The Annals of Darkness: The Tower of Trials

by Shire Folk

Part IV. Torn from Radiant Garden with the battle still undecided, Sora and his friends find themselves in a strange place with no means of returning to where they'd come from. With the clock ticking, they must press on with the guidance and knowledge of the Spirit of Adventure and ascend the tower to become what they need to be before it's too late. M, discretion is advised.

14. Secrets and Splendours Part II

I am going to apologize in advance for the final scenes of this chapter. As I built Rigothiton in Dwarf Mode of the game, Dwarf Fortress (DF2012 v.0.34.11), I also managed to build an underground hot spring bathing area for my dorfs to clean off dirt, grime, and blood. So, there is a hot spring scene in this chapter. It goes about as well (or as badly) as you'd expect.

I'm sorry again, and enjoy! :D

Disclaimer: Shire Folk does not own Kingdom Hearts, or Disney.

-A-D-

The Tower of Trials

Chapter 14: The Secrets and Splendours of Rigothiton Part II

Sora had a pint in his hand, Jared next to him at the table with Dobar and the dwarf they had been looking for. The beer was strong, with a good head, but didn't have a great amount of hoppy taste to its amber colour, which Sora found suited him just fine. The air was lively, with a jaunty sort of music playing from a band of dwarves using pipes, a fiddle, drums, and a lute. Soa eyed the lute-playing dwarf with envy. He wanted a lute. He wanted to see how different playing a lute was to playing his acoustic guitar. More importantly he wanted to find out of guitars existed in some form here.

Atir Idostar, the caravan leader they were meeting with, had a broad nose and a neatly combed, very long, burnt umber beard that showed only a few strands of grey, while his long moustache was arranged into double braids. His hair was neatly combed back and tied in a ponytail, revealing his expressive rust-coloured eyes, and the long sideburns that framed his face were braided by an expert hand. His muscular frame was garbed in rich silk clothes of grey and blue, and he kept a dagger in an expensive looking sheath at his waist.

"You took down that sodding menace Snakejaw?" Atir laughed. "If the prince here hadn't said it, I'd have called ye mad, lad."

"It was a Hell of a fight," Sora agreed. "That orc was strong. If it wasn't for Wispy, I'm not sure how it would have turned out." Sora glanced at the air elemental floating in the air above him, and she smiled down at him, lying flat in the air with her head resting on her hands with her elbows propped up and one leg in the air. Sora realized that it was a very Dawn-like pose.

"You're just being modest, Sora," Jared said easily, clinking his pint against Sora's own. "You fought those guys like tigers!"

"In case you didn't notice, we were fighting against orcs riding tigers!" Sora reminded him with a grin while Telpemon nodded quietly. "We couldn't afford not to fight like them."

"Still an impressive feat," Dobar agreed. "So, Atir, do ye agree that they're capable?"

"Aye, the twelve of ye should do fine," Atir said. "Give me the letter." Jared pulled it out and handed the document to the dwarf. Atir took another draught from his ale before grasping the letter and looking at it. "Aye, this is my handwriting," he said before flipping it over to the official contract on the attached pages. He quickly skimmed it, having seen it many times before, before reaching the end of it. "And that's Lady Adelwine's signature." He made a noise of satisfaction and reached into his clothes to pull out an inkwell and a pen. Atir signed his name, looked up and offered the pen to the others at the table. "Witnesses?"

Jared, Sora, and Prince Dobar all affixed their names at the bottom, and Atir smiled and folded up the papers before stuffing them in a pocket. "And with that, our contract is set. Welcome to the company, lads!" Sora and Jared shook hands with the dwarf, and the four jovially pressed their mugs together.

"Food!" Prince Dobar called, raising his mug in Sora's direction, "for the slayer of Orzag Snakejaw!" A cheer went up around the citadel pub, for quite a few of the patrons of The Underground at the moment were of Dobar's company or members of other companies of Crafthall's legions. Sora's cheeks burned, feeling embarrassed at being the centre of attention. He had known that he was facing down the orc leader, but had no idea that the orc had been so notorious.

Dwarf womenfolk who worked as servers and in the pub came 'round with a platter of roast pig and mushrooms braised in dwarven wine and mountain herbs. Gowned in bright fabrics, their round faces beamed at Sora as they crowded around the table. The dwarf women pressed more ale on him, and he couldn't help but notice that the bodices of their dresses were straining to contain their ample cleavage, enough that it looked like he could drown his face in their bosoms...

Sora felt something like the wind lightly smack him in the face a couple of times, and he saw Wispy staring at him with a disapproving pouty face. He blinked a few times, and tried to clear his head while Jared and the dwarves around him laughed.

"What's the matter, laddie?" one of the serving women asked him playfully. "Too much woman for ye?"

"It's not that," Sora said quickly, trying to smile back at her and not spend too much time with his eyes on her bodice...or another's round backside. Those around him laughed while the dwarf woman clapped his shoulder. Sora could already feel himself getting hot, and his breeches a little tight from an impatient and somewhat neglected of late bugger between his thighs. He was an assistant innkeeper; he'd been around plenty of young pretty girls for the past month as he learned the trade from his craftmaster. He needed to control himself, dammit! He just hadn't been around such...well-endowed women much before. Unless he counted Tifa, of course. "I just happen to have a girl in my life already," he clarified to the laughing crowd, "and I'd rather not have her killing me."

Atir laughed. "An honourable man sits at this table!" he praised. "Even though the lass'd have no way of knowing."

"Actually, she's in the city," Jared said with a chortle. "She's one of our group."

"Ye don't say?" Atir chuckled with mirth. "Well then, lad, I wish ye the very best of luck." The serving women left their table alone, Sora bright-faced and taking a deep draught from his ale, with another full one sitting beside it and waiting for him to drink it down. "Right then, I take it ye have both read the contract?"

"Aye," Jared said, piling meat onto his plate. "The contract fee for the additional escort from Lensar is a hundred and twenty gold sovereigns to the Fiefdom, and an additional gold piece and three silver pieces per day for each member of the escort group."

"Aye, that's it," Atir said, though he sighed a little. "Although, with your group having already dealt with Orzag I feel the roads may be a wee bit less treacherous than before for a while." He laughed. "Although, considering tha', you've already earned yer pay, then." Sora shrugged.

"What's done is done," he said. "But we just looked like easily picked off greenhorn travellers, even with our weapons. You've got a caravan of dwarven gold out of Rigothiton with you." Sora gave a short whistle. "That's a much prettier target than twelve armed teenagers."

"And also one that looks more dangerous to strike than a bunch of skittish lads and lasses on horseback," Atir reminded him. "It was because ye appeared easy prey that Orzag attacked ye, young humans in the mountains with good steel made for war; an easy an' solid prize for a cowardly sack of maggot filth like 'e was."

"A solid prize?" Sora asked.

"How much do ye know of smithery, Sora?" asked Atir, cutting up some roast pig in his plate. The human lad shrugged.

"A little bit," he answered. "My brother is learning the trade from the Master Smith of Castle Lensar, so he tells me some things."

"So ye know how to make steel, do ye?"

Sora blinked and scratched his head. "Uh...well, I know that you need iron and a source of carbon like charcoal or coal, and something called flux to remove the impurities in the iron, but that's about it."

"Then ye already know more than the orcs do," Dobar said. "They can't make steel. They don't know how an' they don't care tah learn the process. However, that means that everything they use is inferior to it, unless they can get their filthy hands on something better. So the steel blades of a dozen human kids were a high prize to them, worth their own weight in gold."

"So we really shouldn't be expecting trouble?" Jared asked. "Since the orcs have been taken care of?"

"Nay. Always expect trouble when traveling through these mountains, and be glad when ye don't see any!" Atir said forcefully, making his point by loudly thumping his mug down. "Just because ye killed Orzag Snakejaw, don't think that that completely ends the orcs hiding out there. There's always another one waiting ta take the leader's place."

"Come to think of it," Dobar said pensively while staring into his drink, "none of Orzag's band were using steel, and we know that they've pilfered some. Where did it all go?"

"Ahh...don't worry about it," Atir said after a silence, showing a reversal of tone. "We're all safe an' sound here, with good food and booze to be had! Save tomorrow's worries for tomorrow; today, we celebrate! Orzag is dead and our caravan puts out in three days. Cheers lads!"

Sora put a smile on his face and mashed his mug together with the other four once more, and then drained it. He wanted another one of those, and that roast pig and mushroom smelled and looked delicious. The players started up a new song, and Sora flagged down a server for another ale while starting on the second pint already sitting there for him.

He was really starting to like this world.

-A-D-

"Keyblade Armour?" Roxas asked, eyes going wide. "You're going to teach me how to make Keyblade Armour?"

Naziraltaz nodded his head. "Yes," he answered. "Though Keyblades are crafted by Tylythia alone, the armour that has been worn by Wielders of the Keyblade for the past several centuries has been created at the hands of their mortal bearers and their allies. However, due to recent events, all those with such knowledge in your worlds are gone. So the task of teaching a new flock of smiths the skill has fallen unto me."

"But...but you're a dragon?" Roxas anxiously questioned. Naz raised an eyebrow at him.

"And?" he inquired. "My species somehow makes me unfit to fashion objects out of metal, does it?"

"Er, no, I just meant..." floundered Roxas with a flushed face as he desperately looked away from Naz.

The dragon laughed at his discomfort, which made Roxas blush all the harder.

"We also mentioned that there were mysteries about the Keyblade that you were unaware of," Elira commented gently, so as to remove the teasing tone her mate had taken with the young apprentice smith. "Would you like hear them now?"

The gang nodded their heads eagerly.

-A-D-

Far away from them, two people were watching the conversation happening, one attentively, the other a little distractedly, on a screen in a room in the tower in Mathmagicland. The attentive one had a notebook at the ready, while the other was munching on a bowl of popcorn.

"This should be interesting," Jiminy Cricket said, poised with his writing implements. "What do you think they're going to find out?" He looked at the other person on the couch, while a number of Keyblades were propped up against the furniture in the same vicinity.

"How should I know?" Dawn replied, and tossed a popcorn kernel into her mouth. "The only things about us I know are what mother told me when she made me," she added while munching, "so...they're probably going to find out some good stuff." She looked around at the Keyblades of the others she had placed there so that they all could 'watch' over their Masters. This last month had been just brutal, seeing them, but being unable to aid them or feel their warm hands touching them.

The dragons started talking again, and Jiminy immediately began to take notes, while Dawn continued munching on popcorn in interest, marvelling at each new fact about the Keyblades as they were revealed. "I didn't know that…" she mumbled. "Riku'd better not turn me into a Bag of Holding. If he does and tries to shove a couch inside of me I'll never forgive him."

-A-D-

"I can't believe we got this chest off of him!" Yuffie exclaimed giddily as they exited Naziraltaz and Eliraza's chamber, the chest Yuffie mentioned being carried within her Bag of Holding. She remembered fondly the look on Naziraltaz's face when she asked if they could take a little of his hoard to help them on their journey to supplement their training. It had taken her a little bit of time, but she'd worn him and his mate down until they relented in allowing them to take one chest of treasure from the mammoth chamber and a small pouch of coins each. Telling them that they were going to teach them special skills they'd need later when they get back to their worlds but then not offering to assist in arming them to assure they'd make it back? Not very responsible of them, she'd figured, and the argument held.

"Never mind that," Roxas said. He was still somewhat stunned by the fact that the dragon wanted to teach him smithing techniques that were now lost to the Realm of Light, as all of the smiths allied with the Chasers had been wiped out during the Keyblade War. "I can't believe that our Keyblades could do that, or that I'm going to learn how to make our armour, or that they're freaking solarium!"

"Well it makes sense," Kairi said. "Everybody first learns how to use the fire spell. If the Keyblade's made using a metal that's naturally attuned to fire, then it's only natural that fire's the one that comes easiest, regardless of drawing upon angry feelings."

"You don't seem to be that thrilled to be learning how to make the armour, Roxas," Naminé said softly, looking at her beau in concern. "Are you okay?" Roxas looked at her, eyes wide in anxious exasperation.

"I've only done nails and simple fixes, Naminé," he replied. "Master Devin hasn't let me craft so much as a knife yet. How am I supposed to suddenly start learning how to make orichalcum out of solarium, starsilver, and zeutite and then get the hang of making chainmail out of it?"

"Well, we do learn faster thanks to Athena's blessing," Naminé reminded him.

"Yeah, but I'm still nowhere near good enough yet to even think about learning anything from him yet," Roxas reasoned while running his hand over his forehead. "I'm going to have to come back here later when I'm ready."

"Me too," Kairi said. Roxas looked at her. "I get the feeling that it's not enough for you to just forge the armour; it has to be enchanted a certain way too, and that's what I'm working on." Kairi offered him a smile. "Looks like we'll both be back here when we're good enough." Roxas nodded at her, and they kept walking.

Yuffie placed her hands behind her head. "Looks like the team will be splitting up at some point, then," she said softly.

"Looks like it," Naminé agreed. "Though it might still be a good idea for you to come back here and learn from him while we're here, Roxas. We probably won't be back this way for a while."

He sighed. "Yeah, yeah. I'll come see him again tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe he'll start me off on something."

"I think I'll be coming back here, too," Riku announced. The others looked at him. "The dwarves know stone better than anyone else. If I'm going to be serious about becoming a mason when we aren't fighting, then I need to learn their craft."

"I thought you wanted to be a gardener?" Kairi asked.

"I can be both, and don't you want to be a doctor?" Riku returned lightly.

"Learning magic to enchant items can include learning healing magic," the redhead answered.

They reached the edge of the tunnel that led from the great forge to the dragons' chamber, and a figure pushed herself off of the wall near its entrance and stood facing them. "Oh, hey Jenny," Naminé said. "What's up? Where are the others?"

"They all went off with Melbil," Jenny Clover answered. "I stayed behind to wait for you. Listen. I, uh…" she looked down and pushed her glasses back up her nose. "I…"

"You heard everything, right?" Yuffie asked lightly, arms folded over her stomach with her hands on her hips. "You know we were bluffing about Tyrgard and Ervontits."

"Ervonheim, yeah," Jenny said slowly. "Is it true?"

"She was listening in?" Roxas asked, looking at Yuffie with an accusatory glare. "How do you know?" Yuffie grinned.

"Maybe you've forgotten Roxas, but I'm the Wielder of the Night, the hidden blade that smites evil from the darkness, the blooming flower of Wutai, the Great Ninja Lady Yuffie Kisaragi of Radiant Garden!" she struck a dramatic pose, almost as if expecting a powerful background image to appear behind her.

"Yeah, yeah, you and your chuunibyou delusions," Roxas waved her off. Yuffie was suddenly in front of him from a cloud of black smoke, catching the blonde off-guard.

"You call it chuunibyou, but I have the skills to actually back it up!" she proclaimed.

"Your ninja powers weren't sealed!?"

"Ha! My ninja skills are my own! Only my Keyblade was sealed away."

Jenny cocked her head to the side. "What's...chuunibyou?" she asked. "Did I say that right?"

"Don't ask," Naminé sighed. "Roxas is trying to bring in things that don't matter. But, yes, it's true. We're not from there. We're from another place entirely."

"We kinda changed the story a little," Kairi admitted, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. "But the gist was the same. We're from another place, we got sent here without warning, and our prior strength and abilities were taken away from us, so we're starting over again from scratch in this world."

"Do you think you'll ever be able to go home again?" Jenny asked.

"We were told that when whatever training this being adventurers thing is supposed to be is over, we would," Riku answered. "But I don't think that that's going to happen for a long while yet. Don't worry, we're not going to disappear on you all of a sudden, Jenny."

"Oh, that's good," the mage-in-training said, blushing and looking down. "I was really starting to like you guys, maybe even think of you as friends more than companions." Kairi and Naminé enveloped her in a sudden hug.

"Of course we're friends, Jenny," Kairi said. "Can you forgive us for not trusting you with our secret?"

"Of course I can," Jenny replied, hugging the two back while Roxas and Yuffie playfully scrapped in the background. "Can you forgive me for imagining Roxas and Riku and Sora doing dirty things to me?"

"Absolutely," Naminé said while Kairi stayed silent, her brain going through a reboot and system check for corrupted fantasies. "They're all beautiful guys."

"Okay! Well," Kairi said loudly, breaking out of the hug, blushing quite a bit at the ideas Jenny had just put in her head, "to celebrate our official friendship, let's go find Melbil and the others, and maybe a place to eat. I'm starving!"

After asking about Melbil and directions many times, the group finally made their way to the Citadel of Rigothiton, which was, contrary to their belief, not the site of the King's throne, but the centre of military and mercantile affairs, with a bustling district just outside of it that catered to the needs of the more adventurous visitors who often passed through. They found their quarry in a pub inside the citadel called The Underground, along with the rest of their party, Sora and Jared included. Dobar was in the midst of telling the crowd an uproarious tale about Melbil that was making the female dwarf warrior blush something fierce, but what drew their attentions was the white head sitting on the table in front of Sora, feasting on roast pig and mushroom.

Telpemon had digivolved to Ninquemon, and nobody seemed to be paying the digimon much attention at all. That sat well with them, and was also a bit nostalgic. Nobody had ever really questioned Donald and Goofy walking and talking either.

They sat down, and no sooner had Kairi pulled up a chair next to Sora then he turned to her, pulled her onto his lap instead, and planted his lips upon hers in the most intense and passionate kiss she could remember. Kairi could taste the ale on his lips, and was conscious at first of their watchers, but a second or two went by with her also getting the taste of the meat and mushrooms as well as the pure feelings Sora was putting into his display of affection, and Kairi stopped caring; she let herself just melt into him, their outer clothes and armour rubbing against one another, kissing him back for no other reason than that he was making her heart dance.

Sora pulled his lips off of hers in the middle of a rowdy song that the bards had been playing, and strongly took over a verse while grabbing his pint. "Here's a health to the dear lass that I love so well! For her style and her beauty surely none can excel! There's a smile on her countenance as she sits on my knee; there's no man in this wide world as happy as me!"

Kairi kissed him again and stole a draught of his ale. She was really starting to like this world, too.

-A-D-

"Ah, this is so nice!" Jenny said with a sigh and a stretch. She had managed to find out about a nifty little secret that wasn't so secret to the inhabitants of the city. Several levels down from the main floors of the city, but still separate from the mines and the lower passages, there was an area that the dwarves had turned into something special.

It wasn't unusual to find an underground spring, and one underneath a volcano had the added benefit of the liquid fire below keeping the water nice and hot! It was perfect for washing the dirt and grime off her body and out of her hair.

The area had been stoned and floored with the idea of keeping the flow of water into and out of the bathing area in mind at first, but later additions were made to make the hot springs of Crafthall as magnificent as the rest of the city. Marble quarried from the mines had been brought up and carved into the blocks that were beneath Jenny's feet, and natural-looking boulders of the same stone jutted out of the water like icebergs capped with gold bands and small statues of nymphs dancing among metallic ores, as well as one large and...rather suggestive gold statue of King Ehstan Primegild. A waterfall had also been erected, a shelf of marble dropping the hot water into the bathing pool through a helix of rose gold shaped like naked dwarves of all professions ‒ miners, crafters, farmers, soldiers, traders, and the like ‒ mounting a winding staircase before reaching the pinnacle just above where the water began to cascade down the middle of the helix, whereupon stood what looked to be a king and his queen at the very top.

It was a magnificent piece, but it and the other statue of the king still made Jenny blush somewhat.

"Enjoying yourself?" asked one of the others in the bath with her. Three adventurers who were part of a company that routinely stayed in the Rigothiton/Nazomineth area for work were with her, having informed her of the springs when she had been bemoaning her lack of a proper bath since leaving Lionsar Town in the street outside of the inn their group had been set up in thanks to Atir. Two of them were elves: slender, curvy, and beautiful, with long golden hair of lustrous shine that Jenny's own couldn't hope to match; and the third was a half nymph, the owner of a body that in all ways oozed the word perfect. Short, silky smooth locks of chestnut, rich topaz blue eyes, unblemished, creamy skin, curves that Jenny and a hundred thousand other human women would kill to have, and a bright easygoing smile.

Even though she was enjoying herself in the bath, she couldn't help but feel inadequate and inferior to the three fair humanoids she was sharing it with.

Jenny nodded her head slowly, sliding down the edge of the marble rock she was against until half her face was submerged. Her spectacles were fogging up in the steam from the hot water, which helped slightly obscure the forms of the other three in the area. Lady Puff was laying on one of the marble boulders, the wolverine grooming herself.

One of the adventurers, the half nymph, started to move towards Jenny. The light from the many everburning torches that illuminated the hot springs gave the whole place a very exotic feel that left her breathless, and it made the rich topaz eyes of the approaching adventurer appear to smoulder in a way that made Jenny's breath hitch, if she was seeing them correctly through the fog over her spectacles, that is. Jenny wasn't sure of her intentions at first, but it seemed that the woman just wanted to wash her hair and engage in small talk.

Jenny felt herself relaxing under the soft fingertips of the beautiful half nymph. "Mmm, no, I'm not an adventurer," Jenny replied to the half nymph's question. "I'm an apprentice mage of Lensar fiefdom of Tyrden, learning from Archmage Yvette Silmuir herself."

"Well then what's a pretty thing like you doing way out here in a dwarf mountain hall?" asked the beauty massaging her scalp with the pig tallow soap.

"I was told by Yvette that I needed to "get out of the tower and have some fun". So she assigned me to go with the others and help protect the caravan heading to our lands."

"Hmhm," chuckled the woman in her throat, "and are you having fun?"

Jenny mulled it over for a few seconds, and then quite suddenly found herself laughing.

"Apart from when it's pouring outside, yes! I am having fun," she answered.

"You know..." Jenny looked up, and saw that both of the elves had come close without her noticing. That dangerous, mischievous, fiery smoulder was in their eyes. "...there's another type of fun you could be having right now."

-A-D-

"Whew! A hot spring!" Sora said with both relief and excitement. He could smell the hint of sulphur in the air in the changing room just outside the bathing pool. "How did the dwarves know it was just what we needed after, like, a week on the road?"

"So why didn't we bring the girls with us?" Roxas asked, slinging a towel over his shoulder and looking up at Wispy. She'd obscured herself in the steam coming into the room through grates in the wall, so he couldn't get a look at her. That didn't stop the air elemental from howling up a storm, though.

"She says to stop trying to sneak a peek, and she'll only let me see her," Sora replied. "And we didn't bring the girls because it's unisex."

"Heh," Scott Sparrah remarked with a grin. "After hearing from them, I'd have thought that you'd be the one desperate to see your lady in all her glory, Sora."

"Truly a man of honour," Jared laughed.

"I'm surprised there aren't any dwarves around here," Riku muttered.

"You mean apart from the one who charged us the visitor's fee?" Bartt asked.

"Yeah," Riku answered. The group of young men (consisting of Sora, Riku, Roxas, Jared, Scott, Bartt, Adrian, and Travis), now all in the buff, some with towels around their waists but the adventuring trio letting their bits breathe, shrugged their shoulders and pushed open the door to the hot springs.

The water practically shimmered in the lighting as steam rose off of it, the wet heat striking their grimy bodies and enveloping them all in a comfortable blanket of warmth. Sora didn't think twice, and jumped right in with a shout! The others flinched as the water splashed onto them, and the five knights-to-be still just couldn't keep their eyes off of their companion's metal limb.

Sora surfaced, the water really only deep enough to reach his mid-chest while standing, and waved. "Come on you guys, the water's great!" He pushed himself back until his back pressed against a warm chunk of marble.

"Ahh..." he sighed. Complete contentment. Hot water soaking into his bones. Skin turning pink. Automail heating up. Roxas was right in that they should have brought the girls. They would have really enjoyed this, and Kairi could have helped clean and oil his arm.

The others, seeing Sora relaxing, entered as well, though without as much enthusiasm...with one exception.

"Yay!" Ninquemon shouted, splashing around. "Sora, this is great!"

A loud splash sounded from somewhere behind him, and Sora pushed off the rock to take a look while the others were still getting in. A feminine wail also reached his ears, and before Sora could react Jenny practically flew towards him.

"Save me, Sora!"

Face absolutely flushed, Sora was only able to barely process the sight of the nude young woman flinging herself at him, though he was able to make out that there were tears in her eyes.

"J-Jenny! What!?" Sora sputtered, catching her. She pressed her body up against his, folding her head into the hollow of his neck.

S-soft... was the thought that went through Sora's head, Jenny's chest (only a little bit bigger than Naminé's if he thought about it, but still slightly smaller than Kairi's or Yuffie's) squishing into his pectorals.

"Oh, I see," a new voice spoke. "You wanted to play with them, instead."

Sora looked up, and felt his jaw drop like a brick. Despite the steam, the water in the springs was clear as crystal, enabling him to see everything. That everything happened to include the three bombshells striding through the water towards them.

"Whoa," Jared whispered in awe.

Jenny glanced back at the three advancing females and then hid behind Sora. "D-don't come any closer!" Jenny pleaded in a threatening voice that really didn't have any bite in it. "You're all very nice people, but I don't want to be doing this and that right now!"

"This and that?" Roxas asked, staring at Jenny's back, with his eyes then roving and staying at a point considerably south of her waist. "Aren't you the open pervert who fantasizes about us doing nasty things to you?" Jenny looked back at him, and seemed to really grasp the situation after a few seconds of realizing that she was in a hot spring with eight males and none of them were wearing anything.

"Kya!" Jenny shrieked, face red as a tomato as she crossed her arms over her chest and bent down, trying her hardest to reduce her exposure as much as possible. "Don't look! I'm not ready to become a woman!"

Sora turned around and placed his hands on her shoulders. She made the mistake of opening her eyes at that, because he was right in front of her. "Jenny, what's going on?"

"...big..." she mumbled in a small voice, cheeks still flushed red behind her glasses. She appeared to be in shock.

"If you want to know," the woman in the lead, whose body was an effigy to absolute perfection that had nearly all of the boys resembling slobbering dogs ready to start humping legs, began, "we were washing together and she didn't seem to enjoy it very much." Her deep topaz eyes glittered with something that if Sora saw Kairi looking at him with, he wasn't sure how he'd react but he knew he would certainly like to find the nearest flat surface and ravish her against it.

The brown-haired goddess licked her lips and gave them a friendly smile. "Perhaps you handsome lads would like to have some fun while we wash instead?"

"Yes," one of the elves added, folding her arms under her chest, likely fully knowing the effect it would have. "Our own male companion prefers the company of other men to a woman's touch. Are we right to assume that you are dear Jenny's traveling partners? May we assist you in washing you clean of the dirt and toil of your journey?"

There was another splash, which served to distract Sora's attention from the voluptuous female forms in front of him. Lady Puff had jumped into the water and was swimming towards them, and Wispy was suddenly down at water level, wrapping herself in steam to obscure herself and force Sora to look through her veiled body in order to get a look at the three.

"Ah, I see," Sora said with a sigh, while his breath was entering his hot-blooded body through flared nostrils. "I'm sorry ladies, but I already have a girl, so I must decline."

"I'm going to have to refuse as well," Riku said, though he was clenching his teeth and his hands had tightened into fists, aquamarine eyes stuck to his feet.

"Me too," Roxas muttered, turning his back on them.

Jared looked at the other youth and grinned lewdly at them. "Well, we've got no problem," he slowly announced.

"Great!" the second elf said, hopping up and down. She swiped her hand into the water and splashed them all with it. "Come over this way, then, so we won't disturb your friends."

The other five young men went back to the other side of the pool with the giggling trio, and Sora looked down at Jenny and gave her shoulders a little shake. He blushed, remembering the last word she'd said. By Zeus he felt embarrassed now. "Uh, Jenny?"

She snapped out of her stupor at his action and words. Her hands flew to her mouth and looked up at his face, eyes taking the scenic route over his abdominals and pectorals to get there.

"Would...Would you like us to put towels on? So that we're covered up?" Sora asked her, Jenny's flushed face seemed to get even redder, if that was possible; the girl was blushing like Rudolph's nose.

"Oh! Nononononono you're fine. I mean it's fine. I mean that's okay! You guys don't need to cover up at all, It was just a surprise that you showed up. A pleasant surprise, mind you, and not because I get to see...nevermind. Um…what were we talking about again?"

"Let's...let's just get washed," Sora said awkwardly, trying his hardest not to look at the cute blonde in glasses.

"Um, would you like to put a towel on, Jenny?" Riku asked, still trying not to look anywhere.

"Well, I would have," Jenny said, still blushing and fidgeting, "if I knew you guys were going to come down here. But, since I didn't, and you're here now, and you've already seen me...is there really even a point now?"

"You're not uncomfortable?" Sora asked, hissing through his teeth. Jenny shook her head and actually looked into his eyes this time.

"Only a little bit," she muttered, "but...I know that you're all honourable men, so you'd never do anything to me that'd upset Kairi, Naminé, or Yuffie without their consent."

"Yeah, we're rather attached to our balls," Roxas laughed bitterly. "We'd rather not have them frozen solid, burnt to ashes, or chopped into little pieces, thank you very much."

"Good thing too," Jenny laughed, placing a finger to her lips. "Because you guys do have some nice ones." Lady Puff yowled, and Jenny shook her head and slapped her cheeks a couple of times. "But, like I said, you'd never do anything inappropriate with me unless you got the say so with your women, so it's all safe."

Oh damn her, Sora thought, placing his hand on the marble boulder as she stood bare in front of him; in front of all of them. She was so cute, so glorious, that he almost couldn't bear to look at her. It had to be the glasses and the water! Why does she have to be so trusting!? Control yourself, Sora. You must have control. Just breathe. Think of Kairi. Think of Kairi. No! DON'T THINK OF KAIRI! he commanded himself, feeling a stirring below. Think un-sexy thoughts! Ants... lasagna... marching... rocks... trees... trees... rocks… rocks... trees... trees... rocks... rocks... trees... trees... rocks... rocks... trees... trees... rocks... water...

His mantra was broken by a sultry moan, a throaty groan, and a few playful giggles from further down in the springs. Sora placed his head against the rock, feeling sweat and water sliding down his body back into the pool. Gods, why? Why now? Go find someplace else where we can't hear you!

"Sora," Riku said loudly. The brunet looked towards his silver-haired friend. Like him, Riku was clearly flustered and frustrated. "Let's just quickly get cleaned and get out. The sooner we leave, the better for all of us."

"Uh, right," Sora agreed.

"Huh?" Ninquemon queried. "Why's that? We just got here, Sora, and the water's so nice." Sora looked down at the In-Training digimon. He did not have the energy to be having this conversation right now.

"I-it's a human thing, Ninquë," he answered. "I think we should leave it at that." Ninquemon frowned and blinked his big green eyes at his partner.

"Alriiiight," he replied. "If you say so."

What followed was probably the most awkward bath any of the four had ever taken. Frustrated and aroused, with members of the opposite gender so close-by, and the other members of their band doing this and that with three of the most gorgeous women they'd ever seen before within auditory range, but with restraint laid upon them like anacondas to prevent any sorts of domestic problems that would certainly arise if the restraint hadn't been there, it was a tiring experience.

It was later, as they were heading back up the stairs towards the mine shaft, leaving their five companions behind in the embrace of the half nymph and elves, that Jenny spoke. Her face was still red, as were the rest. "So, um, we're never going to speak of this again, right?"

"Speak of what again?" The trio of males asked.

"Uh…" Jenny said, confused at first, and then nodded her head. "Right."

A few minutes later they broke into laughter, and the tension that should have been released by the springs flowed away almost as if it had been and they were just bottling it up of their own accord. The hot springs of Rigothiton had been a splendid and relaxing sight, indeed. They'd have to go again before they left, if they had time. This time, though, they'd bring the girls. They might get some disapproving looks at first, but they knew that Kairi couldn't resist a hot spring, and they doubted that Yuffie and Naminé were any better at being deaf to its alluring call.

-A-D-

Meanwhile…

Dawn flipped the table, upending her popcorn and scattering it all over the screen. "That...that...THAT'S IT!?" she screamed. "Aw, come on! I was hoping for something juicy and nasty to happen here, considering how she's been coming on to them this whole time, and she just puts up that timid, knowing act and they all just stop? Come on, Riku! Go get Yuffie if you must and show her what you can do!"

"Dawn!" Jiminy scolded, shocked.

"What?" Dawn asked. "First she was moaning and groaning in heat when those three were over her, then she rushes over to the guys, getting my hopes up that I'm finally going to see her get what was coming to her with all of that innuendo she'd been dropping, and then she goes out and says that she's not actually ready and she plays the trust card on them?" Dawn, clearly aggravated, stormed out of the room in a huff. "They all should have just given in and gone at it like horny weasels! It would have been more entertaining to watch than that!" she shouted as she vanished from the cricket's sight.

Jiminy sighed, praised the Blue Fairy that their boys had more self-control than what Dawn wished for them to have, and slowly began to clean up the mess she'd left behind.

-A-D-

That's all for this time, folks.

Again, I apologize for that last scene, but since I had hot springs in my fort, it would be remiss of me if they were not to be mentioned. I hope you found the scene entertaining, if nothing else.

May the Grace of the Valar Protect You

Shire Folk