The bleak darkness gradually began to depart, giving way to the argent rays of the sun as it began to rise. Golden streams of sunlight beamed down on the beige sand, casting warm glows. Light enveloped the foliage and scenery of the island, marking the dawn of a new day. The waves of the glimmering ocean lapped gently at the beach, crooning softly in quiet whooshes of sound.
And all this while, a solitary figure sat on the curved trunk of a paopu tree.
Solemn cobalt orbs gazed out towards the rippling ocean. The wind blew by, tousling chocolate-brown spikes of hair and caressing a lightly tanned face.
Quiet words poured past parted lips.
"I guess everything has calmed down here again."
A soft grin formed on his lips.
Getting to his feet, the brunette jumped down from the trunk and landed perfectly on the ground with strong legs. He turned and began to cross the bridge connecting the small split of land to the main mass of the lone, isolated island, separated from the cluster of other islands in the distance.
When he reached the main land of the island and walked to the only dock there, he took great notice that another boat was present.
"Sora!"
He turned his head and gazed in the direction the voice had come from. Forward stepped his platinum haired friend. "Hey, Riku," he answered casually, grinning at his beryl-eyed companion.
"You know," Riku began, "you've been coming here a lot earlier than usual. Something wrong?"
"No," answered Sora, but something still nagged at him in his mind. "Well, actually, you could say there is…"
Riku shifted his stare from the horizon and turned to him. "Which is…?"
"I had this weird dream a while ago—" he started, only to be interrupted by a snort from Riku.
"Sora, you always have dreams. Remember? Last time, you had one about Kairi."
Sora coughed and turned a rather deep shade of red. "—Anyway, as I was saying, I had this weird dream. This person in a black cloak kept on telling me that "the time has come" and that "old will be given to the new" and "new will be split to return the old". I don't understand what's happening to me, or those words."
Riku's eyes widened. "Black cloak?" he questioned in disbelief. "You don't mean…"
"…Xemnas?" they finished in unison.
Sora then remembered something that contradicted that and sighed with relief. "Their voice didn't sound like Xemnas' though… it sounded different. I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl."
Riku shook his head. "Maybe you're just thinking too much."
Sora merely shrugged in response. "Maybe."
The two turned back to the ocean and watched as the aqua liquid sloshed to and fro, back and forth in silence.
Several seconds—or minutes, or perhaps even hours—passed when a voice called out both of their names.
"Sora! Riku!"
They both turned to see Kairi. Following her was little Faeyt, just barely twelve-years old. She was just as small and quiet as usual, and as usual, she clutched her notebook and pen in her small hands.
Sora usually barely remembered how they met, but at the very moment, he could recall it freshly in his mind. Both of their parents—or, to put it in a more specific way, both their mothers—had known each other for a very long time. However, due to the fact that Faeyt's mother had lived in a different island at the time and was very busy, they could not keep in touch with one another. Several years later, she moved to their island, taking Faeyt along with her. And naturally, they magically began conversing with one another everyday and soon introduced Sora and Faeyt to each other.
Faeyt was a normally quiet girl who never did have much to say. Whether she had questions or complaints, she kept silent. Sora knew, from months of knowing her now, that she would entertain herself by writing in her notebook. She took the thing everywhere with her as though it were glued to her.
Like today.
As Kairi strode over with a bright smile and a cheerful greeting of, "Hey guys", Faeyt offered that faint smile of hers and murmured a quiet, "Hi."
Sora regarded them with a grin while Riku did with a small smirk. Together, they chorused, "Hey!"
"Stalking Kairi again like a baby duckling, huh, Faeyt?" asked Riku, grinning lightly. Kairi sighed while Faeyt shook her head and answered, "No. I was just talking with her."
And that was how their days normally began, simply with meeting each other at the island. They would then chat for some time and play games. After all, they weren't too old for games now.
Sora still challenged Riku to those daily sparring practices. Kairi was still always the referee. Faeyt would merely sit on the paopu tree's trunk and write in her notebook, completely disregarding them save for an occasional glance at their duel and a periodical smile.
Sometimes, she just seemed more mature than them.
And they would occupy themselves with those games until it became late, and they would go home.
But today, the whole procedure ended differently.
The clang of wooden swords striking together echoed throughout the atmosphere.
Sora narrowly avoided Riku's swipe, and countered with a twirling swing of his own. This attempt was swift.
It was definitely swift enough.
Swift enough to send Riku stumbling backwards.
"You're getting faster now," he called out as he panted. Sora sent his cheesy trademark grin at him.
"Or maybe you're just getting too slow, Riku!" he called out, diving forward for another strike. He had become increasingly faster on his feet since the whole Heartless incident had occurred.
"I doubt that, Sora!"
The clanging sounded again repeatedly. From the safety of the paopu tree, Kairi and Faeyt observed the battle. "They really have been getting better, haven't they?" asked Kairi, smiling. Faeyt's lips quirked into a common, faint smile.
"Mm-hm," she said. Her ebony-black hair fluttered in the passing breeze. Silver eyes flickered to fix onto Sora and Riku's rapidly moving forms. Shifting her notebook, she flipped to a new page and continued writing in silence, pen dancing quickly across the lined paper.
With a final clack, Sora and Riku dropped their swords and leaned, breathing heavily, against the trunks of palm trees near them.
"Draw."
Kairi hopped down from the paopu tree and strode over to Sora and Riku. "Yup. It's a draw," she announced, clasping her hands together behind her back. She glanced toward the horizon. "The sun is setting. You guys want to go home now?"
"Kind of," yawned Sora, plopping down on the ground. "That was tiring."
"Sora, you're such a lazy bum," sighed Kairi. At this, Riku chuckled.
Faeyt closed her notebook, hopped off the tree, and walked to them. "Sora, did you have any dreams recently?" she asked in an expectant tone.
"Yeah. How did you know?" the brunette asked her.
Faeyt did not answer his question. Rather, she asked instead, "What was it about?" Sora told her, and afterwards, she nodded and left.
"Faeyt's weird," said Sora, staring after the twelve-year old's retreating back.
"Personally, I think she's just a little gullible, that's all," Kairi commented. "Well, she did believe our story about visiting other worlds…"
Riku shrugged. "Possibly."
Sora gazed towards the descending sun. "Let's just go home now." A weird sensation swam in his stomach. His insides churned with unease.
"Y—"
And Sora's internal alarm system was correct.
Something was happening.
The sky was blackening, and the sun seemed to completely fade away.
And it wasn't because it was supposed to be setting.
The silhouettes of objects around them swam around the ground. Abruptly, in unison, dozens of black claws rose from the ground, followed by the rest of the length of their arms. It was like buried corpses were rising from their graves.
And it was a terrifying sight indeed.
Sora swallowed the three of them instinctively stepped back. However, the move proved useless. There were more hands behind them.
Pausing for several seconds, the hands then flew into the air, followed by shadows, and the darkness shifted slightly. Then they saw them.
The shadows they saw at the moment appeared downright horrendous. They may have been drenched from head to toe in the darkness shade of black—much like Heartless—but they seemed much, much worse. Alabaster-white fangs poked out of what appeared to be moist, blood red lips. The rancid, metallic scents of blood and death floated through the air. Bulbous, neon orbs that seemed like eyes of the dead peered out at them. The creatures had bodies that seemed stiff with no movement and nimble with agility at the same time, but deadly nevertheless.
Accompanying them was the shelter of the "night".
Immobile with fear, Sora, Riku, and Kairi could only stare in horror at the sea of glowing yellow and invisible black around them. Then, their surroundings flickered and all of the creatures were gone. They were safe.
Wrong.
Their surroundings flickered again and then, eager claws reached toward them. All they felt next was the numb, but acute feeling of pain.
Pain.
Just pain.
Agonizing, painful pain.
PAIN.
Terrible, strangled screams tore out of the three adolescents' open mouths as all the pain seemed to surge forward at them like a never-ending cataract. It was just terrible, just so terrible they could think of nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Nothing except the pain.
Their blood seemed to pour out of their bodies because of those grotesque creatures as they struck, clawing like there was no tomorrow.
All they felt was the pain before all went black.
Crimson had mingled with the dark that night.
Author's Notes:
I don't feel content with my writing. I have this weird feeling that it was probably eliciting cries of, "Yeah, I know already!" or "Okay, I know they're in pain!" or something similar.
I'm sorry if you didn't want them to go through that much pain either. But I'll leave it at that.
As for Faeyt, don't start thinking that I made her leave because I didn't want her to get hurt. That is a big no-no. I care about my characters because they are important for the story, but I wouldn't do that. She leaves because she needs to be at a certain place. End of story. If you're also wondering why I gave so much information on her, it was for the sake of knowing where the heck she came from. End of story as well.
Don't worry, there will be more original characters... but I'll try my best not to make them Mary-Sues, Gary-Stus, etc.
Anyway, thank you for reading the first chapter of "Manipulation's Deceit". Please review if desired.