I am so so so sorry about the formatting! I didn't realize none of the formatting (italics or bolds) wasn't coming through on here. WTH, FanFiction. I've never had that problem. Everything from previous chapters to now should be fixed! The characters thoughts are in italics (major point in me going back and fixing all of the formatting), sounds are also in italics, and so are generic emphasis on certain words. But at least now you'll be able to know when a character is thinking!
|chapter four: the report|
By the time 2:30 rolled around, Shadow was exhausted and sweating, but Sonic looked about ready to pass out.
The blue hedgehog sat on a rock, refusing to come near the picnic bench still in fear of splinters. He didn't need a tomato juice bath one day and then splinters in his butt the next. He refused to have that kind of streak - he'd never hear the end of it from Manic and Amy.
"I never thought I was gonna be this sore from this. I mean, I'm at the gym regularly. This is…grueling."
"You're doing a number to your back, that's for sure," Shadow agreed as he rested against one of the sturdy poles of the tower. It didn't look like it was going to split into half with his weight leaned into it, so he took a chance.
"How are you not aching?"
"I'm aching every day," Shadow retorted with rolled eyes.
Snap.
Sonic shot up quickly to attention as Shadow turned his head to the left - east - of them. The bushes were mostly cleared for about a twenty foot radius around the tower. He was getting into thicker vegetation and nearly giving up. Now, he wished he had got more cleared.
"Something's out there," Sonic whispered as he came close to Shadow.
The other didn't make a move. He merely listened.
Snap.
Snap.
Snap.
"Shadow," Sonic pleaded for his mentor to make a move. "What do we do?" he hissed under his breath, trying to stay quiet and calm. But Shadow's demeanor was pissing him off - shouldn't the ranger be worried? Have his gun drawn for an attack? Something was coming towards them for Tikal's sake.
He didn't wanna die here, despite the view. Sonic made a few moves back towards the trail. "Don't move."
"Why not?" Sonic hissed again. "Something's clearly coming towards us. I don't wanna be bear bait."
Shadow made a move for his belt, where Sonic saw his gun and radio. Sonic figured the ebony hedgehog was going to go for the firearm, but instead, Shadow grabbed the radio.
"Iris?" He calmly stated into the radio.
"This is Iris Doe." Sonic's ears perked to hearing Blaze's voice. She sounded tired, as if she'd been trekking uphill for a long time.
"20?" Shadow asked, staring into the bush now as his eyes had caught sight of something that made him grab for his radio.
"10-8."
"Like five feet?"
"Yeah. Tower's right there."
"10-4. Signing off." Shadow turned off his radio and looked at Sonic before motioning to the bush where the sounds were coming from. He was completely at ease and that only ticked Sonic off more.
The blue Mobian snorted and crossed his arms. "What?"
"Listen. Look."
Sonic walked back to Shadow to see where he was looking. In between the bush, he caught a slight glimpse of color. Was that pink? He wasn't sure.
Snap.
Snap.
Snap.
Snap.
THUD.
"OW! WHO PUT THIS BRANCH HERE?!"
Shadow caught himself smirking while Sonic let out an exhale of relief at the sound of Amy's voice, dropping to his knees. The college student had seriously been scared, Shadow realized. His gaze softened as he clasped his hand onto Sonic's shoulder. "Sorry to worry you, but we do have our sense of smell to use as well."
Sonic brushed him away and made a snide comment of a joke, "You telling me you memorized Amy's scent, you weirdo?"
"No. But Blaze does have an abnormal obsession with peppermint in fear of spiders."
As if on cue, Blaze and Amy pushed past the bush. Amy had a stick poking out through her quills. Blaze heavily huffed as she walked proudly to Shadow. "Campers are safe according to Sarah."
"I heard the radio call earlier. Thought you'd head back." He put his hands on his hips.
Amy walked over and greeted Shadow with a tired smile before glancing down at Sonic. "You good?"
"He thought you were a bear, probably," Shadow responded.
Groaning, Sonic fell back and sat on the ground. He shook his head, catching his breath as much as Amy. "Don't do that again, Ames."
"Sorry. I didn't realize you'd be scared," she sounded genuinely sorry.
"I didn't realize you walk like an absolute elephant through the woods."
Smack!
Sonic held the back of his head with a groan.
"Hmph!" Amy glared at him a little before turning to her mentors. She grinned amicably before staring up at the tower. "Wow, it's a lot taller than I thought it would be."
"Yeah," Blaze looked up as well. "You have your work cut out for you, Shadow." She gave him a scolding look, as if to prove her point from their morning conversation.
"Well, it's not like I'm going to be rebuilding the damn thing. I have Knuckles' contact. They've been kind enough to do the whole thing, except they're sub-contracting out the glass."
Amy didn't know who he was talking about, but Blaze nodded along as if she did. The pink hedgehog felt a little out of place then. She glanced over at Sonic again before kneeling down to look at him. She could tell that he had been scared. "Sorry," she said again.
"I know," Sonic sighed. Amy helped him stand. "Where the hell did you two come from anyway?"
"Blaze took us on another old trail," she pointed through their makeshift trail where the bush laid closer to the ground now due to their trampling.
Sonic stared down at her boots. "You are not walking into my parents' house with those shoes on."
"Don't get your boxers in a twist," Amy rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms against her chest as the two mentors looked back at the cadets. "I'll wash them off," she whispered in a threatening manner.
"The trail was a lot muddier than expected, honestly." Blaze cleared her throat. "I suspect the campers never went on Ridge Trail like they said they would. I don't blame them."
"Campers?" Sonic turned to Amy. "What were you doing?"
"Finding lost campers," she spoke proudly. The pink hedgehog glanced around at their handiwork. "And you were…becoming a gardener?"
"Landscaper, actually, Might start mowing lawns professionally." Sonic folded his arms to match her stance.
Blaze found herself rolling her eyes. She looked over at Shadow. "Everything normal for today?"
"If you mean any stench? No. Not anything," Shadow responded as he took in his surroundings. Nothing had seemed off at all that day. It wasn't particularly alarming to him, though. "Whatever it was, probably killed a deer near here, ventured around to the station last night, and then left the park. Traveling bear."
"Tracks at all?"
"None. You?"
"None at the station."
"But?" Shadow could catch her tone.
"Singular wolf print on Ridge Trail near Black River Flats. My guess, a lone wolf."
"Wolf is too small for what was caught on camera, though," Shadow thought out loud as Blaze nodded in agreement.
"True. I think that too, but the print was heavy. Like heavier than I've ever seen. I wish I had a camera on me. My phone's back at the station."
"Hm."
"So…you here to help us or just gawk at the tower?" Sonic broke the conversation with a new thought.
Amy gave him a sour look. "Maybe some moral support."
Blaze turned to the north. "I'm going to have a look around. Sounds like you need to give those two some work to do," she pointed her thumb back to the bickering friends as she gave Shadow a warm look.
"Wait - " Amy was about to march after Blaze who was leaving back into the bush.
Shadow stopped her shortly though, standing in her way. He crossed his arms slowly in front of his chest and raised an eyebrow. "Where do you think you're going?"
Her knees might've wanted to buckle at his sudden velvety tone, but Amy composed herself. Sonic watched with a humorous look on his face. The pink hedgehog put her hands behind back as she sheepishly looked up at Shadow. "Oooover here."
The park ranger watched as the intern turned to Sonic's side and picked up the nearest tool she could find - some clippers strong enough to cut through the branches of the bushes. He caught Sonic's gaze. The blue hedgehog didn't want to pick on Shadow too much, but he was sorely tempted.
"I'll just go ahead and give her some direction," Sonic slowly spoke. "Unless you want to?"
"By all means, Cadet. Go ahead," Shadow motioned to Amy. He didn't want to give Sonic the satisfaction, but there was a small part of him that wanted to talk to Amy. He figured that sending Sonic was the better move if they wanted to get any actual work done.
And get work done, they did.
Amy was surprisingly a quick worker considering she had been exhausted earlier from the Ridge Trail hike. Blaze hadn't found a single track around the tower, and the supposed dead animal smell wasn't anywhere near the location anymore. There was almost no wind, so she couldn't pinpoint a location of where it might have been coming from, either. To put it lightly, she was discouraged.
"Maybe Sarah got something from the footage," Shadow tried to reassure her as the four walked back to the station with the setting sun.
"I hope so," Blaze yawned as she stretched her arms out. She was ready for dinner and bed, despite a part of her knowing that she'd stay up late to watch the cameras at the station. "I've got to go home to get some clothes and then I'll be back. You want to call the cafe for a to-go order?"
"Sure. You know my usual."
Amy's ears perked up. "You're joining the 24 hour watch?"
"Yeah. I just want to see what the cameras see tonight," Blaze said. "I can't shake the feeling that it's not just a one-off occurrence of something walking past the park."
"I'm telling you, I think it's just a predator walking through."
"I know. But…something about it." She didn't want to say it in front of the cadets. They hadn't seen the video, so there was no reason to alarm them. She had been thinking about the footage all day - right down to the movements the creature made and how.
Amy wanted to say something, but she wasn't sure it was her place. She didn't know anything about the situation. She was sure even Sonic knew more than her at this rate. She shook her thoughts away, chalking it up to the girly desires of wanting an excuse to talk to Shadow alone. But she couldn't think of an excuse to do so.
Sonic raised an eyebrow at her quiet behavior. It was totally unlike her, but he knew her enough to figure out why. He wanted to roll his eyes, but the situation was new entirely. Amy never went for mature guys that had their shit figured out - she found herself going out with anyone she met at parties and half of the time, the guys just didn't pan out. He didn't want her to continue experiencing bad relationships every year of college - high school was the worst so he couldn't imagine college any better considering it involved alcohol more often than not.
He glanced over at Shadow, who took the lead. Sonic was leading the back. Blaze and Amy in the middle.
When Amy fixates on a guy, she really fixates on him. Like constantly talks about him, wants to see him, texts him constantly. She's a little overwhelming, honestly. But with Shadow? She's painstakingly obvious and yet not…doing anything about it? That's not Amy. Maybe it's because we're supposed to be co-workers and professionals first and foremost - no, there was that guy at the ice cream shop she worked at in high school. First day and she was all over him.
Sonic figured that something about Shadow was intimidating - at least, that's all he could guess. If he put himself in Amy's shoes for the moment, which he really didn't want to, then he assumed that it was Shadow's demeanor that was causing Amy to back off a little. He was interested. She was interested. But maybe she didn't completely realize that Shadow was interested because he was reserved? Sonic grinned as he thought about it and the solution to it.
It seems like they both need a little nudge. Amy's one of my best friends - it's the least I could do.
"Oh, uh, Ames?"
"Yeah, Sonic?"
"You think you could make sure Manic doesn't burn down the house tonight? I've gotta go out of town tonight."
"Why?" Amy was immediately suspicious. Sonic wouldn't give such a short notice.
"Mom."
"...Ok. With what?"
"None of your business," Sonic wiped under his nose as he looked away from her. She refused to look anywhere else, though.
Something was up. Why would Sonic give such a short notice? Was something wrong? Amy bit her bottom lip as Blaze could clearly sense her concern. Shadow, too. "Is everything okay, at least?"
"Yeah, yeah. Nothing to worry about," Sonic waved her off. "I'll be back late. Don't worry about me."
"As long as you show up for work on time," Shadow joined in to which Sonic eye-rolled.
With that, Sonic's gears were turning, and the four became silent on their way back to the station.
~.~
Sarah found it odd that Sonic didn't bother to say goodbye to her. He had gone out of his way yesterday to make sure he had said goodbye to her. Perhaps she was steering him away? She hated the thought slightly, but realized her social awkwardness never exactly drew men towards her anyway.
"Did you find anything out?" Instead it was Blaze that visited her a little too eagerly.
The sage hedgehog cleared her throat and walked over to the printer nearby. "Actually, yeah. And I'm not sure that you'll like it. It's kind of…creepy?" She grabbed the piece of paper off the printer and handed it over the counter to a waiting Blaze.
The cat's tail immediately fluffed up as it had that morning at the sight of the image before her. Sarah had managed to up the contrast enough to see the trail board completely. The blaring white poster paper was completely unreadable - just a bright white rectangle on the paper. The yellow eyes were also white at that point. And the creature?
"It's.."
"Creepy. Right?" Sarah leaned against the counter. "I had to take a moment to adjust to it, honestly. I don't even think it's real. Like a starved wolf almost, ya know?"
The feline's tail twitched. Sarah was kind of right. It did look dog-like. It was certainly lanky if the image's contrast showed the outline correctly, but it was difficult to tell. "That's the outline of it?" Blaze pointed to the belly. "It curves like that?"
"Like a skinny dog's chest, yeah. Where's Shadow and Amy?"
"Amy's talking to Sonic, I think. He said he needed to go out of town tonight and apparently that caused some sort of argument by the time we got back to the station."
"Oh," Sarah's ears flipped back in disappointment. How dare Amy sour Sonic's mood? "Something important?"
"That's what she wanted to know, I guess he doesn't give such a short notice on going out of town, and she's not overly fond of having to babysit his little brother - who to my knowledge is only a year younger than Sonic according to their conversation." Blaze was busy observing every pixel of the image, making sure her eyes were seeing it all correctly.
A dog? I was expecting more of a big bear. Not a lanky wolf…thing. Its ears don't even look normal. And are those…teeth? She squinted as she brought the paper closer. "Do those whiter parts look like teeth to you?" She flipped the paper towards Sarah.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess." Sarah didn't want to be too distracted. She was almost off the clock in the next five minutes, so she figured Sonic had five more minutes to say goodbye to her, or she'd go out and say goodbye to him she decided. She wasn't going to be a coward this time.
Shadow walked into the station. "You might have to stop those two from killing each other," he spoke to Blaze as he brushed past her. He stopped short and backtracked when he saw the piece of paper in her hands - his eyes widening only a little. "Is that…That's…"
He was at a loss for words. "What the hell is that?" Grabbing the paper from Blaze's grasp, he scrutinized it just as much as the cat had.
"Looks like a wolf," Blaze echoed Sarah's words. "But it's too…skinny looking."
"And tall," Sarah noted. "I mean, it's arched back and everything - looks creepy as hell."
"Hm," Shadow didn't like it one bit. But he knew this had to have been the creature at the tower then. "So…if it smelled the same at the tower as it did here at the station, then this must be the animal - some lonesome deformed wolf. Probably kicked out of a pack if it's starving."
"So, you're not creeped out or alarmed?" Sarah raised an eyebrow. She grabbed her car keys off the desk. "I mean, c'mon, Shadow. It's not walking on all fours there, it's almost hunched over and standing like a bear does. What wolf does that?"
She was right. The dog's front legs were long and brushed the ground by the blurry looks of it. Still, they couldn't be positive. "It's kind of hard to tell, to be honest. With the contrast and night camera, everything blends in at some point. Can't even be sure where the line of its back starts and ends," Shadow turned the picture up against the light on the ceiling. "Could be the trees in the back blending into it."
"Still," Sarah insisted, "Its eyes are lined up with that damn poster out there that's as tall as five feet. Five foot five inches exactly, if you're wondering. I had my tape measure with me."
"Why do you have a tape measure?" Blaze questioned before remembering Sarah's major. "Nevermind, forget I asked. Architecture."
"Drafting, but yeah. Besides, I had to make a run at lunch."
"You left the station?" Shadow asked.
"At lunch. I put a sign up."
"We still try to have someone here during that."
"I know, I know. I had to go help my brother a town over. He works for my dad's carpentry business, okay? He called and needed help with his car, and my parents are on vacation with my little brother down south - scoping out colleges for him."
"Alright…" Shadow droned before blinking slowly at her. "Try not to make it a habit, I guess."
She glared at him, wanting so desperately to give him a sarcastic response, but he saw it coming a mile away and waved her off. She crossed her arms, annoyed now. "You still can't explain the height."
"Could be a perspective trick from the camera," Shadow shrugged as he set the paper down on the counter. "We'll keep a lookout, but my guess is since the camera is tilted, it only makes the head appear taller than it actually is. Bird's eye view and all that - didn't you teach us that last summer, Miss I Took an Art Class?"
"Shut up," Sarah collected the paper and set it back on her side of the desk, refusing to look at Shadow now as she stomped around the side and aimed for the front doors.
Amy walked in at just that moment and gave her a smile. "Hey, where were the campers?"
"Oh," she'd almost forgotten about Timothy and Martha. "They said Ridge Trail wasn't suitable, so they went to Copperhead instead. I had them file a report," she pointed at her desk. "It's in my filing cabinet to the left, Blaze."
The cat nodded, almost forgetting about the campers, too.
"Not suitable?" Shadow asked the sage hedgehog who so desperately wanted to leave. He could sense she was frustrated with him, but he didn't want to leave off on a bad note. "Bad weather?"
"Yeah, something like that," Sarah waved him off as she pushed the door open. Amy stepped aside and into the office to stand there awkwardly, but also wanting more answers to the thing she'd spent most of her day trying to solve.
"Sarah."
Sarah stopped at his commanding yet apologetic tone. She stared outside where Sonic was awkwardly walking away from Amy's car and into his own - she thought the motion was odd. He seemed to be glancing back at the car every now and then. He looked around the empty parking lot before getting into his own vehicle. She was gonna miss him after all.
"Okay, Shadow. I get it."
"Try not to make a habit of brother emergencies unless serious," he teased. "Last time it was because he got lost in a grocery store, no?"
"That was the younger one, but fine."
"Sarah."
"We're good, Shadow. Am I excused now?" Her tone was telling him otherwise, but he knew she wasn't one to hold a grudge. She'd sleep it off.
"Have a good evening, Sarah."
She was gone faster than Amy blinked. The pink hedgehog looked over at the older rangers. "I miss something?"
"Nothing important or unusual," Blaze smiled at her as she walked to the door, planning to usher Amy out along with her. "Shadow, I'll put the order in at the cafe and run home to grab clothes. Be back in like an hour, okay?"
"Alright. Goodnight, Amy."
"Night." Amy didn't argue with Blaze practically pushing her out. The rose hedgehog did find it all odd - first Sonic and then whatever she walked into. She certainly felt left out, but figured it was for the best. She didn't want drama in her life (she would say watching the drama TV shows religiously didn't count).
Tiredly, she marched to her car as Blaze got into her own vehicle. The cat left after a few seconds - Sarah and Sonic having left already. Amy's was the last car besides Shadow's and some campers in the parking lot. The campers' cars had to pay for a spot - a ticket put on their window to indicate they had paid and were camping - all parked in the back of the lot away from the station.
Amy sighed as she opened the car door and got in.
Turning the key, she listened in sudden fear as the car failed to start. "What?"
She tried again. "No no no no no."
The car wasn't starting, and suddenly Amy felt awful. How was she supposed to get home? She didn't want to bother Shadow. Quickly, she pulled out her phone and dialed Sonic's number, hoping he'd turn around and pick her up. But by the time that she and Blaze had walked out, she figured Sonic had been gone maybe five to ten minutes - but she was only guessing.
~.~
In reality, Sonic was barely down the road and could've easily picked her up, as he didn't actually have anywhere to be. It was all a ruse, but Amy didn't need to know that. He pulled off to the gas station in town, watching Blaze's car go into Jericho's lot down the street. He had to fill up on gas at the least, but he was surprised to see Sarah barrel into the empty spot next to him.
She got out and stormed to stare at him. He figured he was caught - and Sarah was going to yell at him on Amy's behalf. Sonic waited with wide eyes, the both of them just staring. Sarah didn't look angry with him though.
"Do you want to go out sometime?" It was a little forced, and she was clearly agitated about something, but Sonic figured it wasn't him.
"Sure?"
"Cool. Okay." Sarah glanced off to the side before clearing her throat. She pointed to her car as she walked back around to the driver's side. "I don't…actually have to…fill up the car…so, I'm just gonna…leave."
Sonic watched in amusement. Just as he figured Shadow wasn't the typical guy Amy would go after, he could put together that Sarah wasn't the normal girl he'd ask out on a date. She seemed to not get out much, she was overly sarcastic and grouchy in the morning, and yet something about her was entertaining.
"Hey, Sarah," he called after her as she got into her car, which was still running.
She rolled down the passenger window as he walked over to her car and leaned into the window. With sudden coolness that Sarah didn't realize Sonic possessed, he flirtatiously asked in a husky voice, "You wanna go out or not?"
A lump caught in her throat as she tried to think of words to say. "Yes," was all she could muster.
He laughed, and it made her want to blush. Hell, she was probably already blushing like crazy. Sonic could feel his phone vibrating again in his pocket - Amy was no doubt calling him for the third time.
"Let's go out of town, then. There's a fun place in Westwood we can go to." He heard the gas pump click. "Follow," he said as he turned around, knocking on the side of her car as a signal to follow, she supposed.
By the time he got in his vehicle and started off to their college town a few miles away, Blaze was walking out of the Jericho's diner. She never noticed Sarah's car following Sonic's just right down the street - her thoughts were on getting home to grab what she needed. The food would be done by then for her to come back and pick up later. Then she could go over the campers' report.
~.~
"I'm really sorry to bother you with this," Amy winced as she spoke.
Her car's hood was up, and she was completely useless, she decided. Shadow leaned over it and looked right at home - as if being a mechanic was his true job. He took one look at it before raising an eyebrow and turning back to look at her. "Your car looks fine. Try it again?"
She did as she was told, and yet the car did not start. Shadow rubbed the back of his neck, genuinely confused. Amy sat in the car, filled with worry as she didn't understand what the hell was going on. It wasn't even her car. It was Manic's. Sonic drove his own for that day, which she had driven yesterday. But the way they had parked back at his parents' had Sonic's car parked behind Manic's - and Sonic left earlier than her. So, they were fine switching vehicles with whatever they needed depending on their summer schedule.
What was she going to tell Manic now, though?
Shadow closed the hood and wiped his hands clear of any grime. He caught Amy's gaze and softened. It was then that Amy put it all together.
It was quite clear to her - especially why Sonic wasn't answering his damn phone when he normally never missed her calls.
Sonic. He did something. This car never fails. Manic takes insanely good care of his car. Sonic does, too. They're both car guys - Sonic did this somehow. So, it's probably not completely broken down.
She also saw the reasoning behind it. Glancing at her phone, she made one last ditch effort of calling Sonic. It was the fourth time. She sent a text to him just to be sure.
Amy: Ur an asshole
That would sure show him.
"Hmph," Amy put her phone away and leaned out the car's open door, smiling sweetly at Shadow. "Do you mind taking me home?"
"I guess not. But don't you two drive separately in the morning?" Shadow mentioned.
She hadn't thought of that. She would have to show up early tomorrow and drive with Sonic. Then again, that was if Sonic would survive when he got home tonight from his plans - which Amy figured didn't exist. Her grin never faltered. "It'll be fine. It's about forty-five minutes out, though."
"That's fine," Shadow grabbed his keys from his pocket and walked to his truck, motioning her along.
She hopped out of poor Manic's car. It would be fine, she figured. Amy took one breath in and one breath out, trying to remember to keep calm.
Sonic did this for a reason. And if it was for Shadow and I to have some alone time, then so be it. I'll make the best out of it and show him!
Amy wanted to call it a win in her book, but knew the win would ultimately go to Sonic if that truly was his intention. Shadow opened the passenger door and let her hop in.
And he's a gentleman. Amy tried to not to be too giddy, but the hopeless romantic in her couldn't help it. She claimed to be independent, but she wasn't an idiot - to be treated like a lady was still a way to win her heart.
Shadow got in and started his truck. Not to Amy's surprise, it fired right up. She gave him a reassuring look. "Cloverfield Estate, please."
The ebony hedgehog knew the place - he'd been there just a few times when he went boating with friends, primarily Knuckles and Silver. But he also knew that it was certainly a forty-five minute drive there just as she had said. That was forty-five minutes there, forty-five minutes back. There was no way that he could get back in time before Blaze. She would surely interrogate him.
The thought had him shut off the truck. "Forgot to lock the doors."
"Right!" Amy nodded in agreement. He got out, locked the front doors, and went back into the truck. He started it again without a hitch. She relaxed in her seat. "Sorry about this."
"No problem." Shadow was calm and quiet, and Amy didn't know how to approach that.
She was used to meeting guys at parties - where they were already five beers in and talkative as hell. Amy was a chatty Kathy herself, so it made it easy to meet guys. This situation was entirely different and damn near awkward.
Shadow, however, was trying to rack his brain for interesting topics.
Don't talk about snow. Don't talk about snow. Do not talk about snow.
He really didn't have much going on in his head besides the thought of not screwing it up. He had refused to look at Rouge's texts that whole day - she had wanted to know who the volunteers were and just how hot they were. Shadow wasn't sure if he should respond to her at all, but he had planned on it earlier that day. Now, sitting next to Amy and driving her home, he was beginning to think he'd melt all the way there.
"So, you visited Glace often?" He cleared his throat, figuring that was the best place to start. Talk about her - learn more about her.
Just don't talk about snow.
"Yeah. Sonic's parents have a place here, like we said. My parents and his were neighbors back in Westwood. I'm from the town originally, but Sonic grew up back and forth between Glace and Westwood. We have another friend who grew up across the street from us - although he's a few years younger than us. He's insanely smart," she thought to catch him up on the conversation he had missed at the cafe. "So he's in college when he should technically be in high school. I think he got his diploma when he was…twelve or thirteen?"
"Damn. So, you three just hung out? Water skied on the lake?" He took a guess.
"Yeah," Amy opened up easily, as she felt Shadow relax and try to make conversation. For whatever reason, he seemed to be holding back on something. "What about you, Mr. Hale University?"
He scoffed in humor. "Well, I lived in Kage for five years," he repeated the information she had already stored away. "I grew up on the east coast town of Maryville, though."
"Right on the ocean? Wow!" Amy's eyes lit up. "Surfer?"
"No," Shadow shook his head, leaning back in his seat a little as his hand gripped the top of the steering wheel. His right arm rested on the middle console, brushing near Amy's left arm. "That'd be my brother. I was interested in boating and fishing though. We'd go skiing every winter before my parents got divorced."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Nah, we still drag them into it once a year. They split amicably." He cracked a small smile at the memory of each year where his brother would be the least likely to show up on time compared to his parents.
"That's at least good," Amy noted. "When you were young?"
"No," Shadow shook his head. "Maybe a year after I graduated high school? What about yours?"
"Still together. Lovey dovey and disgusting," Amy made a groaning sound. "There's nothing quite like the innocence of a child being ruined walking in on their parents' making out. And then looking back when I'm older and realizing they probably weren't just making out."
She got a chuckle out of him, so she figured the conversation wasn't completely off topic. They seemed to be comfortable with one another, so why not jump right into it? Amy bit her bottom lip. "So, you never dated while in Kage? Big city - big party city."
"Hn, yeah," he remarked. "Never actually went to that many parties. Dates, though, sure. You?"
"A few here and there," Amy tried to not make it sound like she got around. It wasn't like she was a hoe - she didn't sleep with every single one of them. Just the ones that lasted longer than three months. Which wasn't a good rate now she looked back at it. "I think my longest relationship was actually in highschool."
"Oh?" He was driving through the small town of Glace, working his way around slowly to the Cloverfield Estate. The whole reason it was going to be forty-five minutes was because they had to go around the lake on a road that was only a thirty-five mile per hour speed limit. And it was a long road. But he was starting to enjoy that part.
"Yeah…You ever dated steadily?"
"Hm. What's your definition of that?" Shadow asked with some humor laced in his tone.
"What?" Amy laughed at the question.
"Well, I mean, do you see that as three months or six months or a year - what's steady for Amy Rose?"
"Oh," she blushed as she tugged at her front quill. She looked out the window. "Ummmm, six months?"
"Yes."
"A year?"
"Ye-No. No - we were shy a year by about two months," Shadow recalled. "It wasn't the best relationship to be honest," he murmured the last bit mostly to himself as he took a left turn onto the road that would venture around the lake. It weaved with the land and the small clusters of homes here and there. "You?"
"Longest was a year and three months," Amy noted. "Highschool. Sonic did not like the guy from what I can recall. We don't talk about it much. Most of the college guys are…well, there for parties to be honest."
"Westwood is a party town?" Shadow didn't really know much about Westwood. He wasn't from there - he knew it was almost an hour away from Glace, and he had driven through it once. His gym was just on the outskirts though - he'd frequented it regularly with Knuckles.
"Similar to Kage, but smaller, yeah." Amy crossed her legs and leaned towards him as they hit a pothole. Shadow kept driving. "So…" she cleared her throat and decided to leap. "You're…You want to go out sometime?"
The ebony hedgehog paused.
He might've broken, actually. He wasn't sure. Shadow didn't know if he had been expecting her to ask him out or if she had been waiting for him to ask her out - all he knew was that when the words came out of her mouth, all he could think about to try and calm himself down was -
"Did you know there are different types of snow?"
"W-What?" Amy suddenly had whiplash. Did he just ask about snow? She had just taken a leap of faith to ask him out, and he…asked about snow.
Shadow groaned and kept driving, no matter how much he wanted to hide. "I mean, yes."
"Are you sure? You don't have to."
"No, no - I do. I would like to, Amy," Shadow didn't want to trip over his words. He glanced back and forth between her and the road before deciding to just pull over at the next driveway. He did just that.
Amy grabbed the door handle at the sudden halt. "Shadow?"
"Sorry. I just…I'm about as awkward as Sarah, aren't I?" he whispered with a small laugh to himself, staring at the dashboard. He looked over at Amy. "I'm sorry. I…" he gritted his teeth as he glanced off to the left.
Amy twisted in her seat to face him. She tilted her head, waiting for him to continue.
"It's been awhile since I've been on a date," he admitted. "The last relationship wasn't the best. Kind of…deterred me from dating for a while. The last date wasn't great either," Shadow shook his head as if the whole thing was ridiculous to hear. She was probably going to decline him now. He was an idiot. "It's been mostly this job, very little social interaction, and then one really awkward date that one of my friend's set me up with. And all I could talk about was my job," Shadow leaned back into his seat and stared ahead at the road. "So, I would like to say yes, Amy. You're…You seem like a lovely woman. Granted I can see if you don't -"
"Shadow?"
He turned to look at Amy.
She gave him a small, reassuring smile. "That's okay. I would still like to get to know you. So, let me ask this again and get the correct answer this time. Would you like to go out?"
"Yes." It was all he could muster, staring at her. He wasn't sure if she was annoyed or just caught off guard by his sudden monologue.
Still, the ray of sunshine just kept beaming. Amy didn't seem to mind. She clasped her hands together and gave a little laugh. "Alright then. The next time you're free - let's go out. I can show you Westwood."
"Okay." He was screaming mentally to not fuck the situation up. He could hear Rouge cheering him on in his head, and Knuckles holding his breath, waiting for Shadow to say something wrong. The ebony hedgehog had a habit of sometimes speaking his mind too literally. Case in point: snow.
Shadow glanced back to the road, making sure the way was clear. It was. They pulled back onto the road and he continued to drive - going a little over the speed limit. Maybe now it was going to be too awkward of a drive back to Sonic's parents' place. Maybe she would cancel the date with him by the end of the drive. Oh, Tikal - what was he supposed to say? Was he supposed to say anything? He wanted to know more about her, like how they're conversation had started, but now he couldn't even think of words.
"I didn't know."
"Huh?" Shadow blinked rapidly, pulled back into the real world - aware he was driving. "What?" he took a glimpse at her.
She had her attention on him fully, and for some reason it made him comfortable. Maybe it was because the last girl had left in the middle of the date awkwardly. Or the girl before that who only talked about her ex the entire time. Or the girl before that girl who -
"There were different types of snow."
"Hm? Oh…It's - Sorry. I just revert to those conversations, I guess."
"Your job?" Amy suppressed a laugh, but she found it cute. He seemed to be flustered - something she hadn't imagined Shadow ever capable of being.
"Yeah. Sorry."
"So…what are they?"
"What are what?"
"The different types of snow, Shadow," she laughed this time. Her hand clasping over her crossed knees.
The ebony hedgehog cleared his throat. "Oh, well. Um, okay." He was caught off guard. Someone actually wanted to listen to him talk about things he found somewhat fascinating or was she just humoring him? Making fun of him? He decided to go along with it in hopes that Amy wasn't actually that much of an asshole. "There are different snow crystals, like regular snowflakes we see or hoarfrost or graupel. What I always liked during the winter months was seeing the varying snow formations, though. We're all familiar with a cornice - when the wind blows it over the edge of a cliff, but there's these megadunes of snow up north. I personally always wanted to see penitents though."
She waited patiently.
"Like stalagmites of snow sticking up from the ground. We'll get, uh, sastrugi sometimes."
"Sas-what?"
"Sastrugi. Causes super fragile snow formations up in the mountains - primarily the ridges. Avalanche season," Shadow responded with more interest.
Amy watched in amazement as Shadow completely relaxed. He didn't look like he was holding anything back like when they first started the drive. She figured it had been because of this - the man liked to talk about his job, and sometimes that bored people. Amy was as good of a listener as she was a talker, though.
"You work for Glace Avalanche Safety, too?"
"I volunteer. It's insane hours, but it's fascinating. My mentor before me that worked at the park also volunteered. He was an avid skier. Whenever we went snow-shoeing around the park, he'd always point out areas of concern. It was crazy how much this guy knew about snow. I never thought it was such a complex thing until I met him."
"Huh. I never would've thought about it much, either," Amy put her hand to her chin in genuine thought. "We just go to the ski resort and expect the professionals to know where it's safe to be. I figured it'd be easy to tell where concern should be, but now that I think about it, I don't think I'd be able to point out areas."
Shadow's shoulders relaxed. The truck slowed back down a little under the speed limit. He wasn't forgetting that he was driving - but he was enjoying the sudden comfort Amy gave.
"I couldn't either for about the first two months. Then I walked right into the lion's den."
"What?" Amy leaned against the middle console, her eyes widening. "You started an avalanche?"
"By accident."
"What happened? How bad was it? Was it scary?"
The forty-five minute drive wasn't going to be long enough for the two.
~.~
Blaze had already eaten her food by the time Shadow arrived back at the station. She immediately felt like she caught him cheating or something as he walked through the front door with a guilty look on his face.
"Sorry."
"Where were you? Why is Amy's car still here?"
"Her car failed to start, so I drove her home," Shadow mentioned as he walked to the desk where she was seated. She'd been looking over the picture Sarah printed from the footage - keeping an eye on the cameras that were going. He grabbed his to-go box of food, happy to see his usual burger in it.
Thankfully, they had the microwave in the breakroom.
That didn't stop Blaze from hollering after him. "You didn't talk about snow, did you!?"
~.~
About two hours had passed between the two park rangers. Most of it was filled with talk about Shadow's love life - specifically Amy. He wasn't shy about letting Blaze know what had happened, and that he did in fact score a date with the pink hedgehog after Silver returned to take his spot on night watch duty. He did, however, ask her to not say anything to Sarah or Silver.
"Why?"
"Because they'll use it against me, and I can't win against those two when they're teasing together."
Now, they were lounging in the rolling desk chairs - as leisurely as one could. Shadow had more faith in his chair with how far he could potentially lean it back to. Blaze decided to not test her chair, despite being significantly lighter than Shadow. She remained glued to the cameras and the books she had snagged from her home. They were from previous college courses - some were on botany and others about the environment and ecosystems. She figured one in particular could hold more valuable information - the one she had on animals. She even brought another one about specific predators in national parks and their behavioral patterns.
But she had to first find the animal. She couldn't believe it was a wolf.
Staring at the image Sarah had printed out, and then at any in her books, she just couldn't fathom the creature that had visited being a wolf. Although it was certainly the closest thing it resembled, there was something still too…eerie about it. The still-frame image stared back at her, as if the creature were staring into her soul.
The longer she looked at it, the more unnerved she got.
Shadow had kept himself entertained in her company for the last thirty minutes by annoyingly munching on his chips. He glanced at the cameras periodically, but he was overall bored.
"You could do reports, you know." Blaze tried to give him something to do - but she figured the ebony male probably was happy to find some time to relax and do absolutely nothing.
He shot up and rolled his chair closer to the desk. Blaze had set up shop at Sarah's desk in order to watch the cameras closely. Shadow didn't want to intrude on her space too much, so he had been more out in the open - middle of the room and just staring at the ceiling. He tossed his bag of chips, nearly empty, to the side as his red eyes scanned Sarah's desk. "Where'd she say she put the file for the missing campers?"
"Oh, it's right there," she motioned to a manila folder sticking out above the rest on Sarah's organized chaos of a filing cabinet under her desk. She failed to close the drawer before she left that night, but Blaze couldn't blame her when she saw how filled to the brim the cabinet was.
Shadow pulled out the one labeled with the current date and the initials of the missing campers. He flipped it open as he grabbed his bag of chips and rolled away.
Blaze's ears twitched a little at the sound as she flipped through the book, humming along to the quiet radio she had turned on. The fan near Shadow kept a constant hum whenever the radio static got too bad, but for the most part, they got at least one decent channel to listen to.
"You know…I know plants and animals around this area like the back of my hand," Blaze confessed, mostly to her own surprise as she crossed another potential animal off her list. "I grew up in so many different parks - my parents had a period of their lives where we were practically nomadic, living in an RV and touring Mobius on our time and money. I grew to love learning about every nook and cranny the parks had to offer - from the rarest, tallest trees, right down to the smallest pebble in a stream. Everything had its purpose in life, and it made sense."
Shadow listened to her, but he was trying to read the file. Sarah's handwriting was crooked and cursive, so it made it difficult for him. Especially when someone was talking and he knew he should be listening.
"Hmhm." It was all he could muster.
"But this? This thing doesn't make sense to me. It can't be a bear - if this image is showing the outline even anywhere near correct," she motioned on the printer paper where she had used a red pen to outline the rough shape of the animal, "then it's too lanky and disproportionate to be a bear."
"Hm."
Amber eyes went back to her book. "My initial thought was wolf immediately, but…there were no tracks around the station anywhere. No bear. No wolf. No deer. Not even a raccoon," Blaze thought out loud. There was a large part of her that wanted to slam the zoology book shut and forget about the situation entirely. Maybe the damn thing would show itself better on camera.
But. She didn't want that.
She knew that.
When observing the image, it made shivers run up her spine every time. Something about the damn animal wasn't normal. It was almost too human. She had grown up with the belief that animals couldn't have complex thoughts such as Mobians. They were a different course of DNA and bloodlines - or however the hell her science and biology classes wanted to explain it to her younger self. She just knew that animals out there in the woods weren't as intelligent as the ones in the city, the Mobians. And yet this thing stared at the camera.
She was convinced it was staring at the camera. And the white marks near where a muzzle would be on a wolf? It was as if it was giving the camera the creepiest, toothiest grin it could muster. Maybe that was the part that was too human to her - too terrifying to think that an animal out there would be intelligent enough to see the camera and know exactly what it was. And smile.
But it's probably not smiling. It's probably just an illusion of the light. Of the camera. Of something. Maybe its teeth are just huge and hang out of its mouth normally. Although that thought didn't settle any uneasiness in her. In fact that thought was probably the most terrifying.
"How are you not bothered by any of this, Shadow?"
He sighed. He'd read two sentences so far on the file. And Sarah loved paragraphs. He glanced up at the cat. "Who said I wasn't?"
"You just seem…calm about it all," Blaze wanted to tear the paper up. She stared at it. It stared back. "It doesn't bother you? The way that thing looks. Some deranged, starving dog thing. If the smell was up by the tower and by the station where this thing was, then we can conclude it was the same thing up at the tower. That doesn't bother you?"
"I'll be honest. I felt like I was being watched." Shadow tried to skim Sarah's paragraph that mostly remarked where the campers had said they were going to be and instead ended up, when they had checked in with her several days prior, and how long they were going to be there. He could see on the next page it was the campers' report written by one of the campers. He guessed by the giant, swirly lettering that it was from Martha. "I didn't want to stay long the first day with Sonic up there. Something felt too…close. I have to assume it was the wolf and that it came down to the station. Maybe it followed Sonic and I."
"And that's not terrifying?" Blaze scoffed at him, looking back at him as if he were insane for not reacting with more urgency. "It was probably hunting you at some point. Or thought about it at least. I mean, if this is the same thing the camera caught earlier by the back door? That means it might've tried to get into the building - or was going for the dumpsters."
"My guess is the latter," Shadow fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Listen, Blaze, I've had encounters with bears. I've rarely had them with wolves, and to be honest, I'm more frightened by a bear or a mountain lion hunting me than a lone wolf. Especially one that looks so scraggly as that. I'm convinced now that the camera is at too much of an angle to determine its true height - that it's an illusion that makes it look taller than it actually is. It's just a lone, starving wolf that is no doubt in the next park by now."
He went back to the file.
Blaze went back to her book. "We can't determine height clearly, but I want to agree with Sarah that it looks abnormally tall for any creature. If it's hunched over…No, let's say it is on all fours, it still does look too tall for any predator. Except maybe a Dire Wolf."
"Maybe it's a Dire Wolf then," Shadow gave an exasperated sigh as he flipped the page, just choosing to skip past Sarah's part of the report.
"They're extinct."
Shadow raised an eyebrow at Blaze, glancing up.
"For thousands of years."
"Well, then. It sounds like it's just a starving wolf with a skewed camera angle," Shadow tried to convince her of what he figured to be the most logical. He wasn't sure why Blaze was fighting him on this. "You saw a wolf print yourself up on Ridge Trail today. If you think it was something heavier than usual, maybe it was the same wolf."
"So, you're contradicting yourself. If it was the same wolf that left the print, then it's a heavier than normal wolf. Which could only mean in height because it looks super skinny from this image."
"No. I'm not saying it's tall," Shadow narrowed his eyebrows as he started reading the campers' report. "You can't tell the 3-dimensional portion of it from a 2-dimension photo in high contrast that's blurred everything to a nearly blaring white or pitch black."
She looked at their reference photo and tilted her head. He wasn't completely wrong in that theory. "Okay, so maybe it's a little bigger than it looks, and it's not completely starving. And maybe that could explain the heavy footprint."
"It was also…in mud." He was clearly distracted.
Blaze chewed her bottom lip as she looked at the cameras. No movement yet, but it wasn't even close to midnight. "Yeah. Okay, maybe you're right. Maybe I'm overthinking this," she closed her book and set it up on the desk - opting to grab her cup of tea that was no doubt cold by now. She hugged it close to her chest anyway. "It just…looks so…human," she glowered at the image - as if waiting for the creature to blink in the photo.
"Listen to this. It's from the campers." Shadow suddenly shot up, which surprised the feline. He rolled closer to her, leaning his arms on his knees as he hunched over in his chair. He had the report open to Martha's long full-page report. But Blaze figured it was due to the large handwriting. "It says, 'We had planned to go to Ridge Trail as we are familiar with the area. We have hiked and camped in these woods for nearly two decades and have never run into a problem, even during this time of year, in getting back into the Black River Flats.' That's where you said you were trying to go, right?" Red eyes shot up to stare at Blaze.
She nodded, turning her body ever so slightly to face him as he read. For some reason, her tail was puffing up. She tried to calm her suddenly racing heart as she wrapped her tail around her feet that were curled up on the chair. To Shadow, the position looked uncomfortable.
He went back to reading, "So, it goes, 'However, by 12 o' clock the same day we arrived at the park, we encountered a strange smell just south of the flats. The trails were fine and dry at the time. We did not feel in sudden danger until the smell got prominent almost immediately about half a mile from the flats. We stopped and decided to go elsewhere. By the time we got off Ridge Trail, the smell was still strong, as if following us. Timothy felt strongly against the area, as did I. We headed up north to Birch Pass instead to try and camp there for the night. The smell stopped by the time we crossed the bridge right before the pass - over the small creek. We camped at Birch Pass for the night.'"
"Sarah said they went to Copperhead, though," Blaze interrupted.
Shadow merely nodded before continuing, "'Birch Pass was quiet with no campers, so we stayed for one night. However, that night we experienced what we thought were coyote howls or something like a hyena laughing.'" He stopped to look at Blaze. "Wolves do that?"
"Not as far as I know of. Howl, sure. Bark, sure. Coyote screams are pretty common for…coyotes," she shrugged, "And that's not a coyote," she pointed to the photo.
"'The sounds kept us up all night. We didn't leave in fear that a pack of coyotes were out there. The smell came back stronger over the course of the night. Timothy suggests that it smells like a dead animal. I, Martha, do not have experience with that sort of smell, but it was awful.'" He stopped again and glimpsed at the cat. Both minds racing. "Thoughts?"
"Ok. So, coyote screams, maybe a wolf makes those sounds. Hell, I don't know," Blaze found herself confuddled. "I got to watch wolves one winter, like six years ago on vacation up north. They never did anything like that, but it's not like I have experience monitoring wolves for a living. I can't say. But the smell? That's still concerning. We didn't find a single dead carcass anywhere. If they're saying the smell followed them from Ridge Trail to Birch Pass, and you smelled it at the tower way West of those areas? That doesn't mean the wolf is walking through the park, Shadow - it's going back and forth."
"It could have been. It might have come from up north down Ginger's Fork," Shadow suggested before the cat clearly jumped to conclusions. He had to keep them both calm for the sake of doing their jobs right. "Stayed on the Flats. Ran into Timothy and Martha. They left for Birch Pass - maybe it followed because it was hungry. Maybe it tried to…intimidate them over the course of the night with screams like coyotes? Then maybe it walked all the way West to the tower, followed Sonic and I back to the station. It clearly followed them, so it probably followed us."
"Like that's a comforting thought," Blaze thought the whole thing ridiculous. She shook her head. "No. No, it doesn't just scream. Coyotes do that in packs. They hunt together. A lone wolf isn't going to do that, will it?"
"I don't know," Shadow had to be honest. The park rarely had bears, much less wolves which were rarer to see. He had seen one small pack way back when with his mentor while they were snow-shoeing, and that pack was known to be tracked up in the northern park. It had been a special encounter, but they were on opposite sides of the mountain range when they saw them through binoculars. Shadow had no real experience or training with wolves.
"I don't think it would travel in such a weird pattern," Blaze shook her head. "If it was passing through? That's ridiculous. Why go south, east, and then west just to go south again? It's backtracking. And if it was actually hungry and following the campers, why didn't it go down to places like Copperhead, closer to the station? To Dew Point? Why not the southeastern locations?"
"Are you asking these questions sincerely or do you have a thought?" Shadow couldn't tell, but he figured he was reading the cat correctly to know that she already had a thought brewing.
"I think it's just walking through its territory, Shadow. Maybe it ventured out because those campers ventured in. No one goes up to Black River Flats anymore due to the mudslides and dangerous trails down the canyon. No one ever went to the tower before you showed up," Blaze pointed at him, her sudden idea making her heart race. Her tail twitched against her control. "I think we waltzed right through its territory."
"And it came to check us out?" Shadow snorted. "Ok. Then it can move on. If it stays, we put a tracker on it, let one of the other parks monitor it - they have the departments to do so. Or, you can start that," he suggested as he leaned back in his chair.
"No."
It was almost too quick of a response. It definitely got a raised eyebrow from him.
"Aren't you always the first to want to track an animal throughout the park? You were ecstatic about the moose last year that showed up. The herds of deer you follow each year? What makes this lone wolf so different? If the park actually does have a big game predator living it, wouldn't you want to monitor it?" Shadow was trying to sell her on the idea because a large part of him still thought nothing of the wolf. It was a lone wolf - what else was new?
Blaze shook her head though, a distant look in her eyes suddenly. "Not that thing, Shadow. Something about its movements. The way it was on camera. That," she pointed at the paper again - the crudely outlined animal that was something. "That is not normal."
Shadow sighed as he stood up. He glanced down at the report, and decided to continue reading it, "'We stayed until morning. At first light, the sounds and smell were gone. And so were we. We were going to leave early, but we ran into some friends on the trail that were headed to Copperhead. So, we decided to not let the encounter ruin our spirits and our trip, and we ended up at Copperhead. In the midst of everything, it appears we forgot what day was what and overstayed. We've paid for the extra day for parking and camping. Sorry for the inconvenience to your rangers. We do suggest looking at Ridge Trail, though.'"
He closed the manila folder and slid it back into its spot in the overfilled cabinet. Silence followed the two as Shadow rolled closer. He glanced from the image of the creature to the cameras to Blaze and back to the photo again. He was trying to figure out what she saw in the picture. He didn't see anything threatening - but he was trying to be logical about it.
"What else could it be then, Blaze? Logically, to me, it looks like a wolf from a weird camera perspective. One that probably got kicked out of its pack up north and traveled south to our park. It just so happens to stink like a dead animal - maybe because it hoarded a carcass for several days if it was alone and starving before it came into our park. It's curious, it follows campers - that's the main concern here." He rested his arms on the armrests of the chair. It creaked as he thought about leaning back again. Overall, he was calm about the situation.
He had to think about the hikers and campers first and foremost. He and Blaze were safe in the station for the night. "If it isn't in another park and it's still in this park, we're the only ones in an enclosed space right now. It was curious enough to check this place out last night, but if it realizes that it can't get food out of the dumpsters, then maybe it'll go back to Birch Pass for other campers' locations. Maybe it'll find other campers. I'm sure its sense of smell is quite good."
"Exactly. If it followed the campers, it could probably smell a bunch of other campers with food miles away. Copperhead. Dew Point. Rainbow Lake. Minnow Landing. Gray Bear Grounds. Why not go there then? Why go to the tower? Why go to the station? Easy food here probably from the dumpsters, sure. By why…the tower?" she was staring off blankly at the desk. Lost in thought.
Shadow linked his hands together as he tried to see from her view. "Okay. Let's say it came from the north, it's new to the area. It comes down Ginger's Fork onto Black River Flats at the same time Martha and her husband are going up towards it. They cross paths but never see one another - it's probably curious and wary enough to stay out of sight. They decide to leave because it smells like a dead animal. It follows because it's hungry. All this is obvious to me."
"Okay. But the coyote-like yells? Hyena laughing? I know they were probably scared, but I doubt they exaggerate that part. I mean, coyote screams are god-awful to hear in general," Blaze noted. "Why do that?"
"Because…" Shadow tried to rack his brain for some logical thing, but one really only made sense - but how could it? It wasn't like the wolf was intelligent enough, was it? "Because it was trying to lure them out?"
"Please don't say that," she whispered, closing her eyes.
"Well, nothing really makes sense. I don't know why a wolf would do that. Even a curious one. If a wolf can do that. Coyotes hunt in packs, but we know it's not a coyote. Even I'll agree it's way too big," he observed the photo. Definitely not a coyote. "Although it's sort of lanky looking like a coyote compared to a wolf, I think we can agree. Not a coyote."
"Not a coyote," she nodded.
"So, why else would it make sounds like that? Maybe try to intimidate the campers out of the area? Maybe it felt threatened?" Shadow was going down every road.
Blaze shook her head as she stared at the ceiling. For the first time since he had met her, Shadow found himself looking at her in a new light. The purple cat looked entirely…lost for once. He wasn't sure if broken was the correct term. Definitely scared. It wasn't defeat - it was more like terrified and lost than anything. It made him concerned. Shadow cared about her, and he didn't want her to worry about the situation.
Reaching out, he grabbed her arm. She refused to look at him, though - her eyes locked to the ceiling. At a closer look, he realized why. Her eyes were glassy. The cat was trying not to cry as her tail twitched. It was completely poofed out.
Shadow had certainly never seen her like this before.
"Blaze. It's okay."
"No. It has to be because it's its territory. They said it stopped at the bridge before Birch Pass - the smell. It stopped. The creature stopped. Wherever the smell is, that's where the wolf is. Why did it stop? The bridge is nearly two and half miles away from the Birch Pass camping grounds. Who knows how much time passed as the campers got to the pass, set up their tent, and went to bed before the smell came back? Why wait? Why wait for them to be in the tent? Why not keep following them?"
Shadow didn't know the answer to that. "Maybe because…the campers got out of its territory."
"Right. That's what I think, Shadow. Truly, I do," Blaze finally looked at him. She wiped away her only tear with a shaky hand. "Sorry, I don't know why I'm reacting like this," she said although they both knew it probably stemmed from her younger years when her parents practically lived in forests. The bear encounter Blaze hadn't completely unpacked to Amy earlier - she had certainly told Shadow about it. The fear and shock from a traumatic event as a child still lingered in her, and that was obvious to the both of them.
"It's okay," he did his best to be calm for her. He rubbed her forearm in a comforting manner as she caught her breath.
Shadow knew it came with the job. There were plenty of times where he had to console lost hikers that thought they were dead. He had to console children that got separated from their parents - those were the worst. He even had to constantly hold a lost golden retriever once that whined and cried the whole time until its owners came back to the station. He had several interns that had breakdowns during their job - sometimes the mountains and what was in them weren't for everyone's mental health. But as long as he had known Blaze, she had always been as cool, calm, and collected as him - despite her past experiences as a child that, at the time of telling him about them, she seemed to have moved on from. It almost made him just as shaky.
"Blaze, I think you should go home."
She didn't want to hear the words. Her ears snapped up as she glared at the hedgehog. "Absolutely not. I'm not leaving right now. If it comes back on camera tonight, then doesn't that only solidify that somewhere in the park, it has territory? We would need to figure out where it starts and ends, monitor it like you said, and I'm not letting you do that alone. You or Silver."
Shadow sighed as he walked away from her. "Alright. Just…catch your breath, then."
"I will. It won't happen again."
"It's alright to be scared of the unknown, Blaze, I don't blame you," Shadow turned around and gave her a reassuring look. "I'm not going to judge you, but it is just a wolf."
There was a silence between the two.
It was longer than usual, and it bothered the both of them. Blaze tried to catch her breath - but it only made her frustrated with herself more. How could she have lost her cool all of a sudden? Why had she gotten so upset suddenly? She couldn't even bear to look at the photo anymore.
Instead, she slammed it down on the desk, avoiding eye contact with the so-called lone wolf.
Maybe it was the way it looked into the camera. Maybe it was the way her mind was replaying the way it walked and paused, just to stare at the camera as if on purpose. It knew the camera had been there. It walked to the back and went to the door. The dumpsters were practically untouched - she had checked after returning to the station that night. Not a scratch on them. Nothing on the door either. But all of it made her hair stand up.
She realized it was because she wasn't in control of the situation. Something like that had been stalking around the property. Stalking about the campers' tent. She narrowed her eyes as a thought hit her.
"You never heard sounds last night? No coyote screams? Hyena laughing?"
Shadow shook his head. "No. I had the fan going. Can't sleep in silence."
"You think it's loud enough to block out sounds like that?"
"Well, it is an insulated building that's also a cinder block," Shadow shrugged as he looked around their environment. "We can't even hear most birds chirping in the morning unless a window is open. I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something. But I also don't feel like I did."
"If you're certain," Blaze nodded. She turned back to her books.
Shadow stared at his boots and sighed. "Look, maybe I can call the park north of here that monitors that wolf pack. See if one of the wolves left the pack or something. See if we can find someone down here to check it out - look for tracks. They'd be better equipped with someone that actually has knowledge on wolves and wolf tracking in general."
"I'm okay with that. That sounds like a good idea," she agreed to it without any questions.
Shadow figured it comforted her enough that he could leave her be for a while. He rubbed the back of his head as he grabbed other reports on the opposite side of the room. "I'm going to go fill these out then."
He left down the hallway, but not before Blaze called back to him in a genuine tone, "Thanks, Shadow."
The purple cat didn't hear the door close, so she figured he had left it open. They had to share the room anyway with the cots. She leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes and turning the radio up a bit more. The static was almost as comforting to her as the fan was to Shadow. He had forgotten it on the counter beside her.
Whatever the next day had in store for her, Blaze hoped it would be uneventful. At the current rate things were going, she wished to see nothing on the cameras that night except the rowdy raccoons that once visited.
Thank you for the reviews so far! Just a little bit of matchmaking this chapter!
And again, all the formatting should be fixed. I'm super peeved about that, but oh well. Now it'll be easier for ya'll to read. :/