That was the last Autumn night Miles spent sleeping by his friends for a long while.
Miles awoke slowly. First one eye opened and then the other. He slid one leg off of his hammock, and then the other. He did not remember how he got back to his tent last night.
Miles stretched out his arms and gave out a big yawn. He could tell it was dawn by the sounds of the morning birds singing over the light dew that coated the forest grass. The sky was alight with various oranges, blues, and yellows.
Miles exited his tent and looked around and the scenery. He had seen many Mobian Autumn mornings but this one felt different. He did not know why. "It was always thus, and always thus it will be," he mumbled to himself.
"Hey, look who's finally joined the land of the living!" Knuckles shouted over in MIles' general direction.
Miles looked over to Knuckles, who by now had finished whittling a small emerald out of a tree stump using his knuckles.
"Come over and join us Tails!" Amy yelled over.
Miles smiled, and slowly trotted over.
Sonic was leaning up against Knuckles' newly finished sculpture with a lazy look in his eyes. Amy was adjacent to him, and Knuckles had now stood up and began making his way over to Miles.
Miles knew what was coming since Knuckles had always teased him since he was little.
"Come here!" Knuckles grunted playfully, as he grabbed Miles and gave him a rough noogie.
Miles laughed before pulling away and setting down on the ground, next to Amy.
Knuckles followed suit as he leaned back and look towards the sunset.
A brief pause permeated around the group of friends. Only Miles knew the significance of the moment. It would be the last time for quite a while he would get to relax with his friends.
Miles gathered his thoughts, took in a deep breath, and then sighed.
"Hey guys, I have something important to tell you," he said.
Amy looked over to him with a smile, Sonic lazily glanced over to him, and Knuckles' continued to look at the sunset.
"I'm leaving."
Knuckles broke his gaze from the sunset to look at Miles.
"But you just got here, we were going to go fishing!" Knuckles said in protest.
"You got something important to do bud?" Sonic asked Miles, still leaned against the carved tree stump.
"Yes I do, but I think you might be misunderstanding me," responded Miles.
Sonic raised his posture to meet Miles' eye line. Amy turned toward Miles with a confused look on his face, and Knuckles peered over at him, seemingly expecting something trivial.
Miles paused for a moment, then said "I'm not just leaving to go home. I'm leaving home."
Amy's puzzled look sharpened as it was now shared by both Sonic and Knuckles.
"I've packed everything I own. It's in the tornado. I'm gonna pick a direction, and fly until I feel like stopping."
"Well why are you doing that?" asked Amy.
"I'm getting older guys," Miles replied. "Every moment I've spent with you guys has been a good one, but lately I've had the unmistakable urge to say goodbye. Following my conscience has always brought me good fortune, and I'm sure it won't be forever, although it may be for a while. I'll write of course, as much as I can."
A now familiar-sounding wind shook the trees surrounding the campsite.
"Oh," Knuckles mumbled.
"Well…" Sonic stuttered. "If you've got your mindset on it, I wouldn't want to stop ya. I'm sure you'll be fine, you've always been the responsible one," Sonic chuckles. "Just not sure who will keep everyone in line after you're gone."
"You guys can't get into that much trouble," Miles said with a smile. "Besides, you're Sonic the Hedgehog, there's no trouble you can get yourself into that you can't get yourself out of," Miles said with confidence.
Sonic smiled. So did Amy and Knuckles.
Miles was ready to go in under an hour. He drove the Tornado over to a clear patch of meadow nearby the campsite and spun up the rotors.
Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles stood next to Miles, who was now climbing into the plane he had hand-built.
He glanced over at his friends and smiled.
He thought he saw a familiar-looking fox standing by the tree line, but a quick wipe of the eyes only showed orange and yellow leaves falling onto the still-wet grass.
"Goodbye, guys!" Miles yelled over the sound of the Tornado. "I'll see you again!"
With that, he started rolling away. He was up in the air in no time.
He made two spins around his friends on the ground. Amy was jumping up and down, smiling and waving. Knuckles was smiling and waving too. Sonic was smiling at his old friend. He had grown up. How fast time flies.
Sonic gave his buddy a thumbs up.
As Miles flew away, he began to reminisce. About his time with his friends. About his time before he met his friends. He could only help but wonder if this time would be like the last time he was alone after he was orphaned.
"No." He thought.
"While the scars that I obtained during my time alone are still with me, they are like the one's Knuckles carved into that tree stump. They will never go away, I can never forget them, they may get even darker with time, but they won't get bigger. I refuse to let them. I'm the one that will get bigger. Those scars will become a smaller part of me."
Miles flew away in a direction he did not choose. The wind flapped and fluttered its way past his face. He had so much behind him, but so much ahead of him.
Reminded me, did that breeze, that love may be strung to me, but sometimes you gotta fly away. Fly away for the sake of me, for I know what's best to be.