Chapter 11: The Stranger
Countless crumpled-up balls of paper lay underneath the crooked paopu tree where Naminé sat. She frowned at the open page in her sketchbook. It showed a messy mix-up of orange, pink, and yellow that didn't look much like the sunset she wanted to capture. She'd previously tried coloring rows of pink, orange, and yellow on top of one another, but that hadn't worked out either. Adding green triangles for the ocean waves underneath had made it look even worse.
Naminé reached into her pocket and pulled out a key chain with a plastic yellow star attached to it: a good-luck charm that she'd had ever since she was a baby. She placed it in her lap in front of a fresh page and got back to work. This time, it ought to come out right.
She didn't hear her friends teasing each other as they raced across the wooden bridge, and wasn't even aware of their presence until they climbed up the trunk to sit on either side of her. "Hi, Naminé!" Sora greeted her, "Whatcha drawin'?"
"The sunset," replied Naminé, as she ripped the page out and crumpled it up. So much for the help of her good-luck charm. Maybe it didn't work with drawings. "I messed up."
"Gee, I thought it looked good!" he said.
"No, I messed up. I gotta do it again."
The boys looked at one another and shrugged. They'd grown accustomed to the weird standards that Naminé set for her drawings. "You'd better hurry up," remarked Riku, "Sora's dad should be here soon to pick us up."
Naminé huffed and scribbled as fast as she could with the yellow crayon- then orange- then pink- then purple. When she finished, all she could see was another ugly mess of colors. "It's not pretty," she said with a sigh, "It's s'posed to be pretty like the real sunset."
"It looks okay," said Riku.
"No, it doesn't!" Naminé let her sketchbook fall into the sand and pouted. To make matters worse, she heard Sora's father calling their names from the dock, just as Riku had predicted.
Sora jumped up and waved to him. "Ahoy! We're over here!" To his friends, he added, "I'll race you guys! First one to the boat gets to be captain! C'mon, Naminé!"
"Wait!" she cried, "I gotta get my stuff!" But Sora had already started running across the bridge. She snatched her sketchbook, stuffed her crayons in her pocket next to her good-luck charm, and followed him. It wasn't until she'd reached the beach when she realized that Riku hadn't taken up Sora's challenge. He walked behind them at a much slower pace. Perhaps he'd gotten bored from challenging Sora all day.
And then she noticed someone else. A stranger stood near the shoreline, watching the waves. Sora noticed him too and slowed to a walk so he could get a better look. The man was tall and had bits of metal armor attached to his clothes. None of the children had ever seen anything like him on Destiny Islands before. Naminé hurried to Sora's side and hid behind him. "Who's that?" she whispered.
"I dunno," he replied, "He looks kinda cool!"
"I'm scared, Sora!"
Sora smiled at her. "Why? He's just some guy."
"What if he's a bad guy?"
"There's no bad guys on Destiny Islands!" Sora laughed. But Naminé didn't smile back. He took her hand and squeezed it gently. "Okay, I know! Let's play a game. We'll pretend he's a bad guy, and we're the good guys, and we gotta make it back to the dock to my dad because that's our base! We just gotta be REALLY quiet! And if he sees us, I'll hit 'em with my sword!"
Naminé giggled. "And what do I do?"
Sora kicked some sand as he thought it over. "Let's pretend…your pictures are MAGIC pictures! So, like, you draw a kelpie, or a shark, and it turns into a real thing! And then it ATTACKS!" At the sound of his outburst, the stranger turned to face them. Sora and Naminé clasped hands. "He sees us! Run to my dad! Run for your lives!" squealed Sora.
The "bad guy" didn't pursue them, but Naminé thought she heard him laughing to himself. Somehow, she found herself laughing too, as she held Sora's hand all the way back to the dock.