Chapter Four
When Sonic returned to the moonpool, he was shocked and a bit angered to see that someone had discovered his secret cove.Shadow stood on the shore, frowning in confusion as he looked over Sonic's clothes. Why were these here? And where was Sonic? His confusion only intensified when he found a pair of green colored contact lenses, the same emerald green color as Sonic's eyes. The blue Siren hissed quietly, pressing himself against the side of the moonpool, out of sight from his rival.
'Great. Just great.' He thought. 'Out of everyone to discover my moonpool it HAD to be him! Oh what would I give to be a female just to have the Song of the Sirens now.'
Even though he knew the Song of the Sirens would drive Shadow crazy once he heard it, Sonic felt like he deserved it for all the trouble the onyx hedgehog was always causing him. All Sonic ever wanted was to be his friend, but Shadow made it so difficult to be even that.
This was no good. He couldn't get out this way now. He would have to find another way.
He gasped as he saw Shadow approaching the water, a small hint of concern shining in his eyes. He dove back down and quickly as he could, swam through the underwater cave, leaving his spear behind and giving Shadow only a view of his barbed tail disappearing after him.
'Where do I go now?' Sonic knew that the only other place that was safe enough for him to transform undetected would be by the woods, where a merhog burial ground was for the ones that died on land. But it was so far from the beach house, and it was dangerous for him to run at his normal speed without any protection from the friction on his feet. He learned that the hard way.
He then remembered that there was actually a store nearby the burial ground, owned by a good friend of his who was actually 40% mermaid herself. She was the one who created the burial ground for her family, and she had also taken him in when she discovered what he was. She clothed him, taught him, and took care of him until he was ready to head out to the open land himself. He could only hope that she was still there.
Sonic swam over to the forest and crawled onto the rocky bank. He pulled himself away from the water and waited for the agonizing transformation to begin. As his skin dried up, he screamed in pain, the scales on his body burning up and peeling to make way for skin and fur. His dorsal fins shredded apart and disappeared, pulling the bones into his back. The gills along his sides stitched themselves back together, and his fangs pulled themselves back up into his gums. Finally, the transformation ended as his tail disintegrated into legs and his hedgehog tail, leaving nothing left but the fin.
Back in his hedgehog form, Sonic laid there on the rocks, panting in pain as he waited for it to subside. Once it finally did, he sighed and stood up, looking at himself.
"What a weird sense of deja vu." He said to himself, admiring his naked body, and knowing that his pinprick blue eyes were showing. He felt weird, not having his iconic gloves and shoes on. "I really hope she's in her shop right now and she can fix me up. Until then, I'll hide behind the trees to avoid detection."
And that's just what he did. There wasn't really anyone out and about in the forest, but it was better to be safe than sorry. He didn't want someone to see him and think that the Hero of Mobius was some nude weirdo. As he walked through the forest, he came across the mermaid burial ground. He stopped and frowned, walking through the small cemetery and looking around at the many graves. His ears lowered and his eyes saddened as he came across two very familiar gravesites. He knelt down and wiped away the grime covering the names on the small tombstones.
Bernadette and Jules.
Bernadette was a lovely light blue merhog, with a voice that Sonic believed was more beautiful than the rest of the females. She was kind, loving, considerate... She was his mother.
Jules was a dark blue merhog. He had been the male Bernadette had chosen to mate with. When Sonic was just a baby, Jules had been the one to take him away from his mother to train him until he had made his first kill and was ready to return to the colony and his mother. Jules was his father.
Sonic felt guilty every time he came to visit their graves. He was the reason they had died on land, instead of in the water where they belong. They had come onto land, for whatever reason Sonic did not know. They were unprepared and weren't strong enough. They had died halfway through the transformation. He wasn't even here when it happened. His friend had been the one to find their bodies.
Sonic smiled sadly, touching the names of his parents lovingly. "Hey mom and dad. It's me. Sonic. Your son." Sonic sighed. He always did this when he came to visit them. He knew they couldn't hear him, but he still spoke to them, hoping that their spirits were listening. "It's mating season soon, and I'm of age now. You know what that means, right? Ryn's gonna mate with me. Not that I have a choice, right dad?" He chuckled. He sighed again, pinning his ears back. "To be honest, I'm a little scared. You guys told me all about mating season, and the way the females treat the males, it doesn't sound pleasant… but maybe it'll be alright, right? I mean, Ryn and I have been friends since we were born. Maybe she won't hurt me too bad… I'm just worried about my land friends finding out… what will they think of me if they ever found out I was… a killer?"
He shook his head. He knew his parents would scold him for calling himself a killer, but like it or not, that's what Sirens were. They were killers of the sea. He sniffed and hugged the tombstones, tears rolling down his cheeks. "I miss you guys. I miss you so much. Why did you do it? Why did you come on to land?" He sniffed and pulled away, glaring angrily. "Why did you do it?! Why couldn't you have just stayed in the water where you belong?! At least then you'd be able to join the ancestors in death at the special place! WHY DID YOU TRY TO FOLLOW ME?!"
"Sonic?"
Sonic gasped as he heard a voice call out to him. He quickly stood up and hid behind a tree, peaking out to see who it was. He sighed in relief as he saw a woman in her mid forties, with grey hair and blue eyes, walk into the burial ground. He stepped out and sheepishly waved to her. "Hey Helen."
The woman smiled at him. "I thought I heard you out here. Talking to your parents again."
Sonic nodded with a sad sigh. "I still miss them."
"I know you do." Helen nodded, then frowned. "Sonic, where are your clothes? And your contacts?"
Sonic blushed and smiled sheepishly. "I was scaling, so I went for a dip in the ocean. When I came back to my moonpool… someone discovered it, so I couldn't get out that way. I had to abandon my clothes and pull myself onto the rocky bank nearby,"
"Oh child." Helen sighed, placing a comforting hand on his back and guiding him away from the cemetery. "Let's get you inside and taken care of."
"Ok."
A/N: If you want to see Sonic's transformation back into a hedgehog, I recommend going to YouTube and looking up Studying Ryn's Transformation.
