||Episode 1 - Part III: About the Outside World||
*Bustin' up on the Beach*
"C'mon, Sora, you can do better than that!"
Riku admonished Sora for faltering in their practice duel. Hearing the scolding words brought Sora back up to his feet, and they went swinging their wooden swords in another sparring round on the paopu fruit island across the bridge. I watched from the bending paopu tree as they beat each other up. Poor Sora had a number of bruises all over, and his face was scuffed up from getting tossed onto the grainy ground. 'Riku's really hammering down on him today.'
Back and forth, they took turns taking hits. Sora was catching up to Riku the longer it drew out, but that was until Riku was pushed to the edge. He took a hit to the chest by Sora's sword and fell onto his back. It was a false sense of victory for the brunette. Too soon did he let his guard down. I winced when Riku's feet crashed into Sora's stomach. The impact of the hit sent him flying off the island and into the water below. Victory went to Riku, just as I thought it might.
"Ugh... That makes 1 to 3..." Sora's head emerged from the salty water. We glanced over the edge of the island to see the 14-year-old crawling back to dry land.
"Giving up already, Sora?" Riku taunted him all the way. "I thought you were better than that!"
"Wow, Riku, you're so mean," I rolled my eyes. A pair of aquamarine orbs softly glared at me from the rock my silver-haired friend stood on. But, thinking nothing of it, I ignored him and leaned back on the tree. He and Sora were always at it when it came to racing or sword fighting. It was hard to believe how much energy they had to commit to so much of those things in a day. Like, everyday was a competition to see who was better at what. I tried to stay out of it to the best of my ability, but sometimes... "Oof!"
I yelped when another wooden sword fell onto my tummy. It was an old one, like Riku's. Dents and other scarred portions of the wood pulled my attention. Sitting up, I picked the sword up into my hands and examined it closely for a moment. This was the one that Riku gave me when we started playing together. That time dated back to when we were little kids, but I could never forget. I thought I threw it away a few years ago. Fighting... I never understood it, even if it was for fun. What made fighting so fun for them?
"You owe me a round."
Riku's voice was stern, more so than it had ever been. I clenched my teeth and tightened my grip around the splintered handle. Though his forcible invitation was a tempting idea to consider, I set it gently down on the tree's side and turned to face the calm waters. Distaste grew within me. Sparring against Riku went against what I felt at that moment. The one guy who gave me goosebumps when he sits next to me at school wanted to fight me with some wooden swords. How outrageous was that? It just didn't make any sense to me.
Again, there was a tapping on my shoulder. I looked to the side to see Riku poking me with the same wooden sword. He was determined to get me to say yes to his challenge. Refusing him wasn't going to be an option, it seemed. If I said no to it again, he'd probably pull me down from this tree and make me fight.
"Do I really have to?" I whined softly.
"You do if you don't explain to me why we don't play around like we used to," Riku stated, smirking to himself. A reasonable point. Or, maybe I was just excusing myself from the fact that I didn't want to fight him. "If you win, I won't bother you about it anymore. But, if I win..."
"I have to work hard until I beat you." I frowned, taking the sword in my hand. My backside slipped off the tree, and I wandered around until I was in the middle of the island with Riku. Shade was cast down from the group of coconut trees, which made for a pleasant break from the sun. Anticipation was bubbling in the pit of my stomach. After a long time, I was facing Riku in an old fashioned sparring match. He probably thought I was going to lose like Sora did in the beginning of their match. I kind of had the same feeling, though I was still determined to give it my all to get the desired result. "Bring it on!"
*Music End*
間
I groaned and rubbed at the aching in my head. Thinking that I could take on Riku in a match might have been a mistake on my part. He made it seem like I was getting ahead, but then things took a sudden turn for worse. Throughout the match, I did well to stand my ground and avoid falling into the water. I even matched up to Riku's moves to a degree. Where did it go wrong? The coconut rolling away had nothing to say in its defense. Glaring at the object, I groaned again and sat on the ground in defeat. "I can't believe I lost."
"Heh, don't feel too bad about it," Riku smiled, holding out his hand for me to take. I stared at it for a moment. As he usually did, Riku was wearing his black gloves. That hand was responsible for pushing me into the defensive very frequently in our spar. It was also that hand that offered a kind support in getting me back to my feet. I smiled back at him and accepted the help up. "You've got a lot of training before you can beat this guy. But, hey, least you're not a total rookie like someone over there."
"Hey!"
Sora was waving his fist at Riku for the insult, but we all laughed it off. He was walking back this way from the shack on the other side of the bridge. Finally, he was able to recover from the miserable loss at Riku's hands. Kairi came along with him, though; she had a piece of paper in her hand that struck my interest. Riku took my wooden sword and dropped it under one of the coconut trees. The day was dragging on, but there was no more time for slacking off from a job.
"We've gotta get started with building the raft!" Kairi's announcement was loud and clear for us all to hear. "Let's work together to finish it up."
Everyone was handed a job to do for completing the raft. Sora was in charge of getting enough rope to use to tie all the raft parts together. Kairi gave herself the task of collecting a reasonably sized cloth to act as the sail. There was sure to be something around these islands that would do the trick. Meanwhile, Riku and I were busy collecting enough logs and other pieces of wood to use for the overall construction of the raft.
It was a lot of busy work, but we got down to business. I piled together smaller and longer wood pieces near Riku's work space. He was fixated on chopping down all of the logs to fine slabs. Like a team, everyone was bringing in all of the supplies needed to finish the raft. Before I knew it, evening time was already upon us. The time went by fast since we were doing work. We didn't get a chance to hang out with the other three who often came to this island- Wakka, Selphie, and Tidus. Those three were probably doing their own thing around these parts. Little did they know, we were busy with a project. It'd be nice to challenge them.
"Phew, we did a lot today," Kairi sighed, admiring the finished work on the raft. Surprisingly, Riku was fast with putting it all together. We all put in a hand, but he was the real star. The raft was looking really good. Actually, it was pretty much ready to sail. "Let's call it a day and come back tomorrow."
"Yeah, let's head home," Sora nodded in agreement, wiping a line of sweat from his forehead. "It's getting late."
間
We all were almost ready to go home, but there was still some time in the day left. Sunset was in progress. I could see the night sky looming overhead as the golden hue in the distance glowed. Stars were popping out in the growing darkness. It was at this time that we decided to go to the paopu fruit island to take in all that had gone on today. Not only that, but there were the things we were looking forward to with the building of the raft.
Sora and Kairi were sitting on the paopu tree, looking out at the horizon. I sat in the sand with my legs hanging over the edge of the island while Riku leaned back against the tree behind me. The view from here was beautiful. Sparkling water stretched as far as the eye could see. The mainlands were far off, but still within range. Soon, we'd be leaving all of that behind to see what else was out there. Such was the conversation we were having as we sat out in the open.
"So, Kairi's home is out there somewhere, right?" Sora opened the discussion, laying the spotlight over the auburn-haired girl. She looked to him and nodded, then returned to admiring the beautiful scenery. Careful thought reflected in Sora's eyes. Something was bothering him, I could tell that there was. "If we go out there, beyond this sea, then we'll run into your world. Right, Kairi?"
"Who knows." The response to Sora's inquiry didn't come from Kairi. Rather, it was Riku who opened his mouth to say something about it. He had his arms folded across his chest, but his eyes never left the clouded sunset. "We'll never know if we don't try. Which means we can't stay here and do nothing."
"How far is a raft going to take us?" I knitted my brows together. It was a troubling thought. Sailing the seas would probably take many days, I didn't know how many to be exact. And, say if we did set sail, who was to say that there'd even be a way off this world to the next. None of us could see anything beyond these islands. It was just too big, the vast ocean. We were surrounded by water. That may be all there is out there, so we'd probably die of thirst and hunger before getting anywhere.
"Dunno," Riku said, shrugging his shoulders. I questioned if he even believed the raft would take us to where we wanted to go. "If it's a bust, we'll just come back and think of some other plan to get to the outside world."
"Say, Riku, if you went to another world, what would you do there?" Kairi questioned him curiously. She giggled and wondered with great interest about what he might say. Since he was so set on making this work, it only seemed right to quiz the self-proclaimed leader and champion. "Are you like Sora? Will you be satisfied with just seeing it?"
"Hm..." Riku fell silent for a few minutes. I pulled my legs back and turned to the side, crossing one ankle over the other. My eyes trailed up to Riku as he closed his thoughtfully. Her questions went very deep within him. "To tell you the truth, I haven't really thought about it. It's just... I want to know why I, why we, ended up here on these islands. If there is another world out there, then why did we have to be on this one. And suppose there are other worlds out there... then ours is just a little piece of something much bigger. So we could have easily ended up somewhere else, right?"
"I don't get it."
Sora swung his leg around so that he was straddling the tree, and he laid back so that he could relax. That simple phrase was enough to prove Riku's point, I thought.
"Exactly." Riku unfolded his arms and stood closer to the edge of the island. "That's why we need to go out there and find out for ourselves. Just sitting here, staring at the endless ocean, won't change a single thing. It'll just be the same old scenery. It's the same old stuff. So let's go and do something."
Kairi looked up at the sky following Riku's drawn out rant, and Sora was occupied with looking at the sea. There was nothing wrong with what Riku said. I did find the ocean beautiful, and the same sunset we saw every night was never steering away from its usual path. Nothing was different from yesterday, save for us and our plans to leave. Only on occasion have we seen a storm hit the islands. They were only brief, and decent weather came in the next morning. I found it to be a predictable chain of events that never got off course.
I frowned and nodded my head. These islands were my home, and I loved them so very dearly. It was wonderful seeing another day come and go, with all the beautiful features they had, too. Maybe that was why I wanted to go out and set sail with Riku, Sora, and Kairi. Or, maybe it was a voice whispering to me, telling me to step out of my comfort zone. Yes, deep down, the desire to leave these islands was growing in intensity. I really didn't want to stay here all my life and do the same thing. To grow old here and fail to see the bigger picture outside this box. I wanted to see the outside world.
"You really think about a lot of stuff, don't you?" Kairi dropped her gaze and settled on Riku as he stood with his back to them.
"It's thanks to you," Riku answered, turning around. "Kairi, I think, if you never came to these islands... I'd have never thought of any of this. Thanks."
"You're welcome." She nodded and hopped down from the tree. "Well, I think I'm ready to turn in. Coming, everyone?"
"Yeah, I'm right behind ya." Sora followed Kairi down the bridge.
I was a little further behind everyone, but they didn't seem to notice me lagging. The moment we had together under the stars flattered my heart. There was no possible way for this atmosphere between us to change. Nothing ever would. Even if we were to step foot on another world, I was certain that we'd be together through it all. It felt so right. That included seeing those two in front of me bickering like they usually did. I was curious about why Sora was throwing a paopu fruit as far away as he could. Did Riku give it to him?
Softly laughing to myself, I followed the others to our boats at the dock. My eyes briefly landed on the paopu fruit down in the sand. It had a legend that gave these islands their name. Destinies becoming intertwined between those who share one of them. Our journey that would be beginning soon would be for all of us together, the four of us. I had a feeling that we'd come right back to that spot where we were sitting just moments ago at the end of it.
"Nothing will change between us..."