Awakening

by Shax Davis

After a runin with an old enemy, Sonic uncovers an ancient plot that puts more than just Mobius in danger's path. Over the course of his adventure, he will face new challenges, and learn that the greatest enemy he will ever have to conquer is himself.

6. Six: Now You See It

AWAKENING
S Peter Davis

All characters (C) SEGA, Archie and SP Davis 2004 (unless otherwise noted).
Used without permission

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Six:
Now You See It

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It's no secret that the stars are falling from the sky,
It's no secret that our world is in darkness tonight...
It's no secret that a friend is someone who lets you help,
It's no secret that a liar won't believe anyone else...
It's no secret that a conscience can sometimes be a pest,
It's no secret ambition bites the nails of success...
They say a secret is something you tell another person,
So I'm telling you.

- U2

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DETERMINATION

I

"We're going to die."
Sonic looked up at Niles, who stared morbidly into the open water as it sloshed and ebbed against the hull. Quite a rusted hull, it was, and didn't look like it would withstand any more than a leisurely cruise.
"I'm trying, guys! This heap of junk won't go any faster!"
"You get what you pay for," Espio said.
"Yeah, well, we spent all our money," Sonic replied, operating the engine, "Which wasn't very much to begin with. Why are you guys just standing around? Am I the only person here who's ever used a motorboat?"
Espio and Niles looked at each other, then at Sonic.
"Okay," the hedgehog said, "So maybe I am."
The rusted white fishing trawler had been cutting through the water for half an hour. Once the mainland had disappeared behind them, it had been all ocean for as far as anybody could see, with no evidence of anything more.
"Check our bearing, chap," Niles suggested, "I have a sneaking suspicion we may be quite lost."
Sonic checked the compass on the board in front of him. The needle was pointing east. Suspiciously, he tapped it. The needle spun around three times, and then the pin broke off the shaft and sat motionless.
"Uhhh... well..."

II

(I went to turn the grass once after one, who mowed it in the dew before the sun)

Sonic had been more relieved than anybody to see the fertile plains of Westerica again, after wandering south for so long through the arid wastes, marshy squalor and general nastiness of the Torion Cape. They had fled the country town of Desolation without looking back, after they acquired the stone they had been searching for, and headed east.
Months prior, Cinos had escaped from the City of Clouds in a plane and nobody had seen hide nor hair nor spine of him since, though Sonic knew very well what it was that the dark hedgehog was doing. Somewhere in the world, he was digging up Runes. He had already recovered two of five, and had a significant head-start on the third. Sonic and his companions had one, and no idea where they might find the two that remained buried.
After Desolation, there was much debate among the adventurers as to where they should be headed next. The only clue they had, the only thing even resembling a lead, was an old story that Niles happened to know, a story about an island of porcupines that may or may not actually have existed.
Sonic figured that this was a hunch worth following up. Even if Cinos wasn't on the island (and Sonic had a feeling that he was), a colony of porcupines would be an important discovery in and of itself. For the porcupines were the gatekeepers of the knowledge of the Old Ways, of the Runes, and of the prophecies and legends that Cinos was persuing. They might even know the location of the remaining stones, and even if they didn't, they were sure to know something helpful.
If they existed.
And so, with nothing in their possession but an ancient rock and a page torn out of an atlas (which Espio had commented looked almost as ancient), the three adventurers set off south and left the bizarre town of Desolation behind them. Sonic wouldn't miss it.

(The dew was gone that made his blade so keen, before I came to view the levelled scene)

A forbidding desert awaited them on the south side of the Cape, to the extreme dismay of Sonic and Niles. Espio, born and bred of the desert, was less discouraged. But nevertheless, the couple of weeks during which the three companions were forced to bear this unforgiving wasteland were very trying on their friendship. For there was another thorn in their side, now, and night or day, its attack was constant.
The Rune hated them. This much was clear. The stone had poisoned the air of Desolation with its sickness for only a short time, but it had been enough to almost destroy the people who lived there and the community they maintained. Now it was poisoning the poor fools who had dared remove it from its resting place, and it hated them with all of its morbid energy.
The slightest of trespasses on anybody's behalf seemed enough to fuel an argument, and the only thing that kept anyone from flying too far off the handle was the knowledge that every negative thought was intensified by the ancient magic dormant in the Rune they carried. Sonic had come up with a rule that they all followed - no matter the reason, no matter the context, the moment that any of them raised their voice in anger even once, all three of them were to stop talking, stop moving, rest and recover. Sonic feared that their group would split up if they allowed the negativity sickness to drive a wedge too deep. He knew, somehow, that this was the worst thing that could happen to his quest. Divided, they would fall.
The unfortunate side-effect of this rule was that they rested much more often than was necessary. The more they slowed, the more gruelling their desert expedition became. The more gruelling the journey, the more unhappy the journeyers became. And naturally, unhappiness led to more arguments, which slowed them even more.

(I looked for him behind an isle of trees)

But there was more to the power of the stone than Sonic realised at first. Anger and depression haunted him and his party in the deep recesses of their subconscious, but then there were the dreams. Waking nightmares that plagued his sleep and then bled through into the real world as though manifested by their own lucidity. At first he thought the dreams were a sign that Cinos had slipped worlds again, but the dream residue he received from Cinos had never been able to haunt him in the daytime. Sometimes, the sun would be high in the sky and Sonic would be shuffling along wide awake, when suddenly he would turn his head to see a frighteningly realistic vision, of Zero aiming a gun at him, of Mecha blasting toward him with claws ripping at the air, of Cinos laughing and saying something he could never quite hear. Sonic would always dart to avoid his imagined enemies, usually shouting out and making a fool of himself in front of the others. The visions of Zero were especially plausible, considering he really had no idea whether the robot-made-hedgehog had been talked out of his crusade, or whether he was still persuing him, prepared perhaps to stab him to death in his sleep.
And sometimes, though rarely, Kethriel would come to him. He would imagine his old mentor standing in the desert with a look of pain and fear on his face, and sometimes he would scream as he was torn apart by a marauding Silver.
I have to remember that none of this is real, he told himself, Or else I might strike out at Zero one day and slice up Niles or Espio. Then they'll really trust me.
So it was whenever he was haunted by the ghost of one of his enemies that he would close his eyes and focus as hard as he could bear on the truth of his actual reality. Most of the time it would work. Sometimes it didn't. And sometimes Sonic half-expected that one day he would get it wrong, that Zero really would appear to skewer him, and all he would do to defend himself would be to close his eyes and try to will away an enemy that was really there. And then he would die.

(I listened for his whetstone on the breeze)

The desert ended suddenly, almost as though there were a fence that seperated the fertile lands from the barren. There was a range of short cliffs that served to divide the landscape, and Sonic felt as though his eyes might well up with tears when he saw the green plains stretched out ahead of him, for it had been months since he had seen lands so similar to those of his homeland. Somewhere directly southeast of him, and not that distant as compared to the length of his travels, was the Great Forest and the village of New Knothole.
A tiny town named Lowndes sat on the border of the Barren Quarter and the Western Plains of Westerica, a homely borough not terribly much larger than the Freedom Fighter villages where Sonic had spent much of his recent life. So glad were they to reunite with civilisation that they spent three nights resting in Lowndes, and spent much of that time sleeping and eating. Sonic daren't stay any longer, for he feared that the Rune they carried might begin to corrupt this town as it had corrupted Desolation. The stone was like a black curse that followed them, and so simple was it to dispose of, but it was the only advantage they had over Cinos. Sonic was unwilling to compromise that advantage, no matter the cost.
Carrying this stone, however it fought them, was nevertheless a relief for their hard work. They could truly rest without fear of falling behind. Sonic hoped that his evil twin needed all five to do any kind of real damage.
It was only a stroke of luck that Sonic happened to engage in conversation with a shopkeeper in Lowndes and drop an offhand comment about twins. The shopkeeper mentioned that he, too, had a twin brother (though probably not an evil interdimensional one, Sonic figured) who lived a fair distance south in a city called Point Adrien.
Sonic was thrown aback when he heard the name. Point Adrien sat on the northern side of the Great Forest, the very same forest in which he lived. It was the first town he had passed through after he set off. And how long ago had that been? Not as long as a year, but certainly over half of one. He had travelled a giant circle around the continent, from ocean to ocean, and now he was coming back around to the beginning.
New Knothole probably wasn't much further south than Desolation was north.
The shopkeeper lamented that Lowndes had been somewhat isolated in recent times. The unity that the Kingdom of Acorn had once maintained over the plains of Westerica was dissolving quickly; Sonic, confined to the southeastern shore, had no idea of the extent of this decay. Communication lines across the continent were breaking down. Towns and cities were drying up, people moving away. Westerica was essentially an anarchy, a collective of people without a government and with rapidly fading national identity. Local law was the highest authority, and squabbles between councils meant that the cities and towns weren't co-operating and communicating on anywhere near the same level as they once had. The implications were clear; Unless government was re-established in the former Mobitropolis soon, it never would be. Westerica would cease to exist as a national identity, and control of its people would probably be divided up between the Aracks who already had a solid foothold in the south, and the nations of the north who saw great opportunity in these fertile and ungoverned lands.
Mail was only collected in the tiny northern settlements like Lowndes twice a year, and soon it would probably become once anually, if communications continued to deteriorate. It was just that nobody tried to contact the other townships anymore. When Sonic mentioned that he was headed southeast, the shopkeeper asked if he could carry a letter to his brother, and Sonic was more than happy. And with that, he packed his gear, and with an enthusiasm he hadn't felt in a long time, he headed into familiar territory, his companions in tow. There would be no more deserts, God willing, from now on.
It was Niles who became increasingly nervous about travelling south into the fertile lands. Over the past months, when there hadn't been much to do to occupy themselves but to make conversation, Sonic and Espio had learned much about each other. Niles, however, was very closed up about his past life. He was happy to discuss the last few years which he had spent living in Stratosphereon, but before that, he may as well have sprung out of the ground overnight like a mushroom for all his companions knew of him.
One thing, though, the fox made very clear - he was not to go near the Arack Empire, and if that was where their party was headed, then he would bid them good travels and sink his heels into the dirt.
Now, though, he was particularly anxious, and the sick Rune they carried probably only made it worse with exposure. He regularly insisted that the Annual Isle was a myth, it didn't exist, and it was ridiculous to continue in search of it. Sonic feared that any day Niles might decide to quit and duck out, and their fellowship would be fractured.
Niles didn't quit, though, and after a few weeks of travel through the heart of Sonic's homeland, they finally reached Point Adrien. It was a thrilling experience for Sonic to arrive in a town that he actually recognised, to see things familiar to him, and more than anything to look to the south and see the Great Forest stretched out along the landscape.
Looking out at the forest, he was taken by a sudden and inconceivably powerful desire to change course, to enter the forest and head south until he smelled the Freedom Fighters' home cooking, heard the sound of music and saw the tops of bark huts over the foliage. He knew, though, in his heart of hearts, that if he went back to the Freedom Fighters now, he would lose the will to continue with his quest. He would settle down and convince himself that Cinos was doomed to failure, and that he needn't tempt fate any further by continuing with this horridly perilous journey another day.
So he stayed strong, reminding himself that this was nearly over. Familiar territory lay before him, and he hadn't much left to do. New Knothole could wait a little while longer while he finished his errands. And, achingly, after delivering his letter, Sonic and his friends headed further south.

(But he had gone his way, the grass all mown)

It wasn't too long before they hit the coast. It was a milestone, for it meant they had truly intersected the entire land, having seen the oceans of the north and now the south. They came to a tiny fishing town called Port Knix, and here they decided to rest.
It was here, however, that Niles lost his nerve entirely. For it was moments after entering the town that he saw something that drove him into a frenzy of panic.
Mobian spiders. Aracks.
Port Knix sat along the southeastern coast of Westerica somewhere between Terantulopolis and the subcontinent of Kirandul. In other words, this entire region had fallen under the blanket of the expanded Arack Empire. Clearly they didn't claim governance over this town yet, but it sat right on the road between Terantulopolis and Arack-dominated Kirandul, so there was a large population of spiders living here already, and that would only increase. Cultural dilution would eventually make this an Arack town. The same would probably happen to Point Adrien, in time. Especially if the Empire built another city in the north. There was certainly enough room in the Plains of Mirth for them to do so.
Seeing spiders with his own eyes made Niles frantic. He refused to continue with what he described as a pointless bloody charade, gallavanting about over hill and vale in search of some imaginary island, and certainly not if it involved messing with Aracks. Sonic's insistance that the Empire had no jurisdiction around here held no water with the fox whose fear clearly stemmed from some past experience about which he refused to elaborate.
But Niles had nowhere to go, and was just as hesitant to go wandering by himself anywhere, so he remained in Port Knix for three days, holed up the entire time in the low quality motel they were able to rent for peanuts, and Sonic and Espio tried hard to convince him to proceed with them. Sonic was worried that they were wasting too much time, and soon he and Espio might really have to leave him behind and set out by themselves, although Sonic was close to certain that he would fail without the support of both of his companions.
Eventually, just as horizons began to look bleak, Niles cracked under the pressure. He agreed to follow them as long as they intended to leave this Arack-infested town and not venture any closer to the clutches of the Empire.
A few helpful Port Knix residents were able to produce scattered remanants of the legend of a place known as Annual Isle. It seemed that, decades earlier, an explorer from nearby had chartered a vessel and hired a crew to take it around Mobius, in the hope of discovering new cultures and technologies. He failed, however, until he'd turned around and come within miles of reaching home again. There was some kind of accident on board - many say it was a fire, many say that it struck rocks, but he himself said he was attacked by a sea monster - and the crew was tragically lost at sea. The explorer himself, however, washed up on the mainland alone and carried with him a story about an island with a friendly race of primitive people who nursed him back to health. Since then, there had been many expeditions to locate the mysterious island. Most came back empty-handed, but some claim to have seen it with their own eyes, but not to have landed because the seas were too treacherous. Officially, the place was a myth.
When they were ready to embark again, Sonic chartered a fishing trawler with what money they had been able to save. The boats weren't cheap, and their finances only allowed a rusty vessel that was barely seaworthy at all.
It would have to do.

(And I must be, as he had been,--alone)

III

"It should be right here," Niles said, "According to the maps. I hope you're happy now, dear hedgehog, we've been driving out to sea for half a day, now, and I'll be mighty surprised if this piece of rubbish will hold together long enough to get back!"
Sonic looked around. Nothing but ocean from horizon to horizon, lapping softly at the boat.
"Maybe the compass is a bit off," Espio suggested.
Sonic cleared his throat and stepped back a bit. "I have a bit of a confession to make," he said, "We've been travelling without a compass for a little while."
"What? For how long?"
"Since a few miles ago. Sixty-four."
"Great cripes!" exclaimed Niles, "We've been travelling blind? We could be anywhere!"
A wave splashed against the hull in response. There was a squawk as a seagull flew overhead.
"Well, that's a good sign," Sonic said, "Seagulls only come out into the open sea if they're going to die."
"Does it look sick?" Espio asked, shielding his eyes as he squinted upward.
Niles sighed. "Listen, lads. I say we turn back. It's afternoon already, and we don't want to be out at sea at night without a compass. At least we can tell west by heading towards the sun."
"Yeah, all right," Sonic replied, jumping down to the cabin, "I doubt Cinos is still around here anyway. We should get our bearings back in town and decide where we're going to do with this rune."
He looked at the small stone tablet sitting against the dash. As he eyed it, he suddenly felt as if he hated the island for not being there, hated Espio and Niles for not helping find it, hated the boat for being so ratty, and hated Cinos for making him leave home in the first place. It was almost nauseating, a feeling that decreased in intensity the moment he looked away from it.
"I hate that blasted thing," Niles muttered.
"That thing's been making us unhappy ever since we got it," Espio said as he walked down towards the cabin where Sonic was standing, "I wish we'd gotten the Happy Rune, or at most the Rune of Mild Discontentedness. This is driving me nuts. Hey Sonic, what's that?"
The chameleon was pointing to the control board, in particular a large radar-looking glass bubble with a few moving blotches on it.
"Fish-finder," Sonic replied, "It's a gadget that's supposed to help us do what we're supposed to be doing out here, which certainly doesn't involve looking for mysterious islands."
"Oh, right," Espio replied, "Looks like there's a pretty big one out there."
Sonic looked at a large blip that had appeared on the screen, not knowing how to read it properly. "Probably a shark," he said, "Or maybe this thing's busted, just like everything else on this boat."
"I think it's coming towards us."
The instrument began beeping faster and more urgently, as the big blotch moved quickly towards the centre of the bubble, where two white lines intercepted.
"I think that's behind us," Sonic said, "And in that case, it's moving a lot faster than we are. Hey Niles! I think you better get off the deck!"
"What?" the fox shouted, "I didn't hear-"
Bash! The ship banked heavily to the left as something smashed into the side of it. Niles went flying across the deck, but managed to keep his balance before he went over the edge. He promptly scurried back to the cabin. "What the flipping heck was that?"
"Big fish on starboard," Sonic replied, "I mean port... I mean... the right. Out that way. I think it's a shark or something."
"What kind of shark goes around bopping ships?" Niles demanded, "I don't like the look of this at all."
The ship banked again, something ramming into the hull. There was a splashing sound as something fell off the side and into the water.
"Don't worry crew, we're okay as long as we stay on board," Sonic said, "There's nothing in the ocean big enough to eat this whole boat."
"Forgive my skepticism," Espio replied, "But I'm pretty sure there's a predetory chain of order that says that an animal won't take on another animal unless it thinks it has a good chance of taking it down. That's how it works where I'm from, anyway."
"Yeah, well, we're not in the desert anymore, and we're not an animal. We're a boat."
"Oh, we're a boat!" Niles said, "Funny, I could have sworn we were a fox, a hedgehog and a lizard lost at sea and about to be eaten by a blinking whale!"
"Will you two stop it?" Sonic demanded, "We're going to be fine, okay?"
There was another hard ram, this time on the other side of the vessel. A warning light appeared on the control board, warning of a hull rupture and water intake. "Yeah okay, this looks bad I admit..."
"This piece of junk wouldn't survive being christened with a wine bottle, let alone being chewed up by a sea monster!" Espio exclaimed.
"Okay, okay, ix nay on the sea monster talk, guys," Sonic said.
There was a loud noise outside that sounded like a cross between a whale's sonar call and a rusty chainsaw motor. It continued for a few seconds, and then ended at the same time as the ship was rammed a third time.
"Are we moving as fast as we can?" Niles asked, "This doesn't seem very fast, to me."
Another ram. This time it was accompanied with a disheartening crunch. Something seemed to grab a hold of the boat, and the entire vessel began to spin in circles. The control board reported rudder damage. Then there was another crunch, a hard jerk, and then silence. The sound of the motor had disappeared completely.
"This isn't the time for jokes, my dear hedgehog, please turn the engine back on," Niles asked with a tremor in his voice. The ship's velocity slowly decreased towards zero.
"Uh, it wasn't me," Sonic replied, looking out the back of the vessel, "You know that thing, it's kind of like a little fan that spins around underwater and... makes us move?"
"The propellor?" Espio suggested.
"Yeah. I don't think we have one anymore."
There were warnings lighting up all over the control board. Fuel leak, water intake, rudder damage, motor damage... "Geez, this is a rental... Somehow I don't think we'll be getting our bond back."
"I think we have more important concerns at this juncture," Niles replied, "So can you get us out of here or not?"
"Maybe it'll go away," Sonic suggested, "I don't think it's here anymore, listen."
Silence. Nothing but the lapping of water against the hull.
"See?"
Crunch!
The ship began spinning in circles again, and the sound of wood splintering could be heard clearly above the waves. Then more silence.
"Okay guys, what's the lifeboat situation?"
There was only one lifeboat attached, and it looked even dodgier than the parent vessel. The three piled out of the cabin and started working to release the rusty rowboat.
"Won't this make us easier game?" Espio asked.
"It's in times like this," Niles replied, "That logic must give way to fear. Now help me push."
The lifeboat was lowered towards the water, and Niles and Espio jumped into it while Sonic continued to lower the rope.
"Take the rune," the hedgehog said, and handed them the stone.
Suddenly, there was a massive jolt from the opposite side of the ship. The deck shifted, and Sonic was thrown backwards as the rope slipped out of his grip. The lifeboat fell to the water, and Sonic fell off the other side of the boat - but not before he was concussed by a collision with a metal bar.
He was knocked out cold, so he never felt the splash.

IV

Splintering headache...

Cotton mouth...

Taste of...

blood?

"Aah, son of a..." Sonic grunted under his breath as he opened his eyes and tried to focus on his surroundings. Campfire, wooden posts, sounds of chanting...
"Chameleons?" he questioned, and suddenly grew afraid. Escaping from a chameleon colony was something he'd already experienced on this journey, and he wasn't ready to do it a second time. But no, this was different somehow... he could feel grass in his hands, could clasp it between his fingers. He could see the moon, although it was blurred in his sight. And cold, miserably cold. He wanted to roll up into a ball, or crawl over closer to the blazing campfire.
"Spirits of Mazsha," the shadowy figures chanted, "The great force that guides us, give us knowledge in these dark times..."
"Asprin!" Sonic groaned loudly, "I need asprin over here! I have a lump like a rockmelon on my head and I'm not happy!"
Nobody approached him. There seemed to be a camp around him, or a village like New Knothole. He was in some kind of village square, and so were most of the residents. The smell of smoke and incense were strong in the air, and Sonic had to lie flat so it went over his head and he didn't cough. Everything was so blurry.
"Hey!" he shouted, "Hey! Somebody wanna explain what's happening?"
He was being completely ignored, and he didn't feel up to screaming all night, so Sonic took to figuring out where he was, precisely. There were wooden posts near him, around him... Vaguely he realised he was in a cage.
"Aah crud," he said, "I hate cages." He tried to focus on one of the bars, but it wavered and blurred before his eyes. "And now I think I'm pretty badly concussed. Just fantastic." He spat in the grass, a wad of phlegm that tasted like blood.
Sonic assumed that he could probably spindash through the wooden bars quite easily, but the thought of moving his head, let alone spinning it violently, made him want to wince and throw up at the same time. Looked like he'd be staying put, at least for the time being.
Trying to shake the dizziness, or at least control it, he flattened himself against the ground and squeezed his eyes shut. The cold forced him to crawl closer to the fire, as close as the cage would allow him, and he soon fell asleep unintentionally.
He woke up when sunlight filtered in, hurting his eyes. Sonic thought he was in the Great Forest back home for a moment, before he remembered himself. There was still a feeling of discomfort in his head, the headache remained, and he had bruises that felt like they had swollen to the size of coconuts, but he could at least think clearly.
There was a girl. Sonic squinted in the sunlight and saw her face clearly. What he saw improved his mood a great deal, and for a moment he forgot his pain and discomfort.
She was breathtakingly attractive, decorated, and porcupinian.
Her fur a deep orange, her hair long and tied back, she sat cross-legged near Sonic's cage, not entirely facing it, eyes closed and lips moving softly, as if praying. He thought he heard what she was saying - whispering the word "blizzard" over and over - but couldn't make sense of it.
Found it! his mind screamed, I found it! Porcupines, thought to be extinct, now here in the flesh on what was surely the mysteriously hidden Annual Isle. Porcupines, living in a thriving community, locked away from the rest of the world.
It also seemed that he was their prisoner.
"Hey," Sonic prompted.
Attracting no response, he tried again. The porcupine girl was trying hard not to take any notice of him, so he gave up quickly and tried to drag himself to a standing position. His legs wobbled a bit, but he managed.
"So, you guys gonna kill me now, or what?" he asked.
Surprisingly, the girl's eyes flittered open, although Sonic hadn't really expected a response.
"Perhaps," she said, gazing at him without much emotive expression, as if he'd asked whether it was likely to rain today.
"What do you mean perhaps?" Sonic asked, taken aback, "You don't know what you're going to do with me?"
"It's a dilemma that the elders must discuss among themselves," the girl replied, "We do not punish anybody with death, in usual circumstances, but these are not usual circumstances. It might be decided that the ongoing goodwill of Mazsha cannot afford your ongoing survival."
"What are you talking about? Punishing me? For what? Where am I, anyway?"
The girl fell silent again, closing her eyes. Suddenly, the answer to Sonic's question dawned on him. He remembered the boat trip, the attack at sea...
"Is this the Annual Isle?" he asked.
The girl opened her eyes again. "This is the Land of Septennia," she replied, "Our Haven. Our Eden. The land that you came to defile."
"I didn't come to defile anything! Where are my friends?"
She merely shook her head and walked away with anger dripping off her face.
Sonic sighed and crossed his arms. Apparently, this wasn't going to be as simple as he'd hoped.

V

Sonic was feeling considerably better later in the day when he was approached by another stranger.
She was a very old porcupine female, so frail that she looked as if a breeze could knock her head-over heels. Her hair was adorned with numerous barks and twigs and leaves, and she walked with the help of a rough wooden walking stick that was merely a carved branch.
"Who are you?" the hedgehog asked, looking cocky despite himself. He knew now that it wouldn't be difficult to escape the strange village, should there be any sign of trouble. But escape wasn't what he wanted, not after he had made such an effort to find these people. He hoped very much that they could be reasoned with.
"You can wipe that look off your face first," the old stranger replied, "It is your identity that we must discern, for we have been lied to before. If you are the blue witch of prophecy, then you already know who I am. However, my granddaughter had a dream, and if I have interpreted this sign correctly, then your coming is indeed a blessing, and I must introduce myself. I am Alastrine Ardra Morrigan. These people look up to me as their most senior."
"I'm not sure I understand," Sonic said. "Am I on trial, here? I haven't done anything to you."
"That will soon be determined."
"And what if you determine incorrectly? What are you going to do to me if you decide I'm guilty of something?"
"If you are guilty, we will know. If you are innocent, we will know."
"I can get out of this cage in a heartbeat, you know."
Alastrine smiled in the way a mother might if her child has just said something cute and naive. It ticked Sonic off, proud as he was. He watched her as she looked at him, and it was a queer expression that her face took on, like deep concentration. Like this very conversation was just a diversion to buy her time for something else.
Even from his limited encounters with Cinos' guide, Rasputan, Sonic knew enough about porcupines and their so-called Old Ways to be seriously wary of letting them work their spells around him.
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
For a moment she gave no reply, merely narrowed her eyes and continued to stare at him, through him. Then she blinked and turned away.
"A decision will be made soon."
"Great," Sonic muttered, and sat down, wondering how much strife he was really in.

VI

"I don't suppose you know where we are," Niles asked, "This doesn't look like that horrid town, that's for sure."
Gentle waves lapped up against a pristine beach of white, unpolluted sand. To the west, a flat blue horizon sliced the ocean against the sky. To the east, the view was blocked by a barrier of tall, tropical trees. The jungle was overgrown, wild.
"I'm not sure we're back on the mainland," Espio replied, and he reached into the lifeboat to lift out the stone rune. "Come on, we have to find Sonic."
"Ah yes... Sonic. You do think the good chap is still alive, don't you?"
Espio blinked and looked up at the fox. This was the first time the idea had been presented that Sonic might not have actually made it. "Well... yeah. Yeah, sure of it. Aren't you?"
"Of course. Except... well, you know. We did just spend a considerable amount of time searching for our dear hedgehog after that sea beast let up. And... well, there was no trace, was there?"
"Yeah, but then this island appeared, and I'm sure he would have managed to swim here, it wasn't that far."
"That's another thing," Niles interrupted, "I would like you to stop saying that the land we're standing on appeared out of nowhere. It makes me think you've gone completely bonkers."
"Well, did you see it? I mean, before we almost ran aground on it."
"We were looking for Sonic, the poor chap. And putting a bloody good effort into it, too, mind you, so we needn't beat ourselves up about... well, not... finding him."
"We'll find him. Look, we washed up here, there's more than a good chance that Sonic did, too."
"What makes you so sure?"
Espio shrugged. "Maybe... maybe he was supposed to wash up here. I dunno, I get this feeling sometimes like things aren't entirely in our control. Like, the way things happen is the way they're supposed to happen."
"My dear lizard, you're beginning to sound like our friend Sonic, yourself."
"I know, I don't even know what I'm talking about. It's ridiculous. I just feel like we shouldn't give up on him, we should do our best to find him, because..."
"Good chap, loathe as I am to admit it, I know precisely what you mean."
Darkness began to fall. Niles and Espio, after exploring much of the coast in search of their missing companion, decided that it was about time to start thinking about settling down for the night. Espio, a naturist since birth, knew that it was important to build a fire before the sun was down entirely. Niles, who probably hadn't spent a single night in nature for as long as he had lived, was cautiously optimistic. Espio told him to stop criticising everything and find some wood.
Only a few minutes later, he heard an ear-piercing scream from within the trees. Before he knew what was happening, he saw Niles running full-pelt towards him, eyes wide and mouth open.
"What is it?"
"Hideous, that's what it is!" Niles replied, "There was something bloody well staring at me inside that bloody jungle, and I don't know what it bloody well was, and I've read a bloody lot of books!"
"What did it... bloody well look like?" Espio asked calmly.
"Well, it was... big! And quite unfriendly if I do say so myself, and I think we should start thinking about getting off this island before we see it again!"
"You're seeing things," Espio said, "It was probably just a... just a... deer."
"Deer don't live in the jungle, to be quite frank."
"Well, what does live in the jungle?"
"Lions, dear chap. Lions, and tigers and bears."
"Oh my. I'm starting to see your point."
Another sound emerged from the dark depths. Although this time it was not emitted from Niles. A throaty, wet roar, lasting for several seconds before falling into silence. The two castaways looked at each other, and then into the jungle. The sound had frightened the birds from the trees, and now there was movement close by.
"Uh-oh," Espio choked, stumbling back a bit, as something began to emerge.

VII

Sonic awoke to the sound of something roaring deep in the jungle. He had only recently drifted off, enchanted by the sound of the crackling fire that the porcupines were setting up, and he was ripped out of his slumber by the sound, which was like a lion's roar with a throaty whoop behind it. And much louder.
His eyes sprang open and he shivered a little. He'd never heard an animal make a sound like that before, and had no desire to meet the one that had.
There was someone sitting beside his cage. It only took a moment to recognise that it was the girl who had been there the first time he woke up on the island.
"Hey," he said.
The porcupine let out a long and exaggerated sigh. "You have a way of breaking my meditation," she said.
"I broke your meditation? Maybe you didn't hear the giant monster."
"Yes, I heard it. But it does not bother me."
"Doesn't bother you? If I wore pants, I might have soiled them. What is that thing?"
"It is the Wood Devil. You will be quite safe from it, provided you never leave the village."
Sonic grunted and sat back down in the grass. "You know, I'm getting pretty tired of waiting for you guys to figure out that I'm innocent of whatever you're holding me with. I've tried to play it your way, but in light of this evidence I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to bust outta here and run for it."
"Try it," the girl replied, a little smugly.
"Who are you, anyway?" the hedgehog demanded, trying to sound a lot stronger than he felt.
"Roxanna," she replied, "That is to say, Roxanna-Le Ardra Morrigan Destra. And that is all you will know about me, Blue Death."
Sonic smirked, "Blue Death. That's cute. I kinda like it. I have a name, though, if you'd care to use it. I'm Sonic."
"Yes," Roxanna replied, "A fitting title. The other folk here would quite openly report about how sonic you can be."
"Hey, are you calling me noisy?" Sonic demanded.
"And annoying," she replied.
"That's it! I've tried to be civil, but if all you're gonna do is poke fun at me while I'm in a cage, then bugger you. I am out of here."
Sonic, feeling rather sickly but otherwise having recovered from his ordeal, rolled into a ball and spindashed the wooden bars. He broke them, but not all the way - they splintered instead of breaking cleanly, and he found himself jammed inside a morass of sharp, jutting posts.
"Ouch!" he yelled, "Help!"
"That is called karma, Blue Death," Roxanna said bluntly, "It would serve you well to get used to it."
Out of the shadows, two strangers approached as Sonic struggled. They were both heavily adorned male porcupines, very muscular, and one carried a spear.
"Prisoner, you are required to have council with the elders," the armed porcupine announced.
"I might need a little help first," Sonic replied with a grunt. The porcupines began to pull the cage fragments away, allowing the hedgehog to slip out. Sonic winced and pulled a splinter out of his arm. "I hate cages."

VIII

Sonic was escorted through the village for the first time, and saw how large it was. The Freedom Fighters' villages were small by comparison. Every single resident was a porcupine, and they stared at him with mixed expressions as he passed them.
There was an enormous tent set up inside the village, and it was illuminated by a fire burning inside. The warriors let Sonic enter by himself, stopping some distance back as though they weren't allowed inside. This was promising, because if they did indeed have malevolent intentions, they were making a stupid mistake. Sonic could bolt at the first sign of trouble, and he was confident he could get away clean. He had suffered a moderately large gash in his leg, but he wasn't crippled by it. It wasn't the first injury he'd sustained on this journey, and it wouldn't be the last; If he survived this adventure, he'd be going home with some new scars. He looked at the warrior with the spear, who simply motioned for him to enter.
Sonic parted the cloth and peered inside, hoping it wasn't full of spear-throwers awaiting his execution. There was no such danger - the half dozen individuals inside were sitting by the fire, warming up, completely unarmed and unthreatening. He recognised one of them as Alastrine, the old porcupine, and she saw him and smiled. Sonic stepped inside, and immediately noticed that two of the tent's occupants were in fact Niles and Espio.
"Sonic!" Espio shouted. He was wearing a shawl, rubbing his hands together by the fire, but stopped dead when he saw the hedgehog.
Niles didn't even seem to notice his presence. Two young porcupine girls were sitting either side of him, giggling and braiding his hair with ribbons and beads. He was chuckling and blushing so hard that Sonic thought his fur might light up and his head catch on fire.
"Oh, good to see you, old son!" he exclaimed, unusually cheerful.
"Hey guys!" Sonic said, "Am I ever glad to see you! Are you here as witnesses for the defence? I need someone to vouch for my innocence."
"There is no need," Alastrine said, "Please. Sit. You have the trust of the elders, we recognise now that you are in fact the Martyr Angel."
"Oh, I'm the Martyr Angel now!" Sonic said, dropping down in a space by the fire and shivering as the warmth enveloped him, "A few moments ago I was the Blue Death."
"Our prophecies say many things. Our seers forewarn many coming events. It is difficult to interpret them sometimes," Alastrine explained. The other members of the select group occupying the tent all nodded in agreeance, but they let her speak. Interestingly, they appeared to be leaders, but they were mostly elderly females.
Alastrine continued, "A few months ago, my own granddaughter told me that she had seen two angels. They visited her in her meditations. She told me that the angels looked almost alike, but one was a Dark Angel. She told me that this angel wanted to fill the four corners of this world with disease and famine. His intentions were dark and twisted, and he was proud of them. But the other angel, the Martyr, wanted none of his brother's dark wishes. They began to argue, and then proceeded to chew on each others' tails."
"Yummo," Sonic interrupted. Nobody took any notice.
"A while later, a stranger came to our Haven," Alastrine continued, "An outsider named Sharpe. And we took him in, shared our wisdoms with him. But I saw his aura, and it frightened me, a terrible omen. Nothing like I have ever seen before. It was like living tar, crawling and slithering over his body like an animal. Before long he became impatient and rude. He began to demand that we tell him the location of a particular sacred artifact. What we call the keystone, the Rune of Shalpad. The stranger left this place shortly before you arrived, and we do not know where he has gone. The reason we were so wary of you, my friend, is because the dark stranger looked exactly like you. The difference is that your aura is bright like the sun."
"His name is Cinos," Sonic said, "My dark twin. We've been following him. Trying to stop whatever he's trying to do."
For the first time, one of the silent porcupines spoke up, "What the dark one tries to do is something that has been prophecised, nevertheless feared, for millennia. He plans to merge the Upper Realm and the Lower Realm into himself, and all the spiritual energy from both worlds shall become one with him. He will envelop all creation, he will even envelop the gods."
"Or so he says," Sonic said.
"Those stones hold the key," Alastrine said, and she pointed towards the back of the tent. For the first time, Sonic noticed the stone they had acquired in Desolation, sitting there. "They have great power. All together, they provide the key to power beyond infinite."
"Well, we're hoping that he won't be able to do anything too bad as long as we have one of his rocks," Espio said, smiling.
"The Runes' power is cumulative," Alastrine replied, "Holding one or two is no great feat. If the Eternal Enemy, however, happened to control four of the runes, it is very doubtful that you would be able to stand in his way of obtaining the fifth. Doubtful that anybody could."
The fire crackled as the group pondered this for a while in silence. Sonic gazed over at the lone rune that sat in the tent. The symbol seemed very enticing, like an old friend that Sonic had missed greatly. The rune seemed to smile at him - crazily, he smiled back.
There was movement, and his gaze shifted upward. It was possible to see outside through the crack where the tent flaps met, and there was somebody looking in. A cackle, a flash of blue, and then nothing.
Sonic shot up from his sitting position and bolted to the entrance, throwing the flaps aside.
But the figure had vanished into the night.
"What is it, Sonic?" Espio asked.
Sonic turned around, a grim expression on his face.
"Cinos is still here."

IX

The cold night breeze whisked by as the fire crackled and spluttered. Nobody spoke as Sonic stared into the darkness.
"Why didn't anybody see him? Try to stop him?" Espio asked.
"He looks like me," Sonic replied, "That's the problem with earning people's trust... he always seems to be there to give me a bad name."
"This presents a problem," Alastrine admitted, "The trust of our people is not easily earned at times. Some may not believe you have pure intentions if the dark one continues to plague us with his presence."
"You said before that one of the stones is here on the island, but if he's still here, it's probably because he hasn't found your rune yet," Sonic replied, "The last thing he's gonna do is hang around and wait for me to catch up with him if he doesn't have to. So I suggest we pack some supplies and go after it, so we can find it before he does."
"I'm afraid that is not possible," said Alastrine, and Sonic, Niles and Espio looked at her in surprise. "Why not?" Sonic asked.
"The Rune of Shalpad is deep in a sacred place," she replied, "Deep in the forgotten Darklands, in the temple of the ancients, the sacred place where our ancestors held their palaver and forged the Stone of Awakening, the Doorway of Worlds. The temple is protected always by the Wood Devil. It will attack anybody, no matter how pure their intentions, to keep the Rune safe. Not even our own people will venture inside the Devil's territory."
"It's true, Sonic," Espio added, "This definitely isn't any ordinary jungle. There are weird looking things running about and I don't think they're friendly. We heard this... thing... right before the porcupines found us."
"I heard it too," Sonic said, and looked crestfallen. "I don't know if you guys know, but Cinos is working with one of your kind to collect your runes."
"Not one of our kind," Alastrine replied, and looked as though she had tasted something bitter. "I have had the dishonour of being introduced to Rasputan Nethergate, and I do not hope for a second meeting. He is one of those we cast away, so many centuries ago. He is a Bloodmonger. He does not belong here, and he is a blight on our homeland."
"He knows your ways, though," Sonic said, "If anybody can get Cinos past your defenses, it's Rasputan. If what you say is right - about the power of the Runes - then I'm not going to risk him finding another one. He already has two. We have to go into that jungle."
"Sonic, dear hedgehog, perhaps we should listen to them," Niles suggested, "They know best, after all."
"You are brave and noble," Alastrine said after a moment of consideration, "If you are indeed to undertake this quest, then you should also be guided by somebody familiar with porcupine lore. Will you take a guide from our village?"
"Sure, no sweat," the hedgehog replied, "That's a good idea."
Alastrine smiled, "I know of one who I believe to be learned enough in our ways to guide you. My granddaughter Roxanna."
"Gramma!" came a protesting wail. The girl who Sonic had spoken to earlier was now standing just inside the tent, although Sonic hadn't heard her enter. She looked surprised and shocked.
"Do you not wish to leave the village on such a journey?" Alastrine asked her, "You have quite an adventurous spirit."
"I don't... get along well with... strangers," Roxanna stammered.
"That is to say, I don't think she likes me much," Sonic added.
"Ah, clash of personality," Alastrine said with a wry grin, "There are greater forces at work here, more important issues to be prevented. You are the most qualified to take on such a task, my girl."
Roxanna looked at the three adventurers with mixed expression. After a while she said "Very well, I will go."
The quiet was broken by another loud roar from within the jungle. It was almost a howl, although no wolf on Mobius was large enough to have made it. It stopped the crickets from chirping.
"I'll tell you one thing, I ain't looking forward to this," Espio muttered.
The three guests were treated well in the hidden village on the Annual Isle, the land that the porcupines referred to as Septennia, and Sonic wondered how often they received visitors from the outside world. The way some of the younger villagers looked at him, it seemed as though they had never seen anybody who wasn't a porcupine. Sonic considered that entirely possible. There was something very strange about this island; he didn't bring up the fact that neither he nor Espio and Niles had seen it until they actually ran aground on it. But it stayed at the back of his mind.
"I've come very far to find you," Sonic told Alastrine, "I've been following Cinos forever, but I still know next to nothing about what he's doing. I need answers."
"And answers you shall be given," the elderly porcupine replied, "For the affair in which you have become entangled is one of dire importance, and wide implications. The time has come to palavar, for we have very much to discuss, and it is long overdue."
Sonic nodded and watched the gap in the tent for sign of his evil twin. In the back of his mind, the sick rune throbbed its poison energy, and he supressed in a way that was becoming almost a habit.

X

The world was old.

It was already old when Mobius gave birth to mobiankind. The first mobians were the porcupines, and Mazsha was the name they gave to the Soul From Whence All Comes, the Spirit of Mobius. It was this spirit from which all life was created, and into which all life would once again be absorbed. It existed, they believed, in the centre of every being, from the smallest of insects to the largest of beasts. They believed that every creature had the gift of free will, given to them by Mazsha, and this free will could either galvanise or destroy their spirit, depending on how they used it.

For thousands of years, the porcupines walked Mobius in relative peace. But like all things, the world changed. New civilisations began to emerge, alien cultures of new mobian races began to crowd the planet, bringing with them new ideas like construction, government and empire. The porcupines were forced to interact with this new world, to find space within it and coexist, to keep their culture amidst a world of new ideas.

However, not all of the mobian races had peace in mind for the ones they called the Old People. It was primarily the imperialistic echidna people, brimming of pride with their technological advancements, and the warlike wolf tribes who terrorised the world with their merciless sacking and pillaging, who put pressure on the porcupines. These foreigners worshipped different gods, and further defiled the spirit of Mazsha by destroying her forests, polluting her rivers and choking her with cities and dams.

Hostilities with these new people was what forced the porcupines to retreat from the mainland and return to the Island of Septennia, the land where legend has it that the first porcupine was born.

But all was not well for the porcupine people, even though they lived on sacred ground. A great deal of the porcupines watched in growing fury as the new people of Mobius practiced their heathen religions, religions that defiled the spirit of Mobius and drove her inevitably toward ruination. Mazsha, they said, was intolerably offended by their insurrection against her, and the planet needed to be cleansed of their unclean presence.

These were the Bloodmongers, a new lineage of warrior porcupines who fought on behalf of Mazsha, and they led a crusade against their perceived enemies, sacking echidna cities and attacking anybody who indulged in offensive practices. They believed that the blood of Mazsha's enemies would cleanse her spirit, and that it was the only right thing to do. The Bloodmongers were the crusaders of Mobius, the fearsome hoardes from the south who struck terror in the hearts of infidels.

Not every porcupine subscribed to the Bloodmonger philosophy; in fact, about half of them did not. This was a source of escalating tension among the porcupines of Septennia. The Bloodmongers felt that those who did not agree with their methods were soft, even that they were traitors against Mazsha who would rather sit back and watch the spirit of their planet die than risk themselves in battle. Those who opposed them thought that their bloodlust was more offensive to Mazsha than the actions of those they killed. The porcupines began to fight among themselves. Before long, they were killing more of each other than of other races.

Soon it was feared by the porcupine elders, of both sides, that their race was at risk of extinction. Both sides felt they had a fundamental right to live on Septennia, yet neither was willing to suffer the other's presence on their homeland. It seemed the only option, for either group, was to eliminate the other. And so, war perpetuated and escalated on the island for years. Yet the wisest porcupinian thinkers recognised that this could only lead to their eventual self-destruction. The porcupines began to seek an alternative solution to what seemed an impossible problem.

And, remarkably, they found one.

XI

"They created the antiverse, didn't they," Sonic said, "Somehow, they did it."
Alastrine nodded. "And so a pact, together devised in harmony, to seperate evenly the lands from the lands, the peoples from the peoples, and the flow of time itself. For the first time in a hundred years, all of the porcupinian people came together in peace, and held a mighty ritual. Legend states that the ritual lasted a decade, during which time nobody slept, ate or drank, spoke or broke concentration. They came together in prayer and cast a powerful spell that diverged reality. They created a new Mobius, a Mobius empty of people and thriving with nature's undisturbed bounty, and the Bloodmongers crossed over to this New Paradise to live as they would."
The fire crackled and snapped in the dark tent as Alastrine fell silent and Sonic took some time to take this all in.
"And the Runes?" he asked, "What are they?"
"A great deal of power holds these realms together," Alastrine replied, "For without this power, they would spin away into the ether. This power was invested into a Stone, and this Stone was broken into five pieces and kept seperate. The Stone of Awakening is both key and doorway, for as long as it exists, there is a method of passage between the realms."
"I see... The runes hold the universe and the antiverse close enough together that we can slide from one to the other."
"Yes. The ancients remained in communication via the Runes, and they were kept on this side, with the understanding that they would be destroyed if either side broke the peace treaty. It was believed that one day the porcupinian people would all be reunited and would once again be able to live together in harmony."
"What happened to them? The Bloodmongers?"
Alastrine shook her head. "The Lower Realm, which you call the antiverse, grew sick over time. It began to rot, like an apple fallen from the tree. Our people lost contact with the Bloodmongers as forgotten siblings. We have not spoken with them in centuries, nor has anybody attempted a crossing to their realm."
"So why not destroy the Runes?"
"The Runes have been lost to us, and we do not venture from our homeland of Septennia. But for centuries we have protected the keystone, the Rune of Shalpad, from anybody in the world who might seek to collect the five. For the Runes harbour a terrible potential."
"I think I know what you're about to tell me," Sonic said with a morbid tone, "Destroying the five Runes tears the universe and the antiverse apart. But bringing them together..."
"Bringing the Runes together and reading them aloud would serve to reverse the spell that the ancients cast over them millennia ago. The diverged worlds would merge once again, and the spirits of both realms would be invested into he who has gathered the stones."
"He'd be given the power to remake the world however he wants, right?"
"Legend says that even the gods would stand aside for him."

XII

The three guests were given a comfortable tent-like shelter for the night, padded underneath with soft leaves. It was much more comfortable than the wooden cage, as Sonic remarked several times.
"This is extraordinary," Niles said, hugging his shoulders and trying to get warm. It was cold, and although they were provided with sheets of thin cloth, it wasn't easy to adapt. "To think, we've actually found the Annual Isle. What a marvellous opportunity for research!"
"You were one of those kids who actually enjoyed doing your homework, weren't you," Sonic replied.
"It boggles the mind that this place actually exists," the fox said, "It seemed to me that they were all sailors' stories. Like mermaids, and giant squids."
"And we've actually discovered a secret civilisation," Sonic added, "Do you realise what this means? These porcupines haven't had contact with the outside world for probably thousands of years!"
"How'd they keep themselves so secret?" Espio asked, "Someone's got to have found this place, by air if not by sea! It's so close to the mainland!"
"Well, we didn't bloody well see it," Niles said.
"Niles is right," Sonic added, "I didn't see this island until I woke up on it. There's something really weird about this place."
"You don't say," Niles replied, "Between the ferocious roaring from the jungle, the sea monsters in the water and an entire island that you can't see until you're on it, I'd say things are just downright usual."
Sonic rubbed his sore head. There was a lump and an enormous bruise, and some blood had dried in his spines. He grimaced, and inspected the gash on his leg. Alastrine had dressed it with some kind of thick red paste, something horrible she spat into while she mixed it, and instructed him to let it sit. The paste had dried and the injury stung.
"I've been clobbered on the head too many times to think about this," he said, "Let's just get some sleep. I just hope the rune is safe."
"It'll be fine, they're taking care of it," Espio said.
"Yeah, but I'm sure Cinos would appreciate the opportunity to get two runes for the price of one while he's here. You heard them say that if he has four, nothing's gonna stop him from getting the fifth. And he does look like me."
"You told them to kill you if you tried to take it back tonight," Espio replied, "I think you've covered that base."
The jungle was wracked with another loud wail from the Wood Devil. It made Sonic shiver, and his friends looked at him worriedly.
"Maybe its bark is worse than its bite," he suggested. But they all knew it wasn't true.

XIII

That night, Sonic had a dream, as he did so often recently. But this one was so much more terrifying than any before it - for the first time in so long, he dreamed of snakes.
He was running through the jungle, running as fast as he possibly could. He was being chased by a snake, and although he couldn't see it, somehow he knew that it was right behind him, snapping at his ankles, trying to poison him. It was as fast as he was. But, how was that possible? Sonic was the fastest thing alive! He couldn't be beaten by a snake... not a snake, not anything!
Eventually the trees dispersed. He wasn't in a jungle anymore, he was in a garden. The mosquitos and leeches gave way to bees and butterflies. The trees bore fruit and beautiful flowers, and they were dressed rather than strangled by the thin creepers and vines. It was a dead-end, only one way inside, and Sonic had to stop running. But the snake didn't attack him. It passed him and wrapped itself around a tall apple tree, which had the biggest, reddest apples Sonic had ever seen hanging from its branches. The snake itself, which was visible for the first time to Sonic, was covered in the most brilliant red stripes, it almost glowed. And it was a kind of snake had never seen before. Most had only two fangs, but this one had a mouth full of them. It seemed to twist into a devilish toothy grin. And it laughed.
As Sonic stared, however, he realised why the snake had been almost able to catch him. It wasn't actually a snake at all, it was a hedgehog. It was Cinos hanging from that apple tree, and Sonic felt more hate for his evil twin than he ever had for anybody. How dare he steal the abilities of the One And Only Sonic? He wasn't the best anymore, and it killed him.
Cinos chuckled as he reached up and picked an apple. The snap was almost deafening when it broke away from the tree, and Sonic realised that he had a headache. Cinos climbed down, walked up to Sonic, and held out the apple as some kind of offering.
"There's trouble in paradise, Sonic," he said in his raspy parody of Sonic's own voice, and Sonic looked up at him. He didn't take the apple, but Cinos continued to offer it. "You hate me more every day," Cinos continued, "But soon you will fall for me. You will fall for me, brother, I know you will. You will fall because of your hate."

XIV

The sun rose over the horizon, shining through the trees first and bathing the village in an odd kind of light. It was about five in the morning when Sonic shook Espio awake.
"Ugh... early..." the chamelion mumbled, his eyes heavy and his speech drawled.
"We have to set out," Sonic replied, "I want to get a head-start on Cinos, and I don't know if he's out there already."
"If I was Cinos, I'd sleep in another hour," Espio replied.
"Come on, we're the only ones still in bed!" Sonic said, and he spread the tent flaps. Light flooded in, and the porcupines outside were milling around, making breakfasts and mixing herbs. Niles started to stir when the light hit him, and Espio groaned as he picked himself up. "What's wrong with these people?" he asked.
"Looks to me like they greet new days with enthusiasm, and don't whinge about it," Sonic replied, "Up, you two!"
"Great cripes," came Niles' voice, muffled by the floor.
Alastrine was nearby, and they spotted her when the three of them emerged. She was stirring something in a pot, and smiled at them. Roxanna sat beside her in a cross-legged position, and gave a forced smile without much enthusiasm. "Well met," said Alastrine as Sonic sat down in front of her. The ground was hard, and quite uncomfortable, but the porcupines evidently had grown used to it and wouldn't have it any other way.
"Are you hungry?" Alastrine asked, stirring.
"I don't usually eat a big breakfast," Sonic replied, looking warily at the strange brew the porcupines endulged in.
"Well, you must this morning," she replied, "You must eat well and heartily. The Wood Devil will have you, if you lax on energy. Crafty, he is, and cunning. I have mixed you a special stew for your venture."
She picked up a large, thick wooden bowl and slapped three big spoonfulls of lumpy, green slop into it. The smell almost made him gag, and he took the bowl and looked into it. "What's in it?" he asked, trying not to sound disgusted.
"Marrow root, foxleaf, redtree sap," she replied, "I have mixed some spices and starflower in for taste. The marrow root is bitter, but it will fill you with power."
Sonic looked at Niles, who gave him a smug return gaze. Now who's whinging? that gaze said. He looked back down at his breakfast, which he was evidently supposed to eat with his hands, and swallowed his pride as he began to pull his gloves off.
"So, how far will we have to go before we reach the rune?" he asked.
"I believe it lies at the centre of this land," Alastrine replied, "Where the trees are thickest and darkest. The centre of the Wood Devil's guard. No porcupine has entered that part of the jungle for greater than a thousand years. There are many dangers, the ancients laid many traps to keep the most dangerous of secrets sealed forever."
"That is why you will need my guidance," Roxanna added, "To reach the rune without incident."
Sonic squinted as he shoveled the foul-tasting porcupine breakfast into his mouth. It wasn't as bad as it looked or smelled, he realised, and loosened up a little. "But if nobody's been there for a thousand years, how do you know even you can help us?"
Roxanna looked disheartened and even a little offended, but she kept her chin up. Alastrine smiled at her. "If Mazsha is looking over your souls, then you will be without harm. So has always been the way of things."
There was another loud roar in the jungle, and it seemed a little closer than it always had. Niles gulped audibly and shifted position. "Say, would you chaps mind terribly if I sat this trip out? I can wait back here while you go in and do whatever you do."
"Sorry pal," Sonic replied, "I might need your help, as strange as that sounds. We're all going in there, and we're all coming out alive. And we're taking the Rune of Nine in with us."
Alastrine had referred to the stone from Desolation repeatedly as the Rune of Nine, and it had stuck with Sonic. He was sick of feeling like the only one in this weird adventure who didn't know the terminology.
"Aw, why do we have to lug that thing around?" Espio asked, "The porcupines are looking after it here."
"It doesn't matter, we can't risk Cinos getting either one of them. It'll be safer with us. When it comes to the crunch, I can tell myself apart from Cinos better than anyone else."
Alastrine nodded. "A wise decision." And then there was a long silence as she served some of the green slop to both Niles and Espio, and they all ate it politely. Espio actually rather liked the stuff. As they ate, Alastrine seemed to look over them, inspecting them for something, watching Sonic most of all. After a while, she said "You are full of hate for him, aren't you."
"What?" Sonic asked, looking up.
"The dark one who plagues our land. Sharpe, your shadow twin. You are full of hatred for him. But not just because of what he's doing... you hate him because of what he is."
Sonic stopped eating and thought about it. He remembered the dream he had the previous night, about Cinos in the garden, and what he said.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I can't seem to stop him. If it was anybody else doing this, I'd just catch them and pummel them. But Cinos... he shares everything about me that makes me special. He's good at everything I'm good at, and he's always one step ahead. I feel kinda robbed. He says-" But he stopped, and said no more.
Alastrine leaned in towards him. "Pay no attention to the words of the Devil Hate is a very powerful weapon, Sonic Hedgehog. Hate alone can kill and destroy. The only hope you have is to aim it correctly, like the weapon that it is. We teach that you should hate what a person does, if what they do is wrong. But you should never hate what a person is. This is not something that anybody can change, and to hate a person for what they are will often lead to your own demise. That is the mentality of a Bloodmonger."
"Uh, very philosophical," Sonic replied, "I think it's about time we got going. Cinos is probably already out there somewhere."
He picked himself up and stretched. Alastrine nodded and stood up, herself. "Very well then. We shall prepare for your departure. May you have a safe journey, we shall all be wishing for it."

XV

Sooner than half an hour later, the four of them stepped into the section of the jungle deemed out of bounds by the porcupine elders. Roxanna took one look back to her village, as if to wonder if this was the right thing to do. Sonic carried the Rune of Nine, and Espio and Niles trekked slightly behind them.
"Shouldn't we have some water or something?" Espio asked, looking up towards the canopy.
"We do not want to be weighed down with supplies," Roxanna explained, "We will be following a river for most of the way. It is said that the water leads almost directly to the centre of the island."
Sonic looked down at the rune he was carrying. The stone was rather small and lightweight, but it seemed to get heavier the more he carried it. That combined with the fact of his growing headache caused by his concussion started to dampen his mood. He decided to strike up some conversation with their porcupine guide to take his mind off it.
"So your people have never been to the mainland?" he asked.
The porcupine scratched the back of her head. "Not for centuries. Millennia. It is said that the ancients lived all over the world, but we returned to this place when the world became crowded."
"Yes, well you certainly are secluded," Niles said, "Everyone thinks this island is simply a myth, believed only by the gullible and stupid." There was a tinge of bitterness in his voice, and Sonic figured he was probably angry with those who had convinced him that Septennia didn't exist. Angry always at everyone besides himself.
"Perhaps things are better that way," Roxanna replied, "I have never seen people like you... I have heard stories about races vastly different from us who live in far off places, but I never imagined what they might look like. When the dark one came here a few months ago, nobody knew what to expect."
The sound of running water led them to a stream. It wasn't very wide, but it was deep and very clear. "This is the river," Roxanna announced, and they stopped to rest.
"Looks refreshing," Espio said, and he leaned over the embankment to take a drink. Moments later, Niles did the same. The water was cool and fresh, and there were large silver fish swimming around in it.
"Ouch! I say!" Niles exclaimed suddenly, and jerked his hand out of the water.
"What's wrong?" asked Espio.
"That wretched little mongrel bit me!" Niles replied, pointing into the water. There was a small swarm of fish hovering around where he had been, and they looked aggrivated. Espio leaned closer to the water, and saw that they each had two rows of sharp little teeth in their mouths. "What are those, pirhannas?" he asked.
"Heavens, I've never seen fish like those in my life!" Niles replied, "I've seen pirhannas, and those are most certainly not pirhannas!"
"Are you two ready?" Sonic called to them, and looked down again at the rune he was carrying. When he did, his headache suddenly grew several times worse, and he had to squeeze his eyes shut. When he opened them, he was looking into the jungle amidst the trees... and he saw movement. Blinking, he squinted into the dimly lit corridor of trees in front of him. Something blue... it didn't take him long to notice that Cinos was hiding in the foliage, looking back at him. The evil hedgehog was grinning, trying to be inconspicuous. Sonic hated the way he grinned, like he knew that he was always one step ahead and he was smugly showing off the fact.
"Sonic?" Espio called. Sonic raised a hand to silence the chameleon. "Cinos." he said. Then quickly he turned to his friends. "I'm going after him."
Before anybody could protest, he took off sprinting into the jungle. He hoped to take his evil twin by surprise, but as soon as Sonic started running, Cinos took off in the same direction, jumping and sprinting through the rough environment at the same rate. Sonic yelled and tried to speed up, but he couldn't keep up with Cinos. "Stop!" he screamed, not expecting any compliance. Eventually, Cinos vanished in the darkness and Sonic slowed to a stop. Although he'd only been running for a few seconds, he realised he was completely lost.
"Great," he muttered, and sat down in the moist dirt, "Great idea, Sonic, real smooth."
He listened for a moment to the sounds around him. There weren't too many birds in the trees, but the few that existed sounded quite exotic. One in particular was very vocal. "Wibble-kee!" it hooted, "Wibble-kee! Wibble-kee! Kee!" There were plenty of frogs around, as well, although they hid themselves from sight.
After sitting for a while, he heard the others approaching. He turned to them, and nobody looked happy to see him sitting down.
"Slowpokes," he said with a wry grin.
"Nice of you to run off like that," Espio said, "Are you mad?"
"I almost caught him," Sonic replied, "I think he took off in that direction."
"Yeah, well we didn't see a thing. We oughta get back to the river."
They got up and started to trudge back in the direction they had come. Nobody said anything for a long time, and the sounds of the jungle could be clearly heard.
"I must say, you have some mighty strange wildlife on this island of yours, my girl," Niles said to Roxanna. The porcupine merely shook her head, "I wouldn't know."
"Wibble-kee!"

XVI

It was an hour before anything interesting happened. There was hardly a word muttered as they followed the stream, which got wider, deeper and faster the further they followed it. A couple of times they stopped to drink from its crystal clear waters, which were so pure it defied imagination.
During one such rest, Espio sat on a mossy rock and dangled his sore feet in the water. The canopy gave way a bit, here, and sunlight streamed through to warm his skin. Sonic was drinking, and the others were standing around patiently. Niles in particular seemed to look forward to stopping.
Espio looked to his left, where a cluster of thick bushes, the likes of which he had never seen before, led into the dark of the jungle. He caught movement, and stared in interest. Every so often the bush shook ever so softly, jerkingly. The chameleon leaned closer, to see if he could make out anything. Something was glowing deep within the darkness... no, not glowing, just reflecting. It was an eye, and it was staring at him just as intently as he stared at it.
"Hey guys!" he shouted, but when the others came over, the eye was gone.
"What is it?" Sonic asked.
"Something's watching us from in there," Espio replied, pointing.
Sonic kneeled down for a closer look. "I can't see any-"
Suddenly, the bushes parted, and something leaped out of them. The four travellers fell back quickly, frightened. Niles let out a shriek and fell on his backside.
The creature was lime green, and stood about the same height as Sonic, which was taller than Espio but shorter than both Niles and Roxanna. It appeared to be some kind of reptile, with a white belly and blue eyes, standing on two legs. It had tiny arms with claws, and a long beak lined with minute teeth.
"What is that?" Niles demanded shrilly.
The creature timidly walked up to Espio, who was also a lizard of sorts, and the two of them looked into each others' eyes. The creature rubbed its beak on Espio's arm.
"What is that thing... Roxanna?" Sonic asked rather urgently.
The porcupine girl looked at it, confused. "I don't- I-"
"Aww, he's friendly!" Espio chuckled, and rubbed its beak. The creature crooned softly and nuzzled him. "It's like a big puppy dog!"
"Big being the operative word," Niles added, "I think we ought to move on... slowly but warily."
"Aw come on," Espio protested, and gave the creature a full head-rub. Its head swayed on its long, rubbery neck, and its eyes partially closed as if going to sleep.
"We should move on, all the same..." Sonic said, "I've never seen anything like that before. Be careful it doesn't take your hand off, or something."
The four of them backed away from the creature. It cooed, and bounced after them on its skinny legs, enthusiastically.
"Shoo," Sonic commanded, "Go back to where you came from."
It looked at him with its head cocked to the side.
"He's just curious," Espio said, "He'll go when he loses interest."
So they walked onward along the river bank, always mindful of the creature scurrying along behind.
"You have no idea what that thing is?" Sonic asked again.
Roxanna shook her head. "There are many creatures who live within these trees. Sprites, faeries, we coexist with them but rarely see them unless we venture out here, which we almost never do. We are entering the territory of the Wood Devil now, so we must be mindful of his presence."
"Oh I do hope this devil thing is asleep, or something of the sort," Niles said, "I've had enough frightening experiences on this island."
They looked again at the lizard creature. It stood, looking at them for a while, letting itself trail behind, before running over to them again.
"You think that's a faerie?" Sonic asked.
"I have heard stories about such things, yes."
The river eventually grew so loud that its flow was almost a roar. "Sounds like there might be a waterfall up ahead," Sonic said.
"There's no telling what's ahead," Espio added, "Look."
The flow of the river curved around ahead of them, and ran into a thorny tunnel of deadfall. Sharp, jagged sticks piled on top of each other, shrouding the river's progress in complete darkness. And a large pile of it blocked their passage onward.
"I am not climbing over that," Niles said, "Gracious, it would cut me to pieces! And I'd never get the horrid stuff out of my fur!"
"Well, we're going to have to," Sonic replied, "Right Anna?"
"Rox-anna, thank you. I would ask you to use the name my mother gave me. And yes, I fear we shall have to scale the deadfall."
"Well then, you first," Niles offered.
It was difficult, but Sonic went over first, probing for solid foot-holds as he went. Some of the sticks were frail and snapped when he stepped on them. At one stage, his foot went through and he almost fell. Step by step, however, he finally reached the other side, and called out for the others to follow. Espio went over next, having watched carefully where Sonic put his feet. He carried the Rune of Nine with him. Then Roxanna went over, and, hesitantly, Niles.
As Niles was climbling, he happened to look down behind him. The strange green lizard creature was looking up at him, head cocked to the side. Niles snapped a twig off the pile and chucked it in the other direction. "Fetch," he said. The creature didn't even seem to see it. If it did, it had absolutely zero interest. It just continued to stare at Niles with an expression of curiosity.
"Hurry up Niles, where are you?" came Sonic's frustrated voice from the other side of the pile.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," the fox replied, "Our lizard friend can't follow us over, methinks. And good riddance to bad rubbish."
"Well, leave him and he can go back to wherever it is that he came from. We don't need wildlife following us around."
They gathered at the bottom of the deadfall on the other side, and saw that they were heading into the darkest portion of jungle yet. Vines stretched through the darkness like giant spider's webs, and the ground was composed almost entirely of mulch.
"Creepy," Sonic said.
"The Darklands," Roxanna whispered, "The ancients told stories about this place. It is where the Wood Devil prowls. We are not safe here."
All sound seemed to have ceased. The jungle was abnormally quiet, here, as if the blackness absorbed everything. Sonic looked up to the canopy, which had grown so thick as to barely let any light shine through whatsoever.
"I've never seen trees like that in my life," he said, "This island is bizarre. It's like there's millions of new species here that probably nobody on the mainland has ever seen."
"How is that possible?" Espio asked, "This place is so close to everybody! How can it be so different?"
"I don't-" Sonic began, but had to stop abruptly and hold his head. His headache flared up again. He heard Cinos' voice.
"Fall for me, Sonic, fall for me!" his evil twin chanted. Sonic looked up and scoured the area, but Cinos was nowhere in sight.
"What's wrong?" Roxanna asked, exaggerating concern.
"Nothing," Sonic replied, "Nothing at all."
Something moved out of the darkness towards it. Sonic was sure that it would be his evil rival, and jumped into a defensive position. The others backed off, unsure what to think.
It was the green lizard creature.
"Oh, marvellous," Niles grumbled.
The creature had something in its mouth. As it came closer, it was revealed to be a twig. The stick that Niles had thrown for it earlier. The creature brought it right up to him and stared at him.
"Well I'll be sodded," Niles said, "It actually fetched the silly thing."
The creature snapped the twig in its beak. The two halves fell to the ground.
"Aren't you a clever thing!" Espio exclaimed, and reached over to rub its head. But the creature jerked its head back, making a sound low in its throat. Then it opened its mouth and snapped at the chameleon's hand. Espio just pulled away in time. "Whoa! Hey, easy."
"We shouldn't try to tame the wildlife," Sonic said, "We don't even know what that thing is. Come on, let's go."
"Yes, exotic creatures carry exotic diseases," Niles added.
As they started to move off, the creature suddenly reared up, threw back its head and screeched into the air.
"Wibble-kee! Wibble-kee! Wibble-kee! Kee!"
"Hey!" Sonic exclaimed, "It's those things that make that noise! I thought they were birds."
"Me too," Espio replied, "I wonder what he's doing?"
A few seconds later, there was another Wibble-kee! from behind them. They turned, and another of the green lizard creatures came out of the jungle. The two of them bounced enthusiastically over to the four travellers.
"How terribly sweet," Niles mumbled.
Espio reached out to touch the creatures, but they both snapped aggressively at his hand. He pulled back and stumbled away from them, but they continued to stare at him with their heads cocked to the side, growling deep in their throats.
"Wibble-kee!" one said. "Wibble-Wibble-kee!" the other replied.
"Uh, Espio, did you do anything to make them angry?" Sonic asked. When he spoke, one of the creatures ran over to him and snapped loudly at him. Sonic had to move quickly to avoid its jaws.
"No!" Espio replied.
"I think we have a growing situation here," Niles announced.
"Wibble! Kee!" one of the creatures screeched.
"Please, we mean you no harm," Roxanna tried to explain, "Let us pass through here, we are peaceful." One of the creatures snapped at her.
"Wibble-craaaank!" came another sound from within the jungle, and the creatures immediately stopped and looked towards its origin. Something lumbered out of the darkness - it was like the other two creatures, only it was red... and much bigger. It stood taller than Niles, and looked down on them all. "Wibble-craaaaank!"
"Guys, I suggest we get up one of these trees," Sonic said with a gulp. Before he had even finished speaking, Niles was already halfway up the trunk of his nearest tree. Sonic followed suit. Espio and Roxanna helped each other into another, while the creatures snapped at their ankles more aggressively by the minute.
The red creature started scratching at the bark under Sonic and Niles' tree. They could see that its teeth were much longer and probably sharper than the green creatures'. They were scratching at the other tree, wibble-kee-ing at each other.
"I do get sick of being right all the time," he complained.
"Okay," Sonic said, "So I guess we... wait."

XVII

Time didn't defeat the persistance of the Wibble-Kees, as Sonic had grown to know them. About half an hour in the trees, and they could still see the creatures staring up at them, heads cocked, beaks snapping together.
"Do you suppose they're carnivores?" Niles asked.
"They don't use those fangs to chew bananas," Sonic replied, "I think we need a plan. I have a feeling they'll be waiting there for a long time, and I'm not willing to risk that we can go without food for longer than they can."
"I am," the fox said.
"Listen," said Sonic, "We'll have to get out of this tree. I'll bet I can run faster than they can, they don't call me Sonic for nothing. I'll carry you with me, and we'll try to lead them away from the others, so that they can get away."
"I don't like this," Niles admitted, and sighed loudly.
"Wibble-kee!" one of the green creatures screeched.
"The problem," said Sonic, "is getting down."
Both the Wibble-Kees were guarding their tree, circling and snapping their beaked jaws. The other creature, the Wibble-Craank, was guarding the other tree, where Espio and Roxanna were trapped. Sonic dangled his legs, turned and positioned himself for climbing down.
"Hey," Espio said, "It looks like Sonic's trying to get down."
"He cannot!" Roxanna exclaimed, "The sprites will have him!"
"That's where we come in," replied the chameleon. He snapped a branch near his head, and threw it like a boomarang at the green creatures at the other tree. "Hey!" he shouted, "Hey you! Yeah! Wibble-kee your butts over here!"
The Wibble-Kees turned their heads, frustrated. Espio threw another stick, and it hit one of them on the head. The creature screeched and snapped. Hesitant, but apparently curious, they left Sonic's tree to approach Espio's.
"Let's go!" Sonic exclaimed, dropping out of the tree. The three lizard creatures screeched "Kee!" at the same time and jerked around to face him. Niles wailed and fell out of the tree.
"Run!" Espio shouted.
Sonic picked Niles up and threw the fox over his shoulder, and just as the creatures bolted to pounce on them, they ripped away in a cloud of dust, the only sounds being Sonic's feet and Niles' terrified scream.
"I think this is our chance," Espio announced, and waited for the creatures to be out of sight before he dropped out of the tree. Roxanna dropped into his arms, knocking them both to the ground.
"We are being warned by the servants of the Wood Devil not to proceed," she said, composing herself.
"Yeah, well we have no choice. C'mon, we have to get outta here." The chameleon noticed the Rune of Nine against the trunk of the tree, and picked it up. "Which way is the river?"
"I can hear it in that direction," she replied, pointing, "Let us hurry."

XVIII

"Kee! Kee! Kee!" the creatures chanted as they ran. Sonic was shocked about how fast they actually were. But they weren't as fast as Sonic the Hedgehog, and he savoured the wind in his face as he left them behind, their shrieks of protest eventually being drowned out. Niles' scream, however, was constant.
After a period of time that neither of them could deduce with any accuracy, they came to the river bank and stopped running. Sonic tried to put Niles down, but the fox had a firm grip on the hedgehog's spines.
"Let go!" Sonic protested.
Niles relaxed suddenly and fell to the ground limply on his back. His hands still clutched slivers of blue spines, and his arms were scratched in several places.
"Never," he said, panting, "Never do that again. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"
"Hey man, I just saved your life," Sonic replied.
"Yes, quite. And, in doing so, you quite nearly gave me a cardiac arrest. Have you any idea how... sharp... you are?"
"Compliments will get you nowhere, buddy. I hope Espio and Roxanna got away. At least we found the river again."
Niles crept to the river bank and dipped his hand into the still water to wash the lacerations on his arms. "Say, this is strange."
"What?"
"This river is quite still. Yet, not too far back, it was moving in a strong current. Are you sure this is the same river?"
"How many rivers does this jungle HAVE?" Sonic asked, "It's gotta be the same one. There's probably just some rapids back there, maybe a waterfall. It looks like easy going for a while up ahead, we'll be fine."
"All the same, I am a bit wary of continuing without our... guide."
Sonic looked around, an expression of puzzlement on his face. "I want to make sure they're okay, but.. heck, I don't even know which way we came from, let alone which way we're going."
"It's quite obvious, dear hedgehog, that the way we came would look trampled and..." he stopped. Pretty much all the vegetation in the area had been trampled. There were several paths running into the jungle which all appeared well-used.
"There seem to be a lot of animals live around here," Sonic said, "A lot of heavy animals. And I doubt they're any kind of creature we've seen before."
"Well, they do say, if ever you lose yourself in the wilderness, stay put until somebody finds you."
Sonic shook his head, "Not in this jungle. I think we'd better just follow this river onward - assuming of course that this is onward and not back the way we came - and hope that the others catch up eventually."

XIX

Espio and Roxanna ran until they reached water, as well, but the river they encountered was roaring and splashing over rocks, creating rapids that appeared impossible to cross. Espio sat on a rock by the bank and set down the rune, panting.
"We have lost your friends," Roxanna said matter-of-factly, staring at the river.
"Yeah, I just hope those delightful faerie critters didn't catch them," Espio replied, "Do you think they found the river?"
"It is difficult to miss," she replied, "Unless they ran further into the darklands, amongst the trees. I doubt that one would survive long, lost in these parts."
"Charming thought," the chameleon replied, "You're not much of an optimist, are you?"
"I am a realist. The important thing is that we are in possession of the Rune. We are in charge of its safety."
Espio sighed, but it was lost amidst the sound of the splashing rapids. "Still, I need to know they're alright. They're my friends, you know... the only ones I've ever had. And we've grown real close. Sonic, especially, I've been exploring the world with him for... gosh, most of a year, now."
Roxanna frowned. "Yes. Yes, I can see how they are important to you. I have had many close friends, and I know how it hurts inside when they are lost to you. You must forgive me for being hesitant to trust strangers. I extended the warmest greeting to the evil one, Kinnos Sharpe, when he first came to our lands, and he betrayed us all in the worst way. It was most offensive that he and his associate betrayed us with our own ways. This is how it must have been to live in the time of the Bloodmongers. Porcupines against porcupines."
"His associate? You mean Rasputan?"
Roxanna nodded. "A very able druid, fluent in both the Old Magicks and the New Magicks, the ones known as Technologies. We did not see much of him. One night, he came to our village with a magical wounding-stick and took one of our villagers into the jungle. Neither of them have been seen since that time."
"Magical wounding-stick?" Espio asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Yes. He pointed it towards one of our warriors. It roared loudly, and a wound opened up in the victim's shoulder. A wound that refuses to heal."
"A gun," Espio explained, "There'll be a bullet in that guy's arm, you'll wanna take it out, it should heal then."
"I will inform the elders. Thank you."
Espio stood, and picked up the rune. "Well, we probably should get going before something tries to eat us. Let's follow the river, maybe we'll catch up to Sonic and Niles."
They followed the roaring water for a long time. It continued to speed up, and the jungle itself began to open up and let some light in.
"We're coming out of the darklands..." Roxanna said with some confusion.
The trees eventually broke away altogether, and only sparse foliage stood in their way. There was an enormous thunderous noise behind them. Espio and Roxanna pushed through, and sunlight bathed them on the other side.
They were standing atop a cliff. The river flowed over the rocks and toppled over the side in the biggest waterfall Espio had ever seen. Hundreds of metres below, the ocean swallowed it all in a foaming white cloud.
"Okay... what happened?" the chameleon asked.
"I think," Roxanna replied, and looked back into the jungle, "I think we have been following the wrong river."

XX

"Oh dear dear dear," Niles muttered, "We're never going to see ourselves out of this hideous jungle, are we."
"Not with that attitude," Sonic replied, "Here. Let's rest for a moment."
They sat together on a large rock on the bank of the river. It wasn't a river now so much as a stream. Clear and fresh, a school of small silver fish swam up to their feet.
"I must say, I've never seen creatures like the ones we've seen today," Niles said. He looked at the little fish, which seemed to be encased in armour rather than scales.
"Hey, check this out," Sonic said, and Niles looked over to see the hedgehog parting the bushes beside him and looking into them intently.
There was a nest built into the ground, constructed of bark and other organic debris. A clutch of three enormous eggs was inside, and the remains of a fourth, which had hatched.
"My goodness," Niles said in awe, and leaned in for a closer look. The eggs were dark and speckled, with leathery shells. "What do you think laid them? They're bigger than an ostrich's!"
"Naaaaaang!" cried an upset voice, and both travellers jerked their heads quickly to its source. Standing beside the river on stout legs was a creature about the size of a pig, but it was covered in grey scales and had a beak. "Naaaaang! Nang!"
"Oh great cripes!" Niles exclaimed, and crawled further up the rock, "Is it like one of those.. those... Wibble-Kee things?"
"No.." Sonic replied. He slowly leaned closer to the animal, which backed away from him but continued to complain. "I don't think this little guy wants to hurt us.. he's just a baby, he must have hatched out of that egg."
"Naaang! Nnng!"
"Don't go near it!" Niles warned, "I mean... just in case... you understand."
"Yeah," Sonic replied, and leaned back onto the rock. The little creature growled a bit, galloped back and forth, and finally out of sight.
"You know, I think I've worked out this place," Sonic said. His head throbbed a bit and he frowned as he put a palm to his forehead.
"Well I'd like to hear your explanation, because I'm beginning to think I'm going mad," the fox replied.
"I had a friend once," Sonic explained, "Kinda like you, actually. A smart friend, named Bosley. He knew a lot of things that the rest of us didn't. I mean, when I lived on the street. He liked to talk, and people pretended to be interested, I think, but I really was interested, because I'd hardly ever been out of the city and I was always dying to know more about the world. I remember him telling me that Mobius was once covered in creatures much different to the ones we see today, but they died out when they couldn't survive anymore, for whatever reason. You know, climates change, continents drift..."
"Yes, I know the specifics of natural extinction, thank you."
"Yeah anyway, but the biggest reason was that different animals were coming through all the time, eating their food, changing their environment. Mobians have done this the most, but it's been happening naturally since time began. And Bosley told me that once the planet was ruled by huge lizards."
"Are you suggesting that these things are extinct animals?" Niles asked, "What are they doing here? Why didn't the bloody things just die like they did everywhere else?"
"That's just the thing," Sonic replied, "I don't really know. But... this island has some kind of really weird properties to it. I mean, it's almost invisible from the outside world, or something like that. Maybe whatever it is that killed these creatures off the rest of the planet just never reached here. This whole place is like a living fossil from prehistory. The porcupines came here thousands of years ago and they co-exist with these things. I guess there just aren't any animals brave enough to go near the porcupine settlement.. but when they do.."
"They think they're pixies," Niles said, "Or faeries, for goodness sakes."
"Yeah."
"Yes, well all I know is that it's very dangerous here. It seems that we only visit terribly dangerous places. Like that settlement in the desert where everyone was trying to kill us. And that awful Arack town. I say, dear hedgehog, one day you're going to get us all slaughtered."
"If I do, I owe you a cola," Sonic replied.
"Naaaaang!" The little animal returned, shouting his complaints at the two of them.
"I guess we should get away from his little brothers and sisters," Sonic suggested. They picked themselves up off the rock and continued to follow the stream.
"Hey Niles?"
"Yes?"
Sonic cleared his throat. "Would you consider us friends?"
Niles appeared a little uncomfortable, and Sonic could see he was choosing his words carefully. "I have developed a fondness for your thrilling lifestyle, despite your frequent reckless endangerment of my life, and I do... enjoy your company... most of the time. Yes, I would call you a friend and a companion if you so approve."
"That's a heck of a long-winded way to say yes, Niles. You're a strange, strange fellow."
"Why do you ask, dear hedgehog?"
"Because there are tough times ahead. I can feel it. The problem is, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to tackle this alone. I'll try, if I have to, but I'd like it very much if you and Espio were to stick with me for the last stretch. I know that you've been having second thoughts about this, recently."
"Oh, that's just because... you know... It seemed you were about to lead us directly into Arack territory, good fellow."
"The thing is, I trust you guys. I really do. And both of you have qualities that, let's face it, I don't have in real abundant supply. I'm a pretty gung-ho guy, which works for me in some situations, but I dunno where I'd be right now if not for Espio's practicality and insight... or your shrewdness. I might be rotting in the desert being picked at by vultures, or on the end of Zero's pike. I trust you guys to be behind me, and I'd like to know that you trust me, too. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know I'm leading you two in dangerous directions, and I'd like to know that... I dunno... you have faith in me."
Niles smiled and lay a fatherly hand on Sonic's shoulder. Sonic knew that the fox would appreciate being told that he was a helpful and necessary person, that he was important, and it eased an uncomfortable conversation.
"I'm with you, my lad, for as long as you desire my services, you just call on Niles Wilkinson-Price."
"That's good to hear, Niles," Sonic said, "And if you do trust me, I'd like you to tell me something."
"Absolutely."
"I'd like you to tell me why it is that you hate the Arack Empire so much."
Niles instantly chuckled uneasily, restless again and agitated. "Oh, you don't want to hear about that horrible empire."
"Yes, I do. Because it's affecting our quest, it's making you distrustful."
"Oh, everybody dislikes the Arack Empire, dear hedgehog, they are a horrible people."
"It's more than that. It's something personal. You heard Alastrine say that you shouldn't hate people for what they are, only what they do. And they've done something to you, haven't they?"
Niles sighed and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
"My home," he said, "The city where I was born and bred, my home, fell under Arack control several years ago. They simply take what they want and pay no mind to anybody who speaks against them. When the Empire takes a city, everything changes. Those wretches are always working, always so industrious they are, and they want you to work as well. They force you, tell you that you're working toward the glory of a better world and that it's only fair that you should do as much as they do. However, they treat you like an Arack, and if you aren't a spider it's impossible. They can work for days without food or water or rest, they can lift more, do everything faster and better than the rest of us. They don't feed you, they just work you until you collapse in exhaustion, and then they call you lazy and beat you." The fox shook his head, and Sonic saw that he was trembling slightly. "My brother," he said, "was forced to work in the underground, in the mining tunnels. He couldn't handle it. He was killed in what they referred to as an 'accident resulting from complications regarding industrial protocol'. He was the only family I had, you understand, and after I lost him I escaped that monsterous place and travelled north. I found Stratosphereon and settled there, having seen that it was a lovely, peaceful place where nobody ever raised a fuss. And that's that."
"I'm sorry," Sonic said, and he put a hand on Niles' shoulder. "I can see why you didn't want to do all this, to leave the city. I pushed you into it."
"Oh, pish-posh. Never mind all that. I suppose a fellow shouldn't run from his problems. All this nonsense about porcupines and evil twins and what not, it's probably been a blessing in disguise. Look!" His expression brightened as though somebody had thrown a switch. "I can see light! Look! Up ahead!"
"Hey, yeah.. it's coming from the left. If we're going to follow this stream, though, we have to curve back to the right, back into the really dark part of the jungle. I just hope this really is leading us in the right direction. It would help if Roxanna was here with us. Gosh, I hope Cinos didn't get them..."
"Sonic! What the blazers is that?" Niles shrieked, almost jumping into the water. He was pointing up ahead, into the light. Something was moving around, and it was something very big.
"I... don't know..." the hedgehog replied.
The monster came into view, moving very slowly. It bellowed loudly, a sound so low that Sonic could feel it in his gut. But it didn't attack them, it was simply moving towards the stream.
"I think it's one of the parents of that little creature back there," Sonic said. Indeed, the animal looked like a huge, fatter version of the baby creature. It was as big as an elephant, and it had a single horn attached to its face above its beak.
"A rhino-elephant," Sonic chuckled, "A rhinophant."
It wasn't either of these animals, though - it was covered in scales, an enormous reptile of sorts, and had a short reptillian tail. The rhinophant dipped its head to the stream and drank from the water.
As they watched, more of the animals emerged to drink from the stream. There were about five of them, now.
"We'll have to go around them," Sonic said, "Keep quiet."
"Do you suppose they eat meat?" Niles whispered, "I have no intention of ending my life as an hors d'oeuvre."
"I don't know," Sonic replied, "Let's not find out the hard way. Shh."
As they moved, the jungle thinned out and led to a clearing. The grass grew up to their knees. Sonic gasped and pointed ahead of them - the clearing was very wide and miles long, and the entire area was populated with rhinophants. There were perhaps a hundred of them in a single great herd, grazing.
"They eat grass!" Sonic exclaimed, "Like livestock!"
Every so often, one of the creatures bellowed loudly, but none of them seemed too threatened by Niles or Sonic, although Niles was suitably threatened by them.
"Can we get a move on?" he pleaded.
"Yeah, I guess so," Sonic replied, "Hey, what's that?"
Somebody was running toward them.

XXI

"To tell you the truth, I think all of this is nonsense," Espio said, shaking his head.
Roxanna cocked an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Yeah... I mean, it's all superstition. Magical rocks, parallel universes, all that fairy tale stuff. I have no doubt this Cinos character is bad news, and he probably believes he can do all this, which is bad enough, but come on... the powers of a god? That's like me saying that Mobius is flat and the moon is a giant cookie. The guy we're chasing is just a lunatic who likes to kill people to relieve the stress of being frothingly insane. I know the type, I've lived among them all my life."
The two of them were walking into the dark of the jungle again, in as straight a line as possible, as far as it was possible to tell.
"With the power of Mazsha, anything is possible," the porcupine said.
"Well, that's what you believe," Espio replied, and shrugged. "Just realise that it's only one of many opinions."
"And what is your opinion?"
Espio laughed. "Oh no, there are two things you definitely never discuss with friends, and those are politics and religion. I don't want to offend you."
"Go ahead," Roxanna said, "I implore you. I am interested."
"I just think... Well, that God is an excuse, that's all. Sometimes when people don't know how to explain or justify something, they invoke some deity to tie up the strings. God is the name that people give to their greed. When you want to control people, tell them what they can and cannot do, placate them, nothing works better than the implication that there's some guy who is invisible and watching you all the time and will torture you for eternity if you don't act in a specific way."
"I think I understand. I believe that the gods created mobiankind, whereas you believe that mobiankind created the gods."
"Yeah, something like that. I've seen a lot of really horrible things committed in the name of God. Where I come from, they kill people for no reason other than that they say some old guy on a cloud told them to. It's too convenient, this invisible thing with infinite power that is the answer to every question you can think up. If you need an excuse to do something terrible, it's always available. I just can't see how religion could ever be a good thing when it causes so much misery."
"Tell me though, would these people not have done these things if they could not use the gods as an excuse?"
"They'd probably find another reason. Jerks will be jerks."
"Then would you say that the gods were indeed the cause of this violence? Or its victim?"
"I've offended you."
Roxanna looked at him with a thoughtful expression. "I am not offended. I am secure in my faith. I am merely interested, for I have not come across anybody who shares your belief. My people do not question the existence of the gods, of Mazsha. It is the people of the mainland who have forgotten her. That, I believe, is why the world has descended into such violence."
"That's just what I mean. You don't question."
"I see no reason for doubt. I can see the magic of Mazsha in everything. In our very existence. How were we created, if not by the gods?"
"It's circular, see," Espio explained, "If you ask that, you have to ask who created the gods. I figure that I can't know anything beyond what my senses tell me." He pointed at a large rock covered in moss and ferns. "What would you say if I asked you whether there were beetles living under that rock?"
Roxanna looked at it for a moment, as though she was trying to figure out a puzzle. Espio found this amusing.
"I cannot say," she told him.
"Right, there might be or there might not. You can't tell. I just see no reason to invest my faith in the existence of something I can't detect. What's the point?"
"Do you never sense that there may be more to life than you can explain?"
Espio looked down at the rune he carried, the stone that they called the Rune of Nine. It was he himself who had cracked the secret of the five Runes, that they somehow contained a power that affected people's minds. He thought it insane, but all the evidence pointed toward it and he was sure it was the truth. Although he confided a suspicion that it was the result of some kind of mild radiation poisoning.
The Awakening he had shared with Sonic in the Pit of the Chameleon Cabal, however, was much more difficult for him to explain.
"I've seen a lot of weird stuff," he said, "I'll admit that. This journey just seems to get weirder."
They walked in silence for a few minutes, but then Roxanna spoke:
"If the number of beetles living under that rock was as important to me as the love of Mazsha, I believe I would lift the rock."
Espio laughed and nodded. A few moments later, however, he stopped in his tracks, and put a hand on Roxanna's shoulder to stop her as well. When she looked at him in confusion, he pointed straight ahead. His expression was hard. She tried to see what he was pointing at.
"Oh... oh no..."
There was somebody lying amongst the foliage, a porcupine. The body was motionless, one eye open and he other closed. A line of dried blood ran from the corner of his mouth to the ground. Animals had been picking at his remains, and very little was left of him from the waist down.
Roxanna ran to the body and kneeled beside it, trailing a hand across his cheek.
"Did you know him?" Espio asked.
"Yes," Roxanna replied, "He was Gregory. I told you earlier about the stranger with the wounding-stick who took one of our own into the jungle. This was he."
"Poor guy.. looks like he put up an awful fight."
"He was a dear friend," the porcupine said softly, and when she closed her eyes a couple of tears trailed down her cheeks. "May you rest comfortably, my friend."
"Why do you reckon he was brought out here?"
"I cannot say. The motives are a mystery."
"What did he do? I mean, did he have any skills?"
"Of course. Gregory was an alchemist, as well as a skilled hunter."
"Maybe he was brought here to help Cinos and Rasputan find the Rune."
"That is possible. But strange that they should remain in these lands for so long... Gregory has been dead for quite a while, by the look."
"This might not be the best time to bring this up," Espio said, "But I think he was dragged here. Or at least his body." The chameleon motioned to a niche beside the body, where the remains of several other strange creatures, large and small, were crammed together, in differing states of decomposition.
"What is this?" Roxanna asked, "I have never seen such a crude and violent collection of corpses, even in the Grand Hunter's tent."
"Food," Espio replied, "Rations stored away. I think we're in somebody's home, and they're sure as heck not vegetarians."
"Wibble-kee!"
The chameleon and porcupine jerked around to see one of the Wibble-Kees standing behind them. It bobbed its head like a parrot.
"And I think that's 'honey I'm home' in their language," Espio said, "Come on, we have to get outta here.
They bolted, Espio keeping a tight hold on Roxanna's arm so that they didn't part. Their speed was limited because of the heavy stone Espio had to carry.
Before long, they could hear sounds of persuit behind them. The familiar call of "Wibble-craaank!" from the leader of the monsters. Neither of the pursued looked back.
After a short time, they came to another great pile of deadfall, intertwined with vines and shrubs.
"They can't climb this stuff!" Espio exclaimed, "Quickly, let's get over it!"
He tossed the rune over the mass, and heard the thump as it landed on the other side. Then the two of them clawed for a grip. The deadfall was laced with thorns and sharp twigs, and some blood was shed as they scrambled to escape. The Wibble-Craank snapped at their ankles, clawing at the fallen wood. Roxanna shrieked as the creature latched onto her foot with its beak, and she kicked it in the head with the other. It barked and released her.
"Come on, hurry up!" Espio shouted. He reached the top of the pile and jumped down the other side... but the ground was heavily sloped, and he started rolling as soon as he touched down. There were rocks and other hard objects on the way down, but he managed to roll into a kind of ball to protect himself until he stopped moving. Shortly afterward, Roxanna followed, sliding on her rear.
"That... hurt.." the chameleon moaned. He was bleeding from the arms a bit, and from one knee. He grunted as he picked himself up. Roxanna was relatively unharmed, but she had a nasty gash on her ankle from where the creature had bitten her.
"Are you okay?" Espio asked.
"Yes," she replied, "I think so. You are bleeding."
"I know.. I guess the deadfall roughed me up a bit."
"You shall need to dress those wounds."
Espio cocked an eyebrow and looked around. They had fallen into a sparsely covered woodland area, and mid-afternoon light shone through the canopy. "With what? Nothing but trees here."
"And that is all we need," she replied, "These are bloodleaf trees. See how the tops of the leaves are green, but the undersides are red? When the leaves fall to the ground, the green disappears. The green is poison, but the red is life."
"What are you talking about?" Espio asked.
Roxanna began to gather leaves which had fallen from the trees overhead. When she had gathered a decent pile of them, she stripped a piece of bark from one of the trunks. As Espio watched, she severed a low hanging branch with a crisp snap. A thick white sap began to ooze out of the connected end, and she held the bark and leaves under it, mixing them together with a stick, pausing every few seconds to spit into it. Then, she used the same stick with another, and furiously rubbed them together over the mixture.
"I don't understand what you're-" Espio began, but he stopped when the pile of leaves and sap burst into flame and crackled away. After a few seconds, the flames died down and doused themselves, and what remained was something like a red paste. She stirred it around with the stick for a second, and then brought it to Espio. "Hold out your arm."
He did as he was told, and she used her fingers to apply the mixture to his wounds.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed, "That really stings..."
"The pain will not last. This will stop the bleeding and prevent infection. You will heal faster, as well." After she was finished with him, she began applying the mixture to her ankle.
"You know a lot about this," Espio said.
"Yes. My father was an alchemist. He died last year from a cancer of the insides. He taught me much about these things. We should be away from here before the demons of the jungle find us."
"Oh wait... the rune!" Espio said. He looked all about the place, and finally saw the stone lodged up against a tree. He picked it up, and they wandered through the trees towards the light.
About half an hour passed before they emerged into some kind of field. It was an enormous clearing, covered in grass that grew to knee-height.
"Uh, Roxanna?" Espio asked, "What the heck are those things?"
She didn't have an answer. The clearing was home to dozens, perhaps hundreds of enormous grey beasts. They were eating the grass.
"I do not know," the porcupine said, "But there is your friend, Sonic."
It was true. Sonic and Niles were standing together on the other side of the clearing. Espio waved his arms and shouted, but they didn't seem to notice, so he began running towards them, laughing in excitement.

XXII

"Boy am I glad to see you guys," Sonic said, when Espio arrived panting.
"What luck!" the chameleon exclaimed, "We just had another run-in with our lizard friends. I think we ought to push on before they find us again. Hey, what are those animals?"
"Rhinophants," Sonic explained, and winked.
"Of course," Espio replied, and rolled his eyes.
"This place is going to be the death of me," Niles said from behind the group, "When we get back I'm going to take a bath and not get out of it until Christmas."
"Maybe we'll just leave you here," Espio grumbled, "Sonic, can you please take this dumb rock? It's murder running around with it."
Sonic was reminded about the rune, and looked down at the symbol on its surface. He suddenly remembered about his headache, and put a hand to his forehead as he scrunched his eyes up.
"You okay Sonic?" Espio asked. Sonic was about to reply, but he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked towards it. There was something amongst the bushes back towards the river. A blue face... the eyes blinked, and then the figure backed out of sight.
"Cinos..." Sonic whispered, "He's still watching us."
"Naaaaaaaaaaanghhh!" came a booming, thunderous cry from one of the rhinophants. All the other animals looked up and towards the source of the noise. Then they all began to complain, and started moving away quickly.
"Think we spooked 'em?" Espio asked.
The sound was drowned out by a horrendous roar that cracked through the jungle like a whip. The small group had to protect their ears, and the rhinophants were stampeding away, now.
"I'd say that spooked them," Sonic replied, "And I think we should get out of the way before one of those things runs us over."
They moved to the safety of the trees and watched the stampede of the giant animals until not one could be seen. Then there was silence, apart from the occasional bird squawk.
"All this time running away from the little snapping-things," Espio said, "And I forgot all about the big roaring thing."
"The Wood Devil knows we are here," Roxanna replied, "And he is angered. We must proceed with great caution, or turn back."
"No turning back," Sonic said, "Not before Cinos does. Come on, lets get back to the river."
The jungle only grew darker as they proceeded along the trickling river. There was the feeling of many eyes watching them, but there was no animal life in plain sight. Whatever lived down here lived every day as dark as night.
"How do we even know it's still daytime?" Niles asked, "I don't want to make the trip back at night, you can sodding well stick that idea up your jumper."
"Because we were in the sun just twenty minutes ago, and it was right above us," Sonic replied, "But if you don't hurry up and keep up the pace, it will be night before we get back. And none of us want that."
"And we'll blame you," Espio added.
Niles didn't need any more encouragement.
After a while, they stopped to rest for a short time. Niles, Espio and Roxanna took drinks from the stream while Sonic, not thirsty, stood about nearby and looked around. Something glittered amongst the trees... a light? The hedgehog squinted to see what was happening... there seemed to be a flame in the darkness. In the dim light, several figures were moving about. A small porcupine tribe perhaps? Maybe they could be of some help. Sonic thought about raising the alarm to his friends, but any noise might scare the tribe away.. so he crept towards it instead, intending to introduce himself without scaring them too much.
He wandered into the darkness as quietly as he could, and stopped a moment to observe what the porcupines were doing. They seemed to be holding some kind of ceremony, the fire was built around something, propped up on a rock. It was a rune!
"Hey," Sonic said, stepping to where they could see him, "I'm a friend, we-" He stopped. The jungle had plunged into total darkness the moment he began speaking. The fire completely vanished, and the sounds of the porcupines ceased.
"Whoa," he sighed, "Hello? Hello? I'm a friend, I... hello?" His eyes adjustted to the darkness, and he could see that there was nothing there. In fact, there didn't even seem to be any trace of a fire, or that anybody had been around recently. The rock remained, but there was no rune against it, and the ground around it wasn't even dry, let alone singed.
"Weird," Sonic said, "I must be losing it.." He turned around, and cried out in shock when he came face to face with someone standing inches behind him.
It was Cinos. The evil hedgehog chuckled a bit, and took a large bite out of an apple he was holding.
"Cinos!" Sonic shouted, "You didn't think you could hide from me, did you? Where's Rasputan? What are you up to?"
"You don't get it yet, do you, my dim brother? You haven't worked it out yet."
"What does that mean?" Sonic demanded, "Stop your games and make sense!"
"Listen," Cinos explained, "You can beat the snake with bravery, but not me. You can only hate me, then fall for me, then it's all over, Sonic." He began to back away into the bushes.
"Don't you run away from me!" Sonic threatened. Cinos continued to move away, but as he did, he mouthed the words "All over," and smiled.
"Sonic?" Espio said, "What are you doing here? We followed the sound of your voice..."
"It's Cinos," Sonic replied, "Stop him!" But when he turned back to his evil twin, there was nothing but rustling bushes.
"What, over there?" Espio asked, "Maybe we can catch him!"
"No," Sonic replied glumly, "I can't catch him. Not unless we strike it lucky and something bites his leg off."
"Oh my..." Niles was looking into the trees as if he saw something that disgusted him. He scrunched his face up and looked like he might throw up.
"What's wrong?" Espio asked, and followed his gaze. His eyes brightened and then narrowed. "Oh... ohh..."
Sonic couldn't see anything, and frustratedly pulled some branches aside out of his way. A stench filled the jungle like nothing he'd ever smelled before, and he had to squint for a moment to recognise exactly what he was looking at.
At first it looked like a pile of uncooked meat, but it was dripping liquids that were unidentifiable, as well as a lot of pink blood. And snapped bones from a ribcage... they were staring at the torn-up carcass of a rhinophant. Its chest and gut were one gaping hole.
"What the heck happened to that thing?" Espio asked, "The Wibble-Kees? Man, that's major gross..."
"Not them," Sonic replied, "Those critters couldn't bring one of these down. This looks like one single bite. Something's just come down, bitten off a nice fleshy wad of rhinophant, and taken off."
"But.. what could do that?" Espio asked.
"I think you know the answer to that. The Wood Devil is hungry."

XXIII

They continued to follow the river, but in uneasy silence. Nobody spoke for the longest time, and the slightest noise in the jungle was enough to startle them. The only one who seemed all together was Roxanna, although she was probably more used to strange noises than any of them, having lived all her life amongst them.
Sonic broke the silence, his curiosity overwhelming him. "Espio, what's that muck all over your body? What have you been doing?"
"This?" the chameleon asked, "Oh, this is just some stuff Roxanna smeared on me, I got cut up, and she says this'll help it heal."
"Oh... Roxanna, you're a doctor too?"
"Not a healer, no," she replied, "But my father was an alchemist, and I learned much of the nature of herbs that grow around us."
"It kinda tingles," Espio added, "She can make fire out of just sticks, too."
"That's a neat trick," Sonic said.
"Not as neat as this," Espio replied, and made himself change colour from purple to green. Roxanna gasped and looked at him with newfound fascination. "How did you do that?"
"Easy," Espio replied, changing back, "I'm a chameleon."
"You are what?"
"Cham-ee-lee-on." He pronounced it slowly.
"I know not of the names of your strange races," Roxanna replied, "I see that I have much to learn."
Niles made a scoffing sound. "Strange? I object! My parents were very well bred, as am I. There's no outside influence on my family line, we have been foxes since the beginning of time. None of that messy interbreeding that goes on these days, making all sorts of crossed strains..."
"Are there any of our kind among you?" Roxanna asked, "In your world, I mean."
"What, you mean porcupines?" Sonic asked, to which she nodded.
Sonic shook his head. "Actually, your existence is somewhat of a dispute among the academic world. Your ancestors didn't leave terribly much evidence behind, and this island seems to have eluded discovery for all this time, despite the fact that there are boats and planes all over the place now."
"Yes, we have been fortunate. The magic of the ancients keeps us hidden from the world."
The river was more like a stream, now, and running out of potential quickly. The unstated concern among them was the possibility that it was another dud river that wouldn't lead them to the rune.
"Are you quite positive you know where we're going?" Niles asked, turning around to address Roxanna, who was the furthest behind, "Because I don't want to get lost in-"
A long time passed, and the fox didn't finish his sentence. He had stopped walking, as well, and just stared in the direction opposite to where they were going.
"What's wrong, buddy?" Espio asked.
Niles' lip trembled. "Sweet, merciful..."
The other three turned around. At first there was only darkness behind them, as there was ahead of them. The only sound was that of the river trickling past them. But suddenly there was movement... nothing in particular was moving, it was everything. The darkness itself seemed to waver and move.
A few moments of staring revealed the problem was an illusion of the eyes. What they were staring into wasn't actually the darkness of the jungle, it was something like a solid black wall. Very slowly, the wall was moving to the right, and it seemed endlessly long. They only saw a small part of it at a time, between the trees. Sonic followed his gaze along its length, and saw that it stretched across the river from the other side, and away into darkness.
"What are we looking at?" he asked, but nobody gave a coherent answer. A bright, vibrant red appeared on the moving wall. Sonic realised that it wasn't a wall so much as a gigantic tube, and there were bright red stripes all along it. To the right, it flowed upward into the trees.
"I don't know what that is," Espio said, turning back around, "But I think we need t-" the end of this sentence was a hoarse scream, and the chameleon fell over and scrambled back.
Ahead of them, in their desired direction, was something enormous and bright red with only lashings of black. It descended from above and settled less than a hundred feet from where they stood. An enormous snake's head, bigger than a truck. But instead of fangs, it had a mouth full of pointed teeth.
"The Wood Devil," Roxanna choked, "We have met our end."

XXIV

Sonic realised instantly that the snake from his dream was the one he saw before him, only this was possibly the biggest living creature in existence. An orange tongue darted out of its mouth, and its eyes flexed.
Roxanna was on her knees in some kind of distress. At last she began shouting at the creature, "Mighty protector of the jungle! We seek your mercy! We throw ourselves upon it! The order of the world is in grave danger, we must see about the safety of the fabled rune you protect!"
"I do't think he's going to listen to reason," Sonic said, "He's looking at us like his only thought is who to eat first. We have to get out of here, now."
Espio was the first to take off running, under the arch that the Devil's body made in the trees, and Sonic and Niles were next. Sonic had to grab Roxanna's arm to drag her with them. The snake didn't seem interested in persuing them.
"Maybe it's not hungry after all," Espio said. But ahead of them, a giant black coil dropped from above, forcing them all to screech to a halt, and the head burst out of the trees from somewhere else, again settling in front of them, content to stare. The group ran in yet another direction, but the serpent's coils were everywhere, blocking them from everywhere. They were surrounded completely, and the head followed them everywhere, bright red and monsterously frightening.
Still they ran, in sheer panic, and only a hurried grasping of each others' limbs prevented the group from scattering. They came to the river again, to a large patch of mud, and they all slipped in it, falling over and laying sprawled in a heap. The head returned, a low growl in the monster's throat. It opened its toothy mouth and roared, the sound they had grown to know so well ever since they arrived on the island.
Espio ran to a pile of deadfall at the edge of the bog. He picked up a stick and weilded it threateningly, although it looked pitiful before the massive beast.
The Wood Devil stared at the chameleon, almost curiously, and then struck. Its mouth opened wide to swallow him up. Sonic scrambled to rescue his friend, but slipped with a dull splat, and could only close his eyes and yell Espio's name, prepared for the unavoidable.
But it didn't happen.
Sonic opened his eyes and saw that the monster had stopped mid-strike. Espio was standing before it, trembling visibly. He had dropped his stick and, perhaps in an instinctive self-pretection mechanism, he had changed his colour to that of the mud. And the snake was confused.
"That's it," Sonic said aloud, and Roxanna and Niles gave him full attention as he spoke, "This thing must not be able to see very well... cover yourself in mud! It can see you because of your colour!"
They all squirmed around in the mud, covering themselves with it from head to toe. The Wood Devil roared again and hissed, infuriated. Its coils began to close in, from every direction they came. Branches and tree trunks snapped as the serpent constricted.
"Now what?" Niles screamed, "It can't see us so it'll bloody well crush us to death!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Sonic replied, "I've gone head to head with bigger things than this. The Wood Wimp is going to rue the day he messed with Sonic the Hedgehog!"
"Sonic!" came Roxanna's shout, and he looked to her. She was amongst the deadfall, and she had one stick in her hand, frantically rubbing it against another. It wasn't long at all before the dry sticks burst into flames. She snapped off a flaming branch and handed it to Sonic.
The snake had a fix on him, now. Its head darted around to watch Sonic weave with the flaming stick. The tongue lashed out twice, and then it struck.
Sonic leaped into the air as the snake head came darting towards him, and with some skillful aiming, he landed on top of its snout. The head lashed around, snarling, but he dug his knees into the beast's head and kept a hold on its nostrils.
The Wood Devil stopped jerking about, and opened its mouth in another roar. Sonic slid down the open snout to the top of the beast's skull, between its eyes. The serpent silenced itself for a moment, both eyes crossed trying to find Sonic on top of it.
"Eat this," he said, and he leaned over and stabbed the flaming branch into the monster's giant eye.
The serpent wailed in pain and lashed harder than ever, throwing Sonic off. The hedgehog landed in the river. The snake's head fled to the treetops, allowing an escape through its barricade, and the trapped group of three made immediate use of it. They ran to Sonic, and Espio helped him out of the water.
"That was the greatest thing I've ever seen!" the chameleon exclaimed. Sonic laughed and shook himself off. The sounds of the furious monster became faint as it slithered away from them. "Just call me king of the monsters," Sonic said.
"Whoa," Espio returned, "And will you look at that!"
The forest became lighter as a break in the canopy allowed light to filter through. The river veered away and trickled into a small stream, and beyond the point where it turned away, there was a clearing.
In the clearing was an enormous temple.

XXV

It rose up from the ground like a mountainous pyramid, an enormous ruin made of dark green stones, covered in vines and weeds. It was silent and foreboding, standing solid in the centre of so much danger, as if it were the axis of everything they had come to face so far. In a way, it was - this was where the stones were forged, the Runes were created and all of reality split in two. Once one of the most important sites in the universe, it was now forgotten. The group bathed in complete awe of it for several minutes before they realised the clock was still ticking.
"This is a most incredible sight," Roxanna whispered. Her eyes seemed to glow with wonder. "It is against our very nature to build with stone. We construct nothing that can not return to the soil and decompose. This is amazing... but against our nature."
"Maybe you didn't build it," Sonic suggested, "Maybe it was already ancient before the porcupines got here. It looks that old."
"Yes, well whoever built it they did a mighty shoddy job, didn't they," Niles said, "Look, it's bloody well got holes all through it. I'm not going in there, it'll fall down and crush me to pieces."
He was right. Entire sections of wall seemed to have crumbled away, although the remains couldn't be seen on the ground. In fact, it almost seemed physically impossible for the thing to remain standing. Looking at this building was like looking at a pyramid that stood on its tip, irrational in a way that hurt the mind.
Espio wandered around to try and get a better view. He'd walked a couple of feet before he stopped, expressions of surprise and confusion creeping onto his face. He walked around a bit more, and then stopped again, just staring at the massive temple with his mouth hanging dumbly open.
"Sonic... come here..."
The hedgehog turned and began walking to where the chameleon stood, but Espio held up a hand to stop him.
"No... come here, but watch the temple as you walk."
"Watch the temple?" Sonic asked, but he did so. Soon he, too, was confusedly trying to figure out what he was seeing.
"That's got to be some kind of illusion... I don't understand..."
"What in Pete's name are you talking about?" Niles asked. Sonic told him to try it, to walk around the temple and watch what it did.
At first it seemed like a bizarre optical illusion, but all things seemed to confirm that appearances were, amazingly, factual. As the angle of perception changed, whole parts of the temple seemed to completely vanish before the eyes. Pillars, sections of walls, just disappeared like they evaporated. But, just as amazingly, other parts seemed to appear from nowhere. Holes in the walls filled with bricks, whole sections were blocked from view as walls appeared where there were no walls before. The entire construction shifted and changed like an image in a kaleidoscope.
"What in God's name...?" Sonic asked, "This is unreal."
"I am not going inside that building," Niles repeated.
"Well, you can take your chances in the funhouse, or you can stay out here and tango with our old pal the Wood Devil," Sonic replied, "It's your choice. I'm going inside."
There was an open portal in the centre of the temple's wall, accessed by a flight of stone steps. Beyond the doorway lay a long, spacious tunnel. Espio was making fascinated gasps of delight, Niles was trembling in quiet fear, but Sonic and Roxanna were out in front, utterly silent and prepared for surprises. They found that most of the temple was completely hollow - either that, or the stone that constructed its insides was partially or fully invisible. The tunnel seemed to drop off a couple of feet ahead, but it became visible as they walked. A glance behind them revealed that it was disappearing in the same manner on the other end.
Eventually, they came to the centre of the ruin. It was an enormous room, seemingly big enough to fit a whole city block inside. And underneath them was a pit that didn't look like it had a bottom.
No ground appeared over it when they approached, so Sonic held his hands out to stop the rest of the party. They stared into nothingness.
"Nothing," Niles said. His voice faintly echoed. "Fantastic, just wonderful."
"No," Sonic repied, "Look."
Over the centre of the pit, there was a chunk of jagged rock just floating. The top of it was a platform, and there was something shining on top of it.
"But that's no good," Espio said, "We have no way of getting all the way over there. Unless you feel like jumping halfway over this bottomless pit. You a longjump champion back home, Sonic?"
"This is indeed a problematic situation," Roxanna admitted, "The ancients... the builders of this temple, whoever embarked upon such a feat, did not want it disturbed. That is why the Wood Devil was set here to protect this place."
"See, I don't think so," Sonic said, "That platform all the way out there isn't just floating in limbo. It's fixed in place... there must be a floor across this pit, we just can't see it. Now, it could be over the whole pit, or it could just be a narrow bridge."
"Well how do we find the sodding thing?" Niles asked.
Roxanna reached into her hair and pulled a red ribbon out of her locks. She walked to the edge of the pit and tossed it out in front of her.
The small strip of cloth floated down, and landed on an invisible platform. It cast no shadow, but just flattened out on what looked like thin air, and suspended.
"Okay, we know that's safe," Espio said, "But how do we know that between here and there is also safe?"
"Well, I guess we just get down on our hands and knees and crawl to it," Sonic replied, and proceeded to do so.
Nobody followed, at first. He went out alone, crawling, and soon crawled right out onto nothing. He was suddenly filled with a great fear - it was strange, although he could feel solid ground under him, he could see an infinite fall beneath him, a plunge into darkness. It felt like gravity was temporarily out of order, and any second it would kick in again. He bit his tongue, closed his eyes, and continued crawling very slowly until he felt the ribbon under his hand.
Sonic turned back to the others, one eye open. "Follow me," he said, "And keep your eyes closed whenever you can." He tossed the ribbon further ahead.
For a long time, the four of them crawled in a straight line towards the oasis in the centre. Every so often, Sonic felt an edge under his fingers, and reported that there were indeed holes, although the central bridge seemed clear.
When he was within feet of the platform, he half-heartedly chucked the ribbon forward a little. It drifted down... down past where the invisible floor was, down and down. Sonic watched it drift down into darkness.
"We have a problem," he said.
"Don't say that," Niles moaned.
"Between here and there... there's no floor. We're gonna have to jump."
"Absolutely not, dear hedgehog."
Sonic trembled as he picked himself up onto his feet. It felt like he was standing on the edge of the skyscraper. He refused to look back to see how far away safety was. His mind suddenly gave him the unwholesome thought that the small platform might actually just be leviating, and that it would fall into oblivion with him on it the moment he set foot...
He clenched his eyes shut and jumped, and screamed. The sound was cut short when his feet landed on solid ground. He looked down... visible stone under his feet, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Sonic, I don't think we're all gonna fit on that, mate," Espio said, "And Niles is gonna have a heart attack if he has to jump."
"Stay there," Sonic replied, "I'll get what we want and we can all go back together."
For the first time, his attention shifted to what was on the platform. It was a surprise, but in retrospect, he thought, it probably shouldn't have been.
There was a huge emerald. Carved into an intricate shape, the enormous chunk of emerald was almost completely clear. It only looked like a feeble, glass frame on a pedestal that would shatter if a breeze blew on it. He placed his hand on it, though, and found that it was quite sturdy and solid. His arm felt cold... when he looked down at it, he saw that everything from his shoulder to his fingers had become semitransparent, and the effect was worsening. He took his hand off the emerald, and it faded back into opacity.
"This answers everything," Sonic said, "This weird temple, even the fact that the whole island seems to not exist until you're right on top of it. This whole place is completely invisible to the outside world! It's an emerald... like on the Floating Island. This is the Invisible Island!"
"Great," Espio said, "But is there a rune?"
Sonic walked around the emerald pedestal, and at the base of it on one side was a large box, like a coffin. There was writing on the lid.
"Sheh khem rhall nos krem ta krem ja," Sonic read aloud.
"The worlds seperate," Roxanna said, "And the worlds awaken."
Sonic wrenched open the lid. Inside the box was a single chunk of flat rock with a mark on its surface. "It's here!" he exclaimed.
"Great!" Espio replied, "Now bring it back here and lets get the heck out of this crazy building and out of this wretched jungle!"
But Sonic didn't move. He just stood with the stone in his arms, looking at it.
"Ha," he said.
"Sonic? What?"
The hedgehog showed the stone to the others. The only mark on the surface was the word HA! No rune, no inscription.
"Is this you people's idea of a joke?" Niles asked Roxanna.
"No," Sonic replied, "This is just an ordinary chunk of rock, written on with magic marker. Cinos has been here, and he has the rune already. We have to get to him before he leaves the island."
"Wibble-kee!"

XXVI

Sonic froze. He slowly turned his head around to see behind him. A Wibble-Kee hopped onto the platform from some other bridge. The other two creatures weren't far behind. The closest one bobbed its head in innocent curiosity.
"Go," Sonic said, "You guys, get back to safety. I'll follow you."
The party didn't have to be told twice. They hurriedly crawled back to the visible ground while Sonic faced off with the creatures alone.
The leader, the large red lizard, passed its companions and approached Sonic. The hedgehog tossed the useless rock at it, but it quickly ducked away with its rubbery neck, and the rock missed completely. It shattered on an invisible platform, and most of the chunks rolled off the edge into oblivion as the sound echoed through the temple.
"Craaaaaank!" the creature screeched.
"Okay... you wanna have some of me?" Sonic asked, "You wanna get a bite out of my hide? You wanna taste Sonic the Hedgehog? Come and get it then. Lunch is on me."
Sonic backed off the visible ground onto the invisible, stepping blindly back and hoping that there would always be something to support him.
The Wibble-Craank didn't step off the ground that it could see. It seemed hesitant, nervous, but the creatures obviously had some idea of the situation as they walked the transparent ground to get as far as they did. It showed they had intelligence... at least the leader did.
Sonic took another step back, another, another... until one step dangled off the edge of solid matter and into oblivion. His heart skipped a beat, and he took a quick step forward again. After a few seconds regaining his composure, his worried trembling lips became a grin.
"Come and get me," he said, "There's a ledge behind me. I don't know if you can understand me, but in case you can... I'm trapped, wibble-breath. I give up. Lunch is served. So eat me!"
The lizard cocked its head for a moment, but after only a slight hesitation, it shrieked its loudest "Craaaaaank!" and bolted forward. Its feet clicked on the ground that couldn't be seen. Its shadow vanished with the ground, and it ran on nothing. In an instant it was on top of Sonic, thrashing for the kill. But no...
Sonic jumped. Higher than he thought he could, he jumped.
The creature tried to screech to a halt, but it halted too late. The ground ran out beneath it. With an enraged cry, the Wibble-Craank fell towards the darkness, thrashing and kicking, until it could be heard no more.
Meanwhile, the other creatures ran around each other in distress, shouting their Wibble-Kees at each other, and Sonic used the time to find solid ground and make his way to safety. The creatures pursued, but couldn't navigate the maze of invisible floors and pits. The group of four ran down the tunnel to the exit while the cacophany of distressed creatures faded out behind them.

XXVII

"That ruled!" Espio exclaimed, panting, "You showed those things who's boss! Lets get out of here in case they find their way!"
Sonic was puffed, and his headache throbbed with his heart. He held his head and looked up.
His evil twin was standing twenty feet in front of him.
Sonic froze. "Cinos. Just the guy we were looking for. Nice of you to show up."
Cinos grinned. "A nice show you put on, there, oh brother. Picking on some poor defenseless mutant iguanas, now? I thought your beef was with me."
"It still is. You have the rune. Give it up."
"You'll have to catch me first, now won't you?" The evil hedgehog winked, cackled, and then took off into the jungle. Sonic let out a cry of anger and pursued.

Roxanna gave Espio a questioning look. The chameleon looked equally perplexed.
"I say," Niles said, "Can either of you explain that to me?"
"Oh," Espio groaned, and looked at both of the others with a look of growing horror. "Wait a second... I think I understand... I think I know what's going on, here. Somebody needs to catch him, now."

So it had come to this yet again. Hedgehog against hedgehog, speed for speed. But there were deeper motivations to these showdowns than the eternal battle of good against evil. Sonic was running to prove himself to Cinos, to his friends, and to himself.
Sonic ran so hard that his legs hurt. It was difficult to build speed when he was jumping over vines and bushes and dodging trees, but slowly he was reaching the velocity that he was known for.
A flash of blue ahead. His elusive twin forever ahead of him. Sonic poured on all the energy he could muster. He was overdoing it, draining his reserves too quickly, trying too hard. There was no rhythm to his running, it was all necessity. Every ounce of strength had to go into catching his rival.
They burst out of the darklands, still running. They burst out of the jungle altogether, light shining on them from the afternoon sun.
And then... Cinos stopped.
He just stopped and casually turned. Sonic ran harder, ducking down into an attack position. Cinos grinned... cackled. "Fall for me!" he commanded. Sonic tackled... air.
There was nobody in the field but he. Sonic leaped into the air, screaming, tackling nothing. And when he jumped, he threw himself off a cliff. The water roared below him, and Sonic looked into the wide expanse of the ocean with muddled confusion, moments before his brain kicked in and told him he had to save himself from death. Frantically he shot his hands out as he fell, and at first grabbed nothing, but eventually caught hold of a jagged outcrop of rock embedded in the cliff face. His arms jerked so hard that it almost pulled his shoulders out of joint, and he swung back into the cliff with a thud and dangled.
Almost a quarter of an hour had passed before the others gathered at the top of the cliff and found him, and he had screamed himself hoarse. A long vine dropped down beside him, which they all held for stability, and Sonic held onto it as they winched him up.

XXVIII

"Cinos isn't here, is he," Sonic sighed.
The adventurers were being treated for their bruises and injuries back in the porcupine village, and as the sun went down, Sonic, Espio, Niles, Roxanna and Alastrine sat around a crackling bonfire.
"He probably left the island with the rune months ago," Espio replied.
Sonic hid his eyes behind his hand. "I'm so embarrassed. I knew what this stupid thing was capable of, I knew it was giving me nightmares and making me see things. But I let it take me in anyway, hook line and sinker, and at the worst possible time. I could have risked everyone else's lives as well, thank God it was only myself who was hurt."
"No," Alastrine said. She put a hand on top of the Rune of Nine, the deceptively worthless-looking chunk of rock from Desolation. "It was I who failed to warn you of the folly of the Rune of Nine. But this has perhaps been an important learning experience for you, that you cannot always trust what you see."
"Even so," Sonic replied, "I almost led you guys into a trap because I was gullible."
"You did nothing of the sort," Espio said. "Listen, Sonic, you don't have to worry about leading us anywhere. You're not doing any of this alone anymore, you've got friends beside you and we're all a team now. We're all going to get through this together."
"We're not going to let you do anything too silly, good chap," Niles said, "Not with two level-headed companions to keep you on track."
"And if I do?" Sonic asked, "If I go off and get myself killed?"
"Then we'll finish the job," Espio replied, "Because this is more than just your quest. It's our quest."
Sonic struggled to hold back a tear. He wiped it away discreetly while trying to look as though he was scratching his nose.
"I appreciate that," he said.
"So where the devil do we go next?" Niles asked, "I mean, pardon me for saying so, but if there are five of these wretched things, it means that our enemy has already obtained three, and if he knows the location of the last, which we can only assume he does, then he has a considerable head-start on his fourth victory."
"I'm hoping that you guys might know the answer to that one," Sonic replied, and turned to Alastrine and the other porcupines. "Cinos uses his guide Rasputan, somehow, to find the stones wherever they're hidden in the world. I'm hoping that you guys have the same knowledge, that you can track down the fifth for us and tell us where to go. We've lost their trail, they could be anywhere on Mobius, so this is our only shot."
Alastrine smiled. "You will find the final Rune in the same way that you found the one you hold."
Sonic looked down at the Rune of Nine, and it throbbed an insidious dart of pain into the centre of his head.
"I don't understand."
"Am I mistaken, young one, or have you indeed participated in the ritual of Awakening with these colleagues of yours?"
Sonic was taken aback. He remembered touching Espio in the Pit of the Chameleon Cabal, and Niles in the Libria cells of Stratosphereon, and connecting with each of their minds in a powerful way. Sonic had known that these episodes were known as Awakenings, but how had this knowledge come to him? He was sure he had no idea.
"How did you know that?"
"You are connected," Alastrine explained, "You are Three and One, all at once. I can tell from your auras, Mazsha has brought you together and set you upon the one path. You are intertwined. You are what the ancients referred to in the old language as ka-tet, or Kindred. And this connection has been made concrete by your participation in a very ancient ritual of spiritual bond."
"And you can repeat this ritual?" Sonic asked, "You can share with us what you know of the Runes?"
"No," Alastrine said, and Sonic was crestfallen for a moment, but the porcupine merely smiled and nodded toward another member of the group. "My granddaughter can."
"Gramma!" Roxanna cried, "Why must I be the one?"
"Naturally," Alastrine replied, "For you are the fourth member of their Kindred."
"I barely know them!"
"But your spirit has already decided, my child. I have seen this, and I know it to be so. You must undertake this journey, for you have your role to play in the coming events. Each of you has a part to play, and without you, the path of right will surely fall to the powerful whims of evil. This is a difficult truth."
There was a moment of silence. Roxanna was hesitant even now to take on such a powerful responsibility with these strange characters from across the sea, and Sonic felt sorry for her, for she was easily the youngest of the four adventurers. He wanted to tell her that it was okay, that she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to, but Alastrine's words had put a chill down his spine.
"All right," Roxanna said at last, "I will go."
"I am glad," Alastrine said, "But tonight you must all rest. A great responsibility has been placed on you all, but as Kindred you are greater than the sum of you all. The forces of evil threaten to plunge this world into darkness for all time, and only you can stand in their way."
"We will," Sonic assured her, "We've come this far, and we'll go all the way."

---

ROXANNA
The Sixth Interlude

I've travelled the world from sea to sea and seen remarkable things,
The falls of empires, the rise of mountains, the legacies of kings,
But never again in all my life have I been able to find,
A girl so blessed by spirits that it seemed she always shined.

She never knew such things as fear, this golden one,
She simply only ever did what needed to be done.
The ghosts of her ancestors shined upon her from above,
And she was never sad, for she knew she had their love.

I met her on my travels once, a creature full of soul,
She was never by herself; the spirits made her whole,
And she had never doubted this, for doubt polluted her,
And so she prayed with vigour so such thoughts could never stir.

I asked her, "Have you ever felt your teachings are a lie?
What makes you so certain that there's life after you die?"
She said, "I do not question all these things, I simply know,
The truth is plain for me to see. My spirit tells me so."

I said, "But Sunshine Child, why dedicate your life to faith?
For if it turns out you are wrong, your life has been a waste!"
She replied, "A wasted life is one that lives without belief,
For such a life is just a shell with nothing underneath."

I've travelled this globe all over, oh the lessons I have learned,
The cultures I have visited, great empires overturned,
But what a lesson I have learned from one with faith so strong,
It made me question my beliefs, for how could hers be wrong?