Sora was sat at the kitchen table desperately trying to open a jar of jam. In frustration he slammed the jar onto the table and picked it up again, hoping that it was going to open now. Sora growled and jumped when he heard footsteps behind him.

"Morning Sora,"

"Morning Dad," Sora replied, seeing two arms reach over his shoulder and twist open the jar easily. Sora smiled joyfully and proceeded to spread the raspberry jam over his overly burnt toast. He took a greedy bite and gained a jam moustache over his top lip.

"I had another dream last night dad," Sora cooed, licking the jam off his lip and continuing to take another bite of his toast. He half turned to face his father. "You know, about mum…" Sora shrank a little in his seat at the look his father gave him. The deeply blue eyes gave him a slightly icy look before sighing and turning to occupy himself with the counter. His blond spiky hair bouncing from left to right.

"I understand son," Cloud whispered sadly. "But we have to move on." There was silence following this as Sora regretted ever saying anything. He took another bite of toast and cringed at the noise it made that seamed to echo in the awkward silence. "Besides," Cloud continued. "We each have our own responsibilities. So we can't let mum's death be an excuse to not get the job done."

Sora watched as his father pulled out a chair to sit next to him. He dreaded what was coming next. "I think its time we have a little talk Sora. Your math teacher called yesterday and said she caught you drawing horses in your math book." Cloud's voice sounded measured and controlled. Sora sighed and tried to argue his case.

"Pegasus dad."

"What?"
"It was Pegasus." Sora could see that his dad didn't understand so reverted back to silence.

"Lulu also said that that you haven't been turning in your homework on time. I'm very disappointed that you didn't even try out for the combat team." The awkward silence pressed even harder. "As for those riding lessons you wanted, you say you like chocobos but you seam to be afraid to get on a real one. Sora… You're old enough now to get your head out of the clouds." Cloud looked down at Sora with a frown set on his face. Sora looked back, his face unreadable. Clouds frown lifted suddenly to show a gentle smile. "Stop daydreaming and start facing problems okay?" Cloud gave Sora's shoulder a playful punch and then flicked his nose lovingly. Sora gave him a goofy smile.

"Soooo… yeah… We've had a nice talk. I've got things to do and you have school to go to." Cloud ruffled Sora's hair again before getting up and walking away.

When Cloud was out of earshot Sora sighed and mumbled to himself: "What's so bad about daydreaming anyway?"

Sora blew the crumbs off of the table before grabbing his school bad and setting off. His school was a good fifteen minute walk from his house and he had to go through a busy town to get there. He was just rounding another corner when he heard a snigger and felt himself be pushed to the ground.

"Hey! Look its moogle brains!" A scathing voice stated. Sora turned himself around and sat up to see Seifer and his gang standing around him menacingly. "You got any money for me moogle brains?" Seifer sneered, jabbing Sora squarely in the chest. Vivi piped up from behind Seifer. "Yeah moogle brains!" It was obvious to everyone that Vivi only hung around with Seifer for protection as Vivi was the shortest kid in school. Nobody really knew what Vivi looked like as he always wore a high collared blue jacket and an overly large yellow pointed hat. Sora wasn't bothered about Vivi. Seifer on the other hand Sora was worried about.

"I don't have any money." Sora pleaded, rubbing his hand over the spot Seifer had jabbed. Seifer laughed harshly and his cronies copied him after a few seconds delay.

"Well if you don't have any money then we will just have to put you where all the other trash goes." He mocked before grabbing Sora by the hair and dragging him off into a nearby alley.

"OWW! SEIFER GET OFF!" Sora yelled, kicking his legs and screaming. Seifer just laughed even more and pulled Sora to his feet, still holding onto his brown spiky hair. They were next to an industrial sized bin.

"Next time make sure you have money brat!" He hissed, gripping Sora by the hips and throwing him over his shoulder. "Bon voyage!" He laughed happily. Seifer threw Sora over the bins side and forcefully closed the lid.

Sora yelled in frustration and poked his head out of the bin. He checked left and right before deciding it was safe to get out. Boy was he wrong!

"DID I SAY YOU CAN GET OUT!?" Seifer shrieked. Sora flew into the air from shock and ran in the opposite direction. He faintly heard Siefer shout: "GET HIM!" before he sharply turned a corner and entered into the nearest door.

As Sora entered he heard the gentle jingle of a bell that was hanging over the door. He supposed that was to signify when a customer entered but from looking around he doubted whether a customer had entered in a long time. The shop was extremely dark and everything was covered in dust. If it wasn't covered in dust then it was laden with cobwebs. Even the air was full to the ceiling with dust which made Sora cough after every intake of breath.

"Get out!" Sora heard from behind a big, high backed chair.

"Ex-excuse me?" Sora stuttered back. He cautiously approached the chair to see an old man sitting down in it sorting a pile of books. The man had more facial hair than Sora had ever seen on a living person before. His beard trailed to the floor in a vast waterfall of white, while a moustache on his top lip trailed into this beard in the same astounding white. His clothing choice was what baffled Sora the most. The old man was dressed in a long blue robe and adorned on his head what looked like a wizard's pointy hat!

"I said get out! I hate children!" The old man repeated. His bushy white eyebrows hovering grumpily over his vivid blue eyes. "I'm sure your looking for the arcade down the street. We only sell rectangular objects called books here!"
"Oh I read books!" Sora stated. His cheery disposition creeping back as he found middle ground to talk to the man about.

"Comic books I would imagine!" The old man continued unfazed. This annoyed Sora.

"No! I have one hundred and fifty three books actually! I've got Treasure Island, Tarzan, Peter Pan, Heidi, lord of the rings…" Sora held his hand up and counted his fingers off as he started to name all of his books. The old man looked shocked.

"Really, I suppose you were running away from bullies." Sora nodded and then noticed a strange book that was sat on the table in front of the old man. It looked really old and had a strange symbol of two intertwined snakes on the cover. The old man followed Sora's gaze and noticed where he was looking.

"Oh no boy. This isn't for you." He chuckled.

"Why? I already told you that I like books!" Sora protested. His usually cheery face slowly welcoming a childlike pout.

"This book is special that's why! Ever imagined you was a citizen of Gondor about to be attacked by the orc army!"
"Yes, that's why I like books. You can be whoever you want to be." Sora replied slowly.
"Have you ever imagined what it would be like if you couldn't escape? This is a book that once you open it everything becomes as real and as dangerous as you could ever imagine." The old man breathed, stressing the words real and dangerous to get his message across.

Both the old man and Sora jumped when they heard the phone go off in the next room. "Now run along boy." The old man said before he walked into the other room to answer the phone. "Hello this is Merlin speaking…"

Sora watched the man leave and then found his gaze being pulled back to the mysterious book. He bit his lip and looked at the door the old man walked into before his gaze was yet again ripped back to the book. Sora decided that it was too good of an opportunity to pass and wrote a note on a spare piece of paper before grabbing the book and running out of the shop.

Little did Sora know that Merlin had watched him do this with a wise and knowing smile on his face. When he had returned to the room he looked at the note Sora left and chuckled.

Sorry.

I will return it soon.