Author's Note: Well. Uh. Have an update. That's all I really have to say. I have a variety of reasons why this chapter took forever, but uh, I'm pretty sure that it's best that I just post this and quietly go hide in the corner.

Warning. This chapter contains some possibly unnecessarily detailed gore(?) towards the end. It's probably really disgusting. You have been warned.


Chapter Eleven

A Hop, Skip, and a Leap of Fate

A few days after the reveal of Meta Knight's wings, King Deedede was sitting in his throne room with Escargoon nervously standing at his side. Dedede slammed his fist on a button on the arm of his throne, turning the lights in the room off as screens came out of the walls and the transporter readied itself for deliveries.

"Hello Triple D! What demonbeast are you looking for today?"

"I want somethin' betta than that copying mirror! Somethin' new that Kirby and Meta Knight won't see comin'!" The salesguy tilted his head at the mention of Meta Knight. He had to admit thhat he was surprised that Dedede had mentioned the knight.

"Meta Knight? I thought he worked for you."

"He does, but he helps Kirby more than he helps me!" Dedede grumbled. It wasn't fair. Meta Knight had no reason to help that's dumb pink puff instead of the very king the knight served.

"Well, I think we have the perfect demonbeast for you! Introducing... Sorsara!" The salesguy's face was replaced by a image of a demonbeast that had a similar body shape to Kirby, but her skin was a rich boysenberry color. She wore fine white gloves and in her left hand she held a long, pinewood staff that held a triangular sapphire at the end. Her attire was rather strange; it was somewhat like an azure kimono mixed with a robe. But the part of her appearance that stuck out the most was her eyes. Instead of being the typical demonbeast red, they were a bright, intelligent green.

"Sorsara is one of our newest demonbeasts, and she is quite revolutionary if I do say so myself. We have been trying for a long time to make a demonbeast that is truly sentient, yet also powerful and loyal to our cause, and Sorsara is the most successful of those experiments. And, for a limited time, she's going for a 50% off discount!"

"She'll be able to clobber Kirby for sure! Download!" The king pressed the download button, and in a bright flash, the demonbeast Sosara was on the platform, bowing to the king.


Bun was playing soccer with Hohhe, Iro, and Kirby. Bun and the others were playing quite well, but Kirby, as everyone expected at that point, wasn't doing half as good.

"Come on Kirby! Isn't there at least one game that you aren't bad at?" Kirby responded with a cheerful poyo and attempted to kick the ball, but instead tripped over his feet and fell to the ground with a giggle.

"It's ridiculous how someone so good at fighting can be so clumsy." Hohhe muttered to Iro, and the other child nodded in agreement. Fumu, who was watching from a short distance away, had long finished her book and was now watching for Kirby's sake, sighed and walked to the young star warrior's side.

"Come on Kirby. Let's go visit Whispy." Kirby smiled and nodded, following her as she walked away, ignoring Bun's complaints that the teams were uneven now. As they walked in the woods, Kirby began insistently tugging on the bottom of Fumu's shirt. Exasperated, she turned and asked, "What is it Kirby?"

"Thisty-poyo..."

"Alright, let's look for a brook or something..." Taking hold of Kirby's hand, Fumu hesitated a moment before stepping off the path and walking into the untamed woods. She walked carefully, flinching at every sudden noise. Why had she decided to go visit Whispy so late in the day? The sun was already setting, making it even harder to see in the dark forest. What if they got lost? They might never find their way out... No! Fumu shook her head at her negative thoughts. She couldn't think that way!

Finally, they found a stream. The trees on their side of the bank reached almost all the way to the river, but on the other side the trees were a bit farther away from the water. Kirby let out a happy squeal and rushed up to the bank, drinking up a large quantity of water. Fumu followed a bit slower, having this odd feeling that something wasn't quite right. When nothing popped out of nowhere, she hesitatingly crouched down upon the bank and drank her fill of water. With that done, Fumu looked up at the sky, trying to get a gauge at how late it was getting, but with the thick cover of trees, it was nearly impossible.

"Kirby, maybe we should be heading home..." Fumu said slowly, a touch of nervousness creeping into her voice. It was awfully dark due to the trees blocking out most of the remaining light of the day, and with the knowledge that Nightmare had returned to power echoing within her mind... The young girl shivered. Staying out here was becoming a less and less appetizing idea the longer she thought about it. And yet Kirby was vehemently against leaving.

"No-poyo! Visit Whispy!" The puffball fiercely shook his head, the determination in his eyes clearly saying that if they left, he would just return on his own. Fumu gave a small, nervous laugh.

"Alright... But we can't stay long, okay?" She proposed, trying to appease the star warrior and ignore the nagging voice inside of her saying, 'leave, leave, don't go deeper into the woods, just go home where it's bright and warm and safe and far far away from this scary place." Not noticing her inner conflict, Kirby grinned and gave a happy 'poyo!' and started running back the way they came. Fumu gasped and started running after him, knowing that if they got separated, they might not be able to find each other. And yet, even with her running as fast as she could, Kirby easily outpaced her, and soon he was out of sight.

"Kirby! Kirby! Where did you go?! Come back!" But the child was nowhere to be found. Fumu continued to walk in the direction that she had last seen Kirby, but there were no signs that she was getting anywhere nearer to where the star warrior was. Carefully, Fumu made her way back to the only familiar place she knew how to get to, the stream. The roar of fear and panic only getting louder, she struggled to figure out a way to get out of these woods. After all, if she got out, Kirby might have already gone back home and eaten all the dinner. And she could laugh about how silly she had been, and everything would be okay, right?

The young girl shook her head with a gasp. The logical half knew that wouldn't happen. Kirby would keep wandering in the woods until he found Whispy or was distracted by food if he was left alone. But the part of her consumed by that nameless terror didn't care. It just wanted out. She agreed with that, but she had to go about this rationally, or else she could be wandering for weeks, and besides, it would be much easier to find Kirby with help. Let's see... Of course! Fumu could have slapped herself for not thinking of it sooner. She was by a river, right? It had to flow into the ocean at some point. And from there it would be easy to orient herself and find the castle. She crossed over to the other side of the brook, since the trees were thinner over there, and started on her way. However, it was not long before she tripped over a rock and fell to the ground with a grunt, her hands, which had been outstretched to catch herself, sinking into the soft ground. Instantly Fumu felt that something was wrong here. Soft ground? Everything up to there had been solid and refused to give even the slightest bit under her feet. Clearly someone had disturbed the ground here recently, and she wasn't going to find out why. Without a further moment's hesitation, she began to dig.

It wasn't long before Fumu found something out of the ordinary.

She felt it first. It was fuzzy, and it tickled her fingers when they first brushed it. As she felt it a little more, to try to comprehend exactly what it was that she was feeling, she noticed it was squishy, and slightly sticky too.

The smell hit her second. It was an awful, rancid smell, like spoiled fruit, except without any of that sickly sweetness. She was beginning to feel sick to her stomach; that awful smell seemed to be oozing into every inch of her, trying to become part of her.

As she became slightly more adjusted to the smell, that smell you could never forget or truly be comfortable with, she began to hear the sounds. The forest itself was unnaturally quiet, but that didn't even come close to registering in her mind. Instead, all she heard was the squelching sound her hands made whenever they bumped the mysterious object in a certain way. Much like everything else about this... thing she had found, it didn't seem right. It was... unnatural.

Finally, she had enough of the dirt cleared away so that in the last remaining bits of light, Fumu saw what she had unearthed. As the twisted and mauled corpse met her eyes, she screamed.