Chapter Twenty-Six

Shadow followed Sonic freely as they left the cave and started heading into town, no longer being dragged. The blue hedgehog's limp had Shadow very worried. He couldn't keep quiet about it.

"Sonic, are you sure you're ok?" He asked him. "You're limping pretty badly there."

"Tch, I'm fine Shads. Don't worry about it." Sonic assured him with a grin. "The mating procedure between Sirens are always rough. It's how the females dominate the males."

Shadow smirked at that statement. "You mean to tell me that you, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Hero of Mobius, and Fastest Thing Alive, got dominated by your little female friend?"

Sonic blushed brightly and chuckled nervously, a drop of sweat going down the side of his head. "Well when you put it like that it sounds kinda sad, doesn't it?" He then frowned and shook his head. "But that's the way it always is. I'm lucky that someone as beautiful as Ryn chose me to mate with her."

"Do the males in the colony have any say whatsoever?"

"Never. The only way the males have any freedom is when they take the offspring away to train them, and even then that's only a handful of the males."

"They take them away?" Shadow frowned. "Where do they go?"

"Out in the open sea." Sonic frowned. "The babies are taken the moment they have their first breath. They don't get to come back to their mothers until they've made their first kill."

Shadow's ears lowered, feeling sorry for the blue hedgehog. "Did… did that happen to you as well? Were you taken from your mom?"

Sonic sighed and nodded. "That's the way it always is. But it's ok. Because I had Ryn with me. And my father was the one who trained us. Not very many babies have that pleasure."

"I see." Shadow nodded.

Sonic grinned a little and, out of nowhere, took Shadow's hand into his own. The action was unexpected, but Shadow didn't pull away. Instead, he smiled back and gently squeezed Sonic's hand with his own.

"Would you like to meet them?" The blue suddenly asked.

"Meet your parents?" Shadow frowned in confusion. "But I thought you said they were dead."

"... They are dead, but I still visit them from time to time." Sonic smiled and nuzzled him. "I'm sure they would love to meet you."

Shadow blushed a bit from the nuzzling. He wanted to stop the blue, but at the same time, he didn't. It felt… good. Trying to ignore the feeling of butterflies in his stomach, Shadow gently pushed Sonic's head away and smiled.

"Then I would love to meet them."

Shadow looked around the small hidden cemetery as Sonic led him through it. It felt a little weird to be on such sacred ground. He felt like an impostor… an intruder.

"So… all these graves are… Sirens who died on land?" He asked the blue hedgehog.

Sonic frowned and nodded. "When a Siren dies on land, their bodies are unable to change in the water. They are either trapped in the land forms… or somewhere in between."

"In between?"

Sonic's ears lowered. "You've seen how much I stress about one of my kind coming onto land. You know that it takes strength for a Siren to change. You've seen it yourself, multiple times." He looked up at the ebony. "When a Siren is not strong enough, the change can kill them. It can happen unexpectedly at any time… sometimes even at the very end if the change. But the worst is when they die halfway. They're not fully land… but they're not fully sea either."

"Gosh that's… absolutely horrible."

Sonic nodded and continued to lead him through. "My parents died on land. I told you that they tried to follow me."

"You said that you blamed yourself." Shadow remembered.

"... I still do. They tried to follow me onto land. For whatever reason I'm unaware of. They weren't strong enough to survive the change, and they died halfway through it."

"Oh my god." Shadow gasped, feeling even more sorry for the blue every second. "That must've been so horrible for you to see."

"... That's the thing though… I didn't see it. I was in Station Square when it happened. Helen was the one who found their bodies, and buried them. Right. Here." He stopped in front of two small graves, sat right next to each other. The final resting place of his mother and father. The blue hedgehog smiled warmly and knelt down to the graves like he had done just two days prior. He wiped the dust off their names, revealing them to the ebony.

Bernadette and Jules.

"Hi mom and dad. It's me again. I just came by because there's someone I want you to meet."

Shadow felt his heart constricting as he watched Sonic talking to his dead parents. It reminded of himself when he would talk to Maria.

Suddenly, he didn't think that the two of them were so different after all.

"Mom. Dad. I'd like you to meet Shadow." Sonic continued, coaxing the black and red hedgehog to kneel beside him. "He's a land walker, but he's one of the good ones. He saved Ryn and I yesterday."

Shadow nodded. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Bernadette and Mr. Jules."

"See how polite he is?" Sonic chuckled, then looked a little sad. "We did it last night. Ryn and I. We mated. I'm sure you can tell by all the bruises, heh. We're not sure if it worked, but you know how it goes. We'll keep trying until the season is over."

Shadow thought he should've felt a little weird at that, but he didn't. He knew that the goal of mating season was to impregnate to females to start a strong new generation. It only makes sense that Ryn and Sonic would keep trying in case the first time didn't do it.

"I have some other exciting news." The blue continued to his dead parents. "Ryn's the new Alpha of the colony. She defeated Tia this morning. I know a merhog has never been Alpha before, but if Ryn was able to defeat a mermaid bigger and stronger than her, then I'm sure she'll make a great leader."

"I couldn't agree more." Shadow smiled, astounded that there has never been a merhog Alpha before.

Sonic sighed and ran a hand over the tombstones. "I wish you guys were here. I miss you so much. I wish I could hear your voices. To tell me how proud you are of me." He sniffed, a single tear running down his cheek.

Shadow saw the tear, and immediately, his instincts took over. He wrapped his arms around the blue hedgehog and gently hugged him, petting his quills a bit. Sonic continued to sniff, but he welcomed Shadow's comfort as he laid his head on his chest.

"I sometimes wonder why they did it." He started sadly. "Why they thought it was necessary for them to come onto land. What was so important that they couldn't wait for my return? Why couldn't they have just stayed in the water?"

"I… I don't know Sonic. I wish I did, then I could possibly ease your thoughts."

"It… it just makes me so upset. It's one thing for them to die at all. But it's a totally different thing for them to die on land. Now they're trapped in those horrid half-forms, unable to be reunited with our ancestors."

"What do you mean? Aren't they with your ancestors now?" Shadow frowned in confusion. "Isn't this a mermaid burial ground?"

"Yes, but this is not where they belong. It's so... dull. There's nothing special about it."

"... When a Siren dies in the water, what does your people do?"

"... When my people die, we take the body, and we swim, for a long time. We hold on to the body, and we go to the deep waters, where no animal can find it. We lay the body on the soft sand... and we leave it in a special place."

"... A funeral."

"Yes." Sonic sniffed and looked up at him. "Shadow... I know I am part animal... but I am also part Mobian."

"I never said you weren't."

"But you must've been thinking it."

"Never." Shadow shook his head, hugging him tightly. "I would never think that of you."

Sonic sniffed and hugged him back, crying into his chest. The ebony hedgehog said nothing, and only continued to hug and soothe him, rocking them back and forth as he petted his quills and whispered soothing words into his ear.