Naga Sonadow

Part 8

A loud banging was heard from deep inside a special room in Tikal's home, a metallic sound pounded through the hallways and interrupting her thought's as she brewed a new potion. Calmly she slithered into the room where the horrific banging originated from.

"Sweetheart, what are you up to this time?"

A young twin tailed, yellow fox with sapphire eyes looked up at her, his face covered in grime and his hands in grease, his tails swirled excitedly, a bright smile forming on his lips, as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, you said I would be able to meet another person like me tomorrow so I wanted to build something we could do together!"

"That's very nice of you, but what is it?"

A small giggle echoed from the child's throat as he grabbed a big book, the grease from his hands smearing the corners as he held it up for her to see.

"I got the idea from this book you gave me! See?! Right here, those kids are playing on a thing they call a swing!"

"A swing?"

"Yeah, this thing!"

He points to the picture of two little kids playing on a swing on the bottom of the page, and smiles up at Tikal, who sighed

"Tails, I don't think you'll be able to play with him like this, Sonic has an injured foot and can't walk very well at the moment."

A look of disappointment painted it's self over Tails' smile, his happiness completely erased and replaced with sorrow.

"Oh, okay."

Tikal frowned and picked up the dirty boy, gently tickling his nose.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll enjoy doing lots of other things with you, but I'm not to sure he'd like to play with a grimy little ball of grease."

Tails giggled an pretended like he was going to rub his oily hands on her face, before jumping out of her arms and running to the bath with Tikal close behind, laughing and chasing him into the warm water.

"And don't forget to wash behind your ears, other wise the tickle monster will come out from under your bed and eat your toes!"

"Ahh! No!"

Tails giggled and jumped into the water instantly scrubbing the dirt, oil, grease and grime away, while Tikal smiled and went back to her work.
Half an hour later Tails came to her potions' room and sat down on a stool and watched her, occasionally getting up and getting her ingredients when ever she asked, Tikal noticed something was off about him but decided if he wanted help or anything he would simply let her know. Eventually he sighed.

"Mom, will he like me?"

Tikal looked at him, shocked.

"Of course he will, sweetheart, why would you think he wouldn't?"

Tails shrugged.

"Because I'm different."

He frowned and looked at his tails and traced the tile lines with his toes. Tikal sighed and picked him up holding him gently.

"Don't you EVER worry about what people think of you, Tails, the only opinion about you that should matter is yours."