Double

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

Jared noticed Elim's harsh remarks toward Kasus, but simply ignored it... for the moment. For now, he nodded his agreement with Kristoff and even helped him get some stuff out of the overturned sled, even taking the initiative to add some of the gear to his own so that Kristoff wouldn't be forced to carry everything. On a similar note, Jared also flagged his friends over had them carry a bit as well. After all, the more supplies they could carry away from the sled, the better. It was at about this time that the little snowman finally decided to come out of hiding, his sudden appearance even startling Jared, "Hello," it said, staring at the group with wide eyes and naive smile, "my name's Olaf. Anna and Elsa first made me when they were little girls, but earlier today Elsa made me again but used her powers to give me life. I found Anna after that and..." at this point Jared realized that if he didn't say something the snowman would never shut up.

"Oh, OK. That's great." he said with feigned interest, "Speaking of Elsa, we better go find her now, right?" this seemed to be enough to get the snowman to stop talking in favor of moving along, "Phew... thought he'd never stop talking." he muttered under his breath as the group now seemed ready to start up the mountain trail.

As they did so, Jared realized there were a couple of things he needed to take care of among his friends and chose now to do so. First he adjusted his pace to walk with Serene, "Did you lose your nunchaku?" he asked her suddenly, "It's just, well I kind of noticed you weren't using them in the last fight..." he paused, thinking of an idea and suddenly just gave his spear to her, "...here, take mine for now. I'd feel better if you at least had something to use besides your fists." and before she could have a chance to give it back or refuse, he went off on his own again.

Next up was Kasus. It was pretty apparent that the poor guy was feeling down, especially after his "conversation" with Elim, that term being used very loosely. And so, Jared decided to try saying something to help, "Hey, don't listen to what he says." Jared whispered, not really wanting Elim to hear and start an argument, "I mean, we're all kind of new to this sort of thing. Heck, even Elim was a rookie at some point, even if he'd probably never admit it. If we just stick together it'll turn out okay, I'm sure of it." with that, he was about leave but stopped himself, wanting to say one last thing, "Oh, and next time let me know if you lose something so I can help you find it, OK?" that last thing was referring to the swords Kasus lost back in the Kingdom, and as he walked away Jared made a note to himself to help Kasus find them before they left.

And finally, Jared saved the most difficult thing for last. He wasn't sure how he was going to do this, even as he approached Elim, but he knew he had to do something. The last thing he wanted was tension among his friends, and if that meant playing mediator then he'd just have to knuckle down and do just that, "Hey," he said to Elim when he got to him, "that was completely uncalled for you know." there was no need to elaborate, it was pretty obvious what Jared was referring to, "I don't know how long you've been on your own, but since you're with us you really should cut the Lone Wolf routine, and cut us a little slack while you're at it. Maybe you have a bit of experience with fighting, and if so, great. But the rest of us, myself included? If you think we should improve somehow then just say so, you don't have to go slapping someone and making a scene about it." he was about to leave Elim to his thoughts when he added, "One more thing. Since you're clearly the most experienced fighter, if you could maybe help us with some training, I think we'd all appreciate it."

Maybe he could have sounded more stern, reminded Elim just whose ship they were riding on or something as a warning, but Jared chose not to. This wasn't some military squad where he needed to be a harsh drill instructor to keep everyone in line. They were just a group of kids who, thanks to a rotten twist of fate, were effectively stuck together and only really had each other to rely on. That meant they would all have to start by trusting each other.

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

I'll be posting later today and moving us along. If you haven't posted yet then you have until then to do so. I'm just starting to feel like we've been on the same world for a bit too long and would very much like to move on to other things.

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

Oh and my fight ability update from the last fight.
power up on my Fire
and aireal Kick
from the one we are in when its finished
Ferocious Lunge
Ragnarok

Er, we're only supposed to gain abilities from Boss Battles. That wasn't a boss encounter, otherwise I would have specified it as such. Still, just let the Fire spell be a full one anyway since... well, honestly it's just more convenient for us.

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

With the fight now basically over, Jared relaxed a bit, first breathing a sigh of relief, "Okay, is anyone else starting to think we're attracting those things like a magnet?" he asked, making the suggestion sarcastically but not actually realizing how accurate the assumption really was. Heartless had always been attracted to the strong of heart, and it was those with the strongest hearts who were oft chosen to wield the Keyblade. So Jared's joking remark was shockingly on the mark without his knowing it at the time.

"Um..." started an unfamiliar voice. It was the girl who had been riding in the sled, "...who exactly are you guys?" she had a curious, but skeptical tone about her.

"We're no one... really," answered Jared, now approaching the sandy-haired redhead, "you know... just passing through and all that, and thought we'd offer to help find you... Your Highness." at the last part he gave a quick bow to the girl he was now certain was the lost Princess Anna.

"How did you-?" the Princess began to ask, but she was cut off by the blond man who had driven their sled.

"Uh huh..." he said skeptically, "...'Just passing through'? Yeah, right. How do I know you're not some kind of bandit gang looking to make quick money on a ransom or something?" as he talked, he was quick to put himself between the Princess and their others as if he were some kind of bodyguard.

"Kristoff!" snapped the Princess, very quickly coming out from behind him and having no intention of playing damsel in distress, "They just saved us from those... things, and your way of thanking them is by accusing them of being bandits? Geez, did you have to practice to attain such rudeness or does it just come naturally to you?"

"Hey, I was just-"

"Actually," Jared said, "we're here because Prince Hans requested it."

"There, see?" said Anna to Kristoff with a huff, "They're here because my beloved Hans was worried about me and sent a search party. I told you he loves me!"

"Again with that?" protested Kristoff, "Look, all I said was I thought it was kind of silly to want to marry a guy you just met. Would you let it go already?"

"Er, anyway," Jared said, desperate to change the subject, "I'm Jared. This is Elim, Kasus, Serene, and Simo." he gestured to each of his friends as he introduced them, "Since we found you, Your Majesty, I must insist that you come with us. I promised to bring you home safely after all."

"Not without my sister." Anna replied quickly, "I'm not going home without her, and you can't make me."

"I never said that, Your Majesty, I simply said I wished for you to stay with us... so we could find her together."

"Oh, in that case, Kristoff and I were just about to head up this mountain. We'd be delighted if you came with us. Right?" she elbowed Kristoff in his side as she said the last part.

"Uh... right. Sure. Why not?" he said with a shrug and started digging various things out of the sled, "Here, we'll need some of this stuff to make it up. I've got a climbing kit and some rations on me, let's just hope that'll be enough. Now, if everyone could just follow me, we've got a mountain to climb."

---

Meanwhile, back in Arendelle, Hans was sitting at the table, about to partake in a bowl of stew when a servant came bursting in, "M'lord, something's happened!" he announced, urgency in his tone. Hans put down his spoon and looked expectantly at the servant.

"Well, what is it?" he asked, trying to keep composed but a small bit of impatience trickled through.

"It's Weselton, sir. He's gone! His men, too!"

"What? When?" asked the Prince, genuinely surprised by this news.

"Hard to say. Their rooms appear to have not been slept in, though. And a few horses from the stable are also missing."

"I only spoke to Weselton last night after the incident, he must have departed during the night while we slept." deduced the Prince, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. The Duke of Weselton had acted most alarmed at the Queen's show of... power... at the incident. As Hans recalled, he insisted that she must be an evil witch and that they should hunt her down before she could cause any more damage. Hans had tried to reason with the man, but it seemed diplomacy was not enough to sway him from his intentions.

"Should I raise the alarm, sir? Shouldn't we go after him?" asked the Servant.

"No." said Hans coldly, "If Weselton is truly hellbent on going through with his foolish plan, then he should suffer the consequences for it."

"M'lord, what of the party you sent? Should they encounter Weselton there could be-" he was stopped by Hans raising a hand.

"There will be no need. If Thatch and his group encounter Weselton then chances are good they will set him straight... or at the very least stop him."

"Then... what should we do, sir?"

Hans shook his head, "What we've done from the start. We wait." and with that, he sent the servant away with a wave of his hand.

No alarms were sounded, no news or word spread about what had happened. As far as Arendelle was concerned, the Queen and Princess were still missing, and Hans would be the one they would have to turn to in their absence.

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

Is anyone gonna post?

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

For the record, the reindeer isn't helping Jared. In the post itself, the driver (who we know as Kristoff) helped kill one of the wolves, and then Jared killed the other two himself with Sonic Blade. That means the Reindeer should logically be going for a different wolf, either one of the two fighting Elim or one of the ones on Kasus. The Snowman (Olaf) isn't actually fighting any of them, instead hiding behind the sled and lobbing snowballs from behind it.

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

Elim, to no one's surprise, attacked first. His Fire Spell keeping at least one of the beasts from lunging before lunging at it himself with a spear, killing it with a single skewer. Serene and Simo seemed to fare well more or less, Simo managing to kill one at about the same time Elim killed his first opponent. Kasus, though, was another story. After struggling with a single beast he was suddenly being stalked by two of them and cried out for help as he attacked one of them. Jared wanted to help, but had problems of his own. Ten of these beasts had appeared in total, and with two of them now dead that left eight. Two of those were now focusing on Elim, while another two of them were the ones now surrounding Kasus. Serene had managed to kill one attacking her before going to help Kasus, all in all that left three that had yet to act.

Those three were circling in on Jared, having singled him out as the Keybearer and, as such, the largest threat to their existence. Jared could fight off single opponents well enough, but three at once was like an entirely different thing altogether. One of the beasts moved to pounce Jared, him managing to step aside enough to avoid the fangs and swing his blade through the beast's torso. The attack sent it back a bit and it reeled from being struck by the Keyblade, but it wasn't dead yet. The other two chose that time to strike, one lunging high for Jared's neck while the other went low, for his legs at a separate angle. Knowing it was impossible to counter both Heartless, Jared brought his weapon to bare against the one going for his neck, the beast instead biting the blade of his weapon. As quickly as possible, Jared pushed forward as hard as he could, hoping to push back his attacker while simultaneously moving out of the way of the other. It succeeded... somewhat. Jared wasn't able to completely avoid the second Heartless, and it was able to catch his leg with it's claw as he pushed forward into the other, which was successfully thrown back to the ground. The beast that pounced first had now regained composure and made to attack again, but would never reach its intended target.

"Hyaaah!" came a shout as the beast found itself sent crashing back into the snow. The man who was driving the sled was standing there with a pickaxe normally used for mining ice, but at that moment was used as a makeshift weapon. Caught completely by surprise, the beast was slain by that attack, leaving the other two facing a now-more-confident Jared.

Keyblade in hand, he lunged forth with great speed, with his weapon thrust forward in the process. This attack cut through one of the Heartless, but he was not finished. He repeated this attack four more times, twice on each creature, slaying them both with his newly learned Sonic Blade technique. The girl by that point had unhitched the reindeer from the sled, allowing to run forward in a charge against the nearest Heartless in an attempt to gore them on his antlers or at least trample them with its hooves. Even the funny-looking snowman decided to try helping, though admittedly the best he could do was continuously lob snowballs at Heartless, though he did at least aim for the eyes to try and blind them momentarily for others come in and attack them.

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

Why? Does blood automatically equal good writing or something? It's a game about Disney characters, blood and gore just doesn't fit.

Kingdom Hearts: Darkness Reborn

"Good point," started Jared, but followed up with an argument of his own, "but the more time we spend doing this other stuff, the more likely it is the Princess will die herself. So that leaves us with the million munny question. How should we manage what little time we can spare?" he scratched his head a bit in thought, it was quite a conundrum and such things were not exactly his strong point. Still, both he and Elim made valid points which meant they had to be smart about how to use their time. Simo offered to do some hunting and in response Jared shrugged, "I guess that's a start, though I'd feel better if you took someone with you so you're not completely alone out there."

Suddenly a scream could be heard coming from down the mountain, followed by barks that sounded like they were getting closer.

Jared whirled around to face where the sound came from, now hearing the sound of things running through the snow. Then, all at once, a reindeer sped past, pulling a sled behind him. The sled had riders; a young man, a young woman, and a... snowman? In any case, Jared had to dive to side to avoid being run over. The guy driving the sled only saw him at the last moment, and tried in vain to yank on the reins, causing the reindeer to veer sharply off course, the sled sharply turning with it and then rolling over in the snow. But that was the least of everyone's problems. The sled was currently being chased, and its pursuers had now caught up and surround everyone. They looked like wolves with pitch black fur. Jared staggered to his feet and finally noticed the creatures himself. Something was... off about these wolves. They didn't seem... natural. Of course, when they got closer and revealed their glowing yellow eyes, Jared nearly jumped, calling the Keyblade to his hand in sharp alarm.

"Heartless!" he exclaimed sharply, barking a warning to his friends. Seemed it was time for yet another battle. No rest for the wicked, as they say.

Cue Music

Fire Emblem: The Sword of Conquest

With Vincanity gone (apparently) my characters now have no one to interact with and thus my motivation to write something is a bit down. *sigh* Hmm...