DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS!

A/N: You don't have to tell me, twice! Yes! I'm WELL AWARE I haven't updated for nearly an entire MONTH!

Well... I HAVE been busy with SCHOOL AND HOMEWORK, playing Kingdom Hearts -1.5 HD ReMIX-, and have NOT really gotten much opportunities to WRITE THIS PARTICULAR CHAPTER!

Seeing as I am at least in a GOOD MOOD, here's a little something "special".

DID YOU KNOW: The original voice actor for Tigger was Paul Winchell? He continued to voice Tigger from the first Disney Movie of Winnie The Pooh until Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search For Christopher Robin - which happens to be the MAIN SOURCE for the storyline in THE 100-ACRE WOOD in this story!
Nowadays, Paul Winchell's daughter - April Winchell - is the voice actress for Clarabelle Cow. Perhaps her father put in a "Good Word" for her?

Well then, I sincerely HOPE you enjoyed this piece of TRIVIA! I'm planning to go back to some of the earlier Chapters and add a few more such insertions - AT LEAST ONE PER WORLD!

By the way, Kingdom Hearts -2.5 HD ReMIX- has just been announced! I am wondering if you're all looking forward to it - JUST LIKE I AM!

So, since you now know I am STILL AROUND AND WORKING ON THIS PIECE OF LITERATURE... LET'S GO READ!

ENJOY! PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW, TOO!

CHAPTER 25
"Adventure Is A Wonderful Thing!"

Riku continued to slouch against the wall as he listened with the others. To his left was a half-dozing Sora slumped in a blue armchair; the brown-haired Keyblade wielder was giving the occasional yawn. Beyond there was Pooh, standing with the blue pot in his hands, followed by Piglet, sitting on a stool, and Eeyore. Slouching to Riku's right was Violet with Tigger leaning upon the chair Rabbit was sitting in. The tiger appeared to be daydreaming with his eyelids half-closed while Rabbit was drumming his fingers on the chair's armrest. Taking all this in, the silver-haired teen secretly gave a smirked grin.

Not twelve minutes before, the entire group had arrived at a small house constructed at the top of a tall tree. The shack's owner had welcomed them in without much hurry. He was a slender owl sporting brown-colored feathers, an orange beak, and orange feet. It hadn't taken long for Pooh to ask Owl to read the message, to which the latter immediately placed the honey-covered paper on a podium. He grabbed a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers, and began to slowly peel off globs of honey to comprehend the partially smeared text underneath.

After a few snail-paced minutes, Owl had cleared enough of the writing to make out the message. "'Dear Pooh' it begins," he read aloud, using the magnifying glass to follow along. "'Worry… about… me. I'm going far… away. Help!'"

Looking over a sliver of honey, Owl finished, "The note is signed… 'Christopher Robin'!"

"Christopher Robin?!" Rabbit exclaimed in astonishment, leaping out of his seat in the blink of an eye. Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet followed the bunny as the latter marched up to Owl.

From where he had jumped to his feet, Sora was downright baffled. No wonder nobody knew of the whereabouts of Pooh's friend; he wasn't even in the vicinity! To make matters worse, the letter made it sound like he was in serious trouble. Had the strange figure in the black-hooded coat abducted Pooh's friend? Did he "bring" Sora and his team to this world for some kind of trap? Was he still lurking about the woods somewhere?! If so, where could he be keeping Christopher Robin prisoner? How would Pooh and the others track him down? Furthermore, when would the answers to all these queries — in addition to the ones the spikey-haired Keyblader already held — finally come to light?

"Christopher Robin?" Pooh's voice exclaimed, drawing Sora from the depths of his contemplation. The latter whirled his focus towards the window behind him; all the others in the room did the same. There stood Pooh, staring out the window with an upside-down smile on his face. His voice quivered as he spoke. "My very best, best friend?! It simply cannot be."

Turning away from the view outside, Pooh looked down in dismay. "Whatever will I do?"

While Piglet strode across the room, Riku crossed his arms. True, the seventeen year old Keyblade wielder hadn't know the bear or his closest friends for the length of time Sora had. Nevertheless, he was beginning to have a sense of hopelessness and longing. Chances were this was the result of his desire to cheer the bear up. Such situations, he knew, typically occurred in Sora's actions.

He recalled when the brown-haired teenager had willingly tried to assist Tinker Bell in changing her talent back in the now-awakened Pixie Hollow. A similar event had taken place when Sora went after Rinzler in The Grid. The major difference between the two was how the youth had gone about his method of action. After all, Riku was already aware of how much of a friend both Tinker Bell and Tron were to the brown-haired teen and could tell the same type of relationship also existed with Pooh.

"P-Pooh," Piglet voiced as he approached the bear. A timid smile shown on his face. "Perhaps… u-until Christopher Robin comes back… I-I-I might be your very best, best friend?"

"Yeah," Tigger called out as he strode over with Eeyore. "And when Piglet gets sick of ya," he grabbed the donkey in a tight embrace. "We'll take over."

Although all he did was put one of his fists upon his cheek with his other palm balancing his elbow, deep down inside Sora had the uneasy dread Christopher Robin had been taken hostage by the mysterious guy in black. If this was so, Pooh's friend would not be returning anytime soon, which was contrary to what the others had apparently assumed.

"That's very kind of you," Pooh chuckled with a comforting smile. "But you already are the very best of my best friends."

Peering down to Piglet's eye level, Pooh continued, "You see Piglet, you and I can do anything."

A sudden wave of discouragement filled the bear's now-downcast eyes. "But only Christopher Robin and I could do… "

He paused, hugging the pot in his arms as his eyelids closed up. "Nothing!"

The blank look on Tigger's facial expression confirmed his failure to understand the meaning of Pooh's word choice. "Poor guy," he whispered, leaning into Eeyore's ears. "His very little brain's half-gone with grief!"

Violet rolled her eyes as a smirked grin formed upon her face. Up until now, Tigger had felt like the "King of Bad Puns." Yet, his soft comment was enough to make the angel think of the tiger as the "Lord of Nonsense", too. Since when could someone's physical brain become half-destroyed from sadness? Then again, perhaps she was misinterpreting the tiger's words. Was she?

"Aha!" Owl proclaimed loudly. His exclamation was enough to make everyone else spin their attention to the podium in anticipation. "I've done it! I've discovered where he went!"

Listening intently with the others, Sora was certain that, if the black-hooded stranger did in fact have Christopher Robin as his prisoner, what Owl had uncovered was the exact whereabouts of where the villain would be lurking. The sixteen-year-old's eyes were wide in expectation, which was also evident in his posture; his head was leaned forwards, his hands were clenched in fists and positioned alongside his chest, and his humongous grin was showing upon his lips.

For a few moments, Owl translated the section he believed to contain the location of where Christopher Robin had gone. All at once, he gasped with such shock the magnifying glass slipped out of his grasp and clattered onto the podium. Owl's eyes were now flooded by a significant amount of horror and anxiety. "Oh my!"

"What is it, Owl?" Pooh inquired. Like everyone else present, the bear's face had concern written upon it. "Where is it?"

"Someplace bad, I'm afraid!" Owl returned.

"How 'bad' could it be?" Riku broke in.

"On a scale of one to ten," Owl hesitated as he darted around, closing every curtain, slamming all the shutters, and blockading the front door. The room had become so dark, the glow Violet consistently produced illuminated the area like a nightlight. Everyone waited in total silence for a second. "It's not good!"

Lighting a small candle of wax upon the podium, Owl scooped up his magnifying glass and pressed on to read what had caused his nervousness. Through the flicker of the candlelight, he sputtered, "He has gone to 'S-C-H-O-O-L'," Owl gasped in alarm as he looked upward, terror inscribed in his eyes. "Skull!"

The instant the words had registered within his ears, Riku slapped his hand upon his forehead. The so-called "wisest of all the animals" had completely misinterpreted the word those six letters spelled; school. Since when did "school" and "skull" sound the same? Then again, no one else in this world knew how to spell correctly, so perhaps that was how "skull" was spelled around here? If what the silver-haired Keyblade wielder thought proved to be accurate, then even Christopher Robin (who had written the note) spelled "skull" as "school", too.

"'Skull?'" Pooh questioned, a blank look in his eyes. "What kind of place is that?"

"Well," Owl explained with a sparkle in his eye. "Judging from the context, it clearly is a most-dark and forbidding place!"

Sora folded his arms in contemplation. Perhaps his feelings of dread were true after all. The guy in black could very likely be keeping Christopher Robin trapped inside this "skull" place. Therefore, there would be only one practical solution to this dilemma. "If Christopher Robin's in danger," Sora spoke up, his arms moving to his sides. "Then we should go save him."

"Yeah," Riku agreed in turn.

Violet shrugged. "Sure, why not? I am prepared for another venture."

"Of course!" Rabbit approved.

Tigger and Eeyore nodded together. Piglet and Pooh were the last ones to agree to tag along. Owl was overjoyed. "Then it's a quest, is it?" he declared, marching to the podium. "A long, perilous journey through the 'Great Unknown'!"

Pulling on a bottle of ink with a hawk-shaped feather, Owl unfurled a sheet of brown parchment. "Of course, you'll need a map."

As Owl set to work on drawing out the landscape of the best route for everyone to take, Piglet asked, "Owl, you d-don't suppose we'd meet any… H-H-Heffalumps," he gulped. "Do you?"

"Oh," Owl cheered in reply. "I nearly forgot! Herds of Heffalumps! In the Southeast corner of the far west portion, I'd wager."

A worried Tigger added, "What about Woozles?"

Owl leaped with glee. "Woozles! Wonderful!"

Violet was puzzled. "'Heffalumps,'" she inquired. "'Woozles?' What exactly are those?"

Tigger leaned in close to the angel's ear. "Heffalumps and Woozles," he whispered loudly. "Steal honey! You'd better beware!"

Violet's shuddering was barely noticeable. If these creatures who normally swiped honey from the residents of this world were anything like the hostile Nightmares… she didn't want to wrap her mind around it. Ever since she had found herself in the unfamiliar worlds of the Realm of Sleep, the Angel of Dreams had only traveled to the worlds of Traverse Town, Corona, Pixie Hollow, and Rascal's Dreamland. For some odd reason, the angel had not encountered anyone living within these worlds until Sora and Riku had ventured to them with her. Thus when they arrived at the hidden valley in Rapunzel's world, she had finally decided to learn the purpose for the secluded tower. It had been in Pixie Hollow where Violet had originally come face-to-face with the powerful Nightmare named "Lord Kyroo". However, she had seldom explored the vicinity of Rascal's Dreamland — and as such — she was largely unaware of the existence of the cursed amusement park. Hence, the main location she had become well acquainted with was that of Traverse Town, which no longer was sleeping.

It was Rabbit's turn to ask Owl. "What about 'jag-u-lars'?"

"Oh," Owl replied as he proceeded to draw the major landmarks along the path on the map. "Just a dozen or three. Here! There! And yonder!"

With a few more scribbles at the top of the parchment, Owl paused. "Not to mention," he enunciated. "The fabled… 'Skullasaurus'!"

Now everyone was shaking nervously. In his mind, Sora told himself this "Skullasaurus" was nothing more than a supreme Heartless…, err — Nightmare. Chances were, it had been summoned by the stranger in the black-hooded coat to ensure Pooh and the others wouldn't be able to rescue Christopher Robin from the villain's clutches.

"'Sk-Skullasaurus'?!" Tigger exclaimed in fright and worry

"Oh, come! Come!" Owl proclaimed, drawing Sora, Riku, Violet, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit, and Eeyore over to the podium. "Without a monster or two, it's hardly a quest! Just a gaggle of friends wandering about."

Riku shook his head. If there was one thing Owl clearly did not possess in his so-called "knowledge", it was that typically monsters failed to show up on adventures. The only exception was if someone was a Keyblade wielder, like he and Sora were. After all, the duo had long since been on a mission of their own; trying to awaken seven Sleeping Keyholes from inside the Realm of Sleep, which they were currently in the process of doing.

"Oh! How I envy you!" Owl declared aloud with a bright twinkle glowing from each of his eyes. "Not everyone has the chance to face the unspeakable terrors of the 'Great Unknown'!"

Before anyone had the opportunity to speak a single syllable, a small, circle-shaped spotlight appeared out of the blue, shining upon where Owl was stationed at the podium. "Today's the day!" the brown-feathered owl chanted out loud. "In only a matter of moments, you'll all be on your way! What lurks around the corner, not a soul can say. But I can guess — more or less — hidden dangers, great distress! The moment of glory is close at hand!" He cheered with such volume, Violet had to cover her ears. "This is gonna be grand!"

When Owl started to march around the room, he called out, "Adventure is a wonderful thing! Pack only the essentials! I'll tell you what to bring — your strength, your nerve, your hearts, your wits. And for Skullasaurus attacks, First-Aid kits. You'll face unearthly dangers. Look at them and laugh!"

Piglet hid inside Pooh's red shirt as Owl stated each terrifying being. "The claws! The teeth! The chase! The thrills! You'll never want to come home! Maybe you never will! That's the beauty of adventure — it's strictly sink or float. It runs you till your ragged, then it grabs you by the throat. You struggle to survive it though the chances are remote."

Following another cheer, Owl exclaimed, "Lucky you! Wish I was coming to! Adventure is a wonderful thing!"

Turning his attention back to the group, Owl said, "I nearly forgot the very best part! You not only get to save your friend from the most-dangerous place — namely 'Skull' — but also from the most-dangerous part of the most-dangerous place — the eye of the 'Skull' itself!"

With a hint of concern in his voice, Pooh sighed uneasily. "Oh bother!"

"And you," Owl chanted aloud as he gestured towards Pooh. "General Pooh, off you go — marching high and low! Your friend waits at the end… right here!"

Holding up the map for the bear to see, Owl continued, "Take a look, the map is perfectly clear! With your excellent sense of direction, you've nothing to fear! Through the quick sands and the chasms! Tempting fate and fighting spasms! Dodging avalanching boulders! But remember, Christopher Robin's fate rests completely on your shoulders, Pooh! It's up to you!"

Sora had to smirk a smile. If there was anyone who would have the best chance to rescue Christopher Robin from the guy in black, it would be the bear of very little brain; Pooh.

"That's the beauty of adventure!" Owl pressed on. "The trembling and the dread! I can't think of another thing I'd rather do instead!"

"Excuse me, Owl," Pooh spoke up. A small grin formed on his face when Owl handed him the map and approached a small lever behind the podium. "Perhaps you could join us?"

"No! No!" Owl cried as he leaned the lever forwards. "You go ahead! Adventure is a wonderful thing!"

As the last few words left Owl's mouth, a decent-sized trapdoor opened in the floor. Sora found himself descending the full length of the tree with Riku, Violet, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit, and Eeyore following suit.

Once they had reached the bottom, a secret doorway opened, sending them all flying out onto the ground. As Sora and Pooh led the way down to a nearby bridge, Owl's voice could be heard cheering through the treetops. "I salute you! As for those of you who're doomed to never return, I salute you twice!"

Without a moment to waste, Sora and Pooh led Riku, Tigger, Piglet, Violet, Rabbit, and Eeyore across the bridge ahead and into… what Sora already knew was still a segment of the larger 100-Acre Wood — even if Owl called it "The Great Unknown".

The sun was beginning to shine its brilliant rays through the trees as their leaves started to drop off one by one. A large gust of wind scooped up a number of red, yellow, and orange leaves from the air, blowing them across the landscape and into an open window. Within the house was a small, golden bear named Pooh; he was snoring loudly. Each snore was followed by a miniature updraft, pushing the leaves back upward. Although he was not aware of the flying pieces of foliage, Pooh was mumbling in his state of slumber.

"Bigger than all beans."

"Longer than we gleam."

"Hum-dee… dee-dee-dum!"

"Hum-dee… dum-dee-dee!"

Before Pooh could snore any further, a sharp twitching formed on the end of his nose. It hastily transformed into a tickle. With a giggle in his voice, the bear muttered, "Hello, Christopher Robin! I can't seem to remember the… remember the… "

As he opened his eyes and sat up, Pooh realized what he had assumed was the young child attempting to wake him up happened to be a small pile of multicolored leaves. Grasping the items in his arms, a large grin grew on Pooh's lips. "It's Autumn?"

In one, swift movement, Pooh leapt from his bed; the cover flew into the air, only to land back where it had been situated. Pooh sprinted to the window and peered out. Spotting all the leaves coming from the nearby trees and blowing around in the distance, he exclaimed, "It is! It's the first day of Autumn!"

Tossing all the leaves into the air outside, Pooh darted back inside. The noises of cluttering and clanging echoed about as he swiftly put his clothing on. Flinging the front door open, he leapt out into a large pile of orange leaves with a cheerful smile on his face.

Instead of hitting the ground, Pooh found himself somewhat elevated. As he stood up and leaned over to see what he had landed upon, his weight caused him to tumble over onto his head. He jumped to his feet when he recognized the item sitting before his front door. "Someone's left a honey pot," he smiled with a giggle in his voice. "All alone and lonely, with no one to care for it. I suppose… "

Picking up the small, blue pot and removing the lid, Pooh reached his hand inside. "…I should take it."

Seconds before he could take his first bite of the pot's contents, Pooh paused; a look of realization appeared on his face. "Although it might belong to someone. Although just as easily not."

Tapping his honey-covered paw against his head, Pooh murmured softly, "Think, think! Think!"

Unable to decide what to do, Pooh stood up as straight as he could. "I suppose, when a question becomes this sticky, I should go ask my very dear friend, Christopher Robin."

A few minutes after, Pooh had reached the summit of a hill located at the center of a large clearing. A swing hung from the enormous tree situated at the peak. Sweeping his eyesight around, Pooh called out, "Christopher Robin? Are you here?"

Receiving no response, the bear stepped to the other side of the tree. "Are you there?"

Still getting no answer, Pooh proceeded to stride up to the edge of the cliff-side of the hilltop. With a quiver in his voice, he declared, "Are you… anywhere?!"

A/N: THERE YOU ARE! CHAPTER 25! HIP-HIP-HOORAY!

Based on my calculations, this will be about the HALFWAY POINT for this ENTIRE STORY!
Remember, I'm expecting AT LEAST 100 REVIEWS BY THE TIME IT IS COMPLETE! PLEASE! PLEASE REVIEW! DON'T FORGET TO!

So, I noticed how MANY of you are questioning the reason for why I added THE 100-ACRE WOOD in this story. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you why, as it MAY be revealed in a LATER CHAPTER OF THIS STORY!
All I CAN say is: "...Something to do with Kingdom Hearts 2..."

Think you KNOW what that means? Post your answers in the REVIEWS FOR THIS PARTICULAR CHAPTER!

As for the NEW TRAILER for Kingdom Hearts III, I'll just say I am REALLY looking forward to being able to fight from a TRAIN!
DISNEY WORLD ATTRACTIONS IN KINGDOM HEARTS 3?! YOU'VE GOT MY NAME ON IT!

So, if I may, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT REVIEWING! THE FATE OF THIS STORY DEPENDS ON IT!

This is SoraLego278 saying, "See Ya Later, Keybladers!"