Rouge panted heavily under the weight of her equipment. She'd decided that she'd move all her gear closer to the mine, rather than travel back and forth every day. Unfortunately, this also meant that she'd have to carry it there.
This time, Knuckles was being more merciful—he wasn't bouncing around everywhere, so she didn't want to kill him as much. Nothing annoyed her more than someone else having something she didn't have, so when he was leaping about and she was hauling gear, he had a freedom of motion she couldn't stand. This time he was quietly leading her on, walking in front of her.
"Hold a moment," she said. He stopped, turned to check on her.
She had to put some of these things down! In addition to the oversized backpack and tent-carrier on her back, she was carrying things in both hands.
"Tired?" he asked.
"No," she bit, immediately. "I just needed a free hand for a moment," she said as she wiped her brow.
Unexpectedly, Knuckles walked back to her. "It's just not right," he said as he grabbed some of her things.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"Everyone should have a chance to wipe their own sweat," he said.
She looked at what he'd left—he'd taken all the items that had gone in her right hand.
As had become the norm since her return, she had two distinct reactions. The first was gratitude, along with an odd, warm feeling that she mattered to him. The second was a predator's glee that the depth of her strength or weakness hadn't been revealed. If he kept helping her, he'd never accurately know how strong she was, which would be to her advantage in case of a fight.
'When will you get a grip?' she thought in a rage. 'Much more of this and I'll be a fully qualified schizophrenic.'
This contest of her personalities had to stop before it got her into trouble. Some day soon there would be a reckoning. She knew quite well that it was her predator side that allowed her continued survival. If she couldn't find a way to get rid of this softer side of herself, she'd never find a way to get that content-tingle back!
Until she found a way to exorcise it completely, she'd do her best to stifle that softness. After all, she could see the softness growing in Knuckles, and it was obviously working to her advantage.
'As always,' she thought, grinning.
In the meantime, though, that was a nice thing he'd done for her, wasn't it?
"You still back there?" he called over his shoulder.
"I'm right behind you," she said. "How dare you underestimate me so!"
He laughed, and she laughed with him.
"Why are we going around this way?" Rouge said. "The mountain's over there!" 'Not to mention that I am nearing collapse,' she added mentally.
"You'll see," he said, and she could almost hear his smile.
"Great," she said, "you have some enigmatic plan. What's this sinking feeling I'm getting?"
"Dig me a hole and jump in it," he said dismissively.
"What kind of messed-up comeback is that?"
She could have sworn she heard him start to say "Sorry", but he recovered before she could be sure. "You can't figure it out? I'm disappointed. It's one of the phrases I've made up that have to do with this place. If you dig deep enough into this island, what happens?"
She considered. What would happen if you dug—oh. You dig through the island and fall a few hundred meters to the water.
She pressed her free hand to her cheek and adopted a tone of shock. "Why, Knuckles, what dazzling wit! Your sense of humor is riotous!" She dropped both hand and tone of voice. "As in when you speak, people riot."
"Since I lived here, I had to come up with my own sayings," he said, his voice a little hurt. He quickly regained his composure and his grin. "When you consider that I came up with it on my own, it's pretty good. Certainly it's original."
"Does originality matter more to you than effectiveness? Because that comeback ranks right up there with, "so?""
"If you've gotta choose… I mean, I didn't think too much of your comeback, either."
"But that's because you were on the receiving end."
"Whereas you are the unbiased judge of comeback worth."
"The only judge who matters. My comeback seemed good to me."
Knuckles laughed out loud. "You sound like the lunatic who claims it all makes sense to him."
"What are you implying?" she said, not sure she wanted to hear the answer.
He looked puzzled. "I'm not sure. I can't decide. Are you hypocritical or just insane?"
"I'm not
inconsistent in the least!"
"Well, that settles it, then.
You're insane."
"False dichotomy," she said with her best patronizing voice. "It's an error in logic where you give only two choices, and the reality is more complex."
"You're right," he said suddenly. "I've been totally wrong! You could very well be hypocritical AND insane!"
Crunch.
Somehow, Knuckles delivering that blow and Rouge's snapping of a branch corresponded perfectly.
'It'll take me a few wins to wear off that blow,' she thought. 'Ouch.'
However, she would do her best to deny him the pleasure of victory. "I refuse to have a conversation with someone with such a warped perception of reality."
Knuckles turned right suddenly, passing between two bushes. "Talking to your reflection again, are you?"
Rouge stopped, unsure of what to do.
"Come on!" he called back. "We're here."
She followed the way Knuckles had gone, pressing between the bushes. It was a tight squeeze given the amount of things she was carrying, and she stumbled out haphazardly.
Stumbled out and gasped.
It was a lovely lake, small but fairly deep, surrounded on three sides by trees and anchored by the mountain. The setting sun's rays reflected off the surface of the water, glittering like a million diamonds.
"And the best part," Knuckles said, "is that it's warm all the time. The Emerald keeps the lava of the volcanoes molten, and some of that heat 'leaks' into the lake."
"That's the mountain we're going to?" said Rouge, trying to make her mouth work.
"That's it. I just thought that this would be a good place to set things up."
She looked back at him even as she struggled to regain her thoughts. As a quick way to focus, she concentrated on his expression. He seemed both confident and unconcerned—like he knew she would like it, but it didn't matter either way. But he still wasn't very good at hiding his emotions. As she looked more closely, he saw that both the confidence and unconcern were masks.
Knuckles had very little of value—the only thing he really had was access to and knowledge of this island. He was giving this to her, trying to share with her this beauty that he'd found in his otherwise tedious existence.
She still wasn't sure quite what to say. "It is pretty," she said. "Um, the other side of the lake is the mountain we're going to, right?"
"Right," he said, deflated.
Something in his depressed tone made Rouge extremely uncomfortable. "I mean, it really is pretty," she said, fumbling the words and speeding up. "This is the right place to set up a base—around this lake, that is—so… you had the right idea, we just need to move a little."
He looked up at her, almost questioning. She blushed, flustered. How embarrassing an outburst! Yes, Rouge the suave, cool, easy-going—flustered by the change in the tone of voice of a person standing in her way! This wasn't right!
"I'm impressed," he said.
As if she wasn't confused enough! "What?" was all she could manage.
"I'm impressed," he repeated. "To be honest, I wouldn't think you'd appreciate it that much. I mean, it always seemed like the only beauty you appreciated came from cold rocks."
She blubbered in outrage. "Come on, you erring echidna! Firstly, there's nothing wrong with appreciating gems—and call them gems from now on, they're not rocks!"
"But they ARE rocks," he said.
"That's not the point! They're gems, they shouldn't be called rocks. Secondly, I do appreciate other beauty! There's the beauty of a job well-done, the beauty of a particular method or heist… and thirdly, how many times have I told you not to think lowly of me? I am Rouge, not some idiot hedgehog or fox or hyooman!"
He nodded through the whole thing. "Okay," he said when she was done. "Like I said, I was wrong. I didn't think it would impress you." He turned. "Come on, this way. You want to get closer to the mountain, right?"
"Right," she said, but with so little intensity it came out as a whisper.
Her insides felt cold; she felt empty, alone with the knowledge that she'd just spewed out a bunch of lies. That didn't make sense, though! It wasn't like lying was anything new, or unique, or even unsettling by itself.
But she'd never felt like this before.
And when she tried to think back to the last time she'd appreciated beauty, she couldn't remember.
TO BE CONTINUED…