Screeeeeeeeeeech…
This was a surprise, thought Knuckles. The first change was in the morning; second time, late morning, next day; third time, late night, same day; fourth time, early morning, next day. The changes were accelerating.
Knuckles deliberated. He yearned to go out and investigate. At the same time, he needed Myla, but she needed more sleep to be truly effective. After checking to make sure the change didn't come too close to the area around the Hidden Palace, he resumed his meditation and let her sleep.
To his horror, by sunrise, the land had changed yet again!
Too fast, Knuckles thought. I should have wakened Myla—I'm too far behind. Now I've got two changes to investigate, and if the next change occurs even sooner…
He rushed to find Myla.
Knuckles began putting pieces together as he shook her awake. "Wha-at?" she said.
"The land is changing again."
"Again?" She seemed reluctant to get up, so Knuckles assisted her. He lifted her out of bed as if she weighed nothing and trotted to the outside of the store. Her struggles against him were only mild; for a second he wondered if that was from fatigue or some unknown factor.
"Yes, again," he confirmed, "and it did so again while you were asleep."
As he cleared the door, he set down Myla, and they looked down the road. It was hard not to, because tall, brightly growing figures were appearing.
EeeeEEEECH-RIP!
To Knuckles' astonishment, most of the Ruins of the Sky disappeared, replaced by immense glittering pillars. Flying machines swarmed over and around them like gnats. And Knuckles mentally noted that the changing was that much closer to the Hidden Palace. Quite a bit closer, it seemed…
He looked at Myla. "What is that?"
"That's the capitol city, Echidnaopolis. Population is thirty million or thereabouts; it's hard to tell with so many coming and going."
"About how many is thirty million?"
She considered. "I don't know… maybe as many termites as live in three mounds, maybe more. See what I'm saying?"
He did. Knuckles found it hard to draw breath.
A completely unmanageable number of echidnas—a number constantly in flux, thus harder to keep track of—all of which have to be judged individually, and any of which could get the Master and destroy everything!
Knuckles knew what the new emotion was, even though this was the first time he'd felt it. He'd heard it described to him before: a crushing feeling that isn't overtly forceful. It surrounds and ensnares and consumes, pressing in from all directions, the act of feeling it making it more difficult to escape.
Despair.
A horrible feeling of inadequacy pressed in on him. There was no way he could possibly manage to keep tabs on so many echidnas, let alone determine which ones had the potential for evil and required purging. And given their location and numbers, should they actually make a move for the Master, Knuckles was unsure what the outcome would be.
"Now why do you suppose it's happening like this?"
Knuckles mentally sang a song of praise to Myla. Simply by breaking his train of thought, she'd managed to drag him back to functionality. He left his despair behind, concentrating on the moment and the task at hand. And on Myla.
"The amount of time between changes has decreased," he explained. "The first time, a full day passed between changes; the second time, half a day; the third time, a quarter of a day; the fourth, half of that. Changes are coming far more quickly."
"With each change the time between changes halves," she said. "It's like whatever is keeping the world as I know it out is breaking down."
Knuckles nodded. He understood—it was as with a giant tree falling. Once a few splinters broke, the whole thing came down, increasingly unbalanced with every splinter. But his metaphor broke down—what had started all of this?
He didn't know how to voice his opinion to Myla, so he asked instead, "Shall we go there?"
She considered, then perked up. "I know! We can tap into the NewsNets—find out if anything was happening before everyone disappeared."
He shrugged. "Very well. I will take you to the town."
She laughed at him. "That has another meaning," she said as he picked her up. "Of course you don't know it…"
"I only know "town" because of our contact." He didn't think it was funny, but she laughed just the same.
"I think the key to this mystery," she said as he ran, "is that everyone is coming back from the same instant… regardless of what time it is here, they all last remember a particular moment in time. We just need to figure out why time stopped. What happened before the last moment."
He nodded. She was right. He couldn't think much more in depth than that, as he was quite afraid of a crash at this speed, particularly carrying Myla. He was under the grace of the Master, but he rather doubted she was. Her safety depended upon him.
He liked that.