I only own Bill the pilot. Please do not sue and just enjoy. I make no money from writing and posting this little story. :)
Tails back had snapped straight, head had risen as high as I'd ever seen it, and mouth opened a little bit while his widened eyes stared up at the alien from the planet, I had sent his brother, though he didn't know it. My eyes scanned the warriors and villagers lining the beach. All of them were frowning at the alien's praise of my little fox cub. One of them snapped. "Do not encourage lawbreaking among our ranks! Obviously, the child's fur and extra tail are confirmation children should not be carried by a chaos emerald guardian! The results are far too unpredictable!"
Tails slumped. His head and tails drooped even further than before. He shuffled back and to the right to draw closer to me. I scowled at the one who'd caused this while stretching a wing out toward him.
The alien from earth shrugged. His raspy voice remained otherwise light, "Maybe so … But it's not the little whippersnappers' fault. Is it?"
Tails raised his head back up just enough to glance at the earthling. The corners of his mouth twitched upwards. The grey masked elder in charge of all islands and the guarding of their chaos emeralds rumbled low. "Not his fault, no, but whatever dangerous possibilities the emerald produced in him remain unknown … For now. So be careful whenever you are near him Bill."
A villager spoke from further up the beach, "The two-tailed cub asks a lot of odd questions already."
Tails drew even nearer to me. I spread my wing out over him in response. The earthling chuckled. "So did I when I was a whippersnapper." He glanced down at the chain wrapped around my foot and asked, "And what did the owl being a mama to the strange fox-cub do?"
Spittle flew from one of the warriors' mouths in my direction as they replied. "She took away and hid from us one who actually 'fell' upon an emerald of power and was obviously infused with its chaos energy!" He pointed at me.
At this the earther gave a low whistle his eyebrows rising up. Tails snapped his head up, frowned, and shouted back. "He was just a baby! Younger than me! And it was an accident!"
My and the other warriors' mouths dropped open as we all stared down at Tails. The earth-alien though looked down and let loose a laugh. "Well, little feller! Ain't you got spunk!"
Tails back straightened till it pulled his head back too. He lifted his chin this time too. I glanced first at the alien taking such interest in him and then at my fellow warriors as well as the villagers all watching with wide, focused eyes and well and shifted closer to Tails.
. . .
That very night, the earth-alien, "Bill," was led to the "Hearing Circle" I had been taken to for my own judgement, but it was not so he could be judged. He had invaded the skies above our land in a ship with other aliens days ago. Then he'd turned his ship and its weapons against those he'd come with.
"I was in a war on my own planet. The Great War. Flew a biplane in it. Then the war was over, and I tried to fly my plane over the frozen north, go exploring. Still not sure how or why that big golden ring appeared in front of me, but I went through it and ended up in a place I never dreamed of! On the other side of it some strange folks tried to chase me down in my plane with flying machines of their own. They were so impressed by my plane's maneuverability and how long it took to catch me, they decided to keep me around. Even froze me to do so for longer. When I realized what they wanted though, after they thawed me out and woke me up, to kill you folk and take your gems to make more war elsewhere … expand their empire out into others … Well, I got more than my necessary belly-full of that on my own planet, however long ago that was."
"Were you scared?"
This question came from Tails sitting between my feet in the sand as he listened. We were far back in the crowd, but his eyes had focused toward, the voice like he had a clear view, his ears up straight and pointed there like his eyes. I stiffened over and behind him while glancing around at the other listeners now staring at us. It was the first time he'd said or asked anything at such a meeting. The alien from earth grinned his way, though I doubted Tails could see int through the forms taller than him surrounding us, I did over most their heads. While all our own people scowled our way, the alien visitor replied, "Well, I learned how to work around and through my fear back on my own planet first to fly, then in the war, then to go exploring too."
The next morning the warriors who'd brought him asked the Judgement Island villagers to begin making our alien guest his own hut. He was to be rewarded for helping us. Tails kept trying to sneak over to watch him like our guards watched us except Tails watched the alien with a wide smile. I kept grabbing and pulling him back. "Tails! You're gaining more attention by getting near and talking to him so much!"
"But I like him!"
Lucky, or not so lucky for him, the alien came over and smiled at him leaving an opening for my fox cub to ask, "How did your flying-machines fly?"
The man began to explain to him with words I could not understand. Tails couldn't either, at first, but he asked more and more questions. In the following days, the new hut for our visitor was finished, and warriors began to ask the alien from earth if he could help us make flying-machines of our own. Even as an owl warrior, I understood. I had often been asked to carry other warriors without wings to drop them from above onto invaders. It drained my strength before I even began to fight myself against our enemies. If they could fly themselves there and shoot weapons from flying machines like our enemies did upon us ...
Bill said he could try.
Tails raised a hand in the air and shouted while waving it, "I'll help!"
The other warriors turned a frown on him and said, "It's too dangerous for a child, particularly you, to work on such things."
Even Bill, the alien, frowned back down at my fox cub and shook his head. "I'm afraid they're right there, Little Feller."
Tails scowled and clenched his fists. My feathers rose over my flesh. That had been Sonic's reaction to when I told him he had to eat mushrooms and wait for me to decide to carry him to the next island instead of run across water to the next one and eat berries there by himself.
What do you think now?
God bless
ScribeofHeroes