Toadette's Story: Book 1

Chapter 44 - Soaked in Piranha Plant Slide

Was I supposed to tell her she was right? Tell her exactly what she wanted? What she said wasn’t making sense. I mean, nobody seriously believed I’d died years ago. That’d be such a farfetched outcome to reach.

On that day, I ran from the apartment, left Mushroom City in a flash, hitchhiked to Toad Town, and the rest was history. Other than not knowing my precise location, there was no reason to think I was rotting away somewhere. If anything, they should’ve accepted that I’d been missing or found a life of luxury far away from them.

“Nothing to say, huh?” Minh T. waited for words that never came. After tapping her foot for an eternity, she finally gave me some breathing room. “I’m gonna head back into the city. In the meantime, please think about the lies you’ve been telling yourself all this time.”

Now alone, I wiped the streaks from my eyes. I crawled back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling as time passed.

How fortunate that Minh T. couldn’t see my face. Her composure would crack upon seeing my expression of sadness slowly warp into a crooked smirk. And the more my crying switched to giggling, the redder she’d become.

If DT had to suffer for the past half decade, perhaps it was worth it for my mom to feel the cosmic pain she’d been owed for a lifetime. That tyrant didn’t deserve the knowledge that her precious daughter was happily alive, on a slow path to success in Toad Town. All those years of talking down to me, telling me I’d never make anything of myself… That the only thing I’d be good for was making money with my “horrifyingly anorexic” body on the streets, and even then, only if a man was bidding for the lowest price.

Hehehe. This was one timeline even a crystal ball couldn’t predict, let alone my tramp of a mother. Wait until she learns I’ve gone from sleeping in poverty to living in Princess Peach’s castle.

“Exactly what you deserve.”

Later that night, after I’d already waltzed around the hotel, showered and grabbed something to eat downstairs, the door swung open. Minh T.’s dark silhouette slumped in. Between her wobbly legs and her lack of balance, I’d say she had something to drink. Though I gave her a simple wave, she continued to slowly inch forward like a zombie. And as much as I tried to stay silent, she ended up blocking the image far too many times. Especially since she was going back and forth without any direction.

“Are you drunk?”

“NO! Not drunk. Not drunk. I’m not drunk. I’m just suuuuuper duper tired.” Her long drawl answered that question. Not to mention, she smelt like she’d emerged from some trashy club. I could trace ten different alcohol products from her breath alone. She then pulled up her sagging pants before stumbling backwards onto the floor.

It’d have been funny if it wasn’t so embarrassing. Speaking of which…

“Sorry for calling you a bitch earlier.” Saying that was a blow to my pride, but sleeping next to her after an attack like that made me so uncomfortable. “I didn’t mean it.”

She put up her palm. “It’s okay, biiiiiitch. I know you’re just… So sudden for the both of us.”

Yep, that was the drink talking. I now had to carry her to the bathroom to make sure she didn’t puke on the floors or hit her head in the shower. While helping Minh T. to undress, she made one more comment.

“You having second thoughts ‘bout—”

“No.” I put my head down. “Thursday. That’s final.”

— WEDNESDAY: 6 days before the festival —

“Wake up, Miss Toadette! It’s an emergency! You gotta wake up!”

Oh boy, what emergency could it possibly be? Did Peach need us to steal expensive nail polish to make herself more elegant? Nah, maybe we were gonna climb to the coldest tip of Shiver Mountain to find her a shiny crystal for this festival. And if she had any degree of restraint, she’d have us licking the scum off her feet after traversing Mushroom City barefoot.

Penelope’s rushed wake-up call left me at a loss for what clothes to wear. Hmm… Perhaps a mix of something casual yet formal was in order. Let’s see… Ah! That old vest I had. I could put it over a pink T-shirt and throw in some blacker jeans. As for the footwear, that was a tougher pick. For boosted attack power, I’d need my flats. For dominant speed, my sneakers would serve me well. And for sheer comfort at the cost of weaker stats, I’d need either the flip-flops or slides.

“Tell me what you think,” I said to Minh T., who applied a large amount of lip balm.

“Hey, nothing’s stopping you from tossing an extra pair in my bag.” She spun around. “Since I’m trying to see them toes today, go with your flip-flops. And your other shoes can remain on standby should the need arise.”

Very well. Fingers crossed that her bag wouldn’t get stolen by one of the various thieves in this dirty city.

After puckering her lips, she slung her bag over her shoulders. “I’d rather ditch my shoes today, but I know that’s gonna bother you, so let me grab my flip-flops.”

“I’m not your mom,” I chuckled, pushing her forward. “Dress scantily if you want.”

She lit up. So did I, knowing I’d get an unobstructed view of her pretty soles. I hadn’t even eaten breakfast yet, and those creamy beauties already had my mouth watering. Even watching Minh T. do something so simple as walking across the room made me jittery. Seriously, how I wished I could’ve given her big toe a morning kiss.

Even her clothing this morning… It was just an orange crop with some very short shorts, but seeing so much of her legs and arms was amazing. It was as if she had nothing to hide.

But if I let my horniness get out of control, this mission would never get completed.

When we dropped to the lobby, Penelope greeted us. A very quick encounter since she immediately hurried us to a blue door. On the other side came the screaming of a madwoman.

“Absolutely unacceptable! I had given you one simple task, and now all our plans just went up in smoke! Do you grasp what it is you’ve done!?”

“I have no excuse, Your Highness.”

Captain Toad? Well, Minh T. had said he was a magnet for trouble, so what did he screw up this time? As we approached the royal and captain, Peach mirrored an erupting volcano. Her normally tranquil face disappeared, replaced with one reserved for the craziest of comic book villains. With teeth gritted, one eye open as the other twitched, and a blood-red tint to top off the effect. But what made me smile in fiction shook me in real life. Peach had several other Toads in the room as well, making her outrage rather shocking.

“Is everything okay, Your Highness?”

She took a deep breath, shutting her eyes as she put her hands up. “I don’t know, Toadette. Captain Toad?”

The captain couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with me. He didn’t even give my chest a glance.

“I was supposed to activate the microphones in those coins you delivered.” He held up a simplistic remote control with two buttons, red and green. “I guess the milk you brought me made me forget I hadn’t yet activated them.”

Now my tits trembled. “So, they’re not recording anything right now?”

With a shake of the head, the room’s chatter silenced.

“But we already delivered them!” Minh T. shrieked. “What’s gonna happen to the Star Festival!?”

“Not to worry. It’s a good thing we have our pink-capped heroine. Isn’t that right, Toadette?” Peach tugged on my braid like a toy.

“Huh?”

She snatched the remote from Captain Toad and bestowed it upon me with enough force to puncture my palm. “Get within a metre of those coins to enable their microphones with the green button. You can hit it more than once if you’re unsure whether they’re activated. Understood, dear?”

“We can’t.”

She blinked twice. “Come again?”

“Your Highness, you told us to deliver them, and we did exactly that. They’re already in the Scapellis’ possession, so unless you want us captured, we can’t get near that case.” I gulped. “You’re giving us another mission that you should be giving to the guy standing next to us—the guy who messed this all up to begin with.”

Peach took a few seconds to react. What? Was she stunned I had some courage to speak some logic? Forgive me for wanting myself and Minh T. to have some relaxation under all this stressful week.

The pale princess sighed, her dress folding as she took a seat. “I see. Well, it seems we’ll have to cancel the Star Festival if we can’t stop this band of misfits.”

“No!” Minh T. pushed me out the way. “You can’t, Your Highness! It’s tradition!”

“I know. I’m so sorry. You and everyone else want to celebrate it, myself included. We could create a quick poll, and I’m certain the people will force us to continue it. But we’ll have to accept a dire death toll in the thousands, Minh T., possibly more.” She wiped her face. “I wish it wasn’t this way, Minh T. But unfortunately, this task is too big for a Toad to handle.”

The more she spoke with that passive-aggressive attitude, the more I wanted to rip out her vocal cords. All eyes in the room now locked onto me, including those of some senior Toads. Why was I, Toadette, the chosen one for all of these stupid tasks!? How many times have I asked that by now?

“I can take a damn hint!” In a rush of adrenaline, I grabbed Minh T. and marched out of the small room. “And I don’t wanna hear a word from any of you until tomorrow!”

Outside, an innocent streetlamp received the brunt of my built-up rage. After the hundredth strike in which my knuckles cracked, I finally walked back to Minh T.

She smirked. “So, you finished or you done?”

“Bad thing after bad thing in this place,” I groaned, rubbing my hand. “Not only do we not know where to look for this case, but we’re gonna be nipping the balls of death the whole time.”

“That Ace cutie said she’d ship it in a day, right? There’s time.”

“And where she is, the boy’s likely there, too.”

She put her hands behind her back, bouncing from side to side. “Well?”

With a heavy sigh, I nodded. “Gotta get it over with sooner or later.”

We now retraced the path to the building. Any time Minh T. asked me how I felt, I shut her out. Between my upset stomach and the green hue in my cheeks, I risked fainting at any moment. But I wasn’t some coward. I made my messy bed, and now I had to lie in it. Admitting to him that I’d been hiding all this time somehow wasn’t my greatest fear. Despite it being a pretty big secret, one more worry tugged on me during this entire run.

“Toadette!”

Minh T. yanked me onto the sidewalk. If not for hearing a blaring bus zoom past us, I would’ve complained about the severe whiplash. Hehe, guess I still wasn’t familiar enough with the city to deactivate my brain when walking. “My bad.”

Here we were again. Ace yelled when we burst through the door, visibly confused as to why Minh T. dropped to her knees and blabbed incoherently. Meanwhile, I leaned on the desk, explaining the situation in the most direct way possible so she couldn’t pull a fast one.

“Sorry, it got sent off a while ago. The Toad’s taking it up there.”

“He’s going to the Scapellis right now!?” I leaned to the point that my back curved like a pool noodle. “Where?”

“I don’t know—”

“Don’t mess with us! You know something. We need that package.”

Ace threw her hands up. “The drop-off spot isn’t always the same. You think I’m lying?”

Think, Toadette. Escalating the situation could make her less cooperative. In fact, that she already sent it off meant she was true to her word yesterday. So…

“Give us a guess.”

“Melody Motorway or Piranha Plant Pipeway are the best guesses I got. The only ones he mentioned.”

Minh T.’s thumbs suddenly moved at lightning speeds on her phone. “That might work.”

“What are you talking about?” I looked over her shoulders.

“After your situation, your mom had Dane T. chipped like a pet. Not the most premium thing since we don’t get precise coordinates, but I can check if he’s near one place or the other.”

Wow. Nice to know that my mom cared so much about HIM. Why hadn’t I been chipped as a kid?

“Ah-ha! Right along the edge, that’s Piranha Plant Slide.”

“Wait. She just said ‘pipeway’. Which is it?”

They looked at me. “Both.”

Minh T. tucked her phone away. “You’d be surprised how many places here got two names. Born in the southern tip, it’ll always be the P.P. Slide area for me.”

“They sap the fun out of every name,” Ace said. “We got Melody Motorway, and they have Music Park.”

“You know what they say. Keep it simple, stupid.” The Toad grabbed my hand. “Since he’s already in that area, a taxi’s sounding good to me. We gotta cut him off down there!”

Ace leaned back. “Fast runner. I’d call him, but they don’t let him bring his phone on these trips.”

“You did enough.” I waved to the orange-haired human, sprinting out the door with Minh T. “Thank you!”

So, my little brother was competing with me in being the fastest of this family? What a twist. When we were young, he’d run around like any other kid, but he was an indoors type of child. Bugs terrified him, he declared the Sun his archnemesis, and soccer scared the daylights out of him. But now the little boy—actually, the 13-year-old boy—could run deliveries over this maze of a city? Impressive, DT.

“TAXI!”

The yellow vehicle screeched onto the sidewalk, the back bouncing into the air before the loose doors flew open. Hesitantly, I pushed my way inside, and Minh T. followed. If this driver drove like a maniac this time…

“P.P. Slide, the water system,” Minh T. said. “Southern end as fast as you can.”

“Sure thing, sister.”

Off we went! And immediately, this man was ten times a worse driver than the last fool. The ride was so bumpy that I flew into the back of the driver’s seat within the first three seconds. His long, sharp drift around a corner was what firmly forced me to use a seatbelt. To Minh T., my struggle to stay in the car was a comedy act. But given a couple of minutes, surprises had disappeared, and I’d numbed myself to the intense whiplash of the turns. Maybe we’d reach the place in one piece.

This mirrored my trip with Penelope in another way. For the life of me, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Minh T.’s feet. And this time was worse because whereas Penelope sat like any ordinary child, Minh T. had stretched her legs across the seat.

Her dusty heels were a centimetre away from my right thigh.

No flip-flops meant I was obliged to look. In the beginning, it wasn’t too bad. I gave her peeks here and there. But after a little bit, my eyes glued themselves to her meaty toes. Gosh, what I wouldn’t give to tickle them right now. Even if they were lightly dirty from the streets, I might’ve even wanted to suck on them. At least the pinkie toe, something smaller.

Oh! They started to wiggle! Ah…

“This bothering you?” Minh T. asked. “Or you just interested? You’re looking at me like I’m a snack.”

I turned my head to the window. “Nothing.”

Very poor choice of words. Minh T. took this as an invitation to rub her feet on my thigh purposefully.

Jeez, even if I knew deep down that she was too aloof to catch on, she acted like she’d already learnt I liked her feet. The way she moved her toes ever so slowly, crossing her feet at the ankles… One thing about her: she sure knew how to make her feet hypnotising.

Every time I realise I’m thinking this, I want a kick to the back of my head.

See? Even after looking out the window, I still turned back to check on her feet. Is this something that everyone with a fetish goes through? Starting out being indifferent to the thing, then being unable to resist its charms? It was like feet were tobacco, and I’d gotten addicted all because I took one smoke like an idiot.

Now my vision darted between Minh T.’s toes and her face. Without question, she was looking right at me. It wasn’t accidental. Every time I looked up, her eyes were crinkled as her smile took up her face.

If I didn’t say something, she’d interrogate me with her own intrusive, pervy questions.

“Am I the weird one for hating getting my feet dirty?”

She curled her toes tightly, giving me another sweet glimpse of her blue nails. “No, you’re not the only one who hates it. You should consider me the weird one for loving dirt on my feet. Or everyone’s feet, I guess.”

“It’s just… If you think feet are this very beautiful body part, why would you care about the outside dirt sticking to them? Especially in relation to your tongue. That… Does it not make you feel nasty?”

I had her snickering, and she finally removed her feet from my leg. Now she marvelled at the bottom of her left foot, rubbing a finger from the toes to the heel. It was like she touched a dusty TV, as her finger returned covered in dust and maybe some concrete.

“You know, Toadette, I never thought about that.” She undid her seatbelt to sit right next to me, whispering as her hand grasped mine. “But if I had to take a crack at answering, it’s because I don’t care about the filth’s origins. It touched the feet, so it’s automatically yummy foot grime. Delicious, sometimes crunchy, sometimes creamy, sometimes slimy ‘n’ gooey… Mmm…”

“Don’t start getting off in the car,” I begged.

She licked her lips, her face but an inch apart from mine. “Hard ask. Even if dirt is from an unclean house, I’m down for licking it ALL up as long as it’s from someone’s amazing feet. Soil, grass blades, dust, fallen food crumbs, a squished ant, paper, the lovely toe jam that puts so much fear in your heart—they’re welcome in my body. The dirtier, the better.”

Credit to Minh T. She was the only freak able to make foot grime sound remotely appetising so far just because of how she spoke. However, no, I would refuse 90% of what she listed. If I didn’t outright refuse it, my body would without fail. Dust, fallen food crumbs and maybe the most minimal of toe jam would be tolerable. Not good. Tolerable.

Despite shivering from her description, this tingling in my body provoked me to not drop the subject. I tightened my sweaty grip on her hand, leaning in closer.

My heart was racing out of my chest. “So, I should get my feet dirtier so they’re tastier for you?”

She giggled, almost pushing her lips against my face. “Yep. I love how you smell, so a stink touch is a bonus, Toadette.”

I didn’t have to look at myself in the taxi’s mirrors to tell I was blushing. The heat and lightness were so intense in my face that I instinctively backed up from Minh T. Taking a few breaths, I simply stared at the tops of my own feet. Though the flip-flops had kept the bottoms mostly clean, I now visualised having Minh T. under them. The girl would slide her tongue across my soles, moaning… Moaning… Exactly what I was wanting to hear her do.

With a gasp, I released myself from the seat’s grasp and spun to have my back against the door. My right foot greeted Minh T. with a tap on her thigh and a peck on the lips.

Instantly, I shoved my toes in her mouth! Yeah, right in the back of the taxi as the world zoomed past us. And let me say, her mouth was a cave full of water. So much saliva instantly splashed between my toes that I thought I’d put them in a cup. Her brown eyes widened as she observed the way I panted, wiggling these skinny little piggies in her mouth.

“Here we are!” Before we could react, the taxi came to an immediate halt. Minh T. bit my toes for a second as I fell onto the floor of the car, my foot exiting her mouth. The taxi driver looked back at us, an eyebrow raised. “Hey, you gotta keep those seatbelts on, sisters. You could’ve been flying through the windows like birds.”

“Sorry…” I handed him his coins and a little extra just for showing some concern. Once we stepped onto the concrete ground, he drove out of sight with festive radio music loudly blaring. Glad he didn’t play that while driving us.

Despite hearing commotion in the streets, that noise clearly came from a far distance. We stood in a concrete field that had nothing but flatness and piles of construction materials. Looked like they hadn’t been messing with it for a while.

“Alright, back to our task before you make my panties wet.” Minh T. spent the better half of five minutes fiddling with one of the many grates on the ground, attempting to loosen it so we could infiltrate this place. All the while, her soles now got whiter from the powder.

“So, what exactly is this Piranha Plant Slide?” I asked, crouching directly behind her so I could get a faint sniff of her chunky heels. Hmm…

Sniff!

THAT was nice. Lightly dirty or not, they smelt like raw Minh T. No sweatiness, no yuckiness, just a pure gardener Toad in all her essence.

“The city’s got a bunch of water systems. This here’s one of them, mainly linked to the west side. You know, helps with toilets, sinks, and some pipes even transfer water to other cities in case of emergencies.”

“Ah, dependent on this place, I see.”

Sniff, sniff…

“One of the richest places in the Mushroom Kingdom, so you bet they are.” Just as she finished her sentence, creaking metal told me to stop inhaling her feet. “When Toad Town gets hit with a bad hurricane like last year, how do you think we still get a little water?”

“Always thought it was from the castle.”

“I think the castle’s water system just supplies the castle. I mean, they gotta make sure Her Highness is doing okay.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course.”

I approached the grate after she descended. Once inside, Minh T. closed it and surveyed the area. Well, there wasn’t much to look at. Aside from having a dark blue tint, one could easily mistake this for the sewers back home. In fact, one little extra element put this place a step below those other sewers.

“Please don’t tell me we’re stepping in sewer water.” I tried so hard to ignore the cold water at my ankles, but the longer I stood in it, the bigger of an ask it became.

“We’re totally not stepping in sewer water, Toadette.”

“WHY!?” I hoped my voice echoed through this entire brick-ladened tunnel. “The princess is trying my last nerve!”

“You’re fine.” Minh T. skipped onto a drier piece of land, exiting the water current. She then pointed to a sign. “This is the ocean water system. The water that’s directly from the sea, about to get filtered for refrigeration and all that jazz.”

“Oh, good. Now I just have to worry about Cheep Cheep piss.”

“Think positively. Least we won’t be dealing with any Bloopers down here. And you won’t have a princess turning into a frozen statue. And mira eso, my feet are getting a decent cleaning from the ocean’s blanket.”

“True.”

So, how exactly were we gonna locate DT? Although this place had some illumination, it practically spanned the whole height of the city when viewing it on a map.

Minh T. cupped her mouth. “Dane T., show yourself! You’re in big trouble, mister!”

“I don’t think that’s gonna—”

“You’re gonna force me to tell your mom who you’re working for!”

Still no answer. After walking into a wider room, Minh T. and I froze. There was a giant Piranha Plant resting in the middle of this area, on a platform where the water forked and later joined. Carefully, very carefully, we tiptoed past the eyeless creature. Minh T. had the luxury of being barefoot, so she wasn’t squeaking with each step she made. As docile as feral Piranha Plants were when you walked far from them, creeping near their precious pipes turned them into brain-guzzling monsters.

“So, Piranha Plants actually live here. It’s not just a name.”

“Okay, so I’ve never been down here before,” Minh T. said, pointing to another giant plant. “We just say P.P. Slide to reference the area of the city, so this is news to me, too.”

While we shuffled past this second sleeping beast, I felt Minh T.’s toes tickling the back of my heels. It was like when a shopping cart was always right behind you in a shop. Only this time, I wasn’t annoyed. Even with a Piranha Plant barely behind us, feeling her toes was nice.

“AAH!” Minh T. tightened her arms around my waist.

“We just walked past it!”

WHOOSH!

…Apparently not. A vine around her ankle lifted Minh T. into the air as if she was on a trampoline. For a second, she dragged me with her. If only she could hold on longer, as the fall onto the ground stunned my spine. Once slammed against the ceiling, she disappeared down the corridor. All I heard was screaming as I got off my butt.

“Toadette! Don’t leave me!”

“Nothing can go easy for us, huh!?” I gave chase immediately. “Keep yelling!”

Not like she needed a reminder. If she stopped making noise, I’d lose her in this dark and samey labyrinth. Brr… The deeper we travelled into this system, the chillier the water became. I’d forgotten just how unforgivingly cold ocean water could be. My now-soggy flip-flops wouldn’t protect my feet from the current, and my other shoes were being whisked along with my best friend.

“OW!” And I smacked fast-first into the wet, blue wall because of the dimness in this dank underground.

“Toadette!”

“Cut me a break!” I now cradled my two pink babies in my arms. “I’m coming!”

The flowing water helped my bare feet to accelerate. Following the shrieks of Minh T., I drifted around a corner, the ball of my foot giving me the ability to sharply pivot. And room after room, the wind against my face got more powerful.

At last, the vine was coming to its end. Minh T. dangled from the high ceiling, dizzy as if a Magikoopa had cast a spell on her. Poor girl.

“I didn’t even do nothing,” she cried.

THUD!

The vine shrivelled away past a little grate where water exited, leaving Minh T. drenched in cold water. But when I took a step forward, the ground started to shake. Not only that, but you could hear steel grinding against steel. It created a very sharp noise. And upon looking back, I gasped louder than usual.

A gate door was closing! This had no holes, either. It was nothing but a slab of metal. And on the other end of this room, the same thing!

“We gotta go!” I pulled Minh T. by her cap, dropping my shoes. Those few seconds I took to put them on were critical. Once ready, we raced to the descending barrier. “Oh-no!”

It closed! …The other one! If we could get there, there was a chance…

I pivoted on the ball of my foot, making a leap for the other door. Yet by the time my fingers could grasp it, it was far too low for even a shrunken me to pass through.

Minh T. clenched her teeth. “We’re trapped?”

“I know!”

Look around, Toadette. Don’t give up right away. There could be something useful. Well, the walls were no different from the other rooms. There were a few blocks hovering in the air, but they looked to be the empty variety. And on top of the ceiling, there was a long pipe that disappeared into one of those small coves. So…

“Oh my— Toadette, look down at your feet!”

No need to look. I could already feel the iciness rising. The water was now making a path for my knees, getting higher and higher. But just how high was it going to go?

“I take it you don’t have the drill in your bag, do you?”

Minh T. shook her head. “I can’t get that through an airport! Are you crazy!?”

“I’m desperate! I’m freezing! We’re gonna die if we don’t think of something, so let’s put our stupid heads together!”

Minh T. paced around the room, her speed gradually slowing as the water successfully soaked our entire legs. It pumped in at a tremendous rate through the little grates on the floor, to the point where I needed to remove my shoes. AGAIN! Off, on, off, on. Could I pick one and stick with it?

“Someone’s doing this on purpose,” I said, looking around. “I’ll be stunned if it’s a coincidence.”

At least there were yellow lightbulbs to illuminate the area, otherwise we’d be unable to even examine the place.

My eyes widened. “Green pipes are the weakest.”

“And?”

With those floating blocks being so close to a pipe and a light—the light was long, rectangular, and very heavy from the looks of it—I began to giggle. A bit too much for Minh T.’s comfort, considering she started to back up. But I reeled her back in and leapt onto the empty brick blocks.

“We’re gonna bang this pipe open with the light!”

“It’s bolted in!”

“No, look! You see how it’s attached to the pipe and not the actual wall? I’m betting everything that it’s tape or some very strong glue. Cheap, battery-powered lamp.”

Our wet bodies shuddered, but now we beamed brighter than ever. Let’s fuck this pipe up!