Thorns And Roses 4
by ~Animegirl300
~~~~
The foot soldier knocked on the massive doors of the great hall hesitantly. He had bad news to tell his master, and if there was one thing their Overlord hated more then defeat, it was bad news.
"Enter"
The voice that said this was deep with a scratchy sort of roughness. It sounded unearthly. It sounded Evil.
The soldier hesitated as he pushed opened the door. He didn't want to die!
His pace quickened as he walked in.
The room was high ceilinged and very dark. The only source of light was at the end of the great hall coming from two torches on each side of a massive throne.
But the throne wasn't the massive thing about the room. Sitting on this throne was a huge figure who was so tall the glow of the lights beside him couldn't reach his face, and so it was hidden in darkness.
The soldier nervously kneeled to the ground and bowed before the devilish being sitting on the throne.
"Speak" He commanded with a bored kind of air.
"S-sir! The commandant of the second Regiment has sent a message! The army of Acorn has decimated them during their attack on Furville! They only have 10 soldiers left and they're dying fast! What should we do!"
"Hmmmm, I see."
For a moment there was silence and then the dark figure leered evilly.
"Tell him and the other generals to gather all the troops to the city of Gravestone. I think it's time for a bit of reorganizing."
"Y-yes sir!"
The solider ran out of the room, both ecstatic that his life was spared, and evilly pleased for this new turn of events: if Black Doom was reorganizing the army, this could only mean one thing: soon, very soon it would be time for battle!
Gore and violence was the very essence of the Black Arms race.
Their love of violence went right down to their genetics; they couldn't get enough of the satanic feeling that killing gave them.
The smell of blood, the screams of terror, the chaos!
It was their drug.
It was their lifeline!
He hurried his pace ready to complete his task with a new type of eagerness.
Black Doom folded his clawed hands together and plucked awake this Third Eye that was implanted into a squid like body.
"It is time that I've gotten rid of these Mobian pests! My eye! Go to Castle Acorn and observe the so called King of Acorn. If they begin to recognize our movements, you know what to do. We must not allow these vermin to figure out our plans before we are ready. Now go!"
As the eye 'swam' away Black Doom's evil laughter could be heard far through the walls of his hidden empire.
It was almost time.
~~~~
Amy woke up with a start.
She looked around at the now familiar walls of the guest room she shared with Cream.
The sun was shining merrily from the open window doors that lead to a small balcony that stretched over the main one of the beach house.
She sighed.
She hadn't even realized that she had fallen asleep; she had been up late thinking about… Him.
A few days had passed since the little incident in the forest, and ever since then the two hedgehogs developed an unspoken unanimous decision to distance themselves.
Amy started to pay more attention to the others, and did her best to avoid being alone with him, and he put his efforts into staying as far away from her as possibly.
When they did talk, they were very short hello goodbye type of talk; the awkwardness kept them from any real conversation.
Amy sighed.
She wanted to be friendlier, but she still didn't know what he thought about her now. She had a feeling he didn't exactly hate her: or else he would have completely shut her out. But at the same time, she didn't think her presence would be welcome for a while. She would at least give it all time to blow over, and until she figured out his feelings on the whole mess.
She sat up and looked around, and frowned as she realized that Cream was up already: her bed was already made.
She hurried to get dressed and ran downstairs to the kitchen; their usual meeting place, but nobody was there.
She grabbed an apple and started out to the balcony, but just as she was about to grab the door handle it slid opened, and to her surprise it was Shadow.
They stood there for a moment not sure what do, then Shadow closed his eyes and walked past, not looking at her.
"If your looking for your friends, they're down at the beach."
"Oh, thanks Shadow"
She stared after him but then turned to the beach, and sure enough she could see the forms of her friends playing in the sand and water.
She hurried upstairs to change into her bathing suit and was soon down on the beach waving to everyone else.
The beach was a fun event.
They buried a sleeping Knuckles in the sand; they built sand castles and had a contest which Amy, Cream, Sally, and Rouge won; Knuckles and Rouge and Tails made a game of jumping into the water from a cliff, and Knuckles threw a loudly protesting Sonic into the water before he had to get saved, for which Sally volunteered enthusiastically.
"I didn't know you can't swim" Amy said as he laid out on a towel next to her, still recovering from his dive.
He mumbled something about a stupid Echidna as she laughed.
~~~~~
Shadow was relaxing on the roof of the vacation home.
His eyes were closed but his ears would twitch every once in a while at the sound of the ocean.
This would have been the ideal situation for him to take a nap, but he had a lot on his mind at the moment. For the last few days he had tried to put everything to the very back of his mind but, like most thoughts, the more he reminded himself not to think about it, the more he DID think about it.
He was actually getting annoyed at himself.
Why was it that the thing that didn't even happen, kept playing over and over again in his mind? And even if it did happen, why would it have mattered so very much?
It wasn't as if he had never kissed a girl before, and when he had it hadn't ever been meaningful. So, why would this one be special? Why would this one be an exception to the very rules had had placed over himself?
He was above emotional attachment. It was over rated.
But wasn't that another problem?
WAS he truly becoming attached to the girl?
He closed his eyes. Okay. So he almost kissed her. What did that mean?
It meant…
He frowned to himself.
What DID that mean?
Did that mean he was growing fond of her?
Possibly.
He knew already that he was attracted to her. After all, what man wouldn't be aroused by the image of her, scantly dressed, with her and her womanly devices?
He already knew that he was interested in observing her.
He still couldn't figure out exactly how to define her character: on one hand she was childish, the other she was mature, and on one hand she was full of energy, the next she was calm. Yes, her character both confused him and interested him.
But how did he actually feel about her emotionally?
That was the problem.
He glared at the sky, deep in thought.
He knew he enjoyed her company.
Yes, he distinctly remembered feeling more …content in her company then usual.
He knew that he cared, just a bit, for her.
As a kid he had hated seeing her crying, and the image of her doing so again caused a bad sort of sinking feeling within himself. That and her getting hurt somehow; that was very bad too.
He knew that he had felt a sudden flash of anger when he saw her talking so intently with the blue annoyance.
He frowned darkly.
Yes, that definitely was not a good thing.
But there was something else about her that called to him naturally. He couldn't tell what it was though. It was something different: something foreign; a weird twisting feeling in his chest.
But why was he growing fond of her?
Why would he attach himself to someone, when he knew how much pain losing them would cause?
He thought more about the subject and he realized with a jolt, that it had been six years since the other 'incident'.
It didn't feel like six years. Time had flown by, hadn't it?
Since that day…
Since the day he lost someone very important to him.
His 'older sister'…
Maria…
-
Maria had been his closest friend: his only 'true' friend.
She had been very kind, very open, and she had cared for him.
When he was younger he use to sneak out of the castle he lived in and he would go and visit the near-by village simply for some excitement in his boring life.
He would walk around town, enjoying the sites, observing the workers, and most importantly trying to stay conspicuous.
One morning he had decided to skive off another boring math lecture, and he headed straight for the village.
That morning he was watching the construction of one of the new buildings when something bumped his leg.
He looked down and saw it was a little red ball.
"Hey kid!"
He looked up and behind him separated by a little shabby fence were a group of kids playing in the abandoned lot.
"Can you throw that back?"
He nodded and picked up the ball, and threw it towards the kid, a small little red haired boy.
Just as the boy caught it, a girl had come up to fence.
"What's taking so long Billy?" She said kindly. Then she noted the black and red hedgehog standing there.
"Oh, hello; do you want to play?"
Shadow hesitated. He wasn't good with socializing.
But before he could answer she had come over and grabbed his arm leading him over to the other kids.
"My name's Maria, what's yours?"
"Shadow" he mumbled.
She laughed at him kindly as they got back to the group.
"Hey guys, this is Shadow, he's going to play with us!"
The other kids waved and said hi before they all turned to walk back to their former spots for their baseball match.
They had played baseball for the rest of the day, Maria volunteering to teach Shadow after he had failed miserably at his turn at bat.
For the first time in a long time he was actually having fun.
Ever since that day he would always come down to the village to meet up with his new friend, sometimes with the others join them, sometimes by themselves playing simple games.
One day on the way back home, his mother had caught him outside.
At first he thought he was on deep trouble, but to his great surprise she actually encouraged him getting some fresh air and hanging out with some kids his own age.
So for almost three years he had a friend who he trusted and cared for, and over the years they became like brother and sister.
But then, suddenly and horribly, it all changed for him.
For almost a year a group that called themselves the Black Arms had been casing trouble for the Kingdom of Acorn. Lead by the Evil War Lord Black Doom, they raided and destroyed many of the smaller towns and village's through-out the Kingdom.
Nobody could ever tell where they would hit next, but one day, at dusk the citizens of the village saw something fast approaching: a cloud of dusk off in the distance. The people had lined up outside the village to see what it was, and then, suddenly the alarms were sounded! They were under attack!
The people ran back to grab their children and their belongings, and then they ran toward the castle: it was MADE for times like these.
But just as the first people made it inside the walls of the castle, the Black Arms Soldiers had already reached the village! Houses were being burned down left and right, the soldier themselves were hacking and cutting and destroying anything in their wake!
For hours the Castle Soldiers tried to back them off, but the damage was already done.
For the rest of the night the village glowed from the flames of the burning buildings.
The next morning the villagers had come back to find that many of their houses were gone, and many loved ones, neighbors, family and friends had been killed in the attack.
Shadow had gone to the place Maria's house had been only to find it gone: nothing but a pile of ashes, he tried to find her or her family, but he never found them. They must have died with the others.
Shadow had lost the only friend he ever had…
For months he locked himself up in his room, for the first week he stopped eating, but by the second to eat was the only reason he left it.
He stopped going down to the village, he stopped caring about anything anymore.
He shut out everyone, including his parents, and he vowed that he would never become attached to anyone else.
-
Over the years he had gotten over the death of his friend: not completely over it; there were still the memories; but he learned to deal with the loss.
He stopped locking himself away, but he didn't interact with people.
He stopped shutting out his parents, but he wouldn't let them completely in.
The only thing he never changed was his vow to never become too attached.
He would keep as much a distance as possible, all for the sake of saving himself from the agony of grief.
And he planned to keep it that way.
For the last half of a week had had kept himself as far away from Amy Rose as possibly.
He avoided being alone with her, and ignored his desire for her company.
When it chanced that they did end up together, he was polite but not friendly.
Not that he needed to be anything else: Amy, it seemed, was doing her best to stay away as well.
He had to admit though that he sort of missed her company; it was a lot more boring without her, but that was all he allowed himself to think of on that subject.
He would make himself content with being alone.
Even if he regretted it now.
He gritted his teeth as he glanced towards the beach.
Even from here he could see the pink hedgehog laughing and talking with the blue boob.
He shook his head at the wave of hot anger that rose to his chest.
Why the heck should he care?
He had known for years that Amy had designs for the blue hedgehog, despite her constant denials, and her flexibility to watch him do the things with someone else, that she probably wanted to do with him.
His ears flattened against his head before he jumped up, and with the agility and strength of his kind, he jumped down from the roof and landed on his feet before speeding off into the jungle in the opposite direction of the beach.
He would have to clear his thoughts another way.
~~~~
"Uh oh. It looks like rain you guys"
Everyone looked up from what they were doing to look at the clouds that Knuckles was pointing to.
Sure enough even at the distance they were in they could see the dark mass fast approaching.
They gathered their stuff and headed back up to the beach house.
When they had reached the front door a light drizzle had started up, but soon it was pouring.
They played Spades to keep them preoccupied for a while, but eventually Tails, Cream, and Amy got tired of it, and watched as again and again Rouge beat Sonic and Knuckles, winning a good amount of their allowance.
"Dammit Knuckles! Stop cutting me!"
"It's not my fault you big loser, I ran out!"
"YOU HAVE A DIMOND RIGHT THERE!"
"Oh! Is THAT what this is? I thought it was a pointy square…"
"… You idiot."
While Sonic and Knuckles were duking it out over their card game, Amy climbed the stairs and headed to her room, noting with mild interest that Cream and Tails had disappeared. She giggled.
The room was empty, as expected, the rain was making squiggly patterns on the window doors. It was raining pretty hard.
Silently she went to one of her bags: it was rectangular with hand straps. She unzipped it and took out what she was looking for: he easel and paint kit.
She didn't know where the sudden need for artistic recreation came from, but she felt like she needed to be painting something.
With the stuff set up and ready she sat down and stared at the blank canvas, visualizing what she wanted.
She would start out with the beach.
First she took out a soft yellowish-badge color, and using her smaller brush, she used small light strokes and painted a long arch that started smaller and grew bigger as it came to the side of the canvas.
She took out the green and painted the jungle with her small brush, shaping the trees and the brush, and then she painted out the flowers in their different colors; oranges and reds, and blues, and purples.
For the water she used a turquoise color accenting the waves of the ocean, and with the smallest brush painted small dashes over the water as a reflection of the beach. Then she took a softer creamy blue and painted the sky, adding clouds with white.
Then she added a few crabs on the beach, and star fish for fun.
She looked at the end result critically: it was okay, but she knew she would never be Picasso.
She had just finished packing up her supplies when Tails and Cream walked past.
"I don't see him anywhere"
"Maybe he left"
"Who're you looking for you two?"
Cream came back and waved.
"Hi Amy, we were looking for Mr. Shadow; nobody's seen him since this morning."
This caught her attention.
"Where have you looked?"
"All over the place: we searched all the rooms, but no sign of him."
"You don't think he would have gone out in THIS weather do you?" Tails said as they walked down the stairs to the others.
Amy thought about it. And she could feel her sweat drop.
He WOULD be the person to go outside in the middle of a storm, although it was possible he had left before it came: that was more likely.
She sighed and looked out the window.
He would probably get a cold if left out there for too long.
As capable as he was for handling himself, most of the guys around here had a thing for not paying attention to their health.
She guessed she would have to look for him.
She grabbed a brown Hoodie and her umbrella and went out to the main balcony.
Now she just had to find him.
Where would he be…?
'Well' she thought to herself, 'if he wasn't with us at the beach, so we know he's not there'
She thought looking to the front of her.
'And if he had been in the direction,' She looked to her right, 'he would have seen the storm coming. So that leaves to the back'
As she walked through the forest, she wondered just what he was doing out here.
Sight seeing maybe?
~~~~
Shadow shook out his fur as the rain soaked through another layer of his person, as he kneeled panting, the point of his sword in the ground as he held it up.
He glared at a tree in front of him at his handy work; a series of deep slashes in its side.
For the last hour and a half he had been hacking at it; training his arms to withstand the exhaustion that swinging around a sword for a long period of time would give you.
He ignored the rain.
With a mindset similar to most men of his age, he wasn't about to let a little water, and something called basic health sense stop him from what he was doing.
He stood up and carrying his sword in his left hand charged at the tree slashing and cutting repeatedly. But after a while his arm gave a painful throb, and wincing he pointed his sword in the ground again, and sat down.
He closed his eyes as he sat there sitting, feeling the rain tapping on his head and shoulders, soaking his fur.
Then it stopped.
His eyes blinked opened and he looked up to be startled.
He hadn't even heard her approach, but Amy was standing there with her umbrella smiling down at him.
"Hey'a Shadow. I was looking all over for you."
He gave her a stare and grunted turning towards the tree again.
'So much for clearing my head' He thought. But he didn't move. For one thing he was too tired.
Amy sat down next him.
"Had fun with your sword practice?"
His ear twitched towards her and he gave a slow single nod.
Amy was not to be deterred by his coolness.
She was determined that she was going to get her friend back.
"You look tired. How long have you been at it?"
He rolled his eyes as if to say 'Peh! Me? Tired?'
"A while,"
He knew he was being a bit rude. And he also knew she didn't deserve it.
He shivered as he felt a sudden breeze, the burst of air only magnified by the rain water that had him soaked.
Amy saw the movement despite his effort to keep it controlled.
"Oh! You must be freezing!"
She took off her jacket and put it on his shoulders.
For a moment he was startled as she came close and put it around his neck, and was about to protest, thinking something along the lines of him not being a baby. But at her touch he lost his train of thought, and the warmth from her jacket caused it to die down.
She was too nice to him.
She smiled at him, and he looked away unwilling to meet her eyes.
"Thanks"
He sighed inwardly.
His plan to clearing the girl from his mind had completely backfired.
"It's starting to get late; let's go!"
Before he could protest she had grabbed his hand, making him stand up, took his sword from where it was sitting in the ground with the hand holding her umbrella, and led him off back towards the house.
He almost wanted to pull away, but Amy had a certain air around her at that moment.
It made him feel, humiliatingly, like a child.
But even if he felt embarrassed about the situation, he just didn't have the heart to break away again.
~~~~~