Everything Changes (A Sonic Boom Fanfic)

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Any optimism Kay had about finding some exciting place on Bygone Island vanished quickly when she realized every village was the same as the one before it. The three girls traveled along the beach to two more coastal villages before heading up into the hills and visiting the forest villages. Amy seemed to know exactly where she was going as she led her troupe around the island, and she was very efficient in getting straight to the point as to why they were visiting each location. A couple of other islanders recognized her or at least her name, but if they didn't know who Kay was then Amy was determined to move on until they found someone who did.

As Kay knew it would, their search turned up no results, and by the time the sun was setting that day they'd already made it to over half the villages on Bygone, according to Amy. Their trip was going to be shorter than intended, Kay knew. No one on the rest of the island was going to know her, or stand out in any way from the countless others she'd already met. Her hope of finding any interesting place on this spit of land was fading fast.

That night they camped at the border of the desert region of the island, as that would be the warmest at night. In the morning they'd traverse the desert villages – of which there were only a couple, Amy said – before moving upward into the mountain region in the afternoon as it got hotter. Amy suspected they'd be back to her home village by dinnertime, but Kay was thinking it would probably be more like lunchtime at the rate they were going. The girls had no sense of exploration at all, and Kay's had died out after the first five villages, when she realized that all the people were basically the same. Plain clothes, plain jobs, no attacks from Dr. Eggman. It was beginning to look like Sonic's village was the most exciting place on this island.

Which is why Kay could not stop thinking about the casual transport ship that was scheduled to arrive soon.

Amy and Sticks went to sleep quickly, but despite a long day of walking and disheartening discoveries, Kay couldn't sleep at all at first. She gave up on tossing and turning in the patch of grass they'd claimed for the night and sat up, looking out at the horizon. From here she had a clear view of the stars and the moon, which shone beautifully against the black sky. Her body may have been on the island, but her mind was far away.

The beaver at the harbor that morning had said casual transport to and from the continent was by demand only, which meant that more than one person had to want to travel either way for it to be worth the trip. He'd also said the next transport was due to arrive either tomorrow or the day after. Kay wasn't too keen on the idea of leaving Bygone Island so soon, but after seeing how dull it all was, she wasn't particularly liking the idea of staying, either.

Bygone had Sonic, yes – but he was so changed, so different from the true blue hero she remembered that he practically wasn't the same hedgehog at all. And the others...they were even worse. The only one she couldn't say that of was Sticks, whom she was pretty certain had never existed on Mobius Prime. Sticks was certainly interesting by herself, but her stubborn and unchanging 'Kay-is-an-alien' mindset was tiresome at best. She knew if she hadn't been able to convince the badger of her innocence before she certainly wouldn't be able to after visiting every village without a single soul knowing who she was.

It was looking like her best option would be to leave the island and hope for the best on the continent and beyond. But if the transport was arriving within the next day or two, that didn't give her a lot of time to make a decision. If she left, who knew how long it would be before she could return if she changed her mind? She'd have to be certain she was prepared to stay away for quite some time.

The pressure was on for the first time since arriving on this island. Kay stared out at the line where the sky met the sea and thought long and hard.

There had to be more to this new Mobius than a mundane lifestyle, right? Her eagerness to be a part of Sonic's exciting world was what got her started down this insane path in the first place – being turned into a hedgehog the first time, becoming the Emerald's Chosen, returning to Earth to defeat Dark Gaia, and now winding up here.

This was Sonic's world. Warped and a bit opposite, maybe, but still his world. Mobius. Somewhere, on some part of this planet, something had to be going on. This couldn't be all there was. It simply couldn't be.

But what if it was? What if life on this new Mobius was this standard and uninteresting everywhere? What then?

The transport was arriving soon. If she wanted to be on it when it returned to Chun-Nan, she'd have two days tops to make this decision. Kay took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm her nerves. She'd fought Dark Enerjak and his Prelates and faced a painful death head-on whilst fighting Dark Gaia, but she'd never been as afraid of them as she was of this choice.

Stay, or go?

At last fatigue overtook her. Kay lay down on the grass once more and closed her eyes, her mind going wild with its imaginings of what adventures might await her if only she stepped boldly into the unknown. If all of Mobius is as mundane as Bygone Island, Kay thought to herself, I'll never know if I just stay here for the rest of my life. Perhaps this is a risk that's worth taking.