Chapter thirty-nine: How Things Appear
Ned walked to the elevator, but saw nobody. He looked around more as he carefully inspected possible hiding spots.
"Please, pups? Let's have fun!" Ned suggested as he looked, then he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Hiya," Skyler waved sweetly. "Oh and by the way.."
Tiny and Skye appeared from behind him and grabbed the bottom edge of the parachute, while Rocky and Kylie coordinated with each other to trip Ned up sending him forward. So that Rayla and Marshall could jump in from the other direction and grab the top edge of the parachute on their way by, pulling it over the husky and helped Rocky pull it tight to tie it up to form a bag.
"It is not.. Fun!" The Border Collie exclaimed in their victory.
"What?- Ah! What are- Hey! I can't see!" Ned exclaimed, as he was soon bagged under the parachute.
"Nice job, guys!" Brian complimented as he and Melody joined them, sitting next to their parachute bagged brother.
"Now we can all run away and see how long it takes him to get out all on his own." Tiny decided. "Maybe it'll teach him a lesson or two."
"We're not gonna just leave him high and dry." Rayla told him. "We'll keep an eye on him, but we'll still let him try and figure it out on his own."
Ned flailed about under the parachute as he tried his best to get out. Brian and Melody watched with amusement before turning back to the pups.
"We have something we could do," Melody said kindly.
"What?" Marshall wondered, beginning to wonder if he really wanted to know.
"We can wrap up to stay warm," Melody told him.
"It was my idea! It's actually fun and comfy on a cold day or night!" Ned added as he tried to get out of the tied up parachute.
"No, 'comfy' would be laying on a pillow with a blanket laid neatly over you drinking warm milk and enjoying a hot meal." Skyler explained honestly.
"Ooooo! That sounds lovely!" Melody agreed, her face beaming with excitement.
"Ummm. Have any of you ever tried to wrap yourselves up in a blanket to stay warm? Just to stay cozy?" Brian asked, as he watched Ned keep flailing about under the parachute. The ghostly pup was actually starting to loosen the parachute a little.
"Yes, but with my head out so I can see stuff," the border collie ranted. "Not whatever you do, which is wear it like a hat that's longer than you are tall."
"Don't worry, you'll see. Plus, it's a blanket, not a hat. Or parachute if you're Ned," Brian complimented as Ned kept trying to get out of the big, rainbow parachute.
"No it's not!" Skyler exclaimed, leaping with her paws out in a somewhat comedic outburst. "You can't see a thing and a parachute's material is made to be thin and light to catch and hold air to keep someone or something from plummeting to their death.. it's not warm and not cozy.. that'd be the coldest 'warm' blanket ever!"
"Speak for yourself. It's actually quite warm in here.." Ned said as he stopped struggling under the parachute. The husky pup stood on all fours looking like a rainbow parachute ghost. He then walked towards the PUP Pals. "Anyone wanna hug?"
"No!" Many voices said.
"Yes, I'm sure it is warm in there right now.." Skyler confirmed in a light almost positive tone. "And do you know why? It's because of this little thing called kinetic energy! You've been trying to get out of that thing for the last ten minutes.. And you haven't stopped moving. And moving around so much in an enclosed space of material will generate heat just from trying to get out so.. Yeah.."
"Which is code for.. the material is not warm.. You are." Tiny translated bluntly.
"Okay. Thanks for the science lesson. But hugs can help make you happy! Come on, please?.." Ned responded as the parachute covered husky walked towards his friends, ghostly arms spread out. "Maybe the PAW Patrol wants a hug?"
"Ehhh, we're good." Skye and Zuma replied eerily, trying not to sound too anxious in saying no.
"It still proves my point." Skyler asserted. "Parachute material is not warm.."
"Ok, we get it, Sky." Rayla sighed in exasperation. "Can we move on now?"
"Well it is a fun activity. And you can either be a ghost or burrito pup. Honest," Ned explained, as the rainbow parachute ghost started to blindingly walk towards Zuma and Skye.
The chocolate lab and cockapoo split ways as the fumbling husky felt his way around.
"Yeah,.. how about neither?" Skyler suggested. "Like what you must, but not everyone else does."
"Yeah,.. Sorry Ned, not a fan." Marshall admitted, hoping they weren't coming across too mean.
The parachute-covered husky tilted his head.
"You pups don't like hugs?"
"We do, just.. not like that." Rocky replied, taking care with his words so as not to give the wrong impression.
"Yeah the occasional hug is ok, but.. a normal one not.. a material straightjacket." Skyler decided to say.
"I'm not giving you a straightjacket. Just a hug and then letting go," the parachute covered husky replied.
"Pfff, no it's not!" Skyler gasped. "It's usually been a hug and hold on till your're wrapped up and trapped so we can have ghostly fun that no one else wants but you!"
"Ok Sky, you can calm down now." Rayla soothed, seeing the heavily exaggerated breathing of the border collie from her earlier rant.
"Well not this time," Ned said as he carefully struggled under the parachute. Eventually he was finally able to get out.
"Yeah, yeah, the pup who cried wolf." Skyler deadpanned with a sigh. "Oh, sorry, CiCi."
"None taken." CiCi shrugged in a neutral way.
"But she's right," she followed up, turning to Ned. "You say you're not gonna and then you do,.. too many times in fact. And a few of those times have been to Chase, who likes it even less than we do,.. and continues to like it less and less every time. I don't think you'll ever get him to like it, and we're a close second."
"Wolf?! Where?!" Ned and Melody exclaimed before looking around nervously.
"I won't if I don't have the parachute near me. See?" Ned replied as he stepped forward and away from the parachute.
"Yeah, I've heard that one before too." Skyler returned dubiously. "And anyway I'm good. I'm all hugged out at the moment.. In general, not just in regards to our conversation."
"Ok so.. can we move on and do something to keep ourselves busy now?" CiCi spoke up again. "I'm bored."
"Fair plan, what did you have in mind?" Rayla wondered.
"Oh I don't know, I'm not the brains of the outfit," the wolfie replied, and everyone else groaned.
"Have you enjoyed the snow yet?" Frank suggested thoughtfully. "There's plenty of it out there."
"Only about a thousand times." Kylie sighed. "Not a lot of different things you can do in snow other than sled and board and skate and slide and snow angel and jump and roll and.. And.. maybe that's it actually.."
"How about dig?" Frank shrugged.
"Didn't we already try that too?" Tiny asked, trying to recall.
"Yes. One or two times I think," Brian said as he thought for a moment.
"Did you make tunnel systems in it?" the old man asked.
"I don't think we have,.." Marshall supposed, looking among those with him.
"No. If we dug tunnels from here to any nearby town, we'd be gone for hours!" Brian answered matter-of-factly.
"I'm not sure he means we go that far." Rayla mentioned. "But it'd sure keep our cold savvy pups busy for a while."
"Cold and savvy?! Who you calling cold and savvy?!" Melody and Ned exclaimed simultaneously in shock.
"You guys do realize that's meant to be a compliment, right?" CiCi mentioned.
"Do you even know what savvy means?" Tiny wondered, coming up a little closer to them, but still kept a bit of distance between him and them.
"Cash?" Brian guessed.
"Crazy?- hey! We're not crazy!" Ned said before feeling slightly offended.
"Easy going? But cold? None of us are.. Psychotic! We haven't lost our minds!" Melody commented with confidence.
"No!" Rayla, CiCi, and Tiny declined together.
"Ok, that would be a no,.." Tiny mentioned, somewhat to himself but loud enough for some among them besides the huskies to hear.
"Savvy means to be good at something.." Kylie explained, slowly stepping toward them. "'You ever heard that term 'tech-savvy'? It means you're good at understanding technology."
"Like Ryder, Ryder's good with technology." Skyler remarked, then shrugged her paws upwards as she continued. "Hence the PAW Patrol, and this whole high-tech place."
"And more of it's kind.." Rayla agreed. "So by saying you're cold savvy it means you're good at, or more accustomed to, handling the cold."
All three huskies eyes widened with the definition of the word.
"Ooooohhhh.." they all said at the same time.
And with this realization, Skyler shrugged her paws out as if to validate their understanding in a rather exasperated manner.
"Ya see? Now what do you say about that?" the border replied.
"Digging in the snow sounds fun! As long as it's not super cold.." Melody commented.
"Or we could stay warm, if you know what I mean.." Ned suggested as he playfully elbowed Brian.
"Yes, I know bro," Brian replied with a grin.
"Ick! These guys." Skyler sighed, having just a small inkling as to what that meant.
"What? We're not giving you something gross!" Brian commented.
"Oh, what about hot cocoa?" Ned suggested.
"Maybe," Melody said unsure.
"Eww gross, that's an even worse idea!" Skyler gasped. "And besides I thought we can't have that!"
"We can't," Marshall confirmed. "But we can have warm milk after we play in the snow for a bit, let's go."
"Ok.. but no funny business you guys.." CiCi decided. "I'll be watching.."
"Hey, that's Rayla's job!" Skyler protested.
"Well it's my turn to be vigilant." The wolfie replied definitively. "She's been too busy babysitting Chase lately.. She needs a break."
"Thank you, soldier," the golden lab voiced appreciatively. "But I got this.. and besides Ryder says he's cleared so I'm trusting that. And he really hasn't given us a reason to question that. After all, it'd be pretty difficult to hide severe symptoms of a concussion, even for him."
"And if he was gonna exhibit severe symptoms of a concussion, he'd have surely done it by now." Marshall clarified. "It's been over a week. And even with the set back of his reckless Rubble rescue.. he still didn't give any indicators of something being terribly wrong. No evidence of numbness, extreme migraines, coordination deterioration, confusion, black outs, slurred speech, nausea, vomiting, excessive mood swings or personality changes and no seizures. He's been having a rough go but not to the point of concern in that way,.."
"Yeah, but part of it has been Chester getting on his nerves, Rayla feeling too controlling in his opinion and Ned's driving joyride certainly didn't help, on top of all his material antics and hugs attempts." Tiny listed off kind of bluntly.
"Sorry dude," he added, leaning his gaze over to the husky.
"No problem. Thanks for noticing my contributions for helping Chase. Wait, material antics?" Ned complimented with a smirk before suddenly getting a little confused.
"Um, when you trap him in materials like parachutes and sheets even though you know he doesn't like it?" Skyler mentioned a bit bluntly. "And most of your attempts to 'help' him have failed miserably, and unfortunately had the opposite effect."
"What would we do in the snow? Dig to the basement of The Lookout? I don't think that would work!" Melody joked.
"We could make a moat, but snow is water, so there's no need," Brian added.
"No cause the ground is frozen, it's too hard to dig into, but we can dig in the snow and make tunnels like Mr. Prescott said." Tiny clarified.
"True, but I mean I have given him massages and music to listen to. That helped a little," Ned responded.
"Yes, but none of those things actually worked to relax him. They all just annoyed him." CiCi pointed out.
"Tunnels it is!" Melody and Brian said together, happily. Then with the lead of the two huskies, the pups all plunged outside for the start of their chilly fun..
XXXX
"O..kay? So then what?" Chase wondered, feeling like the story kind of dropped off a cliff at that moment.
"Well we worked on making snow tunnels while you were gone." Skye explained.
Chase blinked a double take.
"But.. we found you guys in here?" he said, reminding them that they were inside.
"Because we took a break to warm up," Rocky explained. "Want some warm milk?"
"Sure, I'm game." Chester shrugged, walking forward. Chase just watched him go like he was missing something that everyone else understood.
"Wha- so that's it?" Chase wondered further. "You made tunnels in the snow and then you came inside to drink warm milk? How long did you guys sit around wondering where we were?"
"A while. Which leads to the last part of the story," Brian added.
"We got inside and drank milk, then decided to relax.." Melody continued.
Heyo! What's up you guys! So this memory was kinda a more low key moment in our story but.. Can't always und on high. But don't worry the next wave shall be rising again soon. So stay tuned and happy reading! Thx!