Destiny: Chapter 3. - A Need for Speed
'Catch me if you can Olaf!'
'OK!' Olaf yelled while a now seven year old Sonic who ran away from him in a game of tag. The snowman was having a hard time catching up due to his small legs. It was spring time and the whole village was buzzing with excitement as was Olaf's cloud following him from above his head. The two were playing outside the palace gates where a patch of lush green grass laid where Sonic and Olaf happily played.
After the visit to the Trolls, Sonic had practiced using his new Spin Dash ability over the years. It took time, but Sonic shortly learned to control the direction of his dash and soon mastered his new ability. Shortly, Sonic had grown a love for running. He would go outside every day and always play a game that involves running. Sonic also admired the palace guards for some reason. He would watch when they would help people if something happened and he would always plead to go with them. But his answer from Elsa would always be the same because of her worry for him.
Speaking of Elsa, she was heading towards Sonic and Olaf during their game. 'Sonic! Olaf! Time to come inside! It'll be dark soon!'
The two heard Elsa's shout and both whined but followed Elsa inside as the palace gates was shut behind them. Sonic looked back at the gates and saw the last little bit of outside before it was closed off completely.
Once they were inside, Anna came up running and held Sonic in the air before setting him back down on the ground. 'Ha! Ha! You're becoming a big boy aren't you?'
'Uh huh, and I'm getting so much faster at running that one day I'll become the fastest thing alive!' Sonic boasted with confidence as Anna laughed and ruffled up the fur on his head.
'Sure you will.'
Sonic laughed and turned to face Elsa with a thought in his mind. 'Hey Elsa, can I go to the village tomorrow?'
Elsa blinked – startled by the question. 'Why would you want to go to the village?'
'I want to meet other people and play with the other kids. So can I go please?' Sonic gave Elsa a pleading look that was hard to resist.
Anna faced Elsa with a reassuring smile. 'You know you can't keep him away from the village forever and besides – I'll go with him if it gives you any comfort and I'm sure Kristoff will be there as well.'
Elsa sighed in defeat. 'Alright, but if anything is to happen you two come straight home.'
'OK! We will!' said Sonic with glee.
'Oh! Oh! Can I come too? I haven't been there in ages!' Olaf said. The last time he was in the village was after the winter storm incident. That was because he wanted to stick with Sonic, Elsa and Anna in the castle. So now was his chance to go once more!
'Sure, why not?' Elsa sighed. 'But that means off to bed – now run along,' she said to Sonic who laughed all the way to his bedroom. Which was the same one as Anna's since there was half the room available for him to sleep in.
'OK!' Olaf shouted before running after Sonic – followed by Anna.
Elsa wondered if the next day was going to be alright. This was the first time she allowed Sonic inside the village and she feared their reaction to him. Although some have seen him playing outside the castle walls with a positive reaction – Elsa had seen others give the young hedgehog eerie looks. Those were the ones she feared their reaction…
She quickly shook those thoughts out of her head. Now was not the time to worry! It was time to sleep! But she could not get those thoughts out of her head.
The next morning Sonic and Anna were getting ready to go to the village. Olaf stood near the front doors waiting for them (rather impatiently).
'Man, its' boring waiting. I wish I could do something while I wait but I can't think with all this boredom!' Olaf said as he sat down on the floor waiting in his doom of boredom. His wish came true when Sonic and Anna came walking to him and in one second – Sonic was already hugging Olaf as he gladly hugged back. 'Wow, one day you will be so tall – I won't be able to hug you back anymore!'
Sonic laughed back in reply as he saw Elsa walking up to them. 'Will you be fine Sonic?' Elsa asked while lowering her height to Sonic's.
'Don't worry Elsa, I'll be fine!' Sonic replied as he jumped into her arms and hugged Elsa tight. Elsa was surprised at first but slowly hugged back, returning the embrace. Sonic broke away and went outside with Anna and Olaf following close behind. While Elsa watched them go.
Why was it so hard not to get attached? His parents are coming back one day and he will be gone forever. Elsa sighed depressingly and waited for them to return.
It was only a matter of time before they got to the village and Sonic awed in amazement. There were people everywhere and the place was decorated beautifully like it was every day. There was also a yummy smell that came from the bakery and food stores. Sonic smelt the scent and was starting to get hungry.
Anna saw this and laughed. 'Do you want to get something to eat?' Sonic lit up after the question and nodded in response, 'okay, let's go!'
They went to the bakery and bought some buns that were filled with fresh cream inside. They bought some and Sonic and Anna enjoyed them. It was too bad Olaf couldn't eat.
When they were walking by the village, people were giving strange looks at Sonic. But they didn't do anything to harm him. Some would look and smile. However, others were more cautious – especially when he was around the princess.
'Why is everybody looking at me like that?' Sonic asked.
'You're just… a bit different. That's all,' Anna replied. 'Although I think some people are looking at Olaf more than they are at you,' she whispered.
'What?' Olaf asked out of surprise while Sonic and Anna had burst out laughing.
When they were walking by, Anna stopped in her tracks and looked through a glass window to see a dress on display inside. Anna looked at the dress as if she was hypnotized. Sonic and Olaf looked at her weirdly.
'Um – what are you doing?' Olaf asked.
Anna snapped out of her trance and looked at the two with a sheepish smile. 'Well, it's not every day you find a nice dress out on display.' This response only made Sonic and Olaf to look into space with a confused and weird looking face. Anna sighed. 'It's a girl's thing.' They responded with a nod – understanding the message.
'Well, I want to go shopping in there for a minute and if you boys don't want to come then you two must stay here until I come back. So – anyone coming?' Anna asked.
'No way,' Sonic replied while shaking his head.
'Sounds boring,' said Olaf.
'Well, if that's your choice then stay here and don't move a muscle,' Anna said.
'But I don't have any muscles!' said Olaf.
Anna sighed while trying to hold back her laughter. 'Don't move any bit of snow.'
'Got it!'
'Finally!' Anna then walked inside the shop leaving Sonic and Olaf waiting outside in silence.
'So – what do you want to talk about?' Olaf asked while staying perfectly still like a frozen statue. However, before Sonic could answer – a group of boys came up to them.
'HEY! You! Blue kid!' A boy looking around ten years old came up to the two but focused his attention on Sonic. Two other boys behind the main one came as well. 'You must be the one everyone keeps talking about and I'm here to get something straight – no one takes my thunder around here! Not even some rodent of a porcupine is gonna take that from me!' he hissed.
That comment offended Sonic as an outraged expression appeared on his face. 'I'm NOT a porcupine or rodent! I'm a hedgehog! HEDGE-HOG!' Sonic shouted while the boy only smirked at the comeback.
'Alright then, "hedgehog", let's strike a deal. We'll have a race to see who's faster. If I win – you are to never come back to the village and if I win – I won't bother you anymore. Unless you become a pain in my side.' The boy held out his hand while smirking. 'Deal?'
Sonic looked at Olaf who was making no gestures. However a determined look on Sonic's face proved he was ignoring the snowman. 'DEAL!' Sonic said as he shook hands with the older boy.
'By the way, the name's Alexander but everyone calls me Alex,' the older boy name Alex said.
'Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog,' Sonic replied introducing himself.
'Well then, "Sonic the Hedgehog". Prepare to eat my dust!'
Sonic pouted as Alex walked away and while he was doing so – one of the boys behind crept up to Sonic. 'You shouldn't have gone with it, Alex is one of the fastest kids around here,' he whispered.
'Yeah well, I'll show that big bully!' Sonic replied overfilled with confidence before walking after Alex.
As the other two boys followed, Olaf was panicking on the spot. 'Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! This is terrible! Anna said exactly not to move a muscle or bit of snow! And I'm moving a heap of snow!' Olaf shouted as he kept running in circles before spotting someone familiar not far from him – he got an idea. 'Oh! I know what I'll do!' Olaf said as he started running as fast as could with his little legs – which was more like fast walking. 'Sorry Anna, but I had to move a bit of snow.'
Meanwhile with Sonic, he was following Alex to where they would have the race. It was an open area like an oval and much similar to the one outside the castle – only a little bit smaller. Alex stopped in front of the field and pointed to all of the trees that made the oval.
'See those trees, they mark the shape of the race line and these houses behind us,' Alex said while pointing out the area. 'So, stay close to the edges and you're in the line. We're going to have ten laps around here and the boys over there will time us and tell who won at the end,' he said pointing at the other two boys who were standing a distance away from each other to mark the space. Then Alex turned to face Sonic. 'Got it kid?'
Sonic nodded with determination. 'Let's just hurry up and get this over with!'
'I like your thinking, now let's move!' Alex shouted.
Sonic and Alex walked over to the start of the line and got into positions while the other two boys begun the countdown. 'Get ready – set – GO!' With a starting sprint, Sonic and Alex were neck to neck with each other. About half way around the second lap Alex took the lead. 'See ya later looser!'
Sonic got even more determined as he picked up the pace coming up to Alex again at the fourth lap. Alex looked at him and smirked. 'Picking up the pace huh? Then I better not go easy on you anymore!' Alex took the chance to dash ahead as it came to the sixth lap and was taking the lead. Now it was the seventh lap and Alex looked over his shoulder to see Sonic behind. 'Aw, what's the matter spikey boy? Are you giving up because you're realising you're a porcupine?' Alex teased.
Sonic's eyes snapped open as he felt a strike of lightning flood through his veins like the hail after the storm and speed up like thunder. Alex heard Sonic's footsteps coming faster behind him as he jolted and tried speeding up only to see Sonic turning into a blur of blue wind right past him. Like the thunder after the lightning, Sonic was now speeding around in a circle until he was a complete blur of blue streaks that followed behind him.
Alex stopped running and collapsed to the ground as he felt the loss of oxygen in the air. Sonic only kept running faster like lightning and someone could have sworn he speed through about one hundred laps or more. But that wasn't helping – since Alex was now suffocating inside Sonic's tornado of blue wind.
'Sonic!'
After hearing his name being called, Sonic started skidding to a halt to find that he slammed face first into a tree. The tree then fell forwards – going straight for Alex! Once Sonic opened his eyes, the area felt different as if he was in a void that was in slow motion. However, his attention fell on Alex – who was about to be crushed from the falling tree. Without warning, Sonic rushed towards Alex and pushed him out of the way – when the tree came falling down on him instead! Before Sonic could get up and escape the tree, the slow motion void collapsed as the speed of the tree falling came back to normal – and crashed onto Sonic.
'SONIC!'
Olaf came running to him as Kristoff dashed towards the fallen tree where Sonic was with Sven following close by. 'Sven, help me out here!' Kristoff shouted while trying to lift the tree. Sven responded by dragging his antlers underneath the tree (where Sonic wasn't laying) and used his strength to lift up the tree (with Kristoff helping as well). When the tree was lifted up enough, Kristoff swiftly got Sonic out from underneath before Sven dropped it.
Once Sonic was out, Kristoff checked him for a pulse or breathing to which he was thankfully. Kristoff was startled to find only a few bruises on Sonic's arms, legs, stomach and back – but ok. That wasn't right, Kristoff thought but he put that aside and focused on getting Sonic medical attention. 'Olaf! I want you to find Anna and tell her I'm going to get Sonic to a doctor!' Olaf didn't even respond and ran off to find Anna while Kristoff firmly settled Sonic on Sven's back. They then went to find a medical centre – where a doctor can help Sonic.
Sonic opened his eyes regaining consciousness. He looked around to find he was lying on a bed with some bandages placed around his arms, legs and waist. He then saw Anna, Olaf and Kristoff sitting on chairs beside him. 'Where am I?'
'SONIC! YOU'RE AWAKE!' Olaf shouted as he went to hug him but couldn't because of the bed being too high so he squeezed Sonic's hand. Anna softly gave Sonic a hug – careful not to touch his bruises and Kristoff did the same afterwards.
A woman (who was probably the nurse) walked in and smiled seeing Sonic awake. 'You were out for an hour, Sonic. And you were lucky to survive that tree.'
It clicked in his head; the memories were flooding back like a tsunami hitting the coast. He remembered the race and the tree falling down that was about to crush – Alex but he took the hit instead. There was something else he found out during all those events and it clicked in his head. 'You know, if it wasn't for today I probably would have never found out something.'
'Huh?' everyone asked at the same time.
'I found out I can run really fast! It was like the world was a blur around me. It was an amazing feeling and I want to try running that fast again!' Everyone stared awestruck at what Sonic said. How on Earth could he run so fast that the world was like a blur around him? 'And now… my feet are killing me.' Sonic looked down at his feet to find blisters marked upon his skin. 'How did that happen? It hurts…'
Anna held up Sonic's shoes; they were burnt and torn, definitely wouldn't be using them again. 'Oh…' Sonic said disappointed.
'Don't worry – we'll get you some new shoes.' Anna smiled and Sonic did the same back.
That night, Sonic, Anna and Olaf returned to the castle while Kristoff headed off with Sven to where they were staying. When the trio arrived to the castle, they found an over worried Elsa asking a million and one questions all at once (of course from seeing Sonic's blisters). But she got the entire story and was relieved to find Sonic safe.
A few weeks later, Sonic wanted to go out running again to test out his new speed after his blisters were healed. After some persuading with Elsa, he was able to try running again but came back with blisters and a burnt pair of shoes. This kept happening until around a month. But Sonic was not giving up being the persistent hedgehog he was. They tried every type of material that shoes came in that the kingdom had to offer – but none of them worked.
During those weeks Sonic never encountered or heard from Alex ever since that very day. Though Sonic never really thought about it. Since he was trying every way to get his feet up and running to the speed he wanted to achieve once more.
One day, when Sonic was in his and Anna's room, Anna and Elsa were walking down the hall discussing the subject.
'I can't seem to think of anything else Anna! There isn't any type of shoe that can handle Sonic's speed!' Elsa shouted at a voice only Anna can hear.
'Hmm – I wonder if shoes are better in the future. Or someplace else in the universe,' Anna asked randomly which only annoyed Elsa.
'Anna, we're not talking about shoes in the future or the universe! We have to sort out this shoe problem because Sonic isn't going to give up! And he always hurts himself after every attempt!'
'Whoa, calm down Elsa. We just have to think of something…' Then there was an awkward silence as the two sat down on a couch in the paintings room. Trying to think of way to solve the problem. All of a sudden, Olaf came waltzing in like nothing was going on until he saw Elsa and Anna's thinking faces.
'Hey guys, what are you thinking about?' Olaf asked.
'Trying to figure out a way to solve Sonic's shoe problem,' Anna mumbled in a flat tone.
Olaf's face lit up at the response. 'Well, I've been having this idea for a while that might just solve the problem. Want me to share?'
'Anything will do at the moment,' Elsa responded.
'Well, I was thinking that maybe those shoes Sonic's parents gave to him when he first came here might be the shoes for this kind of problem.' Elsa and Anna gave Olaf a ghostly stare as if amazed at the snowman's response. 'What? Have I got something on my face?'
'I can't believe we never thought of that…' Anna mumbled. She then looked at Elsa. 'Want to go get the shoes?'
'Gladly.'
Elsa and Anna went to get Sonic's shoes while Sonic stared up at the ceiling bored out of his mind. 'Man, I wish these sores would go away because I want to go out and run again!' Just before he could say anything else, Elsa and Anna came into the room suspiciously. He could see something hiding behind Anna's back. 'What's behind your back Anna?'
'Aw, I thought you wouldn't see anything! Oh well. Might as well show you, right Elsa?' Anna said.
'Right.'
Sonic was looking at them suspiciously but that moment ended when Anna brought out the items she was hiding behind her back. It was a pair of shining red shoes with a white stripe going over the top and a golden buckle at one side of each shoe. There was also a pair of snow white socks that went well with the shoes (especially the stripe). Sonic only started at the shoes for he never saw any like those before – it was like they came from another world.
'Are those… for me?' Sonic asked breaking the silence.
Elsa smiled. 'Of course those are for you. These shoes may be the last hope for your problem but we'll test them after those sores heal up.' Sonic only pouted after hearing Elsa's response – he wanted to try them out now! Elsa saw this and chuckled. 'Don't worry, they'll heal soon.'
'Here.' Anna then handed the pair of red shoes and white socks over to Sonic as he took them with no response. Sonic looked down at the shoes in his lap as he stared at them awestruck. He had never seen any shoes like these before. Unlike the ones throughout the entire kingdom these ones would have to be the best looking so far.
After some time and impatient waiting, Sonic's blisters were all healed up as he was now begging Elsa to try out his new shoes.
'Can I go try them out now, please?' Sonic begged Elsa with pleading eyes. She sighed in defeat and crouched down to his height.
'Alright, but just know that these shoes are probably the only ones left and if these don't help then you probably won't be able to run really fast,' Elsa said as Sonic looked down in sorrow from what he heard. 'But don't worry, they might just work and you can be the fastest thing alive.' After hearing this, Sonic looked up and gave Elsa a tight hug as she hesitantly hugged back.
Sonic broke away once again and rushed up to his room to grab his shoes as Elsa watched in depression. Why is it so hard not to get attached?
Once in his room, Sonic grabbed the shoes and socks and rushed up onto his bed with the items in hand. He sat on his bed and took out his first sock and put it on only to find it was way too big for his size. 'Hmm…' Sonic had an idea and folded up the end of his sock until it reached a certain level and it was now a great size for him. He did the same with his other sock until his feet were covered in snow white socks.
Sonic then grabbed his shoes and putted on his first one. 'Huh? It's too big. Hold on a sec,' Sonic said to himself as he looked at the gold buckle. He had a crazy idea as he started tightening the strap and somehow – the shoes magically grew smaller when he tightened it. Sonic got startled at first but tested it again by loosening the strap which only made the shoes grow bigger! The hedgehog only smirked at this. 'Cool!' Sonic then tightened the strap making it grow smaller until it reached a perfect size. He did the same with the other shoe and left the room at normal running speed.
Sonic ran down the hall and stairs until he reached the front doors to find Elsa there waiting for him – with two white gloves matching the colour of his socks. As soon as Sonic came up to Elsa he looked at the gloves suspiciously before Elsa spoke;
'Here, these gloves are also for you. In case your hands get cold during running,' Elsa said reassuringly before handing Sonic the pair of gloves which he happily took. He started putting them on only to find that they were too big for him. Before Elsa could speak, Sonic was folding up the end of his gloves until they reached a size good enough for him.
'Thanks Elsa,' Sonic said before hugging her legs since she was standing up. Elsa then slowly crouched down to Sonic's level so she could hug him back before he broke away and ran outside with glee. Elsa sighed before walking upstairs to a balcony where she could watch the event go by.
Sonic was running outside the gates in a normal speed to find Anna and Olaf waiting for him. 'Hi Sonic! Ready for another run?' Olaf asked as Sonic nodded in response.
'And we'll be watching from over here,' Kristoff said walking with Sven who jumped with glee.
'Yeah, and we'll be cheering you the whole way!' Kristoff said in a different voice to imitate what Sven was trying to say as the reindeer bounced around happily.
Sonic responded by nodding and looked ahead of the area to see a path marked for him which led around a safe way from the village and around the kingdom. The young hedgehog had gone through this course numerous amount of times trying to achieve his speed – so he knew the path off by heart.
'Well big boy, ready to go?' Anna asked as Sonic nodded in reply, 'alright then! Let's go to the starting point!'
The trio walked to the starting point which was in the middle of the open area by the castle. There were two white flags made of cotton swayed in the wind and a small windmill was placed near by – to see how fast the wind can go when Sonic would pass by. Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven walked over a distance away from the path so they wouldn't get hurt in the process. Sonic walked over to the middle of the flags and got into a starting position.
'Ready –' Anna called out as tension had risen in the air, 'set –' Sonic braced himself for the starting dash and a world full of foot pain, 'GO!'
In a split second, Sonic sprinted leaving a gust of wind behind. Sonic had closed his eyes preparing for the worst but slowly opened them to feel no burning pain to his feet at all. Instead the world around him was all a blur, like there was only a few colours existed as the wind blew in his face. It was like there was no sound, no noise, no nothing! He could feel the beat of his heart that vibrated in a good feeling that he had never felt before. The wind blew in his quills like the grace of freedom rushing up to his face. A grin appeared on his face as he kept running. Now he knew what he was missing out on all this time – the feeling of freedom.
Sonic kept running without a care in the world and what felt like less than a minute – he was already back to the starting line. He then started skidding on the ground. He skidded across the ground and as he was – he left a mark in the ground doing so. Sonic kept skidding until he came to a halt which was directly right in front of a tree. Lucky he didn't crash into this one.
Sonic turned around to see the others running up to him. 'That – was – AMAZING! You were standing still and then WHOOSH! You took off like thunder!' Olaf exclaimed.
'I got to hand it to you, THAT was pretty awesome,' Kristoff said.
'Yeah! It was amazing! I want to be as fast as you!' Kristoff said imitating what Sven was thinking.
Anna walked up to him and placed her hands on his shoulders as she crouched down to Sonic's height. 'You're becoming a big boy you know, and look! Your shoes are perfectly fine!'
Sonic then looked at his shoes to see they looked like the way they did when he put them on. No scratch, no burn marks, no nothing, just like new! Sonic gasped and gave Anna a big, tight hug as she hugged him back.
'Come on; let's go tell Elsa the good news!' Anna said as she stood up and started walking towards the castle followed by Olaf. Kristoff and Sven left to go back to the village leaving Sonic to look at the clouds in the sky.
'Now I know what freedom feels like,' Sonic said to himself before following Anna and Olaf back to the castle.
