"What a beautiful forest... I don't think I've come across this one before!" A young female human, named Lilly, smiles and breathes in the scent of flowers as she walks along a gravelled path. She soon comes across a flower that she had never seen before and kneels down in front of it. "Wow! What flower is this?" As Lilly admires the flower's petal colours, she takes off her backpack and takes out a small book. She then proceeds to flick through the pages before stopping at one of them. "Ah, so this is a 'Bygone Beauty'... and they're apparently pretty rare!" Lilly continues to look at the flower and takes the camera, which was around her neck, into her hands before taking a photograph of the flower. She then stands up and looks at the photograph. "Amazing! I better look around and see what else I can find..." --------------------- After exploring around the forest some more, Lilly decides to head back home. Before she heads down the path, however, she hears a rustling sound coming from a bush nearby. She gasps and freezes on the spot, looking over to the area that the rustling was coming from. "W-who's there?" The rustling sound becomes much more audiable as Lilly slowly begins to walk over to the bushes. Lilly trembles a bit and stops before getting too close to the bushes. She then hears a little sniffing sound and watches as an opening in the bushes is formed. Lilly steps back and squats down a bit, getting into a submissive position, in case of a predator. She thinks to herself as she sees a shadow of a small creature appear from the bushes. "This could be a new creature... I better be careful." The creature, who was no taller than a small child, continues to make a sniffing sound as it emerges from the bushes. It notices Lilly and stares at her with a confused expression. Lilly stares back at the creature and smiles softly, noticing how small and harmless it seemed. The creature was a small blue-furred hedgehoglet with shining emerald green eyes. Lilly makes a sympathetic expression as she notices that the little creature had dirty fur as well as a few little scrapes and scratches on it's face. Lilly slowly reaches her hand out but watches as the little creature cowers back in fear, hiding behind a nearby tree. The young human slowly kneels down to the ground and smiles softly as she makes eye contact with the blue creature. "It's ok... I won't hurt you, little one." The little creature slowly peeks out from behind the tree and takes a few steps forward, clutching a small brown blanket, which was draping onto the ground beside its waist. The creature sniffs once again, a few tears trickling down its muzzle as it looks over to Lilly with a curious expression. "Y-you won't? Bwut... wou a hwuman... same as evil mwan." Lilly makes a curious expression as she continues to make eye contact with the little creature. "You mean... Dr Eggman? He's an evil man... but I'm not related to him. He's cruel and I do not like how he treats you all." The little hedgehoglet nods its head and slowly walks over to Lilly, taking small steps each time and tightly clutching its blanket. The creature then cuddles the blanket in its arms and sucks its thumb. "Wou dwon't wike him either?" "No, I don't." The little blue-furred hedgehoglet smiles a little as it approaches Lilly. It looks up at her before moving closer and rubbing its muzzle against Lilly's hand, purring softly. Lilly giggles a bit from the tickly feeling and gently runs a hand along the little hedgehoglet's head. The little hedgehoglet smiles and hands his brown blanket to Lilly. Lilly takes it and smiles down. "You're a very sweet hedgehog... but you do look in quite a bad way. Did Dr Eggman do that to you?" The little hedgehoglet lowers its ears and gently touches one of his scrapes. He winces in pain and Lilly gently takes his hands into her own. "I can help to get rid of those... but where are your parents, little one?" The little hedgehoglet looks up at Lilly and lowers his ears as he sniffs, feeling some tears trickle down his muzzle. He holds onto Lilly and nuzzles his head into her chest. "Me... me nwot swure. Me hwaven't sween them for a wong time..." Lilly makes a sympathetic expression and gently holds him close to her. "I'll help you find them, sweetheart. But I can take care of you until then, if you want?" The little hedgehoglet opens his eyes widely and looks up at Lilly, smiling and wagging his tail. "Wou... wou would wook after me?!" Lilly smiles as she gently runs her hand along the little hedgehoglet's muzzle. "Of course! No little hedgehoglet like you should be out here alone..." The little hedgehoglet nuzzles into Lilly's chest and rapidly wags his tail. "Fank wou! Fank wou!!" Lilly giggles a bit and picks up the little hedgehoglet. "It's not a problem, sweetheart... oh, what is your name by the way?" "My nwame is Swonic!" "'Sonic'? Sonic the Hedgehog?" The little hedgehoglet wags his tail and looks up at Lilly as she begins to walk along the path, leading into the forest. "Yweah! My mommy nwamed me..." "That's a nice name! My name is Lilly..." "Nwice to mweet you! Lilly?" "Yes, Sonic?" Sonic lowers his ears a bit as he makes an innocent expression and looks up at Lilly, clutching his blanket. "Will wou be my mwommy?" Lilly stops in place and looks down at Sonic, making a somewhat nervous expression. "Well... sweetheart, I... I would like to but... I think it's better if we find her first." Sonic smiles a bit and nods. "Owk, Lilly." ------------------- Around half an hour later, Sonic whimpers and begins to shiver as Lilly approaches the village. Many mobian citizens all smiles as they notice Lilly and wave to her. Lilly waves back and holds Sonic close before whispering down at him. "Don't be frightened, they won't hurt you..." Sonic whimpers a bit and lowers his ears as he notices the citizens looking down at him, curiously. He nuzzles his head into Lilly's chest and sucks his thumb, nervously. "Wh-why they wooking at me?" "They're just being curious... like you." Sonic continues to whimper and soon looks around, admiring the surroundings. Lilly puts the little hedgehoglet down on the ground and smiles as he looks around in a curious manner. Since he had spent most of his life within the forest, Sonic had never seen a village before and was extremely curious and alert. "This is a village, sweetheart... it's where me and the other mobians live." Sonic turns back to Lilly and opens his mouth in amazement as he notices the many food stands that were displayed. He curiously walks over to an apple stand and picks one up. He curiously smells it and looks up at Lilly as she stops beside him. "What's thwis, Lilly?" Lilly smiles and kneels down beside the little hedgehoglet. "That's an apple, sweetheart... it's a very sweet fruit and it tastes quite good. Would you like one to try?" Sonic wags his tail happily. "Ywes, pwease!" "Ok, sweetheart. We'll just take one apple, please." Lilly smiles and takes out some money from her purse. Sonic watches curiously as she hands it over to the mobian in charge of the stand. "Thanks, Lilly. Enjoy the apple!" Lilly smiles and nods as she gently takes Sonic's hand into hers and continues to walk through the village. Sonic looks up at her curiously as he takes a bite out of the apple. "Thwis is ywummy! Bwut... what was dat wou gwave to the mwan?" Lilly smiles down at the little hedgehoglet as he curiously looks down at the apple. "Oh, that was money... we use it to buy food, clothes and homes." "Cwool!" ----------------- A few minutes later, Sonic looks around curiously as Lilly leads him towards a small wooden house. He looks up at it before looking at Lilly. "Lilly, where is thwis?" Lilly smiles down at the little hedgehoglet as she opens the door of the house and watches as Sonic walks inside. "This is my house, sweetheart. You can live here too until we find your parents..." The little hedgehoglet looks around in wonder and runs over to the couch, looking up at it. He then looks up at the TV before looking up at Lilly. "It amazwing!" Lilly giggles and watches as Sonic points up at the couch. "What dat, Lilly?" "That's a couch, sweetie. You sit on it and it's really soft and comfy!" Sonic continues to look around and soon comes across Lilly's toilet cubicle. He walks over to the toilet and points up at it. "This wooks weird..." "That's a toilet, sweetie. It's where you go potty!" Sonic gives Lilly a curious look.