Chapter VII:

The Deep Jungle

Kiera followed the gorilla for a long time. Kiera remained silent, and walked cautiously next to her ape friend as to not frighten her. She was amazed of the trust this ape had put in her. She wasn’t sure if she and the gorilla were friends, but she was grateful to see a friendly face.

.

When they got to a wall of towering stalks of yellow bamboo, the gorilla stopped. Kiera paused as well.

“What’s wrong?” Kiera asked.

The gorilla looked at her, then gestured to the bamboo field.

“I…don’t understand. What are you trying to tell me?”

The gorilla grunted. She steadily approached the field and pulled some of the bamboo shoots back, and gestured forward again. Kiera realized.

“Oh! You want me to go in there?” she signed.

The gorilla nodded. Kiera nodded.

“Okay, I see” said Kiera, “You don’t wanna go with me?”

The gorilla took a step back and grunted.

“Alright. I understand” she said, “Thank you.”

.

Suddenly, there was muffled voices. The gorilla jumped. She hastily backed up, and ran back into the bushes. Kiera turned around, startled, and disappointed. However, when the heard the voices again, she heard a familiar voice.

“Sora?”

She ran into the fields, pushing back the tough bamboo shoots and tramping through the jungle.

.

Finally, she made it to the other side. She gasped. There was a massive cutting among the bamboo: a series of four tents, two of them giant, the other two smaller, and numerous amounts of trinkets and whatnots littering about, such as a grandfather clock, dressers, a vanity mirror, cups and saucers, etc.

.

Just then, multiple figures came out of one of the tents. Three of them, were Sora, Donald, and Goofy!

“Sora! Donald! Goofy!”

Everyone stopped and spotted her. Sora grinned a huge happy smile.

“Kiera!” Sora, Donald, and Goofy cried.

Kiera ran towards them and gave Sora a hug.

“I’m glad you’re safe! I was worried about you!” Sora exclaimed, “Tarzan was going to help me look for you, but it looks like we don’t need to now!

“Tarzan?”

Sora looked over his shoulder and saw a man with a sharp, triangular chin, long brown dreadlocks, and baby blue eyes, hunched over and wearing only a loincloth.

“Oh! You’ve found her! Excellent!” Said a young woman, her brownish blonde hair tied back into half-ponytail with a brown shirt and green skirt.

“Who’re you?” Kiera asked.

“Oh, this is Jane Porter! She’s a friend of Tarzan!” Sora explained, “Apparently, she and her father came from across the sea to study gorillas.”

Kiera thought back to the gorilla that had led her here.

“Oh really?” She asked.

.

“Yes, but unfortunately Tarzan refuses to take us to them!” A man with a large shotgun an suspicious looking mustache strolled his way in front, “And what’s worse is that the dear Professor Porter is missing!”

“Missing? Professor?” Kiera asked.

“Yes, my father. We got separated during one of our trips into the jungle and we can’t find him anywhere” Jane explained.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go look for him!” Kiera cried.

“Wait just a moment young lady” said the gunman, “There are monsters crawling about the jungle. You’re just a child.”

Kiera chuckled dryly, “Ahuh, yeah, a child with a massive sword!”

Donald and Goofy cleared their throats nervously. The man looked over his shoulder suspiciously at the animalistic duo.

“Nevertheless, I insist I assist you and your friends. If the monsters haven’t already overrun the forest, the gorillas will be furious.”

Kiera raised an eyebrow. She didn’t trust his plastic formality and fabricated heroism. This guy had an angle, and Kiera intended to find out what.

“Alright Clayton” Jane agreed, “You can go with them; and I’m coming too.”

Clayton scoffed. “Miss Porter, surely it is better for you to stay at the camp, where it’s safe!”

Tarzan looked at Kiera for a moment before saying something incoherent that appeared to be some kind of gorilla sounds.

“He-he, hoo-hoo-ha.”

“Um…pardon?” asked Kiera.

“He’s been doing that. He doesn’t seem to know much English. But he said he knows where Kairi and Riku are” said Sora.

Tarzan turned to Jane.

“Jane, stay. Clayton, stay. Tarzan, friends, go find father” he declared.

“Tarzan are…are you sure?” asked Jane.

Tarzan dug his feet into the ground and straightened, quickly overtaking Jane in height. Tenderly, he took her hands. Jane was surprised, and chuckled sheepishly at his touch

“Jane, stay. If Jane get hurt, Tarzan will be sad” he told her, slowly, and earnestly.

Jane seemed flustered, but flattered at the same time. A smile crawled onto Kiera’s lips.

“Tarzan and Jane are in love with each other. I just know it! They just don’t want to say!” 

.

Jane’s hands slowly curled up into Tarzan’s, staring longingly at their hold. Then, she looked up and nodded.

“Alright, Tarzan. I’ll stay.”

Tarzan nodded back.

“Be safe, alright?”

Tarzan smiled.

“Tarzan live in jungle all his life. He knows the way.”

Jane chuckled.

“Of course.”

Kiera leaned over to Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

“He seems to be speaking English clearly when Jane’s around” she noted with a whisper.

Her friends noticed what she meant, and snickered mischievously.

“Alright gang! Let’s go!” Sora announced.

.

“What are you puttin’ in~~~?”

A boy pulled out a wooden key, shaped just like a keyblade with a name scribbled on it, which Kiera couldn’t clearly decipher. 

“How ’bout this?” he asked. 

“But~~~,” Kiera gasped, “that’s what~~~ gave you. Are you sure?” 

“Yup!” replied Ventus with a confident smile, “I don’t need it if I’ve got~~~~~~ and Kiera. Our best memories are still ahead!” 

He placed the keyblade it in the treasure chest. 

“What about you Kiera?” 

“Well,” said Kiera, “the one thing I treasure the most is something I couldn’t put in a chest. It would be too big.” 

“What is it?” 

Kiera was hesitant for a moment, then she beamed. “Isn’t it obvious? ~~~!”

Everyone looked at her for a moment, as if she had gone insane.

“Well, ~~~is too big to put in a treasure chest right?” Kiera argued, “Besides, he wouldn’t like it in there all squished!” 

Everyone laughed.

.

Kiera giggled. Then, she clutched her chest. Once again her heart ached with sorrow, something she only felt whenever she would picture this boy. She wrapped her fingers around the locket and clenched it.

“Ventus…Who are you?” 

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Double upload! ^^

So, little fun fact about me: My family has a large collection of Disney classics on VHS. Tarzan was one of those VHS’ I fondly remember watching. So I was estatic when it was in Kingdom Hearts I. Problem was, I hated the awkward dialogue and little-to-no story. It was as if they couldn’t decide whether they wanted to tell their own little pocket story in the Tarzan universe, or just use the original movie plot, so they just awkwardly mushed them together. This is my attempt at making it a bit more coherent. Enjoy!