-o- CHAPTER FIFTEEN -o-

heart of the jungle

The sun rose and others began to stir, and finally I could stop pretending to sleep. I walked to the stream to splash cold water on my face and savor a few minutes alone before I had to face anyone else. I was running on no sleep, despite feeling like I'd been stuck all night in a nightmare.

When I returned to camp, everyone loitered sleepily around the cookfire. Axel was changing Mulan's bandages while Lulu stirred some kind of porridge. Riku stood over the group, looking every bit the reluctant leader.

"Basically, we are stranded," he announced with a sarcastic grin. "The gummi engine appears to be... how did you describe it, Launchpad?"

Obediently, Launchpad rose, his hands folded behind his back military-style as he addressed Riku. "Smashed up like my Aunt Penelope at Mardi Gras, sir," he responded dutifully.

Riku sighed. "Right. That. So we won't be gummying out of this World any time soon. We've yet to receive any communication from Leon or the others. We have zero intelligence, limited provisions, and..."

Lulu sighed as she removed the porridge pot from the fire. "So what should we do, Riku? You're our leader now, like it or not. What's the best course of action?"

There was a reticence in his eyes that I'd first seen when he was trapped in Ansem's form. The weight of his shame was visible, and it made him distrust himself. He was nothing like the cocksure Riku I'd known all those years on the islands. He seemed as though he was battling demons every time he spoke.

With a deep breath, though, he came back to life. He closed his eyes as he spoke with level certainty. "Launchpad and I will continue repairs on the ship, and we can monitor the comm in case Leon tries to make contact. Lulu and Aladdin will alternate watch on camp and watch on Mulan. Axel, Kairi, and Simba should scout out the palace and the surrounding village. We need intel and whatever provisions you can find."

I nodded fervently. I was ready for a real task; I didn't want to stay behind again. I wanted to act.

-o-o-o-o-

In the palacial village, everything was empty. Quiet. Too quiet.

I had watched the demise of monsters before; I had seen Heartless and Nobodies slain. None of that could prepare me for what we saw as we neared the palace outskirts. Rubble and dust clearly marked the threshold of where the battle had been, and once we crossed it, the stench of death was inescapable. When a Heartless died, it disappeared; it rejoined the heart of the world where it belonged. It was almost beautiful. When a Heartless killed a human, the hearts were lost and the shells, if strong enough, went to someplace Beyond, to be reborn as Nobodies.

When a human killed another human, however, it left behind a horrible reminder. The corpses lie mangled, carelessly stretched across what had once been bustling thoroughfares. They were beginning to bloat and stink. Their hollow eyes gazed up at me as we passed. I wanted desperately to tiptoe around the blood, but I knew that I had to trod forward and keep my head up.

"In here," said Axel. His voice seemed louder than it should have, but only because there was so little sound across this graveyard. He pointed to a door that was marked in a language I couldn't read. "There's a sentry post nearby. This looks like it could be an armory. Or at the very least a breakroom. Maybe they have coffee, eh, princess? Looks like you could use a cup of joe."

I found myself almost too tired to scowl. I settled for an exasperated huff as I followed him inside the armory. Simba sat crouched at the doorway, keeping watch.

The room inside was so dimly lit that I found it disorienting, especially after my sleepless night, but Axel navigated with ease. He perused the shelves, lined with clay jars and woven baskets, and began collecting ammunition and assorted arms. I waited patiently as he packed his own sack and mine with the items he deemed worth taking. My mind began to wander as I stood there letting him do all the work, and I started thinking of the bodies again...

My morbid mental wanderings were interrupted by Axel's soft chuckle. I raised an eyebrow. "What could possibly be funny?" I asked.

He lifted a small burlap bag from the clutter of the shelves and held it close to my face. It was hard to discern exactly what was inside; they looked like misshapen beads.

"Smell," he instructed.

Confused, I leaned toward the bag and took a whiff. It smelled like dirt, but also sweet, like dark chocolate. Pungent and spicy but soothing and inviting. I sighed. It just wasn't fair.

"Coffee," I confirmed. He laughed again. I shook my head and turned away, unable to stop the smile from spreading across my face. "Great. Now you can have your punchline and eat it too."

I tucked the sack of coffee beans into my bag and started rummaging the next shelf for myself, plucking up a few miscellaneous food stores.

"Looks like a fair amount of provisions," Axel concluded as we returned to Simba in the doorway. He glanced up and down the abandoned palace lobby. "Intel, on the other hand, seems to be in short supply."

With a frown, I forgot about the coffee, and remembered the corpse-lined streets. Somberly, Simba sat at the entrance. His eyes were intense with concentration.

"I hear something," he said, shifting his feline eyes up and down the causeway.

A few inches behind me, I could sense Axel tensing up as well. "Heartless," he confirmed, clutching his fingers around his chakrams. "I hear them, too."

My heart began thudding in my chest. I quietly drew my Keyblade and held it in front of me as I took a few cautious steps into the causeway. I squinted my eyes as I surveyed the palace's outer wall, straining to see movement in the sea of corpses. Above us, the blistering sun peaked at high noon.

I stopped suddenly, holding up my hand to signal the others. Axel and Simba froze behind me, exchanging a glance as they waited for me to say something. Something wasn't right. Frowning, I glanced down at my feet. High noon, yet my shadow stretched several feet in front of me.

I took a few steps backward, and my shadow grew. The darkened contours on the dirt grew opaque and heavy, and the shadow rose from the ground. I stood slack-jawed at the Heartless that now stood in front of me, a menacing silhouette of my own body.

Shadow-Kairi squinted its burning golden eyes at me before letting out a vicious cackle. She dashed away toward the palace gates, gliding above the ground, faster than a heartbeat.

"Go!" I shouted. I immediately heard Axel and Simba's feet pounding behind mine as we followed the Shadow out the gates and into the city's market thoroughfares. I no longer had time to feel sick to my stomach as I hopped over the dead bodies, not willing to let the Shadow out of sight. Suddenly my summer training seemed incredibly useful, as I stayed close on the Shadow's tail for nearly a mile out of the city center. She led us further away from the marketplace, heading toward the lush tree line of the jungle.

"We'll never be able to track it in there," I urged the two creatures running at my heels. "We won't have enough light to see her underneath the canopy!"

The Shadow cackled again as she scurried under the protective cover of the jungle shade. I pounded my feet harder to go after her, but Axel placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Wait," he said. "I think we've got bigger problems than a shadow clone... can't you feel that?"

I met his serious eyes, probing mine. He seemed to really be asking me.

"Feel... what?"

He shook his head at me in disapproval. "Darkness. There's something out there... something big. It's right in front of us, at the edge of the jungle. I don't know why it won't show itself."

Simba perked his ears apprehensively. I squinted at the tree line, trying to feel or at least see any indication of the danger Axel seemed to sense. The way he looked at me, I knew it must be a kind of magic he expected me to understand as well. I scanned the length of each moss-covered branch and blossoming annatto tree, listened carefully to the cicadas humming in the ferns. There was a bright red bird watching us from one of the tallest trees, so far away I couldn't see its eyes, only the rhythmic rise and fall of its chest. That's when I realized, it wasn't a red bird breathing, but the flaring nostril of something much, much bigger.

I lifted my Keyblade. "Um, I don't think it's hiding in the jungle," I announced. "It is the jungle."

There was just the slightest shimmer in the vast expanse of treeline that gave a hint of a beast's outline. Arms of gnarled branches and lush vines, a torso of knotted leaves. Two enormous trunks, as large as three columns of the Coliseum put together, suddenly emerged from the earth as legs. The ground thudded and damp mud slung into our faces as the legs marched loudly toward us.

"And that," Axel announced, putting his weight on his heels as he crouched in a defensive position, "is one hella big Heartless."

I didn't even have time to raise my weapon. Thick, leathery vines reached out from the monster's swampy body and slashed across my face. I saw stars for a moment and my stomach lurched as my whole body was slammed backward into the dirt.

"Kairi!" shouted Axel, tossing a cloud of potion over me. I felt strength restore my beaten body.

Simba galloped past. "Jump on!" he offered, and I nodded at his inspiration. Mounted on Simba, his strength and mine were combined. I locked my legs around him and we rode forward. The Heartless was miles long, its features barely discernible as anything other than a mass of jungle. Axel shot off rounds of fire balls in rapid succession. The Heartless screamed in pain with each hit, a horrendous, high-pitched squeal. I followed his lead and cast my own Fire spells, but I couldn't keep pace. Even under fire, the Heartless was able to use the many limbs and leaves of its bizarre form to continue to beat us down with attacks.

"This isn't working!" I heard Axel yell at me across the fray. "It's healing itself too quickly, we can't do any damage at this rate."

I felt sweat and blood pouring simultaneously down my arms as my Fire spells grew weaker. Simba was doing all he could just to evade the slashes of the monster's vines; our strategy rapidly deteriorated from offensive to defensive.

"Simba," I urged. "Get out of the Heartless' range for a minute and ride up about half a mile that way." I pointed with my Keyblade while Simba bowed his head, looking a little confused but cooperative all the same. We rode to the far end of the tree line, where the monstrous creature's undulating torso seemed to begin. "Take me in close," I said, bracing myself. "Get as close to this thing as you can get and run, as quick as you can, stay close to the body."

Simba followed my instructions and as he dove in near the Heartless' belly, I dug in my Keyblade as deep as it would go. "GO!" I screamed, and he sprinted forward, grazing the piercing might of my Keyblade through the Heartless body as he pulled me with him.

"Axel! Fire at the open wound!"

Axel nodded and breathed in a huge breath, launching all of his strength into another round of rapidfire, tracing the gash I cut into the Heartless with flames. I braced my arms taut while Simba pulled my weight through the vast expanse of the Heartless body. I could feel the heat of Axel's fire just behind me, and I could hear the shrill reverberating screams of the Heartless dying.

We reached the end and Simba galloped back toward Axel. The three of us looked up to see the swirling, explosive light that signaled the death of the Heartless. Blue, purple, and golden smoke reached into the sky for miles, darkening everything around us as if it was nightfall. I sat mounted on Simba, heaving for breath, mystified.

"Damn," said Axel, at last. "You just… literally keyed the jungle."

I couldn't help but beam back at him.

"What's that?" asked Simba, staring into the now-gaping opening in the tree line. In the bruised jungle clearing, a single, vibrant pink butterfly hovered over the gravesite. In the next instant, it started to glow, creating a shimmering beacon. After a few sweeping figure eights, it fluttered ahead into the jungle, shining it's light on a worn path.

"It's moving," Simba said. With a nudge of my thighs, I urged the lion-steed forward, but the closer we got, the further up the hill the ball of magic drifted.

"And we're… we're going to follow it, aren't we?" Axel sighed. "Of course we are. Goddamn magic quest nonsense."

We climbed for at least twenty minutes, following the guiding light of the butterfly, who seemed to pause and circle impatiently whenever we failed to keep pace. As our elevation increased, our view of the sweeping hills around us grew more exquisite, glistening in the afternoon sun. We left the thick vegetation behind and came upon Chicha's village.

My heart ached as we marched through the still and abandoned homes. This place, these homes, the public chess set with its pieces left mid-game… none of those people would ever return to those things. Onward we climbed through the ghost village, until the butterfly's guiding light swooped into the topmost house, Chicha's home and the militia's base camp. A small pack of grazing llamas eyed us mildly as I dismounted Simba and entered the home of their owners, who were never coming home.

At the threshold of the house, the wood was marked with chinks showing the growth of the two children. The doors and moulding were made of hand-carved mahogany. Everything inside was made with love by a family that hadn't survived.

My grief lifted only when the glimmering butterfly drifted in front of me, nagging me, reminding me it had brought us out here for a purpose. I followed as it zipped out the back window, onto a deck overlooking the family pool, with a water slide carved into the rock. The view was breathtaking- as if the hills could sing.

"Look," said Simba quietly.

Axel followed his gaze and grinned slightly. "Your job isn't over yet, Keyblade Bearer," he said to me.

The butterfly joined dozens of others, flocking to the hillside, dancing around the blazing outline of a keyhole- the heart of the world, waiting to be locked. I had heard Sora's stories but had never seen it with my own eyes. I felt Axel's finger tips nudge my elbow, and blushed as I realized I was the one holding the Keyblade, after all.

With a deep breath, I lifted the blade in my hand and pointed it at the Keyhole. An explosive sensation went through my whole body, more powerful than Fire or Darkness, as a beam of light emitted from the Keyblade's teeth and sealed the Keyhole with a discernible clink.