Sheep in Wolf's Clothing
Part 2
A Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic
by Tearra Wolfe

This is a fanfic set in the SatAM Sonic the Hedgehog universe.  This part of the fic is set just during and after the Great War, which was won through the work of the then-hero, General Julian, who became Dr. Robotnik when he ran a coup de gras just after the war.

Mairi McBaan and her family are fan-characters created by me.  All other characters are copyright by Sega.

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Nothing is ever completed all at once.  Every task, from the smallest to the largest, requires work to clean up afterwards, whether the details of replacing the spent resources, the treaties to be worked through and signed, or resistance forces to suppress, there are always tasks which follow up the victory.  Do not become complacent once you have succeeded at your goal, for these small irritants can destroy any victory as surely as the mightiest of opposing armies.
-- Leo Tzu, "The Art of War and Peace"

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Mairi laid on the floor for a long time, curled up around herself and sobbing.  Her eyes were squeezed shut, partly from misery and partly because she felt better when she couldn't see the darkness around her - when the pitch black was the familiar darkness behind her eyes.  If her eyes were closed, then maybe when she opened them, there would be light out there.  If she opened her eyes, then there would be nothing she could do.

She might have even slept a bit while she lay there on the cold stone floor, her misery exhausting her, but she couldn't really have said for certain.  Finally, though, she had cried and slept herself out.  With a courage born of hunger for food and hunger for light, she stood herself up.

There was no landmark, and she had no idea which way was the right way, so for lack of anything better to do, she creeped forward till she found a wall.  With her hand on the wall, she righted herself to aim down the unseen corridor and carefully followed along it, hoping there weren't any turnings or side-rooms in this escape tunnel.  Escape tunnels only led outside, right?  Not into some labyrinth?

She clutched her little bag to herself carefully, wishing there was a flashlight inside it.  Her fear rushed through her, and she was tempted to draw the little dagger at her belt, but she knew Ma would scold her if she went around in the dark with the sharp edge out.  As she crept through the hall, she wondered if she could strike at the wall with the dagger to make sparks, just a little light, but Ma would scold her for ruining the edge of her knife, too.

As time went on, a new pair of urges rose in her.  The first was the urge to race down the hall as fast as possible, to find the exit and light all the sooner.  To race into the sunlight and leave the darkness behind.  The other urge was to drop to her knees and crawl so she wouldn't accidentally fall down some unseen staircase or pit, leaving her hurt and helpless.  She compromised by continuing as she had been, one hand on the wall, one foot at a time sliding forward along the floor.  She stubbed her little hoof often on uneven flagstones, the jolt running up her leg, but it didn't hurt too much, and she hoped she was making good time.  Each crack of her hoof against stone, each sharp intake of breath, echoed loudly in the darkness.

She imagined that she would be crawling through this dark tunnel forever and ever, that it never ended.  She would grow big and tall like Ma and Da, hunched over in the small tunnel.  She'd grow old and hunched over like the old nobles of the court.  She'd die, and still creep along the passageway as a ghost, haunting it as a ghost seeking light forever, like in some of Da's stories.

When she finally reached the end, she didn't realize it at first.  Her knuckles struck against the wall, at the soft part just past her hoof-tips, and let out a sharp cry of pain.  She quickly covered her mouth, a terrified moaning muffled into her hands, as the loud noise echoed back down the long corridor.  Her horror disappeared as she realized what had happened - she was at the end!  Her hooftips scraped along the wall as she sought for a some sort of latch or door or something other than just smooth wall.  Her fingers found a long crack like a door frame, and then a small knob.

She grabbed at the knob and pulled it, yanked at it, scrabbled.  It was stuck.  She explored around it and found a latch that was stuck tight, yanking at it and wiggling at it till the tight-fitting latch finally released.  She pulled at the knob again and it slid backwards and away, a tiny little hatch opening up to reveal two small holes.  She could see the holes!  There was light on the far side!  A soft, mild light, but it was light, beautiful light!  She pushed her muzzle up against the cold stone to peer out the two tiny holes, and saw a room of boxes with the light coming from an emergency exit sign over a door.

Leaving the two little peepholes open, she scrabbled again in the darkness.  The light through the two tiny peepholes was too weak to help her see anything, but if there was a way to see out, then there must be a way to get out.  Her frantic fingers found another knob, this one bigger, like a doorknob, and she scrabbled to find the latch.  The latch opened easily, lifting up, but she had to plant her little hoof against the wall and pull with all the strength in her tiny body to open the tightly fitted door far enough for her to get through.  Only once she'd gotten it far enough open and shoved her foot in it to keep it open did she reach over to nudge the peephole closed.

Looking at the far side of the door, she saw that the peepholes were part of a carved wooden pattern running around the room about two or three feet up off the floor, a carved pattern of repeated wooden circles inside of circles inside of circles.  She pulled the door further open to step through.  Once she no longer held the heavy door open, it slowly closed tightly shut behind her, and she heard the faint clunk as the latch fell into place.  Only now, that she was out of the darkness, did she wish that she'd propped the door open so she'd have someplace to run, only now did she remember the SWATbots.  She pushed and shoved at the door, trying to push it open again, to leave an escape into the tunnel, but it was locked from the far side and she couldn't budge it.

Having no choice, she pushed forward.  First she examined the boxes - they were marked with a name she recognized.  She opened the top of the box, looking inside, and saw they were filled with dozens and dozens of copies of "The Tale of Norby Rabbit" by Isaac Potter, a children's book about a mischievous little malfunctioning robot rabbit and his crazy misadventures.  The public libraries were holding a read along with this story, and all the kids in the Friends of the Library were reading it this summer.  Mairi had already finished it and gotten a gift certificate for a free chili dog.  She liked the vegetarian chili-dogs - she thought they were tasty, even though that little wolf boy and cat boy had laughed at her for getting one.

She was in a library!  A flood of relief went through her.  She knew libraries.  She creeped up the stairs, her stomach rumbling at her, but she couldn't get herself to move any faster.  Part of her wanted to go downstairs and make a little fort out of the boxes and wait for Ma or Da to find her - but Ma had said to get to the great forest, and someplace called Knothole.  She didn't know where Knothole was, but she'd find it.  Steeling herself, she snuck up the stairs as if she was sneaking through the forest with Ma on one of their mother-daughter camping trips.

The library was possibly one of the most horrible sights Mairi had ever seen.  Whole shelves were knocked over and the books were everywhere, loose pages with torn edges heaped in piles in the corners, or trampled across the floor.  The books themselves were ripped in half, or worse, with holes burnt through them, and lots of the loose pages had black-crisped edges.  The fire systems had gone off, and even the books that were still whole were damp and musty, with no one to clean up afterwards.  Mairi supposed being wet was better than being burnt, but still ... it was horrible, just horrible.

Why would they destroy a library?  If Da saw this mess, he'd... she stopped that thought, knowing that she couldn't handle it.  She clutched Da's medallion around her neck.  It was big-girl time.  She creeped up to the front door and cracked it open, peering outside.

Crowds of people were outside, but no SWATbots.  People were running, crying, and scared.  Some people were carrying bags or boxes of stuff, others were just running with nothing in their hands.  Some people even had small carts they were pulling along behind them, or pushing wheelbarrows full of food and photographs.  She peered out the door at the crowds, not knowing what to do.  She had been ready for empty streets and hiding from SWATbots, but she didn't know what to do about what to do about a crowd of people she didn't know.

At the palace, she always recognized someone.  Everyone was one of Ma's friends or Da's friends, or perhaps she might see Sir Charles or Rosie, or Sarah who worked in the kitchens and could always be depended upon for an extra raspberry tort.  At the palace, she knew who everyone was.  Here was a whole crowd of people and she couldn't recognize even one face!  She stayed tucked fearfully into the doorway till an old lion with a graying mane saw her.

"Hey, you!" he cried at her, "Whatcha doin' there?  You got anyone with you?"

She stared at him, eyes wide, not sure what to do, then finally just shook her head.

The old lion came closer, glancing over his shoulder towards where he'd come from.  "Where's your parents?" he asked, opening up the door and squatting down before her.

Mairi stood there, shivering, staring up at him with tears in her eyes.

The lion looked past her into the ruined library, then looked down at her and patted her head, a sad expression on his face.  "Best come along, lamb.  The 'bots have all gone crazy.  We're headin' into the Great Forest till someone can sort it out."  Mairi shivered some more, then her small hand reached out to grab tightly to a corner of his cloak as she nodded her little head.

It was a wild, hectic trip.  SWATbots regularly flew in over the crowds and scattered them in all directions, grabbing individual people, grabbing whole groups of people, seemingly at random.  Mairi and the lion, who said his name was Aesop, followed a whole crowd of others out of the city, running past houses and through fields towards the Great Forest.  She could see other large groups of people flooding out of the city in all directions.  SWATbots flew through the skies, occasionally dropping down to the sound of far-off screams - or worse, not-so-far-off screams.

Mairi had seen the city from afar several times before, and it was a beautiful city of white stone and green plants.  Now, though, a giant black airship belched out choking black smoke, and the palace, the beautiful palace of the Acorn family, was half-hidden behind a structure like the broken shell of what looked like some monster's egg.  Even as she watched, swarms of SWATbots were raising the shell of that broken egg, hiding more and more of the castle behind its ugly facade.  From where Mairi stood, it looked like a disturbed anthill.  And it wasn't just the palace - half the city was covered in black metal and scorched stone, turning the beautiful white city into a dark, terrible place that Mairi couldn't even recognize.

Aesop took her and turned her away from the city, kneeling down to look her in the face.  "No," he said to her, "Don't look back.  Just look forward."

She straightened her shoulders and nodded resolutely, recognizing the tone of voice Ma or Da used when they meant something more important than what they were actually saying.  "OK," she said, softly, and followed Aesop into the trees, closing away the view of her home, Mobotropolis, behind her.