Late afternoon in the prairie is often a time of intense, draining, and truly unpleasant brightness and heat. With one's body fully exposed to the sun and all of its cruel tricks, one can easily and without much reason for blame be soured to the landscapes that otherwise might be seen and experienced as quite beautiful and serene.
Such was the case for the adventurers on this particular late afternoon. Since it was still a new area of the world to them, they could not be too unforgiving of the landscapes of central-eastern Kattekara, but the blaring sun that blasted their backs with light both blistering and bodacious made it difficult to be too open to the natural beauty that surrounded them.
Arrowhead coughed, a bit loudly but without much bite behind it, and announced without a specified recipient, "I'm getting my water bottle out. Urgh, I can feel myself drying out already…" And he did, and he drank deeply.
"I could use some as well," Paint realized out loud, patting the greenish bang of hair that jutted out messily from her forehead. And she retrieved and indulged herself in her spring as well. So did Maxwell and Jewel, although they were not vocal about it. Once everyone had theirs in hand, they all resumed walking once more.
With no pertinent topic of conversation now and the focus of the moment directed at Star, who of course had not needed to drink but had waited patiently for its friends to, curiosity about Star began to crocus up in the animal adventurers' heads.
"Hey, Star," asked Jewel, "back before you ever met us, I know you had teammates and all, and most of them apparently weren't really very pleasant to be with, and you had Dr. Eggman and his robot subordinates to lead you all, but did you ever have any... any real friends?"
Star thought about that question, "friends" presumably not being a concept it had been taught to distinguish back then. It did whir yes, though, when the dissection of the question was complete.
"Really? ...Cool!" Jewel exclaimed. "What kind of perso- er, robot... um, it was a robot, right?"
As Star spoke through its body and the world surrounding, the animals watched and picked up that this friend was indeed a robot. Star had bonded instantly with it when it had helped the embarrassed, maligned Star safely repair Star's own rechargeable battery after the original had begun to malfunction - and Star in turn gave it poetic talks for confidence. They were fast friends, always picking each other when Dr. Eggman ordered them to assemble into groups for missions. The other robot once told Star that, if Eggman ever set them all free, it would like to either go on more adventures with Star or live together in a home in the meadow - both if circumstances allowed.
In a way, the Doctor did. In the present day, Star began to have trouble continuing with its tale from then on - not because of translation difficulties, but something more akin to being choked up. As best as Paint could interpret its shaking gestures, Star's best friend passed away during a battle involving a team of Eggman's robots, having been murdered by someone with pointy feet or shoes. Star wanted to run away and grieve, if not find some way to bring its best buddy back to life, but its teammates - not the same as its deserters later on - insisted it continue with the job without emotion. The robots did indeed manage to scare this hazy figure away, preventing him or her from reaching whatever goal he or she had had in mind, but Star's heart was broken, and it certainly was not up for eager participation the next time a violent mission was in the cards. Star's depression kept it from being up for much participation in missions at all, actually, and it got to be considered a bit of a deadweight by its teammates. Things happened.
"...What jerk-holes," Maxwell concluded when Star was done with its elaborate explanation. He considered how to continue for a bit before doing so: "Kicking you when you're down like that, vulnerable on the ground, is... isn't good."
"And to think that they eventually made it back to Sunny Clearing..." Arrowhead trailed off. "S-Star, you haven't seen any other teammates you knew back there since you left, right? I mean, I don't imagine a family reunion is in the cards..."
Star beeped no; it was most likely uninterested in continuing on with those residents of its past.
"Well... you know what?" he responded. "I don't know if I mind that. I'm glad you're with us."
Maxwell gave a simple, single nod in Star's direction.
"I am not glad, though, that we don't have more water," Arrowhead transitioned once he was satisfied that Star had been sufficiently reminded of its status in their hearts.
"Y-yeah, we're getting as dry as our mushroom incarnations out here..." Paint mumbled uncomfortably.
"I don't suppose we should... turn back or anything? I-I mean... Little Apple isn't that far away," Jewel suggested meekly, bracing for his idea to be shot down.
And it was, albeit gently. "Erm, while we love Star like a sibling, Jewel, remember that not everyone does," Paint explained. "And really, I think we can make it to a water source before too long, and we've got to keep going whenever we can. Isn't there some kind of river not immensely far up ahead? ...Oh, that's right; I've got the map," she realized and checked it tiredly. "Yeah, just a few... a few more miles. Urgh."
