Authors Note: Continuing the Unofficial episodes seried, but a shorter episode this time.


Chapter 1: An Expedition


"So this is the place?" Tiff asked, looking down into the canyon.

"Yeah! I saw a neat looking cave down there!" Tuff answered, leaning over the edge a little and pointing downward. Tiff grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Do you want to fall down there?" She asked warningly.

It was another warm afternoon in Dreamland and the clouds were drifting lazily in the sky. Tiff, Tuff and Kirby were standing by the edge of a canyon near some ruins, where Tuff had claimed he'd seen a cave he wanted to explore. Since Iroh was grounded after an unfortunate incident involving ice cream and waffles, Tiff and Kirby volunteered to go with Tuff so he wouldn't be going alone.

"And how are we going to get down there?" Tiff asked a little snarkily.

"We'll climb down!" Tuff answered determinedly, and he got on his hands and knees and started lowering himself over the edge of the cliff.

"Poyo?" Kirby asked.

"What! No, Tuff! You'll just get yourself hurt!" Tiff scolded, grabbing hold of her brother.

"What are you doing?" Meta Knight's voice made the three kids look over. He'd heard their voices from the ruins and came to see what was going on. He was currently perched on top of a half-demolished pillar, wrapped in his blue cape.

"Meta Knight!" Tiff said in surprise. They normally didn't run into the blue warrior outside of the castle unless Kirby was in danger, so it was unexpected to see him here. Tiff recovered herself quickly, saying, "Can you tell Tuff he's only going to get hurt if he tries to climb down there?"

"Will not! I'm a great climber!" Tuff huffed proudly.

"Why do you want to go down there?" Meta Knight asked.

"There's this neat looking cave we're going to explore!" Tuff exclaimed.

"I see." Meta Knight thought for a moment before pointing to his left, "There is a safer way further down that way."

"Thanks, Meta Knight!" Tuff grinned and ran off in the direction the knight had pointed to. "Come on guys!"

Tiff and Kirby followed after Tuff at a slower pace, but after a few paces Kirby turned back to look at Meta Knight and simply said, "Poya?"

Meta Knight didn't respond and watched the three head towards the path into the canyon. He decided he'd better follow to keep an eye on them, as a matter of responsibility, so he jumped down and walked behind them at his own pace.

The path into the canyon was narrow and rocky, so the group stayed close to the cliff wall to be safe. The path wound around the side of the canyon as it gradually led down to the bottom. The bottom of the canyon was as expected. Hard, rocky ground with boulders and pebbles scattered throughout. Kirby looked at everything with interest, probably looking for something to eat.

"There it is!" Tuff exclaimed, pointing to the maw of a cave half hidden behind a boulder. He ran over to it excitedly, and Kirby bounced after him curiously. "Wow, it's even bigger up close! I wonder if it was made by giant mole creatures like in the shows on Tv!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Tuff." Tiff rolled her eyes and then peered into the cave. "Most caves are formed by water eating away at the rock. That's probably how this one was formed."

"Poyo?" Kirby asked.

"C'mon, don't be such a downer, Tiff." Tuff sighed. "Let's go, Kirby!"

Tuff and Kirby ran into the cave, and Tiff sighed, crossing her arms. Meta Knight grabbed a stick that had fallen down into the canyon and made a makeshift torch. He lit it by striking a match on one of his metal shoulder pads. A trick he'd picked up a long time before.

"Oh!" Tiff blinked in surprise as Meta Knight walked to her side carrying a torch. He gestured for her to enter the cave and she nodded, and they headed in after Tuff and Kirby.

Tiff didn't think about where the torch came from, but she was glad for its light. Not only because it was dark inside the cave, but also because Tuff lingered within the reach of the light so he could see.

Kirby looked curiously at anything they came across; a caterpillar, rock formations, the drip of water off the cave wall. Meta Knight watched and approved of this. The young Star Warrior would need to know about all types of terrain for his training. That and maybe, just maybe, he also enjoyed watching the young warrior's enthusiasm about everything.

They reached a giant open space in the cave where it split into three pathways. There were bits of fallen rocks on the ground and it looked like there were crumbling stone pillars built into the sides of the cave walls.

"Hey, look at this place!" Tuff exclaimed, looking around.

"It looks like this is part of the ruins that are on the surface." Tiff noted thoughtfully as she examined one of the stone pillars that was close to her. "But we've been to the ruins there before, and I don't remember ever seeing a door."

"It is possible that the entrance was buried over time." Meta Knight said. "As the ruins were as well."

"Oh, that makes sense." Tiff agreed.

"Hey, look! Another torch!" Tuff picked up a dusty torch off the ground by one of the pillars and waved it around, causing dust to fly everywhere. Tiff and Meta Knight began to cough and Tiff confiscated the torch.

"Stop waving that thing around! You're stirring up the dust." Tiff scolded. Meta Knight lit the torch for her using his own and she handed it back to Tuff. Who grinned and turned toward the three openings.

"Which way do you think, Kirby?" Tuff asked.

"Poyo?" Kirby bounced up and down and pointed toward the left tunnel.

"Okay, let's go that way." Tuff said. "We can do the right one next."

"Poya!" Kirby cheered, skipping in a small circle.

The group started down the left tunnel. Tuff led the way, holding his torch high. Meanwhile Meta Knight brought up the rear so he could keep an eye on the three kids, although Tiff tended to hang back near him until something sparked her interest.

They walked through the tunnel, which looked more like a crumbled hallway the further they went down it. They noticed torch holders on crumbled pillars, bits of carvings in the walls, and a more defined structure.

"I wonder if Mr. Curio has ever been down here." Tiff thought aloud as she looked at a half-demolished stone carving.

"I dunno. If he has been, it was ages ago." Tuff replied.

"Poya!" Kirby agreed, blowing dust off of one of the wall carvings, causing a cloud of dust to arise and Tiff and Tuff to cough while Meta Knight covered his face with his cape and looked away to keep from coughing this time.

"Kirby! Just because you aren't affected by dust doesn't mean we aren't!" Tuff complained.

"Hmph. Now you know how it feels." Tiff remarked sassisly.

They eventually came to a small area that looked like it had once been a room, but had opened up into the tunnel at some point. They stepped over some rubble and looked around. They saw the room had a few broken vases and lots of cobwebs, but not much else.

"I'm not sure if even Mr. Curio would be able to piece these back together." Tiff said, looking at one of the broken pieces of a shattered vase.

"The most exciting thing in here is this ancient hammer." Tuff noted, reaching for an old wooden hammer that was covered in dust and cobwebs. Tiff stopped her brother from moving it before he released another cloud of dust into the air.

"Do you want to trigger our allergies?" Tiff demanded.

"Oh right. Haha." Tuff rubbed the back of his head and grinned awkwardly.

They continued exploring. The cave had turned into the rooms of a building, meaning they were somewhere in the lower chambers of the ruins that were half-buried above them. There wasn't much to look at, though. Time had gotten to most of the artifacts already, whittling them away to almost nothing, but they explored further anyways, wandering deeper into the cave.

—-

After a lot of time spent exploring, the tunnel eventually led them in a circle. They ended up back in the first large chamber, emerging from the middle tunnel.

"Perfect timing, it's probably getting pretty late out now." Tiff said.

"Yes, it is almost sunset, I believe." Meta Knight confirmed.

"What? We can't leave just yet, Tiff!" Tuff replied.

"Why not?" Tiff asked, crossing her arms.

"We still need to explore the last tunnel!" Tuff answered, pointing to the left most tunnel.

"We can always come back tomorrow-Hey!" Tiff looked back to see Tuff run off into the tunnel, taking Kirby along with him.

"Come on, Kirby!" Tuff giggled. He wanted to explore the whole cave, and his sister wasn't going to stop him.

"Ugh! Tuff, Kirby get back here!" Tiff shouted, chasing after the two boys. Boy was Tuff going to get an earful when she caught up to him. She found them standing in front of a big, flat stone slab in the wall. She put her hands on her hips.

"I can't believe it was just a dead end." Tuff sighed. He leaned against the wall. "Well, at least we won't have to come back here tomorrow!"

There was a clicking noise from the wall and the stone slab shifted and dust erupted from the wall as the slab swung open slowly, before falling off its hinges and crashing to the floor. Tiff and Tuff jumped back with a gasp as the dust cleared and Meta Knight tensed behind them, ready to leap into action if something happened.

The dust cleared and the group peered through the now opened doorway.

"What do you think is inside?" Tiff asked, although it wasn't meant for anyone in particular.

"Maybe it's treasure!" Tuff exclaimed with a grin. This time, Kirby beat Tuff inside as they went to investigate.

The room was large, with strange brown stone circles lining the walls, each about the size of a trash can lid. The circles reminded Tiff of pottery, and they were located on every wall, all the way up to the rounded ceiling. There were some demolished barrels scattered around the room, and Tuff had to stop Kirby from trying to eat a petrified loaf of bread.

Meta Knight, upon seeing there was no danger, took a more relaxed stance before looking over at the stone slab that used to be the door. It looked like there used to be a symbol carved to the door, but most of it was worn away, so there was only a disfigured point and a triangle remaining. It was strange, but even though it was only a third of the symbol, it looked familiar.. The knight ran a gloved hand over the warped symbol, deep in thought.

"We should head home, Tuff," Tiff announced, "And Kirby looks like he could use some dinner."

"Poya!" Kirby cheered, confirming he was ready to eat.

"It's probably dark by now. What do you think, Meta Knight?" Tiff asked, looking over to see the knight examining the door.

Meta Knight snapped out of his thoughts and answered, "The sun has just started to set."

"Fine, I guess I'm done exploring anyway-" Tuff started, but he was interrupted by a clattering sound.

The brown circles were falling off the walls, revealing a number of holes. The ground began to shake as dozens of spherical shapes wrapped in bandages shot out of the holes in the walls.

"Mumbies!" Tiff and Tuff shouted in alarm as the monsters poured into the room. The mumbies locked onto Kirby and started to chase him around the room.

"It's a Mumbie horde!" Meta Knight yelled.

"A what?" Tuff asked.

"The seal on them must have been broken when the door was opened." Meta Knight explained.

Tuff tried to toss Kiry his torch, saying "Kirby, suck it up!"

But the torch was intercepted by a mumbie who swallowed it with a growl. A mumbie bit Kirby's arm and he yelped, but Meta Knight quickly came to the rescue with Galaxia, slashing through the monster and causing it to evaporate. But the relief was short lived for Kirby as the other mumbies started snapping their teeth at him.

"Don't look into their eyes!" Meta Knight reminded the group. Looking into the Mumbie's eyes would drain the victim's energy.

Meta Knight was destroying as many as he could, but there were already too many, and more kept pouring in. There was no ability around for the pink warrior to absorb now either. The sudden launch of all the mumbies made the room shake and bits of rubble were falling from the ceiling.

"Quickly, get Kirby and run!" Meta Knight ordered.

Without hesitation, Tiff and Tuff grabbed Kirby by his arms and pulled him to the door while Meta Knight covered them, slashing through as many of the mumbies as he could to aid their escape. The doorway collapsed as Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby ran through the door, leaving Meta Knight trapped on the other side.