his prize. He nibbled on a petal, but spit it out. It didn’t taste like the other plants he’d swiped from Larry. He amused himself by batting at the leaves for a while, but lost interest after a few minutes. He stared at it again. Somehow, he had imagined this experience to be more rewarding. But the hunt was over, and the fun had gone.
But in any case, it was still his. He stuffed it somewhere he figured Larry would never look for it, in the washing machine. Satisfied, he left the laundry room, still in search of something edible.
Soon enough, he found another Koopaling. It was not a pleasant surprise. Not noticing the cat down at ground level, Lemmy accidentally rolled over Playful’s tail as he bobbled by.
Everything happened too fast for Lemmy to react. Lemmy heard a hiss, and after a reflexive swipe of fury, he heard a distinct popping sound as he was thrown off his ball with the force off a small explosion. Playful had whipped around and popped his ball, and all before he could even form the word “Sorry” in his mind.
Sniffling a little, Lemmy scooped up the remnants of his beloved circus ball and stumbled down the hallway as Playful licked himself to calm his nerves. “Dumb cat,” he muttered.
The nerve of some Koopas, Playful thought to himself. He walked through the rest of the corridor and decided to see what Ludwig was up to. He turned a corner at the end of the long hallway. Finding the door wide open, he decided not to wait for an invitation from Ludwig as he walked right into the room.
As always, Ludwig was in the outermost corner of his room, busily working on some new creation. Suddenly, a loud explosion burst from the table in front of him, forcing Ludwig to step back. Playful jumped about a foot high and hid under the bed.
From his protected perch, Playful could see that Ludwig looked somewhat discouraged.
“There goes another day of work,” he sighed glumly. As he opened the contraption he’d been working on, he peered inside and started to adjust something unseen with a wrench.
Feeling calmer, Playful chanced to step out from under the bed. Ludwig was far too immersed in his work to notice he had a visitor, and Playful was suddenly bored. Scanning the room, he noticed a metallic-looking object about the size of a golf ball sitting on a nearby pedestal. His curiosity roused, he crept over to get a better look.
Too high up for him to easily see, Playful propelled himself onto the stand with a light jump. This proved to be a mistake, however, for the added weight of the cat disturbed whatever balance the small table had. Both Playful and the metallic object went flying as the pedestal toppled over, landing with a crash.
Distracted by the noise, Ludwig turned around and a look of horror registered on his face as he assessed the situation.
“Playful, you foolish feline!” he yelled in a panicky sort of voice. “That sphere is constructed of highly unstable compounds! Too much force applied could cause it to implode!”
He snatched the sphere and kicked Playful out of the room, shutting his door with a loud slam. Playful decided that, given the circumstances, the dry cat food was starting to sound not so bad after all. He began to make his way down to the kitchen, taking a detour to avoid Morton.
Stepping into the kitchen again, he immediately noticed a crunching sound. Looking around, he discovered Bagels, and she was eating out of his bowl!
Very annoyed, Playful snuck up to Bagels. Without warning, he swiped his outstretched claws at her back. With a yelp of pain, Bagels turned to meet her attacker.
The next scene was an odd one. Playful threw himself at the dog, who was at least twice as large as he was. Bagels turned tail and ran, for fear of another scratch. Enjoying himself, Playful chased Bagels for a full five minutes before a growl from his stomach reminded him just why he had come back to the kitchen in the first place. He abandoned the chase, and returned to his food dish.
Finally, he thought. Time to eat! He was just about to inhale the food, when Clawdia’s enraged voice could suddenly be heard throughout the castle.
“All right, who was it?” she fumed, loudly. “Who left a flower in the washing machine?!”
Playful ignored her and went back to what he was doing. He stared at the food for a second before shoving it into his face greedily.
The End
Rachelle Davison, 2001
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