Chapter 9: The Arrow of a Hero

Sora charges the new Heartless with his fire-enhanced keyblade in the grip of his hand, renewing his confidence with his weapon once again. Vex, Goofy, and Donald follow behind him, enlightened by the keyblade master's courage. The creature lets out its ear-piercing shriek in an attempt to stop them in their tracks, yet Sora does not budge as he lunges at the beast with his keyblade. Aiming at the creature's talon, Sora swipes at it, having it release Telogas from its grasp. The elf quickly rolls away, but turns toward the beast and loads an arrow. He's about to launch it until he begins to hesitate.

"What are you waiting for," Vex asks Telogas.

The elf's hands start to shake and his focus begins to loosen up. He then lowers his bow and says: "I can't do it."

Sora spins his keyblade in his hand and jumps up at the creature again for another attack, but with one flap of its wings, the possessed griffin launches higher into the air, having the keyblade master miss his target. As he lands back on the ground, the Heartless shrieks and flies through the entrance of the room, its large size having it force itself through the small opening. The force from its charge causes the room to rumble and rock fall from the ceiling. The five quickly escape the collapsing area before it ends up in ruin. The Heartless's shriek can be heard down the corridor as it grew further from them.

"We can't let it get out," Telogas exclaims.

The elf runs ahead of them before they run after to catch up. They ascend the slope that led down to the previous room and make their way through the narrow pathway. They soon end up back at the large room with the opening in the ceiling. But the opening is larger and its edging is crumbled instead of perfectly curved as the last time they viewed it. Telogas growls a little before sprinting forward toward the exit.

"What is with this guy," Vex says.

Sora replies:" Just keep moving. We can't let that Heartless reach the village!"

At the entrance to Wailing Caverns, Telogas runs out and looks around, but seeing nothing he continues forward. The other four soon exit the caves and call out to the archer to slow down. Yet, he does not listen as he desperately tries to look for the griffin. They can only follow after him. It takes a minute of non-stop running before they lose sight of Telogas at a big clearing in the forest.

"He's fast," Goofy says short of breath.

"Where is it," Sora says.

They look around in the sky, but no Heartless are there. However, their expectations are not fully let down. In front of them, dark mist begin to appear, which meant only one thing: Heartless. Fading into view from among the smog was the same kind of Heartless that they met every since they arrived in the forest. The blade-wielding monsters jump forward and position themselves in a straight line in front of the group. Behind them, more begin to spawn, but Sora was smarter this time. He gives them no time to make a formation as he jumps forward and activates his new magic spell Blaze Keiro. Instantly, his keyblade becomes ignited as he jumps down at one of the creatures and causes it to vanish upon contact.

"Ha ha," the boy shouts.

Vex joins in by taking out the heartless to the side with Goofy and Donald joining after. This time, they were more organized and careful since they now knew what their enemies were capable of and Sora was able to defend himself with his more powerful weapon. The four destroy all they opponents in little time, having them the only ones on the field once again.

"Alright," Donald and Vex shout.

"Now, let's find that bird," Sora says.

They make their way in the direction of the village. However, something stops them in their tracks: another crew of Heartless.

"Argh," Donald yelps out. "Where are they coming from?"

"That doesn't matter," Sora answers. "As long as they go back where they came from."

Sora charges forward and begins his attack until suddenly the fire around his blade goes out. The keyblade master looks in surprise at his weapon until he finally realizes what had happened.

"It must have been using my magic energy. Ah, man! What now?"

"Don't worry, Sora," Vex says as he runs to Sora's side. "We'll protect you."

From above, a batch of leaves begin falling onto the heroes. Looking up, they see a horrifying sight. The shadow griffin was resting in the trees and it lets out a shriek upon being sighted.

"Aaahhh," the four scream before running into a more open area.

More heartless spawn in front of them, closing them off from going any further. The griffin flies into view and lands behind the army of creatures, letting out another shriek. The group gets into ready stance.

"Where's Teloges," Vex asks. "Don't tell me he ran away."

Sora responds:" I don't know, but we can use his help right now."

From behind the four, an array of arrows shoot forward and impale into the large bird, having it let out an even louder shriek. They look behind them to find four archers with their bows out forward. The elves ready another line of arrows and fire them again at the giant winged-creature. In anger, the bird flies up into the air and lets out a power shriek that can be seen this time as it deformed the space it traveled through toward them. They jump out the way as the attack rips through the earth and destroys the trees and vegetation behind them.

Sora gets to his feet and says to the archers:"Who are you?"

"We are under the order of Madame Everstien as her bodyguards," one of the elves answer.

"Then you must be the archers that have been lost in these woods!"

"Lost? No, we've been investigating this entire area in searching for the source of the dark monsters, which is the reason our time of return was delayed. Wait...what are you four doing in our forest?"

"That doesn't matter. We have something more important to deal with first."

The blade-wielding Heartless charge at them with great speed. However, many of them get wiped out as the archers fire arrow after arrow at them with relentless assault.

"Go now," an archer says to the four. "We will handle these tyrants."

"The griffin," Sora replies: "We need to stop it!"

"It's flying toward the village! Hurry now!"

Sora nods, and the four heroes dash after the flying heartless, leaving the elves to take on the other Heartless. They use their weapons to slash through some of the rough vegetation before arriving at a village in peril. The griffin is now letting out shrieks that are destroying the elves' houses and causing some of the elf guards to fly back as they are hit by its force.

"Donald," Sora yells. "Use thundaga to get its attention!"

The mage nods and chants the incantation, having a barrage of lightning bolts shower its target. As they assume, the magic has no effect on it, however, they do get its attention. It turns around and lets out a shriek attack toward them. The four seperate as they dodge the attack.

"Spread out," Sora yells.

With that, they run out different directions to try to get a strategic advantage on the heartless. It responds by sending out short quick shrieks toward each of them, but they are able to avoid them. With great frustration, the griffin decides to continue its assault on the entire village. Sora starts climbing a tree near the bird. Vex does the same by climbing the tree opposite of Sora's. Donald begins firing firagas at the monster to keep its attention on him. Goofy, however, hides behind some rubble, trying his best not to be seen by the beast. Sora and Vex makes it to the top of the trees and nod in unison before leaping out onto the back of the griffin. In reaction, the griffin yelps and begins flapping its wings fast to shake its foes off its back. But the two keyblade wielders keep their grip on the bird.

"Okay, Vex," Sora shouts. "Attack!"

Vex slashes and slashes the bird's back, having it shriek the loudest they ever heard. The scream tears through the trees just ahead of it and continues to travel forward before fading just 100 meters away. The griffin executes a backflip maneuver in the air, which finally has the two fall off and into some trees just below them.

"Man, how are we going to stop this thing," Vex says.

"I don't know," Sora answers. "We've tried everything in our arsenal."

The bird yelps as an arrow flies into its chest. Standing on the ground in front of it was its attacker, Teloges.

"Teloges!"

The elf loads another arrow and fires it at the bird's right wing. He starts to step back as he continues to fire at the griffin, however, it follows after him as it slowly inches toward him as if his attacks were doing nothing. Teloges loads three arrows at the same time and fires them straight into the griffin's left wing, which seems to hurt the Heartless more than he thought. But it shakes it off and charges this time at the elf. Teloges rolls to the side as the bird rushes past him and he barely ducks under its right wing. The bird circles back around for another attack while Teloges dips into his quiver for another arrow...but when he checks, it sees that he was now out. The griffin lets out a shriek attack that sends the elf into the brush behind him.

"Teloges," Sora yells.

Sora and Vex jump from the tree they landed in and dash to the elf's rescue. But the griffin flaps its wings, creating a whirlwind that sends the two spinning into the air.

"Graviga," Donald shouts.

The spell keeps the two close enough to the ground for when the whirlwind finally goes away, they land on the ground without much damage. Vex gets to his feet and readies his keyblade.

"Vex," Sora replies:" Stay back!"

The boy responds:" I can do this. I just need to get my keyblade to throw out those projectiles like it did back at home."

Vex lets out a battle cry as he dashes toward the bird. He then swings his keyblade forward to try to use his weapon's special power, but it wasn't working. He stops and begins to run back, but the griffin sends out another shriek attack that sends the boy flying back toward the group through some earth and underbrush. Donald and Sora runs over to Vex to see if he was alright. But the only thing they see is a half-conscious Vex. The bird flies higher into the air. But after a very loud shriek, it launches down toward them. Goofy runs out of hiding and puts his shield out forward in hopes of blocking the bird's charge, although the chances of success were slim to none.

"Goofy," Donald quacks.

Goofy replies:" We won't let any Heartless stop us. Remember...we still need to find that door."

Sora puts on a slight smile and walks to his friend's side. He spawns his keyblade and gets into a guard stance. Donald does the same thing.

"This is it," Donald says.

The griffin just a few meters from them until Teloges jumps from out of the bush and directs his bow at the monster. But there isn't a normal arrow that is loaded. Directing at the Heartless is an arrow with angel wings on it and an arrowhead of gold. It glisters brightly upon just a ray of light and its wings blow gently in the light breeze around it. With the arrow out, the griffin suddenly stops and stares at Teloges. The elf stares into the bright orange eyes of its foe with no fear present in them. Yet, the griffin seems to be hesitate to attack the archer with the arrow now equipped. The two stare down one another. Teloges's eyes squenches as he pulls the arrow back even more.

The elf says to the Heartless:" I do not want to hurt you because you were my brother's pet. My brother would come visit you everyday, even though it was forbidden to come in reach of you. But Orion ignored the law because he knew you were special. That you were not born to live in solitude. You were born to help our race. Therefore, I will not hurt you."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy look to one another. They become disappointed at Teloges's remark, but he still has more to say.

"However, you are not my brother's pet. You are a creature from the shadows of darkness that need to be perished by the light of my brother's Angel Arrow. You will feel Orion's wrath for possessing his own beloved griffin. You will regret attacking my village. You will fall to the power of the Wintrel Elves!"

At that instant, a great wind starts to pick up around the elf and flurries of glistering light start to surround the archer. Upon the appearance of this glowing aura, Teloges's mind is taken to an interdimensional space where he is standing alone. As he looks around to figure out where he was, he hears a voice that echoes thoughout this large space he was present in.

"The Aura Key."

"What," Teloges says.

"Focus."

The elf's conscious is returned to reality and he was now holding a new weapon in his hand beside his bow and angel arrow. Sora, Donald, and Goofy stand in complete awe as they see the elf wielding what they knew was a keyblade. The design of the weapon has it bearing a white jewel sitting between the golden hilt and white blade, which at its end had a design of a star instead of the crown that sat at the end of Sora's weapon. The elf looks at his new weapon for a second before putting on a grin.

"This must be a special power of my brother's arrow. Thank you, Orion. I will not disappoint you."

He spins the keyblade in his hand and charges at the griffin. It shrieks out and proceeds with its attack. As it comes at the archer, Teloges quickly jumps into the air and lands on the creature's head. He sees the heartless's emblem upon the top of its skull and pulls back his keyblade.

He shouts:" Be gone!"

The Aura Key is thrusted into the symbol and great spurts of dark smog erupt from it. It shrieks as the elf leaps to the ground. The griffin begins swaying to and fro before falling onto the ground and becoming unconscious. At the same time, a cloud of dark smoke surrounds the creature and fades away within minutes. In view is the griffin in its normal state. The elf sighs in relief and turns toward the group.

He responds to them:" You couldn't do something as simple as that?"