Ch.13

Riku wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to expect. Yen Sid may have explained a lot about the sleeping worlds, but he still wasn't too sure what would happen when they got there. But with it being the Realm of Sleep, he and Sora had to do just that; sleep. He knew he had been asleep but now he could tell that he was waking up. His mind was telling him to open his eyes and he did, but right away he shut them tightly.

Something wasn't right. Something didn't feel right. His eyes shouldn't have reacted the way they did when he opened them. There should have been nothing like there always had been, yet for some reason his eyes were trying to adjust to the fact there was light in the area.

Slowly he opened his eyes again and light filled his eyes, overwhelming him momentarily. "How can this be? What… how am I able to see?" Riku questioned himself as he tried to figure out what to do.

He breathed in carefully, trying to lower his rapidly beating heart. The last thing he needed to do was panic during this important exam. "Maybe it's because this is the Realm of Sleep. These are worlds that are in sleep, so maybe it's like being awake in a dream. That's gotta be it."

Even when he had come to his conclusion, his breath was still shaky. Everything in his mind was screaming and it was hard to calm down those inner thoughts. He could see now that he was in the Realm of Sleep. Once more he was able to truly see what was around him and he didn't have to solely rely on his other senses. It was going to throw off everything he had been focusing and training on the past few months, yet it was still something of familiarity.

"Come on," Riku thought. "You can't let this set you back. It's all a part of the test. Yeah. Sora's probably waiting for me anyways."

Opening his eyes again, he let the surrounding light fill his vision and after a bit of blinking everything started to come into focus. It took him a few moments but now with his sight back really had to think just where he was.

"Traverse Town…" he muttered softly. He took in the sight as best as he could, not knowing if it would vanish in the next moment or not. The next thing he noticed or thought to look at was himself.

He brushed back the hair that fell over his eyes. He hummed thoughtfully, almost distracted by the fact he could actually see it again. "Maybe I should have asked Kairi to trim the bangs. Hopefully they won't get in the way."

After seeing that his clothes had changed, the second thing he noticed that Sora was not with him. He started to move around, still slowly and cautiously. Every step he took was followed by a quick look around him in all directions. It was still so strange to think he was once use to just walking and seeing and then he wasn't, and now seeing again he felt nervous that something would happen if he didn't look carefully enough.

As he moved around the area, he tried to remember what led him to this point. He remembered that he was on Destiny Islands with Sora, and he knew he couldn't see at that point. Then unexpectedly Ursula had shown up to attack them followed by the fuzzy thought of opening a keyhole.

He reflected over the situation again and again, adding in the fact he could see now. He knew it all meant that the exam had to have started, and he was lucky enough to be granted his sight back during it. But he knew deep inside he was having rather doubtful thoughts. He knew he could see in his dreams and now in the Realm of Sleep, but what did that mean for him after the fact? That… That was what he couldn't figure out, or really what he didn't want to know. But he couldn't deal with it for now because the exam was much more important. But the thoughts stayed in the back, lingering and crawling around in his mind.

Honestly it was a bit of a struggle some of the time for Riku. He couldn't fully explain it, but sometimes his vision wasn't actually perfect. There were times when it became blurry or almost dark to the point he feared he would be back to being blind once more. But there was no way of telling what the reason was though. He couldn't be sure if it was all because of it being the Realm of Sleep, or if it was something else.

But what was more concerning was that he had yet to find Sora. He had searched all over but there was no sign of him. But he had a hint at least from what a guy known as Joshua had said. There could be two of a port and Sora was in the other version of Traverse Town.

He still found himself to be a little distrusting of Joshua, but he had to go on what he could. Not only did he have to find Sora, but he also had to take care of the Nightmare Dream Eaters that were showing up.

After a little while though of interacting with others he met along his way, he suddenly was hit with a wave of sleepiness. His vision became hazy again and he couldn't stop himself from falling into a deep soundless sleep.

The next time he woke up he saw that he was alone again, but his vision was back. He was still in Traverse Town, but he couldn't understand why he had suddenly passed out. Though soon enough he had run into someone else that was trying to stay safe from Nightmares.

After he defeated the Dream Eaters the girl looked at him and smiled. "Seriously, thanks. I'm Shiki, how 'bout you?"

"Riku."

"Thanks, Riku," Shiki replied.

Riku nodded slightly. "Sure."

After that he was just ready to walk away, back to his mission, but he heard Shiki speak up from behind him. "Hey! That's it? You chat up a girl and then just say, 'Sure,' and walk off?"

He sighed quietly to himself. "I'm bad at this. Sorry. Look, it's not safe here. You should go home."

"If it's dangerous, how can you just leave me here? Aren't you my knight in shining armor?" Shiki asked, chuckled lightly, adding a wink after she spoke. "Well?"

Riku staggered back slightly, nervousness rising in his body. "Kn-knight? You've got the wrong idea."

"Omigosh, I was so just kidding. You get out much?"

Riku crossed his arms, sighing quietly. He had nothing to say nor did he really want to say anything to that.

"You remind me of this guy I know. Well, good thing we met."

"Yeah, great."

"You're a pretty interesting looking, some rather unique eyes there," Shiki stated rather bluntly.

"Wait what?" Riku asked, a little alarmed by her statement.

"I mean like they are mostly covered by your hair, but the color is really cool. Like a bluish grey color," Shiku replied as she tried leaning in to get a better look.

"It must be because of what happened… even in a dream world my eyes aren't perfect," Riku thought to himself.

After that Shiki talked to him a bit more, asking what he was doing, but then she soon headed on ahead of him and he knew that he couldn't just leave her to be alone at this point. Sighing to himself he ran after her, realizing this entire exam could be a whole lot harder than he expected, even with his sight back.

What made it harder was when the cloaked person showed up, spouting only confusing things without proper answers. He was honestly glad for his sight because he could now stare directly at the figure. He knew though he could have sensed the darkness right away, as it aws strong, but the sight of the cloak made everything much easier to confirm.

"This wakeless sleep will be your prison...to wander forever," the cloaked figure said to Riku, still being vague.

"What do you mean?"

"Riku, don'chu listen to that punk!" Beat, a boy who Riku met recently said as he came closer.

"Shiki's gonna be fine! She told me whassup. Hoodie here set this whole thing up, yo. He promised to send Shiki back to our world, and you was the cost of travel. Yo, this is seriously one half-baked excuse for a mission. Betchu ain't even a Reaper."

The figure finally took off their hood, revealing their very light silver hair and golden eyes. Riku tensed up, but tried his best to remain calm as he took in the sight of the man. "All right. Who are you?"

The young man raised one arm, not giving an answer. He summoned a large Dream Eater Nightmare and left a moment after. Riku gritted his teeth, knowing he had missed his chance to get the jump on him early.

After that he headed to where the Nightmare Dream Eater had headed, knowing he couldn't let it roam for too long. It didn't take all that long to defeat it, once against the sight being a big help to the fight. He breathed easily once the Dream Eater was gone, but now there was something else in his vision. He could see an image of Sora nad two others near here.

Riku stepped closer to Sora, afraid that his eyes could have been playing tricks on him. With the spotty vision and times he fell asleep he wasn't too sure what he could and couldn't trust anymore. "What are we… seeing?"

Starting DDD was a bit hard to do, there was a lot of choice how I wanted to do it. But I hope you all enjoyed!