She’d spent a good long time up on that mountain; at least a month. The lonely Winterhorn which had encased her in ice had sired an entire herd of fawns, and the Keyblade Master had her hands full taking care of them. Her fawns were not belligerent, but they were energetic and inquisitive, and often scampered away through the powdery snow, cavorting and whickering so that she knew they thought it was a game.

Aqua didn’t mind, of course. Her babies were, to pardon the pun, quite the little dears.

Eventually the herd grew fast enough and strong enough that Aqua knew that they didn’t need her protection and guidance anymore. Indeed, before long she found herself sometimes struggling to keep up with them in the deeper snows. They were made for winter landscapes, whereas she… wasn’t. Confident that her offspring were grown and ready to face the world (and, if she was being truthful, more than a little lustful to mother a few more) Aqua bade her farewells and left the mountain.

Her wandering feet took her to a familiar place; the jungle where she had met the beehive, an encounter that somehow seemed to have just happened yesterday while also simultaneously being a lifetime ago. She had been a different woman, then… different, and yet the same.

Her womb twinged at the thought of incubating some of those eggs again. Could she find the hive and spend more time as their eggbearer? Perhaps… but the Realm of Darkness was a crossroads of both time and space, and not easily navigable.

Yet there was small harm in trying.

She had been a few days in the jungle when she first realized she was being tracked. It was something small, little more than the snap of brittle branches, but her practiced ears knew unnatural sounds when they heard them. Aqua spun, summoning her Keyblade in an instant, a lattice of ice crystallizing at the tip and coating her blade with rime. Behind her, the jungle was quiet. There were vines swaying as if from a light breeze, and a few disturbed fronds, but otherwise… nothing.

Aqua had come this way before and already shown off her strength to the resident Heartless. Any creature that tried itself against her would therefore be inordinately brave… or very, very stupid.

Still, caution was never detrimental. Aqua stalked back, retracing her steps, ice spell still at the ready. Her eyes scanned the jungle. Though she’d spent a very significant amount of time in the Realm now (and had personally helped populate it) she hadn’t forgotten just how vicious the Heartless could be. A single misstep could cost Aqua both her heart and her chance to breed some sense into the creatures.

There was nothing behind her that she could see, but there were still signs of pursuit. Branches snapped clean that were too healthy to have broken naturally. Torn ferns that had been whole when she’d passed. And most damning: noticeably impressed earth. What made her stop was the size of the thing. The footprint was vaguely reptilian, with four digits: three in front and one in back. It was also enormous; a single one of the digits looked to be nearly as big as her arms. How had she missed a creature of such a large size?

A chittering sound hit her ears, and Aqua spun, her Keyblade still carrying magic on its tip. Her eyes narrowed. There was nothing to be seen there in the jungle—nothing except a wavy, almost watery sensation, like air warped by heat. The watery sensation moved and she cursed, launching her spell. It burst against a tree, instantly cocooning the growth in frost.

She’d missed, but there was little doubt: a Heartless was on her trail.

Keeping her Keyblade level, Aqua turned, readying herself. Most Heartless were either blindly aggressive or meek and cowardly. This calculated pursuit was something new, something she hadn’t dealt with. Was the creature just curiously investigating her? Or did it have darker intentions?

Minutes passed with no sign of her chaser, so Aqua was forced to slowly resume her trek through the jungle, keeping a wary eye out. Yet signs of the illusory Heartless still showed themselves—distant noises, flashes of waving light behind vines or trees, and occasional fresh footprints, each as massive as the last.

Aqua didn’t know whether to be intimidated or impressed that such a titanic specimen could be so adept at keeping hidden.

As she continued journeying, the strange creature seemed to slowly be drawing closer and closer. Her tension spiking, Aqua decided to let it. If it was that big, then disguised or not, it would be easier to fight in close quarters.

Seemingly letting her guard down, the Keyblade Master dismissed her weapon with a yawn and settled against a giant moss-grown root as if to sleep. Keeping her eyes cracked open and her ears sharp, she readied herself. Unless it could phase through solid wood (unlikely) then the creature would have two approaches. The forward one, across the ground, or…

A sound touched her ears, the delicate brushing of a claw against wood, coming from right above her. Yes, the other approach was from above.

Summoning her Keyblade, Aqua unleashed a Thundaga spell with a cry, the lightning pealing across the jungle. She cartwheeled out from her position just in time; sparking and spasming, the invisible Heartless crashed down to the base of the tree in paralysis, careening its voice in shock. Illusions melting away like snow in spring.

Aqua’s breath caught. She had seen massive Heartless before, but this one took the cake. It most vividly resembled a bipedal chameleon, its scales a brilliant green overlaid with sweeping, sharp black patterns, almost like tattoos. Its eye was a vivid orange, and the by-now-familiar crossed heart sigil was present on its front. It was truly massive, by far eclipsing even the Dark Hide in size; a human such as herself was perhaps as tall as its knee. Even as it righted itself, holding itself hunched over to the ground, it was still easily at least triple her height. Later, for its behavior, she would dub it the “Stealth Sneak.” For now, all she knew was that it was a potential threat.

Aqua kept her Keyblade trained on the creature, the tip glowing with power. This would be a formidable adversary if it came to blows, though she had no doubt she could handle it. Still, she was yet again intrigued by its behavior. Upon attacking it, she had expected it to lash out, or scurry and flee once it was devoid of the element of surprise. Instead, the creature turned its head this way and that, casting an inquisitive gaze her way, clicking slightly. Its foreclaws clacked a few times—not an aggressive gesture, she realized, but something almost akin to a nervous tic. It didn’t seem to have been greatly damaged by her Thundaga spell.

Making a decision, Aqua took a step back, and then another, keeping her blade trained all the while. The Stealth Sneak didn’t move, still surveying her with that inscrutable gaze. Slowly, Aqua lowered her Keyblade, though she didn’t dismiss it. “What are you after?” she said warily. “Prey?”

The creature clicked and took a step forward but froze as Aqua immediately leveled her Keyblade with it again. It looked perturbed. Aqua frowned. The Stealth Sneak wasn’t the usual sort of creature she bred with. Large, powerful, and forward, it lacked the timidity or friendliness of her usual monstrous paramours. Yet, nor was it aggressive. And looking at its size and the fact that it could cloak, if it had wanted to bumrush her at the very start, it easily could have.

“No,” she murmured, “if you wanted my heart, you had multiple opportunities to act. So what are you after?”

After a minute, the lizard took a tentative step forward, and when Aqua didn’t react, another—and before long it was on her. Peering and chittering at her, the Stealth Sneak lowered one of its claws and with a level of gentleness that was, for its size, quite impressive, stroked her bare shoulder.

The Keyblade Master gasped. The touch was electric, sending her body racing with a wild thrill. Immediately she felt a flush of want down in her loins. This creature… did it have intentions? A powerful Heartless that didn’t hunt her as prey… it would make for an ideal mate.