Chapter 7

Eight hours passed and it is now the next day.

Sonic's bowels make a strange gurgling noise and shift uneasily. He feels bloated and full; the sensation completely unpleasant for him.

"How do you feel?" Shadow asked him as he sat beside him, giving him a full water bottle.

"A little sick." Sonic answered as he took the water bottle and drank from it. "I can't believe I fell for that."

"You couldn't have known, Sonic, she had both of us fooled." Shadow assured as he gently pet Sonic's quills back.

"No, not you, not fully." Sonic shook his head. "You said so yourself that you had a bad feeling about it… I should've listened to you."

"Sonic it's ok. Yes, I had a bad feeling about it, but I never would've expected it would do that! Besides, you have hero's blood in you. It's in your nature to help those in need. She had you fooled that she was in danger, and you had a natural response to it. It is not your fault."

Sonic remains silent as Shadow explains this. While yes, he was naturally a hero, he felt that he should still be able to tell the difference between someone in real danger and a trap. But… the sandtrap looked so convincing. At this, he suddenly realized in horror that in this place… he couldn't trust anything.

"Can we go see Amily, or Whitney." Sonic pleads silently. "I feel like a friendly face will make me feel better."

Shadow smiled. "Of course. We'll go see how Amily's doing."

And so, the two hedgehogs stood up and made their way back to the town ruins in search of the mouse girl.

While picking through the ruined houses and abandoned structures of the dilapidated village, they manage to find something useful! There's an intact but empty weapon rack here. It looks like it could hold nine different weapons. Shadow checks it over and spots an easy way to fold it up for transport. This would be a fine addition to their camp, so he packs it up and hauls it with them as they continue searching for Amily.

They don't bother trying to hide their presence, hoping to attract Amily's attention quicker. After all, she did say that the place is basically empty of anyone except her, and they can otherwise handle a measly Imp or Goblin.

Amily suddenly materializes out of the ruins somewhat slower than usual. The boys can see that Shadow's efforts together have taken; an undeniable bulge pokes out of her midriff, pushing up her tattered shirt slightly and seriously straining her belt. She idly rubs it with one hand, as if confirming its presence to herself.

"Well, I guess despite whatever other faults you may have, Shadow, you can get the job done." She says, not looking directly at them.

"Is something wrong, Amily?" Shadow asks her in concern.

"... You didn't come back for another round, did you?" She asks him uncertainly, causing Shadow's eyes to widen.

"No no Amily, of course not." Shadow slowly approached the girl, wrapping her in a gentle hug. "Mareth has not turned me into a corrupted bastard just yet, and I won't allow it to. Sonic and I simply came to talk. We had a pretty rough encounter yesterday. We could use the sight of a friendly and pretty face such as you."

"I could use someone to talk to, I suppose," she says plainly, but they can clearly see that she's very happy that's what they want to do. She looks up at him and giggles. "You've turned your fur blonde."

"Actually, this was the work of a witch we encountered." Shadow chuckled. "Do you like it?"

"I think the red stripes on you really make it pop." Amily chuckles, then smiles a bit seductively. "But personally, I like the black better."

"Well this is only temporary." Shadow smiles back, fondly petting Amily's ear.

"Mmm, good." She responds, then frowns a bit when she sees Sonic's uncomfortable posture. "Is something wrong, Sonic?"

"That's the thing." Sonic frowns shamefully. "That rough encounter we had? Well, we found this desert and we were exploring it when someone called out for help. I'm naturally a hero, so when I saw this woman sinking in the sands, I had this natural instinct to help her… but it was a trap."

"... Sandtrap." Amily sighed. "What happened?"

"I… don't really wanna talk about it." Sonic answered, hugging his body shamefully. "Can we talk about something else?"

Amily nodded and urged the hedgehogs to a bench that was still slightly in tact. As they sit down, they swap tales about their respective adventures, the talking seems to make Sonic feel better and forget the incident with the sandtrap. From there, the topic drifts to the humanoid female sharks that Amily has seen while rowing her boat.

"Shark Girls?" Shadow frowns in curiosity.

"Near as I can tell, they used to be a village of humans who lived right here on the lake... then the lake got polluted, and turned them all into... well, what they are now." The mouse explains. She looks pensive. "Odd... I don't think they have any males left, but on very rare occasions I've seen these weird tiger-striped Shark Girls... and they always had huge cocks and balls as well. But, whether female or herm, they seem to only care about fighting and fucking... and from the way I've seen them going at it, I don't think they see any difference between the two any more."

"Do you have any advice for fighting them?" Sonic asked her.

"I'm afraid not. They don't come to the shore too often, never mind too far out of the lake. They're probably resistant to pain and have a really wicked bite, though," she tells him.

"Damn." Shadow hissed. "We've already had that problem with the bulbous creature from two days ago. We were barely able to escape."

"You've gotta be careful in these parts, boys." Amily sighs, leaning a bit closer to Shadow until her head was resting on his shoulder, her hand on his leg. Shadow says nothing and allows her to continue. "Like the sandtrap, you can't really trust much in this world. Some characters may seem friendly, but others…"

"Yeah, we get it." Sonic sighed. He then looked at her. "You said you had a boat out over by the lake. We didn't see it yesterday. Is it still out there?"

"It is." Amily nodded. "You two are free to use it whenever you need to. Just try to keep it in one piece."

"We will Amily." Shadow chuckled before placing a kiss on her forehead. "We should go. Thank you for letting us speak with you."

"Thank you for coming to visit." Amily giggled. "Feel free to come back any time."

Shadow smiled and before the hedgehogs left, he placed a gentle kiss to her lips, which Amily promptly returned. Once their lips separated with a wet pop, Sonic and Shadow began walking away. Sonic looked at Shadow.

"Dude, you're falling hard." He chuckled.

"Well… maybe I am." Shadow shrugged. "You got a problem with that?"

"No Shads, of course not." The blue one smiled at him. "I'm happy for you. You deserve to settle down with someone, and she definitely seems eager to do so… perhaps, when we finish this quest, we can take her back to Mobius with us. She'll definitely be welcomed."

Shadow smiled. "Yeah, I think I'd like to do that."

Sonic smirked and lightly punched him in the shoulder. "Come on lover boy. Let's see if we can find that boat of hers and check out what's actually on the lake rather than around it."

The two walk around the lake for hours, trying to find Amily's boat, but the lake is so big, they still haven't found it when the sun starts to set.

"Let's go back to camp." Shadow suggests. "We can try again tomorrow."

"Alright." Sonic sighs.

They both walk back to camp and lie down, Shadow holding Sonic close as he rubbed the blue one's aching belly.

"...I'm scared." Sonic whimpered.

"Hmm?" Shadow hummed. "What are you scared of?"

"What's gonna happen when the eggs are ready to hatch?" Sonic whimpered fearfully. "Are they gonna slip out or… are they gonna…" He squeezed his eyes shut and looked away, tears brimming at the corner of his eyes.

Shadow sighed and made the blue hedgehog roll over until they were facing each other. Shadow brought Sonic's face into the crook of his neck and gently petted him.

"I don't know, Sonic, but we'll figure it out. We'll figure something out…"

"... I hope so."

And with that, they both fell asleep cuddling each other for comfort.

The next day after breakfast, just as promised, the two went back to the lake in search of the boat. They look around but still can't find it.

"Where in the world is that boat?" Shadow hissed.

"You don't think somebody stole it, do you?" Sonic asked in a worried tone.

"I hope not, Amily's gonna be pissed!"

"Happy wife, happy life." Sonic joked.

"Shut up, we're not even married."

"Not yet."

Sonic laughs, completely ignoring the smack upside the head Shadow gave him as they continue searching for the boat.

An hour passes by and the boat still goes unseen.

Suddenly, Sonic froze.

"Sonic?" Shadow looks at him curiously. "What's wrong?"

"Uuummm." Sonic whimpers quietly, a bright red blush on his cheeks.

Something oily drips from his sphincter, staining the ground. He supposes he should feel worried about this, but the overriding emotion which simmers in his gut is one of sensual, yielding calm. The pressure in his bowels, which has been building over the last few days, feels right somehow, and the fact that his back passage is dribbling lubricant makes him incredibly, perversely hot.

As he stands there in the wet, soothing sensation a horrifying fantasy somehow pushes itself into his mind, one of being on his hands and knees and letting any number of beings use his ass, of being bred over and over by beautiful, irrepressible insect creatures.

"I hate this place!" Sonic wails, putting his hands on his head and trying to push the thoughts away. "I'm supposed to be able to resist these kinds of things, but the corruption is stronger than I thought! Why did I agree to this?"

As Sonic sobs, Shadow quickly runs up to him and wraps him in a tight hug, seeing the oil dripping from underneath him and the blue one's cock fully erect. He whispers soothingly as he pets the quills back.

"It's alright. It's alright. Everything's going to be ok." He whispers.

"I'm so ashamed of myself." Sonic whimpers into Shadow's chest, sobbing as the oil continues to drip. "I feel so dirty."

"I know, I know. But it's ok. It's not your fault. It's this place, like I said before. It is doing this to your body and I understand that. I'm here for you all the way, Sonic. I'm not going to abandon you in this place."

Sonic sniffed and looked up at him with grateful eyes.

"Thank you, Shadow."

Shadow smiled and wiped the blue one's tears away.

"Go ahead and go calm yourself down. I'll wait here for you."

Sonic nodded and went behind some rocks, shielding himself from Shadow's view so that he would not see the perverse activity he was about to do with himself.

...

As soon as Sonic was done pleasuring himself, he steps out from behind the rocks, his ears pressed flat and his face red.

"Feel better?" Shadow asked him as the blue hedgehog approached him.

Sonic nodded shyly.

"Good." Shadow smiled at him. "Then you're going to love this. Guess what I finally found?"

Sonic gasped as he looked to where Shadow was pointing.

Not far from them, a dock stands in the water of the lake. The dock is crafted from old growth trees lashed together with some crude rope. Judging by the appearance of the rope, it is very old and has not been seen to in quite some time. Tied to the dock is a small rowboat, presumably Amily's, only about seven feet long and three feet wide. The boat appears in much better condition than the dock, and appears to be brand new.

"Oh Chaos finally!" Sonic cries out in relief. "I was starting to think we would never find it."

"Same here." Shadow nodded. "Come on. Let's see what the waters of this lake has in store for us."

Sonic nodded as they both approach the boat, sitting idly in it as Shadow grabs the oars and to begin rowing them into the middle of the lake, curious to see what could be sitting out there.

As Sonic begins to slip off the mooring rope, he is suddenly distracted by a swirl of bright colors under the surface of the lake.

"Shadow, look at that." He calls to his blonde companion.

"What in the world…" Shadow frowns as he too stares at the water.

As they peer over the side to get a better look at the oscillating mass of greens and purples, the swirl begins drawing closer to the boat as if reciprocating their interest; it grows larger and brighter as it closes the distance. The cloud parts to reveal an attractive feminine face cast in a deep blue shade. It lightens responsively as its gaze takes the hedgehogs in from the depths of two opaque eyes. The confusing mass of colors resolves itself into tresses of two-inch-thick anemone tentacles sprouting from the head in place of hair!

The anemone girl smiles at them flirtatiously as she bobs up to the surface. More out of politeness than anything, the hedgehogs smile back, not sure of what to make of her and unused to such unaggressive approaches by the denizens of this place. A bloom of vibrant color offset by the blue outline of her body causes them to lean farther out as their attention refocuses below her waist, where they perceive a smaller ring of tentacles waving at them from behind the head of a hardening penis! Turned on by the attention, the anemone grabs onto the saxboard in an attempt to pull herself up to them, but her added weight on the side overbalances the boat and pitches them overboard into her waiting tentacles!

"Aah!" The two Mobians cry out as the girl's tentacles wrap around them.

The initial surprise subsides to wooly-headedness and a feeling of mild arousal as the stingers in her tentacles find exposed flesh. In panic of drowning, Sonic and Shadow pull free of the ropy mass and backpaddle away from the girl until their feet reassuringly touch the shallows of the lakebed once again and they're far enough above water to be able to fight.

"Looks like we'll have to fight before we can check out the lake." Sonic sighs then frowns determinedly. "Let's do it to it, Shads!"

"Right." Shadow nodded.

Sonic revs up a quick spindash and rockets himself at the anemone girl, hitting her with powerful force.

Though he managed to hit the anemone, several of the tentacles surrounding her body sent home jolts of venom when his spindash brushed past them.

Giggling playfully, the anemone launches several tentacles at the blue hedgehog. Most are aimed for his crotch, but a few attempt to caress his chest and face.

Sonic jinks and dodges valiantly but the tentacles are too numerous and coming from too many directions. A few get past his guard and caress his skin, leaving a tingling, warm sensation that arouses him further.

"Oh no you don't!" Sonic hisses as he gets out of the way. "Shadow, hit her!"

Shadow forms a Chaos Spear in the palm of his hand and throws it at the girl, but the attack is deflected by the anemone.

"Dammit!" Shadow hissed as he threw another Chaos Spear at her, but once again, she dodges it.

Sonic growls and spindashes at her, but she blocks it!

"This isn't working!" Sonic gasps. "She's too quick!"

"But we're faster!" Shadow growls. "We can't give up!"

Shadow revs up his own spindash and shoots at the anemone, but as soon as he got close, her tentacles reached out and poisoned him, ultimately dodging the attack.

"Shadow…" Sonic coughs, suddenly feeling very weak. "It's the venom… in her tentacles… it's reducing our speed and strength… we can't fight her."

"Dammit." Shadow hissed as Sonic suddenly collapsed in his arms. "We'll have to try again later then, and hope that we won't run into anymore problems like her again."

Marshalling his thoughts, Shadow picks up the hedgehog in a bridal style once more. He frowns at the strange girl and turns to march up the beach. After twenty paces inshore, he turns back to look at her again. The anemone is clearly crestfallen by their departure, pouting heavily as she sinks beneath the water's surface.

Shadow huffs irritably and keeps walking all the way back to camp, where he lays Sonic down to rest and get his strength back after the venom of the anemone girl had so unfairly taken it.