The forest guide

At the last moments of life Shadow felt a hand suddenly grasp his wrist, without his gloves he could feel it perfectly. His eyes shot open in surprise when he felt himself along with Sonic get pulled up. His eyesight was still blurry, but he could see a red blur hovering around Rouge stuck in the pondweed. Knuckles must have come to help her, but if that was the case...who was pulling him?

The surface broke and Shadow gasped in huge amounts of air, his body quivering slightly from the lack of it a second ago. He coughed and spluttered as he attempted to breathe properly, he had been rudely dropped onto the floor by the unknown person where he now lay desperate for air.

Suddenly he realised that Sonic was beneath him as his vision started to clear, out cold...and not breathing. Shadow seemed to freeze for a moment, before completely forgetting about himself and taking action.

Crawling further on top of the blue hedgehog he put his wet hands onto the others cold chest and performed CPR. As Shadow kept pumping his chest he felt a feeling of hopelessness arise, what if he couldn't save him. Nothing seemed to be happening.

"God damn it Sonic come on!" He screamed desperately.

He kept pumping, hoping he wouldn't have to do mouth-to-mouth in front of everybody, yes it would be nice to touch lips with him but now wasn't the right time. The eyes of the stranger were staring at him and it really unnerved him. As he continued to pump he didn't realise he had awoke a small pulse.

God, do I really have to do this, he thought wildly as a still unmoving Sonic lay beneath him. Slowly, ever so slowly, he lowered his face down. His eyes never left Sonics face until he was close enough to touch noses. Shadows hot breath danced across Sonics lips as he got ever nearer.

The heat near his lips kick-started Sonics heart rate. The first thought that crossed his mind was that he was about to be kissed. His eyes slowly fluttered open to then widen in shock. Shadow was centimetres away from about to brush lips with him.

Emerald locked onto Ruby in that second with surprise flooding over both of their faces. Sonic tried to breathe, but he choked. Without warning Sonic suddenly smacked Shadow making the black one recoil clutching his face. Sonic sat up fast as he started to cough up water that had been stuck in his lungs.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Shadow shouted at him, still clutching his face that now had a prominent red mark across his cheek. "I thought you were bloody dead you blue idiot!"

"DEAD!" Sonic gasped out desperate to get the annoying brown water out of his lungs. "SO YOU WOULD KISS ME IF I WAS DEAD!"

"NO! I thought you were dead and I was trying to revive you, you bloody pincushion!" Shadow continued to curse as he wiped the smacked cheek giving Sonic death glares.

"Well, I only smacked you because I have water in my lungs." Sonic was still gasping as he slowly recovered.

Shadow paused as he watched Sonic continue to keep coughing obviously struggling. Looking at his current condition Shadow let the smack go, it was not Sonics fault; it was a natural reflex so he could get oxygen. Shadow crawled back over to Sonic since when he had recoiled he had fallen backwards and landed on his back. As he crawled nearer to the soaking wet Sonic he completely forgot the stranger still staring at him.

"Are you...alright?" Shadow asked gently, his anger had vanished in an instant at seeing Sonics pained face.

"I...don't know." Sonic sniffled, shivering as the wind caught his dripping wet head quills. Shadow, noticing this, put his warm back against Sonics in an attempt to help keep him warm.

Sonic felt Shadows nice warm back against his and he sighed in content feeling the warmth transfer to him. The ultimate life-form was like a living radiator. He leaned back further into the black hedgehogs back quills as he relaxed. Shadow just smiled at feeling this.

Suddenly Knuckles burst from the water carrying Rouge in his arms. Shadow felt his blood run cold and quickly got up and ran for them. Not Rouge, anyone but Rouge, please don't be dead, Shadows selfish thought collided with his love for Sonic. Sonic suddenly felt Shadow disappear and saw the pure look of panic on the black ones face as he sped off to Rouge. Shadow felt his insides go hollow and he paled as Rouge was carefully put onto the grass. Her clothes were soaked and the crystal key was in Knuckles' closed fist. A fist that was shaking with withheld tears. Shadow widened his eyes...she couldn't be.

Sonics ears flattened, he wished he could stand up and comfort Shadow. Rouge was Shadows closest friend next to Omega. Shadow fell to his knees, completely shocked and bewildered. Everything he had been through with her in the past month went through his mind as he felt his insides twist at looking at Rouges lifeless face.

"Come in Shadow...Come in."

Shadow tapped the device on his wrist whilst he dodged another attack from the beast; he rolled sideways and hid behind a lump of ruined house.

"What is it Rouge I'm busy right now." He snarled through the communicator.

"Ohhhh touchy...anyway have you found sonic yet." Rouges Cocky voice spoke over the line.

He raised his hand up to Rouges chest...no pulse.

"For God sake why have you got that?" Shadow burst out as he had finally had enough of the sun reflecting off the crystal and into his eyes. Rouges lips twisted into a smirk at seeing how easily breakable Shadow was at the moment.

"This, for your information honey, is the key to this whole mystery." Rouge winked seductively at him but he only groaned in annoyance.

"No..." he murmured, touching Rouges cheek with his bare fingers, a single tear fell from his ruby eyes.

"What?" Shadow growled.

"Why do you have to be so touchy and in a bad mood when I call? Anyway I have a mission for you, but before I give it to you I have to explain things a little."

Shadow felt that single tear fall and drip onto his clenched fist, the memories giving him untold pain.

"WHAT!" Shadow screamed through the communicator almost deafening Rouge on the other end.

"WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SO TOUCHY!" Rouge screamed back causing Shadow to put his hands to his ears in pain, he knew he deserved that.

I'm sorry...I never meant to always lose my temper with you...you mean the world to me, Shadow thought as he pulled his hand away from Rouges face, his own face looking cold and hurt.

"She's not dead."

Shadow, Sonic and Knuckles all turned to the female voice of the stranger. Knuckles' eyes widened, it was a female echidna. She was orange with ocean blue eyes and had very strange ancient clothing. In her hand was a staff that was held proudly.

"Who are you?" Knuckles yelled. It was this girl that had stopped him from jumping in and saving Rouge sooner. She had restrained him and tried to receive answers from him, stopping him from jumping into the waters and saving her. However she was wearing a mask made out of leaves then to disguise her face, now that mask was gone.

"I am Tikal...and you are not welcome here! You maybe kin, but you are trespassing on sacred ground. Leave!" She demanded as she glared at Knuckles.

"You said she is not dead, how do you know?" Shadow interrupted what ever rude comment was going to escape Knuckles' mouth, a glimmer of hope shining in his eyes for Rouge.

This girl could help them and she was honestly their only chance. Getting on her bad side now would ruin their chances. Tikal narrowed her eyes at the black and red hedgehog suspiciously before answering.

"Her soul has scattered, this forest sucks away a living beings soul when they die. This is why no animal can survive here...and is why you can hear their voices on the wind." She walked towards them, leaving her leaf mask on the floor. "I can call and combine her shattered soul, but you must answer all of my questions truthfully." Tikal said as she stamped her staff on the ground.

"Fine, on one condition," Sonic interrupted from where he was lying on the floor, Tikal raised an eyebrow at him. "If we answer one of your questions, you must answer one of ours."

Silence enveloped the small group, seconds of absolute silence passed until Tikal cautiously nodded in agreement.

"Very well, I will follow your terms. My first question is who are you?" Tikal agreed and awaited her answer.

"I'm Sonic, and this is Shadow, Rouge and Knuckles," He answered as he pointed to each said person in turn. "We know who you are, but why are you here?

"I am the forest guide; I lead the shattered souls of the dead here to their final resting place in the sacred temple. The sacred temple grounds that you are so wrongfully trespassing on." Tikal growled as she stamped her staff on the ground again in a sign of warning. "My second question is where are you going?"

"We need to get to a village within this birch tree forest, a village everyone now refers to as `the Haunted village`." Shadow answered this one as he glanced at Rouges body.

"You wish to head there," Tikal narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Yet, you are heading the wrong way. Answer me this, if this is true then why are you heading in the opposite direction to your destination?"

Everyone's eyes made contact with each other; they didn't know that they had gone the completely wrong way. Knuckles turned his violet eyes to the female echidna, locking his eyes with hers.

"We have gotten lost; we did not mean to trespass. We don't know where to go." Knuckles quietly answered.

Tikal's suspicious gaze that she had been holding firm the entire time softened, her tense body relaxed as she took her staff off of the marshy ground now knowing she did not need to intimidate. She gave a small smile to the group as she walked towards Rouges body on the wet dead grass.

"You have answered my questions truthfully; the spirits of the forest tell me so. As agreed, I will summon your friends' soul back to her body. Hopefully her soul has not scattered too far."

Tikal leant over Rouge as she examined. After taking her time looking at various limbs she pulled out a strange glass bottle from within her ancient clothing, the bottle contained what looked like purple sand. Shadow gave her a questioning look but she just smiled as she poured it in a ring around Rouges body, the purple colour really standing out on the brown grass.

Tikal raised her staff. The ring of sand began to glow blue. She began to chant in some unknown language and it glowed even brighter. She then shut her eyes and spoke in English with her staff over Rouge.

"By the ground I walk on, by the air I breathe, by the sun rising in the east. Take her soul that now lies like shattered glass and make it whole. Bring the shards back here...to their resting place."

Suddenly a wind picked up, swirling around them. The strange and unexpected wind ruffling Sonics quills as he watched in awe. Blue lights suddenly started appearing through the trees and homing in on Rouges body, it was almost complete darkness and the blue orbs were amazing to watch as they passed like smoke through the air. The blue lights like fireflies as they entered the glowing ring of sand. The scene and procedure was spectacular.

"What's going on?" knuckles asked as the blue lights hovered around Rouge, the blue lights able to enter the sand ring, but could not escape it.

"Her soul has been shattered for too long, when a soul is shattered for too long the soul refuses to re-enter the body and refuses to pass over. It is this that creates wandering spirits, which is where my job as a forest guide comes in." She closed her eyes in dismay as Rouges' soul continued trying to escape.

Hundreds of the strange blue lights were entering the area around them; they came from within the mist, from beyond the trees and even from below the deep waters. All glowed with a warm yet mystical aura, the aura of Rouges' soul. The lights illuminated the eternal darkness of the forest, lighting up the dead birch trees and reflecting off of Shadows ruby eyes as he watched intently.

Once Tikal was sure that all of the soul shards were within her magic barrier she began to chant in that strange language again, knuckles was suspecting that it was an old echidna language used long ago when they still lived as tribes. Once the strange language had been spoken all of the blue orbs froze, before suddenly entering Rouges chest. The silence was deafening as Rouges whole body began to glow blue, her short hair swaying slightly in her own magical aura. All watched in silence. Tension filled the atmosphere. All waited.

Without warning Rouge gave a sudden shaky intake of air and the glowing barrier vanished, leaving no traces of the purple sand. She coughed violently as her lungs that had not been working for over ten minutes started to function. Shooting upright as she coughed Shadow ran to her immediately to help support her, overjoyed as he saw his friend move again.

"Wh-what happened?" Rouge stuttered confused looking at everyone with her watery sapphire eyes and giving strange glances at Tikal.

"You mean...you don't remember what happened?" Shadow asked surprised as Rouge only shook her head as an answer and gave him a quizzical look.

"We are in your debt." Knuckles said as he bowed to Tikal in respect. It seemed that she was some sort of mage, meaning that in a tribe she would be a higher rank than him.

"Well as the forest guide, I suppose I can guide you guys to the hidden village." Tikal sighed with exhaustion from the spell. "Follow quickly; I will not stop for you."

With that she started with unbelievable ease through the extra long grass, her body used to such a rough and unliveable terrain. Using her staff as a walking stick as she pushed herself through the disgusting marsh. Shadow had to carry Sonic with one broken arm which was difficult since he had lost the wheelchair to the swamp. Knuckles had swept the stumbling Rouge off her feet and carried her bridal style since she was still feeling a little rough from the magic treatment. Could this trip get any stranger, Shadow thought as he forced himself to keep up to Tikal. Everyone prepared themselves before hurrying after the quick forest guide.