It was yet another morning, and Gooey sat outside of Kirby's house with the parasol held over him. He watched as the clouds drifted carelessly across the blue sky, he started to notice that he really liked blue as a color. The sky back home was sometimes blue, though it was often blocked off by clouds that were darker than the ones found on Popstar. His brother once told him that the sky was different in other worlds, and since Gooey could go outside whenever he wanted, he started to appreciate the daytime a little more.
Kirby rubbed his eyes as he stepped outside of the house. The two of them were about to greet each other, but Kirby gave the blob a look of concern.
"You look pale," Kirby said as he placed a hand on Gooey's back. "Are you sick again?"
Actually, Gooey felt fine...although his body did look a little lighter than it did before. He's heard of stories where Dark Matter would gain color if they stayed away from Lord Zero for too long, including one where a Dark Matter had all kinds of colors on his body. But as far as Gooey was aware, he wasn't sick.
"Hey, guys!"
Walking along the dirt road was Chuchu, she was being followed by...an octopus, right? This one was yellow, and they wore a white hat with a pink ribbon tied to it.
"Hi, Chuchu! Hi, Nyupun!" Kirby said as he waved to his friends. "Are you off to see the sunflowers?"
"Well...yeah," Chuchu said as she bashfully hid her arms behind her back. "But I was wondering if you'd wanna come with us. You could even bring Gooey if you want."
Kirby frowned as he looked in Gooey's direction. "I don't know...he looks kind of pale today."
"But he looks fine to me," Nyupun chimed in. "Maybe he's learning how to change color?"
"Or maybe he's mutating," Chuchu added. "You remember what Meta Knight said about Dark Matter mutating, don't you, Kirby?"
"Oh, maybe!" Kirby said as he began to smile. Gooey couldn't help but look at Kirby with a worried expression. He hadn't been on Popstar for very long, so how could he start changing so quickly?
Still, the others didn't seem to be bothered by it. So perhaps it was best not to think about it for the time being. Besides, Chuchu's friend seemed pretty nice. They smiled as they looked at Gooey.
"I'm Nyupun by the way, it's nice to meet you!"
The feeling was mutual, one could tell that by looking at Gooey's eyes at that moment. He felt that today was going to be a good day.
It was a long walk, but the group managed to find themselves in a field of sunflowers. Unlike the flowers Gooey had seen before, these ones were actually pretty big. However, they were a lot smaller than most Dark Matter.
They were nothing like his siblings, despite looking so similar. In fact, looking at them made Gooey feel...warm. It was hard to describe, but the best thing he could compare it to was the warmth that the sun itself gave Popstar every day. The young Dark Matter couldn't help but playfully twirl his parasol like it was deflecting the sun's rays.
Gooey paused as he saw something green leaping across the ground, he began to follow the strange new creature. Kirby and Chuchu were more focused on the flowers, but when Nyupun noticed that Gooey had taken off, they began to follow him.
"Where are you going?" Nyupun asked as they caught up to Gooey. The Dark Matter glanced at them before looking over at the creature. It jumped into a body of water, where there were even more of these creatures.
"You just wanted to look at the frogs, huh?" Nyupun said with amusement. Gooey moved closer to the water and held his parasol close, he'd never seen such creatures before. He had to assume they were made of water like octopuses. Some of them were swimming through the water while others sat on rocks. Gooey's eyes even lit up when he saw one of the frogs grab a smaller creature in the air with a limb coming from its mouth. If Gooey had a limb like that, it would make grabbing things so much easier.
"There you are!" Kirby called out as he and Chuchu ran towards the duo. "I thought you two might've gotten lost."
Nyupun shook their head. "No, I think Gooey just wanted to see the frogs."
Gooey nodded as he quickly swiped an arm in the air, he was trying to mimic a frog.
"I see..." Kirby said while his back. "I suppose we could use a break from walking. What do you say, Chuchu?"
"I'm gonna go make flower crowns!" Chuchu said excitedly. With that said, it looked like the group was going to stay a little longer. Chuchu started working on a flower crown while Nyupun and Kirby helped her. However, Gooey was more focused with the pond. He wanted to see what else these creatures could do.
"They're neat, huh?" asked a new voice. It wasn't Kirby's, and it didn't belong to the octopuses either. Gooey felt something land on top of his parasol, he looked up with a curious expression. The creature's head peaked over the parasol. He looked like a small version of Dedede, except his body was small and green like the frogs in the pond.
"I gotta say, you look funny," said the creature. "Do your eyes always look that wonky?"
Gooey would've growled if he could, he twisted his parasol in an attempt to shoo the creature away. Said creature started to flap his arms and hovered over the lake. "Hey, I was just messing with you!"
Kirby and the octopuses looked in Gooey's direction. Once they noticed the Dedede-like creature, Kirby gave him a curious look. "Hey, Pitch! What are you doing?"
"I dunno," Pitch said as he landed back on Gooey's parasol. "But I don't think your wonky-eyed friend likes me very much."
Gooey huffed as he twisted his parasol again, causing Pitch to hover over him. It wasn't his fault his eyes were the way they were, his brother once told him that he was lucky to have two eyes to begin with.
Kirby sighed as he walked over to the duo, he gave both of them a stern look. "Listen, you two...we're not gonna keep being mean to each other while we're out here, so you'd better apologize!"
The anger in Gooey's face was quickly replaced with fear. He hadn't seen Kirby get mad before, and he didn't want to start any fights with him either. Pitch, however, didn't look too phased by this.
"All right, I guess I shouldn't have said anything about your face," Pitch said as he landed in front of Gooey. He extended an arm as a sign of forgiveness. "What do you say...friends?"
Gooey was hesitant, he wasn't entirely sure if he could forgive Pitch at the moment. But he didn't want to make Kirby angrier, so he tapped Pitch's arm with one of his arms.
Thankfully, Pitch didn't bother him during the time they stayed with the sunflowers. Gooey was content with watching the frogs while the others were more focused on the sunflowers. Perhaps the frogs enjoyed the warmth of the sunflowers here as well? Gooey liked to think that they did.
Gooey looked into the water in hopes of finding more frogs. However, he was face-to-face with his own reflection. He liked to think that his color wasn't too different from how it usually was. But as he looked at his reflection now, he was noticeably paler than he was before. He looked as if someone had painted googly eyes on a rock.
If his appearance were to change completely, would his siblings even recognize him? Would Kirby and his friends recognize him?
"Heya!"
Gooey looked to his side and saw that Pitch had hopped closer to him, he watched him cautiously just in case he tried something again. However, all Pitch was did was stare at him.
"So...Kirby told me you came from space, is that true?"
Gooey nodded.
"Ah, so I'll bet you've never seen a frog before, huh?"
Once again, Gooey nodded. Pitch tapped his foot against the ground as he tried to think of what to say next, he looked as if he were trying to be more careful with his words.
"So...since you've never seen a frog, I'll bet that you've never seen a tadpole before, either."
Gooey shook his head, he'd never heard of such a creature before. With that said, Pitch drew a circle in the ground with a long tail at the end, it looked a little bit like a comet.
"It's not the best drawing, but this is what a tadpole looks like," Pitch said as he stood over the drawing. "When they get older, they grow legs and start turning into frogs."
Wait, so frogs look like comets when they're younger? Do they fall from the sky too? At this point, Popstar was starting to sound more and more silly as the days went by.
Still, if frogs could change and still enjoy their lives, then perhaps whatever happens to Gooey might not be so bad? Then again, at least the frogs still looked like each other...
...Gooey wasn't sure what to think anymore.
