The Prophecy (Part One) (re-editing)

Chapter 23 - Stalkers, Friends, and Half-Truths

~Shadow~

I was beginning to think that Faker was more of an idiot than I had originally thought. That would make him one huge idiot.

Why on Mobius would he go off if he felt like something was going to happen? And better yet -- to bring along the girl he liked?

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," I repeated under my breath as I jogged through the forest, my eyes glued ahead of me. Somebody had to help them. If he made such a rash decision like that, surely more were to come.

I had been searching around for quite some time. I couldn't chaos control, seeing as I hadn't been in their area before; but I had spotted them for a moment. I watched the last seconds of a fight against some men, and couldn't catch them in time as they got on a boat and drifted away. So I was stuck running through the forest on the curving land, trying to get as far as I could. It was difficult to know what to do besides get a boat. The South Island was nothing more than a bunch of little islands. I could find them sooner or later. But then again; I didn't exactly want to go out and greet them. I just wanted to quietly follow them for now.

Suddenly, something big crashed into a tree to my left, causing fresh green leaves to rain down around it. I threw a chaos spear as retaliation, and immediately heard an ear-splitting squeal.

I walked over calmly and tore through the foliage in search of what it was. There was another frightened squeal as I stumbled upon it, and I looked down to see none other than the white feline who had been Amy's companion.

I stumbled over a list of names in my head, searching for hers. When I found it, it finally registered in my mind of how surprised I was to see her mug there.

"Valentine? What are you doing here?"

She sat up halfway. "I-I followed ya here, please don't kill me!" At the last half of her sentence, she fell on her back and covered her face with her arms.

I just let the branches snap back into their places and turned around. "Well, go back to the others. I'm just..exploring."

"No you're not." She had to fight her way through the entangling brush just to stand up. "I heard ya talkin' to yourself earlier. You're gonna find Sonic and Amy."

I just had to talk to myself, didn't I? "Well.. Just go."

"Ugh, I can't. You know how tiring it is to constantly teleport to someone who just keeps runnin'?"

"That's very nice. Bye." I said and started walking away like I didn't care all that much. To my sarcastic luck, she followed me. I sighed and glanced at her over my shoulder. "What do you want?"

"You shouldn't go off alone. Nobody should." She said as she stumbled through the weeds trying to catch up to me. If it were anyone and anywhere else, I would have just ran off and left her there. But.. I couldn't just leave a girl alone out in the middle of the rainforest.

I slowed my pace and came to a stop, turning around to her. "I'm by myself all the time."

"Well, it's no fun that wa--AYY!" She nearly screamed at the end as she topped over a fallen tree. I rushed forward and caught her just in time. She whimpered as she looked up at me.

For a split second, I thought I saw something there. Something in her eyes. Something like a sparkle. And I thought I could feel it.. But what was I thinking? I just dropped her and turned away, involuntarily crossing my arms.

"Oww.." She whined as she raised up on her hands and knees.

"I guess it's too far away for you to go back by yourself.. And I'm too far gone to take you back.."