Skye: Well, last chapter before I go to bed.
Nova: It's the last day of 2011!
Jolie: I'll never get the hang of writing 12 instead of 11.
Everyone looked at Janna with shock as Knuckles brought her into the camp near the fire. Carefully, he helped her sit down on a log. The jaguar payed no attention to any of the others. She just stared at the fire. It reminded her of Cassandra. Boy, were they going to be mad...
Her trance was broken when someone stepped in front of her. Slowly, she looked up to face a fox. Extraordinarily, he had two tails.
"Hello. My name is Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails." He gave the jaguar a reassuring smile. "You look pretty beat up. Want me to bandage you up a bit?"
Janna stared at him for a second, before looking at Knuckles, who simply smiled at her. The jaguar looked back to the twin tailed fox and nodded, and with that, Tails sat down next to her, and opened the first aid kit that he was carrying.
While Tails was helping Janna, Cream was talking to Cheese.
"So she saved you in the forest?" Cream asked her friend.
"Chao," (Yes.) Cheese exclaimed happily.
"Well at least you're safe." Cream reached out to hug her blue friend. Cheese, however, flew out of her reach, and and looked over at Janna with worry as she winced from the medicine Tails was putting on her. "Don't worry, Cheese, she'll be just fine."
A few minutes passed, when the fire started dimming.
"Guys, the fire's going out." Amy pointed out.
After looking at the fire, Rouge spoke, "I'll go grab more wood from the pile." The white bat walked over to where the wood pile was. Or should have been. "Umm... We're out."
Shadow looked away from where he was looking at the injured jaguar, and into a dark part of the forest. "I'll go look for some wood," and with that, he got up and walked away.
Sonic jumped up. "I'll go, too. I think I saw a pile of wood that would be great for burning." The blue hedgehog ran off in the opposite direction of his black 'look-a-like.'
"Okay, I think I've got all your cuts except for your cheek," Tails finally said, while dabbing medicine on her arm, "After I finish with that you'll be fine."
Janna nodded and looked down at her injured leg. She'd forgotten about it after Tails started putting the medicine on her cuts. The medicine burned on the wounds for awhile, so it had distracted her from the pain in her leg. Knuckles, however, saw what she was looking at.
"Hey, Tails, I think she injured her knee too. She limped all the way here and I had to give her some support."
"Is that right?" the fox looked at the jaguar's knee. He didn't notice it before, but it was swollen. "I'll look at that after I'm done with her cheek."
The dark forest looked dangerous from every corner, but the ebony hedgehog didn't care. He was used to 'scary places.'
"For some strange reason, I think that the Master Emerald wanted us here. It's energy level went pretty high before everyone got sucked in..." Shadow thought out loud, "Maybe someone needs our help. Maybe it something to do with the strange girl that Knuckles brought back..."
Shadow was deep in thought, so he didn't hear the quiet steps behind him. Unknowingly, the hedgehog was being followed. Now he was the prey.
The ebony hedgehog then continued to look around the forest. He forgot that he was looking for firewood, but he wanted to explore; he wanted to know where he was. After a few minutes of looking around, Shadow found a lake that glowed under the light of the moon. It seemed a formidable size; the other side was almost a quarter mile away. In the center were a few islands, and they too had trees not unlike the ones on the mainland. He walked down to the shore and sat down, removing one of his gloves in the process. One of his fingers glided over the water, but he quickly pulled his hand out.
"The water's... Warm?"
Shadow thought that water like this would be cold; the air around it certainly was, but it wasn't. I wonder... He put his glove back on.
His mind was still jumbled with different questions, none of which he could answer.
Growllll...
Shadow's eyes widened as he jumped to his feet, What was that? Nobody came with me... And I'm not hungry. He backed away from the lake, thinking it was something from it, but the further he backed away, the louder the growling got. The ebony hedgehog was now in defense mode. Nothing moved. Shadow's crimson eyes scanned the area, but he could see nothing unusual.
Without knowing what else to do, he just sprinted deep into the forest.
"I was right!" Sonic ran back to the group with a whole bunch of sticks and twigs in his arms, "I thought that I saw a pile!" the hedgehog's happiness ended when he realized something, "The fire went out."
"Shadow's been gone ever since you left." Amy said, grabbing some of the firewood Sonic just brought, "We've been sitting here cold for over 20 minutes."
Sonic raised an eyebrow, "I was gone for that long?"
"Yeah," Tails answered, still looking at Janna's leg, "Man, you twisted your leg pretty bad." The fox tried to move it to stretch it out, but Janna gritted her teeth in pain. "We need to get this leg checked out better, but for now," he said while walking towards the X-Tornado, "we'll have to improvise."
A minute passed when the fox returned with a thick and long bandage, "We'll have to wrap your leg with this so you don't twist it more." He started wrapping the bandage around the jaguar's leg. "I don't know where you live, but you can't go back tonight. You're in too bad of condition to go anywhere."
Janna simply nodded I just hope that nobody will attack me when I sleep... If I do, I think I can trust the fox, echidna, and Cheese, but I don't know about the others. The jaguar looked over to where everyone else was, they were all huddled up, trying to stay warm. She narrowed her eyes They helped me when I was in need... Now it's my turn to pay them back.
With that Janna closed her eyes and started to think. To make a fire she needed a special type of rock that could make a spark to make a flame. Within seconds she knew what kind to look for. Flint. She struggled to her feet, putting most of her weight on her good leg.
"What's she doing?" Rouge questioned.
"Don't ask me." Knuckles responded.
They all stared at the weak jaguar who seemed to be concentrating; her eyes were squinted shut.
Janna's bracelets started to glow yellow as she put her arms up. She could feel the rocks underneath her feet. She lifted them up with her power, and they burst through the dirt forest floor, and floated over by the fire, surrounded in a yellow aura.
The group of huddling friends felt all of their jaws drop at what she was doing.
"Dude... That's just creepy," Sonic finally spoke.
Janna opened her eyes and looked at the rocks. They would do.
"Somebody throw some small sticks into the pile." she commanded with a strong tone.
Cream got up and picked up some sticks. She then walked over to the pit and threw them in. "Like that?"
The jaguar smiled. "Perfect." Cream simply nodded and joined the group again to try to warm back up. Janna just kept concentrating, her leg was about to give out and she was sweating from the effort she was putting into such a small thing. Normally, it wouldn't take her this much energy, but she was really tired, really hungry, and her emotions were acting up. The jaguar used her powers to strike the rocks together. It took her about 10 tries, but eventually she make a spark on the wood, which started the fire again. Slowly at first, but it grew with each passing second.
She did it. Even though she was weak, she'd done it. A sigh of relief escaped her mouth before she collapsed onto the log again.
The fire snapped, and sparks rose into the air. Everyone was staring at Janna.
"Who are you?" Knuckles finally asked to break the silence.
The jaguar sat up and smiled, "I'm Janna, Janna the Jaguar."
"S-stand back! I-I'm warning you!" the ebony and crimson hedgehog yelled with panic in his voice, "You d-don't wanna get in a fight with m-me." Maybe if I play helpless, they'll figure I'm not worth the effort...
There wasn't just one growl now, there were many. Huge shadowy figures were appearing everywhere Shadow looked. A voice came from somewhere in front of him.
"Surrender, hedgehog. You're hopeless. You've got yourself backed into a corner." the voice paused to let Shadow look back at what he just put himself into. He'd put himself into a corner of the bottom of a cliff.
"Come with us and we won't hurt you... Much."
Laughter echoed the area of the forest, Shadow knew that he had just lost, but he wasn't going to give up. Maybe he could find a way out. "Well if you want me, I'm not coming to you. You'll have to come to me." Shadow's eyes were narrowing.
"Well if you insist," the same voice responded. The sun was slowly coming up, so Shadow could get a good look at one of the creatures that had been trying to get him for about two hours. The one that came out seemed to be the leader of the pack, supposedly the one that started it all. It was an animal that walked on all fours; patches of black and brown and black covered it's body. It also had armor that looked like it had spikes on it which were rusted. It seemed that it couldn't talk because it's lips didn't move when it spoke, but the sound resonated from thin collar around his neck.
"Okay, let's make this as easy as possibl- WHAT?"
With a flash, Shadow disappeared into thin air, he reappeared behind the creature and used a Chaos Spear to hit off the rusted spikes on it's armor, then he punched it in the face after it turned around. The creature was put out cold. Screams of panic surrounded the hedgehog, and he thought that they were going to attack him for bringing down their leader. Shadow got into a defensive position and narrowed his eyes. "Who's next?"
The hedgehog's ears came up to hear that shrieks fading along with feet that seemed to be running away. Shadow's serious face faded away as he let out a chuckle, "Wimps."
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Bee- SLAM!
"Curse you, alarm clock," at groggy voice mumbled, "You just ruined the best dream I've had in weeks," a pair of orange feet with black stripes on them slammed against the floor, starting to walk to the door of the room, "It's 6 a.m., already?" the voice's rant continued, "Didn't feel that long, but whatever."
The figure walked over to the door next to her room, and slammed on it, "Rise and shine, Raindrop!"
"Shut up, Cassandra!" someone in the room replied, "Give my five more minutes."
Cassandra smiled, "Sorry! The tiger clock doesn't have a snooze button. Get your bear butt out of bed."
"Shut up! I'm trying to sleep!" someone from the end of the hallway shouted.
"You get up too, Twinkletoes!"
"I told you not to call me that! Call me the awesome video gamer or something!"
"Make me!" the tiger taunted.
A door slammed open to show a grumpy galabat, who's hair was tangled from rolling in bed. "I need to get my 'Beauty Sleep,' so shut up."
"What you really need is a hairbrush." A brown cat walked in from the opposite end of the hallway and laughed while rubbing her eyes.
Jo glared at the cat, "I'm gonna beat you with a shoe, Skye."
"Tsk tsk," Skye taunted, "Someone stay up too late playing video games?"
The door next to Jolie's opened up to reveal a bear.
"Well since this little rant woke everyone up, let's go get some breakfast."
"No it didn't, Boo." A devilish smile appeared on Cassandra's face, "Nova hasn't woken up yet."
"And who thought that?" a darker voice said from behind the tiger, which made her jump.
Everyone laughed except for Cassandra. "Very funny, tenrec," The tiger's eyes narrowed, "Is that everyone?"
"Janna's still not awake," Boo pointed out, "I'll wake her up while you all get breakfast ready." Everyone else nodded and headed across the living room/hallway. (read description for map) The bear walked to the back hallway, and opened the first door into the jaguar's room.
"Time to wake up, my crazy friend," she tried to keep her voice as gentle as possible, "Let's go get some breakfast."
No response from Janna.
Boo walked up to Janna's bed and removed the covers. "Come on, Janna. Le- GAHH!"
Everyone ran back to the jaguar's room after Boo screamed, all of them worried about what had caused her to scream.
"What? What happened?" Skye asked with fear in her voice.
"I-it's Janna! S-she's gone!"
Janna: I like rocks
Cassandra: :)
Skye: Le Gasp! Cassandra... Smiled?
Nova: Random...
Boo: Please Review! We'll give you imaginary cookies if you do!
