The Waddlewing Clan
I liked these little squirrel guys from New Super Mario Bros. U, so I wrote a story about them in a clan, and Mario being tricked into doing work for them. It's a bit nonsensical, but it stands out amongst my Super Mario work in that it DOESN'T involve koopas. Written in 2015.
The sun was shining, the sky was a glossy blue, and the temperature was nice and warm. Today was a beautiful day in Acorn Plains. A perfect day to go gliding in the clear, cloudless sky.
And that is exactly what Mario intended to do, with the aid of a Flying Squirrel power-up. Of course many of the Waddlewings living in the area had the same idea. They all flew in one heard, toward the Big Acorn Tree. Mario watched the heard while gliding about. Unfortunately being distracted caused him to crash into a smaller Acorn Tree. He fell under the tree. "Owie," he whimpered while rubbing his head.
A redish tinted Waddlewing in the branches saw him crash, and walked over to him. "Hey pal, watch where you're flying."
Mario looked up and saw the Waddlewing over him. "Oh, sorry... did you live here?"
"Well, eh. Yeah. Sure." He looked up to see another group of his kind in the air. They seemed to be searching for something. "Uh, hey buddy! Would you mind stepping out of the tree's shadow? Right about there."
Mario looked a bit confused as to why he'd want that, but he did anyway. The red tint Waddlewing smiled and whispered, "Perfect." Then still in the branches, he yelled out, "There he is! The one you've been looking for!"
Mario turned to him, saying, "Huh?" and before he knew it he was lifted in the air by three Waddlewings. "Hey! What's a going on?!
"Don't act dumb, Ardilla!" said one of the Waddlewings carrying him. "You know you've got work to do at the Big Acorn Tree!"
Then Mario realized he had been tricked by the red tint Waddlewing, apparently named Ardilla. He looked down to see him waving bye at him smugly.
Inside the Acorn Tree was madness. Mario saw Waddlewings everywhere doing different things. Some were polishing Super Acorns, and others sweeping up the floor. He looked behind at the angry Waddlewings who had grabbed him. "Um..."
"You know what you have to do, Ardilla."
Mario was flustered, but he played along in fear of what might happen if they found out he was human. "Yeah, of course!" He smiled dumbly. The Waddlewing wasn't amused. "But could you tell me again? Y'know, to make sure I'm right?"
"Oh my stars, Ardilla. Fine, I'll tell you, but listen well 'cause I won't tell you again!" she said with vexation. Then she grabbed Mario by the "tail" and dragged him forward. He looked around to see other Waddlewings staring at him awkwardly. He was place near a table. On it was a pile of greens. "See this? This is a leaf. Not spinach. A leaf."
"Okay."
"Now with these leaves that aren't spinach, you put them back into the tree branches." She picked up another green. "Now this here is a spinach. Put the not leaves but spinach, into this gray pot. Got it?"
"Mmm-hmm!" Mario saluted to the Waddlewing.
"Good. Repeat my directions."
"Leaves on the branches, spinach in the pot."
"Very good Ardilla. Now get to WORK!!!" She walked out.
Mario turned to the greens. The spinach seemed to look nearly identical to the leaves. His human nose couldn't very well smell the difference. "Oh boy, Imma gonna fail, and they'll know the truth..." He picked up a green and tried to look for a distinguishing feature. He couldn't find any. So he tasted it.
"Bleugh! This is a leaf." He went over to the wall of leaves and placed it in. "Wait, I can't taste all of these. It'll take too long and I'm pretty sure that spinach is for dinner..." He had no choice but to just wing it.
Some time later, after the sun had set and the stars were shining outside, the Waddlewing came back in and saw that none of the greens were on the table anymore. "Oh good. You're done, just in time for dinner."
She took the pot without hesitation. "Dinner is in about 10 minutes. Be there."
Mario saluted again. "Yes, Ma'am!"
And ten minutes later, a call for dinner sounded throughout the tree. Mario came to see a large table filled with Waddlewing, chattering about who knows what. He sat a bit farther from them in case any might notice something was different about him. After a little while, the food was served. It was spinach of course, and roasted acorn. Everyone dug in. Mario did the same. He put some spinach in his mouth. Then he stopped and muttered, "Uh-oh..."
Many of the Waddlewings also stopped. They spat out there food. "This isn't spinach! It's a darn leaf!"
"Mine too!"
"So was mine!"
"I think mine might be mint!"
One angry Waddlewing who loved spinach stepped up. "This is a disgrace to all of Spinach. I demand to know who's responsible for the sorting!!"
Everybody stared at Mario. He giggled nervously. "Heh heh. Oopsie?"
Another Waddlewing stepped up. "Oooooh! Look who it is! Ardilla of course! Trying to prank us again!" The other Waddlewings nodded and murmured in agreement.
"N-no, I... it was an accident.."
"Sure. Mixing up dinner for everyone tooootally sounds like an accident."
"Really!"
The chef came from the kitchen after hearing all the commotion. His face was beet red. "YOU! I knew you were trouble the moment you got back here!" He threw his rolling pan directly at Mario's face. It hit him hard.
Very, very hard.
Hard enough to knock the Flying Squirrel right out of him.
And what happened next was utter chaos.
"Oh my stars! It's a HUMAN!"
All th Waddlewings started running frantically. Mario was embarrassed, he had no clue what to do next. Then he started feeling pushing. He noticed a bunch of Waddlewings pushing him out. He tried resisting but there were just too many. Before he knew it, he fell out and was on the ground. Mario's next instinct was to hightail it out of there. Many of the Waddlewings chased him, though a few stayed back, including the one who had given him his job.
"Y'know, it probably was never smart to mix leaves and spinach in a pile in the first place."
When Mario was tired, he stooped by a tree. The Waddlewings were still searching for him. He hide up into the leaves. Then he heard a small squeak.
"Hey! Watch where you step!"
It was the real Ardilla, the one who tricked Mario earlier. "You! Look at the mess you got me into!"
Ardilla looked at him with sarcastic disbelief. "Ha ha! Nope, your fault for... whatever you did! Hehehaha!"
Mario was pretty fed up now. He pushed the red tinted Waddlewing out of the tree. He let out a louder squeak upon landing. One Waddlewing heard him. "Look! Real Ardilla!" He and some others swooped down and picked him up. "See what happens when one of us is out of order? Humans ruin our dinner!"
Ardilla could only moan in annoyance. He looked back to his precious tree, only to see Mario waving back at him, smiling smugly.