The sun woke Amy up the next morning. It played upon her face through the open window. She smiled, then rose to see what she could see.

Sitting in a chair close by was Sally, passed out. Amy wasn't quite sure how to handle it, so for the first few moments she tried to be quiet and let Sally sleep. If she remembered correctly, Sally had still been out and about when Amy had fallen asleep again.

Amy slid out of the bed and began to put on her shoes. Before she finished, Sally stirred. "Sorry," said Amy.

Sally shook her head. "Don't worry about it," she responded, clearing away the cobwebs. "I'm a light sleeper. Besides, I wanted it this way. You're new here, it's my job to make sure things work out for you." She stood and yawned broadly, then started some stretches. From the pops Amy kept hearing, it seemed that Sally had been very active last night, whatever she'd been doing.

"Why is it your job?" Amy asked.

"It just is," said Sally, not even looking Amy's way.

"If you say so," said Amy. She decided she'd wait until Sally was ready, but that was only a few seconds.

"Alright," said Sally, "let's get some breakfast. Follow me."

Amy emerged, for the first time, into Knothole Village proper.

It wasn't much, mostly huts for its residents. There was a main hall, which Sally seemed to be heading for, and there were many gardens. Amy noticed something else: the way that the entire village was built in and around trees.

"Hey," she said, "is that window the only place you can get direct sunlight in this village?"

Sally smiled. "I planned that myself. I thought it would be better for guests to be able to get a little sun, to help them get used to Knothole. Even then, it only get the sun for a few minutes each day, then it passes. These trees are evergreen, too, so it's like that all year."

Something about the situation bothered Amy, but she couldn't put a finger on it. She just kept following Sally towards the main hall.

They went directly into what might loosely be called the kitchen. Making breakfast seemed to be a free-for-all affair. This room, at least, had electricity; Sally gravitated towards a coffee maker, leaving Amy to jostle with two or three other animals for the rest of the kitchen's resources.

The other animals watched her a little, noticed her, but didn't say much beyond "excuse-me" and similar comments. After picking out some food, Amy worked her way back towards Sally. "Is it like this every morning?" she said.

Sally shrugged. "Unless someone decides to cook for everyone, sure. This is the only place where people can cook, so most typically come here in the morning. You're lucky, you woke up early. We'll be out of here before Sonic comes through."

Amy laughed, then stopped. "Was that a joke?"

Sally shrugged. "Only partly. How about you, are you ready?"

Amy checked her breakfast. "Do you have any milk?"

Silence.

"I said something wrong, didn't I?" Amy said, blushing immediately.

Sally shook her head. "Sorry, I keep forgetting you're a stranger here." She looked over Amy's shoulder. "She doesn't understand," she told the other villagers, "just leave her be." She took a hold of Amy and guided her out of the kitchens into the main part of the hall.

"I'm so sorry," said Amy, feeling terrible. "Is milk really important?"

Sally nodded. "Did you talk to Rosie any?"

"Yes," said Amy. "She told me that you don't eat meat because most creatures are… hey, does that mean…"

Sally nodded again. "Milk is a precious substance here," she said, "because almost no creatures produce much of it unless they've given birth recently. And even for those who make milk all the time, it's humiliating in the worst ways. So there's never much around. Most Mobians never get a taste of it after they're weaned. The only exception is the First Honor ceremony."

Amy thought about it. "Some kind of Mother's Day?"

"I suppose that's one way to put it," said Sally vaguely. "It's the one time of year milk is affordable."

"I'm really sorry," said Amy, staring into her food. "I don't mean to cause trouble."

"Stop that," said Sally. "You're being too hard on yourself. You just didn't know, that's all."

Amy turned her attention to her food. At least doing that, she reasoned, she wouldn't create problems for anyone.

From outside the main hall came the sounds of fast movement and air rushing to fill vacuum. Amy looked towards the door to see what was going on, but Sally didn't even glance up. She simply reached for the computer on her boot. "Nicole, time."

"Seven-twenty-nine-thirty-four, Sally."

"Half an hour before his shift was supposed to get off," she said, replacing Nicole but still not looking away from her food. "That slacker."

"Do you mean…" Amy began, but the question answered itself.

"Ladies and gentlemen, consider yourselves saved, for I have arrived!" announced Sonic as he burst through the doors, Tails on his heels.

"Sonic!" shouted Amy, her heart aflutter. She loved seeing him when he was like this!

Sonic was walking in the direction of the kitchen, which led him close by Sally and Amy. He was a little cautious, but he managed to say, "Hi, Amy. Hi, Sal."

"Sonic," said Sally, finally looking up at him, "is your watch broken?"

"Sal, if it was broken, how would I time myself? It's the only way to get better, y'know."

"I know," she said. "I also know that means ignorance is not a possibility. You must have decided to abandon your shift early."

"Chill," he said. "Tails came by and wanted to pick up breakfast with me. I was cool with that, and how am I supposed to say no?"

"You could have told him that guard duty is important," Sally offered.

"Tails is more important than guard duty," said Sonic firmly.

"Sonic, to you, everything is more important than guard duty."

Sonic took a step backwards and appeared contemplative. "You know what," he said after a second of delay, "I think you may have a point."

Sally sighed. "I usually do."

"Too bad! C'mon big guy!"

With that, Sonic and Tails dashed for the kitchen.

Amy was laughing. "Is he always like this?"

A hint of smile crept on to Sally's face. "Yes," she said, voice exasperated. "Always."

Amy's gaze lingered on the kitchen door. "I think I'm gonna have fun here in Knothole," she said. She turned back to Sally—but Sally was intently studying her food. "Did I say something wrong?" she said, worried.

"Probably not," said Sally.

Amy tried her best to shake off the sense of foreboding she was getting from Sally. "So," she said, "Sonic sure has a lot of energy, doesn't he? The two of you were up last night, according to Rosie, but he still comes in here just… well, like he always is! What were the two of you doing, anyway?"

Sally didn't look at Amy. "Important things," she said.

Now her mood was dead again! "Sally," she said, becoming serious, "what's going on? I mean, it's like there's some big depressing secret everyone has. You and Rosie both—there's some things you just won't talk about. Can't you tell me a little?"

"I will," said Sally, finishing and clearing her place. "But not now. For now, we need to get you settled in a little better." She led Amy out of the main hall. "That hut you used is the guest hut. It's yours indefinitely."

"Thanks," said Amy. "Hey, what's Sonic doing today?"

Sally smiled. "Well, as soon as he's done with breakfast, he'll be asleep. I know you couldn't tell, but he's tired. He always gets goofier when he hasn't had enough sleep. He'll be unconscious until the afternoon."

'Wow, that wasn't my impression,' Amy thought. "Well, what are you doing?"

"I have some planning to do," she answered vaguely. "But when Tails is done eating with Sonic, he'll be free. I think the two of you will get along nicely for now." Sally smiled to herself. "It'll be good for him to finally have someone about his age around."

Amy pouted. "Hey, I'm not that young!"

Sally did nothing but smile and walk off.

A chirp of laughter from the other direction drew Amy's attention. "Tails!" she said.

"I know how you feel," he sympathized. "They always treat me like a kid."

Amy looked Tails over. This Tails actually looked very much like her own, except… "You only look about ten," she said. "You are a kid."

"Not you too! Hey, you only look eight yourself."

"I'm older than that," Amy said indignantly. "I'm twelve, I don't care what Sonic says."

"Sonic treats me pretty good," Tails said.

"Sorry, I meant my Sonic," Amy laughed. "Boy, it's hard to keep things straight sometimes. Where is Sonic, anyway? Weren't the two of you just going in for breakfast?"

"Sonic does everything fast," said Tails. "He's already asleep."

"Huh," Amy said. "Without Sonic, what am I supposed to do with my time?"

"I could show you around," Tails offered.

"That'd be nice," said Amy.

The trees in this forest were enormous, even the ones in and around Knothole. Amy could only guess how old they were, and she marveled at how completely they shielded the village from the sun. That helped with the heat a lot.

Tails led her around the outskirts of Knothole. On one side was a cliff or a very steep hill, and one enormous old oak grew through both sides. Tails showed Amy that one of its roots had been hollowed out and turned into a slide—which, of course, obligated Amy to test it out to get a fuller understanding of it. She had to test it out five times before she was satisfied.

Most of the rest of the border was thicker forest; nearby were a group of wind-powered generators. ("They aren't very important," said Tails. "Only two places in the whole village use electricity, so it's no big deal.") By now the heat and the walking had Amy sweating, so Tails led her further around the border to a creek.

"Is it safe to drink from?" asked Amy.

"Sure," said Tails. "I mean, you didn't see a well anywhere, did you? Most of our water comes from here."

Amy was skeptical, but then again, the water looked so pure—way cleaner than any stream or fountain she'd seen back home. She shrugged and splashed some water on herself.

"Wow, that's cold!" she said. She could only drink a little of it, but that much seemed to be enough.

"So what's past this?" she asked, pointing out into the forest.

"More forest," Tails said casually. "I don't really know."

"You live here!" she said, confused. "You can't tell me you never leave the village."

"Course not," said Tails, a little indignant. "Sonic himself takes me out there sometimes. 'Training', he calls it. That's really fun. Hey, I know! I'll ask him to take you with us next time!"

"Thanks," Amy said uncertainly, "but… I mean, this isn't the only village, right? There are more out there?"

"Well, yeah, there are others, but they're really far away," said Tails. "I've never been to any of 'em. Sometimes we trade with them, but there's not a lot of contact."

Amy was tired of listening, she was tired of trying to figure out a new world, she was tired of being led around. More than anything else, she wanted to…

Splash!

…Have a little fun.

"Hey!" pouted Tails, wiping his face. When he looked at Amy, an accusing look on his face, she just smirked at him and splashed him again. "Stop that!"

"Make me," said Amy mischievously, shooting another bolt of water at him.

Much giggling ensued.

"I wish I was a better planner," Amy sighed. "My dress is soaking wet!"

Tails shrugged, unconcerned. "Take it off," he said nonchalantly as he removed his own shoes and gloves.

Amy blinked at him.

"Gosh," Tails said, "do you not have fur or something?"

"I have fur," she said defensively, "but it's thinner than… well, most people around here. And it's matted down right now." She sighed. "I live in a place where most people don't have fur."

"That's gross," said Tails, making a face.

Amy smiled. "Yeah, and some people get really obsessive about having too much hair."

Tails shook his head. "I've never even thought about it. That's kind of lame."

Amy shivered, cold suddenly. "Like I said, my dress is soaked," she said, getting back on track. "Does anyone else have clothes I could borrow?"

He thought about it. "Hm, I think Bunnie might have hand-me-downs. And if she has anything, she's gonna insist you take it. She's super nice. Come on, this way." He led her back into the village proper, to the door of another hut. He knocked politely. "Aunt Bunnie? You awake?"

Heavy footsteps came from inside, very heavy footsteps. But when Bunnie appeared, Amy couldn't see why. Bunnie revealed only her face and right arm—a bedraggled, weary face at that. "Good mornin', sugah," she said, the words squeezing out from between her Southern accent and a stifled yawn.

"Were you out with Sonic and Aunt Sally?" Tails asked. Bunnie nodded. "Well, Aunt Bunnie, meet Amy. She's new here."

Bunnie smiled groggily. "Nice to meet ya, honey. Didn't take ya long to get your feet wet, now did it? Y'all got somethin' to change into?"

"No," said Amy, "that's why Tails brought me here."

Bunnie was already appraising the girl. "Well hold on, Ah'm sure Ah've got somethin'." She disappeared behind her door.

"Tails," Amy said, "isn't y'all a contraction of "you all"?"

Tails grinned. "Yeah, but that's only kind of how it works. Bunnie straightened me out about it. Y'all is a singular form, all y'all is a plural form."

Amy took much comfort in the knowledge that here on Mobius, as on her own world, some things just didn't make any sense.

Bunnie's face reappeared. "Here you go," she chimed, extending a bright yellow sundress. Amy took it; Bunnie retreated back into her room.

"Sorry about that," said Tails. "She isn't a morning person even when she hasn't been up all night."

"This feels like it hasn't been worn in years," said Amy.

"It hasn't. But like I said, you won't find anyone nicer than Bunnie."

Amy nodded. "I believe you. I mean, she helped me out without even knowing me." She shivered. "And now I need to take advantage of it. Tails, find me somewhere I can change!"

"So why do you call Bunnie and Sally your aunts?" said Amy. The sundress fit very nicely, and the two were standing on a bridge over the creek's widest point. "I mean, I can't really see a resemblance."

Tails looked down. "Nah, we're not related. Not by blood, anyway."

Amy put a hand over Tails' shoulder. "I know what you mean. The Tails in my world is an orphan, too," she said sympathetically.

He perked up. "There's a Tails in your world?"

"Yep."

"Cool!" he said, laughing. "And all along I thought I was the only one like me!"

"And there's a Sonic in my world, too."

"Awesome!" said Tails. Then he crossed his arms. "Betcha my Sonic's cooler."

"No way!" said Amy, giggling. "That's not physically possible."

It was a stiff competition. Neither could get a real edge, wrapped up as they were in their own loves for the two versions of the hedgehog.

The conversations and wanderings of the children had taken them into the afternoon and, true to Sally's prediction, Sonic was now up and about. As Tails and Amy continued their argument, he ripped through the village, as ever in a hurry.

"Wow," said Amy, watching the dust settle, "he's even faster than my Sonic."

"Told ya mine was cooler," said Tails triumphantly.

"Faster doesn't mean cooler," Amy countered.

Sonic seemed to have some instinctive way to home in on anyone talking about him. He slid to a halt before his fans. "No need to argue 'bout it," he said, smiling broadly. "Let's face it, I'm way past cool in any and all worlds. Wherever I am I'm the coolest there is. So don't worry about it!" He bowed, then shot off again.

Amy shook her head, once more staring at his wake. "In a lot of ways, your Sonic is really like my Sonic."

"Sonic is the coolest."

"No contest."

The entire village was active, most doing some kind of daily chore. Some worked on hut repair and maintenance, others in the many gardens. Still others, most others, cleaned. It was a natural consequence of having a village in the middle of the forest—everything was dirty all the time.

The rest of the population vanished into the forest, often in pairs.

No matter the occupation, most of the inhabitants were cheery to Amy, which suited her just fine. She was just saying farewell to some gardeners when a terrific boom echoed through the village.

Tails laughed. "Only one thing makes that sound. C'mon, Amy, we need to fish out Rotor."

Rotor… Amy had heard that name dropped before. Right, he was one of the first Knothole citizens, the same age as Sonic and Sally and Bunnie. "What do you mean, 'fish him out'?" she asked.

"You'll see."

As they rounded a hut, a huge pile of mechanical parts came into view. They appeared to have spilled out of a small shed, except…

"How did all of that fit in the shed?" Amy asked. It didn't make any sense—the pile had a larger volume than the shed.

"Help me out here, Amy," said Tails. He moved towards the edge of a pile and grabbed at a mechanical arm protruding from inside. Wait—it wasn't mechanical after all. Amy swiftly moved to Tails' aid and they dragged a large person out of the mess.

The animal Tails identified as Rotor was round in stature and gray in color. Although the tips of his fingers were well developed, his legs were short and his feet were flat, as if he didn't really belong on land. He wore a bandolier and a backwards-turned baseball cap, which he had to fish out of the pile of parts. His tusks contributed to giving him a gloomy expression Amy suspected was permanent no matter what Rotor's actual mood.

"Rotor, you should know better by now!" said Tails, helping the walrus dust himself off.

"I know," said Rotor, abashed. "Gosh, I don't have a chance if even you're ragging on me."

"Sally's been telling you that you need another shed. She's been saying it since we all came here!"

Rotor's droopy face became even droopier. "If I do that, I'll just fill the second shed the same way. Then I'll never find anything!"

"Can you find anything as it is?" asked Amy, eying the heap skeptically.

"Sure, I already have what I was looking for," he said, extending his other arm. He did a double-take. "Sorry, who are you?"

"Amy," she said. "I'm new here."

"Hi, I'm Rotor," he said awkwardly. Pause. "I fix things."

"I'm sure you do," said Amy graciously.

Tails nodded. "And he's one of the few people who can teach Sonic anything," he said.

"Well, I don't really teach him," said Rotor, hesitancy gone. "I mean, sometimes when he's hanging around he'll just ask a random question—how does this work? His attention span is never good, so you have to go over it broadly, but he listens even when it doesn't look like it. Once you give him the basics, a lot of times he can use intuition for the rest, and that's what he's best at, anyway."

"So it's all in the method," Amy said, appreciating it.

Rotor nodded—though now he was becoming visibly nervous again.

"Do you teach other people, or just fix stuff?" she asked.

"Well…" he shrugged shyly, "No one ever asks." Another wrong-footed pause. "So, I… I got the part I needed, so I'll… see you later, I suppose," he said. He stumbled away from them, tripping over parts.

"Rotor, aren't you gonna clean this up?" Tails asked.

"Oh, right," he said, turning back.

"I'll help," Amy offered.

"You… will?" said Rotor.

Tails shook his head. "Nah, we were just leaving." He hustled Amy away.

"What was that all about?" she asked. "I wanted to help."

"He'd be too embarrassed," said Tails. "He hates getting too much attention, especially from new people. He got the full spotlight one time and just about died! If I offered to help him, it wouldn't have been a problem, 'cause he knows how to deal with me. But you, he doesn't know. And he hates it when he doesn't know stuff. The only people he really feels okay with are Sonic, Sally, Antoine, me, and Bunnie. I think he's still a little scared of Rosie."

"I don't think anyone could be scared of Rosie," Amy laughed. Mentally, she checked again—that same group of six names. Sonic, Sally, Antoine, Bunnie, Rotor, Tails. They were a unit, different somehow from the rest of the village.

Interesting as that was, for now she didn't really know what questions to ask, so she changed the topic to another thing that had been bothering her. "It's strange," she said. "You've got those generators, and Sally has that awesome computer, and Rotor fixes mechanical stuff like I've never seen in my world. So you've got technology. Where's the rest of it?"

"Huh?" said Tails.

"I mean, in the rest of the village, I haven't seen anything more complicated than a hammer or a rake," she said. "If you've got technology that good, shouldn't it be in more places? It's strange. It doesn't make sense."

"Yeah, you're right," agreed Tails. "That's just how it is here. We've got some stuff, but we have to do most of it ourselves."

"But why?" Amy persisted. "You can't make a generator unless you've got parts, and I haven't seen anything in Knothole that makes me think you can make the parts here. Where did they come from?"

"They were here when we arrived," Tails said uncertainly. He started walking again, and Amy ended up following and talking to his back.

"But what about that computer Sally has?"

"We brought that with us," he said.

"And that huge pile of parts Rotor has? You sure didn't bring that with you."

Tails evaded the question. "Oh, hey Bunnie," he said with a wave.

"Hey, sugar-Tails," she called back. "C'mere, gimme a hug."

Tails ran into her embrace—and the sight of it froze Amy's insides.

Bunnie's face and right arm were the same as they'd been that morning—cleaner, perhaps, less sleepy, but essentially the same.

But Amy saw the rest of her now, and the knowledge shook her.

The other limbs were metal.

Robotic.

She didn't seem like a cyborg, because it looked so haphazard. It didn't look like the limbs were meant to be attached to that body. There were three dividing lines on her body. Flesh was on one side of each line, metal on the other, with no apparent interface or attempt at connection; it simply was. The metal limbs were huge compared to the slender right arm, especially watching them wrap about Tails, one above the other...

It was unnatural the way the limbs looked and moved, and especially their dead gray color when the rest of her was so vibrant and alive…

Bunnie looked past Tails to Amy. Her eyes were ungrudging, but defensive. She was used to this pain, and to this reaction from others. Amy wished desperately that she could make Bunnie stop looking that way, stop feeling like that.

Tails released the hug and stepped back. Amy composed herself and said, "Can I have a hug, too?"

Bunnie's eyes softened a touch. "Sure, Amy-girl." Amy gathered her wits and stepped into Bunnie's mismatched arms.

The touch of the metal limb was surprisingly light. Bunnie was clearly used to keeping her monstrous strength in check. But it was cold—its touch chilled her. Yet Bunnie's heart was warm. Bunnie's other arm and body were full of kindness and strength, as if to compensate for the chill radiating from her metal limbs.

The hug ended. "That wasn't so bad," Amy said so only Bunnie could hear. The older girl gave the slightest of smiles in response.

"Glad to see mah ol' sundress fits," she said, suddenly bright. "Ah remember wearin' it mahself, but Ah… it doesn't fit me anymore."

Amy didn't trust herself to respond.

"Now y'all scoot," Bunnie smiled. "Ah got started late and now Ah've got chores to do. I'm sure y'all can find things to do other than hang around this old girl."

"See you later, Bunnie!" said Tails.

As the distance between them grew, Amy gave an accusing look to Tails. "Tails?"

"What?"

"You told me that y'all was singular and all y'all was plural. But she used y'all for the two of us together."

"As it turns out," Tails grinned, "y'all is a remarkably flexible term."

Amy sighed.