The fact that Sonic was running nearly as fast as he could without causing a sonic boom would surprise absolutely no one.
That he was not running for enjoyment was not particularly surprising either.
The run had started out as a leisure activity, as most of them did these days, and he'd intended mostly to just take a run across the continent and back to clear his head and get some much-needed fresh air and time away. It was going fairly well, but of course it would inevitably be interrupted by a large explosion on the other side of a mountain he happened to be running past. It was large enough that his first thoughts were of Eggman, then of ensuring no one had been hurt, and that as little damage as possible had been done to the surrounding area. So, of course, he'd skidded his way into turning around, made his way over the mountain, and continued toward the area he'd heard the explosion from.
If he was honest, upon arrival he had expected to see total devastation.
What he found, instead, was a young humanoid woman in a white dress that covered her feet, with white hair that fell nearly to her knees, muttering to herself in some tongue he couldn't quite parse out, though the annoyance in her tone told him plenty. She was kneeling, picking up some scattered plants and various little mineral rocks and piling them into a basket with perhaps too forceful a hand. Her dress and the ground around her were scorched and smudged with black, though thankfully nothing was on fire and there wasn't a crater to be found, and even her hair was finely dusted with soot.
"Uh, 'scuse me?" He called, approaching more slowly as he glanced around for any more of her scattered plants – wouldn't want to trample them, after all, "You okay?"
The young woman paused, seeming just a bit startled, and turned to him. After taking a moment to blink her wide, bright blue eyes at him, she startled once more and gave him a sheepish-looking smile. "Oh, yes, I'm perfectly alright. Very sorry if I disturbed you at all."
"That was a pretty big explosion," He said, unsure, and she winced, contriving to look even more sheepish in response. "… What exactly were you doing? If you don't mind me asking, that is."
She opened her mouth as if to reply, paused, closed, it, and after a moment tried again, "You know, I was going to say that you wouldn't believe me. But I suppose that someone of your… Experience… May very well be far too used to magic to dispute it."
Sonic raised a brow ridge, "My reputation precedes me," He said, rather dryly, then, "I've had a mad scientist trying to kill me since I was, like, eight, and I hang out with a two-tailed fox, and somehow managed to befriend a Court Magician and a Djinn. Hit me."
She laughed, seeming a little startled once more but not at all displeased, "Well, I was trying out a new bit of magic – it was supposed to make a small bomb I could detonate at will, but I rarely use offensive magic and, well…"
"Things like that tend to backfire?" He guessed, after she trailed off.
"Especially when you're doing it fore the first time," She confirmed with a sigh, standing and brushing the front of her dress off and squinting around the area, "Thank Chaos for shield spells, eh?"
Sonic could only nod in agreement – sure, he wasn't exactly magical, but he knew shields were convenient. Especially the type you could throw up around yourself at will. What he wouldn't give to have one of those without having to go Hyper or Super…
Smiling once more and giving her dress one final brush-off, the young woman held out a hand to him, "Well then, I do believe introductions are in order… For you."
"My reputation definitely precedes me," He sighed, but reached out to take her hand anyway.
"Something like that," She hummed, shaking his hand, "You're Sonic, and I'm Snow. It's lovely to finally get the chance to meet you. You're cheerier than I'd expected."
"Uh… Right back atcha?" He supposed, but it wasn't like this was the first time he was meeting someone who already knew who he was while he remained completely clueless about them.
Cough, Merlina. Cough, cough, Shahra.
Man, magical women, huh.
She laughed again, drawing back and picking up her now-full basket, "We'll be seeing each other again," She promised, "But for now, I think we both ought to be going. You've a run to be getting back to, no?"
"Ha, yeah." He shook his head, "See you around then, Snow."
She waved, and he waved back, and they went their separate ways.
A/N: This is very, very slowly going under revision. I'll be posting revised chapters as they're revised or as I feel like doing it. So, basically, enjoy the revised prologue, now with a new name! I tried to make the meeting a little less forced this time around, but if it fell flat then I honestly have no intentions of further attempting, lol. Sometimes things just feel forced, even in real life.