In the morning, the sunlight wakes Gwen up as it hit her eyes. She slowly wakes up, yawning. She was about to move when she felt something holding her waist. She turned to see a sleeping Knuckles with his big glove wrapped around her waist as he snuggle into her. She couldn't help but blush at how adorable he is.

Gently stroking his head and dreadlocks, she tries to stealthily get up as to not wake the sleeping echidna. Though it was a little hard with his arm instinctively pulling her back down. With the amount of struggles, she manages to get out of his grip. Gwen grabs her ruby necklace and places it around her neck then quietly tiptoed out of the attic room, not wanting to wake everyone up. She then went downstairs to eat breakfast early before them. Little did she know, those pair of purple eyes are watching her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After finishing breakfast and leaving a note to let them know she went out, Gwen is back in the forest to where she come from with some stuff she need from her backpack. She would always go there often to do some sketches, discovering, etc. She likes natures and she's proud of that. Gwen stopped by the running lake and jumped over it and landed onto the next land.

She looked through the trees as she listened to the sound of mother nature and inhaled then breathed out. As she walk by, she saw something big and furry. Slowly and cautiously, she approaches and was surprised to see a big wolf. The big furry light grey and white wolf. It looks stuck as it whimpered, trying to get free from the big rock that's trapping it underneath.

Gwen slowly walk over to the wolf, making it flinch and growl.

"It's okay. I mean no harm. I'm here to help you."

The wolf looked at her wearily for a minute and kept growling, baring its fangs. Gwen slowly reaches out and pets its muzzle, stopping the growl.

It stayed still, slowly beginning to calm down. The wolf sees no harm and then shows that it trust her. Gwen smiles and looks at the big rock. Then she begins to try and push the rock with as much strength as possible. But it was impossible and it's so big. It would take a miracle to get this off of that poor trapped wolf. As if her prayer was called, she felt the rock slowly moving. She turned and was surprised to see Knuckles as he helped her push the rock using his strength he's good at. Together, they pushed the rock off of the wolf as it's now free.

The wolf jumped out of the hole it was trapped in and faced the two. Gwen noticed its paw is hurt and frowned. She went through her backpack and took out a first aid box. Knuckles looked at her, thinking what she was doing. Gwen slowly approaches the wolf, who flinches, but she raises her hand to show that she's trying to help. The wolf just stares and softens as she lean down to its level and begins to clean out the blood first for anything that might affect it as she learned that from Maddie before wrapping it around its leg.

"There you go. Good as new."

Gwen quickly took a quick pic of the wolf staring at her before it ran off to where the nature takes it.

"What are you doing here?" Knuckles asked, looking at her.

"Going around exploring. How did you find me?"

"I may have spied on you."

Gwen chuckled.

"Well, you caught me. This is where I hang out often."

Just then, she heard a loud roar and ran to the cliff nearby with Knuckles following her. Looking down, she see a lake waterfall. She decided to take a look herself and took off her backpack and placed it down.

"What are you doing?"

"Going in for a swim." she said, taking off her black gloves, boots and socks along with her red rubber band as her quills went loose.

He looked down to where the waterfall is.

"Down there? Don't you think it's dangerous?"

"Danger? Ha! You're talking to the woman that beat you down real good. I think I can handle it." she laughed.

She does a somersault and dives in. Knuckles smiles and takes his boxing gloves, shoes and socks off, then dives headfirst into the water.

https://youtu.be/I61G6qPM_yQ

Next, they swim underwater as Gwen leads Knuckles to an underground cave with small ponds. Gwen resurfaced first and was about to move when she felt herself being lifted high and looked down to see Knuckles carrying her. She giggled as he placed her on the ground before coming out of the water. They head towards the hole as Knuckles look down warily when Gwen being mischievous, pushed him. He tries to balance himself and only ended up falling as he expected himself to fall when his feet were on the water. Realizing he's on the pond, he glares at her, who giggles. Gwen steps into the pond and gestures him to follow her.

"Come on, Knuckles!"

They headed towards the other pond as Gwen places her hand in the water, creating pink ripples that came from her ruby necklace that glows, which she noticed. Knuckles copies her, creating some red ripples powered by his fist.

Staring at her necklace, Gwen raises her hands and makes the water float and creates a big bubble. She bounces it over to Knuckles. He tries to catch it, only to ended up getting soaked as soon as he made contact with the bubble. She laughs again as Knuckles looks unamused.

She runs through the ponds, creating more pink ripples. Knuckles follows her as each step he take makes red ripples. Then, they start chasing each other for fun. As they run towards the big pond, Knuckles falls into it while Gwen keeps running. She stops to see that and laughs when she felt the pair of hands grabs her by the waist and pulls her into the water. Gwen resurfaced and blew out water. Knuckles gave her a triumphant smirk, which she pouted.

Gwen then smiles and leads him to the cave as they swim. Sparkles and lights were everywhere and it's so beautiful as Knuckles and Gwen gaze into the cave in astonishment. He turns to her and she smiles. She takes both of his hands as their hands begins to glow with a mixture of red and pink from their power as they dance around them for a bit before disappearing, turning their hands back to normal color.

Both of them look at each other in surprise, not knowing they can do that. They gaze into each other's eyes as they are full of admiration, attraction, and undying feelings for each other. Their eyes twinkle, their eyes are smiling. Even if they didn't say a word about it, there's this invisible thread connecting them two.

Then, Knuckles leans in first and kisses her, closing his eyes. Gwen closes her eyes and kisses back, wrapping her arms around his neck. And then they pulled away and smiled once more.

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After all that swimming and heading out of the underground cave, Gwen and Knuckles are sitting by the edge of the cliff to admire the sun and the town of Green Hills.

"I gotta say, this is an amazing place I have ever seen on Earth. Maybe society isn't as weak and undisciplined as I thought." he said.

"Yeah. This place is where I keep my mind off of anything that disturbs me or whenever I wanted to go somewhere alone that's peaceful and quiet."

Knuckles glances at her before facing the sun.

"You know, I never got the chance to ask. What's Longclaw like?"

Gwen looks at him in surprise.

"I know my tribe and the owls were enemies, but... now that we're together, I'd like to know you and your life."

She smiles and looks back at the sun.

"She's kind and gentle, but strict too. She helped train me to learn to defend myself whenever trouble I'm in. Whenever mistakes I made, she would always encourage me to keep trying. She taught me everything I need to know and I'm kind of like her favorite child. Don't tell Sonic that." she said with a hint of giggle.

Knuckles chuckled softly at that.

"I haven't told anyone about this and since you're my... my closest friend and boyfriend, I'm... afraid of the dark."

He was surprised to hear that.

"I don't like being in the dark alone by myself without anyone else with me. Longclaw would always comfort me and sing a lullaby to me. Her voice was so beautiful and soothing. I'd always enjoy singing 'cause... it reminds me of how much she means to me... and I miss her. If she were still alive, I would at least hear her song one last time..."

Gwen's voice breaks as she speaks and begins tearing up, making him concern.

"She really means everything to you and your brother." he said.

"She was more like a mother to me. I'd never knew my real parents. My mother or father. Sometimes I wonder where they are, but I know they're out there watching over us."

Knuckles looks down.

"It's amazing that you know about Longclaw, who's like a mother, mine passed away when I was young. I don't even remember what she looked like really, much less the sound of her voice. I would always ask my father about her, but he didn't have a heart to tell me."

Gwen frowns, feeling bad that he didn't get to know his own mother.

"You know, I've always wondered, can you miss someone you never actually knew?"

"Yeah, I know how you feel."

She pulls him into a hug, causing him to shed a tear along with her as they both missed their loved ones. Knuckles buries his face against her chest.

"Do you... think you can sing me a song?"

"I... I'll try. I have this other lullaby Longclaw used to sing to me whenever I ask her for another song. Either Noble Maiden Fair, Baby Mine, You'll Be In My Heart, Remember Me, and my favorite one..."

"What's that?" he asked curiously.

She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and sings.

https://youtu.be/lwwjjWPgTE4

"You're okay

You're alright

I'll never ever leave your side

I will stay

And I will fight

With you"

What she didn't notice her ruby around her neck begins to glow and releases swarm of pinkish white butterflies. They started surrounding them and danced around as they spiraled around, following the melody from her lips while leaving the trail of sparkles in the air.

Knuckles looks up and his eyes widens. He looks at her and notices the glowing necklace, wondering how she can do that.

Gwen continued to vocalize beautifully, the song fueled by how much she cared and loved him.

Knuckles gaze her face once more, looking shocked and amazed.

"You're okay

You're alright

I'll stay here

Through the darkest night

All the way

I will fight

With you"

He's left speechless. He was more moved by the lyrics. Knuckles looks at the butterflies to see them leaving as they flutter to who knows where, disappearing from view. The ruby necklace stops glowing and Gwen opens her eyes to see him staring at her, but she didn't bother looking away. His purple eyes were just locked with hers.

"That was... amazing." he blushed.

"Thanks." she blushed back.

Knuckles kisses her softly. Gwen kisses back as their kiss was long full of gentleness and caring until they pull away. They look back at the sun, cuddling each other.

"We should get back before our family freaks out at where we are. I have a feeling it's almost lunch time."

"Yeah."

Before Gwen could even get up, Knuckles wrapped his arms under her upper back and knees and lifted her up in bridal style.

"Uh, Knuckles? You know I can walk, right?" she asked.

"I know." he replied with a smile.

Knuckles then carries her straight towards home. Gwen just smiles and snuggles against his chest. Little did they know, one bright butterfly was on the beautiful pink flower that somehow grown on its own before getting off to fly after the other butterflies, sparkles trailing behind it.