Chapter thirty-three: Growing Up
Chase had long since given in to the soft tender touch which Ryder had laid across his back, and by now even that was no longer a factor. Leaving both to rest quite deeply, where they had ended up during their midday meal.
"Ok.. so now they're both sleeping." Rocky mentioned, turning to the pups outside the Lookout with him, after peering in at their leader and second-in-command. "What now?"
"Want to read a book or something?" Ned suggested, bored out of his mind.
"Sure, why not." Rubble shrugged, as they all exchanged glances with growing anticipation.
The pups entered the Lookout quietly and Ned went over to look at the books they had.
"What books do you guys want to read?" Ned asked.
"I don't know.. depends on what's on the shelf." Rocky said coming up next to the husky, then looked up to study the books in front of him.
"Do you have a favorite?" The mixed breed wondered.
"Hmmm," the husky pup hummed as he looked through the books.
"I found one called 'Fun Times With Everyday Items'. That looks like a good read," Ned commented.
Marshall began nosing through one stack of books, while Rubble pawed through some others. But as the Dalmatian searched, he soon found that what little pressure he added to the stack, only made it wobble more.
"Oh no! Marshall, be careful!" Rocky shouted.
"It's going down!" Zuma called as they all turned toward the slow motion lean of the tower right in front of them.
"Woah!" Rubble cried, leaping out of the way just in time as the stack of books toppled and scattered to the floor. And when this happened one large book from the top hit the ground and slid toward them.
"Congratulations Marshall, you destroyed 'The Leaning Tower of Reading'. What is this big book, a dictionary?" Ned replied, before looking at the big book in front of them.
"Woah.." he said, noting the picture of a dog on the front cover.
All the other pups came over to gather around him.. peering over his shoulder at the book that lay before them.
"Dog breeds.. 100 breeds from around the world." Marshall read, meeting glances with Skye in a bit of confusion.
"Should we open it?" Rubble asked, sounding a bit nervous.
"It's just a book." Rocky told him.
"Yeah.. but what if it's a pop-up book." The bulldog shuttered. "Remember the last time Ryder read us a story.."
He looked to his left and yelped, diving behind his friends while Zuma chuckled, holding the makeshift jaws he'd formed with his forepaws.
Ned looked at the pups in confusion
"Ummm. What's so bad about a pop-up book? Zuma, what the heck?" Ned replied, not understanding what Zuma and Rubble were talking about.
Zuma just smiled over at Rubble, who cowered back more behind Marshall and Skye; who both rolled their eyes humorously.
"Ryder read the story of Little Red Riding Hood and the big bad wolf popped out of the book and scared Rubble. He didn't sleep very well that night.. he kept ALL OF US up waiting and hoping that the big bad wolf wouldn't come to get us."
"Now Zuma loves that story!" Skye snickered, seeing the glimmer in the chocolate lab's eyes.
"The best nursery rhyme ever!" The water pup gushed, then howled like a wolf, making Rubble shutter.
"But Zuma,.." Rubble began, as he finally shifted his paws under him to sit upright again. "That's not a nursery rhyme.. it's just a really old tale."
"THANK YOU! I don't know why people think it is, when it isn't!" Ned chimed in.
"Hmmm. Have any silly ghost stories? Or any nature books?" Ned asked.
"Hmm. Ghost stories as in books?.." Marshall wondered. "Possibly.."
"But what I wanna know.." Skye ventured stepping up to the dog breed book. "Is more about this book." She nosed the cover open and a few pages came with it.. and on the page that was now open to them was eight different dog breeds they just happened to recognize.
"Hey! It's us!" Marshall gasped.
"But why do we look so weird?" Rocky wondered, leaning in closer for a better look.
"Because that's what we'll look like when we're older." Skye noted. "Look. Marshall's gonna grow to have really long legs and tail." Marshall stopped then looked at his paws curiously, shrugging soon after. "And Rubble's gonna get bigger and stronger with more muscle."
The pups glanced at him and he took a second to realize this.
"What?" He asked.
"Anyway.. look.." Skye continued, lowering her eyes to the page once again. "Rocky and Zuma will grow to be about the same size.. which will be roughly smaller than Marshall and Rubble will be smaller than them.."
"But Skye, it looks like you won't change much at all!" Rubble noted. "See? You'll still be the smallest of us all!"
"And look here.. this one looks like.." Marshall's sentence trailed off once the image that lay at the end of his paw made him realize something..
"Woah.. that German Shepherd is huge!" Rocky mentioned pointing as well. "Guess that means Chase will-.. oh.." then looking over their shoulders their eyes collectively settled on one snoozing pup, all imagining what this might look like someday.
"Oh. Wow. Chase is going to be bigger than all of us. Say, what about Snowflake and I? How big do we get?" Ned asked curiously.
"Not as big as Chase, that's for sure.." Skye said.. "Looks like somewhere between Marshall and Chase though if I had to guess, based on these pictures."
"Okay," Ned said calmly.
"Yo, what is up you guys I-.." The immediate shushing wasn't even the first sign of necessary silence, cause as soon as he entered the Lookout he'd already begun to screech to a halt just inside the Lookout doors, with Snowflake suddenly peering out around him curiously.
"What.. is going on here?" Chester remarked in lighter, more hushed, tones.
"Glad you guys could make it back.." Marshall answered broadly. "How was your bonding time?"
"It was great! We had a good time. What did you pups do while we were gone?" Snowflake responded. The pups exchanged looks.
"Oh,.. uh,.. well.. we uh..-"
"Chase fell asleep again!" Rubble blurted out before Marshall could explain, and everyone looked at him in complete confusion.
"What?" The bulldog wondered. "He did."
"Okay. Anything else?" the husky pup wondered.
"Well, as I was about to say," Marshall began again, after shooting Rubble a bit of a distasteful look. "We decided to pup bowl for a little while longer and got bored with that.. we played a couple games and even fell asleep."
"And Chase must've conked out long before you guys did.." Chester guessed.
"Yes!" Marshall gasped, surprised with his accuracy. "Anyway, then we found these books and eventually stumbled upon this one with all our dog breeds in it.."
"Okay. Glad you all got to rest and relax," Snowflake replied.
"We weren't trying to." Rocky emphasized as eye contact was spread throughout the group once more.
"Then when we woke up, we realized what had happened and soon discovered that Chase and Ryder had both fallen asleep too." Skye added.
"And that's when we found this book, dudes." Zuma put in. "Check it out."
"Woah." Chester noted seeing the immediate comparison of each full grown dog breed's sizes relative to everyone among the group. "Looks like things will change a lot before that happens.."
"It's funny though.." the German Shepherd continued. "Of all the pups in Chase's litter he was the smallest.. yet he's grown to be the biggest and strongest of them all! If you could believe it he wasn't the healthiest when he was born.. no one even expected him to live past his first few days.. yet he surprised everyone and kept fighting.. I guess that makes him the toughest of us all.."
"Yeah.. tough is right." Marshall sighed, letting his gaze wander over to Chase now, sighing softly once again.
Snowflake nuzzled Chester and Marshall.
"Thank goodness he's here as our friend and family member. I know he's going through tough times, but we're here for him," Snowflake said softly.
"So what should we do now?" the husky asked.
"I'd like to come up with a way to fix all this." Marshall said, still thinking about Chase. "Some way to end all this."
"Same here. Which is why I wanted to bond with all of you; to get ideas to cheer him up. I just hope my hard work pays off. I feel sorry for him," Snowflake replied.
"As do we all." Rocky agreed sadly. "Guess we just haven't found what we need to pull him out of all this."
"Right. So what now?" Snowflake wondered.
"Well.. the only one left for you to hang out with is Chase.." Marshall mentioned.
"And he decided to take another cat nap.." Chester added. "So.."
Ned smiled and turned to Zuma.
"So Zuma, have you always been a water pup, or did you need to learn how to swim?" Ned asked kindly. Snowflake rolled her eyes.
"Well he can't swim if he doesn't learn!" Snowflake commented in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Actually I've loved the water ever since I can remember, dude." Zuma replied openly. "That's actually what Ryder noticed about me right away when he met me."
"So you met on the water?" Ned responded in surprise.
"I'm surprised you're not a mer-pup given you love the water so much! No offense," Snowflake added.
"None taken, dude." Zuma chuckled. "And I didn't meet him on the water.. just on the edge of it actually.. right on the beach overlooking the Bay.."
xxxx
"Three.. two.. one.. aroooooo!" Lunging for the wakeboard, he planted all four paws onto it, howling all the while as crabs scattered from the skidding board under him. And all he could do when the ride ended, which was in a wipeout, was laugh.
He suddenly looked up and saw a boy knelt down to an ecstatic German Shepherd who licked at his face happily while the boy laughed. He soon sent the pup after his Cockapoo and Dalmatian companions and the three pups took off up the street away from him.
"*sigh* if only I had other dudes to roll with.." he said, beginning to turn back to get his board.
"You got some skills." A voice said and he whirled back around in an instant.
Suddenly the boy from earlier was now standing in front of him, and the chocolate lab pup froze; though not in fear as much as amazement.
"I could use someone who's not afraid to get wet." The boy smiled warmly.
"Ready, set, get wet!" The pup called.
"Haha, so what's your name, little pup?" The stranger asked him.
"Zuma, dude! -I mean uh sir? -I mean sir dude?.." The pup paused to think a moment.. "What do I call you?"
"Ha-Ryder's fine." The boy smiled. "So what do you say? Wanna give it a try?"
"Let's dive in, Ryder Dude!" Zuma called, with an added howl when running by him. And Ryder just sighed and chuckled before following suit.
xxxx
"Awwwww. That's nice," Snowflake said before going over and giving the chocolate lab a hug, and some licks.
"I bet you were all super cute puppies," Ned added.
"Just think what we'll be like when we're grown up." Marshall commented, shooting a wayward glance at Rocky and Zuma in saying this.
Suddenly a yawn broke the momentary silence and they all looked as Ryder stretched, only making Chase stir slightly without waking. Rubbing one eye, he discovered his pups all approaching.
"Hey pups.. *yawn* what's going on?" the boy asked, placing a tender hand to his chest.
"Chester and I got back from hanging out. We were also looking at a dog picture book. Man, are we going to get bigger when we get older!" Snowflake replied.
"Well,.. Most of us.." Skye spoke up, dryly smiling off to her left, then chuckling with those among her.
"How are you feeling?" Ned asked, looking at Ryder's arm.
"I'm ok,.." Ryder shrugged. "Where's Chase?.. Is he ok? He didn't wander off did he?"
"Nope.. he's been right beside you this whole time." Marshall said. The Dalmatian and some, if not, all the pups glances settled on the sleeping pup in question. Then Ryder looked down.
"Oh, hi Chase." Ryder said, patting the pup's back gently.
"Mm.. what's that Billy?" Chase mumbled, as he shifted in place onto his back, and they almost didn't catch what he said. "It's not time yet, please.."
"Billy? He was here earlier. Why would Chase think Ryder is Billy?" Ned asked Chester, confused.
"Maybe he's dreaming again?" Rocky suggested as Chester shook his head and shrugged.
"What could he possibly be dreaming about now?" Chester wondered, shrugging, and everyone among them shrugged as well. Chase began to futz with the edge of the blanket under Ryder that'd fallen over his face a little.
"Easy there, Chase.." Ryder said, as he continued to shift himself away to finally stand up again, and pulled the blanket off him as he did so. "You don't gotta be up yet."
"He's acting goofy. Like he... Oooo. Maybe loopy Chase is back! Hey Chase, what are you thinking about now? Pup treats? Playing ghosts? Relaxing? Playing ball?" Ned said before getting excited.
And as soon as Ryder reset him with a blanket up to his neck, Chase rolled back over and stayed asleep, having never opened his eyes this whole time.
"Chase? Chase? Awwww man! He's asleep," Ned sighed in disappointment.
"Umm, isn't that a good thing?" Chester wondered. "I mean he's not cranking at us for waking him up or keeping him up right now.."
"Yes but.. I thought loopy Chase was baaaaaaaccckk. I wanted to cuddle him like a stuffy and play 'Ghosts' with him!" Ned pouted before whining a little. "Unless any of you pups want to do those things with me?"
At the mention of Ned's desires for Chase, Marshall and Rubble met glances.
"So wait,.." Rubble spoke up, glancing at the husky in blue. "You've had all your hangout times with us.. What's your plan for Chase?"
"Well, I want to have him be surrounded with positive stuff and have a good time. Playing with the kids, playing at the playhouse in the cube pits, eat at Mr. Porter's cafe, maybe ice cream, and other stuff. I just want to give Chase as many positive activities as I can. Maybe try to get him to think of things differently," Snowflake answered.
"Think of things differently,.. how?" Ryder wondered, a certain level of intellect in his question. "And of what?"
"Like, think of places that he either likes or look at situations in a good way. Playing in the funhouse or beating a bean bag with the word 'Rex' on it," Snowflake said, whispering the last part.
Chester just took on an odd look.
"What?" Snowflake said, noticing Chester's look.
The German Shepherd remained as he was, his head cocked with an arched eyebrow, and he stood naturally facing her.
"Ok." He said, finally breaking his gaze.
"Well I hope it works." He nodded hopefully.
"Thanks," Snowflake said.
"Ok pups, how 'bout we get some supper. It's already starting to get late again." Ryder said.
"Dinner? Alright!" Chester cheered.
"Good idea." Rocky agreed, as they all began to follow Ryder; then the mixed breed froze.
"Wait,.. what about Chase?" Rocky wondered.
"Oh don't worry about him.." Ryder smiled looking back on the sleeping pup. "If he doesn't wake up himself in the next half hour, I can wake him to eat before he goes down again tonight.."
"Heh. You make it sound like he's a baby all over again." Chester smirked, amused by this as dry humor.
"Well he's been needing more rest than usual is all.." Ryder reasoned, as they kept walking away from where Chase was. "Guess the best thing we can do for him is let him get some rest.. until he doesn't need it anymore.."
"And how long will that take?" Marshall wondered, almost questioning him.
"And when will we know he doesn't need it anymore?" Skye added in a softer tone.
"He'll probably wanna be awake more during the day.. or at least he'll be able to.." Ryder supposed, as he continued leading the way to dinner..
"Yeah, it just depends on how much sleep he needs," Ned added.
Heyo! We're back! Another chapter ready for release! This was fun! The flashback with Zuma was probably my favorite part! And even though we've put a hold on writing for a bit, posting will hopefully be in full gear!.. At least till we get caught up. ;D
The plan is to try and post two chapters a week.. one at the VERY least.. and if a schedule doesn't work we'll just try to post every few days if we can. We'll see.. but long story short posting will be our focus for a little bit. Thank you all so much for your patience…
Please let us know how we're doing story wise though! We'd LOVE to hear your thoughts on what we've been doing so far.. and we can't wait to see what you think of what's to come. Thx!