Siblings of the Heart

Chapter 1

    If anything, the poem in Darris’s hand merely made him feel more sick. It made him feel like he was forgetting something — something major — when he knew that no matter how hard he tried, whatever he was forgetting would not come back to him. The nausea would sometimes be horrible, and he would have to put down the poem so as to forget that it really existed and not have some sort of spirit looming over him.

    He did not know who Adarian was, what the warning was for, or how the ‘light’ would either help or harm. The person in the poem — whether they were female, male, or even human — sounded not much younger than he.

    Darris was a thin boy, even for his age. He wasn’t sure how much he weighed, but he was sure that he was at least five three — tall for a twelve year old. His shaggy brown hair curled into his eyes, so he would often have to brush it away to reveal his bright blue eyes. He wore a black collared jacket with short sleeves, and grey shorts which went down to his knees. His boots were also black, with straps around the ankle and laces that reached the tops.

    “Hey, Darris, come play outside!” Sora’s bright voice distracted the young brunette from his thoughts about the poem.

    Darris grinned, setting down the poem and practically flying out the door. His nausea, along with thoughts of the poem, were gone. He would not think about it for the rest of the day, he promised himself.

    As he caught up with his spiky haired friend, and walked with him to their boats, he immediately asked what they were going to do.

    “I don’t know. Do you want to go to the Secret Place today?” Sora put his hands behind his head as he walked.

    Sora had been the first one to find Darris, which was something that the preteen could remember. He had awoken to someone poking his forehead, and when he looked up, he saw a boy who was eleven years old. All he could remember was that he was ten years old and his name was Darris. Turns out the boy was named Sora, and he had two other friends named Riku and Kairi.

    A few days later, when his adoptive mother — who was also Kairi’s mother — had started to wash his shorts that he had come to the island in, she found the poem.

    The Poem was short, only three stanzas long with four lines each. It was from someone by the name of ‘Adarian’, who was warning him of ‘a great darkness’ and how he would need to harness ‘his light’ to be rid of it.

    As Darris and Sora walked to the Secret Place, they talked and laughed. The raft would be done soon and Darris could look for Adarian when they traveled to new worlds, and Kairi could find where she had come from.

    Even though Kairi didn’t know exactly where she had come from, she did remember that she didn’t come from Destiny Islands. She sometimes had quick flashes, but she said that the flashes were always interrupted by the picture of a little man in a brown cloak.

    Darris was sure that the little man was familiar to him, but he wasn’t entirely credible because he had no memories.

    “Darris, get your head out of the clouds before you hit it on the ceiling.” Sora’s voice broke through Darris’s thought process.

    Darris grinned, grabbing the root of a tree before pulling himself out of the crawlspace and looking around. Chalk drawings covered the walls of the Secret Place. There was one of the place that Kairi thought that she had once lived in, and another of Kairi and Sora.

    There was a few doodles of Darris’s. One of a school of fish, one of his adoptive mother, father, Kairi, and him, and one of what he thought his real mom looked like.

    He had seen her in a dream once, his mother. She had a soft voice, and she wore a pretty blue jumpsuit with a black sword on her back. He remembered that her eyes had been a bright blue, like Riku’s, and her hair was a rusty brown. The glimpse of his mother was Darris’s most treasured memory, and he would sometimes try to imagine what it would’ve been like if he still lived with her.

    He thought that he had seen his dad once, but if he had, he couldn’t — surprise, surprise — remember.

    Sora went over to his drawing of him and Kairi, and began to add something to it. His drawing was next to a wooden door. No one knew where the door went. Darris walked over beside him, then noticed a mushroom on the ground.

    “Hey, maybe we could use this for provisions on the raft!” He exclaimed, reaching down and picking it. He turned around, grinning as he went to go to where the raft was before his grin disappeared and he stopped.

    In front of him was a hunched over person.

    In a little brown cloak.

    Darris stepped back, putting his free hand on Sora’s arm. Sora looked up at him, before seeing his scared expression and looking back to see what was frightening the normally brave boy. At the sight of the person, Sora jumped up.

    “Who are you?!”

    A low laugh bubbled up from the person, “You stupid boy.”

    “W-what?” Darris’s voice shook.

    “One who knows nothing can understand nothing. This world has been connected, and you,” The man raised his arm, pointing at Darris, “will be connected with someone close to you very soon.”

    “Who?” Darris asked, his fear dissipating a small bit.

    The man laughed again, before he turned around and went into the passage that lead to the crawlspace.

    “Hey, wait, am I gonna get to see my mom again?!” Darris ran after him, with Sora close behind.

    He stopped as he got to the end of the passage, looking down at the crawl space.

    “Where… did he go?” Darris sounded disappointed, and Sora looked down at him.

    Sora was normally very dense, often not catching hints unless they were explained to him directly. But this time, he could see that the disappearance of the mysterious figure really disheartened Darris. Sora had never lost his memories, but he could guess what it was like, and he did not like the idea of it.

    “Hey, he must live on this island somewhere. He can’t have just disappeared. Maybe he lives behind that door and was just trying to scare us away so he could get back home.” Sora tried to cheer him up.

    Darris looked up at him, then smiled, “Yeah, maybe.”

    “Well, c’mon. Let’s go get that mushroom to Kairi.”