A light blue warpstar came crashing into Popstar. It landed in a small village, behind a bush. The light blue Starili appeared out of the warpstar as it opened. Inside, was a beautiful baby kirby, light blue with a small tuft of hair. Valerie, her name was. The starili proclaimed herself Valerili. She was ready.

The moon was full, and the night was cool. Valerili watched over Valerie all night. She envisioned a great future for her, and only wished she could be with her for her whole life. But sadly, a starili must leave a kirby when s/he is old enough to not need one, or when they find another guardian. And kirbies will forget they even had one. The thought saddened her, but it was tradition. Valerili would enjoy the time she had with her. Then she would go back to live in the Starili realm.

The morning came, and Valerili was up early. She needed to find a shelter. A small bush wouldn't be a very good house. Valerili closed Valerie's warpstar and started to look for a place. The village they had landed in was pretty small, and it seemed to be the kind that wakes up early. Everyone was outside socializing.

Of course, no one else she saw was a kirby. This was troubling. How could she find Valerie a friend of her own species? Maybe she would learn to interact with other kinds of creatures...? Starili didn't know much about other species. They were only responsible for kirbies.

Valerili made herself invisible and flew through the village. She noticed a Bronto Burt mailman delivering daily mail. There were a couple of Twizzy playing near a small tree while a Tooky monitored. In the center of the village, there was a fountain, where several Blippy splashed about. The town seemed to be inhabited by a lot of Cappy's, but there were certainly a lot of Broom Hatters too. There was even a cute Scarfy family eating breakfast in their house. At least, they were cute until they started eating...

As she continued exploring the village, Valerili noticed a few Lovelies who were gossiping. A small Gator was creeping up on them but got a scolding.

After fully exploring the village, Valerili concluded that it was mostly populated by Cappies, Bronto Burts, Broom Hatters, and a slightly less amount of Scarfies. It was a very versatile place. Everyone seemed to know each other, too. It was peaceful, quiet, and nice. She wondered if a place like this would be accepting of kirbies. She had heard stories of a certain pink puffball with a huge appetite and couldn't control it, so he ate everything in sight. That must not have been pretty. But by her knowledge, he was the only one that could inhale. Hopefully this village didn't have any bad experiences with kirbies.

Thinking about all this made Valerili lose concentration, thus making her visible again. Unluckily for her, she was in the sight of a bunch of people. A few people started to gather around her. They were giving her weird looks. A young Cappy came up to her and asked, "Hello? Who are you?" Valerili stared at her for a little. She wasn't sure how to answer the question. She tried to remember what she had been taught if she ever had an encounter with another being. Lying wouldn't get her anywhere, so she said told truths.

"My name is Valerili, and I have come here to see if this village is a safe place for a young puffball to live here."

An older Bronto Burt observed the conversation and but in. "There are no vacant houses at the moment. But if it's just one creature then you might be able to live with someone else if they let you. Could we see this puffball?"

Valerili sighed and led anyone interested to the bush. She opened the light blue warpstar and inside was Valerie, asleep and peaceful. "This is Valerie. I'm her Starili." Everyone sighed in awe, not knowing what a Starili is but not really caring at the moment. The Bronto Burt eyed her suspiciously. A pair of Cappy children came up to Valerie pleading.

"Can we keep her can we can we?" Valerili smiled at the eager duo and agreed. She hoped Valerie would make a lot of friends here and grow up to be a friendly puffball. She followed the Cappy Children back to their house, and anyone else followed behind.

In the house, Valerie was placed in a bed. There she rested for the rest of day. Valerili was given permission to stay in the Cappy's house as well. When night came, she made a sudden realization. Valerie could now be in the care of these Cappy and the villagers. Which would mean that she had found another guardian, and she would have to leave Valerie. But she didn't want to leave so soon. Valerili started to get nervous. She had just made friends with the inhabitants of this village, and she didn't want to leave them. Maybe if she explained, then they would understand? But what if that sounded selfish and they hated her for it... All of the possibilities were making her head spin. Looking at Valerie's adorable face once more made up her mind.

Valerili carefully took her stem and held Valerie in it. As quietly as she could, she snuck out of the house and back to the bush, where she had left the warpstar. She placed Valerie in it gently and closed it. Then she was feeling tired, so she curled up beside the warpstar and went to sleep.

The next morning, the warpstar was open. Had she opened it in her sleep...? Valerili hastily looked around for any signs of Valerie, then saw her quite near. She had a yellow berry in her stub shaped like a star. Starberries. It seems that she had figured out how to escape her warpstar, very early in fact. Valerili was surprised by this.

Valerie couldn't walk very well still, but she had done a combination of crawling and rolling to reach the berry, which she was now sucking on. Valerili thought Valerie was special. She had learned to do simple things rather quickly. She smiled at her. Levitating over to her, she tried to pick her up with her stem, but Valerie didn't seem to want to be carried, so she squirmed around. Valerili frowned. Maybe learning things fast wasn't the best thing. Noticing a starberry Valerie was trying to get, Valerili snatched it and hovered over the warpstar. Valerie started to crawl over there, and eventually sat inside the warpstar. Valerili closed it, and picked it up, storing it in starili space. Starili space was a small storage system that could only hold one object, a warpstar. It was ideal for carrying around that big thing without causing stress on the stem.

Flying around for a while, Valerili was trying to find a place where there wouldn't be anyone else. Sure, she wants Valerie to have friends and grow up in an environment with actual people, but she also doesn't want to let her go. It would have been best leaving her in the village, but her slight selfishness had caused her to not. Valerili started to remember that her traits would affect Valerie, meaning that she might become selfish too. Valerili tried not to think about it, and continued searching for a place.

In the warpstar, Valerie was eating the several starberries she had brought with her. Which is to say, 2. She wanted to leave the warpstar, but the seal was stronger this time. Valerie pouted.

After a while, Valerili spotted a cave near a lake. She flew towards it, and there didn't seem to be anyone there. Exploring the cave a little, she concluded it was vacant. The convenient water source nearby was a plus. Valerili flew into the cave and placed the warpstar inside. She let Valerie out and she was happily sucking on her starberries. "OK, Valerie. This is our home until further notice. Make yourself comfortable." Valerili flew outside to get some water. Using her stem, she materialized a glass, and filled it with water from the lake. Valerili flew back inside and handed it to Valerie. "You must be thirsty. Those berries seem pretty dry." Valerie took the water and started sipping it.

Kirbies have always been creatures that learn quickly. At least, most of the time. In a few days, Valerie could already speak sentences, and walk without tripping. Her hair was starting to grow a little too. Some of Valerili's traits were starting to show through. But she also was fairly loud and talkative. And a little sassy. But it was also after a few days where problems started to arise...

Valerie started having coughing fits. Whenever she coughed, a small star shaped object would come out, and it was pale yellow. This troubled Valerili, and she had no idea how to fix it. Valerie started complaining a lot about this, and no matter how much she drank water, the coughing wouldn't stop. The stars kept coming.

Eventually there was a big pile of them in the cave that they didn't know what to do with. They stars that were coughed got bigger slightly each day, and it was more and more worrying as Valerie started to complain about her "throat" hurting. One time, she coughed up a star with bits of blood.

Valerili couldn't let this go on for much longer. She told Valerie to stay put, and to drink more water. Valerili flew out of the cave in search of that village. It wasn't that hard to find. At first, she stayed invisible to see what was going on in the town. Everything seemed normal. Still invisible, she visited the Cappy twin's house. Even after a few days, they were whining about where the puffball had gone. This made Valerili feel horrible about herself. She flew out into the center of the town and levitated above the fountain. Then, she made herself visible. "Attention! Can I have everyone's attention!?" she announced. People started to gather. "Does this town have a library, or any place where I can find books?"

The Bronto Burt mailman had flew over to her with a mean glare. "You decide to show your face back here after suspiciously disappearing? Why did you leave immediately after looking for a place to stay?" he asked.

Valerili didn't want to tell him the reason. She didn't have time for this. "That's not important now! I need someone to guide me to a library or SOMETHING!"

"And why do you need to find a book?" Bronto Burt asked.

"BECAUSE SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH VALERIE AND I HAVE NO INFORMATION!"

The Cappy twins heard Valerie's name and rushed outside to meet Valerili. "Something's wrong with Valerie?" They asked simultaneously. Pretty soon the whole village was filled with concern and chatter. There were many different emotions happening. Suspicion from Bronto Burt, worry from the Cappies, concern from most everyone, and only a few didn't care at all. Her stem started to faintly glow with all the contrast in emotions. The tip was glowing furiously, and Valerili quickly pointed it to the sky as it shot a beam of purple light. It lasted for a minute. Everyone stared at her. The stem calmed down. "...Can someone just please..."

The cappy twins said "F-follow us!" and lead Valerili to the village library. The rest of the village was too in shock to follow. The Bronto Burt only followed out of suspicion.

Valerili quickly skimmed the books in the library before finding one about diseases. She quickly eyed the table of contents to find anything that might be related to stars or coughing. When she found nothing, she flipped through the pages until she found a picture of a Starberry. Her eyes widened in horror as she predicted what she was about to read.

"Spatibio Disease

Not much is known about this disease. A certain fruit called "Starberries" carry it in them. However, only kirbies seem to be affected by it. Older kirbies have a less likely chance of getting the disease, as they would have to eat more for it to even affect them. Younger kirbies however, only need to eat one to acquire the disease. It will easily affect a kirby that has not properly matured yet, and can be extremely fatal if not treated. Which brings to the worst part; if the virus is not removed within about 2 days of eating the berry, then it will have spread too much to be cured. Therefore, the kirby will surely die from it. It is advisable to all kirbies to stay away from Starberries because of this. They are very dry, so the taste isn't very preferable anyway.

Symptoms include: Having frequent coughing fits, coughing up small stars, sore throats, and coughing blood. It is very painful to live with, even if you won't live too long after acquiring it."

Valerili couldn't read anymore. She shut the book and shoved it back into place and flew as fast as she could back to the cave. There, she found Valerie in a major coughing fit, and the star pile was at least 2 times bigger than when she left. Valerili cried looking at her. She didn't want to tell her she would die soon. She wanted to spend as much time as possible with her now. But it was kind of hard now when she just wouldn't stop coughing. She didn't know how much longer Valerie had, but it wasn't long. It's already been a few days.

Now all the connections were coming back to her. If she hadn't left the village, then Valerie wouldn't have eaten those berries, and wouldn't have gotten the disease, and wouldn't die sooner than she should. But no, Valerili took the selfish path and wanted to care for her more, leading to Valerie eating the berries and now death very soon. She felt extremely stupid for everything she had done. But she wanted another chance. A chance that she wouldn't get.

She flew close to Valerie, and put her stem around her. Valerie looked back, tears in her eyes. Her stubs had blood on them. Valerili whispered, "I'm so sorry..."

"What's going to happen to me?" Valerie screamed.

Valerili couldn't take it. She had to tell her. "Valerie, you're...you're going to die very soon..." Valerie's eyes widened at this.

"W-what?" she managed to ask through her tears.

"Those Starberries you ate...they-" Valerie interupted her.

"No... I mean... what does it m-mean to die...?" Valerie asked slowly.

It occurred to Valerili that she had never taught her about death. She didn't teach her a lot of things, but Valerie knew quite a bit already. Starili can share some basic knowledge with their kirbies, but some topics had to be explainied by themselves.

Realizing that Valerie did not know what death was, she figured she could make Valerie not be scared, and she wouldn't tell her what death really is.

"To... to die is to fall into... uh, a very deep sleep, for... a few days... and during that time, everything you could ever imagine will become real in your mind... Kind of like a more realistic dream...! And when you wake up, you'll...you'll be cured of this terrible condition you have...! Yeah..." Valerili tried to explain. She was a better liar than she thought.

Valerie coughed again. "If dying is s-so good... then why are you crying...? Why are you so sorry that I'm going to die...?"

Valerili internally struggled to think of something to back up her lie. "Because, um, you'll be asleep for a few days... and during that time I would miss you...and be lonely... And there are also tears of joy, for when you get cured!"

Valerie seemed to believe that. She smiled and blinked slowly.

As Valerili continued to hold Valerie in her stem, many thoughts were rushing through her mind. She felt even more terrible about telling that lie. But it was for the best... to keep Valerie's last moments happy... so she wouldn't be afraid...

But all that kept coming back into her train of thought was how stupid she had been. Valerie could have had a good life, but she had ruined it by taking her out of the village. She was the indirect cause of Valerie getting sick. She hadn't prevented Valerie from eating the berries, but how could she know they were terrible? Starili don't know everything.

She snapped back to reality when Valerie was trying to get her attention. "V-valerili, I'm feeling strange... a-am I dying..?" she asked slowly.

Valerie lost all balance and collapsed on her back on the ground. "Y-yes, Valerie...your body is just weakening itself to prepare for the long sleep...you'll be okay...you'll be okay..."

"I'll be... o-okay..." Valerie repeated as she started to close her eyes. Her breathing gradually got slower and slower, until it stopped all together.

Valerili flew closer to her. She started to cry harder. "If only there was a way... I could bring you back... have another chance..."

She felt herself starting to glow. Soon she would be transported back to the Starili Realm, and probably be depressed for life. She wasn't ready to go back. She didn't want to leave Valerie. She wrapped her stem around her and tried her best at hugging her. She would not let go.

The glowing brightened. It started to engulf her in light. But Valerili was holding on to Valerie, and the light was engulfing her, too. Not paying attention to the light around her, Valerili kept whispering to herself and crying into Valerie. Soon the light veiled them completely.

And they both disappeared.