Re: Inverted Sky - Kingdom Hearts I
Chapter 2: Destiny Islands
Blue eyes slowly cracked open, the noon sunlight briefly causing them to squint as the girl sat up. The warm spring breeze flowed around her, the salty scent of the ocean being carried with it. As she glanced around the beach, the waves of the water crashed lazily just a few meters away. Realizing she hadn't been asleep for very long, the teen simply yawned tiredly and laid back down.
'What a weird dream.' the teen mused to herself, placing both hands behind her head.
However, her vision of the sky was instantly obscured. Not by a passing cloud, but by another female form. Auburn locks framed her face as she leaned down, giving a smile to the other girl. Seeing her so suddenly, caused the brown-haired teen to jolt up with a quick 'whoa' in response. She swiftly recovered though, shifting her stance onto both knees and straightened her posture. "Give me a break Kairi." she laughed out as a smile curled her own lips.
Kairi herself was of a similar age as the previously sleeping girl, though she was shorter and wore more simple clothes of white, pink, and purple. Yet they shared similarly colored eyes, something that many of their current friends were quick to point out when they first met. All the while, Kairi just grinned wider and placed both hands upon her hips. "Sora you lazy bum, I knew I'd find you snoozing down here." Kairi declared in an amused tone.
Sora smiled sheepishly for a moment, yet offered a shrug of her shoulders. "What? Doing nothing can really take it out of you." she commented with a giggle, standing slowly to her feet and brushing herself free of lingering sand.
"Yeah yeah, just remember to do your part in building the raft, alright?" Kairi hummed out, trying and failing to hide the entertained smile tugging at her lips.
Sora gave her friend a returning grin, yet it gradually faded as her head tilted upward. The memory of her dream replayed multiple times, confusing her further. While it was short, both in and out of the dream...it felt surprisingly real. "I wonder what all of that was about. And that place...so bizarre." she muttered to herself, her head drifting down the more she mused on it.
"Hmm? What place was bizarre?" she questioned, arching an almost invisible brow of curiosity.
The brow-haired girl waved a hand dismissively; "Nothing, just a dream." she answered before stretching her vaguely stiff limps with a groan.
'Or at least I'm pretty sure it was a dream.' Sora added to herself as a fleeting expression of thoughtfulness crossed her features.
"Hmm?" Kairi hummed with an examining gaze that only friends could give to each other, particularly when they knew the other wasn't being completely honest.
Rather than speaking up about it, the auburn-haired teen merely shrugged and walked to the edge of the water. The waves crashed just centimeters from the edges of her shoes, all as she gazed out to the ocean view she had grown so accustomed to. "Well...once he finish the raft, I'm sure we'll be able to visit all manner of bizarre places." she continued silently, yet her tone sounded hopeful for this possibility.
"Yeah, and speaking of places to visit...I really hope we get to see wherever you grew up." Sora claimed in excitement, all as she walked up beside Kairi.
The pair shared a brief stare with one another, though the auburn-haired girl gradually looked up in musing. "Maybe." she whispered out.
"If so...I might finally remember what happened." Kairi added, feeling Sora patting her shoulder in comfort.
"I'm sure we will." the other teen claimed confidently with a wide grin.
As Kairi opened her mouth to speak, she was immediately interrupted by a young boy's voice directly behind them. "Hey, aren't you two forgetting about me?"
With a quick turn of their heads, the pair saw the last member of their typical trio. A teen boy with silver hair, blue green eyes, and pale skin. His own outfit was complex with a yellow, blue, black, and white color-scheme. But as he approached with a log under his arm, he tossed it toward Sora and came up to Kairi.
The brown-haired teen caught the large piece of wood with both arms, yet still nearly fell over as a result. Meanwhile, the other girl merely offered a sheepish smile to the boy as he continued on with a huff in his tone. "And by extension...the raft we're supposed to be building together?"
"Or do you plan on leaving it all to me? Again?" he added with a raised brow and sigh of exasperation.
"Well, you do always claim to be the strongest amongst us." Kairi claimed in amusement, a teasing smile growing on her features.
"But you're right...we should be working together to finish it." she continued with a shrug and thoughtful glance to the beached raft off to the side.
Their so-called raft, was little more than a series of logs tied together. Thankfully, there were several long metal pipes pierced through each of the logs, providing a sturdier 'floor' to stand on. The trio learned quickly from previous attempts, that making a raft was a lot harder than they had hoped. But after their many trials and errors, they were finally building something that could carry them and not break apart in the ocean.
Nodding her head to their incomplete creation, Kairi turned her gaze up to the sky. "I'd say we have about five hours before the sun sets. And if we wanna leave by tomorrow morning, we better start hurrying." the auburn-haired girl said while looking between her friends, both of whom nodded in agreement.
"And since it's summer vacation, we have plenty of time to travel around and come back before school starts up again." Sora added with a nod, a slight twinge of haste in her voice.
"Oh~, that give me an idea~!" Kairi claimed while clapping her hands together in excitement.
"We should have a race~! Whoever gets the most done, gets to be Captain of the raft~." she suggested, a now more mischievous smile pushing upwards on her lips.
"What? Are you kidding?" Riku asked with a roll of his eyes, not seeming to have any interest.
Sora on the other hand blinked briefly at Kairi before turning toward her other friend. The two shared their own gaze, a spark of competition and rivalry blazing between them. "Ready? Go!" Kairi called out quickly.
There was barely even a half-second delay before both Sora and Riku immediately began running across the shore line and toward the raft. This making Kairi just giggle and jog along after them, knowing she had already won because of what she made yesterday. A foretelling that indeed came to pass, as she stood in front of the now completed raft with a smug smile. Her big contribution being an actual sail that could be easily directed, something that even the other two had to admit was the biggest addition.
"Looks like it's still 43-12." the silver-haired boy whispered with a small grin, obviously being the one with the most wins.
Sora huffed lightly while turning toward him; "This does technically go toward our 27 ties though." she claimed quickly, feeling better that she didn't lose outright.
"So don't think you'll have that lead for long." Sora commented while crossing her arms.
"It's your fault for always challenging me in sword practice, instead of things you can actually beat me in." Riku reasoned, shrugging his shoulders.
"Then I wouldn't actually be beating you...I wanna win in something I know you're good at." Sora claimed back, leading for the silver-haired boy to sigh and nod.
He understood this all too well, as he felt similarly. But since they both grew at similar rates with each challenge, there was little chance of Sora winning outright. Even the girl herself knew that to be the case, leading for her to huff silently look up thoughtfully at the sky.
Only three hours had passed since they started their race, leaving them with a little more time to do whatever else they wanted for the day. At least until they met up at their usual spot for the sunset. While Kairi decided to hang out with Selphie near the dock, Riku joined Tidus and Wakka for a game of ball. Which would typically lead into sword practice, as the latter two were always trying to beat the former. This left Sora to search for some of their other friends on the island, three in particular.
Yuna, a kind girl whom everyone considered to be Kairi's 'long lost twin'. Not only were they similar in personality, but they even wore clothes with nearly identical color schemes. Thankfully though, the clothes they wore were typically quite different in design.
Rikku, an agent of chaos to say the least. Especially with Riku, as she loves to tease him about having nearly the same name. She's also come to love warm colors after receiving her favorite red and orange scarf as a gift, leading for her to use such colors for all her outfits.
Paine, a broody and sarcastic girl. Her sense of humor was notoriously mute, just like her black clothes. But while she seems to constantly be annoyed by everyone, it's merely to hide just how much she actually likes them.
These three were always together and occasionally butted heads with Tidus and Wakka. Said boys were always trying to compete with everyone, which included the three. Sports, academics, you name it. They were eager to improve, not just themselves, but all of their friends as well.
'It's kinda fun too.' Sora thought to herself with a smile, walking toward the far side of the island.
Where of which, a trio of voices could be heard. Rikku's was cheerful and Paine's seemed vaguely annoyed, as per usual. But Yuna's sounded almost worried.
"I don't know." the latter of the three uttered out in a sigh.
"I feel like we should wait to start building our own raft." she continued, glancing between her friends.
"Why? It's not like they have a copyright on all rafts or boat-like craft." Paine stated with a brief roll of her eyes.
"Exactly~! And besides, we already talked about joining them on their adventures anyway." Rikku concurred while nodding multiple times in her excitement.
Yuna looked from one to the next before sighing in defeat and nodding as well; "Alright alright...we'll start building our raft tomorrow." she agreed, yet a smile was already forming on her lips.
She didn't want to say it aloud, but Yuna was just as excited to explore as Rikku was. Even more surprising still, was that Paine was equally as enthused too. "Finally..." said silver-haired girl began, crossing both arms as her lips began to curl upward.
"...we'll get to searching for real treasures."
As Sora listened in during her approach, she couldn't help but giggle softly. These three had been obsessed with treasure hunting for as long as they've known one another. Whether it was on the island, or even on school grounds, they were digging up all manner of things in search for treasures.
"I hope you'll learn from our mistakes then." Sora spoke up as she rounded one of the higher sand dunes to come into view.
Each of the three turned toward her with glaces of acknowledgment, as well as smiles from Yuna and Rikku. The latter of whom nudged Paine in order to try and get the teen to give a similar gesture, but the attempt failed. Yet Sora smiled happily to them regardless and even offered a wave. "So what kind of treasures are you hoping to find?" she asked curiously, but already had an idea of what they would say.
"Gold." "Jewels." "Shiny stuff!" they called out in unison, despite offering different answers.
Regardless of this though, the trio seemed to be in complete agreement on the idea of finding valuables. Sora laughed softly in response and nodded her head once more, understanding the thrill of searching for such things. "In that case, can I join you for one of these treasure hunts?" she questioned in an excited manner.
Just as Rikku was about to declare an agreement, Paine cleared her throat and held a hand up. "Maybe...what can you offer to our group, outside of just an extra set of eyes?" she questioned, sounding very business-like.
Sora held back the urge to laugh from this as they were all technically the same age, though she soon gained a thoughtful expression. "Well...I'm pretty handy with a sword, and I've nearly beaten Riku a few times. So I could act as a body guard." she suggested, glancing between the three briefly.
"Oh~, that would be pretty handy to have~." Rikku claimed while nudging Paine with an elbow once again.
"Especially in places where we might get into trouble for digging around." Yuna added in her own reasoning.
Paine looked to her friends for a moment before rolling her eyes and turning to the side; "Hmph, fine." she huffed out, making the other three teens hold back an amused laugh.
As the day slowly came to an end, the sun's rays were slowly turning from yellow, to orange and red. Upon which, Sora headed back toward her usual spot along with Riku and Kairi. Each trio had their own places to watch the sunset. But Sora, Riku, and Kairi' was viewed as the best, as it was right on the ocean front.
Sitting or leaning on a horizontally growing palm tree, the two girls and boy smiled softly while gazing at the sunset. It was a common sight for them, but it was always so beautiful no matter how many times they saw it. "Tomorrow is the day." Riku whispered silently, nodding his head in determination.
"Yeah." Sora uttered back in equal measure.
"Suppose we do find another world out there..." Kairi started softly while still looking ahead.
"...what would you want to do there?" she finished with a short tilt of her head as she looked to her two friends.
Though both Riku and Sora opened their mouths to speak, they found themselves going silent instead. What did they want to do? Was there something they even wanted to accomplish? Or was it simply a desire for adventure? Certainly that was the case for Sora, but for Riku...
"Actually...I haven't really thought about it." said silver-haired boy muttered with a shrug, crossing his arms in the process.
"But I have always wondered, why are we here on this island? Since, if there are other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?" he continued as his eyes narrowed ever so slightly on the horizon.
"We could have ended up on some other world just as easily as this one, right? Plus, with so many possible worlds out there, then ours must be a small piece of something much greater." Riku stated, his determination seeming to increase tenfold during these words.
"That's why we need to go out there and find out...sitting around doing the same thing every day won't change a thing." Riku finished as he took in and let out a deep breath.
Despite his words sounding rather inspiring, there was something odd in his tone at the end. It felt as though he was bitter. Bitter at his situation, and the fact that he hadn't found a way off the island before now. Though, not for a lack of trying.
"Sounds like you've been doing a lot of thinking lately." Kairi muttered with a small smirk, not appearing to have picked up on the shift in her friend's voice.
"It's all thanks to you really." said boy began as he turned to face the auburn-haired girl.
"If you hadn't come here...I probably wouldn't have thought about any of this. So...thank you, Kairi." he continued with a grateful smile curling his lips, and even a bow of his head.
This made Kairi just smile a bit sheepishly as she let out a soft giggle; "You're welcome." she responded.
And there we go, a few alterations to the start, as well as introducing the Gullwings as being part of Destiny Islands. I hope everyone enjoyed and will let me know your thoughts. Until the next one.