Chapter 9

The next day, Shadow waited patiently on the other side of the river, waiting for Sonic while at the same time cuddling the little present he had for his mutual friend.

"Don't worry little one, he'll be here soon." Shadow said to the little blue Chao with the green eyes.

After the way he had hurt Sonic's feelings yesterday, Shadow wanted to make it up to him. And what better way than his very own Chao?

When he had went to the Chao Garden, he was pleased to see that the Chao the trap had caught the night before was still there. The Chao had immediately recognized him and was pleased that the hedgehog had decided to adopt him. Though, when he had told him that he was being given to his friend, the Chao was overly curious to know who this friend was.

Fortunately, the two didn't have to wait much longer, as out of the shadows on the other side of the river, Sonic jogged over to the bank, looking over and smiling at his friend. Shadow smiled back and waved. The blue hedgehog waved back and grabbed the rope, jumping onto it and swinging across.

"Shadow, what in the world do you have in your arms?" Sonic chuckled as he landed beside the black hedgehog.

"That, Faker, is your very own troll hunting Chao." Shadow explained playfully as he handed the Chao to his friend.

"Aw, hi buddy." Sonic cooed lovingly at the creature as he snuggled it. "He looks so much like me."

"That's why I wanted to adopt him for you." Shadow nodded. "I thought you'd like him. To be honest, he's been breaking into the training room at the fortress and Eggman wanted to catch him and kill him."

"What?!" Sonic gasped as he held the creature closer to him.

"But I wasn't gonna let him do it, so when the trap caught him, I took him to the Chao Garden… that's the thing I got in trouble for that I told you last night."

"Oh Shadow." Sonic smiled sympathetically. "You adopted him out as an apology to me, didn't you?"

Shadow blushed and sheepishly looked away, his ears pressed flat against his head.

"Shadow…" Sonic stepped forward and carefully placed a hand on the hedgehog's cheek, making him look at him. "Thank you."

Shadow blushed and he smiled, laying his own hand against Sonic's. "You're welcome."

Sonic smiled and let go of Shadow's cheek, snuggling the Chao again. "I'll name him Prince. Prince of Terabithia."

"The perfect name for such royalty." Shadow chuckled.

"Chao chao!" The Chao chirped in agreement.

Suddenly, the sound of stomping footsteps resonated through the forest. Prince chirped and growled, wiggling to get out of Sonic's arms.

"Prince senses the troll!" Sonic gasped, letting go of the Chao. "Go get it, boy."

"Chao chao chao!" Prince chirped angrily as he flew quickly in the direction the stomping was coming from.

Sonic and Shadow ran quickly behind the little blue creature, keeping up with him as well as keeping their eyes out for the troll. Suddenly, Prince stopped and growled dangerously at a large, mossy tree. The two hedgehogs stared at it. The stomping was gone, no tracks in sight. The tree showed no intelligent life.

"Prince, what is it, boy?" Sonic asked his new pet, petting his head gently. "It's just a tree, boy."

Shadow squinted his eyes at the giant tree. There was something off about it. Suddenly, bright white eyes opened up at the top, and the two branches connected at the sides began moving like arms. Shadow gasped.

"Sonic, you might wanna look again." He said to the blue one as Prince began to chirp louder.

Sonic looked up at the giant troll and gasped, seeing it alive. "Whoa!" Suddenly, the troll pulled it's rooted feet out of the ground, displaying it's nasty and gnarly toes. Sonic cringed. "Egh. Nice feet."

Sensing the sarcasm, the troll roared in anger.

"RUN!" Shadow ordered, grabbing Sonic's hand and running away from the giant creature. He pinned his ears down in fear as he hears the troll roar again and begin to chase them. "Sonic, what do we do?!"

"We have no choice." Sonic frowned. "We have to fight it."

"Fight it how? It's not like it's a robot or a Scourger. It can't be easily defeated."

"Oh but it can, Shadow." Sonic nodded. "Every enemy has a weak point. We just have to find it."

"But how can we when we're runni-"

"SHADOW WATCH OUT!"

Suddenly, Sonic pulled them to a stop, the two skidding across the ground. When Shadow looked ahead, he realized why. There was a cliff right in front of them, and they nearly just went over it. "Whoa!"

"Whoa is right." Sonic nodded as they both looked over the cliff. At least a 300 foot drop straight into rushing green, white frothing water. They would never survive. They were trapped.

They spun around as they heard the troll roar again. Eyes widened as the giant beast approached them, stomp after stomp shaking the ground. The two hedgehogs backed up in fear, stopping only when Shadow's foot slipped on the ledge, releasing tiny bits of gravel from the foundation and falling to the river below.

"What do we do, Sonic?" He asked the blue one fearfully.

Sonic frowned determinedly. "We do what we're good at. We fight."

"Two tiny hedgehogs up against this giant troll that's taller than the trees? You really do have a death wish."

"All it takes is finding its weakness, Shads. Think about it. What could be this creature's weakness?"

Shadow frowned in thought. "It's tall and bulky, like a tree… when a tree falls it doesn't fall very fast, and neither is the troll. It's slow and heavy."

"Exactly." Sonic grinned. "Run around. Confuse it. Get it close enough to the edge."

Shadow nodded and as soon as the troll was in reach of them they took off, circling the beast with their speed. The troll grunted and slowly turned, trying to keep up with the two speed demons. It brought it's arms down, pounding it's fists to the ground where it thought it might hit the hedgehogs, but each time, it missed. The troll started getting agitated, not realizing that it was starting to step closer to the cliff.

"It's working!" Sonic cried. "Keep going!"

Shadow nodded and kept running circles around the troll. At this point, Prince decided he wanted to help too. He flew up to the troll's face, growling at it and zipping around, trying to get the creature to swat at him. The troll did so, but it missed the Chao. Suddenly, it stepped too close to the edge of the cliff and the rock broke off, making the troll loose its footing and fall over. It cried out as it fell down to the river below, breaking apart like a dead log as it hit the rocks and branches jutting out on the side of the cliff.

The 300 foot drop caused the splash to be big and magnificent, sending the water up almost as high as the cliff itself. As it came back down, it flooded over the land on the other side, washing away a large part of the forest easily… a little too easily.

"That much water shouldn't have brought down those trees so easily." Shadow frowned as he and Sonic watched the flood. "Something's not right."

"You're right." Sonic agreed with a frown as well. "... Let's find a way down and check it out."

…

When the hedgehogs and the Chao finally found their way down, things suddenly started to look different.

Shadow went up to the trees that had been knocked down by the wave and started picking through them. They easily were pulled apart, as if they weren't solid to begin with.

"Sonic… these trees are dead." He said to his blue companion. "Every single one of them."

Sonic frowned and bent down to the ground, scraping away at the wet dirt. It wasn't even real, and underneath was a fine grayish black powder. "Ash?"

"This… land is dead." Shadow frowned. "It's been dead for a long time… Why would someone cover it up?"

"Let's follow the fake land and see where it goes."

Shadow nodded in agreement and followed his friend. As they walked, more and more pieces started to stand out. The flowers were made of plastic. The rocks and trees were hollow. The dirt started to disappear, being taken over by more and more ash.

Suddenly, the trees thinned out all together, and the hedgehogs gasped at what stood before them.

A land filled with nothing but ash, smoke, and fire laid before them. Up ahead in the distance was a dark and dreary castle, one that they have not seen before. Upon a closure inspection, they could see Scourgers patrolling the grounds. Trolls stood at the entrance, and dark Shadow Spies cracked whips against beautiful looking creatures that could only be Terabithian slaves. Sonic and Shadow could hear the chains rattling in the wind. The same chains they heard the first time they entered the forest.

"This is it." Sonic gasped. "This is the Dark Master's land… We found it."

"I… I…" Shadow shook his head, stepping back a bit in shock. "I don't think this is pretend anymore."

Sonic looked over at him with a scared expression.

"... It never was."