The Prophecy; Fulfilled (Part Two)

Chapter Six - Slowly Slipping

Her ear-splitting scream echoed through the marsh. Hammer in hand, she started to run, swinging away like a madman. Sonic sat back there and laughed, though he knew he shouldn't. When she stopped she spun around to face him, completely out of breath. "What's so funny?" She asked. He only snickered, and her face reddened. "What, you think being bombarded with snakes is funny?"

"We weren't bombarded, we just accidentally invaded their pit, or territory or whatever." He jumped down from the tree he was in and walked up to her. "Plus, I had 'em under control. I wasn't gonna let 'em hurt you."

Amy bit her lip and looked warily at the dozens of snakes behind her. When Sonic said he had them under control, he literally meant that he had them under control. They were frozen like statues, all covered in a dark green film. The few that she knocked aside as she ran had only toppled over stiffly.

Sonic scooped her up in his arms. He started moving, jumping to and fro as to avoid the wet, soggy areas in the ground, and she watched behind them in the distance as the snakes suddenly turned normal. She looked up at him. It was great to be back with him, there in his arms. After they had woken up that morning, they had told each other what had happened since they saw each other last. She told him all the things Lavender said to her. She told him the nightmare she had about him turning on her and trying to strangle her, and he dismissed it quickly. Dreams were just dreams, after all. He then proceeded to tell her how he had woken up in one of Eggman's bases, having no idea what had been done to him. How Tails and Knuckles were there and they flew through the mountains looking for where she was being kept. Then how he ran off because he had to see if he could use the gems; then how when he showed Knuckles his power, Knuckles rejected the idea.

When Amy thought about it, by the time Sonic had shown Knuckles the gems, that was only a few hours that Sonic had been awake. He couldn't have learned how to use the gem so skillfully yet, could he? Tails had blown a huge hole in the ship when he tried using his without practice.

"Just how long have you had those gems?" She took a leap of faith to ask. "You use them like you're used to having them."

"Nah, I'm mostly playing around. Like back there, I didn't know they were gonna be frozen like that. I just did something, and it happened." He explained in a vague manner.

"So you could've really accidentally hurt us back there?" She asked in a bit of a shock.

Sonic shrugged. "I would've gotten us outta there either way. You know that. Like I would let you be ate up by those ugly things."

Amy wasn't sure how to feel about that. She knew Sonic was rash, but that rash? And here she was thinking all this time that he had matured so. He seemed confident about it, but just because he was confident didn't mean that everything was okay.

"So where do you think the next gem is?" He asked after a while of walking in silence.

"Tails' gem, from the desert, was in a temple. The one in the icecaps had to do with a temple, too. So I say we look for a temple of some kind." Amy replied simply. 

"Ah yeah, Tails has a gem.." Sonic thought aloud, and looked very much like he was considering something deeply.

Amy looked away from him and up at the sky, watching as the sun appeared and then disappeared behind all the leaves on the trees as Sonic carried her. Something just wasn't right.

"Sonic, what made you decide to do this all of a sudden?" She asked softly. She watched his expression change, as if he were searching for an answer. His lips eventually curved into a smile. "I dunno."

Amy stared at him in surprise. "You don't know?"

He shook his head. "I didn't even know I had this green one from the creature until Lavender gave me the other one. And then, I dunno, something suddenly clicked."