Super Princess Peach

Ch. 11

"Okay, let's stop here," Peach panted as they reached a small grassy clearing. Toads began falling to the ground in relief, and Perry floated up to her.  

"Princess, have you got any water?" 

Peach gave him her canteen of water, and he sucked down half the bottle. Peach downed the other half. 

A toad had fallen victim to the heat a while ago and had passed out, so Peach and Perry helped cool him off with a washcloth dipped in water while another toad went and got him some pucker buds to eat. A few others had major headaches, and since Peach didn't have any medicine, she gave them all the rest of the water. Soon, everyone was semi-satisfied and hydrated. 

"What now?" Toadonelly asked Peach. "Should we keep going?" 

Peach gazed around at the toads that were lying in the grass, fanning themselves. "No. Let's rest here a while longer. Then we can move on." 

Toadonelly nodded. "As you like." 

They rested for half an hour. The noon-day sun was still very high in the sky and was steadily beating down on them. The clearing they were temporarily camped in was protected by the lengthy boughs of the trees, but the heat was still stifling. Peach wished she were wearing a shorter skirt and sandals. 

Just as Peach was dozing off for a short nap, a loud noise rumbled through the air. She recognized it - the hoot of an owl. She was tempted not to pay it any mind - this was a forest, wasn't it? It was teeming with life-but she felt a certain doubt. For the past couple of days, she could recall hearing an owl's hoot from the camp, loud and very close by. Now, it sounded even closer than before. Almost as if its source were right beside them. 

"Princess?" Perry asked sleepily from where he was lying beside her. "What's the matter?" 

Suddenly, the branches of the trees began to shake wildly, and a couple snapped off and fell to the ground. Peach jolted in alarm as the trees' canopy ruptured, causing more falling branches. One of them fell on Toadkins' head, and he sputtered awake. 

"Gimme the money!" he squeaked, his eyes snapping open. When he realized that he was not in a western film, he rubbed his eyes and said, "Hey, what's going on?" 

Peach put a finger to her lips and looked back up into the trees. The shaking had stopped...for now. What had that been? What had the power to make the trees shake like that? 

There was a rumbling hoot from somewhere close by, and it was so loud that the ground shook. Resting toads were literally shocked out of their sleep, bumped awake by the powerful noise. They began scrambling to their feet and grabbing for their weapons.  

"Quiet!" Peach hissed, getting to her feet and moving over to the trunk of a tree. She gazed back up into the canopy of the trees. It was gone. She turned back to the toads. "Everything's all right," she said quietly. "The...owl...is gone." 

"That was an owl?!" Toader cried. "Judging from the intensity of its hoot..." 

"Yeah. That's one heck of a bird." Perry looked frightened. 

Peach nodded. "We should stay out of its way. It'll be nothing but trouble for us. For now, we should get back to our search. Let's take a path away from where that huge owl went." 

She was gathering up her cloak when a scream exploded in the air. She whipped around to the toads wildly, wondering what was wrong, but no one around her was screaming. In fact, all the toads were looking around like she was, wondering where the scream was coming from. A shriek pierced the air again, and Peach realized that it was coming from somewhere deeper into the forest - and it was the scream of a toad!