Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 1: Stars Amidst Lightning

Chapter 13

Kirby Dee|カービィディー

After that, life settles into a routine for me. Mornings are for training with Meta Knight, afternoons are for exploring secret passages and making (or at least eating) food in the castle kitchen with Kirby and Bandanna Dee, and evenings are for continuing to learn how to read. Things seem to be going well, and as time goes on, I forget more and more about the coming monster and having to be afraid. My training continues to grow more and more difficult, but I continue to grow stronger and better with my sword. Meta Knight seems to be growing more and more impressed with my abilities, as well.

Days quickly turn into weeks, and weeks into months. Before I know it, it's late Earlwinter. Now that the Christmas festivities have already ended, there's hardly anything to look forward to until the chilly, rainy tropical winter ends and warmth returns sometime in Earlspring. You can feel a sense of post-holiday depression throughout the whole castle, and I can feel the other Waddle Dees' sadness as well, even if I can't hear their thoughts. Sure, we Waddle Dees love winter as much as any other season, but post-Christmas rainy-season depression means an extra-grumpy, extra-mean Dedede and Escargoon.

Even I feel a little bit sad. All of the Christmas cookies I made over the past weeks are gone; the last dozen disappeared off to who-knows-where sometime yesterday. There's really not anything happy or exciting going on, and who knows when that lightning monster bozo is going to show up? Yeesh, do I have a lot on my plate right now... At least I don't have to get up really early in the morning anymore.

Most mornings, that is.

Today, I'm up pretty early in the morning. And by early in the morning, I mean that it's like four o'clock in the morning at the moment. Meta Knight ordered me to be in the training room fifteen minutes ago, but I accidentally slept a bit too late. Here's hoping that he's not mad at me for it... Even he's seemed a bit grumpier, a bit more serious lately, especially during training. The rest of the time until a couple of days ago, he's seemed fine, but during training, he's been growing quieter and quieter and more and more serious and distant even than usual. I wonder what's up with that. At times he's seemed almost.... dreading. Like yesterday, when I showed up for training, he told me to take the day off but show up to the training room no later than 4 o'clock in the morning today, which, as stated above, I've missed by about fifteen minutes. But anyway... he just seemed so, well, dreading. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. It makes me anxious. I hope he's okay...

Hopefully, today will explain everything. Maybe there's a test I have to take or something? Well, his tests are never too hard, so whatever-it-is can't be all that bad.

Right now, as I walk alone to the training room through the night, the hallways are still and empty. The only thing moving around besides me is a couple of Waddle Dees lighting some of the torches that blew out in the overnight drafts. Dedede hammered a hole through a wall when he didn't get enough Christmas presents for his liking, so it's kind of chilly in this part of the castle these days. Maybe that's Meta Knight's problem; maybe he's just getting sick of the cold. Can't say that I'd blame him if he was. Brr.

Even though I'm already really late, I find myself stopping at one of the half-circle windows in the outer hall that leads to Sir Knight's training room and resting my gloves on the edge while I blink up at the stars above. I've always enjoyed the stars, much more even than most people. All of the other Waddle Dees have always thought it's just one of my crazy 'girl' quirks, but... I don't know. Whenever I look up at the stars, it feels almost like they're... talking to me. No, not talking. Singing. Is that crazy of me? Does no one else hear the song of the stars? Well, I guess it's already obvious that I'm not normal. A talking Waddle Dee isn't exactly something you meet every day, am I right?