As good of a time as everyone was having, dusk seemed to roll around fairly quick- the skies started to turn shades of orange and pink with purple off on the horizon, a few stars glittered faintly, and the air grew cooler. The chirping of birds started to fade in favor of insects making evening songs with their wings, but all the same, it was a pleasant sound. Any afternoon snacks had worn off, thus the bunch made their ways back to the ships and set to getting ready for dinner- a beach cookout needed a fire, and that fire needed wood to burn, thus Nem, Storo, and Kirby set off to retrieve it while Bandana Waddle Dee, Magolor, and Spinni prepped the food, and Daroach and Digi made a spot for the fire. Meta Knight was still on guard just in case, watching the skies and the horizons from the Lor's deck, and King Dedede tasked himself with "supervising," but most of the bunch knew better than to think that was actually the case.
"Sufficient distance from the ships so as to avoid errant embers making unwanted contact…" Digi mused to himself as he and Daroach made their way along the beach. "Sufficient distance from greenery so as to avoid the blaze spreading, sufficient proximity to the water to ensure dousing is easy…"
"Those are a lot of words to say 'a responsible place to light a big fire,'" Daroach chuckled, casting his floating comrade a glance.
"The details are important," Digi brushed him off.
They certainly were to someone, but that someone wasn't Daroach.
Nonetheless, soon Digi perked up and zipped out, hovering over the sand for a moment before turning to the head Squeak and piping up, "This place looks like it fits our needs! And if I may, boss, there's a very efficient way to make a pit in a short amount of time."
"Do as you will," Daroach replied.
At that, Digi's UFO started to shift, the underglow lights withdrawing while a flattened tire came out of the bottom that was aired up before he hit the ground, along with two exhaust pipes coming out of the back of his apparatus. With a rev of his engine, he spun in circles, sand flying up around him but a clear indentation left as he whirled. It didn't take long before he was in a hole around two meters or so in diameter and perhaps half a meter deep at the middle, at which point he stopped and shifted back to his UFO method of travel.
"There we go," Digi said, rising up from the bottom. "We should be-!"
He paused for a moment on seeing Daroach, or rather, Daroach's ears peeking out of a Daroach-sized mound of sand. A pair of eyes blinked from within it, followed by the head Squeak's hands detaching before the rest of him shook free. Without saying a word but still smiling suavely, Daroach pulled his magic wand out from his cape.
"Oh, sheesh, boss, I'm sorry!" Digi exclaimed. "I didn't realize you'd-! Ahhhhh!"
Shortly, the UFO was covered in ice and making a soft thud at the bottom of the hole, Digi shouting hapless calculations and over-the-top details from within that were muffled. The head Squeak simply strolled over and picked him up, frost-covered UFO and all, and traipsed out of the hole as if nothing had happened.
"Hey!" came a shout from King Dedede, who waved from further off. "How's it coming?"
"It's going perfectly fine," Daroach called back, still smiling as he shook off some more sand.
. . . . .
A little further off in the distance, though, Kirby, Nem, and Storo eyed some palm trees on the beach- they were spread out from each other, so cutting any one of them down would be easy seeing as there were no nearby branches to get tangled in as they fell, and carrying them off through the sand instead of through the forest would be much, much easier. Nem was already gripping her axe, a mischievous smirk on her face, but Kirby and Storo, on the other hand, seemed a little cautious. Big coconuts hung from the lower layer of leaves, their shells colored with greens, yellows, and oranges- pretty pieces of fruit, but ones that two of the three knew better than to try plucking.
"Okay, one, maybe two, should be fine," Kirby noted. "But first, let me-!"
"On it!" Nem hollered, drawing her axe back and darting forward.
"Wait, Nem-" Kirby cried, reaching one stubby arm out haplessly.
"Oh, goodness," Storo remarked, holding one arm up to shield himself and putting the other in front of Kirby.
FWOOM!
With one swing, she felled one palm tree with ease, but the moment she set foot underneath it, the coconuts detached themselves from their stems and dropped independent of the tree, one right above her and two others in fairly close proximity. A cry of "Gyaaaaaah!" was heard as they exploded, Nem immediately flying out and quickly landing right beside her company again with narrowed eyes and a snarling expression.
"Exploding fruit?!" she hollered. "We've been infiltrated by enemies! They've set improvised explosive devices among the terrain!" Her gaze darted around wildly, and she brandished her axe with a truly wild look on her face, hardly even noticing as Kirby gave her side a few taps to get her attention. "Well, I've seen this SEVERAL times before, you bitches and sons of bitches! Show yourselves and take me to your leader!"
"Hold on, Nem!" Kirby cried, reaching for her hands and trying to unfurl her fingers. "We haven't been infiltrated!"
She looked at him like he was crazy, mouth still snarling and pearl-filled socket narrowing. "Gyah?!" she cried. "Then what the hell was that?! You're not saying fruits just explode, are you?!"
"Those ones do," Kirby calmly replied, successfully unfurling one of her fingers. "You have to watch those coconuts- whenever you walk under them, they drop and they'll get you if you let them! That's just how they are."
Nem's eyes widened, but her mouth ceased to snarl. "… So they lure you in and they get you," she said flatly.
Kirby giggled, unfurling another finger. "It's just a tree, Nem.~ They'll get you, but they're not trying to lure you in." He paused for a second. "And they're not trees like Whispy- he has thoughts and feelings! These ones don't."
She paused, blinking, then eased up, taking her partially unfurled hand off of her axe. "So they're not malicious entities. They're just… coincidentally destructive if you get too close."
"That's right!" Kirby affirmed with a nod. "That's why I was telling you to wait a second- I was gonna inhale the coconuts off the tree, that way they wouldn't explode!"
She blinked some more, an awkward, incredulous smile gracing her face. Kirby wasn't sure what to make of her antics, for as well-meaning as they seemed, they were certainly not normal. Things as mundane as searching for pearls and chopping firewood became combative clashes for ridiculous reasons, but crazy though Nem was, at least she could be called a friend. A crazy friend, but a friend.
"Should we take it back as is, or cut it first?" Storo inquired, looking at the felled tree. "I can carry it either way."
"Let's cut it first," Kirby said. "Nem, you wanna?"
Right back to smirking and wild went her expression. "Hell- er, heck- yes!"
She cackled wildly as she swung her axe with reckless abandon, her blades starting to smolder as she went to work. Like a hot knife through butter, her axe cut the trunk into several sections, then split those sections into quarters. One tree alone produced a significant pile of wood, surely enough for starting a fire, and the three of them went to gathering it up so Storo could carry it back to the pit with his comparatively huge grasp.
"Hey!" called a familiar voice, that of King Dedede as he ran over to them. "You guys good over here? Digi and Daroach have the hole dug." He gestured down the beach, in the direction of the ships.
"We're good!" Kirby affirmed. "Can you show us where?"
"Sure thing! C'mon!" the king replied.
Storo swooped up the wooden chunks and lumbered after him nonchalantly, Kirby skipped happily, and Nem clanked along contentedly after stowing her axe on her back. Daroach was perched on the edge of the hole, not a care in the world, and Digi appeared to be trying to wash his UFO apparatus off in the sea. The head Squeak knew he was trying to get the ice off of the front of his dome, but the others simply figured that he'd gotten sand where he didn't want it and was trying to keep his travel mechanisms pristine.
"Now, that is a stack of wood," Daroach remarked with a grin, stepping back from the hole as Storo filled it. "That'll cook plenty."
"Should we get a fire going?" Storo inquired. "It'll take time for it to warm up, especially with fresh wood."
"Oooh, I wonder if Magolor still has some Copy Essences in the Lor," Kirby chimed in, looking to the winged ship. "If he has one for Fire, I could-"
Nem, however, had other ideas. "I got it!" the armored lass cried excitedly, reaching to her pearl-filled eye and taking the glimmering sphere out for a second.
There were plenty of sparks escaping her empty socket, they soon noticed, and her company quickly stepped back as she readied another flamethrower. She giggled wildly as the sparks coalesced together into a cohesive beam of flame, little spurts of red and yellow licking at the wood for a few seconds before they took hold. Back into her empty socket went the pearl, the reds and yellows of the fire reflecting on its surface as Nem herself grinned wildly. Even from the water's edge, Digi took note, and quickly brushed off the last bit of ice before zipping back over.
Kirby looked to it, then smiled. "Well, that works too," he said simply.
"You having fun there?" King Dedede asked, halfway incredulous and halfway amused.
"Fuck off," Nem said, plopping down. In moments, she was giving a jolt and exclaiming, "E-er-! Gyah, not you, Your Majesty…!"
Kirby shot Nem a pointed look, but King Dedede simply laughed, giving her a pat on the top of her head- or rather, giving her a pat on the hat. The armored lass' expression contorted wildly for a second, her pearl-filled socket narrowing while the intact one shot huge, and once the king stopped a few moments later, she quickly reached up to nestle it down. Daroach couldn't help but to snicker at the king being told to "fuck off," even if unintentionally, but he managed to hide it by pulling his cloak up around his face slightly.
"Okay, if we have a fire going, we should go make sure they're okay with the food," Kirby said, intently looking back to the Lor. "Just to be sure everything's okay and they don't need anyone to taste anything before we cook it!"
"That is a great idea!" King Dedede said, perking right up at the mention.
The pink puffball looked to Daroach, Storo, and Nem in turn before he said, "Me and King Dedede will go check, you guys watch the fire!" before hurrying off.
Digi zipped over to the bunch around the fire right as Kirby and the king started sprinting off towards the Lor. "Significant deception detected," he said flatly. "Based on Kirby's affinity for swallowing just about anything and King Dedede's occurrences of stealing all the food in his kingdom on several occasions, the likelihood of them merely wanting to check on things is in the single digits. I wouldn't even give it a five percent chance of being true."
The others really couldn't argue.
. . . . .
In the Lor, though, things were going just fine… for the most part. The far-flung magician himself combined some spices in a big bowl, Bandana Waddle Dee carefully washed some fruits and veggies, and Spinni sliced them (albeit with a shuriken's edge instead of a knife). There was plenty of food stowed away, enough to last a long voyage into worlds that probably weren't so plentiful, and it was certainly all quite… interesting, at least to the Popstar residents.
"I feel like these berries are judging me," Bandana Waddle Dee noted, amiable but uncertain.
He washed a few berries, studying them as he did so. The bright red color of their outer layers practically shouted at anyone viewing them to eat them, but their pericarps had lumps and bumps that, although not concerning on their own (plenty of edible plants had odd shapes, after all), seemed to coalesce into faces. Most of them looked unamused, frustrated, or disappointed, but a few looked sad, and even fewer looked happy. The small set of leaves connected at the base of their stems lent themselves to the illusion of hairstyles or headwear, only making the 'face' illusion even more strong.
Magolor giggled, glancing over. "Oh, the brimstone berries! The people that I got them from, probably around seven dimensional hops away from here, said they only grow deep in a few forests where the trees are so thick that no light gets through. Apparently a lot of folks have gone into those forests and never come back out, but the berries sure are tasty if you find them and return alive!"
Somehow, that didn't make it any better, but Bandana Waddle Dee nonetheless kept washing them with care.
Spinni, however, had a different thought he couldn't help but to verbalize. "Magolor!" he exclaimed, giving a jolt as he cut some vegetables. "What's with this pepper?!"
He stared reluctantly at a green bell pepper, nothing out of the ordinary… at least, from the outside. After cutting the top off, he noticed a strange red liquid that trickled out, and looking inside revealed a… 'growth,' perhaps it could be called, resembling a heart with a single vascular vessel that had been feeding into its stem seconds prior. The Squeak dropped his shuriken and backed away slightly, eyes wide under his shades.
"Oh, that?" Magolor said nonchalantly, reaching into his bowl to mix up the spices. "That's just a hell pepper's heart. It's got a tougher texture, but it tastes just the same- fresh and spicy."
"You swear this stuff is okay to eat?" Spinni inquired, picking up his shuriken again.
"I've eaten it and I'm fine," the robed one easily replied. "Lettuce with purple flesh rot, though… That's where I draw the line. It might be safe if you wash it first, but it tastes like dirt once the leaves start oozing."
The thought of something having 'flesh rot' and oozing was… certainly not appetizing in the least, but thankfully, it appeared Magolor didn't have any on hand. Bright blue mushrooms with eyeball-like markings that squeaked when washed, lime green tubers with pitch black insides that seemed to smoke before even coming close to a fire for cooking, a yellow onion that started dripping a salty liquid the moment Spinni cut into it as if it were crying instead of making its cutter cry… Extradimensional foods sure did come in a lot of varieties.
Bandana Waddle Dee, however, just couldn't help but to wonder if one fruit was even edible. "Magolor, are these apples actually edible or did someone just carve the shape of one out of crystal? I'm afraid I'll drop one and break it…"
The one in question perked up, stopping before going to open another compartment. "Oh, Gem Apples! Yes, they're edible and they grow on trees just like regular apples!" He giggled mischievously for a second. "They're actually used as a form of currency in this one world I spent a lot of time in.~ Ordinarily I don't part with them easily, but for Kirby and his friends, I can spare a few."
At the mention of them being used as currency, Spinni perked right up, staring at one for a few seconds before he cut it. Sure enough, the inside of it looked just like a normal apple, yellow flesh with seeds and all, but if they were valuable… Daroach would have certainly loved to hear about them, he was sure.
Magolor pulled open a cold-aired compartment, where what looked like the edible remnants of a large beast were situated on a big shelf- its underside was covered in wide pale grey scales that looked like bands, its upper portion was covered with a shiny dark purple layer of thin skin, and its flesh was a tannish color. It was certainly much too big for his hands to grasp, probably too big for all three of them together to grasp, but that was no problem- Magolor held his hands up and summoned a black hole, which sucked up the giant chunk of meat and deposited it on another countertop when the other end of the black hole opened not too far away from Bandana Waddle Dee. It easily dwarfed them- it was maybe three times as tall as Bandana Waddle Dee, and probably as long as two of his spears.
"What is that?" the bandana-wearing one inquired, slightly surprised by its size and studying it.
"That was a raging Hornhead that tried to trample a village school a few dimensional hops away," Magolor answered, closing the cold compartment. "Sometimes, when you go far away, you see some familiar creatures. But it's not trampling anything anymore, and I can't eat it all by myself."
"A… Hornhead…?" Spinni asked uncertainly. "Like a… bug? You eat those?"
"Absolutely!" Magolor easily replied. "Plenty of places eat bugs! They taste a little like seafood and a little nutty at the same time. The little ones are a lot more crunchy since it's hard to peel them out of their shells, but these big ones are a lot easier to season and cook."
"I never knew you could do that," Bandana Waddle Dee mused, mulling it over.
"I'm still not entirely convinced you can," Spinni remarked.
Magolor giggled, shooting the Squeak a glance. "I didn't know you were such a wimp.~"
At that, Spinni grabbed his shuriken and hollered as he turned to the magician, "Who are you calling-!"
Whatever protestations there were came to a quick halt when a giant sword was summoned in Magolor's hands, which easily cut the Hornhead into a dozen or so chunks. Of course, a big piece of meat required a big blade, but his company hadn't been expecting one quite that big. Bandana Waddle Dee didn't seem nearly as surprised as Spinni, the latter of whom gave a little shout and a jolt the moment it came out.
"Where did you get that?!" the Squeak cried. "That looks insanely hard to come by! Did you really just pull that out of thin air?!"
Right as it disappeared, Magolor turned to look at Spinni and replied with a giggle and a mischievous look to his eyes, "Oh, the Ultra Sword! I braved a barren wasteland, fought these horrible creatures straight out of your nightmares, clawed my way to the end while completely powerless, and forged my magic into a sword to finally escape.~ Did you know Whispy Woods has an estranged cousin living in that hellish place too? Me and that guy did not get along at all!" Another giggle left him, followed by a dramatic gaze to the ceiling while he threw his arms out to the side and wilted like a flower for just a moment. "Oh, it was awful! Absolutely terrible! It's not something for the faint of heart!"
Perhaps part of that was an exaggeration, and maybe Whispy Woods having a cousin was an outright lie, but his company seemed to buy every part of it.
"A sword from hell!" Spinni exclaimed. "Now that must be worth a ton!"
"H-how did you get there?!" Bandana Waddle Dee, on the other hand, was more concerned than anything. "Did you go there or did something happen to send you there?!"
"Oh, that's not important," Magolor brushed him off.
"It's very important!" the bandana-wearing one fussed in response. "I don't wanna end up there! There's no chance of Whispy getting mad at us and sending us there with his cousin, is there?!"
Magolor giggled. "Only if you-"
Maybe he was going to tell Bandana Waddle Dee "Only if you acquire a curse, which can be relieved by doing favors for your local magician of the arcane" with himself being the local magician of the arcane and the curse being completely unseen by anyone else, but at that moment, some other voices from within the ship caught his attention.
"Magoloooooor!" came a call from Kirby.
The robed one perked up and zipped over to the kitchen door, popping out and calling down the corridor, "Over here, Kirby!"
Shortly, in came the pink puffball, trailed by King Dedede, and the two of them looked far more lively the moment they laid eyes on the food. It was a paradise for anyone hungry, even if some of the fruits and veggies were… a bit mystifying to look at.
"Oh, wow, this stuff does look out of this world," Kirby said with starry eyes.
"You know, it never hurts to taste test before you cook something to make sure you got it right," King Dedede mused, looking the berries and veggies over.
"It also doesn't hurt to not be underwhelmed by trying something when it's not ready," Magolor piped up, sprinkling the meat with spices.
"Oooh! He's got a good point!" Kirby concurred, giving a glance to the king. "It'll be better later if we hold off now!"
King Dedede didn't look so convinced, but he nonetheless relented, even if begrudgingly.
Nonetheless, once Magolor had finished seasoning the meat, he summoned another black hole along with his Ultra Sword, the black hole placing all of the giant pieces on top of the sword for easy carrying, which was then picked up by Bandana Waddle Dee and Kirby while the fruits and vegetables were moved into baskets that the others carried. Out of the Lor they went, plenty of food coming along with them, and the moment they stepped outside, it seemed the others were already having a spirited conversation around the fire.
"Isn't it just beautiful~?" Nem chirped, her face as blissful as could be as she stared at it.
"Nem is displaying a concerning level of affinity for fire," Digi remarked haplessly. "Such a thing is correlated with arson and other questionable activities…"
"Oh, shut up, Digi," Nem shot back, still grinning. "It reminds me of home, and there is nothing wrong with that!"
"Was your homeworld on fire…?" Storo asked gently, looking to her.
"'Was?' It probably still is," the armored lass mischievously remarked.
"You guys!" Kirby cut in, trailing over with Bandana Waddle Dee behind him and the meat-carrying sword over both of their heads.
The others instantly perked up the moment they saw the food, and it didn't take long for everyone to set to cooking. With a few rocks to hold it up and the help of Nem and Meta Knight, both of whom could fly easily with a heavy object in their hands, Magolor's sword was positioned over the flames to let the meat roast, its flesh becoming a dark orange as it cooked. Sticks were pretty easy to come by, and everyone sharpened a few down into skewers either by rubbing them against a rock until pointy or having Nem and Meta Knight whittle them down. Onto the skewers went the veggies, which were likewise roasted in the fire, while the skewered fruit was dipped in sugar before roasting to get a sweet caramelized coating. Some bigger sticks had to be used to retrieve the roasting meat, for while there was plenty to go around, it was going around in big chunks.
All of it was delectable- the roasted Hornhead was surprisingly hearty, and the squeaking mushrooms and crying onions paired beautifully with it with their rich, somewhat pungent notes. The hell peppers were fresh-tasting but slightly metallic and smoky, much unlike an ordinary bell pepper, and the seemingly smoking tubers tasted less like smoke and more like fresh bread. The brimstone berries and Gem Apples, after being dunked in sugar and put into the flame to caramelize, were nothing short of heavenly in spite of the berries' disgruntled looks. All of it was delicious, to be sure, certainly deserving to be called 'out of this world.'
"This is amazing!" King Dedede exclaimed, munching on a veggie skewer with a chunk of meat on another. "Magolor! Where are the worlds you got this stuff on?! I need to see if I can have some imported, 'cause it is great!"
"It is extremely high-class dining," Daroach concurred.
The robed one giggled. "I'm sure you can have it imported, but it's gonna involve several portals and a few daring adventure squads."
The king wasn't dissuaded. "That's no matter! I'll send the most dedicated Waddle Dees!" he declared.
Bandana Waddle Dee looked up, putting a fruit skewer into the fire. "I'll go, Your Majesty!"
King Dedede gave a hearty laugh. "I know I can always count on you!"
"Thank you for such good fare," Meta Knight said to the robed one, sticking a veggie skewer into the fire.
"Anything for such good friends," Magolor brushed it off.
Nem, though, withdrew a charred veggie skewer and studied it for a second, her intact eye narrowing. "You know, it's been a long time since I actually sat down and enjoyed a meal," she mused. "Let's see here…" She put the skewer in her mouth, stick and everything, before munching it up and starting to grin. "And this is awesome."
That gesture got a few odd and surprised looks from the others- she was a robot, after all, so crunching a stick probably wouldn't bother her at all, but it was nonetheless rather strange.
"You know you're not supposed to eat the stick," Spinni remarked, giving her a glance.
"She's not refined enough to care," Daroach said flatly, removing his own skewer.
"Maybe she likes the taste of wood," Storo said simply.
Nem, however, said otherwise. "You're damn right I'm not refined nor do I give a damn," she said indifferently, getting a few pointed glances at the language.
Kirby gave her an inquisitive glance as he swallowed some fruit, musing, "I thought you didn't wanna eat earlier! Does it take you longer to get hungry?"
Nem chuckled. "I haven't gotten hungry in a looooong time," she replied. "The whole time I was locked up, I definitely wasn't getting any food! It's just something I can do for enjoyment, like drawing pictures of hellfire raining down on the hellhole I used to live in or smashing asteroids with my axe, but being busted up like I am, I didn't wanna expend extra energy incinerating food at the time." She looked upwards, grabbing her hat's brim while still smiling but her mouth contorting into a snarl. "Oh, you don't have to remind me! Sure, let me just let you solve my problems and restore my former glory- that went so well the first time you tried it, you worthless piece of-!"
"Hey," Kirby said, giving her a pointed but amiable glance.
She calmed down. "Gyah! Sorry!"
Meta Knight eyed her from under his mask, but he said nothing.
Magolor, though, was likewise inquisitive. "You're in disrepair?" he asked, perking up. "Look, the Lor is a legendary vessel and I was able to get it up and running with some upgrades! You seem really advanced too, so I bet I could give you the same treatment!"
"Pass," Nem said simply. "I'm content." Despite her words, a few moments later she looked upwards again and hissed, "Mind your own business, you punk-ass sack of-!" before getting an awkward expression when Kirby shot her a less amiably pointed look.
Magolor, nonetheless, slumped down a bit and said, "If you say so…" with a slightly downtrodden tone.
There wasn't much left but charred skewers by the time they were done feasting by the fire, and dusk had rolled in with the sky turning shades of purple and indigo. Innumerable stars and celestial bodies glittered overhead, and in usual fashion, pretty meteor showers started to come on display. Bright streaks of color lit up the heavenly expanses, some of them closer and some many kilometers away, which the entourage glanced up at as they started to wind down. Kirby got a giant mouthful of water from the ocean which he doused the fire in, leaving a pile of charred wood, and Magolor's Ultra Sword dissipated into naught without any roasted Hornhead to hold.
"Does anyone else feel like camping under the stars?" Kirby inquired, looking up at the sky with a smile.
"I do!" Bandana Waddle Dee immediately chimed in.
"Why would you want to do that when we have two ships?" Daroach remarked to the contrary. "It might get crunched, but the airship has room."
"Being under the stars is better than being in a ship in the event of a dragon bombardment," Meta Knight noted. "I'll join you."
"I'd rather be up keeping watch," Nem mused. "I don't need to sleep."
"You guys have fun," King Dedede said with a laugh.
"I'd rather have the engine room as usual," Digi mused. "And speaking of- my tests are probably done running by now. I'm gonna check the results, so if anyone wants more info on what we're dealing with, come with me."
No one was going to pass on such- if those meteor showers were an invasion of eggs from a hostile draconic species, they needed to know, as best as they could, what they were dealing with. To the engine room Digi went, the rest of the entourage following along. Nem's meteorite was still intact, but the scanners and machinery around it had halted, a constant display on the screen Digi had been reading earlier instead of a changing one. The rest of them couldn't make out most of what it meant, but thankfully, Digi certainly knew.
He zipped over to the screen, combed it over, then immediately drooped like a melting snowman. "Oh, goodness…" his voice trailed off.
"What?" Kirby asked intently, looking up with a concerned face.
"You didn't screw up, did you?" Spinni inquired sarcastically.
"No, Spinni!" Digi brushed him off. "This thing's chemical composition and characteristics don't match that of any mineral material in the near galaxy nor any of the limited samples I've gotten from further off planets. The closest match was only thirty percent conclusive, which doesn't tell me enough to draw any conclusions!" He shook his head. "We still don't know where this thing came from!"
That wasn't particularly encouraging, but at the very least, it told them something.
"So it's from a very distant planet," Meta Knight noted. "That's not entirely useless."
"Well, yes, but not really helpful," Digi replied. "If I knew which planet, we would know which kind of environment these creatures are naturally home to and use that knowledge to figure out their fitness for Popstar's terrain, draw conjectures about where they are in the food chain, their evolutionary history, that sort of thing." He glanced backward to the others. "Point is, we'd know a lot more just with that piece of info, but we don't have it, so we still need to gather info."
"Well, it's not like we're any worse off," Bandana Waddle Dee said simply.
Digi looked back to the screen. "But I did get a carbon date…" his voice trailed off, his UFO inching closer to the screen. He was silent for a moment, simply staring at the number, then looked at the meteorite, then back to his company. "This thing is only about ten years old. That tells us that these things are pretty slow to age if it took ten years for the baby inside to form and hatch, but when you combine how old the meteorite is with how old those runes are…"
"So that is one smart baby," Kirby said, perking up.
"Or there's an ancient beast of fantastical power from galaxies unknown sending its children to invade the others," Digi replied.
"Oh, no…" Magolor said, slumping a bit. "I was hoping that wasn't the case… Not Popstar, at least…"
"Well, the little devourer we fought was crying for its mama," Nem said flatly. "She must be old as he-eck."
"This doesn't bode well," Daroach remarked, shaking his head.
It sure didn't, but it wasn't a problem that was gonna get fixed straight away nor one that they'd be fit to tackle without sufficient rest. The Squeaks retreated to their rooms in the airship and Magolor retreated to his own ship, King Dedede tagging along with the latter for his ship's more sophisticated comfort. Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee set to making themselves a nice fort from fallen branches and the leaves from the palm tree Nem had cut down, setting up a nice little space on the beach where they could peek out and see the stars and the ocean reflecting them too. Meta Knight was content under another tree, and Nem… There was hardly any telling what she was up to, but at the very least, it looked like she was patrolling the beach around the ships while skipping with her hands on her axe.
"We can tell ghost stories!" Kirby said blissfully, ducking inside the fort after setting one more leaf on its outside. "Waddle Dee, do you know any good ones?"
"I know a few!" Bandana Waddle Dee replied, carving out a smallish indent in the sand inside. "But don't you think maybe we should ask Meta Knight if he wants to join us? It doesn't seem cozy just being outside like that."
"Oooh, we should!" Kirby concurred, perking up and darting back out again. A quick glance outside revealed Meta Knight not too far away, wings folded around him as he leaned against a tree trunk, and Kirby called, "Meta Knight! Are you okay out there? We have room in the fort!"
"I'm fine, Kirby," the swordsman called back, giving a slight glance his direction.
"Okay!" Kirby called back, ducking back inside. "He's happy out there," he said simply, taking up beside Waddle Dee and likewise smoothing out a small indent to lay in. "But isn't this cool~? We should go camping by the beach more often! This has been a good day!"
"We should," Bandana Waddle Dee concurred, flopping down. "Do you want me to tell the first story?"
"Go ahead," Kirby replied, flopping down too.
"Okay! Once upon a time, there was…"
It wasn't long at all, maybe five minutes, before their eyelids were drifting shut, and off into a world of dreams drifted their minds.
Meta Knight, however, wasn't nodding off so quick. His eyes followed Nem as she traipsed around with her axe, then snapped back to the sky whenever she turned in his direction. She seemed very deliberate with her movements, occasionally stopping to look around with her axe clutched tightly, but at least on the surface, there wasn't anything alarming. Still, he just had to be sure.
Nonetheless, his attention was caught by another figure exiting the Lor and floating out onto the beach, that of Magolor. Their eyes met, and Meta Knight motioned the magician over.
"Hey, Meta Knight," Magolor said softly. "Are Kirby and Waddle Dee asleep? I know you're a tough guy, but I was just gonna see if they needed pillows or blankets or something before I turn in. King Dedede's snuggled up to like, ten of them, but I still have a few."
"They are," Meta Knight answered, glancing to the fort. "And how many did you say? Ten?"
Magolor looked hapless for a second. "Ten," he affirmed. "I like being comfortable too, but ten just seems excessive."
"I'm not surprised," Meta Knight replied, rolling his eyes before looking back to the robed one. "But I just have to ask… As nice as you're acting, should I be concerned?"
A mischievous giggle escaped the robed one despite his narrowing eyes. "Oh, Meta Knight, stop! Those days are behind me!"
"I just had to make sure," the swordsman replied simply.
Another giggle, Magolor easing up. "I realized what I had after I stabbed you all in the back, and I don't wanna lose that again," he said softly. "You guys are my friends."
"For what it's worth, I'm glad we have you around for this one."
"And I'm glad I have all of you too," the robed one replied. "But, Meta Knight, you can get some rest, you know. The ships have security systems that would let us know if we're about to get attacked."
"Don't worry yourself with me," Meta Knight brushed him off, then lowering his voice some more and looking to the armored lass skipping along the water's edge, "But if you must know… it's that one I'm keeping an eye on. At least, for a little while."
Magolor looked to Nem, then back to Meta Knight, then back to Nem. "You think something's up?"
"I want to make sure there's not," the swordsman answered, still watching her. "It could just be psychosis after prolonged isolation, but even so, some of the words coming out of her mouth concern me."
"You think there's more to it too?"
Meta Knight's eyes drifted over to his. "… I do, and I take it you do as well?"
"Well, she is a robot," Magolor mused, meeting Meta Knight's gaze for a second before looking back to the armored lass. "Galactic Novas and other ancient vessels can do some weird things when they get corrupted, and maybe Nem isn't Nova-level tech, but it's possible something in her got corrupted. She has her own thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, but if what makes her up is off, then it's gonna come out off." He looked to Meta Knight. "What are you thinking?"
Meta Knight studied her for just a moment before he replied. "I don't know for sure. It's obvious she comes from a warring culture, but she doesn't seem to intend to pose a threat and has acted more like an ally than someone with ill intentions. Even so, the fact that her mind is so clearly warped, coupled with her strength and presumable warring background is… concerning. That hat is obviously not actually talking, but the way she speaks to what she hears it saying doesn't sound like playful sarcasm. To me, it sounds like actual festering hatred, and yet she calls it a 'friend.' That does not sit right." He looked to the magician. "But I hope what you're saying is right. That's a more fixable issue… if she lets you or Digi do the fixing, anyway."
Magolor chuckled, likewise studying her with slightly narrowing eyes. "We'll see…~"
At that moment, though, Nem quickly spun around and looked in their direction, seeming taken aback as she noticed Magolor there too. Meta Knight didn't budge, but the magician, on the other hand, gave a friendly wave. She studied them for a second, then cupped one hand around her mouth and shouted something that they couldn't quite make out.
Magolor flew out towards her and called back, "What, Nem?"
She repeated herself. "Go the fuck to sleep," she hollered. "You organic life forms get fucked up without it!"
"We will! Take it easy, Nem!"
"No guarantees!"
Back to Meta Knight he went, saying simply, "She wanted to tell us good night. And that's probably what we should be saying right now too- I'm tired…"
"We should," Meta Knight concurred. "I'll see you in the morning."
"See you in the morning."
Magolor retreated to the comfort of the Lor, while Meta Knight leaned against the tree with his wings draped around his sides. He kept one eye closed while the other watched Nem, and it seemed that, for the most part, Nem was simply patrolling. She stopped to look at the meteor shower, look out over the ocean, look into the trees, and down the beach… but she never ran after anything. Occasionally, Meta Knight noticed, it seemed she would cease patrolling and start scratching something, heaven only knew what, into the sand with the end of her axe's staff, but after no more than a minute or two, she would kick sand over it and go back to sweeping the beach with her weapon in hand. Once or twice, she'd give a jolt and reach up to her hat's brim, but if she was hissing curses, he couldn't hear them.
For about an hour he stayed awake, almost expecting to wake up to crashing or growling sounds, but that did not happen. The air did get cooler as there was no more heat from the sun for the sand to reflect, but it wasn't oppressively cold. Only Nem saw the entire duration of the meteor shower going into the wee hours of the morning, but it seemed that this time, they were all going to far-off lands. There were no big splashes in the ocean, no trees being crushed by falling rocky space eggs, and no dragons crawling out of the ground or out of the trees to cause trouble.
By all accounts, it was a peaceful night, and by the next morning, everyone was feeling refreshed.
King Dedede, Kirby, and Bandana Waddle Dee took a bit longer than everyone else to wake up (especially the king), but once they did, the sun and its warmth were beaming down, and the beach was covered in footprints where Nem had walked. Some of them came right up to Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee's fort entrance and some were less than a meter away from Meta Knight, but apparently, they'd been too deep in sleep to notice her clanking footsteps. The Squeaks had some mini donuts and toaster pastries that the entourage, minus Nem, munched on for breakfast, and before long, they were on the beach getting ready to set off, Digi and Kirby holding their dragon egg radars.
"We should have a few come with me and a few go with Digi," Kirby noted, securing the radar's strap around his body. "That way we can get the eggs quicker."
"Well, I'm taking Storo so he can do the heavy lifting when we find one," Digi declared.
"Understood," Storo said simply.
"And you two aren't leaving me behind!" Spinni cried.
"I'll tag along with you three as well," Meta Knight noted.
"Someone needs to hold the fort down," King Dedede said. "I'll stay back and watch the ships."
"You aren't staying alone in case trouble comes and you need backup," Daroach declared. "You take the Lor and I'll take the airship." He looked to the other three Squeaks. "I'll guard our treasure in the interim and you procure some more to add to the stash."
The other three Squeaks voiced their affirmation with a "Roger that," "Yes, boss!" and "Will do!"
"Just don't take it for a joy ride and crash it," Magolor said, looking to Dedede. "I worked hard on that ship."
The king let out a hearty laugh. "You don't have to worry! I don't know the first thing about driving an ancient starship!"
"Okay," Kirby said, glancing around at the others. "Then me, Waddle Dee, Magolor, and Nem are setting out together too. Sound good to everyone?"
"I'm ready!" Bandana Waddle Dee cried, securing his headwear.
"Let's do it!" Magolor affirmed.
"Let's get 'em," Nem said, smirking and gripping her axe.
Kirby and Digi both looked at their radars, then looked at each other.
"There's a bigger signal coming from the north," Digi noted. "Since Nem's meteorite was pretty big and soon followed by the Devourer of the Forest, as you guys put it, appearing, we can reasonably assume there's more likely to be another devourer hatchling that way."
"We'll take it," Kirby replied.
"Yessss!" Nem cheered immediately afterwards, her smirk growing and pearl-filled socket narrowing.
"Wouldn't be the first time I've gotten on a dragon's bad side," Magolor said mischievously.
"We can do this!" Bandana Waddle Dee affirmed.
Digi looked to his group. "There's a smaller cluster west that we could reasonably collect today- you guys good with that?"
"Whatever is necessary," Meta Knight replied.
"You're the one with the radar!" Spinni cried, grinning.
Storo simply nodded.
"Alright, then!" Kirby said, getting a grin. "We're gonna get to the bottom of this! Let's have a good day, everyone!"
There were no disagreements. Kirby and his bunch set off towards the water, while Digi, with Meta Knight right next to him, followed the radar towards some slate cliffs in the west and Daroach and King Dedede gave some friendly waves to the ones setting off. The radar had plenty of little blips on it, and if each one was an egg or egg fragment, they had their work cut out for them, that was for sure.
Author's note: For those who celebrate them, happy Easter and happy upcoming Eid.