Super Princess Peach

Ch. 12, Pt. 1

"Whoa, it's as big as a living room up here!" Toadkins exclaimed. 

"Hey, lookit these cute little things!" one of the toads said. He reached out to pet one of the baby owls, and in curiosity it nipped the side of his hand. Yelping, he pulled back. "Ouch, that hurt!" 

"P-princess, is that you?" a voice came from behind the chicks. Peach maneuvered past the huge birds to see a raggedy group of toads sitting behind them, pushed up against the back of the nest. It was Toader! He and his two companions from earlier were huddled with four other toads, one which was female. In a flash, Peach recognized her. It was Toaddette, Toad's girlfriend! 

"Toaddette!" she exclaimed, rushing over to the female toad. She was a cute little thing, with two long braided ponytails and big, scared eyes. She and Peach were good friends and Peach often gave her generous tips for her services in the castle so that she could feed her poor family.  

It was an incredible surprise to see her friend here. Though she hadn't read any reports about her 100-toad team and who they all were, she'd assumed that they were all boys. And Toaddette was most certainly not military. How was it that she was here? 

"P-Princess!" Toaddette cried, leaping up and into Peach's arms. She hugged her tightly, shivering like a little girl. "I'm so glad to see you!" 

"Who's this, Peach?" Perry asked. 

"Toaddette - Toad's girlfriend. You know, the one that got captured." 

"I'm so scared!" Toaddette sobbed, clutching Peach harder. "That huge owl - she's terrifying! She almost fed us to her chicks!" Behind them, the baby owls chirped supportively.  

"It's all right, it's all right, we're here now." Peach stroked her head. "We'll get you out of here." 

"Princess, we're so relieved to see you!" one of the other toads said. "I thought we were gonna be bird food!" 

"How'd you guys find us?" another asked. 

"We'll answer your questions later - it's actually a long story." Perry paused as they gazed at him in surprise and confusion. "Oh yeah - the name's Perry. Yeah, I'm a talking umbrella. We'll explain that later too." 

"Yeah, it's about time we got this buffet moving," Toadonelly said. He glanced nervously over his shoulder at the forest way down below. "Mommy's probably gonna be back soon. When she finds us taking her dinner...well, things probably won't go down very well." 

"If we're quick enough, we should be okay," the first toad said. "Oh, sorry, I'm Montoad and this is my twin, Moretoad." 

"The mother owl be huntin' extensively at night," Moretoad added. "Unless 'er chicks were in danger, she probably wouldn't come back for another ten minutes." 

"That still leaves us strained for time," Perry said. "It takes about ten minutes to climb down the pillar. And it takes longer going down than it does coming up." 

"Let's get our butts moving, then!" Toadonelly said. "Peach, why don't you stick with Toaddette? She looks a little shaken up. I'll take Perry. Let's get down the pillar as fast as we can!" 

Peach, Perry, Toaddette, and the nine other toads headed over the edge of the nest, pushing through the baby owls, which hopped about excitedly. The grappling hook was still intact. Instructing Toaddette to climb onto her back, Peach carefully eased down onto the rope and scrabbled for a foothold in the tree roots. Then she began to slowly descend from the nest.

As soon as she was about five feet down, the twins and Toadkins grappled on and began their own descent. When everyone was on the rope, Peach looked up to see the baby chicks hopping over to the edge of the nest, peering down at them and chirping loudly and excitedly.