Knuckles lay down in front of the master emerald, feeling the warm sun beat gently on his body. Suddenly, he felt a gust of wind and looked to see Sonic worried.
"Where's Tails?" Knuckles asked.
"All I found was this..." Sonic took out the plushie
"I dunno... maybe he went home."
"I already looked there! I've looked literally everywhere, and still can't –"
"All you ever do is complain! Fine, you know what? I'll go look for pipsqueak. You don't move from guard. Got it?" Sonic folded his arms.
"Whatever."
"Good. I'll be back."
Knuckles left and stopped, watching the sunset. 'It's gonna be hard in the dark... but I do owe it to the kid to make sure that he's okay.' Knuckles thought.
He walked into the forest and looked around, cautiously. Almost halfway in, he heard footsteps and turned.
"Tails?"He asked
Then he heard footsteps behind him again, and got a little nervous. He saw a shadow run from one tree to another and ran to it.
"Tails! Quit playing! Sonic is worried!"He yelled. But nothing happened. The forest was almost completely dark, and he proceeded walking forward. Suddenly, something grabbed his ankle and pulled him to the floor. Knuckles struggled, then gasped as he saw another figure on the floor. It was Tails. And he looked almost dead.
"Kn-knuckles..." Tails said weakly reaching out for him.
Knuckles struggled and fought off the person holding his ankle. When he was free he went to grab Tails, but gasped as he saw Tails was gone. Knuckles gasped as he felt his heart start to race and started forward trying to ignore it. He saw a face in the shadows of the trees staring at him, and gasped, falling back in shock. Suddenly he heard,
"Knuckles? Is that you?"
He jumped up and turned, seeing Tails run to him. Knuckles grinded his teeth and darted to Tails grabbing his wrist tightly and saying,
"Where were you?!"
"I-I was lost! I was scared! So they helped me–"
"Who?"
"My new friends. Wanna meet–"
"No. Shut-up, you're coming with me."
"Knuckles, why're you so–"
"I SAID SHUT-UP!" Knuckles roared, scaring the kit into silence.
Tails sighed and hung his head as Knuckles tightened his grip on Tails' wrist, and practically dragged Tails out of the forest to the master emerald. They saw Sonic staring blankly at the plushie by the emerald. Knuckles aggressively thrust Tails to Sonic, and Sonic looked up.
"Tails!"
"Sonic! I was so scared!"
"I was so worried!"
They hugged, and Sonic ran his fingers through Tails' fur, almost as if he couldn't believe Tails was actually there. Then they let go and Sonic said,
"I told you not to believe those stories..."
"I'm Sorry, Sonic."
Knuckles zoned out, and looked back at the forest. He remembered Tails on the floor, and the thing grabbing his ankle and shivered.
"... Knuckles was too mad for me to explain how I survived." Tails said.
"Mad? Why was he mad?" Tails shrugged.
"He was just really mad and twitchy."
Sonic looked at Knuckles and Knuckles stubbornly folded his arms.
"What?" He said
"Is there something you want to talk about?"
"No." Knuckles snapped.
"Right... Tails you think you could give us a minute?"
"How long?"
"Come back in an hour."
"Yes, Sonic."
Tails flew off and Sonic said,
"What's up, Knux?"
"Nothing, Sonic."
"Tell me..." Knuckles told sonic what happened, and Sonic gave out a holler.
"Nice try, Knux. You can't get me like you got Tails."
"I'm serious!"
"Right... Heh. Looks like you fell victim to your own stories!"
"But those were just fake legends! Campfire tales!" Sonic shrugged.
"Maybe they are, but you scared yourself silly!"
"I'm not scared!"
"Hey, it's all right to admit you're scared. Everybody gets scared some–"
"I'm not scared! Fear is just an obstacle. I never have and never will feel it."
At this Sonic raised an eyebrow, folded his arms, and leaned on a tree.
"Oh really?"
"YES!"
"All right... go for a walk in the forest. Alone."
"Right now?"
"Mm-hmm."
"No."
"Ooh, is Knuckles scared?"
"Never! I just have to watch that emerald."
"I got it, Knux. Why don't you go prove yourself?"
"Fine, I will."
"Fine, go."
Knuckles looked at the forest biting his lip, and Sonic tapped his foot.
"I'm waiiiiiitiiiinng..." Sonic teased.
"Hmph."
Knuckles looked back at Sonic, then stook up his nose, walking to the forest.
'There's nothing in here... I've been running through the forest my whole life. I know everything about it. Those images were just my mind playing tricks on me...' Knuckles thought.
Though even he couldn't convince him that the situation was all in his head because he knew it'd been too real. 'Whatever it was, I'm going to get to the bottom of this.'