Sooo chapter 3 here. Yay. :)

-(Amy)

Rouge led the cloaked man towards the table I was sitting at. I actually felt the colour drain from my face. What if this mercenary found Shadow, but then killed him? I know it's far fetched, but it could happen! Maybe...

Regardless, he sat himself down, opposite me and next to Rouge, then they began discussing prices. "Sounds like a straightforward enough job. Can you tell me what you know about this person?" Rouge looked at him, shaking her head and then pointed to me, saying,
"She's the one to ask about that. She knew him." So he turned his head towards me - I imagine to indicate that he was looking at me, seeing as his eyes were not visible – staring at me expectantly. So, I spilled the beans.
"His name is Shadow, he's a hedgehog, he should be about eighteen years old. He has black fur, six quills, and a red streak down each. He also has red eyes..." I won't tell you what else I said, because some of it was embarrassing and I waffled about nothing in particular several times. That was the only point in the last two years that I had thought 'Thank god Shadow isn't here.'

"Well, you know a considerable amount about this... Shadow boy, so I should be able to find him. I will, of course, need at least one of you to accompany me to make sure that the person that I find is, in fact, Shadow. Will that be okay with you, ladies?" Rouge and I exchanged a glance. This was not the practice that we had heard of for a mercenary, but who were we to question him?

"Of course." Rouge replied, still looking ever so slightly confused. "We will both accompany you, if that is alright."

And that is how we ended up on the road with a mercenary. I really need to re-evaluate what are good and bad decisions... Not that how mattered after a week or so.

We were a week from the town in which my little orphanage was located, when the first alarm was raised on the 'Shadow hunt'. I swear, he looked just like him from behind, but when we approached him and he turned around... he couldn't have looked less like Shadow. For starters, this hedgehog had brown eyes. Not red. Brown. Even the mercenary could tell that this was not Shadow, and he didn't even know him.

I was seriously beginning to think that we would never find Shadow, even though it was only the first week. I had... well, I had given up if I'm honest. Pathetic, I know, but I had. The fact that we had found someone similar in such a short amount of time was good, very good, but the fact that it wasn't him... it hurt a little. It hurt that we had found someone so similar, yet so different.

That night, when had checked into an inn, the mercenary came to see me. We had separate room, of course, but he decided to visit me in mine. "How are you?" He asked as I let him in. I was in a long, light pink night gown, and had just been getting ready for bed at the time.
"I'm okay, I suppose. Just a little disappointed." I sighed and dropped back onto the single bed in my room, looking longingly at nothing in particular. He must have picked up on the fact that I was lying through my teeth, since he tentatively sat next to me.
"Y'know... it might be that we only just missed him, or maybe we've seen him, but you just didn't... recognise him. He could have changed a lot since you saw him last."

"He could have," I admitted looking at him with disappointment obvious on my face, "but I highly doubt it. He knows how guilty I felt... that I would find him, even if it killed me. So I refuse to admit that he has changed." Utter determination replaced my disappointment at that point. I was not going to give up. Not now, not ever.

He stayed with me for a good ten minutes, reassuring me that he would find Shadow, and quickly too. That seemed to boost my belief in the situation, for some reason, as I knew that the mercenary was a lot like Shadow himself. Calm, cool and calculating on the outside, but a giant softy on the inside.

R&R please!