Child of the stars
Chapter 1
Royalty

As the stars of Cress shined brightly over a peaceful new world, Huepow pondered.
It was true that Phantomile - the world of dreams - was now safe, freed from the clutches of a dark king that could never return. But as the prince gazed at the stars through his arched bedroom window, he had to wonder whether or not it was worth it.
He thought of the Dream Traveller - Klonoa.
The traveler was just a boy, a young soul filled with a genuine desire to help those he did not know, and memories he could never have known were false.
Yet despite his willingness, Huepow had deceived him from the very beginning - making him believe in the idea that they had known each other from the start, that they were best friends, that this world was always his home.
No. it never was, never would be. They had their own homes to return to, away from each other, once the deed was done.
And that's exactly what happened.
Huepow had known everything from the very beginning, and had made no effort to tell him otherwise. How could he when his home was at stake? He played along, with no second thoughts until the time to say farewell drew near. Even as the veil began to lift - as his true title became known to the traveler - the boy never faltered, never stopped believing in his friend, and never lost that desire to help him.
And how did he repay it?
He - the whole world - had cast him aside, bidding him farewell after Ghadius' defeat, to his dismay. The only reward for his efforts, the only evidence he was ever there would be the ring, the weapon which he was chosen to wield against the nightmares.
Huepow felt sick.
Surely there was another way? Surely he could've helped him in a less deceitful manner?
He couldn't quite come to an answer. So he stood up, left, and went to find the one person who always had one for him.

As he entered the royal throne room - still undergoing repairs from the false friend's battle with Ghadius, the king of nightmares - he came face to face with the queen of the Moon Kingdom herself: Queen Maria.
His mother.
She turned to look at him with a soft smile, a regal yet gentle expression in her eyes, and kneeled down to speak to him. The action used to carry an air of reassurance to it, but given the events of the past few months, Huepow failed to take any more comfort from it.
And he wasn't sure he ever would again.
"Huepow, dear…" she began. "You look troubled. Are you okay?"
Huepow faltered at this. Okay? He hadn't okay been for months now, and she surely knew this - he'd been upset the moment he had returned home and had quietly waited for her to offer support that never came. Was she waiting for him to get better? To move on? To forget? Though the thought upset him, he tried to remain calm.
"Mother… I…" he struggled to find the words. She had brushed aside his pain this whole time… would she even understand?
"…I've done terrible things… for our kingdom."
At this, the queen's comforting expression momentarily slipped. She had known she'd have to deal with this one day - better late than never, she supposed…
"I had to deceive Klonoa for ages to make the plan work. I… shattered his entire worldview to get here. He had to watch as his grandfather died… he had to learn the truth about his presence here… and it's all my fault. I feel terrible…"
He faltered, and took a deep breath.
"Is there… is there a way to see him again? I want to say sorry. For everything."
His breath rattled as he spoke, holding back tears. As the queen saw this, she took him in her arms, a gentle hug that he hadn't felt for months. She spoke up, delicately.
"Huepow… my boy… you're a good prince… that question shows just how much you care about the traveler… about your mistakes…"
Huepow's expression lightened. Was she finally making an effort to comfort him? Was his silent suffering over at last? Was he-
"Which is why you need to forget about him."
Huepow's hopeful expression faded completely. Forget about him? Forget about him? Despite his hundreds, thousands of questions, the queen continued.
"You and the traveler made a valiant effort to restore order to the world. The two of you brought down an evil that our kingdom, our bloodline, had lived in fear of for millennia. Cress - and Phantomile - are better places now, and it's all thanks to the two of you."
"But-"
"It's been months now since then, my child." She continued, her voice taking on a more firm, demanding tone.
"I have no doubt in my mind that the traveler will have moved on - perhaps, found peace in some capacity. In fact, he may have already forgiven you."
Huepow tried to speak, but was swiftly cut off before his emotions could overtake him.
"You can spend all your time fretting over his whereabouts, but it won't change any of your actions. So I suggest you move on. Forget about him. You've proven your worth as a prince and I expect no more of you."
Huepow didn't have the words to express what he felt at that moment. And even if he could, her words told her everything he needed to know.
He was a prince. He was expected to forget about his actions and… move on. Forget Klonoa. Forget your mistakes. And imagine that he would do the same.
He stood up, turning away from the queen, and began to walk out of the throne room. As he stood at the door, she called out for him one last time.
"Huepow?"
He turned - not expecting to hear anything reassuring, but wanting to hear it anyway.
"I'm so proud of you."
He walked through the door, and left her on her own.

That night, he spent hours thinking about his mother's words. He didn't want to believe them, or to follow through, but he believed he had no choice. Klonoa was gone, and he just had to accept it.
He heard the faint echoes of marching through his bedroom windows - the Cressian guard's nighty patrols around the upper levels of the royal palace. The Moon kingdom may have been inaccessible to most, but the royal guard were not ones to relax, even if Ghadius and his forces were neutralized.
As he fell deeper into sleep, he heard a voice calling out to him - separate from those of the guards, and faint - yet determined.
"H...e…p…w…"
"Hue…pow…"
"Huepow."
Huepow felt himself awaken - not in his own bed, but in a seemingly endless void of darkness. He turned around, searching for whoever had brought him here, before coming face to face with a stranger - the source of the voice.
The individual was a Cressian man of pale complexion, with sunken eyes and a broken, lifeless stare. His clothing was regal in terms of material: pale blue garments covered beneath a dark purple robe, both of which adorned with gold and azure highlights - yet ragged and torn, with a large gash down the center of his garments where his chest was. The gash exposed the pale skin on his torso, and a deep wound, the surroundings of which were stained a deep crimson. He wore a silk, dark fuchsia scarf that seemed a size too large and his wrists and ankles bore gray, metallic shackles, with chains that had worn down and broken at the ends. His entire form was hazy, ghostly - he was entirely unlike anything Huepow had ever seen, and just looking at him deeply frightened him. But in spite of this, the boy couldn't help but feel a strange sympathy towards him.
"Huepow."
His voice rattled and echoed through the empty space, sounding as if it came from every direction at once. Huepow took a step back.
"Who are you?" he whispered, unsure of how to respond. The spirit hesitated, as if lost in thought.
"Call me Sol."
"Ok… Sol… who - well - what are you? Why are you here…? What do you want from me?" The questions tumbled out from Huepow's mouth, one after the other, desperate for any sort of answer. This time, without hesitation, the spirit spoke clearly.
"Freedom."
Huepow was unsure of what he meant by this, and stood silent, waiting for elaboration. As he stood, he saw the black void begin to change, showing hazy illustrations of a silhouetted figure's life. Sol stared with a deep longing, and Huepow knew he was looking at his past.
"Thousands of years ago I lived a peaceful life among our people. Just as you did. Until that day, when the dark spirit arrived to lay waste to us all…"
Huepow gasped in horror as the silhouette was met face to face with a towering nightmare, its pale face obscured by a mask with a long, pointed nose and red eyes.
Ghadius.
Before he could react, the nightmare's gloved hand tore through the stranger's body, and removed a glowing orb from his chest - which he then quickly bound in chains, before hiding it within his cloak and vanishing.
"I dared to take a stand against the king of nightmares himself. So he destroyed my body and trapped my soul, as punishment."
The illustrations shifted again - showing a vision of the dark king being bound by a ritual, by the few warriors who could bear to stand against him - and the ancient spirits that kept Phantomile, and Cress, in balance. The vision faded, leaving Sol's spirit in place.
"The king was sealed - but his magic kept me trapped for the three thousand years that he slumbered. Until…"
Another vision. Not of Sol's memories, but of Huepow's. He saw the memory of him and Klonoa defeating Ghadius and Nahatomb - and the chains around the spirit broke.
"You freed me Huepow. You and the traveler. And I want to repay the favor…"
Huepow had a feeling he knew what was coming next, but listened intently regardless. The spirit continued.
"I know who it is you seek." He explained. "I've been watching over you since the moment I was freed and I've seen everything that has happened. I can bring him back to you… but you need to help me in return."
One last vision appeared, that of a thin, crystalline skeleton with Sol's spirit residing within. Strangely, bridging two of the ribs together was a hexagonal hole - but what it was for was yet unclear to Huepow.
"My soul persists for now, but months have passed and I grow weak. Without a body, or Ghadius' magic to bind me, I will soon face oblivion. We can construct a new body for me but we do not have much time."
Huepow looked at the vessel- and felt his mind fill with knowledge. He knew in his heart that he had never seen such a thing before - but in that moment, he seemed to know just how it all fit together - what he'd need, where to find them, how to carve the skeleton…
"First, I'll need you to gather crystals from the undercity's mines and create the skeleton from which we will construct the vessel from. I will explain further once you do."
Huepow felt his mind flare with the knowledge of where to go, and the stranger's voice and form began to fade.
"Thank you… Huepow. You're going to save my life."

Huepow awoke. His mind raced with even more questions than he had answers - why did it pick him specifically? How was he going to get Klonoa back? Did he know him? Had he met up with him? Did he even know the full story? What he had done? Did he…
Did he forgive him?
As his thoughts raced, he couldn't help but feel as if he was being pulled from his bed towards the door. He could think of nothing else but fulfilling the goal set out for him by Sol. And even if he was skeptical of the stranger, he couldn't forget the urgency of his words.
"Without a body, or Ghadius' magic to bind me, I will soon face oblivion…"
Huepow knew in his heart that he couldn't abandon another stranger. So he made his choice.
In the dark of the night, he made his exit, unseen by anyone.