Beyond the horizon of Princess Amy Rose's kingdom, pure black ravens brood in an isolated area of a dark sea of skeleton trees, honed thorns, and miles and miles of brown, dead vegetation. No sunshine can ever be found if you tried to look hard enough. The place was an abundance of sadness, horror, and gloom.
But what was more horrible was hearing the deafening cracks and saddening wails that eerily echoed throughout this neighboring kingdom. It was in the glooming fortress of the royal monarchs of the Umbra Kingdom that someone was being severely punished for a crime outlawed in their country. The dungeon was the right place for wrongdoers and fugitives. But actually, the Umbrian logical order of certain things was, in fact, unjust and, in most cases, inhumane.
One time, Queen Malice accused one of the court teenage knaves of seducing her into what is called 'The Taboo of Affinity'. King Opaque heard about this and ordered the innocent knave decapitated. In a distorted Selene kind of way, the queen ordered the blood to be drained from every inch of his body and expedited to her for evidence. In secrecy, she literally danced in showers of blood and actually drank it, all for her own amusement.
In the Hall, a meeting was held between the council and the king, mostly about taxes. Servants ran back and forth serving to the King Opaque's pleasing so as to not experience his rabid rage if anything was disarray against his demands. If you looked at him sitting in his white tiger robe, the diamond studded crown on top of his head, holding his royal mace and his expression like a formidable Nile crocodile, he would remind you of Ivan the Terrible.
"Your highness, the cantaloupe tax is getting higher and higher. The serfs aren't able to pay on account of their crops getting scarcer every month. Your people can't sell with inedible cantaloupes; in effect they lose their property and their home. I'm afraid we'll have to lower the taxes if we need that money that helps support the kingdoms' knights and guards."
King Opaque, sitting in subdued silence, stroked his beard in a slow motion. He struck up a simple solution.
"The serfs might as well make do with it because, without my guards and knights, this country would be out of order and in ruins. If they can't live up to the law, well you know the rules, if you can't do the time…pay!"
Those harsh words made a glacier over the court officials' mouths. They didn't say anything afterwards. Then, all of them turned their direction to the doorway because a voice was heard.
A 17 year old black hedgehog was standing in archery attire, waiting impatiently for his father to come for the daily game. He had a stern, hard composure, as though he didn't care if the world was at extinction, even if it was entirely upon his hands.
The king sighed relief as he saw his son appear. Finally, there was something to kill except for precious time, thinking about that delicious turkey leg.
"Okay men, out of here! I want to spend some quality time with my son, your future king of Umbra, Prince Shadow! Now go! Be off!" the king said.
Prince Shadow was getting more impatient. "Hurry up Father! If we get there, the deer and roster should still be there!" His red eyes flared and his white chest hair ruffled with agitation, feverish, low growls signaled the king that it's time to really hunt.
Soon, they were in the forest, watching their succulent game scurrying around, unsuspecting of their predators behind them. Both aimed their arrows to a certain best fit line towards the target.
"Steady Shadow. Steady…aim…oh!"
Shadow had a malfunction; the pheasant flew away with the arrow close to its feet. Inches away from the bird and he almost caught it. Shadow swore to himself as he tried to get the arrow out of the tree trunk. His father scowled that he didn't catch that lucky bastard… it was so plump too.
"Shadow! You have to learn that you need patience and have a certain nature to murder something. I had to learn that the hard way you know, and I'll be damned if you can't learn also."
"Well sorry I can't live up to your potential," Shadow uttered with shifting eyes. "Maybe we're not as lucky as I thought we would be. Maybe…" A smirk appeared upon his face as an idea crept into his head. His father saw what he was thinking too. "Oh no son. Don't abuse that Chaos Spear too much." Shadow's smirk disappeared, substituted by a furrowed, disappointed brow. Well, so much for eating pheasant tonight.
Later that night, Shadow was slumbering when he woke up suddenly, frustrated that this kept happening with every dream that he had. He knew he can't work his mind this late, but he can't help but notice that it's recurring at the same time, at the same night of the week. Shadow's mind, besides sleep, probed on one thing: who is this pink blur that he keeps seeing?