CHAPTER 5
We began to climb out of the burrow. It was now evening again (the days seemed to go by quicker here), and as the shadows of the eve crept over the valleys, there was an uneasy felling of new, different life forms scurrying about.
"Keep your eye peeled. It's going to be the night creatures chance to eat the innocent soon." said Sonic as he kept a watch, his large eye darting in all directions. I looked, but saw nothing. He seemed more aware then I, possibly because his ears were more sensitive then mine, twitching in all directions.
"Where are Tails and Knuckles?" I asked.
"I took them to a safe spot."
"Where might that be?"
"The same place I'm taking you"
As the clouds of the darkness rolled over the valleys, very quickly now, they looked as though someone had filmed them, and was speeding them in fast forward mode. As the darkness grew nearer, I saw a parade. A parade of red eyes growing closer as the shadows of the clouds came toward us. I looked, horrified. Sonic turned and looked too. They were chanting something, the language was made up of grunts, gurgles, blood-thirsty screams, and angry mob shouting. The chant sounded in tune of a cannibal, about to descend upon it's pray.
"They can't get us." said Sonic, casually.
"Why not?!? They're almost ten feet ahead of us!"
"They can't survive in the light, if they are nightmares. Best to get ready though. They are controlling those dark clouds, if they spot us, the clouds will charge forward, and they will be able to eat a fine meal of human, and hedgehog meat."
I gasped! But, Sonic closed his eyes, and smirked. "...Or so they think."
He then proceeded to grab my hand very hard, his cloth gloves rubbing against my wrist. He then did the one thing I'd never do in a million years! He began to walk toward them! I fought, wiggling everywhere, trying to become lose. His grip was strong though, and his small appearance made the grip surprising, and unexpected. We stood at the top of the hill. The creatures looked up at us, surprised that a meal would come so willingly. There was an awkward moment of silence, and shivering (coming from me), before, Sonic yelled at the top of his lungs:
"HEY!!! YOU MORONS!!! TRY AND CATCH US!!!" and, stuck out his tough.
The creatures charged! Sonic stood, not moving an inch, just....smiling. As the creatures grew closer still! I tugged on Sonic's arm, signaling to move like the wind. He did not though.
"sonic? Sonic? SONIC?!?!" I pleaded, nothing.
Just when the creatures were three feet in front of us though, there was a arm tugging motion, and suddenly the world blurred. My ears popped, and the howl of the wind hitting the face was loud, and whistling. We were going at such a strong speed, that as I was being tugged, I was actually being dragged, through the air!! As the twists and turns of the hedgehog went into the woods, we sped up, faster, faster! Until the strangest thing happened. There was no longer the sound of the wind, or the howling, or whistling. There was complete silence I closed my eyes and, just as fast as it had started, it stopped The sound of nature returned, and all was peaceful once more. I opened my eye. The thick woods were dark, but the moonlight showed in-between the trees.
"....And that, my friend,...is how you break the sound barrier!" Sonic said, very proud of himself.
"Are you CRAZY?!!?" I asked. "We could've gotten eaten!"
"Not quite...... look behind you."
I did. I saw a brown wall, about 25 feet high. I recognized it as part of a tree.
"Yeah, so? It's part of a tree. So what?" I looked back at Sonic. He just smiled, and pointed upward.
I looked up.
At first, I didn't know what it was. It was as if the forest, for miles, and miles around, was covered by a blanket of pink cotton. I followed the cotton with my eyes, back to where I had started. It was a tree, yes, but what a splendid tree it was! like no other ever seen by man! The tree was a bit taller then the colossus I had seen the night before. I could now see that the wall of wood I had looked at, was one of the tree's smaller roots. On the very thick branches, small communities were placed, becoming smaller in numbers, as the branches thinned. Here, creatures were lighting small lanterns scattered on the tree, giving the appearance of millions of fireflies. The trunk, was curled, into a perfect spiral, which was so large, the creatures were using it for a stairwell to travel from one branch community, to another. The creatures were all (once again) animated, and the homes, made from plant materials. There was pink moss growing on the tree, and the pink cotton was showering upon the rest of the forest like rain from the top, and tips of the branches.
Sonic explained, "This is a sugarpom tree. The only one left of it's type. The nightmares hate sugar, so they won't go near it."
"I don't see any sugar though." I said, puzzled.
"Eat one of the seeds."
"The seeds?"
"The pink stuff."
I managed to catch one of the things in the palm of my hand. I stuck it in my mouth. Pure sugar! It tasted like pink cotton candy, except it didn't melt as fast in the mouth, and was a bit more chewy.
"See?"
"Doesn't it get sticky with all this sugar though?"
"Nope! One of the great things about it!"
"But what if it rained? Wouldn't the sugar melt?"
"It's a chance we take....besides! They would still have to get past the sugar water to get to us."
"But,...why do they hate it so much?"
"Sugar makes people happy. They can't stand happiness."
As I stood at the foot of the tree, looking up in awe. I was swept up by my feet and, immediately began to go fast once more. Now that there was no danger at hand, this whole "speed" concept seemed quite fun. Sonic made the long, twirling, journey up the side of the tree, as many creatures waved, and looked at me, surprised. We finely stopped at one of the top most branches. He put me down, and I swayed, a bit dizzy.
This particular branch was just wide enough for a house, and a porch. Here, a good sized, grass hut stood, with a small wooden, hand made porch, and a rope hammock made from green vines. The porch had a small grill, and a wooden bench. Yet,... even though the house was fairly wide, and beautiful, all the doors, grills, hammocks, and such, were built for Sonic-sized creatures, and not for humans. I smiled, none or less.
Knuckles was on the small hammock, which was swaying in the breeze. He was chewing on a fern, mumbling to himself. He looked up at us, his mouth gaped open, letting the fern fall to an unknown region. His eyes became large, while his pupils went small. He looked angry, possessed, and crazy all at once. He jumped to his feet, storming toward us angrily. I backed off, for I could tell something was wrong. He sniffed toward me.
"HUMAN!!!" he sneered, furious. "What is human doing HERE?!?"
"She doesn't know how to fend for herself yet!!" cried Sonic, mad by this rude greeting.
"What do you mean!? She can fend herself fine!!"
"She's never been here before!"
"No one's been here before! No one of her type anyway..."said Knuckles pointing awards me, rudely.
"Secrets! Secrets! Who cares!"
"ME!"
"But, she almost got slaughtered by that ingrace, Inuyasha!"
"Yeah,like I care. One less human to deal with..."
"You'd take the side of a demon?!? Are you crazy?!?"
"Inuyasha may be half demon, but he has good points about the homo sapiens."
"What about the few homo sapiens that live here?!?"
"They're not as annoying. But, it's only because they're of the ani type like us."
"OOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!....... YOUR SO BIAS!!!!"
"OH YEA?!?! WELL..."
But he never got any further then that, for just then, coming, running out of the hut was Tails.
"SONIC!! SONIC!! YOUR BACK!!!"
Tails ran up, and gave Sonic the biggest squeeze I had ever seen (gagging him a bit).
"All right! All right! I was only gone for 30 minutes!" said Sonic in between gasps. Tails looked up at me.
"OHHH!!! You brought the human too!! Oh! Oh! Could we have a sleep over?! Oh, could we? PLEEEEEASE?!" Tails gave Sonic "puppy eyes".
"NOW JUST A MINUTE!!!!" Knuckles shouted "It's my house too!! Who agreed to keeping her here in the first place?!?"
"You know, she did save Tail's life. We owe her,... big."
Knuckles grunted, but said no more.
"YEY!" shouted Tails. He then knocked the wind in mid hug, both of us toppling to the ground.
"By the way,,....." said Sonic, matter of factly voice,
"You better respect that human, her name is Molly, and your going to be seeing a lot more of her from now on."
"Why?"
"Because... she's a DFN member, and I signed us up for her first agents."
"WHAT?!?!?"
But before Knuckles could complain, all the rest of us were in the hut, (me with a bit of difficulty, given to the fact that I had to kneel to get inside).
Knuckles caught up, and began to shout some more.
"We can't be agents!!! Were the guardians of this tree, and it's enough taking care of it, much less, the rest of the unconscious as well!"
"WERE BECOMING SECRET AGENTS?!? WOW!!" yelled Tails, in mid flight, for the excitement had made his two tails spin like a helicopter. "Does this mean were going to Tulipway?"
"Mmm-hmm." answered Sonic, as he put the kettle on a quaint little stove, for some tea.
"...and Doomph, and The City of Light, and The Mysterious Realms, and The Young City, and The Restejious, and....." Tails continued off a list of cites I had never heard of before, while following Sonic (in flight), who looked a bit annoyed.
I looked around the house. There were three small hammocks with sheets on them, apparently used as beds, one of which had a adorable Chao doll upon it, and, (in case you were wondering), Chaos are small creatures that resemble raindrops with stub bodies, legs, and arms. The ceiling was made of an old, dirty, metallic sheet picked up from somewhere, for water resistance. The floor was carpeted, with beige and looked quite nice. Most of the walls were made from a bamboo material, except for where the beds were, and in the kitchen. Here, there was beige wall to match the carpeting, and (in the kitchen) cabinets, and a small refrigerator. There were also shelves with trophies, and pictures displayed, and a strange hook in the middle of the ceiling (which I later found out, was used to hang Knuckle's punching bag upon, when practicing his hits).
The sun was setting now, and it would be night once more, soon. The three looked at the moon, and then stared at me, (not knowing what to do).
Sonic pondered."Where to put you?.... our beds are too small..."
"She ain't bunking with me!" said Knuckles, rudely.
"We don't have any extra pillows or blankets,.......one of us is going to have to share..."
"I'll do it! I'll do it!" said Tails willingly, waving his hand around wildly.
"Be my guest." said Knuckles.
"Yippie!" Tails ran towered his hammock, and began to collect his bedding (including the Chao doll). As he did this, I heard Knuckles murmur,
" Poor annoying soul. She should have left him for Clucose, and put him out of his misery."
Of course this was a very mean thing to say. Sonic heard it too. He proceeded to whack Knuckles on the head for wishing such a request.
"WACK!!"
"OWW!!!"
Tails looked up in surprise at the shout. I then walked over to Knuckles, and did the same.
"WACK!!"
"Hey! now your getting it! You'll be one of us in no time!" said Sonic proudly.
Knuckles grumbled, rubbing the two bumps on his head before turning in for the night. Tails wandered over to me and began to set up his bedding on the floor, while Sonic fwomped on to his hammock facing the wall.
He yawned, and stretched his arms before murmuring, "Get a good sleep. Tomorrow, the training begins."
I lied where tails had set up his bedding, and put a cotton-made cover over myself. Of course, by this time I had taken up all the bed room, and Tails stood there, shivering. He soon climbed under the covers with me and curled up into a tiny ball, underneath my arm. He was warm, and fuzzy. I soon fell asleep myself, and awoke, almost instantly, in the conscious world,... our world, once more.
I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Inuyasha, or Chaos, which is quite a shame.
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WOOF!! Another long chapter! .......OH! By the way! We got a few questions to ask from Nail Strafer!
(mumbleing) still my only reviewer...I must thank him sometime...
(clicks on e-mail)
Nail Strafer was courious in what types of animated creatures there are in Angorf, other then Inuyasha, and the Sonic Team.
Well, Nail Strafer, Just take small groups of every clay, computer, video game, 2-D, book, anime, and comic character you've ever seen, or heard about, and mix then together into one group. That's the kind of stuff you see in Angorf. (For reference, see the last 30 minutes of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit")
By the way, in case you were wondering why I didn't detail the characters more, (like I sorda' did in Chapter 3), it's because, there would have been a copyright list 5 paragraphs long. (No offence, if that sounded a bit mean...) I know how you feel though... and don't worry! Thoughout the story, I won't spend a lot of time describing large crouds, (unless, the characters are comepleately nessesary to the plot), but you might hear a fimiliar name once and a while. Another reason why I don't add a lot of detail to large crouds, is because I like people to imagine the crouds as they would, not as I would, it gives the story more flexability, and a better perspective for all readers!
(grumbleing) If I had any other readers....
I hope that answered your questions Nail Strafer! Happy Reading!
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I do not own "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"
(See what I mean?!?!)
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NEXT CHAPTER: Meet "The King of Dreams"