Sorrow's Promise

Chapter 8

We continued walking through the woods towards the mansion for several more minutes in silence. Then Riku stopped and twisted his head to the side, almost as if he was sniffing the air.

"Trouble's coming." He stretched out his right hand, and I blinked in surprise as the red, wing-shaped sword appeared in a puff of smoke. My attention was quickly diverted, however, when Heartless began popping up out of the shadows. At least, I assumed these were also Heartless, though they looked different than the ant-like monsters that I had seen before. These were slightly larger, and were wearing white helmets and black boots. They bounced in place for a few seconds before advancing towards us, their long, red claws wiggling in anticipation.

"Stay back!" Riku ordered. I was already retreating, and found a nice wide pine tree to hide behind. I wasn't really sure what these monsters would actually do to me, but I was not inclined to find out if I could help it. Peeking out from behind the tree, I watched with wide eyes as Riku swung the sword left and right, taking out each Heartless in only a couple of blows. Clearly he had a good deal of experience with these guys, and also with fighting blind. I knew that he had said he could use his other senses to get around, but seeing him spin around and strike at the Heartless as if he knew exactly where each one was located was still pretty amazing.

Hearing a noise behind me, I first glanced back over my shoulder, then spun around and pressed my back up against the bark. Two of the creatures were eyeing me from a short distance away. My stomach flip-flopped. "Uh, Grim?" I called.

The two Heartless began creeping slowly toward me. My eyes darted back and forth, looking for an escape, but I didn't want to make any sudden movements and cause them to pounce. Besides, I had a strong feeling that these things could outrun me. I could feel my heart racing as they drew closer, then leaping up into my throat when even more of the creatures began emerging from the shadows.

"Grim?" I repeated, louder this time, with obvious panic in my voice. Either he didn't hear me, or he was ignoring me, I wasn't sure which. Suddenly the Heartless in front leapt forward, with all of the others following suit and closing rapidly in on me. "Riku!" I shrieked, throwing my hands up in front of my face.

In that instant, something cold and hard materialized in my right hand. The weight of whatever it was brought my arm down, knocking away a few of the Heartless. Opening my eyes, I caught a glimpse of a weird, spiky weapon that I was somehow now holding. "What the crap?" I yelped, hurling it away from me as hard as I could.

Immediately the Heartless were back on top of me, their claws digging into my skin, but only a second later I felt them being dragged away. In another moment there was enough of an opening between them that I could see Riku, snatching them up from behind and flinging them away from me as quickly as possible. When they were finally all off, I sank down to the ground, holding my bloody arms close to my chest, and watched as he turned and finished them off with his sword.

"Are you alright?" Riku asked after pausing a second to catch his breath.

"More or less." I began analyzing my wounds, then sucked in an audible breath through my teeth as the stinging hit harder. "Man, those claws are really sharp, though."

Riku's sword vanished from his hand as he crossed to me quickly and dropped down to one knee. "I'm so sorry. I got here as fast as I could, but..." He caught one of my hands in his and held it gently. "How bad is it?"

"Oh, um..." I was suddenly very distracted by his touch, despite it being through a glove. "Uh, it's not too bad I don't guess. My arms are pretty scratched up, but I think that's it. Actually..." I winced and reached up to touch my cheek. "Nope, there's one on my face, too." Riku's frown deepened, and I forced a laugh to dispel the awkwardness of having him worry over me. "I guess I'll survive. I've always been a big baby when it comes to pain. You'd think after all the times I've been beat up I'd be used to it by now."