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Chapter Three

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His feet ached. His heart pounded. But, he wouldn't give up. He wouldn't give up until he caught him! He had told him that he wouldn't be able to catch him... He had to prove him wrong! Riku couldn't win all the time anyway, right? Sora wanted to win at least once. But, it wasn't fair! Riku was a full year older than he was. Meaning, Riku would always have some sort of advantage against him! But, until the moment when he found a way to beat him, he would never give up.

He would never stop running!

Beads of sweat trickled down the side of his face and he grit his teeth so he would maintain speed. Riku was getting slower and slower. He must have been getting tired and guessed that Sora had given up long ago. Normally, that would be the case--Sora giving up before the chase was ended. Not this time, though. So, now Sora had Riku so that he wasn't expecting him. He had him right where he wanted him.

Using the last bit of his strength, he tried lifting his feet quicker and setting them down quietly in the sand.

Riku continued slowing down and Sora couldn't help but get excited. What would it be like to catch Riku? Would Riku get mad or would he just be surprised? He hoped Riku didn't get mad though... If he did though, he would manage to play it off somehow and get him to get happy again or something. He imagined Riku was a bad loser.

Riku stopped running and slowed it down to a fast walk/slow jog. Sora maintained his speed and readied himself to jump forward and tackle Riku down. Riku finally stopped and must have heard some sort of noise behind him because he turned his head to like towards his right, to the ocean. Sora thrust his body forward and closed his eyes tight while his arms reached forward to grab onto him.

Then, he hit the sand.

Sora clenched his fists onto the sand and lifted his face off of the sand. He squinted up at Riku who was grinning madly down at him. He had little beads of sweat dripping into his left eye so it was closed. He reached one gloved hand up to wipe at his forehead before he offered Sora his hand. Sora pouted before he accepted it and allowed Riku to lift him off the ground.

Riku was still cool and collected, smirking and the tired and pouty look on Sora's face. He reached forward and ruffled the younger boy's hair before looped an arm around his neck and giving him a noogie. Sora pushed away from him and held his protectively.

"Nice job! Just uh.. Don't miss next time?" He grinned and then snickered behind his hand.

"Oh, shut up! I almost caught you and you know it!" Sora pointed at him.

"Pleaaassee. You couldn't catch me even if I went slower!" Riku smirked at his own comment and pushed gently on Sora's shoulder. "Come on, Sora. Snap out of it! I was kidding! Geez, you take things so seriously."

"I do not!" Sora stomped and glared at Riku.

"Okay, then, you don't." Riku gave Sora the most serious expression he could manage at the time. Sora gave a blank expression in return. "Oh, yes." Riku's cheeks then puffed up before he let out the laugh he had been holding in.

"That was so lame." Sora shook his head before grinning at Riku's ongoing laughter. "Come on, let's go get something to eat. I'm hungry..." Sora looked up at the sky, seeing some doughnut-shaped clouds floating by.

"Sora, you're always hungry." Riku straightened himself and patted Sora's belly, snickering when the baby fat jiggled.

"I AM NOT!" Sora's mouth dropped open and he slapped Riku's hands away.

Riku chuckled and wrapped an arm around Sora's shoulders and began walking down the beach. "Of course not..." He paused for a moment, looking at Sora from the corner of his eyes so he could see his facial expression. "...You just have some sort of monster in your stomach that eats all your food. That's gotta be the case since you're still thin even though you eat like a cow."

"...RIKU!"

A dull ache brought him back to consciousness. It felt like some sort of tribe was playing a ritual beat on drums inside his head. He could almost imagine their odd face-paintings and clothing... could almost see the giant fire in the center of the village with weird men in loin cloths dancing around it... could almost see...

"Donald, why is your ass in my face..." Sora blinked at the white feathers that were currently tickling his nose.

"Shut up, Sora! This is where I landed and I'm not moving!" Donald crossed his legs over each other and then did the same with his arms, staff in one hand. Goofy was sitting a few feet away with a puzzled look on his face.. Well, that wasn't anything new...

Sora picked Donald up off his face and set him down next to him on the ground before sitting up and looking around. They were in some sort of dark cave. He looked up and saw a mixture of sand, snow, and rocks. Now, they were caved in. Well, this sucked.

He stood up and dusted himself off while looking around. "Have you guys looked around or anything?"

"I did but, uh, Donald said he wasn't moving until you woke up. We're in a cave." Goofy nodded.

"I could have told him that even without looking around, Goofy!" Donald waved his staff at Goofy in an angry manner.

"Give him a break, Donald. I wouldn't even be able to tell you anything more than that without more light." Sora squinted in an attempt to seeing what was around them. Donald "Hmph"-ed and sat down with his arms crossed again. Sora pulled out Oblivion and began the ritual of summoning Tinker Bell. Tink was soon flying around, bringing instant light to the cave. "Oi, Tink, we need you to be our guide. It's too dark for us to see, so we need you." Tinker Bell nodded and gave him thumbs up before flying off.

Sora turned to Donald and Goofy and grinned. "Come on, you guys! We're gonna lose her!" He then turned and ran off in the direction in which Tink had flown in. He could hear Donald's whining squalls and Goofy's "Hee-yuk!"s behind him and see Tinker Bell's glow ahead.

They kept up a constant speed for about ten minutes before Sora couldn't hear Donald and Goofy behind him. "Tink! Come over here! We need to let Donald and Goofy catch up!" Tink's floating figure of light stopped before she flew to Sora. She began waving her arms around in an angered way and waved her finger at him. "No, we can't just leave them! I don't care if they're slowing us down. They're my friends and I would never abandon them." Tink crossed her arms and turned her head away, tapping her foot in midair. "Fine, stay here. I'll go find them on my own."

He turned away from her and sped off into the darkness to find his friends.

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I'm so happy ;; wahh so many people are reviewing Thank you! 33 points! See! This chapter is longer than the last one I kept my promise! Anou.. Review?