Alsce sleepily opened her eyes.
There she was, on the sand, the only sound Sora’s gentle breathing next to her.
She sat up, groggily, and rubbed her eyes.
She looked at her keycuffs.
Sure enough, there was a spherical groove in the left one.
“So it was true….” she muttered.
She needed to be alone.
Quickly, Alsce scratched a message in the sand with her right keycuff, then got up and walked away.
She was aiming for the cavern.
“Hey!” called a voice.
Alsce turned to see Selphie running up to her, skipping rope swinging wildly in one hand.
“Hi.” said Alsce.
“What’s the matter? You seem sad. Tidus and Wakka think there’s something wrong.”
That was the weird thing. There were these two kids on the island called Tidus and Wakka, who looked like her friends but smaller.
“Kinda. It’s nothing important.”
“Sure? Sora and Kairi and Riku have been weird… Ichigo seems to know. Do ya think you could find out what’s going on for me?”
“Ok.”

Obtained: Selphies request

Alsce looked around.
“Ok…” she muttered.
Selphie skipped ff. Alsce looked at Sora. She leaned in closer to him, so her head was above his. He looked so handsome in the sunlight.
Slowly, she bent in towards him. And he came towards her, slowly. He was obviously awake….
Nothing could ruin this mome-
“SORA! ALSCE!” called a voice. Sora lifted his head up, much more quickly than Alsce could, and consequently hit her in the mouth.
“ow!” said Alsce.
Kairi came running over, and stood above Sora, who was back lying on the sand.
“Wake up, sleepy head!”
Sora smiled. Alsce sighed and looked out to sea.
“I wonder what’s out there?” she said.
“Umm...Alsce? Wake up! That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you!” she laughed.
Alsce looked blank.
“Look, we’re going to build a raft to take to sea, to explore the world!”
“Ok. How do we do this?”
“Exactly! We need help! Which is why we have you guys.”
Kairi told them they needed supplies.
Sora and Alsce first had to help gather the materials, so they set out to find the stuff: A rope, two logs and a sail.
“I think there’s a rope up there.” said Alsce, pointing upwards to the open tree house thing…where Tidus was.
Sora nodded.
“I’ll get the sail and we’ll look for the logs later.”
Alsce nodded, and as she walked away Sora took her hand.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Alsce…you know earlier….It…it didn’t mean anything, did it?”
Alsce shook her head.
“Oh, no…of course not…”
Sora grinned.
“Good.”
They parted.
But, oh, it had meant so much to Alsce. And she was sure it did to sora, too.
Alsce climbed the ladder to the open tree house. Sure enough, there was a rope. But Tidus had it.
“Tidus, can I have that rope?” she asked, as Tidus threw the lasso up into one of the trees and started to climb.
Tidus blinked.
“Well, I may let you, but you have to earn it.” he said, jumping down.
“Fine. How?”
Tidus chucked her a wooden sword.
“Fight.”
Alsce held up her sword. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d had a fight. No-one could beat her, except Riku, and that was once…the only time they’d had a duel…
She’d had real practise, with real fiends.
“All right, but don’t go crying to mama when I whoop you!” she laughed.
Tidus hurled himself at Alsce-a mistake. She just side stepped and brought down the wood on his arm.
“Ow!” he moaned.
“Give up?”
“Never!”
Tidus jumped at her again, knees thrown up behind his back, sword above him.
He brought it down on Alsce, who held up her sword to block the blow.
They were frozen in that pose for a few seconds, neither of them able to push back the other.
But in the end, gravity got to Tidus and he fell to the floor.
“Ok, take the rope.” he said. Alsce smile and picked it up.

Obtained: rope

She gave Tidus back the sword.
“No, you keep it,” he said, “ I have this feeling you’ll need it.”
Obtained: wooden sword

Alsce smiled and jumped down the ladder.
Sora was waiting at the bottom of the trees, smiling.
“Ready?” she asked, hopping down.
“Ok, let’s go look.” he replied.
So Alsce and Sora walked off to try and look for the logs.
In the end, they also decided to split.
“Take this to Kairi, will ya?” asked Sora, handing Alsce a sail.

Obtained: sail

So they parted.
Alsce took to near Kairi’s part of the beach for logs.
“Hey!” she called. Kairi looked up and smiled.
“Hi, Alsce.” she said.
“So, how far have we got?” she asked, handing Kairi the rope and sail.
“Not far. We’re just sketching up the basic template. How far have you got?”
“We’re still trying to find the logs. Where’s Riku and Ichigo?”
“Riku went to help Sora and Ichigo is in that weird grotto next to the freshwater spring.” explained kairi as Alsce saw a driftwood log and brought it to her.
“Thanks.”
Suddenly, they both saw Sora running up the beach.
“Found another!” the said, handing another similarly sized piece of wood to kairi.
“Cool! Thanks, Sora. I think we can retire for tonight, don’t you?”
So they split up. But Alsce didn’t go home.
She went to find Ichigo.