L a b y r i n t h I s l a n d

"How could he do this to me? I don't need protecting; I can take care of myself. I just want his love…" – Namine

"HOLY SH*T! LAST TIME I CHECKED PLANTS DON'T ROAR AND GROWL!" – Roxas

*What happens when the group finds a treasure map? Read and enjoy! :D

CHAPTER 5: The Treasure Map, Pt. 1

Many days pass. The group adapted to their new environment and continued to grow closer together.

Roxas and Axel have become great friends. They sat together on a rock in the tropical forest. The morning air was moist, and the plants were as green as ever.

"So Axel... You and Namine have been getting pretty close. Uh, how do you feel about her?" Roxas mentioned in a curious tone, yet managing an 'I don't care' face. "Cuz you know... just wondering."

Axel sat back and thought for a moment. He eyed a colorful bird perched on a branch, high up in the tall trees. It called out to the other beautiful birds surrounding the trees' tops. "I know she likes me. But the truth is, I only think of her as a friend; a sister even. Don't tell her though, cuz I wouldn't want to hurt the poor thing."

Namine listened to everything Axel said. She peered at him from behind a bush, for they sat so close to the hidden art cave Namine was previously in.

The blonde tried to hold back the tears. Her eyes grew watery, and she shut her eyes. The tears came down like bullets. How could Axel say this? He was so sweet and amazing to her, yet he dares call her a SISTER?

Axel continued to talk about how he didn't want her to get hurt. He felt that it was often his job to protect her, because she was such a sweet little thing. They were friends but definitely nothing more. Roxas listened to his friend.

How could he do this to me? I don't need protecting; I can take care of myself. I just want his love…

Namine couldn't stop the tears from pouring. She needed to get out of there before she was heard.

Namine ran towards the beach. She ignored all the forest branches in her way, scratching her face, getting caught in her hair, and ripping her dress. She tripped over and over again, not bothering to look out. Namine couldn't see past her blurred, teary vision.

Hayner was the only one near the campsite. He was skipping rocks when she emerged –a hot mess- from the jungle.

Namine ran to shore and crouched down, hands covering her face. She sobbed, and couldn't hold back her loud cry.

Hayner, hearing her bawling, ran to the weeping beauty. He crouched by her side, and took her hands away from her face. Hayner's own face flushed, turning a bright red from the touch of the angel's hands. Her baby blues, red from weeping but still beautiful, stared into Hayner's brown eyes.

"L-leave me alone." Namine managed a sentence from her short breaths. She moved her hands away from his and gazed at the calm, clear blue ocean.

Hayner, not bothering to ask what's wrong, tried to get her attention. "Uhh… It'll be okay…" He put his arm around her.

Namine spotted his hand on her right shoulder and shrugged it off. Tears were still falling from her face. "W-why would he do this to me?" She seemed to be talking to the ocean.

Hayner followed her gaze and decided not to speak. They followed the ocean's horizons.

After a few long minutes, a crazy fast brunet and a slow moving brunet ran excitedly down the beach, reaching the two.

"Hayner! Namine! Look what me and Pence found!" Sora held out an large, old, and crumpled piece of paper. The four peered at the odd finding.

"It's a map! A treasure map!" Sora jumped with excitement, and Pence gave him a high-five.

"WHOA! It looks legit!" Hayner took the map from Sora and eyed it carefully. "Take a look at this, Namine!"

Namine dried her tears and wiped her puffy, red eyes. She looked at the old map and nodded. She couldn't force a smile.

"Oh my gosh… Namine what's wrong?" Sora noticed the girl's depressed face.

"Namine! Answer him! Come here." Pence opened his arms and gave his gloomy friend a big hug.

The two released from the embrace. "I don't wanna talk about it." Namine looked at the ground.

Suddenly, Cloud appeared from the forest. He ran towards Namine. "We're you crying? What in the world happened? WHAT DID HE DO TO YOU?" Cloud yelled, already knowing that stupid Pyro had something to do with this.
Sora glanced at Hayner and both thought the same thing: Looks like his sister senses were tingling.

"Axel hurt me." Namine began bawling again, and gave her big brother a big hug.

Cloud had a wicked look on his face. I'm gonna get that bitch. Nobody plays my sister.

During that moment, Roxas and Axel emerged from the woods, happily talking amongst themselves.

Cloud immediately spotted the red head. He released his grip on Namine and ran to the evil Pyro. He sprinted at Axel, who spotted him, and took out the buster sword.

"Take this BITCH!" Cloud swung his giant sword at Axel, who quickly moved out of the way.

"Whoa, what's up with you, Spiky?" Axel was confused at the random act.

"I always knew I couldn't trust you!" Cloud held his fighting position, pointing his sword at the Pyro.

Axel grew angry. What the hell is up with this guy? He wants a fight? I'll give one hell of a fight. "COME AT ME SPIKY!" Axel summoned his twin chakrams. He spun them, and fire circled the twin weapons.

Axel threw them at Cloud, who blocked it with his buster sword. Axel's flaming boomerang weapons came back to him, and Cloud kept striking at Axel, who dodged and threw his chakrams.

Sora, Hayner, Namine, Pence, and Roxas tried to stop the fight. "GUYS STOP! LOOK AT THIS!" Sora and the others came between the raging two. Sora held up the old paper. "It's a map of this island and there's an X on it. I think we should embark a journey and head to the X!" Sora called out to angry Axel and Cloud.

They stopped and held their weapons still, looking at what was in the crazy brunet's hand.

"Let's do it! I really wanna know what the 'X' is!" Pence agreed, and so did Hayner.

"No. There's no way I'm gonna believe this old piece of sh*t you found buried in the sand." Cloud moved his attention from Axel to Sora's map.

"Oh come on, Cloud! It'll be fun," Sora tried to persuade the mad blond. "So who's with me?" Sora looked at the others. Hayner and Pence came to his side. "Anyone else?" Sora looked at Namine and Roxas.

"I'm in." Namine came to Sora's side, and he was glad.

"What? Namine, you are not going. This could be dangerous!" Cloud was shocked at the girl's sudden interest in the map.

"I'll do anything to get away from… here." Namine glared at Axel, who had a total look of confusion on his face after seeing the girl's evil look at him.

"Great. Now I gotta go too and make sure you don't get hurt." Cloud looked pissed, as always.

Roxas glanced at his brother, holding the map, who also glanced at him.

"Alright, I'll go too. I better get a good share from that treasure we get!" Roxas joined Sora's side.

Now all that was left was Axel. "Look. I have no idea why you're so mad at me, Spiky, but there's no way you guys are gonna find treasure without me." Axel withdrew his twin weapons. Cloud eyed him down, putting away his giant sword, and moved his arm around his baby sister's back. She looked like a mess, and she had to be protected.

"Okay. According to this map, we have to go through the tropical forest. There should be a giant, open grassland after that. Further north are mountains, and that is where the treasure should be." Sora read the map.

"Mountains? Damn, this island is bigger than I thought…" Hayner stared at the old map.

"How are you so sure there even is a freaking treasure?" Cloud questioned the determined brunet.

"It's worth a try." Sora looked at the map, then at the dense forest awaiting them.

Later

"If we leave today, we should hopefully pass the forest by night."

"We'll need to pack accordingly, especially since it'll be cold up in the mountains."

"Let's gather all the food we can find and pack it on the trip. But we'll still have to pack lightly."

"Alright. Everyone pack and bring what we need."

The group packed their backpacks and gathered fruit. They brought extra clothes and outerwear, because the high altitude in the mountains will be cold for sure.

Hayner made sure to bring his video camera. "We're are now getting ready to head into the vast unknown. What awaits us? No one can know for sure." Hayner moved his camera from showing his face, to the tropical forest. "Legend has it that those who cross the forest, never comes back."

"Don't listen to him; he's totally making that up!" Pence overheard Hayner's conversation to the camera and had to interrupt.

Hayner turned off his camera. "Hey! I'm trying to make this more dramatic." Pence and Hayner laughed, gathering their things.

Later

"Are we all ready? Is everyone all packed and everything?" Sora asked the group who all looked about ready.

They had all changed clothes; Namine switched from her ripped white dress to jean shorts and a white tank top.

Axel wore a red wife beater, khakis, and a shark tooth necklace he wore around his neck.

Roxas and Hayner wore a black wife beater and Cloud wore a black v-neck shirt. Sora wore a blue t-shirt, and Pence stuck to his red jersey and bandanna.

"We're all about ready. You sure we can pass the forest by nightfall?" Roxas looked into the dense jungle they were about to cross, and back to his brother.

"I think so. We'll just have to move fast. If we don't cross the forest by tonight, our journey will have to be put on hold and things will get tough." Sora and the others stared at what awaited them.

They left before noon. The group walked into the thick tropical forest, walking gingerly to step over rocks, roots, and bushes. Palm leaves surrounded them, as the group listened to the sounds of the wild.

Birds and other wild animals chirped, growled, hissed, snorted, and squeaked.

"What kind of animal was that?" Hayner looked in the direction of a growl that seemed rather close. He stayed close to Roxas.

"Who knows? Just keep walking." Roxas followed Sora, who led the group according to the map he tracked.

Later

A couple hours pass, and the forest appeared endless. "Are we almost there, Sora?" Pence reached into his backpack and pulled out a banana.

"Alright. We'll stop here and eat our food." Sora put his map down, and sat on a large rock.

The group sat and ate their packed fruit, while watching the world around them. What exactly surrounded them? They were unsure. All they knew was that they weren't alone.

A nearby bush quivered. "What was that?" Namine heard it, and saw the bush move. "Look over there!" She pointed at the moving bush.

It moved again; the group watched it. Roxas summoned his keyblade.
"What are you doing? It could be friendly, Roxas!" Sora nudged his brother.

"How would you know? This forest is filled with dangerous animals that could kill us at any moment!" Roxas eyed the moving bush. It shook again, but with much more force this time.

The group stood and held their ground in front of the shaking bush.

A wild animal came out of the bush and exposed itself.

"Kweh." The little animal sung its little sound.

"OMG IT'S SO CUTE!" Namine ran towards the little animal that looked like a cross between a baby ram and a fluffy sheep.

"It looks like a little puffball!" Sora and the others came closer to the little animal, and it stared with big eyes. "Kwehhh."

"It has the cutest call. Can we keep it?" Namine petted and hugged the fluffy creature.

"No we cannot keep it. Watch the mom come and beat the crap out of us." Cloud was the only one not mesmerized by the delightful baby sheep.

Namine sighed and petted her hand on the creature's fuzzy white wool.

"Let's keep moving. We have a time limit to get out of this forest, remember?" Cloud reminded the group of their mission.

"Fine. Let's go." Namine kissed the adorable baby creature bye and walked away with the group.

Later

"A river! Thank god, I'm so thirsty," Hayner and the others ran to the river and cupped their hands to get a drink.

The river was extremely fast-moving; it had enough force to drown someone.

"Be careful! If one of you falls in, it'll be a rough chase getting you out." Cloud warned the others.

"We have to cross this river to get to the other side…" Sora followed the river's route. "There! We can cross through those rocks!" Sora ran to a sturdy line of rocks that connected the two sides of the river. "We'll have to jump and land on these rocks."

"Are you joking? That's insane, Sora! The rocks are too small to cross!" Roxas yelled at his brother over the loud jet sound the river's fast paced water generated.

"We can make it! This is the only way. There's no turning back now, Roxas!" Sora was determined and knew the group could cross the rocks. The rock path wasn't that long, anyway.

After a lot of arguing, the group had agreed to be extremely careful when crossing the river. After all, they were all eager to see what the 'X' on the map was; they had all come too far to back out now.

"I'll go first, and Roxas will come right after me." Sora jumped from stable grass to the risky rocks on the river. Roxas followed, then Axel.

Sora reached the other side. He noticed Namine had a worried look on her face. "You can do it, Namine! This is easy!" Sora called out to Namine, on the other side of the river.

She slowly crossed the rocks, and Cloud followed right behind her. He was ready to move in case his sister fell into the gushing waters.

They both hit land, and Namine sighed of relief.

Now all that was left was Hayner and Pence, still on the same side. Hayner crossed and hit land, while Pence stood in the same place.

"Come on, Pence! We all crossed safely, come on!" Sora persuaded his friend, who looked very scared as he stared at the rushing waters of doom.

He jumped to the first rock, then the second. So far so good.

Pence precariously jumped to the third rock, then he realized it was extremely slippery.

"AHHH!" Pence slipped off the rock, in the middle of the rushing river, and dove into the waters of death.

"PENCE!" The group all gasped and ran to catch up to Pence, who was being pushed farther down the river.

"We got you, buddy! Hang on there!" Hayner ran his fastest, and the others ran to keep up with the drowning boy.

"Grab hold to that upcoming rock, Pence!" Sora called out to the boy; there was a large rock that he was about to pass.

Pence was pulled by the river's fast-paced current, and caught onto the rock. He stopped in the side of the river, and had his tightest grip on the rock.

The others stopped and caught up to the poor guy. "We'll get you outta there, just keep holding on!" Roxas watched as his friend struggled to keep his grip on the slippery, wet rock.

"You still remember how to do this?" Cloud handed his sister a bow and arrow.

"I think so." Namine took the bow and aimed it at the other side of the river, near Pence. She shot the arrow, a rope attached to the end of it. The arrow hit the ground near Pence. "Pence! Grab the rope!" Namine put down the bow, Cloud smiled at her perfect aim. He taught her well.

Pence let go of the rock and exerted all of his effort to grab unto the rope. "Everyone pull!" The group pulled their hardest on the rope, as the river's current was against them. They eventually hoisted an exhausted, soaking Pence above the unpredictable river.

He fell to the ground and coughed, choking on the river's water. The group circled poor Pence. "Thank.. You.." Pence coughed more and was okay. He stood up and shook his wet hair.

"You do archery, Namine? That was amazing!" Sora looked at the bow that was in Namine's hand. They were all clearly impressed at the girl's suprising skill.

Namine smiled angelically and patted Pence's shoulder.

"Hey, that was really cool Namine!" Axel spoke to Namine. Namine ignored him and walked off, the others followed.

"What did I do…?" Axel was so confused. He looked at Roxas, who shrugged. They left the river and kept walking.

It was late afternoon. After endless hours of roaming the forest, the group was very tired.

"Where the hell are you leading us? I don't even think you know where you're going, Sora." Cloud was done with the endless roaming.

"Yah, we've been going through this forest forever! I bet we've been going in circles this whole time. Cuz, like, there's no way to tell." Hayner looked around at the same green forest they've been walking through for the past six hours.

"This is getting boring. Plus, I'm tired. Maybe we should just go home…" Pence was ready to hit the ground and sleep.

Sora looked at his pals. "Guys! We're almost there, I promise!"

That's what he's been saying the past two hours.

Abruptly, there was a clearing in the forest. Something big caught the full attention of the sick group.

"Whoa look at that plant! It's huge!" Namine stared face up at a gigantic plant that somewhat resembled a flower.

The boys followed Namine's gaze into the sky. The massive flower plant rose to the tops of the trees. Its stem was so thick; an axe would have a hard time penetrating completely through it. Its flower colors were all the shades between orange, pink, and red.

"It's gorgeous!" Namine took in the colossal plant's different shades of colors. The group stared in awe, their heads up facing the sky to view the flower.

All of a sudden the beautiful plant grew wide eyes and a mouth. It opened its mouth-filled with extremely sharp teeth- and released a gut-wrenching roar that shook the ground and all the trees of the island.

"WHAT THE F*CK? !" Axel screamed out in horror, and the whole group screamed and cried in distress.

The giant plant looked down at them, and growled. Its wide yellow eyes turned an angry red.

"HOLY SH*T! LAST TIME I CHECKED PLANTS DON'T ROAR AND GROWL!" Roxas screamed in terror at the monster plant.

"I just peed myself…!" Pence looked down at his pants.

The monstrous plant opened its mouth and bent down closer to the croup. A tongue whipped and hit the ground in a quick motion- exactly like a frog that catches a fly in its mouth.

"We gotta get out of here and save our asses!" Hayner was the first to turn and run. Something wrapped around his body, and he was lifted above the ground. He was being pulled right into the plant's mouth in an instant!

A flaming chakram was thrown and cut right through the plant's tongue. Hayner was sent into a freefall, and Cloud ran to catch the screaming boy. Axel's flaming chakram returned to him, and he aimed and threw them at the monster plant.

The plant roared in pain at its broken tongue and the flames from Axel's weapon.

"A fight's what it wants? Bring it on!" Sora and Roxas summoned their keyblades; Cloud took out his buster sword and Namine brought out her bow and arrow.

Hayner and Pence felt left out as they did not have weapons. Hayner took out his video camera.

"In the forest, we're fighting a hugeass monster flower!"

Namine aimed and released a fast arrow. It traveled upwards for a while, and then stabbed right at the flower's right eye. The flower roared.

"Gotcha!" Namine grinned at her excellent aim.

Now enraged, the flower came down directly above the group and attempted to crush them with its powerful teeth.

"Run! It's trying to eat us!" Hayner yelled and the whole group ran to escape the angry plant's jaws of death.

It came up and came back down in a quick motion. The group ran away to dodge the plant. The plant was able to grab someone by the foot.

Roxas, upside down from being pulled by his foot, swung his keyblades at the plant's mouth. The plant rose up and returned to its full height. Roxas had two keyblades, and he threw one at the flower's left eye- the one that wasn't stabbed from Namine's arrow.

Now with a keyblade in one eye and an arrow in the other, the flower released a painful screech and shook itself around in circles.

"It won't let go of me!" Roxas, still hanging by the foot from the flower's mouth, was being pulled in circles as the plant shook itself.

"I have to end this." Cloud couldn't risk anyone getting fatally hurt. He ran towards the flower's root.

Roxas summoned back the keyblade that stabbed the plant's eye. The plant faintly spotted something small running towards it. It roared and came down to crush the human with its jaws.

As the plant opened its mouth to crush Cloud, Roxas was freed from the flower and landed on the ground swiftly.

The plant's mouth fell not exactly on Cloud, but near him; its blurred vision held the it back from hitting the running human directly.

Cloud ran fast to hit the monster at its root. He finally reached where the flower's stem dove into the ground, and stabbed it completely with his buster sword.

The abomination roared heavily, and all the trees shook once more.

"Stagger it while it's weakened!" Cloud screamed at the group that was far away.

Axel summoned all the fire he had in him and shot it at the flower. Namine released a frenzy of fast arrows that hit the monster's pedals, mouth, and eyes.

Sora and Roxas ran their fastest to Cloud, to attack the monster's root with their keyblades.

"WE'RE BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF THIS B*TCH!" Hayner was really excited, filming the whole thing as he and Pence ran to take cover.

The plant shook from side to side, roaring in pain as fire, arrows, and blades was shot and stabbed at it.

Finally, the atrocious plant roared, then fell to its death. "Look out!" Cloud yelled, and the others ran away from its falling body.

The massive monster plant fell to the ground with the loudest thud, and the ground shook for a long minute.

"Is it really…?" Pence and Hayner came out from hiding behind a rock, and all stared at the colossal plant's fallen body on the ground.

"It's over! You're finished!" Sora jumped excitedly, and the others put their weapons away and cheered in relief as the monster they fought was defeated.

The sun was setting, and the group was walking in the forest once again. They were extremely tired and ready to camp in the wilderness.

"Wait, what's that?" Sora caught a glimpse of something, wild and open.

He ran from the group and pushed away the leaves that blocked his view.

"Oh my god… Guys get over here!" Sora called the group to follow him.

The others caught up to Sora and stared all around them.

The forest had come to an end, and a grassy savannah surrounded them. It was huge; there were no trees in sight. They had left the dense forest behind them.

This large, grassy clearing was inhabited by flocks of chocobos and many little sheep, like the one they had met earlier.

The group spotted a large pond that acted as the watering hole for the animals of the grassland.

"Wow. I've never seen anything so large, yet full of life. This is amazing." Namine beamed at the many large chocobos that ran in packs in the green savannah.

In the horizon, at the end of the grassy field far away, was the tallest mountains. That was their destination.

"I guess we'll camp here among the animals." Sora announced, hands behind his head.

The night had fallen, and the sky was lit up by the multitude of shiny stars and the full moon. The group had taken a spot in the grass, and easily drifted off to sleep. It had been a long day, and the longest rest swept over them.

LONGEST CHAPTER I HAD EVER WRITTEN. I love writing action, haha! Reviews are totally appreciated! :) thank you to all who are reading my story. You guys make this fun and worth it.

In the next chapter:
Will the group finally find the 'X' they had been looking for? What sort of crazy things will await them this time? The Treasure Map, Pt. 2 will be published soon!

Review replies:

xo. Kyorii: I'll tell you. P.S. good luck with that piano thing LOL. youre actually doing really good ! xD

SapphireYuki-Sama: I love Pence. Haha he's so silly! Thanks for reviewing! :)

Dusk-Sky: My cousin Kyranimay led you here? Hehe . Thanks so much, and I'll make this story worth finishing! :D

LittleKeybladeNinja: I really like your username x3 Thank you! & this is just the beginning of awesome chapters. bwuahaha ~ xD

sunshinemeg82: Ah, one of my cousin's stalkers. x] Thank you so much, and i really like your review, "Cloud don't get your man thongs in a bunch" XD LOL. THATS AWESOME. haha hope you like this chapter !