It was surprising that they had a mail system in such a small village, but nothing was as surprising as seing an elvish kid outrun half of the villagers!
Sonic always wondered why these overlanders with pointed ears chose to take peace here. Why, their kind has been despised by-
"Yo, Sonic!" Tails yelled.
"Hey, wassup?" he replied.
"Listen to this! Firo over there told me about how they were slaying all these plant monsters... you think that's true?"
"Anything's possible, Tails."
"You think they're from some weird zone?" Tails asked.
"Well, wherever they came from, they sure are a bunch! Always eating that bark and planty meat..."
"Yeah, gross. I know what you mean."
"And running nearly as fast as yours truly on top of it!"
"No kidding, they are fast!"
They walked to Sally's hut to say hello. Who knew if they had a job to do on top of it?
Sonic noticed that the children, although tending to stick to their own kind, would play with the children of Knothole occasionally. Just over there were two kids trying to tag a young squirrel.
"Sonic, could you come over here?" Sally replied to their walk.
"Wonder what's up?" Tails wondered out loud.
"Probably another job on Robuttnik," Sonic muttered. Not that he didn't like beating up on the Robo-Robotnik that plagued their town, worse than the first, but it was just getting old, day in and day out.
As Sonic and Tails neared the place, they could tell something... more important than that was on her mind.
"Hey, whassup?" he prompted Sally.
"I needed to tell you something about these children." Sally gathered them into the hut for some privacy.
"Some rumors have been going around about these children," Sally relayed. "These rumors could be something that my father isn't telling us."
"What could that be?" Sonic wondered. "It's not like him to withhold info!"
"Only when it could be dangerous," Sally replied. "And in this case, it may do more harm than good if the rumors are true."
"Well, what is it?" Tails asked.
Sally took a breath, "It's persecution. The children were rumored to have been enslaved and abused because of their strange uniqueness."
"Impossible," Sonic replied. "These children haven't shown any signs of being captured, or even have knowledge of something that harsh!"
"Their childish minds might simply be blocking it out," Sally corrected. "What pain they suffered may be hidden from us."
"I play with the kids all the time!" Tails added. "Nothing outta them about a slave life!"
The door opened. Sonic turned to see the person that Sally already saw...
Gefforey St. John.
"That's because they haven't been persecuted," Gefforey pointed out. "All these children were rescued just before being taken to extermination camps."
"WHAT?!" Sally gasped. Extermination camps? What was going on here?
"You can thank DoomRater for that," Geff added. "If it weren't for him, they'd all be dead or wasting away."
"But how do you know?" Sally asked. "I thought Nicole was still in the shop!"
"Rotor's doing the best he can on her, don't worry. We also had a paper documentary prepared for only the eyes of the Royal Family." He held out the papers to Sally. "These are a carbon copy of the original, from Doomy."
"Care to explain why I never saw it?" Sally frowned.
"...Well, your father... he chose not to speak of it, but since all the rumors are going around, we thought that-"
Sally grabbed the papers out of Geff's hand and gave it to Sonic. "I'm outta here!"
"What in blazes is wrong with her?" Geff turned to Sonic.
"You're asking the wrong person..." the Blue Blur replied. Sonic was a little uncomfortable talking to Geff, but could still do it anyway. "Look, if I went ahead and trashed some files on Robaldnik's computer without permission, wouldn't you get a little irritated?"
"Yeah, I suppose so..."
"Just let her handle it with her father."
Sonic, feeling that he had answered everything, began to read the papers at sonic speed. "This is some way past cool documen-"
At the 7th page, his finger stopped. He didn't believe what Geff had told him. Now, he did.
"My gosh..." Sonic spoke. "They really were oppressed..."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Elias!" Sally called out.
She found her brother speaking with some royal guards.
"...talk to ya later," he finished with the guard. "Yes?"
"What's the background of the Kokiri children?"
"Um... We don't know that much about-"
"Spare me the mistique," Sally cut him off, "I know about the concentration camps."
"The what?"
"The killing grounds for these children. Don't act like such an ignorant person!"
Elias didn't answer at first. His face had a shocked look on it, to a lesser degree of Sally's reaction when she first learned it.
"Are you sure?" Elias asked.
"Dead sure," Sally replied. "Gefforey just broke the news to me."
"It's new to me, too!" Elias defended. "Honest, I was never informed about a massacre!"
"Dad's been hiding some secrets from us lately. I'm somewhat glad that Gefforey is letting us know of his desicions."
"But what can we do?" the prince asked.
"For one thing... make sure it never happens again!"
"Make sure what never happens again?"
"Oppression," Sally answered. "We can't let them feel pain again... Not at the hands of Robotnik."