Chapter Text
Almost a week had passed since the run-in with the Wolfwrath.
Sword was mildly surprised with how much he had learned about their new travel companion in such a short amount of time.
Not that said companion ever talked about himself.
As a matter of fact, Meta Knight tended to avoid any personal questions, sometimes ignoring them outright.
Initially, Sword found this behaviour to be very rude. Considering he himself had a very social upbringing, where his entire family were chatty and outgoing. But, as the weeks went by in the Star Warrior's company, he learned to read Meta Knight.
It took a little while, and he was caught staring multiple times, but Sword came to realise that Meta Knight's long stretches of silence often spoke louder than the few words he uttered. It felt like he was speaking to a brick wall at times, at least in the beginning, with Sword being both talkative and curious by nature. Blade was not of the talkative sort either, but it was easier with him, he always made sure to give signs that he was listening, and sometimes interjecting with his own commentary.
Meta Knight gave no such courtesy. The most Sword could get out of him at times, was a low hum of confirmation. Or a hum of thoughtfulness, matched with glowing green eyes.
When he got little to no reciprocation at his attempts to start a conversation, he started talking about himself instead. He prayed to any deity that watched over them that the warrior didn't perceive Sword as egocentric because of this. He just couldn't help himself. He needed to fill the silence somehow.
Blade laughed a bit on his expense when they set up camp late one night, since the warrior had spent the entire day listening to Sword speak, while doing little more than answering with a low "hm", and with the occasional "oh?", only spurring on his nervous rambling.
Any time Sword got answers like this from someone previously in his life, it was always meant as a dismissal. Accompanied by an eye-roll, usually. An unspoken "please be quiet". Or, if their expression was particularly annoyed, a "please shut up now".
It was extremely difficult to place Meta Knight in either of those categories with the mask he constantly wore covered his entire face, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking, unless he said it out loud.
Something he had yet to do.
Sword eventually took this as a sign to stop talking, after a couple of days of trying. For all he knew, the short answers and long silences were Meta Knight's version of dismissal, just like the adults in the village Sword grew up in. He had shown no sign that he was paying attention to the stories he was told.
Sword didn't try to strike up conversation with him again.
He dreaded the coming weeks if they would be as painfully silent as this.
At the beginning of the seventh day, they were trekking along the bottom of a canyon, and Sword had settled for speaking quietly with Blade instead, while they were trailing behind the star warrior through the rocky terrain.
"Don't suppose you know how much longer we have have left to walk?" he said, as Blade caught up with him to walk by his side.
Blade shrugged. "It's far still. There's no good landmarks to go off of, can't really tell where we are exactly, but we're going in the right direction."
Sword huffed a laugh. If he didn't know Blade as well as he did, he would assume Blade had no idea where they were going. But he knew from experience just how good Blade's sense of direction was. Sword wasn't worried in the slightest.
"We should get to a forest very soon, if I remember correctly."
"That doesn't really help with my back pain, now does it?" Sword replied. "Still feels like we've been walking for ages, and we're nowhere close to our goal. We all need a proper break."
As they turned the corner of the cliff they were walking along, the pair almost collided with Meta Knight, who had suddenly stopped and was now turned to face them.
"Seems like your wish will come true." he said, pointing towards the base of the mountain range they had been headed towards this past week.
Now that they had passed enough hills and cliffs, a large spot of muted green was visible in the not too far distance.
A forest.
Sword couldn't help but let out a relieved laugh at the sight of treetops in the distance. Finally!
"We'll head for the forest, and check the area." Meta Knight said. "If it's safe, we'll stay there to rest for a while."
Sword and Blade didn't need to be told twice.
Dead set on reaching their new destination before nightfall, the three of them picked up the pace and walked in silence for the rest of the day.
•☆•
They arrived just as the sun set, and found a small clearing just within the outskirts of the forest, a perfect place to set up camp for the night.
The forest was not a lush thing filled with life like the ones Sword was used to, but any kind of greenery was a welcome sight after days of walking through rocky terrain and breathing in dusty air, seeing nothing but a desolate environment with little to no life in sight.
He absolutely despised the feeling of dust in his lungs and in his thick fur, so getting some shelter was deeply appreciated. He knew for a fact that Blade was just as relieved as him, if not more. The dry air was downright hellish for Blade's skin, with his species coming from a damp and rainforest-like area. Sword noticed immediately that Blade got an extra pep in his step when they headed towards the trees. He was glad the helmet he wore concealed his giddy expression from his companions.
As the sun disappeared slowly, they split up to survey the area for any potential threats. When Sword and Blade came back to the clearing they had chosen as their camp site, dusk had fallen.
"There you are." Meta Knight said once he spotted them. He didn't say anything more, simply stood still and looked between the two of them expectantly.
Sword caught up on the cue fairly quickly, for once. "No demon beasts roaming the immediate area, doesn't look like there's anyone living here either. Aside from some small critters, of course."
"I found nothing either. On the west side I checked." Blade chimed in.
Meta Knight nodded.
"Good. As expected. We should be safe enough here for now."
Beside him, Blade let out a small sigh of relief, some tension visibly leaving his frame.
"We will be staying here for a couple of days, then." Meta Knight added, before going back to what he was doing before the two of them entered the clearing.
Stoic as the warrior was, he seemed just as relieved to take a proper break in a place that weren't out in the open and at high risk of being attacked by any remaining demon beasts. He was more than ready to set up a camp, already unpacking a couple of worn drawstring bags.
That caught Swords eye.
Paying a bit more attention to his surroundings, he noticed all sorts of items was spread around the clearing. He glanced over at Meta Knight again, just in time to catch him pulling a bag from... his cape?
Sword and Blade stood and watched in awe as the knight took one item after the other out from seemingly nowhere.
They had seen him do this many times before over the course of the weeks since they met him.
...With small items.
A lighter, bandages, a water bottle, rations, a pocket knife.
Sword assumed Meta Knight had some kind of satchel strapped to his back, concealed by his cape. It made perfect sense in his mind, with all the straps keeping the warrior's armour together. Strung tightly from his mask to his spaulders, and a separate strap holding his scabbard in place. That last one in particular could easily have some sort of bag attached to it.
That idea was quickly thrown out of the window once Meta Knight approached them, handing over a large, rolled up canvas cloth to Blade, and several meters of coiled up, heavy-duty rope to Sword.
Sword couldn't help but gape, and if Blade wasn't wearing his helmet, he knew his companion would have the exact same expression.
Catching on to their current inability to start with their tasks, Meta Knight stopped and looked over to the pair.
"What are you waiting for? Night will fall soon, I would prefer if we could be finished setting everything up before it becomes too dark to see."
There was surprisingly no indigence present in his voice, but he certainly sounded a tad confused about their hesitance.
"How did you do that?" Sword failed to keep his voice down. At the moment, too curious to care.
Blade lifted the visor part of his helmet to get a better look at Meta Knight. Judging by his wide-eyed gaze, Sword had to assume Blade had come to a conclusion he had yet to reach himself.
"Where did you keep all this?" Sword asked, gesturing towards the rope and the bags.
Meta Knight gave them both a flat look, now clearly unimpressed by the pairs lack of efficiency. Sword noticed he was holding another drawstring bag he wasn't before, and it seemed to be filled to the brim, just like the others scattered around them.
None of the bags could have held the canvas or rope, and certainly not be carried unnoticed on his back for over two weeks.
Meta Knight walked over to set the bag down on the bare rock-face next to the others before turning to face them.
He said nothing, as per usual, just stared at them for a short moment. Sword expected no answer from him, assuming he was a second away from telling them to get a move on, but was surprised when Meta Knight silently leaned to the side, holding the edge of his cape with his left hand, exposing the dusty, off-white inner fabric.
Before Sword had the chance to ask what the hell they were supposed to be looking at, Meta Knight reached over with his right hand and met in the middle of his face with the cape. His hand was concealed by the fabric one moment, and the next he removed the cape again, he was holding a sword with a tight grip.
They all stood in silence for a moment.
"How-" Sword began, before he quickly stopped himself. For a split second, he thought Meta Knight had just tricked them, wanting them to feel like fools for asking too much.
But one look at the warrior's scabbard proved him wrong right away.
His usual golden weapon rested innocently in its scabbard at his side, like it always did. The one he held had a simple brass coloured hilt, with a chipped and worn steel blade, and what looked like a torn red piece of fabric tied around the guard. It was clearly not the same ethereal golden blade he would usually wield.
Sword felt his cheeks heat up, slightly embarrassed that he had almost voiced his momentary lack of observational skills.
It was a different blade.
This only left him more confused than before.
"I... don't understand." he said. "What just happened?"
Strangely, Meta Knight's eyes changed colour from the usual yellow to a soft pink.
"What do you think happened?" he replied.
Sword's mind immediately went to an old neighbour from his childhood village, a memory that hadn't resurfaced in a long time.
The kind old lady had a large gathering of friends and family one evening. Sword had only been a small child at the time, but was still invited along with his parents, who were friends of the old lady.
It was terribly boring, especially for Sword and the lady's two grandchildren, who were all the same age.
The old lady had beckoned them to gather around her after she noticed them hanging around in a corner of her garden, bored expressions on their faces. Sword's memory doesn't reach too far in the past, but he remember the amazement he felt the moment she made a coin appear from nowhere, and then disappear in thin air.
She spent only ten minutes of her time showing them a variety of tricks, most of them involving playing cards, but it was all the three children could talk enthusiastically about the entire evening, and for weeks to come with all of their friends.
That was the first and only time he has seen any kind of magic first hand. And that was exactly what Meta Knight reminded him of.
"So... you're some kind of magician, then?"
The words fell out of his mouth before ha had the chance to stop himself.
For the first time since they met him, Meta Knight let out a low, yet hearty chuckle.
"I am no magician, merely a holder of magical objects."
Not like the old lady, then, who was a performing magician before she retired.
Sword snapped out of his thoughts as he felt Blade perk up with curiosity and enthusiasm beside him from Meta Knight's words.
"Oh! So the cape has some kind of magical storage capabilities?" Blade said, voice brimming with barely contained excitement.
That Blade would react like this didn't surprise Sword at all. Blade had always been very interested in magical artefacts, and would take any given opportunity to learn more about them, whether they were actually real or not.
That nerd, Sword thought fondly, as his friend leaned over his shoulder.
"Precisely." Meta Knight answered. "It's called the Dimensional Cape, it has its own pocket dimension woven into the inner fabric itself. Not exactly one of a kind, but it is rather rare."
Meta Knight returned the sword he was holding back into the cape, this time in full view of the onlookers, and the pair watched as it disappeared into the fabric, which rippled like water. Not unlike throwing a rock into a still lake.
Wrapping the cape around himself, he walked off towards the other side of the clearing, clearly having no intention of elaborating any further.
"Come now," he said. "We only have little more than an hour before night falls."
Blade turned to Sword, eyes wide and glimmering.
"A magic cape!" he whispered, having some trouble keeping his voice down. "With a pocket dimension! I didn't even know if those were real... No wonder he could carry so much stuff with him all the time!"
Sword smiled at his friend's awestruck voice, but before he could reply, or Blade could go off on an excited ramble, Meta Knight called out to them to follow.
"Blade, bring the canvas over here to help me make shelter. Sword, look for fish in the river nearby, make a spear to catch a few if you see any."
Blade got onto his task right away, but Sword paused.
"Yes, sir, but..." he began tentatively, not wanting to go against a direct order. "Why me? I don't mean to put my task over at someone else, but I think you're faster than me, and you definitely have better reflexes than me, wouldn't it be quicker if you caught the fish?"
"I do not have much experience with spear fishing, but you do. And considering we do not have any other kind of equipment, this is our only alternative at the moment."
Meta Knight didn't look up while he spoke, continuing to unpack supplies from one of the bags, but Sword caught a glimpse of his eyes, briefly turning pink again. Odd.
His brow furrowed. How did he...?
"You're quite experienced with spear fishing, aren't you? Since you had spent much of your free time doing so in your youth?"
Sword gaped, once again eternally grateful for his helmet covering his face.
"How did you know that?" he said. Was the guy clairvoyant as well?
"You told me this two days ago. Don't you remember?"
Before he had the chance to properly process the warrior's words, Meta Knight had pulled a pocket knife out of the bag he was rummaging through, and threw it his way. He snapped to attention again, but juggled a bit with the knife before he properly caught it.
Blade had attached his visor back on, concealing his face, but Sword could see the slight shake of his shoulders, and he knew he was snickering at his expense.
"Put those skills to good use. We'll have everything set up here by the time you come back."
"Y-yes, sir." he said, heading towards the river with a strangely warm feeling in his chest.
Knowing he's being listened to so carefully, and the details about his life he chose to share was being taken to heart and being remembered, brought a smile to his face as he broke off a branch from a nearby tree.
Who would have thought?
Maybe the rest of their journey with this man wouldn't be so bad after all.
•☆•
