I do not own Longclaw or Sonic. I am merely playing with them without making any money. So, please do not sue just enjoy. :)

Longclaw had brought Sonic to the largest island he'd been on yet with the most food, sturdiest shelters, and greatest amount of open space for him to run over that he'd ever had. Now two questions haunted his guardian. How long could they remain here until they were discovered? And where could they go next?

Being abandoned after its invasion, a lot had been left behind at their new home. Unspoiled food stores had been both Longclaw and Sonic's second favorite surprise discovery. His very favorite had been the loop-de-loops. Her hardest task in keeping him safe was now convincing him "not" to constantly run on them. Her favorite discovery had been the travel kit.

Interplanetary travel kits had three components. A bag holding the other two, a large collection of portal rings, and a map of planets they could take you to. The map showed worlds she and her fellow warriors knew of, their own, those invaders had come from, and one they visited but none invaded from. Longclaw soon thought the last and one other the best two options for Sonic's and her next home.

By capturing and questioning surviving invaders after battles, the people of her planet had learned much about other worlds and the reasons aliens came to theirs. Most often they came in search of Chaos Emeralds. Sometimes the aliens were expanding their civilization by moving into other planets. Most rarely, they were only exploring.

The fact so many other worlds she knew of had sent invading armies to their own made them dangerous places to take Sonic. He'd be seen as a source of Chaos Emerald energy they'd sought so long, and she, an enemy who'd killed and captured some of their people. No, she did not want to take Sonic to the planets of invaders.

There was one planet no one had come to theirs from in millennia. Perhaps no one there even remembered her planet or Chaos Emeralds. Still, even if they didn't know of Chaos Emeralds or the planet they could be found, this didn't mean Sonic wouldn't catch their interest.

She knew enough of battles to know what a difference Sonic's speed could make in a war. She knew enough of civilizations with machines powered by more than muscles, to realize what a great source of energy for them Sonic could be. A curious and intelligent mind might want to capture Sonic just to answer the questions his abilities brought to it. So, where was she to take Sonic next? Should she take him to earth?

The other possibility was the mushroom planet. She and her fellow warriors had gone there when they ran low on food. The air there was breathable and many of its mushrooms were edible. Sonic hated mushrooms. When they had been really desperate for food, he'd eaten mushrooms while making exaggerated faces and noises. She thought with his speed and her lessons on how to hide, Sonic could escape the notice of food search parties from their own planet. There were no natives of the planet to be seen, captured, or enslaved by. He'd be safe there, safe, disgusted, and alone. How would he do on earth?

One day, a storm hung over the sea in the direction of what Longclaw knew was the nearest island to their new home. Travel across the sea from there would be treacherous. Seeing their home from there would be near impossible. So, she let Sonic play in the open. After uncountable loop-de-loops, exploring every corner of their home, and attempts to explain to her what he'd learned and felt through it all she couldn't understand a tenth of, Sonic fell asleep. He seemed to be sleeping harder than she'd seen him sleep since she'd first carried him away from danger. She had taken the small risk today of him being seen from the storm-tossed island or another more distant one for this opportunity. She took out a portal ring.

Longclaw closed her eyes and thought Safe place. Earth. Then she threw.

She soared through the enlarged ring of gold and was surrounded by trees. She landed on one of the largest highest branches and froze. There she listened. She watched. She smelled.

She'd arrived at night. Encased by shadow, she looked up to see black sky and stars. Around her were tall pillars of life encircled by branches like the one she perched on now. She breathed in. Chill humid air filled her nostrils and lungs. Her layers of feathers kept it from reaching her skin.

So, there was moisture here. There was life here. There were shadows and darkness to hide in here.

She flew to a high spot surrounded by other high trees she hoped would shield her from view below. Swiveling her head, she looked in every direction. Beyond the trees and village were long open areas growing grass higher than Sonic's head in another like field were creatures far larger than her with short gleaming white fur and dark spots.

Then, from a different direction, she saw a bright light coming from the distance racing across the ground. Having let herself breathe deeply and swivel her head for a few moments, Longclaw froze again.

An object much larger than her, about the same as the stranger creatures she'd spied, with a light source shining from its front whizzed by over an open strip of land running through the trees. In her own village life growing up, such a sight might have startled her. After fighting against machines and raising Sonic she felt cautious, but curious.

Longclaw flew to a place even more sheltered by thick branches to hide her, but she could peer through a gap at the place this machine must have run over. Yes, there was a paved strip running from one direction into another cutting through the trees. The light of a crescent moon reflected off lines painted on it, but the rest of it was dark.

She flew higher up to another thick branch from which she could have a better view. From there, she could see hundreds of stationary lights. She flew over the tops of the trees some distance from the road to a dark perch on another thick and high branch to examine the source of the nearest light. It was a relatively small building, with a big lit up tablet with writing on it over an overhang under which machines stood. After turning her head to look at the further off lights clustered together, she heard the same sound as before. She turned her head back to see another source of light coming down the road. Another machine similar to the first one she'd seen slowed and edged off the road to come to a stop beneath the overhang. A lifeform stepped out. It seemed much like a hedgehog or echidna of her own world, but taller with a smaller head and no fur, except at the top of the head and wore a great deal of clothing. It walked toward the building. As it entered a bell sound coming over the air replacing the slapping of its feet.

Longclaw waited wondering how long she should continue studying this first building and person of earth she'd spied before going down to study the community in the distance instead. Then the earthling came out again carrying things in its arms. It opened a door of its machine and put them in before partially pulling a thick tube off one of the machines beneath the overhang and attaching it to its own moving machine. Longclaw got a whiff of an unpleasant smell. Then the tube and nozzle were put back, the person got back into the machine, and the machine carried the being and its newly acquired supplies onward. Longclaw watched and followed parallel and behind through and over the trees. Much like Sonic, the machine outpaced and left her far behind. She continued in the same direction until she still came upon what she assumed were the homes of more earth lifeforms.

In peering down at one such abode, she saw a creature standing in a fenced in open space attached to the building. This creature standing on four feet rather than two looked up and spied her. She froze just before it opened its mouth and began barking. Longclaw flew off to another perch she would not be seen in, but from which she could also she could not see the creature or building she'd been watching. She did listen as another voice called out cooing with weariness rather than anger. Longclaw then heard a door open and close. The animal's sounds grew more muffled.

As the sounds grew further away, Longclaw flew more carefully through the trees to a more distant perch. From there, she could see more houses from a greater distance. A very similar creature to the one that had spied her walked on the end of a rope-like device with a creature like the one that had piloted the moving machine holding the other end and walking behind it. The being on two feet stopped next to another machine built into yet another building. The four-footed animal sat and waited while the two-footed one pressed a button. A stream of water came from the machine. The earth native let it fly into its open mouth. Longclaw cocked her head. Machines produced drinking water here? Could all simply stop and partake of it? Could Sonic thus drink if none were watching? The two creatures soon strolled on.

Then another two creatures, both the kind who piloted machines, came down a flat paved strip that ran to the side and higher up than the dark thicker strip the moving machines ran over. One of the creatures was smaller than the other. This one hopped ran and skipped along before the taller one who walked far more slowly and yawned. The shorter one then ran into an open area where structures stood Longclaw could not guess the purpose of. The structures were small, open, and had only skeletal frames without walls. The smaller creature began climbing over them.

Longclaw stiffened upon seeing yet another tall earth being approaching with something strapped to his hip. His straight posture and way he kept one hand near that bulky object in already fast reach made her see "warrior." The two earth beings she had been watching, whom this one now approached seemed only to be "villagers."

The new arrival came up beside the other tall one leaning against a building while watching the small one. Then the warrior merely leaned back against the same building beside his fellow tall creature and spoke in a soft slow voice. "George, you realize its 11 pm?"

"Yeah, Sarah said she'd finally go to sleep if I brought her to the playground for a bit."

"You realize you spoil her."

Longclaw's gaze switched to the tall villager as he shrugged. "With me spending more hours on the road than home with her, Tom, I feel I should do things with her while I'm home even if its 11 pm."

The other warrior smiled. "Just keep the noise level down for everyone else trying to sleep."

Tears began to crawl around Longclaw's beak. Her chest ached like she'd exerted herself though she hadn't. She had never known such ... peace as seemed normal here. Sonic never would.

As she continued to watch the warrior, if she could call him that, just began to stroll away. As he did, she guessed it a he, due to its voice, form, and brief words, he muttered, "Just another night in Green Hills."

Green Hills ... A name that meant peace.

She glanced around again. Houses easily spied from above like they weren't hiding. Structures just to play on. Warriors villagers weren't afraid of. In her own homes villagers had normally paused, stepped, aside and bowed their heads if a warrior passed them and froze and bowed if approached. She had tried not to make them do that very often.

Longclaw heard a door open and turned her head. Another earth being was carrying a big bag outside toward a gleaming cylinder just as big. She could smell something that almost made her own belly growl. The earth being placed that bag in the cylinder and then put a circle lid of like gleaming metal that mostly cut off the smell atop it. Then the earth being walked back inside. They had food to store.

A sound like an explosion, but different caused Longclaw's head to spin. She carefully flew through the trees swerving to find the source. She'd seen no cloud of dust nor debris and the explosion had sounded, wrong somehow. Still, it had been an explosion hadn't it? Was this place not as peaceful as she'd thought?

A building with a low light on inside had a slightly open window through which she could hear sounds. Through the clear glass, she'd seen on invaders machines before, she could see the screen of a device. On it played a battle. It was not like footage of battles invaders made she and her fellow warriors sometimes found and watched on their enemies own machines. It was as if many recording devices viewpoints were being switched between as the battle was waged. Overall, Longclaw came to doubt it was a real battle at all. Two earth creatures seemed to watch it snuggled together without the tenseness of being alert or sobbing of loss or shouting or fist waving of anger. Even watching a battle, they seemed peaceful. Despite the safety these creatures here seemed to live in they knew of battle, but perhaps only in exaggerated retellings like this.

As Longclaw left the earth creatures to view their fake battle alone and began to fly to yet another stand of trees, she passed by poles with ropes hanging from them. There she sensed in her feathers that sensation of crackling that surrounded Sonic when he was angry, was in the sky during a storm, and came from damaged machines of invader. Yes, the natives here used that same energy to power their machines it seemed. And they could thus see Sonic as a source for that energy. Sonic would love this place far, far more than the mushroom planet … But will he be safe?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes