So, as a side note, this ficlet also features Merlin Prower from the comics. If you don't read them (or you haven't already seen him in my 'Tales of Shadows' story :) ), he is Tails' uncle and an elderly magician. Please enjoy! :P

For fans of the fandom I'm crossing with, dialogue follows pretty much the scene in the first movie, which I watched about ten times while writing this thing...;)

For Rebell, a birthday present in the style of the little folk

Chapter 3: YOU SHALL NOT CROSS!

It was a dark night that the tall, robed figure of Merlin the Grey made its way to the small house of Hog End, the cozy, half-underground domicile where his young friend Sonic Hedgins was living his peaceful life.

But the news Merlin was bearing were anything but peaceful.

"Is it secret? Is it safe?!"

"GAH!" the blue hedgehog spun around where the elder fox had suddenly seized his shoulder from behind and laid a hand upon his tan-furred chest. "Geez, you nearly gave me a heart attack! Merlin, what are you doing here?" he asked, 'here' being his dark living room where he had just intended to go to bed.

"The ring, Sonic. You know why I am here." The words rang out heavily through the room and the hedgehog thought the bearded fox looked a lot more ragged than he had last seen him.

As soon as the blue-furred Mobian had dug up the envelope containing the item from a drawer, however, it was snatched from his hands and Merlin hurled the thing into the fire.

"…the hell?! Maybe I liked that ring?"

But Sonic needn't have worried. The flames were burning up the paper fast, yet the ring remained unchanged, glowing within the embers. The wizard reached into the fire with tongs, extracting the golden circlet and extending it towards the young hedgehog.

"Hold out your hand, Sonic."

"Uh, thanks, but no thanks. I happen to be rather fond of my hands, y'know? All unburned and stuff."

"It is quite cool," Merlin replied, just a tiny, un-wizard-ish tinge of annoyance in his voice now. The hedgehog shrugged and obeyed. Then he stared at the glowing gold ring in wonder…

"What do you see…?" the wizard whispered behind him, and emerald eyes widened as suddenly writing began to appear…

"Prop…property of SEG-hey!" Sonic protested as the taller fox suddenly grabbed the ring from his grasp and scowled.

"That's not what it says!"

"Is too," the hedgehog mumbled, but didn't argue further when the wizard gave the thing back to him. "But anyway, what brings you here, Merlin? Just the ring and copyright infringements?"

"No," the wizard replied ominously, "There lies a dark journey ahead of you, Sonic."

"Really?" the hedgehog's ears perked up. "Where do I have to go?"

"We will need to travel to Rivendell to gather the broken sword of Elendil-"

There was the briefest flutter of winds and Merlin's gaze darted from one corner of the room to the other in suspicion, but upon not seeing anything, he returned his stare to the hedgehog still in front of him.

"…then it is of the utmost importance that we warn the country of Rohan against the impending threat of Snivaruman who builds his army at Isengard," – again a movement of air and Merlin suddenly whirled around to the window. He reached outside with an arm and grabbed something that gave a cry of 'Hey!" before it was forcibly dragged into the living room.

"Knuckwise Gamgee!"

"Why do you keep addressing me by that name?!" the echidna spreadeagled on the table where Merlin had thrown him snapped, beyond irritated.

"Have you been eavesdropping?"

"No! I haven't!"

"Then what were you doing outside?"

"Guarding the Master Emerald!"

That made for a bit of a pause in the conversation.

"…what?" Merlin asked, before turning to Sonic with more than slight consternation.

Sonic shrugged. "Don't ask me. Personally, I think there's been some phonetic misunderstanding when I employed him. I now have a guardian instead of a gardener, but at least he eats the termites that keep creeping up in this place. Dunno where he got that giant Emerald from, but it looks nice."

"…whatever." The fox turned away from the echidna who had sat up again and was now climbing out of the window, grumbling.

"As I was saying, we need to go to Rivendell, to Rohan, and then…" and here the darkness in the corners of the room seemingly began to grow…"we need to throw that ring into the fires of Mount Doom, deep within the lands of Mordor, where the shadows lie."

Sonic felt a chill creep down his spine. "Right. Just a minute, please." He stepped out of the door, while the wizard looked around the room with an air of unease and started to collect some of the papers into a bag.

"You will need to leave soon, Sonic, and meet me in Bree. Don't dawdle. It is a long way, and there will be dangers." He strode over to a chest of drawers and lifted some dusty packages out of there, wiping the dirt off them with one hand, then spoke again: "Pack only the things necessary. The fate of Middlemobius lies in our hands."

A short, hedgehog-sized sword was unsheathed by the muttering fox' old hands, the blade glinting in the moonlight. "New abominations have been developed for this war. Snivaruman's army of Uruk-hai!, a race of cross-breeds from orcs and pseudo-Japanese fangirls, is already marching. If we want to move in secret, we will have to keep off the roads and-"

"Sorry, what?"

The blue hedgehog poked his head through the door again, eyes questioning.

"I said, we will have to leave now."

"Leave where?"

"Will you listen?! I just told you! To Rivendell."

"What? I just went there." Now it was Sonic's turn to frown.

"Excuse me?!"

The hedgehog took a deep breath. "I just collected that sword from Rivendell, warned Rohan of that evil wizard and threw your weird ring into that volcano. Burned my quills while at it, too. That was over two thousand miles at Mach Impossible and ow. So, I would really like to go to sleep now, if you don't mind…" The blue-furred Mobian, looking just a tad the worse for wear and smelling slightly barbeque-ish, hobbled into the room, dropped some metal splinters at the feet of the wizard and collapsed upon his bed sighing.

Merlin stared.

Then the door burst open and another fox rushed in, neither minding the late hour nor the wizard's odd expression.

"Uncle Merlin! Uncle Merlin! I just engineered another totally anachronistic fighter jet! Wanna come see? Let's hear how those Nazgûl will screech when there's a heat-seeking, hydrogen-propelled missile coming for them at 1000 mph, right?! Oh boy, that's gonna be so cool!" Tails whirled around the room doing cartwheels in the air, while Sonic was already out cold, sneakers and all, ignoring the entire mayhem.

Merlin just silently bonked his head against the door, realizing that any attempt at a serious epic fantasy story with the sonic cast was utterly pointless.

Fin

While I do prefer Pratchett, Tolkien is just too cool to miss up on. Or alternatively totally screw around with. Review because just before I uploaded it it was still my B-day, please? :D