EEnE Z IDC Ch. 8: The Gravity of the Situation

"As I said before, my name is Corey." Corey began, not even caring if Oskuro knew him by name alone. "The hedgehog on my head is..." At this point, Sonic took over.

"Sonic," he began. However, just as quickly as he were about to continue, he realized that in this world, adding "the Hedgehog" to his name would be redundant, and quickly finished, "Never mind, just Sonic."

"Now then, who are the two of you?" Corey asked, for the moment forgetting about his power-up sequence. Thankfully, neither of them seemed to want to bring it up at that moment.

"I..." the female deer started. She seemed to be shaking off something, but that feeling soon faded as she continued: "I'm Faline..."

The male deer only just seemed to come to his senses. Corey knew his name already, having overheard the whole incident, but he didn't have to know that.

"Oh, right! I'm, uh, Bambi." he said, seeming to hang his head in a bit of an unspoken shame. At first, neither Corey nor Sonic really understood, but then Corey seemed to understand that perhaps, Bambi shouldn't have needed his help to ward off Ronno. Before any further awkwardness could be followed through on, another adult doe came along.

"Bambi," Faline said, acting for the moment as though Corey and Sonic weren't even there, "Want us to walk you home?"

"Oh, no, uh, my father's coming to get me," responded Bambi, though Corey detected a slight hint of uncertainty in his voice. But why would the fawn be so uncertain about his parent coming to get him? And where in the hell was his mother? Faline and Ronno were picked up by deer that couldn't be anyone other than their moms.

"I see...well, it was nice seeing you again, Bambi." Faline said, walking off to her mother, who in turn, walked off with her, leaving the deer all alone with two strangers.  

"....So, are you two...?" Sonic began.

"Sonic!" Corey grumbled, already knowing where Sonic was going with that. There was no question  between the two of them whether or not that particular brand of awkwardness was there, but... "They're...not like the humanoid animals...I don't think they 'date'."

"What are you two whispering about over there?" Bambi asked, obviously curious. However, then his eyes caught sight of something else: "Hey, why do you have that scarf?"

Both heroes knew instantly he was referring to Corey's bandanna, which was now wrapped around his neck since it couldn't have fit around his head. For possibly the first time in his life, Corey had to pull a story out of his ass quickly. Unfortunately, he wasn't as gifted with this skill as his cousins or Edd was, and had to strain. Just then, something within him clicked.

"I... don't like to talk about it..." Corey began, making sure to pour as much moroseness behind his words as he could, and doubly sure to hang his head in such emotion. He then remembered that little story Ronno told, and, whilst slightly hating himself for doing so, added: "It...has to do with Man...I was lucky enough to escape, along with my friend here..."

"Is that why he's blue?" the younger deer asked, only furthering Corey's irritation. Thankfully, Sonic took over for a bit.

"Yeah, that's what happened to me...as for my name, since I have a feeling you'll be asking about that next, my parents...uh, named me this for my slightly higher than normal running speed as a child." Sonic replied, taking Corey's cue and acting as though it were a deep cut being probed by a Q-tip soaked in Bactine. Bambi, however, had only one last question.

"Why were you..." Bambi began, tilting his head to face Corey directly. "...grunting so weirdly back there?"

This nearly caused Corey to face-fault; had he not seen this one coming, it would have. Thankfully, by this time, this question was easy to answer with a half-truth.

"I've never fought before in my life, wouldn't know where to start." Corey stated, knowing it was also a half-lie: he had fought as a Saiyan, but not as a deer. In fact, up until now, he was a Saiyan.

"Well, if you don't mind, we'll be leaving now..." Sonic said.

"OK," Bambi said. "Oh, and by the way, thank you for helping me out...back there..." Once again, that edge of self-hate returned to the deer's voice, but still neither Saiyan nor hedgehog could understand why. The two began to leave, Sonic getting down from Corey's head as he did so.

As they began to really get distance from Bambi, Corey had a sudden nagging feeling-that deer he had met earlier could get himself in trouble. After all, he bought the bullshit that Ronno was giving him earlier on.

"Sonic?" Corey asked, stopping in his tracks, stumbling a bit as he turned towards where they had left.

"What?" Sonic read his friend's posture and non-verbal language, and figured it out in an instant: "You're worried about him, aren't you?"

"Somewhat, considering how easily he fell for Ronno's story earlier. He could easily be lead right into a trap..."

For a second, neither of them said anything.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt," said Sonic at last, and both began to walk back to the groundhog's burrow. When they got there, they found Bambi asleep on a snowbank. They decided to hang out in hiding behind the root where Corey had earlier fallen over.
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A few hours passed, and the sun set completely. Bambi seemed to be mumbling something, nuzzling a snowbank until it melted, mumbling incoherently.

"Must be having a heck of a lucid dream," said Corey.

"Learned it from Double-D?" Sonic asked in response.

"Yeah, learned that term from Double-D." Corey mumbled. They watched him in silence after this, at least until a disembodied voice echoed throughout the forest.

"I'm here," came the eerie sound of a feminine animal's calling.

"...Mother...?" Bambi asked, waking up. Instinctively, Corey and Sonic ducked down below the root, avoiding Bambi's vision.

Sonic perched on Corey's head again, and began to look around.

"I don't see her around," he whispered. The voice echoed again, the same two words.

Bambi began to take off in the direction of the voice.

"Why would she be way out that way, if she was his mother..." Corey halted, remembering all at once what he had observed just a few hours ago. Faline had a mother that picked her up, Ronno had a mother that picked him up...and Bambi was supposedly going to get picked up by his father.

Sonic seemed to come to the same realization himself... "Why his mother?"

"In this world, it seems, hunters aren't regulated by federal law on what they can and can't hunt-though it's mere common sense not to take out...his...mother...ah......crap......." Corey suddenly realized what Bambi was walking right into... "Or a fawn or two!"

"You don't think--?" Sonic asked, but was soon bunted off Corey's head as he took off after the younger one, and landed into a snowbank. Sonic soon recovered, and began to run after him. Both animals skidded to a halt. Bambi had stopped, and was looking around. The three were confused, and the eerie voice echoed again.

"I'm here...it's me..." At this, Bambi began to creep forward, when suddenly, a large yellow light was cast on Bambi. The growling of attack dogs could be heard.

"Darn it...we have to help him out...even if we can't do much!" Corey said, charging in. Sonic could do nothing, except watch, knowing that in his current state, the only thing a hedgehog can really do is avoid death by crawling into a ball.

Corey managed to reach the space between Bambi and the dogs, noting that Bambi had frozen solid. Crows had flown out, abruptly and without warning, squawking the cry: "MAN" repeatedly, informing the forest that hunters were here and looking for blood.

Meanwhile, Corey had dodged a few of the dogs, head-bunting them in the chest as they passed over his head. This worked for a few short moments, until one of them almost clubbed him right in the eye. Pure reflex allowed him to evade that defeat, but soon enough he was forced back. He was backing off. When one of the dogs leapt for the kill, in this instant, Corey realized how outmatched he was, and resolved to do what he could...if he lived. And yet, there was no impact. No feeling of warmth as blood oozed from his neck.

Sonic let out a small gasp of shock.

"Corey......it's...!"

Corey opened his eyes to see an adult buck, with antlers that had eight...no, twelve points total. His antlers were huge in comparison to his head. He noted that this deer was a mix of Ronno's and Bambi's coloration, but when the adult turned around, he'd noticed his eyes were red.

"Go! Take my son and get back into the forest!" There was a strong sense of urgency in his voice. In this moment, Corey knew for sure Bambi was the young Prince, leaving the deer before him to be the Great Prince. As for his request, Corey was already on it, but no matter what he said, Bambi was frozen.

Click.

Corey's ears pricked up. He recognized the sound of a gun being cocked. In pure desperation now, Corey circled around Bambi and gave him a shove.

"Run!" Corey yelled. Now the four animals were running into the forest.

BANG.

A gunshot rippled throughout the forest, and the four animals narrowly avoided the bullet. In the chaos of returning to the forest, Corey momentarily forgot how to brake while in a deer's body. Thus, his run was forcibly halted when he slammed into a tree with his ribs leading the charge. Sonic slid to a halt next to him.

"Corey! You alright?" Sonic asked of Corey. "That was a pretty hard hit."

"Yeah, I think so, Sonic..." Corey replied, deciding to lie down in the snow to soothe the pain. Meanwhile, Bambi and the Great Prince continued.

"What were you doing out there?" the Great Prince asked.

"But it was Mother! I heard her voice!" Bambi affirmed.

"That was one of Man's tricks!" the Great Prince angrily retorted, in full-blown scold mode. "What if I hadn't gotten there in time?! Any one of you could have been..." he trailed off, unable to finish. "When something like this happens, when I tell you to run, you RUN! Don't ever freeze up like that, ever!"

"I'm sorry..." Bambi responded, hanging his head in shame.

"......At least no one was hurt." The Great Prince said, turning to Corey and Sonic. He did a double take on Sonic, apparently not quite seeing the scarf around Corey's neck as an indicator of anything to be worried about. "What's with his color..."

"Same with Corey's family...Man caught us both. Corey was rescued by...those that have sympathy for the animals. I was dyed this color as some sort of experiment. They let him wear that scarf so that he could be identified as a rescued animal." said Sonic.

"I suppose that fits. Sorry for your loss."

"It's fine. With Sonic here, I've been able to at least keep myself up." Corey responded quickly. "In a way, he's my guide." In the back of his head, all the Saiyan could think of was how incredibly unlikely his and Sonic's back-stories were, and yet they were at least appearing to buy it.

"Bambi, let's go home." ordered the Great Prince. He turned to the Saiyan and the hedgehog. "Try to stay out of trouble."

The Great Prince and Bambi left. Corey, in this instant, as Bambi looked back at him slightly sadly, realized something.

"I've messed things up for him," he said sadly. "Somehow, I feel that by standing up to Ronno on his behalf has wrecked other things besides his self-esteem, but I can't quite put my finger...well, hoof...on it."

At this point, rain started to fall, melting some of the snow.

"Rain...? Is the groundhog actually true in this dimension?" asked Sonic, getting up on Corey's head to keep out of the melting snow.

"I guess so, Sonic. Let's find a place we can call home while we're here..." Corey replied, walking off.

After about ten minutes of walking, Sonic found a perfect place, sheltered from the rain. It was a small thicket, perfect for a wandering fawn and a small woodland creature. Sonic settled into a corner and went right to sleep, but Corey stayed up, staring out into the rain.

"I have a feeling that right now, Oskuro is just one of the problems I have to solve while I'm here..." he said, then finally went to sleep himself.