Chapter 3: Apples and Falling Pups
Marshall drove as fast as he could to Farmer Yumi's farm. Once he arrived, he saw Farmer Yumi and Farmer Al picking fruit from their trees.
"Hi Marshall. Thank goodness you're here! Farmer Al and I got tons of apples on the trees. We already picked most of the fruit earlier this week but our apple trees grew more than we thought. Could you please help us?" Farmer Yumi asked as she carried a basket of the red fruit.
"I'm on it!" Marshall said before driving over to some trees, backing up.
"Ruff! Ladder!" Marshall commanded before the metal ladder lifted. The dalmatian pup walked up the ladder and started picking apples off the branches. As he did though, he noticed why more apples had surprised the farmers.
"Your apple trees must have had more grow between the branches even after you picked the other ones. These apples you have now are smaller!" Marshall noted as he held an apple in his paws.
"Exactly! They were playing 'hide and go seek'with us!" Farmer Al replied before the three friends laughed. They kept picking apples since all of them needed to be taken off the trees.
"Too bad Ryder and the pups are off skydiving, or they could help me. We'd have these apples picked faster, but it looks like this will take a while," Marshall said to himself as he looked along the leaves and branches for any hiding apples.
Back on the hot air balloon, Ryder, Chase and Skye waited until Zuma had landed to decide on the next pup to jump.
"Can I parachute next Ryder?" Skye asked, smiling and wagging her tail.
"Of course Skye, or did you want to go Chase?" Ryder replied kindly. Chase and Skye looked at each other, waiting for one of them to give the other permission to parachute down.
"Girl pups first," Chase said to Skye before stretching a paw out, showing Skye she could skydive before him.
"Thank you Ryder. Thank you Chase, " Skye responded before doing a back flip, then jumped out of the balloon basket.
"Ruff ruff! Yaaaaaaaaaaay!" Skye cheered happily as she spread her legs out fell towards the ground; the air rushing past her, giving a fun, surreal feeling while Skye saw the land below. Skye loved it!
After several minutes of free falling, Skye was close to the ground, and released her parachute. The cockapoo waited for the next part, her tail wagging fast.
FWOOSH! Skye's pink parachute popped out of the backpack, before catching the air, gently lowering the pup closer and closer to the ground.
The view was relaxing as Skye gently floated down, and within minutes, her paws touched the landing pad.
"Yay! That was great! I want to skydive again!" Skye cheered, happy with her skydiving. Ryder and Chase along with the other pups cheered happily. Unfortunately, Skye's moment of joy was interrupted by the pink nylon parachute floating down, and landing on top of the pup.
"Awesome! Now I just have to detach my straps, and pack up the - wait a minute ... Ahhh! No! Ahhhhh! Get me outta here!" Skye exclaimed as she started to fumble and flail about under her big, pink parachute. Skye looked like a pink ghost while she struggled to get out of her parachute, with Ryder and the others laughing jokingly. Skye didn't mind though, since she had gotten stuck under parachutes before in her early flying training. However getting out of the pink parachute while looking like a pink ghost to her friends wasn't what she planned.
"Come on, where is it?" Marshall asked as he tried to find an apple he had seen minutes ago. 'You'd think hiding apples would be easy to find, but it feels like they keep moving around!' Marshall thought to himself. Upon looking around a branch to his left though, he found the apple and grabbed it with his mouth. Carefully, the dalmatian pup pulled his head out and dropped it into the basket below.
"That's the last apple Farmer Yumi!" Marshall called out, looking around the farm from his ladder.
"Great job Marshall! That's all the extra apples picked. High five!" Farmer Yumi said as she walked over, then raised her hand. Marshall high fives her with his right paw before slipping on the side of the ladder.
"High five! - Wahoo! Oof!" Marshall said before falling off the ladder and landing in the basket of apples below him. Once he sat up, his vision was black, with two red apples over his face.
"Hey! Farmer Yumi? Who turned out the lights? Is it nighttime already?" Marshall asked cluelessly looking around. Farmer Yumi laughed as Farmer Al joined her. Marshall licked near his eyes and realized the apples had covered his eyes.
"Hey, I got apples for eyes! Yum!" Marshall joked before shaking the apples off. The three friends laughed before putting the last basket in the barn.
Finally, up in the air, Chase and Ryder were the last ones in the hot air balloon. But not for long.
"Well Ryder, we're the last two to skydive. You want to go first, or me?" Chase asked politely.
"You can skydive Chase. I'll jump after you. I insist," Ryder responded before petting the German Shephard.
"Thank you Ryder sir. Here goes nothing. Waaaaaaaaahoooooooo!" Chase cried out as he jumped out. Chase spread his legs out as he fell towards the ground in freefall; his fur feeling the air rush by him.
Chase waited for what felt like an hours but was really minutes, as he fell down lower and lower. It was refreshing to feel the wind tickle his fur.
Soon, Chase got low enough to release the parachute, he pulled the cord on his backpack and waited.
FWOOSH! Chases blue parachute popped out of the backpack, before catching the air, gently lowering the pup towards the ground.
The view ws clear and quiet as Chase floated down, and within seconds, his paws touched the landing pad.
"Arrrooooo! That was fun!" Chase exclaimed happily. Ryder and the other pups cheered for him happily. However, as everyone cheered, Chase's blue nylon parachute floating down and landing on top of the pup.
"Another smooth landing! Now I can help the others - Ahhh! Ahhhhh! Hey! What's going on? Let me outta here!" Chase exclaimed as he started to struggled and flailed about under his big, blue parachute. Chase looked like a blue ghost as he attempted to get out of his parachute. Ryder and the others giggling happily at how silly Chase must have looked. Chase tried and flailed to get free, but he was difficult getting out of the blue parachute. If only he had just looked up, he could have avoided the entanglement. Now he was a blue bumbling ghost.