It was midday when Nadia had washed and napped and was finally playing again, this time in the large living room at the base of the giant tree house.

            Over the past fifteen minutes or so, the look of the outside had changed drastically.  The clear blue sky had given way to a mass of gray clouds.  The sea's surface had transformed from one of polished crystal to one of darkened, chipped stone.  A storm was coming.  It looked like it, it smelled like it…and it felt like it.  The air was heavy.  Certainly, something important was edging closer and closer.

            Kairi really didn't care for the ways storms always came so suddenly.  They could never build over a day.  They had to wait until everyone was enjoying the sun and then, only then, pounce like a lion from the grass.

            She was glad her house stood so high on the hill.  Below the trees' enormous anchors of roots was a cliff that jutted out and then sloped gradually down to the water.  The house was not in danger of flooding unless the storm turned tremendously bad.

            The wind was growing colder.  Kairi latched the wooden shutters of the large window facing the main village.  She turned to check up on the little redhead playing with dolls atop the large auburn rug in the middle of the floor.

            Nadia looked up.  "Want me to shut the other window, Mommy?"  At her parent's nod, the child clumsily rose, struggling in the skirt of the loose yellow dress she wore.  Nadia went to the other window and leaned out, her eyes tumbling off the cliff to the shore below.

            "You can shut it already, Nadia," Kairi said absently as she picked up some papers that had been blown to the floor.  "It's starting to rain."

            It was indeed raining, beginning with a chilly drizzle.  But the girl stared straight ahead, eyes unblinking.  Moisture gathered on her face.

            Kairi gave into curiosity and wandered over.  "What are you looking at?"

            "There's somethin' down there," the child mumbled.  Her expression was very plain.  She didn't smile or frown.  She simply looked.

            "Okay, okay, let Mommy see," Kairi mumbled, lifting her daughter from the sill in order to acquire a better view.

            The woman gasped.

            "Who is it?"

            It was a who down there, wasn't it?

            "Mommy's going to go look.  Nadia, stay inside."

            Kairi grabbed the shawl that dangled from the rack by the door and began a fast descent toward the rising waters.  The storm was picking up by the minute, the drizzle growing into larger frozen pellets.  It was difficult to see.

            Kairi fought with her hair.  It seemed set on getting in her mouth and—worse—her eyes.  Futilely, she tried to stuff it under her shawl and this she knotted around her chest.  She was battling the wind now.  It seemed she could only progress one step for every two she made.

            She squinted.  There was someone down there.  Someone nestled in the cluster of rocks by the beach, someone buried in seaweed and sand.

            "Hey!" she called, yelling to help her voice carry in the howling wind. "Hey?" she tried again.  But she could see, now, that the person was unconscious.  Possibly dead.

            Kairi recoiled.  She'd never seen a dead body before, and this didn't seem like the day to start.

            However, if this person were alive, he wouldn't be for much longer…  Not in this weather.  The sea was threatening to bury him any minute.

            "Come on," she murmured, grabbing the arm.  It was warm.  Thank goodness.

            She grabbed the two wrists and began to tug, throwing all her strength into the venture.  One step backward.   Two.  Only a hundred or so more.

            They reached the house, that house made of tree on the outskirts of the village.  Nadia was in the doorway, eyes wide and curious as always.

            "Is he dead?"

            "I don't think so," Kairi replied.  She let out an oomph! after dragging the body across the threshold.  Seaweed, sand, and man lay together on the rug, right next to Nadia's dolls.

            "Who is it, Mommy?"

            "Don't know.  It's too dark."  The sky was almost black by now.  The clouds must have been very thick.  They must have held lots of rain.

            "Want me to light the lantern, Mommy?"

            "It's too high up for you, baby."  Kairi left the stranger on the floor and went to the kitchen for matches.  She returned to the main room and lit the two large lanterns hanging on opposite walls.  The room filled with light.

            The girl was leaning on tiptoes out the door.  "It's like nighttime."

            "Fasten the door, Nadia," Kairi instructed after she disposed of the match.

            "Is he okay?"

            "I don't know.  Fasten the door."

            "Yes, Mommy."

            The little girl helped her mother lift the man and lay him across the wooden bench on the wall nearest the kitchen.  The light from the lantern above swung across his unconscious figure.

           Kairi leaned over and began to pull the strands of ragged hair and the seaweed from the man's face.  She got one good look at his face and promptly fainted.

~*~

            Riku had heard some commotion downstairs and he finally went to investigate.  He could hear the storm howling as it encircled the house and he growled at it.  He really hated storms.  This one sounded so fierce, too.  No worries.

            He wouldn't let anything happen to those he loved.

            No worries, right?

            When he finally reached the living area, he saw Nadia kneeling over Kairi's soaked, unconscious body.

            "Papa!" cried the little girl, a bit panicked.  "Mommy fainted!"

            Riku was at the woman's side instantly.  "She'll be all right.  What happened?"

            "She looked at him," Nadia explained, gesturing at the couch.

            Riku's eyes narrowed.  He hadn't noticed this stranger before.  His gaze locked onto the man's face, from which the debris had been wiped away.  It wasn't a stranger at all.

            Riku's jaw hit the floor.

            "Don't you go and faint too, Papa," the girl ordered unhappily.

            "Papa's not going to faint," Riku said with false confidence.  He reached over and tousled his daughter's hair.  "You want to help me clean him up?"

            "What about Mommy?"

            "We'll help her too."

~*~

            It seemed as though he had been sleeping for an eternity.  It was a strain to leave that blanket of darkness.  That soft cushion of emptiness.  That absence of struggle, worry, and doubt.

            But…eternity was a long time.

            He finally blinked his eyes open, one and then the other.

            He saw first a metal and glass lantern swinging above him, swaying, splashing its light in all directions.  Beside him, the wall seemed to be one of bark and wood intertwined.  The couch beneath him was wood too.

            So bizarre…

            "Is he waking up?"

            "Nadia, go get your papa."

            No way…

            "Okaaayy…"

            "I'm so glad…I thought you were never going to wake up, Sora," spoke a soft woman's voice.  It was familiar…

            No way…that's impossible.

            He sat up slowly.  The world spun and blurred.

            "Sora!" the woman cried.  Soon there were arms around him, tender hands pressed against his back, warm breath on his chest.

            All he could see was shining, reddish hair.

            It's…impossible…

            "You've come back…!"

            I'm…home…?

            "Kairi?"

            She let up on her embrace, somewhat reluctantly.  His sight returned to him.  He saw her.

            He never wanted to look away again.

            "Don't cry, Kairi," he tried to say when he saw her cheeks glinting in the yellow-orange light.

            Only…he felt like he might cry too.

            Thump.  Creak.

            Sora whipped his head to the right.  His eyes narrowed as he tried to get the colors of the room to stop swirling.  He probably had a concussion.  He probably had worse.

            Oh, well.  He had endured worse before.

            The creaking that had so startled him turned out to be a bare-chested man coming down a steep staircase across the room.  On his shoulders was perched a very small but pretty redheaded girl in a sun yellow dress.  She had a very big smile.

            A very big…familiar looking smile.

            Sora returned his gaze to Kairi's face.  He looked at the girl again, now that she was being brought closer.  Then he studied the man, who turned out to be a matured Riku.

            Then he looked at Kairi again.

            No one had to say anything.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The author realizes that the chapters are short and aren't her best writing.  But this is merely a fling with an idea and not meant to be that serious of an endeavor.  Probably four or five of these short, choppy chapters anyway.  Yes, the author should do better than that and push herself further.  But the reader must remember that the story is merely a figment of his/her imagination.