Destiny Keys

Chapter Six – Unexpected Visitor

By Glacierclaw

Day two on Veeadon.

I got up early the next day and threw my clothes in the laundry, and then showered. You'd think that this world – with its advanced technology and all – would be so much different from where I came from, but really, it wasn't different at all. A house was like a normal home. Cities were like regular cities. I had to ask Torl about it.

Later that day, I found him inside the training room where I had met Veelock. Gliec was there too, holding the wooden stick that Tork usually fought with and sweating. His older brother was trying to teach him how to spar. It was kind of sweet, in a way.

Gliec landed on the ground in a heap. He stared at his older brother and let out a huff of frustration. "How am I supposed to see an enemy when they're behind me?"

"You can tell," replied Torl. He was weaponless for once; the black sash was on a table nearby. "They have to cast a shadow, Gliec. They have to breathe. It merely takes practice." He reached down and pulled Gliec to his feet, and then caught sight of me. "Kyter – have you come to practice too?"

I let out a dry laugh. Me? Practice sparring? I was hardly experienced with the Keyblade yet. Gliec could probably kick my ass. Then, hadn't I managed to fight off that Oraton guy? I shook my head and said, "No, thanks. I wanted to ask you something."

Torl brushed his bangs out of his eyes. "Yet another question?" he said, and I scowled. Wise guy. "You have so many." Before I could reply, he continued, "What is it?"

"Well," I began, "Veeadon seems a lot like my old world. I mean, the civilizations are very similar. The only difference is that the technology is much more advanced." There were probably other differences too, but I hadn't seen much of Veeadon.

The sandy-haired boy in front of me nodded. "It is good you noticed that, Kyter. That is because Veeadon is Traverse Town's shadow, basically."
"Huh?" It would take a lot to explain that.

"Look at it this way: whenever a world is created, a shadow of it also exists. This is like a copy in case something should happen to the original. Your world – Traverse Town – is much larger than Veeadon because your world is the original world. The people living on it are very similar, but the technology here in Veeadon is more advanced, so if something should happen to your world, Veeadon would already have a head start."

I swallowed. Did I get this? Sort of. Did I get most of the stuff that was going on? Definitely not.

"Okay," I said. "Could I, uh…could I see a map of Veeadon?" I was really interested to see all the different city names.

Torl nodded. "Yes. Follow me." He walked out of the door, Gliec right behind him. I followed him to the living room where I had spent the night. He opened one of the drawers in a cabinet and pushed into my hands a rolled-up piece of lamenated paper.

I slowly unrolled it and stared at the map, with Gliec leaning over my arm to look as well. It was very interesting. The map showed a close-up view of Quaylok surrounded by blue water. I thought that the small continent looked a bit like a slug. Easily the largest landmark were the Quaylok Plains, which was where we were right now…and at the left of it, on the end, were the Tazilem Cliffs. Those were what we had dropped off when we were going to Tazilem, and the capitol was just on the other side near the water.

I won't tell you all of the names of the cities, because there sure were a lot. There were two lakes named after the city they were nearest, and the Quaylok Lake, the largest one there. Three forests and one jungle were scattered across the continent, and inside the jungle was a high mountain called Vawn Mountain, and right on the top was Vawn Volcano. The most peculiar thing I noticed about this thing was near the top right side of Quaylok there was the Irazon Desert, but in the corner below it was Glacier Mountain.

That was weird. A desert, and then a snowy mountain close by? Don't you think that's retarded? I turned to Torl and pointed that out.

"That is another difference between your world and yours," he said. "Landmarks can be irregular in location."

I ran my finger along the map. "There're roads connecting every city," I mused. "Hey – there's no road connect that city there – Vawn."
"That is because the city of Vawn is a tribe of cannibalistic people who believe in different gods," he said with disgust. "They are extremely dangerous. The road there – " he pointed – "connecting Volker to Diazet is the most dangerous road in Quaylok because it cuts through a bit Vawn. Many people have been ambushed and taken prisoner where they are killed and probably eaten."

Well, I probably shouldn't have asked that question. Now I felt really, really sick. Gliec shuddered next to me. I didn't blame him. Wow, cannibalism on this place! That was pretty bizarre.

"Why doesn't the rest of the continent do something about these Vawn people?" I asked.

"They have tried," replied Torl. "Many, many times. But Vawn Jungle is completely populated by those people. Nearly all of the army that was sent was captured. The Vawn will leave you alone so long as you do not venture into their jungle."

Right, rule number one about Veeadon – don't enter Vawn. Otherwise a tribe of cannibalistic people will ambush you and eat you. Got it.

It was then when we heard a scream that made all three of us jump – and I recognized it too. Veelock! She wasn't the screaming type of girl, so there really must have been something wrong. Torl leapt across the room, grabbed a weapon, and we hurried toward the exit to the world above. Torl stood, the long, pointed weapon held at the ready, as he moved to open the door, but was nearly run over when Veelock streamed into the room, carrying a person in her arms.

"Whoa!" cried Gliec, moving aside as she hurried to the living room. "Veelock? Who's that?" He pointed at the person she was carrying.

Torl and I ran in after them. Veelock had set the kid on a couch and stood over him, fuming. Torl hesitated a second, then gave Veelock a soft poke.

"Who is this person?" he asked her.

She rolled his eyes at him. "This is Elicen Skiero, you idiot," she snapped. "My twin."

That wasn't hard to figure out. Elicen had pitch-black hair. It was sort of long for a guy's haircut – just above his shoulders. He probably had green eyes too, but at the moment, he was out cold, his eyes closed. I winced when I saw a long scratch down his neck and several other injuries on his body.

He was wearing a sleeveless, moss-green shirt with yellow borders, and a necklace with a strange emblem on it around his neck. I wondered what it meant, and made a mental note to ask Veelock about it. Elicen also had on almost elbow-length green gloves with black wrists.

He wore light blue shorts that went just below his knees, and high, pale green boots with blue straps. If this guy was like Veelock, he would wake up and start exploding. Perhaps not literally, but you know what I mean.

"Your twin?" I said to her. "Doesn't he live in that one place, uh… Aratare?"

"Oh, good, you do pay attention," was her snippy response. Bad mood mode. "Yes, my family lives in Aratare. But…what's he doing out here, on the plains? This doesn't make any sense…"

"The Key Catchers might have attacked him," Torl suggested, as usual the first to figure it out. Torl, the smart one, while little Kyter was always miles behind. "But it does not add up as to why he was here in the first place."

Veelock sighed and shook her head, shaking her shoulder-length black hair and staring at her twin. They did look remarkably alike. His name – Elicen – was pronounced Eh-liss-en. Not Ee-lie-sen. It sounded a bit like a girl's name.

It was then when he started to stir. He coughed slightly, and his eyes fluttered open. Yup, they were green, just as I'd thought. He looked around slowly, taking in his surroundings, and his eyes locked on his sister. "Oh. Hi, Veelock."

Whoa. That was probably not what I was expecting. If I were him, I would have started to freak out. Holy crap! I'm in an unknown place with unknown people around me! Let's all hyperventilate and run around in circles. Well, perhaps not like that, but you get it. But Elicen was cool. Weird.

He sat up, and scratched the back of is head, and winced when he found a painful lump. Elicen shot a glance at Veelock and said, "Unfriendly people you've got around here, Veelock."

She laughed. "Yeah, they sure are."

Elicen looked up at Torl. He must have liked quite formidable to the newcomer and said, "Are you one of them too?" He didn't seem scared, just curious.

Torl shook his head. "No."

"This is Torl, Elicen," said Veelock. "And that's Kyter, and Gliec." She pointed to each of us in turn.

Her twin nodded and gave us a friendly wave. "Hi there." I waved awkardly back. Wow, this guy was really calm. So unlike Veelock.

"Elicen, what are you doing here?" she asked, all business. "Where's Mirotel?"

"Mirotel?" I echoed blankly.

"My older brother," snapped Veelock.

Elicen let out a long sigh. "Well," he said, grinning and looking all proud, "Mother told me that great danger was going to come to Aratare, but she wouldn't say what it was. She just told me to find Veelock, and that she was somewhere near Tazilem, but on the plains. It was quite a ways to travel, but I had a bilu – or at least, I used to." He scowled. "I was attacked. These guys wearing weird masks over their faces surrounded me, and demanded that I join their retarded group. I told them I didn't want to, and then they started using really weird powers and fighting moves on me."

He looked at his shoulder. Another nasty cut was there. "Beat me up pretty bad, though…lucky you saw me, Veelock. But, I do have one question." He looked around at us all. "What the hell are you doing here, and why are you here with these people?"

That would take a long time to explain, but Elicen wouldn't trust us if we told him to wait. We told him everything – Torl and Gliec's story, Sora and Kairi's story, and my story. I just sort of stared at the ground when they told mine. It was sort of embarrassing. We told him about the Key Catchers and their goal, and our allies, like Bylawna. I honestly didn't think it was safe to tell this guy all of our secrets, but Veelock seemed to trust him. I had already started to like Elicen. He didn't seem like the kind of kid who would betray us.

At long last, we were done with the whole explanation thing. Elicen leaned back to absorb it all. He sat there for some time, then said, "Wow. This is a lot to take."

I laughed. "No kidding," I said. "I certainly didn't want any part of this." Elicen chuckled, and turned to Veelock.

"So, what're we going to do about Aratare?" he asked.

His twin suddenly leapt to her feet. It was quite alarming how fast she was. "Aratare!" she cried, just remembering. "We have to get there, now!"

Elicen blinked. "Would it be the Key Catchers endangering Aratare?" he asked.

"Probably," said Torl. "Aratare is a small town, is it not? The Key Catchers attempt to take control of the smallest town, and then work their way up."

Gliec tugged on his brother's shoulder. "Do I get to come?" he asked eagerly.

Torl paused, considering. Then, "You will be in worse danger if you go where the Key Catchers are going to strike next. They have no idea where you are; you will be safe here. And we can communicate on the link-phones."

I had almost forgotten about those, even though I had taken it off to wash my clothes. And I hadn't even tried tried it out yet!

Gliec pouted. I knew he really, really wanted to come, but he said, "All right, Torl."

"When will we leave?" said Veelock.

"When we are ready," was Torl's obvious reply. He nodded to Gliec. "You can help by preparing a meal. Remember – five people, not four."

Gliec nodded, perhaps less enthusiastically than he would have before, and hurried into the kitchen. I looked at the others, and raised my hand as though I was in class. "I have a question."

Veelock and Torl looked at me.

"How would your guys' mom have known about that?" I asked, nodding toward the identical twins.

Veelock folded her arms. "Our mother is what you would call an Enlightener. She can tell someone's future by just looking at them."

I'm sure my jaw dropped. "Wow!" I exclaimed. "That sounds awesome! Can she tell if we're going to defeat the Key Catchers or not?"

She smiled. "She knows it all right, but she won't tell us. It would be against the Englightener laws. Besides, she knows that if she told us everything, life would be boring. Honestly, she dislikes being an Enlightener, but Mirotel wanted to be one, so she's teaching him."

I wasn't so sure if I'd hate being an Englightener or not. So I said, "Could she teach me?"

"You have to be of Enlightener blood," was Veelock's response.

Oh. Well, she certainly killed that dream. It wasn't long before Gliec came back into the room, announcing dinner. That little kid was really fast! Either that or he had the food already ready. I didn't care; I was hungry. I followed the rest of the group into the kitchen to eat.