Sonic the Hedgehog: A Vixen's Thoughts by Bookshire Draftwood the author will accept questions and comments at the following addresses: bookshire@draftwood.com this work is protected by copyright law. The author grants his permission for free, unaltered distribution of this work in any form of electronic media. Any and all other uses are prohibited. Based on characters and locations created by Service and Games, Inc (SEGA), and by ARchie Comic Publications, Inc. Joseph appears coutesy of Joseph DeLaCroix Story: The Dome was silent. It usually was at night. Only the soft hum of it's power systems could be heard...and that was only if one was paying attention. The two lay in bed snuggly and quietly. Joseph's arms were wrapped snuggly around his mate, Sandra as he slept. Sandra had been awake for a could of minutes and cuddled a little closer to her sleeping mate, feeling him instictually hug her close. It was still quite early in the early morning, and although Sandra had tried, she found herself suddenly very wide awake. Rather than awaken Joseph to help her think of something to put her to sleep, she decided on a differnet approach. Using all of her knowlege of excape, she very quietly undid herself from her love's gentle embrace without waking him and stood quietly. Moving over to the stepdisk in the floor, she quietly asked it to take her up to the top level. Once there she left through the front door and walked out into the night. As she walked slowly through the forest, she was filled with the comfortably cool air around her, the coolness biting into her only a little. It was interesting to hear all the sounds that filled the forest at night. It wasn't actually noisy, it was just...different. Only at night does one seem to truely notice the sounds around her. Pausing for a moment, she looked up into the night sky. Millions upon millions of start greeted her eyes in an almost hypnotic way. The universe was so big, so vast, and yet, she knew what she was seeing now wasn't even a millionth of what lay out there somewhere. Travelling through the universe with Joseph by her side never lost it's appeal, no matter how many times the thought crossed her mind. She wanted to go...to go see new places, see and meet new people, learn about all the different races and customs that must exsist out there somewhere. And yet, a couple months previously, when the opportunity had presented itself, she had opted to stay right where she was. Still, that was different. That was a matter of staying or running from this great Ur'thaen ship they still had to overcome. She stayed because, for the first time in her life, she refused to run out on the others...leave them to fight a battle in which they'd probably all get killed... Still, perhaps once Mobius was in better shape, without certain doom hanging over it's head, perhaps she and Joseph would leave. She knew he thought about it too, and perhaps they would as soon as things settled down enough. She started walking again, moving steathily as she always did whenever it was dark. After a time, she found her way to Knothoel Village. Normally she wouldn't bhave gone there by herself, not at the time anyway, considering she still wasn't well liked, but it was the middle of the night, so nobody would be about...well, except for the nigth watchmen that were always around. As she walked, she pondered that for a moment. She wondered if the people would ever completely put aside their dislike, if not their hatred of her. She knew she deserved it, though. All the hateful glares were a natural result of the life she had led previously. It was a consequence she had excepted willingly, if not a little reluctantly. Still, she really did want to be liked again. She wished the others would put those glares away and forgive her. After all, Sally practically had already foirgiven her. First, offering her a pardon in exchange for not revealing Knothole to Robotnik, which she agreed to, and then virtually forgiving her altogether after she saved Tails from drowning not too long ago. The very fact that Sally had forgiven her was probably the only reason she hadn't been immediately arrested and put on trial for her crimes the second she publicly set foot into Knothole all those months ago. Unlike her former rival, Rachel, who's crimes were obviously impossible to forgive. She paused in her walk at the place where the trial had been held only a couple weeks ago. Sandra Nightweaver, on the stand...that was almost laughable, she thought with a smirk, if it hadn't been for the seriousness of the case itself. She knew Rachel got exactly what she deserved, and had in fact told Joseph that herself later that night after the mink's sentence had been carried out. And yet, now, she shivered slightly at the thought of it. Not two days ago had the reports come in of what happened to the body. It bothered her to no end, but why, she didn't know. Possibly, she thought, because she tended to believe that the body of a dead Mobian should be treated with at least a little dignity...no mattter what kind of life they led. Rachel would've been buried in an dishonored, unmarked criminal's grave...but that was so much more preferable to Sandra than the savagry which the mortitian had described. The Goddess had found reason to give Rachel life in the first place...it was only proper, at least to Sandra, that the body be returned directly to the earth from which teh Goddess had taken her. Sandra sighed and started walkign again, shaking the thoughts from her mind. She wouldn't ever talk about them to anybody...maybe Joseph...but no one else. Her beliefs were her own after all. Sandra tended to be a rarity in that aspect also. She held her own personal religous beliefs based on a combination of several histories and religous texts she had run across in her travels throughout Mobius. It was, simply, a religon that worked baest for her. She believed in the exsistance of an all-powerful Goddess(a shape-changing female form, named Katrinus Azaria) that ultimately created and rules the universe. She also tended to believe that, when a fur dies, their spirit makes the journey to a place of extreme paridise, or extreme torture. Teh judgment is made, based on how the fur has lived. In the now dead Rachel's case, Katrinus would have examined her motivations for killing twelve furs, as well as the motivations for any of her other actions. However, Mobian laws were not Katrinus' laws, and, possibly, she let Rachel into the paridise. Sandra couldn't possibly imagine why, but she most certainly was not one to question the Goddess' judgment. Still, in all likelyhood, Rachel got set straight to hell, as it were, since jsut about everybody frowns on murderers. Most Mobians held similar beliefs, however, there were always some that were completely different. In fact, Sandra had heard a vague rumor awhile back that Bookshire Draftwood quite possibly practiced something called Chensforism, which supposedly teaches that life is precious about all else, and that everybody goes to paridise no matter WHAT kind of life they've led. She doubted there was any truth at all to the rumor, still it was often amusing to her to think about the Mobians in general who might possibly think that way. She walked though the village quietly, pausing as a night watchman came into view. The large wolf looked over at her suspiciously, but, since she didn't appear to be doing anything illegal, he said nothing...but she DID notice that he kept his eye on her as she slowly walked away. A few more minutes of walking brought her passed the currently closed Knothole Daycare Center, where parents with too much work to do can leave their children for awhile...or a place where the children could go if they were just bored. She had to smile a little to herself as she walked past. The thought of having children had crossed her mind more often these days. She knew for fact that she wouldn't want to ahve any now...not in this environment of war and uncertainty, anyway. But still, once things settled down...maybe... Sandra Nightweaver...a mother. Now there was something she had to laugh briefly and quietly at. Parts of hre very badly wanted her to have children...a couple other parts said she couldn't possibly. Deep down, though, she knew she wanted them. She wanted Joseph to father them...and not just because he was good in bed. The fact was, that Joseph would be the perfect father to them, helping them grow up and helping her to help them grow up. she smiled softly to herself, thinking about holding a small infant in her arms...one that she had jsut given birth to. It would be small and helpless, but she would be there to hold it and feed it..give it a name and help it to grow. But in a better environment though. Pergaps she'd wait until she and Joseph had left Mobius for parts unknown...or maybe sooner. It would jsut be something she'd have to think longer and harder about. She yawned a little bit as she walked and decided to return to the comfort of the Dome, smirking to herself a little when she discreetly noticed the one night watchman still watching her from a distance. Arriving back at the dome, she went to the stepdisk and had it take her down back to the bedroom. Whe she got there she saw Joseph rolling restlessly about in bed...almsot like he was looking for something. Sandra knew what it was and smiles softly. She slid quietly back into bed jsut as Joseph rolled over to her. Finding the object of his affection once again, the sleeping vulpine gently pulled her close out of instinct andquieted down, returning to a peaceful sleep. Sandra snugged closer and smiled to herself. She'd never stop loving him...she KNEW that for a plain and simple fact. She nuzzled him softly before resting her head against the pillows and quietly drifting off back into sleep, hugging him clsoe in her own arms as she did, letting her mind fill with dreams of the life that lay ahead of her... THE END