My Only Friend

Written by ChristheZorua

The grass felt warm and the sun was sharp. The clouds departed, giving way to brightness above and onto the world. A perfect afternoon for anyone, especially a pink puffball. Wait, a pink puffball?

A pink puffball was laying down on the soothing grass with its eyes shut. With its stubby little arms and red oval-shaped feet, it looked really comfortable just relaxing on the grass with not a care in the world.

With a small breeze fluttering in the wind, the puffball turned over to its side and began to fall into a gentle sleep.

Suddenly, the sounds of steps on the grass awoke it. It began to jump up and glance at its surroundings. The steps were soft, and they sounded like the kind of steps you would hear from people who marched in a parade, only at two times the speed.

The steps grew louder. The puffball had to think fast, or it could be in serious trouble. It slowly closed its eyes, waiting eagerly. Its eyes shot open and began to inhale with great strength. The grass leaned towards it, and the footsteps were silenced.

However, the source of the footsteps flew towards the pink puffball. At just one glance, it looked like a little fox. It had red markings on its forehead, and it had a tail that looked like a curly scoop of ice cream. The pink puffball did not stop, and when the little fox made its way inside the mouth of the creature, he started begging to be let loose. The pink puffball couldn’t say no, and quickly spit out the little fox without hesitation.

He slowly got up on his hind legs and sighed. “What was that for,” the little fox asked, raising his voice.

The pink puffball, oblivious to him, just gazed around at the scenery, even taking an eye on a small butterfly that flew around. The little fox was unamused.

“Listen, you don’t know me, and I don’t know you, so let’s just try and get things settled. Why did you try to eat me?” he yelled.

That caught the attention of the puffball, and all it did was yell, “Kirby! Kirby!”

“Your name is Kirby?” The little fox scratched behind his ear and became confused. “…Well, my name is Zorua! It’s nice to meet you! Wait, no it isn’t! Why did you eat me?”

Kirby walked up to Zorua, eyeing him closely. It felt awkward, having a mysterious creature you have never heard of before taking a closer look at you without your permission. Zorua felt the same way, trying to hold back the feeling of wanting to slap the creature. After Kirby was done observing Zorua, it began to jump up and down, laughing.

Zorua blinked. Clearly, this creature was not thinking straight. Could it be that this creature was from a world where everyone walked and talked like a baby? Nevertheless, he spoke up.

“Maybe you don’t know how to speak proper English. That’s fine. You sure seem to like eating stuff, though.” Zorua giggled at its little joke, but Kirby only felt confusion. Jokes weren’t its thing either.

Zorua looked around and caught an eye on a small tree just a few yards away. “Hey! I know,” said Zorua. He ran towards the small tree with Kirby following close behind. When he reached the tree, he jumped up into the air and formed a dark ball from its mouth. Spitting out the ball towards the ground gave him an extra boost in the air, making it to the top of the tree in no time.

He picked an apple from atop the tree. It was big, red, and juicy. “Here, Kirby! Catch!” Zorua threw the apple from on top of the tree to the ground below. Kirby was quick to notice and began its inhaling process again, catching the apple with ease.

Zorua grabbed another apple from the branch next to him and threw that one down as well. Kirby caught it, once again, without any problems. They did this for what seemed like minutes, but then turned into hours. The sun was setting by the time they had finished picking apples and eating them together. They had the time of their lives.

They both laid down on the grass together, but the grass was now beginning to grow cold. The sun gave way to the moon, and the stars began to shine in the night sky.

Zorua looked at Kirby and asked, “Wasn’t today fun, Kirby?” Kirby nodded and smiled.

He looked up at the stars and began to speak again. “You know, I haven’t had this much fun with anyone in months. It’s good to meet you, Kirby.” He turned his head over to Kirby and asked, “You want to have more fun tomorrow?”

Kirby responded, “Yay!”

Zorua smiled and closed his eyes, beginning to fall asleep. Kirby did the same.

Tomorrow would be a better day.