"Hello? Anyone around here?"

It would be very foolish to call out to anyone in a heavy sea of trees that was possibly home to a monster that eats people and animals. But to Amy, it was a chance to find and hopefully learn what really happened in the news and what saved her that fateful night. She kept a good tight grip on her bag strap as she walked further through while looking around. She couldn't help, but feel amazed at how beautiful the forest looked in the day time. The sun rays were gleaming down from the tops which seemed to glitter as the branches blow gently in the breeze. Small critters scampered away from her in fear, and others continue their normal lives by surviving to find food, or shelter.

Amy smiled at one of the squirrels that scampered by with a couple of acorns in it's mouth. It was pretty funny how wide it's cheeks were on both sides. She walked a little more till she noticed a split in the path that they had taken last night. She remembered this are very much and knew what path she had taken. But the others, she wondered where Sonic, Sally, and Cream had taken before. It must've been safer than what she had used.

"He~~llo? I'm not wanting a fight! I just want to talk to whoever saved me that night!" she called out again hoping for at least a small response.

All she got was the harmonious noise of the forest. Sighing to herself, she continued to press on on a different path this time, but kept her ears open for at least anything suspicious. After a while, all she found was nothing, but trees, bushes, trees, chipmunks...trees...it was really starting to annoy her. It even made her worried that she might not be able to find anything at all. Placing her bag down, she plopped down on a tree stump that was beside her and slumped in her seat by crossing her arms and placing them on her knees.

She sighed again, but louder this time in a frustrated way, "Come on..." she looked up at the tree tops. "I just want a sign! I really wanna talk to you! I don't think your a monster since you saved me! But if you wanna kill me, then be my guest cause I'm already dying of boredom!"

With that little complaint, she was able to at least hear something strange. It was a sound of leafs and sticks breaking under heavy stomps creeping up to her. This didn't sound a "snake". Snakes slither, not stomp. Unless the monster had grown feet. It sounded like it was getting closer and closer to her. Her heart started to pump fast and hard. She might've regretted going in the forest alone with nothing, but a pencil and a can of pepper spray. Amy slowly turned her head to see not a horrible monster from the news, but a large brown bear creeping up to her.

"Shit!" she screamed getting up and grabbing her bag along with her as she stared down the bear slowly backing away from it, "Uh...b-by monster...I didn't mean you...!"

The bear didn't seem to care. It's mouth was open to show long sharp fangs with little drool dripping from the bottom lip to the ground. Papa bear was hungry and it looked like she was sadly on the menu. Amy continued to back away trying to think of anything to do to ward off this massive animal. If she ran, it would chase after her and they say never to run away from bears cause they will catch you in little seconds. She wasn't big enough to stand up and growl at it to try and scare it away when she's the one being scared right now.

Amy clutched the bag tightly to her chest daring to bring out the pepper spray as the bear was much, much closer to her, "No...please..." she whimpered under her breath fearing that this might be her last time on earth. She never made it further with Sonic, she never married him and had a loving family, or even graduated to get into college to be doctor. All her future plans seemed to be down the drain for her.

She took another step back as her foot broke a thicker stick making a loud 'snap'. It must've caused the bear to react as it immediately jumped off it's back legs and lunged at her causing her to scream and crouch in a defensive position. Suddenly, a long thick tail sprouted out from no where wrapping it around the bear and pushing it with such force, the bear falls to the ground a couple trees away from Amy. She didn't feel anything touch her, but a blast of wind against her body and a sound of a something heavy hitting the ground far away from her. She slowly opened her eyes to see the bear several feet from her, but in front of her was a black and red "thing" that stood tall and strong. Almost like it was protecting her.

The being looked like it had a body of a large snake that was long enough to wrap around a house, and the top what looked to be a black hedgehog with long jagged black quills that had red streaks on the tops and it's arms to it's fingers. The tail was fully black with the bottom the same colored red and a little pale red color for its belly. The bear quickly got up from the ground now seeing a major threat in front of it's prey. It got up on it's hind legs and started making it's way over to monster. The monster rushes at it in no seconds and quickly slammed itself into the bear pushing it back down to the ground and quickly sank it's fangs into the bear's arm. Amy clutched her ears tightly to drown out the deafening cry from the bear. She quickly turned away from the sight as the monster started wrapping it's massive tail around the animal coiling it till only the head of the bear was shown.

The bear continued to try and fight it's way out while roaring and crying in pain as it started to squeeze harder and harder till there was a sickening crack from the animal. The bear's spine was broken and it was completely limp in the monster's coils alive, or dead. Once she heard there was no fighting, or any terrible sounds, Amy slowly looked back to the monster quickly noticing the large tail coiled around the animal. She even noticed the bear's head that was limp and hanging with it's tongue laying out of it's mouth. The monster slowly turned to her. His piercing red eyes stared down into her terrified green orbs making her shiver in place. It was him. The monster everyone was talking about. The one who saved her then and now, was standing before her. Before the monster could speak, all Amy could see was nothing, but black as she passed out in font of him.


Amy began to come out of her sleep. She started to feel warm. Like something was wrapped around her body, or a warm light of a fire beside her. It felt calming to her, but only a little after what she witnessed before. Slowly opening her eyes, she could only see blur, but looked to be in a cave. It was fairly dark with what little light was beside her to warm her up, or bright up what little it can in the room. Amy slowly sat up groaning to herself as she felt something fall from her chest. Looking down, it was worn out blanket that had a few holes in a couple of places, but was pretty warm to use if needed.

"Huh? Where...?" she looked around as her vision began to go back to normal. The cave was like any other cave, but it had some things that normally wouldn't be in it. There were a couple piles of books in one corner, a small cardboard box beside what looked to be leafs and sticks. On top of the box was a worn out old battery-powered radio. And some bags that contain fruit, and the other which might've contained animal carcasses since there were tails sticking out from the top. She grimaced at the sight which also reminded her of what that monster had done to that bear.

"Your awake." Amy's eyes quickly darted over to entrance where she heard the voice. There stood the monster from then and before holding a small brown bag in his hand.

She screamed in fear making him flinch as she squirmed out of the bed and far away from him by pressing her back against the wall of the cave, "D-Don't come any closer! I will attack if necessary!" she threatened.

The monster rolled his eyes, "Oh so you'll attack me, but you couldn't attack the bear, which I might add that I just saved you from..." he pointed out as he slithered his way to her makeshift bed and placed the bag down before turning his body around to the other side of the cave.

Amy glared at him, "W-Well...it came out of nowhere! I would've if I knew it was there! W-Where is it...?" she asked possibly regretting her question.

The monster turned to her with no word, but pointed his hand down to his tail to what looked to be a slightly large bulge in the middle of the tail. She, unfortunately, knew what he meant and was trying her best not to think of how this monster could swallow a whole bear that big. Just the thought of something being swallowed whole wasn't helping her stomach. Amy gulped down some vomit that was beginning to come out, then looked back up to him, "S-So...you...your...your that..."

"Spit it out." the monster groaned while he was busy moving the bags of fruit and bodies around and keeping his eyes away from her.

"Uhh...your...that monster? The thing that ate a boy and a dog...?" The monster sighed.

"You humans don't know anything..." he turned around to face her making her flinch this time, "Yeah. I'm that "monster". But I'll have you know that I never ate a boy and I never ate a dog. Happy?"

Amy was very shocked at how bold he was to even say those to her. He must've hated how wrongfully accused the people made of him. She slowly pulled herself off the wall seeing that he might not be too threatening, but does have her guard up just in case, "What...are you?"

The monster crossed his arms while looking at her like she was stupid, or something, "Ever heard of a "Naga"?" he asked prompting her to shake her head. "A naga is a half snake, half person. I'm the last survivor of what used to be many till they all suddenly died out and left me to rot after them."

That part made her a little sad to hear that he was left alone all this time, "Oh...you have no friends? No family?" he shook his head with no expression.

"Don't need them. I've handled myself well till you idiots decided to show up. Not to mention trespassing in my forest giving me more to deal with than just a normal bear attack."

She sat down where she was huddled by and pulled her legs up and hugged them tightly, "It really wasn't my idea to come to the forest at that time..." she mentioned while looking away frustratedly.

"Pssh...doesn't matter. Your lucky I don't like the taste of human flesh. But feeling them in my coils does satisfy me hunger." he smirked making her inch further into the wall, "So why did you even enter my forest? Besides getting yourself into more trouble than you were before...?"

Amy watched him move his body so his tail was coiled around twice before he makes himself comfortable in the middle like a bean bag chair, "Well...uhh...I really didn't know what was chasing me and when I fell...you were there and you saved me by bringing me out of the forest."

He nodded now crossing his arms and placing them behind his head, "Whatever...I wanted you gone from my forest. But you couldn't stay away from danger, could you..?" he asked.

She chuckled a bit thinking it might be true since she can't seem to get away from Scourge and Fiona, "I guess..I...I also wanted to know what kind of monster you were. No one had really seen you this close before, so I wanted to do research on you."

This ticked him off a bit, "Not happening." he said abruptly.

"What? Why?"

"I won't be used as a pig in your experiment. I also don't want you to show anyone that I'm what they think I am."

Amy got up quickly while shaking her head, "No! No! I want to know, but I won't show anyone about you at all!" she started having him stare at her suspiciously. "I really wanna learn about the monster who saved me, because a regular monster would've eaten me, or killed me right there. But you didn't! So..I want to know why, and I want to know more about you."

He looked at her more suspiciously. He knew it wasn't a good idea to let anyone know of where he is, but she looked like a reasonable person. Though her kind was nothing, but a nuisance to him. He sighed out loud in a very frustrated way. Looking away from the begging eyes she was giving him, he let out a gruff, "Fine..." but quickly turned back to her with a deep glare. "But if I hear you telling those humans about me, I will kill you the way I killed that bear. Got it?"

She silently gulped, "C-Cross my heart...".

"Ugh...I can't believe I'm doing this for some female human..." he mumbled under his breath closing his eyes and crossing his arms. Amy moved closer to the bed where he possibly made for her after she fainted now noticing the brown bag he placed down.

"Huh?" she knelt down and picked up the bag, then opened it to reveal an assortment of fruit. Apples, berries, and what looked to be grass, but seemed edible. "Are these for me?" she asked as she looked up at him.

The monster nodded, "Yeah." was all he said without looking up, or opening his eyes.

She smiled a bit, "Thank you. I didn't know this place grew fruit. Is that another thing that helps you stay alive?" she took out an apple and looked over it to make sure it was okay to eat before biting into it.

"There are smaller animals to feed, but I only eat fruit for a couple days. Those animals feed the same as fruit, but a bigger animal like the bear will keep me satisfied for a week."

Amy was really surprised at how much she was starting to know about him. Realizing that thought, she quickly got up again and darted towards her bag that was close to the bed thankfully and took out her notepad and pen. She quickly wrote down what he said in a few minutes while taking another bite of her apple. After the last of answer he gave her was written down, she looked back up and asked, "Are you like a real snake, or are you different from them?"

He looked up at her finally with a confused look, "What?"

"Well...you are half snake. So do you have the mind of one, too?"

"No, I don't. My tail is the only thing that acts like a snake, but I'm capable of doing, and thinking things normally like you humans."

She continued to write down what he said, "Okay...who are your parents? Do you have any siblings? Are you really the only one of your kind, or do you think there are more out-"

A loud slam of his fist against the cave wall was able to silence her real quick. The monster's face was contorted into a mean and viscous glare that sent shivers down her spine. Amy slowly inched back to the wall after hearing him stop her questions. He slowly lowered his fist down and moved his body so he wasn't sitting on his tail, but it made him tall enough to have his shadow cover her body fully as he slithers further towards her. His eyes gleamed brightly in a threatening way.

"That will be enough questions..." he said in a low growl.

Amy didn't say anything, but quickly nodded to answer him. The monster slowly turned away from her and began to slither out of the cave leaving her almost petrified in fear. Although there was one question she needed to know before he left. Amy quickly got up on her knees, then stood up holding the notepad tightly to her chest, "W-Wait...! C-Can I ask one last question...?"

She could tell that he was tensing up. And even could see his fists clenching tightly almost shaking ready to strike. He didn't answer, but he didn't leave so it looked like that was enough for her to ask. "What's your name?" her voice was quiet, fearful of what he might do since he didn't want her to ask him anything anymore.

"...Shadow."

With that, the monster, Shadow, left the cave leaving her alone with her thoughts. Amy sat back down at her spot with her notepad out reading over the answers he had given her. "Shadow", huh? It suits him well. She thought. She still couldn't believe that she was the only one to see Shadow in person, not to mention live to tell about it. Tho, with her life in his hands now, she never will. Amy hoped to get more out of him, but will make sure not to ask any personal questions. She forgot that his clan was wiped out somehow and he had no family. No wonder he grew furious with her once she asked about that. Tho she did wonder what happened to them.

Thinking about that part, she quickly darted back to her backpack and pulled out her phone to check the time. Luckily, there was still time to get home before her mom does. It looked like Shadow was busy and after her "brilliant" move, he might not come back, or want her around for now. Picking up her things, she got up and threw the bag around her shoulders, then made her way out of the cave. She noticed that he was up on a hill over just slightly higher than the trees, but closer to the tree tops. The cave was still hidden in the trees so no one, or any animal could find it. She couldn't see where he was, but the view was grand to look at. She could really see a lot of the forest areas. No wonder Shadow claimed this as his home. It was easy for him to find food.

After taking another few seconds to look at the scenery, Amy tightened her hold on the strap, then started making her way down the hill carefully. She didn't want to make a repeat like that night, but luck wasn't on her side this time again. She made her way carefully down till her feet managed to find a rock that wasn't embedded into the earth and slipped out causing her to fall forward. She screamed out and closed her eyes ready for another tumble down a steeper and rocky hill.

But it never happened. Actually, she felt something wrap around her waist holding her in the air. Amy opened her eyes slowly to see her dangling in the air as she was now being lifted down to the very bottom. Looking down at whatever was holding her, she noticed the same black and red colored scales that was wrapped securely around her tiny frame. It might be the first time she's felt his weird body appendage. They were cold, of course, but his body was actually warm underneath the scales surprisingly.

They didn't feel slimy, or dry, the tail felt actually nice. Aren't snake's bodies cold, or at least wet and slimy? That would be another question she'll mentally keep for next time. She looked up quickly once she realized who saved her, thrice, she noticed that Shadow was gripping a nearby tree with one strong hand and using his tail to lower her down. His long tail was able to reach just a little of the bottom for her to easily slip out and land a few feet to the ground with a soft "thud".

Amy sighed in relief while clutching her chest tightly. She turned around and smiled up at him, "Thank you for saving me, again! Can I please come back tomorrow?" she asked almost to excitedly.

Shadow retracted his tail after Amy dropped to the ground below. He rolled his eyes dreading the fact that she still wanted to come back and ask him more questions. If he said no, then she'll probably wouldn't stop coming into his forest and making his life more miserable than it already was. With an annoyed huff, he grunted back, "Fine...but if you get yourself into trouble, then I wont save you again. Got it?" he glared down at her.

Amy quickly nodded almost smiling wide and happy to know that she was able to come back and see him again. She was more excited on the new discovery and cannot wait to learn more about this guy. After getting some directions back to the front of the forest where her bike was, she quickly turned away and darted off into the forest hoping that anymore larger animals wont come out and think she's food to them again. Shadow watched her disappear into the sea of trees till he couldn't see a slight of pink anywhere.

Moving his tail a bit, he couldn't help, but remember the feeling of her tiny body in his hold. How soft and warm she felt in his coils, how she rubbed against his scales. Shadow quickly and physically slapped himself to rid of any of those putrid thoughts. He hated to think of how awful those humans would taste so he wouldn't want to taste her at all. But thinking of how she felt was hard to imagine of how she would look just getting squeezed so much her life was plucked out from her eyes as he watched her with a sickening grin. Quickly shaking his head, Shadow quietly groaned as he once again, tried to erase any thoughts of her in any way as he made his way back to the cave to rest, dreading the next day.