"Whooaa..." "It's so beautiful!" Sora and Ruby respectively said as they stared out the domed window of the gummi ship's cockpit. The vast expanse of interspace was nothing like they would have expected. Though stars could often be seen at night from their worlds, they never would have expected beyond their worlds to look like this. To think, every single star they saw out there was supposedly a new world with its own unique people.
The wonder of this situation caused their minds to wander back to the ones they wished could have seen this with them. "I wish Riku and Kairi could see this..." "Weiss...Blake...Yang...I hope you're all okay." both of them murmured to themselves as they drifted through the great starry void. They had to be somewhere out there. They just had to be.
"Hey, look! We've arrived!" Donald announced, drawing the two youths out of their thoughts. They were surprised they managed to get to their destination so quickly. Now that they thought of it, they never did ask where they were going first. Sora and Ruby looked out toward the new world they were arriving at, their eyes widening with surprise and fascination. From what they could perceive of this world, there seemed to be parts of a castle at one corner, with a hedge arch at another, and a cottage on the underside. All of which stood atop a surface made of a red and pink themed quilt that appeared to be tiled flooring.
Excitement filled Sora and Ruby and immediately they rushed to depart. "Alright, let's go!" Just as Sora announced that, Donald shouted, "Hold on! We can't just rush out. You don't know if the Heartless might attack." Followed by Goofy, Donald took a quick scan outside the ship and gave a nod. "Okay, the coast is clear. Let's go." Just as they took their first steps out however, Sora and Ruby noticed something neither Donald or Goofy noticed. "Guys!" "The floor!"
"Wak?"
"Huh?"
Donald and Goofy seemed to realize that the problem with the floor...was that there WAS no floor! A realization that came too late as suddenly, gravity seemed to work again and pull them down a great, big, pit. Sora and Ruby dashed to try and catch them, only for Ruby to end up tripping over Sora's feet as they clambered desperately, causing him to stumble along with her down into the hole as well.
"WHOOOAAA!"
"AAAAAHHHH!
"WAAAAAAAK!"
"AAAAHOOHOOHOOHOOOEE!"
Their respective shouts and screams of alarm rang out through the hole, but to their surprise...their fall suddenly seemed to slow down, and descend more slowly. "Um... what?" Ruby said when looking around. Sora, Donald, and Goofy realized it too and looked around with just as much bewilderment. It was dark but the further they went, they could make something out approaching them. Ruby reached for it and gasped as the solid object she touched turned out to be a lantern... on a desk that also seemed to be floating. "How...?"
This was...certainly not what Ruby or Sora were expecting. Especially as suddenly, they found themselves drifting further and further down into...a most bizarre looking room. It looked as if it were built by some architect of utmost eccentricity. A bizarrely checkered floor, oddly angled brick wall, furniture, items, layout, and room composition all seemed completely eschew as they slowly floated down to the ground, landing softly on their feet.
BONK
Well...except for Goofy who flopped onto his belly.
As the dog-like captain of the guard pushed himself up, he and the others were greeted with another bizarre sight. "Oh, my fur and whiskers! I'm late I'm late I'm LATE!" It was a glasses wearing white rabbit with a waistcoat...and a watch! Not only that, but he was running like his life depended on it. "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm there, I should be there! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! Oh, the queen, she'll have my head my for sure!" And with that, the White Rabbit dashed around the corner leaving a very confused four visitors of this...bizarre new world.
"Uhhh...Did you guys just see a talking bunny wearing clothes run by, or was that just me?" a slack-jawed Ruby asked, doubting what her eyes just witnessed. Sure, she'd seen unexpected, downright cartoonish beings like Donald and Goofy already, but this was all just...Her brain could barely process this as it was! "No, I saw that too." Sora answered, shaking his head to be sure he wasn't imagining things. But sure enough, they ALL saw that bizarre sight.
"Come on, let's chase after him. Maybe we can find something out?" Donald said as he rushed ahead.
Sora ran after and Ruby followed. Goofy slowly stood but saw the shadows of his friends getting farther as they came around the corner and hurried after. "Hey, fellahs! Wait for me!"
He didn't go too far as right around the corner was a door with the others standing across. "He must have gone in here." Sora said when opening it... only to find another door.
Confused as could be along with every one else, Donald opened the second door... and found a third one, becoming irritable until Ruby opened it. There was a room inside. Something looking like a dining area with a small oven with a chimney attached. There was also a small bed with a grandfather clock nearby, next to a large older styled chair beside a nightstand in the corner. "Now where are we?" Ruby said, noticing the ceiling, her face shifting with disbelief at the sight of some of the furniture hanging upside down on it.
"Hey, look!" Goofy said when pointing to the floor. It was the rabbit they saw earlier but he was much tinier than they remembered. Stranger still, he ran through a door so small, none of the others could possibly fit in. Sora hummed and leaned closer to inspect it while saying, "How did he get so small?"
"No. You're simply too big."
The one who spoke was the doorknob, which seemed to have a face with eyes above the knob and the keyhole moving just like lips. Everyone jumped in surprise and were even more confused as Donald noted it was alive. "Wak! It talks!" One bizarre moment after another, and they'd only just arrived in this world.
The doorknob gave a great yawn, matching its tired expression. "Must you be so loud? You woke me up." he complained, barely regarding the four standing before him. "Uhh...Sorry about that?" Ruby said, uncertain about how to speak to...a talking doorknob.
Goofy, cheerful as ever, opted for an equally cheerful greeting to the animated work of brass. "Good mornin'."
"Good NIGHT! I need a bit more sleep." The doorknob responded impatiently with another yawn. It seemed that despite being a talking doorknob, he wasn't much for conversation.
"Wait! What do we have to do to become small?" Sora asked insistently. Wherever that rabbit was going, it was clearly somewhere important.
"Why don't you try the bottle, over there." The doorknob suggested before dozing off. Sora and Ruby looked behind them to see...a little white table and chair pop up from the floor with a pair of little bottles on top of the table. One with a blue stripe and a yellow tree on it, the other with a red stripe and a sprout on it. If this was the only way to get inside, then they had little choice.
Standing up, Sora approached the table and raised the red bottle with the sprout on it, grasping it in his had. "Well, bottoms up." he said before raising it to his face and taking a chug of...whatever was inside of it. "Sora, wait!" Donald shouted as he tried stopping him. The moment Sora chugged it, he began rapidly shrinking. Ruby and the others jumped back, trying not to step on their much tinier friend.
"Whoa! You guys! Everything is so now!" Sora said though his voice was so quiet, they could barely hear him. Taking the bottle Sora drank, Ruby examined it and the other. "Okay. So as long as we still have some of the other bottle, we should be fine, right?" she said before taking a sip. Her body shrunk down and joined Sora. The entire room was so spacious compared to a second ago. It was unlike anything Ruby ever experience. "Wow! This is SO cool!" she cheered as she gave a little spin. "I know, right?!" Sora said, geeking out as much as Ruby as they looked to each other in excitement. "The other worlds really are mysterious!"
"I think this one is a little TOO mysterious for my liking." grumbled Donald, now small like Sora and Ruby since he drank from the bottle as them. Goofy stood beside him and chuckled. "They're taking this rather well. They're like two grapes from the same vine." His...unique phrasing made his duck companion raise a brow at him. "You mean 'two peas in a pod'." Donald said in a corrective tone when looking to Goofy with a deadpan expression. "Oh, is that how it goes?" Goofy asked, scratching his head. Donald sighed and shook his head but ignored him to head for the door. Just as he was about to grab the doorknob, he saw it was fast asleep.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked. Though the audible snore from the talking doorknob answered her question, Donald couldn't keep his irritation bottled up. "He's not waking up!" Donald exclaimed irritably, trying to shake him awake to no avail. "Now how do we chase that rabbit?!"
This was certainly a problem. The door was fast asleep. Even Donald's yelling wasn't waking him up. But if they couldn't get through him, then...
It was then Ruby noticed something right behind the little wooden bed at the left of the door. "Hey, I think there's a path behind that bed!" she exclaimed, pointing to the bed in question.
Goofy scratched his head as he looked at the furniture the huntress pointed out. "But it's way too big for us to move like this. What do we do?" he wondered.
Fortunately, it seemed Sora managed to use his head as he looked between the bed and the bottles. "I've got an idea." he said, jumping and scrambling up the chair to get to the table. It was certainly not the way he was used to climbing into a chair, but it would have to do.
"Wak!?" Donald quacked in surprise as he saw Sora jump up to the table and grab the blue bottle with the tree on it. He heaved it up, making whatever was inside pour into his mouth. And before they knew it, they were big again!
BONK
"Ack! Don't do that!" Donald yelled indignantly, rubbing his beak. It seemed his Sora induced growth spurt had caused him to hit his beak on the table.
"Oh, sorry." Sora said with an awkward chuckle. Of course, Donald was anything but amused as he rubbed his beak. "Alright, let's give it a try." Sora said, getting back on track. Shuffling over to the bed, he gave it a push. Much to everyone's surprise, the bed not only moved, but merged into the wall. It was as if it was part of the wallpaper and never a bed at all. Not only that, but the path Ruby spoke of was now open for them to explore thanks to their miniature statures.
"Alright! Good job pickin' that out, Ruby!" Goofy complimented, giving the huntress a thumbs up. The compliment drew a cheerful giggle from Ruby who rubbed the back of her head with a grin. Now it was time to shrink back down and explore.
"Not again." Of course, everyone but a certain grumpy duck was having fun with the constant size shift. He had a feeling this was going to get a little repetitive as they shrank back down and made their way to the door. Well at least they could resume their pursuit and hopefully find some sign of the King's presence here. Assuming their arrival in this world wasn't just one great, big, mistaken stumble down some abnormal rabbit hole.
