The small, rustic, rural town of Knothole was surprisingly quiet at night, the only sounds that would be heard were the faint chirping of crickets, the buzzing wings of flies and the low, electric hum of the streetlights.
Maybe that was why the great hero of Mobius liked it so much? A counterweight to his loud, energetic and bombastic personality, not to mention it also held the residences of a few of his friends.
While yes, he did rarely spend time in the town itself he still considered it his true home, Station Square, Westopolis and Empire City were pleasant enough cities, but they were too crowded and tightly packed for his enjoyment. Spagonia, Apotos and Chun-Nan were also lovely, however they just didn't suite him as places to settle down…
He wanted there to be a balance of urban and rural life and there was no better location than Knothole, it wasn't especially far away from cities like Westopolis and Station Square, beautiful landscapes like the Emerald Coast…When it came to places he wanted to live…There was no better option, but that wasn't important now, what was important was making sure that the tiny fox in his arms received proper medical attention and he knew just who.
He rushed up to a single quiet little cottage that sat in front of a small field where fireflies hovered over the long grass, glimmering like small yellowy-green stars, it was rather large and well constructed, giving a truly rustic and homely element to it's appearance which was unlike rather a lot of the homes that were in Knothole.
He approached the small wooden door which was painted a bright vermillion red and knocked on it, all the while the teeny fox was slung over his right shoulder as to not drop the kid.
It took approximately two minutes for there to be any sign of a response but when it appeared, the Hedgehog could hear a female voice angrily muttering about, "What time do they call this?" and, "I just put Cream to bed why can't I go to my own?"
The door slowly opened, a pale orange light bathing the hero and the little fox in it's bright splendour, in the doorway stood a tall female rabbit with light brown fur, with a small tuft on her head which was a darker shade of brown. She wore the familiar blue garb of a nurse, with a dark blue top and trousers with white gloves.
Dark circles hang under the woman's eyes signalling that she did not sleep very well, but that came with the job having to work long hours and having to take care of a child on top of that…But she truly was the best option for the fox, he had to try.
There was an irritated gaze on her face, her lips pursed as she gazed down at him, looking as though she was inches away from murdering him and every other living organism in a thousand mile radius.
"E-Evening Ms Vanilla…" The hero spoke nervously, careful not to say the wrong thing lest he wake up with her standing over his bed brandishing a knife.
"What do you want Sonic? If it isn't serious then piss off, I'm going to bed." She spoke rather bluntly, strangely contrary to how she usually was in the day and around her daughter.
"Well…I found someone in the jungles near Adabat, poor kid is not in a good condition."
Vanilla's expression didn't change, yet it softened when her eyes fell on the unconscious toddler that the teen had slung over his arm, he looked no older than her daughter…How could he have been out there all alone with no family to take care of him? She only sighed to herself and then said in a slightly less irritable tone,
"Fine, you can come in, but keep it down. I just put Cream to bed, she's a nightmare to put to sleep let me tell you…"
Vanilla opened the door, letting the Hedgehog in, the house was rather homey and snug on the inside, with a bright fireplace and a seemingly large, cosy sofa in the living room.
"Set the kid down on the sofa so I can get a good look at him." Vanilla ordered Sonic without hesitation.
The hedgehog obeyed and gently sat down the sleeping toddler on the sofa in an upright position. Vanilla then lowered herself down to his level and analysed his condition.
"Hmm…He's suffered nasal trauma that's for sure…The swelling would indicate that he's broken it…There's a little bit of dirt smothered around the nostrils so maybe he fell and broke it…But it doesn't matter…Get me a couple of antiseptic wipes, we should get rid of this blood and dirt, you'll find them in the small medicine cabinet I have in the bathroom upstairs." Vanilla ordered.
There was a rapid blue streak as the Hedgehog sped upstairs to do as the rabbit had asked and after a minute or so he emerged back downstairs, a small packet of wipes in his hands. He handed them to Vanilla who opened it and pulled out one of the wipes and gradually began to dab around the numerous cuts and bruises on the boy's body, starting with the blood and dirt around the boy's face…She scrunched up the used wipe and placed it on the small coffee table beside her.
Her eyes then fell to the boy's wrist, it was badly swollen and purple and from what she could see, it was almost certainly broken and needed attention if the boy was going to recover…
"Sonic, go get an icepack from upstairs, they'll be in the medicine cabinet as well, but if it's gone warm then there's a bag of frozen peas in the freezer and that should do just fine." Vanilla said, placing down another dirty wipe onto the coffee table.
She heard the whoosh as the hedgehog ran off to fetch what she had asked for and within a few seconds he was back once again with a small blue ice pack in hand, she thanked him and gently began to apply it to the boy's broken wrist…He certainly wouldn't be healing from it for a while so it was important that she made sure that there was nothing that could potentially damage the boy's hand.
With this newfound information she pulled one of the cushions of the sofa to the side and very gently lowered the boy's hand onto it, placing the icepack gently on top of the poor child's horrifically swollen wrist.
Then, she ordered Sonic once more,
"Plasters and bandages please, it's best we avoid getting any dirt into those injuries."
Another whoosh could be heard as the blue blur disappeared back upstairs and after a solid 3 seconds remerged downstairs with a small packet of both in either hand…
Vanilla hummed to herself as she applied them to every individual cut, graze, slash and laceration that dotted the toddlers body after a few careful dabs with the antiseptic wipes to kill any microbes that inhabited the grizzly open wounds.
It took little of 20 minutes to get the boy's wounds sealed and once the deed had been done she turned to Sonic and asked for one more object,
"Sonic, go and get a duvet from the guest bedroom upstairs, it's best we keep the little one in here for the night." The hedgehog once again whizzed upstairs in order to fetch what the woman had requested and once he had it, he headed downstairs and handed it to her.
Vanilla gently placed the blanket over the boy, making sure it covered it's way up to his chest before turning to the hedgehog and thanking him for his services in bringing the boy to her.
"He should be up and atom by tomorrow morning, then we can start asking the poor little soul questions, who he is and where he comes from, that sort of stuff…But until then all we can really do is wait and let him rest. I think it's best that you set off Sonic." She said warmly, shaking the hero's hand with a tired smile on her face.
"It was a pleasure to help Ms Vanilla I'm sure that the kid will be under a safe wa-"
"Mummy? Why is Mr Sonic here? Why is there a boy on the sofa?" the curious voice of a little girl sounded out in the room, Vanilla's head snapped back to the doorway of the living room and lo and behold stood a teeny rabbit the same age as the fox with a complexion matching that of her mother, she was wearing a small pink onesie dotted with yellow stars, a fitting piece of clothing for a toddler, while a large teddy bear was held in the girl's left hand, dragging against the floor.
"Cream? What are you doing down here, go back up to bed, Mummy's busy right now okay darling?" Vanilla whisper-shouted at the other toddler that was in the room.
"But who is that boy? I wanna know who mummy." The toddler spoke back, resisting the commands of her mother quite amiably.
Vanilla groaned before walking over to her daughter, kneeling down to her eye level where she said in an understanding yet still rather stern tone,
"Cream, I know you wanna know who the little boy is, but believe me I am just trying to help him out, you don't want to make it harder do you?"
The little girl shook her head, but she was still an extremely curious girl and she did ask, "No I don't Mummy, but do you know where he came from? Could he be my friend when he wakes up like Mr Sonic or Ms Amy is?"
"I'm sure he can be your friend sweetie, but we have to wait for him to wake up before he can be your friend okay? So how about you go back up to bed okay?" Vanilla asked her daughter with kindness in her heart, however her daughter had other ideas and with a sugary sweet tone she asked,
"Can I at least get a closer look at him please mummy?" the toddler asked, in the usual tone that members of their ilk used when trying to get something that they wanted, and Vanilla, aware that saying no would probably cause a meltdown broke and mumbled,
"Okay, if you say so, come here."
The older rabbit lifted the toddler into her arms and slowly brought her daughter closer to the sleeping boy, her daughter whispered as to not wake up the sleeping boy,
"He looks very hurt Mummy, are you sure he'll be okay?"
"I'm sure he will baby, I'm sure he will. When he wakes up though he's going to be very confused and scared so I'm going to need you to be as nice and polite as possible okay? Maybe try and make friends with him and show him around the place and introduce him to everyone okay? Can you do that and be a big girl?"
"Yes!" the toddler exclaimed with a smile on her face, it was truly wonderful seeing how empathetic small children could be.
Vanilla smiled down at her before replying in an extremely merry tone,
"Good girl, I know that he's going to love having you as his friend, he's going to need one when he wakes up, who knows Cream…If you're lucky you could have a new brother."
The little girl's eyes lit up with excitement and she almost squealed with joy but her mother shushed her,
"Alright now Cream, don't try and wake him up, let him get some sleep." Now come on, let's get you back to bed. Would you like me to read you a story?"
The rabbit nodded her head, snuggling into her mother's embrace,
"Hah, thought so. I'll let you pick this time since you've been helping around the house lately…it's hard to think that one day you'll be all grown up…telling stories all by yourself." Vanilla said with a smile.
"Do you think that the boy likes stories Mummy?"
"I'm sure he does Cream, I'm sure he does."
