Disclaimer: The following series and characters belong to their respective corporations: Nintendo, Disney, and Square-Enix, including their respectful developers. The following characters of this fic: Kyle Nasher, Dirk Lionheart, Alana (Lana) Blade, Drew Devin, and Nived Werd belong to author Mace the Manakete in agreement to his written consent.

Nintendo. Disney. Square-Enix
Kingdom Hearts Chronicles: Vol.1
KINGDOM BLESSINGS

—CHAPTER 15—
Friends of Foes

-Tellius-
The continent of the beloved Laguz and humans. Its capital is the Begnion Theocracy, home of the Apostle. During a current conflict, the theocracy receives dire reports of a lost heron Laguz wandering the Serenes forest. Perhaps he was being pursued by a greedy noble…or worse.

Somewhere by a swampy riverbank inside the dark Serenes Forest, sat on the half-shaved dead grass a blue-haired mercenary dressed in blue noble garments. His eyes stared randomly in distance as if taken to a dream.

He reminisced himself holding his dying father in the midst of the sea of trees, grieving loudly as the rains poured strongly on the both of them.

Father…He thought.

A familiar voice rang to his ears, snapping him back to reality. "Ike of Greil's Mercenaries I presume?" He turned around and saw Lyn, standing at about four yards away from him.

Ike sat there, staring strangely at Lyn, "Yes. That is me." He responded, "Who are you?"

Lyn drew her Mani Katti blade and made a stance, "Your worst nightmare."

The alerted Ike got up and before he had a chance to draw his sword, Lyn lunged at him.

Meanwhile, our heroes—Kyle, Dirk, Donald, Goofy, Mario, and Luigi entered the other side of the forest and looked at their surroundings, appalled of what had happened to Serenes. Bowser was currently not with them at that time. He was put in charge to watch over the magic ship with the Baby Bros. and the chipmunks.

"This place is burnt." Luigi shook up at the sight of the forest, "You know what that means, no?"

"Gh-ghosties!" Goofy shook up as well. Both Goofy and Luigi hugged in fear of being attacked.

The heroes strangely glared at them, "Sheesh, come on, you two. There's no such thing as ghosts." Donald argued.

"Yeah, Donald is right. So be men." Mario scolded.

Suddenly, gush of lights poured in front of the heroes, summoning Wire Frames shaped like beast and crow Laguz, Living Bones with Shamans, and Fiery Globes Heartless. Kyle summoned his Keyblade and the heroes all formed up, their weapons in hand. "It looks like we have more company." Kyle said.

The enemies jumped on the heroes. Kyle threw the first hit with his Keyblade, smashing a Fiery Globes to a Living Bone. He turned to hit a Laguz Crow Wire Frame, then jumped above a Laguz Tiger Wire Frame and strikes it from above.

Another Lion Laguz Wire Frame leapt on Mario, but he dodged it, tripped it with a swing kick and landed a one-leg one. Donald wiped most of the Wire Frames with his staff. Those who leapt from behind, he cast Thunder on them and froze those who were far from him. Goofy and Luigi together leapt and nailed the frozen heartless in the air. Dirk jumped on one of the Living Bone heartless and landed a sweeping upper kick on the Shaman, knocking it off the Living Bone. Dirk grabbed hold of the Living Bone's horns as the Heartless uncontrollably rammed onto the rest of the enemies, crashed into a nearby tree and vanished like the rest of the heartless.

The heroes watched the heartless disappearing one by one. "Looks like a piece of cake huh?" Dirk said.

More enemies suddenly merged in again and completely surrounded the heroes. "Maybe not." Dirk said.

"What are they?" Mario muttered.

"Heartless, duh." Donald replied.

"I know they are heartless." Mario argued, "But they look different."

Where… is… Reyson…? A spooky, breathing voice suddenly spoke from among the heartless and Wire Frames. The heroes looked around.

"Who's there?" Kyle exclaimed.

Where… is… Reyson…? The voice spoke again.

Dirk turned around, "Kyle, behind you!"

Kyle turned around and a Living Bone rammed him to a nearby tree.

"Kyle!" the heroes got alarmed. They rushed to Kyle's aid, but they were quickly surrounded by the enemies.

Where… is… Reyson…? The voice spoke again.

"What the heck are you talking about?" Dirk exclaimed, "We don't know any reason!"

"He said Reyson." Mario corrected.

"Who cares?"

The Living Bone and the Fiery Orbs all took a leap on the heroes, ready to finish them. Suddenly a horse neighed, alerting the enemies and the heroes.

"What's that?" Luigi asked.

A green crescent-shape energy blast zoomed past the heartless, literally destroying them. A horse jumped in front of the hero and a female red-tressed knight who was on the horse pulled out her lance and swung it in the air, knocking out the rest of the enemies. A dark-clothed person with a red sign on its forehead also was with that knight and threw his hands around, casting many spells and destroying many enemies. The enemies were all gone in a matter of second.

The redhead knight approached the heroes, "Are you all okay?" she asked, but not expecting any answers from them, she quickly turned to the dark-clothed magician, "Soren. Make sure this kid is all right." She pointed him to the unconscious Kyle.

The magician, Soren, approached Kyle and helped him up. He picked up a blue flask from his sack pocket and poured the substance down Kyle's throat, "Here, drink this potion. It'll rejuvenate your strength."

Kyle slowly opened his eyes and slowly smacked his lips from the potion. He started gagging, "Oh! What is that taste?"

Donald, Goofy, Mario and Luigi all jumped on Kyle with great joy, "Kyle! You're here!! I thought we lost you!!"

"Guys! You didn't lose me. I was merely unconscious." Kyle said.

"Yeah, right." Dirk approached Kyle. Kyle got up to face his friend. Dirk smiled a little, but that didn't stop him to angrily punch Kyle's shoulder.

"Hey! That hurts!" Kyle shouted.

"Don't ever scare me like that again, Kyle!" Dirk scolded.

Kyle blinked, "Oh, did I?" he then spread a smile, "And here I thought you were the tough guy."

Dirk flinched, "I am the tough guy! Just…not in some few areas."

"You should all take refuge with us." The red-tressed knight spoke to the heroes, "This part of this forest is dangerous."

"Hey, thanks for helping us out here." Kyle complimented.

"It's not a problem." The red-tressed knight replied, "I'm Titania and this is Soren."

"We're of the Greil Mercenaries, commanded by our leader Ike." Soren said, "We're currently searching for Prince Reyson."

"Prince Reyson." Kyle repeated.

"Just who is that guy?" Dirk exclaimed.

"These creatures kept threatening us into telling them his whereabouts." Mario said, "We have no idea who he is and this is what happens." Donald, Goofy, and Luigi all nodded in agreement.

"We don't know who these creatures are. But we do know that Reyson is been pursued as we speak. Reyson is the last survivor of the Heron Laguz clan of the Serenes Forest, which is this forest." Titania explained.

"This dump is his home?" Dirk said.

"Look, it's a long story." Soren countered, "But right now, we must return to Princess Elincia and Ike and rescue the prince from some greedy noble that do not look like these freaks you've encountered."

"Wait! There's more?" Goofy gasped.

Goofy: Gwarsh! It looks like trouble's brewing in this world too. I hope we won't be bound to another unavoidable clash. And who's this Prince Reyson everyone is searching for? I sure hope the Dark League is not after his blessing too.

The epic continues.

NeXt ChApTeR