I have an important announcement at the end, so please make sure to read it fully.
Inverted Sky: Kingdom Hearts II
Chapter 12: Beast's Castle part III
Sora moved slowly with a silent groan escaping her lips, the teen looking like a zombie while she walked. Her literally dragging both feet each time she took a step, of which only added to the illusion of her joining the living dead. All of this being caused by the infinite number of hunting stories Gaston was telling her as they continued on their way. Each of which seemed to center around how 'amazing' the man was, as he kept making it a point to reiterate this so called 'fact'.
"And then...I shot the deer right in the heart!" Gaston claimed in a proud tone as he pretended to shoot an invisible gun.
"As usual, my aim is always on point. No one could ever match me in hunting! Don't you think?" he questioned in a halfway rhetorical manner as if anything said right now would just be interpreted as 'yes' anyway.
"Sure." was all Sora uttered out while looking around to the town's folk as they passed them.
Her almost pleading for one of them to help her as Gaston appeared to be more interested in telling stories than leading her to Belle. 'I swear, this is the fifth time we've passed that bookstore.' the teen thought to herself in a groan.
Though, after a few more stories from Gaston, they finally seemed to get back on track. The two now approaching a lone house on the edge of town, it having it's own watermill and bridge across the small stream running by it. Upon walking up toward the door, Sora stepped out in front of Gaston and cleared her throat. "Thank you for bringing me this far, but I'll take things from here." she claimed quickly while slowly pushing him back down the steps.
"But I'd also like to-" the man began, but paused when the brown-haired girl interrupted.
"I'm sure you would, but everything has an order. And right now isn't the time I'm afraid." Sora stated as she managed to make Gaston go all the way down to the last step without him even noticing.
"I'll tell her about your offer, so just be patient and wait for her to come to you." she continued, her voice almost sounding too manipulative.
However, this seemed to go right over the man's head as he merely smirked and nodded his head. "That sounds like a great idea." he said while his smirk turned into an almost devious one.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Sora muttered silently to herself as she rolled her eyes.
Yet the teen quickly cleared her throat and gestured for Gaston to take his leave. "Well...have a nice night, see you never-I mean later." she finished before opening the door herself and going through it.
Immediately after doing so, the girl slammed the door shut and let out a heavy sigh. "That was so much more exhausting than it should have been." he muttered out silently in a groan.
"Sora?" a sudden voice spoke up inquisitively from behind the girl.
The brown-haired girl quickly turned around with blinking eyes, to which she saw Belle sitting at a dinner table along with an elder man. Whom was rather short in stature, had a rotund figure, white balding hair and a similarly colored mustache. His attire was that of a forest green vest, as well as a shirt of a similar, yet lighter color underneath. He also had pants that were also green, but were an even darker shade than his vest. Meanwhile, his belt and boots were both a dark brown that actually blended well with the various shades of green.
"Ah, Belle...it's been a while." Sora greeted with a sheepish smile, her scratching the back of her neck while looking over the girl's blue dress and white undershirt.
"Over a year." Belle responded as she nodded slowly in agreement, though it didn't take long for the other teen to notice the dark circles around her eyes.
"Yeah...been a bit busy." Sora uttered in a manner that matched her smile perfectly.
"So...'this' is the 'Sora' girl you mentioned before?" the elder man asked in an inquisitive tone while looking between the two girls.
"Yes Papa...she's the one who rescued me." Belle responded, to which Sora simply gave a shrug.
"Thank you so much, I appreciate you saving my daughter from those bandits. Oh, I'm Belle's father...you can just all me Maurice." the man introduced with a wide smile on his old features.
Sora blinked to this briefly before looking to Belle, yet she quickly understood that the girl didn't want her father to know what really happened. "It was no problem at all." she responded while smiling softly.
"So what brings you here?" Belle asked, it being clear she already had an idea of what it could be about.
"Actually..." Sora began, yet paused with a glance toward Maurice; "...could you give us a moment? It's a bit of a private matter."
Upon these words, the elder man blinked a few times and nodded his head slowly. "Of course, I'll be in the other room if you need anything." he answered while heading to a separate part of the small house.
Sora then turned fully to Belle and narrowed her eyes slightly; "Beast is in trouble, there are Heartless all over the castle and he's likely not far from being consumed by the darkness." the teen said quickly, yet in a quiet voice to make sure Maurice couldn't hear.
Belle's eyes widened for a brief moment before they closed tightly and she shook her head. "I knew that man couldn't be trusted...but I was still hoping that leaving was the best thing to do." she whispered softly as her eyes slowly opened.
"That man Xaldin, he told me that the light in my heart would just keep drawing more and more Heartless to Beast's castle. If I go back, I'll just be putting him at an even greater risk. I can't do anything to help him...but stay away." she continued, to which her voice cracked slightly at the very end as if she was about to cry.
"You're wrong Belle." Sora started in a firm tone while narrowing her eyes once more, the other girl blinking a few times in response.
"It's true that your heart draws Heartless toward you, but it also has the power to keep them away. You have the strength to protect those around you from the darkness, so long as you believe in yourself." she finished with a small smile curling her lips.
Upon these words, Belle gazed at Sora with a shocked expression before tilting her head down in doubt. "How can you be so sure about that?" she whispered out silently.
"Because Kairi did that for me." the other teen claimed almost immediately, as if knowing that Belle would ask this.
Her answered caused the girl to blink many more times, to which she slowly began to smiling softly. "Do you really think I can save Beast?" she asked, her tone sounding like she wanted to start believing this herself.
"Absolutely. If you have the will to do it...anything is possible." Sora stated, to which Belle slowly tilted her head up to gaze back into the other girl's eyes.
"Could I even protect him from Xaldin if he tries to stop me?" she uttered out silently as it was clear she was worried about this possibility.
"Well...lets not try to jump before walking." Sora commented with a sweat drop and sheepish smile.
However, she then quickly cleared her throat and gestured to herself with a hand. "Let me handle Xaldin, you just focus on keeping the Heartless away from Beast. And once we've won...not only Beast, but this whole world will be saved." she continued, a small grin curling her lips as she spoke so confidently that Belle couldn't help but nod.
"Alright." she responded while taking on a grin of her own.
Sora grinned even wider to this, though she soon crossed her arms and cleared her throat. "But before that..." she started with a glance to the dark circles under Belle's blinking eyes.
"...we have to get you a bit more rested. I assume you've been crying every night and not sleeping very much?" the teen continued, to which Belle blinked even more as a blush developed on her cheeks.
"How did you...?" she questioned almost voicelessly in her embarrassment.
"I noticed the moment I saw you, but I figured I'd save it for the end." Sora answered, her smirking lightly while holding out a hand for the other girl to take.
Immediately after taking her offered hand, Belle suddenly felt her fatigue fade away and for a surge of energy to take its place. This also causing the dark circles under her eyes to slowly fade away, as if she was receiving many days of rest all at once. "What was that?" she questioned with a surprised gaze.
"A little trick I picked up from my most recent teacher. He used it multiple times for my training, so I was bound to pick up on it eventually." Sora answered as she only gave half of the information since the other teen wouldn't understand magic all that much.
Belle simply nodded her head slowly, yet she also held a knowing look in her eyes. This coming from the fact that she figured out why Sora left this for the end. Her wanting to make sure that Belle herself had the will and determination to save the Beast before helping her. This making her smirk while they released each others hands; "Thank you." Belle whispered while her smirk turned into a smile.
"Of course. Helping others to help themselves is what he said a Keyblade wielder is meant to do." Sora claimed as she gestured toward the back door just out of sight.
"Shall we?" she asked quickly, her having taken notice of the door right after entering.
This lead for Belle to gave a nod to her gesture and call out in the direction her father went. "Papa, I'll be going out for a bit~!"
"I'll be right back~!" Belle continued, yet neither of the teens waited for Maurice's response before rushing outside the house.
"O-Oh...well have fun you two~! Be safe out there~! There might be wolves wandering around at this time of..." but his words slowly drifted off while reentering the room, only to find that the pair were already gone; "...night."
As Sora rushed along with Belle, they headed straight toward the other end of town where the former entered. However, just as they were about to reach the forest, a figure suddenly stepped out of the shadows as if they had been waiting for the two. "Now where do you think you're going?" a familiar voice questioned in an almost taunting manner.
While Belle's eyes widened briefly, Sora simply appeared sick to be her stomach. "Oh great..." she uttered to herself while looking to Gaston.
Whom smirked in an overly charming manner as he walked between the pair and the path into the forest. "I do hope that you don't plan on leaving." he continued, him stepping closer to the two teens.
"I had a little agreement with-" however, Gaston was instantly cut short when Sora held out a hand and whispered; "Sleep."
This caused the man to instantly fall flat on his face as he lost consciousness. Belle blinked many times to this as she turned to the other girl, whom spoke up in a silent groan. "Sorry...but I've had enough of that man to last several lifetimes." she muttered, to which she just took Belle's hand into her own and ran right over Gaston's sleeping body.
"Let's hurry!" Sora called out, them simply continuing on their way.
As they went, a second figure emerged from the shadows and brought a hand out toward the unconscious man. "It seems we've run out of time." the person said silently as an aura of darkness surrounded Gaston.
"Now...give in to your jealousy...your pride...your anger. If you cannot have her..." they continued, the sleeping man suddenly rising up from the ground.
"...no one can." the figure finished, Gaston opening his eyes as they began to glow bright red.
"Belle is mine." he growled out in a voice that sounded as if more than one person was talking.
There you have it. Shall Gaston have is revenge? Will Sora face Xaldin? Will Gaston ever shut up? Find out next time. ;)
Anyway, my announcement is this: from this point on, my updates are going to be biweekly. Or basically, every other week. I'll still update on Saturday as per usual, but I'm going to go with an easier update schedule. Mainly so that I can make these chapters as good as I possibly can, but also because I'm going to start rewriting/adding chapters for each of the previous parts. I'll make sure to let everyone know which ones are which so you don't have to reread the entire story. I'll be starting with KH I soon, so expect the following update to also feature a revised version of 'Dark Swamp'. The only parts I'll likely revisit for KH I are the worlds I added. But make sure to stay tuned to these chapters as well, since I'll be letting all of you know what is being changed or added for that update. Anyway, I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter and will let me know what you thought. Until next time.
