Chapter four: Up To More Mischief
"Argh.. come on, pull!" Marshall groaned, through the material in his mouth.
Skye and Rocky grunted and groaned, while Rubble and Chester struggled and strained.
Finally, with one final tug, the material came loose and the two pups within it finally tumbled out of it.
"Oof!" Chase fell flat as a pancake, and after a second, he stepped his forepaws up to sit and turn a smile on his friends.
"Wooph! Thanks!" He sighed gratefully.
"Thanks guys. I'm sorry for scaring you, Chase. I just wanted you to have some fun with us," Ned apologized.
"It's ok.." Chase shrugged lightly. "I wasn't actually that scared." His smile bent up a little more, and he met their gazes softly.
"Actually it was kinda fun." He finished. And as he strode away for a moment,.. some encouraged smiles spread throughout the group, hoping this meant what they thought it meant.
Chase took hold of the sleeping bag and began to drag it over to Ned.
"Here,.. I'm..uh.. sure you want this back." He said, pointing a paw to it briefly.
"Yes, thank you Chase," Ned responded as he took the sleeping bag. The male husky pup then took it to the tent he and his sister made, then returned to the group.
"So what'do you wanna now?" Zuma wondered.
"Hmm.." Rubble mused, his thoughtful gaze falling to the floor and then panned over to his right.
"Hey! I know!" He said, darting into the circle of the encampment and diving into his tent for a brief moment. And when he returned a very short time later, he brought with him a bright red disc. He approached them with it proudly, and in reaching them; he dropped it before them.
"We could play fetch!.. with ourselves." He said.
"Sounds good," Ned said, after everyone shared a laugh.
"Alright!" The bulldog cheered, then picked up the frisbee and gave it a toss. A few pups among the group took off, while a couple others followed slowly; all ending up in the small clearing near their camp site.
"I got it! I got it!" Marshall called, racing after the spinning disc flying just above him. He jumped up to catch it, but failed when another pup crossed his path to catch it first.
"Not this time, dude." Zuma chuckled, after dropping the disc at his own feet.
"That was a great run!" Rubble commented, when finally reaching them with some of the other pups.
"And now for the next one.." Zuma decided, picking the frisbee up and giving it a good toss. Those among the group took off after it and a couple noticed the curiosity of a person watching them.
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"Hm.." Katie mused glancing from the colored tents to the simple blue one. And when she approached, she bent down, supporting her hands to her knees, to study it a little bit closer.
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Snowflake and Ned followed the pups carefully as the frisbee was spinning in the air.
Zuma caught the frisbee head on, then spun around and sent it flying to his right, which would be everyone else's left for the pursuing pups.
"Oh! Oh! We're almost there!" Marshall squeaked, but tripping over his own paws he rolled forward and barely caught the frisbee before tumbling right into Ned, leaving them in a dizzied heap on the ground. Both pups groaned and Marshall spit out the frisbee.
"I got it.. auhn.." His head dropped down again, the pup still pancaked over Ned's back.
"And I got you, Marshall," Ned replied. And the pups couldn't help but laugh at this remark.
"Hey Snowflake,.." Katie addressed the husky pup. "I just happened to notice you guys have a very different strategy, when it comes to pitching a tent. Don't you want one kinda like the rest of ours? We have an extra one if you wanted to do that."
"Yeah. It's different," Snowflake said, walking over to Katie
"Having a spare is nice, but I've gotten used to doing things the old-fashioned way. Which is why the tent is so... triangular," Snowflake explained.
The tent in question was a big blue sheet hung up by a rope. Another sheet was on the bottom with the two hanging sides sewed to it. Finally, two more blue sheets were sewed to the open sides of the hanging sheet, and the sheet on the bottom. It did look like an old version of a standard tent, but made with blue bed sheets and triangular in appearance.
"It looks great.." Katie complimented thoughtfully. "From the outside.. how's the inside?"
"Pretty much the same," Snowflake replied. She unzipped a zipper on one of the sheets hanging on one of the triangular sides, then walked into the tent.
"Come on in," Snowflake invited.
Katie then got to her knees and crawled in after her, shifting herself to one knee to straighten herself up a bit without standing.
"Wow.. this looks great!" She smiled, glancing about the sheeted shelter.
"Heads up! Incoming!" Chester's voice called, sounding like it was approaching.
Then suddenly the tent jerked and then loosened to the point of falling in on them.
"Woah..help!" Katie cried.
"Ahhh!" Rubble cried, screeching to a halt with Rocky running into him from behind, both standing in front of the loose tent watching the thrashing about it was doing.
"Relax, guys, it's just our friends." Chase assured them, strolling up casually.
"You guys ok in there?" He called to them.
"Ahhhhh! Help! I can't see! How did the tent collapse?... Was it a ghost? Is the tent haunted?!" Snowflake exclaimed as she thrashed and flailed about under the collapsed sheeted tent.
"Relax dude, it's not a ghost." Zuma giggled, finding their wiggling under the sheet funny. "Just a Marshall tossing a frisbee the wrong way."
"Oh. Thank goodness. Still, could you please get us outta here?" Snowflake replied, as she kept flailing about under the sheeted tent.
"Yeah..- some help would be nice!" Katie groaned.
Ryder had straightened up by now and watched intently with a nagging demeanor that only really seemed to pull on him by watching this.
"Hang on, guys.." Chase shrugged, smiling slightly. "We got this.. pups?" He looked to his friends.
"On it!" They called, taking up spots on all sides.
"Skye, Marshall, Rocky, we need some air support." Chase instructed, his tone becoming professional.
"You got it!" Marshall answered.
"On it, Chase!" Skye responded, activating her wings to take to the air.
"Zuma, Ned, Chess? Corner pocket!" The young police pup instructed.
"What?" Chester queried. "Oh! I got ya!" Chase and the three other pups took their places on all corners of the tent. Chase took a hold of his corner, and the three other pups took a moment before quickly doing the same.
"Ruff! Ladder!" Marshall barked. And the grey mixed breed next to him hopped up onto the extending ladder with a rope in claw.
"Ok ready?" Chase breathed through the material in his mouth. "One, two, three.. pull!" Tugging all ends of the blue sheets finally straightened things out,.. and the flying and recycling pups secured the ropes back to the trees they been attached to.
"Wooph! Thanks guys!" Katie thanked them, when poking out of the flap of the tent and crawling out again.
Once the tent was lifted, Snowflake crawled out of the tent opening too.
"Thank you," the husky pup said as she took deep breaths.
"You guys good?" Chase asked them.
"I think so." Katie sighed thankfully. "Snowflake? How 'bout you?"
"Yes, I'm good. Looks like Ned and I will have to set up our tent again," Snowflake replied.
Rocky pulled the rope he'd just re-secured and it vibrated gently.
"Nope, you're all set." He said. "Skye and I got that taken care of for ya, with an assist from the rest of the pups."
"Thanks, by the way." He told his friends, as he climbed back down the ladder again.
"No problem, dude." Zuma smiled.
"So who wants to keep playing!?" Rubble asked, picking up the frisbee and tossing it.
"Yes!" The pups cried, racing off. Chase only got two strides in before stopping short. And with one observation, he realized his hesitation was a blessing in disguise.
"*gasp* Marshall, watch out!" Chase cried, but Marshall had already left the ground to catch the flying frisbee; disregarding his spider monkey free fall back towards the ground.
"Ruff! Net!" Chase barked, taking off towards them quickly.
Not gonna make it! Chase's mind gasped. By now, the other pups had halted and Chase went dashing by them. The net shot from his canon and snagged the trees he was targeting, just in time to catch Marshall and snap him back.
"Oof!" Marshall grunted, hitting the ground with the frisbee still in his mouth. And as he recovered, Chase and the other pups reached him.
"You okay Marshall?" Snowflake asked kindly.
"Yeah I'm good." Marshall shrugged.
"What was that about, Chase?" He asked, turning his gaze, and everyone else's, on the younger German Shepherd of the group.
"Marshall did you see where you were headed?" Chase asked, with a very intentional tone.
Marshall blinked, shooting it to the group for a split second, then back to Chase.
"Um.. no why?" He answered finally, arching an eyebrow.
"And did you notice you're starting to itch?" Chase questioned further. Bringing the Dalmatian's gaze down to the gentle scratching of his right forepaw, itching the growing sensation on his left foreleg.
"Um.. no..I.. guess not." Marshall admitted.
"Then you probably also didn't notice that rough patch of poison ivy between those trees." Chase went on correctively. "And if I hadn't got my net over there before you did,.. your rash would be a whole lot worse." And Marshall just nodded his understanding when his paw kept going.
"And stop scratching!" The German Shepherd told his friend.
"Sorry." Marshall apologized, sitting where he was and placing his paw on the ground again.
"Hey Katie?" Chase called, leaning back over his shoulder to earn the girl's attention. "Could use an assist.. a first aid one."
"Sure Chase." Katie replied, coming up to him.
"What happened?" She asked, kneeling down by his side to evaluate him.
"No wait, not me!" Chase protested. "It's Marshall." He pointed a paw to his friend and she followed his gaze curiously.
"Uh oh, Marshall." She said, beginning to approach the fire pup. "Looks like you got into some poison ivy, huh?.."
"*sigh* yeah.. I guess I did." Marshall sighed, defeated by what this may mean.
"Does this mean we have to go home early now?" He asked regrettably, daring himself to peek up at the girl, as she pulled on some gloves.
"Let's just have a look and see what needs to be done first, ok?" Katie decided to say.
Taking up his foreleg, she studied it carefully for a moment then set it down and pulled out the first aid kit she had with her.
"Doesn't look too bad." She said finally. "Chase may have just saved you a whole heck of a lot of trouble. This won't take too long to treat." Then she began preparing the treatment with a small medicinal tube and some bandages. The pups waited as Katie helped Marshall, and when she was finished the tape she wrapped it with held up snugly.
"There, good as new." She said, taking a moment to admire her work. "Just try not to itch it as best you can for a while. It'll take some time for the itch to go away."
"Thanks Katie." Marshall smiled, placing a gentle paw on the newly bandaged wound.
"Lunch time, pups!" Ryder called, as Jake pulled the last few hot dogs and liver sausages off the rack over the campfire.
"Lunch?.. Sweet!" Rubble cheered, racing over immediately.
"Alright," Snowflake said casually, as she and her brother followed calmly.
The rest of the pups followed after Rubble quickly, and took up spots around the campfire by placing their paws onto the logs they'd set up, then hopping over top of them to sit in front of their respective bowls.
"Ok pups, these liver links are hot,.. and,.. ready!" Jake smiled, clicking his tongs for a second before using them to dish out a link to each pup. And as soon as the pups dug in,.. a series of "mm's" and licking of lips resulted.
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Chase sniffed while others around him searched.
"What are you doing, Chase?" The voice of his brother asked, earning his confused look.
"What do you mean?" He asked. And Chester's suggestive shrug came with the small shake of his head.
"You looking for something?..Or.." He trailed off suggestively, shrugging once again.
"No.." Chase shook his head.
"Then why are you sniffing like you're tracking down some elusive suspect?" Chase then realized his stance made him seem that way and he straightened up with almost a hop; barely flinching.
"No I'm not." He protested.
"Really?" Chester pried, arching an eyebrow at him.
"Uh guys.."
The two German Shepherds then turned toward each other at exactly the same time, so that they were both looking over their shoulder at the group behind them; identically confused looks on both their faces.
"Aren't we supposed to be out here to have fun?" Rubble asked.
"Uhh.." the two German Shepherds looked to each other. "Yes?" They nodded, looking back at them again.
"Then let's have fun, and stop acting odd," Snowflake pointed out.
"Who are you calling odd?" The two pups protested in unison, then they looked to one another and went.
"Ugh!"
"Hoo hoo!" Chase perked up at this sound and looked up.
"*gasp* it's Little Hootie!" He gasped, pointing the little owl out as he came fluttering down toward them. The owl hooted once again before landing right on Chase's nose.
"Hoo hoo!" Hootie greeted openly, extending his wings out and his tail gently swaying back and forth behind him.
"Heh heh,..ha-ha.. ah-choo!" Chase sneezed, maintaining a bit of a smile. "Oops,..uh.. sorry Little Hootie." He apologized, as the little creature rolled himself up onto his feet again.
"Awww. Cute owl," Ned commented.
"Heh heh.. haha.. um.. I guess you guys haven't met a Little Hootie yet, huh." Chase chuckled lightly, the awkward smile of his earlier sneeze still evident on his face.
"No. We've heard and seen owls before, but we've never met Little Hootie," Snowflake commented kindly. She went over to get a closer look.
"You have a home, little guy?" Snowflake asked curiously, admiring the small, purple owl.
"Yeah.." Chase smiled, while watching his little friend flutter up above him and floated around the air playfully; even as Chase finished his statement. "He likes to switch homes every so often.. so he can get to know different parts of Adventure Bay. Right now. I think he lives not far from here,.. near his mother owl; Mama Hootie."
"Hoo hoo.." Hootie hooted, floating off on the gentle breeze.
"Hey wait up!" Chase cried, racing awkwardly after his little friend.
"Chase?!" The pups called, taking a moment to look at one another, before hurrying after him.
Hey you guys, how's it going?! Yay for a new chapter! Can't wait to hear your thoughts and sorry I don't have much more to say. But I hope to see you next time! Thx!