Fellowship & Fairydust

The next thing I could recall was floating through the air. There was nothing but blackness around me, and an eerie silence. What was this void? And what was I feeling? Regret? Shame? Why? Why were these emotions coming to me? 

Then, there was a light so bright I had to cover my eyes. However, that was followed by the sensation of my head lying on someone’s lap while my hair was stroked. “You’ve grown into a strong young man.”
“Wh-who are…” I tried to ask before being shushed. For some reason, I chose to listen to this voice.

“Don’t worry. It is not your time yet.” The voice said. “You still have much left to do, and so little time before the day is done. Look to the light, and remember.”

“Remember what?” As I asked that, the sensation vanished and I felt like I was being dragged down by something cold and wet. Flailing around I woke up to find myself being hauled onto a glider where Leroy, Kairi, and her partner were while Bianca and Bernard were getting into their leaf boat. Wait. Were we outside the riverboat? 

Looking at me, Kairi said, “Welcome back to the land of the living.” 

“What happened?” I groaned while feeling immense pain vanishing from a healing spell.

“Medusa pulled out some sort of long gun and shot you, though Leroy took the brunt of the attack,” Clair explained. “She then began shooting at all of us and we all ended up out here. What I don’t get is how you’re still alive from taking a shot point-blank.” 

“Don’t you believe in miracles?” Bianca asked her.

“A miracle is what we need right now,” Bernard said. “Look at us. A group of mice can’t do this job. It’s too big for us.”
Growling, I turned to face the rodent. “Now listen here. I may not be here for the same reasons you are, but I’m not calling it quits. Those two losers attacked me with their fireworks and guns, and I have no intention of leaving this putrid swamp until they pay.”

“There’s something at stake here, something more important than your revenge.” Kairi glared at me with an intensity that managed to put a spark of fear inside me, but it was easy enough to squash. “There’s a girl up there they’ve kidnapped, and they’re willing to risk her life to get some diamond. If we don’t get her out of here she might end up paying the price for Medusa’s greed.” 

“Why should I care?” 

“Consider this making up for what you did to Alice and my friends not too long ago.” Something about those words stung my heart. First I feel a pang of guilt about Alice and now I’m feeling the need to stop bad things from happening to Penny. What is it about kids that get to me like this? Then again, I myself know what it’s like to have a dreadful childhood.

“What did happen between you two?” Bianca asked. 

Looking at her, I said, “We’re enemies. Plain and simple. You might be better off allying yourselves with those two.”

“Stop it!” Clair suddenly snapped, earning my attention. “For Gri’s sake, you want the same thing we do! To stop Medusa and Snoops! The two of them are our enemy just like they are your enemy, so that means we should be working together instead of fighting like narpols and jurdas.” 

“Clair is right.” Kairi agreed. “We stand a better chance of success by working together.”

“Please, Mortem. We could really use your help, and so can Penny.” Bianca begged me. 

Looking at me, Leroy said, “We can still get revenge on Medusa and Snoops by helping them. The odds of success are about thirty-seven percent with them, while it’s only twelve percent with us alone.” 

Rolling my eyes, I looked at the Princess. “Let me be clear about one thing: I’m only helping you so I can kill those two goons. After that, I make no promises. Until Medusa and Snoops are at the bottom of the bayou I will help you rescue the kid.”
“We’ll find another way to stop them without taking their lives.” Clair insisted.

That was so funny I broke into laughter. “Kid, one thing I’ll teach you about being a Keyblade Bearer: Sometimes you have to take lives to save lives.” 

 

CLAIR’S POV

As we climbed up the side of the riverboat, I couldn’t stop thinking about everything Mortem’s been saying. I would have to kill people as a Keyblade bearer? No, I wouldn’t do that. I’m not a murderer. And about monsters would have to be afraid of me? How could I fight a pair of reptiles that big when I wasn’t at my normal size?
But then, I did figure out how to beat Tamatoa. I used his love of gold against him with my magic, but that wasn’t going to work on the alligators. They were completely organic, and I wasn’t sure how well they would’ve conducted electricity. Was I overthinking things? I don’t know. I still feel like I’m being asked to march to the home of Zudyss or face Ryukumo with a needle for a weapon. 

Approaching the window, the six of us heard someone speaking inside. Taking a peek, Kairi whispered to us, “She’s praying.” From what I could hear she sounded like she was at the end of her rope. One by one we entered through the broken window and made our way down to her bed.

“… and please let someone find my bottle with a message inside it because running away just isn’t working. Amen.” As Penny finished praying, she hugged her teddy bear and spoke words as if she was trying to comfort him. However, I got the feeling that she was trying to give herself hope and failing because she ended up breaking into tears on her bed. 

That just broke my heart as we made our way down the pillow. More than anything I wanted to return to my normal size, take her in my arms and comfort her the way my Mom always comforted me when I was sad. Was this how she felt when I was scared or when I got made fun of at school for liking books? I hadn’t felt this sad when Jessica disappeared over four years ago. 

“Penny,” Bianca spoke up to the girl. “Penny.”

Looking up to see all of us on her bed, the little girl didn’t seem scared by the fact that we were talking mice. “Yes?” Was it an average occurrence in this world for people to meet talking animals? 

“Don’t cry, Penny. We’re here to help you.” Bianca explained. 

Continuing, Bernard added, “We found your bottle with your message inside of it.”

“And we’ve come to get you out of here.” Kairi finished for them. 

That brightened up her spirits before she asked, “Didn’t you bring somebody bigger with you, like the police?”

“N-no, it’s just the two of us, and these four,” Bernard explained. 

“But we don’t need someone bigger.” Mortem interrupted while summoning his Keyblade. “With the Keyblade nothing is impossible.” 

“With all of us and a little faith we can do this,” Bianca said. 

Smiling, Penny remembered something. “That’s what Rufus said. Sometimes a little faith makes things turn out all right.” 

“I know it’s late, but we need to escape tonight,” Bernard said.

Nodding, I added, “We overheard Medusa planning to keep you in a hole until you find this Devil’s Eye, and it sounds like the place floods a lot.” 

“It does. But I just got caught by Brutus and Nero.”
“And I left Brutus with a new scar on his back.” The dark warrior informed her.

“That was you? I didn’t think anything could hurt those two.”

“Now you know I can hurt them, and if they try to stop us I’ll turn them into a nice pair of handbags for you.” 

“Those vicious monsters need to be locked up in a cage.” The female mouse gave us her opinion of those two.

The girl’s face brightened as that came up. “I know, I know. Come on, I’ll show you.” As we followed her out of her room, she pointed to some metal container at the bottom of the stairs. “See there? The elevator.”

“Oh, it’s perfect,” Bianca said. 

“It will be once I get it working.” Leroy laughed as he curled up into a ball and rolled his way down the stairs. I wasn’t sure how he was pulling it off, but I swear I heard the sounds of a miniature construction zone come from the elevator as the red… whatever he was got to work. 

Mortem nodded with approval. “We lure them in using Clair as bait–”

“Hey,” I said.

“There’s no need. I figured out how they found us in the first place.” Opening a satchel she had, the female mouse produced a perfume bottle? Why would a mouse need perfume? “They must’ve smelled this from before. We can use this to lure them in.”

“Then we slam the door shut and we’ve got them.” Kairi smiled. 

“No need to slam it. It’ll close on its own.” Leroy told us while he continued working. It looked like he was using scraps from around the boat to get it working. That thing must be super smart to use all that junk to make the elevator operational.

Looking at us, Mortem asked, “And how do we get away from Medusa? You two weren’t out there when she nearly ran me over with her swamp-mobile.”

“We’ll swipe it. I’ve always wanted to drive it.” Penny began making a driving impersonation.

As cute as it was, I had to make a point, “But what if they catch us before we can get it to start?”

“There’s only one way to deal with a mad dog.” Mortem insisted.

“Let’s try to think of another way first,” Kairi told him. “There must be something we can use to distract them.” 

Thankfully Penny knew what. “Mr. Snoops fireworks. We’ll shoot them off in her bedroom.” 

I couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of that. But then I had to ruin it by asking, “Who’ll fire them off in her room?”

“You will.” Mortem decided for me. “You couldn’t face the alligators, so you’ll set the fireworks off in her room.” 

“But we’ll need her to stop the Heartless, especially that Crookedtoo,” Kairi told him.

Looking at her, Mortem stated, “You and I can deal with the Heartless. She’s only dead weight.” 

“Oh, it’s a wonderful idea,” Bianca said. “What could possibly go wrong?” 

“A lot of things.” Mortem deadpanned.

“But it’s our only chance,” Kairi said. “Everyone has to do their part just right.”

“We’re going to need help,” Bernard said. “Thankfully I know where we can get some.”

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