Splash. His foot made contact with the puddle of water, throwing it out of the puddle, and onto the waterlogged soil. It seeped into the ground slowly, the dirt slowly becoming more waterlogged as the rain collided hard against the earth. It had rained now for the best part of two days, and the amount of rain was now causing the formerly green patches of grass to turn into boggy marshlands. Eventually this would subside, and it would return to form, but for now the grass looked disjointed to its former appearance.
Not that Knuckles cared. He had never been too concerned with plant life, or much else for that matter. He was sworn to his duty, to be the guardian of the Master Emerald. A large green gem, sat in the centre of now derelict ruins in the emerald chamber of the Floating Island. The Emerald chamber itself consisted of a few pillars, most of which broken, destroyed with the passing of time. The ones that remained were cracked, and grey with moss covering them.
Knuckles made it underneath a palm tree. The echidna had been scrounging, looking for a few scraps of food on the island. It was the only time he ever left the emerald chamber. Sure he'd left it once or twice, but for as long as the Master Emerald was in this chamber, Knuckles would not stray far.
His dreadlocks wet from the rain, Knuckles looked from his position to the emerald. It glowed dimly. Knuckles knew very little about the emerald, just that he was sworn to protect it. Sure, he knew of its history with the Chaos Emeralds, and he also knew of the monster Chaos, but otherwise Knuckles knew nothing of the Master Emerald or how it worked, and he didn't care to find out. As far as the echidna was concerned, all he had to do was protect the Master Emerald, above all else.
Not that anyone did try to take it. Sure, Robotnik had gone after it a couple of times, but since the incident on that giant space station the human had stopped caring about this emerald, focusing his efforts on the smaller, and collectively more powerful Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles knew less on the Chaos Emeralds than he did the Master Emerald, but they were of no concern to the echidna.
The only other creature that ever tried to take it was a female bat. Rouge her name was and she was a bit of an enigma to the echidna. Knuckles couldn't get his head around it, he should hate her for attempting to take the Master Emerald as often as she did, but he didn't. He couldn't suss why, but part of him liked her attempts to steal the gem. Not that she had recently. She'd been to busy, working with the military people. Knuckles sighed and swung his leg; it collided with a pebble.
The echidna looked again to the Master Emerald. As usual it dimly glowed. Knuckles sighed again, louder. "All I do is watch this," he said quietly, "I watch the Master Emerald. I, Knuckles of the Echidna clan, serve and protect the Master Emerald from all invaders no matter what the cost," he said, reciting the oath he had memorised. Knuckles had no idea where he learnt that oath from; Knuckles couldn't remember anything beyond watching the emerald. It was all he had done, all he'd ever known until Robotnik had crashed the Death Egg onto the Floating Island.
"That was the start of it," Knuckles muttered, "That great big thing fell from the sky, and I was thrust into adventure. For the first time in my life something exciting happened, and before I knew it, it was over, and that was it for a while." Knuckles mused, he began to reminisce in his mind about the fight against Sonic, and then all the confusion as Robotnik made off with the Master Emerald, and how Knuckles had fought with the robotic Sonic in order to get back the Master Emerald.
Knuckles kicked another pebble. It went flying, clinking against the Master Emerald. The echidna looked up, at the gem, and walked over, uncaring about the rain now. It splashed him repeatedly as he slowly walked in the mud towards the familiar grey pillars, the once gleaming stone floor, now sprawling with weeds. Knuckles placed his hand against the Master Emerald, and looked at his reflection in it. "I hate you," he said quietly, "I hate you with all I have."
He went quiet again. The Emerald sat there, its eerie dim glow providing a miniscule amount of light in the otherwise dark and cloudy sky. The rain continued to run down the echidnas back, and dripped into his shoes, making them waterlogged, and uncomfortable. Knuckles didn't care anymore though. Right now he was angry. Not his usual anger either. Normal if Knuckles was mad he'd be swinging his fists, and dishing out some pain to whoever was responsible.
This time however, Knuckles' anger was reserved. He wanted to punch the Master Emerald; he wanted to break the thing for all it had done to him. Knuckles was furious that he'd have to spend his life guarding a pile of junk. He had no choice either. He was bound by tradition, and cursed to watch the gem. Abandoning his post now would curse him to a horrible fate, according to echidna belief. But there was one way out. Knuckles looked again to the gem.
"You've ruined my life;" he said coldly, "Because of you, all I can do is sit here and watch you. I'm duty bound to you, and I hate it. Not that you care, you're just a hunk of," the echidna hesitated, not too sure what emeralds where made of, "well whatever you are," Knuckles said, slamming his fist into the dirt, "All you do is sit there, mocking me, mocking my life. I could've done something, but I had to be born a guardian didn't I?"
The emerald didn't answer. Knuckles sat there for several seconds, unsurprised. Knuckles was used to being alone, but it was only recently that it had begun to bother him. Now that Knuckles knew what it was to actually live life, he wanted more. Yet the Master emerald, and his duty to it, stopped him from doing just that. The only time Knuckles could ever even leave the Floating Island was when it was required to protect that damn emerald. Once he got it back, Knuckles had to return. He always had to come back.
Knuckles looked at the familiar surroundings, the vast expanse of green, normally a field, today a marshland of mud and grass. Beyond that dense jungle; the odd piece of ruins scattered around. On the other side there was more of the same, but with the mountains in the distance beyond that. All there was was plants, mountains, dirt and ruins. That was all that was left of the once great Echidna tribe.
"Maybe we deserved to die out?" Knuckles spat with anger, "I am Knuckles, last of the freaking Echidna tribe, sworn protector of a large glowing gem, and what's it got me? Huh? I've barely lived a day of my life because my duty to this piece of junk," he said starring angrily at the Master Emerald, "All I do is sit here, and protect you, you useless, worthless emerald. Well not any more," he said, a smile creeping across his face.
Knuckles reached into his shoe, and pulled out a small knife, no longer than six inches. He looked at the blade, then again at the Master Emerald. He put his left paw on the Master Emerald, as it sat there, still glowing faintly, otherwise unresponsive. "You never did care," Knuckles said, as he sharply forced the knife into his chest.
The echidna clenched his teeth tightly, and closed his eyes from the immediate pain. He opened one of his eyes, and looked at the wound where the knife had entered. Blood oozed out of it; the darker shade mixing with his naturally red fur. Knuckles felt the pain increase second by second, as his body continued to fight against the inevitable. However consciously Knuckles had given up, and he smirked; glad to be free of the Master Emerald. His body collapsed backwards, and his eyes shut one last time as he fell limp to the floor, blood still oozing out the wound of his dead body.
Knuckles felt himself become weightless, and could feel himself rise off the ground. He watched himself rise out of his now lifeless body, himself now a ghost. The echidna continued to ascend to the sky; he was finally free of his existence, free of his duty, free to live life.
"An echidna who abandons his duty is a coward," a voice said.
"No echidna may surrender his duty to the Master Emerald," another voice continued.
"Those who try to leave will be bound to his duty evermore," a third voice finished.
Knuckles didn't understand this at first. He looked on confused, as the voices kept repeating the same omen. Suddenly he felt it. Physical form. Knuckles had taken a moment to his new found non-existence, and now he was suddenly solid again. It was encasing his soul; trapping him. It crept in around him. Knuckles tried to scream, as he returned to existence, but found he was incapable of doing so. His thoughts began to dissolve away, one by one. His memories faded, as everything he could see became red tinted. The physical form grew tighter, compressing Knuckles into a smaller and smaller space. The last thing Knuckles could think was how much he hated the Master Emerald.
There was a clunk, as a newly formed Chaos Emerald landed on the ground near the Master Emerald. The Chaos Emerald was tied to the other seven, and fixed to the Master Emeralds. They were the items connected together, to bind the Master Emerald to this world, and to stop it from making its own escape. The Emerald landed in a puddle of the blood of the recently deceased Knuckles the Echidna.
The new emerald was a prison for the echidna, punishment for trying to escape his duty, as the seven other Chaos Emeralds were also prisons for guardians who'd tried to surrender there duty. Knuckles was the newest of these, a slave to the Master Emerald for all eternity.