The room was empty, Shadow still occupied with the navy ship. It was neat and tidy, the only thing out of place being a pistol laid out on the desk facing the door. The other desk, which was pushed up against the wall behind Shadow's, had a deck of cards lying face down on top of it, and jars of herbs pushed against the wall, a mortar and pestle just in front of them. There were two cots in the far right corner from the entrance, both pushed up against each other.
Amy started rooting around in the chest at the foot of one of them, and Sonic realized she was pulling out Shadow's clothes. She threw a white shirt at him, and he barely caught it before it hit him in the face. "Take that," Amy said. "Get out of your wet clothes. Take off your boots while you're at it."
Sonic felt his cheeks go red. "Ummm…" he said, and it seemed she finally realized what she was inferring as her cheeks mimicked his.
"Just… take it down to the hold," Amy told him, avoiding his gaze. "I'll bring you a pair of boots."
"What is going on here?"
They turned to find Shadow in the doorway, his expression less than pleased. He narrowed his eyes at Amy. "What are you doing rooting around in my chest, Rose?" he asked. "And why is he in here without my permission?"
"His clothes are wet and the last thing he needs is to catch sick at sea," Amy answered frankly. "And you're the only one whose clothes will fit him. Besides, this place is just as much my room as it is yours."
The captain huffed as he shut the door behind him. His crimson eyes bore into Sonic, but there was no hostility in his gaze, only intense curiosity. "How did you get on my ship?" he wondered aloud, as if he were asking the universe and hoping the answer would simply drop into his lap.
Still, Sonic shrugged. "I don't know," he said. Then he grinned again. "But looks like we're stuck with each other."
Shadow shook his head, burying his face in his hands tiredly. "Indeed," he said. "We're stuck with a rebel who has a knack for getting into trouble… Where are we going to keep you? There's no space. And Silver insisted on coming with us when we go back to port."
"There's a little room in the crow's nest," Amy said, tossing a brown vest to Sonic. "He'd have to squeeze in with Miles, but I don't think he'd mind the company. Especially during storms."
"Which one's Miles?" Sonic asked. "You said he was a fox, but I haven't seen any foxes around. Unless you're talking about that wolf girl."
He didn't miss Shadow rolling his eyes—that seemed to be his answer to most things, Sonic remarked mentally with a smirk. "No, the 'wolf girl's' name is Whisper," the captain said. "And you haven't seen Miles because he follows orders. Unlike someone."
"Hey, that duck was gonna blow up the hold with me in it!" Sonic protested.
"Bean," Shadow said.
"Gesundheit."
Another eye roll, making Sonic stifle a laugh. "No, Bean is his name, you idiot," said Shadow. "You know what… You're gonna be staying for a while anyway so I might as well introduce you to everyone." He didn't sound thrilled at the prospect. "Then at least I can warn you about who's going to knife you in your sleep. Though I think you learned that one the hard way, didn't you."
"Lemme guess," Sonic said, pretending to think hard on it. "Jet."
Before Shadow could answer, Amy all but shoved him towards the door. "Let's give him some privacy!" she said. "If he stays in those clothes much longer he's going to get sick, and then the whole crew will get sick, and you remember what happened last time!"
"Fine, fine," Shadow said, looking towards Sonic one last time. "You and I need to talk this evening though," he said, and Sonic was fairly sure he saw doubt in Shadow's eyes as Amy pushed him out of their quarters.
Sonic stared at the pair of cots next to each other as he took off his soaked, bloodstained shirt and beaten leather boots and traded them for the clothes Amy had given him. He realized now that his surmise of Amy and the captain being together had actually been correct, and he tried to ignore the jealousy and squashed hope hanging heavily in his heart. Besides, his feelings for Sally were still the loudest, even if they were unrequited. What had he expected? That he could take Amy off the ship with him when he inevitably left? That… somehow maybe he could convince Shadow to leave with him too?
Even the thought sounded stupid, and Sonic cringed as he slipped the pair of Shadow's boots on. They fit surprisingly well, and though they looked pretty worn, they were in much better shape than his own. They even had a little bit of gold trim along the rims, which glittered in the sunlight that filtered in through the single window. Fancy, he remarked inwardly. Nice.
He put on the shirt and vest, and he was surprised to find that they smelled like lavender, as well as a person's… not sweat exactly, because it wasn't a bad smell. On the contrary, Sonic rather liked it. But it still smelled like a person; he hadn't gotten close enough for long enough to be very familiar with Shadow's scent, but it couldn't have been anyone else's.
Calm down, he told himself, trying to fend off an embarrassed blush. It's just a shirt.
A shirt that smells like a hot guy, replied a voice in his mind, much louder than he would have liked to admit.
Pushing those thoughts away, he emerged from the captain's quarters and passed Mimic once again to find everyone gathered at the bottom of the center mast. Along with everyone he'd seen gathered at the prow earlier that morning, there was Silver and a little fox boy no older than maybe twelve or thirteen. The little fox didn't look like he wanted to be there at all, his two tails curling around him as if he were trying to protect himself.
Suddenly Amy's question about a two-tailed fox earlier made perfect sense.
"Listen up!" Shadow commanded, and everyone stood up straighter. "We have taken two new people onto this ship, and you are all going to get along. I will hear of absolutely no fighting, or I swear to Gaia that I will tie you to the rigging and leave you up there until we go back to shore. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes, sir!" everyone shouted in unison.
"That goes for you too, Blue!" Shadow said, turning around and narrowing his eyes at Sonic, who nodded quickly. He descended one of the small staircases leading down to the deck, rolling his eyes as he thought, Blue? Really? So creative…
He stepped down onto the deck and approached the group. Most of them looked at him indifferently, neither openly distrusting nor welcoming with their expressions. The mask that the wolf girl–Whisper–wore made it difficult to parse her expression, and her eyes were almost invisible behind it. The little fox darted his gaze back and forth between the newcomers, as if afraid of them suddenly attacking.
"Alright," said Shadow. He stepped towards Sonic and Silver, and gestured to the latter first. "This is Silver. He is a navy officer from Soleanna, a port town in Spagonia."
"Buongiorno," Silver said, and Sonic noticed his hands were clenched tightly into fists by his side. Is everyone always this tense? he wondered.
"Boo!" jeered Jet, who was quickly joined by the sparrow and the albatross. "What, are we just letting anyone on board now? First you let the stowaway stay, and now a Spagonian runt?"
Silver looked offended. "Mi scusi?" he asked. "I am not weak. I show you."
He raised his hand, and suddenly Sonic found himself floating in the air, a pale teal aura surrounding him. Sonic cried out in surprise, then laughed. "Whoa! This is so cool!" he exclaimed. "Silver, are you doing this?"
"Si," Silver said with a smug smile. He looked at the captain, asking a silent question, earning a shake of Shadow's head in return. Silver only shrugged and instead set his sights on the crowd around them, catching sight of Tangle, who was once again practically vibrating with excitement. The teal aura then surrounded her as well, and she cheered as he raised her into the air.
He let the two of them linger in the air for a moment longer, then gently set Sonic and Tangle back down on the deck. Tangle's eyes were open wide with excitement, and she bounced on her toes as her feet met the wood. "That was awesome!" she exclaimed. "I want to do that again!"
Sonic nodded in agreement, and Silver smiled proudly.
"Big woop," Jet said, and Sonic felt his mood drop from excitement to annoyance instantaneously. "I've seen mages way stronger than that. He's still a pipsqueak. Why is he here?"
"That is enough!" Shadow barked, glaring at Jet. "You question my orders again and I will toss you off the ship and let the sharks have you. I've had just about enough of your bullshit today, hawk. I have my reasons for bringing him aboard, and if you don't like it, tough."
Jet glared back at the captain, but he crossed his feathered arms and said nothing, the other two birds following his lead. Sonic's quills crossed with unease looking at the three of them. He leaned over towards Silver and muttered, "You'd better keep your eye on them." Silver nodded in silent agreement.
Shadow narrowed his eyes one last time in silent warning at the birds, then continued, gesturing to Sonic. "This is Sonic. We found him this morning and he doesn't know how he ended up here aside from being attacked and dragged onboard. I expect that you will not attack either of them, whether you think they deserved it or not, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir!" said most of the crew. Jet was eerily silent, his eyes darting back and forth between Sonic and Silver with disgust.
"Now, Sonic, Silver," Shadow said. He pointed to each person as he listed off their names. "This is Tangle, Whisper, Miles, Bark, Bean, Storm, Wave, Jet, and Amy Rose."
Miles, the little fox boy, hid behind Whisper when Shadow said his name.
Bean dropped from the polar bear—Bark's shoulder, his eyes gleaming hopefully as he looked at Silver. "Do you like blowing things up?" he asked.
His smile faded when all he got was a confused look in return. Then he turned to Sonic, that same gleam in his eye, and Sonic quickly shook his head. He would much rather avoid explosives if at all possible. Bean slumped his shoulders sadly and walked back over to Bark, who picked him back up and put him back on his shoulder perch.
Wave and Storm, the sparrow and the albatross, simply looked disinterested. Well, Wave looked disinterested; Storm just looked oblivious; and Jet looked like he was plotting various ways to murder both newcomers and make it look like an accident.
"As you were," the captain called, and the party scattered, everyone going back to their stations on the deck. Miles was the last one left behind, and he shook himself a little bit before twisting his twin tails and taking off into the air.
Sonic stared in astonishment. "He can fly?!"
"Pick up your jaw," Shadow said. "And while you're here, why don't you make yourselves useful."
He held out two mops and an empty bucket, and Sonic sighed as he took one, Silver looking just as unenthusiastic as he did the same. "You'll both be cleaning out the hold," Shadow said. "Don't want the rats getting into our rations. Go."
The two hedgehogs went about cleaning in silence at first, and it wasn't until nearly an hour had passed that Silver spoke.
"How do you know Blaze is alive?" he said slowly. "I thought she died almost six months ago."
"Our spy is a mage that works with spirits," Sonic explained. "He uses the spirits to infiltrate the camps and to send us messages. And he sends help to those in the camps if he can." He dunked his mop in his bucket again and slapped the wet mass onto the floor. Espio also occasionally infiltrated the camps himself, especially to bring something useful to the prisoners. Sonic wondered if Espio could send a spirit this far from shore. They couldn't stray too far from the mage that had bound them after death, but Sonic didn't know how far their limit stretched.
He paused to look at Silver, whose expression he couldn't quite decipher. Finally, Silver sighed. "She left… Blaze left Soleanna because of me," he said softly. "I asked her to marry me, and I knew we were young and it wasn't the smartest thing to ask, but… I scared her. So she left."
"That's not what she told me," Sonic said, and Silver looked at him in confusion. "She didn't talk about you very often, but we could all tell she loved you when she did. She said that she wasn't the kind of girl you should have been asking to marry. That you should have asked a less dangerous girl. Her words, not mine." Sonic shrugged. "But I think she really wanted what was best for you."
Silver looked down at the floor, his eyes far away, and Sonic went back to mopping.
"I must find her," he heard Silver say, his voice quiet but determined.
They didn't speak again after that, Sonic's thoughts racing; how were his siblings? The rest of the freedom fighters? Had Sally and Rotor made it back to the fort okay?
His heart ached at the thought of Sally, and he hoped desperately that she was alright. He hadn't been apart from his best friend for this long since before Kintobor came to power. They'd been so focused just on surviving, trying to look out for each other.
Please, he pleaded to anyone listening, let me see her again.
