A/N: Guest reviews...

kopo: Not popular, huh? That's too bad. Well, Sonic is sometimes overshadowed by other games, like Call of Duty or Mario, but that doesn't stop me or him! Thank you. One day I'll get to original stuff...but for now I'm sticking with Sonic. :)

An Unplanned Safari

Characters belong to SEGA.

This sun is too hot, Amy thought despondently, sweat dripping down her forehead as she endeavored to find some water for her parched throat. The sun baked her skin and short, pink fur, dehydrating her, and you could almost smell the heat in the air. The grass crunched beneath her feet.

She'd been wandering too long. She'd wanted to go on vacation a few days ago, done a cursory search of places to go and packed her bags.

The plane had crashed, killing almost everyone in it. With no civilization nearby, clad in her typical red dress, she was hopelessly lost without any way of contacting anyone.

She'd packed her bags in a cursory way, the inventory having nothing in it to help her survive out here, in the eerily quiet savanna. (Why she was still carrying those useless bags, she wasn't quite sure; they were only making her lose more of her precious water.) Nothing was out here, just miles and miles of dying grass, only the strange chirping noises that came from the grass at night that creeped her out keeping her company. Her boots with abrasions on them, and no sign of civilization in sight, her heart sank lower into her chest with each weary step.

How long had Tails said one could go without food or water? Maybe a few weeks without food, but she wouldn't last that long without water.

Thinking about the small, yellow fox only made her depression worse. She should've taken that communicator he'd given her. It would be of more use to her here than sitting in her bedroom on the bedside table. Tails would have been over as fast as he could in his little Tornado…

Looks can be deceiving, especially on a grassy savanna with ankle-high, prickly grass. It certainly looked flat, but that just hid the fact that there were numerous pot-holes and uneven places in the ground. Before she could gain enough senses to stop herself, Amy stepped into one of said pot-holes and stumbled, sprawling on her front in the itchy grass.

Her foot was stuck. She tried pulling it out, but then a sharp cry escaped her lips. Excruciating pain told her she had twisted her ankle.

She gingerly pulled her foot out of the hole, grimacing as she went. There was no way she was going to be able to go anywhere now.

Stumbling to one of those rare trees dotted on the savanna, she sat down with a heavy thump. With no food, water, and a twisted ankle, any slim hope she had of getting back safely left her, and she succumbed to the despair.

Tails would, no doubt, be in his workshop right now, blissfully unaware of his friend's circumstances. Cream would be at home, playing with Cheese, also unaware of how dangerously close her friend could be to death…

And she'd never get to see Sonic again…

Her heart ached when she thought of him. She hadn't seen him for three weeks, since even before she left for vacation. He'd left again, probably traveling the world, and unlike her, he didn't have to carry a communicator, because he could cover miles of ground in a heartbeat. She doubted even Tails knew where he was, and nobody could ever find him if he didn't want to be found.

Even though she had thought there was no water left in her, the tears sprang to her eyes and wouldn't stop. If only she had gotten to see him one last time…

A bright streak of color crossing the horizon brought her to her senses. What could that be?

She shook her head, surmising that it was just her imagination, a hallucination from the lack of water.

But there it was again, a bright blue dot streaking its way across the yellow grass, standing out against the dull colors of the savanna.

It couldn't be…

It was. The very thought electrified her.

"SOOONIICCC!" she yelled, screaming as loud and long as her dehydrated throat would let her, ignoring the pain it caused her to stand. Please let him hear her, let it not be her imagination playing a cruel trick on her…

The blue streak screeched to a halt a few yards short of her tree. It was a miracle. Her hero had arrived yet again to save her.

"Amy?" Sonic asked blankly. "What are you doing out here?"

She raced over to him, the joy of seeing him again eclipsing the pain in her ankle, throwing herself onto him. "Oh, Sonic…" she sobbed. "I thought I was never going to see you again…I went on vacation, but the plane crashed, and I didn't have my communicator, and I didn't have any food or water, and I've been wandering around for two days, and I twisted my ankle, and—"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down!" Sonic said, chuckling softly, trying to get the over-excited girl off of him. He wrenched himself out of her death-grip and held her steady an arms-length away. "Don't get all teary on me, 'cause you know how I feel about that." He smiled gently. "How 'bout we sit for a minute?"

He was about to walk over to the tree, letting Amy go, but he was stopped short by a yelp. "My ankle…" Amy whimpered.

Acting as her pivot, Sonic helped Amy to the shade of the tree. She sat down gingerly, and he flopped down, facing her.

Slinging the small, black backpack off his shoulder, he pulled out a blue translucent water bottle. "Here," he said, giving it to her, "drink this."

She drank deeply and rather greedily, the fresh, delicious water cooling the sweat on her brow, making her feel instantly better than five minutes ago.

Sonic dug around in his backpack for a minute, then tossed her a half-sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap. "Sorry, s'all I got."

She laughed. "What do you have in there?"

"Stuff," he replied. "Stuff that's not gonna help you much."

Amy wanted to know what he was keeping in there so secretly, but she kept quiet and ate her sandwich.

The bread was just a little bit stale from being inside the backpack for at least a few hours, and thus it was squashed. But she wasn't going to complain; the egg salad inside was rich and creamy, and it filled her up.

Once she'd finished licking every last instant of that delicious nourishment off her gloves, Sonic spoke up. "So…care to explain what you're doing out here again? I heard something on the news about a plane crash…" He pulled out a crumpled newspaper, and on the front cover was a picture of the crash Amy had just escaped from. He sat down next to her, pointing at a small dot on the picture. "Now that I look at it, it looks like you, but they didn't find any evidence of you being on the plane."

Amy's hands shook as much as her voice as she corroborated, "Yeah, that's me."

She did not hesitate to spill everything that had happened, how she had run away after any help had failed to arrive after a few hours, how she'd been meandering for days before twisting her ankle and ending up under the tree, not omitting a single gruesome detail.

Sonic listened patiently, not saying anything as Amy told him everything. Once she had finished, they pieced together the rest of the story from what Sonic had heard by passing through nearby towns. They discovered that that picture had been taken by a helicopter Amy had assumed was just passing by. That was how she had gotten into the picture, but since she had taken her bags with her, they hadn't found anything to corroborate she had been a passenger. If she had waited until the chopper had landed a half-hour later, they would have rescued her along with the other survivors.

"We would've been out here, looking for you, but we didn't know you were on it," Sonic finished.

Amy trembled with more unshed tears. She threw her arms around Sonic again. "Oh, Sonic, I'm sorry…"

He patted her lightly on the back a bit awkwardly. "Just bring your communicator next time, 'kay?" She nodded.

Sonic then got to his feet. "All right, I think I know a place where I could get a hold of Tails to pick you up…" He lifted a gloved hand to shield his eyes from the blazing sun. "If memory serves, there's a village that-a-way—" He pointed with the other hand—"called Tikidawa. I think I passed through a while ago. It's close to Mazuri. Nice people…"

Amy groaned inwardly. She'd been heading the wrong way this whole time…

"You think you can walk at all?" Sonic asked. Amy tried again to stand, but pain seared through her ankle again. She shook her head vigorously.

Sonic shook his head and sighed. "I hope you're not too heavy…"

He gently swept her up into his arms, bridal style. Amy, pleasantly surprised, wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled at him.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Don't get used to it."

With that, he took off, a trail of dust being the only thing to mark where he had been.

Everything became a blur, the trees, grass, everything all melding together to become a bright, beautiful mosaic. The wind whipped into Amy's face, making it even harder to see, but the adrenaline, the rush it gave her, made Amy see immediately why Sonic loved it.

She gazed up into her hero's face as she wrapped her arms tighter around his neck. She could feel his heart, simulating a drum, pounding away in his chest. She closed her eyes, smiling again as she settled more comfortably into those strong arms of his. Maybe she should twist her ankle more often.

She knew she wouldn't get peace from the reporters once they heard she had been on the plane, but who cared, right? All that mattered…was that she was here now, safe.

Her hero was bringing her home.