Chapter 48 Into the Woods
Aqua blinks in the sudden sunlight of the brightly colored world she has just entered. The sky is just a shade too blue to be real and the grass trimmed too perfectly. She is standing alone on a dirt path weaving through the field towards a forest and a mountain range far in the distance. The wind blew through her hair, whistling in her ears with an almost musical sound. It blew from behind, urging her to walk down the path to the mountains.
"Right, the test," Aqua murmurs to herself as she begins to run at a light jog. She runs for several minutes and yet the mountains don't seem much closer. There is nothing in the world to see except the far away mountain range growing bigger at a snail's pace so she lets her thoughts wander.
She wonders what Terra is doing. This was obviously the individual part Master Eraqus had told them to expect. Her stomach twists slightly as she imagines what sort of test is lined up for the two of them. When Master Yen Sid had said that speed was important, she had expected to be faced with hordes of heartless and only a small amount of time to defeat them, but instead all she is doing is running through the quiet field. Maybe it is just a race?
If it is simply a race, there would have to be obstacles and the first one presented itself to her at that moment in the form of the Guard Armor heartless she and Terra had fought with their friends in Traverse Town.
Despite its sudden appearance on the path in front of her, Aqua doesn't even pause. She runs faster at it as her keyblade appears in her hand and jumps into the air high enough to be at the heartless' eye level. Her keyblade connects with a clang on its helmeted head and it is sent flying off its feet. It lands on its back in the grass to the side of the path, but before it can get back up, Aqua points her keyblade at it and yells, "Stopaga!"
With the heartless frozen in time, Aqua rushes to its side and unleashes a fury of attacks on its motionless body. Each attack leaves barely a scratch on the armored heartless and all too soon the stop spell wears off and the Guard Armor knocks Aqua away with one of its large hands. She performs an aerial recovery to regain her balance in the air and land on her feet.
The Guard Armor is also on its feet and begins to contort its body in a strange way. It takes until she is staring down the barrel of the glowing cannon of what used to be its torso for Aqua to remember the attack. She dives out of the way just in time as a huge ball of energy is shot at where she had been standing a moment ago.
As soon as it passes over her head, she jumps back to her feet. The Guard Armor is already preparing for another attack and Aqua decides to hold her ground as the cannon glows brightly again. She prepares herself as well and as the heartless shoots another ball of energy at her, she launches into her Wishing Edge attack. As she flips through the air her power builds and on the final turn she swings her keyblade which connects with the ball of energy, releasing all her power on it.
The ball of energy is deflected by her move and is sent flying back to its creator. When the ball of energy hits the Guard Armor, it explodes with a loud bang. The heartless itself is defeated and as Aqua watches, it dissolves into pixels of every color of the rainbow and vanishes into the blue sky.
Aqua smiles to herself as she goes back to the path to continue her journey. She halts in surprise however to discover that she is at the edge of the forest at the base of the mountain range. She looks back over her shoulder in surprise. Somehow defeating the boss heartless had caused her to suddenly jump all the way here. Knowing she can't waste time pondering this, she sets off at a jog once more into the trees.
In the forest it is dim and gloomy. Aqua sets her eyes on the path in front of her and moves along at a steady pace. Trees flash by and so do side paths. Aqua ignores them however as they aren't as wide as her own. This is the one she had been set on to follow and all the others are mere distractions, so she keeps her eyes on the path she is on and heads deeper into the woods.
…
Terra blinks as his eyes adjust to the dim light of the forest. He'd suddenly found himself standing at the trees after defeating the Guard Armor heartless that he and Aqua had faced in Traverse Town. Now he is hurrying along the path through the woods that twists and turns making him lose his sense of direction entirely and forcing him to rely completely on the path to show him the way.
A break in the trees to his right makes him stop and peer curiously down a small path only a fourth of the width of the one he is on. It veers off from the path he is on, but quickly disappears in the overgrown foliage. Terra turns away from it and continues along the big path at a steady jog.
Less than a minute later he spots another side path, but like the first one it only leads a few paces before fading away. He passes several more of these fake paths, but each is the same. Still, he checks each one and finally comes to one half as wide as the path he is on that seems to be a real path.
He decides to see where if anywhere it leads and turns off the main path. Twenty paces in, the path takes a sharp turn. Terra jumps in surprise to see a young girl who looked to be about ten sitting in the center of the path blocking his way.
"Hello," he says hesitantly.
She looks up at him with stormy grey eyes that look too old for her young face. Without taking her eyes off him, she stands and brushes dirt from her light green dress. "Hello Terra," she says in a voice that, like her eyes, doesn't suit her age. "Why did you leave the main path? Did you think it would not take you where you needed to go?"
"Well, no," Terra replies. "I'm sure if I follow that path I'll get to my goal eventually, but I thought this might be a shortcut."
The girl nods with a serious expression. "This is indeed a shortcut," she says. "However, before I let you continue, I must ask you a question."
"Ok," Terra says rather apprehensively.
The girl steps right up to him with her hands clasped behind her back. "There are many paths in life. Some we choose to take and some we are forced down. If the path you wander is dark and there isn't even moonlight to guide you, would you give up and lay down in the darkness?"
Terra's mouth falls open and it takes him a moment to reply. "Never. It may be hard to wander such a path, but I'd never give up. I'd find a way to make it to the end."
Her stormy grey eyes stare deeply into his before she steps back. "Goodbye, Terra."
Then, like the Guard Armor heartless, she dissolves into pixels of every color and they rise into the sky. Terra stands lost in thought looking at the stop she had stood. "Right, the test," he whispers to himself before shaking thoughts of what the girl had said to him from his mind and hurrying down the path that she had confirmed as a shortcut.
...
Ven groans as he pushes himself to his feet. "What happened?" He asks rubbing the back of his head and looking around. The Mysterious Tower had disappeared and around him he saw blue skies and butterflies. Looking down at his feet he realizes he is standing a small field of wildflowers.
"The Star Shard musta taken us to another world."
Ven turns around to see Mickey is also on his his feet beside him. "Do you know what this world is?" Ven asks.
"Not sure," Mickey replies. He looks down nervously at the Star Shard still lying among the flowers. "We should get back. Master Yen Sid is going to be furious with me."
"Aw I don't want to go back yet," Ven says giving Mickey a pout. "Look! There's a castle over there. Why don't we explore a little?"
Mickey turns to look at the castle Ven is talking about. "Gosh, I don't know Ven…" Mickey says slowly.
"C'mon," Ven says coaxingly. "It'll be fun."
Mickey frowns and stoops to carefully pick up the Star Shard. "I'm sure Master Eraqus is worried about ya."
"He worries too much," Ven says dismissively. "Just five minutes, Mickey. I haven't explored a new world in ages."
Before Mickey can reply, a shrill scream echoes around the empty meadow and the two of them spin around in shock to stare at the dark forest where the scream had come from. "C'mon!" Ven shouts as he races into the trees with Mickey only half a step behind.
The dark branches overhead cut off all light from the sun leaving them in twilight. A rough path leads through the trees and Ven and Mickey follow it at a sprint until they come to a clearing where a girl sits at the base of one of the trees sobbing.
"Hey," Ven calls softly and she looks up startled. Her eyes are large with fear and she quickly scrambles to her feet. "We're not going to hurt you," Ven says quickly holding his hands out to show her. "We just heard a scream and came to see what was going on. Was it you that screamed?"
"Ye-yes," the girl says wiping her eyes. Her skin is as pale as snow and her hair is as black as ebony. Against her pale skin, her ruby lips stand out in sharp contrast. "These horrible trees, they tried to grab me," she says quietly.
Ven and Mickey quickly look around, but the trees are nothing more than trees. Turning back to the girl Ven says with a smile, "I'm Ven and this is Mickey. What's your name?"
"Snow White," came the hesitant reply.
"It's okay Snow White," Ven says gently. "You were probably just seeing things. It happens to all of us when we're afraid. Suddenly it seems like there are monsters in every corner."
Ven smiles to himself remembering when Terra had told him the same thing. He'd been seeing yellow eyes in the corner of his room in the middle of the night, but Terra had reassured him that everything was fine. Yellow eyes...didn't Xehanort have yellow eyes like that? Had Ven really imagined them or was there some truth in what he had seen?
"Oh, thank you," Snow White says, shaking Ven from his thoughts. "I feel quite better now."
She smiles happily at him and Ven tries to smile back. The hair on the back of his neck is standing up and he suddenly wants nothing more than to get out of the dark forest as quickly as possible.
"Do ya have someplace safer to stay than the forest?" Mickey asks worriedly.
"Oh, yes," Snow White replies. "The dwarves' cottage is just through there." She points to the far edge of the clearing where there is a small break in the trees that leads back out into the sunlight. "I just came here to find some berries. I wish to make a lovely pie for the dwarves to eat when they come home. Well, I should be getting along now. Goodbye and thank you Ven and Mickey."
With a cheerful wave, she begins to skip towards the other side of the clearing. "It's time for us to go home too, Ven," Mickey says and Ven looks down at him.
"Yeah, you're probably right," he admits with a sigh. The two apprentices turn back towards the way they came when a scream halts them. Whirling around, they see Snow White cowering on the ground in front of a tree that had come to life. It's crooked branches had turned to finger and are reaching out for her.
"No!" Ve shouts summoning his keyblade. He starts to run at the tree, but before he reaches Snow White, a gold blur flies past his head and strikes the tree trunk causing it to stop its reaching for the girl. Mickey jumps forward to catch his keyblade as it comes back to his hand.
"Ven, protect Snow White and get her out of here!" Mickey cries as all the trees in the clearing come to life and Snow White screams in fear again.
"Right," Ven says quickly and races to Snow White's side. "C'mon," he says pulling her to her feet. She clings to his arm in fear and he does his best to hurry her out of the forest. Before they reach the safety of the sunlight however, a huge branch suddenly swings down at them. Ven ducks, pulling Snow White down with him, and feels the branch just graze his hair.
Ven straightens up and turns to face the tree while making sure Snow White is behind him. The bark of the tree had twisted into a ghoulish face and the finger like branches are reaching towards him again. He deflects one swipe of the branches, but the tree doesn't seem to be bothered. It comes back for another attack, but Ven quickly points his keyblade at the trunk of the tree and shouts, "Fira!"
The fireball hits the tree and briefly engulfs it in flames. The tree shakes and a high pitched scream is heard before the fire vanishes and the tree is just a tree once more. Ven stands shocked for a moment, before Snow White's hand grips his arm tighter and he remembers what he should be doing.
"Hurry," he says to her as he starts to run towards the break in the trees again. Another tree leers out at them, but Ven dodges around it's crooked fingers, dragging Snow White with him. Twenty more steps and they burst into the sunshine on one side of a quaint brook. Snow White's grip lessens, but she still lets Ven lead her across the small bridge to the other side of the brook where a small cottage stands.
"Stay here," Ven says to Snow White as he directs her to sit on a large stump. "I gotta go back and help Mickey."
"Wait Ven!" Snow White calls as he runs back towards the forest. He doesn't stop however and just gives her a wave over his shoulder as he disappears once more into the trees. "Thank you," Snow White whispers after him.
Back in the twilight of the forest, Ven quickly spots Mickey trying to fend off the branches of two different trees that have the mouse trapped between them. "Fira!" Ven shouts again and one of the trees bursts into flames. Mickey uses the sudden fireball as a distraction so he can slip past the other tree's branches and attack its trunk with his keyblade. Three solid hits and a combo finish later, the tree lets out the same high pitched wail as the ones Ven had set fire too and it reverts back to a normal tree.
Ven hurries to Mickey's side and asks, "Did you defeat all the others?"
Mickey nods, "Yep! Is Snow White safe?"
"Yeah, I left her by a cottage over there," Ven says pointing in the direction she was in. Out of the corner of his eye he spots something lying in the dark grass. "Oh Mickey, you dropped it."
"Huh?" Mickey says looking down. "Oh! The Star Shard! It musta fallen out when I was fightin' those strange trees."
Both Mickey and Ven lean down and reach to pick up the blue star. As soon as their hands make contact with it, a ball of light envelops them and once more they are sent shooting off into space.
…
"Excuse me, Miss."
"Hm?" Snow White looks up and smiles curiously at the man who is approaching her from the direction of the Dwarf Mines.
"My name is Eraqus. I was wondering if you had seen my friends, Mickey and Ventus," Master Eraqus asks. This is the tenth world he had hopped to and each had obviously not been the one he had seen in Master Yen Sid's orb. This world however reminded him of the scene he had seen and his suspicions are confirmed when Snow White says,
"Oh yes, I just met Mickey and a boy named Ven. Is he the Ventus you're looking for?"
"Yes," Master Eraqus says letting out a sigh of relief. "Do you know where they are now?"
"After Ven brought me here, he went back to help Mickey. They are in the forest fighting off those horrible trees," Snow White replies with a shudder. She points towards the dark woods.
"Thank you very much," Master Eraqus says quickly as he starts to hurry towards the forest.
"When you find them can you tell them thank you for saving me?" Snow White calls after him with a smile and Master Eraqus nods before entering the dark woods.
As his eyes adjust to the gloom, Master Eraqus peers around. He doesn't see Ven or Mickey or any horrible trees. "Ventus? Mickey?" He calls softly walking farther in. He reaches the middle of the clearing and sighs. As he reaches into his pocket for the orb to find out where they had gone, he hears a crashing sound behind him. He whirls around and summons his keyblade to find himself looking up at the biggest tree he has ever seen. And it is on the move.
Its roots form four legs that it stomps towards him on. Master Eraqus immediately recognizes it for what it is, an unversed. Master Eraqus falls into a battle stance as the huge unversed comes to a halt before him. It's glowing red eyes narrow at him and with his keyblade swinging in preparation, Master Eraqus charges the monster.
Well that will keep Master Eraqus busy for a while. I'm sorry to say I won't actually write his fight scene with the Mad Treant because there is already too much going on with Terra and Aqua, and Ven and Mickey.
I'm kicking myself right now because I forgot to mention that Sora had his fifth birthday at the beginning of the last chapter. I added it now if you want to go back and read. It's just like two paragraphs right at the beginning. Sorry! It totally slipped my mind that I wanted to mention it.
SnowKawasagi: Terra won't go dark side during the exam. He will never willingly go dark, but he'll get mixed up in some dark stuff later.
Any guesses as to where Ven and Mickey are going next? I'll give you a hint. It will be a world Ven's been to before.