Chapter 9 (SORA): Kidnapped by Monkeys/ Shere Khan

Chapter 9 (Sora): Kidnapped by Monkeys/ Shere Khan

        Sora slugged his way through the Wild Jungle, battling numerous Heartless enemies and passing through dangerous obstacles all in his pursuit of one particularly difficult to locate man-cub.  He knew Mowgli was better equipped for a long game of hide and seek in the jungle than he was, but he still was determined to find the boy before Shere Khan could.  Or worse, if Sora himself ran into the vicious tiger first.  

        As Sora moved deeper into the jungle, he began noticing he was nearing a series of crumbling ruins.  An ancient civilization must have built itself up, but disappeared.  He had seen no sign of any humans since coming into the Jungle outside of Riku, so it puzzled Sora as to who could be living there now.  I don't have any time to lose! he thought to himself.  I have to find Mowgli!  Sora did his best to look, but even he began to feel lost in this strange and unfamiliar world.  The jungle was twice as large as any of the previous jungles he'd explored before, including Tarzan's and Simba's.  

       One thing Sora did notice as he moved deeper into the jungle was the changing of sounds.  Throughout the bulk of the Jungle, he had heard a vast amount of animal sounds, from birds and elephants to bears and even wolves.  Now, all he heard was the chattering sounds of monkeys.  He had only one clue as to where the monkeys were.  Sora noticed the trees in this part of the jungle were extensively higher than in other parts he'd ventured through.  There were at least dozens of monkeys in those trees.  

       Sora looked up one tree in particular and saw several monkeys juggling fruits and laughing with each other.  When one noticed Sora, they began to whisper to each other.  Sora stepped back and decided to continue on with his journey.  The less he knew about the monkeys the better.  But no sooner had he walked down the path that he saw another group of monkeys had appeared on another nearby tree.  They all looked at him with curious eyes.  Sora prepared to keep walking, when he walked right into one hanging from a low branch.  "Um, hello" Sora spoke nervously.

        "Lookie here guys" the monkey called, "it's on of them man cubs again."  

        Sora eyed a few more monkeys swooping down from the trees.  One monkey waved at him, snickering as he did.  Sora waved nervously back, until he saw another monkey swoop down and grab ahold of his wrist.  

         "Why don't you come and play with us?" the monkey asked.  "We need a new man-cub to play with now that Mowgli's gone!"  

         Sora's free hand grappled with the monkey to try and free his other hand.  "Sorry, I can't play right now.  I'm actually looking for Mowgli.  Have you seen him?"

        "Not for a while" the monkey chattered again.  "The only man-cub we've seen is you.  Are you sure you don't want to play with us?"

         Sora shook his head as he finally freed his hand from the other monkey.  "No thanks.  I've got to go."

         The monkey laughed.  "You seem a little tense.  Why don't you stay and hang out?"  As Sora began to question the comment, the monkey he had just been freed from stuck his hands under Sora's armpits and hauled him up into the trees.  The monkey swung his hands back and forth until he finally threw Sora up against a branch.  Sora clung to the branch while the monkeys all laughed at him.  "Come on, kid!  Stay with us."

         "I really can't you guys" Sora explained, trying not to lose his grip.  He pulled himself onto the branch and found himself surrounded by dozens of monkeys.  "I really have to go.  I don't have time for any games."

         "Good" the monkey cheered.  "Because this is not a game!"  Before Sora could once more question the comment, a monkey kicked him out of the tree.  Sora screamed as he fell, but was caught by his ankles and was being swung back into the trees.  The monkey let go and Sora flipped through the air.  Seeing a nearby branch, Sora tried to reach for it.  It took him a few seconds to realize his mistake.  "See?" the monkey laughed.  "He does want to play!"  

          Sora quickly tried to pull his hand back, but a monkey on the branch caught it and began to swing him in the air again.  Sora tried summoning his Keyblade, but was let go and flipped through the air and lost grip of it.  The blade vanished back into the light and Sora was once more at the mercy of the monkeys.  He was caught once more and swung around like a trapeze artist.  Sora finally grabbed hold of a branch and caught it, causing the monkeys to swing out and past him.  Sora sighed with relief.  

         "Mowgli?" a voice called from below.  Sora looked down to see Baloo bounding his way down the path.  "I don't think he'd come back down this way" Baloo reasoned.  "Not after those monkey's kidnapped him!"  

         "What?" Sora gasped.  "Bal--mmph!"  Sora called out to Baloo, but a furry hand fell over his mouth.  The monkey that had gagged him now wrapped his legs around Sora's torso.  Sora tried to pull the monkey off, but more monkey hands grabbed his wrists and hoisted him up in the air.  With Baloo out of sight, Sora struggled against the grip of the monkeys, but they were too strong for him.  When they were sure Baloo was gone and well beyond Sora's aid, the monkeys looked Sora over.  

        "Do ya think this guy can help us?" one of the monkeys asked. 

        "It's not like he has a choice in the matter" the monkey that covered Sora's mouth laughed.  "He's coming with us if he wants to or not!"  The monkeys hauled their new captive higher and higher into the trees until they were well beyond anyone seeing them.  Sora flailed around, trying to free himself, but that only tightened the grasp of the monkeys.  "We're taking you to your new home" the monkey continued.  The monkeys all flipped and ran through the high branches, while the few that carried Sora remained low enough to hand their prisoner off to one another hand in hand until they arrived at their destination.  

       After several minutes of struggling, Sora finally gave up and submitted to it.  It was pointless in the long run.  He figured that the monkeys were experts at kidnapping, considering that they had tried kidnapping Mowgli recently.  And now, Sora knew, he was probably going to get more attention than the younger boy had.  He was as good as kidnapped and with no free use of his hands or speaking, he was at the mercy of wherever the monkeys chose to take their prisoner.  

       One of the monkeys that gripped one of his wrists and hand began to laugh.  "Hey, the kid's given up!  That's better than Mowgli!"  

       "Well" the monkey that gagged Sora uttered, "we've watched this kid take out those dark creatures.  He's more of a handful than Mowgli was.  But we still get what we want in the long run!"  Sora sighed as his captors led him away towards the ancient ruins.  

        While stalking in the jungle for his prized Man-Cub, the huge vicious tiger, Shere Khan, looked above into the skies to see the monkeys hauling a captured Sora through the trees to the Man Village.  "Hmph!  It seems those monkeys have another man-cub as their prisoner.  Perhaps they are the ones concealing Mowgli from me!  This warrants a closer look!"  The tiger raced down the path after the monkeys and towards their village.  

        Sora opened his eyes and looked around.  He was now in the heart of those mysterious ruins he had seen before.  But the monkeys hadn't slackened their grip on him, though.  In fact, it seemed tighter now that Sora was in their clutches fully.  Sora dropped several stories until he was in a throne room of some kind.  The monkeys all began chattering wildly.  Sora looked ahead and saw a huge fat orangutan slumped on the throne, eating a banana.  He looked at Mowgli and smiled.  "Well, hello there.  You're that man-cub with the Keyblade, aren't you?"
      Sora tried to speak, but the monkey's mouth wouldn't let him.  The king of the monkeys laughed and looked towards his monkeys.  "Let the brother speak!"  The monkey gagging Mowgli hopped off and ran over towards his boss.  "You are the Keyblade kid, Riku?"
      Sora shook his head and tried in vain to free his hands from his captors.  "Nope.  You've got the wrong guy!  I'm his friend, Sora."
      "He does have that Keyblade, though" one of the monkeys yelped.
      "Then I think we can do some business, together" the ape grinned.  "The name's King Louie.  And if you want to get free, then you'd better hand over that key of yours."  Louis hopped over to his captive.  "Before you say it, let me explain.  We nabbed that Mowgli kid because we thought he could give us the power of the Red Flower."
      "The Red Flower?" Sora asked
      "Fire" Louie explained.  "But when he couldn't give it to us, we began looking for that Riku guy.  He used fire to scare off Shere Khan.  We thought he was just a man, but we saw enough of him to know he had a power different than anything we'd seen before.  It was that key he carried.  And if you have it too, then I want it."  
      "You'll find that they're very picky about their owners" Sora mocked.  "They won't answer to anyone who isn't meant to wield it.  Believe me, I know.  People have tried to steal it from others for many years.  But no one can wield it except someone who is worthy of it!"
      "And you're saying I'm not worth it?" Louie asked.
      "Did it come out too subtly?" Sora asked.
      The monkeys swung back and flung Sora to the floor.  With his hands free, Sora summoned his Keyblade and aimed it at all of the monkeys.  Louie growled.  "With Mowgli running around on the other side of the Jungle, we're gonna have to make do with you.  If I can't have it, you can't either!  Now hand over the Keyblade or--"
       A thunderous roar echoed through the ruins.  The monkeys all began to panic.  Sora looked back and saw an enormous Bengal Tiger lunge into the fray and roar at the monkeys.  The monkeys all jumped back and scattered.  Louie, upon seeing the newcomer, jumped behind his throne.  The tiger looked Sora over, grinning coldly.  "Hmph!  So you are the only man-cub around here?"
       "You're Shere Khan!" Sora snapped, aiming his Keyblade at the tiger.
       Khan snidely growled at the boy.  "Put that thing away, boy.  I mean you no harm, for now.  I do not seek a battle with you, though it would likely not end well for you.  I am after Mowgli.  And I expect that you know something about that.  Where is Mowgli?"  Khan crept close to the boy.
       Sora laughed.  "Well, it's not like you could catch up to Baloo and Bagheera.  They've probably found him by now and are taking him someplace safe.  He's on the other side of the jungle, beyond your reach."
       "You think I haven't been tailing those two idiots?" Khan sneered.  "They are as close to finding Mowgli as Louie was to understanding the Key you carry."
       "What do you know about the Keyblade?"
       "Only what I need to know" Khan roared.  "That it stands between me and a meal with you, that it stood between me and a meal with that Riku boy, and that if it does interfere with my hunt for Mowgli, than I will be a problem for it's wielder."  Khan moved closer to Sora, who aimed his Keyblade at the tiger.  Khan snarled and leapt away from the boy and looked back.  "Stay out of my way, boy!"  With that, Khan bounded off into the Jungle.  Sora was about to follow him, when another battalion of Heartless emerged to battle him.
        "Back off!"

Defeat All of the Heartless

        Sora turned to Louie, who crept his way back onto his throne.  "Where is Mowgli?"

        Louie gulped.  "Are you sure you don't want to show me that power?"

        "Where is Mowgli?"

        Louie sighed.  "He's headed for the Badlands.  That's vulture territory.  But Khan's got the jump on you.  He'll definitely catch Mowgli before you can even locate him."

        Sora laughed.  "Then you've never met me!"  Sora hurried off into the Jungle after Khan and off to rescue Mowgli.