They walked. Sonic was in the lead, zigzagging his way through the rocky landscape, Shadow following in, more or less, a straight line. While Sonic was completely on-task, Shadow's mind was wandering, or more accurately, circling one topic.

Sonic's hesitation while tying her apron. 'This is…kinda' close…'

Had Sonic not noticed her weight gain until then? She kicked at a rock, noticing how her black shoes were now mud-spattered to match her dark navy jeans. She had changed in the past few years. For one thing, she found out she was a she. That is, Shadow found out she was female.

Early in life, Shadow had had regular exposure to "Chaos Drives," small tubes with shards of artificial versions of the Chaos Emeralds in them. They were used as replacements for the real Chaos Emeralds, but because Shadow was designed to handle the Emeralds and only the Emeralds with genetics from the alien race that had brought the gems to Earth in the first place, Shadow was not using the Drives how his creators intended. Her body accepted the Drives' radiation as testosterone, hindering her natural hormones and making her seem more masculine; her Chaos Energy abilities were extremely limited because of this, and due to the fact that Shadow was simply not working at full potential did GUN decide to shut ARK down as well as every project aboard.

Wouldn't have happened if somebody had gotten hold of a Chaos Emerald fifty years ago and simply sent it up to the ARK…

'Would have, Could have, Should have,' thought Shadow, thinking back on her limited knowledge of cliché phrases that might apply to the situation.

'Everything happens for a raisin. Wait…'

As Shadow continued her mental spiral outward from her original topic, she shook her head and looked around. Sonic was gone. No doubt was he still looking for where he had left the Chaos Emerald. Shadow, now hopelessly lost, sat down on a rock and decided to wait it out.

Her stomachs growled.

"Screw it," said Shadow, spotting a deer down the ravine a short distance ahead of her. It didn't look too fast…

Sonic was nowhere near on-task today. His ears practically glowing red, Sonic darted back and forth across the lumpy land. Trying to remember where the heck he'd left that Chaos Emerald and trying to figure out why the heck he had hesitated while tying Shadow's apron. Why the heck was Shadow wearing an apron in the first place? Was Mr. Eiglestein gay or just cruel?

Sonic shook his head. Mr. Eiglestein didn't strike him as either; he seemed more of the sexy-nurse type than the sexy-maid type…

"UGH!" exclaimed Sonic, mentally adding: 'why am I even thinking about this!'

Of course, getting off the subject as he was, he didn't really notice until he walked right into a tree branch that he had no idea where he was, where he was going, or where Shadow had gotten off to. Speaking of which…

"Shadow?" called Sonic, starting to get worried. "Shadow!"

Sonic shook his head. Why was he worried? Shadow could take care of himself! Hungry. And alone. Out in the woods. Never having wrestled a bear before.

"Forget it," said Sonic, glancing around for a tree taller than the one he had whacked his head on before he started climbing. A better view never hurt.

Shadow couldn't do it. She'd just happened to knock the deer over into a small bed of ivy and as it looked up at her, hideous as deer really are up close, she couldn't bring herself to put it out of its misery. Mostly because not only did it really not have any misery, more like mild annoyance, but she didn't have any weapons, so there was no way for her to kill it without it taking a really, really long time.

However those plants were starting to look… Hell, everything started to look edible!

Shadow bit her lip as the deer got up and went on its merry way. She would have to wait a long while for her stomachs to actually shut up should she eat anyway. It would take at least a week for anything eaten now to get down to her seventh stomach, and if left empty until then it might just digest itself. And that's no good no matter what species you are. And of course, Shadow would have to be totally empty in order to use the Chaos Energy shortcut she'd discovered that she'd been using naturally before she'd ever actually eaten anything in the first place.

Shadow sighed. Without Sonic, she might never get her hands on the Chaos Emerald he'd hidden. She might starve to death. People would find her body someday and wonder what the hell she was. All these thoughts were rather depressing, but Shadow's next thought made her actually worry.

Sonic might be scared, out there all alone. He had admitted to being afraid earlier, when unable to identify the sound of Shadow's stomachs and mistaking it for the sound of an angry wild animal. What if he'd run into an actual angry wild animal? Shadow didn't know what to do.

Sonic stared dumbly into the knothole in the tree. There it was; the Chaos Emerald he'd hidden who-knows-how-long before. Reaching in and plucking it out, he climbed a little higher and looked around, continuing his original plan: to seek Shadow from a bird's-eye view.

There he was; standing around in the nearby ravine. Doin' nothin'. Sonic sighed and climbed back down. He'd gotten all worked up over nothing.

Shadow looked down at the plants she was standing in. What were they, anyhow? Three leaves. Ground cover. A few flowers here and there. Nothing spectacular. Then she noticed that the vines of the plant were starting to scoot up over the edges of her shoes.

She shrugged and started to walk. No hurry.

Wrong. The vines started moving faster. Like a living net, the tiny strings wove together and made a tiny leap for Shadow's leg.

She started to run. A little bit of a hurry but still no-

"Crap crap crap crap crap…"

They were trying to trip her now, no longer chasing but thinking ahead, building tiny walls to try and stop her. How to get out of this oversized ditch?

Sonic knew something was wrong when he stood at the top of the chasm and watched Shadow try to outrun the wind's waves in the grass. At first he thought it was some kind of metaphor, Shadow trying to outrun the wind and all, but there was something unsettling about it…

He'd been living in Redwood Park too long.

Dashing along the edge of the canyon, Sonic called to Shadow, the aforementioned hedgehog looking up a moment before tripping and falling flat on his face. Not what Sonic was trying to do…

Shadow was exhausted. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't feel. Grass stains that would last forever. Getting eaten by plants. Worst Day in History.

Sonic had jumped into the pit and was already sprinting to Shadow, who was gradually being covered by vines. Sonic slid to a stop on the smooth leaves and tucked the Chaos Emerald into Shadow's hand, purposefully elbowing Shadow in the shoulder. They were gone in a flash.