Prologue
"We really should get to bed." A groggy Shadow pointed out as he sat next to his best and only friend, Maria Robotnik.
"I know, but I just love watching the Earth!" Maria replied, still full of energy, "Why must the one thing I cannot reach be so very beautiful?"
"I wouldn't say that." Shadow gently pushed one of her golden locks behind her startlingly pale ear. Maria had not been in contact with the sun since she was a very young child. Shadow hadn't in his life, but he didn't care as much because the ARK was all he had ever known.
"I happen to think you're kind of pretty."
Maria let out a feminine giggle, then said, "Oh Shadow, you're so cute!" She rubbed his silky black ears and Shadow began to purr. It was a low vibrating sound that, coming from Shadow, sounded sort of like a high-pitched growl. She laughed again. "Let's go to bed."
They silently stood up and Shadow took Maria by the hand. He was so tired that Maria had to practically guide him back to her room. Shadow's bed was more of an old cot in the experiment room, which was on the other side of the ARK, so Maria took him with her. they made their way down the metal hallway, Shadow half asleep while Maria looked through the one-way windows that revealed the inhuman creations of her grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik. When they finally reached Maria's room, she let go of Shadow and ran into the connected bathroom to change.
Shadow looked around the white and powder blue themed bedroom. Maria had a bookshelf filled to the brim with books about Earth's grassy fields, barren deserts, snow-covered mountains, and so much more. It was next to a window that took up the entire wall to the right of her bed, not a single piece of furniture blocking the Earth below's stunning complexion. Shadow then remembered how tired he was and decided to sit down on Maria's bed for a moment. Before he knew it he was lying on his back at the foot of her flower-patterned bedspread, fast asleep.
That's when Maria came in, dressed in a cotten nightgown, a soft, light pink. She looked around the room for Shadow, but didn't see him, so she assumed he had gone to his own bed and and walked over to her's. To Maria's suprise, she saw her furry black and red friend sprawled out on her bed, completely under the spell of sleep. She knew that she wouldn't be able to get under her blankets with Shadow like that, so She gingerly picked him up in her arms and held him close to her. He was softly purring in his sleep.
Maria placed Shadow under her flannel sheets with her and turned out the light. She fell asleep beside him, listening to the low reverberating beat of his soft purr.