“Xeha, c’mon!” Eraqus called back to his friend. Their plan to stick together this time had worked. All three of them having landed in the same area; a cavern like area surrounded by tall cliffs. Many of the cliff faces were covered in blue mosaic tiles, the same that covered the ground. On one of the higher cliffs was a large statue of a man, looking down into the clearing. 

It was the statue as well as the artwork depicted in the mosaic that had captured Xehanort’s inquisitive mind this time. Eraqus and Yen Sid left him to it while they came up with a game plan. Seeming as if they cannot control where the star will take them, they might be wandering worlds for a while. So the necessities were, of course; water, food, and shelter. In order of importance. 

“We could always melt a blizzard spell for emergency water, too.” Yen Sid suggested.

“Smart. But we can’t rely on that either, we’ll just run out of mana.” Eraqus said. “Even you, Mister Sorcerer.” He added when Yen Sid looked at him as if he didn’t know who he was talking to.

“Suppose that’s fair. Need to conserve as much energy as possible.” 

They both look up at the sound of footsteps. Xehanort walking back to join them, though his face was still turned toward the mosaics. 

“Find anything interesting?” Eraqus asked, pulling his attention toward them at last.  

“Nothing I can really make out. Maybe legends and folklore that the people around here believe in.” He sat on the ground,  joining the little circle they’d made. “They’re a guy in the mosaic with flames for hair.” He said with a laugh, picking at the grass poking through the cracks in the tiles they sat on. 

“Fire hair? That’s interesting at least.” Eraqus laughed with him. 

“Would it smell like burned hair?” Even Yen Sid joining in on the fun, his question bolstering Eraqus’ snickers.

“Ew, I hope not.” 

“So, have we come up with a plan yet?” Xehanort asked them after they’d all stopped their laughing. 

“Not quite, Eraqus mentioned that we’ll need basic survival things though. Food, water-- those kinds of things.” 

“We’re not gonna find those things sitting here. Should we start moving?” Eraqus said as he was looking out toward the sky.  Watching the sun sink ever lower to the horizon. By the looks of it, they still had a few hours of light. 

“Yea, might as well figure out where we are. Maybe there’s a town nearby.” Xehanort suggested. Someone had to have carved the statues and built the mosaics that were around them, after all. 

Yen Sid was the first to stand, brushing off his clothes and turning toward the only path down. Well, ‘path’ was a generous word. Being the only way that they could see leading out of the statue cavern, it had to have been a path at one time. The dirt having been eroded away by weather and time leaving a steep drop-off and a few columns of rock dotting the distance between where they stood and where the path continued.

Eraqus and Xehanort stopped at the edge behind Yen Sid. “Think we can make it?” Eraqus asked with a smirk.

“Course.” Xehanort said, backing up a few paces.”Move.” he said, barely giving the two time to step out of the way before he ran. Leaping across the columns like stepping stones without letting his momentum falter as he made it safely to the other side. “Made it!” he called back to his friends.

“Show off.” Yen Sid mumbled before backing from the edge himself, making Eraqus laugh as he gave the younger wielder room to jump. He leapt across easily, but the last column began to crumble as he stepped on it, breaking his momentum and making him stumble. Falling, Yen Sid yelped and reached for the edge of the cliff. 

“Gotcha!” Xehanort said as he grabbed Yen Sid’s arm before he could completely fall. He helped pull the boy up as he climbed over the edge, sitting as he caught his breath. “That was close.”

“Yea. thanks” 

“You alright, Sid?!” Eraqus called from across the way. He answered with a nod and a thumbs up that he hoped the other boy could see. 

“Okay, Era! This last column isn’t very stable!” Xehanort warned his friend.

“Got it! Gonna try to jump over it then!” 

“What!? That’s too far!”

“Then catch me!” With that, Eraqus started his run. 

“You idiot.” Xehanort mumbled to himself as he prepared to do just that. But right away he noticed that Eraqus was running very fast, definitely faster than Yen Sid had been. By the time he saw that he would make the jump without needing to be caught, Xehanort didn’t have the time to move out of the way. Xehanort caught his friend with an “oof” as the momentum of the jump caused them both to tumble to the ground. 

They rolled once, Xehanort’s arms around Eraqus’ thinner frame, before they stopped. Xehanort on his back, holding Eraqus’ torso to his chest. A second of bewildered silence passed before he felt, rather than heard, Eraqus laugh. The puff of air he let out tickling Xehanort’s neck where the other boy’s face had ended up nestled against him. 

“You caught me.” He murmured into his neck, tickling the skin there even more. Xehanort sucked in a breath at the sensation. New, and not entirely unpleasant. “Uh, Xeh? You can let go.” What? It was only after Eraqus pointed it out that he realized he still had his arms around the boy. 

He gasped and flinched away, allowing Eraqus to push himself up and off of himself. “Sorry.” He said as he got into a sitting position too. They weren’t touching anymore he noted, furrowing his brows at himself. Why was that the first thing he made himself aware of? But he shook that thought away as Eraqus spoke again.

“No biggie.” he laughed. 

“That’s a point for Eraqus.” Yen Sid spoke from behind them. Breaking them both out of their thoughts. 

“Huh?”

“You knocked him down, that’s a point to your score.” he clarified, sounding bored. He walked past them down the path as he spoke. 

“It IS! That’s 28 wins for me!” Eraqus jumped up then. 

“No way! That doesn’t count! We weren’t sparring!”

“A win’s a win!” Xehanort wasn’t sure Eraqus’ grin could get any wider. His eyes shining in his excitement. 

“Aah, whatever. Fine. You got me.” he conceded. Smiling fondly and shaking his head at Eraqus’ exclaimed “YES!” as he jumped in the air. 

They continued down the path in relative silence then, climbing down the steep declines as they slowly made themselves down what was now clearly a mountainside. Xehanort following behind the other two as they clamber down a particularly steep slope. Practically scaling down a cliff, it was so steep. He guessed he was about halfway down the cliff when many things happened in quick succession. He heard two things; a noise like wind accompanied by rattling metal, and then Eraqus’ voice laced with panic, “Xeh! Look out!” 

It hit him before he was able to react. Pain slicing across his shoulder, making him lose his grip on the slope. He slid the rest of the way down, wincing as he hit the ground. “Heal!” Yen Sid called, Xehanort feeling the cool effects of the spell wash over him as his friend ran over to him. 

“Thanks, Sid.” Xehanort told him, taking the hand he offered to pull himself up. 

“No problem.” He responded quickly, running back toward where Eraqus was fighting. Xehanort summoning his own blade to help. 

The Heartless that spawned here were stronger than in Wonderland’s forests. There were a few of the same types as before scuttling on the ground that were easy enough to take out, but those couldn’t have attacked him on the cliff as easily. He found what must have been the culprit then, the heartless that Eraqus was fighting. It looked similar to the other ones, only with a pair of wings and donned in what appeared to be armor. 

This new enemy had quite an advantage. Being able to fly, they could stay well out of the way of their keyblades.  Both Eraqus and Yen Sid having trouble even getting a hit on the two flying heartless. 

Xehanort slashed through the last of the ground-bound shadows and made his way over to the others. He attempted lining up a fire spell on one, but he missed. “Shit.” he cursed under his breath. 

“Thunder!” Yen Sid called, the wide-ranged spell catching it’s target. Stunning the airborne heartless just enough for him to finish it off with physical attacks. 

Leaving only one more heartless. The flying enemy making itself even more annoying by hovering over the side of the mountain. Where none of them could reach it. If they tried to hit it, they’d risk falling. Eraqus attempted another fire spell and growled in frustration when the little pest dodged it once again. “Will you stop moving!” 

The battle was practically at a stalemate now, with the last heartless staying out of reach it wasn’t attacking them either. 

“I got the other one with thunder.” Yen Sid said. All three of them were standing at the edge, just watching the heartless now, seeing as it wouldn’t come closer. Yen Sid dismissed his keyblade and crossed his arms. 

Eraqus readied his own keyblade again. Closing his eyes as he concentrated. Thunder wasn’t one of his best spells. More often than not, the spell would just fizzle out or backfire when they did magic drills. To the point where Eraqus just preferred to go without them. It’s been nearly a month since he’d even attempted one. 

Taking a deep breath, Eraqus called “Thunder!” and he felt the air around him sizzle with the energy and for a moment he thought it would work! But the spell fizzled out at the last second, a few sparks around the tip of his keyblade, but then nothing. The heartless skittering about in the air, it’s armor rattling sounding akin to laughter. 

Frustrated, Eraqus glared at the enemy, his keyblade lowering with his disappointment. Though he should have known that it’d be unlikely that he could perform the spell after so long without even trying. 

Xehanort then stepped forward, placing a hand on Eraqus’ shoulder to get the boy’s attention. Yen Sid watched him whisper something in his ear, twin grins splitting their faces at whatever Xehanort had planned. The silvernette re-summoning his keyblade and taking position beside Eraqus. Then they side stepped in opposite directions, quickly flanking the heartless as much as possible with it still hovering in the open air. They both cast fire spells then, the two attacks startling the enemy. Able to dodge one of them only to get hit by the other. The dark creature vanishing in the flash of fire and smoke. 

“Finally!” Eraqus exclaimed, dismissing his blade. 

“Heh, you must have hit it a few times already. Just one hit by that spell shouldn’t have destroyed it that easy.” Xehanort said. Maybe that’s why it stayed away from them then, it was injured and knew it had a better chance dodging. 

“Only problem now is I’m almost out of mana.” Eraqus spoke through deep breaths. Definitely low mana then if he was that out of breath. 

“This isn’t good. If we get swarmed by those things it’d be bad news.” Yen Sid started. “There were only two this time and you’re low on mana. We need to be careful. None of us have any potions right?”

“Nope”

“Not me.”

“Oh hey! At least we’re not broke!” Eraqus said as he began picking up some coins that the heartless had dropped. “We’d probably get enough munny by fighting to buy some supplies if we ever find a shop.” 

“Think there’s one on this mountain?” Xehanort asked, a smirk on his face. Trying to lighten the mood. 

“Maybe not up here, but there might be something down there.” Yen Sid said, pointing down into the valley below them. There were buildings! A walled city at the foot of the mountain. 

“A town!”

They continued down the winding paths, there were more heartless attacks, but the three wielders had come up with a fairly effective strategy to deal with the winged ones. They’d try to back as many of them together as possible for Yen Sid to cast a wide thunder spell. Eraqus and Xehanort taking the creatures out while they were stunned. It was a good strategy for those types. Yen Sid had a large store of mana, so they could keep it up for a while. 

Amongst the flying heartless also came a new kind. They wore similar armor to their airborne allies, but they lacked the wings. With them staying on the ground, they were much less annoying. Even if they were more resilient than the other shadows without armor. 

It became a pattern, they’d walk a while then heartless would appear, they’d take them out and continue walking. Collecting the munny and items the heartless dropped as they went. 

“It’s getting late.” Eraqus pointed out as they walked. He was right, of course. The sun was setting fast, threatening to leave them stranded on this mountain in the dark. The city they’d spotted before was still quite a hike away. They’d have to find a place to set up camp for the night. 

Thankfully they’d walked past a few fruit trees on their hike down the mountain. It wasn’t much at all, but it was food. A few apricots and apples to help keep their energy up and replenish their mana. 

They found a clear spot by a waterfall and stream where they decided to stop before the sun completely left them. They were nearly at the foot of the mountain now. They saw that the stream ran right towards the city, so they deemed it was safe to drink. Settlements usually crop up near a water supply. 

They took the opportunity to wash the sweat and dried blood off their faces and arms in the stream. Fortunately none of them had been seriously injured in the fights, just a few scratches here and there. 

Making a fire was easy. Only hindered by Eraqus finding nothing but wet wood, much to Xehanort's annoyance. But they made it work, Xehanort gained a new appreciation for the magic they’d learned. He’d had to start fires the hard way before he became a keyblade wielder, after all. Being able to get a fire going with just a murmured spell was a gift. 

After deciding who got first watch, the three of them started settling down to get some rest and wait for daylight.