Inverted Sky

Chapter 11: Deep Jungle part 2

"Kairi..." Sora muttered out silently as she looked at said girl leaning against a tree with a soft smile.

Though as the two looked at one another, something in the pit of the brown-haired girl's stomach told her that something was off. Yet she just smiled softly to her friend and kept her gaze on her, Sora not wanting Kairi to vanish the moment she looked away like last time. Yet such a moment would come as a low growl was heard right behind Sora, whose eyes widened briefly before turning around quickly. Her soon seeing the same leopard as before, which let out a roar as it soon leapt toward the spiky-haired teen.

Whom of which summoned her Keyblade and knocked the large cat away in a similar fashion as last time. However, immediately following this attack, the leopard jumped back to its feet and charged at Sora once more. But while it seemed as though it was in the same manner as their first fight, it was clear that it was much different this time.

Once the cat came with range of Sora's Keyblade, it quickly changed direction, moved to the side and made a swiping attack. The brown-haired girl narrowed her eyes to this as she used a Reflect spell in order to prevent the blow from hitting. Yet while this shield magic was up, Sora glanced where Kairi was and instantly noticed her disappearance.

'Just like before...she just vanishes the moment I turn away. But why am I seeing her like this? I've never hallucinated before, so what's happening?' she thought briefly to herself before focusing fully on her opponent.

Of which had begun circling around her once more as the spell wore off and left her vulnerable for attack once more. But the large cat didn't make a move right away, it seeming to be watching very carefully of what Sora was going to do. This making said girl raise a brow briefly, to which she soon smirked and brought her Keyblade out to her side slightly.

"And here I thought you hadn't learned from your mistake." she muttered as she began to side step to her right, which allowed the two to make a small circle between them.

"But I'm afraid...I'm way out of your league." Sora continued as she brought her Keyblade forward.

Though this sparked the leopard to make a lunging attack, a sudden burst of light came out from the tip of the teen's weapon. This causing the large cat to suddenly stop in the middle of the air, to which Sora just smirked lightly and let out a breath. "Now then...lets finish this once and for all." she muttered with narrowed eyes.

Immediately following her words, Sora leaned to her right slightly with her knees bending as she prepared to attack. Yet while doing this, her body and Keyblade began to glow a bright orange, while her legs were surrounded by wind magic. "Inferno Dash!"

Upon calling this out, the Stopra spell wore off on the leopard and allowed it to continued its attack at Sora. Yet said girl had suddenly vanished from sight just before the large cat could hit her, to which she then appeared a few yards behind it with her Keyblade pouting forward. This lead for the leopard to be briefly engulfed in flames before landing on the ground with a limp thud.

"Sorry...but I can't let you eat me, I have people waiting for me." Sora said silently as she dismissed her Keyblade and rushed on through the jungle.

'Though thinking about it...that leopard was really quite tough. I didn't think it would have been able to move so soon after getting hit by my Lightning Raid. I suppose I still have a bit to go in order to perfect my techniques.' she thought as she continued on her way, breaking branches the whole time.

'Then again...if I got to where I am after only a few hours of training, I wonder how good I'd be if I spent a full day or two practicing.' she continued with a small grin, her pace slowing down as her thoughts began to distract her a bit.

But she was quickly brought out of these musings as she soon arrived in a lagoon filled with many hippos swimming around in the water. "Huh...I always thought hippos were a bit ugly, but they actually don't look all that bad." she whispered to herself with a glace at the surrounding area.

As she did this, Sora noticed a vine on the opposite side of the lagoon that appeared to lead all the way up to the highest point in the tree it hung from. 'Hmm...it should be easier to spot them if I'm at a higher vantage point.' she thought, to which she headed toward the edge of the water and took in a deep breath.

"Alright...here we go." she said silently before jumping onto the back of one of the nearby hippos.

Though a few moments later, Sora growled silently as she stood on the opposite side of the lagoon. Her whole body completely drenched in water, to which she squeezed out her hoodie in order to get it somewhat dry.

"Hmph! Jumping on the back of a hippo was a stupid idea anyway." she muttered bitterly with a huff as she soon put her hoodie back on and started to climb the vine she had been aiming for.

Upon finally reaching the top and bringing herself up onto the large tree branch, she started to look around once more. "Hmm...now then, lets see if I can find Riku or Kair-" she started, but was cut off the moment the echoing sound of a gun being fired was heard.

"Oh~...this is definitely not going to be good." Sora muttered with a heavy sigh, to which she looked in the direction of the gun shot.

She then turned away and started looking around the jungle floor in order to find her friends. Yet it was clear that she was distracted by the previous sound of the gun, she still kept her gaze on anything and everything that was moving down below. However, she never saw anyone or even anything, save for a bunch of bugs. Though after a while, Sora soon looked up in thought with a sigh and gazed at all of the leaves falling from the branches above her.

'I guess I'm not really thinking logically in this search, am I?' she started in her mind as she closed her eyes briefly.

"Then again, when it comes to Kairi...and I suppose Riku as well, I don't really think very logically." Sora muttered aloud with another, yet heavier sigh.

'In reality...both Riku and Kairi more than likely would have gotten to the campsite right away. I mean, it's the only sign of civilization around. Or they would have at least started calling out for someone if they really were here. And Jane says she hasn't seen anyone...plus, I'm sure she would have mentioned hearing someone calling out for help.' the brown-haired girl continued in her thoughts as she let out another, yet more silent breath.

'Even though I do want to keep looking, all the evidence points to them not being here. So I guess I'll leave it to Jane and Tarzan to let me know if they were simply in another part of the jungle. Plus, with that leopard gone...there should be next to nothing that could hurt them. And since it was hunting me, it's safe to assume it was still hungry and that it hadn't eaten at all before coming to find me.' she finished with a brief nod of her head, yet seconds after these thoughts, Sora heard a whining coming from the side.

This made the girl immediately turn toward this new sound and rush across the branch. She then jumped off the edge, caught a vine before her and swung across to another tree with a big enough branch for her to stand on. Despite these actions being the first time Sora had done such a thing, she was too concentrated on this whining to care about how exhilarating it had been.

After she used another vine to swing herself to the other side of the tree, she then began her decent to the ground as fast as possible. Upon doing so, Sora looked around quickly as the origin of the sound was coming from near of where she was standing. Though it didn't take long to find out what was making this noise as the brown-haired girl soon laid her eyes on a baby leopard.

"Oh no..." she whispered silently, her gaze tilting down in shame and sadness; "...I just made you an orphan, didn't I?" Sora continued quietly as her voice cracked from her guilt.

Yet even as she did this, the baby leopard looked to her with an innocent tilt of its head, to which it slowly crawled out of the small nest of leaves. But despite Sora not paying attention, the baby soon came up to her and started to rub her leg gently with a few silent meows at her. This made the brown-haired girl blink many times before looking from the baby, to the rest of the jungle and back again.

"Well...I'm not about to make a baby suffer for my mistake." she said silently before leaning down, petting the top of the leopard's head and eventually picking it up.

Despite the baby not seeming to like being picked up like this, after a few scratches to its head and neck, it soon calmed down. Yet what surprised Sora was he fact that after a few moments of scratching the top of the baby's head, it started to let out a noise that sounded like a purr. "Huh...I thought big cats couldn't purr." she muttered silently before smiling softly to the kitten.

"Well..." she started before looked the cat over and noticing its gender; "...little girl, how about I call you; Spotty?" Sora questioned with a tilt of her head as she started to head back toward the camp.

After this inquiry, the cat just sneezed lightly, to which the brown-haired girl chuckled and nodded in agreement. "Yeah...that is pretty generic, huh? Hmm...how about; Whiskers the Wonder Cat~?!" she asked with great enthusiasm.

The cat then just let out a meow in response, to which Sora chuckled once more and shrugged briefly while continuing on her way back. "Guess I really am not all that good with names, huh?" the brown-haired girl said with a sheepish tone.

A few minutes later and half a dozen more 'rejected' names, Sora arrived back at the camp just as Jane could be heard scolding Clayton. "How could you do such a thing?!" she demanded loudly.

"Now Miss Porter, as I told you, I was not aiming for the gorilla." was the man's response in a clearly nervous tone.

"You are not to go near the gorillas again! In fact...I want you to stay here in the camp for the remainder of this expedition!" Jane ordered as the anger in her voice was easily noticed.

"All because of one mishap? Come now." Clayton said with a light chuckle, though after a brief moment, he backed out of the tent with a nervous laugh.

Though upon doing so, he nearly bumped into Sora as she soon hid the baby leopard in the hood of her hoodie. This keeping her out of sight as the man soon turned to the brown-haired girl with an expression of annoyance. "Hmph...I have no time to be wasting with you imbeciles." was all he said before storming off in a huff into the jungle.

Sora raised a brow to this before rolling her eyes; "Tch...I knew that guy was a jerk." she muttered silently as she crossed her arms.

As she did this, the leopard brought her front paws onto the right side of Sora's neck and gazed out over her shoulder. "Am I right?" she asked with a small smile to the baby, to which she received a light meow in response.

Sora giggled lightly before she walked into the tent and looked around at everyone gathered in the middle. While Jane spoke to Tarzan, Donald and Goofy whispered among themselves about their next move. This making it obvious that they too came up empty for their search, despite it likely having been cut short from Clayton's actions.

"Oh Sora...you returned rather quickly, did you find your friends?" Jane asked with a tilt of her head as she turned to the teen.

"Unfortunately not...though I did find a new friend." Sora responded as she moved her head to the side slightly so it was easier to see the small cat's head on the girl's shoulder.

Though Tarzan briefly tensed up, he seemed to calm down after seeing the kitten rubbing its head against Sora's neck affectionately. "Sabor offspring...she likes you." the tan man said with a brief nod.

The brown-haired girl smirked lightly and nodded her head back to him; "Indeed she does." she muttered silently before glancing between Jane and Tarzan.

"So...did you figure out what it was that he had said before?" Sora continued with blinking eyes, her reaching up and scratching the top of the baby leopard's head.

"Yes...I believe we have." Jane started as she placed a hand to her chest; "I believe what he said means-" but she was cut off as a gun shot was heard just outside of the campsite.

This caused all of them to immediately rush out of the tent, only to see a large group of Heartless swarming the campsite. Half of them seemed to be in some sort of money or ape form, while the others were in the usual shape. Sora narrowed her eyes to this as she brought forth her Keyblade and glanced around quickly.

"Donald, Goofy...both of you stay inside the tent with Tarzan and Jane. Make sure to keep them safe, I'll take care of the rest of them!" she ordered out quickly without even looking at the pair.

The two anthropomorphic animals quickly nodded in response to her and lead the two adults back into the tent. All the while, the brown-haired teen took a few steps forward and readied her weapon; "Alright...time to show you that you're in good hands." she whispered with a glance to the cat in her hood.

Sora then turned to a few of the Heartless as a few rushed toward her, to which she hit them with her Keyblade and caused them to disappear with a puff of black smoke. Soon after doing this, a few of the Heartless stood back, while another bunch rushed at her with even greater speed than the previous group. However, they met their own end as Sora used a Thundra spell on half a dozen of them all at once.

"Anyone else?" the brown-haired girl asked as many of the Heartless soon vanished in a swirl of dark energy.

Though a pair of normal looking ones still remained, neither of them made a move to attack her, nor even moved at all. "And what about you two?" she questioned with a raised brow.

Yet after a moment they both just bowed slightly and made Sora blink a few times; "Um...okay." Sora muttered in confusion.

But after a brief moment, she suddenly recalled the 'dream' she had the other day; 'Wait a second, does this mean...I can command them?' she thought quickly as her eyes blinked even faster.

"Alright...um...both of you...uh...stand on one foot." she said with a halfway authoritative tone, to which she almost gasped in response when the pair of Heartless soon did as they were told.

"Okay...this might actually be pretty cool." Sora muttered out with a small grin on her features as the kitten let out a meow as if in agreement.


And there you have it, two big changes in the story have been revealed. Her ability to control the Heartless has been brought forth...as well as the arrival of her new companion. ;) And yes, she'll be keeping the leopard (whose name will be revealed soon). Well, I hope you all enjoyed. Until next time everyone~! ^^