Sonic movie short sonadow story: Meeting sonic's 'parents'

Part 2

Sonic and Shadow woke up at around 10 AM. Tom had already gone out to do his daily patrol around town. Maddie cooked them a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast with fruit before heading to the clinic. The two hedgehogs were free to explore the town and chat with the people.

Crazy Carl (or, as Sonic liked to call him, "Super Observant Carl") was fascinated with Shadow's red stripes. He'd noticed that Sonic's blue fur was pretty uniform in terms of color and the direction each quill pointed downward. But Shadow's dark fur and quills were streaked with red, the red stripes marking the edges of his eyes and running down his arms and legs. Not to mention the fact that four of Shadow's quill bunches seemed to defy gravity.

"That run in the family? The red stripes and upturned quills?" he asked Shadow as they hung out on his front porch.

"Uhm..." Shadow chewed at his lip. "Kind of...?" he replied, not quite meeting the elderly man's eyes. There were some things about him that only he and Sonic could know.

Crazy Carl hummed, stroking his beard. Beside him, Sonic tested out the binoculars the guy had given him. "So, Carl, what've you been doing these past few months? Can't be chasing after me 'cause you already know who I am," he said with a smile.

"Looking for the Thunderbird, Sonic." Carl looked up at the sky. "Huge bird. Bigger than a vulture. Wingspan of 15 to 20 feet. Folks often mistake the sound of its wingbeats for thunder, but I know there's gotta be one flying around here. Been settin' up cameras in the woods. You and Shadow wanna check 'em out?" he asked the two hedgehogs.

"Bird-watching sounds nice." Shadow grabbed his own set of binoculars while Sonic whooped, "Nature walk!"

With Carl leading the way, both hedgehogs trekked into the forest. They kept their binoculars trained to the skies and checked each of the cameras Carl had set up.

"Okay, that's the fourth one..." Sonic mumbled as he took out the memory card from one of Carl's cameras. A rustling in the tree canopy made him grab his binoculars. "Hang on, I think I got something... Oh, no, wait. That's a squirrel," he muttered.

Shadow climbed up another tree, deftly hoisting himself up the branches until he reached the top. He scanned the area and kept his ears tuned. No thunder. No sign of a Thunderbird.

"Have you tried looking for it during a rainstorm?" he hollered down to Carl.

"Haven't done that since I got a pretty bad case of pneumonia! You might be on to something, though, boy!" Carl hollered back.

While they didn't find a Thunderbird, Shadow and Sonic were able to find some neat treasures. Like a small nest filled with eggs that they left undisturbed. Shadow was surprised and delighted to see a live Earth deer drinking at a stream.

"Pretty impressive sight, huh?" Carl grinned as he and the two hedgehogs watched from behind some bushes.

Shadow nodded, watching the deer with wide eyes. It was a young male, its antlers just beginning to grow. It lifted its head up then, to the black hedgehog's amazement, looked in his direction. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments. Then, with a graceful toss of its head, the deer turned around and bounded into the depths of the forest.

"That was fun," Shadow said as they left Carl's house later that day.

"Glad you're enjoying your time here, Shads," Sonic said, slinging his arm over Shadow's shoulder.

"Everyone's so nice... And there's no major crime being committed whatsoever. You had a peaceful life here." Shadow looked at Sonic, his cheerful expression morphing into a concerned one. "What made you decide to go back?" he asked.