Heroes of Dreamland, Book 1: Kirby and the Monstrous Lightning (OLD)

World 2 Level 2- Overthinking and A Gift

After talking to Meta Knight in the training room, Kirby Dee had returned to the secret library. Right before she entered the passage leading to it, Kirby and Bandana Dee had appeared. "Sorry, poyo," Kirby had giggled apologetically.

Bandana Dee had touched his forehead to hers and added, "Yeah. If we could've gotten you out of there without sticking around too long ourselves, we would've. We'll do better on that count next time."

"Yeah, sure," she had replied tersely. "It's okay." Then she had walked into the passage and sort-of slammed the door behind her.

Now she sat on her shelf in the library. She had no idea how late it was, she had sat up reading (or learning to, anyway,) until she was so tired she couldn't concentrate anymore. She was sitting in complete darkness, except for a tiny bit of starlight that came through the windows. The sky was beautiful and clear that night, but she didn't notice. She couldn't sleep, she felt too bad about disappointing Meta Knight. Well, and she was quite a bit concerned about her 'punishment.' He'll probably tell me what it's going to be in the morning, she decided. I should quit worrying about it. She turned so she was facing a pile of books instead of the side of the shelf and closed her eyes, but she couldn't relax. Soon the wheels in her head were churning again.

I didn't even do anything that bad, she thought, a little bit irritated. I guess he does have some sort of code of honor. And he's sworn loyalty to the king and stuff, and probably I should too, but still. She sighed and snuggled closer to the wall. It had a tendency to be cold in here, even though summer was almost upon them. She wished she had a blanket.

She forced herself to find something to be thankful for, something she had been doing for years. Or so she thought... She, like all other Waddle Dee, had previously had only a few-year long memory span. She finally thought of something good: there hadn't been anymore storms since the day she had received her powers, although there had been some soft spring showers. The weather had for the most part, rather, been perfect and lovely. There hadn't been a single sign that a giant storm monster was coming who-knows-when. She had been wanting to go out and play outside, something she had never been able to do before. But lately, she had always either been training, or when she wasn't doing that, she always was too tired to do much of anything else.

In yet another attempt to settle down, she sang softly to herself. This was a song she had sung in her head as a Waddle Dee many times before, but never aloud. I wonder if that sounded any good, she pondered. Maybe I'll sing it to Kirby sometime.

The night seemed to drag on forever. She thought day would never come, but Meta Knight finally showed up after what felt like an eternity, seemingly not noticing the tired circles beneath her eyes. She looked at him in a sort of dreading expectancy, but he didn't say a thing about the night before. He just gave her a nod and a "Come. Let us go," before swishing around and leading her out of the room. She hopped down and followed him. At least she had been getting more graceful at getting out of her 'bed.'

They started with a short sparring session, during which she expected him to drive her into the moat or something as her punishment. Then, he led her to the training room, where he began to teach her the art of origami. "What does this have to do with being a hero?" she had asked, looking around nervously, expecting Blade or Sword to come out and challenge her to a paper duel or something. She imagined them throwing origami stars at her like ninja stars, and her having to duck their attacks crazily. Sheesh, you're starting to get paranoid. He's probably... just... forgotten the whole thing. Yeah. That's gotta be it, she thought.

He looked up from his sheet of paper, now a crane, minutes later and finally answered her question. "Every warrior needs to learn not just the art of battle, but also the gentler arts. It is part of the code of honor."