Chapter 10- Shrine of the Flames
As the sunlight rays beam through the open windows, giving a familiar warmth throughout the room. I force my eyes open, not moving I shift my vision to look around me.
Finally after probably many sleepless nights, Shadow is asleep on the armchair. His head is slumped on his shoulder and he looks relaxed, very different from his usual stance of being to alert and rigid, so serious. Now he looked carefree as can be. Though I couldn't help notice the bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep.
I shifted my gaze to Vincent who was no where to be seen. Feeling a sense of panic and protectiveness I rose, though my body was stiff from the position I was sleeping in I forced my body to move.
The floorboards of the old house creaked as my weight lifted and pressed on the musty wooden boards. Trying my best to maintain the slow prowl Vincent had showed me, to keep my movements silent, I moved down the long hallway.
I hadn't changed clothes in days and hadn't bathed since the fire I feared I smelled of smoke and burnt cloth, first thing after Vincent recovers, I will get my clothes.
Finally I found him, searching for something, in a bedroom, everything draped with a cover, making it seem eerie and old.
His head snaps up when he hears my presence, straightening he rises from his knees.
"Blaze….What are you doing up?" He asks, making straight eye contact with me. I glare at him and cross my arms over my chest.
"I think the better question is what are you doing up." I counter, "You're supposed to be resting."
He sighs. "Don't worry about me Blaze; I don't want you to worry about me."
"Don't change the subject." I scold, taking a voice that was demanding and strong, like someone of royal…
He seems shocked with my tone, but answers my previous question. "I was…looking…for something." He admits.
I raise my eyebrow questionably. "What is this…something?"
He doesn't answer and I know he is hiding something.
"Vincent. Tell me." I press, my lips rising to show my clenched teeth.
"I will show you, as soon as the black one wakes." He promises.
"The black one has a name you know." I say, satisfied with the answer.
His eyebrow rises in suspicion. "Yes….Shadow….correct?" He says, slowly, trying to read my face for any possible explanation to the questions he might have.
"Yes." I answer.
Vincent tenses, but I have heard it too, my large ears flickering toward the source of the sound. Shadow is awake.
Vincent and I walk back into the living room, not speaking. When in the room, Shadow is indeed awake. Looking like he could still use some sleep as he stretches, his body stiff and no doubt sore from the position he was sleeping in.
He yawns, but his eyes are alert as we walk into the room. "Where were you two?" He asks.
"I woke up; Vincent wasn't here, so I went looking for him." I explain, though he gazes at Vincent suspiciously.
"Very well." He dismisses the subject. "I see you have taken toward your recovery."
Vincent nods, "Thanks to you two."
"Yes well, Blaze insisted we go after you." Shadow replies. I scowl at him and Vincent seems to eye him dangerously, giving him a silent warning.
"I heard you, talking about a rebel." Vincent says after a short pause.
"Blaze, if you're anything like your mother and your father, I know you will do it. And as long as she is, it is my duty to do the same." He continues.
"She may not be the ruler of this Kingdom like she is supposed to be, but she still carries the royal blood, therefore I am bound to protect her and fight with her, no matter what the costs." He finishes.
"Can't let my little Princess get hurt." He adds. I scoff at him playfully as he ruffles my hair.
"Good, we will need an experienced fighter; surely you know the grounds, possibly better than Vulgar, which would be very useful." Shadow says, sounding more adult than a teenager.
Vincent nods. "Yes, whatever you need. I will oblige."
"Excellent." Shadow replies.
"I assume you have a small army set up, they will need weapons, gear, and equipment. If you can gather them; I will show you something that was sacred to only those trusted by the Kingdom of Fire." Vincent says, winking at me discretely.
Shadow seems to think this over, but slowly nods in agreement. "I will arrange a meeting this afternoon."
Soon enough, after we eat, many of the students I met in school appear, as if from thin air.
Sonic, being the fastest of the group arrived first, but the others were quick to follow and arrived minutes later.
All of them were present, plus a few that we not an heir to the throne.
Vincent paced back in forth; surveying the people he would most likely be training and working with.
Everyone was silent, apparently waiting for orders.
"Alright everyone, I think it is clear the reason we are gathered here today." Shadow began.
"We got the cat and her guard…great." Scourge said with a bored expression on his face.
Vincent sent him the most deadly look he could muster and I hissed at him.
But it was Shadow who stopped the fight before it began. "Look, these are now your allies, not enemies."
"If you want your Kingdom and your rights back, along with your respective emeralds, then get along, we will train as a team, work as a team, and trust each other as a team. Got it?" He continued, a more authoritive and demanding voice took over his voice as he eyed everyone present.
Several nodded obediently.
"Good. This is Vincent, he knows this Kingdom better than anyone we know, and he is a skilled fighter and will be very useful for our cause, so listen to him and I can assure you, anyone that disobeys him will be punished." He finished.
At this point, Vincent took over with a grateful nod to Shadow.
"Listen here Kiddies, here you follow my rules, whether you like it or not. I assume if we are going to overthrow the King, we should have equipment right?" He states.
Many people agree.
"Alright then, follow me. But this place is top secret, so it doesn't leave here, got it?" Vincent warned, his cold and harsh voice mixing with his usual tone.
He turns from us and we follow him, he leads us to an electrical fence and from the sparks, it's still active.
Vincent points to Tails or Miles, the small, but friendly and smart fox boy.
"What's your name?" Vincent asks.
The young boy takes a deep breath before replying, "I'm Miles, but everyone calls me Tails." He answers, being respectful but kind at the same time.
"Alright then Tails, Blaze tells me you're smart." He says, pointing to a box attached to the fence.
"I don't suppose you know how to defuse an electrical powering system?" He adds.
"Well…I'll give it a shot, but I'll need her help." Tails shrugs but points to me.
I give a confused look, but follow him to the box and kneel to see what he needs.
"Blaze, melt the covering." He commands. I make eye contact with the fox's blue eyes before standing again.
"You might want to back up." I warn and he does.
I take in a deep breath, focusing entirely on my flaming powers. I open my palm and a ball of flame forms in from my palm, small at first, but it gets bigger as I command it to.
Just like in P.E every goes silent. I take in a deep breath, positioning the flame directly in front of my mouth, I release my breath, but the breath builds the fire up, making it shoot directly onto the plastic material that is incasing the electrical power.
"That's good." Tails says, waiting for me to halt the column of flame that is licking through the plastic. I close my palm and my mouth, instantly extinguishing the flames, though I can't help that smoke is now rising from my body.
Unable to help cool the scorching material Tails carefully works his way around the plastic material that has been reduced to a puddle of the tan color it was.
I hold my hands to the back of my neck sheepishly, but Vincent gives me a pat on the back as reassurance.
Then suddenly, the flickering hum of the electricity that was traveling through the fence stops, making everything deadly silent.
Tails touches the fence wearily, but no shock comes and he gives us the okay to climb the fence.
I leap onto the metal chain link fence, it rattling so loudly with all our body mass on it I thought we might attract some enemies.
I kick my legs up onto the top pole and leap to the ground. Rouge flies over it, Tails and Cream joining her.
Shade executes a perfect round off connected to a bunch of back handsprings before flipping up and over the gate, landing perfectly. Rouge shakes her head with a remark on how she is such a show off.
Shadow leaps over the fence in one bound, Sonic and Scourge following him. Amy scales the fence and gracefully jumps to the ground below while Knuckles tears a hole in the fence with his spiked gloves.
But I am most surprised when Vincent leaps over the fence without a running start, landing with a heavy thud on the ground. I think the feeling of shock is mutual.
"Still got it." He says, brushing off invisible dust from his clothes.
"How come you never did that stuff when I was a kid?" I ask, falling into step beside him.
He chuckles, "Blaze, ever since I was promoted to Royal Guard, my job is and always was to protect you, and I never had time to do that stuff anymore."
I frown. "Sorry I ruined the fun."
"Don't be. You brought me happiness Blaze, like I'm sure my own children would if I had any." He replies.
I smile as he throws his arms around me.
"You just wait, that isn't even the dangerous stuff." He remarks. I scoff and playfully push him away.
We pass through grass as tall as my shoulders and then to a low plain, but it eventually cuts off into soil, like an old farmstead.
Vincent stops, and surveys the ground as if looking for something important.
He kneels to the ground, sweeping away loose dirt to reveal a large concrete marking in the ground.
"Let's see if I remember this." He says to no one in particular.
Embedded in the stone is a bunch of unfamiliar signs and designs, Vincent surveys each one before taking one in his paw and twisting it, and then moving onto the others, twisting them all a certain degree.
When he has turned them all, the ground rumbles and all of us go alert, expecting enemies to arrive. But none come.
When the ground stops shaking a large hole in the ground has appeared in the center of the stone. Vincent motions to me.
I go in first, lighting up the dark and creepy passageway with my flames. As Vincent previously said, it has been unoccupied for some time now, cobwebs covering the corners of the walls, and it is very dirty and grimy.
I notice Cream clutching her Chao closely to her as she proceeds through the darkness, and I am tempted to assure it all will be fine, but I can't give a definite answer.
Vincent seems calm though, almost relieved as if he expected it to be discovered already.
Finally we see another light, an orange glow coming a ways from where we were currently, much like the fire I possessed.
I march forward; ultimately curious about what lies ahead.
"This is the Shrine of Flames. A sacred place to all of the descendants of the Kingdom of Fire and everyone trusted enough to the Kingdom of Fire." Vincent says as he leads us forward.
When we get closer I realize it is just a stone walkway surrounded by a pool of boiling lava that bubbled and steamed.
I knew everyone else was overwhelmed by the heat, many people were already fanning themselves, but Vincent seemed used to it.
It didn't bother me, not the least, but I was tempted to touch the lava, see if I could resist the scorching heat, but decided against it.
Vincent led us to the larger part of the walkway, where many chests lay against the wall, like old pirate chests.
"You see, Arianna and Maxwell were very wise, and eventually they grew suspicious, fearing someone was plotting against them." Vincent said.
Arianna and Maxwell? Were those my parents' names?
"So they came to an agreement." He continued. "All the Kingdoms would place items that would help future warriors if they ever organized a rebel, though we never thought it would be any of you."
"Many of these items are sacred, vital to the eight Kingdoms, many are enchanted or enhanced." He says, brushing dust off of one.
"Go crazy." He says and the others file around him, finding their own respective chests with their Kingdoms emblem on it.
I gave him a questionable look, I wanted more, and I needed answers. He knew something I didn't.
"I'll tell you later." He whispers. I know that is all I'm going to get out of him now and I venture to find my own chest. Finding a large one layered with dust.
I sweep my hand over the top, and sure enough the familiar picture of a flame is present on the base of the wood.
I open the heavy top and it creaks as if in pain. Inside I find many useful items.
A few different sizes of armor in both women and men, some vials full of strange glowing liquid, and weapons, many weapons. Spears, bows and arrows, swords, knives, even a whip, in all different sizes and shapes.
The armor seems durable, thick leather that wouldn't let an arrow or sword pierce it easily, complete with sheaths of all sizes. There are some higher tech weapons as well, guns and grenades and all.
I bit my lip, I haven't dealt with any weaponry, but I find a large leather bag, big enough to hold my findings.
I put the armor that should fit me, and I size bigger just in case into the bag, along with a few knives and the whip, and I take all the vials of the mysterious liquid, surely the effects are good. I take a few sheaths too, but leave the rest.
I close up my bag and see the others, Amy is examining a piece of armor from her Kingdom, but it looks a lot like mine, she stuffs it into her bag.
Rouge is pulling back the string of a deadly but glamorous looking bow; feeling satisfied she puts it into her respective bag, along with several quivers of arrows.
Scourge is toying with several knives, throwing them with a wicked aim, smirking victoriously he grabs several and shoves them into the bag.
Shadow is checking out many powerful looking guns, and pulls them into the bag.
Cream seems to be having trouble finding some armor that is small enough to fit her, but with some reassurance from Amy she puts it into the bag, along with several types of weapons.
Sonic takes out a long and sharp sword, putting it into the bag along with the other things he finds suitable.
Shade is having trouble deciding from weapons, and reluctantly shoves all of them in the bag, along with many other useful tools.
Knuckles stuffs some armor into his bag along with some deadly looking weapons, Tails is having trouble deciding his weapons, but Sonic is helping him.
Fiona Fox, the girl that had shown up with Scourge and looks fairly badass, but not the kind of girl I would like. She shoves multiple pieces of armor along with weapons.
I turn to look for Vincent but he reappears with a bag of his own things gathered into a bag, he turns to help and make sure everyone has what they need in it.
I turn to find Shadow's piercing red eyes boring into mine; he must have been reading my mind. I wonder if anyone else knows of his ability…
Even though we have already made eye contact, and I am well aware that he knows staring is rude, he doesn't stop, and his gaze is unblinking and focused.
I fidget uncomfortably under his gaze; I hope I don't look too horrible….
Vincent appears behind me, startling me greatly, and I swear I can feel Shadow's smirk even though I am not facing him.
"Let me see what you've gathered Blaze." He commands. I hand him my bag and patiently wait.
"Ahh, I see you have chosen the whip as your weapon." He says. "I have a feeling you'll be great with it."
I smile, as he hands my bag back and he turns to check on the others.
"Wait." I call, and as he turns around I hug him. I haven't hugged him and forever, but it makes me feel protected and loved, like Vincent always makes me feel.
He wraps his arms around me, his fur making me warmer than I already am.
"Thanks." I say as we pull apart. "For what?" He asks.
"For everything."