"Why do the both of you have to be so damn stubborn?" Kurow muttered, whacking away another vine. Dense foliage was all around, and navigating was harder than it probably should have been. Breathing a sigh, Kurow picked up his pace to catch up with Sora, Donald and Goofy.
"Do we even have any idea where that Clayton guy is?" Donald said, tapping his foot, annoyance obvious on his face. Donald looked around, though it was clear he was avoiding looking in Sora's direction, likely still angry at the brunet for earlier.
"Jane said we might find him around here…" Sora sighed, eyebrows knitting together, "Maybe we should just wait for Tarzan to get back…"
A gunshot rang out over the jungle, causing Kurow to flinch. He looked around, trying to figure out where it had came from.
"There! Somethin's over there!" Goofy said, pointing towards the clearing the three of them had ended up in when they crashed. Kurow narrowed his eyes, noticing the sort of monkey Heartless from earlier.
As the four dashed towards the clearing, Kurow saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He guessed it was Tarzan, who had likely heard the gunshot as well.
Well, we'll need all the help we can get.
Another gunshot rang out, and Sora picked up his pace. They broke into the clearing, with no sign of anything greeting them. Kurow walked forward slightly, eyes widening as his gaze landed on a large rock, the one Goofy had landed on. A pipe laid on top of it, the ashes spilling out as it was on it's side.
Kurow walked over to it, picking it up, careful not to burn himself. "Hey… Check this out. Isn't this…"
"It's Clayton's, right?" Sora walked over, his breathing slightly heavy from running.
Kurow nodded. "Which likely means… something's happened to him… Maybe the Heartless…?" Kurow's voice dropped off, thoughts wandering.
"Wait a minute," Donald interrupted, "Goofy, where did you see those Heartless go?"
Goofy paused for a moment, and looked around after a second. Then, he pointed the opposite way they had came. "I think it was over there."
"Let's go check it out then!" Sora said decidedly.
Dashing off, Kurow sighed, starting after Sora. Soon, after passing by another tree bank and finding a path, they broke through to another clearing. Heartless milled around, some noticing the four of them and escaping off into the jungle.
Feeling the now familiar weight of his keyblade appear in his hand, Kurow readied himself for a battle.
Sora was at his side, a determined look on his face. "Let's go, you guys!"
"And… There we go!" Sora grinned, turning back to the others. "That's one more world safe now, right?"
"Looks like it!" Goofy said, chuckling.
"But still no sign of Kairi." Kurow muttered, turning out of the cave, back towards the waterfalls. "Or Riku, again, for that matter…"
"Hey, don't worry Kurow!" Sora jogged after him, resting his arms behind his head. "I'm sure we'll find them, both of 'em! We've been looking this long - and they have to be out there somewhere."
Kurow sighed, shaking his head. "Yeah. You're right. We just have to stay optimistic." he turned, smiling. "Doesn't sound too hard to you, does it?"
Sora laughed. "Yeah, I guess so."
The waterfall's roar was loud, sending up a fine mist around the area. Vines and foliage were strewn everywhere, and as the small group made their way back down, Sora had to make sure not to slip. A glance towards the water showed a harrowing drop, and it left Sora with an uneasy feeling even as they made it back to the jungle clearing they'd been tossed into.
It was fairly quiet on the way to the gummi ship, once they had said farewell to Tarzan and Jane, and while Goofy and Donald talked over by the control panel, Sora stared out of the ship's window. The silence persisted, until Kurow hesitantly poked Sora on the shoulder.
"Hey, Sora? Can I ask you something?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, of course. What is it?"
"Why do you think we're doing this? Like, going around and locking keyholes. Why'd it have to be us - well, you?" Kurow said, pausing before he had corrected himself.
Sora thought for a moment before shrugging. "I dunno. I mean, it could've easily been you or Riku who could lock 'em."
From the console, Goofy gave a small laugh. "Maybe it's just you, Sora!"
"What?" Sora drew back, slightly surprised.
Kurow stifled a laugh. "You know, I could believe that. I've never met anyone else like Sora."
"What the heck…?"
From the controls, Donald shook his head, muttering to himself.
"Is somethin' wrong, Donald?" Goofy asked, leaning over.
"I don't know. There's just a weird signal on the radar." Donald scratched his head, confusion evident on his face. "I've never seen something like this."
Sora leaned forward, peeking over Donald's shoulder. On the small screen, a dot blinked in and out, much larger than any of the other ones on screen. "It's not too far away, and it's another world we haven't been to…" Sora's voice trailed.
"Fine, fine. Don't have to spell it out…" Donald shook his head, exasperated.
"What of the keyhole?"
"As I said, the Heartless are searching now. It seems it will only be a matter of time before we find it."
"And the princess?"
"We are looking for her as well. Though, Agrabah is full of holes. Enough to where one could hide quite easily. But why worry? This world will be sent into darkness with or without her when we find the keyhole."
"Fool. Unless we have all seven princess, we will be unable to unlock the final door. Any fewer, and all our efforts will have been for naught."
"Very well. If she is that important, we will find her."
There was a silence as the two stopped talking, and the sound of footsteps drew away.
"Jasmine -"
"I know. " The princess drew back below the stand, pushing a strand of black hair out of her face. "It's too dangerous for you to stay with me. You need to find somewhere safe."
"That's not fair. I can fight off those bad guys! That way, you can stay safe and find your friend!"
Jasmine smiled softly. "I appreciate the thought, but I would feel horrible if something bad happened to you because of me. Please? I promise I'll find you as soon as I can, Kairi."
The redhead frowned, but she nodded nonetheless. "Okay. Promise?"
"Promise. Now, go!"
"Are you sure we're supposed-" Kurow paused, coughing as another puff of sand was sent his way, "- to even be in here?"
"Nope! But, there's apparently sentient carpets here, so, cool." Sora replied. He leaned out a window, craning his neck around to try and see where the carpet he had freed flew off to.
"That's as weird as the stuff in Wonderland…" Kurow coughed again. "Why is there so much sand in here? We're well off the ground…"
"Dunno. It's probably because we're in a desert. "
"No, duh, Captain Obvious. I meant up here. This looks like someone was living here." Kurow walked over to the window, joining Sora. He leaned slightly out, scanning the streets below.
Sora looked out over the city, which seemed huge. Buildings stretched far out, with dozens of paths leading to large building with a dome.
"Hey, Sora." Kurow tapped Sora's shoulder, making him flinch. The silver haired boy was pointing down, towards a road below them. "Is that… what I think it is?"
Sora followed where he was pointing, seeing someone - or something - running through the streets below, waving a wicked looking sword. It paused, and two more popped into existence, and the now trio disappeared under an archway.
"Heartless. Those had to be Heartless." Sora said, narrowing his eyes. He turned towards Kurow. "We need to go after them."
"I know. Let's just hope we run into Donald and Goofy along the way." Kurow shook his head, following Sora as he left. "Why did we even agree to split up?"
"So we could cover more ground? " Sora shrugged, grunting as he landed on the ground. "Plus, we were kinda being chased by a huge Heartless."
"...Point taken."
"Thunder!" Arcs of electricity raced around, hitting the strange Large Body and causing it to disappear. Despite the weariness, Sora grinned.
The Heartless had led them down an alleyway, seeming to disappear. There, the two had met a woman, Jasmine, who quickly explained the situation. A man named Jafar was apparently looking for their world's keyhole, though the reason why she either didn't know or didn't tell. And after Jasmine had mentioned someone called Aladdin, seemingly out of nowhere, a person Sora had assumed was Jafar appeared.
Jasmine had absconded from the scene after Sora's insistence, and Jafar summoned the Heartless that they had seen earlier, leaving once they were busy fighting.
Now, Sora and Kurow simply had to find Donald and Goofy, and figure out where Jasmine had gone.
As they walked around the city, coming across various Heartless as they did so, silence crept over them. When they weren't fighting, Kurow stayed silent, likely deep in thought.
Soon, however, as the two of them reached the entrance to the city, Sora spotted Goofy and Donald, perking up and calling out, "Hey! You guys!"
"There you are! We were startin' to get worried!" Goofy greeted, giving a small laugh.
As Sora closed the space between them, he noticed something off in the distance, steadily getting closer.
"Where have you two been?" Donald said, tapping his foot as he glared at the boys.
"We kind of got… caught up in some things." Kurow answered, shifting on his feet awkwardly. "There was some Heartless running around, so we went after them. Then we met this woman…" Kurow's voice trailed. Sora guessed he had noticed it too.
"Are you seeing that too? Please tell you are, and I'm not just hallucinating because of this heat…"
"Don't worry, there's definitely something coming towards us. I just hope it's not more Heartless." Sora replied, his keyblade appearing in his hand nonetheless.
Thankfully, it was unnecessary, as the carpet from earlier flew down, making frantic pointing motions toward the desert.
"What the-?" Donald's jumped, taken aback by the display.
Goofy tilted his head. "I don't really know why, but… I think it wants to take us someplace, fellas."
The carpet stopped suddenly, and made a looping motion, as if agreeing with Goofy.
Kurow raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure… we can trust this… thing?"
"I don't know, but… it doesn't seem bad, does it?" Sora said, looking back at Kurow. "Maybe it's just worried about something."
He turned to Donald and Goofy. "What do you think?"
"I'm with Sora on this one. " Goofy said, giving a slight nod. Donald nodded as well, though he looked slightly uneasy.
Kurow stared for moment, then sighed. "Alright. I guess we're trusting a sentient carpet. Let's go, then."
"So that's it… thanks, all of you." Aladdin said, managing a small smile.
"It's no problem but… What were you even doing out here, Aladdin?" Sora said, tilting his head as he asked.
"I was exploring the Cave of Wonders." Aladdin replied. "That's where I found that carpet, and this." He held up his hand, which held a small, golden lamp, certain spots on it rusted.
"According to legends around here, if you have this, you can summon the-"
"The one and only, Genie of the lamp!" There was a puff of smoke behind Aladdin, Sora heard Kurow make a strangled noise beside him, and the blue apparition flew around and shook Aladdin by the shoulders. "You give my ol' lamp a little rubdown, and you get three wishes from me! Once your third wish is made, I go 'poof'! And then it's back into the lamp with me!" Genie talked fast, so much so he seemed to have to pause and regain his breath.
"And Al here has made his first wish: getting rid of those guys back at the Cave!" Genie made another puff of smoke, appearing again by Aladdin. "So, what'll be for wish numero dos, Al?"
"I think that'll have to wait until we get back to Agrabah, Genie." Aladdin said, shaking Genie off.
"S-Speaking of which," Kurow began, "Would you happen to know someone named Jasmine, Aladdin?"
Aladdin raised an eyebrow. "How do you know Jasmine?"
"We ran into her in the city. She was hiding from this guy, Jafar, when we met her." Sora added. "She mentioned you before he showed up."
"Jafar-! If he's after her, Jasmine's in trouble!" Aladdin started towards the carpet, motioning with his hand. "Come on!"
"Hey… Wasn't this way blocked off before, Goofy?"
"I think you're right, Donald…" Goofy scratched his head, puzzled.
"Let's just go! Jasmine probably headed back towards the palace - and we need to find her before Jafar does!" Aladdin insisted, continuing forward.
"He must really care about Jasmine if he's that worried about her…" Sora muttered, still out of breath from following Aladdin.
"Yeah. He's like you and Riku are about Kairi." Kurow muttered.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing…"
As they passed through the archway, they were greeted with yet another pair of Heartless blocking their way.
"Oh come on-!" At this point, even Sora was tired of the constant assailants, and they only had a handful of potions left.
"I don't have time for you guys!" Aladdin pushed ahead, dashing in between the Heartless and continued down the street.
Then, a crate fell from higher up, surprising everyone in the vicinity. Donald took the opportunity, and sent out a Fire spell, destroying the remaining Heartless.
"Huh. That was a lot easier than I thought it'd be..."
Sora flinched, the familiarity of the voice registering. "K-Kairi? Is that you?"
"...Sora?" The redhead had made her way down from her perch, walking around the crate she had dropped. Her face lit up as she saw the two boys. "Sora! Kurow!"
"Kairi! It is you!" Sora laughed, walking over to her.
"Where have you guys been? How did you even get here?" Kairi asked, bombarding them with questions, though relief was obvious on her face. "And who are these guys?"
"Those two are Donald and Goofy. It's thanks to them we were able to get here." Kurow answered, a small smile on his face. "It's good to see you again."
Kairi laughed a little, smiling. "It's good to see you guys, too. You wouldn't believe how worried I've been!"
"If it's anything like how Sora's been, I could believe it."
"H-Hey! Kairi's our friend! Of course I'd be worried!"
"...Hey, wait a second." Kairi paused, knitting her eyebrows together. "I-Is Riku not with you guys?"
Sora and Kurow looked at each other, a silence question passing between them.
Eventually, Sora said, "Riku… isn't with us. We ran into him in another world but… he went off somewhere as soon as we did."
"Oh… Well, this is Riku we're talking about." Kairi said, a resolute look replacing the worry. "He's gotta be fine, wherever he is."
"Yeah. I'm just glad we finally found you, Kai." Sora said, smiling again.
"Uh, Sora, Kurow? I hate to be interuptin' somethin', but Aladdin's comin' back." Goofy said, pointing up the road, "And he looks angry."
As the man closed the distance between them, he bent forward, hands on his knees.
"A-Aladdin? Are you okay?" Kurow glanced at the others, reaching into his pocket, only to be waved off.
"I'm fine but… Jafar - he's got Jasmine and Genie."
"Genie? How'd he manage that?" Donald inquired.
"I wasn't paying attention and that stupid bird, Iago, snatched his lamp." Aladdin shook his head, drawing himself up. "Jafar mentioned the Cave of Wonders. I say we head there."
"Right!" Sora affirmed.
"Also... " Aladdin gave a small wave in Kairi's direction. "Who are you?"
Kairi waved back. "My name's Kairi. I'm a friend of Sora's and Kurow's. You're Jasmine's friend, right?"
"I… guess so. We only really met briefly."
"Good enough. You said she's in trouble? Then we need to get a move on! Before something really bad happens to her!" Kairi turned, walking back the way they'd came.
As they walked through the streets, the amount of Heartless they encountered dropped incredibly. The only real encounter they had was at the entrance, where one of the weird Large Body's appeared with two more sword wielding Heartless on either side.
"Kairi, get back! These guys are-" Sora began, stopping when he saw a flash of light in Kairi's hand.
She held a keyblade, one with an intricate blade made of colorful flowers and leaves. The handle on one side was like a vine, wrapping around the rest of the weapon, while the other side looked like an ocean wave.
"These guys are nothing! They've been harassing me and Jasmine ever since I woke up here." Kairi turned to Sora, grinning. "Come on, stop gawking, Sora! We need to hurry!"
Sora paused for a moment, processing what was in front of him, before nodding and getting into a battle stance. "Right, let's go!"
Oh my goood, I'm so sorry about how long this took. School took me off guard this week, I ended up having assignments due almost every day. Hopefully Chapter 7 won't be as difficult to get done ;.; I can't believe I actually had to split up Agrabah, since it was nearing 3,000 words in my docs.
Anyways, as always, feel free to drop a review or pm me if you have any questions!