The Power of Dreams

Chapter 11

After the first day of sword training, progress was being made. It took a few days, maybe even about a week, and finally, Kate was more prepared to fight back when wielding a weapon. She still flinched a bit here and there, but with more practice, she was getting sharper with each time she did a practice duel with someone.

Sonic was the main person to do practice duels with her, for he was the one giving her lessons on swordsmanship. Soon, a few of the others even wanted to participate and help Kate practice as well. Most of the time, if she wasn't dueling Sonic, then Kate would duel Mario, Daisy, Amy, Manic, or Knuckles. Some of the younger members of the group, Marine and Charmy, wanted to help with training, but Vanilla didn't allow them, and Sonic agreed with her that the kids were a little too young to learn and practice with Kate.

The one that Kate did not like practicing with was Manic. It wasn't that he was a bad opponent nor that he was too difficult. It was after practice that she didn't want to deal with him. After his attempt to ask Kate out on a date, Manic would ask her if she had accepted or declined his offer. She wanted to tell him, in the kindest way possible, that she would decline the offer to go on a date, for she didn't feel the same way to him, especially considering that perhaps, she was having feelings for Knuckles instead. But whenever she tried to muster the courage to gently turn him down, Kate would feel anxious and chicken out, telling the green hedgehog that she was still thinking about it.

And whenever Manic said that he would continue waiting, Kate had a hard time trying to decipher if he was upset or not with the lack of a true answer.

Maybe it would be easier to do, if she had the backbone to ask Sonic or Sonia for some advice. But she barely knew Sonia, and after seeing how Sonic's sister wasn't particularly happy with her doing the "improper" training of swordsmanship, Kate decided that for the time being, she would give Sonia space. She didn't want to be on bad terms with Sonic's sister, and really hoped that they could be friends, so it seemed to be better to not engage in any conversations, at least until she shifted back to normal training for her powers.

As for Sonic, it just felt really awkward to ask him about how she could turn his own brother down. For all she knew, Sonic must've been aware about Manic's feelings for Kate, and it was possible that maybe he even gave Manic advice on how to talk to her. Which she found both likely and unlikely. She thought it was possible because of how Sonic hadn't seen his siblings for so long and wants to make up for the absent time, but it also seemed impossible because of how Sonic knew that there was a creep after Kate and wanted to protect her from said stalker.

Still, every time she tried to process the thought of trying to talk to Sonic about how to kindly turn down Manic, Kate felt butterflies in her stomach.

So she tried to do her best to just keep telling Manic that she hadn't decided yet. Though, every time she would give him the same answer, the sense of anxiety and unease felt familiar. Something was telling her that maybe she had a similar situation with people back home, before she lost her memories.

The other thing that had been on her mind since the first day of sword training was the conversation she had with Mario and Sonic that evening. The subject that Sonic had informed them that he had been having dreams about Kate's past. It was strange that the blue hedgehog was having the dreams while she wasn't, but none of the less, she was grateful that Sonic had told her about what he saw. The more memories that came back to her, whether through her own dreams or through what her friends saw apparently, then the sooner she could remember where her home is, and try to return to her loved ones.

Because as much as she wanted to return to the family and friends she had back home, she knew that there was no chance she could shut out her friends from now. They had been helping her, taking care of her during these difficult times, and she dared to call them family because of how close she had grown to them. So there was no way she would ever shut them out of her life.