Chapter five: Deep Trouble!
Chase panted, with the hobbling jog of a gait he'd set for himself, in pursuit of his little owl friend. But was soon halted by a whistling noise that he strangely recognized, but couldn't quite place. And as a result, those pursuing him came up short right into him and he gave them an odd look when looking back on them.
"Oof! Chase? Why'd you stop?" Rubble asked, still lying flat on the ground behind the pile of pups.
"I heard something." He answered, shifting himself up to walk forward a couple paces and look around attentively.
Suddenly the sound came again and a certain Dalmatian recognized it near immediately.
"Fuzzy!" The gosling came flapping from seemingly nowhere and came up to them right away, arriving at the Dalmatian in particular as they unstacked themselves. Fuzzy, as well as Hootie had noticeably grown, but still remained small compared to what their adult selves would measure up to. Yet still the growth they beheld, was enough to notice.
"Wow, look at you!" Marshall beamed, observing the gosling nuzzling his head against him. "You've gotten bigger since we last saw you!"
Fuzzy whistled and honked, and flapped his wings expressively.
"Awww. You guys have more feathered friends?" Snowflake commented, as she watched Fuzzy
Skye heard some clicking and sniffing advance to her left.
"Aww!" She gushed. "Bunnies!" The small creatures hopped further out from their hiding spot under the brush of some nearby bushes.
"Haha! Looks like we got some furry friends here too!" Marshall chuckled, and those among him laughed with him.
"How many animal friends do you pups HAVE? I don't think I've met them all before," Snowflake commented.
"Simple answer?.." Marshall began, when another noise interrupted him to earn their gaze.
"A lot." He finished with a bit of a flat tone.
Chattering squirrels scampered and chirping birds flapped about the trees overhead. Some beavers and a deer went wandering by; even stopping a moment to look at them.. and actually decided to stick around for a short while before heading their way again.
"Man, we sure are popular today." Rubble commented.
"Ah-choo! *sniff* In more ways than one!" Chase sniffled, shifting away from a patch of blooming white daisies.
"You ok, dude?" Zuma wondered, still smiling.
"I'll be ok." Chase shrugged lightly. "As long as I stay away from all these flowers."
"Well.. now what'do we do?" Chester wondered. And a series of various animal noises sounded and he glanced around wondering what the commotion was about.
Hootie floated down and hopped on Chase's head, earning the pup's glance. Then a golden feather dropped on his nose for him to sneeze at.
"*sniffles* hey! Where's Fuzzy?" Chase realized, noting that the feather that'd just made him sneeze was one very likely to be one from the gosling in question. Then the rest of the pups glanced around.
"He was just here." Marshall stated, searching the area carefully. "Fuzzy?!"
"There's no sign of him, anywhere." Rocky said.
"Where did he go?" Marshall thought aloud, then after a moment he stopped and turned his gaze on Chase, the others doing the same.
"Don't look at me." The German Shepherd protested. "I don't know where he went."
"But you know how to find out." Marshall reasoned.
"Ugh, fine.. gimme a sec.." he gave in, beginning to search with his nose.
"What's the big deal?" Chester wondered, coming up next to Marshall and Rocky. "Shouldn't be that hard to track down a little goose."
But then,..
"Ah,.. ah-choo!" Chase sneezed when finding one more piece of evidence of the goose's absence.
"Ugh! Feathers." He sighed, shaking his head before continuing on his sniffing search.
"Right." Chester realized now. "Never mind."
Chase continued to sniff until the edge of the clearing found him.
"Uh..- hold up, Chase." Marshall called, stopping him abruptly in his tracks. "Didn't Ryder say to stay close and not wander too far from the campsite?"
"Yeah?" Chase confirmed, sounding unsure as to why he would bring this up.
"Hmmm. Chase could follow Fuzzy's trail and Skye can follow from above with her wings. They can let us know what's going on through our pup tags. Could that work?" Snowflake suggested.
"Not without me, it won't." Chester spoke up, a protective emphasis in his tone. But still he noticed the odd stares he got from those among him.
"What?" He said. "I'm not letting Chase get into trouble again. Got that, little bro?.. Chase?" Glancing around, they found nothing.
"Ugh! Perfect!" Chester groaned.
"Annd he's gone." Rocky sighed.
"Not quite you, guys." Skye said, floating with the aid of her wings. "Look!" She pointed and they could barely make out a brown figure sniffing down a trail through the woods beyond them.
"Thank goodness!" Chester breathed. "Come on, Snowflake! Before we lose him again!"
"Let's go help him. Hopefully Chase stays safe," Snowflake replied.
"He will as long as we keep an eye on him.." Chester answered. "Come on!" And the two pups raced off through the forest after the fading German Shepherd, hoping they'd catch up to him soon.
xxxx
Chase's nose sniffed the trail, the scent painting itself in a path that only he could figuratively see; helping him to anticipate where to go next. Evermore, this was, by now, becoming the source of a strange confidence, which he maintained; even now.
"Hey, wait up!" Chester's voice called, yanking him from his focus long enough to look back over his shoulder to watch his two friends' approach.
"What's up?" Chase asked, looking a bit flatly surprised while the two pups huffed for their air back.
"Looking for you," Snowflake responded, panting.
"What?" Chase question, arching an eyebrow at her.
"You wandered off again." Chester replied dryly, briefly meeting Snowflake's gaze, who nodded as they landed their glance back on Chase.
"Oh.. uh.. sorry." Chase smiled sheepishly, then the scent blew his way again on the light breeze.
"There's the trail!" He gasped, shooting his gaze off behind his shoulder.
"Come on, let's follow it!" A rocky gait of a run, Chase tore through the woods as his brother and friend followed.
"Hey!-..uh! Chase!..- ah! Slow down, I-.." Chester stuttered, dodging the various brush that slapped and scraped at him as they ran.
Chase barely squeezed through a tangle of low branches, but Chester could hardly squeeze his head and foreleg through; lodging himself in at the shoulder.
"Ih-.. wait! Ihn.. hold up. Ah! I'm stuck!" He'd finally yanked himself back out, as Snowflake was somehow able to leap over the branches so he could take a fumbling hop to climb over them after her.
"Geez for an injured pup, he sure is fast.." Chester gasped when catching up to Snowflake. "Small head start or not."
"Yeah," Snowflake agreed.
Chase tore through the forest wherever he found an easy opening that still kept him along the same path. But at one point, he realized, the ground dipped.
"Wuh-oh!" Chase gasped, screeching into a sliding turn that put him at a one-eighty from where he started and he slid down the gentle slope backwards with an "oof!" ending his crash.
Chester and Snowflake heard his voice in time to stop right at the top of the slope, peering down on the cloud kicked up at the bottom.
"What did you do now?!" Chester groaned, and the silhouette of his little brother began to recover himself.
"What?..Nothing." Chase slurred, as his head became visible with the fading cloud of dust. Soon a whistling noise at his side inclined him to look down.
"Fuzzy!" Chase gasped, amazed to find the little goose wrapped up in some brambles roots sticking out of the rock wall.
"Oh no. He's trapped in those branches," Snowflake commented.
"Not for long." Chase said. "Come on, little fella, out you go."
Grabbing the strategically best branch, the German Shepherd pulled hard so the brambles could practically open themselves with the tension put on them, and a hole opened up for the young goose to float through.
"And now for the bigger problem." Chester went on, as his pup tag flashed.
"Chess?" Marshall's voice wondered.
"Yeah, um.. guys?" Chester responded lightly, almost distracted as he stared down at his brother. "Remember when we said we wouldn't go far?"
xxxx
"Yeah?" The pups all answered through their pup tags, all confused by the looks a few of them gave one another.
xxxx
"Well getting back might be a little tricky." Chester went on. "I think we'll need a little backup getting Chase back up the incline, Fuzzy doesn't seem to be too badly hurt or anything."
xxxx
"Really? You found him? -That's great!" Marshall smiled relieved his little buddy was safe. "But..uh.. what's that about Chase?"
xxxx
"He fell." Chester answered, meeting Snowflake's gaze, as they both dropped it down to Chase again. "Down a dusty incline where he found Fuzzy. 'Scent took him right to him,.. quite literally."
"What?!" Marshall cried, making Chester wince.
Whistling beckons and friendly hoots floated his eyes above him and Chase could see the intentions of their two feathered friends.
"Hang on, Chess. Wait!" Chase called. "Hold up.. uh..-Cease and desist!"
"Come again?" Chester finally answered.
"Hold off on the backup,.." Chase went on, a little more at ease now that he'd gotten their attention.
"I think they're trying to tell me something." He finished as the owl and gosling flapped down along the odd twist of the land where Chase stood. This path really couldn't be considered a path with it's barren appearance, and the untraveled ground made it that much less enticing to follow. But Chase hardly seemed to doubt it, as he advanced after them.
"Chase no!..*groaning sigh*" Chester's extended paw sagged.
"He wasn't gonna wait for back up anyway." He sighed, glancing at Snowflake.
"At least we'll be able to follow him easy enough.." He continued optimistically, while standing. "Even if we can't really help him if he gets into trouble down there."
"Hmmm. What about a long branch? Or Chase's net? Could we use those to get him out?" the husky pup suggested, as they began to follow Chase, along the top edge of the incline.
"Maybe,.. but will it be long enough to reach down there without being too heavy?" Chester wondered. "It's like,.. four feet down or something?"
Chase squeezed through another snug spot in some roots and tumbled forward over his shoulder; relieved that it didn't hurt as much as it had before. Then beckoning hoots called him back to focus and he padded on after them.
xxxx
"Guys? Where are you? What's going on?" Marshall demanded after the lack of a response for the third time.
"Oops..uh..sorry,.. we're following Chase now."
"Following him?" Marshall echoed. "Following him where? Did you get him out?"
"Not yet," Snowflake replied.
"We're just following him as best we can from above.. so we can at least keep eyes on him." Chester added. "Skye? Any way to see where he's going?"
The aviator pup zoomed her goggles in and what field of vision she had made her sigh.
"Not yet.." she answered finally. "Need a better angle."
"I am fine, you know." Chase had to mention, after crawling over some stones. And as he continued, he had to duck under a log lodged in between the two rock walls.
"Are you though?" Chester countered. "I mean.. you're basically stuck in a hole."
"A hole that leads you somewhere?" Chase shot back. "Sounds more like a path to me."
"Fair point," Chester complied. "But still this isn't exactly an ideal situation.. and while yes we still aren't TOO far from camp.. it's cutting it pretty close. We're really pushing our limits here."
"I'm fine." Chase asserted. "Besides I've got Hootie and Fuzzy down here to help me."
"I feel so much better now." Chester sighed, and Chase knew he was being sarcastic, but said nothing of it.
"I've got a visual on you guys.. but the forest gets thicker up ahead." Skye said, now hovering high above them along the same path. "We should try to call for backup to get Chase out before we go too far."
"Don't worry, you guys." Chase sighed as he entered the darkness of the small thicket. "I told you I'm..waahhhhh!"
"Chase?!" Chester gasped, freezing dead in his tracks. "Chase?!"
xxxx
The drop in the dark turned into a slide, and ended with a tumble. Chase grimaced when a hard surface jostled his shoulder and he carefully recovered himself to reduce any more.
"Ugh.. I'm ok!" He called dryly, with no real sense of fear at all. "Guys?!" Before he could call out to them again something nearby dropped to the dusty floor.
xxxx
"Chase?! Chase, bro?-.. answer me!" Chester cried.
"Dude, what the heck?!" He called into his pup tag. "What happened down there? Where are you?!"
All that returned was static.
"Oh no. He's too deep underground, so we can't talk to him through our pup tags. The signal isn't strong enough," Snowflake commented.
"Great.." Chester shrugged, and he tried to sound as sarcastic as he possibly could. "That's just great.. Guys it looks like we'll have to call in the cavalry after all."
"What why?" Marshall asked, the German Shepherd's pup-tag flashing as he spoke through it.
"Wouldn't you know it.." Chester went on dryly. "Chase dropped out on us.. and we've got no idea where he ended up."
"What?!" Came the collective response.
xxxx
"Aw not again!" Rocky groaned softly to himself, which Marshall barely caught on to.
"That's it.. I'm calling it." Marshall decided. "We're calling Ryder."
"Ok but.. you know he'll wanna call us all back to camp for mission assignments, right?" Chester reasoned, as the fire pup's icon flashed.
xxxx
"I'll stay and keep a look out for any cave openings." Skye said, continuing to scan the area with her goggles adjusting their focus once again. "Maybe then I can lead you to it so we can find Chase faster."
xxxx
"Sounds great, Skye!" Marshall answered, as Chester watched his pup-tag flash with the Dalmatian's open response.
"Guess we better get heading toward camp then, huh?" Chester guessed, looking to Snowflake.
"Looks that way. Let's go," Snowflake replied. And as the two pups bounded back through the forest, they began to wonder about the things yet to come.
"Sure hope he's ok." Chester murmured to Snowflake as they ran.
xxxx
"Guy?!" Chase called. "Hey!"
"Ugh, probably can't hear me." He groaned after a while, but then a thought struck him.
"Maybe I can.." Trudging up the rugged spout of the hole he'd fallen from, he didn't climb long before he began to slide. Until he could no longer hold a footing and tumbled all the way down to the bottom again. And even with what little progress he'd made.. it still barely dented the progress he would've LIKED to make.
I can't give up! He thought to himself, becoming firm and determined as he glanced back up again. Trying for another attempt he unfortunately couldn't get much higher than the first attempt before sliding once again. But this time, when he hit the ground, he'd fallen backwards in such a way as to land hard on his shoulder; jacking it in it's socket.. Or so it felt by the grimace that resulted.
"Ok,.. -maybe I can.." he groaned out loud. But then some odd chatter brought his gaze up in curiosity.
Wah-hoo! We made it to another chapter! =D
The concept introduced here was actually not originally planned, but hey,.. it sure does spice things up! Can't wait to see what you guys think of it! And we'll see you next time! Thx!