We slept besides
somebody’s house that night. Well, at least are backs were warm. The stars
seemed even more far away than usual, just barely noticeable specks in the sky.
I couldn’t even see the moons from here, just night sky and its nighty
skyishness. I sighed, knowing that this was the best sleep I was going to have
in awhile.
And,
I’ll tell you, it sure was. I dreamed that none of this was happening, and
Terakka and I were at some beach, having a good time just because we could. Boy,
would that be fun! Instead of being at the bottom of some pit with a town in it,
we could be at a beach resort.
Anyway,
the moment I woke up, I noticed a young Waddle Dee staring at me. She had a
bright blue bow on, and her skin was, instead of brown-red, bright scarlet. It
was so intense of a color that it hurt my eyes. And that’s saying something
considering that I myself am a fairly bright color.
“Hi,
you must be Kirby. I’ve heard about you. Why are you sleeping next to our
house?”
She
sure got to the point pretty fast.
“’Cause
I am; anything wrong with that?”
“Nope!
I just wanted to know.”
Terakka
stirred in her sleep next to me. She rolled over in her sleep, and, literally,
wiggled her foot in the air. I laughed. That was just plain funny, and I would
make sure Terakka knew she did that. Even the young Waddle Dee laughed quietly.
“So,
seeing that you know my name, what is yours?” I asked her while still
giggling.
“Sarah.”
Suddenly
it dawned on me that I had no idea what time it was. I looked up, and saw a sky
painted in reds, oranges and yellows of every shade; the moons faintly visible.
From this I could tell that it was daybreak, and the sun was probably hanging
low on the horizon right now.
I
heard a voice call to Sarah from inside the house. When I asked Sarah who it
was, she told me it was her mother calling her to breakfast. Then, surprisingly,
she asked me if I was hungry. Well, I was always hungry, but I didn’t tell her
that. Instead, I figured out that Terakka was awake.
“Yes
food now mrrf.” Terakka said sleepily. She got and shook her head, then looked
at Sarah. Obviously, she was too sleepy to care about who was offering us
breakfast, just that we were having breakfast. To tell the truth, so was I.
“One
moment.” Sarah said as she ran into her house. For a minute nothing happened,
then Sarah ran back out of her house saying, “She said yes! She said yes! Come
on, we’ve got pancakes!”
“With
maple syrup?” I asked her. I hope so.
“And
chocolate chips, too!” Sarah said excitedly.
“Never
mind. I’ll take some curry.” Terakka said sarcastically.
“Then
lets go!” Sarah exclaimed as she led us through the door.
Either
my hunger was getting to me, or the inside of the house seemed smaller than the
outside. That might be, the ceiling was pretty low. Hmm, probably a second
floor.
The
moment I stepped into the kitchen, I felt slightly unwelcome. Mainly because it
was all ‘Dees. The one who I’m guessing is Sarah’s mother was at a stove,
cooking pancakes. I forgot everything else the moment I saw them. The pancakes
were not only pretty big, but thick and had chocolate in them. Terakka seemed to
be drooling mentally, whatever that means.
“‘Ello
there. You must be Kirby. Please, do si’ down and join us for breakfas’.”
Said the Waddle Dee I was now sure was Sarah’s mother. She
sure has a slight accent, I thought, how
can something without a mouth have an accent? I guess it was kinda rude to
even wonder that, but come on!
By
the way, you know what the greatest thing is about pancakes? There always seem
to be more.
Quite
a bit later, Terakka, Sarah, and I were sitting down by the waterfall, my
stomach almost satisfied. The lingering taste of syrup and chocolate was still
on my tongue, and I savored it! Sarah’s mother sure knows how to make
pancakes, and fast. She kinda needed to be since I was there, and even though a
Waddle Dee sorta “absorbs” food, I was still eating faster.
“Those
were so not awesome, eh Kirby?” Terakka asked me sarcastically.
“Yep.
Truly horrible.” I said, playing along to Terakka’s slipping sarcasm.
“Mmm,”
was Sarah’s two cents in this.
For
a while that was our entire brain activity, the discussion of pancakes made by a
‘Dee. I bet we could’ve spent the whole day like this, if I hadn’t decided
to look at myself in the water.
The
man was back in my reflection, looking the same as always, bloodshot, dieing,
etcetera. But this time he looked disappointed with me his arms crossed and face
straight. He mouthed out the word, ‘Go.’ then vanished, leaving only myself
in my reflection. Why would he be
disappointed in me?, I thought,
there’s no actual reason-
Then
I remembered why we were here.
“Come
on, Terakka, we still need to find that demon.”
“You
read my post?” Sarah asked me, “I didn’t know you ate at the diner in-“
“You
posted it there?! But how... isn’t Rainbow Resort a little... wha?”
“…Follow
me.” She said quietly after along period of silence.
Sarah
led us right behind the waterfall, revealing a network of caves that nobody
would know was there unless they looked. The rock was unlike all others I’ve
seen, a translucent onyx color that sparkled in the entering light. Clear white
stalagmites and stalactites decorated the cave floor and ceiling, in heavy
contrast to the fluorescent purple moss growing on the walls.
There
was a fork in the path ahead, and Sarah chose the left. This cave was different
from the main cave, more stalagmites and stalactites, less moss, and everything
seemed transparent. We seemed to be going upwards, even though the path was
going down.
Sarah
seemed to know where we were headed, never slowing pace or halting altogether.
She must’ve been very familiar with this trail; she had probably gone along it
before. This place had a ghastly feeling to it, and I was surprised that Sarah
wasn’t scared. Heh, I was.
I
was almost sure I was wrong about Sarah knowing the way when we hit a dead end,
but she jumped up and over the crystal lying in our path. I followed this
motion, landing softly. Terakka landed behind me with a soft thump, and we were
off walking again.
I
found it odd how I barely knew Sarah, and yet I was trusting her like an old
friend. I sighed, knowing that I tended to do this a lot. When I first came to
Popstar, I almost immediately trusted in the Pupu villagers. Of course, this
turned out to be a good choice, but luck does nasty things to you sometimes.
*** Terakka ***
I
was getting tired of walking. We had been walking for what seemed to be hours,
and I was hungry again. Grrr, why did Kirby have to remember what we came here
for, I was having a good time for once. Oh, even I know that I don’t mean
that. GOD, I’m pathetic.
Even
worse, Sarah led us into this really dark and musty tunnel, barely high enough
for me to walk. It kept winding and turning sharply, so I crashed into the cave
all more than once.
The
cave then took a sharp dip, and the light from the walls was gone. I was scared;
we were walking in a cave under a river in a valley with no light. That’s not
a very comforting thought.
Well,
eventually we got to this place that was like, enormous! It looked like an
underground forest, or something. There were these weird, spindly little trees
with white and blue-spotted fruit, and the grass was blue. Literally, it was
this deep, translucent aqua blue! There was even this cute little stream that
ran around the outer edge of the cave. The cave itself was vast, and somewhat
circular, with light coming from thick patches of moss.
“I
think I’ve been here before.” I said sarcastically.
“Shhh!
You might frighten the Oripeons.” Sarah spat at me.
Oripeons?!
What the hell is an Oripeon? I thought.
Sarah
began to run down the slope we were on, then she turned around and said, “Come
on. I brought you here for a reason.” and ran off. We, of course, followed her
into the weird little forest.
I
noticed for the first time as I was running, that the trees had no leaves.
Instead, they had these odd vine-like things growing out in long double helixes.
The vines were cold and wet to the touch, and I knew this because they kept
slapping into my face. The grass, too, was cold and wet, but it was also soft
and somewhat velvety against my exhausted feet. Or maybe I was just freaking
tired.
But
that was nothing compared to what we saw next. Right in the middle of the
forest, there was a huge group of snakes gathered around another snake. They all
were black with blue stripes and eyes, the stripes going back and forth along
their possibly 12-foot bodies. The snake in the middle of them all was huge,
twice the size of the other largest snake. Its eyes were red and it had these
wicked horns coming out of its head, flaring back.
“The
demon...” Kirby said quietly.
Well,
it made sense. For one, the demon snake had red eyes. I have never seen a demon
without red eyes. Lets see, it also has horns, complicated body colors, and
fangs as big around as Kirby’s foot. That’s enough for me- it’s a demon.
Kirby
began to draw his sword, when one of the bigger normal snakes turned around and
hissed at us, then slithered towards us. I swear it was trying to torture us, as
it was moving veeeerry slowly, taking its time. Eventually, it was directly in
front of us, and then it spoke.
Not
in words, or even some form of telepathy, I just knew what it was saying- What
business do you have here?
“To
help Rifsakkia, why do you ask, Rontotold?” Sarah answered it. No, him.
Rontotold sounded like a guy’s name. My God, this is getting weird.
Kirby
was holding Galaxia now, in what I recognized as a defensive position. You learn
these things when you’re a roomie to a guy with a sword. Anyway, I don’t
think he planned on fighting anytime soon. Note the “I think”.
Yes,
yes of course. Welcome, strangers. Rontotold said, bowing his head slightly.
It’s odd to see a snake bow, you know. (But prolly don’t)
Rontotold
led us to the group, hissing something unintelligible at anybody who looked at
us strangely. When we got to Rifsakkia, I gasped. She was scarred in various
places, and couldn’t get up from the ground. She
disappeared four days ago, and then returned like this. Rontotold explained.
So, it was Evil’s doing after all. God, if these evil guys were obviously SO
strong, why must they enslave the already living and not just create something?
Suddenly
Rifsakkia growled, and managed to pull herself up. She shook her massive head,
then turned and looked our way. Kirby was in offensive position now, and I’m
pretty sure that means we’re gonna have a fight here. Nice, this is just how I
wanted to spend summer, watching my best friend fight demons with me now being
able to do anything about it.
Rifsakkia
moved towards us, and all of the other snakes backed away, giving her room. That
was a good idea for me, as she sure needed a lot of room!I scooted myself over to a copse of trees to my left, as all of them had
very long vines that I trusted would hide me. At least until I could figure out
how to leave here, that is.
Eventually,
the whole clearing was clear again except for Rifsakkia and Kirby. Rifsakkia
hissed and the lunged at Kirby, her mouth open wide. Kirby dodged, and she got a
mouthful of black dirt and velvety grass. She spat this out angrily, and then
turned to see Kirby leap into the air and bring Galaxia down on her. Kirby only
managed to cut of some of Rifsakkia’s horns and some scales, but now she was
ticked off.
From
my spot in the trees, I noticed that Rifsakkia’s eyes were glowing bright red.
God, what is with demons and the color red?
Anyway, Rifsakkia
spread the hood (that I had no idea was there) on her neck and hissed again. If
she was trying to scare away Kirby, I don’t think she succeeded, as Kirby just
saw this as a new target. He jumped into the air and slashed at demon
Rifsakkia’s spread hood, drawing blood the color of thundercloud. Rifsakkia
screamed, and I soon saw why; a sudden rush of arterial blood spraying from her
wound. God that must hurt.
Despite
being weakened from blood loss, Rifsakkia still found the strength to launch one
final attack. She, literally, jumped into the air and pounced on Kirby.
Horrified, I saw that she had properly aimed and was now laying half-dead right on top of Kirby. Of course, unless a spike had gotten under
there, Kirby would be unharmed, as his body may as well be elastic.
Rifsakkia
looked up triumphantly, and then a bolt of lightning shot through her entire
body. Kirby, obviously, had stabbed her with Galaxia. Rifsakkia screamed so loud
that some rock fell from the ceiling and fell to the ground. Even me with all my
weight was sent a few inches into the air from the force of her fall.
Kirby
crawled out from under her, gasping and shaking. For a while Kirby just stared
at Rifsakkia, her blood still pooling around her despite the fact that she was
nearing death. I realized suddenly that Kirby wasn’t gasping, he was crying.
He turned away, looking down with his eyes closed. Kirby...
Kirby, I’m sorry...I
heard in my mind. Rifsakkia was freed from the demon possessing her now, but
nothing could change that fact that she was dieing.
