Chapter 51

Sonja and Pico lied awake in bed. Pico wouldn't go to sleep, and he just kept crying and blowing out his trunk softly. He tried to keep it down, something told him people were trying to sleep. But he couldn't contain himself. He just wanted to cry so much.

"What's wrong, Pico?" Sonja asked in a whisper, as she stroked his ear softly with her gloved hand. He kept crying, even with her soothing voice. Sonja didn't know what to do. Usually, from what she read in picture books when she was feeling nostalgic, babies crying usually meant at least one of a few things. Maybe he was hungry. Sonja let him outside, but he wouldn't eat any grass or edible plants. Not that.

Sonja kept him outside in case he needed to use the bathroom, but he just jumped up onto her dress and tried to get up into her arms while whining. She brought him inside after a while of this.

Pico continued to cry. Sonja didn't know what he wanted. She tried giving him kisses on the forehead, she tried cuddling him, and she tried talking to him. The last one seemed pointless. Pico couldn't respond, he was just a baby. Maybe he couldn't ever talk at all. He was an animal, right? But Sonic and Tails could talk. And they were animals. But they had gotten Pico from the past, and he just now turned into a Mobian. He didn't even know how to walk like a Mobian yet. Sonja decided to stop that train of thought as she needed to focus on getting Pico to sleep.

Sonja looked at a bookshelf. Books of nursery rhymes lined the shelf. Perfect! A nursery rhyme should get hem settled in. Sonja floated over and grabbed one off the shelf. She flipped to a page, it was titled "Tired Lady Bug"

Sonja read it aloud. "'Run, little lady bug, run. It is time to play. Fly, little lady bug, fly. It is time to fly away. You are red with black spots, but you need to sleep lots.'" Sonja paused as she tucked in Pico. He took the blankets off with a disobedient whine. "'You've fluttered your wings and you've played all day. But now it is time to hit the hay.'" Pico wasn't closing his eyes. Why wasn't it working? Even Sonja was getting sleepy reading this. She yawned long and hard.

She turned to Pico with bags under her dark blue eyes and with a weak smile. She then noticed he had begun to cry again. She could hear rustling in Sonic's room and footsteps against wood. Did they wake him up? "Sh, sh, sh, sh!" She whispered to Pico. But to no avail. She tried and tried, and he cried and cried. "What is it that you want?!" She nearly shouted. Pico stopped, and then continued to cry. Louder this time. Sonja gasped. She startled the baby. "No, no, no, no, no! I'm sorry!" She said softly.

Then, Pico jumped into her arms. She held him closely. But he didn't cuddle her back. Instead, he pointed somewhere. To the door. Sonja, indulging in this game of his if it meant they could sleep after, went over to the door and opened it.

Pico then led her out of the house. Maybe he did have to use the bathroom. But no. He kept pointing forward, eventually leading them to the hole in the ground that Sonja had gotten he and Sonic out of. The one with the mole. She slowly floated down into the hole.

Inside, it was dark, but the stormlight penetrated through holes in the ceiling. Pico pointed at the wall. Sonja turned her head, to see the skeletal remains... of woolly mammoths. Not elephants like Sonic had thought, but woolly mammoths. She could tell by the curve in their tusks.

Sonja gasped in sorrow. Could this be Pico's family? Of course... woolly mammoths usually travel in herds. But Pico had been all alone the first time they saw him, in Green Hill Zone. Pico must have seen them before, when he was down here with Sonic. Sonja floated over to them, but Pico jumped out of her arms and landed on the ground, with next to no concern for his own safety. He landed on the ground and, while he felt sharp pain rocket through his legs, he crawled over to the skeletal remains of a big one. Pico reached up and put his paws on it.

Sonja's heart broke into a million pieces. Those bones were his mom. She had died without her son. Pico had gotten away safely. What could have happened to her? Of course, Sonja read of woolly mammoths dying out both naturally and by humans hunting them on a planet called Earth long ago. But this was Mobius. Or could they be on another planet? It didn't matter. Pico cried and whimpered as he balanced himself against the wall and rubbed his forehead against the skeleton.

Sonja ran her hand across the wall. The further she went, the more remains she saw of mammoths. Some were babies just like Pico. Some were older. One even had a skull missing, with a hole where the skull must have been before.

Sonja felt tears coming through her eyes. Poor Pico had lost his family. She then noticed Pico crawling over to her. He latched onto her ghost tail and snuggled it tightly. "Ma... ma... ma!" He stumbled over his words. Sonja's eyes lit up. His first words! This was phenomenal! But... he also called her... mama...

Sonja knelt down and picked Pico up, cuddling him close to her face. Tears streamed down from both of their eyes in front of the woolly mammoth remains. Sonja sobbed, and Pico whined. "I love you..." Sonja whimpered. "... Son..."

Sonja stayed like that. She slept on the cave floor with Pico in her arms. She knew... she had to keep this mammoth baby safe. From everything that may harm him. And she would. It was her duty as a mother. She loved him so, so much. She was reminded of a love she hadn't felt for anyone in years. The love of a mother towards her child. She couldn't quite make sense of these old memories, but she decided...

... That she could manage with these new ones. Memories of Sonic, Tails, and Pico.

Continue to Chapter 54