Chapter 9
Mina sighed in relief as she dipped her sore feet into the shallow waters of a small lake. By the looks of the sky, it seemed to be already late afternoon. Carrying a blue hedgehog on your back and running around the valley, attempting to get away from a black monster, wasn't easy.
'A warm bath would be nice right about now…' she thought to herself.
She was thinking whether it was safe to return back home or not. She felt strongly that she had to warn her mother about what had happened moments ago, but then would that creature know where to find them? After all, it did know how to find her, right? Because it was after the stone she had…
The yellow mongoose reached inside her side pocket to find a large blue gem. Was this what that monster was after? Mina then did a quick search for the yellow jewel she had, but found nothing. She must have lost it while running.
"Ugh… my head…"
Mina turned back to see the hedgehog regain his consciousness. He rested one hand against a tree for support as he tried to stand. Mina, while unable to decide whether to help him, asked if he was feeling alright.
"Yeah… I think so." He answered, not meeting the young girl's gaze. "Chaos… he really did a number on me, huh?"
'Chaos?' Mina stared blankly at the hedgehog. 'That's what that black thing was called?' She turned back to face her feet in the water, rhythmically moving them back and forth and making small splashes. She somewhat waited if the boy had anything else to say, and she instinctively turned back at the sound of his voice when he suddenly shouted out something regarding an emerald.
"I dropped it!" said the hedgehog. "High chances Chaos has my Chaos Emerald by now. Damn…"
When the blue boy said this, the jewel the mongoose had came to her mind. She extended her arm that held the emerald towards the hedgehog. "Is this what your talking about?" Mina asked, already having an idea of what her answer was. And she nearly jumped when the hedgehog ran in front of her at an amazing speed. He quickly snatched the emerald out of her hand to check it, then looked at her with a smile on his face.
"This is great," he said. "I got the emerald back. Now I've got time to find out what's going on here."
In the next second, the hedgehog turned around with his back facing the Mina and sprinted off. The young mongoose was left standing alone in the dust.
Sonic ran along the borders of the valley until he reached a vast field where a mountain pass was within sight. The trails were of dry soil and few patches of grass; it led Sonic to think he was heading back to the Mystic Ruins. And that's would be good. He thought he would have better chances in finding the other Chaos Emeralds with help from Tails.
"Hey, you! Wait up!"
The voice that came from behind made Sonic turn to see someone running in the distance. It was the same girl he saw just moments ago. Sonic let his mouth drop when he saw how fast her feet were kicking the ground. The trail of flying dirt she was leaving behind her…
This girl … she was able to run at super speed?
Sonic snapped back from his thoughts in time to notice that the girl wasn't slowing down when she was closing in on him. He waved both his hands in front of him and yelled, "Slow down! Stop!"
"I-I can't!" the girl cried back. She was quickly in panic. She never thought that she could run this fast, she never thought she was able to. In her current state, she closed her eyes and tried to brace herself for a guaranteed impact.
Out of reflex, Sonic moved his body to the side just when the mongoose was about to collide with him, then he had her firmly in his arms to prevent her from falling to the ground. The hedgehog slowly set her down to let her catch her breath.
"Sorry about that." The girl said exhaustingly. "But I don't think I should be the one apologizing."
"Huh?" Sonic made a confused face. "What are you talking about?"
"Do you usually leave people behind like that? Even after the fact that someone might have saved you, and dragged you around the valley for hours, just to try and get away from that black monster thingy? I wouldn't call that a courtesy act if you ask me."
She suddenly stopped for breath again, and Sonic only blinked in response to her speech. For a moment he wondered whether that had happened while he was knocked out. It would explain the girl's presence when he woke up, and that Chaos wasn't around. Sonic took a small glance at her facial expression, which was upsetting, but there was something about it that he found…cute.
A soft chuckle suddenly escaped his mouth, and it had startled the girl in front of him. "Sorry." He finally said. "I guess I owe you for that, huh?"
There was a long pause, then the girl seemed to have shifted nervously. "Who are you anyway?" she asked. "I don't know anyone else who lives around here."
"I don't," Sonic answered. "I was just hangin' around here, but…" He took out the Chaos Emerald and stared at it absently. "That black thing: Chaos, I don't know why he's here, but I've got to find out."
"So this Chaos, it obviously wants that emerald for something." The mongoose slightly shook upon recalling her first encounter with Chaos. She stood back up to take another look at the Chaos Emerald. "Does he need it to be stronger or something?"
"Yeah, but I can't really get into it. It's a long story." Sonic quickly tucked the emerald away. "I've got to find some friends to help get the other emeralds before Chaos does. So I guess I'll see you some other time." Sonic was about to take off again, when his hand was abruptly caught in the girl's hold. He turned to see her now determined face.
"Can I come with you?" she asked him.
"What? Why?"
"I guess it's because… I just found out that I owe you for something too." The young mongoose expected the blue hedgehog to be confused after that statement. "Well you see, a couple of days ago, I-"
"Mina! Mina? Sweetie, where are you?"
At that moment, someone wearing a dark shawl was wondering not too far from where Sonic and Mina were. And when they caught sight of Mina, they immediately ran towards her and caught her in a strong embrace. Mina blinked in shock when she saw her mother's face behind her shawl, and was forced to sit back down on her knees by her mother's hold. A large part of Mina's face was resting on her mother's trembling shoulder, and she could hear faint sobbing against her ear.
"Oh Mina, I'm so glad you're okay." She said as her voice broke, then pulling herself away from Mina so that she could clearly see her face. "You stayed out for so long without telling me… I don't want you doing that again, do you understand me? Don't you ever do that to me."
"…I'm sorry mom," Mina quietly said. "But something came up." She then turned back to Sonic, who was only scratching the back of his head uncomfortably at the scene of the mother/daughter reunion. "See, this guy here was in trouble," Mina explained. "I was only trying to help him out."
Mina's mother stood up to take a good look at Sonic, then took a polite bow to him. "Thank you for staying by my daughter all this time." She said. "I'm glad that nothing terrible had happened to the both of you."
"No, problem." Sonic replied calmly, but then he took a step backwards while looking back to Mina's direction. "But I really need to get on out of here. Thanks for the emerald… Mina, is it? I'll se you later."
"But wait!" Mina called out. "I still didn't tell you about-"
She was cut off again, only this time by a loud splashing sound coming from water bursting from a stream nearby. Mina was found in her mother's arms again, while Sonic jumped in front of both of them. Pretty soon, they were able to see the water forming into a familiar dark being, with an abnormally large arm with a glowing jewel embedded in its palm.
'Oh Boy,' Sonic thought. 'I guess Chaos is ready for round two…'
TO BE CONTINUED
To the readers, sorry that I have to end the chapter at this point, but I wanted to have the next chapter to have lots of things happening (some good, some bad...). I'm such a bad person, aren't I? But don't worry, I'll make it up to you in the next update. Until next time!
Rougesweet16!
