"Tidus always acted like he was the best, but Selphie was really the hardest to approach with her jump rope always swinging around her. Wakka was always dangerous when fighting in a group. His blitzballs would just snipe me like it was nothing!" Sora was describing the mock battles he and other kids from his world would participate in. "Of course, Riku was the strongest of us all. I was so close to beating him this one time! I bet if I had just a bit more time I finally would have won, but then the Heartless came and..." He trailed off as he started to remember the night he ended up in Traverse Town.
"You, um," Dan tried to think of something to change the topic to. "You guys would just hit each other for fun? Was there really nothing else to do?"
"Hey, we could all take it!" Sora snapped out of his own thoughts. "There was also this race course we built on the back of our island. We'd jump across tree tops, fly by on a zipline and run across a bridge that we really needed to patch up more." He placed his hands behind his head and smiled. "Okay, so maybe it was a bit dangerous, but what did you guys do for fun?"
"For starters, we didn't train ourselves for the army," Dan snorted. "I beat people up in video games or watched people get beaten up on TV instead."
Sam rolled her eyes. "How sophisticated. There wasn't that much to do, but sometimes I'd play hide and seek in stores with my friends. Scary movie nights were always a ton of fun too."
"I didn't know you guys played hide and seek. Why wasn't I invited?"
"Maybe because they were my friends and I didn't need to invite you to everything I did."
"Well..." Dan crossed his arms. "They never seemed to have any problems with me and I didn't really have anyone to hang out with."
Sam hesitated for a bit then asked, "What about James?"
"James? I mean, I guess he was a friend but, well, I don't really think he cared about me that much." Dan tilted his head, remembering his interactions with James. "He liked to tell me all about the projects he worked on but I wasn't able to help him or anything. Kind of seemed like I was just a rubber duck."
"A what?" Donald looked back at them from the pilot's seat of the ship.
"Just a figure of speech," Sam replied to the duck before looking back at her brother. "You always cut yourself short. There's a pretty big brain in that head. Maybe a bit too dense, and often brain dead, and your mouth can be faster than your thoughts...where was I going with this?"
"There was supposed to be a compliment somewhere in there, I'm sure of it." Dan looked over at Sora for assistance. "Did you hear anything nice come out of her mouth?"
Sora waved his hands in front of him. "I don't think I wanna be a part of this. It's hard enough telling if you two even like each other at all."
"I can't believe you can't tell that I," Dan got up and gave a large bear hug to Sam before she could realize it was coming, "just absolutely love my sister." Sarcasm was completely dripping off of his lips.
"Keep showing me love like this and I can show you just how much love can hurt." Sam tried to get her arms free but they remained pinned down until her brother deemed it time to drop his hug.
"She might be a snobby older sister, but she's still my older sister." Dan sat back down in his chair.
"Land ho!" Goofy shouted while pointing at a new world they were quickly approaching. It was full of lush, green flora. A giant treehouse covered the entire top of the world and a large tree circled its way around the middle of the world ending all the way at the bottom. A waterfall started at the bottom of the treehouse with the water being visible until it got a certain distance below the world, just completely disappearing. All in all, it was hard to tell if there would actually be people living in a jungle like this. The only hint of civilization being that treehouse. "Hey, Donald, maybe King Mickey's down there."
"In a backwater place like that? No way! Let's move on." Donald began to move the wheel so they could go around.
Sora jumped out of his seat up to Donald. "Hold on. Riku and Kairi might be down there. Let's just check it out."
"Forget it!" Donald slapped Sora's hand away from the controls. "We're on an important mission!"
"Just land!"
"No!"
"Come on!" The two started to wrestle with each other, stopping themselves from being able to touch the controls.
"I don't think we can just skip worlds because they don't seem important," Dan tried to chime in, but the two ignored him as they continued to struggle.
Getting slightly an upper hand, Sora quickly jabbed at the button he remembered seeing Donald use to have the ship move forward. "We're landing!" The ship began to shake uncontrollably as it moved towards the jungle world.
"Don't touch that! Nooo!" Donald tried to stop the ship but it was too late.
Before Sam could finish shouting "seatbelts" they crashed into the atmosphere.
Sam woke up with a gasp and thrashed around in the water she landed in. Spitting water out of her mouth, she pushed her hair out of her face and looked around at her surroundings. She found herself to be in the middle of a lake surrounded by thick walls of trees. Some hippos were enjoying a nap at one of the banks. Dan, Sora, Donald and Goofy were nowhere in sight.
After swimming to the shore, Sam tried wringing the water out of her clothes but she still felt pretty weighed down by them. She opened her mouth to shout but then stopped herself. She didn't know what kind of creatures might answer her if she calls out for the others. "Don't worry, Sam, there's got to be some form of civilization here. It can't only be full of animals." She found an area off of a bank that had trampled down ground and began to follow the path. "Just need to find that treehouse, maybe the others will be there too."
The path narrowed quite a bit but Sam was still able to move forward without worry of walking into any branches or brush. In fact, she noticed that there was some brush that looked like it was chopped off by some kind of blade. She quickened her pace in hopes of finding the others ahead. It could have even been her brother with his sword that caused that. Eventually she emerged into a clearing with the first thing she could see being a table with a large chemistry set on it. "Science? Yes, I've found my people!" She raised her hands in triumph. Next to the chemistry table was a wood fired oven and a large stack of boxes. A tent was set up behind all of them.
"Hello, is anyone here?" Sam raised her voice toward the campsite. She started to make her way to the tent when the door flap was pushed to the side for a girl that looked slightly older than Sam to come out. "Hey, do you happen to have any towels?" She asked the girl before the other could say anything.
"Where did you-what?" The girl looked at the still mostly soaking wet intruder in front of her. "Well, I guess, yes. Would you like to come in?"
"That would be amazing, thank you." Sam waited patiently as the girl continued to stare at her for a bit, before she realized she had invited her in, so pushed the door flap back to the side to allow them both in. "This is a pretty amazing campsite you've got set up. Are you here just by yourself?" Sam asked as the other girl rustled around in some boxes. Her long brunette hair was covering half of the white tank top she was wearing. Below the tank top was some kind of brown cloth she was using as a wraparound skirt that went to right above her knees.
"Thank you, my father and I wanted to make sure we were completely prepared for this expedition." The girl found a towel and handed it to Sam. Daddy's gone off to wait for the ship to arrive for our return trip...You aren't from that ship, are you."
"Oh, uh, no," Sam wiped the towel over her face while quickly trying to think of an alibi. "I came here as a part of an expedition myself. Unfortunately I got separated from the rest of my crew and found myself lost in a lagoon. Thankfully I found this place. I have no idea where everyone is right now."
The girl's questioning look only grew stronger as Sam kept talking. "Another expedition? I'm surprised we didn't hear anything about that. Which institute sent you here to study the gorillas?"
"Gorillas?" Sam pursed her lips. "Oh boy."
"Jane!" A man with long, wavy hair wearing only a loincloth walked into the tent on his hands and feet.
The girl who must be Jane turned towards him. "Tarzan!" The flap opened again and Sora walked in. "Oh, and who is this?"
"Uh, hi there. I'm-"
"Sora!" Sam got up and ran to Sora, who excitedly raised his arms in the air, possibly expecting a hug, but instead received a punch in the face. "You idiot, you could have gotten us all killed!"
"So, he must be a part of your team and not related to Tarzan..." Jane glanced between the three people in front of her. Rubbing his cheek where he got hit, Sora exchanged glances with Tarzan. "Are you two here to study the gorillas then?
"Highly doubtful." Once again the flap to the tent was pushed out of the way for more people to enter. This time an older man in a safari outfit came in holding a rifle. Behind him were Donald and Goofy.
"Sora, Sam!" Goofy shouted.
"Goofy! Donald!" Sora rushed over and locked hands with Donald and they both jumped up and down before realizing just what they were doing, then let go of each other, turned around and crossed their arms. Goofy looked dejected at the both of them.
"A circus of clowns. Not much use for hunting gorillas," The man turned around to head back outside.
"Don't you mean 'study the gorillas?'" Sam looked concerned at the man. He ignored her and kept walking out.
Jane frowned as well. "Mr. Clayton can be a handful but he doesn't mean harm." She then looked at the now full tent and sighed. "Well, the more the merrier. Do make yourselves at home."
Still having his back turned to the duck, Sora said, "Well, anyway..." Then at the same time as the duck, finished with "I'm staying." Hearing that, Sora turned around in surprise. "Huh?"
Goofy walked closer to Sora, holding something in his hands. "Sora, look what we found. Look At this." Sam peaked over at his hands as well. A red cube was in it.
"What's that?" Sora asked.
"A gummi block. It's the same stuff used to build our ship."
"So that means..." Sora couldn't really think why that meant they wanted to stay.
Donald perked up. "The king could be here. So, we've gotta work together to look for him. For now." He quickly added that last part.
"Fine. I'll let you tag along. For now." Sora mentioned that last part in the same tone Donald used.
Sam got between the two of them and bonked them both on their heads with her firsts. "You better believe we're all staying here. I see we are still missing an important member of our crew!" Goofy looked around, realizing that Dan was missing while the other two rubbed the top of their heads.
"Can you please stop hitting me?" Sora whined.
"If you promise never to crash the ship again, then maybe I'll think about it," Sam grumpily went back to drying herself off. "You're lucky I didn't land somewhere rocky."
"Oh, so you're the reason you all got separated." Jane said. "It's a good thing Tarzan and Clayton found you."
"Yeah, what's up with Tarzan though? Sora asked.
"Apparently Tarzan was raised in the jungle by the gorillas. Communicating with him still isn't easy, but he's learning."
"So he was speaking in 'gorilla' back there...He said my friends Riku and Kairi are here. And one word I couldn't understand..."
"Why don't we try this?" Jane waved at a projector in the middle of the tent. "We'll show Tarzan some slides and see if any of them match that word."
The first slide showed a picture of a castle surrounded by trees. It must have been quite tall since clouds were low enough to block some of its view. The castle had a lot of ramparts that looked like giant steam pipes. Sora made a strange sound when the slide was put in.
Goofy looked over at the boy. "What's wrong, Sora?"
"What?" he pried his eyes off of the picture. "Um...nothing." He went back to staring at the castle.
The other slides had a gorilla, which Tarzan was personally fascinated by, a man on a type of bicycle that had the front wheel considerably larger than the back wheel, a man giving a woman flowers, and a few other pictures. "Well, Tarzan?" Jane asked after turning off the projector.
Sora stepped closer to the man and leaned down at him. "Where are my friends, Riku and Kairi?" Tarzan could only shake his head. Sora stood back up. "Hey, I thought-"
"That leaves just one place." Clayton entered back into the tent. They all looked at him waiting for an answer, but he waited a bit longer to make sure he had all of their attention. "Young man, we've been in this jungle for some time now. But we have yet to encounter these friends of yours. I'd wager they're with the gorillas, even that other boy that girl is looking for." He pointed at Sam, then moved his finger toward Tarzan. "But Tarzan refuses to take us to them."
"Really, Mr. Clayton." Jane remarked. "Tarzan wouldn't hide-"
"Then take us there!" Clayton raised his hands in the air. "Take us to the gorillas." He walked right up to Tarzan. "Go-ril-las." Tarzan stared at Clayton in thought, then looked over at Sora and nodded.
"Tarzan...are you sure?" Jane concernedly asked.
"Tarzan go see Kerchak." Donald and Goofy looked surprised as it was the first time they heard him speak.
"Kerchak?" Jane questioned.
"He must be the leader. Perfect." Clayton took out a pipe and took a few puffs from it. "I'll go along as an escort. After all, the jungle is a dangerous place." Sam did not like the smirk that appeared on his face.
They made their way out of the campsite and headed back to the lagoon Sam initially had awoken in. Following Tarzan's lead, they jumped over small pools of water or even over the backs of resting hippos to end up at a very slender tree that went all the way up to the treetops. Tarzan grasped his hands and toes around the wooden pole and began to climb.
"You've got to be kidding me." Sam looked up with her mouth agape at the giant climb they would have to make. Goofy started to climb up next. He held on with both his hands and put his feet on opposite ends of the tree, then made a leap up and grabbed back on, repeatedly hopping up like a frog.
"What's wrong, little girl, too hard?" Clayton laughed as he climbed up the tree just with his arms. His feet dangled below him.
"Don't call me a little girl." Sam pushed Donald out of the way and moved her hand toward the tree but then hesitated. Realizing her own hesitation, she glared at the tree and confidently grabbed onto it. She lifted a leg and wrapped it around the tree, then pulled herself up, loosening the grip on her leg before tightening it again to be able to move her hands further up. The tree surprisingly had a lot of friction and wouldn't let her slip down.
When they climbed to the top, they were met with golden rays of light illuminating the tops of the trees. The leaves slightly reflected all of the light to give the area a warm glow. Birds of so many different colors flew around them. In essence: it was beautiful. They followed Tarzan across branches of the many trees until he suddenly stopped, holding his hand to the side. He began to make many grunting sounds while looking up. The others followed his gaze and froze at the sight of a giant, black gorilla at least three times the size of Clayton. Next to him was a smaller, brown gorilla that could have been his mate. The conversation between Tarzan and what must have been Kerchak didn't seem to be going well as Tarzan sounded like he was becoming more desperate with his noises. The large gorilla remained calm but stern.
While Tarzan was still talking, Kerchak turned his head further toward the treetops like he had sensed something. Tarzan grew silent and hung his head down in defeat as the two gorillas walked away.
"I'm guessing that didn't go well?" Sora looked at the others.
"That Kerchak fella seemed sorta distracted by something." Goofy looked off toward where the two gorillas headed.
"Hey, we lost Clayton!" Donald shouted while looking around. It was true, Clayton had disappeared at some point, perhaps even before they met the two gorillas.
Sam bit her lip. "I have a bad feeling about this. Tarzan, do you know where Kerchak is going?"
Tarzan nodded his head and they were off. "Do you think something happened to Clayton?" Sora asked as they ran up a bent tree branch.
"Don't you think there's something sketchy about him? I'm more worried about anything that gets in his path."
At some point, Sora recognized the area they were in. "Oh, we must be heading to the tree house!" This turned out to be correct as Tarzan led them up a thick branch that began to have wooden boards nailed into it to make it easier to walk up.
As they got up to one of the sides of the treehouse, Donald looked into a window and completely freaked out as he quickened his pace, leaving everyone in the dust. After running around the building, he jumped at Clayton, who was crouched and pointing his gun into the house, and screamed as loud as he could into the man's year. This caused Clayton to recoil while shooting and the others saw him barely miss a younger gorilla who was playing with a globe. The gorilla scampered up some stairs to a balcony that Kerchak had just arrived on. "What's the big idea?" Donald huffed at the hunter who was now sitting on the floor in a daze.
"Wait, Kerchak. Please!" Tarzan shouted at the gorilla. Kerchak merely scowled at them before turning around and walking away. The younger gorilla went to follow, turned her head back at Tarzan for a second, then continued walking away. Tarzan turned toward Clayton, frowning.
"You don't understand. I was only trying to..." Clayton looked around nervously. "Ah. A snake slithered by, you see. I saved that poor gorilla's life." Tarzan lowered his head as the others continued watching him in disgust.
After dragging Clayton back to the campsite, they explained what happened to Jane. Clayton tried to rebuttal the claims as much as he could. The further they continued in the description of the incident, the more enraged she became. "How could you do such a thing!" She shouted once they had finished.
"Now, Miss Porter, as I told you, I was not aiming at the gorilla." Clayton continued to try to suade her.
"Jane walked forward and pointed a finger aggressively at the hunter. "You are not to go near the gorillas again!"
He backed up with his hands defensively in front of him. "All because of one mishap? Come, now..." He stopped as he noticed just how many people there were glaring at him. Even with how small most of them were, it was never a good idea to get on the bad side of six people all in the same room.
Having given up, Clayton backed out of the tent and mosied over to the edge of the campsite. "What am I doing with these imbeciles?" With his rifle out, he surveyed the jungle in front of him. As he continued to stand there, he could only think about his failure at shooting that gorilla and became more enraged. "Blasted gorillas! I'll hunt down every last one of them! I'll track them down somehow." He set his rifle down for a second to take out his pipe and light it. "I'll stake my life on it," he threatens between taking puffs of the smoke.
Some rustling in the brush nearby caused Clayton to quickly put his pipe away and reach back for his rifle. Cocking it, he pointed the rifle towards the disturbance. The rustling got closer and closer as Clayton pressed his finger on the trigger.
The others in the tent heard the gunshot go off from outside. "Did he find a gorilla?" Sam ran outside to try to stop him. Instead of finding Clayton though, she found a circle of Heartless that looked like dark blue monkeys with golden bracelets around each wrist and foot. "Guys, Heartless!" Sam shouted back at the tent. The others were thankfully already making their way out of the tent as well.
"Here too?" Donald was shocked by their appearance. The world had been peaceful up to now, besides the gorilla-hungry hunter. The monkeys were quite agile and would jump out of the way when anyone tried to attack them. After jumping backwards from Sora as he swung his Keyblade, one of them jumped and repeatedly slashed its claws while falling onto the boy. The monkey got blasted by a fireball by Donald but not before it left nasty scratches over Soras arms. That Heartless was heavily damaged but still ready to continue attacking.
Even Sam's homing magic was having a hard time keeping up with the monkeys. One of them might as well have joined a tap dancing ensemble with the way it was able to move around the magic so gracefully. Unfortunately for it, that did not stop Goofy's shield bashing into the side of it. Sam was able to finish it off once the Heartless was knocked to the ground. "Great idea, Goofy." Sam complimented the dog. "Sora, Donald, focus on the same enemy. They can only fully dodge one of you. Tarzan," Sam looked over at Tarzan, who was actually doing a great job at stabbing the Heartless with his long spear. "You keep doing that."
Soon enough all of the Heartless were defeated and the party was able to breathe a sigh of relief. The gorilla, who had initially ran off as soon as an opening arrived, came back and handed something to Tarzan. It ended up being a gummi piece, which he gave to Sora, saying the gorilla thanked them for the help. At least, that's what Sora guessed he was trying to say.
They returned back into the tent to warn Jane of what was happening. "There's some, uh, rival monkeys going crazy and-and attacking the gorillas!" Sora stuttered out. "We were able to help a gorilla, but you should stay inside for now. They might attack you too."
"They must be quite vicious if even the gorillas are terrified of them," Jane looked quite concerned. "I wonder if that was what Mr. Clayton was shooting at then. He's really not a bad person-just a bit impetuous. I do hope he is safe..."
"Yeah, we still haven't found Dan yet and things are getting a lot more dangerous." Sam was sitting down with her legs crossed, her chin rested on her hands. "Where could he be?"
Sora looked down at his feet. "I'm sorry."
The girl looked up at Sora. "Hey, it's not...no, I really can't say it's not your fault..." She looked back down and started to draw a circle on the floor with a finger. "What happened, happened. We just need to figure out a solution to all of this."
"I bet we'll find 'em." Goofy tried to assure them. "Maybe we should go check out places we haven't been to yet. I think there was a path near where Donald and I landed."
"Let's go then!" Sora summoned his Keyblade to his hand. "There could be more gorillas in danger too." He ran out of the tent while the others looked perplexed at each other. As Sam was still working on standing up, Sora ran back in. "Where are we going?"
While they were trying to figure out where Dan was, Dan was trying to figure out the same thing. Once again he woke up in pain. This time his backside was all wet. A large groan escaped his lips as he sat up and stretched out his back. Several popping sounds later, he was ready to look at his surroundings. The damp cave he was sitting in was shaded but still got enough sunlight through the large waterfall that encompassed the entire side. Thankfully he was back enough away from the waterfall that it wasn't splashing him.
Dan got up on his wobbly legs and held a hand against a rocky wall near him. He tried to remember what the world had looked like from the cockpit of the gummi ship. There had been a waterfall, but it didn't really look like a cave was behind it, and who knew where the others ended up. He was definitely going to give Sora a good kick in his rear end whenever he found him. For the moment though, all he could do was move forward, at least until he found out that the cave consisted of multiple platforms jutting out of the walls. "No, that's fine. I guess I can just die here." He was about to fall over to wait for death's embrace when shrieks from nearby got his attention. The platform right below him had a tunnel going deep into it, far away from the waterfall, and through it he was able to hear shrieks and cries from some sort of animals. "Alright, fine," Sam said as he lowered himself on the edge of his platform. He slid off and landed on his feet, his legs bending as much as they could, then very slowly stood back up. "I guess my curiosity can be the death of me instead."
He made his way through the tunnel as quickly as his bruised body would let him. The cries were becoming louder and louder, which at least meant that Dan wasn't yet too late to find out whatever was happening. In the dark, he saw a large, hairy body come running from the other side. He flinched as it got to him, but it simply ran past the boy. He realized afterward that it was one of the things making all of the shrieking sounds.
At the end of the tunnel, he found an open area still surrounded by rock walls, but he was able to see the sky far above the room. He didn't have much time to look up though since blue monkeys with the same emblems he had seen other Heartless have were busy attacking some gorillas. The gorillas were shouting, gnashing their teeth and pounding the ground with their fists, but the Heartless didn't care at all. "Maybe there aren't any humans on this world and it's just a planet full of apes." Dan pondered. "Either way..." He equipped his sword and pointed it at the closest blue monkey. "There's always Heartless that need to get beaten."
The rest of the party followed Donald and Goofy through a thicket of bamboo. Past the thicket, which Donald mentioned was where Clayton found them, they crawled between two cliff walls only to find a dead end.
"Unless the world expects us to run up a rock wall, I don't think we're supposed to go this way," Sam said as she turned back around.
"Is this really all there is?" Sora continued to survey the area for anything that could be useful. Nothing of interest could be found. "Well, maybe there's some more things to check out on the treetops. Me and Tarzan can show you where we slid down these slipper trees to get to the campsite!"
Just then, they heard a gunshot come back from the bamboo thicket. "Aha!" Sam shouted. "I bet Clayton is involved somehow in all this. Let's get him!" She and the others raced back into the thicket.
In an open area surrounded by the bamboo, Tarzan approached a large rock on the ground. "What's that?" Sora pointed at the object Tarzan picked up from the rock. Tarzan handed it over while sounding like it was an important thing. "Uh, a pipe?" Sora examined the tobacco pipe in his hand. A gunshot from right behind him caused Sora to cup his hands over his ears in pain.
The others did the same while looking behind him in shock. Sora expected Clayton but Tarzan was still the only one there. "How did you do that?!" Donald stared slack jawed at the wild man.
"Why did he do that?" Sam asked frustratedly.
Goofy thought about it for a second. "Maybe Tarzan's trying to tell us that pipe is Clayton's." Tarzan excitedly nodded his head at the dog.
Sam raised her arms up and slammed them back down into her sides. "So he's no longer here? He must've headed back to the campsite right? Come on, we can't let him get away!"
"Don't ya think we should be lookin' for your brother instead?" Goofy asked her. "Clayton can probably handle himself against the Heartless."
"Handle himself?" Sam scoffed. "He's probably controlling the Heartless somehow. If we deal with him, then I won't have to worry about the Heartless attacking Dan. It's simple!"
"Hey, it was bad he tried shooting that gorilla, but I don't really think he's a bad guy. Jane sees the good in him too." Sora said. "Why do you think he's some evil guy? We've never even heard of people controlling the Heartless."
Sam balled her fists up. "I don't-okay, I'm just guessing about the controlling Heartless part, but I can tell he is definitely a bad guy. You just-just believe me, please!" She ran over toward the path that led back to the campsite, then turned back around. "I'll prove it to you!"
"Sam!" Tarzan charged at her with his spear readied. Surprised, Sam reacted by kneeling down and pulling her staff out of her pocket. A large blur of yellow and black appeared from over her, then Tarzan swung at it with his spear, pushing it to the side.
"Not that thing again," Sora equipped his Keyblade while Donald and Goofy did the same with their weapons. Sam turned around to face where Tarzan sent the thing. It was a ferocious looking leopard. Tarzan lept at the leopard, but it quickly got back on its feet and jumped back through the bamboo surrounding them all.
Everyone remained silent, except for some heavy breathing coming from Tarzan. Rustling sounds could be heard past the bamboo, but it would go silent then start back up in a much further area. "Fire!" Donald shouted and a ball of fire erupted from his staff and went through the bamboo that was right behind him where the rustling had gotten too close for his comfort. Unfortunately the leopard didn't jump out but used this distraction to run a bit further and jump out at Sora. With surprising agility, Sora jumped over the leopard's attack then swung down at her as gravity overcame him. The leopard withstood the hit and slashed her claws at Sora who quickly backed away after taking the damage. Sam sent her own fireball at the leopard and scored a direct hit.
Tarzan once again tried to go in for an attack, but the leopard backed away and ran at Sora again. She seemed to have a sweet tooth for the boy while being very wary of the man with the spear. Goofy stood in front of Sora and took the attack with his shield. The shield rang out from the head that ran into it, and the leopard slowly stepped back while shaking her head. Tarzan used this to deal the final blow and stabbed her through the chest with his spear. The leopard fell over onto its side and remained there.
"Wow, I thought you were about to attack me." Sam said to Tarzan, who looked at her with concern.
"Do you think this is what Clayton shot at?" Donald asked while he kicked at the leopard.
Sora grimaced at the thought. "You might be right. It didn't have any wounds though so..."
Sam confusedly looked at the leopard. "No, that doesn't make sense. But then...and the Heartless..." She walked back and forth a few steps. "Well that just puts us back at square one! Where is Dan?"
"Let's go back to the tent," Donald suggested. Sora needs-I mean, I could use a break."
"Huh? You look fine to me, Donald." Goofy examined the duck.
"No one asked you!"
The campsite was completely trashed. The table with a tea set was on its side, all of the china in pieces all over the ground. Several of the boxes had large gashes in them or were completely crushed. The tent, while still standing, had hundreds of tears all over it. The poles keeping it up were sagging toward the middle. Tarzan ran into the tent before the others could fully comprehend what was going on. The projector in the tent had fallen over and broken into several pieces. Most of the boxes of supplies were also damaged. Tarzan stood in place near the entrance and stared at the empty spot where Jane was usually standing.
"Did the leopard do this too?" Sora asked. Sam held up a hanging piece of the tent wall and then let go, watching the cloth slowly fall down. Goofy scratched his head while looking at the ceiling. Donald was kneeling down while looking back at the entrance of the tent, which no longer had a cloth over it.
Tarzan shook his head. "Not Sabor. Something coming. Jane, danger. Jane near... Near tree house."
Donald stood up and faced everyone. "Sounds like trouble. Let's go."
As they left, Sora noticed a potion on the ground. "Finders keepers!" He chugged it and the scratches he received from the leopard faded away.
They passed by the hippo lagoon once again and climbed the trees. After swinging around the treetops using vines, they arrived at a clearing right before the treehouse. A large tree stood in the middle, with a giant purple fruit hanging on its side. "Tarzan!" Jane shouted at them from behind bars made of thorny vines. The young gorilla they saw Clayton almost shoot was also with her.
Tarzan leapt over to her in a single bound and swung his spear at the vines, but they withstood the attack. Before he could think of anything else to try, a large wave of the monkey Heartless appeared all around them and began to attack. "Remember last time, guys! Goofy, you're with me. Sora, you distract the Heartless for Donald," Sam ordered.
"Can't I team with Goofy instead?" Sora complained.
"What? You're both better at close range combat. That wouldn't make sense." She and Goofy had already taken out two of the Heartless.
"I could work with Donald instead, if it makes him feel better," Goofy suggested. Sora nodded his head enthusiastically at this.
"Stop encouraging him!"
"Will somebody help me?" Donald was surrounded by three of the monkeys who were easily dodging his fire magic and swings of his small rod. Sora reluctantly cast blizzard toward the duck's direction, hitting all of the monkeys and also Donald.
"That's it!" Donald shook off bits of ice from his body. "Goofy, get over here now!" The dog hurried over in concern since he and Sam already got rid of the Heartless on their side, while Sora leisurely made his way over to Sam with a big grin plastered on his face.
Sam rapped her staff against the top of Sora's head. "Ow, what did I do?" While the boy massaged his head, Donald and Goofy made quick work of the remaining Heartless. Tarzan was still trying to find a way past the vines blocking Jane and the gorilla. They all joined him, but none of their weapons were able to make a scratch. "I know, I'll burn them away." Sora readied his Keyblade, but Sam moved his weapon away with her staff.
"I think you're done using magic today." She examined one of the vines and wrapped her fingers around an area with no thorns. She could feel it pulsing. "I know vines are living things, but this feels...more alive?" She quickly backed away as Sora casted a fire spell. "What did I just-" She stopped once she realized the spell wasn't directed at the vines. Behind her, Donald was ducking behind Goofy and a monkey Heartless was still flying back from the direct hit of the spell. Even more of the Heartless were approaching.
"Where do ya think they keep coming from?" Goofy asked. They were already back in their formations to deal with the second wave.
"Something here." Tarzan mentioned as he joined the fight this time.
"Maybe that 'something' is also making those vines," Sam looked around the area. "Tarzan, help Donald and Goofy. We'll look for anything suspicious." Thankfully with Tarzan there, the Heartless were too preoccupied trying to survive to attack the two as they ran around, they had to avoid any new Heartless that appeared to replace the defeated ones though. Besides some unbloomed flowers, nothing looked too out of the ordinary. Nothing besides that giant purple fruit... "I'm an idiot." Sam slapped her palm to her forehead.
Sora saw her reaction to the fruit and readied his Keyblade. "I'm on it." With a few slashes, the fruit burst into purple smoke and the defeated Heartless stopped getting replaced. By the time they were able to finish the last of the Heartless, the vines blocking Jane and the gorilla shriveled up and died. Tarzan removed them with his spear and the two captives ran out and hugged him.
"What happened? How did you get here?" Sora asked Jane.
"Clayton came to the tent, and..." Jane tried to think. "That's the last thing I remember.
"Clayton?" Sora gasped. "But I thought..." He looked over to Sam who was shaking in anger.
"I knew it! That traitorous hunter was the cause of all of this!" Sam shorted her staff and put it back in her bag. "He's gotta be somewhere looking for the gorillas. Maybe he found their resting spot. Tarzan?"
The young gorilla was speaking to Tarzan. After she finished, he turned to the others. "Gorillas trapped. Terk ran."
"We must help the gorillas!" Jane stood confidently.
"No way, we'll go. You should go back to the camp," Donald said. Jane tried to argue but even Tarzan backed the duck up on this.
"Lead the way, Tarzan." Sora and the others followed the wild man through the jungle treetops. Sora looked on with glee when they approached a hollow trunk, which he said was how they originally got to the camp. They all jumped down and began sliding down a slick tree branch. By jumping from branch to branch and swinging across vines, they made their way back to the bamboo thicket. Sora looked like he was having the time of his life while the others all had stern looks on their faces.
At the thicket, Tarzan began to go to the cliffs, but Sora asked, "isn't that just a dead end?" Tarzan looked back at him for a second but then continued on.
They reached the dead end but this time it was full of action. Several gorillas, including Kerchak and his mate, were surrounded by more of the monkey Heartless. In the middle was Clayton, stoically leading the creatures. Kerchak realized it was the point to fight or die and ran through a bunch of the Heartless. Others jumped him though and through their numbers, pinned the gorilla to the ground. Clayton loaded his rifle, cocked it and pointed it at the gorilla leader.
"No!" Clayton lowered his gun as Sora ran in, the others right behind him. "Clayton?" Sora looked at the hunter. Something felt off about him. His face was completely emotionless and his eyes looked clouded over.
"Not Clayton!" Tarzan shouted, then said something in his gorilla language. "Not clayton!"
With Clayton distracted, the gorillas used this time to flee. Without constant orders, the Heartless on top of Kerchak became still and he was able to fling them off of him. The gorilla looked at Tarzan, and Tarzan looked back in agreement, like he was just told to take charge here. Kerchak then fled with the rest.
After noticing the gorillas' escape, the cloud over Clayton's eyes disappeared to be replaced with anger, and his face matched it as he yelled out. The Heartless immediately attacked the group who were ready with their weapons. Tarzan jumped past the monkeys and charged at Clayton, who aimed his rifle and shot at his attacker. Tarzan somehow jumped out of the way of the shot. Dirt jumped out of the ground where the shot went and scattered in the air. Tarzan landed on Clayton's chest with his feet and they both went down.
Donald worked on casting blizzard at any Heartless that approached him, no longer bothering to try to aim with his fire spell anymore. Goofy did his job of slamming into any Heartless that wasn't focusing on him. Sora and Sam switched between swinging their weapons at the monkeys close to them and sending out spells at any farther away. Soon enough, the Heartless were all gone.
Clayton was having a hard time keeping Tarzan back. Being too close to take a shot, he instead had a machete out to swing. Tarzan had the range though and pushed Clayton back into one of the cliffs with his spear. Noticing all of his minions were gone, Clayton put away the machete and brought back out his rifle. He held it upward while backing closer to the cliff behind him. The ground around them began to greatly rumble and everyone had to work on keeping their balance to not fall over. As the rumbling came to what felt like its climax, the entire cliff behind Clayton exploded. Sora held a hand up to his face while Donald and Sam hid behind Goofy and his shield.
After the dust had cleared, they were able to see another clearing behind Clayton. A smaller cliff was further back and they could catch a glimpse of a waterfall far behind it. Its sound was just barely reaching them. They weren't able to see anything that could have destroyed that cliff wall though. Having had enough of all of this, Tarzan ran after Clayton but got shot down. Sam rushed over to give him a potion while Sora watched Clayton climb on top of thin air and straddle it like he was riding something. The hunter reloaded his rifle while sitting there, the invisible creature moved slightly in place so they could see him swaying around.
"Come on, if we aim close to him, we'll probably hit something, right?" Sora became less confident in his suggestion with each word that came out of his mouth.
"Don't give up!" Goofy cheered as he ran forward like a bullet train into the invisible creature. He hit something but continued past it. Clayton had turned sideways, indicating the creature he was riding got pushed aside.
Good luck," Sam said to Sora as she started to swing her quarterstaff around and send magic blasts toward Clayton's direction. "That thing is after you." Sora turned back toward Clayton and his invisible ride just in time to see a large green blast of energy be sent right at him. He swiftly rolled out of the way, but that gave the creature a chance to jump right to Sora. The boy was sent back by what felt like claws slashing into him. This definitely wasn't a horse.
Tarzan and Goofy continued their assault from the rear while Clayton was solely focused on Sora. The hunter pointed his rifle at Sora to take a shot, but a fireball from Sam caused him to miss. Donald cast a few blizzard spells on the invisible creature and a rippling effect came over the area below where Clayton was seated.
The creature became visible, revealing a dark green chameleon. The giant lizard had yellow, bulging eyes and a long, curled up tail. The Heartless emblem sat proudly on its chest. The chameleon stretched itself forward and gave out a screech. Clayton, now looking much more intimidating riding a giant lizard and not the air, didn't look concerned at all that everyone could now see his minion. He worked on reloading his rifle, but Tarzan launched himself at the hunter and successfully knocked him off.
The chameleon didn't seem to notice the less weight on it and continued its attack. It held its hands together and charged up another green energy blast, but Sora easily dodged it since he was able to see it coming. Donald's continuous blizzard attacks actually caught the Heartless' attention and it kicked the duck to the ground with its hind legs. It then stood up on its legs and held its arms up, it's yellow eyes glowed white. The Heartless shoved its head forward and large energy shots, similar to Sam's, came out of its eyes and homed in on the duck. The first two hit Donald and he backed away in pain. As the Heartless charged up a second time, Sam tried to stop it with her own assault of magical shots, but it didn't even cause the chameleon to flinch. Sora rushed over to the duck and held his Keyblade out in a defensive position right before the enemy's shots came, but they went right through and blasted him back as well.
The chameleon once again charged its eye blasts. Sam moved to shooting fireball after fireball at it, but her staff fizzled out due to running out of magic power. She ran toward the Heartless to swing her quarterstaff at it, but Tarzan and Goofy beat her to it. They both slammed into the creature's chest with their weapons and the lights in its eyes dimmed and faded away, going back to its normal, yellow color. It started to sway back and forth, having a hard time keeping its balance on its hind legs. Clayton used this distraction to step in front of the still downed duck and boy and aimed his rifle at them.
"Don't you dare!" Sam shouted at the hunter. Surprisingly, Clayton raised his rifle and smirked at her.
"Or else what?" He chuckled. "Half of you are in no shape to fight back anymore, including you. I saw you run out of steam there." Sam gritted her teeth. She wasn't able to sense enough power in her to do any more magic, as he said. "Even that other boy trying to protect the gorillas is just about to face defeat from these helpers of mine, I can feel it."
Sam and Goofy both gasped at hearing this. "Do you mean Dan?" Goofy slowly asked.
Clayton only chuckled some more in response. "So tell me, little girl. What could you possibly do now against me?"
Sam's entire quarterstaff was shaking in her clenched fists as she looked below her at the ground. "I don't need magic to defeat you," she quietly responded. Sam raised her head. Tears were streaming from her face. "And I told you not to call me a little girl!" Clayton flinched at the anger emanating from the girl in front of him, which caused him to be too late in aiming his rifle at her as she ran up and swung her quarterstaff into his chest. The surprisingly forceful attack staggered him far enough back to fall into the chameleon, which was the last thing it needed to fall forward onto the hunter. Clayton screamed as he saw the Heartless emblem fall onto his face. The air around the two filled with shadowy dust and another large, crystalline heart floated up into the air. By the time it disappeared, nothing remained where Clayton and the Heartless had fallen.
Sam dropped her weapon and held a hand up to her mouth. "No..." Goofy and Tarzan were helping up Sora and Donald, who were still conscious. Tarzan gave them some kind of herb and they perked up more and were able to fully stand up. "I didn't mean to..."
Sora placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you alright?"
"I killed him." Sam whispered.
"You-" Sora hesitated. "You saved us. He fell into darkness and tried to kill us.
"But, he was still..." She bit her lip.
Tarzan shook his head. "Not Clayton."
"You were right all along about Clayton being a bad guy," Goofy added. "When he started working with the Heartless though, well, I think he might've been close to becoming one. I don't see anybody there." Goofy pointed at where Clayton and the large Heartless had disappeared.
Sam stared at the spot Goofy was pointing at for several seconds. "You guys are probably right. I'm sorry, I just..." She trailed off.
Before anyone could come up with something more to say, Kerchak came back. He looked at Tarzan with his usual stern stare, but then closed his eyes and changed to a calmer look. Tarzan excitedly smiled at him, then turned to the others. Sora was the first to be lifted up by the large gorilla to the surprise of the rest of them. He was quite indelicately thrown up to the top of the cliffside next to where the waterfalls were. The others were thrown up there also, one by one. Tarzan gracefully climbed up the wall to join them. Sora got up from the ground and dusted off his clothes. "This is amazing." He gawked at the sight of the waterfalls that covered up a large area of cliffs ahead of them.
"Tarzan home."
Their wild companion led them into a cave opening which eventually opened into a cavern right behind the waterfalls. The cool mist felt great after dealing with the hot humidity of the jungle. They had to climb up several cliff faces and sidle across small gaps until they reached another cave opening that led away from all of the water. Before they could enter it, the young gorilla they had saved earlier came running out of it. She spoke to Tarzan and looked to be in a frenzy. "Someone...hurt. He translated to the others. Not gorilla."
Sam's throat tightened. "Could it be?" She sprinted past the others into the cave. This is the only place they hadn't checked yet. Was Dan at the end of the tunnel, and if he was, how injured could he- Sam shook her head and focused on trying to get there as fast as possible. She could hear plenty of footsteps far behind her. Thankfully no one was asking her to slow down.
The tunnel was becoming brighter and Sam was able to see tree branches swinging off in the distance. More Gorillas were waiting at the opening at the end. Sam skidded to a stop when she realized she was at a dead end and frantically looked around the area for any sign of a human. The gorillas moved away from the center of the clearing after noticing her, allowing Sam to see her brother laying on the ground covered in many wounds. "Dan!" She slid on her knees to him and looked for any signs of life, but thankfully he opened his eyes weakly after hearing her voice.
"Y-you finally made it." He winced in pain as he spoke. "It's about time." He tries to get up but grunts some more and remains still. There were a terrible amount of scratches all over his body completely visible through the tears in his clothing. A steady stream of blood was flowing from below him.
Sam started to move her hands over the most open wounds but then changed her mind and dug in her side bag. "Here, drink this." She raised a potion up to Dan's lips and he complied. Some of the light wounds disappeared but it wasn't enough to heal the more critical injuries. "I-I don't have anything stronger."
"Everything's going to be fine. I trust you." Dan kept his eyes closed but was able to slowly raise a hand and place it on Sam's shoulder.
"I..." Sam looked down at her hands.
"Step aside." Donald confidently walked up to the two and studied Dan's damaged body. The longer he looked over Dan, the more deflated he looked. "What did you do?"
"Fought Heartless," Dan breathed out. He lifted his arm off the ground and pointed it toward the large tree that grew over the area. "Keyhole."
"A keyhole?" Sora walked up to the tree. Several butterflies flew off from the middle of the trunk revealing a natural looking spot in the bark in the shape of a keyhole. The Keyblade was summoned into Sora's hand as the keyhole began to glow blue. Whether Sora was doing it or not, the Keyblade once again pointed at the keyhole and a beam of light shot out, causing a locking sound to emit from the hole. Another gummi piece fell out and landed on the ground.
After he picked up the gummi piece, Sora turned around and fully noticed the state of Dan's body for the first time. He paled as he watched the others huddle around the downed boy. "What is all that red stuff?"
"It's blood," Donald responded. "There are people that need it to live, and he's lost a lot." Sora's face changed through multiple expressions of confusion and worry.
Tarzan ducked under Sam with more of his healing herbs. Donald held his hand out before he could place them down though. "Wait! Maybe these can work..." The duck picked up the herbs in one hand and held his stave in the other. A dull glow emitted from the tip of his stave and a wind current began to wind its way around them all. The herbs slowly rose up and joined the cyclical current, glowing a bright green. They moved faster and faster around the group until the green glow was mostly a blur. Even Sam drew her eyes away from her brother to be mesmerized by them. Then, a flash erupted around them and dozens of herb afterimages rain down to the ground.
Sam looked around as the green glows touched the ground and dissipated. Her brow furrowed when she looked back at Dan. "Did that heal him?" Her brother groaned out in pain as a response.
Donald held out a bottle with a light blue liquid in it to her. "No, but now we can. Sora, you too," he looked over to the boy. "On the count of three, we'll cast Cure on him."
The bottle was quickly emptied after Sam heard that. Unlike potions, which sent a feeling of warmth throughout the body, this drink made her feel more energized. There was no need for questions. They were all ready to cast the spell.
"One." Donald raised his stave up again, and the other two raised their weapons in suit.
"Two." Goofy held a hand over his eyes, but then parted two of his fingers so he could still watch.
"Three!" The three of them shouted "Cure!" and green glows started from their weapons and transferred to the damaged body on the ground. Donald rubbed at his eyes, trying to get them used to the dark again. After sparks stopped appearing in his vision, he was able to see Dan still laying down.
Sam slowly approached her brother. "Is he..." His body was still too tattered and bloodied to tell if his wounds were healed.
"Well, the pain is gone at least." Dan blurted out in shock. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"I swear the next time you get yourself almost killed, I'll finish the job." Sam choked back a sob. Her brother closed his eyes and took a deep breath. She wanted so badly to punch something hard, but the memory of the last thing she hit hard flashed in her mind and her anger went away. "Can we-can we just go now?"
Dan's eyes shot open and he tilted his head toward his sister. "Are you okay?"
"Hey," Sora piped up. "You're the one we're all worried about here! We've been running all over the jungle, fighting Heartless and dealing with a crazy guy with a gun to find you."
"And now I'm-" Dan tried to raise his upper body up with his arms, but then slipped and he went back down. "I'm fi-" He got further up but his legs didn't feel like even attempting to move. "I guess I'm tired." The boy pursed his lips then rolled over from his setting position so that he was wobbling violently on his knees. He looked at Sam with regret. "I'm sorry, I should have fled with the gorillas. Something just...I really felt needed here..."
"Following your heart as usual." Sam bit her lip. "Just remember you don't have to follow it alone. What else are siblings for?" She held out a hand for Dan to grab.
"Right," Dan nodded and accepted her help. "Not much stronger than the two of us combined." The two siblings stood together, with Dan leaning on Sam for assistance.
"Your heart..." Jane appeared from the tunnel, led by the young gorilla from earlier. "That must be what Tarzan meant!" She mimicked the sound he had made earlier. "It means 'heart.' Friends in our hearts..."
"Heart..." Tarzan repeated the word like he was testing the sound of it."
Sora glumly looked around at the opening they were in, realizing this was where they thought his friends would be. "Oh, so that's what it meant.
"Friends, same heart. "Tarzan put together. "Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends. No heart, no friends." For not knowing that many words, he was surprisingly able to express his thoughts well.
Both Sora and Donald looked remorsefully at each other. It seemed Tarzan's words and Dan and Sam's incident put a sour mood on their negative relationship. "Sorry about what I said," Sora started.
"I'm sorry too," Donald quickly added.
The two were embraced from behind by Goofy. "Yeah. All for one, huh?" The boy and the duck chuckled along with the dog. This world had caused a lot of stress on the party, but all that did was cause them to grow closer.
Donald finally noticed the gummi piece that had fallen out of the Keyhole. "A gummi!" he announced as he picked it off of the ground.
"But it's sure not the king's." Sora and the others were surprised by how sad Goofy sounded, though his usual smile was still firmly planted on his face.
"So this was a big waste of time then?" Dan asked. "Who's bright idea was it again-" Sam slammed her palm over his mouth to shut him up.
"We do not need them fighting again," She whispered harshly into her daft brother's ear. Sam looked back to see how the trio reacted, but they were too distracted by the young gorilla nuzzling against Donald.
Jane lifted a hand up to her mouth to make a miserable attempt at hiding a laugh. "I think someone has a new admirer."
Donald looked at her, then at the gorilla, then quickly back to her. "No, no, no, no! Daisy would kill me!" His arms were waving as fast as they could in front of him to show he meant business in his rejection.
Everyone was laughing after that. The gorilla seemed confused, but even Tarzan understood what was happening. Sora straightened up after realizing what Donald had said. "Wait, who's Daisy?"