Heroes of Dreamland, Book 6: Kirby and the Fountain's Fate (OLD)

In Which the Author Has Some Fun Throwing Magolor Down Holes

Sakura's POV:

"So this is Tick-Tock Clock?" I murmur as we all depart the Lor Starcutter. The ride over here was... interesting, to say the very least. The whole Time Traveler thing got explained to Bandana (although Magolor was so busy rubbing in the the fact that his ship is thousands of times better than Meta's that he didn't hear any of it, I don't think), Kirby and Bandana told me that Shadow's missing (which has me pretty worried), and Clerk showed up and actually talked to me for the first time in months. Of course, our whole exchange was basically limited to "Hey," "Yo, how are you?" "Good, thanks, how are you?" "Fine," "Oh, that's good," but still, that's better than nothing.

I worry about him... He used to be such a cheerful Elf, and then just a year or so ago (for him), he started being quiet all the time. When he was younger, he had a tendency to be afraid of his own shadow, but he was still brave when you really needed him to be, like when another Other Dimensioner was in trouble. The way he betrayed us all... it still doesn't seem real to me, even in retrospect. Sure, I know he was under Solar's thumb (thank goodness he's gone), but still. I never would have expected that of him. Oh, well... Hopefully he learned his lesson.

Now, I look around the mechanical city again. "It looks almost like a real-life, dilapidated music box," Meta Knight comments in a flat I'm-curious-but-I'm-not-going-to-admit-it manner.

Without warning, Magolor shoots past us and starts spinning around excitedly. "This place! It looks a lot like my hometown did, only, y'know, more alive and stuff. Me and my family lived in a small town, so things weren't as bad there as in the big cities. They had trouble starting clear back in the 1st SW's' war, but where I lived, we actually had some plants and stuff until I was about five. But this... this is great!"

Giving Mags a look, I murmur, "Aren't Halcandran towns more... shiny? Like, made of marble and steel and stuff?"

Mags snickers and rolls his eyes. "Such stereotyping. That's only the big cities like Mechania and Cyber City. The smaller towns are more gears-and-clockwork oriented. Our hood patterns actually have a meaning to them, in most cases, related to who we are and where we come from. I was from the town of Clockcogs, which is why there are clock-like gears on my hood. It's blue because my town was near the ocean, and the gold is because I'm from the family Lor, since 'Lor' means 'hero.'"

While I'm rather interested (and Kirby and Bandana both are too,) Meta Knight clears his throat and interrupts, "This is all very interesting, I'm sure, but we are actually here for important reasons. Let's not waste time having a Halcandran culture study."

Magolor snorts in mild offense and crosses his gloves before muttering under his breath as the other three go off to look around, "Sure. Act like a Halcandran settlement on Popstar is no big deal. See if I care."

Frowning, I glance over at him. "You think this town was actually built by Halcandrans?"

He perks up again right away. "Well, I mean, yeah. Isn't it kinda obvious? Aside from the gears and everything, look at the way the buildings are arranged." When I just look at him like he's speaking Namco-ese or something, he gestures to the sky. "Look at it from above."

Still giving him a blank look, I flap my wings (which are keeping me in a constant hover, rather tiring) harder several times so I can look at the town from above. "I still don't see anything," I call down.

"Fly about ten feet to your left and try again," Mags giggles. "When you see it, you're gonna feel so stupid... Oh, this is gonna be good..."

Laughing a bit at his antics, I do as he says and look at the town again, and then really do feel like an idiot- an awed idiot, anyway.

"The buildings all make a giant 'H.' 'H' for 'Halcandra,' I'm guessing?" I call down to him with a sheepish grin and then fly back down to where he's at.