Shadow: The Origin Of A Legend

Chapter 35

Light assaults my eyelids, causing me to flinch slightly, squeezing my eyelids shut more tightly. A groan rumbles in the back of my throat as I uncurl a bit. My head is pounding and my back is stiff; opening my eyes, I realize that my arms got wrapped around my head somehow while I was asleep, which would explain the agonizing pins-and-needles feeling in my left arm. Sitting up, I look down and see that my hoodie is wrapped around my waist, tangled with a portion of the woolen blanket. Confused, I stare vacantly forward. Something feels different, but I can't place what it is; I can really only tell that everything feels a bit off.

A small growl sounds from over to my right, and I turn around. "Nngh, 'morning, Stripes," Scourge yawns, sitting up and stretching.

I grunt in response, rubbing my eyes. "How did I...get here?" I mumble, dropping my arms into my lap, ignoring the numbness of my left arm.

My green friend looks over at me in alarm. "What do you remember from yesterday evening?" He asks, his eyes trained on me, alight with worry.

I narrow my eyes, racking my brain. Sleep fogs my brain; shaking myself off, I pick up my jacket, unwrapping it from myself. "I remember coming back here with the blanket, but I blacked out at some point..." Pausing, I look down at my hoodie, still mangled into the blanket. "Did you do this?"

"Er, yeah." My emerald friend glances away for a moment, rubbing his right arm with his left hand.

"How the hell did you manage to get this so tangled?" I grumble, wrestling with it.

He laughs. "Hey, it was dark and my hands were all numb, y'know!" Shrugging off the blanket, he stands up and lets out a whistle as he extends his arms over his head, popping his vertebrae. "Whew, it's still pretty brisk out, huh?"

Shoving one arm in my sleeve, I force my hand through its end, getting up to climb into the jacket. The wool falls off of me as I shrug on my hoodie, rolling my shoulders comfortably. "It'll only get colder the further north we go, so we should keep this blanket with us."

"Huh?!" His blue eyes widen with disbelief. "You wanna take that thing with us?"

"Why not?" I reply, picking up one end of it calmly. "We might as well. It could come in handy." Carefully lifting it up, I begin to roll the blanket, trying my hardest to keep it wrinkle-free.

"How are we gonna carry it?" Jamming his hands into his pockets, Scourge snorts, his breath turning into smoke the second it hit the frigid air.

"Once I roll it up," I answer as I struggle with it, pausing for a second to try and keep the fabric in a relatively straight line in order to roll it easily, "I'll be able to carry it easily." Grunting, I almost fall flat on my face trying to figure it out. The wool is thick and heavy and there really is too much of it. This blanket's impossible to deal with!

"D'you need some help there?" Amused, the tough emerald hedgehog behind me tries to stifle his laughter.

I growl, annoyed. "No, but...we can't take all of this with us." Sitting back with a huff, my breath clouds over my vision for a second. Gears turn in my head as I think carefully over what we ought do. We can't take all of it, but we need to have something... So we'll just have to take a portion of it. Standing up, I unroll it rapidly, then carefully calculate, unsheathing my claws. They slide smoothly through the material of my dirty gloves, and with one quick flash of my right arm the blanket was torn in half.

Scourge lets out a startled yelp, not expecting my sudden movement. "Whoa!" He jumps back, yanking his hands out of his pockets and staring at the blanket.