FOR YOUR HEART-BOOM

☆Ch41

The next morning, pretty early though, Sonic woke up to the noise of Shadow's communicator beeping like crazy before the hybrid finally picked up the incoming call.
"Yes, doctor?" Shadow spoke to the communicator, already being active as he checked their little camp, snuffed out the fire and got ready for their departure to their next potential destination in an attempt to locate another chaos emerald on the way.
"Shadow, I located a chaos emerald nearby where you currently are. I am sending you the coordinates right now," Eggman could be heard from the communicator and Shadow looked at the display, pressing a button he opened the file with the coordinates.
"I'm on it, thank you, doctor," he replied politely.
"Good luck, Shadow. I will search for another in the meantime," Eggman replied before the line died.
"Ughhh, what's the time?" Sonic asked rather lazily as he just now sat up and rubbed his aching head. He went to sleep very late last night and thus did not get enough rest and it was all because of his busy mind constantly making him overthink stuff and wonder. Mainly about Shadow's sudden shift in behavior.
"8 am, come on, we got another chaos emerald to get," Shadow glanced down at him, getting rather impatient, for he believed, that someone else might find the emerald and snatch it before them.
"Shaaads, I need to sleep for a bit longer," Sonic whined, having a terrible dark circles under his eyes due to the lack of sleep.

"Stop damn whining and get up, else I go there alone! I don't care," Shadow growled at him angrily this time, unable to stand whiners, including Sonic, if he became one.
"Geez, fine, fine! I'm getting up, okay?" Sonic rolled his eyes in annoyance, standing up he had to take a moment, because his head decided to make him feel dizzy. Afterwards, another problem appeared - his stomach instantly grumbled, announcing him about his hungry situation. Placing his hand over his peach belly he looked at Shadow with nervous expression on his face, not daring to complain this time, as he didn't want to poke the beehive in form of the dark hybrid again.
"We will find something to eat, then we go, alright?" Shadow said calmer now as he softly patted Sonic's head before walking through the jungle, again wielding the spear, this time rather for a possible defense, if it was needed, than a hunt. Sonic gave him a quick nod and followed him. Soon, they discovered the same tree with the dragon fruits, so they tore off a few of the fruits and peeling them they both ate them until they felt full.

They walked all the time, as they couldn't afford to stop even for a minute. Shadow checked the map in his communicator and grinned for himself.
"We're close," he announced to his companion.
"Oh, cool," Sonic replied monotoneously, not sounding really excited about it. Shadow ignored that fact for now, as he kept walking now in faster pace the closer they were to the chaos emerald. Eventually, the two hedgehogs ended up standing in a meadow full of flowers and various types of plants. The dot in Shadow's communicator pulsed intensively now, indicating about their location being correct.
"Alright, let's dig in and-"
"Shadow, look! Over there, in the bush!" Sonic pointed at the bush and speeded off towards it, seeing a light blue bright glow coming from it he smiled just as brightly and gripped the chaos emerald. However, pulling it out of the bush was somewhat difficult due to some force holding it back. Wait, not only that - someone else was pulling it in the opposite direction!
"What the... hey! This emerald... is... urgh, MINE!" Sonic gripped the emerald tightly with both hands and finally managed to pull it out of the bush along with something big, which collided with him and caused him to fall on the ground with the big - actually another mobian - landing on top of him. It was a mobian male kangaroo, who kept his grip on the emerald as well, refusing to let go of it.

"Back off! We found the emerald, it is OURS!" Sonic yelled at the kangaroo, who seemed to wear only a loincloth on his waist, makeshift leaf-made fingerless gloves, matching sandals and a necklace made of strong bast decorated by multiple claws and sharp canines. Except for such minimal clothing of the mobian, he also had various white markings on his dark maroon fur and an apricot shaded skin tone, which was visible on his muzzle, neck, chest, belly, palms, feet and the bottom side of his exceptionally strong and well built tail. All his paw pads were black along with his nose and his eyes were bright amber.
"Get off my boyfriend!" Shadow, who watched the scene in shock for the whole time - until he snapped out of it - exclaimed and brought a strong punch towards the kangaroo, only to miss and stumble over Sonic's body due to the mobian using his strong tail to quickly jump out of the way and thus dodge the attack from the protective hybrid.
"No! Me find the Shiny! My Shiny!" the kangaroo finally spoke up while standing in a fair distance from the hedgehogs.