"All right!" Bandanna Dee exclaimed before hungrily gobbling up the cotton candy he received from one of the many vendors. "I love cotton candy!" Waddle Doo rolled his eye and let off a quiet grumble before paying for the overpriced treat. The two left the stand and began aimlessly walking around the grounds of the annual Dreamland Festival.
The Dreamland Festival, held every April 27th, was essentially a gigantic birthday party held for the kingdom. Records stated that the land was founded centuries ago, created by someone who was most certainly not related to King Dedede whatsoever. The festival honored the land, its people, its history, and nearly anything else one could think of. Featuring food, games and more food, anyone that missed it was sure to have regrets.
Everyone, and I mean everyone attended the festival. Kirby, the Cappies, the King and his royal servants, and even the twin humans Ado and Adeleine would show up now and again. It was good, old-fashioned fun.
Naturally, Waddle Doo wasn't thinking about anything as pleasant as that. "Why do I always have to pay?" he complained.
Bandanna Dee took another bite of cotton candy before responding. "Because you have more money."
"We get the exact same paycheck." Sometimes, Waddle Doo had severe difficulty understanding his friend.
"Yes, but," he tugged at his bandanna, "you don't have to take a bandanna to the Laundromat once a week, now do you? Do you know how expensive and difficult it is to clean a 100% silk bandanna? I didn't think so!"
"Okay, okay, whatever." Waddle Doo said dejectedly. "I give up."
"Hey! Guys!" someone called out from behind a large group of people. The two turned to look toward the source. A few moments passed before Sir Kibble broke through the blockade and nearly lost his bag of popcorn in the process. Upon arrival at the side of his friends, he readjusted the cutter attached to the top of his helmet and said in relief, "Whew. Thought I'd never find you guys." He tossed a couple pieces of popcorn through the slot in his helmet and into his hidden mouth.
"Hi!" Bandanna Dee said mere milliseconds before chomping down on his cotton candy again.
Sir Kibble stood in silence for a few moments before awkwardly asking, "…how do you two eat, exactly? Neither of you even have mouths."
Bandanna Dee made abstract motions with his arm-stubs. "You see, it's…well, actually, we…it's kinda like…sort of…I can't explain it."
"Never mind." Sir Kibble said, finding it not worth pursuing any further. "I don't care that much."
The three wandered around for a while, trying to find an interesting game to play. Everything they looked at was either unimpressive or overpriced. Bandanna Dee spotted a game with small plastic buoys floating in a tub of water. His suggestion was met with a "Sure, why not?" reaction from the other two.
They approached the stand, presided over by a Squishy in a fishing hat. "Welcome to the Buoy Challenge!" he recited the obviously rehearsed words. "Care to give it a shot?"
"Explain the rules, first." Waddle Doo demanded. "I want to make sure we're not getting ripped off."
The Squishy nodded. "Very well." He picked a spare buoy up from the ground, as well as a fishing line and hook. "The object of this game is to fish for the buoys. You use your hook to grab a hold of the buoys," he indicated a small metallic ring attached to the top of the buoy, "and pull them out of the water. You're only allowed forty-five seconds to fish, and you must do it from this platform."
The "platform" was actually just a two-step foot-ladder. Well, it would've been too easy otherwise. "The buoys each have an amount of points on the bottom. At the end of the game, you cash your points in for prizes. But, you need to be careful. Two buoys will eliminate all of your points. You may stop and keep the points you already have at any time you wish."
"How much is it?" Waddle Doo asked.
"Three dollars a person."
Waddle Doo handed the Squishy a ten. "Fine." He turned to his friends and said, "I get to go first." Without awaiting the permission he would've gotten anyway, he climbed the foot-ladder and took the hook presented to him. After a quick session of mixing the buoys around in the tub, the Squishy began the game.
It was a lot more difficult than he expected. The fishing line was barely long enough, and the hook had about as much grip as one of those claw machines. Despite that, his game ended with him having caught two buoys, which amassed him a hundred points. He walked off one candy bar richer.
Sir Kibble went next. About halfway through a rather successful haul of four buoys, he caught one of the buoys that eliminated all points. After recollecting most of his points, he caught the second doom buoy. Zero points awarded him as much oxygen as he wanted.
Bandanna Dee nervously stood on the foot-ladder. He spent half of his game collecting a whole bunch of nothing. The second half saw a massive comeback, however, as he got a lucky string of high-value buoys. Seven hundred and fifty points earned him an oversized stuffed bear.
"Yay!" he said as he gave it an affectionate squeeze.
"What a waste of three dollars." Waddle Doo commented, disgusted. "This candy bar tastes like crud."
"At least you got a prize." Sir Kibble complained, his arms crossed.
"Trust me, no prize at all is better than this horrible thing."
"Lemme try it."
Waddle Doo broke off a chunk from the other end and handed it to Sir Kibble. "Go for it."
Sir Kibble tossed the chunk into the slot in his helmet. A few seconds later, he simply said quietly, "Blech."
The group proceeded to another area, looking for more fun things to do. Sir Kibble dominated in the ring toss, Waddle Doo won without a contest in darts, and Bandanna Dee emerged supreme after a fierce match of that game with the milk bottles. Saying that it was a pleasant evening would be a disgusting understatement.
A couple hours later, the friends were leaving the festival. Whilst walking on a nearly deserted dirt road, Bandanna Dee told a riveting story about a very disturbing Arbor Day. "After that, I was just sitting around and relaxing. Then, suddenly, a bunch of geese started chasing me."
"Why?" Sir Kibble asked the question that would naturally come to anyone's mind.
"I don't know. Maybe they-" Bandanna Dee didn't have the opportunity to complete that sentence as he went crashing into someone, having been too focused on telling the story to even notice anything in front of him. Both of them went tumbling a few feet before they slowed down enough to get their bearings and rise to their feet.
"WHO DARES DEFILE MY CLOAK?" Bandanna Dee's unintentional victim shouted, enraged. He was about Waddle Dee-sized, clad in a scarlet cloak with a hood covering his head and disguising his features.
Bandanna Dee was immediately on his feet. Despite only seeing about two particles of dirt on the cloak, he was quick to apologize. "I'm sorry, sir! I didn't mean to run into you!"
Cloak-Man made a motion for Bandanna Dee to stop speaking. (It looked more than a bit ridiculous with the overly long sleeves.) "Silence thyself, peasant! Thou art fortunate I dust not smite thee forthwith!" His voice was oddly deep for a being of his size.
"Hey, Sir Ham-A-Lot!" Waddle Doo said, planting his feet firmly on the ground. "Quit chewing the scenery! Maybe it'll allow your big mouth to talk like someone from this century!"
Cloak-Man turned to face Waddle Doo. "Thou hast made a grievous misjudgment to defy Dyorux, Supreme Sorcerer!" He held his arms out at his sides, which spontaneously caught on fire. Following that, he held them up in front of his face, as if he were about to enter a boxing match.
Bandanna Dee took a step back and tugged on Waddle Doo's arm. "Let's just go home." He said weakly. "Someone could get hurt."
Waddle Doo pulled his arm out of his friend's grasp. "No way. I'm gonna show this guy that nobody threatens any of my friends." He took a brief glance around the area. "Besides, there aren't any innocents out here that may get caught in the crossfire." He leaned forward a bit to give this Dyorux person an unsettling upward stare. His eye began to crackle and spark with electric energy from an unknown source, his Beam powers fully at the ready.
Sir Kibble sighed. "Isn't this like the third time this month?"
"Fourth." Bandanna Dee corrected.
The two of them were stuck in a situation with no good outcomes. There was no way for them to convince Waddle Doo to back down, and simply leaving him behind was out of the question. If he got hurt, he'd need someone nearby to get help.
So, they simply solemnly stood where they were, awaiting the inevitable scuffle.
