Text Rise of the Melodious Nocturne (Writing Contest Entry)

[Captain Arrowguns 466]

(Hey guys, here's my entry for very first official KH13 talent contest for writing. As you can probably tell by the title, it's about the origins of everybody's favorite sitar playing Organization XIII member. I hope you enjoy.)

 

Dyme walked across the beach, two large logs in his arms and sweat pouring down his brow. The hot sand was beginning to burn his bare feet by the time he made it to an old water-damaged  shack. Next to the shack was a pile wood, some rope, and a large white sheet, as well as a teenage girl. She had blonde hair, like Dyme, that went down to her shoulders, and greenish-blue eyes that stared at the wooden clipboard in her hands. A pencil rested on her left ear. She looked up from her clipboard and gave Dyme a warm smile.

 

"Good job getting the rest of the supplies, you can put it down with the rest." She said, grabbing her pencil and crossing a line through an item on her clipboard.

 

"Heh, always did love bossing me around, huh Relena?" Dyme said, putting the logs down by the pile. Dyme was nearly a year older than her, but she always treated him, along with most of her other peers, like her little siblings. She meant it well though, so Dyme was never offended by it.

 

"Only because you're so good as following orders." Relina replied sarcastically.

 

"Yeah, whatever. Hey, have you seen Cora? She was supposed to help me gather the wood, but I haven't seen her for a while."

 

"Oh, I think she up in the tree house to go play her sitar again. She said you let her take a break, so I haven't bothered her."

 

"But that was nearly half an hour ago!" Dyme sighed, "You know what, never mind. I'll go talk to her. So, all we need to do now is build the raft, and we'll be good to go, right?"

 

"Yeah, but we better hurry, it'll be dark before too long."

 

"All right, I'll be quick." Dyme said, and ran over to the tree house and climbed the ladder. Sitting on a stool in front of the tree house window was Cora. who was about Dyme's age. She was playing her blue sitar, her most prized posession, looking as calm as could be. She had long brown hair, deep blue eyes, and a wonderful smile that rarely left her face. When she saw Dyme, she stopped playing and let out a deep, long  yawn.

 

"Oh, hey Dyme, how's the raft coming along?" She said, as if she had nothing to do with the entire project.

 

"Good, but it'd be going even better if you were doing your job. Seriously, that laziness of yours is gonna get you in trouble some day." Dyme replied. "But you said I could take a break."

 

"That was thirty minutes ago. You should really keep better track of the time."

 

"Oh," Cora blushed, "sorry about that. So, what do we have to do next?"

 

"Next we have to put the raft together, which shouldn't be much of a problem with the three of us working on it at once." Dyme said. At first he was annoyed, but he quickly calmed down. He couldn't quite explain why, but he could never stay angry with Cora for long. Dyme's mother called it young love, but Dyme didn't believe her. After all, they were friends, and nothing more.

 

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Cora shouted, and ran over to the pile of supplies that would soon become their ticket away from their dull island home.

 

Ever since his fisherman father died at sea five years ago, Dyme wanted to leave his home world of the Destiny Islands, and live his life somewhere people didn't know him. He was sick and tired of everyone seeing him as little more than some local orphan boy. But instead, he began living with his grandpa, since his mother had died giving birth to him. Shortly afterwards, he became close friends with Cora and Relena. They often talked about leaving the islands to go visit other worlds, but it wasn't until recently that they felt they could pull it off. Relena, the youngest of them by a few months, had just turned 15, and was thus considered old enough by the standards of their world to leave school and live on her own. Ever since her birthday, the three of them had begun planning to leave the islands on a raft. They had already stocked all the provisions they may need, so now they only had to build the raft. If everything went smoothly today, they'd be able to say goodbye to their families and leave at dawn tomorrow.

 

After nearly three hours of struggling to fasten their raft together, they finally finished. It wasn't pretty, but they were sure it would take them where they needed to go. As they finished, Dyme noticed that the sun was beginning to set.

 

"Hey guys," Dyme said, "How about we go over to the Paopu tree and watch the sunset one last time together before we go?" Cora and Relina both nodded, and began walking towards the tree. Dyme was about to follow them, but then he noticed a young boy, about five or six years old with silver hair, watching him and his friends from afar. He remembered seeing him a few times before on the mainland, but couldn't remember his name.

 

"Hi there," Dyme said to the boy once he'd gotten closer, "What's your name?"

 

"Riku." the boy replied, "Hey, why are you guys building that raft? Are you going somewhere?"

 

Dyme thought about how to answer for a moment, before deciding to tell him the truth. After all, he hated lying. "Yeah, we are. We're going to see other worlds."

 

Riku seemed both surprised and excited by this, "Really? I mean, can a raft really do that?"

 

"Sure! What else are rafts for, other than to go places?"

 

 

"Well, I guess you're right." Riku paused for a moment, and his eyes lit up, "Hey, maybe I'll be able to see you on another world someday."

 

"Yeah, that would be nice."

 

Suddenly the two of them heard another voice off in the distance, "Riku!"

 

Riku started walking away towards the voice, "Well, I'd better go. That's my friend calling me."

 

"All right, nice talking with you." Dyme said, and walked to the paopu tree, where his friends were waiting for him. Man, I hope I didn't put any bad ideas into that boy's head, he thought.

 

"Hey, what took you Dyme?" Cora asked as she tuned up her sitar.

 

"Sorry, I was just talking to this kid who saw us working on the raft." Dyne said, as he sat down on the bent tree trunk between the two girls.

 

"Oh, all right." Cora responded, "So... you think we'll ever miss this place?"

 

"Probably from time to time," Relina said, "but I think overall we'll be happier."

 

"Yeah, you're probably right." Dyne said, "I wonder what the outside world is like. What if it doesn't have mangos!?"

 

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it, Dyne." Relina said, rolling her eyes.

 

"Well of course you wouldn't worry, you don't even like mangos!" Dyne said. Meanwhile, Cora began laughing out loud. "What's so funny?"

 

"Nothing, nothing." Cora said, trying and failing to control her laughter, "It's just the way you guys argue." She stopped for a moment, and pulled herself together, "All right, sorry about that. But seriously, don't worry about the mangos Dyne, I'm sure there's plenty of other foods out there for you to obsess over."

 

"Hmph, doubt it." said Dyne, who was becoming annoyed at his two friends for ganging up on him.

 

They kept talking and laughing like this until after the sun had set, at which point they got into their boats and rowed back to the main island, with promises of seeing each other back at the island at dawn the next day.

 

***

 

Dyme sat impatiently at a bench near one of the fountains in Radiant Garden. Cora better hurry up, he thought, my lunch break's nearly half way over. As he waited, he gazed at some of the lovely sights around him. Nearby a group of children played tag. Above him a flock of birds flew underneath a cloudless sky. All around him he could hear the sounds of flowing water and stomping feet, as people eager to continue their day walked by. Destiny Islands had its high points, but he rarely missed it.

 

After he and his friends Cora and Relina left their Island home, they began traveling the worlds until they finally found this one. The busy yet beautiful city of Radient Garden captivated the three of them immediately, so they decided to live there. Cora began working at a local music shop, while Relina became a waitress. Dyme, meanwhile, was hired on as a maintenance worker of the city's waterways. It was a strenuous job at times, but Dyme didn't mind. The three of them had been living in Radiant Garden for a few months now, and both Dyme and Cora continued to love it there. Relina, on the other hand, seemed to miss Destiny Island, although she her best tried not to show it.

 

Eventually Cora came, a picnic basket in her hand and her sitar slung across her back.

 

"What took you Cora? You were supposed to be here over twenty minutes ago." Dyme asked.

 

"Sorry about that, I just had to organize some things at the shop." Cora said, and kissed Dyme on the cheek. The two of them had been dating for nearly four months now. She opened the picnic basket, and handed Dyme a sandwich and bottled water. "Here you go, hope you enjoy it."

 

"Thanks Cora. So... how've things been getting along at the music shop?" Dyme asked.

 

"Great!" Cora replied, "Sales are really starting to pick up. Not only that, but the boss is thinking about finally selling sitars."

 

"Really? Cool, maybe I'll get one."

 

"You? With a sitar? I dunno Dyme, I just can't picture it."

 

"Oh come on! It can't be that hard."

 

"Well..." Cora was suddenly interrupted by a woman screaming in terror. "What was that!?" she asked. Suddenly, a woman ran out of a nearby alleyway, chased by three small black creatures with curled antennae and yellow eyes. Suddenly two more of the shadowy creatures sprang up from the ground and started attacking the group of kids playing tag.

 

"Come on, let's get out of here." Dyme said, jumping out of the bench and running away from the shadow creatures, while Cora followed closely behind.

 

As the two of them ran, they spotted more and more of these shadows springing up from the ground and terrorizing the townsfolk. Soon, buildings began to crumble, opened up in the ground.

 

"Dyme, duck!" Cora shouted, and hit a shadow lunging strait for Dyme's head with her sitar, causing it to vanish into a puff of smoke.

 

"See, that's why I need one of those." Dyme said, and the two of them continued to run. How are we going to get out of this? Okay, one step at a time. Right now we need to find Relena, Dyme thought as he ran.

 

However they didn't have time to find her.

 

As they ran, a fissure appeared right before their feet. Dyme was able to notice it in time, and stopped. Cora wasn't so lucky. She fell in, but was able to grab onto the ledge just in time. With her other hand, she held on to her sitar.

 

"Cora!" Dyme shouted, trying to keep a level head for her sake, "All right, don't panic. Just swing the sitar onto the edge, and let go of it. Then grab the ledge with your free hand. "

 

"Okay!" she replied, her voice shaking, and did as he said.

 

 

"All right, good. Now, I'm going to grab your right arm and pull you up." Dyme said, but he never got the chance. As soon as he reached for her hand, the fissure began to grow again, and part of the ledge Cora was hanging on to crumbled away. Cora fell into the dark abyss, gone before she even had a chance to scream.

 

"Cora!!!" Dyme shouted, tears pouring down his face. These past few months had been the best he'd ever had in his life. But now, the person he loved most was gone forever. Memories of his time with Cora passed through his mind, one after the other. Befriending her and Relena at school one day. Finally mustering up the courage to ask her out. Their first kiss. Just when he thought he couldn't take any more sad memories, he heard the quiet pitter-patter of several small feet. He turned around and saw a small horde of the shadow monsters apparently wondering how hard it would be to take him out. Normally he would have simply looked for a way out and ran.

 

But not this time.

 

Inside Dyme, a hurricane of sorrow and rage built up. His life was nearly perfect before these things came. But now, Cora was gone, and his new home was crumbling to the ground while it's citizens ran for their lives in terror. These monsters needed to pay.

 

Dyme picked up Cora's sitar, which was lying near the edge of the fissure, and charged at the shadows. He was never much of a fighter, but at the moment he didn't care. Enraged, he tore through the cluster of heartless, wiping them out in seconds. He saw another group nearby closing in on a young man about his age with long brown hair and a newly acquired scar between his eyes. What was his name? Squall, maybe? He took down the group of heartless, and the young man ran away sobbing. Dyme continued on to the nearest clump of shadows.

 

This cycle continued on for longer than Dyme could keep track. A few hours? Perhaps even several? Eventually, everyone else was gone, either by escaping on a gumi ship or  overcome by the chaos surrounding him. The hordes of shadows had become progressively larger, and Dyme became progressively weaker as the hours slogged by, and now he was at his limit. I can't die, not now, he thought, when he noticed a figure in a pitch black cloak standing on a nearby building, observing him. Dyme ignored him, and kept swinging at the heartless with the now greatly damaged sitar.

 

Eventually though, he became too slow, and shadow was able to jump onto his back, and scratched furiously. Soon, several other shadows clung to him as well, cutting the life out of him. Well I guess this is it, he thought

 

 He collapsed to the ground, shed one last tear, and everything went black.

 

***

 

Inside the chamber Where Nothing Gathers, inside The Castle That Never Was, the members of Organization  XIII began to gather. Most of them were calmly yet intently waiting for Axel to arrive with their newest member. However, one member, as usual, just didn't seem to care. In fact, he was considering just falling asleep, and figuring out who the newbie was later. He quickly brushed away the thought when he remembered how Siax punished him the last time he took a nap during a meeting. This young nobody's name was Demyx.

 

After he became a nobody back at Radient Garden, now more commonly known as Hollow Bastion, he was welcomed with open arms into the organization. Their leader, Xemnas even showed him how to "unlock his true potential", thus giving him rather impressive control over water, among other things. At first he had no idea what he'd use as a weapon, since he wasn't really a fighter in the first place. However, he eventually decided to take up Cora's old sitar as his own. After all, it was all he had to remember her by. He quickly repaired and enchanted it, before using it as his signature weapon. At first he had no idea how to play it, but he picked up the skill quickly. Now, in the six years he'd been in the organization, he'd practically mastered the instrument. However, he was far from happy.

 

At first, Demyx spent much of his free time searching to see if Cora was still alive. However, once he found her body at the bottom of the fissure she'd fallen through, Demyx lost the willpower that had apparently turned him into the human looking nobody he'd become in the first place. As the years went by, Demyx became less and less interested in completing missions, and often tried to get out of them, all while making sure to do just enough work to keep from getting fired. This caused him to be at odds with some of the more serious members of the organization, such as Siax and Vexen. What infuriated them most, however, was his insistence that he still had a heart. After all, how else could he feel the grief and sadness he endured nearly every day?

 

He had no idea what had happened to Relina in the years after the attack on Radiant Garden. He'd learned shortly after joining the organization that she'd escaped Radiant Garden. He didn't know what had happened to her since. He only hoped that she was still alive, and happy. Maybe, once the organization recreates Kingdom Hearts, I can leave and find her again, he thought.

 

Just then, two cloaked figures entered the chamber. One was Axel, while the other had her hood up, obscuring her face. Yes, it was definitely a girl, he could tell by the heels and her figure. Who knows, maybe she'll be the one to help me bring some light heartedness to this dull organization, Demyx thought, and turned to Xemnas, who was likely about to make a speech. And as it turned out, he was right.

 

"Good tidings, friends," Xemnas began, in his loud, commanding voice, "Today is a momentous day. I am pleased to announce that a new comrade has been chosen to wear the coat. Number XIII."  

 

At first, nothing seemed special. Xemnas said the exact same thing every time a new member was introduced, except for the part about the number. Every once in a while, a member would be destroyed in combat, and replaced by a new one. In fact, Demyx used to be number XIII, but eventually moved up through the ranks to number IX.

 

But then, the new member removed her hood, and a tear escaped down Demyx's face, something that hadn't happened since he became a nobody. The girl was about his age, had blonde hair, like Demyx, that went down to her shoulders, and greenish-blue eyes.

 

It was Relina.