The Fox and the Seedrian: Frontiers

by milesprower06

Chapter One

Lily found herself walking down a dirt path, surrounded by dense jungle on both sides. Leaves and ferns brushed against her shoulders as she approached a towering stone altar in the distance. As she got closer, it soon towered above nearly all of the surrounding flora, save for the tallest trees.

The shrubs, bushes, and trees gave way to a clearing of grass, dirt, and half-collapsed stone pillars that surrounded the altar. Two dozen steps up the center provided access up to the top of the two-tiered structure. The surrounding fog prevented her from seeing anything beyond the surrounding forest, and the little orange sky that she saw break through from above couldn't be discerned to be dawn or dusk.

So one step at a time, she ascended the stairs. As she neared the top, the altar's centerpiece came into view; a miraculous green gem, larger than she was. She seemed to gravitate towards it, and as she climbed the final step, she reached out for the gem. Just before she was able to touch it, everything vanished in a flash of light, and she felt the ground underneath her crumble away. She instinctively drew in a breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and prepared herself as best she could for the falling sensation. But it never came, and when she opened her eyes, she found herself on Sonic and Amy's couch.

She took another breath before slowly sitting up.

"Well, that must have been some dream you were having," she heard Amy say, turning to see the pink hedgehog come out of the kitchen with a plate of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and sausage. "You were mumbling quite a bit. Good morning, by the way, Lily. Thanks for watching Aurora last night."

Lily smiled as she yawned and gave a stretch as Amy set down her breakfast on the coffee table in front of the couch.

"Morning, and thanks for giving me an excuse to get out of the house yesterday," Lily replied, as she picked up the fork and started into the sausage.

Amy decided not to press the matter with more questions; she knew Lily was at that age where she was wanting less and less to do with her parents. If anything, it reminded her to cherish these precious few years when their child was the one who wanted her mom and dad around. Lily sat and ate silently, and in the middle of her meal, she dug into her backpack and pulled out a small journal. She flipped about a third of the way through the book to the latest entry, then started flipping back through the pages, reading the last week's worth of entries. This marked the sixth time in a row that she had had a dream about the Altar of the Emerald on Angel Island, and she had a feeling that it was no coincidence. She flipped back to the next blank page, took a pen out of her bag, and began writing a short note.

'Same dream. Headed out to take a look today, if it's close enough.'

With that, she closed the journal, capped the pen, and returned both to her bag, before pulling out a handheld electronic tablet, pushing a button on the bottom. Once it was powered up and at the main screen, she pressed the globe icon in the top left corner. A rotating progress symbol came on the screen for several moments, before being replaced by a live satellite image of the region. She placed two fingers on the screen, did some sliding and maneuvering, and zoomed in on the coast. After getting the information she needed, she shut off the tablet, and slid it back into her bag. The girl finished her breakfast, stood up, grabbed her plate, and took it over to the kitchen, where Sonic, Amy, and Aurora were eating their breakfast at the dining table.

"Mornin', Lily." Sonic greeted. "Thanks for a great job last night." With that he picked up a currency note that he had beside his plate, and offered it to Lily, who took it with a smile and put it into the front pocket of her hoodie. "Hanging around long?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Lily replied, taking her plate over to the sink to give it a quick scrub, before rinsing it off and placing it on the drying rack. "I've got an errand to run, then I'm gonna head home so mom and dad don't think I'm avoiding them. Thanks for breakfast, and glad you had fun, Aurie."

The purple hedgehog pup nodded enthusiastically as she continued into her breakfast.

"Take it easy, you three," Lily said, waving goodbye as she returned to the living room to grab her backpack.

"Bye, Lily!" Aurora called.

With her backpack slung over her shoulders, Lily exited Sonic and Amy's house through the front door, and went down the front walk and across the street, where a small leaf-green aircraft was parked in the field.

The Zephyr was one of the smallest craft her dad had designed, and he was quite proud of his work when he had given it to her for her eighth birthday last year. It was similar in size to the twin-seated fighter craft he had designed for Amy on board the Blue Typhoon, coming in at just under ten meters long. Unlike Amy's fighter, though, the Zephyr was only rated for atmosphere, and had no offensive capabilities whatsoever. There was a small energy shield generator on the bottom that maintained defensive fields around the entire craft. Thermal paneling kept the fuselage heated, giving the Zephyr considerable anti-ice capability and allowed it to fly in Mobius' stratosphere. The twin hydrogen-powered jet engines were very fuel efficient, and the extremely light weight allowed it to travel nearly halfway across the planet before it needed refueling. In case of emergencies, the 'pod' that made up the cockpit could be ejected, while separate autopilot programs attempted to bring down both parts of the craft with as little damage as possible. If trajectory was still a problem, the canopy blew away and the pilot's seat would rocket up and away from the cockpit pod, and emergency chutes would deploy.

If it weren't for the jet engines and all of her dad's safety measures, the Zephyr would have certainly been classified as an ultralight aircraft.

Lily climbed up into the cockpit, dropped her backpack into the stowage to the right of the pilot's seat, and the canopy slid closed as she sat down. She strapped herself in before putting on the helmet that rested on the flight stick. The helmet was more or less attached to the front of the cockpit by an air hose. When the visor was closed, it was a full enclosure for the head, providing pressurized air which would counter the dangers of rising altitudes and hypoxia. After getting the helmet strapped on, she flipped the switch that powered on the engines, and then hit another button on the heads-up display. A tone sounded several times, before a screen of her dad appeared.

"Morning, Lily. Headed back?" Tails asked on the other end of the video call.

"Not quite. I've got an errand to run, and just wanted to let you know. I hope I won't be gone long, but don't hold off lunch for me. Love you," Lily told him.

Tails gave a nod.

"Alright. Fly safe, hun."

Lily nodded before ending the call, and did the quick pre-flight checks. With those done, she flipped the visor down over her eyes, she grabbed hold of the flight sticks, and gave the landing-and-takeoff thrusters just enough power to get off of the ground.

One of the first things her dad had made her memorize before letting her fly a jet was Topaz Harbor's noise ordinances. Knowing that rocketing off this close to the ground or residences would result in him grounding her figuratively and literally for more than a month, Lily kept the engine power, and thus the noise, to a minimum as she slowly gained altitude.

At 1,000 feet, she slowly accelerated with the primary thrusters and angled the nose skyward. At 3,000 feet, she let up on the landing thrusters as she continued to put more power into the main engines. At 5,000 feet, she had cleared the limits of local noise ordinances, leveled out, pushed the main engines to 80%, pointing herself west, slowly gaining more altitude as she pulled above the morning clouds.

She set the autopilot for a few moments, reaching over into stowage to unzip her backpack and pull out her tablet, powering it on and syncing her map data with the navigational data in the Zephyr's HUD. After returning the tablet to her backpack and closing her backpack, Lily disabled the autopilot and slightly adjusted her course for the approximate location of Angel Island. She hoped her dad wouldn't immediately call back when he saw her heading; he had up-to-date information on the Zephyr's location at the push of a button, and she didn't want him to worry until she could try and make a little more sense of these dreams herself. It wouldn't be the first time she had visited, and Knuckles could always use the company. It had to be maddeningly lonely out there all by yourself 99% of the time.

Luckily, her dad was either preoccupied, or minding his own business for once as she passed over Topaz Harbor's west coast and fly out over the wide open Sapphire Sea.

Angel Island was by far the most enigmatic supernatural occurrence on this side of Mobius. Even if it wasn't continually maintaining an altitude of 5,000 feet, slowly floating around the edge of a 250-mile radius over the Sapphire Sea, its climate defied all conventional ecology. A glacier, a desert, a lake, not to mention multiple jungles and forests grown around all of that, all with an active volcano at the center; all of these wildly different climates somehow co-existing on an island barely over 35 kilometers long. Around this time every year, Angel Island's 'path' brought it within ten miles of the continent's west coast, close enough to warrant some sightseeing tourism from Topaz Harbor, as long as they stayed on the coast; Lily couldn't imagine that Knuckles would tolerate tourists landing on the island, save for those he was already familiar with.

The Zephyr's navigational data gave her a proximity warning, and Lily put the craft into a gentle dive. She gracefully dipped below the clouds, and once under them, immediately saw the gargantuan landmass floating above the literal shimmering sea of blue. Even more than one thousand feet above the island's surface, Lily could see the location of the Altar of the Emerald, due to the shining speck of green light coming from the 'south' side of the island. She decreased the throttle, wanting to give the echidna guardian plenty of time to see her approach. She continued slowing down as she descended, picking out a spot a few hundred feet from the altar to land. As a thousand feet became hundreds, she activated the landing thrusters again and brought the main thrusters down to almost no power. Some dust was thrown up in her wake, but she could see well enough to know when to extend the landing gear. There was one last shift in momentum as the Zephyr touched down, and Lily cut all thrust. Once the engine output read zero, she turned off the HUD, and removed her helmet, setting it back on the flight stick and opened the canopy.

She looked up at the Altar of the Emerald, and there stood Knuckles, vigilantly eyeing the new arrival.

Lily shook her head, making sure her twin braids hadn't gotten tangled while under the helmet, grabbed her backpack, and climbed out of the ship, her feet landing on the dirt and grass. She turned to the Altar and gave the echidna a wave. He returned it, but didn't move to come down from his post.

Her surroundings were a bit more imposing than what she had experienced in her dreams; mostly due to the fact that she now saw far beyond the altar to the towering mountain at the center of the island. She retraced her steps, finding the air considerably more humid than she did in her sleep as she crossed the clearing to the altar proper. Then, looking up at Knuckles again, she began to climb the steps.

The echidna said nothing the entire time, content to stand where he was as Lily climbed the altar steps. When she came to the top, she stopped, and addressed him much more formally.

"Hello, Knuckles. Good to see you again," the girl greeted him, offering a short bow.

The echidna offered a curt nod, and a soft smile.

"Always a pleasure, Lily. What brings you here?" Knuckles replied in kind, quickly wanting to get to the heart of her visit.

She turned halfway towards the center piece of the altar, the Master Emerald, and pointed at the enormous gem.

"That, at least I think. I've been having recurring dreams about this place, Knuckles. Like, as in every night, for almost a week. I've done enough research on the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald to know that it's not a coincidence."

"Mm," Knuckles said. "The Master Emerald does have an… Omniscience, of sorts. Do you think it's been reaching out to you?"

"I'm not sure," Lily replied, as she turned to the Master Emerald, and began slowly stepping towards it. Knuckles kept pace with her as she closed the distance. When she got to within arms' reach, she stood there for a moment, half-raising her right hand. As she looked at her broken reflection in the multifaceted surface of the emerald, she took in a deep, quiet breath, then reached forward another few inches, so the tips of her fingers came into contact with the facets on the surface.

Several moments passed where nothing happened, and it was nearly ten seconds before Lily realized she had been holding her breath. She pressed in just a bit more, where her palm was now in contact, and nothing happened. She took another couple breaths, then withdrew her arm.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure what I was expecting to have happen. In my dream, I reach out, touch it, and that's it. There's a flash of light, and then I wake up. I remember when my dad first let me hold a Chaos Emerald… The amount of energy that I felt flow into me… It wasn't like that. It's like it's just… There."

Knuckles listened to the girl's words, before offering his input.

"Well, in my experience, you can't harness the power of the Master Emerald without—"

"Tikal's Prayer, I know," Lily finished. Knuckles nodded; clearly, the girl had done her research. "I wasn't sure if that was needed. I never said it in my dream. I don't know. When you recite Tikal's Prayer, you usually need the Master Emerald for something, don't you? I don't need it for anything. So… Do you have any idea why I've been repeatedly dreaming of this place?"

Knuckles touched his chin in thought as Lily took a few steps back from the center of the altar.

"I know that what we know about the history of the Emeralds over the millennia is very likely dwarfed by what we don't know. Maybe you don't need the Master Emerald… Maybe it needs you. For what, I couldn't even possibly begin to fathom, Lily."

The daughter of Tails and Cosmo turned away from the Master Emerald and sat down on the top step of the altar, looking down at her ship, the surrounding clearing, and the Sapphire Sea on the horizon thousands of feet below. After a moment, Knuckles sat next to her on the other side of the steps.

"Maybe that'd be too easy. Just follow a dream, reenact it, and get the answer clear as day… Mobian civilizations warred over this thing for generations beyond recorded history, and now it wants me for something…"

Lily exhaled through her nose in frustration. She was usually good at thinking her problems through like her dad, but when beyond-ancient supernatural forces came into play, that didn't get you far at all.

Her gaze beyond to drift to the left and right, to the thick forest on both sides of the clearing.

"Do you… Do you think I could explore the island? After all, when this chunk of land pulled it self out of the continent four thousand years ago, it took a lot more than just the altar. Maybe the answers are somewhere on the island," Lily offered.

Knuckles cleared his throat nervously.

"I'm not sure that's a very good idea, Lily," he said. He didn't want to offend his visitor, who had been patient and understanding so far.

"Why not? Don't you trust me? I'm older than Sonic or my dad was when they came here for the first time." She asked, half-incredulously, but still with respect to his domain here.

"Don't get the wrong idea, Lily. It's not a question of trust; or youth, for that matter. I know your dad went off adventuring off with Sonic when he was even younger than you are. But no, it's a matter of safety. Even during peaceful times, the ancient passageways of this island are treacherous. If something were to happen to you, I wouldn't want to be the one to tell your mom and dad that something happened to you on this island when it was under my watch."

Lily knew the guardian's denial and explanation was entirely reasonable. But she wasn't about to throw in the towel just yet after she had just come all the way out here.

"I don't suppose there's any convincing you?" She asked.

Knuckles gave it some thought before answering. He knew how headstrong and confident Lily was, and would almost certainly attribute that to the influence Sonic had on both her, as well as her dad before her.

"I don't want to flat-out deny you the opportunity, Lily, especially if you truly believe the Master Emerald wants you here for something. I can't abandon my post at the shrine, and nothing beats experience... So if you can convince your dad, or Sonic, to come along with you, I'd feel a lot better about the idea," Knuckles answered.

He saw Lily's expression brighten up immediately as she gave him a smile.

"Well, I'll go and see what dad thinks about that then," she replied, getting to her feet and began to descend the steps. "Thanks, Knuckles."

"If this is something they agree to," Knuckles began, causing her to pause and turn back towards him. "They'll probably tell you this, but in case they don't; get the absolute best hiking boots you can. You probably know as much about this island as almost any scholar. You'll get wet, exposed to scorching heat, blistering cold, and probably everything in between. If you have to travel anywhere at night, it might be pitch black. Pack as light as you can for the most rugged and varied terrain imaginable."

Lily nodded up at him, and gave him a thumbs up.

"Thanks again, Knuckles," she said, before continuing back down the stairs towards her ship.

"Good luck, Lily," Knuckles said softly out of her earshot. "When it comes to convincing your parents, I have a feeling you're going to need it."