Sora was very happy to be in such a peaceful world.
It wasn't often that he could take a few moments in a world to just sit down and relax, ignore the heartless, nobodies and other impending dooms and just... stop for a bit. Like he used to do on the Islands.
Although this was about as far as you could get from an island. No sea, a lush forest and steep, rocky cliff faces covered his path on all sides. It was serene like the islands, but not in a very islandy way.
"I sure do hope it stays this peaceful around here."
Goofy's voice might never fit the situation, but Sora found himself agreeing with his friend more often than not. "Yeah, been a while since we had a chance to just, relax."
His arms thrown up and crossed behind his head like a pillow, Sora just felt like going to sleep. Until Donald said it. "Yeah, I sure hope there are no Heartless here."
As if it had been rehearsed the Heartless showed up almost instantly, surrounding the trio. Tensing up and Keyblade in hand, Sora threw himself into a fight with no hesitation. It was a new Keycahin his friend Woody had made for him when he was a toy. A cactus like shape with a deputy badge and some alien memorabilia adorned his fabled weapon. Despite how much the weapon now resembled a toy, Sora knew what to do with it.
Swinging with the finesse that comes from a couple years of experience, Sora began to take out the Heartless that encroached on all sides. When they evaporated into dust he counted up in his head, still trying to see whether he took out more than Donald or not. Eventually, he got comfortable swinging around this new Keyblade, Sora pushed it as far as he could, swung it around and let himself bask in some light. The blade extended and twisted into a metal pole as the cowboy hat and sherrif badge morphed into a rocket that attatched itself to the pole length horizontally.
And with that, Sora started swinging around his rocket powered hammer, occasionally teaming up with Goofy to charge his opponents or Donald to singe them with fire. Within mere minutes of the fight starting, it was over and the trio was left once again to bask in a peaceful forest.
Donald's eyes narrowed and his beak curled into a smirk as he turned to Sora and and almost spat out "24."
Sora initially feigned distress, throwing his head into his arms as if he was crying, before revealing a laughing face as he said innocently, "32."
You could practically see the steam coming from Donald's ears, matching his increasingly angry face at the prospect of losing AGAIN. Goofy and Sora practically fell over laughing.
It didn't help that as Sora regained his balance a young man, could only have been a couple years older than him, clad in blue smashed into him, knocking him down and sending him rolling down the hill.
The young man was knocked out, but it didn't take Doanld and Goofy long to see why he was running so fast; Heartless descended down the hill after him at an alarming speed. They took out their staff and shield and went to work.
They were so caught up on fighting the enemies that they didn't notice Sora was absent from the fight until it was over and they checked on the man to see if he was alright. "Gee, are you alright mister?"
Now awake, the man was overcome by a sudden sense of bravado. "Yes thank you quite alright, names Flynn."
"NIce to meet you Flynn, they're Sora, Donald and I'm Goofy!"
"You, uh, said three names but I'm only seeing two-"
"WHAT?!"
That was the loudest Donald had quacked for a while, and for good measure. Sora only dissappeared when something bad had happened to him, so he was immediately worried. "Spiky hair, black clothes, Giant Key, seen him?!"
Flynn couldn't recall his untimely collision with Sora, but decided to assist his new companions. After all, they seemed to know how to deal with these monsters and keeping in theier good books would be beneficial for evading them. And the soldiers, but mostly the monsters. "I... have not, but I do know this path leads to a dead end. Nowhere to hide or go from here. If he went anywhere it would be up the path where I came from. Since I put you through the trouble of helping me, I shall assist you in locating him."
Donald and Goofy didn't need to hear anymore. which was useful but also slightly depressing, Flynn had prepared a whole monologue on winning them over. The three immediately set off on the path over the hill to try and find their lost companion.
If you were to view that whole experience through Sora's eyes, you wouldn't see much.
After he was hit at full force by a moving object, he fell over and began to black out as he rolled down the hill, waking up in a cave about 5 minutes after the rescuers had left the area.
The cave was dark and he didn't actually know which way he had entered from, so he picked where the most light was coming from and walked towards it. "Owwwwwwww..."
His head was still throbbing from the fall, but a quick potion and he was at full speed already.
Nothing fully prepared him for the tower that he saw when he exited the cave. This definitely wasn't the side he came in from, and he saw nothing that would indicate a tower from the other side. "Woaah..."
As he began to approach the tower, he started to shout, "Hello?! Donald?! Goofy?! Anyone?!"
The silence that followed seemed to indicate that he was alone and that no one was in the tower. Best to investigate then, he casually thought to himself, there aren't a lot of times a giant tower hasn't meant something important.
After a quick check it became evident that the tower had no definable entrance, bar for a window at the top of the tower, only accessible by climbing. In his youth, Sora would've have struggled with the climb. But now, 17, graced with magic and master of Flowmotion? A run up gave him enough momentum to carry him up to the window at the top of the tower. He slipped on an out of place stone, but aprt form that it was smooth sailing to the top.
Upon entering the tower, he hesitantly called "Hello...?"
He was suddenly reminded of the cruel silence on the Islands when he first lost his best friends, Riku and Kairi. He remembered what happened then. The darkness took the islands, sent Sora far away.
Whilst he was in this trance, he stumbled to the centre of the room, unaware of the presence of someone else. He only turned around when he heard the shuffling of feet... and was promptly met with a frying pan to the face.
He awoke after an indeterminate amount of time, strapped to a chair. "Uh... what...?...What?!"
It took him a moment to adjust to his surroundings and realise he wasn't just tied to a chair, he was tied up with HAIR. The longest, most golden blonde hair, but it was still hair.
"H-Hello?! Anyone? Could someone explain?!"
Sora was quick to panic. He had been captured, and given his recent track record of captures... he wasn't optimistic about the situation.
Then suddenly, he heard a voice call out, "Who are you..?"
It was soft, female, and definitely sounded more concerned than an interrogator would usually. Sora saw a shadow drop down from a shelf and slowly shuffle towards him. Emerging from the shadows into the spotlight Sora was in was a young girl, definitely the same age as Sora. She was very pretty, dressed in a purple dress and sprouting off her head was...
Golden hair.
It didn't take long for Sora to make the connection in his head that he was currently tied in this girls hair. Part of that was awesome, part of it freaked him a little bit. But there were more pressing things right now. "Um... I'm Sora. Listen I don't mean any harm but just... am I... tied up...?"
"In my hair, yes."
"Wooooow!" Sora suddenly went wide eyed with giddy glee,"That's amazing! So, how long is it? How long did it take to grow? It so cool!"
The girl lowered her weapon, a rusty frying pan, and eyed Sora suspicously. "Wait... you didn't know about my hair?"
Sora was really confused. "Uh... why would I? Is it famous or something?"
"No.. but... Mother said that if someone came here they would try to take my hair."
"I don't know why anyone would wanna take. I mean, yeah its long but it's just hair isn't it?"
The girl seemed relived, but then raised her frying pan again and narrowed her eyes, "So then why are you here?"
"Um not really sure, actually. I got knocked out then woke up in a cave, walked out and boom! Tower."
A little more in charge this time, "And why should I trust you?"
A question Sora couldn't answer. "Uh...well... I got nothing. Ah if only Donald and Goofy were here..."
Interest piqued. "Who...?"
"My friends! I came to this -" he chose his words carefully, "forest with them, they're so funny! I wonder where they are right now..."
Seeing how fast this Sora went from being really happy to dejected talking about these... other people filled the girl with a sadness she couldn't describe. So she decided to capitalise on his desire to find them, because demanding situations call for it. "I can help find your friends, if you help me first."
A deal Sora could get behind; help someone so you can get help! "Sure! What do ya need?"
That took significantly less convincing than she thought it would. "Tomorrow is my 18th birthday. Every year on my birthday, many lights float up into the sky. YOu will take me to see these lights and then return me home by the following day. On the way, I will help you look for your friends, and when I make a promise, I never break that promise."
"Deal!" Sora's happy go lucky nature pulled her out of her monologue. "Quick question though, if I'm going to be travelling with you I kinda need to know your name."
The girl blushed realising that this boy had been so warm to her, even though he was tied up in her hair, and she hadn't even given him her name. "Rapunzel."
Sora just grinned widely. "Nice to meet you Rapunzel!"