Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog and all other related characters and elements belong to SEGA.
The sun stood in the sky proudly, kissing the land with it's warmth and chasing away every cloud that dared to hinder it's shine. All kinds of critters basked in the wonder of the day, from the birds that sang happily, to the small beetle crawling across the shortest blade of grass. Every living thing seemed to agree that it was the best day of their lives, as they did every day. Nothing could bring their spirits down, they were too busy appreciating life. Amongst the joyous creatures in the field was one of the more intelligent beings of the land. A young girl, clothed from head to toe in her pink and green cloak, skipped through the field with a basket in hand. Her skin was a pale green and her hands like mittens, clearly not human. Her eyes looked much more like that of an animal, large, dark pupils full of emotion and personality. She was one of the many strange inhabitants of this legendary land, a land of ancient times. The girl slowly leaned down and picked one of the many white flowers that covered the meadow. She hummed a gentle and mystifying tune as she carefully chose which plants to place in her woven basket. The wind lightly stirred, making the flowers sway back and forth slowly as if dancing to the girl's song. As she reached for another lovely plant for her collection a small rabbit poked it's long ears up from beneath the grass. The girl smiled and held her hand out, greeting the harmless animal. "Hello bunny! How are you today?" she giggled. The brown rabbit twitched it's whiskers slightly, standing on it's hind legs as it's ears titled from left to right. It listened for a few moments, deciding which course of action to take, then bolted past the girl diving into a hole. "Wait little bunny! I won't hurt you!" the girl moaned as she watched her furry friend disappear into the ground. "What are you so scared of?" she wondered aloud, thinking for a second or two and trying to remember what her parents had told her about the plains. Suddenly, a dark cloud snuck up behind her, appearing from nowhere it materialized and took the form of a tall, armored mutant. It raised it's curved blade high, letting out a roar as more of it's kind came into view. The girl dropped her basket, screaming as she recognized the monsters from stories she'd heard from the castle. She turned and ran out of the meadow, down the hill until she could see her village. "They're coming! They're coming! Mommy, Daddy, help!" she screeched as she ran past many of the other villagers who began gathering and looking towards the direction she had come from. A few seconds passed in silence as their eyes didn't leave the hilltop. They all held their breath as many thoughts raced through their minds, each of them thinking the same thing but not daring to speak up. Finally, the first mutant appeared on the top of the hill, once again raising it's weapon and roaring to the others. The people of the village began panicking, running into their homes while others fetched the best forms of weaponry they could find; mostly scythes and pitchforks. "Hurry! Try to chase them off!" one of them shouted. "We'll stand and fight!" another agreed. One man raised his pitchfork and called to the others, "Show them no fear! Do not let them take our village, for the sake of our families we--!" he was unable to finish as one of the monsters charged towards him, throwing him into a cart that fell apart by the force of the impact. The other villagers held their weapons tightly, trembling as the army of mutants marched forward.
The double doors burst open as the red knight rushed into the throne room. "Your Highness! We have trouble at the edge of the Kingdom!" he cried, stopping dead in his tracks as he gazed upon the empty throne. He turned his sights to the lilac feline dressed in her armor. She approached him calmly, hoping to relax the troubled knight. "Where is the King!? I must speak with him!" the red echidna shouted to her. She shook her head, "The King has... Gone out to survey his new Kingdom."
"And he's been gone for a rather long time." A black hedgehog emerged from the shadows, a scowl on his face and his eyes, though covered by a metal mask, narrowed and somewhat icy. The echidna stuttered, "W-Well, when will he be back?" his gaze switched back and forth from the cat to the hedgehog as he waited for an answer. "We don't know," the cat finally broke the silence, "What's going on, Gawain?" Placing his hands on the sides of his head, Gawain did his best to remain calm, "Th-There's been an attack... In the Out-lands, a village was raided by the Knights of The Underworld!" The other two knights' jaws hung open, both of them losing their composure as they gasped. "There are still more of those beasts appearing?" the hedgehog, Sir Lancelot, growled through clenched teeth. Percival, the feline placed a hand on his shoulder as she tried to calm her friend, "We have to find the King and warn him." The other knights nodded and turned towards the door before a new voice caused them to stop. "I believe the three of you are overreacting." it said in tones soft and crystalline. The three looked back to see the royal wizard standing next to the throne, her arms wrapped around her golden scepter and her purple cloak over her head. She lifted her gaze to them and stared each of them in the eye, "We have nothing to fear, for the King has his own habit of arriving wherever and whenever there is trouble." Gawain scoffed, "Are you saying we are to do nothing while our Kingdom is under attack?!" he raised his clenched fists angrily. "No, Merlina is right." Lancelot said softly, "The King will take care of the matter, whether we ask him to or not." he turned his back and left the room. Percival looked towards Gawain, "Even so, we still must try to help in any way we can. Let us search the town and hopefully locate the King. The sooner he can hear of this the better." The two knights marched out, following after the first, leaving Merlina alone. She ran her left hand along the arms of the throne while clutching her scepter with her right. Her expression loosened into a look of worry, "Where are you, Sir Sonic?" She whispered under her breath.
"Shouldn't we be at the castle?" a smooth, elegant voice asked.
"What for?" The blue hedgehog leaned his head against a tree as he chewed a weed. "Well, to rule over the Kingdom. Being a King means you have certain duties to attend to." the voice replied. The hedgehog smirked as he crossed his legs, "Now why would I want to do that?" he chuckled. "Because you're the King! Why else?"
The hedgehog spat out the weed and sat up, lifting his sword to his face. "Hey, you're the one who made me king, and I didn't even want to be! I think you'll just have to deal with it." he said with a snide grin. The face of the sword scowled, "Hmph! You have a lot to learn about ruling a Kingdom, Sir Sonic." it's words were firm, but almost sounded concerned. The hedgehog knew it was right, as much as he hated to admit it. Why did I have to pull a talking sword out of a stone anyway? he mentally kicked himself, making a note not to go yanking weapons out of rocks without caution. He rose to his feet, stretching his arms as he took in a breath of fresh air. "I feel like going for a run. Care to join me, Caliburn?" he lifted his sword and twirled it through the air. Caliburn scoffed, "Why do you ask when I have no choice?" Sonic laughed lightly as he began jogging, "That's exactly why I asked." Caliburn groaned. Oh, the arrogance!
Picking up speed, Sonic sprinted across the meadow freely, his acceleration enough to uproot the grass as he raced by. But he was only sprinting, any faster and he would probably leave a smoldering trail behind. He smiled to himself as he traveled the land, the scenery passing by so quickly he had very few seconds to take it all in. But he did take it in, every bit of it. This land, this Kingdom, was truly a beautiful place. Untouched by modern day machinery and construction, the air was always clean and the wildlife flourished without any restrictions. A tinge of sadness entered the hedgehog's heart as he was reminded that he was in a completely different world from his own. He almost wished that this land were a part of his own world, no matter the distance he would have to travel, he would enjoy returning again. As he wandered through his thoughts he failed to notice the cart on the road ahead, it's driver frantically waving for the speeding blue bullet to steer clear. Sonic snapped back to reality and leaped over the cart just in the nick of time, creating a gust strong enough to force it over, spilling all of the corn inside. He dug his heels into the ground, skidding to a stop before walking back over to the grumbling driver. "Hey, sorry about that." he lifted the cart back onto all four wheels then began picking up the spilled food. The man calmed his panicked horse and waved a hand, "Think nothing of it, Sir Sonic. I would imagine you have a lot on your mind." The hedgehog paused, raising an eyebrow as he placed the last bit of corn back into the cart. "What makes you think that?" he asked lightheartedly. "Well, with those wretched Knights of The Underworld still running rampant and attacking villages, it must be a hard time to be a Knight right now." Sonic's eyes went wide, "Attacking villages?" he gasped as he looked down at Caliburn, who simply sighed. "It would appear that dark forces are still loose throughout the Kingdom. We must look into this immediately."
The townsfolk were busily hustling about their work all over Camelot, each road littered with carts filled with merchandise. Everyone was far too occupied with their own business to notice the two knights frantically searching the marketplace. Sir Gawain marched through the crowds, apologizing as he hastily pushed past the distracted citizens. He scanned the crowds carefully, searching for any of his fellow knights and hoping they would arrive with Sir Sonic. As he stepped off of the main road something caught his eye, shimmering as it leaped across rooftops swiftly and approached him. The shiny figure leaped down in front of him, sighing heavily as she shook her head. "No sign of him?" Dame Percival asked. Gawain grumbled, "No. Where could he possibly be? Why can't he be here when we need him!?" Percival opened her mouth to speak just as a light breeze picked up. It moved down the alley, as though some large being were drawing in a breath. Less than a second later Sir Lancelot appeared, dropping from his hole of distorted space that he had warped with. He walked up to the other two knights and held up a victorious fist, "The King is on his way to the Outlands now. I saw him outside the Grand Kingdom just moments ago." Percival sighed with relief as Gawain nodded, "Excellent! Well done, Lancelot." he chuckled as he abruptly patted the ebony knight on the back. "Yes," the lilac feline agreed, "Now we must see if there is any way we can assist him. Let's go." she turned and leaped back for the rooftops. Lancelot vanished from sight leaving Gawain in the alley, shaking his head, "You two are far too stealthy." He ran back to the busy streets and once again apologized as he forced his way through the crowd.
Sir Sonic raced across the green plains, running up steep hills and sliding down carelessly. He leapt across stone ruins and through deep caves, almost laughing out loud as he enjoyed challenging himself to go even faster. And oh, how he would accept that challenge! Daring to achieve a new limit in this free and open land, with nothing there to stop him... Except Caliburn, scolding him for his recklessness as they narrowly avoided several obstacles. It may have caused him to slow down, if only a little, but it didn't bring his spirits down in the least bit. He laughed and pressed forward, skipping every other stone and restraining himself from leaping across that cliff he passed by. Although he wasn't accelerating as quickly anymore, his posture and steps remained unaltered. He ran in long strides, graceful and steady, but yet fast and furious at the same time. He continued on until something up ahead caught his eye, and it was probably the only thing that could possibly dampen his mood at the time.
He stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the scene before him for a few moments before slowly proceeding into the ruined village. He walked past the burnt houses and overturned carts, many curious eyes watched him as he greeted them only with a sympathetic gaze. "I've never seen the Knights of the Underworld do this before..." he wondered aloud, his voice almost wavering ever so slightly. Caliburn snorted, "Indeed. This is quite unusual, even for their relentless nature." The two remained silent after that, though they both were sorry to see such a terrible sight. Sonic almost froze on the inside as he passed a small family; a mother with two children in her arms, mourning over their lost home. He stopped in the center of the village, looking around and hoping to see some area that wasn't destroyed... No, everything had been lost during the attack. From one end of the town to the other, broken wood and ash coated the ground. Shaking his head, Sonic looked down towards his blade, "Why would they decide to do this? I mean, if they've never attacked like this before..?" The hedgehog turned his attention to a limping villager, using a plank of wood for balance as he approached the knight. "Are you Sir Sonic, the Knight of the Wind?" His tone didn't sound as though he was asking, but rather, begging. Despite his heavy heart, Sir Sonic smiled, "That's me." The man nodded, "Yes, yes... You've come to see what damage has been done?" Sonic shuffled his left foot a little as he placed Caliburn's tip into the ground, "Yeah, well, I heard there was an attack, so I thought--"
"You came to see what those beasts have done to us and our homes, eh?" a new voice called out as a tall man stepped forward. He pointed an accusing finger towards the hedgehog, "Well that's not gonna do'ye any good! You're too late, we've lost everything." He grumbled and folded his arms, lowering his head. Caliburn scoffed loudly, "Watch your tongue! Do you know whom you are speaking to?" he scolded. Sonic lifted his sword and shushed it, "That's not important right now." he half whispered. He felt a gentle tug on his arm and turned to see a young girl, sheepishly lowering her face as he looked down at her. She took a deep breath and raised her voice, "You... You're going to stop them, aren't you Sir?" she squeaked and looked up to him with hopeful eyes. Swallowing hard, Sonic knelt down to her level and met her gaze. "Those monsters ruined your home, didn't they?" The girl nodded vigorously, blinking back tears as she clasped her hands together. Sonic smiled, "Don't you worry, kid," he rose up and patted her head, "The Knight of the Wind is on the job!"
Running back the way he came, Sir Sonic raced back towards Camelot with a new more lively spring in his steps. He had a new motivation now, he had a goal in mind, and he was more than determined to achieve it. He ran past three familiar figures on his way, each one of them calling out the word Kingfollowed by his name. He rolled his eyes as he stopped, turning back to the Knights of the Round Table as they ran up to him. "Hey, guys, the name's Sonic. Just Sonic, okay?" he said with a smirk as the three hardly paid any attention to his request. "Have you seen the village, Sir?" Gawain asked, getting a wave of Sonic's hand as a reply. "Yeah, I saw it. It's not a pretty picture." he folded his arms and became quiet for a moment. Caliburn spoke up to the group, "This is a rather odd result from the Knights of the Underworld. Something is very wrong about them burning an entire settlement to the ground." The feline raised her hand, "I concur. What if this is only the beginning of a series of vicious attacks?" she gazed towards the blue hedgehog, hoping for an intelligent and inspiring word. Sonic shrugged, "Beats me, but we're going to find out sooner or later." he began scratching behind his ear inadvertently. "Oh yeah," he raised his voice once more to draw in all of their attention, "Those people that lived in that village will need a place to stay." He then turned his back to the three and started to jog. Lancelot exchanged glances with the other knights and hollered, "Forgive me, Sir, but what are you implying?" Sonic craned his neck to look back at them, "I don't know... Let them stay in the castle for a while! It's not like we need all that space for ourselves, right?" he called back before dashing off, leaving without another word. The trio stood still as stone, dumbfounded by what their new leader had just suggested. "How inappropriate for commoners to be staying in the King's house!" Gawain scoffed as he threw his arms down anxiously. Percival sighed, "Nevertheless, we mustn't question his orders." The other two nodded and began heading toward what was left of the small town, ready to inform all of the unfortunate peasants of their new, and hopefully temporary, home.