The train doors slid open as the conductor declared their arrival at the northern district station. Roxas hopped off the train and onto the platform, ignoring the surprised looks the passengers gave him. Clearly they had never seen a cat take the train before. He made his way out of the station, trotting along with a fair amount of determination, willing away the unease that was creeping into his skin with every step he took.
He was fine. He could do this. It wasn't that hard.
Even if he felt steadily more paranoid that the surrounding people would step on him, or that the cars driving by would hit him, or that a dog might attack him. And if he strayed to more deserted roads, he began to feel the emptiness like a tangible weight of fear and desolation, reminding him of a completely different city that he never seemed to be able to leave behind completely, and that was even worse. But unfortunately for him, the streets were still as unnaturally deserted as they had been all day, save for the perpetual crowds around the train stations. Perhaps if it had been daylight he would have been better off, but in the darkness of the evening, any small scuffle in a shadowy corner set his teeth on edge. His anxiety intensified, his heartbeat racing faster than it had any right to, and his tail curled nervously between his legs as he weaved through the feet of pedestrians and darted across streets.
He had the gnawing urge to hide under something, which usually happened whenever Sora was out of eyesight, but he would not let this beat him, he decided. Roxas had a job to do. Sora was counting on him to bring Riku, Kairi, and Namine to where he and the fireflies were waiting, and Roxas did not want to disappoint him. So he did his best to crush his fears and dark memories and maybe let his feet run a little faster than necessary.
Roxas was nearly trembling when he reached the Jenova mansion, but he was at last able to breathe a sigh of relief. He ducked under the gate and slipped inside through a back door that had been left slightly ajar. The maids and butlers were lounging wearily around a long table, playing card games and chatting pleasantly, apparently resting after a long day's work. He sneaked through the room, avoiding the notice of anyone who might throw him out, until he spotted Kairi. He caught up to her and gave a convincing meow to get her attention.
Kairi looked down at him in surprise. "Roxas! What on earth are you doing here?"
Roxas meowed again before catching the fabric of her dress in his teeth and giving it a light tug. Kairi knelt down to scratch the top of his head tenderly, but he dipped out of her reach.
"What is it?" she asked. "Where's Sora? If you're here, he must be too, right?" She looked around, but frowned when she didn't find him. Roxas tugged on her dress again, then hopped off down the hall a few steps. He turned back to look at her, twitching his tail, trying to get her to follow him without having to speak.
Kairi picked up on this quickly. "You want me to follow you?"
Roxas yowled in confirmation, relieved that she had caught on so easily.
"What is it? What happened? Is Sora in danger?" Kairi asked with growing alarm.
He wondered how she had come to that conclusion, but he didn't feel like revealing he could talk just to correct her. If Kairi thought Sora was in danger, it might prove easier to make her follow him. So he yowled again and scratched at the floor impatiently.
"Oh my gosh, he is in danger!" she gasped. "Was it the shadow monsters again? Is he hurt? Take me to him! No, wait—I'll get Master Riku, too. He'll know what to do!" She rushed off down the hallway.
Roxas grinned in satisfaction as he bounded along after her. This was going well.
"Master Riku!" Kairi cried as she burst into the library. "You have to help! Sora's in danger!"
"What!" Riku nearly shrieked, abandoning the dusty tome he had been thumbing through to appear out from behind the stacks. His eyes were wide with panic. "What do you mean he's in danger?" he demanded.
Namine peeked out from her own spot, a polite frown on her face. Kairi had left Riku and Namine in the library several hours before, as the pressing list of chores she had to do finally outweighed the excitement of an adventure in the famous library. Riku and Namine had spent all afternoon immersed in their research, however, and several small piles of potentially helpful books had been neatly arranged on a nearby table.
"Roxas is here, and he's upset and trying to get me to follow him! I think it means Sora's in danger!"
Riku relaxed, and an expression of relief was visible for a moment until one of annoyance replaced it.
"So his cat's here. So what? That doesn't prove anything. Don't scare me like that for no reason."
"Please, Sir. You have to believe me," Kairi insisted. "Something is wrong!"
Riku gave Roxas a dubious look, but saw the cat was unusually distressed, pacing back and forth by Kairi's feet and trembling slightly. The memory of how intelligent and protective the cat had acted the night Sora had been knocked unconscious by the dirt sprites popped into his mind, and Riku lost conviction in his own words.
"She could be right," Namine broke in thoughtfully, to both Kairi and Riku's surprise—they had almost forgotten she was there. "There have been cases of dogs fetching help when their masters are in danger. It's possible that a cat could do the same. And given that I was able to overhear your discussion of Xehanort, it's possible that Xehanort might have heard us as well. He could have gone after Sora once he left the mansion, or he might have sent someone after him—an assassin, maybe. Who knows what kinds of terrible things he could be doing to Sora right now." Namine's impassive delivery made her words all the more terrifying, and Riku and Kairi gaped at her in horror.
"Okay, fine, we'll follow the cat," Riku said, frowning in worry. Perhaps his curse was already starting to hurt Sora. It usually didn't work quite this quickly against someone, but then again, Sora had been pretty sudden about inserting himself into Riku's life. Riku did his best to shove his fear from his mind—the more he cared about someone, the more they were hurt, after all. If he tried to not be concerned, then maybe Sora would be fine.
"But we should prepare ourselves first. Who knows what we're about to get ourselves into."
The three ran off to their rooms to gather whatever supplies they deemed necessary. They met at the back servant's door ten minutes later, each carrying a small pack, equipped for a journey. Both Namine and Kairi had changed out of their maid uniforms, as there would be high hell to pay with the head housekeeper should their pristine uniforms get dirty in any way; They now each sported practical dresses, thick stockings, and sweaters, good for running around in.
"Alright, cat, lead the way!" said Riku, feeling only slightly ridiculous at have uttered such a sentence. Without further delay, Roxas took off running and the three of them sprinted after him.
When they rounded the final corner, they found Sora standing idly on the sidewalk, hands in the pockets of his cargo shorts and whistling tunelessly, surrounded by a winking yellow-green cloud of fireflies.
Which was the exact opposite of any kind of danger they had been expecting.
Sora turned at the sound of their footsteps and gave them a sunshine smile. "Hey, you made it!" he called cheerfully. Roxas immediately jumped into his arms and Sora stroked the trembling cat's back soothingly.
"Roxas, I'm so proud of you," he cooed. "I know how tough that must have been, but you did it! You are so brave!"
Roxas buried his face in the crook of Sora's elbow, purring to calm his nerves. And suddenly he felt safe, full of light and warmth, and all the unreasonable fears that had plagued him melted away in a murky slough.
Meanwhile, the other three had stopped in their tracks, extremely confused. The adrenaline and anticipation that had built up as they rushed off toward what they had thought was a friend in danger now leaked out in a mixture of relief and disappointment, as anticlimactic as a deflating balloon.
"What the hell, Sora! What's going on?"
"Hm? What do you mean?" Sora looked up with an innocent frown.
"We—we thought you were hurt and in danger," said Kairi. "But… obviously you're not."
"No, I'm fine," he agreed.
"Then… why did Roxas come get us?"
"You mean he didn't tell you?" Sora asked.
"How on earth would he have told us? Sora, what is going on?" demanded Kairi in increasing frustration.
Sora looked down at the cat in his arms, who was now significantly calmer than he had been a moment ago. "You didn't tell them, huh? Oh well, that's okay. You did what you could and I'm still proud of you."
"Sora!"
"Okay, okay, so Roxas and I heard about something we could use as a sword of light. It's been lost for a couple hundred years, but we think we might have a way to find it. So that's why I called you here — to help me get it."
He gave them a brief synopsis of the Firefly Queen story Aerith had told him, and then explained about the strange way the fireflies had reacted to him and what he thought it meant. He finished the speech with excitement, ready to be off on their adventure, but his audience was notably silent.
"Let me get this straight," Riku said slowly, trying to wrap his head around the ridiculousness of the situation. "You… sent your cat to call us all the way over here… to follow some bugs… because they flew around when you mentioned the Firefly Queen to them?"
"Basically," Sora nodded.
"Sora," Kairi began with a frown, "There's a reason none of us looked in the fiction section of the library when we were researching. The Firefly Queen is just an old myth, there's no way that dagger is real."
"Aw, c'mon, guys. I really think this'll work! Look, I'll show you." Sora turned to the fireflies surrounding him and, addressing them grandly, said, "Fireflies, could you please show us the way to the Firefly Queen's magic dagger?"
In an instant, the blinking lights of the bugs flickered and formed into a definite line pointing down the road. Sora turned back to three of them with a triumphant grin.
"See? What'd I tell ya? They can totally show us the way!"
"Fascinating," Namine breathed. "It's like they can understand you." She stepped forward to examine the floating trail of fireflies, frowning in interest when those she approached edged away from her slightly. "Is it something unique about these fireflies or…" she trailed off, lost in her own thoughts.
"So? What d'ya think? Will you come with me?" Sora asked eagerly.
"Stop fooling around, this is a huge waste of time!" said Kairi. "We thought you were in serious danger! If we had known you just wanted to play games, we wouldn't have come. I mean, they really do look like they understand you and all, and yeah, that's kind of weird, but come on, everyone knows that story isn't real—"
"I'll go with you," said Riku, to everyone's astonishment. Including Riku's.
"You will?" said Sora, in excitement.
"You will?" said Kairi, in shock.
Riku shrugged. "Sure, why not? It…sounds like fun." A small, but sincere smile flitted across his face, but was quelled quickly, as if he were embarrassed by it.
Kairi choked with surprise. Never in a million years would Olette or Selphie believe her if she told them that the Ice Prince had decided to do something because it sounded like fun. In fact, in all her experience working in his house, the amount of fun that an activity might have seemed more like a deciding factor against it for him. And yet, here he was, agreeing to run around chasing fireflies just because Sora asked him to.
Kairi shook her head in exasperation. "Well fine," she huffed. "You two can run off catching fireflies and singing campfire songs and whatever the hell else children do on summer nights. Namine and I will act like the mature young adults we are and continue productive research."
"Actually, I think I'll be joining them, as well" said Namine. She gave a precise nod to punctuate her decision. "I'd like to observe these fireflies more. There is something peculiar about them, and I intend to find out what. And who knows, maybe they really can lead us to the dagger. I see no harm in giving it a shot."
"What! No way, you too?" Kairi cried in exasperation. "Why do I have to be the sensible naysayer here?"
"C'mon, it'll be fun! A real adventure!" Sora urged.
Kairi sighed with her whole body, defeated. She was used to being the silly dreamer whose friends shot down her wild ideas, and she did not particularly enjoy being on the opposite end of this conversation.
"Fine," she said. "I'll go. But first I want us all to take a moment to acknowledge how absurd this is."
"Duly noted," said Riku. Namine nodded in agreement.
This was enough to satisfy Kairi. At least they admitted that the whole idea was crazy.
And with that, they started off down the street, following the line of fireflies into the darkening night in the most peculiar game of Follow the Leader any of them had ever played.
The fireflies led them west, past the grassy hills where Sora took his best daytime naps and into the western woods. Unlike the forest to the east of Nomura, where the Nothing Man's lair was hidden, the woods bordering the west side of the city followed along an intricate network of small streams and rivers, which wove through the earth like lacework as they made their way toward the ocean a few miles north.
The walk was pleasant, at first, as the evening air was agreeably cool and the moon bright enough to light their way. Soon, however, the trees, thick and lush from the ample water supply, were dense enough to blot out the moon, and the line of fireflies floating dutifully ahead of them became their only source of light, as feeble as it was. When a thin mist began to form over the stream beds, brought on by the night's lower temperature, their poor visibility turned hazardous. They had to be careful not to slip on any mossy rocks or fall into any hidden creeks and so stuck as close together as they could without treading on each other's ankles.
They had no idea where they were being taken, which concerned everyone but Sora, though nobody said anything out loud. In fact, no one said anything at all. Their trek was silent, with everyone focused intently on the tiny trail of light ahead of them, leading them further into the darkness. The forest itself was quiet as well, with only the occasional hoot of an owl or hum of crickets to interrupt their march. The forest seemed hushed in anticipation, each living creature alert, eager, and waiting for… something.
Then, from the depths of the night came a strange sound, quiet at first, as if far away, but it grew steadily louder as it echoed eerily through the trees. It sounded like laughter, soft and bubbling, drifting toward them menacingly, carried along by the rolling waves of mist.
The adventurers stopped abruptly in their tracks, alarmed and wary. Their ears strained as they searched for the source of the sound, but the darkness yielded nothing.
Then the laughter disappeared, gone as suddenly as it started.
"What was that?" Riku hissed through clenched teeth.
"It—it might have been some birds or something," said Kairi.
"It sounded like someone laughing," Namine said. She tugged on the sleeves of her sweater nervously.
"Yeah, well some birds can sound like that," said Kairi, though she didn't sound too sure of herself.
"C'mon, we're gonna lose the fireflies!" said Sora. Though they had stopped at the strange sound, the fireflies had not, and they jogged to catch up to them, lest their guides leave them behind.
Kairi tripped over an unseen rock on the dark path as she hurried forward, but Riku, closest to her, immediately caught her arm to keep her from falling. Kairi blushed and mumbled her thanks, embarrassed at having stumbled. Riku blushed, too, embarrassed at having caught her. He released his hold when she proved herself stable.
When they turned to catch up to the others, however, they found themselves suddenly alone in the darkness. The fireflies had disappeared, along with Sora, Namine, and the cat. There was no sound to even indicate that they were anywhere nearby. It was as if the mist had simply swallowed them up.
"Sora!" Riku called. "Blonde maid? Where are you?"
"Her name is Namine."
"Well either way, she's gone." He was trying not to panic, but cold dread began to spread through his lungs. "What the hell are we supposed to do?"
"It'll be okay," said Kairi, swallowing thickly, her voice wavering only slightly. "We'll find them. We only stopped for a moment, they can't be too far off. Let's just keep walking. I mean, we're sort of on a trail here, right? If we follow it, we should catch up to them."
They started forward, keeping close enough to brush shoulders as they walked. They walked quickly, but after a few minutes, it became clear that Sora and Namine were not ahead of them.
"Can you do something with your magic to help, maybe?" Kairi asked. She had never met a mage or seen much magic up close, but she had grown up hearing all kinds of stories about the miracles mages could perform.
"I could make it colder."
Kairi gave a humorless snort. "I don't think that would help."
"You didn't happen to bring a lantern, did you?"
"I don't have one of my own, and I can't exactly take one from the mansion. Rules are pretty strict about that."
"Oh. Right."
"Do you have one?"
"I forgot to bring one."
"Oh."
The air hung strained between them; It was odd for Master and maid to find themselves in such a situation, wandering lost in the woods now that Sora, their only common denominator, had vanished. Class etiquette had nothing to prepare them for such a scenario.
Their eyes met for an uncomfortable moment and they each gave the other a tight, awkward smile before readjusting their shoulder packs and moving on.
They hurried along the path, keeping a sharp eye and ear out for any movement or sound that might indicate the rest of their group. But there was nothing. Even their own footsteps seemed too quiet in their ears.
And then the laughter started again, sinister and mocking. Kairi latched onto Riku's arm in fright. Riku raised an eyebrow as he peered down at her.
"What's the matter? I thought you said it was just a bird?" he teased.
"Shut up," she hissed, refusing to meet his eyes. "Where the hell is it coming from?"
The laughter grew louder as it echoed all around them. But no one was there. Riku and Kairi were frozen in their spot.
Then a soft chuckle sounded right beside them, as if someone were whispering in their ears.
Kairi and Riku shrieked, clutching each other in terror. They whirled around, but found themselves alone. A chill passed over them, as if they had been doused in ice water, then all was silent once more.
Riku and Kairi's eyes met with a mutual understanding that neither would ever mention to anyone that they had made such an embarrassingly undignified noise. Then, in an equally telepathic agreement, they took off running down the path in undisguised fear.
"Where the heck did they go?" Sora wondered aloud. He looked around at the dark forest behind him and scratched his head. "They were right behind us a second ago."
"Well one thing's for certain — this is no ordinary forest," said Namine enigmatically.
"What do you mean?" Sora had never been one to appreciate a good mysterious one-liner.
"There's magic here, without doubt. Old magic, seeped into the earth and trees. I can feel it, if only slightly. These woods have old memories."
Namine was unable to elaborate further on what she meant by that because she was interrupted by a far-off scream.
They spun on the spot, trying to locate the source, but the mist had grown too thick to discern anything but the impressions of trees around them, and the sound died away. The following silence was ominous and heavy.
"Fireflies, wait! We have to go back and find our friends!" Sora called to their tiny floating guides.
But the fireflies kept drifting forward, caring not for the missing members of their group or their possibly gruesome fate.
"Hey, wait! I said stop! Why aren't you listening to me anymore?" Sora huffed in annoyance when they continued to ignore him. Sora and Namine were forced to keep after them or be left behind.
"That must have been Riku and Kairi's scream," said Namine.
"Do you think they're okay?"
"It's hard to be certain. A forest like this is a habitat for many predators, and most of those would be nocturnal. Perhaps they've been attacked by a bear, or maybe a pack of wolves. Or maybe they fell into a ravine, or were crushed by a rockslide. And let's not forget that thieves and criminals often hide out in forests at night—they might have been ambushed and murdered."
Roxas' eyes were impossibly wide with horror, but Sora raised an eyebrow at her coolly. "You like saying creepy things, don't you? Are you a pessimist?"
"I prefer to think of myself as a realist," she said, nodding gravely.
"I think they'll be okay. Riku's a mage, you know—one time he smashed a metal gate! And Kairi has her weird-feeling powers, too. They won't let some bear eat them or whatever."
"That's very optimistic of you," she said with a tone that suggested an optimist was someone to be pitied. "But it's not as if we could search for them, anyway. The fireflies don't seem to be stopping — if we turned back we'd be just as lost as your friends. And really, we're in just as much danger as they are."
Sora considered her for a moment before turning his attention back to the fireflies ahead of them.
Except that the cluster of fireflies seemed a bit smaller than it had earlier—the line was both shorter and thinner, but almost imperceptibly so, and for a moment, Sora wondered whether he was imagining it. But as he watched their lights blinking on and off, he noticed some lights never seemed to reappear. Fireflies were simply vanishing in the seconds between their flickers.
"Some of them are disappearing!" cried Sora. "Where are you fireflies going?"
"Maybe they got tired of helping you," Roxas muttered quietly into Sora's ear.
"What? That's totally rude!" said Sora, affronted. "What're people gonna think of you if you don't follow through on your promises, huh?" As someone who took promises very seriously, he considered this a serious offense.
"Maybe this whole thing has been a trap," mused Namine. "Xehanort could be waiting somewhere to attack us, now that we're alone in the woods." But Sora wasn't convinced.
They continued following after the slowly shrinking cluster of fireflies, helpless to stop the handful of tiny, glowing deserters steadily abandoning them.
Meanwhile, the mist had grown into a dense fog around them, and they couldn't see more than a few feet ahead. Shadows and shapes emerged and sank behind its veil, and though Sora knew that they were probably only trees, some of the shapes seemed to move along with them, stalking them slowly.
Roxas was shivering on his shoulder, and Sora knew it wasn't from the cold. He put up his hand to sooth the cat, but got his thumb bitten for his effort. Sora scowled at him, but the cat had a look in his eye that meant he was too riled up to let anyone touch him. Sora rolled his eyes at the general weirdness of cats and rubbed his wounded thumb.
"What was that?" Namine hissed suddenly, staring intently to her left.
"Hm? What was what?" Sora followed her gaze but found nothing interesting.
"There was something there… but it's gone, now. You didn't see it?"
"No."
"Keep an eye out. It looked big. A bear, maybe."
As they went, Namine stopped suddenly several more times to point out threatening figures in the dark, each time startling an increasingly tense Roxas, who had begun sinking his claws into Sora's shoulder enough to leave obvious holes in his shirt. Sora, however, never seemed to see whatever it was Namine saw; He tried opening his eyes overly wide, or else squinting them into narrow slits, but nothing made any difference—Whatever monsters lurked always seemed to slip away by the time Namine called attention to them. Sora was understandably disappointed.
But though they kept a sharp watch over the surrounding shadows, no bear or murderers seemed eager to jump out at them and they continued along their path unimpeded.
The real issue to worry about, though, was the fireflies—or, rather, the lack thereof.
By now, their firefly guard had dwindled to five, then four, then two—until only one solitary bug remained flickering faintly ahead of them. And then that one, too disappeared, blinking out of existence, leaving the boy, girl, and cat stranded in the darkness.
Riku and Kairi had slowed down their run into a nervously brisk walk. It was dangerous to run when it was so difficult to see one's footing, after all, and a twisted ankle was the last thing either of them needed. Besides, nothing seemed to be actively chasing them. They hadn't encountered the ghostly laughter since the initial scare, and nothing worse had appeared, to their relief.
The mist was ominous, though, and couldn't be trusted, so they refused to let down their guard lest something decide to jump out at them. Their shoulders were tense enough to hurt as they hurried onward.
They had seen no sign of the rest of their group, which weighed on them heavily. Where had they gone? Had they been attacked? Were they hurt? There was no telling.
And so the two of them trudged along, cold, miserable, and lost.
And quiet, too. Riku wasn't exactly one to engage in small-talk, and it wasn't Kairi's place, as a maid in his household, to strike up a conversation with the nephew of her employer. But this silence was nearly painful in its awkwardness, and Kairi had to do something about it or her nerves would burst. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched, that strange prickle at the back of the neck, and she desperately needed to ignore it for fear of finding that what exactly was doing the watching.
She glanced over at Riku, and even in the darkness she could see he was scowling fiercely, eyes narrow and jaw set—the expression he usually wore when she saw him about the mansion. Any words that might have been on her tongue fizzled at his cruel look. He was simply too intimidating to talk to.
Kairi sighed at her predicament.
"What?" Riku snapped suddenly, startling her enough to make her flinch.
"W-what?"
"Did you say something?" he asked tersely.
"No."
"Oh, I thought I heard you say something."
"I didn't."
He grunted in response and picked up his pace a bit. Kairi eyed him warily as she trotted along at his elbow, wondering how Sora always seemed to break through Riku's icy character so easily. After a moment, she swallowed thickly, gathered up a bit of courage, and opened her mouth.
"Um," was the best that she could manage. She felt stupid.
"What?" he snapped again, and even though she knew it was coming, she still jumped.
"Well, um, I just… you, you seem to be pretty good friends with Sora, huh?" Riku made no response. But she pressed on, her need to dispel the forest's sinister aura through conversation overriding her fear of her surly companion. It was useless chatter, sure, but her chest was clenched tightly and the prickle on her neck was now more like a physical grip—someone was watching them, someone was following them, she just knew it—and she needed to focus on something beside her own panic. "I think that's nice," she ventured.
"Okay."
"Sora's a pretty odd guy, I've never met anyone quite like him," she tried again. She figured if the topic was Sora, the only person she had ever seen Riku smile for, he might be more willing to talk. It was the only thing he and Kairi had in common, anyway.
"I guess."
"I mean, if anyone else had suggested that I follow fireflies around in a forest at night, I would have just called them crazy and that would be that. But somehow Sora got us all to go with him," she continued, chuckling weakly.
"Yeah and look where it got us. Lost in some creepy woods."
Kairi had nothing to say to that. Perhaps trying to have a conversation was a bad idea. She gave up her attempts, and the two of them continued on in silence.
Which made it all the more surprising when it was Riku who spoke next. "So are you and Sora, um… Are the two of you, well...involved?" he asked, haltingly, as if speaking pained him.
"Are we what?"
"You know… is he your intended? Is he, ah, courting you? I—I don't know how a proletariat would say it."
Kairi choked with surprise and swallowed a startled laugh. "What? Courting me? You mean, are we dating? N-no, we're not, nothing like that." She glanced at him curiously from the side of her eye. "Why do you ask?"
He shrugged. "Just trying to be friendly," he grit through his teeth. "Get to know Sora's friends or whatever."
Kairi raised a doubtful eyebrow at him, though Riku didn't see it, as he was staring resolutely ahead.
But Kairi decided to take what she could get and remember that she was lucky the situation wasn't any worse. Riku was better by far than his cruel cousins, at least. And besides, maybe this was considered friendly by the Ice Prince's cold standards.
What she was curious about, though, was why he had asked that particular question.
"No, we're not together that way," she repeated, watching Riku closely to gage his reaction. He didn't appear to have any that she could tell, however, aside from a slight relaxation of his stiff shoulders. "Actually, I've known him for as long as you have. I was there when he ambushed you and made you his friend. I had given him that chocolate he gave to you."
"Yes, I remember," Riku said, and Kairi could have sworn that he almost smiled, though it was too dark to be sure. "I suppose I should thank you for the chocolate, then, shouldn't I?" he continued after a moment, his tone softening into something resembling conversational. "The famous Kalm chocolate, if I'm not mistaken?"
Kairi's face split into a surprised smile. "Yeah, I grew up there. My grandmother sends me some now and then. I'm impressed you could tell what kind of chocolate it was just from the taste."
"Please, any noble worth his salt can distinguish Kalm chocolates from ordinary ones. Especially if his family collects their taxes." He flicked his hair from his face with a dramatic air of haughty pride before giving her a wry but genuine smile to show he meant it as a joke.
"I suppose you've earned your right to rule, then, M'lord," Kairi laughed, giving him a mock-bow in return.
Riku chuckled—quietly, yet loud enough that Kairi was sure she heard it. "I visited Kalm with my parents once, a long time ago. It was nice. Quaint, but peaceful."
Kairi smiled at him, elated at how, well—pleasant their conversation had become. It seemed that she had managed a small glimpse of a side to the Ice Prince likely only Sora was privy to and she suddenly wondered less at Sora's attachment to him.
Movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention and Kairi froze, her heart skidding and her mood plummeting instantly. She stared into the fog, wondering what had caught her attention.
She thought she saw something large in the distance, something strange. But then the fog shifted, and it disappeared.
Riku stopped beside her and followed her gaze.
"What did you see?" he asked in a low voice.
"I—I don't know. Something. There was something moving over there," she whispered back. She swallowed nervously, afraid to even breath, and clutched her arms tightly to her chest.
The two of them spent the span of several heartbeats searching the wall of mist, but all seemed still once more. Perhaps she had imagined it.
"Come on, let's keep moving," Riku whispered. Kairi agreed, and they continued on, several degrees more cautious than they had been before. Their brisk walk seemed more like a light jog now, and they did not resume their conversation.
Of course, there was no question as to where exactly they were going. They could only hope that the general direction of forward would bring them closer to wherever Sora and Namine had ended up.
The fog welled up around them like an ocean wave as they went, nipping at them with cold fingers, and Kairi tugged her sweater close. She could barely make out her feet below her, with how difficult it was to see in the thick mist, and she worried that she might run headlong into a tree.
There was a sudden, sharp yelp of distress from Riku. Kairi turned to see what the matter was—and stopped short when she didn't find him. The spot where Riku had been beside her a moment ago was abruptly empty.
"Master Riku?" she called, voice wavering.
There was no answer. Riku had disappeared without a trace, and it appeared to Kairi that the mist had claimed another victim.
"Now what?" Sora huffed, irritated. "I don't see any stinkin' dagger." This adventure hadn't been much fun at all, in his opinion. At least the Nothing Man quest had been exciting.
"Hold on, let me get my lantern out," said Namine. She spent a moment rustling through the contents of the bag she had been carrying and emerged with a small gas lantern hanging from a wire handle. She held it up in front of her to turn it on, and the resulting light cast gruesome shadows across her pretty face, the way a person might look while telling campfire ghost stories to scare children. Roxas thought she might have been doing it intentionally, because she had a wide-eyed expression on her face, like she expected a reaction from Sora. But instead of being frightened, all Sora did was ask:
"Have you had that the whole time?"
"Of course," Namine replied. "It would have made it harder to see the fireflies if I had used it before now, but it's proved handy after all."
Sora accepted this with a shrug. The lantern didn't do much to penetrate the dense fog, but at least they could see each other a little better.
"Do you see that up there?" Namine narrowed her eyes and lifted her lantern to point into the fog ahead of them.
Sora squinted off in the direction indicated, his face screwed up with concentration. It was too dark to see much of anything, even with the lantern, and Sora wondered how Namine managed to keep picking out mysterious things when he could find nothing at all. His brow furrowed for a moment… And then he saw it. There, hidden behind the thick curtain of fog loomed a dark shadow, made strange and misshapen by its obscurity. Sora blinked in surprise.
"Is it a bear?"
He crept forward tentatively, and as he did so, a shy breath of wind ushered a swell of mist into retreat. The shape was revealed with sudden clarity, and they discovered with some alarm that they were much closer to it than they had thought—another moment and they would have run right into it.
Luckily, it was not a bear. At first, no one was quite sure what it was, really, and they hesitated.
They seemed to have arrived at a small clearing, and the moonlight filtered down enough to illuminate the thing before them slightly. It appeared to be some sort of structure. Stone was stacked into a tall, rectangular mass, at least ten feet tall, surrounded by a heap of decaying wood and mulch which seemed to be easing its way back into the earth. They approached it when nothing immediately jumped out to attack them and began examining their discovery with interest.
"Modern art?" guessed Sora.
"It looks like the remains of an old building," said Namine. She picked her way carefully over the muddy, decomposing logs and stopped in front of the stone structure, shining her light over it. "I think this is a chimney here. See how it's hollow in the middle? This would have been the hearth." Sora followed after her, and when he was close enough, he decided that it did rather resemble a chimney, though crumbling and solitary.
Roxas jumped down from Sora's shoulder to investigate for himself. He crept over to the dark, gaping mouth of the hearth and peered inside, but the cobwebs draping it sent him into a sneezing fit. So instead Roxas turned to the mounds of wood surrounding them, full of bugs and interesting smells and plenty of nooks to crawl into—the perfect playground for a curious cat.
"It must not have been a very big building," said Sora.
"Probably about large enough for a modest cabin," Namine mused as she continued wandering around the clearing. "These flat stones here would have been part of the foundation, and this here must have been a wall. See how the stones are stacked?"
"So spies from Alexandria know a lot about buildings, huh?" said Sora, impressed. He was sizing up the chimney, wondering how he might climb to the top. It wasn't too tall, he figured, and there were sure to be footholds in the crumbling stone. This adventure had improved quite a bit in Sora's esteem now that he had something to climb.
"Not generally, no. I just happen to have a passing interest in archaeology. But in any case, it's not that hard to figure out what this is. Ah, look, here's another wall. And oh, what's that over there?" Namine's voice and her small bauble of light grew fainter as she wandered off, exploring whatever secrets the old cabin's remains had to offer her.
Sora found a proper foothold and began inching his way up the chimney. It was much dirtier than he expected, which made it difficult to keep his grip, but the challenge made it more exciting. Even in the dark, the view from the top would be fun and he was determined to reach it.
Roxas poked his head out from the hollow of a log, with a tumble of cobwebs and leaves arranged around his ears like a fashionable ladies' hat. He looked around for a moment before catching sight of Sora, who had gotten about halfway up the chimney. "Where'd Namine go?" he asked.
"She went over there, I think," Sora answered, pointing in the direction he had last heard her footsteps crunching on the timber. He nearly lost his balance from doing so, however, and quickly latched his hand back onto the stone.
Roxas emerged fully from his spot and scurried over the wood, his ears swiveling intently. "I don't hear her anymore," he said, worried.
"Eh? You don't? She was just here a minute ago. Let me get up here, then I'll be able to see where she went." Sora gave a small grunt of effort before he at last reached the top of the chimney and pulled himself up to sit on its edge. He gave a shout of triumph at his success before he set to his new task. His elevated position provided a decent view of the clearing, and he squinted in the darkness and fog in search of Namine and her lantern anywhere below him.
"Uh oh," Sora frowned.
"What?" called Roxas.
"She's gone."
"What!"
"I don't see her anywhere." He made a face. "How come everyone keeps disappearing?"
"Why is it that every time we go wandering around a forest something terrible happens?" Roxas groaned. "I knew this was a stupid idea. Next time, I'm deciding what we do! We'll go to the beach or something, have a picnic. No more of this stupid shit. You hear me, Sora? Are you listening?"
But Sora, of course, was not listening.
Kairi was afraid. There was no point trying to convince herself that she wasn't.
Riku had vanished, and no amount of shouting for him had brought him back. Panic descended like a swarm of wasps, and the eyes she felt on her were instantly more menacing now that she was alone.
A low moan sounded from somewhere within the trees, far more terrifying than the laughter that had haunted them earlier. Unable to stand it any longer, her feet took off running before she even realized what she was doing, her breath ragged and uneven from fear. The trees seemed to swipe at her as she raced past, their branches like spindled claws, and she twisted frantically to avoid their reach.
Something glimmered out of the corner of her eye and she whipped around to find it, determined to see at last this horrible ghost who pursued her and snatched up her friends. If she was going to die, after all, she had to at least know the cause.
What she found was a tiny pinprick of light as if some invisible specter where holding a flickering candle. She blinked at this vision, confused. And then she gasped in realization.
It was a firefly.
She wasted no time as she sprinted toward it. The firefly seemed to recognize that it had her attention, and when she was almost upon it, it started drifting away. She followed dutifully, hoping it would help her find the rest of her group, or at least a way out of this damned forest. At this point, either was fine with her.
What it actually led her to was a clearing in the trees where a small tower loomed against the moonlight. The firefly had stopped to hover over a patch of flowers and gave no indication that it planned on leading her any further. She frowned.
"Hey, who's that?" a familiar voice called. "Oh, look, it's Kairi! Hey Kairi! Over here!"
Kairi looked up, towards the top of the strange tower and saw the silhouette of a head of messy hair and a lanky arm waving at her cheerily.
"Sora!" she cried with relief.
Sora scrambled down from his perch and she met him eagerly. There was a scraping noise coming from what looked like a pile of old timber, and she recognized Roxas's light fur. Kairi had never been so happy to see a cat in her life.
"So I lose one friend and find another!" Sora was laughing. "Funny how that happens, huh?"
"What do you mean?"
"We lost Namine," he explained. "I don't know what happened, I think she just wandered off."
"I lost Riku, too! He was right behind me, then I heard him shout and he disappeared. And I have this feeling like someone's watching me, and there was this crazy laughter and it was terrifying and—oh I'm just so glad I found you!" Kairi threw herself at Sora and held him in a tight embrace, trembling with fright.
Sora patted her back awkwardly. "Aw, don't worry. We'll find them." Kairi released him with a watery smile. "In the meantime, look at this! Namine says it's an old cabin. This is the chimney here, and I climbed to the top! It was totally awesome!"
"Yeah, I saw you," laughed Kairi. Sora's unchanging carefree attitude was immensely reassuring, and she felt the edge of her panic start to smooth out. She allowed herself to be shown around the ruins of the cabin and wondered who would have wanted to live here, alone in such an eerie forest.
They swapped stories about what had happened to them since they'd been separated, and though Sora didn't seem particularly worried about Riku ("he'll be fine, he's a mage, after all!") Kairi frowned when he told her about how the fireflies had abandoned them.
"So where do you think the Firefly Queen's dagger is, then?" she wondered aloud. "Is it here, maybe? This is where the fireflies left you, and one led me here, too. Maybe it's buried around here somewhere."
"Maybe," said Sora, looking at the ground thoughtfully. "I guess we should start looking around." He wandered back to the chimney and began snooping around the base of it.
"Roxas, check inside here," Sora said to his cat, pointing to the chimney's old fireplace. Roxas gave him a reproachful look. "Aw, come on! It might be in there somewhere! You're covered in cobwebs already, how much worse can it be?" But Roxas seemed perfectly happy to simply sit on the pile of wood and watch him.
Kairi left them to it as she poked tentatively around the piles of rotted wood.
Then the bushes on the edge of the clearing gave a sudden violent rustle, startling her enough to make her squeak embarrassingly. The sound caught the attention of Roxas and Sora, too.
"Something's there," she whispered nervously.
Sora came to stand by her side and the two of them squinted into the darkness. They heard leaves crushed under heavy footsteps followed by a low moan. Kairi recognized the sound as the one that had scared her earlier, right after Riku had vanished.
"It's coming," Sora said, low and intense. "When it gets close enough, we'll leap out at it."
"What?" Kairi hissed, alarmed.
"We'll get it before it can get us! Maybe it's the thing that took Riku and Namine. If we catch it, it can tell us where they are." He was humming with excited energy.
Kairi could only nod uncertainly.
The monster was moving toward them in the trees and they could just make out a hulking figure with a stumbling, limping gait in the darkness. The monster moaned again just as it stepped into the clearing.
"Now!" shouted Sora. He and Kairi lunged with all their might at the shadowy figure.
As they flew toward the monster, the moonlight fell over it, revealing a familiar shade of silver hair and jade-green eyes that grew wide at the sight of them. But they had put too much force behind their leap, and neither Sora nor Kairi could stop their impressive momentum as they landed, tumbling painfully over their target and knocking him flat onto the dirt with a solid thud.
Sora peered down sheepishly into the face of their victim.
"Oh hi Riku!" he said with a smile.
Beneath them, Riku wheezed, trying to regain the air that had been soundly knocked out of him.
Kairi scrambled off the nobleman's chest, horrified and embarrassed at their mistake. Sora did not seem to be as concerned, and he only laughed as he stood. He offered Riku his hand, and Riku leveled a deadly glare at Sora before allowing himself to be helped up.
"We thought you were a monster!" Sora laughed. "You should have seen the look on your face when we jumped at you! It was too funny!" His laughter was contagious, and Kairi struggled against joining him. She clasped her hand over her mouth to mask her grin.
Riku was not impressed. He rubbed his back with a pained moan—the same moan that Kairi had assumed belonged to a monster, she realized with a flush.
Now that they had a better look at him, though, it was clear why they had not recognized him initially. Riku was dripping wet and covered in mud. His pristine clothes were drenched and soggy, making him look bulkier than he was, and his hair was tangled and dirty, making him look wild and inhuman. He seemed to have hurt his leg and was favoring it carefully, explaining the limping way their supposed monster had approached. His glare was recognizable enough, however, though he now looked more like a miserable, half-drowned dog with the way his damp hair clung to his face and neck.
"What happened to you?" Sora snorted once he had taken in the disheveled appearance of his friend. "Lose a fight with a swamp monster?"
"I slipped on some moss or something and fell down a hill into a stream," Riku grumbled. This only made Sora laugh harder, and Riku's muddy cheeks turned pink in embarrassment. "Shut it, you!" he snapped. Sora stifled his laughter, but his quiet smirk wasn't any better.
"I thought a monster had gotten you or something," said Kairi. "I turned around and you'd disappeared! I'm glad you're okay!"
"Whatever," Riku mumbled. He picked a muddy leaf out of his hair and took a step forward, but his toe caught something lying hidden in the grass and he stumbled forward.
Without warning, all three of them were whisked upward in a violent lurch. When they recovered from a moment of disorientation, they discovered that they were now tangled together in a net hanging high in a tree.
"A tripwire?" Riku groaned wearily. "Are you serious? I'm so fucking sick of this place!"
