Chapter 58
Jaq the Mouse
Riku whistled, impressed by the view of the castle in the distance. Kairi traced her finger arcing over the castle like a shooting star. Sora crossed his hands behind his head and enjoyed the view and the sight of the castle's white stone contrasting against the deep blue of the night sky.
"Gosh, this is a nice view," Mickey said, voicing everyone's sentiments.
"Cinderella's in there, right?" Sora asked. He had only met Cinderella one time, very briefly, and thus he had never learned her story. He had met her Fairy Godmother, who had taken up residence in Merlin's house to aid him in his first adventure. She had mentioned that she guided Cinderella on a path from her life under her abusive stepfamily to marrying the prince.
"She should be," Goofy confirmed. "You think they'll just let us in?"
"Let's see how far asking nicely will go," Kairi suggested.
"That's always one way to go," Sora agreed.
The party walked down the path and came across the main gate leading onto the castle grounds. They noticed that the gate was unguarded and ajar, but Sora simply shrugged and led his friends through.
"You're not concerned that there aren't any guards here?" Riku asked, bemused by Sora's nonchalance.
"Hey, it was even easier getting into the Imperial City in The Land of Dragons," Sora countered. Donald and Goofy nodded in confirmation. "The second time, when it wasn't open for celebration."
Riku had to concede the point, having snuck into the city and walked right into the palace himself.
They walked into the courtyard and walked around a fountain that sat in the center. Looking up at the porch along the front face of the castle, they noticed that there were still no guards keeping watch.
"Huh. I guess this world is usually peaceful enough that they don't have to worry so much about intruders," Mickey guessed.
"I wonder if they've had to worry about any Heartless," Sora mused. Donald patted him on the arm and pointed off to the right. Sora followed his gaze and, speak of the devil, saw some Heartless. There was half a dozen of them. They appeared to be oblong balls of yarn, each with four enlarged clothing buttons acting as wheels and two more sitting on top, resembling mouse ears. One end of the yarn stuck out of the back and took on a zig-zagging shape as the tail, and there was a jagged opening in the front to reveal Heartless eyes.
Sora crossed his arms and watched them curiously, wondering why they were zooming around the courtyard like they were without turning their attention to them. Looking at the ground ahead of the Heartless, he saw a mouse with brown fur, running away from the monsters on its hind legs. The mouse wore cloth that was made into a miniature shirt, shoes, and a stocking cap.
Sora looked at his friends and saw that Riku, Mickey and Goofy were just as confused as he was, though Kairi and Donald were simply surprised. "You know, I've never seen Heartless go after regular animals like that," Sora pointed out. "Even if they did, normally, they should turn on us the moment we show up."
"You see the clothes he's wearing?" Kairi asked. Sora looked back at the mouse, then turned back to Kairi and nodded. "Maybe he has a strong heart from a strong friendship."
Sora raised his eyebrow and turned back to the chase. "In that case, we should help him." He summoned his Keyblade.
The mouse turned and ran around the Ratty Rats. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sora and his Keyblade. Smiling with relief, he ran toward him. "Venven!" he chirped in a high-pitched cheer as he ran between Sora's legs.
Jiminy jumped out of Sora's pocket and landed beside the mouse. "This way!" he said. "Donald, stick with us!" Donald nodded and followed Jiminy as he started running to safety.
"Zugk-zugk!" the mouse agreed, following Jiminy.
The Ratty Rats tried to follow the mouse through Sora's legs, but Sora jabbed his Keyblade into the ground between his feet. The first Heartless ran straight into the Keyblade's teeth and dissipated, but the others managed to stop and back up. The Heartless sized up their new enemies, then, on realizing how much larger they were, started riding around each of them at high speeds.
The party tried to follow the Heartless' movements, but there were so many going so fast that it was impossible to do so. One of the Ratty Rats cut a wide arc, then turned in and jumped at Mickey, knocking him down. Riku slashed at a Heartless as it went by, but it was too fast and he only just clipped the tail. He was then promptly knocked down from behind in the same manner as Mickey. Kairi dodged a lunge and struck back, knocking the Heartless aside, but another one simply ran into her legs, causing her to lose balance and fall down. Goofy was strafed three times, and while he had trouble maintaining his balance, he somehow avoided falling down. Sora sidestepped to avoid getting hit in the back, but this opened him up to get hit in the stomach, sending him sprawling on his back.
Sora rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, his teeth gritted in irritation. "Okay, that's it. You like to hit fast? Fine. Everyone, get down!" At his command, Riku, Mickey, Kairi, and Goofy crouched to the ground.
Sora held his arm out and stared in one direction. He Scanned each of the Ratty Rats that zoomed by and willed energy gathering in his Keyblade to focus on them. Then, he spun his Keyblade around in his hand, allowing it to build up power, then swung it in the direction of a Ratty Rat in front of him. A bolt of energy shot out of the tip and arced around, tracking the Heartless at lightning-fast speed. He swung his Keyblade wildly, unleashing even more energy bolts, which followed and struck the Ratty Rats. Next, he jumped over his friends and hovered outside of the ring of Heartless. He pointed his Keyblade toward the center of the group and willed energy to charge up in the tip. When the energy was at critical mass, he twisted the Keyblade and released a dozen bolts of energy which homed in on the Heartless, blasting them into the air. With that finished, he landed on his feet and bared his Keyblade.
The Heartless landed hard, two of them bursting into dark smoke. Riku, Mickey, Kairi, and Goofy took the opportunity to counterattack and get some payback. With the trio of Ratty Rat Heartless incapacitated and unable to defend themselves, they were defeated with ease.
After the last freed heart vanished, Sora, Riku, Mickey, Kairi, and Goofy turned and walked over to Donald, Jiminy and the mouse. The mouse stared at Sora's Keyblade in wonder, then looked up at Sora's face.
"Thanksa Venven," the mouse said. "Hey, you gotta big!"
Sora looked at the mouse in confusion. "Excuse me? What's a 'Venven'?" he asked.
"Huh?" The mouse studied Sora further and realized that he was not who he thought he was. "Oh, whoopsie. Jaq-a thought you was sutta else."
"Oh. Yeah. I kind of get that a lot," Sora replied. He bent down on one knee to get a closer look at the mouse. "My name's Sora."
The mouse smiled. "Zugk-zugk. Name-a Jaq," he introduced himself.
Kairi leaned over and smiled at Jaq. "It's nice to meet you, Jaq. My name's Kairi," she said. "Are you a friend of Cinderella's?"
Jaq perked up at this. "You know-a Flinderelly?" he asked.
"A little bit," Sora answered. "We met over a year ago, and we even helped her out of some trouble."
"Oh, thassa good. A friend a Flinderelly is a friend a Jaq. Come on. Jaq-a sure she'd be happy to see you! Zugk-zugk." He jogged over to the doors leading into the castle, beckoning for Sora and company to follow. He stopped in front of the door and waited for his new friends to catch up. Sora opened the door and Jaq led them through.
"Say, that-a thing you have, thassa like Venven's," Jaq said.
Sora raised his eyebrows in amazement. "Wow. You knew a Keyblade wielder?"
"Zugk-zugk. Venven help-a Jaq fix Flinderelly dress for the ball. Got a dream, he said. Dream-a be a Keyblade Master."
"Aw, that was nice of him," Kairi said.
"I wonder where he's been all this time," Riku mused. Mickey looked down in what might have been sadness, but no one noticed.
Jaq led them to the end of the corridor and they entered the foyer. The floors were made of blue tile and laid with a red carpet, and the walls and curtains were salmon and pink. A set of stairs went in straight up, then branched off in two directions before reaching the upper level, where a doorway led into a ballroom.
"You there! Hold it!" The party turned to see two guards approaching them. The guards studied them suspiciously. "What business to you have here?" one of them, the same one who had spoken previously, asked.
"Uh, sorry to intrude," Sora said. "We're friends of Cinderella's. We were, um, in the neighborhood, and we thought we'd pay her a visit."
The other guard raised his eyebrow. "Friends of the princess', eh?" he questioned, skeptically. "Truth be told, I have made rounds all over town, and yet I have never seen any of you before."
"What is your name, young man?" the first guard asked.
"Uh, Sora, sir," Sora replied.
The guards looked at each other curiously, then turned and started whispering between themselves.
"Miss Cinderella mentioned someone by the name of Sora while disclosing her ordeal."
"Truth be told, I had not entirely believed her claims, though the recent sightings of dark creatures similar to those which she had described made me wonder."
"Perhaps he is an outsider, from another land not unlike those who visited on the eve of that ball. Those companions of his were unusual, and reminded me of two of the figures she told us about."
"You may be right. And perhaps this Sora could be the 'defender of worlds' that Miss Cinderella described."
"Perhaps we should inform her, as well as the king and the prince."
They finished talking and turned back to face Sora and his friends. We will inform the royal family of your arrival," the first guard told them. "Wait here until we return."
"Thank you," Mickey said politely. Sora nodded in affirmation. The guards turned and marched up the stairs, heading for the ballroom. The party members turned to face one another.
"So, Cinderella told them about us," Donald beamed with pride.
"Gawrsh, it sounded like they said Heartless have been showing up lately," Goofy noted.
"Then I guess it's a good thing we came when we did," Mickey said.
"I hope we don't get in too much trouble for showing up on such short notice," Riku mused.
While they continued to wait for the guards to return, something had spied them from above. The observer eyed them curiously, wondering who these new characters were. Three of them were human, and one of them seemed vaguely familiar. Another stood up like a human, but its face reminded it enough of a familiar rival that it growled with a basic anger. Deciding to ignore the offending one for the moment, the observer turned to the shorter duo, and licked its lips. Those two will be fun to chase around, though they might be too big to work as a midnight snack. It noticed something on the floor in front of the group. Squinting its eyes, it smiled wickedly when it saw the mouse. Time and again, it has tried to catch and eat that mouse, along with his little friends, but it had always failed. But it could not resist another try.
Mickey looked up and tilted his head curiously when he saw a fat black-furred cat leap off of the balcony high above and run toward them. Everyone turned their attention to the cat. Jaq jumped and squeaked in fright.
"Look out! Roosafee!" he cried. He turned and ran off.
"Wait, Jaq!" Sora called after him, but the mouse was already halfway across the room. He sighed and turned back to the cat, which had changed its direction to pursue Jaq. "Hold it right there!" He jumped in front of the cat and grabbed it, holding it in the air. The cat thrashed about and slashed at his arm. Pain shot up his arm and he let go of the cat.
The cat ran after Jaq, but Kairi had already reached him. She picked the mouse up and held him protectively. The cat skidded to a halt and growled at her in frustration. Its eyes shifted from side to side until it remembered the large mouse and duck. It might as well try to get something out of them.
The cat turned and stalked toward Mickey and Donald. It hissed menacingly, then lunged at them. Donald quacked in surprise. Mickey braced himself. The cat charged, but it was jerked to a stop by something pulling on its bushy tail. Sora, having used Cure to heal his arm, was kneeling down and holding tight onto the cat's tail.
The cat pulled angrily, trying to break free, but stopped when it heard a growling sound. It looked up at the tall animal-headed one, who was glaring at it and baring his teeth. Goofy let out a loud, sharp bark, which took even his friends by surprise. Goofy barked some more, scaring the cat, which decided to cut its losses and turned to run away. Sora let go of his tail as this happened and watched it flee.
Kairi rejoined the party and set Jaq down on the floor. Jaq laughed at the sight that he had beheld a moment before. Riku looked at Goofy warily, though the knight did not seem to notice.
Moments later, the guards returned. When they had approached the party, they each offered a respectful nod. "You may proceed to meet the royal family," the first one said. "Come with us."
Each member of the party offered a quick thank you and followed them up the stairs. The guards noticed strands of fur lying on the floor, and one of them saw the cat out of the corner of his eye, watching them.
"I always hated that cat," the first guard muttered to his friend.
The other guard nodded. "I can see why. Who names their pet 'Lucifer'?"
A/N: Well, writing Jaq's lines weren't exactly easy. I only had his cutscenes from Birth by Sleep to go off of, since I didn't have easy access to the original movie, but I think I did well enough.
I hope you're all enjoying. Be sure to leave reviews, positive or negative (but certainly constructive), and I thank you all for following along.