Una Rosa para Incendio
It was after Blaze had sealed Iblis away, after the future had changed. The sun was now cutting through the sky as the clouds of volcanic ash dissipated, shining on one lonely white hedgehog that was missing his best friend.
But sealing Iblis away had been the right thing to do. Now the world was better, and there was more and better food, since plants now had all the sunlight they needed to grow.
That's what had gotten him thinking. She had loved flowers. Back when Iblis roamed, only a few flowers dared to poke through the layers of volcanic ash on the ground. He had found an old seed catalog, from back before Iblis, when people used to grow flowers because they could.
He had looked through the catalog and found a rose that was named 'Blaze.' He didn't know what a rose was, but it looked pretty, so he decided to try and find one and plant it for Blaze.
But during the years when Iblis had roamed free, any decent land that received one or two hours of sunlight a day had been used to grow food. No one had time to grow flowers.
He searched near and far, but to no avail. Finally, when he was about to give up in despair, he found someone who had managed to keep one alive through Iblis' reign. The human who had the rose was willing to give him a slip of it. He learned that it mean he could have a branch off it. He was to take and plant it, then cover it with a clear glass jar – if he could find one- for one week.
So he took the rose, and planted it on the slope of hill. He and Blaze used to spend a lot of time here when they weren't fighting Iblis. Despite his inability to obtain a glass jar, the rose grew anyway. It was a climbing rose, but he didn't know what that meant. Since there was nothing close it could climb up, the rose reached for a nearby tree and started to climb it instead.
He took good care of the rose. In a way it was his tribute, a tribute to his best friend, who had sacrificed herself to save the world. Finally, one day in summer, it burst forth in all its flowering glory, covering the plant and the tree it climbed up with beautiful, bright red flowers. Without even thinking, he reached to pick one, and got pricked by the thorns.
"Ouch." He muttered as he looked at the dot of blood that was staining his glove. But life was like that. You couldn't have roses without thorns. He had a beautiful world, a fixed timeline.
And his best friend wasn't here to share it with him.
He reached back to the rose and picked a flower, being careful to avoid the thorns. A Blaze rose. A rose for Blaze.
Before he even realized, two teardrops fell onto the rose.
"Silver, Silver!"
Shocked, he looked up, only to see her coming towards him.
"Blaze!" He jumped and ran to meet her; he threw his arms around her neck.
"Blaze." Silver the Hedgehog couldn't stop the tears. They were happy tears; tears of joy at being reunited with his best friend.
"Silver, it's so good to see you again." Blaze said.
"Is it really you?"
"Of course it's me, silly goose. What do you think?"
"But…you sealed Iblis away, and then you left and…" Silver stopped to wipe the tears off his face.
"I did leave, but I'm back now." Blaze told him. "And I'm here to stay." Then she turned and saw the tree. "Whoa. What is that?" She asked.
"It's a blaze rose." Silver explained. "I planted it for you because…I thought it would remind me of you."
"That is so sweet of you." Blaze's eyes were bright. Silver smiled, unable to contain his joy at seeing his best friend. Maybe it was a lucky rose.
Whatever a rose is.
T.A.R.N.S.: And, there it is. My first ever Silver Story. This is probably somwhat based on my Maria's Rose drabble, which you can find in my drabble collection. Anyway, I gotta run. L8R!