Beautiful Curse

Chapter 25

        Morning brings with it sore limbs, sore backs, and cranky attitudes. I suppose this could be considered my fault, seeing that I'm the one who had suggested camping under the overhang of a cliff. The foliage had looked soft enough, but when our group of four settled down for the night...it turned out that the scattered leaves and dead grass were actually just hiding a giant stone beneath. At least the overhang protected us from the chilling breeze that lasted until the early hours of the morning.

        That probably doesn't stop Shadow from hating me anymore, especially since he is the one who had wanted to continue to search for shelter instead of remaining with my pick.

        "Are we all awake?" the black hedgehog questions, looking around at the group of sore and irritated anthros and "human" girl. Seeing that we are all standing, trying to get the aches out of our bodies, he lets out a humorless snort and steps away in the direction we had been traveling yesterday before stopping for our short rest. "Start moving. The nearest city may be a long distance ahead and I want to reach it by nightfall."

        "Hold it there, Speed Demon," I call after him, gaining an annoyed glare for doing so. I ignore it, continuing, "I didn't have dinner last night and now I'm so hungry! Besides, there's no way we can travel miles and miles through the forest without extra energy. Why don't we spend an hour or two hunting for something to eat?"

        "Hunting? Heck no!" Sonic objects whilst wrinkling his nose at the thought. "There's got to be some fast-food just around the corner," he adds hopefully, staring ahead into the trees as if a McDonalds is about to appear from thin air.

        "Sonic, we crashed to shore miles away from civilization. There is no fast-food out here. And if there was any, it'd definitely not be getting much business," the little fox shakes his head with a sigh, long orange bangs swishing in the breeze. "But I do agree with (Name). Without food or water, our bodies may not last very long in the rough terrain, particularly because it's the dry season in Soleanna."

        "I don't need to eat and drink to survive; my body feeds on the Chaos energy stored inside the Inhibitor Rings," Shadow dully points out.

        "Sorry we can't all be as cool as you," I roll my eyes.

        The crimson eyes narrow, and tan lips pull into straight, tight line. "We will keep moving, all of us. If we don't make it to the city by the time it gets dark, then you can stop to regain your energy. For now, we head east." Shadow turns around and walks through the tall trees at a brusque pace, not allowing any further discussion.

        There is nothing we can do but to follow. Sure, we can stay behind and search around for berries or set up traps for some unsuspecting game, but after what we've been through on the cruise ship with the emerald hunting and the almost-death-causing wreck, sticking as a team just seems the right thing to do. And it's comforting knowing that those around have more experience in dealing with danger and unpredictable events.

        I know for a fact that I'd be able to find my own way to civilization, whether by using my animalistic senses of smell and sight or by the insistent pull of energy beckoning me nearer. The pull must be from the Chaos Emeralds. I can tell Shadow is feeling the same sensation; that's how he knows which direction to travel in. And that's also how he knows the Chaos Emeralds are in Soleanna and not back at home. He must be more fine-tuned to the energy than me though—more experienced with it. It's almost as if I'm feeling faint waves of energy tugging at me from every side, chaotic and disorienting, the strongest of those waves coming from the direction in which we are headed.

        We continue to walk in a line through the woods, avoiding roots that protrude from the ground and small animal dens hidden under the brush. At some point we stop for water upon finding a murky stream pouring into the crack of a deep, underground cave. Fearing no disease from the water, for my immune system is quite strong as a result of being a were(animal), I cup my hands in the flowing stream and drink from it.