"Sonic." Tails wined from his cockpit. "We've been flying around for hours."
"Yeah." Sonic said as he looked around the desert. "Hey Knuckles!" Sonic shouted over the turbulences.
"What is it!?"
"You think we should take a brake or something!?"
Knuckles looked around as well and noticed a small oasis nearby. "Yeah! Let's go over there!"
"Ok! Tails, did you get that!?"
"Yeah, I'm on it!" Tails said as he prepared for a landing. Then the group jumped off the X-Tornado. "Ok well I think-"
"What the hell are you doing!!!?" Rudolph shouted as he jumped off of the jet. "Why did we stop!!?"
"Just chill dude!" Sonic called with his trademark grin. "We all need a break every now and again." Rudolph glared at Sonic and then tried to take a punch at him only to miss. "You gotta stop underestimating my speed." Sonic grinned. Rudolph glared at him and then walked off into the oasis. "Jezz there's really something wrong with that guy."
"Well while you two were fighting, I was able to grab some firewood." Knuckles called with a handful of sticks.
"Great, hey Tails?" Sonic called to his brother.
"Yeah Sonic?"
"Did you remember to bring my grill and cooking stuff?"
"Yeah you bet. It's in the X-Tornado." Tails called as he ran over to his jet. During this time, Knuckles began setting up the sticks in rows one on top of the other. Once Knuckles was finished, Blaze ignited a small fireball in her hands and lit the camp fire. Then finally, Tails came back with Sonic's portable grill, a pack of frozen vegiburgers and his spatula. Before Tails could even make it to the camp site, Sonic had already took the items out of Tails' hands and set the burgers on the grill over the campfire and began cooking.
"Man I love burgers." Sonic drooled as he flipped a vegiburger on his grill. "Mmmm! I can't wait for these to be finished!"
"Sonic," Tails said softly as he sat next to Sonic, "Rudolph has been gone for quite a while. Do you think something happened to him?"
"He's only been gone a few minutes bud, relax. I bet he's probably just blowing off some steam anyways." Sonic grinned as he flipped over the burgers.
'Damnit!' Rudolph thought as he pushed through a few bushes. 'Mobians, they're all the same, completely selfish.' But then he remembered how both Knuckles and even Sonic stood up to Pachacamac for him. Just this thought alone was enough to slow him down, and he stood there in the bushes staring at the sky. 'Why? Why did they protect me? Why does Knuckles treat me with respect and… why does Sonic even care about me…?' Then Rudolph's thoughts were broken by the sound of a twig snapping. Rudolph quickly snapped back into focus and jumped through the bushes to find a grassy clearing. And then Rudolph felt usual energy, it wasn't strong or aggressive, but rather neutral and peaceful. Rudolph looked towards the source to see a bush shaking slightly, and he knew someone was coming. As he stared at the bush, slowly a young tan female echidna wearing torn traditional tribal clothes and a gold hand band weakly walked into the clearing holding her arm. Once Rudolph saw the female, he couldn't believe his eyes, it was the tribe princess, Tikal.
After Tikal reached the clearing, she looked up to see Rudolph standing there staring directly towards her causing her to stop as well.
"Hello there." Tikal said trying to get the brown echidna's attention.
"Princess…"
"You know me?"
'She doesn't remember me… that's good…' Rudolph thought.
"Are you ok?" Tikal asked getting closer to Rudolph.
Rudolph quickly got down on his knee, "My name is Rudolph princess. I've come to bring you back to your home."
"Really? But I thought-AH!" Tikal screamed she tried to move her arm.
"What's wrong!?" Rudolph asked completely alarmed.
"I… I think my arm is broken." She wined through her pain.
"Here let me help. Please lie down." Tikal nodded then tried her best to lie on her back without using her arm. Rudolph then closed his eyes, placed his hands over Tikal and then began to concentrate. Slowly, the young princess was being covered in a light green dome as she slowly felt all of her wounds begin to heal. After a few minutes, the light died down, and Tikal felt as good as new.
"Thank you! Thank you very much! I feel great, as if I were never injured!" Tikal said with gleam causing Rudolph to smile as well. "So… I'm sorry-"
"It's ok." Rudolph said cutting her off. "My name is Rudolph."
"Rudolph, thank you for healing me. But you said you were sent for me? By who?"
"Well truthfully a group was sent to find you… they're just helping me on my mission." Rudolph said as he looked towards the ground.
"A group? Who?"
"The guardian and his friends, princess."
"You mean Knuckles?"
"Yes."
"That's great. Do you know where they are?" Tikal asked with a smile.
"Yes, they are back that way, about a few miles."
"Oh dear, that could take until sunset." Tikal said getting a little discouraged.
"If we start now, we can make it before then." Rudolph said as he stood up and helped up Tikal. "And don't worry, I'll protect you."
"Thank you, Rudolph." Tikal said with a bright smile.
"Of course princess." Rudolph said as he began to turn away.
"Oh and Rudolph," Tikal said causing him to stop and turn back to her. "You can call me Tikal."
"But it would be informal for me to do so."
"But its ok, any friend of Knuckles and Sonic are friends of mine." Tikal said with a bright smile.
"Ok… Tikal." Rudolph said as he turned around with a smile slowly growing on his face.