AN: Hi hi!!! Well, next chapter is finally up! ^-^ ok, everyone say "hi" to my best friend who is currently over!!! :P yea.. enjoy, next chapter will be up next weekend prolly (Grr that skool!)
Disclaimers: Still don't own Kingdom Hearts or anything in it!! *is dead* *Best Friend: yes, but I own the world! ~.^* *sweatdrops* wuteva u say :P
The Hidden Path
"What's wrong?"
It was Naomi. She was by his side. He was sitting there, crouched into a little ball, but he wanted to shrink even smaller. Another dream of his past, something was wrong here though, he was full of sorrow. He could feel tears running down his face and felt hiccupping sobs painfully attack him.
"What's wrong?" she asked again. She had a hand on his shoulder and was trying to catch his eye; though he covered his face between his knees with his are wrapped around them.
"Come on, you can tell me," coaxed Naomi, "I'm just want to help you. I promise."
With those words echoing through his head, Riku looked up at Naomi's face. It was clear, but he already knew he'd forget what it looked like as soon as he awoke.
"Why do you care?" he said in an almost threatening tone.
"Why should I?" replied Naomi with a puzzled look, "Something's bothering you, and no one deserves to be alone if they need help."
Riku just stared dumbfounded. Back when he was just growing up, before he had become friends with Sora and Kairi, no one cared about him. None of the other kids would talk to him or invite him to play games, they were afraid of his eyes, afraid of his hair, his different appearance. Even the adults stayed away from him, they too, were fearful of his gaze; fearful under the gaze of those deep sea green eyes that they didn't understand. They were all afraid of him, just because he looked a little different from them. This was then, the dream a vision before Sora had ever met the small and skinny, silver-haired boy who was now curled up, crying as a girl tried to comfort him.
"I've never seen you on this island before," Naomi continued, not noticing his surprise that she cared, "Did you get transferred here?"
Riku nodded slowly, then began to cry again.
"Oh no, wait," said Naomi, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."
He couldn't believe it she really did care! Riku took a deep breath and wiped away his tears. He looked at Naomi in the calmest face he could muster. Only now did he really notice where he was; a dark alleyway in between two tall buildings he didn't recognize. It couldn't have been that late in the evening, but it was very dark out, which seemed to be caused by the clouds Riku now noticed that were dropping buckets of rain on them.
"Come on," said Naomi holding out a hand, "Will you tell me inside? You'll get sick if you stay out here."
Riku nodded and took the girls hand. She led him into one of the buildings. It was a poor, tattered old apartment with peeling wallpaper and sand covered floors. All Riku could see from the doorway was a hall leading down to two big swinging doors, and above, stairs leading up to the floors as well as the crashing sound of the pounding rain. Without a word, or any other sound, Riku followed Naomi up the dark staircase up two floors to come to a corridor. It was totally silent, save the rain hammering against the roof, as she brought him into one of the rooms down the corridor.
As they were climbing the stairs, Riku glanced out one of the foggy and dirt smeared widows to catch what was outside. He was on an island that he had never been on before, he didn't recognize anything on it even though there wasn't much there. But now, finally in the small room bearing a little cot in one of the corners with a woolen blanket folded neatly beside it. Riku shivered. He was completely soaked.
Naomi brought the blanked over to him and he took it to wrap himself up in, giving a thankful nod to her. Naomi took off the old raincoat she had been wearing and threw it aside. She then pulled out a bit of bread from a plate beside her cot that was covered with an upside down bowl. She gave it to Riku who ate it up. He was suddenly surprisingly hungry.
"Ok, so how'd you end up all the way out here?" asked Naomi as Riku finished his piece of bread.
"We -we got blown off course when the storm hit," replied Riku meekly.
"We?"
"Yea, my mama and me -" Riku stopped short, he only just remember it all now. He remembered going out with his mother on a fishing boat as she took him out for a little adventure and fun. He remembered the storm coming out of nowhere. He remembered their boat loosing control and smashing into the shores rocks. He remembered hearing that ear-piercing scream as he watched his mother get thrown overboard trying to steer away from the jagged rocks on which she fell. He remembered getting to shore somehow, as the rain and wind whipped at him. He remembered searching for his mother along the shore, calling her. He couldn't find her. He was gone, and he was alone.
"She -she's gone..." he said without realizing it and felt tears at the corner of his eyes.
"What about your dad?" Naomi asked carefully, "Where's he?"
"I -I don't know," Riku replied, finding it harder and harder to make the words come out from his mouth. He looked up at Naomi, but instead of the pitying eyes he was expecting, hers were filled with a pain, like she knew exactly what he was feeling.
"Do you have any relatives? Any friends to take care of you?"
Riku really didn't see the point in all these questions; he was alone, completely alone. No, wait he wasn't, not really, Naomi was there. So even though he still didn't get at her point, for some reason he felt like he could trust her with his life, to tell her. After all, she was the only one who would listen.
"N-no," stammered Riku, "No one ever talked to me or my mom. They say my eyes, they're unnatural so they stay away from me."
"You're eyes?" said Naomi if she thought that was a joke, a joke that people were afraid of a little boy's eye colour. But everyone was, everyone except Naomi. Why was that anyways?
"And now I'm all alone," cried Riku, that sense of trust taking over again. She wasn't afraid, he could tell her anything, "She was all I had and now she's gone!"
"You're not alone," said Naomi suddenly in a very calm and relaxed voice, "I'm here, and I kind of like your eyes..."
That made him smile. Naomi was the only other person, save his mother, who was unaffected by his stare that he always thought was a curse.
"So what about you?" he said, "Do you live on this island?"
"Yep! It's lucky you landed here too!" she said grinning.
"Why? Is this you're house? Because it's really big," Riku said, "Do you think there's a small place for me to sleep in, if it's ok with you're parents, do you think I can stay a night?"
Naomi's smile vanished. "It's not my house, it's an orphanage, and I'm an orphan, my parents died."
Riku was taken aback and he didn't know what to say. But that would explain the look of understanding she had given him before when he hold her his parents were now both gone.
"I-I'm sorry," he said finally, looking down to the floor.
"That's ok," she replied, "But now you can live here too with me since you have no where else to go, unless you want to go back to the main island and find somebody..."
"No, no I'll stay," he said quickly. He didn't want to go back to the place where everyone eyed him suspiciously while making sure they kept their distance, glancing down if he caught their eye for a moment. He much rather wanted to stay with someone who didn't care that his eyes were so mysterious, who cared about him.
"Alright!" exclaimed Naomi excitedly, "I'll tell Yuna that you're here, and you'll get your own room and everything! There aren't really many of us living here."
Riku smiled. He would like it here. But as for the memory of his mother, he forced it out of his mind. He put up a wall to block out all the memories of her they'd just pain him remembering. And besides, his home was here now maybe she didn't even exist.
"Riku..." Naomi said. But was it Naomi? Her voice sounded different, he couldn't explain it, because it was her speaking no questions asked, but something was just, different about it.
"Huh?" he said. Then he felt something strange inside him. He looked at his arms, his legs, himself. He was 15-years-old again!
"Riku..." she sounded as if she were possessed or something.
He looked up at Naomi. But she wasn't there! Instead, another figure was sitting right where she had, but she was too big to be a 5-year-old. She was probably the same age as Riku right now. Her face was in the shadows so he couldn't tell if it was Naomi or not. But it must be, that was her voice. Maybe she had just grown to 14, like he had to 15. Suddenly she tilted her head up, so her eyes meet his, and he almost cried out loud when he say who was staring back at him. It couldn't be...
His eyes shot open. It couldn't be! Could it? Could Naomi really be still alive? No, it was impossible, he saw her himself, she drowned in the storm. Wait, what did she look like? He couldn't remember, just like he couldn't even remember the younger Naomi. He grunted in frustration. He knew his mind was playing with him again, teasing him.
Stupid thing, he thought. He looked down however, and found Mariha still sleeping, though she had creped up to rest up against his chest. He smiled and brushed away hair from her face. He then rested his own head back down against the cave wall and stared into space, remembering, for the first time, what had really happened with the mother he never before remembered having.
~*~
Sora awoke early the next morning. He squinted against the light coming from the newly risen sun. Kairi was still there beside him. He dared not move for he didn't want to wake her. But, as he stayed perfectly still, just staring out over the ocean, Kairi stirred.
She moaned and opened her eyes. Sora watched her with a smile. "Sora?" she said, only half awake.
"I'm here," he replied, holding her close. Then, caressing her cheek, he bent over to kiss her. When they broke apart, he gazed into her eyes that he loved so much. She stared back, a warm smile spread across her lips. He was about to lean back down to kiss her again when suddenly a loud rumble emerged from Sora's stomach. He his face turned bright red and Kairi couldn't contain her laughter.
"Sorry," he said still as red as ever. Way to ruin the moment! he thought, annoyed at himself. "He, come on," she said through her laughter, "I'm kind of hungry too."
Sora grinned and got up, holding out his had for Kairi. They searched around the island for mushrooms and other things to eat, but when they got to the cove, Sora stopped for a moment.
"It's still here," he said in a dreamy voice, "Our raft is still here."
He was referring to the raft he, Kairi and Riku had built in hopes of sailing away to new worlds.
"Yep, exactly where we left it," Kairi said, "I haven't moved it at all, I knew you were coming back so I didn't need to use it. I kept it standing so it would remind me of all the fun we used to have."
Sora nodded. He remembered slaving over it, but having a great time nonetheless with his friends in constructing it. It took so long to complete that raft, it was really too bad they'd never really use it. The two wandered back to the main beach to find that Wakka, Selphie had arrived on the island. Wakka and Tidus were training, Wakka on the balcony where Tidus first saw Sora yesterday, and Tidus on the mini island where Sora and Kairi had slept that night.
Selphie was sitting on the dock, looking out over the ocean like she did almost every day Sora could remember. Donald and Goofy were lying on the sandy beach, snoozing as they basked in the warm sun.
"Hey why don't you go to meet Donald and Goofy?" suggested Sora looking over at Kairi who was standing beside him, "There's something I need to do."
Kairi nodded then skipped away to the lazy Donald and Goofy. Sora grinned then went over and up to the balcony to meet with Wakka, after all, he didn't promise the overconfident boy a duel.
"Hey!" said Wakka when Sora walked up to him, "You ready?"
"I was born ready," replied Sora. Wakka tossed a wooden sword over to Sora who caught it.
"Remember that?" joked Wakka. The little wooden sword was nowhere near as powerful and strong as Sora's Keyblade. But then again, Wakka's weapon was as equally as strong as the sword, his Blitzball. Sora slashed at the air a couple of times to get the feel of his new, err, old weapon. Yea, I guess this is fair, thought Sora. After all, he'd totally annihilated Wakka if he used his Keyblade.
"Lets go," said Sora and they climbed down onto the beach. Tidus noticed them from where he was practicing and immediately came over to watch.
"Ready!" he called from the dock. Sora went into this fighting stance, ready for an attack, "Start!"
Sora charged.
~*~
Mariha awoke. She felt so comfortable lying there. For a moment she didn't know where she was, so she kept her eyes closed and hugged her pillow with a little moan of sleepiness. Then she remembered. She had fallen asleep in a cave, but what she was lying on didn't feel like a rock floor, and she knew that she didn't have a pillow. Her eyes shot open. She slowly turned her head to see what she was sleeping on. She looked up and saw Riku's face looking down at her.
"Oh!" she said and sprung off of Riku. She blushed deeply, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were there."
"No, it's ok," Riku replied, "I thought you might be lonely or something so I came over."
Mariha attempted a smile and blushed again. Riku then got up and stretched with a yawn.
"I guess we should keep going then," said Riku, "I mean, tomorrow Sora will be ready to open that door and we still haven't even found this light yet!"
"Um, ok," said Mariha, "But I hope we find it in time, because we're running out of it."
"Yea," sighed Riku. He needed to find it; he couldn't screw up this time.
Mariha made her way to the exit of the cave to be welcomed by the same death threatening rocks as before. Riku sighed from where he was still standing near the back of the cave. At this rate, they'd never find the light in time. Why did Ansem have to delay them for so long? Curse him! Riku was about to go over to Mariha when he noticed something from the corner of his eye.
"Hey Mariha," he called from the back of the cave, "Come check this out."
She turned and looked at him with a puzzled expression, but when over anyway. Though she didn't know what could be worth seeing in an empty cave.
"Well, I think I might've found another way out of here," said Riku grinning at her. He pointed to a large crack in the cave wall she had never noticed before.
"Hey, that wasn't there before," she said.
"We mush have missed it, after all, we were really tired," said Riku with a shrug.
"I guess..." Mariha didn't know. She didn't know if going through there was safe. It wasn't just that she was afraid of being deep in the cave or anything, it was because somehow, she got the feeling Ansem was setting another trap for them.
"Well come on!" said Riku ducking into the dark passage.
"Wait!" called Mariha, "I'm not sure about this..."
"It's better than getting sliced into a zillion pieces out there," replied Riku, head popping out from the crack and tilting his toward the rocks outside.
"But how will we see where we're going?" asked Mariha, trying to think of any excuse to not go through, "It's so dark in there, and there might be heartless..."
"No problem," said Riku. He stepped out of the tunnel and pulled something out of his pockets. It was a stick of that blue glowing energy.
"I couldn't help but nab one from before," said Riku with sly grin, "You can just use you're fire magic to light it and we'll use it as a torch."
"Umm..." She couldn't avoid it. Riku was set on gong and it would be impossible to change his mine once it was made up, he was stubborn like that. She didn't have the energy to argue anyways. No matter how much she told herself it would be fine to go through, it didn't do anything to truly convince herself.
"Ok," she said finally with sigh. Riku held out the stick and with a mumble of 'fire' from Mariha, that torch was lit and burning brightly. Riku held out the hand that wasn't holding the torch and with a slight hesitation, Mariha took it.
They stepped into the dark, tight tunnel and began walking slowly down into long passageway. The top of the tunnel was high above them but the path was very narrow. So narrow that in some places, Mariha had to go through sideways to avoid getting scratched up by the ridged and uneven walls.
"Riku," she said following him and holding tightly to his hand, "This doesn't seem right. What if it's a trap?"
Riku stopped and turned to her. Mariha could see in the flickering firelight that a warm smile broke out across his face.
"Don't worry, remember, I promised I wouldn't bail on you," he said, "Just don't let go of my hand and we won't get separated."
Mariha smiled a bit but looked down as soon as Riku turned to go forward again. She forced herself to believe him. After all, they were already deep within this tunnel, so if anything going to happen, it probably would've happened already.
They walked and walked. Nothing but empty darkness ahead and behind. Mariha's legs were getting tired. They hadn't stopped to rest once since they started what seemed like hours ago. She had no idea how long they had been going but it seemed like forever. Then, Riku stopped so suddenly that she bumped into him as she had been staring into the endless abyss behind them.
"Oh, sorry," she said, looking at the back of his head, "Hmm? Why'd you stop?"
She peered over his shoulder and saw what seemed like a tall stone door. What's with this place and doors? thought Mariha, "What is it?' she asked anyway as Riku just continued to stare at it.
"Here, hold this," he said handing her the torch. She took it and stood perfectly still as Riku went closer to the smooth gray stone door. He ran his hands around it, looking for a crack or handle to open it with.
She stood and watched, clutching to the torch. His back was turned to her; turned and unprotected. A voice suddenly rang through her ears and took over. 'Use the torch, kill him.' She couldn't resist it. A thrust suddenly came over her, a thrust for a kill. She took a step closer to him. Then she took another. She would taste his blood. Another step. He still had his back turned, still was unaware of her approaching. Coming closer and closer, with the torch raised over her head, ready to knock him with it. Her eyes were blank, as her thrust for the kill grew stronger.
AN: heh heh, I'll leave you hanging for a week *evil grin* I'm SOO EVIL MUWHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! *cough* um... yes... *rolls eyes*
Disclaimers: Still don't own Kingdom Hearts or anything in it!! *is dead* *Best Friend: yes, but I own the world! ~.^* *sweatdrops* wuteva u say :P
The Hidden Path
"What's wrong?"
It was Naomi. She was by his side. He was sitting there, crouched into a little ball, but he wanted to shrink even smaller. Another dream of his past, something was wrong here though, he was full of sorrow. He could feel tears running down his face and felt hiccupping sobs painfully attack him.
"What's wrong?" she asked again. She had a hand on his shoulder and was trying to catch his eye; though he covered his face between his knees with his are wrapped around them.
"Come on, you can tell me," coaxed Naomi, "I'm just want to help you. I promise."
With those words echoing through his head, Riku looked up at Naomi's face. It was clear, but he already knew he'd forget what it looked like as soon as he awoke.
"Why do you care?" he said in an almost threatening tone.
"Why should I?" replied Naomi with a puzzled look, "Something's bothering you, and no one deserves to be alone if they need help."
Riku just stared dumbfounded. Back when he was just growing up, before he had become friends with Sora and Kairi, no one cared about him. None of the other kids would talk to him or invite him to play games, they were afraid of his eyes, afraid of his hair, his different appearance. Even the adults stayed away from him, they too, were fearful of his gaze; fearful under the gaze of those deep sea green eyes that they didn't understand. They were all afraid of him, just because he looked a little different from them. This was then, the dream a vision before Sora had ever met the small and skinny, silver-haired boy who was now curled up, crying as a girl tried to comfort him.
"I've never seen you on this island before," Naomi continued, not noticing his surprise that she cared, "Did you get transferred here?"
Riku nodded slowly, then began to cry again.
"Oh no, wait," said Naomi, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."
He couldn't believe it she really did care! Riku took a deep breath and wiped away his tears. He looked at Naomi in the calmest face he could muster. Only now did he really notice where he was; a dark alleyway in between two tall buildings he didn't recognize. It couldn't have been that late in the evening, but it was very dark out, which seemed to be caused by the clouds Riku now noticed that were dropping buckets of rain on them.
"Come on," said Naomi holding out a hand, "Will you tell me inside? You'll get sick if you stay out here."
Riku nodded and took the girls hand. She led him into one of the buildings. It was a poor, tattered old apartment with peeling wallpaper and sand covered floors. All Riku could see from the doorway was a hall leading down to two big swinging doors, and above, stairs leading up to the floors as well as the crashing sound of the pounding rain. Without a word, or any other sound, Riku followed Naomi up the dark staircase up two floors to come to a corridor. It was totally silent, save the rain hammering against the roof, as she brought him into one of the rooms down the corridor.
As they were climbing the stairs, Riku glanced out one of the foggy and dirt smeared widows to catch what was outside. He was on an island that he had never been on before, he didn't recognize anything on it even though there wasn't much there. But now, finally in the small room bearing a little cot in one of the corners with a woolen blanket folded neatly beside it. Riku shivered. He was completely soaked.
Naomi brought the blanked over to him and he took it to wrap himself up in, giving a thankful nod to her. Naomi took off the old raincoat she had been wearing and threw it aside. She then pulled out a bit of bread from a plate beside her cot that was covered with an upside down bowl. She gave it to Riku who ate it up. He was suddenly surprisingly hungry.
"Ok, so how'd you end up all the way out here?" asked Naomi as Riku finished his piece of bread.
"We -we got blown off course when the storm hit," replied Riku meekly.
"We?"
"Yea, my mama and me -" Riku stopped short, he only just remember it all now. He remembered going out with his mother on a fishing boat as she took him out for a little adventure and fun. He remembered the storm coming out of nowhere. He remembered their boat loosing control and smashing into the shores rocks. He remembered hearing that ear-piercing scream as he watched his mother get thrown overboard trying to steer away from the jagged rocks on which she fell. He remembered getting to shore somehow, as the rain and wind whipped at him. He remembered searching for his mother along the shore, calling her. He couldn't find her. He was gone, and he was alone.
"She -she's gone..." he said without realizing it and felt tears at the corner of his eyes.
"What about your dad?" Naomi asked carefully, "Where's he?"
"I -I don't know," Riku replied, finding it harder and harder to make the words come out from his mouth. He looked up at Naomi, but instead of the pitying eyes he was expecting, hers were filled with a pain, like she knew exactly what he was feeling.
"Do you have any relatives? Any friends to take care of you?"
Riku really didn't see the point in all these questions; he was alone, completely alone. No, wait he wasn't, not really, Naomi was there. So even though he still didn't get at her point, for some reason he felt like he could trust her with his life, to tell her. After all, she was the only one who would listen.
"N-no," stammered Riku, "No one ever talked to me or my mom. They say my eyes, they're unnatural so they stay away from me."
"You're eyes?" said Naomi if she thought that was a joke, a joke that people were afraid of a little boy's eye colour. But everyone was, everyone except Naomi. Why was that anyways?
"And now I'm all alone," cried Riku, that sense of trust taking over again. She wasn't afraid, he could tell her anything, "She was all I had and now she's gone!"
"You're not alone," said Naomi suddenly in a very calm and relaxed voice, "I'm here, and I kind of like your eyes..."
That made him smile. Naomi was the only other person, save his mother, who was unaffected by his stare that he always thought was a curse.
"So what about you?" he said, "Do you live on this island?"
"Yep! It's lucky you landed here too!" she said grinning.
"Why? Is this you're house? Because it's really big," Riku said, "Do you think there's a small place for me to sleep in, if it's ok with you're parents, do you think I can stay a night?"
Naomi's smile vanished. "It's not my house, it's an orphanage, and I'm an orphan, my parents died."
Riku was taken aback and he didn't know what to say. But that would explain the look of understanding she had given him before when he hold her his parents were now both gone.
"I-I'm sorry," he said finally, looking down to the floor.
"That's ok," she replied, "But now you can live here too with me since you have no where else to go, unless you want to go back to the main island and find somebody..."
"No, no I'll stay," he said quickly. He didn't want to go back to the place where everyone eyed him suspiciously while making sure they kept their distance, glancing down if he caught their eye for a moment. He much rather wanted to stay with someone who didn't care that his eyes were so mysterious, who cared about him.
"Alright!" exclaimed Naomi excitedly, "I'll tell Yuna that you're here, and you'll get your own room and everything! There aren't really many of us living here."
Riku smiled. He would like it here. But as for the memory of his mother, he forced it out of his mind. He put up a wall to block out all the memories of her they'd just pain him remembering. And besides, his home was here now maybe she didn't even exist.
"Riku..." Naomi said. But was it Naomi? Her voice sounded different, he couldn't explain it, because it was her speaking no questions asked, but something was just, different about it.
"Huh?" he said. Then he felt something strange inside him. He looked at his arms, his legs, himself. He was 15-years-old again!
"Riku..." she sounded as if she were possessed or something.
He looked up at Naomi. But she wasn't there! Instead, another figure was sitting right where she had, but she was too big to be a 5-year-old. She was probably the same age as Riku right now. Her face was in the shadows so he couldn't tell if it was Naomi or not. But it must be, that was her voice. Maybe she had just grown to 14, like he had to 15. Suddenly she tilted her head up, so her eyes meet his, and he almost cried out loud when he say who was staring back at him. It couldn't be...
His eyes shot open. It couldn't be! Could it? Could Naomi really be still alive? No, it was impossible, he saw her himself, she drowned in the storm. Wait, what did she look like? He couldn't remember, just like he couldn't even remember the younger Naomi. He grunted in frustration. He knew his mind was playing with him again, teasing him.
Stupid thing, he thought. He looked down however, and found Mariha still sleeping, though she had creped up to rest up against his chest. He smiled and brushed away hair from her face. He then rested his own head back down against the cave wall and stared into space, remembering, for the first time, what had really happened with the mother he never before remembered having.
~*~
Sora awoke early the next morning. He squinted against the light coming from the newly risen sun. Kairi was still there beside him. He dared not move for he didn't want to wake her. But, as he stayed perfectly still, just staring out over the ocean, Kairi stirred.
She moaned and opened her eyes. Sora watched her with a smile. "Sora?" she said, only half awake.
"I'm here," he replied, holding her close. Then, caressing her cheek, he bent over to kiss her. When they broke apart, he gazed into her eyes that he loved so much. She stared back, a warm smile spread across her lips. He was about to lean back down to kiss her again when suddenly a loud rumble emerged from Sora's stomach. He his face turned bright red and Kairi couldn't contain her laughter.
"Sorry," he said still as red as ever. Way to ruin the moment! he thought, annoyed at himself. "He, come on," she said through her laughter, "I'm kind of hungry too."
Sora grinned and got up, holding out his had for Kairi. They searched around the island for mushrooms and other things to eat, but when they got to the cove, Sora stopped for a moment.
"It's still here," he said in a dreamy voice, "Our raft is still here."
He was referring to the raft he, Kairi and Riku had built in hopes of sailing away to new worlds.
"Yep, exactly where we left it," Kairi said, "I haven't moved it at all, I knew you were coming back so I didn't need to use it. I kept it standing so it would remind me of all the fun we used to have."
Sora nodded. He remembered slaving over it, but having a great time nonetheless with his friends in constructing it. It took so long to complete that raft, it was really too bad they'd never really use it. The two wandered back to the main beach to find that Wakka, Selphie had arrived on the island. Wakka and Tidus were training, Wakka on the balcony where Tidus first saw Sora yesterday, and Tidus on the mini island where Sora and Kairi had slept that night.
Selphie was sitting on the dock, looking out over the ocean like she did almost every day Sora could remember. Donald and Goofy were lying on the sandy beach, snoozing as they basked in the warm sun.
"Hey why don't you go to meet Donald and Goofy?" suggested Sora looking over at Kairi who was standing beside him, "There's something I need to do."
Kairi nodded then skipped away to the lazy Donald and Goofy. Sora grinned then went over and up to the balcony to meet with Wakka, after all, he didn't promise the overconfident boy a duel.
"Hey!" said Wakka when Sora walked up to him, "You ready?"
"I was born ready," replied Sora. Wakka tossed a wooden sword over to Sora who caught it.
"Remember that?" joked Wakka. The little wooden sword was nowhere near as powerful and strong as Sora's Keyblade. But then again, Wakka's weapon was as equally as strong as the sword, his Blitzball. Sora slashed at the air a couple of times to get the feel of his new, err, old weapon. Yea, I guess this is fair, thought Sora. After all, he'd totally annihilated Wakka if he used his Keyblade.
"Lets go," said Sora and they climbed down onto the beach. Tidus noticed them from where he was practicing and immediately came over to watch.
"Ready!" he called from the dock. Sora went into this fighting stance, ready for an attack, "Start!"
Sora charged.
~*~
Mariha awoke. She felt so comfortable lying there. For a moment she didn't know where she was, so she kept her eyes closed and hugged her pillow with a little moan of sleepiness. Then she remembered. She had fallen asleep in a cave, but what she was lying on didn't feel like a rock floor, and she knew that she didn't have a pillow. Her eyes shot open. She slowly turned her head to see what she was sleeping on. She looked up and saw Riku's face looking down at her.
"Oh!" she said and sprung off of Riku. She blushed deeply, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were there."
"No, it's ok," Riku replied, "I thought you might be lonely or something so I came over."
Mariha attempted a smile and blushed again. Riku then got up and stretched with a yawn.
"I guess we should keep going then," said Riku, "I mean, tomorrow Sora will be ready to open that door and we still haven't even found this light yet!"
"Um, ok," said Mariha, "But I hope we find it in time, because we're running out of it."
"Yea," sighed Riku. He needed to find it; he couldn't screw up this time.
Mariha made her way to the exit of the cave to be welcomed by the same death threatening rocks as before. Riku sighed from where he was still standing near the back of the cave. At this rate, they'd never find the light in time. Why did Ansem have to delay them for so long? Curse him! Riku was about to go over to Mariha when he noticed something from the corner of his eye.
"Hey Mariha," he called from the back of the cave, "Come check this out."
She turned and looked at him with a puzzled expression, but when over anyway. Though she didn't know what could be worth seeing in an empty cave.
"Well, I think I might've found another way out of here," said Riku grinning at her. He pointed to a large crack in the cave wall she had never noticed before.
"Hey, that wasn't there before," she said.
"We mush have missed it, after all, we were really tired," said Riku with a shrug.
"I guess..." Mariha didn't know. She didn't know if going through there was safe. It wasn't just that she was afraid of being deep in the cave or anything, it was because somehow, she got the feeling Ansem was setting another trap for them.
"Well come on!" said Riku ducking into the dark passage.
"Wait!" called Mariha, "I'm not sure about this..."
"It's better than getting sliced into a zillion pieces out there," replied Riku, head popping out from the crack and tilting his toward the rocks outside.
"But how will we see where we're going?" asked Mariha, trying to think of any excuse to not go through, "It's so dark in there, and there might be heartless..."
"No problem," said Riku. He stepped out of the tunnel and pulled something out of his pockets. It was a stick of that blue glowing energy.
"I couldn't help but nab one from before," said Riku with sly grin, "You can just use you're fire magic to light it and we'll use it as a torch."
"Umm..." She couldn't avoid it. Riku was set on gong and it would be impossible to change his mine once it was made up, he was stubborn like that. She didn't have the energy to argue anyways. No matter how much she told herself it would be fine to go through, it didn't do anything to truly convince herself.
"Ok," she said finally with sigh. Riku held out the stick and with a mumble of 'fire' from Mariha, that torch was lit and burning brightly. Riku held out the hand that wasn't holding the torch and with a slight hesitation, Mariha took it.
They stepped into the dark, tight tunnel and began walking slowly down into long passageway. The top of the tunnel was high above them but the path was very narrow. So narrow that in some places, Mariha had to go through sideways to avoid getting scratched up by the ridged and uneven walls.
"Riku," she said following him and holding tightly to his hand, "This doesn't seem right. What if it's a trap?"
Riku stopped and turned to her. Mariha could see in the flickering firelight that a warm smile broke out across his face.
"Don't worry, remember, I promised I wouldn't bail on you," he said, "Just don't let go of my hand and we won't get separated."
Mariha smiled a bit but looked down as soon as Riku turned to go forward again. She forced herself to believe him. After all, they were already deep within this tunnel, so if anything going to happen, it probably would've happened already.
They walked and walked. Nothing but empty darkness ahead and behind. Mariha's legs were getting tired. They hadn't stopped to rest once since they started what seemed like hours ago. She had no idea how long they had been going but it seemed like forever. Then, Riku stopped so suddenly that she bumped into him as she had been staring into the endless abyss behind them.
"Oh, sorry," she said, looking at the back of his head, "Hmm? Why'd you stop?"
She peered over his shoulder and saw what seemed like a tall stone door. What's with this place and doors? thought Mariha, "What is it?' she asked anyway as Riku just continued to stare at it.
"Here, hold this," he said handing her the torch. She took it and stood perfectly still as Riku went closer to the smooth gray stone door. He ran his hands around it, looking for a crack or handle to open it with.
She stood and watched, clutching to the torch. His back was turned to her; turned and unprotected. A voice suddenly rang through her ears and took over. 'Use the torch, kill him.' She couldn't resist it. A thrust suddenly came over her, a thrust for a kill. She took a step closer to him. Then she took another. She would taste his blood. Another step. He still had his back turned, still was unaware of her approaching. Coming closer and closer, with the torch raised over her head, ready to knock him with it. Her eyes were blank, as her thrust for the kill grew stronger.
AN: heh heh, I'll leave you hanging for a week *evil grin* I'm SOO EVIL MUWHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! *cough* um... yes... *rolls eyes*