What a World...

The sun was just barely above the horizon as Nina made it to a small cleft in the side of the mountain. Her 13th birthday had just passed and as always, Korari hadn't noticed. Instead he only broke the news that she was going to be an aunt.
As she sat down and dangled her feet over the edge, her muscles ached from the climb and the training she had been doing with her brother. She had always wanted to be like him in her fighting techniques and he had just recently started to teach her his moves. "Ow..." she groaned as she looked at the trail that led to the mountain.

Shade was walking toward the mountain with Sora and Hikari to go swimming in the lake far below the cliff inside Nevermore Cave.

Looking down at the trail, Nina found the three bodies walking towards the cave. She sighed as she slowly climbed down the mountain. It was a pain to do so but she finally made it to the cave after a few minutes. Carefully she studied Shade, Does, and Hikari.

Once they were inside the cave, Shade free-fell into the water below. Hikari free-fell until she almost hit water, then slowwed herself down with fire so she wouldn't kill herself. Sora, with his strength and agility, climbed down the side of the cave fastly.

Silently, she crept into the cave after them and sat on the ledge above the large pool of water. The clear liquid wasn't that appealing to her especially since snow completely covered the ground outside and temperatures were freezing. As she watched the friends, she raised her eyebrows. "Watcha doin'?" She asked them curiously.

All three looked up at Nina. "Swimmin'" Shade said

She slowly started to swing her legs back and forth. "Interesting..." She replied, not removing her eyes from them. "Shade?" She asked after a few minutes.

Shade flicked the damp hair out of his eyes. "Yeah?"

"What side are you on, anyway?" She asked him with a childish innocence. She was curious for his side-changing confused her greatly.

Shade blinked. "My own." He replied. Sora splashed Hikari.

"But what does that mean?" She pressed, hoping to get some kind of answer that satisfied her. "Because you confuse me, you know. One minute you're hanging out with Korari and the next, you're side-by-side with that girl over there." She told him, pointing at Hikari.

"Taking sides is a little too complicated for me." Shade answered. "I'm not on a side. None of us are."

She started to think about that for a second for it took a minute to sink in. "Well that makes sense.. Although it's kind of interesting-- never mind. Anyway, um... Hikari, right? Yeah. Korari's keeping his promise. It's really hilarious!" She started to giggle. "I've never seen him work so hard!"

"I hope that's not a lie." Hikari said, floating on her back. Sora splashed Shade.

She immediately shook her head with a large smile. "Nope! I'm telling you the truth. You should see his face sometimes. It's priceless!"

Hikari laughed a bit. "Wow, really?"