Chapter 9: The Wall

Meanwhile, Sonic was banging on the door that had closed.

"Open up, you piece of junk! Let me save my brother!"

"It isn't going to open, Sonic," Shadow said. "We just have to move on and find what we're looking for."

"But what about Manic?"

"He can handle himself. Have faith in him."

Sonic sighed and started walking down the tunnel as Shadow and Shadic followed him. "I just don't want anything to happen to him. I almost lost him as a kid..."

"What happened?"

Sonic looked at Shadow, tears in his eyes. "I...I was only 6 when it happened. My family and I were having dinner when bandits stormed our house. I hid under the table, watching in horror as they killed my mom, dad and sister. Manic was on the ground, a knife in his chest. They set the place on fire before leaving. Thankfully, Manic was still alive. I ran out of the house with him, heading to a doctor. We've been on our own ever since. He was the only family I had, until I met you."

Shadic blinked in surprise. "And you never told me until today? I would've tried harder to get along with him if I knew you had gone through that together."

The blue hedgehog hung his head and suddenly hugged Shadow, crying into his chest. Shadow rubbed soothing circles on Sonic's back as he held him. A little awkwardly, since they were so close in size, but he ignored that.

"I'm sorry," Sonic said after a few minutes. "You must think I'm pathetic, wanting to go after my brother instead of finding what we came here for."

"That isn't pathetic. It's called loyalty."

Sonic wiped his tears away. "It's just that...I care about Manic a lot. He's younger than me, so I feel like it's my responsibility to look after him."

"I know. We'll get back to him before you know it."

"Thanks, Shads."

Sonic kissed his husband on the cheek. Shadic watched them, smiling.

"What are we looking for down here?" Shadow asked.

"A Shout," Sonic said as he walked further down the tunnel.

"I know that. But how will we know when we've found it?"

Sonic shrugged. "Dunno. Let's keep looking."

"Hopefully it'll be something obvious," Shadic said.

The blue hedgehog smiled and they walked on. After a while of searching, they found a large wall with writing on it.

"This look suspicious," Sonic said with a grin. He walked forward and saw that the writing was in a different language. For some reason, he could understand it. "This might be what we've been looking for."

He examined the wall and nodded. The next Word was on here. Warm winds wrapped around him and he could hear the word clearly in his mind.

"What does it say?" Shadow asked.

The next word is Ro," Sonic said. "Fus Ro. We need one more word."

"So... We just look Skyrim until we find more of these walls?" Shadic asked.

"It says there's one in the city of Solitude," Sonic said.

"The capital?" Shadow said. "That might be hard to get to."

"How come?" Shadic asked.

"Something like this wall is bound to be in a place they don't want people just wandering into."

"You have a point," Sonic said. Then he grinned. "Manic could help us. He is a thief, after all."

"If it comes to that."

"We should probably head for Solitude, then. It'll take a while to get there."

"What about finding your brother?" Shadic asked.

"He's probably waiting for us at the entrance," Sonic said. "If not, we'll find him on the way."

Shadic smiled, and they headed for the exit.