Three large stars, buried into the ground, smoke clearing into the vast emptiness on the fields.

When she first determined it was safe to get out of her star ship, the puffball-like organism made sure to take in a proper view of her surroundings, analyse everything that she could, so that she wouldn't end up falling to some sort of ambush by wildlife creatures or even plants.

...well, okay, maybe first she jumped and screamed with joy at surviving, but that wasn't something that needed to be revealed.

Nevertheless, when she spotted two other star ships from a distance away, the puffball also noticed two other figures heading towards the central point of all three landing vehicles. The puffball's excitement immediately rose inside herself, skedaddling up ahead to meet these two strangers who ended up in a similar predicament as hers, somehow.

She herself was a squishy puffball-like organism with light blue skin and golden, yellow eyes. Darker shades of blue painted her cheeks, visibly simple blushes, and her feet were of the same color. The puffball also had a wooden makeshift sword attached to her back, not held by any sort of strap, but remaining attached through unknown means.

Then, the first stranger was an identical organism, but with pink skin and magenta blushes, pink eyes, and an angry-looking expression on their face- perhaps they were an extremely righteous individual? Similarly to her, the other puffball also had a wooden sword just like she did, but it looked a lot more tattered.

As for the third person, it had dark grey skin and silver eyes, and blushes and feet of an even darker shade of grey. With no noticeable weapon or item on them, the third puffball looked rather... laid back and happy, which was quite odd for someone who had just crash landed with two other strangers and were approaching said strangers.

When the three came to a stop, they glanced at each other, either aware, nervous, or nonchalant- it was pretty obvious who felt what.

"...so," she eventually said, in an attempt to strike up a conversation. The hostile-looking puffball narrowed their eyes at her, almost shutting her up through slight fear and hesitation, but failing to in the end. "So, uh... guess we all somehow ended up here, huh?"

"...it would seem like that'd be the case, yes," the pink-skinned puffball eventually said, a deep, male voice.

"This place looks pretty nice," the grey-skinned puffball remarked. "I like this place," they added, a light, feminine voice.

This fella's... quite carefree, huh. She took in a deep breath, then glanced around, before looking back at them. "So... I'm Blue."

"...I see that, yes," the other swords wielding individual said.

Then the grey puffball smiled. "And I'm grey! Or dark grey. Or black?"

"...oh. No, I didn't mean..." Blue sighed. She supposed she walked right into that one. "My name's Blue. I'm a wandering explorer of... planets, basically."

"Basically. I see." Letting out a discontented huff, the second puffball eventually seemed to relax. "I go by the name Heart. I vanquish evil forces."

"Ooh, evil!" the third puffball said. "What kind?"

Heart tensed. "...thieves and... ruffians."

"What'd they do?"

"...evil crimes."

"Like what?"

"...none of your business," Heart snapped, evidently a bit cornered.

Chuckling, the grey puffball then spread their arms open. "So, hi! I'm Dust, and I love life! And peace! And... yeah!"

"Hm... alright. Nice to meet you, Heart, Dust," Blue said. Me, an explorer... Heart, a... knight? And Dust, a... pacifist. Interesting... she thought. ...well, not interesting enough, but interesting nevertheless. "So would you two mind if I asked what you're doing here?"

"I dunno," Dust said. "I just said goodbye to a planet I was staying with for some time... then, while searching for another place to tour, my star ship stopped working and landed here." The puffball shrugged, clearly without any clue what had just happened.

"Huh, I'm actually in quite a similar situation," Blue remarked. "I was looking for a new planet to explore, find treasures, discover amazing pieces of history... that sort of stuff, when, like yours, my star ship stopped working and crashed me here." The organism then turned to the other puffball who hadn't explained their circumstances yet. "What about you, Hearts?"

"I am known by the name Heart, not Hearts," the pink puffball hissed. "Make that mistake again, and you shall become skewered by my swored."

Blue blinked. "...swored?"

"My trusty weapon of choice," Heart said and pulled the tattered wooden sword from behind. "It is alright to be afraid. Justice is always immense in intimidation."

"You mean sword?" Blue asked.

"I believe I know how it's properly referred to, thank you very much," Heart growled.

"So why're you here?" Dust asked. "Were you chasing a criminal? Is there someone dangerous here? Oh! Oh! Can we help?"

"No, it is nothing like that," Heart replied, slightly annoyed. "I had just apprehended a heinous criminal on another planet, but it was a frightening ordeal. Realizing how weak I am, I decided to set off in search for a more powerful weapon, an artifact perhaps, that would be found somewhere on another planet, maybe."

"Wow! That's amazing!" Dust exclaimed. "Was it a tyrant? Was it an evil monster sealed for ages? Was it... was it a merciless god of destruction!?"

"No! Nothing that grandiose!" Heart yelled. Then, clearing his throat, the puffball calmed himself. "It was just a very powerful common thief. Still gave my lots of trouble, however."

"...so you just caught a thief, okay." Blue held herself back from snickering, but visibly rolled her eyes, to which the pink puffball growled at.

"I advise you to watch out when you go to sleep... my swored might be looking for a midnight... 'discussion'."

"Yeah, watch out for Hearts' sword! Yay!" Dust chimed.

"My swored, would like to have a chat with you too, rebellious subject," Heart said to the dark skinned puffball.

"Oh... not so yay..."

Blue sighed. "Look, forget your bickering for now. What I've got from this talk is that for some reason, we all, different people with no relations whatsoever to each other, somehow crash landed here near each other," she said. The others nodded. "Don't you see? That reeks of suspicious. It's really, really suspicious! Why did it happen? Who knows! But it happened, and that can only mean one thing..."

Heart widened his eyes. "I see. You're implying... we were all attacked by some nefarious buster who enjoys assaulting passing dwellers of the planet!"

"What? No!" Blue said. "...well, maybe, but that's the less important possibility. What this means is that-"

"We all are actually long-lost pufflings?" Dust asked. "That's amazing!"

"No! We're not related at all!" Blue said.

"Apart from being the same species, evidently," Heart pointed out.

"Stars, stop! Look! We were all brought here together for unknown reasons," Blue said. "Look. We all landed here. We were all traveling, coincidentally, near this planet, and we all had malfunctions in our star ships... doesn't this scream 'destiny' to you two?"

Heart and Dust exchanged glances, then looked back to Blue, shrugging.

"Oh, come on. Think about it!" Blue said. "It's like all those legendary tales of the old. We're the fated heroes! We're going to become a group of darn blasted amazing heroes, fighting evil, saving the world, that kind of shtick! Don't you guys think so too?"

Heart stared blankly. "...while the aspect of fighting evil is rather appealing," he started off, to the blue puffball's delight, "even I'm not crazy enough to believe something like that, fortunately."

"Spoilsport. You're boring, you know that?" Blue said. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Hm. I don't think I want to be a hero," Dust said. "I... don't want to fight anyone, so... yeah, I think I'd rather hear stories about fighting, rather than do the actual fighting."

"No, no, we might not even have to fight," Blue said. "Maybe we'll somehow uncover an ancient relic that will stop evil from approaching the planet or something. Think positive!"

"Hmm... well, I guess that'd be fine," Dust said.

"Good. Now, what say we... uh, I dunno, check out that lone house over there?" Blue asked and pointed to a lone settlement in the distant. Frankly speaking, she was amazed nobody had come out from the house to check their surroundings yet, especially since not one, but three star ships had crashed quite nearby. The puffball wasn't really looking to criticize a planet's inhabitant's lifestyle choices, however, and so she had put it aside until now.

"Are you suggesting we rob the house?" Heart asked. "That sounds like the lines of a criminal. Are you implying you're a criminal? If so, I'd have to take action."

"What? No," Blue said. "We'll just go and ask whoever's there about this planet, get to know their cultures, stuff. Haven't you ever tried to interact with new faces?"

Heart scowled. "Trespassing is an evil act, I'll have you know that."

"Has it ever occurred to you we could stand and talk outside instead of storming in?" Blue asked.

"..."

"Violent people seem to also come with violent solutions, huh?" Dust said.

"You will shut up right now," Heart muttered.

Blue chuckled. "Well, that wasn't really violent, but hey. Let's go see if we can find some help."

So the three waddled over to the lone house in the distant. From afar, they tried to do some visual measuring with their sights, and came to the conclusion that there were at least one, obviously, and at most two or three people living there.

Of course, it'd be easier to tell if whoever lived here came out so they could do a head count.

When they neared the door, Blue stopped and turned around. "Alright, time to vote. Who should go as a messenger? Me or, uh, Dust, right?"

"Yep! I'm Dust."

Heart frowned. "Why was I not named?"

"You give off this... threatening vibe," Blue answered.

The pink puffball scoffed. "Nonsense! I would do no such thing!" he retorted. "I'd just explain to them that as those who could help them out with possible issues around, it'd be best in their interests to not oppose us and let us stay for a while."

"Exactly, hence why you're not going to talk," Blue said. "Me or Dust?"

"Me!" Dust said.

"...Dust," Heart said.

Blue smiled. "Alright, me it is."

"Wait, what?" the other swords wielder said.

"Aw. Booo."

Blue rolled her eyes. "Excited people are also more prone to messing up. Don't worry, I'll handle this." Turning back towards the house, she slowly walked to the door... until it swung open. The three almost jumped, especially when a figure stomped out, waving their hands around in an attempt to be menacing. "Uh..."

"St- stay away!" the inhabitant of the house said. "I, I don't know who you are! Or where you're from! But I, I won't forgive you for invading our planet!" the figure screamed.

"Whoa, calm down, we're-"

"I, I know magic!" the figure yelled. "So, so, so stay away!"

"This one seems... unhinged," Heart noted.

Dust waved a hand. "Hey! Hi! Hello! We're-"

"Shut up!" the figure screamed. "I, I'm not afraid to fight back! I... I, I, I'm! I'm the greatest mage of all around here!" he said. "I'm Lor! And I can, I can blast you all away with a blink of an eye!"

The three remained silent, with raised eyebrows, as they wondered when the hysterical person was going to finish.

Then said inhabitant blinked, nervous.

"...oh hey, we weren't blasted away," Dust said. "Phew."

Realizing their threat had been exposed, the person, clearly not a puffball but a similarly round creature robed with mysterious, mage-like garments, frowned.

"Oh, oh no... blast it all..." they whined.

"I don't know about you two, but this guy's funny," Blue said.