Chapter 4: Listen with Your Heart

Iris followed the narrow and winding course to an old willow tree where the spirit of an old friend of her mothers, Isis, dwelt. Several small animals swarmed around Iris as she arrived.

"Oh, I'm tired." Sora said with a yawn.

"You're always tired." Iris said with a smile.

"Is that my little Iris?" A voice just like her own said, and the spirit of her grandmother, Aerith appeared out of the tree. She looked alittle like Iris is only in different clothes.

"Grandmother Aerith, I need to talk to you." Iris said.

"Good morning, dear." Aerith said as she knelt down. "I was hoping you'd stop by today. Oh, my! Your mother's necklace. I still remember the day your father gave it to her."

"It's what I wanted to talk to you about." Iris said. "My father wants me to marry Xemnas."

"Xemnas?" Aerith asked. "Are you kidding? He's so serious."

"I know." Iris said. "My father thinks it's the right path for me, but lately, I've been having this dream, and I think it's-"

"Oh, a dream?" Aerith said. "Tell me all about it."

"Yeah!" Sora said. "You never told any of us except Surane about it! Tell us, tell us, tell us!"

"Sora, calm down, young man." Aerith said firmly as a tree root came up, picked Sora up and set him down on an outgrown part of the stump Iris was sitting on.

All the animals were on Sora's side and chirped to hear it.

"Quiet!" Aerith called out, and when a frog made a badly timed croak, Aerith looked at him, and he jumped into the water for protection. "You were saying, dear?"

"Well," Iris said. "I'm running through the woods, and then right there in front of me is an arrow. As I look at it, it starts to spin."

"A spinning arrow?" Aerith asked.

"That'd make a great party game." Sora said slyly before he got slapped in the behind by a branch. "Ouch!"

"Yes, it was very unusual." Iris said. "It spins around faster and faster and faster and fast until suddenly, it stops."

"That's it?" Sora asked as he got a very dizzy Shadow as it turned around and around to imitate the arrow. "You've been going on about a spinning arrow?"

"Hush, boy." Aerith said, and Sora bowed his head as Aerith turned to Iris. "It seems to me that this spinning arrow is pointing you down your path."

"But what is my path?" Iris asked. "How am I supposed to find it?"

"Your mother asked me the very same questions when she was about to marry your father." Aerith said with a smile.

"She did?" Iris asked. "What did you tell her?"

"I told her to listen." Aerith said. "Spirits are all around you, Iris. They live in the Earth, in the water, in the sky, if you listen, they will guide you."

Ay-ay-ay-ya.

"I hear the wind." Iris said.

"Yes, what's it telling you?" Aerith asked.

"I don't know." Iris said. "I don't understand it."

Que, que, na-to-ra.

You will understand.

Listen with your heart.

You will understand.

The wind suddenly came down around Iris, and she closed her eyes, trying to listen.

Let it break upon you,

Like a wave upon the sand.

Listen with your heart.

You will understand.

"You will understand." A familiar voice said as Iris suddenly heard what the wind was saying.

"It's saying something is coming!" Iris said. "Strange… Clouds?"

Iris climbed up with Sora and Shadow.

"What do you kids see?" Aerith asked.

"Clouds." Iris asked as she looked at the fine-edged, non-billowing, rectangular clouds that were coming. "Strange clouds."

()()()()()

Xehanort opened it.

"Look at it, Vexen." Xehanort said as he smiled. "An entire new world chocked full of gold. Just waiting for me."

"And stores of adventures waiting for us!" Demyx said with a smile. "Aint dat right, Vexen?"

"Do you think we'll meet some savages?" Vexen asked.

"If we do, we'll be sure to give them a proper English greeting." Xehanort said.

"Gift baskets?" Vexen asked.

"A fist fight?" Demyx asked as well.

"And Vexen came so highly recommended." Xehanort said as he pulled out a map of what they knew of Virginia.

"It's perfect conditions, Mister." Vanitas said as he suddenly walked in. "The water's deep enough, and we can pull right up to shore." Vanitas then smirked at Demyx. "So, being a good dog for your masters, Demyx?"

"Watch it Vanitas, or you're goin' back ta England without any teeth!" Demyx said as he grabbed Vanitas's shirt, but Vanitas just smirked.

"Nice grip, let me show you, mine." Vanitas grabbed Demyx's hand and tossed him to the ground.

"Very well then." Xehanort said in order to avoid a fight. "Give the order."

"Already done." Vanitas said. "I've got a crew assembled, and we're ready to go."

"About the natives," Xehanort said moodily as he didn't like people giving orders he was supposed to give. "I'm counting on you to make sure those filthy heathens don't disrupt our mission."

"If they're anything like the savages I've thought before, it's nothing I can't handle." Vanitas said with a smirk.

"Right." Xehanort said as he smiled at well. Kaiba made the perfect patsy. "That'll be all, Kaiba-boy."

"Alright." Vanitas said as he get his helmet on. "Later Demyx."

"Man would I love to just get five minutes alone with that guy." Demyx said through his teeth.

"The men like Vanitas, don't they?" Xehanort asked rhetorically. "I've never been a popular man."

"I like you." Vexen said.

"Suck up." Demyx countered.

"And don't think I don't know what those back-stabbers at court say about me!" Xehanort said angrily as he moved his hair to look at the excess skin that covered his right eye socket, having lost it as a child.

"Oh, yo mean all the talk about being a pathetic social climber who's failed in everything he's-?" Demyx asked.

"I'm aware that this is my last chance for glory, Demyx!" Xehanort shouted. "But mark my words you two, when King Yin Sid sees the gold these peasants unearth, success will be mine at last."

Xehanort then smiled darkly as he repositioned his hair back over the right side of his face.

Choas: Light and Darkness... Two incredibly powerful forcese with their own separate worlds.

Iris: However, darkness was born from the lust and selfishness in people's hearts,

Surane: eventully giving birth to the most fearsome monsters of the dark, heartless.

Aqua: The instinctly attack begings in the Realm of Light, stealing their hearts and turning their victims to Heartless as well.

All four: In the darkness one can see the light, in the light one can see the darkness. IN one entitly both dwell, thought good or bad, no one can tell.

Terra: oh well, Choas does not own Pocahontas or kingdom hearts, but she does own Iris and Surane belongs to SuraneSpiral!