The Quest and the Conquest

Cover Page | Introduction | Chapter I. | Chapter II. | Chapter III. | Chapter IV. | Chapter V. | Chapter VI.

It was a dark and cold night in the small village of Knothole. Sonic sat up in his bed, listening to the wind and rain beat against his hut with ruthless force. Through the thin cracks of his hut, he could see the white flashes of lightning, as deep peals of thunder rumbled off in the distance. This sort of weather was not unknown to him, so he laid back down, trying to ignore the little storm. He relaxed and exhaled heavily, pulling up the sheets closer around him. He was drifting back to sleep, when suddenly his eyes popped wide open and he sat bolt upright in his bed. There was definitely something very eerie, almost familiar, about this storm. His eyes narrowed with a vague recollection of the past. Why was he so worked up about this storm? Something told him that this wasn't just some ordinary storm. What was he so worried about? As if to answer him, the hut lit up brightly as two jagged streaks of lightning erupted off in the distance, the ground shaking slightly underneath him from the impact. Sonic jumped up from his bed in amazement, for his worst nightmare had come back to haunt him: THEY HAD RETURNED.
Sonic raced over to Princess Sally's hut through the gales of wind and rain, not even daring to look back at where the lightning had touched down. Breathing heavily, he finally reached the Princess' door and began knocking wildly.
"Sal! Sal! They're back!" Sonic yelled through the door, the rain blurring his vision and drooping his quills. There was a slight quiver in his voice.
After receiving no reply for what seemed like an eternity, he opened the door cautiously to get out of the rain. In one fluent motion, he entered through the threshold and shut the rain-spattered door behind him as quickly and quietly as possible. He stood for a moment and surveyed the interior of Sally's hut with slight suspicion, a pool of water forming on the floor from the soaked Hedgehog poised above. Paying no attention to his mess, he trudged into the main room. A slight fear nagged in the back of his mind, but he dismissed it as foolish.
"Sal...?" he called in half-anxiousness and half-fear.
He arrived at the bedroom door. It was slightly ajar, creaking ever so slightly from a seemingly invisible source of wind. He knocked, and waited. Silence. He pushed open the door. To his shock and horror, Sally was not there. Sonic stood mesmerized for a moment, when suddenly a jarring sound drew his attention to the window. It was open, swinging freely on its hinges, driven against the wall by the wind and rain of the storm. He hurried over and closed the window with much effort, the torrent outside resisting to be shut out. Walking away from the window, he almost slipped on the waterÑand mud. Sonic looked down at many muddy footprints. He stood and checked the bottom of his shoesÑthey were clean. The footprints were close to twice his size. Clearly someone else had been here. Where was she? It was two o'clock in the morning, a God-awful squall was raging outside, and her hut was empty! He shook his head in dismay, when suddenly a slight gleam in the corner of the hut caught his eye, putting his thoughts on hold. He walked over to where the object was laying and gawked at it for a second. At that instant a flash of lightning briefly illuminated the room. Suddenly the Hedgehog backed up, eyes widening in fear, realizing what it was. It was Nicole, Sally's computer, smashed into small pieces. In a state of shock, he stumbled backwards, turned, and ran out of Sally's hut and over to the next hut to get help. This time he didn't bother to knock. He kicked the door open, and stood there with his mouth agape. Another empty hut! He ran to the next one, and found the same thing. Empty. Gradually a horrible thought struck him: what if everyone in Knothole was gone? He ran to another hut, and opened the door. His thought was confirmed. Empty.
Sonic walked out of the hut in a state of shock. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a shadow dart away from behind one of the nearby huts.
"Hey, you!" Sonic shouted, chasing after the figure with lightning speed.
The figure moved swiftly out of Knothole and into the surrounding woods. In fact, the quicker Sonic moved, the quicker the figure seemed to move. Sonic was not one to be toyed with, however. He increased his speed and juiced toward his adversary with incredible speed, the torrential downpour stinging his fur with each pelting drop. As they approached a vast meadow in the forest, suddenly the figure stopped. Sonic, right behind, stopped directly in front of him.
"Boy, you've got some real explaining to do, buster!" Sonic said to the stranger angrily.
The figure stepped out of the shadows and into the light. The moonlight had just broken through the slowly dispersing storm clouds, casting an ominous glow all around them. Sonic looked up at the figure standing in front of him, his sleek black fur shining in the moonlight. With that, Sonic gasped and blacked out.