The sun had long since gone down over the horizon when Marshall was finished treating Axel, the pup they found trapped under a fallen tree that day. Proud of himself and ready to finally go to sleep after such a long day, the scarved Dalmatian cautiously shifted through the valley and toward the gate he had entered through hours prior. He hoped with every fiber of his being that he wouldn't be seen. The dogs of this little village seemed to be a lot more hostile toward him and his friends.
As he walked, his mind kept going back to various instances where life in the wild proved to be more difficult than his own. Yes, back when he was still a part of the PAW Patrol, he'd have to drop whatever he was doing to rescue somebody, but at least when he was done he had a nice soft bed to lay down on. When he was done being a hero to the people of Adventure Bay, he would have a nice bowl of food to eat alongside his best friends in the whole world.
Does that really make him a hero, though?
He had everything a pup could ever want while living with the PAW Patrol. Food, toys, friends, nonstop adventures. There wasn't ever something the Dalmatian really needed for his survival. Everything was just right there for him to indulge in. After a mission, he would be fed treats and was allowed to go back to playing. That was the everyday life of being a member of the team.
But here, living in the valley, it seemed that the only thing the dogs had were each other. They had places to go back to at the end of the day to rest their heads, sure, but food? It seemed like there was never enough. Everyday life for the Canine Valley was littered with hunger, stress, and a constant feeling of gloom over it once the sun went down. After all, the moment the sun went down, they had mostly the moon above to illuminate their surroundings. Was that why they hurried to go inside once the sun finished setting?
It put things into perspective for Marshall. Hood had been stealing from Adventure Bay, simply because they had the luxury to be stolen from. It had nothing to do with being malicious or intentionally framing Marshall, he was just doing what he felt was right.
He was just making sure that... Everything is fair and right for everyone.
The Dally breathed out, his eyes widening. It had been so long since he had been with the PAW Patrol, yet one of the last things Chase taught him about being a hero seemed to echo in his mind again and again.
Fair and right for everyone.
He allowed his eyes to roam around as he walked through the silent village of hounds. The shabby buildings made from wood, the ever so faint growls of either empty stomachs or from the wild animals outside the unfinished wall surrounding the valley, as well as the pained moans from inside the Medical Bay behind him.
This didn't seem fair. It didn't seem right. Hood was making sure that everything here was fair and right for those he lived with. For his home. His own Adventure Bay. Would that make him more of a hero than he was? But, as Chase told him before, those that steal and cheat are bad.
Marshall's eyebrows furrowed. If stealing is bad, then why does it feel wrong to say that Hood can't? Stealing was bad. It had always been bad. But this particular instance felt odd to him. If there are good guys and bad guys in this world, then what would that make Hood?
He was a thief.
He was a savior to those more unfortunate than Adventure Bay's citizens.
Stealing is wrong, but isn't giving to the poor right? Do they somehow cancel one another out? Marshall's brain seemed to dart from one extreme to the other, trying its best to rationalize everything he had seen and been told. It didn't make sense to him. He couldn't fathom this concept. He wanted to understand. He needed to understand, but this felt new. This experience felt new to him.
He couldn't make sense of it, mostly because in his mind, it didn't make sense. What could he call Hood? Good or bad?
He had been so lost in thought that he didn't even notice that he had already walked through the valley's front gate, and was now in the dark wilderness. Initially, he looked around worriedly, wondering where his friends were, but as he saw a faint light just a few feet away, he found himself walking toward it.
As he drew closer, his ears picked up the familiar crackling noise of a fire. That made sense. But was there even a fire break set up if this were to be a campfire? Marshall went to hop through a bush, but when his hind leg got caught in the bush, it tripped him and sent the Dally tumbling out and into the small clearing the light had been coming from. He soon landed face-first into the grass.
"Marshall!" A familiar voice exclaimed worriedly, "Are you okay?"
Judging by how much closer the voice sounded when the second question was asked, he assumed that the worried individual was now standing over him. He opened his eyes and rolled himself onto his back to see who was speaking to him.
Standing over him was a goddess. With the light from the campfire shining bright behind her, reflecting off of the fluffy tufts of fur on her cheeks, she seemed to glow. Topping it off was the adorable teal hat she wore on her head. Maybe he hit his head hard enough to pass out this time and he was dreaming of a Husky far beyond his wildest dreams.
Wait, teal hat? Husky?
"Everest!?" The Dalmatian sprang up, flailing all of his limbs as he scrambled to land back onto his paws. As soon as he landed, though, he wobbled and stumbled to his left.
Stopping him from falling was Rocky, who used his body to act as a brace, "How hard did you hit your head?" He chuckled a bit.
"Are you okay?" Everest repeated her question, growing concerned for her friend.
Marshall gave her a smile, just like he always would, "I'm good!"
"Good, because there's something we need to talk to you about..."
The Dalmatian's ears perked up for a moment at the new voice from behind them. Upon turning himself around, he saw a familiar Dalmatian with a black patch of fur over his right eye.
The former firefighter was confused, "Hood? I thought you were still in the valley talking to that elder guy. The way you made it sound, I thought you'd be there for hours."
"It felt like hours in there..." The doppelganger Dally shuddered, "But anyway, the talk went about as well as you'd expect. You guys will be let in, but you need to pass what's called a Valley Trial before you three are let in."
"Sure, how hard can it—"
Rocky was quick to put a paw on Marshall's muzzle, "Please don't ask that... Our favorite Husky already asked that and jinxed us."
"Don't pin this on me!" Everest's head immediately whipped over to glare at the mixed breed, "He was going to say the same thing if I said that or not!"
"Said what?" Marshall asked, moving Rocky's paw away and standing up straight.
Hood sighed, "I'm going to put this as simply as possible. You have to fight a bear."
"Oh a bear? No sweat!" Marshall exclaimed without thinking about it first. The four grew silent for a few beats as the Dalmatian's eyes slowly widened, "WHAT?"
"Well not 'fight', but you might have to," Hood elaborated, "Basically, the elder tasked you three with handling a rampaging bear that's been a problem to the valley for weeks."
"Okay, then we need a game plan. We can have Rocky make a trap or something! How long until—?" Marshall tried to ask.
Rocky looked away, "The trial starts tomorrow."
"Wait, you're not all actually considering this, right?" The wild Dalmatian stood in front of them, "Elder's basically trying to send you all to early graves with this one. That's what Valley Trials are. They're impossibly difficult for a reason!"
"When we said we'd help this place out, we meant it..." Marshall sat on his haunches, "Once we said that, we all knew that there was no turning back."
"We'll do what we have to, even if it seems impossible!" Everest exclaimed, her tail wagging, "We've always found a way to pull through before."
Rocky nodded, "Besides, it's not the first time we've had to deal with a bear. Liberty brought one to Adventure Bay wanting to make new friends."
"You three are insane."
Marshall smirked, "Insane, or—"
"No, you're just plain nuts! We're talking about a wild animal here. A bear!"
"Which bear are we talking about?" Rocky raised an eyebrow, "There are ways to handle bears without getting hurt."
"He's right!" Marshall nodded, "If it's brown, get on the ground..."
"...If it's black, fight back..." Everest continued.
"If it's white..." The mixed breed paused, his eyes darting around, "...You're gonna see the light. There's no feasible way of dealing with an angry polar bear. But we're in the forest in Canada, it's highly unlikely we'll have to face one."
The Husky shuddered, something Marshall quickly took notice of, "Are you cold, Everest?" He asked, walking over to her.
Everest quickly shook her head, "No, I—"
"Here. This should help warm you up!"
Before she could protest, Marshall swiftly took his scarf off and put it around her neck, making sure it would stay there. She certainly did feel warmer, as her face heated up the instant she realized that she could smell Marshall's scent from the scarf he had been wearing for an entire day up until that point.
Rocky put a paw over his mouth, stifling a laugh.
"S-Something funny, Rocky?" The flustered Husky raised a threatening paw, glaring at him.
The sound of birds chirping began to fill the forest, signaling the beginning of a new day. The three's first official morning in the forest they promised to help. Upon hearing the birds, Rocky, less than enthusiastic to start the day, buried his head into the grass below. A faint groan slipped out of his mouth.
"Make them stop..."
Everest, who had been woken up by the birds, just like Rocky had been, yawned tiredly. She peeked out of her pup house and into the tent that acted as Marshall and Rocky's place to sleep, seeing that the mixed breed was awake, but was trying his best to go back to sleep.
"Morning..." The Husky used a paw to rub her eyes, joining Rocky and the sleeping Marshall in the tent.
Rocky groaned once more, "Take that back... It's not morning yet..."
"It's too late to go back to sleep, stop whining..." Everest tried her best to blink herself awake, with varied results.
"Whatever," The mixed breed sat up, rolling his eyes, "How's the scarf?"
"Scarf?"
The Husky pup looked down at her neck, seeing that Marshall's bright red scarf was still securely wrapped around her neck. She then looked over at Marshall, who was fast asleep. Her eyes widened once she noticed that the unconscious Dalmatian was shivering a bit.
Rocky seemed to notice this as well, "His fur coat isn't as big as yours or even mine. Now that I'm thinking about it, it makes sense why he would have a scarf out here. He must need it."
"Marshall, wake up!" Everest hurried over to the Dalmatian, shaking him lightly.
After a few seconds of trying to shake Marshall awake, the former firefighter let out a faint groan as he opened his eyes, "...What's wrong?"
"Why didn't you take your scarf back last night when I fell asleep?" She asked, worried that he could've potentially caught a cold.
The Dally slowly stood up before sitting on his haunches, "You seemed comfortable, I didn't want to wake you. Besides, you were cold, weren't you?"
"I can survive, but your coat isn't that big!" Everest frantically explained, putting the scarf back on Marshall's neck, "You need something keeping you warm... You could get sick again..."
"S-Sorry..." He smiled nervously, staring at her as she carefully adjusted his scarf in an attempt to make it look like it had the previous day.
Rocky snickered, "Awww."
Hearing this, both Everest and Marshall's eyes met. Their faces burned with embarrassment as they cartoonishly slid away from the other, looking in opposing directions. The mixed breed burst with laughter as the two quickly turned to glare at their friend.
"Rocky!"
"How are you three so energetic this early in the morning?" They suddenly heard from outside the tent, startling them.
Marshall leaned over to peek outside of the tent, recognizing the Dalmatian that stood in front of it with his usual annoyed disposition.
"Hood? What are you doing here?"
"Well, Elder sent me to grab you three..." He lightly scratched the back of his neck, "I'm assuming he chose to have me wake you at six in the morning because you three are Domestics."
"The joke's on him then," Rocky spoke as Marshall walked out of the tent, followed by himself and Everest, "Waking up this early used to be our daily lives. We might be domesticated, but that doesn't mean we don't have structure."
"Get whatever you need together and meet me at the front gate as soon as you can."
The trio nodded as they watched Hood quickly leave. As soon as he was out of sight, both Marshall and Everest turned to stare at Rocky.
"What?" The mixed breed asked, raising an eyebrow.
The Husky smiled, "How's our gear looking?"
"Right, the gear..." Rocky slowly walked over to the tent and used it to get inside of Everest's pup house before coming back out with a heavy bag, "You're lucky that we had nothing to do while you and Hood went to do stuff in the valley yesterday."
"Did you fix my claws?" Everest inquired, her tail wagging with excitement.
Marshall leaned over Rocky as he began rummaging through the bag, "Did you improve my plunger launcher?"
"I'll list off one by one," Rocky began, "Everest, I managed to use the last of the scraps we had to make your artificial claws sharper and more durable. You should be able to stab things and use them to stick onto things like trees. Just be careful not to bend them the wrong direction while they're stuck inside of something."
"Yes!"
"For Marshall, I changed how you launch your plungers..." The former recycling pup explained, "While you still have the option to use them by voice activation, but now, you can just use your paws to hit the sides so you can use them without straining your voice. And by having it be used that way, you'll be able to launch them one at a time."
"Thanks, Rocky."
"As for me, I noticed that I haven't been able to use my projectile pack as much as I thought I would have to, so I decided to grab some vines, braided them together, and turned my projectile pack into a net launcher."
"A net launcher...?" Marshall slowly asked, his eyes widening.
"Yeah?" Rocky looked at his friend with confusion.
Marshall's mind immediately drifted off, thinking of the signature item belonging to one of the members of the PAW Patrol. The last time he remembered him using it was the first time it was used to subdue him instead of catch him. He had been saved by that net hundreds, even thousands of times while he was still a part of the PAW Patrol, but that night was the first night he was scared of the net that had saved his life in the past.
He had been so lost in thought that he didn't notice that Rocky had been waving his paw in front of his face for the past minute.
"Marshall!"
"Huh?" The Dalmatian blinked, snapping out of his trance.
The ex-eco pup raised an eyebrow, "Is something wrong?"
"Nope, nothing at all!" The Dalmatian gave his friend an overly enthusiastic grin, "I'm good!"
Rocky shrugged this odd response off, "Then let's get going. Let's get this trial over with."
After engaging Everest's snowcat, they slowly followed behind the largest dog they had ever seen to a clearing in the forest. Alongside the large dog was Hood, as well as the black Shepherd they had briefly met the previous day.
Almost immediately, the trio heard an ear-piercing growl that echoed from the other side of it. Marshall's first reaction was to cover his ears, hoping his eardrums wouldn't burst from the loud noise.
"Was that...?" Everest began to ask, her voice soon tapering off in her surprise.
The large dog, the valley's Elder, nodded, "One of the many scourges of this area. Most refer to it as Forest Fury."
Rocky turned to look at the Great Pyrenees, befuddled, "One of many?"
"That isn't for you to worry about, Mongrel," The Belgian Shepherd interjected.
"I have a name, you know?" The mixed breed turned to address the black Shepherd, "With how much you all love blindly stereotyping 'Domestics', I thought you'd assume I had one."
Everest stifled a laugh at Rocky's irritated remark.
"What'd you just—?" The intimidating Shepherd began to ask, but was cut off by a large paw pushing him aside.
"Now, now, Brutus..." Elder eyed him, "...Let them talk. They won't be saying that once they meet Forest Fury face to face."
"I heard that!" Rocky barked.
"This is as far as we go, you three," The elderly dog stopped right at the edge of the clearing, as did Brutus, "From here on in, we are but spectators to this Trial."
"Okay guys, positions!" Marshall exclaimed, hoping out of the vehicle on it's left side. Everest followed suit, hopping out of her snowcat and landing on the ground to its right.
Rocky remained in the snowcat, taking on the role of its driver, "Be ready. It could be anywhere. Remember, brown to the ground, and black fight back."
"What?" Elder, confused by the human phrase, was left puzzled as the trio departed.
Just a few seconds later, a large black bear came barreling through the forest, stopping in the clearing as it took a look around. It was clear that the bear had picked up an unfamiliar scent, and wanted to see what it was. Upon a quick survey of the clearing, it noticed that two pups were there, standing in front of the snowcat.
The bear roared, kicking up dirt as it made a mad dash for the two. Rocky was quick to come up with a plan, "Marshall! Everest! Move when I tell you to!"
Without a second thought, the pups nodded in agreement, their faces hardening as they watched the bear approach. Rocky's foot hovered over the gas pedal as he glared at the quickly approaching bear. The mixed breed closed his eyes for just a moment.
"If I judge this right, we can end this quickly, and nobody will get hurt... The bear's gonna be too big to stop on the spot, so the best thing we can do is let it approach until it gets too close to recover as quickly as smaller animals are able to..."
Opening his eyes, he noticed that the bear was mere inches from them.
"Now!" He shouted, Marshall and Everest jumping out of the way in separate directions. Once they were out of the way, he barked, "Snow plow!"
At this point, the black bear had stood up on its hind legs in order to swipe at Marshall and Everest, who had already moved out of its range. In response to Rocky's bark, the snowcat's snow plow engaged and stuck out as he slammed on the gas. Just as he did, he sharply turned the steering wheel so that the edge of the plow could hit one of the bear's hind legs and knock it over. This worked, throwing the bear off balance and causing it to stumble and hit the ground with a rumble.
"Got it!" Rocky cheered, looking back at the bear as he drove, "I can't believe that worked!"
"Nice one, Rocky!" Everest complimented, earning a nod from the mixed breed.
Hearing the Husky compliment Rocky, the bear noticed that she was close enough to get to by lunging at her. The black bear quickly rose to its paws, letting out another loud roar.
"Focus Husky!"
"Huh?" Hearing Hood shout at her, she confusedly looked over at the doppelganger Dalmatian. She noticed that the wild Dally seemed concerned as he stared at something just out of her line of sight and turned herself around.
Looming over her, still lunging in her direction was the Forest Fury. Its teeth were bared, and its claws seemed ready to dig into her and tear her apart.
For just a moment, she felt smaller. The area around her went from the forest clearing to an endless tundra. White was spread in all directions, including right in front of her, where the black bear trying to attack her looked different. It wasn't a black bear any longer, instead being a polar bear. She froze in place, her mouth falling agape.
Her body began to quiver and shake, rendering her unable to run away. She couldn't move.
"Please...!" She internally screamed, "...Move! Please move!"
As the bear drew closer by the moment, she shut her eyes tight. Elder's grin went wide as he watched this unfold. Everything seemed to be going to plan. Everest waited for the pain that was sure to come, her body tensing up.
"Help me..."
"...Daddy..."
As the bear's claws came crashing down, a single scream seemed to be the only thing audible to her.
"Everest!"
Before she could be attacked, before she could even open her eyes, she suddenly felt herself be grabbed and pushed to the right. As she felt herself fly to the right, she noticed that she had hit ground and tumbled along it. But for some reason, it didn't hurt her. She couldn't feel each time she seemed to hit the ground. This was brought to a sudden stop, making her head whip forward into something soft.
"...That was a close one..." A familiar voice panted.
Once she opened her eyes, she realized that the soft surface her face had impacted with was a patch of white fur with black spots littered on it. Her eyes widened as they slowly moved up to see what she was laying her head on.
Holding her close with his right eye slightly more closed than his left was Marshall, who gave her a smile, "Are you okay?"
"Marshall...?" She asked faintly, "How'd we get here? What happened?"
"When the bear came after you, you froze up..." The Dalmatian explained, worry seeping through each word he spoke, "...I used my plunger launchers to get to you just in time, but man was it a close call!"
"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!" The Husky suddenly jumped off of him, realizing that they had ended up crashing into the trunk of a tree, "Are you okay?"
As she helped Marshall up, his legs wobbled a bit, "I'm good! I'm just glad nobody got hurt."
"Guys!" They then heard Rocky scream, "Help!"
They quickly turned their attention to where the yelp for help had come from, seeing that their mixed breed companion was being chased around in Everest's snowcat by the Forest Fury.
"We're coming!" Everest yelled, "C'mon Marshall, let's—"
Marshall then squinted, her attention focusing primarily on the rampaging black bear, "Wait... Do you see that?"
"See what?"
"The bear... Is limping..."
Everest focused on the bear's paws as it chased Rocky. As the bear ran around in pursuit, it was trying its best to keep its front left paw off of the ground. Whenever the paw did hit the ground, the bear stumbled slightly before going back to chasing Rocky.
"I see it!" The Husky exclaimed.
Marshall quickly raised his communicator to his mouth, "Rocky, ram the bear on it's right side!"
Rocky looked down at his communicator, his eyes widening, "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over your INSANITY!" He shouted, "You want me to do WHAT?"
"Don't worry!" Marshall shouted over at him, realizing that he was close enough to hear him, "It won't hurt the bear!"
"It's not the bear I'm worried that's gonna get hurt!" Rocky swerved to the left as he tried his best to outmaneuver the bear.
"Just trust me, Rocky!"
The mixed breed took a deep breath in, "You better be right about this!" Turning the wheel to his right as quickly as he could, he forced the snowcat to take a sharp U-turn to circle around to the right side of the bear. Once he was lined up, he slammed on the gas once more, rocketing into the bear's side.
Just like Marshall had predicted, this forced the bear to try and use its front and hind left paws to try and stabilize, but the moment it did, it let out a grunt and collapsed on its side.
"Use your net, I'm tagging in!" Marshall ordered as he hit the sides of his plunger launchers, the rope attached to them retracting and propelling him in the direction of Rocky and the bear.
As Everest watched Rocky use his primitive net to disorient the bear, she remained still. She observed silently as Marshall rushed over and began analyzing the bear's paw. She had no idea what to do. She was supposed to be the oldest of them, and yet she had benched herself the moment she was almost attacked by the bear. She put a paw on her forehead. Why couldn't she move?
"I found the problem!" Marshall exclaimed, looking over at Rocky for a moment, "This bear has a splinter! A pretty big one at that!"
The mixed breed padded over, curiosity in his eyes, "That would explain why the bear was so mad all of this time. If there was a splinter in my paw and there was nobody to help me, I wouldn't be too happy about it either..."
The bear began to wildly thrash around, unable to properly get the net off of itself. Marshall and Rocky shot back, eyes widening.
The ex-eco pup gulped. "I didn't have enough time to make anything weighted to keep them on... If that bear gets itself untangled, then we'll have to deal with it again!"
"That won't happen!" Everest suddenly shouted, running over and positioning herself behind the bear in order to grab the net with her mouth and keep it from escaping.
"Everest!" Marshall grinned.
Rocky smiled, "Look who finally decided to tag back in..."
The Husky chuckled, straining to keep the net held down, "Shut up and grab the other side! Marshall, get that splinter out!"
As Elder watched everything unfold, his attitude shifted from arrogance to downright surprise. Never in all of his years had he seen pups like the ones he was watching at the moment. In the wild, it was a dog eat dog world, where many would work only for the benefit of themselves, maybe their pack, but a random bear that they were tasked with dealing with? That was just absurd!
He watched Rocky and Everest hold down the net while Marshall approached the flailing bear, his mouth agape, "What are they doing...?"
Hood, who let out an exasperated sigh, answered reluctantly, "They're... Helping it..."
"Helping it?" Brutus confusedly parroted, "Why would they do something like that? Their trial is to deal with Forest Fury, not help it get back on all four paws!"
The Doppelganger Dally looked up at the black Shepherd, "I don't know, and I don't understand. But what I do know after spending a day making sure they get back to the valley in one piece, I learned that they don't care if they make it in one piece, they care if someone else makes it back safely."
"So what, they're just a bunch of saints that like helping others?" Elder looked at the exponentially smaller pup.
"...Yes, actually. They are."
Marshall, who had been slowly tugging at what appeared to be a large tree branch from the bear's paw, grunted as he tried his best to get it out. By the looks of it, the branch he was tugging on was pretty long, and it would only strain the bear more to slowly pull it out. The Dalmatian steadily inhaled, preparing himself for what could be to come.
"Everyone brace yourselves..." The former EMT ordered, "I'm gonna pull it out in one go!"
Rocky and Everest nodded. Just like earlier when the bear was charging at them, they didn't question a seemingly risky plan from one of their own. They simply braced themselves and prepared for any potential outcome. Marshall let out one last grunt before using his legs to push himself away from the bear's paw, dislodging it successfully.
The bear roared, shooting up from its originally subdued position, sending both Rocky and Everest flying in the process. Marshall let the branch go, tired from all of the pulling. Before he knew it, the bear's paw slammed into his right cheek, sending the little Dally sprawling into the ground. The bear growled at the now unconscious Dalmatian before slowly closing its mouth and turning around, slowly walking away from them.
"Marshall!" Both pups cried out, running over to their downed friend.
Elder watched the black bear walk away, calmer than it had been before it came into contact with the three pups.
"Did they just...?" Brutus began to ask, his voice tapering off with surprise.
The Great Pyrenees turned himself to look over at Rocky and Everest, who were trying their best to wake Marshall, "...Dog almighty... They've done it... The scourge of the central area..."
The Dalmatian slowly opened his eyes, a weak smile on his face, "We did it, didn't we?"
"Marshall, your nose is bleeding!" Shrieked Everest.
Rocky looked around frantically, "We need something to cover your nose..."
"I'll just take that as a yes..." Closing his eyes once more, Marshall's smile grew in volume.
"...Forest Fury has been quelled."