Flower Among Barbs pt. 1

“Today’s the day, Sawyer! The day I’m finally getting out of town and onto bigger things with my life!” He raises an eyebrow as I set down the last box of my things into the much smaller apartment he’s letting me use for storage.

“You’ve sold most of your things, you’re renting this apartment even though I’ve told you it’s too small to live comfortably in, P.K., what if things don’t work out? Because I’ve got a lot of doubts about it actually working out for you. The first one is that you are a woman. They are never going to let a woman into the Meta-knight army. Or didn’t you think of that in the first place?” I roll my eyes, which only makes him more upset.

“You think that thought never crossed my mind? I’ve thought that through already. Look at me, Sawyer, I’m a kirby. Is there anything about my appearance that would lead you to believe that I’m a female kirby?” He starts to say something, then reconsiders it. “Exactly. It’s just my voice. I can fake a guy’s voice, no problem. No one will know, and by this time next year we’ll be flying back over town and I’ll be one of the most skilled fighters the army’s ever seen!” He sighs.

“What if you get hurt?”

“They have to have a doctor of some type on board. That looks hideously unprofessional if they don’t.”

“Fine. I’ll be behind you on this. The townspeople all believe your story about going away to school somewhere, so they won’t give you any trouble. But I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“I do, Sawyer, I just need to get my life going. I’m just still around town like this and I hate it! Being with them would give me a chance to really see what I can do and get out there in the world.” He sighs again.

“I suppose I can’t argue with that. Just promise me you’ll be careful?”

“Deal. I promise.”

“Good, then. Good luck.”


I head to the outskirts of town to where the Halberd is docked for refueling and supplies, and find the table they usually have set up for recruiting looking unsurprisingly empty. The meta-knight that’s sitting there looks like he’s bored out of his mind and is about to pack up. He sees me coming, however, and his expression changes.

“Is there something we can help you with? We haven’t knocked Kirby out of the sky lately.” I shake my head.

“I want to enlist. Do I sign up here?” His expression changes again to incredulous.

“You must be joking. What on Popstar makes you think that Sir Meta Knight would ever allow a kirby to join his army? What, did the guy himself send you to be an inside agent or something?”

“That’s not fair, I’ve never even met Kirby!” He shakes his head.

“Even so, what makes you think we could use you on our ship?”

“I’m the best fighter in this town. Ask anyone.” I tighter the bandana on my head, but he rolls his eyes.

“We haven’t had any luck from this town ever. What makes you think you’ll be different? I don’t think so, kid.” I scowl to myself. I am not going to be turned away that easily. I want to actually get on the ship before they kick me off or all this is going to be for nothing.

“Fine then! Maybe I will go off and join Kirby, then I’ll come back with a real reason to destroy your airship.” His face reflects the threat as I turn and start to walk away.

I only get three steps away. “Fine! Come back here and start filling these out.” I turn back and go over quickly. “Sir Sword Knight is going to have my head for this. I’m going to be fired and when I am I’m taking you with me!”

“When he sees what I can do, he won’t hesitate to accept me into your ranks! You just wait and see.” He sighs, heavily.

“Sure, sure. Famous last words.”