I awoke from the blinding flash, my eyes cowering behind the darkness. I rubbed them a little, trying to restore my vision. It took some time, as my pupils changed size, trying to find the best setting, almost like tuning a radio, trying to find the right station. As the blur slowly disappeared, I looked around to analyse the surroundings. I was on a small grassy patch, in what seemed a deserted wasteland. Other than the green carpet of nature beneath me, sand filled my view up to the horizon. I continued to look around and was shocked by the two things I saw. One was a body next to me, a boy with blonde hair, about my height and age lay lying on the ground motionless, his face with no expression. As I tried to pick myself up to help him, a voice stirred through my head.
"Hey, are you ok?" It said. It wasn't an aggressive voice, quite a delicate and loving voice. My eyes widened as I heard it - I knew that voice. As I slowly raised my head, before me stood my idol, my hero. I Started by looking at his red and white trainers, following his legs towards his white and orange fur. Then, those greeting eyes, that welcomed mine with their joyful expression. I glanced at him, confused;
"Ta--Tails? Is that you?" I was shocked by his reaction, he was shocked by mine. I knew immediately he felt uncomfortable, his eyes narrowed, trying to cover his fear - I would know, I saw those eyes every Saturday on the Jetix channel.
I reached for the young Kitsune's fur, just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I grabbed, poked and fiddled with it, obviously making the fox uneasy. He shook me of, demanding a reason;
"Hey, what are you doing?" He said.
"I ju- I just had to make sure you were real, and you are. I don't believe it, you really are Tails!" I was filled with all sorts of emotions, pride, joy and envy being the strongest. I saw the boy next to me start to move. He lifted his arms to his head, obviously experiencing some kind of pain. I wanted to know more about him too, but I was far too amazed at seeing Tails, my hero, standing over me. He didn't look happy, almost disappointed. His eyes could tell me the whole story, as they changed from confusion, to pity, to anger. He was angered by my lack of interest at my human partner next to me. He broke the gaze with me and turned it towards the boy.
"Hey, are you ok as well? What's your name?" He asked the boy. I was angered that he didn't ask for my name, but the emotion soon disappeared - a shame this wouldn't keep happening.
The boy awoke fully, with one hand still rubbing his head, the other rubbed his eyes, he felt the same as me.
"I'm Andrew and yeh I'm o-- Is it actually you?" He said. His voice was filled with even more joy then mine. Tails raised a hand behind his head, but in a playful expression, started to scratch his head.
"It seems strange that you know me but I don't know you. Have we met before" The young fox said playfully. We both knew that he was confused, but the Kitsune rarely got angry. This moment was interrupted by the boy - who was now known to be Andrew, rubbing his head in a sharp manner and releasing a quick "Ouch". I looked towards him, and he looked back.
"And, who are you, and have any idea why we're here, or how we got here?" He said, expecting me to have all the answers. He was met with disappointing results; the only think I could be sure of was my name.
"I'm Dan, and I don't know. There was just this blinding--" As soon as I had started, the boy finished my sentence, revealing the same had happened to him.
"--Flash, and then you just woke up here right" He added. I nodded, confirming his explanation. I wasn't paying much attention to him though, 90% of it was on Tails. I continued to show the fox my amazement for him;
"Wow, I can't believe you are really here, standing in front of me. Miles Tails Prower, I'm amaz--" With those words, Tails jumped backwards, wide eyed staring at me in confusion. He was panicking, and started to breathe heavily.
"How do you know my name, my full name? Only my closest friends do." Tails began to shake, fearing that we were robots, or some form of attackers. Andrew tried to calm him down, reassuring him - I don't see why, were not going to hurt him, but I suppose the fox is too young to understand.
I answered Tails question as best I could - with the answer I thought he would want to hear.
"Tails, I'm your biggest fan. You're my idol; I look up to you as a friend, and younger brother. You're my favourite ever character." With the 'character' word muttered, Tails looked confused. He was the smartest fox in the world, in space, and didn't know the second meaning of that word. Of course he knew the first, but didn't understand how he could be one.
Once I had said that, Andrew grabbed my ear, pulling himself towards me, as I looked at him in anger, but felt his worry as he explained to me in a quiet voice;
"Dan, I don't think saying that would be such a good idea. He doesn't know that the whole world watches him, and it would properly overwork him. By the way, I assume you came here because you found part of a jewel right?" I looked at him, nodding and showing him the jewel in my hand, at an angle, so the Kitsune couldn't see...
"Then I think we should keep it hidden, if Tails see's that we have this, he might take it away, and it could be our only ticket back to the UK." I nodded again, he made sense. I tucked the crystal inside my trouser pocket, and he did likewise. Tails was still contemplating the 'character' comment I made, and was quick to bring it up again.
"What do you mean by character?" He said in his sweet, but questioning voice. I looked towards Andrew, hoping for something - an excuse to appear in my head - and it did.
"Uhh, well the word Character here on Earth means 'Fox', it's like slang for the animal." I thought it had worked for a second, as Tails looked at me agreeing, then sharply snapping his gaze back to mine, about to question another aspect of our arrival.
"Wait, Earth. You mean we found Chris? This isn't Earth, you're in Mobius." My heart sank, as Andrew's lifted. The distance from my friends and family, I, I might never see them again. What if they did something serious, I lost my sis, they lost their daughter, I couldn't let them do it. I started to panic, looking around, for a car, a plane, another human. Andrew was still sitting down, smiling of the thought of being in his favourite games homeland. I couldn't keep my focus, the thoughts were a river flowing through my head, and the dam was about to collapse. I began shaking, and my vision went black, the last thing I remember was staring at the clouds above me, before all went dark.
