As promised, it has been exactly a week since I last updated. No, I never forgot about my Seed of Love series.
Well, I haven't much to say, other than 'The Blessing of Life' is coming along quite nicely, and is taking flight rather fast. I beleive it will be a very short story in comparison to its 41 page predecesor.
Enjoy!
As Sarah ran, she became more and more distracted. She had never been in a forest before, and was very interested in all of the plants that were found within it. Her speed slowed, and she began to stop and literally smell the flowers. And, after she was done with the flower sniffing, she began to wander aimlessly through the forest.
Dr. Damian's creature had just flown over the forest by the Prower residence.
With no energy beams being launched at it, and no little sentries chasing it, and with absolutely nothing in his digestive system to keep him running, the creature fell to the ground out of the sky.
The rustling of leaves, and the thud of the dirt, it impacted solid ground again. Its wings retracted into its flesh, and its skin returned to a grayish color.
Sarah had heard a very loud noise echo throughout the forest, and she felt a compelling duty to investigate it.
As she stumbled around the forest, she eventually tripped on a lump of hard material.
After removing some dirt from her mouth, she looked back to examine the thing she tripped on.
It was a grey figure. It looked like a hedgehog boy, about just under her age, but he has grayish skin that felt rubbery, not furry, to the touch, and he looked very malnourished.
"How the heck did you get here kid?" Sarah looked at the child, maybe a year or two younger than her, but he still looked terrible either way.
Sarah checked for his vitals, another thing that she picked up from her father's teachings, to find that the kid was still alive.
"But still, how?" Sarah asked him, as if he would answer. To her dismay, she couldn't find anything that could have gotten the kid from the sky to the ground. There was no hint of aircraft debris, and the kid didn't have wings.
"Well, I can't leave you here…" Sarah felt obligated to the kid, to get him to safety at least; and maybe feed him too.
She hoisted the kid up onto her scrawny arms, not an easy task for her, seeing as she had small, weak arms, and ran off to Tails house, carrying her grey patient quickly.
Brunis, Brian, and Daisy had just arrived home after searching for Sarah at school.
"I swear, she wasn't anywhere to be found!" Daisy told her mother.
"Sonic is going to have a fit." Cosmo muttered, looking down at the ground.
"I need help! I need help! I need help!" A faint voice from the forest was yelling.
Brunis instinctively ran to the sound, and saw a quick little blur of light blue and a hint of grey.
The blur came fast to the house, and in no time, a small, panicky Sarah arrived with an odd creature in her arms that looked like a hedgehog.
"I found this kid in the forest, after hearing a big thud. I think he may be hurt, is there anything that you can do for him?" Sarah offered the limp body of the boy up to Brunis.
Brunis hefted the child and ran him inside their house.
"Tails! Where is that stuff you fed me? That milk stuff! There is someone here who needs it!" Brunis set the grey kid on the table, and Tails appeared in the kitchen with a bottle of the medicine that so far seemed to heal people from death.
"Sarah, open his mouth for me," Tails was readying the small baby bottle with the mixture in it.
Sarah did so unquestioningly. It seemed odd though, when she pried open the kids mouth, it didn't look very normal. It was as if his insides were shutting down, and becoming rubbery, almost like silly-putty. It also didn't smell very good; the vapors smelled like army food gone bad, mixed in with five years of cavities, and maybe a dash of laboratory acids. The stench burnt Sarah's sensitive nose and made her cringe.
Tails administered the mixture, and shut the boy's mouth over the bottle. Sarah watched as the fluids in the bottle slowly drained, and the kid began to breathe strongly again.
Everyone in the room sighed in relief.
Cosmo walked in with a few grocery bags, and nearly dropped them as she saw the kid lying on her table.
"What is that?" Cosmo gasped, picking up the bags that she dropped.
"I don't know who he is, but Sarah found him." Tails said, resting against the wall.
"Wait, Sarah found him? In that the forest backyards?" Cosmo asked.
"Yes, why?"
"Tails, I'd like to speak with you in private." Cosmo, without permission or answer, grabbed Tails arm, and pulled him into their bedroom.
Once safe from spying ears, Cosmo turned to face Tails.
"Ok, why, Cosmo, did you pull me away from there?"
"What happened the last time a young girl found a young boy in that forest? And the boy was all alone, helpless, and you had to use that altered milk?" Tails eyes grew wide at the possibility.
"No way. Sarah? She is just like her father! She can't fall in love that easily. Heck, I can't believe Sonic even fell in love with Amy. I mean, I knew they both liked each together a bit, but not enough to leave, and come back with a child and married."
"You know what I think?" A smirk crept onto Cosmo's face.
"What?" Tails cocked an eyebrow at his wife.
"I think we should play as XT-421 for a small bit…"
"How so?" A smirk found its way to Tails mouth too.
"We could both not let that kid stay here, save more money, and make Sarah take care of him. That way, she will develop a bond with him, and we don't have to feed another mouth."
"I hate having to make Sonic take care of him though; he's got loads of financial problems, more than we ever could. I agree. This kid shall go to Sonic, but we are going to help them, at least until they get their own lives here set up."
"Ok…" Cosmo said nearly drearily.
"Cosmo? Since when do you become a self-centered being?"
"It's not that I'm being self-centered, or, maybe it is…" Cosmo went silent for a few moments to sort her thoughts. "Maybe I'm just stressed out about saving enough money for Daisy's wedding. That has to happen soon you know; and I do not think that XT-421 will be running the wedding there. I think he wants us to be responsible parents and help our daughter organize her own wedding."
"That you are correct." A familiar robotic voice called as XT-421 emerged from the dark confines of their closet. (A/N: XT pwns.)
"XT! Where-how-when-why are you in our closet?" Tails nearly fell backwards in surprise.
"What? You've known me for what, fifteen years, and you haven't found out that I come and go as I please?" XT leaned onto the wall with his arms folded coolly.
"That is true."
"And you are right. No, I will not be able to help you with the wedding. Nor, personally, do I believe that I will be helping Sarah and this, what did you call him, kid, get together. I know where this thing came from, and personally, I am concerned. I would like to see the two together, but first that thing must pass a few tests."
"What the heck are you talking about?" Tails furrowed his brow towards XT.
"I'm just an old babbly robot, pay no never mind to me."
"Right. So wait, what is this kid exactly?"
"After he gets better, why not ask him?"XT walked out of the room, and headed toward the child.
XT put his cold, metallic hand on his chest, and his eyes began to flicker as information poured through his circuits.
"Ah, you have had a horrible life…" XT's eyes closed. "Pain, torture, suffering… I hear you wailing… it isn't good. The sounds, the cries, your past is terribly misunderstood. I see you now, a brighter future. Do you see it too? Yes, claw your way to her. My mother, your savior, she can lead you out. Come on little friend, no longer pout. The time has come, for us to see, exactly what you shall be." XT opened his eyes, and walked away.
"What was that all about?" Sarah asked, her eyes shifting from her gym teacher to her patient.
"Sarah, this boy… he is very fragile right now. He is going to need someone to look up to, someone bold, brave, and strong. You are those three things. I want you to look after him, do you understand?"
"No, not really." Sarah took a few steps back.
"Well, it isn't all too hard to understand. I want you to be this kid's friend, and I want you to help him live in this new world?"
"Wait; is he an alien or something?"
"With the amount of differences, he might as well be… but, you understand now?"
"Yes."
"Good. Now, I'll be back at school if you need me." XT walked outside and added, "Or will I?" He laughed as he bolted off to a place where no one could find him.
Sonic and Amy approached the Prowers' home with a bit of uncertainty.
Before they could knock on the door, XT-421 flew out of their house laughing.
"Ok… Um… Tails?" Sonic called to his kitsune friend.
"Yes Sonic?" Tails' face appeared in the opening of the door left by XT.
"W-we need some help." Sonic looked at his daughter Sarah, sitting over the body of a grey, hedgehog-like boy, and added to his statement. "And, in private?"
"I understand, follow me." Tails led Sonic and Amy into his bedroom, where Cosmo was still standing from XT's talk.
"Ok," Sonic started after he shut the door. "Amy and I do not have anything. We just got our jobs back, they start in the morning tomorrow, but we haven't anything to buy food, or to build a house, yet. So, I really do not want to have to mooch off of my genius friend, but it is either that, or sleep in that forest again."
"Hmm… Cosmo and I were just thinking about this matter with the three, maybe four, of you, and exactly what we were going to do about it."
"Wait," Amy butted in, "what do you mean, four?"
"That gray hedgehog kid may be staying with you." Cosmo answered.
"Why?" Sonic and Amy both asked in unison.
"Well, Cosmo and I have my secrets, but, as an excuse," he mused, "XT told Sarah to be that kid's guardian. And she accepted."
"Ok, fine. But you are going to help us then." Amy demanded.
"We already agreed on it. The deal was this, if you get the gray hedgehog, we will help you get a house, and money to get it started, but if we got stuck with the hedgehog kid, then you wouldn't get help."
"It looks as if we are getting this hedgehog kid then, doesn't it Amy?" Sonic looked expectantly towards his wife.
"Yes. It seems as if we have no choice." Amy muttered.
In the mind of the kid, who was now being laid down onto a guest bed in the Prower residence, a very realistic dream was occurring.
The kid was in a stasis tube, green liquid wreathed around him. All of a sudden, a bright light blinded him, and a melodic hum of a female's voice echoed in the room.
He fell out of the tube, and became stricken with fear as he saw the angelic figure approach him. It was a girl, who looked like a hedgehog just a bit older than him, but she was surrounded in a bright, golden light. Warmth and comfort seemed to pour from her grooves in her hair, and the kid sat back against the wall in fear of who this girl was.
How he knew it was a girl, he didn't know; he barely knew anything. He was never taught how to speak. He was created, so he had no parents to even teach him how to walk correctly. Everything he knew was picked up from the lab and his own tests.
But this figure didn't seem like everything else he knew, she didn't seem like she wanted to hurt him, as odd as the thought sounded to him.
"Hello, what's your name?" The bright figured asked him.
The kid tried to talk back, but nothing but unintelligible sounds came from his voice.
"Is that how you talk to a lady? Humph!" Then the figure laughed. "Oh, that's right, I guess you do not know how to speak yet. After all, you were tortured in that terrible room for all of those years." The kid tilted his head, and tried to comprehend what the woman said.
"Ok, I am going to help you speak! I," The figure held her hand to her chest, and patted it, "am Celeste. I am Celeste." She repeated herself a few times, and the pointed to the kid.
"Celeste." He said, pointing to himself.
"No no no no no. You are… who are you? Let us come up with a name for you. How about, Stephen? You," Celeste walked up to the boy, and pointed directly at his chest, her finger coming inches from his heart, "are Stephen. You are Stephen."
Stephen pointed to himself, and scrunched his eyebrow.
"Stephen?" He said, not sure of himself.
"Yes." Celeste nodded her head warmly, "Stephen. You are Stephen. Who am I?" She pointed to herself.
"Celeste." Stephen said calmly.
"Very good." Celeste patted him on the back, and Stephen felt as if he were being electrocuted by an influx of emotions.
Fear, joy, happiness, warmth, love, caring, tenderness, all were felt through those few seconds of patting, and Stephen passed out from the shocked.
In this dream, all went dark, and the figure who addressed herself as Celeste vanished from feeling and touch and sight.
But was it a dream?
Now, to any of those who know me a bit more personally, Stephen is a philosopher, and the other philosopher in real life I know, my dearest friend, helped in his naming. (Stephanie, yes, I've told you before, Stephen is inspired by you. And not by stupidity, because you probably outsmart me in a great deal. And Steff, if you're listening, you may want to quote that...)
Now, where was I?
Oh yes... (one more week everyone...)
More comnig (not so) soon...
