Hello everyone, Here's the fifth chapter for you.
On a note completely unrelated to this story, anyone who can stand or likes foreign music should go watch 'What's happening' by b1a4, or/and 'Candy room' by Perfume, their the 'WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING!' kind of asian music videos, and I liked them.
Also about this chapter, I wasn't being very creative when I wrote so it follows the track quite like it does in the game, alot of the lines are the same too. And so that no one has to ask, I have no idea what happened to the cheshire cat in this chapter, my mind kind of just turned it into a Nekomusame.
Anyway, I hope you like the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix does.
Of Knives and Petticoats
Following obediently behind Crowtassha, Sora followed her to hers and Luke's ship that, according to the woman in front of him, could travel to different worlds. Coming to stop in front of the sizable ship, Sora looked over its odd exterior. It looked like it had been made of some type of crystal; it was all silvery and misshapen, at least when compared to a normal ship. Out of curiosity, he decided to ask Crowtassha as she ducked under the ship's hull and came up on its other side.
"So, what's this made of exactly?"
"Mythacite. It's a crystal like material, it holds power that lets people to traverse through the worlds, but it's extremely rare, so it's not like I really expected for you to have ever heard of it, least of all seen it."
Watching Crowtassha climb up the side of the ship to come to stand on the top of it, Sora looked on as she stepped closer to both him and Luke and ushered them forward. "Welcome to Excelsior." She huffed, gesturing to the entire ship before quickly telling them, "Now come on, climb up, the cockpit's inaccessible otherwise."
Listening to her words, Sora and Luke trod closer to the side of the ship, Luke ducking under the hull like Crowtassha had and coming back out on the other side to climb up a small ladder that wasn't visible to Sora from his standpoint. Copying Luke, Sora ducked under the hull and stood back up straight to view the side of the ship.
It mimicked its other side to a point, the only difference a small silver ladder on the left side of the hull. Climbing up the ladder after Luke, Sora came to stand up on the ship's fuselage, staring over at where Crowtassha had already entered the cockpit. Casting his eyes about the ship's top side, he spied the glass windshield of the cockpit and the door that made the cockpit accessible lying flat against the ship's fuselage, just off to the left the cockpit.
Following Luke through the door, they both met Crowtassha in the cockpit where she was preparing the ship for take-off. Once the prep was done, Crowtassha flipped Luke a thumbs up and he took hold of the controls, ready for take-off.
...:...
The space between worlds, as Crowtassha was calling it, was a mesmerising place engulfed in stars, dotted occasionally with silvery pieces of crystal that Sora soon recognised as –
"Mythacite." He whispered to himself.
Watching his enthralled staring contest with the space that decorated outside of their ship with a smile, Crowtassha struck up a conversation with the boy.
"Yep," she told him, referring back to his comment about the mythacite. "This is where it comes from."
"No wonder it's so rare," Sora said in answer, still majorly distracted by what was outside the window he was pressed against.
"Yeah." Crowtassha mumbled, so low that he could barely hear it.
Standing up and walking closer to Sora, sitting against the wall of the cockpit, Crowtassha crossed her legs and placed her arms over them.
"I'll tell you something," she said randomly, her voice portraying that her mind was lost in reverie.
"What?" Sora asked.
"A long time ago, there used to be a tradition, that when a key bearer appeared, they'd be given a piece of mythacite. With which they could travel to other worlds and lend help if they were ever needed."
Taking in the information and continuing to stare out the window, Sora ventured to ask Crowtassha a question only to be stopped from doing so when the ship abruptly slowed down considerably, taking his attention away from both Crowtassha and the window.
Turning from his position in the driver's seat to face them, Luke signalled to Crowtassha in a number of signs that Sora couldn't understand. Looking to the side, Sora saw Crowtassha nod her head at Luke and switch her attention to back to him, telling him while pointing up ahead to the front of the ship. "There's a world ahead, you can take a look if you want."
Getting up off the chair he was sitting on, he approached the front of the ship, coming to stand right next to Luke who was slowly directing the ship towards what he had been informed was another world. What Sora viewed before him resembled that of a giant portal, bigger than the ship by an ample amount, coloured somewhere between grey and purple.
A perplexed expression settled itself on his face as he looked on, tilting his head backwards a little to view Crowtassha walking closer towards him, Sora asked "What is that exactly?"
"It's a portal, exactly what it looks like, go through that and you'll end up in the world it encloses."
Nodding in response, Sora kept his eyes glued to the portal as they moved ever closer until it was upon them and they were sucked into its depths.
...:...
When they reappeared again, they found themselves within a small circular room, tiled with checker patterns across the floor. Sitting up from the ground groggily, Sora was hit with the strange feeling that he had just fell a great depth, but once he looked up he found that such a thing would have been impossible as there was a solid roof above his head. Puzzled, he turned his head and let his eyes sweep about the room.
Crowtassha was slowly rising from the floor, the way she was rubbing her head gave off the impression that she had bumped it on something, the floor being the only possible thing she could have hit it on. Luke was standing by a twisting passageway, staring curiously along its length. Sora was about to question what he was staring at when he was hit with the realisation that he had no idea where the ship had gone. Confounded he turned to Crowtassha who was getting up off the ground, and slowly directing her gaze to follow Luke's. Getting up himself, Sora walked towards the women and asked her, "What exactly happened to the ship?"
Snapping her head back to stare at Sora in surprise, as if she had forgot he was there momentarily, she answered after a time, while getting out a piece of silver crystal from her pocket. "Some worlds react differently to mythacite, seeing as it's a foreign substance." Gesturing to the silvery crystal she held in her hand she went on, "Most worlds will give you this, with it you can transport yourself to wherever the world has kept the ship."
Nodding in understanding, both him and Crowtassha turned their attention back to the hallway Luke was still looking down. Choosing to question what he was doing, Sora asked "Luke what are you looking at exactly?"
There was a series of hand movements that followed which Crowtassha quickly interpreted into words.
"He said he just saw a rabbit in a waistcoat run down the hallway."
Turning his head to stare at Crowtassha in disbelief at the words, Sora waited a second to let the content of her words catch up with her mind.
"Wait what?" She soon exclaimed, mimicking Sora's utter disbelief.
Luke made a series of similar hand movements as before, which Sora guessed was him just reinstating what he'd said before.
Crowtassha's disbelieving words confirmed that for him. "I know what you said; I just can't get my mind around it! You sure that's what you saw?"
Luke nodded to her in turn, but seeing that Crowtassha was still sceptical of his words he pointed down the hallway and signed to Crowtassha again.
"Ok, ok we'll check it out then, gotta get out of this room sometime anyway." She told him.
It didn't take a genius to realise that she still wasn't going to believe him, not until she saw that rabbit with her own eyes. Pulling Sora along with her down the hallway, Crowtassha took the lead with Sora at her side and Luke following closely behind. At the end of the hallway they found door after door piled up on the same doorway, each one slightly smaller than the other. Opening each one in turn, they soon had them all open and they stepped in to the next room.
It was larger than the previous room, with a white table and a chair placed in its middle and a fireplace off to the right. Another table like fixture lay against the bottom left hand corner of the wall, as well as two high backed chairs next to it. At the top left corner was a lime green bed. Lastly, directly across from them, far across the room, was a small door with a golden knob and who would have guessed, but a miniature white rabbit in a waistcoat bargaining to be let through. Staring completely dumbfounded at the small thing as it won its argument with the door and walked through the little doorway, Crowtassha fumbled around for Luke's shoulder and patted it while still staring out the now closed doorway. "Guess I owe you an apology there, you were right."
Shrugging off her hand and walking past both her and the equally shocked Sora, Luke signed back to Crowtassha in what she registered to mean 'Am I ever wrong?' and headed towards the small door that lay on the other side of the room. Following behind him, Sora and Crowtassha walked up to the small door and leaned over to peer at its diminutive frame.
It was a small wooden thing, aged and slightly splintery. Its little doorknob was faded gold and held a small keyhole. But most importantly, as they found out with a twist of the knob. It was locked.
"Dammit it's locked." Crowtassha grumbled.
Luke quickly signed to her in more sign language that was indistinguishable to Sora, but which Crowtassha quickly replied to. "I can see that, you don't have to point out the obvious."
Kneeling down, Sora glanced down at the door and spied the little keyhole and said to Crowtassha, "There must be a key somewhere, we should try and find it."
Crouching down so that she was closer to Sora height, Crowtassha grumbled, "That's exactly what Luke said, not that I can see one around here." Twisting her head around she saw that Luke had already drifted away from them trying to find exactly that, but appeared to have struck a dead end in his search.
Sighing, Crowtassha rose to her full height, and ran a hand through her hair, "Where oh, where oh are you key."
A silence elapsed between them as Luke gave up on his search and Sora stood up from the door. His mouth opened to ask Crowtassha something when a voice interrupted him.
"To the riddle of the key, the room, your exit, there are but three answers. One flew away with the rabbit as in his hand in haste the key remained key. The second comes to you as the colour of the sky small as an apple and liquid clear as water. The third you'll find in what is there but should not. By these answers your escape of this chamber is assured."
Looking to the left to seek out the speaker, the three of them found a strange- looking girl with cat ears and tail, dressed in a curious garment of purple and pink, sitting on the bed that was seemingly misplaced within the room.
"What?" Sora questioned as he continued to stare at the strange girl.
"What I said is what I said, a riddle set for thee to help you find what you hunt."
And with that she disappeared into thin air, like she had never been there in the first place.
All was silent for a moment, before Sora was the first to ask "What was that?"
"Good question." Crowtassha concurred as she recovered from her shock "because I haven't the slightest idea."
A chinking sound from behind them drew them away from their own personal thoughts and both turned backwards to see Luke picking up a previously unnoticed bottle from the white table in the middle of the room. Giving them a sidewards glance he threw the bottle at Crowtassha who just managed to catch it. Her lips had just formed the movements to question him when he signed to her.
'The colour of the sky small as an apple and liquid clear as water. A bottle a small of clear liquid that's about as big as an apple with a blue label, could you think of anything else that cat-girl was referring to? Cause I can't.'
"Hmmm." Crowtassha hummed as she inspected the bottle, while translating Luke words for Sora "He says he think this is what the girl was referring to."
"Oh" Sora said as he looked at the bottle, "Seems very possible, but what do you think it does?"
Purging her lips in thought she posed the question to Luke, who responded with a series of signs that made the most weirded out look pass over Crowtassha's face.
"Ok I get how you could think that but seriously, do you know what your implying there." She said astounded. Not knowing what in the world Luke had said made Sora fall into a pit of confusion at these words.
Turning to him with the same astounded attitude Crowtassha said in disbelief "He's says he thinks it shrinks you, looking at how small the rabbit was when it went through the door."
Sora looked at Luke for a second questioning the thought of it, when the strange logic of it hit him, and he answered Crowtassha "Crow so far we've seen a talking white rabbit in a waistcoat and a girl who appeared out of nowhere with cat ears and a tail who gave us a riddle before disappearing into nothing."
Pulling a face at being on the disagreeing side alone, Crowtassha held the bottle out for Sora "Why don't you test it out for us then?"
Sora didn't know whether or not to be scared at the mischievous tone in her voice, but scared or not he took the bottle off of her, peeled off the lid off and cautiously took a sip. In a way, he wished he hadn't, because only seconds after the bottle had left his lips he shrank considerably, until he was only a small fraction of Luke and Crowtassha's size. And that was something Crowtassha found uproariously funny.
Forgetting her previous thoughts of disagreement completely she knelt down so that she at least approached his height, and poked him with a finger, something that at his size was enough knock him over.
"Oh, my god! You're so adorable." She said before twisting her head so that she could spy Luke who was picking up the bottle from where Sora had dropped it on the ground.
"Isn't Sora just so cute like this Luke?"
Not responding Luke continued to stare down the bottle's length, a string of thoughts circling around in his head.
Shrugging off his non-existent answer, Crowtassha turned back to face Sora, still trying to hold in her laughs at the hilarious sight of him.
It was then she was struck with the realisation, "Oh crap, I still have to drink that stuff don't I?"
If he was someone who made sounds, Luke would have laughed at that sentence. Walking up behind Crowtassha as she started getting up from her kneeling position, he held out the bottle for her when she turned around to face him, the hint of a smile on his lips. Glaring at him, she prepared for an argument she knew she would lose.
"If you drink it first, I promise I won't make fun of you when you go all small."
Luke shook his head, and setting the bottle back down on the table he signed to her, 'No way in hell am I drinking that before you. It doesn't matter what you say, you'll use any chance you get to make fun of me.'
"Oh don't be like that, I really mean it this time! I won't say anything about you being a little miniature thing." She tried bargaining again.
To this Luke shook his head again and signed before picking the bottle back up and holding it in front of Crowtassha, 'I'll screw a guy before I drink that before you! Now just drink, why don't you? It's not like I can insult you verbally.'
Crossing her arms and pouting at him in defeat, knowing she had lost the fight, Crowtassha took the bottle from his hands and drank a minute amount before placing it back on the table.
Seconds later she felt herself getting smaller and smaller until she came to be just a little over Sora's height. Looking up to see Luke still with the hints of a smile on his face, she pouted at him as he signed to her as what she could still make out from her position as, 'Oh, I'm never going to let you live this one down.'
Her pout only intensified as she watched Luke pick the bottle up and drink from its contents. Looking on as he slowing shrank down to their size, Sora said to the irate Crowtassha beside him, "I didn't get any of that, what in the world was he saying?"
Coming out of her hateful trance, she jumped in surprise a little at Sora's question. With all her glaring at Luke she'd almost forgotten he was there.
Next to ignoring his question she told him, "We so need to teach you sign language, don't we?"
Finding that his question was not going to be answered Sora settled with agreeing with her. "Yeah, that'd be smart."
Staring around at their surroundings as Luke walked closer to them, Sora found out just the humongous degree on which they'd shrunken. The small table was a monster in size when compared to them, and they used to be twice its height.
Tapping Crowtassha on the shoulder as she stuck her tongue out at Luke, he told her while the room still held his gaze, "We really got small didn't we?"
Laughing slightly at what he said, Crowtassha said, "And you didn't notice that when we were standing over you?" Looking around the room she mused "So what other thing do you think that girl was referring to?"
The three turned their gazes to the room around them, seeking out the third answer of the girl's riddle. Gnawing on her lip, Crowtassha remarked "Well she said that we had to find what was there but should not, and if you ask me, that bed is really out of place."
Walking up to the bed she pushed it weakly with two hands, and when that did nothing twisted on her heel she leaned back onto the bed's railings. And in doing so the question was answered for her. As her weight was pressed against it, the bed fell into the wall it sat against, turning into nothing but an image upon the wall.
Losing her balance and falling over in the process, Crowtassha shot a look back at the wall. Failing to hide her embarrassment at her trip up, she spluttered out when she looked back to Luke and Sora, "Well looks like that was answered for us, heh heh."
Swiftly returning to her position of standing upright, Crowtassha pointed towards the exit that the disappearance of the bed had now made visible "I'm just gonna head out here, kay?" She said, her embarrassment still extremely noticeable. That said, she darted off through the hole to avoid anything Luke could have signed to her of his amusement at her fall. Watching her go, Sora turned and said knowingly "This is another thing you're not going to let her forget, I'm guessing."
The moment the words had left his mouth, a small smirk set itself on Luke face and he nodded vigorously as they traced Crowtassha's path and followed her outside.
...:...
Outside they found themselves in a garden of sorts, filled with red roses and hedges cut into different shapes. They were partially cut off from a courtyard beyond by the way the hedges curved around them where they had exited the room behind them. Approaching Crowtassha from behind, Sora tapped on her shoulder, and asked her curiously, as he'd noted the odd way she was staring intently at the courtyard filled with people in front of them, "What are you staring at?"
"Listening more like, I can't really see anything with all those cards blocking my line of sight," she answered him.
"Cards," Sora said incredulously. Something about that sounded a mite wrong with that sentence, but sure enough, when he turned to look at the courtyard properly, what was there but cards with hands and feet of course. Before he could question what was wrong with that sight, or all they'd seen of this world so far, Crowtassha spoke first. "Can you see that blonde girl up there, the one in the black dress?"
Staring forward once more to hunt out the person she was talking about, Sora's eyes soon found the girl in question, a teenager wearing an intricate black dress that ballooned out where the dress turned into a skirt. "Yes," he answered Crowtassha.
"The ugly hag up front has her on trial. Won't listen to her arguments or anything, just keeps on yelling this and that and accusing her of things that are not even possible for her to have done."
Listening on in the trial himself, Sora found just how true Crowtassha's statement had been. Of course if he'd heard this from the beginning, he may have had a few more things to prove that, but even the ending was enough.
"You stand accused of trying to steal the Queen's heart, how do you plead?" he heard a voice call out across the courtyard, one that belonged to the white rabbit from before.
"Not guilty!" The girl's strong voice rang out even louder. "Come on I didn't do it, and you have no evidence to prove I did."
"Yes you did you lying girl, now tell the truth!" Yelled a woman Sora saw to be sitting up on a high podium in front of everyone.
Looking closely at the woman Sora just about gawked. "Please don't tell me that's the Queen," he whispered to Crowtassha.
"Oh that's her alright, every gram of fat of her." She told him nodding. Gazing up to the Queen, Sora took in her ugly form: she had double chins, fat arms and an excessively round belly, all of which was wrapped up in a garishly red dress.
"But that is the truth!" The blonde girl yelled again, getting desperate.
"No it isn't!" The queen yelled again. Glancing to the guards either side of her she ordered them, "She's lying and is as guilty as I say she is, now seize her!"
"No! I didn't do anything you hag! This is unfair!" The girl screamed as the card shaped guards took a step towards her. Watching the scene unfold in front of him, Sora quickly turned to Crowtassha. "Crow," he said, "we need to help her."
His statement was made even more evident when the ugly Queen yelled out to everyone present, "Off with her head!"
Grabbing the hem of her shirt, Sora begged, "Crow!"
"I know, I know!" she said, switching her attention from the courtyard to Sora, "But we're not supposed to mess with the goings-on of the other worlds; that's the rules."
"But she needs our help," he said as he watched the girl pull something out of her layer of skirts and petticoat.
A shining silver knife.
That was it. Glancing over at Crowtassha for a moment he told her strongly, "I don't care what the rules are; I'm going to help her." With that he rushed off into the courtyard to interrupt what was happening within. He was absently aware of Crowtassha running after him as he ran into the middle and yelled loud enough so that everyone could hear, "Stop, this girl's innocent!"
Stopping in their tracks, the card soldiers let go of the girl and turned to look at Sora in curiosity.
Banging her fist angrily on whatever her hand found, the Queen stood up to her rather pitiful full height, and yelled back at Sora furiously, "What is the meaning of this insolence, if it wasn't the girl then who was it!?"
Having heard enough of the trial, as little as that had been, to give a good estimate and possessing all the information needed to make a more informed guess, Sora answered her, "It was the heartless!"
Sora sensed Crowtassha pull up beside him as the ugly Queen's face turned as red as her dress and she screeched, "And what proof do you have!?"
Hesitating as he stared up at the Queen, Sora was hit with the realisation that, apart from his own knowledge, he held no direct evidence of the heartless being the ones who attempted to steal the Queen's heart. Slamming her hands down one final time the Queen said, "Humph, could have guessed as much."
Straightening up she gestured to her card soldiers, "Lock the girl up!"
"What?" Sora yelled back, Crowtassha placing a hand on his shoulder to stay him.
Glaring at Sora with obvious contempt, the Queen ended by saying, "She will stay locked up as long as it takes to give me proof that it wasn't her at fault here, collect as much or as little as you choose. If you fail, then it will be off with your heads!"
Without being giving any time to form a response, the card soldier shoved Sora and the other two roughly in the direction of an opening in the hedge. Looking back at the Queen one last time before they were all thrust through the gap Sora thought to himself, 'This could turn out bad.'
...:...
Stumbling to a stop at the start of a bizarre looking forest, the three of them sought to regain their balance after being ousted from the court. Straightening up and taking in his surroundings, Sora looked around the forest in bewilderment. It was misshapen and distorted; nothing like any forest he'd ever laid eyes on before, as limited as the numbers of those were. Similar to Sora, Crowtassha stared around the peculiar forest, bemused by its shape and form.
"Haven't seen any forest like this one before, what about you?" Crowtassha asked.
"Never in my life," Sora answered her.
Taking a few steps forward to survey the area better, Crowtassha twisted on her heel to face Sora. "You wouldn't happen to have any idea what to do about that little task the hag Queen set for us, would you?" She queried, having no answers herself.
Sora shook his head. "No more than you do, I don't really see how you can get evidence on something like that." He answered truthfully.
Letting the reply hang in the air, Crowtassha went about scratching her chin in thought as a familiar voice rang out through the forest.
"Poor Alice," the high pitched voice said, "soon to lose her head; and you after her if you're not careful. And she is not even guilty."
Turning to face the odd cat girl from before that was garbed in her peculiar pink and purple dress and stockings, Sora ran though her words in his head.
"Wait," he said, "if you know that then do you know who the culprit is?"
"The Cheshire cat knows all the answers- but doesn't always tell. The answer, the culprit, the cat all lay in darkness." She told him before disappearing into nothingness just like she had before.
As her presence left the forest words sprang to Sora's lips of begging her back, but they were cut off before he had the chance to voice them by her voice coming out of nowhere and saying, "They've already left the forest. I won't tell which exit. There are four pieces of evidence in all; three are a cinch to find. The fourth is tricky. Big reward if you find them all."
And then the voice disappeared, its source still nowhere to be seen. Staring blankly at the log where the cat girl had been sitting, Crowtassha said, "Yeeeeah, just a question, but should we keep trusting that thing?"
"To trust, or not to trust? I trust you'll decide." The cat girl said, reappearing one last time before disappearing again. Keeping his eyes zoned in on the log for a moment longer, to see if she would say anything more or even reappear again, Sora glanced over at Crowtassha and Luke.
"We should trust what she said, it's all we have to go on really." he told them.
Pursing her lips in thought Crowtassha soon responded with a nod. "Guess you're right, it's better than nothing."
Looking over at Luke, Crowtassha asked him, "What about you?"
He shrugged his shoulders at them as his reply, clearly not caring either way.
"Decided then," Crowtassha said while turning back to Sora. "We'll see if we can find this evidence the cat girl was talking about."
Ending the conversation, the three of them set out among the forest to find what would be, if they were lucky, the sure thing to save them from the Queen's wrath.
By the end of it, the evidence wasn't all that hard to find. The heartless that constantly hampered them throughout the entire search only succeeded in making it more annoying.
Two of the pieces of evidence had been found within the forest that they now inhabited. The first was hidden within the bushes and the second high in the treetops. The others were a little harder to find. The search for them made them climb through the tree tops, to find doorways within the foliage which led them back to the bizarre room that they had passed through when they first came to this world. There were two separate doorways that led them to two different areas of the bizarre room. One took then to the top of the fireplace that Sora had spied when he'd first entered the room and the other one took then to a plank of wood that stuck out of the wall high above the fireplace.
It was a daunting sight when Sora had looked down, he'd almost fallen off the wood straight off without even getting his hands on the evidence first, only to be caught by Crowtassha. Carefully they lowered themselves off the plank of wood and onto the fireplace below, the three of them jumped off it and onto the solid ground below. As they all headed to the doorway that would lead them back outside they heard a voice call out from its creator's position on the white table.
"I see you found what you were looking for." The feminine voice said with a hint of humour evident. Looking up to see what sat on the white table top, Sora found the cat girl sitting with her legs crossed, leaning over the table's edge with a playful smile hovering over her lips.
"Can we save Alice from the Queen with this?" He asked her.
With a slight giggle, the cat girl intoned, "She may be innocent, but what about you?"
"Huh, what does that mean?" Sora questioned again, confused by her words.
"I won't tell," she said with a playful shake of her head. "But I will give you something."
And with that she threw something to him and disappeared once more.
Catching the small shining stone, Sora clasped it in his hands before bringing it up to his face to view what it was. It looked suspiciously like mythacite. Looking at it, perplexed, he heard Crowtassha step closer to him before she lifted it from his hands and examined it herself.
"This is a mythacite shard." She said, impressed that the girl had gotten her hands on it, yet still confused as to how.
"If its mythacite, how'd she get it then?" Sora questioned her.
Still scrutinizing the shard in her hand Crowtassha enlightened him, "Well the only possible way was that the portal of this world sucked it out from the space between worlds, much like it did our ship. It's the most common way people get their hands on mythacite, it's very rare that someone would actually go out to the space between worlds to get it."
Looking at the crystal shard, much like Crowtassha now was, Sora asked her, "Any idea why she gave it to me then?"
"Well," Crowtassha said holding out the sapphire blue crystal for Sora to see, "see the colour, this shard holds the power of elemental magic, unlike the silver shards that just help with traversing the worlds. It's blizzard I think, or maybe water."
Inspecting it again, trying to decide which one it was she gave up and held it out to Luke. "Luke you're the magic wiz here, what is this?" She asked him.
After Luke shot quick glance at the shard and a series of hand signs later, Crowtassha turned back to Sora and said, "He says I was right the first time."
Handing the shard back to Sora, he took it in his hand before pocketing it. Gesturing that they should get going, Crowtassha pointed to the doorway and said, "We should really get going, I have feeling that the hag Queen isn't going to wait forever."
Sora nodded to her in agreement, took her lead and began to walk to the door, saying as they were halfway there to Crowtassha, "You know, but isn't that crystal kind of wasted on me? I don't even know how to use magic."
She shrugged his words off and told him, "Oh it's easy enough to use, most people meld it to their weapon, as it's near impossible to summon it right from the crystal, I've only seen a handful of people in my entire life do it, and they were damn talented. In fact-"
Turning on her heel to face Luke she asked, "You have a spare fire shard don't you?"
Nodding Luke reached a hand into his pocket and brought out a blood red crystal that sparkled in the light.
"Give it to me," Crowtassha told him, prompting him to throw it to her and her to give it to Sora.
"I know it's a bit off topic from what I was saying, but here, now you have both fire and ice, would've sounded funnier if it was water instead of ice, but it's good enough."
While pocketing the fire shard, Sora sent a look Luke's way that just said, 'Did she seriously give me a fire shard just because the fire and ice thing sounded cool?' Taking no notice of the look or Luke's nod to Sora from behind her, Crowtassha continued on her way to the doorway, turning back only when Sora and Luke didn't move, to say "Hey you two coming or what?"
Snapping his head to look over at her, Sora nodded and traced her steps towards the doorway and back to the court of the Queen.
...:...
Once outside, the three of them stopped just to the side of the courtyard and readied themselves for a fight if it was to come, seeing as the Queen had already made herself out for one that didn't liked to be proven wrong. And with the evidence they held in their possession, that was all too sure to happen. Treading forward until they came to stand where Alice had stood previously before the Queen had her locked up in a cage that was next to her own podium, they stood before the Queen. Looking up at them, one of the Queen's card soldiers questioned them, "Are you ready to present your evidence?
Answering him with a yes, the card soldier called out to the Queen and gestured to the three before her to get her attention from where she was scolding the small white rabbit who sat near her. She glanced down to find Sora, Crowtassha and Luke standing on a smaller podium below her.
"So," she said "what have you found to prove to me that that wretched girl is innocent?"
After she finished her sentence, Sora brought forth the pieces of evidence they had scoured for and found to prove Alice's innocence and showed them to her.
Once he was done the Queen stuck her nose up at him, saying, "You certainly have a lot of evidence there boy, but that doesn't mean I'm impressed." Looking from side to side at her soldiers she yelled out, "Cards! Bring forth my evidence!"
Dropping her piece of evidence beside the other three, she looked over them and said lazily, "Hmm, looking through all of these would be nothing more than a waste of my time." Gazing back over at Sora she told him, "Choose the one you wish present, and we'll have a look at that. I'll decide who's guilty based on that."
Taken aback by the sheer laziness of what she had declared Sora said, "What! You'd do that after all the trouble we went through collecting it?"
"You dare object? Then it will be off with your head! Now choose a box or it will be death for you!" The Queen yelled. Without even having to take in the content of the Queen's last sentence, Sora sensed that any more arguing would only have a bad result. Glancing back at Crowtassha and Luke, Crowtassha gave him a slight nod and told him in a whisper, "Just pick and box and pray this turns out alright."
Turning back to face the Queen knowing that Luke couldn't give him anything he'd understand at the moment, Sora jumped over the small podium and landed near where the evidence was situated. Looking over to Alice where she was locked up in the cage, he bit his lip and walked up to a random box, being careful to avoid the Queen's box and went to open it.
He heard a voice call out to him, "Are you sure of your choice?"
Nodding Sora told the Queen strongly, "let me show the real culprit."
Opening the box he jumped back as a heartless appeared from within it only for it to disappear seconds afterwards. Before he could question the oddness of the occurrence the Queen yelled, "What in the world was that?"
"Your real culprit. Alice is innocent," Sora told her.
Clearly angered at being wrong, the Queen growled "Rrrrrrrgh! Silence, I am the law here. Article 29: anyone who defies the Queen is guilty!" She screamed.
"That's crazy!" Sora heard Crowtassha scream back from behind him.
"Guards! Seize them all" The Queen yelled.
And just like that the guards were upon them, trying to take them down.
Dodging out of the way of a group of cards that were trying to catch them, Crowtassha yelled over to Sora from her position a number of metres behind him. "Sora we need to save Alice and get the hell out of here!"
Stepping to the side as another group of cards veered towards them, Sora and Crowtassha ended up back to back fighting off the soldiers, Sora with his keyblade and Crowtassha with her shield and dagger.
"But they raised Alice's cage when they started attacking us!" Sora informed her.
Glancing over to the cage in question as the card soldier's lightened up their attack for a second, Crowtassha swore and blocked an attack from an incoming card soldier. Scanning her eyes over the court, looking desperately for something to lower Alice's cage, Crowtassha's gaze soon stopped on a small tower-like structure with three wooden wheels sticking out of its sides.
"Sora you see that tower thing over there, by the hedge?" she asked him.
Following her gaze Sora found the tower she was talking about and nodded.
"Kay," Crowtassha said, stabbing at one of the cards, "trash that thing, it looks like it controls that cage, does it not?"
"Alright," Sora said jumping out of the way as a card soldier swung its spear at him, and heading through the chaos and to the tower.
Back in the thick of the battle Crowtassha gestured to Luke to come closer to her and heard the Queen scream at the top of her lungs, "You fools they're trying to free the girl, they're trying to break the tower!"
Turning around to see Sora smashing the tower with his keyblade, the guards stopped in their attempts to take down Crowtassha and Luke and ran towards Sora. Watching them, Crowtassha turned to Luke and told him, "We need to cover Sora, come on!"
Following the guards both of them struck at them with weapon and magic in attempt to relieve Sora of their attacks and direct them to themselves. Some of the cards started to ignore Sora and chose instead to attack Crowtassha and Luke, but not all of them, so Sora was left with the task of deviating between attacking the tower and attacking the cards. This went on for a time before the tower was left in such a bad condition that the cage Alice was held in fell back to the ground. Running up to it as a curtain that covered its surface during the fight fell from around its circular form only to reveal-
That it was empty.
Everyone in the court fell silent as they stared at the desolate cage that no longer held the girl who'd been in it only moments before. Dumbfounded at the sight of the empty cage, Crowtassha spoke into the silent air, "What happened, did she disappear while we were fighting?"
"You fools!" They all heard the Queen yell, but quickly found that it wasn't directed at them, "Find the one who's responsible, I don't care how!"
The order had been directed at her card soldiers and as soon as it had left her lips, they scattered in all directions to follow the order out. With the card soldier out of sight and the Queens attention away from them, Crowtassha blew out a sigh of relief.
For the time being, they were safe.
Walking away from the cage, Luke began in the direction of the bizarre room, clearly not wanting to be near the Queen and all her idiocy any longer. Treading after him Crowtassha came to stand at his side and asked "Where are you going?" As Sora approached them both.
He signed to her in answer, 'Away from here to that weird room, I have a feeling about it.'
Translating what he was signing she asked him, "What kind of feeling?"
Luke shrugged his shoulder, gesturing, 'Hard to say, guess we'll find out.'
Going silent Crowtassha slowed her pace so that she came up next to Sora, translating what Luke signed to her. "He says he has a feeling about that bizarre room, so we're heading there."
Nodding to her, Sora and Crowtassha followed Luke into the bizarre room leaving the court for what would hopefully be the last time.
...:...
Walking through the room and coming to stop just in front of the white table, Sora glanced around, trying to seek out anything out of the ordinary. There was nothing notable that met his eyes until he heard that familiar voice call out once more.
"The shadows will be here soon, are you prepared for the worst?" The cat girl said pointing up to the roof, from which a giant heartless that towered over them at their diminutive height dropped down and landed on the floor, before it flipped over the table to land on the other side of them.
Its head resembled a tower with many layers, each one changing from red to black as it got higher and lined with yellow. Its body was of a similar colouring, except that it possessed only a torso before turning into red and black misshapen legs. Its shoulders were adorned with bulky pauldrons and its arms were long things, reminiscent of strings that ended in purple hands that looked like bats. It wobbled from side to side for only a moment before it began its attack.
It struck out with its bat-like hands, trying hard to hit them. Dodging that attack, Sora jumped to the side and landed right near where Crowtassha's own jump had taken her.
"Attack its legs," she told him, "They're the only thing we could hope to hit at this height."
Taking her tip, Sora half ran half dodged, until he was at the heartless's long legs, where he proceeded to attack it with his keyblade. Luke and Crowtassha soon joined him in his assault, tripling the force of the attack. It soon occurred to them that the attack on the heartless's legs wasn't doing as much damage as they had hoped, but at their height there wasn't much they could do.
As they continued to pummel its legs, Luke landed a higher hit on it and the heartless abruptly fell to the ground, stunned, having taken enough hits on to it. Taking the chance given to them, they started attacking even harder than they had before, having no attacks from the heartless to hamper them. But the stunned condition of their enemy didn't last long and it soon got back up on its feet to resume its fight.
Readying his blade once more Sora started to attack again. This process was repeated for a time till the heartless became more ferocious and began to kick out with its legs, in an attempt turn the fight in its favour. But even with its fierce moves, it failed at taking its attackers down When it could take no more it fell to its knee and went limp, staying there a second before falling onto its back and disappeared much like its brethren had, a heart floated into the air above its disappearing form. Keeping his eyes on the spot where it had fallen, Sora hold a peculiar noise from behind him.
Turing his head his eyes landed on the small splintery door. Scrutinizing it he saw that a shining light was coming from the keyhole, illuminating it. As he stared at it, his still summoned keyblade brought itself up to face the keyhole against his will, and a light shot from its tip directly into it.
"What was that?" Crowtassha exclaimed in surprise.
"I don't know," Sora told her, "But did you hear that sound? It sounded like something closed, like the locking of a door."
As he finished his sentence a piece of crystal materialised in the fading light and fell onto the floor. Looking at it in surprise, Crowtassha walked up to and picked it up off the floor, turning it around in her hands.
"It's mythacite," she said. "But I haven't seen a shard like this before, guess I might as well hold on to it at least." Switching her gaze to the door as she pocketed the shard in her denim shorts, she mumbled "I wonder how it got here." And as she said it a girlish giggle sounded off behind them.
"Heh, heh you're quite the hero," the cat-girl said, "but if you're looking for Alice, she's not here. She's gone off with the shadows, into the darkness."
And then once more and for the final time she was gone, leaving Sora to mumble a defeated, "No."
Letting the knowledge that Alice was long gone sink in, Crowtassha approached Sora from behind and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Come on Sora, there's nothing more we can do here and I certainly am not going near that hag Queen again. Let's just go back to the ship, we might find Alice in another world."
Turning back to face her Sora nodding, saying "I guess you're right."
Pulling the silver crystal that would take them back to the ship from her pocket, Crowtassha asked Sora as she started using it, "So Sora how was your first trip to another world?"
Laughing a little Sora told her, "In all seriousness Crow, it was really weird."
Laughing to herself as well, Crowtassha said, "Well at least I'm not the only one who thought that."
A flash of light enveloped them and they were taken away from the room and to where the ship was stationed, ready to traverse another world.
Hoped you liked it, and please leave a review for me if you can.
Sayonara.