Caved In

Carvings

"Sonic! Are you ready to go?" Amy's voice called from downstairs, while Sonic remained sitting in bed playing video games. "Coming!" he responded, saving his game and turning it off. He grabbed his bag, filled with a flashlight, his phone, some gloves, a sweater, and a few other things that he packed 'just in case'. "Amy, I think you over-packed," Knuckles said, staring at Amy's bag which was almost as big as her. "Just wanted to be prepared for anything. Venturing in to caves isn't the safest thing possible, you know," Amy grinned. Tails approached the three friends, also with his bag packed. "Are we ready to go?" he asked. "I think we are," Sonic nodded. "Ok let's pack in the car! We're already kinda late," Amy said, motioning for her friends to follow her outside. Sonic, Amy, Knuckles and Tails made their way in to the car. Knuckles drove them to their destination, where Blaze, Silver, Espio, Shadow and Rouge already stood, waiting for them. "Took you guys long enough!" Rouge yelled, as the four approached in their car. "Sorry, guys. Amy took forever to get ready as usual," Sonic said. "I just wanted to make sure I had all the essentials," Amy said, pointing to her backpack.

The nine friends quickly made their way in to the entrance of the cave. "Alright, who has the map?" Silver asked. "I have one," Espio said. "It says here if we follow the yellow trail, we can see some ancient carvings of some sort along the cave walls," he explained, pointing to the map as everyone looked over his shoulders. "Cool! We should do that," Amy agreed. "Seems like it's really deep in to the cave, though," Blaze said. "Yeah ... but we have all day. We might as well make the most of this trip," Silver said. "Alright then, let's go," Blaze gave in.

    As the group began following the yellow trail shown on the map, they all kept their eyes peeled to pick up on any carvings on the walls. "I'm not seeing any carvings," Tails said. "Me either. I'm sure it'll take a while, though. It is a long trail," Espio shrugged. As everyone continued talking, Sonic glanced around to find Shadow. He hadn't heard him talk at all and almost thought they had lost him. He looked behind him to see Shadow walking behind the rest. He was looking at the ground as he walked. Sonic ran back and walked beside Shadow. "Hey Shadow," he said. "Faker," Shadow said quietly. "Having fun?" Sonic asked, shining his flashlight in Shadow's face. Shadow squinted at him, and smacked his flashlight away. "No, not really," Shadow said, "Rouge forced me to come. I didn't really want to." Sonic laughed. "Oh," he said, slightly dissapointed, "I'm not surprised." Sonic and Shadow continued walking in awkward silence, while Shadow still stared at the ground. "So ... how has your Summer been?" Sonic asked awkwardly. "Why are you talking to me?" Shadow asked, without even allowing a pause after Sonic's question. Sonic shrugged, though Shadow didn't see. "You just seemed so lonely. Everyone's talking except you," Sonic explained. Shadow nodded, "that's how I like it." Sonic rolled his eyes. "Well this trip will get more interesting. I'm sure you will start to-" Sonic was interrupted by a big rock, which he had walked right in to, distracted by Shadow. Shadow looked up immediately, seeing Sonic's face smushed in to the rock. "Ow ..." Sonic muttered. Shadow chuckled, trying to keep quiet. Everyone looked back. "Sonic! I just warned everyone about that rock!" Amy laughed. "Oh, uh, I guess I didn't hear you," Sonic said, rubbing his head, blushing. "Oh man, that was embarrassing," he stuttered. He looked down at Shadow's face, who wasn't responding. He had a small smirk on his face, making it obvious that he was trying not to laugh. "Don't laugh at me!" Sonic said. "Can't help it. That was pretty stupid. Even I noticed the rock and I was looking down," Shadow explained. "I'm easily distracted," Sonic blushed harder. Shadow cleared his throat. "So ... what were you saying?" he asked. "Oh, uh ... I forgot," Sonic chuckled.

    "Guys! I think I found some writing!" Silver said, staring at a small part on the wall of the cave. "I see it too! But what does it say?" Blaze asked. "Not sure ... it looks like some kind of weird old language ..." Silver said. "That's not all, come see what's up here," Espio said, who was ahead of the group. Everyone, excepting Sonic and Shadow ran up to see what Espio was talking about. "Don't you want to go see?" Shadow asked. "I'll get there eventually. For now I'll stay back here with the loner," Sonic said. Shadow sneered at him. "I can't be a loner if you keep stalking me," he said. "Stalking you?!" Sonic repeated. "Hah! You wish ..." he rolled his eyes.

    The two eventually made it up to the rest of their group, and everyone stood admiring the cave drawings. There were tons of them, all carrying a different story that everyone was trying to uncover. "Isn't this amazing?" Amy asked, once Sonic and Shadow caught up. "Yeah, it's pretty cool," Sonic admitted. Shadow just crossed his arms, and walked away from Sonic. He explored the carvings by himself. "Hey, where were you?" Rouge asked, spotting Shadow looking at one of the walls. "Oh, I was behind everyone," he said. Rouge rolled her eyes, smirking. "Typical Shadow. You can jump in to the fun anytime you want," she said. "No thank you," Shadow said. "Well, I'm glad Sonic kept you company," Rouge giggled. Shadow blushed. "Ugh. It's not like I wanted him there," he said. "Oh, really?" She asked, poking his red cheeks. Shadow swatted her hand away. "Knock it off. I would never appreciate company from that faker," he said. "Whatever you say, Shads," Rouge shrugged. Shadow grunted, "Stop calling me that!"