Well, I had a hard time with this chapter, but I'm happy with how it turned out… even if the dang chapter is short as heck!
There'll be some world visits later. So, I would like you guys to send in world ideas! I have one world chose, but if there are any worlds you'd like to see little Xehanort visit, tell me!
Kingdom Hearts © to Disney and Square Enix!
OCs © to me!
Chapter 4
Xehanort jumped off Captain L'shid's boat onto the island of Shitai'paki.
The ports were full of small and large ships of all shapes. Miqo'te moved around without any human in sight.
Small platforms, roofed by tents, dotted the area around the docks, used as merchant stands or storage areas for supplies and merchandise. Brick and stone buildings went up in spires further from the docks, attached to large square buildings and walled in. On rolling hills outside the city, small homes with windmills attached dotted the green landscape(1).
All-in-all it looked and entirely seemed to be a beautiful and peaceful place.
"Wow!" Venus gasped.
"Pretty, isn't it?" L'aleks smiled. "There's an inn run by a woman named F'lhaminn Qesh(2) in the city. Papa says I should take you there."
Xehanort gave a nod, clutching his bag close. "Thanks, L'aleks." The girl walked them through the docks. Both of the human children very quickly noticed that nearly every Miqo'te stopped what they were doing and stared at them.
"Don't mind them; we just don't get human visitors very often."
The stares got very annoying very fast. Thankfully, the inn, The Seventh Dawn(3), was just inside the city gates. The owner, a Miqo'te with short white hair, glasses, and dressed in a purple dress, didn't seem too put off by the two humans.
In fact, she hardly spared them a second glance. The woman gave them a room and carried on.
Even little L'aleks left, going to her father's side.
Venus sat on one of the two twin beds in their room. "So, what are we going to do?"
"Well, I want to learn as much as I can about their culture as possible, and I should get some data about their import and export business to please my father. We have two full days to work and we go home on the third day. Today I think we should check out the city. Tomorrow we can go to those windmills and then to the docks."
"Sounds great!"
The two children grabbed hands and strode about the city. People sold wares along the side of the street. Clothing, food, jewelry. Xehanort brought a little munny for such things.
He carried two notebooks in hand. One with notes for his father. One for his own book notes.
By the end of their little trip, Xehanort had two notebooks full of stuff. He'd found so much information to make his father happy, and he'd found enough information to create an entire world in his book.
"Maybe we can use the stuff we've learned about sailing to make an ocean world. Sonder would like that." Venus sat on a box. They were back on L'shid's ship after days on the island.
"Yeah!" Xehanort wrote down the idea. He'd spent a few hours in the library and wrote down so much. "Do you have my notes on their two ethnicities and deities?"
"Here." She handed him another bunch of papers. "The Seekers of the Sun, who worship Azeyma the Warden will live in a place very similar to Shitai'paki. I'll call it La Noscea. The Keepers of the Moon who worship Menphina the Lover will live in a place called the Black Shroud(4)."
Xehanort smiled, but it faded after a moment. His hand shot to his chest as his heart did… something.
"Xay?" Venus laid her hand on his shoulder. "Are you ok? Your lips are… turning blue."
Xehanort barely heard her. His hand rested on his chest. Feeling his heart. His heart, which normally beat out a steady staccato rhythm, like everyone else's wasn't.
Thump… thump, thump… thump, thump, thump.
He coughed, the taste of copper suddenly dancing across his tongue as red liquid fell from his lips.
"Xehanort!" Venus grabbed him, feeling sweat on his arms. "HELP! CAPTAIN! L'ALEKS! HELP!"
Xehanort tried to stand, but his brain fogged up and his legs gave way. Darkness filled his vision as he fell against the wooden floor.
When his eyes opened again, he found himself in his own room. On his own bed. His bags, the notebooks sticking out the top, sat on the other side of the room.
The door opened and a woman with blonde hair and red eyes stepped inside. "Oh, you're finally awake. My name is Doctor Fina(5). We were afraid that you weren't going to make it for a while there."
"What happened?"
"Your heart." She glanced down at the paperwork in her hand. "You are aware that you received a transplant when you were an infant?" He nodded. "Well, it appears that there are some complications. There are some medications I have prescribed for you. All the medical talk will go right over your little head. Just take your medication and if your condition worsens we might have to either give better medicine or fix your heart surgically."
Xehanort couldn't speak. His heart…
What was wrong? "Tell me. What's wrong? Tell me."
"I don't think…"
"I'm smart! Tell me!"
"Tell him." Undine and Cathel stood in the doorway. Xehanort saw his mother's eyes, red and swollen with tears.
The boy's breathing became frantic as the doctor sighed. "When you were at the hospital last night we discovered that you have late graft dysfunction. The heart didn't graft correctly with your body. Right now, we can only slow the process with medication, but we don't have a cure."
"How long do I have?" The words tumbled out of the boy's mouth without much thought. He felt numb.
"Three years, at most."
Three years.
Three years to live.
Xehanort threw himself out of the bed, running past his parents and down the stairs, ignoring their cries as he rushed from the house. His chest ached and his breathing screamed for him to stop. Sweat poured down him as his legs gave out again.
He barely registered where he was. Right by Venus' home. His legs must have carried him there on instinct. Through blurry eyes, he saw the front door opening.
Angry shouts…
Venus' father stumbled out, angrily, no doubt going to the bar, or as he called it, the "watering hole".
Venus stepped out a moment later, holding her upper arm close. Xehanort couldn't make out her expression, but he could imagine what it looked like after she turned and saw him.
"Xehanort!"
He lay there, his dear friend by his side until his parents showed up. They carried him back home and laid him down, but this time in the middle of the living room, so he could hear and contribute to the family conversation.
Laura and Lorna looked at their brother, brokenly. "Mother, is there nothing we can do?"
"We'll try something!" Cathel stood up, pacing around the room. "I'll pay the best researchers on the islands to work on a cure."
"Yeah! They'll save him!" Lorna smiled, taking her older brother's hand.
Cathel smiled and nodded. "I'm sure they will… but we must still prepare, just in case. Laura, Lorna, you will take Xehanort's place at my side. Xehanort, you will remain here and study as you did before. Do not strain yourself."
"Yes, Father."
Undine sat beside her son, petting his silver hair lovingly.
She would be the one by his side.
And she was, for the next two years…
Two years.
Two years down. One to go.
Xehanort stayed in his home, only visited by his family and Venus. He studied all morning and spent the rest of the day with Venus and his mother, crafting his book.
His sisters came by, bringing him books and pictures. But as time passed, they came less and less.
His father did the same. Cathel came by less and less, until Xehanort almost never saw him at all.
Until, the boy only saw Venus and Undine.
… till the very last. The last normal day.
The day everything changed…
"Master, why did we come here?"
"Because, Eraqus, an old friend told me that someone here needed our help and a new chance. I don't know who. I don't know why. But we'll find out."
A boy, in a white robe, with wavy black hair pulled into a ponytail looked up, his silver eyes meeting the eyes of an older man. The man, wearing a teal kimono with navy blue hair and hazel eyes smiled down at the boy.
"Yes, Master Fuji."
Eraqus and Keyblade Master Fuji Sato(6) stepped from the shadows, looking out across the ocean, their view only broken by a small island with a few trees, one of which bore yellow fruit shaped like a star.
Now the story starts for real!
Please review!
Footnotes:
(1) The appearance of the island is based on La Noscea, a location where Miqo'te live in FF14.
(2) F'lhaminn Qesh is a FF14 character who works as a receptionist and cook.
(3) This is a reference to who F'lhaminn Qesh works for: the Scions of the Seventh Dawn.
(4) This is basically what the Miqo'te do in FF14.
(5) She is the white mage from Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.
(6) Fuji Sato is based on a character from a Japanese fairytale. The original character was named Fujiwara Hidesato.
VAs:
Fuji Sato- Jon Curry (Winter Soldier, Yaag Rosch, Gerry Harding, Viktor Novikov)
Psalm 34:6
"In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened; he saved me from all my troubles."