The Heavy Duties Of A Keyblade Master part 1

If asked, Aqua would admit that she felt a little nervous at first about leaving the Land of Departure. She had been on reconnaissance missions to other world before, but those were short trips to say the least, and usually Terra or Master Eraqus had accompanied her. Now, she was alone. It was up to her to not only find Terra, but Ventus too, who had run off in the confusion. Aqua let out a sigh. She really wished that things could just go back to being like they were in the old days. Life was far simpler back then, true to the saying. The blue-haired woman was actually starting to regret ever trying to become a Keyblade Master in the first place...only just a little bit, of course.

Drifting through space on her Keyblade Glider, she eventually caught sight of a new planet. It was her first adventure for the sake of the mission. There weren't many pathways open yet, and checking out every world she came across was her best bet at locating her two friends. Aqua flew in a little closer; it was a world covered with both lush forests and dusty valleys. She could even make out what appeared to be a tiny cottage, and a castle too. It was a populated world, after all. Aqua was glad; the search would be much quicker with some human help, as long as they were friendly. No matter what, she wouldn't let Master Eraqus down. Aqua took a deep breath.

'Well, here goes nothing!' she thought, and flew into the planet's surrounding atmosphere.

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Aqua stepped up towards the cottage. She was almost shocked by how peaceful and quiet everything was. She heard barely a sound except the occasional twittering of birds and the splashing of the tiny stream. The wet grass crunched underneath her feet as she walked. Aqua wondered if she should call out, or just knock on the cabin door. It didn't have a lock, so she could just easily walk in on her own, but that would be rude. She didn't know what to do.

"Hey! Who're you?" a voice suddenly exclaimed from behind her.

Aqua jumped. She spun around to see seven small, human-looking figures marching towards her in a perfectly straight formation. They all looked very similar, with bulbous noses, bearded faces (except for one), and patched old clothes. The Key-blade Master could not help but stare; she had never seen people that looked like this before. She knelt forward a little to put herself at eye level with them.

"Hello...my name is Aqua. I'm, err, new around here. Who are all of you?"

"I'm Happy!" exclaimed the roundest of the dwarfs.

"My name is Doc."

"I'm...I'm Sleepy..."

"The name's Grumpy!"

"Sneezy."

"I'm Bashful!"

"And this guy," Grumpy pointed at the smaller dwarf beside him, "He's Dopey. He don't talk much."

Aqua giggled. She was liking this new world already. "Wow...you guys sure have some interesting names! So they're like your personalities too, right? That's clever! So, you all live together in the cottage over here?" She gestured towards the humble little structure.

"That's right!" Sneezy replied, but then he lowered his head, and the other dwarfs joined him in their sadness, "Well, there was actually...an eighth person too..."

"An eighth person?"

"Snow White!" Bashful proclaimed with unnecessary exaggerations.

"Snow White? I'm guessing from her name that she isn't a dwarf like you guys?"

Doc shook his head. "Nope, she's a tall woman all right. Let's go inside; we'll explain better in there."

The dwarfs led Aqua inside of the cottage. It was quite cluttered, barely leaving much room to walk around. However, that wasn't what caught Aqua's attention first. What drew her eye away was the fact that an entire buffet's worth of food was sitting atop the wooden table. Banana cream pie, apple sauce, roasted ham, spiced duck, chocolate pudding, and fresh bread, to name just a few dishes were present. It all smelled heavenly. Aqua spontaneously remembered how she had been so nervous about the master exam that she'd skipped breakfast. She was starving like nothing else, and never before had she seen so much food in one place. Much to her humiliation, her empty stomach decided to let out a hungry roar right then and there. Doc turned to her, chuckling.

"Ho ho ho, you must be pretty hungry, eh? You can help yourself, if you'd like."

Aqua was too embarrassed to discuss it, her cheeks burning. Instead, she asked, "...Why is all of this food here?"

Doc clasped his hands together and lowered his head, replying, "It was supposed to be for all of us and Snow White to enjoy, but she's disappeared. We tried our best to find her, we really did, but...oh, we don't know what to do anymore. None of us can even bear to eat when we're so worried about her safety like this."

"Oh, I see! She got lost in the woods? Would you like me to go and find her?" Aqua offered.

"What?" Doc seemed genuinely surprised, "You? But...but the forest is very dangerous recently! Would you really try to rescue Snow White for our sake?"

"Of course! I may be on a mission currently, but a Keyblade Master can't just ignore the cries of the innocent either! I'll go-" Suddenly, Aqua's stomach roared again, and the delicious scent of the food drifted past nostrils, "...After I just eat a little. I'm kinda hungry." She grinned sheepishly at the dwarfs.

"Oh! Oh, yes, of course! Fighting on an empty stomach is never a good idea!"

Aqua sat herself down at the table. The first thing she reached for was a leg of fried chicken. She licked her lips; it looked absolutely delicious. She sank her teeth into the toasted flesh. It tasted just as good as it appeared. Aqua finished the entire thing in only a few minutes, placed the cleaned bone onto her plate, and took another leg. She also shoved a loaf of bread into her mouth, and several spoonfuls of apple sauce. She loved all of it. Master Eraqus wasn't the greatest cook, so his meals always left something to be desired. This food, however, had no problems to be found whatsoever. It was the kind of cooking she had only dreamed about before. For some reason, she didn't want to stop, nor could she stop. Even though every ounce of common sense told her otherwise, she kept on eating.

"Um...miss? I hate to be rude, but aren't you going to go and save Snow White?" Sneezy asked.

Aqua had completely blocked out all unnecessary noise around her. More and more of the food disappeared from the table and into her expanding belly. Her flat abs gradually pooched outward, becoming rounder, tougher, bloated-looking. She was too drawn into the food. Everything that was edible in front of her, even food that she normally wouldn't touch, was welcomed with a degree of unrestrained gluttony. Aqua was like a hog at a trough, and if she had realized this earlier, she would have been quite ashamed. Instead, she ate and ate until she felt about to burst.

"Oooh..."

Leaning back in her seat, the Keyblade Master unleashed an unladylike belch from her crumb-coated lips. She cradled her orb-shaped belly like she would have a child. It hurt so much, but it felt so good at the same time. She was slowly slipping out of her food-induced state and back into reality. She belched again, and rubbed her eyes. As if awakening from a long dream, Aqua's eyes bulged when she saw the towering pile of dishes sitting in front of her. She just couldn't believe it.

"Wow...did I...did I really eat this much?" she asked to no one in particular.

Grumpy took a step forward. He didn't look too happy, as usual. "You probably would have eaten everything if you could, ya crazy girl! What were you thinking?"

"I...I don't know..." Aqua stared at her own palms as if they were suddenly covered in fur, "Why did I do that...?"

"Never mind that! What about Snow White? She's all alone somewhere in those woods! She needs your help! Stop lolly-gagging!"

"Y-You're right...let me just...oof!" The bluenette's attempts at standing up were all failures. Her belly was just too heavy and full. She clutched her stomach again, moaning; it would take a few minutes before the pain would subside. She was somewhat disgusted with herself for having such clouded judgment. How could she look Master Eraqus in the eye, or her friends for that matter, when she had chosen mere food over them?

Suddenly, the door of the cottage swung wide open. Everyone's attention was instantly caught. A beautiful young woman, out of breath and covered in minor bruises, stumbled inside. The dwarfs collectively gasped out loud. They watched for a moment as the girl crumbled to a heap on the floor.

"Snow White!" They cried. The dwarfs wasted no further time; scurrying around the collapsed woman, they carefully lifted her up and brought her over to the nearest chair.

"That's...Snow White?" Aqua honestly hadn't expected 'Snow White' to be so pretty. She was like a pretty little doll, all the way down to her clothing.

It didn't take long before Snow White woke up. As expected of his name, Doc was able to patch up all of Snow White's wounds before she even opened her eyes. Once she had pulled herself together, Snow White explained that she had been attacked by a number of strange, purple creatures in the woods, ones that she'd never seen before. They were constantly chasing after her. She could have easily been killed.

"And the only reason I was able to make it back here to all of you," Snow White explained in her sickeningly-sweet voice, "Was because a boy with blonde hair saved me. I didn't even get to ask him his name, but he had a sword with him...it didn't look like any kind of sword I've seen before though. It was like a...a key, I suppose."

Aqua found the strength to jump to her feet. "A blonde boy? With a sword like a key? You saw him?"

"Yes...and who are you, exactly?"

"Where did he go?"

"I'm not sure. The last thing I saw on the way out of the forest was someone in some kind of suit, flying into the sky...it was just so confusing..." Snow White buried her face behind her hands, too exhausted to say much else.

Aqua knew what she had to do. Ven had clearly been on this world, and was the one who rescued Snow White. However, if what the girl said was true, then he was long gone already. No doubt it meant that he wasn't far behind Terra either. Aqua started for the door; she couldn't waste time stuffing her face while both Ven and Terra were getting further and further away from her.

"Hey, where ya going?" Grumpy called out from behind her.

"I'm really sorry, but there's something I have to do! Thank you very - burp - thank you very much for the food! It was wonderful!"

"What? All you do is come here and eat our food despite saying you would help us? I hope you never come back, you greedy wench!"

As soon as she was outside, Aqua slammed her hand upon the armor guard on her shoulder, summoning her full-body suit. To accommodate for her bloated stomach, the armor now provided a more bulging midsection. It almost made her look like she was in the middle stages of pregnancy. Aqua blushed underneath her helmet; it was embarrassing, but necessary nonetheless. The young woman hopped onto her Keyblade-Glider, and shot off into the sky, quickly breaking through the planet's atmosphere and back into space. She looked around, but saw no sign of Ven or Terra. She sighed.

'It looks like this is going to take longer than I thought...and I just hope I don't get caught up with food again like that, whatever caused me to lose control...'