And here's Chapter 7. When I wrote this I decided to just let myself go and see how long it would end up being. It's a bit longer than usual because of this. How long the chapters will be from this point on is debatable.

I'm sorry it took so long to update. I had some projects to finish, finals, and then had the MCAT (The last one was the most traumatizing test I ever took.). I either didn't have time to write, or just couldn't get into the mood. Now that it's summer, I should hopefully write more.

As an apology for taking so long, I will post a short story called 'A Boy and His Heartless.' It'll be in the crossover section though due to the main character in it.

As usual, I don't own anything except for the plot, and some of that is borrowed as well, all things considered.

Chapter Start!

The next morning, Scarlett decided to talk to the quartet about their plan. "If you want to go traveling about the worlds, you either have to be real good at fighting or be smart about how you travel and fight. For example, you guys are fairly new at this." She held up a hand as Raven opened his mouth. "Don't interrupt me Raven. By new I mean, you've forgotten pretty much everything from before a few days ago, correct?" They nodded. "So even if you did know how to fight, you've forgotten how, and while being fast and strong is important in fighting, that's only the half of it. You need to know how to move, read your opponents' moves, dodge, use your environment, and so on and so forth. In other words, you need experience to be good fighters. You could probably become good fighters, but you'll need to survive for that. As such, I suggest you go to the worlds where the Heartless do not have such a strong hold and are considerably weaker. I'd suggest the Chesapeake. The Heartless are fairly weak and the natives are willing to help. They refuse to leave their world, but most people refuse to do that, so that's not important. What's important is that as long as you don't insult or hurt them, they will help you out if you need it." Scarlett's lecture had left their heads spinning somewhat. They were willing to agree just to get her to stop.

"Okay, we'll go to the Chesapeake first," said Hana.

Scarlett continued to lecture anyway. "I also think you four need to know more than just two spells. There are Heartless that are resistant to fire or just plain absorb it."

Raven rolled his eyes. "Can't we just hit them?"

Scarlett nodded. "Yeah, but some of them can be difficult to hit, especially if they're speedy." At this point, Scarlett drew out her rapier. "So, I'll show you four one spell from each category."

Kaze raised an eyebrow. "You're just showing us? Not teaching us?"

Scarlett gestured at Sora and Raven. "Those two are obviously impatient to leave. If I don't let you guys leave as soon as possible, they are just going to be impossible to be around. Besides, Hana seems quite talented at this. I'm sure she'll figure out how to use them." Hana blushed at the praise. "And then she can teach you boys. You'll be on your own for other spells until you decide you want to come back to the Coliseum though."

"So, what're the spells?" asked Sora.

"Blizzard." She shot a blast of ice out of her sword and into the Coliseum wall. "And Barrier." She held the sword out in front of her in a vertical position and a nearly invisible sphere with a green tint appeared around her. "It protects against physical damage."

"Okay, we're gonna go now." Vanitas grabbed Kaze and Sora and ran out of there with Pluto running after them. Hana waved to Scarlett and quickly followed the boys. Scarlett shook her head.

"Those kids need to learn to some patience." Then she did a facepalm and groaned. "They're making me sound so old…" The red mage sighed and walked back into the coliseum.

*Break!*

"Chesapeake, huh? Nice place! It doesn't have any large towns like in the other worlds. The natives live in these tent things that they call teepees and wigwams. The land's preserved much better than the other's. A real beauty!" Cid had decided to tell them all about the world they were going to. He'd also taken to slipping treats to Pluto. "They use bows and arrows and these ax things to fight, but they convinced us to give them some other weapons. They aren't so good at the complicated stuff, but they're getting the hang of guns."

"Hey, how long does this ride take anyway?" asked Raven.

"It depends on how many Heartless ships we run into."

The quartet blinked. "Huh?"

"Yeah, it turns out they have ships too! Weird isn't it?" Then a sort of alarm went off and a bunch of gummi ships appeared in front of them. "Speak of the devil! The first wave!"

"There's so many…How do you avoid them?" asked Kaze.

"You can't avoid them! You gotta blast through them!" The adolescents' eyes widened and they quickly strapped themselves in.

Roughly half an hour later, they finally reached the world. It was covered in greenery with rivers threading in it with a few teepees on it. The quartet's fingers were digging into the armrests of their chairs, except for Sora. Pluto had jumped onto Sora halfway through the first wave and Sora had been holding onto him. "First time's always the hardest! Let's land!" Cid changed the direction of the ship slightly and they zoomed towards the world.

The gummi ship landed in a small clearing. A board with a gummi ship on it was nailed to a nearby tree along with a button. "Okay, some worlds don't have an available garage, so we use this instead."

The quartet gave it a look. Sora was the one who voiced their disbelief. "A sign and a button?"

Cid nodded. "The button sends out a distress signal. It's for emergencies only, so don't push it unless you need to be picked up right away. The times when we come here to pick up anyone who wants to leave this world are written on the board. Just show up at one of those times, and one of us will show up to pick you up. Just make sure you have the munny."

"Um, right, thanks," said Hana.

"No problem! Be seeing you kids around!" Cid walked back into the gummi ship and flew off into the sky with it.

"That guy sure is loud," mused Sora.

"There's a lot of trees here," noted Hana. "I wonder what else is around here."

So they started to explore. There were some Heartless, but they were weak like Scarlett had said. They were mostly Shadows, but there were also some that were a bit bigger and were dressed up like Indians with tomahawks or bows and arrows. The environment was quite beautiful too. The land was undeveloped so it was all plants, rivers, and wild animals. It was really quite peaceful and relaxing, except for the Heartless.

"I really like it here," said Sora. "Let's take our time gathering funds for the next world."

"But it's boring!" complained Raven. "There's no one here strong enough for a decent fight!"

"You're a violent person, aren't you?" commented Kaze.

Raven paused. Now that he thought about it, he probably did enjoy killing Heartless a little too much. Was that good or bad? He decided to just shrug it off. "Well, there are plenty of Heartless to kill at least."

"What if the Heartless go away?" asked Hana.

"Well, there are always those monsters at the Coliseum." Everyone gave Raven a 'You can't be serious' look, even Pluto. "What?"

Kaze just shook his head. "We gotta get you a new hobby."

Sora suddenly sat down. "We're getting kind of antsy. Let's take a break and eat lunch."

"Fine."

"Yeah, that sounds good."

They all sat down and started out pulling out some food they'd bought before leaving the Coliseum. Since they couldn't use cans (no can openers) and didn't want food that would spoil in a couple of days, they'd ended up buying almost nothing but dried meat (and a bone for Pluto) and fruit. They found out some things a little too late because of this.

Hana's eyebrow twitched. "So none of you guys like apples?" The boys all shook their heads. As soon as they'd tried the dried apples, they'd realized they could not stand the taste. She sighed. "Couldn't you guys have found out about that before we bought the food?"

"In our defense, we couldn't remember what we liked at the time," pointed out Kaze.

"Maybe we could trade fruits with you?" suggested Sora. "We have other fruits."

Hana nibbled on her apple piece. Well, she liked them. "Okay, but next time, let's check and see if we like the food before we buy a bunch of it."

Raven suddenly started. "Hey! Get out of there!" He grabbed at the bag that they were keeping their food in, and lifted something out. It took a second for the others to figure out it was a raccoon eating a piece of dried apple.

"Did that just try to eat our food?" asked Kaze.

Raven nodded. Sora grabbed it from him and looked it in the eye. The raccoon cocked its head curiously. "It's not acting like a wild animal…" He put it down. It didn't try running away. It just continued eating the apple piece it had nicked.

"Maybe it's someone's pet," suggested Hana. That was when it finished the slice. It immediately ran over to the pack but was intercepted by Raven.

"Oh no you don't! Do you have any idea how long it took to get the munny for this stuff? !"

"Oh come on." Sora held out an apple slice that the raccoon quickly grabbed. "Hana's the only one that likes these anyway." The raccoon turned to the side and started waving the slice in the air. Sora blinked. "What's it doing?"

"Maybe it's got a friend over there," suggested Kaze. He walked over to the bushes and started pushing them away, but stopped when something shot out and hit him in the head. "Gah!" He stumbled back as it kept hitting him in the head. Pluto decided to defend the blond and started running around Kaze barking. The raccoon got out of Raven's grip and joined Pluto in running around Kaze. So Kaze was trying to keep the flying projectile from hitting him again and trying to keep from tripping over two animals at the same time. Raven couldn't help laughing. Neither could Sora. Hana on the other hand…

"Stop!" Everyone froze, including what was attacking Kaze. It turned out to be a small hummingbird. "Sit!" Everyone sat. "Just the animals…" The boys stood back up. The raccoon started nibbling on its apple slice. "What was that about?"

"Maybe its nest is over there," said Sora. "Birds don't like it when you get close to their nest." The bird gave him a glare.

"I've had enough of crazy animals," said Raven. "Can we move on?"

That seemed like a good idea so they moved on, but the Raccoon decided to climb up Sora and perch itself on his shoulder. It was probably hoping for more treats from him. The hummingbird was trying to pull him off and was failing due to the fact that the raccoon was much bigger. They weren't really sure what to do about these two, so they just let them be while they dealt with any Heartless they came across. The animals knew to stay out of the way at least. Then Hana used Blizzard out of the blue. She instantly got a big grin on her face.

"I got it!"

"Have you been trying to figure out how to use that since we got here?" asked Kaze.

Hana nodded. "Yep!"

"What about that force field one?" asked Sora.

"That's a bit more difficult. Plus I have to test it by letting a Heartless attack me."

"One of us could attack you," suggested Raven. That made them pause.

"I guess that could work, but let's wait, okay," said Hana. She didn't relish the idea of getting hit with one of their weird Keyblades. Who knows what it could do to them.

Shortly after Hana figured out how to use Blizzard, the raccoon started to get restless. It started scurrying from one shoulder to another and looking over to the side quite a bit. The hummingbird had disappeared as well. It put everyone on edge in case they had noticed something the kids hadn't. Then they heard a surprised shout from off to the side. They immediately ran over and saw some Heartless surrounding a young woman with long dark hair and a buckskin dress. She had a spear, but she was clutching at her arm. There was some blood noticeably welling out from between the fingers. The quartet immediately ran in and started attacking the Heartless. They only took a couple of moments to get rid of them even though they had to make sure the woman didn't get attacked. They must be getting a bit better at it. After they got rid of the Heartless, the woman bowed her head.

"Thank you. I didn't notice the Heartless until they attacked me." The raccoon then jumped from Sora's shoulder to hers.

"Is that your raccoon?" asked Sora.

She shook her head. "Meeko doesn't belong to anyone…except for maybe himself."

"Would you like us to look at your arm?" asked Hana. "We know a little white magic."

The woman nodded with a smile. "I would appreciate that. Thank you." Fortunately, it wasn't a very bad injury so a Cure was all it took to fix it. The woman flexed and rotated her arm a bit. "Thank you very much. My name is Pocahontas."

"Sora."

"Hana."

"Kaze."

"Raven."

"You don't look like you're from around here. Are you from the sky?"

Kaze blinked. "Sky?"

"Yes, lately people have been coming from the sky on large colorful birds." She must have been talking about gummi ships. "Most of them have pale skin." Well, they were pale compared to her. "They usually only stay for a few days, but one has stayed here for several months now."

"Why wouldn't anyone want to stay here?" asked Hana. "It's beautiful."

Pocahontas nodded in agreement. "I know, but most people say they're used to more…convenient lodgings. I'm not exactly sure what they mean by that."

"They probably want toilets and running water," said Raven.

Pocahontas cocked her head in confusion. "Toilets?"

"Uh, don't worry about that," said Kaze. "It's nothing important."

"Hey, where do you live?" asked Sora. "We want to find a place to stay when it gets dark."

"Yes, of course." So, Pocahontas started leading the way for them. It took a while to get there, probably because of the Heartless they had to take care of. Pocahontas turned out to know how to use the spear well enough to fight the Heartless, which was quite helpful. Eventually, they reached a large group of teepees and other buildings made of buckskin. "This is my village."

"It's a lot smaller than Twilight Town or the Coliseum," noted Kaze.

"Are one of those your village?"

"Uh…" They shifted nervously before Sora gave a quick explanation. "We don't remember where we're from."

Pocahontas winced. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It's okay," said Hana. "Where is everyone anyway?"

"The women are tending to the crops, the men are fighting the monsters, and the children are probably learning how to fight away from the village so they don't destroy anything," explained Pocahontas. "It shouldn't be completely deserted though…" She walked into the central buckskin building. Since there wasn't anyone else around, they walked in shortly after her. Inside were a few older people with gray hair working on various things. It looked like they were making clothes and food and stuff. Pocahontas was talking to one man with particularly long gray hair. When she saw them, she waved them over. "This is Kekata, our village's shaman. These are the children I told you about."

"We're not kids," proclaimed Raven. That made Kekata chuckle.

"Of course not. Pocahontas says you know how to fight." They nodded. "While it is unfortunate that young ones must know how to fight, it seems to be the only way to survive since the shadow creatures started appearing."

"You mean the Heartless?" asked Hana.

"Yes, that is what the other sky people call them, but how can we know if they have hearts or not?" Kekata had a point there. "Now, why exactly have you come here?"

"We just wanted to see what it was like here," said Sora.

The older man chuckled. "Is that so? Most sky people stay here for but a short time before leaving. Quistis is the only one who has chosen to stay."

"Who's Quistis?" asked Kaze

"She is a woman with yellow hair and clothing like yours," explained Pocahontas. "She has a strange weapon. She calls it a whip. She has been teaching us how to use some of the strange weapons other sky people leave here."

"Oh, so she's sort of like a trainer?" asked Kaze. Pocahontas crossed her arms in thought.

"She called herself a mercenary…" The quartet blinked at that.

"If she's a mercenary, does that mean she's getting paid to do this?" asked Raven.

"We're not really sure," admitted Pocahontas. "But she seems to have a good heart. I'm sure she's doing it of her own free will."

Raven grinned. "Let's go see what she can do." He ran over to the exit.

"That won't be necessary," said Kekata. "She and the warriors of our village will be returning soon. It is getting late, and at night there are many more of the shadow creatures." Raven frowned.

"What do we do until then?"

"Take a moment to rest. There's no reason to push yourself."

Raven frowned. "That's boring though."

"You should enjoy the life you have now. You never know when you will lose this luxury."

The group decided to listen the shaman. They spent the next couple of hours relaxing, playing with Pluto and Meeko, or practicing their spells very carefully. When the sun was starting to set, several people started to enter the village. The first influx was of women and children who looked at the group curiously. The second group was of men with various weapons and one woman who dressed and looked very different from the natives.

This woman had long blonde hair. The bangs were left to frame her face, but the rest of it seemed to be gathered into a half bun in the back of her head. Her eyes were icy blue and behind a pair of glasses. She had a pink zip-up vest unzipped towards the bottom, showing off her bellybutton. On her arms were what looked like dark red sleeves that had been disconnected from the rest of the outfit. She was also wearing black gloves. She had a long pink skirt on with black pants under it and a pair of black shoes. She had a brown belt hanging off one hip and a chain whip on the other. She immediately noticed the group and walked over to them.

"Who're you? I've never seen you before."

"I'm Kaze. That's Raven. That's Sora. And that's Hana."

"Did Leon send you?" They shook their heads. "You just decided to come here?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah! We wanted to see other worlds!"

Quistis sighed. "Kids…"

Raven took offense at that. "Hey! You're a mercenary, right?"

"Yeah, although I've had to put that job on hold…"

Raven grinned. "Fight me!"

Quistis had to blink at that. "What?"

"Raven likes fighting," explained Hana.

Quistis frowned. "That's a bad idea. Fighting here could destroy part of this village. Unless it's necessary, I would rather not fight here. If you're going to pick a fight, at least make sure the environment is in your favor first." She then promptly walked into one of the tents. The group blinked.

"Did Raven just get lectured?" asked Hana.

"What does it matter where I fight?" muttered Raven. "The only importing thing is winning…or killing…depends who you fight."

"I think she has a point," said Kaze.

"What do you mean?" asked Sora.

"Well, we could fight in the streets back in that city around the Coliseum, but I'm pretty sure that was just because the buildings were made of stone and pretty strong. If someone accidentally hit a building, it wouldn't do much damage. Here though, the 'buildings' are tents made out of some sort of leather. They'd be pretty much destroyed if they got hit by a stray attack. It's probably why they train away from their homes. You'd probably get in really big trouble if you started a fight here."

The other three stared at Kaze in surprise. "How'd you get that so quickly?" asked Sora. Kaze just shrugged. He wasn't sure. It just sort of flowed out naturally. He decided not to worry about it. It was useful, and maybe it would help Raven calm down a little.

"I still wanna fight that lady." Or not.

"Well, wait until tomorrow and see if we can go to the training grounds with her," said Hana. "I'm sure they spar. See if she'll have a match with you."

That seemed to be enough for Raven. He seemed upset that he couldn't have a fight right then, but he was behaving at least. After interacting with all the villagers for a little while, they sat down for dinner, which was some sort of meat and bread. Pluto seemed to have abandoned them temporarily to play with the village kids. Pocahontas was sitting next to the group and was looking at them curiously. "Why are your eyes yellow?"

That was completely unexpected. Kaze, Sora, and Hana looked at Raven. He just looked around in confusion. "Uh, my eyes are yellow?" That got some sweatdrops and facevaults.

"You forgot? That guy in Twilight Town mentioned it," said Kaze.

"Oh yeah…I forgot about that…We haven't exactly gotten access to mirrors so I haven't seen my reflection."

"What about in Twilight Town?" asked Hana. "There was glass that we saw our reflections in."

"Did any of you actually take a look at your reflection?" asked Raven.

"I look like you but with brown hair and blue eyes," said Sora.

"I have weird blond circle spikes and blue eyes," said Kaze.

"I have short black hair and blue eyes, but it's a different blue from Kaze and Sora," said Hana.

"…Okay, I'm the only guy who didn't get a good look at myself." He tugged down one of his hair spikes to get a better look at it and frowned before letting go and turning to Pocahontas. "I have no idea why they're yellow. Why?"

Pocahontas frowned. "It's just…you resemble the shadow creatures."

"The Heartless?" Raven paused and looked at his odd armor. It was almost completely black and admittedly did look creepy. Add that to the black hair and yellow eyes, and it was easy to see why Pocahontas said that. "Okay…that might explain why people have been avoiding me." He just shrugged. "Probably not a big deal."

"That's not all. You also feel like a Heartless." That was a bit of an awkward silence.

"What do you mean feel?" asked Raven. "Because I don't remember you touching me."

"That's not what I meant. I meant it in a more…spiritual way. They are full of darkness and negative emotions…and so are you."

"I'm not negative!" Kaze and Sora shared a look. Raven had not denied being dark. Then again, with the way Raven was, it wasn't possible to think of him as anything but dark.

Hana frowned. "Wait. You mean like a sort of compressing feeling on your heart and being really nervous even though you don't want to be?"

Pocahontas nodded. "Yes, you felt it too?"

Hana frowned again. Honestly she didn't know. That was just the feeling she got from Raven, but she had squashed the nervousness since she also felt like she needed to be around him, Kaze, and Sora for some reason. "I don't know. That's just what my heart feels when I look at him."

Raven rolled his eyes and sighed. "Gee, thanks a lot Hana."

"What do you feel when you look at me and Kaze?" asked Sora.

"Well, Kaze's warm and comforting. He kind of shines if you squint. Sora, you…" Hana trailed off. That was kind of hard to describe. "You feel kind of blank but…not blank."

"Blank…?" Sora looked sort of disappointed by this. "I don't feel blank…"

"It is a hard sensation to describe," said Pocahontas. Then she smiled at him. "However, you are very kind so I wouldn't worry about it."

"How come you two can 'feel' that stuff though?" asked Kaze.

Pocahontas shrugged. "Kekata says I have a perceptive spirit. Since the shadow creatures came, he has been showing me shamanic practices. He can also see these things. Hana likely has a perceptive spirit as well."

Hana just shrugged. "I guess so." And that was where the conversation stopped for the simple reason that Pluto suddenly decided to pounce on Hana. Why no one knew. He was an unpredictable dog when he wanted to be.

The next day, they confronted Quistis about going training with the others. "Hm…" She looked them over. "I have some reservations about the girl."

"I need to learn to fight too!"

Quistis nodded. "Fair enough. Come on. It doesn't take too long to get there."

Roughly 10 minutes later, they came to a river bank where several targets had been set up. "It looks nice here," said Hana.

"Get your weapons. Or do you not have any?" asked Quistis. They summoned their weapons. "Magic weapons, huh?"

Raven grinned. "Yeah, now let's fight!" Quistis sighed is exasperation.

"If you're so anxious to fight, why don't you fight Sora or Kaze?"

Raven paused and looked between the two above-mentioned boys before turning back to Quistis. "Because I don't want to fight them. I want to fight you."

Quistis gave a long suffering sigh. "I thought I wouldn't have problem students anymore."

Kaze raised an eyebrow. "Students? I thought you were a mercenary."

"I was part of an organization and taught people with potential," explained Quistis

Raven grinned again. "You have to be pretty good if you're put in charge of teaching people."

"Fine, we'll fight! Now will you stop pestering me about it?" Raven's grin got bigger.

"Finally!"

"What about us?" asked Kaze.

"Heartless pop up every 15 minutes or so," said Quistis. "You can fight them when they show up. Between outbreaks, you can practice your forms or go through exercises to increase strength, speed, and endurance. You can ask one of the natives for a spar if you want to."

"Yeah, yeah, can we get started already?" Quistis rolled her eyes at the impatient young man and unrolled her chain whip. The other three in the group decided to move away from them and figure out what to do.

"Well, I do need to work on my fighting," said Hana. "What sort of exercises do you think would help with that?"

"Push-ups!" shouted the two boys. Wow, they said it at the same time. So they did push-ups. They got corrected by one of the men there, but they did do some. For some reason, Kaze and Sora were able to do 50 before getting tired. Hana did 10. Next they did sit-ups. Kaze and Sora did 186. Hana did 48. Then some Heartless showed up and everyone had to put training on hold to get rid of them. Then they did squats. Kaze and Sora got a little competitive here and tried to do more than the other. They tied again at 37. Hana did 12.

"That…That's tiring…" Hana panted a few times and looked up at the two boys. They were somewhat winded, but seemed to have handled it much better than her. "How come you two did so much better than me?"

"Uh…beats me," said Sora.

"Girls are supposed to have less muscle strength than guys," pointed out Kaze. "Maybe that's got something to do with it."

"How am I supposed to keep up with you guys then?" complained Hana.

"Well, you're better than us at magic." This was true so they started working on magic. Sora and Hana hit some of the targets with Fire a couple of times before switching to Blizzard. Hana had figured out how to use the spell, but Sora hadn't so she tried showing him how to do that. Then she and Kaze started trying to figure out how to work Barrier.

While all this had been going on, Raven was enjoying himself in his fight with Quistis. Since she used a whip, it was difficult for him to get in close to her. Fortunately, his body armor kept the whip from causing any damage to him. Quistis had apparently figured out that he was good at close combat, so whenever Raven got close enough to possibly attack her, she'd somehow get far away from him before he could do anything. It usually included wrapping her whip around him and throwing him away or kicking off some part of his body. So Raven decided to try long distance fighting. In other words, he started tossing Fires at her. Now, Raven had been careful to get out of the range of the whip, but he discovered that wasn't all Quistis could do. She shot lasers out of her eyes at him, forcing him to dodge. Given, it wasn't aimed at anything vital, but it would've hurt.

"Laser eyes? ! You have laser eyes? !"

Quistis pushed her glasses up. "I'm capable of using blue magic. That type of magic tends to vary depending on the world the inhabitant is from. In my world, this is one of the most basic blue magic spells."

"If that's basic, what are the more advanced spells like?" Several missiles appeared around Quistis. Raven promptly let out a slew of curses at himself, Quistis, and said missiles before making a run to avoid getting blown up by Quistis's magical missiles. Raven would wonder what sort of spell lets you summon homing missiles for the next few weeks.

After being fairly unsuccessful at dodging the missiles, Raven wandered over to his three friends. "Any of you feel like practicing Cure?" Well, they did so all three used Cure on him. Then Raven took some time to learn Blizzard from Sora since Hana was busy with Kaze. After a few more Heartless attacks, Sora and Raven had gotten Blizzard down, and Raven decided to do some work-outs. Meanwhile, Hana and Kaze had figured out how to use Barrier. While Raven continued with his workout, the other three found some willing sparring partners.

This training continued for a few hours before what sounded like a loud horn was heard several times. All the men instantly stood up straight and looked toward the source of the sound. Hana sneaked over to Quistis.

"What was that?"

"It was a signal that something's happened. Something unexpected…We need to see what happened." So everyone headed back to the village.

When they got to the village, everyone was in a tizzy and crowded around the central building. The group of amnesiacs couldn't get in close to see what was going on. Neither could Quistis though. It was probably because they were outsiders. A few minutes of waiting and then asking what happened answered things. Seems something strange had been seen. Strange clouds on a floating island, like nothing the natives had seen before. Quistis said it was probably a large ship. Some people with pale skin had gotten off and started cutting down trees and digging up the land while some of the Natives watched from the trees, trying to determine if the pale men were friends or foes. Then the pale people had noticed them and started firing at them. One of the natives got hit in the leg. The village was understandably worried about this event. Getting attacked without any provocation is usually a very worrying thing. After they did what they could for the shot man (along with weapons, they'd gotten some good medical supplies, lucky for him), a meeting was called. The decision they came to was unexpected.

"You want me to talk to them?" asked Quistis.

"Yes," said Powhatan. "We do not know why they attacked with no provocation, but it is necessary to find out why and if it is possible to come to a truce. With these shadow creatures attacking, we cannot afford to fight a war."

Quistis raised an eyebrow. "And you want the one with the most in common with them to talk with them. It makes sense since we don't know why they attacked. It might be because you're very different from one another." She nodded. "All right. I'll go. But I'll need someone to show me where they are exactly."

"Until we find out why they are here, everyone is to stay in the village. We do not want anyone else to be injured." There were murmurs of agreement.

Of course, Raven was a bit miffed. He'd been enjoying the training and sparring sessions. "So what do you guys do when you're not training to kill Heartless?"

Pocahontas had started hanging around them again. "We usually do normal work, growing food, hunting, cooking, making clothes and baskets."

"That's it?"

"I personally enjoy exploring the forest. If you don't mind disobeying father, I can show you some of my favorite places."

Kaze blinked. "Shouldn't we listen to your father? He's gotta know what he's talking about."

"Yes, I understand his reasoning, but I don't think they'll try moving inland."

"Why not?"

The shamanic princess shrugged. "I just don't think they will. I'm sure we'll be fine if we go. After all, you're all talented fighters."

"I'd like to see more of the forest," said Sora. Hana frowned.

"It seems a bit irresponsible."

Sora held up his hands in a sort of begging position. "Please? I promise we'll be good." He was unknowingly using the puppy dog eyes, which made Hana start sweating nervously.

"O-okay! I'll go!"

"Yes!"

"I gotta learn how to do that," Raven whispered to Kaze.

"I don't think that will work with you…" Seriously, can you imagine that guy with puppy dog eyes?

After taking the time to grab a few supplies, the group snuck out of the village. Pluto had decided to stay behind and play with the village kids again, but Meeko and Flick decided to go with them.

"Are there other villages around here?" asked Kaze.

"Yes, there are many other tribes," answered Pocahontas. "However, they are all under the control of my father."

"Sounds like a pretty powerful guy," commented Raven.

"Does that make you a princess?" asked Hana.

Pocahontas paused a bit. "Others have used that word to describe me. I don't think of myself as one though."

"Hey, how long have the Heartless been here?" asked Sora. "They don't seem very tough."

"They appeared about a year ago. They claimed several lives before we realized they didn't enter the village. Shortly afterwards, people with pale skin started coming from the sky. They brought strange weapons with them and explained what the monsters were. They said they are not as strong here as in other worlds. After a little while, most of them left. Only Quistis stayed. We do sometimes get visitors, but they don't usually stay very long."

"Uh, does anybody else think it's odd that we haven't run into any Heartless?" asked Kaze. That made everyone realize that they hadn't run into any Heartless since they'd left the village.

"You're right…Did something happen to them?" asked Sora.

"No, they're still around," said Pocahontas. "I'm just avoiding the places that will cause them to appear."

Kaze sweatdropped. "How many times have you come here that you know where they pop up?"

"It's not memorization," explained Pocahontas. "I can detect where they will appear and how close someone has to be for that to happen."

"Oh, it's a shaman thing, right?" said Sora. "How does that work? Can others learn it?"

"I've been able to detect it since they first appeared. It's not that difficult. You just have to focus and search for the darkness the Heartless give off. You can see where they will appear if you focus hard enough. Anyone who is sensitive enough to these energies can do it. Hana is probably capable of it as well."

Hana blinked. "You think I could learn to do that? It could be pretty useful."

"Hey! I like fighting the Heartless!" said Raven. "Don't take away my fun!"

Hana laughed nervously. "I'll remember that."

"Stop eating our food!" shouted Kaze. Meeko kept trying to steal their apples slices. Yeah, only Hana liked them, but they still needed to be frugal.

"We're here!" Pocahontas stepped out of the trees and onto a riverbank with the others following her.

"What's so special about this? It looks normal to me," said Raven.

Pocahontas chuckled. "You're just not looking at it right. Try looking…" She walked over to a cliff. "Over here." The four came over and were treated to a view of the lake below surrounded by trees along with miles of forested land.

"Wow, it's beautiful," breathed Hana.

"Yes, it's one of my favorite places." Pocahontas suddenly turned around and walked a few feet back. Then she turned around, took a running start, and jumped off the cliff.

"Pocahontas!" Everyone ran to the edge of the cliff and looked over in time to see Pocahontas land in the lake with a splash. After a couple of tense moments, Pocahontas surfaced. She looked up and waved at them.

"That looks like fun!" said Sora. Then he ran back and also ran off the cliff with a running start. The three still on the cliff looked at each other before Raven shrugged and just jumped off the cliff. Kaze and Hana gave each other nervous looks. It was now obvious they had all the common sense in their quartet. Still, they needed Pocahontas to get back to the village, and that was the only way they could get to her. They took a deep breath, grabbed each other's hands, and jumped off the cliff.

When Kaze and Hana surfaced, they were immediately splashed by the three already in the water. While they glared, the three splashers laughed. A splashing war immediately erupted between the 5 teenagers.

After a few minutes of playing, they stopped to get a quick breather. "We should be getting back," said Pocahontas. "They'll notice that we're gone before much longer." They quickly swam to the bank and started on their way back to the village.

"That was okay," said Raven. "Maybe I should take up cliff diving."

"I think I saw an otter back there," commented Sora.

Kaze sighed. "You two have no self-preservation instincts."

"Pocahontas, do you think you could teach me how to detect Heartless?" asked Hana. "It would be really useful for us."

"It's not something that can be taught. It can only be learned."

"Wait. That doesn't make any sense," said Kaze. "If you can learn something, doesn't that mean someone can teach it to you?"

"Were you taught how to breathe? Or to feel?" Well, she got him there.

"Don't worry Hana. We can work on it later," said Sora. "Maybe you can work on it tomorrow."

They got back to the village without incident. No one had noticed they were gone, thankfully. They were all talking about what could possibly happen if the men on the ship rejected any attempts at peace. While they were waiting for news, Pocahontas was showing them a few things about their culture.

"How long does it take to grind corn," muttered Raven. They were all grinding corn. They weren't sure how she'd talked them into that.

"It doesn't take as long once you get better at it."

"Do you usually do things like this?" asked Hana.

"Yes, we only had to deal with the shadow creatures recently. Before then, most of our time was spent growing food, making food, making clothes, hunting, nothing special. We don't hunt as much now because of the monsters, but we still need food."

"Quistis is back!" There was some excited talk as everyone started walking to the center of the village. It died down when the saw the furious look on Quistis's face.

"It did not go well?" asked Powhatan.

"They refused to listen to me just because I'm a woman!"

The chief frowned. "They would not even hear you out?"

"When I tried to explain things to them, they said 'A woman such as yourself should not lecture your betters.'"

"Then perhaps a male? One with the same color skin as them?" There was a silence as everyone slowly turned to look at the three boys in the group. Kaze shifted nervously.

"Uh, guys…"

"Sure, we'll talk to them for you," said Sora.

"Sora!"

End chapter

I like cliffhangers, they make people want to keep reading.

And here we have the group in the Chesapeake. That is the real name of the area. That's what happens when you write about the Pocahontas movie while taking an American History course.

Yes, Quistis is there. I thought it might be awkward for them to interact with the Native Americans, so I put Quistis in there.

Heartless Files

Injuns-Heartless roughly the size of Soldiers. They have buckskin loincloths, leggings, and moccasins along with very colorful headdresses. They carry either tomahawks or bows and arrows. The strategy for beating them differs depending on which weapon they use.