Sora opened his eyes to see that he was back at the spring, but he gasped in awe at the woods twinkling in midday. He looked around, "Wow... This is beautiful..."

"Indeed it is," Sora turned back around to see a monkey made of light- just like Ordona -hovering above the spring, curled around a ball of light and looking at Sora from his side, "because the woods of I, Faron, have been restored to light."

Sora and looked at his hands, delighted to see the sickness had waned back to just tainted veins on his wrists. Now that he thought of it, his head felt clearer, too, and once again he was wearing his jacket. Faron spoke again, prompting Sora to raise his head, "But this does not mean we are on friendly terms, foreign hero."

Sora did a double take, "E-excuse me?" He laughed, not knowing what else to do, "I-I just saved you!"

"Indeed you did." Faron said. He looked almost contemptuous though, "But in doing so you have condemned the one who by order of the gods should be standing there in your stead."

Sora felt his barrier of levity crumble, "Wait... I hurt someone?"

"Hurt, perhaps, but in truth I do not know." Faron almost seemed to shrug, "But I do know that the true hero of these lands is not you." Faron looked off towards Ordon, "He passed through here quite some time ago... A blue eyed beast dragged unwillingly into the twilight."

Sora finally recovered fully from the shock, and boldly declared, "Well, I'm saving you guys anyways. I can save this other guy, too, no problem." Faron stared at him. He seemed at a loss for what to say to the response. Sora nodded, "I can and I will."

Faron then changed the subject, "Your unwelcome intrusion upon the will of the gods aside, there is still he matter of the King of Twilight."

Sora nodded, "Now you're making sense."

Faron frowned a little deeper, "And that burden falls upon your shoulders, foreigner." Sora merely shrugged. He was used to things like that. Faron turned to deeper in the woods, "Long ago, the other light spirits and I sealed away dark power. Such power lies at the heart of Faron woods, within its abandoned temple." He turned back to Sora, "It is dangerous, deadly power. Pure shadow not meant to be held by the light. Unfortunately it is the only power to match the King of Twilight's."

"I'm gonna need to use a doomy artifact of doom, huh?" Sora tittered without much thought, "Yippee."

"This is no laughing matter." Faron reprimanded the boy again, "This entire world and its balance is at stake."

Sora shook his head with a sigh, "I have heard that way too many times to count." He then began walking away, "So go to the temple place at the heart of the woods," he recalled the area where he took out the last two shadow insects, "I think I know where that is." He waved over his shoulder, "Thanks for the directions Mr. Light spirit dude, bye."

"Your illness," Faron said softly, causing Sora to pause, "I do not know what Lanayru was thinking, leaving part of their light within you, but I suppose it is more of a curse than a blessing."

"Got that right." Sora huffed back, "They could've bothered to make sure that if I was saving in everyone I'd do it a little more comfortably."

Faron continued, "Perhaps Lanayru wanted you to be bound to this land, obligated to save it or else you perish with it."

Sora tilted his head back and forth as he thought the theory over, "Little mean, but makes sense. No one here really knows me." He then sourly added, "Except as a foreigner."

Faron faded away, "Oh, we know of your past deeds and the ones of your forebears, Keybearer..."

Sora rapidly turned only to catch the last and barest glimpses of Faron. He failed to notice Midna popping up next to him as he stared in surprise- and maybe light horror -where Faron used to be.

"Keybearer? What's all that about you rude little boy?"

Sora moved on, sloshing out of the spring with a huff, "None of your business." So they did know. All of the light spirits knew, probably. That added an interesting puzzle piece to this mess. Then again they should have been treating him with a little more respect, considering how much he helped the worlds.

Then again Faron also mentioned his "forebears". Sora had to think a moment on that word and supposed that the stupid monkey was referring to previous wielders of the Keyblade. Very quickly he differentiated himself from them, telling himself they were just in the past, and no way the past had such repercussions to blame him with. He remembered the stories he'd heard of the Keyblade War. More like a Keyblade massacre, the way Yen Sid described it.

"Hey! So someone isn't afraid to walk the woods anymore!"

Sora lifted his head from idle thinking to see a young man about his age waving him over. He had to lift an eyebrow at the ridiculous Afro that had a bird's nest nestled in its poof. Sora figured he'd humor the boy, "Well, there's nothing terribly scary about this place."

"Well, I dunno, man." The boy replied, "There was recently a bug problem, but I dunno where they all went." Sora had to suppress a laugh. Oh he knew where they went.

Sora held out his hand, "I'm Sora."

"Coro, nice to meet ya Sora." The boy replied. He then looked Sora over, "Hmm, wouldn't say that's Ordonian clothing."

"I'm from a ways off, someplace you probably haven't heard of." Sora quickly explained.

Coro then rummaged around in his pockets, "Say, you don't have a lantern, do you?"

"Uh, no, why would I need that?" Sora said, leaning back a little.

Coro held up a lantern, "These woods get pretty dark at night. Not to mention there's some weird fog down the way you were heading." He handed the lantern to Sora, "Here, it's completely full of oil and I'll give it to ya free of charge! If you need a refill I'll fill it for a price though. Good for the business, ya know?"

Sora inspected it with a smile, "Thanks, that's awfully kind of you." He then looked back, remembering his mission, "I really gotta get going, sorry." He backed up, waving goodbye to Coro and continuing on. Sora lit, his lantern, finding that the cavern leading to the next segment of woods could be handled much better now that he could somewhat see.

Midna struck up conversation with him in the safety of the cavern, "You were awfully ready to leave."

Sora shrugged, looking around in the dim light of his newly acquired lantern, "I don't want to waste time." He looked at his hand, noting how the taint had darkened and creeped up a barely noticeable amount. It was funny, he was using himself as a clock now, "I'm kinda dying here."

Actually saying the words made Sora's stomach lurch. Hadn't he told Kairi he'd be back soon? How many times did he have to answer to Riku's nagging about being careful with a callous and amused sigh? He looked ahead with a sudden blankness at the thought of failure. He was glad Midna respected the silence he brought with his introspections.

Sora walked out to see that the fog that had almost killed him wasn't keen on leaving. Rather than being bright fuchsia it was a more subdued lavender, but there was no mistaking the smell. Sora walked up to where Midna had guided him earlier, but she quipped, "You can find your own way now that you're not completely helpless, can't you you big boy?"

Sora was spurred on by the teasing, and he grabbed his shirt and pulled it up over his nose, "Well, here goes nothin'..." He waded into the fog with his makeshift gas mask, but soon backpedaled as he felt a drugged stupor overcoming him again. He tripped and fell over onto his rear, but it was away from the reach of the fog, and he surmised that was better than a sore butt.

He coughed and fanned at his face, "Eugh. Nope." He looked at his shadow, "Midna, come on, please?" She manifested out of his shadow and pulled at her eyes with mocking intent. Sora felt his face getting flushed in outrage, "You little-"

Something swiped his lantern away.

Sora looked at his hand, then ahead to see a monkey chittering and waving him along with the lantern suddenly dangling on a stick. He'd just about had it with all the bumps in what was supposed to be a smooth road. Midna popped out again as Sora's irate scowl deepened, "Well?! you gonna-"

Sora stood and screeched with lightning speed, "OKAY COME HERE YOU LITTLE CHIMP!"

The monkey squeaked and ran into the fog, but what surprised Sora most was that it shrank back from the light. He followed it through the purple mist, pulling his shirt back up just in case as he continued yelling and cursing at the primate thief and chasing after it.

"Man, and I thought you couldn't really get mad!" Midna giggled.

"SHUT UP." Sora snapped back with a backhanded slap in her general direction.

After a good, long and loopy path through the fog, Sora ended up on the other side of the forest without even the slightest fuzz of his head. He panted and doubled over, wheezing even as he looked around for the monkey.

He stumbled to his lantern, out of oil and abandoned on the ground, "Stupid thing used it all up..." He groaned, "Where am I gonna find more oil?"

"Wasn't there a store up ahead?" Midna suggested.

Sora rolled his eyes, "I don't have a single bit of mun- I mean, currency on me." He bit down on his tongue. He couldn't believe he almost slipped like that.

"I guess wherever you're from you use mun, whatever that is." Midna sighed. She produced a red gem, "We use rupees here in Hyrule. Green is one, blue five, yellow ten, red twenty, purple fifty... It goes on higher and I'll explain when I need to."

Sora accepted the twenty rupees, commenting, "Little inefficient."

"It's what we use." Midna replied. She shoved him off, "Now come on, weren't you he one who was so concerned about moving fast?"

Sora didn't give a comment to that remark, but it was clear he was ticked by it. He pushed through the monsters at the end of the tunnel easily, hardly giving them more thought than the weakest of Heartless. He stopped upon noticing a bridge, "Seriously, how does something like THAT get here?"

Midna pulled up next to him, "Ruin of some kind?"

Sora stood back and put a hand on his chin, "Too fresh. Not to mention there's no sign of anything it could lead to. It could conceivably go over our heads but it's too short for that." He shrugged and moved on, "But I guess it doesn't really matter."

Midna hug around in his shadow as long as she could, but was soon being dragged along. She caught back up to him and drifted around, "You okay? You've been pretty indifferent recently, kiddo."

Sora glared at her, then quietly moved on.

He walked up to the bird oddly talking and trilling for him to buy its merchandise (apparently it owned the store) and without a blink refilled his lantern. He continued trudging up the path, killed a few more monsters, and burned his way through the webbing and kindling leading into what he now knew was an abandoned temple.

When the flames gave out, he dipped into the shadows and stared at the darkness with hesitation. Caught in the twilight of light and darkness, the known and the unknown, safety and danger. One foot literally in the warmth of light that filtered through leaves with another fading into black and illuminated by a warm glow.

He gave one more look at the light, then dove into the dungeon.

And the adventure continues~! I'll keep the preview in as a kinda intermission between chapters, or maybe I'll lose it. Eh, I'll figure it out later.