Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.
This is probably going to be my last chapter before NaNoWriMo kicks off, so it'll be a lone wait until the next chapter. (Probably around December.)
Herutsu no Oukoku
Chapter 8: The Melodious Nocturne
The five travelers happily exited the gummi ship upon arriving back in Traverse Town. After spending five days in a cramped space together, all of them were relieved to have the chance to get away from one another and be out in the open air, even if it was just for a little while.
Their first stop was the Accessory Shop to see how the others were doing. Aerith greeted them as they walked in.
"Sora, Kairi, you're just in time." She said warmly. "Merlin wants to see you as soon as possible. It's not an emergency, but it sounds important." Her green eyes fell on Axel. "You must be the guy Yuffie was talking about. She never gave your name, though."
"The name's Axel. Got it memorized?" He asked.
Aerith giggled. "It's nice to meet you, Axel. I'm Aerith."
Axel bowed in a clumsy manner. "That's a pretty name." He said flirtatiously.
Kairi rolled her eyes when Aerith laughed and played along. 'What do they see in that scrawny, red-haired jerk?' She asked herself. 'He's been nothing but a pain in the ass since we met!'
And yet he's done nothing. Her conscience whispered. Other than his annoying catchphrase, he really has done nothing to warrant your distrust. And everyone else likes him. So maybe it's not him who's the problem. Maybe it's…
"Me?" Kairi whispered out loud. Thankfully, no one seemed to hear her and so there were no awkward conversations as she zoned back in on the conversation.
"Cid's around back if you would like to go see him." Aerith said. "It may be a good idea to get extra parts for the ship in case anything happens."
Goofy nodded. "That is a good idea. Whaddya think, Donald?"
"But the King said--"
"Sora will be fine for a while on his own." Goofy interrupted. "Don't you think he deserves a little time on his own?"
Donald looked over at Sora and sighed when he saw he was busy chatting away with Kairi and Axel. "Okay." He gave in.
While Donald and Goofy left out the back door, Sora, Axel, and Kairi headed out the front door and began the walk to Merlin's. Sora made sure to walk between the two in hopes of keeping things peaceful, but the two still ended up bickering along the way. By the time they reached the doors to the tunnel, Sora had given up on keeping the two from arguing and, just for fun, joined in on a few of the arguments.
They were greeted by Naminé at the end of the path. Her white dress flickered with shades of red, orange, and yellow thanks to the fire that Axel was holding.
"I could hear you coming down the path." She said in her soft voice. "Master Merlin has been waiting for the three of you to arrive. Follow me." Without making a sound, she turned around and glided toward the house. She stopped momentarily to cast 'Stopga' on the moving rocks as they lined up.
The trio followed quickly and quietly, springing lightly over the paused rocks. Axel nearly fell in the water at one point, but he quickly regained his balance and continued on.
Inside they were greeted by Merlin while Naminé disappeared up the stairs.
"Hello again, Sora, Kairi. Ah, you must be Axel!" Merlin said, eying the redhead. "Naminé did mention you before and said you'd be joining Sora and Kairi."
"How'd she know that?" Axel whispered to Sora, who shrugged.
"You wanted to see us?" Kairi politely asked.
Merlin nodded. "I did. I located the first page of the book and wanted to know if you'd like to take a look."
Sora nodded eagerly and then looked hopefully at Kairi and Axel, silently pleading for them to go with him.
Axel looked away, unaffected by the pleading look. Only one person in the world's could get Axel to do anything with a look like that, but Sora was not that person. "Sorry, but me and books don't get along very well." He said, not sounding very sorry at all.
Kairi declined as well. "I'm going to stay and talk to Naminé for a while. If she's not too busy."
"I don't believe she is. But I never know anymore. That girl is a mystery even to me." Merlin said. "Before you go on up, have any of you found any pages to the book?"
"Oh!" Kairi exclaimed. She quickly unzipped her pack and rummaged through the magically enlarged space until her fingers brushed against a piece of paper. She pulled it out and smoothed it out as much as she could before she handed it to Merlin. "I found it in the forest in Wonderland. Sorry that it's wrinkled."
"Excellent!" Merlin exclaimed, relieved to have another page. "Come, Sora. Lets begin to piece the pages back together."
After the pages were placed back and Sora went off to the explore the world of the book on his own, Kairi went upstairs to talk to Naminé and Axel stayed downstairs and talked to Merlin about fire spells. It wasn't much longer than an hour before Sora returned from the book. About that time, Kairi trotted downstairs with a smile on her face.
Axel was the only one who was disappointed when it came time to leave. He was having fun learning different fire spells and getting to show off his skills with it. Merlin was just getting ready to teach him how to make simple fireworks, too.
Kairi and Sora ended up having to drag him out of the wizards house.
A harsh but gentle melody drifted through First District. The unique sound comforted people and made them feel more at ease. Seating at the center of the square of First District was Demyx, a unique individual even for Traverse Town. The large, blue instrument he played was similar to a guitar in looks and size, but the sound of it was nothing like the sound of a guitar.
Demyx's blonde hair spiked up into a Mohawk and, were they open, his eyes were a clear, ocean blue-green.
"Demyx!" Aerith called as she stepped outside the Accessory shop. "Com on in! It's time for dinner!"
The last note faded away and Demyx looked up and smiled. "Coming!" He called, before he gently lifted the instrument and carried it inside, where he leaned it against a wall before he practically skipped to the kitchen in the back. "I'll set the table." He told Aerith, who was busy with last minute touches for dinner.
Aerith nodded. "Set out five extra plates. We have company."
Demyx started taking plates out of the cupboard. "Are Yuffie and Leon on duty tonight?" He asked.
"Yes." Aerith said. "But we'll fix their plates now so that it'll be ready when they get back. Can you bring two over here?"
Demyx obediently carried two of the plates over to Aerith and then he continued to set the table and hunt down extra chairs. As he scooted the last chair into place and as Aerith set down the last bowl of food on the table, Axel, Kairi, and Sora returned from their trip to Merlin's.
"Axel, put out the fire." Kairi said, her eyes narrowed in anger. "We're inside. You could light something on fire!"
"Relax, Kairi." Axel said, making the fire twirl around his fingers in a thin ribbon. "I've got it perfectly under control."
"I don't care! Put it out!" Kairi snapped, her voice rising.
Sora took a step away from the two, worried that Axel may take things too far in proving that he could control the fire and agitate Kairi. "Maybe you should put it out." He suggested.
Aerith walked into the shop and gave them a warm smile. "I thought I heard you guys. Come on back, it's time for dinner." She looked wearily at the fire that danced along Axel's hand. "Please put out the fire before you come back here." She said before turning around and walking back into the kitchen.
Sora's stomach gave a loud grumble and he grinned sheepishly at his friends before he followed Aerith into the kitchen. Kairi walked past Axel, ignoring him the best she could. Axel let the flames die out and then walked into the kitchen as well.
In the kitchen they were introduced to Demyx, who was already sitting down and eating. Kairi sat down beside him and the two of them were soon lost in conversation. Sora took a seat on the other side of Kairi and Axel sat down beside him. Aerith went out to fetch Cid, Donald, and Goofy while they began eating.
Soon the kitchen was full of noise as everyone talked to everyone and the five travelers told stories of their adventures so far.
"So you guys are traveling to different worlds looking for a way to go home?" Demyx asked Kairi, who nodded.
"Well, I am." She amended. "Sora's looking for his best friend, Riku, and Axel's looking for his best friend, Roxas. Donald and Goofy are looking for their King. And once they find them, then they'll start looking for a way home, I guess."
Demyx sighed. "I wish I could travel around too. I miss home."
'Tell me about it?" Kairi asked.
Demyx smiled and set his fork down. "It's this neat little town where the sky is always the perfect sunset. It doesn't get dark at night like it does here so it's easy to lose track of time unless you can see the subtle changes throughout the day. In the morning, everything is clear and crisp and the sky is filled with shades of yellow and light blue. As the day goes on, most of the yellow darkens to orange and the blue fades away. And as it gets closer to evening, red mixes in with the yellow and orange. By nightfall, the sky is dark orange, red, and red-violet. If you look close enough you can see stars."
"It sounds beautiful." Kairi whispered. "I'd love to visit there someday."
"Yeah!" Demyx said, liking the idea. "You could stay with me and my sister Melody! Well, if you want to."
Demyx and Kairi continued to talk all throughout dinner and even as they helped Aerith clean up. It wasn't until nightfall when they walked outside that they realized they would be separated soon.
"I guess I'll see you when you get back." Demyx said sadly, his eyes downcast.
"Maybe you could come with us." Kairi said, searching for any way they wouldn't be separated. "We could leave Axel here and take you instead!"
Demyx laughed and for a brief moment his eyes lit up happily. "That wouldn't be fair. Besides, he's looking for his friend. That's more important than me going home."
Kairi looked away, ashamed of even suggesting that. "Maybe I'll stay here." She said.
Demyx shook his head. "Someone needs to keep an eye on Axel. He might burn down the gummi ship or something."
Kairi giggled and looked up from the ground. "That's true. I just wish that you could go with us. That way I wouldn't have just Sora to talk to."
"I could try to stow away." Demyx offered.
"Or you could just come on the normal way." Sora said, joining the conversation. "Donald and Goofy said that there's a little more room now thanks to something that Cid did."
Demyx looked a little surprised by the offer and Kairi hugged Sora in joy, something she very rarely did even with her best friend, Katsuo.
"You'd let me come with you? Really?" Demyx asked, awed by Sora's kindness.
Sora nodded. "Yup! What's one more person?"
"Donald won't be happy about this." Kairi warned.
Sora shrugged. "He'll get over it. So, are we ready to go? Did Aerith stock us up with enough of her homemade potions and ethers?"
Kairi told him about the whole two crates of potions, ethers, and remedy's as they began to board the ship.
"Wait!"
Unanimously, they turned around top see Naminé running down the street, haphazardly pulling on a long, billowing white robe while holding onto a white duffel bag. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a messy bun.
"Naminé, what are you doing here?" Kairi asked.
Naminé waited until she stopped right in front of them before speaking. "Merlin told me to come out here and join you guys. He says it's time for my first adventure without him. Besides, you guys need a healer on board, and I fill that role."
Sora almost groaned. "I can feel the walls closing in already."
"What's one more person?" Kairi teased him, using his quote against him. "Lets go break the news to Donald."
Sora sighed. "He's really not going to be happy about this."
End Chapter
I'm learning some tricks for dealing with writers block in these chapters. When I get stuck I just toss in an argument with Kairi and Axel, which helps me loosen up and get back on track. And now that I have Demyx in here, I'm sure I'll find something to do with him to help get over writers block.
This will probably be my last update until December. NaNoWriMo starts next Thursday and once that kicks off I will have no time to write this. The only way I will post next month is if I get really, really ahead on my story, which will probably not happen. Maybe I should take the 'probably' out of that sentence and replace it with 'definetely'.
I'll try to work on the next chapter this week and see if I can get something posted before Thursday, but I won't make any promises. And when I do update in December, I'll make sure to write out a summary to post at the beginning of the chapter so you remember what's been going on in this story.
PROFILES
Sora
Hair color: brown
Hair style: spiky
Eye color: blue
Age: 14
Weapon: Keyblade (Kingdom Key)
One of the main heroes in the story, Sora is searching for his best friend, Riku. He started off traveling with Kairi, Axel, Donald, and Goofy, but he's now joined by Naminé and Demyx. He plays the role of the peace keeper in the group, although he doesn't get along very well with Donald.
Kairi-
Hair color: dark red
Hair style: long; usually in a braid
Eye color: violet
Age: 14
Weapon: Keyblade (Heart Flower)
The main heroine in the story, Kairi is looking for a way to go home to her family and friends. She gets along just fine with Sora, Demyx, and Naminé, but she argues almost continiously with Axel and she's not sure what to think about Donald and Goofy.
Axel-
Hair color: bright red
Hair style: spiky but long; sometimes pulls it back
Eye color: green
Age: 16
Weapon: chakrams and fire
Like Sora, he's searching for his best friend (Roxas) although unlike Sora, it's apparant that he likes his best friend as more than just a friend. He now purposely tries to annoy Kairi since she seems to refuse to get along with him. He's not sure what to think about Demyx or Naminé.
Naminé-
Hair color: blonde
Hair style: shoulder-length, layered
Eye color: sky blue
Age: 14
Weapon: None; uses magic to fight and defend
She's easily the most mysterious in the group and is also the only one who everyone gets along with. She's been in Traverse Town for as long as anyone can remember and is Merlin's only apprentice. Her magical strength has yet to be seen.
Demyx-
Hair color: blonde
Hair style: mohawk
Eye color: ocean, blue-green
Age: 15
Weapon???
He wandered around in Traverse Town several days before running into Aerith when she was out getting groceries. After that, he stayed with her and the other "Town Protectors" until Sora and the others came back. Then he left with them to visit the different worlds and look for a way home. Whether or not he can fight remains to be seen.