@thecursedson
“Four years and you’d think they’d spruce this place up a bit.” Sora mumbled to himself as his boots hit the mud. He pulled the red cowl of his red cloak over his face and took a deep breath in. He wondered just how much this place had changed if at all.
He would have come back sooner but, it wasn’t in the cards. After the war he’d gotten stuck in another dimension and after that, well. Life was different. The worlds were divided amongst the Seven Guardians of Light and this one wasn’t in Sora’s jurisdiction, probably for good reason.
The last time he’d been here he was younger, paler... Different. In the past years he’d spent a lot of time back home, letting the sun kiss his scarred skin, settling it into a comfortable tan. Sparring regularly helped his arms, legs and chest fill in. He was still in no means buff but, he had a toned muscularity to his small body. His hair had relaxed to be subtly spiky and not so out of control and that was just the physical changes. Mentally he was a little less carefree, a little more contentious of the worlds around him. The light that he carried however, had never gone out. It just shone brighter with each hardship he faced.
He bought some bread from a merchant and munched quietly as he wandered, careful that no one saw his face. He was really looking the boy he’d loved and abandoned though every old place they roamed he’d checked seemed to be a dead end. He even made an attempt to track the Dark One but, it looked like he was now playing house with a Princess who looked oddly like someone Sora knew. After a week’s reconnaissance coming up dry he decided to find their old cave for some peace and quiet and tap into the Light to see if the boy was at the very least in a world adjacent to this one. Somewhere easy for him to get.