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Admittedly, this was not the view he had of this waterfall three minutes ago.
Understand, though, the view he had three minutes ago was great. The mighty, roaring river they had traveled along had given way to a sheer cliff face. Looking straight down had given Sonic a thrill—heart hammering in his chest and adrenaline rising to meet it, as he watched buckets of water pour off an edge and fall onto the rocky ground below and the forest surrounding it—and he felt himself relishing it.
Until the doctor showed up.
Still, from here, as he lay at the base of the waterfall with his quills absolutely soaked through, gasping for breath as it burned in his throat? The falls were breathtaking, and in more ways than one.
Great power—even greater than the can of butt-whooping be had just unleashed on the doctor—roared over the cliff’s surface, drowning out whatever his hazy mind could come up with, in the post-adrenaline fog. Mist rained down over him, soaking him through to the bone, and yet, the sun took that same mist and warmed it into a soft, heated blanket. Rainbows wove their tapestries together over him, and it was beautiful.
On second glance—and with the benefit of this new, changed angle—it was truly incredible. Majestic, even. Sorely needed, given what he had just gone through. He let himself breathe—once, twice—and groaned.
“That is the last time,” he grumbled, “I let Eggman bait me off a cliff.”
On one side, he heard Tails began to cackle wickedly—on the other, he heard Knuckles groan loudly.
“Shouldn’t have even happened in the first place, idiot,” the echidna growled.
The sentence—lackluster in its burn potential, Sonic admitted with a click of his tongue—caused Tails to laugh even harder. Knuckles just shoved him.
He breathed.
Once.
Twice.
The mist cocooned him. The breezes surrounded him, and the mighty falls’ roars drowned out whatever fears, doubts, worries that might have played havoc in his mind. He closed his eyes, and let himself retreat into their depths, and in exchange, they invigorated him.
He would never have a love for the river he had plunged into, nor the water that threatened to drag him down. But he had a love for its mighty roar, and the wet sand underneath him that served as his bed, and that fact that Knuckles and Tails were here—pulling him out and laughing by his side—and he could hear their breaths as strongly as he could his own.
They hadn’t quite succeeded yet. He could hear Eggman’s frantic cackle. But honestly? He didn’t much care anymore.
They would be okay.
He just knew it in his heart, as surely as the water roared over the falls.