Warmth...That was the first thing Sora registered as he awoke upon the shores of his island. The warm light of the sun, the gentle morning zephyr, and the shifting, rough but soft feeling of sand and the waves upon his shoes. Such things were familiar. Much more familiar than the surreal sights he'd been bearing witness to. It was a most welcome thing for the confused, groggy boy to wake up to. For it told him that he wasn't being consumed by some strange, nightmarish black...thing. He was here. Home, on the Destiny Islands. A feeling that just made someone wanna yawn and relax. Though the moment Sora tried to do it again, he found himself staring up at the familiar face of a girl his age with a head of short red hair, clad in a white tank top and a lavender skirt and shorts underneath, and a pair of white and lavender shoes. Her most striking features were her eyes, blue as the sea, staring right back at Sora carrying an air of mischief in her gaze.
"Whoa!" Sora gasped with surprise as he turned to face his new company, shifting onto his knees to turn and face her. The girl laughed at his reaction. "Give me a break, Kairi." he complained with a small chuckle in his voice. Kairi. One of his most precious childhood friends, and an absolute master at teasing him.
"Sora you lazy bum. I knew that I'd find you lazing down here." she said, playfully lecturing him. It wasn't the first time she caught him lazing about on the beach, and it likely wouldn't be the last at this rate.
This time, however, it wasn't like any of those other details of his dream came flying back through his mind and out his mouth. "No, this huge black THING swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't-oh! There was also this girl with red hair! She had these silver eyes that glowed really bright and-Ow!"
Kairi stopped Sora's little tangent by bonking him on his head. With an amused smile, she leaned forward and asked him, "Are you still dreaming?"
"It wasn't a dream!" Sora stated as though certain. His vision fell to the sand in front of him as he thought about everything that happened. It all seemed surreal because despite being a dream, all of it was remembered clearly from the first moment to the last. What's more he felt all the coldness and warmth when they arrived. "Or was it? I don't know. What was that place? So bizarre."
"Yeah, sure." Kairi said before walking closer to the shore and looking out at the horizon of the clean, clear ocean. She may not have put much stock in what Sora was saying, but he certainly seemed to believe it. So she chose to show him mercy as she stared out along the deep, azure waters that stretched out before them.
Sora wasn't ignorant of Kairi's skepticism, and in truth...he realized he sounded rather fantastical to say the least. Hoping this awkward conversation could go somewhere else and he didn't continue looking like a fool, Sora decided to change the subject by asking a question. "Say Kairi. What your hometown like? You know, where you grew up."
It was a question Kairi had been asked numerous times. And one she often asked herself. "I already told you. I don't remember." she said nonchalantly as she looked out at the waves.
"Nothing at all?" Sora asked curiously. He knew he'd asked her this before, but surely there had to be some shred of her past in her head, however little it may be.
But again, Kairi simply said, "Nothing." What else was there to say? Her past was as big a mystery to her as it was to her friends and adoptive family.
Yet that didn't stop Sora from feeling curious. After all, it was Kairi who turned the spark of a desire for adventure to a full flame in his heart. "Ever wanna go back?" he asked. She had to have at least considered finding her old home, even if she couldn't remember it.
But whether or not she'd thought about going back to it, assuming she could figure out where or what it was..."Well...I'm happy here." she answered cheerfully.
Sora didn't know why, but Kairi's response made him feel very happy. But he didn't say it aloud, lest he embarrass himself more than he already had. So he settled for a casual response of, "Really?"
He was right about one thing though. "But you know...I wouldn't mind going to see it." she said, her chipper tone slipping back into her voice in full. Whether she remembered it or not, it didn't hurt to hope or imagine.
"I'd like to see it too." Sora said, his voice growing a bit more enthusiastic. "Along with another worlds out there. I wanna see em all!" Sora's enthusiasm was impossible to hide at this point. The thought of their little plan actually coming to fruition was setting his heart on fire. And it was all thanks to the day he met her.
Kairi grew even more excited about it too from the bright smile that immediately touched her face. Sora always seemed to find a way to bring out the best in her, as turned to Sora and asked, "So what're we waiting for?" Those worlds wouldn't discover themselves. Adventures awaited them!
"Hey. Aren't you guys forgetting about me?"
The voice of the new arrival was an adolescent boy who was a year older than Sora and Kairi. Despite being so young, had some noticeable tone and muscle on his frame and limbs. His skin was a little paler than theirs and his bright blue-green eyes had a determined look about them. The silver locks of his hair were kept neatly back, reached the base of his neck while the bangs were swept.
For clothing he wore a yellow collar vest with the same color on the front but black at the sides and back, much like the crisscrossed straps on the torso of his upper wear. They were also white trimmed with studs at the top ends. Above each of his wrists were tight black bracelets. He also wore black and gray gloves reaching just below the base of his thumbs. The lower clothing was a black belt with a silver rectangular buckle high on his waist, securing his dark blue-gray pants which were mostly covered by blue wading pants held up by similar looking black straps like on his vest but more studded and vertical while the bottom leggings were tightened by smaller belts. His shoes were white and blue with yellow strings on the inner sides and black straps with gray soles.
"So. I guess I'm the only one working on the raft." he said with a joking tone and shake of his smiling face, figuring they were both playing around instead of working on the team project they all agreed to. In one arm he had a big log and walked to them but tossed it to Sora, who ended up flailing from the log flying his way, barely stopping it from hitting him. Riku looked to Kairi, placing his fists on his hips in a disapproving way. "And you're just as lazy as he is."
Kairi giggled at his little accusation. Riku always was the most serious one among their little trio of friends. When they first came up with this plan, he was the first one to start the actual work. "Hehe. So you noticed? Okay, we'll finish it together. I'll race you" she said cheerfully. As Sora recovered from being near practically murdered by Riku's log, he and Riku both realized what that meant. Kairi was going to hang behind as they ran off to do the work.
"Huh?" "Are you kidding me?" the boys said, kneeling down ready to run. If that's how she wanted to do it, then a race Kairi would get.
"Ready? GO!"
Immediately, Sora and Riku were off like shots. Dashing down the bright sandy beach of the island, the three friends ran and played, just like they'd always done. Riku, the serious, driven, yet at times smug eldest of the three at 15 years of age. Sora, short for his age of 14, and more of a relaxed dreamer but not always the slacker his friends teased him to be. And Kairi, the mystery of the three who inspired their desire to see other worlds. 14 like Sora, and though she had no memories of her real home, she was happy with Sora and Riku.
After the small race across one side of the ocean, each of them went to a different part of the playground like island to search for items needed to make their raft. When they finally complete it, they could go beyond their home of the Destiny Islands at long last.
Sora was gathering up old pieces of cloth and rope for securing the raft. As he gathered up the last bundles of both, he noticed Riku was already done hauling the logs. Riku was looking out at the ocean with an unreadable look on his face, the wood shoved to the side of the tree's base. It seemed he was deep in though about something, but what it was was anyone's guess. He looked over his shoulder and smirked as he saw Sora approach. "Did you get everything you need for the raft? I gave my stuff to Kairi." Sora gave a thumbs up to Riku, showing that he did. Looking out at the still blue sky then to the wooden sword below his feet, Riku got an idea. "Hey Sora? How about a quick round? Grab your sword."
Sora perked up at Riku's offer and smirked. "Sure. This one decides the champ." He rushed over to the other side where he kept the wooden sword he used ever since he was a kid. Riku had collected own wooden sword, slung it over his shoulder and made his way to the circular spot connecting the island to the wooden bridge. By time Sora came back, he was ready to get the fight started.
"Ready or not." Riku stated as he thrust his blade forward. Sora barely managed to move out of the way and countered with a swipe. Riku saw it coming however and jumped, weaving behind Sora before making a downward diagonal chop which knocked Sora onto his side. "Don't tell me you're giving up already."
Sora pushed himself to his feet after being taunted. But instead of getting angry, he smirked and jumped with his sword held in both hands to swing it down as hard as he could. He was surprised as Riku held his sword sideways and blocked it without even flinching. "You still don't got it." Riku said, almost sounding disappointed in his friend.
More visibly miffed by now, Sora regained his footing before making a triple combo attack of his own. An overhead slash, a forward thrust, and a sharp, pivoting horizontal strike. Riku only got scraped at the last one, right across the arm. He shrugged it off and gestured for Sora to come at him again. "Take this!" As he let out that battle cry, Sora swung hit after hit and though most were evaded or blocked, he managed to land a powerful hit across Riku's torso and topple him over. "Oh yeah! I win!"
"You think so?" Riku asked as though interested as Sora turned to walk away. Right as he looked back at his friend he thought he defeated, Sora saw Riku spring-kick at him and send him gliding across the ground before landing in the water over the edge. Sora resurfaced and gasped for air when spitting out whatever got in his mouth and looked at Riku standing on the edge with a smug grin as he said, "Wow. This went much better than last time. What's the score now?"
With a groan and shake of his wet hair which amazingly sprung right back up into its usual spiky status, Sora felt the humiliating weight push down on him as he realized, "Aw man. Now it's 4 to 2." Riku was ahead of him twice over now. They'd been neck and neck until now, all because Sora got careless. He'd seen Riku do that before! How did he keep falling for it!?
And Riku was more than happy to lord it over him as usual. "Come on. Go dry yourself off and let's get some rest." he said, playfully ruffling Sora's damp spikey hair. He suppressed a chuckle at Sora's pouty frown. Every time he tried to look angry, he always ended up looking silly. But Sora had enough humiliation for one day, so Riku let him off easy. Not the best way to end a day.
With that, the three friends gathered at the Paopu islet, watching the sun set after a long day of hard work. One of their favorite ways to end the day before going back to their parents. Something they wouldn't be able to do for a long time once they set sail, so to speak.
Riku was at one end of the tree near the base with Kairi sitting next to him on the branch. Sora was beside her, leaning forward more as they all watched the sunset together. They had been silent for about half an hour until Sora started a conversation. "So... Kairi's home is out there somewhere, right?"
"Could be. We'll never know how by staying here." Riku replied, ever being the realist of the group. "But how far can a raft take us?" Sora asked, leaning forward. After all, there was a LOT of ocean to cover, and three kids on a single raft...could they really get anywhere with just that?
"Who knows? If we have to, we'll think of something else." Riku said with a wave of his hand. There was no point deliberating about it. Especially since they'd come so far building the raft.
Kairi decided to join the conversation with a curious giggle. "So suppose you get to another world. What would you do there?"
That certainly was a fair question. With a momentary hum, Riku answered honestly, "Well, I haven't really thought about it." His focus was to the horizon as he spoke up again, with a degree of introspection neither of the friends had ever heard from him before. "It's just... I've always wondered why we're here, on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And suppose there are other worlds. Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"
"I don't know." Sora said nonchalantly as he leaned back to lay on the tree. Such philosophical things often flew over his head. He just didn't bother thinking too much on such complicated things. He was more relaxed and went with the flow of things.
"Exactly." Riku said, his voice full of purpose which he saw Sora lacking in. He may have felt content to take it easy, but easy only gets one so far. They needed to act, not lay around and languish in the monotony. "That's why we have to go out there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing. It's all the same stuff. So let's go."
Sora and Kairi noticed just how serious Riku was about this whole thing. They were content to take it slow, but he really wanted to see what was out there, more than anything. "You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you?" Kairi pointed out, making Riku turn to face her with a softer expression on his face.
"Thanks to you. If you hadn't come here, I probably wouldn't have heard any of this. Kairi...thanks." Riku said with heartfelt seriousness. Were it not for Kairi, he probably never would have opened his mind to these possibilities.
Kairi let out a small giggle at Riku's thanks, feeling glad she could inspire her best friends. "Hmhm. You're welcome." she said cheerfully as the sun continued to set, signifying it was almost time to go home.
Sora heard how Riku spoke with Kairi. He looked to him for a moment but rolled his eyes when turning to the sunset again. The same feeling from earlier when Tidus talked about Riku always being able to protect Kairi returned. It made him a little peeved but he tried ignoring it. When the sun was almost down, they all left the islet and headed home. Kairi went on ahead. By the time she was at the other end of the bridge, Sora started walking down it. He was halfway before Riku called to him from behind.
"Sora." As he turned, Sora fumbled with surprise as he caught something that Riku tossed at him. You wanted one, didn't you?" Confused and looking at the item held in his hands, Sora raised an eyebrow. It was a large, yellow star shaped fruit with a couple tiny green leaves at one end of the points. This was a type of food grown only here on the Destiny Islands.
"A paopu fruit?"
"If two people share one, their destinies will be intertwined. They'll be part of each other's lives. No matter what," Riku said as he walked down the bridge. "Don't you think you should give it to Kairi before we leave? Come on, I know you want to try it."
The implication of his words made Sora turn red as he looked at Riku in surprise. "Huh?!"
And seeing the effect his words had, Riku further pressed his advantage. "If not," Riku said again with a smirk as he leaned his face to Sora's. "Then maybe I'll share it with her."
Sora became even more red and flustered at Riku's teasing statement. "What are you talking-?!"
Sora's reaction was too much for Riku as he laughed and walked away. "You're so easily riled up." It was a prank...Sora was speechless as he watched his friend leave and groaned with frustration and embarrassment. Sometimes Sora wondered if Riku really thought of him as a friend or was just somebody to mess with. In his annoyance he tossed the paopu fruit aside and ran to the dock, ready to get on his boat and call it a night.
