Shadow: The Origin Of A Legend

Chapter 22

Rouge looks up at the sky. "Huh, looks like we spent half the day in there." She muses, shielding her eyes. "It's about noon-ish, judging by the sun."

Omega emits a whirring noise for a moment, and then corrects her. "It is actually 1:30PM, in this time zone."

"Close enough." The white bat shrugs.

Behind her, I shiver, still feeling a little cold. Fortunately, my black fur will absorb energy from the sun, meaning that I'll warm up soon. But there's still an odd feeling in my nose, which confuses me. I can't tell what, exactly, it is, but nonetheless I'm unnerved. "Well, I'm just glad we got out of there. It was ridiculously cold in there." Crossing my arms, I glare out at the surrounding forest. "Not to mention an abominable mess." Thinking back to the cables and random other machinery strewn about, I shake my head. Ugh, that was so disorganized. How on Earth could it have ever properly functioned?

Rouge looks at me, smirking. "It wasn't really that cold. And why does the condition of the place even matter?"

"Well, it doesn't anymore," I reply smoothly, "but if it was always in such a state of disarray, I don't understand how Robotnik could ever work around it. Disorder only leads to chaos, and chaos doesn't help anything." Stifling a yawn, I stretch. Why do I feel so tired?

"That does make sense, but hey, the less organized Eggman is, the easier it'll be to beat him, amirite?" Rouge turns to Omega for assurance.

"Affirmative." The robot booms, swiveling his lower arm segment. I'm starting to think that it's some form of a habit, for him to do that. "This topic of discussion, however, is pointless, and we should get going soon."

"Yeah, alright." The white bat glances at me. "Hey, Shadz, you gonna be okay? You still look a little rough 'round the edges there."

"Hm?" I blink. What's she talking about? Rough around the edges? Huh...Is my hair messed up or something? "I don't know what you mean. I'm fine."

"If you say so," she chirps, turning back to Omega. "The site we need to go to isn't too terribly far from here, but considering the growing heat index out here, it'd be best for us to walk through the forest." Folding her wings around her shoulders, she steps into the trees. "By the way, the sooner we make it there, the sooner we get to eat."

"What does that mean?" I query as I hop delicately over a bush to join her. Behind me, I wince as I hear Omega blatantly crush the poor shrubbery.

"Well, once I get to the gems I'm looking for, I can take them back to my employers, who'll give me some cash, and I can buy food for us." The white bat explains, delicately avoiding tree branches.

"Didn't you bring any food with you?" Confused, both as to how she could possibly embark on a journey without food and how she was even managing to dodge these obnoxious branches, I slash through the boughs in front of me with my claws.

"This mission wasn't supposed to take this long, so I only brought, like, two granola bars," she admits sheepishly.

"You ought prepare better next time," I comment, smirking.

"Aw, shaddup..." She grumbles, looking embarrassed. Smirking, I follow carefully in her footsteps, doing my best to keep up. Silence falls over our group--we're all a bit too busy trying not to get caught in the brambles of the forest--and my mind wanders. For whatever reason, I keep thinking of that awful nightmare I had earlier today. Why was I dreaming of 'Heather' before I could even remember her? And what was up with all those trees? Looking up at the forest we're in, I noticed a sudden, striking familiarity--the trees here look very similar to the ones in my nightmare. That doesn't necessarily mean anything though. I mean, trees are trees. There's not a whole ton of differences. Besides, these are kinda different--they have leaves. And there's no creepy fog, and the floor isn't some sort of green fluid.