Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts: Light Chaser

Qamar followed along and listened to Aria, knowing her whole life has been vastly different than Qamar's. When she talked about not knowing what she was, Qamar chuckled. She waited for Aria to be finished before she gave her thoughts. "We're pretty similar I think, Aria. We both don't or didn't know something about ourselves until recently. Yours was being a Princess of heart. Mine is...a little more complicated and I haven't figured it out myself." she scratched her head. "I mean, I just got some supressed memories back, so now I'm remembering things that were locked away for so long. Like, I grew up in the Realm of Darkness. That's a really big thing for me, I just...I thought I always lived in the Realm of Light..." She shook her head and continued. "So now we can at least be happy we aren't the only ones with experiences like these. And it kind of makes me relieved knowing that. I hope you feel the same."

She looked at the woods ahead of them and considered what to say next. "I wouldn't say everyone doesn't trust you by yourself." she started. "I was brought up to protect Princess' of Heart, so at my core, that's what I'll always do. You have fight in you, so you don't need me to worry about you as much, but at the same time, I'd never hear the end of it from Master Gero if you were hurt or captured. That's my biggest mission right now so you're always at the top of the list." she chuckled. "But I know you can handle yourself, you kicked some serious butt when you let Hen Wen go. Obviously you can do it. Sure you've got some weaknesses, but that's more than made up for by everyone else. We all compliment each other in different ways, that relying on others isn't a bad thing. I rely on you when I'm feeling injured, so I hope you don't ever just sit back!" Qamar joked, patting Aria on the back.

Aria mentioned the demon in her head and Qamar crossed her arms once more. "That's a problem though...faling asleep is scary, but I wonder if there's a way for you to have your nightmares and for somebody else to be there while you're asleep...like, they're asleep too and they help you fight it? It's really strong, so you'll need help, but now I think I'm being crazy thinking you can just sleep next to somebody and they can be awake in your dreams too." She shrugged.

"Don't worry, you need to let that stuff out. Obviously it's been eating at you for awhile. I'm the same way and...I feel better, I think." she tapped her head. "I just hope we aren't on this world much longer, I want to meet the others and get back to the Council before long..." She looked a little worried now. "I want to make sure Master Aster is okay..."​

 

​

Aria smiled a bit when the girl joked about her to please not slack on the healing job. "There was just one time that someone got in my dreams. When Torrin and I were knocked out from Quietus, he got in my dreams somehow... He was there fighting that thing, or at least trying too, but..." She trailed off as her thoughts went to her abdomen. Again, no one really trusted Torrin as far as she knew, so she changed the conversation a bit. "Obviously it's still around... I don't think it's as easy as sleeping next to me. I mean, this is new territory everyone is going into. Who knows what will work and what won't."

She perked up when Master Thallasa addressed the group, and Aria decided to wrap up this talk. "Thanks for letting me talk to you Qamar." She gave the girl a quick hug, and then let go in case she didn't like people touching her all that much. "And thanks for trusting me to tell me what was on your mind..." She smiled a little and then joined up with the rest of the group. "I would offer to make hot chocolate, but I don't exactly have a pan... or the other stuff I need."

 

Qamar was surprised by the hug, but she returned it with a smile. Aria mentioned Torrin being able to go into her dreams because of that Quietus thing...it got Qamar thinking if maybe they were both knocked out...? No, that was ridiculous. She shook her head and listened to Thallasa, She mentioned Qamar being able to see in the dark. Qamar scratched her head. "I can definitely see better, that's for sure..." she confirmed Thallasa's statement. Soon there were tents and Aria mentioned hot chocolate again. "MM...." she went, patting her stomach. She reached into her secret hiding pocket and managed to pull out an 3 apples and 4 bananas. How she had that hidden away, she couldn't reveal that secret.

She tossed the apples to Eilonwy, Taran, and Fflam. The bananas were passed out to Illiana, Aria, and Thallasa. "Potassium will keep cramps away." she mentioned, already eating down on hers as the sky turned dark. Her eyes did their thing and she looked around, keeping an eye out for things. "Sorry I couldn't pull out chocolate and the other stuff for hot chocolate." she joked with Aria. "But you know, you mentioning Quietus got me to think of a question. You trust Torrin a lot, huh?" she asked, biting down on her banana. "I can say I trust him, too. I have to trust him, he's a Prince and aren't we supposed to trust those who rule?" She got serious with that and chuckled. She ended up in the tent next to Aria without thinking. "Actually, I'd like to say that he's proven himself and he IS a Master after all, so I know I can trust he knows what he's doing."

"But Aria, you gotta tell me, how hard did Quietus hit you? I can't imagine it was a tiny scratch. The thing literally exploded in the direction you guys were coming from when we all met back up." she said. "Did you break anything?"​

 

​

Aria took the banana, staring at it a moment before wiping it on the hem of her tunic shirt. "Thanks Qamar," she said with a smile as she peeled the banana. The girl didn't mind there wasn't anything to really make hot chocolate with. Maybe she needed to take a break from the sugary drink for a while. Aria took a seat on a rock close to the fire, eating her banana in peace. She nearly choked when Qamar pointed out that it seemed that Aria put a lot of faith in Torrin, recovering quickly by beating on her chest to get the stuck banana down before focusing on the conversation again. "Princes can be corrupt too," Aria said softly, remembering the storybooks her aunt would read to her. "But Torrin seems alright."

She looked to the girl as she mentioned the battle during the Quietus' attacks. The glowing eyes were still somewhat unsettling to Aria, but she was getting used to the idea that it was a trait of those from the Realm of Darkness. "Surprisingly, no..." Aria rested her arms on her legs, and then placed her chin on top of her arms. "Torrin stepped in front of me and tried to use a dark shield of sorts. It broke apart so quickly... I just remember hugging him, and then this bright light blinded me. After that, I was ripped away from Torrin and I guess I hit my head really hard. And that's when the nightmare started." Aria adjusted her wrist with the Light Chaser's bracelet on, frowning slightly at it. "I think us not being blown to bits had something to do with this, cause it was protecting me before. Now it's broken. But it won't come off." A memory fluttered in the girl's mind and she stared back in the flames again. "Heh, now that I think about it, there was something similar. When I was a kid, my uncle was attacked by some huge wolf-like monsters we called the wrenfel. I saw it happen. I was around seven years old, and there wasn't much I could do. I just remembered screaming at them to leave him alone, and then... poof. They were gone. Maybe it has something to do with the princess of heart thing, I don't know." Aria took another small bite of banana and then thought to the small communicator in her pocket that Torrin gave her. She wondered if it was night time in the world he was in as well. Still, she wasn't sure if she should disturb him. There was a lot of work to be done in that world after all.

 

Boreas stopped when he felt that hand on his shoulder and looked to Torrin who stopped him. He sighed, he had let himself go again, not as badly as last time but this wasn't the way a knight should be behaving. He hung his head and got to his feet, remaining quiet as Dentro and Torrin spoke. He had been right in his assesment that Dentro had been deluded, destroying all darkness wasn't the solution to the problem, they had tried to do so before and it had only lead to more problems that cost a lot of lives on both sides of the divide and nearly destroyed them all, but Dentro didn't know the story at least Boreas doubted he did. Dentro mentioning not having any family left but seeing the other students of the Light Chaser as his family, in a way Boreas could sympathise with the man as he slowly faded away, he didn't allow himself to feel too much sympathy for the man as he was still the enemy.

Boreas turned away from Dentro after Torrin mentioned the possibility of souls persisting and being reborn, he didn't want to think of it as Torrin opened the portal and he quietly glanced one last time at the place Dentro had been laying down. The arrived on the hill close to the manor, Tinarah, Take and Chrono had made it on their part and he turned to Torrin. "It's done then? This world is safe now?" Boreas asked, if that was everything to be done in this world perhaps they could regroup. "I shouldn't have lost my cool there... do you think he understood what I meant? No nevermind it doesn't matter we beat him, avenged Adalric restored a semblance of balance to the conflict and I did what I had to to make it happen..." Boreas said, going over it he talked his own doubts down. Back to relative safety he went over his injuries mentally his arm hurt most out of everything, the kick to the chest left him with a dull pain but he was fine, he could still walk and if necessary still fight.​

 

Well that was certainly the reaction she was hoping for. Clearly Aria wasn't expecting that kind of a question, but she knew nothing as to why she was acting that way. Aria explained what happened with Quietus and Qamar started to think. "You said you hit your head but your stomach was hurt....how? I don't remember a cut on your stomach when you hugged and leaned on me after regrouping earlier...." her voice trailed off as she shook her head. "Maybe I'm thinking into this too much, but you sure seem to be trying to hide something....no...I'm prying too much, sorry." She got out of the tent and moved to sit behind Aria. She stared out into the forest and watched the trees and vegetation sway with the winds that blew through them. She leaned back a little bit into Aria and she shrugged.

"I don't really like people keeping secrets from me, but...I understand that sometimes, keeping things from other is what you have to do." she said, having thought of what to say. "I just hope you can trust me as much as you trust Torrin some day." Glancing down, Qamar grabbed at the grass and yanked out a small field mouse. She held it gently before she gave it a small bit of her banana and put it back down, watching it scurry off. She looked down at her legs and remembered having to do some makeshift stocking fixing back on the other world. Then she realized something.

"Oh, I wish we could communicate with Torrin and the rest. I wanna know if they finished up yet." she said, turning to Aria. "Do you think Master Thallasa ever got her communicator back from Torrin? I wish I didn't give mine back to her...I could have held onto it and done it myself." She laughed.​

 

​

"Maybe I cut myself when I was blasted back," Aria said with a shrug. "I mean, I was knocked out for a while... I didn't feel it when I hit my head either. I just knew it went black, so I assume I hit my head." As much as Qamar was begging for Aria to trust her, the girl couldn't quite do that yet. Not with everyone else's opinion with Torrin and his friend Boreas looming over them. It seemed as if no one liked people from the realm of darkness, and she didn't want that responsibility of Qamar knowing something that could give a bad light to Torrin. Not until the others trusted him and everyone else from the Realm of Darkness helping them now. The fact that Qamar was pushing her to say it was making her want to clam up more about it too, and saying that she trusted Torrin more than Qamar. It wasn't that she wanted to hide what happened to be mean, but more to protect those helping them out from scrutiny.

She looked over at Qamar when she asked if she thought Master Thallasa got her communicator back. "Well, she is a master. I think she needs to have something to communicate with the rest of the masters back at the castle." She thought of the one she had, knowing Torrin gave it to her and set it to a specific channel for just the two of them. If Qamar wanted to talk to someone on another world, she could always ask Master Thallasa. Aria rubbed her head and then patted Qamar on the shoulder before standing up to stretch. "I'm gonna turn in for the night. Thanks for keeping me company and for the banana too," she said with a small smile. She then finished up her banana and tossed the peel in the fire before heading to one of the tents.

 

Boreas was glad to hear that they had taken care of the darkness and saved the world, if they could take care of this maybe they had a chance of solving the schism back home too even if it was a greater magnitude. "Thanks, I'll keep it contained..."Boreas said. He saw Edna coming to them and before she was close enough Torrin asked him whether he still had that communicator. "Yeah, I do, sure thing, but didn't you have one yourself? Also I forgot to ask and you don't have to answer right now, but what happened out there the other day?" Boreas asked in a low voice, he had been curious about it and if Torrin didn't want to talk about it that'd be fine, but there had been some inconsistencies there and he wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about in front of the others. Boreas reached in his pocket and discreetly handed the communicator to Torrin before following Edna who was complaining about the dreadful outfits, his emerald cloak was dusty, had cuts in it and it's edges were singed but still Boreas wore it with pride, especially since the rest of his costume was hidden beneath his armour. He joined Chrono, Take and Tinarah. "You guys alright? If our fight was anything to go by, I'm hazarding a guess you had a tough nut to crack too huh?" He asked them.​

 

​

Slowly Chrono trailed behind his sister towards, willing his legs to keep himself standing up until he found a much better and safer place to rest. He managed to get himself moving at a decent pace after the first couple of steps, but as it was still slower than his usual walking pace and took him a while to get to the door. In fact, Edna had already opened the door waiting for them by the time he had gotten there. With a small nod, Chrono had dragged himself into Edna's home and set his sights right for the couch. In hindsight, he should head back to the room he was given and change clothes, but he wouldn't make it that far. It was impressive in itself that he managed to get to her house in the first place. At the moment of reaching the couch, his legs finally gave out on him and down went Chrono. Fortunately, he fell in a sitting position in which that would leave him sitting to not attract worry.

Boreas had approached them, asking about their well being. "We've been better." It was a safe assumption to that they all were in the same condition after what they had to endure in the fight. "Our fight was in the form of an angry clown that apparently was seeking vengeance." The fact that that was probably the clown that Blower Hat Guy was talking about was the furthest thing on his mind. There was literally no way that they would've gotten any information out of him anyway and after that fight, that didn't bother him in the slightest.

 

Illiana kept walking along with the group as they made their way out of the castle. She had then felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head and found that the hand had belong to Thallasa. Illiana immediately turned her head away, not wanting to talk about any of the events that she had just been told about. As soon as the group was far away enough from the castle, Thallasa had decided that they should set up camp. Illiana shrugged her shoulders while Thallasa had set up the tents and their camping space for the night. As Taran and Fflam were amazed over the whole thing, Illiana looked over only to see a banana flying right toward her. She caught it in her hand immediately. Illiana walked away as Qamar was explaining why she threw it. She inspected the banana for a moment before beginning to eat it. Once she finished her banana, she immediately reduced the peel to ashes. She looked over to Thallasa for a few moments. It had dawned on her that Illiana had knew little to nothing about this master. The only thing she knew was that she is a Master and that's it. It was as if the curious cat within her was screaming to find out more about Thallasa. Illiana walked over to her and spoke. "Got a minute?" She waited for Thallasa's answer, hoping she could gain any knowledge from their conversation.

 

​

Aria sighed out as she rested on top of her sleeping bag. The tent flap was secured shut, and she changed into a dark blue tank-top for the night. She only felt comfortable slipping off her shoes and keeping on her pants, wanting to be prepared just in case there was an emergency they had to run to all of the sudden. The lantern that was in the tent was set to a low glow to make a comfortable environment for herself. She held the communicator in her hand, turning it in her fingers to examine it above her head. Would it be okay to talk now? What if they were still busy-

"Hey. It's Torrin."

Aria jumped as it suddenly went off, losing her grip on it as it fell on her face, right between her eyes. "Ow!" The girl fumbled for it and sat up abruptly as she was struggling to get a hold of it.

"You there?"

Finally having it back in her hands safe and sound, Aria tapped on it like Torrin showed her how. "H-hi! It's me! I mean, it's Aria! Qamar was actually just wondering about you guys. I was wondering too." The girl chuckled nervously and stared down at the glowing light. "How's it going over there? Did you restore the world order yet?"

 

Qamar waved off to Aria, smiling at the girl and she soon followed into her own tent. She laid on her stomach and stared at the fire in front of the tents. She saw Illiana speaking to Master Thallasa and she turned her face towards Aria's tent. Whether or not Aria liked it, she chose to sleep in a tent next to the girl to keep herself as far from Illiana as possible. Luckily for her, Fflam was passed out in the tent on her opposite side, so at least she had some of her own space for now. Her tent flap was closed tightly and Qamar was having a hard time sleeping. She laid there, staring at the roof of the tent, still fully dressed and shoes on. She didn't care to be caught undressed, so she stayed this way. She closed her eyes a moment before she heard Aria talking to somebody. Of course she heard her exclamation of pain and that made Qamar sit up, a curious look on her face.

Opening her tent, she crawled out to see Illiana talking to Master Thallasa. She immediately averted her gaze after her eyes met Illiana's. She stood and walked towards Aria's tent, kneeling down by the front flap. She saw the light was on and was going to try to go inside when she heard Aria. "H-hi! It's me! I mean, it's Aria! Qamar was actually just wondering about you guys. I was wondering too." Qamar immediately moved to the back of the tent, leaning down to try and hide from being seen by somebody else. She then sat on a nearby rock and pulled out a pen and scrap piece of paper, trying to pretend to write something, hoping Master Thallasa would pay her no mind. But knowing Thallasa, she'd immediately get scolded and sent away. Shaking her head, she listened in and stayed there, spying on the girl. If Aria wasn't going to tell her everything about what happened with Quietus, then she was going to find out herself.​

 

Of course she was caught. Somehow she was always caught whenever she tried these sorts of things. She walked away a bit from the tents before she yanked her arm away from Thallasa. "I'm used to being mistrusted." she said, rubbing her arm. "I don't need to be told about it yet again." She walked towards the fire and sat down by it, pulling her legs to her chest and staring at the fire. Her eyes were still aglow, so it probably wasn't very comfortable for Illiana. it didn't help that Qamar was staring at the girl now, having nothing better to do.​

 

​

Aria sat up straight when she heard Master Thallasa's voice and turned to the sound of them. She held the communicator protectively in her hands and listened as it sounded like Qamar was hanging around. Aria rolled her eyes and then held her communicator close to her ear to listen to Torrin. When he mentioned the younger ones, his thoughts went to Take and Tinarah... But hearing everyone was alright, she sighed out silently in relief. "Sorry, apparently Qamar was hovering outside of my tent," Aria said quietly for only Torrin to hear. "We had a talk of sorts earlier and... yeah... Anyways... We rescued a magical oracle pig from a bloodthirsty horned king? Apparently the pig has visions or something, and would reveal a scary weapon to the evil king that would end humanity or something like that. And he literally had horns. It was freaky. His castle was full of darkness, despair, and creepy thugs and bandits."

She looked over to her bag and saw Glyde's torn cloak sticking out of it. Her cheery countenance fell as she held the communicator in her hand and rested her chin on her knees. "We... lost Glyde... He was keeping an eye out for us while we were rescuing the magical pig and... he was killed. Out of our sight... we came just as his light-" Aria felt her throat tighten and paused a moment to regain her composure. "...His light was floating away.... All was left was his keyblade and his cloak... Illiana and Qamar hasn't been getting along with each other... The whole team feels torn apart... I can't wait til we all get together again," Aria muttered the last bit. Her voice sounded drained, and devoid of her usual happiness.

 

Illiana waited for a reply from Thallasa. "Oh? Yes, of course." She warmed her hands up by the fire until she patted the spot next to her on the log. Illiana nodded her head as she walked over to her and sat down. Taran, Fflam, and Eilonwy had just went into their tents for the night. Once they went into their tents, Thallasa then spoke, "What's on your mind Illiana?" The young lady took a deep breath and started to put her thoughts together. What would she ask about first? Thallasa's disappearance? What happened to her students? Why become a keyblade master? So many questions, yet she couldn't keep silent forever. Before she could ask her first question, Thallasa had pushed herself up from the log. "Excuse me for one moment, Illiana. I apologize. I will return and you may speak your mind when I do. Stay by the fire for a while. The warmth is quite nice." Illiana looked over to see Thallasa pull Qamar away from Aria's tent. She shook her head as she rolled her eyes at Qamar's ridiculous little stunt. Once Thallasa returned, Qamar had then sat on the opposite side of the fire. Thallasa had returned back to her spot. As long as Qamar wasn't in her personal space, Illiana would be fine. She didn't mind having Qamar around while she talks to Thallasa.

"I have quite a few questions for you. Considering, I know next to nothing about you. A little background info would help." Illiana had reformed her umbrella before reaching into it. After a few moments of searching, she pulled out a cup and a small pouch of what appeared to be a frozen cherry margarita. She poured some of its content into her cup. She sealed the pouch and put it back into her umbrella. Illiana took a sip of her drink before turning to Thallasa. "How about starting with: Why were you in hiding for so long?" Illiana took another sip as she waited for Thallasa's answer.​