Bloom
- Chapter 1-
An abysmal crevice, dug within the enigmatic cliff-side.
Sonic and his crew analyzed it without uttering a word. Their eyes sought a visual hint in the neverending gloom, they perked their ears to detect any auditory signs. They crept back and forth around its edge, hoping to find some angle that would illuminate it. Nothing rang back. The only signs of life in their vicinity were the rhythmic slaps of the ocean as the waves struck the rocks ninety feet below the cliff-end. Dead end.
"Welp, that was anti-climactic," the blue hedgehog muttered. He pulled his gaze away and arched his body forward to crack his spine back in place.
A few half-hours passed. Sonic sat flumped atop a small hill of soft rubble he'd put together. He swung his legs back and forth, thinking about home. Amy dragged her knees across a plushy bed of wet lewisias near the cliff's edge, picking out dry flowers and stuffing it in her right-front pocket. Silver trailed on behind her with a gleeful smirk, keeping both hands buried within his winter jacket pockets. Blaze kept watch over the newly located abyss, occasionally punting a small rock into the void.
Before this day of solemn began, Tails had suggested that each crew member be fitted with some thick attire in anticipation of the dropping temperatures. It was great wisdom in hindsight. Flora's clifftop was a target for heavy streams of gusty blue wind and rain.
The orange fox had chosen a much higher position of the cliff-side to take refuge in. Poor network latency made outside communication difficult. Nevertheless, he managed a bit better with greater elevation. He engaged in shallow conversation with his client, who sat in a comfortable office room, miles away from this mess.
"I'll be honest with you, your efforts haven't been up to standard Mr. Prowler," the comm voice said.
"I apologize," Tails said.
"Formalities don't excuse the lack of results."
Tails rested his back against the rough rocky wall.
"When you come to work for us, our clients expect nothing but up to date reports by the hour," the comm voice continued
"We haven't been doing that?"
"You consider lousy geographical information to be substantial, Mr. Prowler?"
A pigeon landed near the tip of one of Tail's appendages. Poor thing looked destitute, it either didn't notice the orange fox sitting atop the cliff-side formation or didn't care. It ruffled its beak through the white tip of the fox's tail, looking for some kind of critter to chew on.
"Do I need to remind you why you're doing this?"
"That won't be necessary."
"I mean, you or your crew don't seem to understand the abysmal financial stakes here."
Tails took a glance at the rest of his friends below. They were fine for the time being, lost in their own small world of activities.
"They're kind of in the dark about the whole thing," he said
"Well, that's concerning", the comm voice replied.
"Yeah."
"You know what, it doesn't matter and I don't care, what's the hold up this time? Bad intel, pirates, shipwreck?"
"A hole"
The comm voice paused.
"Are you pulling my leg right now, cause I swear-"
"It's a large hole Mr. George, the thing is a hundred fifty in diameters, and I can't gauge the depth"
"Hedgehog boy can't run in there and find out?"
"Too dangerous"
Tails could hear what sounded like an office chair creaking.
"Think it blasted its way down there?", Mr. George asked. "I mean, they do that right?"
"When a Chaos Emerald wants to get away from the world, I guess a bunch of weird things can happen"
"You guess?"
Tails remained silent. A sound of ruffling papers followed.
"Give me an update in the next ten hours, I'll try to buy some time from our clients, "
"Thank You, sir"
"It's not a guarantee Mr. Prowler, give me an update in the next ten hours or the consequences will be dire"
The comm lines cut, leaving only yelps of static from the device's speakers.
He shot another glance at the hole site. Analysis was key here before making a move. With each passing minute, he'd taken to drawing up a list of possible scenarios. A shallow cavern? Erosion from the weight in that area? A burial site? Even now as his eyes danced around the corners of this abyss, a new voice began to whisper in the inner recesses of his mind, beckoning him to keep away.
"Silver! Look what I found!" Amy exclaimed.
"Looks like a pink daisy," Silver knelt to take a better look. "Didn't know daisies grew on cliff-sides"
"They don't, but I guess this little fella beat those odds". She turned to Sonic. "Isn't that sweet Sonic!"
"Yeah," Sonic didn't turn his gaze away from the passing thick clouds in the indigo sky.
"Hmph!" Amy turned her head away in disgust. "Just like you to ruin a miracle Sonic the Hedgehog".
Amy held the daisy up high allowing it touch the dimming radiance of the Sun, now just a fleeting yellow orb in the distance.
"Poor thing's gonna choke without any proper sunlight," she noted.
"Uprooting it doesn't help matters stupid," Sonic muttered, his gaze didn't budge.
"It's gonna die anyway you dull-witted animal!" Amy yelled, sticking her pale pink tongue out. "We just need to take it someplace safer".
She pulled herself off from the mushy surface, smacked off some mud from her knees, and executed a graceful heel turn towards Silver's position.
"Silver, you've done some gardening before, right? Surely, you can help," she pleaded.
Silver managed a small shrug.
"I just watch Blaze do it", he said. "Maybe you should try asking her".
He looked towards Blaze for help, hoping to attract her attention by yelling her name.
Her gloom expression stopped him in his tracks. Was she alright? he wondered. She seemed lost in her thoughts, absorbed by the visual poetry of the abyss before her. He could see her tilting her head, arching her body forward, counting something.
There was a fingernail biting sensation he felt when thinking about Blaze's participation in the mission. He thought back to the briefing underneath the hut on Emerald Coast. At the time, it felt like a great idea to bring his best friend along on what could've been a spirit-lifting conquest.
"Go talk to her," Amy beckoned. She gave the white hedgehog a small nudge on his back.
Sonic still hadn't moved an inch. A small green insect began to make its home between one of the spaces in his rock-chair.
"Amy found a pink daisy," Silver said, striding over to the feline's position.
"I heard," the pink frail sack mumbled, she didn't look away from the hole.
"You're not gonna come see it?"
Blaze punted another rock into the pit.
"Hear that?"
Silver paused in confusion, before pulling his ears closer to the abyss. A minute clang rang back from the base of the pit.
"Oh?" Silver replied. "What could that be?"
"That's what I've been trying to figure out"
"Tails would know what's up," Silver slipped his hands back into his jacket.
"Maybe", Blaze redirected her attention back to the hole. She crouched a bit in order to acquire a better sense of observation. Silver looked down at his shoes and stretched the fingers on his right hand. He wasn't sure what to say next.
"Blaze, is everything alright?" Silver asked.
"This temperature's killing me," she said. She used her gloved finger to smudge some snow that had formed on her eyebrows.
"Want my jacket?"
"You'll freeze to death," she said.
"That's why you're here, right?" a small smirk found its way on the hedgehog's face.
Blaze said nothing, she pulled her hood down to give her ears some protection from the cold and let gravity drop her to a proper sitting position. Her attention was back to the hole. The edges of Silver's lips drooped downwards. He pulled out his right hand, clutched his chest, and walked away.
"Well I hope everyone's having a better day than I am," Tails said. He'd just come back from his elevated place of solace, still holding on to the comms device in one hand.
Sonic finally broke his pact with the clouds and shot a small grin Tail's way.
"What's the matter buddy?" he blasted upright and rapidly shook off the trail of insects that had made his right shoe into a travel route. "We heading out? I'm getting tired of watching Amy and these two lovebirds over here."
Tails scratched the back of his right large ear and shook his head slowly. Some snow, dust, and dirt fell off the furry lined edges of his hood. It had been a long day.
"Sorry Sonic but it's not that easy," he murmured, "we're still going to be here for a while".
"Oh great," Sonic replied with a frustrated sigh. He let himself fall back onto his bed of rocks.
"Don't worry, I just need to gather more intel and we'll be on the move."
A large wave struck the cliff' side, sending shock-waves up its structure.
"I hope you're right, I'm not digging this crazy climate," Sonic said.
"We'll be fine, I'll ask Blaze to set up a campsite in like five minutes." Tails looked around, searching for the pink cat. "Where is she?"
"She's still near the hole, throwing rocks in or something," Sonic said. "I guess she knows something that we don't".
Blaze punted another rock into the abyss, causing a slightly louder clang to echo through its walls.