Chapter Text
The sun was just starting to set over the play island, and all the kids were getting ready to go. Sora had brought a backpack along with him this time to help gather supplies for the raft. It was able to hold the rope and cloth well enough, but the three logs... not so much. Still, he was glad he'd brought it.
He was about to set it down to join Riku and Kairi by the Paopu tree, when something in caught his eye by the shed, almost like someone had hastily tried to bury it. Curiously, Sora brushed the sand away to reveal... an egg? A stone? It was certainly shaped like an egg, but it felt too hard. And a stone wasn't normally this warm, or this pretty shade of silver. Whatever it was, Sora was gonna keep it. He'd try and figure out what it is tonight, and then show it to Riku and Kairi tomorrow. But for now, he carefully put it in his backpack with his toy sword, before setting off across the bridge to join his friends.
~~
Sora made no headway on figuring out what the stone was that night, though he was fairly sure it was an egg by now. But an egg for what, he didn't know. Maybe Riku or Kairi would have an idea.
But as he stepped off the docks, he caught a glimpse of Riku storming around the area by the shed, grumbling and digging at the sand frantically. "Uh..." He turned to Selphie who was watching him from the docks. "Is he okay?"
"Yeah, he's fine," she replied. "I think he lost something though."
"Really?" Sora had a sinking feeling she was talking about the stone. "Did he say what it was?"
She shook her head. "No, he said he couldn't tell anyone. Then said that whoever took it is dead meat."
Well, there went Sora's plan to show Riku the egg. Suddenly it felt like a heavy weight in his backpack. He... He'd have to give it back. The sooner he did, the sooner Riku could forgive him for taking it. Right?
Forcing a smile on his face, he approached his best friend. "Hey Riku. What's up?"
"Sora!" Riku whirled on him suddenly and grabbed his shoulders, eyes filled with enough fury to give Sora a chill. "Did you see anyone around here yesterday?"
Sora swallowed and shrugged. "I mean... We were all playing around here yesterday. I-I didn't notice anyone." He immediately kicked himself for his lie. He was supposed to be giving the egg back to Riku! Not digging himself into a hole! "Why? Are you looking for something?"
"Yes, I am!" Riku let go of Sora and began searching the plants near the shed.
Sora shifted his weight as he watched. "Uh... What'd you lose?"
"Something," Riku snapped. "A rock. It's not important."
A rock? So... Either it wasn't an egg in Sora's backpack, which was kind of disappointing, or Riku was looking for something else entirely. "Well, if it's not important, why are you looking so hard for it?"
Riku looked back at Sora with an expression the younger boy couldn't read- which wasn't that unusual, Sora wasn't the best at faces after all. "No reason," he said finally, leaving his search and shoving past Sora towards the cove. "Come on. Are we gonna work on the raft or are you gonna slack off all day?"
Sora hesitated, looking back at his backpack over his shoulder, then back at Riku. "Yeah, I'm coming."
~~
Sora lay back on his bed, looking out at the island. Tomorrow, they'd set sail on the raft in search of other words. The thought of it filled him with excitement. Who knew what they were like? Maybe they could even find Kairi's home!
And speaking of Kairi... She'd been acting weird today. As far as he knew, she and Riku got on just fine, so there was no reason for her to act like something was wrong with him. Was this because of him losing the stone? Or did something happen between them Sora was unaware of?
A cracking noise brought Sora out of his reverie. Sitting up in bed, he looked around for where the sound had come from. His backpack? Carefully reaching inside, he gasped at what he saw. The stone- or really, the egg, as he'd figured all along- was cracking, and something was pushing at it from the inside. A few more shoves, and suddenly there was an opening large enough for a large, scaly snout to push through, inhaling air before the mouth opened and let out a keening whine.
With wide eyes, Sora pulled the egg all the way out of the backpack and set it on the bed, watching it warily. He'd been expecting the creature to be some kind of bird, maybe a chocobo or something like the one he'd tried to take care of years ago. But a reptile? At this size? And with so many teeth, too! Was it... Was it even really safe to keep around?
His gaze traveled upwards from the egg to his window, and he took in a sharp gasp of air when he saw the storm outside. "The raft!"
Sora stood up straight, looking back at the egg. The creature had pulled its head back in and was shoving away at the cracks around the opening. If whatever this thing was proved unsafe, he'd have to get out of his room fast anyway. Quickly, Sora began tying his bedsheets together to make his escape.
~~
"Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!"
Riku didn't look at Sora. "The door... has opened," he said ominously, and the words gave Sora a chill for some reason he didn't understand.
"What?"
"The door has opened, Sora!" His friend turned to look at him fully, and Sora shivered at the semi-crazed look in Riku's eyes. "Now we can go to the outside world!"
"What are you talking about! We've gotta find Kairi-"
Riku cut him off. "Kairi's coming with us!"
Sora took a step back, staring at his friend in confusion. If she was, where was she?!
Riku's voice turned calm. "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back." He began to raise his voice again and lifted his head to the sky, the maddened tone returning. "But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"
"Riku..." Sora watched nervously as his friend's gaze returned to meet his and extended a hand to him. Sora took a step towards him, only to freeze as he saw the tendrils of darkness emerging from the ground around Riku, wrapping around his body and pulling at him. And all the while, Riku's expression didn't change, simply holding his hand out for Sora to take.
Desperate to get to his friend, Sora reached out, grasping at empty air and unable to make contact, until the darkness swallowed him and Riku both.
Or not, because something barreled into Sora's side with a screech then, and his vision filled with light.
Sora grunted at the impact, sitting up to see what had hit him, only for his jaw to drop. "No way..."
Sitting before him and squawking indignantly was a small, silver dragon, scales the same shade of silver as that egg he'd found, and roughly the same size. Its limbs were a seemed a little short for its long body, and its wings flapped awkwardly against the ground as it tried to balance. There was no doubt in Sora's mind that this was the creature he'd seen hatching in his room. "How'd you get here? Did you fly all that way? Can you fly that far already?"
The little dragon squawked again, and nudged Sora's legs as the shadowy creatures began running across the bridge to them. Clearly, the dragon knew they were bad news. "I hope you can fight them off," Sora muttered, squeezing his wooden sword tightly in his hands. "Because I can't even land a hit on them."
Of course, Sora didn't expect the dragon to understand, but it did look up at him with an almost appraising expression before looking directly at the toy and breathing white fire on it. Sora yelped, pulling his sword away and waving it frantically. "Hey, no! Bad dragon! I need it to fight!"
As he attempted to wave the fire off the sword, one of the shadows leaped for Sora. Instinctually, Sora swung at it, remembering a moment too late that it wouldn't do any damage... except this time, somehow, it did, the wooden sword almost seeming to glow when it made contact.
Sora gaped at the sword, then at the dragon, who gave him a smug look for a brief second before launching itself at one of the creatures, wrestling with it for a moment before biting its neck and making it vanish in a puff of smoke. Well, whatever the little dragon had done, it was certainly already useful. Together, Sora and the hatchling fought against the creatures, slowly finding a rhythm that worked for the two of them for the time being.
The problem was, the creatures weren't letting up, and as Sora looked across the bridge he only saw more. They'd have to find some place these things couldn't get to, and he scanned the island to find a safe...
Sora rubbed his eyes and looked again. Since when was there a door in front of the secret place? "I hope it can keep these things out," he mumbled, reaching to pick up the dragon. it squawked and squirmed, clearly not happy with being picked up, but Sora ignored it, clutching the little thing against his chest as he made a mad dash across the bridge and to the door, pushing it open, and darting down into the secret place.
~~
The creature before Sora and his little dragon was enormous, looking just like those shadows but... more terrifying, more of a threat... More like the one that Sora had fought near the end of his dream.
A low whine caught Sora's ear, and he looked down to see the dragon shifting closer to Sora until it was pressed against his leg. Was the dragon... really that scared of the monster? Cautiously, he bent down to rub the top of its head. "Hey, we can take it. I beat one of those in a dream I had, so together it should be no problem for us!" Of course, Sora did not mention that he'd had a real sword in his dream rather than a wooden toy, but surely having a dragon at his side would make up for it?
The dragon suddenly barreled into his side, shoving Sora out of the way as a giant hand slammed down onto the ground where he'd previously stood. Taking his chance, Sora picked his weapon up and began slashing away at it. The hatchling hesitated a moment longer before shrieking and joining Sora, tearing at the dark skin with sharp teeth and claws. The monster did not cry out in pain, but a pool of shadows emerged from where its hand touched the ground, and many of the smaller creatures from before began to emerge, and the dragon leapt from the giant's hand to rip into a shadow as it lunged for Sora.
"Hey!" Sora began to move to help the dragon, but it lifted its head and hissed at him before lunging for another creature. Getting the idea, Sora turned around to face the giant monster again, slashing away at its hand with his sword glowing faintly after every strike. Soundlessly, the monster stood upright again, pulling its arm just barely out of Sora's reaching, forcing the boy to have to jump in the air to even land one hit.
As Sora struggled, the dragon apparently finished off the last of the little shadows and leapt onto Sora's shoulders, and then at the giant's hand, digging in with its claws and biting hard. As though in retaliation, the monster drew its hand back and slammed it back down on the ground, sending the dragon flying.
"Look out!" Sora darted to the dragon's side, running a hand along its side as it pushed itself back to a standing position on wobbly legs. "You okay?"
The dragon stared at Sora for a moment and crooned, before giving itself a shake and racing for the giant once again. Sora took that as an affirmation. This dragon hatchling was stubborn, that was for sure. And apparently it already knew how to hold its own in a fight. I just hope that'll be enough to take this thing down, Sora thought before running into the fray again.
The battle seemed to last a while, and more and more of the islands were being sucked up around them. Then, as Sora swung at the giant's arm once more, the dragon suddenly pulled him away and under the shelter of a bit of debris buried in the sand. "What was that for?" Sora peeked around the edge of the shelter and at the monster. "We have to..."
He trailed off as the winds sucking everything into the flashing cloud of darkness grew strong enough to suck up even the giant that he and the little dragon had been fighting. "No way..."
Apparently, him peeking his head out of the shelter was enough for the force of the wind to pick him up too. Desperately, he grabbed onto the edge of the wood, grunting as he tried to pull himself down. Squawking and shrieking frantically, the hatchling leapt out of the shelter and bit down on Sora's jacket, and might have tried to pull him back in if the wind hadn't picked it up as well. The dragon tried to flap its wings against the wind, and Sora tried to hang on for head life, but both attempts proved futile, and they soon found themselves flying up into the sky.
With a cry, Sora wrapped his arms around the dragon as they were sent who-knows-where. At the very least, they'd have each other.