I do not own any of these characters and do not make any money from this, but inspired by the new trailer, particularly Knuckles in his brief, but powerful appearance in it, I had this idea. I've always loved Longclaw in the beginning of the first movie and after seeing Knuckles appearance in the new trailer for the second movie and hearing Dr. Robotnik's words about the "Chaos Emerald" I thought of this ...

Longclaw sat in the shade of the forest. Her gaze was fixed on a hole in the middle of a small clearing. Hearing giggles, she turned her head. The rest of her body didn't move a fraction. A forest path wound behind her guard position. A ball of fur rolled up it. Behind rolled five smaller balls of fur as two lines of two with one in the middle. The female warrior giggled at the sight.

. . .

Beneath the hole Longclaw watched, in a tunnel of stone, a young echidna marched followed by another with even heavier steps. The younger was being set on guard duty before the blue chaos emerald for the first time. The gemstone shone in a beam of light coming through the hole in the ceiling. The guardians, so desperate to hide and defend a chaos emerald on a small island, thought if a foe got this far, and saw their prize in a ray of light, they might rush headlong to it. By placing the goal in the light, and its guards in the shadows, they hoped to bait any newcomer into their spears. Once the younger guard was in position, the older scowled into his face.

"Remember. This is a chaos emerald. The reason we live on this island is to guard it. If any get near it, they could be infused with its power, a power capable of ripping the universe apart. If you must die, die. If you must kill, kill. But under no circumstances let even your dearest friend or dearest family member near it."

The younger echidna gave a jerky nod while shifting to widen his stance. He stared straight past his mentor to the entrance of the cave. "Yes sir."

The older guard gave a like jerky nod, turned, and left. The younger straightened and continued to stare straight at the opening. His mentor walked through it leaving him alone.

Outside and above, Longclaw turned her attention away from the hedgehog family and back toward the hole. She continued waiting and listening for any "suspicious" movement in the forest or clearing or even the sky she herself flew threw at times. She knew the hedgehog family. The humble dirt path it now rolled over behind her, despite its closeness to the hole above the chamber she guarded, was also well known for its berries. Edible, large for their species, and blue most who could eat such things came for these berries every summer. At that very moment, the ball that was the hedgehog mother unrolled itself. She revealed a head, arms, and pair of legs standing straight up on the path. Then she reached up, grabbed a bunch of berries off a bush, turned back toward the five balls of fur following her and whistled.

The babies like unrolled themselves into chubbier bipeds. They all opened their mouths. Their mother threw a berry into the mouth farthest on her right, then the mouth nearest right, then the middle one and so on until each mouth was chewing. The farther right mouth swallowed first and opened again. She repeated the process. The mother put the last five berries from the bunch into her own mouth before rolling up again and rolling on. The smaller hedgehogs like rolled up and after her again, except for one. This one's eye squinted as a ray of light reflecting off something shiny in the forest limbs above shone into it.

When she picked it, the entirety of Longclaw's watching spot had been in deep shadow. But a leaf had fallen off a tree limb above her hiding spot since. Unnoticed by her, a little light fell onto her armor and glinted off at an angle that hit the right eye of one small hedgehog on the nearby dirt path as his mother turned away from him. His siblings followed her, as they all usually did, but he did not this time. Instead, he walked curiously toward this light.

He soon found briar limbs in his way. He frowned when both his arms held two limbs back only for his nose to press against a third. He rolled himself up into a ball and began to spin.

This made his journey a little easier. At half his height standing, he now rolled right under briar branches, but fallen tree branches and rocks still made his way bumpy. He zigzagged rather than rolled straight. Then he found a semi-smooth path in his way. Forgetting his goal of investigating the light beam in his relief, he rolled right into and along this smooth way. It was a dry brook bed that filled up in spring but dried up in summer. When it ran, it ran toward the clearing but ended in a steep bank still in the forest. There it fell into a larger brook that became a muddy trickle in summer. The little hedgehog never saw this part of said brook.

He'd picked up enough speed to fly off the edge of the bank. He landed just outside the clearing before rolling into it. Even as his rolling slowed, he neared the edge of the hole over the chaos emerald capable of destroying the universe.

Meanwhile, his mother had unrolled herself upon hearing some snapping and rustling in the forest. She twisted her ears to catch the sounds and pinpoint their source. Then she turned to count her young. Both her hands slapped the sides of her face. Her eyes widened. She only saw four. With a high-pitched, "Stay here," she rolled herself up and aimed in the direction of the sounds.

As the lost ball of fur rolled toward the edge of the hole, a clawed foot landed on it. The talons merely stabbed the dirt around the ball making a fence around it before constricting to form a basket for it. Longclaw released a deep breath.

She had been listening to and watching the young hedgehog's antics off and on. The guard had kept expecting his mother to realize her child's absence and catch up to him. The situation hadn't seemed worth giving away her own position as guard to interfere in. As the small hedgehog got farther and farther off the path and closer and closer to the hole, though, she'd launched herself off the branch.

Before the hedgehog could unroll himself beneath her foot and panic, the owl launched herself back into the air. She would return the young hedgehog to his mother. Crunches from the forest, made Longclaw pause and turn to look.

A much larger ball of fur shot out from the trees toward Longclaw's head. The owl beat her wings strongly. She rose till the ball was not even with her head, but her side. The mother hedgehog unrolled herself slowing her flight. Her face smashed into feathery flesh. Longclaw's breath gushed out. Her talons opened. The hedgehog she held fell out. He landed on the ground, rolled the rest of the way to the hole, and fell in.

The echidna in the tunnel did not believe things were fine above ground. He heard small sounds of crashing and crunching coming through the hole but ignored them. It was Longclaw's duty to observe and control things up there if need-be. She was a veteran of short, but fierce fights with invaders seeking chaos emeralds for their own. As a beginner-guard, he had no intention of interfering in her role that day. As the light coming through the hole was eclipsed, though, he turned his head to look lifting an eyebrow.

His eyes widened. A small ball of fur fell toward the emerald. He shouted wordlessly turning the rest of his body and lunging. He was several strides from the stone being stationed nearer the entrance. Several lengths of himself lay between him and the stone let alone the form falling on it. His chest and throat constricted choking the echidna. Still, he watched.

The hedgehog unrolled himself partway down and screamed. As he fell toward the gemstone, he caught in its strong glow. He convulsed in the light as bolts of electricity coursed through his quills, fur, and flesh. Longclaw and his mother's faces appeared through the hole. Their mouths opened even as their eyes squeezed nearly shut. Cries of terror filled the chamber. Then, the hedgehog was tossed from the energy field into a nearby wall. He hit it, dropped to the floor, and was still.

The young echidna warrior lying on his stomach and elbows himself, stared open-mouthed at the now shiny blue body beyond his guard position. The child was much nearer the emerald than he'd ever dreamed of being. For generations echidna, owls, and all their peoples and villages collectively speaking had kept everyone far enough away from chaos emeralds that no one alive had seen what they could actually do to them. Now, he knew. His open mouth closed as his mouth and eyelids drooped.

Longclaw and the child's mother had moved slightly to view his body through the hole. Unnerved by their mother's departure and her and Longclaw's screams, the other four baby hedgehogs rolled up to them and the hole at great speeds. Their mother's arms and Longclaw's wings came up to block their path. The four hedgehog siblings unrolled and peered over their mother's arms to see their brother. Tears welled up in wide eyes. Little voices began to whimper.

The young echidna guard heard a volley of footsteps behind him. They seemed to pound out judgement against him. His mentor's voice bellowed over his prone body. "What is going on?!"

The guard stared over his student's body toward the small hedgehog on the floor now blue as the emerald. "How did he get down here?!"

More to help himself accept such a ridiculous event than in self-defense the younger guard answered. "From the hole."

The older guardian walked away from the twelve others standing behind him to pass the young guard and approach the form on the floor. He still stopped some strides from it and the emerald. The mentor's mouth twisted, and eyelids lowered. He stared at the now blue, very small, and very still form lying on flat, cold stone. A shuddering breath left the hedgehog mother above and ricocheted off the walls.

The old echidna sighed. He looked up toward the hole and stared at the owl. Her eyes were nearly crinkled shut. Her mouth was slightly open. The old echidna pointed the dull end of his spear at her. "Is 'this' how you guard the chaos emerald from interference, theft, and harm Longclaw?"

She didn't answer, merely closed her mouth, and continued to study the body behind her fellow guard. Since her owl eyes saw well in the dark, it was she who first noticed the small jerk of his head and slight opening of his eyes, but his mother noticed next. The quick cut off of her whimpering and widening of her also keen eyes caused the older guard to turn.

The young hedgehog's limbs moved next, not in a harsh twitch, but in the slight controlled movements that seek out the space around them and check on their own soundness. He pushed himself up with his hands next. After that, the hedgehog turned himself over to sit up. Strands of his fur and quills lit up in flashes of blue light. Bolts of lightning appeared and disappeared in the irises of his green eyes. He seemed unaware of this though. As everyone's else's mouths and eyes opened wide. His own mouth was shut and droopy as were his half-closed eyes as he raised a hand to rub his scalp. This only caused more sparks to flash up through his fur and quills and over his fingers. He did draw his hand back and stare at it then cocking his head, but then putting one knee down while placing the foot of his other leg beneath him.

The older echidna took a step back as the hedgehog rose into a crouch, then onto one knee, before pushing himself into a standing position. The hedgehog looked up to see his mother and siblings staring at him. His lips curled up into a small smile. He raised a hand to waved at them. His mother sighed and smiled back. So did his siblings.

The old echidna guard took a deep breath. He snorted it out through his nose. Then he raised his spear and charged.

"No!"

Tell me what you think.

God bless

ScribeofHeroes