His head was killing him.
That was the first thing that struck him and he really wished it didn't. It throbbed and ached like someone had slammed his skull against a wall. He sat up with excessive caution, taking a few minutes to regain consciousness in full.
But when his dizziness slowly disappeared and the throbbing in his head lessened, the little hedgehog took the time to take in his surroundings.
He...was in a forest, he realized that immediately. Trees were towering everywhere, bushes and shrubs adorned the area and from afar he thought he could even hear the rushing of a river.
He himself sat on the ground, in the soft grass under a tree that gave him shade and blew gently in the wind.
Where...was he here? And how did he get here?
His brain was working overtime as he tried to remember what had happened, but everything was black.
The last thing he remembered was a bright light and then just black emptiness spreading through his head. Memory loss? Exactly what he needed right now.
Carefully trying to get up, the little hedgehog supported himself on the nearby tree, whimpering audibly when the pain in his head increased again. Not that anyone here could hear him.
Slowly he leaned back against the trunk, trying to somehow get his footing again, but in his current state that wasn't so easy.
He generally felt tired, but he couldn't explain why that was. If only he could remember...
The sound of the river was in his ears again and the little hedgehog perked up before forcing his legs to bear his full weight again. Carefully pushing himself off the tree trunk and stumbling forward awkwardly, but caught himself in the last moment before he could fall over.
Maybe some cold water could help him...
As such he stumbled, wandered disoriented through the forest, before the noise finally got louder and the little one found himself in front of a beautifully glittering river, settling down.
His reflection, on the other side, saw him as he peeked in to take a good look at himself. At least everything was still there. His two black ears were still attached to his head, his little nose twitched excitedly and, apart from the slightly tangled spikes, he looked okay. Maybe a bit roughed up.
First he took off his gloves, laid them on the grass next to him and then filled his hands with some water before finally splashing it on his face. The cold water ran down his face and actually seemed to be working its wonders. He immediately felt more awake, a little clearer in his head.
He ran his arm across his face, wiping the excess water from his fur...and stopped short when his hand became smeared with dark red that reminded him of blood.
Carefully the little hedgehog touched his head and when he lowered his hand again, his fingers showed more traces of blood.
It took him a while to realize what had happened, but soon the little one cursed and looked into the river again. He had to squint quite a bit to see anything, but gradually he could make out a small cut on his left temple, which at first had gone unnoticed because of his black fur.
Great, that was the last thing he needed right now. He could hardly do anything about it and so he just quickly washed his hands in the river, dried them on his clothes and then put his gloves back on.
He lingered there on the riverbank for a while, breathing in and out evenly, trying to plan his next move...
"Oh, hey Shads!"
Startled, the black hedgehog flinched, curiously looking for the person to whom the voice belonged to.
There, on the other side, stood a blue hedgehog.
"What the...?" Shaddy whispered, blinking...and blinking again. The hedgehog looked similar to his friend Sonic, but...it couldn't possibly be him. Why wasn't he wearing any clothes-?
"Speechless, huh?"
With one leap the blue hedgehog jumped across the narrow river, sending a shiver down the spine of the smaller one, who was back on his feet within seconds, staring all but wide-eyed at the new arrival.
That dude, however, only grinned amused. "You've shrunk."
His gaze trailed over the smaller one in front of him. He...didn't exactly look like the Shadow he knew. So small, maybe even a bit fragile, and... he was wearing clothes too. Also missing were the rocket shoes that the other could always be spotted in.
To say Sonic was a bit suspicious could be proven right, and apparently it wasn't just him.
Shaddy looked the other one up and down as well. No words in the world could describe how the black hedgehog felt when he saw the younger boy. It definitely wasn't his Sonic.
"Get the fuck away from me!" he growled instinctively, taking a step back. At that moment, even his headache and the nagging certainty of the head wound subsided, but Sonic seemed to notice.
He narrowed his eyes, trying to see it clearer that way. The wound was actually hardly visible, but the dark blood glistened in the sun and the blue hedgehog realized that the other probably wasn't doing so well.
"Quit staring at me!" Shaddy snapped, backing away even further, but Sonic just seemed pretty unimpressed.
"You're bleeding, lil' one. I think it would be better if you had that checked out.", he replied, pointing at the wound as if it wasn't obvious what he meant, but Shaddy only growled at him.
Lowering his hand again, Sonic pondered how to proceed from here.
This definitely wasn't his Shadow, but whoever he was seemed confused from how he got here.
"Say...do you know where you are?"
The growling stopped with Shaddy visibly considering his answer. However, he was shaking his head, seeming different.
His ears dropped and the general aggressive behavior disappeared as Shaddy flinched. It made Sonic sigh.
"Okay, I have no idea what's going on here, but what I do know is that you're injured and need help," he began, waiting for a growl that surprisingly never came. It encouraged the speedster to keep talking.
"I can help you, okay? But you have to trust me for that."
Shaddy looked up, eyeing the teenager suspiciously. His parents had taught him not to go with strangers. Even though this stranger resembled his friend, it wasn't him. And how could he possibly help him anyway?
"As if you could help me." the black hedgehog voiced his thoughts, crossing his arms with his gaze to the side. Sonic frowned.
"Even though I might not be able to help you get back to wherever-you-come-from, I can at least patch you up, right? I know a little bit about first aid."
Shaddy wanted to say no, wanted to just go and leave him in the dust, but then his aching head reminded him that he probably had no other choice...
He had no idea where he was, how he got here and what had happened in the first place. The only thing he was 100% sure about, was the fact that he got an injury which possibly could get infected. And with no first aid kit in sight, he feared exactly that would happen.
"So?"
Sonic was getting impatient, steadily shifting his weight from one foot to another as he waited impatiently.
"If you want to think about it longer, I can go on a quick run!"
The smaller 'hog grumbled, deciding to accept the offer of treatment, although he didn't necessarily think it was a good idea to follow this stranger home.
"Fine." Shaddys red eyes held that suspicion in them still. "I'll come with you, but that doesn't mean I trust you."
Sonic shrugged and darted forward, taking the younger's arm into his hand. "Whatever you say, little one," he said with a grin, that Shaddy just wanted to wipe from his ugly face.
He even preferred his own Sonic to this one. Unbeliebable, he even thought that.
"Don't fucking touch me!" Pulling his arm away from the blue hedgehog, he folded them across his chest, sounding less amused when he asked his next question, "So, what's next?"
Sonic mused for barely a second, then smiled and turning around.
"Get on"
He would just give the little one a piggyback ride home, piece of cake!
However, Shaddy didn't seem to like that idea much. "I'm not getting on your back, I'm not crazy!"
Narrowing his eyes at the other he scowled while Sonic couldn't suppress one himself.
This little guy was incredibly stubborn.
"Well, I don't think you can walk to Tails' workshop in your condition, so how about you just accept my help and save that stare for another time?", the blue hedgehog spoke up now, grinning triumphantly. He probably had given the little one a plausible reason to give in.
"It won't hurt you, now come on! The sooner we get going, the sooner I can help you and then you can run off again, for all I care."
Shaddy actually couldn't say anything about it and so he reluctantly climbed onto the larger hedgehogs back, who blinked at his surprisingly light weight.
Normally Sonic would joke about it now, but since the smaller one was pissed off enough already, he just let it be. "Alright, let's go! Hold on tight!"
The blue hedgehog took off within the blink of an eye, leaving only dust and a light blue trail of chaos energy behind.
Throughout the tour, Shaddy clung to him, burying his face in a blue-furred shoulder.
Luckily, Mystic Jungle was only a stone's throw away in super-speed, so that the two hedgehogs arrived by the desired building in just a few seconds.
It wasn't until Sonic came to a complete stop that Shaddy raised his head cautiously, blinking as he took in the unfamiliar surroundings. It looked...like a jungle?
"Where...are we?" he whispered, trying to sound as disinterested as possible, which was difficult given his increasing curiosity.
"Impressed, huh? You don't have a place like that where you come from?"
With a grin on his face, Sonic carefully let the little one slide off his back, who was still in awe by his surroundings.
"What's the name of this place?" Shaddy rephrased his question, huffing as Sonic started giggling.
"This, my striped friend, is Mystic Jungle, home of my friend Tails and I~!"
"Hm..." The black hedgehog nodded to show that he understood, finally looking over at the small house they were standing in front of. His blue companion grinned.
"Let's go inside, it's more comfortable there." Pushing open the door Sonic went inside, Shaddy blinking in surprise when it didn't seem to be locked. The customs here definitely seemed different than at his home.
"Come in or do you have to be carried?" the host joked with another grin on his face.
Shaddy kept himself from answering, entering the home quickly and immediately removing his shoes as he had been taught to do.
Only his new acquaintance seemed completely unfamiliar with this custom as he smiled amused and Shaddy just stared back with one raised eyebrow.
"What?"
"Nothing. I'm just surprised you're so polite."
Shaddy couldn't help but look at the younger hedgehog in total perplexity. Taking off his shoes was...polite? That was a completely normal gesture!
"I only do what my parents taught me.", the smaller one justified himself despite his amazement and stayed in the hallway, until Sonic finally told him he was allowed to enter the living room.
"Stay there, I'll be back in a sec'!" As soon as that was said, the blue hedgehog disappeared.
Meanwhile, Shaddy remained seated on the sofa. Because of all the excitement he had completely forgotten about his head wound, but now was relieved to find that it didn't hurt that much anymore. He would probably be fine.
Despite that, he was pretty happy to have met Sonic. He was most likely in quite some trouble and without a helping hand, he wouldn't know what to do next.
As his thoughts continued to revolve around Sonic and this world, said devil darted around the corner in a flash, sitting down on the couch with a first aid kit.
"Man, Tails hid that thing far away, I can tell ya." he mumbled more to himself than his visitor, opening the kit.
Shaddy didn't answer, only turned to the blue hedgehog so he could patch him up.
While Sonic cleaned the wound and the black hedgehog endured everything in pained silence, a number of questions rose in both their heads, but nobody said them out loud just yet.
Only when Shaddy was being tortured with the disinfectant, did he open his mouth to ask a more than just stupid question.
"Why are you helping me? I'm nothing more than a stranger to you."
Sonic just hummed in amusement, looking at the bandages and band-aids in the box.
"You know kiddo...I'm Sonic the Hedgehog! Helping others is just kinda how I roll!" he answered honestly with a proud smile on his face, but which Shaddy didn't return.
"Hm..." The little one grumbled, digging his fingers into the fabric of his pants at the stinging pain coming from the wound.
Eventually Sonic retracted his hand again, giving the striped kid a pat on his shoulder.
"Okay, we're done! How are you feeling?"
Shaddy shrugged, leaning back against the couch. "Exhausted"
Sonic nodded, tidying the first-aid kit and locking it again with one quick movement.
"So...I've already introduced myself to you: I'm Sonic! And you are...?"
"Annoyed by your constant questions."
Another grin crept onto the blue hedgehog's face, but Shaddy too seemed to be smiling beneath his annoyed facade.
"Be serious for a moment here. Is your name Shadow?"
A nod was the answer before red eyes beheld the hedgehog curiously. Shaddy sat up straight, nervously playing with the gold rings on his wrists. "You mistook me for another Shadow earlier..."
"Yep! I know one and you look a lot like him... Well, if you look closely, I can see some differences-"
"Um...Sonic...?"
Another unfamiliar voice sounded, making Shaddy look up in surprise. There in the doorway stood a yellow fox that looked suspiciously like his friend back at home.
Tails looked at him first, then at Sonic and finally back at him, where his gaze lingered for a long long time.
"Oh, hey Tails!" his big brother greeted him with a smile before patting Shaddy on the shoulder again. "Look who I found lost in the woods!"
The smaller one didn't comment on the choice of words, lifted one hand and waved at the fox, who still looked *very* perplexed.
"What...is Shadow doing at our house?" he choked out. Shaddy studied the kids demeanour. The Shadow these two knew didn't seem to like them very much, if they reacted like this in his presence.
"I'm not Shadow...at least not who you think I am," he answered before Sonic could, earnting a confused stare in return as well as a squeaked out, "...What?"
Tails obviously still processed all of this, being cautious around the black hedgehog as well and sitting down next to his big brother in safe distance from him. Still, he couldn't take his eyes off Shaddy.
"The little one here needs help. He doesn't seem to remember what he's doing here or how he got here in the first place." Sonic explained, finally getting up and bringing the first-aid kit back to where he got it from.
"So...we need your smart brain, little buddy."
Tails seemed to be have puzzled himself into this situation at last and nodded. "Are you...from another dimension?" he asked Shaddy, but the older kid just shrugged.
"Okay, that makes the whole thing a bit more complicated..."
The young fox's twin tails moved excitedly as he dug out his Miles Electric from somewhere Shaddy couldn't see. It was probably stowed under the coffee table...probably. But he was satisfied with that explanation, so he didn't give it much thought.
"What exactly do you remember?" Tails mumbled, tapping away on his smart tablet. "Maybe that can help us."
"Bright light." Was the simple answer and when both brothers tilted their heads in confusion, the black hedgehog only shrugged. "That's all."
The fox blinked. "Okay... Anything else? What was your environment like?"
"No idea."
Tails lowered his tablet in defeat. "That's...not very helpful actually." The child frowned as he searched for an answer.
"Hm...I'm guessing that you suffer from amnesia, memory loss. But this is usually short-lived, so maybe you'll remember again tomorrow."
"I hope so"
As Shaddy shifted his attention elsewhere, Tails and Sonic exchanged looks.
"Should we tell Amy? Maybe she can take him in, she has a guest room after all...", the fox suggested, getting an approving nod in return.
"Great idea, buddy! How about you call her?" With an encouraging pat on the back, Sonic straightened up with an ear flick and didn't even notice anymore, how the fox did exactly what he had been told.
"Hey Shads, we're visiting someone and you need to come with us."
Red eyes opened, Shaddy grumbling unhappily as he fixed his gaze on the blue hedgehog with a huff. "Why?"
"It's about you, so I think it might be quite interesting for you." And with that, Sonic turned his attention away from him and back to his little brother, who just finished the call.
"Alright, Amy says we can come over any minute."
"Oh great! Does she already know what it's about?"
Tails shook his head, making Sonic snort and Shaddy look confused.
"Let's not waste any time, then! I can't wait to see her face when she sees a miniature Shadow!"
Sighing Shaddy lifted his body off the couch, putting his shoes back on, while mentally preparing himself for the chaos that was about to follow...
Just what had he gotten himself into?
=
Hey hey hey!
It's been so long, but Chapter 2 is finally here!
I actually wanted to start writing and uploading faster and now it hasn't come to anything. Hopefully you don't have to wait that long for Chapter 3... xD
Well, Shaddy, my AU Shadow, is now officially present too! I want to be honest: being found and treated by Sonic like this is exhausting. Especially after going through god-knows-what. xD
Surely you can imagine what happens in the next chapter...? :3
Thank you very much for reading and hope you have a nice day! 3
XxSilver_LeaxX