Chapter fifty-one: Homeward Rush!
Ryder heard the ring of his pup pad, and at first it didn't register as a cause for action. But after maybe the third or fourth ring his body finally started to drag himself up to go answer it.
"*yawn* Ryder here.." the boy yawned heavily.
"Sorry to spoil your sleep, Ryder." Capt'n Turbot greeted. "But my big blipping balloon has detected some big bad weather brewing over the Bay.."
"Bad weather?" Ryder echoed, getting up to approach the balcony windows overlooking the town and its famous bay. "What kind?"
"Wintery wet whirling kind." The Capt'n replied. "Positively perilous for perky pups.."
"Thanks, Capt'n." Ryder replied. "I'll make sure they stay inside today. Just until it blows over."
"Right-o Ryder!" the Capt'n saluted. Then the call ended, allowing the boy to think for a moment.
Snowflake and Chase are still Katie's.. He realized. And looking out the window he could see the darkened shadow in the distance, and then noticed how the wind had slightly increased. He suddenly found himself at the window again, and noting how quickly the clouds were beginning to gather; his concern began to rise.
Better call them back before this gets too bad. He thought, and he pulled out his pup-pad, and hesitated a moment before swiping to the icons he desired to contact.
XXXX
It was a bit cool the next morning as Snowflake slowly woke up. She stretched, and yawned before wiping her eyes with her right paw. Looking next to her, she found it was Chase sleeping peacefully.
'Poor Chase. I know you want to be alone, but if you let us help you, you could have time to yourself. You're just worrying everyone,' Snowflake thought to herself.
Snowflake looked around to see if anyone else was awake.
Maybe she could talk to Ryder alone?
However, right after this thought had crossed her mind, a sudden inhale caused movement to her left and she watched as the nearby lump of Katie began to stir and eventually sat up.
Snowflake lay still for a moment, not knowing what Katie was going to do.
Katie straightened up with a deep yawn, stretching one arm up and fisting the other one up by her face. And in her recovery, she rubbed a hand into her eye.
Snowflake quietly walked over and licked her face.
"Good morning, Katie," Snowflake whispered. The girl touched a hand to her cheek after the husky's kiss and smiled.
"Good morning, Snowflake." Katie replied softly. Then both looked to the sleeping pup just beyond them.
"Boy, does he look tired.." the blonde girl commented. "And you'd think he'd be uncomfortable the way he's lying."
Just as she said, his face looked exhaustedly restful, but his neck was craned out and his shoulder tucked in while on his right side. His forelegs, what little they could see of them from beneath the blankets, lay split in opposite directions; but one would think they were the opposite limbs instead, if not for the clear difference in their positioning.
"Yeah. I hope he's okay. Sorry I woke you up," Snowflake replied before turning back to the blonde girl.
"Oh no, it wasn't you.." Katie smiled. "I didn't even realize you were awake yet until you came over. But.." her gaze turned back to Chase.. "I agree."
And though he seemed uncomfortable by how he looked, his sound-asleep nature made it very convincing that he didn't even notice.
"You need help with breakfast?" Snowflake asked. "Or anything else?"
"I think I got it.. anything in particular you have in mind for breakfast?" Katie replied, finally crawling out of her sleeping bag to stand up. "I don't have a lot you guys would like, like Ryder would, but.."
Just then her pup-tag flashed.
"Snowflake! Come in?"
"Sorry, Ryder's calling. Excuse me, please," Snowflake said to Katie before quietly walking out of the Pet Parlor and next to her vehicle.
"Hello, Ryder? What's wrong?" Snowflake asked cautiously.
"Snowflake,.. I need you and Chase to come back to the Lookout as soon as you can." Ryder replied, only a hint of urgency in his tone. "Capt'n Turbot just called saying a storm is on the way.. And with how cold it's been getting it could mean some dangerous conditions will be coming with it."
"Okay. We'll be back home soon. Thanks for calling, and we'll see you when we get back. Listen for honks," Snowflake replied seriously.
"Ok.. wait,.. why honking?" Ryder wondered, a little confused.
"So you'll know I'm pulling into the driveway." Snowflake answered.
"Ok, we'll be waiting for you." Ryder confirmed, then the call dropped.
"Thanks!" Snowflake said to Ryder once the call ended. She then ran back inside.
She was about to look for Katie when a yawn followed and then a stir when she looked in its direction.
"Chase! Thank goodness you're awake! Ryder needs us to come back to The Lookout! There's a bad storm coming," Snowflake said as she approached the German Shepherd.
As soon as she said a word Chase noticeably jumped, and as she spoke she watched him stir a bit more. But when she had finished, he yawned again and his eyes began to open slowly.. Katie, by now, had poked her head out of another room and seeing Chase she came fully into the room again.
"What's this about a storm?" She asked.
"Ryder said Chase and I need to get back to The Lookout. There's a bad snow storm coming. It could cause bad driving conditions," Snowflake explained.
"Really? I didn't think it was supposed to.. Oh.." Her eyes lifting to the window was the end of her statement and then Snowflake looked back over her shoulder as darkening skies and growing winds swirled outside.
"Chase, I'm sorry for waking you up, and I'm really sorry to cut our bonding time short, but we need to get back to The Lookout now!" Snowflake said to Chase sincerely.
Chase's eyes opened and he slowly rolled upright.. But once there, he hung drunkenly and a dazed look blinked slowly and disappeared. Now he simply lay there upright with his eyes closed as though he were asleep again. But as he began to lean over to fall asleep again he jerked himself awake.
"Oh,.. right.." he shook his head to wake himself up,.. blinking his eyes as wide as he could manage to help this along.
"Yes, let's keep going.. *yawn* wait,.. What are we doing again?" he asked, stumbling up with a bit of a wince that both Snowflake and Katie seemed to miss.
"A snowstorm is coming and Ryder wants us at The Lookout, now! You need water or something?" Snowflake replied in a slightly baffled voice.
"Why?" Chase wondered curiously.. "Do I sound hoarse?"
"No, to wake you up. This is an emergency! We have to get back to Ryder!" Snowflake retorted seriously.
"Oh right,.. Let's go!" Then Chase hopped up quickly and took off toward the door. But this however was a shock to his system, and he found himself off balance. But when he tried to set it right he was met with a hard challenge.
"Chase, watch out!" Katie called.
Screeching to a halt only worked to slow him down, but he still hit the frame of the door head on and the contact jostled his shoulder socket. And feeling the pop that resulted, brought with it pain that forced him to grimace harder than he would have liked to. And stepping back from this, he couldn't bring himself to put weight on it until the pain would completely go away.
"Aha! I KNEW you hurt your shoulder! No wonder you groan and flinch when you lean on your right side. Why didn't you tell me?" Snowflake exclaimed as she went over to aid her friend.
"What? No I.." Chase began to recover, sitting back to set his paw down gingerly, watching carefully as he did so before looking up at her again. And though he had more to say he was interrupted by Snowflake.
"Chase, I've noticed you not using the right side of your body and paw for a long while. Don't think I haven't noticed. Especially when you 'agh!', 'oww', 'gah!', 'uhh!', and 'Ah!'. You wouldn't groan and wince if your shoulder was fine. Even your play position has been off a little," Snowflake responded matter-of-factly.
"Yeah but,.." Chase tried to counter..
"Sorry to interrupt, pups.." Katie spoke up finally. "But you don't exactly have time to argue about this right now.. Especially if you wanna get back to the Lookout before things start getting really bad, like Ryder said."
"She's right we gotta go." Chase realized regrettably.
"You're riding in the back seat, it's too windy and dangerous to parasail back. Katie can you take the parachute so it doesn't blow away? We can get it later!" Snowflake said, before running outside to the vehicle.
"Ok,.." Chase surrendered, turning towards her as she ran by him. And in the next second he was scooped up by Katie and then blasted in the face by a strong frigid wind. Snowflake had already hopped into her vehicle and started it,.. then jumped out to detach the cable to the parasail from the back of her vehicle.
Katie set Chase in the back seat, pressed a warm pack to the back of his right shoulder and stuffed a heavy blanket around him to hold it in place.
"This'll keep you warm and safe." She told him. Then turned to receive the parasail from Snowflake. "Hey, drive careful, and let me know when you get there safely!"
"We will. See you later Katie," Snowflake replied before driving off. The husky slowed down a bit, not just because of the snow and possible ice, but Chase's injured shoulder too. It took a little while, but after a few long minutes, they had arrived at The Lookout.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! honked the horn, as Snowflake pressed her right paw on the center of the steering wheel.
xxxx
"They're back!" Marshall called, pointing out the window. Ryder froze and looked up immediately then ran outside quickly. The wind, by now, was almost too strong to walk into. But once he reached the vehicle he helped the two pups out of the truck, but when Chase faltered from the blanket Ryder just picked him up blanket and all and carried him in, so they could finally shut the doors and lock them in place.
"Phew! Glad you guys made it back! It was getting pretty bad out there." Ryder sighed, brushing a forearm across his forehead after setting Chase down again.
"I'm sorry, Ryder. We would have been back sooner, but Chase was tired, so he was slow this morning. Oh, and he injured his right shoulder again," Snowflake replied simply.
"What?!" the pups all gasped.
"It's no big deal." Chase emphasized, still cocooned in the blanket and making no attempt to move. "I just fell, that's all."
"Somehow, I'm not convinced." Chester sighed dryly.
"Neither am I." Marshall agreed, shaking his head.
"Chase.. what happened?" Ryder asked, coming to kneel down and touch his shoulder softly.
"I.. I'm fine.." Chase decided to say, dropping his gaze away from him sheepishly.
"I think you know better than that.." Ryder gently pried, moving closer to where the pup's gaze had settled.
"I did.." Chase expressed further, now looking him in the eyes. "I fell and hit the side of my pup house the other night.. I didn't see that a bowl was in my way and I tripped over it. But I'm ok.. honest!"
"Chase.. I wished you'd told me about your shoulder. I would have canceled our bonding time until you were healed. Gosh, I hope I didn't make it worse with our activities. No wonder you couldn't get out of the square foam pit. He was walking funny at times, during our bonding time, and he would wince and groan when it looked like his shoulder was sensitive. He just recently hit his shoulder on the door frame at Katie's when trying to keep his balance. It was an accident," Snowflake said sympathetically.
"It's not you.." Chase sighed, a little defeatedly. "But I am good, you know.. I can handle it."
"Not till someone else confirms that, you're not." Marshall countered, frowning correctively. Then coming forward, he nodded for Ryder to pull apart the blankets to find the heating pack, which slid further down his back. Chase shuddered, but they could tell it was good when he eased down to relax. But finding it too painful to put weight on his right foreleg, due to the tension it had on his shoulder, he shifted off it and onto his left side.
"If this happened, the other night,.." Marshall began, assessing him carefully. "What did you do after that?"
"Um,.. well, I had to reset everything so I could fully move again.. So I..-"
"Wait what?!" Chase's interrupted statement brought his gaze up to the pups who stared at him in a bit of shock.
"What do you mean 'reset everything so you can fully move again'.." Rocky asked.
"What did you do?" Marshall asked a bit more severely now.
"I.. I straightened some things back out, so I could move my leg better again,.." Chase replied, cautiously to say the least with a bit of a wide glance of complete confusion.
"And you know this for a fact?!" Marshall snapped then headed off and disappeared for a moment.
Chase stared after him as confused as before.. Looking from those among the group who bore various expressions of confusion, understanding, regret and maybe disappointment, some even hesitant to meet his gaze.
When Marshall returned, he was in full Medic gear, and he barked his X-ray screen out. And then, what he'd just admitted to, hit him with a sigh as the screen scanned over him.
"It's just what I thought." Marshall announced, in his displeasure. "You've caused a mild dislocation.. How did you fix this by yourself, cause I imagine that's exactly what you did.."
"I.. I.. oh what does it matter, it's all over with now, isn't it?" Chase deflected loosely.
"It does matter.. depending on the damage from whatever method you used to fix it yourself, without the right kind of help." Marshall emphasized.
"Somehow I have a not so wild guess." Chester remarked challengingly.
"My guess, not rest and medicine. Probably forced it back into position. And if he did that, it was done incorrectly, so the bone is just floating around in the right position, but still dislocated to some degree. If he fixed it correctly, there would be no pain," Snowflake predicted carefully.
"Take it from a pup who has a brother who tried to 'toughen his luck' when he went sliding down the road on a makeshift rocket and crashed into a wooden fence. Brian was sore for weeks!" Ned added as his sister nodded.
"Hmm.. gee.. doesn't that sound familiar.. Does the term 'breaking our neck' ring a bell?" Chester remarked, cocking a glance over at the husky.
"You might not be far off, Snowflake." Marshall said. "The location of the bones looks right but not quite all the way.. I think you did fix it, but hitting it again may have just knocked it loose. Which is why you should've had it treated properly from the start. But because you did fix it the right way, by some miracle, there won't probably be any lasting damage."
"At least we were careful. Our brother wasn't. He got out an old wagon, wood, screws, and made a knight outfit from kitchen utensils no less! A colander for a helmet, spoons and forks duct taped together, a cutting board, a spatula, an old broken cheese grater, and we had Sir Meals a Lot rolling down the main road. Brian cheered like he was on a quest to protect ye old town from the terrors of litter on the road! Went too fast, hit a brick on the side, went flying, then wham! Broken fence with spoons and forks jammed into his shoulder plus the cheese grater. It hurt bad," Snowflake explained before shuddering at the memory.
"Still, at least Chase's injury isn't worse," Snowflake added.
Chester looked confused..
"Soo.. you went to war and lost to a kitchen set? That's kinda lame." He said bluntly.
"Our brother did. Not us!" Ned defended firmly, and it made everyone begin to laugh.
Hey guys, here we go again with a new chapter! As of now, the story has not been concluded quite yet, but it is certainly.. VERY near its end. And as such,.. we have decided to begin a once a week post schedule. So every Wednesday after this week, we will release a new chapter leading up to the final chapter, which will hopefully be finished by the time we get there. Either way we will keep you updated as soon as we can!
Till then.. enjoy this new chapter and as always let us know how we're doing. Your opinion matters! It tells us that you like it or you don't or if we're dragging on too much or if the story is becoming dry or predictable.. or just uninteresting.. Either way,.. your opinion makes a HUGE difference!
Hope to hear from you soon! Thx!