Chapter 35
The car left the tunnel at high speed. The light blinded everybody for a second, but then the verdant forest came into focus.
"Should only be twenty minutes, now…" Manic said optimistically.
"Em… not to worry you, but it might be a little longer…" Sonic said, pointing at the obstruction ahead. He pulled the car up next to a sign that said, 'unstable bridge, take detour'. The river looked impassable from all visible sides. "Shit." He muttered under his breath, as he vaulted out of the car. He inspected the bridge ahead. It looked fine. Knuckles got out to join him. Manic looked around. He spotted something suspicious in the trees. He squinted to try and make it out. As soon as he saw what it was, it was too late.
"Uh… guys? I think we've got a AAGH!" Something dropped from the treetops and grabbed him by the neck. As quickly as it had appeared, it disappeared again, with Manic.
"Where'd he goAAAGH!" Sonic turned around to find that Knuckles had disappeared.
"Knux-baby? Where'd you go? DyaAAAH!" Tikal was picked right out of her seat. Sonic panicked slightly. He backed up to the sign.
"What… Who are you? Show yourselves!" He looked up. Something dropped down from the trees and grabbed him. "Wha… hey! What the fuck?" He struggled fruitlessly.
"Don't hurt them, I want to talk to them. The blue one in particular." He heard a voice say. It was a female voice, soft yet strong. He opened his eyes. A vixen stood there with a bow slung over her shoulder. She was wearing clothes crafted from leaves and other green materials. Then he noticed something. She had two Tails and bright blue eyes. He looked around. They were in the treetops. There were several other foxes around, with anything from three to six tails.
"Tell me. What is your business here?"
"We were just passing through, honest," Sonic replied innocently.
"You looked kind of… glazed over, there, a minute ago. Never seen a Kitsune before?"
"No!" Manic shouted out. The guard restraining him hit him.
"Um… actually… yes, kind of…" The vixen raised her eyebrow.
"Oh? How so?"
"Well… one of our friends…"
"There's more of you? Where?"
"They're not in the forest,"
"Well that's okay. But anyway, this… friend?"
"Well he's… a fox, with two tails… heh… that's why we call him 'Tails'."
When she heard this, she stared into space slightly. She shook her head and regained her concentration.
"Where is he?"
"Why should I tell you that?"
"Because I'll start ripping your spines out if you don't." She hit him across the face. It hurt.
"Okay… aagh… he should be over Angel Island by now,"
"He's on Angel Island?"
"No, over it, he's on a plane,"
"To where?"
"Boreala. Robotnik's base."
"Why?" She fired off more questions as quick as Sonic had answered the previous one.
"To retrieve a piece of the master emerald."
"A piece? I thought it was shattered into thousands,"
"Well, it was found, Naugus put it back together, and then Tails did some freaky angel-thing and he beat Naugus away, and he broke the emerald into four pieces and hid them."
"Quite a mouthful, wasn't that? Where are the other pieces?"
"Well, we were on our way to find another one of them on Angel Island, one is in Babylon Garden, and the other is in Metal City." Manic cringed as Sonic spilled every single detail to a bunch of unknowns.
"Are you planning to retrieve them?"
"Of course, there are two other parties heading out to get them."
"And who are you working for? Hmm?"
"Well… we're not really working for anybody right now, since the freedom fighters base was attacked… again…"
"I said who are you working for,"
"And I said, nobody,"
"ANSWER ME, GODDAMNIT!" She hit Sonic again.
"Ow… we're fighting against Naugus, if that's what you want to hear…"
"Good. Then we're on the same side. What about Robotnik?"
"Last time we checked, he washed his hands of the situation a week ago,"
"I see. And Nazo?"
"Who?"
"Nazo. I assume that if you are fully abreast of the situation that you know about Nazo?"
"No. Never heard of him."
"Oh, we must fill you in. Do you at least know about the prophecy?"
"Um… yes…ish. That the one about four hedgehogs, and stuff?" She nodded. "Yeah. Tails filled us in. He seems to know a lot about this kind of thing."
"How many of you are there?"
"Four… four… five… seventeen in total. That we know of."
"Small team for saving the world." She turned to the guards. "Release them." Manic panicked, before realising that he was being let down onto a walkway. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"So who are you guys?" He asked, checking he still had everything.
"I am Nailei. As you might have noticed, we are kitsune."
"I thought the Kitsune were extinct," Knuckles pointed out.
"You thought wrong, then, Echidna. The royal kitsune of Seyanoda are extinct, not the entire race. I would have thought the guardian of the master emerald would have been better informed. And, by the way, if the emerald was stolen and shattered, then you mustn't have been doing a very good job…" She said as she walked away. Knuckles was furious.