With AO3 down, you guys get first access to this chapter
now you can sip your tea and read your newspaper while the other guys scream and run around while on fire
Silver hadn't realized how hungry he was until a steaming bowl of soup was placed in his paws. The starving hoglet didn't even wait for the clay dish to hit the table before he dug his spoon in and slopped it into his mouth. Luckily, the woman had the sense to let it cool off before handing it to an unwitting child; so Silver was unharmed by the warm meal. Herbal broth and sweet carrots slid across the hoglet's tongue as he slurped away, hardly registering the taste in his anxiety-fueled starvation.
"Prodigy - slow down!" The woman gasped, reaching her hand out to grab the spoon.
Without thinking, Silver snapped his arms around the bowl and growled - eyes shining viciously with possession. The mistress had withheld food from him before. If he ever had to go another night with half a meal in his stomach, the hedgehog felt he would go absolutely insane.
"Silver!" The woman gasped, a slight anger glinting in her face.
The hoglet in question jumped at the mention of his real name. Usually the elder villagers called him "Prodigy" - not by his given name.
"I don't know what manners the Hero has taught you, but you certainly cannot go about like that." She corrected.
With a scolding frown, she reached down and took his spoon. Silver found himself shrinking slightly under the words as she placed her gold paws on her hips.
"You should act like a gentleman, not a wild animal." She continued. "And don't hork your food down like that, you'll give yourself a belly ache."
Silver felt his ears droop as she muttered words under her breath. He had felt shame when Shadow had scolded him, but he never expected the feeling to apply to other adults.
"Eat it slowly." She sighed, sliding the spoon back across the wooden table. "And give yourself time to relax."
Silver straightened his back, remembering what table manners Fliss had taught him, and began to eat slowly. Hold the spoon between the middle finger and the thumb… Ivory fingers felt tangled as they gripped onto the wooden utensil. Why was holding things "properly" so difficult? It was so much easier to hold it in a fist…
Silver sighed as he placed another spoonful in his mouth. Out in the wilds, Shadow let him eat with his bare hands and claws; not with fancy sticks. Back at home, Silver had only occasionally been lent a spoon or fork, in the event that something that couldn't be grabbed with his paws of course. Why was this woman so…proper?
Gold eyes examined the mother as she sat across from him. Her tired eyes and worn face told a tale of…hard work… somehow. Her fur was neatly brushed - recently bushed - and well cared for… but something was off. She wasn't smiling or laughing. Her hands didn't dance nervously about. She was unusually still. Something was missing.
"Where's Skip?" Silver asked, gold eyes darting around the room in search of his previous playmate.
"He..uh…" The woman hesitated, fingers racing to her throat as she contemplated her choices.
"Is he gone?" Silver asked, turning back around and shoving another spoonful of soup in his mouth.
"He's…fallen ill…" Came the reluctant response.
"Fallen ill?"
"He's succumbed to the fog and drought…" The mother quietly answered. "He's been put with the others…"
Silver set his spoon down. He had heard Shadow and the Elder talk about people getting sick, but he had never seen someone actually ill. In his childish brain, he had elected to ignore it - choosing to play with the other kids instead. But now… Skip was sick?
"Where is he?" Silver somberly asked, looking into the saddened eyes of the dog in front of him.
"He's with the others…to keep the infection from spreading…"
"Where is he?" Silver pressed, feeling anxious for his newfound friend.
"The Her-" The woman stopped herself, pausing for a few seconds to evaluate her words carefully. "...Shadow…has asked me to keep you away from the illness…to mention it as little as possible…"
"What?" Silver gasped, standing up on his chair. "But why?"
"He knew you would get curious." She answered, taking the empty bowl from in front of the stunned child. "He knew you would try to go poking around in places you shouldn't and potentially get yourself sick…"
"But I have to help Skip-"
"Prodigy." The woman firmly pressed, standing up herself. "If you want to help Skip, you have to help us fix the gate."
She turned, placing the bowls inside a bucket with a pained exhale.
"We are defenseless without the Hero's presence." She explained. "If I want to keep my husband and my son safe, I have to fix that gate."
Silver looked up into the strained face as she turned around to look at him once more.
"You have to help me, Prodigy." She spoke, quiet anxiety showing in her face and voice. "That's the only way you can help Skip right now…"
Without thinking, the ivory child kicked the chair out from under him and landed on the floor - making a bolt for the open door. The woman had yelled, but Silver paid her no mind. He needed to find Skip. Who cared if the gate needed fixing, his friend was in trouble.
"Prodigy!" The woman called, running behind him with frantic breath. "Please listen to me!"
Silver shook his head, debating whether or not he should place his fingers in his ears to stop from hearing the woman. He had to find Skip. No thing, person, or idea was going to stop him-
"SILVER." The woman shouted, her commanding voice freezing the hoglet in his tracks. "Get back here this instant!"
Silver found himself turning around before his brain had even processed the command.
"What kind of child has that man raised you to be?" She groaned, dragging her hands down her face and stretching her skin. "You've turned from a well-behaved angel to an absolute gremlin."
"I need to make sure Skip is ok…" Silver sheepishly whispered.
"First Shadow…now Skip… Prodigy…" The woman sighed, kneeling down to the child's height. "There will always be people you are worried about."
"Always?"
"Always." She responded, gently taking his hand and leading him down the road. "You need to learn how to prioritize things."
Silver's gold eyes looked up at the woman holding his paw. His feet carried him along after her as she guided him to the edge of the walled village. Down the road, several villagers were hard at work with metal bars and giant logs carefully rolled in front of the damaged gate. The blacksmith yelled indecipherable directions to a group of teens, who carefully began unraveling lines of rope.
"Such a rude thing." The woman muttered under her breath. "Leaving someone else to fix your messes. What a son of a-"
"Rise!" The blacksmith called, jogging up to the tired dog. "We need your help."
"We don't know how to get the bolts out." Another villager called, waving his wrench at the hinges of the large gate. "My tools won't budge it."
"Prodigy?" The mother asked, squeezing the hedgehog's paw softly. "Would you pull the bolt out of the door?"
Silver loosed his hand from the dog, stepping out in front and assuming his basic stance. Gold eyes narrowed on a single bolt, focusing on its smooth surface. It was just a dinky screw, right? It shouldn't be any harder than the training stones.
Cyan wisped around his paws as he called his power, channeling it into the metal bolt in the door. With his mind, he felt its every surface, examining how it was twisted into the oak with subconscious eyes. Right. Just pull it out. Not a big deal.
Twisting his fingers, Silver pulled his arm back, remembering to keep his body loose and fluid as he flowed through the movements. Amazed gasps and exclamations sounded from the villagers as the bolt twisted outwards - slowly reacting to the hoglet's command. A grunt crossed Silver's lips as it popped loose, allowing him to release it from his mind's grasp.
"Wow!" The woman praised, clapping her hands together. "That was incredible!"
"Really?" Silver asked, beaming up at her with wide eyes. Shadow had never praised him so freely. The acknowledgement of his hard work was intoxicating.
"Can you do the others?"
One by one, All eight bolts succumbed to Silver's power as he plied them from their organic prison. With each metallic clunk, and every subsequent break for re-stancing, the hedgehog found himself more and more confident in his movements. Partially fueled by the encouraging villagers, and partially the thought of how impressed Shadow would be, Silver pushed himself to be better - pulling the hinges off the aged wood with a strained gasp.
Directions started flying at him from all directions as everyone seemingly wanted him to take a different task. Silver was reluctant at first, shying away from the advancing mass of workers - only for the mother to step in and take the lead. With authority only a woodworker's wife could have, she split the group of villagers into teams; each having their own job to distribute the workload.
Silver found himself practically glued to her side as she gave him constant direction. Stand this log up. Bend the metal this way. Hold this hinge to the wall. Even simple tasks such as driving the bolts fell to the young hedgehog as the villagers quickly discovered he could shove them into the wood way faster than any blacksmith with a hammer.
It was remarkable how good it felt to be useful. Silver felt he could actually contribute to the team with how Shadow had trained him. Although at some times it felt like he was doing most of the work, when it came down to the meat of the situation, the young prodigy was helping the work go at least ten times as fast.
"Usually it would take weeks to build a gate like this." Someone had said in passing.
But with the hoglet's help, the massive wooden door was back in business by sundown, leaving the village workforce happier than ever with the young hedgehog. Despite the happy cheers and countless thank-yous that were poured in his direction, Silver couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. That gate felt…useless.
Shadow had blown it clean open in one shot.
The goliath could have trampled the wall with one step.
Mephiles had danced over the wall with ease.
"It's not going to help…" Silver gasped to himself, realization striking him harder than he'd like.
All the pride and excitement he previously held towards his accomplishment felt lost as logic slapped him across the face. Why was he even thinking this way? Shouldn't he be happy he built something? With his mind?
"It's not going to help!" Silver shouted, panic rising in his system.
Pushing past the villagers in front of him, the hoglet frantically bolted to the great wall posts. Latching his hands around the sides of the logs; Silver pulled himself up, scaling the wall with heaves and puffs until he reached the top - sweating and shaking from exertion. Gold eyes raced around the landscape. He had to search for signs of stalkers - goliaths - anything.
"You could have used the ladder." A voice spoke next to him.
Silver jumped at the unexpected companion, eyes meeting in a frightfully close proximity with the racoon guard from before. The sentry only shook his head, grabbing the hedgeling by his scruff and throwing the child over his shoulder. Silver protested, whimpering and squirming as he was hauled back down to the ground.
"Prodigy, relax." The woman smiled, opening her arms to take the quivering hedgehog. "Everything will be alright."
"But the gate-"
"It will hold." She soothed, bouncing him slightly and walking back to her hut. "It hasn't failed us before."
"But Mephiles-"
"Let's get some sleep - we'll think about this in the morning with a clear head ok?"