CHAPTER LIII
A MOST VALUABLE TREASURE
He wore a massive golden headdress over his neck-length black hair. His face was thin, with a pointy little nose…he also wore a red tunic and brown sandals. He couldn't have been more than Riku's age.
"Hey…what are you doing in my trophy room!" he cried, rushing over Sora and pushing him near the stairs. "No touchy! No! Uh-uh…bad!" he said, slapping Kairi's hands as he pushed her over to Sora. "What are you lookin' at over there, blue boy?" he said with a snotty tone to Riku.
"Uh…Emperor Kuzco?" he said, unsure of the answer.
"Uh, yeah. Hello, the one and only…jeez, you been living under a rock? Now get away from there and go back into the audience chamber before I call the guards…"
Riku, Sora and Kairi waited a full ten minutes down by the pedestal until Kuzco casually descended the stairs and met them in the room. "Had to make sure you peasants didn't take anything…"
"Well, your highness…" Sora was getting pretty tired of saying that. He wished he didn't have to deal with so many kings, princesses and emperors all the time… "We actually gave your advisor some munny in order to take that Flame Salamander you've got…she didn't say it wasn't hers…" Sora said, hoping not to anger the young emperor.
"Well its not hers to give, so…nyah-nyah," he said, sticking out his tongue.
Kairi sighed. "She also imprisoned a few of our friends…Eddy, Goofy and Donald…she said you would have to release them. If you chose to," she added hastily.
"Hmm…yes…IF I chose to…" Kuzco said, pacing the floor. "Well, since you've been so honest, I won't make my judgment for three days. They'll stay alive until then."
Sora, Riku and Kairi looked at him in disbelief. "Can't you just let them go?"
"Hey, guys! This is a big thing! I'm not sentencing them to death immediately…that's more than I do for most peasants who come through my temple…" he said indignantly. "Be grateful! And also, get out. I'm done with you. Buh-bye. Guards!" he shouted as he started to climb up to his throne on the pedestal, waving patronizingly.
Six strong guards with axes corralled Sora, Riku and Kairi toward the door…they were bigger than Kronk, and with their friends imprisoned, they didn't want to risk fighting…
"What about the Flame Salamander?" Sora shouted as he was gradually nearing the door.
"What about it? Oh, that's right…it's mine," Kuzco said as he plopped down into his throne. "See ya!"
Sora, Riku and Kairi were thrown to the ground outside of the temple, even though they had stopped resisting at least five minutes ago. As Riku stood up, brushing the sand from his yellow shirt, he shouted back at the guards, "thanks! Real polite of you…"
"Yeah…they ain't exactly the kindest guys you ever met, are they?" said a new voice. The friends turned to see a big, jolly man wearing a green tunic and a simple brown hat. He had a large, fat nose in between a set of very friendly eyes and an even friendlier looking smile. He was wheeling a large cart full of bags and pots behind him as he extended his hand to the friends. Sora shook it first. "Name's Pacha."
"Sora, Kairi and Riku. It's nice to meet you, Pacha…do you work for Emperor Kuzco?"
"Me? Oh, no…well, I guess everyone kind of works for Kuzco…he is the emperor…but not directly. I have a llama farm over on that hilltop," he said, pointing across miles and miles of grassland. "Kuzco just summoned me here to tell me he was going to destroy my village to make a summer home…" Pacha said, starting to walk down the path. "I have to get going – it's almost a day's walk back to my village. But if you wanna tag along, I won't stop you…"
Kairi, Riku, Sora and Pacha had crossed a large rope bridge and gone through several miles of forest before they stopped to take a rest. The rest, unfortunately, turned into quite the opposite, as a black portal swirled open in front of their campsite. Pacha stepped backwards, almost falling over his cart, as Sora, Riku and Kairi drew their keyblades. From the dark portal came a heavyset man wearing a Legion Knight's variation of a toga…his mask, they remembered, was that of the Burning Man.
"Hey! If it isn't the little twerps that keep ruining my afterlife! How ya doin'?" said the Burning Man, an unseen smile spreading across his evil lips. "Seen any heartless around here? Lemme fix that for ya…" he said quickly, not allowing Sora or his friends to get a word in edgewise. With a flourish he snapped both of his fingers and slid gracefully back into the portal. Dropping from the sky came hundreds of heartless…mostly new types. The mosquito heartless that circled quickly had returned from Ant Island, but with them were plenty of fat bandits, spewing fire all around. The final type of heartless was new – a huge group of black clouds that disappeared and reappeared clear across the campsite in the blink of an eye.
Sora hurled his keyblade forward, striking a fat bandit directly in the mouth, knocking it over on its back. Kairi ran the opposite way, trying to catch up the dark clouds…but they were warping all over the place, way too fast for Kairi to catch up to…
Riku stepped back toward Pacha, slashing the mosquitoes backwards as they came closer. "Get back, Pacha!" he bellowed, jumping in the air and slashing downward at a cloud, missing. As he came back down, he side kicked a flying heartless into the line of a fat bandits flame, killing it instantly. From behind him, he could hear Pacha rumbling through his belongings…finally coming up with a thick, wooden staff in his hands, almost as big as a tree sapling.
"If it's all the same to you, I think I'll help…" he said, as he swung it over head, pummeling two of the flying bugs into a nearby tree. He wasn't agile, but he was strong, that was for sure…
Sora grabbed his keyblade as it came soaring back toward him – the mosquitoes weren't giving him a break…they were all dive-bombing him at once, trying to take him out together. Sora thought back to all the magic he knew and cried 'reflega!', causing a blue shield of light to form around him, expanding and blowing the heartless who had dared come too close to smithereens.
Pacha wound up his staff and swung directly at two fat bandits' stomachs…Riku was about to warn him about the immunity they had, but both of them fell awkwardly backwards as Kairi pounced from the left, slashing them both until they popped.
Riku stood in the center of the campsite, his mouth hanging open. "Boy, you are strong…" he said as Pacha calmly walked toward him. With a final swing of his staff, he connected with the last mosquito that was heading for Riku's head, sending it into the sky.
The three remaining black cloud heartless zipped around the campsite, pausing only to disappear in a flash of darkness. Their moves became so predictable that Sora merely had to think a step ahead of them and slash as they reappeared. It was annoying…but at least it worked.
"C'mon. My village is only a few hours away…we can rest there after you tell me what those things were…" Pacha said, gathering up his belongings onto his cart.
But after only twenty minutes of walking through some more dense forest, the friends stopped in their tracks as their heard the clip-clop of a hoofed animal drawing nearer. It soon became accompanied by a strange, girlish scream. Pacha strained his eyes to look back toward the woods they had come from, hoping to see what it was…
"A llama?" he said, unsure of himself. Within moments, all doubt was removed, as a brown, shaggy llama came into view. He had black, straight hair on his head and an odd looking golden headdress that looked strangely familiar…
"PANTHERS!" it seemed to shout, running past Pacha and Riku to hide behind a rock.
"Did that llama just talk?" Sora asked his friends.
Suddenly, as if answering him, six sleek, black panthers slinked into their sights. Baring their teeth, they growled, rearing up onto their back legs to swat their intimidating paws. As they came back down, Sora and his friends all were able to see the insignia of the heartless adorning their stomachs, glowing a bright red against their black fur.
