Chapter 6: Chao Garden
"Oh, today's going to be so fun! I can't wait." Sapphire was happily humming to herself as she prepared herself snacks and a lunch for an outing she had planned.
"Hey, Sapphire, so what are your plans today?" Sonic asked, slipping into the kitchen at his famous speed.
"OH! Sonic!" Sapphire replied in shock. She was getting more used to talking with Sonic, getting over her shyness with him, at most, but he still managed to constantly catch her off guard with his speed. "You surprised me! I... um, Cream wanted to spend some more time with me after that shopping day. I spent a lot of my time with Amy, mostly, so Cream asked if she could have a play date later."
"Hm, so, did she want to do anything special with you?"
"Yes... she wants us to visit her favorite Chao Garden. Though she hasn't told me where it is yet..."
Sonic gave her thumbs up. "Hey, that's great! Cream is a good friend to have, and a lovely girl once you get to know her. I'm sure you'll have a great time with her."
"Thanks, nice to know. I'll remember that, Sonic." Sapphire finished making her lunch and snacks for the day, and began making her way to the front door. "Well, I need to go now. Have a good day!"
"Yep! Maybe I'll drop by to see how you're doing."
"Oh, yeah, sure. Anyways, see you later!" And Sapphire made her leave.
Cream was with her mother, finishing up a picnic basket lunch for the day out with Sapphire.
"Oh, I can't wait for Saph to come over. I hope she likes the food we made," Cream told her mother.
She smiled. "Oh, I am sure she'll love it."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it!" Cream exclaimed, heading to the door.
Once Cream opened it up, she found Sapphire standing there, holding a small thermos-duffel bag.
"H-hi, Cream, …I'm here," Sapphire said.
"Hey, Saph. You don't need to be so nervous. We're friends," Cream replied.
"Yeah, sorry… I'm just… not used to having friends."
"Alright. Hey, why don't you come meet my mom!"
Cream grabbed Sapphire's arm, and pulled her towards the kitchen.
There, Sapphire saw a tall rabbit-mobian woman. She shared the same cream-colored fur, brown eyes, and lopped ears as Cream, though she had a tuft of light brown hair on her forehead and between her ears (which reminded Sapphire of her own hair framing her face). She wore a long, light purple dress with white trim, a dark red-ish purple vest and blue ascot on top, white gloves with gold cufflinks, and low-heeled shoes the same color as her vest, and she had pink lipstick on.
"Oh, hello. You must be Cream's friend, Sapphire. My name is Vanilla. I am Cream's mother," she said, introducing herself.
"Um, yes. I'm Sapphire, Saph for short," Sapphire replied.
"Oh, well don't you like such a nice girl."
"Thank you." Sapphire took a look around the kitchen, and noticed the picnic basket. "…Um, is that for us?"
"Hm," Vanilla turned to where Sapphire was looking. "Oh, of course! It's for all of us. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I…" Sapphire presented her small bag. "I already made my lunch. I'm sorry! I didn't know you were going to… well…"
"Oh, don't worry about it, dear." Vanilla lightly pushed Sapphire's arms down and smiled. "It's okay. You can still feel free to have some food from our basket."
"Oh, thank you. I... if you want, I could share a bit of mine."
"Oh, how nice of you." Vanilla turned to Cream. "Sweetie, could you go and get a picnic blanket."
"Yes," replied Cream, and she ran upstairs, with Cheese right behind her.
"So, you live with Sonic and Tails, correct?" Vanilla asked.
"Yes. It's so nice to be able to... well..." Sapphire trailed off, too embarrassed to finish what she was saying.
"A family," Vanilla replied. "Amy and Cream told me all about you. About you being an orphan, and how Sonic took you in as his sister."
"Oh, I don't remember telling them... Sonic or Tails probably told them."
"It's okay. Though, I can't imagine what it must be like to not have any parents." Vanilla sighed. "You know, I really don't tell anyone this, but it's not easy being a single mother. That's why I'm happy Cream made so many good friends that we can trust. But on the other hand, I'm sure, deep down, Cream is grateful to have a mother. And, I bet you wish you had one too."
Sapphire looked down. "Yeah. I do. The people who worked at my orphanage were nice enough, but it's not the same... not that I know what it's like to even have parents."
"Oh, it's okay, dear..." Vanilla came in and gave Sapphire a hug.
Cream and Cheese came back down, holding the blanket she was asked to get, as Vanilla let go of Sapphire.
"I got the blanket!" Cream exclaimed. Cheese gave a happy "Chao!" response.
"Thank you. Okay, I believe we have everything now. Shall we pack up the car and head out?"
"So, Ms. Vanilla, where is this Chao Garden? I've read stories about them, and I know they're hidden all over the place, so... uh..."
"Oh, don't worry. This one is in a safe and familiar place. As far as I know, it's only known to our closest friends," Vanilla replied as has grabbed the now packed picnic basket. "It's in the Green Hill Zone."
Sapphire was excited. She had read about Green Hill, and Sonic had told her a lot about the area as well. From what he had said, Sapphire knew that it was his favorite place to run.
Moreover, she was excited to see a natural Chao Garden. She had seen lots of chao before, and has even been in a couple of the manmade habitats on her home island. She has always longed to see a real Chao Garden.
They were supposed to secret paradises, hidden from the world, where Chao would live free of all the of the dangers in the world, happy and safe. They are rare and very hard to find. And usually, if someone found one, they would choose to keep it a secret between themselves and their most trusted peers, or else the chao's home would sooner or later find itself destroyed by malicious outsiders.
Vanilla drove Cream, Cheese, and Sapphire to the edge of Green Hill, a sprawling field of bright green grass, crystalline lakes, and mountainous cliffs. Sunflowers, palm trees and strange totem poles dotted the landscape. Numerous waterfalls could be seen flowing from the distant cliffs, leading into the many lakes and rivers, a few spanned by bridges. And the oddest thing, the cliff sides had a checker-board pattern to them.
Still, there was only one thing Sapphire could say to all this...
"This... this is beautiful..."
Cream ran to her side as they exited the car. "Yep. I love coming by here, and just frolic through the plains," she told Sapphire.
"Yeah… I can see why."
Vanilla grabbed the basket and blanket. "Well, from here, we'll need to walk. Shall we."
Sapphire nodded, while Cream said, "yes," and Cheese followed with a resounding, "chao!"
The four of them walked along ridges and across bridges. Sapphire took in all the beauty of the Hills, watching small animals happily roaming about.
After almost an hour of walking, they reached a cliffside, surrounded by large bushes.
"Here we are," Vanilla told the young girls.
"So… is this where the Garden entrance is hidden?" Sapphire asked.
"Yes, it's pretty well hidden, follow us." Vanilla began slipping between two the bushes, and Cream and Cheese happily followed along.
Sapphire carefully slipped between the bushes, and found herself catching herself on lower footholds, as she was now in a small tunnel leading down a small slope and into a low-ceiling passageway.
She could hear the others already ahead of her. So she crouched down, and began walking through the tunnel, careful not to hit her head on the low ceiling.
It wasn't long before she could see light on the other side of the tunnel, and once she emerged, she held her breath.
If Green Hill itself was beautiful, then this was a paradise. It was a small cove area, surrounded by cliffs, with a few tiny waterfalls flowing into shallow pools. Scattered about, there were trees and bushes bearing numerous fruit. A sandy and pristine beach spanned the short length across from her.
…And chao. Chao everywhere. Flying about, resting or playing, enjoying the fruit taken from the plant life. There were chao of many different colors and types.
It was better than Sapphire could've imagined.
Cream and Vanilla were setting up the blanket, while Cheese had started playing with the other chao. Luckily, Sapphire was able to pick him out among all the other Chao thanks to his bow tie.
"Hey, Saph! Over here!" Cream called over.
Sapphire listened and joined Cream and Vanilla with setting up the picnic stuff. While that happened, many of the chao being to slowly approach this new, mysterious stranger who was with some of their occasion visitors.
At first, Sapphire was oblivious to this. But after a while, once the picnic was set up, one of the chao got brave enough to get closer and grab her leg.
Sapphire freaked out, scaring the chao away, but Vanilla approached to calm her down. "It's okay," she told her. Vanilla grabbed her hand, and the two of them slowly approached the scared chao. They carefully crouched next to the little guy, and Vanilla coached Sapphire to carefully hold her hand out to it.
The chao was a neutral chao, similar to Cheese, though this one was green. He shyly bundled up into a ball.
"H-hey, I'm sorry I freaked out, you just... um..." Sapphire spoke softly with the chao.
She didn't say much, but it seemed the chao understood, and slowly flew into her hand.
"Oh." Sapphire then giggled softly. "Aren't you cute," she said, as she began playfully poking his stomach.
Over a few hours, Sapphire slowly became comfortable with the all chao in the garden. The green chao, especially, became rather close with Sapphire. At this point, Sapphire was considering giving him a name.
Sapphire, Cream, and Vanilla had begun lunch. sapphire had made a simple peanut-butter-and-jam sandwich, with strawberries as a snack. Vanilla and Cream had prepared sandwiches themselves, though their's were cucumber-and-cheese sandwiches. They also had brought crackers and various fresh fruit, some of which were used for the chao. Sapphire happily fed the chao the fruit.
"So, Sapphire, I hope you do not mind if I ask, could you tell me what was life like where you come from?" Vanilla asked.
"Oh, well, you know I'm an orphan," Sapphire started," I used to live on Blue Wave Island, and well… I felt more comfortable reading books, and, when I got older and inspired by Tails, tinkering. I was always smarter than everyone else at the orphanage, and they… didn't seem to like it. I was that one girl everyone bullied. The caretakers did there to stop it, but…"
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Sapphire. You've had such a hard life. I guess, all orphans want a family… they might've been scared that not just beautiful, but also intelligent young girl would get adopted before you."
"I guess that makes sense… But then never happened. I guess… I was always too shy to speak to others. I never really let myself become noticeable, because I was too nervous to."
"Not one to communicate with others, it would seem."
"But, Sapphire, look at you now," Cream exclaimed. "Sonic is your brother now, so you are adopted. You also now have friends like me and Cheese, Amy, and Tails. And there are a lot more people we think should meet as well."
"I guess… yeah! I suppose that's right," Sapphire replied. "I mean… I still getting used to you all. But I do feel a little more comfortable with you. This… none of this might of ever happened if Tails didn't choose me as his apprentice… or if I even wanted to learn mechanics in the first place."
The green chao happily flopped on Sapphire's shoulder. Then he slid down, and took one her remaining strawberries, though Sapphire didn't mind.
"Yes, that's right!" Vanilla said. "Because you are that beautiful and intelligent girl I mentioned. And you deserve to have those who love you and care about you."
"Thank you, Ms. Vanilla," Sapphire replied. She really liked Cream's mom. She was so nice and loving. This was someone she could look up to. She wanted to spend more time with her in the future.
"She's right you know," a voice spoke behind her, immediately followed by a burst of wind.
"AH!" Sapphire freaked out by the sudden new arrival, scaring the timid chao away, except for her green friend, who flew behind Sapphire, and clung to her leg, hiding from the new arrival.
"Sonic, I know you're fast," Vanilla told the arrival, "but you should slow down enough not surprise others when you approach them in greeting."
Sapphire spun around to find that, indeed, the Blue Blur himself was standing above her.
"Wh-what are you doing here!?" Sapphire cried out.
"Well, I did say I might drop by. Besides, what kind of brother would I be if I didn't mess with you," Sonic replied.
"Oh dear," Vanilla said as she shook her head.
"Figured that this would be the place you were going to. Glad to see that you're having a good time," Sonic continued, "you're growing. Now, who's your favorite chao here?"
"Oh, uh... this little guy," Sapphire carefully grabbed the green chao, and held him up for Sonic to see. The little guy raised his arms to Sonic.
"Yeah, this guy is shy, but he attaches quickly. Hm, makes me think of someone..."
Sapphire looked away and blushed as every else laughed this.
Still, Sapphire was happy to have made such good friends. She never thought this would happen. And she knew Sonic had more friends for her to meet. She wondered who she might meet next...
Author's Note: So, looking back at the last chapter, I introduced Cream, but focused more on Amy fixing her friendship with Sapphire, so she became an add-on, really, simply because they were close friends. So I decided to make this chapter with more focus on her and her family, and put it in the theme of chao, because chao are fun.
All also wanted to some point to introduce Cream's mom, Vanilla, to Sapphire, simply because she would be a good mother figure for Saph, when she never had one.
Yes, I did use Green Hill as the area theme this time around. Honestly, it was a matter of time for me. Despite SEGA's overuse of pandering to nostalgia, I still at least don't mind Green Hill's inclusion (except in Forces, where they merged it with my least favorite level theme, the desert. Yeah, it makes sense for the story, except the beginning stage, which took place before the war). But I do agree, SEGA's has ruined Green Hill's nostalgia by treating it similar to Mario's World 1 green-plains level, and that makes me sad. So, I choose to remember Green Hill for what it was, not what it is now.
And yes, the cucumber sandwich is a reference to Sonic Unleashed. Honestly, I couldn't think of anything better, so I chose to use the reference. Think of it as Professor Pickle's art spreading wide across the world.
And finally, the green chao is based on Maximof, the chao I raised during my personal all emblems run of Sonic Adventure DX.
I'm reading the new run of Sonic comics, the Sonic IDW Comics, and I feel sorry for what happened to her in Issue #18 (I also realized I forgot about Chocola. Oops, well too late now. I'll rectify this in a later story).