Darkness of the forest ~Sora, Open~

[Morto Mente]

Darkness. Darkness ever more. That's all that is around her. This darkness feels somewhat familiar. Why was that? What was it about this darkness that gave her even the slightest comfort? Any other darkness that consumed her would cause her to run. Run back to him. The devil of a man who claimed he would help her friend. This darkness wasn't cold. It wasn't alarming. This darkness was warm. But how could that be? Nothing made sense anymore. Maybe that's why she wanted to let go. Let go and just give up. But there was a feeling that made her second guess that action. What was it? It was like a string tied to her mind. She didn't remember where it ended, but it seemed important. There was something there... No. It was some one

What are you doing? Don't give up!

There was that voice again. It was the same as before. Before? Yes. There was that voice in her head before the darkness. It had told her not to give up. She had to endure. But why? What was to come of it?

I'm waiting, Kitty

There was that name she had come to be known by. But, wasn't there only one person who called her that? She was certain there was. It isn't that she didn't like the name, she just didn't want a pet name. From who? Yes. It was her dearest friend.

†Charlie!†

Now there was no darkness. What replaced it now was something more sensible to it's warmth. Light. Yes, this is where the warmth came from. The darkness was only a veil over her mind, covering the light. That darkness represented her doubt. Now, this light was shining brightly through her soul and urged her to press on. She knew what she had to do. What she set out to do. She had to get up. She had to save her best friend.

Oddly, the light dimmed as Mary opened her eyes. Upon regaining some of her senses, she figured out why. She was back in the darkness, however only the darkness of the world. This is a darkness, no.. a grey that she was used to. However, it seemed brighter than she had remembered. She was still in the forest she blacked out in. The cold, steel scabbard of the rapier was still clenched in her left hand. Slowly pushing her body from the soil, Mary immediately remembered that creature from before. Frightened, she slowly rose to her hands and knees and began to scan her surroundings.

The carriage wasn't in sight. Just how far was she thrown from the impact of that creature's attack? There was nothing at all around her. Nothing at all, aside from... shadows? There's nothing at "night" that can cause a shadow. Even as far from London as she was, the sky was still ridden with smog, hiding everything beyond. Mary had to muster everything in her to stand up. She was still weak, but could at least travel by foot as long as she wasn't to be attacked again. Unsteady breathing escaped Mary's lips as she noticed her own shadow below her. For some reason, she turned her gaze up, and her eyes widened to the point she felt as though they would fall out of her own head. Her heart skipped a beat. There was no smog. No clouds. Only a a black canvas, painted with what she guessed to be "stars" and...

†The.. moon...?†

[Ethereal Requiem]

With a flash of light, Sora found himself setting down in a field of grass, with a few flowers swaying in the moonlight wind. It was peaceful and calm, so unlike everything that had been happening lately. After just barely managing to escape from Ansem and Xemnas, Sora had gone and used the Keyblade to create a Corridor of Light. Now he was here, in someplace completely different. If he had to say so himself, he really did prefer this place over the Castle That Never Was.

Slowly, his keyblade vanishing from his hand in a flash of warm light, Sora looked around the area. Everything was silent and calm, and despite the night, seemed lovely. It sort of reminded him of nights on Destiny Island, when everything was silent and there was just himself, the stars, and the moon. Walking through the trees, Sora tried to think over everything that had happened in a clearer manner.

First of all, there was Xemnas and Ansem to worry about. Just one of them had been bad enough, but with two of them and only one of him, the situation seemed rather grim. Especially since it seemed like they were still planning to go ahead with Xehanort's plan to create the X-Blade. There was no one else around to help him this time, but himself. "It'll be fine." Sora told himself, pounding on his chest lightly with a fist. "Even if my friends aren't here, the bond between our hearts will lend me their strength!"

Grinning, Sora ran ahead, legs stretching in long strides. There was nothing attacking him for once, only wild animals that sedately moved out of the way whenever he came across one. Right now, he needed to find some civilization, or another person, so that he could find out just where he was right now. And any other information that they might have, like for example if they'd run across any Heartless or Nobodies! With Ansem and Xemnas around, who knew who long before the worlds would be overrun again? He had to stop them before that!

A jump into the air and suddenly, the brown haired boy was rapidly gliding through the trees, wind whipping through his hair. Narrowly he avoided crashing into the thickly set trees, a wide grin on his face all the time.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with flying through the forest at night and not really paying attention to where you were going.

CRASH!

[Morto Mente]

Slow unsteady breathing. A quivering throat. These traits often plagued this girl, Mary. She was delicate after all. Things of the nature of monsters in London were one thing. Having become rather used to it, it almost never bothered her. However, there is an even stranger situation plaguing her mind. This whole moon thing. Well, not just the moon, but the entire sky. Something this unusual should scare her, and scared she is. She could feel her heart beating throughout her entire body. Her throat was dry, yet frozen at the same time. To her, there is no way the sky should be visible.

It took a cool breeze to blow through to bring Mary back to her own senses. †What... What's going on? This... this can't be possible!† Her erratic thoughts bounced in her head. That mixed with the rhythm of her beating heart almost matched her shaky breathing. It took everything she had to stand up normally. Well, with using her rapier as a cane also helped. She moved her right hand to her golden eye, feeling for tears. There wasn't any there. So she covered her eye.

†Nothing.. there's nothing.. So... this isn't.. a vision.† The girl's voice began to solidify. She was starting to regain her senses. She tried to pull her thoughts together, and there was one thing she knew for certain; she had to find at least a road. Although finding other people would also help her greatly. At least she thought. She tried to push herself forward. †One leg after another.. one foot in front of the other.† She continued to tell herself that as she began to slowly walk. Having gone a short distance away from where she had awaken, she nearly had a heart attack with a loud shriek.

There was a loud noise from one of the trees near her, followed by a gust of wind. She instinctively held her dress down and tightened her muscles. After a few seconds she opened her eyes and slowly turned her head to the tree she heard the sound from. What welcomed her gaze wasn't any type of monster, but instead was a strangely dress boy. He couldn't have been older than 16 or 17. Worried about him, Mary clumsily rushed to him. †Oh my.. Are you alright? Can you hear me?†

[Ethereal Requiem]

He'd crashed into that poor tree so hard that he'd knocked himself plain out cold for a few moments. When consciousness started to come around again, he wished that he'd stayed knocked out. At first there was nothing, just a vague awareness of himself, then a raging pain in his head. "Auuugh." He groaned, clenching his eyes shut, hands twitching somewhat. A few leaves from the tree he'd cracked his head on fell down to settle on his body.

Sora was more concerned about his aching head than anything else at the moment, so he didn't hear the young girl's worried question. Raising a hand to his head, the Keyblade wielder groaned softly, his hands touching something sticky and warm. Great, just what he needed. Slowly, the blood trickled down his face, glinting in the moonlight. "Curaga."

[/b] Sora whispered, and gave a sigh of relief as a warm, green warmth swept through his body, healing all of his wounds. The blood faded away, like it had never even been there in the first place.

Still, a faint headache remained. At least he could think properly now, and the pain was gone. Opening his eyes to see the girl overhead, Sora blinked a few times. She looked worried. She was also dressed in strange clothes, but Sora was used to that. Every world and place he went to, after all, was a different one.

Sitting up, Sora flashed his famous grin at the girl. "Hi! I'm okay. Name's Sora, what's your name?" For Sora, treating everyone that he met like they were lifelong friends simply came naturally to him. Generally, with his good nature and kindness, he would end up becoming friends with the person, even if they didn't know it. With his enthusiasm and friendliness, it was honestly pretty hard to not like Sora. Unless you were, ya know, evil or something. But this girl looked kind, and good hearted.
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[Morto Mente]

This boy was something to behold in Mary's eyes. His unsteady way of coming to was followed by some bizarre. She had never seen anything like it. The notion had taken her aback, and honestly frightened her a little. Having noticed the crimson liquid trickle down the boy's forehead, Mary had already reached for her cloth tissue in her pocket. This motion was stopped cold once the boy's muttered word erased not only the blood, but the wound as well.

Instinctively, Mary covered her right eye as to assure herself it wan't an illusion before her. It makes sense she was scared, considering a boy just used sorcery to heal his wound. However, this girl was used to the strange. Upon remembering that, she pushed the fear from her mind and collected herself. After she removed her hand from her eye, she smiled gently at the boy.


Mary moved back a little to give the boy room to sit up. †Hello there, Sora. My name Mary Clarissa Christie.† She stood up and bowed curtly to the boy. Regardless of his age, she still had to show her manners. After all, that's how she was raised. That of nobility must show it all times. †I'm glad that you are okay... Can you stand?†[/b] Mary gently held out her arm, but noticed she was still clinging to her rapier. She giggled in embarrassment and switched her arms to hold her empty hand to him.

[Ethereal Requiem]

"It's nice to meet you, Mary!" Happily, Sora grinned and held out his hand to her. Whether she took it or not, the boy would still jump up to his feet in a single, swift movement. Fast enough that he didn't notice her offered hand to help him up. Glancing down at his clothes, Sora took a moment's time to dust all of the leaves and things off of himself. It was strange to be in his 'dreaming' clothes, even though he was wide awake. (honestly, after hitting his head on that tree so hard, he might just still be asleep!)

Looking up at the girl, Sora smiled again, cheerfully. "I wasn't looking where I was going." He explained, gesturing to the tree that he'd crashed head into. If you looked closely at the tree, you could actually tell the part where Sora had hit; there was a rather sizeable crack in the tree, with sap slowly oozing out of it.

"Where is this place? Do you know?" Looking skyward, Sora watched a cloud pass overhead, briefly hiding the moon from sight. It was always a fun thing to find out what sort of place he would find himself in after going somewhere new and unknown. Although sometimes it got him into trouble too. At least it seemed like the Heartless weren't in this particular area. Usually by now, if there was Heartless around, he would have run into them by now.

[Morto Mente]

After helping Sora up, Mary eyed the tree. The damage left on it caused her eyes to widen. This boy was either very resilient, or has an extremely hard head. She thought for a moment on the boy's words. Regardless if he was looking or not, how did this boy who wasn't taller than Mary, manage to slam his head so high up on the tree? It took her a moment to shake the thought from her head.

Sora's question caught the girl off guard. †I'm not entirely sure. I had just left London by carriage, and I was attacked.† Mary's voice trailed off. Her eyes turned to the sky in worry. She thought back to the grey sky of London. †I don't know how long I was out, but when I woke up, I was here.†[/b]

[Ethereal Requiem]

Sora blinked. "What's Lonon, a town?" He asked curiously. The young boy liked learning things about the new places that he ended up. Usually his adventures through each area would end up bringing him all around the place. It was one of his favourite parts of the whole 'hero' thing. Her words though, did bring some concern. "What attacked you, do you know?" He tilted his head slightly, curious. Could it have been the Heartless? Or maybe there was some sort of monster that lived here. There was monsters that lived in other worlds, he knew, unique to each location. They just didn't usually show up when the Heartless were around.

Crossing his arms, Sora thought for a moment. Well here they were, both out in the middle of seemingly nowhere. The moonlight lit up a lot, but there was still shadows everywhere. Who knew what might be lurking in the area. "Hey, if you want, you can come with me." Sora suggested in a friendly tone. "I'm lost too. We can try to find a town together, and 'sides, it's safer with two people if a monster shows up or something." She had her rapier, and he had the keyblade, so they could fight off anything that they might come across. Besides, it felt wrong to just leave her here alone.

Walking a few feet off, Sora held out his hand, summoning the keyblade in a flash of light. "This should make things easier." He commented, mostly to himself as the keyblade began to emit a soft light. The beginnings of a fira spell, kept contained in the tip of the keyblade to act as a sort of lantern. It was hard keeping spells like that, but it would be useful for using as a light. He didn't want to end up crashing into another tree after all, the first one had been bad enough. "Ready to go?" He asked and looked back over at Mary with a grin. "Ladies first!"