Drak and Luigi Write: The Story of how Luigi Became a Dragon (Part 4)

Secrets and Mysteries

            “There you are! I thought you were gonna sleep ‘til noon like yesterday… what are you wearing??” Mario gave Luigi a dubious look as he entered their home’s kitchen.

            “Uuhh, dunno what you mean.” Luigi fibbed. He had managed to hide the horns relatively easily, fitting them under his hat. The claws had proved more problematic, and he wound up wearing snow boots over his feet and padded oven mitts to hide his hands.

            Mario stared at him for a few more seconds before shrugging. “Maybe you should go back to bed, bro, you’re being weird. But first, there’s some breakfast that needs your help to get eaten.” He gestured to the dining room table, where a too-large serving of deep-fried mushrooms was waiting. “Before it gets cold.”

            Eating with oven mitts on was a challenge, and Luigi could practically feel Mario laughing internally at him the whole time.

            “By the way,” Mario said once Luigi had finished and, evidently, he could try to talk without bursting into laughter, “You left the lights on last night, and your book just the way you hate seeing them…”

            Luigi flushed immediately. He had forgotten to turn off the lights, he had forgotten to get a bookmark, and he had forgotten to shelve his book again, all because of how flustered he had become over the claws.

            “I put it away for you. I don’t think you damaged the spine anyway.” Mario smirked and winked, clearly enjoying having a dig at Luigi’s particularity for book care. “I thought it was brand-new though; I can’t imagine you were too happy about the torn page…”

            “Oh, yeah…” Luigi doubted his face could get any redder. At least Mario didn’t seem to be suspicious that anything was wrong. “Um, thanks for cleaning up after my mess…”

            “Don’t mention it.” Mario waved his hand dismissively. “So,” He leaned forward, clearly ready to change the subject, “Want to go knock Bowser back down a few pegs today?”

            Luigi tried to imagine driving his kart in snow boots and oven mitts. Then imagined what might happen if his hat were to fly off (not that it had ever happened before of course, but now he was paranoid) mid-race. “Uuuhm…”

            “Or we could do something else.” Mario said with a shrug. “More cave exploration?” He grinned and laughed.

            Luigi forced what he hoped was a convincing laugh at Mario’s joke.

            It clearly wasn’t. “Hey, you okay bro?” Mario’s playful demeanor evaporated, replaced by brotherly concern. “I was just teasing, I didn’t mean –”

            Luigi quickly put his hands up and shook his head vigorously. “No, no, it’s nothing you said, I promise.”

            “I just thought…  you seemed to recover so well yesterday…” Mario was frowning worriedly now. “Maybe the professor should look you over while he’s still here?”

            The last thing Luigi wanted was anyone examining him right now. “N-no, I don’t think we need to b-bother him…”

            Mario sighed. “I know you don’t much like to visit him after the whole incident with King Boo and the mansion and all but he’s here at the castle, no haunting required.”

            Privately, Luigi was relieved that Mario had assumed his reluctance was due to his unpleasant experiences while working with Professor Gadd in the past. He shook his head again. “N-no I just… I don’t think we need to bother him.” He insisted.

            “Well… I don’t agree, but I can’t really make you…” Mario sighed, still frowning worriedly.

            Luigi felt a pang of guilt that Mario was so worried for him. “Really, bro, I’m fine. I think I just… need a little break from adventures. You know?”

            Mario smiled sympathetically at that. “I guess so. And we are at peace.”

            “…And-and, you deserve some time to relax, too, you know.” Luigi pressed.

            Mario laughed. “But Luigi, you know me: adventures are my relaxation!”

            “I know.” This time Luigi’s laugh wasn’t forced.

            “But I’ll humor you today.” Mario said, chuckling good-naturedly. “How about you pick out a book for me, and I promise I won’t go running off on any adventures until I’ve read the whole thing.”

            “Deal.” Luigi smiled. I have such a great brother. He thought, internally cringing at his deceptions. I hope… I hope everything will turn out okay. I can’t keep lying to him.

. . .

            Getting a book off the bookshelf while wearing oven mitts turned out to be almost as tricky as eating with them on. Thankfully Luigi had immediately thought of what book he felt Mario would enjoy reading, and soon they both were settled comfortably on the couch in amicable silence, each focused on his book.

            Several hours passed, and Luigi had managed to almost forget about his predicament. Almost. Every time he had to turn a page he was reminded, as turning the pages of a book while wearing oven mitts turned out to be quite frustrating.

            If Mario thought he was still acting strange, he was politely keeping it to himself, for which Luigi was grateful.

            Then, Luigi suddenly became aware that his ears were tingling, much the way his fingertips had been before.

            Ooohhhh, no no no no, not again… He remembered in time to put a bookmark in his book and shut it before rushing to the bathroom, hoping Mario wouldn’t notice whatever was happening to his ears.

            He turned on the bathroom light and peered at his reflection in the mirror. He clapped both hands over his mouth to stifle the involuntary gasp he uttered. His ears were now long, floppy, and covered in green fur. This is just getting worse and worse.

            He immediately dashed back to his bedroom and shut the door, wondering how he was going to hide this. They wouldn’t fit under his hat like his horns did. And what was up with the fur??

            Wait a second. Trembling, he pulled off one of the oven mitts. Just as he had feared, his hand was also starting to sprout the same green fur. He stared at it, feeling his anxiety skyrocket. If this kept up… What am I going to DO??

            He stumbled backwards until he was pressed into one corner of the room, struggling to remember to breathe.

            “Luigi?” Mario rapped lightly on his door. “You okay in there?”

            “N-no, uuhh, d-don’t come in!”

            “What’s wrong?” Luigi heard the latch click. Mario was coming in whether he liked it or not. Luigi looked around frantically, and in what part of him knew was a pathetic attempt to hide, he yanked the blanket off his bed and threw it over himself. This is ridiculous.

            “…Bro, what are you doing?” Mario sounded perplexed and worried. There was no hint of humor in his voice like there had been this morning.

            “N-nothing.”

            “C’mon, enough with the games, I want to know why you’re acting so… so…” Mario yanked the blanket off him and then trailed off, his mouth falling open in an expression of shocked disbelief.

            Luigi could imagine how it looked. His hat had come off along with the blanket, revealing his horns. He hadn’t thought to replace the oven mitt, either, not to mention the most recent change of his ears.

            Mario stammered unintelligibly for a moment before apparently managing to gather his thoughts some. “What happened??”

            “I-I… I don’t… I d-don’t know…” Luigi could hear the panic in his voice. Somehow it was even worse now that Mario knew.

            “That stone!” Mario put the pieces together. “It’s gotta be why!”

            Luigi let out a shaky breath and nodded. “Y-yeah, I-I thought so t-too.”

            “Luigi, why did you try to hide this from me??” Mario’s voice was full of concern and compassion and not a hint of anger – even though he had every right to be angry.

            Luigi began to wonder himself. He had been afraid of upsetting Mario… thought he could hide what was happening until someone figured out how the gem worked… “I… I guess… I just…” He couldn’t figure out how to put his thoughts into words. He took a breath, which turned into a sob. He was so scared!

            “Oh, Luigi…” Mario reached out and hugged him. “It’ll be okay. We’ll figure something out. I wanna help you…”

            Luigi clung to his brother and let himself fall apart for a little while.

Mario, for his part, held him and rubbed his back soothingly.

Luigi realized how stupid it was to try to hide this now. He should have come clean about it the moment the claws first appeared.

            Finally, it seemed he had released enough of the pent-up fear and anxiety, and he was able to pull himself back together again. For now.

            Mario let him pull away but kept his hands on his shoulders. “We need to go see what Toadsworth and Professor Gadd have found out about that stone. C’mon.” He reached down to take Luigi’s hand.

            For a few steps Luigi followed his brother, then remembered they had to walk through town to get to the castle. “W-wait.” He stopped and pulled away. “I… I can’t go out like… l-like this.”

            Mario looked him up and down, frowning. “I guess you would raise a lot of questions…” He snapped his fingers. “I’ll go get them and bring them back here.”

            Luigi didn’t particularly like the idea of being left alone, but it was the only other option. He nodded reluctantly. “Okay.”

            “I’ll be as quick as I can.” Mario promised, then, true to his word, took off at a run out of the house.

            Luigi shivered and hugged his arms around himself. It’s gonna be okay. We’ll get this… this… whatever this is figured out…

. . .

            “Well I must admit I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Professor E. Gadd was not the best at reassuring people. “And you think it’s related to that strange stone you brought us?”

            “It has to be.” Mario insisted. “You’ve spent almost two days studying it, can you tell us anything?”

            “I’m afraid not, at least not yet.” The professor replied.

            Luigi wished the professor would stop pacing around him in circles. He was already nervous enough about what was happening to him without being examined like this.

            In the time it took Mario to bring the professor and Toadsworth back, as well as fill Peach in on what little they knew so far, he had discovered that more fur was rapidly growing over his entire body. Soon enough he would be totally green, not just his outfit. He hated how the fur felt, rubbing against his clothes.

            “Tell me again about where you found the stone, and don’t spare any details.”

            “We were exploring a cave, and found this giant skeleton, and it –”

            “Wait, giant skeleton? You left that out before. Tell me about that.”

            “Well… it wasn’t like anything either of us had ever seen before; right bro?” Mario looked up at Luigi, trying to keep him involved in the conversation.

            “Uh, y-yeah.” Luigi wrung his hands, accidentally scratched himself with his claws, and stopped. “It was… really big… bigger than Bowser… would you say?” He looked back at Mario.

            Mario looked thoughtful for a moment then nodded. “Yeah… especially with that long tail.”

            “Tail?” That got Toadsworth’s attention.

            “Yeah, it was at least as long as the rest of the skeleton combined.” Mario said. “It was hard to tell because it was kind of… coiled up. Um. Around the stone we found.”

            “Hmmmmm…” Was the older Toad’s only reply.

            Luigi caught himself fidgeting again. “S-so… do you think you can… stop this?”

            “Possibly. Maybe. At some point. I don’t know enough right now to even hypothesize on how, though.” The professor replied, and Luigi groaned.

            “But do you have any idea what is happening to him?” Mario demanded, becoming agitated on his brother’s behalf.

            “Well, that’s fairly obvious. The stone held some sort of transformation magic that it passed along to Luigi.”

            Mario sighed. “Yeah, the ears and the fur and the… everything kind of tipped me off.”

            “Yes, but there’s certain to be more changes.”

            “More??” Luigi exclaimed. He didn’t like what had happened to him already!

            “It’s hard to say what, for sure, but I suspect you will end up resembling whatever the creature was whose skeleton you discovered with the stone.”

            Mario gaped. “Including… size?” He asked in a small voice.

            “Quite possibly.”

            Luigi, to perhaps no one’s surprise, let out a shriek of alarm and denial and fled the room. He scrambled under the blanket that he and Mario had left abandoned on his bedroom floor.

            Mario followed quickly after him. “Luigi, please…” He trailed off helplessly.

            Luigi curled himself into a tight ball. “No, no, no, no! I don’t want to be a monster!”

            “You won’t be!” Mario insisted vehemently. “You’ll be you! You’ll always be you! It doesn’t matter what you look like!”

            Luigi wanted to believe him. He needed to. Otherwise, he would never escape the stark terror he felt trapped in right now.

            “And no matter what happens, I’ll be right here with you. I promise.” Mario added.

            Luigi felt his brother sit down on the floor beside him and rest his hand on him. He hesitantly poked his head out from under the blanket, blinking back tears. He couldn’t speak around the lump in his throat.

            Mario understood what he wanted to say, anyway, as he always did. “You’re my brother, Luigi. I’ll always be there for you.”

. . .

            Luigi spent the rest of the day trying very hard not to think about what was happening to him, or at the very least not fall apart every ten minutes. It wasn’t easy with Mario practically breathing down his neck. His brother’s worry was as palpable as Luigi’s anxiety.

            Finally, evening came. Luigi hoped he would be able to find some escape from reality in sleep. Then he went to put on his pajamas before bed.

During the day, he had managed to ignore the fur growing across his body, even though it felt terribly uncomfortable rubbing against, catching in, and poking through the fabric of his clothes. As he took those clothes off, however, he was forced to confront the fur again. It was getting thick and long, fast. That morning, it was for the most part no longer than his normal body hair. Now, he couldn’t see his skin at all.

            Even worse, the one place on his body that wasn’t covered in fur had sprouted scales. He tentatively poked at one of the broad, flat scales covering his belly with a clawed fingertip and then jumped, startled, as it tickled. He hadn’t expected to have a sense of touch there.

            Luigi sat down on the side of his bed and drew his knees up to his chest. He could feel himself spiraling into another anxiety attack.

            Mario heard his erratic breathing and came into the room. “Oh, Luigi…” He immediately rushed over and sat down beside him, wrapping him in a hug. “I’ve got you bro, it’s okay. You’re gonna be okay. I promise.”

            Luigi wanted to shout, “no it isn’t!” but couldn’t even try to formulate the words. Instead, he pressed his forehead into his brother’s shoulder and burst into tears. That didn’t help; immediately, all he was aware of was how the tears felt running down his furred cheeks. He ground his teeth and barely held in a scream.

            “Breathe, Weegie, breathe.” Mario said softly, squeezing him a bit tighter.

            Luigi realized he had been holding his breath, and quickly took a few ragged, gasping breaths in response.

            “Want me to stay with you tonight? At least until you fall asleep?” Mario offered.

            Luigi nodded wordlessly, still too wound up to try to speak.

            “Okay. Take as long as you need. I’ve got you.” Mario gave him another reassuring squeeze.