Hiya! This is me double posting for your reading pleasure.
Since I haven't updated in like a month, I'm giving you two chapters instead of one. My little way of saying I'm sorry, and that I would really appreciate some more reviews.
Chapter 4
The New World
By, Greykey
Riku couldn't help but grin when he first saw a new world. The other worlds he had been in were easily just as impressive as the one he was looking at now, but somehow this felt a lot brighter and welcoming.
He landed his ship with a little bit of difficulty and hopped out. He was surrounded by thick forest, but not like the forest in Snow White's world. Although the trees were huge and blocked a good amount of sun, the darkness they gave off was more of a relaxing shade then a plight-filled obscurity.
At first, the calm forest gave him hope of a better world; everything was at peace and were no disturbances, but just the extremity of the calm made him worry. This forest was a little too peaceful, almost as if it were never touched by man.
Riku sighed and punched a nearby tree, did he land on an abandoned world? It would make sense, not all worlds had to have humans in them, but… damn! It would be nice to talk to somebody… somebody pleasant…
Riku pulled himself together, people or no, Sora and Kairi had to land somewhere, and he doubted if the darkness cared what type of world they threw them in and whether or not it had people in it…
It was best to search.
Riku took out his sword and made a mark on the tree he had punched. Chances were this forest looked all the same, just like last time. If he got lost or went around in a huge circle, he would know. He continued walking, marking trees as he went.
After a while of walking, Riku got terribly bored. He hadn't been going around in a circle (as far as he knew) because he hadn't run into any other cut trees. Perhaps he should just turn around and get back to his ship. If there was any intelligent life on this world, he would have found some sign of it already.
Just as he was about to turn around, something caught his eye through a few trees. He walked through the foliage and what he saw both froze him in his tracks and made him grin broadly at the same time.
A gigantic patch of trees and been cleared out of an area, leaving nothing but the stumps. Riku wasn't a tree-killer exactly, but the area proved that there had to be people nearby. He examined one of the stumps. It wasn't perfectly cut, but well enough to have been clearly done by a tool of some sort, like one of those long saws.
People had to be near by… maybe near enough where Riku could see their village or something. Trees surrounded the entire area. Riku looked up and had to restrain himself from jumping in the air. There was smoke! There was white smoke coming from a little further away. Riku ran happily toward the smoke, praying he wasn't running strait into a wildfire.
He nearly stumbled several times as he made his way through the sea of stumps, following the white swirls in the sky like a sailor to the stars. He cleared pass the trees excitedly only to frown when he reached his destination. A colossal fortress composed of large logs with their ends sharpened to spikes stood before him. The white curly smoke came up from the middle of it. Riku scratched his head. There had to be people inside right? He didn't see a door or any kind of entrance, so he couldn't just walk in; perhaps he should call to the inside?
He cupped one of his hands around the side of his mouth, ready to yell in, but suddenly a sharp sound much like a gun shot rung through the air. Riku jumped and backed away from a sudden movement. He looked down to the ground where he had seen the movement. There sat a silver bullet smoking up from the now slightly disturbed ground.
They just tried to shoot him!
Riku could have let out strings of unimaginable curses just then if he wasn't so stunned by the fact that he was almost shot. He regained some composure, but not enough to not tell them off for nearly blasting him.
"Why did you just shoot at me you flippin' asses!" Riku yelled drawing his sword and using it to point at the fortress, "What the hell did I do!"
A booming command came from inside the fortress, "What? He speaks English? Lower your rifles men; he's English!"
Riku lowered his sword and stared up confused. What did his ability to speak have anything to do with why he deserved to be shot?
Another voice called, "Open the gates!"
Sets of the logs began to move outward, and opened like doors just a little left of Riku. He centered himself and a plump man in purple with a black thin mustache accompanied by an extremely thin man with light brown hair came out to greet him.
The plump man chuckled apologetically, "I'm so sorry lad; you should have called out to us sooner. We assumed you were a savage in those odd clothes…"
Riku sneered at the man's half-felt apology and backhanded insult on his fashion sense, but became curious from what he had said, "Savages?"
The two men exchanged glances and the plump man replied, "Yes, you know, Indians and what not…"
Riku turned out toward the forest, "Do they live out there?"
"You've never heard about the Indians from this world, son?"
Riku's froze at the mention of 'world'. Did these guys know about other worlds as well? Were the destiny Islands the only world that didn't know that other worlds were attainable by vessel?
Riku decided to play it safe, "World?"
The plump man looked appalled, "Lad, do you not know where you are?"
Riku shrugged, and feigned for the most part, ignorance.
"You are in the New World. Thousands of miles away from England. It turns out that Columbus fellow was right and we are on the other side of the world…" he summed up with another unsavory chuckle.
Riku gave an internal sigh of relief. This was just an undiscovered part of their world, not actually a new one entirely. It would sort of be insulting if every world knew about inter-world travel except Destiny Islands.
Riku smiled and asked as politely as he could, "Well, I wouldn't want to intrude on you nice folks too long so I'll just be quick. I'm looking for two of my friends you see. Their about my age and one is a girl with red hair and another is a boy with brown spiky hair. Have you seen anybody like that? They only would have shown up recently."
"Hmmm, I can't say. I haven't seen anyone even wearing something remotely like the garbs you have on. Perhaps you should ask John Smith. He's been exploring and rummaging about this land despite the better words of wisdom. If anyone has seen your friends around here, Smith has," he said.
"Okay, where's John Smith?"
"Adventuring," the thin man piped in for the first time.
"Where?"
"Not a clue," the plump man sighed, "If I were you, I'd come inside and wait for him. Go looking for him and you just might run into some savages or those horrid little monsters they have." Both of the men turned to go back inside the fortress and Riku followed after them, quickly catching the 'little monsters'.
"Hey wait! Um…" Riku murmured off when it came to a name.
"Ratcliffe," the plump man replied, "Governor Ratcliffe."
Riku nodded, not really caring all too much, "Those 'little monsters' you mentioned, did they have black bodies and bright yellow eyes?"
Ratcliffe stopped walking and turned to look at Riku, "Why yes, yes they did. Ran into them did you? Here, come into my cabin. We'll discuss such things there."
Riku was led into the dead center of the fortress where there was a cabin. Outside of the cabin were many men wearing pieces of shiny metal armor and had guns at the ready. They all watched him being escorted by Ratcliffe and eyed him suspiciously as if he would attempt attack. The cabin was entirely wooden and had a chimney producing a small trail of white smoke. Was that smoke he followed coming only from this one cabin?
They entered the heated cabin and, just as Riku stepped in, a white little pug stepped out without even bothering to look up at him. It had a blue collar and almost a haughty air to it. Riku chose to ignore the dog as Ratcliffe sat down in a wooden chair and offered him another next to him.
Riku sat down and then noticed the skinny man wasn't there anymore. Was he not allowed to come into the cabin?
"So tell me, lad, what is your name? And are you from England, or just happen to speak our language fluently?" Ratcliffe asked, seemingly getting comfortable.
Riku personally didn't like Ratcliffe. He seemed to go by his own agendas, and it was clear that he had too much power and loved using it. Riku thought about giving him a fake name, but what would be the use of that?
"I'm Riku," he said simply.
"Are you English Riku?" he asked again.
"No."
Ratcliffe frowned, "You're not French or Spanish are you?"
"No."
Ratcliffe raised an eyebrow, perplexed, "Then what country are you from?"
Good flipping question.
"I come from a collection of islands called the Destiny Islands," he said truthfully. What could the truth hurt?
"Hmm, I've never heard of such a place," he looked suspicious, "Well, it must be near Europe, you wouldn't be able to speak English so well if it weren't." he crossed his arms and looked satisfied with Riku's story.
Riku could have cared less, "So, you don't know when your John Smith is coming back?"
"No, he leaves everyday and almost never comes back before sunset. God only knows what he's doing. I swear one day the savages and their monsters will get him…" he said in an almost apparent mock mourning.
The Indians and the heartless Ratcliffe spoke of ignited Riku's interest enough to bear talking with him. He laced his fingers together and leaned forward, "So, tell me about the savages in this region… and about their monsters too."
Ratcliffe sat back and chuckled, "Well, we came to the New World in search of gold you see. We are positive there is some around here but we cannot find it. The only logical explanation is the Indians took it and are keeping it for themselves, the greedy savages that they are…"
Riku internally sighed. Wasn't that calling the pot calling the kettle black… or however that saying went?
"… We found them lurking 'round our camps one day and set off a few warning shots to scare them away. They did flee, but something else came soon after…"
Riku began to truly focus. It sounded like 'the good part' of a horror movie or a scary story.
"… at first we figured they were Indians with black paint on their faces, but we soon realized our mistake. There were four of them, one in red, one in blue, one in yellow, and one in green. All of them held staffs of sorts. Our gunmen tried to shoot at them when we thought they were Indians, but they dodged all of the bullets at lightning fast speed; it was overwhelming…"
Riku thoughtlessly leaned forward even more, becoming more and more interested. Those didn't sound like the heartless he had met in Snow White's world at all.
"…Only one got even a minor scratch and the green one swung its wand and healed it immediately. Then they all raised their staffs high into the air, as if summoning Satan himself, and what might only be assumed as their underlings came out and wreaked havoc on all of my crew. Their little underlings wore witch's hats and had the body of perhaps misshapen salt-shakers and were able to cast a different element corresponding to their color. And the original four seemed to have control over them all, like generals in an army."
Riku sat up again. How strange… Perhaps what Ratcliffe was describing wasn't a real heartless, but just an odd monster of this world…. Riku frowned. How disappointing… he might have been able to get real information about the heartless without Maleficent and that horrid riddling voice.
Ratcliffe noticed his disappointment, "Hm? Something wrong?"
Riku looked up, "Oh, nothing. I just thought that I might know what your monsters were… but they don't sound anything like the things I encountered."
"Hmm…" Ratcliffe murmured, "So I guess you wouldn't know how to defeat our little x-hearts…"
Riku's heart skipped a beat, "What did you call them?"
"X-hearts," Ratcliffe said, looking at him curiously, "It's a name that the men gave the monsters. You see, they have a peculiar mark on each and every one of them." Ratcliffe stood up and went over to a nearby table with a few maps and other papers on it. He filed through them and picked up a particularly dirty piece of parchment. He handed it to Riku.
On the paper there was a slightly messy design of what looked like a heart with an x through it. There were a few more intricacies to it, but the main product was so.
"They all had that same mark to them. The generals had them on different places such as their boots or arms or whatever, but on every minion there was a large one printed on its chest."
Riku stared at the design for a while. An x over the heart. No hearts. Those without hearts. Heartless.
Riku sighed and placed the paper down. Yeah, now he was sure that they were indeed heartless, but if Ratcliffe and his men didn't even know their names how were they going to know even what might interest Riku?
"Their real name is 'heartless', or 'those without hearts'," Riku said resting his eyes thoughtfully.
Ratcliffe seemed excited, "Do you know how to beat them?"
"No, I've never had to fight them, and I've never encountered the heartless you're talking about," Riku confessed, handing the paper back to Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe scowled, "I see."
A rapping came from the wooden door. A voice Riku recognized as the skinny man's came through the door, "Sir, John Smith is back."
Ratcliffe, still clearly agitated, waved Riku off, "Very well, go talk to him. You said that was all you wanted right?"
Riku smirked, kicking him out as quickly as possible now, hm? "Right."
Riku exited the cabin and passed the skinny man strait to who he assumed was John Smith. He was blonde with a little bit of helmet hair. He wore no armor which slightly surprised Riku, being as all these men thought the outside was the most dangerous place of all…
He extended a hand in greeting, "Hello, I'm John Smith. I understand you want to talk to me?"
It took Riku a few moments to finally shake his hand. He still felt some awkwardness toward proper greetings.
"Hello, my name is Riku, and I-"
"Where are you from Riku?" John cut him off.
Riku gave him a look of part irritation and part uncertainty.
John caught on, "Sorry," he laughed; "It's just that I've never seen clothes like yours before, and they don't look like…" he trailed off and cast a quick side glance over toward the skinny man.
"How about we go to my tent?" John offered placing a hand on Riku's shoulder. Riku nodded and he was led across the camp to a large tent.
The tent's commodities were clearly inferior to the ones in Ratcliffe's cabin, but it wasn't like Riku was staying so he made himself comfortable where he stood.
"So Riku, are you from around here? The New World that is," John asked.
"No." Riku mentally rolled his eyes. Would he have to go through the same bit over again?
"So you haven't heard about the Indians here?"
"No, I have," Riku said, feeling slightly confused, "Ratcliffe told me about the situation between you and them."
"But have you seen them; talked to them; encountered them in anyway?"
"No…"
John sighed and said firmly, "Okay: everything Ratcliffe told you; get it out of your head, because it's lies."
Riku's eyebrows furrowed together, "What?"
"There is no gold here, the people here are not savages, and they don't control the ex-hearts," John said flatly.
"Heartless," Riku corrected.
Now it was John's turn to give a look, "Do you have them where you are from?"
"No, but I've seen them before and they are called heartless," Riku was becoming annoyed, the Indian thing was interesting but it didn't concern him and he was here for only one thing, "Now please, I want to know: have you seen anybody that looks about my age and are wearing approximately same clothes as me. I'm looking for a boy named Sora and a girl named Kairi."
"The boy has brown spiky hair and the girl has red, right?" John chuckled.
Riku's heart leapt and he smiled, "You've seen them?"
"No, Wiggins told me."
Riku's smile died right there on his face, he stood up and scowled, "Then I have no reason to be here, good bye."
"Wait," John said. Riku grudgingly obliged.
"There's someone I know that might know where your friends are," John explained. Riku's ears perked up. He continued "You should definitely talk to her. If she doesn't know where your friends are, then they aren't in this area."
Riku's mind reeled at a peculiar thing John said.
"'Her'? I didn't think there were any women at this settlement…" Riku murmured carefully.
John chuckled a reply, "There aren't."
O.o
Awww, I sort of miss the little openings and endings to the chapters with Riku and the Mysterious voice (which I hope you already know who it is…)
I'm feeling really impatient right now. My Kingdom Hearts 2 game is supposed to arrive today but I just don't have the patience to wait for it.
I WANNA PLAY NOW! ;.;
(Please review, and thank you for reading)