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Maddie opened her eyes to the sound of the back door opening and closing down stairs. She knew for a fact her husband wasn’t home because she woke up earlier when he tripped on Ozzy that morning as he got ready for work, and Sonic never woke up past noon on weekends. Slowly, she slipped out of bed, keeping a small blanket around her shoulders to ward off the morning chill.
Carefully, she took hold of the spare police baton they kept next to their bed and made her way down the stairs, biting her lip as the boards creaked beneath her feet. The woman made quick work of checking the kitchen and was about to move onto the living room when she spotted a blue figure through the glass back door.
With a relieved sigh Maddie put the baton on the kitchen counter and peered into the backyard. Sonic sat in the middle of the garden, his hands doing some elaborate gesture. There was a metal mixing bowl in front of him which looked to have various fruits in it. Maddie laughed to herself before stepping outside. The sky was pale gray as the rising sun slowly gave way to blue. Morning dew made everything slightly slick and chilly. As Maddie’s feet met grass, she could hear sonic chanting something she couldn’t understand.
“What’cha doin’ sweetheart?” She queried.
The hedgehog jumped, kicking the bowl over and ending his chant. “Maddie! I didn’t expect you to be up!”
“I’m a light sleeper and the house usually doesn’t have much noise at this hour,” She said as she sat down. “What was that language you were speaking? It kind of sounded like Japanese.”
“Ah, it’s Mobian. My first language because obviously I’m from another planet. What would be the chances that I would speak English I mean- uh don’t worry about it. Weird alien stuff,” He rambled.
Maddie gave an amused huff as she set the bowl right again and put the fruits that touched the dirt aside. “You don’t have to tell me what you were doing if you don’t want to, but if you do want to tell me I won’t think it’s weird or anything I swear. It’s very important to be able to connect with your culture and not be ashamed.”
Sonic mulled the words over in his head before sighing. “I’m religious,” He said, curling in as if he was gonna be in trouble.
“Oh?” Maddie said curiously, tilting her head to the side. “I had no idea!”
“Wait, you aren’t mad? I always hear humans talking about how religious people are dumb, and then the religious humans, chris-chi-ans or whatever they’re called saying that if you aren’t of their specific religion you’re going to that one place that I haven’t figured out if it’s a cuss word or-”
“Sonic,” Maddie interrupted. “No, I’m not mad. Having a religion is a completely wonderful thing, and that’s only a few Christians.Christianity isn’t the only human religion, anyway. If it makes you happy and it doesn’t hurt anyone I’m not mad.
“Oh.” Sonic paused once more before taking the bowl into his hands. “Um, I guess- Every six full moons, I like to make an offering to Chaos.”
“Chaos?” Maddie questioned.
“Oh, he’s a god. A water god, hence the moon. y’know, tides? Chaos is the energy that keeps us going, it’s everywhere, kinda like the force from star wars, right?” Maddie nodded. “Some lifeforms, like me, have extra Chaos energy that allow us to do things like run fast or be stronger, or even crazier stuff like control elements and shoot lasers! So I like to make an offering to ask that my loved ones get plentiful Chaos in their lives to keep them energized, happy, and healthy. I also like to ask that my chaos energy never hurts someone I love.”
Maddie clucked her tongue thoughtfully. “That’s so sweet!”
“Would you wanna… do the ritual with me? Before the moon goes away?” Sonic asked nervously, wringing his hands.
“I’d love to! I could always use a little extra energy in my life. I’m always so tired!” Maddie exclaimed.
Sonic perked up, bringing his legs into a criss cross and putting his hands on the bowl. “Copy me.” Maddie did as he said.
“Now close your eyes, decide what you want,” He instructed.
Maddie closed her eyes, picturing her husband happy and healthy, doing a silly dance to a random pop song as they cooked together. She pictured Ozzy, bounding through the grass and his tail wagging as he chased bugs. She envisioned her sister and niece laughing as they watched silly kids cartoons together. And finally she envisioned Sonic, happy and carefree. No longer having to worry about mad scientists, or his past, or being judged for things that made him happy. Maybe that last one was a bit out of the water god’s reach, but she’d try.
“Ok, now I think the translation would be ‘Chaos, god of water and the life energy that nourishes us, keeper of the emerald, and guardian of Angel Island, please take this offering and grant me’ and then the thing you want. It’s best to say it in Mobian but I’m sure he’ll forgive you if you don’t know the language, though you have to keep in mind that Chaos isn’t just a being to get stuff from, he’s to be respected, and doesn’t owe you anything.”
“Makes sense,” Maddie said, eyes still closed.
“Ok, I’ll go first so you can see the hand movements. It’s ok if you mess up, it’s more about intention,” Sonic said, before raising his hands as if cupping falling rain. He began to speak in the same tongue as before, flowing effortlessly from his mouth, as if practiced a thousand times.
The hand motions were all quite simple, but Maddie still had trouble memorizing them.
Sonic finished and looked at her expectantly. Unsurely, she raised her hands and did the same cupping motiong, getting a nod from the teen. “Chaos, god of water and the um… chaos energy that nourishes us, keeper of the gems and guardian of Angel Land, please take this offering and grant me, um, grant my family energy and health,” She stuttered, having forgotten most of the words.
“You botched that,” Sonic commented.
“I know I’m so sorry.” Maddi cupped her face, embarrassed.
“It’s ok! Chaos is quite forgiving. You should have seen my first few prayers. They were awful!” Sonic said happily. “I’m honestly just happy to have someone else to pray with me”
Maddie laughed softly. “So is that it?”
“Yeah, we just gotta dump the fruits into a body of water,” Sonic replied. Noticing the look on her face he added “We always buy a bunch of fruits and then they go bad before we finish them and these were already starting to get all mushy. At least they aren’t wasted like this. I made sure to choose fruits that are good for the fish here.”
“That’s actually very responsible of you, Sonic. Want me to drive you to the lake?” Maddie asked.
“Nah,” Sonic replied before disappearing and reappearing, now with an empty bowl.
“Fair enough,” Maddie said. “Now you said Chaos is a water god. Does that mean there's other gods in your religion?”
“Oh yeah!” Sonic said happily. “There’s Mephiles, god of shadows, and his brother Iblis, god of fire, Enerjak, Aurora-la, Solaris, and Gaia!”
“Is that last one a planet goddess?” Maddie asked.
“Yeah, how’d you know?” Sonic questioned as he made his way inside.
“We have her too. I bet I could buy some statues if you want,” Maddie replied as she pulled some eggs from the fridge.
“Really?” Sonic looked ecstatic, bouncing up and down on his toes. Maddie had never seen him with this much energy this early in the morning. Maybe that chaos ritual really did work.
“Yeah! Big lady, right? Pregnant?” Maddie placed a pan onto the stove and cut butter into the pan.
“No? Well, there’s two Gaias, Dark Gaia who sits in the middle of Mobius and feeds on bad energy, and light Gaia. He’s super nice and fights off Dark Gaia! Dark gaia is this big wormy thing with a huge mouth and a bunch of eyes inside the mouth. No one really knows how Light Gaia looks,” Sonic explained as if it were the simplest concept in the world.
“Wow, you are gonna have to teach me more of these stories, they sound super cool! And maybe teach me some Mobian,” Maddie poured some eggs she had whipped into the pan.
Sonic looked about ready to cry. “I’d love to. I’d really, really love to.”