I am so sorry I've been gone this long. There is really no excuse (that could have validity by now) as to why I haven't updated but Hey! Its Spring break and I really wanted to throw this back out there. The story has not been given up, I'm just… Busy. I have this all planned out now. After this I don't know when the next update will be but I promise, at the very least Regular updates will be happening over the summer as well as some new fanfictions. Again I sincerely apologize for my absence. I'm also looking for a Beta if anyone is interested. Please tell me how all your holiday's went! :D I love hearing from you all, especially my most frequent reviewer for this story. without further ado…
Chapter Four: Into the Abyss
Passage Four
-Sora-
…
…
…..
There was no pain. His fingers clenched and tapped on the hard and cold stone he was laying on. He felt an orange warmth licking at him, could hear the crackling of a fire and the sound of wood being pushed against the flame.
There was a stench. It wasn't terrible but it was a stench and if you can call it something with such a blunt name, you know its not pretty. He assessed his surroundings with his ears and the thrum of the earth beneath him.
Nothing came to his mind so Sora opened his eyes and let them flit around. He moved his head and glanced at the fire and then at… "Riku?" The silver haired man in question said nothing, didn't move, didn't so much as let out a sigh. Sora began to sit up but he could feel the aching in his head so he did so much slower than he usually would have.
He noticed that the stench was fish being cooked over the roasted fire and he winced when Riku turned one of the sticks, that the fish began to struggle for a moment.
Silence passed for a long while and Sora stared in silence at his surroundings. He got up and decided to have a good look around. They were clearly at the bottom of the ravine. The dark gray and black walls glowed warmly a gentle cream orange with the light of the fire. A tan hand pressed against one of the cold stone walls, its jagged edges scraping against the flesh.
Sora continued to walk further from the fire and he found a small creek. He looked up and saw the deep indigo sky, glowing purple with the lavender clouds. He squinted his eyes and could faintly see something black moving. He rose on his toes absentmindedly, as if to get a better look at what it might be in the distance. His eyes grew back to their original size at the realization the it was part of the broken bridge. To confirm his conclusion, when he stepped forward, his foot nudged a rotted plank of wood.
So this is where he must have fallen. He wondered curiously and somewhat bitterly if the Heavenly Sword was what kept him alive. He turned on his heel and walked back to the fire. He sat down next to Riku and the silence was kept between the two until Sora decided to shatter it, his voice echoing against the stone walls.
"The others? Father? Where are they?"
Riku stayed silent as he reached over and grabbed the two sticks and handed one to Sora.
"Gone." "Dead?"
Sora asked as he bit into the fish.
"No. Gone."
As Riku was about to bite into the catch,
"Gone where? What happened?"
Riku sighed and took a bite. He chewed thoughtfully before he swallowed.
"As we were staging our retreat to the west, Master Squall paused me and told me to start heading North East, to try to keep an eye on you. He told me to keep out of sight and if I must, to hide."
He frowned.
"So I left the group and started up the hill. I climbed a tree and watched for you, to make sure you stayed safe. But it wasn't long after that Master Squall and the others were captured by soldiers. I didnt dare fire any arrows lest I give myself away and be captured too. He said to keep an eye on you… to keep you safe."
It was then Sora realized that Riku felt like he'd been a coward.
"I saw you get surrounded by Xemnas and his men. I climbed down the tree and tried to make my way to help you…"
He turned to Sora and looked him dead in the eyes.
"I saw you pull out the sword... but by the time I got there, you had dived off the cliff. I ended up finding my way down here and I found you… Thought you were dead." The fish had grown cold in Sora's hands but Riku munched at his and the story continued.
"I think they're heading towards the Yen Sid Temples." Sora nodded. He remembered the temples.
They had been a vast and colossal structure built on the side of Bald Mountain. He remembered how beautiful the temples looked during the night with all the stars glittering around it. There was a large statue of a threatening demon to ward off spirits and other kinds of evil.
"Xemnas took over the temples… I assume that Yen Sid himself is dead."
"More than likely,"
Riku replied. Sora offered Riku his fish.
"You need to eat Sora."
Sora averted his eyes and threw the fish into the fire.
"We'll rest here for the night. At dawn, we'll move."
Riku nodded once and leaned back. Sora laid down on the smooth rock and closed his eyes. His dreams were filled with magenta wisps and fog, dark black mountains and the heavenly sword. When he awoke the next morning, he was curled into Riku's back. Blue eyes stared at silver tresses that dimly gleamed in the dark glow of the light coming from the distance.
The journey would be long.
-Three Days Ago-
The journey had been quite short. Sora had been quite unaware of just how close they were to the Yen Sid Temples and it unnerved him greatly.
The duo had in fact found and followed Xemnas' army of slowpokes and kept from sight. Sora stood on the side of the mountain next to Riku who was crouched on the ground, surveying their enemies locations.
Sora's emotionless mask broke with awe at the destruction of the temples. They were crumbling and some had been rebuilt in what clearly had been Xemnas' "vision" as they were covered in his white upside down thorned heart emblem.
The demon structure at the side had been covered in chains and shackles, a clear indication that the temples had been taken over and that the Yen sid was no longer a threat to Xemnas.
Sora's blue eyes watched the smoke as a building gently burned down and the distant and tortuous screams of what may or may not be the monks that studied here at the temples. He could feel the suffering of his father and his clansmen under Xemnas' mercy… He knew…. because some men showed no mercy.
Sora was overwhelmed with a deadly rage. What made Sora's anger so menacing was not that it lashed out but that it became a power. Its cold tones resonating in Sora's voice burned hotter than any hellfire that Riku could imagine.
"Riku." It was clipped and he shuddered.
"I have to find Father. I need you to stay here. I need you to keep watch."
Riku stood up and glared, about to protest before Sora's hand gripped his shoulder and he hissed. "I'm going to need you… to play Twing Twang."
Riku's eyes widened and an almost feral grin split his face. Sora let go and ran off towards the mountain edge where a thick and very long rope was tied to a huge metal ring. The rope sloped down and ended on a large tall rock that grew from a white misty abyss towards the sky.
The top acted as a platform, held up by the ropes. Sora jumped from the cliff and onto the rope, he began to sprint like a madman down the rope and as he got closer, he could hear someone proclaim his presence.
"CUT THE ROPE!"
The rope was cut. Sora continued to run, the rope flinging up and he followed it up before leaping onto another. This one was cut too. The cycle of leaping and cutting was continuous a few more times before the current rope he was on was cut but instead of jumping onto the last rope holding the platform up, he made the risky leap of jumping from the rope and onto the platform, smashing a man's skull like a watermelon into the floor as he landed on them.
He got into a battle stance, pulled out the Heavenly Sword and launched into action.
Twing Twang is the murderous game of using a bow and arrow and slaughtering as many people as humanly possible. The twing is the arrow being shot from the bow string, twang being the arrow head being shot into flesh and breaking bone. It's supposedly a lot of fun.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, there will be more eventful things happening next chapter. Sorry it was so slow. Please leave a review and you shall receive free kittens in the mail ovo