#...and a trick pan!

“Hello! Ranger North here with a second trans-mission!”

The same Waddle Dee, with the same dulled green beret. Oddly, as he waves, he seems...different. His skin is brighter in color, his eyes are sparkling.

“I didn't get eaten! I haven't actually seen a predator since I got here! I haven't seen any other life outside of the native flora and fauna, yet! It's really strange, actually? I keep um, looking behind me...expecting to be hunted by something. You know the feeling, right? You're venturing through the wilderness, on guard for an attack! A predator could be lurking anywhere, and you're really small and tasty! That's where I got these scars, actually? Ah....oh...”

The Waddle Dee moves to pat his side, but looks down – to smooth skin. There's no scar, and the fact of it makes him stumble in his presentation.

“...about that...I've always had two big scars, up here and down here, where a Galbel tried to eat me once! The big guy wrapped his claws around me, and roared really loud, and it was really, really, really scary!”

The Waddle Dee pats the side of his head, and his cheek as he speaks. He has the brittle upbeat enthusiasm of a Waddle Dee that's learned to waddle right past their trauma – which is most of them that survive out in the void, these days. But Ranger North has a strange exuberance, it seems almost...genuine? It doesn't have the same forced quality you expect from a Waddle Dee. He seems...

“...but, you can kinda see I think? They're gone now. They itched a little, and now it's like I never had them! See?”

Ranger North presses his cheek into the monitor, obscuring the viewscreen for a moment, revealing a smooth, un-scarred cheek.

“See? Smooth as a newpop!”

The Waddle Dee pulls away, and shakes his head in the negative – which basically means shaking his entire body.

“But I'm not a newpop! I'm a seasoned Ranger Dee! Though...I think a newpop would be okay, here? You might, um, you...you might be wondering if I ate, viewers! Have I been marching on an empty stomach!? Has my heart-star been burning a hole in my tummy!?”

The Waddle Dee leans forward with a wink.

“Nope! This Ranger has been eating...like royalty!”

Ranger North reaches off-screen, pulling forward the last thing you would've expected him to have – a partially eaten block of cheese.

“Behold! The dinner of the noble families! It's...cheese! Real cheese! I didn't find any milk or anything – no nruffs or grizzos to milk here! And I think they'd just kill me anyway...anyway! This cheese just...appeared, viewer! Lemme show you!”

The Waddle Dee sets the cheese down into what appears to be a cast-iron cooking pan, before picking up the tablet and causing the view to wobble awkwardly, giving a brief glimpse of what looks like trees, off in the distance. Is it a grove? It's hard to tell, but it looks too big. There can't be that many trees in one place, surely...?

“Okay!”

The tablet is set down in front of a closed flower – a thick green stem rises from three leaves near the ground, the petals spiral up to a central point.

“So I found it....ummm...here. I'll, just show you.”

The Waddle Dee proceeds to reach out with both nubs, grasping the flower around the stem and shaking vigorously, causing the petals to unfurl with a pop, something large and tan bursting out of the petals and off-screen.

“Wah! ...aheh! Oh boy, viewer, lemme tell ya...the first time that happened? I thought I was dead for sure! Thought I'd let my guard down, and was gonna get eaten by a hungry flower! But!”

The Waddle Dee waddles off-screen, bringing back into view a second impossible item -

“...it's bread? It's too...not klack-klack bread, or camp-ash bread....”

You watch as the Waddle Dee examines the loaf of bread – thick and deep brown, round and large enough that Ranger North needs to spread his nubs wide to hold it.

“...hold on a sec.”

North runs off-screen, the tablet soon being lifted and carried back over to the pan, which now holds the loaf of bread that the flower spit out.

“Good thing my trusty iron pan is a trick pan, viewer! Watch.”

The Waddle Dee slides the handle outward from the pan itself, and now you have good reason to believe this is a well-traveled Dee – a Waddle Dee's pocket-space can only hold a single item, but a clever Waddle Dee might figure out a way to combine two items into one. This one has managed to acquire an iron pan with a knife nestled into the handle.

“Ta-daaa! A good Ranger always has a knife, folks! Now, let's cut into this thing and see if it bursts into lethal spores!” Ranger North says it with a giggle, and it's clear he's only half-serious – you've never seen a Waddle Dee so at-ease, much less in an uncharted environment. Regardless, when he cuts into the loaf of bread, it only gives token resistance, and doesn't burst into a plume of lethal spores. Rather, it reveals it's pillowy interior...if you didn't know any better, you'd say that was...

“...white bread? It's like...viewer, you seeing this?” Ranger North holds the cut bread up to the tablet, giving a high-definition view of the crumb – white and pillowy, the bread of nobility. Most would go their whole lives never eating this kind of bread, much less the cheese competing with it for space in the Ranger's pan now.

“...I can't believe it. White bread, like the nobility eats...I don't remember hearing anything about them having flowers like this...”

The Waddle Dee simply stares down at the impossible bounty that nearly doesn't fit in his cast iron pan. He stares for long moments, in simple disbelief. You can hardly blame him. Barely contained in his pan is a larger meal than most will ever see in their lives.

“...well everybody, I think I'm gonna end this trans-mish-un here and, um...eat this food. If I can fit it all in me! Ah...I don't have a backpack to store it in....um....but there's more flowers, do they...all...have food like this?”

You can see Ranger North lean back, casting his gaze about the field – there are more flowers, petals furled, waiting to be coaxed open. Do they all contain such a bounty? It isn't possible. There have to be at least a dozen – probably more.

“I...I was gonna show you the trees, viewer, but, um...um...”

The Waddle Dee turns back to face the camera, looking to be in a small amount of shock.

“I can't waste this food. I'll...send another trans-mission soon! I gotta show you the trees! They're – oh, Great Dee – there's so much! Popstar is....it's really amazing! Come here if you can! I don't know where it is but it's – it's! Um! It's better than the rumors said it was! Somehow! Ah...okay! R...Ranger North! Signing off for now! Next time – trees! The Waddle Dee gives a bouncing, sitting salute, eyes sparkling at the impossible meal before him, before the transmission ends. Perhaps that is a mercy – the hydroponic farm on-board your own vessel only houses the most meager of potatoes, the hardiest of reeds. The barest of wheat to make the most stubborn of flours – nothing like the meal that Ranger North sat down to in that transmission. That is the fare of most of Gamble Galaxy – most of the universe at large, if the other Galaxies haven't outright starved yet. In Gamble Galaxy, you took your chances and made the most of things. It wasn't surprising that that Ranger Dee was so willing to risk death cutting open that loaf of bread, or shaking a mystery flower open in the first place. But...

...it seems on Popstar, the odds are in your favor. You adjust your course, along with the new transmission. Still far away.