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-YARN
P.S. Edited (slightly)
Sora and I clashed once again as our keyblades crashed against each other in a shower of sparks. I jumped back and away as Sora let up the force on his keyblade completely, hoping to make me lose balance. I got back in my stance and immediately readied myself as Sora dropped back into his stance. We charged at each other again and the sound of metal hitting metal increased in tempo as we both began to strike at each other in another bout. I ducked away from a swing, backpedaled, and pointed my keyblade's tip at him.
"Burn!" I commanded.
A fireball erupted from the tip of my keyblade and Sora hastily raised his keyblade to aim at me and yelled, "Fire!"
His fireball intercepted mine and both exploded in a wave of fire.
It had been a good thing to ask if the gummi ship had a few other rooms for practice and the like. My fight with the guard armor made me realize that while I was okay at fighting, I needed to be a lot stronger if I wanted to keep beating heartless. From what Jiminy had told me, it seemed that heartless changed from world to world, form being more suited for each environment. So basically, what I did in one world may not be the best in another against a different type of heartless. Sparring with Sora was a good way to make sure that we both were growing, and if nothing else we weren't bored. Also since we had some time and Goofy had apparently taken control for a bit, Donald had decided to teach us a single spell so we weren't wholly reliant on our keyblades to fight or flinging them to hit enemies out of our immediate range.
It was the fire spell, the most basic of all magic spells.
The first thing Donald had told us was to meditate.
My mother and father both were actually really into the whole breathing and meditation exercises -and as all parents inevitably do to their kid when they find something they think is healthy - and they invited/cajoled/threatened me to join until I complained enough that they gave up. So I knew the mechanics and while I wasn't exactly a yoga prodigy, the meditation wasn't at all as bad as it could have been. It was at least quiet and relaxing and frankly I didn't mind it now that I was older and well... knew it would help me to learn magic, which was invaluable.
So it was good.
Or it should have been had I not been next to Sora…
He was restless the entire time. While he was prone to taking naps in the sun and goofing off when he could, when he was awake, he was Rambunctious (note the capital R) as hell. He was constantly shifting and letting out irritated huffs when he was trying to focus. It took a good long while until he was silent and in the correct mindset (more or less).
So once that crucible was over, we were supposed to fine our magical core, and feel its power within us. Then when we thought we had a good grasp on it, try to imagine the feel of a fire, the heat, sparks, color. Once we had that, we needed to let that feeling and memory fill us up on the inside until it was almost as though we were on fire.
Grasp that feeling and -
"Fire!" Sora and I yelled.
Admittedly, our first few attempts produced little more than sparks, and it took us a good few hours to actually form a decent sized fireball that didn't explode on our face or slight puffs of orange flame. However, under Donald's supervision, soon we had a firm grasp on the concept and were able to fire mildly decently balls of fire. It wasn't even worth comparing to anything Donald could do, but I figured he had years of practice on using magic over us. He had also informed us that our spells would 'level up' with time, practice, and experience. After deeming our magic as passable, he went back into the cockpit while Sora and I remained down to spar and keep practicing.
We both paused as we heard Goofy yell about seeing a world. After dismissing our keyblades, we both began to dash up the stairs to see our destination.
Departing the gummi ship had actually been simple as we were actually teleported off of the vessel - which was kept in orbit thanks to two chipmunk engineers back at a world known at Disney Castle - and somewhere on the world. I thought it honestly was a smart thing to do, the last thing we needed was our method of transportation stolen by some idiot who saw the ship and boarded it (though Donald and Goofy both claimed that it was to protect the world border [since there was some ancient law about not letting on we were from other worlds]). However, the moment we got off we were falling. Not the sort of falling as though we had tried skydiving, but more like we were on an invisible elevator that was lowering us down. We took a second to spin and orient ourselves but soon managed to get ready to land. All of us landed softly with exception to Goofy who apparently decided he'd try to catch a nap and flipped over right before he hit the floor on his stomach with a wince-worthy thud.
We glanced around and saw a white rabbit in red regal attire, holding a large pocket watch that was running away on two legs yelping, "Oh my fur and whiskers! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!"
We all watch with faint bemusement as he ran - huffing and puffing - off down the corridor while yelling he needed to be 'there and not here' and how 'the queen will have his head for sure'.
"Um…" I began.
Everyone turned to me.
"…I got nothing." I sighed.
Sora rolled his eyes, "Well we should probably follow him, besides, there nowhere else to go."
We all agreed with that and made out way to a door. However upon opening the door we found ourselves in a tiny room. I looked down and saw the rabbit - which was now tiny - run through a door with a doorknob with a face-like design.
"How did he get so small?" Sora asked as he crouched down to inspect the door.
"No, your simply too big." The doorknob replied.
We all jolted back as the doorknob's keyhole moved in the shape of a mouth.
"It talks!" Donald yelped.
The doorknob gave a colossal yawn before complaining, "Must you be so loud? You woke me up."
Goofy replied with a friendly, "Good morning."
The doorknob replied with a crabby, "Good night! I need a bit more sleep!"
"Wait!" Sora pleaded, "How do we grow small?"
The doorknob kept only one eye open and said, "Why don't you try the bottle over there?"
We turned to see a table and chair with two bottles sprout out of the floor. However, while we were moving Goofy accidentally knocked me slightly and I stumbled into the bed, which instead of staying still and allowing me to land on it as per normal beds, slid into the wall with a poof as I landed on the hard marble floor.
"Ack!" I yelped, catching myself on my elbows before my head thunked against the wall, "What the hell?"
Sora turned with the bottle in hand, "You okay?"
"Yeah." I replied, getting to my feet, "But what the heck is up with the bed just sliding into the wall?"
Sora shrugged and swallowed a gulp of the drink, suddenly he began to shrink down until he was as small as the rabbit. We all followed suit and soon were tiny enough to fit through the door.
Unfortunately, that's when we were ambushed by heartless.
Soldier and shadow heartless spawned in swirls of darkness and immediately rushed over to attack us. I backpedaled as I summoned my keyblade, swinging it in a wide arc to drive them back as they converged on me. I rolled under a whirlwind kick and drove my keyblade into the stomach of a shadow. I caught a glimpse of Sora twisting away from a swipe and swiping his keyblade through the faceplate of a soldier heartless while a explosion of fire incinerated another heartless trying to flank him to fading ash. To be honest, it was a huge fight like in Traverse Town, thankfully, there weren't nearly as many heartless to fight and soon we had cleared the room.
I dismissed my keyblade and looked towards where I had fallen, "I think I see where we should go next."
Sora, Donald, and Goofy all turned to the black passage that had been previously covered by the bed that had been pushed aside. With a shrug, we all made our way over to the passage before striding inside. When we emerged we saw the rabbit trot over to a raised stand where he panted before blowing into a bugle and calling out that the court was in session. A young blonde girl in a blue dress looked bewildered as she questioned exactly why she was on trial. I blinked at the lady - who obviously was a queen judging by her attitude and attire - began to rant about how she was sure the poor girls was guilty. If that wasn't unfair enough, the reason of 'because I said so' was just as asinine.
And it pissed me off.
For one thing, I try to be fair. My parents always told me that you have to be fair and just in life, you cannot choose a side because you like it more. I had always taken that to heart, and wanted to be sure I made them proud, which counted doubly so now that they were gone. Including that, finding this stuck up lady to be accusing people - and probably imprisoning them - for her her desires without any sort of check and balance was not right in any functional legal system.
Then again, the world hadn't been blown up or turned into something post apocalyptic so maybe it was okay.
Though in response to that, this world was just plain weird.
Unfortunately the girl seemed to be indignant when accused and called the queen out on her behavior and if anything, that was a bad move with the royal stuck-up types.
"Silence!" The queen bellowed, "You dare defy me?"
"Hey guys," Sora said from behind me, "We should help her out."
"But the rules…" Donald began.
"We're outsiders, so wouldn't that be muddling?" Goofy said.
"Meddling!" Donald corrected.
"Oh yeah," Goofy said somewhat sheepishly, "And that's against the rules."
I whirled to face them, "We can't just sit by! What if she's innocent?"
I was cut off as the queen charged the young girl as guilty.
"For assault and the attempted theft of my heart- " The queen growled.
Sora and I both inhaled sharply, realizing who was the real culprit in a nanosecond.
"- off with her head!" The queen roared.
The card soldiers that had been standing around began to converge on the girl while she pleaded for the queen to stop.
Sora and I both ran forward.
"Hold it right there!" Sora yelled.
"Stop right now!" I yelled, barely restraining myself from summoning my keyblade.
"Who are you?" The queen shouted, "How dare you interfere in my court?"
"Excuse me," Sora said, "But we know who the real culprit is!"
"Yeah," Goofy began, "It's the heart- mupmf!"
He quickly slapped his hands over his mouth before he said too much.
"Anyway," Sora continued before the queen asked, "she's not the one your looking for."
"That's nonsense, have you any proof?" The queen challenged.
'Damn!' I growled in my head, 'We can't tell her about the heartless, but we don't have anyway to prove it was them! If we don't do something, they'll kill the girl!"
Sora faltered as he came to the same conclusion and one of the card guards hauled the girl over to a cage before locking her inside of it.
"Bring me evidence of Alice's innocence, if you fail, it's off with all of your heads!" The queen said imperiously, leaning back in her throne, "Gather as much or as little evidence as you please. Report back here once you are ready."
With that she made a waving motion with her hand as though to shoo us off and glared.
We first decided to talk to Alice and introduce ourselves, and after apologizing for getting us caught up in this (we assured her we would help her and didn't mind but she seemed inconsolable at her predicament) we tried to see if she knew anything much. Apparently she tumbled down some sort of rabbit hole and got here (once again I decided not to question it, I didn't want a headache) but the guard quickly decided that the defendant wasn't to have much of a say and shooed us away.
With that inquiry leading to a dead end, we headed off into the forest in the hopes we would find something to help clear Alice's name.
When we entered we were all taken aback as what seemed to be the head of a cat appeared before us, grinning madly before fading out. It then appeared higher and lower, until it got on the stump next to us.
My jaw dropped as its body appeared to be balancing on its head. The body stepped off the head before lifting it into air and placing it on its shoulders.
"Who are you?" Donald yelled.
"Who indeed?" The cat replied mischievously, "Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, and she's not guilty of a thing!"
"Hey if you know the culprit is," Sora demanded, "tell us!"
"Or at least vouch for her innocence!" I implored.
"The Cheshire Cat has all the answers, but doesn't always tell. The answer, the culprit, the cat all lie in darkness."
It began to fade and I yelled, "Wait!"
"They've already left the forest. I won't tell which exit." The disembodied voice of the cat echoed around us, "There are four pieces of evidence in all. Three are a cinch to find. The fourth is tricky. Big reward if you find them all."
"Should we trust him?" Donald asked.
"To trust, or not to trust? I trust you'll decide!" He quipped as faded back in for another moment.
With that he faded out, his laughing echoing around us before fading into silence.
"The longer I stay here," I murmured, "The more I'm beginning to think I might go insane here…"
Suddenly heartless began to spawn around us and we quickly began to attack.
Going through the forest, we found footprints of some heartless in a pink box - which was right behind a wall of grass - and antenna which was on a platform deeper into the forest. Jumping up to gather it wasn't hard so we began to scour the forest for more boxes, we found some flowers that asked for more portions and ethers and gave better items in return. We began jumping up to higher levels of the forest using the lily pads and entered a passage we found in the tree that was in the middle of the forest. However going through that only resulted in us falling onto the stove of the room where the doorknob was - evidenced by the fact we could see it and hear it snoring loudly. But despite that painful landing (nowhere near as soft as when we first arrived), there was a box containing the stench of the heartless as evidence. I gagged and almost threw up but quelled the urge to burn the evidence - it smelled like rotting food and decaying flesh - since we needed it to clear Alice's name. We went back to the forest, only to hear a flower tell us to give it a potion to help us. Shrugging, I poured it on the roots of the flower, which then sighed in pleasure. It suddenly glowed and I felt myself increase in size until I was almost as tall as the tree. I stumbled back in surprise and stepped on the stump where the cat had been only for it to lower like a weight switch under my foot and raise up a lily pad with a cheery 'see ya'. I looked around and saw Sora, Donald, and Goofy all shouting at me from below.
"Niji!" Sora shouted, pointing at the tree in the middle of the forest, "The flower said that fruit on the tree can shrink you back down to normal!"
I nodded and grabbed the branch to help me get the fruit, but the tree pivoted - groaning and grumbling might I add - and I nearly fell (Again? God, what is up with this place?) as the branch twisted and dropped the fruit. I sighed in annoyance and picked up the fruit before biting into it. It was actually quite tasty - juicy and flavorful - and I felt myself shrink down to normal size. After finally traversing the new path and getting to another passage, we found ourselves precariously standing on the knob to a faucet. The last piece of evidence to clear Alice's name was on a wooden ledge a few feet away from us and the ledge was big enough to hold all of us.
"…So that's what he meant by tricky…" I growled, cursing the cat in my head.
I gauged the distance and realized that if we fell from here, it would hurt as bad as falling on the stove top.
At least we'd live despite the painful landing.
Sora had reached the same conclusion judging by how his face twisted into a grimace, "So we have to get the evidence.
I sighed in resignation, "Hang on."
I carefully took a sprinting pose and dashed at it before leaping at the wooden ledge from very edge of the faucet. I manage to land on it and carefully picked up the box Inside which there were claw markings.
"Got it!" I crowed, "Come on, you all can make the jump!"
Sora sighed and took a running start before leapt off the faucet to the wooden ledge; both Donald and Goofy followed suit as we all looked over the edge.
No sooner had Sora landed when a chuckle echoed through the area and The Cheshire Cat appeared, laying leisurely on the faucet where we had just been.
"Well, look at what you've found. Nice going." He said cheerily.
"Now we can save Alice." Sora said, sighing in relief.
"Don't be too sure!" The cat cautioned happily, "Alice may be innocent, but what about you?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, frowning.
"I won't tell." The cat replied, "But I'll give you something."
Two orbs of blue light formed in front of him and flew out into Sora's and my chests. I instantly shivered as I felt as though someone dunked my in an icy cold river. I collapsed onto my side and I curled up, trying to warm myself up my locking whatever warmth I could inside. Sora didn't fare any better, he stumbled back and landed on his butt, arms instantly moving to rub at the exposed parts of his arms, trying to chase the chill away. But almost as soon as the cold swept through us, it began to fade.
"The power of ice." The Cheshire Cat said, "You can now draw out the chill of ice magic!"
With that, he faded out of existence and vanished.
I shivered one last time and got to my feet, "Guh… You okay Sora?"
He gave me a thumbs up as he shook his head as though to clear of brain freeze.
"We need to get down somehow…" Donald said.
"We could jump." Goofy said.
"Not like we have any better option available…" I sighed.
Turns out I was wrong about the jump, once again we floated down before landing lightly on the floor.
I wasn't complaining.
Next up: The Trial!