Prologue

Multicolored leaves fluttered in the chilly wind, detaching from their wooden homes to drift about the world for a while before ultimately withering. The grass was beginning to darken and die as well. This wasn't such a bad thing, though, as now all of the fruits and vegetables were finally ripe enough to be plucked and put into storage for the winter months.

It was the time of harvest: autumn.

It was about half a year ago that Dagger had decided to "drop in" on Cutter. Ever since then, the Sir Kibble's life had never been the same. Things were a bit different; for example, he had to be careful not to spend nearly all of his money on food. Dagger ate like a Gip, and it was difficult to keep both himself and his long-tongued friend fed. As a result, he took up fishing and would occasionally visit Whispy Woods once or twice a month, as the tree was more than happy to give away a good supply of giant apples to his friends.

But having to be more frugal with food wasn't the only difference in Cutter's life. The 'Kibble also found that he had to teach the Blade' many things, as Dagger was, as everyone knew, rather slow. Dagger usually ended up getting himself into minor trouble every once in a while due to his sheer ignorance about some things, so Cutter made it a point to educate his friend. Progress had, so far, been rather slow.

Fortunately, Cutter's job hadn't changed any. King Dedede never found out about Cutter's helping Kirby, so he ended up keeping his job. Not wanting to get in trouble, though, the armored puffball would occasionally wander around Whispy Woods and claim to be looking for Kirby, and demonstrate what his "intentions" were by swinging his boomerang-blade around a bit. It was convincing enough, and Dedede didn't send any other notes to his employee other than his weekly paycheck.

Today, Cutter had used a good chunk of that paycheck to buy a rather large sack of candy and was currently attempting to shove it through the door without much success.

"Push harder, Dagger!" Cutter grunted, pulling on the tied-up end of the oversized bag of candy.

"I trying!" Dagger replied, working his feet faster as he tried his hardest to push the candy through the door.

"'I am trying,'" Cutter corrected.

The Blade Knight simply rolled his eyes at this, but suddenly perked up, pointing one finger into the air. "Igot idea!" he exclaimed, turning around and rushing off a distance.

"That's a first," the Sir Kibble muttered. "Just what is this rusty brilliant ide-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Dagger rammed all of his weight into the bag, sending both it and Cutter flying across the tiny 'Kibble house. Both the black puffball and the bag of candy crashed into the wall, the former falling first, causing the latter to crash on top of him.

"It work!" Dagger cheered, rushing up to his friend.

"Worked. Past tense," came Cutter's muffled voice. He crawled out from underneath the massive bag just in time to get showered by saliva as Dagger made a "PFFFT!" noise in annoyance. "Well SCRAPMETAL Dag' you're going to have to learn to talk right someday!"

"Too hard. No wanna'." The Blade Knight crossed his arms and looked away, appearing irritated. This didn't last long, however, and he soon turned his attention to the bag of candy. "...Whatthat for?"

"Halloween, of course," Cutter said, opening the sack and examining the candy. "I didn't want to run out of candy this year and end up getting my house egged or TP'd." He paused. "Or a combination of both. I'm telling you, that was not a pleasant Hallow-"

"What Halloween?" Dagger questioned, tilting his head to one side.

"...What kind of childhood did you have?" The black puffball gave him a blank stare. "You really don't know?" Upon seeing his friend shake his head, he heaved a sigh and explained. "Well, on Halloween night, kids go door-to-door dressed up in costumes and say 'Trick or treat!' to get candy. If they get candy, they leave the house alone. If they don't, they generally egg the scrap out of the house before they leave."

It took a few moments for the gears to click into place, but eventually Dagger figured it out. "Oh. Soundlike fun!"

"It might, but I really hate this rusty holiday!" Cutter began to tie a rope around the opening of the bag once more as he rambled. "I have bad memories of bullies scaring the scrap out of me and stealing all my candy, back when I was a kid! After I'd go through all the trouble to hit all the houses on my street, those stupid guys would go after me with their creepy costumes and chase me down the road so I'd drop my candy and they'd take it! ARGH!" He stopped, suddenly realizing that he had tied the rope around his wrist. (This struck him as odd, though, because he didn't even know he had a wrist.) He gave a forceful tug and freed himself from the rope, but not without causing himself to fly backwards into Dagger, who didn't seem very fazed. "...So as you can see," he concluded, glancing upward at his friend, "I'm really not a fan of this holiday."

Dagger, however, apparently hadn't been paying attention. "Wanna' go!" he said with a grin. "Soundlike fun!"

"Oh come on, Dagger!" Cutter exclaimed, hopping up and pointing a finger at the Blade Knight. "Trick-or-treating is for kids! You're too old! I mean, you're... you're..." He slowly lowered his paw, blinking. "...How old are you anyway?"

"I... uh..." Dagger tilted his head upward in thought, rubbing his chin. His eyes narrowed as he tried to concentrate, and he soon began scratching the top of his head. Eventually his eyes shut tightly as he tried to remember just how old he was, but suddenly he dropped his arms to his side and his eyes widened considerably, staring blankly ahead. Cutter was certain that he had heard a faint "snap!" which he assumed to be the sound of one of the Dreamlander's precious few brain cells exploding, and Dagger collapsed to the ground. "Ow."

"...Don't hurt yourself," Cutter said, wincing. "Okay, so maybe you might still be young enough to go trick-or-treating..."

"Reelee?" the Blade Knight exclaimed, suddenly sitting upright with a bright smile on his face.

The Sir Kibble heaved a sigh. "...Fine."

"YAAAAAAAY!" Dagger hopped to his feet and gave Cutter a slobbery lick across the face as a "thank-you!" before proceeding to prance around the house.

Cutter just shook his head, wondering what in the name of Popstar he had just gotten himself into.

Next >> Chapter 1: Green Greens