Shadow woke up to a faceful of sand. He groaned, lifting his face out of the warm sand of a mysterious beach. The black hedgehog couldn't recall much of the morning or the night before—no memory of how he ended up face-down in the sand.
Shadow sat up, a blush forming on his muzzle from the heat of the sun shining down on his back. He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling his skin burn. He was definitely sunburnt. Shadow looked around, seeing the rest of his crewmates all in a similar predicament, all on the beach and out cold. Confusion continued to brew inside the captain. But soon enough, Shadow noticed that a particular blue hedgehog was absent.
"Goldheart?" He hopped to his feet, scanning the beach with wide eyes, worried that his dearly beloved was missing. Or worse.
"Here!" Goldheart's bright voice answered somewhere further down the sandy shoreline. Shadow almost ran, but he contained himself. Goldheart would have all the bragging rights in the world if he knew that Shadow the Hedgehog ran to look for him. It was embarrassing to think about what the blue hedgehog would say.
Goldheart was waving at the black hedgehog, kneeling in the sand as his hands worked on digging out the longboat. Shadow raised an eyebrow. The day kept getting weirder.
"Help me get it out," the blue hedgehog said, turning his attention back to the boat, "we're gonna need it to restore the ship."
"What happened?" Shadow asked, kneeling down opposite to his partner and began digging also. "Where's the ship?"
Goldheart pointed out to sea. The captain turned, looked and saw his beloved ARK caught on the reef just offshore. Shadow sighed. So, they were shipwrecked. Goldheart shrugged and went back to digging.
Moments later, the two hedgehogs pushed the longboat into the waves, hopped aboard and began to row their way towards the ship.
"Hopefully the ARK can still float." Goldheart mused, settling in as Shadow rowed the boat.
"She better." Shadow responded, growling softly under his breath. He still couldn't recall how he—Shadow the freaking Hedgehog—managed to shipwreck on a reef. Maybe someone sabotaged the ship. That was certainly a possibility, considering the amount of enemies Shadow and his crew have made over the years.
The mighty haul of the ARK definitely didn't look mighty. Not anymore. Large pieces of wood were missing from her walls, and water had filled the compartments below the deck. The ship was nearly snapped in half, and the mast was nigh impossible to repair. Shadow sighed.
"Whelp," Goldheart shrugged, sighing softly, "looks like we'll be wrecked for awhile."
Shadow reluctantly agreed. It was going to be a long time before the crew would be sailing again.
