DAY 167

Callum was sent to a new world, Never Land, to defeat a Wavecrest that was floating around. He walked out of the corridor of darkness and looked out into the vast ocean. A large pirate ship floating near the island.

"Faster, Smee! Put your back into!" a rough, phlegmy voice barked.

Callum peeked through the giant leaves of a plant and saw two men standing a ways away. One of them, a stout, pudgy old man, sweated profusely while he dug a hole. The other man, tall, skinny, and wearing a crimson pirate outfit, stood over him and "supervised".

"Aye, aye, Captain Hook!" the shorter man, Smee, said.

"There's no mistaking it this time! The treasure's most certainly here!" Captain Hook said as he scanned a map in his hand. The other, which was actually a silver hook, ran deviously through his pointy mustache.

"That would be a nice change from the last dozen places, eh, Captain? And with the luck you had finding all those treasure maps at once, we'll be rich in no time!"

"Heh heh heh... Some poor fool must be cursing himself now for losing 'em. Enough blabbering, Mr. Smee! Get that shovel digging!"

"Aye, aye, sir!" As the hole grew bigger and deeper, Smee stopped when his shovel banged against something in the dirt. "Captain! Captain, I've struck something!"

"Oh?! Ha ha! Show me what manner of treasure we've found!"

Smee opened up the treasure chest, and judging by the sudden scowl on Hook's face, nothing valuable was in the chest.

"Blast! Another dead end!" Hook cried.

"Now, now, don't you worry, Captain. We still got a whole pile of other maps to follow." Smee said.

"Confound it... If we don't find the right one soon, someone else could walk off with me treasure." Callum gasped as darkness swirled around Hook. "That gold is mine! Nobody else can have it! Nobody!"

"C-Captain, sir?" Smee whimpered.

Turquoise Marches and Air Battlers appeared, and the two pirates jumped back.

"Gah! More Heartless?!" Hook cried. The darkness disappeared from him. "Run, Smee!"

"Yikes! Aye, aye, sir!" Smee said.

As the pirates scurried towards their ship floating in the distance, Callum stepped out from behind the plant and summoned his Keyblade. He charged and attacked the Heartless. Afterwards, he walked over to the hole and looked inside. The empty treasure chest glowered with darkness.

"Nothing but junk..." Callum said. He thought back to when that same darkness came from Hook. "Maybe that Captain guy accidentally summoned the Heartless... Or, maybe it was on purpose? I might as well investigate while I'm here."

Callum turned to the pirate ship and ran towards the edge of the sea.

"How am I going to get all the way out there?" Callum said. He couldn't swim across it. Mostly because he didn't want to.

He saw something shimmering in front of him. Squinting to take a closer look, he saw that it was actually a small fairy. She had blonde hair dressed up in a bun, a green minidress, and green shoes with white bobbles at the tips. The fairy examined Callum, then glanced back at the pirate ship.

"Um... can I help you?" he said. The fairy looked over to him, and she started to fly in circles around him.

The fairy pointed to the pirate ship.

"You want me to go to that ship?" Callum said. "You and me both. But I don't know how I'm going to get over there."

The fairy tapped her finger against her chin and nodded to herself. She flew around Callum once more. This time, shimmering pixie dust fell down on him.

"Er... okay?" Callum said. "I still don't see how I'm going to get to that ship."

The fairy sighed and pointed down towards Callum's feet. He raised his eyebrow and followed her pointing finger to find that his feet were several feet from the ground.

"WHOA!" he cried, and he lost his balance. He flailed and tumbled in the air. Floating upside-down, he saw the little fairy giggle. "Awesome! I can fly?!"

The fairy nodded and pointed to the ship again. Then, she took off towards the ship.

"Thanks." Callum called. He looked over at the ship and sighed. "I'd love to help her out... but I need to focus on my mission first."

A bird's eye view was much more practical during his search, but the Heartless knew how to fly too, so he mostly fought them while in the air. He floated over to a large rock and saw a crater in the center of it. When he leaned over to get a look, the Wavecrest suddenly appeared, catching him off guard. The Heartless roared and rammed its head into Callum's stomach. He cried out as he tumbled over the edge, but he quickly caught himself and kicked his feet. He flew up into the sky and summoned Omega Weapon. The Wavecrest's weak point was its tail, so Callum focused on attacking that. It was a rather easy opponent, and shortly after, he defeated it. As Callum headed back to the corridor of darkness, he paused to glance back at the pirate ship in the distance. He felt guilty for leaving the fairy by herself.

I'll help her the next time I come here. Callum promised. He entered the corridor of darkness.

Callum sat at the clock tower and nibbled on his already dripping ice cream.

"You done with work already?" Axel said as he walked over and sat by him.

"Yeah." Callum said. His eyes lit up and he looked at his fiery-headed friend. "Axel. You're probably not going to believe this, but... I flew today!"

"Flew?" Axel raised his eyebrow.

"Yeah! It was awesome! I went to this world called Never Land, and a fairy sprinkled some weird pixie dust on me, and suddenly I started flying! I've been dying to tell you and Roxas-" Callum's words got caught in his throat. "...And Xion..."

"Right..." Axel said, and the moment suddenly dove into awkward.

Callum sighed and stared at his ice cream.

"I wish... that Xion would wake up." he said quietly. "I... miss her."

Axel only side-glanced at his Keyblade-wielding friend.

Never Land is such an exciting place. I can't believe I could fly! I hope, when we have another vacation, I can take my friends, all of them, to that place and we can all fly around together.