Wretched Blessing

Chapter 2

Sonic's Point of View

        My teeth were chattering and body was shaking when I entered the village. Even with the sealskin parka fitted tightly against my form that the villagers had given me, after only a couple hours of being outside, the cold had seeped deep into my bones. My toes were all but frostbitten, but that was my fault as I hadn't traded in my red and white sneakers for a pair of handmade mukluks. They would have slowed me down, and while I was out there I needed to go fast.

        Because I was searching for my friend (Name).

        It had already been three days since she had gone missing—three days since we had abandoned her. Me, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Shadow, Blaze, and Silver...we had walked away in her time of need, left her to withstand the freezing elements alone. Only when we had settled down for our first night in a Holoskan village did we look back on our actions and see the wrongness in them. Most of us, anyway. Silver, by no doubt, still believed (Name) to be a monster that had used us to gain access to the Chaos Emeralds in order to release Mephiles with their power. I wasn't sure what Knuckles and Shadow felt on the matter. They chose not to speak of what had happened.

        I nodded in polite greeting as I passed by the busy men and women of the village working hard to keep their people fed and warm. The men were splitting spruce logs used for firewood and tossing them onto sleds to easily carter them around while the women gutted fish from the afternoon harvest. A few older children helped with the laborious activities, though most of the younger children were running around, screaming and playing. No one had a clue about the danger looming overhead; we had failed to warn them upon first entering the village as the knowledge would only have brought fear to this peaceful community. If luck was on our side, Mephiles would be gone before anyone had time to realize he had been here at all.

        I desperately hope it turns out that way, I thought with a shiver, skirting around an igloo to find a couple of my friends gathered around a small fire rotating fish on spits. "I'm back," I sighed, taking my place beside Amy and helping to distribute portions of the fully-cooked fish that were set to the side to a few awaiting villagers. Here in this village, everyone helped out—even the guests. Anyone who stood by while there was work to be done was eventually thrown out. It was a harsh punishment, but it made sense. To survive, everyone had to work together and slacking off only caused harm to the entire community. Life was very simple here, but it obviously worked out for the people of Holoska.

        "Any sign of her?" asked Tails from across the fire, who was tending to his own spit of Arctic char. Like me, he was worried about (Name). He, Amy, and Blaze believed that what had happened with Mephiles wasn't her fault. She had to have been tricked. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Silver to see the same.

        With a frown, I stared into the fire and shook my head. "Nothing."

        Amy looked over at me with concern in her eyes. She knew how long and hard I had been searching for (Name), and how every time I returned to the village alone I would fall deeper into despair. I blamed myself for leaving the girl out there with nobody to depend on. "Sooner or later we'll find her, Sonic. Holoska is only so big."

        But what if Mephiles finds her first? I didn't say it, but we all knew that horrible, dark entity was on the prowl and looking to recruit (Name) for his evil schemes. If we didn't get to her in time, hopefully she would be strong enough to not be influenced by Mephiles' manipulative power. It was hard to forget what he had persuaded Silver to do when the time-traveling hedgehog and cat had first arrived in our time.

        After playing back the memories of the Solaris incident, I realized I hadn't seen the rest of my friends since returning to the village. "Where is everyone?" I glanced between Tails and Amy.