Sora slowly opened his eyes to view the blazing sun overhead surrounded by bright blue skies.
The boy slowly sat up, noticing that he lay on the beach with both feet soaking in the clear waters. Sora
felt some relief to know that he was alive and back on the Islands after being devoured by that horrible
darkness.
It was only a dream the boy told himself, yet it had all seemed to real, from the shadows to the blade, and most especially
the strangely familiar voice that had acted as his guide as he progressed across the platforms, but what made Sora wonder
whether it had all been a dream or if it had all been as real as his Island and friends was what the voice had told him just as he
was being taken by the darkness.
You are the one who will open the door the voice had told him in the strange otherworld, and now that Sora thought about it he
remembered a strange doorway in the place just beyond the waterfall, could this be the door, the voice had been speaking
of?
Sora suddenly felt wiped out and with a long yawn he lowered himself back onto the ground and prepared for a nap, hopefully
this one would not contain evil shadows and mysterious talking voices, or some strange door.
Unfortunately Sora did not get the rest he was hoping for, instead he got a scare that fully awoke him.
"Sora?" Kairi questioned the boy as she stood gazing down at him lying in the surf.
"Whoa!" Sora cried out in surprise, quickly sitting up on his knees in the soft sand and turning to face the girl, who let out amused
laughter at the boy's cry of terror.
"Gimme a break Kairi" Sora said with a sight bit of annoyance, yet he found that he truly could not stay mad at the girl for long.
"Sora, you lazy bum. I knew that I would find you snoozing down on the beach" the girl with a smile and a wink to the boy.
"No you do not understand, this huge black thing swallowed me up. I could not breath, I could not --" the boy began trying to explain to the girl,
but she brought him to silence with a hard knock to the head.
"Ow!, what was that for?" the boy cried out in pain, rubbling his sore head and gazing at the girl with confusion.
"I had to see if you were still dreaming" the girl answered simply, Sora however was brought back to his original question, had
it all been a dream? or had it been something more?
"You are the one who will open the door" Sora quoted aloud, earning a concerned look from Kairi.
"Are you sure you are ok, do I need to give you another knocking?" the girl said with a joking grin to cover her true concern for the boy.
"No I do not need any more knocks on my head, thank you. I was just thinking whether it had all been a dream or something more" Sora
tried explaining to the girl, but she only seemed to become more confused.
"Something more?" the girl quoted as a question, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
"I don't know" Sora answered honestly, finding no words to explain just what he thought the dream to be, a vision?, no, maybe a glimpse into
the future?
"Whatever that place was, it was plenty bizarre" Sora whispered to himself, gazing out onto the sea and wondering if the platforms and the
voice were awaiting him at its bottom.
"Yeah, sure" Kairi spoke behind him with a laugh, breaking the boy's thoughts as he watched her pass him to stand by the Ocean edge, gazing out onto the distant horizon
with a look of longing.
"Say, Kairi. What was your hometown like? You know, where you grew up" Sora asked the girl as he got to his feet.
"I told you before, I don't remember" Kairi answered with a laugh, but Sora could see that it saddened her to have no memory of
her life before the Islands.
"Nothing at all?" Sora inquired further, but the girl shook her head slightly against the sea breeze.
"Nothing" the girl answered simply, her smile falling into a sad frown.
"Do you ever want to go back?" Sora asked the girl, curious to see if the girl preferred the Islands over a place lost in her memories.
"Well, I am happy here" the girl answered, but Sora could see that she was not speaking all that was on her mind.
"Really..." the boy challenged as a silence fell, broken only by the sound of the surf as it washed over the girl up to her ankles.
"But you know.... I would not mind going to see it" Kairi spoke after a time.
"I would like to see it too. Along with any other worlds out their" Sora began, his eyes lighting up with excitement.
"I want to see them all" the boy finished in a whisper.
"So what are we waiting for?" the girl asked, turning to face the boy with a bright smile.
"Hey!" a voice interupted behind them.
Both of the children turned to face Riku, his long light blue hair hanging in his eyes and a log braced under one arm.
"Aren't you guys forgetting about me?" Riku said with a smile that revealed his set of perfectly even white teeth.
"So, I guess I am the only one working on the raft." Riku continued with a shake of his head, the boy then threw the log he held to Sora.
The younger boy let out a cry as the log hit him square in the chest and knocked the wind from his lungs.
"And you are just as lazy as he is" Riku said to the girl, placing both of his gloved hands upon his hips and staring long at hard at the girl,
whom let out a soft giggle at the boy's stern expression.
"So you noticed" Kairi said with a small laugh, suddenly the girl's eyes lit up.
"I got an idea, why don't we finish it together" the girl suggested with excitement, but both boy's only let out groans from where they sat on the
sands.
"Come on, it will be fun. We will make it into a race, whoever gets all the supplies first wins" the girl explained, knwing that she had the two boy's snagged now,
for both Riku and Sora were always tryign to outdo the other in competitions.
"Huh?" Sora questioned, lost in his thoughts of the door and the voice.
"What, are you kidding?" Riku said with a sneer, but Kairi only let out another giggle.
"Ready? Go!" Kairi shouted, both boy's only took a moment to gaze at each other before springing to their feet and running down the beach, kicking
up sand behind them.
"I got this competition in the bag!" Riku said with a confident laugh, gazing back at the younger boy with his sea blue eyes.
"I don't think so" Sora challenged, picking up speed.
Kairi just let out a laugh, no longer caring about her lost home, not when she had two of her greatest friends at her side forever.