Chapter 21:2: The once and future heroes (Narnia)
"For the child, for the light, for the heart I once had; I'll believe and foresee, everything I could ever be" (Nightwish, For the heart I once had)
Riku wasn't quite ready for what faced him on the other side of the Stargate. As he came out the other side, he tumbled into an icy white blanket of snow. Startled and somewhat dizzy from the travel through the gate, he scrambled to his feet as quickly as he possibly could in order not to get completely soaked by the snow melting on his skin and clothes. He had barely made it up on his feet, swaying somewhat from the loss of balance that the Stargate traveling brought, when Donatello rolled into him and caused him to fall over again. Hermione entered with a bit more grace, already getting better at handling the effects of the travel, and took two long strides before she managed to stop, all without falling over.
"You'll get a cold if you don't get up from the snow guys," she said with a witty smile as she walked over to Donatello and Riku and started helping them up.
"Very funny," Riku said and brushed some snow off his shoulder while taking a look at their surroundings. "We'll all get colds if we can't find some place warm to go to."
Hermione smiled knowingly and took out her wand, flicked it in a complicated pattern in the air and said; "Cedo calor corporis procedere". Within a second a soft orange glow settled around them all and faded into them. Riku noted with great satisfaction that the spell made him feel warm and his clothes were dried as well.
"The spell will provide us with the needed heat for our bodies until I take it away," Hermione informed them as she put the wand away. "But it doesn't mean it can go on for forever. I need to keep the spell up with a steady flow of magic and even though it costs me very little, it will finally start causing me physical damage if I don't watch it. So let's get moving!"
Riku nodded his agreement and Donatello followed them both, sweeping his reproduced cloak around himself as he went.
"Is that… a lamp post?" Hermione asked a moment later and all three of them rushed forth to get a better look at the object. It was indeed a black iron lamp post of the old style with a gas flame glowing inside the glass-provided cube at its top.
"It's kind of odd that it stands out here in the middle of a forest with no other lamp posts in sight," Hermione mumbled as she circled it in a try to find out its purpose. Donatello on the other hand was fully occupied by trying to figure out how a gas flame could be burning without a gas-supply.
Suddenly a large fox, the size of a regular dog, jumped out from the nearby brush and stopped to look at Riku in wonder.
"Are you, son of Adam, a wielder of keys?" the fox asked with a surprised expression in his eyes, the voice a little raspy and the words pronounced slowly, as if he was thinking hard at what to say for each word produced. Then he turned his head to look at Hermione, then Donatello, his amber eyes glittering. "And are you, daughter of Eve, perhaps a young witch and you, my green friend, a warrior of the shadows?"
Hermione, Riku and Donatello all stared at the fox to begin with, until the first surprise settled and Riku took a step forward.
"Yes?" he replied hesitatingly, looking at the fox in a try to figure out just what he wanted.
"Well then, I guessed so, but one can never be too sure these days. Aslan told me to go here and look for you. If you are enemies of the White Witch, then you better follow me and make haste before any of her spies sees us. Come!" the fox said and took off down a path among the trees. Riku motioned for the others to follow and went after the talking animal.
"Who's Aslan? And who's this White Witch?" Riku asked as he came along side the fox.
The animal took a quick look at him with big eyes of pure amusement. "Who's Aslan? Are you serious?" he snorted, laughter in his eyes. "He's just the greatest force of this whole kingdom, the light and the strength of all that is. He's the enemy of the White Witch and he has come back to lead us in the battle against her, to end the winter and free those captured." Then he took another look at Riku and his friends running behind them. "And what may your names be, son of Adam?" he asked as he turned his head back to see where he ran.
"I'm Riku," Riku said in response, wondering about what the fox meant by calling him a son of Adam. "And the girl's name is Hermione. The turtle is Donatello."
The fox smiled. "Yes, I thought he looked somewhat like a turtle, but he's an odd one for sure. You may call me Mickel," he said while keeping his eyes on the road ahead. "And I apologize for keeping this speed with you and my rude manners of not introducing myself first, but this is a time of war and every minute is precious."
"No offence taken," Hermione called from behind, having heard him. "We are here to help and the sooner we get to the point of this, the better."
"A sound suggestion," Mickel the fox said and suddenly he stopped. "But I'm afraid the fighting will have to start a bit sooner than expected, since the danger has found us."
Riku and the others tried to see what he meant, looking around them, but saw only trees and snow.
"What do you mean?" Riku asked, but barely had he uttered the words, before he felt it: A chilling presence making itself known through shivers up his spine and neck. "Heartless."
Among the trees they now could see slowly stalking shadows with glowing eyes. But not all of them were heartless. Some were actual animals, and as they stepped out from the shadows, they recognized the animals as rather large wolves with fearsome fangs flashing white at them, a deep rumble of a growl in their throats greeting the group.
"I knew it would pay off to follow you, traitor," the largest of the wolves said as he walked up closer to the fox. "Sly little liar. Did you truly think we would fall for your trickery the second time around?"
Mickel gave out a short but amused and teasing laugh. "Hah! Did you think that was my first trick, Maugrim, dear captain? How much of a fool you will feel to learn that I've tricked you far more times than that without you realizing it."
The wolf growled and the fur of his neck stood on end, but he didn't attack. Instead he put on a forced, toothy smile that sent shivers through the small group of friends. "I see, the jester is always ready to pull one more chicken from the hen-house," he said with an underlying growl still in his voice. Maugrim raised his eyes to look at Riku and the silverette realized that the wolf was just about as tall as he was.
"Let's see, this must be another trickery," Maugrim said, sniffing the air close to Riku and Hermione. "A son of Adam and a daughter of Eve, but not the ones predicted, am I not right? There were to be four of them and we already have them counted to be at the fields with the rest of your sorry lot. These here are not supposed to be here, are they?"
Hermione furrowed her eyebrows in irritation. The muscular beast was just about the largest wolf she'd seen, but he was no werewolf and he was a bully. The temptation of wanting to smack his nose with a newspaper and call him bad was almost too great to resist, but she kept in mind that he was in fact bigger than herself and her wand was still in her robe's pocket, out of reach for a quick incantation.
Maugrim continued his inspection, coming around to Donatello, who only looked at him with mild interest in his eyes, while he thought of ways to take him down. The wolf seemed to be more perplexed by the turtle's relaxed attitude, than by his appearance. "Are you not afraid, half-shell?"
Donatello smirked. "If I were afraid of a rug like you, then I wouldn't have come here. I've seen worse beasts in my lifetime."
Maugrim growled at the insult, then returned to Mickel.
"I give you and your lot one chance to regret your choice of allies, since the Queen has given me orders to do so. She can be most pleasing and generous to the ones loyal to her cause and her crown."
"By Aslan, that Queen of yours will soon be revealed to be the evil witch she truly is!" Mickel hissed out, his fur on end and as he leapt forward, Riku called for his keyblade, Hermione took out her wand and Donatello threw off his cloak and gripped his bo-staff.
"Attack!" Maugrim called out to his pack and in an instant the small clearing erupted in chaos as wolves and heartless rushed forth to take on the quartette. Snow swirled around them as they moved and there were barely any time for them to finish one enemy before the next was on them.
Mickel had jumped at Maugrim with bared teeth. The fox, small in comparison to the giant wolf, had aimed for the throat and now he was hanging on to the wolf captain's jugular for all that he was worth while the wolf howled and growled. Maugrim rolled on the ground and jerkily swung his head back and forth in a try to rid himself of the enemy. Despite getting several injuries from the throws and blows to his body, Mickel hung on with a fierce expression in his eyes, refusing to let go.
Riku saw this and swung the keyblade against a heartless in wolf-shape and then rushed to help Mickel, charging the keyblade with light as he went. That's when he finally realized the change in the weapon, as it ate away at the energy fed into it.
The heavy metal pipes making up the blade started to pump up and down and the three sharp blades forming the head started to shift places with each other while the five-point star at the junction of blade and hilt started to glow with an eerie red light, symbols previously invisible suddenly showing up in a circle around the star, glowing in the red light while sharp blades of silvery metal grew from the dark small handles directly beneath the star. The silvery blades stopped as they'd reached the full length of the long metal hilt. The keyblade was short and heavy, but he could easily grip the long hilt with both hands and he felt an immense magical power within it.
"Mickel! Let go!" Riku called out to the fox, and hearing the seriousness in Rikus voice, Mickel obeyed and jumped quickly to the side before Riku unleashed the attack on Maugrim.
"Circle Ceremony" he called out the name of the attack as it came to his mind and the red light in the star with the symbols traveled upwards to enclose the entire blade as the weapon left his hand in a spinning attack. The horizontal movement formed several red circles the same size as the blade to spin out towards the target while the keyblade itself spun in one place in the air, directed by Riku's outstretched hands. The red circles exploded with light as they hit the wolf and a wounded howling and yelps of pain came from the beast as the magic hit him straight on.
Riku choked off the flow of magic and ended the attack as soon as he knew that the wolf was defeated. The keyblade returned to his hand and the silvery extra handles shrunk back into the dark ones as the glow of red left the star. Riku checked quickly that Mickel were ok, before he moved into the battle with the remaining foes.
The wolves were large but easier to take care of than the heartless ones. They looked very much like wolves, only night black with yellow eyes glowing, but they moved faster. They also had the frustrating talent of their Shadow kin and could sink into the ground at any moment and crawl up underneath their opponent and grab at them from behind within the wink of an eye.
Hermione sent off a patronus to scatter the masses while she sent off expelliarmus spells on the ones coming closer to her, her eyes constantly moving to keep watch over the many enemies milling about. Donatello moved seemingly lightning quick, swishing his staff in front of him in fast and smooth moves, keeping the heartless at bay with the weapon as well as with well-aimed kicks of his strong legs. Mickel fought valiantly against the foes with his teeth bared and his light paws taking him out of harm's way in the last minute only to be back in the same spot a moment later, luring the heartless into the attack range of the others' more efficient weapons.
But no matter how hard they fought, Riku knew that this was turning into a losing battle, with the enemies steadily pouring into the clearing, cutting off their ways of retreat. He didn't have much magic left in him after sending Mickel and Hermione one healing spell each and he was quickly getting tired in his arms and legs, swinging the heavy keyblade he now possessed. In a short passage of time he managed to switch into the lighter Cat's Eye, feeling relived as the more or less weightless blade took the other's place, but the relief was short. Soon enough his worn muscles felt heavy again and there seemed to be no end to the enemies.
"We sure could use some help right about now," Donatello hissed between clenched teeth as he fought off yet another heartless.
That's when Riku realized he had the solution in his pocket. He had two summons that he could use as aid in battle and at least one of them didn't take too much magic to call forth. He quickly cleared the area around him from enemies and called for the summons in his thoughts, closing his eyes momentarily. The small sharp bullet with its triangular addition came to his mind's eye and he felt a surge of energy as he reached for it. He moved his keyblade so that he held it straight out in front of him like a gun.
"Give me strength… Lara!" he called out, the name springing to his lips as he released the energy needed.
A golden light erupted from the keyblade and suddenly they had one more person fighting by their side in the clearing. It was a tall, fit woman in brown short shorts and a tight turquoise sleeveless top. Her long brown hair hung in a single braid that swished like a whip as she moved in precise patterns around the battlefield, firing her two guns at every shadow moving towards them, hitting each and every target.
She reloaded swiftly and came back to back with Riku, who shifted to the heavy keyblade once more, charging it with what magic he had left and released the Circle Ceremony–attack as he and Lara began spinning around the clearing, the two of them together taking out the remaining heartless while Donatello took Hermione with him up in a tree to get out of the way.
Riku hastily shut off the flow of energy to the attack, gripped his keyblade and leaned on it for support as all his strength seemed to leave him the moment he stood still. He looked up and gave Lara an appreciative smile as she looked down at him with indifferent eyes and a playful smile on her full lips.
"Well fought, keyblade wielder," she said, her voice coming as a silk whisper in his mind, before she disappeared in a flash of golden light.
"Was that the summon?" Hermione asked, slightly out of breath as Donatello got her down on the snowy ground again.
Riku nodded. "Yeah. She was quite good, I think."
"Not bad at all," Donatello agreed. "Quite a babe too."
Hermione lifted a questioning eyebrow at this comment, but she kept quiet, figuring boys would be boys, after all. Instead she turned to Mickel, giving him a quick healing spell to get rid of some nasty bites on his back and neck.
"Now, if you are all ready to continue, we can't rest any longer," Mickel said, shaking his fur as if to shake away the unpleasant feeling of the former wounds. " We really need to move along and get ourselves to the battle camp."
Riku nodded, having regained some of his strength after Hermione had given him a healing as well. "Then let's move," he said, getting agreeing nods from his two friends.
As they ran after the fox leading the way through the spooky woods, Riku felt strangely light at heart. Hermione and Donatello were still by his side, despite having seen his transformation back when they had chased after Winry Rockbell. They had listened to his story last night without interrupting him and without even once questioning his choices and afterwards they had simply shook their shoulders at it, not caring about his dark past any more than Sora or Kairi seemed to do. They had stuck by him, had decided to keep on fighting by his side and to help him. It made him feel at ease and his heart felt a little less heavy with the thought of having been able to actually trust them with his secrets like this. Sora had told him time and again that he was a good person at heart and that this was the most important thing of all; that he had to trust himself to be a good guy, no matter what Ansem had made him do in the past. But his memories had lingered within him and he still had his doubts. The darkness was still there and he knew how easy it was to lose control over it. But knowing that even these two new friends of his dared to trust him even after learning about what he had done and what he was, gave him hope that maybe Sora was right after all. Perhaps he was actually the good guy that Sora saw in him. In any case, he was willing to prove it to himself and the world by fulfilling this seemingly never ending journey and save his friend. With Donatello and Hermione by his side, he felt like it could actually be done.
At nightfall they had still yet to reach the battle camp and Mickel lead them down to a small clearing where a hill proved to be a house; a moss green wooden door left a bit open. The place was left empty by its former inhabitants and Mickel informed them that it had once belonged to a small family of fauns who had fallen victim to the white witch.
"It's women like her and that god-awful Bellatrix that make me feel bad for being a witch myself," Hermione muttered, practically growling under her breath as she looked upon the destruction in the former family home. Furniture were turned over or broken, fabrics torn and cups and plates laid strewn on the floor, most of them shattered.
Riku picked up a fallen picture frame, turned it over and found the glass cracked. The frame held a family picture of sorts, sketched in coal. There was an elderly man with rather heavy horns on his head and an impressive beard covering his wide chest. He held his arm protectively around the shoulders of a young couple; a woman with petite horns and light hair billowing in thick waves down her shoulders, and a man with medium sized horns, short curly hair and a short beard. The man was clearly the older one's son and in his arms he in turn held a small baby, wrapped in a blanket. Anger rose in Riku's chest as he thought of how horribly this family's life had been changed.
"It's not your fault that others with your kind of talent can't find it in them to act good," Riku said in response to Hermione's comment. "Just because you have something in common, it doesn't mean you're like them."
Donatello smiled at this, putting a hand at his shoulder. "Wise words coming from someone who keeps blaming himself for something someone else did, don't you think?" he said in a low voice, giving him a wink of his eye as he passed him and gave Hermione a quick hug. "Riku's right you know," he said to the young witch. "You are way better than this woman and you're the proof that being a witch doesn't mean you have to be bad. Keep that in mind."
Riku looked at his friends, realizing once again that he had indeed been lucky to find them. And what Donatello had said was true. He still blamed himself for what had happened while he was under Maleficent's and Ansem's control, when in fact, he should remember that he had tried to fight it and that he in the end had saved his friends by doing so. Sure, he had been weak then and easy to control, but he wasn't the same person now as he had been back then. He was stronger now and he would never let himself be fooled like that again. He just had to remember that he had light as well as darkness inside of him and that the light part was the one in control. In fact, his light was stronger now than before, mainly thanks to his battle against the darkness.
"We can rest here in safety until the morning comes," Mickel said. "I'll keep the first watch and then we'll take shifts, just in case."
Hermione smiled. "Well, we don't really have to. I know a few spells that can keep us hidden so that we all may catch up on our sleep tonight," she said and went outside again, her wand in her hand. A moment later she was back, grinning . "Well, good night to you all, I'm going to find me a piece of bed to sleep in. My spells will keep us safe and we'll be warned if anyone breaks the barriers I put up.
Donatello yawned wide and stretched his limbs before sending Hermione a grateful smile. "Thanks a mill' for that, Hermione. I'm gonna sleep like a log tonight."
Mickel had already curled up by the fireplace where a blue flamed magic fire had been lit by Hermione before she went into one of the bedrooms. Donatello turned a couch back over on its right side and laid himself down in it, pulling his coat up over himself as a blanket and was sound asleep even before Riku had the time to react to it. Riku himself wandered silently through the big room for a moment, still not feeling ready to sleep just yet. His eyes fell on a small golden band of sorts, lying on one of the bookshelves. As he picked it up, he noticed it was in fact a small braid of golden hair, attached to a small golden flower of some sort, gleaming prettily in the dusk of the room. While holding the small braid, he felt a comforting warmth spread from it and he knew instantly that he had found yet another summon. How it had got here was a mystery, but whatever the reason for it to be lying left alone here for him to find it right now, Riku was glad that he had found it. Seeing how effective Lara's help had been in the previous battle today, he felt certain that each summon found was an invaluable ally. And this, Drop of sunlight-summon felt at least as powerful and important as any of the other two.
Putting the small braid among the other two summons in his pocket, Riku sat down in a rugged armchair, pulling an old blanket around his shoulders. His last thoughts as he fell asleep were of Kairi and Sora; their smiling faces welcoming him in a memory from his childhood. And as he slept, a soft smile stretched his lips.
Author notes: Yep. Narnia is the new world. The Stargate will have it's explanation in the next Narnia-related chapter, I promise. ;) Oh, the magic spell by Hermione here is completely made up by me, just like the previous one which got Donnie a cloak. Not a very good spell, name-wise, but very exact. I simply looked up the words in a latin dictionary. The first spell translates: "Create cloak", more or less. This second one translates roughly into "Create ongoing body heat". I can't remember the exact translation, but that's the over-all meaning. So no mysteries there. ;) Hope you all liked the chapter! Can you guess the summon? / Silverspegel