We'll Meet Again
Chapter 6
They were not quite sure how it happened. Landing the ship was once again uneasy. There were so many trees in the way and it was hard for them to see where they were going. Sora ended up falling out of the ship, and Riku couldn't find him once he fell out. Sora woke up later to find himself in an old treehouse. It was quiet, which made everything seems spooky. He heard something, but only for a second. What was it?
"Riku?" he said. "Riku, where are you?"
He heard a noise again. Suddenly, a huge jaguar appeared and headed right for him. Sora was afraid, and without thinking, closed his eyes. He opened them again to find a man in a loincloth fighting the jaguar. Eventually, the jaguar ran away.
"Sabor...danger..." the man said. He turned to face Sora. "Me...Tarzan."
"What?"
"Tar-zan!"
"Oh. Um...hello. I'm Sora."
"So...ra. Sora."
"Uh...yeah. Have you seen someone named Riku? He has silver hair, um...I think he has green eyes. Hm...he wears a--"
"Ri...ku? Riku? Sora? Riku?"
Sora sighed. Obviously the man wasn't too bright. "Yes. Riku. HAVE--YOU--SEEN--RIKU? SILVER--HAIRED--BOY."
"Ooh ooh ahh ahh." he said. "Sora follow. Follow Tarzan."
"Ok..."
When he stepped out the treehouse with Tarzan, he realized they were in a huge jungle. There was nothing but green as far as the eye can see. Tarzan began to slide down the branches of the large trees. Sora was afraid to join him. They were so high up in the air that if he fell off the tree branch, he would most likely die. However, he wanted to find Riku and decided to take the risk.
It was more fun than Sora could have imagined. The rush, the excitement, the amazing view! All of it fascinated him. He wished Riku could have joined him to share the exciting experience. He felt like nothing could possibly keep him from having fun. That was, until he saw Kairi sitting on one of the tree branches, giving an evil grin. It immediately distracted Sora and he found himself falling off of the large branch. Luckily, before he could completely fall off the branch, Tarzan grabbed him and helped him to balance.
"Thanks." said Sora.
Meanwhile...
Riku was not so sure where he was, but he had been running nonstop trying to find out. He was sorrounded by walls of bamboo. No matter where he went, that was all he saw.
"Sora!" he called out his name, hoping Sora would call back. He was worried now. All he kept thinking about was if Sora was ok. He eventually found a new area. There was a large tent and around it were many boxes and other odd things. There was even a clothes line with clothes hanging on it. So obviously, there were people that lived here in this jungle. A young woman walked out of the tent and saw Riku.
"Oh hello there." she said, walking up to him. "Who are you? Are you with the gorillas?"
"What?" Riku was puzzled. "Do I look like I'm a gorilla or something?"
"Oh no, it isn't that!" the young woman said. "It's just I know a man and, well his name's Tarzan and he's--"
"Jane!" she heard someone say.
"Oh!" she said. "There he is now. I see he brought a friend or something."
"Sora!" Riku exclaimed when he recognized who the ape man was with.
"Riku!" Sora said and ran up to him immediately.
"You had me worried sick."
"Ha ha, sorry about that, Riku."
"So you both aren't like Tarzan I see." said the woman. "Tarzan was raised by a bunch of gorillas so he isn't exactly like us. Anyways, I'm Jane. Who are you?"
"Sora...Riku..." said Tarzan, pointing at them.
Jane laughed. "Is that true?"
Sora and Riku both nodded.
"Well, Sora, Riku, make yourselves at home. This jungle is a marvelous place, just be careful."
Sora and Riku decided to explore the place for a while. The place was a lot more fun to explore than the last world. They stopped near a place known as The Hippo Lagoon.
"This world is awesome." said Sora, looking around. He turned around and saw Riku climbing up a large tree. "What are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious?" replied Riku. "I'm climbing the tree."
"I got to slide down large tree branches with Tarzan. It was fun. You would've had fun too. I wish you could've been there."
"Well then we'll have to get ape man to take us and let me try it out. Are you coming or not?" He continued climbing up the tree until Sora couldn't see him anymore.
"Wait up!" he called after Riku. After a while, he had made it to the top with Riku. At the top were many vines.
"Woohoo!" shouted Riku as he jumped onto one of the vines. "Come on Sora. Are you afraid?"
"Of course not!" he replied.
"Then jump on one of the vines already!"
"Um...ok..." He found it difficult to jump onto one of the vines. He was just too afraid. "I dunno if I can do this."
"Oh come on!" said Riku. "What's the point in life if you aren't gonna take a few chances? Well, how 'bout I let you grab onto the vine I'm swinging on? Will you be scared then?" Sora shook his head. "Then grab on!"
After waiting for a few seconds, he jumped onto the vine with Riku. He immediately shut his eyes and held on tight. He failed to realize he was holding onto Riku more than he was holding onto the vine. Riku laughed.
"You're always laughing at me." Sora said angrily.
"No, it's just that you're funny. I can't help it. Can we jump to the next vine already?"
"Uh...I could hardly make it to this one. I doubt I could get to the next one."
"We'll be fine, silly. Plus you're practically squeezing the life out of me."
"Oh. Sorry. But how are we supposed to get onto the next vine? I feel like we're just gonna be stuck here for a long time!"
Riku thought about it for a moment. He then had an idea.
"Ok Sora. First, let go of me."
"What?"
"No, I mean, grab onto this vine instead of me." Sora did so. "Ok now I'll try to get on the vine ahead of us. Then you try. Don't worry. I'll help you out."
Riku jumped onto the next vine with no problem. "Ok. Go!"
Sora immediately swung to the vine. At first, it seemed like he wouldn't make it, but luckily, Riku grabbed him.
"Phew!" said Sora, relieved.
"Way to go." said Riku. "See? That wasn't so--"
He looked up and saw that the vine was breaking. In an instant, it completely broke and they ended up falling. They had to be the luckiest people in the world. Many lucky things have happened to them through their adventures, and this was another lucky moment. Instead of simply landing on the ground in pain, they had landed in the Hippo Lagoon that they were near earlier. When their heads popped up above the surface, they both began laughing and swam back to where they were before.
Later on, night had approached. They sat back up in the trees and watched the stars. Sora had begun to think. The beautiful night sky full of stars made him think of his island and how he used to look up at the sky when he was younger. It made him wonder about his island.
"I wonder if the heartless attacked my island..." said Sora. "I don't know what I'd do if anybody back at home was harmed. What if my parents were attacked by heartless?"
"Consider yourself lucky..." Riku said softly. "My parents abandoned me. Merlin told me when I was a baby, he found me on his doorstep with a note. It said something like 'Dear Stranger: Forgive us for leaving this baby at your doorstep. We can't take care of him. We're off to discover new worlds. Whether we will be successful or not, we're not sure. Please take care of our child, Riku.'"
"Is that why you've always wanted to go to new worlds?" Sora asked. "Because you wanted to find your parents?"
"Yeah. But of course, I wanted to find other worlds just to see what they were like. What I'm curious about is where my parents went and how they got to other worlds...or if they even did make it to another world. I just wish I could've had the chance to meet them..."
"I'm...really sorry..." said Sora. He had failed to realize at first that he had hugged Riku. When he did realize it, he broke away instantly. Sora blushed, and so did Riku.
"Well...uh...they were wrong for what they did! But you know what? I bet they're sorry that they ever left you."
Riku had doubted that, but appreciated Sora's optimism. "Thank you, Sora. We need to get some rest. It's getting kinda late."
Kairi was not too far away and watched them leave.
How dare he! Kairi thought to herself. Damn that stupid Riku for trying to take my place! I'll show him! I'll show BOTH of them! But I have to be patient like Maleficent said. They're bound to find Hallow Bastion soon enough. And when they do, I'll be waiting there.
To be continued...