Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.


The Lor Starcutter continued soaring above the Forgotten Land. Vesa and Elfilis gazed out the port windows while Elfilin perched on top of his larger fragment's head and Kirby observed the landscape in the human's arms. While glancing up at their younger brother, they sighed wistfully, wishing they could have their childhood innocence back. If only there was a way to show Elfilin—to share it without forcing it upon him…

The Lor Starcutter descended from the sky and touched down on the ground. Kirby hopped out of Vesa's arms and Elfilin followed the pink puffball out of the bridge and King Dedede made his way to the door. Elfilis sat down at the entrance and tried to relax while they began sensing for any more fragments of themself. Soon enough, Kirby, Bandee and Elfilin led the animals off the ship.

Once they continued their trek along the terrain, the small chinchilla continued thinking of the state of his sibling's soul, and by extension his own. He wasn't sure if this had any malignant long-term effect for him or not. He made brief glances at the scraps of the ancient civilization and wondered what his home might've been like so long ago. He remembered only fragments of his sibling's past, but nothing much of significance.

Soon enough, Kirby, Elfilin and Bandee arrived at the entrance to the Beast Pack settlement. The pink star warrior sprinted ahead and waved his arm at the Primal Awoofy on patrol.

"Poyo!" he called over.

The Primal Awoofy perked up its ears and rushed to greet the visitor while Elfilin perched on top of Kirby's head.

"Poyo," Kirby asked, "poyo poyo?"

The Primal Awoofy gave a little nod, scampering off into the settlement. Upon cue, Kirby and Bandee led the animal refugees into the settlement. The Primal Awoofy stopped at the edge of a shallow crater decorated with moss and scraps from the ancient civilization. Kirby led Bandee down the slope, peering at the makeshift huts surrounding a throne made of stone. Elfilin giggled a little as Kirby took him off his head and held him close, the small chinchilla curling up in his arms.

Kirby and Bandee stopped just in front of the throne, Leongar giving them an inquisitive look while he rubbed his chin.

"Afternoon, King Leongar," Bandee greeted.

Leongar perched his paw on the arm of the throne.

"Good afternoon, Kirby," the lion focused his gaze on the pink star warrior, "and Bandee."

"Poyo!" Kirby waved his arm, still carrying Elfilin in his other arm. The small chinchilla went back to floating on top of Kirby's head.

"We recently evacuated plenty of your subjects from the ancient lab before Elfilis destroyed it," Bandee explained, "they're in need of new homes now."

Leongar tilted his head sideways and raised an eyebrow.

"You mean that place where I got possessed," Leongar mentioned, his tone hinting discomfort, "and had my soul shattered into pieces?"

"Yeah, that place," Bandee nodded.

Leongar stood from the throne, tilting his head up as he examined the animal refugees at the edge of the crater.

"I see," Leongar mused, "it seems Elfilis has the mercy to ensure they survived."

"Well, they really aren't heartless at all," Bandee agreed awkwardly, "they were just kinda insane for a while since…you know."

Leongar climbed up the crater to greet the animal refugees. Clawroline and Gorimondo also showed up to chatter with them. Bandee gave Kirby a nervous look. Elfilin perked his ears up at the sight of Clawroline. After a few minutes of silence, Leongar glanced over his shoulder and beckoned Kirby and Bandee to climb out of the crater.

"Carol," Leongar purred, giving the leopard a wink, "if you will?"

Clawroline returned a wink before she focused her gaze on the pink star warrior.

"Some of the subjects seem interested in moving into Popstar," Clawroline elaborated, "while the others are eager to make settlements in any of our territories."

"I'm not currently authorized to make any kind of agreements, however I don't see that being turned down at all and my lord is open to both trade between us and other similar agreements. I will relay this back to my King as soon as possible. Currently, he's busy with preparing to return to Popstar and dealing with the local settlement."

"Then you're welcome to relay the message to your king," Leongar told the Waddle Dee.

"I'll do that," Bandee gave his best bow, "thank you for your time, your highness!"

From there, Bandee sprinted across the settlement back to the Lor Starcutter. The Waddle Dee entered the ship and approached the penguin king before he relayed the details of their meeting with Leongar. Dedede nodded and patted his chest.

"Sounds good to me," Dedede proclaimed, "I'm sure we can get something worked out."

Bandee and Dedede stepped out of the Lor Starcutter and met up with Leongar at the entrance to the settlement. The Waddle Dee was baffled as to how the lion managed to get to the entrance so quickly. Still, he nodded at Dedede, who exchanged bows of respect with Leongar.

"Welcome back, Dedede," Leongar greeted.

"Mighty nice to see you again," Dedede rubbed the back of his head, "my mind back to the way it was before that whole mess happened."

"Same here," Leongar added.

"Anyway," Dedede replied, "we should start tryin' to figure out what the plan is. Here, let's go find somewhere to sit down and chat about it."

Dedede and Leongar meandered through the settlement. They found an abandoned restaurant and headed inside, taking their seats at a table. The penguin locked eyes onto Bandee.

"You can leave for now. Leongar and I'll talk things out. It's just gonna be boring stuff about laws and immigration, not really something you need to be a part of right now."

"Thank you, sire!" Bandee nodded.

Bandee left the settlement and returned to the Lor Starcutter. He found Kirby and Elfilin at a table in the kitchen.

"So how are you guys doing?" Bandee asked, "things look to be going well on the diplomacy side of things."

Kirby and Elfilin focused their gaze on the Waddle Dee and waved at him.

"Poyo!" Kirby chirped.

"We're waiting for our snacks," Elfilin added.

"Well," Bandee replied, "I'm glad things are going well over here. Are there more plans for the day?"

"Not really," Elfilin answered.

"Oh, gotcha," Bandee yawned, "sounds like a good enough excuse to get a nap to me."

When Bandee left the kitchen, Kirby heard a bell ring from the kitchen, so he scurried to retrieve a tray of cookies before bringing it to the table.

"Poyo!" Kirby chirped.

"Yay!" Elfilin did a happy back flip.

Kirby and Elfilin started munching down on some cookies. The small chinchilla dipped a cookie into his glass of milk before taking a bite. The pink star warrior would munch down on two cookies at a time. Within several minutes, Kirby and Elfilin finished up the entire tray. The pink puffball leaned back and rubbed his belly, smiling with his eyes closed.

"Poyo…"

"Yeah," Elfilin agreed, "those are really tasty."

After a few minutes of silence, Kirby and Elfilin left the kitchen and made their way back to the bridge. They noticed as Elfilis was keeping an eye on Vesa while she concentrated with her eyes closed. In a matter of seconds, she created a barrier strong enough to at least stop a couple of bullets from human firearms. Kirby's eyes lit up as he gazed in awe.

"Poyo!" Kirby chirped.

Elfilis perked up their feelers as their eyes fixated on the pink star warrior.

"It's a good start, to be sure," they agreed, "she can at least keep herself safe, if not truly protected just yet."

Elfilin simply floated carefree while Vesa opened her eyes, examining the barrier she created.

"Before long," they told her, "I might be able to teach you a more advanced technique I read about…something you can do after you're able to layer your barrier with a second one."

"That…sounds interesting," she commented.

Vesa's eyes locked onto Kirby and Elfilin.

"So how are you two doing?" she asked them.

"Poyo!" Kirby stood on the tips of his feet.

Elfilin brought his paws together.

"Uhm," he stammered, "I was actually wanting to talk to you about something in private later that I was having thoughts about."

Elfilis blinked twice as they placed a finger on their lower jaw.

"Of course," Elfilis nodded, "we can talk in a little while when I get the chance."

"Thanks!" the small chinchilla sighed in relief.

A couple hours later, Dedede returned to the Lor Starcutter. Magolor, Vesa and Elfilis were at the entrance to greet him.

"Welcome back, Dedede!" Magolor greeted, "how did it go?"

"It went fine. It wasn't perfect, but it was okay all things considered," Dedede answered, "immigration should be fine between both of our countries; however, he isn't exactly educated on matters of state like I am, or how to run a country properly."

"Oh boy," Vesa commented, averting her gaze.

"Yeah, things like trade, politics, and law aren't really something he knows too much about," Dedede added.

Elfilis and Vesa shared glances.

"Does that mean they're new to being a society or something?" she asked them.

"Exactly," Elfilis nodded, tucking in their large ears in shame, "I did only raise them up a few months before Kirby arrived, so that's not shocking to me. At the time, I needed manual labor to keep the machines in the lab powered, mostly since the capsule I was in, ironically enough, was keeping me alive until I fused with Elfilin for a time. The Awoofy were essentially running on wheels to power the machine, but that didn't last long and they were getting upset about it. I had to resort to kidnapping locals from across the stars, which ended up being the Waddle Dees."

"Oh, that part," Vesa blurted.

Elfilis lowered their head.

"Though they may be the first generation of a new species," Elfilis added, "I'll need to create more of a few of them, as one of each isn't exactly a breeding population."

Dedede rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well," Dedede asked, "you wanna talk with them about it?"

"Perhaps I should," Elfilis folded their arms, "I would need to ensure Leon and Carol are at least genetically compatible."

Vesa placed a finger on her chin and took a moment to think.

"I know we're supposed to head back to Popstar soon," Vesa said, "but…Elfilis, are you ok with camping out here with me?"

Elfilis stared into Vesa's eyes for a moment before they nodded.

"I wouldn't mind at all," they told her, "it sounds like a good time."

Magolor clasped his hands together.

"Well then," Magolor offered, "should I provide you two some camping equipment?"

"I wouldn't mind," Elfilis shrugged.

"Excellent!" Magolor chirped.

Magolor and Dedede headed back into the Lor Starcutter. When Vesa and Elfilis stepped back into the ship, the ultimate life-form shelled out some star coins to the floaty manipulative mage. While they waited in the bridge, Kirby waved his arms at Dedede before he led Elfilin towards Vesa. Soon enough, Magolor came back and pulled out a tent from his pocket dimension along with plenty of other camping supplies.

"Thank you, Magolor!" Vesa smiled.

"Anytime," Magolor replied, shifting glances between Vesa and Elfilis, "oh, and I was meaning to ask about your birthday. Mostly, so I have an idea of when to send over a gift."

Vesa and Elfilis exchanged glances in a moment of silence.

"The Halcandran calendar is a bit different than the mirror version of Popstar and this planet," Elfilis answered, "but I just did the mental math, so the closest date would be June 6th."

"And I was born prematurely," Vesa added, "so mine would be October 14th."

"Ah," Elfilis commented, "things like that haven't been a huge problem in places with magic. We honestly had a bigger problem with children of prophecy."

"Well then," Magolor replied, "I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Thank you! Oh, and prophecies are kind of a big deal and distressingly common in backwoods worlds where either amazing good or horrible evil are happening. It's like some kind of a universal balance keeper. I would be shocked if there weren't five or six with Kirby in them, and if most of his adventures weren't already predicted by someone at some point."

While Magolor wandered off, Elfilin examined the camping equipment.

"Poyo," Kirby stared in awe.

"You guys are going camping?" Elfilin asked Vesa and Elfilis, "can Kirby and I come along, please?"

Elfilis hesitated for a brief moment.

"I suppose you can join us if you want," they sighed.

"Poyo!" Kirby jumped up with excitement.

Vesa smiled softly and gave Kirby a pat on the head.

"So are there any ideas of what you want to do while we're here?" Elfilis asked.

Vesa nodded.

"I might as well make a to-do list," Vesa suggested.

Elfilis closed their eyes for a brief moment. Vesa rushed to the guest quarters and began searching for a pencil and a piece of paper.


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