Speedy's note: It's been quite a while since I last blessed the internet with a oneshot based on runner's high induced philosophy. The last ideas spawned by occassions like that always ended up as parts of a novel. This one obviously didn't.
Writing it down was very fun and relaxing, and I really like what became of it. It's pretty short, but maybe a few among you will be able to catch the vibe of it upon reading.

Beware of blue hedgehogs in philosophic moods and first person narration. Now... enjoy. :)

Chasing Horizons

You could say today is a regular day in a hedgehog's life. Well, a regular day in this hedgehog's life, anyway. No idea what the rest of my species is doing right now. Not that it really matters.

Unless the Eggster or one of his dumbots gets any strange ideas of conquering the world again, or rather, trying to conquer it, and while I don't feel like visiting any of my friends, this is pretty much how I spend my time.

I chase horizons.

Now, you can probably say that it's an odd hobby if ever there was one. On first look, it really sounds kinda weird. On second look however, there's a lot in it for me.

Or maybe I'm just addicted to running and need an excuse.

But to say the truth, horizons are among my favourite things of all time. I really love them. The most obvious reason for that is that they're simply frickin' beautiful.

Right now, I'm standing at a saddle back, right between some of the highest mountains in a ridge. Before me lies a valley, long and wide, running right up to the horizon. The sun is beginning to rise behind it, a huge amber ball, and the whole world, or at least the tiny part I can see of it, is glowing gold and copper, and at the moment the horizon is melting, a blurry line between shining ground and even shinier sky.

It's not always like that. Horizons can be sharp and clear, like cut into the earth with an unforgiving blade, a hard restriction, cutting the world into little pieces.

Sometimes, horizons can be far and wide, like the one I'm watching right now. Sometimes, they're really close to you, just around the next corner. They come as skylines, clear rectangles of skyscrapers twinkling in the light of a sun they tower up towards, stretching out in a futile attempt to reach it. At an ocean or a savannah, the horizon is so far away, making the world around you look so huge, that you feel tiny in return.

They say when you're running you need a goal. People always ask me where I am running. I don't often have an answer to it. I don't even always understand the question, if you really, actually need a goal. I can very well just run because I can, because it's fun, because I want to do it.

Then again, maybe I always have a goal. Not in the sense of most other people having one. It's rarely ever a particular place. I don't run to get anywhere. I just run.

And I chase horizons.

They're tricky partners for playing tag with, you know. I used to love playing tag as a kid, until everyone knew I was faster than them and didn't want to play with me anymore. Maybe that's how I started doing what I do. Maybe I was merely looking for something else to chase but slow-pokey people.

There are not many things in the world that can keep up with me. I'm faster than sound if I want to; I outrun the word you say no matter how loud you scream at me. If I push myself, I can outrun the daybreak, at least for a while. The light itself, of course not. Tails says it's impossible, that it's a law of physics even I can't breach. One day, I'll prove him wrong. There are certain upsides to being a Chaos Controller. If I can't beat the light's speed on my own, maybe I can do it as Super Sonic.

Until I get a chance to do it, I'll keep practicing with horizons. A funny thing about them is that they don't even seem fast. If you stand somewhere like I do at the moment, and look at the horizon before you, it seems like a steadfast thing. Solid, clear and unmovable. It's a part of the very world, how could you move it?

Well, I suppose you can't. Doesn't mean anything for the chase, though. Horizons are sneaky, and probably shy. One thing I'm pretty sure about however is that every single horizon is a chaos-forsaken tease.

I mean, it sits there, seeming all calm and patient, as if it was just waiting for you. A beckoning wave of a distance to catch, hiding a trillion of places and wonders you haven't seen yet. The perfect place to go, the essence of what every wanderer, every traveller desperately seeks, all in one place.

Behind the next horizon.

By looking at it, it seems but a short run away. A few miles, a few heartbeats. Take a deep breath and you're there.

Well, guess what. It doesn't work that way.

Whenever you start, chasing for your horizon, blazing through a part of the world, seeing things you never saw before, and will never see again just like that, rushing through moments of your life… It doesn't matter how fast you go. You will never make it.

If I run now, down the hill, through the golden valley below, I will never reach the horizon I was looking at before I started. The sun will have continued to rise, the world I run through will not be the same I see now, and the horizon will run away from me, just as fast as I run towards it.

And then when I reach the place that right now seems to be sitting right at the horizon, there will be no horizon there anymore, for it will have already retreated into another distance, another fleeting moment.

And I will look ahead, marvel at the world before me, and I will see another horizon. A new one, completely different from the last. And it will sit there, like they all do, calm and waiting, beckoning temptation, screaming in mighty silence for me to come and catch it.

Like every other day, I will go and try.

It might sound crazy, chasing after something you know you will never reach. But as I said, there's a lot in it. I wouldn't want to do what most people do, stay in one place all the time, see the same people, the same houses, the same trees, the same sky, the same world everyday of their lives. That's not how I roll.

I'm a hunter, a traveller, the free spirit par excellence. I live to run, and I run to see, to hear, to feel. To experience. Because behind every horizon, there's a world waiting to be explored, there's a moment waiting to be lived.

And I can't effort to waste that. Moments are short, a blink of an eye and it's over. Possibility wasted, you'll never see that one again. You better run. There's so much to see, so much to do, and so little time to do it.

I bounce on the balls of my feet, testing the grip of my shoes' soles on the path, and take the time to give the horizon ahead a bright grin. You better prepare, old chap.

The chase is on.