(Master Porky Minch)
“Do you suppose we should wake her, or let her sleep in?”
“Umm, I’m not sure. I mean, I would really enjoy waking up to a breakfast in bed if it were my birthday. But, then again, it’s not really nice to wake Mama up this early in the morning.”
“You’re right. Let’s go see if Polari’s finished cooking the breakfast in the Kitchen before we do anything else.”
The yellow and blue Lumas hovering and talking in front of the Bedroom turned around, and followed the bright glowing wire on the floor to the high brick Dome on the eastern edge of the Comet Observatory: the Kitchen. All the Lumas remembered the day in which Mario had used it and all the other Domes to blast off into a multitude of galaxies and retrieve all their stolen Power Stars. However, this had happened hundreds of years ago; Rosalina had long since returned to her duties of overseeing the universe from the Comet Observatory. The Domes were no longer used to access galaxies anymore.
Or so she had thought.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” cheered a group of all different colored Lumas, bursting into the bedroom. Rosalina, who was sleeping in the universe’s most comfortable bed, quickly opened her eyes and looked at all of her star children floating around the plush doorway of the Dome. The little baby peach-colored Luma, coincidentally named Luma itself, that had once given Mario his spinning ability, sprung up from Rosalina’s arms and gave a squeal of enthusiasm.
“Wow! I’m so happy you all remembered my birthday, my Luma children! Thank you so much!” exclaimed Rosalia (well, as much as a girl with a perpetually calm and monotone voice can exclaim). Polari, the black eldest Luma, entered the Dome at this time, carrying a giant stack of hot pancakes on a plate.
“We thought you’d like something a little special for breakfast for your birthday,” he said, placing the plate down on her lap.
“My, these look delicious! You didn’t have to go to so much trouble for me!” she said, eyeing the pancakes with intense hunger and happiness.
“Ah, it was no trouble at all. Besides, there’s something that could make these pancakes even better than they are right now, right?” he said, calling towards the door. Immediately, two yellow Lumas carrying armfuls of Star Bits, all colors included, floated into the Dome as well. They threw all their Star Bits into the air, and all the rest the Lumas that were there grabbed them. Hovering over the stack of pancakes, they all released their Star Bits at once. A brilliant rainbow mist covered the entire Dome; when it finally cleared, the pancakes were now glistening with the same rainbow color.
“Woohoo! It actually worked! I’m glad it went better than the practice run!” whispered one blue Luma in the corner to another.
“Shh! I don’t think we’re supposed to say that!” the other replied. Luma gave out a squeal of delight as he caught sight of the rainbow breakfast. Flying down to rest on Rosalina’s lap, he leaned over and tentatively sniffed the pancakes. After receiving the aroma, his eyes twinkled and he happily nibbled at the pancake. Rosalina smiled and applauded after this beautiful display of colors.
“That was quite amazing! You are all so nice to me on my birthday. Well, if Luma likes them, I’ll bet they taste delicious!” she said.
As Rosalina and Luma ate the rainbow pancakes together, Polari turned back to the rest of the Lumas.
“How about you all present your gifts to Rosalina, and I’ll get the next surprise ready?” he said. Nodding, every Luma exited the Bedroom to fetch their present for Rosalina, and Polari floated off to prepare the “surprise”. However, as he exited the Bedroom, he failed to notice something on the big map on the bridge: a yellow, flashing blip over the icon of the first Galaxy of the Garden Dome, accompanied by a beeping alarm. In fact, the blip vaguely resembled a Grand Star.
Flying high to the upper level of the Observatory, Polari entered the steel Dome known as the Engine Room. The pistons and motors here were whistling and whirring noisily as usual. As he heard somebody enter, the green Gearmo watching over the control panel looked up.
“Ah, it’s you,” he said briskly, returning to the controls. Though they were always exceptionally hard workers, Gearmos weren’t exactly the chattiest of creatures, this one being no different.
“Hey. How are you doing?” said Polari, trying to start a conversation with him.
“The same as always: working hard. Everything here is stable,” the Gearmo curtly replied, quickly shooting down the conversation starter.
“Okay… so, is the surprise for Rosalina ready yet?” asked Polari.
“Should be. The guys over in Toy Time said they were preparing to ship it here this morning. Go check it out if you’d like,” he replied. Polari jumped into the blue Pull Star that was in the center of the room. Looking up, the ceiling of the Engine Room melted away to reveal the beautiful sea of stars among an ocean of galaxies that dotted the sky.
“Gold Leaf, nope… Sea Slide, nah… Bonefin, heck no!” he said, searching the sky for the right galaxy.
“Ah ha! There it is!” Polari exclaimed, looking at a colorful galaxy consisting of various blocks, toys, and desserts, “The Toy Time Galaxy!” The Pull Star he was in transformed into a Launch Star, and with a spin, he was catapulted clean out of the Engine Room and through the vast void of space, landing in the galaxy he was aimed towards.
Entering the friendly, childish environment of the Toy Time Galaxy, Polari landed on a planet consisting of a huge toy train track loop, with two toy trains going around and around on the track. It looked like something that could be ridden for hours and still be fun, especially for someone like a Toad. There was just one Gearmo on this planet, standing on the simple train station platform. He was pink, but had red-angry sparks coming out of his eyes.
“What do you want?!” growled the Gearmo, hearing Polari enter the galaxy. When he saw who it was, he quickly lost the angry sparks.
“Oh, Polari… my apologies, sir,” he quickly corrected himself. Polari was taken aback by the sudden anger of the Gearmo, but was able to pull himself back together again.
“Good morning,” said Polari, “is the surprise ready to be brought back to the Comet Observatory yet?” The Gearmo gave a long, mechanical sigh.
“Yeah, about that… there’s a slight delay,” he said. Polari’s eyes turned up in concern.
“Delay?” he asked.
“See, about an hour ago, right when we were just about to bring it to you,” he explained, “all the Gearmos got a call of a security breach in Sector C4K. What it was, I have no idea. I was the only one who wasn’t allowed to come, or even know what caused it, since I’m a ‘Junior Gearmo’ and ‘too young to handle missions like these’. Who do they think they are?! It makes me so angry!” The red sparks in his eyes returned, and he went into a rage again. Polari cleared his throat, bringing the Gearmo back to his senses.
Suddenly, the two of them heard a low, loud horn. Turning to the left, they saw a brightly colored gigantic toy boat sailing through space towards. On the deck of the boat, they saw a great number of Gearmos of various colors. Also, on the deck, there was a humungous planet-sized three-tiered birthday cake. Each tier was either covered in an ocean of white or pink frosting. There was a circle of eight big red gumdrops on the highest tier, and skyscraper-sized striped candles burning on the lowest one. On the top cake, there was also a message, written in icing, reading “Happy [illegible number]th Birthday Rosalina!” Indeed, it was the largest cake ever made in the universe, and the same one that Mario traversed those many years ago. It was the perfect birthday present for Rosalina.
“There you guys are,” shouted the pink Gearmo to the ones aboard the boat as it pulled up to the train station, “what happened?” One of the Gearmos on the boat, a yellow one that appeared to be the leader, stepped out in front.
“You don’t have the proper authority to learn of security breaches. But… if you must know… the intruder mysteriously disappeared in the middle of us fighting it. We do not know where it has gone, but since it is no longer here, we can go on with delivering the birthday cake!” he said.
“But… who was the intruder?” asked Polari, also intrigued about what happened. The yellow Gearmo looked nervously back and forth after being asked this, and finally said, “N-n-none of your business. An unimportant thing, I guess.” While it was obvious that he was hiding something, it was impossible to tell what it was. Polari and the pink Gearmo boarded the big boat, and they all sailed back towards the Comet Observatory. None of them noticed, however, that the giant cake they were bringing was very slightly twitching and moving.
Back on the Comet Observatory, things were quite cheerful. Every Luma on the station had a little present to give to Rosalina. Most were simple little cards decorated with pieces of Star Bits glued on. Others were large chunks of Star Bits crafted into the shape of a flower, heart, or other cute image. Rosalina took the time to look at and examine each and every one of them, and thanked every Luma, each in a special, personal way. However, the gargantuan cake that Polari had sailed back to the Observatory with clearly “took the cake”. When Rosalina feasted her eyes on this new planet floating around about the same altitude as the Trial Galaxy Planet and the Gate, her pupils dilated until they filled nearly the entire bright blue irises, and she was almost speechless.
“I… don’t… believe it…” she breathed. Polari flew up from behind and tapped her on the shoulder.
“So, do you like the present all of us got for you?” he asked, slightly amused.
“I… can’t think of anything to say. This is by far the most amazing birthday gift I have ever received!” She suddenly giggled in glee, something that she almost never did. Polari turned around to see all the Lumas, who were gathered around the grassy area outside the Terrace. After he gave them a thumbs up, they all twirled in the air and gave a squeal of pleasure.
Luma himself was very curious about this new planet of cake that was now orbiting the Comet Observatory. Getting himself into the new Launch Star that had been installed by the Gearmos when they brought it over, he spun and rocketed over to the cake. Floating over the surface, he leaned down to take a bite out of the lowest tier cake, when suddenly something happened. The cake twitched again slightly. Nobody on the Observatory noticed it, but Luma got hit and pushed off of the cake, returning back to the ground. He quickly floated back to Rosalina’s arms for security from this strange cake. She looked down at him.
“Is there something wrong with the cake, Luma?” she asked.
“Maybe it’s not telling the truth,” whispered a Luma from the crowd behind them. All the ones around him started snickering at this remark. The giant cake started rumbling further, however, and Rosalina noticed it this time.
“Polari, did you hide someone in the cake to pop out?” she asked. Polari frowned.
“No… the Gearmos didn’t tell me anything about that,” he replied.
The very top of the cake started to get hairline cracks in it, and then, in a giant boom of sound, it completely came off. As it this, bits of cake flew everywhere and covered everyone on the Observatory.
“Bleecchh!” sputtered Polari, shaking the cake off of himself. Rosalina and the rest of the Lumas followed suit, and Luma buried his face in the dress of his guardian in fright.
As they all got their vision back and gazed at the cake, there was something there that was simply unbelievable.
She appeared to be quite young, no more than nine or ten years old. Of course, with her current state of being, this could likely be skewed. Her hair was not completely light blond; it carried a nice soft orange shade, and there was just a small, simple golden crown atop it. Instead of having a long, flowing teal dress with sleeves, her dress was more of a light blue color, and went just to her knees with no sleeves at all. She wore no jewelry at all, or even any shoes. Her eyes were the same unmistakable aquamarine shade, but they carried a sense of childish ignorance and innocence instead of deep wisdom and maturity. However, they also carried something else: cold, frosty, unfriendly callousness. Besides all this, there was something else intriguing about her: she was about 100 feet tall!
Yes, a giant, child version of Rosalina was floating over the now-burst cake. Before anybody on the ground of the Observatory could even think of something to say, much less say it, the huge girl spoke first.
“Whew,” she boomed in a high-pitched, childish voice, “it was quite stuffy in there! I’m surprised I made it through the whole trip here!” She glanced downwards, and fixed her eyes on the group that was gathered below her.
“Oh, hello there,” she called out to them in a sweet voice that contained malice, “didn’t see all of you there. This must be a pretty strange situation for you, huh? It’s not every day that you see your princess as a young giantess, right?” All the Lumas, having regained their senses, fled away to hide in various Domes. Only Polari, Rosalina, and Luma (who was still whimpering and burying his face in Rosalina’s dress) remained.
“Who…are…you?” gasped Rosalina, firmly hugging Luma to her chest.
“Hehehe!” giggled the girl in same sweet voice that was dripping with spite, “you don’t recognize me? I’m you, silly! My name is Rosalina! You can call me by my nickname Rosie, though, if you’d like.”
“B-b-but… how is that even possible?!” shouted Polari. “The only Rosalina in existence is the one standing next to me!” This made Rosie chuckle even more.
“Let’s just say,” she laughed, “‘that’s for me to know, and you to find out!’ But let’s get down to business, shall we?” She leaned down and took a huge leap onto the ground of the Observatory. As she landed, she sent out a huge shockwave with a deafening crash. Rosalina got the full strength of this and was sent flying back into the entrance to the Terrace. Luma was ripped out of her arms in this motion and was also launched into the air. Being able to float, however, he quickly regained control over his body. To try to escape this sudden chaos, he flew up to the steel platforms in front of the Engine Room. Polari wasn’t so lucky, however; his motion sent him barreling headfirst into the map (which still had the unnoticed flashing blip on it). The collision knocked him out cold, and his unconscious body slumped down to the floor.
As Rosalina crawled out of the Terrace to try to face this giant girl, Rosie lifted up her foot and brought it over her. As she couldn’t possibly escape while limping, Rosalina gasped and braced herself, hoping the pain would be quick and easy. The foot came down.
Luma could only watch in horror as he saw his mother’s body disappear under the foot of a giant girl. His eyes welled up, and burst out sobbing as he heard a sickening crunch and a heartrending cry of intense pain from Rosalina. However, as Rosie picked up her foot and moved it back, he saw that Rosalina was actually very lucky. Rosie had only stomped on her legs, leaving the rest of her unharmed. Still, the broken, twisted, mangled legs accompanied by shouts of pain were unbearable to look at.
“That was just a warning shot, in case you try to do anything to stop me,” said Rosie in a cruel, soulless tone. “If you do, I may just have to drag out one of the Lumas hiding right now and crush him to Star Bits!”
Having adjusted to the pain, Rosalina looked up at the girl who wore her face and mumbled, “What do you want from me?”
Rosie’s mocking smile suddenly turned down in seriousness. “I want the one who is rightfully mine! I traveled across countless light-years to get here, and I won’t leave without him. I need him… he is my child! I need Luma!”
As soon as he heard these words, Luma’s heart raced in panic. He quickly tried to float into the closest Dome. However, Rosie was much quicker. With a careful motion, she plucked him off of the higher level, bringing him down. Her right hand closed up around him, creating a tight seal he couldn’t escape from. As his vision plunged into darkness in this new container, Luma started to really panic. He tried to ram into the walls, but just bounced off Rosie’s soft, warm skin. After trying again a couple times, he attempted to spin (as he helped Mario do countless times) his way out, but this was also ineffective. As a last-ditch effort, he tried to squeeze between the giant fingers holding him, but she simply tightened her grip to close the spaces. Finally, Luma gave up, and rested against Rosie’s fingers. As he did this, he heard her voice whispering to him from outside. She actually sounded calm and soothing, as if trying to comfort him.
“Relax, my little one,” she said, “I won’t hurt you. Just stay still for a minute, and then I’ll let go of you.” Luma felt relieved to hear this, but couldn’t help but wonder what she meant by this. What would happen to him after she released her grip on him? Luma didn’t know.
Back on the outside, Rosie bent down and looked straight at Rosalina with an intimidating leer.
“Now that Luma and I are reunited, we’ll be going now. And you’d better not try to stop us or anything. You’d be sorry if you did,” she said in her same nasty and cloying voice.
“N-no… you can’t!” cried Rosalina. She crawled towards her wand, which was lying on the ground a few feet away.
“Well then…” murmured Rosie. She peered into the entrance to the Terrace, found a blue Luma inside shivering in fear, and picked him up between her thumb and forefinger. Then, she lightly opened her fist holding Luma and carefully dropped him onto the top of her head. Luma fell into a forest of orange and blond hair. Tumbling and rolling, he managed to grab a very long strand of hair to hold onto.
Opening up her newly freed hand, Rosie flattened her palm and dropped the blue Luma onto it. She curled up her other hand into a tight fist and held it just above the tiny blue star. The Luma was thrown into a state of shock and couldn’t move at all.
“What do you say now, Rosalina?” mocked Rosie. “Either Luma and I go with no trouble, or your little pal here will transform into a pancake!”
“Mama!” sobbed the blue Luma. While he couldn’t talk himself, Luma gave out a whimper from atop Rosie’s head.
“Well?” asked Rosie impatiently. “Which will it be?” She slowly started to lower her fist towards the hapless blue Luma.
This is turning out to be quite an interesting birthday, thought Rosalina to herself.
“What have I done, Polari?” cried Rosalina, her head in her hands. The black, blue-eyed Luma tried to wipe away her tears, but she lightly pushed him away and continued to cry.
“You did all you could. Nobody is going to blame you for it,” said Polari in a comforting voice. Rosalina stopped crying for the moment and looked ahead, her eyes glazed over as if looking far into the horizon of the night sky off of the bridge.
“No…” she whispered distantly, “that’s a lie. I blame myself for it. If I hadn’t been so foolishly amazed by the enormous cake, I wouldn’t have slipped on my duty of being the protective guardian and mother of all the Lumas. It was my fault I let myself get incapacitated and lost Luma. I should have been able to avoid having my legs stomped on.” She gestured at her legs, twisted into completely unnatural shapes and covered with dark bruises, cuts, and scrapes. The bottom of her dress hadn’t escaped this stomping either, being ripped, tattered, and stained dark red.
“Please, Rosalina,” said Polari, “you are being too hard on yourself. After all, nobody has died. Even though Rosie has taken Luma and run off, you saved the life of that yellow Luma by letting her take him away. It’s because of you that the yellow one is now sitting safely in the Bedroom instead of being crushed into oblivion. I mean no disrespect, but I don’t believe there would be any way you could defeat a girl who is twenty times bigger than you.” Rosalina slightly tilted her head thoughtfully, and responded in the same distant voice.
“No, I don’t suppose there is. However, there might be another way…” She looked down at her broken legs.
“But first,” she said in a clear voice, “we must do something about my legs. Polari, please concentrate hard. It will help me focus in order to perform the healing.” Obeying this request, Polari shut his eyes and removed all his outer thoughts. Rosalina did the same, while focusing directly on her legs. The power of concentration between the two of them was great enough to cause psychic energy to activate. Rosalina’s legs appeared to have a bright, shimmering, fuchsia-colored fluid covering them. As Rosalina slowly brought her wand over each leg, they seemed to heal themselves. All the cuts were filled in, all the scrapes were restored, the bruises all disappeared, and the legs themselves moved back into their normal range of motion, repairing all the broken bones. The stains of blood were vaporized in the magenta fluid. When her legs were as good as new and even her dress was relieved of any dried blood or tears in the fabric, Rosalina relaxed and let the psychic fluid dissipate.
“Thank you, Polari, that will do. Now that my legs are once again fully functional, I suppose I ought to get going.”
“Hmm? Where are you going, Rosalina?” asked Polari inquisitively.
“Simple. I’m going after Rosie, and I’m going to get Luma back,” she said bravely. Polari looked shocked at this.
“But… but… she’s 100 feet tall! And even if you could defeat her, how will you possibly know where she is? It’s been several hours since she left; she could be almost anywhere in the universe by now!” he exclaimed.
“No matter. If she is anywhere in the universe now, it would be best for me to start looking right away. You can stay here and tell me if you find out anything about where she is. As for stopping her…” Rosalina’s eyes slyly narrowed and she brandished her wand, “let’s just say, healing isn’t the only psychokinetic ability I can use!” With that, she promptly walked into the nearest Launch Star aimed off of the Observatory, which was conveniently right at the edge of the bridge, spun, and blasted off into the cosmos. Polari could only watch in amazement, and great hope that his best companion in the universe would not come to harm. At last, he turned around to face the map.
“Hmm? What’s this?” he said to himself, looking at the flashing yellow blip over the Deep Dark Galaxy. “Could there be… a base there? With a Grand Star?”
Flying through empty space on the momentum of a Launch Star blast, holding a shivering silver baby Luma, at that very moment, was Rosie. To avoid falling off, Luma clung very hard to the strands of orange hair of the forest.
“Are you holding up all right up there?” called out Rosie to him. Luma, of course, could not respond to this, lacking the ability to talk.
Ah, you don’t know how to speak yet, right?
Luma suddenly heard Rosie’s voice. But it wasn’t coming through his ears; instead, it seemed to come directly into his mind.
You know how to communicate with telepathy, too? replied Luma, through his mind as well. I thought only Rosalina could do that. This was the way he used to communicate with Rosalina, being unable to speak yet.
But I am Rosalina, remember? Just not the same one you know, was the response.
Why do you need me, though? There are a million different Lumas out there.
Simple. The one who was you where I came from… he… is taking a nap on the grassy field of the Gateway planet. This last part was almost sobbed, and tears welled up in her eyes.
Ah. Well, I guess I understand it then. But still… I’d like to return to the Comet Observatory and my Rosalina.
That’s okay. I didn’t expect you to immediately like this situation. But now is not the time for you to return just yet. Suddenly, the beautiful beaches and dome of aqua-colored ocean water of the Beach Bowl Galaxy came into view just ahead.
Say… what would you think about taking a little trip to the beach? I’m sure those little penguins living there wouldn’t mind if we visited them, said Rosie.
I guess it wouldn’t hurt that much. Luma, of course, didn’t really have much choice in the matter.
No, it wouldn’t… for us! she giggled evilly. With that, the two turned right towards the beautiful beach planet, and they flew right to the shore.
“That’s it, Benny,” called out Coach, “do some nice slow, large strokes. That’s the way you’ll get the most distance.”
Benny, the young penguin in the ocean water, matched this description as he swam.
“Good, Benny!” shouted Coach. “Now, Jerry, try picking up the pace! After all, if there’s a hungry eel hot on your tail, you’ve gotta swim fast to lose him!”
It was indeed a typical day in the Beach Bowl Galaxy. Coach’s swim lessons were in session, and all the penguins were in the water following his instructions. Of course, one should remember that this is happening hundreds of years after the events of the game, and so this Coach and these penguin students are those of a generation far after their game counterparts.
“All right, everyone gather ‘round!” called Coach. The penguins (about 15 total) all swam up to shore, where their instructor was waiting.
“Very nicely done today!” said Coach to his students. “You’ve learned how to get out of rip tides, swim out of whirlpools, and escape from giant killer eels. I think we can call it a day now.” Jerry, one of the penguins, raised his flipper. Sighing lightly, Coach turned to him.
“Yes, Jerry?” he said.
“Coach, what should we do if a pretty giantess is coming straight at us from the sky?” asked Jerry. Coach laughed heartily at this.
“I sincerely doubt that would ever happen to us!” he scoffed.
“Um, I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Coach,” said Benny, pointing a flipper toward the sky. Indeed, at that very moment, the whole front side of Rosie could be seen rapidly falling towards them. She was attempting to do a body slam.
“Okay, everyone,” hastily shouted Coach, “Code Pink!” It seemed as though the penguins had been through this once before, since they knew exactly what to do. With incredible speed, each and every one of them dived into the water, right down to the ocean floor. Unfortunately, this was not the smartest of things to do. Rosie wasn’t originally aimed at them on the beach: she, too, was aiming at the ocean. As she hit, the penguins all scrambled back onto land to get away. To greet them, however, was an enormously huge wave, looking to be more than 50 feet high, from the point at which she had splashed. As it crashed into the beach, the penguins were all tossed around as if they were toys. Many of them landed on the grass above the beach; Coach even landed in one of the lower palm trees! Two of them were still in the water, though, hiding in the little holes of the big rock spire in the center of the ocean. Finally, Rosie stood up and looked at the penguins with a naughty, childish grin.
“Hello there! You don’t mind if I swim here, do you?” she laughed. Coach shook himself free of water and looked crossly at the girl.
“This planet is here for swimming lessons only. If you’d like to join the class, that’s okay. But right now you are disrupting our class, and therefore must leave,” he said angrily. Rosie snickered and made a face of mock apology.
“Oh, I’m sooo sorry!” she giggled. “How about I just stand on this little rock spire, then?” She lifted her foot up above the water and stomped right on it. The normally strong rock yielded to her forceful foot and crumbled into tiny pieces; the penguins hiding inside it suffered the same fate.
“That’s it!” snarled Coach. “If you’re not going to leave, then I’m gonna—”
“You talk too much!” interrupted Rosie. “Why not spend some time in someone who doesn’t?” She leaned over to the palm tree he was sitting in and plucked him out with a thumb and forefinger. Bringing him right up to her eye, she peered into Coach’s face of pure terror.
“Sorry,” she snickered insincerely, opening her mouth. Rosie threw the fat penguin in past her lips. With a quick bite and a swallow, she sighed blissfully. That was the end of Coach.
“Does anyone else object to me swimming here?” shouted Rosie to the penguins. The penguins all stared at each other blankly for a few seconds. Then, they were able to move again.
“RUN! … I mean, WADDLE!” screamed Jerry, and he and the rest of the penguins rushed towards the cliffs on the other side of the planet.
“Aww… you’re all afraid of little ol’ me? C’mon, one of you must want to swim with me, right?” laughed Rosie. The penguins kept on climbing the steep cliffs separating them from safety, not listening to what she was saying. Suddenly, a dark shadow fell over them. Rosie dropped her hand and wrapped her fingers tightly around one of the penguins, who turned out to be Benny. He screamed, fought, and struggled, but didn’t come even close to getting out of her hand. Rosie raised her hand right over her head and opened it, dropping Benny into her hair.
“Darn!” shouted Benny. “Why did I have to be born a flightless bird?!” Stumbling as he fell onto the surface, he took a look around the big orange forest he was in. Luma floated over to him with a low chirp.
“Hey,” said Benny, “Are you someone else she kidnapped?” Luma solemnly nodded. Of course, Benny didn’t know telepathy, and Luma couldn’t talk, so the two of them couldn’t communicate. All Luma could do was give the penguin a sympathetic look, as if to apologize for what the girl had done.
Suddenly, the surface started shaking, and Luma and Benny
were thrown off to the side, surviving only by holding tightly to the huge
strands of orange hair.
Rosie turned over to face the water, and walk right towards it.
“Hold on tight, you two! I’m going to dive in!” she said. With that, Benny and Luma had no choice but to hang on as the girl they were on began to dive into the ocean water.
Thrust into the aquatic world below the surface, Luma and Benny felt themselves grow lighter in the water. So did Rosie’s hair: the thick, bright orange and red hair that was illuminated by the sun started to float upwards, freed from the more pressing gravity. As the two hung onto strands of hair, they felt as if they were trying to stay on raging bulls in a rodeo or something. Rosie performed dazzling acrobatic strokes, going up, down, and in all directions. At one point, her crown fell off her head as she did a somersault, falling softly down to the sandy bottom of the ocean and crushing a couple of passing fish with it.
“Oops!” she said. “Silly me! Guess I’d better go get that.” As she descended down to the bottom, Benny suddenly let go of her hair, and proceeded to swim up to the surface. Luma looked curiously at him.
“Look, kid, I don’t know about you, but I’m getting out of here now. No telling what she might do to me if I don’t. If you’re not going to, just tell me you’ll be careful, okay? Good luck,” called out Benny to Luma as he swam up to shore.
I know Rosalina will come to my rescue some time soon, thought Luma.
“Hey, Mister Eel,” laughed (or gurgled, seeing as she was still underwater) Rosie, “How would you like to eat my foot?” She lined up her foot directly above where the Gringill’s hole was and waited form him to pop out. As soon as he did, she firmly stamped her foot down, squashing him with her toes. As tiny red bits of Gringill organs began to float up to the surface of the water, Rosie swam back to the shore and, once there, let out a very childish but disturbing giggle.
“Oh, this power rush is so AWESOME!” she shouted. “I want to stay like this and terrorize little creatures forever!” She reached up to her silky-smooth and wet hair and picked out a soaked Luma, proceeding to smile down on him with a motherly glow.
“But first, we had better get you settled in your new home, right? C’mon, let’s go there right now!” She paused, looking thoughtfully at the tiny, drenched Luma in her hand.
“However… maybe my hair isn’t the best place for you right now.” Looking down at her toes, she smiled. When Rosie dropped Luma in between her big toe and her second toe, he fit quite snugly in the crevice.
“There! That works nicely!” Unfortunately for Luma, Rosie wasn’t the best when it came to cleaning her feet; he began to feel intoxicated by a vile odor coming from her toes. He tried to squirm out from between the toes.
Ugh, this smell is revolting! Please, I think I might faint if I stay here too long! Luma desperately thought.
I’m sorry, my child, but I don’t know where else to put you. Please just endure it for a little while until we get to the next location. Tell you what: how about I make a quick stop in the Honeyhive Galaxy to pick up a couple of slave bees before we go to my home galaxy? I’ll take you out when we arrive there.
Luma sighed, and put on a smile as he tried to envision sampling an aged, gourmet, and very pungent cheese to cope with the smell. It worked a bit, but he still started feeling faint as he inhaled the terrible odors and felt the tight toes wrapped around him.
Rosie turned to the penguins that were still scrambling up the cliffs and scowled. “You there!” she barked at them, “We need a Launch Star to get out of here! Fetch me five star chips on the double! That is, if you’d rather not get acquainted with my palm!” She extended her arm out and flattened her hand, prepared to give them all a deadly slap.
As the evil giantess prepared to fly over to the Honeyhive Galaxy, the real Rosalina was performing a desperate search through the cosmos for her little Luma in the furthest outskirts of the universe. Still on the momentum of a Launch Star blast, her beautiful blond hair flowed carelessly behind her as she made her flight. Her usually calm, benign, and placid expression was gone, replaced by one of anxiety and worry for her kidnapped child.
That girl seems to be ruthless in her capacity for violence, she thought to herself. There may be no telling what she may do if she is continued to be allowed to get her way.
Rosalina suddenly realized that, after passing a planet made purely of molten lava, she was further away from the Comet Observatory than she had even been before. Looking around, the area seemed to be quiet and calm, far from the bustling metropolises of inhabited galaxies near the center of the universe. This part of the universe seemed to be almost hidden, like the Garden Dome from the Observatory. In fact, as Rosalina spun around and took a look at her surroundings, it actually was the area covered by the Garden. She spotted all the tiny galaxies that once held Power Stars: the rocket-holding space station Dreadnought Galaxy; the greenish twisting, shifting, and vanishing Matter Splatter Galaxy; the volcanic, fiery, infernal, magma-covered Melty Molten Galaxy, and…
“What’s this?” exclaimed Rosalina curiously. As she gazed upon a galaxy consisting of a dark beach, a mountain hiding an underground lake, and a strange cube orbiting around, the star head of her wand began to flash yellow and make a strange beeping noise, something it had never done before.
I don’t know why, but for some reason it seems like there’s something there that might help me find Rosie and Luma, she thought. I don’t have any other leads, anyway, so I might as well check it out. Turning around to change the direction of her flight, Rosalina prepared to land in the Deep Dark Galaxy.
It was morning on the mysterious beach planet; the sky glowed a soft yellow and pink with the black starry abyss just above it. Rosalina looked around the area for some place the Grand Star she had detected might be hiding.
“It seems quiet… too quiet…” Rosalina murmured to herself. The cannon built in the ground in the center of the beach that once had the capability to blast people off to neighboring planets had since rusted over; it was now unusable. Rosalina looked up into the sky where there was a planet resembling her special one from the Gateway Galaxy. She scratched her head; the origins of this planet were as much of a mystery to her as they were to everyone. She looked over to the cave housing the underground lake; it had collapsed at one point, the entrance nearly completely blocked by boulders. However, there was a small crevice, just big enough for her to fit inside by crawling. As she leaned in towards the crevice, she could hear the strange noise of machinery whirring inside. This was odd, as the huge machines situated above and around the cave had also collected rust and stopped a while ago. Deciding to investigate the sound, she got on her hands and knees and wiggled into the crevice. Ignoring the dust and sand that was falling on her as she crawled through, she was eventually able to get through the blockage and enter the open area of the cave. She stood up, brushed the sand off of her dress, and stared down into the deep water leading to the underground lake. As there was nothing in this open area that could explain the noise of machinery, Rosalina concluded that the thing making the noise must be at the lake.
As Rosalina dived into the water, she could see again that no sentient being had been here for quite some time; the aquatic plants growing from the sand had tangled wildly around every solid object at the bottom, giving the place a sense of an underwater jungle or ruins. The enemies that used to swim happily around the bottom of the lake were nowhere to be seen. The air bubble shooters were, like the rest of the machines, broken beyond repair by this time. Rosalina realized that this meant she couldn’t stay down here for a very long time.
Suddenly, she noticed a few sets of eyes peering out fearfully at her from the darkness within the sunken ship here. Swimming closer to the wrecked ship, she could see what the eyes belonged to: a couple of frightened Bloopers and Urchins.
Why are they so scared? Rosalina wondered. Getting an idea, she decided to send them some comforting telepathic waves. Of course, little creatures like them couldn’t understand telepathy or use it, but they could understand the general feeling behind it.
Relax, she thought. I am not here to hurt any of you; I just want to find my lost child. Feeling her peaceful intentions, one of the Bloopers tentatively poked its head out of the ship and looked at her. Rosalina smiled at the little squid and lightly patted it on the head. The Blooper, surprised, quickly brought his head back into the darkness. However, after a moment, it swam fully out into the water. Aimed at the small wall of brick blocks to the left, the Blooper charged at high speed and rammed into the wall. When it collided, it smashed a few of the brick blocks, creating a space for Rosalina to swim through to continue on. It motioned with its tentacles to go through the space before returning to its home inside the ship.
Thank you very much, thought Rosalina, and she quickly returned to the surface for a moment to refill the oxygen in her lungs before preparing the swim through the hole.
Rosalina could see the surface of the water as she swam up the long tunnel beyond the brick wall. In fact, she could even see the morning sky up above. The whirring of machinery was getting very loud by now. As she neared the top, she suddenly saw an obstacle blocking her way: a large metal grate covering the opening. Rosalina sputtered when she saw this; she had used up almost all of her oxygen on the way there. It would take too long to return back to the beginning of the cave to refill her air there, so she needed to find a way to get up to the surface above her. Looking frantically around the area for something to open up the grate, she finally came upon a small lever in the “ON” position right below the grate. Grasping it and pulling with all her might, it slowly churned backwards to the “OFF” position. In a miracle, the lever actually worked, unlike the rest of the machines on the planet. The grate groaned as it slowly creaked off to the side, opening the way to the top. Quick as a bolt of lightning, Rosalina swam to the surface of the water. Feeling the beautiful oxygen fill her tired lungs, she flopped down on the sandy ground in relief. After half a minute of heavy breathing, she finally looked up.
This was the cave in which Kamella’s ghost ship had once docked. Since then, however, it had vanished a long time ago. The Boos that had also inhabited the area were gone as well, lacking a haunted home to live in. As Rosalina looked up, however, she could see the beautiful glistening of a Grand Star above the pond in the cave. It wasn’t alone, though. Rosalina finally saw where the loud machine noises were coming from.
Whenever there’s honey to be harvested and unfriendly insects like Mandibugs to be disposed of, there’s a very good chance that the busy little worker Bees of the Honeyhive Galaxy are going to be busily buzzing around, helping preserve and make the planet prosper. Today was no different; several Bees were filling up their little buckets with the honey from the cliffs at the bottom of the planet and flying straight up to the wooden windmill high in the sky where they would drop off the honey. The big vat that the Bees were depositing the honey into at the top of the windmill was nearly full. Resting on the deck for a moment, the Bees took a look at the work they had done that day.
“You think our Queen will be happy with the work we’ve done today?” asked the first Bee, lying back and letting his head rest on his hands. His comrade turned around to look at the vat full of honey and grinned.
“Sure. We got a ton up there!” he said. The first Bee stretched his tiny little arms and stood up.
“Hmm. I still got a little energy left in me. Wanna go for one last round today?” he asked. The second Bee got on his feet.
“All right, I’m game,” he said. “Afterwards, we can go hang out at the Hive. Maybe you’ll find a nice girl Bee there to go out with?” His friend snorted at that.
“Hah! Don’t count on that happening!” he scorned. “This Bee
wants no commitment right now!”
The two jumped off the deck and flew down, buzzing as they hovered to the cliffs
below the main surface that were dripping with honey. Scooping up a big
bucketful of honey each, they prepared to fly back up to the windmill. However,
at that very moment, a gigantic crash from above shook the entire planet,
causing them to lose their footing and fall back to the ground. The first Bee
climbed out of the puddle of honey he had fallen in, shook himself off, and
looked towards the sky.
“What the heck was that?!” he shouted fearfully. His friend also recovered from the fall and peered up, trying to see the source of the crash.
“Dunno, man,” he said, “but we should probably go check it out. Something that loud never seems to be friendly.” They reached behind their legs and pulled out their spears from the secret hidden pocket there before heading back up to the towering windmill.
Unfortunately, when they got back up to the structure, it was anything but towering. The entire thing was smashed to bits. The only traces left of it were the various scattered splintering planks of wood that originally made up the structure that were strewn everywhere. The windmill blades were lying on the ground, warped completely out of shape. The honey that had been stored in the large vat on top of it was dripping messily everywhere, and the vat itself had been reduced to a pile of glass shards.
“W-w-who… could have done this?” stuttered the first Bee in disbelief. The second one just shook his head sadly.
“Well,” he said, “at least we’re not the first animals troubled by a broken windmill that we built. And, unlike them, we don’t have a tyrannical pig as a dictator, right?” Just then, the perpetrator of this terrible act returned to the stop, stomping her gargantuan foot right on the location where the windmill stood just five minutes ago.
“Eww,” Rosie giggled in a huge, booming voice, “my foot’s all covered in honey! It’s sooo sticky and messy! Hehehe!” Nestled between her enormous toes, the Bees could see a small peach-colored Luma, dazed and in a subconscious state of mind. However, they ignored him and focused on Rosie, the bigger threat. Being experienced defenders as they were, they wasted no time in flying up to her face and brandishing their spears in a threatening motion.
“You have vandalized and demolished the private property of Her Majesty the Queen of the Honeyhive Kingdom,” they said in unison. “If you do not immediately leave, we will consider you an official threat and act accordingly.” Rosie, however, wasn’t daunted in the least by this message.
“Aww,” she cooed, “You little bee guys are so cuuute!” They charged at her, spears out in front of them. With one swift hand motion, Rosie snatched their spears from their hands and held them up to her eye.
“Hmm,” she murmured, “perhaps they’ll make nice hair clips!” She placed them up in her long orange hair and looked back at the Bees that were still attempting to attack her. In the same swift motion, she scooped the two of them up in her left hand and brought them up to her eye.
“You thought you could even put a scratch on me?” she laughed. “You two are quite adorable!” The Bees struggled to break free of her grasp, but could do nothing as the fingers as thick and strong as tree trunks were wrapped tightly around their bodies.
“Let go of us this instant!” they shouted with authority. Again, Rosie simply laughed this off.
“Hmm… how about no?” she said. “I like the two of you. So, I’m going to give you four options on what you can do. A: get killed from me squeezing you to death. B: get crushed under the soft soles of my feet. C: allow me to swallow you and have you end that way. Or, D: be my personal massage slaves and give my feet a nice rubbing. If I’m pleased by it, you can live. Which option do you choose?” The Bees glanced at each other, sighing at their misfortune.
“We choose D,” they said in disgust. Rosie smiled and giggled at her triumph.
“Excellent choice,” she said. “However… just the two of you isn’t going to cut it, no. I have someone else in mind to join you!” Gulping, the Bees asked the follow-up question with sinking feelings in their stomachs.
“Who is it?” they both said. Just then, as if to answer them, a low-pitched buzzing sound came from below, and the enormous Queen Bee came fluttering up to Rosie, an intimidating glare in her eyes. While the Queen Bee was very large in comparison to the worker Bees, she was only about the size of a hedgehog from Rosie’s perspective.
“I say,” the Queen Bee shouted angrily, “What is the meaning of this?! Why have you come here and wreaked havoc?” However, Rosie ignored these questions, narrowed her eyes, and smirked.
“Perfect,” she said nastily.
Rosalina couldn’t believe her eyes when she looked at the mechanism situated in the middle of the Deep Dark Galaxy cave. It was none other than the machine that had utilized the very first Grand Star back in the Gateway Galaxy.
“Oh no!” gasped Rosalina. “I thought this terrible machine had been destroyed already. What is it doing here?”
The great glass container in the center held the Grand Star that was being detected, appearing bronze from the energy being sapped from it. The energy was being drawn from the top, pooling in a pink turnip-shaped ball. All the flipswitches surrounding the machine powering it were yellow, signifying that it was on. The sounds of gears turning, motors running, and pistons puffing could be heard working from below. In all these ways, it was essentially identical to the previous machine. However, there was one major difference. Above the turnip-shaped ball of pink energy, thin transparent tubing with filters inside ran down into a small beaker on the ground. Every few seconds a pink drop of liquid dripped into the beaker, pooling very thinly at the bottom.
Rosalina removed the tube and picked up the beaker of pink liquid, bringing it up to her eye to inspect it.
“Hmm…” she murmured, “I wonder why this big machine powered by a Grand Star would make such a small liquid. It must be very important.” Carefully tipping the neck of the beaker over, she allowed a couple of the neon pink droplets to fall on the ground. They dripped onto a small patch of wildflowers and soaked into the dirt around them. For the first few seconds, no immediate change was apparent. After about thirty more seconds, the wildflowers slowly began to expand outwards. Within a minute, they had grown to the entire length of the cave; Rosalina had to quickly dart onto the higher rock outcroppings along the wall.
“Oh my!” she exclaimed, watching as the little blotches of red and green that were tiny wildflowers just one minute before rise up to hit the ceiling of the cave, inflating like a hot air balloon. The huge petals covered the small cracks of sky from above, shading the entire area like the canopy of a rainforest.
“This must be how Rosie grew up to be so huge,” Rosalina noted. “But how, and why?” Just then, she caught sight of a rather peculiar object lying against the cage holding the Grand Star: a little book bound together with colorful yarn, the covers made of yellowing construction paper. On the front cover, the words “Private Diary of Rosalina” were scribbled out in blue marker, and below them was what appeared to be a self-portrait drawing of Rosie, crude like a child’s drawing but still nice to look at. Instead of a smile, however, her face wore a sad frown and her eyes were full of tears.
“Might as well give it a read,” she said, shrugging. “I doubt Rosie would kill me any worse for doing so.” She picked it up, blew the dust off of it, and started reading.
The first few entries seemed to be identical to the experiences that Rosalina herself had. She had met up with the little star creature named Luma who was desperately seeking his mother. So, after observing the stars for a long time to find her to no avail, Rosie had agreed to journey with him in space to help him. However, it was at that point when the resemblances began to end.
May 2
Several months have passed since Luma and I have embarked on the journey through space to find his Mama. Unfortunately, I guess I didn’t really pack my supplies that well. We are out of food, and didn’t even bring any water. Luma does have a big pile of Star Bits that the two of us have been surviving on, but that, too, is getting smaller. Luma said that Star Bits are plentiful in the universe and can be found almost anywhere in space, but so far, we haven’t found any more. I really hope that we find his Mama soon. Otherwise, we might never get back to our home planet.
May 10
It looks as though our luck has begun to change. Luma and I have found an icy comet soaring through space. Our ship has crashed on it, but Luma says that there are lots of Star Bits below the surface! We’ve both grown really weak and hungry in the past few days, so this is a really nice find. If there really is a great supply of Star Bits hidden inside, this could be a new home for us to stay on while we search for Luma’s Mama.
May 12
Luma was wrong in his guessing.
We dug into the icy surface of the comet, but there was absolutely nothing there. No Star Bits, no food, no tools: only ice. At this point, we have both fallen into a state of starvation. I don’t know how much longer either of us has. Since our starship is stuck on the surface, we’re stranded here. Since Luma’s Mama has not shown up at all during our journey, I have been considering for some time now about raising the little guy myself. It seems almost as though it’s meant to be. If we can’t find a source of food, we will both starve to death.
May 15
Luma has passed away today.
It was just too much for him. The lack of food just caused him to collapse, and I couldn’t do anything about it. He did leave me one thing, though. Just as he began to collapse, an enormous bunch of energy shot out of his chest and formed a small planet just a little ways away from the comet. I was able to land there using something called a Launch Star. The little planet has lots of nicely cut grass, patches of beautiful flowers, smooth and towering stone spires, a couple of quaint cottages, and a large castle-like monument. Best of all, there’s a huge supply of Star Bits raining from the sky on it, so it looks as though I’ll be okay.
June 3
More than half a month has gone by since Luma has died. I buried him under the most beautiful patch of flowers and made him a little marker out of one of the stone spires, but… I feel so empty inside. Being the only person on such a nice planet is really saddening. Worst of all, however, is the fact that I failed. I had made a promise to Luma that I would help him find his mother, but I didn’t. It’s too late to do anything now. I just wish there could be some way I could fulfill the promise I made.
June 6
It looks like Luma left me one more present. As I awoke today, I saw, above the monument, a Grand Star shining in a beautiful golden light. As I reached out towards the sky and grabbed it from below, it suddenly started floating up higher and higher, until it was outside the atmosphere. That was when a mysterious portal twice the size of this planet. I don’t know where it leads to, but it looks like the planet is going to enter it at some point tomorrow. Now, with a Grand Star in hand and a door to a new location, it looks like I will finally get back to civilization.
June 7
Last night, Luma came to me in a dream. He told me that he is doing fine and is quite peaceful and happy in the place where he is now. Still, I told him about how lonely and sad I have been the last month or so without him. At this, he looked uneasy. He said that there is a way for me to be reunited with him, but it’s complicated. Apparently, the portal doesn’t just lead to a new galaxy; it leads to an entirely different universe! This is one where Luma is still quite alive and healthy, albeit in the mind and body of a baby Luma. He also said that there is something down below the surface of the main planet of the galaxy through the portal (the Deep Dark Galaxy). However, it is an extremely powerful thing that could be easily abused. Luma additionally mentioned that if I continued to use it, my body would no longer physically age; I would appear to be the same age for the rest of my life. This is quite an unpleasant side effect, but if it means that I’ll be able to see Luma again, I’d gladly accept it.
After I awoke, I found that Luma’s prediction was correct: the planet was now orbiting another one with a huge beach with a big cave and underground lake. Since the planet Luma made saved my life and brought me this far, it was almost like a gateway to the rest of my life. In fact, I think I’ll name it just that: the Gateway planet. Anyway, after swimming through the underground lake for some time, I finally found what Luma was talking about: a strange machine shaped like a gigantic turnip. It apparently requires a Grand Star to operate; once I placed my Grand Star in, it began producing a pink liquid. Well, it seems as though this will be it for my aging, but it will all be worth it. I’ve picked up the beaker of pink liquid and am drinking it as I am writ—.
June 8
Hahahaha! Im sooo impressed! The pink stuff made me grow too bee so big and stuff! I’m like a planet big now. This is awesome. I can finally go look for Luma and get him back and show him how big I am and have fun and stuff! Yay! I dont need this stupid diary anymore! Im just gonna leave it here. Bye bye!
The terribly misspelled entry on June 8th was the final thing written in the diary.
Though there are countless planets in the universe and thus countless different nights happening at the same time (including the Deep Dark Galaxy’s one, which still appeared to be in the morning), the generally accepted universal “time” had gone beyond the 6 P.M. mark, and thus night had fallen. It had been a long, stressful day for Rosalina and her Lumas, but it was not yet finished.
Rosie, carrying Luma as usual, had finally flown out of the Honeyhive Galaxy on a course towards their home in the Deep Dark Galaxy. Surprisingly, Rosie had kept her word to the Bees; she did not crush, stomp, or eat them to death. Indeed, she was quite satisfied with the rubbing her slaves had done on her feet, indifferent to how they felt about it. The Queen Bee, who was forced to crawl all over Rosie’s body and lick off all the honey as a “taste of her own medicine”, had begun to cry in humiliation near the end. When Rosie’s body finally started to almost sparkle from the massage, she had ordered them all to stop the rubbing and get off. At that point, she had fulfilled her promise and, instead of crushing or digesting, kicked all three of them clear into space. The poor Bees had no chance of staying on the planet when Rosie’s huge, soft, nicely massaged feet flipped them into the sky. Perhaps they survived that launch; however, whether they did or not is not overly important to this tale.
Rosie moved her eyes down at Luma, who was gazing at the starry abyss around them. As soon as Luma realized that she was watching him, he sharply looked away.
Are you ready to go to my home now, my dear? Rosie asked.
... was Luma’s response.
What’s the matter, Luma? she replied in concern.
...
Have I upset you in some way with my actions? she asked.
Oh, look. Someone actually gets it, he replied in a sarcastic tone of thought.
Well, I apologize if you don’t like what I’ve been doing. But I’m your mother and I don’t want you to talk to me in that manner, she said in a scolding manner.
My mother? My mother?! Luma angrily replied in disbelief. My mama is Rosalina! She is everything you’re not: kind, caring, smart, compassionate... How dare you even compare yourself to her!
Rosie made a “tsk” noise with her tongue and wagged a finger. No being rude to your mother, Luma. When we get back home, I’m going to have to give you a timeout for that, she chided in a condescending manner.
You’re rather strange, replied Luma. One moment you’re immature, childish, and sadistic, and the next moment you become all “caring” and “motherly”.
It’s not really my fault, Rosie shot back. If your body immediately grows synthetically, you would also tend to keep the best traits of both ages.
More like worst traits, thought Luma to himself. The two said nothing more to each other throughout the trip.
When Rosie finally reached the gravitational orbit of the Deep Dark Galaxy, she wasted no time touching down on the beach, instead flying straight into the open space in the mountain to directly reach the area of the generator. With a sigh, she released Luma from her grip and lied down on the ground in relaxation. Taking a moment to wipe off the blood and honey that had accumulated over the course of the day from her body. She looked over at Luma, who had curled himself into a ball inside one of the rocky alcoves shaping the walls of the cave.
“Welcome home, my child”, she announced with a smile. Hidden behind the smile in her eyes, however, was a subtle pocket of anger and power from the events of the day that looked as if it could easily escape if provoked. Luma barely budged to respond.
Take me back to the Comet Observatory, and then you can say that, he thought wistfully, having almost lost hope of ever seeing the place again. Rosie pouted when she heard this.
“Come on, Luma,” she said. “Don’t be so difficult. I know that this is new for you and that you still want to return to that place, but this is your home now. And I still am Rosalina, your Mama; just a different version of her. Please, get rid of that frown so we can have a little fun around here and let me catch up with all the years that you weren’t around for me!”
I don’t want to, responded Luma coldly. Growing impatient, Rosie began to growl softly. It was time to release the stored up rage. Rising from her sitting position, she stood up and placed one gigantic foot directly over Luma, who yelped in shock.
“You’ve seen what has happened to others who refused my wishes.” she snarled coldly. “Don’t try my patience and force me to stomp on you as well. You’re going to have to listen to me and enjoy your new home, whether you like it or not!”
Cowering under the shadow of the enormous female’s foot, Luma couldn’t help but feel that this might be the end for him. As he had witnessed earlier, Rosie was not at all scared or hesitant about crushing the life out of anything smaller than her; she had even tried it on the real Rosalina earlier. Though all of his common sense brain waves were telling him to go along with her plan, he couldn’t help but wonder how Rosie’s ego would react to him submitting to her wills. She could start threatening to squash him for sneezing at the wrong time, and his life and will would be completely held in her hands. Fortunately, Luma never had the opportunity to answer her, as someone else did it for him.
“No, he does not,” said Rosalina, quietly but firmly as she emerged from the shadows, staring straight into the eyes of her larger self.
Rosie locked her eyes on the smaller version of herself and struggled to keep them from turning to fire.
“You’re back. I guess the act of me stomping on your legs earlier wasn’t enough to make you give up?” She removed her foot from above Luma and gracefully moved herself over to Rosalina, much like a cat does stalking its prey. Rosalina, unfazed, stood her ground and kept her eyes locked with Rosie’s.
“You have kidnapped my child, Luma. If it were necessary, I would travel to the very edge of the universe to find him. But it appears as though you’ve done just that, snatching a living version of the friend you’ve lost.” Rosie’s face became furious when she heard this, and she leaned down onto the ground to glare at Rosalina.
“How…? Where did you find that out?!” she demanded. Rosalina reached out from behind the rock she was hiding behind and pulled out the diary she had read earlier. Rosie, growling in anger, snatched the book out of Rosalina’s hand and ripped it into shreds right there, creating a shower of confetti over the three of them.
“Rosie,” said Rosalina in a surprisingly calm and soothing voice, “I understand that you’ve become devastated over the loss of Luma that you’ve had to face. It’s something I don’t think I would wish upon my greatest nemesis. However, taking my child away from me is not the solution to this problem. Please, come back with Luma and me to the Comet Observatory. I am sure that I could help you sort out the issue in peace and calmness and help you get your life together again. I am not your enemy, Rosie.” Rosie let her frown give way to a small, understanding smile. It was almost as if she was agreeing to those terms. However, after a moment of reconsideration…
“NO!!!!” Rosie shouted at the very top of her lungs, an almost-deafening roar to Rosalina and Luma. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no! That is a LIE! All you have said is a lie! You don’t understand anything that I’ve had to go through. I won’t accept not having Luma anymore. I can’t! He is going to stay with me, and you are going to die in my fist right now!” Before she could do anything, Rosie scooped up Rosalina tightly in her fist and smiled evilly at her. Enveloped in the soft, warm, fleshy grip of Rosie’s hand, Rosalina was trapped.
Mama! No! wailed poor Luma in his mind. He began to weep softly.
“Any last words, my smaller self?” asked Rosie in a mocking tone. Rosalina squirmed, struggled, and tried to get herself free, which only made Rosie giggle. Accepting defeat, she finally relaxed in the grip.
“Yes, actually, I do have some,” responded Rosalina to the question. “You should have turned off the generator of growth liquid. It’s a waste of a Grand Star’s power, and someone else could easily start using it, you know.” She revealed the reason behind her squirming and struggling: grabbing the bottle of liquid she had been hiding. Triumphantly, she lifted the bottle of bright pink liquid to her lips, prepared to grow to the same size as her captor.
“Oh, no you don’t!” snarled Rosie, who plucked the beaker out of Rosalina’s fingers with her other hand.
“How do you feel about me drinking this instead of you and growing even bigger? Imagine the size I would grow to if this stuff works at the same rate the first liquid did. You’re okay with that, right?” she asked with a childish smile.
“You are? All right then.” Rosie said without waiting for a response. Opening her mammoth mouth, she threw the potion inside and swallowed it whole, ignoring the glass beaker she had also swallowed in the process.
Rosalina had her eyes closed while Rosie downed the potion, as if she didn’t want to see how much the girl could really grow this time. However, instead of gritting her teeth and bracing herself for an inevitable end like most people in this situation would probably do, she looked oddly calm.
“Rosie,” she said in a steady tone, “can I tell you something?” Furrowing her brow, Rosie looked down at the fist holding Rosalina with disdain but nodded curtly.
“See,” Rosalina continued, “though the liquid may be the same magenta color as your growth liquid, it does not have the same purpose. Not at all.” These words sunk into Rosie, and her eyes widened in alarm, as if she already knew what was coming next.
“W-w-what do you mean?” she stammered. Rosalina casually slipped out of Rosie’s grip, which had become loose and slick as she began to sweat profusely. Once she landed on the ground, she hopped over to the generator and pointed to the area at the top, where the Grand Star was.
“As you may have already observed,” Rosalina explained, “the Grand Star is returning to its regular brightness and color. This is because the energy flow is being reversed; my magic was able to make all the energy from the liquid return to its origin. So, the liquid that remained, being drained of the Star energy, was negative. The result is that drinking the liquid will give you an opposite effect.” Rosie gulped and started to twirl her red hair in her fingers in a nervous fashion.
“So I’m going to...” she began, but her voice then tapered off. She seemed to be looking up at the sky for a couple of seconds before suddenly giving out an almost inhuman cry of pain. Rosie clutched her stomach and violently collapsed onto the ground with a great shockwave; Rosalina was just able to grab Luma, who was still crying in the corner, and get to the other side of the area before Rosie’s body came crashing down.
When Luma felt the soft, warm hands of his true mother wrapped tightly around him, he opened his eyes and smiled in delight at the sight of her beautiful face.
Mama! You’re all right!
Yes, dear. It’s finally over now. Rosie won’t stay a giantess for very long now.
But, Mama! What’s happening to her now? It was an interesting question, as Rosie was currently writhing in pain and giving out a terrible shriek. One of her legs was partially in the water of the cave, and the water around it began to simmer and produce steam. Still, her body began to get smaller and smaller, approaching the regular, human size.
It must be the way she is shrinking, deduced Rosalina. I believe most people wouldn’t put much thought into it, but in reality, the feeling of having your body mass rapidly pack together must be rather painful. I should have made her unconscious first to prevent that much pain.
It took about twenty more minutes, but finally Rosie had stopped screaming in pain and had returned to the size of a regular girl her age, about 4 feet tall. Rosalina quickly ran over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
Rosie stared up at the beautiful space princess that minutes before she had attempted to kill, and her bright blue eyes started to cloud up.
“I… I…” she mumbled, a lump in her throat, “don’t know exactly what to say. What can I say?”
Rosalina, standing over her, gave a little smile. “I’m not angry with you, Rosie,” she said. This, however, only made Rosie tear up even more.
“Y-y-you should be,” she replied. “I can’t believe what I did. Kidnapping an innocent child, killing and injuring countless citizens of the universe, destroying everything in sight… And I was just about to kill you as well, for no good reason. What kind of monster am I?!”
“Power corrupts even the purest of people,” Rosalina
explained. “You shouldn’t blame yourself for this. Your built-up grief and
sadness for the loss of your Luma was the cause. Besides, terrible things happen
every day. That’s not to say that your actions weren’t completely terrible, but
the world goes on. The areas you attacked will still go on, and eventually the
damage you caused will be nearly erased from them.”
Rosie gave a sniffle, burying her head in her dress. “I don’t know what to do
now, though. My whole life, I have been searching for another version of the
Luma that I lost. Now, that dream has been crushed to bits. I don’t think I
could even show my face anywhere in this entire universe anymore. It’s
hopeless…” Luma, trying to lighten the mood a bit, floated over to her face and
lightly licked the tears that were coming down away.
Yum! He thought. Star Bits! It managed to make Rosie give a weak smile, but it was still among tears.
“Come,” said Rosalina, “we should be going.” She offered a hand to Rosie, who managed to get on her feet with it.
“Wh-where are we going?” asked Rosie, looking genuinely curious. Rosalina gave a warm smile and pointed towards the stars.
“Why, back to the Comet Observatory, of course!” she replied jovially. “I’m sure that Polari and the rest of the Lumas are wondering where we have been all this time. Plus, the news that another Grand Star has been found will definitely make them happy.” She gestured to the freely-spinning Grand Star that had now been disconnected from the machine floating in the air.
“I don’t understand.” said Rosie. “Why would you want to take me back to your home? Why aren’t you angry with me for taking Luma and causing so much damage?” Rosalina gave a knowing shake of her head.
“You are a child, Rosie. You still have a bright and glorious life ahead of you. I can’t allow you to end it right now just because this plan backfired on you. I would really like it if you could join me on my travels through the cosmos on the Observatory. I’m sure that I could help you straighten yourself out and be able to overcome the problem that first made you go through all this trouble. Please, could you consider living with me and Luma?”
Rosie reviewed everything that had happened in her head. It was clear that her life of being a giantess and wreaking havoc on everything was a terrible and foolish lifestyle. Then, on the other hand, there was the life of Rosalina, in which everyone was loved and there was happiness all around. Though she had made a very major mistake in life, it wasn’t irreversible. Rosie could change. And, as she decided just then, she would.
And so, the tale of Rosie comes to an end. She lived and grew up with the Lumas on the Comet Observatory, and was able to psychologically accept and overcome the death of her Luma. While the areas she had terrorized were initially hostile and skeptical of her, she proved her change by helping them to rebuild their communities. Over time, the legends of the princess of the stars Rosalina, who would watch over them all in her Comet Observatory, began to include a second part about the kind young girl who would stay by Rosalina’s side and also watch over the cosmos. This was Rosie.
END