Legends: The Song of a Sorrowful Queen
A queen always knows... and a mother never forgets.
My name is Queen Aleena Hedgehog, sovereign monarch and ruler of the kingdom of South Island. I am something of an 'ethereal' beauty, I am told, with a tall and graceful frame, covered in purple fur and quills. I favor an ornate white gown, with a yellow cloak and the golden crown of my ancestors. I stand taller than most mobian women, a fact which helps me command respect with my subjects, and with my enemies can be a perfect tool of intimidation when I stand at my full height. I am told I command attention by all when I enter a room, although there are times I wish I could simply fade in the background and disappear.
My kingdom is South Island, Mobius's second largest and most prosperous nation after the Acorn Kingdom on Westside island (though which of us is the dominant power has switched back and forth from age to age). Our capital is Starlight City, a beautiful brownstone and brick metropolis that glitters under the starry dome of the night sky. Our kingdom was founded by my direct ancestor, the great Aman-Rapi, who built his first capital in what is now the Marble Zone. It was a later pair of ancestors, Queen Penelope and King Masonic Hedgehog, who moved the capital to Starlight, and left the Marble Zone to crumble into ruins. Our kingdom has been through many trials and tribulations, but none as perilous as what has occurred within my own lifetime.
There is not much to say of my own youth, it passed in an uneventful blink of an eye. When I reached my early adult years, I was courted by King Nigel Acorn, who sought my hand to possibly unite our kingdoms. But it was a minor nobleman from my own kingdom that caught my eye, and won my heart. His name was Sir Paul Parlouzer. (Whom I affectionately called 'Paulie'), and his low nobility status meant he had a regular job as a mail courier. I appreciated how honest and straightforward this blue male hedgehog was with me, something I rarely found among the nobility of any Kingdom. We were married on my twenty-fifth birthday, and took our honeymoon in his biplane.
Sadly, our happiness was very brief. Not even a year into our marriage, my royal consort took his biplane up into a fierce storm that covered South Island. They found the wreckage on the coast the next day, along with what was left of my Pauile. But I was already pregnant when I lost my love, so a part of him would be with me, forever. A few months later, I gave birth to three beautiful babies; my two infant sons Nicky and Manic, and my beautiful daughter, Sonia. Each was a precious angel in their own way, with Sonia looking like a younger version of myself (with slightly pinker quills), and Manic had the wild-looking green quills of my father. But Nicky... he looked just like his father, and every time I saw him, I was reminded of the brash and headstrong hedgehog I had lost.
But as the triplets began to age, I found the royal servants and I were unable to taker care of young Nicky. It seems fate had granted my child the mysterious power of super-speed, and from the moment he could walk, little Prince Nicky Parlouzer was zipping all over the castle, driving the members of the royal court crazy. It was then that the royal court mage, a mobian crocodile named the Oracle of Delphius, foretold that many villains would try to kidnap little Nicky to steal his powers for themselves, and it would be better if I were to give him to someone else to raise. I was vehemently against it at first, but after several kidnaps attempts, my captain of the guard, Argus, insisted I give up Nicky to protect his two siblings. Reluctantly, I handed my speedy son over to Paulie's brother, Sir Charles Hedgehog, who looked just like Paulie and Nicky, except for his thick mustache.
Sir Charles took the child to the coast, and raised him with the aid of an owl warrior, a battle bird defector named Longclaw. They changed Nicky's name to try to protect him, but a raiding party from one of the echidna clans found them, and attacked. My guards rushed to the coast, but all they found were the bodies of Longclaw and Sir Charles. There was no sign of my precious baby, and I assumed he was lost forever. I buried my added sorrow, and concentrated on raising my other two children. Sonia I placed under the care of Lady Windermere, a noble nanny who taught my only daughter how to be a proper lady. Manic... didn't care for life at court, and often ran off to spend time with the criminal gangs in society. I shuddered at the influence an insectoid crime lord named Farrel had on him.
I thought this was the end of my sorrows, until the day I heard about a new hero helping the people of mobius. A super-fast blue hedgehog named Sonic had helped to liberate Acorn Kingdom from the hostile takeover of a warlord named Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Those in my court who knew of the royal family's secret insisted it must be Nicky, but I refused to believe my baby was alive. I had suffered enough through false hopes and rumors, and I would not let my heart be broken again. But then Robotnik decided to attack my kingdom, and South Island's defenses were soon overcome by his army of airships and swatbots. I was forced to go into hiding with the resistance, while my two remaining children went on the run, a price on their heads.
This is where this Sonic Hedgehog came to my children's rescue. He found the prince and princess while they were disguised in a café, and being the noble hero he is, offered to be their bodyguard as they stayed on the move. The trio took on the cover of being a traveling rock band, and drove from one end of South Island to the other over the course of several months. Robotnik sent a pair of bounty hunters, named Sleet and Dingo, after Sonic and my children, but the three hedgehogs were able to always stay one step ahead of the sly wolf and mad Dingo. Over the several months they traveled together, Sonic and my children had several adventures with South Island's freedom fighters, as well as even paying a few visits on Angel island, to Seek aid from the Knuckles and Athair, the last two echidnas.
After several months of underground resistance, my forces were able to drive Robotnik's armies from our island. Sonic brought my children back to the capital, and then vanished as mysteriously as he had come. It has been many years since then, and we have never seen Sonic the hedgehog or his friends ever again. Sonia and Manic still speculate as to who the hero who protected them was, and they will often tell me tales of how they played concerts with Sonic, Manic slamming the drums, while Sonia played an electric keyboard, as sonic strummed a guitar. Even now, as Sonia prepares to marry her fiancé Lord Bartleby, and Manic is courting the princess of Westside island, they both still dream of casting aside their adult responsibilities, traveling and performing again with the mysterious Sonic.
I know the claims that the elder members of my court make, but I know the truth; Sonic the Hedgehog is not my son. Prince Nicky died that day when the echidnas attacked, and sonic is a free spirit who plays by his own rules. A mother knows her child, and while that Sonic is the kind of man I wish Nicky had grown into, I will go to my grave knowing with certainty, that my baby is gone forever.
Next: The Lament of Sara from Planet Freedom
