Intentionally short chapter this time. For some reason I just feel like more numerous, shorter chapters, is really the way to go with this first part of this part.

And the poll is now closed. The voters have spoken. Out of 54 unique voters and 78 votes, 50% voted that as far as sexual content went they were good with whatever I felt comfortable writing, lemon/lime included. Coming up second with 16.7% of the vote was that there shouldn't be explicit lemons, but ones like what I did for Riku and Yuffie in City of Bells were acceptable.

Therefore, any additional lemon/lime content will probably be what I feel comfortable with writing and probably lessened in how explicit it is; if not straight out played for laughs. Sora and Kairi might still get their own personal explicit lemon, though. I'll likely also print warnings in beginning authors notes if there's an explicit lemon or lemony scene written within so as not to catch you off guard. If there isn't such explicitness, or if it's played for laughs like S&K in Prince Alain's Castle when Aladdin walked in on them, I probably won't mention it.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts.

-A-D-

The Tower of Trials

Chapter 10: Epic Bluff

"Th-thank you," Sora said, blushing as one again he felt he was being given gifts with far more worth than he believed he or his friends deserved. The bag felt heavy in his hands, even though there was nothing inside of it, and it only looked like it was a regular cloth sack except for having an upward-looking wolf's head inside of a circle on the front in what looked like black ink.

"This is a-" Naminé said slowly in awe, reacting to what Yvette had just told them as the six training adventurers stood in a line in front of Saellian's house, each of them having been given identical bags from the wizard.

Yvette nodded her head. Besides her, only Saellian, Kat, and the six tenderpads were present. The rest of the escort company was marshalling by the east gate.

"That's right," Yvette said. "These are bags of holding. I know it feels a little heavy, but each of these bags can hold up to five hundred pounds of stuff and it'll still weigh exactly the same as it does now when it's empty. Now you've got an easy place to put those pelts from the owlbears, don't you?"

"Five hundred pounds?" Yuffie asked in surprise, looking inside the bag. It was only about two feet wide and four feet long, so still a decent size for a cloth sack, but the idea of it being able to contain that much stuff was a little hard to grasp. Sora looked at his own in wonderment before looking back at Saellian. He swallowed, throat feeling dry.

He bowed.

"Thank you for the bags!" Sora declared. The others all followed suit.

"Thank you for the bags!"

Saellian nodded. He jerked his head, and for the first time Sora heard him speak. His voice was soft and clear like a mountain brook, and uplifting as a robin's morning song. "Get going, then. You've a caravan to get to, don't you?" Sora raised his head and agreed with the wizard. "Then begone!"

"And may we hunt together again soon!" Yvette added. Perplexed at the expression, Sora nevertheless nodded and hurriedly rushed back to the horses with the other five. Yvette watched the group leave with a soft smile on her face. "They're an alright group, don't you think?"

"They'll do fine in Lensar's books when the King's Challenge gets underway," he agreed. "They'll make fine wolves of the pack." He looked at his old apprentice. "I still don't see why you couldn't have made those bags yourself. I know it's not beyond you."

"Well I wanted an excuse to come out this way, Yvette answered. "That and there was some news I needed to give my dear old mother. Now she can finally stop harping on me and Eric."

"You are going to be a mother?" Saellian replied. His eyes went skyward as he chuckled. "Light help us."

"How do you know I won't be a great mother?" Yvette asked idly.

"No. You'll be a fine mother. I'm concerned about how much havoc your children will unleash upon this unprepared world. No poking!"

-A-D-

They managed to exit the forest before midday reached them. Jenny was a little quieter than usual, and the three first-years from the Proving Ground still appeared to be lost in thought, though Sora noticed that Adrian was slowly edging himself closer and closer towards him.

"How much longer is it going to take?" Roxas asked when the broke for lunch.

"Three more days after this, if we keep this pace and don't run into any obstacles along the way," Ironmug said.

"What sorts of obstacles?" Jared inquired.

"Rock slides or fallen trees, mostly," Ironmug explained. "Anything that could block the road from our horses. Or..." he fell silent, staring into his dishes.

"Sir?" Kairi asked, worry written on her face. He looked up at her and smiled.

"It's nothing," he said. "Forget about it."

"Is it about what the villagers were saying at the inn last night?" Naminé asked. "About the disappearances that have been happening on this side of the woods?"

Sir Anthony didn't say anything, but they all fell quiet at Naminé's words. They had heard rumors and tales from the villagers of Three Falls the previous night when they had sat down for their evening meal. Some of the villagers had even believed that the paladin had been sent by the castle to investigate. Farms and ranches to the west of the Mirmire Wood had been found razed to the ground, their animals dead or missing and the farmers slaughtered. One person mentioned that it was rumored that they rarely found the bodies of everyone in the household, but none were completely sure of that.

No one had thought much of it at first: being just a little under a day's hard ride from the foot of the Dragon Heights, it was dangerous country to make a living in, but the news of the attacks had increased with frightening regularity over the past three months. The garrison at Hogan's Hill was shorthanded and didn't have the manpower needed to spend resources on an investigation, and even Saellian was too tied up in his work to look into it.

Their words laid heavily on their minds and hearts, a spark of hope for their neighbours and for themselves at seeing the famous paladin riding east. Truthfully no word of these events had even reached the castle, so it had caught the knight by surprise.

"Sir?" Kairi asked her mentor again. He looked at his squire once more, staring at her with calculating eyes above the scars under his eye.

"Unpack my horse," he commanded. "Kenturbury, you're coming with me."

"Yes, sir," the man-at-arms replied at once while Kairi stood to do as her master ordered.

"What's going on?" Travis asked, breaking the silence he had maintained since the previous day.

"I'm taking my leave of you," Ironmug told them. "I need to investigate this before more innocent people become victims of whatever's happening here. Jared, Sora, come here."

The group quickly came to the conclusion that lunch break was coming to an end and fast, so they began shoveling their food into their mouths while Sora and Jared went with the paladin and Kairi went to his horse. Ironmug took the two young men about twenty paces away from the others and pulled out the map.

"You both can read maps, aye?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Aye."

"Good," Ironmug said. "I'm going to go over the route to Crafthall one more time with you because I'm leaving you both in charge. Now we're about here..."

Sora nodded his head as the knight went over the particulars of the path they were supposed to take. The road they were on would lead them to the dwarf kingdom, but there were a couple of branches they'd need to remember to take in order to get there. Since they were also approaching dangerous country, Ironmug reminded them to keep a watch at night, and that whether or not to have a fire was their decision. Three Falls was the last proper settlement in the kingdom before Crafthall, barring a small border fort at the foot of the mountains three hours ride north of where they needed to turn southeast, so a fire would be their best preliminary defence against most wild animals, but could also work against them in case something intelligent was wandering around.

"Sir," Kairi interrupted him. "Your horse has been unpacked."

"Good," Ironmug said. He rolled up the map and passed it to Jared. "You can distribute the rest of your gear onto him or keep him fresh and lightly burdened in case you need to send a rider out swiftly."

"What will you do for a horse, though, sir?" Sora asked. The paladin smiled.

"I have my own," he said as he walked towards where Kairi had piled his saddlebags. He made three sharp short whistles before clapping his hands three times and thrusting them forward, shouting, "Come!" His hands became enveloped in golden light that rapidly spread into the air in front of him, forming the shape of some creature. It took several seconds for the glow to fully take shape and become a hard solid golden colour instead of a light, translucent cloud. It crystallized suddenly, and then shattered, revealing the creature the paladin had summoned.

Sora felt his jaw drop. His eyes widened in awe, and a little bit of anxiety. It was a wolf the size of a courser, but also had huge feathery wings like Pegasus just behind its front shoulders, currently folded back over its body. Dark gray fur covered its body, with streaks of white just barely visible. It held its head proudly, the bottom of its neck reaching Ironmug's shoulders as a result. Alert amber eyes scanned the surroundings, eyeing every person in sight. Leather armor with bits of steel plating covered much of the wolf's body.

"A wolf with wings," Jared stated, awed, beside Sora. Ironmug patted the wolf's head affectionately, and rubbed his hand through the fur on its head and neck.

"We run together soon, old friend," Ironmug said to the wolf. "Kairi," the paladin added, "bring my bags over here, please. Pull out anything that you feel your group might need and repack the rest in the bags on Kachua. You ride with your friends." He gave the wolf one more nudge before heading over to where his warhammer lay resting.

Barely two minutes later saw Sir Anthony Ironmug saddled up on the giant winged wolf while their man-at-arms Willis Kenturbury was just getting himself onto his own horse. Sora, Jared, Scott, Riku, Kairi, and Naminé had all gathered around the adult pair as they sat upon their mounts. "Keep to the road and you should get there without problem," Ironmug reminded them. "We'll meet back up with you as soon as we can. Don't worry if we haven't arrived at Rigothiton yet by the time the caravan's ready to leave; we'll catch up on the road." He turned to Willis. "Mister Kenturbury, I shall see you at Hogan's Hill. To the rest of you, good luck. May we hunt together again soon! Run with the wind, Kachua!"

Ironmug and his wolf took off running, the pieces of armour making light metallic tink noises as they brushed against each other underneath the greater sound of the wolf's paws striking the ground or the silver bells on his harness. Willis wheeled his horse to follow and took off in a north-northwest direction, but Kachua outpaced the man-at-arms' horse, and with a few great flaps of his massive wings bore himself and his rider into the sky.

"We'd better get going too, my lord," Naminé said. Sora nodded, ignoring the looks the other four were giving him and the blonde.

"Mount up!" he called. "We're leaving."

"My lord?" Kairi asked, her mouth gaping with a strange smile on her face. "When did that happen?"

"I'll tell you later," Naminé said swiftly, making sure not to look Kairi in the eye and give away the measure of embarrassment she was feeling at calling Sora that around the others.

"Travis, take the lead of the spare horse," Jared directed, reaching his horse and getting into the saddle. His and Sora's eyes met, and the 'former' Keyblade Master trotted his mount up to the older youth. Jared Watcher was three winters his senior in age, though Sora was confident that he was many battles Sora's junior in combat experience. Tall and a little lanky, though bearing corded arms and abdominals that showed the strength he needed to utilize his lance, the dirty-blonde haired apprentice was well on his way to earning his knighthood. Over two years in the Proving Ground, though, had meant that he had also had a little more experience than Sora in bossing around his juniors, hopefully translating into useful leadership skills.

That said, suddenly having the position of command thrust upon them allowed the pair of them to reveal their nerves to each other.

"Would you like to take the head of the column, or should I?" Sora asked.

"How about we both take it for now?" Jared requested. "It should be safe enough here."

Sora nodded. "Right. Of course. I mean, it should."

Lightly tapping against their mounts' flanks, the pair rode to the head of the column and the group took to the road again, uncomfortably aware of the eyes on their backs, critically watching to see how well they would do now that Ironmug, Kenturbury, and the Grand Magus were no longer around to aid them.

-A-D-

The land steadily began to rise as they rode on. The mountains loomed ahead of them, towering peaks that kissed the sky and became lost in the clouds even from the distance they were at. Their sides were draped in a blanket of trees. The entire range filled their sights above the hills on the road headed east, a line of earthen kings majestically standing vigil as the natural border of the kingdom of Tyrden.

The only thing that worried them was the reminder that those mountains weren't as peaceful and tranquil as they appeared.

Whether they meant to or not, the band rode harder in the afternoon than they had on previous days, and by the time the sun was bathing them in the reddish golden light of sunset they had already reached the bases of those mighty peaks and were entering its broadleaf cloak. The Dragon Heights towered above them such that it was easy for them to believe that dragons were dwelling in them, possibly watching them even now from high above. And who knew what other creatures made their lairs in these lands, hidden by rock and tree?

They did start a fire as they made camp for the night, finding a large enough space between the trees not too far from the road that suited them well enough.

Kairi stretched her limbs as she laid back in front of said fire, her back propped up against her bedroll, and inhaled the scent of woodsmoke and sizzling meat. She had a hand on Bast's head, gently petting the comfortable kitten, and her other arm wrapped around Menelmon's digiegg, holding it close to her chest. Sora stood over their fire with a portable collapsible cooking grate just over the dancing flames, grilling up the owlbear steaks for their dinner, with Plato nestled comfortably in the coals. Yuffie was idly plucking a few of the strings on her fiddle, supposedly trying to see if she could find a tune using it that way like a ukulele and discovering that it wasn't going to work out. Naminé and Jenny were beside each other next to Kairi, reclining on their packs and reading tomes on magical theory and spellcasting technique with their familiars at their sides. Wispy was flying through the leaves of the trees above them, laughing with her windy voice. The hard thunk sound at regular intervals was Scott chopping up deadfall and other wood for the fire and for later use, while the sharp clack! clack! signified the striking of sticks together as Roxas practiced against a poor tree, though the tree was doing a lot better than it would have been had he been using his swords (as it was, the tree was kicking Roxas' butt). The others were all setting about getting the canvas tarps up in case it rained so that both they and their fire would stay as dry as possible.

The redhead breathed a sigh of contentment, feeling good to be out of the saddle and with her armour off. Having the weight on was good both for fitness and for security, but it was heaavyyy. "We should do camping like this more often," Kairi said, closing her eyes. "It's nice."

"Says the woman slacking off," Riku teased as he held a rope taut for one of the others to tie it off. Kairi stuck her tongue out at him.

"I did half the job unpacking the horses," she argued. "Still, cooking over a fire, sleeping out underneath the stars, surrounded by trees and smelling crisp mountain air..."

"Getting waited on hand and foot by the men," Naminé added with a smile as Sora passed Kairi her canteen with just a motion of the redhead's hand.

"I could get used to a life like this," Kairi finished.

"The joys of being a princess," Yuffie chuckled. Half of the group stopped whatever it was they were doing and stared at Yuffie. It took her a few seconds to realize that they were doing so and she paused before looking at Sora, Kairi, and Naminé. "Did I say that out loud?"

"You did Yuffie," Sora said with a bit of a grin, "you did."

"P-princess?" Jenny asked, staring at Kairi like she'd grown a second head.

"It's a nickname," Kairi said idly through a smile before taking a drink of water from her canteen. "Don't take Yuffie seriously."

"Don't say that, Kairi," Yuffie urged with a little whine blended in. "You could have them doing whatever you want."

"I don't need them all to be waiting on me hand and foot," Kairi giggled. "I've got Sora to do that. How are the steaks coming, Tushy Bushy?"

"Just about," Sora replied with a stupid grin on his face and a completely red face that he was powering through while everybody else (including Wispy, Plato, Bast, Erry, and Lady Puff) completely lost it and burst into guffaws of laughter. "You like yours still bleeding, right Queeny Beenie?"

"You know it," Kairi answered, now blushing with enough force that if her blood erupted through her pores and punched whatever was in front of her with the force of a pressure washer she wouldn't be surprised. The others were all laughing even harder now. Sora chuckled.

"Carnivore."

Yuffie had dropped her fiddle on the ground and was rubbing her teary eyes with one finger while her other arm was clutched around her ribs. "Tushy Bushy? Queeny Beenie? This is too rich! It hurts! Light it hurts to laugh!"

"You two are completely ridiculous," Adrian spoke, leaning against a tree for support while he, too, held onto his chest for dear life so that his respiratory system didn't burst out from his body.

"So you can speak after all," Sora said delightedly while quickly turning the steaks over with a fork. "I was beginning to get worried since none of you seemed to like talking since we encountered those owlbears we're about to start eating."

Adrian was quiet, again, before speaking up with surprising earnest. "How did you do it?"

"Do what?" Sora asked, glancing at him while keeping his eyes mostly on the steaks.

"Fight," Adrian clarified. "When we encountered the owlbears yesterday...you all were incredible; all of you, even you, Miss Clover. I was so confident in how good I was with my sword but when the time came to actually use it I...I...I froze! How did you not freeze like that?"

It was clear that he had been thinking about that question for a while now, probably since Kairi had scolded him and Bartt for doing nothing while Roxas faced their foe on his own and (in her opinion) was losing.

"So that's what's been eating at you," Scott said softly. The third-year looked at Travis and Bartt. "Is it the same with you?"

Slowly, both of them nodded their heads, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"Finish setting that up," Sora said, gesturing at the tarps. "The meat's almost done. We can talk while we eat."

"No."

None other than Bartt Reid had said that, staring defiantly at Sora and crossing his arms. "You're going to tell me now. Why would Sir Anthony put you in charge with Jared? Why is it that a bunch of street rats and their dirty common whores are ab-AH!"

"Are you daft or are you intentionally trying to get yourself killed!?" Jared roared in Bartt's face, the older, and bigger, youth having grabbed the noble and roughly shoved and pinned him against a tree trunk.

"Do you realize who you're-!"

"Do you realize how close you are to having one of the lasses' daggers in your ribs!?" Jared shouted back, cowing the baroness' nephew for a moment. Jared hadn't even needed to look to see that Kairi and Naminé were absolutely livid, but it was a surprise to many of them that Yuffie seemed shocked to the point of tears instead, with Riku taking all of her rage for himself with his sword already mostly drawn from its scabbard. "I honestly couldn't blame them, with all the drivel that's spewed from your mouth since we first embarked!"

"Do you deny that they are common-born?" Bartt challenged. "Only women of noble blood have any worth; all others are to be seen and not heard. How all of you can treat them with such standing is repulsive."

"How you treat them is repulsive!" Jared argued with an additional shove into the trunk. "They may not be of noble blood, but they're as human as you or I!"

"Enough!" Naminé said, snapping her book shut and standing. "I am Princess Naminé Talerith, second-in-line to the throne of the Kingdom of Radiant Garden and a knight thereof. Down on your knees and beg for pardon for all the insult you have done to Her Royal Highness Princess Kairi, the Lady Yuffie Kisaragi, and myself! And lick my boots while you're at it."

Everyone stopped.

"Well it's about time one of you snapped," Roxas said into the stunned silence.

"Is...is this a jest?" Adrian asked cautiously.

"Actually, no," Kairi said. "I lied when I told you not to pay attention to Yuffie. Naminé and I are princesses of a small kingdom on Ervonheim; we just didn't want to cause a fuss."

"You're from Ervonheim?" Jenny asked. She blinked. "But...but you all look so normal."

"Surprise!" Yuffie said.

"Ervonheim?" Scott asked, his brow furrowed. "What's Ervonheim?"

"It's a realm on Tyrgard, one of the major planes," Jenny answered. When she was answered with blank stares her face reddened and she clutched at a lock of her blonde hair while also adjusting her glasses. "What we exist on is the Prime Material Plane. When someone summons a creature here through magic it travels from its home plane to ours using a tether that bridges our planes together through the Astral Plane." When she still received blank looks she gestured at Lady Puff. "Our familiars and Sir Anthony's wolvin came from the other planes. I don't know exactly where Lady Puff and Erry came from, but I'm guessing from the Wildlands, and Kairi's came from the elemental Plane of Fire, and Sora's from the Plane of Air."

"Ohhh…" was the collective response.

"Tyrgard is said to be a...well, a good plane," Jenny continued, though she was still blushing a little and avoiding eye contact with any one person for more than a couple of seconds. "Though good as in the concept of good, not really good as in you'd like to take a vacation there. It's supposedly home to warriors, paladins, archons, liongar, and other beings who fight for the sake of justice and for the good of common people who just want to be left alone by evil things like demons, devils, and their servants and other creatures that would hurt them." She looked at Naminé and Kairi. "Are you really from there?"

Kairi shared a quick glance with her sister, giving the blonde an annoyed glare as her brain quickly ramped its way into overdrive to spin the real story that Sora had told Yvette into a pile of bullshit that sounded believable, because there was no way that the others would just accept that they were from an entirely different dimension and that this one was under the control of a math-loving mad spirit overseer.

Then again, Kairi didn't have any idea whether or not the 'Realm of Light' and 'Realm of Darkness' weren't simply different planes of their own right and in-between worlds like Traverse Town weren't akin to the Astral Plane that touched and connected everything. If Xokor had simply shoved them into a different plane opposed to a different 'dimension' and then the Spirit of Adventure had done the same by pushing them into Olomund, then why the heck was there a time dilation on these planes of supposedly two hundred hours for every minute in the Realm of Light? Was there some kind of cosmic overbeing above even the gods manipulating everything to its whim? Was the Light an actual entity like the people of Olomund believed, and did it really desire them to succeed so much that it would give them what amounted to an overpowered Hyperbolic Time Chamber the size of the cosmos? Or was it that all these other places had normal time and it was just the Realms of Light and Darkness that operated slower?

"Yes," Kairi said. "But, like I said, we're from a small kingdom in Ervonheim. Things haven't been exactly...peaceful there recently."

Fuck. I've got nothing. Someone, help! My bullshit generator is broken!

Sora caught her pleading eye glance and raised his voice. "Can we talk about this while we're eating?" he insisted. "The steaks are going to be overcooked!"

"You mean that they're going to be medium," Yuffie said. Sora loudly gestured in front of his body with his hands.

"Like I said, overcooked!"

"I agree," Roxas said, arms behind his head in a Sora-like pose. "I could do with some food. Hey, Riku! When're those rain covers going to be finished getting up?"

"Just give us a minute," Riku said. "Hey, can we get this done, then, so we can all talk while we eat? Those steaks actually smell kinda good."

Somehow the matter was dropped for the moment as the boys quickly went about finishing their work. Kairi stole Naminé to the side the moment she was in the clear.

"What are you doing?" Kairi hissed at her sister.

"What am I doing? What are you doing?" Naminé replied.

"Why did you go and tell them who we really are?" Kairi asked.

"Well excuse me! Yuffie and I just had to put up with his chauvinistic bullshit ass for a month while you escaped to the temple!" Naminé hissed back. "Why'd you have to go and say we're from Ervonheim? We've never even been to Tyrgard! We don't know what it's like!"

"Well I couldn't tell them that we came here from a tower in Mathmagicland. They'd think I was nuts!"

"Jenny would probably believe us."

"Jenny isn't the one we're trying to get off our backs without resorting to strangling. I thought killing those owlbears might, just might, have made him respect us a bit, but now he hates us more than ever."

Naminé gritted her teeth and pushed a breath through her clenched jaw. "This goes completely against our oath. 'Speak the truth, always, even if it should lead to your death'. Why are we doing this?"

"Oh, now you bring up the oath. We've been here for about a month and you bring it up now of all times," Kairi said, exasperated. "Look, Yvette already knows our whole story from Sora and if it makes you feel better I'll let Sir Anthony in on it too and convince Sora to tell Baroness Adelwine, but not everybody needs to know, alright?"

Yuffie leaned in between the two, catching both off-guard. "You two had better hurry up and cobble together our cover story, because the rest of us are playing this by ear."

"We know," Naminé said quickly. "Just give us a minute." She turned back to Kairi and, though they were both annoyed with the other, they hurriedly hashed together something close to the truth, but different enough to keep it in line with Kairi's bluff. They just hoped it would work.

The moment they all had food on their plates, just as Kairi was about to start cutting up the delicious-looking steak Sora had cooked for her (the colour of the meat on the surface looked a sandier shade of brown, but with the rub Sora had put on it the meat gained a reddish hue), the question was asked. Thankfully, it wasn't Bartt who asked it. "So if you're from Ervonheim, what are you all doing here?" Jenny asked, practically bouncing off of the stone she was sitting against.

"How do we even know that they're from there?" Jared said, showing a lot more caution than he had before.

"Did you see the way they fought?" Adrian asked. "No fear. No hesitation. If that place is filled with warriors, then I believe them."

"Sora and I also have these," Kairi said, referring to the digieggs in hers and Sora's laps. "Inside these eggs that hitched a ride on my summon familiar spell are the baby forms of monsters that are friendly to both of us. They're intelligent magical beasts of Tyrgard that..."

Snick!

Kairi paused in her explanation after the sound entered her ears. It had been a sharp cracking sound, but a quiet one, and it hadn't sounded like it had come from the fire.

"Magical beasts that what?" Jenny asked.

Kairi shook her head. She must have been hearing things. "Well, they can speak for one, and for another-"

Snick! Crick!

She was sure that she couldn't be imagining it this time, and looked around quickly. Where was that sound coming from?

Plato poked his head out from the fire. "My Queen!" he growled, jerking his head upwards in her direction. Kairi looked at him, and then brought her eyes to where he was pointing. She gasped, a huge smile coming to her face.

"Kairi!" Sora jubilantly exclaimed, holding up his egg in his hands. There was a large crack running horizontally through the middle of the digiegg, and he was also pointing at hers also, where she had just seen the crack in her own.

They're hatching, was the only thought in Kairi's mind. They're hatching!

"Come on!" Kairi urged softly, somewhat reminding herself of the last time this happened. "Come on! You can do it, Minyamon! You're almost there."

"You've got this, little guy," Sora was whispering. "You've got this. I know you can do it, Aiwë, break free! Break free!"

The cracks completed their circuits around the faces of their digieggs, and in perfect synchronization the top halves of both eggs were thrown off by the two tiny baby digimon inside. Minyamon looked just as Kairi remembered her, a softly glowing yellow blob with blue eyes and a body whose sides rippled like waves lapping against the shore. Kairi didn't have eyes for the baby form of Aiwemon, her entire being gushing again at the cuteness of Minyamon. Despite that, there was throbbing in her throat and burning in her eyes at seeing the digimon again.

Sora felt his heart leap into his throat and anchor itself there as he saw the little creature that was inside of his egg. It was so small that it could easily fit into the palm of his hand. The baby digimon looked like a little silver ball with a tiny S-shaped cone flowing out of the top of its head. It yawned from the effort of breaking free from its confinement in the digiegg, and looked up at Sora with big green eyes. They were the same. They were exactly the same. Sora felt a tear leak out from the corner of his right eye, only a little surprised that he was getting so emotional. "H-hey buddy," he murmured.

The digimon gave him a smile almost as big as its tiny body and jumped out from the remains of the confining eggshell directly for his face. "Telpemon! Telpemon!" it cried with joy. Sora dropped the eggshell and caught the baby digimon in his hands, and held him close to his face while the digimon continued to say its name repeatedly. Wispy flew down from where she'd been floating in the treetops to get a closer look at the tiny silver creature, and Sora could feel her curiosity and budding enthusiasm through their empathic link as master and familiar. Riku and Yuffie came closer to Sora to get a good look at Telpemon, while Roxas and Naminé leaned Kairi over to congratulate Minyamon on making it out of the egg.

"WHAT are those!?"

Jenny's excited shriek startled them. She was standing, plate just off to the side so that her food hadn't spilled, and she held a clenched hand to her chin. Her voice was strained as she said. "They're so cuuute! Can...can I pet them?"

Kairi laughed and beckoned to Jenny with her free hand. Jenny shuffled closer, gazing at Minyamon in fascination and wonder. Minyamon turned around in Kairi's hand to look at her curiously, and Kairi said, "Minyamon, this is our friend Jenny Clover. Say 'hello', Minyamon."

"Minya!" chirped the baby digimon, her luminescent body dimming slightly. Jenny looked like she was holding back a squeal and slowly reached forward with the forefinger of her right hand.

"Hello, Minyamon," Jenny said softly, and pressed the tip of her finger to the top of the digimon's body. She gasped quietly. "She's so soft!" Jenny said, gently rubbing her finger back and forth. Minyamon's inner glow brightened, crooning softly in contentment.

"Yeah, she likes it when you stroke her head," Kairi said with a bright smile. Sora came closer, and Kairi got her first look at the baby form of Aiwemon.

She squeed. Those are the only words that can accurately describe her reaction.

"Sora he's adorable," Kairi gushed. Minyamon turned and looked, and her luminescent body became bright enough to rival the dancing flames of the fire.

"Minya! Minya minya Minyamon!"

"Telpemon! Telpemon!" Telpemon answered with boundless enthusiasm. Each of them hopped out of Sora's and Kairi's hands without warning, the two baby digimon leaping for one another. Frantically the humans surged forward like a lumbering wave, managing to catch both digimon before they hit the ground. Minyamon and Telpemon didn't appear to notice, too busy nuzzling their tiny bodies against each other.

"Awww," Naminé, Yuffie, and Jenny all cooed.

"They're adorable," Jenny said in a hushed voice.

"You'd think that they're more happy to see each other than they are to see us," Kairi said, though she couldn't seem to keep a smile from her face. Aiwemon and Menelmon were close, of course, but this reaction was almost as though they were in love, which they shouldn't be, as they hadn't been when the Battle started and Kairi didn't know if digimon were even capable of feeling romantic love in the first place. Minyamon seemed to become startled at the impression she was giving and turned back to look at Kairi, rapidly firing off her name in a distressed tone as her luminescent glow fluctuated like a light on a repeater switch.

"So those are magical beasts of Tyrgard?" Jared asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yep," Sora replied. "I know they don't look like much now, but they just hatched. Give them some time."

"Well, they're certainly unlike anything I've seen or heard of," Bartt said slowly, trying not to look at Kairi but failing every few seconds. "So I guess I'll believe that you aren't from here, at least."

"Since that much is apparent," Scott began, "why are you here, then?"

"To train," Kairi said simply.

"To train?" Jared asked.

"Or at least, we think it's to train," Naminé said. "See, war is brewing in Ervonheim. Radiant Garden is a small kingdom, but it's part of a much larger alliance, and war is coming to us. We may not look like it now, but the six of us are somewhat important where we're from."

"Princesses and lordlings, Naminé," Roxas reminded her. "We're not just somewhat important; we're kinda a big deal." She giggled.

"We'd thought we'd been trained enough," Kairi said. "We'd fought many times before, and had participated in tournaments and won some measure of renown. Then the people above us gathered the six of us together, said that we needed to prove ourselves worthy in order to lead our armies in the coming war, and shoved us through a portal to here." Kairi transferred Minyamon to her familiar perch on her right shoulder and folded her arms. "Sora and I weren't even wearing shoes at the time."

"Why do you say, 'people above us'?" Jared asked. "Why not the king?"

At this, Kairi and Naminé looked away. "We don't have a king right now," Naminé said quietly. "A few months ago our parents were killed by agents of the enemy we're to go to war against. Sora, Roxas, Riku, and Yuffie all lost theirs to them too."

"The other four were lucky to be away," Riku muttered, "but Yuffie and I were luckier. We were there, but we couldn't stop them, and just managed to get away with our lives before they could kill us too."

Yuffie placed her hand on his shoulder, and Riku smiled warmly at her before placing a chunk of his steak into his mouth.

"When we got here, we discovered that a lot of the strength and agility we had had in our Realm was gone," Sora said. "We ended up in the capital, and through a string of strange circumstances we ended up being brought to the attention of King Edric, who then sent us here to become Lensar's sponsored adventuring company in this grand event that he's planning. And that, as they say, is that." He sighed and started cutting up his steak. "So here we are, six vagabond noble waifs of a distant land, with no idea how to get home or how long it's going to take or even what we need to do to prove ourselves worthy, as they said."

"So we're just going with the flow," Naminé said.

"To wherever the winds will take us," Riku added.

"And hoping that everything works out in the end," Kairi finished.

"Which it will," Roxas assured them casually, stabbing his chosen piece of steak with his knife. "It always does."

"Interesting story," Bartt sneered. "But if all of that is true, then why do you not treat your princesses with the utmost respect deserving of their station?"

"They do treat us with respect, though," Kairi said, scrunching up her nose in confusion.

"If you mean why we aren't bending over backwards to serve their every whim and fancy and calling them Your Highness all the time," Riku put forth, "it's because we're all friends, douchebag."

"Riku!" Yuffie scolded. "You can't call him a douchebag. He doesn't know that it's an insult."

Bartt flinched as though stung. Riku matched him in height, but Bartt knew now that he exceeded him in both deed and likely in strength as well. Still with one more question he demanded be answered, Bartt put forth once again, "Why then do you follow him?"

"We follow Sora because we respect him," Naminé answered.

"And I only clued in on that the other day when you knelt before me and pledged your loyalty to me," Sora said with a self-deprecating laugh and shake of his head.

"So that's why you called him 'my lord' earlier," Kairi said with an 'aha!' look on her face. She grinned. "You're Sora's underling."

Naminé appeared stunned for a moment, caught speechless like a fish out of water. "I-I-I wouldn't exactly say that…"

"Naminé?"

"Yes, Sora?" said the blonde. Sora gave her a cheeky smile.

"You're my underling."

"Dammit!" she said to her food. A good natured round of laughter followed her proclamation, including her own.

"Now then," Sora said as he started to tuck into her dinner in earnest. "Are there any further questions, and are we going to have any more bigoted, sexist, dumb comments about women from you?"

That question was quite clearly directed at Bartt Reid, and everyone looked at him. "You didn't even treat them like people before you knew they were nobles from another plane, even after Kairi, it can be argued, saved your life," Sora continued.

"Because before they were not worthy of my respect," Bartt declared.

"And they are worthy now?" Sora pressed. "Why?"

Bartt muttered something in a low voice that they couldn't catch. Telpemon and Minyamon glanced at their partners in confusion, not understanding what was going on.

"Sorry, didn't quite catch that," Sora said lightly. "Bit louder please."

"Their blood makes them worthy of my respect," Bartt said, louder. "Whether by lands here or elsewhere, noble blood makes them worth my time and companionship."

The girls, Jenny most of all since she now became the only girl not of nobility from somewhere, were increasingly irked by this. Kairi saw her look, and had an epiphany. "Bartt Reid," she said in her most authoritarian voice (which she had secretly been practicing), "will you obey the orders of a princess of Ervonheim?"

He appeared startled, and then jerkingly nodded his head. "Y-yes, your highness."

"Then listen to what I have to say," she said slowly. "For so long as you are accompanying us on this mission of the Baroness', you will treat Jenny Clover as you would treat any noble lady, and you will do the same with every woman, girl, or lusty tavern wench who will offer you her bed for your gold. They are all to be treated with the same, utmost respect as you would treat a noble lady of your aunt's court. Is that clear?"

Everyone grinned as Kairi ensnared him. They could see the conflict warring on his face; to follow the orders of a princess, or do as his father had taught him all his life?

In the end, he bowed his head. "As you command, your highness."

Yuffie smiled chipperly at Sora. "Well what do you know? Things are looking up already. Oh! Sora! What did you put on this meat? It's really good! Good supper. Good weather. Good conversation, and soon we'll be in the golden halls of a dwarf kingdom." She laughed. "Anyone have any requests for my fiddle tonight? I'm in the mood to practice some cheery dancing jigs."

-A-D-

And done. Sorry it took so long everyone. I got stuck and bashed my head against my desk a few times, plus I'm going back to school, and was busy with work, and other stuff kept happening.

Next chapter: Rigothiton! Crafthall!

May the Grace of the Valar Protect You

Shire Folk