Chapter One

"Stay quiet, guys," Tsuko, a grey hedgehog hissed. It was another raid on an echidna encampment. For twenty or so years, the hedgehogs and echidnas were at war with each other. Their respective leaders, Overlord Sonic and Prime Arch-Echidna Knuckles, were once best of friends. But for reasons no one remembers, they now hate each other…as well as each other's kind. Their power is comparable to gods, each able to crush entire human militaries…but for some reason, they choose to command the rest of their kind. There had always been some enmity between the two races, but never enough for all-out war.

"Damn it, I can't see a thing in this blasted jungle," a red hedgehog, Heyei, grumbled. "I can see why the echidnas put their base here."

"Keep it down, Heyei!" Frix, a tan hedgehog, hissed. "You want those freaks to hear us?"

Heyei went silent and continued to follow Tsuko and Frix. After traveling about two hundred yards, Tsuko halted and raised his hand. Heyei and Frix stopped and were dead silent.

"They're here…" Tsuko whispered. At that moment, a sharp metal star whistled through the trees, and buried itself in Frix's right shoulder. Frix screamed in pain and dropped to the ground, clutching the wound in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding. Heyei and Tsuko quick drew their well-honed short swords and readied themselves. A shrill "Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi" pierced the forest as five echidnas leapt out of the trees, three armed with short swords, others with nothing but their fists.

"Crud…" Tsuko grumbled as he dodged a fist and a short sword, the latter barely nicking him. He responded by kicking hard into the aggressor's belly, sending him flying into a tree. Birds were flitting out of the trees, frightened by the clamor.

"Take this, filthy hedgehog!" yelled a dull yellow echidna, as it charged at Tsuko. Tsuko expected a head-on strike, as echidnas were wont to do, but discovered that his attacker was smarter than that. In one swift maneuver, the echidna knocked Tsuko's sword out of his hand and then delivered a devastating uppercut to his belly. Tsuko could feel all the wind knocked out of him, and he dropped to the ground, gasping for air. He looked around and saw Heyei and Frix both dead, and all five echidnas still alive.

"Heh-heh…That was too easy," the dull yellow one snickered. "Let's keep this one alive, and present him as a gift for the Prime Arch-Echidna…on second thought, I'll keep him as a servant or something. My first prisoner is too precious to simply give to the Prime Arch-Echidna!"

Tsuko said nothing, but looked up at his captor, and scowled at him, and mouthed a foul word. The dull yellow one only smiled wryly at Tsuko as he chained his arms. "C'mon you…I'm gonna bring you to your new home."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Cadmus! Come look! The Defenders are back! And they brought a prisoner!" a female white echidna yelled into the bedroom of her hut. Out trudged a reddish-orange male echidna, grumbling.

"They always bring one back, Talyah," Cadmus grumbled. He walked up next to the girl echidna and watched as the five Defenders brought the downcast hedgehog through the streets.

"Heh…looks like Demicles finally got one, and only on his fifth day as a Defender. That's pretty good. Took me a month to get my first prisoner, and he escaped the day after I got him."

"Go congratulate him or something. He is your best friend, after all." Talyah said. Cadmus nodded, then kissed her and went outside.

Outside, the dull yellow echidna was resting, holding on to Tsuko by a chain leash…like a human with a dog. It was absolutely humiliating for Tsuko.

"So…Grass Arms Demicles has finally proved his mettle," Cadmus chuckled as he approached the dull yellow echidna. He then turned to Tsuko, who simply turned his head away.

"Okay, hedgehog, what's your name? Even your kind gives themselves names." Cadmus said in a surprisingly kind tone, a tone Tsuko had rarely heard from an echidna.

"My name is Tsuko…slayer of a hundred of your kind, including Peridon, one of your greatest warriors…and, I have to admit, a noble one at that. I don't know how I lost to 'Grass Arms' here, but I assume he is far more cowardly than Peridon."

"Yes…I have heard of you…I imagined you to be more fearsome looking. I'm glad you can appreciate the skill and honor of Peridon. He trained me, you know."

"Don't you want to kill me for bumping off your mentor?" Tsuko said with a snide tone, thinking that maybe he could find a weakness in this echidna's seemingly armor-plated ego.

"I have no need to grieve. He was getting old anyway." Cadmus replied nonchalantly. "C'mon, Demicles, let's go celebrate at my place. I'm sure Talyah would love to have him help her cook."

"I dunno…he could have poison." Demicles said. Tsuko said nothing, but gave Demicles a mean look.The hedgehogfelt the chain around his neck being yanked, and he followed.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"So, you're Demicles…prisoner, right?" Taylah asked Tsuko as she served him a simple bowl of stew they had worked on together. Tsuko was surprised that an echidna was treated him so nicely. She was expecting her to kick him around and give him orders. But here she was feeding him and treating his wounds.

"Yes…I am…" Tsuko said slowly, pensively reaching for the wooden spoon. He took a whiff of the stew, and turned back to the kind young echidna. "Enlighten me…why are you treating me so well? My companions have said that those who have been brought here are worked to death, because you echidnas hate us hedgehogs."

Taylah, who had since sat down and started eating a bowl of the stuff, "I guess Cadmus and I are not like the others. Cadmus was like them before, but I suppose I mellowed him out. Now he can tolerate them."

"You are…married to him, right?" Tsuko said after taking the spoon and dipping it in. When he put the stew to his mouth, his dull blue eyes lit up. "Wow. This stuff is fantastic!" Taylah laughed as she watched Tsuko greedily spoon the stew into his mouth at a rapid pace. It was only minutes before he had finished the entire bowl.

"I'm glad you like it," she replied, eating another spoonful. They both were startled by the roaring of Demicles.

"Hey! Where's our stew!" he roared. Quickly Taylah got up and began to haul the pot over toward the table, when Tsuko came over and took it from her.

"Let me get that…" he said, and hauled it into the next room.