*Literally a couple years later*

Soft clicks and quiet growls gently disturbed the quiet of the jungle, occasionally making their own statements amongst the chirps and calls from the animals that resided there. A dragon-like figure laid against leafy branches that were carefully weaved together, their black, grey, and white scales glittering in fading sun speckled light. A gentle breeze, cooled by the ocean nearby, acted almost like a gentle hand as it ruffled exposed light grey fur.

The clicks and growls faded away in favor of a soft sigh that was carried away in the breeze, and a pair of eyes that held a brighter blue than the ocean itself opened up to greet the world. Pupils, cat-like in nature, narrowed a bit as they adjusted to the light that they were now flooded with, and after a couple seconds, the eyes closed as the figure they belonged to shifted around, letting out a sigh of content as she struck upon the perfect position. She dutifully ignored the way the fabric of the clothes she wore got itself caught on the branches as she turned, too busy soaking up the sunlight after a hard day's work.

It had been a couple years since the Dragobian had washed up on this island, and to be honest, it's been some of the best years of her life. The inhabitants of the island, who identified as Mobians, didn't throw much of a fit when she was discovered, and after all the hype over a new arrival had died down, she was treated as though she had always been there. That really made unplanned interactions go a lot smoother.

The only downside to all of it was, these people wore things called clothes. Back at her old home, clothing wasn't exactly something Dragobians wore. Unless you were royalty, but even then it wasn't really much.

Once she discovered that clothing was kind of a necessity here, Drift didn't really allow herself to be seen by the public eye until she managed to throw an outfit together. Her favorite outfit by far was a nice off the shoulder crop top that came down to her waistline, and a pair of black leggings that went down to her knees. Some modifications needed to be made for her tail, but other than that, it was pretty good.

The material was light, breathable, comfortable, and best of all, it didn't restrict her movements in any way. Besides, the stuff could always come off once she was back in the solace of her cave. The dragobian in the tree let out another contented sigh as she laid on her back, crossing her arms under her head while lazily watching the sunset clouds go by overhead with a light smile.

Things had changed so much in the past couple of years.

Then again, so had she.

Nearly half a foot had been added to her height while living here. Her horns had gotten longer, and the sharp ended nubs that had once lined the top of them were now each a couple inches long. Might've seemed small, but those points were guaranteed to put holes in somebody should she ever have to use them.

Every single tip of her horns was now white that faded into the black. Her cerulean blue eyes only seemed to get brighter as the days passed, as did the colors of the scales that covered her body. The scales around her eyes had slowly turned dark grey, forming some kind of egyptian eyeliner art, that honestly looked pretty cool.

The white stripe that ran along both sides of her spine now had small white dots coming off of it. Dots that progressively got smaller the farther away from the stripe they got. The dot markings were also happening along the light grey strip that covered her entire underbelly.

Light grey spots, each varying in size, were flecked across the sides of her muzzle and neck, and were practically clustered across the sides of her torso, the insides of her thighs, and along the base of her tail. The fur that followed over her spine only seemed to have gotten messier as it grew, no matter how hard Drift tried to keep it neat. At least the fur was soft and clean.

She didn't know what the librarian over in the village's library would say if she accidentally tracked dirt into the place.

But, considering they were her boss, maybe they would be a little lenient. I mean, it certainly didn't take much convincing for Drift to land a job there.

Seriously, the interaction went a little something like this.

"Hi, uh, do you by chance have any job openings here?"

"...Depends. Can you keep quiet while you work?"

"Uhhh yeah?"

"Great. You can start sorting the piles of books over there into their proper places on the shelves"

Drift let out a breathy chuckle at the memory. Sure, the librarian came off as cold and straight to the point, but they were a pretty great Mobian. At least the pay was alright.

Enough for Drift to make a living off of it if she wanted to, in fact. Though she willingly chose not to on account of growing all of the fruits and vegetables she would ever need. She was so glad that gardening had been a favorite past time of her's and Falkore's when she was younger.

It was labour intensive, but, it was worth it to see her garden flourish.

Then again, perhaps living in the tropics had something to do with that.

The Dragobian took in a deep breath, inhaling naturally perfumed air as she shifted so that she was laying on her stomach with her tail dangling over the edge of the interwoven branches. She gently fiddled with a sprouting leaf for a bit, taking care to make sure her subtly clawed hands didn't tear away at it, before closing her eyes again, intending to fall back into a easy slumber. The day's chores and work it had brought along with it had exhausted her, and as much as she didn't mind hanging around people when accidental interactions occurred, she simply wasn't sure if she would have the ability to uphold a conversation without falling asleep.

Being this far from the village practically guaranteed an undisturbed rest.

...Usually, that is.

The muffled sounds of footsteps among vegetation and the chatters of lively sounding voices caused Drift's ear to flick and her eyes to peek open.

Just who the heck would be this far away from the village as the sun was setting?

Chalking things up to some people taking a final evening walk, the Dragobian shook her head a bit and settled back down, ready to move back into the blissful world of sleep. That intent was suddenly shattered as a shrill scratchy voice screeched through the stillness of the jungle.

"Snake monster!"

Drift gave a full body jolt as her eyes flew open, her pupils narrowing to slits as she whipped her head around, trying to find the source of the running footsteps that were getting louder with every step taking.

"Wait, Sticks! I don't think that's-!" a female's voice, full of worry, cried out.

The black dragon barely had the time to process what the new voice said before there was a flash of movement underneath her. Pain quickly shot through her tail as something pulled and bit down on the long appendage, hard, eliciting a choked screech of anger and pain from Drift herself as she began digging her claws into the branches below her, trying to keep her place in the tree while simultaneously trying to dislodge whatever had her tail in it's mouth.

"Don't worry Sticks! I'll help you in taking down the snake monster! Wait, do snake monsters exist?... Eh" someone, a male, stated, his voice going from confident to questioning to dismissive all in one sentence.

There was some more movement under the branches, and by the time someone, another younger sounding male, shouted for someone named 'Knuckles' not to do it, it was too late. Large hands tightly wrapped themselves over the pain point in Drift's tail, and yanked down as hard as they could. The feeling of a couple claws being torn away as Drift fought in vain to stay in the tree was definitely not a feeling she wanted to experience ever again.

The person that had managed to pull her down didn't just let her flop against the ground. Ohoho no nono, they physically pulled Drift down, and then flung her away from the tree, which left her colliding against the trunk of another. The action had forced whoever was biting her to let go, but to say Drift was now absolutely ticked off as she got to her hands and feet would be the understatement of the century.

The group of people before her was certainly an odd one, but not an unfamiliar one. A blue hedgehog who wore nothing but shoes and gloves, a pink hedgehog with a dress, a white and yellow-orange fox with two tails, a red Echidna, and a brown badger, whose mouth was suspiciously lined with red that also dripped off of it's chin. She had seen them before, taking down robots that belonged to a large bald headed human who round around in a flying vehicle who tried to invade the island at least a couple times a week. Dr. Eggman, she believed the human was called.

But that wasn't important right now.

The looks on the village hero's faces as they stared at Drift were expressions of shock, and in the Echidna's and badger's cases, guilt.

"Wait a minute. That's not a snake monster! Huh. Well, we should probably get going" the Echidna stated in a somewhat deep voice as he stroked his chin and began to turn away with a finger pointed straight into the sky.

With everybody in the group looking at him with a 'What the hell?' face, none of them really had the time to brace themselves or warn others over Drift's next action.

The Echidna, who was conveniently the closest, became the first victim of her attack. Flinging herself at him with a snarl, it took the Echidna maybe three seconds amid shouts of warning from his friends for him to realize what was going on. Of course, by then Drift had wound her body around his arm and part of his shoulder, and was slowly squeezing tighter much like a snake does with it's prey.

The Dragobian wasted no time in opening her jaws and snapping them down on the fur covered flesh, sinking her teeth down as deep as they could go without hitting any major vessels. Satisfaction burned through her as she felt her venom moving into the wound and making contact with the red furred creature's bloodstream, though the taste of iron as blood flooded her mouth was rather off-putting. This time, it was the Echidna himself who gave a cry of pain as he began violently shaking his arm, trying his best to dislodge Drift, who merely sunk her remaining claws into his skin, anchoring herself down while shutting her eyes a bit.

Wouldn't be much longer now till her venom took affect.

She could hear the Echidna's friends all yelling at him and her, their words jumbling together into mushed up sentences that didn't really make much sense. At least she figured out her victim's name was Knuckles. A bit of an odd name, but she wasn't about to judge, especially since his struggles were getting weaker by the second.

Deciding that enough of her venom had been pumped into his bloodstream, Drift released her jaws and began to slowly unwind herself. Knuckles tried to say something about not feeling all that good, but his words were slurred as the muscles in his mouth began to relax. His body quickly followed suit, and the Dragobian hopped into the air as he slumped against the ground.

He was awake, but it didn't look like he could actually move.

Landing on him, Drift made sure he would actually stay down for a bit before turning her narrowed gaze on his friends, who now looked worried. The two-tailed fox even looked a little scared as she spat out the Echidna's blood. The remainder that she hadn't spat out ran down the sides of her lower jaw, red striking against light grey like black against white.

The badger herself looked ticked off now too as she raised up a boomerang, as though she hadn't started this whole mess.

"You know, I was merely chilling out in that tree, ready to settle down for a quick nap after a hard day's work. I was tired, alright? You disturbed my rest, you bit my tail, you pulled on my tail so hard to the point I'm surprised that it's still connected to my spine, you yanked me out of the tree, making me tear a few claws out in the process, and you flung me into a tree trunk! If that's not an unprovoked attack, then I don't know what is!" Drift snarled, baring her bloodstained teeth and getting louder with each word that was spoken as she stalked closer to the group before coming to a stop.

"I mistook your tail for a snake monster. Common mistake!" the badger yelled back as she gave a shrug, earning herself a couple of odd looks from everybody, Drift included.

"What kind of world are you living in where you think this is a snake monster?! My tail has fur! How do you not see that?!" she cried incredulously, standing on two legs as she jabbed knife hands towards her tail.

Knuckles gave a noise behind her. It sounded like he was trying to say an indignant 'Hey!' but it came out as a drunken 'Hrr'.

"Oh hush! A big guy like yourself will be back on your feet in no time" the Dragobian snapped at him as she rested her hands against her hips.

"You know, for a group of village heroes, I was honestly expecting so much more, but clearly, you guys certainly aren't all that heroic after all" she stated as she looked back at the others, who seemed to pick up on the sense that she had gone from murderous to simply angered and flat out offended.

At least that was something that they could actually handle.

The pink hedgehog took a couple steps forward, holding an apologetic look while casting worried glances over at Knuckles. Deciding that, while he and the badger had done her wrong, it wasn't exactly right of Drift to let his friends worry over if he was gonna be alright or not.

"He'll be fine. My venom only has a paralytic effect. He should start moving and talking again within the next few minutes or so" she said, crossing her arms while resting most of her weight on one leg.

"Okay, that's a relief. Moving on from that, I would like to apologize on behalf of my friends. I'm not sure if you heard me, but I did try to warn Sticks about attacking what was apparently your tail. And Tails did the same when Knuckles decided to assist her. I'm Amy, by the way" the pink hedgehog explained, motioning towards the two tailed fox who was standing beside her.

Drift followed the motions, pinning names to faces as the pink hedgehog spoke, and one she was done, she turned back to her.

"...You're friends oughta take a page or two out of your book when it comes to manners... But thank you. Apology accepted" Drift commented.

Amy assumed a look that practically screamed 'I wish' as she nodded a bit before Drift let out a long suffered sigh, turning to Knuckles while letting her hands drop to her sides.

"And I guess I gotta apologize to you for your, current state. The paralysis itself will wear off, but, you might be experiencing muscle weakness for an hour or two"

"Hrrrm"

"...So, uh, as enlighting as all of this has been, who the heck are you? I don't think I've ever seen you around here before" the blue hedgehog spoke up as he stared directly at Drift.

"Sonic!" the pink hedgehog scolded him, setting the back of her hands against her hips.

"What? I can't ask someone for their name?" Sonic asked incredulously, waving his gloved hands around in a somewhat frantic manner.

Drift watched with a deadpan look on her face as the two began going back and forth about whether or not it was wise to ask an already inconvenienced person for their name. It took only a minute before she decided to step in.

"Before this increasingly pointless argument continues any further-" she spoke up, interrupting the two hedgehogs.

"-to answer your question, my name is Drift. And no, it doesn't offend me when you ask. Besides, barely anybody in the village knows my real name. Most of the villagers know me as 'Hider' or 'Recluse'. I mean, sure, that's not what I am anymore, but hey, the names stuck, so... yeah" she said, giving a light shrug.

The two tailed fox, Tails, suddenly perked up as he looked at Drift with a mixture of surprise and realization.

"Wait, those names are what other people call you?" he asked, pointing a gloved finger at her.

"...Yes" the Dragobian replied, not fully certain on how she should react to a question like that.

"Then, that means, you're the Elusive One! You're the mystery Sonic nearly went crazy over trying to solve it! Heck, he was worse than Sticks of all people!" Tails cried, now looking like a kid on Christmas.

"Hey!" Sticks cried, crossing her arms.

A twinge of surprise shot through Drift at the mention of the old name.

"Elusive One, huh? Haven't been called that in a long while" she said as she rested the back of her hands against her hips.

Sonic, on the other hand, gave an indignant scoff.

"I did not nearly go crazy" he stated rather grumpily as he looked pointedly off to the side.

His statement was immediately met with noises of disagreement from everybody except Drift, even Knuckles gave a groan of contempt.

"Sounds like someone doesn't really like sharing the spotlight" Drift commented, raising an brow ridge as she gave the blue hedgehog a side eye look.

The corners of her mouth twitch upwards at the look of annoyance she received.

"Even with my help, we still weren't able to solve the mystery. Until now, that is. And I've gotta say, you're a lot different from what I imagined" Tails continued as he began to circle around Drift with his hand on his chin and an inquisitive look in his eyes.

"Gee, thanks" the Dragobian muttered with an eye roll before looking at the sky.

The sun had almost dipped completely below the horizion, turning the sky and clouds to different shades of red and purple. She could even make out a couple star constellations. It was time for her to high tail it back to her cave if she wanted to make it back before it was completely dark.

"Well, as lovely as this conversation's been, it's time for me to head back to my ca-I mean my place of abode" she said, making sure to not let slip the fact that she lived in a cave.

Just in case.

After all, it wouldn't be the first time she encountered a crazed person that was obsessed with learning all of the details about her.

"What? Can't handle a bit of night travel?" Sonic asked with a light smirk, his voice almost taunting.

Drift gave him a look.

"Don't tell me you actually want to keep talking to me?" she replied, tilting her head slightly as her pupils narrowed slightly.

"Nah, not really"

"Exactly. Well, good rest of the evening to you all"

Drift began walking out of the semi circle she found herself in, but a sudden thought made her pause and turn back.

"Oh, and, Sticks was it? A word of advice. If you do come across a snake, don't ever bite it on it's tail" she said, looking directly at the badger.

"Huh? Why not?" Sticks asked, looking confused.

"...Because it will always take the chance to bite back" Drift told her, and with that, she rocketed herself into the air and began the journey towards her cave.

Perhaps there she could actually get some undisturbed rest.

A.N. Can you tell I have no idea how to free write Sticks :') ?