The Pink Merhog and the Blue Naga

Where to Next Part 16

It took Shadow and Sonic awhile to navigate the tunnel, as there were many fork tunnels with either 2 or more ways to go. A few times they hit a dead end and had to back track until they found the correct path to take. Along the way, they found more green material and gather some up as they went along. After many hours, Sonic and Shadow finally made above ground. Coming out of a small cave that was located under one of the large trees that stood a little ways from the clearing. Both hedgehog/nagas spotted Marine, Tails, and Amy sitting under a mango, pear, and banana trees, close to the clearing, having a bite to eat too.

Marine was the first to notice the two. "G'day there, Sonic and Shadow!"

"Yeah guys, sorry to keep you guys waiting. We hard time figuring out which tunnel lead to the surface." Sonic explained when he and Shadow sat down and joined them.

"It's okay. We figured it was going to take awhile for you guys to find you out." Tails assured them, while eating a mango.

"Besides, while we were waiting we found these fruits trees close by and decided to have snack while we waited for you." Amy smiled, biting into a pear.

"Oh! Did you guys find more material while you were navigating the tunnels?" asked Marine.

Sonic smile, "Sure did! Take a look!" Sonic and Shadow open up their bags and showed them full with the material they collected.

"Ace! Now we can use this 'ere to make ourselves a sailboat, ay?" Marine cheered happily.

"Well, not just yet. We still need some additional material." Tails corrected her.

But Marine wasn't even listening, too busy fantasizing about being a real captain soon, completely ignoring him. Tails and the others sweat-drop, the young raccoon truly had a very limited attention span to anything around her. Amy was about call out to her when her ears perk when she heard rustling coming from the bushes behind them. "Hey guys....I think we have more company coming our way." She pointed to the bushes.

The others look towards them as they rustled some more and the distinct sound of approaching footsteps. Marine getting a little scared move closer to Amy and Tails, while Shadow and Sonic stood in front of the others ready for an attack.

"Who's there?" Shadow called out.

"Wha...? Is someone there?" called a new voice.

A look of recognition dawn on Marine after hearing the new voice response. "Ay, I know that voice!"

The bushes then parted as the person who the voice belongs to, came through them. It was a mobian male koala that had gray and white fur. He had a straw hat with a red band on top his head and green survival backpack full of camping gear; canteens of water, packaged dehydrated foods, pots, rope, small shovel, and sleeping bag. "Oy, Marine! How are you?" the koala asked the young raccoon when he spotted her amongst the small group.

"G'day, cobber! I haven't seen you in forever, mate!" she smiled at the koala.

Confusion etched on the others faces, "Cobber?"

"Yeah! Tabby's a member of our village's youth association. We call it the Coconut Crew!" Marine explained.

"Yeah, well, anyway, fancy meeting you here. Are these your buddies?" Tabby asked Marine.

"Yep! These blokes 'ere are my assistants, Amy, Sonic, Shadow, and Tails." she replied.

"Assistants?" Shadow and Sonic frowned.

Tabby suggested that they should all head back to Southern Island where it would be safe to discuss some information with one another. They agreed, but told Tabby to go on head as their boat was anchored on the farther side of the island. He nodded and left to where he had left his own boat, while everyone else head towards theirs. They reached the spot they had anchored the Wave Cyclone, but this time Shadow wanted to take a crack at it. Sonic didn't mind, he want to swim back with Amy this time. Besides, he wanted to race her a little to see how fast was against him. With Tails and Marine, Shadow drove the Wave Cyclone back towards Southern Island, while Sonic and Amy swimming right behind them. They had a little fun heading back as did before, well maybe not so much for Tails. Shadow was pulled off more rougher tricks like Sonic had done on the way over and the young fox was not happy about it.