Sorry about the wait folks even though this time the delay was intentional meaning I've still updated on time. I set my next update for March and here is an update in March. Also, as my History exam takes place in May it means I have plenty of time to upload the next chapter in April. For my May update I might be a little late but as the exam is within the first 15 days of the month it gives me around 15 days to write the fanfic (and not all my time will be spent focusing on my exam so I'll still have time for this).
Despite a lack of reviews my writing of this fanfic is on a role and my reviewing is back in business (in fact I'm now going about calling myself the Review King). Not much I can say on this chapter that won't be a spoiler for this chapter so my comments will be at the end. I will comment though on my recent purchase of Kirby's Epic Yarn which is, as the games title suggests, epic. For some reason I can't get the idea of AngieXKirby and AngieXPrince Fluff out of my head. Enough of my babbling though, I'll leave you to read the chapter now.
Chapter 7: Exploration Time! What lurks within the ruins?
People have entered the ruins, my ruins. Perfect, then all is going well. Perhaps he is already here, I know he'll come and then, my revenge will be fulfilled. Come on Dreamlander, I'm waiting.
"Have you noticed it as well Ume?" Iru said aloud, surveying the walls with dedication "About this place?"
Ume, pushing her hood up to which had slipped from her brown locks and over her eyes, looked around the corridor. She did so just to make sure, so as to not leap to conclusions and so she went about checking everything she saw. The walls were firm, flat stone, carefully melded together as so not an inch of space remained. The walls then lost much in the process of carving, as every available space was used to add symbol after symbol, creatures unseen and words unspoken for many years. Each bit flowed seamlessly, one carving trailing onto the other, a falcon would make a plant and then make hieroglyphics, as if they were transforming into the next thing. Yes, one thing was off...
"It's pristine," Ume replied, "it's like it was made only yesterday, not even a speck of dust."
Iru nodded, tapping against the wall and running his fingers along the carvings. His eyes also glimpsed the floor and with a sigh, began to walk on.
"Even the floor is spotless." Iru sighed to himself, now tapping the floor with his foot.
He remained silent for a bit, pondering various speculations and theories in his mind. He could think of many answers but few reasons, and with that he could think of many ways to discover more.
"I'll concern myself with that later, my primary objective is to my find my friend," The Croucar thought to himself as with a steely gaze he continued to walk "make a note of this Ume, I wish to experiment with this place later. For now though..."
Iru needed not continue his line. Ume opened up and quickly jotted down their ideas on the place and then skipped over to her teacher.
As it was to be expected the inner sanctum of the ruins was dark, very dark. It was so firmly constructed that only the barest of spots had hints of light shining through. The only other light source was a strange florescent moss that shone a pale, enchanting light all around it.
"Darn...I lost him," The King panted, his wing-hands hanging loosely at the sides of his body, "where on Dreamland did he go?"
"W-wait up Heika."
The heavily breathing King turned his head to see his men, even more knackered than he was, trudging and stumbling along. The exception being the Gordo, as when he appeared it was apparent that he was in no rush to keep up the man whom he had sworn loyalty too.
"Pardon my rudeness, but did he escape your majesty?" The Gordo asked, the large penguin having simply looked blankly at his men till now.
"Yeah, but only cause I let, he isn't worth the trouble," said King Dedede "Anyway what took you so long."
The Waddle Dee's and Doo's, one or two who had taken to lying on the floor, took a few breaths before replying "s-sorry your majesty, we were not able to keep up with you."
The King, rather than being angry, was rather pleased and so took to gloating "yes, well...I most certainly am fast and all."
"Only when you want too though" The Gordo thought to himself as he began to think, thinking back on the route they had taken to get where they were.
"Now that we're all here let's forget about that that skating loser for now and focus on finding me treasure. Go men!" King Dedede yelled with enthusiasm.
Though such energy and motivation went to waste as in a rare moment for the waddling servants they chose to disobey the order. Though disobey is the incorrect word, more like, not perform as sufficiently as they groaned and moaned, trying to pull themselves up to their feet. Naturally this angered the king.
"I said go men which means get up and start looking before I launch you through the roof with my hammer." King Dedede barked and in an instance the men had jumped, though on unsteady feet and began to march.
"Y-yes sir!"
It didn't matter which of the paths they picked, and it didn't matter what the path was like, there was something strange about the ruins. Meta Knight could feel it, or at least he thought he felt it, a strange feeling within the air. This feeling, when outside, could only be felt from within the ruins, there was not a touch of the sensation in the outside world but inside, inside it was around him.
The masked man stepped carefully but managed to keep a consistent pace to remain positioned at the back of the group. While he looked back and forth, his eyes drawing in as much of his surroundings as possible, his men went on unaware, simply looking for physical clues.
"So...does this place simply go on or does it have any lower levels..?" Mace Knight asked as his gaze remained focused on all details to the left side of the group.
"We went down a floor just by entering the ruins; of course there are more floors. Besides, the place looked too small from the outside to have only one floor." Ax Knight replied from the front, his eyes drooped lazily.
"Shouldn't we assume then that the treasures are stored at the very bottom?" Blade Knight asked.
"Affirmative...however we lack knowledge of entryway to lower levels." Javelin Knight responded as he spun constantly, scanning the area literally.
"Let's assume it's the stairs that go down like all places and just go 'hey look, stairs,' when we find them." Ax Knight mused in a dull fashion fitting his current state of boredom.
"This place though, we should assume it has traps...right Meta Knight-sama." Blade Knight stated, looking to the back to the group's leader.
Upon saying this, the group realised that their leader was not just at the back idling but at the back with a constant guard. The others could not see or feel anything suspicious but they knew to trust Meta Knight's judgement.
"Is-Is everything alright back there?" Trident Knight asked as he clasped his trident tighter, expecting something to jump out and attack them there and then.
"This place...do you feel something strange about it?" Meta Knight asked as he begun to walk through his underlings and to the front of the Meta-Knights.
Many were bewildered, having never paid much thought into anything being different, other than the unnaturally glowing plant life that allowed them to see in the dark.
"Let's see here...there's no breeze." Sword Knight said aloud, intended more as a thought and a suggestion than an answer.
"Yeah sure, because being underground as we are isn't an obvious explanation to a lack of a breeze." Ax Knight said sarcastically.
"Close," the masked knight replied, surprising the two conversers, "if one of you would swing your weapon you'd find out why."
Thus Sword Knight began to draw his sword, the others around him backed off in order to allow the demonstration to be performed. Grasping his sword with both hands the green bodied Knight swung once, normal swing of the sword. Other than a lack of sound, the sound of the whipping, no one noticed anything odd about it. Sword Knight however did not move.
"There's no resistance but at the same time it's heavy." Sword Knight commented raising many confused eyes (with their armour on and all it would be difficult for them to raise their eyebrows).
"Please explain."
"Well, when the wind is pushing against you your sword has to slice through the wind and as such it slows. Here there is no resistance and the swing feels smooth and crisp but my sword, it feels heavier."
"In other words this place does not lack wind, and it most certainly has air, it just doesn't move." Meta Knight summed up, clearing away the confusion.
"So...what difference does that make?" Mace Knight asked as all eyes turned to their leader.
"It makes little difference to how we will fight and yet the fact that such a thing occurs in this place is off-putting," Meta Knight began to say as he rested his hand against the wall "thus we shall proceed with utmost-The knight did not finish his line though most could assume what he was to say.
The reason for the interruption was the opening of the floor, and the puffball swordsman sudden fall. Before the Meta-Knights could call out his name the hole in which Meta Knight had fallen into sealed itself up.
"This was a bad idea, and you know why, because we rushed it, you two went running off down the first corridor you could see and never took notice of which one we went down. To top it off I didn't even try to stop you, heck I simply ran along after you becoming just as lost and now none of know where we are. Another thing gone wrong is..." Dee babbled, voicing his concerns one after the other.
For you see when Kirby ran off into the ruins, followed by Gooey and then by Dee, they ran into the main centre. Once going through the entrance, the first room of the building consisted of firm, towering pillars to support the structure, undamaged like the ones outside. The interesting thing about the room was the multiple doorways, each leading down a different corridor. Now Kirby's mind was preoccupied and in his commonly rash state he sprinted down one at random. As Gooey and Dee were thinking of only how to keep up with Kirby they need not take much notice of the room, or of which doorway they went through.
"Are you done yet?" Gooey whined as he and the others walked by their diminutive, ranting ally.
"...yes, yes I am" Dee huffed, catching his breath from his nonstop complaint.
"Well it's about time, I mean, it's not that big of a deal." Gooey said, unconcerned at the possible predicament they may be in.
"But we are lost; there could have been clues back there."
"It's a straight line. We've been walking down a straight line!" Gooey yelled back and somehow indicating with his tongue the further straightness of the corridor ahead, "besides Adeline goofed up her artwork as a result of her trying to catch up with us and she hasn't complained once."
"That's right, I haven't complained once at how my painting-my painting..." Adeline voice wandered off down the corridor as she remembered the array of colours that bloomed from her brush, and the artwork that was being brought to life on her canvas. Her thoughts then wavered to how, distracted in the absence of people, her brush swung cross the entire page, sullying the beauty.
A chill went down Kirby's (yes he has been paying attention to the conversation), Gooey's and Dee's small backs as they looked upon the one female of the group. The quiet and calm one now emitted an eerie air of anger and saddness over the loss of her artwork, and whose eyes were dull and dark.
"She's possessed again, she's possessed again." Dee cried out in panic, over-exaggerating the silent, sealed fury of their companion.
"We'll give you all the time to do a super-duper terrific painting after we've explored the ruins." Gooey hastily commented.
"All the time, all the time." Kirby said with a constant nod and tinge of apprehension.
"Really?" Adeline asked, her voice mostly monotone but a hint of cheer at the prospect suggested could be heard.
"Yes" The three men answered with a slight bow, the best bow the hipless creatures could perform.
"Okay, I'll forgive you then." Adeline replied with a sudden smile beaming from her face.
Adeline continued to walk along, now with more merriment, while the other three let out a sigh of relief. It didn't take long for Adeline to stop and look back to the others, a look of concern to which was quickly explained. Adeline, and now the whole group, had come across a fork in the road. The corridor seemingly stopped and split into two, separated by a thin triangular wall.
"We're lost." Kirby announced.
"I knew all that rushing would get us into trouble." Dee muttered under his breath.
"I don't see the problem, we've been walking ahead with no clue as to where he headed before so let's just pick a path and go down." Adeline this time said.
Now Gooey, who hadn't been saying much lately, remained silent as he hopped over to a nearby statue.
"You guys discuss and I'll look for clues, kay." Gooey said loud enough for the group to hear as he peered into the deep, gaping eyes of the dusty statue.
A tap on the shoulder, a small and unfelt pressure was laid upon Ume's shoulder. The second time she felt it, and so she responded.
"Yes professor?"
No response. Yet she felt a third tap of equal strength so she responded in the earlier fashion.
"Yes professor?"
All that could be heard was the sound of her footsteps, and those of the senior bird in front. She received another tap.
"Stop tapping my shoulder sensei!" Ume burst out.
"Ume, how could I be tapping your shoulder, I'm in fro..." Iru spun round to see what the matter was when he fell silent.
Ume realising that Iru had been walking ahead of her the entire time, turned round to greet the 'tapper'.
For the most part the corridor's were absent of anything, sides for the citizens of dreamland journeying through them. These corridors also only went straight, a seemingly never ending journey going forwards. Thus when the corridor changed its straight path by possessing a corner, and with that corner the proceeding path expanded in width. Even the walls were different, a dark beige that bulged out from its brown neighbours.
"It's seems we can only turn to this path." The Gordo commented, seeing no other way.
"I'm getting tired of all this 'not knowing where we going' business," The King moaned as he leaned on his hammer, "If it weren't for that greedy Kirby coming soon I'd say we'd all have a break about now."
The Kings servants cried a little at knowing they had lost a break because of Dreamlands hero, or rather because of Dreamlands villains' paranoia of Dreamlands hero. One little often abused waddling Dee soon lost interest in moaning as he noticed a row of statues. Upon one statue was a nifty blue bandana that circled the head of the stone, still being.
"That looks really nice," the Waddle Dee thought to himself as he walked over, removed the cloth from the equally small statue, and tied it to his head "a perfect fit."
For some odd reason though, as the Waddle Dee removed the bandana from the statue, he could have sworn he felt it shiver.
"There isn't a gap to fit my fingers into; it's as if it didn't even exist." Mace Knight yelled back.
"The floor just opened up, if you can't open it then just smash it to pieces." Blade Knight yelled back.
"Yeah, like this." Ax Knight declared as he heaved his axe and swung it down at the ground.
Mace Knight managed to pull himself away just in time to avoid the bladed weapon, a weapon of which made not even a scratch on the floor.
"Now that is just freaky." Ax Knight mumbled to himself only to have Mace Knight grab his wrist and push to the wall.
"Your face is freaky and one solid hit from me and you won't have to worry about it." Mace Knight yelled in anger, getting his hands almost sliced off wasn't something he enjoyed apparently.
"Stop it, now is not the time to be fighting one another," Sword Knight roared, halting the violent actions of his two comrades, "our master is an unparallel swordsman; any danger in this place is no match to him."
These words seemed to calm the group down as Mace Knight backed off from his axe wielding comrade. The men began to think upon the situation in a calmer manner, a manner soon to be distraught as they heard the sound of people coming towards them. Turning to face the shadows they saw them emerge.
The 'statues' were thick with dust; their bodies stained a permanent grey from the heaps of it. It now formed as a second skin as if the statues were coated in dull, tight armour. Where the mouth inclined, and various body parts separated from the single mass, cracks formed as creases did on clothes. Upon these creases the colour was not grey but brown, a bronze aged brown, of copper coins gone old and clay vases fallen into the dirt. Shapes and sizes varied as did the inhabitants of dreamland and some were of familiar looks. The Waddle Dee's were there but larger, and with tuffs of hair that was seen on their cousins, the Waddle Doo's. Bronto Burts could be seen but with muscular feet used to heavy lifting, and even one or two new creatures, probably since lost to the world in the passage of time. But all these 'statues' did the same thing, they moved, and all the statues had the same thing, eyes. A lack of proper eyes, but the eye sockets existed and within these gleams a pupil. The pupil was of mist, and shimmered, the moving statues approached with soulless eyes.
When something of the kind of being of these statues, no, these people approach you, horror fills your stomach and brushes against your spine. So it comes as no surprise that throughout the ruins, with each of the groups, screams erupted. Screams that echoed through the ruined walls.
Gooey was right up to the petrified creatures face, and seemingly frozen with fear as it shrieked a sound unfitting for any denizen of life. Gooey simple stared and licked his slime bodied lips.
It was then that Gooey found his voice and said "Glad you woke up, can you give us directions?"
I had to do a last minute edit with the first Kirby's group scene. Originally Adeline began to argue with the other three and when I looked back on it I thought it felt out of character. Though I have made her a bit too excited in this fanfic than intended and a bit too open than how I planned I feel that the basis of her being a calmer and quieter character should still be retained.
This chapter maybe short but I liked where I ended it. The last part is a joke upon Gooey's simplicity; whereas everyone else is scared of the golem zombie type creatures Gooey does not see it as out of the norm and asks the statue that just sprung to life in front of him for directions. I hope this was conveyed through the writing and if not I will have to think of ways to make it clearer.
I hope you all enjoyed chapter 7 of Kirby Ancient Ruin Adventure!