I do not own sonic the hedgehog or any of the characters from the games, movies or comics but I do own this story and the other characters, I hope you enjoy it.

Things Only Whispered In The Shadows

Ch22. To Live Another Day

They had been traveling for a week now that Maxis' fever had broken. It had taken its toll but they had learned some valuable lessons about the price of traveling unprepared in the Desert.

Talon climbed the large dune overlooking the rocky outcropping of the last oasis before their destination. Rune had slept through the day and night after Maxis' fever had broken and Talon worried that she might not be up to the journey afterward. Thankfully she seemed fine after sleeping and there wasn't much he could do other than keep an eye on her and take up as much work as he could handle. Right now that meant scouting ahead and making sure a grown sand worm didn't ambush them. It had happened twice already and he was bound and determined that it not happen a third.

"Anything up ahead?" Fel called up from the bottom of the dune as Talon scanned the area.

"Not this time, one more push and we should be there though." He slid down the steep side of the dune, flinging sand at Fel as he neared the bottom. Things were hard out in the desert but when in his life weren't they? He could scarcely remember his early childhood and everything after had been one hellscape after the other punctuated with the few happy moments he could catch with the people he cared about. A frown creases his brow as he remembers his last words to his sister. How could he have been so stupid, and why did she have to be so stubborn all of the time? He catches a face full of sand and sputters loudly.

"You'll have to keep your head in the game if you want to start a fight with the great and powerful Fel!" Fel stands dramatically with one hand raised in the air and the other full of more sand.

"Oh, is that right?" He would sulk later, he had a best friend to best. He pulled his sword off of his back and dropped it nearby then hefted an armload of sand up.

"Oh shit." Contrary to his words, a huge grin spread on Fel's face as the sand throwing commenced.

"What the hell guys. As if that stuff wasn't hard enough to get out of your cloths." Rune shakes her head continuing on up the dune around them with a chuckling Maxis following behind.

As they finally settle down for the morning among the trees of the final oasis a figure appeared in the distance slowly approaching from the direction they intended to head next.

The figure was blurry at first as the heat began to set in and the closer it got the more it seamed to waver until they saw that it was indeed a person wavering on the brink of collapsing. "Hold on!" Fel was the first up and over to the newcomer and everyone else was up in a heartbeat just in case."Slowly now, I've got you." The figure was draped in dusty, well worn and loos fitting cloths fit for the desert but ragged none the less. Fel eased him over to the camp and helped lay the stranger down on a bedroll.

With a weak cough and a shudder of pain the hood fell back to reveal the bloodied face of a sandy colored badger about the same age as Talon himself. "They can't hold it back for long, I have to find the keeper of the Ruins. He can help us, he..." His voice trailed off with another bout of coughing as more blood dripped slowly down his chin.

Talon fetched his canteen of water and offered it to the newcommer in hopes to stem the fit some. "Take it slow, we're here to help." He accepts it thankfully and takes a long swallow of the cool drink before sighing and nodding. "Now, what is attacking and where is it?"

Rune busies herself checking him over and bandaging his wounds while Maxis listens intently while gathering their things together. "I was out on a scouting trip when it attacked the city, they sent me to get the old man in the ruins. I was attacked by Nereis on the way here. It was spooked by the Scorpius." His breathing had stabilized as Rune finished her work and he took another gulp of water. Maxis continued to pack up the camp around them with precise and deliberate patience. "Please, if you say you're here to help then I need to get to the temple."

"Calm down boy. You won't need to go that far." The badger looked up as if seeing the old fox for the first time, his brow knit in confusion at his words. "I'm the temple guardian." Realization dawned on him and Talon almost lost his cool as he covered his mouth to keep from smiling, Temple guardian indeed. The stories of their home had certainly grown in the time they had lived there.

"You.." The words quiet as he breathed them out. "How have you..." He let his words trail off as he looked around at the ragtag group.

"We were actually looking for you, the resistance right?" Talon gave The badger a warm smile as he nodded numbly. "We need a place to start taking back the world and we figured, hey what better place to start than the one place that he can't reach?" Fel had begun helping with the clean up with Maxis, keeping pace with the already determined fox.

"Well, so much for getting a good days rest before heading out." Rune runs a hand though her quills before sighing heavily and getting up to pack her own gear before Fel could get to it.

"Oh don't be like that Rune. Adventure awaits!" The orange of Fel's fur almost a blur as he rushes from one end of camp to the other to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

"Unlike you some of us regularly require sleep." She snaps halfheartedly at him while rolling up her own blankets.

"I sleep sometimes. Oh by the way what's a Nereis?" Fel skids to a halt mid stride on his way past the badger.

"Surely you have seen one by now, they are the tunneling worms that live in the deep sands. Although if you are in such high spirits I suppose you probably got lucky."

"Nope." Rune didn't even look up from her packing.

"I was wondering what those things were called." Fel continued on his frantic dash around the camp.

"Two of em." And Talon offered the badger a hand up. "Names Talon, didn't catch yours yet." With a furious blush the Badger stammered out an apology for his rudeness.

"Forgive me, I was in such a rush to find well, you I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Jackson."

"Well, Jackson. It is a pleasure to meet you, and I promise that we will do what we can to help however we can." Jackson looks at him with veritable stars in his eyes as he levers himself up with Talons help. "Right now information is key, what exactly is a Scorpius and why is it attacking?"

Jackson's eyes dart away toward the ground for a moment and takes another long gulp from the canteen before handing it back. "It is the only thing capable of eating a grown Nereis. It is a scorpion thirty feet long and has toxic venom that it uses to kill the Nereis." Talon pales at the description. Giant sand worms that tried to eat you in one gulp were one thing, but the thing that ate them?

"Hell." Rune looks up at Talon at his use of anything remotely close to a swear and then to the badger.

"Yes, and if someone doesn't stop it there will be no resistance left to fight beside." The Starstruck look on Jackson's face never wavering as he continues to go into detail about Scorpius' rampage and apparent invulnerability to most basic weapons.

"If you will excuse me for a minute Jackson I need to talk to Rune for a minute about, something..." Talon wandered almost aimlessly toward Rune and set one shaking hand down on her shoulder. "We need to talk this one through before we get there." Rune had never seen him this shaken about any creature before.

"Alright, but are you going to be Ok?" concern tinged her voice as she asked the obvious. He shakes his head and covers his face with his free hand.

"No, Not even in the slightest. How are we going to take on a heavily armored giant scorpion with deadly poison?"

"A what?" Now it was her turn to wonder what they had just signed up for.

"A heavily armored giant scorpion with deadly poison." They sat in silence for a minute before Maxis hit them over the head with a rolled up blanket.

"Stop over thinking it, we have everything ready to leave and you are more than well enough trained to fight something like this together."

"I don't know if you noticed but we are kind of missing someone who ususaly helps fight the giant monsters." Talons features grew distant for a moment as Maxis scoffed at him.

"And you seem to have forgotten that we brought another person who can help us fight the giant monsters." Pointing a thumb at Rune.

"I don't think this is a good idea." Rune tried to deny it but her magic might indeed be useful, if she didn't get herself killed in the process.

"Nonsense, I believe in you."

"Believing in something doesn't..." but the old fox was already on his way over to Fel as they secure the last of the gear and set out in toward the Desert city.

With a defeated sigh and a comforting hand on her back Rune helped Talon get Jackson to a comfortable pace and followed Maxis and Fel over the dunes and toward the top predator of the desert as the sun rose over the sand bathing it a soft red in the early mornings heat.

That is it for ch.22! I hope you enjoyed it. Feedback is welcome!