For a village so full of contradictions, life in Knothole seemed surprisingly normal. Most of the people were working most of the time, either with chores or with small-scale craftwork or carpentry. People with leisure time found things to do, and some just talked and gossiped and flirted like people everywhere.

It was strange, though. Most of Knothole's thirty or so inhabitants were in their mid-teens to late twenties. Rosie was the only senior citizen and Tails the only child. It was as if an entire generation was gone and the next was barren.

Or, Amy thought to herself, the children are elsewhere. There were lots of possible explanations, but for most of them she either didn't have enough information or rejected them outright.

Of course, her thoughts continued, I'm never gonna come to a conclusion because I keep getting distracted!

Sally was everywhere. She seemed to have a paw in every activity that occurred in Knothole. Amy was watching her perform tests on the soil when she heard a new, distinctive voice.

"How eez it zat ze shifts of moi are checkered?"

The owner of the voice was an animal who seemed to be all forehead and nose. He wore an elaborate military jacket and boots in spite of the heat, but those weren't what held the eye. More prominent were the elongated, upturned snout and the high brow, emphasized by critically lowered eyelids.

"Checkered?" Sonic, identified immediately.

"Ze other on top of ze one."

"You mean stacked?"

"Of course. Zat is what I am saying, no?"

"And you're askin' me… for what reason, exactly?"

"Because it is ze name of yours that has take ze shift of mine and moved it," the first animal huffed, "so it is you zat has put me in zis predicated."

"Ant, Ant, Ant," said Sonic sadly, "I almost wish I understood your whining. Actually, I don't."

"What is so difficulty?"

"Ant, that little rearrangement sticks me with a double-shift, too. Why'd you assume I did it?"

"Because," the first animal said, eyes narrowing, "you have very little likeness of moi."

Sonic sighed. "Are you still goin' on about the uniform gag?"

Amy whispered to Tails, "Ant?"

"Antoine," said Tails, who seemed a little bored with the whole affair.

It clicked in Amy's mind. Antoine—the last of the six original villagers. Antoine makes a pun with ants, which meant that he was the person Sonic had pranked by putting ants in his uniform. That was the conversation she'd heard when she first woke up in Knothole.

Suddenly appreciating the scene before her, Amy appraised the two again. Antoine faced Sonic, trying to seem above Sonic but clearly furious, while Sonic was acting casually but obviously enjoyed tweaking Antoine.

By this point, Sally—and the rest of the village—had heard at least part of the exchange. Sally walked resolutely towards the two. "This is gonna be ugly," said Tails. "I'm outta here!"

Amy wanted to stay—maybe she could understand them better if she watched them in action. And if she understood the six, she'd finally start figuring out this strange, strange place called Knothole.

"Antoine, it was my doing," Sally began. "I'm the one who switched around the duty shifts. Sonic's been so bad about guard duty in the past, so I decided to go a little further. If he had two shifts in a row, for at least one of those shifts he'll have to be there the whole time. I'm sorry, Antoine, but the only way to make room was to move your shift around. It's too bad that it gave you a double, too, but I wanted to affect as few people as possible."

"I do not be blaming you, my preencess," Antoine said. "I am blaming zis fyu-el over on ze other paw."

Amy registered that Antoine called Sally princess, but she couldn't think about it much before everyone else was moving on. Sonic crossed his arms. "Hey, Ant, if Sal moved the shifts, why're you blaming me?"

"Because it was ze irresponsible of you zat made zis transfer necessitated," Antoine said.

Sally grimaced at Antoine's mangling of the language. Amy shook her head. Sally seemed to be siding, at least a little, with Antoine, but with debating partners like him…

"I've got an idea," said Sonic, all smiles. "I think my practical joke on you woulda been much funnier if I'd have used spiders instead of ants."

"Good call, Sonic," said Sally, rolling her eyes in a well-practiced gesture. "Remind us again of how immature you are. Great tactics. You're a real sophist."

Antoine looked confused. "What do ze cushioning have to do with zis?"

"Not sofa, sophist!"

It seemed useless to correct him. Antoine crossed his arms and said, with a medium degree of arrogance, "And since we are ze better sofas than you, Sonic, you must admit your doing-wrong!"

"Antoine…" Sally moaned. "I already told you, blame me if you have to blame someone."

"And he completely ignored you," said Sonic pointedly. "I'm fine with workin' a double-shift. It's Ant who's got his panties in a bunch."

Antoine became very indignant at this jibe.

"You're right about that," said Sally. "Antoine, you're overreacting. Even so, that doesn't let you off the hook, Sonic. You still tease Antoine ceaselessly and you still shirk your guard duty."

"But Sally," Sonic said, imitating a plaintive child, "he makes himself such a target, how can I pass him up?"

Amy joined in at last. "That's true," she said. "I've only been around him a few minutes, and I can give a few reasons Sonic would make fun of him."

All three of the older animals looked to Amy and stared.

Amy was intensely uncomfortable.

Then the three of them turned back to each other. The triangle began again, the bickering going back and forth without any decisive result, and they went right on ignoring Amy.

Amy put the pieces together. It was just like her habit of chasing after Sonic! It wasn't as if she expected that this time, as opposed to all previous attempts, he'd give in. What made her do it was that it was normal. That's how she and Sonic interacted; that was how they worked. What she was watching, as Sonic and Sally and Antoine made fun of each other and took potshots, was more a ritual of normalcy than anything else.

That was how she could be excluded so easily. Having her there wasn't normal, and that defeated the whole purpose.

The argument broke up shortly thereafter. Sonic departed first, catching the other two in his vacuum. Antoine went next, grumbling unintelligibly. Sally sighed, and muttered something about immaturity and foolishness.

"Sally!" Amy called. Now that the triangle was broken, maybe she could get a few answers.

Sally turned at the sound of her name. "Oh, hi, Amy. What is it?"

"Why did Antoine call you princess?" Amy asked.

Though she smiled at the question, her body stiffened noticeably. "No reason. It's just something he does," she said, a small quaver in her voice.

Amy smiled, remembering how Antoine had treated her so politely during the argument. "He must like you a lot," she said.

Now Sally rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't believe how annoying he is sometimes. I do my best to just grin and bear it—it IS kind of flattering—but he has a habit of choosing bad times."

Amy laughed. "Makes me think twice about how I treat the Sonic in my world. Speaking of which," she continued, "does anyone have any idea what that's all about? You know, what I'm doing here?"

Sally tapped her boot—no, the computer attached to her boot. "I have Nicole running analyses of all the available data," she said. "I scanned the hole pretty well after you fell through, but it closed shortly after. Hopefully, when Nicole is done, I'll be able to figure out why you came through and how to get you back."

"That's comforting," said Amy. "Oh, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"When and where are Sonic's two shifts?"

As it turned out, Sonic's shifts were the next day. Amy lay in the bed of her borrowed hut, trying to shut out the multitudinous sounds of the forest. Amy had to wonder why this village was so deep in the woods. Thus far, she hadn't seen any logical reason for it other than the presence of that ultra-pure stream.

There were so many puzzles here, she thought. Some things just didn't make sense as they stood. She was missing some huge piece of information. There was a white elephant sitting in the village that she was somehow failing to see.

And the citizens of the village, all so cheery and helpful, were useless when it came to giving her information. Rosie, Tails, and Sally had all either entirely dodged her harder questions or given partial answers. All the inhabitants of Knothole seemed happy enough, yet something existed that they just wouldn't discuss.

It was more than that. For all of their good attitudes and friendliness, there was a tension in the air. The villagers were ignoring her questions, but they were also working around this invisible mass in their own minds.

How to address this…

Amy didn't consider herself to be terribly smart, but if she could focus on something long enough she could usually figure it out. Once she got some more information, she could probably put together an understanding of this place.

She'd start with the six. Somehow, some way, those first six had made this village a place other animals would come to. It had begun with them, so they were the key to the village's secrets.

Sonic, Sally, Rotor, Bunnie, Antoine, and Tails. No, scratch Tails, she thought. He was probably too young to know all of what was happening, and he was definitely too young to have made the village what it now was. The five, then. Rotor was useless to her; he would probably still be uncomfortable. Amy was herself uncomfortable talking to Bunnie, and she doubted it would be easy getting her to talk about matters. Antoine? Amy had seen enough to know better than ask him for anything.

That brought things down to Sonic and Sally.

A new set of noises outside of her hut drew her attention. She sat up in bed and looked through the flimsy shutters.

She couldn't see anything at all.

Stupid trees! She thought to herself. They blocked moonlight more effectively than they blocked sunlight. But she could still hear, and what she heard sounded like Sally's voice. A few seconds of this passed, and then she heard the unmistakable sounds of Sonic running off at high speed.

Those two were at it again, going… SOMEWHERE… late at night.

What were they doing? Amy somehow doubted they were getting away to have a make-out session. What was it, then?

She'd be able to corner Sonic tomorrow, when he was on guard duty. She'd ask him then.

Guard duty… just what were they guarding, anyway? From what? She smiled wryly. Hopefully, she'd remember to ask these things tomorrow!

Amy had passed by the path the first time. She'd had to ask a nearby villager exactly where it was, but when she saw it for herself she felt silly to have missed it. She pardoned herself after a closer inspection. It was artfully hidden, as were the other trails in the area. Yesterday, while being led around by Tails, she often hadn't realized a path existed until she was on it.

The paths were a reflection of Knothole and its people. Everything existed beneath a veil—a perilously thin veil, yet one everyone clung to and carefully maintained.

The guard post was small, tucked in the upper boughs of a staggeringly tall tree. A simple rope ladder dangled from high above. As Amy's eye got better at interpreting what she saw, she realized that there were two or three smaller "stations"; there wasn't a single rope ladder, but several, each attached to its own station.

Amy could guess the reason—it helped with the vertigo. It probably had also helped with the construction. Even so, Amy hadn't the foggiest notion how they'd built it all. With only the tools she'd seen in Knothole, it seemed impossible.

She shook her head, returning her focus. Sonic was up there, and she wanted to see him. She grasped the ladder and was impressed by its integrity. It held up just fine. She climbed to the first station without problems. During the second climb she began to worry; as she began the third climb she really, really hoped it was the last.

It was. As she pulled herself onto the platform, a gloved hand extended to help her. "Hey, Ames," Sonic said, brandishing his usual grin.

"Ames?" she asked, accepting his help.

He shrugged. "I can call you Amy if you want, but I like Ames better."

"Call me what you want," she said, laughing slightly. "'A Rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.'"

He blinked at her.

"It's from a play," she explained. "Where I live."

"Oh," said he. "Sounds kinda fishy, but I'll go with it. Ames it is."

"That's quite a climb," she said. "Do people get used to it?"

"Most do," said Sonic. "Not Ant. Sal usually gets him ground-level jobs 'cause he gets so sick. I make fun of Ant a lot, and most of the time he deserves it, but he actually hurled a few times, so she goes out of her way to keep his boots on the ground."

They were running words, Amy decided. Different, for whatever reason, from the way he had spoken before. The pace was high enough, and they came at such a regular pace, that it was as if he spoke in rhythm with someone out on a run.

"Do you get bored up here?"

"Nah. Okay, that's a lie. I do. It's funny, Sally's always ribbin' me for acting without thinking, and she's right a lot. Just the same, I never actually stop thinking. It's more like I think about stuff other than what I'm doing, or think one thing while my body decides to do something else. Yeah, lots of times it's the body that knows what to do. When you're at supersonic speeds, you learn that your brain is just too slow. That's not quite the same with me, though. After all these years of running so fast, I've been training my brain to keep working at least at subsonic speeds, so I can use it if I need to. And it works like that even when I'm not moving at all!"

The last sentence wasn't quite true. He wasn't pacing, because he kept his front to Amy the whole time, but he was nonetheless in constant motion. He gesticulated to help make his points, while his legs carried him around the small outpost at random.

"The design doesn't seem useful," said Amy, struggling to get back on track. "I mean, who other than you could get down in time to warn anyone of anything?"

The torrent began again. "Like I said, most people get used to it. You'd be surprised how fast we can move vertically—it's the Great Forest, after all, not the Great Prairie! Gotta learn how to think and move in three dimensions. So most people can get up and down in a hurry. Plus there's this," he said. He showed her a vaguely gun-shaped object that had, until then, been lying in a corner, unnoticed. "Flare gun, in case there's no time. Big giveaway, but we never plan to use it, and if anyone has to use it it's too late anyway."

If Amy had a chance, at any time in the conversation, to bring up the topic of why guards were necessary, that was the chance. But Sonic gave her no opening; the flood of words continued unabated. And Amy found herself engrossed in listening to him.

It was the same, she reflected afterwards, as how she sometimes ended up acting around her Sonic. He'd just be so impressive or cool or heroic that she'd forget herself, caught up in his glory like a satellite in orbit. But her Sonic never got her like that by talking. In fact, her Sonic didn't talk a whole lot. He was usually either adventuring or lazing around, and either way he didn't have a heck of a lot to say. He wasn't shy by any means, and he had no self-control when he thought something needed saying, but he wasn't compelled to speak.

This Sonic was—it was the only explanation. At first Amy thought that "gregarious" was a good word to describe it; by the later portion of the conversation she decided it was too mild a term. Even "conversation" was imprecise. While not exactly a lecture, it was decidedly one-sided.

On and on and on he went, never evening out or letting up. If he once repeated himself, neither he nor Amy noticed. He switched topics often enough to keep things interesting and his voice was always full of energy. It all sounded fresh to Amy; whether he'd spoken these words to others or not she couldn't tell.

Every topic he could think of, it seemed, was on his mind all the time. He explained, discussed, or wondered out loud on a whole variety to subjects. Mostly, he told her. He told her how some of the watch stations had been built, the long hours it had required from those with motivation but no equipment. He told her how everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Rotor finally agreed to settle for a dirt floor instead of repairing the old wood one again. He told her how Bunnie, "before she had arms and legs", made a fuss over working in the gardens because it made her so dirty; and "after her limbs were metal" she actually hit the gardens with a passion, as if making up for lost time. ("Can't get dirtier than this", he quoted with a poor accent but rich affection.)

He told her, at length, about paths (that was one of the few contributions she made to the discussion). How he, and he alone, could travel fast enough to learn the best ways to get through the forest, to learn secrets and details even the best maps didn't quite catch. He told her how, once he found these routes, he would run them up and down and up and down to beat the flora into submission. Making a path, it turned out, normally requires dozens of people making dozens of trips; it can also be done with hundreds of people doing a few trips; but it can also be done with one person making thousands of trips—or a smaller number at much higher speed.

He told her how, after the path was made, it had to be unmade—disguised, cunningly. How nowadays he usually traveled at less than full speed to avoid having to replace everything all the time. How the entrances usually required more than a trained eye, but an actual guide. And he told her a few they'd abandoned using, sowing trees and shrubs into the packed-down earth. Every day the seeds failed to sprout they harbored fears that the path would remain, but every plant that grew to obscure the path was something that eased their hearts.

(This was one topic, Amy thought, that her Sonic and this Sonic differed on quite widely. The Sonic of this world was very careful about covering his tracks; her Sonic neither wanted nor needed to do the same.)

And so it went, for how long Amy couldn't tell. All she knew for certain was that Rotor finally ended it by poking his head into the station, taking one nervous look at Amy, and two surprised ones at Sonic.

"What?" said Sonic, indignant.

"It's just…" Rotor smiled. "I didn't think you had enough willpower to do it."

Sonic smacked himself. "Not you, too!"

"And to think I came early," said Rotor, grin broadening. "If I knew you were so happy to be out here, I'd have taken my time."

"I'm leavin', hear me?"

"Hey Sonic, I've got duty two days from now, but I really want to run some experiments during that time. Can you cover me?"

"I am SO gone!" With those words, he actually was.

Amy laughed at his wake, then turned to Rotor. "Rotor, I'm sorry that you climbed all the way up here but…" she scrunched her head down, embarrassed. "Can you show me the path?"