And here we are with another chapter! As mentioned last time, this will be from the supernatural's side of the story. We're going to see how the spirits interact with each other on this wonderful occasion! And here are some magic words for you guys to decipher! XD.

Etinifni si evif retpac morf yug ohcnop eht dna ybur eht naidraug eht si yelir, iyf, oslA.

Review responses!

LatiasEevee: Thank you so much for your review! Oh, I'm just wriggling in my seat now, trying not to blurt out and give anything away! I'm glad you like the fanfic! And yeah, I mean, I made a mistake in Chapter 5 when I referred to Infinite as a man, but he's definitely Infinite! And as for Aleena, notice how I didn't put in anything about the Sonic Underground siblings? That's (honestly) because I haven't figured out exactly what to do. I have an idea, but it's foggy as heck. And as for Shadow, his story is actually the Interludes. That's going to be about him. So by the time the Interludes end, we'll be finished with the Chaos Festival Arc and go right into Shadow Arc. Hope that isn't too much of a spoiler.

And don't worry about your ideas! In fact, I would love to hear them. It'll give me an idea of what other readers are thinking. Don't worry; I swear not to pull any strange plot twists just to prove your ideas wrong; I already have a skeleton of the plot already. Just wanna discuss the ideas over with you, if that's alright!

Now, on with the chapter!

Chapter 8

By the time everyone had settled in, it was already night. Too tired from the journey and just generally the entire day of exploring the place, it was not a surprise that the young mobians quickly fell asleep. Their room was fairly small compared to the other rooms, but compared to their shack, it might as well be a master suite, complete with a single large bed. Others hadn't wanted the room because there was only one bed, so the mobians got it. They didn't mind; it was more comforting for them to sleep in the same bed with those they saw as family.

The bedside clock ticked quietly, the hands showing that it was well past midnight. Gold eyes holding an ethereal glow watched the hands, and the almost-full moon that could be seen through the window. They darted back down to the young mobians curled up next to their owner, and the Guardian breathed out quietly. 'I better be going now,' he thought. 'The spirits would have already started gathering, and the Master Emerald's Guardian is sure to be preparing as well... While I certainly do not plan on revealing my presence, I am curious... After all, the signs are there. This is the Festival that will surely herald his return.'

The Guardian's mind drifted back to the past at the thoughts. He remembered, long, long ago, back when he was with his current host's predecessor. Thanks to the human, Gerald Kintobor, and the Chaos Gods, he had met him back then, one of the very lucky few to know of his existence. He also knew of the Invasion, and how he disappeared afterwards, causing the God Chaos to choose the mountain spirit as a temporary Guardian in his stead.

Several years had passed since then, and now, the Chaos Gods sung once more. They sung of his return. And the Seven Chaos Emeralds had gathered.

'This will be a Festival to remember.'

With that, the Guardian carefully maneuvered out of the bed, moving as silent as possible to avoid waking his host's (and by extension, his) charges. Sure, they were not his real charges, but it was the nature of a spirit to see those under their wings as their charges. His gold eyes took one last look at the (almost literal) puppy pile before sneaking out of the room. The door closed quietly with only a faint creak, and the Guardian padded down the hallways on bare feet.

He had just disappeared around the corner before another was in the hallway.

Heterochromatic eyes darted around the darkened corridor. A gloved hand moved out from within the folds of his poncho and he briefly closed his eyes, trying to feel for the Guardian's presence. A huff of irritation escaped him when he could not sense it anymore. 'The Guardian has hidden himself this time... Which makes it surprising, considering how he just nearly revealed himself entirely in the morning, during the ceremony. Perhaps he had been in conflict with his host back then.' He opened his eyes once more and dropped his hand. 'No matter. I know his general location. It is just a matter of time before I find him again. He is bound to slip up with his host. It is only a matter of time...'

He was not exactly a patient person, but there was nothing more he could do. As such, he turned away from the corridor, ready to head out. The night was still young, and there were spirits to observe. 'Who knows? The Guardian might just be there.'

With that highly-anticipated thought in mind, he disappeared into the shadows.

Outside, while the mortals were asleep, the spirits were celebrating.

Under the light of the near-full moon, several spirits had taken on their mortal forms, indulging in mortal pleasures as they pleased. On the beach, far from the humans, there was no fear of being seen. And even if that were the case, there were several spirits with mind powers on hand. Just a little tweak, and it would be as if they were never there in the first place. As such, the spirits were certainly pulling out all possible stops on celebrating to the fullest.

Spirits of nature grew out plants in the more fertile areas, harvesting quickly-ripening grapes to turn into wine, and other manners of fruits and vegetables to feast upon. The animal spirits had brought in the meat, stolen from the humans (a certain two-tailed kitsune was amongst this group, and he was proudly carrying a rather large and fat hen). A manner of spirits with different abilities was providing the music and singing joyously, to which others were dancing to. A very lively ambience was in the air, and everyone rejoiced.

"This is most glorious!" the rose laughed as she sipped her wine. Over the rim of her cup, her leaf-green eyes scanned the crowd. "I do wonder where the others have gone... I have not seen the snow anywhere!" Feeling slightly concerned and a bit lonely at being all by herself, she placed her cup down and started wandering through the crowd in search of a familiar face.

It did not take very long before she spotted one such face. "Spring!" she called out, just soft enough to draw the Season's attention and no one else. The rose was quick to hurry towards the young rabbit, and quicker to draw her away from the large crowd. "What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be with Mother Nature and your fellow Seasons."

"I came looking for you," Spring replied softly, her flowers blooming into hellebores (anxiety), garlic flowers (courage, strength) and oleanders (caution). "We need to go to Mother and the Seasons, to greet the other Guardians of the Gods. They'll be coming to oversee this Chaos Festival, so we should be there to greet them."

The rose frowned, but she did not dawdle and followed Spring, keeping her voice low to talk to Spring. "Why this festival? The other Guardians never interfered with the Chaos Festival, not when it is clearly out of their jurisdiction. Why come to a Festival clearly worshipping a God they are not supposed to?"

"Everything about this Chaos Festival is strange, unique, not like others," Spring sighed. "Either way, perhaps these Guardians will have the answers. Now, let us make haste. They will be late, but that does not mean we should be."

Somewhere else far away from all the celebrations taking place, Mother Nature, three of her Seasons, the mountain guardian and the shaman had gathered together. In their mortal forms (with the shaman being the exception of course, as she was still mortal), they waited out on the beach for the rest of the guardians to arrive. It was not long before they were joined by Spring and the rose, the former taking her place next to Summer and the latter drawing back, to where the snow and the wind were watching the silent spirits (and shaman).

"So this is where you two were," the rose spirit commented quietly as she stood next to the snow. "How long have they been waiting?"

"Not too long," the snow replied, drawing herself up. The wind whistled in agreement, before hovering closer to its two fellow spirits.

"Do you know who else is to arrive?" it asked the snow quietly.

"The Guardians and the shaman of Solaris," the snow replied, her ears faintly twitching in irritation at a thought. "They usually go in guise among the mortals, which is probably why they are late, since they would have to deal with their mortal affairs first before coming... And last I heard, their mortal affairs are-."

"Here they come," Winter spoke up, cutting the snow off from finishing. All attention was drawn to the east, from where they could see a growing flame in the distance. As it drew closer, they could see it, an enormous cat made entirely of flames sprinting towards the beach. The fire construct landed in the waves with a hiss as its heat evaporated the water. Steam rose up like a screen, hiding the cat entirely, yet they could see the shadow as it shrunk.

By the time the steam had faded away, a purple-furred cat mobian and a silver-furred hedgehog were stepping onto the beach, completely dry. Both looked like ordinary mobians, but that was certainly not the case.

Gold locked with gold, and the two bowed respectfully towards the spirits, the guardian and the shaman. The others reciprocated, and Mother Nature spoke. "Welcome, Guardian of the Sol Emeralds and Emissaries of Solaris."

"We are welcomed to be here, Mother Nature. And greetings to the Seasons, Guardian of the Master Emerald and Emissaries of Chaos," the two spoke in unison, the voice of a spirit and a mortal blending together. The spirit, the cat, strode over to the mountain guardian, regal and confident in her posture. The two Guardians faced each other and bowed, while the mortal, the hedgehog, did the same with Tikal the shaman.

With the pleasantries done and witnessed (by the snow (Winter's charge), the rose (Spring's charge) and the wind), the three aforementioned spirits were dismissed back to the celebrations while Mother Nature, the Seasons, the Guardians and the shamans gathered for their discussion. When the three spirits were out of earshot, the spirit cat spoke up, "I understand that this was quite sudden, our request to attend the Chaos Festival. But we are here on the behest of Solaris. He spoke to Shaman Silver, and told us this."

The silver hedgehog, Silver, took over. "The Seven has gathered for this Chaos Festival, and the Chaos Gods sing once more. Their Mother rejoices, and Chaos himself knows. He will return, and with this Festival, everything will be righted once more. But I (Solaris) foresee a storm on the horizon. One centered around him... And curious, even more curious! But such matters I will not disclose to you; it is up to that earthbound spirit to decide, and its matters will not interfere. Now go, my shaman and Guardian. You will be witnesses to this event. This is what he has told me," the hedgehog recounted word by word. "As you can see, it is just a tad short of being a prophecy, yet its tones, we are wary."

"It is understandable to be wary of a storm," Mother Nature hummed. "But I have confidence that our presence there will be enough to stave it off. We will weather this storm, and we will see that his return goes without interference. It will be good to have him back."

"All too true. But what I worry about is this supposed 'matters' Solaris spoke of," Winter spoke. "An earthbound spirit?"

"We should not concern ourselves with this earthbound spirit, if Solaris wished we do not," the fire cat replied sternly. "Solaris may not be a benevolent god, but he does not lie, especially in areas out of his jurisdiction. If he said its matters will not interfere, they will not. Rather, I believe it more prudent to concern ourselves with his arrival, and how this storm will affect us."

Summer roared in laughter. "It is quite like him, to finally return in a rather dramatic way."

"If I may interrupt," the mountain spoke up, drawing the others' attention. "Just who is this...he you all are referring to?"

"No one knows his name, and it is not safe for us to talk of him," Winter replied, his voice harsh and cold as the bitterest months of his reign.

"Now do not be so harsh with him Winter!" Summer chided, turning calm eyes to the confused mountain. "You have no need to fear him. He is an ally, and a rather benevolent one. In fact, his return is good news! The only thing we will have to worry about is this storm. Shamans, have you seen anything more about this storm?"

"Chaos has no jurisdiction over time," Tikal murmured softly. "I am afraid we do not know more than what Silver has told us."

"And I know no more than what Solaris permits me to know," Silver added, clenching his gloved hands in frustration. "I do wish he told us more…"

"But he did not, and we must not falter in the face of this fact, Shaman Silver," the cat told Silver firmly, before turning to the Seasons and Mother Nature. "If we may be so bold, while Solaris may not have told us to help you, merely witness what happens, he did not forbid us of helping you. As such, we would like to offer our assistance in the facing of this storm."

"You would be most welcomed to do so," Mother Nature accepted with a smile. "Now that that has settled, would you like to join the celebrations? Or perhaps would you like to witness the preparations?"

Silver shifted nervously on his feet, glancing at the fire spirit. Truthfully, he did not want to join the celebrations or be alone by himself (he may not exactly be alone, but he had never met these strangers before, and as such, he wished to stick with familiarity in the fire spirit). He did not do well with crowds, either mortal or supernatural. As such, he hoped that the spirit would take the latter offer.

The cat did not seem to take notice (or perhaps she was ignoring the pleading looks Silver was giving her), and instead, she replied, "As I believe that it would be rude to witness another God's Festival in such a manner, I would like to join the celebrations instead. Of course, if Shaman Silver would like to interact with his fellow shaman, it is quite alright if he remains with you?"

"Um, I'll go with Blaze!" Silver squeaked at that, not wanting to be alone.

The fire spirit, Blaze, inwardly sighed at her friends lack of confidence, but the others seemed only amused. "Very well. Autumn will lead you to the celebrations."

The bee mobian wiggled impatiently, and once he received a look from Mother Nature, he breathed out loudly and started chattering. "Ah, it is great to be allowed to talk again! Come on, come on, come on! You'll love the celebrations! There'll be food, drink and music and dancing! You should taste the wine; the spirits make it from the freshest grapes, grown by them of course! And the food! Have I mentioned the food? You'll love it!"

And with that, Blaze and Silver were left to Autumn's tender mercy as they were almost dragged away by the energetic and definitely hyperactive bee.

The Guardian sighed as the fire spirit and the hedgehog shaman left. He closed his gold eyes in contemplation, having overheard the prophecy. In thought, his fingers went to the talisman that was keeping his presence hidden from the others, absent-mindedly flicking it like one would do a coin. 'A storm...This worries me,'he thought quietly. 'And those matters concerning an earthbound spirit...no doubt, he was referring to me. I should not have been so optimistic. Of course the Gods would know of the Ruby's existence... It just makes it more prevalent that I protect it more cautiously. I should not use it in this case, not if there is trouble afoot. Better stick to the talismans...'

With that, the Guardian stood up. The mountain and the shaman were simply preparing for the Chaos Festival, and there was no need for him to witness it. He turned around and headed back towards the celebration.

As he wandered in the shadows, his eyes were drawn to the merry-making of the spirits. Their lively enthusiasm briefly drew a smile on his face, but he quietly smothered the urge to join them. He had no right to society. He was, after all, an earthbound spirit, neither dead nor alive. He had no right to join in and form attachments (well, he could form attachments, but he would not allow others to form attachments to him. That was just cruel).

A brief pang of pain ached in his chest, and his pendant glowed.

Suddenly, he bumped into someone else.

"Oh, I'm sor-."

"I found you..."

Startled gold eyes locked with triumphant blue and gold, and the Guardian easily recognized the face hidden under that hood.

And a dreadful feeling overcame his senses...

Oh no... WHAT HAVE I DONE?! GUARDIAN, GET OUT OF THERE! NOW!

IMPORTANT NOTICE

The next won't be a chapter or an interlude. Instead, I'll be accepting questions from you readers concerning this fanfiction. Anything about the story (although all plot questions that I haven't revealed yet will not be answered), just hand it over! I'll give only a week for this though. If there are no or too little questions by the end of the week, I'll resume with an interlude.

This is your chance to make anything unclear clear, so I hope to hear questions! See you then.