True Friends

Where To?

Chapter 31

Hinata sat against the door of the gummi ship with her face planted in her hands. She had yet to move from when the vessel had departed and it was just reaching space. Riku was back in Hollow Bastion and she had a gut feeling that he was only going to fall farther without her. She couldn't believe he actually sent her away; she dearly wished he would just tell her why he was; she felt she at least deserved that much. Her eyes burned with how much she had been crying and it was driving her crazy. Never in her life had she broken down like this and the fact that it was done by Riku made it only worse. Sniffling, she lifted her face and hit her head lightly on the door behind her. She hated feeling so vulnerable and helpless; but she didn't know what else to do. Looking around the ship from where she sat she spotted her swords on top of her regular clothes. Everything really had been set up for her to leave on her own. A sick feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that Maleficent had been planning on her leaving. She and Riku had walked right into her trap. If only they hadn't fallen into Maleficent's clutches, things would have been different. Taking a deep breath, Hinata attempted to let her overwhelming emotions seep back into her; trying to lock them away. If she was going to be on her own now, she would need to pull herself together.

It was time for her to figure out what to do. Standing up, she felt her knees slightly shake but supported herself by leaning on the wall. She walked over to the bed where Riku had placed the black device and sat down. Grabbing the device she wondered if it would be possible to call her old device. If it was still operational maybe she could find a way to get it back. She wasn't sure why she would need to retrieve it but it would at least give her something to do. Examining the device in her hands she tried to figure out how she was supposed to call someone with it. It was a square contraption with a small screen and a red button under the screen. Along the top of it were three separate black buttons and a clip on the back so it could be attached to clothes. Hinata had answered calls on it before, but had no idea what any of the other buttons did. She was never one to be very intuitive when it came to any sort of technology; so she began pressing the buttons one at a time but nothing happened. Getting impatient she pressed all of them at the same time and was surprised when the screen began flickering different colors. For a moment she worried she had broken it when the screen cleared up to what looked like the inside of another gummi ship. There were three tall white chairs and glass domed the area giving a gorgeous view of space. Hinata could hear faint voices in the background but couldn't make out what they were saying, so she decided to speak up.

"Um... Hello?" she squeaked, surprised by her own weak voice. Clearing her throat she tried again, "Is anyone there?"

The voices stopped when they heard her speak and Hinata felt her heart begin to race; not sure what to expect. Her eyes widened when she saw a small creature appeared on the screen. It had brown fur with tan fur surrounding its eyes and chest; and wore some sort of uniform with an outline of a mouse on the front. Two buck teeth stuck out from the mouth under a big red nose as it examined Hinata through the screen.

In a squeaky voice the creature called, "Hey Chip, looks like the device is workin'!"

Hinata heard small scurrying footprints when another small similar creature with a black nose appeared beside the other. Looking at Hinata, the other creature smiled and chirped, "Well what do you know Dale? It finally works!"

"Are you... chipmunks?" Hinata asked, getting a good look at them.

The black nose chipmunk stood straight and proudly saluted, "Yep! We are gummi engineers! Chip..."

"And Dale!" The other red nosed one jumped in.

Hinata couldn't help but smile at them, they were so cute. "I'm Hinata." She introduced herself. "Wait, you're gummi engineers? Whose gummi ship are you on?"