AN: Well hello there. As you can see I'm gonna start another story 'cause why not? I still don't know if this story should be rated M or T, right now I'll go with T rating, but I might change it later on. Who knows, what I'm going to do?

"How much more?" A dalmatian asked, from Ryder while climbing inside a cave deeper and deeper. They received a call about a lost man who disappeared 12 hours ago in that cave. According to his family, he always loved doing new things, like climbing mountains, or even skydiving. Right now, he went to discover a cave and probably stuck somewhere. On this mission every rescue member took a completely different path, hoping they had a better chance in finding the disappeared man since time wasn't on their side either. However they were already there for more than 4 hours, yet still no signs of any life.

"I don't know," Ryder said with a disappointed tone he must have thought they will find the lost man within a short amount of time, but turned out, the layout of this cave is much bigger than they expected.

"This tunnel is too small, even I can't go through." Skye's tired voice can be heard. "Should I take another route?"

"Yes… No… I don't know." Ryder gave up. He didn't say it out loud of course but everyone knew him too well, to make this assumption. For the first time in months, Ryder started to think it's impossible to find the lost man.

"I think I'm going in circles. I already saw this rock, a lot of times." Rubble complained. "I swear I took all four lanes, and they just took me back here. The fifth one is going up to the surface." Everyone started to talk at once. There wasn't a mission before, where they failed, and by the look of it, it's going to be one of those missions. Every time when someone needed help they did what they could but now it looked like there wasn't anything else the Paw Patrol alone could do. They failed.

"Go back, everyone." The answer finally came "This is just too big for us. Let's go back and prepare a searching group out of volunteers." He said, and added. "See you on the surface." With that, he disconnected from the call and gave out a huge sigh. Apparently… there is a job too big.

As he kept on walking upwards bad thoughts flooded his mind. What if he is not alive? What if he is barely alive, and by delaying the mission, he just signed this man's death? No. He shook his head. He is still there somewhere, waiting to be rescued. Or he already got out, and it's about time he showed up at his house. "Keep the optimism" he whispered to himself, as he kept on walking. The continuous sound of water drops started to get on his nerves and it just got louder as he took a turn to his right, but the most annoying thing was that he didn't even know where this sound came from. He heard it on the way down too but he didn't find the source. *drop* *drop* *drop* "I didn't found the source..." He whispered to himself again and realized, there must a hidden path somewhere near, meaning he missed a possible tunnel.

Suddenly the sound just got more interesting. He listened carefully while sticking his ears to the walls *drop* *drop* *drop*. After a few minutes of listening and walking towards the source, he finally found the entrance, he passed by earlier. It was in a shadowy place, that could be missed easily, no wonder why he hadn't found it on the first try. Enthusiastically, Ryder stepped inside, while pointing his light to the walls. It didn't seem like a normal cave tunnel. It was clearly made by humans. As he took a closer look, he saw some writings too, in a completely different language. If he had more time he would have gave them much more attention, but knowing he is in a rescue mission right now, he just ignored them. I will have more time after this. The water drops could be heard more loudly now, but as he kept on walking he heard something else too. Somebody repeatedly saying "no no no" He fastened his steps and shouted as loud as he could "Hello? Is anybody there?" His voice echoed in the endless tunnel and listened for the answer, but it didn't come. The only audible sound was the "no no no" and the water drops hitting the ground.

"I came here to help, I won't hurt you." Now he ran as fast as he could. He barely missed a wall as it started to turn left, but in a few meters, the tunnel also widened to the size of a bigger room. Ryder spotted another light coming from the there, and next to that… A man Crying on the floor, and staring in front of him, keep saying "no no no"

"Sir?" He slowly approached the person, he just found there."I came here to get you to the surface."

Finally, the man looked up "They will die. I need to help them. I have to help them but I can't. Please don't let them die. Please."

"What are you talking about?" Ryder stopped

"It's a curse." The man said and looked above Ryder than back at him "You are lucky… Not like the most of the people… Not like my wife… Not like my… Not like… My daughter… Please help them." He turned back to the wall "No no no"

Unsure what to do, Ryder reached to his phone. "Marshall, come down here." He said. " I've found the man."

"What? Really? Is he okay? Does he have any injury?"

"No, but he is shocked. Bring some calmatives, and pain killer to be sure. Come down where I did, and follow the waterdrop sound. There will be a tunnel in the walls, but you need to pay close attention, otherwise, you'll miss it.

"Got it!"

As he hung up, Ryder looked around in the cave room. It was full of the carvings, and There were a few paintings on the walls too. As he went closer to the picture, he saw a huge mountain and two people. One was hanging on the edge of the cliff, the other tried to help him. It was a so strange view, Ryder was wondering why would anyone paint it inside a cave. Another one was about 3 people one was holding a bloody knife, one was lying on the floor, the third one was crying over the body. "What is this?" He wondered and looked at the third painting. There were 2 people. An elderly and a younger one. The old man was lying on the floor, the younger one was there too. He was crying, but… smiling at the same time? What is that even supposed to mean? Did he kill that man? But why is he crying than? This is when he saw the connection between the paintings. Everyone had a number above his head. The one hanging on the edge had a 00:000:00:00:14 the one lying on the floor had 00:000:00:00:00 just like the old man. "Is that…" he started but he heard Marshall's voice in the distance.

"Ryder? Are you here?"

"Yes." He finally looked away from the paintings "We are here. Follow my voice." In a few minutes, Ryder spotted Marshall's lights and eventually the pup too.

"What happened to him?" He walked straight to the man, not looking at anything else."

"Hard to tell." Ryder answered, "I think he panicked because he forgot the way back or something like that."

"Hmmm. Let's bring him back to the surface, shall we? I will be able to do a full checkup." As they helped the man on his feet, Ryder spotted a ring lying on the floor. It was a simple golden ring with an infinity symbol on it. "Sir, I think you dropped your..." He tried to say but as soon as the man saw the ring, he started to shout as loud as he can. "Nooo! Take it away from me! Destroy it! It's evil! It's cursed!" He cried. Ryder got caught off by guard and accidentally dropped it. The man, still looking at the ring, was so terrified, he kept on staring at it with his eyes widen. "It destroyed my life." He whispered. "Don't ever bring it near me."

"All right, sir, I promise," Ryder answered quickly. He didn't know why the man was so upset about a tiny ring. Still shaking, the man walked outside of the tunnel, with the help of Marshall. Ryder took a fast look at the ring, lying on the ground and picked it up, he waited a few seconds but nothing happened. "He is just shocked." Ryder gave out a relieved sigh. It must be his wedding ring or something. He pocketed it, hoping this man's wife will know more about what happened. He took a fast look back at the room and chuckled. There must be a logical answer to everything. He thought and walked out of the cave.

A few hours later Ryder was already back in the lookout with the rest of the group. They took the man to the nearest hospital, and with him, his family was gone too, and Ryder knew, it wasn't the best time to ask the woman about the ring. He took a better look at it, and the bronze infinite symbol, this is when he spotted something written on it, it was probably in the same language that was written on the walls of the cave. He got the idea to search for the translation on the internet, but to his disappointment, he found nothing, only Useless articles about completely different topics

"So it actually wasn't his…" he wondered and remembered what the man said when he tried to give it back. 'It's cursed'. He quickly shook his head. There isn't such thing as a curse. The man was dehydrated so he was hallucinating. Yes, that's it. He thought and forced a smile on his face. Everything is normal.

"Ryder, can I ask you something?" Skye walked in front of him.

Ryder, still looking at the ring answered. "Yeah, sure what's…" He stopped. He saw something that wasn't normal at all. Above Skye, there were numbers written in golden color. 08:114:23:11:10. one second had passed and the last digit changed to 09 one more and it was 08. It was like a huge digital clock. Ryder waved his hand above Skye, but he didn't touch anything. It was like a hologram. The numbers disappeared and reappeared as he moved his hand.

"Erm… Ryder… Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he answered absentmindedly, while still looking at the golden numbers. "What did you say?"

"You know what, I see you aren't fine… Maybe I should come back later. Do you want me to get Marshall for you?"

"No, I'm fine. What did you want to tell me?"

"It's just my water bowl is empty. Can you fill it up for me?"

"Yes. In a minute." He answered and took another look at the timer, that was now on 08:114:23:10:23

"You don't need to do it right away."

"No, I'm going." He said and stood up.

"Are you sure you are fine?" Skye asked suspiciously.

"Yes. Absolutely. Let's fill up that bowl." Meanwhile, he was thinking about something completely else. Those paintings back at the cave showed people with a bunch of 0-s above their heads… Does that mean… this timer is about how much each living being has before… death? Unwillingly, he looked at his reflection on the window, but he saw no numbers. Maybe this is for the best. As he filled up the bowl, he looked at the others, they had those golden numbers above their heads too, with different combinations. They looked so happy, as they were playing… Only if they knew… He looked around and finally his eyes stopped on Marshall. Ryder was shocked by what he saw. The digits above the fire pup weren't promising at all. While everyone else had years left, he didn't. His timer showed 00:000:04:21:42. He looked healthy. What's the reason he had only a few hours left? What's gonna happen? Why he?

"Umm Ryder?" Skye's voice pulled him back from his thoughts

"Y-Yeah?"

"I think it's full."

He looked at the bowl that was so full, it overflowed. He quickly closed the water flow. "Oh.. Sorry I just… sorry..."

"You should really take a nap." She chuckled. "If you were slower, you would be going backward."

But he barely heard those words. The only thing he had in mind was how to protect his pup. He is going to save him, no matter what.

AN: This is it for now. Let me know how you liked it by leaving a review. It's not forbidden.