A First Time for Everything

Her body responded before her mind did. She’d fought hundreds, if not thousands of times, and even if she didn’t like it, she’d been trained by the best. Swarms of the horrible creatures fell to her. Up close they were even stranger than from afar. Faces, fists, legs, blended together into a mess of punches, kicks and attempts at grasping at her. They seemed hungry for her, constantly battering at her defenses, determined to weaken her and take her down.

Still, despite their superior numbers, they could not get the upper hand. Not yet at least. Dozens of the creatures fell back apart into the purplish smoke they’d emerged from, and after some intense fighting, they seemed to retreat.

A loud buzzing overhead grabbed Peach’s attention, coming from a floating robed figure, dragging a large metal orb with it. It dropped the thing unceremoniously onto the stage, nodded curtly, and floated off as if delivering a package.

The creatures meanwhile had seemingly turned against each other, and Peach stared in horrified curiosity as they violently attacked themselves. They wrestled furiously, stabbing each other with their appendices, smothering one another with their bulbous behinds. They seemed as one, a writhing mass of body parts, merging into something even more unrecognizable.

Peach barely heard the alarming beeping from the other side of the stage as the monstrosity grew into an all too familiar shape, nor did she notice the cannon blast as its tentacles grabbed her light frame into its inexorable grip.

When her brain signaled her mouth to scream, warm, powerful limbs had wrapped her into an all-encompassing chokehold. She could smell the raw, animalistic instinct on the writhing feelers, and it pushed her mind down into something deep and dark inside her.

The last thing she saw was Zelda, tentacles wrapping around every part of her body, eyes rolling back as a thick vine slid deep into her mouth. The last thing she felt, was something she wouldn’t admit to anyone, not yet at least.

…

She woke up feeling like a different woman. Something had broken within her, yet she wasn’t sure she mourned it. Her legs trembled as she tried to get up. The thing had let her go, though she did not know why, and now its heat had left her, she felt tired, cold, and oddly alone.

She saw Zelda, looking rather embarrassed, Kirby at her side, ready to fight once more, when a sharp pain shot through her stomach. Again her sight went dark, this time falling into a dark abyss she knew all to well.