Even as they neared their destination, Riku still couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. This would have to be dealt with before he took Sora and Kairi to the hidden gates. There was no way he could risk the enemy finding where the gates were. For now, the journey was going as he expected. They would run into Heartless every now and then, but from the training during breaks, the three of them dealt with them quickly and efficiently. However, he noticed from time to time, another type of monster whose presence was unnerving to say the least: the Unversed as they were commonly called. It seemed Vanitas wasn't done with his meddling. Even now, his words echoed coldly in Riku's mind: "What will they think of you when they find out what side you used to be on? I hear even your own people still don't fully trust you." Riku's knuckles turned white as he gripped onto the reins with enough force that the rough leather was starting to cut into his skin through his gloves. Could he just fuck off already and go after the twins? Riku had faith that they had found their way to a safe spot.
"Are we still being followed, Riku?" He jumped a bit when he heard Sora's voice right by his ear, momentarily forgetting that Sora was currently latched onto him as they rode.
"Uh, yes. Don't worry. We'll figure out a way to draw them out. We'll be at another village soon. We can come up with a game plan then."
"We better be close. I'm starving," Kairi whined from the back.
"Hey, I offered my rations for you to eat in the meantime," Riku snapped back. The lack of sleep probably wasn't helping his own mood.
"No offence, Riku, but your elf rations have no flavor."
"They're not meant to be tasty. They're meant to fill your stomach, so you don't get hungry, but whatever, you can stuff your face when we're in town."
As they travelled, the grand mountains in the distance grew closer and closer. Home was close. Now, they were finally nearing the foot of the mountains. Rocky cliff faces began to jut out of the ground, incline slowly increasing. The town they were heading to was surrounded by steep cliffs that wrapped around it. Due to the close proximity to the mountains, fog was a common phenomena, especially in the early morning or late evening. Riku was thankful for the lanterns lighting the way as they ran straight into what looked like a wall of fog. Even with his sharp vision, Riku squinted as he tried to keep track of the path, following the soft glow of the lanterns. All was dim around them until they began to come upon the town. The light ahead grew stronger and stronger. He slowed the horse down to a trot. Going through the gates, it was like jumping suddenly from dreaming to waking. The air was crystal clear, free of fog as they entered the town. The sudden appearance of a horse certainly gave the two guards by the gate quite a scare. They studied the group suspiciously until Riku showed his amulet.
"Ah, the Elven Prince! Welcome!" At the sudden realization, they saluted right away.
"Tell me, have you seen anyone suspicious pass through here?" Riku asked with the feeling still crawling all over his back.
"Suspicious? We haven't seen anyone out of the ordinary. You don't need to worry about Heartless or Oblivion's adversaries being here. We've been keeping watch since dusk."
"Alright, thank you. We're simply passing through." Riku nodded, about to ease the horse forward.
"Oh, are you going to stay for the festival? It's going on tonight, and I'm sure the people here would love it if the Elf Prince attended. Trade with your people has been prosperous for this place. We're very grateful."
"A festival?" He glanced back at Sora and Kairi. He supposed they deserved a break of some sort that didn't involve training. "Alright, sure. There's something I need to take care of before leaving for my home anyway."
"Really, Riku?" He could feel Sora bouncing up and down excitedly behind him. The horse grunted in annoyance at the movement.
"Yeah, you guys can go have fun. Let's secure a room at an inn first, though."
Riku found a suitable stable for the horse. He smiled softly as he gently pet her snout.
"Thank you for getting us here safely. Aqua never mentioned if you had a name, but I'll come up with one for you...but you can probably understand Elvish, better, huh? Mes ei kyr cysi." The horse seemed to react to the Elvish words, pushing her snout against Riku.
Riku's ears twitched at the sound of Sora and Kairi laughing. He turned to see them standing right there in full view of the scene.
"Sh-shut it already. Us elves have deep connections with our companions," he said, face fully flushed. "Will you two just go out and have fun or whatever. I'll meet up with you once I get us a room." Riku promptly stormed off towards the inn. The look on his face alone made people get out of his way.
"Wow, I guess even Riku has a soft side." Sora watched him trudge off with a smile on his lips. Kairi studied him for a moment with a slight smirk. She guided him by his shoulders off towards the main festival.
The town was alive with lights everywhere: along the roads, strewn across the buildings. In the center of town, a raging bonfire roared into the night sky with flecks of fiery embers floating towards the stars. Sora and Kairi, who had never experienced anything like this, or at least didn't remember it, were in awe, running excitedly to different vendors. They first took care of getting food, watching as people danced gracefully around the fire. Sora found himself looking around for Riku. How long could getting a room at an inn possibly take? He noticed Kairi stand up when another dance was starting.
"May I have this dance?" she chuckled, offering Sora a hand. "You know Riku. He's probably off 'investigating' or whatever."
"Yeah, you're probably right."
Sora happily took her hand, letting her lead him over towards where everyone else was. The two of them knew very little about formal dancing things, so they simply copied how the other pairs were doing it, holding hands and moving around however they wanted. The rapid tempo of the small band kept them quick on their feet. Shadows cast outwards on the cobblestone below by the fire moved about. Though they had started to become winded, the two continued to dance, laughing whenever one of them stepped on the other's feet or bumped into another pair. Sora laughed nervously when he glanced around to see they were the only two dancing while everyone else stood around and clapped. With a smile of encouragement from Kairi, they continued until the music ended, leaving them both panting with a chorus of applause.
"Haha, I didn't think we were that good, but I guess it's just about having fun, right?" Sora laughed while he attempted to catch his breath.
"Yeah, I totally had fun."
Sora gave her a look when he noticed that she seemed distracted. It looked like she was staring somewhere over towards the fire. Over to the right, there was a lone girl who looked to be around the same stature as Kairi. The soft glow of the flames shone orange against her short, dark hair. With the bit of armor she was wearing along with what looked like a sword in its scabbard or a possible keyblade, she had to be a warrior of some sort.
"See something you like?" Sora teased, snapping her out of her trance.
"Huh? Oh, uh, I don't know. I just noticed her." She playfully pushed Sora, sticking her tongue out.
"Well, why don't you go talk to her? It looks like she's all by herself. I should probably go see what Riku's doing," Sora suggested nonchalantly. Kairi looked like he had just given her the worst news ever.
"What? I mean, I can't just go talk to some stranger.."
"Come on. It's a festival. Random people talking to each other is probably the norm. It won't hurt anybody. Maybe you'll make her night better."
"Let me guess..you just want to be alone with Riku, don't you?" Now it was Kairi's turn to wear a smirk. "'Oh, Riku~ We're finally alooone together.'" She proceeded to make smooching sounds, turning Sora bright red.
"N-no way! I just want him to have some festival fun too! A-anyway, I dare you to talk to that girl, maybe even dance with her. Bye!"
Sora promptly left before Kairi could embarrass him any further, even breaking into a run towards the vendors.
Kairi chuckled to herself, quite pleased at the reaction. Just the thought of approaching her was making her heart pound, feeling the pulse through her whole body.
"Alright, you can do this. She's just another girl, like you. No big deal," she said to herself. With a deep breath, she willed her legs to start moving, taking a meandering route towards her. Even as she drew closer, it didn't seem like she had noticed Kairi yet, wholly focused on the flames of the fire. It wasn't until Kairi walked over and cleared her throat that the other visibly jumped, whipping around to face her.
"S-sorry to scare you! I'm Kairi. I, um, just saw you standing all alone over here and thought I'd keep you company. Truth be told, my friend dared me to talk to you..not that I don't want to talk to you!" It was like the words were just spilling out of her mouth, and she had to cover her mouth to keep from rambling on further. The other girl cocked her head to the side. Her dark eyes were cold at first, studying Kairi carefully but soon softened some.
"Oh, I see. I am here by myself. It's cold out, so I decided to hang out by the fire. And I'm Xion," she said, speaking carefully in a soft voice. Given the situation, she still remained guarded in her stance.
Sora ran into Riku as he was going down the vendors street. Quite literally since he quickly rounded a corner and smacked his face right into his chest.
"Oh, hey, sorry I took so long." Riku did his best to play it cool, rubbing the back of his neck. "We're here, yet the strange feeling that's been haunting me all this time is stronger in this place for some reason."
"Still on edge, huh? Maybe we should do something fun to help you relax." Sora twiddled his thumbs as he looked around to figure out what that something was going to be. His eyes lit up when they landed on a game booth. It seemed to be a game where you tossed a ball at some bottles to knock them over. "Ooh! Let's do that!"
Riku smiled softly at him when Sora wasn't looking, following after him. He bought Sora one game with three balls. Why he felt so good buying stuff for him was beyond him. Sora held the ball in his hand, rubbing his fingers over the rough surface and testing the weight of it. With a look of determination, he stuck his tongue out slightly in concentration before throwing it towards the bottles. He aimed a bit too high, knocking over the top two with a clink as they hit the floor. The others had wobbled slightly but stayed in place. From the look of it, the bottom ones seemed much sturdier and more difficult to knock over. He should've figured it was rigged somehow. Even though he fully knew well he could do it himself, he turned to Riku, giving him the sweetest look he was capable of.
"Rikuuu, could you get the rest of them?"
"Why? You still have two balls left. You can totally get the rest yourself." Riku pursed his lips at the cute look.
"Please? You're the one with the beefy arms, and you paid for it, so you should get a whack at it too."
"Fine, whatever. If that'll make you happy." With a sigh of defeat, he took the ball from Sora, ignoring that look of triumphant satisfaction from him. Doing the opposite of Sora, Riku aimed it towards the bottom bottles, throwing it with a decent amount of force. The booth was filled with the sound of clinking bottles as they all toppled to the floor with the loss of the foundational bottom ones. Sora bounced up and down in excitement, jumping to hug Riku briefly without even thinking.
"Y-you can choose the prize, okay? I definitely don't need it," Riku said quickly, feeling a rush of heat to his face.
Sora furrowed his eyebrows, looking over his choices. After about a minute, he finally decided on a plush bat creature, waving it around happily.
"Thanks, Riku!" He was practically beaming at this point.
"Y-yup, no problem." Riku felt like he was going to pass out just from looking at him. "Why don't you take me to Kairi. I shouldn't leave either of you alone for too long."
Sora hugged the bat plushie close to his chest as he led Riku down the street towards where the dancing was. As they approached, he saw Kairi and the lone girl dancing together as the band was back to playing music.
"Hey, she's actually dancing with her. I guess she took my dare seriously," Sora chuckled, watching them with a happy grin.
Riku, on the other hand, froze in place when he saw the other girl. His whole body tensed up as his senses had finally pinpointed the source of the weird feeling: the feeling of being watched.
"Sora, stand back," he said in a low voice. He readied his hand on the handle of his keyblade in its scabbard.
"Huh? What's with you?" His breathing grew shallow as he saw that Riku was completely serious.
"I finally found the spy. She's the enemy that's been following us."
Sora glanced quickly between Riku and the girl Kairi was dancing with. It couldn't possibly be..Riku had to be wrong, right? There wasn't much he could do to stop Riku from suddenly lunging forward with all his strength, eyes sharp and deadly.