White Firmament, Obsidian Earth
Chapter 1-- Final Rest
Sora drifted on the boundary between sleep and wakefulness, feeling fuzzy around the edges but aware of the warm softness of his bed underneath him. Snatches of his dream still played on the backs of his eyelids, though they disappeared in lightning-quick flashes and afterward he couldn't recall even a single image. But the dream had been important-- something inside him was certain of that-- so, why couldn't he remember what he had just seen?
When racking his sleepy mind proved to be ineffectual, Sora opened his eyes and was struck by the sensation of feeling very far away from his ceiling-- more accurately, from his entire room.
Brriiiiiiiiiiiinngg!
Sora started so violently at the sound that he would have fallen off the bed had it not been for the tangled sheets holding him captive. He did manage to knock his wrist hard against the nightstand, causing the shrieking alarm clock to fall to the floor and clang loudly before resuming its wake up call.
"Ow…" Sora sat up in bed and, with effort, swung his legs out of the constricting sheets to hang over the side of the bed. He rubbed his smarting wrist while attempting to turn off the increasingly irritating alarm clock with his feet. Using his left foot and right big toe and after botching a few tries, Sora was able to regain the silence that had formerly reigned in the room.
Now why had that stupid thing gone off?
"Sora?" came a sleepy voice from the doorway.
Sora raised his head to regard his mother standing at his door in wrinkly pajamas, one hand resting on the door jamb while the other rubbed sleep from her eyes. The image triggered in Sora a sudden sadness, a strong emotional inkling that he was about to say goodbye to his mother and leave… on a journey…
A journey! Yes, on the raft! To see other worlds- with Riku and Kairi! Sora stared wide-eyed at his feet as he huffed out a disbelieving laugh. How could he have forgotten? That was why he had set his alarm so early.
Soft, approaching footfalls drew Sora's gaze back up to his mother as she came to stand before him. A small, confused smile graced her lips and crinkled the corners of her sleep-puffed eyes, the expression reminding Sora of her childish playfulness and how much he was going to miss it.
"What's so funny?" she asked him softly.
Sora glanced down at his feet again as he self-consciously rubbed at the back of his head, uncomfortable with telling his mother even the smallest of lies. "I woke up before my alarm went off," he provided.
His mother scoffed a laugh that Sora understood to mean 'How is that funny?' and reached down to retrieve the alarm clock, her mildly tangled hair spilling over one shoulder. She straightened, and gently set the clock on the nightstand, before raising an eyebrow at her son. "And why did you set your alarm? Did you forget you're on summer vacation? I know that last year of school couldn't have fried your brain that much." She reached over to affectionately rustle Sora's drooping spikes.
"I, uh…" Sora desperately searched his mind for an excuse. "We wanted to, um, go for an early walk, you know, while it's still cool outside. Me and Riku and Kairi."
Sora smiled weakly as his mother seemed to be digesting the information. Walk, journey… some people considered them one and the same.
"Since when has heat stopped you three from running around all over the islands, let alone going on a walk?"
Sora gazed at the ceiling and scrunched his brows in thought, attempting to make it look natural which, in part, it was. "Well, umm… it's going to be more like a hike, instead of a walk. Which is more of a challenge."
"Oh, okay." Sora couldn't discern from her tone if she was being sarcastic or if she actually believed him. "Well, you guys have fun then." She turned slowly to face the door, and as she headed out she called back, "I'm going back to bed. I've still got an hour left." The last word was followed by a leisurely yawn.
Sora bit his lip and stared at the door that his mother had left slightly ajar, his gaze remaining fixed for a while after his mother's bedroom door had shut with a faint 'click'. He forced himself to resist the urge to spring up into the bedroom after her and attack her with a final, desperate hug.
"Bye, Mom…" he whispered shakily, then quickly wiped at his watery eyes and jumped to his feet, taking a deep breath through his nose. He willed his mother from his thoughts and forced himself to think of his upcoming adventurous journey with his friends. He imagined the raft sailing over crashing waves and Riku and Kairi's faces brightening along with Sora's own as they landed with a splash of triumph, conquering the first part of their expedition. And that would only be the beginning! Once they found other worlds, there would be so much to explore and probably countless people to meet and learn from.
Besides, Sora mentally reminded himself. It's not like we'll be gone forever. I'll come back to tell Mom all the neat stuff we discovered. I have to.
Sora grinned at the clear blue horizon through his window, accepting his self-assurances, and began to get ready for the day with eager energy.
It took him only ten minutes, and then he was barreling down the stairs, hoping that the Treblowskis' dog Chow hadn't raided the pack that he had hidden underneath the playground slide, as the mutt always liked to do with the neighborhood laundry.
He made a quick stop in the kitchen, and deciding that he didn't have time to sit down for breakfast, Sora dug his hand into the first box of cereal he could reach and pulled out a fistful of crunchy loops, hurriedly stuffing them into his mouth. Figuring that there was still some room in his mouth for more, he grabbed another fistful and forcefully crammed it in. He then freed the milk carton from inside the refrigerator door and, before chewing any of the cereal, he tilted his head back and poured a good deal of milk in to join it. At first, the mixture was difficult to chew, but his mind was elsewhere as he left the kitchen and rushed down the hall, mulling over the state in which he would find his bag.
After exiting his house, Sora hurriedly locked the door and pulled his arm back in preparation to toss the keys in through the open window, but found himself hesitating.
Wait, he was coming back someday, so he would still need the keys. Right? Yes, of course, how could they not come back? Even ambitious Riku couldn't forsake their islands forever, could he?
No, Sora decided, firmly clutching the keys as he swallowed the last bit of cereal. We'll be back.
He pocketed the keys, glancing down as an afterthought to see for future reference in which pocket he'd placed them, but the tinkling of chimes in a sudden gust of wind drew his eyes back up to the house.
His mother's brilliant butterfly wind chimes glistened in the clear morning sunlight as they swayed and spun from the porch awning.
Sora was going to miss that sound.
I'm going to miss the whole stupid house, he thought in a bittersweet wave of emotion, taking in the entire quaint, blue house. Sora's wind-tousled hair tickled his eyelashes and he swept it back while biting his lip, trying to keep from thinking of the single occupant inside who he was going to miss even more than the house.
"Ah, enough of this," he growled to himself and abruptly turned away from the house, his expression becoming one of determined hardness that chased away the gathering tears.
Sora stomped down the path that led away from his home, sneakers thumping in the dirt, and headed in the direction of the playground.
As he drew near the third house down from his own, Sora spotted a large, familiar mass of fluffy, chestnut fur under a wooden bench on the Treblowskis' front porch. The dog's body shook as it viciously tore at something clutched crookedly between its front legs.
Sora paused on the path, curiously regarding the sight. What was it chewing on? A bone?
His brows drew together as he squinted at the dog. He absently took a few steps into the bushes haphazardly crowding the front yard, suspicions forming in his gut.
As he drew near, almost halfway to the mutt, he heard its snarls.
"What are you…" he began, but cut himself short at the flash of purple plastic between the dog's teeth and paws.
Sora exhaled a disbelieving puff of breath and his eyebrows shot up at the realization of what the animal was so contentedly destroying. One of his diving flippers!
"Chow!"
Immediately, the dog's head snapped up and it whimpered instinctively at Sora's tone.
"Bad, bad dog!"
Sora marched up to the porch with his fists clenching at his sides, ignoring for the moment that he was technically trespassing. Chow's floppy ears drew back and he hung his head in submissive guilt, his large, brown eyes darting between his paws and Sora's tense, approaching form.
"Give me that!" Sora snarled and snatched his mangled flipper from between the cowed animal's paws.
He held the remains of the flipper up for examination and curled his lip in disgust as canine saliva oozed onto his fingers.
Voices from inside the house drew Sora's eyes to the front door, and as they grew louder he decided it was time to go.
Gripping the flipper firmly and inwardly cringing at the sliminess all the while, Sora took off past Chow down the right side of the porch, knowing that leaving the way he had come would take too long. At the end of the porch where the wooden planks became increasingly rickety before ending altogether, Sora supported his body with his free hand on the porch railing as he deftly hopped over. He threw one last scathing look over his shoulder at Chow's lowered head before escaping through one of the numerous gaps in the decrepit wooden fence.
Emerging into a field of tall grass, Sora slowed his pace so that he was able to push the long plants out of his way before they smacked him in the face. As he shuffled forward through the dense field, he wiped his flipper on some of the grass to get the remaining slobber off. "At least this voyage will give me time to think up how I'll get my revenge on that stupid dog."
"Sora?" called a familiar voice from somewhere up ahead. Sora endured a brief moment of confusion before recognition dawned. Wakka.
"Wakka?" Sora halted and tilted his head to one side, trying to listen for his friend.
He caught the sound of grass swishing, louder than it would in the wind alone, and seconds later, Wakka's form parted the grass in front of him.
"You talking to yourself again, Sora?"
Sora shrugged, grinning at the pieces of dead grass sticking to Wakka's clothes and hair, aware that at the moment his own appearance was probably very similar. But at the sight of his green duffel bag clutched in Wakka's hand, his grin faltered. Sora's clothes bulged out of a ragged hole that had been torn on one side of the previously hole-free bag.
Seeming to notice Sora's darkening expression, Wakka held out the ripped bag, wincing apologetically. "Yeah, uh, Chow found your bag under the slide in the playground. I'm sorry, man." Sora took the bag with his free hand, scowling at its new opening. "I chased after him, but that dog's fast, you know?"
Both flipper and duffel dropped to the ground and Sora followed in a crouch, touching a hand to his protruding sweatshirt and grimacing at the dampness.
"He's evil, that's what he is," he declared, punching his clothes back in.
Wakka laughed a little, then with hesitation coloring his tone asked, "I guess that's what Chow took out of your bag, ya?"
Sora glanced up to see where Wakka was indicating, although he already knew perfectly well what the other boy was referring to, and his scowl deepened.
"Well, at least he didn't get to your clothes, again," Wakka offered.
"He probably wanted to try something new."
Wakka laughed again and Sora struggled for a while with the duffel's rusty zipper before growling in frustration and stuffing the flipper roughly in through the hole, instead.
As Sora straightened, Wakka cleared his throat. "I followed Chow through here, but I lost him at the end of the field. I found your bag just now when I was on my way back."
Sora nodded, sighing, and attempted to give a small smile, unsure if he succeeded. "Thanks, Wakka. I don't think anything else is missing. And I think the bag'll be okay. I won't have to carry it around that much anyway once we're on the raft… I mean, the… on the… uhm…"
Oh, he'd done it now. There was no turning back; now he'd have to explain everything.
But Wakka just stared calmly back at him, amusement pulling at the corners of his lips. Hadn't he heard Sora?
… Maybe not.
Maybe… maybe by some miraculous stroke of luck Wakka had gone temporarily deaf for the brief instant that Sora's stupidity had gotten the better of him!
Yeah…
Unexpectedly, Wakka's shoulders slumped with a sigh, and he crossed his arms while dipping his chin to regard Sora solemnly. "So, you guys really are leaving the islands then, huh?"
Okay, so he had heard. But where was the surprise?
"Wait." Sora shook his head, absently trying to escape the confusion. "You knew?"
Wakka scoffed, his steady gaze revealing a hint of sadness. "We're not stupid, you know. Or blind." He shook his head at Sora, squinting his eyes at the younger boy in mild disbelief. "Did you really think we wouldn't see the raft?"
"Well, we hid it pretty well at night." Wakka's expression implored him to reconsider. "Or, at least we thought we did." Sora grinned sheepishly, which was quickly replaced by a frown as Wakka's words caught up with his muddled mind. "Hold on, did you say 'we'? Selphie and Tidus know, too?"
At Wakka's nod, Sora closed his eyes and exhaled deeply through his nostrils, running a hand through his long, pointed tufts. When he opened his eyes short moments later, Wakka was watching him expectantly.
"I'm sorry, Wakka. We should've told you guys. Heck, we should've invited you. Hey! Maybe you guys could still come! I'm sure Riku wouldn't mind if we left tomo--"
"No, no, no, no!" Wakka quickly held up his hands in refusal. "That's alright, Sora. Me and Tidus, we couldn't. We have blitzball, you know, and the team. And Selphie? Ha! Could you even imagine her on a sea voyage?"
The thought made Sora shake his head in amusement and Wakka laughed out loud, but both of them stopped instantly at the rustling of grass a short distance away.
Wakka raised a knowing eyebrow at Sora before turning in the direction of the noise. "Selphie?" he called.
There was no answer, only the tranquil whisper of the grass in the wind.
"Anyway," Wakka began, eyes still scanning the vegetation around them. "I was saying something, ya?" His eyes jumped back to Sora and his eyebrows bounced upward as his mind returned to the conversation. "Oh, uh, I doubt that rickety little raft of yours can float carrying six people, much less three. Have you even tried it out, yet?"
"…What are you talking about?" Sora spluttered after a second's shocked silence, letting indignation raise his voice. "Have you even seen it since we added on the new parts? I bet it can carry, like, ten people now!"
"Ya, okay," Wakka placated hastily, seeming eager to get his next words out. "But seriously, Sora, you and Riku have been talking about your other worlds for so long now, I'm not even really surprised about what you three are doing. But, you know, I'm kind of worried about you guys."
Though Wakka's admission sounded slightly odd to Sora, he exhaled his offense at the raft and tried to look understanding, asking with his eyes for Wakka to continue.
"Well, besides all the things that can go wrong out in the open sea, I just think you guys should be careful with each other." Wakka paused to bite the inside of his lip in contemplation, but went on before Sora could interject. "I mean, you three are really close and everything, but when you get into disagreements you guys really get fired up. And out in the middle of the ocean, you can't afford to be each other's enemies when you only have each other to rely on, you know?"
Wakka stopped and watched Sora for a reaction.
Sora responded by slowly nodding his head. "Yeah, I get that. I guess. But I can't imagine any of us ever getting so angry that we'd let something bad happen because we couldn't get along. Especially not Riku. Yeah, he's been kind of frustrating me for the last few days but he's thought more about the problems that we could possibly face than any of us. I trust him to lead us right."
Wakka took a deep breath and, in a brief flash of irritation, Sora wondered if what he had to say was all that important. He imagined that Riku and Kairi were becoming pretty impatient by now.
Wakka began slowly. "You're right, Sora. Riku's a good leader. But he wants this in a different way than you and Kairi do. You've seen the way he sits for hours on that paopu tree just staring out to the sea. And you know how he feels about the islands, about his parents. He's putting everything on the idea that you guys are going to find something out there!"
Wakka's intense gaze bored into Sora, as if mentally willing Sora to understand him. "Sora, Riku feels he has no reason to come back once you've set off. And after a while, if things don't go his way, he's most likely going to get pretty uncooperative. And if you and Kairi fight with him like usual, then you won't be able to work together and figure something out. You have to show him what you mean, and you have to use logical arguments to convince him to make the rational decision. And I think you know what that is."
Wakka's shoulders sagged in conclusion, his eyes still regarding Sora gravely.
Sora placed his hands on his hips and pursed his lips in thought. Inhaling deeply, he dropped his hands back to his sides and asked curiously, "You've thought a lot about this, haven't you?"
Wakka looked skeptical for a moment before nodding quickly.
Sora returned Wakka's look with a skeptical expression of his own. "And you don't think we're going to find anything out there, do you?"
Wakka sighed, noisily shifting his foot in the grass. "I wish I had half the idealism that you have, Sora, but you're right. I think this whole thing is going to be a big waste of time and you guys are just setting yourselves up for disappointment."
Sora nodded stiffly, eyes on the green-brown plants as he stooped to heft his stuffed duffel up onto his shoulder.
"I'll remember what you said, Wakka." Sora didn't want to leave on bad terms with his friend. And deep down, he knew Wakka was only telling him these things out of concern. However, he wasn't going to let anyone dissuade him from pursuing his dreams, the dreams that he and his friends-- most-prominently Riku-- determinedly and wholeheartedly believed in. "But I think you're wrong," he went on, resolve hardening his words. "There are other worlds out there, other worlds that Kairi, Riku, and I will find. And I know for a fact that we'll be back. You'll see and then you'll know that our journey wasn't just a waste of time."
He barely caught Wakka's whispered "Okay" before he was squeezed in a fierce hug, his friend's strength pinning his bag and arms uselessly to his sides. And it was only an instant before Sora recovered from the shock and he returned the embrace by awkwardly patting Wakka's side with his less restricted hand.
Sora opened his mouth to break the silence, but at the feeling of Wakka's chest expanding and contracting against his own as the sixteen-year-old took deep shuddering breaths, his throat clogged with emotion.
"Wakka, you idiot!" came a high-pitched cry from Sora's right.
Both boys jerked back at Selphie's surprising shriek.
"You're just going to let him go like that?" Sora saw that Selphie's skinny form was trembling where she stood a few feet away, and her furious glare was rigidly fixed on Wakka.
Sora glanced to his left at Wakka, and in any other situation would have laughed at the boy's fish-like jaw movements.
A sudden sob burst forth from Selphie, and Sora drew his eyes back just in time to see a flash of grass-covered yellow before all the air was driven from his lungs and sticks in the guise of arms clamped around his waist. Then the cerulean sky and gently swaying grass over Selphie's shoulder dominated his vision as the girl bawled freely, her great sobs breaking over Sora like a crashing tide and jarring him to the core.
Selphie's arms had pushed the strap of Sora's bag to the edge of his shoulder where it threatened to fall, and as he adjusted it back into position with one hand, he brought up the other hand to gently rub comforting circles on Selphie's back.
"Selphie, it's okay," Sora assured in a slight wheeze. But the girl only cried harder and shook her head against his shoulder in disagreement, the soft, curled tips of her hair brushing across his hand.
Sora sighed helplessly, wishing that Wakka would help him out somehow. But there was only the crunch of shoes shuffling in the dry grass to his left; not a single word to aid Sora in dealing with the situation. Wakka was contenting himself just to watch.
"Really, Selphie, it's alright," Sora tried again. "There's no reason to cry."
Then the arms dropped from around his waist and Selphie stepped back, giving one final despairing whine and wiping at her eyes with both hands.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sora saw Wakka take a cautious step forward.
"So, that was you making noises in the grass, ya? I knew you were-"
"You shut up!" Selphie spat at Wakka, rounding on him with a raised finger. "You said you were going to talk to him! All you did was make him want to leave even more!"
"Selphie, whoa, calm down!" Sora intervened, knowing he was encouraging the girl to blow up on him next, but certain that nothing Wakka would have said could have convinced him to stay. "It's not his fault! I--"
"It's okay, Sora," Wakka calmly interrupted, and Selphie's red-rimmed eyes ceased their aggressive penetration into Sora's to flash back to the taller boy.
Wakka placed a pacifying hand on Selphie's shoulder and stooped a bit to look directly into her eyes. "You're right, Selphie. I said I'd speak to him. But I never said that I would try to talk him into not going."
Selphie's mouth shot open, ready to protest, but Wakka swiftly brought up his hand as a silencing gesture.
"Sora has his mind set," he continued. "And we can't stop him or Riku or Kairi from going through with this. We have to let them go, okay?"
Selphie blinked watery eyes at him, her lashes sticking together, and then she sighed tremulously, giving a reluctant nod. Wakka released her before stepping back, and he and Sora watched as Selphie folded her arms against her chest and glowered stubbornly at the ground.
A few seconds passed in silence, then Selphie brought up big eyes to meet Sora's, watching him dejectedly through her bangs.
"Sora..." she started in a cracking voice, and Sora thought for a moment that she was going to begin crying again. "Just… be careful, okay? And tell Kairi that I'll miss her a lot and that there's no way I'm going to be the one who explains all this to her parents, okay? I mean it."
"Okay." Sora grinned and tightened his grip on his duffel.
"Hey, do you want us to come see you guys off?" Wakka suddenly put forward, and Selphie's face immediately brightened.
"No, I don't think so." Sora winced at their resulting crestfallen expressions. "Let's not make it that big a deal, 'kay? After all, we're coming back."
Wakka stepped back out of Sora's way, nodding sadly, and gently pulled with him an unresisting Selphie, whose lip had begun to tremble again.
"I promise you guys. And Tidus, too," Sora said confidently but quietly, not trusting his voice to remain steady at a greater volume. He turned his head and smiled crookedly at his friends as he moved past them, telling them, "We'll be back for sure."
Then he turned away, swallowing convulsively, and started in the direction of the path.
"Good luck, Sora." The huskiness in Wakka's voice made the back of Sora's eyes sting and his vision blurred.
"Bye, Sora…" And Selphie's watery squeak effectively cracked his wall of control.
Sora took off at a sprint, not bothering to stop the long grass from slapping at his skin, and not bothering to try to convince himself that the tears streaking across his temples were a result of the wind in his eyes.
He ran the entire way to the docks, and only stopped when his shoes touched down on sand, marking the shore that met the shallow water where tied boats bumped idly against each other. He stood, chest heaving, searching with narrowed eyes through the many paddle boats of various lengths and designs. Eventually, he spotted his own sandwiched between a slender kayak and Tidus' little kid boat.
Sora hurried over, sand flying in his wake, and scrambled to untie his boat. He pushed it off with a grunt, then hopped in and quickly sat before the violent rocking could throw him over. As he began to paddle with fast, furious strokes, Sora allowed his mind to blank and focused solely on the periodic splashing of his paddles.
Time flew by as he drew near the island on which he knew his companions were ready and waiting. But as he dragged his boat up between Riku and Kairi's, Sora became all too aware that the sun was now much higher in the sky than it had been when he had woken up. He was at least a half hour late.
Sora dashed across the sand to the far side of the island, but slowed when Riku and Kairi's voices reached his ears, conversing in neutral tones. Well, at least they didn't seem too irritated. But maybe that would change once Sora made an appearance.
Sora moved forward along the shore, around the bend in the rock face, and halted at the sight of his friends, listening to their conversation.
"Okay, so if our packs are strapped down… we're going to have to undo the straps every time we want to get something?" Kairi was asking. She stood with her right side facing Sora, one hand on her hip, staring down in front of her at the completed raft as she spoke.
Riku was crouched down on the raft, his back to Sora, and was fiddling with some ropes and belts, the reflected sunlight glinting white off of his hair.
He gave one last tug on a knot he was tying before raising his eyes to Kairi. "No, we'll be able to get things without messing with the straps. And we'll put the things that we're going to use often in the center our ring of packs." He indicated to the vacant spot left by the almost-complete circle of bags.
Kairi scrunched her lips and raised an uncertain eyebrow.
Riku simply sighed and turned back down to the packs before him. "You'll see."
Kairi sighed, as well, and raised her eyes to regard the distant horizon, tucking her short hair behind her ears. But as Sora stepped forward, her head turned at the movement and her eyes immediately found his, widening in surprise.
"Sora!" she cried, running forward to stand before him. "Finally! Where have you been?"
Around Kairi, Sora saw Riku turn and straighten, but the older youth remained where he was, waiting for Sora's response.
"I'm sorry, guys," Sora began, wincing apologetically. "I set my alarm a little late because I was having trouble sleeping last night, and I wanted to give myself more time this morning. But getting here took longer than I thought." A half-explanation, but it would do for now.
"Jeez, Sora, don't scare us like that!" Kairi said, tapping a fist against Sora's chest. "I almost thought you were bailing out on us."
"Oh, Sora would never miss the opportunity to ride on the magnificent Highwind," Riku broke in, stepping up to the duo with a teasing smirk on his face.
Sora regarded Riku with a considerable amount of incredulity, duffel dropping to the sand. "Highwind? Are you kidding me? I won that race fair and square! The raft's name is Excalibur!"
"Sora," Riku replied flatly. "Yeah, you did win. One out of three times. That's it. I won the most, so the raft's name is Highwind."
Out of the corner of his eye, Sora saw Kairi smilingly shake her head at the dispute, but his gaze was locked with Riku's.
"But you said I only had to win once!"
Riku rolled his eyes and was about to respond when Kairi interjected.
"Hey, wait!" Both boys turned to Kairi, Riku with a sigh and Sora with the expression of one who had been done a great injustice. "As long as the raft floats, does it really matter what we call it?"
"Yes!"
"Well, yeah."
Kairi huffed, looking exasperatedly back and forth between them.
Then she rolled her eyes in exaggerated annoyance, and chided, "We haven't even left yet, and you two have already found something to disagree on. Okay, then. Let's solve this professionally."
Kairi strode over to her pack on the raft and kneeled to unzip it.
While she was digging through the bag, Sora took the opportunity to growl at Riku, "You did say I only had to win the stupid race once, Riku. Don't try to act like you didn't."
Riku looked affronted. "I'm not! I did say that, but I meant that you had to win the first time, not the second."
"What?!" Sora exclaimed.
"Oh, no!" gasped Kairi suddenly, prompting Riku and Sora to turn toward her with questioning gazes.
"My Blue Gypsy Fortune Stones!" She turned desperate eyes on Sora, then Riku, then back on Sora again. "I forgot to pack them!"
"Wait." Riku halted her entreaties, blinking through his bewilderment. "You were going to decide on a name for our raft by using rocks?"
"Oh, I know!" Kairi went on, ingnoring the question, and her face lit up as something seemed to pop into her mind. "I didn't pack them because they're not at my house. I remember now-- the last time I used them was at the Secret Place with Selphie! I must have forgotten them there!"
"Hold on, Kairi! Shouldn't we be heading out now?" Sora asked hesitantly, aware that he was the reason they hadn't left, yet, in the first place.
"No, Sora, let her."
Sora furrowed questioning brows at his friend, and Riku shrugged. "I don't think it really makes a difference when we leave. I mean, it would be nice to start off with as much daylight left as possible, but night's going to come eventually. And besides, the moon'll be bright tonight." Riku turned to Kairi, tipping his chin as he asked, "You do want to go back and get your rocks, right Kairi?"
"Yeah, I do." Kairi nodded before taking off past Riku and Sora, calling back behind her, "I'll just be a minute!"
Sora watched Kairi disappear around the corner, observing that she was, considerately, running very fast.
And when she returned, they would finally set out… Wow… it was finally happening. The thought almost made Sora dizzy, a flurry of emotions coursing through his being and leaving him suddenly feeling distant from the moment.
Then his gaze was drawn to the raft, sitting unmoving in the sand, and the sight of it grounded him. It was very large now, the wide, olive tent they had placed on a raised platform near the mast commanding all the attention. That was where they would seek shelter from bad weather and, also, where they would sleep. Sora could see their sleeping bags peeking out from here, though he doubted it would be so cold at night that they would need to sleep in them. There was another, smaller tent set up on a corner of the raft, underneath which they had made a hole in the wooden logs, intended for relieving the bladder. Sora began to wonder how that was going to work, but stopped when his stomach growled, and he found himself eyeing the food crates beside the bed tent. According to Riku, it was forty-two days worth of non-perishables for three people, but it looked like a lot less the way it was crammed into only four crates. Strangely, the bottled water occupied a total of six crates, though if Sora really though about it, he could see the logic in that. Their packs, excluding Sora's last duffel, were strapped beside the elevated platform, alongside some sailing equipment that Riku had thought would come in handy.
Beside him, said captain of the raft began to chuckle quietly, and Sora twisted his head at the sound, meeting Riku's eyes with a puzzled expression.
"Fortune stones," Riku explained, slightly shaking his head.
"Yeah, I know," Sora agreed, grinning lopsidedly, but frowning a moment later as something occurred to him. "Riku, you're not actually going to let Kairi pick the raft's name like that, are you?"
"No, Sora, don't worry." Riku smiled knowingly at him. "After all, Excalibur isn't that bad a name."
Sora stared at his best friend, trying to discern from his expression if there was anything less than honesty in that statement. "Really? You're really going to let me name it Excalibur?"
"Yeah, Sora, why not?" Riku said, shrugging. He moved off in the raft's direction and dropped down to sit in the sand, leaning back on his hands. "I was just messing with you earlier."
Huh, what a surprise. Riku's maturity always popped up at the most random of times.
Sora watched Riku as he stared tranquilly out to the sea, the salt water quietly rushing up and easing back just before it reached his shoes. Maybe all three of them had changed, though Sora couldn't really tell with himself, but perhaps the change was due, now that they were finally growing up.
"Wow," Sora said with a smile, half-teasing, as he moved to sit beside his friend. "Thanks, Riku."
"No problem," was the nonchalant answer, and Sora wondered why he was so obviously downplaying his noble act. When had Riku last been this nice? Way before he had mentioned the idea of other worlds to Sora, that was for sure.
But Sora remembered that Riku had told him about a dozen times how lame the name Excalibur was for a raft, and how Highwind was an infinitely better name, and how the whole voyage was his idea in the first place so he should be the one who got to name the raft, anyway. Was Riku just pulling is leg now? When they finally set off and opened the sail, was Sora going to find "Highwind" painted on it in big mocking letters?
"What's got your panties in a bunch, Sora?"
Mildly startled, Sora's head swung around to regard Riku with curious eyes.
"You were wearing your 'deep thinking' expression," he supplied.
"Oh… I was just…"
"Thinking?" guessed Riku, lowering his eyes and offering a smile that lacked warmth. "Trying to figure me out? I suppose it's hard to believe that mean ole' Riku would let you have something that you actually deserved." He laughed a bit to lighten the bitterness of the statement, but Sora felt only the cold wave of sudden shame.
"No, Riku, I…" Sora swallowed, catching himself before he spewed a lie to his best friend, and as he watched Riku's profile, he noticed a muscle twitch tellingly in his jaw. "I don't think you're a mean person. But… you can be kind of a jerk sometimes, like when you imply that I wear 'panties'."
Riku snorted a laugh at his weak attempt to regain the former pleasant atmosphere, but his gaze remained fixed on the horizon.
Sora sighed and glanced down at his hands clasped in his lap, damp with warm sweat. Man, it was already starting to heat up.
"I ran into Tidus this morning."
Riku's soft admission brought Sora's gaze back up to the still profile, and he almost blurted out who he himself had seen before he thought better of it. Riku had more to say.
"He told me he knew what we were doing today, and then he started yelling at me about how it was the stupidest idea anyone had ever though of." Riku paused, staring with a far-off look at nothing before expelling a few chuckles. "Then he offered to come. What a dolt."
Sora waited for the rest as Riku stared down at the sand between his legs with a slight grimace.
Far overhead, Sora heard the faint caw of a seagull over the crashing waves, sounding to him like a mocking laugh.
"So, what did you say to him?" Sora prompted.
Riku glanced up, finally meeting Sora's eyes with his own penetrating gaze, and flashed a sad smile.
"I asked him who was going to take my place and keep all the neighborhood brats in check if he left, too. Maybe it wasn't the best way to turn him down, but I didn't think it was that bad."
"He got really mad, then?" Sora asked as the memory of Selphie's trembling frustration flashed in his mind.
"He started cursing at me!" Riku stared at Sora and his brows shot up in disbelief before furrowing in puzzlement, his gaze returning to the ground. "Can you believe that? I mean, I understand a little irritation, but I would've never have thought he'd get that upset."
He did idolize you, thought Sora as he chewed his lip, the knowledge of Tidus' disappointment and anger making him feel very sorry for the sable-haired boy.
"After that, he just ran off," Riku went on, wearily running a hand through his hair. "I've gotta say, it was probably the worst goodbye I've ever had to experience."
Riku turned then and grinned at Sora. "At least I didn't meet up with Selphie. I'd rather deal with Tidus' screaming any day."
"Actually," Sora began, grinning back. "I saw her in the field by the park. Wakka, too. They were kind of upset-- especially Selphie-- but they didn't yell at me or anything. Well, not really."
"Huh," Riku remarked.
"But Wakka did say some weird things," Sora admitted, but then he paused to scratch at his head, wondering why he had started on a topic he really wasn't going to want to finish.
"Yeah?" Riku asked, peering curiously at Sora through his bangs.
"Uh, yeah." Sora averted his eyes, focusing instead on a small tear in his shoe. "He said that we should, uh, watch ourselves, and that he doesn't believe we're going to find any other worlds." Sora brought his eyes back up, wanting to see Riku's reaction to someone's doubts of him.
Riku returned the gaze coolly and Sora was unable to detect a distinct emotion in his voice as he spoke. "Well, that's too bad that Wakka can't see past our tiny, little islands, but the thing is-- he doesn't want to know what's out there." He paused to chew his lip, frowning. "Just like the rest of the islanders-- their daily, routine lives are so ingrained in their minds that they're frightened of the possibility that something different exists. But there are other worlds-- it's inconceivable that there wouldn't be-- and we're going to find them."
Sora immediately felt his confidence in their purpose strengthen at Riku's unwavering resolve, but something in the other boy's expression made him wonder if the words were born of something other than determination. But Sora did not want to dwell on that right before they set off.
"What do you think we'll find in the other worlds?" he queried.
Riku clasped his hands between his raised knees and shrugged. "A purpose for life. A different way. I don't know. But it's going to be something we can't find here; that's for sure."
Sora bowed his head in a barely perceptible nod, though Riku wasn't looking at him.
"Riku, are you scared?" he found himself blurting, the sudden impulse to ask the question uncontrollable.
Riku turned slowly to search his friend's face. Sora himself thought he was doing an alright job at keeping the fear that had leaked into his voice from creeping into his face, but, then again, Riku could read him like no one else.
The older youth sighed. "Yeah, I am scared. But not of not finding anything, and not of what we do find being dangerous. Together, I don't think anything can hurt us. But I'm scared that… that you and Kairi… Well, I know you guys are planning to come back here someday, but I'm not. I can't. I know I don't belong here, but you and Kairi-- this is home for you." Riku paused to glance behind him through the palms, probably thinking about how Sora and Kairi would leave him to return 'home', to the islands he never wanted to see again. "I'm afraid that somewhere on this journey you and Kairi are going to decide that you've had enough and that you want to go home."
Sora's chest grew tight at the though that he was the cause of his best friend's worry. He didn't know how to respond to that. How could he? Wasn't Riku's fear an accurate prediction of the future? Wasn't Sora planning to do just that-- to come back? Just this morning, he had promised himself exactly that about a hundred times.
But Sora hadn't known that Riku wouldn't be accompanying him back. Was that even an excuse? He should have known not to assume something like that without consulting Riku. And he should have taken more time to consider the possibility of truth in Wakka's words.
"Riku…" he tried.
But at the sound of shoes pattering near in the sand, Sora's words stuck in his throat, and he was ashamed to find himself relieved at the interruption.
He turned from Riku, who was trying to look busy with the sand between his legs, to see Kairi jog up to his side.
"Sorry that took so long," she said through slightly labored breaths, eyes bouncing between Sora and Riku. They eventually settled on her empty hands and Sora noticed that she seemed nervous and fidgety, as if something were bothering her.
"I didn't find my fortune stones," she said, hastily sweeping her hair out of her eyes. "I think Selphie might have taken them home last time."
Kairi's second mention of Selphie finally reminded Sora of what the small brunette had asked of him.
"Oh, I almost forgot, Kairi," he said, standing and clearing the hoarseness from his voice. "Selphie told me to tell you that she'll miss you and that she doesn't want to be the one to face your parents when they go looking for you."
At that, Kairi's hand slowly went to cover her mouth and her eyes grew shiny, but it seemed she refraining from any outright crying.
Sora's sympathy was echoed in his tone. "Kairi… We'll see them again."
Behind him, he heard the sound of sand spilling off clothing as Riku stood. Sora reached to gently pat Kairi on the shoulder, and gave a comforting squeeze, trying not to dwell on how his words were soothing one friend while possibly hurting the other. He would work it out with Riku later.
Kairi shifted her hand up to rub at her brow, simultaneously obscuring her eyes from Sora. "I know," she sighed. "It's just… I'm afraid." She abruptly jerked her hands down to her sides in a helpless, frustrated gesture. "What if something happens to us? Then how are we going to see our families and friends again?"
Sora was struck silent-- Kairi's concerns hitting home within his own heart-- but Riku stepped forward to offer his words. "Kairi, there's nothing to be afraid of. We've been preparing for all the dangers out there for a while now. We're ready to face almost anything."
But Kairi's gaze on Riku was desperate and held almost tangible fear. "But things happen even when people are prepared, Riku! What if we get caught in a freak storm in the middle of the ocean and we drown out there without anyone ever knowing what happened to us?! Did you ever think of that?"
Riku wasn't deterred. "Okay, you're right, there are many things we can't be ready for… but what about when our parents first let us come alone to play at Paopu Island? We were like, what? Seven? Eight? You remember how worried they were; plenty of things could have gone wrong. But they didn't. And that's because we were convinced that they wouldn't. We believed in ourselves, and that's what we have to do now."
Sora watched Kairi regard Riku uncertainly, but no protest escaped from her lips.
"Besides," Riku continued, softer. "We have each other. We're as close friends as anyone can get. Yeah, we're gonna miss our friends and family here, but we'll be together, so we'll be our own family."
Sora thought that was a little on the lame side, and suspected that Riku himself did, too, if his excessively loud throat-clearing was any indication, but Kairi's lips quirked up the slightest bit.
"If we're a family, then I must be the mom," she joked.
"Can't argue with that," Riku replied, grinning, and Sora was glad to see it.
Then Kairi's gaze dropped to her feet and she exhaled a heavy breath. "For a second back there I was thinking of just taking off in my boat and going back home." She glanced up, smiling sheepishly. "But now I'm okay, I guess. I was just panicking irrationally."
"I know, Kairi," Sora consoled. "I'm scared, too. But I'm more excited than anything. I can't wait 'till we set out… which, by the way, when will we?"
Under the expectant gazes of Sora and Kairi, Riku shrugged. "Now, I guess. Are you guys ready?"
Sora nodded. "Yup."
"Ready as I'll ever be," Kairi said.
"Then let's do it." Riku gave his friends' shoulders each a rough pat before moving off toward the raft.
Then, suddenly, he turned around, eyes searching and stopping when they alighted on Sora's duffel in the sand.
"What happened to your bag, Sora?"
"Oh, uh…" Sora picked it up with a grimace, and Kairi stifled a laugh behind her hand. "Chow happened to it."
"What's this sticking out of the hole?" Kairi wondered out loud, bending over to pull out the mangled flipper.
"Is that your flipper?" Riku asked, voice disbelieving.
"Was," Sora grumbled, taking it back from between Kairi's thumb and forefinger.
"Sora, all of your stuff's falling out." Kairi pointed to the ground and Sora's eyes followed, then narrowed at his belongings splayed out in the sand.
"Hold on." Riku turned away, striding up to his own pack and unzipping it. "I've got a backpack you can use."
He pulled out a large, black backpack with a generous amount of pockets, and Kairi scoffed beside Sora.
"You packed a bag inside of a bag?" Kairi griped. "Talk about a waste of space."
"Well, it came in handy, didn't it?" Riku instantly retorted without looking up.
Sora stepped up and took the offered backpack from Riku, turning it over to examine it. "Thanks, Riku," he said sincerely.
"No problem," Riku replied with a shrug, avoiding Sora's grateful eyes in an uncharacteristic display of self-consciousness. Then he smirked. "I kind of figured that something like this would happen. I just didn't know it would be before we set out."
Sora swatted at his head. "Shut up."
"Guys."
Riku and Sora attentively turned their heads in Kairi's direction, both apparently embarrassed at being caught in the act of further stalling their departure.
"Let's leave already before I start to change my mind again."
The threat was meant as a joke, but Riku's answering nod was stiff and serious. Sora watched him worriedly, unzipping his newly acquired jumbo size backpack before calling Riku's name to halt the other's advance on the raft.
Riku turned, silver hair swatting his carefully neutral face, and waited for Sora to speak further.
"We're going, Riku," Sora assured, allowing a grin to spread its way across his face. Riku's throat bobbed as he swallowed, and Sora let his returning excitement filter into his voice as he continued. "We're finally going… I guess some dreams really do come true, huh?"
Riku smiled back at Sora with soft, appreciative eyes. "Yeah, seems like it…"
Then he moved off to help Kairi, and Sora silently bent to the task of transferring his semi-sandy possessions into his new bag.
"You know," Kairi started, ponderingly. Sora glanced briefly up from relocating his things to catch the girl's magenta head angling thoughtfully up at the raft's mast. "I'm getting curious to see how Highwind's really going to do out on the open seas."
"Actually," Riku began. And as Sora zipped up a full backpack, he grinned to himself, reliving again the satisfaction of Riku's moment of generosity. "Excalibur is going to do great out on the open seas."
"Excalibur?" asked Kairi. "Riku, you actually gave in? Wow, that's the first."
Riku shrugged and straightened up, brushing his hands together. "It's just a name."
Kairi snorted her amusement as Sora moved to join them, backpack slung over his shoulder. In one hand he held his deflated, torn duffel, and he glanced unsurely between it and the raft.
"Should I just leave this here?" he wondered out loud.
Kairi gave a simple shrug, but Riku shook his head as he replied. "Let's take it with us. We might be able to use it for something... Here, let me see those," he added, taking both bags from Sora and going off to secure them on the raft. Kairi and Sora watched him and waited patiently until he was done.
"Okay," Riku said when he had finished, standing and roughly wiping his hands on his pants. "Let's start pushing."
The hint of anxiety in his voice did not go undetected by either of his friends, but they followed Riku to crouch behind the raft all the same.
"Just don't push too fast, okay you guys?" Kairi said from Sora's left.
"Okay," he replied.
"Sure," Riku added absently.
The whole process of shifting the raft into the water and past the breakers turned out to be more challenging than Sora had expected. He was so focused on the task of keeping Excalibur moving forward rather than in reverse, that he didn't have time to feel any excitement.
But bobbing along afterward on still, deeper waters, clothes sopping and toes squelching in his shoes while random gusts of wind raised goosebumps on his skin… was, to Sora, an adequately rewarding rush.
He stood in a relaxed stance beside Excalibur's mast, oddly-shaped sail flapping wildly, and tried to drink up what he figured would probably be his last sight for a long time of sunny little Paopu Island.
Sudden movement in the corner of his eye drew his gaze to the edge of the raft, where Kairi had begun to jump animatedly up and down on her tip-toes, rapidly bringing her hands together in brief little claps. A wide grin broke across her face and excited eyes alighted on Sora, who quickly spread his legs to steady himself as the raft began to rock in response to the girl's movements.
"Wow! Can you believe this?" she cried, bouncing her way toward Sora in an uncharacteristic display of Selphieness. "We're really doing this! We're actually having a real adventure! Oh, m-- hurry! Group hug!"
Kairi took Sora's hand before hurriedly reaching over to the other side of the sail to snatch Riku's arm, as well, and yanked him over. Then, squealing delightedly, she pulled them forcefully into a tight, three-way embrace. Sora tried to keep Kairi's shoulder bone from jutting painfully into his jaw as he slowly wrapped his arms around his friends' waists.
Riku's arm eventually found its way onto Sora's shoulders, and Sora reflected that despite the awkward mesh of limbs, this felt nice. Just relishing in the closeness between him and his two dearest companions-- yeah, it felt good.
Kairi squealed again, grip on the two boys tightening, and Sora couldn't help but laugh at the girl's obvious enjoyment of their haphazardly smashed positions.
Abruptly, Kairi gasped and pulled herself free of her friends' arms, causing them to stumble forward into the space she had so suddenly vacated as she leaped backward.
She giggled. "Your laughing tickles, Sora."
"Sorry," he said, laughing through a grimace as Riku used his arm to pull himself upright.
When Riku was steady, he used his grip on Sora's arm to shove the other boy playfully, tipping him off-balance again. "You guys are weirdos."
Sora scoffed, righting himself before reaching over in retaliation to push Riku back. "Like you're so normal, Mr. I-wanna-find-new-worlds-using-a-raft-instead-of-the-more-logical-boat."
Riku simply chuckled in response, looking at Sora as if he knew something the younger boy didn't.
"Hey," Kairi called from a corner of the raft, drawing the gazes of both boys. "Why aren't we moving?"
"Huh?" was Sora's instinctive inquiry. He moved to join Kairi, Riku following more slowly.
"We're not getting any farther from the island," Kairi clarified. She was squinting at Paopu Island's bright beach, the reflection of the midmorning sunlight on the white sand making it almost impossible to look at directly.
As Sora darted measuring eyes between the island and the raft, the thought popped into his mind that maybe they hadn't thought this thing out well enough. But he banished the dispiriting suggestion immediately- they had thought it all out. Had worked together for many long hours to prepare for numerous potential problems, in fact.
… But he hadn't expected one to arise so soon.
Riku stepped quietly up between his friends, and it was a few moments before he spoke. "I think it's because the wind's a little weird right now," he supplied, voice void of any anxious inflection, and as Sora turned to peer up into his face, he noted that Riku even looked casual.
But after that final statement, silence pervaded the gently rolling raft, and Sora inwardly despaired at the loss of the easy mood and feeling of good humor the trio had been sharing just a minute before.
He licked his lips in preparation to speak, wanting to get things moving again-- and not just figuratively. "What do we do now?"
Kairi, mimicking Sora, raised her head to watch Riku, and Riku's eyes flickered briefly to meet Sora's before returning to the island.
Then he swallowed. "Now we start rowing."
Although Sora knew Kairi had been expecting that, the girl's body turned sharply to fully face Riku and her lips parted as she drew in a preparatory breath.
But Riku turned away, as if he hadn't noticed her intention, and started toward the oars lying near the packs. Kairi deflated, then met Sora's eyes and offered him a small smile tinted with underlying apprehension. And Sora understood. He felt the same way. Honestly, the work of rowing the raft didn't bother him. It was just that… for how long would they need to row? How long would it take the wind to turn in their favor?
They had all agreed that the oars would only be used in emergencies.
So… this must be an emergency, then. Hardly a half hour into their journey and they were experiencing an emergency.
At that moment, Riku returned carrying three oars, and handed two of them to Sora and Kairi.
"You two start over there," he said, jerking his chin toward the side of the raft behind Sora. "I'll double paddle on the other side."
Then Riku moved off to his self-appointed position, twisting his head back once to say, "We'll only have to do this until the wind straightens out and picks up, which shouldn't be too long. You know how it is around here."
Yes, Sora knew. And he knew that Riku was right. But, then why did the fifteen-year-old look so grim as he bent to kneel at the edge of the raft?
Sora sighed and turned to follow Kairi silently to their end of the raft. Kairi eased herself down to her knees and Sora took his place in front of her, pushing his leg flush against the low, wooden paling that prevented him from sliding into the water. As Kairi started a slow pace, Sora moved his paddle to match it, and the raft started a gradual rotation that straightened out as soon Riku joined in the rowing.
For a while, the only sounds in Sora's ears were the rhythmic splashing of his and Kairi's oars in the water, accompanied by Riku's doubly frequent splashes on the other side of the raft.
"The treehouse looks a lot smaller from way out here," Kairi remarked, voice faint behind Sora, and he guessed that she was looking over her shoulder as she spoke.
Then, against his better judgment, Sora twisted around and discovered that the treehouse did, indeed, look quite tiny, like a little birdhouse. But so did the rest of the island; even the normally towering palms appeared as skinny saplings with fragile, adolescent leaves. And just beyond Paopu Island, the corner of another island, his home island, was making itself visible now that they had traveled a sufficient distance.
He turned back to his task, focusing his gaze on the straight, flawless line of the distant horizon. He should be thinking optimistically; that's what was going to get them somewhere. And I have every reason to be optimistic, he mentally assured himself.
He was going on the voyage of a lifetime-- he and Riku and Kairi were creating their own purpose while discovering entirely new worlds! What other islanders could make such a claim?
But, despite the fact that this knowledge considerably bolstered Sora's morale, he found his gaze drifting to Riku's form across the raft, searching for the security and courage the elder usually imparted in him.
Riku was driven. That was a given. Sora just hoped that drive would be enough to empower them all to find the strength to pull through this thing. In one piece.
Now, he was starting to think like Wakka.
But Sora had absolute faith in his best friend, and he knew that nothing-- not even some fleeting, half-formed doubts-- could ever change that.
11,111 words!!! Well, what do you think? I would greatly appreciate any helpful opinions or thoughts!