Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 1: Stars Amidst Lightning

Chapter 23

Sakura Dee | さくら•ヂィー

Well, all things considered, I'd have to say that our first afternoon in Cookie Country has been a smashing success. Once we landed and found some outlying fruit trees spilling over from Whispy Woods next door and grabbed some quick before Kirby could empty the trees again (which he did proceed to do once the rest of us had managed to grab enough to eat), we were all set and ready to go out and find a badguy. And so, of course, that's exactly what we set out to do and what we have been doing all day. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, we haven't found him yet.

As for the minor monsters he's sent to interfere with our search (we assume; they could just be random monster gangs who enjoy picking on people, which are extremely common all over Dreamland outside of the Cappy Town area), we've had no real problems with any of them. Most of them we can just avoid, honestly, which we try to do as much as we can. After all, if we're out killing more monsters than the Lightning is killing innocent citizens (and so far, as far as we know, he hasn't killed any), we're hardly heroes by any definition of the word.

At first, Meta Knight was worried the Waddle Dees would prove to be more dangerous enemies than they typically do, since they're currently all under the Lightning's possession, even the several nomadic groups that don't answer to Dedede. But they all seem to be just the same Waddle Dees as ever. They never try to hurt anyone; they've just been sent to the front lines to get plowed over, like always, and no one ever seems to care. As far as I can tell, that hardly reeks of anything even slightly resembling 'fair.' Honestly, the only way to really get hurt by them is if you're an absolute klutz and run right into one of their spears. Otherwise, they're pretty much harmless.

The one minor headache of a monster that we've faced today was a giant Waddle Doo, usually known as a King Doo, but he didn't really give us any trouble. We wouldn't have attacked him in the first place if it wasn't for the fact that he tried to kill us first, but as it is, thankfully at least I shouldn't have to feel any guilt about it.

I do, of course, but I technically shouldn't have to. If someone wants to hurt innocents and there's no way to persuade them to stop, when you're a soldier out to protect your homeland, sometimes you have to kill a monster. I just don't know if I'll ever feel quite right about that.

Killing doesn't seem to bother the other three at all, when it's under those just and right kinds of circumstances, but to me, it still feels wrong somehow. Who am I to end another's life, to stop another heart from beating, to tell someone else their time is up? It just doesn't feel like it's my place, and I can't help but wonder if I'm as much of a monster as they are for killing them.

I know I'm not. As I said, it's a soldier's, a hero's job to protect what they're charged to protect, even to the death. But at least for now, I can't feel right about it, although I'm good at hiding my trepidation from the others.

I just don't know if I hope I'll always feel this way about such things, or if I hope that someday I can be as nonchalant about it as the others.

Now, sighing, I lean against a tree and take a bite out of one of my leftover peaches (the fruit we ended up finding) from earlier. The sky's remained bleak and overcast all day, but now it's truly starting to get dark, meaning that the sun has probably started to sink behind the horizon. Meta Knight's gone up to check above the clouds and verify that's the case, because they've been really messing with our sense of time. It seems like it can't possibly be too much later than mid-afternoon, but the darkening world seems to indicate otherwise. In the meantime, while he decides whether it's time for us to find someplace to make camp or not, the two little guys are clinging to the leafy wings of a Windy Woods tree, having a grand old time riding around and around in circles, upside down and right-side up and back again.