Shadow's Wild

Chapter 2

Shadow slouched upon a boulder in the enormous greenhouse, face in his hands, as he morosely watched the Wild familiarize himself with every inch of his new surroundings.

'What the hell was I thinking?' he despaired silently. 'I'll have to keep the groundskeeper out of here, so I suppose now upkeep of this place is my problem, and Father will burst a blood vessel if he finds out I spent four million on "birds." Hggh... Well, Shadow, you've got your very own Wookie– now what are you going to do with him?'

The trip back to the estate had been quite an experience. Sonic had been cramped into the very narrow backseat along with a cage of terrified, shrieking finches, and unfortunately the shopkeeper had neglected to mention that he'd never been in a car before. Shadow had tried to impress the creature on the expressway (and perhaps intimidate him a bit, too) by showing off the fast moves and powerful engine of his newest Lamborghini Spyder. However, the only result was Sonic turning green and white and very nearly decorating the backseat of a $300,000 car with Wild puke.

Fortunately he recovered from his car sickness quickly and was thrilled with the place Shadow declared to be his new home. As they entered the greenhouse, the wild managed to grab his wrist before he could pull away.

:: Shadow, this is amazing! A little jungle inside a house, a jungle in the city– how beautiful! This is perfect! ::

Shadow gasped and jerked his hand out of his grip; the mental speech unnerved him to no end. "Hey, now! Look, how about you do that only when I offer you my hand, or when you have something really important to tell me."

The wild looked at him sadly, but finally nodded with a small smile and strolled off to tour the area. Shadow sat on his rock and observed the creature for a time before drifting off, constructing strategies on how to take care of him and hide his presence from his father and the rest of the staff.

Preoccupied with his own concerns, Shadow lost track of the creature until he landed with a solid thud directly in front of him, making him nearly jump out of his fur. Having memorized every nook and cranny of his new domain, the wild turned his full attention back to his companion. Sonic landed only for a moment, grinned at his owner's surprise and then leapt over Shadow to land again at his back. Shadow spun in his seat to keep an eye on what he was doing but the wild gripped his shoulders firmly and turned him back around.

"Hey! Hold it, what do you think you're–"

Shadow stopped as he felt long fingers thread through his quills. Slowly, almost ritualistically, the creature continued to comb his quills with his claws, separating tangled strands and smoothing rumpled areas. Unsure what to think, Shadow tilted his head just slightly enough to be able to look into his face. Sonic only smiled genially, almost proudly at him.

'Well, I suppose he's not hurting anything', Shadow surmised, with still some unease as to the creature's intentions. 'But, why in the world would he want to play with my quills?'

Then it struck him and he almost laughed at the realization. Grooming. He thinks he's grooming me! He must part monkey in him or something, what with the tail and everything, and monkeys pick at each other's fur for cleanliness and as a social behavior.

Satisfied with this answer, Shadow closed his eyes, sat back against the Wild's knees and allowed himself to enjoy the unexpected hair treatment and scalp massage. 'I suppose I should be offended that he thinks of me as a fellow monkey-type…thing,' he thought, amused. 'Ah well, I'll let it pass for now; his behavior is interesting. This actually feels nice.'

The ebony furred male sighed, and let his mind wander as he pondered the mystery of the wild.

'Sometimes I think humankind's biggest mistake was coming down from the trees, he mused. Are they even evolving anymore? Does humanity still maintain "survival of the fittest?" Everything we and humans do seems to go against the natural order. We work ourselves to death, we can't seem to live anywhere without destroying the world around us– we just have to make everything so damn difficult...