Challenging memories

Falling is not a pleasant sensation, I can tell you that. Especially if it's feet first right into a bottomless pit of darkness. Half way through the fall, I twisted myself around until I was falling with my arms spread out and my knees bent with my feet pointed into the rushing wind. The wind flowing past me was the only thing telling me that I was falling and not just floating in the darkness. It wasn't really even very strong to be called a wind; perhaps a breeze? Who knows… I don't know how much time passed, it felt slow, like hours, but it could have only been a few minutes for all I know. As I contemplated this, a pin prick of light appeared in the darkness, rushing up towards me fast. The light was the circle of another stained-glass platform. The design on this one was a little strange...

The platforms main color was a spring color green with a white rim all around it. A wooden bow curving around a heart shaped moon. Eight arrows appeared in the picture, each pointing in one of the eight directions. Each tip of every arrow was a shimmery gold. Around the edge of the platform on the rim were what appeared to be large gem stones. They were so beautiful. I could only recognize a few of them – like aquamarine, turquoise and opal. But the rest of the stones were ones I'd never seen before. Honestly, I didn't really know that stones could be that colorful.

I finished my examination as I fell toward the platform and landed gently on my feet. Well, that was nice of whoever's in charge of this thing. Now, if only they would show me the way out that didn't involve me having to go through with this process. Then I would be the happiest person alive. Or dead. I wasn't really sure about my physical status at the moment.

As soon as I was stable and not tripping over my feet, the voice started its 'annoy-Samantha-out-of-her-mind' game again.

You've gained the power to fight.

"What?" I squeaked, shocked. No way, this could not be happening. A bright light shimmered around my left hand and I was suddenly holding an archery bow in my fist. It was a longbow and when I held it parallel to me, it stood just a little under my eye level. I hate long bows. Their super hard to shoot with. Guys usually use them because they have the strength to pull the cord back far enough to shoot the arrow a suitable distance.

Now you must learn to use this power.

"No! I don't want to!" I yelled almost panicking. But anger started to override my fear. This was so not fair. Damn all the forces that brought me here!

There will be times you will have to fight.

As it said this, a shadow heartless crept its way across the platform. I saw it as it slinked toward me and I panicked. The heartless… it radiated this… I don't know, this pressure off of it. It was suffocating. I hurriedly backed up as far as I could go without falling off the edge of the platform. What am I supposed to do? Even if I wanted to fight it, I couldn't. The bow was still in my hand, yes, but it was useless - I wasn't given any arrows. What do I have to do? Whack the heartless with it?

As long as you see the light, let it flow.

Let it flow? That's no help! How do I do that? I thought. The heartless emerged from the ground and stood just a few feet away from me. Several more heartless joined in behind it. Two of them just so happened to be Neo-Heartless. Great, I'm going to die. Okay, I've got to think. Stop panicking and think. Alright... thinking... focus on thinking... still thinking... Arg! It still doesn't make sense!

"What do you mean?" I yelled at the voice. "How do I make it flow?"

The shadows inched closer, the others following it. Its antenna twitched as if in thought… and then it jumped forward.

Everything happened so fast.

I screamed, waiting for the weight of the creature to land on me. But instead, I gasped as my left arm suddenly lifted and pointed the bow at the creature. I didn't have any control over my body as my right hand lifted and touched the cord of the bow. The moment I touched it, an electric shock tingled across my finger tips. I watched as a reverberation of electric waves washed over the wood. The bow grip in my hand started to warm and then the longbow started to change right before my eyes.

Electric waves washed over the wooden bow before flashing a bright light that blinded my eyes. When I opened my eyes, I saw that the bow I had been holding was gone. In its place was a white wood recurve bow with a shimmering silver pull back cord. All along the wood were bronze vines with crushed jade leaves that twined and curled the two foot length of the wood. On the silver cord was a shining crystal bead where one would knock their arrows. Every few seconds, a current of light would run along the cord from the bead over the bow.

Completely transfixed by the object, I started when two fingers on my right hand snagged the cord around the bead and pulled it back to my ear. My feet spread from one another and I formed the archers "T" stance. Then my fingers let go of the cord without an arrow on it, snapping back with an empty "Thwp". What the heck was that all about? There were no arrows to fire at the heartless!

My heart jumped as one of the shadow heartless suddenly disappeared in a cloud of darkness. What? I blinked and saw that a strange light was protruding from the glass platform where the heartless had been. The light flickered twice before dissolving in the air.

I stared at the spot in silence. What the heck? It had invisible light arrows? Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the other heartless move toward me. I whirled to the shadow and copied whatever I had done before. The only difference this time was that I was the one controlling my moves. The heartless disappeared and, again, a thin beam of light stood in its place before disappearing into the air.

It must be whatever light I have inside of me. Somehow I must be channeling it through myself and into the bow, creating arrows made of light. Regular arrows probably wouldn't harm the heartless, now that I think about it. Like how Sora's wooden sword didn't do anything to the heartless on Destiny Island or when Roxas couldn't harm the Nobodies with his struggle weapon. Only weapons made of one of the three forces can harm beings from those forces. Huh, how interesting.

More heartless appeared out of the shadows and I took care of them fast. Just as I was about to destroy the last few, the shadows stopped attacking and melted into the platform before I could shoot them. But they didn't leave. They slinked into the middle of the glass floor and created a huge black hole. The blackness spread wider and wider every second. Futilely trying to avoid it, I took an automatic step back – totally forgetting I was on the edge of the platform – and screamed as I fell back into the darkness.