Author's Note: You'll have to bear with me, I've started college and I can barely find some free time except for sleep and school work. But this is still going and I will finish this, it will even be kinda long for a fanfiction, at least from the plan I fleshed out. Have a good read! And thanks for all those who faved and followed! Although I don't always answer to reviews, feel free to leave some so I know what people think. Thank you!

Kirby left the castle that same evening, when he took notice, after supper, that the rain and wind had finally stopped. It was still quite windy, but he was still happy nonetheless to go back home. Despite his rather good mood, he had developped a headache over the afternoon, and it wouldn't leave him in peace. He wasn't usually prone to headaches… He normally would eat anything whenever he got one and it would go away, but this was one nasty parasite clinging to his head. Oh well, he told himself, maybe he just needed to sleep it away, like he always did. He could only imagine his bed, his comfy night hat he received a few years back for his birthday, and feel sleepy already.

Head in the clouds, he walked slowly toward the village, staring at the black sky in hopes of seeing one or two stars. All he saw were clouds and a few shadows he thought were probably bats or birds. Once again, he briefly thought about what could be hiding behind the clouds, beyond Popstar's sky… He imagined himself on a cloud, and felt even more sleepy. His bed… Changing his mind from going through the village, he took a shortcut through the watermelon fields, melons that he couldn't wait to see grown and eatable, and soon, he was at his house.

Unfortunately, his quest for sleep was countered by a wave of agitated dreams and nightmares that kept him tossing and turning through the night, terrible visions that defied reality. There were eyes everywhere he looked, black pupils that would laugh at him, and he would run. Wherever he would go, a dark cloud would pursue him and consume everything and everyone he met. He found Fumu, disappearing in the blackness, he saw his friends, being chased and hunted down, the eyes flew after him and continued laughing, and he could only run away from the voices. Without placing even a logical sense to these dreams, Kirby woke up in a cold sweat, gasping and breathing heavily in a frenzy. It took him a few minutes to calm himself, and he turned to look around in his house. It was relatively empty. The TV was black, the curtains were closed, the walls were empty… No eyes to stare at him and laugh. He breathed out deeply and put his head back on his pillow, closing his eyes to get some rest before getting up. Even with his eyes closed, tears streamed down the sides of his face and he could only rub them away. How he couldn't stand to have nightmares… It was very odd though. He hadn't had a bad dream in a very long time… He didn't recall having such sleeping problems before. Was that what Fumu called growing up? She did say something about not knowing that much about his species, despite the many known warriors that were like him. Breathing in and out deeply, he made a mental note to ask Sir Meta Knight about it. Maybe it was just a trait of growing up and he didn't have to worry. He tried not to keep his hopes too high, however…

It took him all his will to slide out of his covers, and he remained sitting there a moment longer, trying to recollect his thoughts. He rubbed his head and took his hat off to stare at it.

"What's wrong with me…?"

The words echoed in his head like drums and he rubbed his temples, groaning. Taking another deep breath, he finally stood up to open the curtains. It was morning and, surprisingly, the sun was already a ways up. What time was it? He left the little dome house quickly, hoping the fresh air would make him feel better. He closed his door slowly and stared ahead, blinking his eyes so they could adjust to the sudden brightness. Tokkori had slept in the tree, but he was no longer there. Looking at the horizon, he could see, far away, that black clouds were coming this way, but it would still take time before they covered Pupupuland again, so he could at least see the sun for a bit today. He stretched his arms out, pushing his dizziness away, and started the walk toward the village.

Outside in the fields, things were quite a mess after the winds from yesterday, but now it was calm, silent. He was quite happy that he couldn't hear those laughs here, he could stand there and calm himself. However, when he stepped into the village, things were quite different. The children in the streets were silent and whispered among themselves, almost too shy to play. Adults were in groups and doing their usual jobs, but they, too, looked worried. As he passed by, confused, many looked his way and their faces changed from concerned to relieved. What was happening here? Did everyone have nightmares or something?

When he arrived in the main square of the village, he stopped, surprised. There, he saw Mayor Len, surrounded by a large group of complaining cappys. They were all speaking at the same time, and the poor man looked confused and was stuttering answers that didn't seem to please anyone. Kirby remained standing there and looked around. What a mess the place was… Many houses and shops had their windows broken and their doors in pieces. Had the storm been that bad out here…? Looking around, he saw many other people who were simply waiting for the mayor to speak up and, among them, he saw Samo and Mabel on the sidewalk. Seeking answers, he walked up to them and Mabel smiled at him.

"Oh hello Kirby."

"Hi! Um, did something happen here?" he asked carefully.

They both looked at each other, then turned to him, eyes worried and eyebrows crossed.

"There was some kind of wild animal that went on a rampage yesterday," she said. "It broke everything!"

"The others say it was a demon-beast," Samo spoke up, his calm voice shaking at these words.

Kirby froze too.

"A… demon-beast?" he repeated. "But…"

"They say that," Mabel started, "because the animal hurt Dyna Blade's chick. It came down here yesterday after the storm, and some people heard horrible noises in the street, and that's when the animal went around to break everything."

Kirby didn't listen to anything else they could have said. A demon-beast? Back here? But… How? He knew that there were still demon-beasts out there, and that was why Knuckle Joe and Silica had left together to hunt them down, but here? Where had it come from? He was pulled out of his thoughts when a sudden shriek echoed throughout the whole town, silencing everyone. Heads were raised, eyes searching, but the shriek was followed by a familiar roar and someone shouted:

"Dyna Blade!"

"Hide!"

The wind suddenly rose up in every direction, forcing Kirby to shield his eyes, but he still tried to look up as everyone else ran to shelter around him. All he saw was a blur in the sky as Dyna Blade flew high above the land and the winds suddenly grew even worse. He was forced to turn around and run over to Kawasaki's, where many others were waiting for it to end. While they were talking among themselves about how angry the legendary bird was, Kirby was looking out the window. Of course, Dyna Blade was nowhere to be seen and the winds were already calming down, but it made Kirby even more worried. The last time she had been like this was when her chick had ran away from the nest and had lost its way. If Dyna Baby was injured, she was probably looking for the culprit.

The moment the doors opened, he ran out before anyone else and went immediately in the direction of the mountain. However, he wasn't even out of the village that he was stopped by a voice coming from behind him.

"Kirby! Wait!"

He turned around and saw Fumu and Bun, running toward him. He waited for the two siblings, and while Fumu had to take a moment to catch her breath, Bun was already speaking normally. His training with Sword and Blade was quite effective it seemed.

"Are you going to Dyna Blade's mountain?" he asked, to which Kirby nodded in simple response. "We're coming with you."

"Sir Meta Knight… gave us medicine," Fumu breathed out, straightening herself back up. She showed him a small leather pouch she was grasping tightly in her hand. "He said he was taking care of the demon-beast. We're worried about Dyna Baby too."

Kirby suddenly felt a huge relief wash over him, lifting a weight off his heart. Despite the awful way this day had started, things were already looking better. Now accompanied by Fumu and Bun, he continued on his way out of the town and toward the mountain trail. It took them some time to get there, for everytime Dyna Blade flew overhead, they had to stop and brace themselves until the raging winds stopped. It was a long trek in the woods and in the open, but soon they were climbing the last part of the road up the silent mountain. Dyna Blade was far away near the village, so they were free to go into her cave. Nothing had changed here, except the chick's old down laying around in fluffy piles and giant knives feathers that belonged to the mother. Kirby looked around as Fumu and Bun walked forward toward the nest to look inside.

"Dyna Baby?" Fumu called softly. "Are you here?"

The silence lasted for a moment longer until they all heard a quiet chirp from the nest, followed by a sad whistle. Kirby quickly walked up to the nest and, getting on his tip-toes, took a look inside. There he saw the chick, laid down on his side in a pile of warm feathers. The young bird blinked at them, and once he saw Kirby, he tried getting up on his feet, but he tripped and fell back on his side.

"You poor thing…," Fumu said as she and Kirby jumped in the nest.

"I'll go keep an eye out in case Dyna Blade comes back," Bun called before running off to the entrance of the cave.

While Fumu took out the pouch and prepared the medicine and the bandages, Kirby walked up to Dyna Baby's head and petted it carefully. The bird looked up at him, chirping quietly. With careful moves, Kirby helped him on his back and tried to see where the injury was. It was only when Dyna Baby moved a wing from his chest that they saw it; a long gash that went from his shoulder to the middle of his torso. The small growing feathers around the injury were a mess, dried blood was stuck to the edges and the skin under the feathers was red. Fumu came up and tried to clean most of the feathers and the dried blood that would be in the way, saying mostly to herself:

"If its infected, I'll need to come here much more often than I thought…"

She applied the disinfectant first and Kirby had to hold the bird down when he cried out and flapped his wings, trying to hit Fumu with his claws. With one arm, Fumu held his legs down and continued her job with the other, until Kirby managed to relieve her of this task. The moment she was done with the disinfectant, she applied the thick, green and brown medicine that Sir Meta Knight gave her all over the gash. It seemed to relieve the pain for Dyna Baby stopped flapping his wings after a moment and settled down, eyes large and confused. Once she had used it all, she wrapped the bandages around his torso to cover the injury. She finally stepped back and breathed out.

"Is he going to be okay?" Kirby asked as Dyna Baby rubbed his face against him, apparently thankful.

"I think so," she answered, putting away all the cleaning equipment back in the pouch. "I'm not a doctor, but I think it could have been worse, considering he spent a whole night without treatment. Let's just hope Sir Meta Knight's remedy works."

She left back to the entrance to check on her brother, and Kirby stayed a moment longer with his friend. Dyna Baby seemed confused about the white cloth around his torso and Kirby stopped him a few times from pecking at it, showing him that he shouldn't do that. Seeing the young bird slowly going back to sleep in his nest, Kirby breathed out a deep sigh of relief, closing his eyes to try and keep the headache from thumping against his skull. The nest was so warm and fluffy, so comfortable… He felt like sleeping here…

"You coming, Kirby?" Fumu called out to him. "We'll come back later to check on him, Dyna Blade might come back any minute!"

The young Star Warrior breathed out again and stood up, careful not to wake up Dyna Baby as he stepped out of the nest. If they were lucky, Sir Meta Knight might already have found the demon-beast, but Kirby didn't want to put his hopes this high.

When they came back in the village, Kirby followed Fumu to where Dyna Baby had been attacked the previous night, while Bun left to go find Sword and Blade and see how things were doing about the search. Apparently, they had been patrolling the perimeter of the village and the fields since the incident happened. When he was alone with Fumu, Kirby couldn't help a little chuckle.

"Bun really is interested in being a knight, uh?"

She laughed in return and answered:

"Seems that way! I'm happy that he found what he wanted to do, even if it may be temporary. He has a lot of energy and I think it's a good way to spend it. We're lucky that Nightmare's gone, he won't have to go to war and endanger himself."

"You're right…"

Nightmare was gone, he thought to himself, but still his creations were there, injuring his friends and scaring the people.

"Are you okay, Kirby?"

He stopped walking when he noticed that Fumu had stopped, and he turned to face her, blinking. One thing that had changed in Fumu's personality as she grew was that she was more observant, aware of what people felt. Maybe it was a side effect of taking care of him as a baby for so long that affected her this way. Now she was looking at him, face gentle and green eyes expressing clear worry. Somehow, that face made him feel guilty… He shook his head and smiled reassuringly.

"I'm okay. I didn't sleep well last night. I had a few weird dreams…" He stopped suddenly, thinking over what he said. "No, not weird… They were nightmares…I don't… usually have bad dreams, so I guess I'm not used to it."

Looking up at her, he smiled and walked up to her to take her hands.

"It'll get better later, don't worry. I don't like when you worry, you make weird faces."

She smiled and chuckled a bit, lifting a hand to rub his head tenderly.

"I'll never stop worrying about you, Kirby. Although I wish I could help you… Bad dreams can happen to anyone, that's all I can tell you."

Fumu bent down and hugged him lovingly, hands rubbing his back. A content smile on his face, Kirby leaned against her and closed his eyes for a moment. At this instant, they both had no idea how much she had helped him that day.

Finally they made it to the area of the attack. The only sign that there was an actual assault was the dried blood that dirtied the stones of the road, and Kirby walked up to the stains to get a closer look. There were two splashes on the ground, one clearly larger than the other. Other than that, he noticed a few claw scratches on the stones as well, but there was nothing else. As Fumu finished explaining that Dyna Baby had probably injured the beast back, they both heard a familiar voice call from behind them. Turning around, they saw Sir Meta Knight, wrapped tightly in his cape, standing on the roof of a nearby house. Kirby bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing or making a comment, for his mentor seemed to be struggling with holding down his cape in the strong winds up there.

"Sir Meta Knight!" Fumu called out. "How are things doing out there? Any sign of the demon-beast?"

So their conversation wouldn't be heard, or to go away from the winds, Meta Knight jumped down from the house and landed a few feet away from them, shoulder pads clanking against his mask. Pushing his funny thoughts away, Kirby was glad to see he was feeling better already.

"There are still no sign of the demon-beast," he told them. "Dyna Blade's rampaging winds don't make it easy to search the countryside. How about her chick? How is it?"

"I used a good part of the medicine you gave me. The injury was actually larger than I would have thought…"

"I think he'll be okay," Kirby said. "Dyna Blade will take care of him."

Meta Knight nodded to approve silently and they both turned to Fumu when she asked quietly:

"Do you have an idea of where that demon-beast came from…?"

Kirby looked back at Meta Knight as he slowly shook his head.

"No, I don't. All we can do for now is wait and see. For all we know, it could be a wild animal. I would only suggest you don't walk alone at night. Sword, Blade and I will continue patrolling tonight."

"What about Bun? Is he…?"

"Even if he wants to, he will not come. I don't want to endanger him like this." Without adding more to the subject, he turned to Kirby, eyes unreadable. "Our training will have to wait some more, Kirby. I apologize. And now, if you'll excuse me…"

With these final words, the knight spun around and jumped back on the roof to leave, still holding tightly to his cape. Kirby watched his back disappear in the distance until Fumu touched his hand to get his attention. She gestured toward the castle.

"I think we should go see what Dedede's doing," she proposed. "Even though the probabilities are low, there's still a chance he's got something to do behind all this. Remember the demon-maker serum?"

He nodded. Maybe the demon-beast that had ravaged the town had just been some unlucky animal that drank the serum and went berserk. However, as they were about to leave town and arrived in the central square, there they saw Dedede, atop his prized car, he and Escargon surrounded by dozens of cappys. Apparently, the villagers too had thought about Dedede maybe being the culprit. They ran over, hoping not to have missed too much of the event, and they heard the one thing that told them everything.

"For your information, that thing wrecked my castle too! And I can't order anything anymore, I thought we were through with that!"

"His Majesty is done playing with demon-beasts!"

A tremor of whispers washed through the crowd as they thought about their words, and Kirby sighed, before turning to Fumu.

"Do you believe them?"

Her eyebrows were crossed, as if she was thinking hard, and she appeared to be biting her lower lip. It was usually easy to tell when Dedede was lying about something, but even now he looked serious.

"I don't know. Come on."

Immediately, she started pushing through the crowd, muttering a few 'Excuse me!' as she went, and Kirby followed suite before losing her. The mayor was at the front, and he scratched his head confusingly.

"Then, if His Majesty isn't behind this, why is that demon-beast here?" he questioned just as they arrived nearby in front of Dedede's car.

The king turned his head to them and pointed them as if accusingly.

"The demon is probably here to get revenge on Kirby! It's the only thing I can think of!"

All eyes were suddenly turned to him and Kirby could only stare dumbfounded at the king pointing at him.

"Well," he said casually, "it's not really the first time a demon-beast's come here for me, you know. Even if it's here, we just have to find it and-"

"Pff!" Dedede suddenly interrupted, crossing his arms. "A depressed Star Warrior like you won't even sniff out a demon-beast, so don't act so cool with me, puffball!"

There were a few gasps in the crowd and all eyes turned once more to him.

"Depressed…?" he heard mayor Len repeat, like many others.

"Are you feeling alright, Kirby?"

"Are you sad?"

Kirby rubbed his eyes a moment, restraining a groan. How did Dedede know he was feeling weird? Well, now that he thought about it, he hadn't really tried to hide it… Fumu spoke up for him, thankfully.

"Kirby is not depressed, he's just having some trouble sleeping, like many of you as I recall. Are we supposed to believe you when you say you're not scheming anything, Dedede?"

"Of course!" he shouted back. "That demon attacked the Waddle Dees and smashed my window! It's a threat against your honorable king! Since I don't trust puffball here to do the work, I've called some specialists that'll do just fine!"

A wave of murmurs spread across the crowd, and Kirby widened his eyes a little.

"Specialists?" he repeated.

"Who is it that you called, Your Majesty?" Mayor Len asked, surprised that Dedede had taken a decision in their favor.

"Escargon! Show them."

The snail stepped out of the car and walked over to the mayor, handing out what looked like a pamphlet. Everyone gathered around the mayor and Kirby had to squeeze his face through to see what was written. In fancy lettering were the initials D.H.A., all in golden with a sword slicing through from the left. Right under was a small text, which said:

'Are demon-beasts invading your home? You don't know how to get rid of them? Have no fear! The Demon Hunter Agency is your best ally in these dire times. Do not hesitate to call us!'

Opening the paper to the content hidden inside, there were listed all the perks from using the Agency, as well as some kind of number to contact them.

"Demon Hunter Agency?" Gangu read aloud for everyone to know. "What is that?"

"Didn't Knuckle Joe mention something about that a while ago?" Fumu asked toward Kirby, who finally remembered why it seemed so familiar.

"He did, actually. You think he's gonna come here?"

"That little brat ain't coming here!" Dedede snapped as Escargon snatched the pamphlet from the mayor's hands. "They're gonna send a real specialist who'll get rid of that demon under my name! That way y'all know that I didn't summon that thing here!"

"And when is that specialist coming, Your Majesty?" Mayor Len questioned.

"Soon enough! You will all see! Let's go, Escargon!"

The car's tires screeched and caused everyone to flood to the sides to let it pass as Dedede's mocking laugh echoed all around them. They disappeared down the road, leaving everyone speechless, and now awaiting almost anxiously that Demon Hunter specialist. Kirby took in a deep breath, trying to see the right side to this. He wouldn't have to defeat that demon-beast himself, and Sir Meta Knight wouldn't be alone to search for it. He could only wonder who would come, and when.