"I'm thirsty.......so thirsty...." Tails moaned and fell to the ground. Everyone turned back to look at him.

"Why can't we drink the river water?" Sonic asked, as he picked up Tails. Shadow frowned.

"It's contaminated. You could catch the Snail Fever," Shadow replied. "A lot of my people have caught it,"

"What's Snail Fever?" Knuckles asked sounding confused.

"Well...if you drink contaminated water then parasites enter your bladder and destroys it," Shadow answered. "That's all I know,"

Knuckles shuddered.

"Then what can we drink?" Knuckles asked.

"There's banana juice," Shadow replied.

"No," Knuckles said.

"Yeah Shadow, no," Sonic said angrily.

"Nobody's drinking that stuff and I want water. So I say we take the risk at drinking river water," Sonic said bravely. Everyone looked at him.

"There are all kinds of deadly diseases you can catch in Amazon," Tails dryly said.

"I don't want to know about them unless I catch one," Sonic demanded. Tails didn't say anything and just let Sonic carry him.

"Shadow, I mean Shad Shua, don't you think living in the Amazon is dangerous and terrible?" Knuckles asked. Shadow looked at him.

"No...if you are one with the Amazon then you can survive in here," Shadow replied.

"I...wanna...go...home..." Tails moaned.

"Hush up, buddy, we're not going home anytime soon," Sonic told Tails. Tails groaned then jumped out of Sonic's arms. Sonic stared at him. "You weren't weak?" Sonic asked. Tails shook his head.

"Nope, my feet were hurting so I pretended that I was weak so you can hold me," Tails answered with a smile. Sonic glared at him.

"The next time I see you looking like you're weak, I'm not going to help you," Sonic pointed at Tails. Tails shrugged and they walked on.

After an hour of walking Shadow stopped at a river. "Why are we here?" Knuckles asked him.

"You said you wanted some water," Shadow pointed at the river. Sonic jumped behind them.

"I'm not going near that water," Sonic said in fear. "There might be more piranah in it,"

"There are none in this river," Shadow told him.

"I don't believe you, Shad Shua," Sonic said angrily.

"Stop being a coward Sonic. You're not afraid of anything but H2O, stop being afraid," Knuckles got some water in his hand and started drinking it. Tails did the same.

"It tastes fine to me," Knuckles said, as he drank some more.

"But still, we could catch some type of disease," Tails warned him.

"Now you got me thinking of that," Knuckles glared at Tails.

"We have to keep moving," Shadow told them.

"Why?" Sonic asked, as he climbed up a tree.

"I sense that we are being followed," Shadow answered. Sonic frowned then flinched when he saw a bird land on top of the branch next to some bananas.

"Hey look, it's a toucan!" Sonic exclaimed, as he stared at it. "Ah man, I always wanted to see one of these. This is so COOL!" Sonic tried to grab it but it flew away. "Man...it flew away," Sonic said then grabbed the bananas. Tails and Knuckles were finished drinking and Shadow was picking up some ants on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Tails asked, as he listened to all of the loud Amazon sounds.

"Eating," Shadow responded.

"Right," Tails sat down beside Knuckles and sighed. Sonic sat down next to them and they all began eating the bananas.

"Yum, yum," Knuckles said. Suddenly they heard a very loud roar. They all stood up imediately. Suddenly five jaguars appeared from behind a bush and slowly approached them.

"Shadow...I mean Shad Shua....what do we do?" Sonic asked quietly.

"We have to escape," Shadow answered.

"I know we have to escape! What I mean is, do you have a plan?" Sonic asked.

"No," Shadow replied.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!" Knuckles started running and Tails was flying behind him. Sonic and Shadow followed, passing Tails and Knuckles up with their speed. The jaguars were right behind them.

"I can't fly fast enough!" Tails shouted.

"I can't run fast enough!" Knuckles yelled. Shadow looked at the river then grinned.

"I have a plan!" He exclaimed. "Head for the river, now, it's our only chance!"

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