The sky lost its citrus hues and replaced them with beautiful, enchanting blue and purple ones when Marth and Kirby set up camp, and it quickly became a sight that made their movements more languid than before. Kirby was the first to drift off to sleep, since he had done more activity than what his little body was used to. Marth, meanwhile, sat directly across from the slumbering extraterrestrial gazing into the weak fire they had set up as if hoping it would dance on his command. He had stripped himself of any accessories; his boots were cast off to his right, Falchion was set on his left still clipped around the belt along with his chest plate and shoulder pads resting on top of the sword's scabbard. Thin fingers moved their way to the latches on his elbow high gloves to undo them, drowsiness traveling up to his head as he did so. In the midst of the silence, a terrible groan rose from seemingly nowhere. It was only at the feeling of his muscles churning did Marth realize it was merely his stomach, the apprehension of nausea still lurking in his body from being practically stuffed inside a monstrous shell of a fighter that pretended to truly be him. Finally, the dark gloves slipped off their wearer's arms, falling limp to the ground only to be lifted up and placed on top of the cold metal of the chest plate. As Marth changed position to lay down, he heard Kirby stir and mumble something in his sleep. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips at this; like everyone else, the prince could not resist Kirby's unmatched cuteness. His deep blue eyes lifted to make contact with the deeper blue sky above him, tiny, faint stars gleaming in white like microscopic holes on the blue, accompanied by a pale white half moon to the left of the center of the sky. Nights like these reminded him of his time in Altea, where he would gaze out the windows of the castle to find the time of day had gone ahead of him while he worked signing treaties with other kingdoms, looking through letters, and simply taking care of royal business. Unconsciously, his eyebrows locked when he remembered the castle, then he delicately lifted the golden circlet off the center of his head to his eyes, where he studied the elegant patterns of the gold swirls and the sparkling ruby in the center. Many insulted him for wearing such an accessory, not knowing its true purpose. It was, after all, the only thing Marth would consider close to a 'crown'; especially since it was one of the few hand-me-downs that were worth keeping. Said circlet was a gift from his older sister Elice, who died saving him when an opposing kingdom invaded. The thought of his sister and the importance of this circlet was a very sensitive topic for him, and even just thinking about it gave him a tight feeling in his chest. A sigh came from the prince's lips as he placed the circlet down on the end of the sword scabbard and lay his head on the chest plate, pulling his cape on top of him as a makeshift blanket. Marth's eyes came back to stare into the dying fire, its warmth evaporating steadily. They were lucky to have found anything flammable in the lifeless desert they were now in, even if those things were only several dead twigs and branches from dried bushes. Based on what Kirby had told him - which wasn't in great detail - the prince was to travel with Kirby to a shrine to the east of their current location to meet up with Mario, and hopefully, another awakened fighter. He couldn't help but let his thoughts drift to this task and any mishaps that were likely to occur on their way there. What was worse was that Kirby was not the best person to ask for directions, and often didn't have much of a clue where he was going. If something distracted Kirby easily, which was almost everything, it would almost always shake him from his initial course; this was a fact nearly everyone knew about him, and Marth was sure it would happen tomorrow. But he knew now was not the time to think about such a matter, and that sleep was his top priority at the moment. But how could he sleep when fear was crawling all around him like the ants and beetles he had seen scuttling around him earlier? After all, the past adventure he had been on was with beings who had motivations, partially knew where they were going, and overall were easy to get around with. Marth knew that Kirby could, to some extent, defend himself, but the puff would be difficult to manage concerning his childlike tendencies. Perhaps it will be like babysitting, the prince thought to himself.
A sudden yawn escaped his mouth as exhaustion clouded over him again, interrupting his worries and reminding him of what mattered now. Marth could see the pink puffball through the continuously dying flame still sleeping without stirring or shifting uncomfortably in his sleep; the only movement being the soft rise and fall of his body as he snored almost silently. Without warning, his eyelids began to drape over his handsome blue eyes, and before he knew it, he blacked out completely.
Heavy breathing started to rouse Marth awake slowly, the sound just barely scraping past his consciousness. Only when a thread of cold liquid touched the skin just above his eyebrow did his blood begin to run through his body normally, and he jolted awake though his eyes were still closed. A low rumbling noise was what caused him to open his eyes, and the sight that beheld him pushed the adrenaline through his blood. Standing just above him and boring into his eyes was Richter; the Vampire Hunter's bulging red eyes looking as if they would pop out of his head at any second, a thread of saliva going down his lips and connecting loosely to his chin. To Marth's dismay, the dribble broke from Richter's lips and fell right on his nose, earning a cringe and disgusted groan from the prince. Within just a few seconds, Marth leapt up from his semi comfortable position and clutched Falchion in his hand, not bothering to put on his armor or cape at the moment. Richter jumped at Marth's sudden movements, backing up a foot or so and eyeing the prince without any expression. Marth pointed Falchion boldly at Richter's chest, half expecting for Richter to make a move, but he made none. An immediate cry for help came from behind the prince, who turned to find the source of the cry. Standing behind him was Zelda, dressed in a blue garment over a white dress with blue-green colored stripes around the base of the dress and on the ends of the sleeves. In her arms was Kirby, who was wiggling furiously in an effort to escape. She glared at him as he cried out a second time, his wiggling continuing as her grip tightened on his fragile body. In an attempt to set him free, Marth bent down to retrieve one of the nearly burned sticks in the fireplace - which was oddly still lukewarm - and tossed it at Zelda's face, getting said stick wedged in her eye. The action did nothing for either fighter, as Zelda only turned to face Marth with an angry grimace. When their gaze locked, Richter's fist came to the center of Marth's head, forcing the prince onto the ground as Richter reached for the Vampire Killer. Falchion's deadly tip sliced successfully through the center of Richter's shin, causing his balance to shift and for him to fall on his back with a monstrous grunt. As Marth tried lifting himself up, Zelda turned and ran the other direction, carrying Kirby with her. He got back up to his feet and gave chase, hoping to catch up with her as rocks scrapped his bare feet. Zelda turned around a bit to catch sight of him, and when she did, she sped up running, the fear somewhat prevalent in the one eye that saw Marth. When he calculated that he was close enough to her, Falchion jabbed her shoulder blades at a tremendous speed, startling Zelda and pushing her onto the ground, sandwiching Kirby in the process. She sat up, facing him, the lukewarm stick that was wedged in her eye seemingly beginning to make the flesh around it evaporate in a way that it looked like her eye sockets were bigger than they actually were. One of her hands was lifted up to meet Marth's face just about a few feet away, and a glowing sensation began to appear in her palm. Just before she could unleash a fire spell, Marth took an unsure swing at her wrist, resulting in the hand flying clean off where the bone would be and revealing flesh that looked much like plastic. The sight caused Marth to pause in his next attack, partially baffled by the lack of normal flesh that Zelda had. Zelda, in turn, took this moment to turn and run, this time hoping to escape with Kirby in her grasp. He shook his head slightly and gave chase a second time, this time just barely catching up with her. Once again, Falchion pierced her flesh, this time through her back and directly through her stomach. Marth attempted to pin her to the ground with the sword, but Zelda's struggling made it difficult for him to get her to freeze in one place. The blade came out of the Hylian's stomach when Marth pushed her onto the dirt, giving him another opportunity to slice the remaining hand off and allowing Kirby to free himself. Just as she released Kirby, Zelda gave Marth a low hiss and scooted away from him with what was left of her arms. Before Marth could take a third swing at her, Richter came out of seemingly nowhere and wrapped the Vampire Killer snugly around Marth's neck; Falchion dropping onto the dirt as the prince's hands clawed at the metal chain blocking his airway. Zelda stood back up and lifted her wrists up to Marth, the same glowing sensation appearing now in between the wrists. As fire appeared before him, Marth could feel the air being forced from his lungs with Richter's grip tightening tremendously on the chain. A mere second before the flame was released, Kirby leapt up into the air with a mini Falchion in one hand and thrust the blade into Zelda's forehead. The force pushed Zelda forward, and Kirby dragged the sword down on Zelda's face, cutting into her sockets and forcing the one eye she had left out of the socket. As if Richter gained his own free will, he let Marth's body drop onto Zelda's when Kirby lifted the Falchion replica up to Richter's face. Marth rolled off Zelda's unmoving body and began hunting for his own sword, and when he found it, he took a sharp swing to Richter's remaining leg, narrowly cutting off his ankle by about a hair. Richter stumbled back again, hitting the ground with a loud thump, and Kirby jumped onto his torso. He shoved Falchion through Richter's throat, resulting in burbling sounds from where Falchion hit. Richter's hand came to Kirby's face, clenching it tight enough so that Kirby felt like his eyes would pop out, and he rose above the ground preparing to throw Kirby in the opposite direction. Marth reacted quicker than even he expected, and used Dolphin slash on Richter from his waist up before the vampire hunter could further hurt Kirby. Upon contact with the blade, Richter froze, and his body suddenly split in half, the flesh pulling like when someone pulls a grilled cheese sandwich apart. Kirby dropped onto the floor face first, standing up triumphantly and raising the mini Falchion above his head. Marth turned to meet Zelda, who was still on the ground and weakened from the beatings she took. Before she could stand up, Marth elegantly swung his sword across her throat in two swift motions, decapitating her along with tiny scraps of yellow flesh flying out from the wound. With a garbled cry, she began to melt slowly onto the loose dirt beneath her. Proud of his victory, Marth turned back to face Richter while he tussled with Kirby. Similarly to what Marth had done, Kirby swung the mini Falchion straight through Richter's throat, successfully killing the clone. Once done with his part of the battle, Kirby discarded his ability in an almost microscopic star into the air, now facing Marth in search of approval. The prince, in turn, gave Kirby a pleased smile, one that lead Kirby to make a gleeful one as a response. From the midst of Zelda's lifeless corpse rose a small, spherical bright light that seemed to whisper nonsensical words.
Upon hearing the whispers, Marth tensed up and shifted his gaze towards the spherical light, clenching Falchion tightly. "Pardon me, who are you? Where am I? How did I get here?" A feminine voice called to them. Marth wanted to cautiously back up, but he was stopped by Kirby, who threw his pink hands into the air as if to tell Marth not to do anything. He then waddled over to the light, looking curious and unafraid. Marveled by his friend's go-ahead attitude towards it, the prince lowered Falchion and watched from the distance between him and Kirby. "Poyo poyo poyo," Kirby told the light. "You don't know where we are? Then what are you doing here? Surely you must know where you are if you're doing, well, whatever it is you're doing here, right?" She asked. Another "Poyo," from Kirby. "Strange. I guess we're all a little lost here, yes? Before I got here I was in the church practicing my magic when a blinding white light consumed everything! I wonder . . . tell me, who are you?" Kirby introduced himself to the light, then pointed at Marth and introduced him. "My, you're a prince? That must be quite the life, huh?" Marth looked at the light with one of the most blank expressions he could muster. "Depending on what you mean by that, it has it's ups and downs from time to time. And who might you be?" He said. "I'm Charlotte. Charlotte Aulin," She responded. "Poyo! Poyo poyo!" Kirby said, waving his arms in the air again. "Join you? For what reason would I do that? I have other things I would like to do," Charlotte spat. "I believe he is suggesting you join us because we are looking for our friends. You see, we were all taken prisoner and scattered about this land. We could use all the help we can get," elucidated Marth. As if remotely, Charlotte lit up a bit more than she already had. "Oh, captured friends huh? And you think my magic will assist you? This certainly isn't the only time I've been asked for help. You know, I'm feeling generous, so sure, I'll join you," She said, floating closer to Kirby. Below her, Kirby began to hop and cheer loudly, clearly happy to have a new teammate. "It'll be a pleasure to have you Charlotte," Marth spoke, a welcoming grin on his face. Just then, Charlotte vanished into thin air, a few tiny sparkles left over from where she had previously been. When she disappeared, Marth began to search around frantically, both muddled and distressed. Once again, Kirby waddled up to Marth and rose his arms up to the prince. When he got Marth's attention, he explained as best as he could to him what happened, and that Charlotte was fine. "Goodness! Don't worry about me! I'm still here with you guys. But . . . I feel stronger than before," Charlotte told them. "I suppose we're all ready then? Okay. Kirby, lead the way."
Intense heat had beat down on both fighters as they retraced their - or rather, Kirby's - steps back east in hopes of finding the shrine Kirby told Marth about earlier. Judging by the position of the sun, it was a little after noon, among the worst times of day in terms of how hot the day gets. Marth was the one who was suffering the most between them, as he was wearing somewhat thick armor and clothes that weren't exactly meant for the desert. With the conditions that were prevalent, the prince had a sinking feeling he would get sick at some point during this journey; or worse, die. Through what blurry vision he had left, he could see a few stone pillars sticking up in the distance. Maybe this was the shrine Kirby had described? A few hundred or so feet above them however, lurked an unseen danger. A huge gloved hand resembling that of Master hand was hovering above them, sensing their motions on the ground below. Without warning, it swooped down towards them with its index and middle fingers pointing outward. Kirby was the first to notice, and immediately ducked under its path perfectly. Marth, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky, as he was knocked back by the air that followed the path of the hand, causing him to lose any oxygen in his system when he hit the dirt. Acknowledging it's miss, it made a u-turn back around towards them, but failed again as both fighters predicted the attack. Instead of coming back around to attack, the hand began to create boulders with its fingertips and bombard both fighters with them. Marth and Kirby put whatever strength they had left in them to swerve through the onslaught of projectiles, successfully avoiding every single one of them. Curling its fingers into a spiteful fist, the hand slammed down on the ground on either side of them, hoping to crush them into the ground. The prince and the Popstarian avoided this attack too, only stumbling once when the ground shuddered at the impact of the hand. Falchion thrust forward into the gloved hand, hitting it cleanly, bringing shards of what looked like blue glass out of its target. As if reacting to the attack, the hand rose again, this time flying towards the shrine. When it was just above the staircase, it began to form massive boulders every second and starting piling them on top of one another to create a giant wall. After it finished, it hurled the biggest boulder it created at Marth and Kirby. In almost a flash, Marth gripped Kirby by his stubby hand and pulled him out of the path of the boulder, barely saving both of them. As a last resort, the hand came darting towards them again, flashing a bright yellow-orange color rapidly as it approached. "Kirby! Dodge it!" Marth called to him. With unbelievable accuracy, the prince and the Popstarian bounded above the hand, only stopping to use its form as another boost, and dodged the impact of its attack. A few feet behind them, the hand burst in a firey explosion, causing chunks of rock to hit them both on various parts of their body, bruising their skin.
Their breaths were shallow and their chests were tight with how weak they both were. Marth knelt down onto the ground in an effort to catch his breath, and Kirby just flopped onto the dirt. Marth's head rose up again to gaze at the massive wall of rock that now prevented them from meeting up with Mario. Marth eyed it critically in hopes of finding an open spot around it or a spot that they could climb up, but there was none. Any spot that would have given them a chance would easily cause the wall to collapse and crush them. "K-Kirby," Marth breathed. "I think the wall is impossible to pass through. We may have to find another way around it."
"Poyo?!"
"Yes, the path towards the shrine is completely blocked off. If we tried getting through, we would both surely die."
"Poyo poyo . . ."
"I say we could go back west and see what we can find. We may be able to find a way around the shrine to the other side." Kirby's expression softened a bit from fatigue and hopelessness to a faint bit of belief. "Poyo," He said, agreeing with Marth. Once they regained their breaths, they stood up and began walking the opposite direction.
By the time the sun was drifting below the sky, the environment made a huge shift in temperature from being a dry, blistering heat to a somewhat cooler environment with a few cool breezes from time to time. Grass now grew from where they ended up, and although it had dry patches here and there, it was a sign of life nonetheless. Marth stumbled a bit when he began making his way down the slope from where the wasteland was to the more grassy area. He shifted cautiously as to not end up falling down, watching Kirby float down slowly with his puffed up body. Marth took another subconsciously cautious step forward, moving down further than he thought he would. It was here that he made the poor decision to put some weight on his back leg, resulting in him shifting incorrectly and tripping face first into the dirt. He began to roll down ungraciously onto a flat stone platform at the end of the slope, his back slamming against a three-foot-high wall around the outside of the platform, knocking the wind out of him. Kirby descended onto the platform beside him, moving over to his body hastily and allowing Marth to use his body to stand up again. "Poyo poyo?" Asked Kirby. "Y-yes, I'm fine, thank you," Marth whispered, trying to inhale once more after his stomach resisted it. Marth rose to his feet again using the wall beside him, his eyes stopping to take a look around what was below them. Miles below them were several rocky cliffs, each that were smoothed out around the ledges. Below those appeared to be the edge of a quarry of sorts leading into a massive gorge that looked more like a hole on the earth. Thick clouds covered the area above it, obscuring almost everything that could be seen of what was inside it other than a few scattered giant mushrooms. To the prince's right were the faint outlines of what appeared to be buildings, with a much darker and thicker cloud covering it and completely obscuring everything else that could be seen. Marth took a slow, awestruck glance around what surrounded them, feeling a gentle breeze playfully ruffle his already messy deep blue locks of hair. Kirby climbed up onto the wall to get the same view his friend got, and was equally taken aback by what he saw. "Dear Naga," Marth gasped. "It's unlike anything I've ever seen. It may take us eons to fully explore this place and find anyone familiar to us. I believe it is a worthy challenge of my strength. Kirby, are you up to the challenge?"
"Poyo! Poyo!"
The prince gave Kirby a proud nod. "Then we shall waste no more time. May Naga bless us on our journey."
A/N: spent literally an entire day on this one chapter. I picked the Marth path in SSBU, and I honestly didn't expect I would have as much fun writing Kirby's story as I did during this one. So, about the next chapters, I will probably be on another long hiatus (I'm sorry okay?) because of more personal stuff (and I got a dog so I need to be taking extra good care of him). As for when to expect an update? I'm honestly unsure, but I would probably say maybe June/July if not sometime in April/May depending on my schedule, but I bet you I'll most likely come back in April bc joKER WILL Be dlC AND Yes I'm goNNA PLAy hiM. For now, thank you for your patience and happy smashing!