"Uhhhh... so... tired... must... rest..."
Depleting Skye's energy wasn't exactly easy. After all, she had reserves second only to Marshall. But even she had her limits. And a hectic day like today had officially depleted them. After going on a couple more rides with Chase, the Cockapoo had bid the Shepherd goodbye and started dragging herself back to the boat so she could get some sorely-needed sleep.
"Ugggghhhh... tired... tired... tired..."
The journey felt like an eternity to the golden-brown pup. She must've looked like a zombie as she plodded down the path towards the ship, through the lobby and then through the corridors. Not that she particularly cared. All she cared about was the bed waiting back at their room as she fought her hardest to not fall asleep on the spot.
"Bluuuurrrgghhh..."
Eventually, she found herself back at the room after practically sleepwalking there. She didn't take notice of anything around her as she made her way to the bed. Not even the sound of snoring coming from the top of it. With the last of her strength, Skye leapt up to the bed...
"YIPE!"
"BWAGH-!"
...and quickly found herself landing on something squishy. Something squishy that was frantically kicking and thrashing below her.
"AHHH! GETOFFMEGETOFFMEGETOFFME!" the squishy something shouted.
"WHAWHAWHA-?!" Skye jolted back to alertness as she scrambled to get away from this mysterious squishy lump, only to start losing her balance as she unconsciously leapt backwards to the edge of the bed.
"Aaaaaagghh-! UMPH-!"
Skye took a moment to get her bearings back as she stared up at the bed she just fell off of. And just as soon as they returned, the head of a familiar Dalmatian popped out over the side of the bed with droopy, half-lidded eyes.
"Skye?!" Marshall exclaimed drowsily.
"Marshall?" Skye replied, her eyes widening.
"Skye, what the heck?!"
The stars circling the Cockapoo's head swiftly disappeared as she put two and two together and realised that she didn't notice Marshall sleeping on the bed, and had just accidentally hit him with a flying press.
"OH-! Oh, jeez, Marshall, I'm so sorry! I-I didn't know you were there!"
"What were you doing?! You scared the bejeezus out of me!"
"I-I just came back because I was tired! I didn't even know you were here!"
Thankfully, both pups didn't take long to calm back down and explain themselves. Skye hopped back up to the bed while being careful not to flatten Marshall this time and explained that she was so groggy after a long day on Solstice Island that she didn't notice anything but the bed. This quickly mollified Marshall, who gave a similar account of having a long day and wanting to get some sleep.
"Sorry I yelled, Skye. just wasn't expecting you to squish me like that!"
"Heh, heh... I mean, I probably should've paid attention..."
Marshall shook his head. "Aww, I've had worse. Way worse. So since we're both wide awake, what's your day been like?"
"Oh, incredible! I've already had a ball going around the Solar Citadel and the Funhouse, but... I..." Skye uncontrollably let out a huge yawn, making Marshall reel slightly from the smell of her dog breath. "...ugh, sorry... I just hit my limit... how about you?"
Marshall quickly lit back up. "Oh, its been amazing! I've been all over the park with Rocky and Zuma! But..." the spotted pup bit his tongue as he suppressed a huge yawn. "...urgh, I just couldn't take any more... I had to come and take a rest."
"Maybe it's because we only took a quick nap before running out to the island all willy-nilly?"
"Can you blame us? There was so much to see and do!"
"There still is! I mean, I've been on scary log rides, swinging ships and even a..." Marshall paused, shivering as he recalled the ride he'd seriously hoped to avoid the whole time he was on the island. "...eugh, a drop tower..."
"Yeah, and I've been through a scary haunted house, a great big rapids ride and a- wait, wait..." The air quickly leaked out of Skye's balloon as a quizzical expression formed on her face. "A drop tower? You?"
Marshall then realised how his story must've sounded to Skye. From the look on her face, she must've been sitting and waiting for his nose to start growing.
"Oh, yeah... erm..."
With a bashful expression, Marshall recounted the long story of his and Rocky's hiccups and their unsuccessful attempts to scare said hiccups out of themselves. He recounted how every attempt simply wasn't enough, and that they had to go big or go home with the drop tower known as the Turret Plummet. It was debatable as to whether the buildup or the execution was worse, but one thing was for sure, it worked. Much to their relief, as they probably would've fallen into despair if such a scary ride wasn't enough to shift their hiccups.
"I guess that'll teach us to drink so fast." Marshall concluded.
"Seriously?! Hah! Well, I guess that's one way of scaring the hiccups out of you!"
"And you wanna know what's really weird? Even though I think I saw my life flash before my eyes... er, again..."
"'Again'?" Skye parroted, giving Marshall a funny look.
"...I actually really enjoyed it!"
Once more, Skye's eyes went wide as she learned something entirely new about Marshall. She knew that he'd gotten better about his fear of heights, but didn't realise that he had it in him to go on such a frightening ride.
"Serious?! Maybe we can get you to come skydiving with us next time, then!"
Marshall responded with a withering look. "Don't push it."
Skye snorted. "I'm only teasing, Marshall. Anyway, since we're both here, you wanna watch a movie or something? I don't think I've had the chance to hang out with you today."
It only took that one question for Marshall to immediately light up again. "Ooh, I'd love to!"
Marshall grabbed the remote from the bedside table, turned the TV on, and quickly started sifting through the "Comedy" section, wondering what funny movies the Island had on offer. Skye sat patiently, not really recognising any of the movies that Marshall was flipping through. But then, all of a sudden, the Dalmatian gasped as one movie in particular came into view.
"No way! They have it?!" he cried excitedly, settling the cursor on a strange-looking poster.
"'Kingdom of the Moon'? Sounds fancy."
With a smirking chinchilla front and centre with a background occupied by a green-skinned witch, a hulking meat sack of a man, and a tiny, worried-looking figure wearing a crown standing to the side, Skye had a feeling that she was in for a serious trip.
"It's my favourite movie to watch with Rubble! It's a comedy about a king who gets turned into a chinchilla for being so spoiled and he has to find a cure and-"
Marshall found himself cut off by Skye's paw going over his muzzle, the Cockapoo smirking at him.
"You don't have to spoil the whole movie, you silly pup. I'd love to watch it with you. It sounds like a lot of fun"
Slowly, Skye took her paw away as Marshall turned a shade of embarrassed red under his fur. Admittedly, sometimes his mouth had a mind of its own, and it was running away with him here.
"E-Err... y-yeah, right. Let's just watch it." Marshall concluded sheepishly, inwardly grateful that Skye was happy to watch one of his favourite movies with him.
Wasting no more time, Marshall put the movie on, and Skye quickly found herself hooked. It was amazing just how funny the story of a king cursed into such a humiliating form could be. And the sheer depths of how spoiled and horrible said king was in human form only made Skye feel slightly bad for him. What's more was that the story was surprisingly moving. Slowly and very painfully, the king had to learn to be a better person to break the curse. And almost every attempt of the king's to improve himself was not only incredibly halfhearted and misguided, but ended up going hilariously wrong. An attempt to clean someone's house by stuffing everything into a closet resulted in said closet exploding. An attempt at giving flowers to a woman out of the blue ended in the king getting sneezed down a hill from an allergic reaction, the list went on. Occasionally, the wicked witch and her beefy, dim henchman were shown trying to find the king to get him out of their lives for good. But after said henchman had misinterpreted the witch's instructions and ended up catching a load of guinea pigs instead of chinchillas, Skye couldn't help but pass comment.
"Wow, err... this guy's a couple treats shy of a full box..." Skye observed.
"Yeah... I kinda see myself in him, honestly..." Marshall replied sadly
That one sentence stopped Skye cold. She leered at the TV screen. Then looked over at Marshall. Back at the TV. Back at Marshall. The whole time, the Cockapoo had a thoroughly confused expression on her face.
"...gotta say, I don't see it. I mean, I'm pretty sure this guy isn't as nice or strong as you. Probably can't fill a book with how much he knows about fires either."
Marshall stayed quiet for a second or two, looking over at Skye in surprise.
"Yeah, that's right. I know you well enough to know when to nip this kind of thing in the bud. I know you don't do it on purpose, but we're on vacation! Lighten up! This is no place to be thinking about THAT! We've known you for so long that it'd feel empty going on rescues without you crashing into us in the elevator! You know we've had your back for years, and we always will! I know you're not even close to this meathead, and you know it too!"
Marshall was stunned silent for a few seconds as Skye's words sunk in. In fact, it took him a while to notice the Cockapoo lovingly resting her head on his back. But once he did, the Dalmatian silently cursed himself.
"I... ugh. No. You're right. I hate these stupid moments of mine..."
"You know what else I've said before, Marshall? You hold yourself to super-high standards! And you being tired probably doesn't help, either..."
Skye, of course, didn't mention that Marshall's attacks of self-loathing had only increased in frequency ever since the river incident two months ago. And then they worsened after Redcreek. But then again, that was but one of the reasons they went on vacation in the first place: to cut loose, have fun...
"...but that's why we're here, isn't it? To get better? Actually, I can't remember the last real break we had..."
"Yeah... I guess it is... thanks, Skye. I needed to hear that... heh, I really should relax, huh? This is one of my favourite movies, after all!"
Suddely, a wicked smirk found its way to Skye's face. "Yeah! We're not here to sit around moping! We're on vacation! Live a little, you silly worrywart!"
Marshall only had time to yelp before he felt something lightly scribbling up and down his sides.
"HEY-! Heeheeheeheeheehee-! Skye-! Hahahahahaha! QUIT IT-! HAHAHAHAHA-!"
Skye quickly stopped as Marshall devolved into ticklish hysterics, laying her head on her paws and smirking playfully at the still-giggling Dalmatian.
"There we go, now we've got your smile back!"
"But... did you have to tickle me? I had my smile back already!"
"Oh, sue me, you big grump! I just like hearing you laugh! And we all know you can't stay serious for long, anyway!" Skye retorted playfully
Marshall grew an indignant expression. "I can, too!"
"Pfft-!"
"Yes I can!"
"No you can't!"
"I can!"
"Nope!"
"I can totally be serious!"
"Can not!"
"Can too!"
"Can not!"
"Can too!"
And now they were back to what this vacation was all about: Having fun, watching movies, being silly, getting into the odd childish argument here and there, the works. Skye rolled her eyes at Marshall's hilariously transparent attempt to look tough. They both knew he was just being his usual silly self. And Skye had a way to prove it as she looked at Marshall with an evil, toothy grin.
"OK, Mr. Super-Serious. How about you prove it? If you can stay serious, then you'll have no problem getting through the rest of this movie without laughing."
Marshall looked like he'd been jabbed with a cattle prod at Skye's suggestion. "HUH?! B-But-!"
"No 'but's! For a serious pup like you, it should be easy, riiiiiight?"
Skye had just thrown down the gauntlet. She was challenging Marshall, one of the most cheerful pups in the whole team, to try and not laugh? At his favourite comedy movie, no less? She was asking the impossible! But then, Marshall wasn't really in a position to back down. He'd just insisted that he was indeed a serious pup, and now he was being challenged to prove it. Backing down now would immediately prove him a paper tiger, and no pup could deal with that level of shame. With a stone-faced expression, Marshall nodded.
"Alright. Deal. You'll see just how serious I can be."
Marshall turned back to the movie, determined to not to do so much as snicker. But deep down, both he and Skye knew that this was a doomed effort, especially as Marshall's favourite comedy still had half its running time left to go.
"(Well, you're not wrong...)" Skye thought with an evil grin.
As the film went on, Skye would occasionally steal glances at the Dalmatian laying beside her. And amazingly, Marshall was somehow remaining as stone-faced as ever. But at the same time, she couldn't help but notice the odd exaggerated and obviously-forced frown on his face a few times throughout the movie. Eventually, there was a scene of the chinchilla king scrambling around inside the beefy henchman's clothes as the occasional crunch and near-operatic scream of pain rang out, the henchman thrashing around and practically dancing as he tried to get the king out of his breeches. Skye grinned widely, snickering at the ridiculous sight...
"Kkkkhhhhrrrrrgggttt-!"
"A laugh?!"
...and it seemed she wasn't the only one. Immediately, she whipped around to look at Marshall, who continued to fight back a big smile with an exaggerated frown, that quickly shifted into a surprised, frightened look as he realised that Skye was looking straight at him.
"Mmmm-! Mm- ugh, er, ahem, uh."
The speckled pup was able to recover his wits remarkably quickly, returning to an expression of neutrality in seconds, despite sounding very much in pain as he swallowed back laughter. Skye's expression changed back to the wicked smirk she had earlier. He knew it as well as he did. This was the beginning of the end of Mr. Super-Serious Marshall. Skye pointed a paw to her own eyes, before pointing it at him.
"I'm watching you, Buster..."
Back to the movie. It was one funny moment after another. Some of these funny moments were physical slapstick, and others were dry wit. There was something for everyone here. But another moment came when the chinchilla king was forced to find some food of his own. He'd already had a diet of leaves and twigs, and that was bad enough, but now he had to eat grass. His petulant, melodramatic reactions of disgust to eating said grass were enough to get Skye giggling, but she almost lost it completely upon seeing a puff-cheeked Marshall with squinty, slightly watery eyes. If she didn't know any better, she'd think he'd gotten stung by a bee.
"C'mon, you're kidding yourself, Spotty! You haven't got a chance with this movie!"
Marshall paused for a long time, taking slow, deliberate breaths through his nose.
"...d-do, too..." he squeaked strainedly.
But Marshall knew better than anyone that he was lying to himself. Especially as the scene after that had the king attract the attention of a bird of prey. The crown-wearing figure from the poster, who was actually the kingdom's prince who'd joined his father on his ill-fated journey, was chasing the bird around wielding a fallen branch as the chinchilla king kicked and screamed in its claws. The whole thing was funny enough, but then the prince ended up slamming full tilt into a tree as he ran after the bird, followed by a branch coming down on his head and burying him in apples.
"MMMRRRRPPHHH-!"
Skye looked over as Marshall made a very strange noise indeed. Now he was shaking violently and tears were gushing down his spotted face, his paws clamped firmly over his muzzle. To an outside observer, this would probably look highly worrying. But Skye knew that Marshall was only a hair's breadth away from utter hysterics.
"Feel like laughing, yet? You look like you're gonna pop!" Skye asked in what was partly a taunt and partly a genuinely concerned question.
"Nnnnn...! Mm-mm-!" Marshall squeaked, shaking his head.
The loud breaths that Marshall was taking through his nose could be heard from the other end of the room. He wasn't going down without a fight at the very least. But then, the king and prince successfully scared the bird away, causing the chinchilla king to flop down and land face-first on a tree branch high above.
"OH NO!" Marshall screamed, covering his eyes with his forelegs. "No, I-I can't watch this part-!"
And it looked like a round-ending knockout punch was on its way. Skye actually jumped at Marshall's horrified yelling, but about a second later, it sunk in that her friend had been officially snookered. Another evil grin worked its way to her face as she walked over and pulled Marshall's forelegs away from his eyes, struggling not to laugh at the exaggerated dread on his face.
"Nuh-uh-uhhhh... no cheating, allowed, Marshy-boy!" Skye sang teasingly.
With that, Marshall whimpered. He knew he was doomed. He had no chance of holding out as the king began his descent down the tree's branches. First, he landed on his head. The next branch down had him fall straight on his butt.
"Pff, fff, fff, fff-!" Marshall covered his muzzle with his forelegs again in a futile, painful effort to hold in his laughter.
The king hit the next branch down and landed on his shoulder with a thoroughly-odd noise. Then, he made an even stranger, higher-pitched noise as the next branch hit him between the legs.
"KKKHHHHHRRRRRMMM!"
And the noises Marshall was making weren't any less strange. Now he was shaking violently, as if any more suppressed laughter would make him burst like a spotted balloon. But then, the king finally made contact with the ground, front-first. With a painful moan, the chinchilla king rolled over onto his back with what little remained of his power, only for his eyes to explode open with a high-pitched scream as an orange dropped out of the tree and landed right on him, crushing him like a fruity boulder.
"PFFFFFFF- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AAAAAAAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The dam didn't so much break as it did explode with Earth-shaking force. Skye couldn't help but jump as Marshall started shrieking with uncontrollable paroxysms of laughter. She'd never known anyone to laugh this loudly.
"HAHA-! HAHAHA-! AAAAAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Marshall rolled around the bed wildly flailing his paws, slamming the mattress in an absolute fit. And it didn't take long for Skye to find the Dalmatian's laughter contagious. And before long, she found herself laughing along with him. His constant suppression of anything as small as a snicker had caused immense amounts of pressure to build up within him. And now the pressure had burst out with force so explosive that Marshall simply couldn't control how hard he was laughing. To the point that he didn't notice himself rolling off the bed...
"HAHAHAHAHA-! HAHAHAHAHA-AGH-!"
... and hitting the floor with a thud for the second time that day. And yet, it didn't seem to slow Marshall down even slightly. He was still hysterically howling helplessly where he lay, not even noticing as a laughing Skye looked over the side to see if he was OK.
"HAHAHAHA...! HAHAHAHAHA-ow-! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ...PFFFFFT- HA, HAA-!"
Which was very much still in question. Not only had Marshall not seemed to notice that he'd fallen off the bed, but now he'd hit the silent laughter stage. His face was utterly soaked with tears as he lay wheezing on the floor, occasionally letting out the odd audible laugh. It took at least a minute before he started slowing down.
"Haaa... haaa... haaagghh... I... I... I'm gonna... ahhhh- hahahahaha..." Marshall wheezed hoarsely.
Marshall rolled over as he kept trying to catch his breath, his chest practically burning from the strain and his throat in tatters from how hard he was laughing, causing him to let out a loud, drawn-out cough.
"Whoa..." Skye mumbled.
Skye had less trouble getting her own laughter back under control, and now she had time to worry about Marshall potentially making himself sick from how much he was laughing, even though she was still giggling at the sight. But thankfully, all Marshall was really doing was panting heavily and occasionally coughing. It was a wonder how he'd managed to find the strength to jump back up to the bed and trudge back over to the pillows he was sleeping on before Skye's arrival. And yet, the speckled pup never once lost his smile the whole way.
"You, er... you OK?" Skye asked sheepishly.
Marshall dropped back down like a falling tree, snuggling against the pillows as he fought to keep his eyes open, still smiling all the while.
"Ugh... ugh... ugh... OK, so... so I'm not serious... oof... ugh, it hurts..."
Skye gave a small smile. "Silly pup... we both knew you weren't. None of us think less of you for it. I just don't think I've ever heard you bust a gut like that. But I've gotta admit, it was really nice to hear you laugh so much."
Marshall looked over at Skye with a curious, if utterly frazzled expression. It took him a moment to try and catch his breath and soothe the pain in his chest before he spoke.
"It was?"
Skye frowned briefly as she looked down at her paws. "Well, we haven't had a whole lot to laugh about the last few months... so getting to laugh until we puke over a silly movie?" Skye's frown replaced itself with a fond smile. "Makes it feel like all the awful stuff we went through never happened.
The weary Dalmatian couldn't help but return Skye's smile, despite having laughed out the energy he recovered moments ago. The movie had long since been relegated to background noise for the two pups, but the joy they both felt in that moment was palpable.
"Hey. I'm just happy I got to spend time like this with you. Its been such a good day, but right about now, I... I..." Marshall couldn't hold back his giant yawn as his fatigue got the better of him. "...uuuugh, I'm ready to just crash..."
"Hey, wait! We haven't had dinner yet!"
"Ohhh... it's... it's fine... I'll just... have a... bigger... break... fast..."
He couldn't keep it up any longer. Marshall closed his eyes and fell asleep on the spot. It had been a long day full of excitement for him and everyone else, and an early bedtime was exactly what he and everyone else needed. But as much as Skye adored the sight of Marshall peacefully snoozing away with a blissful smile, she didn't want him going hungry either. With a soft smile of her own, she walked over and carefully nuzzled Marshall's neck as she whispered one final message to him.
"I'll get Ryder to leave you some treats for a midnight snack, OK? Sleep tight, Marshall..."
With that, Skye turned the movie off and carefully snuck out of the room, deciding to let Marshall get his beauty sleep as she went to look for Ryder. She may have been tired too, but she'd been given enough energy to stay with her owner for a little while and get him to bring some food back for the exhausted Dalmatian to eat later. Once she was safely in the corridor, Skye trotted down it with a beaming smile and her head held high. She wasn't expecting to have such a special memory come out of simply watching a movie. But after two months of pain and suffering for her and the pups? Playing around with Marshall and laughing harder than she had in a while was something that would have her on Cloud 9 for a long time to come.
Finally, a chapter that doesn't involve a ride or several! And also the last pup story for Skye. Her next appearance will be in Ryder's stories. And this one isn't as complicated as others either. Just a nice bit of bonding between Marshall and Skye. What's not to like? Not to mention the movie they watch is actually based on my personal favourite movie in real life... can you deduce which one?
Not too much to say here, other than I'll be dropping the use of keywords as hints from this point on in favour of just giving you the title and the pups involved. Why? Because we've reached the last couple of pup-exclusive stories. In a couple more weeks, we'll move onto Ryder's stories and then the epilogue. If you enjoyed this chapter, please don't hesitate to favourite, follow and/or leave a review. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and I hope to see you next time. Take care.
Next story: ChZu - I Sea Now!