. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
[Name] groaned, slowly opening their eyes to find themselves on grassy fields. The sky above them was swirling around, like an illusion, to inform the [Animal Name]: that they were still in a dreamy slumber.
Shaking their head, [Name] sat up and used their hands to rub their eyes. But, they realised, that they were feeling a bit smaller than usual. Invisible brows of confusion, were furrowed upon the [Colour] mobian and they pulled their hands back to view them more.
The hand of theirs looked tiny!
Like, a child-like tiny kind.
Widening their eyes, the confused [Animal Name] got up to look more into the scenery. As they started to trek down the grassy fields, they didn't identify the rock in the ground and they, of course, tripped on it and ended up toppling down the hill.
A series of 'oof's' and yelps of pain left the tumbling [Colour] mobian, finally coming to a stop by what appeared to be a lake. A small groan left them, as they got up from the grassy, surreal floor and they raised an invisible brow at the lake.
Peering over it, they took a peek and saw...a smaller version of themselves.
They were a child?!
A gasp emitted from them, bringing their hands to their cheeks and examined themselves. "...This cannot be." A frown appeared on their dotted face, narrowing their eyes at their lake reflection.
"There is only one reasonable thing to do here..."
Taking a deep breath, [Name] opened their mouth and screamed in horror, falling down to their knees dramatically. Though, it was halted when a voice spoke in, that was filled with some annoyance and was seemingly familiar to the horrified [Animal Name].
"Why are you hollering, [Name]? Y'know, we can hear you, from down by our homes, right?"
[Name] looked away from the lake and gazed behind themselves, seeing a red echidna with a spear in his hands, his familiar self stared at the shocked, now-young, [Animal Name]. Although, there was something up with his face that caused confusion to [Name]:
The fact that his face was all blurred out.
"Who are you...?"
"It is I, ù̸̱͎̻͎͚̼̫̰͛c̴̣͈̪̱͒̌͗͌̀͗̈̚k̴̙̰̀̿̈́̍̅̕n̵͇͎̤͚̈́̃̔̀̊̈̾̿̕K̷̨̳̰̞̰̽̔̔̎̈́͋͆̌̕ş̸̰̪̼̼̙̯̀́̅̒̅̔̕͠͝l̵̖̦̃̃̐͜ę̵̛͔̫̣̎͆̃̌͝͝ the Echidna Warrior! How could you forget, [Name]? For I am currently, in the process of being trained in all different forms of combat, starting from the moment I was born."
[Name] nodded silently and frowned from not knowing, who this small echidna was to be in their past life, gazing back at their reflection and raised an eye ridge, filled with confusion. Getting up, they dusted their knees and analysed their small figure now.
They wore a skulled-mask upon their forehead, with dashes of white paint streaks on their cheeks, with beads of necklaces on their neck.
Blinking slowly, [Name] exhaled in realisation that this must be something to do with the omnipresent voice from earlier. A frown appeared on their face, crossing their arms and their small tufts of [fur | feathers | spikes | etc.] poofed up in annoyance.
"[Name], don't you remember what we're supposed to do today?" The young echidna inputted, his voice filled with some impatience, his grip on the spear was released slightly.
"Wh--What is the objective we are supposed to do today?"
"We are going to catch a beast!"
This made [Name] widen their eyes, still confused on this whole ordeal. Furrowing invisible brows, they tapped their chin in trying to work this one out on their own. A groan left the young red echidna, grabbing the bewildered, now-young, [Animal Name's] hand and dragging them away from the grassy hill.
"Woah--"
"Think about whatever you were thinking about for later! We can make our people proud, once we catch a beast!"
Name] conspired in their mind that this was to be some sort of recalling into their past, but the identity of this specific echidna was unknown to the now-young, [Animal Name], unfortunately. This caused a series of grumbling incoherent words underneath their breath, as the two young mobians were off to wherever the journey would take them to.
...
Dashing through the bushes, the young echidna warrior had already given the [Animal Name] a spear of their own. [Name] still was trying to process this all in, acknowledging how this all must be a memory of some sort.
Coming to a halt, the red echidna let go of the [Animal Name], who was stuck in the young version of their body. The echidna gingerly pushed some leaves away, hindering what the [Colour] mobian would've noted down, as his eyesight, if the blurred outlook on his face wasn't the barrier still standing from [Name] knowing his identity.
The red mobian awaited for a target and pointed ahead to the newfound target, after a few seconds of wavering silence.
"Look, [Name]!"
[Name] huddled up beside the echidna, gazing through to see a frog. An eye ridge of disappointment was raised from this, "A frog, really?"
The young echidna huffed, feeling a shading of embarrassment and looked away at the other's reaction, in a way to show how abashed he was. The two made sure on speaking in hushed whispers, as to not cause a ruckus to the oblivious frog that ribbited in the midst of it all.
"It isn't a beast, but at least: we're catching something for our people."
"...If you say so..."
"When, we go out to capture it, we can--"
"Let out war-cries?!" The [Animal Name] uttered out in happiness, before clearing their throat and keeping on a stoic look. "Apologies."
From then, silence enveloped the area, all that was heard was the wind rushing about and the frog's rigid croaking. All of a sudden; a series of puny war-cries were heard, as the two small figures jump out after the frog with spears in their hands.
The young red echidna charged towards the frog with full force, while the other young [Colour] [Animal Name] was jumping around and leaned forward with their spear towards the frog.
The frog widened its eyes and hopped away quickly, before the two could even reach it and it caused the young mobians to collide into each other, bumping heads against each other.
"Augh!"
"I believe, the target has departed away..."
The two groaned in annoyance, getting up and rubbing the dirt off from themselves. The mysterious echidna sat himself down, and so did [Name]. The red echidna seemed to show a disdained frown upon his blurred face, hugging his knees to himself. "...Yeah, Father will be disappointed then."
[Name] also had a grimaced look upon their face, wrinkling their nose in distaste and sighed. They got up, dusting off the dirt from themselves and grabbed their spear. Grabbing the young echidna's spear that was laying on the floor away from its owner, they held it out to the echidna.
They were unsure of who the 'Father' of this young echidna could be, and they couldn't help to feel a small sense of guilt for not trying hard enough to capture the miniature creature. A sigh left the [Animal Name], feeling quite odd in doing something that was deemed, as...
Considerate.
Clearing their throat, their nose twitched in displeasure and discomfort, wiggling about the spear in their gloved-bandaged hands. "He will not be, we shall catch something else if we have to. I request, the fish by the lake?"
The young echidna narrowed his eyes, shoulders relaxed and his mouth only twitched upwards, flashing to a quick, small smile at the [Animal Name]. His eyes softened, as he grasped his spear from [Name] and got up. Firm nods were given around amongst the two, as the young warrior hurriedly walked ahead of [Name].
As the [Colour] mobian walked on after him, though he turned back and what he said next only left [Name] in more bewilderment than ever before.
"Have you really forgotten all about your past, [Name]? You've forgotten about who you used to be, you even forgot about me, in the end too."
With that, the young echidna disappeared off into mist. The [Animal Name's] breath hitched at this, widening their eyes in shock and ran over to where the child version of the echidna was, looking around for any sight of him.
Breathing heavily, they realised all of their surroundings were now disappearing off, like a swirl of mist and [Name] stood rooted on the spot in shock. As the mist swirled around them, it cleared off to show the abnormal sky and that they are now, on top of a cloud.
[Name] intensified their look of shock, then in front of them: a familiar someone poofed up in front of them.
It was Spike.
The [Animal Name] widened their eyes in awe at this, quickly grabbing the tortoise and hugged him. "Spike! I have missed you, my dear friend! I apologise for leaving you..."
Spike was forcefully let out from [Name's] grasp, confusing the [Animal Name], as they blinked mildly and raised an invisible brow. "Spike?" They stood on their tippy-toes on the cloud they were on, reaching out for their pet tortoise.
"[ᴺᵃᵐᵉ], ʷʰʸ?"
[Name] opened their mouth agape in shock at seeing words utter out from Spike's mouth. "You can communicate?! This is--"
"ᵂʰʸ ᵈⁱᵈ ʸᵒᵘ ˢᵃʸ ᵗʰᵃᵗ, ᵉᵃʳˡⁱᵉʳ?"
The [Animal Name] grew even more confused, until they had to hold their head in pain and tolerate the wavering voice in their head that said:
"ɎØɄ ₥Ɇ₳₦ ₦Ø₮Ⱨł₦₲ ₮Ø ₥Ɇ. ₦Ø Ø₦Ɇ ĐØɆ₴."
"Agh!" [Name] stumbled back, gritting their teeth from how loudly painful the words were to their ears. They ended up, falling on their bottom and they were sat upon the cloud. As the voice faded out, [Name] let out a sigh of relief and then, frowned from realising that it was the voice of their own.
Bringing their hands down hesitantly, [Name] looked to see Spike on the cloud in front of their eyes and he was slowly treading his way towards them. [Name] swallowed down their mustering courage and spoke up with a tone that propped themselves out, crossing their arms;
"I said it, because: I was merely being honest. Some may say, 'brutally honest' and I say, 'Yes!' Because, it has the word 'honest' in it. The hedgehog must've thought me and him had something going on, which we clearly didn't have a thing going on between us two."
"ˢᵒ, ᴵ ᵐᵉᵃⁿ ⁿᵒᵗʰⁱⁿᵍ ᵗᵒ ʸᵒᵘ, ᵃˢ ʷᵉˡˡ? ᴵˢ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ʷʰʸ ʸᵒᵘ'ʳᵉ ᵖˡᵃⁿⁿⁱⁿᵍ ᵗᵒ ᵍⁱᵛᵉ ᵐᵉ ᵃʷᵃʸ ⁱⁿᵗᵒ ᴾʳᵉᵗᶻᵉˡ ᴸᵃᵈʸ'ˢ ᶜᵃʳᵉ?" The sudden questions from Spike catch [Name] off-guard, dismissing the fact that they weren't supposed to be off-guard and so, their shoulders tensed at this 'n at the information this version of Spike knew of.
"You--You mean...something to me, Spike! I only said that statement, to allow Sonic to let me be at rest."
"ᵂᵉ ᵇᵒᵗʰ ᵏⁿᵒʷ, ᵗʰᵃᵗ ʷᵃˢⁿ'ᵗ ᵗʰᵉ ᴿᴱᴬᴸ ʳᵉᵃˢᵒⁿ ʸᵒᵘ ˢᵃⁱᵈ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵗᵒ ʰⁱᵐ, ʷᵃˢ ⁱᵗ, [ᴺᵃᵐᵉ]?"
[Name] raised a brow at this, getting reoccurring replays of the look on Sonic's face, holding their head in the searing pain of it and stood up harshly. They gritted their teeth in irritation, "Fine! I may not have been honest on the reasoning for why I said that. But, I won't have to say it out loud!"
"𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂, 𝐀𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓, 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍."
[Name's] ear twitched at hearing the omnipresent booming voice again, narrowing their eyes in resent and gazed upwards. They raised a fist upwards to the sky. "I shall not, fiend! Dishonour is placed upon you, dishonour placed onto your voice, dishonour on your--"
"𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄!" The voice thundered out, it was like; a tuft of full-blown wind was gusted upon the stubborn [Animal Name] and the tortoise, who flew back into their arms. [Name] tenderly cradled the tortoise, as they were flying off the cloud and they held onto the ledge of it for dear life.
The wind calmed down, as [Name] looked up, Spike in one arm of theirs. A series of laughter rung out upon the [Colour] [Animal Name's] ears.
"𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐘, 𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐊𝐄. 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐘, [𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄]. 𝐈 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄, 𝐃𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓: 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐅𝐔𝐍! 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐖𝐀𝐘𝐒, 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐕𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐂, 𝐈𝐓'𝐋𝐋 𝐁𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄, 𝐀 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅."
[Name] clambered back onto the cloud, using their one arm to support them and placed Spike on the cloud first for safety, before using both their arms to finally get up back onto the cloud. "What on the Planet Earth are you articulating about?"
"𝐎𝐇 𝐌𝐘 𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐇, 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒, 𝐈 𝐀𝐋𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐎𝐓."
"ᵀʰⁱⁿᵏ ᵗʰᵃᵗ'ˢ ʷᵒʳˢᵉ? ᴵ ᵍᵒᵗ ˡᵉᶠᵗ ᵇᵉʰⁱⁿᵈ, ᵇᵉᶜᵃᵘˢᵉ ᵗʰᵉʸ ʷᵉⁿᵗ ᵗᵒ ᶜʰᵃˢᵉ ᵃᶠᵗᵉʳ ᵗʰᵉⁱʳ ʰᵉᵈᵍᵉʰᵒᵍ ᵇᵒʸᶠʳⁱᵉⁿᵈ! ˢʰᵒᵘˡᵈ'ᵛᵉ ᵇʳᵒᵘᵍʰᵗ ᵐᵉ ᵃˡᵒⁿᵍ."
[Name] wrinkled their nose with an unamused expression. "The hedgehog may be a boy, but he is certainly not my friend."
S I L E N C E.
Spike was blinking in shock, and [Name] could sense the omnipresent voice was possibly doing the same.
"𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐎 𝐃𝐔--"
The omnipresent voice was cut off abruptly, by [Name], who wasn't ready to be insulted, as they rolled their eyes. "As I have now directed ourselves back to the CORRECT pathway of conversing among ourselves. I demand, you tell me what you mean by: 'getting back onto my feet for myself'."
"𝐎𝐇 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓! 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈 𝐌𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐒, 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐈𝐂 𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐒. 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃-𝐔𝐏 𝐈𝐍 '𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐂𝐘' 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄, 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄. 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓, [𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄]."
"ʸᵒᵘ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵉᵛᵉⁿ ʳᵉᵐᵉᵐᵇᵉʳ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖᵉᵒᵖˡᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵘˢᵉᵈ ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉ ⁱⁿ ʸᵒᵘʳ ᵖᵃˢᵗ, [ᴺᵃᵐᵉ]. ᴵ'ᵐ ˢᵒʳʳʸ ᵗᵒ ˢᵃʸ, ᵇᵘᵗ ʸᵒᵘ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵉᵛᵉⁿ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ʷʰᵒ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵉᶜʰⁱᵈⁿᵃ ʷᵃˢ."
[Name] bowed their head in shame, at this and a glowering look was trodden onto their face. They suddenly, got multiple replays on the blurred-out face of the young red echidna, each of them causing a headache of pain to [Name].
They sighed, massaging their forehead in inconvenience. "I hear, both of your points--" They were cut off, because of the sounds of other voices, this time: not being from the omnipresent voice owner.
"--So, my truck still runs....--pretty much totalled. You think your...--mind if we...--her car?"
"You...--to be kidding...--!"
"...--about, [Name]?"
"Sonic...--give them...--minutes to rest."
"𝐀𝐇, 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐂𝐔𝐄, [𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄]."
"ᴿᵉᵐᵉᵐᵇᵉʳ ʷʰᵃᵗ ʷᵉ ˢᵃⁱᵈ, [ᴺᵃᵐᵉ]! ᴬⁿᵈ, ᴵ'ˡˡ ˢᵉᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ᵇᵃᶜᵏ ᵃᵗ ᵗʰᵉ ᵈᵉⁿ!"
[Name] nodded, looking around. "How will I travel back into consciousness?"
"𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐔𝐏! 𝐀𝐍𝐃, 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐁𝐄 𝐀 𝐌𝐂𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐆𝐄 𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐊, 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐄..."
"Wait, what on Earth does that even m--" The puzzled [Colour] mobian questioned, but a snap of fingers cut them off, as they spiralled into a bountiful amount of random memories, which caused increasing pain to their head.
Words were now being filled in their head, as they were about to regain consciousness and those words were;
"ʀɛȶʊʀռ օʄ ǟռ օʟɖ ʄʀɨɛռɖ."
"ռɛա ƈօʍքǟռɨօռ."
"քօաɛʀʄʊʟ օɮʝɛƈȶ."
"ֆǟʋɛ ȶɦɛ աօʀʟɖ, ǟ ɢ ǟ ɨ ռ."
And, with that: [Name] had now started to gain consciousness back into the real world.