Chapter 4
Tyloxar rowed up to the empty shore. He tied the boat to a very old dock and walked onto the beach.
"Finally, the 'darker' island," said Tyloxar out loud. He walked around the front part of the island for a bit, observing some of its features. The occasional coconut tree, an old shack, a bridge connecting the main island with a smaller island, a giant tree house, a massive waterfall, and the legendary paupu tree, with its star-shaped destiny-binding fruit protruding from its tree top. Tyloxar was not interested in this. Nothing on this island did. He just merely walked across the sand. The sun, setting in the far out distance. Tyloxar walked out to the old shack he had seen earlier. In it, was a set of creaky old stairs that looked as if they hadn't been used in years. Or, maybe it was just old. Tyloxar continued towards the stairs. He continued to walk up them, eying a small corner by the door. But his attention was diverted from there, as he continued up.
"I don't remember these stairs being so long," he said, "But then again, I don't really remember anything really."
He continued onward, up the ever so creaky staircase.
Tyloxar had realized, time had passed. A lot of time. Too much time. He looked down. The stairs seemed to be at a normal height. Once again he diverted his attention from the ground to the higher parts of the staircase. Only to realize that his face was only about two inches from the door.
"Strange…" he said. But continued anyway. He opened the wooden door. It was slightly sticky at first, but it opened. Tyloxar didn't expect what was going to happen next. Light rushed in the shack at him. Light. Pure light. True light. He shut his eyes and covered his face as fast as possible. He waited for a while. Only a few moments passed when he uncovered his face. He saw where he had expected to go. A bridge connecting this part of the island to another small piece of land with a strangely shaped tree was protruding in front of him. However, something was wrong. The light was different. The sun wasn't at a near setting position. No, it was directly above Tyloxar.
"Noon? Wait, this can't be right…" Tyloxar said re-investigating the area. He looked again and noticed a boy, leaning up against the tree. He could see only the back of his head. But Tyloxar could tell immediately who he was. His silver hair gave his identity away.
"Uh oh…" he said in a whispered tone. He didn't want to be seen at all. He tried to slowly cross the bridge without being noticed. He slowly tip-toed the entire distance. He found himself almost to the shade of a tree. He only then realized he was wearing black clothing. Black, in the middle of a sun-shining afternoon with all different, bright, colors around him. He wasn't exactly "a part of the crowd".
"Oh, no…" he said. He began to rub his head like he always did if someone made a stupid mistake. He had only thought he was seen because he could hear maybe three voices, playing and laughing. But they had stopped a while back. He also had attracted the attention of the silver-haired boy leaning against the tree.
"Umm…hi?" Tyloxar had said, similar to the other silver-haired boy he'd met when he first came here.
"Hey, Sora," the boy said.
"Wha...?" Tyloxar said in a confused tone.
"Hey, wanna go a round?" the boy said.
"Hello?" Tyloxar said.
"Uhhhh...sure Riku," said a voice that came from behind Tyloxar.
Tyloxar quickly turned to find who was talking. It was Sora. But not the one he had saw before in the hospital. This Sora was shorter, had a lighter voice, and had quite different clothing on. Tyloxar happen to also notice that this Sora was passing through him, as if he were a ghost. A very surprised Tyloxar turned his head to where Riku was standing. Both boys had wooden swords in their hands, and they began to engage in combat. Moments later, Tyloxar tried to step forward, but before he could, light emerged in front of him. The boys had began to fade away, the light was blinding him. No faster or slower than he did before, he guarded his face with his hands, not wanting to even get a glimpse of the light, and his environment began to fade away. It faded, and faded, until it became a very familiar surrounding to Tyloxar. He lifted his arms away from his face, bit by bit, hoping not to glimpse the light. Sunset. All he saw was the sunset on the island. He appeared in the same position as before, staring at the paopu tree.
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"Sora!" said a voice from behind him. The boy turned to face his friend. Only to be bombarded with a very heavy star-shaped fruit. "You wanted one, didn't you?" the thrower of the fruit said.
"A paopu fruit..." Sora said.
"If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined," Sora's friend said, "They'll remain apart of each other's lives no matter what."
Tyloxar stared at the tree. "Useless fruits of eternal light..." said Tyloxar returning to his ever angered state. And so, Tyloxar left this part of the island, returning to the main area.
As he continued walked along the main beach he could swear he heard something. A small, familiar, tune started to repeat in his head over, and over again.
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"Nothing's changed, huh?" said the silver-haired boy.
"Nope. Nothing will," responded the boy sitting next to him.
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The tune faded. Tyloxar stood there, gazing at the sunset. He turned again, this time, towards a small cave. It looked… well… small. Ignoring that fact that it seemed extremely un-enterable in the dark. Fitting through like, well… like a thirteen-year old in an extremely dark and small cave, Tyloxar came through the other side of the entrance point.
Inside was a lot bigger, well not quite too big, but hey, it was better than the entrance. "I have got to learn how to open up those corridors to darkness soon," Tyloxar said to himself. Tyloxar analyzed the room. The light from sunset was beaming through the opening in the ceiling, creating a surreal kind of atmosphere in the cave. Tyloxar also noticed the drawings in the cave. But one in particular that triggered his thoughts was one of Kairi's and Sora's drawings. Three faces, facing each other.
Wait… three?
Why three? Tyloxar rubbed his eyes. Two faces now appeared on the wall. That's right. Wait… they're not facing each other. They're turned away from each other, unhappy. What's going on? And something about those faces caught Tyloxar's attention. Sure, the face of the boy, Sora, looked right. But Kairi's was… different. Her drawing had, instead of short hair, long hair. The features on her face also looked slightly different. Then Tyloxar realized something. Neither one of the faces were Sora's or Kairi's. He figured that it was just some weird flashback at first. That's exactly what he wanted to see. Just something weird. But he couldn't hide the truth from himself anymore. Because… the face he saw earlier, the third face. It was his own face. And Tyloxar quickly found the meaning of the symbolism he had just seen. His presence in this universe would be causing exactly what he promised not to cause. He could now imagine what would the results of his meddling would be. And soon enough, he heard something.
A song. The song. The only way Tyloxar could possibly keep his promise, if he were to ever go against his belief. Its effect on him was bringing all sorts of guilt upon him. The thought of it. Unbearable. He was slowly declining from his consciousness. What horrors he could do. Thrust upon him. It was like feeling the pain of dying. No, worse than dying. It was screeching in his ears. The unimaginable pain.
"Sworn to protect…" Tyloxar said, repeating his promise, "…the other…" And on that note, Tyloxar collapsed on the ground, once again.
