Death

Ugh. My stomach was growling mercilessly. I was hungry and tired.

Gaia seemed stronger, but unwilling.

Who was Vapira to scare him so?

Sonic was weak.

Now fully disconnected from Gaia, he was suffering from a severe case of famine. But, what could he do? After all, he was only a medium, a representation, Dusk. A meeting between night and day.

The hedgehog closed his eyes to sleep, letting his chin drop against his chest. He was cold, and, as he looked down at himself, he saw the tawny fur on his belly receding as dark outlines indicated where his ribs showed. The werehog, of course, was still filled by his feast, but he, still connected to Sonic in some ways, suffered from this aching feeling too.

I want you to eat, complained the werehog. It's hard to be content when you suffer.

Sonic opened one dull green eye and forced a laugh weakly. He felt the horrid emptiness as he moved, but when the relaxing thoughts of dreamland set in and chili dogs filled his mind, his belly merely rumbled.

At first, it had felt like a healthy hunger. Sonic, if you wanted to think about it thoroughly, was a junior in high school, though he'd never been to one. Seventeen years of age, and, as if his superpower didn't already curse him with a forever empty stomach, he was at that age where boys tend to eat. A lot.

But, no more did it feel like a healthy hunger, like one you get before you're about to eat. No, it felt like fasting now. Though his stomach still rumbled, he'd almost come to accept this. He groaned as the organ rapped against his chest and closed the eye that had opened. "Leave me alone, Gaia. I'm sleepy, so let me lie."

Gaia sighed. You worry me. Please, take some of my strength.

"No way I'm…" Sonic spoke limply.

Do it. If you don't, you'll pass into unconsciousness.

Too late. Sonic was already in an unconscious state and far beyond it. He was already dreaming of different times and different places. The werehog stirred the body, trying to get his host to reawaken.

Dusk? Dusk! The werehog huffed with impatience, trying his last resort. Sonic!

"Whaaat?" Moaned Sonic, gingerly moving his aching body.

Be careful. I fear you will die from starvation.

Sonic's eyes rolled into his head. He couldn't think straight, and his vision was slowly going black again. "Since when did you ever care about anything, Gaia?"

The werehog had absolutely no time to answer because Vapira entered, a whip firmly in hand. A sleek black cobra replaced the raven today. "Well, young one? Are you ready to work?" The snake slithered from her arm to her neck and hissed, flaring its hood.

Sonic snarled as, with a click of the cat lady's heel, he was released from his shackles and into the water below. "I can barely stand, much less walk! Work?! How do you expect me to work?! He retorted, weakly getting to his feet.

"That's easy." Vapira grinned sadistically, and Sonic's ears flattened. He knew he was going to regret asking that question. The golden-eyed cat's eyes turned red as, with a flourish of her skinny, gnarled hand, she'd produced a fat, dripping chilidog.

Sonic felt his knees grow weak and buckle upon the sight of it. Now he felt he length of time it had been since his last meal that he had eaten, and he was horribly aware of how delicious it smelled. He licked his lips, and even Gaia seemed tempted.

"Work good and long, and you can have all the chilidogs you want." Vapira cackled, watching him grow weak and sink into the water again at the sight of his favorite food.

I swear it's a trick. Gaia warned. Don't trust her.

"I don't." Sonic muttered under his breath, indulging in the thick, sweet scent of safe meat in the air. "But, I do trust chilidogs."

You're pathetic. The werehog rolled his eyes. Sonic, of course, could tell.

"Look who's talking." He muttered, attention once again gravitating towards the delicious food.

Vapira waved it temptingly, as if she's tied a bone before a little dog. "Follow me, young one. Your work begins."

(())

See? I told you not to trust her.

"I told you," Sonic huffed, doing the job of a mule by pulling a grinding stone, "I never trusted her."

Of course not. You went with that selfish black hole you call a stomach!

Sonic was just about ready to break down and cry. His bones were aching, his muscles strained from unreasonable amounts of work, and his stomach beyond empty. Now this entity, who had caused this suffering, was yelling at him?! "Can you blame me?!" He choked, holding back a sob. "I'm aching in places I never thought I could ache, and my stomach is unreasonably empty! Don't yell at me!"

Don't start crying now. I suppose I can't blame you, since even I feel your suffering. It will affect my form tonight.

"Oh perfect!" The teenage hedgehog snapped, dropping the harness he'd been using to pull the grinding stone. "My strongest transformation yet, and even you fall to pieces at…!"

"Daddy!"

Sonic pricked his ears. "That sounds like Elicia!"

I smell fear. Gaia told him.

Sonic gave himself to the werehog's canine-akin abilities. Her scent was clear to him, plain a day. Delicious in a new way; not as food, but as a young woman. He pinpointed her exact location and, despite the weakness curling its vice tighter about him like Vapira's cobra, sprang into action. He dashed across the grassy ground, feet beating the earth faster than he'd ever gone before. The wind whipped his ears until he was sure they were bleeding, every tendon in his already tense, overworked muscles was about ready to pop out of its socket, but still he was focused on his purpose.

Finding Elicia, and finding her now, that was his objective. And the only one that could've mattered to him.

He came upon an old well. The dampness in the air assured him there was still water down below. He strained his ears for her voice, rocking on his impatient heels.

"Daddy? Father, is that you?!" Her voice held bounce and fright. Sonic wondered if he could possibly be enough for her.

"Not quite, Elicia." He poked his head over the edge of the well, grabbing the rusty old bucket hanging from a pulley crank.

"Sonic!" The raccoon girl cried. "I missed you!"

The hedgehog threw down the bucket. "Grab a firm hold of it and I'll pull you up, okay?"

"Okay, Sonic!" Elicia eagerly grabbed hold of the bucket and Sonic pulled her up.

His arms were aching enough to bring tears to his eyes by the time she was safely beside him on grassy ground again. She stared at him innocently bright deep gray eyes flashing curiosity. "What are you doing out here? I thought you fled."

"Mmmm, change of plans." Sonic answered dismissively, resting his overworked body in the soft grass beneath him. "Ah, that's better. I haven't sat down in ages."

Elicia sat beside him, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Father and I came out to the country to escape the destruction. We-I-didn't expect to find you here." She closed her eyes against his cobalt fur, and Sonic couldn't help the hot blush that crossed his face. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Me either." Cobalt answered bashfully as the wind stirred both sets of fur.

Elicia traced a pattern through his soft chest fur. It felt nice, and Sonic leaned into it with a purr. It was nicer than he'd been treated for a long time. He relented to her calm motion, letting her touch just melt his pains away…until they all came rushing back five seconds later.

Two dark figures approached.

"Elicia!" One growled.

"Sonic!" The other hissed.

"Father!" Elicia cried, jumping clean out of her stockings.

"Vapira!" Sonic's eyes grew wide at this cry. Suddenly, he wanted noting more than to tear her to pieces. He could feel Gaia stirring, ready to be released at his command for once.

"Elicia, how dare you associate with that…that…thing!" Solomon's words burned his ears.

"A thing?" Sonic rose darkly, fur turning duller, thicker. Claws coming out of his gloves, longer and longer. Quills becoming sharp knives… "A THING?!" He roared, the full transformation coming out. "How DARE you call me a thing!" And, with the swipe of his mighty paw, he knocked out Elicia's father.

Still half himself, he rounded on Vapira. As if he were diving into a bed of chilidogs, he jumped onto her, crushing her beneath him and clawing her into pieces until he screaming ceased. Then, he devoured any parts he wished messily, like a wolf at his kill. He didn't even notice Elicia's presence until her soft hand pressed against his back.

"So," she mused, pretending not to be afraid but trembling, "this is what you really are?"

Sonic swallowed and nodded, ashamed that she had to see him like he was now. Vapira was surprisingly delicious, though he could feel the burn of her last defense attacking the weak points of his body.

He had once again filled the wrong stomach.

Anguish caused him to cry out in a howl at a nonexistent moon, the silver fang embedded into his neck. Whether death had come from the poisonous blood that ran through Gaia's veins or his slashing, Vapira's final attack was doing more to him than he'd done to her.

And he was dying from it.

Elicia felt this and frantically searched through the thick fur (which was quickly receding in his weakened state, back to normal Sonic again) about his neck to find the silver fang. "Hold on, Sonic!" She breathed anxiously. "Please! Hold on! I love you, hold on! Please!"

There were those words. I love you. And Sonic held those words in his heart as the world faded to black and red.