Chapter nineteen: Method In The Madness
Chase had resorted to pacing back and forth now, his tail barely wagging with the anxiety still coursing through him. He stopped for a moment to set his paws up on the slim edge of where the window nestled, into the metal framed runner that supported it, but his shoulder only gave him nothing but grief. He'd try to ignore it, but it bugged him nonetheless. He groaned and lifted his shoulder to where he could clench his neck sideways and rub the side of his head against his shoulder. And eventually resorting to a paw to scratch at the tape holding support on his shoulder. But this too failed to no avail, given how the crawl of his skin was nowhere near in reach for his best scratching paw to get to; rendering it useless.
Ned looked around, until he decided to go outside and try to talk to Chester.
"Chester?" Ned called out.
In the light that was cut out from the illumination inside the Lookout, a small upright shape sat with his back to him. Even in the dim light, he could tell when Chess's ears laid back slightly, and how his head lowered a little.
Ned walked over to him and nuzzled him.
"Chester," Ned said softly.
"I didn't mean to, ya know." He told him, finally looking his way. "I guess I still have that effect on pups sometimes.. and Chase is no exception."
"You mean pushing others too far? Trying to challenge them in a competitive way, or what?" Ned asked, trying to understand.
"No..-" Chester sighed, his gaze falling again. "I'm always goofing something up by doing the wrong things, or.. saying the wrong things.. I mean you saw how I blew up the volcano, in there.. somehow I can't get away from rubbing others the wrong way."
"You still had a point. Chase and the others have been on pretty dangerous missions before, so it's not like they aren't skilled to help out. Honestly, you didn't mess up. You were trying to get Chase to understand he's being too hard on himself. Don't get me wrong, I miss Snowflake and I hope she and Rocky are safe, but I also know they are tough. You were just trying to get your brother to be confident and he took things too far. Believe me, given my adventures with Snowflake, I know how you feel. Heck, personality wise, you and I could be twins. Triplets even if you included my brother Brian. Chase and Snowflake just see things in a more serious and emotional way; that's who they are. When they get concerned, it's for a good reason. They want everyone safe and for life to be good. We may bother or push them at times, but we only do that because we want them to embrace other challenges or fun parts of life. Even I can go too far. I mean look how I kept teasing Chase to the point where he left. Thank goodness Snowflake snapped me out of my goofball mindset so I could go apologize," Ned explained sincerely.
"Except I did mess up.." Chester countered shamefully. "I wasn't trying to hurt him,.. it just happened, I'm not one to be violent I swear, I.. I just lost it.. *sigh* Maybe I should just go back to the ranch and give him some space." He sighed once again and remained as sulkily as before.
"No. If you did that, Chase would be even more upset. He's already worried over Snowflake and Rocky missing. How do you think he would react if you just left out of the blue? Keep in mind he left on Halloween to find YOU! He clearly loves you, even if you guys disagree sometimes. Just let him know you were trying to help him cool down, and didn't mean to push things too far. Once Rocky and Snowflake return, he'll calm down," Ned suggested. He hugged Chester, trying to calm down the German Shepherd.
"Thanks, pal." Chester said, a small smile coming to his lips as he patted the husky's shoulder. "Eventually, after this all finally starts to roll off our shoulders.. I might actually start to believe you."
"You don't believe me?" Ned asked, taken aback by the last comment.
"Ehh, I will.." Chester shrugged, the tender smile remaining on his lips. "Once my heart starts to get over this.. which?.. It will,.. eventually."
"Okay," Ned said, in understanding. He was a little hurt that Chess didn't completely believe him.
"-don't worry it's nothing about you.." Chester added quickly, as of reading the husky's mind. "It's just me.. I just gotta shake this night off first.. I'll get there.. eventually."
"Okay. Just let me know if you need to talk," Ned replied, before giving him another hug. The husky pup separated before slowly leaving. Ned left and went back to the pups, seeing Chase still pacing.
"Has he calmed down at all?" Ned whispered to Marshall.
"Honestly?.. not really." Marshall murmured back with a sigh. "He's just gotten more anxious. Any luck with Chess?"
"A little. He's waiting for things to calm down before he can feel comfortable again," Ned undertoned.
Ned then walked over carefully, watching Chase. He kept his distance not knowing what Chase would do.
"Uhh, Ned? What are you doing?" Marshall asked, a certain level of edge in his tone.
"Relax guys, I know how to calm him down," Ned said, slightly hinting to the blue sheet on his back.
He turned back toward Chase, but was blindsided by The German Shepherd; who walked right into him at the shoulders. But somehow the only response was for him to grunt and keep on going.
"What?!" Marshall gasped, the others staring with quizzical looks. "How did that not set him off?"
Ned cautiously unfolded the blue sheet and while Chase wasn't looking, Ned threw the sheet at him, so Chase was completely covered up by the blue sheet!
"Ahh!" Chase gasped, fumbling around. "Uhn.. er.. oof.. aff!.. n-..no..-Rrgh! Not again!" Suddenly, before long, he was practically ripping the sheet off him. Then as soon as he'd roughly thrown it aside, he sat in front of the window with his head lowered and his ears flattened; sitting there in a stiff, compact manner.
Ned went back to the blue sheet, and carefully threw it onto Chase again. As Chase struggled, Ned pounced on the sheet covered pup, and started to massage his back and shoulders.
"No!-.." Chase strained, twisting himself away from Ned's touch. "Ihn! Lemme go! Ah! That hurts! Rrgh!"
He'd shifted onto his back to try and shove Ned off, but didn't have the leverage. And tried rolling over again to try and crawl out from under him, but found that to be futile as well by the wrappings that restricted his movement.
Pinned at the shoulder by his own doing, he lay there still, regrettably; hoping Ned wouldn't step on them again; seeing as there was now nothing more he could do at this point.
Minding Chase's shoulder, Ned messaged the blue sheet covered pup carefully along his back, and head, being as careful as possible.
"Shhhhhhhh. Don't fight it Chase. It's okay. Relax. Let the smoothness of the bed sheet comfort you as it surrounds your body. Clear your mind. Our friends are safe. Take deep breaths. Relax, and think of a nice, calm scene; a sunny day with all our friends, fine. Playing in the backyard. Relax, and go to your happy moment, softly surrounded by the bed sheet, and the soothing paws on your body. Calm, and be at peace.." Ned said calmly as he tried to massage Chase into a relaxed state of mind with his paws and the blue sheet engulfing the stressed pup. And all Chase could do was groan and lay there.. reluctantly to say the least. Releasing a vocal huff as he waited for the annoyance to end.
xxxx
Rocky's heart leaped as soon as the unmistakable shapes of their vehicles finally appeared through the trees.
"Ugh, finally!" He sighed. Hopping up into the green recycling truck, he could finally heave a big breath of relief.
"Thank goodness!" Snowflake said, getting into her vivid blue vehicle.
"Thanks Hooties." Rocky told the two owls flapping just overhead. "We couldn't have made it without you guys!"
"Hoo-hoo!" Little Hootie whooped, then his mother repeated his call, and they both flew away together.
"Bye!" The two pups called.
"Ok," Rocky breathed. "Now let's go home!"
Then starting their engines, they turned their vehicles around and hit the main road toward the Lookout.
xxxx
The lit up Lookout Tower was a sight for sore eyes, once they slowed their vehicles to a stop right next to it.
"Ah! Thank goodness!" Rocky sighed.
"Finally!" Snowflake said in relief. She jumped out of her vehicle, and waited for Rocky.
Rocky hopped down.. and they both looked up to the brightly lit tower.
"So.. how bout that hike, huh?" Rocky chuckled lightly, a certain level of awkwardness to his tone, as they slowly paced toward the Lookout. Then stopped a short time later.
"Quite the adventure, am I right?" The mixed breed finished, his enthusiasm falling a bit flat.
"Yeah. The hike and sunset was nice. Shame we got lost in the dark. Sorry for freaking out and jumping on you. I hate not knowing what's in the dark; even if it's a familiar place," Snowflake apologized.
"Heh heh, yeah,..um.. you and me both." Rocky snickered mildly. Then with that, they began to approach the doors once again.
xxxx
Everyone looked up the moment the doors opened. Ryder and Katie had just come from the elevator, when they heard the sound as well.
"Rocky!" Marshall cried.
"Snowflake!" Skye gasped.
Chase perked up where he was and was almost shocked, but relieved, to see who it was that entered.
"Guys?!" He gasped, somehow finding the ability to throw Ned off him as he finally sat upright.
"Snowflake! Ah!" Ned cried out as he was thrown off Chase, the blue sheet landing on top of him.
"Hey! Help! Who turned out the lights?" Ned said as he fumbled with the blue sheet. He emerged from it seconds later, and ran over to his sister, the sheet draped over his back like a long, blue cape.
"You guys made it!" Ned said happily.
"We did." Rocky confirmed, his tone lifting instead of dropping, and he almost sounded annoyed by it all; but he smiled just the same as he met glances with Snowflake.
And as Chase began to approach them, Marshall caught on and began to say..
"Oh.. heads up because you're about to get.."
"Where have you guys been!" Chase asked them directly, and they could tell something was up. "What took you so long to get back here?! I mean you were just on Big View Trail, what the heck happened out there?!"
"Sorry." Marshall apologized in more of a loud whisper.
"We planned on heading back after watching the sunset, but when it got dark, we got lost on the trail. If I had my gear with me, we would have returned sooner," Snowflake answered honestly.
"Well why didn't you call for backup?" Chase questioned further, becoming increasingly close to them. "We would've come right out to get you.. tracking your pup-tags would've been a whole lot better than aimlessly wandering round the woods half the night! What if you'd gotten into trouble out there and couldn't call for help?!"
"Easy Chase.." Ryder soothed, coming a few paces closer to the German Shepherd. "I got a call from them about twenty minutes ago saying they were fine and on their way to their vehicles to come home."
"What?!" Chase gasped, turning toward him in surprise. "Then why didn't you say so?"
"Relax," Ryder eased. "I was going to, but some other stuff kinda got in the way."
The expression on Chase's face suddenly border-lined, and some could swear his eye twitched for a moment, but as he opened his mouth..
"We were lost, and I did call Ryder, but Little Hootie and his mom found us, and helped us back to our vehicles. If something had gone wrong, I would have called again," Snowflake reasoned.
"Yeah.. and besides.. we had each other, no reason to be too worried, Chase." Rocky added tenderly.
Suddenly Chase's stone-faced expression turned their way and both pups stiffened up. Chase stalked towards them, but just as he opened his mouth to say something another door opened and he immediately looked with everyone else doing the same.
Chester stood there in a daze at the sudden attention, but as soon as his eyes met Chase's the two pups dropped it dead to the floor.
Chase frowned and turned away from him, then strode past Snowflake and Rocky to sit and stare out the window once again.
Snowflake glared around with a look of confusion, anger, and concern. She walked past everyone and went over to the bean bags where she burrowed into the soft material. Ned walked over cautiously. Suddenly, as he got closer, Snowflake growled.
"Whatever the heck you did, Ned, it wasn't the right solution!" Snowflake snapped. She was clearly not happy by what had just transpired.
"Oh boy,.. here we go again." Marshall sighed in exasperation.
"I was just trying to relax, Chase! Honest!" Ned retorted quickly.
"Then why did he look like was going to attack us?! I thought everyone would be relieved to see us, but apparently our absence made him and Chess furious or something! Either that, or Rocky and I did something wrong! I did call, so what the heck is going on?!" Snowflake exclaimed in an angry tone. She was mad given the lack of what she thought would be a welcome sight.
"No, no, we are!" Marshall cried, leaving his friends to approach her. "It's not you guys, I promise, it's.. just.." he trailed off, letting his gaze wander.
The two German Shepherds remained unable to look at one another, but were at least able to face each other.
"Hey, I'm sorry, Snowflake, this might be my fault." Ryder admitted, "I should've been paying more attention and keeping everybody in the loop. I bet things would be a lot better than they are now if I had."
"And Ned didn't do it either." Marshall added, making it over to Snowflake to stand right next to her. "In fact he's been bending over backwards to fix it. It's Chase who's all strung out." And looking up at him the German Shepherd was staring out the window once again.
"You what?!" Snowflake snapped. In the blink of an eye, she lunged at Ned, pinning him to the ground.
"YOU KNEW I CALLED AND SAID NOTHING!" Snowflake shouted, shocked her brother would leave out such important information.
"NO! I didn't know you called! I've been trying to calm Chase and Chess down! I promise!" Ned remarked. The female husky growled before looking to Marshall; her gaze was one of anger.
"Is what he said true, or did he know I called?" Snowflake asked, trying to calm down a little.
"Yes!" Marshall emphasized in his most earnest tone. "In fact, the only one of us who knew was Ryder.."
"And Katie." Skye added, and the two kids nodded.
Snowflake looked back at Ned again before getting off. She growled, pacing while looking at everyone, unsure of how to view the situation.
"Marshall and Ryder, basement! Now!" Snowflake snapped as she headed for the elevator.
Ned just stayed on the ground nervously, not knowing what his sister was going to do.
And as the boy and Dalmatian began to follow, Ryder glanced over his shoulder and nodded for Katie to come, which she did and they all went down together.
And Rocky just stood there, not sure what to do even when his blank glance fell on the other pups, who avoided his gaze.
Hey guys, what up?! I know I'm kinda being a little redundant with the author's notes lately but to be honest I haven't really had much to say,.. not that I can think of at that time. Especially since some of these chapters came so naturally and were finished so quickly that I barely had time to spend with an Author's note,.. or even a title for some of 'em. ;D
But the good thing is, those things aren't too hard to put together.. and that makes it easy for when you're needing something to do in the quiet moments when there's not much writing going on.. especially if you're wanting to post them back-to-back for three weeks straight. XD
But with that said, I hope you enjoy this new chapter and again I look forward to hearing from you! Thx!