Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts: Light Chaser

Going up to the door, Tinarah stuck near the back as an old man opened the door expecting someone else to be on the other side. She sat there a little awkwardly before he started to ask if they were with the other people. So they were through here, that was a good thing, it really made Tinarah relieved to know that her friends had been through this area, so it wasn't going to be a complete wild goose chase. But as they were talking someone else popped up, a small man that was flying. Tinarah was surprised then took a moment to study it before finally deciding she didn't know what to do with such a creature and kept to herself, trying not to spend too much time staring at the thing as he spoke to them telling them what he knew of the situation. Whatever it was it didn't sound good. She had full confidence that their companions could handle it, especially since they had Master Thallasa with them, but she still worried.

Just before they were about to set off the small creature cast something on them that made them start floating. A small smile cracked on Tinarah's face as she was about to try and figure out how to fly, but that was when Torrin called it off and they all landed on the ground. It seemed that she wasn't the only one disappointed as Take spoke up. "I know.... I did too." She commented before getting up and dusting herself off before wiping off her violin case. Tinarah then nodded her agreement to Take's statement even as he stumbled over names. "You know I never realized we had so many T names." She said quietly to him as they started to walk away. ​

 

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The Light Chaser used Dentro's keyblade to deflect Chrysanthemum's attack as they came in with a newfound ferocity. Despite whatever revelations were clearly going on in the girl's mind the master casually parried each and every one of her blows. Still, he could see within her eyes that she had been coming to some kind of resolution of what she was willing and not willing to do and his efforts to push her had not been in vain. Just as expected. The girl was going to hold true to her own moral compass.

"Good." He uttered the word as he called off the keyblade just before Chrys's spell had left her hand.

"Master!" Koa called out upon seeing the man lower his guard.

Chrys's spell struck the Light Chaser square in the chest and exploded into a brilliant spectacle of dazzling magic yet there he stood as if nothing had happened. "There is only so much a teacher can impart on a student." He spoke calmly. "Much must be left up to the student to figure out on their own. I gathered you all for a single purpose but if I had been looking for soldiers I would not have trained you the way that I have. You see, I do not require nor wish for blind obedience. I have done my best to demonstrate the reality of what must be done but in the end it is up to each of you to act as you see fit. Yes...it is unfortunate Dentro had gone down the road he did, and I wish there existed a possibility for me to save him from himself. But I could only ever help him hone his skills. Nothing I could have done would have kept Dentro from being who he was."

The man placed a hand on his hip and looked at Chrysanthemum. "Ah yes...before I forget, the exam for you is over." He turned towards his other students. "Avra and Pagos. Zeno and Koa. You pairs can begin your exams now that I am once more free to observe."

"Wait!" Avra called out. "Master you can at least let us all know whether she passed!"

"Don't keep the girl waiting." Zeno said as he folded his arms.

"Oh? Defiant today aren't we?" The man glanced over at Chrys. "Unfortunately, Chrys's status as student is still unchanged. I am sorry, Master Chrysanthemum."

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"If I'm flying it's going to be with something I know to be reliable. Soaring through the air with nothing beneath me? Not a comfortable thought." Torrin answered Boreas, giving a small grin. He shrugged. "Besides. Our gliders have served us so far. Why use anything else?" He gave a short wave to the elder man and the fairy. He summoned his keyblade and jumped into the air to call on his glider.

"My goodness!" Dallben exclaimed.

"Don't look so disappointed you two." Torrin directed towards Take and Tinarah. "We can fly with these and you three need the practice." He waited for a moment for the others to summon their gliders as well before taking off in the direction of the marshes.

Beginning to look around the area, Taran opened up a chest in hopes of finding the real Black Cauldron only for him to be knocked over as nearly a hundred frogs came leaping out from their prison. Eilonwy screamed and backed away as she watched the frogs escape the house.

"They're only frogs Eilonwy." Taran said, trying to calm her down as he stood back onto his feet.

"Those were people!" Doli shouted to correct the boy.

"You mean...they were turned into frogs?" Taran asked, looking in the direction the frogs had escaped to.

"AAAHHHH!!! THIEVES! THIEVESSS!!!" A woman's voice shrieked and echoed throughout the house.

"Someone stole all our frogs!"

A purple mist filled the room and in an instant three blue-skinned women in purple robes appeared before the party.

"Evil nasty people! You shall all be turned into frogs and eaten!" The one who seemed to be the leader of the bunch, a tall thin woman wearing a purple headband pointed at the group.

"Nice and tender!" The hooded woman grabbed Taran's arm and attempted to take a bit out of it.

"Stop that!" Taran snapped his arm back away from her grasp.

"Just who are you anyway?" Thallasa asked, unconcerned with the witches' apparent appetite for frog-turned people.

"The Witches of Morva! Who else would we be? I'm Orddu. That's Orwen," she said pointing to the fat witch who was beginning to eye Fflam, "and that one wearing the hood is Orgoch."

"So nice to meet you ladies. Uh...hehe...goodbye." Fflam tries pushing the group out of the house.

"Wait! My...aren't you the handsome one!" Orwen pulled Fflam towards her and embraced the bard tightly enough to squeeze air out of him and ignored his attempts to push her away.

"Bah! Enough of that lovesick nonsense!" Orgoch pointed her finger at Fflam and a bolt of magic zapped Fflam, instantly turning the man into a frog. Orgoch chased after the frog as it fled. "Quick! We're going to have toad stew!"

Orwen shoved Orgoch out of the way with her large frame and picked up the Fflam-frog and cuddle the poor frog closely. "You're not going to eat this one!" She placed him on the ground and magicked him back to his human self before embracing him once more. "Come here looooveeee!"

"Enough!" Taran leapt forward holding his sword out at the sisters causing Orwen to release the bard. The boy's sword began to glow as a warning to the witches. "We've come for the Black Cauldron!"

"Why no one has asked for the Black Cauldron in over two thousand years!"

"It's a trick!" Orgoch grabbed the robes of Orddu to bring her down to Orgoch's height. "We're not going to let them have it are we?"

Orddu pushed off her sister and her eyes widened as she gazed at the boy's blade. "I don't believe it! I've never seen a sword like that. I've got to have that sword!" She turned her back on the group and brought her sisters closer to whisper her plans to the other witches.

When she finished Orddu exlaimed, "You shall have the Black Cauldron!"

Eilonwy's face perked up and the girl smiled. "You mean you'll give it to us?" She asked hopefully.

"Ahaha!" Orddu pointed and laughed at the girl. "That's not what I said! We never give anything away! What we do is bargain."

"Well you'll not have my sword!" Taran gripped the blade defensively at the only thing that had ever given him a chance to protect his new friends.

"May I ask you ladies to at least consider this magnificent harp?" Fflam timidly asked as he pointed at his humble instrument.

"A harp!? When we want music we send for the birds!" Orddu conjured up a birdcage in her hand and a flock of pink birds burst into existence, flying out over Fflam's head and escaping the house. "What would we do with a simple harp?"

"Wait! Gurgi will trade is crunchings and munchings." Gurgi cautiously went up to Orddu holding up the apple Taran had given him with several bites already having been taken out of it.

"Who would want that!? No sword! No deal!" Orddu folded her arms.

 

"We can practice with these any day, not often you get to truly." Tinarah mumbled to herself, thinking back to when she was very young, before he mother died. Her mother used to lay on the floor and have her feet out so Tinarah could lean on them, she would then take Tinarah's hands and lift her up as she brought her feet up and pretend that she was really flying. A familiar dull ache filled her chest, but she could smile through it now. Stamatis taught her to smile and cherish the memories, even if they hurt. Her smile was small, and tentative as she thought about the memory and tucked away the disappointment of not accepting the mans magic.

Summoning her glider, Tinarah was still a little unsure of using the thing, but as she got on, she found herself more stable than the last time she had tried to use it. She had some sense of confidence this time as she quickly ran through the instructions Boreas gave her last time to keep herself stable. It might have given the others a bit of time to get ahead, but soon she found herself chasing after them, slowly catching up to them before they could accidentally leave her behind. ​

 

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Torrin glanced over at the others upon hearing Boreas's comment and nodded in agreement after seeing them for himself. "They don't look as awkward anymore. Though I suppose the disappointment of not having the fairy's magic help them fly is keeping them distracted." He spoke with a hint of amusement. "Soon enough they might even be better than you. Take's a little on the short and young side...but considering that he held his own against you at all, maybe in a year or two he could usurp your position in the Emerald Company." Torrin joked.

"Hm. That would be a good idea. The last thing we need is to find ourselves in an ambu–" Torrin's eyes flashed up towards the clouds overhead. He blinked and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and squinted as he stared intently at a particular cloud that seemed to have an odd look to it, almost something had passed through it and left a trail of water vapor behind. "Huh...I could've sworn that I saw something there..." He shrugged.

"Alright Boreas. Go ahead and scout on ahead. We'll keep a steady pace as to not lose sight of you. Whenever you're ready–" A shining crimson blade shot up through the forest below them. There was a splatter of blood. Torrin fell from his glider and his keyblade vanished as he plummeted to the ground below, his vision beginning to blur in the sudden daze he found himself in. Torrin fell faster and faster and his body disappeared beneath the thicket.

"Bah! We have no interest in silly little trinkets like that, child!" Orddu scowled.

"Yes! Didn't your parents teach you the value of priceless relics?" Orgoch waved a crooked blue finger at Aria angrily.

"That hardly makes sense." Thallasa spoke, raising her eyebrow.

"Who asked you!?" Orgoch glared at Thallasa causing the woman to narrow her eyes in return at the hooded witch.

Taran looked up at Qamar then back at his sword, a frown beginning to form on his face. What she had said had been true but even so he had barely had a chance to prove himself. He stared at the sword wondering if such a chance would ever come again. "Hm..."

"It will be okay, Taran. By giving up your sword you are helping to save this world from the Horned King. Try to think of that."

The boy sighed and nodded realizing there was no other way to get the Cauldron. "You're right. You both are." The boy slowly stepped forward, holding up his sword in both his hands. "Alright. You can take my sword."

"Is it of your own choice? Remember, with this sword you could be the greatest of warriors!"

"Yes..." The boy nodded solemnly and held up the blade higher towards the witch. "I offer this sword in exchange for the Black Cauldron."

"Agreed! You have made a bargain." Orddu's magic made the sword disappear from Taran's hands and she and her sisters started to cackle as the three witches disappeared. Around everyone the house began to shake as pots, pans, furniture, ordinary cauldrons, and every inch of the abode was ripped up and sucked out the front door in a violent wind.

"Taran watch out!" Eilonwy cried as she clutched Taran.

"Duck!" Fflam shouted as he dove for the ground. In a matter of seconds the entire house and the tree which it had been built into had been uprooted and sucked into a whirlwind that disappeared into the distance leaving the group in the middle of the marshes with nothing to be found around them. The ground shook once more.

"Look!" Eilonwy pointed at a nearby hill as dirt shoot up and through the very depths of the world the Black Cauldron began to tear itself from the ground and rise to the top of the hill, leaving burnt earth beneath it.

"Don't they know the black cauldron is indestructible!?" Orgoch's voice echoed from the skies.

"The black cauldron can never be destroyed. Only its evil powers can be destroyed." Orddu's voice joined her sister's.

"Then it can be stopped!" Taran looked up, his eyes full of hope.

"A living being must climb into the cauldron of their own free will! However they will never climb out alive!"

"We had an agreement!" Fflam protested upon hearing the witch's terrible warning..

"You said we could have the cauldron! What use it to us if we can't destroy it!?" Eilonwy shouted at the witches.

"We only said we'd give you the cauldron! It's not our fault you can't do anything with it!" Orgoch laughed.

The other two witches joined in as their laughter echoed in the skies. Their voices faded away with Orddu's last words being, "Goodbye! And remember! We'll always keep a bargain!"

 

Tinarah was just getting her barrings, just catching up with everyone and holder her own while flying when something happened and it was fast and sudden. Tinarah couldn't even register what was going on, not fast enough. There was blood, not her blood but Torrin's. One moment he was in front of her, the next he was falling. Too far, he was too far away for her to get close enough to heal him. She had to stop the bleeding, and the fall. An impact from this height, it wasn't going to be like when Chrono threw her from the bridge. This wasn't some weird alternate world. She had to stop it. She had to do something.

She hadn't been confident on going fast, but Tinarah turned her keyblade glider down and raced as fast as she could, using one arm to cover her face as she dove through the canopy. She was off the glider before it ever landed. Her eyes darted around, he couldn't be far, he had fallen right here, she was watching. He had to be somewhere close by. Prepared to search a voice caught her attention.

"Ah a fair maiden such as yourself should not be wandering through such treacherous lands. By the look on your face I suspect that you may be in trouble. Lost perhaps? Forgive me. My name is Ardyn Izunia and it would seem that one of your friends has fallen and he can't quite get up." Ardyn's hospitable tone quickly dropped to a much more sinister one. "I suggest you flee now lest you suffer the same fate, child."

Looking towards the source she saw a man in a hat with blood around his feet. Her eyes grew wide as she watched him listened to him taunt her. "What did you do to him?" Her voice was low and shaky. Her nerves were showing, but she wouldn't back down, not when Torrin was hurt somewhere and probably at his mercy. She just needed to stall long enough for everyone else to show up. Summoning her keyblade she stared him down intensely. "I wouldn't underestimate this maiden, I have been through hell and back, you are nothing compared to what I have seen, so return my friend or else I will show you what this child could actually do." Fake confidence but she hid it well because it was true and she was more terrified of letting everyone down than she was of this man. More terrified of losing another person, even if she wasn't quite friends with him, than having to fight this man before her. He seemed to be nothing but talk anyways. ​