Daisy's POV

Daisy woke up the following day thinking about the tennis match with Luigi, he was such a good player! Everyone else in Sarasaland had been beaten by her almost instantly or pretended to be beaten because they didn't want to 'upset' royalty. Why wouldn't people just act normal around me? Luigi acts like I'm an actual person! I'm going to make friends with him. She decided. Daisy didn't really have any other friends because people who weren't royal always acted strange around her and people who were royal were, to put it simply, weird. They all act uptight and boring, no one had fun around the castle. Ever since her sister married the prince of Beanbean Town and she moved to live there, it had been awful. Daisy had no one to talk to, no one to play tennis with. Until now!

Daisy got up out of her bed and headed to the on-suite bathroom, she began brushing her teeth and went to the toilet at the same time. She wanted to go find Luigi as quickly as possible – before someone else took him for a tour or something stupid.

She couldn't stop thinking about how flustered he got every time she spoke to him, it made her feel powerful, but not in the royal way as she was brought up with. He focussed intensely on the tennis match yesterday, charging off in the direction of the ball when she tried to get it past him, she was amazed by his dedication to sport. He was so shy and uncomfortable talking to anyone, especially her, she noticed. Daisy found it hilarious

Then she realised.

She had been sat on the toilet lid brushing her teeth for five minutes longer than she had to, thinking about him. She had never been so lovey-dovey with a man. She didn't like him in that way, she was almost 100 percent certain of that. It hadn't been long since her girlfriend left, she needed to wait. She didn't know how long, but she had to. Moving on from that thought, she snapped out of her mind and stood up to spit out the toothpaste, rinsing her mouth with water. She looked into the mirror into her icy eyes, which were still dull from the nights sleep, her hair was a mess and her shirt had sweat stains on, it was summer in Sarasaland, whereas it was only spring in the Mushroom Kingdom, so that was a regular occurrence.

She got changed into a tank top, shorts and her iconic orange and white jacket and ran downstairs, remembering what she was doing. Luigi. Where would he be? She looked at the grandfather clock which stood outside her room, it read 10:30, that was early for Daisy to wake up! She ran downstairs into the dining room, Mario, Peach, and her parents sat around the circular table.

"She's alive!" Her father joked, "Glad you could join us, sleepyhead." Daisy sat down beside her mother, totally ignoring her father.

"Does anyone know where Luigi is?" She asked politely to everyone beside her father.

"I sent him on a short mission yesterday evening, but he hasn't... how do you say it in English? Returned!" Daisy nodded.

"Where did you send him?" She replied, starting to get worried, there was something off about this situation.

"Into the dry forest. I'm sure he will be back soon, Daisy." Mario replied, in his strong Italian accent, making Daisy wonder why Mario's was so much stronger than Luigi's. Then her father interrupted her thoughts,

"It's not very ladylike to ignore your father, Empress Daisy, not sure if you even deserve that title." He said, making the whole room go silent. No one dared say anything to the emperor, not even his wife. Mario looked stunned but didn't say anything when Peach kicked him gently under the table. Anger bubbled up inside of her, she stood up, making the chair scratch across the wooden flooring. She knocked the chair onto its back then pushed the entire table onto her father, making all the breakfast fall onto him, he stood up immediately and glared at her.

Daisy spun around and marched off into the direction of her bedroom,

"Get back here at once Daisy Asaras! You cannot disobey me!" He yelled, with no reply.

She angrily spung open her bedroom door and punched the wall beside it with all her might, making it ache, but she couldn't care less. How dare my father say that? I'm as much of a princess as Peach or any of those prissy girls who used to bully me! As she paced around the room, she remembered why she headed downstairs in the first place. Luigi. She felt in her soul that he was in trouble, for some reason she had an automatic connection to him. She pulled out a small backpack from under her bed and stuffed a few essentials in there.

First-Aid kit, chewing gum, hair comb and an easy change of clothes. She would grab some easy food from downstairs. She tied her hair up with a dark brown ribbon and carefully slipped her orange trainers back on. Quietly, she snook downstairs and into the kitchen.

"What do you require, Empress Daisy?" A pink shy guy asked, loudly. Daisy quickly ushered them further into the kitchen, so they weren't overheard.

"I'm going on a short mission, could I have some essential please? And don't tell my father about this." She added.

"I'm sorry Empress Daisy, but I'm hired under your father, I cannot lie to him." The shy guy noticed her worried expression. "I will only tell him if he asks directly. I'll try my best to avoid him, Empress Daisy."

"Thank you so much, you don't know what this means to me!" She thanked, as the shy guy pulled out ingredients from the large fridge-freezer.

After a few moments of Daisy leaning on the short counter, awkwardly, the shy guy presented a small feast wrapped in a red and white cloth. She nodded and thanked the chefs gratefully.

Finally, she would leave this hell hole. She had dealt with her father's anger issue for years, but he was usually so kind to both Daisy and her sister. However, Daisy could always tell he preferred the eldest Asaras sister, it had always bothered her. He preferred her sister because she was 'a real princess', she wore dresses and always wore her tiara. Lapis Asaras was the idol of all young girls in Sarasaland, children would run up to Lapis and Daisy in the street but only want a photograph with Lapis. Daisy always felt left out and different, but she loved being her. She would rather die than sit comfortably in a dress with her legs crossed at a certain angle – they learned this in etiquette classes.

Daisy snapped out of her thoughts when she realised, she needed the emperor's permission to enter and leave the castle walls. Oh dear! How am I going to leave? She looked around the walls when she noticed the cracks and chips between the sandstone bricks, my feet can fit in those cracks!

Straight away she threw her backpack over the wall and began clambering over. It looked to be around 15 feet tall – she could climb that! Gracelessly, she secured each foot and grabbed onto a bit of the wall that jutted out, intelligently calculating each move. After a few attempts, she reached the top of the wall, sitting on it for a moment. She could see the entire castle from here, and her bedroom, where her window was left open, meaning she could sneak back in once she had found Luigi.

After she found her breath, she lowered herself with her elbows and leaped down, performing a messy looking safety roll as to not hurt her back. Rapidly, she grabbed her backpack and set off running to the Dry Forest, this was always rumoured to be haunted, but she used to explore it when she was young and never found anything.

It was called the dry forest simply because it was right beside the desert, there was never any leaves on the trees however it was always dark and misty in the forest. Most of the forest floor was dusty however there were small pools of mud and lots of sinkholes and hills.

Daisy stepped carefully, knowing how unstable the ground around the forest could be, however she used to play here as a child with her only friend, and knew it like the back of her hand. Except it was different now, it was much more overgrown and there was more mud than there used to be. Mario had said that Luigi would have gone straight through the forest to the other side so that's where Daisy headed. She stomped through the undergrowth to avoid getting stung when she heard a noise. It sounded like footsteps, but she couldn't be sure if it was human or animal steps. She tip-toed behind a tree then heard some rustling. She bolted into the opposite direction of the noise and turned her head over her shoulder to see what was there, she didn't see anyone, or anything but continued to hear rustling in the bushes.

Then she lost her footing and snapped her head back to see she was at the edge of a huge sinkhole, with tall, winding trees at the bottom. Daisy panicked as she looked down and slipped off the last bit of secure ground, screaming as she fell further and further down...