Chapter One: Picnic Dance

January 17, Spring Breeze,  Dreamland. . .

A black-and-white Malamute puppy sneaked along the side of her three-story house, her bright green eyes gleaming with mischief and suspense. As she neared the corner, she exploded into a barrage of yips and charged out from behind the house, slamming into a masked knight with a navy-blue cape and gray pauldrons with yellow lining. The two tumbled over on the ground.

“Ha, ha!” the puppy laughed. “Gotcha, Meta Knight!”

Meta Knight too had to laugh as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his attire. “You caught me by surprise, Cloudy. You sneaky Star Warrior, you.”

Cloudy grinned. “All Star Warriors have to be slick and sly,” she said, a faint smirk growing on her face. She too leapt up and shook the dirt off her thick jacket. “After all, we’re soldiers, aren’t we?”

“Yes, we are,” he agreed, but his yellow eyes turned dull and his voice became toneless and strained.

Cloudy’s smile faded as she remembered how Meta Knight had been in the Galaxy Soldier Army—also known as the GSA—and had seen many of his comrades die. She also knew that he had been horribly abused by his father, Nightmare, who was the most feared demon in all of Dreamland. Nightmare’s goal was to conquer the entire galaxy and take over the universe, and it was the Star Warriors’ mission to fight to gain their independence from Nightmare.

Cloudy was a Star Warrior like Meta Knight, but she wasn’t any ordinary Star Warrior. She was the Prophesied One, or the one who had been foretold by the ancient ruler Photron to save Dreamland from Nightmare’s grasp—with the help of the other Star Warriors, of course. A special diamond mark on her left front paw proved this.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel bad, Meta Knight,” Cloudy apologized, her head drooping.

Meta Knight smiled and patted her fur. “It’s perfectly fine, Cloudy.” He straightened up. “Now come. We’d better get over to Whispy Woods if we want to meet Miriam and our other young friends for the picnic today at the brook.”

Miriam Capperdale, one of Cloudy’s best friends, lived right across the street from Cloudy. She was a dark-skinned, eight-year-old humanoid who had gone through a lot of trials in her young life, but she was very patient and brave. Cloudy admired her strength and spunk.

“Then let’s go!” Cloudy hollered, sprinting into her house to put on a scarf. Then she came back out, her mother at her heels.

“Cloudy, be careful,” Springtime warned. “I don’t want any of you getting hurt.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,” Cloudy promised, glancing back at her kind and caring mother who looked so much like herself—the same green eyes, the same fur color. “We won’t get into mischief.”

“You can’t promise me that about Sniper,” Springtime replied dryly. Sniper was Cloudy’s oldest brother and had a tendency to be extremely rude and play pranks on others.

“Then if he acts up, we’ll whip his caboose into shape,” Cloudy said humorously.

Springtime smiled and rolled her eyes at her daughter’s sassiness. “All right, then, you little warrior. Get out there with your friends, and bundle up good.”

“Will do,” Cloudy said. As she passed by Meta Knight, she whispered, “I really can’t wait to.”

Meta Knight stifled his laughter. “Get out in the woods or bundle up?”

“Get out in the woods, of course,” Cloudy answered. “Mommy’s occasionally so bizarre I feel it best to stay away from her for a time.”

“Cloudy!” Meta Knight whispered. “That’s awful!” But he couldn’t help smiling.

Cloudy shrugged, smiling to.

Springtime called back inside the house, “Children, come out here, please!”

Cloudy watched as her five brothers and her only sister came outside and lined up for inspection from youngest to oldest. As Springtime checked each one thoroughly, Cloudy thought about her family.

Springtime and Showerstorm were her parents. Showerstorm was a Siberian with brown eyes and fur. He was a devout Christian and worked at Passion Bank. But he also had a love for writing and he wrote plenty of articles to submit to The Dreamland Times. 

Springtime too was a good Christian, but she didn’t work away from home. She was a stay-at-home mom who tried so hard to impart godly wisdom to her kids.

Sniper, of course, was the prankster. Sharkell, her next oldest brother, could be sweet and caring, but he sometimes teamed up with Sniper in his mean jokes. So did her next three brothers—Yodi, Pancake, and Waffle—though they could act like gentlemen when they wanted to. Like their father, all had brown eyes and fur, though they were Malamutes instead of Siberians.

Azalea-Star (Star for short), Cloudy’s sister, was a Siberian, but she had gray-and-white fur and blue eyes like her Aunt Summer. She was a wonderful daughter and very charming, but she had a tiny rebellious streak that sometimes landed her in tons of trouble.

Cloudy was the youngest out of the seven children, and she was spirited, auspicious, and warmhearted. Her greatest attribute was her empathy, and no one in the family showed empathy more than Cloudy. Though she had her strange habits, she was a precious child that gained favor with everyone she met.

Despite their quirks, Cloudy loved her family just as they were. She wouldn’t want them any other way. How they acted and what they did were what made them them.

Springtime approved each child as she went down the line, seeing as they were properly dressed for the cold weather. However, when she came to Sniper, she frowned at him. “Sniper, where’s your jacket? You realize it’s the middle of January, right?”

“I don’t need a jacket,” Sniper stubbornly said. “I already have one.”

Cloudy rolled her eyes meaningfully at Meta Knight. “Sniper’s on the rebellion bus,” she muttered.

“Oh? And just where is your jacket, young man?” Springtime demanded.

“Right here!” Sniper shook himself, sending handfuls of fur flying into his mother’s face. “I have my winter coat on!”

“Ah!” Springtime backed up and shook the fur out of her face, then sneezed. “Young man, you better not try that ever again or you are in big trouble! Now I want you to go upstairs and put on a jacket pronto!”

Sniper grudgingly obeyed. When he emerged from the house again, this time with a jacket on, Springtime approved them and sent them on their way.

Cloudy let Meta Knight lead the procession; after all, he was an adult and knew the woods like the back of his hand. They walked across Cloudy’s property and hurdled the fence, which separated Cloudy’s property from a next-door one which nobody owned at the moment but was for sale. Beyond that piece of land was Whispy Woods, which stretched for miles.

As soon as they entered the woods full of dead, brown shrubbery and leafy trails, Cloudy asked, “Meta Knight, you said we would meet up with the others at a brook somewhere. How will we know this brook?”

“Magnolia trees will line the bank,” the warrior shortly replied.

They pressed on for a few more minutes before passing into a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing was Meta Knight’s cabin, where he lived with his mother and father. Cloudy saw Meta Knight’s mother, Scazzarda Stellarum, standing on the porch and shaking out a rug. She waved to them as they paraded past. Meta Knight too waved, but Cloudy could see how tense he was. He didn’t relax until they were safely away from the cabin.

Sniper too noticed how uncomfortable Meta Knight was, and of course, he started making jokes about it. “Aww, is the tough Star Warrior scared of his daddy?” he mocked.

Meta Knight shut his eyes, trying to suppress his anger. He seriously wanted to strangle Sniper.

“Shut up, Sniper,” Star snapped. “Why can’t you learn to be more considerate of others’ feelings?”

“Yeah, well, half the time, Meta Knight acts like he doesn’t have feelings,” Sniper retorted. “He acts more like a boot camp commander.”

“He’s a soldier,” said Cloudy. “What do you expect?”

Sniper couldn’t answer.

Cloudy nudged Meta Knight’s arm. “Sorry, Meta Knight. He’s really a pain in the butt half the time.”

Meta Knight chuckled. “It’s not your fault, Cloudy. I know how he is.” His voice drew dark. “But he really makes me furious sometimes.”

“I know,” Cloudy said sympathetically.

At long last, after thirty minutes of walking, they came to a frozen brook with magnolia trees all along both sides of the bank. Underneath one of these exquisite trees sat Cloudy’s friends: Miriam, Eloise, Nika, Zach, Arrow, and Lily.

Eloise and Nika Palmer were blond-haired humanoid twins who attended Miriam’s public school. Zach Linky, a brown-haired humanoid, was a third-grader at Miriam’s school who seemed to like Miriam. Arrow, a gray Siberian, and Lily, a brown German Shepherd, were Cloudy’s classmates from her Christian school, Emmanuel Elementary.

“Cloudy!” Miriam cried, leaping up and embracing her friend.

“¡Hola, mis amigos!” Meta Knight shouted to the children in Spanish.

“¡Hola!” Miriam answered. “¿Cómo estás?”

Meta Knight had to smile at her politeness. “Estoy bien, señorita Miriam. ¿Y tú?”

“Bien, gracias,” Miriam said.

“Can you guys cut the Spanish talk now?” Sniper rudely asked. “Really, it gets kind of bothersome sometimes.”

Eloise turned in Sniper and yelled loudly in his face, “¡CALLARSE LA BOCA!”

Sniper withdrew and shut up after that.

“Guys?” Nika said brightly. “Let’s get started on the picnic now, shall we?”

Everyone agreed. Nika unpacked the picnic basket and Miriam prayed for God’s blessing over the food, and then they all began to eat. Well, almost everyone. Meta Knight didn’t eat anything, perhaps because he was too afraid to remove his mask in front of all the kids. Besides, the only one who had actually seen him unmasked before was Cloudy. Cloudy couldn’t forget that day.

It was last month when Cloudy’s family and a few of her friends had gone to Vastre Hall to spend Christmas with Dana and Frank Mesterein, friends of Cloudy’s Aunt Summer. Unfortunately, the trip was not what anyone had expected. A crazy previously incarcerated man named Nathaniel Osen had made trouble for Cloudy and her friends, including crashing their plane, shooting his twin brother’s daughter, and kidnapping and nearly killing Dana. And all to steal a treasure about which Cloudy nor the Mestereins had ever heard of. In the end, Nathaniel had been shot and killed by his own brother, Jacob Osen.

That night, on Christmas Eve, Meta Knight had gotten a phone call from his mother’s sister, who called to say that Liloy, his sixteen-year-old pregnant daughter, had been brutally beaten and left for dead by her eighteen-year-old brother, Gregory, who was drunk. She had been hospitalized but was not expected to live. Meta Knight recalled how emotionally overwhelmed he had been and how he had gone out to the church courtyard and sat on the fountain. He had take off his mask, for some strange reason. To this day, he still didn’t know why. He guessed he had felt prompted to do it. While sitting on the fountain, weeping, little Cloudy and Scazzarda had come out and found him there, and Cloudy had caught her first glimpse of what Meta Knight had truly looked like. It was a moment she had never forgotten, one she would always carry with her in her mind.

After than night, Meta Knight never quite looked at Cloudy the same way again. He knew she was different from her family and friends. But he couldn’t figure out the mystery behind her compassionate behavior toward him. Why she would bother with a war-torn, abused warrior like himself, he would never understand.

“Hey, Meta Knight?” Eloise asked, concern evident in her voice. “Are you okay?”

Meta Knight snapped back to reality and glanced sidewise at the young girl. “I’m fine, dear. Just thinking.”

Eloise frowned, not certain she wanted to know what he was thinking about. She took a bite of her sandwich and looked up at one of the magnolia trees, admiring its beauty.

Sniper scarfed down the final remains of his food and leaped to his feet. “I’m full. Let’s play a game.”

“What game?” Yodi asked.

“Let’s play Tag!” Sharkell shouted.

Sniper curled his lip. “No. Tag is boring. Let’s play another game.”

“Hide and Seek?” suggested Star.

“Hide and Seek!” Sniper scoffed in contempt. “Sis, you gotta come up with better games than these.”

Cloudy smirked. ‘You want to come up with a better game? Okay. I have an idea. Let’s do a dance.”

Sniper blinked. “Umm. . .a dance?”

“Uh-huh,” Cloudy nodded. “See, this is how it works. We’ll all line up side by side, and I’ll stand in front of you while facing you. Then I’ll do several dance moves and you have to copy me. If you misstep, you’re out of the game. The last one standing wins!”

Pancake grinned at his friends. “Sounds cool. What do you say, guys? Wanna participate?”

“Yea!” they hollered.

Sniper was still reluctant. “This sounds too babyish,” he complained.

“Well,” Zach said as he took his plane in the line, “aren’t you practically a baby anyway, Sniper? After all, you’re less than a year old.”

“So? I don’t goo-goo and wear a diaper like most babies do,” Sniper snapped. “The four-footed species here grow up a whole lot differently than the two-footed.”

“I know, Sniper. Good grief, I was kidding,” Zach said, rolling his eyes.

“Oh, come on, Sniper. Don’t be a party pooper,” Eloise said. “Join in the dance with us!”

Sniper groaned as he ambled over beside Nika. “This is embarrassing!” he whined.

“It is not. Tranquilizarse,” Waffle ordered. He looked to Cloudy. “Okay, Sis. Start the game!”

Cloudy gazed at her mentor. “Are you going to join, Meta Knight?”

Meta Knight shook his head. “No, I’ll just watch.”

Cloudy gave a shrug. “Okey-doke.” She turned back to her friends. “All right, everyone. Here we go. Don’t forget to copy me move for move.”

Cloudy executed a neat twirl and kicked out her left front leg, the stepped back and whirled again, round and round, until she had completed three full rotations. “All right, now you try,” she said.

The children pulled off perfect gyrations and stepped back in unison, then spun around and around three times. Unfortunately, Waffle and Yodi were whirling too fast and slammed into each other, each knocking the other to the frozen ground. “Ouch!” Yodi vociferated.

“Sorry, brothers,” Cloudy said consolingly. “You’re out. Move to the sidelines.”

The two obediently did so.

Cloudy achieved several more tricky but not impossible dance moves. She was careful to come up with moves that she was sure no one could do without careful precision and timing. Usually only the puppies could keep up with her. In the next three rounds, the Palmers, Miriam, Zach, and Star were knocked out of the game.

Pretty soon, Pancake, Sniper, Sharkell, Lily, and Arrow were left in the game. Cloudy surveyed the five puppies and simpered. “Are you all ready for this next dance move?” she asked.

“Bring it on,” taunted Sniper.

Lily looked at Pancake. “Prepare to die,” she said.

“Who are you rooting for, Meta Knight?” Sniper called.

“I am rooting for all of you,” Meta Knight said.

Cloudy chuckled, and, to their surprise, she executed a neat backflip and stood up on her hind legs, dancing back and forth all the while. Then she stopped dancing and dropped down on all fours. “Your turn,” she said.

“What?!” Arrow blurted. “We can’t do that!”

“Oh, stop your blubbering and watch me,” Lily said stoutly. She gracefully backflipped and stood up on two legs, eagerly dancing, swaying back and forth in a breezy manner. Then she stopped her dance and plunked her front feet back on the frosty grass. “There. It’s really not so difficult.”

Arrow stared at her in disbelief. “You made that look so easy,” he said.

“I take gymnastics and dance classes on my off hours,” Lily said lightly.

Arrow attempted to backflip, but failed and crashed to the ground. He was out. Sharkell too blundered on the backflip, leaving only Lily, Sniper, and Pancake in the game.

“Hm,” Pancake mused, looking thoughtful. “I’ve never done a backflip before, but maybe it won’t be so hard.” He tried it and succeeded, grinning happily at his triumph.

Sniper snorted and completed the backflip without difficulty. “I can beat you out, Pancake.”

“Not if I beat you out first,” contradicted Pancake.

He stood on his hind legs, and so did Sniper. He danced, moving rhythmically from side to side as he paraded back and forth. Sniper did the same, but while they were dancing, Sniper purposefully strode too close to Pancake and bumped into him hard, knocking him off balance and causing him to fall onto the frozen brook. Pancake let out a yelp as he slipped and slid around, scrambling to regain his footing.

“Pancake!” Nika gasped.

“Don’t move, Pancake, or you’ll break the ice!” Eloise warned him.

Pancake stared at them with huge eyes. He shifted slightly and the ice cracked under his feet. A look of alarm replaced the bewilderment in his eyes and he stood up and attempted to walk off the ice, but his feet slipped out from under him. Down he went with a thud.

“Pancake, get off the ice!” Star shrieked, terrified for her brother.

A shard of the ice near Pancake’s feet broke away, revealing a yawning expanse of icy-blue water. Pancake shivered and tried to calmly step away from the hole, but was unable to get enough traction on the ice.

Zach let out a gasp. “Oh my word, he’s gonna fall in. . .”

Meta Knight acted without hesitation. He jumped lightly onto the ice, slid over to Pancake, scooped him up, and leaped off the ice just as the spot where Pancake had been standing broke apart. Meta Knight set Pancake down on the ground, and the puppy ran straight into the outstretched arms of Nika. Nika hugged him tightly as if she were afraid he would disappear if she let him go.

“Oh, Pancake, I was so scared!” Eloise cried. “I thought for sure you were a goner!”

“Hooray for Meta Knight!” Waffle shouted in delight.

Cloudy grinned, but her smile disintegrated when she saw how angry Meta Knight looked. He was seething. His eyes were flaming red and and he was trembling with fear or rage, Cloudy couldn’t tell which. There must be only one thing he was so angered by, and she knew what it was.

Sniper.

Cloudy whirled to face her brother.

“Sniper, you half-witted fool!” she screamed. “When we get home, I am going to tell Mommy on you! I’m not kidding!”

Sniper snorted in disgust. “Go on, then! I don’t care one single bit!” he yelled back.

“You’ll be terribly sorry you ever did such an imprudent thing!” Cloudy hollered angrily.

Meta Knight exhaled slowly and leaned against a tree. Cloudy felt sorry for him. It didn’t help that Sniper had nearly frightened him half to death by pushing Pancake almost to his doom. Cloudy nudged her mentor’s arm, and Meta Knight looked down at her with a warm smile, caressing her head. Cloudy sighed with contentment. This whole picnic was fun so far—except for the fact that her ridiculous brother was being such a pain!