Chapter One: Realizations
Kairi scanned the piece of parchment for any other clues or messages. She found only one:
"Look behind the door...: Kairi repeated the phrase, "what could he be talking about?" She thought for a moment about all the doors on the island. "Let's see, there's the Shore Shack, Storage," she counted the places on her fingers, "and...oh, the Secret Place! Duh, Kairi.." She bustled over to the door and hesitantly placed her hand on the outer rim for balance. Kairi swung aorund to see what could be there.
A smile crept across her face and she bent down to pick up the gift. "A staff..." Kairi whispered, almost to herself. She ran her hand upwards over the polished wooden shaft. The neck swung around to make an oval net with a wooden rim. In the center of the net was a piece of cloth in the shape of a paopu. She stood up and swung the rod around a few times to get a feel for it. The staff was actually very light, which was good. Kairi decided to practice more outside. Maybe she would show Wakka and Tidus, or could practice with Selpihe! Kairi stopped in her tracks... she had forgotten that their worlds were now seperate. She couldn't show them what Sora had given her, tell them about what had happened after that night on the beach, or even that she was okay now. A few tears fell from Kairi's eyes...it was a hard truth to face, her friends were gone.
"GRRRWWLLL!", her stomach growled quite loudly. She hadn't really noticed that she was hungry until now, seeing as everything she had been through, having her heart stolen, having her clothes change out of nowhere, and all. She looked down at her staff, the net looked like it would make an okay fishing rod for the moment. The only problem now would be fishing without getting her new robe wet...she'd have to take it off. She turned around to look for a place to put it...the dock steps looked okay. Underneath her robe was a white outfit that appeared to be a surfsuit. Kairi thought it was a bit strange that she had a surfsuit underneath her robe, but she was glad for it just the same and headed over to the water. Slipping off her shoes, she stepped into the cool water with staff in hand. Lucky for her it was sunny out, so the fish were gathering near the shore. She tested out a few techniques for catching the fish, but none worked. The swoop was either too slow or scared off the fish.
She decided to take a break and go find a cocnut and firewood. Neither were hard to find since they were littereed all over the beach. She cracked open the cocnut and started a small fire.
Kairi sat on a palm leaf she'd found while gathering supplies and now a breeze began to blow. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. What was she going to do now that she was alone on the island? She realized that she'd have to figure out more things to do by herself now, which didn't sound all that fun. Kairi was more of a people person.
When she opened her eyes again, it was already getting dark. "Did...did I fall asleep?" Kairi sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Guess I should go inside, it'll be getting cold soon. She grabbed her robe and shoes and headed to her room. Changing quickly into some dry PJs, she decided to grab her sleeping bag along with some other stuff to "camp out" in the Secret Place for the night. By the time she was done setting up it was pitch black outside. "Better start another fire now," but before she could, she saw a bright light behind her. She turned around to see the bubble from earlier that day.
"Oh," she said a little surprised, "this looks like it will work instead." Kairi wondered if she change the intensity of the light, since she was getting sleepy again and the lgith was kind of bright. "Ummm...dim?" Kairi said, sounding very foolish to herself for talking to a bubble. To her amazement the bubble complied and weakened its light.
"Where in the world did you find this thing, Sora?" she chuckled to herself. She ate the rest of the cocnut she had found earlier and snuggled into her sleeping bag. The events of the past couple of weeks raced through her head.
Why were the heartless ever created? What happened to Riku when the door was shut? Where was Sora? "Sora..." she smiled. She knew he'd come back for her...someday.