CHAPTER 13

I woke up again! The depressing memories of the night following me. I got up, went to school, and worked on the Sugarpom sculpture some more, sculpting the magnificent roots now.

Night fell, and I closed my eyes again, hoping that there would be a better dream...

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An alarm went off! The sound of bombs exploding! Guns going off! A donkey's bray! A monster rally truck! As I opened my eyes, after a sudden jump, I saw that these sounds were coming from the walls, as well as movie clips, surround sounds, and on top of all that, the entire room was shaking violently!

"SNOTTY!" I yelled, agitated. The room stopped, and I went out to eat breakfast.

There was a nice wooden table with high, stool chairs. I sat in one of these, and waited for the food, and my friends. They came out, 20 minutes later, all with 5:00 shadows, and Tails wearing a cute, blue, sleeping cap. I gave a pleasant,
"Good Morning!"
...which was responded by tired grunts, and gurgles. All sleepy, and almost unaware of their surroundings, they all attempted to climb the high chairs, but failed miserably, due to their shortness, and sleepiness.
"Darn house!" mumbled Knuckles. "Woke me up with an angry mob of Homo sapiens."
"When I woke up, I almost drowned! Water was squirted in my face!" complained Sonic.
"It did the "Chinese water torture" to me... By the way, you wouldn't happen to know if this house comes with an extra pair of sheets? Would you?" Asked Tails.
All three of us looked at him in disgust, before the three Mobosapians sied, and decided to sit on the couch in the living room instead of the table. I joined them, and here, we ordered breakfast.

Sonic (of course) ordered 50 chile dogs. I found this a bit unreasonable, but the house didn't argue. Knuckles ordered some sort of energy drink I had never heard of, and Tails ordered triple chocolate ice cream.
"But Tails! You can't have that for breakfast! It's not healthy!" complained Sonic.
Tails quickly changed his mind, and ordered bacon and eggs. I decided to have pancakes. Snotty had almost begun the breakfast, when Jojo came crawling out from under the couch, and gave a hungry groan. Snotty decided to give him some roasted crickets, and set his food out upon the floor for him first (for it was the easiest meal to make). He then set the task of making the rest of the food, right in front of us! It was a spectacular display of speedy, knife-juggling action! We all applauded after Snotty did this, and after the meal, when he cleaned the dishes in the same talented fashion.

After breakfast, we got my stitches removed, first thing. When we got back home, I decided to get to know Jojo a bit better as a new, wandering, household pet.

I stroked him, and he made a strange purring noise as I did so. Then, something unexpected happened. There was harsh knock at the door. I picked up the Iguana, and went to answer it. When I opened the door though, I saw myself staring at a black reflection. It was a black glossy mirror of some sort, surrounded by a wall of white. I found this quite odd when I saw it, but, it seemed even more odd, when the mirror blinked at me.

It was Illum.

The crane stared at me through the door of the home for a few minutes, before it realized that I was carrying Jojo with me. He gave a scream of delight, before I realized what was going to happen. I set Jojo quickly on the floor, and transformed myself, into an iguana, so I could tell him something. .
"RUN JOJO! THE LARGE BIRD WANTS TO EAT YOU!"
He understood, and surprisingly gave a nod in agreement, before going down the hall, and hiding under my bed.
The crane stuck it's beak into the door, and snapped it, hoping to get a meal. He grabbed my tail, and I gave a loud iguana moan, before going through the door.
He thought thatI was Jojo!
I went up! Up! The pain of the yanking tail heading toward my whole body!
Illum tossed me into the air, and opened his mouth wide underneath, getting prepared for the meal.
I quickly spread myself out, in a attempt to keep his mouth pried open on the way down, but it was open too wide, and so, my barricade ended up clutching the sides of his throat instead. Illum took this as a surprise, and began to gag like crazy, and swing his long neck like there was no tomorrow.
I, meanwhile, had all four claws gripped on to either side of the throat, standing there, stretching the red, slimy, humid surface the best I could.
Illum coughed, sending a wind that had me shoot out of the throat like a torpedo!
I began to fall, and transformed again, on the way down, to my formal self.
Illum now saw the mistake he had made, and just as I almost hit the hard ground, he spread one of his wings, and, I landed,
"FOOF!"
...on this instead. He lifted the wing to a slant, and I came rolling down this to his back again. He whined, for he knew he had almost broken a promise to a friend by agreeing he would never eat me, when he just almost did. He stuck his head onto the back, and I casually, (but a bit shaken), walked up to it, and began to scratch the side.
He looked at me, and shed a tear, which to me was more like a gallon of water, and got me totally soaked, like a water balloon bursting, on the fall from his face. It was salty, and hot, and all of a sudden, I felt very sticky from it.
"It's O.K. boy, I know you didn't mean it. Just try to be more careful about what you stick in that mouth of yours."
The crane made the gurgling noise in it's throat again, knowing he had been forgiven.
Meanwhile, I was wondering why Sonic hadn't heard the commotion outside, but didn't think a lot of it.
I asked the crane,
"Why are you here again anyway, boy?"
Illum lifted the other wing, and I could see that one part of it was slightly bleeding. Illum had been attacked by something much smaller in size, but powerful, the dark red blood trickling down the pure white feathers. Illum had come back, knowing I was the only one not so afraid of him to help. I walked over to the wound, and examined it. It was a bite, that had pulled out one of his major feathers a good deal, and had pierced some of the wing's flesh. I yanked out the large feather quickly, resulting in a sharp scream of pain from Illum. I told him to hold the feather, as I examined the flesh wound. He snatched the feather, and as he bent down to get it, I stroked his head, and told him to be strong for this would hurt a little. I looked at it, and signaled Illum to bring me back up to the house for some supplies. He lifted his wing, agreeingly, and I traveled back into the house to try to find some first aid.

I saw Sonic, asleep there on one of the couches. I poked him annoyingly, and he woke up with a start.
"What's the big idea? You didn't hear all the commotion Illum was making? Where the heck were you?"
"Huh? What?...! GAH! I'M DEAF! OH OF ALL THE CURSES! I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER!"
He began to shiver uncontrollably from this unpleasant surprise. I looked into his ear, and saw that way, way in the back of it, there was an ear plug.
I said to him, calmly "You're not deaf, You have ear plugs in your ears!"
"WHAT?" he asked, cupping his ear with his hand.
"EAR PLUGS!"
"OH!" He picked at the ears with his pinkies, and the ear plugs came out easily. "Why did I have ear plugs in my ears?"
"I don't know!" They're YOUR ears!"
"...I thought you had stuck them in there for some reason."
"I didn't do it..."
We both stared at each other for a few seconds before I asked him,
"Illum is here. Do we have a first aid? He's been hurt, real bad."
"Uh,... yeah! I think there's one in the bathroom!"

I rushed towered the bathroom, and as I did this, Sonic tried to figure out the mystery of the ear plugs.
"SNOTTY! Do you know who put these ear plugs in my ears?"
"I did!" The computer hummed proudly.
"What 'ja do that for? If someone had been in trouble, I wouldn't have heard them!"
"Well, you see sir, there was a loud commotion outside and you looked sooooo peaceful there, that I figured you wouldn't have wanted to have been disturbed..."
"What commotion?" asked Sonic in rage.
"Oh...you know...just something with the human and the bird, they were making a large fuss, probly because of the bird's wound..."

Now, you see, Snotty had been well aware of the bird trying to eat me, and thought of this as an excuse to destroy the one he disliked, and later, guilt it up as an apology.

By this time, I had come out with the small kit for the wound, and I was beginning to walk out the door, when Sonic stopped me and asked why I been so upset about the ear plugs.
I answered, "I was trying to save your stupid lizard from the king, and transformed myself to inform him of the danger at hand. He went running, and Illum grabbed ME instead! I wish you had heard me, so that I wouldn't have had to "gag" the king's throat to prevent myself from being EATEN!"
I stormed out of the room in a huff, madder now then I had been when I entered. Sonic looked toward where Snotty's camera was with hatred, him also knowing that, Snotty had tried to murder me, and blame it on the most important figure in the kingdom. He ran out the front door after me.

Illum remembered him, as not "Sonic", but as, "The one that had brought the sardines". He head reached toward Sonic, hoping he had some food, and was slightly surprised when he found out that he had nothing to offer. Illum gave a grunt of disappointment before he turned his head away, and lifted the wing up, a bit roughly, and willingly.
"HEY! I know I'm not Molly, but come on!"
I laughed at this. "He thought you had food on you Sonic! He remembers you as the one who brought his lunch!'
Sonic, slightly down graded, took this as an insult from being "the hero", to "the fish serving butler".
I suggested to him, that he get a fish from Snotty, and so, he ran back into the house, and 0.3 seconds later, came out with a huge big mouth bass, about the same size as himself. .
"Here, here, here, pookie! Come on you bwootiful cwane! Yes you are! Yes you are!" Sonic began to coo the thing in hopes of getting it's attention.
It did, and as the crane turned it's head, it gave an exiting squeal at the sight of the prize Sonic had to offer. Illum put his head up to Sonic willingly, and ate the prize joyfully. He gave an affectionate gurgle, and let the hedgehog stroke his beak.
"You know, he ain't so bad, once you get used to him... HEY! I bet if one of us distracted him with some food, the medication treatment would go smoother."
"You'd do that?"
He nodded, and smiled. I agreed as well. For once we'd work as a team to help someone in need. Sonic ran inside again, and quickly collected up Knuckles (who seemed a bit stubborn to the job), Tails (who was excited on being able to feed Illum) "It'll be just like a petting zoo!", and collected all the fish that Snotty had in stock. He placed the fish in a pile on the porch, and the three of them through the fish into the crane's mouth, as I fixed up the wound.
The procedure went quickly, and soon I was up, on the porch with the rest of them throwing the fish, and having a good ol' time. We had a contest, and the person who could through the biggest fish into the crane's mouth without missing, would win. Knuckles won every time (for he was the strongest of all of us). When the fish was all gone, the crane was only slightly full, because of it's size. He was grateful for the meal though, and happily let Tails, (who was very exited at the sight of the crane) stroke, and climb on to his head.

This would give the crane memory of Tails, as not being "Tails", but "the playful one".
Knuckles had not done much to get to know Illum better, so the crane would remember him as, "the red one, who doesn't do a lot".
I was known in Illum's memory, as "the affectionate, human, doctor", and Sonic kept his proud title as: "the one who had brought the sardines". Why did lIum name us these things in his head though?
It was because, he was a crane and all animals seem to remember one person as to how affectionate they are, or how they help, or what they do.

We introduced Jojo to Illum, after we were sure he had had his fill of fish. Illum remembered Jojo as "the human in disguise", and I can truthfully say, that I have not seen Illum even attempt to eat an Iguana since, (for me (in iguana form), Jojo, and all the rest of the iguanas, anywhere, and everywhere all look the-same). Snotty even said a
"Hello!"
... to Illum, which confused him greatly, for he looked around everywhere afterwards trying to find where the voice had come from.
"NO! NO! Over here, you dumb dumb!"
Illum looked toward the house.
"That's right stupid!" purred Snotty.
Illum remembered Snotty as "the talking house" at this comment.

With the long day nearly over again, we had to say good by to the magnificent crane. Illum though, refused to go. He wanted more affection, and love, and fish.
"Go on now boy! It'll me morning any time now, and I don't want you to see me fall asleep, and leave so quickly!"
"What the heck are you talking about?" asked Knuckles, in a dull sort of voice.
"Look, I'll try to explain this again..." I said impatiently...

...and then, I awoke.

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OH! YOU GUYS PROBILY HATE ME FOR GETTING THIS CHAPTER UP SO, SO, SO, SO, LATE!
I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!
Geez... I've been really busy lately with finals, Christmas, school, the death of 3 pets, my DA account, and other things.
But it'll all be worth it, because, I have also been working on a special, secret, surprise, 3000! GET THIS! Me, (and a very good friend of mine) have been working on "The Trip Of Dreams Manga"!
EH? EHHHH!
Ishould begin posting it up on my DA account very soon, so keep a look out for it!

NOW! ON TO ANSWERING REVIEWS!
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First of all, we have a few new readers!

Let us welcome Sir-Egan, Narisha-is-here, Pink-hedgehog, Foxgirl12, virginia, and Mongoose!
YEY! (round of applause) MORE READERS!

To DaKirbinator: Interesting how many you got on that little test...As for the C2... A C2 is kinda like a club! You choose a category (like Sonic), then you choose a sub-category (like (in my case) crossovers). Then you go though the "Sonic" category, and collect every story, by every author that you can possibly find, and group them all under your C2. You can also get "helpers", if you're too lazy to run the C2 yourself!

To SallyTheRabbit: Thanks for the advice, good luck with the virus, an' please E-mail me soon!

To Daikonran: Thanks for checking out my DA site... there's a lot more up there now...and I realized that the "5 N64's" thing was a typo...sorry 'bout that!

To Nail Strafer: Thanks for pointing out the highlights in the story that you enjoy! ... THIS PART OF THE STORY DOES HAVE AN ENDING! I just dream faster then I type!

To Foxgirl12: Thank You!

To Sir-Egan: SOOOOO... Your a friend of Deulist? EH? Nice guy!
Boy! It's getting scary how many people are getting so many of those on that "quiz"...
D.O.M.E. EH? Have, and yet, haven't heard of your field. I might have heard someone mumble about it once... as for the meeting, I've been pretty busy lately, but I'll see what I can do!

To Narisha-is-here: There ARE vampires in the dream world, but I haven't seen many...
If ya wannah talk about dreams, send me an E-mail...okey-day?
...And I'm so glad you love my story! YEY!

To Everyone else: HI!

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NEXT CHAPTER: A new town, a flight, and an encounter