Hotarus-things - Why Are You Here??

Sleeping Sculptures [Chapter 2]

Ships: Sonadow, Sonic & Tails

Warnings: N/A

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Sonic wasn’t sure how he felt about his new situation.

He hated being trapped, even if he agreed to it. He also hated being injured in a way he couldn’t just shrug off and go about his day. The arrow had left a nasty wound in its wake that made moving around harder. He could only move his arm so much before it stretched at that part of his back, sending pangs of pain throughout his body. It slowed him down and took far too much time out of his plans. But he was also alive, which, considering the situation, was a pretty big feat.

But he definitely felt conflicted about his host.

Shadow was weird, that was for sure. The man didn’t sleep. That was the first thing Sonic realized. He’d let Sonic use his bed while he stayed and healed, but Shadow didn’t seem to take up a different spot for his own. He was always awake when Sonic went to sleep, often time reading at his desk or stargazing, and awake when Sonic woke up, watching the sunrise or even getting a head start on his daily chores.

Shadow also seemingly lived alone in an entirely secluded tower. Since Sonic couldn’t leave, he was limited by what he could see from windows and balconies, but it was clear to see that Shadow’s home was located on a small hill just outside of the main kingdom walls. The bedroom balcony pointed directly to the castle.

Sonic hated that thing. It was ugly as sin and felt like a warning. Not that he could make heads or tails of what those feelings meant.

The rest of the home was off putting, to say the least. The home was never very bright, mostly using sunlight during the day and a sparse amount of lanterns at night. However, Shadow kept dark curtains over most of the windows, dimming or even completely blocking out the sun in some rooms. And when the man turned the lanterns on for nightfall, he only lit two. One for the bedroom and one for Sonic to carry if he so needed. Sometimes he would light a few candles, but it was mostly on nights when he sat down to read.

Shadow also hated being around Sonic. Unless he was about to fall asleep, Shadow would do just about anything to keep away from Sonic entirely. And Sonic really couldn’t tell why Shadow was so insistent on watching him over night.

The weirdest part of all of it by far was that Shadow was actually very attentive. He was constantly checking on Sonic’s injury and how he was feeling. He would cook three meals a day, even asking Sonic what he preferred and if he had issues with any sort of food. He’d even offered his books to Sonic for a form of entertainment while he was stuck in the tower.

Sonic really didn’t know what to make of it all. What to make of Shadow. Every day that went by was another day stuck in some weird tower with an equally weird guy. Not to mention another day where Sonic was losing at trying to find his uncle.

This went on for a few days. It wasn’t till about a week that Shadow did something new.

Sonic had found himself on the balcony of the bedroom, looking out at the kingdom and feeling the cool breeze against his fur when Shadow had come up behind him.

“Tonight I am going to leave. I’ll be gone for a few days.”

Sonic looked back at him with a raised eye ridge. “Gone? Where to?”

Shadow crossed his arms with a frown. “That’s really none of your business. But I am informing you so that you are not caught off guard tomorrow morning.”

Pretty thoughtful of him, Sonic supposed. “How long will you be gone?”

“No longer than three days,” Shadow answered. “I have made sure to stock food for you to use while I’m gone. However, you will need to change your own bandages. Your injury is healing well. Just make sure to keep up with it.”

Sonic gave only a nod in response, but his mind raced. He couldn’t help but be endlessly curious about where Shadow was heading off to. But he doubted the man would give him any sort of information no matter how hard he insisted. Instead, he crossed his arms and leaned them against the balcony railing.

“If I’m honest,” Shadow started again. “By the time I return, you should be healed enough to go off on your own.”

Sonic didn’t give a response to that. He really didn’t know what he was going to do when he left. He didn’t know where anyone was and his only guide had run off. As grateful as Sonic was that the little guy had, hopefully, run off to safety, he really had no idea how to track him down.

“Why did you come to Mobius?”

Sonic did look back at that. Shadow was looking at him in the same way someone might observe a challenging puzzle or riddle.

“I came to find my uncle,” he admitted. “I heard he lives out this way and I… I just have to find him.”

“Your uncle? Are you not originally from Acorn?”

“My parents are,” Sonic explained. “I dunno about my uncle or myself. My parents raised me after finding me as a kid.”

Sonic watched Shadow pause, his words clearly sitting before letting them out. “I see,” was what finally came. “And your uncle is…”

Sonic leaned on the railing again, his gaze looking back out to the kingdom. “If my parents were right, he’s my biological mother’s brother. I guess they, like, knew him or something.”

Sonic didn’t see Shadow nod behind him. Or the way he was fidgeting with his fingers.

“Well… I do hope after you leave that you can find him.”

Sonic smiled. The words sounded pretty damn genuine. “Me too,” he sighed.

***

Just as Shadow had said, by the time Sonic woke up the next morning, he was gone. Sonic grabbed the gauze Shadow had left for him and pulled off his old bandages. He wanted to get a good look at the wound, but found there was no mirror in Shadow’s room. He walked into the bathroom, but the mirror had been completely torn out the wall. He supposed he hadn’t noticed the lack of one when he wasn’t using it…

He walked along some of the rooms but found nothing. That was until he came upon a room on the bottom level of the tower. It was just down the hall from the kitchen. When Sonic tried the door, he almost thought it was locked. The wood itself wouldn’t budge at first, but the knob was turning. He put his good shoulder to the door and gave it more of a push. The door opened with a pop.

The room was dark, but the faintest light from a window gave Sonic just enough vision to pull the curtain off and let in the sun.

It was a bedroom. It was covered in dust, as if time itself had abandoned the room to rot. Everything in the room was clearly old, older than even the furniture his parents had kept on the farm, and all of that stuff had been passed down a generation or two. The bed, much like the rest of the room, clearly hadn’t been used in a very long time. Sonic was surprised the canopy that gracefully fell over the head hadn’t been devoured by moths or anything of the like in its abandonment.

At the side of the room, nuzzled next to a long forgotten bookcase, was a vanity with a large mirror atop. The mirror was covered by a sheet that was just as dusty as everything else in the room. Sonic stepped closer and reached out a hand to grab the covering, but he paused. There was something off about this room. The way it was clearly lived in at one point and then fully abandoned for many years.

Shadow wasn’t a clean freak, but he definitely kept the place tidy. Sonic heavily doubted that this amount of dust would be tolerated by the tower’s owner. So then why… Why was this room left like this? It just didn’t sit right in his gut. He stared at the mirror. It was the only one he could find in the whole house, and the tower was not small in any regards. It had multiple levels with multiple rooms. Most of them seemed unused, but still clean. Not one of them housed a mirror.

This room had a mirror. This room was also untouched. Sonic didn’t know what any of this meant, but he didn’t like it. He didn’t like being in the room. It felt like he was intruding on some weird secret he didn’t know anything about.

He took a step toward the door when he heard a loud KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! from the front door. The sudden sound made Sonic jump to his feet and throw himself out the dusty room, slamming the door behind him. The knocking came again.

Who the hell would be knocking on this guy’s door? Sonic frowned at the entrance’s direction. Unless it was those soldiers looking for him… did they know he was here? Had Sonic actually gotten Shadow in trouble by staying?

The knocking came again and Sonic debated running out a window and into the forest to hide. That was until a voice called out from behind the door.

“Hello?” called out the muffled sound. “Is anyone home?”

Sonic snapped his head towards it. “Tails?!” He ran to the door and threw it open. Just as he had expected, a short, hooded fox stood behind it.

“Sonic!” he cheered happily at the sight of his companion. He threw himself forward to throw his arms around the hedgehog.

Sonic was quick to grab his arms, though gently, and keep them from hitting his back. “Careful, buddy, I still have a pretty nasty wound back there,” he explained as he released the fox’s arms. “Come inside. You can actually help me real quick.”

Tails followed Sonic into the tower and up towards Shadow’s bedroom. As they walked, the young fox clearly was taking his time to look around at the interior. “What is this place?” he asked.

“Not sure, honestly. This guy, Shadow, he lives here alone. He found me and patched me up after you ran off.”

“I can see that,” Tails mumbled, clearly looking at the wound. He let Sonic open the bedroom door and walked in. “The stitching looks professional.”

Sonic nodded with a smile. “If he hadn't found me, I’m sure I woulda been a goner.”

Tails instantly turned sheepish at the words. Frowning down at the floor and kicking with his shoe, he said, “I… I’m real sorry Sonic. I didn’t wanna leave you. Honest!”

“It’s okay, Tails,” he smiled and gave the younger’s shoulder a pat. “You saved your own skin, and I ended up okay in the end. It’s no big deal. If you’d have tried to help me, we both mighta ended up dead.” He placed the gauze into the child’s palm. “We lucked out here and you made the right call either way.”

Tails gave a quiet nod and unraveled the bandage. He gently pushed a hand against some of Sonic’s fur to get a better view of the wound. “You always heal fast, don’t you?”

Sonic shrugged. “Special talent, I guess.” He kept still as the bandage was put back in place. Once they were done, Sonic let himself fall onto the bed, Tails following his lead.

“Did you find out anything about my uncle or your mom?”

Tails shook his head sadly. “Those soldiers are everywhere around here. I could hardly get back up here without the risk of being spotted.”

Sonic crossed his arms and frowned. “This is so stupid! Why are they even after us?! We didn’t do anything!”

“I wish I knew…” Tails let out a sigh. He looked up and around at the room. “Shadow, huh? What’s he like?”

“Weird,” Sonic bit. But there wasn’t any real venom to his words. “But… kind as well. I mean, he sure saved my ass. He’s out right now, though. Said he’d be back in a few days.”

“And he trusted a complete stranger in his home alone?”

Sonic shrugged. “Apparently.”

Silence fluttered between the two. Sonic couldn’t help but feel at least somewhat defeated. He knew he had to find his uncle, but he had no idea why. He didn’t even know why the king wanted him dead.

“Maybe… we should go talk to the king?”

Sonic looked up at his companion. There was a nervousness in his expression, but it mixed with determination.

“I-I mean, we didn’t do anything wrong. There isn’t any reason for him to be after us! Maybe there’s just some kinda weird mixup? If we explain…”

“I dunno,” Sonic mumbled. “I mean, those soldiers were aiming to kill.”

“Maybe they thought we were someone else!” Tails insisted. “We can just go to the king and explain the situation. Neither of us are even from Mobius, so there’s no reason for anyone to be after us.”

Tails had a good point. An excellent point. But Sonic remembered what his parents had asked of him. Don’t go to the king, no matter what. He didn’t know why. They hardly told him anything at all when they sent him off. They asked him to trust them and said it was important and… well, to Sonic, that was all he needed.

He did trust them with everything he had. If they asked something of him, he would do it. He assumed just about every question he had would be answered by his uncle. But now that he couldn’t even find the man…

His hesitation must have shown clear as day as Tails piped back up with, “What if I go and you stay here?”

“No way,” Sonic denied with no hesitation. “What if something happens to you?”

Tails pulled a large bag off his back and threw it to the floor. He got down on his knees and began rummaging through it. Finally, when he came back up, it was with two near identical stones in hand. He handed one out to Sonic. “Take one of these. I can contact you through them.”

Sonic raised a brow at that. “And how do you expect to contact me through a rock?”

“They’re sending stones, silly,” Tails giggled. “I made them myself!” There was clearly pride in his words and expression. “All I have to do is cast a small spell and I should be able to send you a message.”

“And you’re sure that you can make them work? If something does happen?”

Tails gave a confident nod. “I’m positive! I’ve used them before and they worked fine! Trust me, if you stay here I can go talk to the king. If things go sour, I can just call you with these!”

Sonic looked down at the stone in his hand with a soft frown. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Tails, it was that he didn’t trust the situation itself. If the king did something and Tails couldn’t cast the spell in time or the king stole the stone or- or—

Sonic closed his eyes and let out a sigh. Letting all his thoughts clear out with the breath. He had to find his uncle, and Tails needed to find his mom. Neither of these were gonna happen if they didn’t find a way around all the damn soldiers out to get them.

“Okay,” Sonic nodded.

Tails smiled up at Sonic. “Don’t worry, he waved off. “I’m sure it’ll all be okay.”

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2 months ago