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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn	By : RotSeele Category: Kingdom Hearts > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3168 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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Chapter List
- 14
- 15
- 16
Fifteen - Tsenacommacah/Jamestown

The Paths of Darkness deposited Rinally and Kaoru into a glen, surrounded by huge trees. Birds chirped hidden in the green leaves, and squirrels chittered to one another, sitting on high branches above them. The air was warm and smelled like it had just finished raining. Kaoru looked around, trying to figure out where they were, but he could only see the trunks of trees continuing on for miles in any direction. Rinally looked toward the canopy, using her hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight that poured through the leaves.
“Well,” she said, “I like this world better already. No snow.”
Kaoru chuckled. “It’s definitely a welcome break. I was getting tired of the cold.”
“I’m just tired in general.”
“Do you want to just camp here for the night?”
“No way!” Rinally snapped. “I am not sleeping in the woods surrounded by unknown things! There could be wolves or bears or... or... or Heartless! I don’t want to be eaten by the Heartless!”
“Or wolves or bears.” Kaoru said, a smile tugging at his lips.
“Or those too!” Rinally blew out a long sigh. “What if we just picked a direction and walked in it?”
“We could get lost and be eaten by wolves or bears or Heartless.”
“I hate you.”
Kaoru just gave Rin an impish grin. He pointed toward a tree. “I’ll do what I did before. I’ll climb to the top and try and see if I can’t see anything.”
Rin narrowed her eyes at him and folded her arms over her chest. “Okay, fine. You do that. I’ll just make myself comfortable right here with both our packs.”
Kaoru laughed despite the angry look Rinally was giving him and removed his pack to hand it to her. Then he headed toward the tree he had pointed at and reached for the lowest branch. It took some effort to get himself up into the tree, mostly because he had to take a running start and attempt to parkour up the trunk in order to reach the branch, but once he was there, it was easy enough to find a path toward the top of the tree, or at least high enough that he could see out over the canopy of the forest and try to look for something resembling civilization.
He saw green for miles, a verdant blanket that stretched on without breaking. He covered his eyes with his hand to shield them from the sun, catching sight of something sparkling. It took him a moment to recognize it as water. He wasn’t sure if it was a river or the ocean, but he knew that if there was water, there was likely a town or a village nearby. It took him a few more minutes to find it, but at last he saw the dark plume of smoke rising into the sky. He marked the direction, then climbed back down the tree, rejoining Rinally. She offered him a piece of cheese, then wrapped the wedge back up and pushed it back into her pack.
“Find anything?” she asked.
Kaoru took a moment to savor the snack before answering. “Yeah. Fire. We can go check it out. Once we figure out what we’re going to be interacting with, we’ll be able to see what kind of disguise we can cook up.”
“Fine by me.” Rin hauled up her pack as Kaoru lifted his. “I hope we don’t need a disguise. I don’t know what I’ll do about my hair.”
“Maybe they won’t be phased by naturally pink hair.”
“Maybe.”
The two headed away from the glen in the direction of the smoke. They remained in the forest for some time, which was broken only by differing gaps in the trunks, at least until they saw a wide break in the trees. As they approached the breech, they could see that much of the forest had been cleared away, leaving behind shorn stumps of tree trunks. Beyond the field of stumps was a wall of logs bound together tightly, complete with a gate facing a worn dirt road. Behind the wall were log buildings of varying sizes and further was the sparkling bay, which was shadowed by the tall mast of a ship.
Rin whistled lowly. “Definitely a town.”
“Yeah,” Kaoru agreed. He studied the town, the bay, the tiny people milling about on the village’s streets and the people working the land just outside the village’s wall. “Looks like a pioneer town.”
“A what?”
“Didn’t you learn about pioneers in school?”
Rin frowned deeply then turned narrowed eyes on him. “If by pioneers you mean sky pirates, then sure.”
Kaoru shook his head and sighed. “Never mind. Anyway, they don’t look like they’d react well to strangers just showing up out of nowhere. Maybe we should head through the woods a bit until we can turn around and come down the road.”
“If they won’t react well to strangers materializing out of the woods, they won’t react well to us showing up in the clothes we’re wearing.” Rinally pointed out.
“Belle did say she packed some clothes that might help us. What those people are wearing look similar to what the villagers on her world were wearing.”
“All I found was food and munny and water flasks in mine.”
Kaoru canted his head toward the pack he carried on his back. “We can look in mine. Let’s head back into the woods. We can keep the road to our left here, head down some, and find somewhere we can change.”
“Sounds like a plan, I guess.”
The two slipped back into the shadow of the forest, not that they had gone far from it to begin with. They walked through the trees again, keeping the road to their left. Kaoru noticed that the road they were following kept growing rougher and more disused the further along they went, almost as if the people who lived in the bayside town no longer used the road. He couldn’t figure out why, at least until the familiar feeling of danger made his entire body tense. He grabbed Rin by the shoulder to stop her, put a finger to his lips to silence her protest, and called Guardian to his hand. Rinally stepped behind him and summoned her staff, setting her feet so that she wouldn’t be in his way and could cast her spells quickly.
The woman running toward them seemed to fly over the forest floor, leaping with the grace of a deer over the roots and dodging through the tree trunks like they weren’t even there. Long black hair streamed behind her like a banner. Her bronze skin flashed as she pumped her arms and legs. Her dress was short and made of buckskin. Clearly, she wasn’t part of the village Kaoru and Rin had left behind them, but rather from another civilization entirely. Her eyes went wide as she spotted Kaoru and Rinally standing almost directly in her path, and she skidded to a stop in her surprise. Then she glanced over her shoulder, sucked in a breath and made to run again, only this time her foot slipped out from under her. She crashed to her hands and knees, crying out.
The Heartless behind her looked like a mix between a bear and a liquid shadow, undulating through the trees like a bullet train of muscle and fur. Sensing the woman’s weakness, the Heartless roared and charged faster, only to have its charge met by Guardian. The Keyblade crashed into the Heartless’s face, crushing its nose back into its head. The creature yelled as it was driven backwards and away from the woman. Guardian appeared back in Kaoru’s hands and he rushed forward, shouting, “Rin! Take care of her! Then back me up!”
“You got it!” Rin shouted back, moving forward in Kaoru’s wake to help the woman.
Kaoru kept moving, swinging Guardian back and turning his body into the next swing he gave. The bear-like Heartless was too slow in getting back up fully, so Kaoru was able to catch it in the snout again, this time snapping its head back. He darted around behind it and thrust Guardian toward the center of its back, trying to snap the Heartless’s spine. Guardian hit a solid mass, and the Heartless’s spine bent inward, but didn’t break. Kaoru turned his Keyblade so that the prongs would catch when he drew his arm back and pulled as hard as he could. Guardian cut a deep wound across the Heartless’s back, making it roar in frustration and pain and whirl toward Kaoru. He jumped back, avoiding a swipe toward his middle. The Heartless’s claws tore through a nearby tree trunk, sending splinters flying everywhere.
A pulse of power riffled through the air, hitting the Heartless, Kaoru, and the flying splinters. A second later, the wind blew fiercely, throwing the splinters away from Kaoru. The wind was so powerful that the bear-like Heartless had to dig all four paws into the ground to keep from being bowled over. Kaoru dodged away from the blowing wind, catching a glimpse of Rin standing before the woman with her arms extended, her staff pointed outward. She swung her staff back over her shoulder, then forward again as hard as she could, and though Kaoru couldn’t hear the spell she cast, he knew he had to get out of the way fast. He leaped at the last second and felt the flames sear across the backs of his legs. He hit the ground and rolled, coming up fast and ready for the next attack. The bear-like Heartless shrieked and yowled as it thrashed around on the ground, trying to put out the fire that was consuming its shadowy fur. It turned its butter yellow eyes on Rinally and the woman behind her and roared.
Kaoru charged forward and struck the Heartless in the side, leaping upward to avoid the swipe that would’ve torn in him two, then came down on the Heartless’s back. He winced at the heat of the flames, but took Guardian in both of his hands to thrust downward as hard as he could. His Keyblade hit the back of the Heartless’s neck, and Kaoru pushed down with all of his weight. His armor glittered with prismatic light, and the glow spread to Guardian. With a pained growl, the Heartless began to buck and thrash, trying to get Kaoru off its back. Gritting his teeth, Kaoru held on, shoving downward as hard as he could. He had to leap off, though, at last, as the bear-like Heartless began to thrash more violently. He landed in front of Rin and the strange woman, holding Guardian up and back, ready to attack or defend, depending on how the Heartless moved.
The Heartless reared up, roaring at the three humans before it, its claws reaching out for them. Kaoru threw Guardian at the same time Rinally cast a Thundara spell. The Keyblade spun directly into the path of the lightning magic, but instead of dissipating the spell, the Thundara spell enveloped Guardian, making it crackle with prismatic thunderbolts. The Keyblade crashed into the Heartless’s chest and there was a squealing noise as the electricity was discharged. Guardian returned to Kaoru’s outstretched hand and he swung it up behind him, yanking on the lightning chain that had formed between it and the Heartless. The chain tightened around the Heartless until the creature let out a pitiful squawk and fell to the ground, shaking as the electricity continuously shocked it. A moment later, it burst into dark motes, and the lightning chain dissipated, leaving Kaoru holding Guardian in a defensive position and Rinally holding her staff with both hands, ready to cast another spell.
The woman let out a soft breath. “You killed it.”
Both Kaoru and Rinally turned to face the woman. Now that he could study her a little better, Kaoru noticed the woman’s face had strong lines to it, along with a wildness he hadn’t seen in any other person. Her dark eyes regarded them curiously, if a little fearfully, but she made no move to run. Neither did she move to get closer.
“Well,” Rin started, “of course. It was a Heartless.”
“A... Heartless?”
“It’s a being made of darkness that has no heart of its own. So it tries to get one, by taking yours and making you into something just like it.”
The woman’s dark eyes flicked to Kaoru. “And what’s that?”
Kaoru lifted Guardian. “This? It’s a Keyblade. It’s the weapon I use to fight the Heartless.”
“But she used lightning.” The woman’s eyes darted back to Rinally. “Are you blessed by the gods? The only way a human can have such power is if the gods themselves are aiding you.”
Rin blinked and a grin worked its way onto her face. “No, I’m a sorceress.”
“What?”
Kaoru dismissed Guardian, the sight of that making the woman jump slightly. “What she means is, she can use magic, but she doesn’t have the help of the gods to do it. I’m Kaoru. This is Rinally, but I call her Rin. Who are you?”
The woman smiled, her hand going to her chest. “My name is Pocahontas.”
- 14
- 15
- 16
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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn