Nowhere To Go But Up

By Fair Means Or Foul

Days passed with Magolor rarely eating, sleeping, or drinking water. Not that he was trying to destroy himself, he just... forgot. He probably would've died of dehydration if not for the fact that his home was alive, and had enough of a conscience to give him sustenance semi-regularly. Despite the constant whirlwind of intrusive thoughts, he felt completely empty. He couldn't even remember the song anymore. Eventually, the Lor had enough of it. A week after Magolor came back from the castle, she tilted the bed so he'd fall off and said, "Get out."

As always, the cool breeze made him feel refreshed. On the outside, anyway. He figured he should do something about how much of a disaster his fur was, or at least change out of his pajamas. The flower he remembered seeing the butterfly on before had wilted, which summed up his current feelings pretty well. Other than being more self-conscious, going outside didn't seem to be helping at all. He turned to go back in, when he heard a voice to his left.

"Hey, Magolor, hold on a minute. I need to ask you some things." King Dedede approached, looking at Magolor as if he had just hurt himself doing something stupid. "What's going on with you?"

"I don't know what you mean." Magolor's response carried no emotions whatsoever.

"Well, for one thing, you're wearing plaid. For another, I can actually tell that you have fur now, because it's a disaster. And also, Meta came to ask you some questions a week ago and you actually agreed to it, and then left after hearing one question and no one has seen you since. Clearly, something's very wrong here."

"Hm. Well, I'll tell you more about that, but first I need to go change my clothes." Again, he turned to go back into the Starcutter...

"No you don't." Dedede grabbed him by the scarf. Magolor froze. "If I let you go back in there, I'm not gonna see you again, right?" Magolor started trembling. "Uh, right?"

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" He spun around and ripped himself free with so much force that it looked like the air itself was shaking. He glared at the king with overwhelming malice, before he seemed to come to his senses, looking horrified at himself. He quickly tried putting on a smile, but no one was buying it. "I'm sorry. It was just a reflex, nothing to concern yourself with, really."

"Magolor, my hand is on fire."

"...You could say it's avant-garde?"

"I don't know what that means."

After Magolor extinguished the fire, he folded his hands in front of him. "So, I'm being questioned again, then?"

"Right. Anyway, what happened to you?"

"Do you mean recently, or just in general?"

"I mean recently. After your last race with Kirby, when you left and came back two hours later. What happened in those two hours?"

"Nothing."

"Don't give me that. You said you were trying to take care of a 'delicate issue'. Something had to have come from that."

"I swear nothing happened up there. It really was just a quick trip there and back. Plain and simple."

At this moment, talking to Magolor was like a game of chess. He had his guard up, and was clearly unwilling to concede to anything. Dedede continued his offense. "'Up there'? So you were back at those islands, then?"

"Very well. Yes, that is where I went." He didn't continue.

"Does it have anything to do with the queen?"

"No, it has nothing to do with Queen Sectonia."

"How do you know her name?"

Magolor tensed for a split second before responding. "Her advisor said it over an intercom while I was running from Meta Knight."