It had been weeks after the incident, enough to count, but they had lost track of time anyway, so it did not matter. All everyone seemed to know was that spring was officially here at last.
The trees blossomed full and plentiful, new birds sang loud and high has they fluttered from tree to tree, their jubilant voices cutting through the air. The fresh, fragrant scents of spring seeped up in the morning mist and remained lingering in the musty air, giving the world a clear, clean feel to it. Everything was bright and new, everything was beautiful and full of life at this time, no one could argue that.
For days now that sun had beat down upon the frigid earth, warming it and loosening its soil, turning the frost into hot moist, and soon, even the deepest, thickest river of winter ice had to give way. And today, that would finally be accomplished.
“Come on, Eddie! Hurry up!” Kate cried eagerly, her whole face alit with excitement.
Eddie bounded far behind her, panting for breath while he sought to catch up to her.
He had had no idea how enthusiastic she could become in the spring. She seemed to love everything there was to its season of life; the birds, the colors, the smells, the sounds, the mist, basking in the warm sunlight, even the mud between her feet after having trod on frozen grass and dirt for so long. This was definitely her favorite time of year, and often, Eddie couldn’t keep up with her enough.
“I’m coming!” He hollered up to her, still paces away.
She stood patiently, waiting for him, but Eddie could tell more than anything that she was like a fire-cracker, just ready to go off and burst! He could see the bright sparks of flame flicker in her eyes as he drew nearer.
Eddie slowed before the pile of rocks on which she stood, leading up to a steep cliff.
“Wow, you can really…. Run fast,” Eddie whined, clutching his side.
Kate blushed.
“Sorry. I just really want to see the water fall,” She explained to him while lending out a paw to help him climb the rocks.
“It’s okay,” Eddie breathed, taking her hand and pulling himself up, adding, “But why’s it so important to you? I mean, it is big and beautiful and all, but surely you’ve seen other waterfalls before?”
Kate let out a quick sigh before flashing a brief, blissful smile, “I’ll tell you when we get there,”
“Fair enough,” Eddie grunted, standing beside her, then he turned to see the great face of a cliff glaring down at him.
“Or not,” He winced.
Kate giggled.
“Don’t worry; we’ll be up there before you know it!”


And indeed, she was right. Soon, Eddie found himself staring down where he once stood, with Kate at his side, still wheezing from the climb.
But that didn’t stop her from springing up again only seconds later.
“Alright! Let’s go!” She grinned, her voice chipper.
“Are you sure you don’t want more rest?” Eddie asked, a little bewildered.
“Nope! I’m good, thanks though,”
And with that, she started up again.
“Kate! Wait!” Eddie shouted, sprinting after her.
She stopped suddenly at this, and waited for him again. Excitement drumming in her chest.
“Come on,” She urged him, wearing a smile still as his pace slowed to a jog in exhaustion.
She sighed and rolled her eyes playfully, making her own way toward him. Her shoulders lifted in a shrug when she met him halfway.
“I’m sorry,” She apologized, “I left you in the dust again,”
“No,” He insisted, “I’m sorry. But, um, can we just walk there?” He asked, “I mean, there’s no rush, right?”
Kate thought for a moment. She really wanted to get there as soon as possible, but then she saw the mite fleck of plead in Eddie’s handsome brown eyes and reflected kindly.
“Well, no, I suppose not,”
Eddie breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thanks,”
He reached out and took her paw in his, looking gently into her fine face he added jokingly, “I like this view a lot better anyways,”
“Hey!” She laughed and shoved him playfully.
His lips cracked into a smile in return.
And so together, the two started off in the direction Kate had previously darted in. Holding each other’s hands, they swung their clasped arms back and forth like a pendulum. Slowly, at first, they went, but then the pendulum’s pace grew faster and faster, until it was rapidly swinging at such an insane height, that it was ridiculous.
Kate laughed aloud at such farce and Eddie smiled at the sound of her glee; he liked making her laugh.
Soon, the pendulum rocked and swayed in a more regular rhythm, on Eddie’s command, for he did not want such a joke to grow old, lest he play it on her again in the mere future; it was one of the many little, small, cute things he did to make her smile. She seemed to like the little things in life the best.
But Kate’s energy, however, did not slow or lessen the least bit, as she and Eddie strolled closer to the water a top the cliff. He could feel some sort of energy vive, coursing from her hand to his, very electric and alive. She was excited for something, he decided, nervous even, for he could also feel her body shaking as something within her intensified, but what? He pondered.
The sun beat down upon them warm rays of sunlight, and made the fresh, green grass poking out from the soft soil at their feet glisten gold. The sky was a perfect shade of blue with only a few puffy, milk-white clouds floating in it. Their shadows caste long and cool in the grass while the hot sun bathed their faces. It was a beautiful spring day.
In a little more than ten minutes, they had reached the river bank, zigzagging its way around rocks and down the foot hill portions of the mountains. Kate’s heart skipped a neat; all she could see was an uprising of thick, white steam. Dropping Eddie’s hand, she leapt but a few paces ahead before stopping. Eagerly, she swiveled and strained her ears in every which direction, but heard, to her dismay, nothing but the hiss of rising steam.
She turned back to Eddie, a tingle of panic in her voice now, “Isn’t the river supposed to be here?”
Eddie nodded, “Yeah, I guess the sun’s still melting it from being frozen all winter, hence the steam,”
He raised his hand to gesture to the foggy substance.
Kate put a hand over her eyes and peered into the deepest depths of it.
“I can’t see anything,” She murmured, and then added more softly to herself, lowering her hand, “Or anyone,”
Her eyes began to fill with long-held back tears, but she brushed them away quickly as she heard Eddie stroll up from behind her.
“Well,” He smiled grimly, hands at his sides, “I suppose we could travel farther down stream where the water fall is if you really want to see this thing. Who knows? Maybe the water has melted and is running there,”
Kate’s form immediately perked up-right at this.
“You think so?” She whipped her head back at Eddie.
He shrugged helplessly.
“Maybe,”
“Okay then; yes please!”
He took her further down the river across the cliff. Gradually, the mist grew less thick and began to weaken, fading out and giving a clear way to colorful vision. Kate began to notice a pale blue sky ahead of them through the mist, and then, before she knew it, the power of that blue had increased, and there was nothing between her and that sight. The veil of white had gone!
With this being revealed, her heartbeat quickened once more, as hope filled her expression. Maybe it was running here after all!
Already about a half of a mile down, they could see that there was nothing more of the river in the mountains; for that was where the rock face slanted harsh and downward, plummeting the water over in a fierce crash and thunderous roar, that was where the sheer drop of the waterfall was. It was one of the greatest waterfalls of the ice age.
But something was wrong. If the water was running, why can’t we hear it? Kate thought. Once again, she left Eddie’s side to snatch a sight of the river.
Holding her breath, she dared to peer over the old, washed up, gray and brown river stones that had washed up along the bank from seasons ago. She looked, only to feel her heart fall from her throat, all the way down to her stomach.
“What’s wrong, Kate?” Eddie inquired urgently, noticing her sudden change in posture.
He galloped up beside her and placed a paw on her shoulder for comfort.
At first, she didn’t even move, she just stared at the frozen river a few feet below. Underneath the top layer of ice, one could see water skimming toward the waterfall in trickles, but other than that, there was no sound at all. The silence wrapped around them, enclosing them in a cold hug, and piercing their ears. For the first time in his life, Eddie realized that silence could be just as deafening as a chorus of voices soaring everywhere, crossing each other, screaming against one another, the sound waves pushing and pulsing, all trying to be heard first. But silence could make your ears bleed even more; because there was NOTHING to hear.
He assumed that the great waterfall a little ways away was still frozen too. He tried to imagine what that would look like. Would the water hang down in the form of icicles like a thick sheet over the face of the cliff? Or would the water look as if it were still rolling down, the white hands of foam frozen in time and sprinkled with glittering frost?
Eddie snapped back into reality at the sudden sound of a sniff from Kate. Then she began to shudder and shake, hot tears spilling from her eyes. Eddie stood helplessly befuddled; why was she crying?
“Kate,” He took her wrists, “What’s wrong? You were so happy only moments ago,”
His chestnut brown eyes met hers, searching them for answers.
Kate hastily began to wipe her tears away, but her eyes were still glassy and she felt her voice crack when she spoke, “I’m sorry. Oh, I’m making such a scene! I just thought that…,”
Her voice trailed off.
“You just thought what?” Asked Eddie earnestly.
She shuddered uncontrollably once more, then spoke again in a split voice when she had believed she had regained herself a little more.
“My sister and I use to always travel to the best waterfall we could find whatever area we were in at the time. We would come when we first heard it, roaring with an abundant flow of water again. I thought for sure I heard it running this morning, so I wanted to go to see if… If she would be here. Oh, I know it’s stupid, really, but every spring we’d do this, so I thought maybe, if there was any chance that she was still in the area, she might come here if she heard it. But, low and behold, she’s not here, and the water wasn’t really running after all! Oh, I’m so sorry! It was all very stupid of me, really,” She confessed, more tears helplessly rolling down her cheeks.
“Oh, no, Kate, don’t cry, please,” Eddie begged her, hoping a hug would ease her, “I don’t think it’s stupid. I think it’s perfectly fine, you miss your sister, and that’s ok, if you didn’t, then something would be wrong.”
Kate knew he was only trying to help, but she could only sob harder at the thought of her sister gone.
“I’m sorry,” She cracked, “I’m such a weeping mess!”
“Don’t worry about it,” Eddie told her, “only cowards don’t cry,”
Kate heaved a final sigh and gave him a weak smile, but her glazed eyes remained staring down at the ground.
“And to think I brought you all this way for nothing,” She murmured painfully.
“For nothing? Oh, Kate, no, we can still have fun and enjoy ourselves here. I mean, I know it’s not what you really wanted to do, but…,”
His ears sprang up and his face was bright as the idea entered his mind, “Hey! I know! Here, watch this, this’ll be fun! Watch,”
Eddie scampered over the river stones and made his way over to the frozen water.
Kate saw in a flash what he was going to do.
“Eddie! No!” She cried, voice still tightly strung.
But he ignored her, and carefully placed one foot lightly onto the ice. Shifting his weight over to the other leg with much caution, Eddie then lifted the other foot beside the other.
“Eddie…,” Kate warned, “That looks a little dangerous….,”
Growing more confident has he went, Eddie pushed off with his one foot and found himself sailing over smoothly to the other side. When this was accomplished, he pushed himself back to where he started. Pretty soon, he was slipping and sliding, gliding and flipping himself across the ice in clumsy circles and twirls. All the while, Kate watched him with fearful eyes.
“See, we can still have fun here, we could go ice skating,” He said, smiling happily, trying his best to get her mind off of her sister for the time being.
“It’s really not that hard, and it’s safer than it looks,” He continued, grinning.
Eddie allowed himself to gain speed and then jumped into the air in attempt to create a graceful, mid-air spin, but found himself landing too fast and fell hard, flat on his face while skiing on the frigid ice.
“Ow,” he muttered, lifting himself back up. His nose felt numb against the cold.
“Don’t worry, it’s really quite easier than that, I just make it look complicated. In reality, keeping your balance on this stuff is actually rather-,”
Eddie slipped again on his way up, falling backward, right on his bottom.
Eddie wore an expression of pain on his face, gritting his teeth together in pain. This obviously isn’t working, he thought to himself.
Just then, he heard laughter sound from the opposite bank, and he opened his eyes to see Kate chuckling with glee.
“I- I’m so sorry,” She choked out helplessly, “but that was just too funny,”
Eddie grinned ear to ear.
“Well, there’s more where that came from!” He said, standing up proudly, only to fall again.
As the two opossums’ laughter both increased at Eddie’s silly, redundant skit, not far up the river, a little saber-tooth squirrel sniffed around for his treasured nut. He too, found himself slipping and sliding on the ice’s surface and began to make little grunts and groans from the back of his throat in frustration.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something, sticking halfway up from the frozen liquid. At a sudden impulse, he recognized it at once to be his beloved acorn. Letting out a sharp squeak of joy, he rushed over to it, and after sniffing it twice, just to make sure it was, indeed, the very one he had been searching for this whole time, immediately began to claw away at it. Tiny chips of ice sprang around him, as he tried in fierce vain to dig it out from the gelid substance.
Panting rapidly, the squirrel then grabbed hold of its top with its paws, twisting and turning it in all directions, trying to lift it or pry it from its current position, but alas, with no prevail.
For a while, he just stood there, chest throbbing frantically for breath and eyes screwed up in deep concentration. His tails was fluffed up and bristled, along with the rest of his ruffled body, clearly discouraged. And then, in sudden anger and rage, the creature let out a battle cry and in one swift jump, slammed his back feet down hard on top of the nut.
At this impact, the acorn sunk down deeper into the ice, splitting and breaking it. Large cracks began to snake out from the ice, like fingers of death through a horrible disease; they spread all through-out the ice.
Realizing in a frenzy what he had done, the squirrel leapt up from his nut as if his feet had touched hot coals and tried to pull the acorn further up its hole with his skinny little arms to where it was in attempt to fix the problem.
But it was too late, and soon, water had seeped up from the cracks and started to settle onto the ice, wearing it down and breaking it further in loud snaps and pops. It ate away at its prison, which had kept it caged for so long in the cold, harsh winter months.
The ice broke loose from itself in large chunks, and then millions of pieces as the water’s pressure turned against itself, crunching and churning.
The water roared like a lion, rearing like a magnificent horse, it clashed over the remaining ice fragments, swallowing them whole. It swept the saber-tooth squirrel under its great embrace, whose little paws still clutched on tightly to his nut.
It continued to flood and plow through all the other ice before it, eating away at it like a chilly acid, until the ice became one with the water. The current gained speed, and began to surge toward the cliff of its beloved waterfall, just dying to see what was below.
And only but a mere half of a mile away, little did a couple of young opossums realize that such a tide had broken out.


Eddie twirled and spun a few more times before gliding over to Kate, his arm out-stretched toward her and a polite air about him, he asked with a charming smile and a gleam in his eye,
“Would you, perhaps, like to ice-skate with me, Madame?”
Kate giggled, her tears forgotten.
“Would I?” She said, placing her smooth, small hand in his, “I accept!”
She smiled.
He returned the favor.
Just as she was about to place her foot onto the ice to join him, however, Eddie’s ears twitched at a crackling sound that could be heard from up-stream.
A moment later, Kate heard it too, and they both raised their eyes to meet each other’s questioning gaze, pondering, what could that have been?
A loud clash was issued and they both turned their heads to see a large body of water, crashing and roaring, plummeting straight toward them.
Kate screamed in terror, and Eddie had only just enough time to shove her out of harm’s way before the water had come upon them in one great, rushing current.
Kate spat grass out of her mouth from the bank Eddie had suddenly thrown her back over to.
Frantically, she whirled around to see if Eddie was alright, but all she could see left of the frozen river was a blur of rapids.
“Eddie?!” She shrieked.
But all she could see was the river, wasting no time to pass her by.
“Eddie!” She screamed to the top of her lungs, but still, all she could hear in reply was the great, hushed whispers of the river, drowning her own voice out.
She lay there, hard-struck with shock and horror, paralyzed.
It had all happened so fast, first the sight of the rising water, then, the next thing she knew, Eddie was no longer beside her and she had been flung in the dirt. Oh, how she had left Eddie far too fast!
Her mind drifting back to him, Kate sprang to her feet and sprinted up and down the river bank, screaming, shouting, hollering his name over and over again. The spell of total shock had lifted rather abruptly, but the worst was yet to come.
“Eddie! Eddie!”
But all she could see was the water. Water, water, water, flashing before her eyes.
“Eddie! EDDIE!”
Her voice rose higher and higher in panic, and she cried out in this shrill voice until her throat grew hoarse.
“EDDIE! EDDIE!”
Finally, she heard him, a faint voice just ahead, floating merely inches above the river’s.
“Eddie!” She exclaimed half out of joy and half out of horror as her frightened eyes absorbed his position.
Eddie clung onto a rock peaking up from the water only a dozen or so yards away from the waterfall, from which the water was already cascading off of. In the distance, Kate could hear the clings and snaps of ice, giving way to the water trampling over it, charging at it like one great army.
At the sound of her voice and approaching footsteps, Eddie lifted his eyes up to the bank, only to see her already there. His fur was soaked and he sat there, shivering, his teeth clattering together.
“Here, take my hand,” Kate cried, leaning over with her hand held out to him.
Eddie reached for it, but they were discouragingly but inches from each other.
Kate pulled her hand back and scowled bitterly. Wasting no time then, she ran over to a near-by tree growing along the river bed, snapped off a dead branch, and brought it back to where Eddie clung on for dear life.
This time, she held one end of the stick in one hand, and out-stretched the other toward Eddie.
“Here, try this,” She called over the water, hoping the old tree limb would be long enough.
It was.
Eddie snatched it up and clasped it firmly in between his hands.
Kate drove her heels deep into the ground in attempt to anchor herself, pulling and tugging with all her might. She felt her arms strain cruelly in the effort, and when she had believed herself to have at last begin to raise Eddie from the water, the branch she had picked gave in and snapped, throwing her backward onto the ground, flat on her back.
Eddie released the branch immediately at this and clutched onto the edge of his rock again, wrapping his arms around it. He watched as the stick floated down, down, down, the river, until it vanished over the falls. Eddie gulped and turned back to Kate.
“Go and get some more help!” He yelled over, “there’s not much time left!”
Kate shook her head and took off in the blink of an eye obediently, murmuring to herself, “Right—go fetch somebody, anybody at all. They’ll know how to help us, they’ll know,”
She could feel the adrenaline pounding through her veins and her heart drummed wildly in her chest to the beat of fear. All she could think was that she had to find someone to save Eddie. That was all that mattered, and that was all that she cared about at the moment; Eddie’s safety. And only that.


Kate climbed down the cliff face as fast as she could, she leapt over streams and sprinted through fields, but just when she needed someone, no one was there. She entered under the cool shading of the forest trees. In her haste, she stumbled over tree roots and tripped over sticks, old fall leaves, crinkling and crunching in her wake, lazily scattered themselves a few paces away in the breeze.
Kate cursed into this wind, for it was cool and unsettling, and offered her nothing when it rattled around her, shaking the hollow dead tree branches as if to mock her in the emphasis that no one was there.
“Will somebody please help me?!” She wailed into the empty space, where only the wind shifted hauntingly.
“I need someone to help me. Someone please help me!” She moaned, eyes flooding up with tears of panic and fear, terribly helpless, and thus, hopeless.
All she could think about was Eddie… Poor, defenseless Eddie. It was then her mind truly began to grasp the dreaded concept that Eddie could be doomed to die right then. He asked her to find help, but she could not find any. No one was coming to her rescue, and all the while, Eddie was just hanging there, dying.
“WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME?!” Kate shrieked out of frantic energy for the last time. More streams of stress and burden running down her face.
It was then that Crash himself heard her cry of distress. He had been gathering wood in an old, gray rock quarry not far away when her screams had reached this part of the quarry, voice echoing through-out all the caverns around him in a horrible, blood curdling screech. Normally, Crash would have just ignored her, but he detected this odd, sense of hysteria in her voice that made his blood run cold. His instinct told him that something was not right.
Something was in ill-turn.
“Kate?” He called, cautiously, a hint of concern hidden in his voice.
Kate silenced herself right away at the sound of his voice.
“CRASH!” She exclaimed, springing to her feet and rushing to the direction of where she heard him issue such sweet a reply of salvation.
She ran blindly toward it, not knowing where she was exactly going, for her vision was blurred from her tears.
When she came to the rock quarry, she slid down a cascade of rocks carelessly. She stood back up without any hesitation however, and resumed her search again.
“Crash!” She called again.
Crash turned from his meaningless task to see her coming up behind him, and her condition frightened him nearly half to death.
She was as pale as ivory, and her eyes were wide as if she had just seen a ghost. Her face was damp with salty tears and her fur was ruffled in an unpleasant way. She appeared to be very shook up and would not stop shaking.
Crash dropped his piece of wood in an instant at this sight with a soft thud in the dirt. A cloud of dust whirled around his feet from the ground but he ignored it as he faced Kate, paralyzed.
“Kate,” He whispered, “What on earth is the matter?”
“It’s Eddie,” She blurted, then found herself in a low whisper herself with trembling lips, “he’s in trouble,”
Crash ran up to her so fast that she hadn’t the time to even draw a breath. Startled, she tightened with a gasp, staring at Crash, whose hands had grasped her firmly on the shoulders.
“Why? What’s wrong?” He demanded in a firm voice, eyes level with hers, “Where is he? TELL ME!”
Kate burst into tears, “We were fools, oh Crash, we were fools! It’s all my blinking fault too! We went up to the great falls and now, well, he could be going DOWN the great falls!”
Crash stared at her a moment, bewildered, but then wasted no time. Straight away, he darted up and out of the quarry, taking off into the direction of the great falls. Kate fallowed shortly after him, eyes uncontrollably swimming with tears.
Everything that Eddie had done to him these past few months was forgotten and forgiven by Crash in a flash after hearing Kate’s words. It was all erased. All Crash knew for certain now was that his brother was in danger, and he needed to be there to rescue him, because that’s just what family does, that’s what brothers are there for; to pick you up when you’re falling down, to save you from a terrible fate. Because families love. And true love saves. Nothing else mattered more to Crash now than that. He felt the icy air slam into his face as he ran, but that didn’t slow him down one bit as he sped down the trail, faster and faster, and he would not stop until he met his brother.


“EDDIE!”
Eddie looked up at the sound of his name.
He looked soaked to the bone and his eyes were weary. Crash could tell his strength had already began to give way to the relentless current that pushed against him.
“C-Crash?” He said in a shaky voice, lips blue from the chill of the water.
“That’s right. I’m here now. Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of this,”
Crash glanced about around him quickly, eyes hungry to snatch-up something he could use to help Eddie.
He caught Kate’s figure coming up in the distance.
“Kate!” He hollered over to her, pointing, “Go get me a branch from that dead tree over there, we’ll pull him out with it,”
“I already tried that,” Kate called back in warning, “Even if you are strong enough to pull, it gets all wet and weak from the water and just snaps,”
Crash scold and turned back to see the pitiful state of his brother, who was just barely holding on now. It pained Crash to see him this way, so he turned his eyes away again, desperately searching, scanning and skimming the land for anything else he could think of to use at a rapid pace. His mind reeled with ideas, but none that would be quick and efficient. All the while, time was running out.
And then, the thought hit him, and he realized with a whirling click what he needed to do.
Taking a deep breath, his eyes locked onto the miserable figure of Eddie, who moved little, due to the freezing temperature of the water which chilled his body numb.
“Eddie!” He called over the pulse and the clash of that water, “Move over a bit!”
Eddie’s brain was too confused and tired to question these orders, so, without a thought, that’s what he did.
Heart throbbing at an alarming rate in his chest, Crash placed his feet firmly at an angle on the ground. His eyes were a cold shade of sharp blue as he pushed off with all his might and leapt right onto the rock with Eddie. Behind him, he could hear Kate gasp.
Eddie looked up at him, his eyes warm despite how chilly he was.
“W-what are y-you d-doing he-here?” He managed.
The rock was dangerously slippery under his soles, and so Crash had to steady himself carefully by spreading out his arms like the wings of an eagle in order to maintain balance, lest he fall and all hope and risk of such a rescue mission be lost.
“I’m here to rescue you, numbskull, what does it look like I’m doing?” Crash smiled briefly before his expression once more turned grave and serious.
Lending out his nearest hand, Crash instructed him,
“Grab on,”
Eddie hesitated.
“But-,”
“I said ‘grab on’”,
“You could -,”
“Take it!” Crash commanded him, “I am well aware of the consequences, thank you very much,”
Eddie gave a shaky sigh and then slowly let go of his precious rock with one hand and reached it out to meet Crash’s.
Crash clasped Eddie’s paw as fast as he could. It lacked strength immensely and for the most part was limp and as cold as a frog’s wet skin.
“Alright,” Crash muttered under his breath through gritted teeth.
With a great heave, he lifted Eddie up onto the rock beside him. He stood on quaky, frail legging.
“None of that water has drained my strength yet,” Crash stated, “So what I’m going to do is try to toss you over on the bank with Kate, she’ll help you up. Then, I’ll just simply leap back over there myself, just like I jumped on this rock from there,”
“But what if--,” Eddie began, worried for his brother who had already risked so much for him.
“No Eddie,” Crash cut in, blue gaze burning into his, “It will work. I know it can. All I ask you to have is a little faith, alright?”
Eddie silently bobbed his head up and down in a nod while looking at the ground.
Crash stared at him hard for a long moment, a far away, but yet very close at the same time, glint in his eyes.
Next thing Eddie knew, he was wrapped in the warm embrace of Crash’s harms: for the first time in months, Crash had hugged his own brother.
“I love you Eddie,” He whispered.
When he pulled away, a glitter of tears filled his eyes and he smiled.
“Let’s do this thing,” He said firmly.
Eddie lifted his head but was speechless.
Before he could utter a word, however, Crash was already lifting him slightly off of the ground to fling over to Kate. He clenched his teeth tightly together in effort, but was eventually able to find the strength within himself to swing Eddie back in one great, surge of strength.
Kate had her arms out and grabbed him by the arms, helping to drag him closer to shore with her. Immediately, she was tending herself to his aid, asking him how he felt, and if she could do anything for him.
Meanwhile, Crash stood atop the slippery, slimy rock that Eddie had held onto for so long, trying to find good footing for himself when he were to leap back over. But his strength was already greatly withered after swinging Eddie over and suddenly he felt very tired.
“Crash!” He could hear Kate calling over to him over the waves that crashed against his rock, spraying white foam all about him. But her voice wasn’t clear in his head and sounded painfully slower as his mind began to keep time with the rhythmic waves.
Planting his feet in what he believed to be a safe position, Crash prepared himself to jump.
He could see Kate and Eddie on the other side through the sheet of showering water rising around him.
His heart beat in his head and his spirit was relieved; Eddie was safe, he had done it.
Then, all of a sudden, Crash lost his footing on the slimy rock and felt himself sliding down involuntarily by his left foot. He struggled to regain his position as quickly as possible, but it was too late. With a clumsy splash, he found himself buried under the icy, blue water, sinking deeper and deeper.
“CRASH!!”
He could see shadows above him, watching him helplessly float farther and farther down. They were like ghosts, there, but yet not entirely, and their voices sounded strange and alien from under the water.
“CRASH!!!”
He tried to swim forward, to grasp the rock that Eddie had used, but the current was far too strong and his arms still weak from hurling Eddie.
The water was cold and it ate at his cheeks, his legs, his arms, and then his hands, making him as still as stone, and it was oddly inviting. Crash felt himself drifting faster and faster downstream, and then, after a moment of nothing, he suddenly felt himself plummet down the falls, down to his demise, falling into the great oblivion of black.
“CRASH!!!” Kate and Eddie shrieked with raw throats as they lost sight of him in the waterfall’s great white mist.
The horror of it all seemed to have made Eddie awaken out of pure fear. Warm blood flowed through his veins now at an even faster rate, due to the rapid beating of his heart at such an event. Kate was just has equally shocked has he. Funny how death can make one so alive, isn’t it?
They stood there for a long moment, their eyes not leaving the edge of the falls, as if half-expecting Crash to pop up, smiling, saying, “ha! I really got you that time, didn’t I? It was all a prank!” But he never did. For the longest time, only the pouring flush of the falls filled their silence.
“Is he really gone?” Kate whispered, as if saying such a thing too loud would confirm it.
Eddie swallowed, “Well, truth is, I suppose you never know with waterfalls. Sometimes the impact’s too much when you hit the bottom, sometimes you hit a sharp, hard rock at the bottom and it ends quick, but sometimes, you can survive…,”
His voice trailed off.
A calm wind blew by between the two and neither said a word. Then, all of a sudden, Eddie stood and dashed off in the direction of the cliff used to climb up to the waterfall.
“Eddie, wait!” Kate cried after him.
But he didn’t.
Eddie scrambled down the rugged mountain trail as fast and as fluent as a forest fire.
When he reached the bottom, he sprinted straight to the bottom of the falls, screaming and hollering.
“CRASH! CRASH!”
His voice rippled the water and echoed, but the roar of the falls soon drowned it out.
“Look over there!” Kate cried, shortly after catching up to him and hastily searching the area.
They found him, floating in shallow water a little ways from the falls.
Eddie took him and dragged the weight back to shore, and under a beautiful white blossom tree, soaking in the sun, laid him down.
Kate stood a ways off, feeling unsure and uncomfortable about the whole situation as she watched a few marble pedals drift noiselessly down from the tree and around the brothers. She had to admit, Crash didn’t look good, his face was a deathly pale shade and she couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not. She sensed this was Eddie’s time to finally be alone with Crash, just like he had always wanted, even if it had taken death for them to get there.
“Well, here we are,” Eddie whispered in the cool air, feeling the hot tears beginning to spring from his eyes, “I kept my promise, didn’t I? See, we’re finally alone, just you and me,”
He trembled; staring down at his brother for a long, empty moment has the image grew blurrier and blurrier. And then, before he knew it, he burst out into tears over the body.
“Oh, Crash!” He sobbed heavily, shoulders heaving greatly, “Who am I kidding? This is no excuse. I should have kept my promise to you, Crash! I should have kept it! Oh, how my anger and poor judgment have blinded me! I’m so sorry, Crash! I am so, so sorry. I hope you can hear me somehow, because I’ve just realized how much you mean to me. You were always there, in the good times and the bad. When I chose Kate over you, you were still there, patiently awaiting your turn. And even when I had been angry with you, when I had given up on you, still, you never gave up on me. You were always there—in the shadows, in the light, in the pouring rain, and the cool night. Always there, for me. ME! Pathetic, lowly me, who, after all what you did for me, I couldn’t even keep the one promise you wanted me to. How weak am I! I may have fallen in love with Kate, but you know far more about true, family love than I ever will. You’ve proved that to me over and over again, even before this all happened, but still I failed to see you. To recognize you for what you really are. And yet, you were always there, always! Oh, how blind am I? Now what is my victory? You were always my brother Crash, my best friend in the whole wide world! And yet, I let you go. How could I dare do such a thing? You’re one in a million, Crash, how could I just let you go from my sight? I am such a fool! You’re my best friend, my only brother, and you’ve proved this to me not only by blood, but by always being there for me. Always. Even to the last second; you saved my life, Crash. My terrible, rotten life that I’ve been so selfish to keep to myself lately and not share it with you. I only did what I wanted to do, and never thought about you… Oh Crash, wherever you are, please forgive me! Please, please, please! I’ve never wanted anything so bad! Please forgive me! Fill me with the life of your forgiveness because right now, I feel so dead! But you, you really knew how to live, because you did not fear death and loved. Oh Crash!!”
Eddie wept for a long time beside Crash’s body. Milky white pedals continued to fall softly as if the tree itself was shedding tears, and sacrificed its own beauty out of respect for such a price that had been paid.
“Truth is,” Eddie whispered, voice hardly audible, as if he only wanted Crash to hear him, “I suppose you never know what you have until it’s gone. Life pampers us with things, but when death takes them away, only then do we realize their importance, even in the smallest ways,” He sighed, “This world really must be crazy; it runs in reverse.”
He stood slowly up, sniffling as he wiped stray tears from his eyes, he was still deeply saddened of course, but it was time to go and put on a brave face to tell the others. He would cry more later.
He looked down at his dead brother one more time.
“Look at you,” He murmured softly, “There’s a smile frozen on your face still. You were happy to die for me… You’re the best,”
“I know,”
Eddie jumped back with a start, clutching his tail in between his paws, utterly flabbergasted.
“C-c-c-Crash!?” He stammered in a high voice.
Crash laughed aloud, still lying down on the ground, his face suddenly a lit with nothing less than pure amusement.
“Will you stop it? You’re making a fool of yourself! Speaking of which, I sure fooled you, didn’t I? You should have seen the look on your face!”
“But, but, you’re dead,”
“I could have been, but it seems my kismet isn’t until a later date, lady luck has favored me, and even more, life. Besides, didn’t I ever tell you I was the best at playing dead out of all the other opossums?”
Eddie rolled his eyes in recollection of how Crash would always brag about that to him.
“Yes,” He responded in a flat voice.
His heart beat had quickened, but a sweet air of relief had settled onto Eddie’s shoulders. Crash was alive! Crash was alive! He wanted to sing and dance and rejoice and never stop. The joy was great inside of him, and he felt that it could swell and burst his rib cage if he didn’t let it all loose. But something told him that he should be angry with Crash for deceiving him on such a serious manner, or, at least, pretend to be.
“How could you do that to me? I was so worried!” He lashed out on him, but he failed to keep the luminous smile off of his face when he said it, and so Crash merely grinned back, eyes bright and full of life.
“Now you sound like mom did,” Crash pointed out, giggling.
Eddie shook his head and sighed, his smile still very visible as he reached out his paw and Crash took it. He helped Crash to his feet.
They both stood there, over-joyed that they were together again at last. Crash was his old self, and so was Eddie. Together, they looked over to see Kate, shifting her feet nervously a few feet away and staring down hard at the ground in mourning.
“Hey, Kate!” Eddie shouted.
The young opossum lifted her beautiful head slowly up, for she had been crying. But when her eyes fastened upon the self-standing figure of Crash, all tears were forgotten. Letting out a sharp squeal of immediate joy, she charged up to them and flung herself at Crash, hard.
“It’s a miracle!” She exclaimed happily, turning then to Eddie, she threw her arms around him as well, “don’t you think it’s a miracle?”
“It certainly is wonderful,” He chuckled.
Kate with-drew from him and shyly turned to Crash.
“Crash,” She addressed him in a small voice, “I’m really sorry if my presence--,”
Crash held up his hand to silence her.
“No, I’m sorry,” he told her sincerely, lowering his arm, “you meant no harm for me, or Eddie, and I did over-react, fear and lies can make you do a lot of unnecessary things, but we’re all together now, and that’s the important part. What was right and good broke through in the end, and that’s all that matters,”
He gave her a reassuring smile and she grinned back in a silent reply that could be heard just as well and once again, Kate indulged them in a great, warm group hug.
“Oh, you two really ARE soaked!” She exclaimed with a smile, pulling away.
They all laughed.
“Kate?”
Kate’s ears twitched at the sound of the quiet voice that had called her name. Turning from Eddie and Crash, her eyes fell upon a shadowy figure walking up to them through the mist of the falls. She squinted hard to take in the faint details.
“Kate, is that you?”
All at once, the reaction of the familiar voice and who it belonged to struck Kate’s memory like a bolt of lightning. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth hung slightly a gap in amazement, but no words were issued.
The figure continued to approach them and has it came out from the mist, Kate recognized it immediately.
“ALICE!!” She screamed in delight, sprinting toward it with all her strength.
Upon the nearest approach, she leapt up and wrapped her arms tightly around her sister, never wanting to let go.
“I missed you so much,” She murmured into her ear, face buried in her warm shoulder.
“I missed you too! Where on earth have you been all this time? I was worried,”
“So was I!” Kate told her, eyes bright and shinning like the stars as she with-drew from the embrace to face her long-lost sister.
Happy tears both sprang from their eyes and their hearts fluttered uncontrollably inside their chests with pure joy. They were together again at last! And after so long of believing it was too good of a dream to come true, here it was; reality.
“I’ll tell you about my journey as long as you tell me yours, in FULL detail,” Kate grinned happily, the element of surprise still white on her face.
“Deal,” Alice agreed, “but first, who are they?”
She nodded over toward Crash and Eddie, who lingered shyly at the base of the white blossom tree, curious.
“Oh,” Kate said, “They’re friends of mine. REALLY good friends actually, they found me in that log you left me in and allowed me to temporarily join their herd since you were gone. I owe them a HUGE thank-you. Want to meet them?”
“Sure!” Alice piped, “A friend of my sister’s is a friend of mine!”
On their way over to the blossom tree, Kate realized something, and, turning to her sister for certainly not the first or last time, inquired with an inquisitive look on her face, “Wait a minute, how did you know where to find me, I mean, what brought you to the falls? Was it just a coincidence?”
Alice glanced back at her with a pretty smile.
“Well,” She admitted, “I remembered how much you liked waterfalls when you were little, and how we therefore made it a tradition to travel to the highest, widest one we could find in whatever area we were traveling through to watch it thaw out in the spring. They always looked so grand then, with all those great amounts of water pouring down them all at once… And, well, I heard this one running and thought about you and how much you liked them… And, well…,”
Her voice cracked.
“Oh, Alice,” Kate gave her another warm hug, “don’t worry, I’m here now. We’re together,”
“I know,” Alice said, blinking her tears away, “I just can’t believe we’re back together, I really thought that you were gone… I missed you so much. It’s truly a miracle,”
Kate patted her on the shoulder to soothe her.
Upon reaching Crash and Eddie however, Alice quickly changed the subject, she didn’t want to feel sad anymore; especially when there was no reason to: she had Kate again, and that had chased away all her dark clouds, even if it were to rain.
“Well,” She smiled, “I can see that you’ve used your beauty powers; I leave you for a few weeks and look, you’ve already got two boys swarming around you,”
She nudged Kate playfully.
Kate rolled her eyes.
“I’m not THAT pretty,” She said, her voice hinting a tone of slight annoyance, “And it’s not even like that,”
But she knew Alice was only trying to take her mind off of the fact that she had almost lost her, forever, so she held her tongue.
“Crash, Eddie,” Kate grinned cheerfully as she stood before them, gesturing with her hands to each, “This is my long-lost sister, Alice, the one I’ve told you about. She decided to come to the falls today and now, we’ve finally reunited!”
Alice gave them a small wave and a sweet smile.
“Hi,” She said politely.
Alice only looked to be a few months older than Kate. She too, had silky fur, except hers was a slightly darker shade than her sister’s. She wasn’t quite as beautiful as Kate, but she was still very pretty in her own ways. She had a mysteriously attractive smile and shinning emerald green eyes that sparkled as if to say she knew some great, dark secret that you immediately longed to know merely for the sake of knowing. Her manners toward the two brothers were courteous and charming and her movements were fluent and graceful. Indeed, she was a gorgeous gem all on her own.
Eddie elbowed Crash at this, nodding toward Alice with a smug expression on his face. Crash rolled his eyes and sighed sharply, but then brought his attention quickly back to Alice’s lean, attractive figure despite this.
“Well, it’s nice to finally meet you,” Eddie told her after Kate had finished, “I’ve heard a lot about you,”
Alice laughed and turned a faint pink, “Heh, nothing bad I hope,”
Eddie chuckled, “Nope! Nothing bad at all!”
Alice gave another brief, shy smile before offering her gratitude to the two brothers.
“Thank you so much for taking my sister into your herd though, I was SO worried about her, I had meant to return, but ran into some…. Difficulties along the way. You may have saved her life, and I cannot thank you enough for opening your hearts and family to her, I owe you one!”
“Oh, it was no trouble really, none at all,” Crash told her.
Eddie glared at him, but then reassured Alice by reporting, “Well, we couldn’t let an angel like your sister just starve,” Kate giggled as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, “You’re sister is one of the sweetest, funniest, kindest opossums I’ve ever met. In more ways than one, she actually saved us. She’s been a joy to have… And, I’m sure you will be too….,”
His voice died in the wind, has if the breeze had stolen his words, but his offer still stood, strong and as hard as ever.
“You want me to… Join your herd?” Alice stammered, shocked, “but you hardly even know me!”
“We don’t have to,” Crash cut in.
“Yeah!” Eddie ejaculated, “Kate’s like family now to us, why should you be any different? Besides, you seem nice and… Families need to stay together; it’s what makes them a family.”
Crash nodded in agreement silently, right at his side.
Alice could see all of their smiling faces crowded around each other in glee, inviting her to join them, warm arms wide open. Alice felt her eyes begin to water with prickling tears, for she had never seen Kate so happy before, and the fact lay heavy in her heart now upon knowing that now that she had found her, she couldn’t let her stay.
“Umm… Uh….,” Alice hesitated, unsure of what to say, “Listen, that is very, very nice of you two, to not only allow Kate to stay, but me too, I mean, I thank you for the offer very much, but, eh, we did only just meet, even if Kate knows you and, well, can I talk to her for a moment please?”
All three of their smiles faded at this and they soon all turned serious.
“Yeah, sure, of course,” Eddie told her, slowly lowering his arm from Kate’s shoulder.
Kate, confused and uncertain, turned back to Eddie and hugged him tightly, and before going off with her sister, even gave Crash a sad, parting hug as well, fearing the worse of what her sister had to say.
Sorrow swimming in her passionate eyes, Kate walked away a few paces with her sister.
Coming to a halt well out of earshot from Crash and Eddie, she asked in a hushed voice, “What’s the matter, Alice? Why couldn’t we stay? Don’t you like them?”
Alice gave her a small, compassionate smile.
“Of course I like them, Kate. They seem really nice and that they really care about you, like family they said, which is why I regret having to tell you this, but during my journey, I found someone else who we could stay with,”
“Really?” Kate asked earnestly, “Who?”
“You remember when mom use to tell us about her brother, Smith?”
“Yes…,”
“Well, I found him! Turns out he’s not dead after all, he’s a bit cracked, I must admit, been living by himself all these years in a cave with a couple of bats, but he knew our mother and recognized me right away and said that he’d do his best to take care of us for her, because it’s what she’d want him to do, he said. I told him I was going to go on a search for you one last time--, just in case, which is a whole other story on its own. Kate, I know you want to stay with Crash and Eddie, they’re familiar to you, you love them very much, I can see that, and above all, they’ve been there for you through hard times, I’m sure, when I wasn’t. But please, I promised Uncle Smith once I found you—if I found you—I’d return right back with you, and we could live together. He’s the only family we have left, Kate, and we’re the only family he has left. And families need to stay together, remember? So please, come back with me, Kate, please. I’d hate to have come to find you, only to lose you again,”
Kate’s heart was torn. She wanted more than anything these past few months to find her sister and be with her again, but now that she had, she found herself not wanting to leave Crash and Eddie. How could she? After all they’d done for her, all they’d proved they would sacrifice for her, especially Eddie, and hence, in reaction, Crash. How could she just walk away from that?
She gave a warily glance behind her at the two has her mind spun rapidly with the decisions she had to make, who, having grown bored without her, had begun to skip rocks along the calm pool of water the waterfall left below from its frightening power. Eddie was actually really good at it, while Crash’s rocks only continued to sink. Eddie sneered and laughed at him, and Crash threw back his ears and seized him, pretending to choke him. Eddie escaped from his grasp, however, and with a mischievous smile on his face, shot up the blossom tree nearby. Crash fallowed him in pursuit and soon, they were playing some sort of version of tag has they leapt from branch to branch from each other, hidden by the cover of the white pedals.
Kate sighed softly, not knowing what to do, then, a thought crossed her mind: she had never seen Crash and Eddie so happy together just the two of them, messing around, since the day they had first met her. Perhaps, she thought to herself, despite how much she loved them as if they were of her own family, and despite how much her heart truly longed to stay with them, maybe she had to go. Maybe she even had to go for that exact reason. Love—, she decided, required sacrifices, and a sacrifice, being a sacrifice, didn’t always mean you had to like giving up what you were giving up, but you never gave it up without a reason. The way she saw it, Crash and Eddie were already quite happy just by themselves, why push that luck again? It wouldn’t be fair to Crash, especially after considering how much he proved he would be willing to sacrifice and how much he already had. Maybe it was best for now if they just remained brothers for now, like they had. Why ruin a good thing? Their family needs to stay together, and so does hers, so maybe it was time, just for now, to consider going their own separate ways.
And somewhere deep within her heart, despite her reluctance to such a thought, Kate knew that that was the right thing to do.
Standing up a little taller this time, she turned to face her sister, who was twisting her paws together in nervousness out of the anxiety of what her sister may choose, and in a crackled voice, Kate heard herself whisper,
“Okay, I’ll go with you,”
Her sister let out a great sigh of relief and smiled, her eyes glittering in the warm light of the sun.
“Oh, Kate,” She cried, placing her arms around her for a hug, “thank you. Thank you so much for understanding, it’s great to have you back, it really is,”
Kate eyed her levelly.
“Can we still visit them every once in a while?” She asked.
“Oh yes! Of course, Kate! I promise, cross my heart and hope to die!”
Kate laughed at the funny phrase, although the tears still continued to drip and fall from her eyes.
“Alright then, I’ll go say good-bye to them,”
Kate traipsed back to the white tree with her head down, and a sad smile weakly drawn on her face and wondered why doing the right thing always seemed to be the thing you exactly didn’t want to do, or the hardest thing of all to do, at least. But in reality, she knew it wouldn’t fail her, simply because it still was the right thing to do, after all.
She called Crash and Eddie down from the tree and almost immediately in response after these words had left her lips, down they leapt to greet her, strolling up quickly, eager to learn of the circumstances she faced.
She explained the situation to them, and they understood, but when she told them of her decision, to return back with Alice instead, Eddie was flabbergasted.
“What?!” He exclaimed, “But Kate--,”
“Oh, Eddie,” She smiled painfully, pleading, “please don’t make this any harder than it already is. I’ve thought it over though, and decided that it wouldn’t be fair to Alice if I just left her again and it wouldn’t be fair to you or Crash either,” She paused, “I have my own family to be a part of again now, and so do you. I just think it’s best if we went our own separate paths for now, just for a bit. Time flies, and we’ll be back together before you know it, but for now, just enjoy the precious moments of everything in between, because you never know what you have until it’s gone, okay?”
Eddie’s eyes lowered to the ground as they filled with heavy tears.
“Okay,” He mumbled.
“Hey,” Kate whispered gently to him, lifting his face,
“Please don’t cry. I don’t want my last memory of you to be crying when I leave, I want to look back and see you smiling, that way I’ll always remember that ultimately, I made you happy, not sad. I still love you,”
And with that, she leaned in and gave him one final kiss on the lips. Through the white blossom tree, a ray of sunlight fell right over them, making their features light and lovely in its warm embrace.
Eddie peeked open an eye to see Crash smirking smugly over Kate’s shoulder, but he ignored him and closed his eyes once again, continuing the kiss and holding Kate tightly up to him, savoring the moment.
Has the stream of sunlight withered away, so did their kiss, and they were left still standing there, holding hands, and looking into each other’s eyes.
“I’ll never forget you,” Eddie breathed.
“And I’ll never forget you either,” Kate promised angelically.
“You’re welcome into our herd, anytime you please. You’re one of us now too, and I’ll always be there for you,” Eddie vowed to her sincerely.
“Yeah! And maybe you could bring your uncle and Alice with you too when you come to visit us, and they could stay along with you sometime,” Crash offered.
Kate chuckled, “Thanks Crash, I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Well,” She said, turning back to Eddie, sparkling brown eyes as beautiful as ever, “I guess I better get going,”
“Yeah,” Eddie tried his best to smile, “I love you,”
“I love you too,”
Kate gave him one more quick hug before pulling away and darting off back toward her sister.
“Send my regards to Ellie and Manny for taking me in and allowing me into the herd!” She hollered over.
“We will!” Eddie cried back, his heart aching.
“And tell your uncle and Alice we’d be happy to have them over sometime, whatever the distance between you and us!” Crash called.
“I will!” Came their retreating answer.
And together, the two brothers watched as the two sisters vanished away in to the hungry white mist that consumed them, finally re-united at last, just has the brothers were earlier that very same day.
It hurt Eddie to watch motionlessly in silence the girl of his dreams and angel of the earth disappear from him, and for a long moment, he felt empty inside, has if something vital had just been torn from his soul, and the hollow space which was left suddenly felt very cold and dark and lonely.
Crash noticed this by catching the far-away, longing look in his brother’s dark eyes, and sought to comfort him.
“She only left because she believed it was the best thing to do, for all of us, it was nothing against you,” Crash reminded him.
“I know,” Eddie muttered, realizing now that sometimes, if you really care about something so much, you had to also have enough love to let it go, “I just miss her,”
“Mmm,” Crash replied, “It’s only been three minutes since she left,”
“I know, but it feels like it’s been more than that,”
“Like, more as in four minutes? Because that’s what we’re actually up to now,”
“Crash,” Eddie groaned.
“Sorry,” Crash apologized swiftly, “I’m just trying to cheer you up,”
“I know,”
There was another pause.
“You still have me,”
Eddie laughed and actually broke out into a grin.
“Yeah, I still have you, that’s for sure, I’ve always had you. Even when you didn’t always have me,”
His eyes were soon found drifting back to where Kate had last been seen though, and Eddie found himself pondering if she was looking back behind her, searching for him through the fog.
“She did it for family,” Crash continued, noting the position of his gaze, “You know what they say; blood is thicker than water,”
“That’s for sure,” Eddie confirmed.
Crash stood silent for a moment, a strange sort of humorous air swung about him as he shifted from foot to foot, trying in vain to hold a smearing smile back from his face, and his blue eyes alit. He was trying to stifle his laughter from an amusing thought that had entered his head, and at last, he decided to share it. Carefully, he leaned over into Eddie’s ear and told him what had come into his mind.
“But nothing’s thicker than your head!” He jeered.
At first, Eddie burst into laughter at the joke, and then, his tears forgotten at the spur of the moment, he pretended to shout angrily, “Hey!” and grabbed Crash by the tail has he tried to run.
Crash crossed his arms as he slid back to Eddie in the dirt, face-up, his pelt dusty, with a cool expression on his face as he inquired in a calm, collected manner, “Why don’t we settle our differences with a game of battle reeds, shall we? I believe you’re still familiar with the rules?”
“You bet!” Eddie grinned happily. He had forgotten how much fun his brother could be.
“Alright then, let’s get to it, unless, of course, you’re afraid,” Crash tested him.
“Me? Afraid? You’ve got to be kidding! I hardly know what the word means! Besides, I’ve still got a promise to keep,” Eddie reported.
Even in his best attempts to try to remain has nonchalant has he could, Eddie could easily tell that underneath his cover, Crash was beaming out of pure joy, happy to be with his brother again.
Indeed, despite the hardships and storms they had been through together since the beginning of their existence and to the most previous of their troubles, their bond of brotherly friendship had never completely broken or abandoned them. And through those testes of time, truth be told, it had only grown stronger. It was an unbreakable bond between brothers; no matter how much you bent it, it would only spring back harder, and even better than before; never broken. And that was how it would surely remain, for years and years to come between the two.
“Then let’s go!” Crash shouted excitedly, springing to his feet.
“Race you there!” Eddie challenged him, releasing his tail at the last minute so that he could get ahead first.
“Cheater!” Crash called from a yard behind him.
“I prefer to think of it has a crafty alternative,” Eddie sneered in reply.
And together, the two of them could be found scampering, weaving back through the trees to their old battle reed arena, which would be soon filled with laughter and jests once more.
The sunlight weaved a pattern down onto the earth, glittering atop the rushing water, and staining the new, fresh leaves of spring. It dried the earth willingly, evaporating all tears. At last the light that had been casting the shadows for so long could be seen! At last, at last! All was well once again for the two brothers.

THE END.