Chapter 3: Happiness

"Ok, that's the last of them balloons, Sally!" Bunnie Rabbot shouted as she tied the balloon onto the wooden post.

"Alright Bunnie!" Sally replied as she finished tying the banner. She smiled a fake smile as she jumped down from the top of the tall, wooden gate, and ran on top of the makeshift small wooden platform in the centre of the village, which was in other words, 6 boxes. In front of her were the freedom fighters and some children which made up about only15 of the people who were invited. The young, attractive squirrel sighed. Was this going to work out?

"Alright. Is everyone finished and ready?" Sally asked through the microphone. Everybody nodded.

"Ok. Now all we got to do is to wait for......" Sally was cut off.

"Princess Sally...When is Tails coming back?" said a cute and adorable 8 year-old fox's wearing a tall yellow hat. "I wanna see him..." Tears started to well up in the vixen's innocent eyes

"Don't worry, Tara. I promise that he'll be back any moment now..." Sally replied.

"Promise?"

"Promise." Sally carried Tara up her shoulder. She sighed. Tara had been really emotional about meeting Tails the past few days, and kept asking her when she could meet him every day, then every hour, then every minute, from dusk to dawn since yesterday. Sally could tell that her disappointment was growing and growing, and she was on the verge of a tantrum. She didn't want that, no, not today. But why was Tara so desperate? Was it because she had no one to talk to? Or was it love at first sight? They were of the same general breed, and......

"Erm, Aunt Sally. You there? Hello?" Tara waved here hand in front of Sally's eyes.

"Oh, err, so, how's my little girl's cooking?" Sally said randomly from her mind.

"O-K! The chili dogs are ready! And so are the French fries, the cake, the noodles, the spaghetti, the...."

"How about the birthday cake?" Sally asked, surprised by Tara's sudden change of mood.

"It's in the... oven... right now, err, oh no. Err, got to run!" Tara ran to the cafeteria hut as fast as her legs could carry, as Sally giggled. She hoped that she had made the right choice to appoint her as the official chef for this party.

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Tara sighed with a breath of relief, as she opened the oven and took the metal tray with the cake out of the oven. She sat down on the chair, and started to make the icing, smiling. She has been happy here, with Princess Sally, Sonic, Bunnie Rabbot, they seemed like nice people and probably were, she noticed that ever since she got here 2 months ago. The place was so serene and calm, at one with nature, which she loved. Everything she dreamed of was right in front of her eyes; a fixed home, a sense of belonging......She wished she could stay here forever, with her parents......

Suddenly, memories of 2 months ago flooded into her mind.

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Tara was kneeling down, begging Dr.Robotnik to free her parents from captivity, flooding the main control room with her tears.

"I beg you, master. I'll do anything it takes. Just don't hurt them. Please...... You can do anything to me, just don't hurt them......."

"ALRIGHT! Just close your mouth, worthless child."

Tara nodded.

"If you want to see your parents again, you have to do this, ok "

She nodded again.

"Ok, listen carefully... You are to find the village of Knothole, and in it, find a two-tailed freak of your species named Miles Prower, also know as Tails. Look at this mechanical device in my hand. LOOK AT IT! All you have to do is to put it into Tails' body. It erases a person's memories and replaces them with my own. I don't care how you do it, you can inject it, force him to eat it, whatever!"

Tara nodded again.

"Oh, and the device sends a signal whenever it is inside a body. If I don't receive a signal in 2 months time, 22nd of November, you will never see your parents again. Is that clear?"

Tara nodded, again.

"Here's a map of part of the Great Forest. Although it remains unfound, we know that it is somewhere in it. Are you ready?"

Tara nodded, and got shoved out of the Moon lake fortress...... She spent days traveling, with virtually no food or water, and ended up deep in the Great Forest. By then, animal instincts took over. She began to eat leaves, bugs, whatever that was available to her, and drank murky water puddles on the forest floor. With her objective long forgotten, she got weaker, and weaker, and weaker......

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She yanked herself back to reality, putting the icing in the freezer. Wiping the tears of her large, sapphire, eyes, she took the mechanical device from her bag and examined it carefully...... and then looked at the cake. Should she, or not?

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Sally was standing in front of Knothole's main gate, looking at the birthday boy in the distance nervously. Tails was kind of stuck in a deep trance, eyes glued on to the banner on the gate that read, "Happy 11th Birthday, Tails!!!" She didn't know what to do; she figured she should just wait for Tails to give a response first. The blue speed demon wasn't with him now, so this would have to stay like that longer. Suddenly, the two-tailed fox broke into a smile, and opened his mouth to speak.

"You....you remembered. You really remembered! Thank... Thank you Aunt Sally!" Tails said as he ran to Sally with open arms, and hugged her.

Sally patted on Tails' back. "Happy Birthday, honey!" She said.

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Author's notes: The longest one, this chapter. After a day of consideration, I gave up my own plot in favor of this new one, and I really had fun thinking it. Hope I made the right choice, giving up the "race" part. Oh, and by the way, did you know that Tails' birthday is on the 21st of November( I think)? Go and celeberate the two-tailed fox's birthday, ok? Oh, and thank you, Darkhymns, for reviewing my story through the 2 chapters.