B.C.E.

"Let's get to sleep." Echo walked away from her slowly and flopped on his bed.

^

"Let's not forgrt you were kind to me." he replied, taking it.

"Yeah... Me and Star'll get out of here..."

Trembling, the hedgecat sat up. She couldn't do this. "I need to go with her... I don't want to risk getting you in trouble."

"Alright." he said, getting up.

^

"See you both tomorrow!" Echo said.

[timeskip to tomorrow?]

[Or we can speed forward a couple more years *shrugs*]

[No. This part is important. After tomorrow we can skip to 25 years old and have the Trojan war. But I promise tomorrow will be very interesting.]

[Okay ^^]

When Sunny awoke, she immediately went out to the small shack they'd managed to build for the hedgecat in the forest. And the moment she saw Star, she ran back to town to get Echo and Shadow. She was shivering, yet hot to the touch. Damn.

Echo and Shadow were enroute to the school. They saw Sunny aproaching.

"What's up?" They asked.

"It's Star," she said in an undertone. "She's sick and I don't know why."

"I knew we should've gone to Vir!" Shadow said, accelerating twords the forest. Echo followed.

Sunny scrambled after them, frowning. "Who?"

Echo looked at her.

"The principal of course!" Shadow eventually made it to the house and burst in through the front door and picked star up bridal style.

The hedgecat cried out, turning her face against his chest. The sudden brightness from outside had hurt her eyes and the sudden movement from him picking her up had made her head and body ache even worse.

Shadow swore under his breath.

"We gotta use chaos control."

'Right.' Echo Grabbed Sunny's hand and then shadow's as they teleported.

&

They reappeared in a cluttered office filled with scrolls. A brown and yellow echindna of about 50 was sitting there reading. He looked up.

"Shadow, Echo, what's wrong?" He looked at Star.

"My my, picking up strays eh? You two have good hearts, but I'm afriad you can't keep her." He pointed to a long bed.

"Place her there and i'll see what I can do."

The hedgecat whimpered, clinging to Shadow. She didn't want him to leave her.

Sunny frowned deeply, watching. "Is she gonna be okay?"

Shadow tried to put her down, but she wouldn't let go.

"It'll be alright. I'm right here." He said. "Vir needs to examine you. I'll be right at your side." Vir took note.

"HOw long have you two known eachother?"

"6 years." Echo said. Vir looked shocked.

"Interesting. As for what she has I wont know until I examine her."

[will you tell me what she has or shall I make up a diagnosis from what I know watching 'House'? ^^]

She whimpered again. She hurt, didn't want this stranger near her.

[Rheumatic fever; he should find a slight rash on her arm and they'll discover later that she'd been hiding the symptoms]

[right.] Vir Cotto began to remove the wrappings she had placed on her arms and chest. He then saw a large red area.

"Rhematic fever..." He droned. "I have a vial for that, but Im surprised it didn't show any simptoms until recently..."

"She's going to be ok?" Shadow asked.

"Caught it just in time by the looks of that rash. A little longer and she'd be in hospice."

She shivered, making small, desperate noises.

Sunny frowned. "Yeah... Good... What the hell is rheumatic fever?"

[basically, an disease caused by not being well-taken care of after having strep throat, which suits since she lives in a rundown shack]

"It's basically a disease caused by not being well-taken care of after having strep throat, which is common for half brieds who live in such poor conditions." Shadow rubbed Star's head.

"Why didn't you tell us you had strep?"

"I..." She sniffled, tears welling up. She hadn't wanted to bother them.

"She told me," Sunny murmured. "I managed to find her some medicine-" she'd actually made it from some plants- "and I thought she was over it..."

"It's not you're fault." Echo told Sunny.

"Don't worry about it. I'm not mad." Shadow said.

"Well, she'll need bedrest. I.E. She'll be staying here for a while. Now the three of you need to head to Circus Major. The graduation tournament is starting." Sence the teachers had put Shadow and Echo through the entire ciriculum far too quickly they were able to compete in the fight to see who would graduate and become knights.

"You can watch if you like." Vir told Sunny.

She shook her head. "I think I'll stick around and make sure Star's okay..." The hedgecat was crying quietly, in pain and shameful.

"Alright." Echo said. He began to walk out.

*

Shadow scratched behind her ears.

"I'm sorry," the hedgecat whispered, closing her eyes. "I'm so sorry..."

Shadow continued.

"It's alright. Don't worry."

%

"Oi. Lovebirds. The battle Royal is starting. We need to go now!"