The wind had dropped. The howling roars of what seemed like the very wrath of Mother Nature herself were replaced by the songs of birds. A breeze made the millions of grass blades sway from side to side. If one had seen the sight, they might have thought that the ground was mourning the mighty giant that lay slain by the wind. Or perhaps the young cub that was spread eagled, face down in the cold soil. His little ear twitched, a tell-tale sign that he hadn't perished, but that didn't mean he was exempt from dying.

The breeze whispered around him, ruffling his matted fur, but doing very little to ease the aching that emanated not only from his throbbing head, but from both his appendages.

"Ooooohhh…" a muffled groan slithered out from the ground like a weed, and Tails painfully lifted his cranium out of the soft grass and hard pine roots. It hurt to open his eyes. Well, actually, that was an understatement. The pain was almost literally blinding.

The fox's first impulse was to seize his cranium in both hands, as if they were the only things on Mobius that could prevent it from falling off his shoulders. Where was he? Why was he in pain? What would he do now?

"TAILS!"

"BIG GUY, ANSWER ME!"

"WHERE Y'AT, SUGAH-FOX?!"

"TAILS, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

The cub seized his ears as the silence was pierced by a mass of voices yelling at once. Coming from all directions. Getting closer and closer. He forced his eyes open just in time to see a brown, purple and gray figure suddenly appear over the crest of a distant slope.

"Over here, y'all, ah found him!"

More figures ran up to him. The closer they got, the clearer they became. Sally squatted next to him the instant she reached his side, whilst Bunnie, Antoine and Rotor stood on either side, their faces masks of concern and dismay.

"Honey," Sally pleaded, taking his hands, "it's me, it's Aunt Sally. What happened?"

Tails didn't know. All he could remember was that the wind had become unbelievably strong and sent him out of control. But what he knew for a fact was that it hurt all over.

"A…Aunt…" he groaned. "Hurts…"

"Oh, ma stars!" Bunnie suddenly gasped, making everyone jump. "Hold tight, sugah!" And without any further explanation, she squatted next to Tails and placed her paws under the felled tree behind him.

The cub felt the persistent tightness in his appendages completely go away, as the slow rumbling creak of bark being handled filled the air. Everyone watched in amazement as Bunnie hoisted the entire tree into the air and gently placed it a few inches away from Tails.

"Th' poor darlin' had his tails stuck under it!" the cyborg rabbit explained, pointing at her little brother's namesakes, now crumpled and covered in splinters. "Ah…ah think they're broken!"

Tails was too dazed and nauseous to listen, but heard her say "broken" and an icy chill ran through his body.

Sally held his shoulders. "Tails, did you hit your head?"

"Y-Yes…"

Upon taking a closer look, the chipmunk picked out a dark stain forming on the kit's forehead, turning the fur around it into a blackish red.

"He's bleeding!" she gasped to the others.

Antoine, to everyone's surprise, stepped forward, took his finest handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to Sally.

"'Old zis on his 'ead, ma princess" he told her. "Eet will stop ze bleeding"

Sally took it from the coyote, flashing him a grateful smile, before turning to Tails.

"Sweetie, listen to me," she cooed, "Antoine's given you something for your head. Hold it there and the bleeding will stop"

Tails, dizzy and aching, didn't respond. It didn't seem like he could! He tried to get up but the pain in his head prevented him. In fact, he slumped forward into Sally's arms.

"Oh, honey, what's wrong?" she pleaded, hugging him to her.

"I feel…cold…sick…"

Antoine quickly whipped off his uniform jacket and placed it over Tails's smaller body, almost covering him like a cloak.

"Lie heem down," he instructed, helping to steady the cub's tails as Bunnie and Rotor gently lay Tails back down with his head cradled in Sally's lap.

"Don't worry, little buddy," Rotor reassured him. "We'll take care of you"

Sally looked worriedly down at her nephew, and turned her attention to NICOLE. "What's wrong with him?" she asked, pointing her handheld computer above the young fox.

"Hol' still, now, sugah" Bunnie whispered as a blue light scanned over Tails, making him instinctively shut his eyes.

"Tails has hit his head," NICOLE informed Sally after a few seconds. "He hit it hard enough to bleed but no sign of serious injury. However, his tails have been crushed by the tree that was felled by the storm…"

Sally felt fear wash over her. "He will heal, won't he?"

"Yes," NICOLE confirmed. "But he needs to get home immediately"

"That sounds like a job for ol' Sonic," Bunnie observed.

A sonic boom followed by a rustling of leaves told them that the hedgehog with that particular name had arrived.

"What? What? Did we find Big Gu…"

The blue blur was halted at the sight of his little brother. For the first time in his life, Sonic had nothing to say.

"Yes, we found him and no, Sonic can't take Tails home" Sally quickly interjected.

"But, Sal," Rotor protested, "NICOLE said we have to get him home quick!"

"He has a head injury and his tails are broken," the princess replied. "The last thing he needs is whiplash"

"Fine, then," Bunnie concluded, "ah'll take him!"

With uncanny gentleness, she slid both organic and metallic arms under the fox's prone form and lifted him off the ground.

"C'mon, sugah-pie, let's get you back t'Knothole…"

She hurried away in the direction the search party had come. Antoine and Rotor followed her, but Sonic took Sally's arm.

"Sal, how did you find Big Guy before me?" he asked nervously in a hushed tone. "What's it all about?"

"It's…" the chipmunk didn't know how to word it. She was fighting to keep her composure intact. "Ever since I found him, I've had this feeling in my tail that tells me when he's scared, when he's sad…when he's in danger. It's almost as if he's my own son. My tail told me he was in danger just after you left. The moment this wind died away, we went out to look for him. It was almost as if my tail guided me"

Sonic wanted to question this some more, but he noticed the chipmunk's eyes, glistening and wet with tears. What was on his mind could wait.

"I know," Sally began to sob, "I know it sounds stupid, and I can't explain it, but it's like he's my son…my little boy. I dunno why my tail twitches, but it's the way my instincts talk to me"

"Whoa, whoa, who said it sounds dumb, Sal?" Sonic reassured, moving forward to hug her. "It saved his life. Imagine if he'd been stuck out here all night? Not that he would've, I'd have found him" he instantly backpedaled.

"I know you would have," Sally replied with a sad smile. "But…I let him down…I-If I'd gone to his hut this morning, I-I'd've stopped him going out…he wouldn't be in…"

"Sally," the blue blur cut in, "none 'o' this shoulda, woulda, coulda baloney. Nobody saw the weirdo weather coming. It ain't yer fault, and it ain't T2's neither, so don't get mad at him!"

"Who said I was mad?!" Sally's tears became angry. The realization that she had been too hot with someone, who was only trying to help, hit her instantly and she backed down. "Sorry…"

"C'mon," Sonic offered a gloved paw, "I'll walk you back ta Knothole"

"Walk? You?" Sally laughed despite herself. "It must be serious!"

To say that bit of levity was short-lived was perhaps the understatement of the century. The princess dropped the facade the instant she knew Sonic was looking away. Unbeknownst to her, the hedgehog did the same, looking ahead at the fox in Bunnie's arms with concern.

Tails awoke back in his hut…and wondered if he'd dreamt everything. The dull ache in his head and a tight sensation in his appendages at the foot of the bed confirmed that, no, he hadn't.

His skull felt itchy and he tried to scratch it but found it covered in a pressure bandage.

"Big Guy!"

The kit nearly hit his head again…against one of the rafters. He didn't know he wasn't alone.

"Big Guy, you're awake!"

There was Sonic, looking at him with mingled happiness and concern.

"Sonic, wha…"

"Oh, great, you remembered my name!" Sonic heaved a sigh of relief. "I was worried that bump ya took might scramble yer memory!"

"Bump?" Tails winced at the pain. Calling it a bump was being generous. Where his injury came from literally torpedoed him. "Sonic, I flew into a tree!"

"Uhhh, I don't think ya did it on purpose, buddy," the hedgehog gingerly patted his bandaged cranium. "But never mind that, right now! The others have been worried sick about ya all day!"

The kit was about to ask what his big brother meant by "all day" when he noticed it was night outside. Anyway, he didn't have the chance to raise any more questions. Sonic had left the hut.

The door opened a moment later.

"Oh, ma stars! Oh, Tails!"

"Little buddy! How are you feeling?"

"Are vous hurt bad, Tails?"

"Y'ever hear of anyone being hurt good, Ant?"

Sonic, Bunnie, Rotor and Antoine crowded round his bed, making a fuss and generally kind gestures and sympathetic remarks.

"We dunno where that bad ol' zephyr came from, Sugah-Fox," Bunnie commented, running her organic fingers through his cheek fur (his head was covered in bandages). "But it sure did bust y'all up real bad!"

"Ummm, h-how bad?" Tails asked, suddenly feeling an icy chill run through his body.

"You hit your head, and that coulda been serious," Rotor began, "But Antoine gave you his handkerchief to stop the bleeding!"

"Eet was sometheeng, mes amis," Antoine grinned, trying to sound modest: Sally had personally commended him for his quick thinking in helping the cub. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Why do my tails hurt so much?"

The congregation went quiet. Nobody was sure how to word what the princess had told them. Thankfully, they didn't have to.

"Hi, Tails"

The cub's eyes lit up as everyone turned around to see the chipmunk walk into the hut, a false smile adorning her countenance.

"Aunt Sally!"

Sonic and the others stood back to give Sally room as she crossed to Tails's bed with open arms, which Tails accepted with a hug.

"How are you feeling now, sweetie?"

"Better for seeing you guys!"

"I'm glad…we all are, that you're alright"

The cub's uncomfortable feelings seemed to intensify. He couldn't understand why. He was surrounded with the people who loved him. Why did it feel like they were hiding something from him?

"What's…what's going on?"

"Well…" Sonic took a frighteningly slow amount of time to consider his words. "I think we'd be better off showing you…"

With that, he pulled away the blankets, revealing the kit's twin tails, lying limply on the mattress, practically unrecognizable under several layers of bandages and two thick plaster casts.

"M-My… OW!"

The fox tried to move his namesakes, but felt a shooting pain. Everyone winced and gasped as if he'd channeled the agony to them.

"Now, now, settle down, darlin'!" Bunnie put a paw on his shoulder. "Don't do that, you'll make 'em worse!"

"The storm caused trees to fall down, honey," Sally informed him. "After you had your accident, one of them…fell on you. It crushed your tails. They're broken…"

"B-But it might not be so bad!" Rotor interrupted. "Broken bones always heal, Tails. You'll get better!"

The fox considered this. He didn't notice Sally flash the sheepish walrus a warning glance, as if silently scolding him for giving the kit hope.

"Yeah, you're right, Rote!" Sonic agreed. "Those feather dusters on yer ol' butt will be right as rain after a while!"

He glared back at Sally.

"This isn't so bad," Tails murmured, unsure whether it was to his family or to himself. "I'll be airborne in no time!"

"Honey…" Sally felt a cold sweat. "Y-You will heal, but it's too early to say that it's not done any permanent damage"

"D-Damage? But you said I'd heal, that's fixing, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is, but even though the bones will mend, we don't know if you'll be able to use your tails to fly anymore…"

The fox thought he was dreaming. That's right. His whole accident and being told he'd never fly again? Just a nightmare, that's all. He'd wake up, go for a good long fly and everything would be alright…

"Tails? Honey, are you okay?"

They all looked at him with concern.

"I'll never fly again?" the cub squeaked, his voice cracking.

"We don't know that, oh, nonono, Tails, don't, don't…" Sally rushed forward and embraced him as Tails buried his face in his paws and began to sob.

"I'll…never…fly…again…" the choked sobs rang out within the walls of the hut.

Bunnie turned away, tears of her own forming in her eyes. Antoine patted her on the back and offered her a fresh handkerchief. Tears were emerging from his own eyes.

Rotor swallowed the cold hard lump in his throat, watching the sweet little boy have his heart torn to pieces by something beyond anyone's control. He just couldn't take his eyes away. "Poor kid…" his crestfallen thought summed up his mood.

The blue blur walked out of the hut while no-one was looking. His little bro's life was ruined. If he hadn't discovered that Tails could fly, none of this would have happened. He wouldn't be going through this strife. It was all because of him…

The others heard a sonic boom and a gust of wind. Sonic had sped away to who knows where doing who knows what.

Sally rocked the sobbing cub in her arms, her own tears dampening his bandages.

"I should never have encouraged his flying…"

"Well, Snively, I'm impressed," Robotnik growled, looking at the report on his computer. "You didn't ruin my plan after all. The Great Forest certainly looks more bare now!"

The greasy little man beside him smirked.

"But what's this?" the doctor smirked, "Only eleven trees knocked down when I specifically asked for a DOZEN!"

Unbeknown to him, Snively pressed a button on a remote control behind his back. On the outskirts of the wood, a SWAT Bot came to life and pushed a tree over with an ear splitting crash.

"You were saying, sir?" Snively smirked, his words dripping with oil as he saw the number change from eleven to twelve.

"I should send a platoon to find the princess's hiding place," Robotnik mused. "Now that there's less foliage…"

"With all due respect, I disagree, sir," his nephew cut in.

"And with all due respect, shut up, Snively"

"We should give those Freedom Fighters some time to recover," the little man ignored his uncle's dismissal. "As far as they know, this was a perfectly natural occurrence. We should lull them into a false sense of security and then strike!"

Robotnik growled and sat back in his chair, tugging at his mustache in deep thought. "We should give those Freedom Fighters some time to recover," he growled at last. "As far as they know, this was a perfectly natural occurrence. We'll lull them into a false sense of security and then strike!"

"Excellent plan, sir," Snively rolled his eyes.

"Return the wind cannon to Robotropolis!" Robotnik went on. "We need to enhance its power. I want that ridiculous forest completely gone the next time we use it!"

Sally sat in her armchair, trying to distract herself from the howling wind outside, rattling the windows and moaning through the roof like a banshee.

Her eyes kept flickering from the book in her lap to Tails's hut across the way. The lights were off, a sign that he was asleep. He was safe.

She read only five or ten words before she looked out the window again…and her heart stopped.

There was a little figure, with two bandaged tails, battling against the gale, getting blown backwards and forwards. The dressings covering his wounds began to unravel, waving and flapping like white bunting.

The chipmunk tried to force herself to move from her chair, to rush outside, pick up the helpless child and bring him to the safety of her domicile. But her legs couldn't work. She was frozen to the spot.

A groaning, creaking rumble assaulted her ears, and she looked to her right, just in time to witness a dead tree be pulled out of the ground like a flower by the terrible force. Saw it bounce towards the struggling cub and get ensnared in his bandages.

"HELP ME, SOMEBODY!" her ears picked up the fox's despairing wail, "ANYBODY! SONIC! BUNNIE! AUNT SALLY!"

He'd screamed for her, so why couldn't she move? All she could do was watch as her boy was dragged along by the dead tree, trapped by the gauze wrapped in the gnarled fingers of its branches.

Finally, the tree's roots got caught between some rocks and halted its movements…right on the edge of a cliff. Tails dangled helplessly over the precipice, clinging to the bandages.

Abruptly, Sally found she could move. There was no time to lose. "I'm coming, honey!" she cried, forcing herself out of the chair and sprinting to the door.

"HANG ON, TAI-AAAIIILLSS!" the princess screamed over the cacophony, instantly feeling the frigid wind whipping her hair in all directions and stabbing through her fur.

Shutting her eyes, she struggled and pushed blindly towards the cliff. She didn't know, nor did she care, why there was a cliff in the middle of the village. All that mattered was rescuing her son.

She felt the force try to lift her off the ground and threw herself on her belly, crawling the rest of the way to the dead tree.

She looked over the edge, and beheld something that made her heart stop. Tails was dangling over utter blackness. An unfathomable abyss.

"HONEY!" she yelled to her terrified charge. "TAKE MY HAND!"

Tails took several swipes at her outstretched paw, but couldn't reach it. The chipmunk looked at the bandages. They wouldn't support her cub's weight for long.

"FLY, HONEY, FLY!" she screamed in desperation.

"I CAN'T!" he sobbed back. "YOU SAID I COULD NEVER FLY AGAIN!"

"NO!" Sally frantically denied. "I WAS WRONG! YOU CAN FLY! COME BACK TO ME!"

She saw the fox try to tie up his tails, prepared to fly. Her heart cried out as he wailed in pain.

"CATCH ME!" he yelled, and before she was ready, he launched himself upwards, reaching for her paws…and missed.

"TAILS!"

"AAAAAUUUUUNNNNNTTT SSSAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLYYYYYYYyyyyy…"

Her eyes were clouded by tears.

"You always catch me. You're real good at it!"

Her son's words echoed in her mind. No longer sweet and innocent but mocking.

"You always catch me. You're real good at it!"

The princess let out a choked sob, her eyes fixed where the cub had been.

"You always catch me. You're real good at it!"

Sally shut her eyes, felt the hot tears on her cheeks and lifted her head to the heavens.

"NO!"

She sat bolt upright in bed, covered in cold sweat, back in her darkened hut. There was no storm. No cliff outside her window. There was Tails's hut with the lights off.

"Tails!" she gasped.

It was lucky that it was dark, and the residents of Knothole were tucked away, because the sight of their princess running across to Tails's hut in her pink nightgown, no less, would have been something to behold.

The front door of Tails's hut groaned slowly and wearily open. Sally stuck her head through the gap. There was the kit, fast asleep in bed. Or was he?

She couldn't see the tell-tale signs of his blanket rising and falling. Or his bandaged tails twitching like they always did when he slept.

The princess was about to panic when she willed her mind to stop and think: she was too far away to get a proper look at the boy. She took a long deep breath and crept into the house, gently closing the door behind her.

The floorboards squeaked under her boots and the moonlight that leaked into the room through the window deformed her shadow into something monstrous.

It suddenly occurred to Sally that if Tails woke up and saw her, in the dark, looking at him, he'd be terrified. As much as she didn't like to wake him up from such a peaceful sleep, she just had to make sure that he was alive and comparatively well.

"Honey?" she whispered, gently shaking his shoulder. "Honey?"

"Ooohh…" the kit groaned, his eyes flickering open. "What? What's goin' on? Is it Buttnik?"

He yawned, giving Sally a good view of his canine teeth. What he wasn't expecting was his aunt to suddenly hug him.

"Aunt Sally?" his confused voice was muffled somewhat by her dressing gown.

"Oh, Tails…" he heard her whisper, stroking whatever part of his head was free from gauze.

"Aunt Sally, what's goin' on?" the cub usually didn't mind getting affection from his aunt, so it was strange that he was more confused than happy. "It's real late. I already had my bedtime story…didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," Sally murmured, her voice oddly breaking. "I was just…I was worried about you…"

"Worried? How come?" Tails was still reeling from the bombshell, but didn want Sally to be more sad.

"It's…It's just that you had a bad accident today and I was…scared for you…"

"Scared? Y-You're AUNT SALLY," Tails was dumbfounded. "How can you be scared? Nothing scares you! You go up against that tubby creep Buttnik every day!"

Sally smiled sadly. His faith in her was endearing and upsetting at the same time.

"How can you be scared for me? I'm oka-OWWW!" the fox suddenly winced as another ache ran through his body.

"Easy, honey," Sally placated, making her son lie back down. "Easy now…ssh…"

"Aunt Sally, I'll be okay!" This felt so surreal to Tails: usually it was her who comforted him. "It doesn't m-matter that I might not fly anymore…"

"I know you're okay…" the chipmunk whispered, and the fox was doubly shocked to see that she was crying. "But I…I've slept rather poorly tonight because I've been thinking about you…"

"Th-Then stop thinking about me," he suggested in a tone that implied that this was the easiest thing on Mobius.

"How can I stop thinking about YOU, honey?" Sally asked him. "That's the problem with love. I can't stop thinking about you. I had to check if you were okay because I slept just now…"

"You had a nightmare, didn't you, Aunt Sally?"

The chipmunk went red. The little cub had seen right through her. She was suddenly made aware of the age gap between them both. She was in her late teens, technically a kid like him, but from his perspective, she was an adult. Silly fears and superstitions were for kids his age. Not brave adults who also happened to be Freedom Fighters.

"Yes, I did," Sally suddenly experienced a strange fantasy where she was a little girl and Tails was older. That's how it felt now.

"It wasn't real," Tails reassured her. "Whatever it was, it didn't actually happen. You're safe! What happened in it?"

Sally decided not to say. She didn't know how the boy would react to hearing that his mother-figure dreamt about him falling off a cliff, and that she couldn't save him.

"You always catch me. You're real good at it!" his voice came back to her mind with a vengeance, causing her to involuntarily shudder.

"It wasn't a nice dream, I'll leave it at that, honey" she whispered.

"Ohhh…" Tails wasn't sure how to react, but he had to make her stop crying. "Aunt Sally?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Want me to sing you a song?"

Sally felt even more like a silly little girl now. But somehow, she wanted the same reassurance and comfort she always gave him.

"Okay, Tails. I would love to hear you"

Tails sat up and puffed out his chest, putting the chipmunk in mind of an opera singer. She giggled despite her mood.

Clearing his throat, Tails began.

"How sweeeeet to be a cloooouud,
Floating in the bluuuuuuue!
Eeevvvveery little cloooooouuud,
Always sings aaallloooouuuud!"

Sally nearly burst out laughing. Tails had never been trained to sing, but she didn't care. Nor did she care that his howling might wake the whole village. He was singing for her, and it chased her fears away.

"How sweet to be a cloooooouuuud

A-floating in the bluuuuuue,

It makes him verrrry prrrooooouuuud!

To beeee a little…cllloooooouuuud!"

Sally embraced him tightly, a tearful smile on her lips.

"Oh, honey, that was lovely!"

"Want me to do an encore?"

"No, sweetie, once was enough to cheer me up!"

"Awww, c'mere, you!" To Sally's surprise, Tails leaned forward and kissed her on the left cheek, the right cheek and on her nose. "How was that?"

"Not bad," Sally mused playfully. "But the kiss needs to be more sweet, LIKE THIS!"

Tails giggled and squealed as he tried to escape her grasp. She kissed both his cheeks and then his nose.

"Aunt Sally?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"You'll…You'll still love me even though I can't fly anymore?"

"We all will, honey. Flight or no"

"That's all I need to know"

For a moment, it felt like everything was back to normal. Sally even realised that she'd worried over nothing. Her tail hadn't twitched once. But she didn't regret coming to Tails. Not a bit.