Chapter 12: The Secret

Most of the time, Riku felt that he couldn't ask for a better pair of best friends than Sora and Naminé. Today was not shaping up to be one of those days.

"C'mon! Please tell me? Please please please pleeeeeeaaaaaaaaseeee?" cried Sora- directly into his ear.

"No, Sora! It has to be a secret or it won't work!"

"What won't work? Who was that guy? Can't you just tell me his name?"

"No!"

"What was he doing on our island all by himself?"

"I don't know!"

"What was that giant key he was holding?"

"I don't know! And I'm not supposed to tell!" groaned Riku, "Stop asking me!"

He still couldn't believe what had happened the evening before. He'd been playing with his friends at the Children's Island, when he'd spotted a stranger standing by the edge of the water. The man held a paopu fruit in his head and smiled at it for some reason. Riku could tell that he didn't come from the main island; neither he nor his friends had ever seen a grown-up wearing real armor before. Not a lot of armor, but there was some covering his shoulder, and the man held a large metal key idly in his hand.

Naminé wouldn't go near him. She hid behind Sora as they ran back to the dock. But Riku decided to say hello. Based on his appearance, this man clearly went on all kinds of exciting adventures, just like the ones that he pretended to have with his friends. The man looked strong and powerful too. He must know all about the outside world, and he would know how to protect people from real bad guys. He could tell Riku how to do that too.

As it turned out, the man, who called himself Terra, had been very friendly to him. He even let Riku hold his weapon. And while he didn't immediately offer to take the children on exciting adventures to other worlds, he did promise to return one day. Riku didn't understand everything that he said, but it sounded like Terra was willing to teach him how to be a hero too.

And there was one thing that Terra said that Riku did understand fairly well: "You've gotta keep this a secret, all right? Otherwise all the magic will wear off."

There was no way that Riku would risk his chance to go on magical adventures when he got older. So no matter how much Sora begged and pleaded and whined, he resolved to keep his mouth shut. But Sora wasn't getting the message at all.

"Can't you give me a hint?"

"NO!"

Sora finally stopped asking questions when they reached Naminé's house and knocked on her front door. At least she hadn't asked any questions about Terra. In fact, she hadn't said anything to Riku since he'd talked to Terra. But she was usually pretty quiet, so that didn't bother him.

Her mother answered the door. "Hello, Riku! Hello, Sora! Are you going back to the Children's Island today?"

"Yes, we are!" answered Sora cheerfully, bouncing on the heels of his feet. "Can Naminé come too?"

"I'll let her know you're here."

The boys waited outside…and waited…and waited…and waited. When Naminé's mother returned, Naminé wasn't with her. "I'm sorry, boys," she said, "Naminé doesn't want to come to the island today."

"Oh," said Sora, "Does she want to play here instead?"

"I'll ask her." Her mother went back upstairs. The boys waited some more, and suddenly heard a familiar voice shouting, "NO!"

"Naminé?" they heard her mother saying, "What's the matter?"

"NO!"

"Would you like them to come back tomorrow instead?"

"NO! I'm drawing!"

"You can't draw pictures all day."

"Can too!"

"Naminé, what's going on? Why don't you want to play with your friends?"

"I don't wanna be friends with Riku anymore!" she wailed.

The boys exchanged startled looks. "What'd you do, Riku?" whispered Sora.

"I didn't do anything!" he protested. They heard Naminé crying upstairs. Without another word to each other, they raced up the stairs to her bedroom to investigate the matter. When she noticed them standing in the doorway, she crawled to the farthest corner of the room and turned her back to them. "Naminé! What'd I do?" demanded Riku, "What do you mean, we're not friends anymore?"

Naminé hiccuped and brushed aside her tears, but didn't answer his question. Her mother folded her arms over her chest. "Naminé. Don't be rude. Why don't you want to play with your friends?"

"I'm not playing. I'm drawing."

"But you can draw next to us while we play!" protested Sora, "We always do that!"

"No!" she cried. She finally turned her head around and glared at Riku. "I never wanna play with you again!"

"Why?!" he cried, "Why are you mad at me?"

"Because!" she replied, as though that explained everything.

"Naminé, we've talked about this hundreds of times. We can't fix your problem if you won't tell us what's wrong," said her exasperated mother. But it was no good. She wouldn't answer them.

Riku glared at the floor and kicked one of her stuffed cats. "FINE!" he shouted, "I don't wanna be friends with you anymore either!" And with that, he stormed out of the room. "C'mon Sora!" he called over his shoulder. "Let's go play without her!"

Sora hesitated in the doorway. "Are you mad at me too, Naminé?"

She sniffled. "You're just gonna go play with Riku!"

"But I wanna play with both of you!"

"NO!" she shouted.

Sora ran forward to try hugging her. But as soon as he spread his arms out, she pushed him away. Her mother sighed. "Okay, Sora. I think you need to come back another day, when Naminé isn't being rude. And Naminé, if you keep behaving like this, I'm going to have to take away your sketchbook."

Naminé reacted to the threat by crying harder, throwing herself inside her closet, and slamming the door shut. "Come ON, Sora!" Riku shouted from downstairs. Sora had no other choice but to follow him.

The boys remained quiet for a time, as they shuffled back to Riku's house. "I don't get it," said Sora, "Why's Naminé so mad at us?"

Riku plopped down on the steps of his front porch and wrapped his arms around his knees. "I don't know. She was happy yesterday. What did we do yesterday?"

"Um…" Sora bit his lip. "The same stuff we do every day…?"

"Yeah…" Riku held up his fingers. "Naminé drew pictures and we went swimming…then we played hide and seek…then you 'n' me had a sword fight and I won and Naminé drew my face…and it was really good and I liked it…and then we went swimming again…and we pretended to be pirates…and we raced each other on the beach…"

"Yeah. It was lots of fun! Naminé laughed and smiled a lot. She was happy. Right? Wasn't she happy?" asked Sora.

"I think so," said Riku.

All of a sudden, Sora jumped up and down. "OH! I know! I know I know I know! She's mad 'cause you won't tell us about that guy!"

Riku gasped. "But…but she didn't ask me about him yesterday! Only you did!"

"Yeah, but she's shy. Maybe she didn't ask 'cause I was asking," Sora pointed out.

"Oh." Riku stared at his knees and thought back to the day before. He couldn't remember if Naminé said anything to him about Terra. He could only recall Sora bouncing all around, asking him a million questions at once. That was the problem with Naminé: she tended to sit quietly and watch the others having fun, so that they sometimes forgot she was there. Riku couldn't even remember if she'd said goodbye to him. "I don't know," he said to Sora, "Maybe you're right."

"Then you gotta tell her about the guy," said Sora.

Riku felt like someone had kicked him in the stomach. "I can't!" he cried, "Terra said that I had to keep it a secret or the magic would wear off!"

"Magic?!" shrieked Sora, "What magic?! I want magic too!"

"No! It's just for me so I can protect you guys from bad guys!"

Sora laughed. "I don't need you to protect me from bad guys! I got my sword too, see? YAH!" He waved his toy sword energetically, then starting poking Riku in the shoulder with it. "Hi-yah! Hi-yah! Take that!"

"Stop it already!" groaned Riku, shoving the sword away.

Sora did so. "So you're not gonna tell us anything? But what if Naminé stays mad at you forever and ever, and then we don't get to be friends with her anymore?"

To never be friends with Naminé again? That would mean no more amazing drawings to see; no more playing games with her. She wouldn't let them pretend to rescue her from monsters anymore, or cheer for him when he beat Sora at something, or listen to him as he described all the adventures he wanted to have some day when they got bigger. She wouldn't smile and laugh with them anymore.

But if Riku told Naminé the truth about Terra, he'd never get to go on any of those adventures with her or Sora. The magic would wear off and Terra wouldn't be able to come back.

Riku slammed his fist into the porch steps. "I'm not allowed to tell yet! She's not allowed to know!"

"But now she doesn't want to be friends with us!" cried Sora.

"Then she's not my friend anymore! We can have fun without her! Let's go see if anyone else wants to go to the Island with us!" He stomped down the street in the direction of Tidus' house. Sora trailed behind him, dragging his sword through the sand. He kept looking over his shoulder to see if Naminé had changed her mind yet. Maybe if they waited a little longer, she'd come out of her house and run down to join them.

But she didn't.