Adamant King, Indomitable Slave: Chapter 2
Sonic's POV
I brought the dark stranger inside and out of the rain and freezing wind to bring him to my personal bedroom, the first place I thought off. We received a surprised stare from Amy, but I paid her no heed as I hurried up the stairs.
In my bedroom, I placed the figure on the covers, pretty much immediatly soaking them where he lied.
Amy, as helpful as ever once she had composed herself, grabbed a bunch of towels and two washing cloths from the bathroom while I removed the coat and heated up a bowl with warm water.
"Where did you find this guy?" Amy asked, covering him down there to make him slightly more decent.
Didn't keep me from noticing something weird, though.
Ignoring that he was pretty much naked now, the girl and I went to work on cleaning his fur of mud to uncover possible wounds and maybe even keep him from growing sick.
"He was just lying on the ground outside. I think he must've been through some stuff." I replied and noticed dirt make way for black fur, red streaks appeared on arms, legs and quills, and the grey tuft of fur on his chest grew white.
"He was?" Amy muttered, just as confused by this turn of events as I was.
Soon enough, instead of a wet and dirty hedgehog lied now a, still, equally wet but admittedly exotic specimen of a mobian.
His body itself was sorta hard to describe. It was lean, but it wasn't male or female. It was sorta androgynous. Slight curves, but not enough to call him a very flatchested young woman. It was kind of hard to take my eyes off of him.
Now that he was clean, Amy and I worked to dry him with the towels she had brought along. The pink hedgehog had insisted that I let her do it, but I refused to let her do this on her own. I needed to make sure the strange hedgehog would be okay.
Once he was both clean and dry, Amy got him some spare clothing for him to borrow for the night in the form of a lose dark red shirt and dark blue shorts to sleep in and I pulled the covers away to let him rest on the mattress of the bed while I got a dry, thick blanket to cover him, the previous covers now too wet because of the soaked figure that had been lying on top.
But he was finally taken care off, at least for now, and so we let him sleep. I was reluctant to leave him alone. It looked like he was still shivering even with the warm blanket covering him.
"Sonic, we should let him rest in peace." Amy told me and grabbed my upper arm to pull me away from the hedgehog's side and I reluctantly followed her back down the stairs.
As I made my way down the stairs and into the kitchen, wanting to grab myself something to drink from the fridge, I grabbed a can and felt a pair of eyes glaring at my back. Turning to return the gaze to their owner, the crimson echidna now sat at the table with a stern look.
"What did I do wrong?" I asked with a sigh and opened the can.
"That hedgehog. Why did you bring him here? How do you know for sure that he's not the enemy?" Knuckles asked, a bit of a growl evident in his voice as he spoke.
"I guess we'll find out." I simply shrugged and took a chug from my can, which definitely didn't sit well with him and his eyes narrowed dangerously.
But then both of our attention was drawn by a certain pink hedgehog as she stood in the doorway, glancing quietly from me to Knuckles and back.
I knew that kinda behaviour because they've been doing it for aslong as we've been here.
They were keeping secrets.
"Fine." I sighed, annoyed for once, and left the kitchen. I can only wonder what that was all about because they're never gonna talk to me unless they want me to know.
I guess I can only wait and see.
In the living room I settled on the couch again with my can of soda still in hand. It wasn't the smartest move to drink something with so much sugar now that it was nearly midnight, but I felt like I wasn't gonna be able to get much sleep tonight anyway.
Forgetting about the secrets being discussed in the kitchen right now, my thoughts drifted back towards the hedgehog sleeping in my bed.
Where had he come from? Why did he wear nothing but that coat? Why had he come to our farm? Could he be the enemy like Knuckles suspected?
None of my countless questions were getting an answer for now and I was admittedly a little impatient.
Heh, that wasn't such a good trait for someone like me to have.
"Sonic?" After finishing up my drink, I looked up to see Amy standing there.
Seems like, whatever she wanted to talk to Knuckles about earlier, she wanted to tell me too.
"What's up?" I asked and she settled on the armchair again while Knuckles simply stood in the living room.
"Amy spotted something on his right thigh while the two of you were taking care of him. She found numbers, a brand." The echidna said, arms crossing in front of his chest.
"A brand?" I asked in shock. A series of numbers branded into a person's thigh... Does that mean he could be a slave? One who escaped?
"Yes, it read '1503'. That must be his serial number as slave, though I thought those methods weren't being used anymore." Amy spoke, her ears bend back as she could feel her stomach churn at the very thought of that brand.
"With our current king, I'd be more surprised if they didn't." Knuckles stated and I think I can see what he means.
Our king, the one sitting on the throne right now, was none other than a green hedgehog named Scourge. He was sadistic and cruel in every sense of the word with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. If a slave were to get branded, he'd be getting a front row seat if he wanted to.
But to make matters worse, he was also my own older brother. That was why Knuckles sometimes called me 'Your Majesty' whenever he was pissed off.
"What kind of a slave do you think he was?" Amy asked the question we had all been thinking but didn't want to say out loud.
"Well, he had no clothes on his person, did he? That should answer our question." Knuckles was the only one who could bring himself to answer, though it wasn't one we wanted to hear.
That coat was probably stolen on his way out of where ever he lived with his owner, so it wasn't his. And with that strangely androgynous body, those colours of his fur, and his rare eye colour, I think it wouldn't be all that farfetched to have some pervert desire him that way.
The slavermarket... It was very... extensive.
Ever since Scourge came to rule the country exactly eight years ago, that brand of market has practically been legalised again and so it has grown considerably over the last few years.
When you actually see the face of one of the victims of my own brother's rule... I just can't help but feel an overwhelming guilt.
I've been living on this farm, avoiding Scourge and my duties. Should I do something?
"I'm tired. So I think I'll check up on our guest and turn in for the night." Amy broke the silence and bid us goodnight before she walked out of the living room and soon up the stairs, leaving Knuckles and I behind.
I guess I should do the same.
As I moved to get up from the couch and get rid of my soda can, that red echidna decided to speak up again.
"You shouldn't feel guilty for what Scourge has been doing. You were just a kid when he took over." He stated when I walked past him, apparently able to sense the guilt that I felt.
I didn't answer to his statement. I felt like he wasn't done talking yet.
"It's harder when they suddenly have a face, isn't it? All those victims from the slavemarket, they're just a number until you see a face and suddenly it makes it seem all the more real, doesn't it? Suddenly you associate all of the bad with just that one face." He said and, turning to face him just slightly, I saw him looking at me from over his shoulder.
Knuckles was my bodyguard and caretaker. Before Scourge took over, he had been a high-ranking officer within the Royal Guard. I'm sure he's seen some things by now.
"What are you trying to say?" I asked as this seemed a bit odd to be hearing from him. He was confusing me.
"That you shouldn't feel guilty because I can just see it on your face. And that you shouldn't get attached to him either. That's something you tend to do aswell." Knuckles finished and I could only huff before continuing on to the kitchen.
Just what was he trying to say? I know that we shouldn't trust strangers, but I think I can trust him. A slave who escaped, without a doubt he must be against Scourge's rule too.
Sure, there are four of us living here already, but we have a guest bedroom, we can have another mouth to feed. The more the merrier, right?
And I'm not thinking this way because he captured my attention.
After throwing my can of soda away, I made a quick visit to the bathroom to get ready for bed before retreating to my bedroom.
When I entered, I found Amy sitting on the side of my bed, looking down on the hedgehog who was still out cold under the covers.
That's right, I had to use the guest room for now. Embarrassingly enough, I almost forgot.
But I am wondering just what Amy is still doing here. And it looks like she's taken a bucket along with her.
"Amy, what's up?" I asked as I leant against the doorframe.
"He woke up for just a moment. He seemed a little delirious, but he did ask me for a bucket. His forehead feels like he's burning up, so I think the cold and the rain might've made him sick after all." The pink hedgehog responded, obviously concerned.
I walked further into the room and stood at the footend of the bed, looking down on him.
He was still knocked out and the only sign of life was how quickly his chest heaved as he panted. So he really did get ill.
I hope he gets better by the time morning arrives. If we have to call in a doctor, we might get in trouble.
If Vanilla is available, we won't have any problem. But if someone else has to come and catches wind of this hedgehog's status, well, that's an entirely different story.
Doctors, and any other form of authority, are forced to report slaves they believe are 'misplaced' as it's called. With them, people tend to speak as if they're referring to objects. We might lose him before we would even get the chance to get to know him.
Vanilla knew why we were here and supported us in any way she could, at least with her we could be certain that she won't blab about a possibly escaped slave.
"I think I'll keep an eye on him tonight. So you get your sleep, Sonic." Amy told me with a confident smile.
"Okay, but you get some sleep yourself too as soon as he's doing in the least bit better, 'kay?" I asked and she nodded.
So I gave the unconscious hedgehog occupying my bed one last glance before I left the room and made my way into the guest bedroom instead.
Settling on the guest bed, which was always made up should we ever get an unexpected visitor, I tried to get comfortable even with the unknown mobian occupying my thoughts.
Tomorrow we will see weither or not he'll pull through on his own.