DISCLAIMER: No use saying it now.

Chapter 9

The Legend of the Sword

"Never let your guard down."

-Yen Sid to Sora, Donald, and Goofy

The green grasses of Medieval England whispered softly and quietly as a gentle breeze blew through the stalks of grass that lay sitting there. They rippled the surface of the lakes and the plains that stretched out in front of the great castle in the area. For many years this place had not seen disturbances whatsoever and was as peaceful as could be…save for two teensy weensy little things. And the first of those things was situated in an old forest by the lake. A woman, a hag really, dressed in purple and pink was dancing around through the woods flicking her finger at some trees that stood in her way. The trees, which vanished in puffs of pink smoke, suddenly came out in black and snarling shapes that seemed very similar to a vicious dog, the Mastiff Heartless. Mim cackled cheerily as she wound her way through the forest, turning trees into Heartless.

"A little bit here and a little bit there!" Mim said loudly before snapping her fingers at a rather large oak tree, transforming it into yet another Heartless, that was bigger than most of the others that came before it. "Oh let's see how Arthur likes this one! If it wasn't for that old codger Merlin I would be sitting in his little throne right now…" Mim mumbled dolefully to herself. And she continued to mumble like this past that sentence…she wasn't exactly fond of the new king and his teacher. "The wizened fool…Ha, 'wizened', I make myself laugh."

But then the wind changed, a little lighter on the air than it had been before. Mim sensed it immediately and turned sharply in the direction from which this new wind was blowing. She scowled deeply for she knew why the wind had changed: Merlin and those pestilential fools were here. She chuckled sourly to herself as though other people were listening but she was only talking to herself. Of course, she should have realized that the wretched Lady of the Water had been watching her this whole time like a hawk and had reported to Merlin. And, of course, no doubt Merlin had wasted no time in bringing along some of those Keyblade Master friends of his. Well, there was no use in wasting time now. She wanted a full party of Heartless to lay siege to the wretched castle. She whirled her hand around in the air and the rest of the surrounding clump of trees disappeared in a mighty puff of pink smoke, leaving behind the final batch of Heartless she had been working for.

"Well, here we go, like it or not. Today…or tomorrow, Madam Mim will become known as Queen Mim!" She cackled loudly and then allowed both her and her Heartless to disappear in a great rush of pink smoke.

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The grasses rippled once again but this time it was not with the wind as a white smoke appeared in the area and soon faded away to reveal four travelers. One an old man in blue robe with a long white beard, another was a small mouse being a king from another world, and the final two being young females albeit one was much older than the other. Merlin and his party had at last arrived in the area, but unlike Madam Mim they were much closer to the castle. In fact, Merlin's first order of business was to check up on Arthur. Kairi look up at the castle and gave it an approving nod. Demora, however, leaned in closer to her.

"Have you been here before Kairi?" Demora asked her, eager to know what she could about the world. But Kairi just shook her head at Demora and smiled.

"Nope…I've never been here once." Kairi said and Demora's shoulders sagged. She let out a sigh as Kairi herself turned toward Merlin.

"What is there to know about this world? I mean, it would be a little important to find these things out now." Kairi asked him, a slight tone of humor filling the vibrations of her voice. Merlin stroked his beard and gave a small chuckle and somehow, Kairi knew that Merlin wasn't going to tell them a thing. "Your Majesty?" The small king shook his head, indicating that though he was the king of Disney Castle, he didn't quite know everything.

"Come on now!" Merlin stated boldly. "We must get to the castle and speak with Arthur to find out what that lecherous woman is up to." Merlin then strode away from them and towards the gate of the castle, his blue robe billowing in the winds behind him. The three companions looked at each other and then decided to follow him post-haste. But Kairi had a question for Mickey in order to clear things up.

"Your Majesty, if you've never been here before, how do you know Merlin in the first place?" Kairi asked, lines of slight worry etched into her face. "I mean…that is of course, assuming you knew him before Radiant Garden and all that stuff."

"Well of course I knew him, Kairi!" Mickey exclaimed loudly. "I was the one who asked him to train Sora in the art of magic in the first place…well, since Master Yen Sid was kinda busy at the time." Mickey put his hand underneath his chin and thought a bit as they walked. Kairi didn't press him for more details since she knew he'd tell them sooner or later. Sure enough, as they got within a stone's throw distance of the gate Mickey opened up once more. "Merlin apparently trained the king here himself, at the time I wasn't king yet but my father was. That was about eighteen years ago…right before the Heartless invasion, my father died that year and I took the throne and Merlin came to me offering his services. He was a great friend of Master Yen Sid and so offered to help with whatever I needed his magic for."

"So, you didn't know him at the time he knew Mim, right?" Demoa asked him, now completely intrigued by these facts. Mickey shook his head. "Hmm, that's too bad, cause I thought you might know a secret weakness of hers or something like that." Demora was all prepared after that to start thinking aloud about Mim's weakness but Kairi asked the king another completely unrelated question.

"So, your father was king before you?" Kairi mused. "Sora told me that he went into the past of your castle, meaning before it was built. What about then?" Mickey gave her a smile.

"Well, as Sora knows, I was workin' on Pete's boat at the time. My father was always the one dealing with these things and to tell ya the truth, I was always slackin' off. When the castle was finally built about twenty five years ago, I was fifteen, my father pretty much got me into shape to be the king and I changed my act." Mickey said and the two girls paused for a moment, reeling slightly from the overload of information and dates that was being thrown at them. Mickey just chuckled. "Aww, I'm sorry gals, I didn't realize it was kind of confusin."

"It's okay Your Majesty, we understand-" Demora began to say but the voice of Merlin cut her off.

"Come now all of you, we've no time to waste." Merlin said and he turned to the gates. He waved his hand and the guards who were aiming at Merlin's head had their crossbows fly out of their hands and the gate opened before the group. Merlin bowed to the three of them and they walked in through the gates, looks of approval displaying themselves. Merlin was the last to enter in and he waved his hands again and the gates closed. But no sooner had Merlin done that than a horde of soldiers rushed up to them.

"Hark! Who are you that dare defiles that realm of Camelot?" said a rather stunning figure at the head of the column. "We soldiers of England will not allow beggars such as thee to enter into our realm and harm our most noble King Arthur, wielder of Excalibur, and ruler of this land." His sword was extended at the three companions but neither one of them shied away from the glinting blade, but rather glared coldly at the soldier who had spoken to them. Merlin soon pushed his own way through.

"Oh put that toy sword away Lancelot!" Merlin said loudly and he waved his hand around, manipulating the sword around and sticking it back in its sheathe. The man, Lancelot, backed away from the figure of Merlin not noticing who it was at first. "You soldiers, always thinking with your stabbing instruments of pain, never giving a moment's thought that swords might be no use against magicians. I should turn your shiny black hair to a gray wizened flock!"

Behind Merlin, Demora and Kairi were giggling fiercely. From the sound of Merlin's words, it appeared to them that Lancelot probably believed himself to be a suave, dashing, and debonair man who believed that any woman would fall for his charms. Of course, those two were not fazed by his good looks in the slightest, both of them having somebody very important to them. Kairi chanced a glance at King Mickey and saw him standing there with a very confused look on his face as though still trying to figure out why Kairi and Demora were laughing. This made Kairi giggle even harder. Ahead of them however, Merlin pushed past the giggling noise and made his point known to Lancelot.

"It's Merlin you thick-headed fool!" Merlin said and Lancelot suddenly bowed in reverence. Merlin waved it away. "Get up! We wish to have an audience with Arthur at this exact moment." Lancelot stood up hurriedly and shuffled his feet around.

"I'm afraid I cannot grant this request, Arthur is having a meeting with his Knights of the Round Table, of which I'll be attending," He had said this very proudly and with a glint in his eyes and teeth. "and will be unfortunately occupied until tomorrow."

"Oh is he now?" Merlin said in a tone bordering on menacing. "Well, Lancelot du Lac, though son of the Lady you may be, I am the wizard here and how would you like to be turned into a newt?" Lancelot took a step back, frightened at the proposition.

"A…a newt?!" Lancelot said and then reconsidered his priorities. "Right this way, Sir Merlin." Lancelot then dismissed his soldiers and began to lead the four comrades through the halls of Camelot. Both Kairi and Demora were rather stunned by the architecture, tapestries and paintings on the walls having only been in both Disney Castle and Radiant Garden. To them, this new castle was nothing short of magnificent on the inside. While it was, of course, nothing too fancy on the outside, the inside almost made Kairi consider becoming queen. But she chuckled to herself, thinking it was a foolish reason for wanting to become queen. After five minutes of walking through the halls they at last arrived outside a wide oak door. Lancelot knocked on the door three times, spaced evenly apart and the doors opened to a wide throne room.

"You stand before His Royal Majesty of the realm of Camelot, King Arthur!" Lancelot proclaimed and all four of the party there bowed to the man who was standing. Both Kairi and Demora raised their heads first to get a good look at the man who was standing before them. He was dressed in a marvelous red robe that was lush and deep and certainly signified that he was a man of high stature. He had blonde hair that was beginning to gray slightly from the exhaustion of being the ruling king. And seated atop that hair was a golden crown, signifying that he was king. He looked over as Lancelot announced their presence and gasped.

"Merlin!" He yelled out and he ran over to the blue robed magician and gave him a hug. Merlin just muttered for Arthur to get off and after Arthur did so he did not return the gesture. "Merlin, what are you doing back here? Who are these three?" Merlin quickly cleared his throat.

"This is Her Royal Highness Princess Kairi of Radiant Garden, His Royal Majesty King Mickey of Disney Castle and their companion Demora Suwara of Destiny Islands." Merlin said, introducing each of his allies. "Now, as for the reason we are here, it is to deal with the threat of the Heartless that has been placed on this world." Arthur stiffened immediately and his eyes quickly scanned the room. He then quickly ordered everybody, even Lancelot, out of the room making sure that the doors were firmly shut behind them. Arthur motioned to the group to be silent for a moment and follow them up to his throne. He soon collapsed in it.

"Oh Merlin, I'm stretched to my wits end. I've received scouting reports about an army of these, what were they, Heartless? Anyway, they're massing in forests that surround the castle and we've no idea what's causing it. Meanwhile, my court wants me to find a wife."

"Well, you're a king, that shouldn't be too hard!" Demora said plainly and Arthur snapped a look at her. Kairi quickly jumped and covered Demora's mouth. She smiled at Arthur.

"Forgive my friend's indiscretion, she meant no harm." Kairi told him before her face rounded on Demora. "It's just that some people don't understand everything about life and love." Demora gave Kairi a sheepish look and Kairi backed off. Arthur didn't say anything at the moment but merely shook his head.

"No, she's right. I have no trouble finding people who want to be my bride but there's only one woman who could be queen in my eyes." Arthur said, a small sigh parting from his lips and Merlin rolled his eyes.

"Are you still on about Guinevere?" Merlin asked disbelievingly.

"Yes it is!" Arthur announced loudly and with confidence and once more, Demora and Kairi giggled. "She's perfect for me and for this kingdom!"

"I've told you that woman is no good, Arthur, you had better find yourself someone else to be your queen." Merlin said, trying to reason with the king of Camelot.

"Ah, but Merlin…" Arthur began to say and Kairi knew he was going to list off the wonderful things about her but Merlin cut him off straight away.

"Oh, you do what you want Arthur." Merlin said before stroking his beard. "Meanwhile, we have much more important matters to attend to than dealing with you courting Guinevere. Mim is back!"

"Surely not!" Arthur said, flinging out of his stupor and nearly out of his chair at the same time. "I thought that hag was long since dead."

"Yes, well, our enemy Maleficent seems to have brought her back and we need to hunt her down. We defeat Mim and the Heartless should stop popping up, effectively solving that problem. Do you have any idea where she might be?" Merlin said, hoping to glean any information out of the king. Arthur shook his head and Merlin's shoulders sagged. "Well, either way, we'll start searching tomorrow. There're some things I want to take care of before we go looking for Mim."

"Are you sure you can't help me with my other…eh, predicament?" Arthur asked sheepishly and Merlin eyes him carefully, but it was Mickey who spoke up first.

"We would help in a heartbeat if we didn't have so many dangers that needed taking care of." Mickey responded to the other king in the room. "So, I'm sorry, but taking care of Madam Mim comes first."

"Oh, come on Your Majesty!" both Kairi and Demora simultaneously complained to the tiny mouse king. Mickey jumped back a little at this outburst and looked at the two girls. Kairi stood up straight and seemed to understand the look that Mickey was now giving them.

"Well, Your Majesty, both me and Demora are girls and so is Guinevere so we could help Arthur with his situation while both you and Merlin go off and search for Madam Mim. That kind of tackles two birds with one stone." Kairi explained and Mickey was at a loss for words, looking to Merlin for support. Merlin sighed and threw his arms into the air.

"Very well, I'm sure the King and I can take on Mim, depending on what enhancements Maleficent might have given her." Merlin said. "Well, if that's all settled, Arthur, you had best tell them the legend of why you're king while I attend to some errands and start tracking down Mim." He then turned away and began to stride out of the hall but before he reached the door where he planned to poof away, he turned to the group again. "Kairi, if you may, when I return for dinner, shall we practice your magic?"

"Sure thing, Merlin!" Kairi said cheerily. Merlin nodded at her and then poofed away as Arthur cleared his throat. Kairi turned to him and saw him motion to sit in the chairs in the hall. All three of them took the cue and sat before Kairi spoke first to Arthur. "So what is this legend exactly?"

"Oh, Merlin always makes it out to be more than it really is." Arthur said, chuckling a bit as he said so. "You see, I had grown up not knowing where I was from or who my real family was. My name at the time was Wart you see and I had to help my supposed brother in all of his jousting tournaments and other such stuff. Now, during one of these tournaments my brother lost his sword so I had to go find him one. I ran to this old stone where a sword was sticking out of it and I pulled it out. How was I to know that the one who pulled the sword out of that stone was destined to be king of England. Either way, from that day forward I faced opposition trained under Merlin and I even saw him have a duel with Madam Mim which he inevitably won." From there on, Arthur continued to tell his tale and all three, including King Mickey, were enraptured by the tale that expanded to involve dealings with the Lady of the Lake and the mighty sword Excalibur, all the way to today's times. This followed until at last the dinner bell rang and the servants of the castle congregated in the hall and set up a mighty table fit for all the people there to feast. It was at this moment that Merlin poofed back into the room.

"Well, Your Majesty, I found Mim…" Merlin muttered out with distaste. "She seems to know that we are indeed here in this world but I don't think she detected that I found her…off being as crazy as a mad hatter. Ah dinner at last!" Merlin quickly sat down as the food just finished cooling off on the table. Merlin tucked his beard in and began to ate ravenously. In fact, all of the members at the table ate ravenously as though they hadn't eaten in days; but the fact was that in fact the food was quite tasty to them. When at last the last dish was clear, Merlin cleared the table away with a wave of his wand to prepare for the training between him and Kairi. Arthur excused himself from the room and Demora, being an astute girl, discerned that he was going after Guinevere and made to follow him. Therefore, it was only Mickey who was left in the hall to watch the training between the two.

"Now, Kairi," Merlin began, drawing his wand forth from the sleeves of his robes. "Has Sora taught you any of the particulars of magic?"

"He taught me mostly about the nature of magic and I learn the Cure, Aero, and Reflect spells." Kairi said to him, summoning her Keyblade forth with little to no effort at all.

"So then…I can conjecture you know little of black magic or any other than white magic…" Marlin said and Kairi looked at him confusedly. Merlin chuckled. "I thought not…what you have most likely perfected are spells made to shield rather than harm. Sora himself, knows much of these harmful magics though I would imagine he knows very little of arcane lore unless he took it upon himself to study them."

"I don't quite understand." Kairi said, trying to make heads and tails of what Merlin was telling her.

"Magic is grouped into a few wide categories. Black magic is the type you see when trying to cause harm or destruction. White magic, like your healing spells, is just that but is also broken down into two more groups of time magic and green magic. Now, one of the least studied branches is arcane magic." Merlin stroked his beard slightly. He murmured to himself for a moment as though deciding upon something and then he nodded. "Unfortunately, I believe you should learn black magic before you make the use of any arcane spells for arcane magics are often complicated and can have dizzying side effects if they are done wrong."

"Well, I do know a little bit of black magic. But it's mostly just a side effort of aero. I just turned its helpful nature against my enemies." Kairi said shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, that's an excellent start. You're already learning how to take magic and change it. Now, for starters…" Merlin waved his wand and a huge chunk of ice flew at the unsuspecting Kairi. Kairi quickly yelled out the spell for Reflect and the shield erected itself, the ice bouncing harmlessly off and flying away. "Good, good, very good, but I don't suppose you thought of trying fire magic as an approach to burning away that ice."

"Fire…magic?" Kairi asked tentatively and Merlin merely nodded at her. Clearly she would need to learn this for herself. Merlin once more waved his wand and a chunk of ice flew at her yet again. Kairi then thought of fire in her mind and yelled the incantation she saw Sora constantly use. A ring of fire surrounded her and she was so surprised at this feat that the wall of fire she had conjured dropped momentarily. Then she remembered the chunk of ice flinging her way and she brought up the fiery protection. As soon as the ice impacted with the fire it melted away and Kairi let the shield drop, her limbs sagging slightly.

"An excellent start, but you may want to consider casting such magic only as the impact is about to take place or you'll find yourself sorely lacking in energy." Marlin said. Then he cleared his throat and gave another piece of advice to the female Keyblade Master. "Also, for most elements: water, ice, earth, wind, lightning…even light, the use of them is much the same if you know the incantation. Of course, I'm sure you've seen Sora use these abilities more than once." Kairi nodded at him and then Merlin brandished his wand in a wide arc. "Well, now that I've instructed you on that, let us have a friendly duel to see you use magic in a battle."

Merlin waved his wand and large honeycomb shield weaved around them in a large circle to create an arena for the two of them that would not damage the rest of the hall. Marlin was the one who took the first strike. He raised his wand into the air and lightning came down upon Kairi. Kairi had no time to react with any other spell and so she used a Reflect spell and the rays bounced away. But Merlin took no time to catch his breath and instead sent multiple shards of ice at Kairi. Kairi immediately erected a wall of fire until she felt the ice pellets were gone. She lowered the wall to see a surprise ice shard being fired at her. She spun around with her Keyblade and blocked it, sending it back at the wizard who used his wand to create a mighty bird of fire that consumed the deflected ice and went hurtling towards Kairi. Kairi screamed and incantation for water and the rush of a pure, blue stream came out of the tip of her Keyblade and met with the flame-bird head on, dissolving the two spells on impact.

"Very good, you've learned now of the opposing forces of the elements of spells. Now we can step things up a bit." Merlin said and he spun his wand around in the air, light forming in the swirl. Then he sent it hurtling at Kairi and she knew she only had one chance to dodge it. And she did but then-

"Kairi, watch out above you!" Mickey yelled from outside the shield and Kairi saw the crushing black oblivion of a gravity spell bearing down on her. She then decided to play at Merlin's game.

"Light!" Kairi yelled and she focused light onto her Keyblade. She leapt backwards and sent the light flying into the core of the gravity spell, dispersing it immediately. Merlin reacted quickly to this chain of events and used his magic to create a tornado that swirled around Kairi and began pulling her into its vortex. She felt, at first, that this was the end of their duel. But then she remembered what Merlin had just said about opposing forces of elements. Merlin was using wind and wind was weak to…

"Gaia!" Kairi screamed and the ground beneath her moved and counteracted the tornado, putting it off balance and allowing her to escape from it. She leapt away towards Merlin and decided to take on a new tactic. She pointed her Keyblade at him and pelted fire and ice at him, alternating between the two, keeping the pressure on him until at last she had reached him and put the Keyblade against his throat.

"Not bad at all Kairi, though I must say, as a true wizard I could have transported away at any time…but this was a friendly duel after all." Merlin said and he waved his wand as the honeycombed shields disappeared. Kairi stepped away from Merlin and thanked him before wavering slightly on her feet. She knew magic took some energy, but she had never used black magic before and to be honest, it had taken quite a toll on her. "Well, you look tired my dear, perhaps you should have some rest. I think we all should. After all, tomorrow we take on Madam Mim."

Author's Note: You know, I think that is the longest chapter I've written thus far. I really hope you enjoyed it…and there were some subtle jokes in there that if you look closely you'll see them (note: Merlin speaking to Lancelot). Anyway, the next chapter will finish up this area and in fact, that is when I'm taking my poll down 'cause I don't want it to be up forever, so please vote. After that we will go back to Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Either way, as a sneak preview, next chapter will have humor and battles so prepare yourselves for the coup de grace of Mickey, Kairi, and Demora's moments. Please review, and until next time, Dare to Be Silly.

On another note, as an American citizen I feel obliged to say this. Though I am not a Democrat or huge Obama supporter (nor am I a Republican) I feel that I should wish Barack Obama luck as he begins his presidency today as the first black president, and from my own state of Illinois I might add! So good luck to him and his family as they embark on one of the most difficult jobs in the nation. (I mean, just look at Bush and see he went from young to old and gray, harsh stuff.)