★Darkness without end. No up or down. No near or far. Yet, for as impenetrable as it was there was an interruption in its endlessness. Shadows like liquid which attempted to hold on to the form of a girl. There was not enough of the liquid shadow to maintain a complete form and breaks from which a dull golden light was exposed appeared constantly as the liquid shifted. Even as the shadows tried to hold together though they were lost to the Darkness as a long stream of drool trailed from the slightly ajar mouth. In a face with no eyes, it was watched by a vapid mind that fell deeper and deeper into the Darkness. Yet there was something beyond the Darkness that the Remnant reached for as it fell back first deeper and deeper. A promise. A destiny. Something there was far too little of it left to remember. Something that kept it from succumbing to the Darkness and disappearing.

~EPISODE OF AMNESIA ISLAND II 01~

Darkness
A pinprick in blue skies
Framed by Ring so massive with clouds rolling off it
Fractured thing of only two-fifths left
Cogwheel of matching size turning through
Sky viewed from grassy hill
Reached for by island forest and palms
Watched by eyes so blue

         The abode of Nana the Hen was built underneath, or within, a hill. From the front door a small garden could be reached from which a road went out through the forest and eventually to the coast of Amnesia Island. Day after day it was used by a black hedgehog with white crystals growing from his body named Tempest the Black. It was his role on the island, to fish in the ocean with an arm made of liquid Darkness and tipped with more white crystals.

         The right arm of Tempest was an unusual thing as the liquid Darkness that comprised it could stretch and swell to any number of sizes, snaking about as he desired. Particularly useful for flyfishing off the island’s coast, but not without its own set of problems. Especially to at least one other of the amnesiacs who called Amnesia Island home.

         “Rosy! She’s gone!”

         The shrill urgency of the female voice of the yellow teardrop shaped creature with a tiny horizontal golden loop floating above it and held aloft in general by detached wings drew Tempest from his skygazing. Sitting up and resting his left arm on his knee, he turned in the direction of a stairwell hidden in the hill that led into the hidden abode. From the stair the fairy that was obviously agitated flew up and zipped across the hill towards him. Despite the fairy’s temperament, he greeted it with a smile.

         “Good morning, Mote. I doubt it’s anything different from her usual excursions. Did you check her room to see if she had put on her leotard?”

         “You know full well the mess that girl’s room is,” Mote the Fairy countered with an annoyed tone.

         “Y-yeah,” Tempest laughed nervously as he scratched at the back of his head with his right hand.

         The crystals that grew from Tempest’s body and replaced the ends of his spines were giving off a peaceful blue light until the embarrassment that came from knowing the contents of a girl’s room set in. As it did, the light shifted in color to a lilac hue and his cheeks flushed.

         “I suppose you can’t ask Nana either,” Tempest remarked as he stood up, bringing attention to the nature of the Rings only being visible to some and not all. A nature that was shared by Mote to a far greater degree.

         “Then you’ll find her of course,” Mote instructed rather than asked.

         “Of course,” Tempest laughed as he strolled down the hill and into the stairwell where a number of golden loops hung in the air waiting for him to collect them with a touch. He hardly noticed as they vanished into his body with a gentle chime and shimmering of golden motes of light, instead calling out to the owner of the abode. “Nana! Did you see Rosy leave? And what she was wearing?”

         “Good morning, Tempest,” an old brown hen woman with a scarf upon her head and dressed in a shirt, apron, and skirt greeted the black hedgehog.

         Nana was scrubbing away at a pot in a sink below a window in her kitchen defined by the large wooden island behind her. The most noticeable feature of such being an old AM/FM radio in a wooden case resting atop it. Tempest only paid it a cursory glance before returning his attention to Nana.

         “Rosy was up pretty early today,” Nana continued, answering the question posed to her. She did not look up but did smile as she heard Tempest’s sandal clad feet transition from the stairwell behind an open door to the wooden floor of the kitchen. “And she was wearing her leotard. I’m guessing you should have no problem catching up with her thanks to your speed though.

         “Hmm… Don’t you two usually practice in the morning?”

         “Normally,” Tempest acknowledged as the old hen looked up from her errand and made eye contact.

         “Maybe she found somewhere she thought she could explore today if she left early enough. You didn’t talk about it last night?”

         “No ma’am. She seemed to be her normal cheerful self last night.”

         “Then she’s having one of her rascally episodes again,” Nana chuckled as she returned her attention to the pot in her sink. “You’d best hurry up and go find her before she gets in too much trouble. Especially if those awful crabs you’ve warned me about are starting to come more inland.”

         “We’ll be back by tonight for sure,” Tempest promised as he crossed the kitchen and passed the low wall into the foyer and main room of the abode. “Unless I mess up again and have to hurry back sooner.”

         “You’ll be fine,” Nana dismissed Tempest’s concerns. “Rosy’s doing her best to help you too and manages to keep smiling no matter how frightening it must be helping you.”

         “Yeah…,” Tempest contemplated as he held up his right hand and looked at it. Though only for a moment before making for the front door. Well, I’m off!”

         “And where exactly do you expect to find her?” Mote inquired as she flew out of Nana’s home behind Tempest. She had to be quick herself as Tempest’s speed went from a standstill to hundreds of miles an hour in an instant.

         “If Rosy left so early to explore something she needed more time for I doubt she went inland. We’re too much alike.”

         “In that you want to leave this island and have adventures in the larger world,” Mote sighed out her understanding. “It’s not that I blame you since to save the world I need Rosy to leave this island as well eventually, but we’ve made no progress in finding a means too and skygazing as you two are wont to do is but a waste of time.”

         “Maybe,” Tempest weighed Mote’s words, looking down as he thought. “But I doubt it is. Our dreams will open up the whole world one day!”

         Accelerating as he shouted out his enthusiastic belief, Tempest gained a skip to his stride as he hurried through the woods and across the island. It was a task that took him little time with his speed, and even the odd encounter with an automobile sized crab or a large ravine did not slow him down. His skill at using his hedgehog instincts and natural abilities in combination with his right arm allowed him to practically fly across the island. As such, what had taken the relatively average person speeded Rosy all morning he accomplished in a matter of minutes and soon reached a stretch of land that curled up like a finger overlooking the island and the ocean.

         “Good morning, Rosy!” Tempest greeted with a wave of his left hand as he skidded to a stop just shy of the peak of the land finger. “You upset Mote. Again.”

         “That is hardly something to laugh about,” the fairy chided Tempest as he could not keep the mirthful sound from his voice. “If we lose Rosy then it becomes likely that I cannot follow the path most likely to help me find the thief and save the world.”

         “Right…,” Tempest allowed himself to be put in his place as he scratched at the back of his head with his right hand. A voice carried on the wind quickly distracted him and his ears flicked as he looked up towards the peak of the land finger in surprise. “…?!”

         Standing at the peak and looking out at the great Ring and cogwheel in the sky, the Sky Ring, the pink hedgehog girl, Rosy the Rascal, clad in her white leotard with its puffy sleeves and a pair of red ballet flats held her left arm with her right in front of her. As she watched the sky with blue eyes of identical shade to Tempest’s, she raised her voice in a wordless song full of cheerful and hopeful yearning. Confused as Tempest was by her singing, marked by the purple hue the light cast by his crystals had become, it was a sound that brought him a sense of peace and flakes of intense blue light swirled within the crystals.

         “…beautiful…”

         “EEH~!” Rosy jumped and turned around at the word as though it alone could penetrate her distracted state. Her smile of embarrassed surprise drew a smile from Tempest, and she pouted at him as she threw her balled up hands down at her sides and threw her hips back. “Ooh~! Tempest, you jerk! You can’t just say that all the time! Besides, I’m Sonic’s destined lover! Remember?”

         “I do,” Mote cut in before Tempest could answer as his own smile fell at the mention of the legendary blue hedgehog. “Your bond with him is necessary to save the world, yet you continue to run off on your own like this.”

         “Ooh~! Come on Mote,” Rosy whined before offering the fairy a wink and a smile. “I didn’t think it’d be any trouble coming up here by myself. Sorry.

         “But…,” Rosy began as she turned around and clasped her hands behind her back, turning her attention to the Sky Ring.

         Tempest did not see it where Rosy did in the sky and had to look more above rather than out towards the horizon as Rosy did. It was another phenomenon of the Rings that confused him, but he did not mind this particular time. It allowed him to take his eyes off of Rosy swaying her body to and fro as her tail wagged excitedly. Or at least he believed as such as he did not see her tail droop looking to the Sky Ring.

         “…I had to get out early,” Rosy in a rather clumsy manner tried to explain her outing that morning. “I just can’t help Tempest today. Sorry.”

         “What? Why not?”

         Lowering his gaze from the Sky Ring to Rosy, their blue eyes met, and Rosy smiled awkwardly at Tempest as he sought answers from her.

         “Ooh~! I don’t know how to put it,” Rosy whined and looked away again. “It’s going to sound bad, and I… No, if I say anything…

         “Sorry, Tempest,” Rosy suddenly apologized as she turned around and started hopping down the land finger. “I’ll try to be able to tomorrow… …?!”

         Neither Tempest nor Mote filled the gap immediately where Rosy trailed off as they too were distracted by the sudden storm of golden motes of light like from collected Rings that rose up all across the island.

         “Oh no!” Rosy shouted in surprise. “It’s a Ring Shift! We need to hurry back Tem–”

         Rosy stopped short as she looked at Tempest and his right arm and he knew instantly that she was not as unbothered by it as she tried to appear. His falling expression and Rosy’s off-balance smile told a tale of an uncomfortable divide between the two, but Tempest still acted swiftly and took Rosy under his left arm like a sack of potatoes. ”Sorry, this will get pretty rough…”

         “…That’s okay,” Rosy smiled more comfortably as Tempest leapt from the land finger.

         “I wonder,” Mote commented as she watched the two vanish into the woods. “Do they realize the Rings Shifts here aren’t right.

         “…Wait!” Mote shouted as realization donned on her that she had been left behind and hurried after the two hedgehogs.