Author's note: Here it is! Chapter 6! Enjoy :)

Chapter 6

"What's the first thing on the list, Tiff?" Sword asked.

"The first thing is dust from a starchell shell." Tiff answered.

"Poyo?" Kirby asked.

"Starchell shells are only found in deep water. Luckily, we know just the fish to help, don't we Kirby?" Tiff replied.

"Poyo!" Kirby chirped and bounced around.

"A fish?" Sword repeated in surprise as they headed towards the seashore.

The ocean was calm with small waves lapping at the shore. There were some pretty shells scattered around, ones that Tiff would've collected if she weren't on a mission right now. None of them were the ones they needed now though, so Tiff stood at the shore and shouted for Kine.

"Kine! Kine, are you here?" Tiff yelled at the water while Sword and Kirby waited a few feet away.

"Are you sure this friend of yours is here?" Sword asked after a few moments.

"He usually hangs around in this cove." Tiff explained. There was a ripple in the water as the blue sunfish emerged from the water.

"Sorry it took so long, Tiff!" Kine said, "Did you come back for another dat-"

"Er, not today, Kine." Tiff replied hurriedly, turning a little pink, "We came to ask you a favor."

"Oh. Hi, Kirby." Kine seemed to finally notice Kirby and Sword standing behind Tiff.

"Poya!" Kirby waved.

"I'm always happy to help you, Tiff. What do you need?" Kine asked.

"We need a starchell shell, do you think you could help us look for one?" Tiff asked.

"Sure! But they're hard to find, so it could take me a little while to find one. If you'll just wait here for a couple minutes, I'll go take a look around the reef."

"Okay, thanks, Kine!" Tiff replied as the fish went back below the water.

"If Kine can find one, then this will be the easiest ingredient on our list." Tiff told Sword and Kirby while they waited.

"What are the other two?" Sword asked.

"Silk from a Gahara Spider and petals from a droopy flower." Tiff read off the book. "But there's only one place you can find them. In Babagahara."

"Oh!" Sword exclaimed.

"Poyo?" Kirby chirped.

"The Torple flower is from the Babagahara, so all of these ingredients can be found there, but the shell is the only one that isn't exclusively found there." Tiff explained.

"I see." Sword knight nodded, and Kirby bounced. "So if Kine can find one, then it'll make things much quicker."

"Exactly!" Tiff replied. They waited for a few more minutes before Kine resurfaced and placed two glittery, slate-blue shells on the rock.

"How are these, Tiff?" The sunfish asked.

"Those are perfect! Thank you, Kine!" Tiff exclaimed, picking up the shells. "Wow, I never imagined they'd be so beautiful in real life!"

"Anything for you, Tiff." Kine blushed as he swam in a dazed circle.

"Thanks again, Kine!" Tiff said. "We have to go now, but I'll come back to collect shells when we're done gathering these ingredients."

"Okay, bye, Tiff!" Kine said, and he ducked back below the water's surface.

Tiff put the glittering shells into a bag and then tucked it into the shoulder bag she'd brought. "Well, it's time to go to the Bagbahara."

"Poyo." Kirby nodded, looking serious.

—-

Tuff was not enjoying his day of shopping. He'd had to decline playing soccer with Iroh, Honey and Spikehead and had to say he was busy, so they ran off to play without him. It wasn't that he didn't want to help Meta Knight, he did. He'd lost count of the number of times that the Star Warrior had helped him and his family. He just wished that the ingredients were more fun to collect. He wondered if Kirby was having more fun, but then again, that puffball had fun chasing butterflies. Tuff sighed, "Why'd I have to get the boring stuff."

—-

"Careful," Sword Knight warned as he steadied the canoe as Tiff climbed in.

"Thanks to our previous adventure with the Pukey flower, I think I know where we can find a Gahara Spider." She said. Kirby jumped in and rocked the boat and she exclaimed, "Kirby, be careful!"

Kirby Poyoed an apology and then settled in the bottom of the canoe. Sword pushed the boat away from the shore and started paddling down the river.

Tiff recalled the first time she's been to Babagahara to save Kirby. Tuff had pushed her out of the canoe to get the cure for Kirby himself and left her behind in the water. Luckily, Meta Knight had fished her out and they followed her brother. That wasn't the first time Meta Knight had rescued her. She thought of the currently bedridden Meta Knight and felt a small rush of determination. She would make sure they got all those ingredients.

"It shouldn't take too long to get there." She said.

Sword didn't respond, he was wondering how Blade and Meta Knight were doing. He'd known Blade so long now, he knew Meta Knight would be well guarded under his protection.

They reached the right shore eventually and went trekking into the jungle. Tiff led the way down what looked like what could've been a trail with Kirby bouncing around her. Due to the density of the jungle, it was a little hard to tell where they were going, and Sword made sure to leave a trail to follow back to where they tied up the boat. A trick Meta Knight had taught him.

"I'm pretty sure it's this OH-" TIff and Kirby fell through a thin layer of leaves.

"Tiff! Kirby!" Sword looked down the hole.

"I'm okay!" Tiff called up, spitting out leaves and brushing them out of her hair. Kirby shook leaves off his head. "You okay, Kirby?"

"Poyya!" Kirby replied.

"Hang on, I'll lower a vine!" Sword called down to them. He spotted a vine near him and cut through it with his sword. He lowered it into the hole and pulled the two kids back up.

"Thanks." Tiff said, getting to her feet. She looked up and then pointed above their heads. "Hey, that's what we're looking for!"

Sword and Kirby looked up. Above their heads was a giant, silvery spider web stretched out between the trunks of the trees.

That's one big spider web, I'd hate to run into the critter that made it." Sword exclaimed. "Now we just need to find a way up there."

"Well, we only need to cut a piece off it." Tiff said, looking around. "It's probably sticky."

"Sticky?" Sword repeated, he looked around and then said, "Hang on, I think I have an idea."

He cut down another vine and then threw it straight up through the holes in the web. The end of the line hit a few of the strands and stuck there. Sword gave it a good tug to make sure it was strong. He grabbed the vine and started climbing.

"Be careful!" Tiff called up after him. The knight made it to the top and went to grab his sword to cut off a piece of the web when the web started to shake.

"What's going on?" Sword Knight asked, putting his free hand back on the vine.

"It's the spider!" Tiff shouted in alarm, seeing the giant spider moving toward the Knight's position.

"Bugger! That's one big bug!" Sword exclaimed.

"Hurry, get down from there!" Tiff yelled.

"We can't leave without the web!" Sword answered. He drew his sword and sliced off a big chunk of the web, which Tiff caught in a jar and tucked away. Sword tried to retreat back down the vine, only to find his wrist guard was stuck to the web. He started trying to pull it off as the spider got closer. He started swinging his sword at it to keep it at bay.

"He's stuck!" Tiff looked at Kirby, "Come on, we have to think of something!"

Kirby nodded and started sucking in lots of air.

"What are you doing?" Sword asked, clinging onto the vine.

"Hang on, Sword Knight!" Tiff shouted. "Kirby, send it back!"

Kirby exhaled a stream of air as the knight grabbed onto a branch to keep from being blown into the web. The spider was not so lucky, and was blasted backwards, falling onto its back, where it rolled over and scurried away. Sword cut himself free and fell back down to the ground with an "Oof!"

He groaned as he sat up, and Tiff ran over to him.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, but I think I'll leave getting rid of the spiders around the rooms to Blade from now on." The knight answered. He got to his feet and brushed himself off. "Did you get the web?"

"Yep, it's right here!" Tiff nodded, showing him the section of silky spider web she'd caught in the jar.

"Good, that leaves one more ingredient to go." Sword nodded.

"Poya!" Kirby cheered.

"Yeah, but this one will be the hardest. I don't know where to find this one. It's called a Droopy flower." Tiff flipped the pages of the botanica book to find the page on the droopy flower and showed it to her companions.

The flower had a long, slim stem that went up until it bent over from the weight of the actual flower, which had droopy blue petals that were teardrop shaped.

"It says that you can tell a droopy flower is in bloom when the stem is bent and the petals are facing the ground." Tiff explained. "But all it says is that it grows in shady patches of the Babagahara."

"Well that doesn't help us much." Sword said, looking around. "This whole place is shady."

"Well, we'd better start looking if we don't want to be stuck here after dark." Tiff replied, closing the book.

"Poya." Kirby nodded.

—-

Tuff carried the bag of groceries back to the castle and headed back to the knight's quarters. He knocked on the door, which Blade opened for him. The knight let Tuff in and they unpacked the ingredients, setting them on the table under the bookshelf.

"How is he?" Tuff asked, looking towards the door to the Knight's room.

"Esrow, I raef. Eh still hasn't woken up." Blade answered.

"I wonder how long the others will take to get the ingredients." Tuff thought aloud.

"Hopefully not too much longer." Blade replied, checking the clock.

—-

"No, that's not right either." Tiff sighed, dismissing another flower they'd come across. Sword Knight sighed and kept looking. It'd been nearly two hours of searching in the darkest spots they could find to no avail. They found two other types of flowers, but neither were the ones they were looking for.

"Poyyo! Poya!" Kirby exclaimed.

"How about this one? We haven't seen this one before." Sword Knight asked. He pointed to a deep violet-petaled flower Kirby had found and Tiff shook her head.

"No, that's not it. That's a.." She flipped through the book to find the right page, "Violet ribbon flower."

"Poyo." Kirby replied, looking disappointed.

"Oh!" Tiff gasped suddenly as she read the page.

"What is it, Tiff?" Sword asked.

"Violet ribbon flowers are often found in the same places as the Droopy flower!" She read excitedly. "If we can find more of those, they could lead us straight to the droopy flower!"

"Well, it couldn't hurt to try it!" Sword nodded. He was getting anxious to get the last ingredient.

"Poya!" Kirby exclaimed, and he ran off as he saw another violet ribbon flower.

"Wait for us, Kirby!" Tiff shouted. She and Sword ran after their pink friend as he "poyaed" his way from flower to flower.

"I hope we're getting close!" Sword said.

"Me too! That way we can get out of here!" Tiff replied.

They eventually ended up in a shady clearing shaded by a thick layer of vines that had grown up around it. Kirby was standing amongst a patch of flowers, bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Careful, Kirby! You might accidentally crush the Droopy flower!" Tiff scolded. Kirby stopped bouncing and Sword started scanning through the flowers.

"There! Is that one?" He pointed into the flower patch.

"Huh? Yeah, but it's not in bloom." Tiff replied. She took the last empty jar out of her bag, adding, "Look for one's with petals facing the ground and we can put them in this jar!"

The group got to work sorting through the flowers to find blooming droopy flowers. Kirby found one, which Tiff had to stop him from eating, and Sword Knight found another. Tiff found the last one.

She held up the jar triumphantly and then tucked it into her bag.

"Come on, let's get back to the castle!" Sword knight said anxiously.

"Yeah, Tuff should have the rest of the ingredients there already. Come on, Kirby, let's go!" Tiff grabbed Kirby and they started on their way back to the castle with Sword leading the way.