Sure, that was the way things worked in every court she'd ever heard about, but Sarah got the feeling that this particular judge took things quite a bit farther than any of the other judges she'd heard about in the past would have thought to.
"In light of that knowledge, those of us trained in magic, and those few in possession of weapons capable of harming or destroying the Heartless have formed hunting parties, each with the end goal of finally eliminating the threat."
There were a few, long moments of silence, while the judge put a hand to her chin and seemed to be considering the new information she'd just been presented with.
"So, the three of you are members of one of these hunting parties, are you?"
"That's correct, Your Honor," she said, tucking "her" hands neatly behind "her" back, so that she could stand at ease and look a bit more professional than if she'd just had them in Sora's pockets.
"Well, if what you say is true, then by Royal Decree I am hereby assigning your hunting party to root out and destroy all of the assailants who attempted to assault my person!" the heavyset queen – only two people really had the authority to issue royal decrees and have them stick, and she kind of doubted that this was the kind of society that called all of their rulers king regardless of gender – said, banging a gavel to emphasize her command. "Is that clear?!"
"Yes, Your Majesty, perfectly clear," she said, with a dip of "her" head to the queen at her bench.
The woman looked a great deal more pleased by the end of their conversation than she had when it'd started.
"Excellent, my boy," she said, smiling for the first time since this whole song-and-dance had begun. "Why don't you and yours see about getting ready, and then I shall have one of my cards escort you to the place all of this trouble seems to have started from?"
"Very well, Your Majesty," she said, feeling a slight tug on the right sleeve of Sora's shirt.
After sketching another courtly bow, because happy with her current decision or not, such courtesy was still key when dealing with a volatile a person as this queen had proven herself to be, Sarah turned her attention to Donald.
"What is it?"
"You told her about the Heartless," the drake said, sounding like he wanted to be disapproving, but couldn't quite manage under the circumstances.
"I'm sorry if that was sensitive information, but these people needed to know something to be able to defend themselves."
"I know, I know," the drake said.
"Ah, so it's like that," she mused aloud.
Clearly, Donald wanted to disapprove of her actions on general principle, but he couldn't truly deny that the end result had been a net positive for everyone involved.
"You even did it without tellin' them about the other worlds, too." Goofy's emotions were much easier to read: he was simply happy to be of assistance.
"Well, if people know they're in danger, then they can at least take steps to keep themselves safe," she said, explaining her motives even though no one had really asked her to.
"See, Donald? Sora just wanted ta help," Goofy said, his smile as wide and cheerful as she'd ever seen it.
"I know that, Goofy," Donald said, his half-disapproving tone now tinged with annoyance.
Clearly, this line of conversation had become rather unproductive; best she nipped it in the bud. "I'm going to get some water before we head out. You guys want anything?"
"Yeah," Goofy said, cheerfully, natch.
And so she made her way back over to the supply-pack that she had so carefully packed for herself to take along on this journey she was making alongside what would have been Sora's comrades in another life and time. Unzipping the pack once she had reached it, she smiled down at Kuromaru as the little Shadow curled up against "her" right leg.
Taking out one of the six water bottles that she had packed for herself, Sarah took a few long, healthy swallows, then wiped off the rim and replaced the bottle inside Sora's backpack. Donald and Goofy weren't much farther behind at hydrating themselves, and Donald was at least courteous enough to replace both bottles where he'd found them. Goofy had handed his own off to Donald, so Sarah didn't really count him.
Turning to see one of the cards – the ace of spades, a thing that she didn't know whether to take for a good omen or a bad one – starting to hurry over to where their group currently stood, Sarah turned her attention back to Kuromaru.
"Stay, Kuromaru," she directed, pressing down on the Shadow's head just enough so that it would get the idea of what she wanted it to do. "Good boy."
Kuromaru actually reached out to briefly squeeze "her" right hand, prompting her to scruffle its antennae in return. Then Ace of Spades caught up to them, and then their group – minus and then plus one – was ushered into the eaves of a large forest composed almost entirely of grass. It was a rather interesting change from the hedge-maze, and the neatly-maintained lawn where the impromptu courtroom had been set up.
Before she could muse for too long on just what that neatly-groomed "lawn" could have been to appear as such even at their current scale, however, the Keyblade appeared in "her" right hand and Sarah set her stance and cleared her mind as a group composed of both flying and ground-bound Heartless erupted from the grass around them. Ace of Spades quickly fell back to the center of the roughly-triangular formation that she, Donald, and Goofy had quickly assumed when the onslaught had started coming in earnest. She was pleased, in a distant sort of way, to know that Ace of Spades could take care of himself. It was one less thing to worry about, at least.
The sight of something decidedly unusual happening just to her right would have drawn more of Sarah's attention, if she hadn't been rather completely focused on aiming and firing as she impaled flying, fire-shooting Heartless with bursts of Lightning-magic from the Keyblade she was using. However, when she caught sight of the rather particular combination of colors that this newcomer to their battleground was wearing, the realization of just who he must have been wasn't long at all in coming. All that really remained was the question of why, but for the time being that question would have to stand.
There were far more pressing concerns that needed to be addressed.
A brief, powerful flare of something passed through the clearing, causing the Heartless who had been crashing against their defenses like storm-driven tide to withdraw, seeming somehow confused in spite of their clearly animalistic nature. With their present threat a great deal less pressing at the moment, Sarah turned her attention to Riku at last.
The reason for the silver-haired boy's rather inelegant sprawl quickly became clear: Kuromaru was crouched on his chest, and hard as Riku tried to get it off, he couldn't quite manage given what the Shadow was actually doing-
"Kuromaru, come here," she called, holding out "her" left hand to the Shadow and waving it forward. "Come on, boy."
Kuromaru quickly dropped the rock it had been using to try to brain Riku, and scampered over to her, climbing up onto "her" back without the need of any prompting.
"What was that?!" Riku demanded, getting back to his feet, all the while furiously dusting himself off from his close encounter with the ground. "Sora, what's that Heartless doing on your back?"
Looking back over "her" left shoulder, right where Kuromaru was popping its little round head out, she smiled in passing amusement. "That seems to be his favorite place."
Riku's mouth opened, soundlessly forming a string of unspoken words, before he seemed to force himself to regain his composure. "That's not supposed to happen, Sora."
She laughed lightly. "Everyone keeps telling me that."
Riku didn't say anything else, but that same distracting wave of something – she could only describe it as a heaviness in the air – pressed down on them for a few moments, and the passed away. However, with the new addition to their group, Sarah could at last spot an epicenter to the affect.
"You're the one who's doing that?" she asked Riku, though the question seemed rather a moot one, considering the sense she was getting of that strange heaviness in the air and where she could sense it coming from.
"Yeah, that was me," the silver-haired boy – after spending so much time among people with more normal hair colors, that seemed just as strange as it ever had, though compared to working so closely with a pair of anthropomorphic animals it wasn't that strange – said, and there was a small measure of defensiveness to his tone, though for the most part he seemed rather off-balance.
"Could you rein it in a bit? It's distracting," she said, then saw Kuromaru attempting to flip him off as best as it could with only three vaguely-fingerlike talons. "That's not nice, Kuromaru," she said, biting back a smirk.
Riku didn't seem to know how to react to what was going on, if the stunned-bunny look on his face was anything to go by, but before anyone else could say anything, Kuromaru leaped down from "her" back and began pointing frantically back the way the four of them had originally come. When the little Shadow turned back slightly, reaching out to grab "her" right hand so that it could tug on the appendage in a way that suggested extreme urgency, Sarah made her decision.
"Riku, can you handle things here?" she asked, calling the Keyblade to "her" left hand as she began to turn away from Donald and Goofy so that she would be able to investigate whatever it was that Kuromaru wanted her to deal with.
Riku grinned, looking more than a little cocky; she wondered if he had the skills to back up the claims he kept making. "But Sora, if you leave me alone here, there won't be any left for you!"
"Good," she called back over Sora's left shoulder, already turning to head for the impromptu courtroom that had been set up in that clearing the four of them had arrived in. "I'll owe you an extra sandwich if you manage that."
She didn't bother to wait to see if Riku had anything to say after that, already focused on whatever danger might be waiting outside this strange forest. Tugging on Kuromaru's hand in turn, Sarah ducked slightly as she felt the little Shadow jump back up onto "her" back as she continued to make her way to the edge of the forest.
When the two of them made it out of the forest, Sarah found herself facing a large group of Heartless that seemed to intent on attacking both the queen and the girl she had been accusing of the crime that the Heartless had been responsible for. The girl who had been on trial seemed safe enough for the moment, defended by guards that – while not a one of them would have been capable of doing any permanent damage to the Heartless – were clearly determined to do anything and everything they could to keep the girl under suspicion from coming to harm for as long as they could manage. Whether their motives were pure or not, they were at least useful; so she would put them to use.
Conversely, the queen had been separated from her guards by a determined wedge of Heartless, and was clearly struggling to get back to them; and, just as clearly, she didn't have a chance without help. Setting off determinedly, Sarah gathered her personal stores of Mana and channeled them into the Keyblade.
"Thunder Lance!"
A wide bolt of lightning erupted out of the Keyblade, impaling three of the Soldier Heartless who were attempting to impede her progress, allowing Sarah to dash forward to the queen's side before the Soldiers could close the gap that she had made. The seething wedge of Heartless began to move forward again, so Sarah swung the Keyblade forward and unleashed a shadow of the storm's own fury upon them, obliterating a good chunk of the front ranks and even a scattered few of those supporting them.
Stepping around the broad form of the queen, Sarah scanned the two quadrants behind them for any Heartless – of whatever type – who might have been using the distraction provided by their fellows to sneak up on the two of them while she was preoccupied with those in the front. As it turned out, however, there were none of them moving in such a way. She was glad for the reprieve, but also rather curious as to why such a thing was happening in the first place.
It could simply be that your standard-issue Heartless only possessed a dull sort of animal cunning, one that didn't allow for any complex plans, or there could be some other kind of reason for that; it might have been interesting to look into, and maybe she'd do that later, but for now she had other matters that she needed to handle. Stepping back to her guard position in front of the queen, Sarah raised the Keyblade and fired off several bolts of lightning into the advancing ranks of Soldier Heartless and the few Shadows attempting to support them in what small way they could manage with whatever constraints they were operating under.
The lightning she commanded tore through the ranks of Soldiers who had arrayed themselves in front of Sarah and her current protectorate, causing them to dissolve into whatever could be said to be their component parts. Turning to check up on the girl who had been under suspicion of what amounted to attempted regicide, Sarah found that the other girl was still as safe as she could be, considering the circumstances. Breathing slowly and deeply as she gathered more Mana, Sarah let fly with more lightning into the remaining Soldier and Shadow Heartless who were attempting to attack her and the queen.
When the attack finally wound down, the Heartless retreating from the area as silently as any Necron attack force had been described as being, Sarah allowed herself to relax and breathe more deeply for the first time in a long while.
"Are you all right?" she asked, turning back to look at the queen standing at ease behind her.
There was a look of surprise on the queen's face, but it passed after only a moment and was replaced by a smile that tried to be benevolent but only really managed to come off as calculating. "Why, of course I am, my dear," the queen said, her saccharine tone pinging Sarah's bullshit detector as hard as it had ever been pinged before.
She reached out to pat Sora's head, and it was all Sarah could do not to sigh and/or roll "her" eyes.
As the rest of their group made their way out of the strange forest that they had gone into during the course of their hunt, Sarah and the queen turned to look at the hedge arch that bordered the forest that her and her group had gone through.
"I see that your little friends have finished their work," the queen said, sounding rather pleased; Sarah was glad for the small reprieve that she was being presented with, since royal or not, this woman had no manners.
"We can work quickly, under the right circumstances," she said, turning to nod respectfully to the queen, before setting off to meet up with the other members of her group, and Riku.
"Hey, Sora," Riku said, grinning in that cocky way he'd always done in the one-and-a-half games that she'd seen him in. "Looks like you owe me two sandwiches."
"You managed to clear out that section of the forest?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at the silver-haired boy.
"Yeah, I did," he said, the smirk on his face remaining firmly in place.
Before she or any of the others could say anything more, the blast of trumpets came and drew all of their attention to the judge's podium.
"Hear ye, hear ye!" the white rabbit called presiding over what had once been used as a courtroom and was now likely something else. "By royal decree, the hunting party composed of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Riku is to attend a royal tea party with Her Royal Highness, the Queen of Hearts!"
The declaration came as something of a surprise, since she was fairly sure that nothing remotely like it had actually happened in-game. But then, the only things that really resembled the game anymore were the worlds that she was traveling to and the people she was making the journey with, and even then only in broad strokes.
The five of them settled down at a table that had clearly been prepared with just this sort of an event in mind, Kuromaru hopping down off of "her" back so that the Shadow could curl up on top of "her" feet. The table itself had been draped with a rich, red tablecloth, bordered in black-and-white hearts in an alternating pattern. The dishware set out on the table came in a rainbow of soft, pastel colors, and had the look and feel of fine china to each and every piece; Sarah wondered for a brief moment just where these dishes in particular had come from. What did one call fine china when there didn't seem to be a China, really?
The people seated around the table were a rather eclectic bunch, but no more so than any of those that Sarah had met during her travels, though it was rather interesting to see so many different kinds of people gathered together. Particularly the anthros, though she was beginning to become accustomed to the sight of them, as well.
"Do you have Masala Chai?" she asked the card that was setting out cups and saucers in front of each of the people seated at the long table. "It's my favorite."
"I'll see to it personally, sir," the card said, nodding smartly as he wrote something down on the notepad that Sarah had briefly noted him carrying.
"Thank you," she said, as the card continued about his work with that same purposeful air that she'd seen about him before.
To her right, she heard a sharp, incredulous laugh that could only have come from Riku.
"So, you have a favorite tea now, Sora?"
"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it," she responded easily, gently moving the teacup and saucer she'd been given so that it rested more closely to "her" right hand, and then turning the handle slightly so that she would be able to grab it more easily when the time came.
Riku didn't say anything in response, though Goofy seemed to appreciate the sentiment. Soon enough, another card – two of clubs, rather than the three of diamonds that had been by previously – moved down the line of people seated on the side of the table that she, Riku, Donald, and Goofy were all seated on. He was followed by a large group of variously-suited cards carrying an extremely large service platter; the platter itself was rectangular. What she could see of it from her position seemed to have been polished to a brilliant silver shine, and covered in teapots, platters of what looked like various kinds of pastries, and what were clearly sugar bowls and small pitchers of cream.
The two of clubs set down the pot of tea that he'd just taken off the platter down within easy reach of Riku, and then moved on to do the same in front of Sarah herself, and continued like so all down that side of the table. The sound of footsteps drew her attention to another card – an ace of diamonds this time – making his way over to where their group of five was seated. Methodically going town the line from Riku to Donald, the ace of diamonds poured out a healthy cup-full of tea for each and every one of them.
Another card neatly set out the small pitchers of cream and bowls of sugar in front of each of them before quickly moving on. Sarah was just about to call and ask the server if she could have some honey to sweeten her own tea, when she noticed a discrepancy that she hadn't quite taken note of before: all of the other sugar spoons that she could see seemed to be made of metal or metallic-colored plastic. And yet, she could see something round and wooden sticking out of the elegant china serving bowl in front of her.
Delicately extracting the wooden handle from the serving bowl, Sarah found that it was indeed the handle of one of those wooden honey-servers that she always found so funny looking every time she'd had the chance to see them.
"You don't have any sugar, Sora," Riku said, sounding like he was both amused and rather pleased by the prospect.
She scoffed good-naturedly. "Heathen. The only proper way to sweeten Masala Chai tea is with honey."
She gave Riku a shamelessly exaggerated superior look, winking at him when he looked like he was trying not to snicker.
Their attendance at the tea party was rather relaxing, for all the formality and etiquette clearly demanded of the servants in place. When the last of the tea had been consumed, the Queen stood from her place at the head of the table amid the blast of those same trumpets that had announced the party in the first place. Sarah wondered what they could be announcing now.
"By Royal decree, the hunting party composed of Sora, Riku, Donald, and Goofy are to present themselves before Her Highness the Queen of Hearts," the white rabbit – clearly some kind of important royal functionary, though Sarah didn't quite know the proper name for someone in such a position – announced.
That was a rather interesting development as far as she was concerned, and as their group of five made their over to a throne that had been set up just beside the podium where the Queen had sat while she had been presiding over her interrupted trial, chivvied along by the cards that were clearly some kind of lesser functionaries in the court of the Queen of Hearts, Sarah wondered what the heavyset woman could have been planning. When the four of them who were actually walking were arranged in a neat line before the throne of the Queen of Hearts, Sarah took note of two things: the Queen herself looked rather more than pleased to see them, and there was a sheathed sword next to her that the Queen was resting her hands on the pommel of. As the four of them were prompted to fall to one knee before the Queen on her throne, Sarah realized that she knew what was going on.
She had to admit, it would certainly be a novel experience.
"I hereby dub thee Sir Sora, defender of the realm," the Queen of Hearts said, her voice carrying all the authority of a stateswoman in her element. "And do confer upon thee the full rights, duties, and responsibilities of the position." After the Queen had touched both of "her" shoulders with that unsheathed sword she had taken up, the Queen offered her hand for a kiss as two cards whose suits Sarah didn't have the attention to spare determining tied a short mantle around "her" narrow shoulders.
Kissing the Queen's right hand, Sarah turned "her" head slightly to watch as the Queen continued down the line, knighting each one of their group in turn. When Riku caught "her" eye, she turned to grin reassuringly at the disbelieving expression on his face. Yes, Riku, this is really happening, she didn't say, though she did her level best to express such a sentiment non-verbally.
Riku smirked back, though there was something in his eyes that suggested he wasn't quite as confident as he was trying to appear. Turning her attention back to the Queen of Hearts as she and her card troops finished the ceremony, Sarah noticed that rather than coming over to dismiss them, the Queen and her cards seemed to be gathering something else up.
"And, to Sir Sora, I hereby present the Queen's Seal," the heavyset woman said, smiling cheerfully as she removed a heart-shaped pin – one done in alternating quadrants of black and red, with small golden wings on the upper parts of the heart – from the red, satin pillow that a pair of cards – two of spades and two of clubs, this time – had presented to her. "For special service to the Crown."
When the Queen pinned her Seal to the front of the mantle that her cards had previously draped over "her" shoulders, Sarah was a bit surprised. Yes, she supposed that it made sense that her actions in particular would merit some form of official recognition, but she hadn't honestly been expecting anything like this. She supposed it was kind of like Dad's medals in that way: a bit strange to be getting recognition when you'd just done what you saw needed doing.
Thanking the Queen of Hearts for the hospitality of her court as they all bid her goodbye, Sarah turned to fall in with Donald and Goofy as she swept up her supply-pack and Kuromaru settled back inside. There were a few things that she wanted to discus with Riku before the two of them inevitably parted ways, but that could wait until their group was safely beyond the reach of uninvolved ears. Still, there were topics safe enough to brooch in the here and now.
"Riku, do you have a place to stay?" she asked, turning to look at the silver-haired boy so that she could more properly gauge his reaction.
"I can take care of myself, Sora."
"I know you can, the question is are you," she reiterated, ignoring the disbelieving expression on Riku's face. "Do you have a place to stay, Riku?"
"Yes mom, I have a place to stay," he said, beginning to smirk. "Are you going to ask me if I have clean underpants now?"
"Why would I bother with a silly question like that?" she smirked back, getting into the spirit of things. "I already know you don't."
"Oh, and I suppose you have enough clean underpants to go around," he shot back, smirking all the wider.
"Enough for the whole week, plus a few spares," she volleyed back. "I counted."
Now that right there wasn't remotely true, but it was rather amusing to see the way Riku reacted to it.
"All right, so you're mama's little boy, what else is new?"
Try saying that Mr. T, I dare you, she mused, still finding this little diversion funny. "Well, one of us has to be sensible, and god knows it isn't you."
"Hey, I can be sensible," Riku said, looking for a few moments like he'd have liked nothing more than to stick his tongue out at her.
"Oh yes, because causing the end of the world because you were bored was such a sensible thing to do," she laughed at the fish-slapped expression on his face. "Riku, I love you like a brother, but you can be such a dope sometimes."
Riku didn't seem to know how to respond to that, and so the four of them continued on their way back to the room that served as the entrance to this part of the world. Kuromaru popped out of her supply-pack then, pushing the cooler-bag full of the sandwiches she had packed for this trip – and as many others as they would sustain her through – over "her" left shoulder so that she would be able to grab them more easily when the time came. Taking the bag from the little Shadow as soon as she could reach it, Sarah brought it around and unzipped it.
"All right, so that was two sandwiches I owed you," she said, shifting the bag so that she could hold it open all the more easily. "Would you prefer ham or turkey?"
"Ooh, fancy grown-up sandwiches," Riku said, smiling amusedly. "I suppose I might just have to forgive you for calling me a dope."
Now clearly wasn't the time to remind Riku that he had been a dope throughout the course of most of the first game; she might not have had such a clear recollection of the exact course of events, but stupidity of that caliber was memorable. If only because she found it so annoying.
"Yes, Riku," she said in her "humor the idiot" tone that no one around here was really equipped to spot. "Now: ham or turkey?"
"I'll take ham," he said, smiling as she handed him a pair of the indicated sandwiches. "Thanks, Sora."
The two of them parted ways not long after that, with her and Riku both bidding the other a fond farewell, and in her case promising to stop for a chat if – or, as Riku put it when – the two of them met up again during the course of their travels.
"Gawrsh Sora, it was real nice of you, givin' Riku some of your sandwiches like that," Goofy said, patting "her" right shoulder as she handed the cooler-bag back to Kuromaru and listened for the sounds of the little Shadow getting it settled back into place.
"Well, I figure if they really are going to reappear when I need them," she'd almost said "respawn" there. "Then I can afford to be generous."
"Besides, Sora already said that he made those sandwiches to share," Donald said, as the three of them started moving again after their short pause to talk with Riku.
She chuckled softly. "Yes, that too."
The three of them, plus Kuromaru from its comfortable perch on "her" back, continued on their way back to the strange room that had seemed to be the focal-point where entrance to this part of the world was possible; though for a moment Sarah wondered what the other part of this world was like. She knew that there wasn't likely to be a chance of her getting to take a closer look at the world outside of this one, since Donald and Goofy both seemed rather eager to leave, likely for their own reasons, and Donald in particular wasn't likely to take kindly to the idea of a detour motivated almost entirely by her own curiosity. And, just because she wasn't particularly fond of the drake on a personal level, that was no reason to go and antagonize him for ultimately petty reasons.
She'd save that kind of thing for when something of actual import came up.
They made their way back into the hub-room through an entrance to the side of the door that she'd only taken brief note of when their group was making their way out of the room and into the forest in the first place. The fact that the doorknob was now completely asleep and hence would be a serious pain in the ass to try to wake up was a major factor in her own decision to take that particular path when it was presented to her, and judging by the expression of subdued relief that spread across Donald's face as they all made their way back into the room – even though they all had to squeeze under the bed one-by-one on their way in – he shared the sentiment.
"You should all be careful here," a rather amused, self-satisfied voice echoed all around them, as the form of a particularly rotund, fantastically-colored cat appeared to leer down at them from his perch atop the cushion of the chair that they would need to jump up onto if they were going to make it back up to the table without a lucky jump-and-grab – she still remembered how annoying that particular mechanic could be near ledges when she'd actually wanted to fall down – "The Darkness is no place for lost little girls," the cat laughed softly, his amusement somehow less personally mocking and more just finding the whole situation too absurd to do anything else; Sarah could fully relate. "Of course, some of you might be less lost than others."
The cat faded out slowly after that, only the laughing outline of his mouth lingering in the air for a few moments before it, too, faded. The laughter lingered for only a few moments beyond that.
"Well, that was a big help," she scoffed, rolling "her" eyes as she turned back to her compatriots. "Either of you have even the slightest idea what he might've been talking about?"
Before either of her two companions who were actually capable of speech could say a word in response, however, Sarah heard the sound of Kuromaru unzipping her supply-pack and then she felt the little Shadow tugging at "her" right shoulder in a way that she would have called frantic in a creature capable of higher-level reasoning. Of course, there was some evidence that Kuromaru, of all Heartless, might just be regaining its capacity for such; but now was far from the time to think about things like that.
"Look!" Goofy exclaimed, pointing out the very thing that Kuromaru had clearly been sensing.
The thing itself turned out to be some kind of giant Heartless. Some kind of fuck-weird giant, spindly, bandy-legged giant Heartless with a long-ass head, juggling a pair of burning sticks with the pair of crinkly paper-cutouts that seemed to serve as its arms.
"Well, there's something you don't see everyday," she muttered.
The Heartless seemed to tower over them from their position just under the table, but judging by its comparative height relative to the other furniture in the room, Sarah estimated that it would come up to around waist height on Goofy if all of them stood at their normal heights. Well, normal for some of them, at least.
"It's another of those giant Heartless!" Donald shouted. "We have to find a way to defeat it!"
"I might have an idea there," she said, already entering the calm, almost meditative state of combat mode. "But I'm going to need you guys to buy me some time. You up for that?" she asked, shifting her stance so that she would be able to take in Donald and Goofy with a single, sweeping gaze.
"All right, Sora! We'll get you all the time you need," Goofy called enthusiastically, though Donald seemed rather dubious.
It was starting to seem rather typical of him, honestly.
"How will we know when you're finished?" Donald asked; rather a reasonable question, that.
She smiled slightly. "Trust me, you won't miss it."
After she'd offered her fellows what reassurance she could with her time so limited as it was, Sarah turned to jump up onto the cushioned seat they had all been standing in front of, and from there climbed back up onto the table itself. The bottle that had shrunk them in the first place was a rather obvious landmark on the otherwise sparse and monotonous surface of the table, but Sarah rather doubted that it would be of any particular help in their present situation. Still, if nothing else, it was a place to start.
When she made her way over to the bottle, though, Sarah raised "her" eyebrows in slight surprise as a small, ornately decorated box appeared just beside the bottle. Opening the hinged lid, Sarah laughed as she was confronted with an assortment of beautifully frosted cookies that all said "Eat Me" on the front.
"Someone could take that entirely the wrong way," she said amusedly, picking out one of the pink cookies – likely to be either cherry or strawberry flavored, and hence she'd be happy with either – she ate it and continued along the tabletop.
She could see Donald and Goofy holding back the huge Heartless through the heavy glass of the table itself, but when she began to feel the same sensation she'd taken note of when she'd been shrunk down, only in reverse this time, Sarah quickly leaped down from the table just as Sora's body started growing again. "Her" feet hit the ground after what seemed like only a second of freefall, and as Sarah rose from her crouch, she found that the Heartless who had been menacing them seemed like a much smaller nuisance.
Stepping over to the thing, she tapped the Heartless on what passed for its left shoulder.
"Hey there."
A good, hard swing of the Keyblade smashed the Heartless into glittering shards, leaving the Heart inside to go flittering off to wherever it was that such things departed to. Kingdom Hearts, or suchlike. Turning back to the table just as the miniscule forms of Donald and Goofy began to move a bit tentatively toward her, Sarah leaned back to the table and snatched up the now-tiny box between "her" thumb and forefinger, and then knelt down so that she could more easily present it to Donald and Goofy.
"Here, take these," she said, making Sora's voice gentle since his body was so much larger than theirs at the moment.
She didn't hear either of their replies, if they even replied at all, but a few seconds later Donald and Goofy began to grow back to their normal sizes.
"Hurrying things along a bit, aren't you?" the pink-and-purple cat asked, as he reappeared stripes first, lounging comfortably atop the glass table they were all standing around. "I know you want to get home, but there just might be something you missed by going so fast," the cat said, moving his tail forward so that he could pick up his ears in that way a person would doff their cap to someone else. "Still, that's only a suggestion, my girl."
With his laughter slowly fading away to an echoing nothingness, the purple-and-pink cat's body faded to a set of hollow pink stripes, and then the stripes themselves unraveled into the air.
Sarah chewed the inside of "her" lower lip, thinking back on the events that she could remember from this particular world in the Kingdom Hearts game. Given what the cat had said to her – she took a moment to laugh mentally at the thought of how comparatively normal that sounded after all of the things she'd been through and done – there was at least one thing she'd missed during her efforts at clearing the place out, and he'd at least suggested that such a thing was because she'd been trying to be efficient.
And yes, it was true that some things simply couldn't be done efficiently; they required artistry, craftsmanship, and an attention to detail that couldn't simply be streamlined without compromising the integrity of the finished product. Still, with that particularly annoying Heartless done with and out of the way, Sarah could now attend to those sorts of details without undue concern of attack. Slipping of her supply-pack, Sarah set it down on the floor, next to one of the legs of the glass table.
"You guys sit tight, all right?" she advised, pitching Sora's voice so that it didn't sound too much like a question. "I'm going to see if there's anything we actually missed here."
"Aw, phooey," Donald scoffed. "You don't have to listen to that cat. He couldn't even tell the difference between a boy and a girl."
All the more reason to listen, Sarah mused, swallowing a chuckle. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Grabbing the bottle from the table, Sarah took a swig and then set the thing back down on the table where she'd found it. Waiting through the expected sequence of flavors, and finding that they were just the same as they had been before, Sarah soon found herself looking out at the floor of the room from a vantagepoint only a few inches above it for the third time that day. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary as far as she could see, but before she could take even a step forward to begin exploring the room in earnest to try to find just what it was that she had missed during her first two trips through the place, Sarah found the Keyblade in "her" right hand again. Raising the Keyblade to eye-level, wondering for a long moment just what in the hell was up with all of this, Sarah watched in mute interest as a beam of light about as thick as a laser-pointer's shot off toward the doorknob that had fallen completely back to sleep at this point.
Following the path that the beam had taken just before it cut off, Sarah found herself staring down at a distinctly familiar little item.
"Huh," she muttered, reaching down to pick the little Gummi up and deposit it in Sora's left pocket, next to the journal she'd been keeping. "So that's what we missed."
Making her way back over to the table, Sarah looked up to see Goofy bending down to offer her the fancy box of cookies that she'd previously offered him and Donald when the two of them were the ones needing to regain their normal sizes. Picking out another of the pink-frosted cookies, Sarah waved her thanks to Goofy and then made her way out to a reasonable distance from him so that the two of them wouldn't end up on top of each other when she returned to Sora's normal size once again. Eating the cookie, after she'd dismissed the Keyblade, revealed it to be strawberry flavored, and Sarah licked "her" lips as she returned to Sora's normal size.
"You didn't find anything, did you," Donald said, in a tone that suggested he already suspected the answer.
"Well, that depends." Taking the Gummi out of Sora's pocket, Sarah tossed it to the drake with a quick underhand. "That look like something to you?"
"A Gummi!" Donald and Goofy both exclaimed, almost at the same time.
"I'd have to say that that definitely seems like a thing to me."
Donald's expression transformed from surprised to sheepish in a matter of seconds, forcing Sarah to swallow a chuckle since she didn't want to be rude.
"Gawrsh, and we mighta missed this if it hadn't been for that nice cat warnin' us about it," Goofy said.
Donald's sheepish expression melted away, replaced quickly with one that was equal parts annoyed and begrudgingly thankful. "Well, he still can't tell a boy from a girl."
Chuckling deep in "her" throat as she fetched her supply-pack and settled it back on "her" back, Sarah fell into step with the two of them as Kuromaru nuzzled the center of "her" back and the four of them made their way out of the room. It was still just as interesting to see the furniture that had been placed more than a bit haphazardly around the outer room, making the place seem a lot more like some kind of strange waiting room than the rabbit hole it had looked like from outside. Before she could seriously start to wonder just how in the hell the three of them who weren't actually capable of sliding back up the walls as two-dimensional shadows against the sheer surface were going to make it back up to the entrance, the large, high-backed, dark-red upholstered chairs swooped down on them like some kind of birds of prey.
Laughing aloud as she found herself falling into the plush seat of the velvet-upholstered chair, Sarah swept her supply-pack off "her" back and leaned comfortably back into the flying chair. What a concept, she mused with supreme amusement, zipping open her supply-pack so that she could fetch a thermos of milk for the trip. Naturally, Kuromaru chose to take advantage of such an opening: the little Shadow leaping right into "her" lap before she'd taken her first drink.
"Well hello to you too, Kuromaru," she said, scruffling the Heartless' antennae with her free hand.
When they came within sight of the entrance once more, Sarah quickly put away the thermos and took hold of the hanging-loop of her supply-pack so that she wouldn't be separated from it during whatever was going to happen next. "Whatever" turned out to be being launched out of their respective chairs as though the chairs themselves had become spring-loaded. Rolling to bleed off the momentum from what had amounted to a throw, Sarah unrolled and turned back to look back at her compatriots.
"You guys all right back there? Didn't get too banged up?" she asked, hurrying over to help Goofy and then Donald back to their feet, all while Kuromaru scampered to keep up with her.
"Naw, we're fine," Goofy said, dusting himself off while Donald grumbled under his breath and did likewise. "Thanks for helpin' us out there, though."
"Not a problem," she said, reaching down to scruffle Kuromaru's antennae as the little Shadow rubbed up against "her" legs.