Trinity: This chapter is pretty short...

Shadow: Why?

Trinity: I couldn't find anything else to stick in it. I think I'm experiencing writers block...

Shadow: You'll get over it...

Tails: (curled up in a corner)

Shadow: ...Is he going to be alright?

I don't own Sega


Chapter 7 – The Dark World

Tails had stopped crying awhile ago. He stood there with his head down, swaying slightly, with a blank mind. He felt odd, like a weight he hadn't notice before, one he got so use to carrying around, had finally been lifted off his chest. He vaguely wondered if this had to do with the crying or talking to Shadow.

A warm arm wrapped around Tails' shoulders and he leaned into the owner's chest for support. Shadow led Tails to his bed and laid him down on his side. He pulled the sheets underneath the kits chin and sat on the edge of the bed. Tails was staring still staring ahead with dull, blank eyes. After a while, the kit slipped into quiet sleep. Shadow watched as the kit's eyes fluttered, then finally slid shut. He stroked the fur on the back of his head gently.

"Don't leave me," Tails murmured in his sleep. Tears gathered at the corner of his eyes.

"I won't. I won't abandon you," Shadow whispered back. He rubbed the soft fur between his Tails' ears. "I promise."

The kit didn't respond but slept a bit more peacefully. Shadow rose from the edge of Tails' bed and turned off the lights, tossing those too tight pants into the corner. He lay down on his own bed, his hands behind his head, and stared up at the ceiling. The moonlight came through the window to decorate the walls in bars of white light. The black hedgehog watched the bars slide slowly down the walls to the floor. Shadow did not sleep that night.

Shadow snapped out of his night long stupor when he saw new golden bars of light were splashed against the walls. He sat up and stretched, then glanced over to the fox boy's bed. Tails was curled up under the sheets, his hand hanging over the side of the bed. The sheets rose and fell with his rhythmic breathing and his fingers twitched every so often.

I'll let him sleep in. He said he didn't sleep last night anyways. Shadow though as he wrapped himself in the travelers cloak. He wanted to make sure it fit him well. He's going to need his strength later.

Shadow left the third floor room wrapped in the cloak, not bothering to put on pants. He went down to the tavern on the first floor, where he smelt breakfast being cooked. His mouth watered when he picked out the particular scent of juicy, freshly cooked sausage. When he found that guests at the inn had a complimentary buffet for breakfast, there was no holding back.

Once he had his fill, Shadow made a plate of food for Tails. Putting the plate and a pitcher of orange juice on a tray, he went back up stairs to their room. Tails was still fast asleep at that early hour of morning, so Shadow left the tray on his bed stand. Tails didn't stir until late in the morning, and his food had long since gone cold.

"Nng. 'Morning Shadow," Tails slurred. He sat up with the sheet hanging off his left ear.

"Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine," Shadow said. He raised an eyebrow at the boy's appearance. Tails tugged the sheet off his head and looked at the tray next to his bed.

"Is this for me?" he asked.

"Yeah, but it's cold now. Unless they can warm it for you downstairs, you should just throw it away. We'll just go get more, if they're still serving breakfast."

Tails grunted and ate the cold food anyways. He washed it all down with the whole pitcher of orange juice. Shadow chuckled and rose from his spot at the table. He grabbed Tails' bag and tossed it at the disgruntled kit. Tails caught it and snarled at Shadow. He was clearly not a morning person.

"Don't snarl at me boy," Shadow said, rapping Tails on the top of his head with his knuckles. Tails clipped his teeth at him and got plucked in the nose. Tails yapped.

"What was that for?!" He snapped, rubbing his nose.

"What's with your attitude?" Shadow replied. "You just tried to bite me."

Tails grumbled angrily as he pulled on his jeans and red hoodie. Shadow frowned at the grumpy kit of a while then turned his attention to the world outside the window. Shadow understood why Tails was particular sour this morning. He was once again walking away from the place he had once called home. He was turning his back on all the people he had gotten to know, the bunnies and bears walking in the streets below, with the thought that he would never see them again.

Tails put on the stuffed backpack, shifting it on his shoulders. Shadow slipped his on too, and crossed the room to the door. His keen eyes swept the room to make sure they left nothing behind. Tails carried the tray and pitcher in his hands so he could bring them down stairs. They left them in the dinning area and walk out of the inn into the crowded street. People fell silent as they walked past them and watched them walk out of the gates of the city of Farsight, never to return.

Shadow and Tails followed the river out of the valley. The further downstream they went, the more rapid-like the river became. Soon, they reached a waterfall that cascaded down a steep cliff and emptied into a pool of sparkling blue waters. The mist from the falls wet their fur and cooled them off considerable in the hot afternoon. Tails glided down while Shadow leaped from rock to slippery rock. Shadow had lost his footing on the rocks quiet a few times, and almost plummeted down into the waters below, but caught hold of another rock and pulled himself up.

The cliff from which the river water cascaded over was at the edge of the tall mountains that made the valleys. The mountains had formed a protective circle-like barrier that left the valley pure and clean, unlike the environment just outside the mountains. Here, the waters slowed and began to change into a nasty shade of green. The vibrant green plants that flourished in the valley became sparse and far between. The air was unnaturally heavy and it seemed they were heading into smog.

Shadow and Tails came to a point where the river was nothing more than a trickle of discolored, muddy water that trickled over the dusty soil. The ground elsewhere was dry, and cracked. The blackened, jagged statues of burned trees and crumpled dead plants dotted the landscape before them. Nothing but the two travelers and wind blown dust moved across the land. And though they moved at a fast pace, the mountains were not that far behind them yet. However, some kind of haze obscured their view so only the dark silhouettes of the lovely mountains loomed behind them. Even more disconcerting was the yellow gas that mingled with the dust hovering just above their ankles. Shadow pointed it out to Tails.

"It's a heavy, poisonous gas," the two-tailed fox explained, watching it swirl around his legs with each step he took. "There's no problem as long you don't get a big whiff of it. Because it's so dense, that's not all that likely to happen. Still, we'll have to find a high place to sleep."

While the gas was of no threat at the moment, the haze and dust were. Shadow pulled the ragged collar of the cloak over his nose and mouth. Tails slipped the hood of his jacket over his head, and pulled the strings so tight, only his eyes were exposed in the opening. They walked through the desert wasteland like this, but in complete silence for hours. The haze blocked the sunlight, but it was still hot enough so they had no energy to speak.

As the sun dipped below the horizon in the west, so did the temperatures. Tails took the lead, flying so he could find a good place to rest. Just as his teeth began to chatter from the intensifying cold, he spotted a rock formation ahead. They raced there and were lucky enough to find a small cave with an opening several feet up the side.

Shadow scaled the almost flat rock face and slipped into the small opening that was tilted toward the sky. Tails dropped in after him and immediately sought to warm himself. Shivering like mad, he dropped his bag and curled into a tight ball in the corner. Shadow, a little less affected by the cold, unpacked Tails' blanket and wrapped it around the kit. Shadow pulled out his own sheet and lays next to Tails, starring out at the stars twinkling dully through the haze.

Shadow felt Tails press closer to him. The yellow ball of fur cuddled up next to the warmth of Shadow's side. He wrapped his tails around himself and, now comfortably warmed, stops shaking. Shadow chuckled at the kit when he peeks out from under his sheets at him. Shadow pats the fox's head and looks back up at the stars. Curled up in the cold silence of the desert-like wastelands, Tails spends his first night in the dark, devastated world.


Tails: ...

Trinity: Aw...cuddling...

Tails: That's wrong on so many different levels...

Shadow: I pet you a lot in this chapter...

Tails: Ah...yup...

Trinity: Review me purrdy please!