Chapter 2: Friend or Foe?

Sora snapped awake. The once cozy and warm house was now eerily dark. He quickly accessed his clock. "Uh oh. It's been well over an hour." He went across the room and shook Goofy awake. "Come on Goofy. Riku's probably waiting for us at the lamppost."

Goofy blinked awake, smacked his dry lips, and yawned. Then he rested his head again.

"Goofy, we don't have much time. We still gotta find King Mickey's friend." Goofy was still unmoved, so Sora pulled out an Elixir to pep him up. Then, though, he heard soft sobbing.

Goofy heard it too and raised his head. Mr. Tumnus was sitting alone, his back turned to them, and he was crying. "What's wrong, Mr. Tumnus?"

"Oh, I such a terrible faun!" he sobbed.

Sora came up and comforted him. "Oh no, Mr. Tumnus. You have a good heart, and we've really enjoyed your company."

Goofy pulled out a large handkerchief and gave it to Mr. Tumnus. "Here. I always carry some around."

Mr. Tumnus took it. "Thank you," he gasped. He started wiping his eyes and blowing his nose, but he couldn't stop crying.

"Have we offended you for wanting to leave?" Sora asked.

"It's not that," Mr. Tumnus replied, shaking his head. "Oh, I wish I were a Nobody!"

"DON'T SAY THAT!" Sora said that a lot louder and angrier than he meant to. But then again, he felt a little like it wasn't him saying it. It felt more like Roxas. Sora tried to keep control and say, "You don't want to be a Nobody. It's a very empty experience, from what I've heard."

"I know," Mr. Tumnus said. "I didn't really mean it. I just thought for a moment, if I didn't have a heart, I wouldn't feel like this. You see, Sora, I've done a horrible thing."

"Awwe, it can't be something that bad," Goofy said consolingly.

"But it's not just something I have done. It's something I am doing, even as we speak."

"We don't think badly of you because you're crying," Sora said.

"No, Sora. I am kidnaping you."

"What!" Sora grabbed his weapon, and Goofy held out his shield defensively.

Mr. Tumnus bawled loudly. "Go ahead, Keyblade Wielder. Slay me! It is all that I deserve! Oh, I am the worst faun in the history of the world!"

Sora lowered his Keyblade. "I'm not going to slay you. I still don't think you're a Heartless anyway. But why are you kidnaping me? I thought we were friends."

"It's because of the White Witch. It is she who holds Narnia under her icy thumb. It is she who makes it always winter and never Christmas!"

"Is it ever Halloween?"

Mr. Tumnus suddenly stopped crying. "Halloween? What's that?"

"Uh, never mind." At least he knew Jack had nothing to do with this.

"Look at me, Sora. Do I look like the kind of faun who would search daily for the Keyblade Wielder, pretend to be friends with him, invite him to my home, all for the sake of lulling him to sleep, stealing his weapon, and turning them both over to the White Witch?"

"No," Sora answered shaking his head.

"Uh-uhh," Goofy answered, shaking his head.

"But that's what I've done. She gave us orders, Sora. She told everyone in Narnia that if we were ever to find you, we were to turn you and the Keyblade over to HER. If we failed, she'd do horrible things, unspeakable things. Oh Sora, I tried over and over. While you were asleep, I tried ten times to take your Keyblade. Every time, it vanished and reappeared in your hand. I'm not worthy to hold the Keyblade because of the darkness in my heart."

"No, it's not that," Sora said. "Only the chosen wielder of the Keyblade can hold it. Show him, Goofy."

"OK." Goofy took the Keyblade out of Sora's hands and swung it around a couple of time. Immediately, it disappeared in a flash of light. Sora stretched out his arm and concentrated on the Keyblade, and it materialized in his hand.

"You feel better?"

Mr. Tumnus shook his head.

"Then tell us where this witch is. Once we get Riku and Donald back with our team, we'll take her out."

"No! No Sora, you can't! You don't know her power!"

"Hey, we defeated stronger villains than her before. I'm sure it'll be no problem."

"No, no! You must leave Narnia at once!"

"We can't go yet," Goofy said. "We haven't found King Mickey's friend."

Mr. Tumnus started to straighten up. "You're right. Very well, but be careful. She may already know you're here. These woods are full of her spies. Even some of the trees are on her side, and they're always listening, Sora. They can easily betray you."

"I'll be ok. As long as I have the Keyblade and my friends at my side, I won't be afraid."

"What about you?" Goofy asked. "Will you be ok?"

Mr. Tumnus smiled weakly. "Well, whatever happens, I am very happy I have met both of you. Farewell, Sora and Goofy. Can you ever forgive for what I meant to do?"

"Of course. You're still our friend," Sora said.

Mr. Tumnus smile grew even bigger. He cried a few tears of joy, and then he handed the handkerchief back to Goofy.

"Oh no, you can have it," Goofy said. "It's a present for being our friend."

Mr. Tumnus started to thank him, but suddenly his smile faded. "Go! Quickly, go!" Sora and Goofy then ran out of his house.

Meanwhile, the Queen wrapped her warm around Riku's bare arms. "Would you like something warm to drink, Riku?" the Queen said kindly. "You look half frozen to death."

"I told you, I'm fine," Riku answered. The Queen gave him a look reminding him of her reprimand. "But, a drink would be fine, so please your Majesty."

The Queen took a bottle out of her coat and dripped two drops onto the snow. A crystal goblet filled with a frothy, chocolate drink appeared in the snow. The dwarf bent down, picked it up, and handed it to Riku. "Your drink, my liege," he said, but it still sounded like a sneer.

Riku curtly bowed his head in thanks and took the goblet. He drank a sip, and before he could stop himself, he drained the glass. The drink was heavenly, so rich and creamy and made him feel almost as warm as if he were back on the island. "That was wonderful, your Majesty. Can you make one for Donald, too?"

"I'm sorry, Riku, but the magic only works once."

"Can you get anything for Donald?"

"Don't concern yourself with your friend. He's well taken care of. Now, it is dull to drink without eating. Would you like something sweet to eat?"

"Thank you, but I'm not very hungry. The drink was kind enough."

"How about just a taste of something. Have you ever had Turkish Delight?"

"I can't say that I have."

"Oh, you must try it! It's the food of princes!"

Riku still didn't look sure, so she decided to appeal to his selfless nature. "You try a piece. The duck can have the rest."

"OK," Riku said.

The Queen dripped two more drops of the enchanted liquid on the snow, and a silver candy box appeared.

"I thought you said the magic works only once."

"To make a drink, my lord. It works once as well to create something solid." The dwarf handed Riku the candy box, and Riku took off the lid. "Now, try a good, big piece. How about that one?"

Riku took the one she indicated. He bit off a small corner.

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah, it's good. It's very sweet." He took a much bigger bite. "You know, I think I do remember having something like this before."

The Queen smiled. "I'm glad you like it, Lord Riku."

Riku stopped chewing and looked at her. The Queen's eyes beamed. He then turned away and continued eating. After he was done with the piece, he found himself licking the powdered sugar off his fingers.

"Would you like one more, before Ginarrbrik takes the rest to your friend?"

Riku eagerly reached for another piece, but then he stopped. "Wait." He looked at the Queen seriously. "What is this we are hearing about millions of Heartless and Nobodies?"

"Oh, right. Such a clever ambassador you make. Yes, they are such a nuisance. Many are losing their hearts in my realm. I cannot abide having those pesky Heartless running about in my woods."

"Well, that's why we're here. Sora has the Keyblade, and it can–"

"So Sora is here? In Narnia?"

"Yes, your Majesty. From the lamppost, he went east, and I went west. In fact, I ought to go meet him in a little bit."

The Queen smiled and looked far off. "You know, Lord Riku, your many adventures have reached my ears from worlds beyond. I know much about Sora and you. I was so love to meet Sora and see the majestic Keyblade and hear about his adventures from his own lips."

Riku sighed and looked down. She seemed to think a lot more of Sora, and for some reason right now only the Queen's opinion mattered to him.

The Queen looked at Riku again. "But of course, the only reason I would want to see the Keyblade Wielder is so I can make him present the Keyblade to you. After all, from everything I've heard, you are much more clever, and I see you are much stronger and more handsome as well." As she said this, the Queen massaged a muscle in his arm. "You are much more worthy of the Keyblade than Sora. I can give it to you. I can make you my personal knight, and then a prince, and perhaps one day you will be King of Narnia."

Riku chuckled a little. "You flatter me, your Majesty." But then he turned away. "Maleficent flattered me similarly. And Zemnas promised me such power."

The Queen laughed. "I'm not Maleficent or Zemnas, Lord Riku. They were using you. I am simply offering you what you rightfully deserve. Of course, there will still be a place for Sora. He could be a duke, and Donald and Goofy could be your personal servants."

"What about Kairi?"

"Kairi? Oh yes, the beautiful princess Sora rescued. Well, Lord Riku, if you wish, you may have her hand in marriage."

Riku shook his head. "I don't know about that."

"Oh, come now. A princess is worthy of a prince. But if you do not wish to marry, I will still give her a great honor. And you can eat Turkish Delight all day long."

"Hmmm," Riku nodded. The idea was starting to appeal to him a little bit.

"Now, look over there. You see those two hills? My castle is between those two hills. It is a grand castle, Lord Riku. There are many rooms filled from floor to ceiling with thousands of boxes of Turkish Delight. You bring Sora and the Keyblade there shortly, and I will tell you the secrets I've learned of the Keyblade. For instance, I think I found a way to make all Heartless disappear forever."

"Really? What is it?"

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a secret, now would it? You'll have to come to my house to see. But don't come alone. Bring Sora."

"Will you tell him the secret too?"

"Of course not, Lord Riku! It will be just between you and me, but I need the Keyblade to show you."

Riku dismounted from the sled. He didn't even realize that the box of Turkish Delight was no longer in his lap. "And by the way, Lord Riku, don't tell Sora about me. It will delight the boy so much if we left it a surprise. Just bring him between the hills–a clever and handsome man such as you can easily think of an excuse to do such a thing–and when you see my castle, just say, 'Oh, I wonder who lives here?' or 'Perhaps King Mickey knows the person who lives in this castle.' If Sora has spoken to anyone in Narnia, he may have heard strange and nasty things about me."

"Why is that?"

"Oh, my subjects are such gossips. They'll say anything to ruin a Queen's reputation, you know. But don't be afraid, Lord Riku. You know I am your friend."

"Yes, your Majesty." Riku bowed to her. "Thank you for everything, and I hope we will see each other soon."

The Queen bowed to him as well. "Until then, Dear One, I am going to miss you." She smiled and sat back in her sled. The dwarf cracked his whip, and the sled was off. Donald rejoined Riku, and he didn't look happy.

"How did you like the Turkish Delight?" Riku asked.

"I didn't get any!" Donald yelled as he stamped his feet.

"But she promised–"

"The only thing I got was a whip! That dwarf tied me up."

"Man, he's mean," Riku said aloud, but then he thought, "The first thing when I become the Keyblade Wielder, I'll fire him."

"She's the one who's mean!"

"No, it's not the Queen's fault. She told me you were taken good care of and that she was going to share with you my Turkish Delight."

"I don't know, Riku. There's something funny about her. I couldn't see the reindeer clearly, but there was something strange about them."

"Yeah. They're silver. I bet she did that with her magic."

"So, what was she talking on and on about with you?"

"I think she's the one Mickey wanted us to find. She told me a lot of things, and she promised she'd tell us more if we visited her castle."

"Don't you mean King Mickey?"

"Oh, right . . . King. We better be getting back." They headed back in the other direction. All the while, the Queen's words echoed in his head, especially when she called him "Lord Riku." The title sounded more appealing every time he thought of it. "Sir Riku," "Prince Riku," and "King Riku" sounded even better. Still, a voice in the back of his mind told him, "You shouldn't trust her. This is how it started, remember? You don't want to be drawn back to the darkness."

"But she's so nice," another voice said. "She made all of those promises, and she clearly has great knowledge and power. If she really does know what she claims, she's worth a try." The voice sounded a lot like Zemnas.

As Riku was heading back, Sora and Goofy ran hurriedly through the woods. "You haven't seen any big treasure chests, have you?" Sora asked.

"No," Goofy replied. "Why?"

"Because I'm starting to wonder why that faun didn't give us a map. We should have reached the lamppost by now." Suddenly, they heard a growl. Over the hill, a pack of silver wolves emerged. Sora carefully stepped toward the wolves with his hand on the Keyblade. As he drew closer, he saw a familiar insignia on the wolves' foreheads. "They're Nobodies!"

The lead wolf, who did not have such a mark, snarled as he looked at Sora and Goofy. He looked at his pack and growled one order, "Take them."

The wolves bounded forward. Sora drew his Keyblade, and he and Goofy immediately jumped right into a fight. The wolves were very swift, and they had a furious bite and scratch attack that was seriously cutting down on Sora's HP. It wasn't helping that he kept tripping over his coat. At one point, he was knocked back against a tree, which branches started flying wildly and tried to snatch the Keyblade. Sora looked up and saw the Heartless mark on the tree's trunk. He got up and started hitting it, but a wolf attacked from behind. "Come on, Goofy. Let's do Whirly-Goof." They immediately launched into the Limit Attack, and it did a lot of damage, but there were still plenty of Nobody wolves and trees. As Sora's HP was reaching critical status, he grabbed some Drive Orbs out of his pocket. "Light!" he cried, and immediately he transformed into Valor form. Having two keyblades and better stamina made it a much fairer fight. The wolves finally retreated, and Sora reverted to his previous form.

"Look Sora," Goofy called. "There's the lamppost."

Though unseen, the lead wolf was still watching them run to the light. He turned to what remained of his pack. "Smell out where they've been," he ordered.

Sora grabbed onto the Lamppost as though it were Home Base. As he caught his breath, he saw Riku and Donald just coming over the hill. "Riku!" he called. Riku hurried over to him. "Splitting up was a really bad idea. I could have used your Session Limit."

Riku shrugged. "Sorry," he said in a disrespectful tone.

"Now, now, guys, let's not fight," Goofy said.

"Oh yeah," Sora said. "So, what did you find?"

Riku thought for a moment. "Um . . . nothing much."

Donald made a cry of shock.

"But I did see this castle between those two mountains over there. Maybe whoever King Mickey wants us to see lives there."

"Maybe. We'll check it out later. Well, I found out a lot. We got a mean witch on our hands."

"Witch?"

"Yeah, they call her the White Witch, and she's after me, or the Keyblade, I'm not sure. This faun we met told us she's very powerful and dangerous."

"Well, it could have just been gossip."

"He sounded truthful enough," Goofy said.

"And after fighting those wolves, I see no reason to doubt him," Sora said. "Did you fight any?"

"No, I didn't."

"How about trees?"

"No. I did have this nasty battle with an awful dwarf. He tied up Donald."

"Was it a Heartless or a Nobody?"

"I don't think he was either. He was just mean."

"So, you didn't fight any Nobodies?"

"No. I didn't even see any."

"That's strange. And you know what's even weirder? I haven't seen a single Heartless since we've come here."

"Oh, that's because–" Riku stopped short as he remembered his promise.

"Because what?"

"Uh . . . nothing."

Sora scrutinized his friend. "Riku, are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You look very pale. Maybe you should get a coat."

"I SAID I'M FINE!"

"Shh!" Sora whispered. "That's another thing I've heard. There are spies everywhere. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to shout."

"What's with you today? Did you just get off on the wrong side of the bed?"

"It's just that this is my first mission, and I don't want to mess it up."

"Then you gotta control yourself."

"And submit to you, Keyblade Master? I'm older than you, Sora! When do I get to take charge?"

"When you get this!" Sora pulled out his Keyblade. Riku just glared at him. Seeing his friend so angry made Sora very sad. "I haven't found King Mickey's friend yet, either, but I'll introduce you to someone we did find, if you want me to."

"And then we'll see the castle between the two hills?"

"Sure," Sora nodded.

They walked on. Riku again started to doubt the Queen. "She told me that she needed the Keyblade to get rid of the Heartless, and she's already doing it," he thought. "She lied about how she was treating Donald, too. Well, maybe I'm mistaken."

As they approached Mr. Tumnus' house, Sora got a bad feeling. He saw all kinds of tracks all around in the snow that looked like there was fight, and a struggle. As they got to the house, they found the door wide open. Sora ran toward the cave. He forgot staying quiet and yelled, "Mr. Tumnus? Mr. Tumnus? Where are you?" He got inside. The place looked as though it was torn apart. Everything was broken. The flute that played the enchanting melody lay in pieces on the floor.

"What happened here?" Riku asked.

"It was just fine a few minutes ago," Goofy said.

"Mr. Tumnus!" Sora called again. "You can come out! We're here!" But there was no sign of him.

"Look, a note!" Donald grabbed a piece of paper that was hanging on a nail on a support beam, and he read, "The faun Tumnus is hereby charged with High Treason against her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia for fraternizing with her enemy, the Keyblade Wielder, and his accomplices. Signed Maugrim, Captain of the Secret Police. Long live the Queen!"

Riku couldn't believe his ears. The Queen he just met captured this whatever-it-was because he met with Sora? Well, maybe he didn't hear it right. It was Donald reading after all. Besides, if this really was the law, the Queen had to arrest herself. She just fraternized with an associate of the Keyblade with her full knowledge.

Sora took the note and read it silently to himself. "This is my fault." He turned to Goofy. "We shouldn't have left him unprotected. We knew he was going to get into trouble."

"Don't blame yourself, Sora," Riku said. "You did what you had to. There's nothing else we could have done."

Sora looked at everyone. "We can put off finding King Mickey's friend for now. We gotta find that witch and save Mr. Tumnus. Now, this battle's probably going to be really tough, so let's stay together so that we can make full use of our Limits. And make sure you have all the Hi-Potions and Ethers you can carry because I gotta save my MP. Whenever you see a Nobody, attack with all–"

"Wait a minute, Sora," Goofy, who was standing at the door, interrupted. "I just saw something out there. It looked like an animal just waved at me."

"We don't want to get anybody else into trouble, Goofy."

Donald looked out there with him. "It's a beaver. He looks very insistent. There's something white in his paw."

Goofy gasped. "That's the handkerchief I gave Mr. Tumnus! He must be a friend."

"Well, I guess we could talk to him," Sora said disappointed. So they went out.