Ventus couldn't contain his excitement as Eraqus lead him down the paths of their home. The mountains glowed with dawn, and the mist helped the light take form in the cold and thin air. Terra and Aqua followed the Master dutifully, but Ventus bounced behind them like a puppy who wasn't quite trained yet.
That's what he was, after all. It took him a year for him to open up, and this one had been building upon integrating the lessons he had forgotten with Terra and Aqua. And perhaps Eraqus planned for the three to become closer, since Aqua still held a degree of distance from Ventus and Terra couldn't look at him without a guilty look.
Eraqus stopped and gestured for the three to stand beside him. The apprentices huddled together at the edge of the cliff. Or maybe it used to be a bridge, long, long ago. The group watched the sunlight streaming through the mountains. The golden tinted mist curled around their ankles like it had always been ready to.
Terra began scanning the roughly hewn spires of rock, standing tall and blossoming from the fog as an indomitable force that helped keep their home in these mountains. He hoped one day he could be as strong. Aqua carefully sat down on a dry rock and observed the dew and how it changed its form to and sometimes held grass together like glue. She hoped one day she could be as adaptive. Ventus closed his eyes and let the wind tousle his hair with its secrets. He hoped one day he could run faster than it.
The boy sighed, "Why are we here?"
"I'm glad you asked." Eraqus sported a wry smile. Ventus tilted his head, but Aqua abruptly stood and looked at Terra; both held drawn mouths. Eraqus maneuvered behind his apprentices, "While the sunrise is as beautiful as ever, I didn't bring you three here to admire it."
He shoved his apprentices off the edge, "I brought you here for a lesson about your armor!"
The three screamed as they fell through the air. Ventus tried righting himself but ended up only flailing even more. Terra was covering his ears, "VEN I KNOW YOU'RE SCARED! BUT SHUT UP!"
Aqua managed to find a maneuverable position and gently grabbed Ventus to help him copy her, "Ven! Ventus calm down and listen to me!"
Ventus grabbed to Aqua's arms like they were salvation, "Aqua! Aqua I'm SCARED!" His blue eyes had tears rolling off and landing somewhere in his wind-whipped spikes of hair.
"I know you are, Ven!" She didn't know what to say to encourage him as they dipped into the fog. They still had a good several thousand feet to go, still had time to use their armor. She saw Terra scrambling to get a good angle to activate his armor, and added, "Terra is too!"
"Am not!" Terra quipped at her.
Aqua glared at him before she resumed soothing Ventus. "Now Ven, I need you to take a deep breath." Ventus nodded, and took a shaky gulp of vapor. He was about to ask her something before Aqua calmly continued, "Don't worry, we can get out of this completely okay. The master was right; this is about the armor he gave you, remember?" Of course he remembered, he was wearing it on his shoulder. He nodded again, but looked confused. Aqua grabbed his hands, "Now, I need you to let go-"
"WHAT?!" Ventus shrieked. His grip tightened even more and his head glanced down, "No! No I-I don't want to let g-"
"Ventus listen to me!" Aqua snapped. Ven's blubbering quieted. Aqua sighed, "Now, if we're gonna LIVE," she nodded downward for emphasis, "I need you to let go of me, okay? Be careful, spread out your arms like I was."
Ventus hesitated. Before he let go the heard the garbled yells of their master. They were too far down to really hear among all the echoes. Ventus looked at Aqua. She nodded, "Let go. It's okay, it's gonna be okay." She didn't want to tell Ventus she'd never actually used her armor, only got formal instruction. Now was not the time for that.
While Aqua was trying to convince Ventus how to get out of this situation safely, Terra was swearing. He hit his armor again and again, wondering why it wasn't working. He looked at Aqua and Ventus, now separated but still armorless. Aqua's drapes formed comet tails in the air, and Ventus looked like he was being pressed against the ground with his loose clothing being pressed against him. Terra began banging against it even harder. "Work! Work! Come on! Please!" He grunted. He had to save them. He had to.
Ventus wobbled in the air, but he was finally off of Aqua. This relieved her but upset him. He loved wind, but he didn't want it to be the last thing he ever felt. He thought the master was kind and caring, not a lunatic.
"Now Ven," Aqua told him, "what you need to do is hit your armor." Ven's hand reached for it while Aqua continued, "Think of the light. Think of your light, encasing you, protecting you. Remember, that's what the light does, it protects."
Ventus was about to do so, but the angle he was at- now slightly declining -gave the wind every opportunity to push him so that Ven was plunging head first. Aqua yelled for him, but Ventus barely heard it above the wind. He bashed the hunk of metal on his shoulder and thought of the light. He thought of Aqua and how gentle she was, how much he admired Terra, how much he loved his new home with Master Eraqus.
Something warm crept around his arm first, and then his chest, his head, his legs. Ventus opened his eyes to a smoky visor in front of his face.
"VEN!" Ventus snapped his head up when he heard Aqua's voice, "VEN THROW YOUR KEYBLADE!" Something blue whirled past him. He had no time to really judge what it was, because he blindly threw his Keyblade.
There was a light among the fog, and to his surprise it obediently came back as... A skateboard? A hovering skateboard? He landed on top of it, and it held his weight. Ventus stared at the cloak of white around him. He wasn't falling anymore.
"Good job Ventus!" Ven looked up to see a woman (at least he hoped it was a woman with those curves) clad head to toe in blue and silver armor, a black visor covering her face. "Really good job!" Aqua said.
Ventus smiled back, and stood on his little... Well it wasn't quite a skateboard. More a surfboard with jets. He wobbled. Aqua laughed, then began moving on. Her humor faded, "I'm worried about Terra. I don't think he got to his armor in time." She sped off, Ventus going right after with an unsteady pace.
Eraqus leaned over the cliff, stiff with worry. They had vanished beneath the clouds and had yet to surface. Granted, beforehand he had set up a point where it would only seem like his apprentices were falling, but really were suspended in mid air to give them ample time to use their armor. He was about to activate his armor himself to see if his fail safe malfunctioned before they shot out to the heavens, glittering in copper and silver and brass. Eraqus sighed with relief upon hearing them excitedly chattering.
Ventus tried a loop-de-loop, only to be caught in Aqua's outstretched arms.
The three glided through the sky like shooting stars long after the sun had risen.
Saw a tumblr post that suggested a busted bridge leading to nowhere at the Land of Departure is where Eraqus shoved the Wayfinder Trio off to learn about their Keyblade armor and HIJINKS ensued.