Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA or their respective creators.

3. Behind the Curtain

"No, Papa, not that one! It's too soon!"

Amaranth smirked as she watched Susi berate Lobo out the corner of her eye. The grayish-brown cub was standing on a tree stump across the yard, stirring a stewpot suspended over a fire. Her frazzled father was failing to provide the able assistance Silver usually did.

Mindful of the poor wolf's pride lest he notice her, the hedgehog looked away, turning her attention back to the war-hammer in her lap. She was halfway through replacing the leather binding on the weapon's wooden haft. Susi's admonishments continued in the background.

She was tempted to go help, but she didn't want to intrude on what was effectively quality time for the wolves. Lobo hadn't seen his child in four days, either. Silver had already given her a breathless account of his and Shadow's unexpectedly violent trip to see the pyromancer.

"Just going to leave him to struggle, are you?"

Amaranth looked up. Shadow was standing on the other side of the yard's wicker fence. A gray she-wolf's head lulled on his shoulder.

"Lupe?" she breathed.

Setting aside her war-hammer, the roseate hedgehog jumped to her feet and vaulted over the fence.

"What happened?" she asked, helping Lupe down off Shadow's back.

"The queen," grunted the black hedgehog, stretching stiff shoulders.

Amaranth nodded. Faint patches of red on the back of Lupe's tunic told her all she wanted to know.

"Don't even think about it," she whispered, stopping the she-wolf's attempt to bow.

"Sorry, mi…my lady," said Lupe weakly, "Just a habit."

"Not here it's not," said Amaranth, putting the slave's left arm around her shoulders.

Shadow did the same with her right arm, and together, they helped the she-wolf inside the yard. At Amaranth's instruction, he helped Lupe to sit down while she fetched Susi. The cub had ceased stirring the pot. Tears coursed down her furry cheeks into the bubbling stew.

"Mama?" Susi squeaked as Amaranth delivered her into Lupe's lap.

The she-wolf clamped her arms around her cub like a sprung trap. Blinking back tears of her own, Amaranth went to tend the stew. Lobo had beaten her to it.

"Please, mistress," said the brown wolf, "You've done enough."

The roseate hedgehog nodded deferentially, as a slave would to her master. Such a gesture would've been unthinkable for anyone but her.

As the children of Erinian barons, she and Shadow were accustomed to having serfs in their care, but not slaves. During their first few years in Dalriada, the hedgehogs had declined repeated offers of a household slave. They'd only taken in Lobo because his life depended on it.

Under King Höcke, the last wolf to rule Galderia, Lupe had served as the Moon Wolf of Dalriada. In exchange for a comfortable if cloistered lifestyle at royal expense, she performed certain rites every full moon to ensure the lunar body's renewal for another cycle. She also performed divinations and blessed newborn cubs among other shamanic duties.

When the bats came, she was made a slave of the royal household, but was allowed to continue as Moon Wolf. King Aero was wary of messing with the institution, lest the newly-enslaved wolves revolt en masse. Alas, one day in a dark corner of the royal longhouse's kitchens, Lupe met Lobo. Custom dictated a Moon Wolf must remain 'pure', and Lupe all too happily surrendered her purity to him.

By the time her pregnancy became apparent, Queen Rouge was ruling in her own right, and she didn't share her late husband's reverence for time-honored traditions. She did away with Lupe's status as Moon Wolf, and would have done away with Lobo as well, had Amaranth not stormed the execution ground dressed for battle.

Reluctant to lose the hedgehog's services over a horny wolf, Rouge grudgingly assented to the Erinian taking ownership of Lupe's illicit lover. Susi had followed as soon as she was weaned.

"Where's Silver?" asked Shadow.

"Come see," replied Amaranth.

The hedgehogs proceeded hand-in-hand to the roundhouse's doorway. Inside the windowless dwelling, lit by a shaft of sunlight shining through a hole in the conical roof, the snoring Silver lay curled up under a wool blanket. His turquoise tunic, brown with dust from the chariot ride, was neatly folded beside his woven straw futon.

"There's your little charioteer," whispered Amaranth, "I sent him to put clean clothes on and, well, found him like this."

"We broke camp early," murmured Shadow, "He probably slept less than I did."

"That eager to tell the queen how the fire-whisperer, were you?"

Shadow grimaced. "Don't even—"

"No need," Amaranth cut in, squeezing his hand, "Silver told me everything."

Her husband sighed. "I imagine he did."

His wife smirked. "I'm almost sorry I missed it."

"I'm not."

Just then, Silver seemed to stir. He twitched his nose, furiously scratched a head-quill, then settled.

"What did the queen want with you?" murmured Amaranth.

"Not here," said Shadow.

Ducking inside the roundhouse, he padded across to a turquoise curtain that partitioned the hedgehogs' bedchamber from the wider dwelling. Inside the narrow bedroom, two suits of iron armor stood on stands against the far wall. Shadow unbuckled his breastplate and went to reunite it with the rest of his battlewear.

Unfastening his braided leather swordbelt, he hung his broadsword on a wall-bracket beside the armor. Seeing an empty bracket where his wife's war-hammer usually hung, he turned around, and promptly forgot all about weapons.

Amaranth had followed him through the turquoise curtain. She stood holding her carmine tunic in her hands, wearing nothing but a winsome smile. Shadow blinked. His hands moved of their own accord, disposing of his tunic.

"I missed you," said Amaranth as they climbed into their wood-framed bed.

"It was four days," murmured Shadow.

"It felt like longer."

"Was there no one at the tav—"

"Forget I said anything."

With that, she was upon him, wearing the blanket as a cloak as she straddled his hips. Discretion kept their lips sealed, but their dormant passion burned like dry tinder in the pyromancer's brazier. Minutes later, a breathless Amaranth landed beside her panting husband.

"Told you…I missed you," she cooed, placing a hand on his heaving chest.

"I believe you," breathed Shadow, gazing up at the thatched ceiling.

Amaranth nestled closer to him, idly teasing one of his white chest hairs as it rose and fell.

"Next time she sends you off somewhere, I'm going too," she said.

"I wish…you could," muttered Shadow.

The roseate hedgehog frowned. Peering up at him, she saw a grimace on his sweat-drenched face.

"Shadow? What is it?"

"I…we leave at dawn," he said, keeping his scarlet eyes on the ceiling.

Amaranth's face dropped. Grabbing two handfuls of white chest fur, she hauled herself back on top of him, straddling his abdomen.

"Leave for where?" she hissed.

"Arkadia."

"So soon?"

"Had to happen eventually."

Amaranth swatted his chest. "Don't pretend you can read her any better than I can."

Shadow snorted.

"Who is 'we', anyway?"

"Knuxahuatl—"

"Obviously."

"…and Blaze."

His wife's green eyes widened.

"The Hellcat?! What's she sending you there to do? Burn the place down?"

Her husband lifted his head off the pillow. "Actually, we're emissaries."

Amaranth scoffed. "What terms are you supposed to offer? Hand over the emeralds or the Agnian will grab her tinderbox—"

"Amie!" snapped Shadow, propping himself up on his elbows, "Would you listen to yourself? If Blaze was really mad, why did she come here instead of burning down Mergissa?"

The roseate hedgehog pouted, then looking away. "When was the last time you called me that?"

The black hedgehog suddenly sat up, tipping his wife into his lap.

"Too long ago," he whispered, kissing her.

As their lips parted, Amaranth pressed her forehead to his.

"I wish I come go with you," she mumbled.

"No, you don't."

"What makes you think that?"

"You'd already be marching up there by now."

She snorted softly. "Am I that predictable?"

"Only to me."

Amaranth let out a small yelp as Shadow moved again, putting her flat on her back. She smilingly bit her lip as he climbed on top of her.

"Already?" she whispered.

"I missed you too," he cooed, moving into position.

Amaranth glanced at the curtain. "What about food?"

Shadow cocked a brow. "How long do you expect this to take?"

Amaranth flashed a sly smile. "I can hope, can't I?"