Chapter 4

A week had passed and Sonic continued to have dreams of old memories and check the cave every other day. He didn't find anything new since the day he'd found it again, except a few remnants of food. No real juicy evidence. Crazy Carl did say that he'd seen something in the woods for a while but he was called 'crazy' for a reason, anything he says you have to take with a grain of salt.

Still, with the evidence of that girl being here, I wouldn't be surprised if he was seeing her out in the woods. If that's the case, he hoped he and Tails would find her before Carl did, there's no telling how he'd react.

Today he and Tails went out and did their normal checks on the cave and Tails wrote down some dreams that Sonic told him about. They were mostly just harmless memories of playing with Rosie, nothing new.

The day went on normally and now Sonic laid in his bed, staring up at the wall. He was a little frustrated, he still didn't know why he was suppressing these memories. He felt like he was getting nowhere and there was so much that he didn't know, questions that were still unanswered.

He pulled the pink quill out of his bunch of quills and examined it. He tended to look at it when he was bored, he'd just twirl it in his fingers and admire the color. It was a bright peachy pink, he thought it was such a pretty color. Oh how he wished to see the owner of the quill, he pictured his old friend Rosie, tried to imagine her all aged up and around his age.

She was beautiful, at least in his imagination. He opened his eyes and shook away his thoughts. This was an odd way of thinking, one minute you're thinking about your long-lost friend and how much you wish you could find them, then the next you're romanticizing about them. He didn't even know who she was yet it seemed he might be falling for her.

Sonic blushed at his own thoughts and tucked the quill back into his fur. He rolled over onto his side and got comfy. He thought maybe he could sleep off these thoughts, maybe he could get some more info on this girl.

He hugged one of his pillows and snuggled his face into it as he let out a sigh and readied himself for sleep. As he drifted off, he began to see another memory.

xXx

Sonic and Rosie were inside their home, Longclaw wasn't allowing them outside. When they asked why, she said it was for their own safety. At the time, Sonic didn't have any clue what she was talking about so instead of being understanding, he was pouting about it. Rosie was minding her own business, coloring some pictures.

In the midst of Sonic's pouting, he looked behind him to see the window open-a possible escape route. He looked over to Rosie and tapped her on the shoulder, leaning in to whisper to her his idea. "The window is open, she isn't looking right now so how about we sneak out?" he said with a devilish grin. The girl stopped her coloring and looked at Sonic with a baffled expression, "are you crazy? We'd surely be caught and we'd probably be grounded for weeks!"

"Keep your voice down!" Sonic scolded while glancing over at Longclaw, seeing that she hadn't heard he continued, "we wouldn't be gone for that long and I promise we'll be back before she even notices, and if we do get caught I'll take all the blame, deal?" Rosie was unsure and Sonic could tell, "c'mon, we won't get in trouble, I promise." He held his pinkie out to make a pinkie promise.

Rosie was still skeptical, but decided to trust him, he was her best and only friend after all and it'd be nice to go on an adventure sometime. She held out her pinkie and locked it with his, sealing the promise. As they let go, Sonic looked over at Longclaw one last time. Seeing that she had actually fallen asleep in her recliner, he picked the girl up and they flew out the window, looking for adventure.

"Where are we going?" asked the girl. Sonic slowed his running to more of a jog and began to explain, "I saw these creatures walking around outside one time, they had quills like us but they were long and straight, like yours. They had a bunch of markings and stuff on them and they looked really cool so I thought maybe we could find where they are and make some more friends!"

Rosie was excited at this idea, it had only been her and Sonic and the thought of making more friends was thrilling. "How will we find where they are?" she asked. "I guess we'll just have to find one and follow them." The two of them began looking around them, trying to find even a glimpse of what they were looking for.

Sonic spotted something red up ahead and went to follow it, Rosie still in his arms. The two of them lightly gasped when they realised they found what they were looking for, quickly covering their mouths as to not alert the one in front of them. Thankfully, they went unheard and continued to follow cautiously.

They were led into a deep, dense forest. It was dark and the only light that came through was little peeks of the sun poking through the leaves. Rosie began to shake and was getting scared. She held onto Sonic tighter and ducked her head into the crook of his neck. "Sonic, I think we should turn around, I'm scared." she whispered. "Don't worry, its just a forest, if I knew it wasn't safe I would've turned back already, I promise you'll be okay."

His words only calmed her for the moment, when they began to get closer to a clearing in the trees however, she began to get hopeful. They reached the village of these creatures and saw them acting as a community. There were children their age, running around after each other and playing games, older kids trying to keep the younger ones in line, women tending to gardens and preparing baskets of fruit to store for later, and big buff soldiers guarding the outside of the perimeter. There was a particular group of soldiers gathered around a stone table far off from the rest of the tribe, they seemed to be discussing something.

Sonic let Rosie down and they snuck over to the group of soldiers to eaves drop. They listened closely.

"We've wiped out the entire east, south, and west divisions of the Owl Warriors, how in Chaos' name could we have missed one?!" a red and white soldier yelled, slamming his fist on the table. "It seems this last one was their leader, she's a very formidable foe, Longclaw I believe was her name. The soldiers we sent over to investigate said they found that she has two hoglets in her possession, possibly training them for combat."

Sonic and Rosie had their mouths agape and were now fearful. Is this why Longclaw had told them to stay inside? They listened in again, desperate to get any info they could, "hedgehogs are extinct, we wiped them out years ago, how could there still be survivors?!" The leader of the soldiers, the red and white one, slammed his fist on the table once more, leaving a crack in it, "find those hedgehogs and that owl and dispose of them."

Rosie was shaking with fear, tears rolling down her face. Sonic instantly knew coming here was a mistake. He grabbed her and held her close and tightly to his body, he was too afraid to even think to run. Rosie's sobs began to be more audible and a soldier at the table noticed. "sir, I think we have intruders on our meeting."

The bushes hiding the hedgehogs were parted and they were revealed to the soldiers. Rosie screamed and Sonic held her tighter and backed up. "Well lookie here, looks like we didn't even have to go find you, you came to us." the leader said with an evil grin. Sonic didn't take a second to process and ran. "Go after them, now!" the leader yelled.

They were being chased by an entire army of these creatures. He ran as far as he could before he tripped on an tree root and both he and Rosie hit the ground, with Rosie falling out of his hands. She toppled to the ground with a few thuds and fell limp on the ground. Sonic crawled over to her and faced his back towards the army, it was the best he could do to protect her now.

Just as the soldiers began to close in on them, Longclaw swooped in front of Sonic and grabbed him and Rosie into her talons. She flew them to a safe spot and told them to stay put while she fights them off, and just like that she was gone. Rosie was out cold and Sonic had tears in his eyes. This was his fault, if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't have gotten scared, she wouldn't have gotten hurt.

He scooped her up into his arms and began to sob, repeating 'I'm sorry' over and over again. Longclaw returned some time later and tended to their wounds. Sonic only had a scratch on his leg where he'd tripped while Rosie had scrapes and bruises from hitting the ground so hard. Longclaw scolded Sonic for leaving but said that half of this was her fault and that she should've told them why they couldn't go out.

She explained to them about the echidnas and told them about how they eradicated the hedgehog population and the Owl Warriors, stating that the three of them are probably the last ones of their kind. Sonic was scared of these new foes but was more worried about keeping his friend safe, so he made a promise to himself that he'd always protect her.

He crawled up to Rosie and fell asleep beside her, staying with her through the night.

xXx

Sonic awoke with a yawn, then went wide eyed at remembering his dream the night before. This was finally a bigger puzzle piece! He felt like he was finally getting closer to the main event, where it all went downhill. Something had to have happened, he made a promise to her that he'd protect her at all costs and now he doesn't even know where she is!

He began to get this bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, telling him that something bad happened to her that made him forget, something REALLY bad. Did she get hurt? Did she...die? She couldn't be dead! If she was dead then who was living in that cave? That had to be her!

Sonic shook away his negative thoughts. She was okay, or at least alive. He thought to himself, "ya know what? I'll prove it to myself! I'll go to the cave and find her myself! Then I'll know she's okay!"

With his newfound positivity and confidence, he hopped out of bed and went straight out of the house without even getting breakfast first. Little did he know his positivity would be dashed by what he'd find in the cave, and his worry would only grow more...

Sonic seems to be getting closer to the conclusion, but will he be happy with what he finds out? Will the final dream be more of a nightmare? And what's he gonna find in the cave? Stay tuned...

I feel like I've slowly been getting better at writing longer chapters, I started off only doing about 1,500 words or less but I've been trying to make them longer.

As always, I appreciate any feedback and would be grateful for reviews! I don't usually respond to reviews cause I still don't fully understand the process of replying on here but I do read all of them ^w^