The Fox and the Seedrian: Frontiers
by milesprower06
Chapter Seven
Lily admired the ancient stonework and half-buried structures as she, her dad, and Sonic slowly followed behind BD, the hovering drone that was steadily scanning the path ahead for any traps that had survived the landslide years ago.
"I wonder what all of this looked like before the landslide," Lily said.
"Or even farther back, when it was populated," Tails offered.
"True, even then, in all the books I've read, all they were able to offer were artists' renderings of what it might have looked like," Lily replied. "So, like, what kind of traps are we on the lookout for?"
"Dart launchers and pressure plates, mostly," Sonic explained. "Some spike traps too, some of them were even fake and spring-loaded."
Luckily, as they descended the landslide into the flatter valley, BD seemed to scan quicker, and the hiking pace of the group increased overall.
In the center of the valley, between the Marble Gardens and Azure Lake, was Eggman's comical and rusting amusement park.
"I'm still having a hard time figuring out how he convinced Knuckles to let him construct this place," Lily said, as they approached the entrance gates to the rusting and flooded theme park.
"Knowing Eggman, and Knuckles, he didn't. Probably spun some nonsense tale about how a rogue swarm of robots was constructing it, or maybe he even managed to blame it on us, who knows? I honestly never thought to ask him. As soon as he appeared that night, he shut off the lights to the entire park and he vanished. Didn't see him again until the launch of the Death Egg knocked him into the ocean," Sonic explained.
"I'm just hoping we can navigate this place safely before it gets too dark. We have dinner and a camp to make, and I'd like to do it at Azure Lake," Tails said.
"Well, at least we don't have to stop and look at much. Looks like half of it's collapsed," Sonic commented.
"No worries, dad. I didn't come here to look at Eggman's past aspirations. Let's go."
Chris sat reclined in a lawn chair in her back yard, watching as the sun dipped below the gargantuan tree that was the centerpiece of both the yard and garden, and cast a growing shadow over the house.
"Thank you again for today, Chris," Cosmo began, sipping at her glass of lemonade. "I suppose I should admit that the loneliness is already getting to me, and it hasn't even been two whole days yet."
"It was the least I could do. You made breakfast, and broke up the monotony of what was going to be a very dull day in the lab. Even had a nice lunch. Helen and I even had a long overdue talk," Chris replied.
"Oh? About what?" Cosmo asked, grabbing the pitcher from the table between them and topped off her lemonade.
"About finally trying for a family of our own. We've got more than enough babysitting experience from Lily and Aurora, and I'd like to think that I've gotten over most of my fears of turning into the workaholic that my dad was… Truth is, I've got more than enough friends to keep an eye on me, so we've decided to finally go for it."
"That's wonderful news, Chris. I wish you two nothing but the best of luck," Cosmo told him, raising her glass of lemonade between the two of them. Chris smiled and raised his as well, the two glasses meeting and clinking in the middle.
"It's alright to worry, Cosmo. I hope you know that. Not, you know, like crazy amounts of worrying all the time," Chris told her.
"I'm not worried. Those three are perfectly capable of keeping themselves safe," Cosmo answered.
"I don't mean about their little hiking trip. I mean about the future," Chris clarified.
"Mm," Cosmo agreed, taking another sip of lemonade. "Lily's growing up. Some days I don't like it, some days I wonder where the last ten years went… But mostly, I'm proud of her. I'm proud of the person she's becoming, and whatever she chooses to do with her life, I know that profession will be better with her. I'm just afraid of how much it will hurt if it ends of being on the other side of the planet."
"I know it's probably not my business, but have you and Tails ever talked about trying for another child?" Chris asked.
"We've touched on the subject every now and then, especially when she was younger, wondering if we wanted to try and give her a younger sister or brother. But as she got older, I think we found that we were happy with raising just her. But perhaps it is time to talk about it again, and make the family a little bit bigger."
"I know it can be tricky, with the two of you. I know you never got a straight answer as to whether or not the chaos emeralds had anything to do with Lily being a perfectly healthy Mobian-Seeedrian hybrid," Chris offered.
"Yes, that admittedly has played a part in our reluctance to try again. I suppose we're not ready to tempt fate again, and just be happy with the miracle that we ended up with. I hope she gets some answers on that island. I don't want it to be bad news. It's been such a peaceful time since she was born, and I'm honestly not ready for it to be over," Cosmo told him.
Chris gave out a soft chuckle.
"I don't think there are too many around these parts who would disagree with you, Cosmo."
Tails sat and looked at his holographic map of Angel Island, which he had used to plot the possible routes through, and they had come to their first divide, and the path they were going to take would have to be decided before they headed out tomorrow.
"Wondering which way to take?" Sonic asked, swallowing the last bite of his chili dog, before sitting next to Tails at the campfire.
Tails glanced over at Lily's sleeping bag, where his daughter was already out like a light. The air was mild enough and the weather forecast was clear, so they deemed tents unnecessary for tonight.
"Yeah," Tails answered, shutting off the projection before leaning back propped up on his arms. "We can either go through the mines, over the top of the ice caps. Personally, I prefer the ice caps. We didn't pack the cold weather gear for no reason, and it that seems much safer than ancient mines," the fox mused.
"Yeah, never touched the mines myself, or this area, to be honest. That cannon back in the carnival shot me straight over this area right down into the caps back in the day," Sonic replied.
"Sounds like a plan. Getting around the lake shouldn't take more than an hour or two, hopefully we can be over the ice caps to the launch site before sundown tomorrow, because I really don't want to make camp there."
Tails glanced over at Lily again when he saw her sleeping bag shift for a few seconds, before she quickly sat up, wide awake.
"Everything okay, kiddo?" Sonic asked.
"Are we being too loud, hun?" Tails asked.
Lily looked around, as if she was getting her bearings.
"You guys didn't hear that? It was clear as day," Lily asked them as she continued taking in her surroundings.
"We didn't hear a thing, Lily. We were just discussing tomorrow's hiking route," Tails answered.
"Why, what's up, Lil? What did you hear?" Sonic asked.
Lily looked out at the reflection of the moon on the still surface of Azure Lake.
"Whispers. Couldn't quite understand it, but it sounded like it was right next to my ear," Lily told them.
The girl took a few deep, quiet breaths, then laid back down. Maybe it was nothing.
Tomorrow was a new day.
A/N: Apologies for the long delay in updating this story; work in other IP's took precedent, then uploading and updating issues with prompted me to begin using my long-dormant account on AO3, where I will soon be uploading all parts of this story.