This story went from "wow, this is a fun little idea."
To, "wait, so Terra would never have been Norted?"
Then, "Organization XIII never existed!"
Then finally, "I JUST REWROTE KINGDOM HEARTS."
This story is going to longer than planned, and I now regret taking those 10 hour shifts.
—
They had been in Deep Jungle for days now. Nothing to see but plants and heartless. Even the gorillas had disappeared from the first time they saw them. They were no closer to finding the keyhole than they were on the first day when they hadn't even started looking.
The sightings of the wild boy continued, though no one was ever able to get a clear look at him.
One morning, while breakfast was being prepared, everyone sat around in various degrees of wakefulness. Then, without warning, a wicker basket filled with fruit fell from the ceiling and landed next to Kairi with a 'wham!'
Everyone jumped at the gift, startled, before Ventus called out, "thank you sentient tree house!"
Then, three days into the voyage, with no end in sight, they finally made some headway.
It came mid afternoon, on a day that was hot and humid, as most days were in the jungle. The bugs were out, and everyone was cranky from sleeping on the floor for so many nights.
Riku was heading the pack, his job was keeping everyone going in the same direction, north by northwest. All the while, Kairi brought up the rear, her eyes wandering the canopy, just as she had on the first day.
"Look!" She cried, seeing something through the trees. "A treehouse!"
"Ugh, we're back at camp? We walked all the way around the world?" Asked Ventus with a groan.
Kairi was already pushing plants aside to make her way over. "No! It's a different treehouse!"
And indeed it was. Smaller than the first one, but newer. A second even smaller treehouse sat in the adjacent tree, connected with a bridge. There was a rope ladder hanging down, and smoke coming from a little chimney.
"Hello!" Called Kairi. "Is someone there?"
Terra and the rest caught up with her. "Wait! What if they're dangerous?"
Riku interjected. "This is the first lead we've had! We should take it!"
A brunette woman poked her head out the window of the treehouse. "My goodness! I'm not hearing things!" She called, with an English accent. "There's people! I'll be down in just a moment!"
"She looks nice," Ventus commented.
The woman descended using a vine, sliding down and landing right in front of them. "Hello! My, it has been some time since I've seen other people! You must be from another world! Are you here to study the gorillas?" Then she grew less friendly, "or are you here to hurt them? Because if you are, I'll—I'll...well, I'm not sure what I'll do, but I can assure you it won't be pleasant!"
Ventus whispered to Riku. "I like her."
"We're not here to hurt the gorillas," Terra said, raising his hands peacefully. "In fact, we're here to help them, in a way, Miss uh..."
"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Jane, Jane Porter. It's a pleasure." She held her hand out.
He shook it. "I'm Terra, these are my friends, Aqua, Ventus, Riku, and Kairi."
"So, what does bring you folks to our Jungle?"
"Well," Terra explained, hesitating. "We're looking for a keyhole."
"And a wild man!" Ventus added.
"Preferably both," said Aqua.
Jane smiled, "well, I know of no keyhole, but the wild man you're looking for is probably my husband. He should be along here sometime. Won't you all come up and have some tea?"
Kairi's heart sank into her shoes. That boy had been someone's husband? And he had kissed her? Oh this was not good.
"Tea sounds lovely, thank you." Aqua agreed.
Jane led the way up to the treehouse, gesturing them inside. "Come in! Come in! Make yourselves at home. I know it must be exhausting hiking through the jungle. Sit wherever you'd like."
Immediately Ventus and Riku plopped down on a couch that, despite its Victorian appearance, was quite comfortable.
Jane set on the kettle and then called out to the neighboring treehouse, "Daddy! Daddy wake up, we have company!" Then she looked at her guests. "My apologies, it's been so long since we had visitors that spoke English! You see, we're researchers. About three years ago, Daddy and I came here from a neighboring world called London to study the gorillas."
"Oh!" Cried Ventus. "We've been to London!"
Riku nudged him, "hush."
"You have?" Said Jane happily. "Sometimes I really miss those streets, but other times I remember all the smoke and noise, and I'm glad I stayed here."
"Why did you stay?" Asked Terra politely. "Your husband?"
"Yes, precisely. Daddy and I came here with another man, Clayton, on a grant to stay for about a month. Nearly the first day we arrived, I met him. He saved me from an angry fleet of baboons. A flying man in a loin cloth…"
"What's his name?" Asked Riku.
"Oh, it's...it's a little odd, it's Tarzan."
The group collectively deflated, now knowing that the wild man was not who they wanted him to be.
"He didn't speak any English," Jane continued. "So, we taught him. We taught him reading and writing, math and science, about all the other worlds and galaxies out there. When the ship came to take us back, we tried to get Tarzan to come along with us...but our guide Clayton betrayed us, caged all the gorillas, and killed the alpha."
The group stayed quiet, letting her speak, since it seemed so long since she had had any company. "Tarzan and Clayton fought, and in the end, Tarzan won. But the alpha, in his dying moments, chose Tarzan to be the next leader of the pack. So he couldn't return with us." A small smile came to her face. "So I decided to stay too, and so did daddy."
At that moment, a small old man came in the door, "I say, we do have company! A mighty gay crew of young adventurers at that! How wonderful! Archimedes Q. Porter, at your service! Jane, you've got the kettle on?"
"Of course, Daddy. They're here in search of a keyhole, and they were looking for Tarzan!"
"A keyhole? In the jungle? You might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack!"
Jane took pause. "Come to think of it, for what reason are you looking for Tarzan?"
Aqua answered. "Well, at first we wondered if he was someone we once knew. But, we also wondered if he would have any hints to finding the keyhole..."
"And what does this keyhole lock, or unlock, as the case may be?"
"Well..." Terra and Aqua shared a look, trying to decide what was appropriate to say.
Riku took the decision away from them. "Have you seen the strange creatures that look like monkeys, but definitely aren't?"
"Oh! You mean those blue menaces?! Of course! They're the reason we had to leave the old treehouse!" The professor exclaimed.
"You mean the two-story one? A bit south of here?"
"That's the one!"
"That's where we set up camp! The heartless were a big problem there?"
"Is that what they're called?" Asked Jane. "And why yes, but...they've been a problem everywhere in the Jungle. Tarzan is nearly at his wits end trying to kill them all! But they just keep coming back! They breed like rabbits!"
"They don't actually breed…" Terra began. "The heartless are born of the darkness in people's hearts. They've been getting worse everywhere. The locking the keyhole will stop them from swallowing this world completely, and get them to stop re-spawning."
Jane sighed in relief. "If that's the case, I'm sure Tarzan will do what he can to help you."
Then, the kettle screamed, and Jane began to serve the tea. "You know, you say those heartless are made from the darkness in people's hearts. It makes quite a bit of sense then, really, since they came around the same time we did. Clayton, the man I spoke of before, was terribly evil. We hired him to keep us safe in the jungle, but he ended up being the biggest threat." She put the tea on the tray and brought over for everyone to take a cup. "I still feel awful about it. This world would have been so much better off if we hadn't come."
"Would Tarzan?" Asked Aqua.
And just like that, a figure dropped into the room with a 'whomp', poised on the balls of his feet.
Jane collected herself quickly. "There you are, darling! We have guests!"
The man was already halfway across the room, giving each of the wielders a studious look. "Guests…"
"They said they've been looking for you."
"For me?" He took a special interest in Terra, Aqua, and Ven. "Been to see my mother. Said she and others were rescued from the not-chimps by people. One that looked like me," he pointed at Terra, "one with hair like water," he pointed at Aqua, "and one with hair like bananas." He pointed at Ventus.
"Hey!"
"Oh yes!" Said Aqua, "we saved some gorillas from the heartless. Are they your family?"
"Yes, my family. Thank you."
Ven grinned. "No sweat, it's our job."
"Kairi, is this the man you saw?" Riku spoke up.
It was almost with relief that she said, "no, he's not."
"Not Tarzan? My, then I feel sorry for wasting your time while I just rambled…hold on, you mean to say you saw another wild man out in the Jungle?"
"Yes, a few days ago."
"Other," said Tarzan. "One other."
"Other? Oh!" Jane gasped. "Goodness gracious, I had completely forgotten about him! There is another wild man out there, but I only saw him once…and he was not very friendly. He almost got violent actually, Tarzan had to wrestle him away."
"Not like Tarzan," Tarzan said, "not part of pack. Comes and goes."
No one got their hopes up. That didn't sound like Sora at all.
Still, Riku asked, "does he have a name?"
After a moment, Tarzan answered:
"Sora."
Aqua's teacup shattered on the floor, as she stared at the man in horror. "I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"Oh, it's alright," Jane pacified. "Not much use for china in the Jungle, right? Are...are you alright?"
Aqua rubbed the heel of her hand into her eye. "I...I'm fine..." though as she said it, more tears came until she was weeping openly.
Terra quickly rushed over, and embraced her, where she buried her head in his shoulder to cry.
"Said something wrong?" Asked Tarzan.
"No," said Terra, his voice choked up. "You said the right thing."
"You're...his family, aren't you?" Jane surmised.
"Yeah...we...we came here about ten years ago, for a training exercise. He was only six then, and we left him and Ven at camp. When we returned, the camp was destroyed, Ven was unconscious and bloody, and Sora was nowhere to be found."
"We searched for days!" Aqua sobbed. "But all we found was his bloody clothes. We didn't think he could have—we thought he was dead! But all this time, he's been here. Alone..."
"There there, don't blame yourself." Jane consoled, getting her a fresh cup of tea. "Given the evidence you found, it was a very natural conclusion you arrived at. You searched for days. And...he's alive. You'll be reunited!"
"But, I can't help but be afraid, what if he thinks we abandoned him here?"
"If you explain it, he'll understand."
Terra asked Tarzan, "what can you tell us about him?"
The man scratched his head, trying to recall old memories. "Found him when he was small. Hurt. Scratched. Naked. Brought him home to family, for help. Kerchak didn't want him to stay. Said he was marked as prey, being hunted. Mom begged him to stay until he was healed. Kerchak agreed. Thought he would die, but didn't. He healed, and stayed with us for a while, and then left. Found him later, hurt again, brought him back again. Over and over, same thing. Kerchak was right, marked as prey, but predator doesn't kill. Still hunting him."
That was troubling. "He's being hunted? By what?" Asked Aqua.
"Strange creature. Black, blue, and red."
"That sounds like a heartless," said Riku with mounting concern.
Tarzan further explained, "when first met Sora, he made weird sounds. I now know it was English. Then each time we found him, made less of those noises, more animal noises. More animal behavior. Now, he is like something different. Not like Jane, not like Tarzan's family. Not like Tarzan."
"What kind of animal is he acting like?"
"One I have never seen before."
Kairi still didn't mention her other encounter with him at the treehouse, but she thought about it. He had parroted what she had said, and if this truly was Sora, shouldn't he be able to recall at least a little bit? Had he lost himself that much?
Everyone else was considering Tarzan's news of a heartless hunting Sora. What sort of Heartless plays with its victim for over ten years? It sounded like the intentional work of Maleficent.
Jane broke the silence, "Tarzan, have you ever heard of a keyhole? Our friends are looking for one."
He thought a moment. "I know of lots of holes. Explain more?"
Jane went over to her dresser, grabbed her jewelry box, and brought it over for him to see. "This little hole right here is a keyhole, if I put the key in it, it unlocks the box, and I can open the lid. In London, all the houses have keyholes on them so you can get inside."
"And there's one in the Jungle?" He asked the guests.
"There should be. We just…have no idea where to start," Said Aqua. "Is there somewhere or something significant in the jungle? Something important?"
"There's the waterfalls," Jane mused. "It's the main freshwater source, at the heart of the Jungle."
"The heart of the Jungle!" The five exclaimed.
"We have to go to the waterfalls! Can you take us there, Tarzan?"
The man wandered over to the door, looking outside, thinking.
"He's a very quiet man." Jane whispered to her guests. "He's basically the king of the Jungle, so he must consider the animal's safety."
He came back and declared, "not yet, but I will come for you soon. Where is your camp?"
"At the old treehouse, to the South."
He nodded in understanding. "I will try to find Sora, tell him his family looks for him. Thank you for helping us."
—
Later that night, Aqua boarded the gummi ship, as she had every night of their trip, and called Master Eraqus.
"It's late, Aqua. Busy day?"
"Yes, Master. We finally found a lead. There were some researchers from another world here to study the gorillas, and the woman married a man raised by the apes."
"A man raised by the apes? He was there last time too?"
"I guess? He looked about Riku's age. They said the waterfalls are at the 'heart' of the world, and once the timing is right, he's going to take us there."
"The timing?"
"Yes…I'm not exactly sure what that means, but Tarzan has to protect the other animals, he's like their king. So we have to abide by his rules."
"Thus preserving the order of things, of course. Well, I hope it doesn't take too long, for everyone's sake. How are the rest? Is everyone alright?"
Aqua didn't answer immediately, her glance away from the screen. "Master, we…I think we found him."
"…you don't mean…?"
"Kairi said she saw a wild man in the Jungle, who saved her from the heartless. When we met the researchers, they confirmed there was wild man, another besides the one we met today. They said his name is Sora."
"Oh god…"
"Master, what are we going to do? We can't just leave him here!"
"I know, I know…but we mustn't be hasty. We need to treat him with care, find out what he would like to do. We can't force him to do anything."
"One other thing…Tarzan said he was marked as prey. Said he was being hunted by a strange black creature."
Eraqus frowned hard. "That's not good. The boy's heart is strong, and doubtless a very powerful heartless has its eyes on him. No matter what Sora decides in the end, you will need to stop that heartless. We owe that much to him at least."
Aqua nodded in agreement. "Yes master."
"And Aqua?"
"…yes?"
"It'll all work out in the end."
