The story is coming to an end (1 or two more updates), and I need to thank everyone who review for your support. I hope this doesn't seem to rushed but I want to finnish before school starts again and it starts on the 5th. But enoguh jibber jabber I need to personally thank Rynn Wolfe, HealingHearts24, and Tamara the Hybridian. You and anyone who has reviewed previously are great folks I hope you know. Anyways I don't own Sonic or sega
The driving snow, blinding glare and freezing cold stabbed at Fang in a seemingly endless onslaught. No matter how much he tried to affirm to his mind that it wasn't really cold, the stabs of ice chilled him down to his core. Each step he took required more strength as snow piled atop his shoulders and now damp clothes, if he hadn't already been dead he would have long ago stopped to build a fire. It was something he had to repeat to himself, that he was dead, because no matter how illogical it seemed he felt he could freeze to death in the hellish tundra where no trees grew. It was flat and if the pounding snow wasn't obstructing his view he was certain he would be able to find the way out, but that simply wasn't snow and he had to squint to see only a few steps as his eyes were assaulted with icy daggers. His hands were growing numb, they wouldn't close right, or maybe they were and he had simply lost so much feeling in them he could no longer tell. He thought of turning back, and as soon as the thought popped into his mind a doorway stood before him. Through it he saw the warm town of Fiddlers Green, people smiling, laughing and dancing. It wasn't what he saw that caused him to ignore the doorway and move around it, rather it was what he didn't see, he didn't see his friends, and thus it was nowhere he wanted to be. He pushed on through the driving snow, growing numb and weary no matter how much he thought it impossible, yet he continued, one weary step after another.
Tails tried to explain the dream, tried to explain the knowing feeling that Fang was somewhere trying to get out, but it just ended with the recommendation to get some rest. His last attempt to explain had been with Sally and it had gone worst of all. Not only was she completely sceptical but she told him to go see the doctor for psychological evaluation. Though she didn't use those exact words, it was plain to Tails what she meant by them, so it was with that reason he begrudgingly headed into the doctor's office.
The wind sounded like howling, and each new howl brought a painful bite through his fur that had become matted down with ice. Icicle's had formed from his fur, his breath was ragged and seared his lungs with every gulp. Fang considered if he had taken a wrong turn and ended up in the deepest level of hell, it was certainly miserable enough to be. The only thing missing was some horrible demon, though at this point a demon would have been a welcome sight from the endless white that ran every direction. Speaking of direction reminded Fang of his most obvious problem, he had none, he wasn't sure which way anything was, it was the forest without any trees and he was completely lost. Until he spotted a flicker of color, it had seemed black, it was only there for an instant and at the prospect of escaping this wintry hell he rushed towards it as fast as his frozen body could manage.
Tails grumbled angrily as he left the office, an impressive fantasy to deal with the loss of a friend had been the doctors diagnosis. The only positive thing to come out of the trip was afterwards the doc had wrapped his feet and given him an antibiotic, still no one believed him. Maybe it would be best if he just rested for now, maybe the stress was getting to him, in fact looking at the problem from that angle made it seem all the more likely as Fangs funeral was coming up. He tried to shake the dream and strange injury from his mind as he went back to his hut and closed the door and flopped down on the bed. He was about to pull the canteen off when he stopped, it was a connection to Fang, something to believe in, and what If he did die, he kept the canteen on and attempted to find a comfortable position to find sleep in.
The black dot was moving away, but Fang pursued it, it started to grow and eventually he noticed it was also red, red and black, it seemed almost familiar. His entire focus dedicated to the dot that seemed almost familiar he forgot, if only momentarily about the frozen and worn out state he was in. At last the shape started to look more defined, arms, legs, a red shell….a red shell! Fang used his voice as best as he could and with everything he had, he screamed into the frozen air the name of the person he longed to see. "Mighty!" Mighty turned around as Fang continued his approach, smile on his face as Mighty's eyes grew wide and the two ran at each other and jumped into a hug. At least that was what Fang attempted to do but only found himself falling right through Mighty and into the flakes he had come to loathe. Fang pushed himself to his feet with no small effort and faced Mighty again who tried to speak but couldn't find the words and let a tear fall down his face. "Mighty, it's me. I'm okay for now but you need to leave before you freeze to death!" Mighty's face instantly grew confused and his voice carried the same note as his puzzled expression. "But Fang…it's warm here?" Fang was confused now, he felt snow slapping at the back of his neck even now and Mighty was telling him it was warm, was there a such thing as Arctic Armadillo's? A thought struck Fang and he quickly posed it to Mighty. "Mighty tell me what you see here." Mighty looked around for a moment and finally spoke, face still showing his confusion clearly. "It's like a big meadow, lots of flowers and an ocean and birds chirping. Why what does it look like to you?" Fang was about to respond with "hell" when he recalled the map, the next place was water, he quickly went to grab Mighty's shoulders but his hands passed right through. "Mighty please take me to the ocean!" Mighty nodded and started to move towards it as Fang followed.
Tails had woken up and decided to continue reading his book that Knuckles had given him; he flipped to the page of Fiddlers Green once again. He was leafing through the pages when his hand felt the weight of one of the pages, it was stuck together, wetting his fingers he slid his thumb and index against the page and one page became two. He instantly started reading whatever information he had somehow missed, by the time he had finished the new page his jaw was hanging wide open. According to this there was a way out of Fiddlers Green, a portal that would take him back to the land of the living, Tails almost exploded with joy at reading that, until he read of the trials he would need to face. That was not what worried Tails however it was the final sentence that caused Tails a sense of terror he could barely put into words. "Any soul who enters Fiddlers Green may depart back into the world of the living provided they pass the trials and accomplish it within thirteen days of their departure from the mortal world. If they fail to do so there soul will not be allowed to materialize in the mortal plain." Tails swallowed hard; even if Fang passed the trials and he didn't do them in time then his soul wouldn't be able to return to this world. Tails gave a mental prayer that Fang would somehow manage to do it in time, because according to Tails math, he only had two days left.
The instant he set foot on the beach a shockwave emanated from his footsteps and the snow and cold vanished into thin air, a warm breeze replaced the bone shattering chill and green stood where only white had once. He breathed deep of salty air, of warmth and his body felt better than it had ever before, he turned to thank Mighty with all his heart but only faced a fading image that no sooner than he tried to touch it had it dispersed. A soft sadness hit his heart as he turned round to the beach and saw a rowboat, understanding set in as he sighed and repeated to himself "It's only two more trials only two more and I'll be fine." Like a crack of thunder the same voice that had spoken before rose up like the crashing of waves. "Blinded by fears, lost in a harsh world, you pushed forwards, and guided by those who you cared for and who in turn cared for you. You are halfway through your journey, in my time only 14 people have ever passed this stage. Most would have let doubt drive them back into the safety they knew. A warning then to you, only three others has ever passed the next stage; I offer you a chance to turn back now, for there will be no chance to turn back on this stage once you begin." The voice waited for a reply, but Fangs only reply was a smirk as he pushed the boat into the waters and hopped onboard.
Tails paced back and forth; finally he snapped his fingers when realization that worrying would get him nowhere finally struck. He needed a way to clear his head, to relax and take his mind off of this, and like a miracle a knock came at his door. Sonic stood there giving a large thumbs up and Tails couldn't help but let out a grin. "Hey ya little bro you up for a run or has all the reading you've been doing tired you out?" Tails rolled his eyes and grabbed the front door and pulled it closed as he stepped outside with Sonic. Sonic cocked an eyebrow at the canteen and spoke without a second thought. "You're not actually going to run with that are you; I mean it flapping about will slow you down right?" Tails just tightened the strap as best he could so that it barely even moved. Sonic just shrugged and said suit yourself before taking off at a speed he was certain Tails would be able to catch up with.
Fang was starting to suspect a theme, the only visible thing was water, water in every direction as far as he could see. The sloshing wasn't exactly pleasant either but this time Fang stopped and thought as best he could. Up to this point the solutions hadn't really been logical, climbing up a tree, walking on reflections, and just not passing out and quitting. He was certain there was some odd solution to this, something only three other people had thought of, he leaned his head on his fist as he rested his elbow on his knee. The boat didn't tilt, Fang considered it for a moment before filling it under the rapidly growing. "Physics doesn't apply here file." He tried to think of an illogical solution, he put his paddle in the air and attempted to suddenly paddle his boat straight up but quickly found it didn't work. He looked at his reflection in the water and tried to place his foot on it but his foot quickly went below the surface. His boat had still barely swayed, he started trying to think of a solution that involved his bot not tipping over of some bit of simple insane logic that would only be applicable here. A thought hit him, he hung his head over the side of his tiny ship and dunked it beneath the waves, he opened his eyes but the salt was burning them lightly so he tried breathing water. It made no real sense to try breathing water on a boat that couldn't sink so when it was successful he was positive it had something to do with the solution.
He tried to think of what breathing water had to do with the solution, tried to think of some vague lesson that could be learned by doing it so he could move on to whatever the last challenge was. The only thought was faith, of letting go of fear, he would dive into the water and swim downwards until he hit the bottom. The idea was pure lunacy so with an aggravated sigh and a series of mutterings that could make a sailor blush he accepted the fact that it was probably right. After all if he was dead he could just swim for eternity and that wasn't exactly the worst possible fate, getting stuck in blizzard land might have been, hopefully he would be able to swim back up and find his boat if he was wrong. Gazing down into the water he sucked in a large breath he would never need and jumped praying he hadn't just become the first soul to ever purposely drown himself.
Swimming down and not gasping for air was amongst the oddest sensation of his existence, he swam deeper and deeper into the water, till light grew dim and the water gained a chill that made the hellish winter land he had come from seem like spring. No that wasn't true, it was equally cold, just a different kind of cold, a wet cold that seeped into every square inch of him, and he continued down, if there was a bottom he would damn well reach it. Darkness enshrouded everything and the cold was worsening, biting, screaming at him to stop and let himself float back up to the surface, he kept on it, swimming deeper until the last flickers of light completely vanished, and still deeper he swam. He couldn't tell when, but he cursed himself, his foul and garbled words shrieking through the sea as he spotted the surface coming into view, he had gotten turned around in the darkness. He broke the surface with a gasp and a scream of anger as he wiped salt water from his eyes and swore while treading water with one hand. He looked around to see if he could locate his boat, but what was only a little bit away wasn't his boat, but an island, a rather small island but it wasn't the size of the island that got him excited, it was the angelic white light that was shining down on a specific point of the island so brilliant that it nearly caused him to stop treading water right then and there. He swam faster than he ever knew he had been capable and soon clambered onto the beach where his last challenge would await, really he thought, it can't be much worse than this.
Tails loved the run, he enjoyed running nearly as much as Sonic, though he wished Sonic would slow down and let him catch up. He was tiring his breathing was ragged and sweat crept down his brow, it was like old times aside from the canteen thrumming on his side and the white fur on his arms that he looked at as he ran. His thoughts were clear, but still he hoped Fang would make it, he only had a little bit of time left, still….his thoughts were interrupted, he hadn't focused on where he had been going and a simple root had caught his foot. Normally he would have whirled his tails and saved himself faster than a blink, but from so long of neglecting their use it had stopped being instinctual, so although they started to rev in the air it was a few seconds to late and Tails crashed head first into large rock that had jutted from the ground. Sonic heard the crash and instantly turned around and ran back to the scene, and what he saw broke his heart, blood was trickling from his head, he didn't move, didn't even seem to breathe. "Tails. Tails! TAAIILLLSS!" Sonic grabbed him and felt a tiny pulse still beating inside of him, he rushed back to Knothole tears streaming down his face the entire way, and he couldn't have moved faster If the grim reaper himself had been on his tail.
Anyone see that coming. Oh don't give me that sad look, I'm sure someone in this story will probably get a happy ending...probably.
