Heart shapes surrounded the butterfly as Kirby glowed white. Kirby disappeared in a cloud of glowing orange ash-like particles, and the butterfly fluttered upward. The butterfly glowed orange, and in a brilliant display of glowing butterflies, an armoured puffball appeared in the butterfly’s place. His bright red wings stretched out, and he let himself float to the ground.

He opened his white eyes and exhaled.

There were many more stars out now. They were all quite pretty. Truth be told, he had actually forgotten what the stars looked like. It had been countless years since he could last get a proper look at them.

His sense of euphoria was washed away by unwelcome realisation. Despite wanting to obtain the little puffball’s strength since the starship’s crash, he felt guilty for what he had done. The child sounded so conflicted, too… And despite all that, he sacrificed himself willingly to bring him back? He couldn’t quite make sense of it.

What was he going to do now? The child only wanted to understand, but he wasn’t sure if the poor boy could even see what he could.

But the problem was now, he had no idea what he was supposed to do. Any significant place in his past, apart from his home, would be gone. So… maybe he could go for a little walk?

He wandered down the hill the tree was on. There was a breeze now, albeit not very strong at all, and the sensation of it on his face made him realise just how much he missed being alive. The sky had gone completely dark now, too, and the moon was starting to creep up the starlit sky. As he continued wandering, he noticed some more things he would’ve brushed off otherwise. The lights of scattered houses, the gently wafting smoke that drifted from some of their chimneys, the fireflies that were just now starting to come out and join the stars and moon in illuminating the night. Maybe he should just enjoy his time on the planet.

He continued walking through the fields, but for the first time he could remember, without haste. It was all so peaceful; he wondered why anything awful would threaten it.

He spotted a figure making his out of a forest in the distance. He appeared long and thin, with short ears atop his head and glowing eyes. Since the figure was so far away, he couldn’t quite make out what colour they were, but it didn’t matter. He already knew who it was.

The figure inched ever closer as he stared him down. He let out a low growl before hissing, “Morpho Knight.”

Morpho Knight took up a battle stance. “Hyness, what are you doing here?”

“The real question is… What are YOU… doing here? I banished you… and your power… eons ago...”

“Well,” Morpho explained, “you didn’t do good enough. I have been living here as a butterfly for those eons, and I’ve been looking for a way to restore my power ever since-”

“Of course,” Hyness spat. “I should have taken more measures… I should have made sure you would be gone… But that is in the past... I can just… destroy you… NOW!”

Hyness threw up his arms and made several orbs of dark energy. The orbs of energy circled around him as they grew larger. Morpho jumped back a step in preparation. Hyness swung his arms down, sending the dark orbs flying to the ground. There shouldn’t have been any way Morpho could dodge them. The explosion radius combined with the number of orbs made it impossible. And yet, when the purple fog from the orbs cleared, he was nowhere in sight.

Enraged, Hyness spun around in search for the knight. A few seconds passed before he saw Morpho again, standing several meters away.

Hyness charged towards him, summoning more dark orbs and flinging them wildly. Morpho heard the sound of the orbs explosions and deflected an orb back before slicing across Hyness’ cloak.

Hyness continued to lob dark orbs at Morpho Knight, and Morpho Knight dodged these, reflected some, and continued to swing at Hyness.

Both were exhausted and running out of stamina when Hyness decided that enough was enough. He created another orb of dark energy, but this time, let it grow far larger than the ones he usually made. He raised it above his head and with a scream, threw it down to Morpho Knight. Morpho’s eyes thinned as he watched it come down. Without thinking, he held his sword out and pressed it against the orb. It was almost crushing, it was so heavy. But Morpho persevered. With all the strength he had, he sliced through the orb and split it in two. The two split orbs flew out and landed on either side of Hyness, and exploded. Hyness was caught between the two explosion, and damaged him enough to make him fall to the ground.

Hyness was breathing heavily as he laid on the ground. He opened his eyes a little.

“You… How could you… defeat… me…? Wait… I know… it is… only… because… I do not… have… my generals… with… me…” Hyness wheezed, “If only… they would… return…! If… if only… theyyyy… would… help their… loooooord…”

Morpho squinted. “Let them do what they want.”

Morpho turned on his heel and walked away. Hyness attempted to create another dark orb, but it only flickered and died. Hyness growled, and attempted to drag himself along the ground. He couldn’t move. But he still tried. And he failed, passing out.

Morpho looked over his shoulder to make sure Hyness wasn’t going to get up again. After a few moments, he was certain he wouldn’t. He let out a sigh of relief.

“What the hell did I just do,” he muttered to himself.

He promptly sat down without much thought and looked up at the night sky again. While he thought to himself, he realised something.

“No doubt Hyness will awake sometime, and I’d hate to be around when he does. And if I am, I’ll be putting everyone else in danger, too. And everyone will want to know where the child is. If they found out… they’ll be furious.”

Morpho sighed. He got up again and outstretched his wings.

“...I can’t stay.”

He took off into the night sky. He didn’t know exactly where he was going, but he’d take anywhere away from Dream Land.