obviously shadow is hesitant about his past
It was a two hour hike from River Village. Fortunately for Silver, long walks were not out of the ordinary; however this time felt….different. Trekking along a dried riverbed wasn't exactly the trail Silver had in mind, but it somehow was the trail he got. The dirt was uncomfortably soft and the rocks seemed… far too smooth for comfort. Yes, this was definitely not ideal.
"You know I can see the faces you are making." Shadow commented, not turning around.
"It's in my shoes…" Silver grumbled.
That was a true statement. A trip over a stone a few minutes prior had served as a gateway for loose sediment to slide into his tightly laced boots. It caught in his fur, uncomfortably grating against his skin and making this awful…scratching sound.
"You could have mentioned it sooner." Shadow sighed. "Rather than waiting for ten minutes and being irritated about it."
"I didn't want to bother you…" Silver mumbled.
"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong." Shadow stated, slowing his pace to a halt and gesturing to the bank.
The hoglet tramped his way over to a stone as the adult stayed behind - hooded head swiveling around curiously. The second Silver had sat himself down, he began threading his small fingers between his laces. Oh how he needed to get this sand out. It was going to drive him absolutely crazy.
Pulling his foot loose, he tapped his boot against a rock - watching the sand roll out like water out of a cup. There had been that much in there? The hedgehog guessed his fur was coarser than he thought. It didn't take long for him to slide the boot back on and repeat the actions on the other side.
"You need to lace them tighter." Shadow suggested, not looking up from the riverbed. The adult had crouched down, fingers sieving through the sand as if to look for things.
"They are." Silver answered, not actually sure if he had tied them tighter or not.
"If you insist." Shadow spoke, pulling a disk shaped object out of the dirt. A flick of the hand sent it spinning into the air.
"What's that?" Silver asked, jumping off the bank and shuffling to the adult's side.
"A coin." Shadow responded, flipping the metal disk through his fingers as expertly as he would a blade. "Human money."
"Human?" Silver asked, tilting his head.
"The other dominant species of the planet." Shadow sighed, stowing the metal trinket in his pouch. "Or at least they used to be."
Without another noise, the adult pressed onwards. Wordlessly, Silver trailed behind - following the larger footprints almost exactly. Feeling a bit bored, he turned it into a game. Wherever Shadow's boots made an imprint, Silver made sure to step in it. Sometimes the steps were wide, forcing Silver to make long strides in order to keep within the tracks while sometimes the steps were short- only requiring a slight shuffle. It was kind of fun. Occasional hops and lunges made the trip much more bearable than mindlessly holding onto Shadow's coattails.
The Ranger either didn't notice or didn't care. The only noises that the adult bothered to make were soft exhales and crunching footsteps. Which only allowed Silver to fuel his thoughts more. Skip had told him that playing meant he could do anything he wanted after all. He just needed to use his imagination. But what to imagine?
Oh - how about everything outside the footprints was an acid swamp. Yes, that would do. If he failed to step within the tracks his feet would be burned off. Slowly, his mind began to form imagery. What would the acid swamp look like? First off, the ground would be greenish - the sky too. Floating stones and withered trees would decorate the area with crows and vultures flying overhead. Swamps were bubbly, Fliss had told him once, so the acidic moisture would splash and pop with sickening squelches and spurts. Slowly, the larger footprints turned to stones that peeked out from the deadly peat. If he wanted to survive, he would have to jump from stone to stone-
"Silver." Shadow spoke, startling the kid from his imagination.
"Huh?" Silver responded, looking up at the hooded head.
"Pay attention to your surroundings." Shadow spoke, turning back around. "You keep following my footprints and almost running into everything I walk around."
"But I'm not hurt." Silver protested, jumping to the next shoe-shaped mark. "I just was playing a game."
"Do so carefully." Shadow sighed. "There are larger predators in these woods, and I do not want you to be caught off guard."
Silver looked around, suddenly feeling quite anxious of being carried off by an eagle. Ugh he had heard many stories of young kids being swooped off by predators. Unsurprisingly, the hoglet found himself wishing he was bigger. How big even was he?
The sun slowly crept below the treeline as time moved on, alerting Silver to how far they had actually traveled. Was there any faster way to get to where they were going? Or was Shadow going to use the "you need to build muscle" excuse again. Silver briefly considered using the dreaded "are we there yet" statement, but imagined the disgusted face of the elder instead. Yeah Shadow wouldn't be happy to hear that.
His light leather boot caught on a rock, sending him tripping to the ground…again. However he wasn't nearly as irritated as last time - especially since he knew the dried riverbed was soft and cushiony. Picking himself up, Silver felt his gold eyes catch on a spot in the ground. It was…another footprint? Were there other people? Slowly he walked over to the mark, investigating the track with curiosity. Who could have made that?
"Silver." Shadow spoke, voice louder in order to carry a further distance. "Don't fall behind."
"There's a footprint." Silver observed, rubbing his paw around the outside.
"It's mine." Shadow bluntly answered, shooting down any curiosity Silver held. "I had a bit of a scuffle, so let's go."
"Scuffle?" Silver asked, not recognizing the word.
There certainly seemed to be signs of a…something. Those footprints were everywhere. They dotted the soft dirt, telling a tale of fast movement and even ground grappling. Silver had never seen Shadow wrestle on the ground, but by the back-quill imprints and swooping scrapes in the dirt told of such a story.
The further he traveled, the more Silver saw. Claw marks, glass beads, deep trenches…even things Silver couldn't identify. What in Gaia's name had happened here? Was it the cloud demon?
"Was Mephis here?" Silver asked, jogging to catch the adult's hand.
"Me-phil-es." Shadow corrected, stretching the name out so the child could hear every syllable. "And no, I haven't seen him since he threatened you."
"What happened?" Silver asked, looking around, confused to who else the ranger would need to use this much force on.
The silence was deafening. Shadow's pace faltered as he visibly opened and closed his mouth. The sheer amount of calculations that the ranger had running through his head was enough to even make Silver's head hurt. What on earth could have happened? Shadow himself didn't seem to know it seemed. The strong shoulders tensed and relaxed, fingers shaking slightly in Silver's paws as he tried to come up with the words.
"An aggrandized reception to a hallucinogenic anamnesis effectuated by post traumatic stress and an inadmissible visitation." Shadow finally answered, settling for some of the longest words that the hoglet had ever heard.
"Hey!" Silver shouted, feeling sort of snubbed by the grandiose explanation. "You did that on purpose!"
"You're too young." Shadow responded, voice growing quiet. "You simply wouldn't understand - you can't."
"You don't know that…" Silver grumbled, kicking some dirt as he pouted. "You haven't tried."
"You still only comprehend things from one point of view." Shadow rebutted. "Your own."
Silver opened his mouth to respond, only to find himself shutting it. Shadow was sort of correct. He really didn't know how to walk in someone else's shoes.
"Until you overcome your developmental egocentrism, you'll have to accept that you aren't ready to know some things." Shadow sighed, a twang of pity shining in his voice. "There is so much you should know, but simply can't because of how…essential it is to care."
Silver looked at the ground, trying to comprehend why it would be so important to care so much about something.
"My life isn't exactly made in the shade." Shadow spoke, allowing some emotion to slide through his voice. "But what you have to understand is that there are things bigger than even me at play."
The leather clad gloves gripped the small paws tightly.
"You're too young to fully understand what you're getting into, but in order to comprehend, you have to see a life you have ... never known…" Shadow trailed off, hooded head turning to look down the riverbed. "Save a life…you've never known…"
Silver only looked up at the obscured eyes. What could he even say? None of it made any sense.
"Until then, you'll have to settle for confusing answers." Shadow finished, picking up his pace. "Nevertheless - we have arrived."
Gold eyes stared down the riverbed to a rather beautiful sight. It seemed to be a stone formation - cascading off a cliff in jagged shapes and rippling through empty dishes. It almost felt like there should be water there - filling the area with refreshing mists and flowing pools. Instead…it was just dry. Well, that wasn't entirely correct. The air was rather humid after all.
"See those stones at the top of the waterfall?" Shadow asked, pointing to a pile of tightly packed rocks. "That's the dam. I need your help disassembling it."
"Dis a semble?" Silver asked, letting go of the strong hand in order to clasp his together.
"Take it apart - follow me."
The ranger vaulted up the cliff face, using his superior strength and speed to effortlessly reach the top. Barely a few seconds later, He turned - beckoning with his hand for the hoglet to follow. Silver only stood there, slack jawed and amazed. How on earth was he supposed to do that?
"If you don't think you can climb, why don't you just fly up?" Shadow called.
"Fly?" Silver asked incredulously. "I can't fly."
"Well you've done it before." Shadow retorted, crossing his arms. "I'm pretty sure you can fly."
"That wasn't my fault!" Silver called back up. "I floated away - not fly!"
"Flew…" Shadow mumbled under his breath. "The proper tense is flew…"
"I can't do it." Silver pouted, crossing his arms and sitting down. "You have to carry me."
Shadow jumped the twenty pace drop, landing on the stone grooves below with about as much grace as a dancer. Leather boots clicked and clacked as the ranger walked closer, staring the hoglet in the eyes with an unreadable glare.
"If you keep saying you can't do things, you never will." Shadow frowned. "I will carry you this time, but you need to have more faith in yourself - there's a difference between knowing your limits and assuming the worst."
Vaulting back up the cliff face, Shadow set the child down on the bank nearby the rock pile. Kneeling down to the hoglet's height, the ranger began to point.
"I need you to take the bottommost stones out of the pile." He ordered. "Use your power and pull them out."
"Do they weigh a lot?" Silver asked, nervous about his success. "Will I have to pull hard?"
"You shouldn't." Shadow answered. "It should be the same motions as your training stones."
With an inhale, Silver pulled himself into his stance. One leg forwards, one leg, backwards, and bend - body relaxed and stressless. Right…. Just keep the stance. Synchronously, he brought his hands above his head and back down, fluidly pushing one forwards and one back.
"Focus." Shadow instructed, backing away slightly. "Keep your breathing calm."
Inhaling, Silver called his aura - lighting his paws up with familiar blue. Slowly, he arched his paws to the side, carefully twisting his topmost one as he gracefully slid his downward hand outwards. Concentration snagged at a stone, surrounding it in cyan as the hoglet focused. Narrowing his eyes, Silver pulled his left hand back, leaving his right outstretched as he bent his back knee. Slowly he turned his body horizontal, exhaling as he pulled his hands inwards in a fluid glide. Responding to the movements, the rock scraped forwards- bringing with it a slow gush of water.
"Excellent." Shadow spoke. "The one two stones down is also load bearing."
Leaning forwards again, Silver pushed his left hand forwards - right following closely behind as he snagged another rock. With only slight resistance, the stone pulled outwards, reacting to another graceful arch. Silver could only smile as he watched the structure wobble, water forcing its way through more cracks as it started to crumble.
"That one was giving me trouble." Shadow commented. "It had to have weighed seven times my own weight."
"Is that a lot?" Silver asked, adjusting his stance with a swooping step.
"Knee relaxed - yes." Shadow half instructed half answered. "Although you probably can't tell."
The final stone gave loose, toppling the entire structure over the edge. Water whistled through the air, seemingly dancing from its new found freedom as it tumbled over the falls - bringing much needed moisture to the land below. Silver gave a cheer, jumping about and wiggling in celebration of one of his first successes. However, he wasn't alone in his progress filled pride.
"He's come a long way to destroy my barriers."