Chapter 3- The Girl Who Lives Alone

"A house?" I asked, surprised. I didn't think anyone even lived on this island.

"Yeah! Maybe whoever lives there can help us," Blaze suggested.

"Wanna go there now?" I felt like having another race already. But, hey, what can you say? I'm not called Sonic for nothing!

Blaze nodded. "Three… two… one Go!" She shouted and we ran off. Too bad the race lasted only a couple of seconds, but at least I won.

We were in front of the house now. It was bigger than I thought it would be, but still kind of cramped. The outside walls of the house were just brown, as if the entire house was made of mud bricks. The door was just a plank of wood. I walked around the house and saw a small dirt path leading to a garden on the side of the house. Blaze walked toward the garden in curiosity. I followed her from behind. The garden had all sorts of vegetable and fruits. There were some fruit trees behind the garden. It looked well kept, so someone must live here.

"Wow," Blaze said. "I wonder who lives here."

"Let's go meet them, then," I said and started to pull her to the front door.

She had a pained look on her face. "Ow, stop pulling on my arm, Sonic!"

I realized I was pulling on her injured arm. It ripped the scab that was forming on it and the wound started to bleed again. Wait, what happened to her bandage? It must've fell off somewhere. "Sorry Blaze," I apologized with a smile and slightly heated cheeks.

"It's fine," She said. "Just don't pull on my arm again, 'kay?"

I nodded. "So should I knock on the door or what?"

"Knocking might be good." I knocked on the door. No answer. I knocked again.

"Hey, is anyone in there?" I called out. Still no answer. My ear twitched. I heard a faint thud somewhere inside the house. "Are you alive in there?" Blaze cracked a smile next to me.

"Y-yeah, I think so," a young voice came in reply. I heard another crash. "Okay, I'm not so sure."

"May we come inside, please?" Blaze asked politely. She sounded so cute when she said that. Wait, did I think that?! Never mind that, it's not important anyways.

"Are you nice people?" the voice said.

"Yeah, we're nice," I said.

"The door's unlocked. I'm kinda stuck so I can't get it for you."

I opened the door to see a yellow hedgehog girl with sky blue eyes, around the age of seven or eight. She was tangled in rope upside-down, with it hanging from the ceiling. She saw us and waved with her hand that wasn't in the rope. She had an embarrassed smile on her peach muzzle.

Blaze and I chuckled at the sight of her. "Need any help?" I asked.

"Yes please," the girl responded.

"Stay still and close your eyes for a moment," Blaze instructed. She did as she was told. Blaze took hold of the ropes and started to burn them with her powers. She didn't make the fire large enough to make the girl here it crackle quietly and feel the heat of it. Or as far as I could tell, anyways.

In a moment, the yellow hedgehog fell to the ground. "Owwie. Thank you for getting me out of there."

"No problem," I smirked. "How did you get up there?" I asked.

She stood up and scratched beneath her long, curved quills. "I don't really know. I woke up and found myself here. I'm sorry."

"For what?" Blaze asked.

"For not opening up the door for you." The girl put her hands behind her back in a nervous way.

I smiled. "How polite can you possibly be?"

"Trust me on this, you don't really want to know, I hope," My eyes widened.

"O-kay then," I said. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Maria," she said. "Maria the Hedgehog."

"Maria, huh?" That name sounded familiar. I don't know where I've heard it, though. "Nice name," I commented. "Well, my name's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."

She shook my hand. "It's very nice to meet you, Sonic." She turned to Blaze. "What is your name?"

"I'm Blaze the Cat. It is nice to meet you." They both shook hands.

I looked around. "Where are your parents, Maria?"

Maria looked saddened at the question. "I never knew my parents. I've been alone for as long as I can remember. The only person who ever took care of me was my older brother. I don't remember much about him either."

I decided to change the subject. Maria looked like she was going to cry. "So, Maria, do you know what this is?" I took the diary out of my pack and handed it to her.

She wiped her eyes and took it. She opened it and gasped. "This book belonged to one of the 'Four Forgotten'!"

Blaze and I eyed each other and looked back at her, confused. "What's the 'Four Forgotten'?" Blaze asked her.

Maria looked at us with and excited expression stamped on her face. "The 'Four Forgotten' were four people, about how old my… brother… would be now," she whispered part of it, but continued talking. "They were all stranded on this island over fifty years ago and legend has it that the descendants of those kids would one day reunite to save the planet from some unknown force. This one belonged to Turbo, the first and oldest to have reached the island," Maria took a breath. "How did you guys find this?"

"I saw it hidden in some dirt," I said. "How do you know so much about this stuff?"

"Because," Maria walked over to a bookshelf and took out a book. It was black, red, blue, and yellow. "I also have one."

"Wow, where'd you find that?" Blaze asked her, eying the book.

"Same way you two did. I found it while I was planting some seeds," Maria told us and took a key out of her pocket. She unlocked the book and opened it. This one belonged to someone named Luna the Hedgehog. In here, it says she was a black hedgehog with light blue eyes. Turbo, Luna's older cousin, was a green hedgehog with a blue stripe on his ear and brown eyes. Ember, another of the 'Four Forgotten', was a violet cat with orange highlights at the tips of her hair and tail and also had green eyes. Sam, the youngest of them all, was an orange echidna with a white crescent on his chest and purple eyes. That's all that I really know in this book. The pages are blank after halfway."

I walked over. "Let me see that…" I took the book and flipped through the pages. Maria was right. Half of them were blank. I looked at the last entry.

"June 19, 1951"

I stopped reading for a minute and chuckled. "Hey Blaze, this entry was made exactly thirty-five years before Shad's was born. Coincidental or what?"

Blaze looked at the date and gave a little smile. "I think it's what. Now keep reading it." I rolled my eyes and continued.

"I woke up very ill this morning. Ember said that I should be resting, but I wanted to do a least on entry in case I die of my illness. I'm not sure what it is, but it has to be horrible. My cousin, Turbo, is very worried about me. Earlier, when he, Ember, and Sam thought I was asleep, I overheard them sobbing. Especially Turbo. Oh, I cannot bear to hear him cry, but I know he has his reasons. And these last 10 years have been some of the best of my life. I just wish that I didn't bring my daughter to this island just to let her watch me die 10 years later. But if I left her, she'd feel abandoned and wouldn't even know if I was alive still or not. I don't know if I made the right decision or not.

Possibly the last time I'll say this.

Good-bye- Luna the Hedgehog"

I handed the book back to Maria. She put the book back on the shelf and walked back over to us. "See why they are blank? This Luna girl must've gotten sick."

I heard what she was saying, but I wasn't listening. I looked at Blaze, and knew what she was thinking.

Why did she know so much about this?

"Hey, Maria, can I ask you something?" I asked.

"Sure! What do you need?" She smiled.

"How do you know so much about the 'Four Forgotten'?"

She sat on a wooden chair. "My brother used to tell me about them all the time. He told me everything he knew about them and even wrote a book for me to read that was about them. Why?"

"Oh, I was just wondering, that's all," I said.

"What did your brother look like? Maybe we know him," Blaze told her.

"Well, I think I have a photo of him somewhere, but I don't remember his name. I'll go get it." Maria ran off into a different room and came back a couple minutes later with a small framed photo in her hand. She handed it to me. "Here's a photo of him."

Blaze's and I's eyes widened when we saw the picture. It wasn't just any normal hedgehog that we've seen before.

It was a certain self-proclaimed Ultimate Lifeform.

Well, I guess Shadow has a younger sister.

Yay a new chapter! I finally got around to doing this, but that just makes updates take longer on my other stuff I'm working on, so most of the stuff I would like to upload soon will probably never be uploaded. I think this was my best chapter yet, even though there is only 3 of them. -_-

Any spelling and grammar errors are COMPLETELY my fault. If you can tell me what is wrong with this story, I'd appreciate it. Unless you're mean. I don't like meanies. But please review if you can, 'cuz I like reviews.

Sonic ad the others belong to SEGA

I own all characters that do not belong to SEGA. I'm not sure about Maria, though. I don't know what I did to her exactly, so I'll leave her aside for now. Sorry, Maria! D-:

Sorry for the sucky chapter title. I couldn't think of anything else.

Merp :3