𝙰𝚙𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎

      One day, a cheerful blue hedgehog walked around the forest, hopping and running. Despite the fact that he was in the swamp, where it was damp and dull, he had fun and his mood never fell. Along the way, he collected flowers with yellow petals that glowed with a golden glow. — The sun is a bright ray, find a way in the mist. — Sonic said cheerfully, picking one of these and began to pick more, collecting a whole bouquet as a souvenir. Sonic didn't even suspect that someone was watching him, hiding behind some snags. Like a predatory lion, he hid, lay down on his stomach and folded his hands to his shoulders, like a cat trying to get into the correct hunting position. Then he suddenly jumps out, sharp claws sticking out from his fingers and revealing fangs instead of teeth. His little hedgehog got scared, managed to dodge, dropping the collected flowers and ran away. The nag turned around and quickly crawled after him. Despite the super speed, the naga crawled as fast as the hedgehog itself, which is strange. The hedgehog runs over the log wall and runs further. Even Shadow jumps over a log without difficulty. At the turn, they both run past two stones and a tree, and then duck down as they run so as not to hit with their heads another log that was hanging from above, between two stones. Then there was a straight road without turns, and Shadow accelerated sharply. Despite the palpitations and possible loss of consciousness, as well as his shortness of breath, the nag continued to crawl on. Standing over the hedgehog and quickly stretching out his arms, he grabs him by the waist. — Gotcha, who bit! - he said to the baby and stopped in place. The same one fights in every possible way and shouts: — NO!!! STOP!!! LET ME IN!!! At one point he even tried to bend over and bite his hand. Only he broke his teeth, because when he tried to bite, some kind of metallic sound was heard, and the naked man didn’t even cry out from the bite. — Don’t try to break out again with your wire cutters! I prepared for this. — he added out loud, lifted the hedgehog above him, ran his tongue between his lips and opened his toothy mouth wide. He very slowly and threateningly lowered it into his mouth. — NO!!! NO!!! DON'T LEAVE ME THERE!!! LET GO!!! PLEASE!!! SHADOW!!! WAKE UP!!! WAKE UP SHADOW!!!

***

      And at this time, in reality, Sonic himself woke up before the naga and began to wake him up, lightly pushing him on the shoulder. — Wake up! Shadow, wake up! Get up! — A! What? — he looked around, sleepily opening his narrow eyes and yawned, opening his mouth very wide. — Wake up! It's morning already. The striped hedgehog snake gets up from its nest and crawls towards the refrigerator, taking out new meat, which it began to fry. Not for himself, but for the guest, since he himself was still full, for his yesterday’s sacrifice in his stomach had not yet been completely digested. While the meat was roasting over the fire in the fireplace, Shadow crawled up to yesterday's game, which he had caught then, and began to skin it, getting rid of the skin, wool, horns, eyes and other things, leaving only new pieces of meat, after which he puts them in the refrigerator. — Where do you get electricity for your refrigerator? — the little hedgehog asked. — Sorry? — The striped snake did not understand. — I mean, how does it work for you and preserve your food? — he explained his question in more detail. — I don’t know myself. Some ancient and lost technologies that are almost inaccessible to us now. Like redstone or another energy source. — I don’t understand this, but I’m interested. — “Your curiosity will let you down sooner or later.” — Shadow thought slyly. — “Your curiosity fascinates me.”

***

      A new piece of fried meat was ready and waiting for its guest at the table. Sonic was glad to try meat again, but before that he also turned to the naga: — Hey, Shadow! — M? — Do you have anything else but meat? — No. I'm a predator. — explained the striped snake. — And what? — It's a pity! I just want to warn you that I also don’t want to eat meat alone all day long. I want to eat something more varied every day. Well, for example. Cutlets with milk crumbs or some kind of puree. Or maybe fruits or vegetables. Well, or at least something sweet, like cake or ice cream. Shadow poked his chin with his index claw, thinking about Sonic's request and said: — I’ll think about your words, Sonic. — Thank you, Shadow. — Sonic finished and began to little by little eat the fried meat on the table. After eating, he gained a little weight, stroked his stomach and even burped while lying on a chair. The striped naga was about to leave and was opening the door. Sonic took notice. — And where are you going? — How to where? I will bring you the food you asked for. — Shadow explained and before closing the door, he whispered: — The main thing is, don’t leave the house on the street and don’t run anywhere. There are probably other predators here who want to feast on someone like you. And the hedgehog remained at home with the naga for now, all alone again. For that, at least he could inspect his entire house himself and admire its beauty. He inspected the nest as a whole a couple of times already, making sure that this was the bed of that hedgehog-snake. Even the refrigerator is clear for what it is needed. Although he still didn't understand how it worked without electricity. There was a blue chest somewhere in the corner and because of his curiosity, he decided to open it to see what was inside. Inside the chest were wax candles for light in the dark and at night, balls of thread, a couple of small women's mirrors, one yo-yo, three books and some kind of Viking shield with a bull shard in the center. Among the three books were tales of Peter Pan, Oliver Twist and Huckleberry Fin. Having rummaged even deeper among these things, Sonic also noticed that inside the chest under those things there were several more of the same candles. And also among the candles themselves, he noticed some kind of doll of a girl in a blue dress and yellow hair, made of wood and paper. Strangely enough, the doll attracted more attention from the boy. Despite the fact that he was a boy, he took the doll in his hands and examined it. — “Does he play with dolls?” — he thought about the naga. — “Is he a girl? Or did he have a daughter? Or maybe it's his sisters? Or moms? Stopping thinking about it, he put the doll back in the chest and closed it. He looked around again and noticed a wall staircase that led to the attic. Although it’s not clear why he needs it if he has a tail instead of legs? There was also an ordinary wardrobe. Opening it, Sonic looked around, and there was nothing inside except a round mirror on the wall. At first, Sonic was a little scared of himself in that mirror, deciding that it was someone hiding in the closet. Then he opened it slightly and took a closer look. — A! It's just a mirror! — he said to himself with relief, looked at himself in that mirror, put the needles on his head in order and then closed the closet behind him. Afterwards, Sonic went to the wooden staircase made of sticks to the attic. Having climbed the stairs there, he began to examine it too. The attic was not like those usually found in small houses of humans and Mobians. It was something like a small cave, with an exit only in the floor and under the cave itself. It clearly hasn't been cleaned in a long time. Well, or rather, I haven’t climbed here myself for a long time, because it’s full of cobwebs, some rags of dust and a few more spiders. It’s good that he was not afraid of spiders and crawled on, removing cobwebs with rags along the way. True, they were a little disgusting and sticky to the touch. After searching around in what looked like an attic or attic, Sonic found another chest that looked exactly like the same one. Only this one was already red. A curious hedgehog opens it and looks inside. Apparently here he stores very important things that he is trying to protect. Inside he finds many children's drawings. On one of them he notices three nagas. Clearly look like hedgehogs. One is red and the other is all black. The little son between them is most likely Shadow himself. Apparently this is himself as a child and these are all his childhood drawings. In addition to the drawings, there was a blue hair ribbon inside that was slightly burnt. He found a lot more in this secret chest, trying not to pay attention to the spiders that sometimes began to crawl on him and lightly tickle him with their little paws.

At the same time

      Shadow sneaked into the village unnoticed. He covered himself under a gray robe with a hood and bent over slightly, also hiding his tail under the robe. He hoped so much to pretend to be an ordinary Mobian so that he could calmly walk around the village and not cause anyone suspicion or embarrassment. He went to the village for a reason, but to find a variety of normal food for his hedgehog, which would become his fattened prey in the future. He decided to fatten him up and then, being fat, eat him. But we will learn more about this in the next chapter.