The Ashes of Burnt Books

By: Fantasie in D Minor

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the sequels. The dreadfully complicated terms, which my speech can't quite get rid of, however, are mine, unfortunately enough.

Summary: Yuffie wanted to desperately alleviate her encroaching ennui, but the sought after entertainment that she received, wasn't quite what she had in mind.

Invisible

My head ached, my lungs weren't cooperating, my heart was delivering blood to the rest of my useless, at the moment, body in the utmost lethargic manner, and, to top it all off, the aftertaste of the foul, lime-green liquid was still prominent in my abused mouth. In other words, the situation couldn't get any better…but as I've, unfortunately, discovered, it had the potential of getting much worse. Not particularly sure what triggered that conjecture…perhaps it had something to do with the pleasant roaring that was loud enough to drown out the insistent ringing in my ears? Eh, whatever the case, my adrenaline was quite straightforward in telling me to get a move on it.

And I would have. I really would have. There was just a miniscule issue that my ambition proved useless against: the lack of blood circulating through my immobile muscles. I put in the effort to move; I really did. The aforementioned effort, however, did not produce any favorable results. My body remained as motionless as before, sprawled, as I would imagine, on the cold floor.

And as luck would have it—I don't know what I've done to that whore, but it never seems to be on my side—the source of the aforementioned, pleasant roaring was drawing closer at an exceedingly alarming rate. In the building panic, I managed the elusive feat of opening my eyes and clawing pointlessly at the floor; that, however, as you might have guessed, did not bring me any closer to a standing position.

By that point, admittedly, I began seriously considering the color of my coffin as well as the flattering speeches that would be made about my oh-so wonderful persona at the Eulogy. Such an abundance of compliments and I'll be dead during it! It's rather sad really. (I believe it's worth mentioning here that such a reflexive reaction got me rather unsettled, to say the least.) But I digress.

I could hear the individual (or what I hoped was an individual), who was rapidly approaching only moments before, slow to rhythmic fall of lethargic footsteps. Soon thereafter a pair of feet swam into my hazy line of sight…or rather, a pair of what should have been feet. For, in fact, I was not able to distinguish any such human appendage. I was, to clarify the matter, faced with a pair of what appeared to be hoofs. They almost looked like they belonged to a horse, actually. I briefly contemplated asking whether the owner utilized horseshoes, but smartly enough decided not to voice the concern. It didn't seem like such innocent curiosity would be appreciated.

So, smartly enough, I stayed completely silent. What was I supposed to say to the holder of such animalistic limbs, anyway? 'My, Mr. Monster-Man-Thing, you have such a wonderful bass roar! You'd sound wonderful in the nearest opera house. Ever tried singing—er, roaring with the London orchestra?' For some odd reason, I didn't think that'd go over too well.

"How have you entered my castle?" I sighed in exasperation. Here I was, sprawled out on the floor, completely immobile, most probably dieing, and he was inquiring as to how I ended up in his castle? The nerve!

"Through the goddamned back door." I bit my tongue almost immediately. My self-control was, obviously enough, waning rapidly. Not that I could brag about having an abundance of it to begin with. I would also like to note that through this whole ordeal, I was still sprawled eagle-style on the floor and only faced with the pair of hoofs.

One can only imagine my surprise when the figure in front of my form did not answer the cheeky comment, but rather another, playful male voice respond to the originally posed question.

"Through the overly enormous front doors, of course. Or is that not why they were built?" This guy—whoever the heck he was—was worse than me. At least I had enough decency to say 'the back door.' The furry individual in front of me, for I still had no energy to identify with my desire to stand, growled menacingly. For some reason, I was getting the distinct impression that the hoofed personage wasn't the bad guy.

"What do you want in my castle?"

"Just a few flowers. I've heard your gardens were a rare sight." I had a tough time telling whether the response was sarcastic or held a drop of truth within its midst, but the mocking feminine tone, which the male voice assumed, seemed to support the former.

"Get out." I was starting to further identify with the apparent owner of the castle.

"What exquisite manners! I suppose the only aspect, of becoming fully aesthetically pleasing, that's missing is a human appearance." I must admit, I've had my share of poking fun at the hoofs, but that was below the belt. Apparently, the individual closest to me agreed. In a moment, the aforementioned hoofs disappeared from my line of sight with a feral growl, and the sounds of, probably, both men making their rapid way farther from my still, sprawled form could be heard echoing off the near walls.

Just one question remain, consuming my tired mind: did they not see me? Surely, that was an impossible feat. I was lying, as I've already had the pleasure of informing you, sprawled on the floor, most probably in the middle of a large hall. Did they ignore me, then? Perhaps a possibility, but wouldn't a female, stretched out in the middle of the scene present a hindrance to the both?

Both possibilities seemed plausible, but rather far-fetched. Perhaps I was imagining things, but the feeling that I had during my being the witness to the short exchange…it was as if I was…invisible.

My agitation at such a realization sent my body back in motion. I strained enough to finally get a response from my sour muscles. Perhaps it wasn't so much strain, however, as the effects of the lime-green concoction wearing off. I was, to my grand delight, finally able to push off the floor ad assume a standing position.

Now that step one was accomplished…how did I get out of there?

A/N: Thank you so much for the review, and pardon the somewhat late update! This chapter isn't particularly long or informative, but crucial to laying out the plot. Mostly, just my twisted humor here XD But I hope you weren't too bored. I can move on to clarifying a few things next chapter and make it long Hope I've piqued your interests somewhat, though XD Please R&R!

Chaotic ReiThanks for the wonderful review XD Sorry if this chapter didn't exactly advance the plot much, but next chapter will definitely clear a few things.

Kawaii EyezI thank you for the feedback! And yeah, I totally agree, Yuffie does rock XD Actually, looks around conspiratorially this is not going to be a Clouffie or a Squiffie, but…it's a secret 0.o don't make me divulge stuff and make it less enjoyable XD I'm sure you'd be able to figure out who it is from the next chapter though! XDD