First steps into Apotos
The eye of the storm was very large meaning that the storm was way bigger than average, the other side of the rim of black clouds was approaching fast, but Apotos was approaching too and Tails hoped that he would get to Apotos first and not the black swirling rim. He didn't think the old plane could take more extreme conditions so he silently prayed he would not have to go into the storm clouds again.
Knuckles and Rouge had completely tidied the meeting room showing its original palace beauty, the red carpets were vacuum cleaned again and so had the chairs to get rid of any excess small pieces of glass. The chairs had been pushed back to normal and the only thing wrong with the room was that there were two windows completely smashed, they would need new glass panes for that.
"It looks like we will be landing in a minute, we are over the beach," Rouge said excitedly. "Time for a tan!"
"No you don't we still have our mission to do," Shadow smirked at Rouges crestfallen face. "...Maybe I will allow you afterwards."
Rouge squealed at the last part and glomped him. Sonic fell into fits of laughter as Shadow tried to pry the white bat off and snarled small, yet meaningless threats. Knuckles just stood there noticing that Shadow was not really trying but was just playing along like friends would; he didn't get angry as he watched the unusual playful scene with Shadow. Shadow really has changed; maybe loving Sonic is changing him.
"Everyone, get ready we are coming in to land," Tails' voice boomed over the speakers. "Grab onto something."
"I already have!" Rouge laughed as she gripped Shadow tighter, turning around to give a sly wink to Knuckles.
Shadow now used his full strength at having enough of the little game and easily pried her away; he could have done that earlier but decided otherwise. He held her out at arms length, taking the time to look at his gloves attached to her wing wound by a piece of string. She noticed and just gave a small chuckle.
"Don't worry Hun, my wings recovering fine. I can already move it; I will be flying again in no time."She reassured as she finally stepped away from him giving him back his personal space.
Shadow just nodded in agreement before turning to Sonic and picking him up with just one arm, Sonic yelped at the sudden movement and blushed as he felt that strange prickling sensation at feeling Shadows bare fingers touch him, everywhere Shadow touched left a warm sensation and made him feel light inside. His bandaged hand still hurt immensely, but feeling Shadow holding him made him almost forget about it.
"He can walk Shadow." Knuckles said as he cocked an eyebrow at them.
Sonic immediately looked away sadly, feeling a slight depression fill him, but Shadow squeezed him slightly to reassure him and that made most of the depression disappear.
"No he can't," Rouge said in pity as she grabbed his wheelchair, all traces of being playful disintegrated. "When the beast attacked Soleanna...something happened."
Knuckles' eyes widened as the wheelchair was set up and Shadow placed Sonic in it. Sonic refused to make eye contact with Knuckles feeling that maybe he would laugh at him too like everyone else. But silence filled the room before Knuckles replied.
"I'm sorry." Knuckles said quietly, genuine sympathy laced with his voice.
Sonic looked up at knuckles sharply at the unexpected words, however he did not have time to speak since they all almost fell over as they felt the sands of the beach hit them when they landed. Shadow held onto Sonics wheelchair to stop him from falling, Rouge had braced herself by spreading out her wings and feet to give her more balance; the oblivious Knuckles immediately fell at the jolt of the plane and fell on his backside.
"Smooth move Hun." Rouge chuckled sarcastically as she watched a pride hit Knuckles rise from the floor red faced.
"No one asked you bat girl!" he snapped as he was the first to head for the door to leave.
Shadow and Sonic just looked at each other, Sonic giving Shadow the thumbs up as he wheeled him out of the room. The missing entrance door to the plane revealed beautiful sunlight that sparkled off of the golden sands, the white buildings with the spectacular tropical pink flowers looked stunning ahead of them as some people had left the safety of their buildings to see what was going on. The plane door was high, there was stairs but they had vanished, must have broken off in the storm.
Some young children in shorts and short sleeved tops came running across the sands to have a closer look, some even offered to help as they spotted Sonic in the wheelchair. All the children were between eight and fourteen as they jumped about excitedly at the strange occurrence of a plane turning up on their beach.
Sonic smiled and waved at the strange welcome, wondering why they weren't laughing at him. Shadow got him out of the wheel chair and gave the wheelchair to a child who had her hand up wanting to help, she had ocean blue eyes and lovely long blonde hair tied into a ponytail with a blue hair band with a large plastic blue butterfly on it. She wore a white short sleeved top with sky blue shorts. Shadow seemed to freeze; the child had an awful lot of resemblance to Maria.
"Is something wrong sir?" the girl asked timidly her voice suddenly frightened, her tanned arm was outstretched to grab the wheelchair.
Shadow shook his head before handing the wheelchair to the now beaming child who put it onto the soft sands of the beach. Sonic gave Shadow an odd look at the hesitation to hand over the wheelchair, but he let it go as crowds started to form around the plane making him feel uneasy.
Shadow jumped down from the plane entrance and onto the hot sands with Sonic in his good arm, he was struggling again as his still mending broken arm protested with everything he did.
"What is wrong?" the same girl that had taken the wheelchair asked with concern.
"I have a broken arm on the mend, I need a sling." He stated as he put Sonic down in his wheelchair for a second to catch his breath from his arm.
"Where is Knuckles? He was the first to come out." Rouge had drifted gracefully to the ground with outstretched wings, her bad wing still hurting a little.
A sudden ouch was heard from beneath her as she landed on Knuckles on the floor, he had not realised the huge gap between the door and the sand and had taken a step to fall straight to the ground smack on his face.
"God, you can be so stupid." Rouge laughed as she stepped off of him.
"Hi everyone." Tails said exhausted at having hardly any sleep for three days, his fur was all ruffled up and huge black bags lay under his eyes.
He was walking as if he was a drunken Zombie as he headed to the door of the plane. He was so exhausted as he tried to focus on one thing.
"Err Tails?" Sonic tried to warn as the two tailed fox continued coming.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" he said drowsily, taking a step off the edge of the plane.
Knuckles had just managed to get on his elbows after having a Rouge drop on him for him to suddenly be flattened to the floor again as a Tails also came down. Rouge burst into fits of laughter.
"In fact, we all need a bit of care and medical help." Shadow continued to talk to the young girl as he looked from his broken arm to Sonics pierced hand to Rouges bandaged wing to Tails' over exhausted body and finally to Knuckles who could be experiencing a concussion at having two people dropped on his head.
"Sure, you can come to my house, I will help you guys get back on your feet." She said as she mostly glanced at Knuckles still on the floor.
"Would you? That would be great." Sonic answered gratefully as he shook the girls tanned hand which had a blue bead bracelet on the wrist.
They spent the next half an hour getting the sonic crew to the girl's house, having to force themselves through a welcoming crowd to hurry there since the rim of the eye of the storm that they had passed through to begin with was approaching.
The white houses were truly unique and magnificent in the suns rays; the harbour was filled with boats as none were going to risk the wrath of the storm, the strong smell of fish wafting from it. The pink flowers in there hanging baskets had a lovely scent and really contrasted well with the white painted buildings. All the doors were painted in wonderful colours and they approached a red door under the shade of a tree, it had a string of shells hanging from the door and had loads of wind chimes hanging from the trees branches filling their ears with the lovely twinkling sound. It was very secluded, yet was welcoming and comfortable.
When they entered the room they gasped in amazement, the room had hundreds of wind chimes hanging from the ceiling all different colours, shapes and sizes. Some were made of fragile glass that made a high pitch twinkling; others were made of wood that made a blunted sound. All were different, not one was the same.
"Sorry about them, my mother collected them." The girl said with a smile as she led them into the small house.
"What do you mean collected? Does she not do it anymore." Rouge asked politely as a glass one sparkling in the sunlight caught her attention; the glass models on it were seahorses.
"Well...no," the girl began, her voice seemed upset. "She disappeared at sea when a storm hit a month ago."
"I am sorry..." Rouge said quietly.
The room was made out of a warm coloured wood, the wooden support beams above them visible as the wind chimes hung from them. There were photo frames all over the walls, mostly of the girl with her father and mother; nearly all of the photos were of them at sea on a sailboat. One had a black and white photo of what was presumably her father holding a giant swordfish. The wooden walls had lines of shells nailed to them all in different colours.
"That is our boat...`The great pearl`," She stated proudly as she spotted Shadow looking at the boat pictures. "My parents named it after me."
"You're name is Pearl?" He asked to affirm it. Pearl nodded.
The room was very warm and had red rugs on the polished floor boards; everything in the room was overwhelming, but it was in a nice way.
"It seems your friend really was tired." Pearl giggled and everyone looked around to see Tails fast asleep with his two tails curled around him like a cat in a rocking chair. The chair was oak wood and had red cushions on it, light snores escaped Tails as he laid there like a curled up cat, the chair rocking slightly in a soothing manner.
"We need to know," Shadow suddenly said as the black clouds of the storm started to loam over them, thunder could be heard in the distance. "There is supposed to be a village in the birch tree forest here, we need to get there. Do you know where it is?"
A strange tension filled the air as everything went deadly silent, lightning started to flash outside the window overlooking the sea. The silence and tense atmosphere caught all of their attention. The girl gasped and took a step back; everyone in the room froze at the odd sense of tension.
"You mean...the haunted village." Pearl quivered as her face seemed to be cold with slight fear, thunder boomed louder as it came over the house; the lightning cast their shadows against the walls.
"That village is deserted; people are petrified to go near it as you always get this strange sense of dread when you walk on its ground." Pearl continued quietly still frozen to the spot. Everyone felt very uneasy, including Shadow as he listened to her. The rain started to hit the window as the storm started to completely cover them, darkness filling the room.
"They say...that over seven years ago a horrific murder took place there. Everyone panicked. They all fled in fear leaving everything they treasured behind. Thieves that have heard this tale and gone there have all come back screaming as if they had seen a ghost or seen something horrible." Pearl began to tremble as she told them, each one not daring to interrupt as fear filled the room.
"It still remains deserted to this day...and so is named `the haunted village. `"
Another bolt of lightning slashed the sky as the waves picked up, the ocean swirling as the people of Apotos fled back to their buildings. All shut their doors leaving the streets deadly silent.
END OF CHAPTER
Knuckles' parts made me giggle when writing this chapterXD Mostly when he comes out of the planeXD