I had an RE exam today and ten minutes to spare at the end so I decided to have the urge to start writing Chapter 4. I hope my English teacher appreciates the first part of chapter four scribbled in my book o.O
Disclaimer: I own nothing except Ivy and the characters that you don't recognise. Do you know what I've realised…
And a big thank you to Hello, (haha) my first reviewer in a long time! I had forgotten how much difference a review can make, and I'm glad you liked the dancing bit. I was veeery unsure about that part. :D thank you big lots!!! Hope you like the next bit!
I also received another review on the er… 17th, which made me get my butt into gear. I'm going to try my hardest to get this posted tonight. Thanks!!!
Chapter 4
It was late. Ivy wasn't sure exactly what the time was, but she returned to her boat gazing at the stars, feeling like there was no bottom to her stomach and that she could eat forever. She wasn't tired, she had done this too many times to let herself be tired. She had made sure she'd eaten, drunk and slept at least double what she usually would to ensure her body was working properly.
She walked down past the islet, down towards the Seaside Shack, and past the Oasis. Her feet were sore and she was hot and sticky all over from her dance and being packed in, after she had been on stage, backstage. Maybe she could avoid being exhausted after doing this over and over, but sweating was just something she couldn't avoid, however much she hated it. There was no breeze about that night, and she thought to herself 'a quick dip in the oasis won't hurt, will it?' She sat carefully down on the side and pulled off the boots she had gotten changed back into.
After shedding these, and rolling her baggy black cut-offs up even further, she cautiously dipped in her toes. If anyone had seen her at that moment, they would have either been shocked to the bone (if they knew her) or think that she was completely innocent and child-like (if they had never even seen her before in their life that is.) Her long, auburn hair was cascading down her back, as she was too hot to tie it up; it was so long the very tips of it touched the ground she was sitting on. Finally, after several cautious moments of half-hearted toe-dipping, she gave up and stuck the whole foot in. The water rose to mid-calf, and she decided to wade deeper in, feeling a cool sensation grip her body. Soon it was almost up to mid thigh, where the denim cut offs were now rolled up to. Ivy had now abandoned not just the will to not get her things wet and look like a fool, lounging around in the waterfall, but all of the usual sarcasm and baggage she carried around. Sometimes people just do that; abandon most of the bad things that they are for a short period of time, and this seemed to be one of them. At the time she didn't understand, didn't even realise it was happening, but afterwards, when she thought on it, she thought perhaps it was that pure, clean water flowing over her (completely the opposite) body. Maybe it was just one of those times when it hits you how big the world is and it just puts it into perspective, the size of you (and your baggage) against all of that, making you decide you just don't care.
But her peace and quiet was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of three beings, who were racing down the beach and onto the islet. Ivy shrank behind the fall so that nobody would interrupt her peaceful state, and they missed her completely. They ran into the Seaside Shack, the oldest of the trio exclaiming reasonably loud that he won. Ivy came back out of the fall, just to see them arrive on the bridge, walk along in a little string and, one by one, the silver haired boy first and the red haired girl last, jump onto the falling-over Paopu Tree.
Although she felt cleansed, clean and new, she didn't want an encounter, she felt she just wasn't ready to meet these people for some reason. After all, the effect of the waterfall was not to erase everything that she was before. She wandered, dazed, as if drunk, into the Secret Place, her past fears at the back of her mind. A cold wave washed over the tall-ish girl as she stepped, still barefoot, into the dark tunnel leading to, what she imagined was a hollow, probably with no light in at all. As she padded along the floor, which seemed to be made of a concrete type substance, as it definitely wasn't sand, she gazed doe eyed at the walls. On some patches, there were markings which looked like chalk, drawn by small children. It contrasted greatly with the general feeling of forbidding, the childishness which lay behind those chalked up sketches. Time seemed to stand still as she ventured ever further into the deepness of the cave, until she found herself, perching, altogether surprised, on a rock in the middle of the rounded cave, star and moonlight streaming through hole in the rock formation above her. She felt entirely safe, cocooned in the darkness, until she caught sight of the brown door outlined in gold, situated in the corner. She shivered, and felt compelled to touch it, not sensing that the shiver she received was just a reverberation from the shadowed person standing behind her, not the door itself. She touched the door, feeling half-blindly for a door knob or something for which she could open it. She didn't succeed, and instead fell to wondering what was behind it. She was beginning to get cold, as there was a slight breeze drafting in through the top of the cave. She shivered again, but didn't leave. She sat down for a long while, thinking about what could possibly be behind the door.
"Your dance was brilliant. I especially thought you were great. You conveyed such emotion, I almost felt as if the song was about you in some way." The voice made her jump several times, but continued, sounding slightly amused, until it had finished what it wanted to say.
"Well thank you, but I think I had better go. I'm cold and wet and I need a proper shower." But something made her stop. Nothing came out of the shadows, the person who had just been talking to her appeared to have vanished just as suddenly as it appeared to have come. They certainly didn't try to stop her from leaving. The tense feeling had passed now that she had been distracted from the door, and whoever had just spoken seemed to have left. A cloud passed over the moon and Ivy glanced around at the numerous sketches resembling
the ones on the way into the cave. She could hardly make them out, though through the darkness, she saw many of people in threes… there was one of what seemed to be three children, two holding little swords and one with a sort of crown above his head. The other two appeared to be just 'standing' in the background, altogether making a triangle. Across from that, there was a rough one of the boy from the background of the last, with spiky hair, and a very badly drawn duck, and also… was that a dog type thing? It was hard to tell. After comparing these two designs, weighing each up and glancing momentarily around at the others, she looked over to the door, wondering if any might be around there, or if there were any clues as to how to open it. There were not. Though she did spy a small one of just two spiky-haired people, smiling at each other, eating what looked like stars. She walked over to it reasonably slowly, tracing over it with her fingers. Was this… Sora and Kairi?
"If you're thinking about what I think you are, then yes, it is Sora and Kairi." The man stepped out of the shadows, a look of well-hidden pain scarring his face. "And if you are thinking what I think you're thinking now, then yes, I am Riku." He held out his hand, and Ivy didn't shake it.
"Ivy. Pleasure, I'm sure." The same look of distaste spread across her face. She used this one a lot, Riku could tell. A silence fell upon them with which Riku felt very uncomfortable. He tried to think of something to talk to her about, which he felt even more awkward about because he could usually talk to anyone or anything at any time of the day. But just as Riku was about to ask if she needed a towel or something, the mysterious girl got up from her cross legged position and walked straight out, pausing at the mouth of the cave to look behind her casually and wave at him 'goodbye'. She didn't look back as she walked out of the darkness and back into the moonlight. He heard clunking footsteps slow as the girl walked towards the jetty, the people (for there were actually two more 15 year olds outside, you just couldn't hear the other person's dainty feet)
"Riku? Are you in there?" I could hear Kairi's slightly concerned voice from outside. He leaned against the stone in the centre of the Secret Place and openly sighed.
"Yes, Kai, I'm in here. It's late, shouldn't you two young-uns be in bed?" He heard Sora sigh in a knowing kind of way, he knew when Riku would rather be left alone. Sora was much smarter than anyone gave him credit. They entered the cave holding hands. Riku glanced down and smirked, thinking he'd add something to show them he didn't completely wish them to be gone.
"Not together of course." It worked. Kairi had blushed and Sora's contented grin returned, although when Kairi glanced at him imploringly, he quickly replaced it with one of distaste and changed the subject.
"How come you just left like that? You almost scared us…" Sora trailed off after seeing Riku sit, cross legged on the floor, facing the door to the outside, the door with no handle. Kairi's look of vague fright returned, and she looked again to Sora to break Riku out of this sudden trance he seemed to have slipped into. Slowly, he tiptoed towards his older friend, and quietly sat next to him. He glanced up at Kairi and signalled that this might take a while. She got the hint, sighed and bid them goodnight, not expecting an answer from either of them.
After a long, tedious period of time, Sora finally worked up the courage to say anything, not caring whether it was the right or wrong thing to say anymore.
"What happened in here? I mean… we saw that dancer girl leave, did she… upset you or anything?" Riku was silent for just long enough that Sora decided to get up and leave, and was just about to do so when Riku spoke.
"You see anything unusual or interesting about this door?" He reached up and touched the door, as if wary that it might bite him.
"No… why do you ask?" Sora replied, trying (and failing) to cover up his distinct creeped-out-ness asked, sitting properly back down and making himself comfortable.
"Strange… I can't either, I wonder why she was so intrigued… it's just a door after all." Riku spoke more to himself than to Sora, although his head was inclined in Sora's direction. Sora himself however decided that he should leave the most probably pissed out of his skull Riku to his own thoughts. He got up and walked casually towards the entrance to the cave, quietly saying his goodnights. However, when he reached the cave mouth, the first of two progressively strange things jumped out from around the corner, and startled him so that he quite forgot his troubles with Riku. Funny that it should have been Riku himself that stopped it.
"Hey, Sora, you're not giving up are you?!" Riku hurried towards him casually, with that manner that only Riku achieved, as if he only half-wanted to see you. "I thought you had more guts to stick it out than that. Obviously not though…" Sora paused for a moment. He was still in shock. Although he did manage to gain his bearings quicker than usual, Riku was quite amused, and Sora stuttered his defence
"Hey, you're the one being all spiritual and creepy. What got into you?" He immediately regretted asking the question, knowing that he probably should have left it until a little later in the conversation to establish the 'what the hell were you doing's.'
"The 'dancer girl'" he used air quotes at this point (exaggerating his movements more than usual, Sora noted… just when he thought it was impossible for anyone to be more sarcastic than Riku, Riku out-did him. Again.) "was being exactly the same, but I daresay she was more inspiring. The way she talked was as if she'd just completely rediscovered herself or something. Romanticised, but it engaged me for a while, so I wanted to understand… I tried that 'empathy' lark. Not worth it, I'll tell you." He finished with a vague grin plastering his face, and Sora decided he'd better wake up soon before he went mad. But he continued to say nothing, hoping it might prompt Riku to say something else which actually made sense.
Finishing there because I can't think of anything else right now and I am increasingly aware that I went through an updating period which needs to be like… updated… or something.
It's late!!!
Bracken xxx