super sisters

chapter 1.3

The Glass Star

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“I have a feeling that we’ll find Peach somewhere around here.”
The sisters followed the path trough the dark forest of dead trees. In spite of the darkness in this region they could see the mysterious beam of light through the branches in the sky.
“I hope your sense won’t disappoint us and the whole thing is soon over… I hate this place, it’s awful!” said the scared Luigina, who had trouble of understanding why her sister was not afraid. She even envied her for that.
“You don’t have to be afraid of anything, Lu-chan. Super Marianna is here to protect you!” Marianna tried to improve the mood with joking around, and then she took her sister’s hand, clenched the other hand and stretched it out to the sky.
“… I can protect myself, okay? …” Luigina mumbled incomprehensibly after her sister’s words.
The deeper they went into the forest, the more the trees bloomed and had leaves on them, some of them even colorful blossoms.
“Wow! Look! How pretty! I didn’t have a clue that there is something like that in this place!” said Luigina surprised, radiating with joy as she saw the blossoming trees, which grew lighter and brighter as they progressed on their way. When they reached the end of the path, they stood on a wide glade, which was surrounded by trees blooming in white like they were cotton candy. In the center of the glade a stone altar was located, which the beam of light Marianna and Luigina had seen and followed came from. When they got nearer, they could recognize a small sparkling shape of light shooting a shining ray into the sky, making it shimmer in all different colors.
The sisters walked in front of the altar, stopped a few meters before as a precaution and looked curiously at the sparkling thing.
“It’s … a star!”
“Look, Lu-chan! So many colors! It’s beautiful … I’ve never seen something like that before!” Marianna risked getting nearer and bent over the star. It looked like it was made of glass, transparent and crystal-clear. A light with all colors of a rainbow was coming out of its center. Now Luigina too came closer and the fascinating sight made both smiling.
But suddenly something small placed itself between the sisters and the altar and brought them back down from their enthusiasm.
“What the hell are you two doing here? How did you come here? And why? What are you planning? Tell me!!” squeaked the small fairylike being, which wasn’t bigger than 7 inches and had a luminous orb attached to its back, which made it look like a firefly. Because of its sudden appearance up, the sisters backed off with a short jump, frightened.
“You wanna steal the star, right? Am I right? Tell me! Am I right?!”
“Uhm …” Marianna bent down, so that she could look directly into the eyes of this little being.
“Who or what are you?” she asked puzzled.
“Answer me first!”
“Uhm …”
“Come on, come on!” The fairy impatiently floated up and down and waggled her little arms. Now Luigina bent down too.
“Awww, so cute! So small and delicate and awww! Just cute!”
“Take me serious!” The fairy shouted.
“My sister and I just followed this strange light up there.” Marianna pointed into the sky at the beam of light. The fairy looked up and when she turned again to the sisters, she was completely surprised and happy.
“You’re here! You’re here! Finally, I’ve waited so many years! You’re here!” The small being floated up and down in excitement and was again waving its little arms.
“Uhm… We are here? Yeah … ?” Luigina asked confused by the sudden joy.
“You’re here!” The fairy repeated itself many times.
“You’re the chosen ones! You’re here!”
“Chosen… ones?” Marianna and Luigina looked at each other with a puzzled face and didn’t really know what was going on. At the same moment something cast a big shadow over the altar and the sisters turned their gaze up, so they could see what was darkening the glade: A female figure floated in the air above them.
“What the …” murmured Marianna when she looked more precise at the figure and spotted, besides some large butterfly-like wings and a grey skin, the unconscious Princess Peach lying in the arms of the unknown woman.
“… Ah! Peach! Hey you! Give her back!” Marianna yelled angrily at the floating person. But the winged woman just stared at her with her right violet eye, while the other one was covered by her crimson-coloured hair.
“I thought only the purest soul on this planet would know where the star is. But I’ve deceived myself with false hopes … Well, after all, she brought me to the star, even if it was just accidental.” The mysterious woman turned her icy stare away from Marianna and gazed at the shining star.
“The Glass Star … Symbol of pure souls … I’ve finally found you… And now I can finally take you with me!” With these words, the winged woman dropped Peach. Marianna cried out, jumped, opened her arms and caught the princess just in time.
“No! No! Leave the star alone! Noooo!” The little fairy cried out desperately when the floating stranger slowly and approached the altar. Marianna acted quickly, handed Peach over into her sister’s arms and requested her to watch over the princess. Then Marianna jumped in front of the star, punched at the gray-skinned stranger’s and sparked off a fire out of nothing with her fist, which shoot like a cannonball at the gray-skinned stranger. But the fireball didn’t reach its aimed destination- To Marianna’s surprise, the woman suddenly disappeared and reappeared just when the fireball had already passed her.
“I’m not interested in fighting you. I just want that star. So please, be nice girls and don’t get in my way,” said the enemy in a bored tone of voice.
Marianna turned around and was seemingly furious about the monotonous way the red-haired spoke, never changed her facial expression and of course the fact, that she failed at hitting her with a fireball.
“I don’t know what’s going on here and what’s all this stuff about this star, but it doesn’t look to me like it would be a good thing to let you get it!” Marianna started attacking again in the same way as before, but missed her target every time. She just couldn’t seem to hit her enemy, who disappeared every time a fireball approached and then reappeared at another spot. Knowing that it was useless to attack, Marianna stopped. The winged woman floated next to her on her right side.
During their encounter the little fairy twanged panicky around the glass star and repeated many times the same sentence:
“You must not touch the star! You must not touch the star!”
“Come on Ma-chan, you can do it!” shouted Luigina optimistic. She stretched out her arm and cheered for her sister. With the princess lying in front of her, she kneeled offside the altar to watch over the princess.
“I don’t have the time to play with you. Get out of my way!” The gray-skinned woman raised her arm and at the same time her hand began to glow in red, Marianna too glowed in the very same red light and started to float in the air.
“Uah?! What’s this?!” Marianna cried out confused and just the moment, she started to realize that she’s floating mid-air, she suddenly crashed into a tree. After a hard touchdown she slowly stood up and held her back, which hurt terrible.
“Marianna!” Luigina shouted concerned and jumped up.
“You… !!” Ready to fight, the green plumber girl was just about to start an attack, when suddenly her sister restrained her from interfering.
“I’m okay. You don’t have to fight, just protect the princess.” Marianna, looking like she was right before losing her temper, brushed the dust off her dress as she approached the winged woman.
“Who the hell are you?! I just want to know whose ugly face I’m gonna burn down now!”
“I’m called Mothella... I’m a Moth, but not the kind which is attracted to light… No, I’m only attracted to this star … And no one can stop me. Not even you, little flamelet.”
“You have a big mouth… And … you’re talking weird stuff. No, you ARE weird!” Marianna took a run-up and jumped high in the air. She stretched out her leg and tried to hit her opponent with a kick. But once again, her attack was parried. Right before her feet met her opponent’s face, the plumber, glowing in red thanks to Mothella, stuck mid-air.
“Argh! Not again!” Marianna cried out and could only watch as the moth woman made a sudden hand movement which caused her to crash into the stone altar. Fortunately, the altar was unharmed by the impact, but started to tremble, which caused the star to roll down it.
“Oh no! The star! The staaaar!!” The little fairy panicked as she couldn’t hinder the star from falling off the altar. But thanks to Luigina, who acted just in time and plunged with her whole body on the ground to catch the star, it stayed unharmed.
“Gotcha!” she said. Then she stood up and showed the fairy the sparkling star. The small being sighed relieved and clapped her hands, fascinated by Luigina’s stunt.
“Oh-Oh …” Luigina suddenly said and the smile on her face disappeared. Confusion rose in the faces of everyone, when the green plumber began to scream.
“It… It… The star… IT’S BREAKING APART!!” Indeed, the star in Luigina’s hands began to burst into equally sized shards, which hovered and then suddenly shoot in the sky. In an explosion beautiful like fireworks, the fragments flew away in different directions. The women could only watch as the star they’ve been fighting for shattered. As the looked into the sky, baffled, the little fairy couldn’t stand the sight anymore and fainted.
“It could have been so easy…” By saying that, Mothella attracted everyone’s attention. She didn’t avert her gaze from the dark sky, although the star shards had already vanished. Marianna stood up, her face contorted with pain and wasn’t sure if she should attack or not, so she just gazed at Mothella in anger.
“Shattered… Tch. You just prolonged everything.” Finally the winged woman turned around, loured at the sisters and soared into the air.
“I recommend you to not to interrupt me anymore … Unless you don’t want to take the road to hell early … Then I’ll personally bring you there!” After those words, she disappeared into thin air.
Marianna and Luigina looked baffled at each other.
“I don’t really get anything anymore …” said Marianna and panted exhausted. She made one step to the altar and picked up the unconscious fairy.
“The same goes for me… At least we found Peach.” Luigina looked at the princess, who was unconscious too.
Meanwhile, Marianna carefully tapped the small being, until it finally woke up. It jumped up, looked upset and began to scold the girls.
“How could you let this happen?! Why did this happen?! The star! The star! Broken! Shattered! Just gone!”
“Calm down and be quiet for once! Why don’t you tell us what’s going on here?”
“Ma-chan’s right! We want to know what just has happened. It’s all going too fast …”
The fairy fluttered to the edge of the altar and sat down. Then she sighed.
“Calm down? I should calm down? And tell you what’s going on? Okay… Alright… I’ll give it a try. Now, listen. My name is Cianca and as you can see, I’m a fairy. It’s my assigned task is to protect the star. Yeah, it WAS my task… Now that the star is gone …”
“And what exactly is this star?” asked Marianna.
“It’s called the Glass Star and people say, that one day its power will be needed to save the world from impending doom. Now, that the time the star’s powers would be needed had come, it sent out single beam of light, a sign, which only the chosen ones can see! And since you two saw the light, you are the chosen ones.” The fairy named Cianca crossed her arms, nodded and repeated the last sentence: “You are the chosen ones.”
“But… Chosen ones… Why? Chosen for what?”
“Didn’t you listen? To save the world! You followed the sign of the star. Additionally, you protected the star although you didn’t know what it is. That makes you the chosen ones as well. Unfortunately, you failed, the star shattered …”
“I’m so sorry …” Luigina lowered her head in shame.
“Yeah, you should be sorry! But it’s not over now. You have to hurry! You can still save the world!”
“And how?”
“The star is shattered. In seven pieces, to be exact. That’s what I could spot before I lost consciousness. These shards flew away in seven different directions. We just have to follow them, find them and put the star together again!”
The sisters looked at each other.
“… We? Uhm …” They asked simultaneously.
“But we have to hurry! I’m sure this butterfly, moth or whatever woman is after the shards too! I don’t know what she’s planning to do with the star, but I can ensure she’s up to no good.”
“That’s going too fast …” Luigina shook her head.
“Ah, I think we should bring the princess home before we’re going to do anything.” The green plumber girl added.
“That’s a good idea. Finish the task we’ve been given. The princess is actually the reason why we’re here, after all.” Marianna bent over Princess Peach and lifted her.
“Let’s go back to the Mushroom Kingdom!” Together with Luigina, Marianna walked out of the forest and Cianca followed them.
“But! But! Waiiiit!” she shouted in vain, but couldn’t hold the sisters back and just had to go with them, out of the forest. She looked back to the glade she used to live in and where she had protected the glass star her whole life. The trees slowly shed their white blossoms and began to resemble the other dead trees of Dark Land. The glade lost all its beauty and was now nothing more than just an empty and cold opening in the dead forest.