A/N: Hello everyone! this is a story that I have had for a long time and wasn't sure if I would ever post it, but all of the sudden it just wanted to be written so badly that I literally could't stop myself form writing this story and it's characters. To explain what this story is going to be like or at least what I hope it's going to be like. So just imagine it being something like Kingdom Hearts only much more different and with a less complicated plot in the story.
I hope everyone enjoys this adventure that we are about to take, it may be long, and it may even be precarious at times, but I have faith that it will be worth it in the end.
Disclaimer: I, as Dreamspirit47, do not own nor will I ever own anything that belongs to Disney or anything else that might be recognized as someone else's property. This is only for the entertainment of myself and to my readers. The only things that I can claim as my own will be my OC's and their stories.
Slowly fading away, you're lost and so afraid.
Where is the hope in a world so cold?
Looking for a distant light; Someone to save a life.
Lyrics by - RED
The winter night air was bitter cold, thick snowflakes wheeling horizontally, swirling with the strong winds as it was becoming colder with each minute that passed within the small town that she found herself in.
Freya could hardly feel her toes and fingers anymore, and her nose went numb a long time ago, the only thing that was keeping the rest of her at least somewhat warm was her magic that she used to keep her core temperature up to normal.
She really, really, hated being cold… well... maybe hate was to strong of a word for her dislike for cold places in general, maybe strongly disfavor? Yes, that will do, she strongly disfavored being cold. If Freya had it her way then she would be somewhere close to a beach in the warm sunshine or at least in the small green valley back at home during the middle of summer with a small fire pit in front of her while reading one of her many books in her tower room back in the Magic Kingdom castle.
But Freya wasn't here for her own pleasure, she was here for a mission to save all of the worlds from a darkness that was soon coming if she and her master didn't stop it, and if she could manage it in the process to also save him as well, then all the better, she had already made a promise to one of her very few precious people that she had left in her life, and she planned on keeping that promise, even if it killed her in the end.
So with her stubbornly grim determination she continued her march through the snow and blistering winds.
Suddenly a stronger than normal gust of wind sweeps right through her long dark hooded cloak, making her whole body give a violent shiver in silent protest against the freezing wind chills.
Knowing that the weather was only going to get worse as the night went on she quickly started searching for a place to warm up for the night. Freya found herself to be standing near an empty fountain that looked like it was positioned to be in the heart of this little town, looking towards her right she spotted a small tavern with it's windows aglow with the warm light of a fire in the circle of buildings that was around the fountain.
Swiftly making her way towards the tavern Freya enters through the double doors and was immediately developed into the warm atmosphere of the tavern, it wrapped around her frozen body in a cozy and warm imaginary blanket, making her sigh in relief as her shoulders sag slightly while her body started its natural process of getting warmth back into her extremities.
The tavern looked like what you expect a tavern to look like, there was a bar with a bartender behind it, some wooden chairs and tables with men sitting around with beer jugs in their hands telling jokes or hunting stories, while some of the women were wearing somewhat skimpy dresses, but overall it had a pleasant atmosphere to it.
The only thing that Freya noticed that was different, though not out of place, was at the other side of the room in front of the fireplace stood a big chair made of animal bones and furs that sat in front of it, and on the walls hung stuffed heads and antlers of deer, moose, rams, boars and many others that Freya really didn't want to care to know about.
It wasn't that she was against hunting in general, it was just that she believed hunting should only be used for survival or a normal food source, and not as a sport where the hunters show off their kills and then throw it away later once they got bored with it and then go for their next kill, it was wasteful, and disrespectful to the animal's sacrifice of its life. It also didn't help that most of the people who lived in the Magic Kingdom were somewhat part animals themselves, so it was a little nauseating for her to look at the stuffed heads on the wall without seeing Miss Daisy or Sir Goofy's heads on it, or any of the others that she knew.
A few heads of the townspeople turned her way, but for the most part she was ignored, which was just the way she liked it, she didn't particularly like being the center of attention in crowded spaces.
Enjoying the warmth for a few more seconds, Freya made her way towards the bar and casually sat down onto one of the wooden stools. The bartender sees her and walks over to greet her. "Welcome, what can I get you this evening? He was a tall, muscular man with blond hair held back in a small ponytail with dark brown eyes and a friendly smile on his face.
"Do you know where I can find a place to stay the night?" She asks politely.
"You can stay in one of the guest rooms here if you would like?" He offered.
"How much for the night?"
"Ten pieces."
"Ten pieces!?" She exclaimed slightly in disbelief, she knew that this was a small town and everything, but this was ridiculous.
"Yes Mademoiselle." He answered kindly, but fairly firm in tone.
Freya was quiet for a few moments before sighing softly in finality, she was tired and not really in the mood for haggling with the bartender just for a single night of what will most likely end up being a restless sleep filled with nightmares again.
"Alright, I would like a room please." She gritted through her teeth with strained politeness as she put one of her hands into the belt pocket that was around her waist. The pocket was magically extended so that she could just about stuff anything she wanted in there without it weighing her down.
Once finding all ten golden coins, she handed them over to the bartender, who happily examined them with approval. After putting the coins away he gave her the key to the upstairs room and asked her if he could get her something to drink, but she declined.
A few minutes pass with her listening to the chatter of the townspeople around her. Freya had always been an observer of her surroundings even as a small child back in her original home, she would sometimes go into the kitchens early in the mornings and just sit down and watch as the chef and cooks made themselves busy with making breakfast for the royal family of the castle, and sometimes if the chef was in a good mood, he would allow young Freya to help with the preparations for the food, which sadly, ended in disaster usually.
Even after years later Freya was still a disappointment in the kitchen, but at least now she was able to make simple soups and stews as well as sandwiches, just don't ask her to bake anything unless you like your food burnt to a very crispy crisp.
"Who does she think she is? That girl has tangled with the wrong man. No one says no to Gaston!" A loud male voice said over the crowd of voices, making Freya look towards the source of the sound in curiosity. It came from the side of the room that she had noticed earlier, but now with a towering muscular man with jet black hair sitting in the big chair made of bone and fur.
"Heh, you're darn right!" Said a much smaller and more plump man with hair just as dark as the other man while waddling over to him with two beer jugs in his hands.
The man, who she guessed was Gaston considering with the way he was talking, swiped both jugs with one hand. "Dismissed! Totally rejected! It's more than I can bear!" And at his last sentence he angrily threw the jugs into the fireplace, making the flames flare up with renewed vigor.
The smaller man flinched at the mini explosion before asking. "More beer?"
"What for? Nothing helps. I'm disgraced." He said while moving the chair away from the other man before sitting back down with a pouting expression on his face, but the little man was persistent as he raced around to face Gaston again.
"Who, you? Never! Gaston, you've got to pull yourself together."
And then he did the one thing that Freya dreaded the most, he started singing.
~Gosh it disturbs me to see you Gaston, looking so down in the dumps, every guy here would like to be you Gaston, even when taking your lumps. There's no man in town that's half as mired as you, you're everyone's favorite guy, everyone's awed and inspired by you, and it's not very hard to see why.~
While singing his song, Gaston apparently didn't appreciate the other sticking his thumbs on to the edges of his mouth and pushing them up to awkwardly show the top of his teeth, because he suddenly punched him with his massive fist in the smaller man's face that set him flying over towards the other end of the room and then landed on top of one of the tables with several men sitting around it, all with beer in hand.
Freya would have felt concerned for the smaller fellow, if it wasn't for him shooting back up almost instantly and then continuing his singing as if that punch didn't happen in the first place. The men around the table swinged their beer jugs in the air and cheered as he sang about how everyone would like to be this Gaston.
Freya watched as Gaston picked up his chair again and turned back around towards the fireplace and pouted like a spoiled overly grown child. To be quite frank, she didn't see what was so great about him, sure he was tall, dark and handsome, something that almost every woman fantasizes about, or at least that's what she always hears from the other women in the castle who make it a habit of theirs to gossip in the halls as they go about their own business, not really bothering to be secretive about it or if they did, then they weren't very good at it.
She wasn't one to gossip or to start fantasizing about silly romances with mysterious men that she barely knew, besides, she was to busy with her own training to be the greatest sorceress in all the realms, while also saving them in the process apparently as well.
She was suddenly thrown out of her thoughts as something landed hard on the floor behind the bar in front of her, leaning forward to look down, she saw that it was the small fellow that started all of this chaos that was around them inside the tavern. Freya took a swift glance behind her, only to see a bunch of men in a dog pile on top of a broken table, as most of the men struggled to get out of the pile of bodies. She watched unblinkingly as Gaston grasped a leg out of the tangle of limbs and bit it hard with his teeth. She took another glance at the bartender, who had an expression of annoyance with mostly exasperation on his face. She guessed from his expression that this happens quite often apparently.
Looking back down again, she saw the little man getting back onto his feet while rubbing the top of his head. "You alright?" She asked in a calm manner, a stark contrast to the madness that was happening around them.
His head snapped up, looking at her in shock as she looked at him with a blank expression. "Ummm, ye-y-yeah, I'm fine." He told her, looking uncomfortable before making a hasty retreat back into the singing crowd of people.
Freya watched him as he raced back to the side of Gaston again. She shrugged her shoulders in a whatever sort of way to herself, it wasn't her place to tell people what they should do, as it wasn't theirs to tell her what to do with her life either. She did her best to ignore the singing townspeople as much as possible, and made sure to not bring any more attention to herself and most especially not to get caught up in the madness of it all.
~Say it again, who's man among men and let's say it once more, who's that hero next door, who's that super success, don't you know, can't you guess, ask his fans and his five hangers-on, there's just one guy in town who's got all of it down, and his name's G-A-S- T - G-A-S-T - E - G-A-S-T-O.~ Freya rolled her grey eyes in exasperation and decided to help the poor fellow out. "O-N." She muttered to him helpfully.
He looked up at her in surprise again for the second time that night, but quickly recovered before quietly saying. "Oh, thanks."
~GASTON!~
With the song finally over, Freya waved the bartender over to her. "I think I'll have that drink now, please." She muttered miserably, already starting to feel a headache coming on.
Just as the bartender was pouring her a drink, an old man suddenly bursts into the tavern, bring the cold winter air with him. One of Freya's dark eyebrows twitch annoyedly as the cold breeze softly brushed against her sensitive skin, making it feel as if her skin was being tickled teasingly with a dragon's tongue by the the cold wind itself, which was very far away from being a pleasant experience. Her skin had always been more vulnerable to colder weather temperatures than most people, it was definitely aggravating at times as such as these, but she guessed that this was the price of being called Freya the Firewalker.
The old man looked to be in distressed, his white hair was in a crazy mess, Freya couldn't help but think of a mad scientist when looking at his hair, his eyes were bloodshot and had dark bags underneath them, and his clothes looked slightly disheveled, like he had been running for a long time.
"Help! Someone help me!" He called out.
"Maurice?" Asked the bartender as he completely missed when pouring the drink into Freya's glass.
"Please, you got to help me!" Maurice pleaded desperately as he grabbed the man next to her, shaking him a little before running over to another man and started shaking him to.
"He's got her, he's got her locked in the dungeon!"
"Who?" Asked the man who was currently being shaken by Maurice.
"Belle! We must go, and not a minute to lose."
"Whoa, slow down Maurice, who's got Belle locked in a dungeon?" Gaston asked in an arrogant manner, a small smile growing on his lips as he leaned back into his chair.
"A Beast! A horrible and monstrous beast!" Maurice exclaimed loudly.
It was silent for a few seconds before everyone except for Freya in the tavern started laughing. Freya heavily frowned at the townspeople response to Maurice's claim and clear distress behind her hood in disapproval. So what if his claim sounded crazy? It still didn't mean that you should laugh or make fun of him when the older gentleman was clearly stressed and not feeling well.
"Was it a big beast?" One of the townspeople asked teasingly as two other men joined him.
"Huge!"
"And with a long ugly snout?"
"Hideously ugly."
"With sharp cruel fangs?"
"Yes, yes, will you help me?" He pleaded desperately before he was harshly shoved to the floor by one of the men.
"Alright old man we'll help you out" Gaston suddenly says to Maurice, but Freya couldn't help but get the feeling that Gaston was going to do anything but help the poor old man.
Maurice got up on his hands and knees as he looked up at Gaston with hope in his tired eyes. "You will? Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" He said as he was being carried out by two men and then was carelessly, cruelly, and thoughtlessly thrown out back in the winter cold!
Freya's hands clenched into tight fists as white hot anger flowed through her entire body as she restraint the fire that wanted so desperately to teach everyone in this tavern a thing or two, but despite her struggles on the inside, on the outside she looked to be as calm as ever. It was funny, how the people who knew what she was, would have expected her to explode like a firecracker at the moment that she got angry, but the truth was that she was more like a ticking time bomb when it came to her temper, the angrier she got, the more calm and clear headed she became, waiting for the right moment to strike, to cause the most damage to her enemies.
Gracefully getting up from her stool, she started to make her way out towards the tavern doors, walking past the men that threw the old man out.
"Ha ha, crazy old Maurice."
"He's always good for a laugh."
The fiery hot anger that was inside of her suddenly flared up even higher at their words. She decided that it wouldn't hurt to let them feel a tiny proportion of her wrath, at least not for her anyway.
While still walking towards the doors, Freya created two separate sparks of frames within her right hand as she kept it tucked near her front to keep from anyone else from seeing what she was doing. And then released them from her hand with light flick of her fingers.
She didn't turn around to see what sort of chaos that her little creations were making, but listened with a sadistic sense of pleasure as their yelps and screams of surprise and fear filled her ears from behind her.
Stepping through the double doors, her sharp ash grey eyes searched for Maurice and found him on his knees in the thick snow covered ground, his old body shivering violently against the cold winds.
"Will no one help me?" He asked to the wind in desperate despair, but then was suddenly startled as something warm and heavy in material that was being wrapped gently around him as a soft feminine voice says to him. "I will, if you'll let me."
Maurice's head whipped up to look at her, shock and surprise written all over his face as he stared at her, as she calmly looked back at his. A moment past before he tiredly nodded his head in agreement. "Thank you, Mademoiselle." He mumbled, his eyelids starting to droop in exhaustion.
"Where do you live?" She asked him, wanting to be as quick as possible in getting out of the formidable cold. Slinging one of his arms around her shoulders to support him as they started walking on the slushy snow covered ground.
"Just outside of the village, there's a cottage out there to the west." Was his weary reply.
"Great, then I guess we better get started." She grumbled under her breath, taking the first step in the direction that she hoped was west.
Freya and her master Yen Sid where in the great sorcerer's personal office in the Magic Kingdom, discussing the events that happened not so long ago.
The office was simple, yet ornate enough with all sorts of odd and ends of different magical objects and potion experiments that were littered all across his office to give it that mystical air to it. Some of the magical objects were still mysterious even to her, who had been his apprentice since the age of six. He kept them around on top of tables and stuffed in figures places all along on the book shelves. The walls were made of a simple light yellow stone with the occasional dark brown stone brick showing up here and there along the circular walls, behind his large wooden desk stood an enormous balcony to show the red, orange and pink sunset falling down behind the low mountains.
Freya stood guiltily with her hands clasped tightly together behind her back, she stood in front of the great sorcerer's desk as he sat in his high backed chair, his back ramrod straight with his long fingered hands folded neatly in front of him, his face and dark eyes were stern, but after knowing him for as long as she had, Freya was able see the hidden worry and concern behind them.
"It's my fault master, I should have stopped him." Freya said as a wave of guilt and regret washed over her. This was all her fault, if she had just said no to his stupid idea just one more time and hadn't of just caved in at that moment, but no, he just had to use those cute, big brown (but still aggravating) puppy dog eyes of his on her, if she had just resisted just a little longer, then maybe none of this would be happening.
Her master gave a weary sigh before saying. "While some of the blame does lie on you and Septimus for breaking into my office, and then to be going through my desk; to which you know that I keep the most dangerous of magical objects in is your fault." At this, her face scrunched up uncomfortably as the anxious knots in her stomach started growing worse. "But… I'm afraid most of the blame belongs to me."
Freya's head snapped up in surprise, grey eyes widening as she stared at her master for a moment, before finding her courage to ask in a quiet voice. "What do you mean master?"
She watched as her master's stiff form slumped slightly in his chair as he gave a wearying sigh, his long fingered hands reaching up to massage the skin around his eyes. She had never really seen her master looking so tired before, for the first time in her life, she could actually see just how old he really was. She had always known that her master was old, far older than anybody else that she probably knew, some would say that he was either hundreds or even thousands of years old, and if anyone would ever ask him about how old he was, he would neither deny nor confirm the theories of his age. He always had this energy about him that made him look and feel younger than what he actually was. She wasn't even sure if King Mickey, who had been her master's appreciate before herself and Septimus, had ever seen him look like this before.
"How much do you remember of the last few days of Folkvangr before it's fall into darkness?" He suddenly asked her.
Deathly silence fell over them at his question.
Folkvangr. Her original home world, that was a name that she hadn't heard anyone else say to her in a very long time, most likely out of fear of her possibly having another breaking down again, and she would admit that within the first two or three years after her homeworld had been destroyed, along with her parents, that she had been prone to shut down and retreat into herself almost immediately at even the slightest mention of it, but that had changed after she had met Septimus and his family.
But that still didn't mean that her feelings were unaffected at hearing the name again after so long. She could feel her heart constrict painfully as the memories of watching from her mother's magical hand held mirror as her bright and wonderfully beautiful green world was slowly being swallowed up by the massive inky black waves as it was covering her world with its deathly touch until there was nothing left of it.
Mentally shaking the memories away, she tried to refocus on answering her master's question. "I remember my parents being extremely worried about the Phantom Blot as everyone in the castle preparing for what looked like a war… and then they sent me with you to go to the Magic Kingdom, for my own protection." Here she paused, taking a deep breath before continuing on. "It's him, isn't it? The Phantom Blot? He's the one that was in that bottle and took Septimus."
More silence fell over them before he answered as gently as he could, knowing that what he was about to say will most likely hurt. "Yes."
And with just that one softly spoken word from her master's lips, was all that it took to made her feel like she had just been punched in the gut. She suddenly found it hard to breathe and she could feel the strength in her legs slowly seeping away from them. Her master must have summoned a chair from behind her because she found herself sitting on one, the shock of the last evening's event must be finally catching up to her body.
She placed her elbows on top of her knees as she brought her shaking hands up to her long dark brown hair and started running her fingers through it, a desperate attempt of her's to hopefully calm down her sudden rush of emotions that were rolling around inside of her.
This was all her fault, she knew it, she should've just put her foot down like she usually did, but for some reason she didn't. Why did she let him do something that she knew was so stupid and dangerous, especially if they have been caught, to which they had been caught by their master. Maybe it had been the thrill of adventure, or maybe it was her getting a little too soft on him now with their relationship that had suddenly changed from a simple rivalry friendship as children, to official boyfriend and girlfriend status just three weeks ago.
Septimus and she had a somewhat rocky start in the beginning. What with Septimus being a very rare type of wizard, he was a seventh son of a seventh son, one of the most rare and powerful kinds of wizard. The last one to had been seen had been over five hundred years ago, and went by the name of Wilbur the Mountain Crusher. Who by many accounts in history books had been mistaken for being a tall dwarf by most people back then for his rather short and stumpy stature along with his long beard.
Freya back in those younger days, had not been very impressed by him like her master and her King apparently had been at first glance, when her master had came back after his trip to finding what had caused the enormous spike of magical energy that they along with King Mickey had felt during the middle of one afternoon. It had been quite a bit of shock for her back then to find out that the source of that the enormous spike of magical energy was caused by this skinny little white haired boy, who just so happened to be younger than herself by just two years! TWO YEARS! With absolutely no magical training what's so ever, and he was already more powerful than HER!
SHE! Who had been tainted in the magical arts for nearly all her life!
To put it simply, she had been quite a bit jealous of her master's new apprentice.
It also didn't help that shortly after their master had introduced them for the first time, it was that Septimus had somehow developed full blown crush on her. He would always be try to impress her with every single moment that presented itself to him, being the show off that he was, but instead of impressing her, he would only just annoyed her more with his ability to be able to figure out how to use even the most difficult of spells to learn and then be able to use them shortly after learning about them, almost without reading a single book about how to do it in the first place.
Apparently he, like most of the other seventh sons, were naturally gifted when it comes to the magical arts. A fact that Freya had found increasingly annoying by each lesson that they had together.
But as time went on over the years, and she got to know him and his large family, and she slowly started to realize that he wasn't as bad as she originally thought he was.
He showed that he cared deeply for her, not only as best friends, but as something more than friends.
It came as no surprise to her that he cared for her, what with his constant flirting and suggestive moves towards her. She had never really took any of what he said and did very seriously, only thinking that it was a complete joke to him. But then he had showed her exactly how he felt about her, and that it wasn't all just one big joke. Not to him.
And right then and there, in the middle of a stormy night, with heavy rainfall soaking them both to the bone. She kissed him.
She had been the happiest that she had ever been in her entire life for those three short weeks, and now all she wished was to go back in time and stop herself from ever saying yes to his request.
A large cream handkerchief was suddenly thrust in front of her face, making her look up in surprise as she saw that the one who was given it to her was her master.
She quickly placed one of her hands on her cheek, and was quite shocked to find herself to be crying without her noticing.
Taking the handkerchief from her master, she gave him a nod of thanks before drying the tears from her face.
"There is only one way to save all the worlds form the Phantom… And, possibly to save Septimus as well."
Finished with drying her damp face, Freya looked up to her master with self restrained hope, knowing that whatever her master was about to say was not going to be easy, but if it meant being able to save Septimus, then no matter what the cost, it would always be worth it.
"We must assemble the stone of Harmony." He told her gravely.
"The… Stone of Harmony?" She asked uncertainty, having never heard of it before.
"The stone was used to seal the Phantom into a prison that he would never be able to get out of by himself, myself and one other sorcerer were able to seal him with the help of the stone, it is why I had him in that bottle."
"So, that tiny ink bottle was his prison cell?" It came out more like a statement than a question, she just couldn't believe (although in retrospect it really shouldn't) that their master had been holding one of the most dangerous and darkness of villains, destroyer of two worlds, in all of the universe ... in a tiny little ink bottle in his desk drawer.
"Yes, and after we had used it to imprison the Phantom, we separated the stone into seven other stones, each representing the fundamental trades that make up the Stone of Harmony. Wisdom, Faith, Truth, Memory, Love, Healing and Creativity."
While the great sorcerer was explaining this to his apprentice, he slowly made his way back around to sit in his high backed chair behind the large wooden desk, making simple illusions of each said stone. The first to appear was a yellow stone, then light blue, dark blue, green, red, orange and then finally purple.
Freya studied each of the illusioned rainbow colored stones closely, before the illusions slowly started to fade away like smoke in the wind.
It made sense in a way, if this Stone of Harmony was as powerful as her master was saying, and if it could stop and trap the Phantom Blot in his tracks as it did back then all those years ago, then it was most likely for the best that it had been separated. For who knows what kind of chaos would happen if the stone was ever in the hands of evil.
"It is now your soul duty to find all seven of the stones, and to restore the Stone of Harmony, so that we may have a chance of stopping him once again."
Freya gave a nod of acceptance to this before crossing her arms and legs, looking at her master. "And what will you be doing while I'm off to finding all of the stones?"
Yen Sid looked to his apprentice with his dark eyes, his arms also crossing as he sat back into his chair. "I will be staying here to protect this world from him, while also tracking him down, so that I will hopefully be able to warn you if he is near you."
"And how will you be able to track him? Do you have something that belongs to him?"
A tracking spell was easy enough to perform, so long as you have something of theirs. Anything would do really, like say their old baby blanket from when they were an infant, or a strand of hair, or even their own toenail clippings would work, just so long as they claim it as theirs ,or if it had strong traces of themselves left behind the object or person, like a blood relative, then tracking someone was fairly easy. Even if they were off world.
"The Phantom's original body was destroyed years ago, so it is most likely that he has already taken over Septimus's body temporarily; until he can either take or make a new body for his own." He told her in a grave tone, looking at her with some sympathy and concern in his dark eyes.
Freya felt all of the blood drain right out of her body at his words, if what he said was true, then that meant that she would most likely be not only fighting with the Phantom over the stones, but with Septimus as well.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this first part. Please review, favorite or follow. Any kind of review, either good or bad is always welcomed. I will appreciate your honesty. Just be nice about it, I don't like bullying.
But in any case I wish you all a good day or evening! :)