Author's Note: Now tell me, should I keep updating once a week or do you
prefer it to be once every two weeks? Please tell me so I can adjust. Thank
you. Please review.
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 11: The New World
"We're actually going to a world?" Aozora sounded very much astounded. " In this thing? I took a train to get to Twilight Town!"
"A train to get to some world?" Donald quacked. "The only mode of transportation I know of is using a gummi ship!"
"King Mickey took a train once, when he went to Atla-" Goofy started to say.
"Gwaahhhh!" Donald shrieked. Sora knew he was trying to shut Goofy up.
They had never hidden anything from him before. Well, Donald at least. Goofy seemed ready to shout out something but Donald kept screaming and throwing fits, shutting up the knight.
Sora growled deep in his throat. He didn't like the new turn of events at all.
"Someone's mad," Aozora noted.
Ah yes, him. Aozora, the blond kid with two keyblades, the one who jumped him not too long ago, the one King Mickey told him to find. How in the world can there be a kid with his face and his voice? They can't be related, for one; it's just not possible. Hell, he doesn't even know his own family!
"Huh? Oh, nothing," Sora brushed the matter aside and concentrated on finding their way through space that crawled with Heartless ships. They were everywhere. That was an inalienable truth.
"At least he isn't doing anything...um...stupid," Aozora said depressingly. Sora got tired of demonstrating his wild side during the barrel roll and was taking a break. Much to the relief of the others.
"You had to say that out loud?" Donald sounded extremely outraged at this 'boldness'.
Aozora shrugged. "I'm not supposed to?"
Goofy, who had been leaning over Sora's right shoulder and staring out into space, gave an odd yell like "Huyuk!" and pointed wildly. The other two, who seemed to be on the brink of an all-out war of words, rushed to where Sora was piloting and Goofy was pointing.
"What? What?" Aozora demanded.
"A world!" Donald exclaimed and explained at the same time.
"Let's take a closer look," Sora suggested rather demonically and before anybody else could say anything, he gunned for the world spinning slowly in space, untouched by the Heartless ships.
"Yah!" Donald, Goofy, and Aozora grabbed at Sora's chair and clung to it as he ducked under a swarm of ships and soared over others.
"He's still crazy?" Aozora was astounded.
"Been one since Traverse Town!" Goofy answered.
"Traverse Town..." Aozora was rather thoughtful for a second. "Hey, I've been there! Rather quaint place, with lots of lights. I've never seen the sun rise there. Boy was that clerk at the accessory store rude!"
"Oh, Cid?" Sora commented. "He's not all that rude. Wait, were you wearing that black jacket of yours then?"
"Um..." Aozora sounded a bit hesitant. "Yeah."
"Go figure," Sora grinned. "Cid's really paranoid nowadays. People in black coats with hoods on their heads drive him mad. In fact, any suspicious person drives him mad. He told me about you though, saying that you scared 'the bejeezes' out of him. And that's rather impossible. Then Leon told me about the hooded guy who was scrutinizing Traverse Town's keyhole. Why were you looking at it?"
"Looking at what?" Aozora asked, confused. "I wasn't looking at anything."
"You weren't looking at anything?" Donald asked suspiciously. "The Traverse Town keyhole is in the mural behind the dead fountain in the second district! Are you sure-"
"A second district?" Aozora was genuinely confused. "What second district? There's a second district?"
"Have you seen a fountain in a courtyard with stairs leading down to it?" Goofy interrogated.
"Nope," Aozora immediately replied. "I've never seen that before."
Sora gave Aozora a long look but Aozora didn't flinch; he really did look innocent.
"Then who was it?" Sora asked quietly. "Leon told me the coated guy was fumbling with something in the mural. He started downstairs to ask about the guy's business with the keyhole but the hooded guy vanished. The next day, Heartless swarmed the place. And they weren't supposed to be there; we took care of that a longtime ago. If it wasn't' you who was there, then who was it?"
Aozora seemed to think for a second. "Hm...it could be...no, that's impossible...they won't do that..."
"You have an answer?" Donald snapped.
Aozora stared at the wizard, then slowly shook his head. "No, I don't have an answer."
Sora decided to ignore the issue and concentrate on getting to the world.
"Um, Sora?" Goofy sounded very worried. "That looks like an atmosphere."
"A what?" Sora and Aozora asked as they got closer.
"An atmosphere," Goofy explained. "It's a layer of air that protects that world. This ship has better be very protected when we go through the atmosphere."
"Why, what happens?" Sora sounded very worried. "Aren't the shields enough?"
Donald shrugged. "I hope so."
"I hope so?" Sora exclaimed. "What do you mean by "I hope so?" Why, what's going to happen?"
"Friction," Goofy answered. "Learned it a long time ago. This ship rubs against the atmosphere and, if we're lucky, just burns a little big where the ship touches the air. If we're not lucky, the gummi ship explodes and we all become burning shooting stars falling onto this world."
"Great, just great," Sora grumbled. "Wonderful."
The ship began to jump and shake. Sora gritted his teeth and began to fight the controls. The ship began to rattle and Donald and Goofy ran to bars sticking out in a curve from the opposite walls of the ship. They grabbed each one and tried to withstand the shaking as the gummi ship slammed into the atmosphere. Aozora, the unlucky one, had to hang on to Sora's chair as their trusty pilot coughcoughcough maneuvered through the world's layer of air.
Sora cast Aozora a suspicious look. "Leon told me that the hooded guy had something in its hands. Like two blades. Are you sure it wasn't you? I know you have two blades," he said softly, then looked at Aozora.
Aozora was cursing under his breathe and all Sora caught were,"...I knew they were up to no good..."
Who the 'they' were, Sora did not know.
"Hey, a shooting star!" Thomas called out from the bow of the Susan Constant. The redhead in the dark brown cap pointed to a burning white streak that descended across the starry sky steadily.
The crew murmured to themselves as they headed for the bow as one. Soon, nearly all were watching the star with awe, largely because they had never seen a shooting star before. But the few that did were a bit confused with the shooting star; they don't travel that slow-hence the term 'shooting'- and they disappear really fast. This one was still burning strongly and was going a lot slower than usual.
Captain John Smith was watching the shooting star with a worried eye. A tall, blond-haired blue-eyed soldier, he knew a shooting star was an omen. Starting with his return to England after months of traversing around the New World, he started having very odd dreams. Often they were of the two groups of people that pursued him- furious savages and cooing beauties. But in the middle of the dreams, those groups of people would be replaced by a burning shooting star. The shooting star seared into his mind and never left him.
And now, watching the shooting star streak across the starry sky, he knew that the meaning of his dreams would be revealed. The two shooting stars were the same. They were steady, both in movement and in light; and they never burned out.
"What is going on?" an irritated voice boomed out from the ship's cabin as the massive governor of the New World, John Ratcliffe, marched onto the deck.
"A shooting star...sir," Thomas explained rather timidly.
"A shooting star?" Wiggins, Ratcliffe's cheerful manservant said with awe as he peered over his master's shoulder. "I've never seen one before!"
"Shooting stars are bad omens, Wiggins; its better not to have seen on," Ratcliffe rumbled. "Men, back to your posts. We'll be reaching the New World soon and we'd better be waiting for it!"
With that, he marched back into the cabin, followed by Wiggins.
"Let's hope the savages won't be our welcoming party," Lon, a big nosed man, whispered loudly.
"Oh, Smith 'ere will handle them," Ben, a dark-haired friend, replied with confidence. "He'll give them more trouble than they would try and give us!" Smith and Thomas were still watching the shooting star as the men went to their posts and jobs.
"...then, right there in front of me, is an arrow. It spins faster and faster until suddenly, it stops! Then I wake up. What does that mean, Grandmother Willow?" a Native American princess explained to the spirit in the willow tree.
"Well, it seems to me this spinning arrow is pointing you down your path," she replied. "How-"
"But what is my path? How am I ever going to find it?" the princess blurted out from her kneeling position in front of the huge trunk of the willow tree.
"Hold on, child," Grandmother Willow said calmly. "Before I give you an answer to that, let me ask you something: what about the two shooting stars in your other dream?"
"The shooting stars?" the princess thought for a moment. "Well...I don't see two shooting stars anymore; there's one huge shooting star blazing across the sky. It burns steadily and its really slow for what it is. Why, Grandmother Willow?"
Grandmother Willow looked very thoughtful. Then the princess heard her murmuring, "I don't like this at all. Not at all. Dark times are coming and I don't like it."
"Why, what is happening?" the princess asked curiously.
"Hm..." Grandmother Willow looked very hesitant. "Well, child, its very hard to explain, very hard indeed."
As the princess cocked an eyebrow at Grandmother Willow's unwillingness to explain her dilemma, a breeze began to blow.
"A breeze," the princess said thoughtfully. "Wait...there hasn't been a breeze for a while. Why, the wind's picking up!"
"Climb my branches, child," Grandmother Willow suggested. "See what is causing the wind to stir."
As the princess climbed up to see, Grandmother Willow, with a harried look on her face, thought, "Two shooting stars melding into one. They are coming. But the chief will not like it, not at all. It would be up to Pocahontas to solve that..."
Pocahontas, the Native American princess, returned to the ground level swiftly.
"Grandmother Willow," she said breathlessly, her dark eyes shimmering excitedly. "Strange white clouds in the distance. They're huge but they look solid. And there's a shooting star!"
"A shooting star?!" Grandmother Willow exclaimed. "Whatever do you mean, child?"
"There is a shooting star, big and burning," Pocahontas explained slowly. "It is very close in contact with the horizon. It is nothing like I've ever seen before...except in my dreams. What does that mean, Grandmother Willow? Grandmother Willow?"
The face had suddenly vanished from the willow tree.
"Huh, funny...Grandmother Willow never did that before," Pocahontas was very confused. "Meeko, Flit? Let's go."
Meeko, an inquisitive raccoon, and Flit, the overprotective hummingbird, tailed Pocahontas as she headed towards the strange white clouds and the shooting star.
As the Susan Constant slid through the water, headed for the shores, Pocahontas, Meeko, and Flit crept up a rock face, not far from the water's edge. She stared at the huge ship, not believing what she was seeing. The mystery of the white clouds was solved: they were the billowing white sails of the huge ship. She also saw the shooting star descending even closer to the horizon. She watched the descent, as it vanished...among the trees near her home.
"What?" Pocahontas knew shooting stars die in the sky but this one had landed in the forest. Just then, the ground shook violently and a booming sound echoed through forest, rising up a cloud of forest birds. Twittering madly at being disturbed, they swarmed across the sky, headed who-knows- where.
Smoke began to rise from where the shooting star vanished into the trees. Pocahontas itched to go and find out what it was but she became rather distracted as the ship came to a stop as people on the ship swarmed on the deck, pulling and pushing a heavy anchor over the side of the ship. Meanwhile, one had jumped into the water, swam ashore, then immediately began to explore. Pocahontas was quite fascinated by this lone stranger; he looked so mysterious and strange. Then she dove into the safety of the underbrush as the stranger pulled himself up the rock face she was perched on moments earlier and watched the majestic view before him.
Flit anxiously flew about, nervous about this stranger from the ship; Meeko was very eager to meet the person clad in blue. Before Pocahontas and Flit could stop him, he bolted through the underbrush and twittered madly. The person turned and looked down. Pocahontas wondered what he would do to Meeko. The person just leaned down and handed Meeko what looked like a biscuit. Grinning victoriously, Meeko held up the biscuit-looking thing and waved at Pocahontas and Flit.
Curious at what he was waving at, the stranger approached the underbrush. Before he could find out who the raccoon was gesturing to, Flit shot forward at his face and distracted the person into annoyance.
Pocahontas was about to make her getaway when she heard the other men who were on the ship- now on the shore- make frantic shouts. Then she heard thunderous popping noises and the stranger jumped off the rock face and began to run. Pocahontas crept out of her hiding place and peered down at the shore.
The other men were holding some strange long poles. They were pointing at something in the woods and smoke kept coming out of the end of the long poles. The men were shouting to the stranger in blue to come down and, quite suddenly, someone screamed. Everyone suddenly scattered as something like a ball of fire shot out from the trees and hit the water, hissing and sending steam up into the air.
Pocahontas stared in shock. She knew of very few people who could that- including herself-and they don't tend to stray from her village. And she knew only she had seen these mysterious, white-skinned people. And none of them answered to the fireball.
Who was shooting fireballs at these people?
"Why Donald, why?!" Sora yelled as they ran through the forest. "Why did you have to do that, of all the options in the world? You know they have no magic; they're defenseless people!"
"Yeah, defenseless people with metal rods that put holes in trees," Aozora snorted as they slowed to a jog; the underbrush was hard to see through.
"Well, maybe they aren't so defenseless..." Sora admitted hesitantly.
"They don't know us, we don't know them; that makes us even and that's why they shot at us and we shot at them," Goofy stated calmly the balance between Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aozora and the archaic-looking people who had just left their sea-going ship.
"What a way to find a balance between all of us and all of them," Sora sighed. "Where the hell are we?"
The four slowed down and surveyed their surroundings; they were in a very small clearing at the water's edge. A very lonely-looking willow tree sat by the water; white birch trees loomed everywhere. A misty haze kept the four from seeing far into the forest and there was no sound, literally. The water lapped silently against the banks of the clearing and the breeze was very muted. Sora didn't like this at all.
"That willow tree gives me the creeps," Aozora was heard saying. He shuddered slightly as he looked at the lonely willow tree.
"A willow tree gives you the creeps?" Donald demanded incredulously. " It's just a tree."
Sora couldn't tell if it was just the wind or some strange force in the tree but just then, a rather fat branch swung out and walloped Donald on the back, knocking him into the dirt.
"What was that?" Aozora demanded nervously, digging his hands into his pockets.
Goofy was staring out into the distance, into the hazy wooded terrain. Donald was grumbling and rubbing his back as he picked himself up from the dirt and Sora was staring at the willow tree.
"There are...people out there," Goofy gave a slow wave to the misty atmosphere of the forest.
"Where? I don't see any people," Aozora peered in the direction Goofy was pointing but he didn't see anything.
"Don't you see?" Goofy was clearly confused. "Two people, dressed in black."
"In black?" Aozora demanded, his voice suddenly low and harsh. "Long black coats and hoods?"
Goofy nodded, while both Donald and Sora turned their heads slowly in Aozora's direction. What did he know about these people in long black coats and hoods?
Aozora looked mightily worried. His head bowed, he was clearly muttering to himself. Sora was able to catch him saying, "There should be more of them..."
"No, dear child, there are only two out there," a strange, ethereal voice whispered in the muted breeze.
"Wha?!" Donald squalled. He leaped practically six feet into the air; Sora and Goofy jumped back with horrified looks on their faces.
"Oh my god!" Aozora stepped backwards, ripped over some unassuming tree root, and fell on the seat of his pants. He continued to try and scramble away.
"Don't be frightened, dears," the same unearthly voice chuckled. "I'm not going to hurt you. My bark is rather worse than my bite."
"Bark?" Sora input immediately while Donald had a horrified expression on his face.
The branches of the willow tree shifted and practically patted Sora's head.
"Hey!" Sora brushed the branches off his head.
"Who are you?" Goofy asked good-naturedly. Aozora stared at him. Sora wasn't surprised; Goofy sometimes surprised people with his attitude in the face of danger.
"My name is Grandmother Willow," the voice murmured back a reply. Donald began to snort; both Sora and Aozora cast him a look that spoke of chucking the white wizard into the fires of Mt. Doom...if it did exist in their universe.
"Hello, Grandmother Willow," Goofy said cheerfully and held out his hand.
While Sora wondered whether or not the hard landing of the gummi ship had jolted Goofy's brain, a branch snaked out and placed itself in Goofy's hand. They 'shook' um... 'hands'.
"Oh my," Aozora was heard commenting. "The tree talks. I knew something was up with the tree."
"What a surprise," Sora answered sarcastically. He didn't catch Donald casting him a very worried look.
"Ah well, I imagine it should be," Grandmother Willow chuckled, apparently not catching the sarcasm in Sora's voice. "I'll bet you four weren't expecting a talking tree."
"I knew something was up with the tree," Aozora was heard repeating himself.
"Um...Grandmother Willow?" Sora asked rather tentatively.
"What is it, dear?" Grandmother Willow asked. A willow branch reached out, apparently to pat Sora on the head again. Sora jumped back though; he did not want a tree patting him on the head.
"What is this place?" Sora questioned. "I mean, does this world have a name of some sort?"
"A name?" Grandmother Willow asked thoughtfully. "Hm...I remember now...the King told me when I first came here. This place is called New World."
Pocahontas and her best friend Nakoma gathered corn from the fields of tall stalks. Pocahontas was very worried. The arrival of the white settlers had disrupted the harmony of her home and the world around them; one of their warriors had been injured by one of the strange long sticks she had seen the white people use the day before. Now a palisade wall was being erected around their village to ward off intruders. And their few people of magic (not including herself though for she had left with Nakoma for the cornfields) cast spells on the village to prevent strangers from approaching the village.
"This issue with the white people is becoming serious, isn't it?" Nakoma asked as Pocahontas plucked the golden food of her people, a very serious expression on her face.
When Pocahontas didn't answer, Nakoma repeated the question and added, " Are you okay?"
Pocahontas nodded, then chose to reply. "Yes it is. Especially with those long sticks the white people use."
Nakoma looked at her oddly. "You've seen the long sticks?"
Pocahontas nodded, reluctantly that is, and admitted, "I saw the white clouds that carried their ship across. I was watching them from the rock face- you know which one- and I saw them. They were using the white sticks and they were doing something to something else that was in the woods. Then a fireball flew out and the people ran away in fear."
"A fireball?" a voice sudden asked.
Nakoma looked like she was about to die.
John Smith, who Pocahontas had befriended the day before, suddenly materialized among the stalks. "Hello again."
Pocahontas smiled, then the smile turned into a frown. "Why are you here? This is dangerous; you are too close to the village!"
"I know, I know," Smith replied reassuringly. "But I need to talk to you. Alone. Is there a place where no one can find us?"
Pocahontas nodded. "Yes, I know a very secluded place. We can go there-"
"Pocahontas, are you seriously going?" Nakoma was stunned. "You can't just leave! Firstly, I can't go back by myself; the elders will ask where you are. Secondly, he's one of the white people!"
"There are some things I learned that many people have made mistakes about," Pocahontas replied. She opened her mouth to say more but Smith took her hand and tugged at it, signaling that they really needed to go.
"Listen, Nakoma," Pocahontas began as he led her deep into the cornfields to the other side, "Please don't say anything. Really, I think this is really important that the two of us talk about all this. It might help us all."
Nakoma moved to protest, but the two people vanished.
"Pocahontas," she groaned as she began to snatch more corn. "You're going to kill us all."
To the two people in long black coats and hoods who stood in the shadows of the birch trees not too far away, they could not tell whether or not she was joking.
"Is this place safe?" Smith was rather nervous as they left her canoe in the secluded, rather enchanted glade. Meeko and Flit jumped out after them and made a show by splashing the water-at least Meeko did.
Pocahontas, casting a mischievous eye at the great willow tree whose branches cast a rather ethereal shroud over the whole glade, nodded and said, "It is quite safe. Come, we can sit here and talk."
With that, she led him to the great, sliced trunk of a dead tree that sat in front of the willow tree. There they sat and Pocahontas, removing the bag she was using to gather corn, asked him, "What is wrong?"
Smith, who was becoming rather nervous of the willow tree for reasons he could not explain, told her, "My people are searching for gold. But we cannot find any. Do you have gold?"
The confused look on Pocahontas' face left Smith feeling a little...disappointed.
"What is gold?" Pocahontas finally asked. Smith stared at her.
"What is gold?" he echoed incredulously.
Pocahontas nodded with sincerity and Smith knew she was not lying.
"Gold," he began to explain, "is a strange, shiny yellow metal. It is so beautiful and yet it is very rare. My people are here to search for the yellow metal so we can take it back to our home country and sell it for money."
"Shiny...yellow...hm..." Pocahontas said thoughtfully. "I know of something shiny and yellow..."
"What is it?" Smith asked eagerly, hope suddenly restored.
"It is this," and with that, Pocahontas handed him a shiny, yellow ear of corn.
The befuddled look on Smith's face made her laugh.
"This is gold?" he asked.
Shaking her head, Pocahontas corrected, "It is golden corn. There is no metal here; all we have is golden corn, not gold."
Smith was depressed and defeated. He and the others had come here for nothing!
"There is no gold here for it can begin wars," an elderly, mythical voice whispered. Pocahontas noticed Grandmother Willow revealing herself in the tree trunk.
Smith froze up, his whole body stiff with shock. He then slowly turned and saw the face in the willow tree trunk. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and blinked again. The face winked at him.
"Hello, John Smith," the face greeted him.
"Pocahontas, that tree is talking to me," he stated rather slowly, believing he was dreaming.
"Don't be frightened, young man," Grandmother Willow assured the man from across the sea. "My bark is worse than my bite."
"I hope so," Smith answered worriedly.
"My name is Grandmother Willow," she announced. "It is very nice to meet you, John."
"It is very nice to meet you, too, uh...Grandmother Willow," John answered with a bow and a flourish. Pocahontas raised her eyebrow at this; she had never seen Smith do that.
At that moment in time, a voice called out from somewhere beyond Grandmother Willow, "Hurry up!"
With a scared look on her face, Pocahontas yanked Smith behind the tree trunk and told him to be quiet. Then she peered out around the tree trunk.
"Dear child, there is no need to be frightened of being discovered," Grandmother Willow chucked-loudly.
"Grandmother Willow!" Pocahontas reprimanded.
"Hey, there's another person there!" a rather 'goofy' voice yelped.
"Well duh! She told us she knew of some other people who would be visiting her any time, any day," a no-nonsense voice snapped back.
Pocahontas shot Grandmother Willow an accusing stare. "You, of all the spirits in the forest I can name, befriended some strangers?"
Grandmother Willow gave a purely innocent smile, "They looked harmless enough. Besides, they can help us."
"How-" Pocahontas began to challenge.
"Just shut-oh, hello," a surprised voice spoke as four people stepped through the willow tree's branches and spotted Pocahontas and Smith in front of Grandmother Willow.
Pocahontas stared. These were outside people as well, like Smith. The two boys were very identical and yet very different; one had brown hair, blue eyes, and a rather defined tan. The other had yellow hair, coppery-brown eyes, and a pale complexion. They were traveling with what seemed to be an overgrown, black dog-creature with a shield and a super-sized white duck dressed in blue and with a staff.
"Is your ship made to order?" Grandmother asked one of them pleasantly.
The brown-haired boy nodded, then gestured to Pocahontas and Smith. "Who are they?"
Grandmother Willow smiled. "She is Pocahontas and he is John Smith. The forest is Pocahontas' home and you, like John here, are the outsiders."
"Who are you?" Pocahontas asked quickly.
"I'm Sora," the brown-haired boy pointed to himself. "That's Aozora, the most serious guy in the world-" the blond boy scowled at this "-that's Donald, a wizard and a cranky one at that-hey! That hurts! And this is Goofy, captain of the King's Knights."
Goofy bowed, Donald glared at Sora, and Aozora had a scowl on his face.
"Uh...right," Smith finally stated. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
Ignoring him, Aozora said point-blank, "They've come, Grandmother Willow. I think they came with that big man with the red cloths-"
"John Ratcliffe," Smith identified. "What are you talking about-"
A scream shot through the forest and birds took flight.
After a moment of silence, Aozora stated, "The Nobodies have come."
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 11: The New World
"We're actually going to a world?" Aozora sounded very much astounded. " In this thing? I took a train to get to Twilight Town!"
"A train to get to some world?" Donald quacked. "The only mode of transportation I know of is using a gummi ship!"
"King Mickey took a train once, when he went to Atla-" Goofy started to say.
"Gwaahhhh!" Donald shrieked. Sora knew he was trying to shut Goofy up.
They had never hidden anything from him before. Well, Donald at least. Goofy seemed ready to shout out something but Donald kept screaming and throwing fits, shutting up the knight.
Sora growled deep in his throat. He didn't like the new turn of events at all.
"Someone's mad," Aozora noted.
Ah yes, him. Aozora, the blond kid with two keyblades, the one who jumped him not too long ago, the one King Mickey told him to find. How in the world can there be a kid with his face and his voice? They can't be related, for one; it's just not possible. Hell, he doesn't even know his own family!
"Huh? Oh, nothing," Sora brushed the matter aside and concentrated on finding their way through space that crawled with Heartless ships. They were everywhere. That was an inalienable truth.
"At least he isn't doing anything...um...stupid," Aozora said depressingly. Sora got tired of demonstrating his wild side during the barrel roll and was taking a break. Much to the relief of the others.
"You had to say that out loud?" Donald sounded extremely outraged at this 'boldness'.
Aozora shrugged. "I'm not supposed to?"
Goofy, who had been leaning over Sora's right shoulder and staring out into space, gave an odd yell like "Huyuk!" and pointed wildly. The other two, who seemed to be on the brink of an all-out war of words, rushed to where Sora was piloting and Goofy was pointing.
"What? What?" Aozora demanded.
"A world!" Donald exclaimed and explained at the same time.
"Let's take a closer look," Sora suggested rather demonically and before anybody else could say anything, he gunned for the world spinning slowly in space, untouched by the Heartless ships.
"Yah!" Donald, Goofy, and Aozora grabbed at Sora's chair and clung to it as he ducked under a swarm of ships and soared over others.
"He's still crazy?" Aozora was astounded.
"Been one since Traverse Town!" Goofy answered.
"Traverse Town..." Aozora was rather thoughtful for a second. "Hey, I've been there! Rather quaint place, with lots of lights. I've never seen the sun rise there. Boy was that clerk at the accessory store rude!"
"Oh, Cid?" Sora commented. "He's not all that rude. Wait, were you wearing that black jacket of yours then?"
"Um..." Aozora sounded a bit hesitant. "Yeah."
"Go figure," Sora grinned. "Cid's really paranoid nowadays. People in black coats with hoods on their heads drive him mad. In fact, any suspicious person drives him mad. He told me about you though, saying that you scared 'the bejeezes' out of him. And that's rather impossible. Then Leon told me about the hooded guy who was scrutinizing Traverse Town's keyhole. Why were you looking at it?"
"Looking at what?" Aozora asked, confused. "I wasn't looking at anything."
"You weren't looking at anything?" Donald asked suspiciously. "The Traverse Town keyhole is in the mural behind the dead fountain in the second district! Are you sure-"
"A second district?" Aozora was genuinely confused. "What second district? There's a second district?"
"Have you seen a fountain in a courtyard with stairs leading down to it?" Goofy interrogated.
"Nope," Aozora immediately replied. "I've never seen that before."
Sora gave Aozora a long look but Aozora didn't flinch; he really did look innocent.
"Then who was it?" Sora asked quietly. "Leon told me the coated guy was fumbling with something in the mural. He started downstairs to ask about the guy's business with the keyhole but the hooded guy vanished. The next day, Heartless swarmed the place. And they weren't supposed to be there; we took care of that a longtime ago. If it wasn't' you who was there, then who was it?"
Aozora seemed to think for a second. "Hm...it could be...no, that's impossible...they won't do that..."
"You have an answer?" Donald snapped.
Aozora stared at the wizard, then slowly shook his head. "No, I don't have an answer."
Sora decided to ignore the issue and concentrate on getting to the world.
"Um, Sora?" Goofy sounded very worried. "That looks like an atmosphere."
"A what?" Sora and Aozora asked as they got closer.
"An atmosphere," Goofy explained. "It's a layer of air that protects that world. This ship has better be very protected when we go through the atmosphere."
"Why, what happens?" Sora sounded very worried. "Aren't the shields enough?"
Donald shrugged. "I hope so."
"I hope so?" Sora exclaimed. "What do you mean by "I hope so?" Why, what's going to happen?"
"Friction," Goofy answered. "Learned it a long time ago. This ship rubs against the atmosphere and, if we're lucky, just burns a little big where the ship touches the air. If we're not lucky, the gummi ship explodes and we all become burning shooting stars falling onto this world."
"Great, just great," Sora grumbled. "Wonderful."
The ship began to jump and shake. Sora gritted his teeth and began to fight the controls. The ship began to rattle and Donald and Goofy ran to bars sticking out in a curve from the opposite walls of the ship. They grabbed each one and tried to withstand the shaking as the gummi ship slammed into the atmosphere. Aozora, the unlucky one, had to hang on to Sora's chair as their trusty pilot coughcoughcough maneuvered through the world's layer of air.
Sora cast Aozora a suspicious look. "Leon told me that the hooded guy had something in its hands. Like two blades. Are you sure it wasn't you? I know you have two blades," he said softly, then looked at Aozora.
Aozora was cursing under his breathe and all Sora caught were,"...I knew they were up to no good..."
Who the 'they' were, Sora did not know.
"Hey, a shooting star!" Thomas called out from the bow of the Susan Constant. The redhead in the dark brown cap pointed to a burning white streak that descended across the starry sky steadily.
The crew murmured to themselves as they headed for the bow as one. Soon, nearly all were watching the star with awe, largely because they had never seen a shooting star before. But the few that did were a bit confused with the shooting star; they don't travel that slow-hence the term 'shooting'- and they disappear really fast. This one was still burning strongly and was going a lot slower than usual.
Captain John Smith was watching the shooting star with a worried eye. A tall, blond-haired blue-eyed soldier, he knew a shooting star was an omen. Starting with his return to England after months of traversing around the New World, he started having very odd dreams. Often they were of the two groups of people that pursued him- furious savages and cooing beauties. But in the middle of the dreams, those groups of people would be replaced by a burning shooting star. The shooting star seared into his mind and never left him.
And now, watching the shooting star streak across the starry sky, he knew that the meaning of his dreams would be revealed. The two shooting stars were the same. They were steady, both in movement and in light; and they never burned out.
"What is going on?" an irritated voice boomed out from the ship's cabin as the massive governor of the New World, John Ratcliffe, marched onto the deck.
"A shooting star...sir," Thomas explained rather timidly.
"A shooting star?" Wiggins, Ratcliffe's cheerful manservant said with awe as he peered over his master's shoulder. "I've never seen one before!"
"Shooting stars are bad omens, Wiggins; its better not to have seen on," Ratcliffe rumbled. "Men, back to your posts. We'll be reaching the New World soon and we'd better be waiting for it!"
With that, he marched back into the cabin, followed by Wiggins.
"Let's hope the savages won't be our welcoming party," Lon, a big nosed man, whispered loudly.
"Oh, Smith 'ere will handle them," Ben, a dark-haired friend, replied with confidence. "He'll give them more trouble than they would try and give us!" Smith and Thomas were still watching the shooting star as the men went to their posts and jobs.
"...then, right there in front of me, is an arrow. It spins faster and faster until suddenly, it stops! Then I wake up. What does that mean, Grandmother Willow?" a Native American princess explained to the spirit in the willow tree.
"Well, it seems to me this spinning arrow is pointing you down your path," she replied. "How-"
"But what is my path? How am I ever going to find it?" the princess blurted out from her kneeling position in front of the huge trunk of the willow tree.
"Hold on, child," Grandmother Willow said calmly. "Before I give you an answer to that, let me ask you something: what about the two shooting stars in your other dream?"
"The shooting stars?" the princess thought for a moment. "Well...I don't see two shooting stars anymore; there's one huge shooting star blazing across the sky. It burns steadily and its really slow for what it is. Why, Grandmother Willow?"
Grandmother Willow looked very thoughtful. Then the princess heard her murmuring, "I don't like this at all. Not at all. Dark times are coming and I don't like it."
"Why, what is happening?" the princess asked curiously.
"Hm..." Grandmother Willow looked very hesitant. "Well, child, its very hard to explain, very hard indeed."
As the princess cocked an eyebrow at Grandmother Willow's unwillingness to explain her dilemma, a breeze began to blow.
"A breeze," the princess said thoughtfully. "Wait...there hasn't been a breeze for a while. Why, the wind's picking up!"
"Climb my branches, child," Grandmother Willow suggested. "See what is causing the wind to stir."
As the princess climbed up to see, Grandmother Willow, with a harried look on her face, thought, "Two shooting stars melding into one. They are coming. But the chief will not like it, not at all. It would be up to Pocahontas to solve that..."
Pocahontas, the Native American princess, returned to the ground level swiftly.
"Grandmother Willow," she said breathlessly, her dark eyes shimmering excitedly. "Strange white clouds in the distance. They're huge but they look solid. And there's a shooting star!"
"A shooting star?!" Grandmother Willow exclaimed. "Whatever do you mean, child?"
"There is a shooting star, big and burning," Pocahontas explained slowly. "It is very close in contact with the horizon. It is nothing like I've ever seen before...except in my dreams. What does that mean, Grandmother Willow? Grandmother Willow?"
The face had suddenly vanished from the willow tree.
"Huh, funny...Grandmother Willow never did that before," Pocahontas was very confused. "Meeko, Flit? Let's go."
Meeko, an inquisitive raccoon, and Flit, the overprotective hummingbird, tailed Pocahontas as she headed towards the strange white clouds and the shooting star.
As the Susan Constant slid through the water, headed for the shores, Pocahontas, Meeko, and Flit crept up a rock face, not far from the water's edge. She stared at the huge ship, not believing what she was seeing. The mystery of the white clouds was solved: they were the billowing white sails of the huge ship. She also saw the shooting star descending even closer to the horizon. She watched the descent, as it vanished...among the trees near her home.
"What?" Pocahontas knew shooting stars die in the sky but this one had landed in the forest. Just then, the ground shook violently and a booming sound echoed through forest, rising up a cloud of forest birds. Twittering madly at being disturbed, they swarmed across the sky, headed who-knows- where.
Smoke began to rise from where the shooting star vanished into the trees. Pocahontas itched to go and find out what it was but she became rather distracted as the ship came to a stop as people on the ship swarmed on the deck, pulling and pushing a heavy anchor over the side of the ship. Meanwhile, one had jumped into the water, swam ashore, then immediately began to explore. Pocahontas was quite fascinated by this lone stranger; he looked so mysterious and strange. Then she dove into the safety of the underbrush as the stranger pulled himself up the rock face she was perched on moments earlier and watched the majestic view before him.
Flit anxiously flew about, nervous about this stranger from the ship; Meeko was very eager to meet the person clad in blue. Before Pocahontas and Flit could stop him, he bolted through the underbrush and twittered madly. The person turned and looked down. Pocahontas wondered what he would do to Meeko. The person just leaned down and handed Meeko what looked like a biscuit. Grinning victoriously, Meeko held up the biscuit-looking thing and waved at Pocahontas and Flit.
Curious at what he was waving at, the stranger approached the underbrush. Before he could find out who the raccoon was gesturing to, Flit shot forward at his face and distracted the person into annoyance.
Pocahontas was about to make her getaway when she heard the other men who were on the ship- now on the shore- make frantic shouts. Then she heard thunderous popping noises and the stranger jumped off the rock face and began to run. Pocahontas crept out of her hiding place and peered down at the shore.
The other men were holding some strange long poles. They were pointing at something in the woods and smoke kept coming out of the end of the long poles. The men were shouting to the stranger in blue to come down and, quite suddenly, someone screamed. Everyone suddenly scattered as something like a ball of fire shot out from the trees and hit the water, hissing and sending steam up into the air.
Pocahontas stared in shock. She knew of very few people who could that- including herself-and they don't tend to stray from her village. And she knew only she had seen these mysterious, white-skinned people. And none of them answered to the fireball.
Who was shooting fireballs at these people?
"Why Donald, why?!" Sora yelled as they ran through the forest. "Why did you have to do that, of all the options in the world? You know they have no magic; they're defenseless people!"
"Yeah, defenseless people with metal rods that put holes in trees," Aozora snorted as they slowed to a jog; the underbrush was hard to see through.
"Well, maybe they aren't so defenseless..." Sora admitted hesitantly.
"They don't know us, we don't know them; that makes us even and that's why they shot at us and we shot at them," Goofy stated calmly the balance between Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aozora and the archaic-looking people who had just left their sea-going ship.
"What a way to find a balance between all of us and all of them," Sora sighed. "Where the hell are we?"
The four slowed down and surveyed their surroundings; they were in a very small clearing at the water's edge. A very lonely-looking willow tree sat by the water; white birch trees loomed everywhere. A misty haze kept the four from seeing far into the forest and there was no sound, literally. The water lapped silently against the banks of the clearing and the breeze was very muted. Sora didn't like this at all.
"That willow tree gives me the creeps," Aozora was heard saying. He shuddered slightly as he looked at the lonely willow tree.
"A willow tree gives you the creeps?" Donald demanded incredulously. " It's just a tree."
Sora couldn't tell if it was just the wind or some strange force in the tree but just then, a rather fat branch swung out and walloped Donald on the back, knocking him into the dirt.
"What was that?" Aozora demanded nervously, digging his hands into his pockets.
Goofy was staring out into the distance, into the hazy wooded terrain. Donald was grumbling and rubbing his back as he picked himself up from the dirt and Sora was staring at the willow tree.
"There are...people out there," Goofy gave a slow wave to the misty atmosphere of the forest.
"Where? I don't see any people," Aozora peered in the direction Goofy was pointing but he didn't see anything.
"Don't you see?" Goofy was clearly confused. "Two people, dressed in black."
"In black?" Aozora demanded, his voice suddenly low and harsh. "Long black coats and hoods?"
Goofy nodded, while both Donald and Sora turned their heads slowly in Aozora's direction. What did he know about these people in long black coats and hoods?
Aozora looked mightily worried. His head bowed, he was clearly muttering to himself. Sora was able to catch him saying, "There should be more of them..."
"No, dear child, there are only two out there," a strange, ethereal voice whispered in the muted breeze.
"Wha?!" Donald squalled. He leaped practically six feet into the air; Sora and Goofy jumped back with horrified looks on their faces.
"Oh my god!" Aozora stepped backwards, ripped over some unassuming tree root, and fell on the seat of his pants. He continued to try and scramble away.
"Don't be frightened, dears," the same unearthly voice chuckled. "I'm not going to hurt you. My bark is rather worse than my bite."
"Bark?" Sora input immediately while Donald had a horrified expression on his face.
The branches of the willow tree shifted and practically patted Sora's head.
"Hey!" Sora brushed the branches off his head.
"Who are you?" Goofy asked good-naturedly. Aozora stared at him. Sora wasn't surprised; Goofy sometimes surprised people with his attitude in the face of danger.
"My name is Grandmother Willow," the voice murmured back a reply. Donald began to snort; both Sora and Aozora cast him a look that spoke of chucking the white wizard into the fires of Mt. Doom...if it did exist in their universe.
"Hello, Grandmother Willow," Goofy said cheerfully and held out his hand.
While Sora wondered whether or not the hard landing of the gummi ship had jolted Goofy's brain, a branch snaked out and placed itself in Goofy's hand. They 'shook' um... 'hands'.
"Oh my," Aozora was heard commenting. "The tree talks. I knew something was up with the tree."
"What a surprise," Sora answered sarcastically. He didn't catch Donald casting him a very worried look.
"Ah well, I imagine it should be," Grandmother Willow chuckled, apparently not catching the sarcasm in Sora's voice. "I'll bet you four weren't expecting a talking tree."
"I knew something was up with the tree," Aozora was heard repeating himself.
"Um...Grandmother Willow?" Sora asked rather tentatively.
"What is it, dear?" Grandmother Willow asked. A willow branch reached out, apparently to pat Sora on the head again. Sora jumped back though; he did not want a tree patting him on the head.
"What is this place?" Sora questioned. "I mean, does this world have a name of some sort?"
"A name?" Grandmother Willow asked thoughtfully. "Hm...I remember now...the King told me when I first came here. This place is called New World."
Pocahontas and her best friend Nakoma gathered corn from the fields of tall stalks. Pocahontas was very worried. The arrival of the white settlers had disrupted the harmony of her home and the world around them; one of their warriors had been injured by one of the strange long sticks she had seen the white people use the day before. Now a palisade wall was being erected around their village to ward off intruders. And their few people of magic (not including herself though for she had left with Nakoma for the cornfields) cast spells on the village to prevent strangers from approaching the village.
"This issue with the white people is becoming serious, isn't it?" Nakoma asked as Pocahontas plucked the golden food of her people, a very serious expression on her face.
When Pocahontas didn't answer, Nakoma repeated the question and added, " Are you okay?"
Pocahontas nodded, then chose to reply. "Yes it is. Especially with those long sticks the white people use."
Nakoma looked at her oddly. "You've seen the long sticks?"
Pocahontas nodded, reluctantly that is, and admitted, "I saw the white clouds that carried their ship across. I was watching them from the rock face- you know which one- and I saw them. They were using the white sticks and they were doing something to something else that was in the woods. Then a fireball flew out and the people ran away in fear."
"A fireball?" a voice sudden asked.
Nakoma looked like she was about to die.
John Smith, who Pocahontas had befriended the day before, suddenly materialized among the stalks. "Hello again."
Pocahontas smiled, then the smile turned into a frown. "Why are you here? This is dangerous; you are too close to the village!"
"I know, I know," Smith replied reassuringly. "But I need to talk to you. Alone. Is there a place where no one can find us?"
Pocahontas nodded. "Yes, I know a very secluded place. We can go there-"
"Pocahontas, are you seriously going?" Nakoma was stunned. "You can't just leave! Firstly, I can't go back by myself; the elders will ask where you are. Secondly, he's one of the white people!"
"There are some things I learned that many people have made mistakes about," Pocahontas replied. She opened her mouth to say more but Smith took her hand and tugged at it, signaling that they really needed to go.
"Listen, Nakoma," Pocahontas began as he led her deep into the cornfields to the other side, "Please don't say anything. Really, I think this is really important that the two of us talk about all this. It might help us all."
Nakoma moved to protest, but the two people vanished.
"Pocahontas," she groaned as she began to snatch more corn. "You're going to kill us all."
To the two people in long black coats and hoods who stood in the shadows of the birch trees not too far away, they could not tell whether or not she was joking.
"Is this place safe?" Smith was rather nervous as they left her canoe in the secluded, rather enchanted glade. Meeko and Flit jumped out after them and made a show by splashing the water-at least Meeko did.
Pocahontas, casting a mischievous eye at the great willow tree whose branches cast a rather ethereal shroud over the whole glade, nodded and said, "It is quite safe. Come, we can sit here and talk."
With that, she led him to the great, sliced trunk of a dead tree that sat in front of the willow tree. There they sat and Pocahontas, removing the bag she was using to gather corn, asked him, "What is wrong?"
Smith, who was becoming rather nervous of the willow tree for reasons he could not explain, told her, "My people are searching for gold. But we cannot find any. Do you have gold?"
The confused look on Pocahontas' face left Smith feeling a little...disappointed.
"What is gold?" Pocahontas finally asked. Smith stared at her.
"What is gold?" he echoed incredulously.
Pocahontas nodded with sincerity and Smith knew she was not lying.
"Gold," he began to explain, "is a strange, shiny yellow metal. It is so beautiful and yet it is very rare. My people are here to search for the yellow metal so we can take it back to our home country and sell it for money."
"Shiny...yellow...hm..." Pocahontas said thoughtfully. "I know of something shiny and yellow..."
"What is it?" Smith asked eagerly, hope suddenly restored.
"It is this," and with that, Pocahontas handed him a shiny, yellow ear of corn.
The befuddled look on Smith's face made her laugh.
"This is gold?" he asked.
Shaking her head, Pocahontas corrected, "It is golden corn. There is no metal here; all we have is golden corn, not gold."
Smith was depressed and defeated. He and the others had come here for nothing!
"There is no gold here for it can begin wars," an elderly, mythical voice whispered. Pocahontas noticed Grandmother Willow revealing herself in the tree trunk.
Smith froze up, his whole body stiff with shock. He then slowly turned and saw the face in the willow tree trunk. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and blinked again. The face winked at him.
"Hello, John Smith," the face greeted him.
"Pocahontas, that tree is talking to me," he stated rather slowly, believing he was dreaming.
"Don't be frightened, young man," Grandmother Willow assured the man from across the sea. "My bark is worse than my bite."
"I hope so," Smith answered worriedly.
"My name is Grandmother Willow," she announced. "It is very nice to meet you, John."
"It is very nice to meet you, too, uh...Grandmother Willow," John answered with a bow and a flourish. Pocahontas raised her eyebrow at this; she had never seen Smith do that.
At that moment in time, a voice called out from somewhere beyond Grandmother Willow, "Hurry up!"
With a scared look on her face, Pocahontas yanked Smith behind the tree trunk and told him to be quiet. Then she peered out around the tree trunk.
"Dear child, there is no need to be frightened of being discovered," Grandmother Willow chucked-loudly.
"Grandmother Willow!" Pocahontas reprimanded.
"Hey, there's another person there!" a rather 'goofy' voice yelped.
"Well duh! She told us she knew of some other people who would be visiting her any time, any day," a no-nonsense voice snapped back.
Pocahontas shot Grandmother Willow an accusing stare. "You, of all the spirits in the forest I can name, befriended some strangers?"
Grandmother Willow gave a purely innocent smile, "They looked harmless enough. Besides, they can help us."
"How-" Pocahontas began to challenge.
"Just shut-oh, hello," a surprised voice spoke as four people stepped through the willow tree's branches and spotted Pocahontas and Smith in front of Grandmother Willow.
Pocahontas stared. These were outside people as well, like Smith. The two boys were very identical and yet very different; one had brown hair, blue eyes, and a rather defined tan. The other had yellow hair, coppery-brown eyes, and a pale complexion. They were traveling with what seemed to be an overgrown, black dog-creature with a shield and a super-sized white duck dressed in blue and with a staff.
"Is your ship made to order?" Grandmother asked one of them pleasantly.
The brown-haired boy nodded, then gestured to Pocahontas and Smith. "Who are they?"
Grandmother Willow smiled. "She is Pocahontas and he is John Smith. The forest is Pocahontas' home and you, like John here, are the outsiders."
"Who are you?" Pocahontas asked quickly.
"I'm Sora," the brown-haired boy pointed to himself. "That's Aozora, the most serious guy in the world-" the blond boy scowled at this "-that's Donald, a wizard and a cranky one at that-hey! That hurts! And this is Goofy, captain of the King's Knights."
Goofy bowed, Donald glared at Sora, and Aozora had a scowl on his face.
"Uh...right," Smith finally stated. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
Ignoring him, Aozora said point-blank, "They've come, Grandmother Willow. I think they came with that big man with the red cloths-"
"John Ratcliffe," Smith identified. "What are you talking about-"
A scream shot through the forest and birds took flight.
After a moment of silence, Aozora stated, "The Nobodies have come."