Lanka stalked across the grass, eyeing up her prey: a cream-furred, lop-eared rabbit wearing a red dress standing in the middle of the grass, with a small blue thing - a Chao named Cheese - by her side. By Lanka's own side, there was a pink hedgehog as her lecturer. "That's it, stay low and stay focused," said the pink hedgehog, named Amy Rose. "Keep your eyes on your prey at all times. Now, don't speak. Don't, make, a sound." Amy held up three gloved fingers, signalling when it was time for Lanka to pounce on her prey. "3….2…" Cream spun round.

"...1!" Lanka roared up to Cream, who ran away with Cheese under her arms, but then Lanka leapt onto her, tugging her long ears. Amy laughed as Lanka started to tickle her rabbit friend. Once they stopped, Cream brushed Lanka off and said, "You shouldn't take me by surprise like that. It's not nice." "Sorry, Amy was giving me a pouncing lesson." Lanka replied. "I thought your mother was doing it." "Well, she has to stay in the jungle due to an injured paw, and now," Lanka laughed as she fell over onto her back and rolled over, "I think I have the whole time to myself." "Really?" asked Cream, "I think there are scary predators out there." "Who cares?" laughed Lanka, "I can take care of these smelly-dung beasts at any time." "Another stupid reference," sighed Amy to herself.

As the girls were talking, however, from behind the bushes far off, a British hunter was peering out and aiming his gun straight at Cream, then at Lanka. Lanka looked around, her ears pricked up. Then it was Cream's turn to look, and sure enough, she could see a hunter in the bushes. "Lanka, RUN!" she cried, and Lanka did run far away just as a gunshot rang out through the savannah, followed by Cream squeaking in a tiny, shy voice. Lanka screeched to a halt and saw Amy running to Cream, shocked at what happened. Amy saw Cream's hand covering a bloody patch on her dress. She moved it to see a huge gash where she had been shot. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" screamed Amy, "Someone help!" "Right away!" cried Lanka, and she raced off to Elimu's cave to fetch the wisest jackal in the grasslands.

Once Lanka approached Elimu's cave, she saw all manner of dried gourds with sticky juice in them, and cave paintings telling the stories of the past of the wild of Africa.. Lanka looked around this dark and distant atmosphere for Elimu, full of fear and curiosity. "Elimu! Elimu, where are you?" called Lanka. Suddenly, a jackal's howl echoed through the cave, followed by a pair of mystic eyes opening in the darkness. "May I be of help?" asked Elimu's familiar voice. Elimu herself stepped out of the darkness and approached her goddaughter with a wise, knowing look on her face. "Oh Elimu, thank Lord Mufasa you're here, it's Cream." "Oh? And what trouble have you two gotten into this time?" "Cream's been shot! By hunters!" cried Lanka. "Shot, eh?" asked Elimu, "Leave it to me. I'll carry her back to my cave."

Elimu safely took Cream to her cave and bandaged her wound with aloe leaves she found in the Goldlands. Amy watched, on her knees now and in tears. "Is she going to be okay?" asked Amy. "Not likely," said Elimu, "It's a life or death situation for her. Unless she survives, there is no way she is going to live in Africa with all those hunters and poachers around. It is hunting season after all." "I thought this happened in Canada with bears and deer." said Lanka, confused. "I'm afraid Amy and Cream must go back to Green Hill Zone or else your little friend will die." "Oh no!" cried Amy. "Chou!" wept Cheese. "How on earth do they do that?" asked Lanka. "The solution is a risky one: you must journey to the Mineral Lands and find a special stone." She waved her paw in front of a sparkly cave painting. "Wow," gasped Amy. "It's called the Pambo Stone, and you have to cross limbo to get to what can cure her and open a portal back to Green Hill." "You mean….it's the legendary way of saying goodbye?" Elimu nodded. Lanka at once burst into tears. "NO! I won't let Amy and Cream go back to Green Hill Zone, they just can't leave me!" "Listen: when it's safe, they can come back to Africa again." explained Elimu. "The portal to limbo only opens on stormy nights like the one we're having tonight. The portal will open in a mineral deposit somewhere in the canyon of Rocky Bay. It's a 19-mile journey, but I'm sure you will make it." "You can do it, Lanka!" said Amy. Lanka looked at Amy. She looked at Cream, then she looked at Elimu. "Yes, I will do it." And off she set out the cave for the 19-mile journey.

The 19 mile journey was too much for Lanka's little legs, and they kept aching like her bones were about to break, but she journeyed through mud and myre, across hills and valleys in her African plain, across water and fire, just to get to Rocky Bay. The mineral deposit was just near the raging waters, and storm clouds were beginning to roll in. Lanka used her claws to hang on tight to the face of the cliff, and even held on when the waves splashed her. At last, the lightning began to flash, and from out of the sky, a small purple round beam of light came shooting down out of the sky, and straight onto Lanka's head, consuming her entire body and turning her purple entirely, her eyes glowing violet, as she let go and plunged into the water.

Lanka awoke in complete darkness, in total silence. She coughed a few times, then stood up on her wobbly legs. "Where am I?" she asked. She then heard sobbing echoing in the darkness, and looked around to see Cream and her mother Vanilla standing by a hospital bed with someone buried under the covers. "Papa…?" asked Cream. Lanka couldn't believe it. She was seeing Cream watch her father die. "Part of him will always be with us, Cream. You're too young to understand it yet, but when you're older, you will." soothed Vanilla. What made it more haunting was that Cream was three years old in this flashback. It was even before she met Cheese the Chao! Lanka couldn't bare to see Cream in tears over her father's death, and curled up with her paws over her eyes. Two doctors with shadowed eyes emerged out of the darkness and approached Cream and Vanilla. They weren't animal, they were human. "There's nothing we can do," said the first doctor. "I'm sorry." "Her spirit is with you," said the nurse. Vanilla nodded in approval.

Cream looked around her in shock and started running through endless blackness, calling "Where?! WHERE?!" "Where are you running?" asked another doctor. One doctor after another said, "Run away…away…or do nothing!" Cream screeched to a halt and saw Amy with her back turned to her. She stepped up to her and said, "Amy! Oh my god, I'm so glad to see you. Everyone's against me because my father died." "Against who?" said Amy in a grizzly voice. She then turned around, revealing a facial expression she had never given before, with crazed eyes and blood dripping out of her sharp, pointed teeth. Cream shrank back in horror, screaming. "Running away from fate?!" she hissed. Cream spun around and saw doctors looming over her, whispering, "Fate…" repeatedly.

Lanka looked up from her hiding and saw Cream in trouble. She knew something had to be done, so she twisted her tail around until she let go, making it spin round like a helicopter, but with blossoms emerging. She flew towards the doctors and headbutted them, knocking them out, then she ran towards the possessed Amy and punched her in the jaw, causing sharp teeth to fly everywhere, as well as blood from her gums. The possessed Amy began to choke and flop on the floor, until she shrivelled into a prune and turned into a seed. Cream picked up Lanka and hugged her. "Thanks for saving me," she said, "I'm using this seed for a very special purpose." With that, her eyes began to glow turquoise and speak through the voice of a goddess. Lanka struggled out of Cream's arms and shrank back in horror.

"The seed I plant will be a representation of your mistakes turning to triumph." said Cream through the goddess' voice. "When I plant it, light will come to darkness." "Who are you?" asked Lanka. "I am Neema, the god of life. I am here to guide you to the Mineral World." "So I could save my friend?" asked Lanka. "Precisely," said Neema, and Cream took the seed and began to plant it in the soil of the darkness, then covered it with earth. She then muttered something in Ukrainian which Lanka couldn't understand, but suddenly thunder began to flash in the darkness and rain began to fall. Fresh, chemical-free rain that did something remarkable to the darkness. Everything melted away, and a blue sky and grassy field appeared under a brightly glowing sun. With that, the rain stopped and the planet began to grow into an enormous sunflower. Lanka was amazed, and said, "What can a flower do with finding the Pambo Stone?" "So it is the Pambo stone you seek?" asked Neema, "Run in the direction the flower is pointing."