Alright, this is my second story! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten my first. I am just taking a break from it for a while.
This one is set in KH-1. The story revolves around Vayn (Pronounced V-aw-n) which is my made up character.
If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask.
Sora and the whole cast of the Kingdom Hearts series glare at me.
Oh, right… ahem
I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR ITS CHARACTERS!!
Now, onto the story:
Vayn, a bluish-green-eyed 14-year-old with dark-brown hair that grew over the back and sides of his head and spiked slightly at the front, sat upon the Paopu-bearing tree, gazing over the ocean before him. To him, the expansive waters seemed to be endless, continuing past the sun-risen horizon.
Out of the corner of his eye, the teen could see the area of Destiny Islands where its residents lived, the chimneys of their houses expelling smoke, signaling that they had set up fires in order to keep them warm during the cool nights. That is where he and the rest of his friends called home.
Home…
Vayn could clearly remember his last night on his home world, although everything before that seemed to be a blur to him.
Vayn closed his eyes as he recalled that night.
Flashback
It was cold that night, four years ago. It was the night after his birthday. He snuggled deeper into the sheets of his bed, but still couldn't sleep. For some reason, he felt uneasy; like the shadows in the darkened room would swallow him whole if he shut his eyes.
"They are coming for you."
Vayn shot up from his bed when he heard the enigmatic voice echo in his empty room.
"W-Who's there?" Vayn questioned, straining his vision as he searched for the source of the voice.
Only silence answered back.
Vayn was shaking slightly, mentally telling himself that he was hearing things. He laid back down, pulling his sheets closer around him.
"I know I heard someone…" Vayn told himself, whispering. "Who is this 'they'?"
Suddenly, he heard screaming coming from outside, followed by the breaking of windows and other noises.
"What are they!!?"
"RUN!"
"AUGH!"
Vayn, again, shot out of his bed, throwing the covers of his bed off of him.
"The hell…?" he murmured, wondering what was going on outside.
Vayn peered through the blinds of his bed side window. Outside, he could see the people of his small town running past his house, fleeing from strange black—things!
The creatures were completely black, save for their cold, lifeless, yellow eyes, with antennas. Some were small with short antennas, but others were larger, more humanoid, and had longer antennas.
They moved quickly, disappearing into the ground at times and gliding along it like shadows, emerging in front of the townsfolk. When the beasts caught their 'prey' they did something that filled Vayn with both awe and fear.
The dark beings would incapacitate the townsfolk, the humanoid-looking ones either jumping on top of them or knocking them down with powerful, swift swipes of their claws, while the smaller ant-like ones went for their legs, and then they would force their claws down into the helpless person's chest, extracting a radiant heart from him/her.
The heart-stealing monsters then crushed the hearts they removed, which caused the victim to become engulfed in darkness, only to return as one of the black creatures.
As Vayn was observing what was transpiring, three 'ant-shadow' creatures surfaced in his room, silently approaching the unsuspecting child.
"Behind you," Said a voice calmly, warning Vayn.
Vayn obeyed the voice, turning just in time to see a shadow lunge at him. Vayn reacted quickly, rolling off of his bed, escaping the attacking creature. The other two advanced upon the 10-year-old, twitching spasmodically. Vayn fled away from the shadows running towards his door, then outside to the street.
Outside, among the chaos, Vayn cast a glance skyward, gaping in amazement for a moment at what he saw.
A giant ball of—who knows what!—hovered above the town, sucking in dust and loose pieces of debris.
Vayn didn't get much time to take in the sight because, out of the earth, the shadows returned, closing in on Vayn again from the front. The young boy backed away in fear, afraid of the things after seeing what they could do.
"Do not be afraid--" began the voice that he heard the last two times in his room.
"For you hold a powerful weapon."
The voice, as mysterious as it was, gave Vayn courage—the courage to fight back against the creatures. Vayn believed it and stood his ground against the three shadows, grasping a discarded pipe on the ground. It was probably used by another, before he/she was killed by the creatures.
It had sufficient weight according to Vayn. He held out his left hand towards the monsters, holding his pipe behind him, waving it around slightly. Then he waited for one of them to make their move.
The center one made its move first, jumping forward at Vayn. The pipe-wielding boy swung his 'sword' at the attacking shadow, swinging from right to left, striking it in the head and sending it away. It didn't die however, but it tumbled across the pavement before coming to rest on its back, stunned momentarily.
The one on the right attacked next, jumping forward just like the first one. Vayn gripped the pipe with both hands, swinging right and hitting the shadow in the head, making it tumble along the pavement, too.
The last one melted into the street, circling to Vayn's backside like a real shadow. Vayn could feel it emerge from the ground behind him, so he swung his pipe over his head, turned 180 degrees, and hammered the resurfacing creature with a mighty strike.
The hammer strike left the shadow stunned, giving Vayn enough time to retreat back.
"Whoa…" Vayn muttered, surprised at how well he fought. 'Since when could I fight?' he asked himself.
Suddenly, he felt his arms get caught in an iron grasp.
"Wha…!" Vayn let out as he turned his head left and right. Two totally different creatures, which looked humanoid, had snuck up on his sides, wrapping their elastic arms around his hands. They were completely white, except for their black heads that were hidden beneath, what seemed like, a white hood like thing that had a strange symbol on top.
"Augh…Let go! Let me go, Dammit!" Vayn yelled, struggling to get himself free. The strange things did not respond, but instead held tighter.
"Struggling is useless."
A figure, shrouded in a black trench-coat, appeared through a dark portal as this was said. Next to him were his mother and father, both bounded and near the point of fainting.
"Mom…Dad…? What the hell are you doing!!" Vayn shouted, still trying to free his arms.
The man in the cloak didn't answer, but instead brought out two swords, seemingly made of pure energy, that glowed blood red. He hoisted the energy swords over the necks of Vayn's parents.
"No…" Vayn whispered, realizing what the man's intent was.
In a quick motion, one that showed no mercy or regret, the man brought down his energy swords upon the parent's necks, beheading them.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Vayn yelled out at the top of his lungs, tears streaming down from his face heavily.
After that, everything fell into black for Vayn.
End Flashback
Vayn now reopened his eyes, tilting his head back to look at the clear blue sky, a single tear running down his face from the painful memory.
In the distance, he could see several boats approaching the islet he was on, his friends boarded on them.
Vayn smiled a bit, watching the boats cruise their way through the calm waters.
Vayn closed his eyes again, recalling his first meeting with his friends.
Flashback
Darkness… That was all Vayn could see. He could feel himself falling, but that was it. Everything else was numb to him.
'Is this…is this what death feels like?' Vayn questioned himself, unable to look around the empty, dark void.
Vayn continued to fall for what seemed like an eternity in the realm that was devoid of any kind of life.
'I guess this is the end…'
Whoosh
Vayn suddenly heard the sound of ocean waves hitting the shore, followed by the cool feel of water surrounding him and the smell of salt-water and sand.
'The…ocean? Am I dreaming?' Vayn thought, confused by the sudden change in his senses
Slowly, he opened his eyes, blinking a couple times due to the sudden contrast in light.
Blue skies and a bright sun filled his vision, a welcome sight after his period in the dark abyss. He clenched his hands, feeling the muddy shoreline he was lying on.
Six heads popped into his vision: four of them belonging to boys and the other two girls, all of them around ten years of age, like him.
The first boy had spiky brown hair and deep blue eyes. Next to him, a slightly taller boy with longer, silver hair that grew down to his neck and light blue eyes. On the other side, there was a boy with reddish-orange hair that made a large curl in the front, and another boy with sandy blonde hair that was also spiky, but not nearly as spiky as the first boy's.
The first girl was a brunette, her hair curling down on the sides and in the back. The other had reddish-brown hair that went down to her neck.
"Look! He's awake!" said the boy with the spiky brown hair, quickly looking up at the others before looking back down at the half-unconscious Vayn.
"We can see that, Sora," replied the silver haired boy, coolly.
"Hey, are you okay?" asked the red-headed girl, worryingly, ignoring the second boy's comment.
Vayn slowly sat himself upright, holding his throbbing head. "What…" he began.
The images of his home being attacked and his parents' death flickered into Vayn's mind.
Vayn shot up, standing and looking around in panic. "W-Where am I? What happened to my home?! Who-Who are you people?!" he yelled out.
"Whoa! Take it easy, brudda," said the red-orange haired boy, trying to calm Vayn down, but to no avail.
"GET AWAY!" Vayn shouted, breaking out of the group and running down the beach, deliriously.
In his wild sprint, Vayn's foot lost its grip in the loose sand, and he fell, hitting the soft earth. He got onto his hands and knees, gasping between sobs. The image of his family's beheading replayed over and over in his mind.
Vayn vomited on the sands due to the grotesque image, before blacking out again, tears still dripping off of his face.
When he woke up again, he was lying in a very comfortable bed, staring up to grayish tiles that covered the well-light room he was in. Looking around a little bit, he could tell he was in a hospital room.
"Health-wise, he is perfectly fine, despite some minor bruising around his wrists."
Vayn focused his sights on the source of the voice. He could see a nurse, dressed in all white, in the door way of the room, standing in front of the kids he had seen before on the beach. Apparently, she was telling them about his status.
"However, he seems to be traumatized. He has been mumbling deliriously for a while now," she explained.
Vayn groaned audibly at his soreness and at his splitting headache.
The nurse, followed by the other kids, was around him in seconds. The nurse checked his temperature with her palm before leaving to get the doctor.
The rest of the kids Vayn had met stayed, huddling around the hospital bed.
Vayn wanted to say something like 'Where am I,' or at least 'Hello,' but the words caught in his sore, dry throat.
"Hey…Are you alright?" asked the brunette girl, green eyes showing confusion and worry.
Vayn nodded, not really knowing what to say as an answer.
"What's your name?" asked the spiky brown-haired boy, cocking his head slightly.
"Vayn…" was the hospitalized boy's answer, his voice raspy.
"Vayn, huh? Well, I'm Sora!" replied the boy, whole-heartedly. "These are my friends, Riku, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie," continued Sora, motioning his hand to each one of the others.
Vayn gave a forced smile, and waved weakly to the group. Then, he pointed a finger at a glass of water that was set on the tray next to him, but was out of his reach.
Sora was puzzled at Vayn's gesture. The boy named 'Riku' sighed, giving a large eye-roll, and grabbed the glass, handing it to the thirsty Vayn.
Vayn took a couple swigs, leaving the glass almost empty. "Thanks," he said, grateful to have his thirst quenched.
Vayn sat up, resting his back against the wall behind him, grunting a bit. Once settled, he asked the question that was eating him away. "Where am I?"
Riku, obviously the 'cool' one of the group, answered. "You're in the emergency room of the Destiny Island Clinic. When you collapsed on the beach, we brought you here."
"Destiny…Islands?" Vayn repeated, sitting motionless on the bed, trying his best to arrange his conflicted thoughts.
"That's right," said the red headed girl, Kairi. "It's a cluster of small islands. The one we are on right now is where we live."
"What happened?" asked Vayn, not even knowing how he arrived at the islands in the first place.
"You tell us," replied the boy with sandy blonde hair, 'Tidus'. "We just found you lying on the shore when we rowed out to the island near here to play."
Vayn took a moment to think to himself, to discern the real events from his memories from things he imagined—or at least he thought he imagined.
"I…I remember being in my room," Vayn began slowly. "Then I heard screams outside…"
Vayn began to speak louder and louder as the memories flooded back to him. "And then I saw these—these things attack the townspeople and kill them. Then…"
Vayn took a deep breath to calm himself down, not wanting to make a big scene again.
"Then, a man appeared and…killed my family."
The entire troupe of friends gasped at Vayn's final statement.
"That's…That's horrible," said Kairi, deeply sympathetic.
He threw off the bed covers that were around him suddenly and began to trudge out of the hospital room.
"I need some air," Vayn blurted out, using it as an excuse to be alone.
Kairi and Sora started towards the door as Vayn made his exit, but were halted by Riku. "Leave him alone. He needs some time by himself," he said, understanding Vayn's reason for leaving.
End Flashback
"Hey, Vayn! What are ya doing here so early?"
Vayn was slightly startled by the sudden interruption.
Turning around from the Paopu-tree, Vayn saw Sora, Riku and Kairi standing behind him. The rest, that being Tidus, Wakka and Selphie, were farther down on the beach.
Vayn turned back around as he answered Sora's question. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking…"
There was moment of silence before Kairi continued the conversation.
"Today is the anniversary, isn't it?"
Vayn gave a slight nod, followed by a light sigh. "Yeah. Today, four years ago, is when my home was attacked and I came here."
"Oh, yeah! That means yesterday was your birthday, right?" Sora realized.
Vayn, again, nodded, not adding anything. "How come you didn't remind us?" Sora asked, feeling bad that he didn't remember his friend's day of birth.
"I didn't want a party," Vayn said, plainly. "Why not?" Kairi chimed in.
Vayn gave a suppressed laugh, and tilted his head back just enough to look at them through his left eye. "Remember last time? Sora's mother organized my party and hired a clown for entertainment."
Sora rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as the other three laughed at the memory.
"Hey Vayn," Riku called, "Tidus and the others want to have a three-on-three match. Since Kairi doesn't want to join, how would you like to fill in?"
Vayn leapt down from the tree, landing gracefully in front of the three.
"Sure!" Vayn exclaimed, his voice clear of any sadness. He began to walk ahead of the three, his hands tucked into the pockets of his black shorts.
Sora followed suite, crossing his arms behind his head in a care-free manner.
Kairi and Riku shot each other a glance before Riku took something out of his blue pant's pocket.
"Hey Vayn! Catch," Riku suddenly said, tossing the metallic object to the teen. Vayn turned quickly, instinctively catching a silver necklace by the chain.
Vayn observed the necklace. It was completely silver and the charm was a symbol of a crescent moon.
"What's this for?" Vayn asked, still admiring how beautifully crafted the gift was.
"It's a birthday present," Kairi explained, while she and Riku crossed the bridge. "Riku and I decided to buy you something, so we put our money together and got that. We knew how much you love to look at the night sky."
"Not everyone forgot your birthday," Riku said, ignoring the hurt look from Sora. "Hey! What's that suppose to mean?" retorted the brunette, insulted.
Vayn chuckled a little from Sora's reaction, and then put the necklace on, holding the moon-charm in his palm. "Thanks guys," Vayn said, looking at Riku and Kairi.
The four continued their walk to the beach, Sora pouting a bit with his arms crossed, Vayn still gazing at his present, and Riku and Kairi pleased with themselves.
They were just walking by the abandoned sea-side shack when Vayn felt a sudden chill in the air, followed by him seeing a quick movement in the shadows below the large tree.
Vayn froze, keeping his eyes trained on the area of shadows where he saw, or at least thought he saw, something move.
"Huh? What is it?" asked Sora.
Vayn shook his head, looking back at Sora. "Um, nothing. I thought I saw something." Vayn answered, writing it off as a figment of his imagination.
I must be tired…Vayn told himself, yawning.
Well that's my first chapter!
Yeah, I know nothing special happened, but I had to build a background for the character. The next chapter is where things pick up!
Please comment! I need to know if this story is actually interesting to others.