Author's note: This story has a bit more canon divergences that the other PRose stories, so I will clarify here: PRose is an AU series. For details on the divergences seen in the stories here, check my bio.
"Have a safe trip!"
"Remember to write!"
"Good luck!"
"We'll miss you!"
The purple cat raised a hand, his long spine-like hair bouncing about as he laughed. "We'll miss you too! We'll be back as soon as we can!" The group of Adabatian villagers cheered and waved goodbye to their most influential members. The cat turned to his darker-hued wife, a plump Maine coon with long ears. "Well, dear? Are you ready?"
The woman laughed. "Of course, Cesil. We've planned this expedition for years!" She leaned forward and kissed him. She looked up when they parted, leaning against his broad chest. "We're about to discover the secrets- of your family, and our race, and of the golden era of Mobians- the Great Peace! This is almost unbearably exciting!"
Cisel laughed, putting an arm around his wife. "Xiao, shouldn't I be the excited one? Ah, well," he shook his head, smiling kindly. "I'm just glad that you're coming with me."
A croaky voice interjected. "Well now, don't you go and forget about us!" Quina, the village elder, laughed affably. The frog was incredibly old, and was supposedly born immediately after the end of the Great Peace. He had insisted on coming along with the cats, supposedly as a translator. The two cats, and likely the entire village, knew that the real reason was more likely because he wanted to come, and that he didn't want to be separated from his young protegé. The child was standing by Quina now, an eight-year-old cat who had already begun to inherit his parent's thick, stocky appearance. The young cat smiled, his tail flicking mischievously and his odd, feral-like eyes glancing over to his mentor.
Xiao laughed. "Of course we wouldn't forget our precious Denko! And you too, Quina."
Cisel looked slightly more serious, looking closely at the two. "You know that you don't have to come if you don't want to. We aren't sure what kind of resistance we might run into, entering a GUN country, and Adabat might end up being safer..."
Denko shook his head, his large ears flopping around almost comically. "Don't be silly! Of course we want to come! Even though Adabat might be safer, we can't do anything just sitting around..." The young cat fumbled over his words slightly, and faltered, looking up at his parents nervously. "So...that's why we want to come along..."
Quina smiled, patting the young cat on the back. He had to reach up to do so, as the cat was already larger than he was. "Well said, Denko."
Cisel sighed and nodded, smiling slightly. "Alright then," he said, his eyes taking on a determined glint. "Let's go make the other villagers proud! To the Mystic Ruins!"
The people in the group gave nods of similar determination. With a final wave at the crowd seeing them off, they all boarded the plane.
The plane was supposed to land at Sapphire City, a large town sporting a major GUN base. The Station Square had a train between it and the Mystic Ruins, and so it was the most reasonable destination. The group sat near the center of the plane, the cat couple sitting in one row, Denko and Quina in the one next. The group talked jovially among themselves with an infectious excitement, and the flight attendant was earnestly cheerful as she announced that their plane was soon to depart.
"I've never flown before," Denko said, looking around with a sudden apprehension. "Will it be safe?"
"Not getting cold feet now, are you?" Cisel asked, smiling. "Don't worry, planes are perfectly safe. The chances of us crashing are slim to none."
Soon the plane had coasted off of the runway and was in the air. Denko faded out of the conversation, looking around with interest instead. In the middle of Xiao giving an explanation on the finer points of ancient Echidnian culture, Denko realized something was wrong. He glanced over at his parents, enthralled with their conversation, before turning to Quina, who appeared to have fallen asleep. "Quina," Denko whispered urgently. The ancient frog woke up instantly, looking over at Denko seriously.
"Something is wrong."
The plane gave a hideous lurch. Screams were heard from around the plane, and Denko clamped his hands over his ears in surprise. Someone wearing a uniform stepped to the front of the plane, speaking into a microphone. "Please stay calm. We are landing the plane temporarily; your plane
attendant will go over the proper procedures you should follow." He stepped away from the microphone. Denko's ears were ringing, the loudness of the microphone making them sensitive and finely tuned. For a few brief seconds, he could hear everything in the plane; the engine sputtering on the other side of the plane, a dull crackle-roar outside growing louder, and the pilot muttering fiercely to the attendant- "We've been hit by something- this shouldn't have happened, we did maintenance the last time we were at Sapphire City- the weight of the plane will collapse in on itself..." And then the microphone turned back on, again drowning out all noise. Denko tensed, an ominous feeling in his chest and a ringing noise in his ears; the plane gave another lurch, and tipped over. Quina fell towards the other side of the plane, but Denko grabbed him, curling protectively around the frog- the sound of fire and screeching metal being torn apart was accompanied by the shrieks of people, and their voices sounded so familiar- his skin curled as his body was bathed in heat, his fur singing and his blood boiling- everything drowned out by a constant, high-pitched whine.
With one last jerk, it was over. Cautiously, Denko opened his eyes, lifting his head shakily. He felt burned, and a cutting pain cloaked his back. His fur was blackened or gone entirely, but his skin was hidden by a coating of sticky dark red. He looked down at Quina. The frog's eyes were closed, and his breathing even; he hung limply in Denko's arms. Denko didn't want to think about what had happened. He didn't want to look up.
He looked up.
The other side of the plane had been all but ripped apart, a fresh breeze coming in from the other side of the gaping wound. Corpses were strewn everywhere like the vines and foliage outside, colored in red and green. He stumbled out of his chair, his seat belt disconnecting from the seat and clinging to him by singed bonds, and he looked down when his foot ran into something warm. The shreds of a leather glove and the remnants of purple fur on a muscular, disembodied arm.
He ran out through the wound, stumbling into the jungle in shock. He quickly fell over with a cry, and looked through teary yellow eyes at his leg, twisted at an odd angle and flecked with white around the knee. He couldn't use it, he told himself blankly, and he dragged himself behind a tree, cradling the small frog in his arms and trying not to look behind him at the wreckage.
The first time he went into Station Square was a month after the crash. He had built a small lean-to near a spring he found, and was looking for help attending to his and Quina's injuries. His fur had mostly grown back, frayed and poofy, giving him an even larger appearance. Several people murmured and laughed as he walked past, but his ears were ringing painfully, so he chose to ignore them. He looked around for some sign of a hospital, and eventually walked into a large building. It struck him suddenly how many humans were in the city, because the receptionist-a fluffy teal Pomeranian- was the first Mobian he had seen since he arrived. He walked up to her nervously. "Please help me. The plane I was on crashed. My friend is injured. I don't know if anyone else survived."
The Pomeranian looked over at him curiously. "Do you need something?" She asked in GUN common. Denko blinked in surprise. He didn't speak very much of the local language...
"Help," he tried again, speaking slowly. The Pomeranian's expression changed, and something about it made Denko uneasy.
"What's your name?"
Denko thought quickly. Did he have to translate his name too? What did it mean locally? He thought furiously, before settling on a translation.
"Big Cat."
The Pomeranian laughed.
"Big?" A young girl asked. Big looked down, surprised. Cream looked up at him with wide eyes. "Why do you live out here all alone?"
"I'm not alone," Big said slowly, nodding at the duo skipping rocks downstream. "Froggy is here."
"But it's only you two. Don't you ever wish that there was someone else with you?" Cream hugged his arm, and Big obligingly swung her gently. She cheered with delight, swinging her feet in the air.
"All the time," Big finally responded, looking down at the riverbed and seeing the faded scars of a long time past. Cream looked up at him, eyes brimming with curiosity and worry, so he continued. "But the people I wish were here can't be here, so I stay for them."
"Why can't they be here?" Cream asked. "Did something happen to them?"
"Yes." Big said simply. Cream climbed up onto the large cat's shoulder, sitting and looking into the water.
"Oh," she responded simply. The two sat in silence for a while, listening to the bubbling of the stream and the murmur of voices and distant splashes as Froggy tried to explain to Amy how to skip stones. Finally Cream spoke again, her voice a timid whisper. "Does...does the reason they aren't here, have something to do with why Froggy is so..." Forgetful. Absentminded. Crazy. Lost. "...odd?"
"Yes."
"Do you look after him because you miss them?" Cream asked, looking at him with all the seriousness of a young child.
"No," Big said. I stay here because it's my fault Quina is like this, it's because of me that they're gone. "Froggy is my friend. I can't leave him." Big looked at his reflection. "And I have something I have to do..."
Cream fell silent. She didn't often hear him speak in his own language anymore. They stared into the water a while longer, before she worked up the nerve to ask her last question. "Were you called Big when you lived in Adabat?"
Big turned away from the water self-consciously and gave a humorless smile, standing up on a never-healed leg. He started to limp towards the two Mobians by the river, Cream sitting expectantly on his shoulders. He answered.
"I've always been Big."