A.2: Speak

Sonic and E1491514 walk towards the woods. A cool, powerful breeze blows, rustling the leaves of the trees. E1491514 crouches down on the ground, trying to escape the odd force pushing against her, trying to block the sound of the leaves from entering her ears, covering her nose against the various aromas of nature being blown into her lungs with the wind. Sonic looks down at her sympathetically and places a caring hand on her shoulder. E1491514 looks at his hand upon her shoulder and the breeze begins to weaken. She stands up, her bare feet tickled by the grass, and waits to be lead. Sonic continues into the woods.

"I don't understand what's going on," he thinks, walking down the path. "It's as if she were born yesterday. She couldn't even move when I found her, and when she did it was so sudden; it seemed to surprise her even more than it did me. Maybe something triggered it," Sonic considers, trying to remember what happened right before E1491514 started moving. "I said something about muscle function," he remembers. "It's a long shot, but maybe that's it!"

Sonic whirls around and faces E1491514, excitement in his eyes. She stops gazing up at the trees and freezes, looking at him blankly. Sonic begins blurting out a string of phrases.

"Speaking ability, speech, verbal skills, um…function! Verbal function! Vocal function, um…communication! Verbal communication!"

E1491514's pupils widen as she feels the same odd sensation in her neck that she felt before moving for the first time. A wave of information enters her head and pieces itself together as a string of words.

"Verbal communication skills activated," she says in a weak voice. Shocked, she touches her lips and locks eyes with an equally surprised Sonic.

"You spoke? You spoke!" he exclaims. He immediately starts questioning her, "Who are you? Where are you from?"

"Laboratory subject E1491514. Species is hedgehog. Age is seventeen. Property of International Scientific Laboratory, northwestern branch," she responds impulsively.

"Property of a lab?" Sonic repeats. "You're a…What did you say your name was?"

"My designated identification number is E1491514," she repeats.

"Yeah, but don't you have a name?" Sonic asks again, "Isn't there anything else you've been called?"

E1491514 thinks for a moment. Her brain tells her that she has not been allowed a name, but as she digs deeper into her memory one word flickers into her mind.

"Nion," she states, feeling an odd sensation in her chest. She touches her fingers to her sternum and looks at Sonic.

"What's wrong?" he asks. "Are you okay?"

"I feel something that affects me physically when I say that word," she explains looking down at her chest. "I feel something here, internally."

"That would be your heart," Sonic tells her.

"Heart," she repeats. "Chambered muscular organ in vertebrates that pumps blood received from the veins into the arteries," she begins to define.

"No, no, not that," Sonic interrupts before she can continue. "I'm talking about the heart where you hold your feelings and emotions."

Nion searches her mind and cocks her head to the side in confusion.

"I have not been furnished with that definition," she tells him. Sonic sighs.

"That's alright. You'll learn soon enough. Now, come on. We've still got a little ways to go," Sonic tells her, the both of them getting to their feet.

"Where are we going?" she asks, finally able to voice her curiosity.

"You'll see," Sonic tells her plainly. Nion doesn't respond. The two of them walk in silence. Nion's eyes are eventually attracted to the ground due to the odd feeling on the bottoms of her feet.

"Foot," she identifies, reviewing the definition in her mind. "Two. Feet," she continues. She raises her eyes and looks at the back of Sonic's head. The ground irritates them."

Sonic smiles at her words, noting her effort to make sense of the world.

"You need shoes," he tells her.

"How do I acquire shoes?" she asks.

"You buy them," Sonic answers.

"Buy. To purchase. To acquire in exchange for money or its equivalent. Money. The official currency. What is the official currency?" she asks after verbally reviewing the set of words.

"It depends on where the store is," he tells her, knowing he can only pay in Mobian dollars. The two of them fall silent for the remainder of the trek.

They emerge from the trees into a grassy area that leads to a steep drop-off. Nion hears an odd sound coming from beyond the drop-off. She looks to Sonic for an explanation.

"What sound is that?" she asks.

"It's water. There's a river down there," he explains.

"Water. River," Nion repeats. "Non-threatening," she assures herself. She walks up to the edge of the drop-off and looks down. "Sonic," she says," I do not know of a word to describe this."

"You know my name? But I told it to you before you could speak," Sonic brings up, dismissing the latter part of what she said.

"I did not understand at the time, but it stayed in my memory," she briefly explains, still looking over the drop-off. "I want to know the adjective to describe this."

"Well, it's beautiful," Sonic offers.

"I am unfamiliar with the term," Nion responds. Sonic tries to think of a way to describe it.

"If something is beautiful it means that it gives you a good feeling when you look at it."

"I see," Nion nods in understanding as her eyes scan the water. She spots a bright round light rippling in the middle of the river. "Sonic, what is that?"

"The moon's reflection," Sonic tells her.

"Moon, reflection," she repeats, silently reviewing their definitions. "The moon is visible in the sky. The sky is above me," she tells herself. Nion looks up at the sky and spots the moon. "That is the moon. The moon ripples."

"No, the moon is round," Sonic corrects. "It's a sphere."

"Do you speak of another moon?" Nion asks with her eyes still on the sky. Sonic looks at her oddly and directs his eyes to the sky, gasping in disbelief upon spotting the rippling moon.

"That…it's…how," he stammers, not taking his eyes off the rippling moon above. He looks at Nion and then back at the moon. "Nion, that isn't normal. It's not supposed to happen."

"Isn't normal? Abnormal," she asks, looking at him.

"Yes," Sonic confirms, "Abnormal." Nion frowns for a moment as she looks back up toward the sky.

"It is beautiful and it is abnormal," she decides. Sonic stares at her for a moment and a breeze blows. Nion turns into it.

"Wind," she identifies, "Non-threatening at current intensity."

Sonic catches sight of the moonlight shining off of Nion's blowing hair and glances back at the sky.

"The moon is back to normal," he points out. His eyes fall down to the river's surface and Sonic jumps to his feet in shock. While the water had continued to ripple in the wind, a perfect, non-distorted reflection of the moon lies on its surface. "How…is that…possible?"

"Sonic," Nion speaks softly, a sleepy look in her eyes. "I'm finding it difficult to keep my eyes open."

"You're tired," he tells her, unsurprised. "She's been through a lot," he thinks. Sonic looks down at Nion and has her follow him into the tall grass. "We'll sleep here," he informs her, sitting down.

"Sleep," she repeats, understanding the term. She lays down on her side and looks up at him, a few strands of hair falling in front of her face

"Good night," Sonic wishes her. The blank stare he receives in response tells him that she does not know the phrase. "It's something you say before sleeping. It means you hope that someone sleeps well," he explains. Nion continues to stare, not fully understanding, until her eyelids close and she falls asleep.

Sonic lays back, staring straight up at the sky, and the light from the moon brightens his eyes like green jewels.

"What have you gotten yourself into, Sonic?" he asks himself. He glances at Nion sleeping soundly and smiles at the realization that he does not care. Rolling over onto his side, he shuts his eyes and drifts off to sleep.