Chapter seventeen: Let Loose!
"And I guess you know the rest." Tiny shrugged, finishing the story rather abruptly.
"Huh?" Chase vocalized, cocking his head again with the arched eyebrow to go with it.
"Ryder reached out to Mayor Goodway and pitched the idea to her. And she loved it.." Rayla explained. "And since it could also be good for Adventure Bay, she made it a public affair once your training has been completed; she plans to unveil it to the public once the competition's over."
"Training? Public? Competition..woah, what're you talking about?" Chase wondered, even more confused.
At this, Rayla and the other pups turned to the door and approached it, Chase following moments later; out of curiosity.
The doors parted with the aid of Marcus and Daniel respectively; and as soon as he blinked in the slight change in lighting, they adjusted to see what amazed him even more.
The landscape of black strips of different size and shape, framed with different colored padding appeared appealing. And after a short time, he noted how the continuity of it all extended up the walls in some places and even some on the ceiling. And other structures built up in each corner gave off a different feel.
"Woah,.. what is all this?" Chase wondered. And the PUP Pals all caught a different member's smile.
"Why don't we go find out?" Rayla smirked. "Come on!" She called, leaping forward and taking off toward the patchwork floor.
"Hey wait!" Chase called, scrambling after them.
All the pups reached the landing platform and leaped out onto the floor, but Chase stopped short as soon as he reached the edge; his paw barely slipping over it before he recovered himself from falling forward.
"What's wrong, Chase?" Skyler wondered, as the five pups rode the subsiding wave of bounce from their jump.
"I,.. um.. uh.." his eyes wandered down as his tone wavered; the stretchy black floor bent just below him to give him an appealing welcome to his otherwise resistant nature.
"It's ok, Chase.." Rayla coaxed, carefully walking toward him. "It's just a trampoline.. nothing to be afraid of."
"I know, but,.." Chase wavered again, looking out at them hesitantly.
"Come on, it-.. it'll be fun." Tiny softly added.
"Yeah! Take it from us." Skyler said. "We know how to have fun." She added lightly hopping the tramp so Kylie bobbed with it, smiling lightly at her in response.
"Chase, we wouldn't have put this all together for you.. if we didn't think it could be good for you." Rayla reasoned again. "So.. maybe just.. give it a try?" She wondered, holding a paw out to him even though she knew he wouldn't be able to reach it.
As he stared out there hesitating, he would've sworn he could almost feel a withdrawal happening. And did he feel the hurt return? Stepping the paw of his wounded shoulder back, he almost feared it'd re-inflict pain; but couldn't tell if it did when he just stared.
He was soon yanked out of his little trance by the warm touch on his wrapped shoulder, which he found didn't hurt at all.
"It's ok, Chase." Billy's soft, tender voice told him, earning the pup's glance.
"You don't have to be afraid that it'll hurt." He said, surprisingly reading his thoughts. "It shouldn't.. And if it does,.. you can decide to be done. But the only way to know that,.. is to try.. You may discover it's not as bad as you think."
"This is so weird.." Rocky mumbled to Marshall. "Chase has never been this hesitant to try something like this before."
"He's afraid of getting hurt again.." Marshall shrugged innocently. "Why wouldn't he be at this point." Then stepping forward, he slowed again as Billy shifted back a bit.
"Well,.. um.. o..ok,.." Chase thought aloud. "Maybe.. we can,.. try.." Stepping a paw down, he surprisingly felt nervous when sliding down the stretchy curvature of the tramp; wobbling as it lightly bounced so that he didn't leave its shiny surface at all.
"There you go,.." Rayla smiled. "Now how 'bout this.." reaching a paw over the colorful, well-padded framing, she lightly pressed on the tramp he was standing on to make it move under him some more. And at first, as she expected, he stood there stiff and tense while the light bounce bobbed him up and down.
"You act like you've never been on a trampoline before." Ci Ci noted, reading his wide stance.
"No,..I have, it's just.." Chase answered up quickly, stepping his paws closer together under him as the shaking stopped. "I guess.. since I got hurt, I'm kinda relearning some things.." he sighed finally.
"I can understand that.. you've been through so much lately,.." Kylie smiled, the understanding in her eyes broadly showing across them.
"Well,.. you're not alone in this.." Rayla decided. "So.. let's see if we can have some fun with this,.. shall we?"
Raising both forepaws, she stomped them both down onto the tramp Chase was standing on, popping him up, which successfully brought on a small chuckle as he came closer to her.
"Cool! Count me in!" Chester grinned, stepping up to the edge now with the PAW Patrol right behind him.
"Cannonball!" Leaping down, he landed a big bounce on that same tramp again, and Chase bounced up off the surface, laughing just a little bit more as he recovered his stance on the bouncy floor.
"Alright! Let's,.. get,.. bouncy with it!" Tiny swagged, as energetic music began to play in the background.
"Um.. ok,.. uhh,..how do we do that?" Chase wondered slowly.
"Well first we need to warm you up.." Rayla replied. "Get you used to it again. Then we'll worry about the rest later."
"If you say so." The young German Shepherd shrugged.
"Of course we do!" Skyler asserted. Leaping to face her body away from him while still keeping her gaze on him. "Take it from us! Now come on! These tramps aren't going to enjoy themselves. What're we waiting for?!" Chase chuckled lightly to himself, as the PUP Pals and Chester began hopping away, watching them with a growing interest that enticed him to follow.
"Yeah!"
"Wahoo!"
"Alright!" Cried the pups of the PAW Patrol, as they all hopped on past him from the platform, to follow the PUP Pals. And this finally seemed to make up his mind to hop across the padded trampolined floor to join them, now at the center of the black and multicolored field.
"Hey look who finally decided to join us." Chester joked, as his brother finally caught up to them.
"Whatever, Chess." Chase smirked mildly. "At least I'm here."
"Ok, ok, you got me.." the older German Shepherd surrendered. "I'm glad you're here, bro."
"Me too." Marshall grinned.
"And us… three?" Skyler put in, shooting glances at the others among her; PUP Pals and PAW patrol pups alike.
"All of us." Rayla confirmed, stepping up to the sheepdog to place a paw on her shoulder.
Chase caught sight of Mariana and Boomerang standing on the landing platform from which they'd come; both standing at the feet of all the people watching them.
"Alright. Now are we here to have fun? Or not?" Rayla asked the group.
"Let's do it!" Chester called, bouncing again to pop Chase up again.
"Then every pup… scatter!" Skyler howled. And they all spread out to a different tramp, to look for the other pups..
"Ready…" Rayla coached.
"Set…" Ci Ci added, everyone crouching down to get ready.
"Ohh,..just say it already!" Skyler shuttered in anticipation.
"Wait, what are we doing again?" Rubble asked innocently.
"We'll start with some simple jumping." Rayla explained, holding her position. "Up and down in place on your tramp and see how high you can get.. and Chase.." she soon added, turning back towards him. "Do take it easy, ok? You are still recovering, ya know."
"'Don't have to worry about me." Chase replied, shrugging his head to the left. "Let's just go already."
"Ok,.. go!" The golden lab called and the pups began to jump, higher and higher.. and as they jumped, Chase found that even as high as he tried to go,.. no pain followed other than the lingering pressure that still kept him.. a little uneasy for the moment.
Daring himself to look up from his paws, he saw the odd, yet amusing rise and fall of the people watching them from the landing and found it interesting,.. as if recalling a memory from not long ago…
xxxx
"Come on, Chase, keep up!" The chocolate lab called, bounding across the yard.
"*pant* Where are we going now?!" Chase gasped, panting as he made chase.
"Come on, dude, huwrry up!" Zuma called again, stopping briefly at the edge of the hill where the driveway extended down it. "'Show you when we get thewre!"
"*wheeze* show me.. what?!" The pup breathed, continuing to chase the brown blur ahead of him.
After running for what seemed like days, he hit a brown wall and tumbled over him a ways till they both landed in a pile, dusted with sand.
"Ah-choo!" Chase sneezed, raising his head off of Zuma's shoulder to shake the dust from his coat. Feet stopped right in front of them, casting a shadow on the two pups and Zuma shifted his head away from it to peek an eye up at them as Chase just looked up.
"Hey pups,.. glad you could make it." The smiling boy grinned.
"Oh..uh..thanks, Rwyder.. heh heh." The chocolate lab chuckled lightly, an awkward smile crossing his face with the German Shepherd on top of him, as they began to untangle themselves.
"So what exactly did you drag me all the way to the Bay for?" Chase wondered..
"Fowr this.." Zuma replied, as Ryder stepped aside.
Then looking from the water pup to something straight ahead of him, he found all four of the remaining pups standing on flat structures all colored with their respective colors of choice.
"Woah!" Chase marveled. Coming forward, as Zuma hopped up onto the orange one in front of them; he slowly climbed up onto the blue one set next to it.
"You actually got these for us?" He asked turning to Ryder, who'd made his way around the circle so that the pup could easily look over at him; from his left side.
"Actually,.. Katie and I built these.." the boy corrected him. "It was surprisingly easy… and with some help from Jake and all; 'gave us some good tips on how to make it perfect."
"Wow.. these are cool!" Chase mused, looking down upon the trampoline he stood on. Studying the dark blue rim around the stretchy black material that covered the springs from view, to ensure nothing would catch on them too easily.
"Alright,.." Skye spoke up, crouching lower in anticipation. "Who's ready for some fun!"
As their joyful barks and laughter faded out, the memory of them jumping faded back into that vault of his mind from which it came, and he seemed not to feel anything other than the fondness of this memory…
xxxx
"Oh no, heads up!" Chase's mind snapped out of it just in time to catch the glimpse of brown that came at him, and the blow sent them both bouncing away, hitting a wall that somehow caught them instead of bouncing them back; and they slid down it to a stop.
"Oh man, Chase! I'm so sorry, bro.. are you ok?!" Chester cried, climbing off his brother quickly and stared at him anxiously.
"Chase?!" Billy called, as the rest of the group made their way across the floor of tramps to reach them. "'You alright?!"
The pup lay there silently for a moment, semi-curled up where he'd landed; which was facing away from them on his right side and their view of him was his head facing them.
Suddenly a sound came to life from the pup with the shaking of his body, but they were surprised with the tone it held; as they crowded in just a little bit closer to try to decipher whether such a reaction was supposed to mean something good,.. or something very bad.. And even fearing it to be far worse than they thought, preparing to fight off this fear as they watched in desperate anticipation.
Hey guys! I'm baack! And I come bearing gifts.. since apparently everyone's trying to skip over thanksgiving and go right to Christmas. XP
Anyway, this new chapter took a little bit only because of a tiny patch of writer's block, and more of a distraction with other currently open works and some other life stuff that prevented me from actually getting to write on any of them. So long story short…
TA DA! And thx sooo much for your patience.. and your participation in this work. Love and blessings to you all. Thx!