Background Music
Battle of Wills by Mark Mancina
He Was You by Mark Mancina
Lost at Sea by Thomas Newman
Kakamora by Mark Mancina

Chapter 14: Adrift

Sora and his friends had been sailing through the ocean for a while now. The waves were calm and steadily lapping against the raft, gently rocking it back and forth. It was in the heat of the day. The air was hot and sticky, and unfortunately for them, there was no cover and no wind.

"How much longer until we see land?" Sora asked as he wiped his sweaty brow.

"Quit complaining!" Donald grunted as he pulled back one of the oars in time with Goofy, who rowed with the other. "It's not like you're doing anything to help." Sora puffed out his chest and jabbed a thumb to his chest.

"Of course I am. I'm the captain, and that means I'm in charge."

"And what does that make me?" Kairi asked with her hands on her hips. Sora crossed his arms and tapped his foot, giving it some thought.

"Hmmm... first mate?" His friend snatched the line he was holding.

"Co-captain." Kairi corrected him with a smile before the boat lurched to the side and she was caught awkwardly by Sora. He held onto the mast and grabbed her around the waist, wincing from accidentally being elbowed in the side.

"Goofy, stop spinning the boat! You're making us go in circles!" Donald yelled at the knight after the latter decided to drop his oar so he could crack his joints.

"Oops! Sorry there, Donald." Goofy apologized and let go of the arm he was cracking and sheepishly grabbed onto the oar and started paddling again.

"You okay?" Sora asked Kairi.

"I'm fine," Kairi nodded, her cheeks flushed before she pulled away and quickly put her hands behind her back. Sora felt a little warm afterwards too. Must be the heat, Sora thought as Kairi fanned herself with the mainsail, which remained slack. He couldn't blame her. They had been in the sun for much too long, and everyone was starting to get a little cranky.

"Thirsty?" Sora offered her a bottle that he pulled out of their supplies.

"A little bit, but we should try to conserve water. We don't have a lot left."

"That's because Sora forgot to properly tie down the basket with most of the water jugs in it," Donald frowned. Sora responded with a shrug.

"How was I supposed to know the knot wouldn't hold?"

"It's because you didn't use the right knots. Aren't you an islander? Shouldn't you already know this stuff?"

"Well, excuse me if I-!"

"Guys! Let's all just take a breather," Kairi stretched out her hands and stepped in between the two of them to calm both parties down. "I'll take over for you, Donald. It's my turn, and you should get some rest." Donald let out a sigh of relief as he set down the oar and reached for the basket they tied to the mast and pulled out a glass bottle filled with fresh water. The duck uncorked the bottle and started chugging the contents while Sora fiddled with a piece of line. He was in the process of trying to tie a bowline knot before giving up and tossing it aside when it ended up becoming a pathetic, half-hitch knot instead.

The keyblade wielder didn't want to admit it, but the reason he wore shoes with belts, Velcro, and snap-straps was because he still couldn't properly tie his shoes without knotting them up or making them too loose. Riku was always better at tying knots. If it wasn't for him, we probably wouldn't have any idea how to build a raft... Sora swung lazily around the mast and looked up at the wayfinder charm Kairi had made, which was proudly displayed on the top of their mast almost like a flag. At least Kairi's good luck charm was still in place.

"Heya fellers, I don't mean to interrupt, but uh-" Goofy interjected. "-I think we should be careful. My funny bone has been acting real funny lately, and that can only mean one thing: a storm's a-brewin'."

"Ah phooey! What do you know, ya big palooka?" Donald waved off as he corked the glass bottle shut. "I've been traveling with you for years and not once has your elbow ever been right."

"But I've got a feeling that somethin' bad's about to happen."

"Nonsense! We'll be fine! All we have to do is find some wind." Donald stuck a finger in his mouth and then lifted it up into the air. A couple moments later, he felt a small breeze from the east and the sail on their raft began luffing. "Ah ha! See?"

"Guess our luck is finally changing," Sora said as Donald undid a line and pulled open the sail a bit more broadly.

"Alright. Full speed ahead," Kairi cheered and sat down to dip one of the oars into water on the stern, acting as a rudder to turn the boat until it pointed into the wind.

"Aye-aye, co-captain."

The ocean violently tossed the boat like a child with a ball in its hands. It was hard to believe that it had been calm only moments ago. The churning waves made steering almost impossible for Kairi, who was hanging onto the oar feeling like reigning in a large dog who had just saw a squirrel.

"I can't hold it any longer! Help me tie the oars down, Goofy!" Kairi yelled over the swell as the bumbling knight handed her some spare line. Donald was helping Sora with lifelines and supplies when he looked up and noticed the strain of the mainsail.

"Sora, furl the sail or we're going to lose it!" Donald ordered as he pulled the lines tight.

"I'm on it!" Sora saluted before shimming up the mast. The rain hit him so hard that he couldn't tell what was ocean and what was rain. He reached out toward the ends of the sail and tugged as hard as he could at the rope while he tried to wrap up the overinflated sail. Unfortunately, the gale-force winds yanked so fiercely at his hands that the rope burned him. A brief moment of shock was all that it took for him to let go of the line. The rope snapped back and undid the knot attached to sail and the wayfinder that flailed atop the mast.

Oh no! Kairi's good luck charm! was Sora's first thought as it flew off of the line. The next was that he reacted a second too late as it plopped into the crashing waves and sank. Without hesitation, Sora dove under the waves after the wayfinder.

"Sora-!" he heard Kairi yell before the crash of water cut off the rest of her shout. The sea felt almost calm underneath the surface, the soft waves muffled only by the bubbles sizzling in his ears around him as he chased after the sinking pendant. If it wasn't for the shining glint of silver and brief flashes of lighting, he could hardly see the pendant at all in the murky depth. He didn't care. He had to get that charm back.

He could have sworn he was halfway to the seafloor by the time he was an arm's length away from the wayfinder. The chain knocked around clumsily in his fingertips before he finally caught it. He firmly grasped it and started kicking towards the surface like a frog coming up for air.

Sora burst from the surface with a loud gasp, his lungs filling with air. The raft was a bit farther away when he resurfaced, now almost twenty feet away. He kicked and flailed against the crashing waves towards the raft, trying to make up the distance, but the boat seemed to slip further and further away from him, and his arms were starting to feel heavy. Still, he urged his body to move forward, to just keep swimming.

"There! I see him!" he heard Goofy shout. The knight then lifted up a long fishing pole and spun around, swinging the line back and forth before launching a long cast that flew over Sora's head and plopped in the water behind him. Suddenly Sora began to move at a faster pace, the fishing hook snagged on the hood of his jacket pulling him forward. Donald held onto Goofy as the latter reeled him in. When he was a couple yards away, Kairi got on one knee and gripped onto the cleat of the boat and reached for him.

"Give me your hand!" Sora grabbed Kairi's outstretched hand as she latched onto his arm for a better grip and began to haul him onto the deck with Donald and Goofy's help. "Nice catch!" he said to Goofy, crawling on his hands and knees, trying to catch his breathe.

"Thanks! I taught it to my son, Maxie, when we went fishin'." Goofy clapped him on the back and started to unhook his jacket from his fishing line.

"Don't you ever do that again!" Donald scolded Sora and stomped angrily on the raft, making a big racket.

"Here, you'll probably need this." Kairi picked up and handed him a lifeline that was tied to the mast.

"Thanks." Sora reached out and grabbed the line. During that brief moment of calm, none of them saw the large maverick forming behind them until it was well above their heads. Lighting and thunder crashed, illuminating the titanic wave as it came down overhead. The impact felt like being ripped from an airlock in space as the water crashed over the raft and flipped it over, capsizing it and sending everyone spinning in the water. Seconds after the large wave had passed, everyone started popping up in the water and swimming towards the boat. They clung to the sides of the raft like it was a life-preserver as they tried to flip it right-side up.

"Is everyone alright?" Kairi asked as Donald started coughing up salt water. After finally clearing his throat, the duck let out a startled yelp and pointed to the horizon. A second wave was coming.

"Everybody hang on!" Goofy hollered and everyone braced for the large tidal swell. The second wave was almost as bad as the first. The water crashed against the raft, completely keeling it over as everyone was flipped upside-down into the water again. A fresh crack of lightning flashed in the sky overhead, its outstretched tendrils making it appear like it was almost daylight. The sudden brightness allowed Kairi to see everything that was going on under the waves. Everyone was together, tied to the raft by lifelines. Everyone, that is, except for Sora.

"Sora! Soooooora!" Kairi continued calling out for her friend. It had been hours since the storm had passed, but there was still no sign of Sora. He can't be... Kairi shook her head. No! He's fine. I know it!

"Sooooora!" Goofy shouted, taking turns with Kairi as they looked for their friend.

"Will you both quit it!? Yelling isn't going to help anybody!" shouted Donald, who was swimming back to the boat with some supplies he found drifting in the water.

"I'm not about to give up on our friend," Goofy frowned. "He wouldn't do it for me, so I'm not going to do it for him!

"Maybe we should take a break..." Kairi croaked. Her voice felt dry and scratchy, though it was probably the only part of her that was. Her whole body was coated in ocean water and sea salt. She coughed for a bit before grabbing a bottle of fresh water from Goofy. "Thanks, Goofy."

"So how bad is the damage?"

"The mainsail and deck are fine, but I couldn't find any of the extra rope or food. We probably lost them in the storm," she listed off and took another swig of water. "How about you?"

"All I could find were some extra bits of driftwood and the lid to our basket."

"Well, at least we got some more fresh water, and Goofy caught some fish while you were gone." Kairi handed him another bottle and a small stick with a small, cooked sea bass stuck on the edge. Donald poked it a bit with his fingers and sniffed it before taking a bite. A couple of seagulls cried as they flew overhead, swooping down to catch some of the fish that had been stirred up during the storm. A couple braver ones tried to snatch Donald's cooked sea bass out of his hands with little success.

"Shoo! Shoo! Go on! Get! Go away, you rats with wings!" Donald shouted at a particularly eager bird that had landed on deck, who kept poking and prodding at the poor duck before going for the frying pan they had set up with the other uneaten sea bass. Finally having had enough, the magician summoned his wand and fired a small, concentrated thunder spell at the bird. The gull let out a startled cry before taking off. Donald scowled, his grumbles growing angrier and madder to the point that they didn't make sense anymore without subtitles. He crossed his arms. "I knew we should have come out here on a better boat!"

"Donald-" Goofy tried to soothe before Donald angrily swatted his hand away.

"NO! We should have had built a bulkhead or waited for the tide to go down or borrowed a real sailboat to go out on!" The list went on and on until the poor duck ran out of steam and was breathing angry, raspy breaths. He plopped down on the raft and kicked the water in defeat.

"Donald... we couldn't have expected any of this. Things like this just happen sometimes. I've seen full ships leave port and never return. Sometimes it's just bad luck." Kairi stared down at her hands. She didn't have her wayfinder with her. She was lost at sea without her good luck charm, without a keyblade, without Sora. But... she never really was without Sora, was she? He had always been with her, even when she had lost her heart. That's why... that's why...

"But it's going to be okay. Somehow, one way or another, we're going to be okay. We're going to find Sora, and then we're going to find Riku and the King as well!"

"How can you be so positive?" Donald gave her a look of disbelief and threw up his hands. "It's hopeless!"

"Not, it's not. Maybe it's me being a Princess of Heart or maybe it's because I've known him for so long. All I know is what's in my heart, and what my heart keeps telling me is that he's okay."

"I know what ya mean," Goofy nodded. "I haven't seen the King since we helped him close the Door to Darkness, but I'm sure he's fine. At least, I hope so." He trailed off for a moment before grinning like a thought occurred to him. "-and besides, with all these birds around, there has to be land nearby, right? So all we have to do is to just need to keep a look-out for any signs of land."

"Right." Kairi leaning away from the mast and looked towards the horizon, starting to tune the world out. Part of her expected to see Sora bobbing on some wreckage, clinging onto a pile of driftwood or maybe being lead by a pod of dolphins, like in the fish stories she had heard back home. But what she heard next wasn't what she expected. It was a low hum. It sounded different than the soft thrumming of distant waves. It was more like a continuous beat or a buzzing chant.

"What's that sound?" Kairi thought aloud. She turned and walked to the edge of the raft and listened for a moment before the soft, pounding echo began to steadily grow louder and louder. It could now be clearly heard along with the seagulls.

"It sounds kind of like drums," Goofy said as he squinted at the horizon. A large fog filled part of the ocean ahead, but if he squinted, he could make out small bits of blurred shadow and a couple sprouts that looked like trees. Finally, he could see the outline of a small island.

"Land ho!" Goofy called out. Donald turned away from his sulking to scold his friend before he suddenly cheered excitedly along with him. "Land ho! Land ho!" Kairi studied the small outline. It didn't look like any part of the Destiny Islands' silhouettes, so they hadn't been accidentally turned around in the storm. Kairi still wasn't sure if they'd had made it past the world boarder, but at least they hadn't gone through all of that for nothing.

"It's not the Destiny Islands. Maybe Sora swam there during the storm!" Kairi suggested.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Donald shouted eagerly before untying an oar and abruptly turning the boat around. Goofy leapt out to catch the cast iron skillet with the remaining sea bass, which unfortunately slid into the water the moment Goofy grabbed the handle. Little did they know that, underneath their raft, a small school of fish followed the speared sea bass until they were suddenly caught in a vortex of water and disappeared without a trace.

Author's Note: I had to look up a bunch of boat terminology for this chapter. I did like a week of sailing camp a couple years back, so some of it refreshed my memory, but I still had to look up official terms. You're welcome! Also, fun fact! Winds from the east usually are signs of a storm, and the knots that Sora was trying to tie earlier were real knots that sailors use. Half-hitches are usually kind of unsecure and flimsy unless used with other knots, but are relatively simple, while bowline knots are mostly used for rigging and rescue knots. Because Sora couldn't tie a bowline, his lifeline didn't hold and that's why Sora didn't stay with the raft.

The reason that Donald was fine and had decent knowledge of boating was because he wears a navy suit and lived on a houseboat in the cartoons that he actually sailed on some occasions, sometimes with Goofy or Mickey. As for Sora and Kairi, I always figured that since it was Riku's dream to leave the islands, that he was the one with all the sailing knowledge, and that Sora and Kairi were just along for the ride to help get supplies. I mean, just because you live near an ocean doesn't mean you automatically know how to sail or do other things like fish or surf. Plus, while playing the tutorial in Kingdom Hearts, I don't think I ever saw Kairi help get things or put the ship together. Not ONCE! Anyways, that's just my theory.