Power of the Enchanted

Chapter Three: Something's Wrong

The next day, I wandered into the Secret Place, looking for Sora. "Soraaaa?" I dragged out the last vowel. As I strolled farther into the Secret Place. Sora was kneeling down with his hand touching one of the cave's carvings. With a closer look, I could see that it was a drawing of what seemed to be Sora and Kairi. "Awe, how cute." I laughed. "Hey, Lynn." Sora looked up at me and then back at the childish scribbles. "Whatcha doing?" I asked, sliding my back down the cave walls to sit next to him. "Just reminiscing on some old memories. Kairi and I drew this not long after she arrived on the island." he gestured to the drawing. "That seems new." Where the pictures of Sora and Kairi were, in between them was a new carving. An arm holding out a paopu fruit. "Yeah," Sora rubbed the back of his neck. "Riku keeps mentioning the paopu fruit, and it got me thinking. I want my destiny to be intertwined with all of you guys." "Wow. You're sweet." I stuck my tongue out at him. "Oh shut up, Lynnette."

I took another look around the cave. So many drawings left by so many people. One caught my eye on the other side. It was a cute drawing of a unicorn surrounded by the moon and stars. At the corner of it was an L. I touched the vaguely familiar piece. "You drew that one. Do you remember?" Sora asked. I shook my head. "I can't remember most of what happened long ago. I barely remembered what the main island looked like last night." I said. When we had all gone home to the main island, nothing seemed familiar. I couldn't remember if I had a house of my own, parents, or anything. Riku's mom was nice enough to let me stay the night at their home for the night. It was in the plans to do some investigating after the raft was finished. "Are you okay?" Sora asked. "It's just frustrating, that's all. I wish I could remember." I let out a sigh. "After you left, Riku and I couldn't remember whether or not you were real or an imaginary friend we had made up. No one seemed to notice you were missing. It was strange." Sora went on. "Thanks, Sora, that's lovely to know." I snarked and rolled my eyes. "Hey, I'm just saying maybe there's more to it, ya know?" Sora said in defense. "Maybe." I shrugged. An unknown sound disrupted us from our conversation. "Wha- Who's there?" Sora turned around and faced where the noise came from.

"I've come to see the door to this world." An ominous voice spoke. It sent a chill down my spine. "Huh?" Sora raised an eyebrow and held a hand out as if he could protect me from whoever the voice came from. "This world has been connected." "What are you talking about?" Sora asked, defensively. "That doesn't make any sense," I said and clenched my fist to my side. "Tied to the darkness..." the voice bounced off the rocks of the cave and echoed eerily in our ears. "Soon to be completely eclipsed."

"Well, whoever you are, stop freaking us out like this." Sora took a step forward. "Huh?" A cloaked figure took a step forward. We couldn't see its face, just the brown cloak and an abyss of darkness where its face should have been. "Where did you come from?" Sora asked, fear slowly rising in his voice. "You do not yet know what lies beyond the door." So, you're from another world?" Sora questioned, still holding out his hand to keep me behind him. "There is so very much to learn. You understand so little." Nothing it was saying made any sense. A thought came to me. This is almost like that voice. With the door. And the... "Oh yeah! Well, you'll see, we're gonna get out and learn what's out there." Sora's voice broke through my thoughts. "A meaningless effort." The voice jeered. "One who knows nothing can understand nothing." Before either of us could reply, it was gone. The figure, its menacing words. It was as if it'd never been there.

Sora lowered his hand and turned to me. "What was that? Or who?" I asked, bringing my arms up to wrap around myself. "I have no idea. Let's get out of here." Sora put his hand on my upper back and began to lead us out of the Secret Place. "Yeah," I said flatly. What was that?... When we got out of the Secret Place, we decided to look for everyone. We found Kairi by the raft, working on something. "Hey Kairi," I smiled, trying to forget the weirdness that had just happened. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"This? I'm making a necklace of Thalassa shells." she grinned and held it out for us to see. "In the old days, sailors always wore Thalassa shells. They were supposed to ensure a safe voyage." She explained. "See this? It's a charm to help us find each other if we ever get separated. The three of us will always be together. Actually, make that the four of us." She corrected and smiled at me. I smiled back, it was nice to know that I had been accepted back so readily. Kairi was genuinely nice. "You guys tired? Want to call it a day?" Kairi asked. "Sure," Sora said. They both looked at me. "Mm, not yet, I want to go on a quick walk to clear my head. I'll meet up with you guys in a little bit." I gave a small wave and went off to the shoreline. Whatever that was in the Secret Place, made me feel uneasy. Something was going to happen. Something wrong. I tried to shake those thoughts out of my head.

"You alright?" a voice broke through my inner turmoil. "Riku." I smiled. "You looked like you were about to explode from stress. Are you alright, Lynnette?" Riku asked. "Yeah, just deep in thought is all. I'm fine." "Good, the sun's beginning to set, we should head home. Tomorrow's the big day; we set sail to find and explore other worlds." Riku looked out over the horizon. "You're right," I agreed. "Let's go find Kairi and Sora." Walking back, we could see Sora and Kairi at the dock. Kairi stood up, still facing the sunset, and Sora got up too. "Big day tomorrow!" Riku smiled and climbed up to the dock. "That's right!" Kairi squealed with excitement. Everyone untied their own rowboats and climbed in. I climbed into the back of Riku's boat since I didn't have my own rowboat yet. We all started paddling to the main island. I stared at the sun as it set over the waves. As beautiful as it was, I couldn't get that uneasy feeling to go away. Something was coming, I just didn't know what.