Chapter Seven:
Three, four, learn your lore
The large blue hedgehog sighed and fidgeted on the couch, the TV show no longer able to keep his wondering attention. Though the adventures of those crime fighting turtles normally did as well as the nature channels normally. Sonic sighed turned it off with the remote and shifted around on his comfy couch, scanning across the room to first try and find something amusing, then looking at the open kitchen to his left to see if Jessy was still there.
She wasn't, having left sometime with the heroes had been looking for the hidden valley to save the people.
Sonic's shoulders slumped and he let out a long sigh, the constant dull ache in his ribs spiking but not as bad any more. Jessy had gone one a hunt as soon as they arrived here a week ago. Scouring her home for Coins that powered her tools, appliances and lights. Trying to find the ones that weren't critical and of the right size that could be spared. Even hiking over to her nahbor on the hill to get some from him. The little power stones helped immensely with the pain of both their injuries, Jessy was able to lift her tools and some weight now, while most of the time Sonic's own breathing exercises were getting easier with each passing day by noticeable degrees. Small, but faster than it would normally be healing from broken ribs.
Sonic carefully rose, with the intent of poking his nose everywhere he could. Starting with the kitchen, he circled the counter that made the corner a half room, and then quick hands grabbled one of the green and purple spotted fruits that came from the nearby Zone. Jessy had gotten a few crates full to help with Sonic constant need of munchies while healing. As an added bonus the fruits had something in then that Sonic had been craving for a long time and only after eating one crate in two days had he seemed to be mostly sated but still grabbed a fruit as seen as it ripened on the counter.
Green eyes looked around the more flat like home again, peeking out the door into the covered deck beside the kitchen, but finding it raining again the hedgehog quickly pulled back in and closed the door. Still not fully sure of his own intense dislike of storms, Sonic peeked into the bedroom and office Jessy had, but the door was open all the way, not stopped halfway on the carpet that was only in the bedroom, so she wasn't there.
The bathroom was wide open and the pantry wouldn't easily hide the woman, Jessy was about five inches taller than Sonic after all. The Anthro yawned and then sighed again, he was board and wanted to do something, anything! He didn't want to sit on his tail all day anymore, despite waking up that morning and wanting nothing more than to go to sleep for the next week thanks to his ribs and winter instincts to hibernate. With a half groan Sonic slumped against the back of the couch as if he could melt into it.
The hedgehog's left ear twitched suddenly as it caught a new sound.
Two quick pisht pisssht, the ear tipped forward, quickly followed by the other. Both ears twitch and turned for a moment before the source of the sound was found. Sonic lifted his head, looking at the inside staircase that led down to the workshop on the first level. He frowned, what did Jessy do down there anyways?
Curious now, Sonic got up again- pausing only long enough to check and see that he wasn't leaving behind any quills that could poke not only Jessy, but him too. Then he made his way down the inside stairs over by the front door, the new sound didn't go away, just became clearer. It changed a little, or stopped for a second, only to start up again but it didn't go away. The blue and brown hedgehog poked his head through the gap between the second story floor and the railing once there was room, ears up. He promptly sneezed once, twice as he got a face full of some rank smelling fume.
The Anthro ducked back into the relative safety of the upper staircase, when he was done coughing Sonic cautiously came back down again. Trying not to breathe to deeply, or more than his current normal 'deep' breath, he looked around and spotted Jessy by the open garage door. She was dressed in an old, oil and paint stained coverall, tan work boots, had a pair of yellow goggles on and what looked like a gas mask covering the lower part of her face. She had some kind of small machine beside her it had another piece that was handheld. The strange noise came from this as a fine green mist came out of the end, the green stuff that was sprayed onto a piece of metal. It was also was what smelled so horrible.
Somehow alerted to the fact that she wasn't the only one in the workshop any more, likely a cross of the coughing fit and the creaky old stairs, Jessy cut off the paint sprayer and looked up. Not seeing anyone in the driveway she straightened up and turned. Sonic smiled and waved at her from the bottom stair.
"Hey Sonic," The woman smiled, her voice sounding muffled thanks to the mask. "I thought you were upstairs."
"I was." Sonic said walking over, adding gracelessly, "I'm bored. What are you doing?"
Jessy quirked an eyebrow up at the bluntness but let it slide since she herself was rather blunt sometimes. The mechanic waved a hand that had a work glove on it at the piece of metal she was working on, "I'm doing a custom paint job for that bike there." She then pointed to one of the ten or so motorcycles that were parked (more like squeezed) inside. "They guy wanted green and black flame pattern."
"Can I watch?" Sonic asked.
"I don't see why not. Though," The woman put down the paint nozzle, rising to the painting pack she had not far away, and rummaged around for her spare mask. Finding it she tossed it to the anthro hedgehog as he came over. "You'll need this. Don't want to breathe too many fumes. It's bad for you."
Sonic caught the flying mask and inspected it completely before pulling it over his muzzle. He had to adjust it for a minute or two before it fit properly. From beside him Jessy smothered a chuckle.
"What?" Sonic tipped his ears up, his own voice taking that muffled sound as well. "What are you laughing at?"
"You," The woman pointed at a rearview mirror of the nearest bike. Giving the human a strange look Sonic peered into the small mirror. He laughed when he saw himself at the same time hearing Jessy's camera whirr and click. Though the mask fit for the most part, it was designed with humans in mind, not oversized hedgehogs.
Jessy picked up the nozzle again and point to the piece of metal, "I'm using dark green as a background," She explained to the hedgehog as he came up beside her, "I'll do the flames black in that patter over there. See? On the wall?"
"Yeah," Sonic nodded, his interest caught for now as he glanced around to see the displayed patterns, then looked down at the carefully controlled motions.
When the green was on, he stepped back to scribble in his note book as Jessy shifted the piece and put another on the workbench in front of her. She glanced over to see Sonic entertaining himself at another bench with matching tools to the outlines on the wall above. Fuzzy ears started twitching again, one angling to aim at Jessy as she started humming under her mask, not seeming to realize it. After Sonic identified a patterned, and the steady motions of applying paint made his attention waver again.
The hedgehog couldn't help it, "What's that?" he asked tilting his head first at Jessy, then movement of a very sad looking squirrel bounding into the semi shielded of the open shop door had his attention. The grey rodent shook itself and still looked more like a half drown rat. Sonic could completely sympathize with it as the thing chittered angrily at the water pooling a few inches away.
"Hmm?" Jessy looked up, then back at the squirrel, "Oh hush Charlie. I left some good nuts for you in your dish." She snorted.
"Charlie?" Sonic echoed in amusement, his quills lifting and falling with one of his deeper breaths to stretch out his ribcage.
"Yeah, it's a perfect name for a native grey squirrel," Jessy sniffed under her mask, pointing to Charlie as he scampered up the side of the nearest shelf to a small green dish to sit on a small towel and start grooming itself dry again. "I found him a few years ago, some kids had taken him when a baby and seemed to have lost interest. So I took the spazz in, closest thing to a pet that I have, and he hides in the work shop in the winter, but has to have vet checks."
"Huh." Sonic watch Charlie hide under the fold of the towel, then pop back u to grab some treats from the green dish and hide again.
"Anyways, what did you say before?"
Sonic looked back to Jessy, "What were you humming?"
"Oh, that?" The woman reached up to use the semi clean fingers of her glove to rub at her head. "It's… well, to be honest it's the old spell curse thing on my clan, if you believe that."
Blue ears tipped and then curled all the way forward, green eyes widening and even a blue tail was visibly arched up before Sonic turned to fully face Jessy, the picture of riveted attention and curiosity. "Really?"
Jessy laughed, then her voice took a semi singing lilt, "Roam, roam the Storm Runner will. Roam, roam until the end of time." her own blue eyes unfocused a bit in memory of hearing her clan story for the first time sitting in front of Nana with a dyeing fire behind the older woman. "Roam, roam the Storm Runner shall, until he dies or the day he has children of his own. Then roam, roam all the children of the Storm Runner shall. Roam, roam the Storm Runner will, until they die or have children of their own. Roam, roam until the end of time."
"...what does it mean?" Sonic tilted his head again, feeling an odd pull, a kinship to the strange poem-thing.
"Well, in basics, its supposed to mean that no one in my family from my father's side can sit still once they're about my age, my two older brothers are already gone. Left two and three years ago." The woman grinned, she waved out into the pouring rain, "The only thing that keeps a Storm Runner still is a, well, a storm. Rain more. But The Storm Runners, and Rain Walkers are of the same single Nomadic Nation."
"Nomadic Nations…?" Sonic echoed, knowing he should know this. Jessy had mentioned it before, but he knew something else… hanging there in the back of his mind.
"Yes, the Nations have been around for a long, long time, but it wasn't only like.." Jessy paused to recall, putting her painter away as she finished the last piece for the base coats, "Eh… it was about four hundred years ago that most other stationary nations recognized us. And we, the different clans, where some of the first to joined the U.N. Those born like here in the U.S. or in Canada have dual residency."
Jessy snorted, "Thankfully I don't have to pay nearly as much in taxes, and I volunteer to aid the elders as my dues to the Storm Runners."
"Dues?" Sonic found a stool that once long ago had been a chair but lost the back at some point, under one of the tables.
"Yeah, we donate to those who are in collages, like me in tech school to learn mechanics, the bulk of the cost was covered by the Nation." Jessy turned and pointed to her motorcycles, including the one that had been the hedgehog runner-over in the far back. "In return I help out some of the oldest of our people in this area, the Uncles." She tied explaining.
Jessy looked at Sonic for a long moment, thoughtful. Then she spoke up again. "Hey Sonic, I was going out in an hour to do just that, bring some stuff over to the Uncles thanks to the flooding. Want to come?"
Blue ears twitched up and the lanky runner lifted his head from semi spacing out as he did when trying to imagine what he was being told. "Out?" the hedgehog half echoed, half asked.
"Yeah, like I said I got to run some errands for the old uncles of the family." Jessy said as she stood and stretched, moving over to find and shrug into her favorite, and warmest sheep lined riding jacket, and then picking up the keys to that old pick up they used to get here from Red's, and she used when not on her motorcycle. She grinned, "It's my turn and with the flooding as I said, they would like a visit beside."
"…eh?" Sonic blinked in confusion, winced as he leaned back, the light was just right so the human could see a lighter shade of almost turquoise streaks in the clumps of quills.
Really though, it was the hedgehog's eyes that were the most interesting thing about him if you paid attention. They were an almost impossibly clear emerald green, Jessy new no less than four people who would adore them or be jealous, with no hint of the worries that held down most people. They were... untainted. It was like the phrase 'the eyes are the windows to the soul,' only real. But that was getting sidetracked, and the woman shook her head before looking at the open and honest hedgehog expression.
"Full words Sonic," Jessy said as she came over and stated riffling through the papers on the far back table while taking off her mask. She was looking for her wallet, thus her driver's licenses, "The three old uncles live together up north a bit, safe from the flood zones. They don't leave the lower property where Grand Papa lives so we grand kids and great grandkids that are old enough take turns bringing in supplies in for the old farts... HAH!" She stood and held up the missing wallet up like it was the Holy Grail.
How had it gotten under the drying cloths rack though?
Sonic cocked his head in interest at both the idea of going out and this reviled family (clan? Nations?) duty. He had been on bed rest for a few weeks now and although he was dying of boredom, as well as the pain of several cracked ribs. But at the same time, Jessy's comfy little house/workshop was the safest place he'd been in the past few months, since Uncle Chuck's place. That was about as far back as he could remember, had woken up on a road, nearly got ran over by a massive trailer hauling truck and… well, nothing before that. He had been running virtually ever since then. That was already written out in as much detail as Sonic could remember.
So, he did like the idea of going out, but at the same time was reluctant to go thanks to experience with humans before of the negative kind, as well as that instinct to hibernate.
"Oy..." Jessy made a mental note to clean up this coming weekend. She had business to run after all, and these papers should be upstairs at least. The mechanic paused in stomping into her boots on, switching from the slippers that she wore in the shop, to look over at Sonic with dark blue eyes, "You coming or staying?"
Sonic chewed on his lip before nodding, "Going."
"Cool, I'll get your shoes." Jessy said and went down the inner stairs to her work shop below on the first story that was the work shop. "And, I'll grab a few of those pillows, the old truck is bumpy." Jessy offered.
"Yes please." Sonic gave a relieved sigh, then winced, "Maybe one of those horse pills too?" he added as Jessy vanished up the stairs, thankfully for her it meant the anthro wouldn't see her half into her closet as Jessy fought the things inside of it for some spare pillows.
Fist though she tossed the hedgehog's shoes down, so Sonic was just as thankful no one but Charlie the squirrel saw as he just managed to contort himself in the least painful way to get his own shoes on and by the time he was helped into the massive tank like old truck known as The Monster, the painkiller had started taking affect, making the fallowing ride very interesting.
And then it started raining harder on the way to the store.