A hint of what lies beneath?
Estantia's Stories
Cinnamon Spice
Cinnamon Spice 3
Cinnamon stood back from what she had done and nodded, satisfied, before turning back to the others, “There, little mini-course for you to practice on.”
“Practice?”
“Extreme Gear, you are entering the competition right?” she looked at them expectantly. They looked back as blankly.
“Well yeah but... we kinda don’t have boards...”
“That’s why I’m here you idiot...” Cinnamon shook her head and got on her board, “Watch.”
She pushed off and went into a series of lazy tricks, talking through them to explain any tricks to pulling them off. When she slid to a stop in front of Sonic she stepped off the board.
“Now, show me a run through of the course, not fancy, just some grinding or whatever.” Cinnamon grinned as Sonic immediately jumped up and tried to show off, with the probable outcome.
“And THAT, ladies and gentlemen,” she said to the others, “was a face plant.” There was a mutter from the ground as Sonic picked himself up again and got back on the board to much laughter from the others, then he kicking off again, this time he got a little further, managing to land the trick a little awkwardly and continuing before losing his balance.
Tails winced each time Sonic fell as he made his way round, both Knuckles and Shadow laughed at first before getting bored. But Cinnamon never laughed, just tilted her head on one side as he made his way along and watched impassively until he finally made it to the end having completed a basic trick at each point he could.
There was a small pause as he met her eyes defiantly with a challenge. She tapped her fingers against her leg as she thought. When she was about to comment when Knuckles couldn’t resist needling his friend, “It took you so long to get round I thought the sun would go down...”
Cinnamon spun and thrust the board at him, “You try it then, at least he had the guts to keep at it until he did it,” she said sharply, “never criticise someone who tries,” the
flare of anger faded out of her eyes as she continued, “then again it usually inspires them to try harder and beat what they expect.”
“That’s a good thing though, makes people who they are,” Shadow’s tone was non-committal,
“Or it breaks them,” the girl replied, “shall we leave Knuckles here to practise while we go inside and then count his bruises later?” Even the echidna smiled at that joke as the others went inside.
However he soon followed as it started pouring down, turning the ground to mud and the echidna didn’t have a coat. He found the others in the main room, sprawled in various positions and all trying to get their new friend to tell them why she wouldn’t enter the tournament.
“I can’t guys, I told you, they stole my entry requirement,”
“But you’re brilliant at it!”
“That doesn’t help me enter the competition! Trust me, I’d love to enter as much as you.”
“So why don’t you?”
“Someone wasn’t listening...” commented Tails as Knuckles sat next to him, having retrieved a towel from somewhere, “She hasn’t got a chaos emerald.”
“So I can’t beat those overconfident thieves like they deserve,” there was a hint of a scowl in her tone as her tail slapped the side of the chair. Shadow raised an eyebrow at her face, “How did you know it was a chaos emerald if you didn’t know what they were?”
“Hey that’s right! You said you thought they were a story!” Knuckles had shot upright in his seat, the woman raised an eyebrow at him,
“I was going to bluff of course, I had an emerald that I picked up while practising near my home and thought I could fool this person into thinking it was one, everyone knows the stories, it shouldn’t have been too hard...” The reddish-orange shoulders shrugged, “How was I supposed to know it was an actual one and that those cheating scum would steal it?”
Shadow spoke up now, “You sure hold a grudge for one theft.” The girl looked at him suspiciously, “What do you mean?”
“You found something by accident and then it got stolen, big deal?” disbelief was clear in his voice.
“It stopped me entering the tournament of course,” something wasn’t quite right about the way she said it, though it sounded normal.
“Yeah right, and Sonic hates chili dogs,” Shadow said flatly, spotting the change in tone “What else did they do to bug you?”
“Just bits here and there, why?” At this point Tails intervened,
“We’ll get it out of you eventually, why don’t you just tell us now and save yourself the bother?”
“Because it doesn’t affect you guys,” Cinnamon got up and attempted to go to the door before she felt a hand close around her arm.
“It’s tipping it down outside,” Sonic said, “You could at least stay until we’ve eaten.”
“No, I’ll go now, going home in the rain’s no trouble,” Cinnamon was looking at the door fixedly,
“Cinnamon?” the soft voice came from the black hedgehog, who had also come over, “Can I ask you something?”
“What are you asking?” she asked, suspicious,
“Just a question about Gear,” The woman looked more comfortable when he said that, seemingly oblivious to Sonic’s hand holding her back, “Fire away,”
“Would it be possible to make these shoes into gear?” he indicated his shoes with a nod of his head.
“Yeah, of course, you want some?”
“I’d be happier with them than a board.” The black hedgehog tried to read Cinnamon’s face for her thoughts on the idea, absently brushing Sonic’s hand off.
“I don’t suppose you could show me if there are other shoes you have that might be better...”
“Follow me,” the pair went upstairs and Sonic returned to his seat, tapping his fingers on the arm-rest as Tails seemed to be debating with himself whether to follow them or not.
When Cinnamon was looking through them Shadow slipped off the ones he was wearing, “Could you just add a board attachment to these that I could take off?” he asked curiously.
“That’s what I think would be the best option...” Cinnamon trailed off as she looked up at his face, “You’re going to ask me questions aren’t you?”
“Not really, just wanted to say that everyone should be allowed to keep secrets, those lot downstairs seem to find the concept a little harder to grasp...”
“Good, then I’ll keep mine.”
“...But if it’s affecting what you’re doing you should warn us.”
Once more the terracotta coloured girl looked up at him, this time thoughtfully, “You’re not like the others are you?” Shadow’s eyes lost their spark of life as he closed in on himself.
“No, I’m not.”
There was another long pause as she thought about what to say, eventually deciding to say who, if not why, “Just beat Wave for me, ok?” Shadow seemed to come back to life as she said that,
“Done, just get me some sneakers that can enter and I’ll do it willingly,”
That made her grin, “Done.”
“But you’ll need to stay here to do it,” Shadow grinned as the girl cursed slightly,
“I need to get my stuff though, you can’t stop me from doing that at least,”
“We’ll come with you, it will keep Sonic off that course for a few hours at any rate,”
“Tomorrow then, I warn you, I’ll be going fast...”
“Faster than sound? Let’s go get you a room.”
Cinnamon Spice
Cinnamon Spice 3
Stumble!