Fan Fiction ❯ Black Orchid ❯ Crashing and Falling ( Chapter 18 )

Hmmm: yeah, Deep jungle wasn't a world I was looking forwards to writing… but here we are… the planning requires it… oh well, we introduce the third keyblade type in this world… the first being natural (bramblebite, vineguard) and the second being magic (vorpal blade, spellweaver). And we get to fight one of MY villains… hee… Also, our first summon gem is here… don't you wonder what it'll be? Ah, and only this world and a trip back to Traverse, and then to the world were you learn last chapter's mysterious man's name… but I'm getting ahead of myself. Witness more of Arc's wry humor, and R&R

PS: it's funny to have review alert, because whenever I see two reviews in a row, I can be fairly sure it's HisLight and Aliasfan… hee.

{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!} {!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}{!}

"The map has a three by this world! Look!"

"I don't care what the stupid map says, I still don't think there is going to be anything useful in a jungle like that!"

Montblanc sighed. Orchid and Arc were arguing again. This time, it was over whether to land on the world displayed before them in front of the gummi ship. The large, green planet was entirely dominated by thick, lush jungle.

"Do you really think there are people down there?" said Arc hotly.

"What does that have to do with anything?" shot back Orchid.

"No hearts, no Heartless," he replied, knitting his eyebrows in annoyance.

"Are you saying animals don't have hearts?" asked Orchid, knowing she caught him.

"I'm saying, Heartless don't bother with crap like this place," countered Arc, swinging his right hand. Suddenly, there was an annoying, alarm-like sound and a small red light went off on the control panel.

"That was your fault," she said flatly.

"That was not my fault," he claimed, pushing Orchid back. More alarms and lights went off.

"Kupopopo… I get this strange feeling…" muttered Montblanc, trying not to get involved.

"That was SO your fault!" exclaimed Orchid, pulling herself back into her chair.

"NO, IT WAS NOT!" shouted Arc.

"…that this has happened before…" continued the moogle.

"Don't press that!"

"What, it's not like you know what to do!"

"Kupo! Sora's story!" exclaimed Montblanc.

At this, the other two stopped to look at him. And then they thought about it. Realization dawned, realization that it was too late to fix anything.

"Does that mean we're going to crash?" asked Orchid timidly among the alarms and lights going off.

"Probably," replied Arc nonchalantly, noticing that they were, in fact, starting to move towards the world ahead of them.

"Are we going to die?"

"Could be."

"Well, aren't you just the little ray of sunshine."

-!-

Orchid rubbed her head, which was aching a little. She looked around, noting her surroundings. She appeared to be in some sort of rundown house, with broken windows, open doors, and a lot of overgrown vines and plants everywhere. The thing that got her the most was the veritable wall of humidity. It seemed like the kind of air moisture that reached out and strangled you. And it seemed like the kind of place where, if the air didn't, something else would. Or at least try something malicious in nature.

And something did.

Before she knew it, a large jaguar was leaping at her, fangs and claws bared. She closed her eyes, unable to bear watching it strike her, waiting for the pain. It never came.

"You…all right?" came the rough question, in a somewhat grunting voice. When Orchid opened her eyes, she saw a moderately large, hunched over man in a plain brown loincloth, fending off the jaguar with a crude spear. He pushed the jaguar back with one mighty heave, and it ran off, out the door of the ramshackle building.

"Sabor… is danger…" the strange man said. As Orchid stood up, she noticed that he didn't straighten out, instead staying in his hunched over posture, knuckles close to dragging on the ground. Orchid could feel her back crick just looking at him.

"Who are you?" asked Orchid, looking at the man's somewhat long face through his mess of dreadlocks. At the question, the man merely cocked his head to one side, obviously not understanding. She tried again. "What. Is. Your. Name?"

"Name," said the man. He pointed to himself, and then said, "Tarzan." He pointed to the girl. "You?"

"Orchid," she replied, pointing to herself.

"You, Orchid," repeated the man, apparently called Tarzan, pointing to her. She nodded in confirmation. "We go… camp, see Jane."

With this, the man loped out of the house, stopping only momentarily beyond the doorway to look back and see if she was coming. Seeing no one else around, Orchid decided to follow this apparently friendly man and went out side to where he was hunched. She was stunned by the view outside.

The tree house, as it turned out to be, was high above the jungle, with a boat hanging from a large beam, a deck around it, and some netting around the area not taken up by the steps down the tree's trunk. The whole thing was completely clear of the trees around, and Orchid could see for miles, watching as distant flocks of exotic birds took flight. She watched as Tarzan jumped from the deck they were on to the netting below. He motioned for her to jump, and she did, falling onto her behind as the net jiggled and jumped under her impact.

"Now what?" she asked, looking around as she got up and steadied herself. It's not as if there was anything interesting here, just the underside of the deck. Then she felt her wrist being grabbed. She looked over to see Tarzan holding it. Seeing her look, he turned and ran full speed to the edge of the netting. "What are you do-"

Her sentence was cut off by her scream as the ape-man leapt off the edge, bringing her with him.

"I'm gonna die!"

-!-

"My head… I think I might have died there…" moaned Arc, sitting up.

"Kupopopo…" mumbled Montblanc, groaning.

"Where are we?" asked the dazed human, swiveling around on his butt, only to come face to face with a gorilla. "Gyahahahaaa!"

"Aaaaaah!" screamed the gorilla.

"Aaack!" squeaked Montblanc.

-!-

"Am I alive?"

Orchid looked around. She was in a large, hollow tree trunk lit by the green light of sun filtered through layers of leaves. She got up off the soft, mossy ground inside it and looked around. Spying Tarzan, she walked over to him. He was looking down another hollow trunk, which made a hole in the floor. She went over and looked down into the depths.

"What about it?" she asked, not noticing Tarzan's smirk. She felt a rough shove to her back, and found herself falling down the hole, to land on a slick and smooth branch. Before she could stop herself, she was sliding down the branch, like surfing, just without the water, beach, summer sun, or the surfboard. Other than that, it was just like surfing. Not that she had ever been, or even heard of surfing.

Branches slapped in her face, and she did her best to avoid them or knock them away with the keyblade, which had appeared in her hand as a reaction to the danger. Mostly, it wasn't the branches that bothered her, it was the idea of falling off. Behind her, she could hear Tarzan clearly enjoying the ride, much to her disgust and terror. Then, causing much fear and relief, the ride ended and she was falling once more.

"Oof!" she exclaimed as she landed hard on the ground, wind knocked from her. As she got up, she turned just in time to see Tarzan land smoothly on his feet. She muttered, "Show-off."

"Follow…me," said Tarzan, motioning to her, then to himself, then walking away and into a tent. Shrugging, Orchid walked after him and went into the tent.

Inside were four, what could loosely be called, people. One was a woman, brown haired, wearing a skirt and simple white tee. Another was a gorilla. The other two were Arc and Montblanc.

"Oh, you must be the girl these two were telling me about," said the woman, motioning her hand at Arc and Montblanc, then extending it towards the other girl. "Orchid, right? I'm Jane."

Orchid nodded and took the proffered hand and shook it.

"So what is this place? And what do you do here?" asked Orchid, in her usual flurry of background questions.

"This is the Deep Jungle. I'm here to continue my study of the gorillas," replied Jane, waving her hand at the gorilla that was making a highly animated conversation of grunts and other unintelligible noises with Tarzan, who responded back in kind. The gorilla finished its conversation with him, then left through the tent door. "Tarzan has been teaching me their language, and I've been teaching him English. His vocabulary's improved much since we last had visitors."

"Kupopo… were they a boy named Sora, a duck named Donald, and a dog named Goofy?" asked Montblanc.

"How did you know?" said the surprised researcher.

"We've met them," replied Arc indifferently. "Or, at least one of them."

"If you… off worlders," she said, after searching for the word, "are here, then does that mean… they're back?"

"What do you mean?" asked Orchid, not sure about the nervousness she thought she heard in the woman's voice.

"The… shadows," said Tarzan.

"You mean the Heartless?" said Orchid. Before he could answer, there was a cry outside the tent. Orchid, Arc, Montblanc and Tarzan all ran out, while Jane stayed in the tent. What they saw outside didn't brighten their day.