The Prophecy (Part One) (re-editing)

Chapter Five - Eggman's Whereabouts*

I leaned forward, peering down into a pitch black hole in the ground. "Did ya find anything?" I asked, listening as my voice echoed back up to me. I frowned when the only answer I received was silence. "Knuckles! You still down there?"

"Hold on!" The echidna finally shouted his voice echoing back up to me. I lay there on my side, my head propped up in my hand, tapping my foot in the air impatiently. He had wanted to go down by himself, and had strictly ordered me to stay up here and wait, as to not get in the way of his tunneling. Naturally, Amy stuck to my side like glue; especially after what had happened over the last few days. Amy grew furious at just the mention of it. After days of searching, we found no more clues, not even the smallest of signs that they were still out there. Their motives were still unknown, and five emeralds were still missing. We were all confused about it; so we decide to do what we could. That meant focusing on finding the pieces of the Master Emerald, as Tails had suggested. That also mean that I was stuck following the stubborn red echidna around, even though he said I just got in his way. Me, even though I was actually trying to be helpful. Unlike Amy, Cream, and the two chao who tagged along for no reason other than to just tag along. And this spot on the side of the road is where he had sensed the emerald's presence rather strongly.

"This is boring," I mumbled to myself, laying back on the ground. My eyes squinted from the sun, until Amy came into view, leaning over me with a smile. 

"Want a bracelet, Sonic?" She chimed, holding up a link of flower stems for me to see.

"No thanks," I said, rubbing the tip of my nose and crossing my leg. They had given me several already, picking flowers behind me and stringing them together like we were in some kind of park. But we weren't; we were on the side of the road. "Aren't you a little old to be doing that, anyway?"

She frowned. "You're no fun, you know that?"

"I'm not having fun, either. Knucklehead is taking forever."

Cream walked over on her knees and held out a string of flower stems, although it was much longer than what Amy had shown me. "How about a necklace, then, Mr. Sonic?" She asked in her sweet tone. "Mother says that beautiful flowers bring good karma."

I looked at it for a moment, then sighed internally in defeat. I leaned forward, letting her drape it over my head. I looked down at it and smiled up at her, but my smile completely faded as my gaze flickered to Amy. She grabbed my wrist and forced the bracelet on, then backed away and smiled in satisfaction.

Just then, Knuckles' head popped out of the hole.

"You guys can come now." He said, diving back under. I sat up and looked over the hole. Amy and Cream joined me. It was pitch black, and I couldn't see anything.

"Come where?" I asked.

"Down here, of course!"

"How deep is it?"

"Uh.. Not too deep. Only a few feet."

"Stay here." I turned to the girls.

"No, I wanna go too!" Amy protested. I started to counter, but just gave in already. The girls both grabbed a chao, and I scooped them both in my arms and jumped down. To my surprise, it was a lot further than just a few feet. More like ten or eleven.

I barely landed on my feet, nearly dropping the girls from the impact. "Knuckles!" I yelled into the darkness. "That was more than a few feet!"

"Yeah yeah, c'mon." Knuckles said, grabbing me by my arm. I felt around and grabbed onto what I thought was Amy's hand, and followed Knuckles' lead. We could all hear Cream's quiet whimpering behind us, as she clung to Amy's side like glue.