Chapter Twenty-Eight
" What happened next, Daddy?"
Her father laughed, shaking his head as the small girl bounced up and down on her bed,
" Well... nah, I think I'll wait to tell you till tomorrow night."
She pouted, her bounces each climbing in height,
" But... I...wanna...know...what...happened....to....the....Princess..es...now! Did...Ansem...get...them...all? And...what...happened...to...your...friend...Daddy? What...happened...to... ahh!"
She screamed suddenly, losing her balance and fell forward into her father's strong arms. He spun her around in a circle and she giggled, stretching her arms out to either side,
" Daddy, I'm flying! I'm flying!"
After a few seconds of that, he laid her down onto her bed and pulled the covers up over her. She yawned,
" Daddy, is Mommy really a Princess of Heart?"
He smiled, his spikey hair bobbing up and down as he nodded,
" Uh huh."
He handed her a soft yellow teddy bear that wore a red shirt and she happily as she took it in her arms, yawning again,
" Would that make me... a Princess, too?"
He sat down on the edge of the bed and ran a hand through the four-year-old's short, auburn locks,
" Uh huh."
She yawned a third time as he kissed her forehead,
" Daddy?"
" Yeah, angel?"
" I love you."
She saw a smile cross his lips one last time before she closed her eyes, his voice now drifting within her dreams,
" I love you, too."
Kae groaned, opening her eyes slowly. Her vision was hazy as she glanced to her left, then her right. A long, multicoloured shape came into focus and she gasped, quickly pushing herself up off the strange, squishy ground,
' Tobi...'
She crawled to Tobi's side quickly and shook him, trying to prod him awake. He groaned, swatting her hands away,
" Five more minutes, Riku..."
Kae shook him again, more forcefully than the first time, but it proved to no avail. He groaned again and smacked her in the neck,
" Go away... I don't want any ice cream..."
She growled at him, about ready to knock the boy into tomorrow, when she suddenly realized what kind of place they were in. A large cavern strange squishy floors, partly filled with water and with numerous types of bones lining the walls. The last thing she remembered was a giant wall of water, though... and,
" The whale...it swallowed us!"
Tobi suddenly jumped, stirring awake,
" No, we CAN'T let the trolls eat the ponies!!"
He then paused, Kae snorting as he turned to look at her. She smiled, her eyebrows raised in confusion,
" What was that about?"
Tobi frowned, his tail whipping about curiously behind him,
" What?"
Shaking her head, she stood slowly and glanced around,
" So, where do you think we are, now?"
Tobi shrugged,
" In the whale's mouth, I guess--"
" No! I mean, where do you think the whale is taking us?"
" Oh," he said and pondered for a moment,
" I dunno."
Groaning, Kae again shook her head, Tobi smirking as he took notice of her pigtails,
" Nice hair, Pippi."
She glared over at him evilly and growled, startled as he suddenly shot up from where he was sitting. He rushed up beside her, gazing out at the murky ''sea'' before them. There towers of wood nailed together all across the tiny ocean and he gasped, spotting a figure lying half submerged in the mucky waters,
" Jack!"
Jack had landed awkwardly on the platform. His upper half was clinging to the wood for dearlife, while his lower half was soaking up the dirty reservoir around him. Tobi gasped as Jack suddenly sank into the ''lake'' and, running for the ''shoreline'', he instantly disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke. Kae dove in to the waters head first and fished around for the ex-captain for a few moments, then resurfaced to find that Tobi was waiting anxiously on the platform. Diving again, she found that Jack was lying at the bottom of the whale's mouth and hurriedly swam down to pick him up. Grabbing him by the arm tightly, she swam for the surface and over to the platform. Tobi pulled him up, then helped Kae out of the water. She knelt down by Jack and tapped his face lightly. Nothing. Tobi tilted his head, poking at the pirate with the tip of his blue tail.
Jack stirred, confused when he glanced down to find the source of the tapping,
" Bloody h$#?"
He tried to sink away from the strange blue object and frowned. He recognized Tobi, but the girl beside him didn't seem too familiar,
" Hello."
Kae saw the look on the pirate's face and wasn't at all pleased,
" Don't even think about it."
Jack frowned in response to that and sat up as the girl walked to the edge of the platform. Tobi shook his head and shrugged,
" PMS."
The pirate nodded in understanding,
" Oh..."
Kae folded her arms, now frowning in thought. What had happened before she woke up? There had been a plank... an annoying man had made her walk it, but she was caught by a boy...
' That must've been Peter.'
A huge brawl had ensued.... then she'd changed clothes...the wall of water and the whale...but, what else?
" Riku!"
Kae turned to see Tobi glancing around the whale's cavernous mouth in slight hysteria. He returned her gaze, his goldeneyes full of intense worry,
" What happened to Riku?"
Jack walked up behind Tobi and glanced around the whale's mouth with a raised eyebrow,
" Well.... he obviously coul'n't have gone far."
Darkened sapphire eyes peered at the form of an unconscious man lying on the floor. The man, with his silver hair and pale skintone, seemed all too familiar to the eyes, but the eyes had long forgotten who he was. The eyes were foggy, distant...faded. They weren't the eyes they used to be. The one belonging to the eyes was hidden well behind a strange wall of colours. The wall was slimy and disgusting, the eyes saw, but that did not matter to them. They just wanted a closer look.
The owner of the eyes jumped as the unconscious man lying on the floor coughed, suddenly stirring from his slumber. The eyes were grateful...but they did not know why. The man let out a yelp and cursed, pushing himself onto his back. His arm was broken. The eyes held sympathy for the man, a sympathy they could not explain to their owner. The man on the floor coughed again and with an audible curse, pushed himself off the wet floor. The owner of the eyes gasped. That voice was all too familiar as well... that voice was,
" Riku?"
Riku's head shot up and he frowned,
" Hello?"
The hidden figure was startled and crouched back further. Yes, this man was the one. This was the one his Master had told him off... the one he was supposed to kill. With a new sense of achievement, the figure silently crept away, never letting on to Riku that he was even there in the first place.
Riku shook his head, wincing as a sharp pain shot through his arm. What was going on? What happened to him...and where was he now? From the feel of the place, (the humid air, the wet, squishy floors, the strange sensation of hot breath all over his body) it sort of reminded him of,
" Monstro."
" Riku!"
Tobi frowned when he received no response in return and was thoroughly disgusted as he was rewarded with a glob of saliva on the head. He cringed, straightening as it slid down his shirt,
" D$$#... that's so gross..."
Kae made a face when she turned back to him, then laughed a little,
" Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were talking about your face."
Tobi narrowed his eyes as she turned around,
" Actually, I was talking about yours, Pippi."
Kae growled and clenched her fists, her eyes shut tightly,
" Thou shalt not kill the idiot...thou shalt not kill the idiot...thou shalt not kill the idiot..."
Jack frowned, glancing around at the place,
" So, how long have you two known each other, anywho?"
Tobi shook himself off, his hair still slick with whale spit,
" I dunno... two, three weeks now."
" Oh really?"
Kae nodded, glancing around the corner cautiously,
" Yeah, why?"
Jack shook his head,
" No reason. I just thought it interesting that you two act so much like a married couple when you hardly know each other."
Kae and Tobi both glanced at each other and cringed with a simultaneous,
" Ewwwww!!!!"
Jack simply smirked.
Riku grunted as he stepped slowly down the passage. He remembered clearly where he was now...
' " What's wrong, Sora? I thought you liked games..."'
Riku's eyes widened beneathe his blindfold and he suddenly remembered what had lead him here,
" Sora.... Kairi...."
' " The Keybearer and his bonnie lass were brut'lly slain nigh 14 long years ago..."'
He then clenched his fists tightly and was in a near growl as he spoke,
" Ansem."
The cloaked man stood by the window, a brilliant flash of lightning shining on his face. Darien stood behind him, clearing his throat to get the man's attention,
" Master? Master Ansem?"
Ansem's glowing gold eyes burned in triumph, a low chuckle escaping his lips as a sickening grin spread across his face. His plan was working perfectly. With the Keybearer revived... his old pet would be history in no time at all.
No time at all....
