Sonic the Hedgehog:  A Vixen's Thoughts
by Serinthia & Bookshire Draftwood

the author will accept questions and comments at the following addresses:
serinthia@foxcoon.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 courtesy 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 instinctually 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 different approach.  Using all of her
knowledge of escape, 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 truly 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.
	Traveling 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 exist 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 stealthily as she always did
whenever it was dark.  After a time, she found her way to Knothole
Village.  Normally she wouldn't have 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 night
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 forgiven 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 matter 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 savagery which the mortician 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 the Goddess had taken her.
	Sandra sighed and started walking 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 religious beliefs based on a combination of several histories
and religious texts she had run across in her travels throughout Mobius.
It was, simply, a religion that worked best for her.  She believed in the
existence 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 paradise, or extreme torture.  The 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 paradise.
Sandra couldn't possibly imagine why, but she most certainly was not one
to question the Goddess' judgment.  Still, in all likelihood, Rachel got set
straight to hell, as it were, since just 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 paradise 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 have 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 her 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 just 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.  Perhaps she'd wait until she and Joseph had left
Mobius for parts unknown...or maybe sooner.  It would just 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.  When she got there she saw Joseph
rolling restlessly about in bed...almost like he was looking for
something.  Sandra knew what it was and smiles softly.  She slid quietly
back into bed just as Joseph rolled over to her.  Finding the object of
his affection once again, the sleeping vulpine gently pulled her close out
of instinct and quieted down, returning to a peaceful sleep.
	Sandra snuggled 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 close in her own arms as she did, letting
her mind fill with dreams of the life that lay ahead of her...

THE END