Chapter 1: Gabriella
In the middle of a cold winter night, a puffball comes to Dreamland from her journey from Halcandra. Her name is Gabriella.
And she is afraid for her life.
She escaped from her family, her friends, and her life from Halcandra. She has to escape her destiny.
After she gets to Dreamland, she soon finds that it is almost completely barren. After a 3 day search, she finds a lone house. "Finally, someone..." She immediately rushes to it and hides inside a bush.
Inside the home, a warrior hears the racket in his sleep and wakes up. "What is that...?" He gets up and goes outside. "Hello? Anyone?"
The warrior is Meta Knight.
Gabriella hears the voice and hides a little more, making the bush emit rustling noises.
He hears the noise and immediately goes to the bush. Afraid, she begins to whimper in fear. Hearing this, he pauses and then pushes the bush aside to see Gabriella hiding.
He gasps at the sight. There is little Gabriella with her purple hair, tied back in a ponytail, blue-gray body, and pink feet. She has a bloodied eye and has cuts all over her. He tries to go to her, but she backs away, still whimpering. "Who are you," he asks her softly.
She looks up at him and quietly says her name. "...G-Gabriella."
"Where did you come from?"
"...Ha-Halcandra."
He tries to go to her some more, but she backs away even more. "I won't hurt you," he says to her. "I won't hurt you."
She still continues to whimper, but she allows him to pick her up. "What happened to you?"
"...I escaped Halcandra..."
"What made you escape?"
"I escaped to free myself from my destiny."
He is puzzled by this. "Your destiny?"
She looks down. "I can't tell you right away..."
He feels bad that she came by herself, all alone, freezing cold, and deathly afraid. "I'll take you inside." He sets her down, and she stands up.
"Thank you, Sir."
They go inside the house together.
A couple of hours later, Gabriella is treated for her wounds, including her eye, and MK is sitting beside her by the fireplace. "Magolor told me about you," she says to him. "I think you're Sir Meta Knight. Is that correct?"
"Yes, it is."
"I thought so..."
He has his cape wrapped around her to keep her warm, even though the fire is supporting enough heat. "How did you get here?"
"Well, Landia flew here and dropped me off. After that, I went off in my own direction. I was unable to hunt for myself or get food, because not only did I still have very little knowledge of Dreamland, but I had nothing with me as well. I was caught in various traps, and one caught my eye." She covers her wrapped-up eye with her stubby puffball hand. "Having only one eye and only so much health left, I luckily stumbled upon your house. I was then extremely afraid of everything around me, and it was unbearable. You then woke up and found me."
He then remembers something. "How long was it since you've last ate?"
"About...4 days."
His eyes widen. "I'll be back." He gets up and goes into the kitchen, leaving Gabriella by herself.
Around her is a room that is only lit by the fire in the fireplace. She looks around at the decorations while he is gone.
After a few moments, MK comes back with a bowl of soup. He sits down beside her and gives her the bowl. "This will help," he says to her.
She grabs the bowl, eats the bigger bits of the soup, and swallows down the rest. She sets the bowl down when done. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He sets the bowl aside.
Gabriella looks up at him and asks him a question. "How well did you know Magolor?"
"I only saw him a few times after we first met. I don't know him as well as I should. Although, the reason is because the first time I met him didn't go so well..."
"Well," -she takes out a photo and looks at it- "he was a good friend of mine. He was almost like the father I never had..."
He looks at the photo and sees her and Magolor together.
"He would visit me and my mom almost every day and bring snacks. We became great friends, and he would sometimes come just to see me. That was until my mother died as well..."
"You didn't have parents?"
"Both of them died somehow. I never knew how my father died, though, but maybe it's because I never heard from him after he left us...Anyways, after that, I ran across Nightmare a few days after that. He told me something, and then Magolor told me to get Landia and go to Dreamland, so that started my journey here."
MK then holds the photo and looks on the back. He sees a small note that says, "We all love you." Then there Magolor's name with a heart underneath.
He can feel his heart break a little inside. Gabriella was still young, and she had to live through this. He gives her back the photo.
He then tells her something. "It's nearly one in the morning. We better get some sleep."
They both stand up, and he gets Gabriella to bed.
He then falls asleep in his own bed.
The next morning, Gabriella wakes up to find that all is quiet. "Hello? Anyone?" She gets up from bed, brushes her hair, and looks around the house. "Sir? Are you home?" She is looking around, and then she finds his bedroom. It turns out, he's still asleep. "Sir?"
He doesn't wake up.
This worries Gabriella. She goes onto the bed and pokes his mask. "Meta Knight?"
He then wakes up after she says his name a little louder. "Calm down, child." He gently pushes her away, making her let go of him. "I'm fine. I was only asleep."
"Sorry to wake you up...I was just concerned."
"I understand." He sits up and faces her. "If I could-"
"You can ask me anything."
He is surprised that she already knew. "...Does anyone of your family live here?"
Her stomach drops. "...They're all dead."
His eyes widen. "They're dead?"
Her one good eye tears up, and her voice cracks. "Nightmare killed them all. I witnessed all of their deaths." She pauses. "The only deaths I didn't see were my parents'. I don't know how either of them died, but I saw everyone else die right in front of my very eyes, and Nightmare killed them."
His heart breaks. He's already lived enough torture with Nightmare, but...she must only be 8 years old, and yet, she's already suffering as much pain as he does today.
Just the look on her face kills him a little inside.
He gives her a hug to help, and she cries in his arms, a sorrowful scene.
"It's all right, child. You're not the only one."
She sniffs and tries to stop crying. "I'm not?"
"No. Many have suffered because of Nightmare, including me."
She wriggles out of his grasp and runs off to her room. She hates talking about Nightmare and her family.
He feels absolutely terrible.
A few minutes later, he comes into her room to see her crying quietly on her bed. He goes to her.
She hears him and looks up to see him. "What do you want?"
"I want to ask you something." He hops onto the bed and faces her.
"Go ahead."
"Why did Nightmare kill your family?"
Her eye widens. "I can't tell you right now." She pulls the blankets over her. "Go away."
He backs away and off the bed. "It was just a question I need for you to answer."
"Go away!"
He does so and closes the door behind him on the way out, wondering why Gabriella was angry all of a sudden.
She looks through the blankets, tears running down her face, and she rips off the bandage covering her other eye. It is healing, but there is still blindness in that eye. Other than that, it looks normal.
She then says one sentence in a definite voice: "I don't want him to speak to me ever again."
