Mad at Mouse Part 8

The Heartless swarmed in, and for a moment his world narrowed to the battle in front of him.

These Heartless were strong, and fast and extremely dangerous. Probably Natives.

Part of his attention was on the woman, waiting for an attack from that quarter, as she had to be powerful to control these Heartless, but most was evade, block, slash, cast.

A half second breather and he glanced in her direction. She had a snarl on her face, she looked furious, but she had yet to launch an attack in his direction.

Maybe she had no long range attacks?

Sharp claws came too close, drawing blood, and his attention snapped to the enemy in front of him.

Another three Heartless fell to his Keyblade, he took quick stock of the battlefield, dozens of Heartless remained but their attention was divided.

They were attacking the woman.

She wasn’t an enemy he realised with a sinking feeling. She wasn’t a fighter. The Heartless were wearing her down quickly.

The song, a spell? A status effect? Stun, or sleep, or maybe even confusion.

A spell he had broken.

One of the large bodied Heartless knocked her down and she went rolling, landing against the wall and not rising.

“No!” Mickey dashed forward, a single slashing movement from behind taking out the large body, and another dozen fell to his rush.

He cast cure, hoping it would be enough.

If he was pinned to one spot defending her, he knew the Heartless would overrun him, his advantage was his speed, mobility and aerobatics, he was not Goofy to take the heavy hits, he was not Donald with his barrier spells.

She took a shuddering breath and rose to her feet, a light axe clutched in her hands defensively.

Their eyes met again, and Mickey realised she was not much taller than he, and wafer thin.

She moved, blocking and diverting a hit meant for him, and she spun.

They were well matched, now they worked together. Neither stayed in one place for long, swirling and dashing, dodging and deflecting hits.

He quickly realised the Axe was not her weapon, she used it almost as a staff to block, or deflect, rarely did she used the head to wound.

Still, he could take advantage of the openings she created, he might be doing the main work of finishing these Heartless, but she distracted them and defended him.

What more could he ask of a civilian?

Then suddenly it was over. The Church was clear.

She sank to the ground, breathing heavily, and Mickey finally took a good long look.

She was darker than his first look had told him, streaks of grey in her otherwise white hair, a greyish tone to her skin where before she had seemed almost silvery white. And painfully thin.

Mickey knew his people, his world, tended more to roundness than some of the peoples out there, just look at Jack in Halloween Town to see the other end of the scale.

If she was of his people, he would be asking her to report to the infirmary for a check-up, and ensured someone made sure she was eating.

She took one last deep breath and looked up at him.

“Well.” It sounded like the start of a sentence but she didn’t go on.

“I’m Mickey, nice to meetcha!” Mickey declared, deciding to put his best face on the situation and offered his hand.

She glanced at his hand, before looking him in the eyes again and nodded, reaching forward to clasp his hand.

The World went Black.