Ancient Secret, Inner Emerald

Before You Go

"Home?" Amy repeated, "As in the Starfall Islands?"

She'd be lying if she said she didn't want to go back even a little, the Starfall Islands had been so interesting. There was so much well preserved history behind them she was just dying to know.

This whole story was fascinating too, Sonic not only being an emerald, but also the fact they were now talking to an actual Ancient.

"Yep. The place I was created. ⶴዐጮቹ." He said wistfully, floating down off the altar.

She didn't recognize the last word he said, it sounded strange, probably the ancient's language.

"Which one did you come from?" She asked curiously, looking him up and down. "...Ares?"

The hedgehog cackled "Haha! Oh gods no!" He tilted back and kicked his legs in the air.

"Although," he considered, taking a deep breath, "I did like to visit there, the oasis were beautiful at night during star showers."

"I lived on Kronos and Rhea, although, the islands had different names back then." He smiled.

She gasped and jumped a little. "Me too!" She cried excitedly and the other made a confused, but not unhappy, face.

"Oh, ha, sorry. That was the Island I woke up on and spent my time at while we were there." She explained.

"Oh! So you already have a lay of the land! Wasn't it beautiful? All the trees and blooming flowers" he sighed happily.

"Oh my gods YES!" She cried stamping her feet happily. "The fields of poppies and dianthus were incredible!"

The floating hedgehog smiled giddily and did a small flip on the air. A new emotion passed over his face and he tensed and turned to Tikal with a wide smile.

"Hey, where's Puyo by the way?" He asked happily, suddenly looking around like he was waiting for someone to jump out.

As happy as he was though, Amy didn't miss the way Tikal took a sharp breath in and suddenly looked scared.

"Puyo?" Tails inquired.

"Yeah! Puyo, my star chao!" He smiled.

Amy turned to look at Tikal, she seemed...worried. Was she scared of whatever he was talking about?

Amy glanced at the other hedgehog and back again. Or maybe...what his reaction would be? But why-

"What's a star chao?" Knuckles asked. The other hedgehog's face dropped.

"What?" He asked in confusion.

"I've never heard of a star chao," Knuckles explained bluntly. "What is it?"

It was definitely the reaction Tikal was worried about, she observed. The female echidna was watching the hedgehog closely, fidgeting with her hands nervously and twitching with unease.

"Uh, the chao that come from the stars, y'know, the eggs look like meteors, they come down during star showers, those star chao." He scoffed like it was a ridiculous question.

"Puyo is white with cute purple stripes on their wrists and little purple triangles on the sides of their eyes. They've got two long horns like most star chao, a blue star on the top of his head, and of course a star on his chest like all of them." He tried to describe to Knuckles, whose eyes darted around in confusion.

Everyone just stared at him with empty expressions and Amy could see the moment he figured it out as his face turned sour. His overconfident smile and relaxed posture turned to something concerned and worried. Like he realized something was very wrong.