10
Chapter X: Deserted
"The only source of knowledge is experience."
~Albert Einstein
Maleficent looked over the desert city of Agrabah, eyes roaming its messy entirety. Off in the distance stood the majestic palace of the Sultan; the pudgy little nitwit. The palace itself looked to be about the size of the actual city, so at least he had good tastes. Although she herself would've preferred less white and gold.
Sand-colored hovels were packed together below Maleficent in the huge metropolis, leaving little room to navigate on the bustling streets below. Poor fools pushed and prodded at each other, most likely hoping for the best meat or jewelry. Perhaps a suitable companion. Not a one knew that everything they were doing would soon be completely and utterly pointless, if it wasn't already.
She looked back at the other person standing with her. Jafar, Grand Vizier of Agrabah. He had already completed the first step of the plan by deposing the Sultan. Or, at least that was in truth what had happened. In the eyes of the people, the Sultan still ruled, but Jafar's magic kept the rotund ruler under his power.
"And the Keyhole?" Maleficient asked as she looked back at the Palace.
"I still cannot grasp why we must meet under these circumstances," Jafar looked about the flat rooftop, and the town around in disgust, "The Palace is just fine for-"
"The Keyhole?" Maleficent asked again.
Jafar was silent for a moment, "The Heartless are searching for it now. I'm certain we'll find it soon enough." the Vizier scanned the skies, "So that just leaves..."
"Jafar!" came a rough yell. Descending awkwardly from the skies came a small red parrot, with a yellow beak and blue-tipped wings. "I've looked everywhere for Jasmine!" it panted, "She's disappeared like magic!"
Jafar scowled as the bird lighted on his shoulder. "Calm yourself, Iago." he looked back to Maleficent. "That girl is more trouble than she's worth."
"I thought you said you had things under control." Maleficent tilted her head to glance dangerously at him.
"Agrabah is full of holes for rats to hide in." Jafar looked away from her gaze, "But why worry about Princess Jasmine? With her, or without her, surely this world will be ours completely when we find the Keyhole?"
Maleficent sighed at Jafar's ignorance and studied the green-orb at the top of her staff, "We need all seven Princesses of Heart to open the Final Door. Any fewer is useless."
She could just see the arrogant fool nodding ever-so-slightly, "Well then, if the Princess is that important, we'll find her." Jafar waved the gold, snake-topped staff he held and a cadre of Heartless appeared. He spoke to the Heartless without looking upon them, "Find Princess Jasmine and bring her to me at once."
The Heartless jumped eagerly before scurrying off to perform their Master's business.
Maleficent finally turned and faced Jafar fully, her face unreadable, "Don't steep yourself in darkness too long. The Heartless consume the careless."
Translation: I might still need to use you for Kingdom Hearts, you fool, so don't let the Heartless take you.
Jafar apparently didn't catch the translation and chuckled as he walked away, "Your concern is touching, but hardly necessary."
One of Maleficent's thin, black eyebrows rose slightly as she disappeared into tendrils of darkness.
Sora gagged and spit to be rid of the sand that had blown into his mouth, wondering why Donald had landed them far outside the city, still in the desert, instead of in the relative shelter nearer to the city's walls? The had landed among a relatively untraveled hill of sand dunes, hidden from the view of the city.
As they dragged themselves through the ferociously wind-blown sand, covering their faces to avoid inhaling any more, the three adventures made their way toward the bustling entrance of the city of Agrabah, the largest on this world.
Of course, the young Keyblade Master was quite used to sand getting everywhere, he had lived on Destiny Islands, after all, and sand had been an abundant commodity there. But the sand here was different. On the Islands, the sand was soft and lovely. The kind of sand that you could relax in comfortably, like a blanket, an absolute heavenly feeling when it was cool in the late parts of the evening. The kind that makes perfectly watered mud when mixed with water for sandcastles. The Agrabahian sand was no Island sand. The sand here was grainy and rough, as hot as miniature coals, and cracked underfoot when it wasn't blowing sharp particles in one's face.
After several minutes of silent travel, Sora, Donald and Goofy made their way into the city proper. The buildings around Sora were packed tightly together, one on top of another; while others connected through walkways on their flat, sand-colored roofs. Colorful tarps and blankets hung over shops, their owners selling all manner of food, merchandise and toys. Much like the buildings, Agrabah's people bustled and pushed closer and closer together the deeper you went into the city. Flies flew in swarms above the crowd, occasionally dive-bombing one stand or another. It was humid, it was crowded, and it was suffocating-all things that Sora hated. Off in the distance, he could just make out a few gold-topped, white citadels, and most likely the home of royalty.
Before Sora, Donald and Goofy could really begin to garner strange looks from the populace, a scream rang out across the bazaar, sending people scattering away into corners and holes among the buildings. Sora and the two Disney Castle residents pushed forward to see what had been the cause of the screams; a difficult task, considering that the rest of the people were running away from the hub of the panic.
Soon enough, they reached the center of the bazaar and found a group of Heartless chasing the citizens of Agrabah into their homes. They seemed to be searching for something or someone while they were at it, heads jerking around like spotlights as they busied knocked over stands and upset tables.
This class of Heartless appeared similar to desert bandits. White turbans were wrapped around shadowed faces, which punctured by their yellow eyes, with excess material piled high atop their heads. Two scythes were held in each dark hand and blue desert robes covered their dark bodies.
Donald fired off a Blizzard from a ways away, while Sora and Goofy got in close, removing the Bandit Heartless with little difficulty.
When the second to last Bandit was vaporized into black smoke, and Sora began to scan the area to see if anyone was hurt, a portal of darkness opened and out of it came a huge, rotund heartless.
This new creature was about twice Sora's height, and, by Sora's own precise estimates, a gazillion times his weight. Its massive body, nearly spherical in shape, was covered in an orange desert robes, with a white hat sat upon its shadowy head. A large black heart, criss-crossed in red, was displayed prominently on its stomach, and it's huge, pudgy arms swung at its side.
"Uh...Donald? Goofy? What do we do?" Sora wondered aloud as he watched the fat Heartless slowly lumber toward the group.
"We attack it!" Donald yelled, as if Sora should've known better. The duck followed with a shot of Blizzard right at the bandit's stomach. Upon impact, the attack simply bounced off and ricocheted into the corner of a building, creating a frozen patch on the tan stone, soon to be melted by the immense heat of the sun's rays.
"Uhhhh..." Goofy pointed to the Heartless' face, redirecting Sora's attention from the misplaced ice.
Looking back, he found that the fat Heartless had opened its mouth and seemed to be charging up a fire ball in it. A large fireball. Sora quickly rolled out of the way, leaving in his place a glassy finish instead of sand where the fireball had made contact.
"We gotta run!" Sora yelled to Donald and Goofy, while the Heartless charged up another fireball, "Hide somewhere!"
Donald was about to protest, but Goofy grabbed the diminutive mage and dragged him through a near-hidden door in the corner of the market. Sora quickly followed through and found himself in a dank, broken-down house. Small rickety stairs led up to the second floor, where Donald and Goofy must've ran. He could still hear the sand outside crunching under the large feet of the obese Heartless. Sora shot up the weak stairs, a few steps breaking apart behind him.
The second floor, in contrast to the first, looked as if it had been lived in. A desk and a few drawers were set off to the side. A few blankets lay in a corner in what looked to resemble a bed. A few tall brown and gray pots were grouped together in the opposite corner. On both sides of the room, pieces of the wall were missing, revealing an open view of the city. But what enraptured Donald and Goofy's attention was a carpet, a carpet that had one end trapped under a desk and seemed to attempting to escape.
Wait, what?
Sure enough, a purple, red and yellow decorated carpet was tugging, of seemingly its own volition, against the table's left front leg. The carpet was moving.
The carpet was moving.
Sora imagined that Donald and Goofy had similar thoughts on this strange turn of events, which was probably why it appeared that they had done nothing but look at the struggling carpet awkwardly.
Sora supposed he would have to get used to these types of things happening, considering the nature of their mission. They were traveling to other worlds, after all.
"So, uh, are we gonna help it?" Sora walked up behind his two friends.
Donald and Goofy broke their gaze with the struggling carpet and nodded, moving forward along with Sora to remove the table leg from the carpet. But just as they gave one final push, a voice rang out.
"Wait! Don't!"
But it was too late, and the carpet was freed. It spun in place for a moment before speeding out one of the gaps in the wall, flying out towards the desert.
Sora, Donald and Goofy all turned at once to see who had wanted them to stop: it was a young woman who had apparently been hiding behind the pots in the corner. She had large brown eyes and wore a blue bedlah outfit with long poofy bustle pants and a top which left her forearms and midriff bare. On her feet were two golden slipper-like shoes. Two hooped copper earrings hung from each ear and a sapphire was placed in a blue headband surrounding her long black hair.
"He wanted Carpet to stay here, and that was the only way it would!" she declared to our heroic trio with a small stamp of her foot. She then sighed and shrugged, "Since you helped Carpet, you couldn't be working for Jafar...so I'm Jasmine, my father is the Sultan of Agrabah."
"Uh, what's a sutton?" Goofy asked, brow furrowed.
"Sultan." Jasmine corrected and cast a suspicious look on them all. "And how could you not know? He rules all of Agrabah."
"We're from a long ways away, way across the desert." Donald quickly spoke up.
"So that makes you a Princess?" Sora confirmed.
Jasmine nodded, "But he has been deposed by Jafar, who now rules the city, even if it doesn't look like it. I think Jafar is controlling my father with his magic..."
"So who's Jafar?" Sora asked as he looked out upon the city. The Heartless seemed to have left, as people were wandering back out of their homes looking dazed. They'd be back to their normal routine soon enough.
"Jafar is the Royal Vizier, he's a bad man who has seized Agrabah with the help of those dark creatures..." Jasmine stared at the ground for a moment before looking straight into Sora's eyes, "He's...he's desperately looking for something—something he once called the 'Keyhole'. Jafar caught me trying to escape but HE helped me." the Princess ended with a ghost of a smile.
Sora cocked his head, "Who's he?"
"We were hiding together, here, in his house," she continued with a frown forming on her face, "But he left awhile ago, he thought he had found something to help us...Oh, I hope Aladdin's alright.." she sighed, "And now that Carpet is gone, to the Cave of Wonders after Aladdin no doubt, I'm worried..."
"Aladdin? And where might I find this street rat?" asked a nasally voice from the stairs. Sora quickly turned to find himself staring at a tall man, dressed in robes of black and red. A dark maroon cape draped from two black, elongated shoulder pads. Gold slippered shoes poked out from beneath his black robe. This man had a tall and angular face, with a twisted goatee twirling off his chin. Small black eyes sat below a large black turban with a single red feather in front, a ruby sat where the feather met the headpiece. In his right hand he held a long, golden staff with the head of a snake chiseled atop it, from which eyes made of emeralds seemed to glare unnaturally. The man looked around Aladdin's home disdainfully, nose upturned, "Come now, Jasmine, allow me to find you more suitable company, my dear princess." he turned his look to Sora, Donald and Goofy, "These little rats won't do, you see."
"Jasmine! Run!" Sora yelled as he narrowed his eyes at the insult. With a flick of his wrist, he called the Keyblade to his hands.
"Ah!" the man smiled, "The boy who holds the key." he waved his staff. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Jafar." a legion of Heartless appeared around the trio. "The Sultan of Agrabah and most powerful sorcerer in the world!" the Heartless began to move toward Jasmine, who had still yet to run.
"Jasmine! You need to go!" Sora yelled again and batted away a particularly eager Heartless. He watched as a few more jumped toward Donald and Goofy.
Jasmine backed up to the wall as the Heartless approached, "You have to find Aladdin! You know where he is!" she turned and dove through one of the larger openings in the wall, soon trailed by a few Heartless.
"Silly child, it is all so useless." Jafar rolled his eyes and disappeared into darkness, taking the Heartless that hadn't already followed Jasmine with him.
After a slight pause, Sora and Donald began to climb after Jasmine.
"Hey, guys...Jasmine said we need to find this Aladdin too!" Goofy interrupted them mid-climb.
Sora backed into Aladdin's home, "Goofy's right. We need to help Jasmine and find Aladdin."
"You mean split-up?" Donald asked as he fell back into the room.
"I guess," Sora held back a smile as the duck climbed back to his feet, they had more pressing things to keep their minds on. "I can go to the desert and find Aladdin. You two can stay here, follow Jafar, and help Jasmine."
Goofy held up a hand, "But Sora...going into the desert alone? Is that-"
"I'll be fine." Sora waved him off, "Besides, Jafar looks pretty powerful. Two against him would be better than one." Donald nodded his head in agreement while Goofy seemed to be deep in thought.
"I could use some munny from the gummi ship, though..." Sora trailed off, "For water and stuff..."
Donald sighed and nodded, "I'll be right back..."
The desert of Agrabah stretched out before him, this was where Jasmine had mentioned Aladdin was; but this place was huge. Finding Aladdin would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Donald had noted that, from the Gummi Ship, there was group of huge rocks out in the middle of the desert, the only thing for miles around-likely the "Cave" that Jasmine had said Aladdin had gone to.
As Sora trudged through the desert, with other company streaming in and out of Agrabah lessened and lessened until it was just him, alone, and the vague shape of the city slowly disappearing behind him, he didn't have much to do but think. Donald had said the rocks were straight out into the desert, he just had to follow a straight line. He checked the compass they had purchased to make sure that he was still on course, before pulling his white 'shemagh', a cloth covering wrapped all around his head except for this eyes, tighter around his face to shield it from the dust.
So here he was, in a desert far from home. If his home really and truly existed anymore, which he doubted. Meaning that he was actually not far from his home, because his home was nowhere to be found. Sora snorted. Odd, that had made no sense. Perhaps the heat was affecting him more than he thought, he'd only been walking for fifteen or so minutes.
He took a sip from the canteen of water and walked onward.
So Riku...he had found Riku in Traverse Town and his friend had seemed to be okay, albeit perhaps a bit sad. Maybe not sad...more like...melancholy? Sora wasn't sure he remembered what that word meant, but he thought that it might correctly represent how Riku had seemed to him.
It was odd, though, that neither of them had found Kairi yet. But, then again, it was a big galaxy. He'd find Riku again, and then they'd find Kairi together and then...and then what would they do? Home wasn't there anymore. Where would they live? The most obvious answer would be with Leon, Aerith, Yuffie and Cid in Traverse Town.
But home...did Riku know about the islands? When they had met, he didn't seem to act sad or upset about them being gone….Sora knew that Riku hadn't been content on the Islands, and nor did he have a pleasant life, but surely he would miss it, even a little bit, if only for all their friends? Perhaps he really didn't know what had happened, after all, the last Sora had seen of Riku on the islands was when the tendrils of darkness surrounded and swallowed him. What had happened afterward? Had he awakened in Traverse Town like him? Or somewhere else? Why had Riku not seemed to care when the darkness was grabbing him in the first place? And what had Riku meant when he said that "the door was opened'? That was what the man in the Secret Place had said. How did Riku know to say that? He had been acting so bizzare…
Sora didn't like the way this train of thoughts were going.
The young Keyblade Master shielded his eyes from a blast of sand and peered about him. Desert in every direction; except behind him where Agrabah was still only just visible. How long had he been walking? Hours? His canteen only held about a third of the water it had originally held, and still no rocks were in sight. Sora pulled the canteen up for another drink. Oh. Maybe it wasn't at one third...it felt more like it was nearly empty. Perhaps he should conserve it...but...his mouth burned so and his tongue felt dry and swollen. Sora closed his eyes for moment and took a step forward before stumbling to his knees. When had he become so tired? He pushed himself to his feet and trudged on. He'd have some water in a few minutes.
Those few minutes turned into twenty minutes, which turned into a half-hour, which turned into an hour before Sora could take it no longer and drained the last of his water. He closed his eyes and swished the liquid around his mouth, savoring the refreshing feeling before swallowing over a parched throat. Wonderful!
He'd had no idea the sheer beautiful taste of water until now, and he would never take it for granted again, that was for sure. Sora wiped rivulets of sweat from his forehead with his bare hand, having long ago stuffed his white finger gloves into the pockets of his jacket, which he had slung over his shoulder.
Was the water he had just drank basically the same as the sweat pouring off him right now? Could he drink his sweat if needed? Sora felt slight disgust at the idea, but couldn't remember why he should. If only he had paid more attention in Science, instead of passing notes to Kairi...how had she managed to keep her grades so high when she had been passing as many notes as he did, anyway? And where the heck were those rocks? He had been walking for hours and they were still nowhere to be seen.
Sora suddenly noticed something in the distance Were those the rocks off in the distance? Or palm trees? They seemed to shimmer a little, but he attributed it to the biting heat that rose off the desert floor. As Sora approached, stumbling, he decided that they were most definitely palm trees, shading a pool of clear blue, oh yes, was that-Water!
Sora legs began to pump as he charged toward, dropping his jacket a few feet away and diving headfirst into the small pool—but what he landed in was definitely not water, nor anything remotely related to it.
It was sand. And, again, not the soft Island sand, but the unforgiving, rough desert sand.
Sora lay face first in the ground for a few moments, not entirely convinced he had not just jumped into a glistening pool. Finally, he rolled over onto his back and absently brushed the sand from his face. What do they call that? A mirage, was it? Well, it didn't matter...it couldn't be good. Sora's brain thought that perhaps he should sit back up, but his legs didn't seem to be responding right now. Maybe they were out fishing, perhaps they could bring some water back with the fish? Wait. That made no sense.
What was his name again?
Sora.
Oh, right, Sora Akari Taiyou. At least he was pretty sure.
He knew he really should be standing up. The sand was baking his back slowly, and the sun was burning his face. He really should be doing something. Anything.
But Sora continued to lie there, slowly baking to a crisp.
Why was he here? To find Aladdin at the rocks. Of course. But he wasn't even sure that's where this Aladdin was! How stupid had he been to go looking like this. Sora would've mentally kicked himself, but he didn't seem to have the strength to do that either.
Suddenly, the boy heard something that sounded like a hissing. Maybe a few clacks. No, definitely just hissing. How nice. Sora closed his eyes and hummed along with the hissing through cracked lips. And, wait, yes, there were clicks, at least. And it sounded like it was getting closer. Much closer.
Sora peeped open one eye, using his right hand to block the sun's rays, and looked in the direction of the sound. His heartbeat quickened as a Heartless in the form of a giant scorpion came into view. Huge black pincers snapped in front of it, connecting back to a long black body with a triangular head. Small yellow eyes glared out from an otherwise dark face. Six thin legs clacked along the sand in unison. Two huge black tails arched over the scorpion's back, ending in a pair of wicked looking black stingers, tinged in green liquid.
Sora's brain took a few moments to calculate what this meant, and in that time, the scorpion began to clack forward at a greater speed; bringing its sharp tails up and directing them forward to skewer its dazed prey.
Thankfully for Sora, his instincts kicked in at the last moment and he shot up and away, just as the stingers lodged themselves in the sand. He felt specks of sand fly up and hit him after the impact. With a flick of his wrist, the Jungle Key appeared in mid-leap. Sora landed softly on the sand a few feet away. His legs almost fell out from under him, but adrenaline kept him up. The scorpion easily pulled it's stingers from the sand and reared up on its hind legs, making that odd clacking sound with its multi-hinged jaw, which only just became visible. It landed firmly again and charged forward at Sora.
The Keyblade Master spun the Jungle Key once in his right hand and jumped forward, dodging one of the stingers that came at him in midair, and attempting a few strikes at the body. His hits connected, but bounced harmlessly off the hard, dark shell, sending shockwaves up his arm. Sora landed into a roll behind the scorpion and came up to find it turning around back toward him, pincers snapping. He readied himself.
The scorpion dashed forward and came down hard with one of its pincers. Sora caught it with the Jungle Key, but the pincer slammed tight around it and began to shake it about, with Sora still attached to the handle. The spiky-haired hero swallowed over a dry throat as he was jerked back and forth through the air. As he was pulled toward the Heartless, and other stinger poised to jab, Sora spun himself around on the Jungle Key's hilt and landed a well planted kick at the scorpion's eyes. It screamed and released the Keyblade, dropping Sora unceremoniously to the ground. He leaned on the Keyblade and stood up, watching the Heartless scorpion stumble back. Finally, it regained its senses and clacked its pincers again, as if trying to communicate intimidation. Sora smiled slightly, causing his already cracked lips to split and spill a few droplets of blood-but he didn't notice.
The scorpion came at him again, this time with both stingers flying back and forth like a buzz saw. Sora slid up to the right stinger, swinging the Jungle Key in a circle in front of him, thus cutting off the right stinger at its thinnest point. It fell to the sandy ground with a small thump. The Scorpion stopped moving for a moment in shock, before letting out a sharp screech and shooting forward with its remaining stinger, pushing Sora farther and farther back. Soon enough, the Keybearer found an opening and jumped forward, landing momentarily on its head, before leaping off into the air high above.
The Heartless, still aiming for Sora, shot out its stinger just too late at where Sora had been: On its head. The stinger punctured the scorpion's armor with a crack and delivered its deadly payload directly into the Heartless' head. The beast stumbled forward, then back, and collapsed to the ground.
Sora landed on the ground hard right beside it, falling to his knees upon impact. He noticed that the Heartless hadn't dissipated, meaning that it probably was only weakened, not destroyed. Sora pushed himself to his feet with the last of his adrenaline and kicked the scorpion over on its back, before plunging the Jungle Key deep into its exposed underbelly. The beast made no sound as it disappeared into blue-black smoke.
Sora, spent, collapsed back onto his rear, more tired than ever. His body felt like it was melting from heat and looking at his own arms was proof enough: tinged red up to the elbows, already sunburned.
Sora sighed, wondering if perhaps he could shoot himself with Blizzard and relieve himself of the burning.
Hey, maybe that was a good idea after all. A blizzard was a snowstorm, right? Therefore, it would be cold, and more importantly, wet, right? Sora, having lived on Destiny Islands his whole life, had never seen snow, only read about it, and was a little dark on this point.
So if he, say, shot himself in the chest, it should cool him down completely! It was flawless! Sora grinned like an idiot in the heat, splitting his lips even more.
He turned the Jungle Key around in his hands, so that it was pointed at him, and mumbled a short call of Blizzard.
A small ball of white ice formed at the end of the blade and for a split second Sora thought that maybe it hadn't been such a good idea. Then it hit him. Literally.
The ice ball plowed into his chest and broke apart on impact, sending him tumbling back, head over heels. His chest felt like it had been crushed, and he started to cough and his breathing caught. He came to a painful collapse, lying on his side. His chest was now slightly cooler, but it felt crushed and beaten. He took a painful breath and felt his head began to spin.
His last thoughts were realizing the dizziness came not from the spell casting, but from the collision. Maybe-his head was spinning harshly now—maybe he could now cast more than one-
His mind finally closed into darkness, ushering the Keyblade Master into unconsciousness.