𝙰𝚙𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎

      The fat little hedgehog went to bed early in the nest. He felt good about the day, despite the fact that he almost died from lack of breath and fatigue, as well as the fact that he was almost eaten by a giant wolf. At this time, the striped naga was still brewing a kettle filled with mineral water from the spring on the fire. He thought about drinking tea with the baby before bed, but when the water boiled, became hot and without the taste of salt, he only now noticed that the baby had already gone to bed. Looks like tea will have to be postponed until tomorrow. And it’s time for him to sleep too. As usual, he lay down in the nest, looping his tail around the baby, and also covering him with the middle of his tail, like a blanket, and lay down next to him. If earlier he looked at the baby slyly and with thoughts that he would fatten him up and eat him, now he somehow became very attached to him himself. Now his thoughts of eating it immediately disappeared. He doesn't want to do this at all. Now, on the contrary, he wants to protect him so that he doesn’t get hurt and so that no one eats him. How can he eat such a defenseless child, who is all the more not afraid of him, loves him for who he is, always listens to him attentively and follows him wherever he goes, and most importantly... Called him dad. Of course, he dreamed of his own family of wife and children, but he could not even think that his son would turn out to be an ordinary Mobian, whom he himself had fattened earlier in order to eat him himself, and later no longer wants to do this. — I will do everything to protect you. — he whispers to the baby and closes his eyes.

***

      And from that night the little hedgehog now fully became his son, although not his own, and began to live with him. Every day the nag brought new food, more varied, and fed the baby, while he himself ate only meat, since he was a predator. When Sonic became too fat, the hedgehog snake realized that it was time for the baby to lose weight. Since he no longer wants to eat it, then there is no point in continuing to overfeed him until he bursts. Every day they went outside and went for a run. The kid tried to run faster than his adoptive father, but then always stopped from fatigue. When he was tired, his father gave him a break and brought him boiled water. After the break he continued to run. Instead of sweet, fried and floury foods, Shadow, for a change, now gave the baby to try borscht, soups, salads and the vegetables and fruits themselves separately from each other. After about four months, the hedgehog, given his super speed, finally lost his extra calories and became lean and slender again, as he was before. Now he himself realized that he needed to eat less and run more so as not to become fat again.

***

      By the time the hedgehog lost weight, autumn had arrived, cold winds were blowing in the swamp and cold weather was approaching. Moreover, cool rains poured from the sky. It was very cold outside, and the cold wind partially penetrated through the cracks into the naga’s home. During the day it was good at first and not so cold, which made even Sonic feel good for now, but at night it became cooler. Shadow was not afraid of the cold, because he had lived in a swamp since childhood and was already accustomed to such cool temperatures and frosts. But the baby was clearly cold, because he was trembling while sitting in the nest. — Are you cold, son? — asked Shadow. — Don’t you see it yourself? — Sonic asked trembling. — Very. Why aren't you trembling? — Well, I’m covered with wool, and besides, I’ve been living here for a long time. I'm used to the cold. — Shadow explained. — How cold it is here. I think I'm going to get sick now. — Sonic whined, clutching his shoulders. Shadow began to think about what he should do. How can he save the baby from the cold? By the time he runs to the village for some warm blankets or fur coats, the baby will probably get sick or immediately die from the cold. I had to think quickly and come up with something. Suddenly, the naga still had an idea on how to save the baby from the cold. In his stomach, because he is warm inside there. Fortunately, it contained two stomachs inside. One was above, which was safe and did not digest anything, and the other was below the first, which immediately digests the food. Moreover, he himself decided which stomach his caught victim would end up in when he swallowed it. That is, it can either remain for now and spend some time in the first stomach, or it can immediately go into the other to be digested. Will Sonic himself really agree to this? But there was nothing to do. It was necessary to save the baby before he froze completely. — Don't be afraid! I'll warm you up now. — How? — the hedgehog didn’t understand. — I have one place, the inside of which is very warm and most importantly, you will be safe there and nothing will happen to you. Sonic didn’t understand what kind of place Shadow was talking to him about and asked: — Which one? — he just asked when the nag took it in his hands. — E. Shadow? Dad? Striped didn't answer him. He just lifted him slightly above himself and opened his mouth wide. Sonic immediately understood what he wanted to do with him. He wants to eat it, the kid thought and began to panic. Forgetting about the cold and that he might freeze, he began to struggle and try to escape. He was about to bite him again so that he would let him go, but he didn’t have time. This time, Shadow quickly managed to open his mouth as wide as he could so that the hedgehog could crawl through his throat and not get hurt from his fangs. He immediately put it in his mouth without chewing. — NO-O!!! — the hedgehog shouted and immediately through his narrow throat he got into his first stomach, where it was safe, but at the same time dark and a little scary. — NO!!! DAD!!! WHY DO YOU DO THIS??? FOR WHAT??? LET ME OUT OF HERE, PLEASE!!! — he shouted and hit his stomach, trying to escape, but it was all useless. Even the nag himself regretted what he had to do. However, it will be right and this way he will at least be not only safe, but also warm. For the baby, being in the snake’s belly, it was even more scary and sad. Having stopped beating, the baby lay down and began to sob and cry: — SHADOW!!! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS WITH ME??? WHAT DID I DO TO YOU??? Of course, Shadow heard his screams from his stomach. He realized what he had to do. But at least this way he won’t freeze. If he had immediately told him the truth about his belly and that he would decide to temporarily eat it, he would obviously be against it and would have run away on his own two feet, since he had already lost weight. Although he even felt a little sorry for doing this to him and frightening him so much that he even cried inside him. The striped one even became sad. — “Sorry, Sonic!” — he thought with a sour expression, thinking that he had said this to him out loud, stroking his stomach. After a while, the baby got tired of trying to break free and cry, and he didn’t even notice how he immediately fell asleep in his stomach. This was just right for the naga. While he was sleeping inside him, at this time he could quickly drive to the village, find something warm there and bring it here, so that next time he could be covered with it and warmed up, so as not to frighten him like that again. He hoped that the baby would forgive him for this when he later let him out. Our Shadow tried to crawl slowly and quietly so as not to wake up Sonic while he was sleeping and calming down in his sleep. He slept well so far. He dreamed about how the same Shadow still loved him and fattened him up in the same way, and then he also got fat. And the striped snake-hedgehog crawls to the village, again disguises itself under a robe with a hood and begins to calmly walk among people. He crawls back to that same market. By luck, he notices that some peasant passed by and dropped his bag of gold coins. At first he wanted to call out to him and scold him for dropping his wallet. However, he decided to remain silent, took it for himself and decided to spend it himself. At least he will show himself as an honest buyer and will remove suspicions from the last time. Going to another market where they sold clothes, blankets, etc., he found a stall where they sold fur coats for children and the warmest blankets with down hats. He honestly bought them with stolen gold coins, to put it mildly. But no one knew about this and no one was suspicious. Afterwards the snake returned to his home. The baby in his stomach was already warm enough and was smiling, while in his dream everything was the same. Suddenly, when he became the largest and roundest, like a ball, that his arms and legs were already sticking out without long limbs from the huge spherical body, Shadow in his dream himself began to reveal that he had actually been fattening him up all this time in order to eat his. The kid also began to panic, which even in the middle of nowhere he also reprimanded: — No! No, Shadow, don't! Daddy, don't eat me! No! No! Please! NO!!! As soon as he finally ate it, the baby suddenly jumped up screaming and remembered that it was still in Shadow’s stomach. During this time his eyes had time to get used to the darkness. Therefore, it was no longer too dark here. He could at least see the insides of this very stomach. Suddenly a wind blew and it began to be sucked back out. Shadow immediately spat it back into the nest, and then covered it with a warm blanket. The baby, with bulging eyes, lay there catching his breath, trying to digest what he had just seen. — How are you, Sonic? — he turned to him with excitement. — Why?... Why did you do this? Why did you eat me? I thought that you loved me... — Hush hush! Yes, I ate you, but only temporarily. Then, as you can see, I spat you back out. — explained the nag, but the baby still did not understand and trembled. This time not from the cold, but from fear. — Sorry, Sonic, I didn't mean to scare you like that. I forgot to warn you that our nagas have a complex anatomy. We have two stomachs, one safe, where I temporarily placed you so that you would not freeze, and the other digested food, which was under the first. I used to want to eat you when I was still fattening you, but over time I realized that I had become very attached to you and realized that I could no longer really eat you. I really didn't think about eating you. I was just trying to keep you warm because I was feeling warm in my stomach. And while you were there and then sleeping, I managed to drive to the village and get you warm clothes so that you wouldn’t freeze. I wanted to explain to you earlier, but I was afraid that you would immediately think that I would want to eat you and run away from me, and then freeze and die without me. I promise you that I will never scare you like that again and will warn you about everything in detail in advance. Will you forgive me, Sonic? It took Sonic a while to digest that information. Realizing after all that he did not wish him harm and really helped him warm up, and also got all this for him so that he would no longer freeze, he again changed his opinion about the naga. Having removed the warm blanket, he jumps onto Shadow's chest into a hug, and of course this was confirmation that he forgives him. Shadow hugs him back as well, almost crying with shame for scaring him to tears like that. Even now he felt the taste of salt in his stomach, because he had been crying in his stomach for so long that the tears flowed from the safe stomach into the digestive stomach, dissolving there.