AN: Warning- Spoiler alert. If you haven't played through the first Klonoa game, I suggest you tread carefully, because I expose key plot elements in this one shot. Sorry.
Klonoa threaded through the luscious blades of grass. They swayed in the caressing breeze, an eternal sky looming over the meadow. He picked up a pink flower keeled over on one side. Its color faded as if the wonderful life had been sucked from its fragile petals, and the life that once flourished within the flower drowned in death itself. Klonoa plucked the withering flower from it's roots and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger, admiring the inner beauty it once bestowed upon the world.
With a heavy sigh, the Cabbit placed the flower in his woven basket next to the other dead flowers of various lusterless hues.
"Another one down, hundreds more to go..." Klonoa sighed and wiped the fur on his forehead dampened with perspiration. He turned around and glanced at Lephise with a pleading look in his eyes. "I need a break, Lephise, I've been doing this for hours..."
Lephise, with her round, purple cap and gleaming aqua-marine eyes, let out a soft sigh, gazing upon Klonoa's hard work. "Just a few more flowers, Klonoa. Remember, you owe this world for your greedy decision."
Klonoa stared at the grass below: the sunlight reflected off it's glossy features. "Lephise... you don't have to remind me every time I want a break. You're making me feel bad."
She picked up a pale blue flower and held it in her hand. "Think of Phantomile, Klonoa. You've halted it's natural process of rebirth for your own selfish gain. And now you must pay for it. I hate to be harsh, but I can't sing my song because of you." Lephise walked up to the Cabbit's basket and dropped the flower inside. She gazed into his eyes. "Just a few more flowers." The songstress turned around. The crystal blue orbs on both sides of her cap swung their golden pieces of silver frayed ends, attempting to match her movement as if they had minds of their own.
Klonoa went back to work. He snatched a few more dead flowers and tossed them in his basket. He glanced at Lephise once more. She smiled at him. The Cabbit took this as a signal to head back to BreezeGale.
Tall white stoned structures surrounded Klonoa as he continued towards his home. Each of these towers had either an orange or red mushroom shaped roof, accompanied by a small chimney. The Cabbit ran along stone brick paths, eager to get back home. However, Klonoa took a mere second to admire the main attraction of BreezeGale: the large windmill in the center. It supplied power for the residents by generating it with wind amongst other smaller windmills. When Klonoa neared his orange roofed abode, he imagined his Granpa sitting on a rocking chair in front, but the poor Cabbit remembered that his Granpa died a while back.
"Granpa..." Klonoa mumbled, looking down at the spot in which the elder usually sat. The Cabbit shook his head. "No, no more tears, Granpa would've wanted me to live a happy life. No use thinking about the past." He headed inside and plopped down on his blue bed covers.
"Something wrong, Klonoa?" Huepow, the prince of the Moon Kingdom, asked, sitting in a chair next to Klonoa's bed.
"Just tired..." Klonoa replied, his voice muffled by the bed covers.
"Rebuilding the world is tough, huh?"
Klonoa nodded.
"At least you get to stay here," Huepow said with a smile. "I think the work is worth it."
The Cabbit lifted himself up and faced the prince donned in a light blue helmet and similar colored garbs. He huffed. "Easy for you to say, you don't have to do anything."
"Yeah, well, at least you get a break."
Klonoa sighed. "True." He crashed back down on the covers.
"Do you want to rest, Klonoa? I can let you rest, if you want."
"Sure."
Huepow stood up and jerked his body towards the door: his red cape flapped behind him for a moment in response to the sudden gesture. When Huepow left the house, Klonoa stood up and sat on the edge of his bed. "I can't just lay around during my break. I gotta do something, even though I'm exhausted." The Cabbit leaped from his bed and staggered towards the wooden arched door. As he reached for the door knob, the door swung open, and Klonoa jumped back just in time to avoid getting hit by the door.
"L-Lephise?!" Klonoa's eyes widened. "What are you doing here?"
"Break's over. I need your help over at the Jugpot Kingdom. Their water supply has been stopped somehow, and they need someone to help fix it."
"Why me?"
"Because if you don't do it, Forlock Forest will have no water to feed the nature surrounding it."
"Lephise... I've been working nonstop for days, please get someone else to do it."
"I'm sorry, it's your responsibility since you're hindering my ability to sing. Now, lets go."
I'm starting to regret stopping her from singing her Song of Rebirth. Because now, I have to somehow heal Phantomile of it's wounds, and yet that's supposed to be Lephise's job. "Fine..."
Klona left a note for Huepow stating where he would be, and he and Lephise traveled to Jugpot to solve the mysterious water blockage problem.
During their journey, Klonoa had second doubts about keeping up with this staggering responsibility. It was a huge weight on his shoulders that he couldn't lift, nor could he take it off without Lephise's voice.
"Is what Huepow said really true? Is this work really worth it? These memories of mine, they were all fabricated by Huepow in an attempt to persuade me in saving this world, and yet... I don't know who I truly am or where I really came from. Do I stay with these comforting lies, or do I set out to scavenge the truth?"
They arrived at the Jugpot Kingdom and headed towards a giant water mill attached to a shell shaped palace slightly submerged in the water. Underneath the mill, a wavey image of a Moo with bubbles rising up to the surface caught the Cabbit's attention. "That's what the problem was?" Klonoa said with a little more scorn than he wanted.
"Yes, that's the source of the problem, please remove it, Klonoa."
The Cabbit Sighed. "You've gotta be kidding me... they could've done this themselves!" Klonoa dropped down below into the depths and swam to towards the mill.
"Totally not worth it."
He reached the Moo's supposed position and dived in, taking a deep breath before plunging below. Swimming down as deep as he could, Klonoa grabbed ahold of the Moo and tried to wriggle it free, but with no luck. By this time, the Moo could be on it's last seconds of air, despite Klonoa not knowing how long the little adorable creature could've been in there. Maybe they have large lungs?
Klonoa scrambled back to the surface, the need to fill his own lungs stifling his progress. After a few more deep breaths, Klonoa took the plunge again and attempted to break the Moo free. The Moo, which looked at Klonoa with pleading eyes, didn't blow anymore bubbles out of it's mouth. Signaling to Klonoa that the Moo had no air, the Cabbit hastened his pace and shook the Moo out of desperation. It still didn't budge.
Klonoa desired air once more, and almost pushed the dire need away, but gave in and swam back up to the surface. With a few heavy pants, Klonoa took a few more inhales and went back down again to rescue the Moo. When he reached the adorable enemy once more, it didn't even acknowledge his existence, It's eyes gazed at the cold abyss around him, and Klonoa, upon realizing this, accidently let out most of his air in shock.
With a cluster of bubbles smothering his vision, Klonoa ascended to the surface and looked up at Lephise. The songstress, judging by the Cabbit's stern expression, ran over to a rocky ledge closest to the water. Klonoa swam over to Lephise and grabbed ahold of her hand. She helped him out of the water.
"Did you remove the Moo from the Mill?"
Klonoa didn't look her in the eyes, only shaking his head in response.
"So, did it...?"
Klonoa nodded.
"I'm sorry, Klonoa, I didn't intend for you to witness that."
"Just... leave me alone from now on, okay? Klonoa glared at her. "Sing your stupid song while you're at it, too." The Cabbit clambered up the ascending rocky ledges leading back to the main path, leaving the songstress behind.
"I can't believe this... all of this just to stay here. Even when it's not worth it. My friends, my memories, even my life isn't real here. It doesn't matter. My real life is out there, somewhere, amongst the sky of dreams. I just gotta find it..."
A sound filled Klonoa's floppy ears. It was her voice, the songstress Lephise was singing her song. The Song of Rebirth. Her voice is so beautiful, yet the impact is stupendous. The wind picked up, knocking his ears around like they were just light feathers in the breeze. He glanced up at the sky, a black void appeared and began to pull him towards it. The Cabbit looked down at Lephise, she faced him with tears in her eyes. And yet, Klonoa shedded tears of his own. But not because he lost something dear to him.
He had a new future to find, one where he could create his own memories and his own happiness. A future where all his dreams could come true. All in one motion, Klonoa didn't resist the pull from the void, and let himself get pulled in.
"I'm finally going home..."