Chapter 3

Sonic slowly awoke, and noticed it was pitch black outside. Night time again? Daylight only lasted for a few hours, so it was difficult to tell time and the only clock available was standing still. He still felt numb, but oddly warmer than before.

It took him a few moments to notice that he was wrapped in a fur blanket. He felt almost feverishly warm the more awake he became and wanted it off, but his arms felt heavy and didn't obey him very well. He noticed Eggman sleeping in the arm chair nearby. Perhaps it really was the middle of the night. Feeling too awake at this point, and also completely parched, he decided to try and kick off the blanket with his good leg.

Like his arms, the leg didn't respond at first either. After two attempts, he managed to weakly knock the blanket away. The cool air felt nice and assisted in waking his numb limbs. After a few moments, he clumsily squirmed to push himself up into a sitting position. He saw that his left leg had gotten a new bandage and sighed with immense relief. Both his legs were still attached to him. He couldn't feel any pain yet, but was sure it would return as soon as the drug wore off.

His body felt like lead, as he dragged himself towards the edge of the bed, before placing his feet onto the ground. He rose, carefully, and noticed his form wasn't very coordinated yet, as he began to sway and tilt to one side. He grabbed onto the table and guided himself towards the stove with the pot of cold water on it. After a few clumsy movements and close calls with the floor, he finally made it.

He sat down on the closest chair and poured some water into a cup. The medicine had left a rather unpleasant taste in his mouth, so it felt immensely refreshing when he swallowed the cool liquid, and it helped with clearing his head.

Once he had satiated his thirst, his desire to move stalled, especially since his still half-asleep body wouldn't obey him properly.
He wondered if he should return to bed. Eggman could wake up soon and he probably wouldn't be very pleased to see him moving around, especially before his leg had a proper chance to heal. The hedgehog would probably get an earful if he got caught.

Considering that the doctor tried to kill him quite recently, the blue blur found it odd that he was now worried about getting scolded by the same guy for not taking better care of himself. Though he knew the human only cared about his health, as long as he needed his help.

'As soon as Eggman gets what he wants, it's back to open hedgehog season,' Sonic thought gloomily.

He grimaced as he caught a whiff of a foul, sweaty smell. He was slightly mortified when he realized that it was originating from himself, possibly from his panic attack. In the lack of a shower, he found a cloth, soaked it in soapy water and got to work on cleaning his fur and quills. When he had finished, he didn't want to return to the bed, as it likely smelled as bad as he had and he wouldn't be surprised if he had shed some quills on it too with how stressed he had been. Instead, he grabbed a pillow and placed it and himself down on the rug in front of the fireplace. He lay down on his side in a half curled up position to get some rest.

XXX

After what felt like a few minutes, a sound awakened him.

Sonic mumbled something that sounded like 'five more minutes'. He was not in the mood to be woken up by Eggman right now.

"The bandages need to be changed again." The doctor replied. He was not foolish enough to try to handle this while the azure one was asleep. Quills, claws, sharp teeth, and at least one leg that could deliver a bone crushing kick wasn't something he would like to accidentally trigger, if the hedgehog was startled awake.

"Okay then." The blue blur said, while sluggishly rising into a sitting position and stretching his limbs out.

The doctor was a little surprised that Sonic had agreed so easily, thinking he would have insisted on doing it himself. If he hadn't been curious about the healing progress, he would have left it to the hedgehog to deal with it himself. Not questioning it out loud, he put down the first aid kit, opened it and set to work.

The hedgehog was a little lost in thought, while Eggman was working on unwrapping his old bandage. He couldn't feel any pain at the moment, but decided to look away and distracted himself by fixing his fur. He just couldn't look at his wounded leg.

"Hey, look at that!" The human exclaimed.

When Sonic looked down, he didn't see that same, huge, gaping hole below his knee, but more like a small scratch instead.

"Looks like you won't be losing the leg to infection after all. I knew some Angel Island moss would do the trick."

Excited about his leg finally making progress, the Mobian smiled and was suddenly more awake. The wound had almost closed and only required a lighter bandage to cover it. The leg would probably be good to walk fully on, maybe even run on in a day or two. As soon as Eggman had fully changed the bandage, the hedgehog hobbled over to one of the windows, deciding to carefully stand on his toes of one leg, to be able to see above the snow on the windowsill.

"Looks like we're snowed in," he commented. It was still snowing outside and he could hear the wind howling.

"At least we can shovel ourselves out. We're going to need more firewood later." The doctor replied, while he was cleaning up his equipment.

"We're staying another day?" Sonic wondered. He thought that Eggman would have left to find the Emerald and dragged him along in his injured state regardless.

"You catch on fast." Eggman replied, and continued before the hedgehog had a chance to object to the possible sarcasm. "I want to make sure we're well prepared... and I also don't want anything to occur that might hinder that probability. So, we'll be leaving the day after tomorrow, if everything works out." The blue blur knew that he was mostly talking about his leg. "Like you, I intended to return home as soon as possible."

"At least we can agree on that," Sonic replied, dryly.

The Mobian then resumed to look outside, while Eggman decided to make their breakfast.

Even if his leg was healing, it did start to complain after standing for a few minutes. He limped to the closest chair and sat down. His eyes skimmed over Eggman's notebook. Not much in it; just calculations and equations he couldn't understand. He then placed his head in one hand, signifying boredom. Not just one extra day, but two, inside the limited space provided by their shelter. Now that he was feeling better, he needed more stimuli for amusement and the cabin certainly didn't provide much.

The notebook and pencil were an obvious option. Although he didn't know how long he would be allowed to keep them before their owner missed them and demanded them back.
He quickly stashed them between his quills.

Presently, the doctor returned with a few dishes and placed them on the table.

"Wha-what kinda breakfast is that?!" Sonic asked, befuddled at the sardines in front of him.

"One that'll help you back on your feet faster." Eggman replied, amused by Sonic's confused and slightly repulsed expression. "Omega-3, hedgehog, it's good for you."

"Is there any rice, nori, soy sauce or wasabi, so I can at least pretend it's sushi?" Blue quipped, with a sceptical grimace at the unappealing meal, which he gently prodded with a fork.

"Sure! It's back at my lair. My robots will arrive in approximately three days. Think you can wait that long?" He asked, entertained by Sonic's face, as he held a sardine on his fork. He looked disturbed by the fish's wide, staring, lifeless eyes. "Just mix it with the green beans and mixed vegetables. You'll be fine. Look, I'm eating them too, in case you're afraid it's fugu or something."

Sonic didn't think it was poisonous. He just didn't find it very appealing when his food was staring back at him.

"If it's that bad, just cut off the heads." Eggman casually proposed.

The suggestion didn't do any wonders for the hedgehog's already decreasing appetite.

"Heh, you've... clearly never fished, have you?" The doctor inquired.

"I've done some catch and release..." Sonic replied, hesitantly. His fishing trip hadn't been too successful, since he'd refused to use a hook. The Mobian somewhat involuntarily ate a forkful of his food.

"Who'd you go with? Sometimes if I find Big near one of my bases, I decide to give fishing a try. You'd be surprised at his casting techniques."

"Big's the only one of my friends who enjoys fishing. Come to think of it, I rarely ever see him do anything else. No surprise he'd be good at it."

"Aside from running and getting on my nerves, I could say the same about you." Eggman grumbled softly to himself. "So, you and Tails never had a fishing trip?"

One of Sonic's triangular ears twitched at being reminded of his brother. "…We did once. It didn't end well..." He trailed off with a shudder.

"What? Forget your life vests?"

"Yeah, those really helped against a big, hungry orca," Sonic's reply dripped of sarcasm, but he also had a small smile on his muzzle.

"Strange that you'd fish in salt water. I assumed you'd fish in a freshwater lake if given the choice."

"It was in a tranquil lagoon. Peaceful. Until the orca jumped in," The blue one explained and added in a mutter, "I swear those things are out to get me."

Eggman chuckled softly. He would have to add a pod of orca to his base out at sea. That might deter Sonic at some point.

Sonic scoffed, before placing his fork down, only to register the clanging noise of an empty plate. The meal hadn't been a joy to eat, but at least it would give him some energy back. Strange that the doctor had kept him occupied from the unappetising meal. It did seem like he genuinely wanted him to heal. But why? Perhaps it was as simple as him not wanting to have to carry him around later.

He shoved his plate away. "Thanks for the questionable meal."

"You're welcome. Next time, I'll order sushi and pizza when we return to civilization." The doctor sarcastically replied, while he cleaned up.

"Is that a promise?" Sonic asked, a little amused.

"Maybe. Just focus on healing."

"I heal pretty fast." He reprimanded. "Very handy, considering how often you pick a fight."

"Funny. I could say the same about you, especially over meaningless little trifles."

"Meaningless trifles? Like what? Me stopping you trying to conquer the world every other week? You have a funny idea of 'meaningless trifles'."

"Oh, yeah? How about the times you ruined my grocery shopping and destroyed those paint trucks?"

"So, you were 'innocent' a couple of times. If you ask me though, I think it is vandalism painting your logo everywhere."

Eggman didn't dignify that remark with an answer. "Just go and get some rest."

"Fine," Sonic carefully moved himself over to the armchair by the fireplace. Getting comfortable by leaning his back on one arm of the chair while letting his legs rest on top of the other.

As soon as he was sure Eggman was occupied with something else, he picked the lineless notebook and pencil out from where he hid them earlier and began to sketch.

XXX

One hour later…

"Ah-ha, there it is," Eggman's voice mumbled to himself, before both notebook and pencil was yanked out of Sonic's hands from behind his back.

The hedgehog didn't protest, nor tried to reclaim what was taken, since they weren't his to begin with. A light sigh and crossing his arms from boredom was his only response at losing the notebook.

The human rolled his eyes at that before inspecting what the hedgehog had been up to with his things. Half-fearing the entire notebook would be full of offensive caricatures and silly doodles by now.

To his surprise, only one page had been used. It showed a detailed sketch of Green Hill. A place he knew the hedgehog often frequented. He guessed this was one of his favourite spots.

He had to admit the hedgehog was skilled with a pencil, but landscape illustrations weren't something he had any interest in himself, even if he too spent quite a lot of time drawing. Robot designs and architecture were more to his liking.

He put the notebook away, as he noticed something else that had to be prioritized. They were almost out of firewood.

Sonic didn't even notice when the human opened the door, until he felt an icy gust of wind reach him. He shivered and sat up, looking for the source of the sudden cold. Once he found it, he was surprised that the doctor had already shovelled out the door and was working on the porch. Stiffly, he got up to see what Eggman was up to and cautiously followed.

As soon as the doctor was done clearing away snow, he went over to a big stump with an axe embedded into the bark. As he was about to deliver the first blow to a log, the axe head was flung backwards and fell through the ice into a small frozen pond nearby.
Eggman muttered a small curse.

Sonic snorted from the comical display. Trying not to laugh out loud, but failing miserably.

Unamused and about to yell at the laughing hedgehog, Eggman suddenly realized something; Sonic was practically a living buzz saw. Cutting clean through robots made of reinforced steel like a hot knife through butter. A softer material shouldn't be a problem…

"Think fast!"

Barely having time to react to what had been said, Sonic froze, when suddenly a log was rapidly approaching his face.

He curled up and spun instinctively.

"Hey! What was that for!?" Sonic exclaimed after landing.

"Firewood," the human replied casually, while gesturing to the log that was now in three pieces in front of the spiky one.

"Oh…" Sonic calmed down. His silence pretty much confirming that he agreed it was a good idea. "You could have given me a warning first."

"Told you to think fast, didn't I?" Eggman asked rhetorically with a shrug. "Ready for the next one?"

Sonic accepted the challenge with a confident smile. "Bring it on."

After a little while, the pile of firewood had gotten big enough for them to stop.

"That should do it," Eggman commented.

"As easy as taking out a Buzz Bomber swarm," Sonic replied, swaying a little.

The task of picking up all the wood and carrying it inside fell on Eggman, since the hedgehog evidently needed a break. Sonic didn't get dizzy easily, but they had been at it for a while and he was still recovering.

The hedgehog made his way back inside to his chair and flopped down on it.

Soon after, the doctor entered and dropped the last of their haul, placing some of the freshly cut wood onto the fire. He then went into the kitchen to prepare some food.

"Mushroom soup?" The human suggested, while holding up a can.

The hedgehog wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"I'll take that as a 'no'. Does tomato soup sound more appealing?" Eggman suggested, smiling at the other's pickiness. He didn't mind letting the hedgehog choose, since he had been useful… for once.

A small nod agreed to the second option and soon after they enjoyed a well-earned warm meal.

The hedgehog almost instantly downed all the soup, once it was cool enough. Afterward, he felt drowsy and decided to slink down on the fur rug, in front of his chair, to get closer to the fire.

He stretched and curled halfway up on his side, facing the warmth. He didn't plan on sleeping, but soon enough, he fell into a slumber, that soon enough turned into deep sleep.

He awoke with a jump sometime later, his heart beating fast and sweat pouring from his skin. He panted hard from a nightmare. He dreamt that he was back on the ice when Eggman had attacked him, only this time he fell in and the ice closed over him, trapping him underwater until he was consumed by icy darkness.

"Wha? Where?" For a moment, he had forgotten where he was and felt terribly disorientated. He sighed with relief when he realized it had just been a dream.

He shook off the fog, that clouded his mind and looked around. He got up and carefully supported himself with a chair, to gaze out the window. It appeared to be really dark and a strong wind howled across the snow-covered land.

Night did come early this time of year. It was dead quiet in the cabin, except for the storm raging outside. It felt like no one else was here. Where was the doctor? The cabin wasn't big enough for someone of Eggman's size to hide in.

After a rapid inspection, the hedgehog concluded that he was indeed alone in the cabin.

What could he possibly be doing outside in this weather? Had he been picked up by a new aircraft and just abandoned him here?

He took his red scarf, intending to go out and see for himself if there was any indication of where Eggman could be, and headed for the door. Upon reaching it, he paused and debated if this was really a good idea. For all he knew, hundreds of bots could be outside, guns armed and ready. Surely Eggman would have attacked him if he had the means to and no longer needed him. But what if that wasn't the case and the doctor was hurt and needed help?

Curiosity got the better of him and he went out into the freezing environment to check.

He looked around, into the blackening wilderness, wondering which way the doctor would've went, why and... wait... was that a light in what seemed like a small shed behind the cabin? Seemed like a clue well worth investigating.

He eventually made it over through the deep snow and pressed the door open. He was greeted by an intense warmth emitted from the tiny room.

"Eggman?" The hedgehog asked, since it was tricky to see in the blizzard and his eyes were adjusting to the bright light.

"Sonic?" The doctor inquired, as he glanced over his shoulder, thinking he had heard something else during his distraction, and then rose. "You must be freezing. Come, sit by the heater." He added, as he checked him and brought over a small wooden box.

"Uh... thanks," Sonic replied slowly, at the sudden hospitality and sat down on the offered seat, then looked around. "What is this room?"

"It's an ice fishing shack. I found it earlier and moved it over the pond. It was easy to open the fishing hole with a knife I found in here. Seems to be well equipped too." The doctor replied, as he checked his fishing line once again.

"You're fishing? But we still have plenty of canned food."

"I thought it best to save those. We might need them later, since we don't know how long we'll be stuck out here. Besides, don't you want something fresh? I already caught a few. They're on the stove."

Sonic glanced up to the top of the heater. True to his word, for once, there was cut up pieces of fish cooking in a pan on a small stove. Even without seasoning, it smelled great, especially in comparison to the sardines he recently had to endure.

Breakfast and lunch suddenly felt like a long while ago.

Presently, Eggman caught another fish. "Great. This should be enough."

"How long until they're done?" Sonic asked. His mouth was watering from the smell of fresh food sizzling on the pan.

"Well, looks like someone's eager. Compared to earlier…" The human announced, as he placed his most recent catch into a small wooden crate, with two other fish and checked the pan. "They should be done." The scientist replied and wrapped a white napkin around a piece of fish and handed it to the hungry little Mobian.

Unlike earlier, this looked appetizing, so Sonic happily accepted the fried food and began to wolf it down.

He couldn't believe how soft, yet crispy and delicious it was.

Upon noticing the hedgehog had already finished eating, before he had taken his own first bite, the human huffed in amusement. "And here I thought you were going to be angry about me overfishing."

"I don't mind as long as there's no waste."

"Well, in that case..." The doctor replied and handed him one more piece.

"I had to use a tin of sardines as bait. It was a small compromise. At least we have enough fresh fish for tomorrow," Eggman said conversationally. "I think," he added, when he saw that the hedgehog had already finished the second piece.

It wasn't unusual that Sonic accidentally skipped a meal. And with his high metabolism, he did tend to eat big meals when he first got the chance. This was especially the case during fall and winter. He assumed it was part of an old instinct to fatten up before hibernating. Mobian hedgehogs didn't hibernate anymore though. Tails sometimes teased him about looking 'fat' this time of year, but the fluffy winter coat was mostly to blame.

Thinking of the fox suddenly concerned him once again. He had hoped that he had made it through the storm in one piece.

"-thanks for coming to look for me."

The hedgehog glanced up, seemingly waking up from a trance-like state, not realizing that the human was talking. "…Just checking that you hadn't gotten lost on the porch or something." Sonic mumbled. Eggman was his enemy, but that didn't mean he wished him to freeze to death in a blizzard.

"Yes, but you should've been resting your leg. I know you're in a hurry to get out of here, but if you don't look after yourself, things out here could get much worse."

There it was again. His enemy advising him what to do in a friendly way. Sonic had the impression that while he genuinely cared, but pretended not to, Eggman did the exact opposite. But why? Did he think he was gullible enough to trust him? He was sure that the moment he had no use for the hedgehog's help, he would turn on him.

"Speaking of, how was the fire? I stoked it a few times while you were resting. You did make sure to close the porch door before leaving, right?"

"Didn't look like it was close to dying and I closed the door after me," The Mobian replied truthfully.

"I'll give it a few more minutes. I need to clean up here anyway. Unless you want to fish?"

"Hmm? Oh, no thanks. I-... I'll just head back," The blue blur replied, distracted from his train of thoughts.

"Suit yourself. If you want to head back now, throw a log or two on the fire, while I get things sorted here."

"Sure," Sonic replied automatically, before going out into the snow.

XXX