Chapter 1: Green Greens

There are many ways to scare the "scrap" out of Cutter. Shoving a picture of a massive, violent bird into his face while he is on his laptop is one of them.

"...Isorry," Dagger said, looking up at the Sir Kibble, who had attached himself to the ceiling. He hopped onto the couch to help his friend off of the ceiling before setting him back down.

"N-never... d-do... that... again," Cutter stammered, seeming rather flustered. He cringed again, though, when Dagger held up the picture once more. It was in a good-sized book, and there were other illustrations of the strange bird in the adjacent page. "What is that, anyway?'

"Wannabe this!" The Blade' pointed enthusiastically at the picture of the bird. "For Trickertreat! Wannabe this!"

"Wait a second, that's..." The Sir Kibble took the book, looking over the pictures. The one that had scared him so much was a massive illustration of a bird with a strange crest, a large jewel on its chest, and rainbow-colored wings whose pinion feathers gave the appearance of razors. It was depicted as flying forward, a murderous glare on its face. The adjacent page contained more illustrations of it, all from different time periods, with blurbs of text here and there. "This is Dynablade. What did you want to show me this for?"

"Halloween!" came Dagger's reply. "Wannabe this!"

"You want to be..." Cutter blinked, looking from Dagger to the picture of the surely-'Kibble-eating bird. "But... it's got such a complicated design..."

"It pretty!" the Dreamlander insisted, grinning.

"Er... I guess." The 'Kibble stared at the picture in the book, wincing. "Good thi-er, shame it's not real."

"Buh!?" Dagger exclaimed, rearing his head back in surprise, eyes wide. "It not?"

"Of course not," Cutter said. "Fablebreakers disproved that Dynablade legend forever ago, remember?"

The Blade Knight tilted his head to one side, trying to think back to that particular episode...

"No b'lieve... them!" Dagger mumbled, crossing his arms and pouting.

"Well, whatever," Cutter said with a shrug. "You're really sure you wanna be that... thing?"

"Yah!" The Blade' nodded his head enthusiastically, long tongue flopping around.

"Okay, okay!" The armored puff backed away, out of the range of his friend's flailing tongue. "But how in scrap are you gonna make a costume like that?"

There was a pause for a moment, and Dagger suddenly rushed off to a closet, dug around noisily for a moment, and returned, tongue retracted into his mouth, which was covered by a fake beak. The beak was attached by an elastic strap that wrapped around his head. "Like this!" he said proudly, tongue flopping out of his mouth and through the beak as he smiled.

Cutter had to cover his mouth in order to conceal his laughter. The Blade' looked absolutely ridiculous in that fake beak, especially with the way his tongue stuck through it. "W-well, okay..." he said, snickering. "You've got the beak part, but what about the wings? You at least have to have those."

Grinning, the knight pointed a finger up into the air triumphantly... and promptly dropped it to his side with a saddened look on his face. "Iunno."

"Aw, that's all right," the 'Kibble said, patting his friend on the shoulder. "We've got a few days before Halloween. I'm sure we can come up with something before then." Yeah, maybe an entirely different costume... he thought, shutting his laptop and setting it carefully onto the couch. Once that was accomplished, he hopped off of the couch and smiled. "Hey, we were supposed to go on a picnic today. D'you still wanna go?"

Dagger immediately perked up. "Yah! Picnic!" The large Dreamlander zoomed into the kitchen, grabbing a picnic basket and starting to shove a bunch of food into it, as well as various other random objects.

"Woah! D-don't take too much, Dagger!" Cutter shouted. "We have to save some of it, remember?"

The Blade Knight gave a sad look and put away some of the food that was starting to overflow from the picnic basket. "This much?" he questioned.

"Maybe a bit less."

He put back some more food. "This much?"

"Nope, less." Cutter took the picnic basket from his friend and began to take out food, as well as some of the other random objects. "Sheesh, Dagger, what're we gonna need all this junk for?"

Dagger shrugged. "Iunno... Comein handy?"

"Well, I guess..." The Sir Kibble shrugged as well, leaving a couple items in and handing the basket back to his friend.

Opening the basket again, Dagger frowned when he saw only two sandwiches for their food. "Thisall..?" he whined.

"Well, if you want more food, we could always go to Whispy Woods and-"

"NUUUU!" the knight cried, gloved paws at either side of his face and eyes wide in horror. "Notapples 'GAIN!"

Cutter laughed. "I know, I know, I was just joking..." With that, he started to head to the door. "Hey, I have an idea. Let's stop by Ramble's farm and see if he can give us any freebies!" They visited the farmer from time-to-time and occasionally bought goods from him, so he knew them relatively well.

That brightened up the Blade Knight a bit. "Yah!" he exclaimed, rushing out the door. "Let'sgo!"

"Wait! You forgot to grab a jacket! It's gonna be cold outside!"

---

Meanwhile, a different duo stood by the outskirts of Whispy Woods. One of them was a Poppy Bro. Sr., who was currently wearing a rather old jacket and a typical Poppy Bro. hat, but with a patch on it. "Man, it's been getting so frickin' cold..." he said with a shiver.

"Yez, yez," replied the other. This one was a rather small, green Plasma Wisp who lacked gloves, exposing his electric paws that didn't appear to be a solid shape, though they gave the general appearance of bearing two fingers and a thumb. "But I can't feel zuh coldzzz..."

"Stupid Plasma Wisps and their non-flesh-y bodies..." the Poppy mumbled, pulling his jacket tight around his body. "Y'know, we'd probably still have a house and a heater if it weren't for you, Jolt."

"Why'zzzzit my fault?" Jolt asked, looking a bit sad. "I didn't do anything, zzzzz..." He looked down, rubbing his paws together nervously and accidently creating a bolt of electricity, which shot out at his friend.

"GEEZ!" The Dreamlander frantically dove out of the way. "I told you to be careful with your stupid electricity! You're like a walking-er-floating electrical fence! ...Or something! And anyway, it's your fault because I had to spend what little money I had on feeding YOU instead of paying the rent!"

The Plasma Wisp hung his head (or, well, looked down, anyway) and dropped his paws dejectedly. "Z-zorry, Momma."

"And for the last time, I AM NOT 'MOMMA'! You call me Blast, got it? BLAST! I don't care if I accidentally hatched you when I tripped over your egg, I am not your momma, I'm BLAST!" He stood there, glaring at the Plasma Wisp, and twitched a few times.

"Zorry Momma-I mean, Blazt!" Jolt quickly corrected himself. "B-but... wouldn't we have a houze if you ztill worked?" He grinned nervously, despite lacking a visible mouth.

"You don't get it, do you?" Blast began to pace around in circles. "I was high-up in the ranks of King Dedede's lackeys, and what happened to me? I got beaten up by a puffball! A little pink puffball! You don't think I could actually go back to my boss after that, do you!? And my co-workers! Aw man, what would they say? I'd be the laughing stock of all of Popstar!"

"But it wuzn't your fault, Mo-Blazt!" the little ball of electricity squeaked. "D-didn't you zay before that zuh puffball had other people working for him, zzzzz?"

The Poppy stopped pacing, and his eyes narrowed. "Cutter..." The way the name was said was about as bitter as a bad licorice stick. "That two-faced tin can!" he exclaimed, turning back to face Jolt. "He sided with Kirby and screwed up everything! If it weren't for him, I could've beaten Kirby and become the hero! But what happened? He dropped his retarded friend on top of me and made one of my best bombs blow up on me!"

"...Wait, how are you ztill alive after-"

"Man, if I could just get back at that guy, maybe I could show my face in Dedede's palace again..." Blast crossed his arms, looking at the ground, but suddenly perked up. "Hey, wait, that's it! I can prove that Cutter's a crook and capture him, and then I'll be a hero!"

"Zzzzzzhuh?" Jolt tilted his head to one side. "But wait, what if he'zzzz not really a crook?" He ducked, covering his head when Blast glared at him. "I-I meanzzz... other zan hizzzz helping Kirby?"

"Then we'll just have to make him look like one..." The Dreamlander gave a smirk, cracking his knuckles. "Heh heh heh..."

---

"Brrrrr!!" Dagger shivered, wrapping his arms around his body as he walked. "It cold!"

"I told you to wear a jacket," Cutter mumbled, crossing his paws. "And why did you wear that beak out here? You look ridiculous!"

The two were walking through Green Greens, which... wasn't quite looking so green anymore, what with it being autumn and all. Dagger was wearing the picnic basket around one of his arms and his fake-beak around his mouth, and Cutter wore a scarf around his body.

"Likeit... and noneed jacket," the Blade Knight stated with a "humph," turning his nose up into the air. However, he didn't manage to hold this pose for long. His eyes suddenly widened and twitched a few times. "Buh... buh... buuuuuuh-CHOO!!" he sneezed, falling backwards.

"You sure about that?" Cutter asked as he helped his friend back up. "Oh well, it's too late to go home now. Look, we're already here!"

The Blade' and the 'Kibble now stood a number of yards away from an enormous field, full of ripe fruits and veggies. It had pumpkins, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, apples, grapes, and a ton of other greens. Dagger's huge tongue was starting to salivate even more than usual at the sight of it, and Cutter had to grab the back of his shirt in order to keep him from charging into the field.

"It's not ours, Dagger! This is all Farmer Ramble's crop! It wouldn't be nice if we took from him," the 'Kibble reasoned.

"But I huuuuungry!" the Blade Knight whined. Looking over his shoulder, he gave his friend a pitiful look that would melt a stone heart. "...Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeese?"

"No," Cutter said bluntly, and Dagger promptly dropped the look and replaced it with an annoyed one. "I said that we could talk to Ramble and see if we could get him to spare us some food, but if we just took it without asking he'd never let us come back here!" With that, he started to walk down towards the barn at the other side of the field.

Dagger watched his friend go before turning towards the field again, grinning mischievously. He lifted his tongue and started to reach towards one of the pumpkins with it in an attempt to grab it and eat it, but Cutter grabbed the tongue and began dragging his friend behind him.

"Come on!" the black puffball said as he hauled the Blade Knight off, looking away just in time to miss the Dreamlander making a face at him. Upon reaching the barn, however, he let go of Dagger's tongue and allowed him to get up. "Hey, Ramble! Are you there?" A pause-no response. "Ramble, are you there?" he repeated, louder this time. Again, no response. "RAMBLE!!"

After a few moments, a Cappy emerged from a nearby greenhouse with a large sign labeled "TOP SECRET" stuck over the door. The Cappy lifted his mushroom-cap hat and smiled at the two visitors. "Oh, hello, boys!" he said, approaching the two Dreamlanders. He looked a bit older than the Cappies that normally wandered around Whispy Woods, and his voice proved that he was definitely older. "I thought I heard something out here..."

Cutter and Dagger exchanged glances before looking back at the Cappy. "What... inthere?" the Blade Knight questioned, pointing towards the greenhouse.

Ramble looked confused for a moment, but he followed Dagger's finger and saw that it was pointing at the greenhouse. "Oh!" he exclaimed, suddenly realizing what Dagger was asking about. "It's a secret! I'm afraid I can't tell you."

"Awww..."

"We're just stopping by," Cutter explained, glancing over at the field. "Wow, you sure have a lot of crops this year..."

"I dunno about mops, but I do have a lot of crops this year," the Cappy said with a proud smile. "Best crop I've ever had, if I do say so myself! Hey, if you want, I can give you a few snacks."

The Sir Kibble grinned. "Sure! That's very nice of you." He glanced at Dagger, who was rubbing his paws together and drooling a bit excessively.

Ramble noticed that, too, and laughed. "Hungry, are you? Well, I have a lot of extra apples this year, so maybe I could-"

"NO!" Cutter and Dagger yelled, looking horrified.

"Er... okay, then I'll go find something else," he said, seeming a little confused. He brightened up again, though. "I'll be right back!" With that, he let his mushroom cap fall over his face and headed into the barn.

"See? I told you he'd give us some freebies!" Cutter said with a smile.

"Yay!" Dagger cheered, hopping around happily. Soon, though, he stopped his jubilations and paused, looking up into the sky in confusion. "What that?"

"Huh?" His Sir Kibble friend looked up as well, but could see nothing other than a few clouds drifting around in the sky. "What is it? I don't see anything."

Before the Blade Knight could answer, he shivered as a cold wind began to pick up, wrapping his arms around himself again. "Someth'n bad..."

"What do you mean?" Cutter asked, unfazed by the cold as the ends of his scarf fluttered in the breeze. "It's just an autumn wind, that's all. We've been getting these all day."

But that "autumn wind" wasn't stopping, and soon it was growing in force. The trees were shuddering and shaking, dead leaves and twigs flying off of them. The wind grew louder and fiercer, and soon some of the fruits and vegetables were starting to get uprooted.

"Wh-wh-what's going on!?" Cutter stammered, eyes widening. He clung to Dagger, who clung to the ground as the wind whipped around him.

The Blade Knight said something, but the words were drowned out in a fierce roar of wind. Dagger, despite his weight, found himself pressed against the barn. Some of the crops in the field were ripped out of the ground by the sheer force of the wind, and splattered against the two Dreamlanders. A nearby tree was uprooted as well, and crashed through the "TOP SECRET" greenhouse, causing its contents to fly everywhere.

Cutter was too busy clinging to his friend in fear to notice, but Dagger saw. Ramble had been growing the extremely rare Maxim Tomatoes in that greenhouse, and those coveted fruits were either being blown away by the wind or splattered against the barn. Sticking out a gloved paw, he managed to snatch one that was flying by and quickly shoved it into his picnic basket, which he then held onto tightly in order to keep it from being blown away.

He almost dropped the basket, though, when he heard Cutter's scream, which had somehow managed to pierce through the roaring wind. Looking up, he saw it.

The most enormous bird ever in the history of everything was apparently what was causing the great winds as it swooped down towards the field, talons out, and grabbed large amounts of the food. With its enormous size, the jewel on its chest, and its rainbow-colored wings, there was no doubt about it-this was indeed the legendary Dynablade.

Before the two Dreamlanders could say anything, the bird had taken as much as it could carry and was now flying off again to who knows where. The wind was now dying down, and soon Cutter and Dagger found themselves standing there among the ruined fruits and vegetables, staring at the sky in shock.

And Ramble opened the door to the barn, looking as though he had heard nothing, carrying a few food items with him. "So, I decided to get you some-" The Cappy froze, dropping the food and staring out at his empty field. He then looked at Cutter and Dagger, who were splattered with some of the fruits and vegetables that he had been growing. His shocked look was suddenly replaced with an enraged one.

"You THIEVES!!"

Prologue << Previous | Next >> Chapter 2: The Forest's Edge