Stubborn Love: Lost In The Amazon (Sonadow)

Hope

Day 22

Unfortunately, Sonic's enthusiasm could not carry over.

The next morning, Sonic felt worse than before, his fever skyrocketing and his peach skin beginning to have a yellowish tint to it. He woke up coughing into his gloves, splattering blood over his face and hands. The Malaria was getting worse. Sonic was living desperately on borrowed time, and they both knew it.

Shadow wasn't doing much better either, having a double dosage of blood poisoning. His fever was getting worse, and he began to have trouble breathing. His feet were also killing him due to the trench foot he had forgotten about.

Though as bad as they were feeling, they both knew they had to continue on if they were to make it out alive.

“Just keep pushing forward Sonic.” Shadow encouraged the struggling blue hedgehog. “Just keep walking.”

“I… I… I can't.” Sonic exhaled, his shaking legs making him collapse to the ground. “I'm dying Shadow. I can't go on.”

“Don't you dare say that!” Shadow hissed, crouching down beside him. “You are not going to die out here! I'm not gonna let you! Sonic I swore to every god known to man that I was gonna get you out of here, and that's what I intend to do, even if I have to carry you out of here myself! Now, relax your body.”

“... That sounded so wrong.” Sonic chuckled weakly.

Shadow rolled his eyes but had a smile on his face nonetheless. This was one of the reasons he loved Sonic. The hedgehog was always so cheerful, even in the face of death, able to bring a smile to anyone when he really wasn't trying to.

Shadow shook his head and snuggled his arms underneath Sonic's body before picking him up bridal style. Sonic sighed comfortably as he snuggled his head onto Shadow's shoulder. Shadow smiled and nuzzled the top of Sonic's head.

“I'll get you out of here.” He whispered. “Just hang on. We're close… I can feel it.”

When Sonic said nothing, Shadow looked down at him and huffed a small laugh, witnessing the blue hero to be soundly asleep. He placed a gentle kiss atop his head before he looked back up and continued walking, ignoring his own pain and fever.

…

Time was of the essence, and both hedgehogs were running dangerously low.

Since Sonic had fallen asleep, he has not woken up, not even when Shadow shook, screamed, and threatened him to waken him. Nothing worked. The sick blue hedgehog was in a coma, dead to the world.

This frightened Shadow. If Sonic did not wake up soon, he would never wake up again, and Shadow will never be able to gaze into those beautiful emerald eyes of his love ever again.

At this newfound life or death realization, Shadow had to make a choice.

Dense forest or not, Shadow began to run. He ran as fast as his weak legs could carry him, not exactly going at his full speed, but close enough. The wind whipped through his quills and the humidity stung his eyes, but he kept running, doing his best to dodge the obstacles in his way, determined to get Sonic to a doctor before he died in his sleep.

Suddenly, a root sticking up from the ground caught the hedgehog's foot, tripping him forward. He made a loud squeak as he fell forward, Sonic flying from his arms to land harshly on the ground. Shadow cringed when he heard a sharp SNAP and noticed the blue hedgehog's ankle laying in a odd position. Great.

“I'm so sorry.” Shadow whimpered, tears falling down his face as he crawled over to the unconscious hero and dug around his bag for the first aid kit. Once he had the kit he brought out the gauze and made a splint using two sticks found nearby to place his ankle straight.

Once Sonic's broken ankle was situated, Shadow put the kit away and just sat there, crying his eyes out. It was no use. There was no way they were getting out of this jungle. They have been traveling for weeks and they didn't even know how much further they needed to go, or if they were even going in the right direction. They were gonna die out here. Both of them.

It was hopeless.

Suddenly, a rustling in the ferns disturbed Shadow's thoughts. The ebony hedgehog whipped his head up and looked towards the direction of the noise, trying to decipher on what it was. It frightened him when he realized that whatever it was was big and it was headed right for them. At this, his thoughts immediately went to thinking that it was a jaguar, but then… his mind went to the impossible.

What if it was the Devil Dragon?

“GET OUT OF HERE!” Shadow screamed threateningly, standing up to his full height. “GET OUT OF HERE AND LEAVE US ALONE! LEAVE US ALONE!”

Shadow screamed and cried, throwing Chaos Spears out in anger and fear. He kept throwing them and screaming, all up until the sounds stopped.

And then suddenly, as if out of the blue, he heard a small whimpering sound, and what followed it afterwards out of the ferns, was a dirty white dog.

“Well my word!” Shadow gasped as he gently knelt down to the dog, allowing it to sniff his hand and petting it's head. “Where in the world did you come from, little Casew?” (Dog)

The dog didn't seem to be that filthy, as if she had only been in the jungle for a few days. She looked to be well fed for a stray, and her tail was wagging happily as she stared up at the ebony hedgehog, her tongue hanging to the side as she panted excitedly.

Then, Shadow had an epiphany. If this dog had found them looking like this, then maybe…

“We're close, aren't we girl?” Shadow spoke to the dog, earning a happy yip in return. “You've come to rescue us, haven't you little Casew?”

The dog barked and spun around, yipping happily at the hedgehog. She didn't understand what he was saying, but she could sense the excitement off of him.

“You're just a little sign of hope, aren't you?” Shadow smiled, rubbing the dog's face, flopping her ears all over the place. “You're a sign, little Casew. A sign! A sign saying that we're not that far from help, from hope, from life! You've come to save us! Chaos himself must've sent you!”

The dog yelped and jumped onto her hind legs, pinning her front paws against Shadow's shoulders, lapping his face excitedly with her slobbery tongue. Shadow laughed and gently pushed her off before going over to Sonic and picking him back up. Once he had the azure hedgie in his arms, he turned back to the dog, who was standing attentively, staring happily at her new master.

“Lead the way, little Casew.” He nodded to her. “Take us home.”

The dog yipped one last time before she turned the direction she came, heading out of the forest, with a certainly hallucinating poisoned hedgehog, carrying another dying diseased hedgehog, right on her tail.