Kirby: Star and Moon Warriors

Chapter 12: A Lost Tale (Sectonia POV)

       I made my way down the hallway. Taranza was beside me. He glanced over and gave me a tired smile. Tired, but genuine. In the main hall, everyone else had their bags and were discussing. Gryll was jumping excitedly while chatting with Flamberge.

Shadow Kirby seemed to be giving Elfilin a mechanics lesson while Elfilin examined a screwdriver. Daroach was tapping his foot, but stopped when he saw us.

"Oh hey, there you are. You ready?"

We clearly weren't. Taranza yawned from next to me.

"I wasn't expecting you all to be ready so soon," he said.

"They all insisted we get an incredibly early start, despite the fact neither of you were awake."

Taranza straightened himself, and tried to fix his hair, which was a mess.

"Don't worry, Taranza. No one cares if your hair's messy," said Daroach.

"Well I care. I'd like to appear fairly presentable."

He kept trying to fix his hair for several moments before giving up. He left the room to find a mirror.

"Is he always this obsessed with his looks?" Gryll asked.

"Sometimes," I said.

We waited for a minute, and Taranza didn't come back. I decided to check on him, figuring it shouldn't take it this long. After a little bit of looking, I found Taranza in my room, examining the white streak in his hair. The constant reminder of his fight with Magolor.

He kept running his fingers through it, a neutral expression on his face. His main set of eyes still remained fixed on his reflection, but his secondary pair made eye contact with me.

"Are you okay?"

He turned away from the mirror to face me.

"Yeah..."

He glanced back into the mirror, still playing with the streak in his hair.

"You're thinking about it, aren't you?"

"Do you think he's still mad at me?"

"Of course not. He's your brother."

"But what if he thinks I'm still mad at him? Wouldn't that upset him?"

"Are you still mad at him?"

Taranza rested his head on the desk.

"No. I still can't really wrap my head around what happened then. It was all so in the moment."

I went over to him, and stared at our reflections for a moment.

"Try looking at it this way. Instead of a reminder of it, just look at it as a really cool marking."

I ruffled his hair with a pair of hands, which got a smile out of him.

"Plus, it's cute."

"Secty!"

A smile returned to his face.

"Come on, the others are waiting."

Taranza sprang up from where he was sitting, and rushed out of the room. I followed in a calmer manner. When I got back to the others, Taranza was breathing slightly heavier, due to having ran down a staircase. Everyone seemed impatient to go somewhere.

"Alright," I said. "Now we're all completely ready."

"Finally!" Said Gryll.

"You're really that excited to go to a haunted mansion in the middle of a jungle?"