"-Then the boulder ran right over me-or it would have, but I was already burrowed in the ground. It was tooooooooo slow!" Knuckles expressed yet another of his treasure hunting tales to Tikal and Shade. The grin across his face was wide. His right hand came up from below the table and slapped a small, gold statue in front of him. The object was only three inches tall and roughly looked like a female hedgehog. "Doesn't it look neat?" He further relished in the glory of his tale.

Tikal and Shade were busy stuffing food inside their mouths-unable to respond. "Hm. . ." Tikal chewed and swallowed. "Knuckles, is that a hedgehog-not an echidna?" She looked at the statue across the plates of beans and maize with interest.

"As a matter of fact-it is." He took a closer look at the object himself. "I know, it's strange right? I've seen hedgehogs depicted on the walls of Sandapolis, but almost never in the form of a small statue like this." He commented.

Shade continued to indulge in her food. The traditional Knuckles clan dish was strange-but she found most of it enjoyable.

"Any Hedgehogs in Sandapolis were usually lower class citizens." Tikal explained. Her wooden fork stirred against her plate as she scooped up more corn. "The Ivus clan often had them as war prisoners. I think. . ." She stopped, and looked at the statue more closely. "-Ah, I know who this is!" Her sudden expression was filled with enthusiasm. "Her dress-and her headband, this must be Celi of the Ocuus! Of course, why didn't I think of her before?" The echidna seemed somewhat upset with herself for not noticing sooner.

"Celi who?" Knuckles questioned.

"Celi of the Ocuus." Tikal explained. "Rumor has it, thousands of years ago, that during the first expanse of the Ivus Tribe, a god by the name of Ocuus visited Celi and gave her a mirror which showed her whatever she wanted most. Celi at first wanted to use the mirror to free her people. Instead, she decided to bargain with her echidna lover-a great prince of whom she was bound as a servant. Together, the two used the mirror to find the location of hiding enemies and their leaders. Wiping them out, the Ivus clan more than tripled in size, but admist all their prosperity, the mirror stopped working. . ."

"What do you mean? Why would it stop?"

"The lovers became complacent with the size of their empire, and rather than fighting the remaining hedgehog clans and uncovering the location of the Master Emerald, they desired each other more than any war. Whenever they looked into the mirror, they could only see each other. They were unwilling to let anyone else have the mirror lest it be used against them, so instead they hid, never to be found again. It's only a legend, and some people point to other factors leading to their sudden expansion. Claiming that a god gave you something does help establish your right to rule after all."

"I bet it does. . ." Knuckles looked off into the distance in a puzzled fashion. His eyes settled on Shade for a brief moment before quickly looking away. He didn't want to get caught staring at her, and ever since she had come to Angel Island, their interaction had been awkward at best. "What did the mirror look like?" He asked.

"Hm?" Tikal perked up "I hear it was made of a black and purple material. Few people ever saw it besides the prince and his lover, why?"

"I'm thinking. . . thinking about murals that might have depicted it." Knuckles answered while continuing his gaze into the distance. "I think I've seen images of it before, but I never realized it was that important."

"Things aren't always what they seem." Tikal continued to eat and speak less.

Yeah. . . not always what they seem. Knuckles thought to himself. His eyes returned to his plate-there wasn't much left to eat, but he had lost his appetite. Slowly, he finished his meal and stood up to thank Tikal. "Thanks for making dinner again." He mentioned before walking off.

"Of course-wait, already?" Tikal was shocked that Knuckles was done eating-and without having seconds either.

"Yeah-I uh-I have some things to take care of. I guess I should say thanks for reminding me." He told the half truth of his situation.

"Okay Knuckles. . . but if you're hungry, you can always come back later." Tikal almost seemed upset that she had made too much to eat, and would have to preserve some of it.

Slowly, The echidna's feet tread across the open ground. The small town he traversed only consisted of three houses. was the closest thing to a true echidna community rising up on the face of Mobious once more. Upon entering his own house, the guardian's pace picked up. It wasn't long before he had gripped the edges of his rug, and pulled it back to reveal a trap door. Once it was open, Knuckles found himself climbing down a wooden ladder. He entered a large open basement which he had dug out himself. The room was filled with rings, chests, even books. A wide assortment of old artifacts he had been collecting since he was on Angel Island. The room glowed with a yellow glare thanks to the ring's reflections of special crystal lamps he had installed throughout it. In one corner, the echidna opened up a trunk full of more "delicate" items. Soon enough, his hands felt the black handle of an old, and curious object he had taken a while back. He pulled out a mirror-one like Tikal had described. The glass was slightly dusty, but he could easily polish it off. With his arm wiping across the surface, he peered into it for the first time in forever. Knuckles had looked into the mirror in the past, but since he had gathered it with a number of other items at once, he hadn't properly reviewed it.

If the mirror shows what we want the most, then why didn't I see anything in it the first time I looked at it? Maybe it was dirty. . . He wondered as he held the mirror up and deeply gazed into it. A few seconds passed and nothing came of it. "Figures." He mumbled. "I guess it's just a fake. . . who knows how many of these may have been made in tribute to the original legend. I don't even recall if it matches the one I saw in the murals." Knuckles kept the mirror by his side and climbed back up the ladder. With his treasure stash secure, he made his way back into the "Town square" and brought himself to Shade's location. She was already going back to Tikal's house with a handful of dishes-dishes Knuckles had felt obligated to leave behind for the two of them to clean up. . .

"Hey Shade, Tikal's story got me thinking. Maybe you'd like to have this." Knuckles reached forward with the artifact.

"A mirror?" Shade spoke for the first time that evening.

"Yeah-uh. . . you like mirrors, right? Since you're a girl!" He attempted to justify his offer, only realizing too late how me must be sounding. "Not that you're like most girls, it's just. . . well. . . a gift-that you'd like. You'd like it because-"

"Thank you Knuckles." Shade realized the unfortunate position Knuckles was in and relieved him of it. "It's close to my color. I could use it." She was rather honest, and yet inoffensive with her conduct.

"Sure thing. . ." Knuckles attempted not to sweat and hoped that Shade hadn't seen right through him. Dang it! She'll never appreciate me if I keep acting like this, sometimes I wish we were just fighting robots again, at least then she could see what I'm good for! He vented in his head the disaster that was his situation. Shade had chosen to live with him and Tikal on Angel Island-not because she liked company, but because she actively avoided it. It made the very act of talking to her feel invasive, and unlike Knuckles, she didn't grow up with a total lack of potential mates in her future. She had been in the army-constantly surrounded by males, probably males who were competing for her as well. Knuckles believed his species was completely gone, and Rouge's more annoying side had kept her from having a sincere affect on his ability to interact with her.

Knuckles trailed off. He met Tikal who had started to clean up dinner. Picking up some of the dishes, he followed her to the cauldron she had laid out over an open fire. "Knuckles. I need you to get something for me, can you make time for it tomorrow?"

"Time for what?"

"I've been meaning to cook us up a treat-I want to smoke some fish, but to do it, I need some special wood. Pachacamac used to love this recipe and made sure I learned it at a young age. I think you and Shade would like it too!"

"That sounds like fun." Knuckles responded earnestly. "What kind of wood do you need?"

"I need black cherry tree wood. Can you find some?"

"I think so, but if I had a legendary mirror it would be way easier. . ."

"Hm" Tikal laughed to herself "You would wish everything was that easy wouldn't you?"

"Why not?" Knuckles argued. "Sometimes, my job guarding the Master Emerald is hard enough as it is. . ." His eyes scrunched up as he thought of the more dangerous places he had been looking for the various shards of the Master Emerald."

"You mean when you aren't sleeping on some corner of the island or worried about Eggman showing up."

"It is nice that he leaves me alone now that I've proven he can't get it. . . but I still have to stay aware. . . "

"We all wish we had some magic artifact to make our lives easier." Tikal suddenly felt the need to recite more (sometimes boring!) echidna history on Angel Island. "Actually, the story of the Occus Mirror doesn't always end with Tribe Ivus's expansion. There are a few different versions of the story, including one where Celis's son tried to find his parent's mirror."

"What happened then?" Knuckles indulged his supposed Aunt's desire to tell the tale.

"He found it with the help of his best friend, however, upon looking into it, he could only see his own reflection. In his anger, he threw the mirror down and destoryed it. Then his friend belittled him for not looking into it long enough. His friend earnestly believed that the mirror just needed more time to focus, but Celi's son believed that he was so narrsistic that he only cared about himself. This made it impossible to see anything through it. With the mirror destroyed, he claimed that his parents had lied about it's power and merely had a large network of crafty spies working for them. This story is generally regarded as an untrue legend made by later sages."

"To narcissistic-either that-or he wasn't patient enough?" Knuckles spoke under his breath a little too loudly.

"What was that Knuckles?"

"Nothing. . . I. . . I'm going to look for that cherry tree now." Knuckles explained as he ran off. Worried that he had given Shade a fully functioning mirror, he ran towards her house and circled around it so that Tikal couldn't see him. He slipped through the open door while she was looking away. It was time to give that mirror one more chance. . .