The Introduction
A sharp, cold wind blew, and it seemed to seep right through Sapphire’s skin to her heart. It would be December soon, and she knew she didn’t have warm enough clothes to withstand the cold temperature or the freezing snow, nor did she have money to buy any. To make matters worse, the forest in which she lived, would soon be frosted over with snow and cold, and she had no other place she knew to go.
Sapphire was a fourteen-year-old gray hedgehog, with deep, dark blue eyes and a completely white muzzle. She wore a short, sky blue dress, boots, thin black leggings, and a black shirt underneath the dress. However, even with the extra clothing, the cold still felt icy enough to freeze a person.
Sapphire had lived a good few years in the forest all by herself. She found apples to eat when she got hungry, and if she was lucky, she would find food people left there without even thinking about it. But water was something she had trouble finding, and she usually had to go without it for as long as she could before setting out to try to find more.
The forest was the girl’s only home. She used to have an actual home with her parents, until they began abusing her, prompting her to flee from them. She ran away at the age of nine, and here she was at the age of fourteen, living in isolation and loneliness. She didn’t have any friends, and she was frightened to make any, for fear of them hurting and mistreating her like her parents did.
She didn’t know about the popular hero Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends. She rarely left the forest, not wanting to be spotted by someone who might recognize her and take her back to her parents. Her parents were still looking for her, as were the police. She was certain everyone outside the forest and in the entire world must know by now, after five years of her disappearance. She didn’t want to be caught.
The harsh cold and snow that would be coming, along with constantly being worried that her parents or the police would find her, wasn’t the only things Sapphire was struggling with. She suffered from frequent nightmares, and she didn’t have anyone to talk to about them or to go to for comfort. She lived in constant fear, and she was afraid that she would never find a friend. Never find someone trustworthy and kind enough to help her out. She thought she would be alone for the rest of her life, or die from the freezing weather that she was not prepared for.
But she was wrong about both.
