Chapter 4

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Sonic's Point of View

        I returned to the Holoskan village with Blaze after another failed attempt at finding (Name). We had been at it all night, with no rest, and my feet were practically ice blocks about to shatter. I was sure Blaze must have felt the same way, even with her fire-creating ability. It was because of that power we were able to stay searching for so long, but it wasn't enough.

        As we trudged over the compacted snow pathways, I ignored the curious stares of the villagers as they hustled and bustled their way through the day. I could barely look my friends in the eye when I passed them by, too exhausted to say a word.

        "Oh no," murmured Amy. "They still couldn't find her."

        With a depressed sigh, I pushed aside the thick sealskin covering the entrance to our igloo, momentarily forgetting Blaze was behind me until I heard the skin slap against her. "Sorry, Blaze," I said apologetically. Though it must have been midway through the morning, the sun had not risen. That made it hard to seek out my sleeping bag lying somewhere on the ground.

        "It's fine, I understand." A flame sparked in the palm of Blaze's hand, weakly lighting the igloo while we shuffled around to our spots. "After we get some rest, we will try again," affirmed the feline. She sounded so determined, just as I had. However, she had scarcely searched for the (animal) girl in comparison to me. Blaze did not feel the pressure of countless failures pressing down on her. I did.

        Crawling into my sleeping bag and facing away from the light of the flame, pressing my nose against cold ice, I wondered if maybe I should give up. (Name) obviously didn't want to be found. If she did, she would have no trouble following my scent to the village if she came across it. But she was hiding. Hiding from me, from my friends, from Mephiles. (Name) wanted no one to be able to find her.

        "Maybe it's time we stopped looking," I uttered, nearly at a whisper. The ice brick of the igloo further muffled my voice, yet somehow, Blaze could hear.

        "No," she said, the gaze of her golden eyes piercing the back of my head. I could feel my heart patter as she stepped behind me, hovering over my prone figure. Then, there was a painful silence. It was the kind of silence that forced you to stop whatever thought you had and look around for any possible danger. In this case, I tilted my head toward the violet feline, who appeared as if she wanted to pounce on me.

        "Wh-What else are we supposed to do?" I whimpered. "I've been looking for (Name) ever since we lost her, and there has been absolutely no sign that she's even around. She wants to be alone, Blaze. Can't you see that?" I flinched as the brightness of her flame grew, the wavering tendrils of orange and yellow reaching for the ceiling. Drops of water started to fall as the ice began to melt.

        With an irked harrumph, Blaze threw the flame in her hand to the ground, where a few half-charred sticks lay piled in the middle of the igloo. Those came alight, just enough to feel the warmth on my skin but an adequate distance away from the walls of the shelter to prevent it from melting. "The Sonic I once knew would never give up, no matter how horrendous the future had seemed."

        I looked away, my emerald irises dull in comparison to the golden sheen of the fire reflected through the young female. "I'm still the same person," I said, frowning at the doubt present in my words. "It's just that this time things aren't going to plan, so we need to move on and find another solution." I had planned to find (Name) out there in the wilderness and bring her back to the village in order for everyone to band together to fight against Mephiles. Without her, finding that demon was going to be a chore—a dangerous chore that could end up with one of my friends killed.

        "Since when have you ever followed a plan? Since when have you ever made a plan?" reprimanded Blaze. She crossed her arms, turning her back on me with a huff before stepping over the scattered sleeping bags to her own. Then she unzipped it and slid inside, rezipping with a scowl in my direction. "Reflect on that while you sleep, Sonic. I can't choose the way you think, but I hope by morning you've made the right decision." She pointedly faced the wall, leaving me alone to mull over our conversation.

        What am I supposed to do other than to give up the search? (Name) can't be found, the Chaos Emerald can't be found...we need another way to get out of here and stop Mephiles! Something needs to happen now before it's too late. Why can't Blaze see that? I'm so exhausted, I can't stand going out again to look for (Name) only to come back alone. I've failed too many times already. I've failed my friends, I've failed her. And now, if Mephiles gets his way, I'll fail the world.

        Unknowingly, a tear slipped down my cheek and landed on the padding of my sleeping bag. I was too tired to realize I was crying because within the next seconds I had fallen asleep.

        I woke up the next morning after having slept through an entire day and night. I had been so fervently searching for (Name) these past days that I had not allowed myself an adequate amount of sleep to restore my strength. Even now my body ached and my eyelids drooped. It was made all the worse due to the freezing temperatures of Holoska forcing my body to continue using its reserved energy to shiver and keep me warm while I slept.

        The igloo was empty when I looked around. Blaze and the others had left to help around the village again and plan of a way of escape from this land. I wondered how far Tails had gotten in rebuilding his biplane. With how smart that fox kid was, no doubt the machine would be over half-finished by now.

        Groaning in discomfort as I pushed myself off the frozen ground, I stumbled out the igloo with blurry, blinking eyes. I frowned upon seeing a hint of light peeking over the mountains. It seemed I had slept longer than I thought—into the afternoon. I didn't think I had ever been asleep for longer than 24 hours until now. That worried me. Had I pushed myself too much? Would there be worse effects if I were to do it again?

        I pushed those thoughts aside. They didn't matter, because I was done looking for (Name). I had to forget about her and move on. My friends were relying on me to stay strong and keep our group together, but I had only been tearing it apart every time I would disappear and return with a bad attitude. Silver had been the only one to point that out, and I had been ruining our relationship whenever I'd argue against him. He knew what needed to be focused on and it was about time I followed that example.

        "Hey, buddy," I greeted Tails through a yawn as I caught up to him. He was dragging a large hunk of metal through the outskirts of the village, headed toward where the Tornado III was being reassembled. His blue eyes brightened at the sight of me, and I felt horrible knowing I had barely talked to him in recent time.

        "Sonic! It's good to see you're up." The boy let the metal piece drop in the snow as he suddenly wrapped his arms around my torso. Just as quickly, he released the hug and stepped back with a flushed face. "S-Sorry. It's just...I never get to see you around much anymore. We never talk, you know, outside of saving the world. And when I saw you still asleep this morning, I was worried you wouldn't wake up for a long time. Your body needs rest. If you keep going out and returning so late, you'll only further exhaust yourself and make it worse..."

        "I know, Tails," I said while placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. He gazed up at me with eyes full of concern. He really cared about me, and that was why I couldn't let him down. "I've decided to stay here in the village from now on and help you get your plane working. (Name) doesn't want to be found, so I won't waste any more time trying to do just that."

        Tails' eyes lowered to the ground. "Sonic, I-I feel really bad, though. She deserves to have friends and be helped just as much as I do. If only there was another way. Maybe we can—"

        "Stop. No more talking about it," my head agitatedly shook. I couldn't let my best friend persuade me to keep trying. We had to concentrate on protecting the future. Perhaps, if things went well and we found Mephiles and defeated him, we'd come back for (Name). For now, we had to forget her.

        The fox didn't comment anymore, giving a hesitant nod of acceptance before picking up a side of the hunk of metal and allowing me to help carry it to the Tornado III. There, the two of us toiled, slowly reconstructing the massively damaged parts of the plane. Tails did most of the smart work while I handed him the necessary tools needed to put the pieces together. Sometimes, I curled into a ball and spun in place to smooth out the dents in the larger slabs of metal that were to be used for the outer covering of the plane. That way, Tails didn't need to use excessive energy to hammer the metal into shape. It wouldn't be long until the Tornado III was up and running.

        Throughout the whole process, the (animal) girl was still on my mind, no matter how hard I tried to dispel her from my thoughts.

        Hours later, Tails and I were sweating profusely despite the cold weather. We decided to take a break and meet the others for mealtime—more accurately, I forced the kid to pause in his work and hauled his fluffy two-tailed bottom back to the village to eat. He was very ambitious to be finished, to say the least. But the plane still had hours of work left, possibly even a whole day, and it wasn't going to be completed tonight.

        When we approached the center village fire with plates of food in our hands, I inwardly grimaced at seeing Blaze. I had managed to forget about our conversation the previous day while working with Tails. Awkwardly, I sat a few spaces away from her, beside Amy. Tails took the spot on the pink girl's other side, effectively blocking the piercing gaze of the cat.

        Amy took one sniff and shrieked. "You two smell awful! I can't believe you're not embarrassed about walking through the village like that!" She raised a gloved hand to her nose and pinched it shut. Then she wafted the air away from her, grabbing her plate and moving to sit next to Knuckles and Silver, who were practically on the other side of the fire. There was no way I smelled that bad to where Amy would choose them over me. She was over exaggerating. Surely.

        Unfortunately, by moving spots Amy had opened a clear line of view between me and Blaze. Tails was no more help in hiding me because he was crouched over his plate of fish and dried berries, staring at it blankly as he wondered if he really smelled that bad.

        Blaze watched me with narrowed eyes. She knew I had stayed in the village because I had arrived here with Tails all sweaty and gross with my blue quills speckled with smudges of oil. I wondered if she knew I had given up. By the way I avoided her gaze, she had probably come to that conclusion and was sickened by me. I couldn't blame her, as I was sickened by myself, too.

        I poked around at my food, barely taking any into my mouth to eat. Hunger gnawed at my stomach, yet I knew that somewhere in the world, someone else was far hungrier than me. That thought forced a sigh from my lips. How was (Name) faring out there? During winter, there probably wasn't much to live off in the far north. Is she even still alive? I considered fearfully. It's been so long, I hope she hasn't starved to death.

        I thought about (Name)'s parents and how worried they must have been. They didn't know where she was, or what had happened in the time that had transpired since they last spoke to their daughter. And they certainly didn't know their nephew (Cousin) was dead. At the image of the young man pinned between the ocean floor and a giant slab of concrete that broke off Eggman's Arctic laboratory, I nearly gagged on a morsel of food I had just managed to get down.

        It really was no use trying to forget about (Name). It just wasn't something I could do. I was a hero—I helped people—and forgetting about someone in need went against my morals. Even if (Name) hadn't been able to survive the elements alone for so long, it was up to me to find her and bring her home. Sadly, I couldn't do the same for (Cousin), but the least I could do was personally deliver a message of his departure to his friends and family.

        Heart pounding with determination that had come to me once more, I instantly gobbled up the food on my plate and pushed it aside, jumping to my feet. I pulled my hat tightly over my head, secured the sealskin parka wrapped around my torso, and tightened the white bands of my shoes.

        "Where are you going?" asked Tails with his ears twitching in alarm. I turned to face him, standing tall and clenching a fist as my eyes flitted to Blaze, who's gaze already held respect and pride.

        "I'm going to find (Name)," I stated, "and there is nothing that will stop me."

        "Another fruitless attempt?" said a mature, raspy voice. "Pah, you'll need more than just yourself if you want to find that (animal) girl."

        Something was hurled toward my face. I caught it in one hand, looking down at a dull, white Chaos Emerald. Gaping, I lifted my head and saw a black hedgehog with red stripes standing a few meters away with his arms crossed. "You...You found it? You found a Chaos Emerald!"

        Shadow slowly nodded, fixing Silver with a hard stare when the telekinetic hedgehog rose from his seat with bared teeth. The younger anthro halted, not wanting to entice an attack, yet keeping his golden eyes on the precious jewel that had been given away so soon after discovery.

        "You'll find the girl by traveling north-west, near a valley surrounded by the tallest, most treacherous mountains I have ever laid eyes on," recalled Shadow while his eyebrows furrowed. "Be quick, though—she is injured and may be running out of time."

        I grasped the Chaos Emerald tightly, looking around at my friends and seeing the hope in their eyes. Except in Silver's, whose appearance told me he wanted nothing to do with (Name) and instead wanted to use the emerald to find and destroy Mephiles. His thoughts were justified, I somewhat agreed, but what he didn't understand was that (Name) would be able to aid us in our mission to protect the future.

        "Thank you, Shadow," I said to the elder hedgehog. "Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me."

        "Get on with it," Shadow rolled his eyes, "before she dies while you stand here, thanking me."

        My mouth opened, then it snapped shut. I gave the hedgehog a sharp nod and looked at the emerald again, tossing it high into the air and catching it. Making sure there was a clear path through the village, I sped off, watching as the moon quickly climbed up the sky to light the way to my lost, lonely friend.

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