Chapter 47

"How'd you guys find us anyways?" Sonic asked.

"We just got lucky, I guess," Sonja replied. "We kept flying, lost the masked people, and found you." Sonic breathed out in relief. He was the luckiest Mobian alive. But then, they heard rustling in the bushes.

Sonic, instinctively, ran over to check it out. But the rustling grew more frantic as whatever or whoever was in the bushes ran the other way. But like Pico had, it fell flat on its face. Sonic looked over the bush, and saw... a deer?

He was Mobian. A dull shade of yellow except for a tuft of hair on the top, which was very bright yellow. He had two antlers, so this is how Sonic knew he was a male. The deer tried to get up, but fell on his face again. He instead turned around on his back. And then, he spoke.

"What are you?!" He shouted. He looked at his own reflection in Sonic's eyes. He screamed. "What am I?!"

"Whoa, buddy, calm down!" Sonic assured the deer. "You're a Mobian, just like me!"

"Are you going to eat me?!" The deer interrogated. "Get away!" The deer put up his arms over his head.

"Hey, I'm not gonna eat you..." Sonic replied. "I'm Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog! What's your name?" The deer looked at Sonic.

"A... hedgehog???" The deer asked. A smile made its way onto his face. He jumped up and hugged Sonic tight. "Oh my God, you have no idea how happy I am to find another hunted animal!"

"Hunted?" Sonic asked. "Who's hunting you?" The deer put on a grim expression as he let go of Sonic.

"Them," The deer responded.

"Who?" Tails asked. The deer jumped back, but quickly gathered his bearings. Then, he looked at Sonja.

"Oh geez... it's a fox... and a human... but they're with you, right?" The deer asked. Sonic nodded. The deer eyed Tails suspiciously. "Okay, okay. Whatever. Anyways... I've been on the run for a while now. One day, I woke up and... none of my herd were with me. I looked all around for them. But no luck." The deer closed his eyes and looked away. "Since that day, when I was very young, I found out about some sort of cult... it was full of mostly predators, except for a few moles and gophers. Predators... other animals that would eat me."

"Whoa... eat you?" Sonic asked. He was disturbed by this. Could this have been the same cult with the masks?

The deer nodded. "Yes, but... now they have advanced. They stand on two legs, they speak... I do too," The deer explained. "I don't know how, and I don't know why... but... if you're like me, maybe we're supposed to work together to get away from them."

Sonic nodded. But then, a booming voice erupted from behind them. "Mimask... we have found them..."

Continue to Chapter 48