"Oof!" The fifteen-year-old blue hedgehog tripped over yet another tree root as he fumbled around in the mass of tangled branches and bushes. Sonic tried to get his balance right and up to speed again…but his foot caught in some thorns and he fell flat on his face in the mud. He hadn't anticipated the Forest of Lumiad to be this thick! Just an hour ago he'd been in the wide open countryside of his home planet Mobius.

One hour earlier

"Aren't you going to eat anything?" Amy asked, glaring at Sonic with her hands on her hips. She'd spent half an hour making chicken-and-mushroom risotto as a satisfying lunch for the hedgehog with a need for speed, and now he was refusing it.

"Seriously, I'm not hungry." Sonic lay back on the chaise lounge, the back of his head resting against his hands. "It was nice of you to make it, Amy, but I just don't fancy it right now."

"Huh! You mean I spent a whole half hour in that kitchen for nothing?"

"Not for nothing. Save it, maybe I'll eat it later."

Amy folded her arms. She was only just getting to grips with her cooking, and she would have rather liked someone to try the food she spent ages making and give her a relevant critique. And she would have loved it if that someone was Sonic the hedgehog – the boy of her dreams.

"There won't really be a later," she continued, trying to manipulate the hedgehog into relenting and tasting what she thought was a rather agreeable effort of a risotto. "It's already twelve and you know the others must be having their lunch by now." 'The others' was probably not the best adjective to describe Tails the fox, Cream the rabbit and Cheese the chao (although he didn't really count as a person, so that brought 'the others' to merely Cream and Tails), who had flown out to test the modifications Tails had made to Tornado X, Sonic's plane. They'd packed a picnic and would be out a good few hours more.

"Yeah, well…I guess I could go for a run before lunch. Work up an appetite?" Sonic gave Amy an artful, persuasive grin. It always worked. Amy gave in.

"Fine! But don't be too long. I don't want it to get cold."

"Not that there's much chance of being too long." Sonic leaped up off the couch and darted out of the door.

It wasn't Sonic's fault that he'd been born with unbelievable, almost unnatural supersonic running speed that was faster than sound. He could probably finish a double marathon before any of the other competitors had got more than two hundred metres past the starting line, but the wide-open countryside of the beautiful planet Mobius was quite another story. In all fifteen years of his life, Sonic had scaled the equivalent of the whole planet twice and was still wondering if, one day, he could run right around the circumference of the planet without stopping. But that would be exceedingly difficult, as almost three-quarters of Mobius was covered by water. Sonic wasn't exactly a huge fan of water.

Now he sped through the hills, mountains and forests like a lightning bolt, only stopping to enjoy the sight of a lake or get his breath back. He was working up an appetite, but it didn't bother him. As long as he was quite a way away from Amy, the annoying twelve-year-old he could never seem to get rid of, and would take more than twenty minutes to get back to her house, he was fine. He didn't really fancy trying her risotto anyway.

Flashes of green whipped past Sonic's eyes as he sped even further through the lush hills of Mobius. He grinned to himself as he realised how far he'd run now – at least a few hundred miles in half an hour, if not more. It was going to take a while to get back to the village, he was certain. Especially as faintly, in the distance, he could see the dark green dot that was the flourishing forest known as Lumiad on the horizon. The Forest of Lumiad always seemed a distant land to the uninformed inhabitants of Sonic's home village, but Sonic had zipped past it on many of his runs. He'd never actually been in.

"Well," the daring blue hedgehog thought to himself. "Now would be the perfect time." Increasing his speed, Sonic whizzed towards the exuberant-looking forest.

As he got closer, Sonic began to notice how tightly packed the trees seemed to be growing together. There were plenty of tree roots that he knew he might trip over, but it didn't distress him. As far as Sonic knew, super speed combined with jumping equals incredibly high jumps. Sure, the forest was dense, and he might trip over a few times, but he could pick himself up. He was fifteen, for goodness' sake, not five!

As Sonic finally entered the dense forest, he started to have second thoughts. The roots of trees were so twisted together on the forest floor that he could barely move his feet, and it wasn't long before…

THUD! Sonic's light-speed sneaker caught a thick root and he careered over, head-first onto the rough grass. His knees scraped the ground, consequently getting covered in earth. Picking himself up, Sonic brushed the mud off and stared ahead of him.

"Oh…holy…smokes…"

His eyes widened.

Running through this forest wasn't going to be easy at all. Tree roots were strewn along the forest floor in a convulsed pattern, and most of them were huge. They were as tightly packed as eggs in a box, some even overlapping each other like snakes in a hole. And Sonic noticed a few snakes were slithering about in the twisted mess. His tummy went tight for a second and he kicked a huge brown object right by his feet with all his might…but it only turned out to be a tree root. Sonic sighed.

"Well, I guess this won't be as tricky as getting away from Amy when she's in a temper," he smiled to himself, folding his arms. "It's only a bunch of tree roots. I can jump over them."

He decided he would do just that. Even if he couldn't get up to his maximum supersonic speed, the forest would be simple to clear.

"Like a show-jumping course without the pony."

Sonic shook his arms about to loosen them up, then slowly trod backwards to build up running power…

BUMP!

"Argh!"

The back of his heel hit a root and he flopped backwards into a bush. It made a rustle sound, then a horrendous scratching.

"Ow…"

Sonic, still lying down in the bush, looked at his arm. He had one, two, six cuts where the cruel sharp twigs had scraped against his skin.

"Aw, man."

The cuts stung like hell. Sonic pulled himself up out of the bush and gently fought for his footing. He gained it with difficulty. What was he doing here? Any idiot could realise that coming here wasn't a daring challenge. It was a huge mistake.

"I'd best get back. Trying Amy's food doesn't seem like such a bad idea after all." He wondered what the time was now. Had Tails and Cream returned from their Tornado-test expedition yet? Would Amy be worried (Yes, of course she would be. She always did get worried when Sonic was out for more than five minutes.)? Sonic scanned the place around himself for a way out.

"…Which way did I come?"

Sonic's heart sank as he realised the worse. He was lost.

Lost where? He had no idea how big the Forest of Lumiad was, or where he was in it. But Sonic wasn't a guy to panic. All he needed to do was run for a few minutes, and he'd be out. His legs started spinning, and at last he was running at max speed…

THUMP! "Argh!" THUD! "Yikes!" TRIP! "Oof!" SPLAT!

Sonic found himself face down, flat in a puddle of mud.

"Ewww…" As he pushed himself up out of the brown goop, mud oozed down his face, slipping easily. Sonic put his fingers to his chin and took a look at them.

"Shoot."

The tips of his white gloves had changed colour. Looking behind him, he realised he'd tripped over three roots, rolled over an earth mound, caught his foot in some thorns and careered head first into the mud. He picked himself up and wiped the rest of the disgusting black mixture from his face. Trying to run hadn't got him anywhere – he'd only got mud all over himself and even more lost. He scanned the overgrown landscape again, breathing heavily. It wasn't like Sonic to get out of breath, but just this once he was. Running his vision around, he saw no signs of anyone, or any way to get out…

"Hey, what…?" What was that, just to his left? A blob of white? No…it couldn't be…but it was! It was light! A gap in the trees, and the edge of the forest! For a moment, Sonic forgot his situation and revved up his speed…

"Wah!...Gah!...Oof!...Ow!...Kuuh!...D'oh!...ARGH!"

Sonic collapsed, finally out of the tangly mess of trees, senseless.