We've been having some virus troubles, ya'll, so this is extremely late.
We're sorry! So, for your pleasure, all the chappies we've written so far!
Really!
Chapter 6: Tung Shao Pass, K?
******************** **Angel**
"For a long time we've been marching off to battle," Yao said.
"Yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes.
The march was long, dragging, and, most of all, boring. The men were all singing, and dragging poor Mulan among them. I stifled a giggle as Yao sang "the only woman who'd love him is his mother" of the Council. I always found that part funny, but seeing it was even more hilarious.
Then nothing happened.
I sighed, trudging along as the horse pulled the cart. Why did Mushu get to ride in the cart, while Mulan and I had to walk? It wasn't fair!
"We're approaching the Tung Shao Pass," I murmured. Great battles were often undertoned in Disney movies, quite a bit like the sharp points of the wooden swords back on Destiny Islands.
I still remembered my mother...She was a kind, gentle woman, with large muscles to back what we already knew—she was in charge. She never struck us once, though. We knew what would happen had we ever toed the line. I remembered my school, my friends, my storms. The storms here in China were snow, always snow. I'd yet to see a rain storm, though I knew they had them.
Chin Po, Ling, and Yao were all very gentlemanly, kind once you got to know them. They seemed to have this understanding under their skin that neither Mulan nor myself were normal men. Not a one of them ever questioned us, since we began our march.
Shang and Mulan were friendly enough, I'd wager. Neither knew what was to come. We arrived at the village at the top.
I covered my mouth. Vomiting now was not an option.
Disney movies and real life do not equate.
Blood blanketed the trampled snow, the tiny village burned to cinders. Children lay in the streets, dead, their eyes glinting in the cold starry night. The battleground was not hidden over a hill. Shang saw his father, directly there in front of him, his head speared on his sword, his blood still dripping. Dripping. Dripping.
"Th-the captain," Yao gulped.
"Search for survivors!" Shang ordered, his tone sharp, strong. But I saw it in his eyes, black as coal and clear at diamonds. He was shaken.
We searched, fruitlessly. The only remains of the buildings that weren't charred were the stone walks. Even the local shrine entrance was gone. I nearly tripped over a small bit of pottery. It was a craftsman's bowl, half-painted, a calligraphy stroke half-finished. I knew a small amount of Chinese, and knew what the figure was going to be. With two more strokes of the artist's brush, straight from his own charred hands, I finished it.
Hope.
Shang constructed a traditional burial fire, reducing his father's sole remains to ash. He made the warrior's shrine of his father's sword, helmet, and a quick bow. Mulan and I shared a glance before paying our respects as well. A small silken doll and a pottery bowl painted in the single figure of "hope."
"They've only just left," I said to Shang. "We can still catch them, if we hurry."
"Right," he nodded. "We ride on!"
His feet in the stirrups, we marched on at a feverish pace. ***David***
"So, you're saying that dimensions are constructed off of other people's written word? And this story Kingdom Hearts is what we're in?" Sora asked.
"That's right," I nodded. "It's only a theory, but that's the only thing I've got to go on as to why I'm here."
"Why does the prophesy include the Keystaff, which you wield?" Donald said, smug.
"I don't know everything," I said. "It's not like I can just pick the answers out of thin air, you know. I haven't paid much attention to my sis, to tell the truth. I thought all her 'theories' were a load of—"
"Well, she seems to have gotten one thing right," Sora said. "There are other worlds."
"Yeah," I sighed. "Hey, where does this forest go, anyway?"
"I dunno," Goofy laughed. "Don't you know?"
"No. I only got to see the part where you three met," I said, feeling rather sheepish. "My sister's the master of this game, not—ah!" I tasted dirt just as fast.
"Gee, are you okay?" Goofy helped me back to my feet as I looked around for what had tripped me.
"Hey, look!" I picked up the little pink box. "It's a Heartless antennae!"
"Can we go back now?" Donald said. "One bit of evidence should be enough, right?"
"If I remember right...Angel said something about it not really mattering much, anyway," I shrugged. "We've been out here for almost a week. Let's go back."
In those two days, I explained everything that I knew about Kingdom Hearts, the Multiverse, and dimensional travel. Which I'll say right now, isn't much. Angel developed the ideas over a span of five whole years, and I didn't listen a bunch to what she had to say.
"She started making this stuff up when she was ten?" Sora blinked. "How?"
"She didn't really realize what she was doing back then, but...well, she didn't have that many friends. People typically don't like other people that are different from them. So, really, it was just me she had.
"So she had a long time by herself. She made up this little blue 'dragon', and called it Mishu. Mishu was from the Alternate Dimension, where only dimensional dragons like her lived. After a while, she stopped pretending that Mishu was real, but she started writing her into stories, including a very warped version of herself in them."
"What do you mean by 'warped?'"
"Often times, I didn't read her stories," I said, sheepish. "That's her word for them. I did read one, though, a long time ago."
"What was it about?"
"There was a demon after her...I can't remember his name. But apparently she'd used him as a character before, because he had been defeated several times by several different versions of 'Angel.' He took over the body of Angel's 'best friend,' Jonathon, and attempted to pull her into the Abyss.
"I think that's some kind of purgatory or prison in the Multidimensional worlds. I'm not certain. That version of Angel, was so...weird to me. So unfeeling and bitter. Well, at least the story ended well."
"How so?"
"The demon was defeated, her friend returned to her, and she was the Master of that particular Universe."
"Warped, huh?"
"Yeah." We reached the entrance back into the Queen's Castle. "Warped." ***Angel***
Crikee never got the chance to give away our position.
"Ambush!" cried the nearest soldier.
Fli-it!
The arrow struck him down.
"The cannons!" I shouted.
Mulan was way ahead of me.
Huns descended from either side of us, firing arrows. Some missed. Others hit home. Screams, yells, battle roars, all about, pounding in closer and closer in on my head. After all of my training, I still was not truly prepared for battle.
"Mao, pull yourself together!" Ping shouted, firing her bow and arrow at the Huns. She reloaded her bow and struck another Hun down.
"All right, let's move!" I yelled, grabbing my Keybow and firing home three of the attacking Huns. More poured over the mountains, and the mountain of snow that would have created an avalanche was nowhere in sight.
It seemed a long time before I ran out of arrows. I knew that in order to keep up my façade, I would need to eventually. The others had already drawn swords as the Huns came closer, and now, I did too. My Keybow over my shoulder, I glanced down for a quick prayer.
And stopped short.
On the ground, a little disc, clear and slightly bluish, it was in the shape of a short arrow. I picked it up, and grew longer, wind flashing about in a somber dance. It was icy cold. The wind whipped higher and faster. My last arrow.
I aimed it high and it started to glow. The blue light encased arrow and girl alike, and I let it fly. It struck the first Hun.
CRACK-ACK-ACK-K-K-K!
The Huns, no, the very air about them, froze stiff and true. Just as the frozen sculpture reached the back, however, the Hun let an arrow of his own fly. It glanced off Ping's side and struck into mine.
"Mao!"
I fell back, the warm liquid streaming out of my side. As I slid into darkness, the wind whipped up around me once more, and I shrank. ***David***
"Now we shall see who the real culprit is!" The Queen lifted the lid on the pink box, revealing the Shadow's Antennae. "What was that?"
"A Heartless," Goofy laughed.
"Hmm. You dare tell me what to think? Guards! Attack them! If you let them touch the Tower, it's your heads I'll have!"
"Donald, Goofy! You guys attack the cards!" I shouted. "Sora and I'll get the Tower!" Donald and Goofy nodded, and started attacking. "Sora, you get that side, I'll get this one!"
The Tower's wheels exploded in a flash of light as Sora and I finished it off. The cage where Alice was crashed to the ground. She wasn't there.
"Find her! Bring her back, whatever the cost!" The Queen shouted.
We sighed and went back into the Lotus Forest. The Cheshire Cat reappeared, but he was followed by a second cat. On its side was a large "K" in black fur.
"Who's that?" I asked.
"Who knows?" Donald said.
"A friend of mine, indeed," nodded the Cheshire Cat. "Help in time, it leads."
"Hop on," said the other cat. "I'm K. See? K."
"Uhmmm...sure," I nodded, smiling. "Come on, guys."
"Hop on, hop on, to the place where Alice vanished, we go."
The trees flew by, as if nothing. Instead of almost a week in the forest, it was only about five minutes to the other end of Lotus Forest, into the Tea Party Garden. Into the little house, into the door to the ceiling of the Bizarre Room.
"What on Earth...?"
I looked up. There was the floor of the same room. The little Doorknob, the bed, the walls. We were standing on the ceiling as if it wasn't even an up, but a down. A tiny table, with candles to be lit, stood upon the center.
"Light the candles, then we can go," K said. "The Shadows will appear, but they will be few. It is on the Floor that the Bizarre becomes real."
K hopped across the to table, and Donald, though quite dizzy, lit the candle. They did the same at the other table. Several Heartless appeared, but we destroyed them pretty easily.
"Now, to meet the Trickmaster," K reared back like a horse and ran to the ground. Literally.
"I must leave you now," K said. "David, the next world you should visit is ancient China. Your sister is there."
"Wait!"
But he was already gone. How did he know where my sister was? And why had he sped everything up like that, making certain that we would rush through? Did he know something?
Obviously more than I did. ************************************************************************
Chapter 6: Tung Shao Pass, K?
******************** **Angel**
"For a long time we've been marching off to battle," Yao said.
"Yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes.
The march was long, dragging, and, most of all, boring. The men were all singing, and dragging poor Mulan among them. I stifled a giggle as Yao sang "the only woman who'd love him is his mother" of the Council. I always found that part funny, but seeing it was even more hilarious.
Then nothing happened.
I sighed, trudging along as the horse pulled the cart. Why did Mushu get to ride in the cart, while Mulan and I had to walk? It wasn't fair!
"We're approaching the Tung Shao Pass," I murmured. Great battles were often undertoned in Disney movies, quite a bit like the sharp points of the wooden swords back on Destiny Islands.
I still remembered my mother...She was a kind, gentle woman, with large muscles to back what we already knew—she was in charge. She never struck us once, though. We knew what would happen had we ever toed the line. I remembered my school, my friends, my storms. The storms here in China were snow, always snow. I'd yet to see a rain storm, though I knew they had them.
Chin Po, Ling, and Yao were all very gentlemanly, kind once you got to know them. They seemed to have this understanding under their skin that neither Mulan nor myself were normal men. Not a one of them ever questioned us, since we began our march.
Shang and Mulan were friendly enough, I'd wager. Neither knew what was to come. We arrived at the village at the top.
I covered my mouth. Vomiting now was not an option.
Disney movies and real life do not equate.
Blood blanketed the trampled snow, the tiny village burned to cinders. Children lay in the streets, dead, their eyes glinting in the cold starry night. The battleground was not hidden over a hill. Shang saw his father, directly there in front of him, his head speared on his sword, his blood still dripping. Dripping. Dripping.
"Th-the captain," Yao gulped.
"Search for survivors!" Shang ordered, his tone sharp, strong. But I saw it in his eyes, black as coal and clear at diamonds. He was shaken.
We searched, fruitlessly. The only remains of the buildings that weren't charred were the stone walks. Even the local shrine entrance was gone. I nearly tripped over a small bit of pottery. It was a craftsman's bowl, half-painted, a calligraphy stroke half-finished. I knew a small amount of Chinese, and knew what the figure was going to be. With two more strokes of the artist's brush, straight from his own charred hands, I finished it.
Hope.
Shang constructed a traditional burial fire, reducing his father's sole remains to ash. He made the warrior's shrine of his father's sword, helmet, and a quick bow. Mulan and I shared a glance before paying our respects as well. A small silken doll and a pottery bowl painted in the single figure of "hope."
"They've only just left," I said to Shang. "We can still catch them, if we hurry."
"Right," he nodded. "We ride on!"
His feet in the stirrups, we marched on at a feverish pace. ***David***
"So, you're saying that dimensions are constructed off of other people's written word? And this story Kingdom Hearts is what we're in?" Sora asked.
"That's right," I nodded. "It's only a theory, but that's the only thing I've got to go on as to why I'm here."
"Why does the prophesy include the Keystaff, which you wield?" Donald said, smug.
"I don't know everything," I said. "It's not like I can just pick the answers out of thin air, you know. I haven't paid much attention to my sis, to tell the truth. I thought all her 'theories' were a load of—"
"Well, she seems to have gotten one thing right," Sora said. "There are other worlds."
"Yeah," I sighed. "Hey, where does this forest go, anyway?"
"I dunno," Goofy laughed. "Don't you know?"
"No. I only got to see the part where you three met," I said, feeling rather sheepish. "My sister's the master of this game, not—ah!" I tasted dirt just as fast.
"Gee, are you okay?" Goofy helped me back to my feet as I looked around for what had tripped me.
"Hey, look!" I picked up the little pink box. "It's a Heartless antennae!"
"Can we go back now?" Donald said. "One bit of evidence should be enough, right?"
"If I remember right...Angel said something about it not really mattering much, anyway," I shrugged. "We've been out here for almost a week. Let's go back."
In those two days, I explained everything that I knew about Kingdom Hearts, the Multiverse, and dimensional travel. Which I'll say right now, isn't much. Angel developed the ideas over a span of five whole years, and I didn't listen a bunch to what she had to say.
"She started making this stuff up when she was ten?" Sora blinked. "How?"
"She didn't really realize what she was doing back then, but...well, she didn't have that many friends. People typically don't like other people that are different from them. So, really, it was just me she had.
"So she had a long time by herself. She made up this little blue 'dragon', and called it Mishu. Mishu was from the Alternate Dimension, where only dimensional dragons like her lived. After a while, she stopped pretending that Mishu was real, but she started writing her into stories, including a very warped version of herself in them."
"What do you mean by 'warped?'"
"Often times, I didn't read her stories," I said, sheepish. "That's her word for them. I did read one, though, a long time ago."
"What was it about?"
"There was a demon after her...I can't remember his name. But apparently she'd used him as a character before, because he had been defeated several times by several different versions of 'Angel.' He took over the body of Angel's 'best friend,' Jonathon, and attempted to pull her into the Abyss.
"I think that's some kind of purgatory or prison in the Multidimensional worlds. I'm not certain. That version of Angel, was so...weird to me. So unfeeling and bitter. Well, at least the story ended well."
"How so?"
"The demon was defeated, her friend returned to her, and she was the Master of that particular Universe."
"Warped, huh?"
"Yeah." We reached the entrance back into the Queen's Castle. "Warped." ***Angel***
Crikee never got the chance to give away our position.
"Ambush!" cried the nearest soldier.
Fli-it!
The arrow struck him down.
"The cannons!" I shouted.
Mulan was way ahead of me.
Huns descended from either side of us, firing arrows. Some missed. Others hit home. Screams, yells, battle roars, all about, pounding in closer and closer in on my head. After all of my training, I still was not truly prepared for battle.
"Mao, pull yourself together!" Ping shouted, firing her bow and arrow at the Huns. She reloaded her bow and struck another Hun down.
"All right, let's move!" I yelled, grabbing my Keybow and firing home three of the attacking Huns. More poured over the mountains, and the mountain of snow that would have created an avalanche was nowhere in sight.
It seemed a long time before I ran out of arrows. I knew that in order to keep up my façade, I would need to eventually. The others had already drawn swords as the Huns came closer, and now, I did too. My Keybow over my shoulder, I glanced down for a quick prayer.
And stopped short.
On the ground, a little disc, clear and slightly bluish, it was in the shape of a short arrow. I picked it up, and grew longer, wind flashing about in a somber dance. It was icy cold. The wind whipped higher and faster. My last arrow.
I aimed it high and it started to glow. The blue light encased arrow and girl alike, and I let it fly. It struck the first Hun.
CRACK-ACK-ACK-K-K-K!
The Huns, no, the very air about them, froze stiff and true. Just as the frozen sculpture reached the back, however, the Hun let an arrow of his own fly. It glanced off Ping's side and struck into mine.
"Mao!"
I fell back, the warm liquid streaming out of my side. As I slid into darkness, the wind whipped up around me once more, and I shrank. ***David***
"Now we shall see who the real culprit is!" The Queen lifted the lid on the pink box, revealing the Shadow's Antennae. "What was that?"
"A Heartless," Goofy laughed.
"Hmm. You dare tell me what to think? Guards! Attack them! If you let them touch the Tower, it's your heads I'll have!"
"Donald, Goofy! You guys attack the cards!" I shouted. "Sora and I'll get the Tower!" Donald and Goofy nodded, and started attacking. "Sora, you get that side, I'll get this one!"
The Tower's wheels exploded in a flash of light as Sora and I finished it off. The cage where Alice was crashed to the ground. She wasn't there.
"Find her! Bring her back, whatever the cost!" The Queen shouted.
We sighed and went back into the Lotus Forest. The Cheshire Cat reappeared, but he was followed by a second cat. On its side was a large "K" in black fur.
"Who's that?" I asked.
"Who knows?" Donald said.
"A friend of mine, indeed," nodded the Cheshire Cat. "Help in time, it leads."
"Hop on," said the other cat. "I'm K. See? K."
"Uhmmm...sure," I nodded, smiling. "Come on, guys."
"Hop on, hop on, to the place where Alice vanished, we go."
The trees flew by, as if nothing. Instead of almost a week in the forest, it was only about five minutes to the other end of Lotus Forest, into the Tea Party Garden. Into the little house, into the door to the ceiling of the Bizarre Room.
"What on Earth...?"
I looked up. There was the floor of the same room. The little Doorknob, the bed, the walls. We were standing on the ceiling as if it wasn't even an up, but a down. A tiny table, with candles to be lit, stood upon the center.
"Light the candles, then we can go," K said. "The Shadows will appear, but they will be few. It is on the Floor that the Bizarre becomes real."
K hopped across the to table, and Donald, though quite dizzy, lit the candle. They did the same at the other table. Several Heartless appeared, but we destroyed them pretty easily.
"Now, to meet the Trickmaster," K reared back like a horse and ran to the ground. Literally.
"I must leave you now," K said. "David, the next world you should visit is ancient China. Your sister is there."
"Wait!"
But he was already gone. How did he know where my sister was? And why had he sped everything up like that, making certain that we would rush through? Did he know something?
Obviously more than I did. ************************************************************************