Heart of the Phoenix [UNDER NEW TITLE]

Chapter 2

Author's Note: Here's Chapter 2. This one is dedicated to KHWattyAwardContest. All dialogue and actions from the game were found on kh-vids.net. Again, I don't own anything except for the characters you don't recognize from the series.

Chapter 2: Disturbances

Six years later

"Whoa! Whooooaaaa!!!!!!" cried Mickey from his perch atop an open book. He was desperately trying to fight the huge waves of a whirlpool that was threatening to suck us both in.

"Just hang on, Mickey!" I called to him over the din of the waves. Struggling to stay on top of my own book-raft, I managed to turn it around and paddle over to where he was. He looked dangerously close to falling off and I had to catch him before he did. Kneeling carefully on the soaked pages, I grabbed the edge with one hand and reached out to him with the other. "Grab on!" I yelled. He tried to but the churning waves beneath us drove us apart. Another huge wave came up in between us and I was knocked onto my back, nearly falling off in the process. I got up carefully, searching for something, anything, that would get us out of this mess. Nothing came. We were trapped.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" we both screamed as the whirlpool pulled us in.

Suddenly the waves completely vanished from beneath us, as did our book-rafts, leaving us hanging in midair. We looked at each other in surprise for a split second before falling to the floor with a solid thud. "Oof!" I groaned as I slowly sat up, rubbing my head where it had smacked the ground. "I really do not like that simulation." Mickey nodded his agreement as he picked himself up and rubbed a sore spot on the back of his neck. Then he reached out, grabbed my hand, and helped me to my feet. I smiled gratefully at him and turned. Now that the simulation-whirlpool was gone, we were standing in a small room called the Sorcerer's Loft. There wasn't much in here except shelves filled with books, a dresser in the corner, a few windows shaped like stars and a crescent moon on the wall across from us, and a desk that held a candle on top of a skull. Behind the desk sat the master of this tower, the one man Mickey and I both knew very well - our teacher, the great Yen Sid. He looked down at us with his usual stern, unreadable expression as we smiled sheepishly at him and waited for his lecture. We both knew that we had failed his test....yet again. All we could do now was wait for his admonishment.

It never came. To our surprise he just closed his eyes, seeming deep in concentration. "Mickey, Kenza, I cannot shake the feeling something terrible is about to transpire," he said gravely. We tilted our heads and looked at him silently, waiting for him to explain what he meant. Unfortunately for us, he seemed to retreat to a place deep inside his thoughts and wouldn't say anything else. I sighed and turned my attention to the windows behind him, gazing at the twinkling stars. The stars were where Yen Sid got his information from. What was going on up there to make him so frightened? I had never seen him like this. Before I could give the subject any more thought, he opened his eyes again. "You are dismissed," he said with a wave of his hand and both Mickey and I turned to go. "Not you, Kenza. I require a private word with you."

I stopped in my tracks, dread filling me. Well, that didn't sound good. Whatever it was that he wanted to talk about must really be serious. Mickey turned to face me, confused and a little worried. I gave him the most reassuring smile I could muster, which probably wasn't very good at that time, and mouthed to him, 'Go on ahead.' Fortunately he didn't ask any questions and scampered off to his room. I turned back to face Yen Sid. "Yes, Master?" I asked without a clue of what he wanted.

He fixed me with that penetrating gaze of his that I had always found a bit unnerving. "You are aware, of course, that tomorrow is your examination for the Mark of Mastery," he said and I nodded. How could I forget such an important thing like my Mark of Mastery exam? I had been training for it since I was ten. "Tomorrow is also the examination of Terra and Aqua, two of Master Eraqus's pupils."