DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS!
A/N: Well, it's official! Not only has Chapter 38 FINALLY Arrived, but it is ALSO one of the LONGEST CHAPTERS OF THIS ENTIRE STORY!
Don't believe me? CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF!
However, here's a Piece Of TRIVIA For The Road!
DID YOU KNOW? The Term used to explain why Images moving across a Screen super-fast appear to be moving is called "Persistence of Vision". The human eye can ONLY follow something up to a certain Speed. By inserting a Black Frame in the middle, we see something that appears to be moving between two stationary images - although this ALSO results in the Flicker-effect from older cartoons, like Steamboat Willie (1928) and Plane Crazy (1927).
Of course, you MAY be wondering what this has to do with FANTASIA, Am I Correct? Well, this particular technique is absolutely CRUCIAL in order to make ANY FORM OF ANIMATION COME TO LIFE! FANTASIA is FULL of Animation! How else could something be possible? By 1940, the technique had been IMPROVED, which REMOVED THE FLICKER! THERE YOU GO - FLICKER-FREE/CLEAR ANIMATION!
So, with all THAT aside, I also wanted to point out how the number of Reviews seem to have RAPIDLY DECREASED Lately! I'M SHOCKED!
Well, because this I the recent occurrence, I'll go off easy... THE REVIEW AMOUNT HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO 107! However, IF 120 REVIEWS are posted, then I shall add something "SPECIAL" at the END of this Story! Maybe a little "SNEAK PEEK" for the Next Story?
Do You GOT IT MEMORIZED? IF SO, GOOD FOR YOU! IF NOT, GET IT MEMORIZED!
So, I believe it is Time to see where Riku and Violet have gone inside the OTHER Musical Score(s)!
Please READ AND REVIEW ALIKE - PRETTY PLEASE, WITH A SNOWFLAKE AND SEAHORSE ON TOP!
CHAPTER 38
Flowers, Fairies, And A Tin Soldier
After Sora had vanished from the circular study, Riku turned his attention to the music stand holding the sea-blue songbook. Despite the steady water level, the stand remained above the flood. Summoning his Keyblade, the silver-haired adolescence pointed it directly at the book. Like he had witnessed with Sora's weapon, a beam of Light appeared at the tip of the weapon, striking the songbook a few moments later. A colorful glow possessing the serene sounds of music filled his senses as Riku was engulfed into the soft, graceful song within.
~The Nutcracker Suite~
By Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
It was dark. So dark, Riku could not see anything beyond five feet in any direction. The whole sight made him recall how deep the Darkness had felt when he was trapped inside the Realm of Darkness with Mickey once the Door To Darkness had been sealed. As the silver-haired teenager had watched the door seal up, he had started to wonder if he would ever be able to return to the other side and see his friends again. Just to be on the safe side, he had told Sora to "take care of Kairi". Still, he had later seen Sora sleeping in a pod inside Castle Oblivion. Naminé told Riku how the brown, spikey-headed youth was fast asleep so his memory could be restored — at least everything up to entering the castle. All the silver-headed Keyblade wielder thought of doing was looking forward to the opportunity to "chew out his best friend" for taking a nap instead of looking after Kairi on the island. All the recollection did was make Riku shake his head.
It took several seconds for Riku to regain his sense of direction. When he finally had retained his bearings, the very soft, gentle sounds of music started to play in the background. The melody was slow and pleasant, which reminded Riku of the time he had starred in a school play at age eight. The show itself was adapted from the world-renown ballet, "The Nutcracker"; Riku had been given the role of the Nutcracker. To his astonishment at the time, a girl named "Selphie Tilmitt" had been in the role of Clara. The Mouse King had been played by Sora, and Kairi had starred as the Sugar Plum Fairy. The show had gone smoothly until the point where the Nutcracker and the Mouse King were supposed to duel; Riku and his best friend had conducted a serious scuffle, which was no surprise to some of the other cast members. The pair of boys had been having numerous fights with their wooden swords, only it had gotten out of hand during the performance. It continued for several minutes before Selphie had shouted, "You both are ruining the show!" The battle had ended at that exact moment, although Riku had come to thank Selphie for preventing the two from causing too much trouble. This had continued for a few days….
'Wait! Why am I thinking about this?'
Riku paused to think. It was then something caught his eye. Through a series of dark silhouettes before him, flashes of colorful light could be seen.
'What's that?'
Sneaking up to the silhouettes, Riku pushed aside what turned out to be the thin stems of some gigantic plants. To his surprise, a circle of glowing lights were casually floating around at the base of a small knoll. One of the lights was a dark red, another was a bright green, and even another was a honey yellow. His eyes immediately fell onto a violet light as it passed by before him. As the music started to play a series of soft bells, the circle of lights began breaking up; each light drifted into the darkness.
'So, this must be the world sleeping in the music… '
Curious about where each light had gone, Riku carefully slid down the tiny knoll and stepped into an open clearing where the lights had been gathered just seconds before. He gazed up, noticing a large, white moon in the sky far above. A flash of white light drew his eyes to the right; a giant dandelion flower was towering over him with sparkling seeds. A few more flashes from the left caught his eye. Turning to see what had caused them, Riku was amazed; an enormous white flower with two identical other flowers beside it were all glowing with sparkling light.
'So… where are the sparkles coming from?'
Hearing some soft, graceful music coming from straight ahead, Riku proceeded to peer through some immense blades of grass. He stared with wonder. Hovering over a massive lake that was as smooth as a mirror, countless glowing lights were moving in a line. To the silver-headed youth, they seemed to be moving up and down on the steady beat of the music; it almost felt like they were dancing to the melody.
'Those lights… What are they?'
As Riku continued watching the not-too-distant lights, a group of them possessing at least one of each color from the rainbow started spinning away from the line. The very sight made the seventeen-year-old wonder if he was looking straight at a moving color wheel of lights. The group approached an irregularly shaped web strung between some of the flowers. Riku stepped a bit closer and noticed how one of the glowing lights — a dull violet — set down upon one of the web's upper strands. As he watched, a bunch of sparkles flew from the light and began to illuminate the threads. Some of the sparkles slid down the upper-most thread and landed onto a tulip at the opposite end. Another light, this one bearing an orange-yellow color, popped its head out.
'Wait… a head? Those lights… they're fairies?!'
Riku was beyond speechless. Here he was wandering through the inside of a musical piece and not once had he imagined he would have seen another creature that resembled Tinker Bell and the other fairies back in Pixie Hollow. However, the silver-haired Keyblade wielder could also make out smaller wings and a bright glow for each of the lights — fairies — that completely blotted out whatever clothing they were wearing. He smiled; these fairies were slightly different from the ones he had met long ago. The main concept seemed similar — the fairies were probably responsible for the changing of the seasons, too. Yet, here they were in the middle of the night illuminating everything in sight. Not one of Tinker Bell's friends appeared to have a talent like that.
With a silent YAWN, the fairy in the tulip stretched out its arms. It turned towards the web and sluggishly reached its right hand at the thread. A miniature stick in the fairy's hand caught Riku's attention; it resembled a magical wand. From the tip of the stick, a handful of sparkles sprayed out across the web. They proceeded to slide down a little before they stopped. The same violet fairy (from a few moments before) swooped over the center of the web and used its hands to carefully fill the remaining strands with sparkles.
'Wow! This almost looks too good to be true!'
From where he stood, Riku could see the entire web covered with countless sparkles of light shining through the dark night. The view reminded him of the stars twinkling in the sky over the Destiny Islands. A flash of green light zipped past his head; some sparkles landed onto a small flower to Riku's right. A second flash, this one being blue, illuminated a large vine to his left. A third flash of violet caused a sealed-up rose to the left to become lit up with sparkles.
'This looks so peaceful… and bright!'
All at once, a green fairy, blue fairy, and violet fairy swooped into view from the sides. They flew directly into each other; the collision caused an intense flash of white light to form — sending a shower of sparkles in the silver-headed teen's direction. The force of the impact had also been enough to send Riku falling off the edge of what happened to be a cliff in the middle of the clearing. Down he plunged, before landing onto something soft and… sort of… squishy?
'Is this? Did I land on a pillow?'
Whatever he had landed onto started moving; a different tune, containing an up-and-down melody, started to play in the background. Riku jumped off and set foot onto the ground. He spun around, only to spot a group of mushrooms with red tops jumping from their places on the ground. They shook off all the sparkles from their tops and began marching in a circle.
Riku was astounded. No wonder he thought he had landed onto a pillow. It was the softer top of one of the mushrooms. He shook his head, knowing his assumption was no dissimilar to how he typically viewed Sora's reaction to anything.
As he continued to watch, Riku's focus shifted to a small, white mushroom that appeared to be having a difficult time keeping up with the larger ones. For some reason, the silver-haired youth's mind began wandering… there were three tall mushrooms; each one seemed to be ignoring the tiny one. For that matter, one of the taller ones seemed to be leading the others, the second was behaving a little absent-minded, and the third was acting like it only wanted to follow the other two.
'Those three are acting like The Three Stooges… '
Riku froze in place. The mushrooms did seem to be behaving very similar to the three actors the silver-headed Keyblade wielder had seen a few times on television with Sora when they were younger. What were their names? Moe… Larry… Curly Joe? He struggled to recollect. Either way, it still appeared many seemingly-forgotten memories were returning for one reason or another. This had been going on since Riku had entered the Realm of Sleep, and he was certain it would not be the last time it occurred. He shook his mind free of the unnecessary contemplation and continued to watch the mushrooms.
The bigger three proceeded to circle the area with the small, white one trying to keep up. When the background music started to accelerate, the mushrooms' pace quickened. The white one was unable to keep up and was shoved aside by one of the taller ones. Riku rushed over and helped the small fungi back into the circle. It was then the seventeen-year-old realized he was standing at the center of the circle. All the mushrooms stopped moving and turned toward him. For a second, Riku didn't know what was going to happen. The mushrooms bowed down, allowing him to relax.
'For a moment there, I thought I was in trouble.'
The mushrooms remained in the same pose as Riku stepped away and headed into the dark night. He rapidly dashed across a flat plane with such darkness, he wondered if it was supposed to be a section of the Realm of Darkness.
'Strange… I can't feel it.'
As Riku was beginning to question where he was, a series of water droplets landed on the ground around him. He paused, turning to look around the immediate area. As the droplets made impact, a soft, steady beat followed each one. Now Riku was wondering if it was about to rain. He gazed up into the sky above as a melody of flutes started playing. What the silver-haired teenager saw was not rain nor dark clouds.
'…Flowers?'
From above, a group of pink blossoms came drifting down. As each flower set down upon what Riku now could tell was a smooth river of gently-flowing water, the music rose and fell with each plant's landing. Another group of blossoms bearing a yellow color floated on down and landed close to where Riku was standing. When each flower made impact, the music also appeared to be responding to the ripples on the water.
The music began to add in a slow, groaning-like tone. Riku stared upwards where he spotted a large, white blossom casually descending from the night sky above. The silver-haired teen watched with awe as the white blossom landed into the middle of a circle consisting of the yellow blossoms. Once the white one had set down, the middle of the flower rose up in the form of a dress; each of the yellow blossoms did the same.
As he watched, Riku saw a circle of blue and red blossoms descending and landing all around him before transforming into the same dress design. Riku smiled and shook his head. It was a good thing Sora and Kairi were unaware of how he enjoyed seeing flowers dancing. Such knowledge would cause Sora to tell everyone — especially Donald Duck and Goofy. To make matters worse, Riku would never hear the end of it! Thank goodness he was alone — here in the middle of a peaceful score of music that was sound asleep. He gave a silent YAWN.
'So calm… I think I'm going to fall asleep… '
The music suddenly shifted to a clattering of cymbals, trumpets, and some flutes. Riku's half-closed eyes were wide and alert. If the music was picking up, he was sure it had something to do with what was happening around him.
The background had grown pitch-black — except for the white blossom at the center of the yellow ones. The white flower was spinning in the form of a top with a spotlight shining down upon it. Riku was about to ponder why the music sounded so intense when some of the blue and red flowers around him left the circle and spun in the direction of the white one. As they spun away, the plants transformed into some red flowers with spikes and the tips of their petals become orange. At the same time, the blue ones turned into long, blue and yellow-colored vines with an oval-shaped head; the head opened its mouth, revealing rows of sharp, red-glowing teeth. Riku was appalled; these weren't flowers.
'They're Nightmares!'
Seeing the monsters headed for the white flower, Riku knew they were attempting to destroy the powerful Light the plant had started radiating. In a flash of light, Riku's Keyblade appeared and he charged at the enemies. He swung, slashed, and clobbered his way through the spikey-red creatures, which were vanquished in no time. It was then Riku realized the blue and yellow vines were attacking the yellow flowers surrounding the white one; they had formed a barricade to prevent the monsters from getting through. Riku rushed over and struck each enemy with a super-swift slash of his Keyblade. One-by-one, the Nightmares exploded into bubbles that drifted away moments later. Riku wiped some sweat from his forehead and allowed his Keyblade to disappear once more.
'Thank goodness!'
As he turned his head back to face the flowers, Riku froze and his eyes filled with disbelief. Every flower — including the white one — had seemingly departed during the battle. He paused… where had all the plants gone? Had the Nightmares succeeded in destroying the Light they were after? That didn't make sense… unless Riku had accidentally missed one of the enemies. Hopefully that was not the case!
The sound of the flutes echoed into his ears. Swinging his head around, Riku spotted the white flower spinning like a top through some thick, black roots a few yards downstream. He relaxed. The flowers hadn't been eliminated; they simply had fled.
When he saw the white flower was alone and starting to leave through an opening beneath the roots, Riku took off running in the same direction.
'Hey! Wait!'
It took much less than fourteen seconds for Riku to realize he could not run across the water. In a matter of moments, the river became like ice; his feet began sliding. The silver-haired teen found himself desperately trying to keep his balance as he slid underneath the roots. The music in the background resumed its steady beat and calmer form from before the Nightmares had attacked.
As he continued to attempt to remain upright, Riku took note of how he had slid into view of a group of yellow flowers dancing like the white one several feet ahead. He stared in recognition; they were the same yellow blossoms he had seen earlier. That's when he saw them leap over an edge.
'An edge? Wait… that's a waterfall!'
Certain the white flower was about to jump over the edge too, Riku tried to slide in the plant's direction and shove it out of harm's way. His feet would not cooperate and he ended up sliding to a spot behind the flower. The music grew louder as the plant reached the edge. At the last second, Riku threw his hands onto the plant's upper stem. It didn't do any good — the white flower had already started to tumble over the edge. In turn, Riku slid directly after it. One moment, he was sliding on the river. The next, he had slipped over the waterfall and descended into darkness and some small groups of bubbles. The music stopped.
'Wait… Bubbles? Where am I now?'
His eyesight came back into focus. Looking around where he was, Riku took into account how he hadn't landed onto anything. Although he could see sand scattered all along the ground below, his feet appeared to be hovering over it. He immediately realized this meant he was floating. As he glanced around the immediate area, the silver-haired youth noticed a bunch of tall, dark plants that seemed to be swaying with the soft beat now playing in the background. In the distance was a large, dark opening for… what he assumed was… a cave.
Riku paused in thought. In his ears, he could hear the music playing a song that seemed foreign. For that matter, it appeared to be similar to what had once heard someone playing in a world he had visited long ago… one with a city in the middle of the desert. What was that place called again? He couldn't remember out the top of his head. He also was wondering where he had ended up.
'This place seems to look just like the seafloor… '
Riku started to drift through the water. He remained staring up ahead as he continued to float along. Recalling what his teacher, Mr. Deid, had once said about people being weightless in outer space, the silver-haired seventeen-year-old began wondering if this was what he had meant.
It was at that second Riku thought he saw a pair of ovals showing up in the cave's entrance. He was about to squint for a better look when the ovals disappeared in the darkness, leaving a flurry of tiny bubbles. Although he was curious to know what creature he had just seen inside the cave's entrance (he had assumed the ovals were eyes), the teenage Keyblade wielder continued to drift through the plants nearby.
'This isn't grass… it's seaweed.'
Riku was puzzled. Less than ten minutes ago, he had been stepping through some gigantic blades of green grass. Now he was swimming through seaweed at the bottom of what appeared to be a pond or lake. How could so many thing happen in such a short time? Then again, Master Yen Sid had said there wasn't any "real time" in the Realm of Sleep. So, Riku was sure this meant anything could happen at any given time. No wonder so much stuff had basically flown by in the last several worlds! One moment, he was talking with Digit in Traverse Town. The next, he had been watching lanterns floating in the kingdom of Corona. Then, he was placing dewdrops onto a spider web in Pixie Hollow. Soon after, he was walking through a deserted "Rough-House" in Rascal's Dreamland. After that, he had been fighting enemies aboard a Light Cycle in The Grid. He had helped Sora and Violet stop Hacker when they all had returned to Traverse Town. Shortly after, he had ended up stuck halfway down a crevice with Tigger in The 100-Acre Wood. He had been visited by Ansem, The Seeker of Darkness at the castle's moat in Camelot. He had also helped stop 'Captain' Pete's trap for Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the others in the Country of The Musketeers. Now, here he was trying to find a "Sound Idea" somewhere inside a musical score within the Symphony of Sorcery. When he thought about it, Riku realized he had done more than he would've anticipated.
'Man! Time sure flies… '
Riku calmly shoved a few blades of seaweed aside. Up ahead was a patch of sunlight shining down through the surface and illuminating part of the seafloor. As he looked around the space, a pair of pink seaweed caught his eye. The plants stood out amongst the greenish-black foliage growing from the ground. Now the silver-haired youth was feeling more perplexed. Since when were seaweed pink? For that matter, Riku noticed how he could see directly through the plant. That wasn't supposed to be possible. Was it?
Curious to discover why the seaweed looked peculiar, Riku drifted over. As he was approximately halfway between the shadows and the atypical seaweed, a reddish-yellow head poked out from beneath one of the plants. When a pair of oval-shaped eyes appeared, Riku froze in place. These weren't the eyes of a plant… were they? The eyes seemed similar to that of a fish.
When the eyes turned toward Riku, the pupils grew larger with alarm. Before the silver-haired teenager's own eyesight, the seaweed plants disappeared when two reddish-yellow fish with pink fins and tails swam away with fright. He immediately knew what this meant.
'That wasn't seaweed! They were fish — two fish!'
Wondering where the fish had swam off to, Riku started to drift along in the direction they had gone. Before long, he peered out from behind another small patch of green seaweed and saw something up ahead. Less than twenty feet away was a reddish-yellow fish with pink fins and a matching tail swimming around in a patch of sunlight. Well… not exactly "swimming". The fish was moving up and down repeatedly; it continued to zigzag around as though dancing.
Riku was taken by surprise. Why did it appear everything inside this musical score was dancing with the beat? Then again… there was a soft, steady musical score playing continuously in the background. Perhaps the same was true of wherever Sora and Violet had ended up. Sure, this whole world seemed to be revolving around "music", but the silver-headed seventeen-year-old didn't know why that was the case — it probably just happened to be that way.
'Wait… that has nothing to do with this!'
When the reddish-yellow fish was close enough, Riku started to wave at it. The fish's oval eyes (yes, they were oval) became wide with shock. An instant later, the animal swam away in a hurry. Still curious about where the fish was going, Riku trailed along behind.
Before long, he approached the entrance to the cave he had seen earlier. He spotted the reddish-yellow fish calmly swimming around outside. He was about to wave "Hi" again, but the fish was so startled to see him, it veered around and darted inside.
'What? Did I scare it?! Something funny is going on… '
Determined to learn why the fish had swam away in the first place, Riku cautiously drifted into the cave's dark entrance. A strange horn-like sound joined the music as he started swimming through the darkness of the interior. His eyes began adjusting. Riku was on the verge of summoning his Keyblade, when he was finally able to get a better look of the inside of the cavern. The walls and floor were made of rock that seemed to give a neon-violet glow. The feeling he was having was somewhat ominous.
As he drifted into a large open room, Riku nearly stopped in his tracks. A group of three fish-shaped shadows were swaying with the stringed-instrumental music in the background. The lighting inside the cavern changed into a reddish-pink color. As he watched, the shadows moved from the wall and swam along the floor. Riku's eyes followed them until he spotted a large, yellow-orange-colored piece of coral sticking out of the wall; its shape strongly resembled a fan with countless holes in it.
'Strange… where are the fish?'
When he got a better look of the coral (thanks to continuous drifting), Riku almost leapt back in astonishment. Peeking through the holes in the skeleton were three reddish-yellow fish bearing pink tails and matching fins — the same three fish he had been tracking. Now realizing what he was looking at, Riku allowed himself to relax.
The trio of fish swam up from where they had been hiding and neared the cavern ceiling. As he watched from a distance away, Riku saw the fish twirling around with their tails circling behind them. It really did look like the fish were dancing to the background music! At once, the fish swan straight down and curved upward. Riku had to use his right arm to protect his eyes from the barrage of bubbles that unexpectedly flew up to him in the process. When he looked again, Riku spotted a group of five, pinkish-red fish swimming around in the distance. For a moment, he was in deep thought.
'Are those… maybe an illusion?'
While he continued to watch the fish peacefully swim around in a circle, they turned their heads toward each other. Their fins flattened out as their noses touched. From where Riku was viewing the entire sequence, the shape the animals had created resembled an enormous pinkish-red flower. He shook his head and smiled brightly.
'Yup! Definitely an illusion.'
The music in the backdrop continued to play softly for a few seconds as the "flower" remained moving in a slow spin. All of a sudden, the "flower" faded from sight and the whole cave became dark. Still staring straight ahead, Riku noticed a group of six black fish sitting on the cavern floor; their fins were all covering something in the middle of their circle.
As Riku was about to ponder over what they were keeping concealed, the fish lifted their fins. Out from within swam a golden-white fish with golden fins and a sparkling golden tail. Its oval-shaped eyes looked similar to someone Riku had once seen quite some time ago. However, he just couldn't place a name with the image. Why was that?
'Who was it? That fish looks strangely familiar… '
The golden-white fish calmly rose from the circle below and started swimming around the empty space of the cavern. In the scenery behind the animal, Riku took note of dozens of sparkling lights that seemed to resemble stars twinkling in the night sky. At first, he imagined they were like the lanterns back in Corona. A second later, he realized they were part of the illusion itself. Whenever the fish made a sharp move as it swayed with the music and twirled with the beat, bubbles would form behind it.
As he continued to watch the fish dancing, a light-bulb suddenly lit up in Riku's mind. The music now sounded much more like the desert-city he had once visited. He knew its name… what was it again? Maybe… Agrabah — that was it! It was Agrabah! What was the name of that girl he had seen there?
'Jasmine! A Princess of Heart!'
Riku's mind started to move rapidly. He recalled how he had once travelled to the desert-city to retrieve Jasmine because she was one of the maidens Maleficent had been searching for. As it just so happened, he had ended up stumbling through a cave there to find her. Unfortunately, Riku had been lectured by Hades afterwards, despite the fact the mission had been a success. All because he hadn't assisted Jafar in defeating Sora, Donald, Goofy, and some kid who lived on the streets… whoever he was.
'Memories… of Darkness… '
Riku sighed deeply. It was short-lived; the six black fishes had risen from the floor and were starting to circle the golden-white fish. He gazed up as the fish was shrouded in the other ones' tails. A flurry of bubbles came flying toward the silver-haired Keyblade wielder's position. Riku used his arms to cover his face when he realized he was entering one of the bubbles.
Inside the bubble, Riku took a super-fast glance around the immediate area. To his surprise, a cluster of flowers with green stems and rainbow petals could be seen. Overall, they primarily looked like tulips.
'Now there's more flowers? What's next?'
The music stopped. A new faster-paced melody began playing. Before Riku's eyes, the flowers standing before him jumped from their places and twirled on the spot. The seventeen-year-old Keyblader had to leap back a few steps to prevent himself from getting shoved into. As he watched, the flowers bent down and touched their feet a few times in a row. They jumped past Riku as another row emerged; this group spun like a top before swaying their arms to the left, right, left, and then curling their arms like a gorilla would. When that row jumped off to the side, another row showed up and did the same actions as the first row had. A fourth row followed and did the same things as the second one had done.
Riku was astounded. Not long before, he was swimming with the fishes. Now he was watching some flowers dance to a loud song that seemed to make someone want to move along.
Once the fourth row had left, several rows of colorful flowers came into view. To Riku, they seemed similar to girls wearing dresses. If that was the case, then the other ones he had seen moments before were probably boys.
As he continued to watch, Riku found himself dragged into a dance with a yellow "girl" flower. He was swung around in circles as the music started to pick up the pace. Riku was unable to do anything except allow the flower to spin him around in circles. For a brief minute, he thought he was dancing with the same "flower-girl" he had met a while back. He pushed the thought from his mind when he realized there were several other flower "couples" dancing in the same manner he had been dragged into scattered all around. The music grew faster and faster (and steadily louder). Riku started to think it would go on forever.
All at once, the music came to an abrupt halt. Riku was thrown onto the ground when the flowers all turned into normal plants and gradually became silhouettes. He barely took note of it; his mind was spinning from too much twirling, whirling, spinning like a top… he was downright dizzy, and was not sure if he was about to faint or not.
'That was exhausting!'
Another slow, graceful song started to play as Riku turned his eyes to where a light had started to shine upon a series of leaves. He sighed.
'Now what?'
From the tops of the leaves, Riku spotted some transparent objects sticking out. A few moments later, some green figures emerged; each with large wings and a small glow. One look was all it took for the silver-haired youth to know what they were.
'More fairies… '
Unlike the previous group he had seen, these fairies were shaped more like dragonflies compared to Tinker Bell and her friends from Pixie Hollow. When they took flight, the leaves on the trees around them instantly changed from green to a brownish-golden color. Riku was amazed; the fairies hadn't even touched the leaves, and yet they were using magic on them.
He watched as one fairy zigzagged towards a small plant with many leaves. The little creature landed upon the lowest leaf and touched one of the others. The leaf turned yellow and the color travelled through the stem. One by one, the leaves all turned yellow. When the top of the plant had remained green, the fairy reached up and turned it yellow in the blink of an eye. Spectating the whole display, Riku was impressed.
'I need to get a closer look.'
Next thing he knew, Riku had climbed to the top of a tree and was standing upon a leaf on one of its branches. The music began to play very steadily while a fairy zigzagged past the branch. As it moved on to where Riku was watching, a soft horn-like instrument played along; the fairy spun in a circle. Riku ducked to avoid getting hit by the creature. Once the fairy had moved on, some leaves broke free and started falling from the branch. Riku felt his leaf give way, too.
There he was, standing upon a leaf like a skateboarder. Riku watched as a pair of fairies zoomed over and spun his leaf alongside another one. The whirling made the silver-haired youth start to feel dizzy again. Since his leaf was rounded on two sides and had a point on the front, it reminded him of the surfboard his brother had once owned. Having never ridden it himself, Riku had tried to figure out how to ride one; this leaf would be no different.
'I should have learned how to ride one… '
As a slight breeze blew his leaf along, Riku saw the same pair of fairies zoom over and spin around him. His leaf began twirling rapidly, which only increased his dizziness. A second later, a shower of red leaves came soaring down from above; the music started playing much louder and the melody appeared to be more like a dance — an extremely moving dance. This seemed to continue for several seconds.
At once, Riku's leaf drifted away from the main shower. The music became calmer while he flew back-and-forth through the air. In the process, the silver-headed teenager passed a pair of white fairies with smaller, more-rounded wings beside a small dandelion flower. A couple moments later, the air around him was filled with little white seeds that appeared to be dancers with tiny wings wearing large white dresses. He smiled before shaking his head.
'They look like a ballet… the music sounds like one, too.'
Out of the blue, a second shower of leaves blew around him — shoving all the smaller seeds aside. Riku's leaf was struck by the powerful gale as he heard the music picking back up. He sighed silently; this was the same blast of wind he had been caught in earlier.
Up and down, right and left he was carried. The leaf swooped back-and-forth like it was a piece of plastic in a strong thunderstorm; perhaps… a hurricane. Suddenly, he found himself trapped in the branches of a tree with several other leaves. Riku tried hard to pull free, but his leaf was caught too far in. A gust from the wind yanked every leaf from the tree and sent Riku spiraling along behind. He had to kneel to keep himself from getting too dizzy and stop the worst of the twirling, whirling, and… he didn't want to think about it.
'This is really getting to me… '
The gale died down. When he rose to his feet once again, Riku was in for quite the surprise. The small, white seeds had returned… or he had swooped down low enough to avoid the stronger wind and rejoined them. Either way, the music was much more peaceful and seemed to be carrying him along. The silver-haired teen relaxed as he watched the seeds touch the ground one-by-one. They were soon covered in leaves along with a few sticks and twigs.
As he turned his head around the area, Riku took note of a thin, black plant before his eyes. A group of crystallized shapes appeared on it. They quickly transformed into icy-blue figures with frozen wings. Riku had to smirk.
'Even more fairies… What would Sora say?'
Watching the fairies closely, Riku saw them skating down the plant's leaves. Frost started to cover everything they touched. At one point, one of the fairies slipped and slid to a stop. Another went to check on it, which reminded Riku of how he tended to see if Sora was alright after something happened; he shook his head.
The two fairies' attention was then drawn toward Riku's leaf. Wondering why they were staring at it, the silver-haired Keyblader glanced down, only to realize his leaf was just inches above a frozen lake. The leaf landed onto the ice. Moments later, one of the fairies swooped over and stepped onto it; the entire leaf was frosted in an instant.
The fairy turned to Riku and started twirling in place. In a flash, the figure grabbed Riku's arm and pulled him along. All the silver-headed youth could do was watch as he was yanked along by the fairy; the latter remained skating across the iced-over lake, occasionally twirling for a moment or two (whenever the music allowed it). Riku started to regain his state of dizziness.
After several seconds of skating across the lake with the fairy — which now Riku realized was a girl — he glanced up.
'Snow? Is it really snowing?'
Sure enough, a shower of snow was calmly descending from far up above. In the background, the music began to accelerate. As he watched from where he was stuck skating on the lake, Riku's mind started to twirl, too.
A series of floating snowflakes moving in a circle above caught his eyes. Every time the fairy dragged him to the other side of the frozen lake, he saw another section of the snowflakes. They started to move faster and faster. When Riku thought he saw some fairies controlling the snowflakes from within, the music started to get louder and the pace quicken all the more.
Round and round he was pulled by the fairy. The music was moving so fast, Riku was afraid he might get motion-sickness — something he had never had to worry about before.
'Is there any end to this?!'
At that exact second, a bluish light came shining down from above. The music seemed to be reaching a climax as Riku spotted it. Directly over the middle of the frozen lake, the light illuminated the snowflakes circling around the perimeter. At the moment, Riku and the fairy were in the middle of the lake.
Floating down from above was a sea-blue colored musical score. The ends of the piece of paper were furled like a scroll. He immediately realized it was most-likely what he had initially come in there to get.
'…The 'Sound Idea'!'
As though she had read his mind, the fairy alongside Riku leapt from the lake as the song started to hang onto a long, high note. The fairy pulled him into the air, allowing the silver-haired Keyblade wielder to soar freely and fly like a rocket directly at the musical score. Just as the song ended, Riku grabbed the musical score. The entire environment around him vanished.
'One more 'Sound Idea' to save Mickey!'
Once Sora and Riku had both departed from the study, Violet shifted her focus to the music stand holding the deep-violet songbook. The series of eighth notes were continuously hovering around it. She took a deep breath before turning her head back to face Mickey; the mouse was still trapped in a trance.
"I shall be back with a 'Sound Idea', Mickey," Violet said in a soft voice. After summoning her Keyblade, the angel pointed it straight at the book. A beam of Light shone out and struck it. A brilliant glow containing the tranquil sounds of music flooded her senses. In no time, Violet was sucked into the serene, lovely song within the songbook itself.
~Piano Concerto No. 2~
By Dmitri Shostakovich
A steady beat started playing in the background. Violet listened in to what appeared to be a marching song performed from a piano. She swept her eyes around the dimly-lit room. It was then the angel realized she was standing on a table amongst a pile of blocks painted with the alphabet, a small model town, and even a stage with a clock. Scattered all around the highlights were a variety of toys including a xylophone, jack-in-the-box, and even a wooden boat model.
'This is the interior of the sleeping musical score… '
At that precise second, the hands on the clock struck twelve. A small light illuminated the stage, where a paper ballerina with semi-curled brown hair and wearing a white dress with matching ballet slippers began to dance. As she started twirling in place, Violet drew closer to watch. The angel smiled at the sight.
'How lovely!'
A second spotlight emerged. To Violet's surprise, the jack-in-the-box was awakening with a silent YAWN. The toy had a brown box, purple spring, greenish-blue shirt, and blue-purple hat with lime-colored pom-poms. Its face was shaped roughly with brown patches for the eyelids, beard, and small pieces of hair. Overall, the entire toy resembled a jester. From within the toy, Violet could sense a strong Darkness.
When the jack-in-the-box had finished stretching, it turned towards the ballerina and gave a sinister-looking grin. Reaching out its hand, the jack-in-the-box picked up the ballerina's hand and leaned in close to kiss it. However, the ballerina had taken note of this and broke free very easily. When the jack-in-the-box realized the dancer had escaped his grasp, his facial expression changed into a serious glare. Violet smirked a small smile.
'You may want her, although you may not succeed, too!'
The background music started to get louder. Turning to the left, Violet spotted a box of five tin soldiers less than twenty feet away. They each had white uniform pants, red uniform shirts with matching helmets, a white stripe crossing over their chest in the form of an "X", and a black musket. One by one, each of the first four soldiers leapt out and began marching along in a straight line. The fifth one had a little trouble climbing out. That was when Violet took notice of how the last tin soldier looked different, physically and… somewhat… literally.
'He has solely one leg!'
It was true; the tin soldier only had his right leg. The left one was missing, containing a stump in its place. One little look was all it took for Violet to hypothesize the soldier had been made from the exact same piece of tin as the others — there just hadn't been enough tin to finish him. The Angel of Dreams nodded slightly in certain confirmation.
She continued to observe the soldiers as they marched up a nearby xylophone titled like a ramp and to a pile of books leading on in the form of stairs. Through her peripheral vision, Violet saw the jack-in-the-box take into account the approaching battalion and retreat into his box before scooting it back a short distance. All this did was make the angel shake her head. The jack-in-the-box was acting no dissimilar to how Hacker had panicked once he was sure Sandora was a "ghost" haunting Traverse Town. If only the villain had stayed around long enough to discover he had been tricked by the Cybersquad, they might've been forced to battle him for an extended period of time — along with the other enemies….
'Hold on! That has nothing to do with these dreams!'
Shoving the unnecessary contemplation to one side, Violet watched as the fifth tin soldier, the one with the single leg, reached the group hopping down the books one step at a time. Unaware the others had slowed down, the fifth soldier bumped into the one in front of him. The first four toppled over like dominos. They jumped back up and readied their weapons to attack whatever had shoved them. When they saw it was the last tin soldier, the first four returned their weapons to their shoulders and proceeded on their way. Violet shook her head; this was exactly like how she had seen Sora and Riku interacting with one another.
The one-legged tin soldier was about to follow the others when he glanced to the left and gasped in surprise. Violet traced his gaze to the stage where the ballerina had been dancing; she was standing motionless like a tiny statue with her eyes closed. The soldier seemed to have taken notice of how she only had one leg on the platform (the other was suspended high in the air). He glanced down at his own sole leg. With an excited smile, the soldier hopped down from the xylophone and landed directly on the end of the stage. Violet took a few small steps back, for the tin soldier had landed only five small steps from her.
'That was close — too close! He virtually stepped on me!'
The ballerina opened her eyes in surprise; the music instantly grew soft. From what Violet could see, it appeared the dancer was wondering why the soldier was standing upon her stage with a friendly smile. Either that, or she was startled to have someone else set foot there.
The tin soldier didn't waste any time. Spotting a small rosebush on one side of the curved stage, he picked one and held it out in his left hand. Violet took note of the ballerina smiling happily and placing her other leg onto the stage. The soldier gave an inaudible GASP when he realized the dancer had two legs and closed his eyes while a look of disappointment filled his face. Violet, still spectating the entire scene, gave a silent sigh.
The ballerina seemed to have instantly realized the soldier's shock and took the rose into her hands. As she held it up to her nose, the soldier saw her sniffing it; the ballerina smiled at him from behind the plant. The tin soldier smiled in return. Violet gave a sigh of relief as she watched the ballerina tap the soldier's shoulder and twirl away with a pleasant smile. In turn, the soldier snuck up from behind and tapped her in the shoulder. The dancer turned to look, only to be tapped a few more times before she spun around and came face-to-face with the soldier. The pair's smiles transformed into playful expressions.
Violet shook her head and smiled. Now this was what she thought of as a happy dream! There was not a single Nightmare in sight for as far as the eye could see.
The angel continued to watch as the soldier knelt down and reached for the ballerina; the ballerina reached for the tin soldier. The song seemed to favor the two getting together, which made Violet feel like she might finish her search for the 'Sound Idea' rapidly. Then again, perhaps she should start looking around some more for it….
'I sincerely hope I did not overlook it… '
A flash of red light shone down. The music in the background jumped to a loud version of the melody. Violet swung her eyes around, only to stare in alarm at the stage. There was the jack-in-the-box she had seen earlier — plucking the smaller tin soldier off his feet and giving a muted, evil laugh. Several toy balls had been knocked onto the stage in the process — one nearly struck the angel watching in shock. Violet was astounded; where had the jack-in-the-box come from?! Last she had seen, he had been hiding from the whole group of tin soldiers.
Taking note of the balls bouncing onto the stage, the ballerina grabbed one and tossed it into the jack-in-the-box's face. The toy was unprepared for the surprise attack and threw the tin soldier to one side. Violet rushed over to protect him. At the same time, the jack-in-the-box picked up a glass cup and placed it upside-down onto the ballerina — trapping her inside.
When the jack-in-the-box bounced over to get his hands on Violet and the tin soldier, the latter two climbed up a pile of alphabet blocks. Once they had reached the top, the angel peered down the other side and gave a silent gasp — literally. The pile was on the edge of the table. Down below was the open door of a furnace; flames licked the inside walls.
'I would hate to get thrown into there!'
The pair spun their attention around to see the jack-in-the-box hopping up the pile of blocks. The toy swung his arm at them and missed. Violet watched in shock as the soldier swung his own weapon and struck the jack-in-the-box's nose. As it spun like the piece of wood it was, a furious jack-in-the-box swung his arm again. Violet and the tin soldier were thrown into the air as the block they had been standing on was hit and ended up in the fiery furnace below. The trapped ballerina was frightened.
Instead of landing where the block had, the soldier and the angel had landed upon the nearby windowsill. As Violet rose to her feet, a block came flying past them and knocked the window open. They spun back around, noticing the jack-in-the-box was now throwing the rest of the pile at the pair. As Violet continued to dodge the blocks by leaping to the side, the soldier swung his weapon and managed to strike one of them. The block went sailing across the area and struck the jack-in-the-box's hat — knocking it off in a flash. When the jack-in-the-box realized his bald head had been exposed, he touched it in a state of panic.
Violet gave a quick shake of her head before showing a victorious smile. The soldier spun his weapon before shouldering it proudly. From where she was imprisoned beneath the cup, the ballerina had started giggling herself.
'That should teach him a lesson!'
The jack-in-the-box was not willing to accept defeat and spotted a wooden toy boat with perfectly-smooth sides. In anger, he hurled the boat at the pair still standing upon the windowsill. Violet and the tin soldier did not have enough time to flee and rapidly got shoved out the window. The last thing Violet saw in the room was the ballerina in the glass cup covering her face with fear and the jack-in-the-box grinning with Darkness.
Outside the window, Violet grabbed the soldier and tried to fly. Out of nowhere, a drop of rain struck her wings and drenched them immediately. It was then the angel realized it had been raining outside the entire time. The two descended like rocks and landed into the boat as it slid down a stream on the cobblestone street below. The stream led down through a small storm drain and into the city sewer.
As the boat was washed along, Violet and the tin soldier remained inside, the former hanging on to the vessel's short railing. The stream led down through a long pipe. The journey felt similar to that of a roller-coaster with lots of ups and downs. At one point, the entire boat rode the water along the pipe's "ceiling" and back down the other side. In the end, it left the pipe and started moving down the sewer at a slower pace, although the music remained accelerated — except for somewhat softer.
'Wow! This is really nerve-racking!'
Violet watched as a silhouette came into view. The tin soldier smiled at it, for it resembled the ballerina's shadow. When the boat drew closer, it became clear it was the shadow of a piece of seaweed lying in the sewer system. The soldier's smile faded.
As they continued to cruise along, the boat approached some waterfalls pouring in from upper pipes. The vessel was sucked over. The soldier almost gasped in surprise, although Violet braced her wings beneath her arms. The pair were hit by the cascading waterfalls and drenched once more. Now the angel was wondering if her wings were ever going to be entirely dry again.
A flash of something dark caught their eyes. Glancing back, the two saw a wall of reddish-glowing eyes. Emerging from the shadows was large army of ferocious mice. Violet was horrified.
'Those are not mice! They are rats! Or… Nightmares!'
The rats surrounded the sides of the tunnel. One reached for the boat, but Violet had summoned her Keyblade and slashed at it; the animal exploded into a flurry of bubbles. She was awestruck.
'They are Nightmares!'
As a few more tried to attack the boat's two occupants, Violet struck them with her Keyblade. The small skirmish was plenty to send the boat spinning like a top. In no time, they neared an opening in the sewer. From the angel's perspective, it looked like the end of a pipe.
As they neared it, the music began to crescendo (get louder). One of the last Nightmares leapt at the boat and Violet swung her Keyblade. The impact of the weapon destroyed the monster, but also sent the pair flying in the air in the direction of the opening. The song reached its peak as Violet and the steadfast tin soldier fell through the open pipe and started to fall toward a deep, wide ocean. Everything seemed to go in slow-motion.
It did not matter how much Violet tried to take flight — her wings were completely water-logged. She grabbed the soldier's upper torso as they plunged into the sea below. After descending for a couple seconds, a bunch of fish gazed up at the pair and swam away in fright.
Only one fish did not flee. Violet stared in alarm as the fish drew closer and opened its mouth. She slammed her eyes closed just as the fish's jaws sealed up, gobbling the two in no time.
The song continued to play softly in the background.
'Great! Now I am imprisoned with a steadfast tin soldier inside this humungous fish!'
Violet sighed deeply and remained completely silent for a few minutes straight. At the same time, the fish started bouncing along. More than once, the angel could have sworn the fish had been caught by some fishermen and was being delivered to market. At one particular moment, she thought the fish was being picked up by the tail. In turn, she and the tin soldier fell out of the mouth and landed upon the wooden floor of someone's kitchen.
'Ouch! That was not silly!'
The soldier and the Angel of Dreams both rolled to a stop at the buckled shoes of a human. In the background, the music was starting to crescendo again. When the boy spotted the two lying on the floor, he scooped them up and held them firmly in his hand. He marched up the stairs and into a large playroom.
A gift-wrapped box of four tin soldiers was lying on the table with an empty slot. The steadfast one was placed into it, to which Violet realized it was the same set of tin soldiers from before. The boy gently placed her onto the balcony of a church in the model town. Later, he left the room and shut the door behind him.
Violet took a moment to survey the town. Most of the buildings were made from bricks with a stud-and-tube coupling design. Several mini-figures in the same format were set up amongst numerous cars, trucks, and even a few airplanes. Taking a closer look at one of the studs on the railing in front of her, Violet saw a word written on it; "LEGO".
''LEGO'?! What is that?!'
It was then Violet realized it was nighttime. The hands of the clock above the ballerina's stage pointed to twelve — midnight. The ballerina started dancing once more. Even though the model town was partially shrouded by the rear of the stage, Violet could see the dancer very clearly. She noticed how the ballerina had inserted the rose the tin soldier had given her into a seam along the top of her dress's skirt. The angel had to smile brightly.
Less than two seconds later, the same jack-in-the-box rushed up to the ballerina and grabbed her hand to kiss it. When the dancer attempted to break free, she was unable to; the jack-in-the-box held her firmly and was not about to let go. Violet instantly realized the jack-in-the-box was in love with the ballerina and refused to allow anyone else to have her. No wonder the toy had attacked the tin soldier! He was jealous of the two!
'That clarifies a lot of enquiries!'
Gazing in the direction of the set of tin soldiers, Violet saw the first four leaping out of their box like they had previously. The last one remained in the box. Fearful the jack-in-the-box would do something terrible to the ballerina (there was a powerful Darkness radiating from inside the toy), Violet jumped from the church's balcony and tried to flap her wings. To her surprise, it actually worked! She soared over to the tin soldier.
It took a few seconds for the angel to get the soldier's attention. Once she had his focus, Violet pointed to the jack-in-the-box and the ballerina. The soldier gave a silent gasp and rushed over. Violet re-summoned her Keyblade and charged over with him. The angel pulled the jack-in-the-box's hat over his eyes while the tin soldier stood jumped between the villain and the now-freed ballerina.
The jack-in-the-box may have been startled by the sudden move and glanced around ferociously when he had moved the hat from covering his eyes. He immediately spotted the tin soldier and the angel standing on the stage to defend the ballerina. He gave an inaudible GASP when he recognized them. In one swift movement, he pulled out a silver scimitar from his box and swung it at them. Violet blocked and countered the jack-in-the-box's sword multiple times as he tried to strike the pair. At one point, the scimitar struck the stage and left a small crack in it.
'This is getting very hazardous!'
It wasn't long before Violet and the soldier were trapped at the edge of the table. The soldier teetered for a moment. They whirled their eyes down below where the furnace was located. The red glow from within indicated it was lit and full of fiery flames. The song grew louder and greatly intensified. They turned back in time to see the jack-in-the-box jump at them with an evil grimace. Violet raised her Keyblade and the tin soldier held up his weapon.
The jack-in-the-box's scimitar clanged into the two weapons at the same time. Fortunately, the angel and the soldier were able to lean back and toss the evil toy off the table's edge. Violet spun around an instant later and found the tin soldier about to fall off, too. She grabbed his arm and held on. Up ahead, they could see the villainous jack-in-the-box (with a face of terror) plunge headfirst into the furnace. Sparks of flame shot out a few centimeters when the villain made impact. The song hit a high climaxing point.
'What a tragic demise — especially for a toy!'
The music remained loud and at the high point. Violet lifted the tin soldier from the edge and onto the tabletop. A moment later, the soldier and the ballerina were reunited on the stage. Violet strolled closer in time to see the ballerina do a small twirl before placing her hands onto the heroic steadfast tin soldier's chest. They smiled lovingly at one another. The music came to an end as the light above the two dimmed.
Violet smiled brilliantly when she felt something beneath her foot. Moving it aside, the angel's eyes lit up. Lying on the ground was a curled piece of paper giving a soft glow. Scooping it up into her hands, Violet realized it was a musical score in a deep shade of violet. It could only be one thing….
'The 'Sound Idea'… This must be it!'
The study had not altered in the least bit. Except for the notable addition to the water level in the room, nothing had changed. Mickey was still sitting in the chair in his trance. This was no surprise to Violet when she emerged from the music stand. The angel was not alarmed when she had suddenly appeared in the partly-flooded study; she had been expecting something like this to occur sometime during the venture through the Realm of Sleep. Why had it waited until now to take place? Waiting for an illusion was no different than waiting for anything to happen just by sitting around and looking "stupid".
A flash of white Light filled a portion of the room a second later. When it died down, a startled Sora was standing in the room with a piece of magically glowing paper in his hands. He swing his head around in panic. "What just—?!"
"It is alright," Violet calmly soothed. "You returned from inside the world of the music stand."
Sora took into account how the angel was looking at him and gave a relieved sigh. "For a moment there, I thought I was in a trance, too."
He sighed. "It was such a beautiful world… just like a dream I once had… "
Violet shook her head and smiled.
Another flash of white Light filled part of the circular study. Flying out of the middle musical stand — and coincidentally startling both Sora and Violet — was Riku with an outstretched hand clutching a piece of glowing paper. He landed into the water face-first and instantly rose to his feet (although a tad shaky). He held up the musical paper for all of them to see. "I got it — the 'Sound Idea'!"
Violet shook her head when it occurred to her how the silver-haired youth's hair was covered in frost. She glanced at Sora; a bunch of leaves and flower petals were trapped inside his brown spikes. Touching her own hair, the angel realized it was still damp.
"So," Sora said as he placed his hands behind his head. "How were those worlds of music?"
"Fast," Riku stated immediately. "I was spun around by flowers and fairies. They were changing the seasons. I ended up surfing on a leaf once."
"Cool!" an enthusiastic-sounding Sora exclaimed.
"That sounds strange," Violet spoke up. "I was in a playroom with a steadfast tin soldier and paper ballerina."
Sora now crossed his arms; he looked confused. "A 'steadfast' tin soldier?"
Riku shook his head. Violet explained, "I meant he had solely one leg."
Sora nodded. "Right! I knew that!"
This time both Riku and Violet shook their heads. They smiled. Sora hadn't changed a single bit since he had left to see inside the musical score.
"I was soaring with flying horses and watching cent-ours dating," Sora explained. He opened his hands to show the small, red flower he had recovered from the waterfall. "I got this for Kairi."
Riku smirked a grin. "I thought she preferred 'pink' — not 'red' things."
Sora's facial expression hinted at his annoyance. "It's close enough!"
Their looming "disagreement" was instantly interrupted by the sound of Mickey's voice echoing in the air. "Thank you, Sora, Riku, Violet! I can sense you all got some 'Sound Ideas'!"
"Yeah!" Sora proudly proclaimed, holding up his bright-green piece of music.
Riku raised his sea-blue musical score. "Here you are!"
"I have one, too!" Violet added, taking out her deep-violet glowing piece of paper. She held it up high in the air.
"Welp," Mickey's voice continued. "I suppose we'd better try to put 'em to work!"
Sora, Riku, and Violet all gave nods of approval. They carefully strolled through the study's flooded interior and neared the possessed musical stand. Along the way, the doorway opened and the same broom they'd seen earlier stepped inside with some full buckets. The broom lifted one of them and dumped its contents into the room. Riku was hit and knocked to the floor. When Sora rushed over to help his best friend up, the broom dumped the second bucket onto the brown, spikey-headed Keyblade wielder. Although Sora wasn't knocked over, the broom marched back down the stairs and slammed the door behind itself.
"Man!" Sora exclaimed as Riku rose back to his feet. "This is getting worst!"
"We'd better hurry," Riku added. "We don't know when Master Yen Sid will be back either."
They hurried over to where Violet was waiting by the Darkness-filled music stand. Once they had all gathered around the reddish songbook, they let go of their "Sound Ideas". The musical scores — one being a bright green, one with a sea-blue color, and one containing a deep shade of violet — all floated into the air and approached each another.
Sora summoned his Keyblade; Riku and Violet summoned their own. Using their weapons like conductors waving batons, the three caused the musical scores to magically unleash a sweet, memorable piece of song. Sora's score created a pleasant backdrop theme while Riku and Violet's added in the two halves of the melody. The song sounded like a well-organized tune being performed on a piano's keyboard. Even though it didn't have much musical depth, there was plenty of emotion in the song to make anyone feel something delightful from inside.
Three extremely thin beams of Light shone down into the songbook below. When they made contact, the Darkness began fading at a rapid rate. Sora, Riku, and Violet all gave great, brilliant smiles. It appeared their hard work was going to pay off.
The moment was short-lived. All of a sudden, a glow from a magical spell covered the red songbook. The Light was still shining into it, but the Darkness was growing back. In a matter of seconds, it had regained total control over the musical score.
"Oh no!" Mickey's voice exclaimed. "The monster! He… he just unleashed another powerful spell! The Darkness is returning! He must've had more power than I thought!"
Sora was in total disbelief; this was no different than when he had first seen the ruins of Springtime Square back in Pixie Hollow. This time, Tinker Bell wasn't around to take the blame. The "Spellican" Nightmare had used an additional magical spell and unleashed more Darkness that the "Sound Ideas" were unable to remove. He gave a very, very deep sigh. Why did things always turn out this way?
To say Riku was speechless would surely be considered an understatement. When Mickey had claimed the Nightmare was using another magical spell to create additional Darkness and block out the "Sound Ideas", he had immediately realized what had taken place. He mind had returned to Traverse Town when the "Spellican" had fled. The last thing Wicked had done was tell her minion, "Abracadabra, you won't be defeated! You'll have more power, not be deleted!" Unfortunately for her, the enemy had fled and then travelled all the way to the Symphony of Sorcery. Only now had that second spell taken effect. For all the silver-haired teenager knew, this was just the beginning of yet another struggle.
Violet was discouraged. She had recalled when Wicked had given the "Spellican" Nightmare additional power, but had not foreseen the monster coming to another Sleeping World and using the spell on something else. For the looks of things, all three of the "Sound Ideas" they had just finished obtaining were useless. Then again, perhaps if there were more available….
"Wait a second!" Violet shouted aloud. "So what if the 'Spellican' Nightmare has re-possessed the musical score?! We can still stop him!"
Riku's eyes lit up with understanding. "Yeah! We need to get another 'Sound Idea'!"
"Another one?!" a shocked Sora exclaimed. He sighed deeper than ever. "I wanted to get this done and over with!"
"Great idea, Violet!" Mickey's voice called out. "And I have just the way to do it!"
Three magical clouds formed in the room behind the three Keybladers. When they disappeared, three more music stands were standing in the room. The first had a golden-yellow songbook. The middle held a dull orange songbook. The third and last one was carrying a dark-scarlet-colored songbook. A series of half-eighth notes hovered in the air above each of them — just the others had.
"Welp," Mickey's voice stammered as he seemed to be "observing" the music stands. "I'm not sure about the last two… but the first musical score has a friend of mine. He can lead you to find the 'Sound Idea' in there."
Sora strode up to the golden-yellow songbook. He glanced back at Mickey. "You mean this one?"
"Yup!" Mickey's voice approved. "That's it!"
Riku approached the dullish-orange songbook. "Is there a 'Sound Idea' in here too?"
"There's always a 'Sound Idea' in every musical score," Mickey's voice explained. "Even when you least expect it."
Violet neared the dark-scarlet songbook. One look and she could sense a strong Darkness from somewhere within. "I feel a little uncomfortable about this," she confessed.
"That's why you've gotta be careful," Mickey's voice replied. "In between each of those clefs and notes may be monsters. They might not be as easy as the last ones were."
"So, this must be 'Level 2'," Riku smirked.
The others shook their heads (except for Mickey of course!)
"C'mon!" Sora announced, stepped up to the golden-yellow songbook. "Let's get those 'Sound Ideas'!"
"Yeah!" Riku approved, strolled up to the dull orange songbook.
Violet nervously neared the dark-scarlet songbook. She took a deep breath. "Alright," she said after a few minutes. "Let's get this show on the road!"
A/N: YEESH! THAT IS A LOT OF READING! ISN'T IT NOW? I REALLY Hope You All Enjoyed This Chapter! I Took Me FOREVER To Write Chapter 38!
First of all, Riku went through "The Nutcracker Suite" From "Fantasia (1940)" AND Violet went through "Piano Concerto No. 2" From "Fantasia 2000 (1999)"! Wonder what is next? I DID provide some HINTS for the NEXT THREE SEGMENT(S) - Songbook Colors, Feelings of Doubt, Mickey's Dialogue, ETC.
So, I REALLY hope you enjoyed how I described the song the "Sound Ideas" created when they merged! IF you have played or at least seen parts of KINGDOM HEARTS 3D, I'm sure you're already WELL AWARE as to which song that is.
IF NOT, I'll just say it: "DEARLY BELOVED"! The version used here is the one from KINGDOM HEARTS 1 - just so you know!
Also, Violet's Segment, "Piano Concerto No. 2" REALLY DOES Follow The Fairy-Tale, "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", which I DID Note Through The Dialogue!
Plus, The ENDING was a bit SURPRISING! WASN'T IT? I WAS dreading something like the "Spellican" using more Darkness OR Sora entering ANOTHER Musical Score when his "Sound Idea" wasn't enough in KINGDOM HEARTS 3D: DREAM, DROP, DISTANCE! I thought it would've been a NICE TWIST on the Story, too!
For that matter, I nearly forgot to say how the animator who drew the MUSHROOM DANCE for "The Nutcracker Suite" later admitted he was inspired by the comedy of "THE THREE STOOGES". If you look closely in it, the three MAIN mushrooms in the segment DO seem to resemble those three ground-breaking comedians. Therefore, I thought it was fitting to have Riku take notice of THAT!
Whenever I watch "The Nutcracker Suite" segment, I ALWAYS picture Riku surfing on a leaf, dancing with flowers, spinning with fairies... you get the idea! That was why I included them the way I did!
In case you DIDN'T notice (not likely), I included a little reference to the world-renowned "THE LEGO GROUP". See if you can find it!
So, I would like to remind you of TWO THINGS!
(1.) The Number of "Required" Reviews Has Been Extended To 107 Instead of 100! IF 120 Are Completed, A "Special Sneak Peek" WILL Be Included At The END of The Entire Story! This Will Be In Regards To The SEQUEL I Have Planned!
(2.) PLEASE DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT REVIEWING! THE FATE OF THIS STORY DEPENDS ON IT!
This is SoraLego278 saying, "See Ya Later, Keybladers!"