Blaze's Point of View only

As the sun was shining through my windows, I slowly opened my eyes when the warmth of it hit my cheeks. Though, when I opened them, it wasn't the sun I was looking. Instead, I was gazing at a certain white hedgehog. I was puzzled by why he was in my room and, for that matter, was smiling down at me. I calmly asked, "Silver, what are you doing in my room?"

"Well, I wanted to wish you a happy birthday, just like you wished it to me yesterday.", he replied while putting both of his hands behind his head. I guess it was safe to say that despite the fact that he had turned 18, he was still as naïve as ever.

I did my best to keep calm, so I smiled a little nervously, "I'm glad you wish to celebrate my birthday, but couldn't you have waited until after breakfast?"

"I'm way ahead of you on that.", he told me before moving out of the way to reveal a tray filled with pancakes, tuna sandwich, and a glass of milk. I had to blink several times before actually realizing that he had prepared me a breakfast in bed. With a more authentic smile, I sat up and let him place the tray on my lap. He then continued to say, "As soon as you are done, you need to get dressed so we can get going."

I had stopped myself in the middle of cutting my pancakes when he said that. What could possible be his hurry? Oh, I hope he is not planning a surprise party. I have had my share of what qualifies as a party in my kingdom, and each one of them were just dreadful. How does anyone have fun when the ones that are "partying" are doing nothing, the music is as dull as a tin can, and what classify as presents are nothing more than dresses that I will never wear. So if he was talking to that silly koala, Gardon, about planning a party, I swear I will burn his tail. But, to find out, I decided to try an innocent act for now, "Oh? And what exactly are we doing, Silver?"

"Well, as it so happens, Marine informed me of a carnival that has come to the kingdom recently. She said that you never had a chance to go in the time you've been appointed this kingdom's ruler, and I thought we would go.", Silver said while sitting on the edge of the bed to watch me eat.

Well, I can say this. He got my attention. It was a fall carnival that, as he had already said, I could never go to. Between the wise men in the castle and the Gardon on my back, I am virtually always guarding the Sol Emeralds, or reading new laws that could be passed. With all this, I sometimes wonder how much of my childhood I let die to simply devote myself to this duty. On the other hand, I have dropped the duty once or twice to see the people I care about, like Cream, Sonic, and Silver of course. I suppose doing this for two days in a row would be nice. I finished the pancakes and milk before saying, "Alright. I think it will be fun. Just promise me something, Silver."

"Name it and it's yours.", Silver replied with that smile again. It wasn't so much of a goofy smile as much as it was a smile of genuine friendship. I've always liked that about him, as well as his naivety.

"I just want to make it clear that you shouldn't make such a big deal out of my birthday.", I replied before being shot a somewhat evil smile by him.

He then got up and put his fists on his hips and said, "Considering what you did to me yesterday, be grateful that I didn't go with my first idea. You would have been caught between a rock and a wet place.", he then gave a small chuckle before looking somewhat like himself. I take it that he is still not to happy about what Vector did for his birthday. I swear, I only told him to distract Silver, not to scare the daylights out of him.

"That was all an accident. And you did get to have a party. Like when we first met.", I pointed out. That is a day that I will never forget. Considering that he was one of my few and only friends that I ever made, it is kind of hard to forget. After thinking of that, I realize now that I never looked at the book of memories yet, "Excuse me. I need to get dressed, Silver. Wait outside for me and we will go to the carnival."

He gave me one of his more polite bows that he has been giving me ever since he found out I was a princess. It's amazing how people seem to change around me when they find out I am royalty... I don't particularly like it. When the door closed behind him, I wrapped the tuna sandwich and put it in a bag. Then, I took the book of our memories and put it in the same bag. I thought that maybe later, he and I would sit down and actually look at it together. When everything was packed, I went to my wardrobe and looked inside to see if there was anything that I could wear to the carnival. Since the cold doesn't effect me as it should others, I suppose going in my usual attire would be appropriate.

That's when I stopped and had a closer look at some of the other clothes I received in my past birthdays. I figure, if I'm going to wear them, it may be as rarely as possible. One of them caught my eye because it wasn't a frilly dress at all. If anything, it looked like normal clothes. A closer look at the tag where the shirt was showed me that it was a gift from Marine. I pulled it out of the wardrobe and looked at the entire outfit carefully. It consisted of a pair of a pair of blue jeans that were in the same size as my white pants, purple long sleeves sweater, and a scarf of the same color as the shirt with lighter tone on the stripes. All in all, it wasn't a dress, and it was definitely different from my usual attire. A little note on it from Marine said, "Blaze, I know that you won't have a problem in the cold, but I figure that this could serve as a nice change of clothes when ever the frost comes early. You're friend, Marine."

I couldn't help but stare at the note. Either Marine is psychic, or she is so crazy, that she is sane. Not wanting to think about it much longer, I quickly cleaned myself up in the shower before putting on the new clothes. Looking at myself in the mirror with my hair down, I looked rather normal. I even decided to put on shoes instead of my normal high heels. I looked completely normal, if people didn't recognize my ponytail and jewel on my head, then I would be invisible to all. That idea sounded appealing, considering it felt like the whole world was looking at me for just being the princess to begin with. I put my hair up with the band that I would never part with and then walked outside to meet Silver. Seemed he found time to get dressed as well. He wore his own set of jeans, a light blue vest, and his scarf that I got for his birthday. With a smile, he said, "Well, don't you look ready to blend in."

"Marine got it for me. If she shows up, remind me to thank her, okay?", I asked while stroking my scarf a little. It was more to wear than I was used to wearing, but it was comfortable at the same time, "Shall we be on our way?"

"I shall be your royal escort for the day, my lady.", Silver said to me while trying on a British accent. It was almost cute, but at the same time, just not him. He stuck out his arm for me to take, and I took it with out hesitation. From there, I highly doubt that anything could be screwy, or even remotely cause me discomfort.

Then again, I have been known, though rarely, to be wrong before. Looking at the various attractions of this traveling carnival, I began to question how exactly they moved about. Especially attractions that were the size of actual theme park rides. If you wish for a reference, then know this, the highest tower I have is roughly two hundred feet high from the ground to it's very tip point. They had rides that were equal when it came to heights, and it just disturbed me to the point where my fur was standing up on end. I mean... why would anyone carry this stuff around?

"Blaze, is something wrong?", Silver asked me while trying to shake me to some kind of normalcy, "You're kind of squeezing my arm. Is everything alright?"

I just looked at him with a sort of forced smile and said, "Problem? No problem. It's just a little cold is all. So, where shall we go to first?", I should have known better than to ask him, but I was too busy trying to think of excuses not to get on such tall rides.

"Anywhere you would like to try, Silver. Hehe...", I said, coming up with two excuses that would work fine. All while walking along side him to a strange ride known as a whirl around. It looked safe, not too far off the ground, and most importantly, something I could have a little fun with.

Silver pointed to the Whirl Around and said, "This one. Come on, after we're done, I'll get you some cotton candy.", he then proceeded to almost dragging me into a seat that was next to his own. The entire thing reminded me of a merry- go- round, but this had no horses, was all seats on rope, and I was going to go outward instead of in the same place.

After everyone was buckled up, I waited and knew that this was going to be a slow, and semi relaxing ride. Seems I have caught some of Silver's bad luck. The ride began, and it was going slow at first, but as we began to swing outward, it continued to go faster. I know a thing or two about what happens when things move fast enough. You begin to rise. So, the moment I looked down, I was almost clawing at the arms of the chair I was connected to. Silver was on my right, screaming and having a good time, even waving his hands around. Everyone else was doing the same thing, and even urging for the ride to go faster. The speed is something I do not mind, but being at a solid forty feet off the ground, and spinning, I am beginning to panic ever so slightly.

After about a minute or two, we begin to slow down and descend. My claws began to retract from the seat, but I had a feeling that I was going to have to explain the holes in the arms of the chair, and the missing chunks that happen to stuck to my claws. The situation never came up, so I just went with Silver and sort of wobbled after him. He saw that I needed support and put his arm around me waist and one of my arms over his shoulder. I knew he was helping, and I smiled the whole time while he walked me to a bench so that we could take a seat and recover from it. He looked at me after removing my arm from his shoulder and said, "That was a blast, huh? I wasn't expecting it to go that fast though, so I promise we'll go on something a little slower.", he gave a smile before he remembered, "Oh! I better go get that cotton candy. Wait right here, alright?", and he then quickly ran off.

I watched him walk off, and notice the little pep in his step. That childish quality that forever sealed the title I had for him. Naïve. Just completely naïve. I know that he has grown up in age, voice, and some physical features such as his quills being sharper, longer, and more in the way. But, unfortunately, he is still childish, but I admit, I have always liked that about him. Since I was going to wait, I pulled the little album from my bag and opened it. To my surprise, it had pictures of us from when we were only little kids. The page corners were marked not with numbers, but with the little animals that I taught him to make when we first met. A smile formed as I turned each page, a memory quickly coming into my mind's eye.

"Oh, I see you opened the book with out me.", Silver's voice sounded from behind me. I turned to see him resting against the bench while holding two cotton candies. I took the one that was in hit left hand and nodded politely while he took a seat next to me.

"I couldn't wait much longer. So, I thought it would be good to have a quick peak at our past. It's rather nice in it's own way.", I replied while pointing to a pic of me covered in mud an being hugged by a laughing Silver. What had happened was, when we were playing with a ball, some older kids who didn't like Silver started to throw mud at us. Long story short, I scared them away with my fire and he gave me a rather big hug. Something I wasn't used to.

Silver looked at the picture and laughed while pointing to the one next to it and saying, "Remember this one? We were taking on those flying lava bats when Iblis was still around. We won, but it took me a week to grow the fur on my chest back.", and it was true. The picture showed Silver on the ground with a path of fur that was missing, revealing his tan skin. That day was remembered as the first time that Silver ever heard me laugh.

"That was an interesting little adventure. If I remember correctly, I warned you not to taunt it in the first place. But you didn't want to listen to me.", I said while waving my finger in his face, "You really should clean out your ears more."

Silver gave a chuckle and replied, "Hmph. I just wanted to show them that I was not to be trifled with. And I sure did... it just cost me some of my fur.", he then rubbed his chest fur gently, "I think I can still feel the burns there."

I gently placed my own hand on his and nodded, "I still remembering applying that skin cream to help the burns heal faster. But, I digress. We should continue looking at these later, right?", I was half way done with my cotton candy while Silver was already done. He eats faster than his feet can move.

"Alright, since we just ate, we'll go on a nice slow ride.", He noticed a little ride with a boat and said, "That one seems nice, an it goes through the little river we have here."

I get the feeling that he will stop at nothing to finally get me to admit that I am scared. I helped him fight a flaming monster that nearly killed me in the process, I am afraid of almost nothing. ALMOST... we waited in line and noticed that a majority of the people in line were young couples who seemed to be here... on a... date... Oh, he better not be thinking...

"Blaze, it seems weird here, but I don't get why. Hm...", Silver said with a genuine thoughtful look. He even places his hand under his chin to give a thinking pose. I know he isn't kidding, so this is an accident, or he is really good at acting. He looked at the couples in line and I thought he would make the connection, "I've got it. They are all here with their best friends."

Well, maybe I should stop putting so much faith in his mind's ability to comprehend what this looks like, but I suppose that should make it less awkward. Why is it not though? More importantly, why do my ribs feel heavy over being here? Maybe it's not my ribs, but it just feels heavy. So, I did my best to relax as we began to board the boat. It was such a little thing, but I knew that if we rocked enough in it, we would fall into another thing I despise other than height. Water...

As the current carried the two of us through the river, I began to realize that it was a river of love. Marine told me about this once. It was a simple little water ride where the Chao are all around and dancing to romantic music that was enough to bring a tear to her eyes. I know it doesn't take a lot to do that, but when it's romantic music, it worries me. Violins were playing, and I saw the Chao begin to appear one by one. They were such adorable little blue and yellow creatures, acting like infants, and just being all around cute. Makes me think of Cream and her little friend Cheese. The two of them brings back memories of me having tea with the two of them and always somehow being made to wear a dress. It's hard to say no to her these days, so don't judge me.

The Chao all began to grow hearts on their heads and flew into the boat to be picked up. Silver picked up a little white Chao that had a halo on it and nuzzled it gently, "Aww, these little guys are so cute. And their little dances are pretty good too. Maybe they should give me some lessons."

"Chaos know you need the lessons. I'm sure they could teach you a good cha-cha.", I commented while picking up a Chao similar to the one that Silver was holding, but the halo was a purple color instead of a white color. I get the feeling that these Chao are trying to tell me something, but I am not going to encourage them, "Besides, I'm just glad the music is relaxing.", there goes my ribs again.

Silver looked at me with a smile and nodded, "Yeah. I knew you'd feel relaxed here. Chao on every corner, music that just makes you want to throw your cares away, and a gentle river. If I had my own boat, I'd be happy to do this all the time.", he then chuckle and rubbed his nose with one finger, "Wow, I sound like Marine."

"I hope not. I can't stand that pirate talk of her's." , I replied, almost in a pleading manner. Truth be told, the little raccoon is fun to be around sometimes, but her constant pirate talk is something that my ears can't handle.

Silver seemed to agree as he shuddered and a Chao landed on his head, making itself comfortable in his quills. Alright, I know I have been complaining a lot in my head, but this has just made my day. It's so cute when you know that something like a Chao is sitting on your head and trying to make a nest out of your hair. Silver giggled and stroked the top of it's head while the boat continued down it's path. That's when we noticed that the boat was going into a tunnel and all the little creatures were waving good bye to us. I sighed and waved back at them, "Good bye, little friends."

"Well, on an upside, we got to see some cute little Chao.", Silver said while also waving at them. The tunnel took us back to the entrance of the ride, and we hopped off immediately. Though, I am certain that I could have done well with out the sounds of other couples in the lines making their oohs and aws. It made me feel like this was a date... not that I would like that kind of thing...

Silver tugged at my sleeve and pointed to some stands that had some interesting little games. Your classic ring toss, ball throw, shooting games, water squirting and all of those kinds of games. They all sat next to one another and had kids and adults alike playing with them. I noticed that he was dragging me to the ball toss, "You're going to do this with out powers, right?"

"I kind of have no choice at the moment. These new cuffs that Shadow got me are sort of holding me back so that I can get stronger. For the moment, I can only move around objects as big as a pencil, and I can't fly either.", he said to me while rubbing the back of his head nervously. It was obvious that he had only been a child when he was in the state he is in now. Meaning, this is like learning to use his powers all over again.

"Silver, you can take your time in practicing your powers now. There isn't a really big threat after all.", I pointed out, hoping that he would forget about Eggman-Nega and have some fun. It seemed to work as he give a ring to the stand owner and got three little balls. I noticed the bottles and tilted my head when I did. It wasn't that the bottles seemed strange, it was that their positioning was odd.

"Alright, kid. Three tries. You knock them all down, and you win a prize.", the stand owner said while staying to the side to watch. Silver took careful aim and took the shot, sending a good ball flying to the bottles. The ball barely nipped the top bottle and it just stood there.

"Huh? Okay, I still got two more.", Silver said while doing the same thing again, but hitting the bottom of the bottles. Once again, there was no luck. He puffed his cheeks a little and played with his third ball before tossing it as hard as he could. I watched closely as it hit them all dead center, but they never even budged a single centimeter.

I looked to the owner and asked, "Excuse me, but he hit them. Why aren't they going down?"

The owner gave me a smug look and replied, "Well, little miss, he clearly lacks the physical strength to knock down them there bottles. Not like me. Care for me to give a demonstration?"

Oh, how I wanted to slap him with a flaming back hand, but a small smile appeared on my face as I gave him a ring, "How about I just give it a try, sir. You know, lady's first and all that?"

He gave a grin and a wink at me that nearly sent shudders down my spine. I can see why this man had no wedding ring on his fingers. I took the three balls he offered and checked for their weight carefully and began to heat one of them up. I tossed it at the bottles, hitting dead center, and they stood there. Silver watched and put a hand on my shoulder, "Sorry, Blaze. Maybe we should try a different stand?"

"You shouldn't worry, Silver. We'll be sharing a prize in a minute. Look, but don't tell.", I said to him while gesturing to the bottles and giving a wink to see if he understood. He followed my gaze to the bottles and a look of surprise came on his face, and slight anger, but he forced a smile and nodded.

I heated the second ball up a little more than the first, making some smoke, but not a fire as I tossed it at the bottles again. From what I could see, they didn't move again, but something was trickling down the bottles. Something that smelled awful when heated up. The owner saw the fake look of frustration that I had put on and said, "I'll tell you what, if you knock those bottles down, I'll personally pay for every meal and give you top prize in this here stand."

"And should I lose?", I asked while playing with the ball in my hands and leaning against the counter. I hate using any form of feminine charm, but this was one of those situations where I knew that when I win, I will have a good laugh or two.

The man adjusted his bow tie and said, "Well, I'd like a nice little dinner, maybe some quality time with ya."

Oh, aren't you in for a surprise, you silly little man. I gave another smile and backed up a few feet, urging Silver to move out of the way before winding up in a style similar to baseball players, ignited the ball in flames, and then shot, not tossed, it at the bottles. They melted into a pool of glass just under the stand and the entire stand was almost on fire. With a snap of my fingers, the flames were extinguished and the look of shock on his face looked like it was almost permanent. His jaw almost hitting the ground, sweat all over his face, and just having an eye twitch was a bonus, "I would like pizza with pepperoni, two sodas, and at the end a chocolate-vanilla swirl milkshake with two straws."

"Lady, you can have what ever you want... I was kidding about the other stuff... So, pizza, two drinks, and a milkshake. Oh, and don't forget your prize!", the man cried out while getting a giant stuffed Chao off of the shelf and personally handed it to me. With a small flick of my tail, I walked to Silver and offered the stuffed creature to him.

He shook his head and pushed it back to me, "That prize is yours. You earned it, Blaze. Come on. Let's see what else we can do.", and he took my hand to guide me through the rest of the carnival, and to see shows. For hours until the sun was setting, we went on rides that either got me to cling to him, or just made me feel alive. When the sun finally set and we were sitting with everyone out in a field, Silver and I got our pizza delivered with two root beers and the milkshake that looked worthy for a king.

"Dig in, Silver, and thank you for the birthday.", I said to him while nibbling on a slice of our pizza. It was fresh, and clearly baked in an old fashioned wood fire oven. The root beer was home made, and rather refreshing to me.

Silver sipped on some root beer and rubbed his arm where my claws left their mark, "Painful as the day was, this evening is worth it."

"Why is that?", I asked while finishing off my slice and watching him take his own slice. He remained silent while he enjoyed the meal and continued to rub his arm. Cold air made his wounds a little irritated. Feeling sorry, I sat close to him and warmed my body up enough to be equivalent to an electric blanket.

"Ah, thanks, Blaze...", he said while having a touch of pink suddenly appear on his cheeks. I did my best to hide my own while I moved the milkshake closer to us so we could drink some of it at least.

I looked up at him and said, "You are most welcome, Silver.", I then began to taste the milkshake, "Hmm, you should try it. It's really sweet."

He gave a nod and put his straw in the milkshake and we began to share it's creamy goodness. I was rather happy that Vector wasn't here. If he saw this, I am almost certain that he would have compared it to a cheesy old black and white film or something. Suddenly, a loud explosion could be heard and lights filled the sky. Fireworks had begun to launch, and the results were shapes of autumn leaves, pumpkins and so much more. The more I watched, the more I began to appreciate the memories I shared with Silver, Sonic, Cream, Cheese, and Marine. My dear friends... I held the book of memories close to my chest while not letting go of Silver and said, "This was a very nice birthday."

"Glad you like it, Blaze.", Silver said while looking up, but we rested our heads against one another. I wouldn't mind doing something like this every year, or even something as simple as going to the movies. Either way, I felt like nothing could ruin this moment of happiness that I was feeling.

A raccoon came up to us and said, "Well well, seems the princess and a certain white bloke are finally on a date. What took ye so long?"

Silver glared and at her as I did and we both said in perfect unison, "This is not a date!"