Season 1 Chapter 11
The air hummed as Tails swung his new blade, hacking away at jury-rigged targets made of sticks and ice-locked joints as he practiced the old techniques he'd picked up from Antoine years before. The sticks offered little resistance to the freshly-sharpened blade, cutting cleanly through them with little resistance. Stabs, swipes and the occasional kick made short work of the targets, leaving behind nothing but large fragments of bark and fleshy, fresh-cut shards of wood. As he began to collect the garbage left over of the targets, Tabitha closed her book and stood up, stepping out of the shade the Academy's stone perimeter wall provided.
"What's up?" Tails asked, stowing his sword in the cheap wood and canvas sheath the blade had came with.
"Riding practice," she said, pointing toward Sylphid with her staff. Hearing Tabitha speak, the dragon snapped out of its afternoon nap almost immediately, ready to serve.
Tails nodded. "Sounds good to me, I suppose."
The two mounted the large blue dragon, taking a seat in the gaps between the softball-sized lumps that dotted the length of her spine. With a sudden lurch and a blast of her wings, Sylphid leaped into the air and began to gain altitude. The Academy quickly shrunk in the distance as she picked up speed, soon approaching the bottoms of one of the many small clusters of clouds that dotted the sky. Under Tabitha's control, Sylphid leveled out and performed an aileron roll, tucking her wings in to pick up rotational speed as Tails clung on to her for dear life. "Jeez, how does Tabitha stay on without any seatbelts or saddles?" he thought, watching the blue-haired girl with amazement as she silently gazed into the blue abyss in front of her, guiding the dragon on a rollercoaster of exotic maneuvers with the slightest touch.
Suddenly, an idea popped into Tails' head. "Hey, I should be practicing this stuff too. It's been a while since I've had to do any stunt flying, and I bet the new rocket boots could make me faster!" he thought, looking down at the new modifications attached to his shoes. "Hey Tabitha, watch this!" he yelled, letting go of Sylphid and allowing himself to be flung off as she rolled and twisted. He brought his twin tails up to speed, coming to a comfortable cruising speed alongside the dragon and her rider. With a grin, he rotated in midair to face backward, maximizing his forward thrust by giving his tails a more optimal angle. "It's been ages since I've had time to go flying for fun! It feels great!" he yelled, but he could tell that she couldn't hear him. He pulled up his wristcomm and pressed a button, igniting the thrusters in his shoes. Sylphid let out a loud growl of excitement as Tails picked up speed, giving the beast a casual thumbs-up as he shot past.
Once Tails had gained suitable ground ahead of the dragon, he flipped around to his usual helicopter-style flight, holding his legs out flat behind him and spreading his arms wide. He performed several stunts of his own while Tabitha and Sylphid caught up, gaining altitude as they went. With a sudden stop of his tails and rocket shoes, he tucked his legs in and plummeted through the clouds like child doing a cannonball into a pond. The fox hurtled to the ground at frightening speed, stopping himself just short of certain death with his tails and shoes at full throttle as he skated along the grassy field. Sylphid descended to the field, gliding peacefully alongside Tails over the windswept grass.
"Man, if Shadow could see me now, he might even be impressed!" Tails thought with a grin. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tabitha waving him over, back to Sylphid. "Must be time to go back. Oh well, at least it was nice to get out and about." He made his way over to the dragon, carefully avoiding her wings as he made his way up onto her back. Sylphid slowly banked left, turning around and gaining altitude once more to make her way back to the Academy.
Below, Tails watched as the boulder-speckled fields gave way to forests, then back to grassy flatland as they approached the Academy from a high altitude. "Nice view!" he thought as his gaze traced the road that lead out of the Academy's main gate, splitting into several junctions as it went. "I bet Sonic would love to spend some time out here, exploring and finding all the cool spots to chill out."
Preoccupied with the sights, Tails hardly noticed as Tabitha suddenly slipped sideways off of Sylphid's back. Doing a surprised double-take, he let out a sudden "Oh, shit!" and slid off of Sylphid's back as the dragon dropped into a dive, using his rocket shoes to speed up his descent as he fell. Within moments, he was able to come alongside Tabitha as she fell, grabbing her and flipping around to slow their fall. With the help of his tails, he was able to bring both of them to a soft landing just inside of the Academy's main gate. "You okay? What happened? You suddenly just… fell off! Did you get light-headed or lose consciousness or something?" he asked, setting her down.
Without a word, Tabitha casually dusted herself off and waited for Sylphid to join them on the ground. "Training," she said, her voice barely audible.
"…ooooh," he said, realizing his mistake. "That was probably a training drill for Sylphid, wasn't it? In case you fall off in flight. Makes sense, sorry for ruining it."
Tabitha shook her head, then pointed to the central tower of the Academy. "Afternoon class."
"Alright. See you later," Tails said. He watched as the blue-haired girl dismissed her dragon to the forest and wandered off toward the central tower, her staff gently bobbing up and down as she walked. Bored, he drew his sword and looked over the blade, inspecting the edge for any damage done during practice. "I bet I could build a better blade, if I could get some quality steel," he thought, gently inserting the sword back into it's sheath. He made his way back to Professor Colbert's workshop, his mind racing about new designs for his upcoming sword.
Entering the small wooden building, he undid the belt of his sheath and withdrew the sword, laying the two separately on a clean space of workbench near the entrance to his own workshop downstairs. He sized the blade up mentally, imagining how much metal he could reclaim from melting down the sword and re-using the iron. "Not much room for improvement," he thought, reaching for a large whetstone to buff out the dulled sections of the blade he'd created from practice earlier.
As he finished up with maintaining his sword, a lightbulb went on in his head. He set the gleaming blade down and climbed down into his workspace, the air inside the metal-walled box unusually cold and dry. He walked a short way along the wall, bringing up his T-Buster and engaging the plasma-cutter function. The yellow beam sprung into life, digging deep into the thick metal wall as he cut out a large rectangle, long enough for the blade he intended to make. He bolted back up the ladder to the upper workshop to fetch a couple candles and a pair of metalworking tongs, rushing back down the ladder to extract the cut rectangle from the wall before it re-solidified. Lighting the candle wicks with the molten edges of the metal slab, he began carefully carving by the candlelight, pausing occasionally to let the metal cool as he handled it with the tongs...
Several hours later, he held his new sword aloft in the dim candlelight. The blade, a two-and-a-half-foot-long curved scimitar, gleamed with a teal reflection of it's tempered metal. A small slot, carved into the back edge of the large, flat tip section, gaped back at him as it awaited the final touch. Tails shut down his T-Buster and opened up the storage slot, extracting a fresh Power Ring with his teeth. Stowing the red arm cannon, he took the Power Ring and pressed it into the slot in the blade, snapping it into place with a tight pressure fit.
"It's perfect!" he thought aloud, gazing at his logo he'd penciled in with a fine plasma beam. "The weighted tip gives it better swing strength at my farthest reach, without being too unbalanced. I can access a Power Ring without needing my T-Buster up, and it makes a nice second grip for blocking, too." He waved the blade around and took a few practice swings, his eyes following the golden glowing torus as it carved a blur of light through the dark space. "Now all it needs is a good oil coat and a leather grip on the handle, and it'll be ready."
Blowing out the candles, Tails grabbed the metalworking tongs and slowly worked his way back up the ladder with one hand. He set the tongs on the workbench where he'd found them and stepped out into the evening air. Students were flowing out of the central tower, splitting off into smaller groups as they headed toward their respective dorm towers. Over the heads of the herd of students, he could see the curved top of Tabitha's staff making its way toward him. Tabitha emerged from the crowd carrying her usual book in addition to a couple of textbooks with several loose papers sticking out of them, completely scrawled over in black ink to the very edges with notes.
"Hey, Tabitha!" Tails greeted her, meeting her in the middle of the grass field. "Like the sword? I decided to replace the sword Louise bought me, because it wasn't very good and might break."
The blue-haired girl looked over the blade he held aloft with her cold, emotionless gaze. "…unusual," she commented, silently noting the coloration and odd hook-like shape.
"Yeah, it's based off an old blade design I saw back on Earth," Tails said. "I thought it would come in handy. Anyways, dinner. Inside or outside?"
"Outside," Tabitha replied.
Tails nodded. "I'll go grab some food from Marteau and meet you at the table, I suppose." He returned his sword to the workshop and jogged off across the campus to the kitchen, being careful to enter quietly to avoid making a ruckus. In the center of the kitchen, Marteau stood next to the indoor well on a step-stool, overseeing every member of his crew with a hawk-like gaze as they bustled around the room. Tails weaved his way across the floor, avoiding cooks and waiting staff as they rushed prepared ingredients and completed dishes across the room. As he approached the head chef, Marteau noticed him and stepped down from his small throne with a grin.
"Hi, Marteau! I need two plates of whatever's on for tonight's menu," Tails asked, struggling make himself heard over the din of the kitchen crew's order-yelling and other noise. "Tabitha wants to eat outside tonight."
"Sure thing, Warrior!" Marteau replied. He stepped back up on his stool and clapped his hands, barking out names and orders with an intense authority. A couple of chefs doled out a variety of fancy meats, soups and veggies onto a tray, handing it off to a waiter that scrambled to serve some drinks and bring it all across the room to Marteau. The mountainous head-chef gratefully accepted the tray and handed it off to Tails, returning to directing his staff without another word.
Tails took the tray and slowly made his way out of the kitchen, collecting a couple sets of blankets, napkins and silverware as he went. He carried the tray and bundle of goods across the campus to his table, where Tabitha was already seated, reading a book as she waited. Spreading out the blanket as a tablecloth, he handed Tabitha a platter of food and a cup of wine and set the serving tray aside.
Digging into his meal, he noticed a detailed illustration on the front cover of the book Tabitha held. "What's that?" he asked, pointing toward the book.
"Ivaldi," she replied, setting the book down and taking up her glass of water.
"Ivaldi? Interesting name. Too bad I don't have my HUD, since I can't read any of the languages here…"
Tabitha gave him a confused look. "…Hud?"
"It's an acronym that stands for 'Heads-Up Display'. It's a digital display device that gives you a lot of information, and can be used for a lot of things," he explained. "I built a device that projects onto a collapsible glass screen to use for mechanical work, building things and stuff, but it can also scan and read blueprints to render three-dimensional models, as well as interpret languages and do mathematic problems. Really handy for repair work."
The blue-haired girl stared down at her food for a moment, her emotionless expression disguising her confusion. As the two ate in silence, Tails noticed Saito running through the field, clearly panicked. The Japanese boy noticed the two sitting at their table and rushed over, gesturing to Tails. "Hey Tails, can you come with me for a bit? I need some help."
Tails looked down at his food, then up at Tabitha. Understanding, Tabitha subtly nodded. "Yeah, one sec," he said to Saito, quickly scarfing down as much of his food as he could handle before wiping his mouth on his napkin and turning to Tabitha. "Just leave everything out, I'll pick it all up when I get back." He hopped out of his seat and took off after Saito, who had already made it out the main gate. He kicked his jet shoes into life with a press of a button on his wristcomm, quickly closing the distance to the boy as he skated along.
"Thanks for coming," Saito said as Tails caught up, a note of relief in his voice. "I'm not sure what we're getting into, but she needs our help."
"She?" Tails asked. "Who are you talking about?"
"There's this maid girl named Siesta that has been pretty nice to me. Some noble took her to be a… a concubine, I think. Most likely against her will, but she can't do anything about it, with him being nobility. I plan to get her back."
"Eugh, probably some nasty old man," the fox said, cringing at the thought. "Yeah, I met Siesta earlier. She was really nice and offered to help with laundry so I could practice. So what's the plan? Are we going to try to negotiate her release, or…"
"I didn't even bring my sword," Saito replied. "I thought we could try to negotiate something."
"And do you even know where we're going?" Tails asked, shooting him a concerned look.
The boy shrugged. "Guiche gave me some vague directions. I think we can work it out."
"He better be right," Tails thought with a short sigh. He slowed down to match Saito's slower jogging pace, letting the boy save his energy for the long path ahead.