Thank you to everyone who has been reading this, even though it still has a long way to go I appreciate the views. I do not own sonic the hedgehog or any of the characters from the games, movies or comics but I do own this story and the other characters, I hope you enjoy it!
Things Only Whispered In The Shadows
Ch.4 Shards and Fragments
I woke up in my room, light streaming though the window. The last thing I could remember was Talon standing over me, trying to say something to me... I jolted upright only to realize just how much of a mistake that had been. Searing pain shot through my body and I dropped right back into the bed hissing in pain.
"I lay there for a while, reviewing the last few moments that I remembered. I had practically jumped off of that cliff without a moment's hesitation and somehow managed to survive, that and the impact with the nightmarish creature at the bottom. I winced at the memory.
I had never pushed myself so far past my limits and my body had paid the price. Every muscle aced and every fiber of my being wanted to do it again for some strange reason, but not until I could stand again. I could have sworn I had seen a blue light right before impact though. I couldn't begin to imagine where it had come from and the warmth, the total confidence that I had somehow found beyond the dread while charging down the cliff, it was all beyond me at the moment so I turned my thoughts elsewhere.
I tried to sit up again, slowly this time, and was relieved to find myself in much less pain than the first time. My body was stiff and refused to move as well as I wanted it to but honestly I was just relived to be alive. I wanted to get up and see how everyone else was, to see if Talon was alright.
I heard movement outside my door, then knocking "Hey sleepy head, you up yet?" Talon pushed the door open as he asked. A genuine smile spread across his face when he saw me sitting up. "Glad you're awake. I brought food." and indeed he was. I had no idea how long I had been out but I was starving and the food in his hands looked and smelled like heaven to me.
"Yes, food..." I took the tray and nearly inhaled every last crumb, ignoring the pain radiating from my arms. Of course Talon sat down in a chair next to my bed that I hadn't noticed before, and I was sure that it didn't originally belong in my room. Wiping crumbs from my face I finally asked, "So how long was I out for?"
"Almost a week..." Looking incredibly uncomfortable with the subject all of a sudden I wanted to ask why but I was interrupted.
"Hey Talon! When you get done with..." Fel had run down the corridor and stuck his head into my room before he stopped and stared, dumbstruck for a few seconds. "Oh my god you're awake!" his face lit up with a smile and he rushed over to hug me before stopping himself remembering that I was injured. He settled for waving his arms around awkwardly and making strange happy expressions, speechless for the first time since I had met him.
"Was I really out for a week?"
"Yeah and we all thought you might not wake up for a few more days, it was nerve wracking let me tell you." Fel was running on turbo charge, he was so excited, neither me nor my brother could get a word in edgewise and it didn't help that he didn't need to stop for air, "Do you have any idea how cool you looked when you charged down that cliff? At first I thought you had lost it but then when I ran over to the edge I saw how fast you were going and it was like, No way. There is no way she's going that fast, then when you hit the Were-beast It was like BOOM! He didn't stand a chance! You both flew in opposite directions and when me 'n Maxis went down to help Talon was trying to wake you up and the Were-beast was already dead! I've never seen anything like it, not even the old geezer can kill a Were-beast in one shot!"
The room was silent long enough that Fel felt the need to speak up again "The old geezer will want to know you're awake, I'll be back in a bit." He then raced off out the door and down the stairs.
"Well that was exciting, did I really hit it that hard?" I couldn't help but be proud of myself for that one. I had never even dreamed of being so fast, it had been phenomenal. Like I could run on forever, or at least until I got hungry, or tired, but the possibilities seemed endless.
"Yes you did. How you managed it though..." I could see the Questioning look he gave me when he didn't quite understand why or how I had done something.
"Did I look as cool as Fel made it sound?"
"No, it was even cooler, you went so fast you made a sonic boom on impact." My eyes went wide and Talon chuckled. "Just don't hit anything the next time you decide to go that fast K? I don't want you to end up in bed for another week." he was half kidding, which was better than being depressed and avoiding the subject altogether. Fel had a contagious enthusiasm that was hard to avoid.
I heard foot steps outside again, "She's really awake! Come on, come on!" It was obvious that Fel couldn't hold back any more of his enthusiasm by the time Maxis made it up the stairs so he just left the old fox out in the hall and rushed back into the room practically jumping for joy. "Whoooo!"
"Fel calm down already! You're going to break something if you don't pay attention." Maxis walked over to the doorway but didn't enter. I couldn't really blame him either, there wasn't much space left in the room with Fel practically bouncing off the walls. "Good to see you awake Whisper." he gave one of his rare smiles and went right back to scolding Fel, who was still rocketing around the room like a little kid.
"So, you'll never guess what we found while you were asleep." I gave Talon a questioning stare, confused as to what he could have possible found. "You get three guesses, and the first two don't count." The devious grin on his face could only mean a couple things, either he found a girlfriend while I was out or they found a fragment. Wonder and awe spread over my face as he pulled a sparkling yellow emerald out. We now had two of the fragments needed to open the portal and defeat Salem, unfortunately so did he. Four of the emeralds had now been found, red, yellow, white, and green. With only three left the race had officially begun.
- a couple weeks later -
"Hey over here! I found one!" When I was strong enough to go back to training at night with the other two we had gone hunting for monsters this time instead of letting them hunt us. It felt a whole lot safer now that the Were-beast was dead and we knew more about the other monsters in the area.
Talon had found another bone snake lair and we were hunting the things down in the hopes of finding a few treasures to help us along the way. "Yikes! Careful there's two of them this time." Turns out bone snakes make their homes in places rich in the minerals that crafters use to make weapons and armor. It didn't take much convincing to get me to come along on the boy's nightly raids. I couldn't help but be excited to get back to making things like our parents had done all those years ago and if it helped us collect the fragment emeralds and defeat Salem then all the better. "Whisper they're headed your way!"
I easily dodged the first one and struck the second one as it tried to ambush me from behind the first one. Fel charged up his cannon as Talon finished off the first snake, "Shit, Fel not in the cave!"
Too late he fired, catching the second bone snake off guard. The stone around us trembled before crumbling like sand around us, thankfully we were all ready to run before we were trapped. "Everyone all right?"
"Fel. Seriously?!" Fel looked sheepishly at Talon as he punched him in the shoulder. No minerals from that cave.
"So any idea where we find another one before sunrise?" Talon was plainly ignoring Fel but we both knew that wouldn't last very long, there wasn't anyone else to talk to and they were best friends, not much explanation needed there.
We searched for another hour without any luck. It was morning by the time we climbed the stairs to our rooms and collapsed into our respective beds. My mind wandered from the hunt to the shards of glass I had collected my first night out. I rolled over and pulled them out of the bag I had left by the bed. Picking up the purple shard I held it up to the early morning light streaming in through the window and watched as the color danced around the room. It felt so warm in my hand even though it had been in the bag for the past two weeks. I watched the color play on my hand and realized it was the same color as my fur. I sat up and picked up the green one, the same as Talon, Orange, Fel. Even though I couldn't find one that matched Maxis I couldn't help but feel there was something significant about the shards. Then my attention turned to something shining from underneath the bag, Talon had put the fragment down on my table last night when we were trying to figure out how the old fox had teleported with his.
The yellow gem shone with light from within, I couldn't help but think about what the real emeralds were like, and about the heroes from the other world. How many of them were there? What were they like? Were they really heroes? Would they be able to go back to their world after? Would we want them to go back? So many questions and I was getting really tired now. I placed the fragment emerald and the glass shards on the table and snuggled up with the pillow before drifting into dreamland.
I dreamt of another world that night, of heroes this world had never seen. They had it all; speed, strength, intelligence, kindness. But there was a darker side as well; cunning, stealth, power, and instinct. I was walking a fine line between hero and villain, seeking vengeance and freedom, but at what cost? I couldn't help but wonder if there was a price to pay for our freedom from Salem, and if we were willing and able to pay it.
Running through unfamiliar fields, across vast deserts, around bottomless chasms, dodging traffic in enormous cities unlike any I had ever seen. I began to wonder if I was only running in circles when flashes of color started zipping past. I stopped running and was nearly hit by a flash of blue, then a flash of white. I jumped back in time to avoid the flash of yellow and started running again.
The city gave way to an old forest, a light blue and purple flash had joined the flurry of colors. It seemed like the only times the flashes got to close to me was when I stopped or slowed down even though they had no trouble keeping up with me. I took a sharp turn as a red one appeared and nearly sank up to my knees in water when I ran out of the forest into a swamp. I pulled myself up out of the muck and dodged the newest flash of color, green, as it made a go at me from behind. I kept moving forward jumping from one patch of ground to another as I wove my way through the swamp.
Seven colored flashes followed close behind me as I gradually made my way out of the swamp and onto a beach. The change was so sudden I hardly noticed as I ran out of solid ground to run on. I stumbled into the water but the flashes only circled. I got up slowly expecting another to appear or for the ones already there to fly at me again. Nothing.
I reached out to the purple one and they all darted away. "No don't go, please." they circled each other up a small hill overlooking the beach and stopped, circling something.
I trudged up the hill soaking wet, trying to wring the water out of my cloths... for some reason I felt taller. Half way up the hill I looked down and realized I was taller, and older. It took a moment to remember I was dreaming and laughed and imagined my clothes were dry, suddenly they felt lighter. Looking down I laughed again and found that they really had dried themselves, or had I dried them? I continued to the top of the hill, and nearly tripped over my own two feet when I saw that the colorful flashes had slowed down enough to see. They were emeralds, bigger and brighter than the fragments we were trying so hard to collect. They were beautiful, hovering just above the ground at an arm's length around a little purple hedgehog, no more than four or five cradling something against her chest.
She turned and looked at me with her sad green eyes. "Don't let him die. Please, if he dies I will be all alone again." I didn't know what to say, I was looking at myself seven years ago, in a place I had never been before. She/me began to fade slowly, holding out her/my hands, she/I opened them to reveal a single gold colored ring. "Save him, please, find him please." I grabbed the gold ring out of her/my fading hands before it could fade as well and backed up just as she faded away into mist and the emeralds went nuts. They zipped around narrowly missing me as I did everything in my power to dodge them without dropping the ring, I slipped it onto my arm to keep it from getting lost.
The emeralds began to disappear one at a time but not before taking another shot at me first. I was teetering on the edge of the small cliff on one side of the hill when the final gem raced toward me. With nowhere to dodge to I reached my arms out and tried to catch it hopping to at least soften the blow. It plowed into me, sending me over with it clutched in both hands. As I tumbled down I began to wish I was awake back in my room, then the strangest thing happened, I got the same feeling as when the old fox had used the green fragment to teleport us to the temple, only stronger. I went from falling to being pulled through what seemed like an endless absence of everything.
The Yellow gem glowed brighter and brighter until I found myself sitting up in my bed gasping for breath with sweat pouring down my back. I closed my eyes trying to slow my breathing down, hopping that the others hadn't woken up because of a nightmare.
I put my hand to my forehead and froze when I saw the glisten of gold around my wrist. I jumped out of bed and over to the small mirror across from the window. A sigh of relief escaped when I saw that I was still the me that had gone to bed, no older and no younger. Then I remembered the emerald. I dug through the bed first thinking it would be the most obvious place to find it, when I didn't find it there I searched the floor, then the rest of the room even going so far as to pull the mattress off the bed. Nothing. I gave up and sank to the floor in the mid afternoon light. I sat there examining the gold ring until my stomach rumbled, telling me to find some food. I made my way down for food and almost ran into Maxis while rounding the last corner into the kitchen.
"Well aren't you up early." The old fox was in a good mood this morning and I didn't want to spoil that by telling him about my dream so I said a polite greeting and ran off to get food. It didn't take long for the boys to make their way down, probably lead by the smell of food, and start asking questions.
"Whoa, cool bracelet, where'd you find it?"
"Oh, just found it lying around this morning while digging through some old things." lie
"Cool, I wonder if there's any other interesting things lying around?"
"Probably, in the parts of the temple no one goes into anymore at least." half truth
"Awesome, let's go look for some before training tonight Talon! You can come to if you want Whisper."
"No. I'm good. I was going to see if there are enough supplies to make anything out of yet." truth
"Ok, suit yourself."
"Let's go Fel."
"See you later guys."
And with that they left to find treasures buried under our very noses. I wasn't sure why I had lied to them or why I didn't feel very guilty about it, what bothered me was that I had woken up with something from a dream and I wasn't the only one who could see it.
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