Destiny Falls - Chapter four

Chapter Four: _______________

“Yo, Faye!” Riku called up the stairs.

“Yeah?” I answered. I had made a quick overnight recovery and was already up and dressed.

“Breakfast is ready, so hurry up and let’s go!”

“Be right there!” I yelled, jumping down the stairs two at a time. I grabbed a bagel as I ran through the kitchen. “I’ll eat on the way.”

“Nu-uh” Riku replied sternly. “You’re sitting there and eating every last bite. I think you were sick yesterday because you ate on the run.”

I rolled my eyes. “I do that every day, not just yesterday.” I grumbled before scarfing down my food. I knew better than to start an actual argument when he was like this, though.

Five minutes Later, I was done. “There’ now come on!” I ordered, practically dragging Riku out the door.

“Okay, okay!” Riku cried, speeding up to prevent me from pulling his arm out of his socket. “Slow down! Oh, by the way, you’re helping Sora gather food today.”

I slowed to a walk. “Okay, then. Can you go any faster?” I asked.

Riku smirked. “Nope. We’re walking.”

“Fine.” I griped, crossing my arms.

_________________________________________________________________


“Okay, you two, we need three coconuts, three fish, and three mushrooms.” Kairi listed the supplies Sora and I had to gather. “Oh! And could you fill this jug with fresh water too, please?” She finished.

“Got it. Fish, coconuts, mushrooms, water.” I repeated.

Riku spoke up, “Also, see if you can’t find a seagull egg around here somewhere.”

“Okay” Sora replied, walking off to start looking for the supplies.

“Oh, if you need a reminder of what to get, come see me!” Kairi called after him.

“Don’t worry, we will.” I told her, and then ran after Sora. “Hey, wait up!”

Sora turned around and started walking backwards. “I think we should start with the mushrooms.” He said.

“Okay, you do that. I’ll get the coconuts, and after that, I’ll help you catch the fish, ‘kay?” I replied.

Sora pouted. “I can catch the fish just fine without any help.” He stated.

“I know, but I’m going to need your help looking for the seagull egg, and I don’t want to sit there and wait for you to finish catching all the fish before we start looking.” I pouted right back.

“Fine.” Sora grumbled, smiling to confirm that it really was okay. “I’ll start looking in the secret place.” He continued, making his way to the cave at the roots of the tree house.

“Be careful!” I called after him.

He answered over his shoulder, “Will do!”

I picked up a stick and began whacking at a nearby tree, causing a few coconuts to fall. Picking up any ripe ones I could find, I continued until I had all three coconuts.

“Well, that was easy. I wonder if Sora’s done in the secret place.” I mused, trying to figure out how long it would take for him to finish drawing on the cave walls and hear the ‘mysterious voice.’ I was leaning right outside the secret place. This was boring. I stood up and started filling the jug from the nearby waterfall as I waited.

Later, after we had caught all the fish and Sora had found the seagull egg, all we needed was two more mushrooms.

“Let’s look for them over by where Kairi and Riku are.” I suggested. It would give us an excuse to hand all of the supplies over to Kairi, who was waiting at the raft.

“Okay!” Sora said enthusiastically, running for the door to the other side of the island. I started laughing and followed him, carrying the other half of the supplies.

We handed the supplies over to Kairi as she checked them off. “Okay, you guys only need two more mushrooms,” she said. “Try looking under some bushes or in that cave over there.” She indicated an area blocked off by a huge boulder. “If the two of you work together, you should be able to move it.”

Sora and I looked at each other, shrugged, and walked to the boulder. “Like this?” I asked, placing my hands against it, parallel to the wall.

“Yeah! Now push it!” Kairi hollered.

“Okay.” Sora answered, and started to push on the boulder. I began pushing at it too, and it started to move.

After about a minute, there was enough space for Sora to squeeze into the cave. He returned triumphant, carrying another mushroom, and handed it to Kairi. “Two down, one to go.” He declared.

Kairi grinned. “Why don’t you take a break?” She suggested, “Riku wanted to talk to you, he’s over there.” She pointed towards the doorway to the other side of the island.

“Okay.” Sora said, already running in that direction.

I looked at Kairi. “You’re coming too.” I ordered, grabbing her arm and pulling her along with me. “Knowing them, they’ll probably need a referee anyways.”

We arrived just in time to hear Riku challenge Sora to a race. Kairi offered to tell them when to go, and while she was busy looking for a safe place to put her lucky charm, Sora and Riku started talking about who would get what if they won.

“Winner gets to share a paopu with Kairi.”

“Wait, what?”

Before Sora could continue the conversation, Kairi started the race. “On your mark, get set, go!”

Riku and Sora both shot forward. At first, Riku was in the lead, but then he stepped on the bad part of the bridge and fell a few feet into the shallow water below. Sora didn’t notice, and was still running. Riku got up, unhurt, and continued running after him, but Sora had too much of a lead. He made it back a few seconds before Riku, shouting, “Yes! Victory!”

Riku came up to him a couple seconds later. “Yep, you win. Amazing.”

Sora made a face. “Hey, I don’t lose to you that much.”

“Almost.” Riku replied, confident.

Sora grinned. “Yeah, whatever.

_________________________________________________________________


I sat in bed, thinking about what had happened today. My voice hadn’t spoken up at all, and I was beginning to think I had imagined it.

‘No, I’m not a figment of your imagination.’

“Aaugh!” I cried, startled, and proceeded to fall off of my bed.

My voice giggled. ‘A bit jumpy, are we?’

“Oh, shut up.” I growled. “I was doing perfectly fine without you.” I got up and brushed myself off, but froze when I heard a rustling outside my window. I looked out to see Riku sneaking out, most likely heading for the other island. Crawling out the window, I climbed down the terrace and began to follow Riku down the street as stealthily as possible.

As we passed Kairi’s home, I saw her glance out of her room window. Immediately after Riku had turned the corner, I motioned for her to come down and be quiet. She did so.

“Where’s he going?” Kairi whispered and she pulled the front gate closed behind her.

“I don’t know.” I whispered back, “but I think he’s going to check on the raft.” I indicated the storm clouds looming over the horizon. “Let’s go!”

“Okay…” Kairi said hesitantly.

I jogged ahead, having lost a lot of ground waiting for Kairi to come out.

Once we reached the docks, we noticed that Riku’s boat was gone. Unhitching our own boats, we climbed into them and headed for the island.

“I can’t believe he’d go to check on the raft by himself!” I told Kairi. “Well, I can believe it, but why’d he have to sneak out?” I corrected myself.

“I dunno.” Kairi replied. We had reached the island and were tying up our boats. “Do you mind if I stop by the secret place?” She asked.

I eyed it carefully. “I guess not . . . do you want me to come with you? Or –”

“I want to go by myself.” Kairi cut in. “I won’t take long.”

‘Longer than you think, Kairi’ I thought. Sighing, I turned towards the paopu tree. “Alright, I’m going to wait over there, okay?” I told Kairi.

“Okay.” She nodded and started running for the secret place. “I’ll meet you there!” She called.

‘So it begins’

Why hello, voice! I sat down on the Paopu tree, feeling guilty for letting Kairi go on her own, when I knew full well that she’d lose her heart in there.

‘You had to.’ My voice, sympathetic for once. ‘Getting Kairi’s heart back is one of the main reasons Sora and Riku choose to go on their Journeys, you aren’t allowed to change that. It’s part of the curse of knowing. Face it, you’re special.’

I slid to the ground, resting my head against the tree trunk. “What if I don’t want to be special?” I cried out, slamming my fist on the ground.

‘You accepted these conditions, Faye, now you have to live with them.’ My voice had grown harsher. ‘Now hide, Riku’s coming.’

I did as I was told; muttering obscenities as I climbed halfway down the ladder on the side of the tree-island. (?)

Sora came a few minutes later, looking for Kairi. I listened as Riku offered to take Sora through the darkness, and while Sora refused, I slid down into the black water and swam around under the bridge. Sitting there, just out of reach of the heartless, I argued with my voice as I watched Sora run into the secret place. A few minutes later he was forced out and the darkside appeared.

‘Go help him.’ My voice urged.

“How? I don’t have anything to fight with; I’d just be a liability.” I answered furiously. “And if I get some kind of ‘Magical keyblade of infinite power etcetera, etcetera’ then I swear, I’m just killing myself here and now with it.” I added.

‘Good, because that’s not what we’re giving you.’ This was a new voice. It sounded like. . . no, it couldn’t. ‘It can, and it is.’ Fate said.

“Fate? But, how?”

‘I’ll explain everything later. For now, just call out with your heart and mind.’
“If it’s anything like a keyblade. . .” I warned.

‘It’s not.’

“Well, what is it then?”

‘Just summon it and find out!’ Fate lost her patience.

I did so, and. . . nothing happened.

‘Try harder, you can do it.’ Now, this was my voice. ‘I’ll help’

“Umm. . .” I wasn’t sure I wanted to let her take over.

</i>‘No, I’ll just help you bring out your weapon, that’s it.’</i> My voice said, exasperated. ‘Now, reach inward with your mind.’

I closed my eyes and withdrew into myself. “Now what?”

‘Now grab your weapon.’

I hissed. “Are you kidding me? What am I–” Then I saw a light in my head. I reached out for it and felt a weight grow in my hand. I opened my eyes to find a staff, wrapped loosely in a chain from top to bottom, gripped in my hand. “Cool,” I muttered. “But you do realize I’m an awful fighter, right?”

‘That’s where I come in.’

“Uh, yeah, still not all that comfortable with the whole ‘take over my body’ thing.” I replied.

‘Two words: backseat driving.’

“Huh?”

‘Just do as I tell you.’

“Oh. Alrighty, then.” I answered, splashing out of the shallow water and onto the beach, where Sora was now fighting the darkside.

“Sora! Are you okay?” I called out, jumping into the fight alongside him. “Some weather we’re having, huh?”

He managed to give me a strange look, even while whacking away at the darkside’s enormous hand. “Some weather? Riku and Kairi have disappeared, there’s some giant. . . thing attacking the islands, –” He glanced at my staff. “– Both you and I have some mysterious weapons that just appeared out of nowhere, and you’re asking about the WEATHER??” He exclaimed.

“Oh, well. . . I was kind of trying to ignore that.” I said distractedly. I was busy listening to my voice’s commands of ‘Left, sidestep, attack, right, dodge’ and carrying them out.

Sora rolled his eyes and started concentrating on the darkside once again. “After this, you’ve got a lot of questions to answer. For example: How are you fighting so well? You’re usually such a klutz!”

“You’ll find out in Traverse Town.” I mumbled.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing. I’ll tell you later. Watch out!” The darkside had lifted its fist to slam down onto Sora’s head. Sora quickly jumped out of the way.

“Thanks” He said, heading right back into battle.

“No problem.”

‘Cut the chitchat and MOVE!’ My voice screeched.

“Okay, okay.” I growled.

‘Tell Sora to go for the face.’ My voice added hastily.

‘I don’t think he can jump that high.’ I thought back.

‘You’ll give him a boost, then. Hurry up!’

I put my staff down, not having quite gotten the hang of calling and dismissing it. “Sora! Go for the face, I’ll give you a boost!” I yelled, lacing my fingers together and bending down.

“Okay!” Without question, he jumped off of my hands at the same time that I pushed upwards, Causing him to jump high enough to reach the darksides face for a few vital seconds, just as it started to bend down. With a roar of pain, the monster lost its footing as a ‘black hole’ appeared in the sky, pulling it up off the ground. Sora and I immediately grabbed for the nearest available object to anchor ourselves with. Then I noticed that my staff had disappeared, most likely because I had inadvertently dismissed it.

Abruptly, the plank of wood Sora had been holding on to broke, sending him upwards as well.

‘Let go’

“Don’t wanna.” I said through clenched teeth, holding onto a palm tree for dear life.

‘Oh come on,’ My voice said irritably. ‘You know what’s going to happen.’

“I know what’s going to happen to Sora. There’s a difference.” I stated, still bringing the term ‘Tree-hugger’ to a whole new level.

‘Just let GO!’ My voice roared, changing to sound like Robyn. I let go, shocked.

“Wha. . . Robyn?!” Was all I had time to say before being pulled upwards and, again, blacking out.