~ Fantasia Down: Darkness of Eternity ~
By Dib07
Disclaimer: Sonic and Shadow belong to SEGA. This story is purely for fun. The idea however, is mine.
Rating: T
After a chaos control that seems to have split time and dimension, Shadow and Sonic find themselves in another world. A world where they are alone. Until the night falls. They must recollect the emeralds, survive and fight to find an answer. But when darkness comes, so do the vanguard. As black and as lethal as death herself. And after each emerald comes a new threat to tear down their lives.
Time is running out. Each trap gets more deadly. The riddles more complex. The darkness grows.
This new world is rotten with secrets.
Dib07: Another chapter = more confusion! But stay with me! And yes, a tiny bit of a warning because there is a mention of Sonic angst in this one and more in future. All reviewers have been thanked via PM or on previous pages. If not, I do apoligize. All I can say is, enjoy!
Chapter seven : Gawks
'I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
That shape this monstrous apparition.
It comes upon me. Art thou anything?
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,
That makest my blood cold, and my hair to stare?'
The Eve of Philippi - Shakespeare
A million and one different things were rushing and colliding in Sonic's mind. First traps and now riddles? And the riddles were written in the old overlander language. Not in alien codes. But overlander. What was that doing here for?
He kept astride with Shadow, determined to figure it all out. Determined to uncover the answer. No matter how ugly it was.
The room was well lit and Shadow carelessly dropped his torch and let it burn itself out on the cold stone floor.
Presented to them like a gift, a gift of victory, sat the glowing red emerald yet again. Welcoming them back into its presence like an old friend. It sat on the same brown table as before. Alone and sitting on a small pedestal that held it in place with a stone cup. They approached it wearily and Shadow saw the panel below the cup reading a fragmented word and two more numbers.
'Cold. 23.'
"What does that mean?" Sonic pressed close to it and ran his finger over the dusty surface.
"There was something else exactly like this back at the cabin in the middle of the mote." Shadow explained tersely, "it said, i n c hell and the numbers were two zeros. I'm confused about it as much as you are, so I suggest we remember them. They may amount to an even bigger riddle later. Or a code to give us the answers."
Sonic stepped back. "Whoever has done this - it's so well thought of -"
"Looks that way." He ended cryptically before taking the emerald. This time the room, or the very fabric of the world, allowed him to hold it. Their prize for surviving. When he had, a little wooden door creaked open on their left and this time Sonic pushed it open to reveal the landscape waiting for them outside. It was a drab, decaying night. They were standing in the doorway of the house they had seen first when coming here. And the ring of vanguard had eerily disappeared.
A brave sun winked over the mountains.
Dawn.
Sonic felt so pleased to finally see it at last.
They stumbled out, feeling dusty and covered in the dark secrets of a house that looked normal against the first tendrils of morning. The roof, seemingly disjointed to look like a spire, stood out green with plant life. The sides, made of stone, brimmed out in modest innocence as if nothing dark and abhorrent lingered within.
He found himself thinking; is every emerald going to be like this? A treasure hunt? And what if one of the traps offers no way out?
"Sonic," Shadow tossed the red emerald gaily in his hands, absorbing his hard won victory, "now that it's daylight, we should eat and rest before hunting for the next one in the afternoon."
"Sounds good to me."
They raced away from the house when the full staunch of daylight encouraged them of no more vanguard. And the house gave them a sense of unpleasant danger. Fear and pain. So they abandoned it, hoping to never face it again.
On their way as they took a more leisurely pace to the Stone Den, they spotted squat buildings posted in an area with smoke blowing harmoniously from little stone chimneys.
They jumped into the tall grass in a bank overlooking what appeared to be a village. A village they must have passed and not noticed.
The two of them, pressed close to the ground and spying through the long vegetation, watched in fascination as creatures, hardly the shape and form of people, interlaced the small village of about a dozen scrawny thatched houses, jibbing in odd, alien tongues and lumbering around like crocodiles on two legs. They wore the skins of other animals. The black pelt of a vanguard shouldered the torso of one. Others wore bear and deer skins.
"They walk like overlanders," Shadow was whispering as they pressed their bodies close to the soil, "but look at them! They're so ugly and malformed!"
Looking straight ahead, one of them bent closer to where they were crouching to pick up a log of wood. It did look vaguely human. It had a pointed, fat chin that angled out from the rest of its face. Its teeth curved outward from its lips as if they were too many for the mouth to cope with. Its eyes were yellow and tiny. Angry and dumb looking. Their limbs were long and hairy. But like overlanders they didn't have fur - but fleshy skin and hairy heads. On their feet were wore shoes. And some of them carried clubs.
"Can you see any females?" Sonic nudged beside him. He looked scared.
"No. Not one."
"Do we... do we need to go... urm... see t-them?"
"They might have an answer. Maybe these things are the ones making the traps? And hiding the emeralds?" Shadow rose a little and sat up, his black and red quills rising out of the grass like a cobra. "Why did we not see them earlier? Wouldn't the vanguard kill them all?"
"Maybe not. Let's get away from here. Now, please!"
"No."
They remained hidden to further assess whether these primitive 'humans' were a threat. A danger to them. Stealthy they circled the village and scented the abhorring smell of meat cooking over a fire. Shadow saw one of those great white birds dead on a bench, its mouth hung open in a silent cry. Flies harvesting it for food and a nest for their eggs.
Mallets and clubs were the only weapons they could discern. Some of them sat propped up against tables or the walls outside their homes. Some of these tall creatures walked in pairs. Others alone. And they periodically left the village. Shadow assumed that it was because they were hunting.
"This confirms the theory that we're in Mobius' past." Shadow stated while they now crouched behind an old wooden shack, closer to the centre of the village, "the vanguard. The birds. Nothing has evolved yet like we have. And what we are seeing at the moment are primitive humans. The early settlers of Robotnik's ancestors."
"So we time travelled?"
"Correct. So perhaps we can try to communicate with them?"
"What for?"
Shadow shrugged. "We need protection from the vanguard. If we are chased every night, we'll be driven by fear and exhaustion. And pretty soon we won't have enough energy to gather all seven emeralds. And maybe these forerunners can provide us with food. Shelter. We need it."
At this, Sonic left the grass and walked away. Infuriated, but not surprised, Shadow followed him.
The blue hedgehog sat by a small pool of water, his reflection gazing sadly back at him. The wounds along his arm, stomach and back would heal into scars. But the scars on the inside would remain ever sharp and fresh.
Shadow sat close to him. "Want to talk about it?"
"No, thank you."
"You never have. Come on, it's over now. They can't hurt you anymore. Maybe I can help somehow."
"It's fine. It's okay. Just give me a moment before I face those… creatures."
"Did they… use a knife?" It sure looked like they had. He looked down at Sonic's stomach, the worst of the wounds that had tried to heal. The fur had tried to regrow over the old wound, making the line even more prominent. On that day, Sonic came to the overlanders only to help them. What they had done was set a trap. And it hadn't even been for him. The overlanders had been uprising for quite some time, fighting amongst themselves and injuring their own children. Turned out they had collected most or all of the emeralds in this one castle. And Sonic… Trapped for days and nights... without being fed and to the mercy of their...
"Let's go." The blue hedgehog rose and turned away from Shadow's prying eyes. "We're wasting time."
Together they walked out towards the village as planned, side by side, feeling very small and vulnerable. The first monstrous overlander to sight them was a hairy, bearded giant who had been busy kneeling on the grass sharpening his flint tools with a stone. His tiny, yellow eyes seemed to swell in anger at their approach and stood up, its shaggy hair blowing in the wind. Sonic halted at once and saw fleas bouncing up and down upon the man's boisterous frame. And they stank. Of grease, sweat and urine.
"Hi," he said, "my name is Sonic!" He pointed at his chest and then turned his gaze to his comrade. "This is Shad - ow! My friend! We are friends! We come in peace!"
Another hairy forerunner lumbered into the scene carting a tree branch on his shoulder. His eyes were as sickly yellow as the first and he was soon joined by two more. All of them had either burgundy or ginger hair that swept down their dirty, meaty necks like greasy weeds.
"Olleh elttil seno!" The one with the tools in his hand said, opening his mouth as he spoke to reveal the sharp incisors in that fat, blubbery maw. "gawk era ew!"
Shadow narrowed his red eyes. "I can't understand them."
Several more of these tall, pink, hairy things surrounded them, looking on curiously. But the ones holding the clubs looked menacing.
"We came from another world." Shadow tried to explain slowly, "we are hedge hogs! Animals! That can talk! We need food! And water!"
Sonic pretended to eat something in the air, then rubbed his stomach afterwards to exaggerate Shadow's point. But the grim bunch of villagers looked on, mercilessly clueless. And their angry expressions remained unchanged.
"I don't think this is working." Sonic whispered unhappily, "why are they looking at us - like that?"
"Well, I suppose we are aliens considering the circumstances." Shadow replied, unfazed. "But they aren't attacking. Let's go to their tavern and ignore them for now. I'm fucking hungry."
Sonic looked at him wildly. "Well, this is going to be interesting, buddy."
Shadow smiled confidently. Savagely carefree. "I don't care what they do. Look at them. They're dumb, primitive people. They might even think of us as gods."
"I doubt that."
Meandering through the truculent onlookers, they walked slowly and carefully down a worn track up to the tavern. It was the largest shack in the town and the air whispering out of it foretold of food and water.
Sonic gulped as he passed under the shadows of the people here. So where were the children? The mothers? The wives?
He got a very bad feeling.
One in particular with hoary red hair eyed him dangerously at the door of the tavern. Around his neck was a pendent made of little bones from the spine of an animal.
The inside of the tavern was warm and dark. On the tables were bright candles. Slabs of honey in stone pots were lined up at the back bench of the bar behind a big fat man chopping up herbs. Grimy meat sat, pestered with flies on stone or wooden plates before feeding occupants. But only five ate and drank here. The rest appeared to be outside, either working or hunting.
Sonic and Shadow stood at the bar with every intention of ordering food like they would have done back at home. The bartender, with bloody furred clothes and a scowl on his sweaty face, eyed them darkly from his herbs.
"Hello." Shadow suddenly felt like laughing in the face of the whole situation. It all seemed like a joke out of someone's mad dream. And he certainly hoped that it wasn't one of his. "We are hungry. Hunnngrry. We want food. In our mouths." Acting like he was communicating with a dumb little creature, he opened his mouth and pointed his finger towards it. Then he gestured at the empty stone cups standing like useless plant vases on the bar. "We thirsty. Want drink."
"Gawks etah uoy."
"They say gawk an awful lot." Shadow observed, cropping his chin against the palm of his hand in fatigue. "Maybe we should call them Gawks. We've got to name them something."
The Gawk in question turned to his pots of honey (what seemed to be his small pantry) and dished out a glob of it onto a plate. He then offered it to them in confusion. But his yellow eyes remained in the mood of aggression.
"No. Food. Like grapes or herbs. Honey - no good." Sonic shook his head and waved his arms in front of the plate. The gawk set it down and turned to something else.
Shadow drummed his fingers on the wood of the thick, darkened bar, eyelids low. Stomach growling. Sonic felt like nudging him to cheer him up. He felt much better. Less worried and more concerned about the next adventure. These people had brought some normality back to him. It made this world more balanced. More real. And if they were in the past, it made a lot more sense. And made going back home again hopefully easier.
His next mistake was looking back over at the door. The only way in and out.
All the villagers seemed to be there. Most that could fit standing silently in the doorway, yellow eyes peeling angrily out at them in their fascinated abhorrence of them. Many more, too crowded to fit, stayed in a line or cluster outside, looking in at them through the windows. Watching. Just staring. Nothing else. And they blocked the way out for them.
Sonic gazed fearfully at the other five who had been sitting at the tables when they had come in, quietly chewing their meat. They too sat stiff and ridged. Some had turned in their seats. To stare. With those same yellow eyes. And their rancid meat sat cold and untouched on their plates.
"Shades -" He turned back. The gawk behind the bar had offered them one cup each of something red. But it didn't smell of wine. "Shades -!"
"What?" The Ultimate Life Form grated, reaching out and grabbing his cup, ignorant to the sudden change. "Stop bitching and drink! This is what we came for, wasn't it?" He peered vengefully up at the staring bartender. "What the fuck you staring at? You heard the hedgehog! Food dammit!" With a flick of his wrist he began to gulp down from the cup. Then disgust and shock grimaced his countenance and he chucked the cup on the floor, hearing it smash into a hundred pieces. "Gah!" He spat convulsively and then ran a hand over his mouth while his stomach heaved in nausea.
"Shades! What is it?"
"Fuck me! It's blood! The stuff in the cups! It's all blood!"
The gawk shoved a plate of food before them before they could react. Sonic went white. What stared back at them was the huge, heavy head of the vanguard on the plate. Its white open teeth that looked too heavy for its form, bleached out. While its red eyes seemed to poison them from where they stood.
"Let's get out of here!"
They turned to face the gawks marching from the doorway, hands outstretched, ready to crush them. Others wielded maces or clubs. And they bumbled in like fleshly, towering statues. There was too many of them. Their thick bodies made the exit impassable and they closed in like moving, hot walls of hair and stink. Fleas and flies whirled round their greasy hides like weltering disease.
Sonic gasped and backed into a stone chair.
Shadow looked to the windows. "Follow me!" He shouted, then dived towards their only escape. At that the gawks charged.
Shadow went flying through the open window and landed gracefully on the sweet smelling grass outside. Sonic tumbled beside him.
They got up and ran just as the gawks began to thrash out of the tavern, their very anger seeming to fume over their heads like wavering heat.
Since the gawks seemed to be slow, lumbering creatures with little or no intelligence, they made a good getaway. The village now swung away from them behind an elevation of cloistered hills that ranged north and west across a grassy escarpment of land. The sun, now at the zenith of its peak, showered them with peaceful warmth and their panic settled away into memory. But every time Sonic blinked, he saw those yellow eyes of the gawks with creamy white orbs in the middle. And he saw the head of the vanguard grinning playfully at them, as if it knew everything. As if it was teasing them. And hating them.
Like a cat with a mouse.
Knowing it would die.
Yet enjoying its last moments all the same.
They stopped near a lake, panting. Weaker than ever.
"Fucking apes." Shadow barked into the sky, dripping with sweat. "Why did they do that?"
Sonic sat deflated on the grass and could not feel the warmth of the sun sinking firmly into his fur. Nor did he feel his own sweat drip from his nose and chest.
"So they kill vanguard eh?" Shadow, oblivious, rested his hands on his hips and strutted around Sonic in a circle as his mind raced with what he had just seen. "They're too dumb to set traps. It can't be them. And they eat meat. Obviously forerunner behavior. But why did they turn on us like that? And how many settlements do they have?"
Sonic curled up on his little patch of grass and began to shiver despite the beaming heat of the day. "I'm hoping it's just the one."
Shadow peered down at the cobalt animal, as if examining him for symptoms of something contagious. "Fucking gawks." The elder hedgehog kicked at the grass and the flowers in a steel temper, expression hard and unreadable. "We didn't mean any harm. Crazy fucks. Must've seen us as dinner."
"We did invade their village in a way." Sonic regarded softly, "and we did force things from them. Which was foolish. I say we got what we deserved."
"But we're hungry, damnation!" Shadow barked, eyes locking onto him spitefully, "we needed what they had! And they must have had plenty of it! They're so dumb and mad that even if we sank to our knees and begged, they still would have responded the same."
"What makes you so sure?"
"I - I could tell. Anyway, it's no good sitting here mopping. We need food. We'll split up and search. We'll meet back when the sun hit's the mountains."
"But what about the next emerald? It'll be evening!" Sonic said, "the vanguard!"
"I know! I know! The gawks wasted a good portion of our time. But in the end, they'll be helpful. What we'll do is return there and hide in one of their shacks. Huts. Whatever. If they aren't afraid of the vanguard, we're safe. They'll unknowingly protect us. And then in the morning after we've recovered a little, we'll go straight for the fourth emerald. Now on your feet and let's move!"
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Dib07: Tell me what ya think! And please R & R, I love it!
By the way, if there are enough requests I will upload the chapter on what happened to Sonic as a special chapter (in the castle). It will be a whole few pages, no reflections or anything like that - so let me know and I will uploaded it as an added feature.
