Kingdom Hearts III: The Heart's Greatest Weapon
Chapter 11: Friends in the Hundred Acre Woods
It was starting to grow dark as the skies above Radiant Garden turned from the warm sun setting sky to the beautiful star filled sky. And in the base of Sora and his friends, Kronk was getting used to his new place in their kitchen.
"Wow. This SURE beats the stuff I had back home." Kronk said. Just then, Sora came in with Leon, Donald and Goofy. Leon wanted to meet the new person Sora brought back with them.
"Hey Kronk, we have someone who wanted to meet you." Sora said. Kronk turned to Sora and shook Leon's hand.
"So, you're the guy Sora brought back. Well, it's nice to meet you. The name's Leon." Leon said. Kronk chuckled and introduced himself.
"Everything been okay Kronk? I know it must feel a little weird, being this far from home." Goofy said. Kronk nodded.
"Yeah, well, any kitchen in the world is home to a chef." Kronk said. Leon chuckled.
"Oh yeah. I forgot Sora mentioned you said you knew how to cook. How well are you?" Leon asked. Kronk reached for a knife.
"Well, why doesn't the old Kronk show ya?" Kronk said. With the speed of a cheetah and the skills only Kronk could have, he whipped up a tray of spinach puffs in less than half an hour. Kronk took his tray out of the oven and blew a kiss.
"Perfect." Kronk said. Just then, the scene froze and someone appeared. It was Kuzco.
"Uhh...hey. Hi there. So, I see we've already moved ahead. Didn't forget about good old Kuzco already, right? Of course not." Kuzco said. But when he turned to the screen, you could hear him mutter "You BETTER not have." under his breath. He plucked out a red marker and circled Kronk's face.
"By the way, who made Kronk the center of attention all of a sudden? I mean, I'm sure I'd be just as good as old meathead here. Only reason HE got to be in more chapters than I have is..." Kuzco said. Just then, he saw Sora approaching.
"Uhhh....Kuzco? What are you doing?" Sora asked. Kuzco stuttered and threw his marker away.
"Nothing. Nothing. Just....ehh......let's move on, shall we?" Kuzco asked. He ducked out of sight as Sora walked off with a sigh. The screen continued as Kronk rested the tray on top of the stove.
"Wow. Sure smells good Kronk." Donald said. Kronk turned to Donald with a smirk.
"Well, spinach puffs WERE always my specialty." Kronk said. Leon figured he'd better head back and check up on Cid. Sora bidded Leon goodbye as Donald and Goofy became Kronk's taste testers. The moment Goofy tried one of Kronk's spinach puffs, his eyes seemed to have bulged.
"Gawrsh! These are really good!" Goofy exclaimed. The same reaction happened to Donald.
"You said it Goofy!" Donald said. Kronk chuckled and so did Sora. He asked Kronk if he was going to help with dinner that evening.
"Sure thing Sora. Just relax. I'll whip up something tasty for everyone." Kronk said. Sora nodded and walked into the other room. In the next room, he found Kairi sitting down on a couch. She was looking out at the setting sun.
"Hey Kairi." Sora said. Kairi turned to Sora with a surprised look, entranced by the beautiful scenery previously.
"Oh. Hi Sora. Sorry about that. My mind was somewhere else." Kairi said. Sora chuckled and sat by her side. Kairi looked back out at the sun with a sigh.
"Something wrong Kairi?" Sora asked. Kairi shook her head.
"I'm just....I guess I'm just concerned....about everyone else back on Destiny Islands." Kairi said. Sora asked if she missed Wakka and the others and she nodded.
"Don't worry. They should be all right." Sora said.
"But, we never say goodbye to them or anything. I bet they're wondering what happened to us." Kairi said. When Sora heard that, he knew where Kairi was coming from.
"Well, I'm sure that if they are, they know we're all right." Sora said. He rested his hand on Kairi's shoulder.
"Besides, they probably wouldn't have known about what was going on anyway. So, just try not to worry about it. Okay?" Sora asked. Kairi looked at Sora and nodded.
"Okay Sora. Thanks." Kairi said. Sora smiled and he suddenly remembered something. He got up and walked over to a nearby bookshelf. He searched the books and pulled one out. He came back to Kairi's side with book in hand.
"What's that?" Kairi asked.
"It's a book Merlin brought by earlier. He thought it would be something special for us to hold onto." Sora said. The book on Sora's lap was a special book, the doorway to the Hundred Acre Woods.
"The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh....what the?" Kairi said. She looked on the cover and saw the image of Sora with Pooh and Tigger.
"Sora? Is that...?" Kairi asked. Sora nodded, telling Kairi about the times he visited Pooh. Kairi asked if the book could still work and Sora was hoping so. So, he slowly reached for the cover and opened the book. A light shined from the front page and soon enough, Sora and Kairi had both entered the book. The place they landed in was outside Pooh's house.
"Wow. This....This is amazing." Kairi said. Sora watched as Kairi looked around at Pooh's world, filled with wonder in her eyes. Up the road, Sora saw Pooh's tree home with Pooh outside on his log. As usual, Pooh was having one of his "thinking" moments, tapping his head and saying "Think! Think! Think!" to himself. Sora chuckled and held Kairi's hand.
"Hey....Kairi. There's someone I'd like you to meet." Sora said. On Kairi's face, she had a smile as she agreed to meet Sora's friend. Following Sora, Kairi was brought over to Pooh as the little bear saw Sora approaching.
"Oh. Sora." Pooh said. Sora smiled and waved.
"Hey there Pooh. I came back for a visit." Sora said. Pooh chuckled.
"It's always a pleasure to see you Sora. I just knew you'd come back to visit." Pooh said. He got up and turned to Sora. He saw Kairi's face.
"Hey Pooh, I wanted to introduce you to someone. This is Kairi, one of my best friends." Sora said. Pooh chuckled.
"Hello Kairi. It's very nice to meet you." Pooh said. Kairi chuckled and bent down to Pooh's eye sight.
"It's very nice to meet you too Pooh. What have you been doing?" Kairi asked. Pooh tapped his head.
"Oh. Well, you see, everyone in the Hundred Acre Woods has gone missing." Pooh said. Sora and Kairi gasped.
"What? Not again." Sora said.
"It must've happened when I had my morning stretches. Or maybe when I was napping, I think." Pooh said. Sora and Kairi looked at each other before Sora shrugged.
"Would you like us to help Pooh?" Kairi asked. Pooh smiled.
"Oh. I would. But, uhhh, would you happen to have a small smackeral of honey? My tummy has been rumbling." Pooh said. Kairi giggled and Sora sighed.
"Come on Pooh. I bet we'll find your friends AND some honey if we look." Sora said. Pooh said he'd like that as Sora held Pooh's hand. Together, the three friends searched the woods for any sign of Pooh's friends. They checked Rabbit's home, but no Rabbit. They then checked Tigger's bouncing spot, but no Tigger.
"This is weird. The pages are still in the book, but everyone's not here. Where are they?" Sora said, scratching his head. They checked Kanga and Roo's home, but no one was there. After searching the whole woods, they stopped again at Pooh's home.
"Sora, what's going on?" Kairi asked.
"I don't know. I thought we'd see at least one of Pooh's friends." Sora said. Just then, Sora saw something stuck to Pooh's door. It looked like a piece of paper.
"Hey Pooh? Did you see this?" Sora asked. He plucked the paper off Pooh's door and it appeared to be a note from Rabbit. It said:
Hello Pooh,
This is to remind you of our "Friendship Day Party" being held by the river. Please do try and remember, you have a habit for forgetting things.
- Rabbit
"A party?" Kairi asked.
"Oh. Now I remember. Today is Friendship Day and we have a party with all of our friends. Oh bother." Pooh said. Sora chuckled.
"Well, I bet if we hurry, we can probably get there before the party's over." Sora said. The three headed down for the riverside, and with luck, they saw all of Pooh's friends there. Sora also saw one of Pooh's friends with them, Lumpy the Heffalump.
"Look everyone! It's Pooh! And Sora too!" Roo called. Everyone waved to Pooh as Tigger bounced on Sora.
"Howdy there Sora! How've ya been, buddy of mine?" Tigger chuckled. Sora chuckled.
"Fine Tigger. Nice to see you too." Sora said. Tigger then saw Kairi and bounced her.
"Hoo hoo hoo hoo! And WHO do we have here? Hmm. Never particulary seen this face before." Tigger said. Pooh told Tigger that he bounced Kairi and Tigger took a good look at Kairi.
"Oh. Nice ta meet ya! The name's Tigger, that's "T-I-double-guh-err"!" Tigger laughed. Kairi chuckled as Tigger hopped off. Pooh approached the table, ready to eat.
"Now Pooh, I hope you didn't forget. We've been waiting almost a whole hour for you." Rabbit said. Pooh chuckled.
"Of course not Rabbit. But, might I ask, is there any honey? My tummy's been rather rumbly." Pooh said. Kanga passed Pooh a honey pot, knewing he'd ask that. Sora asked Kairi if she felt like eating with the others, but Kairi reminded Sora that it might spoil the dinner Kronk was preparing back in Radiant Garden.
"Oh. That's right. I almost forgot about Kronk. Well, no harm in visiting with the others. Is there?" Sora asked. Kairi chuckled.
"I guess not." Kairi said. So, Sora and Kairi joined the others in a few party games and got to catch up with Pooh and the others in their latest adventures. After enjoying the party, Sora and Kairi waved goodbye. But Sora promised that they would visit soon. And together, Sora and Kairi left Pooh's book and entered Radiant Garden once again.
"Come on Sora. Kronk must have dinner ready." Kairi said.
"Okay Kairi. I'm coming." Sora said. He set Pooh's book gently on the couch and headed for the kitchen with Kairi. Kronk had done a great job on dinner, pleasing everyone's taste buds. Even Pete was surprised by how much better Kronk was.
"So, do we agree that Kronk is our chef?" Sora asked. Everyone voted "Yes" for Kronk, even Pete. Kronk smiled as a tear came to his eye.
"Thank you." Kronk sniffled. As the night went on, the scene changes to a small home that same evening. A small young girl, tan skin and black hair, watched as a shooting star was flying across the sky. With her was her older sister.
"Look! A shooting star! Get out! I need to make a wish!" the younger girl shouted, shoving her sister out. Without them noticing, the "star" ended up crashing like a meteor into the ground. As the older sister left, the young girl went to the window and prayed on the star.
"If you can hear me, I wish for....for someone who I could call a friend. Maybe send me a guardian angel, the nicest angel you have." the girl said. But in the crash, a small figure emerged with a devious look on his face. It had four arms, two big curved ears and green eyes.
"Meega nala queesta!" the creature cried. It let off a cackling laugh before crawling away into town.
TO BE CONTINUED...