I'M ALIVE!
And so is Kingdom Hearts 3 by the looks of things. I can't wait for the new reveals of things next month, though I do wonder why Square couldn't just do it at E3.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy, or anything else that shows up in this work of fiction that somebody else created first.
-A-D-
Cornerstones
Chapter Seven: Radiant Garden VII
Exhaustion was thoroughly set into their bodies and minds at the end of the day as the Wolves trudged back into the castle. In each of their minds the questions they had received continued to repeat.
"Master Sora, will you marry me?"
"What was with Princess Naminé's tic of unconsciously stripping down to her skivvies?"
"Those powerful warriors that dropped down to defend us for a while when you were away, who were they exactly, and where did they come from? And WHY did they leave before you came back?"
"We've seen your Keyblades transform, most recently we saw Princess Kairi become a dragon, when before she only partially looked like one. What does all that entail? And where did you learn them?"
"This is a question for the Dragon Knight. Your Keyblade right now looks, super, awesome. How did your Keyblade change?"
"What does a dwarf princess actually do?"
"Who is going to be training the new Keyblade Wielders?"
"How can I get my own Keyblade?"
"What kind of training do you do as a Keyblade Wielder?"
"Miss angel, what's Heaven like?"
Answering questions and dodging others because the audience was asking for information that the Wolves were not willing to give out had been tiring enough, but Kairi's announcement later that day of abdicating her claim to the throne when there were people already starting to plan her coronation had thrown them into another whirlwind of reporters and spherecams, and this time they didn't have a spy providing them with the off-the-cuff questions that demanded quick-thinking to provide decent answers.
"How do you plan to ease the transition of power from the House of Commons and Senate back to the monarchy and Princess Naminé?"
"Is this abdication of your rightful inheritance another abandonment of your duty to your people?"
"What prompted you to abdicate your right to the throne?"
"What do you plan on doing now? Are you still going to be involved in governing in an advisory capacity or are you stepping back entirely?"
The tour of the hospital was no less exhausting for an entirely different reason, as those who went with Kairi ran themselves and any magic they could call upon ragged, healing and comforting the injured from the battle earlier in the week.
Even there, they hadn't been spared from the camera flashes and the prodding of the reporters, nor had Sora been immune to them when he went to accept Kia's archery contest, which he barely lost. The press was all about them that day, hovering around them like vultures to a dying desert wanderer or swarms of blood-sucking midges to anything big and warm-blooded in a marsh.
Consumed with their memories of the questions asked throughout the day, some weighing much heavier than others, they returned to the warmth of the castle; however, what awaited them was not something that they were prepared to deal with.
Iroviel had heard the news that mommy and daddy were back, and thundered towards them on her little legs, closely chased by a frazzled-looking servant who looked about ready to pick his charge up until his eyes spotted the returned Wolves. His look of relief at their presence spoke to just how much energy the little rascal still had and how much trouble she may have been causing. Her mouth, hands, and various places on her body were covered in something deep and red, which at first gave her extended family the terrifying thought that she was bleeding horribly. However, given that she wasn't screeching in pain and the servant hadn't gone deathly pale upon spotting the young half-elf's parents, an injury couldn't possibly be the cause of such large amounts of red splattered all over her, her yellow gown, and being left behind by her footprints.
"Sweetie, you're all messy!" Shina said, kneeling down and lifting her daughter up into her arms at face level. "What is this?" she asked, pointing at the red marks on her face.
"Kup," Iroviel giggled, smiling and giggling in innocent joy. Roxas swiped a finger across her cheek, finding some of whatever it was that hadn't yet dried, and brought it to his nose. He sniffed, and then licked it with his tongue. Roxas' eyes widened as he looked at his wife and daughter.
"They gave her ketchup," he said. He looked at the servant, a young man appearing to be in his mid-twenties who sighed and shrugged helplessly.
"What's ketchup?" Shina asked.
"The bane of your existence," Riku chuckled. "Given how happy she is, good luck getting her to eat anything without it being smothered in ketchup for the next five years."
"That sounds right," the servant said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "She wasn't eating, so one of us suggested giving her some ketchup to eat with her food. It worked all too well. She suddenly wouldn't eat anything unless it had ketchup on it and it felt like ketchup became the meal and food the vehicle to get ketchup into her mouth."
"Oh dear," Jastra tittered, "that sounds far too yummy for her. But I do wonder, though. What is ketchup?"
"A tomato-based condiment that is loaded in sugar," Sora said. "That's probably why she likes it so much." He sighed. "I just hope you saved some supper for us. I'm starving."
"This way," the servant said, extending his hand towards the landing above the golden mermaid statue. "I'll go inform the kitchen to take your food off the warmers."
Garda entered as they were eating in the main hall, coming towards them with King Mickey at his side and Prince Alexander of Destiny Islands somewhat behind. "You've had a busy day, haven't you, girl?" he asked Kairi with a grin as he approached.
"How did we do?" Kairi asked him, just looking up from the chicken thigh she was eating to wipe her fingers off on a napkin and bring her goblet of mead to her lips.
"I think you did well," he said. "So far the news has been portraying you all in a positive light, though there are some pundits that are of the opposite opinion. Most people I have spoken to seem to be giving you the benefit of the doubt, considering your age and the fact that while you may not have been constantly engaging the enemy, you were in training at the time because weadults put you in that position instead of sending you out. It also helps that this is something that was just thrust on you and you haven't been in constant grooming for this responsibility since birth."
"Of course, some people don't see it that way," said Prince Alexander. "They will believe, and somewhat rightly, that as heroes or as princes or princesses you should be aware of and know your obligations and how to act accordingly in all situations, regardless of how much time has passed since you actually came into the role or if you're even well-versed in matters of state or command. Once you've stopped being cute, the public starts treating you as an adult and not as they would their own child." He spoke with a tone that spoke volumes about his personal experience with the matter, which Melbil and Shina both nodded in agreement to.
"Well, let them think that," King Mickey assured them. "Just know that we're all behind ya, Sora. You've all grown up a lot between when ya vanished through the portal. It's taking time to get used to it. Are you still going through with your plan?"
"Yeah," Sora said. "They may not like it, but Kairi and I will be gone in the morning. Naminé, how's that portal coming along?"
"Attuning it to our headquarters in Olomund is taking longer than I expected," she said. "There were some problems with it when we came through the portal from the Tower. I'm not even sure where it's going at the moment, but anything that goes through is coming back either frozen to something close to absolute zero or is baked into plasma. I think I may have figured out the problem, though, so I should have it fixed in a few days."
"A portal?" Alexander asked.
"I made a portable portal to our company headquarters in Olomund," Naminé answered. "However, crossing dimensions appears to have fuddled with the magic keeping it stable, so I'm currently spending time trying to get it working properly again. Roxas only has a limited amount of metal that we were able to bring along with us, so we need to get our supply lines opened again so that he can continue to make and repair our armour and other weapons."
"Last I checked, solarium didn't exist in our worlds," Roxas said. "Or, if it does – since it has to considering we have Keyblades and the Chasers were able to make this armour I've never heard of a mine for it anywhere."
"You're looking for a solarium mine?" King Mickey asked.
"Yeah, you know of one?" Roxas asked. Mickey shook his head.
"Not myself, no," Mickey said. "We don't have that metal on our world, but there was a world where the Chasers did build a great library separate from their main headquarters on the home world of the Cetra. If we go to that world, we should be able to find records or other information on where they got their materials from."
"It's definitely something we should look into," Melbil said, looking to Roxas. "Ye know how valuable solarium, starsilver, and zeutite are to us in Olomund."
"If I could find a mine of any of them it'd certainly help me out," Roxas said, nodding. "I don't want to use up the Wolves' coffers on my personal projects for the new Keyblade Wielders over here when they could still use the gold over there."
"Then I'll see about getting us to that world as soon as we're ready to depart," Mickey said. "How soon do you want to be off?"
"How soon can the Starlight put out?" Naminé asked.
"She suffered only light damage, so if needed she could be out in a day or two."
"Great," Riku reacted to the Chief Guardian's reply. "Load her up and ship out. I want us away from these reporters as soon as possible." Sora nodded in agreement. If they were going to be slammed for not doing enough, then the best way to rectify that, rather than arguing, was to go out and just do it; and continue to do more and more until there was nothing that a reporter could say without mountains of evidence to the contrary.
"I want you to be away from these reporters as soon as possible," another voice loudly complained. The corners of Riku's mouth twitched upwards in a smirk and he turned his head as Dawn emerged out from his back. She twisted her body around in an unnaturally rubber-like way so that she could look at him while still being tethered to his back. "Rikuuuuuu… how long are you going to have me not come out? Would it really be that bad if they were to get snapshots of me?"
"Dawn, you're an existence that we can't let the general public know about," Riku tried to gently placate her. Dawn raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Really?" she asked. "After you let me out during the Zeus Cup where we had so many people watching, and when we in front of all those trainee soldiers when Renji fought us with his bankai, and during the battle when we were fighting the Decimator…"
"She's got you there, Riku," Yuffie giggled.
"I've flashily been on camera and you're trying to deny my existence now?" Dawn said, narrowing her eyes further in scrutiny. She reached out with her hands, intending to grab Riku's cheeks. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that you were embarrassed of me or something."
Iroviel laughed as she watched Dawn grab and stretch her "uncle's" cheeks in different ways.
"Well, you have been doting on him a lot ever since he got you that scabbard," Kairi chuckled.
"You aren't a Keyblade; you don't know how awesome those scabbards are!" Dawn refuted. She let go of Riku's cheeks and placed her hands on her currently unformed hips. "Well, if I'm supposed to remain subjected to not coming out yet, I suppose I shall have to suffer through it. However, once we're on our own ship again, I'm coming out!"
Dawn dove back into Riku's back, and he just shook his head, not noticing the way Naminé slightly froze at the words his Keyblade was saying.
"Going to that library's probably a good move," Sora said. "Besides looking for sources of metal for Roxas, you could probably also research anything that the Chasers had on the Cornerstones."
"I hadn't thought of that," Yuffie muttered. "That's a good idea."
"It's more than a good idea," Naminé said, recovering. "If the Chasers did any research at all on the Cornerstones, it could save us months, or even years of searching for them." She looked to King Mickey, who awkwardly shrugged.
"Gosh, I never really researched the Cornerstones a whole lot," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "It wasn't somethin' I was really interested in, back in the day. I only learned a bit about 'em because of the Cornerstone of Light. I just know how many there are, but I can't remember what they're called, apart from the Cornerstone of Darkness."
"Cornerstone of Darkness?" Roxas asked, narrowing his eyes. "Well, that does make sense. If there's one of Light, there has to be one of Darkness to balance it out."
"How much ye want tah bet yer enemy Maleficent already has her hands on it?" Melbil asked.
"Not even a single copper coin," Sora said. "If my memory is right, and it could be wrong, we only found out about Maleficent wanting the Cornerstones a couple of weeks ago in this timeline.* She's hopefully just as much in the dark as to where they are as we are."
"And the Realm of Light is a really big place," Yuffie said. "With thousands and thousands of worlds out there a couple of weeks' head start isn't really enough to give her an edge."
Nodding their heads in agreement, the conversation ended there as they finished up eating their dinner before going their separate ways for the evening.
-A-D-
Naminé walked into the parlour later that evening, a cup of tea in her hands. Kensworth had come to her, stating that Kairi had asked if she could come to see her. Her sister was standing near the window, looking out at the winter landscape. Snow and ice frosted the cliffs around them and the limbs of the trees in a timeless picture of winter. Naminé sipped at her tea as she entered and placed the cup back on the saucer she carried. It was an herbal and berry blend with an added bit of honey that had quickly become her favourite in Olomund, so she really needed to get that portal working again if she was to procure more.
"Kensworth told me that you wanted to see me," Naminé said, taking another sip before putting her tea down on an end table beside a couch, "which is unusual, because we don't often summon one another."
"Summon seems to be a bit much," Kairi said with a bit of a smile. "But yes I did send for you, Naminé. There's something I wanted to talk about." Naminé smiled back and turned towards her tea again while Kairi turned fully around to gaze out the large window.
"Oh? What about? Boys? The constant quest of you and Sora to get laid? Our plans for the immediate or distant future?"
"Actually your thoughts about today, because you're going to hate me for it; for what I did today," Kairi said. Naminé chose to ignore her tea and instead slowly turned back towards her sister. Kairi's back remained to her, the redhead looking out the balcony window at the cold night sky.
"Hate you for what?" Naminé asked, adding a slightly incredulous laugh into her statement.
"For abdicating," Kairi replied simply. She turned around, and Naminé could see that her sister seemed to be unnerved. "You may not hate me now, but you will."
"Kairi what brought this on?" Naminé asked.
"They're right, you know," Kairi said, turning her head to the side and not meeting her sister's gaze. "I am running away. I didn't even give them enough time tostart calling meQueen, let alone plan the coronation."
"Kairi…" Naminé said slowly. "Your path is… different. No one will fault you for this, for not wanting the Crown."
"Oh they will," Kairi said. "And they have every right to. I'm abandoning my birthright; abandoning my birth father's legacy, my ancestors, and the people of my birth; and for what?" Kairi asked with a helpless little laugh. "Adventure? A personal life? A possible medical career?"
"Kairi you have a bigger destiny," Naminé insisted. "You and Sora. If you were Queen, and Sora really took his place as head of the Keyblade Wielders… it would be too politically challenging to handle that kind of life. It'd tear your relationship apart or would destroy the monarchy, or both."
"But now they have to shift everything to you." Kairi turned again to meet Naminé's eyes once more. They quivered at the suddenness and sureness of Kairi's words, and she continued. "You have to be elevated to being the most important person to the people of Radiant Garden. And you're already in what some would call a scandalous position that could destroy the monarchy anyway. There are so many stories the papers are going to run I have no idea what's going to make the front page. My abdication, your oath of loyalty to Sora, oryour boyfriend's romance with Shina?"
Naminé stilled, and then she was the one who turned aside. "Why bring that up?" she asked quietly. "You know how I feel about that."
"Actually I don't, Naminé, not really, because you don't talk to me about it," Kairi replied.
"So Sora doesn't just turn around and tell you everything behind my back?" Naminé said bitingly, and then immediately regretted voicing such a lack of trust in her lord. She paused. "I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to imply…"
"No, it's fine," Kairi said simply. "Sora and I are constantly together and close as can be. It's natural to assume we'd share everything. But when it comes to you, Sora only tells me things generally, he doesn't go into any specifics. He respects your privacy."
Naminé felt a rush of gratitude towards her sister's intended-to-be, but it still didn't quell her anxiety concerning the subject of Roxas and Shina. "You still haven't answered my question," she said. "Why bring up Roxas and Shina now?"
"Because I'm going to be gone for a while, Naminé," Kairi said. "I'm leaving to give Selphie's mom the news personally, and when I'm done I'm going to join Sora on Amestris to have Winry and…what's her name? Pinache? well, Winry's grandmother look over the work the gnomes did making my leg while they adjust Sora's arm. Then we're heading to Middle-earth together to protect the Ring-Bearer from the Heartless on his journey and join the war effort there. This may be our last chance to talk for a while, so…I wanted to talk. Face-to-face."
Kairi finally sat down, hands clasped together in front of her. She bowed her head, eyes occasionally flickering up to look at Naminé.
"I have put you in a difficult position, even if you don't recognize it yet," Kairi murmured. "You're a Knight of Radiant Garden,you swore an oath of loyalty to a foreign party, Sora, which could complicate political matters for you; and your lover is married to and has a child with another woman." Kairi looked up fully at Naminé. "Due to my abdication, I have forced you into being Queen Naminé, should you choose to take that name, even though you haven't had your coronation yet, Your Majesty."
A chill went down Naminé's spine at Kairi's words. There was no sarcasm, no playfulteasing tone in those two words. Your Majesty, said to her with complete sincerity and seriousness in absolute reference to her.
Naminé almost fell onto the couch as she moved to sit next to Kairi, the weight hitting her. "Whoa," she said. "You're right. I am in a tricky position, even moreso because I'm in love with Shina too."
Kairi blinked. "I'm sorry, what? You're in love with Shina too?"
"Yes," Naminé said, and she was completely surprised by how calm she was when she said it. "It's something of a three-way relationship, though I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I love them both."
"Coming to terms?" Kairi asked.
"Yeah. I knew, but I didn't really know until Sora made me face it a few days ago the morning after we got back."
"Wait, hold up," Kairi said, placing a hand on her forehead. "Okay, so I knew about the threesome that happened forever ago that started this whole thing, but you mean to say that you also fell for Shina in that time, and that she also fell for you?"
"Well, yes," Naminé answered, her trepidation around this topic now coming back to her. "I knew it was a bad idea to talk about this. You're going to think I'm nuts for being bisexual while you're straight as an arrow."
"No, Naminé this is wonderful news," Kairi told her, placing a hand on her sister's shoulder and smiling at her. "All this time I've been worrying myself into a terrible state over you and your relationship with Roxas because you've been moody or surly about it whenever I ask; but if Shina hasn't actually stolen him away from you and the three of you are all together in a loving relationship then there couldn't be anything that makes me happier for you. It may be unorthodox and there will be people that won't necessarily approve of it, but you're the Queen. Unless there's some law passed by our ancestors concerning royal marriages that we're not aware of you should be perfectly in your right to be in such a relationship, or to at least dress it up as having Shina be a consort. Plus their marriage took place in Olomund, so I'm not even sure if Radiant Garden will recognize it. Oh wait. That means that Riku and Yuffie's marriage might not be legally recognized here either…"
Naminé smiled, suddenly feeling much better. She had never intended to come out to Kairi during this talk; it had just happened, but Kairi was simply waving it off as though Naminé's sexual orientation was completely superficial and was only fretting over how she would be able to happily enjoy her life with the life partners she'd chosen. Naminé startled Kairi out of her muttering by hugging her. "What brought this on?" Kairi asked with a startled laugh.
"For just being you," Naminé replied. "I'll do everything I can as Queen to help out you and Sora without compromising Radiant Garden, so please don't lose that kindness of yours." Kairi smiled and returned the hug her sister had placed her in.
"I promise."
-A-D-
"What did you do!?"
Sora ducked, dodging a wrench the blonde automail mechanic had thrown at him. "What? The automail is still fine, right?"
"Look at all these dents and scratches!" Winry exclaimed. "What in the worlds were you doing to this? You've beat it up more in a week than Edward does in a whole year, and that's not counting when he fights psycho rogue alchemists! And another thing!" Winry turned around, narrowing her eyes at him with a look that betrayed absolutely zero amusement. "What happened to you? How did you grow so much in a week that I already need to adjust this, and where did that beard come from? Is there some kind of science fiction beard growth ray on your planet?"
Sora grinned and rubbed the back of his head, letting Aiwemon answer for him. "Well, you might say that Sora here spent three years locked in another dimension, so he's gone through some stuff while you weren't looking."
"Locked in another dimension, huh?" Winry said flatly. "Alright, fine, don't tell me." She sighed. "Whatever, a customer is a customer. Stand still while I take some measurements so we'll know how much we need to modify it."
"Thanks, Winry," Sora answered with a smile as Winry got her tape measurer, and raised his arms up and out to his sides. Winry's attempts to get accurate measurements were hampered when Wispy decided to make her 'grand entrance', flying into the house and shooting up Winry's backside before rapidly coming back down in a helix manoeuvre that left the air elemental 'standing' next to Sora. She beamed triumphantly at the flustered automail mechanic.
"Wha-what is that?" Winry shouted, pointing at Wispy.
"Oh, that's Wispy, my familiar," Sora answered. "She's an air elemental, and I guess you could call her my own cute little magical servant." He smiled cheerily and patted Wispy on her head, to which she reacted positively.
"What's all this racket about?" Pinako asked, coming into the room with her pipe in one hand. She looked up at the Keyblade Master. "Oh, hello Sora. You're stopping by pretty frequently, aren't you?" Sora chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. Pinako sighed. "I'm not even going to ask what you did or why you're bigger than I remember you to be. Can you afford the repairs and modifications?"
Sora took a small pouch that jingled with the sound of clinking coins off of his bet and placed it on a table beside him. He untied the drawstring and poured the contents out, revealing a pile of gold coins. "Will this do?" Sora asked.
"Let me see," Pinako said, frowning at him and stepping forward. She picked up one of the coins and held it to the light, narrowing her eyes at the stag emblem that was stamped into one side of the coin and the face of an unfamiliar man on the other. "Never seen a coin like this before," Pinako said, and then shrugged as she brought it to her mouth. "You people from other worlds all of a sudden. Thinking you can pay for anything with some-!"
Pinako stopped as her teeth bit down on the coin and removed it from her mouth, a stunned expression on her face. "This coin is solid gold," she said in disbelief.
"WHAT!?" Winry shouted. "S-solid gold? Are you sure it's not just plated, Granny?"
"Take a look at these coins, Winry," Pinako said, flipping her the coin she held. "That's no piece of nickel or tin with gold plating on it, it's a solid gold piece." She turned back to Sora. "Where did you get these?"
"We've been around," Aiwemon said lightly, and Wispy shrugged her shoulders and playfully giggled.
"They said that Sora was in another dimension for about three years," Winry said, examining the coins. "You're right, these are real."
"It's just fifty gold," Sora muttered, embarrassed that they were making a big deal out of the currency he had become accustomed to over the past few years. "Most of them are gold stags of the kingdom of Tyrden, but a few are from other realms. They're all pure, though, so that's a whole pound of gold, and I do have more if fifty's not enough."
"No, this will be plenty, thank you Sora," Pinako said. "Even with State Alchemists running around everywhere gold is still very valuable, since the transmutation of gold is still a banned and highly criminal offence. These coins will certainly cover the repairs and modifications of your arm." She turned towards her granddaughter. "Winry, let's get that arm off of him and get to work."
"Right, Granny," Winry said, and gestured for Sora to sit down on the couch.
"I should let you know," Sora said, "that Kairi should be coming by later as well. She has something that she'd like to show you and wants your opinion on it."
Winry and Pinako looked at each other. "What would she want our opinion on?"
-A-D-
"I would like your opinion on this."
Kairi lifted the skirt of her dress and placed her right leg up on the table. The golden wolf's head kneecap with sapphire eyes embedded in the sockets gleamed at the pair of automail mechanics, who were momentarily breathless at the sight.
"What is this?" Pinako asked, her elderly fingers reaching out and touching the metal limb Kairi was showing them. Her digits scaled the leg from the top of Kairi's boot, above the golden kneecap, to the connecting plate at her hip. She hummed to herself as she examined it. "Well, it certainly looks flashier than automail needs to be, and it appears to be functional."
"Did this come out of Rush Valley?" Winry asked, stars in her eyes as she looked at the leg.
"No, uh, we had some friends of ours build it, based off of Sora's arm, after I…well, lost it," Kairi said. Winry and Pinako both looked up at Sora, who held up his one hand in a placating gesture, since his other was in the shop.
"Hey, they said that they put everything back exactly the way it was after they took my arm apart so they could examine it and figure out how it worked," he said. "They were very meticulous about it."
"There were stacks of notes at least three feet tall," Menelmon offered.
"Which was taller than some of them were," Aiwemon added, sounding quite chipper about that.
"The stack of notes was bigger than you," Menelmon chided him.
"And so were the gnomes," Aiwemon reminded her.
Winry and Pinako simply peered at Sora with intense scrutiny. Winry in particular was looking at him with a deep level of suspicion. "I'm going to pretend that I didn't just hear you say that you let other mechanics take apart Rockbell automail and study it in detail. Because if you did say that, then I'll have to take measures for letting our trade secrets go to our competitors."
"No competitors! No trade wars!" Kairi reacted hastily, trying to diffuse the situation. "They're gnomes from Crafthall, a city on another world in another dimension that had never even heard of automail before. They are of absolutely no threat to you or your business, Winry. Promise."
The blonde still looked unhappy as she hummed and glared at the party before her grandmother sighed. "Well, what's done is done. If it was necessary for the making of this leg for Kairi, then I suppose there's no problem, though I would like to take this leg of yours and examine it. Is that alright with you, Kairi?"
"Uh, sure, that's fine with me," Kairi said. "But, uh, how would I get around in the meantime? Should I practice my hopping, have Sora carry me everywhere—"
"With one arm?" he asked her, folding that one arm over his chest. Kairi blushed, flustered that she had made that gaffe.
"We have crutches," Winry said. "Or if you really prefer we've got some dummy legs lying around that we could attach to your plate, but none of them are precisely made to order and we'd have to make sure that the hook-up is compatible, since we weren't the ones who made your hip plate."
Sora looked like he was about to open his mouth and say something, but thought better of it and shut it. Sure, it should be compatible since the gnomes made everything based off of his own, but Winry also had a point. The gnomes of Crafthall were not the Rockbells.
"So long as it's close in length it should be fine," Kairi sighed, "though I'm probably going to look funny walking if we've got a few inches difference. No laughing," she said, looking at Sora.
He grinned and shook his head. "Kairi, I can't make that promise. It'll be up to you to make your own silly walk as elegant as possible."
"But if it really is silly, you can be sure we, as your friends, will let you know," Menelmon said. "Remember, we're not laughing at you, we're laughing with you."
Kairi rolled her eyes, already imagining how these next few days were going to pass. "Oh least I know that Sora can't give me a mocking slow clap when I trip and fall down the stairs."
"I'll find a way," he assured her, grinning. Kairi just rolled her eyes and let Winry lead her away in their search for a dummy leg for her to walk with.
It was a few hours later, while Kairi was still adjusting to the dummy leg that was roughly an inch and a half longer than her natural left leg as the sun started to set outside, that Sora finally asked Kairi the question that had been on his mind since she arrived: "How'd it go?" Kairi sighed at his probing, and flopped down onto the grass outside the Rockbell house. She was silent for a minute recalling the encounter she had just gone through in vivid detail, and trying to form words to recount it all to Sora adequately.
"We cried a lot," Kairi answered at last. "And they don't blame me, even though Selphie joined the fight because she wanted to help me. They're upset, of course, but their anger is at Maleficent for dragging all of us into this in the first place when she struck at our home on Felra." Kairi sniffed, feeling her chest tighten again. "They also told me… not to get hung up on revenge, but to keep going and never stop looking forward to a brighter future, where we can put all this fighting behind us."
Sora laid down on the grass with her, reaching out his right hand to touch her left. "I'm looking forward to that future, too," he said. "You, me, a comfy inn. Children running around being noisy. I brew mead and you daylight as a physician of some kind."
"And all the while we're secretly running an organization of Keyblade Wielders so that they can grow up in peace and the normal kind of quiet," Kairi added, smiling faintly. "It's not a bad dream, especially since you're in it."
"And all our friends come over to drink and party," Sora continued. "And we'll call it TheAdjective Animaland we'll all share stories about our adventuring days, grossly embellishing them for the patrons and the children."
"The Adjective Animal?" Kairi giggled. "No way. We've been in enough of those places, even if Bill's wasn't called that. Why not have something with stars, because we go between them all the time?"
"The Resting Star, then," Sora said quickly, as if he'd already had that name picked out, "since we'll have finally settled down to rest."
"And whenever somebody comments about how hard something they did was," Kairi continued, "we'll loudly complain that 'back in our day we had to do it harder, uphill, both ways, and we had to eat snails for breakfast'."
"We did eat snails for breakfast," Sora pointed out.
"And I will never forget that because it was the grossest thing you have ever made me eat."
"But I made them nice and fancy for you!"
"You can give them a quick frying in butter and then braise them in red wine with mushrooms and herbs, served with steamed and buttered vegetables and scrambled eggs in a skillet all you want, Sora, but it's not going to change the fact that you still made me eat snails."
"But they were good, right?" Kairi's silence was all the answer that he got, which meant an incredibly satisfying victory to Sora. "I knew you'd like them eventually. I just had to find a way."
"Just because you managed to make them taste good the one time does not mean that I don't still object to eating snails on principle!" Kairi spat back, annoyed. "Honestly, what were that warthog and meerkat thinking when they started having you slurp them?"
"Trying to get me to cheer up because I was being a broody brat," Sora replied. "And it worked. Gosh, how long ago was that in this timeline? Not even half a year, right?"
"I thought you deciding to befriend a gazelle and then go rushing in to save Simba's daughter from Heartless and Nobodies was what kicked you out of that funk. What was that gazelle's name again? Swara?"
"I'm surprised you remembered her name."
"Oh? Her huh? Hmm…" Kairi stared at Sora.
"C'mon, Kairi, you know me," Sora said, chuckling. "It's not like that."
"Stare..."
"Seriously, it's not like that!"
-A-D-
Meanwhile, back at the castle in Radiant Garden…
"I am afraid you will have to put your plans for leaving Radiant Garden to take the fight to Maleficent on hold for a short while, Your Majesty," Kensworth said as he looked at a message that had just been delivered to Naminé and the remaining members of the Fearless Wolves as they ate dinner.
"Really?" Naminé asked. "What for?"
"It appears as though our world, the whole world of Aurus, I mean, has recovered since Master Sora freed Radiant Garden from Maleficent."
"What do you mean?" Naminé queried. "I mean, I've heard that there were other regions of the world and everything, but we're still rebuilding and expanding again here."
"True, however, Radiant Garden and the surrounding regions were the hardest hit when Maleficent took over," Kensworth answered. "We have just received a letter from a kingdom in the far south that has recovered, and they used to be quite an important ally of Radiant Garden in the past. It's a formal invitation to attend the coronation of Queen Elsa of Arendelle."
-A-D-
* Chapter 50 of Light's Growth is where they first heard of this.
God, I hated this chapter. Partially because I just didn't like where I was going with it. Normally I'm fine with filler chapters, you guys all know that with the amount of fillery fluff I've put into this thing, but this one just killed me.
Anyway, new adventures await in the upcoming chapters, and please don't ask me when they will be out because I honestly don't know. Hopefully soon, but likely not before I head off to the States for RTX in just over 2 weeks.
May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk
