First things first I should say something about the really long wait. I wouldn't say it was a hiatus I just didn't feel like it since I was busy with other things. If you want to find out more you could join the Atlas guardian discord server which has many great writers. I'll talk more at the bottom.

ANYWAYS, Chapter 8 is here! Finally! It's not a 4-5k word chapter I usually write. Any thoughts on Makalu? I'll shut up you don't need to answer that lol.

Everyone Makes Mistakes

Chase opened his eyes to darkness, nothing but the hard to see silhouette of things he couldn't make out. He stiffens up as he cocks his head back and waves his right paw forward as far as he could reach, trying to get a feel for his surroundings.

He jolts backwards when his paws touches the surprisingly cold floor. He slides into the cold to just get used to it, like going into a pool for the first time. His body slightly relaxes as he felt his paw make contact with a solid object.

Suddenly the lights shut on and Chase groans.

"Didn't expect that did ya?"

"Who said that?" Chase quickly looks around room to find the where the voice came from, with no luck at all.

It didn't take long at all for him to notice that it was almost identical to his room back at the lookout. He shivered as cautiously walks over to his desk. Analyzing his room, the more he looks the more cursed it got. The voice quickly became the least of his worries.

He instantly noticed that there is snow covering the floor along with no window or light bulb, nor was there a door. The dying urge to ask the voice called him but he didn't wish to risk anything. He looks down and quickly scrambles through all his case files. As he skimmed through them he puts them back in alphabetical order.

Under all of them was a red one labeled Syndicate. He picks it open and as he opens it, it flies out a new door he never saw. Chase hesitated to run after the file or finish fixing the rest of the files. "What am I thinking?" He grumbles to himself and runs out the door.

He puts himself at a complete halt at the sight of 12 or so bandits. They weren't aware of Chase's presence. 2 of them dragged a single net filled with lifeless bodies.

His own breath starts fog up his vision. He squints his eyes and can see who's in the bag. Ryder, Marshall and Everest. Instinctively he starts running at them without a plan or common sense. The blood boiling and adrenaline pushing his body through the frigid air.

One of the thieves turns around and raising an arm and steadily aims a revolver at Chase. Before Chase could even react...

Bang!

Chase gasped and sat up. In front of him were two familiar faces. He touches the floor and analyzes the wooden walls. He shakes his head and feels his cold and damp snout. "Were you putting snow on my nose?"

"Question is! were you having a dream? You were moving your legs and mumbling things." Rocky points out with an interested tone of voice.

"No, I wasn't having a dream." Chase looks at Everest who had a bucket of snow below her. He rolls his eyes and looks back at Rocky who seemed to be rethinking life. "Rocky?"

Rocky couldn't help but feel cheated out of his question. "Yeah...I have the feeling you were lying. There's no other reason you should've been moving your legs or mumbling."

Chase rolled his eyes. He didn't have any knowledge on the dog body on sleeping. "I was having a dream, so what?"

Rocky's eyebrows rose. "Answer me one question! Was it cold?"

"What does having a cold dream have to do with anything?" Everest commented.

Rocky smirked. "I've been testing out a theory I have."

Chase forced himself up and walked out the door leading the two. "Yes, it was cold"

He could see that candles and lamps lit up the room. "What's all this about?" It reminded him of a date scene from a movie. Like with the table, low lit room, candles, and a box of chocolates.

He rushed to the door and tries to push it open with all his might but to no avail he fails. "A-are we trapped in h-here?!? I can't d-do this!"

He starts to hyperventilate and walks in a circle panicking on what his next move should be.

Rocky looks to Everest with a panicked expression. "I uh Ryder taught me how to deal with this! Umm, we need to distract him! Do you have anything you could distract him with?"

Everest eyes lit up. "We could open the door and let him dig himself out! That would be a sight to see." She suggested.

Rocky agreed knowing that was their best bet

"Chase! You can uh...dig yourself out!" Rocky states as he and Everest open the door for the Shepherd.

Makalu joins them as they watch Chase go to work with his paws.

"That's...Thats actually kinda impressive not gonna lie." Everest praised "Has he ever dugout of anything before?" She asked but was quickly ignored.

Makalu rolled his eyes and scoffed. "That's easy work. Plus what with him? I thought he's supposed to be tough?"

"He's claustrophobic...jerk" he muttered.

Makalu snapped his head to Rocky. "What was that punk?"

Rocky mimicked him. Makalu let out a heavy huff and pushed Rocky. "Guys!" Everest called out.

They started to push each other around. Rocky suddenly stopped and eyes up the bigger and scarier dog. "M-maybe we could come to an agreement?"

Makalu evilly grinned. "Nah, I'm going to enjoy this." He mutters as he slowly approaches Rocky.

Rocky heavily breathed and backed up into a corner. "Why don't you like Chase?!?" He yells trying to buy himself a little more time.

Everest attempts to push Makalu out of the way but got nowhere. "Don't you see? He's intervening with my...plans..."

Rocky tilted his head. "What plans?"

Makalu raised his paw as Everest tried once again to move him.

"I wouldn't bring that paw down if I were you!" A voice boomed out from the entrance.

They turned around to see Chase, Jake and a couple of more mountain dogs digging out the snow.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Makalu retorts as he drops his paws and squares up to Chase who was noticeably bigger.

They stared each other down showing neither of them would back down. Chase broke eye contact and walks toward Rocky "Rocky, what did you do?"

Everest looks at Makalu. "What the hell man?" She groans.

Makalu huffed. "What?"

Everest looked at him bewildered by what she just heard from him. "Oh you've gotta be joking?"

"What?"

Everest wished she was in a rage room right now. Just to obliterate vases and walls because of Makalu and Rocky's stupidity.

Chase looked at Rocky annoyed more than ever. "Give me the full story." Chase ordered.

Rocky quickly nodded. "When you were digging out Makalu basically called you pathetic? I couldn't let that float by unhandled." Rocky said.

Chase resisted the urge to face palm himself but instead he slowly shook his head. "Look Rocky, we have only a couple more day then we can leave. Let's not spend these days hating each other. Makalu seems like a promising dog with some emotional issues. Like basically everyone." Chase explained as he offers a paws to Rocky.

Rocky accepts it nods. "I'll apologize."

Chase couldn't help but let out a big smile. "If I wasn't here I'm 100 percent sure you could be a leader. Along with Marshall."

Rocky felt awkward. "Hehhe, I don't think I'm that great of a leader. I'm just smart." Rocky nervously chuckled. He doesn't get much praise from anyone since he's never on mission. His job had been made absolute by Rubble.

They regroup outside of the building to find Makalu sniffing footprints that led into the illegal part of the mountain. Behind them were guests starting to line up to enter the ski resort.

Chase and Rocky watch as Makalu does all kinds of weird stuff to the footprints. Licking it, sniffing, looking, comparing to his paw and doing some measurements.

Suddenly he jumps up. "We can catch these guys Everest! They're in there!" Makalu shouts.

"What's going on?" Chase asks.

Everest hesitated. "Um, basically these teenagers sneak in here when they aren't supposed to." Everest nodded happy with her answer.

"Trespassers?" Chase said holding in a laugh.

Everest lost her smile and blankly looks at Chase for killing her moment of glory.

Chase wasn't planning to catch criminals but he'd finally see some action. "What's the fastest way around the mountain? Get me there and we can squeeze them in." Chase ordered.

Everest nodded and dragged Chase by the paw towards a ski lift. "Wha why are we going here? This thing is slow!" Chase groans as they wait for one to become available.

Makalu and Rocky jump over the the fence and start to follow the footprints. "You have an ear piece right? We might have to split up."

Rocky wasn't fond of the idea of splitting up. You could get lost, eaten by bears, or starve after getting lost. "Yeah...do we have to split up though?" He nervously asks.

"Never mind then, if you see one the trespassers sprint after them. Got it?" Makalu asks making sure everything goes to plan. If Rocky died on his hands then he'd never see that badge again.

Chase looked over the edge while Everest thought about questions she could've asked the PAW Patrol. "Hey Chase"

"Yeah"

"What were you dreaming of?"

Chase froze. He wasn't expecting to recall his dream. "Nothing important." He simply replied.

Everest wasn't buying it. "So when we asked this morning why did you say no?" She cockily smiled.

Chase gulped as he turns to look Everest in the eye which made her uncomfortable. "I barely woke up and I didn't know what was going on." Chase lied.

Everest nervously looked around. She wasn't sure what to look at besides his brown eyes. She looked around for anything but the eyes bothered her, eye contact wasn't a strong suit for Everest. "What was the dream about I wanna know" Everest asked hoping he'd stop staring at her.

"Alright" Chase said as he still stared at her. "It was black at the beginning but after this voice said something. When I could see I was in my room. Just things were off. My desk was a mess but at the real lookout it's very neat. Messy things really bug me. All of my cases, normal arrests and police work were in that pile. It's was... A lot of work.-

- how much work?" Everest curiously asked.

"I dunno, maybe 50ish files. 2 homicides, 12 break ins, and 1 serious one. Everything else is arrests from this year. Previous years stuff is in a box in the basement." Chase explained. Everest wasn't sure if it was good amount or not so she kept listening. Something hit her. "You've seen dead people?" Everest questioned.

Chase weakly nodded. "Not a fun sight. Esp-*sigh* I'll leave it out. DONT ask about the serious one."

Everest nodded. She was quite pleased with the information she was getting now.

"Anyways I'm not supposed to work on this thing. The syndicate. They are like rats...When I got outside you, Ryder, and Marshall were in a net. I ran after and got shot. Then I woke up. Not to mention it was cold. You happy now?" Chase sighed as he could he that they were almost at the arrival point.

Everest wondered why she was in the dream. What correlation did her, Ryder, and Marshall have. "What are Marshall and Ryder to you?" Everest asked.

Chase thought about it. "Probably the closest people I know. I'd do anything for them." Chase simply replied and looked back at the trees.

Everest smiled. "What am I to you?"

Chase smiled back. "A friend...are we gonna take this thing back down the mountain?"

Everest shook her head. "Don't try to change the subject. I get the feeling you like me. I mean, Rocky saying you have a soft spot and you dreaming about me seems like hard evidence that you do." Everest smiled.

Chase rolled his eyes. "Haha very funny. I've only liked one person in my lifetime."

Everest was even more interested. "Who?"

"Her name was Sylvia. She sorta looks like you but she was all white...c'mon let's go." Chase said as they finally reached the top. Everest awwed and reluctantly jumped off the lift. She led Chase out side and told him to wait.

Chase heard a loud roar as Everest drove out in her modified Ski-doo. In front of them was a long clear path down a small part of the mountain. "No no no no! We aren't going to go down that!" Chase ordered in fear of his life.

"Please? I promise we won't get hurt. If they do I'll let you...I'm not sure." Everest offered.

Chase shook his head.

"I'll go slow." Everest offered again.

"Fine. SLOW!" Chase agreed. He nervously looked down the path as he got on. Everest revved the engine which worried him. "S-slow" Chase said again to make sure she knew to go slow.

To his surprise she started off slow. They were going at a nice calm pace.

Suddenly Everest went full throttle. "AHHHH WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOP THIS THING!" Chase yelled and tightly held onto Everest. He felt as if he was about to fall off of the darn thing. Everest was to into the moment to realize that she was giving Chase a heart attack.

As they got closer to the bottom a bit of snow started to move. Everest squinted and struggled lean in to see. Chase still had his arms wrapped around her as they sped down the mountain.

She turned left to avoid a family of white coated rabbits. The conclusion was her losing control.

The snow mobile turns over sending Everest and Chase off of it.

Chase opened his eyes to see that they weren't even on the snow mobile anymore but instead about to hit the ground and start sliding.

Chase could see the snowmobile tumbling down towards them faster than they were sliding. He pushed Everest away as the snow mobile got closer. He closed his eyes waiting for the snow mobile to crush him.

The crashing got louder and louder for a couple of seconds before losing his volume. "I'm alive? I'm alive!" Chase shouts as he looks around his surroundings.

At the bottom was a wrecked snow mobile and to his right was Everest with her mouth agape and eyes wide open.

"What? Are you not happy I'm alive?" Chase asked but got not response.

He turned around to see red streaks across the floor. At closer look you could see the small guts, intestines, and fur from the small rabbits. "Ooh, that's not cool." Chase groaned.

He turned back around to see Everest leaking tears from her eyes. "You okay?" Chase cooed in a low tone.

Everest made noises but no words. Chase wasn't sure exactly how to help Everest. He took mental notes on how to help everyone at the lookout but he never took any on Everest. "They're just bunnies-

"They're JUST bunnies? I just killed a sentient family! I wrecked my vehicle! I almost got you killed! The thing was a inch from decapitating you! I'm a screwup!" Everest balled as she fell on her stomach.

Chase patted her back. "I wouldn't say necessarily a screw up. Everyone makes mistakes."

"You don't make mistakes." Everest rebutted.

Chase was stumped. He can't recall the last mistake he made was. "Everest *sigh* it's part of who I am. Besides Luna, we're the only ones who don't make mistakes. Like look at Marshall. He's killed 3 baby birds while trying to save a cat. There's a lot more he's killed but he walks around fine and dandy. Rubble, Zuma, Tuck, and Arrby have all destroyed their vehicles. Not to mention the time Zuma and Marshall almost killed Rocky in his sleep by accidentally water boarding him." Chase huffed as he finally finished.

Everest weakly smiles. "I guess I'm not so bad." She mumbled. She wobbled herself up, puffed her chest out, nodded and lead Chase into the illegal part of the woods.

Rocky and Makalu trekked through the woods effortlessly. Rocky was surprised with his physical abilities. He was starting to believe had had some husky blood in him.

Makalu suddenly froze and sniffed the floor for an extended period of time. He tapped on his earpiece. "Rocky, stay close there's wildlife nearby. Lynx or bobcat be ready to feeling a beating." Makalu ordered.

Rocky felt his soul leave his body. He scooted closer and got into a tighter circle with Makalu.

He could hear him grunting as he struggled to get his earpiece working. "Let me see, I'm a whole tech dog. That's sorta my job...it used to be construction aswell but I excelled with electronics." Rocky said as he held out his paw to receive the piece of tech. Makalu hesitated but gave it over.

Rocky looked it over once or twice before actually working. "Do you happen to know how dense the forest is?"

Makalu shrugged. "Unless your pal can sniff out a bobcat then we need to warn them of the danger. Everest's nose isn't the best."

Everest looked around her surrounding to get a feel for where they were. "We're still relatively on the outside part of the woods. The trees are pretty spaced out. They get much tighter as we go deeper."

Chase nodded and took a mental note. "Great so we just keep pushing this way?" Chase mumbled as he looked into what seemed to be endless amounts of trees.

Everest nodded.

A loud shriek could be heard all around them. Chase jumped into a fighting stance. "The hell was that?!?" He said as he tries to find what made that noise.

"I'm not sure but did I mention a cave?"

"A ca- OOF!"

Everest stood in shock as Chase launched backwards down a small hill. She shakes her head and takes deep breathes. "Don't let him die don't let him die." She repeats to herself as she runs down the hill.

Chase was slightly bigger than the wild cat which meant that it was probably a bob cat. Size isn't everything.

Everest was lost on what to do. Its a very one sided battle. Chase was struggled to keep it from getting its neck. Things only got worse as 3 small foxes showed up ready to eat whoever the victor was.

Chase let out a yell as the cat latched onto Chase's leg. Chase looked at his situation and took a deep breath while on his back.

On the exhale he pulled his arm past his head with all his remaining strength. It revealed the bottom of the bob cats neck.

He quickly leeched onto it and it became a wrestling match. The bobcat did everything it could think of to get the Shepherd off but Chases latch was too strong.

Everest caught up and saw the foxes slowly approaching. With in loud bark she scared of the timid creatures.

She looked to her left and saw the bobcat rapidly slowing down on the floor as Chase held on.

With a desperate attempt for survival the cat did a circle causing Chase to put pressure on his injured foot. He let go in pain and stood on threes. His paw was throbbing as sharp pains rushed up his leg.

He felt the floor behind him fall. He turned around to see a giant hole in the floor. "Did I mention a cave?" Played in his head. He looked down and saw nothing but a small patch of white stuff at the bottom.

"This must be it" he thought to himself before quickly focusing back to see Everest full sprint at bobcat from behind.

Chases eyes widened as he waved his paw and yelled for his life. Everest was to into the moment and ignored Chases calls.

Everest closed her eyes and opens her arms to grab the wildcat and Chase.

When she opens them Chase is yelling like a girl and the cold wind rapidly hits her face. She realizes her big mistake and does the natural "AHAHHHHHHH!"

3 bodies fell into the black abyss.

There's chapter 8 for ya! Like I said at the beginning, I'm in the atlas guardian discord server basically every day so if ya got questions then join! Honestly you should. Plus there are many writers there like 7-10 Productionz, Dragonsfire, me or course, and like...7 others! Here's the link you're interested https/discord.gg/qfFvaYNK

Now to get on with the uhh 2 week break I took. First of all I actually decided to try and improve which I'm sure it won't be perfect for obvious reason. I also started football practice which takes up the middle part of my day. So I'm gonna have to try and organize a new schedule. Gotta keep them grades up. Besides that, that's basically it and I hope you enjoyed and understand.

No promises that there will be a new chapter soon.