Butterfly Wings

Progress

Sora was barely standing by the end. Somewhere along the line he'd fallen off the side of the raised chimney while lunging for one of his opponents, only for a dozen new heartless to appear to reinforce the reds as he hit the ground. When it was over, he slumped down against the stones of the giant chimney, breathing heavily.

Kimi offered him a potion. "You suck," she observed.

Too tired to care, he just said, "Thanks," and took it.

"I wonder what happens after you die?" she mused.

"I think I'll be dead," Sora pointed out flatly. He drank the potion, feeling the fire race through him.

"No, I mean, the save points are also healing points and reset points. Like, when you hit continue. Is it, like, game over reset? Or are we supposed to say Donald and Goofy dragged your fragile ass back to the save point? Because, I mean, you wouldn't figure Maleficent'd just let them...actually the cutscenes repeat too, so definitely you'd think, but then why are your items used up, I mean it's a game and all so some of it's just mechanics but which..."

Sora tuned her out. He was still feeling shaky, but the potion had helped. Most of the coldness faded, but some of the cuts remained, a sickening contradictory mixture of numbness and chill and ache. Even the burns of the red heartless were like that, leaving cold wounds after the first shock of heat.

"...don't see why the rules are different from those dorks, maybe it's just a player thing? But there's no way of knowing until it happens. Sora, you'd better not die and screw everything up."

"I'll try," he told her tiredly, looking around. Far to his right was the wall, or floor... He still wasn't sure how to describe it. There was another painted yellow pot or vase there, with an empty black center. He found himself wishing someone had drawn in flowers or something. When he'd been normal sized it'd been no big deal, but in his present shrunk form the darkness couldn't help but look faintly sinister, and he was already on edge from everything else.

"What now?" asked Goofy as Kimi wandered off.

"I'm not sure," he admitted. And this wouldn't even be necessary if you'd let me rescue her! he thought, but he didn't say it. "Let's look around," he said instead. "The forest was constructed like a puzzle. That might be the same here too."

"That's true," Donald said. "But what are we looking for?"

Sora considered. "Maybe another doorway. Like...under that yellow pail or something."

Goofy nodded enthusiastically. "I'll go check it out," he said, heading up onto the chimney and dropping out of sight on the other side. Donald followed.

Kimi was over by the...faucet, Sora identified after a few seconds delay. It was about as high as either of them. She was whacking the faucet knob awkwardly with the flat of her sword.

Sora headed over. She was trying to turn it, he realized. "Let me try," he said. She stepped back and he swung the keyblade to strike the topmost tine.

It turned, and water came out and fell sideways.

Sora was hit by vertigo, and reached out to grab the edge of the faucet, suddenly certain gravity was about to reorient.

It didn't. The water fell anyway, hitting the painted yellow vase in the black, empty center.

And it popped up at the same moment, to grow upwards - or sideways - to accommodate the water. Seconds later, the flow stopped. Sora waited for gravity to reassert itself and the water flow back out, but the newly real vase remained still, the center still solidly black and showing no sign of the water that filled it.