-Chapter XIV- Friend or Foe?

-Emerald Hills shore

-25 First Seed

-8:00 A.M.

-Nicholas

"Tawny? Are you okay?"

"Of course, why do you ask?"

"You just seem...out of it...Tawny? Tawny!"

"What? What?"

"Nick!" My eyes shot open, I quickly sat up at my abrupt awakening. I looked to Saria, who stared at me irritably. "Finally, you're awake! I've been trying to get you up for about the past five minutes!"

"You...have?" I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes that lingered still.

"You just kept replying with, 'of course, just a moment'."

"Oh, sorry." I said, standing where I was. I then noticed that we were docked at a sandy shore. The sea smelled of salt, and the winds were strong as they rushed past my face, whipping my clothes about with them.

"By the way...who's 'Fighter'?"

"Fighter?" I repeated.

"I don't know, you just kept repeating his name." I gave her a confused look, and she only shrugged. "Anyway, where are we? Is this America?"

"I don't think so." I told her. "Why not ask the salty sea guy?" I offered, pointing to the captain of the ship of which we were using for our voyage.

"The name's Sterwalt, just for the record." he called to us. "And this isn't America, not even close. This here is Emerald Hills' shoreline."

I looked at him in confusion. "Why?"

He started to untie ropes, take down the sails, and the such, "because," he said with his clear, deep voice, "this is an old ship, you can't just expect her to continue nonstop all the way from Tamriel to America. It's just not right. Such a journey could easily wear her out, resulting in possible damage or wreckage."

"So, we're here for the day?"

"At least until tomorrow morn. For the time being, make yerselves at home. You can either stay here or y'all can check out the area. I don't really care which you do."

I turned to Saria, hoping she would be willing to stay there, for I didn't have the energy to go out and explore. "What do you want to do?" She looked at me, and though I still didn't know her for long, I still knew the answer.

I pulled out my sword as Rayman, Stealth, Saria, and I were met by a quantity of dense foliage, and I readied it to strike the leaves of the heavy brush. To my surprise, however, as my sword made contact with the plants, it seemingly passed straight through them. I looked at it, puzzled, and brought down my sword again to the plants. Yet another fruitless attempt followed that one, then another...and then another. Finally my frustration got the best of me and I was carelessly striking the bright-green flora, and I eventually sheathed my sword yet again. I began to turn away, noticing Saria's silent laugh, and Rayman's amused grin, and I quickly turned around again, once more bringing out my blade with another failed try.

"What's wrong, Nick?" Rayman asked with a smile.

"Stupid plants must be magic or something..." I mumbled in anger.

"Oh yes, Nick. Magic plants are out for you, trying to make you look bad." Saria played.

I stared at the cobalt-blue blade, and slowly lowered it to the leaves of the brush, and I was dumbfounded as I watched the shade lighten to a bright-blue as it neared them. "What the hell...?" I asked myself.

"What?" Rayman asked.

"Ah, to hell with this." I said irritably, sheathing the sword and pulling Max's knife out of my belt. It nicely cut through the green, leaving it in pieces on the dirt as I continued. "There we go!" I hacked and slashed a path through the ferns, bushes, and low-leaved trees until we were met by a large, hilly clearing.

"Well done, Nick. You've beaten the evil plants out to get you." Saria giggled as she walked past me.

I smiled back at her as I sheathed the small knife, and followed her. "What did Sterwalt call this place again?"

"Emerald Hills, I believe." Rayman answered, still coming through the cut brush.

"Emerald Hills." Saria said.

"That's just what Rayman said." I told her. She looked at me, disgruntled. "Oh, right, you can't...um, anyway." I said, continuing on again.

Stealth seemed to enjoy himself, as he ran through the grass that was nearly as tall as him on his tiny paws, he seemed to notice something. He stopped, looked around, and ran into an old, overgrown trail through the trees.

"No, Stealth!" I called, hoping he would stop.

"Nick, wait!" Saria called after me.

I pulled out the knife again, stopped at the beginning of the trail where Stealth had disappeared. "Stealth!" I called. When he didn't come back, I decided to go in after him. I took a step into it. "Stealth!" I called again. I took another, looking about and trying to peer through the dense brush. I heard a snap, looked about, and was suddenly brought straight up. My feet were brought over my head, and I found myself upside-down, held up by a thick rope tied to a tall palm tree. "Guys?" I called out to the others.

"Nick? Are you all right?" I heard Saria ask.

"Yeah...I think I was caught in something." I said as I hung there. I pulled out the knife again to cut the rope, but when I bent over to cut it I accidentally dropped it, causing it to be lost in the plants that were strewn about. "Dammit!" I yelled angrily "Why does this keep happening!"

"Nick, what's wrong? We're coming to get you!"

"No, don't-!"

"Ahh!" I heard Rayman cry out.

"Rayman?" I looked around frantically, expecting to find him hanging upside-down just as I was, but instead, I found Stealth caught in a net, hanging near where I was.

"Nick!" Saria called. "There you are!" I looked up to the ground to see Saria standing below me. "Hold on, I'll just be a second..." she said as she pulled out her bow from around her shoulder and strung it with one of her brass arrows. She held up the bow, and was about to take the shot when she was knocked over, causing the arrow to fly to where Stealth was. Miraculously, the arrow perfectly struck the rope from which his net was hanging, causing him to fall. "What the..." I heard Saria say. I turned to her as she searched the underbrush. She was about to pull another arrow out of her shining quiver before she was struck by something on the head, knocking her to the ground with a thud.

"Saria!" I called. She seemed to be unconscious, and was dragged out of sight into the foliage. I whipped out my sword again, and tried to cut through the rope, which it did without a problem. I fell to the ground, landing on my back. I got up, despite the stinging pain in my spine, and readied my sword for a fight. "All right! Whoever is out there, come out and fight!" I looked about at my surroundings, scanning the area for any signs of movement.

When all seemed still, my muscles relaxed just slightly, and my foe sprang from his hiding spot. He moved quicker than it seemed possible, spinning around me without a problem in a whirlwind of blue. I waited a few moments for what seemed to be the best time to strike, and when it at last came, I took it. I swung my sword in what I believed to be the opposite direction of my opponent, causing him to trip and fly behind me. Although he seemed to be moving too quick for me to see him, I did see him nearly hit a tree, seem to curl up into a ball, and use the tree to rebound himself and come towards me. I jumped out of the way just in time as the mysterious foe sped past me. He struck a rock, ricocheting him into the air,still curled up, but this time I was vaguely able to make him out, despite his slow increase of distance into the air, and his still curled up into the ball. As he began to fall back down to Earth, I realized he was falling closer and closer to where was right where I stood. I pointed my sword straight up into the air, following him with the point of the blade, and to avoid this, he instead decided to ground-pound next to me, sending dirt everywhere.

He stood, and looked up at me. He was about as tall as my waist, and his legs were practically all his height. He wore bright-white gloves, was a deep blue other than his arms and belly, which were a tan and...was a hedgehog? With a cocky smile, he jumped into the air, curling back up, and sent himself straight at me. I was too much in shock to react, and I took it as he struck me in the gut, sending me back to the ground. He jumped over me to finish me off, but I rolled to the side to avoid him, causing him to punch the hard ground. He knelt down in pain as he grasped his injured hand, and I kicked his legs, sending him, too, to the ground. I got to my knees before he was already to his feet. He was quick, and even quicker as he stair-step kicked me repeatedly in the back, which forced me to my hands and knees. With one final kick I was face-down into the dirt.

I lied there, awaiting the opportunity to come back. He walked in front of my face, examining me as I was still. I abruptly grabbed his legs, which I found to leave him powerless. I got back up to my feet, back in immense pain and him hanging upside-down from my hands, and was about to throw him into the nearest tree before something struck my head. The last thing I remembered was the sensation of something sharp, like a spike, with the blunt force behind it, like a fist.

When I awoke, everything felt numb. My limbs were unresponsive, and my mind scattered all about. My thoughts were muddled, vision blurred, and hearing faded, like there was something stuck in my ears. I saw a blue blur, next to a red blur and a yellow one. The blue and red one seemed to be talking...but their words I could hardly make out. My blood felt like ice, I was cold, yet I felt like I was sweating, too.

"... … you...?" I faintly heard a deep voice.

"... with... would... was... …?" I somewhat higher-pitched voice replied.

"It... ...now, they're... …!"

"So...leave...? ...what's ...on?"

"You know, … ...leave me much..., Sonic. With... doing, I'm... … ...to do!" The red blur began to leave.

"Fine, Knuckles, leave ...me and... … to fend for...!"

He stopped. As it stood still, I could begin to make out the silhouette of the creature, as well as the other two that was with him. Sensation began to come back to my fingertips, but that was just about it. "Sonic..." I heard the red creature trail off.

"Knuckles, you know...what's best for our safety."

The red one sighed, looking at the ground, seemingly confused as to what he should do. He turned back to the blue, and looked him in the eye. "Sonic, you've got to stop this. You don't know who these people were, they could've been here to help or they could have helped. But now..."

"Knuckles," it was now the yellow creature's turn to step in, "I understand where you're coming from, hoping that someone out there could be there for us, and that we shouldn't go out looking for trouble with this crisis. And Sonic, I understand where you're coming from, too. We should still be careful, because we don't know who is and isn't working with Eggman. But here's the thing..." He looked at both of his companions, "though you two have completely different standpoints on just about...well, everything, you two are still great friends, and it's that friendship that is still keeping us together."

"And without that, you'll all lose everything." I said, still in a daze as I stood, holding my head in pain.

"What the-?" Sonic said in surprise.

"I see where you stand, Sonic. Your name is Sonic, yes?" I asked, turning to the blue hedgehog, to which, he wordlessly nodded. "You'd be willing to do anything for the sake of your friends. You must see this, Knuckles." I smiled. "You wouldn't really be expecting this from the person whose ass just got handed to them, eh?"

"Who are you?" Knuckles asked.

"That depends." I said, "I could either be your friend, or your foe. It's all up to you, really." I staggered, but quickly caught myself. "Speaking of which...where are my friends?"

Sonic pointed behind me. "Over there." Rayman was sprawled out, while Saria held Stealth, all unconscious.

"All right, that's my first question...now here's my second: are you three the good guys?" They all looked at each other.

"You're kidding, right?" Saria asked later when I proposed my idea. "We're going to help the very same creatures that just kicked our asses?"

"Hey, first off, trusting those who have 'kicked my ass' just beforehand seems to be working out for me so far." Saria shamefully lowered her head. "And second, asses is a grown-up word, only I can say it for now."

"But we're probably about the same age!"

"Do we know that? No. Anyway, these three really need us. All of their friends have been captured by some...uh, 'weird fat man in a floating robot egg'."

"Oh, come on, Nick. I've seen weirder things than that in Polokus, and even I don't believe that!" Rayman argued.

"Well I do, and apparently I'm the one destined for something big and blah, blah, blah and you're listening to me because Ly told you so." I told him with a smile.

He sighed, and I looked over at Saria who, again, stared at me in confusion. "I hope you realize when you talk to him more than five seconds I'm already lost, right?"

"Kind of figured that out, but I'm serious about this, guys. Maybe this is what we're meant to do." I told them. "Helping those in need...with no one else but us."

Rayman stood. "All right...fine. I'll try, to do what I can."

I nodded in appreciation, and then laughed when I saw Stealth copy his action by standing on his hind legs and using his tail for support. "That's two out of three, Saria. Are you in?"

She looked at me and I at her. After a while of silence, she sighed. "All right...I'm in." her eyes sparkled as she smiled at me.