The Greatest of Hunts
By DreamShadow
Chapter Three: Buried Truths
"This is Rouge, reporting in." Rouge the Bat stood outside the thick tree she had spent the night in with Knuckles, holding her cell phone to her cheek. It was daybreak and the sun was only halfway up, again casting the scenery in an orange hue, though brighter than the night before. Knuckles was still asleep, though she noticed him tossing a bit, so she decided to report her progress now.
"Be glad I'm a morning person, Ms. Rouge." The President responded through the phone. "Report." Rouge turned her head just enough to see if Knuckles was still asleep. He was, though he was becoming more restless, she had better be quick.
"I've determined the best way to obtain the Master Emerald, but it will take several days." She replied. "This way the echidna won't immediately discover it has been taken and by the time he does it won't be traced back to me as easily." Of course she neglected to include why she didn't just grab the gem and run, she didn't want to explain that she had a friendship and respect for her supposed enemy that wouldn't be able to stand breaking.
"...You are getting sloppy in your reports, Rouge." The President said after a moment of hesitation. "What are you planning and why is it the best way?" Rouge felt a chill in her spine, not sure how to answer and dreading the possibility that the truth might be the only thing she had to say. She stood there, the hand holding the phone trembling slightly, uncertain of what to do. The silence was broken when she heard Knuckles scream from the tree behind her, bringing a feeling of both worry and relief to Rouge.
"He's waking up, breaking communications." She quickly hung up and put her phone away, letting out the rest of a breath she was holding. Rouge turned and stepped back into the tree, her pace faster than she intended, looking over at where Knuckles had laid down to sleep. He was now sitting up and panting, a sheen of sweat on his fur.
"Must have been a nasty nightmare..." Rouge commented. Knuckles was still dazed from the sudden wake-up and hadn't thought of Rouge being there to see his nightmare problems. In a way it confused him more, it was the same nightmare, he wasn't able to save Rouge, he thought having her so close would relieve whatever caused the dream, but this was the first time he had the nightmare two nights in a row.
"Let's just say it was something I'd rather not have to see..." He said, just now regaining some of his bearings. He stood up, slowly at first, then stretched out from the long night on the hard wood floor. Knuckles wiped the sweat from his forehead with his gloved fist, then turned to look at Rouge. Perfectly fine, no lava, no falling, which relieved him a bit.
"So are you going to tell me?" She asked curiously. Knuckles glanced at her with a puzzled look, only to draw a smirk from her. "Come on, what was so scary about a nightmare that could make the thick-skinned, brave guardian Knuckles scream?" Did he actually scream? It was hard for the echidna to remember, if he did it was the last thing he wanted to explain right now. He shot her a serious look, expressing some annoyance in hopes she would forget about it.
"That's my business, Rouge." He growled. "I don't have to let you tag along, you know, if you want to pester me you can go wait at the shrine until I get done." Rough sighed, turning her eyes away from Knuckles.
"Fine, but the loner routine's going to make this a quiet trip..." She said coldly. Knuckles ignored her obvious irritation and turned to the backpack which held the shrunken Master Emerald, scooping it up in his gloved hand and swinging it over his shoulders. Glancing back at Rouge, his thoughts dwelled on his dream and why it only got worse if Rouge was so close. Maybe if she would actually leave him alone the rest of the trip he could think it out, but she would be right, the trip was too long to spend it in silence. Just then Rouge's glance met his, her eyes narrowing a bit.
"What are you staring at?" She asked. "I know you don't get to see many girls on your little island but you don't have to burn a hole in me." Knuckles smirked slightly before looking away from her, stepping to the exit to continue the trip.
"Just wondering how much you won't like this next part." Knuckles said as he walked away. Rouge wasn't sure what he was talking about, but she was quickly learning that Knuckles was fairly serious about anything he warned about.
**********
An hour of walking brought the two out of the thin forest and into a clearing. Ahead of them lay a lush green forest, perhaps a little too lush as it seemed the trees made almost solid walls in some parts of it. The place was a maze of tree trunks and branches and it didn't even look passable.
"This was what you were talking about?" Rouge asked, looking over at Knuckles, who was wandering off to the side of the clearing toward a stack of rocks. He flexed his fingers inside his gloves before taking hold of the one in front, a rock about twice his size, and heaved it upward enough to set to the side, revealing a good sized tunnel leading downward.
"No, this is." Knuckles said, indicating the hole. "There's no way to navigate that forest, I've never found a clear path all the way through it. So I tunneled under it." Rouge walked over to join Knuckles, her eyes fixed on the deep opening in the ground. Being a bat she was fine with caves but in such a small tunnel it wouldn't make her wings very useful, she wasn't comfortable anywhere she couldn't fly.
"Typical, even when you go around something you're barging through something else." She joked with a smirk. He glared at her from the sides of his eyes, slightly annoyed. Knuckles turned to face her, trying to find the words just to get her to leave him alone.
"Don't you ever lay off?" The echidna shouted. "I thought this was some social visit but all you've done is make these wisecracks the whole trip. Did you come just to practice your insults?" Knuckles didn't mean to make it sound so mean, but he didn't know how else to get the point across but to be as forceful as he could manage. He looked at Rouge closely for a reaction, but was surprised when, for a brief second, she almost looked hurt. If she was she was quick to hide it, her own temper coming out.
"If you weren't so stuck on the whole loner routine then maybe I would lay off." She retorted. "How about I cut the insults when you drop a few of those personal walls of yours, hmm?" Knuckle's glare faded slightly. He had to take a moment to consider, he had already pulled that routine once today with the dream and did so the day before, as well. It wasn't any better than her constant jabs and probably wasn't right to keep so much from her, but he couldn't admit these things to Rouge when she was the center of them.
"...how about I think about it on the way?" Knuckles said, returning to the original subject. "It's a long tunnel and we don't want to come up on the other side without some daylight." Knuckles quickly turned his back to Rouge and stepped closer to the hole, taking a brief look down before hopping into it. The white bat shook her head slightly in frustration before stepping to the hole herself, following in after Knuckles. The drop was at least fifteen feet down, a slightly slow fall as Rouge used her wings to float down and land soft on the rock floor below. With boots on solid ground she looked around, realizing this was closer to a cavern than a tunnel. The area was wide with stalagmites and eroded walls in every direction but behind and the floor was very uneven, though the rocks that made the floor were flat most of them were at different levels, some only an inch shorter or taller, some several feet higher. The roof was full of small holes and cracks where now-dead tree routes had broken the soft rock away, letting in just enough light to see the area.
"Don't tell me you tunneled out all of this." Rouge said, still glancing around. Her voice quickly echoed in the cave, and took a moment to die out with such a closed in area. Knuckles was a few steps ahead already, having just dropped down instead of gliding. He was trying to remember which direction was right, it had been too long since he was down here to remember off hand.
"No, the island has a lot of these around it." He explained, his back still toward Rouge. "The only tunneling I did was to connect these chasms underneath the forest. It's just been so long I can't remember where the exit tunnel to this one is, it's not a straight route..." The red echidna kept looking around, growing frustrated at his own forgetfulness. Rouge stood back and watched a second before stepping passed him and into his eyesight, making him stop and watch in curiosity.
"Watch and learn, Knucklehead." Rouge said, hoping to catch some more attention with the annoying nickname. She reached down and picked up the first good-sized stone in arm's reach, tossing it up and down in her hand a few times to make sure the weight was right. Satisfied, Rouge closed her eyes and tossed the stone upward, far enough forward so it wouldn't land on her. Knuckles watched as the rock came down, banging against the floor of the cave with a notable thud. Nothing seemed to happen, though, until he noticed Rouge's ears both twitching quickly. The bat opened her eyes again and looked back at Knuckles, smirking.
"Your hole's over to the right." She said. "You could have made it bigger, it's going to scrape my wings..." Knuckles blinked, not sure what just happened. He opened his mouth to ask when Rouge chuckled through her smirk, knowing the question. "I'm a bat, remember? We're built to get through caves with just our ears." The echidna mentally kicked himself for not figuring that one out on his own, but also for letting someone else tell him where his own tunnel paths were.
"Well that's more helpful than my bad memory..." He finally admitted. "Think you could do that for the rest of the trip? We could take our time if we don't have to feel around for the right paths." Rouge was about to nod for the simple answer, then hesitated, the business side of her mind kicking in.
"Under one condition." She said, catching Knuckle's attention. "I get us through this cave as long as you drop the loner routine. No more shrugging me off or changing subjects. Fair trade?" Knuckles glared slightly, notably annoyed at the prospect. However, he didn't want to be down in these tunnels at night or they would be feeling around in the dark and she would get the trip's time cut in half.
"...fine, fair trade." He finally said, starting off in the direction she pointed them to. "Just... try not to ask anything too personal?" Rouge's sly smirk faded to a small smile as she nodded in response, following after Knuckles over the rocky landscape to the first of what was probably going to be a lot of these narrow tunnels.
**********
As the day wore on they continued stumbling through the caves and tunnels, with Knuckles best guess as the only way to know how far they were to the exit. The echidna was just now working himself through one of the narrower tunnels he had to make, the rock being too solid to dig out any farther. The hole was a few feet off the floor below, making Knuckles tumble as he wormed out the exit and onto the rocky platform. He rolled through, standing up quickly and running his head slightly from the rough landing. Knuckles turned back to watch Rouge making her way out, just now getting her head out the hole, her large ears dirty from rubbing against the narrow tunnel walls. The echidna smirked slightly and offered one of his large-gloved hands to help her out of the tunnel. Rouge glanced up at it, glaring at it first.
"Knuckles, I don't need your-" She started, turning her glare up. Rouge was somewhat surprised to see he wasn't looking down like this was a mocking gesture, he was just waiting for her to take his hand. She cast her eyes back down, the glare faded out, before extending her own hand, taking firm hold of his. Knuckles smiled slightly and pulled up as Rouge moved her legs out, holding her up so she didn't have to tumble out like he did. Rouge put both boots to the stone ground, returning her now soft eyed back to Knuckle's own.
"Thanks Knuckles." She said, glancing down slightly. Rouge was quick to notice the two were still holding hands and quickly broke before Knuckles could see the same, trying to avoid an embarrassment. "How much longer does this go on?" The echidna turned and jumped up the next tall rock, looking out. He smiled slightly at the sight before him, the brown stone they had been traveling through was taking a blue hue thanks to a crystal mineral imbedded in these rocks. Some of it was concentrated in a few spots and looked like it was literally growing out from the rocks. The holes in the roof were still present, but with the crystals in the stone shimmering the light was reflected in every direction, illuminating the whole cavern.
"We're a little over halfway now." He said, turning his head enough to look back. "Come take a look at this, I don't think you're going to mind this cave." Rouge raised an eyebrow slightly before stepping over, giving her wings a quick beat to jump to the rock, landing just beside Knuckles. She looked out at the blue walls and glowing crystal, a smile crossing her face.
"You didn't tell me about this cave." Rouge said, her eyes taking in the view, almost shimmering as much as the crystal. Knuckles just watched from the corner of his eye, smiling to himself.
"I forgot about it myself." He explained. "Just don't get too excited, the crystal isn't anything special, I mean it's not diamond or anything, it's brittle." Knuckles hopped down to the next rock a few feet down, starting the walk through this blue-glowing cavern. Rouge was still looking around when Knuckles started walking, only realizing she was being left behind when he got far enough to be in her vision. She jumped forward off the ledge, making a quick glide to regain ground, letting her feet touch floor when she was back beside Knuckles. She turned to look at him, eyes narrowed.
"Trying to leave me behind?" Rouge said, a slight joking tone to her voice. "I thought we agreed you'd drop the loner routine." Knuckles shrugged, smiling slightly at her.
"I told you we need to make it out before dark, you were the one taking in the view." He explained. "Speaking of which, can you get a fix on the next exit?" Rouge nodded and quickly turned eyes to the ground, trying to find a suitable stone to get a read on the next tunnel. Before finding one she stopped, though, mind at work again, and turned back to Knuckles.
"Hang on, I've been doing this for a while now and you haven't even had any point where you had to keep your end of the deal." She said. Knuckles was starting to realize this but he was hoping it would continue, he hated getting stuck explaining his own habits.
"You haven't talked about anything since that deal where I could." He explained. "I didn't think the deal was important if you didn't use it right away." Rouge glared over at Knuckles, obviously upset at the comment.
"I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't important, Knuckles." She snapped. Knuckles looked somewhat annoyed, but he didn't say anything. A silent moment passed between then, neither sure what to say next, Knuckles looking for an escape, Rouge looking to continue. "So, why don't I use it?" Rouge finally said to break the silence. "What about what I asked about first? Why were you so touchy with the gloves?" Knuckles clenched his fist, defensive again.
"That's personal, Rouge, I don't have to tell you that!" He said quickly. Rouge's glare narrowed, her irritating growing.
"And the nightmare?" She continued. "You have to tell me something, that's the deal, not everything can be private for you." Knuckles growled slightly, silently pleading for her to just stop and drop the whole idea before he burst.
"If I don't want to tell you something, that's my business, you have no right to force it out of me." He spat. Rouge's own fists were clenched now, both of them letting their tempers get the best of them.
"I'm not forcing anything!" She shouted. "Knuckles, for once in your life, someone's actually interested in knowing you better and all you do is get mad at every question they ask?!" This was getting to be too much, Knuckles just wanted her to shut up, he didn't care how.
"Like I'd want a thief like you to know me any better?!" He yelled. The comment hit both of them hard, for a moment both forgot their anger, both somewhat stunned the comment was even said. Knuckles didn't mean to be that cruel, he was just too angry at the time to care... He shook his head, a glare still in his eyes, then started walking away, his back to Rouge. "Let's just go and get the trip over with..." Rouge watched him walk a few steps away, just now remembering how mad she got, and how furious the last comment made her.
"Fine, if that's how you still think of me..." She muttered to herself. Rouge made a quick lunge forward toward Knuckles' back, bringing her leg up in a hard kick aimed for his backpack. Her kicks were as hard as Knuckles' own punch and the hit knocked him off his feet, dropping him forward to the ground, but it also hit the Master Emerald in the backpack hard enough to make it hit the top flap and open the clasp holding it in, sending the shrunken crystal flying a few yards ahead. Knuckles looked up in time to see the gemstone hit a stone ledge hard, a shattering sound echoing in the cave as a shard of the stone broke off and started bouncing down the descending stone path before them. Separated from the main crystal, the shard gained it's normal size, becoming a large shard as it landed down the steps on a large platform.
"We'll just go back to the old days!" Rouge said, jumping over Knuckles and down the steps, aiming to land near the shard. Knuckles growled through his teeth and pushed himself up, bounding down the steps, making his best effort to get there first. Rouge landed first, reaching down quickly and grabbing the narrower end of the shard, but as she pulled it closer Knuckles was already there, his large mitts on the wider end.
"Knock it off, Rouge!" He said, giving the shard a sharp tug, though her grip was too good on her end. The bat responded with a tug of her own, a surprisingly strong one, but not enough to make Knuckles let go.
"After everything we went through on the Arc, after these days of travel, if you still only think I'm some lowly thief, then that's just what I'll be!" She tried to tug again as she spoke, but Knuckles was still holding too tightly and responded with a tug of his own, pulling it back towards him. This time, however, there was a sound to it he didn't notice before, almost like a tearing sound. Knuckles looked down at his grip on the shard, noticing the material on his gloves was frayed around the edges where he was gripping the shard. It must have broken oddly, the edges were sharper than they should have been... Then a sudden realization hit, the sharper end was still pointed at Rouge and if his gloves kept ripping...
"What's the matter, losing grip?" Rouge said, breaking his thoughts. Though his glare faded, Rouge's only sharpened. "Too bad!" She twisted her body with this pull, her hardest yet against the shard, Knuckles now just holding on hoping his gloves would hold. His hopes failed as a loud tearing noise echoed in the caves, his grip failing with a mess of torn material following the motion of the shard, which ended with Rouge's eyes suddenly going wide. Knuckles felt his heart stop suddenly, a panic setting in before he even knew what was going on. Rouge dropped the shard to her side, falling to her knees, both hands on her side. Knuckles pulled himself together enough to step closer and kneel down, looking at the shard, now blood-stained, and then to Rouge's side. He reached over, his hand trembling for some reason, like he was scared of how bad this could be under her hands. Finally he took hold of her wrist and pulled it away, looking at the injury. Knuckles let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, it was a long cut against her side, deep in the middle, but it was hardly the fatal stab he feared. Rouge's own eyes still showed panic, herself too scared to look to see how bad it was.
"Just relax, it's not fatal..." Knuckles said, at a loss for words that could comfort her. He looked around quickly, his dreadlocks flailing from his motions, looking for anything to bandage the injury. Nothing around them, and his backpack didn't have any first aid supplies. He thought to try Rouge's own glove but it was leather, too hard to tie off securely and it wouldn't soak up the blood to help clot it. Knuckles ran out of options when he looked himself over for any spare material he had to use, just shoes and... his gloves, already ripped, looked like the only option. His own vanity aside, Knuckles quickly took hold of the loose material, circling his hand around his glove to get a strip of cloth out of the glove. He finished ripping the cloth from one hand and quickly repeated the other, not willing to take the chance one wasn't going to be enough.
Both eventually became a long bandage, ripped just right to be a long strip of material. Knuckles was taking extra care to get it over Rouge's injury and secure it as he wrapped her midsection. He was glad she was so athletic, if her waist were any wider the material wouldn't have been enough. By now Rouge was out of her daze and watching Knuckles work, the pain in her side aching but somehow ignorable.
"There, that's all I can do..." Knuckles said, tying off the makeshift bandage and sitting back. Rouge looked over at Knuckles, their fight forgotten now, just now noticing his hands. Red-furred, like the rest of him, but from the backs of his fists was bare bone sticking out from the flesh, rounded off on the ends from years of abuse. It was an ugly sight, no wonder he was so touchy about the gloves, but she didn't bring it up.
"Knuckles, about earlier..." She said hesitantly, ready to apologize. Knuckles looked over and shook his head, not wanting to get back into it. She nodded in silent response, looking down at the bandages at her side, a slight red hue now soaking through. "...let's at least get going, you said we have to hurry." Rouge tried to stand up off her knees, but was stopped by Knuckles' hand on her shoulder, pushing her back down to a sitting position.
"We're not going anywhere until the bleeding stops." He said. "Besides, I still have to repair the emerald before we keep going... Just rest for a while." Knuckles looked over and picked up the large shard, being careful of the sharp edges with his bare hands, then stood and stepped over to the reduced Master Emerald. Rouge watched him as he worked, shrinking the shard again and resetting it in the stone, a light coming from the cracks in the gem as it healed itself.
"...Rouge, some people keep to themselves for a reason." Knuckles said, his back still to Rouge. "I have to guard this emerald for the rest of my life, it's too powerful to leave unguarded for too long... I'm to be denied any kind of happy life because of this... curse. I've always been afraid of someone getting too close to me because I don't want to make this curse theirs, as well... I don't want someone else to be denied their freedom because of me." Rouge sat in silence, the pain of the wound ignored, a little in disbelief. She was starting to regret being so forceful with getting anything out of Knuckles, she didn't mean it to be so intrusive. But she didn't know the reason he was doing it, either.
Rouge continued to watch Knuckles work, just now becoming aware of something. A tightness in her chest, a longing in her heart... Knuckles had only showed any kind of caring before when she was falling to her death over a lava pool, when he apologized for hurting her... It was when she first had this feeling, the reason she was interested in knowing him better. She dwelled on it a little longer, thinking, imagining, and realizing. An image came to mind, a sudden though that she wouldn't mind sharing Knuckles' so-called curse with him, she would even want to stay with him... In the events of the day, Rouge came to realize that somehow, despite the arguments and differences, she was falling in love with the red echidna in front of her.
End Chapter 3
Next: Chapter 4 - Rain in the Night
By DreamShadow
Chapter Three: Buried Truths
"This is Rouge, reporting in." Rouge the Bat stood outside the thick tree she had spent the night in with Knuckles, holding her cell phone to her cheek. It was daybreak and the sun was only halfway up, again casting the scenery in an orange hue, though brighter than the night before. Knuckles was still asleep, though she noticed him tossing a bit, so she decided to report her progress now.
"Be glad I'm a morning person, Ms. Rouge." The President responded through the phone. "Report." Rouge turned her head just enough to see if Knuckles was still asleep. He was, though he was becoming more restless, she had better be quick.
"I've determined the best way to obtain the Master Emerald, but it will take several days." She replied. "This way the echidna won't immediately discover it has been taken and by the time he does it won't be traced back to me as easily." Of course she neglected to include why she didn't just grab the gem and run, she didn't want to explain that she had a friendship and respect for her supposed enemy that wouldn't be able to stand breaking.
"...You are getting sloppy in your reports, Rouge." The President said after a moment of hesitation. "What are you planning and why is it the best way?" Rouge felt a chill in her spine, not sure how to answer and dreading the possibility that the truth might be the only thing she had to say. She stood there, the hand holding the phone trembling slightly, uncertain of what to do. The silence was broken when she heard Knuckles scream from the tree behind her, bringing a feeling of both worry and relief to Rouge.
"He's waking up, breaking communications." She quickly hung up and put her phone away, letting out the rest of a breath she was holding. Rouge turned and stepped back into the tree, her pace faster than she intended, looking over at where Knuckles had laid down to sleep. He was now sitting up and panting, a sheen of sweat on his fur.
"Must have been a nasty nightmare..." Rouge commented. Knuckles was still dazed from the sudden wake-up and hadn't thought of Rouge being there to see his nightmare problems. In a way it confused him more, it was the same nightmare, he wasn't able to save Rouge, he thought having her so close would relieve whatever caused the dream, but this was the first time he had the nightmare two nights in a row.
"Let's just say it was something I'd rather not have to see..." He said, just now regaining some of his bearings. He stood up, slowly at first, then stretched out from the long night on the hard wood floor. Knuckles wiped the sweat from his forehead with his gloved fist, then turned to look at Rouge. Perfectly fine, no lava, no falling, which relieved him a bit.
"So are you going to tell me?" She asked curiously. Knuckles glanced at her with a puzzled look, only to draw a smirk from her. "Come on, what was so scary about a nightmare that could make the thick-skinned, brave guardian Knuckles scream?" Did he actually scream? It was hard for the echidna to remember, if he did it was the last thing he wanted to explain right now. He shot her a serious look, expressing some annoyance in hopes she would forget about it.
"That's my business, Rouge." He growled. "I don't have to let you tag along, you know, if you want to pester me you can go wait at the shrine until I get done." Rough sighed, turning her eyes away from Knuckles.
"Fine, but the loner routine's going to make this a quiet trip..." She said coldly. Knuckles ignored her obvious irritation and turned to the backpack which held the shrunken Master Emerald, scooping it up in his gloved hand and swinging it over his shoulders. Glancing back at Rouge, his thoughts dwelled on his dream and why it only got worse if Rouge was so close. Maybe if she would actually leave him alone the rest of the trip he could think it out, but she would be right, the trip was too long to spend it in silence. Just then Rouge's glance met his, her eyes narrowing a bit.
"What are you staring at?" She asked. "I know you don't get to see many girls on your little island but you don't have to burn a hole in me." Knuckles smirked slightly before looking away from her, stepping to the exit to continue the trip.
"Just wondering how much you won't like this next part." Knuckles said as he walked away. Rouge wasn't sure what he was talking about, but she was quickly learning that Knuckles was fairly serious about anything he warned about.
**********
An hour of walking brought the two out of the thin forest and into a clearing. Ahead of them lay a lush green forest, perhaps a little too lush as it seemed the trees made almost solid walls in some parts of it. The place was a maze of tree trunks and branches and it didn't even look passable.
"This was what you were talking about?" Rouge asked, looking over at Knuckles, who was wandering off to the side of the clearing toward a stack of rocks. He flexed his fingers inside his gloves before taking hold of the one in front, a rock about twice his size, and heaved it upward enough to set to the side, revealing a good sized tunnel leading downward.
"No, this is." Knuckles said, indicating the hole. "There's no way to navigate that forest, I've never found a clear path all the way through it. So I tunneled under it." Rouge walked over to join Knuckles, her eyes fixed on the deep opening in the ground. Being a bat she was fine with caves but in such a small tunnel it wouldn't make her wings very useful, she wasn't comfortable anywhere she couldn't fly.
"Typical, even when you go around something you're barging through something else." She joked with a smirk. He glared at her from the sides of his eyes, slightly annoyed. Knuckles turned to face her, trying to find the words just to get her to leave him alone.
"Don't you ever lay off?" The echidna shouted. "I thought this was some social visit but all you've done is make these wisecracks the whole trip. Did you come just to practice your insults?" Knuckles didn't mean to make it sound so mean, but he didn't know how else to get the point across but to be as forceful as he could manage. He looked at Rouge closely for a reaction, but was surprised when, for a brief second, she almost looked hurt. If she was she was quick to hide it, her own temper coming out.
"If you weren't so stuck on the whole loner routine then maybe I would lay off." She retorted. "How about I cut the insults when you drop a few of those personal walls of yours, hmm?" Knuckle's glare faded slightly. He had to take a moment to consider, he had already pulled that routine once today with the dream and did so the day before, as well. It wasn't any better than her constant jabs and probably wasn't right to keep so much from her, but he couldn't admit these things to Rouge when she was the center of them.
"...how about I think about it on the way?" Knuckles said, returning to the original subject. "It's a long tunnel and we don't want to come up on the other side without some daylight." Knuckles quickly turned his back to Rouge and stepped closer to the hole, taking a brief look down before hopping into it. The white bat shook her head slightly in frustration before stepping to the hole herself, following in after Knuckles. The drop was at least fifteen feet down, a slightly slow fall as Rouge used her wings to float down and land soft on the rock floor below. With boots on solid ground she looked around, realizing this was closer to a cavern than a tunnel. The area was wide with stalagmites and eroded walls in every direction but behind and the floor was very uneven, though the rocks that made the floor were flat most of them were at different levels, some only an inch shorter or taller, some several feet higher. The roof was full of small holes and cracks where now-dead tree routes had broken the soft rock away, letting in just enough light to see the area.
"Don't tell me you tunneled out all of this." Rouge said, still glancing around. Her voice quickly echoed in the cave, and took a moment to die out with such a closed in area. Knuckles was a few steps ahead already, having just dropped down instead of gliding. He was trying to remember which direction was right, it had been too long since he was down here to remember off hand.
"No, the island has a lot of these around it." He explained, his back still toward Rouge. "The only tunneling I did was to connect these chasms underneath the forest. It's just been so long I can't remember where the exit tunnel to this one is, it's not a straight route..." The red echidna kept looking around, growing frustrated at his own forgetfulness. Rouge stood back and watched a second before stepping passed him and into his eyesight, making him stop and watch in curiosity.
"Watch and learn, Knucklehead." Rouge said, hoping to catch some more attention with the annoying nickname. She reached down and picked up the first good-sized stone in arm's reach, tossing it up and down in her hand a few times to make sure the weight was right. Satisfied, Rouge closed her eyes and tossed the stone upward, far enough forward so it wouldn't land on her. Knuckles watched as the rock came down, banging against the floor of the cave with a notable thud. Nothing seemed to happen, though, until he noticed Rouge's ears both twitching quickly. The bat opened her eyes again and looked back at Knuckles, smirking.
"Your hole's over to the right." She said. "You could have made it bigger, it's going to scrape my wings..." Knuckles blinked, not sure what just happened. He opened his mouth to ask when Rouge chuckled through her smirk, knowing the question. "I'm a bat, remember? We're built to get through caves with just our ears." The echidna mentally kicked himself for not figuring that one out on his own, but also for letting someone else tell him where his own tunnel paths were.
"Well that's more helpful than my bad memory..." He finally admitted. "Think you could do that for the rest of the trip? We could take our time if we don't have to feel around for the right paths." Rouge was about to nod for the simple answer, then hesitated, the business side of her mind kicking in.
"Under one condition." She said, catching Knuckle's attention. "I get us through this cave as long as you drop the loner routine. No more shrugging me off or changing subjects. Fair trade?" Knuckles glared slightly, notably annoyed at the prospect. However, he didn't want to be down in these tunnels at night or they would be feeling around in the dark and she would get the trip's time cut in half.
"...fine, fair trade." He finally said, starting off in the direction she pointed them to. "Just... try not to ask anything too personal?" Rouge's sly smirk faded to a small smile as she nodded in response, following after Knuckles over the rocky landscape to the first of what was probably going to be a lot of these narrow tunnels.
**********
As the day wore on they continued stumbling through the caves and tunnels, with Knuckles best guess as the only way to know how far they were to the exit. The echidna was just now working himself through one of the narrower tunnels he had to make, the rock being too solid to dig out any farther. The hole was a few feet off the floor below, making Knuckles tumble as he wormed out the exit and onto the rocky platform. He rolled through, standing up quickly and running his head slightly from the rough landing. Knuckles turned back to watch Rouge making her way out, just now getting her head out the hole, her large ears dirty from rubbing against the narrow tunnel walls. The echidna smirked slightly and offered one of his large-gloved hands to help her out of the tunnel. Rouge glanced up at it, glaring at it first.
"Knuckles, I don't need your-" She started, turning her glare up. Rouge was somewhat surprised to see he wasn't looking down like this was a mocking gesture, he was just waiting for her to take his hand. She cast her eyes back down, the glare faded out, before extending her own hand, taking firm hold of his. Knuckles smiled slightly and pulled up as Rouge moved her legs out, holding her up so she didn't have to tumble out like he did. Rouge put both boots to the stone ground, returning her now soft eyed back to Knuckle's own.
"Thanks Knuckles." She said, glancing down slightly. Rouge was quick to notice the two were still holding hands and quickly broke before Knuckles could see the same, trying to avoid an embarrassment. "How much longer does this go on?" The echidna turned and jumped up the next tall rock, looking out. He smiled slightly at the sight before him, the brown stone they had been traveling through was taking a blue hue thanks to a crystal mineral imbedded in these rocks. Some of it was concentrated in a few spots and looked like it was literally growing out from the rocks. The holes in the roof were still present, but with the crystals in the stone shimmering the light was reflected in every direction, illuminating the whole cavern.
"We're a little over halfway now." He said, turning his head enough to look back. "Come take a look at this, I don't think you're going to mind this cave." Rouge raised an eyebrow slightly before stepping over, giving her wings a quick beat to jump to the rock, landing just beside Knuckles. She looked out at the blue walls and glowing crystal, a smile crossing her face.
"You didn't tell me about this cave." Rouge said, her eyes taking in the view, almost shimmering as much as the crystal. Knuckles just watched from the corner of his eye, smiling to himself.
"I forgot about it myself." He explained. "Just don't get too excited, the crystal isn't anything special, I mean it's not diamond or anything, it's brittle." Knuckles hopped down to the next rock a few feet down, starting the walk through this blue-glowing cavern. Rouge was still looking around when Knuckles started walking, only realizing she was being left behind when he got far enough to be in her vision. She jumped forward off the ledge, making a quick glide to regain ground, letting her feet touch floor when she was back beside Knuckles. She turned to look at him, eyes narrowed.
"Trying to leave me behind?" Rouge said, a slight joking tone to her voice. "I thought we agreed you'd drop the loner routine." Knuckles shrugged, smiling slightly at her.
"I told you we need to make it out before dark, you were the one taking in the view." He explained. "Speaking of which, can you get a fix on the next exit?" Rouge nodded and quickly turned eyes to the ground, trying to find a suitable stone to get a read on the next tunnel. Before finding one she stopped, though, mind at work again, and turned back to Knuckles.
"Hang on, I've been doing this for a while now and you haven't even had any point where you had to keep your end of the deal." She said. Knuckles was starting to realize this but he was hoping it would continue, he hated getting stuck explaining his own habits.
"You haven't talked about anything since that deal where I could." He explained. "I didn't think the deal was important if you didn't use it right away." Rouge glared over at Knuckles, obviously upset at the comment.
"I wouldn't have made it if it wasn't important, Knuckles." She snapped. Knuckles looked somewhat annoyed, but he didn't say anything. A silent moment passed between then, neither sure what to say next, Knuckles looking for an escape, Rouge looking to continue. "So, why don't I use it?" Rouge finally said to break the silence. "What about what I asked about first? Why were you so touchy with the gloves?" Knuckles clenched his fist, defensive again.
"That's personal, Rouge, I don't have to tell you that!" He said quickly. Rouge's glare narrowed, her irritating growing.
"And the nightmare?" She continued. "You have to tell me something, that's the deal, not everything can be private for you." Knuckles growled slightly, silently pleading for her to just stop and drop the whole idea before he burst.
"If I don't want to tell you something, that's my business, you have no right to force it out of me." He spat. Rouge's own fists were clenched now, both of them letting their tempers get the best of them.
"I'm not forcing anything!" She shouted. "Knuckles, for once in your life, someone's actually interested in knowing you better and all you do is get mad at every question they ask?!" This was getting to be too much, Knuckles just wanted her to shut up, he didn't care how.
"Like I'd want a thief like you to know me any better?!" He yelled. The comment hit both of them hard, for a moment both forgot their anger, both somewhat stunned the comment was even said. Knuckles didn't mean to be that cruel, he was just too angry at the time to care... He shook his head, a glare still in his eyes, then started walking away, his back to Rouge. "Let's just go and get the trip over with..." Rouge watched him walk a few steps away, just now remembering how mad she got, and how furious the last comment made her.
"Fine, if that's how you still think of me..." She muttered to herself. Rouge made a quick lunge forward toward Knuckles' back, bringing her leg up in a hard kick aimed for his backpack. Her kicks were as hard as Knuckles' own punch and the hit knocked him off his feet, dropping him forward to the ground, but it also hit the Master Emerald in the backpack hard enough to make it hit the top flap and open the clasp holding it in, sending the shrunken crystal flying a few yards ahead. Knuckles looked up in time to see the gemstone hit a stone ledge hard, a shattering sound echoing in the cave as a shard of the stone broke off and started bouncing down the descending stone path before them. Separated from the main crystal, the shard gained it's normal size, becoming a large shard as it landed down the steps on a large platform.
"We'll just go back to the old days!" Rouge said, jumping over Knuckles and down the steps, aiming to land near the shard. Knuckles growled through his teeth and pushed himself up, bounding down the steps, making his best effort to get there first. Rouge landed first, reaching down quickly and grabbing the narrower end of the shard, but as she pulled it closer Knuckles was already there, his large mitts on the wider end.
"Knock it off, Rouge!" He said, giving the shard a sharp tug, though her grip was too good on her end. The bat responded with a tug of her own, a surprisingly strong one, but not enough to make Knuckles let go.
"After everything we went through on the Arc, after these days of travel, if you still only think I'm some lowly thief, then that's just what I'll be!" She tried to tug again as she spoke, but Knuckles was still holding too tightly and responded with a tug of his own, pulling it back towards him. This time, however, there was a sound to it he didn't notice before, almost like a tearing sound. Knuckles looked down at his grip on the shard, noticing the material on his gloves was frayed around the edges where he was gripping the shard. It must have broken oddly, the edges were sharper than they should have been... Then a sudden realization hit, the sharper end was still pointed at Rouge and if his gloves kept ripping...
"What's the matter, losing grip?" Rouge said, breaking his thoughts. Though his glare faded, Rouge's only sharpened. "Too bad!" She twisted her body with this pull, her hardest yet against the shard, Knuckles now just holding on hoping his gloves would hold. His hopes failed as a loud tearing noise echoed in the caves, his grip failing with a mess of torn material following the motion of the shard, which ended with Rouge's eyes suddenly going wide. Knuckles felt his heart stop suddenly, a panic setting in before he even knew what was going on. Rouge dropped the shard to her side, falling to her knees, both hands on her side. Knuckles pulled himself together enough to step closer and kneel down, looking at the shard, now blood-stained, and then to Rouge's side. He reached over, his hand trembling for some reason, like he was scared of how bad this could be under her hands. Finally he took hold of her wrist and pulled it away, looking at the injury. Knuckles let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, it was a long cut against her side, deep in the middle, but it was hardly the fatal stab he feared. Rouge's own eyes still showed panic, herself too scared to look to see how bad it was.
"Just relax, it's not fatal..." Knuckles said, at a loss for words that could comfort her. He looked around quickly, his dreadlocks flailing from his motions, looking for anything to bandage the injury. Nothing around them, and his backpack didn't have any first aid supplies. He thought to try Rouge's own glove but it was leather, too hard to tie off securely and it wouldn't soak up the blood to help clot it. Knuckles ran out of options when he looked himself over for any spare material he had to use, just shoes and... his gloves, already ripped, looked like the only option. His own vanity aside, Knuckles quickly took hold of the loose material, circling his hand around his glove to get a strip of cloth out of the glove. He finished ripping the cloth from one hand and quickly repeated the other, not willing to take the chance one wasn't going to be enough.
Both eventually became a long bandage, ripped just right to be a long strip of material. Knuckles was taking extra care to get it over Rouge's injury and secure it as he wrapped her midsection. He was glad she was so athletic, if her waist were any wider the material wouldn't have been enough. By now Rouge was out of her daze and watching Knuckles work, the pain in her side aching but somehow ignorable.
"There, that's all I can do..." Knuckles said, tying off the makeshift bandage and sitting back. Rouge looked over at Knuckles, their fight forgotten now, just now noticing his hands. Red-furred, like the rest of him, but from the backs of his fists was bare bone sticking out from the flesh, rounded off on the ends from years of abuse. It was an ugly sight, no wonder he was so touchy about the gloves, but she didn't bring it up.
"Knuckles, about earlier..." She said hesitantly, ready to apologize. Knuckles looked over and shook his head, not wanting to get back into it. She nodded in silent response, looking down at the bandages at her side, a slight red hue now soaking through. "...let's at least get going, you said we have to hurry." Rouge tried to stand up off her knees, but was stopped by Knuckles' hand on her shoulder, pushing her back down to a sitting position.
"We're not going anywhere until the bleeding stops." He said. "Besides, I still have to repair the emerald before we keep going... Just rest for a while." Knuckles looked over and picked up the large shard, being careful of the sharp edges with his bare hands, then stood and stepped over to the reduced Master Emerald. Rouge watched him as he worked, shrinking the shard again and resetting it in the stone, a light coming from the cracks in the gem as it healed itself.
"...Rouge, some people keep to themselves for a reason." Knuckles said, his back still to Rouge. "I have to guard this emerald for the rest of my life, it's too powerful to leave unguarded for too long... I'm to be denied any kind of happy life because of this... curse. I've always been afraid of someone getting too close to me because I don't want to make this curse theirs, as well... I don't want someone else to be denied their freedom because of me." Rouge sat in silence, the pain of the wound ignored, a little in disbelief. She was starting to regret being so forceful with getting anything out of Knuckles, she didn't mean it to be so intrusive. But she didn't know the reason he was doing it, either.
Rouge continued to watch Knuckles work, just now becoming aware of something. A tightness in her chest, a longing in her heart... Knuckles had only showed any kind of caring before when she was falling to her death over a lava pool, when he apologized for hurting her... It was when she first had this feeling, the reason she was interested in knowing him better. She dwelled on it a little longer, thinking, imagining, and realizing. An image came to mind, a sudden though that she wouldn't mind sharing Knuckles' so-called curse with him, she would even want to stay with him... In the events of the day, Rouge came to realize that somehow, despite the arguments and differences, she was falling in love with the red echidna in front of her.
End Chapter 3
Next: Chapter 4 - Rain in the Night