Kingdom Hearts: Kingdom Hearts: Light Chaser

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Thallasa lowered her keyblade realizing that there wasn't any way out of this while keeping the others safe. "Alright." She called off her keyblade and held up her hands. "Just don't harm the others. They're innocent in this. If you need someone to witness your grand schemes then just take me."

"You do not give the orders here, woman!" The Horned King shouted in a raspy voice. "No. All of you shall witness the Black Cauldron's might." He raised his arms and the green smoke thickened spiraled around the group until it became difficult to breathe. Fflam, Eilonwy, and Gurgi were the first to collapse in a coughing fit. Taran tried to step over to help his new friends back up but in seconds he too fell over, unconscious as the mist began to put the party to sleep one by one.

Illiana was the next to succumb to the Horned King's magic. Then Qamar was the next to be put to sleep. After Qamar was Aria who had held out several seconds longer. Thallasa barely kept conscious any longer than Aria before she too could no longer stay awake.

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Torrin would have backed away from Enzo, thinking him to be mad, but considering that they were trapped together and Torrin was bleeding out as he told his story through song. Maybe if he was in a better mood he would have found it amusing or entertaining but the dire situation of it all, and blood loss, kept him from doing so. Still, now that he thought about it this had been yet another person who had displayed some form of musical talent. For the briefest instant Torrin even considered that they should all get together and form a band of some kind. Of course, that would mean Torrin having to learn to sing or play an instrument.

Torrin blinked at Enzo as he placed his hand on Torrin's shoulder and let out a small sigh. "Fair enough. You answered my first question, albeit oddly, so I don't see any harm in telling you where I'm from. My world's named Orphic Coast. I've just...been away from it for a few years now." He wasn't comfortable with elaborating further but he was fine with giving the details he did. "Alright. Your turn, Enzo. If we're going to be stuck here for a while you might as well tell me where you're from."



Ardyn's sly smile vanished when Take stole his hat away. "How rude of you. And to think, I was being so polite in helping you. I have nothing but the best intentions for you children. I work for no one but myself." Ardyn glanced at Tinarah and raised his hands up as if he had given up dealing with them. "Oh the castle? It's over yonder." He waved his hand in the direction of the Horned King's castle. "That vile horned creature must be capturing your friends about now but...I'm afraid I cannot allow your continued rudeness to stand. It's time for a time out." Darkness swirled around his hand. Ardyn's eyes locked on Take.

A roar echoed in the skies. A sound as loud as a thunderclap cracked through the air and soon the sound of earth being torn away could be heard approaching. Before Ardyn could attack a brilliant white beam of flame and heat carved a path through the forest and left a trail of burnt earth as the beam found its way to where Ardyn was standing, incinerating the man on the spot in a blaze of a sacred inferno. A blur of white passed before their eyes. The spot where Ardyn once stood was now smoking and from the direction the beam had come in had left a long scar in the earth and cleared a line through the forest. Darkness swirled around where the man had once stood and crept away into the shadows and even Ardyn's hat vanished in a puff of smoke right from Take's hands.

Their savior landed before them. A large, ten foot tall dragon covered in fluff and feathers, its four wings folding on its back to keep from hitting the trees as the creature stepped closer to the group. It sniffed the air and tilted its head to the side, blinking curiously at the strangers. The dragon's tail flexed and swatted a tree branch knocking some leaves down. The tail moved to the other side and hit a bush. Then it moved back to the other side. And again. And again. Slowly, the dragon was wagging its tail as it observed the young keybladers that stood before it.



Meanwhile . . .

Master Thallasa, Taran, Gurgi, Eilonwy, Fflam, Illiana, Qamar, and Aria had awoken to find themselves chained to stone columns surrounding a circular dark chamber. In the center was the Horned King working black magic to awaken the Cauldron's magic. If the keybladers attempted to call for their keyblade or their magic, they would have found themselves unable to do so.

 

Enzo's eyes lit up a bit after Torrin mentioned Orphic Coast. "Orphic Coast huh? Man, I gotta wonder what that's like," He sat down on the floor and crossed his legs, planting his elbows on his knees and his hands along his cheeks. He sat like a child interested in a teacher's story. "Tell me more about your hometown Mr. Torrin," he smiled, interested in hearing how some one like Torrin would view the world he grew up in. "I mean it's not like we're going anywhere anyways. Might as well reminisce until something good comes along. I got some karma stored up that should be cashing in soon," he said, flashing a thumbs up.

Enzo seemed to be dodging questions on his own past, taking an interest on this new stranger he wished to learn about.

 

Everything happened so fast. One moment Tinarah was preparing to head in the direction of the place the man was pointing, the next he tried to attack Take. Before any of them could do anything to react white flames came down hitting only the man who had hurt Torrin. Tinarah was still recovering from the shock of that when down when Take attacked the creature that landed before then and Boreas made his move to stop him. Tinarah stopped and blinked for a long moment as Take and Boreas argued about the intent of the dragon, before she finally looked to the dragon itself, seeing it's wagging tail.

After a long moment of looking at it, Tinarah stepped off her glider and slowly started to walk towards the dragon. Slowly she lifted her hand to it. For some reason Tinarah found the creature interesting and cute, she wanted it to be friendly and it seemed friendly. "What brought you to us?" Tinarah asked quietly as she reached up to try and stroke the dragon, it looked like it would be so soft to pet, she had to try.
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Torrin's eyes narrowed at Enzo when he was questioned about his home. Not only did it feel like Enzo was prying but he had not answered Torrin's own question. "You know..." Torrin grunted as he planted his left hand on the ground and used his good arm to push himself to stand upright. Doing so caused him to stumble forward and nearly lose his balance but he forced himself to keep standing out of sheer stubborn determination. "It's rude to answer a question with another question. That's the kind of thing that makes someone think you're hiding something." Once more he tried to call on his magic to heal his wound and once more he failed. Torrin cursed under his breath.

"But right now I don't have time to waste with stories. I have friends I need to get back to." As he spoke those words he wondered if that was even true. Did anyone besides Boreas or Aria even consider him a friend? Take? Chrono? Tinarah? It began to sink in that he was starting to care whether or not his new team would miss him if he died right now. He shook his head and used his hand as a support as he began to circle slowly around the room looking for any kind of weakness in the circular wall that surrounded them.

"Come on. Don't just sit there. You can't actually be comfortable with staying here forever, Enzo. Help me find a way out of here. Surely you must have noticed something about this place. This room was built by someone. It has to have a way out. Some kind of structural weakness. Something we could to our advantage."



The Flammie blinked at Take and its eyes shifted from Boreas to the boy several times before turning its attention to the small girl who approached it. Seeing her hand stretched out and open towards it, the Flammie lowered its head to allow Tinarah to touch its soft fluffy head. The dragon then nudged Tinarah with its nose as it gave her a long sniff. Ignoring whatever was going on between Take and Boreas, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that Take was resentful of its existence, the Flammie began to trot over towards Chrono and pushed him hard enough with its nose that it might have felt like a punch to the gut as the dragon eagerly sniffed the other stranger.


Meanwhile . . .

"Can anyone get free?" Thallasa asked the others as everyone began to regain consciousness. If she had been able to access her magic she would have used to get free but, master or not, her powers were restricted just the same as everyone else. Looking over to the smallest member of their party she asked, "Gurgi are you able to slip out of your chains?" The small furry creature wiggled and squirmed for a minute before giving up, hanging on the chains as he was too short to reach the floor.

"We're doomed!" Fflam despaired. "If only I could play one final song..."

"Don't give up Fflewddur! We'll make it out of this! I know we will!"

"Do not allow yourself to hold any false hopes, wench!" The Horned King scowled. "Perhaps it may interest you to see what fate has in store for you." He spoke to the group as he walked over towards a cart and pulled its cloth cover off of it to reveal the pile of skeletons that had been exhumed from the crypts. The Horned King let out a low laugh as he picked one of the skeletons up and began to walk towards the Black Cauldron. As he lowered the skeletal warrior into the Cauldron he began to speak in his raspy voice which echoed throughout the stone chamber. "Now I call on my army of the dead. The cauldron-born. Arise my messengers of death! Our time has arrived!" Flames erupted from the Cauldron and a green mist began to pour out and stretch towards the piles of skeletons that were dumped around the chamber. The Horned King's bandits began to step back in fear as they watched the evil magic run amok.

As the mist began to thicken one man poked his spear at the mist which caused the spearhead to melt and magical electricity to run along the shaft. A skeletal warrior, risen from the dead, leapt out from the mist and attacked the man. His screams pierced the air for several seconds before he was silenced.


Also meanwhile . . .

The Flammie's ears suddenly perked up the creature looked more alert as it circled the clearing the group was in. The white dragon huffed and whined as it began to sniff the air noticing something amiss. Its eyes narrowed and the dragon let out a low growl as it paced. Finally it stopped its search and looked at the sky. The Flammie looked back at the group and then back at the sky. Once more it looked at the group and extended its wings. In a single powerful flap of its wings a gust of air shout outwards as the dragon took the skies. Rather than fly away immediately the dragon circled overhead waiting...

 

There was a small smile that crossed Tinarah's lips as she was able to pet the dragon. He was soft and friendly. Then it turned and approached her brother, nudging him. Tinarah actually laughed at the site of it, honestly she thought it was cute. She didn't care what Take thought of them, Tinarah couldn't figure out why he would hate it so much, it was like a giant dog from her perspective. Even as it trotted off to sniff her brother, Tinarah followed and started to stroke it again enjoying the soft feeling of the dragon, different from what she would have ever imagined.

Suddenly it's ears twitched and a blast of wind pushed down on her as the Flammie took off into the air, circling around. She watched it closely before following behind Boreas on his lead. If they Flammie did indeed want them to follow it, then it was likely important. She summoned her glider back to her and took off into the air. "Alright, lead the way... boy?" She didn't know the gender but she could at least guess for now. ​

 

Enzo actually thought to himself briefly about what life would be like imprisoned inside this concrete prison. Most of them involved buddy style shenanigans with Torrin creating stories and living an entire lifetime until they both died of old age. As entertaining as the images of their finger waving mischief would be, he couldn't see himself doing it for more than a couple of months at most. "I suppose you're right... we'd run out of theatrical material before the end of the season..." He folded his arms and gave a quick run through of his inspection when he first arrived. "Trust me friend, I've scoured this place top to bottom. I know every inch, sound, and smell this prison has." He put on hand on his side and placed his other hand on the wall. "I know this place better then the back of my- oh hey, that's new..."

He fetlt the wall a bit more and noticed a major difference compared to the rest of the surrounding wall. "I never had to lean against this wall so I didn't notice but... this wall is different." He etched his nails and fingers across the wall for closer inspection. "It's not as dirty or cracked..." He gave the wall a quick sniff from afar. "And it doesn't smell as bad either... It's like it's newer..." He turned back to Torrin for confirmation. "Is that considered advantageous?"

 

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Torrin refrained from letting out a sigh. Trying to pry information out of Enzo seemed to be a waste of effort for the time being. "Theatrical material?" He asked under his breath. Torrin was not fond of the images that followed in his mind. The last thing he wanted to do was look like a fool while waiting for death. He shook his head and cleared his mind of the thought, slowly moving over towards Enzo while leaning against the wall for support. "A newer wall? Hm...I don't know. I guess we could hope they built it in a rush. It's like this place was built for the explicit purpose of keeping in a magic user...or a keyblade wielder." That marked the second time on the journey he had encountered such measures. First was the magitek generator in the previous world and now there were runes etched into walls to prevent the use of magic.

Torrin stepped beside Enzo and put his weight against the newer wall. Nothing happened. "Hm...maybe if we could find a loose stone somewhere..." He began to press on stones one by one hoping to find any kind of weakness in the wall. After a few moments of searching Torrin was beginning to suspect that he was at another dead end. "Come on dammit." Torrin grunted as he pushed on a large stone. For a moment he thought he felt it budge just barely but as he began to put more muscle into the effort a searing sharp pain ran through his body. "Agh!" Torrin immediately stopped pushing and backed away from the wall clutching his wound which had started to bleed again. He stumbled back and leaned against another wall just to keep from falling over. Torrin could already feel his strength slipping fast.

"No good..." He panted and looked over to the fellow prisoner. Torrin hated feeling weak but he hated not knowing what was going on with the others even more. He sucked up his pride and asked the only thing he could. "Enzo, do you think you could force that stone out? I'm not sure I can in this state."



The Flammie looked at the group and once it saw that everyone had taken to the skies it flew in the direction of the Horned King's castle. As everyone began to close in on the distant castle, the scenery began to darken. The clouds overhead were black and lightning danced across the dark sky. Echoes of thunder rumbled all around the closer they got. A moving mass of people could be seen slowly exiting the castle along with a green mist that rolled out of the front gates. The Flammie roared in anger. The closer the group got the clearer the sight below became. The army creeping out of the castle were not the Horned King's bandits but his undead army of Cauldron-Born, skeletal warriors that had be risen to conquer and lay waste to Prydain. Flammie let loose a quick blast of fire that spiraled out of its jaws and tracked down the army, exploding right at the gates in an impressive fireball. The gates were no longer standing but even though at least a hundred Cauldron-Born had been destroyed more still came pouring out, climbing over the ashes of their brethren as if nothing had happened.



The explosion from Flammie's blast caused the entire castle to shake. The Horned King let out an angered growl and thrust his hand out to bark orders to his new army. "Go my warriors! Do not stop until all our enemies are dead! Do not let more of these outsiders interfere with our destiny!"

While the Horned King was distracted ordering his army around, telling them where to stand guard and where to go, Doli reappeared in front of the group. "You kids really are in trouble. That army is going to kill everyone! What are you doing hanging around like that being useless!? I have to do everything around here don't I?" The fairy complained as he flew over towards Aria first. "Hold still, girl. You don't want your hands blown off do you?" A flash of light zapped from Doli's hands and struck the chains binding Aria's hands, causing them to disintegrate in a shower of blue sparkles. Doli flew over towards Master Thallasa ready to do the same for her.

"STOP!" The Horned King shouted, pointing his crooked finger at Doli.

"Make me!" The fairy defiantly spoke. "I'll keep him distracted, girl! Hurry up and do something!" Doli called out as he blitzed over towards the Horned King, acting like a bee made of light as he flew circles around the evil sorcerer zapping at him from every angle though nothing he did appeared to do anything other than make the Horned King angrier.