Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

    Meta yawned and stretched, waking up from its rest under a bush. After arriving in this new place, it had taken to a bush to rest for the night. This wasn’t a particularly unusual sleeping arrangement for the puff, in fact, the familiarity brought it a small amount of comfort.

    Already sunlight was filtering through the leaves, and Meta could hear the buzzing of insects and the loud chatter of birds. For a kid who had spent most of their life in a city, this amount of nature was a strange concept. It was aware of the concept of wildlife, it had seen them in the city parks after all, but hearing so much of it was completely new. Even the plant life seemed healthier.

    It seems like nature didn’t like being forced into an urban environment.

    Crazy.

    The only things that seemed to thrive in the city were rats, pigeons, and scraggly weeds.

    Meta did have to admit that it had some fondness for pigeons. When it had been little, or littler, a flock of them had adopted it into their midsts. They were lovely creatures, truly.

    As for rats, Meta couldn’t say it was as fond of them. Rats were the puff’s main competition for the coveted resource of garbage food, after all. The group of Squeaks who had first tried to yoink it off the streets had not improved Meta’s opinion on rodents.

    There was also the time it had eaten a rat. In all honesty that was probably not the worst thing it had ever eaten.

    You ate what, Morpho incredulously asked, Y’know what, it's not even worth it. You need to find some actual food. Preferably not something still covered with fur.

    Meta was pretty hungry, and it would prefer something without fur. If it couldn’t find anything else, however, some small animal was going to be eaten.

    Please don’t do that.

    The blue puff pushed itself out from under the bush. No time like the present to go rustle up some grub.

    Should it just wander around aimlessly looking for food? It wasn’t sure what to look for. There didn’t seem to be any trash cans in the forest. Meta looked up at the tree branches, hopeful that there would be some conveniently placed fruit.

    Something skittered out of the bushes, causing Meta to jump back.

    Looking down, Meta saw a small, teal thing. It looked like a rat but… not enough.

    What is that supposed to be? Some weird little rat thing? How was Meta supposed to know that? Morpho was supposed to be the one who knew things.

    The little rat thing stood on two strange, skinny legs. It had large, floppy ears and a long tail with a tuft of fur on the end. It seemed to be staring right into Meta’s soul.

    Anyways, it seemed like Meta found some food.

    Don’t eat that, I think it's sapient, Morpho hummed, Yeah see, he's saying hi and that his name is Elfilin. It wants to know what you are.

    That’s a funny question because Meta wanted to know what the rat thing was. Meta batted at its head with a paw. Elfilin let out a chitter that almost sounded like a laugh.

    The puff had to admit that it was somewhat unappealing to try and eat something that seemed to be self-aware. It was almost a shame because Meta was still hungry. As if to prove that point, Meta’s stomach growled.

    The rodent thing jumped back, before letting out more squeaks. It then sprung backwards and started pointing towards some bushes with its small front paws.

    It says that it can lead you to food. Do you trust this thing? Meta didn’t really know anywhere to get food, so it supposed that it would trust the rodent. The puff plodded after the rat creature.

    The thing hopped further into the bushes leaving Meta to follow. How strange this creature was, it seemed to hop everywhere it went. Personally, Meta felt like hopping everywhere would get really tiring really fast.

    Elfilin led Meta deeper through the woods, careful not to leave the puff’s line of sight. The deeper into the woods they got, the more Meta stumbled over roots and rocks. Why did the woods have to be so irritating to navigate?

    Finally the woods thinned out into a moderately sized clearing. There was a large tree in the center of the clearing, one that held a large amount of apples in its branches. Meta wasn’t sure how it would get the fruit down, but it was a start. The puff hesitated in the bush line, though it wasn’t exactly sure why it was so hesitant to go forth.

    The little rat thing hopped on to the tree’s roots, and gave the tree’s trunk a pat.

    A face appeared on the tree’s trunk. It smiled at the rat and said something to it. Then it shook its branches, causing a few apples to fall to the ground. The rat then turned around and enthusiastically gestured for the puff to come over.

    Meta hesitantly emerged from the bushes, keeping its eyes fixed on the tree. As soon as the tree noticed Meta’s approach, its friendly expression turned into a glare. The puff halted its approach, unsure how to handle the tree’s change in demeanor. It tensed up and tightened  its grip on Morpho, just in case it had to fight the tree for fallen fruit.

    The rat let out a nervous chitter as he looked back and forth between the puff and the tree. Clearly, this was an unusual reaction from the tree. 

    Elfilin hesitantly began rolling a bright red apple towards the puff. The rat had probably realized that the tree did not want Meta getting any closer.

    When the apple was in range, Meta pounced and tore into the apple’s sweet flesh like a feral animal. Honestly, Meta hadn’t realized just how hungry it was.

    The ground beneath its feet began to rumble. Concerned, Meta looked away from its snack.

    A root shot out of the ground, slashing the puff across the eye.

    The puff stumbled back out of pain and surprise, and let out a pained squeal.

    OH SHI- Meta are you okay? It didn’t get your eye too bad, right? Honestly, maybe we should get you some form of eye protection. You’re just asking to get your eye stabbed out.

    Meta let out a groan, and stumbled back to its feet. It hurt to open the injured eye. The puff was in pain, and immensely pissed off that it had let its guard down around a clearly aggressive tree. It should have known better!

    It wanted to tear the bark off of that tree and start a forest fire with its remains. Maybe that would make the puff feel better.

    I- I mean that's fair, but maybe I should be concerned with how violent you are.

    The rat bolted over to Meta’s side, trying to check out the severity of the wound with clear concern on its face. Meta pushed them away, it didn’t particularly want anything to do with the rat right now.

    It began storming over towards the tree, intent on finding a way to get Morpho to burn the tree down.

    Only to find it dragged back to where it started by Morpho.

    Sorry, Meta, I’d rather you get your eye checked out before you try and fight a tree.

    Meta let out an annoyed click. If it wanted to get pummeled trying to fight a tree, then it should be allowed to get pummeled by trying to fight a tree!

    The puff turned and crashed haphazardly through the shrubbery. No reason to fight something with an uncooperative sword. It could hear the odd hopping steps of the rat following behind it.

    Meta whipped around and hissed at the rat, ruffling up its fluff in order to appear bigger. The rat stumbled back, looking a bit cowed.

    Nevertheless, when Meta resumed its half-blinded trek through the woods, the rat still followed.

    Apparently, Meta would not be able to get rid of Elfilin. Whatever, the puff just wouldn’t trust it with directions anymore.

    Meta didn’t know where it wanted to go other than out of these woods.

    It was then that Meta noticed something odd. As the undergrowth thinned out again, the air gained a multi-colored shimmer. The puff felt that it should be concerned about that, but for some reason, it found itself relaxing.

    Meta thinks that it felt something like this before. Back in its original city, there had been something like this. A fountain in a park that seemed to emit a relaxing aura. The puff had the best sleep of its life there. It had tried to sleep there again a few times, but it's time there had eventually devolved into fighting off guards instead of sleeping. After a while, it just wasn’t worth it.

    Assuming this was the same thing, and that there were no more murderous trees around, maybe Meta could take a nice nap here.

    The forest gave way to what seemed like a small pond that shimmered in a multitude of colors in the light. In the center, there was the fountain structure Meta was expecting, it seemed to be the source of all the water.

    It was quite beautiful.

    It’s a Fountain of Dreams, it's supposed to protect an area against bad dreams, Morpho hummed.

    Though maybe not the best place for sleeping. All the water had made the dirt beach too sodden to be comfortable. On the other side of the pond, there did seem to be a way out of the forest. Meta should probably follow that.

    The rat bounced up and tried to inspect Meta’s wound again. Meta jumped away and reflexively slapped Elfilin in the water.

    Meta almost felt bad as it watched Elfilin drag himself out of the water, but honestly, the rat shouldn’t have approached from Meta’s blindspot.

    Something in the water caught Meta’s eye, a shade that sworled and distorted in the ripples Elfilin left behind. Did the pond have fish in it?

    For some reason, it filled Meta with an immense amount of dread.  It snapped Meta completely out of its stupor. The formerly pleasant atmosphere now felt suffocating.

    You need to get out of here, something is very VERY wrong.

    Meta could hear footsteps rapidly approaching from the other side of the fountain, before hearing a loud splash. Ripples and a few droplets reached Meta on the other side.

    Whatever had splashed into the fountain’s water had scared away the shade. Meta felt a mixture of relief and fear about that.

    Maybe Meta should go and check out what had just splashed into the pond, and then get away from this fountain.

---

    Sailor did not know how he became the go-to Dee for babysitting. Whether it was for date nights, parties, or just an excuse to get away from the kids, Waddle Dee parents always went to Sailor for their babysitting needs.

    Sailor didn’t even particularly like kids, but kids sure as hell seemed to like him. It was like they sensed his distaste for them.

    That’s how he ended up in this situation: getting dragged behind an overly enthusiastic penguin on a child leash, and carrying a heavy backpack filled with food for a picnic, their destination being a sacred fountain because said penguin child wanted to go for a swim.

    No matter how many times Sailor and Bandana tried to explain to the penguin that he probably shouldn’t be swimming in a place deemed sacred by the majority of Dream Land’s inhabitants, the penguin just refused to listen. Dedede just loved swimming that much, and apparently, no other bodies of water were good enough.

    “Dedede, please slow down!” Sailor pleaded as they got closer to the fountain, “I’m going to-”

    Sailor lost his grip on the leash and fell face first to the ground. Dedede shot forwards and took a truly magnificent belly flop into the fountain water. He disappeared below the surface, but Sailor wasn’t too worried. The kid was a good swimmer, and the water probably wasn’t deep enough to be concerning. Maybe he should be worried that Dedede hurt something in the belly flop.

    “At least take your coat off. That’s going to be a nightmare to dry,” Sailor grumbled. He hoped nobody else was around. Trying to explain the kid swimming in the pond would be a deeply embarrassing experience.

    Sailor picked himself up and brushed off some dirt that was clinging to him. He plodded closer to the fountain’s shore, and began to unpack the backpack. The Waddle Dee might be here for a while, so might as well prepare a snack.

    He pulled out Dedede’s towel as the penguin returned to the shore to take off his coat and child harness. Maybe the Waddle Dees should give up on the harness, it didn’t keep Dedede in line anyways.

    “Thanks for bringing me here, Sailor,” Dedede said.

    “Yeah yeah, whatever. Try not to disturb the wildlife too much,” Sailor muttered. He wasn’t paying too much attention, he was just trying to find a half decent snack in the pack. Honestly he packed it, why were none of the options appealing?

    “Too late for that!” Dedede said cheerily, as he pointed off to the side.

    “Wait, what?”

    Sailor looked at where Dedede was pointing. Sure enough, there was a disgruntled, scruffy-looking thing. It was glaring at them, with one of its eyes scrunched closed. For some reason, it was also holding a weird sword. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was, some kind of messed up bird?

    An itch at the back of his mind told Sailor that he really should know what it was. Something about it was familiar, perhaps he had seen one of them in a book somewhere.

    Oh, and that jerboa thing Sailor had occasionally seen around the woods was there too.

    “What’s that round blue thing, Sailor? It’s kinda cute,” Dedede said, “Y’know it kinda looks like-”

    The little jerboa was hopping towards them. For some reason, it looked like it had also gone for a swim in the fountain. Was swimming in the fountain more popular than Sailor thought?

    “H-hey, I don’t think you should be here right now,” the jerboa said in a squeaky voice, “I think there’s something in the water.”

    Sailor felt a twinge of concern, “What do you mean?” If there were chemicals or something in the water, he’d probably have to report it to Bandana.

    “Um uh, there was some shadowy thing in there, and it made me feel really scared!” At Sailor’s dubious expression, the jerboa rambled on, “I know I didn’t imagine it, because they saw it too!” He pointed off to his companion.

    At some point, the blue orb thing had wandered over and began rummaging through Sailor’s backpack. Sailor let it continue, not like he wanted anything from there. It triumphantly pulled out a bag of chips, and proceeded to try and shove the entire bag in its mouth. When Sailor tried to help it open the bag, it hissed at him. Whatever, it wasn’t Sailor’s problem. If it wanted to choke on a bag, Sailor would let it.

   Sailor knew he wouldn’t actually let that happen.

   Honestly, maybe this whole “shadow in the fountain” thing was just a ploy to get snacks. They could’ve just asked. The blue thing didn’t seem nearly as concerned over it as the jerboa.

  “Pft- no shadow thing is gonna stop me from swimming,” Dedede huffed. The penguin retreated back into the water. 

  The jerboa let out a distressed squeak, and began pacing at the water’s edge. Well, it was less pacing and more distressed hopping. They seemed really riled up about this, maybe Sailor should just get Dedede out and return home.

  The unidentified creature finally managed to open the chip bag with a triumphant popping noise. It had stabbed the bag open and was now enjoying its snack.

   Looking closer, Sailor could see that its shut eye seemed to have been recently injured. That seemed like something that needed to be checked out.

    “Hey, jerboa guy, is your buddy okay? They seem hurt,” Sailor hesitantly asked, “Also, what exactly is it? I can’t tell.”

    The rodent tore their gaze away from Dedede.

    “Oh, I tried to get some apples from Whispy for them because they seemed hungry. For some reason, Wispy REALLY didn’t like them and attacked,” they explained, “I’m… not really sure what they are. I just found them near some bushes. They might be a baby. They haven’t said a word, but they do seem to understand me.”

    Well that just raised more questions. Sailor hoped that the jerboa didn’t take it out of a nest or something. The Waddle Dee did NOT want to deal with the angry parents of an unknown creature.

    The fact that a Whispy Woods had so readily attacked it was worrying. Sure the Whispy Woods could be territorial, but they didn’t usually attack the forest animals. Perhaps its family had only just moved here and the trees were just unused to them.

    “If it is a baby, you should probably put it back where you found it. The parents are probably looking for it,” Sailor said.

    “I- yeah, probably,” they didn’t sound very certain, “What if there’s nobody looking for them? Who’s gonna help with their eye?”

    Sailor looked back at the mystery animal. It didn’t seem to have teeth, as it wasn’t crunching down on the chips, but it had still somehow managed to get its entire face covered in crumbs and chip dust.

    Oh stars, Sailor couldn’t just leave the thing in the woods. If that eye injury got infected, the thing’s life could be at risk.

    “I guess we could take them back to the castle. Just to make sure their eye can be healed,” Sailor muttered, “When they’re healed, we go find their- DEDEDE GET DOWN FROM THERE!”

    Sometime during Sailor’s conversation with the jerboa, Dedede had climbed up on top of the fountain. The penguin had one hand wrapped around the fountain’s star decoration thing, and was looking down into the fountain’s water with abject terror.

    Ah shit, what was happening this time?

    “Hey, Sailor, the weird rat thing was right. There’s something in the water,” Dedede choked out.

    Sailor desperately wished that the kid was joking.

    Alas, after looking at the water, Sailor could see a strange shadow.

    Whatever was casting the shadow began to slowly rise out of the fountain’s water. It faced away from Sailor and the group on the shore and towards the terrified penguin. Due to that, Sailor could only discern a few things about the figure. They seemed to have curled, golden horns, heavy shoulder pads, and a star-patterned cloak. With them, they brought an atmosphere of such pure terror, the likes of which Sailor had never felt before.

Honestly, if Sailor weren’t so terrified of the thing, he’d think that the outfit was probably the gaudiest thing to befall Dream Land.

    The thing lunged forwards at Dedede.

    Sailor heard a scream, a snap, and a loud splash. Then the fountain monster disappeared, taking the stifling atmosphere with it.

    And then Sailor was stricken with a whole new feeling of fear. If Dedede was hurt then Sailor was going to be in deep trouble.

    Not to mention that Sailor, of course, did not want the kid to get hurt.

    He was interrupted from his fear by the sound of spluttering and splashing. Dedede resurfaced from the water, and awkwardly paddled himself back to the shore.

    “Dedede! Are you okay?” Sailor shouted as he helped to drag the penguin back to shore, “It didn’t hurt you, right?”

    “Yeah yeah, I’m fine,” Dedede muttered, “It just spooked me. Also, I broke this.”

    The penguin held up the fountain’s star topper. Oh, so that’s what the snapping noise was.

    How were they going to get that back on the fountain? After that experience, Sailor didn’t particularly want anyone going back into the water. Just because they couldn’t see the fountain monster didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

    “As long as you’re okay. We should get out of here,” Sailor said. He went and picked up the kid’s towel before tossing it over the kid.

    “I told you so,” the jerboa said. There was no hint of smugness in their voice.

    “You sure did,” the Waddle Dee mumbled.

    The round, unknown animal had moved to Dedede’s side. It seemed to be snuffling at the fountain’s star decoration. Sailor was a little bit nervous about the thing stabbing Dedede, but it didn’t seem aggressive.

    “Oh, do you want this?” Dedede asked, moving the star closer to the orb.

    In response, the orb ate the decorative piece. Stars, Sailor hoped that wasn’t important. He wasn’t sure that they would be getting it back.

    “I think he’s hungry,” Dedede said. The penguin attempted to give the orb a pat on the head, but it shied away from the touch.

    “Are they a he?” the now startled jerboa asked.

    Dedede paused, “Well, I dunno. He’s blue. That’s a boy color.” Well, they couldn’t argue with that foolproof logic.

    “Can we keep him, Sailor?”

    You know, Sailor did not have the energy to deal with this. He didn't have the energy to explain to Dedede that they couldn’t keep some random forest animal as a pet. Especially if they weren’t sure if it was sapient.

    “Absolutely not. We’re going home,” Sailor said. He ignored the penguin’s whine of “but Sailor” and began dragging the kid back down the path out of the woods.

    “What are you gonna do about the monster?” the jerboa asked.

    “I don’t know,” Sailor responded, “I’ll tell Bandana about it. He’ll know what to do.”

    “Oh, okay. Can you take- Oh wait, where’d he go?”

    The unknown orb had disappeared. Sailor felt like he should be concerned about that, but honestly, he was more concerned about getting Dedede back home.

    “He went into the bushes,” Dedede explained.

    “Oh shoot. I should go find them then. At this point maybe I should just take them to my mom… though I don’t know how good she is at healing,” they murmured.

    “Well if you find them again, you can still bring them to the Dee castle. I’ll tell the guards to look out for you,” Sailor said offhandedly, still shepherding Dedede down the forest path.

    “Alright, thanks,” they then dove off into the bushes.

    “They went the wrong way,” Dedede grumbled.

    “Oh well, not our problem. We need to get back to Bandee.”

    At the penguin’s continued grumbling Sailor went on, “Look, I’m sure they’ll be fine. We can come back here in a few days if they don’t show up at the castle.”

    As they finally came out of the woods and into Dream Land’s grass plains, Sailor noticed that the previously sunny day had turned cloudy. It looked like a storm was about to occur, which was a rather strange weather occurrence for the usually sunny Dream Land. Sailor didn’t consider himself to be superstitious, but something about this just seemed off.

    Everything about this day was off.

---

    When Fluff woke up, he had been hoping that this would be a good day. Sure, trying to get Meta to warm up to them was slow going, but Fluff was optimistic. Meta hadn’t tried to stab anyone yesterday, so Fluff thought things were going well.

    Perhaps the bar for “going well” was set way too low.

    When he woke up, he did notice that one of his dimensional socks was on the floor instead of in their protective safe. He probably just forgot to put it away. Then when he went to take his cape out of the closet, he saw that the things piled up along the bottom had been messed with. Really, his closet had always been a mess. The mess had probably just finally collapsed in on itself.

    Everything was fine.

    Someone was knocking on his door. He hastily put on his cape and rushed over to the door.

    His visitor was one of the Waddle Dee soldiers, and she looked quite distressed.

    “Sir, it's about your kid. We can’t find them anywhere,” the Waddle Dee blabbled, “I fell asleep outside their door, and when I woke up the door was open and they were gone!”

    “I’m sorry, you what? ” Fluff snapped.

    “We lost your kid!” the Waddle Dee said before bursting into tears.

    Fluff tried to get control of his emotions. Getting angry with the guard would not help the situation. The yarn ruler placed a paw on their shoulder, hoping that it would be seen as a comforting gesture.

    “Have you checked everywhere in the castle?” Fluff asked.

    “Y-yes, I got the others to help search when I noticed they were gone,” she said. Her sobs died down to sniffles.

    “Alright, have you checked places outside of the castle?”

    “Not yet, I thought we should tell you first.”

    Fluff sighed, “Well, you should probably look outside then. I’ll join you outside shortly.”

    The guard nodded, and ran off. Despite suggesting they should look outside, Fluff had a sinking feeling that they would not find the kid there. He had a feeling that the kid wasn’t even in Patch Land anymore. 

    He had to check the safe to be sure.

Fluff went back into his room, slamming the door shut behind him. He bolted over to his closet, and began rummaging through the mess.

Sure enough, the safe had been cut open.

    Shit.

    How was he going to explain this to Kirby?

Chapter Text

     Fluff had never really spent a lot of time on Pop Star, especially outside. He did not do well in uncontrolled environments. His yarn would end up waterlogged or matted with dirt and he often ended up being blown away in the wind. It was quite embarrassing, really.

     Stars, that brought back unfortunate memories of the whole Void incident. Sure, the finale was traumatic, but the majority of the adventure was just embarrassing for Fluff. A guy’s confidence could only take being blown away in a strong breeze in front of their crush so many times.

     The worst part was that Marx had always been the one to volunteer to drag him back to the rest of the group. By the end of it, Marx had dubbed him “the most pathetic guy in the galaxy.”

     Fluff did not like Marx. He put up with the jester solely for Kirby’s sake.

     Kirby didn’t spend much time on Pop Star anymore, as clearly evidenced by how much of a mess his house was. Everything was covered in a fine layer of dust, and a large pile of letters and papers were laying near the house’s entrance. Miscellaneous trinkets and weapons had spilled out of the closet.

     The window was broken. Judging from the lack of glass shards on the floor, Fluff guessed that it was broken from the inside.

     That must have been where the kid had escaped from.

     Instead of searching for Meta in Patch Land, Fluff had left for Dream Land. Considering the misplaced sock in his room, and the evidence now before him, Fluff doubted that the kid was in the yarn world.

     The yarn king had left them a note explaining where he had gone. Hopefully, none of them were waiting for him to show up for the search.

     Maybe he should have told them in person instead of sending them off on a wild goose chase.

     He still needed to call Kirby and tell them about the situation. That was a conversation he dreaded.

     Part of him didn’t want to tell Kirby about it, about his near immediate failure as a parent. Seriously, he managed to sleep through the kid’s escape. Fluff hadn’t even been in charge of the kid for that long.

     He knew, rationally, that hiding this from Kirby wouldn’t make the situation any better. Kirby would probably find out eventually, and things would just spiral more out of Fluff’s control.

     No, Fluff can handle this. He can prove himself to be a good parent and communicative partner.

     Fluff didn’t particularly want to sort through Kirby’s old mail, but the alternative was going through the broken window. Sure, he would probably fit, but it would be quite undignified and it would frazzle his yarn.

     Most of the mail seemed to be letters from Kirby’s fans. Saving Pop Star and the surrounding planets did leave quite the impression on people, after all.

     The rest of the letters seemed to be bills. Fluff wasn’t sure whether or not Kirby had paid them. If he had to make a guess, he’d say Kirby probably hadn’t paid them. The pink puff had always seemingly struggled with the idea of currency.

     That and Fluff didn’t really think monster hunting or whatever Kirby did in his free time could pay the bills anyways. Unfortunately, Fluff couldn’t do much for financial support. Beads didn’t have much financial value in Kirby’s dimension, after all. Maybe he could get Kirby to pawn off some weavings or fabrics for extra cash.

     Honestly, the only reason Kirby wasn’t in jail by now was the fact that no jail cell was strong enough to hold them. At this point, the Floralian officials were probably too scared of the pink puff to confront him about the unpaid bills.

     He had finally shuffled the papers around enough to open the door. Fluff unlatched the door and quickly went outside.

     He was almost immediately blown off his feet by a strong wind. Only by clinging to the door handle was he able to keep himself from being blown away.

     The sky seemed clear, except for a gathering of clouds on the horizon. If those clouds brought rain, it would severely hinder Fluff’s search for the kid.

     His current plan- assuming he didn’t get blown away in the wind- was to go to the Waddle Dee castle. They had a lot of manpower, and Fluff was pretty sure they would be willing to help him look for the kid. Fluff was mostly just assuming that based on Kirby’s friendship with the Waddle Dees there. They were probably kind enough to help him regardless of Kirby’s connections with them.

      He’s pretty sure one of Kirby’s former cremates had retired here, they’d probably be willing to help.

     One of them had to have a way to call Kirby. Fluff didn’t have a phone with Kirby’s number, as phones generally didn’t work very well across dimensions. Generally, Kirby just showed up if there was something important happening.

     After bracing himself, Fluff set off in the direction he hoped led to the Waddle Dee castle.

     Fluff was able to reach the Waddle Dee castle without being swept away by the wind. He’d count himself lucky for that. Unfortunately, the sky did seem more cloudy than when he first arrived.

     The area around the Waddle Dee castle was the most densely populated area in Dream Land. That wasn’t really saying much, however, as Dream Land just didn’t have a lot of towns. Dream Land just had a low population in general.

     Fluff received a few odd looks as he passed through the town and towards the castle. He supposed that, to them, a living yarn ball would be a rather strange thing to see.

     When he reached the castle, he was easily able to get into the main building. There were a few Waddle Dees around with spears who Fluff thought might be guards, but they didn’t pay him much mind.

     The best course of action would probably be to ask for directions to Kirby’s former crewmate. What was their name again? Bandee? Bandana? Probably Bandana. Most Waddle Dees seemed to be named after their favorite accessory or some trait about them. Fluff was pretty sure that they wore a blue bandana.

     Fluff had never really talked to them much. Now that he thought about it, Fluff didn’t think he had ever had a conversation with the Waddle Dee without Kirby present. They were just a friend of a friend.

     He decided to ask a passing Waddle Dee for directions.

     “Excuse me, could you give me directions to Bandana Waddle Dee? I have an important matter to discuss with him,” Fluff said.

     The Waddle Dee turned to him with a neutral expression that quickly turned into one of confusion.

     “I… Um… Yes, I can. I warn you though, he’s very busy. You might not get to talk to him for a while,” they said.

     “That’s fine,” Fluff responded. It was not fine. He did not want to wait, tight now his kid was lost in the wilderness somewhere! The yarn puff wanted Meta back in Patch Land at least before nightfall, and preferably, before it rained.

     But this was not Fluff’s castle. He did not have control over those who lived here. Throwing a temper tantrum would not help anything.

     “Right this way, then,” the Waddle Dee said.

     They led Fluff through castle passageways made of bland, yellow stone. The walls were largely undecorated, lacking any tapestries or ornate carvings Fluff would have expected from a castle. This was probably due to the fact that this wasn’t really a place to show off royal power or fanciness. It was a communal living space for the people of Dream Land, just in the shape of a castle.

     “Alright, here we are,” his guide announced. It was a door like any other they had passed, just with a few chairs set up along the wall next to it.

     “Take a seat over there. I’ll tell him you’re here,” they said.

     “Thank you.”

     He sat down in the closest seat to the door as the Waddle Dee knocked on the door and went inside.

     It didn’t take too long for them to come back out and give him a noncommittal shrug. “He’s finishing up paperwork right now. Shouldn’t be too long.” And then they set off down the hallway from which they came.

     “Thank you!” Fluff called after them.

     Fluff personally thought that a missing child was probably more important than paperwork. Maybe he should have told the guard Dee why he was here. Or he should just go in there right now and explain the situation.

     But that would be the impolite thing to do, and Fluff considered himself to be very polite. As royalty, Fluff knew that paperwork could sometimes be very important. He’d hate to interrupt if it were really important work.

     He was interrupted from his thoughts by a beaked face getting uncomfortably close to his.

     “Hi!” they said.

     “...Hello.”

     They appeared to be some kind of bird with brownish-grey down. From the fluffiness of the down, Fluff guessed that they were fairly young. The bird was sprawled across the neighboring chair in a position Fluff could not imagine was comfortable. A towel was spread over their shoulders and they seemed to only be wearing swimming shorts. That probably explained why they seemed to be wet.

     Fluff’s most important questions were “why were they here'' and “why were they trying to talk to me?” Fluff did not come here to have conversations with random, damp     children.

     “You look like that blue orb thing I saw in the woods!” the bird announced. Well. Now they had his attention.

     “Oh really? What were they like?” Fluff asked. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but, to be fair, how many other people in Dream Land looked like him?

     “He was small, round, and blue. Seemed a little bit feral, to be honest,” the kid explained. Yes, that sounded like Meta. Meta’s gender was still up in the air, but everything else matched up. Maybe Fluff didn’t have to talk with Bandana Waddle Dee, and could just get this kid to lead him to where they saw Meta.

     “...And one of his eyes was closed, like it had been hurt recently. The other was yellow, though.”

     Wait, what?

     “What!” Fluff exclaimed. If the kid had already gotten hurt… then… Fluff wasn’t sure what to do. And an eye injury? He would have to find a doctor in Dream Land to get that healed up. That wasn’t something they could just stitch up back in Patch Land. The panic Fluff had pushed down in Patch Land was starting to bubble up again.

     He noticed that the kid seemed surprised by his outburst.

     “Sorry about that. It's just that… that sounds like my kid that went missing last night. It's why I’m here today, I’m hoping Bandana Waddle Dee could help me look for them. If they were to get hurt…” Fluff explained.

     “Oh! Wait, so you’re telling me that he was a child and not a cute, wild animal? Dang, guess I can’t keep him as a pet.”

     “Wha-”

     “Dedede! You can’t just run off like that! I’m gonna have to put you back on the harness if you do that again,” a stressed Waddle Dee rushed to Fluff and the bird. They were a light rusty-orange color, and were wearing a white and blue sailor’s cap.

     “I’m so sorry, sir. You know how kids are, quite energetic this one is!” they rambled.

     Something about how stressed they were made Fluff feel like this was more than them just momentarily losing track of the kid. There was something else going on here.

     “C’mon, we need to talk to Bandana,” the Waddle Dee continued.

     “Aww, but he was just saying he was that little orb thing’s dad! We have to help reunite them,” Dedede whined.

     “I-he… what?” Sailor stammered, “But I thought- no offense - that it was an animal!”

     Fluff laughed nervously, “I mean, you know how young puffs are. Can we get back to the part where my kid is injured and lost in the woods?”

     “A-a puff,” the Waddle Dee paled, “Oh stars, we really need to talk to Bandana.”

     Without waiting for their input, Sailor charged into Bandana’s office. Dedede stayed on the chair. Fluff went in as well, deciding that this was probably a conversation he should be a part of.

     “Oh! Sailor, you’re back,” a surprised Bandana Dee said, “Why do you look so stressed?” He only became more surprised and confused when he saw Fluff, “King Fluff, is that you? No offense, but why are you here?”

     “My kid is missing somewhere in Dream Land-”

     “There’s some kind of monster in the Fountain of Dreams,” Sailor interrupted.

     What. Fluff gave the Waddle Dee an incredulous look. Where did that come from?

     Bandana’s expression shifted to one of someone who knew that their day was about to get a whole lot worse.

     “Sailor. What exactly do you mean by that?” Bandana asked, “Fluff, congratulations on becoming a parent. Why is your kid lost in Dream Land?”

     “They went through one of the dimensional socks and into Dream Land. I need help finding them again,” Fluff explained.

     “When I took Dedede swimming, we ran into that jerboa thing and an orb which is apparently this guy’s kid at the Fountain. The jerboa warned us there was something in the Fountain, the orb just wanted my chips. Dedede didn’t believe them, and went in the fountain. Well, the jerboa was right. There’s something in there,” Sailor rambled, “Also the Fountain might be slightly broken now.”

     “What part of it broke?” Bandana asked.

     “The little star thing on top snapped off.”

     “And where is the broken piece now?”

     “The orb ate it.”

     Bandana rubbed his eyes with his paws and sighed.

     “We need to get that back. If we don’t, nobody in Dream Land will be able to sleep. I don’t know what to do about the monster thing, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Bandana grumbled.

     “What do you mean? Surely it couldn’t have been that important,” Sailor said, a slight tremble in his voice.

     “The Star Rod is what gives the Fountain its power to guarantee everyone within its range good dreams. With it broken off, the fountain won’t work,” Bandana explained, “Trust me, you do not want to deal with sleepdeprived Dream Landers.”

     Sailor groaned, “Yeah.”

     “What about my kid?” Fluff put in.

     “We can send out search parties to find the kid and get them to give back the Star Rod. Then they can go back to Patch Land with King Fluff,” Bandana decided. Alright, Fluff would take what he could get. He didn’t particularly want to leave Dream Land without its magic sleep fountain working either.

     Bandana readjusted his tattered blue bandana and went to the office door. Fluff noticed that he seemed… a lot older than when Fluff had last seen him. His orange fur was greyed towards the edges.

     How long ago had the Waddle Dee left Kirby’s crew? Fluff had to admit that he didn’t quite remember.

     Nevertheless, there was still pep in Bandana’s step as he walked out of the office.

     He was almost immediately tackled by an energetic child.

     “Hello, Dedede. I trust you are doing well?”

     “Hmmmm, yeah I am. You’re going to help the little orb thing right?” Dedede asked, “And get rid of the weird fountain monster?”

     “Yes, we are going to take care of the situation,” Bandana assured. Dedede seemed to be placated by this declaration.

     “Now go to your room and get dried off,” the Waddle Dee leader continued, “We’ll try and be back by nightfall.”

     “But I want to help!” the bird whined.

     “You can help by staying put. We’ll be able to cover more ground if we aren’t busy trying to keep track of you,” Bandana calmly said.

     Dedede did not seem particularly happy with that, but grumbled and ran off in the direction Fluff assumed was his room.

     “Sailor, could you go after him please? Make sure he doesn’t do anything reckless,” Bandana sighed.

     “Of course, Bandana,” Sailor said before running off after Dedede.

     “I do not understand how that kid has so much energy,” Bandana muttered. Fluff hummed in agreement.

     “Alright, now we need to get search parties together,” Bandana said.

     He called out to a passing Waddle Dee, “Kerchief, could you gather some willing Waddle Dees for a search party? We’re looking for a missing child.”

     “Oh dear! Of course I will. I’ll gather them all in the entrance hall,” the Waddle Dee said.

     “Thank you.”

     He repeated the instructions to a few other Waddle Dees, and then they were on their way to the entrance hall.

     When they got to the entrance hall, there were already a few Waddle Dees milling about. They all straightened up and focused on Bandana when they noticed him.

     “Fluff, do you have any pictures of the kid so we know what we’re looking for?” Bandana asked.

     “No, not on me,” Fluff hesitated before continuing, “Kirby probably does. I need to call them anyway.”

     Bandana sighed, “Well, I can have someone go back to my office to pick up my phone.” He went over to another Waddle Dee, presumably to ask them to do the task.

     When Bandana returned to Fluff he asked, “Alright, what's the basic description of your kid? Just so I have something to work with.”

     “They’re blue- a slightly darker blue than mine- with yellow eyes. Kind of scruffy and perpetually angry looking,” Fluff rambled.

     “Alright, I can pass that on to the others,” Bandana said. Just then the errand Waddle Dee ran back with Bandana’s phone, the leader Waddle Dee gave them a brief thank you. Fluff had to admit he was quite impressed by the delivery speed. Bandana quickly turned it on and unlocked it, revealing a home screen picture of Dedede opening some presents. Fluff assumed it was probably from a birthday (hatchday?). Bandana must be the bird’s parent.

     “I’ll warn you that Kirby doesn’t respond to me quickly. I haven’t heard anything from him in months,” Bandana muttered. He typed in a quick message:

Can I have a picture of your kid real quick?

Yeah!

Here you go

     “Wow, I really didn’t expect him to respond that fast,” Bandana said. He paused as another message came in.

Wait, how’d you know I had a kid? lol

     “I’ll let you explain that later,” the Waddle Dee said to Fluff. He tapped on the photo and zoomed in on Meta’s face. Fluff wished that Kirby had sent a better photo. Then again, it was really hard to get the kid to sit still and look even remotely happy.

     “Can I have everyone’s attention!” Bandana shouted, “You are gathered here today in order to help search for King Fluff’s missing child. I have a picture on my phone that I will pass around for reference.”

     He passed his phone to the nearest Waddle Dee.

     A Waddle Dee raised their paw, “Excuse me, sir, but it's pouring outside. Do we have any plans for that?”

     “It is?” Bandana sounded genuinely baffled. Now that Fluff focused, and ignored the sound from the castle interior, he could hear the rapid patter of rainfall. Fluff had to curse his luck.

     Fluff did not do well in the rain. He was not very waterproof in this dimension. Whenever he went into water he got soaked through, making it rather hard for him to move on his own. Quite embarrassing.

     “How bad is it raining?” Bandana asked.

     “Pretty bad, I don’t think we’d be able to make much progress out there,” the Waddle Dee responded.

     Fluff and Bandana shared a glance, unsure about what to do about the situation. If they went out in that kind of weather, it might not even do any good. If most of the search party got sick from going out in the rain, then they wouldn’t be able to accomplish much when the weather was good.

     A Waddle Dee passed back Bandana’s phone, which Bandana then passed to Fluff.

     “I don’t think we’ll be able to start searching today. If the rain lets up in a few hours, then we’ll go out. I’m going to try to organize the Waddle Dees into groups for later. You need to call Kirby,” Bandana said.

     “I… yes, I do,” Fluff mumbled. He noticed that there were several more unread messages from Kirby, messages that the Dees had politely ignored. His yarn paws struggled with the phone’s touchscreen, but he was eventually able to reach Bandana’s contacts and call Kirby.

     “Hey Kirby, there’s something I need to tell you…”

---

     The rat was still following it. Meta found that immensely annoying.

     It thought that it had successfully left the thing behind when it left the fountain. Alas, the rat had managed to catch up.

    It's going to start raining soon, you need to find shelter. I don’t think the tree cover will be enough to keep you dry, Morpho hummed.

     Meta let out a frustrated hiss. The puff did not enjoy the rain, or just getting wet in general.

     It began looking around its surroundings for any place that may make for decent shelter. Having only one functional eye made it more frustrating than it really should have been. Nothing really stood out. There were some bushes, those could provide shelter if it got really desperate.

     Perhaps there was a tree hollow or something that Meta could cram itself into. Then again, Meta wasn’t particularly good at climbing.

    Where’d the rat go?

     That was an excellent question. Looking around, it seemed like the rat had finally decided to leave the puff alone. Meta was just fine with that.

     It still didn’t solve the shelter problem.

     A drop of rain hit Meta between the eyes, causing it to jump back with a hiss. Wow, it really needed to find shelter. It probably still had time before the rain got real bad, though.

     That was almost immediately proven untrue.

     The tree cover did little to stop the downpour of rain, Meta quickly found out. It was almost immediately drenched.

     Wow! This was miserable.

     It scrambled for the meager shelter a bush provided. Meta tossed Morpho onto the ground and flopped on top of them, hoping the sword would keep it warm.

    I feel like you’ve been using me more as a heat pad than as a weapon, Morpho hummed, Not that I want to see you getting into fights, of course.

     Meta grumbled. The bush was doing little to shield it from rain, and the ground beneath it was becoming increasingly muddy. Morpho’s warmth could only cover so much surface area, unless Meta wanted to set itself on fire. Probably not the best idea.

     Meta closed its good eye and huddled its limbs closer. The mud was uncomfortably seeping into its downy fluff. That uncomfortable feeling would only be rivaled by the mud’s feeling when it eventually dried and clumped up Meta’s fluff.

     The puff was not looking forward to that.

     There was no way Meta would be able to sleep through the storm. Both because it was so uncomfortable and because Meta wanted to make sure it wasn’t swept away in a flood.

     Something rustled in the nearby bushes. Logically, Meta knew it was probably just the wind, but it jolted to attention anyways.

     It could see two glowing, yellow eyes in the bushes near it. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t just the wind. A figure emerged from the bushes, walking on all fours. They had spotted golden fur that was plastered to their sides due to the rain.

     Meta could see a small, teal lump of fur curled up between the animal’s shoulder blades. The rat was back.

     The puff had a feeling that they were here to look for it. Meta just couldn’t get people to leave it alone.

     It pulled Morpho out from underneath it, readying itself for if the creatures approached. It hesitated to launch an attack, hoping that they would just miss it in the bushes.

     The heat from the blade had caused mud to try on the side that had been touching the ground. Morpho probably wasn’t happy about being crusted with mud.

     As the animal’s pupils flicked to Meta’s location, the puff had the delayed realization that uncovering Morpho was probably a bad idea. The sword’s natural glow shined like a beacon in the gloom.

    Oh, I’ll try to stop glowing, Morpho hummed. The sword’s glow dimmed down to nothing, and all the heat it had been emitting disappeared.

     It was too little too late.

     The golden animal lunged at Meta, rearing up on their hind legs in a way that didn’t seem completely natural. The little teal rat had to cling to the animal’s golden fur for dear life. It snatched Meta out of the bushes, and held it at arm’s length. Their claws dug into Meta’s sides, not enough to hurt but enough to keep the puff secured in place. Unfortunately for Meta, they seemed to be used to handling random feral animals.

     The puff was being held in such a way that its little nubs couldn’t swing Morpho. Meta decided the best thing to do was to start screeching bloody murder.

     The disappointment on the animal’s face was almost enough to embarrass Meta into halting its screeching.

     They muttered something to the puff, probably imploring it to stop its screaming. The puff decided to do the opposite. The golden beast let out a disappointed sigh.

     The animal started plodding back to the bushes it had come out of. Meta halted its screeching, mostly because its mouth was beginning to fill with rain water. It settled on glaring with its good eye instead.

     Considering how wet and pathetic the puff was, this was not very threatening. Nothing Meta did ever seemed to intimidate anyone. When would Meta get the respect it wanted?

     Clearly, that wouldn’t happen for a while. Meta had to get bigger before that happened. And maybe pointier. The puff figured that being pointier was a good idea. It would be a lot harder for others to pick them up and carry them around if Meta was covered in spikes.

     After a short and miserable walk, they came to a halt. Meta couldn’t see why they had stopped, as it only really had a view of the creature’s face. At some point the rat had climbed up, and was now resting between the larger animal’s ears.

     Meta was shoved backwards through a bush. It was done a bit awkwardly, as the animal still didn’t want to let the puffball too close to them. Really, it was more like the puff was thrown gently backwards into the bush. The puff landed flat on its back and had to awkwardly scramble back to its feet.

     The bushes formed a small, surprisingly dry hollow. Meta probably guessed that the dryness was due to the tarps reinforcing the inside of the bushes. Honestly, it probably wasn’t the worst place to wait out the rain.

     There were already other beings gathered in the space, however. The largest was another golden furred beast, similar to the one outside and yet clearly not the same species. They had a fluffy red mane that a small blackbird seemed to be nesting in. Between their paws rested a strange, greyish ball and- oh great.

     It seemed the teal rat had a twin.

     Everyone in the shelter seemed surprised at Meta’s less than graceful arrival. Meta hissed at them, and immediately made for the exit.

     It was, of course, blocked by the other animals coming into the den. The puff was forced back into the den by the advancing creature.

     Meta wondered if it could take a swipe at the animal’s legs.

    If you do that, you will get mauled, Morpho said.

     Morpho was such a supportive sword, it supported all of Meta’s endeavors.

    I’m sorry that I’m not supporting your decision to get mauled by a lion, Morpho responded.

     Meta couldn’t believe this.

     The spotted beast padded past Meta and flopped down on the ground beside the red-maned one, before they started to groom its fur. Meta assumed this was probably in an attempt to get rid of all of the water stuck in their fur. Red-mane shuffled to give the spotted one a lick behind the ear.

     The large beast’s movement displaced the twin rat and grey ball thing. Spotted’s teal rat companion slid off of their fur, and ran to go see its twin. It was then that Meta noticed how the new rat seemed to be almost completely missing an ear. Teal fur along the left side of its face had been torn away to reveal pale scar tissue.

     Its twin began talking in rapid squeaks. The injured rat seemed only mildly interested in what their twin had to say, but their eyes narrowed with curiosity when they looked at the puff. Meta glared back at them.

     The blue puff turned its attention back to the den’s exit. It was still pouring out there, and it didn’t really fancy its chances outside.

     That left staying inside the den.

     All things considered, staying with the animals didn’t seem like the worst idea. It was warm and dry, Meta would just have to put up with the smell of wet fur. As long as none of them got a sudden craving for puff flesh, Meta would be fine.

     It would leave as soon as the rain stopped.

     The puff shook out its fluff, splattering the animals in the den with water droplets and mud. None of the animals were pleased about that.

     Meta flopped to the ground and began trying to preen out the excess water from its paws. Unfortunately, having nubby limbs and a rather flat face made self-grooming rather hard. The red-maned beast and spotted beasts looked at the puff with pity.

     The red-maned one moved over to Meta’s side before flopping back down, trapping Meta between their forelimbs and partially tucking the puff into their mane. Meta let out a displeased grumble, and tried to wiggle free. It was largely unsuccessful.

     The animal began licking Meta’s fluff, causing the puff to squirm. Meta debated whether or not it should stab the beast.

    You can’t stab him, I’m pretty sure he’s an endangered species, Morpho hummed, Besides, he’s just treating you like you’re one of his cubs. That’s… nice. I think.

     Meta did not want to be treated like this animal’s baby. The puff was doing just fine on its own, thank you very much.

     Morpho didn’t say anything to that, but their silence was clearly judgmental.

     Okay, so maybe Meta wasn’t great at surviving in the woods. Really, Meta just needed to find an urban environment with no living trees, and everything would be fine again. Things were a lot easier when just about everyone ignored the puff.

     That being said, Meta found itself somewhat enjoying the maned animal’s attention. Their fur was soft and warm. The licking was almost soothing, though Meta thought that their breath smelled a little bad.

     Meta would probably have to take a bath to rid itself of the animal saliva and mud that now clogged its once fluffy down. Maybe if it came across that fountain again it would take a dip in the water. Assuming that the monster thing wasn’t there, of course.

     It did not seem like a good idea to swim with that monster thing.

     Morpho had told Meta soon after it had left the fountain that the puff would need to return eventually to return the star wand it had taken. The sword had been the one to encourage Meta to take the Star Rod in the first place.

     Apparently the fountain topper was the only thing in the area that could defeat the monster in the fountain. Meta didn’t understand why Morpho couldn’t do the job, but hey, the puff was not the expert on magic objects. The sword had tried to explain things further, something about negativity and positivity, but Meta had stopped paying attention by that point.

     All Meta had to do was keep the Star Rod safe until the wizard monster thing reappeared. The puff had reasoned that its stomach was as good as a place as any to store the wand. Really, as long as Meta got to fight a wizard, it would be happy.

     The eyelid over its good eye was growing heavy. Maybe all of its worrying about wizard fighting could wait.

     Right now, it was sleepy. Meta snuggled further into the animal’s fur, letting out an admittedly squeaky purr.

     Morpho would hopefully wake it up in a few hours, preferably when the animals were asleep.

Chapter Text

     Carol was very relieved that the orb had settled down. It was almost impressive how fast the little thing had gone from hissing and aggressive to peacefully sleeping between Leon’s paws. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was. Elfilin seemed to think it was a baby of some sort, but beyond that, they weren’t really sure.

     It had been quite a shock for the leopard and the lion when Elfilin had rushed into the den squeaking about how they had to help some injured little orb.

     Carol had, of course, immediately rushed out to help. She was no stranger to helping out random, injured strangers. After all, it was only a few years ago that she had taken in Elfilin’s twin, Elfilis.

     Elfilis had been severely injured, by what, Carol still did not know. Regardless, Carol, with some help from the village Waddle Dees, had nursed the jerboa back to health.

     The two had stuck around, and now, Carol couldn’t imagine a life without them.

     It seemed like it would be the same story with the orb. Or at least, the helping part of the story. She wasn’t sure if it would want to stay, as it didn’t seem to particularly like them all that much.

     Carol did not want to force it to stay.

     “What are we going to do with this?” Leon grumbled.

     The leopard hesitated. They would need to get it to a doctor at some point, as they would need a professional’s opinion on how bad the injury was. Carrying the orb into the den had been easy, it was only a short distance. Trying to carry it into town would probably be a lot harder, as it was farther away and walking on her hind legs wasn’t the most comfortable.

     She might be able to carry it by the scruff if it had one. Though if it didn’t, she might just end up accidentally ripping out a chunk of its fluff.

     “We need to get it into town to visit a doctor eventually,” she began uncertainly, “I’m not sure how we’re gonna do that. Maybe Cronus could help carry it?”

     She shot a hopeful look at the crow nestled in Leon’s mane. The bird had displayed impressive strength for something of its size, often being able to carry things larger and heavier than itself.

     “Huh, what?” the bird sleepily mumbled, “Yeah, sure, I can carry it. Just as long as it doesn’t wiggle too much. Don’t want to drop it.”

     Cronus quickly fell back to sleep.

     Huh, he must be really wiped out. Though now that Carol thought about it, she was too. The den was warm, and the sound of the rain was quite soothing.

     She’d have to dry out her fur before she went to sleep, though. If she left her fur to air dry with the mud still in it she could end up with fur matting.

     Carol began to groom her chest fluff.

     “I think he’s quite wiggly, Mrs. Carol. What if Cronus drops him?” Elfilin nervously squeaked.

     It took Carol a second to realize that he was talking about the orb. Nothing about the little blue orb exactly screamed what gender it was. She wasn’t even sure that the orb could even comprehend the concept of gender.

     There were no thoughts except rage behind the orb’s eyes.

     “Cronus won’t fly too high,” Carol assured, “We’ll be careful.”

     Elfilin let out a little grumble as if he still wasn’t sure about the plan. He then cuddled up to Carol’s side and began to snore. Clearly, the little jerboa was wiped out as well.

     The jerboa was also still wet from his time in the rain. Sighing, she began to lap the water out of Elfilin’s fur.

     She cast a glance around the den. At some point, Leon and Elfilis had fallen asleep as well. Sillydillo was still completely dead to the world, it took a lot to wake it up.

     Her eyelids felt heavy. The leopard would regret it later, but she desperately wanted to fall asleep right then and there.

     And before she knew it, her head hit her paws and she was fast asleep.

     Pleasant dreams were all Carol had ever had while living in Dream Land.

     So it came as quite a surprise when she was jolted awake by the worst nightmare she had ever had.

     The den she had awoken into was in complete chaos. She heard confused squeaks from the jerboa twins and Leon’s distressed snarl. Cronus was flapping around above her head, scattering a few black feathers on the ground.

     The leopard stumbled to her paws, her pelt still spiked with fear from the nightmare. Details from the nightmare were already slipping from her mind, but she would not forget how it made her feel.

     Carol did not scare easily. She could take down wild nruffs with just her fangs and claws, she would not be cowed by some nightmare.

     She forced her fur flat and took a deep breath. The leopard tried to step forwards to go to Leon’s side, but immediately tripped over a wide-awake Sillydillo. Her chin hit the dirt floor and the leopard’s vision swam.

     “Mrs. Carol, are you okay?” a distressed Elfilin asked.

     “I’m fine, just a little unsteady. Why is everyone else so stressed out?” she said. The pain from her chin and the cacophony from the other disturbed animals did not help her growing headache.

     “Well, I had a bad dream! And Elfilis did too,” Elfilin explained, “Maybe everyone else had a bad dream too.”

     Carol did not like the idea that all of them had had nightmares on the same night. That wasn’t something that was supposed to happen in Dream Land.

     It took around a minute for all the animals to finally settle back down. Fur was still spiked and feathers were still ruffled, but they seemed calm enough to talk.

     “Alright, so can someone tell me what-” Carol began before she noticed that something was wrong.

     Perhaps she hadn’t noticed it because of the chaos of waking up to a den full of distressed animals. Or maybe she hadn’t yet trained herself to look out for the creature’s presence.

     “Where’s the orb?” Carol asked.

     Everyone shuffled awkwardly in the den, looking for the blue orb.

     There was no sign of it.

     She rushed out of the den, urgently looking around for any sign of where it had gone.

     The rain had stopped, but the ground was still rather muddy. Weak light filtered through the tree branches. She couldn’t tell exactly what time it was, if she had to hazard a guess, maybe very early in the morning. The rain and their nap had clearly lasted for quite a while.

     Despite the muddy ground, there were no footprints left behind by the missing orb. Carol also couldn’t catch any of the orb’s scent. It must have left when it was still raining.

     “What should we do, Mrs. Carol?” Elfilin asked.

     Without a trail to follow, Carol wasn’t sure what to do.

     “We need to search the area. With its tiny limbs, it couldn’t have gone too far,” Carol decided. She wasn’t too confident in what she just said. Sure, it had small limbs and probably couldn’t move too fast, but they didn’t even know when it had left. Or which direction it had even gone in.

     Elfilin nodded, and bounded off in a direction seemingly chosen by random. Elfilis followed after them. They both seemed to be struggling to hop around in all of the slippery mud. At least they would be able to keep track of each other, Carol didn’t want to track down anymore missing children.

     “I’ll start searching by air,” Cronus mumbled, he then took off in the opposite direction from the two jerboas.

     That just left Leon, Sillydillo, and her. She wasn’t sure how useful Sillydillo would be in the search, as the armadillo couldn’t really move that fast. Leon and her could search around and hope for some sign of a scent trail. Maybe they could head over to Gorimondo’s place and enlist the gorilla’s help.

     Stars, she just didn’t know how she was going to pull this off. She shouldn’t have fallen asleep during the storm. What had come over her? Even if she hadn;t needed to keep an eye on the orb, she still should have stayed on alert for flash floods or other dangers.

     One of them, either her or Leon, should have stayed awake.

     She dug her claws in and out of the mud. It was probably ruining her manicure, and it would be a pain to clean the mud out later, but it made her feel just a tiny bit better.

     Leon, having noticed her stress, came over and sat down next to her, pressing his side into hers.

     “We’ll find it, Carol,” Leon assured.

     “It shouldn’t have gotten lost in the first place.”

     “Well, it's lost now. So we have to find it,” the way Leon said it made it seem so simple. Carol almost envied his confidence.

     “I’m going to go talk to Gori about helping us,” the leopard decided, “We can talk about whatever it was that woke us all up later.”

     “Alright.”

     “See you later,” she said, before giving Leon a quick lick on his cheek. Carol then padded off to go see Gorimondo. She heard Leon get up, probably to begin his own search.

     They probably could have organized this better.

     As she padded through the forest, mud squelching between her paws and water dripping down from the tree branches, she couldn’t help but ponder the nature of the orb.

     It was a strange little creature, that was for sure. Its basic body plan was quite similar to the other common inhabitants of Dream Land, yet Carol had never seen anything else quite like it. If it were a baby, then where were its parents?

     Her musings were interrupted when she heard voices ahead.

     Carol knew most of the regular inhabitants of these woods, and what they sounded like. She recognized Gorimondo’s voice easily, yet she couldn’t immediately recognize any of the other voices. They were most likely visitors from the village, but why were they here? Perhaps to check on the inhabitants of the forest after the storm?

     She pushed through some undergrowth and into a small clearing. Gorimondo was resting in the center of it, conversing with a group of three Waddle Dees. They were all looking quite frazzled.

     The gorilla quickly noticed her presence and called out to her, “Hey, Carol, these guys are looking for one of your jerboas.”

     Carol felt an immediate spike of concern. Elfilis could be a little bit of a trouble-maker, and would occasionally try and play pranks on the folks in the village. She hoped that Elfilis hadn’t done something too bad.

     “Why?”

     “Somethin about a little blue thing,” the gorilla grumbled.

     That didn’t really help.

     “Oh, ma’am, we’re looking for a missing child,” one of the Waddle Dees, who was wearing a little sailor’s hat, said, “And I last saw them with one of your kids.”

     “What- oh wait you couldn’t possibly mean-” Carol stuttered, “Small, blue, at least one yellow eye, really angry and loud? Are you looking for someone like that?”

     “Most of that matches with who we’re looking for, yes,” the Waddle Dee confirmed.

     Carol felt a surge of relief at the Dee’s confirmation. There was at least someone out there, besides Carol’s group, who cared that the little creature was missing.

     That relief was followed immediately by an intense wave of stress. It was nice that she now knew that there was family out there looking for the orb, but that didn’t really help her initial problem.

     She still didn’t know where the kid was.

     “I’m guessing from the fact that you could describe it that you’ve at least seen them in the area?” the Waddle Dee continued.

     “I have seen them,” Carol said, “But I don’t know where they are now. I had taken them into my den to wait out the storm, but we fell asleep part way through it. By the time we woke up, they were gone.”

     The Waddle Dee let out a groan of frustration.

     “Of course. Nothing can ever just be simple, huh,” they said as they rubbed their eyes, “Well, you’re welcome to join us in the search.”

     “I can take you back to the den where it was last seen and we can help search from there, if you want,” Carol offered.

     “That would be great,” the Waddle Dee said, “I’ll need to alert the other groups as to where we’re going.”

     Carol gestured for the Waddle Dees to follow her, and the group was off in the direction she had originally come from. She walked ahead with the Sailor hat Dee with the others falling a bit behind.

     “How many groups are searching?” She asked, trying to start a conversation.

     “Oh, a few all over Dream Land. Most of us are in these woods however, because I saw it here last,” they explained.

     “Wow! I’m glad so many people are coming together to help find this kid,” the leopard exclaimed.

     “Well yeah, we couldn’t exactly leave them out in the cold,” they grumbled, “Helps that they’re apparently Kirby’s kid.”

     “Oh, really?” Carol only had the vaguest idea as to who this “Kirby” was. She’s occasionally heard people in Dream Land talking about them, enough to gather that they were some kind of hero. The leopard had an idea how big of a deal “Kirby” was, though she had never met them in person.

     “Yeah, he’s apparently on his way here to help search. Can’t wait to meet them, honestly,” the Waddle Dee rambled, “This might be my only shot to impress him, and maybe join his crew.”

     “Those are big plans,” Carol murmured.

     “I- well, yeah. I guess. I’m just tired of being put on babysitting duty, to be honest,” they muttered.

     Carol let out a small snort of laughter, that she desperately tried to smother it when the Waddle Dee shot her an irritated look.

     “Alright, we’re almost there,” Carol changed the subject. The Waddle Dee grunted in acknowledgment.

     By the time they had arrived back at Carol’s den, Leon was nowhere to be seen. He must have gone out to search for the orb.

     “Alright, spread out and start searching,” Sailor hat said to the other Waddle Dees, “I need to text the other groups real quick.”

     The other Dees scattered off into the woods, leaving Carol and the Sailor hat Dee. They typed out a few quick messages, presumably to the other search groups.

     “You said that they left while you were still asleep right?” the Dee asked, “How did you wake up?”

     Carol found that an odd question, only made odder by the fact that she had awoken strangely that day.

     “I was startled awake by nightmares. I believe the rest of my family had nightmares as well,” Carol said, “Why?”

     “Oh, no reason. Just small talk,” the Waddle Dee tried to brush it off.

     Carol scrunched her muzzle up in confusion. The way the Waddle Dee had initially phrased it made it seem like there was more to it than just small talk.

     “Anyways, I should go help the others. Talk to you later if we find anything,” the Waddle Dee said before rushing off.

     Carol was left staring after them, more confused now than when she had woken up.

---

     Vul had only recently moved to Dream Land, seeking out a quiet retirement. His new little cabin at the edge of the woods would be an ideal place to live out his final years.

     Or it would be, if it wasn’t for the wildlife that kept digging through his trash cans.

     He sighed as he heard the tell-tale clang of metal being knocked to the ground. Honestly, Vul didn’t know what the animals were even going for in his trash cans. Cardboard and packing peanuts from his moving boxes? Empty food take out boxes?

     Vul was already on edge from being unable to fall asleep that night. Unsure of what else to do during the storm, he had just laid in bed all day and all night. Any attempt at falling asleep had left Vul with an intense feeling of dread. The old bird was already developing a slight headache, he did not want to deal with some random animal digging in his trash.

     From what Vul could hear, it was still raining. Vul wasn’t sure if he really wanted to go and chase off the trash raider in the rain.

     Though if he left it for later, the trash would be all soggy and scattered around his yard. If it was still raining hard, it could sweep away the trash and Vul would have to spend more time picking it all up again.

     He sighed as he heard another trash can hit the ground. Whatever was digging through his trash this time, it was persistent.

     Grumbling, Vul pushed himself out of his bed. Just shouting at the animals to make them go away didn’t seem to work.

     He’d have to try something else.

     Vul always kept a variety of weapons on or in his nightstand. He had spent too much of his adulthood working for interplanetary shipping lines that were prone to getting attacked to not always have a weapon within reach.

     The old bird grabbed his crossbow. Vul probably wouldn’t actually shoot the animal. If it turned out to be sapient, he’d get arrested.

     He carefully made his way to his front door, stepping around moving boxes that he really should unpack at some point. Vul shoved his way out the front door, and went around his house to where he kept his trash cans.

     It was still raining, but it had died down to a drizzle. Hopefully that meant that the storm was on its way out. Dream Land was supposed to have pleasant weather, and with all this rain, Vul was beginning to feel a tad bit lied to.

     He turned the corner. Whatever was digging through his trash wasn’t immediately visible, so he kicked a fallen trashcan and shouted.

     “All right ye scallywag! Stop digging in my garbage and put yer paws in the air!” To emphasize his point, he kicked the trash can again.

     Something small and blue tumbled out of the can. It whipped around to glare at Vul, and he noticed that only one of its eyes were open. Water had plastered its fluff to its sides, giving it a runty and  pathetic look.

     It hissed and wildly swung the sword it for some reason had.

     Well, it sure wasn’t a skilled swordsman, that was for sure.

     Vul knew what it was. This was no wild animal, and no regular citizen of Pop Star.

     It was a baby puffball.

     Vul did not know what to do with this information. He couldn’t exactly shoot the thing, and he wasn’t sure if he could just scare it off into the woods.

     They stared at each other for a while. The young puff’s hissing died down, and it glared at Vul with an unimpressed look.

     It then turned around, and tried to run off into the woods.

     Panicking and dropping his crossbow, Vul lunged forwards and tackled the little creature.

     Thankfully, he didn’t impale himself on the puff’s sword. He scooped it up and hugged it to his chest.

     Alright, now what?

     The child was squirming, and it's damp fluff made it slippery and even harder to hold onto. It was trying to stab Vul, but thanks to its short limbs and how tightly Vul was holding it, the attacks were not very effective.

     Vul decided the best course of action would be to take the puff inside, so he began lumbering back to his front door. He’d pick up the trash later.

     When  he got back indoors and shut the door behind him, he gently dropped the puff onto the floor. It immediately jumped back while hissing, wildly waving around their blade. Vul just gave it an unimpressed look.

     The old bird headed deeper into his house, leaving the little puff at the entrance. Vul reasoned that the puff was too short to open the door, and thus, he didn’t have to worry about it. They seemed almost surprised that Vul just walked right by them. After a brief hesitation, it followed after him.

     Vul grumbled as he shuffled to the bathroom to get a towel. They were tracking water and mud all over his house.

     He tossed a dark colored towel over the puffball, causing it to hiss and thrash around.

     “Dry yerself off,” the bird grumbled, “I’ll find you somethin to eat. Then I need to make a phone call.” He had no clue if the puff actually understood anything he was saying. When its little face peaked out from under the towel with a completely blank expression, Vul hazarded a guess that it didn’t understand him.

     In better lighting he could get a better look as to why one of its eyes were closed. The eyelid didn’t seem all that damaged, which left Vul worried that the actual eye had been injured. Judging from the fact that the puff’s entire bottom half was covered in mud, Vul thought it was pretty likely that the injury would get infected. He was by no means a medical professional, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t something he could just slap disinfectant on.

     He’d try to get a closer look at it, but he’s pretty sure the puff would rip his feathers out.

     Alright, now to find some food it can eat. He was pretty sure puffs didn’t actually have teeth, so he would have to find something it could swallow whole.

     Leaving the puff to struggle with the towel, the old bird walked off to his kitchen. He didn’t think he really had to offer the puff. There was a loaf of bread on the counter, but that didn’t really have a lot of nutritional value.

     He went and opened his fridge. There wasn’t much left in it. Vul really should go grocery shopping, he just didn’t want to make the walk to the Waddle Dee town. In one of the drawers, there was some lunch meat. Well, he could make a very sad sandwich at least.

     Why did he care so much about what he could give the puff? It was eating trash when he found it, it clearly didn’t care about what it ate.

     He pulled out the lunch meat and two slices of bread. Vul quickly made a sandwich, and turned around just to see the puff staring at him. Unfortunately, it had left the towel behind and was still dripping water all over Vul’s floors.

     “You hungry, little guy?” Vul asked them. In response, the puff raised up its nub not holding the sword, and made a strange squeaking noise. Vul thought that the puff was trying to play cute.

     “Alright, alright. I won’t make yeh beg,” Vul laughed. He handed the sandwich to the puff, who took it in their mouth before darting off to a dark corner.

     With the puff sufficiently fed for now, Vul should probably call his old friend. He had met her through work, as she was often hired as extra muscle for the shipping lines Vul worked on. She also happened to be one of the only puffs Vul had ever met. That wasn’t really saying much, as Vul hadn’t really met many puffs. They weren’t exactly a common species.

     He went back to his nightstand to grab his phone. It was an old brick of a thing that would probably survive the heat death of the universe. Vul had refused to upgrade any of his personal technology. Most technology these days were made by the Floralian government, and had a whole host of programs that would probably track everything about him.

     Vul didn’t need that in his life.

     He hastily punched in his friend’s number. It had been awhile since he last talked to them, he hoped he remembered the right number.

     The phone rang. And rang.

     No response.

     He dialed the number again. No dice.

     Well, Vul didn’t exactly know where she was right now. For all he knew, it could be the middle of the night wherever she is.

     He sighed, and decided to give up for now. Maybe he’d try again in a few hours. Vul would just have to do his own research.

     When he had first moved here, his family had insisted on setting up his old computer and his internet. Anything to keep him in contact with them, as none of them had made the move to Pop Star with him. It was nice, as Vul probably wouldn’t have gotten around to it for a long time.

     He put his phone back in his nightstand,and went to his desk where his computer rested. Much like his phone, it was a similarly outdated hunk of junk. Vul pulled out the old rolling chair and sat down.

     He booted it up, wiggling the mouse a little in the hopes that it would speed up the process. The computer’s fans whirled, as if angry Vul had decided to use it.

     Vul opened up the internet browser and typed in; “ baby puffball what do i do”

     The first result was from some historical scholar from Floralia. Vul didn’t necessarily trust them to be completely honest, but they were the most likely to have valuable resources.

     He clicked on the link. It led him to a website that looked nearly as old as his own computer. It was largely a gaudy green color. The text was hard to see against the background. There was a banner up top with what looked like a stylized dragon.

     Over all, it did not look like a professional graphic designer was involved in the making of the website.

     Not that Vul knew a lot about graphic design.

     He highlighted the text to make it easier to read.

    Puffballs, often shortened down to just “puffs,” are a sentient species largely regarded to be the result of Void being exposed to positive energy. This would make them the opposite of Dark Matter, which is believed to be the result of Void being exposed to negative energy.

    Puffs are, perhaps, one of the strongest species in the known universe. So powerful, in fact, that they are often said to wield the power of the stars. Whether or not that is true has not been scientifically proven, at least not in our time. No puff has ever volunteered for scientific research on this topic. Most research comes from partially restored resources from long ago. This leaves most information fragmentary at best. Regardless, their power is a thorn in the side of any would-be planet conqueror.

    Most puffs become well known in their adulthood, but that is not always the case. Adolescent puffs are just as capable of feats of immense strength.

    Thus we come to the point of this article.

    Most people do not seem to be able to recognize an adolescent puff when they see one. This makes sense, as puffs are a rare species. It's rare to see a full grown one, and even rarer to see a young one. Adult puffs are capable of traversing space on their own wings, so most seem to take up a nomadic lifestyle. The young are much more reclusive, largely confined to whatever planet they call home.

    Beyond this behavioral difference, there are the physical differences. When looking for young puffs, most people seem to expect an adult puff but smaller. This is where the confusion comes in, as young puffballs lack several features adult puffs have. The most obvious feature they lack is wings. No adolescent puff has ever been documented to have wings. It's a trait exclusively gained by reaching maturity. Similarly, young puff’s arms are limited to little nubs. They only develop into proper paws during adulthood. Young puff’s eyes  are primarily black, with a small ring of their true eye color at the bottom. Once again, upon reaching adulthood, the puff’s eye will shift to a solid color. Some adult puffballs also sport horns, though it's unclear what the cause of this is, as not all adult puffs have horns.

    A puff is generally considered fully matured when they exhibit all of these traits, excluding horns. When keeping an eye out for young puffs, keep in mind the differences.

    If you have already seen a young puff, it is best you report it to a Floralian official immediately. Their vast appetite could result in them eating through entire food supplies. Leaving them without food could be even more dangerous, as young puffs become more aggressive the longer they go without food. The Floralian royalty have the means to provide for such needs, and the puff can help contribute to future research on the species.

    Should you find yourself caring for a puff while waiting for an official to come by and pick it up, provide it with calorie-dense food and soft nesting material. It's unlikely you’d be able to fully satiate the puff’s appetite, but it may keep them from destroying your house.

     Vul was a little bit annoyed that he read through the entire article for only a little bit of useful information. Any idiot could guess that the puff would need a soft bed and food. He could feel a headache steadily growing. Probably from the lack of sleep catching up with him.

     Stars, he really needed his puff friend to respond.

     Right as he thought that, he heard his phone ringing from inside his nightstand. Vul lunged out of his desk chair for it, desperately pulling open the drawer. He really should have just brought it to the desk with him.

     Vul fumbled to accept the call and held it up to his ear.

     “Hello?” He hesitantly called out.

     “Hey. New phone, who this?” A voice drawled. Vul bit back a groan. This was not his coworker. This was his coworker’s much more annoying brother, and the only other puff Vul had ever met. Talking to him was like pulling teeth.

     “It's Vul. Buteo, could you put Phoebus on the line?” Vul bit out.

     “Oooooo, Vul. Been quite a while since I last heard from you. Kinda hoping this was a telemarketer so that I could waste their time for a while,” Vul heard a sharp laugh on the other end of the phone, and a noise like he was crunching down on chips, “But nah. Phoebs is out on business. And this is my phone number, anyways.Can I take the call?”

     Vul bit his tongue. While he would have preferred talking to Phoebus, Buteo could still be useful.

     “Fine. I found a baby puff, any advice?” Vul spat out.

     Buteo made a weird choking sound.

     “Are you sure about that? You’re not just pulling my leg?” Their voice had lost its previous humor.

     “Why would I make a joke like this?” Vul bluntly responded.

     “I- hmmmm, yeah,” Buteo muttered, “Alright, how old do you think the kid is? Do they still have whiskers? Is most of their down still white or really pale?”

     A little overwhelmed, Vul muttered a noncommittal, “Hold on.”

     He moved back to the kitchen. While his attention was turned, the little puff had somehow climbed the counter. They were now feasting on the loaf of bread.

     The puff hissed as soon as they saw him. It was about as intimidating as it was adorable.

     Vul went up to them and began inspecting their face. They squeaked and bit at Vul’s fingers. He quickly pulled back his fingers before the puff could do any real damage.

     Vul focused back on his phone, “Alright, they don’t have whiskers. And I don’t think they’re all that pale.”

     “Alright, they aren’t that young then,” Buteo said, “Probably should’ve started with this, but can they talk? Like, at all?”

     “If they can, they haven’t decided to say anything,” Vul grunted. He held the phone up to the puff, who hissed into the receiver.

     Vul heard Buteo burst into laughter.

     “Maaaan, I hope I didn’t sound like that as a kid!” he snickered, “Anyways, if they don’t  have whiskers, they’re probably old enough to learn how to talk. Nobody had taught them yet, I guess.”

     Vul noted that their voice got strangely bitter towards the end, but the adult puff brazenly continued on, “Anyways, you moved to Pop Star, right? Dunno if that’s the best or worst place for the puff. You’ve got plenty of food, and ol’ Pinkie guards the place. But still, way too close to Floralia for my liking.”

     “Oh, yeah. This should go without saying, but don’t go to Floralia about this, m’kay? They can’t really do much to me, Phoebs, that Kirby guy, or any other adult puff you could name. We’re too powerful and too well established in our areas for them to want to come after us with force or somethin. A young puff like this would be free game.”

     “I understand,” Vul said with a soft voice. He already knew this already, of course. It was a bit of a tough topic for Buteo and Phoebus.

     “... Anyways. I don’t really know how to determine the kid’s exact age. I’m not an expert on this. So you may want to prepare to care for them for the next one hundred to two hundred years. Or until they get their wings, basically. You might want to find someone else who can take them in, just in case…” Buteo continued.

     It was clear what he meant. Vul wasn’t exactly young anymore.

     “Please, I’m not about to drop dead,” Vul huffed, though it lacked any real heart. His species tended to have long lifespans. It was still… possible he could see the puff to adulthood.

     “I’m not saying you will. Just prepare for all possibilities, y’know. It would be rough for them to see their caretaker die before adulthood. Not that it would be any easier in adulthood, of course,” Buteo tried to explain.

     Vul’s feathers pricked irritably. He understood what Buteo was getting at, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

     “Alright, I think that's enough talkin fer today,” Vul decided, “Thanks fer the help.”

     “Oh, okay,” Buteo hesitated, “Maybe me and Phoebus will try and visit you someday. We might have to try and find some work in the area or something. Don’t want to draw attention to you by randomly visiting.”

     “Yeah yeah, just give me a heads up if you do want to visit,” Vul grumbled.

     “Alright, well, I’ll hang up now,” Buteo said.

     “Bye, Buteo,” Vul responded, as Buteo ended the call.

     The old bird sighed and looked at the young puff. They had completely finished off the bread loaf, and had moved on to eating the bread’s plastic bag.

     “Stop that, it doesn’t even taste good,” Vul said halfheartedly. The puff hissed at him when he tried to pull away the bag. He didn’t think eating plastic would actually hurt the puff, so he wasn’t too desperate to stop them.

     If they really wanted to eat plastic, Vul would let them eat plastic.

     “Alright yeh little rascal,” Vul started, “I’m not really sure what I’m gonna do about ya. But for now, yer staying here with me.”

     The puff stared at him blankly, still tearing apart the plastic bag.

     “Fine, fine. I’ll get you some actual food,” Vul grumbled. He went and opened up the nearby fridge. There was still the lunch meat from earlier, so Vul brought that out and set it on the counter next to the puff.

     They made a little chirping noise, the happiest sound Vul had heard from the puff yet. The puff then happily dug into the lunch meat.

     “If yer going to stay with me, yer gonna need a name,” Vul murmured, “How about… Herbert?”

     The puff squeaked in response, still more focused on the food than him.

     “Do you like that? Herbert?” Vul repeated.

     There was still no response, so Vul took that as a sign that they didn’t really care. If they didn’t like the name Herbert, they could change it when the puff could actually comprehend language.

     He gave the puff a rough little pat on the head, causing them to glare at them. The look “Herbert” was giving clearly showed that they were only tolerating Vul because of the food.

     Vul had a feeling he was in for a rough time with this kid.

     But still, something in Vul did really want to take care of the puff.

     The years before Vul had retired, he had begun to realize that he had missed out on a lot of things. His job had demanded he spend a lot of time away from his home, away from his family. He had missed his kids growing up, and by the time he retired, he realized that he didn’t really know the people in his family.

     Now he was at the point where he didn’t know how to fix that. His family had helped him move here, and had left with vague promises of staying in touch.

     He hadn’t talked to them since.

     Vul was shaken from his depressive spiral by a knock on his door.

     Startled, he quickly turned to look at the door. Why would he have a visitor? He didn’t really know anyone on Pop Star.

     “Stay here,” Vul said to Herbert. Luckily, Herbert did not seem interested in moving from their snack.

     He shuffled to his front door, opening it just a crack so that he could see who was outside. His visitors seemed to be a group of Waddle Dees. Deeming them not a threat, Vul fully opened the door and stepped outside, quickly shutting the door behind him.

     “What brings you lot here?” Vul asked, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.

     “Hello, sir,” one of them squeaked, “We just wanted to see if you were okay. We saw that your trash cans had been knocked over, and there was a crossbow dropped in the mud.”

     “As you can see, I’m fine,” Vul grumbled, “Why were you in the area?”

     “Yes, I can see that you’re fine now!” the Waddle Dee said, “We’re searching the woods for a missing kid, and since you live near the woods, we thought you might have seen them.”

     Vul softened a bit, he certainly didn’t like the idea of a kid being missing.

     “Alright, what does the little rascal look like? I haven’t been outside much today, so I can’t guarantee I have any useful information,” he said.

     “Oh well, they are small, blue, and round. They have yellow eyes,” they rambled, “Their fathers are really worried.”

     Vul felt a growing feeling of dread. That… sure sounded like the little puff he had just taken in.

     The dread was almost immediately replaced with a feeling of conflict. So the puff had family out there, but how could Vul be sure that the family was good? He had found Herbert with a torn up eye.

     “I don’t know anything about that kid!” Vul squawked, “I’ll keep an eye out! Goodbye!”

     He turned around and rushed back into his house, slamming the door behind him. Vul had never been a good liar. Behind the door, he could hear the Waddle Dees muttering about how his actions were suspicious.

     He couldn’t blame them.

     Vul went back to the kitchen and just sort of… stared at the puff. He wasn’t sure what to do with them now.

     He couldn’t just keep them here, not if they had a family. Vul was pretty sure that would count as kidnapping.

     Later he could take them to the Waddle Dee Town. Just to meet their parents and see if they were alright.

Chapter Text

     It was safe to say that Kirby was pretty pissed off.

     Kirby had to admit that, especially when he was younger, he could have a bit of a temper. They often failed to thoroughly think their actions through. He sometimes liked to think that he had gotten past those days. Kirby had to learn to control their emotions. Unfortunate things tended to happen when Kirby lost control. The puff just had to keep all of this anger bottled up.

     But today was just one of those days that made Kirby want to tear his feathers out.

     They didn’t like going to Pop Star even under good circumstances. The planet had been tarnished for him by too many bad events. Those memories still felt fresh to him though everyone else who had been involved were long dead.

     Now he only really came by Pop Star if there was some Waddle Dee that wanted to train under him, or if there was some threat. Neither of those things happened often.

     His visit to Pop Star today probably fell more into the “threat” category. While it was nice that this threat didn’t seem to be the typical world-ending threat, it was still stressful for Kirby.

     Seriously, how in Hades did Fluff and an entire castle full of people manage to lose a child? Kirby knew that Meta wasn’t the friendliest and didn’t seem to particularly like them all that much, but surely someone could have been watching them?

     Now Meta was loose in Dream Land, and had somehow already managed to eat a sacred relic. And apparently there’s some monster hiding in the relic that Kirby would eventually have to deal with.

     Once Kirby did get Meta back to safety, all of this did make them reconsider leaving the kid in Patch Land. He didn’t really know where else he could keep the kid, however. Maybe Kirby would just take the kid back on board his ship. It wouldn’t be ideal, but it would be a lot harder for Kirby to lose them.

     There was also the question of Fluff. Kirby loved Fluff, and did want to raise Meta with him. Kirby just really didn’t know how to feel about him right now.

     In order to get back to Pop Star quickly, Kirby had gone through the Dimensional Socks. They were now standing in their dusty childhood home. He had given Marx instructions to fly his ship to Pop Star, though, knowing Marx, he wasn’t sure how long that would take.

     They shot a look at Fluff, who was looking quite nervous. Kirby knew that they wouldn’t stay mad at Fluff for long.

     It wasn’t entirely Fluff’s fault that the kid had gotten loose. If Meta was anything like Kirby, they probably didn’t like staying in one place for a long amount of time. Or just staying in doors for a long period of time.

     Despite having a house as a child, Kirby had never really spent a lot of time in it. He mostly just used the house for sleeping and food hoarding.

     “Alright, let's get this over with,” Kirby said, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible. No reason to further contribute to Fluff’s anxiety by sounding angry.

     Fluff still flinched when Kirby spoke, “Oh, yes, we should.”

     The king of Patch Land quickly rushed out of Kirby’s house. Kirby followed him at a slower pace, taking a moment to look around his old home. It was dusty and a bit of a mess. A window was broken.

     He wasn’t sure if it would be worth the time to fix the place back up again, sad as the thought was. Kirby didn’t spend a lot of time here, and the house was so small that they couldn’t really think of another use for it.

     Kirby finally stepped outside, and his feet immediately squelched into mud. They lifted a foot and shook some mud off, hissing with displeasure.

     Poor Fluff looked even more uncomfortable. He wasn’t waterproof, and probably didn’t enjoy mud seeping into his yarn.

     Hmph, well they weren’t gonna get anywhere like this.

     Kirby quickly took to the air, snatching Fluff’s cape and dragging him up into the air as well.

     “Wha- Kirby!” Fluff protested, “What are you doing?”

     “This is faster,” Kirby put simply. They weren’t going at their maximum flight speed, as they weren’t sure how well secured Fluff had his cape. No need to accidentally drop the guy.

     Though there really was nothing quite like going his full speed. Pushing himself to his limits, until to onlookers, he looked like a strange, pink comet bolting across the sky. They rarely had an excuse to fly like that.

     Today he did not have an excuse to fly that fast, and he would have to settle for a boring, slower speed.

     Fluff had seemingly accepted his fate of being carried through the sky by his cape fluff. Later he’d probably call the experience “horribly undignified.”

     Green fields transitioned into the stone brick paths of the Waddle Dee town. Kirby swooped down lower as they arrived at the castle, causing Fluff to let out an undignified squeak.

     They gently set Fluff down on the ground, before hitting the ground with a metal click of their sabatons. Fluff was looking only mildly terrified and windswept.

     Maybe Kirby should take him out flying more often. It was quite enjoyable, he’s sure Fluff would learn to love it.

     They were immediately noticed by a few Waddle Dees. The Waddle Dees stared in shock at Fluff and Kirby’s sudden appearance. Kirby gave them a little wave, snapping a few of them out of their surprise. The now alert Waddle Dees then turned around and bolted into the castle.

     Kirby hoped they were going to alert Bandee to their arrival. They honestly weren’t sure if they would be able to find Bandee on their own.

     Oh wait, Fluff was with him. Fluff had been here more recently, he probably knew where Bandee hung out.

     “Fluff, do you know where Bandee’s office is?” Kirby asked.

     “Um… no not really. I was only in there once,” Fluff muttered.

     Well, that wasn’t useful.

     “He’s probably still here trying to manage the search parties,” Fluff said, “Hopefully he has good news for us.”

     Kirby hummed in agreement. It would be nice if they could be done with this quickly.

     A few tense minutes later, Bandee rushed out from the castle. There was a fluffy grey-brown bird following him whom Kirby thought was vaguely familiar.

     “Ah, Kirby, I’m glad you came,” the Waddle Dee said, “It's been a stressful day.”

     The Waddle Dee fussed with his old namesake bandanna, pushing it up slightly and away from his eyes.

     The bird who had followed Bandee out made a weird coughing sound, giving the Waddle Dee a pointedly excited look.

     “Oh yes, Dedede here would not let me leave if I didn’t introduce him to you first,” he hesitated briefly, “I have told you about him, right?”

     The name sounded vaguely familiar, so Kirby muttered a hesitant yes.

     “It's nice to meet you,” the pink puff said, holding out their paw for a handshake.

     The young bird eagerly grabbed Kirby’s paw and shook it up and down, causing Kirby’s pauldrons to awkwardly clank against his horns. If Kirby had bones in his arm, the kid’s handshake would have dislocated them.

     Kirby could respect the kid’s enthusiasm.

     “Bandee told me so many stories about you!” the kid hesitated before continuing, “You’re a bit smaller than I thought you would be.”

     Kirby laughed. It was not the first time he had heard that. Though Kirby was larger than Fluff and the average Waddle Dee, they still weren’t exactly tall.

     “Can we get back on track?” Fluff said, “Do you have any new information, Bandana?”

     “Oh, yes. One group reported that Meta had been taken in by some of the forest animals to wait out the storm. The animals lost track of them at some point during the bad weather, however,” Bandee reported, “Some of the search groups have relocated to look in that area.”

     “Another group has reported that an old bird who lives on the edge of the forest acted suspicious when questioned about Meta. I don’t know enough about the guy to be sure what that means, but it could be worth further investigation,” the Waddle Dee continued.

     “Well, it's a place to start,” Kirby said.

     “We can check there first if you want,” Bandana shrugged, “We’ll leave immediately.”

     The Waddle Dee then turned his attention back to Dedede, “Alright, Dedede, you got to meet Kirby. It's time for you to go back in the castle.”

     “But Bandana!” the child whined, “I can help!”

     Bandee shot Kirby an apologetic look, “I’m really sorry, Kirby. I already sent out his usual babysitter so I might have to drag him back in myself.”
“You can’t miss the old guy’s house, it's the only one in the woods. I’ll get back to you when I can, don’t turn your phone on silent,” the Waddle Dee concluded.

     Bandana then began the difficult task of herding the wailing child back to the castle.

     “I do not envy him,” Fluff muttered.

     “D’aww, I thought the kid was sweet,” Kirby said. Fluff’s only response was a polite smile that looked more like a grimace.

     “Are you ready to go?” Kirby asked.

     Fluff sighed, he seemed to have already guessed what that would entail.

     “Yes, yes. Just try not to tear my cape,” he sighed.

     Once again, Kirby picked up the disgruntled king by the scruff of his cape and took to the air. Having already expected this, Fluff did not make the squeaking noise this time. Still, Kirby could tell that he was not enjoying the experience.

     They were still not going their full speed, not wanting to risk missing the old man’s house. The two passed over swaths of bright green foliage.

     Kirby’s paw twitched as he remembered all of his encounters with Whispy Woods during his youth. For whatever reason, the sentient trees of the forest hated Kirby. Whenever the puff ran into one of them, it was guaranteed a fight would break out. Truly, Kirby had never met a sentient tree that hadn’t wanted to kill them.

     They were shaken from their memories by Fluff.

     “Hey, Kirby, I think I see a building over there.”

     Fluff gestured off to the side, and Kirby swiftly veered off in that direction. He could see the roof of the building, and what might be a chimney. Perfect, that could be Kirby’s way in.

     Kirby swooped down, and gently set Fluff down on the building’s roof.

     Fluff looked at him with confusion, “Kirby, why are we on the roof?”

     The pink puff perched on the edge of the chimney, wondering if he’d be able to squeeze himself inside.

     “I’m going to try and get in through the chimney,” they explained, “The old guy was evasive when he was first asked, so I’m going for a more direct approach.”

     “Wuh- Kirby, that’s trespassing. That’s illegal,” Fluff said.

     “Well, if he does indeed have Meta, that’s basically kidnapping. That’s also illegal,” Kirby reasoned.

     Kirby peered down the chimney. They weren’t sure if they could actually fit down it. Sure he was squishy, but his wings and horns would probably get in the way. When Kirby was younger, they would occasionally just drop into their house through the chimney. It seems that Kirby had outgrown their chimney diving days.

     “We’re not doing this. I’m going to go knock on the door,” Fluff said.

     And with that said, Fluff promptly jumped off the roof. Kirby reflexively flinched at the sight, even though he knew Fluff wouldn’t be hurt by the fall.

     “There’s a bunch of garbage scattered down here,” Fluff said with clear disgust, “And a crossbow? For some reason?”

     Kirby fluttered down to Fluff’s side. Sure enough, there were a few knocked over trash cans and trash littered the ground. It was like some wild animal had come by and rummaged through the place.

     Yeah, Kirby could definitely believe that Meta caused this kind of mess.

     The front door was not on this side, so Kirby decided to waste no more time looking at scattered trash.

     He walked around the house, ruffling up his feathers and preparing for a confrontation. Kirby probably wouldn’t actually fight the guy, but they had to be prepared for anything. The puff just had a tendency to get worked up when someone they cared about was potentially being threatened.

     “Just let me do the talking, Kirby,” Fluff said, “I was raised for this kind of situation.”

     “Dealing with potential kidnappers?”

     “I meant negotiations, but sure,” Fluff hummed.

     They finally reached the doorstep. Fluff made Kirby take a few steps back, muttering something about Kirby looking too hostile, before he knocked on the door.

     There was a great deal of shuffling and grumbling before the door opened and Fluff was greeted by a knife blade pointed at his face. Not really intimidating to someone like Kirby, but still a clear threat. Kirby also just didn’t really appreciate their partner being threatened, so he moved back to Fluff’s side.

     The knife wielder was an old bird with disheveled brown feathers and a thick, grey beard beneath his beak. His eyes were narrowed down to a glare. Kirby had to give him credit, he seemed only mildly surprised to see a living yarn ball and a puff on his doorstep.

     Whatever surprise he felt, he seemed to get over it quickly.

     “Hello, Sir,” Fluff managed to keep his voice polite despite the obvious threat, “We’re here because-”

     “I know why yer here,” the bird interrupted, “I heard yer yappering.”

     “Oh great, then we can cut right to the point,” Kirby said, “Do you have our kid or not?”

     “Kirby!” Fluff hissed.

     “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t,” the old man answered. The answer was meant to be evasive, however, it all but confirmed the guy knew where Meta was.

     “Look, Sir, we just want to get our child home safely,” Fluff said placatingly.

     The bird hesitated for a few seconds before slowly lowering their blade and relaxing.

     “Alright, fine. I did find a kid that looks like you two,” he grumbled, “I was plannin on bringing em to town anyways.”

     “Great, then we can get our kid and get out of your feathers,” Kirby said. He tried to push his way past the bird, but was grabbed by the horn and shoved back.

     The bird was back on guard, and the knife was now pointing at Kirby.

     “Why should I trust you with em?” he growled. Kirby really didn’t appreciate what the old bird was implying.

     “What do you mean by that?” Fluff asked.

     “I found em all ruffled, grimy, and injured. Why would I trust the parents who let em get to such a state?”

     Kirby sent a surprised look at Fluff; the fact that Meta was injured was news to them. Fluff looked away from both Kirby and the bird. The pink puff couldn’t tell whether or not Fluff had already known this information.

     “They got out one day, and they were fine then. We are unaware of what would have happened while they were loose,” Fluff carefully said.

     Yeah… even to Kirby that still sounded pretty bad.

     “Why did they get out in the first place?” the old bird asked.

     There was a tense, awkward silence. Neither of the puffs really wanted to discuss the fact that Meta seemed to hate them.

     The old bird didn’t seem to like their silence, but still lowered the knife again.

     “Fine. You can come in,” he grumbled. With that, the bird promptly turned around and went back into his house.

     Fluff and Kirby hesitantly followed. The house was a bit of a mess, though Kirby figured he couldn’t be too judgemental about that. Kirby was by no means a tidy puff.

     There were packing boxes scattered here and there. Either the bird had been avoiding unpacking for a long time, or he had just recently moved to Dream Land.

     Even just from the doorway, Kirby could discern a concerning detail. The guy had a bunch of weapons scattered about his house. Maybe Kirby should have seen that coming, considering the fact that the old bird had greeted them with a knife.

     Regardless, this was not a safe house for a child.

     “Close the door behind yeh,” the bird called, interrupting Kirby’s thoughts. Fluff gently closed the door behind them.

     Fluff tried to introduce them, “I’m King Fluff, and this is-”

     “I know who Pinkie there is,” the bird interrupted.

     “...Right.”

     They descended back into awkward silence, watching the old bird poke around various boxes. Stars, did he lose track of Meta as well?

     “What’s your name, then?” Fluff tried again.

     “Vul.”

     Alright, well, they clearly weren’t going to get anything more out of the guy.

     After a bit of hanging around and wondering if they should offer help to the old bird, Vul finally let out a triumphant trill.

     “Ah there you are!” he said as he pulled Meta out from the depths of a box pile.

     The little puff looked a little bit delirious, like they had just been rudely awakened from a nap. Little scraps of fabric and some packing peanuts were clinging to their fluff. Meta was once again covered in dirt. They were, of course, still holding onto that strange scarlet sword.

     As Vul cradled them, Meta let out an annoyed chip as they slowly woke back up. They blinked one of their eyes a few times, before glaring up at the old bird. Well, at least that seemed to be confirmation that Meta didn’t like Vul much more than they liked Kirby and Fluff.

     Vul adjusted his grasp on the puff so that Meta was looking right at Kirby and Fluff. Meta’s expression briefly changed into one of surprise before settling back into the exasperated glare. Clearly, they were not excited to see them.

     As Kirby moved closer, it was then that he noticed why Meta only seemed to be keeping one of their eyes open. The closed eye seemed to have been crusted shut by dried blood. This must be the injury Vul was talking about.

     Kirby did not like it when those they cared about got hurt. When Kirby finds out who or what did this to Meta, they will be taught a lesson .

     The pink puff shook the thought from his head, he shouldn’t be getting so defensive. Marx would probably say that they were being broody again.

     “Runt ate all of my food and then passed out,” the bird grumbled. There was a tinge of affection in his voice.

     “That’s pretty normal puff behavior,” Kirby assured.

     “Are we going to go back to town now?” Fluff put in.

     “Oh… yeah, probably? We still need to fix the fountain, so maybe I should call Bandee and see if we should stop there first,” Kirby muttered.

     It was then Kirby realized something important, “I don’t have my phone with me.”

     “You don’t?” Fluff said incredulously.

     “I left it in my cape, and I don’t have my cape,” Kirby grumbled.

     Fluff rubbed his eyes and let out a sigh of frustration before saying, “Alright. Sir, do you have a phone we could borrow?”

     Kirby didn’t think it was possible for Vul to think even less of them, but here they were.

     The bird sighed and muttered, “Yeah, I’ll go get it.”

     With that, Vul moved off to a different room, leaving Fluff and Kirby in silence. Kirby almost protested the bird taking Meta along with him, but decided it wasn't worth the fight. Meta seemed to have spent enough time here to get comfortable. If Vul had wanted to hurt Meta, he probably would have done so already.

     Fortunately, Vul soon returned clutching an ancient-looking phone in one hand and a struggling Meta under the other arm. For now, the old bird had successfully avoided getting stabbed by the puff’s weapon. Seeing as Meta patience was clearly running out, Kirby wasn’t sure how long that luck would last.

     “Make it quick,” Vul said as he handed Kirby the phone. Kirby quickly dialed Bandee’s number and waited for the Waddle Dee to pick up.

     “Hello?” Bandee said when he finally picked up.

     “Hey, Bandana, we found Meta! Should we go straight to the Fountain or head back to the castle first?” Kirby quickly explained.

     “Oh that’s great! We can head to the Fountain right now, just get this mess over with,” Bandee said.

     “Alrighty, we’ll head right over then,” Kirby said. They then abruptly hung up. He never had been good at ending calls.

     “Vul, would you mind carrying Meta to the Fountain of Dreams? My arms are too short to hold them and I’m afraid they’d try to run away,” Kirby said to the old bird, feeling a bit embarrassed to be asking another favor of the bird.

     “Why do you need to go to the Fountain?” Vul asked, raising a bushy eyebrow.

     “The fountain had been broken, and Meta ate an important part of it, so we have to go and fix it real quick,” Kirby explained.

     Vul let out a long sigh before holding Meta out in front of him. “Yer a little trouble maker, aren't cha, Herbert?” he grumbled. Meta- or Herbert, apparently- just let out a squeaky grumble in response.

     Kirby decided that he wouldn’t question the name choice.

     Vul tucked a still struggling Meta back under his arm and said, “Well, let’s get this over with.”

     Kirby hummed in agreement, quickly making for the front door. Fluff and Vul followed him soon after.

     They’d probably have to make the journey on foot, as Kirby wasn’t sure he would be able to carry both Vul and Fluff at once. It would be too unwieldy, and Kirby wasn’t sure the old bird would survive if Kirby accidentally dropped him.

     Kirby didn’t want to be responsible for any deaths during this visit.

     The pink puff set off at a light trot, shoes squelching uncomfortably in the mud. They hoped they were going in the right direction. Getting lost in this damp forest would be quite unpleasant.

     It took Kirby a few minutes to realize that Fluff and Vul were not following him very quickly. Looking behind them, they saw that Vul was struggling to keep hold of Meta. Fluff did not seem to be enjoying his time in the wilderness. Both of them appeared to be too proud to say that they were struggling.

     Kirby halted and waited for them to catch up. Fluff caught up first, but Vul still seemed to be struggling with Meta. They were just about to step in and help the old bird, when Meta suddenly dissolved into particles. Vul was left staring at his empty hands in surprised horror.

     Luckily for all of them, Meta soon reappeared a few feet away in some bushes with a startled squawk. Meta had already pulled similar disappearing tricks back on Kirby’s ship, so Kirby could only be so surprised. Perhaps he should be more surprised that Meta didn’t do this trick earlier.

     Kirby rushed to the bushes, expecting that they would have to chase down the kid. To their surprise, the young puff was already struggling their way through the bushes and back towards the group. They barely looked at Kirby as they passed him.

     Stunned by this sudden shift in behavior, Kirby did nothing to stop Meta as they passed. They stopped a few feet in front of the group and then turned around with a glare, gesturing for the group to follow.

     Fluff and Vul- who had managed to recover from his initial shock of Meta’s disappearing trick- shot Kirby a questioning look. Kirby just shrugged, they had no idea what the kid was up to. Meta seemed to be going in the direction they were already heading, so Kirby decided there wouldn’t be much if they were to follow the young puff.

     Meta suddenly bolted off, leaving Kirby to scramble after them. He could hear Fluff and Vul crashing through the woods after them, yet as time grew on, Kirby struggled to hear them. Seems like those two were once again struggling to keep up.

     The kid was deceptively fast, Kirby couldn’t blame the others for falling behind. He found himself having to flap over obstacles that the kid just teleported around. Stars, if the kid had actually managed to get ahold of that teleportation ability it would make keeping track of them a lot harder.

     Meta abruptly stopped. Kirby, unable to stop their momentum, tripped over the child, tumbling them both into icy-cold water. He spluttered and managed to drag himself out of the water quickly, and then turned and dragged Meta out after.

     The child was shrieking and thrashing, clearly they were not a big fan of the surprise bath. Kirby decided to back off and give them some space, mostly to avoid Meta accidentally hitting them with the sword. Or, knowing the little puff, if Kirby was hit by the sword it wouldn’t be an accident.

     They had arrived at the Fountain of Dreams.

     At first, nothing seemed out of place. The water was still flowing and creating a pleasant sound, almost convincing Kirby that things were still alright. A few Waddle Dees were milling about.

     Yet something still felt wrong. Squinting, Kirby could see where the Fountain had been broken. The water seemed murkier than usual. Bits of plants and other debris were floating around in the water, most likely swept in by the recent storm. It’s usual calming aura was gone, replaced with a growing feeling of dread.

     Kirby decided that it would be best to stay on edge.

     Meta had calmed from their tantrum and was now pacing at the water’s edge. It seemed like they wanted to venture to the center of the Fountain but were unwilling to get back into the water.

     Both of them were startled by a voice.

     “Oh, Kirby, there you are,” Bandana Dee said as he walked over to Kirby. Oh good, the Waddle Dee was already here. “Why are you wet? Y’know what, it’s not worth it,” he muttered.

     “Anyways, you found your kid, how do we get them to cough up the Star Rod?” Bandee asked.

     “Ask nicely? I don’t know. I think it’s kinda hard to get to get a puff to spit something back out if they don’t want to,” Kirby said.

     There was at least one way Kirby knew of. When he was younger and could still make use of Copy Abilities, getting smacked around a bit would occasionally cause him to spit out whatever he had copied.

     However, slapping around Meta in the hopes that they spat out the Star Rod wasn’t really an option. Beating up a kid was an obviously awful thing to do.

     Meta wasn’t paying attention to their conversation, instead dabbing at the surface of the water with their free paw. Kirby lightly tapped them in order to get their attention, causing them to spin around with a hiss.

     “Hey, can you like… spit up the Star Rod please?” Kirby asked. They felt a little dumb asking it, especially considering the blank look the kid was giving them.

     They stared at each other for a few seconds, and Kirby was just beginning to consider what else he should say, when Meta started gagging. Kirby and Bandana shot the kid twin looks of confusion and concern.

     “Is that… normal?” Bandee asked as Meta made a sound akin to a cat choking on a hairball.

     “No… I don’t think that’s normal,” Kirby responded. Presumably, Meta was trying to cough up the Star Rod. If so, Kirby did not understand what was causing Meta to struggle so much. Kirby had never struggled to spit something out when they were younger.

     It was something Kirby would have to be concerned about later, as Meta finally finished hacking up the Star Rod. All things considered, the Star Rod didn’t look much worse for wear.

     Kirby hesitantly picked up the Star Rod, grateful for their gloves. The puff didn’t particularly want to touch the spit-covered object with their bare paws. He gave the Rod a swing, watching as a star-shaped bullet shot out. This made Meta very excited, and the child eagerly tried to grab the weapon from Kirby.

     “No, you don’t need more weapons. You already have a sword, you don’t need this as well,” Kirby muttered, trying to gently push them away with a wing. This only served to irritate the young puff.

     “At least it seems to be working,” Bandee said, “We brought some duct tape along so you could tape the Star Rod in place until we can get someone to properly fix it.”

     “Makes sense,” Kirby hummed as a Waddle Dee handed him a roll of duct tape. Kirby wasn’t very knowledgeable when it came to magic and repairing magical items, so they were happy to leave that to the professionals.

     The shrubbery behind them rustled, and Vul and Fluff finally made their appearance. Vul was wheezing, and Fluff was covered with mud and leaves.

     “Oh thank the stars, we’re finally here,” Kirby heard Fluff mutter. The yarn puff tried to stand up straighter and regain his lost composure. It was only so effective.

     “What did we miss?” Fluff asked, taking a few steps forwards to be at Kirby’s side.

     “Well Meta spat up the Star Rod,” Kirby briefly explained, “And now I need to duct tape the Fountain back together.”

     “Alright,” Fluff said, “You should probably go do that now.”

     Kirby hummed in agreement, and quickly took flight. The center of the Fountain wasn’t all that far from the shore, and he soon found himself touching down on top of the fountain.

     They inspected the Fountain. A jagged part of the Star Rod was still stuck in the Fountain pedestal, presumably the edge left behind when the Rod had been snapped off. Kirby set the larger piece of the Star Rod against its broken edge.

     And that’s when everything went wrong.

     The sky immediately darkened, filling Kirby with a deep, instinctual fear. His fluff spiked up as he heard a few of the onlookers let out screams of fear and surprise.

     Dark particles were coming together to form a large orb. It was navy in color, with a pinkish-purple sheen and patterned with pale stars.

     Kirby’s grip tightened on the Star Rod. They looked around the Fountain, watching as the onlookers backed away from the Fountain and the entity.

     Their reactions settled something in Kirby’s mind.

     This thing was a threat to Kirby’s friends and family.

     Kirby had to get rid of it.

     The orb suddenly shot up into the sky, and Kirby lunged into the air after it.

     Despite it being midday, the sky was dark as pitch. If Kirby bothered to look away from the orb, he would have seen the faint twinkle of stars.

     Kirby wildly swung the star Rod, shooting a few bullets at the offending orb. Its form wavered, blurring along the edges.

     However, it soon solidified again and sent out a wave of its own star-shaped bullets in retaliation.

     Kirby swooped down a bit to avoid the threat, watching as the orb teleported sporadically around. The teleportation certainly made it a pain to keep track of, Kirby occasionally had to whip around mid-flight just to keep track of it. The puff kept trying to attack it with the Star Rod whenever the opportunity arose.

     One of the orb’s stars clipped Kirby on the wing. It stung a bit, but wasn’t the worst thing Kirby had ever faced. Really, the worst thing about it was that they had been at all. The attacks weren’t even all that fast or hard to dodge. The orb seemed more interested in trying to put space between it and Kirby than actually attacking.

     As the pair eventually left the planet’s atmosphere, Kirby hit it with yet another Star Rod attack. This time, instead of rapidly teleporting around, the orb paused for a second. It then abruptly changed course and darted straight in the direction of one of Pop Star’s moons.

     This change in behavior excited Kirby. It wasn’t even teleporting or sending out attacks anymore. The optimistic side of Kirby wanted to believe that the being had been worn out, and that they could quickly pick it off and return back home.

     The more realistic side of Kirby thought that the being was just preparing to whip around and show Kirby its true power.

     Kirby set off after the orb, pushing their speed to their limits, eyes fixed on the speck that was their opponent. Normally, Kirby would say that he didn’t like fighting. He much preferred working things out peacefully.

     But something about this was exhilarating. They were protecting their home. This was a threat Kirby could easily defeat. Any fear Kirby may have still felt was gone at this point.

     As Kirby approached the moon’s surface, he saw the orb shift and unfurl in a flash of light. Kirby hissed in irritation as the light momentarily blinded them.

     What was left in the orb’s place was a strange figure. A strange figure that Kirby was approaching at rapid speeds.

     With no time to stop or backpedal, Kirby crashed into the figure horns first, sending them both to the dirt.

     Kirby heard the tell-tale crunching sound of something breaking, before a hand wrapped around his wing and roughly tossed the puff aside.

     “You insolent little-” the being snarled, holding a skeletal hand up to their face, “Try that again and I’ll-”

     Kirby did not let them finish their sentence, instead opting to shoot another Star Rod projectile at the entity.

     “I recommend you leave,” Kirby said with a voice full of confidence, “Before things turn nasty for you.”

     The entity lowered their hand and scowled at Kirby. There was a thin trickle of dark blood coming down from their broken nose. They were wearing a pair of triangular shades that were partially broken, but Kirby still couldn’t get a glimpse of their eyes.

     “If I don’t deal with you now,”  the being mused, “You’ll just be a thorn in my side later.”

     Kirby glared at them, ruffling up his feathers and raising his wings a bit. The being let out a long-suffering sigh. They floated up a bit, revealing a strange body that moved like a tornado under their cape.

     “Very well then, I, Nightmare, will-”

     Kirby lunged for Nightmare’s thin, golden horns. They grabbed one of the horns in one paw, and slammed the Star Rod down on Nightmare’s head.

     Frankly, Kirby did not care who this guy was. He had no interest in sitting through their villain monologue. Best to get this over with quickly.

     Nightmare shook their head rapidly in an attempt to dislodge Kirby. The puff rapidly flapped their wings to maintain balance, scratching Nightmare on the face with their wing claws in the process.

     Eventually, Nightmare managed to blast Kirby away with a shot of energy from their hands. Kirby hit the ground hard, kicking up a cloud of moon dust in the process. It hurt a bit, and Kirby would probably be feeling that later, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle.

     The puff had faced worse things than a strangely dressed wizard.

     Kirby just had time to roll out of the way before Nightmare slammed down where he was. For some reason, the entity had decided to do this attack by slamming their head into the ground. Strange.

     Kirby wasted no time taking shots with the Star Rod at the exposed, swirling body. The Star Rod didn’t seem to be too effective at close range, so it would probably be best for Kirby to keep their distance.

     Nightmare soon teleported back in front of Kirby, right-side up and cape covering up the twister-like body. The star-bullets Kirby shot out with the Star Rod bounced harmlessly off the cape. Irritating, but Kirby could probably just aim for the face instead.

     Kirby’s opponent pointed one skeletal finger at him, and shot out several energy bullets from the tip. The attack threw up more dust as Kirby hopped around to avoid it.

     None of these attacks were as aggressive or as threatening as Kirby was used to. Was this guy even trying? Perhaps fighting so many world-destroying threats had desensitized Kirby to fights like this. Sure, Nightmare could probably be a threat to someone else, but to Kirby, this was nothing.

     They’d had worse play squabbles with Marx.

     As Kirby hit the being with another Star Rod attack, he watched as light flooded from their eyes and mouth. A horrid screech came from Nightmare’s mouth, and Kirby had to shield his eyes due to the light’s growing intensity.

     And then it just… stopped.

     Kirby blinked with confusion, looking around to see if this was just the being trying to play a trick to get the upper hand.

     They saw nothing. Just the plain white of moon rock and a swirling expanse of stars above them.

     Kirby felt… a twinge of relief. Mostly he felt tired. The exhilaration they felt at the beginning of the fight had drained out of them, replaced with a growing sense of weariness.

     He really should be getting back to Pop Star, people are probably starting to worry.

     The ground started rumbling beneath their feet. Kirby looked down in confusion, not understanding what was happening.

     “What the-”

     The next thing Kirby knew, they were being tossed up into the void of space because the ground had exploded beneath them.

     Kirby drifted for a bit, stunned by what just happened. His ears were ringing, and his eyes were stinging from the moon dust. Luckily, they were still holding the Star Rod.

     After a few seconds of just floating there, Kirby hesitantly flexed out their wings. He didn’t seem too injured, nothing broken at least.

     The same could not be said about the moon.

     Kirby flapped their wings a bit, trying to clear away the floating dust so that they could get a better look at the moon.

     There was now a massive crater in its side, giving the moon a permanent crescent shape.

     Oh ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffiddlesticks.

     Yeah, that was going to be visible from Pop Star. Kirby had been hoping that it was just… a small moon explosion. Something that he wouldn’t have to worry about or explain.

     Perhaps this was Nightmare’s last-ditch effort to take Kirby down, blowing up themself, Kirby, and the moon. Unfortunately, it would take a lot more than that to kill Kirby.

     He should get out of here. Kirby did not want to be spotted near the newly exploded moon.

     They kicked off some nearby moon rubble to gain some initial speed. They’d probably have to fly a bit slower when he actually entered the atmosphere, but while he was in space, it was fine to go fast.

     When he entered the atmosphere, Kirby began spiraling down slowly, occasionally flapping their wings.

     They hoped that Floralia wasn’t anywhere near where they were descending. The floating archipelago had a tendency to drift about over Pop Star, and Kirby had no real way of knowing where they were today. His relationship with the floating islands was… tense to say the least. Kirby would be happy if they never saw those islands again. Best to not let them think he had decided to blow up the moon.

     There was also the matter of the archipelago’s guardian. It would be on edge after the explosion, and entering its airspace would most likely result in a fight.

     Kirby did not feel like getting into another fight today.

     Getting impatient at how long this was taking, Kirby eventually started diving a few feet at a time. The flight up had seemed so quick when compared to this. They eventually plunged through a layer of clouds, leaving them cold and slightly damp. It was quite an unpleasant feeling when considering the dust that was already caked in his feathers.

     Stars, he really needed a bath and a nap.

     But there were still things they had to get done.

     At least by passing through the clouds they had gotten past the immediate thread of the archipelago guardian. He had never seen the beast go below the cloud layer, not that he really spent a lot of time observing it’s behavior.

     The ground was still far below him. It seemed to be grassland with some sparse tree cover. So really, Kirby could be anywhere above central Pop Star.

     They decided to keep their altitude for now,  hopefully that would make it easier to spot any large landmarks.

     After a bit, he finally spotted a large tree with leaves that moved like a windmill. There were only a few of those trees in all of Pop Star, and Kirby knew that one of them grew near the Waddle Dee village.

     They started flying faster, quickly passing the windmill tree.

     Flying for a bit longer, Kirby saw a castle on a hill relatively close to a patch of dense woodland. Finally. He was back to where he started.

     Kirby swooped down for the large clearing where the Fountain was. They still had to reattach the Star Rod, so Kirby decided to land on the Fountain’s center again. Ignoring the shouts from the few onlookers who remained, Kirby fished out the duct tape from the Fountain’s upper bowl. The puff must have dropped it when they initially darted after Nightmare.

     He hastily and awkwardly reattached the Star Rod. Hopefully it would stay in place.

     Kirby then turned and flew back to shore.

     Everyone was looking at him with a mixture of shock and fear. Kirby wasn’t a big fan of the looks, but they couldn’t really blame the onlookers for their reactions.

     Only two of them didn’t look completely terrified: Fluff and Meta. Fluff looked like he was desperately forcing his expression to remain neutral. Meta looked strangely awestruck. Kirby should probably be concerned about that.

     Kirby landed next to Fluff, and leaned some of his weight onto the yarn puff.

     Fluff shot them a concerned look, “Kirby, what happened up there? You flew off after that thing so quickly, and then we heard that explosion…”

     “I think it's best if we talk about it back at the Waddle Dee castle,” Kirby muttered, casting a tired look around the gathered onlookers.

     Fluff only looked more concerned by Kirby’s words, but still gestured off to Bandana Dee. Bandana seemed to understand this, and he shooed off some of the extra Waddle Dees, uttering promises that they would explain the situation to them later. This left just Kirby, Fluff, Bandana, Meta, and Vul.

     “I’m not leaving until I hear an explanation for what in Hades just happened,” the old bird said.

     Kirby sighed, it wasn’t really worth the fight to make Vul leave.

     “Let’s just get back to the castle.”

     “Kirby, I really don’t know what I’m supposed to do in this situation,” Bandana said, anxiously rubbing his eyes.

     Kirby, Bandana, and Vul were sitting in Bandee’s office, along with one of Bandee’s assistants named Sailor. Fluff and Meta had gone off to get Meta’s eye injury checked out by a doctor. The yarn king had made Kirby promise to tell him the story later.

     “I don’t know, Bandee…” Kirby responded. The puff was still exhausted and covered in moon dust. They had no clue what to do about this.

     “The moon just… exploded. That’s gotta have an effect on the tides or something,” Bandana Dee groaned.

     The Waddle Dee stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, before looking back down at Kirby with renewed determination.

     “You need to get away from Pop Star as soon as possible. Lie low for a bit,” Bandee said, “Or… will it be more suspicious that the moon exploded and you’re not around? You’re always so defensive when it comes to Pop Star…”

     “No, no. You need to get off Pop Star. We don’t need Floralia blaming this on you and arresting you again,” the Waddle Dee decided. Vul and Sailor shot Kirby bewildered looks.

     “That was a long time ago,” Kirby hissed defensively, “This wasn’t even my fault this time! I didn’t ask Nightmare to blow up the moon!”

     They just looked more confused.

     “... Marx and the rest of my crew are on their way. I’ll take Meta and we’ll leave as soon as possible,” Kirby offered, forcing himself to be calm again.

     “Oh do ya have a home somewhere, or what’s yer plan with Meta?” Vul asked.

     Kirby cringed a bit, “Not really? I have my ship, I guess.”

     The old bird gave him a stern look, “So yer just plannin on raising a kid on a spaceship?”

     “Wasn’t Meta staying with Fluff? Why can’t they go back to Patch Land?” Bandana Dee put in.

     Kirby avoided eye contact with both of them. The puff wasn’t really sure how to explain their feelings on Meta staying in Patch Land.

     Bandee, unfortunately, seemed to pick up on Kirby’s hesitance.

     “Kirby!” the Waddle Dee groaned, “We’re too old for this. Just talk to Fluff about this.”

     Vul ruffled his feathers smugly, “If ya have no better option than to raise yer kid on a ship, then I could take care of them. Keep 'em here where the little runt will have more space to run around.”

     Kirby clenched their paws. He wasn’t really certain about how they felt about Vul. They weren’t certain about leaving Meta here to be raised by some old man they just met, and they weren’t sure about leaving Meta so close to a hostile kingdom.

     Seeing Kirby’s tension, Bandana hesitantly said, “Nobody here would harm your child, Kirby. If you do choose to leave Meta here, the Waddle Dees will be willing to help.”

     Kirby hesitated. It was pointlessly dangerous leaving Meta here on Pop Star. But it was also unfair to force Meta to grow up on a cramped spaceship.

     Maybe he could leave Meta on Ripple Star? But he hadn’t talked to Ribbon or Queen Ripple in ages, how would they even react to Kirby dropping a kid on them out of the blue? Stars, he doesn't think he’s talked to Ribbon since… since… Wow... it really had been a long time. Maybe Kirby should go visit them sometime.

     Kirby pushed the thought from their mind.

     Meta at least seemed to tolerate Vul. That was more than Kirby could say for most people.

     “If it helps, some of the woodland creatures will probably help as well,” Sailor nervously piped up, “Carol, who took in Meta for a bit, will help. I’m certain of it.”

     “I’ll talk about it with Fluff,” Kirby sighed.

     “If that’s sorted,” Bandana said, “Then I need to go and announce what happened to the other Waddle Dees. Could you go gather everyone for me, Sailor?”

     Sailor paused, looking conflicted. It seemed like he had more he wanted to say to Kirby, but in the end, he nodded and rushed out the door.

     Bandana got to his feet, “Well, I have to go plan how I’m going to explain this mess. I’ll make it clear to everyone to act as if you were never here, Kirby. You know the way to the infirmary, yes? I suggest you go talk to Fluff.”

     Kirby nodded, and Bandana exited the office.

     The pink puff sighed, oh what should he do? With Vul staring them down, Kirby exited the room.

     They started heading down the hallway in the directions they hoped the infirmary was. He heard Vul following along behind him.

     Kirby was still covered from horns to toe in moon dust and deeply exhausted. They wanted nothing more than to take a hot shower and pass out for a few hours.

     But there was still more to be done.

     A few Waddle Dees passed them in the halls, shooting Kirby anxious looks. They quickly rushed off when Kirby looked in their direction.

     They’re just on edge from the explosion, Kirby assured himself.

     A Waddle Dee in a little nurse’s hat was passing them in the hallway.

     “Oh, Kirby, you must be here to check on the little puff, right? They were quite the handful,” the Waddle Dee said with a grimace, raising up their paws to show a few bandages that had been hastily plastered onto them.

     Kirby nodded, feeling a bit bad that Meta had apparently attacked the medical staff. The Waddle Dee gave them directions to where Fluff and Meta were, and Kirby was back on his way.

     The pink puff hesitantly peeked into the infirmary waiting room. They saw Fluff and Meta lying on the tile floor, and, surprisingly, Bandee’s kid Dedede. The two kids were enthusiastically scribbling crayons on paper. Fluff was calmly drawing on his own paper.

     “Oh, Kirby, you’re back!” Fluff said when he noticed Kirby. Kirby and Vul fully entered the waiting room.

     When Meta noticed the pink puff, they chirped enthusiastically, and rushed to show Kirby their drawing. They even left their sword behind, the first time Kirby had seen them willingly do so.

     The drawing was a mess of orange and blue scribbling. Kirby didn’t have any clue what it was supposed to represent.

     “... Good job,” Kirby hesitantly said, giving the kid a little pat on the head. Meta chirped happily, and Kirby was just left more confused at their sudden change in behavior.

     That was until Meta reached up with a paw, and dabbed at Kirby’s horns. Their paw came away slicked with a mixture of congealed blood and moon dust. Nightmare’s blood from when Kirby had broken their nose with his horns.

     Meta seemed to be fascinated by it.

     Kirby was immediately concerned by this. It was hard not to be. Sure, Meta had a tendency to be violent, but this seemed a bit beyond just lashing out.

     There was no need for Meta to be so enamored by violence. There was no need for Meta to even be exposed to violence.

     Pop Star could help with that. Ignoring Floralia floating above it, the planet tended to be quite peaceful. Perhaps staying here could help Meta mellow out. As long as everyone kept Meta staying here a secret, the puff would be safe.

     The more people involved in keeping a secret, the more likely the secret will get out, Kirby thought.

     Kirby gently pushed their way past Meta, and flopped down by Fluff’s side. Meta flopped down beside the pink puff, and resumed their furious crayon scribbling on their paper.

     “They seem happy to see you,” Fluff remarked. Kirby just hummed in response, trying to think how they were going to spring this conversation on Fluff.

     “We should talk, Fluff,” Kirby began.

     Fluff sighed, “Yes, we probably should. Doctor Waddle Dee isn’t too sure how well Meta’s eye injury will heal, and how much vision Meta will get back. They’re trying to sort out an antibiotic eye drop medication in case the injury gets infected. I think that Meta should stay here, at least until the injury heals. Their injury likely wouldn’t heal well in Patch Land.”

     Kirby blinked, and relaxed slightly. Obviously the news on Meta’s injury wasn’t great, but at least Fluff was already open to the idea of Meta not going back to Patch Land.

     “That’s… what I was about to suggest,” Kirby said, “Vul already volunteered to take them in for a bit.”

     Fluff looked up at Vul, and the old bird glared back down at them. Vul had his arms crossed and a stern look on his face.

     The yarn king shot an incredulous look at Kirby, who just shrugged in response.

     Fluff sighed, got to his feet, and put on the politest smile he could manage.

     “Alright, Vul, it seems like we’re going to have to get used to each other. I’ll visit as often as I can,” Fluff said, holding out a paw for Vul to shake.

     There was a twinge of approval in Vul’s eyes, and he reached out to give Fluff a firm handshake.

     “Alright,” the bird grunted.

     With that sorted, Fluff sat back down at Kirby’s side.

     There was a beat of silence, and then Dedede started regaling Kirby with the story of what happened when Meta was taken in to see the doctor. But before starting that, the kid obviously had to explain how he simply had to come see Meta when he heard of the puff’s grand arrival. Then the penguin finally launched into the tale of Meta biting the nurse, something Dedede seemed incredibly amused by. Fluff seemed quite embarrassed by the kid’s recap.

     It was full of tangents and was very rambly, but Kirby couldn’t help but feel charmed by it. For some reason, Dedede was very insistent on referring to Meta as a “him.” Kirby considered correcting this, but didn’t think it really mattered too much. The pink puff never cared too much about their own gender. The only reason Kirby was a “he” was because everyone referred to him as such when he was growing up. If Meta ended up feeling strongly about it, they could talk about it later.

     Dedede’s ramblings continued. Kirby allowed themself to relax and believe that everything could turn out alright.

---

     Meta wasn’t exactly sure what had happened between the orb flying off with Kirby in pursuit and the pink puff’s eventual return, but it was pretty sure that it must have been extremely cool.

     The pink puff had returned, bedraggled and covered in dust after a large explosion. Meta’s imagination had run wild.

     Lunging after an enemy with no hesitation… Meta could respect that. Kirby had driven off whatever that orb thing was. It was a courageous act. Meta wanted that strength, they wanted to be like that.

     Meta wanted to be like that enough to mostly get over their distaste for the pink puff. If Meta played nice with Kirby, then perhaps Kirby would teach Meta their skills.

     After a period of scribbling on paper next to Kirby, Meta eventually decided that they had had enough of being cuddly. It had left Morpho on the floor, something the sword probably didn’t appreciate.

     So, snatching up their paper and crayons, Meta moved back to where they left Morpho. The sword had seemed stressed out by the day’s events, for reasons they had refused to elaborate on.

     Just gonna leave a sword hanging, huh? The sword hummed when Meta grabbed its hilt. Meta just chirped in response, causing Fluff to give them a confused glance.

     How’s the drawing coming along? Morpho asked. Meta looked down at their paper proudly. They had no experience in drawing, and Meta doubted that they had ever picked up a crayon before (Morpho had to explain what they were), but Meta sure had enthusiasm.

     It was… fun. Simple.

     But Meta wouldn’t let this distract them from their newfound goal. Meta would find a way to be a hero.

     “You’re still thinking about that, huh, Morpho quietly hummed, You’re still just a child. There’s no need to rush into… career decisions like this.

     Meta ignored the sword.

     How am I going to keep you alive when you seem so determined to rush into danger? Morpho mutters. Meta isn’t sure it was supposed to hear that.