Chapter Three:

The path starts here

It looked so warm inside that little house as the anthro peered in through one of the darker windows. He was trying really hard not to feel like a stalker as he did so. But the fire that gave its warmth to those inside and spilled a soft squares of light outside had attracted Sonic like moth to flame.

No, it's more than just warm, Sonic thought, it seems safe.

In so many ways it was safe in there. Not just the fire but also the thick wall protecting them from the cold, almost biting winds outside... Alright it was like it was not that cold out here at this exact moment, but close enough with you were soaked through the fur. The small house and the inviting flames sheltering those that lived inside from the storm.

A storm that gave the impression that it wasn't done yet and had not yet released its full wrath on the land. Even though everything from ground house and the tops of trees were already soaking wet, including anthro hedgehogs. Sonic shivered, dark blue quills rattling against one another and the backpack sliding around a little as he did so, droplets of water found that they could fly again as they were shaken off.

Sonic's fur was sopping wet, despite however many times he shook himself. He would only be drenched again in a matter of what seemed like just seconds. The worst of it was that his shoes were soaked as well, squishing every time the anthro shifted his weight. Sonic had just discovered that he would rather tollgate wet fur for a while longer if it mean his feet were dry.

He pushed his nose to the bottom of small window again, looking in longingly at the family inside like a lost puppy. The fire that looked so warm, the promise of safety and shelter of the visible room, not to mention the food that looked so good. Even more so with his own nipped supplies. The anthro couldn't get in... Well he could, but even his odd life style kept Sonic from breaking into places.

He fisted his hands against the glass on either side and just below his head.

It wasn't fair!

How could they look so happy in there when he had to suffer out here? Why did he have to be so different from every other person on this world? If he was human like them he could knock on the door without that fear of being driven off yet again and not be yelled at, surely the father in there would let him stay. The mother would take care of his shivering self wouldn't she? Those kids would play with him, even if he was a bit older (not that he knew how old he was for that matter). They would share dinner with him, let him sleep in a warm bed.

Chaos, Sonic would even sleep on the floor if he had to, with a thick blanket and a soft pillow, instead of inside a fallen or hollowed out tree, or that cold barn behind him. Surely he could have all those wonderful things if he was a human too.

If I was human…? Sonic echoed the thought again, snapping out the self-pity mood brought on by the weather and being wet, ears flicking backup as he stood back, Do I want to be limited to the restrictions of the human body?

Sonic realized he couldn't just give up all that he could do. From being able to run as fast as he could now, to jumping as far as he could from a stand still let alone with a running start, or to feel the wind give way to him, feeling the way it pass through his outer fur and quills. No longer able to hear that sonic boom when he pushed himself to full speed and then some?

Be unable to use his quills to defend, or attack, or cut though things?

Could he give up all that? Give up that pure, untainted, genuine feeling of sheer joy of running? To give up that sense of rightness he had when he pushed past the speed of sound, and trying to go just that much faster and farther...

His ears flattened back against his head, closed his deep, emerald green eyes and relaxed his hands.

"No." Sonic whispered to himself, he knew that he not only wouldn't but couldn't give any of that up to become human. Even if it meant he couldn't go into a house like this one and sit in the fires light all warm with a full stomach.

He opened his eyes and saw that one of the young girls was looking back at him. She tilted her head and be pure reaction Sonic cocked his head in the same direction, ears rotating up to attention. For a moment they just watched each other before the girl hopped up and ran out of sight, her father looking after her in confusion. Sonic ducked out of sight, starting off to the side to leave.

A brighter pool of light came, startling the anthro as well as blind him from the brighter inside lights. "Ahr…" he muttered, squinting and lifting a hand to shade his eyes.

"Hello?" The girl in the door way asked, one hand on the frame.

"Hi..." Sonic said back, stepping closer, but he paused seeing the slight pull back of the girl. The hedgehog smiled softly as he dropped down into a kneeling couch. Not that Sonic thought himself intimating by any means, but he was a spike-y and blue furred so... a little different.

"You have fur," The girl pointed out, tilting her head for a moment before pushing her red hair out of her face, "And wet."

"Yeah, I'm really wet." The hedgehog rand a hand through his quills, and once more was promptly soaked through again within a minute. "You should go back in kiddo, or you'll get wet too."

"Okay... but aren't you going inside too?" The girl asked, pushing at her bangs again as she looked worried at the anthro. To her child mind seeing not a mutant or anthro really, but something like in her bedtime stories or her favorite cartoon movies. Just come to life as the stories say. What if his was a lost prince of something?

"This isn't my place to go inside of." Sonic shrugged, then smiled as the rain started to come sideways now, "Don't worry princess, I still got some food and I can keep warm."

"I'm not a princess, I'm just Sally," the girl, Sally, tugged at her night shirt, she frowned almost delicately. "Don't you have a home?"

"Not like you and your family do here," The hedgehog stepped back to give himself a full body shake. He heard footsteps from inside, ears pricking, "Don't worry kiddo, I'll survive."

"Sally?" a man's deeper voice called, "What are you doing with the door open?"

"Daddy's there's a really wet talking animal- hey wait!" Sally turned back as Sonic stood back up and turned away as the girl pointed to him.

The air swirled and a deep, but not too loud, boom like sound was heard. Sounding like thunder after a too close lightning strike to the man and his other daughter. The rain was kicked up and scattered every which way, and it took a full half minute before it started to fall again.

The dark blue and brown hedgehog had fled before he could possibly be yelled at, and thus chased off. Although, perhaps, the anthro had taken off too soon this time. The big red haired and bearded man, Doctor Brian O'Connell stepped out into the rain with a flashlight in hand. His two daughters Sally and Lilly hovering in the windows, worriedly searched for the bedraggled looking hedgehog for a good twenty minutes after Sonic left.

Elsewhere, unaware of the chance missed, pale sneakers where a blur of motion as were his legs, his hands fisted again, mentally claiming it was against the wind, not from any fright. To any normal eye he was nothing more than a blue, or just dark against a darker background of the night time forest, a streak none the less that was zipping from one tree to another, searching for a dry haven.

It proved to be impossible in this storm. The rain was intensifying once more as Mother Nature was either crying or raging. Or both. So any hiding places that weren't already taken that would let Sonic fit soon be as wet as him. Those few spots that would always stay dry were too small for him to fit more than his head in.

He turned sharply to the left when he caught a glimpse of what looked like a road in the near dark. Maybe he'd have better luck finding a burrow or something else that he could use to out-wait the storm. He hated all this water and wanted out of it right now. He came onto the road at an angle. His pace had slowed considerably because of the cold wetness at this point.

"Come on," Sonic muttered, slowing down as he started to hydro plan on the road he just got on. He just spotted the outline of a low, but likely pine tree ahead and to his left, the kind that was smaller. Being so low to the ground and fluffed out it should be dry under there. A lot of pine needles would have to be picked out of his fur in the morning, but it would dry, if not slightly warmer.

The single light cut through the night, not only blinding Sonic but the sheer lack of sound meant he was completely taken off guard. Wincing and lifting a hand in an attempt to save his eyes, the large humanoid hedgehog realized too late that the motorcycle couldn't swerve to avoid him, and neither could he.

Mind you, it wasn't like both parties didn't try their best, with Sonic jumping up and forward, and the motor cycle driver hitting brakes and jerking to the side. It was all in a vain effort.

Cold, smooth and rather hard metal was introduced into to Sonic's stomach and chest a split second before he was thrown into the driver. Knocking the leather clad human off as the motorcycle turned sideways.

Neither remember landing.

Sonic's fur seemed to be even more soaked then before, probably from the muddy ground where he was. The antrho hurting almost everywhere but not as much as points in the ribs. He wheezed and gargled from a punched lung, the male staring up into rain unblinkingly for a minute, or an eternity, before jerking as the remaining Chaos energy that was stored in his body reacted to his pain.

The road was lit only by a motor cycle's headlight, and that aimed away from the two living beings sprawled on the road. For a moment though, a second golden light formed in ribbons, wrapping around the hedgehog's chest and seeping in. He jerked and twitched, moving like he was having an episode, than arched and twisted around to his side and was almost all the way over before throwing up. What was left of an apple, the blood and another black fluid from his lunge was washed away by the rain after Sonic collapsed as the energy faded.

Then he melted into the darkness of the mind as Sonic fell unconscious, not knowing or caring at that moment if he would wake up again.

Queen's note: This should look a little familiar XD At least to any who red this story to start with. I'm going to try my best to have this updated on Mondays =3 As you can see there will be some things that are different as I revamp this story, hope you the readers like this as much as the old rendition.