Nowhere To Go But Up

Get Ready

Every single day, Taranza went to the Lor to see if Magolor was showing signs of waking up. Every day, he waited next to his bed for hours on end. Every day, he was dragged further into despair by the lack of response. Every night, he dreamed of spending time with him. The dreams were pleasant. Beautiful. It made waking up all the more painful. The fountain of dreams made sure that everyone on Popstar had good dreams, but what good is a dream that makes you wish you never wake up? Taranza ended up spending more time asleep than awake, but still made sure that he always went to the Lor to check on Magolor.

He scarcely even noticed the day the rifts opened in the sky. It seemed only minutes later that a much larger one appeared, with what looked like an entire planet about to come crashing through. Taranza looked up at the planet on a collision course with Popstar, and tried to summon an emotional response to it, but there was nothing that registered. It wasn't that he didn't care, he just didn't have the energy to react at all. Then, the rift closed. I guess that's the end of that. Barely even thinking about it, he lay down in the grass while he tried to muster the strength to make himself some lunch.

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It wasn't long after that Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Bandee, and some little blue creature appeared by Castle Dedede, looking far more exhausted than they should be for something that only lasted about an hour. The fuzzy little blue thing pointed to Taranza and then asked the others, "Who's that? They look kinda sad." Taranza quickly got up and went to his room to try to make a better first impression. Alright, no time to be sad. I need to go out there and be normal! He came back out after collecting enough of himself and approached the five of them.

"Hello. My name is Taranza, and you are?"

"I'm Elfilin. It's nice to meet you... what were you doing earlier?"

Taranza racked his brain to try and come up with an answer that wasn't "The person I am head-over-figurative-heels in love with hasn't woken up in a year and a half." He settled on denial. "I just had a bit of a headache. Other than that, everything is fine." He turned to the other four. "How did you all get so tired in an hour?"

King Dedede was taken aback. "An hour? I don't know about everyone else, but I was gone for a few months."

"That can't be right. I saw you this morning. You were talking to Meta Knight on the phone about-"

"You will not finish that sentence." Meta Knight interjected.

"Fine, fine. Where did you end up going, anyway? If it was through those rifts in the sky, maybe you went somewhere where time passed differently."

The five of them looked at each other, the only movement being everyone blinking, somehow always at the same time. Evidently, none of them had thought of that. "So, I'd take that to mean nothing's changed back here, huh?" Bandee cut to the chase.

"No. Nothing. Same as... same as usual." Taranza had to hold back tears.

Elfilin gazed at him, trying to decipher what Taranza was really thinking. He caught him looking towards the Lor Starcutter, and followed that glance to where it landed. Then he turned back to the other four. "I want to meet everyone else! Where are they?"

Dedede gestured to the front of the castle. "I don't know how many of our friends are around right now, but we'll introduce you to everyone we can find." They left.

The presence of someone new showing up pulled Taranza a little bit out of the pit he was in mentally. Right. I can't lose myself like this. I need to keep moving. If Magolor could see me, he'd tell me to just focus on myself. He can give really good advice when he's not looking for a laugh. He went to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich.