Disclaimer/Author's Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters © SEGA! This mostly includes Shadow, (who does not yet exist in the story,) and Dr. 'Eggman' Robotnick. I have not yet gotten far enough in the story to figure out weather or not any other real characters will be entering, but if they do, everyone should already know that they are not mine.

Edgar, Namaarie, and Gwilwilethel belong to DarkShelby101. Raven belongs to MsAnimeFreak777 on Youtube. Sarah and Raian are property of boospar on Youtube. Swift is © thedarkhasfallen. Katashi, Dusk, Ryan, Xarach, Saffron, Saffron's family, Alex, Cecange, Max, Bernard, Hayato, Soluse, and Thorn (as well as any other Miscellaneous characters) are © me.

Ideas inspired by Rozen Maiden. =3

This story is rated "T" for a reason. Some of the characters are killers or otherwise violent, and thus blood may spill at some point (of course, the blood will not belong to the dolls, because they are dolls). In addition, to put things bluntly, a few of the characters are pervs. Over all, I did my best to keep them in character… Basically, it's rated "T" just to be safe. So far, it could probably pass for a "K+" rating, but since the rating may go up later, I would rather leave it at "T".

All reviews are appreciated, as long as you aren't flaming. Please enjoy!

Emerald Hearts

By Maria Springer

The fox looked down the road, gazing at all the shops.

Today was the birthday of his adopted sister, Raven… and he had forgotten until just this morning. It was bad enough he had forgotten until the very day, but worse, he didn't have a clue what to give her…

She was the kind of girl who seemed to be happy with whatever she was given, but she wasn't a girly-girl, punk, goth, prep, or strict tomboy… So getting her clothing seemed a somewhat daunting task. In addition, he did not really want to be seen shopping for girls clothing, so that idea was out.

If it had been a bit later in October, a costume might have been a fine idea. However, he wanted to get her something that she would really be able to enjoy; something that she would be able to look at and remember who gave it to her. If he got her a costume, she may not remember so well and think she had just gotten it for herself. Besides, she would grow out of it and sell it or throw it away after only a year or two, wearing it only several times…

Raven loved anime and manga, but she seemed to have all the manga she could ever want, and he didn't know where to find Anime DVDs. Worse, he didn't know what a DVD was, as he never watched television...

Toys? Well… What toys did she even like? She was a twelve years old, and he had never really seen her play with toys… She seemed to be more into outdoor activities… and music.

It struck him like a bolt of lightning. Music! Raven did love music. Maybe she wouldn't remember well that he had gotten the music for her after awhile, but she would use it more than a costume. Edgar looked around. There had to be a shop around here that had music. Almost everyone loved music. He walked down the street, picking a shop at random that looked like it might carry music, slipping inside.

Indeed, the shop carried music… Or at least, it claimed to. Edgar frowned. Aren't these too small to be records? …She mostly uses that little box with wires in it to listen to this stuff… but… I don't know any of these, or what she likes. Does she have something to play these…? She must, somewhere… Well, if she doesn't, I can probably manage to get her something to play these with… Let's see… He looked through the rack, trying to find an artist he recognized.

After he had been looking through the CDs about thirty minutes, the human cashier walked over to him. "You've been there for quite awhile, sir. Are you looking for something in particular?"

Edgar looked up. "Uh… yeah, yeah! Do you have any of these by The Angels?"

"…I've never heard of The Angels."

"…Bill Murray?"

"No…"

"The Andrews Sisters?"

"Nope."

"Judy Garland?"

"Uh—"

"Jerry Springer!"

"That isn't a musical artist, that's a comedian!" The cashier snapped.

"Oh…" Edgar muttered with embarrassment. "Well then, what do you have?"

"Brittany Spears, Linkin Park, Hannah Montana, The Backstreet Boys, Faith Hill, Christy Carlson Romano, Skillet, Brad Paisley, Jump 5, Aaron Carter—"

"Uh… nevermind. I'll get going now. Thanks for your time." He began to head out the door.

"Oh, wait!" The cashier called after him. Edgar almost cursed. "Are you looking for antiques?"

"Antiques? N—" Only a second later, Edgar realized that what he was looking for actually was considered antique vinyl now. He hated to give Raven something she might consider to be out-of-style, but he was even less interested in getting her music that he hadn't even heard first, himself. It would be almost the same as walking into the store, grabbing something at random, and then giving it to her as a gift. There was more of a chance she would hate it than she would like it. He blinked. "Uh… yeah, actually. Do you know where I could find some?"

"There's an Antiques shop up the road to the left, on the right. You could probably find some of the junk you're looking for there."

Junk? That stuff is classics!

"Good luck." The human smiled, walking back behind the counter.

"…Thanks." Edgar managed not to glare or use a hostile tone. He stormed out of the shop.

Now, there was a new problem.

Raven didn't have a record player. Every single one of these he had heard of were records, and he was sure she didn't have something that could play them. Those smaller 'records' would definitely be better… if only he could get her one he knew for sure she would enjoy. Edgar felt defeated. Music was another item off his list, now. There couldn't be anything here she would enjoy…

Edgar heaved a sigh, standing up and turning to leave.

The room flipped. Suddenly, he found himself face down on the ground with a lovely brown case inches from his head. His head throbbed in pain. Clutching his injury and refraining from a swear, he pulled himself to his knees. Perfect, just what I need! More brain damage! He glared at the leather case, quickly picking it up. Whatever this is, it better not be broken. It would be just great if I had to pay for some broken antique teacups after they fell on me and almost cracked my skull open…

He set the case on his lap and opened it slowly, fearing that whatever was inside would, indeed, be broken.

Shock jolted through him.

Inside the leather casing lay a delicately crafted doll—fully intact after the fall. If this wasn't odd enough, the doll wasn't modelled after a human.
It was a gentlemanly hedgehog.

Edgar blinked. I don't think I've ever seen suck a well-made doll… And I've definitely never seen a mobian doll even half as nice as this! It's got a nice outfit too…He gently took the doll out, hoping the shop owners wouldn't mind.

It was a black hedgehog with yellow-orange markings and neatly combed, but twisted, quills. He wore a 19th century gentleman's suit… It looked to be more of a British aristocrat's outfit, and from the earlier half of the century rather than the later; Red and white trimmed with gold—it looked quite well on him.

Edgar examined the doll a bit more. It was wind-able, complete with a key, so it probably was partially mechanical or played music… He looked at the shelf above where the records were. There were four other brown leather cases. Maybe Raven would like one of these…

Without really thinking, the fox closed the case and set it gently on the floor, walking over to look at the shelf and see the others. She'd probably like a girl better. It'd be kind of weird to get her a boy… I mean, nice dolls like that of boys are harder to find anyway, and I'm pretty sure it's because makers weren't able to sell them. One by one, he took the four other cases down from the shelf.

None were girls.

All of them, like the first he had looked at, were male, black hedgehogs, each with different-colored markings and different clothing. When all four cases were opened next to each other on the floor, Edgar frowned.

That's weird. Two of the dolls looked identical, putting aside their different outfits. One of them, however, he found that he hated for a reason he couldn't quite put his finger on. The other, his gaze lingered on a moment… This one, for some reason, seemed very endearing. With a purple 17th century outfit, and oddly, a purple top-hat to go with it, the doll struck him as… perfect. Raven would like this one best.

Another customer opened the front door. An adult otter on a two-seater bike was headed straight toward the open doors. He tried to stop, but his young son had climbed from the backseat of the bike onto his shoulders and was tugging on his ears. He lost his footing on the petals. The bike slid to a stop just inside the antique store.

Momentum from the bike's wheel transferred effectively to the case Edgar had left on the floor. It slid across the floor at the bike's previous speed of 22 miles per hour, slamming into Edgar's foot. The fox yelped in pain, clutching his new injury.

"Sorry, there!" The otter called, also apologizing to the store owners for the scare.

What did I do today to deserve such abuse? Edgar growled. He quickly shut the cases of the three dolls he didn't want, then shut the case of the first doll he had seen, stacking the cases neatly and putting them on the shelf. It wasn't until now he realized how heavy each individual doll really was. Holding four of the dolls together was like carrying his own weight—maybe more.

Once he was sure the cases wouldn't fall off the shelf at all, he closed the case of the doll he had picked out and took it into his hands, carrying it to the cashier. "Excuse me? Uh, how much is this?"

The shop owners were an elderly couple. The woman—a red raccoon, also the cashier—looked up at him from behind her thickly rimmed glasses. "Oh, wonderful! Another one will be sold today! Those dolls could really use a wonderful home… May I see which one?" She asked cheerfully.

Edgar blinked. I asked for the price… All the same, he politely opened the case so she could see. She probably priced the dolls differently.

The cashier looked very pleased. "Oh, this one! But… Are you really sure you want him?"

Again, Edgar blinked. "Why wouldn't I?"

The male owner of the shop, who was a wolf, gave a sad sigh. "All of those dolls have been returned at least once in the last 10 years… May not seem like much for them, but that doll you have has been returned at least 100 times."

"Wh-what? But, what's wrong with it? I... took the liberty of checking it out first, and it looked perfectly fine…" The redwood-brown fox felt at a loss. He had felt almost certain this would be the perfect gift for his 'sister', even though he had thought a girl doll would have been better at first.

"That's just the thing…" The raccoon replied in a concerned tone. "We've looked too, and we don't see a thing wrong. But whenever someone returns that little one, they always take the first price we offer to buy it back; no matter how high or low. They say they just want it away from them as quickly as possible. We've asked them why, but no one has told us. They've only given excuses, such as they bought it for someone, and the person they bought it for didn't like it, or it just wasn't what they expected…" She shrugged.

"We do wonder if there's something peculiar with that one. We were going to take him home today to test him out, since he was just returned again this morning, but if you think that you really will end up keeping him, we'll sell him to you—half price." The male shopkeeper sat in his chair behind the counter.

Edgar himself felt a bit concerned. "…Are you saying this doll might be… cursed, or something?"

"No, not necessarily… We've just noticed out of all the dolls, that one's had quite a record of being returned… If there is something wrong with it, we wanted to give you warning."

Edgar pondered on this.

The wolf spoke up again. "It's funny, you'd never think that one would be a problem. The one we sold this morning…" He paused to chuckle. "In the 10 years we've had these dolls in our shop, the one sold this morning was never bought by anyone! And from the looks of it, I can see why… It's a spooky one, it is… I'm surprised someone actually wanted it. We've had some situations where the one you have here has been bought and returned in the same day… I half expected that other one to be returned already."

Curiosity sparked. "So, wait… Do all the dolls have something weird with them?"

The raccoon shook her head. "We haven't really had any complaints about the others… They seem to be fine, and I think the most one has been returned, besides that one you have, has been about 3 times."

Weird. Well… He looked at the doll again. I hate to give Raven a doll that might be cursed… but I have a gut feeling that that she'll really like this doll. I don't think it's really cursed, anyway. It's hard to explain why it's been returned so many times, but…

He remembered the key.

That's it! I'm sure it'll be perfectly safe and all… I'll just warn Raven not to wind it up, and it should never be able to do anything that would make anyone want to return it. If she winds it anyway… well, I'll tell her everything I know, so if she winds it up anyway, that's her problem. After a somewhat long pause, he smiled. "I think I'll go ahead and purchase it. How much?"

The wolf looked a bit surprised. "Well… Since I offered to give you half price for what should be such a fine doll… Hmm… I'll let you have it for even less than that. How's thirty-five dollars sound?"

Edgar's jaw almost dropped to the ground in shock. "W-wow! I think that's a deal!" He grinned, taking out his wallet and quickly looking through it for his cash. He was surprised to find he had actually saved up enough to be carrying around one hundred dollars, and had forgotten for a moment how lucky he was not to be completely broke at the moment. Normally, the doll would be very expensive for him… But it was extremely cheep for such a well-made antique doll. Besides that, it was for Raven. If he got close to going broke again spending money for her birthday present… he didn't mind it much.

He set the money on the counter, and the raccoon made sure he got the correct amount of change, putting the case in a plastic bag and gently handing it to him over the counter. "Please take good care of him… Have a good day, sir!"

"You too—" Edgar was cut off as the direct result of a short string of events. The otter biker, again due to his troublesome son who had insisted they look around the shop, was tripped, slamming into the cases on the shelf and one was sent flying… Right into the back of Edgar's head.

Needless to say, he collapsed from the force of impact and jolt of pain that came with it, the case landing next to him, almost inside the bag with the other. The other customers in the store and the shop owners gasped, rushing over to him and asking if he was alright. The otter apologized profusely, but Edgar wasn't thinking much about that, muttering how it didn't matter. He stared at the case that had hit him. As if it was being pulled by a magnet, he found his hands drawn toward the case, unlocking it, and opening it up…

The doll with the red and white suit was inside. It was the same case that had fallen on him before. The same one that had slammed into his foot...

Is this thing trying to kill me?

Again, it appeared to be perfectly intact, and Edgar could only hope that the other one was just the same. He mildly wondered if there was some reason that this particular doll kept 'attacking' him. At the same time, it had to be suicide to actually buy it and take it home just because he thought it might 'mean to be' that way. It would be irresponsible and illogical to spend the rest of his money on a doll that could end up getting him killed, just like it was at this rate… He certainly wouldn't get killed if he decided not to take it home…

He closed the case, locked it, and picked it up, keeping the doll he had bought for Raven in his other arm, and began walking towards the shelf to put the other one back.

Today was not his day. He walked right into a lion, who hadn't been there before from what he could remember. "Watch it!" The lion hissed. He looked to be some sort of punk or gangster, which only gave Edgar a red flag.

"Whoa! Sorry! Didn't see you there…" He tone came out as having a slight growl, but he had tried to make it polite.

"Yeah? Well use your eyes next time!" The lion hissed, giving him a strong glare.

"Well excuse me…" Edgar didn't really have a problem with fighting the lion, even in public, but it was getting late. He needed to get to Raven's party…

He still had the other doll though…

Oh, what the heck? The fox rolled his eyes, strolling back up to the counter and purchasing the other doll as well. If either or both of the dolls were really cursed, he could destroy them easily.

When he left the store, he really was flat broke.