Princess Peach And The 12 Elemental Keys

Chapter 5: Stopping The Forest Overgrowth

The other rescued Keepers had not appeared. "Strange." Peach thought. "I'll go and find them," Poisius said, disdainfully. "And you," He addressed Peach. "Get back to finding us, okay?" Poisius sounded as abrasive as he looked, but Peach decided not to loiter around in the temple. "I will." She replied. "Good, now go." He said, before vanishing. Peach teleported out of the temple, and to a grassy area much like Peaceable Gardens. But this grassy area had the distinction of having more trees, the beginning of a forest, perhaps. "And that voice should be coming in three...two..." Peach counted. "Hello again, Princess Peach," The voice said to Peach. "There you are, voice!" The princess answered. "I'm sure you've noticed that you're on the outskirts of a forest, correct?" The voice asked. Peach looked around again. "I am." She replied. "You might think everything is peachy here," The voice said. "But don't be mistaken, as up ahead Floral Woodlands is facing an ecological disaster." "Oh, deforestation?" Peach asked. "No, quite the opposite." The voice replied. "The forest is overgrowing - the grass is very thick, vines and moss are growing everywhere, and the trees are getting bigger. All this thanks to Willow, the Keeper of Nature."

Peach started walking amongst the trees, which were starting to become more compact the further she went. It wasn't long before Peach finally entered the forest of Floral Woodlands, but the further she went, she noticed that the grass was getting taller. "I can barely see the path now!" The grass was now almost as high as Peach's waist, and was really hard to walk through. "It's like I'm walking through a hayfield." Peach groaned, trying to get through the grass. While moving through the thick grass, Peach had a look at the forest around her. There were vines hanging from high branches, there were thorns wrapped around tree bark, and there were clumps of moss on the ground. "The voice wasn't kidding when it said the forest was overgrowing, look at this place!" Peach lifted her gown to look at her shoes. Sure enough, the bottoms of her shoes had a nice mossy layer on them. Isn't that a way to spend a Wednesday? "Gross," Peach said, disgusted at the sight. "Bowser, when I get my hands on you..." Peach let her gown fall to the ground and continued through the grass. As she did so, someone collided with her and caused her to fall to the mossy ground. "Hey!" Peach exclaimed. "What's the big idea?" Whoever was running ran back to Peach. It was a flower creature with pink-fading-into-white petals, two leaves for hands and two leaves for feet. "Oh, sorry, do you need any help up?" It asked. "No, I can do that myself." Peach replied, trying to stand up. "Careful, the moss here is very slippery." The flower creature told her. As Peach was about to fall back onto the ground, the flower creature caught her hand with its petals. "Thank you," Peach said, finally able to stand. "What has you running around this forest?" She asked the flower creature. "I'm Daisyke," The flower creature replied. "I'm a Flowerling, a type of sentient flower. I'm looking for help." "Is it because of the overgrowth?" Peach asked. "You betcha!" Daisyke replied. "There's a tree growing in my house!" "A tree? An entire tree!?" Peach thought. She couldn't fully trust Daisyke, after all, after Captain Cyan- er, Wendy tricked her and almost tried to kill her, she was a bit more distrustful around others. Still, she couldn't not help Daisyke, there was a tree growing inside his house, among possibly other things. "I can have a look if you want me to," Peach told Daisyke. "After all, I'm here to stop the overgrowth." "Delightful daisies!" Daisyke exclaimed, happily. "Let's go back to my town!" The two made their way through the tall grass to a small village comprised of small, wooden houses with excessive vegetation growing from and inside them. "Which one is your house, Daisyke?" Peach asked. "The one with the giant tree coming out of the roof." He said, pointing his left leaf at a house, the one with a giant tree growing from the roof. "It's worse inside." Daisyke added. Daisyke and Peach entered the house, to find the bottom floor was overtaken by the tree, with exposed roots disrupting the wooden floor. "I don't think I want to go beyond the door." Peach said, scanning the inside of the house. "And I doubt you can," Daisyke said, sadly. "There are branches on the stairs and in the upper floor of the house." Peach whipped her head around, eyes and mouth wide open. "There's what?" She asked. "I'm serious." Daisyke replied. Peach looked again at the house. "Are the other houses as bad?" She asked Daisyke. "No," Daisyke replied. "But still, there are vines and shrubbery growing in them, and no one can properly live in them." Having a look at the other houses in the village, Peach couldn't disagree. This wasn't just a bit of greenery growing where they shouldn't, this was an overgrowth taking over an entire forest, and affecting its inhabitants. While she still wasn't surprised that Bowser and his family did all of this to her picture book, it shocked her more and more the further she went. "This overgrowth must be stopped, and I won't allow it to continue!" Peach declared, heroically. Everyone in town had heard this and scrambled to Daisyke's house. "Thank you, random lady!" One of the Flowerlings cheered. "We all believe in you!" Another one chimed in. The crowd cheered for Peach, and she smiled. Just as she was about to leave for the forest, Daisyke clasped one of her hands in his leaves. "Princess," He began. "May I join you in finding the source of the overgrowth?" Peach was conflicted. Again, Captain Cyan/Wendy was still fresh on her mind, but still, she felt she couldn't leave Daisyke behind in a town where there was overgrowing vegetation. She decided to allow him to join her, but to keep her guard up a bit. "You may come, Daisyke." She replied. "Shimmering sunflowers! Thank you!" He exclaimed, happily. The two headed back into the forest, where the trees were taller and had more thorny vines growing on them. The ground also had built-up moss everywhere. "It's looking worse over here." Peach commented. Up ahead was a road block - a giant wall of entangled thorns. "How are we going to get past these, I wonder?" Peach asked, looking up at the wall. "Afraid the only way past the thorns is through them." Daisyke replied. Peach did not like this idea, but it was the only way to get to Willow. She went in first, followed by Daisyke. The thorns were very close together, and the spikes extremely sharp. Neither Peach nor Daisyke left that area unscathed, with Peach sustaining some cuts on her cheek, her forehead, and a noticeable tear on her dress, and Daisyke having a few scratches on his body and petals. "That was painful." Peach grunted, scratching her face. "Stop!" Daisyke said, loudly. "What?" Peach asked, rightfully spooked by Daisyke's sudden exclamation. "Please don't scratch your wounds, they won't heal as quickly." He added, more quietly. "Sorry, it's just too tempting." Peach replied. Past the thorn wall, the grass was now high enough to reach Peach's chest and the top of Daisyke's stem. It seemed like the deeper they went into the forest, the worse the overgrowth was getting. Further up ahead was a lake with large trees sticking out of the water, there was a layer of greenness on the surface - likely algae - and floating on the water were large lily pads, large enough to carry a normal human being. "Huh," Peach said, inquisitively. "Giant lily pads." "Afraid they're too far away from us, AND each other," Daisyke added. "Looks like we'll have to swim in the water." Peach felt a bit sick in her stomach thinking of entering the green water, and walking around the lake was not a great idea, as the grass was too tall and there was a risk of falling in anyway. Peach jumped into the algae-ridden water, and started swimming towards the first lily pad. When she reached it and climbed out of the water, she was soaking wet, and her dress was covered in algae. Daisyke followed her, also getting covered in algae. The next lily pad wasn't too far away, so Peach jumped and used her dress to float towards the lily pad, but she was narrowly close to falling down and into the algae-infested water. The next tree pads were not too far away, so Peach was able to reach them no problem. The sixth lily pad wasn't even half as close, so another dip into the algae for Peach, but she was able to jump to the seventh lily pad. Two more dips in the water to the eighth and ninth lily pads and a jump to the other side of the lake. Meanwhile with Daisyke, he wasn't able to get onto the lily pads, and had to swim to the other side of the lake where Peach was. This part of the forest looked the worst so far, now with vines sticking out of the ground and hanging from trees. Peach and Daisyke were now in the deepest part of Floral Woodlands, and it looked like this was the source of the overgrowth. Through the thick grass was a winding pathway, and it seemed to trail further into the overgrowth. Peach and Daisyke followed the path through the grass. The trees were now as tall as skyscrapers, the bushes had thorny vines growing from them, and it was a bit dark in there. The path led to a derelict cottage with a roof that had mostly collapsed. And that wasn't just it, the paintwork was peeling off, the windows were cracked, the lights (or lack thereof) were off, and there were vines and bushes growing on it. The cottage looked like a ghost house, it didn't look very comfortable or lived-in. "I don't know if I want to approach that cottage!" Daisyke said, fearfully. "I mean, I don't really want to enter it either." Peach told him. "But still, if this is where the overgrowth is coming from, then I'll have to go inside. But if you-" "No, I'm coming with you!" Daisyke exclaimed, loudly. "Easy Daisyke," Peach said. "I'm not deaf." They entered the cottage, which looked like a war zone on the inside, rubble and glass covering the floor, wrecked furniture, vines growing on the walls, it was an awful sight. There were stairs made of old wood, but before Peach and Daisyke could go up them, two vines grabbed them and whisked them upstairs. Once at the top floor, the vines let go and withdrew into a dark room on the far end of the second floor landing. The two slowly entered the darkened room, they could hear faint barking inside. When they entered, the door slammed shut behind them, as did the window. The room was completely black. The barking was louder now, Peach recognised the noise - it was a Chain Chomp. A yellow light flickered on the other side of the room, the source was a wand, but not just any wand, this was the wand of Iggy Koopa, who was sitting in a carriage attached to a Chain Chomp. "Princess Peach." He said, smugly. "Iggy, you have a lot of explaining to do, mister." Peach said, crossing her arms. "If I can even see you." "Hold on." Iggy waved his wand, making the room brighter. "That's better." He said, on the bridge of his glasses was a green orb. "Like I said, you have a lot of explaining to do, Iggy." Peach repeated. "On how I caused overgrowths across the forest? I don't need to." Iggy replied. "Get her, Chompy." The Chain Chomp started running towards Peach and Daisyke, they jumped out of the way as the Chain Chomp crashed into the wall. The two ran to the other side of the room before the Chain Chomp changed course. It followed Peach this time, but she let it crash into the wall behind her. The force caused Iggy's glasses to fly off his face and onto the floor. Peach picked them up. She really wanted to tear the orb off, but she decided to tease the Chain Chomp until it was dizzy enough. "Over here, Chompy!" She exclaimed, teasingly. The Chomp turned around. "Princess, what are you doing?" Daisyke hissed. Peach pretended to throw the glasses and the Chomp flew across the room to the wall. "Grrr!" Iggy growled in frustration. "Stupid Princess Peach, stop teasing my Chain Chomp!!" Peach chuckled. "Why should I?" She asked him. "And give me back my glasses! I can't see without them!!" He aimed his wand at Peach and shot blasts towards the floor. Two vines sprouted and wrapped themselves around Peach's ankles, restraining her. "Over there, Chompy!" Iggy told his Chain Chomp. "Get her!" The Chain Chomp started charging towards Peach again. Daisyke stood there, terrified. Peach took this as an opportunity to rip the orb off the glasses. And right as Iggy fired two more magic blasts at her, she tore the orb off the glasses. And right before the blasts reached Peach, she lifted the orb into the air and chanted. "O Willow, Keeper of Nature, awaken and undo this turmoil!" This made the blasts disappear, made Iggy lightheaded, and tired out the Chain Chomp. But that's not all, the shutters opened, and outside, the trees and grass shrunk down to their normal height and the excess vegetation disappeared. "Running Roses!" Daisyke said, happily. "Look at the forest!" Peach threw Iggy's glasses at him and went to the broken window. The forest was back to how it should be, and the sun was shining through the trees. Peach and Daisyke walked out of the dilapidated cottage and outside into the forest. "Thank you, Princess," Daisyke told Peach. "I'm going to go home and share the news with everyone in town!" Peach smiled. "Okay, then." She replied. "Bye, Daisyke!" She waved at Daisyke as he ran into the forest.

She looked at the orb, which transformed into a key. "Now, Princess Peach," The voice said. "Lift the key and chant 'Forest Emerald Key, guide me to the Temple of The Keepers'." After Peach chanted, she was teleported to the temple in a flash of green light. At the temple, the fifth key joined the others, the left row was almost complete. Along with that, a green outline formed on the circle next to where Poisius spawned, before taking the form of Willow, The Keeper of Nature. She had curly, ginger hair, with dark green streaks in it. She wore a green Irish dress, with pale green sleeves with petal-shaped cuffs, a pale green waist-piece that resembled a clover, and green ankle-length boots. The top of Willow's dress was divided into four sections, two on the sides and two on the front and back, three of the sections were dark green, while the front section was a light green with shamrock patterns painted on it in regular green. The look was complete with a pale green collar with a green clover pendant.

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long, I was busy getting ready for the next school year, so expect less consistent updates.