Hi everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, it has been SOOOOOOOO long since I last posted a chapter… Let me see… WHAT?! Last update was… JANUARY 10?!?!?!? Oh my god!! I am SOOOOOOOOOO sorry!! I was too busy working in music, school AND fics.

I also wanted to post a GOOD chappie, and this one is well done.

Well, I hope that despite my lateness, you'll still enjoy this chapter, like I have when I wrote it. It's pretty long, so it WAS worth the wait. Oh and the next one is a big chunk too, but I've already finished it.

I'll post it as soon as possible, maximum 4 weeks. So be patient.

Anyway, I wish you guys all the best! Love y'all!!!! :D

CJ

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Sonic the Hedgehog: the True Power of Music

Chapter Thirteen

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Go on, run. Run faster. Don't stop at nothing.

Oh, how long I had missed that feeling of running as fast as Sonic. Of course I wasn't running, but to be in his arms and witnessing this true and unbeatable speed was the dream of all runners. I wouldn't consider myself as a runner, let alone sporty, but it was an experience that would be treasured deep in my heart.

I could never close my eyes, nor did I want to. The wind was powerful enough to get my eyes all teary, and those tears could've all been mixed with the joyous feeling emanating from my body. Dashing into the distance, many images soared through me and penetrated my heart like rows of speeding bullets. There was so much to see, but they disappeared so quickly that I couldn't take a moment to memorize the whole picture but only little glimpses of its beauty.

I lost my sense of orientation. I had no idea where I was headed to. The blue mammal refused to tell me. All I knew was that with every changing appearance like a hued contrast, we were going through a lot of places.

With one brisk move, the speedy hedgehog's legs calmed down, his feet skidding on the ground for a short while, and he came into a slow a halt. Albeit displeasured that the run had come to an end, my disappointment was flushed away when I laid my eyes at what was before me. I gasped in amazement. In excitement, I barely let Sonic place me on the ground. Actually, I believe that pouncing from his grasp and taking slow steps to a hill will do the description right.

I raised my hands high in bafflement. "No way! This place I've only seen in dreams!" I cried, dropping them onto my head.

As my hands slid down my temples, I tried to take in this whole picture. We stood on a grassy-soiled hill, gazing down at a giant, clear lake, resting in the middle of a field with various-colored, blossoming flowers. At different places of this huge alley were several trees holding onto their smooth-shard leaves and fruited offspring, and butterflies flew over the flowered field, running into some of their other insect friends. What filled this peaceful silence were the rushing and dripping sounds of the lake and the chirping songs of the hidden birds, which on rare occasion filled the white-spotted, blue sky. An unbelievable harmony reigned this place, purified to its fullest, unbroken and untouched by any disruption or corruption.

In this mystified moment, a soft breeze blew my way, swinging locks of hair across my face and, by its soft, nigh audible whisper, spoke to me. It mentioned a phrase.

A new day has come.

Like a tilt, I recognized this phrase. It was a song, sung by the legendary Celine Dion, and it flooded my head with its breath-taking melody.

I was waiting for so long,

For a miracle to come.

Everyone told me to be strong,

Hold on, and don't shed a tear.

I began to wonder. Could it be that Celine Dion saw this place when writing this song? Is this what she used to describe her feeling for someone? I sensed such intensifying feelings in the song from the boundless beauty of earth, the comfort of the wind and the calmness of the water. I think I'm in love with nature.

Through the darkness and good times
I knew I'd make it through
And the world thought I had it all
But I was waiting for you

I came back to earth when I felt Sonic's presence right beside me. "Hah, I knew you'd like it here. Being indoors eight days straight without getting out, I think it deserves this."

Hush now
I see a light in the sky
Oh, it's almost blinding me
I can't believe
I've been touched by an angel with love

I couldn't answer. No word could come out to of my mouth, but I looked at Sonic with an ambitious gaze and grinned widely. Laughing, I grabbed his wrist and pulled him into a run, pacing down the long, grassy slope. He didn't question my actions, nor did he refuse to participate in this silliness, he just followed me in laughter. We both dashed through the field filled with uncountable numbers of dazzling flowers, their petals elevating into the sky as they surrounded us by the windy commotion that we had caused. Our joyous laughter erased the silence of this valley, and drained all worries from our minds. Nothing could go wrong.

Sometimes, I'm really narrow-minded.

With all worries put aside, I rushed blindly throughout the field, never thinking of looking down on the ground. It was my big mistake, which led me to my downfall.

I stumbled over a hidden, hard object, and fell, pulling against my will the blue hedgehog with me. We rolled down that steep field, without any way of control our movements. If the ground hadn't gradually flattened along our roll-around route, I'm pretty sure we would've ended up in the lake.

We slowed down at the right time, and I wound up on my back, plunging my eyes into the open and infinite sky. To me, the world seemed to be turning and twisting all around, but what can you expect after rolling down like that? I was just grateful that it was over.

"Dizzy… Dizzy…" I breathed, holding back the gagging feeling while my eyes turned around in a spiral.

When I managed to get control of my dizziness, I looked over my head. I met Sonic's eyes. He also lied on his back, smiling at me. Unless I was seeing some illusions, his eyes clearly showed mockery. Sonic made a small snicker, and transformed it into a sheer, rich laughter. A scowl was very tempting to me and I was gonna go for the pouting, but his laughter forced me to chortle like mad. That overwhelming feeling took over us in a whoosh, and our shouts resounded throughout the valley, echoing back at us as if it laughed with us.

Cleary, no one wanted to stop. No one was going to make us. But one factor we forgot, and that was our body. After some time, which was pretty short, my body couldn't support it anymore, and breathed out a sigh of relief when I decided to calm down. It felt so good to laugh freely and truthfully again. The blue mammal joined the tranquility, and we both dived our eyesight into the sky.

"I never knew that the looking at the sky could be so refreshing." I thought aloud.

"I always knew that it was beautiful. I could look at a million times, but it will still amaze me." he replied.

Puffy clouds strode along the sky, distorting and taking shapes during their grand journey. Intriguing. I contemplated them when they passed overhead. One amongst the herd had an alluring form.

"Hmm…"

"What is it?" he asked.

"That cloud…" I began, "I swear it just looks like Knuckles, but I think he must have stuffed his face with food. Or maybe he got slapped so many times by Rouge that his cheeks are swollen."

"Really? Where?"

I held my hand out to the heavens and pointed my finger at the Knuckles-like cloud. That marked the beginning of our next new game. We picked out clouds one by one, judging by our own opinion whom the clusters of puffy clouds resembled.

Identifying them was a challenge at first sight, but they adapted to our imaginations, and both Sonic and I came with creative responses. He mentioned Cheese, being carefully held in the arms of Cream the Rabbit, I, on the other hand, found it entertaining enough to say that it looked like Sonic being tackled by Amy. I was as astounded as he was when we agreed on one of the clouds that had a familiar shape of a friend. Arms crossed, head sunk down but a dark gaze staring down at us.

"Shadow!"

To put it in simple words, it was a child's game, but we had a lot of fun.

Our game was disturbed by a loud rumble. I sat up quickly in reflex and gripped at my stomach. The tank was empty. What an embarrassing and stupid method to end a game like that. I dared to turn around to Sonic. "Uhm, sorry, but I'm hungry." I remarked.

"I can hear that." He smiled to my answer, "I had my doubts, because it sounded like an earth-quake. But looks like you didn't eat for some time."

"I haven't had breakfast, and it's past lunchtime." I explained in embarrassment, "And if you understood what kind of food I had to digest… IF you can call that food."

To be very honest, I'm normally a big eater, mostly when I'm bored. But back at the safe-house, I had lost my appetite because the absence of the others. They were shopping, running, fishing, while I stayed inside. My boredom turned into disgust. The regular meals were less enjoyable and more distasteful when no one was around. Even when I prepared the meals, they weren't as great as I expected them to be. Yeah, Knuckles did cook too. He knows how to cook, but he lacks the knowledge of cooking something edible. He didn't cook anymore when I began my attempts of sneaking out, so he let me take over. Now I wonder… Nothing against Knuckles, but weren't my instincts behind the reasons of my fleeing, imploring me to get as far away as possible from his horrid food?

"Ah, ol' Knucklehead was cooking again? Rouge crowned him as Chef of disaster."

"Well, I should've been there, because I could've then spared myself from the things he tried to make me eat."

I felt my hair standing up at the thought of his meals, and shook myself. I could still taste the sorry attempt of making curry stew. That will haunt me in my nightmares.

Sonic the hedgehog pulled himself up to his feet. I mimicked him, leaning forward to stand straight and turned around.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

There was this instant of silence that seemed to endure for an eternity to come. He gazed at me. I thought at first to be a normal stare, but he looked at me with that vivacious and vibrating stare, creasing his lips into a smirk. His face showed too much of fervent excitement to be a simple, facial expression. I had seen it before, and I remembered that face to appear when a challenge came his way.

He raised his hand and pointed out into the distance. "You see that tree over there?"

I spun around, and tried to follow the direction of his finger. Not too far away, along the grassy coast of the azure river, stood a big tree, spreading its many arms as high as it could. I instantly understood where he was getting at when I noticed what the tree's branches were holding. "I'm way ahead of you!"

I sprinted ahead, believing that I was gaining more distance than the blue hedgehog. This is what he was demanding from me. And for the first time, I felt like I wanted to run more than ever.

"Come on, slowpoke!" I called back.

I kept kicking my feet to the ground, leaping further to the tree, breathing all the air I could get. I was soon to have Sonic running at my side. "Slow? You should know that's not my game!" he laughed.

When seeing him by my side, there was a sudden and unusual presence within me. It was a new determination, set by my mind. I was up to his challenge. I wanted to beat him, or at least be fast as he was, so I put more efforts into accelerating my speed and worked those legs even harder.

"Speedin' up, huh?" he said. I watched him make a sideway spin, turning the whole body around without slowing his speed. He looked at me, his face absent of strain, running at same speed backwards. With arms crossed and legs pedaling, the blue animal mused: "Nice, keep going."

I chuckled in panting breaths. "Show-off." I scoffed.

There was really no point in running any faster; no one could beat that hedgehog. But his company somehow put me under spell, and persuaded me all the time to do more than I could do.

He motivates me.

It was somewhat upsetting that I could never outrun, but it made me realize that he was going to stay nearby, no matter what the circumstances were.

When we reached the tree, I collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. I kept on panting like a locomotive, releasing more air than sucking in. Then came that sting. That usual, unbearable sting at my sides as a result to my run.

I really envied Sonic. Just look at him. He leaned against the tree-trunk, breathing calmly and normally with shut eyes as if there had been no run in the first place. As if he'd been resting this whole time!

"How… do you… do that?" I gasped.

He exposed his emerald eyes as he stared down at me. "Hmm? Do what?"

I pulled myself up to my knees after having regained my steady breathing. "You know. Running without getting tired. Like me. How do you do that?"

He gave a mildly puzzled look. "Let me think…" he said.

I waited for his reply as he raised his eyes up and rubbed his temple with his finger. Apparently, this was the first time anyone had asked him that question. As if struck by lightning, his mouth opened to give a reply. Finally, the greatest secret was about to be revealed.

"I dunno."

What a smack in the face. It literally slammed me back to the ground and caused me to sigh in defeat. "I'm just never going to figure you out."

From underneath the tree, I could see better the thin branches with strapped leaves, the whole declining downwards because of the heavy load of fruits they carried. Cherries. If not for that appealing look, I wouldn't have been that tempted. My mouth watered. I couldn't get my eyes off those fruits. They clung there, waiting helplessly for someone to devour them. How can someone deny such wish?

Impatiently hungry, I stood up from the grassy floor and climbed up that tree. I grabbed branch after branch and pulled myself higher up to get to the thickest branch overhead. It had been at some point a grudge, because the tree bark's crumbs blew into my eyes and irritated me. But I succeeded and sat on the stable branch. Above my head, a bunch of cherries swayed at the wind's feel, its crimson peel glimmering at the sunlight that burst through the leaves.

"Sonic, come up here already. Look at all these cherries…"

I took the one bunch of about eight cherries over my head into my hands, and picked one of them and inserted it in my mouth. Ooh, that cherry that I delightedly chewed released a liquid of stupendous, sweet and luxurious aroma. I chewed more, and spit the nut out that was less enjoyable.

Noticing he still wasn't up here, I leaned forward. "Hey Sonic, are you coming?"

"I'm already here."

The sudden, nearby response startled me. To my misfortune, I lost balance, slipped off the branch and fell. I let out a small scream, but not powerful enough to justify the fear that I felt. An arm clasped my stomach and halted the fall. Beads of sweat covered my face. Sonic pulled me back up, sitting me on the branch.

"That was close…" I breathed heavily in shock.

"Don't worry; I would've caught you in no time."

I felt snubbed at his remark. "Well then. Next time, maybe I should startle you for a change, just to see how you're gonna react." I commented drily.

I flushed that feeling down the drain and gave him a couple of cherries. "But first, you might want to eat those. They're really good." I smiled.

He took the cherries, nodding in gratitude. He munched at one and spit the nut out. There was something competitive there. I followed suit, spitting my nut into further distance. He sensed my daring challenge, and grinned when he ate another fruit.

Today's forecast, sunny with showers of cherry-nuts. Our games couldn't be more original.

From up here, past the nets of sticks and shadowed leaves, beyond lay the tranquil lake, glowing the sun's reflection into our eyes. The vast water was surrounded by a bed of flowers, and farther, small bulges of grassy plains were laid out. A natural experience this was. I've never considered much attention to nature, but explaining the sentiments that crossed my mind was impossible. It had a blow out effect on me. I felt complete. Did Elise, the Princess of Soleanna, experience this as well?

Speaking of whom, I wondered if this was a great opportunity to ask Sonic about her. As I mentioned sometime before, whatever happened between those two? All fans know that the game had a mysterious ending. After the flame of Solaris had been extinguished by Elise's smoothing breath, were all the memories of the adventure erased? At the Soleanna Festival in the end, when Sonic made his appearance and watched from afar the princess on the boat, did he recognize her?

The game wasn't that much appraised because of its game-play. I confess that it was a pain with all its technical malfunctions, but the story and its characters, such as Elise, amazed me. They were pretty good.

"Just smile."

"Your smile is all he needs to be happy again."

These quotes were similar to the ones used by Sonic, who always cheered the Princess of Soleanna in that adventure. Now, they were slightly modified to support me.

The Elise-and-Sonic couple was interesting to me. Their relationship was very different to Amy's, and involved different feelings. I had my doubts of thinking them as a great couple, because everyone around me said they hated the princess. My feeling is maybe everyone hates her because she got what everyone wanted: the hedgehog, his adventures and all the action. Not the kind of excitement you see at home.

Uh-oh. I hope I won't get any haters.

With that thought put aside, I made the attempt. "Hey, Sonic, got a question for you."

"I'm all ears."

I took a deep breath. "Have you ever heard of a person called Elise?"

I looked over to him. He stopped chewing the cherry in his mouth, and a lingering expression of bewilderment featured on his face. He contemplated. "Elise… Elise? Nope, can't think of anybody called that."

"Are you really sure?" I pressed further. "Think harder. Elise, the Princess of Soleanna? Girl with reddish hair, blue eyes, silver or white dress, and brown stockings?"

He closed his eyes, and if by sudden magic, something dawned on him. "Wait… There was this one time I saw a girl on this large ship during the Soleanna Festival. She looks like the princess you're talking about."

I expected a more elaborate response. "And?"

"That's all I know. I've only seen her. I never spoke to her."

There, I had my answer. An adventure took place, which concluded by an adventure that never happened. I couldn't believe it. I was in denial. There should be still a memory of her tucked in the back of his mind, hidden by spells that obviously can't be undone, or shouldn't be.

"Why are you asking?"

I felt depressed. I felt to have more reasons to be sad. "I have a good friend, and that Princess meant a lot to him. I think."

"What, you're not even sure?"

"No, actually I'm not." Sonic, you made it all look like she meant the whole world to you.

I looked over to him. I wish that I could've told him about the little adventure he had in Soleanna, but somehow, I couldn't. If he couldn't remember, then maybe it was meant to be that way, no matter how sad it was.

I placed my hands on top of my heart, like Elise did. I felt my birth-necklace underneath my shirt.

If there's a way, I wish that they can meet again.

"Christine, I don't see where you're getting at." he stated.

"Well, there were questions I was just wondering about, that's all…" And you've answered them anyway.

The tree's braches swayed and rustled when air currents flew through us. They brought the flower's petals and a couple of lake's tears to us, or maybe the sky's rain. The wind grew stronger, blowing harder, until the branches had no choice but to let go of their cherished leaves. I don't think these branches even knew that they were letting something go.

Chills spread throughout my body. I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, but it wasn't the cause of this shiver. There was a lingering sadness that put my body in that state.

I know Sonic misses her. He just doesn't remember. Maybe unconsciously, he knows her, and maybe he does long for her. But maybe he is also forbidden to remember. Sometimes, sacrifices are meant to be made to save the world. But it isn't fair…

"I think we ought to go, Sonic." I said, "It's getting cold. Besides, we wouldn't want Knuckles to die out of seizure, all because I was out too long."

"Sure thing. He acts tough, but he sure is a big worrier."

I tucked those saddening thoughts in the back of my skull. I had to, for Sonic's sake.

I chuckled. "You don't say…"

I pulled my lock of hair that covered my face over my left ear. At least seeing him smile and making jokes cheered me up.

When we had climbed down the tree, I looked at my surroundings once more. I was going to miss this place. The sky, the trees, the grass… Everything.

I turned to Sonic. He was tapping his feet against the ground, like runners do to warm up before they ran. I smiled. "Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"I want to give you something."

I placed my hands at the back of my neck, unhooking the tear-shaped necklace. Clinging onto the golden chain, the gem gleamed in its sapphire color.

"Here, I want you to have it." I said, "It's my way of showing my appreciation, for everything you've done for me. For saving me more than I can count, for always being there when I didn't feel fine, and for bringing me to this wonderful place. It's my birth-necklace, and it's my most precious treasure."

"And you want to give it to me?"

I nodded affectively. "I'd like you to wear it. Unless you think it's not nice…"

I felt his hand on my shoulder. "That wasn't even on my mind." He smiled vividly. He turned his back on me. "Could you put it around my neck?"

"Sure."

I held both ends of the jewelry in one hand and pushed his spiny hair to the side with the other. My free arm waved around his neck, its fingers getting the one end of the necklace and pulling it across his Caucasian chest. Once I had hooked both ends, he turned around and looked down at the jewelry with amazement. I was more than happy to see it on someone else for a change. The blue-gemmed necklace suited him so well. I felt proud to have given him this gift.

"It's really beautiful, Christine." He said, looking up with the gem in his fingers, "Thanks a lot. I'll take good care of it."

I was pleasured to hear his caring response. "As long as you keep it as a souvenir, I'll gladly say you're welcome." I replied brightly.

No sooner after my response, he swooped me off my feet and held me tightly in his grasp. A proud smile plastered his face. He took on a slow pace, and sped up relentlessly in that infamous high velocity, away from this place, from where its memories were going to remain in my mind for a long time to come.

This time, the wind was strong, and because it was unique, I cried.

A new day has come…

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Ooh, do TELL me what you think. I have a feeling that I've improved my writing. I have been reading a lot of books, such as Artemis Fowl and Twilight. Yepp, also another reason for me being late. :P