Kairi looked down in confusion as the brown sand she stood on seemed as though it would separate from the white, hazy, powdery ground in front of it. Fog drifted up into the black abyss around her, and the thoughts in her mind were numerous and frenetic. Kairi couldn't remember how she had gotten to this place, where it was, or how long she had been there. But the ground in front of her scared her the most.
Then, a voice called her name. It drifted around her, and settled urgently in her ears. Her heart jumped as she raised her head to see who was saying her name, even though she recognized that voice by heart.
"Sora!" she called, stepping towards him in relief. She had a feeling that he would come for her. Sora stopped in front of her, reaching out to touch her, when there was a great tremor that shook the world around them, and a resounding boom that resembled thunder. Kairi stopped herself from falling backwards, and instead let Sora catch her.
As she looked back up at him in fear, she could see that his eyes held an urgency that she could not understand. It was like he knew something inevitable was coming. A separation.
"Kairi" he said, bringing her attention back onto his voice. "Remember what you said before?"
Kairi nodded, and things seemed to get harder on Sora by the second. "I'm always with you too. I'll come back to you!"
Kairi desperately held onto Sora's hand, realizing for the first time that the space between them was getting greater and greater. She refused to look at the ground below her, but she knew now that the sandy platform she stood on had separated from the white misty ground Sora stood on. The black abyss dared her to jump into Sora's arms- but she knew that she had to go home. She didn't want to cause Sora any trouble, but she couldn't let him out of her sight again.
"I promise!" Sora added willfully, and squeezed Kairi's hand. In that moment, she understood.
"I know you will." Kairi shouted at him, trying to make her quavering voice sound strong. Then, her hands slipped out of Sora's grasp, and they were pulled away from each other. Kairi tried to frantically reach for him, and he for her, but the distance was too far, and she watched helplessly, as her best friend grew farther and farther away.
Kairi forced her hands to stop reaching for him. She wanted to make things as easy for Sora as possible. She didn't want to look like a baby, like a weak thing. She had to stay strong for him. So she pulled back. Eventually, Sora stopped reaching for her, too, as he grew hazier and hazier.
The abyss surrounding Kairi suddenly grew softer, changing from a stark black nothingness, to a deep deep blue haze. Kairi continued to look up at Sora, fearing that if she took her eyes off him, he would disappear forever. She did not notice a small, golden orb of light drift down from the abyss above, right into her palm, until she felt its reassuring warmth spread from her palms, all through her body, engulfing her. Kairi looked up above her in surprise, and gasped as she noticed that thousands upon thousands of the same golden orbs were drifting down around her, from the dusk blue haze around her, that seemed to grow more tangible by the second. It all looked so much like the night sky, the way she saw it. It reminded her so much of home.
Up, further away, was Sora. He looked around at the falling orbs in awe, and back down at Kairi, who admired them as they fell to the ground around her.
Suddenly, there was a burst of blue light that seemed to explode from the sand behind her like fireworks. Up through this blue light shot the trees, flowers, and bushed that had graced the island that she and her friends had never failed to visit when they had dreamed of adventure, before it all happened.
The blue light left behind bursts of purple fireworks, and through them, the trees seemed to grow, until the light dissipated, and Kairi began to make out wooden huts and various passageways through the enormous trees behind her. In front of her, she could barely hear the sound of the tide coming in, and she marveled at everything, as the orbs of yellow light continued to fall around her.
Kairi looked back into the sky, and barely made out Sora in the haze around him. The white, hazy ground that had stood firm below him, looked like a small iceberg now, drifting out to sea. The white fog that had wafted up from it before, began to turn into a heavy blue haze, and then it became more opaque, whizzing blue lights, that formed around Sora like a supernova, engulfing him. The iceberg disappeared behind the blue haze of light, and the light slowly became smaller and smaller, setting like a blue sun on the horizon. It trembled for a moment, and then, it released thousands of bright blue shooting stars, that whizzed through the sky and pinged into position, setting the stars where they used to be.
Kairi looked up at the blue haze that quickly disappeared on the horizon, and then at the stars that were rearranging themselves in the night sky. Then, she closed her eyes, and blew a kiss to Sora. This set her heart at peace, and she smiled, willing Sora forward.
She knew that he had a lot of work to do, in some other place, in some other time. But until he was finished saving a world that she did not know, she would be waiting for him.
…
Kairi woke up on the island's beach, with the water wafting playfully around her feet. She rubbed her eyes as she pulled herself up off of the ground, and stretched herself out, sighing audibly.
She looked around with no considerable surprise at her surroundings.
"Wow!" she thought to herself, sighing again. "What a strange dream I had!"
She remembered the storm that had ravaged Destiny Islands. She had gone to the Secret Place that she and Sora had drawn in before, to keep safe. Then, everything became hazy. She knew that Sora had caught her in his arms. She couldn't understand why he would have left her on the beach, though.
She decided that her best bet would be to search around the forest area, and eventually made her way towards the Secret Place, reminiscing on the maddening dream she had had last night.
In it, she had woken up from a long sleep, was told she was a 'princess of heart', among other things, was carted off by strange people she did not know, and was separated from Sora, again. It boggled her mind that her imagination could have come up with something that riveting. She felt rather proud of herself.
She finally reached the cave, and went inside of it, smiling and running her hands along the walls that held so many chalk drawings. It reminded her of when she and her friends were much younger.
A hole in the rocks that made up the roof of the cave let in beams of light that illuminated the old, wooden door that had always been there, before anyone could remember. A sense of ease overcame Kairi as she looked at the door, contrary to the foreboding that the door had always exuded before. She wondered what had changed.
As Kairi's eyes traveled around the cave, she noticed one drawing in particular, the first drawing that she and Sora had completed together. Something was different about it, though.
It was a picture of Sora and Kairi looking at each other with gaping smiles. But, unlike before, there was now an arm extending from Sora's picture of himself, handing Kairi a paopu fruit.
Kairi suddenly felt her world crumbling around her, and she had to take hold of the wall to keep her steady. At that moment, she realized that what she had previously thought was a dream that spanned one night, was actually a reality that had spanned much longer.
Sora was gone.
That reality was the worst of all. But, even though it hurt, she couldn't help but laugh. Sora was just as superstitious as she was! Kairi searched around for a piece of chalky stone on the ground, and started to draw an addition to the picture.
When she was finished, she looked at her handy work with satisfaction, and walked out of the Secret Place, making her way down the pathway, and out to the dock. There was still no one on the beach. She poked her head around the dock, and was delighted to find that her little boat was still drifting aimlessly through the water. It was as if the storm that had ravaged her home so long ago, was an illusion; everything seemed so calm.
She rowed away from the Island, noticing that the birds had begun returning from over the sea. They flocked over her, and traveled towards the docks on the main island, settling down near it to feast on the fish that had also come in closer to shore, from the deep sea.
She tied her boat to the dock, and exited it gingerly, going up the beach towards her hometown. With a deep breath, she plodded on faster, whistling a little bit in good spirits, as she thought of what she had drawn for Sora.
In their Secret Place, there was a drawing of Sora and Kairi, smiling big open mouth grins at each other. Sora held out a paopu fruit to Kairi, and she gladly returned the favor, holding out an even bigger one to him.
While not together in person, Kairi and Sora were tied together by their hearts. Kairi could never forget that.
END PROLOGUE