Sonic X: Clereen's Story

Chapter 2: A New Friend

Slowly, Clereen opened her eyes or at least she tried to. She had no idea what to expect but she felt like she was being lifted in the air. But this wasn’t a gentle lift. She felt as if she was being carried around by a strong beast with her limp arms swaying left and right and then she was sure of it when she started to feel the rough skin breathing up and down on her chin. She was still very weak and she couldn’t open her eyes so she lay and waited for wherever fate was going to take her. Then she soon felt herself being taken away from the shoulder of this beast and laid gently on the ground. Then she was surprised as she was met with something very familiar. Food. A spoonful of beans was fed into her mouth as she lay.

She may have been weak but she was determined to eat any food she had been given. She tried to chew but most of it spilled out of her mouth. She felt like crying. She was so close to being fed and yet so far away. Another spoonful of beans entered her mouth. She tried to chew with not much success. Luckily beans don’t need much chewing but she struggled to swallow. A strong hand gently pushed her throat and she managed to swallow. Simple beans had never tasted so good. She continued to be fed with beans several more times until it then stopped.

Clereen found herself in a panic. “More! Please! I need more!!” She thought to herself and she tried her best to whine in earnest, desperately trying to get the feeders attention since she was too weak to form words.

“You’ve already eaten 3 cans. Haven’t you had enough yet?” she heard like a voice faint in the distance. She continued to try and whine even harder now she heard a sign of a person being there. The stranger sighed and then proceeded to feed her more beans.

Later he stopped again and she tried whining. “I need some to, you know!” the voice exclaimed. Clereen felt like she had been scolded and then stayed quiet. She definitely didn’t want to upset the only person who was helping her.

“humpf.” the stranger mumbled to himself and then everything went quiet.

Clereen really wanted to say hello. To thank this stranger for their kindness but she just couldn’t keep her eyes open no matter how hard she tried.

“Stop that! Just rest OK?” the voice of the stranger said. This time the stranger sounded gentler than before. Clereen thought that maybe the stranger had forgiven her and decided to leave it at that and take his advice. She rested her eyes and tried to relax. She must have fallen asleep because she was suddenly startled from her peaceful rest by someone shaking her.

“Wake up! You want some food don’t ya?” Clereen’s ears perked up at the sound of that special word and she psyched herself up, ready to be fed.

This time it was chicken soup seeming to be of the canned variety. Clereen knew her food well and could even recognise the brand. Why does this person have so much canned food she wondered. Then she realised. If she had the power to wonder then she was feeling a little better. She proceeded to try opening her eyes and this time it wasn’t so hard but her sight was still blurry and faint.

“I told you, don’t strain yourself for god sake!” the stranger scolded her again. Clereen felt the need to cry. It hurt to be scolded and she wasn’t in the best situation to control her emotions.

She ended up sobbing a little at that moment but the stranger said nothing. After a while her tears stopped and she again was lifted off the ground as she was still too weak to walk. Where was this stranger taking her? Who was this person? Her head hurt when she thought too much so she decided to call it a day and rested once more.

Third time woken up for feeding she felt even better and she immediately opened her eyes to see the spoon when she smelt the food coming. Suddenly she was taken aback by the first clear vision of her saviour. It was a shock to be sure as this creature was in fact not a person but an animal of some sort like she had never seen before except for herself.

It seemed like a... well she wasn’t sure what it was. It was big and red for sure with red snake like hair with pointing tips. It’s hands were big and white in the shape of a hand but without definable fingers since it seemed to be wearing gloves to obscure them. These hands also had spikes on the knuckles. It even had white markings on its chest. She also got the feeling it was male considering its voice and body figure similar to a small human male but he certainly wasn’t human.

However, as soon as he noticed her looking straight at him he jumped back with surprise. “Don’t look at me like that!” he said in panic as he shuffled around trying to look anywhere other than directly at her face.

Clereen was upset for being scolded again and so quickly panicked and said. “oh OK sorry!” before lying back down again. That’s when she realised. She talked! She moved!

Before she could truly comprehend what had just happened the stranger spoke. “Guess you’re feeling better then?” Clereen squealed with excitement and tried to get up and dance before quickly collapsing to the floor.

“You’re not fixed yet don’t be stupid!” he yelled frantically before quickly looking Clereen over and then leaning back.

“sorry.” Clereen said faintly, feeling very sad and disappointed.

“So...” He said with a sigh.

“Who are you and what happened to you? What were you doing collapsed at the edge of the forest? Don’t you know it’s dangerous to travel around here unless you know what you’re doing?” Clereen looked around. Sure enough, they were in the forest. She hadn’t even noticed yet.

Clereen suddenly felt like she couldn’t speak. She felt a little scared of this stranger who kept scolding her for reasons she couldn’t quite understand or control. She thought if she said anything he might shout at her again and she really didn’t want that.

After a while of silence the male creature gave a deep sigh and spoke some more. “I’m Knuckles. Common, at least tell me your name.”

“Clereen.” she said quietly.

“Cler-what?”

“Clereen.”

“err. Sorry but I think you made a mistake there. Do you mean Clarisse?”

“no.” Clereen said feeling more annoyed than she expected. No-one had ever said her name wrong before and she didn’t like it.

“Alright, alright.” Clereen realised by his tone that he had noticed she was annoyed with him. Then she felt guilty.

“sorry.” she said shyly and quietly.

She had never expected to have such trouble talking to someone. It was so easy to talk to her ‘professor’ but she found herself feeling nervous and scared when around this stranger.

“you don’t need to apologise.” Knuckles said sounding again more gentle than before. This change of heart just confused Clereen more than anything else. Was he angry or not? Does he like me or not? All this thinking made her head spin and she soon felt tired again.

“Hey.” Knuckles said quietly as he sat up.

“You need something to eat don’t you?” Clereen felt too tired to bother talking anymore.

Knuckles paused for a response but when he got none he responded with a faint “humpf.” before rummaging inside a large potato sack. From this he pulled out a few cans of oxtail soup, a can opener and a spoon. Then he wandered over to Clereen and carefully sat her up against a tree. After eating there was an awkward silence as neither knew what to say to each other.

But then Clereen broke the silence. “Thank you.” she said shyly and quietly before falling silent again. Knuckles shuffled uncomfortably and didn’t say a word.

Then he stood up. “we got to go now.” Clereen looked up at him with confusion.

“Let’s go.” Knuckles said as he swiftly lifted Clereen into the air and hung her over his shoulder, before walking away.

After a while Clereen plucked the courage to ask the question on her mind “Where are we going?” Clereen asked.

“To the city, of course” Clereen suddenly felt her heart skip a beat.

“NOO!!” she screamed without thinking.

“Woah, woah, what?” Knuckles exclaimed in surprise. Clereen looked around nervously trying to control her feelings.

She remembered it like it was crystal clear, in front of her at that very moment. The bang of the gun. The deaf deifying scream she made.

The army men searching for her “It escaped! Get back to the city. We’ll be ready for it” the words of the commander as they left burnt into her mind. Of course, it hadn’t been too long ago and there was no way she could have got over something that horrible so easily but she had never experienced any feelings like this before.

Slash put her down and was taken aback by the sheer terror on her face. “Clereen. CLEREEN!” Knuckles shook her by the shoulders trying to rouse her from her world of fear she was trapped in but to no avail.

“CLEREEN!!!” He yelled at the top of his voice and then slapped her across the face. Clereen snapped out of it as fast as she went in.

She felt as if she had suddenly awoken in another world and she looked about her in confusion for a few seconds before seeing Knuckles looking very concerned. Then it hit her. She couldn’t stop crying. Knuckles shuffled around, trying to look away and ignore her cries but with great difficulty. Then he proceeded to lift her up and carry her like before without saying a word.

After an hour or so Clereen calmed down and she was quiet for a while, just thinking. She felt bad for making Knuckles worry, even though she still wasn’t sure what happened.

“sorry about that thing earlier” she said digging some dirt out of her claws.

“That’s OK” Knuckles replied after a pause just long enough to make her wonder if he was going to respond. She noticed he seemed to do that a lot.

Then Clereen suddenly noticed a sickly feeling of hunger in her stomach. She had lost all feeling a while ago but it seems it has come back to bite her. Soon after noticing she jumped from an aggressive roar from her insides. The sound was very long and just as uncomfortable as it sounded. Just when she thought she got over it another one just as bad hit her a few minutes afterwards.

“Oh, God” she said to herself in despair. She started to cry again

“it hurts” she said as tears poured down her face.

Knuckles sighed and continued to walk. Clereen was in too much pain to really think so hours passed. Then Knuckles put her down

“about time to eat again, Clereen”. Clereen looked up eagerly.

“yes, please” she said weakly. Knuckles shuffled around uncomfortably when he noticed her shaking violently

“you, you cold?” Knuckles asked but he knew that wasn’t the case at all.

Clereen looked down at her hands. They were shaking like crazy. Her stomach roared again with the upmost intensity and pain. Knuckles started to move quickly getting some food out, the can opener and spoon. Clereen continued to sob from the pain. Knuckles opened the can as fast as possible and shoved the spoon into her mouth.

Clereen felt so hungry it seemed to hurt even more to eat and the food burned her throat on the way down. She couldn’t have it in small doses. She needed more. She needed it all, NOW. That was all she could think. Knuckles looked at Clereen anxiously and then jumped back in shock when she pulled her face up from its hanging position. After that what happened was a blur in Clereen’s mind. All she remembered was when she suddenly woke up to the sound of Knuckles yelling.

“What have you done?!” He screamed in panic.

“Wha-wha-what?!” Clereen responded wondering what on earth had happened. She felt like she just woke up from fainting and her head hurt.

Clereen looked about her to see what the danger was and noticed she was covered in soup and bean cans. All empty. She looked at the potato bag and quickly peaked in to see nothing but more empty cans. Then she realised her lips hurt. She touched it and blood was on her hands. Then she realised the can lids were all ripped apart and not cleanly opened like with the can opener.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Knuckles screamed at her. Clereen turned around to look at him. For the first time, he seemed scared and shaken.

“That food was for both of us. Are you nuts? What ARE you?!” What had she done? She had no idea. She heard a little gurgle and she looked down at her belly. It was bulging full and digesting happily. This was all too much to take in. Clereen screamed in panic and starting crying desperately.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry” Clereen said over and over and over. Knuckles just sat in the corner shuffling around uncomfortably. How can you react to something like this? However, after a few minutes Knuckles made a move and leapt over to her and threw his arms around her.

“It’s OK. It’s OK. Don’t freak out. You’re OK” Knuckles repeated comforting words to Clereen until she calmed down. Clereen eventually stopped crying and there was an awkward silence as they both sat with Clereen curled in Knuckles’ lap.

“Common, get up” Knuckles said at long last and lifted her up by the shoulders to sit upright.

“I’m so sorry. I-I don’t know what happened” Clereen said.

“You don’t know?!” Knuckles said in surprise.

“no” Clereen looked up at Knuckles with all seriousness

“what happened? Did I eat all the food?” Knuckles shuffled around uncomfortably before then standing up quickly and saying

“well we better go” and lifting Clereen over his shoulder.

“Tell me what happened!” Clereen exclaimed but Knuckles didn’t answer.

“I guess maybe he thinks it’s better if I don’t know” Clereen thought to herself as she swung on his shoulder. Some time passed in silence and Clereen found herself feeling much better after a quick nap and rather bored. Then she realised she hadn’t had a proper conversation with Knuckles yet. She didn’t know anything about him. She wasn’t sure whether he would respond but it’s worth a shot so she fired a question.

“so, what are you doing here?” after a little silence, Knuckles answered

“saving you”. Clereen noticed he was avoiding the question.

“No, what were you doing here in the first place?” Clereen urged.

“I just travel around these kinds of places. Why is my business. Not yours” Knuckles said with a little distain. Now Clereen was feeling much better she didn’t feel insecure anymore so she continued talking.

“Where do you come from then?” she asked. Knuckles waited a while before answering.

“A big island in the sky.” He paused for a while and looked up in a sort of nostalgic wonder before continuing

“It’s a wonderful place filled with a huge jungle. There are even ancient crypts, tombs and other structures there” Clereen smiled. She could tell he rather liked this place and it was nice to hear him saying something nice for once. Then a question came to mind.

“Why don’t you go back there?”

“Because I’m stuck here!” Knuckles said responding faster than usual.

“so you’re only travelling because you’re lost?” Suddenly Knuckles pulled Clereen off his shoulder and glared at her. Clereen was rather stunned by this and felt rather scared but she said nothing. Then he sighed and put her down in front of him.

“if you feel so good why don’t you walk yourself?”.

Clereen looked down and realised she was indeed standing on her own. She squealed with excitement before falling flat on her face seconds after by tripping over a twig. Knuckles looked back at her just long enough to see her look back with her mud covered face before turning and continuing to walk. Clereen stood up and brushed herself off before bouncing after him cheerily as a spring rabbit.

“So where are we going?” Clereen asked.

“You already asked me that” Knuckles responded.

“I did?” Clereen asked with confusion.

“Does it really matter so much?” Knuckles asked.

“well, yes!” Clereen said astounded by such a silly question.

“Why would you go anywhere unless you knew where you are going?” Clereen said.

“You’re not so dumb as you look then” Knuckles replied.

“Do I look dumb?” Clereen inquired curiously. Knuckles looked back at Clereen and she paused on the spot.

“You are a weird creature” Knuckles said before turning and continuing his walk.

“So are you!” Clereen said cheerfully without consideration.

“humpf” Knuckles said under his breath. Another hour passed until Clereens legs started getting tired. 

“How big IS this forest!” Clereen whined.

“Can we sit down?”

“We just sat down half an hour ago”

“awwwww” Clereen whinned.

“I’m tired” she complained. Knuckles didn’t respond.

Then suddenly Clereen noticed her stomach was rumbling again. This time she felt extremely anxious about it. It had caused so much trouble before.

“Please don’t make a sound” she told herself under her breath. However, Clereen’s stomach being the way it was there was no chance of it being quiet. Her stomach roared loudly before long.

Knuckles turned around “you’ve got to be kidding me!” Clereen hung her head in shame. Knuckles just sighed and continued walking. Clereen felt upset because she was sure she had made him mad again.

“I can’t help it” she said in a wobbly voice. Knuckles said nothing.

“I’m sorry” she said. Knuckles said nothing. Clereen felt like crying again.

She felt pathetic for crying so much. She felt like an absolute coward. So she just hung her head in shame and stayed quiet. That was until she started panting. She really wasn’t used to so much exercise and it was really starting to get to her. Knuckles kept walking for little before stopping at a clearing

“we can rest here”

“OH, THANK GOD!” Clereen exclaimed before slumping to the ground.

Clereen then rested for a while feeling half unconscious she was so tired before sitting up and looking over at Knuckles.

“I have never seen you eat. Do you like canned soup? You have a lot of it” Clereen said trying to strike conversation.

“I used to” Knuckles replied bitterly

“oh” Clereen remembered. She shuffled her feet about. That had stopped the conversation dead. Her stomach roared again. It had been doing that constantly for a while now so she tried to ignore it. Then she was confused

“wait...you used to like soup or you used to own soup?” Knuckles looked over at Clereen with a stunned expression.

“What?” Clereen responded confused. Knuckles sighed and shook his head before staring at the tree leaves swaying in the gentle wind that day.

Clereen also looked at the leaves to get an idea for what he was looking at them for. Then she noticed these trees looked different from the trees she had usually seen at the edges of the forest 

“what tree is this?” she asked curiously.

“are you serious? You have never seen an Oak tree before?”

“Nope!” Clereen said in such a spritely way it seems she was proud of it.

“I’ve seen it on TV! But not in real life” Clereen said as played with her feet by tapping them together. 

“How often have you been away from home?” Knuckles asked sounded actually rather intrigued now. 

“never”

“Wait, what?!” Knuckles said in disbelief. Clereen looked over at Knuckles’ confused face.

“what?” she exclaimed in confusion.

“you know most people leave their house often right?”

“yep. In movies and stuff they do”

“Have you ever learned something without the TV?”

“yeah. My da...” Clereen went quiet. She had forgotten. Then it hit her again. She started to sob.

“not again” Knuckles said sighing. He came closer and sat next to her.

“You still haven’t told me what happened. Do you think you can tell me now?” Clereen looked up at Knuckles and he seemed to have a kinder face than usual. Her stomach roared tremendously and she found it hard to ignore. She gripped her belly as it yelled at her. Then she wiped her eyes, sniffed and started to explain

“I live with the professor, in a big building at the edge of the forest. He-h-he” Clereen struggled to stop crying so she could speak

“He made me and he loved me and I lived with him until you found me. One day this fat nasty man” Clereen’s lip quivered with those words, knowing what she had to say next.

“came to the door...and he-h-he...shot him”

“WHAT?!” Knuckles suddenly interrupted with shock and surprise.

“OK, OK. I think you’ve had enough. You’re shaking again” It was true Clereen had started shaking all over. She didn’t want to think about it anymore. Her stomach continued to growl loudly and they both tried to ignore it but it wasn’t easy. Knuckles looked at the sky before speaking

“You know why I can’t go home? The truth is, I don’t know what happened. One minute I was at home, the next I appeared here. There was a big flash and...here I am” Clereen looked at Knuckles intrigued by this new line of conversation.

“wow” Clereen said in wonder of this idea.

“like magic?” Clereen inquired.

“I guess so” Knuckles said. Suddenly Clereen got the feeling Knuckles was upset and decided to change the subject.

“Chocolate!” Clereen shouted at random, making Knuckles jump.

“do you like chocolate?” Knuckles found himself chuckling

“You’re not good at talking to people are you?”

“not really” Clereen responded.

“You’re the first person I have ever talked to other than the professor”.

“woah” Knuckles said in amazement

“So what happened to your mother or should I not ask?”

“I never had one” Knuckles turned to Clereen in surprise yet again stunned by this answer

“errr. Clereen. You have to have had a mother at some point. Otherwise you wouldn’t have been born.”

“I told you. The professor made me”

“so what, did he magically make you with a huge machine or something?” Knuckles said sarcastically. 

“yes!” Clereen responded cheerfully.

“WHAT?!” Knuckles said yet again. Her stomach roared.

“he said he made me with DNA and a mutation somewhere in the process caused me to have abnormal properties!” Clereen said in a completely too cheery way to say such a thing.

“Do you even know what that means?” Knuckles asked

“It means I was made by science magic but I was special so now I do weird things”

“I guess that explains what happened earlier” Knuckles said wondering to himself

“and that” he said pointing at her belly. It roared in response and she shuffled uncomfortably, trying not to look at him

“what happened earlier?” she asked

“You ate all the cans of food remember?”

“yeah”

“well you were swallowing amounts several times the size of your stomach or something and your lips stretched as you were trying to eat the potato bag to. You just went crazy”

“oh” Clereen felt guilty and hung her head in shame.

“forget about it. What’s done is done” Knuckles said before getting up again and he held his hand out to Clereen.

“we should be going again now” Clereen held her growling stomach one more time then nodded, smiled and took his hand to get up again. However, Clereen noticed her legs were feeling a little shaky.

Knuckles noticed it to “You feeling OK?” Clereen wasn’t sure. Then her stomach announced its presence yet again.

Knuckles sighed “you need to eat?” Clereen nodded her head and hung it in shame yet again. She felt awful for even remotely suggesting needing more from him, especially when it was her fault there was no more food for him or her.

“We should reach the edge of the forest in another day or so” Knuckles said as he looked out to the forest ahead. Clereen was scared. She was going to starve all over again. There was no way she would last that long with her demanding body.

“Knuckles?” Knuckles turned around to look at Clereen again and soon realised she wasn’t happy. 

“I’m scared” Clereen said. Knuckles shuffled uncomfortably. Her stomach growled like a volcano.

Then Clereen jumped at Knuckles and threw her arms around him. “I’m going to die!” she said sobbing into his chest. Knuckles tried his hardest to look away but he couldn’t. He then put his arms on her back and stroked her head a bit. Clereen noticed it was just like the way her father used to stroke her when she cried which only made her cry more.

“You...You’re not going to die, Clereen. You’ll be fine” Knuckles tried to reassure her

“Knuckles?” Clereen asked between weeping

“How much do people normally eat?”

“Err, one of those cans of soup” her stomach roared again

“Oh, god!” Clereen cried. Knuckles didn’t know what to say so he said nothing

“You don’t understand. I need more”

“I know” said Knuckles sounding worried

“I need three times my own body weight per meal”

“WHAT?!” Knuckles exclaimed again.

“You’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking!” Knuckles said while holding Clereen in front of him. Clereen looked at him with a forlorn expression

“I’m going to die” she said before sobbing further.

“Why, Clereen? Tell me why” Clereen looked up and explained

“I need more fats and sugars and iron in my diet. If I don’t eat more then I get sick and starve. The professor put me on a diet before and I got sick. That’s when he found out” Knuckles looked back at her, shocked at what he was hearing.

“I don’t know what to say to you anymore” Knuckles said as if he felt ashamed of it. Clereen just continued to sob into his chest

“You’re not going to die, Clereen” He said after a long pause

“I won’t let you”. Clereen looked up in surprise. No-one had ever said something like that to her before but something felt special about it.

“We better hurry to the city then!” Knuckles exclaimed before lifting her up and running off into the distance. Clereen smiled and closed her eyes. She would rest until they got there.