Chapter 3 Deep Jungle

Sora groans as he is pulled from unconsciousness by the sunlight turning the insides of his eyelids red. He shifts around in his chair and the sound of shards of glass clinking together wakes him fully. He opens his eyes slowly, blinking in confusion at the smashed in windshield and the broken glass in his lap. Carefully brushing the shards off, he tries to sit up straighter, but falls against the backrest again with another groan. His back and neck are killing him and a headache pounds mercilessly against his skull, making it hard to think through what is going on. He raises a hand to rub his temple and pulls it back to see blood on it. Touching his head gingerly, he can feel a shallow cut and the piece of glass that had caused it still caught in his skin.

There had been a crash, that much he remembers. He remembers flying the gummi ship to the world and the moments before hitting the tree. Everything after that had happened too quickly leaving it all just a blur.

Biting his tongue against the pain, he unclips the seat belt and winces as he rubs the bruise it had left across his chest. Despite the protests from his body, he pushes himself out of his seat. Once upright, he says, "Curaga," and sighs in relief as the soothing green light falls on him. Stretching his sore but no longer painful legs, he walks to the door of the ship. Opening it, his eyes get huge as he looks down at the ground very far below. The ship had crashed into nearly the top of the tree and only thick branches underneath the hull are keeping it from falling to the forest floor.

Sora grips the door frame, afraid to move and knock the gummi ship off its precarious perch. From this vantage point he can see that the forest around him looks wild, as if no human had ever been here before. It is very beautiful and Sora smiles despite his situation seeing colorful birds chirping as they take flight from a nearby tree. He'd done it. He'd left Traverse Town and traveled to a new world. It hadn't been his plan to get stuck up a tree however and he scans his eyes around for a way down. A sturdy looking vine hangs not to far from the ship. "Magnet," Sora says, holding out his hand as the vine is pulled towards him by the spell. Gripping it tightly with both hands, Sora takes a deep breath and steps off the ship, wrapping his legs around the vine as well as it swings.

Moving carefully he starts to slide down the vine. He figures the ship is at least a hundred feet in the air and he groans, wondering how he is ever going to get it down much less repair it so it can fly again. But the first thing he has to do is figure out where he is because, even with so much having gone wrong already, Sora is excited and curious to explore a new world.

His feet touch the forest floor and he releases the vine, looking around. All there is to see is green. Sora has never seen so many plants in his life. He'd spent most of his life in Traverse Town. As a city boy, he's completely lost in the wild jungle. He starts to walk off in an aimless direction, but stops, some instinct in him is warning there is danger near.

He looks around again and sees nothing, but the feeling doesn't go away as he strains his ears in the silence for the sounds of an enemy approaching. That's it! The silence. There had been birds chirping before, but it is as if they all had fled the immediate area, leaving this strange quiet in their wake. Now on high alert, Sora summons his keyblade and grips it tight. To his right, the leaves tremble slightly and he whirls around. He waits, hearing only the blood pounding in his ears. Then the rustling comes from behind him. Spinning around, he raises his keyblade in a block, but still he sees nothing. The rustling continues, always in a different spot and causing Sora to turn in circles as his fear grows. This isn't a heartless stalking him. Heartless aren't smart enough to be this stealthy.

Sora is about to make a run for it when a leopard, nearly six feet in length, jumps out of the vegetation with its claws out and aimed at his throat. With a gasp, Sora brings his keyblade up in a block and is sent tumbling back by the impact of the beast crashing into him. Rolling to his feet, Sora falls into a battle position, never taking his eyes off the leopard which has started to circle him. Sora swallows, but shakes off his fear and points his keyblade at the leopard shouting, "Fira!"

The fireball knocks the leopard back a few steps, but when the smoke clears its unhurt except for a singed coat. Growling in anger, the leopard bunches up its back legs before charging with incredible speed at Sora. Sora tries to dive out of the way, but cannot match the speed the leopard can move at. The leopard's claw catches him as he tries to get out of the way and white hot pain drags across his chest as the claw shreds through his shirt. Holding a hand over his chest, Sora feels the warm blood under his fingers and panic starts to set in as he realizes just how far out of his element he is.

The leopard charges again and Sora is in no shape to dive out of the way this time. He swings his keyblade desperately at the beast and succeeds in landing a hit across its nose that leaves a deep cut, but the leopard reacts quickly, tossing its head and sending Sora tumbling to the ground. He lands on his shoulder and gasps in pain as the scratches on his chest throb.

He is slow to get up and is only in a sitting position when the leopard charges again. He can sees its teeth, wickedly sharp and bared. There is a murderous light in its eyes as it lunges for Sora's neck and he raises his keyblade in a feeble block.

Just as the leopard is about to bite him, it is suddenly knocked away from him by a man swinging down on a vine and crashing into the monster. The man drops onto all fours with a spear in one hand as the leopard gets back up and lets out a howl. The man howls back with a animalistic sound that makes Sora flinch away from the both of them.

The leopard leaps at the man who brings up his spear to catch the beast's terrifying bite. They wrestle for a moment, each pushing on each other in a battle of strength. The man wins and with another grunting howl, he throws the leopard back. It lands with a small noise of pain and as soon as it is back on it's feet in runs off, disappearing into the thick jungle.

"Curaga," Sora says and feels the scratches on his chest heal. He gets to his feet and finds himself under the wary stare of the man who Sora realizes is dressed only in a loincloth. His eyes have a wild animal look to them as he looks over him and Sora could have sworn he sniffed in his direction.

"Sabor, danger," the man says in a rough voice looking to where the leopard had disappeared.

"Um...thank you," Sora says still not sure this man is friendly.

"Thank you," the man repeated as if he was testing out the words.

Confused and suddenly not so keen to be exploring this jungle, Sora looks back at the gummi ship still stuck in the tree. He isn't leaving anytime so he might as well get back to his original plan. "Uh, what is this place?"

The man tilted his head and confusion, muttering back, "This place, this place."

"Er…" Sora scratched the back of his hand. He hadn't expected other world's inhabitants to be so hard to talk to. "Look, I'm trying to find my friends," Sora says. The man gives him another confused look and in a slower voice Sora repeats, "Friends."

"Friends," the man says.

"Yes, my friends," Sora says, wondering if the man is really understanding him. "Terra, Aqua, Ven, and Master Eraqus."

"Look for Terra? Friend?" The man asks.

"Right!" Sora says. He looks to the side and does a double take seeing an image of Ven glowing slightly and leaning against a tree and watching them.

"Ven, friends?" The man says.

Sora drags his eyes back to the man. "Uh, right." He looks back at the tree, but Ven is gone.

"Friends...friends here."

"What?" Sora says looking at the man in surprise. "Really?"

"*&&X%. *&&X%," the man makes strange sounds that are animalistic. "Friends here."

"Not sure I understand," Sora says slowly. "But, show me! Take me to Terra, Aqua, Ven, and Master Eraqus."

"Tarzan," the man says pointing to his chest. "Tarzan go."

"I'm Sora. Tarzan go...Sora go go!"

It seems Tarzan understands and with a jerk of his head, he heads off into the jungle with Sora hurrying after him.

...

Sora is shocked when after walking for nearly ten minutes Tarzan suddenly leads him out of the wild jungle into the clearing that had been set up as a large campsite. Still following Tarzan, Sora enters the tent in the middle where a young woman with long brown hair has her back to the entrance as she goes through a box of books. "Jane," Tarzan says and the woman turns around.

"Tarzan- Oh, who is this?" Jane says turning around and seeing Sora.

"Uh, hi. I'm-" Sora starts to say, but he is cut off as the woman hurries forward.

"You speak English," she says in a surprised voice. "So, then, obviously, you're not related to Tarzan. Are you here to study the gorillas?"

Sora opens his mouth to answer, but before he can a large man enters the tent with shotgun in hand and says, "Highly doubtful." He looks Sora up and down and sneers. "A skinny child. Not much use in hunting gorillas."

Jane puts her hands on her hips. "Mr. Clayton, we're studying them, not hunting them. This is research."

Clayton makes a dismissive gesture and turns away from them. He busies himself with cleaning his shotgun while Jane turns back to Sora with a smile, "The more the merrier. Make yourself at home."

"Thank you," Sora says taking the seat she offers. She sits across a small table from him and he asks, "So, what is this place called."

"We call is Deep Jungle," Jane replies with a smile. "As you can see, it's a fairly accurate name."

Sora nods and looks up as Tarzan walks on all fours to them. "Can you understand Tarzan?"

"Not most of the time," Jane admits as Tarzan sits on the ground beside them watching them with interest. "Tarzan was raised in the jungle by the gorillas. Communicating with him still isn't easy, but we are both learning."

"So he was speaking 'gorilla' back there," Sora says looking at Tarzan. "He said my friends were here and then one word I didn't understand."

"Your friends are here?" Jane says in surprise. "Is that true Tarzan?" She starts to speak slower. "Are Sora's friends here?"

Tarzan nods. "*&&X%."

"Can you take me to them?" Sora asks excited. This is the first world he found and its the right one. He had been right to tell Cloud he was strong enough to do find them.

Tarzan shakes his head.

Sora's mouth drops open. "But...but I don't understand."

"I'm sorry Sora, but if your friends were here I think we would have seen them," Jane says. "We've been in this jungle a long time and haven't come across them."

"Well that just leaves one place then, doesn't it," Clayton says walking over to them. "If you're friends are here I'd wager they're with the gorillas. But Tarzan refuses to take us to them."

"Really, Mr. Clayton," Jane says. "Tarzan wouldn't hide-"

"Then take us there! Take us to the gorillas." Clayton leans down to be on the same level as Tarzan. "Go-ril-las."

Tarzan looks at him a long moment before turning to Sora. He nods. "Tarzan go see Kerchak."

"Kerchak?" Sora asks confused.

"He must be the leader," Clayton says shouldering his gun. "Perfect. I'll go along as an escort. After all, the jungle is a dangerous place." Sora doesn't want Clayton tagging along, but he has a point. After the leopard, Sora isn't as confident in his abilities on this strange world.

Tarzan walks out of the tent on all fours with the other three following him. He leads them back into the jungle and to a spot where several vines hang down that isn't too far from the camp. "Kerchak," Tarzan says again, looking up. He grabs the nearest vine and quickly ascends with the others following at a much slower pace.

Clayton reaches the treetops first where there is a place to stand. Sora clambers up next and then reaches down to help Jane up. The three of them stand together, looking around curiously. Tarzan stands on two legs and beats his chest while calling out in gorilla. A few moments later, several large gorillas appear on other tree tops and move closer. The largest glances in Sora's direction for a moment before turning his eyes on Tarzan who immediately starts talking earnestly in gorilla.

"Can you understand him?" Sora asks Jane.

She nods. "Parts." She listens for a moment. "He's saying something about secret grounds and trusting...oh! Trusting us."

Sora looks to the largest gorilla, Kerchak, who fixes him with a glare. "Kerchak?" Tarzan says.

If Kerchek was going to answer, they would never know because at that moment a gunshot rings out causing everyone, both human and gorilla, to jump.

There is a scream of fear and Sora whirls around to see a small gorilla running as fast as it can away from Clayton and to the female gorilla at Kerchak's side. "Clayton! What on earth are you doing?" Jane exclaims as he guiltily lowers his smoking gun.

"You don't understand," Clayton says. "I was only trying to…" He trails off and Sora turns back to the gorillas as they turn to leave."

"Kerchak!" Tarzan calls after them, but the big gorilla doesn't even glance back.

"It was a snake," Clayton says, his cocky attitude coming back. "A snake slithered by, you see. I saved that poor gorilla's life."

He smiles, but Sora glares at him, his hands balling into fists. Beside him Jane and Tarzan are doing the same and Clayton's smile slips off his face. In the distance, the deep cry of a gorilla comes from the trees.

"Go," Tarzan says moving to the vines they had climbed up earlier. "Go," he says more urgently when they don't move. Looking back over his shoulder, Sora nods, understanding. They are no longer welcome up here.

Taking one of the vines in his hands, he slides down with the others beside him. Once they reach the bottom, Tarzan leads them back to the camp. The whole way there, no one says a word, but when they enter the tent Jane rounds on Clayton and puts a threatening finger to his chest.

"How could you do such a thing!"

Backing away from her with his hands raised in surrender, Clayton says, "Now, Miss Porter, as I said, I was not aiming at the gorilla."

Jane however shakes her head. She looks around at all the research in the tent, all the hours put into getting the gorillas to trust her. "You are not to go near the gorillas again!"

"All because of one mishap?" Clayton says laughing nervously. "Come, now…"

Sora moves to Jane's side and summons his keyblade. "I suggest you listen to her," he says.

Taking the threat, Clayton backs up until he is at the tent flap. With a final sneer over his shoulder, he hurries out of the tent. Sighing, Jane sits down on a stool and puts her head in her hands. "Why did I ever let him come on this expedition?" Tarzan walks to her and puts a hand on her shoulder. At his touch, she looks up and smiles sadly at him.

Sora lets his keyblade disappear and puts his hands behind his head as he leans back. What was he doing here? Tarzan said his friends were here, but that is seeming far-fetched at the moment. Despite what Tarzan had said, he'd seen no trace of them here. He thinks about going back to the gummi ship and trying to get it out of the tree, but a glance outside the tent shows that night is falling and he isn't keen on going into the jungle in the dark.

"You're welcome to stay here for the night if you like," Jane says as Sora lets the tent flap fall back down. "We will look again for your friends tomorrow."

"Thank you," Sora says gratefully.

After a quick dinner, Jane lays out two cots, one for her and one for Sora. She offers one to Tarzan, but the man shakes his head. He heads for the tent flap and gives them one final look before going outside. He doesn't need to say any words. They both know he is keeping watch, making sure Clayton doesn't sneak back in the night.

*&&X% is used in place of the gorilla word Tarzan uses. It's directly from the game and how they wrote the sound in the subtitles.

LightzMusic22: Totally intentional throwback. I wasn't planning on making Sora's visit to Deep Jungle as close to how it was in KH1 as it turned out, but it just works so well with Sora looking for Terra, Aqua, Ven, and Eraqus.

TopazDragon98: Sora definitely needs some gummi ship driving lessons.

CatLoverx33: Uh oh is right! Damn it Sora! Learn to fly!

kage kitsune no yami: Not as exciting of an ending to this chapter sadly.

So Deep Jungle, yea or nay so far? Do you like that I kept it sort of like how it was in the game or do you wish I'd changed it up more? FEED ME OPINIONS!