Shell poked her head out of the water fall, her eyes were watering, and no its not water fall water, its tears.

Knuckles' eyes met her's. "It's not your wing..." he said. "What happened out there?"

"I..Don't...Want...To talk about it..." Shell sank back down, her usual spark of determination was almost literally extinguished..

Knuckles was quiet for a long time. "Ok, If you won't tell me what's going on, then tell me how I can help you not... be like this," he said finally.

"..." Shell was awfully quiet for some time . "I don't know." is what she said after surfacing and sinking back down again to be quiet.

Knuckles huffed in annoyance. He climbed onto a rock overlooking the water. "Shell," He said firmly. "Please,"

Shell didn't answer she just stared at the bottom of the pool looking like she saw a ghost. She poked her lapis colored snout out of the water. "I-...I found my father... but..... he's a...." She shuddered. "K-k-k-killer.... he killed his own mate.....my own mother... I never knew them..... after all I was raised in the desert to....to keep the yellow emerald from the wrong..hands..." Shell looked hurt, those green eyes looked like shattered glass.

Knuckles looked surprised for a moment but soon growled with disgust. Her father killed his own mate?! He thought. His dark eyes met Shell's once more. "I don't understand entirely, but I can tell you're not lying," he said. He paced for a bit, thinking about what he should do. "Well," he said finally. "Did he give you an explanation? An excuse? Anything?"

"...He tried. But I ran of. There was this... there was something....not q-quite right in his eyes." Shell's forked tongue flickered nervously.

"Hmm..." Knuckles went quiet again. "If that's what you got from him, and he's willing to talk, then you should probably find out what happened," he thought, though he didn't realize he said it out loud.