The Unversed

Monnie had found a milk truck going to a dairy farm just outside of town on which to hitch her sled, dragging Kairi along for the ride unwillingly. All the way out of town, Kairi held onto the sled ropes tightly until her knuckles turned white. The sheer speed at which the truck could travel frightened her. When the truck stopped for the driver to open the farm gates, they unhitched the sled and scampered away into the woodland across the road where they found a moderate slope leading into a gully with a large pond at the bottom.

"This place looks fun," Monnie said, already setting up the sled at the top of the slope and winding up the hitching rope.

"Um… this looks kind of steep," Kairi said nervously, eyeing the frozen pond at the end. "What if you get stuck in the middle of the ice over there?"

"The sled will stop at the bottom of the slope. Don't worry." She got on her sled and grabbed the ropes. With a slight nudge and a holler of delight from Monnie the sled began to slip away and slithered down the gully wall to the bottom. It was all over quite quickly and Monnie hopped off and began the more laborious task of dragging the sled back up the slope. She made it back to the top, badly out of breath and needing to sit down.

"S-see?" she panted. "Nothing bad… happened. And… it's fun. You try."

She held the ropes out to Kairi. The redheaded girl hesitated but eventually accepted the sled. Monica watched her intently. She nervously began to set up the sled at the top of the slope just like Monica had done before. She sat down, holding the ropes tightly and even wrapping them around her hands to help her feel more secure. She nudged it. It budged but it didn't slip. It took a couple more nudges for Kairi to finally feel the sled move by itself. Her heart felt like it was jumping up and down in her chest. She leaned right back as the sled slid down into the gully. It was fast but at the same time exhilarating. It was different from hitching, when she couldn't see what lay ahead. This was exciting.

Then, all of a sudden, a little dark blue monster jumped out of the snow in front of her. She shrieked and pulled on the ropes, dodging the little monster and unintentionally steering herself down the gully and skidding onto the pond. After that one, two more popped out of the snow beside the first and a fourth jumped down from a tree. They all had angry red eyes and thin, pointy features. Kairi groaned. Two troubles in one day, this was a bit too much to bear.

Monnie had already gotten to her feet and was rushing down the hill. She cast Blizzard on the creatures, the cold temperatures helped to freeze them and make it easier for her Fire spell to do damage. Kairi wanted to run over with her Keyblade to help but it only took one step and nearly face-planting onto ice to make her realise her problem. Unfortunately, the little monsters were quite quick and one of them managed to dodge enough of Monnie's spells to get close. It lunged at her for a strike. Monica instinctively threw herself into the gully right next to a frozen monster (the only other one left). At that moment, it managed to break itself out of its ice crystal. Monnie quickly cast Fire before it could slash her and luckily set it ablaze. The yellow flames were enveloped by black flames as the monster died. She sighed with relief but a call from Kairi made her look over to the redhead. Kairi frantically pointed at the air from her spot on the ice and Monica looked up, just as the last monster was right above her. She squealed, unprepared.

At that moment Kairi wished that there was something she was able to do to save Monnie but she knew she couldn't do anything. Then, suddenly two objects swiftly rushed past her. They sounded like paper rustling and one of them made a superficial cut on her right cheek. They flew at amazing speed towards Monnie and the monster, making Kairi worry for her new friend's safety. The papers flattened out into perfect rectangles and snapped shut over the little monster. Monnie's chest heaved for air as she warily watched the papers, still firmly glued together, hover above her, afraid that they might suddenly snap downwards and crush her too. However, the papers just calmly floated away, back down the gully and across the pond. Kairi watched the papers pass by her again and followed them as they travelled back to a boy wearing black clothes and ice skates. In his hands he had a large, black, leather-bound book laid open to accept the pages flying back and replacing themselves in the book. When they settled he turned one page to examine the creature he'd trapped.

"Ah, finally I'm able to acquire my very own specimen. It's taken a bit of damage but it otherwise seems healthy." The monster's head poked out of the book with a screech, startling the boy to pausing in his mutterings. He snapped the book shut, securing the monster in the pages again. "And very lively too, it seems."

He shut the latch on his book and turned to see Kairi sitting on the ice next to Monnie's sled. He smiled at her but the expression seemed hollow. "My, my. Why is it that every time I see you, you seem to be in a bit of trouble?"

"Z?" Kairi mumbled. She looked around, trying to identify a path or a method of him arriving but she couldn't find any vehicles or footprints in the snow. "Wh-what are you doing here? How'd you get out here without us knowing?"

Z merely cocked his head to the side. "Are you the curious type?" he asked.

Kairi blinked. "What does that mean?"

He offered his hand to her. Kairi stared at it, wondering if this was supposed to be some strange and cryptic way of answering her question. Then he said:

"Take it. I'll help you up."

"O-oh!" Kairi gasped in realisation. She grabbed his hand and let him do most of the work in pulling her up, knowing that any help she could offer was probably useless and counterproductive.

"And your face…" he muttered, brushing the knuckle of one finger across her cheek, casting Cure. Kairi blushed vividly, not quite understanding why Z felt the need to go to such lengths as to cast Cure just for that tiny cut.

"Th-thanks… again."

"You're welcome, my lady," Z replied congenially. Kairi blushed even more. "Well, I suppose I ought to take my leave now. I have quite a bit of studying and experimentation to do."

"Is that why you caught that thing? Are you a scientist?" Kairi asked.

"Ah! Quite perceptive. Yes, I am a scientist."

"I see… you just seem young, is all. So, why do you need it? Do you not know what it is?"

"I know perfectly well what it is," Z said. "But there's a lot that I don't know about it either, which is why it's beneficial to finally have a specimen. To be honest, this one by itself probably won't be useful but I think I can find some more or maybe even make some if I can learn a little bit more about them. They've been making a comeback recently and I'm not sure why."

"Um, okay," Kairi said, interrupting Z's rambling. "So… what are they?"

"I see, you don't already know," he said more to himself, looking down at his book and its black cover. "These creatures are called the Unversed. They're a similar to other creatures of darkness that you may already know of: They're in the same Order Crudelis as Nobodies and in the Family of Uincula nulla with the Heartless. They are physical manifestations of darkness with what is known as a 'dry body'; their bodily functions do not require hydration unlike an overwhelming majority of organic organisms. I'm not sure how they are created or why, which I'm endeavouring to find out. It will help with solving some of the other mysteries surrounding these creatures, such as how they are able to hold onto emotions without a heart. This means that they must at least possess some manner of complex brain unlike the Heartless which require no coherent thought, relying on their most basic of instincts but also unlike the Nobodies, which are able to maintain long and complex thought patterns without the capacity to sense emotion. This ability in the Unversed appears to be limited to one emotion per individual. A colleague of mine once proposed a theory that they are like emotions that are given shape and form, however, these emotions may not necessarily be negative as there are some Unversed that laugh and smile, which is not intrinsically a bad thing but the actions themselves can sometimes convey negative emotions or negative intentions and therefore their physical expressions can't be taken as an accurate indication of their nature. This is part of the reason why further experimentation on actual specimens is required."

Z stopped and looked at Kairi. She was giving him a half-lidded stare with a slack-jawed face that looked as though she might start drooling soon. After a few seconds she realised that he'd stopped talking and snapped to attention.

"I'm sorry. I bore you," Z sighed.

"No, no, no! It's really interesting," Kairi insisted, even though she wasn't quite convinced of that herself.

"No, it's not. It's very dry and scientific. I don't blame you for not taking an interest; science is not an area of knowledge that interests many to a great extent, such an extent that I have become interested."

"Um… sorry," Kairi apologised carefully. "I've hurt your feelings, haven't I?"

"Don't apologise. I assure you, my 'feelings' are unscathed. However, I do believe that both you and that little mouse over there live in the castle, correct?"

"Y-yes. Wait, how do you know that?"

"I would return shortly if I were you, seeing as nobody in the castle knows where you are or what you're doing."

"Oh, crap! That's right! We didn't tell anyone we were going out!" Kairi exclaimed, working her fingers into her hair under her hat. She turned to run back to Monica but slipped again.

Z sighed again. He pushed the sled to the bank of the pond and helped Kairi get up again. She rubbed her nose, moaning a bit as her sinuses started acting up due to the blow to her face. "It looks like I'll have to carry you again."

Kairi blushed when he said that, not only because it was embarrassing but it was a bit enraging too. "I would be able to help myself if I had a pair of shoes like yours."

"I have no doubts of that, however, you don't have ice skates and in the meantime until you acquire a pair I would recommend no more of this walking out onto sheets of ice."

"This time was an accident."

"And avoid accidents like this."

Kairi stepped onto solid ground, breathing a frustrated sigh. Monnie pulled her sled back onto the snow and looked up at the strange boy assisting Kairi. Already a few questions came to mind but only one was polite enough to be asked:

"Kairi, who is this?"

"This is Z. I only met him yesterday but he's really nice and helpful. Z, this is my new friend Monica Mouse."

"A pleasure, you highness," Z said, giving a moderate bow.

"Sure," Monica replied curtly. "But do you expect me to believe that Z is your real name?"

"I don't expect you to believe it – I do respect your intelligence – but that is all that I am willing to impart. Now, as I have already indicated, I have some work to do, so I will bid you ladies good day."

He turned around and skated back into the middle of the pond but didn't make any effort to really leave; he just flipped through the pages of his book. Monica and Kairi stared at him oddly for a while. They knew he was right, though, and it would be wiser to get back to the castle sooner rather than later.

"Just a few more slides?" Monnie pleaded. Kairi just shook her head and picked up her skirts to climb up the slope and return to the road. Monnie blew a raspberry but followed Kairi since she didn't want to be out in the woods playing by herself.

Back at Disney Castle, Mrs Prickles was waiting for them in the foyer with her arms akimbo and an angry frown. Monica swore that there had to be some kind of 'princess detector' fitted inside her nursemaid somewhere. Beside her was a portly maid with fluffy fur, large teeth and cheeks and very large ears that flopped down over the sides of her face. Mrs Prickles marched up to the two girls and grabbed Monica by the wrist before she could get the chance to escape.

"And exactly where have you girls been?" she demanded.

"Er… just around town, nothing major," Kairi answered.

"Nothing major? You have been missing for over three hours and there is no excuse whatsoever for skipping lessons, Monica!" Mrs Prickles scolded. "You will have to make it up to Miss T.J. and Dr Whoo in the near future. So, as of now- Goodness gracious! Just look at the state of your clothes! You're both wet!"

Kairi looked down at herself. Her coat was quite wet from playing in the snow. Her boots and the hems of her coat and all of her skirts were soaked completely, dripping on the carpet and covered in mud from the streets and the gully.

"How naughty. The both of you. This type of silliness is unacceptable from ladies such as yourselves. Kairi, I'm particularly disappointed in you. As Monica's senior you should take responsibility and exemplify appropriate behaviour to your juniors."

Kairi's face turned a bright shade of red and she looked at the floor.

Mrs Prickles snorted. "We need to get you girls dried and cleaned up now. Mopsy, please take care of Miss Kairi."

"Yes, ma'am," the long-eared maid said in a small voice and took Kairi's hand to lead her deeper into the castle. "This way, ma'am."

Kairi let Mopsy drag her back to her room, hanging her head in shame. She'd always been the good child in her group on the Destiny Islands (Tidus, Wakka and Selphie included) and had never been scolded so harshly by anyone before. It was such a blow to her pride.

Brownie points to whoever finds the pop culture reference. Also, I made up the classifications for creatures of darkness. The words used are Latin words I acquired through Google Translate. I don't really care if they're technically wrong (not that there are many people nowadays who could point that out) but you can correct me if you like, though I'm probably not going to put in the effort to heed it. It's a made up classification, it's allowed to be anything.

Gee, Z is pretty boring, isn't he?

Glossary:

Crudelis: latin for 'Heartless'

Uincula nulla: latin for 'No chains'