A New Sanctuary?

"Oh don't worry about the Chao," Yukiko assured Caen. "While they cant talk like us, they can understand every word."

She Looked back to where she made a makeshift ice rink for the others only to find half of the gardens residents were now curious and either prodding at the solidified surface or hesitantly trying to walk across it. They definitely seemed to just be like little children or pets to some, but they learn so fast.

'Its such a beautiful place here, hidden away from the world. Whoever it was that built this garden had the right intentions for keeping these little ones safe in here...' She trailed off her thoughts as a sad look over took her face. "What if the one who made this garden finds out we were here and is mad though?"

Yukiko looked back to Caen and the Chao whom had chosen him to be his owner and tilted her head to the side slightly. "The little guy knows exactly what he's getting himself into I imagine. They're very quick to adapt to certain lifestyles. They can often surprise you with their abilities towards fighting and even their independence."

At this point the violet feline believed it best to keep quiet. She realized that she had been going on like somewhat of a know-it-all, and didn't want to come across as pompous and full of herself.

Caen was glad to know that his words towards the chao weren't falling on deaf ears, at least, as far as Yukiko knew. He was in two minds. This chao clearly wanted to be Caen's companion, and he knew why that would be dangerous, but all the same, Caen was unsure on whether taking the risk was worth it. He sighed as he had once again become lost in thought, barely taking in the information that Yukiko was now spouting out about chao .

At that point, he stopped and raised his eyebrow "what if the...one who made this came back?" He turned back to Yukiko "you're not wrong, but... I think it's very clear that this place hasn't been looked after for at least five years. If he got mad at us trying to help, then frankly he'd be a hypocrite, who left these poor chao to fend for themselves."

A hum came from Yukiko as she pondered over her thoughts and Caens words. If whomever it was did come back or was still looking out for them somehow, maybe he or she would be happy that others found the place. After all, they are not bad Mobians, otherwise the Chao themselves wouldn't have taken to them... right?

"I do see your point Caen, but I didn't want to just assume everything would go off without a hitch. Some out there in the world can be a bit overbearing with their protectiveness and such. Especially if they believe it belongs to them, and them alone after all."

She began to walk back over to the waterfall that on this side looked like a projection. How on Mobius did they get it to look and sound so real from the outside? Looking around, Yukiko couldn't find where the projection was originating from, so she carefully went over everything she could in the short tunnel. Melody had decided to follow and was now sitting on top of her owners head giggling and chirping happily.

Yukiko gave Melody a tickle under the chin before she turned back to the garden after coming up empty. "There's nothing in there that would give anything away. But on to what you said... How can you tell its been at least five years?" 
"Kiki! Kiko!" Melody added in Chao babble to sound important to the conversation.

"Well, it's mostly a hunch," Caen replied after the longest time stood in silence. He walked towards the machine, giving it a firm knock with the back of his hand. It made a very audible clanging sound as he did so. "Think about it, though. This machinery is really outdated, all things considered," he continued, turning towards the snow leopard. He looked around "the plant life looks pretty unkempt, as well," he said, lightly kicking a bit of overgrown grass "five years was just my guess from what I've seen."

The red and white chao flew towards Caen, once again, staying near him as it chirped at him, smiling. The hedgehog couldn't help but smile back, before letting out a breath and saying "alright, alright, fine," he replied to the chirps, chuckling as he did so. He looked back up "I think he insists," he remarked, petting the chao.

"I didn't expect to name a chao today... Hmm... What should I call you?" He asked, as though he was expecting an intelligible answer.

((Alright, little bit of a necropost, but FY and I want to revive this thread, so... Let us see how well it goes, this time!))

He decided to do it! Oh Yukiko was beyond relieved. The little creature looked to be ecstatic that the fiery Mobian had gone with the little guys wishes. Maybe the big googly eyes helped somewhat? She couldn't be sure. 

But now onto names...he was similar to Caen himself, and would probably adapt do some aspects of his life. The little one gazed intently at the hedgehog as a giant smile had been placed on his face since he said he would make him. 

Yukiko began to think. The chao had been persistent, and never gave up. In a sense quite like Caens own flames. Maybe having him named after fire or something representing it could work? 

"What about something that corresponds to you? He will be with you a lot most likely, so it may be worthwhile to run a few names past him to see if he's alright with any in particular?"

Meanwhile Melody stood up on Yukikos head and placed her tiny little hands on her hips and began talking in serious Chao babble towards the red baby, almost as of she was telling him what was going to happen.

Caen looked over at Yukiko as she spoke, crossing his arms and resting his chin on his hand, once again. He couldn't help but laugh when Melody stood atop the snow leopard's head and say something to her fellow chao in incomprehensible babble.

"Something that corresponds to me..." He repeated to himself, glancing back at the chao, who was now staring intently at the hedgehog, waiting for a response. "Let's see... Well, I'd guess fire and flames is my sort of thing, so... Ember?"

The chao thought for a moment, almost copying Caen's body language. It shook its head.
"Hmm... Scorch? No, too harsh... Pyre? No, doesn't flow well..."
Caen clicked his fingers "I've got it! How about Cinder?"

Almost immediately, the chao seemed to react with joy, chirping loudly as it seemed to hop up and down in the air. Afterwards, it entered the machine that stood before them, and the same harsh robotic voice made the same command. Caen stepped forward, looking back at Yukiko, smiling.

The almost immediate reaction of the name 'Cinder' brought a pleased expression onto the snow leopards face. Not to mention the furious applause that the tiny chao was giving onto of her head to boost the joy the little red chao was showing towards his chosen companion. 

Yukiko nodded her head slowly and made a gesture of movement in Caens direction so that his new partner wouldn't be kept waiting for so long inside the machine. 

Now the only question was; would they become adults in the future? Obviously, but which type would they fall into, hero, devil or perhaps neutral? 

While she was thinking about it as Caen had stepped inside the machine, Melody had calmed down and instead decided to look down towards her new partner upside down, but still slightly holding onto her hair instead of flying. 

"Chaoooo! Ummph bubba bebe!" The little water based creature babbled joyfully as she pointed towards the two just in front of them. 

Yukiko giggled at the chatter. "Yes, Melody, they will be like us very shortly. Your little friend couldn't have found a better companion."

The little white and blue Chao stopped hanging upside down and instead plopped belly first back onto Yukis head with a content sigh.

The hedgehog took a deep breath before stepping onto the pressure pad, causing the display to light up. He smiled as he entered each letter onto the keypad before him.

He eagerly pressed enter and confirmed the name as the robotic voice called it out. Cinder seemed like a perfect name, even if it was very contrary to the watery nature of a chao.

The chao exited, squeaking as it leapt towards Caen latching onto his chest, sending the hedgehog back a couple of steps. He laughed at the childlike behaviour from this mystical creature, of which had now been named Cinder.

This behaviour did make Caen think similar thoughts to Yukiko, though. From what he had read before, when chao grow up, they change into hero, dark, or neutral forms, depending on the alignment of their owner. What would Cinder consider Caen to be? He shook his head "nice to meet you, Cinder," he spoke finally, smiling down at the creature.

It was like watching them meet officially for the first time, this time without the water situation. Yukiko giggled as she watched their interactions with each other. 

"It's a perfect day to have this happen, isn't it?" She spoke softly. Once Caen had stepped off of the pad, the crew of many Chao had once again made their ways over to them to converse with Cinder and Melody, most likely about what happened inside the dark place they resided to get named. 

Watching the group chat and babble in their adorable language, Melody raised her arms in a dramatic fashion and proceeded to make loud noises that obviously were over exaggerating what went on inside the machine as she fell onto a fit of giggles at the faces that some other babies had plastered on at her words. 

Now Yukiko wasn't entirely sure what to do. She left the group to have a wander around the garden itself to maybe pinpoint areas that would possibly need the most care to restore it to it's former glory. Many weeds and shrubs were covering what she assumed to be a stony footpath in many places, the grassy areas themselves were pretty jungle-like, and of course looking at the large fountain in the center, there was moss growing all over the marble-like surface. The ice inside the fountain had returned to water once Yukiko made sure no Chao could fall in, and she found it was very difficult to even see the bottom of it's murky depths. 

As a whole, it needed work. And lots of it. Not to mention it was a fair size. She calculated that possibly up to sixteen of the little creatures could live in here comfortably with no issues. She slowly ran a hand over the mossy areas, freezing them to kill the overtaking grassy textures at the roots so it would just fall off harmlessly. 

One thing bothered her a little. While there were trees bearing many fruits, there wasn't a chao store nearby here. Was there one in the past when this place flourished?

As soon as the hedgehog and his chao companion had finished their "greeting", other chao that had heard the noises made by the machine, and had started to crowd around the duo as they stood there. Melody seemed to be making the whole process sound much more... Dramatic, at least that's what Caen gathered, from the shocked expressions the other chao had on their faces afterwards. Cinder climbed up onto Caen's head, before crossing it's arms and looking away from the group. With a firm "chao chao chao," the other chao seemed to all smile up at him. What exactly did he say to get that reaction? The answer seemed to be a little clearer when the chao hopped down, before bowing towards the other tiny creatures. He was being just as dramatic as Melody!

"Didn't think he'd take after his owner so quickly," Caen remarked before chuckling at the adorable display. When he saw Yukiko begin to take a look around, freezing off a bit of moss, he clapped his hands, causing some of the chao to jump in fright. "Right! Time to fix this garden up! Right, Cinder?"
"Chao chaoooo!" He replied, fluttering upwards and perching on Caen's shoulder.

The sudden clapping from Caen wasn't expected, so Yukiko jumped a little in fright, making her large tail puff up a bit rather comically. 
She looked over to see Cinder now sitting happily on her new companions shoulder and chatting away in their language to another random purple Chao who had decided to float along beside them. They seemed to be having a very dramatic conversation, but she couldn't really tell because their little tear drop faces changed so often.

Yukiko heard Caen say about making a start on the refurbishment of this garden, to which she found a slight frown forming on her face.

"Can just the two of us really accomplish this?"

She hadn't really meant to say it out loud, but it was too late now. The garden really was quite big and they would need to obviously get supplies to begin working on it properly.
Then, just as she raised her hand to scatter some more frost over some moss again, she spotted a nearby Chao begin to try and pull up some rather obnoxious weeds that were quite overwhelming around the other side of the fountain itself.

Seeing this, Melody flew off of Yukikos head and disappeared for a moment, only to return shortly afterwards with a small stone bowl. She began hovering over the water and scooping up areas of the water that had dirt and the like inside it to hopefully freshen up the water for them to maybe swim in again.

It didn't take much, but the violet female found herself smiling appreciatively. They really were such amazing little creatures.

As Caen walked around, surveying the potential issues with the garden, Cinder had begun to talk to a fellow chao, who floated lazily beside him. These distractions meant that he didn't notice how he had frightened Yukiko, which may have been fortunate in her eyes.

The purple leopard frowned at Caen's confidence, doubting whether or not the two of them could fix the place up, to which Caen replied with a shrug, before speaking "I'm not sure whether or not we can restore it cosmetically, but I'm sure we can fix up the place to make it a little more... Habitable." Caen walked to the water's edge, looking up at the statue, which appeared to have served as a fountain at some point "first thing's first, we need to drain the pond and fix or replace the pump, so the water doesn't stay stagnant. But... How will we drain it?" He asked, looking around, before he saw Melody trying her best to scoop up the water with a stone bowl. From seeing this, he couldn't help but smile.

"I mean, if we can find buckets, I guess that would be an option?" He replied to Melody's idea. "Then we could shovel any dirt and grime out of it."

Caens comment about shovelling made her place a hand on her chin in thought. They could potentially get some tools and bring them back here, but would the chao be alright to be left here until they got back if that was the case? 

"We should maybe go back into town and get a few things we may need, at least for now to make a start." She began softly. Melody seemed to hear her because she placed the small stone bowl on the ledge of the fountain and cried out as if she was leaving forever. "Hey... We won't be long. We would really be getting some things to help make your home more liveable for all of you."

Melody was having none of it. "Chao chaooo chikk kikkoooo!" 
Her babble wouldn't have meant much if she hadn't tried to explain with her tiny little round hands flailing around dramatically. She pointed to the group of other chao, then to her and Cinder and shook her head. Did she mean that they were not wanting to stay with them? 

Then it hit her, they wanted to go out with them to help! "I get it... You just want to do your part, don't you?" 

The little blue and white water creature nodded frantically as her eyes suddenly went rather large and glittery. She flew up and began circling around the two happily.

"Yes, tools would be helpful, wouldn't they? Oh, we could buy something to pump the water out of the pond, like a... Portable pump, or something. This place must have power to run the machines, after all!" Caen spoke, still looking around, deciding on what what be needed to get.

His mind did go onto the same subject as Yukiko. Were these Chao okay with being left alone? Then again, they had potentially been left alone for years. What's a couple of hours?

Cinder and Melody both seemed to protest the duo's leaving, to which Yukiko tried to reassure them they were not going to be gone long. Cinder seemed to join in with Melody's attempt at signalling that they wanted to help, causing the hedgehog to smile once again. Caen turned towards the entrance, before ushering towards it with his head "come on, then. We've work ahead of us!"

With these words, Cinder landed back on Caen's shoulder, smiling up at him.

Yukiko looked over the hedgehog who just took Cinders protests without a hint of hesitation and let loose a small laugh. 
"It's like you've had him since forever and it hasn't even been an hour."

Melody had stopped flying around in circles and rested herself on her companions head, holding on to her ears gently to keep a grip. Yukiko looked over the garden again, making a note of some things that would be best going for at first, then in the future they could get some less important things once the worst of it had been sorted out. She waved the other creatures off before turning away to follow behind Caens retreating figure.

Caen chuckled in response, still walking towards the entrance "I suppose you're right," he said, looking at the young chao. It was surprising how easily it stayed balanced on the hedgehog's shoulder, all things considered.

"So, where's our first port of call?" Caen asked, looking at Yukiko.

As she put on another thoughtful look, she continued to walk, catching up with Caen to walk beside him.

"It may be best to make our way to a hardware or specialized garden store?" She questioned. "We can go inside and look around for some tools we could use, such as a pump, like you said and maybe some spades and shovels to dig up anything in the way. M-maybe some grout remover, and weedkiller wouldn't go a miss either as they take time to actually work. What do you think?"

Yukiko braced herself for the waterfall to hit them, but once they were through again, she completely forgot it was just camouflage to keep the Chao safe. She felt rather silly. Melody of course noticed the tensing up of her companions shoulders and let loose a loud chirp that sounded suspiciously like a giggle.

Yukiko puffed up her cheeks slightly at the fact she had been seen.

As the hedgehog and his Chao companion walked through the fake waterfall, much like Yukiko, Caen was fooled into protecting himself from the water, with him holding up his arm to keep the water away from his head. He chuckled when he had realised his mistake, to which his Chao had made similar noises. When he noticed Melody giggling as well, he raised his eyebrow "I guess it doesn't fool just me," he said with a smile.

Caen continued walking, across the stepping stones which led to the middle of the lake "oh... How do we get across?" He asks, looking out at the shore.

As soon as they reached the other side and got down to near enough the waters edge, Yukiko realised that they may well have to find a way across by swimming. And they just got dry again. 

"S-surely there's another way across. The other person who make the garden must have created a way over unless they really e-enjoyed swimming over."

The violet feline eyed the general area when a sudden thought came to her. She had heard of camouflaged bridges before, but could here have a real one? 
She went around the side of where the waterfall was and began feeling around the waters edge with her feet to see if she could find anything that may not feel like rocks, along with narrowing her eyes to see if there could possibly be an area on the opposite side of the water that could hint at a clearing where one could walk through. 

She slowly made her way around the area and was just about to give up hope before she felt an area just to the right hand side of the waterfall. Her amber orange eyes glanced up as soon as she felt the solid form just under her footing and sure enough, just a little ways away there was what appeared to be a small cut out in the shrubbery; just enough for someone to fit though, but not enough to draw attention to. 

"Caen, I-I think we have ourselves an invisible bridge!"

"I would think they'd have some way of crossing, but... Where?" Caen asked, looking around. He knelt down at the water's edge, dipping his hand into it, to see if any part was solid. Yukiko joined in, feeling along with her feet, potentially to check for some sort of walkway. To her's and Caen's surprise, she found just that, except it was, in fact, invisible.

"I can't say I've ever seen any technology like that before," Caen remarked, following her across the rocks to where she had apparently found this walkway "lead the way!"

"Lead the way!"

As Yukiko heard those words, she nodded slightly. However, before she moved forward she tossed some frost around the area and pushed it outwards to stretch all the way over the invisible walkway. Slowly but surely the underside of the bridge changed to an almost white colour ton top of the calm water. 

"There. Now we can see where we are walking and as soon as we both step off of it the ice will melt to keep the gardens location secret. We will be the only ones to know of it unless be bring them here."

Yukiko tossed her hair back and started to make her way across with Caen following behind her. Melody waved to Cinder as she took off from Yukikos head to fly ahead. She hadn't seen too far outside of the garden after all, and she wanted to see as much as she could. 

The walk across only took a matter of a few minutes at most, and when they reached the other side, a small uphill met them before the trees began to thin out to show the way back to the city itself.

Caen watched as Yukiko covered the invisible bridge in a thin layer of ice. He smiled, saying "clever thinking," as it spread across, allowing the duo to see where they were going.

While Caen followed the snow leopard along the bridge, he saw Melody take off from her head, going on ahead. He looked over at Cinder "aren't you going with her? You haven't seen much farther than just outside the garden, after all."
The Chao looked him in the eyes, looking a little... Anxious? It was hard to tell on such a small face. Caen chuckled "don't worry, I understand."

As he stepped off of the bridge, the ice encasing it fell away, rejoining the water beneath. Just ahead, up a hill, the trees surrounding the area began to thin out, giving the hedgehog a full view of the city. "It's weird how close that place is, and neither of us ever even noticed."

Yukiko found herself nodding as she was just as dumbfounded. How did nobody even guess there may in fact a chao garden in a large place like this? After all, with Station Square having one literally in the middle of the city itself, Central City surely was bound to have something nearby, right? 

"Okay!" The feline chirped as her large tail swished lazily from aide to side. "We should make haste. It's already the middle of the afternoon now."

Yukiko suddenly looked down to her feet with a slightly bashful look on her face. "I, uhhh. Don't really know... Where the hardware store is?" She pressed her fingertips together and slowly raised her sights to the red hedgehog to mentally apologize to him. To say she felt bad was an understatement. 

Meanwhile Melody had floated up a nearby tree and managed to snatch a couple of berries from them. She took one in her mouth and then went down to give the other to Cinder, if he so wanted it.

Caen nodded in agreement to the both of them making haste to get things done. He smiled when she mentioned that she had no idea where any form of hardware or garden store was. "That's understandable," he said, trying to reassure her "don't worry, I know where it is."

At this point, he noticed Melody holding some form of berry to Cinder, after taking one in her own mouth. He decided to let it be, considering the trees this close to a Chao garden would probably have edible fruits. Cinder smiled at Melody, taking it from her, and nodded to thank her. He took a small bite as Caen begun to walk down the hill, towards the city.

Walking down and finally reaching the city, the weather appeared to be clouding over the heart of the city itself. The sun was still behind the two once they got out of the grassy plain of the forest area, but there was a wind slowly gaining, indicating it was coming into the evening. 

Yukiko looked ahead to see Melody had flown off just a short way ahead and was investigating everything she came into contact with. She gently pulled a small flower from a bush and smelled it, sneezing in the cutest manner possible before flipping around in the air and giggling. 

The duo of Mobians came to the heart of the city and before anything else, Yukiko decided to take a seat on a nearby bench. She brought out a small bottle of water from a bag she had on her shoulder and took a couple gulps before offering it out to Caen, should he be thirsty along with Cinder. 

"Lets take a few minutes to work out exactly where we are going and what we need first. S-should we get larger items? Or smaller ones first?"