The Prophecy; Fulfilled (Part Two)

Chapter Three - Someone I Used to Know

~Shadow~

"Friends stick together! Through whatever! Any kind of weather! Friends! Lalalalala! Friends are forever! Friends are--

"Enough!" I huffed and turned around to face them. They both stopped, stumbling into each other a bit. "Do you have to keep singing those stupid songs?" I growled under my breath. A hedgehog could only take so much of a baby friendship song. One more blasted verse and I was going to literally explode.

Valentine's ears flattened against her head. "Sorry, Shadow. It's the only way I know to stay calm." She spoke so pitifully as her tail drifted back and forth.

I sighed. If that statement was true, then I couldn't blame her. We were still in the middle of the tundra, freezing our butts off. There was no sign of Sonic anywhere, Big was still gone, and I was confused and irritable. There was no way Sonic could have walked off. There was no footprints, and he was in no position to. And there weren't any marks for him to be dragged away.. In fact, there were no marks at all.

"Yeah, and you've been kinda sorta not letting us stop to rest." The orange hedgecat, Cakt, spoke up.

I sighed again. "..Fine. Let's find a clearing, or better yet, a building of some sort." I said as I began to walk again.

They began skipping after me like happy little schoolgirls. Just a little while longer, Shadow. Then you'll never have to see either of them again for as long as you live. I kept telling myself. It worked at first, but then I would have to hear things like what came next.

"Isn't he just soo sweet, Cakt?"

My fists clenched, and I picked up the pace.

"Eww, Val! That's gross!" The hedgecat replied, nearly gagging.

"But he's so nice to us!"

Cakt scoffed. "You call that nice?! He's a total jerk!"

"He's not to me.."

I stopped once again and turned around to them. "You want to see what a real jerk looks like, Akt?" I growled under my breath.

"It's Cakt. CAHkt." She said with narrowed eyes, putting emphasis on the 'cah'. "And besides, you already are a jerk, you.. ugly, mean, black and red thing, you!"

"Hey!" Valentine nudged her arm. "He's not a jerk, Cakt! He's really nice, and he's helpful..and um.. yeah."

I groaned in frustration. "Stupid cat, I AM a jerk, just not to you! You're too soft and squishy, and you wouldn't be able to handle it! But I don't care anymore, because I'm tired, and I'm hungry, and you're both ticking me off! And you know what, if you two had been watching Sonic while I tried to go after that idiot, then we wouldn't be roaming around like this, now would we? At least we'd have him!" I took a breath to say something else, but held it when I realized what I had just said, and the tone I had just used. She stared at me, wide-eyed. So did Cakt, before her expression changed to a more fierce one.

There was a long silence, and I just turned away. I didn't understand. It wasn't like me to lose my cool like that.

"Okay, Shadow... I'm sorry.." Valentine said, looking to the ground. I clenched my teeth hard and started walking again, trying to ignore what had just happened; but it wasn't working. I almost felt.. bad for snapping at her. I heard their slow footsteps crunch in the snow behind me. I bit my lip, then took a breath to say something, but before I could, a random green frog jumped out from behind a bush ahead, catching my eye. Big the cat chased after it, not even noticing us.

"Hey, it's that cat!" Valentine called out. "Big!"

"Hunh?" Big swirled around to see us. "Oh, friends! I found froggy! He was in this icy river over there." He leapt forward and caught the frog in his hands, and hugged it.