The wind whistled with mirth. With one eye closed and the other saluted by a hand, a young man peered out as far as they would allow him.

"Nothing," he muttered. "Nothing for miles."

"You can say that again, Sora." Goofy sauntered up to him. "Maybe if ya get higher up?"

"Not sure that'll help, Goof." Sora squinted. "But sure!"

Locking his knees around Goofy's shoulders, he returned to his gazing at the horizon, but strangely enough, nothing new appeared in the distance.

"Ehh, was worth a shot," Sora shrugged. "Why'd we get sent out here anyway? Master Yen Sid said something about magical… something?"

"That don't narrow it down much, Sora." Goofy scratched his head. "Master Yen Sid knows all sortsa magic."

"…he said there was a high concentration of magic." Donald deadpanned. "And that we have to find it, so Organisation XIII can't!"

"Huh. I guess that makes sense," Sora nodded. "…why, though? What's Organisation XIII gonna do with a bunch of magic?"

"I don't know why, Sora! I just know we gotta!" Donald threw his hat on the ground. "They're the bad guys, so we have to stop them!"

"Alright, fair enough," Sora said. "Doesn't help much though, cause there's still nothing to-"

"Have you tried turning around?!" Donald seethed.

"Awha?"

Both of them gave Donald a perplexed look, before Goofy obliged, slowly revolving on the spot.

"…oh."

Sora and Goofy just stood there in silence for a few moments. For in the distance, maybe a few miles away, was an ordinary, if forgettable looking village.

"Probably shoulda done that first, huh Goof?"

"Well, we found it now!" Goofy chuckled.

Stumbling off of Goofy's shoulders, Sora pointed forward bashfully, and Donald simply huffed at him, taking the lead. Master Yen Sid didn't mention anything about a village, but if nothing else, it was somewhere to go, and anywhere was better than an empty field, even if it just meant finding an inn and restarting their search in the morning.

Besides, the place looked friendly enough; they had a windmill and everything.


A few hours later…

"Uhh… hey there!" Sora cleared his throat, rapping on the shop counter with his fist. "Sorry to bug you, but could you tell us where the nearest inn is? All these buildings kinda look the same, so…"

The man behind the counter simply narrowed one eye at him, as if he'd brought in something filthy. Sora glanced over his shoulder at Goofy, who frowned at Donald in response. Donald gave him a backhand in retaliation.

"Ahah… tough crowd," Sora gulped. "Sorry buddy, I'm not from around here. I've just had a long day and wanna get some rest. You know anywhere?"

If it were possible, the shopkeep's glare only grew stronger. Meanwhile Sora felt about six inches tall. What was with this guy?

"…maybe I need to buy something first." He pat down his pockets. "Hope these guys take Munny. Alright, I'll take a uh-"

There was a splintering of wood as a surge of darkness burst up through the floorboards. The trio jumped away as dozens of Heartless poured into the building, yet still the shopkeeper was as stoic as ever. Barely even reacting to the Heartless lunging at him, Sora couldn't help but stare.

Meanwhile his companions were waiting.

"Sora, what's wrong?!" Goofy cried. "C'mon, there's Heartless to fight!"

"…r-right!" Sora summoned his Keyblade. "Just try not to break anything, got it?"

"You got it!" Goofy charged forward with his shield in hand, knocking several of them down like bowling pins. Donald followed up with a timely blast of Thunder, and only then did the shopkeeper react. It was only the tiniest flare of the nostrils, but it was something at least. A reaction meant a talking point.

"Okay, and Blizzard!" He called out, loosing a flurry of ice from his Keyblade and freezing a handful of them. "Ready Goof?"

"You betcha!" Goofy took another charge, before smashing into the frozen Heartless, shattering each of them in turn. Sora caught another with his Keyblade and sent it careering across the shop, to which Donald reacted and blasted it with a Fire spell, engulfing the thing in burning flames.

Burning flames which of course fell to the floor and set the place alight.

"Uh oh!" Sora yelped, rushing forwards to stamp out the embers. "Mayyybe we shouldn't use Fire spells in a wooden house?!"

Between Sora's feet and Goofy's shield, they were slowly winning the battle against the fire. But it was the surprise blast of water that sealed the victory. Sora raised his Keyblade defensively, ready to confront this new foe, only for him to speak at last.

Empty vase in hand, orphaned flowers trailing across the scorched shop floor, the shopkeeper stared them down.

"…not from here, you say?"