Chapter 23• Rocky
*Still Day 12 of Origenes Crisis*
/
Unbeknownst to me, after the sun had set, about two dozen massive flood lights illuminated the Cygnus rocket on its pad.
Its twin, another launch-readied Cygnus rocket, sat inside of the closed vehicle assembly building should the backup crew need to launch in an emergency scenario.
I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself as I exhaustedly trudged back to my room for my final night on Earth.
I was caught in a sort of fearful excitement. The only thing that came close to the feeling was when we were briefed on a scarier-than-normal mission back home. Although, Ryder very rarely sent me on those.
Another member of the NASA team accompanied me back to my room and asked me how I was doing, what I was going to eat, and gave me what number to call in case I felt too sick to go on.
However, I didn't feel much aside from jittery and anxious- not exactly the combination that calls for a gigantic meal.
Before long, I was sitting in my room, finally left alone.
I ended up being pleasantly surprised by the appearance of a direct message on the tablet that I'd video-called the pups on.
It came from an "Unknown" number, but read:
"Hi Rocky, this is Marshall. Ryder told me to wait to send you this, but he fell asleep and I just thought I'd go for it. Listen, we're all super proud of you. Really! We want you to know that.
Things back here are tough without you. Chase has been having a hard time putting on a brave face. Ryder insisted Everest come down and stay at the lookout. Our latest snowy rescue ended up being a bit more complicated as a result. I think he's trying to fill the void.
Who am I kidding? We all are. And it's just not the same.
We miss you lots though, and we hope you see this before things get too crazy.
We don't want you worrying about us, just do what you have to do.
Good luck!
Love, Ryder and the pups."
Although I had already had an exceedingly emotional day, I didn't feel like being sad.
But, I wished I could have seen them one last time. Marshall had said they didn't want me to worry, but I couldn't help it.
I understood if they couldn't come to the Cape to see me off, they were probably too busy, so I didn't bring it up.
Still, I missed them all the more in that moment.
I tried to reply, but the message failed.
I tried again.
Failed.
And again.
Failed.
I could feel myself starting to get worked up but took a deep breath.
I sat on my NASA beanbag once again and started to fall asleep, only to jump back into consciousness after feeling a brief sensation of falling.
I hated that.
I got up, went to the bathroom, drank an entire bottle of water, and sat back down.
My Christmas eve metaphor started becoming more and more accurate. I was exhausted in body and soul, yet my brain wouldn't cooperate.
It was precisely when I stopped struggling, however, that something peculiar happened.
It was almost as if I had fallen back into the odd unconsciousness of the sensory deprivation chamber.
I was dreaming, that I knew. But I couldn't recall any part of the process of me falling asleep.
Usually, it takes me about an hour to even start feeling tired once I've laid down.
It had been that way for years, ever since Ryder took me home.
Much to my dismay, if I were ever disturbed during my "unwinding" process, I would have to start all over.
I was the only one on the PAW Patrol who suffered from this- which made night missions hellish for me.
What I felt was abrupt and strange, while I couldn't control what I was seeing, I didn't wake up at the realization that I had realized it WAS a dream.
Much different than anything before, aside from my first deprivation training, I was seeing memories again- distinct memories from a third-person perspective.
First, I saw Zuma.
Zuma and I became friends almost immediately. When I was first adopted, he was the first pup I'd met.
He carried the weight of not just the town of Adventure Bay, but the ocean itself, on his shoulders.
And I'd never seen him cry about not being sent on missions as often as the others.
Although he was a year younger than me, I still marveled at how his maturity often rivaled that of Chase's at times.
In a sort-of funny mix-up, Zuma ended up with the patrol member number 7.
Ryder had already commissioned a construction pup-pack with number 6 on it (which would become Rubble's as he was the last to join the main team).
So, Ryder accidentally skipped number 5 and was comfortable living with it.
But once I'd seen what the other pups were doing, I wanted to help out. When I got my pup-pack, I got the number 5.
Over time, I came to see Zuma as a laid-back brother-figure. No matter what, he was a professional at calming everyone down.
The instance that played out in front of me, however, was not one of those times.
This had to have been within the first month of me living in Adventure Bay.
Zuma and I were in a canoe. I remember still being in the bonding phase with most of the pups. They were all friendly, but I wasn't really "family" with them yet.
All of them except Zuma, we were different.
I was understandably hesitant to go canoeing in the bay with him, my phobia clashing with my desire to become closer friends.
He made a promise to me on "every grain of sand on the beach" that he wouldn't let me get wet.
You would think it an impossible task for a pup sharing a canoe to somehow prevent the other passenger from getting a drop on them.
But I learned that day that Zuma wasn't the "Water pup" for nothing.
We canoed for hours, playing games and admiring the views, smoothly gliding through the water up and down the coast.
As anxious as I was, Zuma was really the first pup who got me to relax anywhere near water.
I was so relaxed, in fact, that I didn't notice that our canoe had sprung a leak.
Zuma hid it perfectly for the majority of our return, but we were about 40 feet away from the beach when I started to notice us sink.
"Wait, are we getting lower? Zumaaa!", I heard myself screaming.
Quick as a flash, my friend wiped his paws dry with the towel he used to hide the leak, jumped into the water, and grabbed me out of the back of the canoe.
I was curled up in a quivering ball, but I was dry.
Zuma held me over the surface of the water, paddling backwards with his hind legs all the way to dry land. I was speechless.
Not a drop touched me, at least not until he walked ashore and shook out his fur all over me.
"Ugh, I was so close to staying dry", I whined.
"Oops, sowwy dude, it's just a weflex", he said, this being back when his speech impediment was still present.
"But- I have to admit it, I'm impressed you delivered on your promise to keep me dry-ish", I said, "Thank you, Zuma."
"Any time, bwother", he'd replied.
We laughed. It was then that the 'dream scenes' seemed to freeze in time. The setting changed immediately after.
Okay brain, I see what you're doing, I silently thought to myself.
Next up was a Rubble memory. He was the only member who I got to be sort of a mentor to, as he joined right after me (aside from Everest, who stays at Jake's Mountain under normal circumstances, rather than the lookout).
Though he's the same age as Zuma, Rubble quickly became the 'baby' of the PAW Patrol. And trust me, that's a term of endearment.
When he'd joined, we were all super impressed at his aptitude for bravely running into the epicenter of the problems we faced.
This pup that Marshall, Chase, and Ryder had found in a tree, who was a stray just like me, saw what we did and wanted to be a part of it. He proved himself on a spontaneous mission to save Jake, and before we knew it- none of us could think of a time when the PAW patrol felt "complete" before Rubble joined.
The memory I was seeing came a year or so after that. The PAW Patrol was at full strength and Rubble had returned from a mission in the middle of a downpour with Marshall.
We all sat in the lookout watching the sheets of rain come down on the window. The evening lights of Adventure Bay coming on one-by-one, illuminating the raindrops as they slid down.
As they came in, Marshall was hounding Rubble about something in his signature non-aggressive way.
"Come on! Who, Rubble?", Marshall pleaded.
"Marshall, it's not a big deal", Rubble returned.
"Who is it though? You've got to have a favorite", Marshall insisted.
"I don't, that wouldn't be fair, I promise you", Rubble replied.
The rest of us were intrigued.
"Ooh, what are you two on about? Does Rubble have a special lady friend?", Skye asked.
"Oh no, it's not that. Marshall just wanted to know- uh, nothing, never mind", he said.
"Wait a minute, finish your thought there", Zuma pressed.
Now we were all invested.
"Yeah Rubble, you've got to tell them- It's me, right?", said Marshall.
"It's all of you really", he said.
"I asked Rubble who his favorite member of the PAW Patrol is!", Marshall blurted out.
"That's so something you would ask", Chase said, unimpressed.
"Well, maybe it really is all of us, for different reasons", I reasoned.
"Like we're all one big friend", Marshall said.
"Yeah, that's why Rocky's my favorite!", Rubble burst out.
Chase spat out his water.
Rubble laughed, as the others surrounded him, poking his sides and demanding answers.
Although he said it was only a joke, he told me that I was the "nicest" when he first came. At least my eyes were, he'd said.
He often reminded me that I was his "first friend", much to the feigned dismay of the others.
All in good fun, but Rubble meant it about me.
The memories I was reliving weren't those at the forefront of my brain.
These were ones that had slipped away from my conscious mind over time.
Seeing them again made me feel a bit bad that I had let them slip so far.
Marshall and I had too drifted apart over time. Overall, I went on the least number of missions with him out of the entire group.
There was a lopsided dynamic between our work-bonding and casual-bonding.
I mean, for the most part, Ryder would send us two to scenes where someone had been hurt by something and something else needed repairs.
If he were responding to a fire, there was usually nothing worth fixing- thus Rubble could just knock the wreckage down and rebuild afterwards.
I only really 'fought' one fire, and it was on one of the few instances where Ryder was unavailable for the span of two missions.
Ryder, Chase, and Skye had gone out on a mission in the desert, which apparently took longer than expected.
Marshall was returning from putting out a brushfire when another call came in about a building that had been struck by lightning.
Coincidentally, we met at a four-way intersection as I was returning from repairing a child's treehouse supports to meet safety regulations.
Marshall frantically asked if I was busy and able to spare a paw.
I told him I wasn't busy, and we both sped down the street, sirens blaring.
To say I wasn't prepared for the mess I was in-for would have been a massive understatement.
Before me, black smoke billowed from the two-story home.
It was under construction so there was no crowd of spectators.
Marshall hooked his primary hose to the truck and told me to wait until he gave a signal.
Marshall ran in and I sat in nervous agony for about five minutes.
Then I heard, "Rocky!"
I ran inside to meet him.
"Yeah! I'm here! What do you need?", I yelled.
He turned and his eyes went wide.
"Wait, what are you doing in here? It's not safe!", he shouted frantically.
"You yelled, I thought that was the signal", I said.
"It was the signal for you to switch the hose into the next port!", he exclaimed.
"You didn't tell me that, you didn't even tell me what the signal was!", I exclaimed.
"Oh- Watch out!", he yelled.
The rising heat cracked the keystone and the entire brickwork façade collapsed behind me.
We had no choice but to run to the interior.
We both sat against the final standing load-bearing column.
Surprisingly, Marshall took off his mask and handed it to me.
I was confused.
He pointed upwards.
The roof was only half-finished, and the smoke billowed through the large opening rather than filling up the space where we sat.
"You need that more than I do, I know a few secrets about breathing around fire", he said.
"Thank you", I said as I put on the mask.
So began another awkward silence between Marshall and I.
He chuckled after a while, "That was really silly of me, assuming you knew what the signal was."
"Well, I should have known it didn't mean- 'Run into the fire without a plan'", I said.
We both laughed.
"But seriously though, I guess I forgot that you were the only one that I hadn't actually fought a fire with- well you and Zuma. Not many fires on the water", he said.
"It makes sense, I guess we don't really spend much time on duty together, do we?", I said.
"I guess not. But, that doesn't mean we can't make the time we do have count. After all, we can't leave until that insulation that fell in front of the back porch stops burning", he said matter-of-factly.
"May I just say, you're incredibly calm considering how dangerous this is", I commented.
"Eh, it's nothing. It comes with the job, I think. Oh…. Um, sorry for deflecting your compliment just then. Thank you!", he said.
I smiled.
Marshall then had an idea.
He fitted me with his pup-pack and activated it.
"I thought you were tapped out from that earlier fire", I said.
"I am, but I have an emergency canister for short bursts", he replied.
He then pointed upwards again.
This time, I looked to see a shelf of paint cans that were tilted down ever so slightly on the floor above us. One can was teetering on the edge.
"Just look in one direction and bark, it will follow, trust me", he said.
The can fell and I managed to hit it with a rapid shot of water before it hit the ground.
The two of us laughed, but Marshall was very impressed.
We managed to have some fun in a burning building, so much fun in fact, that we didn't realize it had begun to rain.
It took about three more rounds of can-shooting for the floor above us to start creaking again.
Marshall and I looked at one another.
"I say we don't stay to find out how bad that is", Marshall said as he leapt to his paws and helped me up.
We sprinted out of the mostly clear back entrance, which so happened to be connected to a porch.
It wasn't a finished porch, however, so Marshall and I proceeded to fall three feet into a freshly-made mud-pond underneath.
"Uuuugh, wet", I groaned.
"Wet…. and gross", Marshall said.
Marshall and I were covered in soot, mud, and rain. But he and I were closer after that day than we'd ever been.
In the end, the house would be just another thing that Rubble would enjoy knocking down and starting over on.
When Marshall and I finally made our way home, Ryder and company had been waiting.
Ryder was the first to see us, exhausted, soaked, and smelling like a muddy fireplace.
"Jeez, where have you pups been?", he said, concerned.
Marshall let out a massive sneeze and fell into me and we both laughed.
"We've been bonding!", Marshall said.
As far as bonding went, my next memory included Everest, the pup that I had spent the least amount of time with overall (aside from Tracker).
She served as a reserve member, staying on Jake's Mountain for Alpine rescues. Although, she would often come down to hang out with us whenever things were quiet.
What many Adventure Bay residents didn't know about her, however, was her love for competitive snowboarding.
While she and Rubble shared a love of snowboarding in leisure time, Everest took it on as her own intense, personal hobby.
The weather on Jake's Mountain served as the perfect conditions for the pup snowboarding competition on the half-pipe, which had been held two winters prior to my NASA escapade.
Everest had entered and was over the moon about participating.
Unfortunately, Jake's Mountain was steep and had never been rigged for a spectator event like that.
Spectator space was spread far around the slopes and those in charge called for the event to be held at night.
Among the thirty participants from across the country, Everest was in no way favored to win.
As we stood in the cramped spectator space waiting for the first pup to make their run, the massive lights that lit up the slope began to flicker, then went off entirely.
"Oh noooo", Rubble said, "They can get them back on, can't they Ryder?"
"I'm sure it's temporary, pups. Don't worry", Ryder assured us.
Minutes went by.
Everest, who wanted to sit with us until her run, was obviously discouraged by the crowd reactions.
She tried to keep a smile on her face, but her drooping ears told the entire story.
Jake had told us that she had been a nervous wreck the entire week leading up to the competition, and now this.
The organizers were looking around helplessly, but a P/A announcement told us that they would be working on a solution.
I remembered being particularly tired that day, as a group rescue almost prevented us from being there at all.
But when I saw Everest getting ready to just pack her board up and give in, I decided that I was going to take a look myself.
I told Ryder I was going to try something and went off.
A few electricians sat surrounding the main system hub, a tiny shed filled with switchboards, breakers, and covered wires that ran to the entire light system.
Rather than join them, I just followed the weatherproof wires wherever they led.
I found the culprit, a small section of wire that had shorted out and burned through its rubber casing.
It was a miracle that it hadn't started a fire.
I decided to loop the damaged section behind a large pine tree out of the way and went to the PAW Patroller to get my pup-pack.
Once I'd gotten back, however, I realized that the two working sections wouldn't work if I plugged them into each other.
I needed something to bridge the gap.
There laid the dilemma.
My pup-pack had a feature that turned it into a small battery that can conduct electricity between any two points. All I had to do was activate the plugs on my end, connect them to the two wires and monitor the output.
However, back when this had occurred, my pup-pack had a specific caveat. It could only do its job when in direct contact with body heat.
Later on, Ryder would change the functionality so that I would be able to detach the battery and monitor it remotely.
But at that moment, the battery would only work if I stood there in between the two ends.
So I sat there, listening to the distant roar of cheers when the lights came back on.
Everest ended up winning first place, which I would have to re-live by watching videos.
For the entirety of the 3 hours, I sat in the snow, getting steadily wetter and more uncomfortable as it melted beneath me.
When it was all over, I returned to the group and told Ryder what happened.
Of course, I was bombarded with questions.
"Rocky, where were you? It was so crazy!"
"Were you in the bathroom that whole time?"
"We tried to save your seat! Why do you look so tired?"
I told them I was busy working to make sure the lights stayed on and left it at that.
That didn't stop Everest from outright tackling me, trophy in her paws.
I still remember her thanking me profusely as we all walked back to the lookout.
"ROCKY! ROCKY! You did it! I felt like I was in the Olympics out there! That was amazing. You saw, didn't you?", she said as she hopped up and down, "I couldn't have done it without you! I just knew as soon as I saw you going off to fix it- I knew it wouldn't get called off."
Soon after that, she started calling her first prize "Our trophy", and insisted on "sharing" it, but I told her I wanted her to have sole rights to her own accomplishment.
All of us had been awarded with some accolade through the years, whether gifted by a safety committee, a traveling competition board, or from mayor Goodway herself (our biggest fan).
They were all sources of pride for us, but no pup had been prouder to have me on board than our fearless leader, Chase.
Chase was always the steady paw that guided us to do our best, regardless of Ryder being present or not.
He had a leader's presence. And, although he had a lot to learn when I first joined, that could be said about all of us to some degree.
From the first time he'd ever given me an order, I felt a drive to impress him.
It was the next memory up that reminded me just how far Chase and I had come.
This was the spring after my Everest heroics and Chase had invited me on a ride-along.
It was the first day of that spring that the temperature broke 70 degrees (F) [21.11 degrees C], so we were expecting people to be out and about more.
Chase and I didn't get into particularly long conversations, but I had decided that I wasn't going to force any talking that wasn't happening naturally.
After about thirty minutes of driving around, I guess he started picking up on it.
"Sorry if I don't seem super talkative today, it has nothing to do with you", he said.
"Oh, I actually hadn't noticed", I lied.
"I always get kind of nervous during days like these, I can't help but feel like I smell something on front street. It's weird", he said.
His eyes narrowed in a way that told me he was serious. He had the best nose out of the PAW patrol, rivaled only by Marshall's smoke-detecting abilities.
He was intense, to be sure, but also had a good sense of humor- knowing when to turn it on and off.
"Well, don't let me get in your way. I can sit while you go and check it out", I said.
"If I go, you're coming with me", Chase said.
So, we stopped on front street. Chase and I walked down the sidewalk. He sniffed everywhere and stopped in front of a stoop.
I felt like the Watson to his Sherlock Holmes and funnily imagined us in plaid trench coats and pipes that matched our respective colors- snooping down the street.
To my surprise, Chase knew exactly what he was smelling for. Underneath the stoop was a small opening covered by a wooden plank that was painted to look like stone.
"Jackpot!", he exclaimed.
He pulled out a cardboard box filled with smaller cardboard boxes.
"What's in those?", I asked.
He pulled out a $500 scarf from a small box, which was surrounded by tiny white packets.
"It's silica, a ton of it too", Chase said.
"Oh, that's the stuff that you place into liquids for a while and make them gooey, right?", I asked.
He chuckled, "Yes, that's right. It's also INCREDIBLY dangerous to human health. Ours too. Usually, there's only one pack in things like shoes- they tell you to just throw them away and keep them out of children's reach. But these are filled with them."
"Wait. Does that mean these were stolen from the factory or something?", I asked.
Chase looked shocked at my deduction.
"Actually, yeah. That's exactly what I was thinking", he said.
Just then, the front door opened and two men came out.
For whatever reason, they were wearing dark blue hoodies with shorts. Almost as if they were trying to hide the fact that they were carrying something.
They had to be in their early thirties.
"Hey there gentlemen, mind telling me what these are for?", Chase asked, eyebrow raised.
Neither could hide the shock on their faces. They slammed the door and ran back through their house without locking it.
"Stop right there!", Chase yelled, as he pursued them through the door.
Not used to being this close to the action, I decided to quickly run around the house and wait at the back door.
The house was bigger than I thought, and I had to hop a fence to get through the backyard.
Once I got there, sure enough, I watched Chase tackle one of the men to the ground through the back door, while the other watched.
The man under Chase had given up, but there was something about the other one.
He was sweaty and shaking furiously. Also, he was about a foot taller than the first guy.
I didn't even want to know why he was acting like that.
So, I ran up behind him, figuring I'd have to go low to take him down by myself.
As I did it, I saw him reach into the front pocket of his hoodie. My entire world blended into slow-motion.
"Watch out!", we both yelled at the same time, followed by the loudest BANG I'd ever heard right next to my ear.
I bit his leg, but I didn't use enough pressure to break the skin.
My left ear was ringing, but I was fine.
Chase looked horrified for a second, and then switched to unbridled rage.
He jumped faster than I'd ever seen him jump before and landed square on the man's chest.
He captured them both in his net, placing them under arrest.
What the second man had fired was a blank round, meant to scare someone off from the noise alone.
However, it served as the only time a handgun had been discharged by a person in the presence of a PAW Patrol member.
Further investigation found that these two had an insider at a clothing factory in another city, where they would send cheap clothes in unmarked boxes that could then be marked up and sold as high-quality.
We'd shut them down before it could begin, and all of the people involved were held accountable for their crimes.
As scary as it was, I didn't regret what I'd done. Plus, I wasn't hurt and neither was Chase, so I counted it as a victory.
I even had the idea to go for frozen yogurt afterwards to take his mind off of things.
Chase didn't care about any of that.
All he knew was that, in that moment, he thought a bullet had come close to hitting me.
I could tell he was upset, not with me for leaping into action like that, but he was mad at himself for what could have happened.
"Chase, it's alright. I'm okay, look at me!", I remember begging while I tugged his ear.
"Yeah, I know. I'm looking", he said.
But he looked so sad and ashamed, no matter how much he tried to play it off.
The "silica incident" was enough to keep Chase freaked out and unsettled for a whole week and even kept it a secret from Ryder (who ended up finding out about it anyway because of the news).
From then on, Ryder made it a point for all of us to have access to the resources necessary to check on our mental health.
Technically, a PAW Patrol member could put down their pup-tags and walk away whenever they felt they needed to, but none of us ever did.
All of our gear was soon fitted with bulletproof/shielded components.
The local human police officers commended the two of us for our efforts that day.
Still, Chase promised he'd never put me in that position again, but that meant we'd have to stop riding together. We tried to keep sharing vehicles to an absolute minimum as-was, out of safety.
In the end, Chase said I was twenty times braver than he was on that day, a title I declined out of respect to him.
The summer after the "silica incident", however, would prove to be one that never got a shiny resolution. Time just passed by.
I hated that this had to be my last memory, as all of the others held something I could take pride in. This was different.
Adventure Bay was having a summer festival.
Booths, games, music, extravagant street food that you could only find in that kind of setting.
Usually, we would all go to something like this together in one giant group, but Ryder was sick at the time.
We had all attended things like it in the past- well, all except me. It wasn't a big deal to the others.
If I recalled correctly, a few- like Zuma and Rubble- planned to drop by for a while and leave.
Others, like Everest and Jake, were only coming to see certain performances.
I hadn't heard what Skye was planning to do.
I just assumed she was going with someone, possibly Chase.
Those two naturally paired off with one another every now and then, so I didn't want to ask.
At the time I was, once again, returning from a repair job that ended up taking twice as long as I'd planned.
I was filthy, covered with motor oil from a vintage car that slipped from its makeshift lift in a car-enthusiast's garage.
When I pulled into my space at the lookout however, a turned to see Skye trying to hide how dejected she was.
"Hey, Skye, what's the matter?", I asked as I hopped off of my truck.
"Oh, hi Rocky. It's…nothing, just...don't worry about it", she said, "Um, what have you been up to today? Something...paws-on by the look of it."
"Oh yeah", I laughed, "It's just oil, I think. Some car repairs I wasn't planning on doing today."
She giggled and smiled, but I could still tell something was up.
"So, is everything okay?", I asked.
"Yeah, everything's fine, it's just something silly. Don't worry, I'm fine", she said.
Maybe it was the exhaustion of the day mixing with my own desire to bypass addressing something wrong that birthed some courage in me.
I decided that I was going to act a bit out of my character.
"Were you…. still planning on going to the festival?", I asked.
"Well, I was thinking about it. Ryder said he's feeling better- or at least better enough to not need anyone to stay. Plus, I think Katie might be over soon to check on him anyway, you know how she is", Skye said with a smile.
I got the suspicion that whatever she was upset about had nothing to do with Ryder being sick.
"But, I don't know….", she continued.
"Well… if you wanted to, I could go with you", I said.
She looked surprised, but not averse to the idea.
"You know, so you don't have to go alone", I added.
Skye smiled again, this time her full, confident smile.
"You know what?", she said as she tucked her pup-pad away, "I would really like that!"
I laughed- I guess out of nerves, but I was also happy to see her happy.
"Alright then, sounds good", I said, proceeding to stand in place like an idiot.
"You, um, should probably wash up first though", she said with a laugh.
"Oh, yeah. That would make sense! Sorry, I'll do that now, so we aren't late!", I said and hurried inside.
I took probably the fastest, yet most thorough bath in my life, and emerged about twenty minutes later.
The sun was low, but still had about an hour before it would actually start to set.
I walked back outside, probably more nervous than I'd ever been to be around her.
I mean, Skye was always around, she just also happened to be the only girl pup on the team until Everest joined.
Since Skye was six months older than me, there was an odd dynamic between us. She was more of a sister figure to Zuma and Rubble. But for her and me, I just didn't know.
To top it off, I hadn't told her where to meet me or anything, so I began to panic.
"Hey!", she shouted from the end of the lookout drive, "Lets walk instead of drive, alright? Makes for better conversation."
"Oh, okay! Here I come!", I shouted.
I quickly caught up and we walked. The festival wasn't far. It took up about three blocks, plus the concert grounds in a large swath of greenspace.
Ever energetic, she hopped up and down, telling me how she'd actually never been to a festival for its entire duration. Neither had I.
By the time we'd gotten there, we experienced the sensory overload of the most enjoyable degree.
This wasn't a county fair vibe by any means. I had heard from some Adventure Bay residents who had grown up in Japan say that it reminded them of their festivals at home.
In all honesty, nowhere in my life had I ever seen steamed buns next to Mango Lhassi next to a twelve-flavor assortment of fried Oreos. And those were just the first three booths we saw.
Skye nudged me and said, "Rocky! Have you ever tried that?"
"Chicago-style pizza, never", I said.
Her eyes went wide in shock, and she led me to the booth.
Since everyone recognized us, most of the food was free.
"Hang on, let me grab the dog-friendly version for ya!", said the vendor before disappearing to the space behind the booth.
"Before you ask, the cheese is underneath the sauce!", Skye said.
"Underneath the sauce?", I said, probably sounding more put off than I ought to have.
"Just you wait. This right here is going to blow you away" said the vendor, who soon brought out my steaming red slice of heaven.
Even from my dreamy, third-person perspective, I could still FEEL that first bite. It was everything I thought it would be and more.
My eyes went wide.
Skye laughed, "I can see it all over your face, life-changing, isn't it?
I couldn't even speak, I just took another bite, then another.
"Hey! Hang on there. I haven't had any yet!", she said.
Instead of outright telling me to stop and waiting for her own piece, she leaned in with her eyes closed and bit from "her half" of the piece that I was still biting.
For that split second our mouths were...….very close.
She leaned back, a trail of cheese following back from the pizza in my paw to her mouth.
"Mmmmmmm, that's good stuff", she smiled and opened her eyes.
I must have been blushing.
"Wow, is your half really that hot?", she giggled.
"Oh, yeah- yeah it is- I mean. Sorry, I kinda ate more than my share huh?", I managed to get out without fumbling over too many of my words.
"It's fine, I'm just happy you liked it. I hyped it up a lot and I didn't want you to not like it-then I'd look kind of dumb", she said somewhat bashfully.
"No way. This is something I'm going to need in my life from here on out", I laughed.
The vendor shot me a look of knowing approval- as if to say, "You may not have known you were on a date before, but you do now".
"Sooo, you'd say you trust my food recommendations?", she asked smugly.
I chuckled, "Yes I trust you, Skye."
She then proceeded to lead me to another booth, then another, then another.
And once we'd eaten what felt like something from every country on Earth, we started playing the games.
Ring tosses, goblet tosses, rock climbing, darts, giant Jenga, et cetera.
Once we managed to win a prize, however, we realized that neither one of us had space for it and then gave it away to the first kid we saw.
Hours flew by, and it wasn't long before the two of us had gone from a spontaneous get-together to having the time of our lives.
Once we'd blessed enough strangers with goldfish and oversized stuffed animals, we ended up finding a two-person versus game called carpetball.
It was played on a long rectangular table covered in carpet that had a dividing chalk line in the middle and trenches at the ends. Each person sets out five billiard (pool) balls in any orientation so long as it's on your side, and then take turns rolling the cue ball down the length of the table to knock your opponent's balls into the trench in front of them.
This game was dangerously addictive.
My first roll resulted in my paw slipping and the hard ball flying off of the table before even clipping one of the balls on Skye's half.
She giggled at me- all in good fun.
"I can tell by the look on your face that you're not going to let another ball fly off of this thing for the rest of the night!", she said, then proceeded to knock two balls into my trench with one roll.
I was taken aback.
I hadn't gotten the hang of it before Skye had beaten me five games in a row. I tried arranging the 5 balls in every possible manner- lines, zig-zags-it didn't matter.
"Skye, that's criminal! There's no way that you haven't played this before", I said in disbelief after another defeat.
"I promise you, I had no clue this game even existed before today", she laughed hysterically before falling over, "It's a newfound talent!"
"Wow, does the term 'win with grace' mean anything to you?", I sneered.
"Okay, well next we can play a game you like", she said wiping a tear from her eye as she got herself together.
As competitive as I was, I didn't really mind losing to Skye. But, I also couldn't say that I wasn't a bit bothered at not winning at all.
So, I found a tetherball poll and proceeded to go on my own six-game winning streak.
As much fun as she was having, by the end of game five she had given up.
"You did this on purpose because you know I'm short", she protested as she was catching her breath.
"That's not true", I laughed, "you invited me to choose so I picked a game I know we could both play."
"You're smirking- I see you smirking", she said with her eyes narrowed.
"I promise I'm not!", I said, still giggling.
I guess that didn't help my credibility because, as we started to walk, Skye came close to me and poked me in the ribs.
I looked at her and poked her back.
This escalated to us chasing one another around other festivalgoers, as if we were playing at the lookout.
Eventually she managed to hop onto my back.
"Aaaaah", I fake screamed, as she non-maliciously bonked me on the head.
Shortly thereafter, I stopped running. We were both pretty tired, which is likely why Skye never got off of my back.
She sighed and just held onto me. I was definitely blushing then.
When the sun went down, they lit the bonfires and the performances started.
We found a spot towards the back of the greenspace.
"You don't mind if I stay on your back, do you?", she'd asked,
"No, not at all", I said, though I was starting to feel a bit of a strain- I'm not as sturdy as Rubble or Chase.
The music ranged from classics that everyone knew to songs that neither one of us particularly enjoyed but it all sounded just a bit better than usual that night.
After about ten songs Skye said, "Okay, let's go", and hopped off my back.
"Oh, where are we going? Back to the lookout?, I asked.
"No, not yet. Follow me", she said.
I followed her back to where the bonfires were, a block from the performance grounds, where the majority of people had left to go do other things.
We sat at the fire at the very end of the row, furthest from everyone, and started talking.
"I just wanted to find someplace we could talk, without a ton of people around. Debrief, I guess you could call it", she said.
"Yeah, I get it. It's nice to just sit after doing all that walking", I said, "Plus, my back was getting a little tired."
"What? Why didn't you say anything?", she said.
"Well, you know. I didn't really mind it…", I said, instantly concerned that I sounded weird.
She giggled, her smile unlike anything I'd seen from her before.
It wasn't like we were forced to go together; we just organically enjoyed each other's company. It was one of the most joyfully surreal nights of my life.
I was having so much fun, I had actually dreaded the idea of running into the other pups and having the night turn into yet another group thing. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but I didn't want things to end too early that night.
And so, we kept talking as the night went on.
I wanted to prove to her that I was more than just the pup who fixes things I didn't break, and I became comfortable enough to say as much.
She didn't mind my random historical facts.
I didn't mind the face she'd make while trying to hold back her excitement and not backflip every time she saw a new thing.
She didn't mind my refusal to go in the dunk tank.
I didn't mind her refusal to go in the hot air balloon. (It was attached to the ground by a thick cable hooked to a huge winch, but still).
"I'm not getting in any flying thing that doesn't have an engine", she'd said.
I laughed. It was nice to have someone else who was comfortable sharing a line they didn't want to cross.
"I've never seen such a diverse food selection at any of these festivals, you picked a good one to go to for sure", she said at one point as the two of us sat near the fire.
She sighed, "When's the last time we've spent time like this, Rocky? I mean, really spent time together?"
"I guess…Tonight's really been the first time since… ever", I said turning to meet her gaze and then turning back to the fire.
"I can tell you've been a little nervous, I feel bad. You offered to come with me, and I ended up maybe making you do too much outside of your comfort zone", she said.
I turned to her, "Oh, no. It's not that at all. I actually had a really, REALLY fun time with you. I just wanted to make sure….that you were doing alright."
Then it got quiet. I once again started internally freaking out about revisiting her being sad.
"It's just….", she started, "I don't get many chances to be in charge of things."
I turned to her again.
"Like, leading missions and stuff?", I asked.
"Yeah. I had a lot of hopes for the air patrol too, you know. Since I'm kind of the expert when it comes to flying, I was really wanting to teach you all the ropes. Ryder did ask for my input when he made my air patrol pup-pack. I just…. didn't realize it would make me so fast that I'd pretty much leave the rest of you behind", she said, disappointment in her voice.
I understood what she meant. It's admittedly hard to give genuine orders when you're either in a helicopter and your team is on the ground, or when your team is traveling at 1/16th your speed in the air.
Yet, her abilities in the air were so special, we'd probably be better off listening to her.
"As much fun as it is to fly, I just don't get to be as paws-on as you are. And the other's too. I'm just the birds-eye view most days, and when I'm not fighting off eagles I'm usually just- watching everything."
"Yeah…I know what you mean", I said.
"Ugh, I'm ranting. What I'm trying to say is- Thanks for letting me kinda lead you around today", she said with her trademark smile.
"You're welcome, I don't mind. You're obviously the expert in the festival-going category", I said, "And, besides. Not trying to flatter you to death, but…I think you'd make a great leader", I said.
She paused again, and this time she blushed a little, "That's very sweet of you to say."
Instead of going with my gut-instinct of saying something fast to break the silence, I just decided to let the moment stay what it was.
The bonfire crackled as it died down and we watched the hot-air balloon slowly rise over the festival again.
I laughed, "You know, speaking of birds-eye-views, I could probably point out a lot more historical buildings if we went up in that thing."
"Quiet you! I already told you that's not going to happen", she said playfully then added, "You could just take me on the ground though, right?
"Oh, yeah… Of course, I could- but I don't know. You probably won't want to. It's a little boring. I mean, I think it's interesting but, there's other places to go too", I stammered.
I could have sworn she'd scooted closer to me when I wasn't looking.
For whatever reason, in that moment, I thought about Chase. I didn't want to ask her why she'd looked so sad earlier and possibly ruin a great night.
Skye and Chase were never an official 'thing'- sometimes you would see them together, hear the way they talked, and just assume that they were 'involved' in some way. But other times it wasn't nearly as clear.
It seemed like they went on the most missions together, and Chase had a sort of special protectiveness when it came to Skye. He'd appear at his most vulnerable whenever she was in danger but would then quickly gather himself back into his determined leader persona. She would almost always notice and say something.
(There was also that one weird time I caught Chase wearing Skye's swimming cap, but who knows how that happened)
For any Adventure Bay citizens who didn't know us very well, it made sense for the 'girl pup' to be with the 'leader pup'.
We all admired Chase as the lead pup, but it was hard to see just how deep the admiration went regards to each of us.
"Rocky", she said after another period of quiet, "Can I ask you something kind of personal?"
My heart skipped a beat as to what that might entail.
"Uh huh", I said, trying not to sound nervous.
"Why are you so afraid of water?", she asked cautiously.
At first I didn't say anything and looked back into the fire.
"I-I get that, well- if something happened and you don't want to say, it's fine. But it's just one of the things I've always wondered about you", she said.
I sighed, "I actually don't exactly know why it's water. It's never really stemmed from one traumatic event, it's just…. once I came here, I started hating the feeling of being wet. It's almost…...suffocating."
"Oh", she said, "I'm sorry about that, you don't have to say any more."
"It's okay", I said.
Another stretch of silence came between us, but Skye didn't let it drag too long.
"Well…. While we're telling each other things that we usually don't talk about, Ryder actually wasn't the one who named me Skye", she said.
"Woah, really?", I asked, surprised.
"Yeah, it was actually a previous owner", Skye said.
"Wow….Well- Ryder didn't name me either, I got mine from a previous owner too", I said.
"That's crazy, I- I'm sorry, I feel like I'm asking these deep things out of nowhere. I don't know what's gotten into me", she said.
"It's-"
It seemed that we'd both forgotten about the nightcap that would mark the end of the festival.
A massive cascade of fireworks lit up the sky-every color in vibrant display with booms so loud that you felt them deep in your chest.
"Wow", Skye said, almost too quiet to hear.
Both of us stood up in unison, almost as if we wanted to be as close to the sky as possible.
We sat there next to each other for seven minutes until the fireworks reached their finale, and my ear twitched.
I could hear her turn towards me, as I turned too.
Something about that moment made me unsure of what to do next.
Maybe it was how fast everything was happening.
Maybe I was afraid about what the others might think.
Were you even supposed to kiss on the first "date"?
All I knew was, I couldn't bring myself to face her then, so I put my head down and cleared my throat.
The fireworks ended, and the sky went dark.
The people cheered.
"That, um… sure was something, huh?", I said.
"y-yeah…yeah it was", she said.
"I, uh. Guess we should head back", I said sheepishly.
"Yeah", she smiled, "I guess so."
In the conversation during the walk back home, I lost the ability to read her voice. I felt so embarrassed.
Skye wondered aloud as to why they never held festivals like this in the fall, how she thought we should ask Ryder if we could have a carpetball table for the lookout so we could all play, how she got caught up in all our fun and forgot to bring samples back for the others; everything she said from that point onwards just sounded like it held a hint of disappointment.
Whether she really was disappointed or not, I just couldn't tell.
Any hopes of redeeming myself died when the rest of the pups (Everest included) ran to meet us at the edge of the lookout driveway.
The typical question onslaught ensued.
"Oh, hey guys, did you two have a good time?", Zuma inquired.
"Did you bring back anything yummy!?", Rubble asked.
"Those fireworks were amazing, huh? I only got scared a little bit- sorta", said Marshall.
"Where did you two go? I came for a bit, but I guess we never crossed paths", Everest said.
"I was wondering where you both were, I didn't realize you were staying until the very end", Chase said with a smile.
"Well,", Skye turned to me "Um, well, we weren't planning on it, but we ended up having a really fun time", she said, trying to address as many remarks as possible.
"Yeah! We just kind of went and the next thing we knew, it was nighttime, I guess", I agreed.
We both laughed and seamlessly merged into the group's conversation.
I never got to tell Skye how much I appreciated our night together; one last 'thank you' to her.
Instead, Everest whisked her away after a few minutes to talk about something I assumed she only wanted another girl to hear (this wasn't uncommon by any means).
I silently felt like I was going to fall apart at the seams. I imagined Skye telling Everest about how disappointing our 'date' had been and agreeing to never give me another chance.
Shortly thereafter, us remaining guys talked about various things- the festival, how Ryder was feeling, Marshall fretting if Everest was talking about him and turning as red as a tomato- before we all had our fill of laughs and called it a night.
Closing my pup-house door that night was just as painful to relive as it had actually felt the first time.
If I could go back to the exact moment Skye bit into that piece of pizza, I would have done things differently.
I never really stopped feeling that way.
After a while, I just stopped thinking about it and told myself that Skye was probably doing the same- but deep down hoping she wasn't.
Those moments of us all together reminded me of something; how much fun we all had as one big family.
Whether we were helping mow people's lawns on friendship day, chasing Alex down the street in a runaway go-kart, or going on a spontaneous grocery run on Ryder's behalf because we wanted him to have one less thing to worry about for the week.
All of us just….belonged with each other.
That festival-day's respite was a short-lived one- as I specifically remember the day after that being filled with rescues that involved All-Paws-on-deck.
That precious shared experience between Skye and I was present, but silent.
But from sunrise to sunset- the PAW Patrol spent the entire day together. Then the next one, and then the next…
Marshall, Rubble, Chase, Everest, Zuma, Skye.
As time started to move on, though, I started not seeing myself in the PAW Patrol picture.
Almost as if I were capturing their story, which I no longer played a part in.
But somehow…. I knew, they remembered all of those times along with me.
Every single one.
As I fell deep into sleep, I told myself that the time would come to make new memories.
But first, I would have to make it back home.
And to make it back home, I would first have to leave it.
BIG Author's NOTE: I'm sorry, I am aware that this chapter is big- but I had lots to get through that I didn't want to rush or turn into a launch day flashback. Hope you don't mind.
I'm so hyped that we've finally come to such a major threshold in the story- only one way to go from here!
Just a heads-up, dear readers, the perspectives in this next chapter are going to shift around a bit- It's special.
We may shift to something third person omniscient-like and then snap back to Rocky's POV. I wanted to include some things that Rocky would have no way of knowing-kind of like a movie scene- and then bring things back.
But don't fret- I'll try to clearly mark which POV we're in when it changes (I won't do it at nauseum, I promise).
Thank you for reading as always, Until next time!
- HM
P.S.- I know it was this past Tuesday, but HAPPY 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY. Thank you all so much for reading, sharing your support, and teaching me things!