Sora and Dolly were in the kitchen cleaning up the flour on the floor. Meanwhile, Da Vinci, a colorful dalmatian who was sitting on the floor not that far from the two, was watching them in confusion.
"I can't believe we have to clean up the flour from our prank," Dolly grumbled to herself as she started to wipe up some of the flour.
"I know, right?" Sora responded as he also wiped up flour. "I thought that the prank was going to be harmless and that Dylan and Ventus could laugh it off. We needed to drop less flour than we ended up doing."
"Yeah. You were just trying to make them laugh and be happy. We shouldn't have to have been punished for it," Dolly said with bitterness in her voice.
"Um, excuse me, but why am I here?" Da Vinci questioned. "I thought that mom and dad wanted you and Sora to clean up the flour, not me."
"Mom and dad want me to watch you, Da Vinci. Said it would teach me responsibility or something," Dolly answered without looking away from the flour.
"Oh. So, that is why I'm here," Da Vinci said, bored out of her mind. She had been doing nothing but sitting here ever since the two of them started to clean. She desperately wanted to paint something or at the very least make some form of art. Looking at a bit of the flour on the floor in front of her, she started to move the flour so as to make an image out of the flour. Said image was of members of her family happy together with their pet humans.
Suddenly, the door opened to show a woman with black hair, named Cassandra, enter the room. "Hey, the captain of the guard told me to check in on you. Wanted to make sure that you were actually cleaning and not goofing off," Cassandra explained. Upon seeing the bit of flour in front of Da Vinci, she proceeded to grab a rag and wipe it up, much to Da Vinci's dismay. "So, have you two learned anything from this prank gone wrong?"
"Use less flour next time?" Sora responded.
"Be serious. You really made your parents upset with you." Cassandra revealed.
"Oh. I just wanted to make Ventus and Dylan laugh," Sora started to feel bad.
"Well, you failed at that. I enjoy a good prank as much as you do, but lately your pranks haven't been as good as they usually are. Do you even enjoy your most recent pranks at all?"
"I just want my family to be happy," Sora said with guilt present in his expression.
"If you want to pull pranks, be more considerate and smarter with them. Remember, a good prank is clever, unexpected, funny, and mischievous. Well, I have to get going. Sora, good luck." At this, Cassandra left the kitchen, leaving the young prince and two dalmatians alone yet again.
"Dolly, do you think that once we're done here that I should apologize to mom and dad?" Sora asked, feeling guilty for having caused trouble for his family.
"I guess. But, you are not getting me to do the same," Dolly answered.
"Dolly," Da Vinci and Sora started to scold.
"Fine. I'll apologize too. Thankfully, we are almost done, anyway," Dolly said.
As Sora, Dolly, and Da Vinci walked through the hall to the throne room covered in flour, they ran into Riku and Kairi.
"Hey Sora. What did you do this time?" Riku asked upon seeing Sora, Da Vinci, and Dolly covered in flour and Sora wearing different clothes.
"Is it that obvious?" Sora asked.
"Even taking away what you and your dogs look like, Ventus told us that you got in trouble for a prank and that we should talk to you," Kairi explained.
"Oh. Okay." Sora started to understand.
"Do you want to talk about what's wrong?" Kairi offered.
"Sure." Sora answered.
Before he could explain what his problem was, some of the guards suddenly rushed past them, with guards grabbing onto Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Dolly and Da Vinci followed after the trio that were being dragged away.
"Wait. Hold on. What is going on ?" Sora wanted to know.
"Sorry, your majesty. But a group of criminals have just rushed off with the "Crown of the Lost Princess". Under your father's orders we have been instructed to take you to your room or the room of one of your siblings, whichever is nearer," one of the guards explained. Eventually, the guards got to Roxas's room and placed the trio, Dolly, and Da Vinci inside, with the guards closing the door after them.
"Um, not that I'm bothered or anything but why are you all in my room?" Roxas asked, confused as to why the trio were present in his room.
"We're here because the guard wanted to keep us safe from thieves that stole the "Crown of the Lost Princess," Kairi explained.
"Great. The Crown just had to be stolen the day before your lost sister's birthday. Let's just hope the guards are able to catch them," Riku said in annoyance.
Suddenly, Sora and Dolly's faces started to form into a massive grin in realization.
"Um, Sora? Are you okay?" Kairi asked.
In an instant, Sora and Dolly began to look for a rope ladder, tearing Roxas's room apart in the process. "It's so obvious. I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner," Sora exclaimed in excitement.
"Um, what have you realized?" Xion asked, wondering what the prince and his dog were doing.
"Yeah. And why are you tearing my room apart?" Roxas was confused and annoyed.
"If we catch the criminals and bring back the crown our parents will finally realize that we can live outside of the castle and let us go outside without guards," Sora explained.
"And, my parents will realize I can be responsible and not favor Dylan over me anymore," Dolly added on, though only Sora, Da Vinci, and Dawkins could understand her.
"Wait, what's this about our parents and responsibility?" Da Vinci was confused.
"Nothing. Just that you are coming with us. I need to watch you and Sora at all times, right?" Dolly said.
"Um, I'd rather not," Da Vinci said.
"Sorry, but you are," Dolly responded, refusing to stand down.
"Are you crazy?!" Roxas cried out. "What if you get hurt?! Mom and dad won't be okay with this!"
"This sounds dangerous and like something you should not do," Xion remarked.
"Please don't go. I don't want to see you get hurt," Namine added on.
"I concur. We should really consider other options here," Dawkins barked out, to the confusion of every human present except for Sora.
"Look, I know what I am saying must seem crazy. You all think I'm running on some fool's errand and that all I will do is get into trouble of some kind. But I still feel like I should do something rather than sit by and do nothing," Sora poured his heart out. At this moment, Sora found a rope ladder and, after tying it to the outside of the window, jumped up onto the window sill and grabbed onto the rope ladder. "So either you come with me or stand back and let me go. I'm getting that crown back and you will not be doing anything to stop me." At this, Sora started to climb down the ladder with Dolly and, by force, Da Vinci following not that far behind.
"Oh no. Sora's going to be in huge trouble when mom and dad find out!" Roxas exclaimed. "Just walk away, Roxas. Walk away." Roxas started to move only to immediately turn around. "I'm going after him!" At this Roxas started to climb down the rope ladder after Sora. Shortly after this, Kairi and Riku also started to climb down, with the intentions of stopping Sora before he made a big mistake, or at least help him on this dangerous path if that would fail. Xion and Namine followed not long after, though not before Sora, Dolly, and Da Vinci got to the ground and ran off after the guards.
Sora and Dolly, with Da Vinci on Dolly's back, started to race through the forest in search of the thieves. They tried to look for the guards both to find the thieves and to avoid being caught. Before they could continue, there was a rustle in the bushes behind him. Dolly started to growl at the rustling bushes, just in case it was a threat. However, that would not be necessary as it turned out it was Kairi. "Kairi? You followed after me?"
"Look, I don't quite understand why you think that catching the thieves will help out at home. But I must ask something of you. Please don't do this. It might be dangerous," Kairi tried to warn.
"I'm sorry, but I have to do this and you cannot stop me from doing this either," Sora said as he held Kairi's hand.
"Yeah, you tell her, Sora!" Dolly said, with Kairi being able to understand Dolly this time as she was holding onto Sora's hand. You see, others could also understand plants and animals so long as they are making contact with Sora in some way.
"Dolly, Sora, I'm sorry but you could cause things to go badly," Kairi tried to convince the duo yet again.
"So, why don't you come with us?" Dolly suggested.
"Yeah, if you are so worried you can come with us and make sure that we don't get hurt," Sora continued.
It took a good minute of thinking from Kairi, but when she finally gave her response, she said, "Okay, fine. But I tried to warn you if we get caught."
"Thanks Kairi," Sora said as he gave his friend a hug. "Now, which way do you think that the thieves ran off in?"
"Well, I think that I saw something move that way," Kairi suggested as she broke out of the hug and pointed forward from her current position.
"Well, then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Dolly barked, with only Sora being able to understand this time as Kairi was no longer touching Sora.
It was about two hours later, and the group of Sora, Dolly, Kairi, and Da Vinci had still failed to find either the thieves or the others at all.
"Well, it's official. We're lost," Da Vinci muttered, unhappy with how the group had failed to make any progress.
"Well, Sora, looks like our efforts to find the thieves has failed. It may be best to just find everyone else and go back home," Kairi suggested.
"Yeah. I guess you're right," Sora said disappointed, as he started to lean up against a wall of vines.
"Aw, man. So much for showing I am responsible," Dolly grumbled under her breath.
Suddenly, Sora fell down in the direction of the vine wall, which had no rock behind it, but a hidden entrance for a cave. "Hey, look! Maybe the thieves went down this way." Sora's disappointment turned into optimistic joy.
"But Sora. What about finding the others and going back to the castle?" Kairi tried to stress this point.
"It will only take a few minutes to look. We can do that after checking. Please," Sora pleaded with Kairi.
"Fine. But only for a few minutes," Kairi eventually gave in.
The group went through the cave and, on the other side, found a very tall and strange looking tower on the other side. Upon getting closer, they noticed a man using arrows to climb down the tower and to the ground. After a minute of watching this scene, they started to walk closer to the tower. Upon approaching the tower, they noticed a girl with ridiculously long, blonde hair at the top of the tower window slide down her hair to right above the ground. In addition, they heard this girl singing.
"Look at the world so close, and I'm half way to it Look at it all, so big do I even dare? I just have to do it. Should I? No. Here I go." At this, the girl finally slowly touched the ground for what seemed like the first time in her life. "Just smell the grass, the dirt. Just like I dreamed they'd be. Just feel that summer breeze. The way it's calling me." The girl was walking about and eventually walked into water, "For like the first time ever, I'm completely free." The girl started to run, "I could go running, and racing, and dancing... and chasing, and leaping and bounding. hair flying, heart pounding and splashing and reeling. And finally feeling, Now's when my life begins."
