This is the continuation of the growing story of Marshall's sister Cinder and her new Mate Smudge. If you have not read the first two books please take the time to do so. Many of the characters are introduced as well as the initial plot of this story. New friendships and more are in store.
Major Shout Out and Thanks to Foxfire69 for the use of many of his OC's and doing a lot of editing as well basically co-writing a lot of the interaction. His stories are amazing and inspired this series.
As dawn broke across the resort, two spotted black and white pups lay tangled together in an embrace neither seemed to be willing to break. The larger of the two held the smaller, lithe, dalmatian. His eyes fluttered open as light began pouring through the large windows that showed Denali in all its glory, beautifully bathed in the morning sun. He looked down upon the head of his new mate.
'My mate, I can't believe she's my mate,' thought Smudge joyfully. He snuggled into her, pulling her closer.
"I adore this," Cinder softly purred, "I loved it before, but now it's even better."
"Good Morning my beautiful mate," said Smudge. "I trust you slept well."
"Better than I have in my whole life," said Cinder softly.
"Not that I'm not completely content to stay here forever," said Smudge, kissing the top of her head. "But should we make an effort to go see what the others are up to this morning?"
"I suppose we should before someone comes to get us," Cinder softly giggled.
Almost on cue, a thought interrupted, 'are you moving yet?'
'Nope, totally busy,' Cinder mentally laughed.
'Liar,' Marshall laughed back. 'When you two are up and moving, most of us are having breakfast. It's a buffet and Rubble has taken all you can eat as a personal challenge. But Everest is going to smoke him in their usual contest.'
'We'll be down shortly,' Cinder thought back.
"I felt something that wasn't there before" Smudge said, his voice tingling with curiosity.
"It will take time," said Cinder softly, "it may develop or not, neither Marshall or I have ever had anyone fully join our link. I have no idea, but if it comes, it will come with time. You can ask your sister-in-law what she has felt."
"Well, regardless," laughed Smudge, "for some reason I'm starving."
"Now that you say it," laughed Cinder softly, "I am too. Let's go eat breakfast."
A yellow lab woke early, looking over at the other girls still asleep. Rain got up and stretched languidly.
'I think I'll go see what the resort has to offer' thought Rain. She slipped out the door of the room the four were sharing. She walked down to the lobby and then to the gym. She found Chase running on a treadmill. She waved but didn't want to interrupt his rhythm so she continued walking. She saw the pool and thought she saw movement so she decided to go investigate. As she walked out through the doors she noticed a dark form swimming underwater, when it reached the end of the pool it surfaced. The chocolate lab breached the surface and spun to swim back across the surface. Zuma saw her walk up and stopped, treading water for a moment.
"Morning," said Zuma. "Rain, correct?"
"Good morning," replied Rain and nodded, "Zuma, right. I didn't know the pool was heated."
"It's not," laughed Zuma.
"Aren't you freezing?" asked Rain.
"It's not that bad," laughed Zuma. "After you've swam in the Arctic Ocean, anything is warmer."
"How much further you got?" Rain inquired.
"I was just burning off some energy," said Zuma. "I don't like being away from the water too long. Joy of being the water rescue pup, I guess."
"Need to burn off more energy?" laughed Rain. "Because I bet you can't catch me!" With that, she leaped over Zuma and into the pool.
"You're on!" Zuma laughed as he kicked off the wall after her.
Rain was lazily doggy paddling away as Zuma rapidly closed the distance between them. Just as Zuma reached out to tag her, Rain rolled and dove down to the bottom of the pool. Zuma thought he could hear her laughing as she swam away. 'She's better than she let on,' Zuma thought to himself as he swam after the yellow lab.
Before too long, Rain had to surface for air. Sticking just her muzzle out, she quickly exhaled before taking a deep breath and diving back down…straight to where Zuma was waiting to tag her on her nose.
"Darn, you caught me," Rain said playfully when they surfaced. "Now what are you going to do with me?" she added with a flutter of her eyes.
"Make you chase me" Zuma laughed as he dove back under the water, muscles rippling in exertion.
'With pleasure' Rain thought to herself as she followed suit.
Rain quickly realized that Zuma was faster than her, and the rectangular pool was just big enough for him to stay out of reach. 'Time to get creative' she thought to herself. 'I've got an idea…' Rain popped up for a quick breath before diving down towards the center of the pool…
Zuma noticed out of the corner of his eye that Rain was no longer behind him. Slowing down, he quickly scanned the top layer of the pool and found no sign of her. Broaching the surface and treading water, Zuma scanned the pool surface and deck to see if she was playing a trick on him. No sign of her…
Zuma felt a strong forelimb contact his chest and hold on tight as he was forcibly rolled over onto his back. He could see a flash of yellow fur through the water before he felt himself pinned with his back against Rain's chest and his paws were rendered ineffective for swimming.
"Don't worry, I'm a rescue pup here to save you" Rain whispered sultrily in Zuma's ear as her powerful legs propelled them across the pool.
Obediently, Zuma went limp as he let Rain carry out her "rescue" of him. The Yellow Lab soon reached the opposite end of the pool. Expertly, she hoisted herself and Zuma out of the pool without letting his muzzle dip into the water. Zuma closed his eyes and held his breath as Rain rolled him onto his back…
Rain pressed her ear against Zuma's chest. "Oh no, my patient isn't breathing" Rain narrated with mock concern. "Time for rescue breaths…"
Zuma felt his head being held in the proper position as Rain opened his muzzle with her paws, before leaning down and pressing her muzzle against his own. Zuma then felt a huge rush of warm air fill his lungs, almost to the point of exploding, as Rain breathed life into him. As the breath faded, Zuma felt a second life-saving breath pulse into his lungs, making his tail wag. Because his eyes were still closed, he didn't see Rain's mischievous smile…
"Still not breathing on his own, he must have water in his lungs…"
Zuma's eyes and muzzle snapped open as he prepared to debunk that assessment, but all that came out was an unflattering, loud, gag as Rain did a full CPR compression on his chest before collapsing in laughter on top of him.
"Was that necessary?!" Zuma spluttered as he tried to catch his breath. His paw involuntarily went to chest but wrapped around a yellow blockage instead.
"To see the look on your face, absolutely!" Rain giggled before laying her head down on Zuma's chest. Zuma wasn't positive, but he thought he could see steam rising from their bodies.
"Want to grab breakfast?" Rain asked, turning her chestnut brown eyes to look into Zuma's amber eyes.
"Sounds great," Zuma replied.
"Great!" Rain replied before standing up, still over Zuma, and shaking herself dry and stepping over Zuma's head, swishing her tail across his nose.
Zuma sneezed before rolling over, shaking himself dry, and following Rain out of the pool area.
Smudge and Cinder walked into the restaurant and noticed Marshall waving at them.
"Good morning," Marshall said as they walked up.
"Great morning to you two," said Rubble as he walked over to the table carrying a bowl heaped with bacon and sausage.
"Wow," laughed Cinder softly, "you weren't kidding."
"That's only his third bowl," laughed Everest.
"What?" yipped Rubble. "I'm still in my meat phase. I haven't begun the fruit phase yet."
The pups laughed.
"Where are the twins?" Smudge asked Everest.
"Skye offered to watch them this morning so Marshall and I could have a peaceful breakfast," explained Everest.
Cinder turned and noticed Zuma and Rain sitting a few tables away with their heads together talking.
"What are they up to?" asked Smudge.
"They won't shut up about water rescues," laughed Sadie, walking up to the table with Splash and Misty following behind.
"I love water rescues," laughed Splash, "but those two are going to a weird level this morning. If I didn't know better, I'd say they were implying a lot more than water rescues."
"Anything's possible in the Yukon," laughed Everest.
"And you don't know better," added Misty.
They all paused to look over at the two pups.
"Yeah, they were at the pool this morning when I finished my run, there was a lot of splashing involved" said Chase, walking to the table with a heaping bowl of food.
"Oh really," Cinder replied softly.
"Is that all for you?" laughed Sadie.
"No, I'm taking it back to share with Skye," laughed Chase, "Since she's on aunt duty this morning."
The pups all finished their breakfast and began various activities. Chase and Skye were going to go hiking. Rubble and Rocky were going to go see if they could spot any bears. Sadie, Splash, Misty, Cinder, Amethyst, Smudge, and Bruno were going to the spa. Marshall and Everest were taking their puppies out to play. Ryder, Katie, Skipper, Sparks, Ash, Dalstrom, and Lilly were going to go skiing.
As the group was walking to the spa Smudge asked, "did Rain not want to come?"
Sadie and Splash looked at each other and giggled.
"What?" asked Smudge.
"Apparently no one has seen her or Zuma since breakfast," explained Misty softly. "Those two are placing bets that they ran off together somewhere."
"Well you can't help notice those muscles," said Amethyst.
"What!" yelped Smudge.
"What? a girl can look," laughed Amethyst.
The group turned into the spa, the girls laughing at Smudge's reaction to Amethyst's observations.
Earlier *
"So what are you going to do today?" asked Zuma.
"I'm not sure, the girls are going to the spa," explained Rain. "But I'm not really feeling the spa today. What are you doing?"
"I was going to try snowkiting," said Zuma.
"What's that?" asked Rain with a curious cock of her head.
"Kite surfing, but on snow," explained Zuma.
"That sounds fun," said Rain, "mind if I tag along?"
"Not at all," yipped Zuma. "Do you have snow gear?" asked Zuma.
"Not here with me," said Rain.
"I'll take you to the ski shop," said Zuma. "We'll get you set up and rent you a board. I brought mine."
"Do you snowboard often?" asked Rain.
"Well, that's the great part about Adventure Bay," explained Zuma. "You can spend the morning surfing at the beach and the evening on Jake's Mountain snowboarding."
The pair got up and headed toward the ski shop to get Rain set up with gear.
That evening everyone was gathering for dinner. The entire group was coming together so they had reserved a private dining room.
"I want to start by thanking Everest for setting all of this up while still pregnant," said Smudge "Then, even after giving birth, ensuring that my dream of asking Cinder to be my mate came true. On top of that, making it a dream wedding with all of my favorite people and pups present. To Everest!"
"To Everest!" exclaimed all present.
"Hey," exclaimed Marshall, looking around. "Has anyone seen Zuma?"
"We saw him and Rain kite surfing on the snow earlier," said Ryder.
"It's called Snowkiting apparently," said Katie. "I asked one of the guides. It's just catching on here."
"Ok," continued Marshall, "What about now?"
"I haven't seen them since," said Ryder. He opened his pup pad and called. "Zuma? Are you there?"
"Go ahead Ryder dude," said Zuma, his body silhouetted by snow.
"Just checking on you," said Ryder.
"We're good," said Zuma, "We decided to watch the sunset from the mountain. Sorry for not telling you."
"It's ok," said Ryder. "I just wanted to make sure you're ok."
"Sorry Ryder," said Rain, her yellow head popping into the picture from the side, "I talked him into staying out here. Tell Cinder, 'I'm sorry we missed dinner'"
"It's ok Rain," Cinder softly called from nearby. "You two have fun."
"Bet you they never make it back to the room tonight," sniggered Splash.
"No way, not taking that bet" laughed Sadie.
"I don't know," laughed Cinder softly.
Out on the mountain *
The sun had set and the stars began showing up.
"Oh, wow!" said Rain. "We can barely see stars in Heartland. The city light drowns out everything."
"Just wait until it gets darker," said Zuma. He noticed Rain was shivering a little.
"Are you cold?" asked Zuma. "We can head back if you want."
"Absolutely not," giggled Rain. "I'm a little cold, but you can't beat this view. Plus, snow is a great insulator…" She moved over and slid into Zuma's paws.
"That it is," Zuma agreed as he pulled her in close and began rubbing her shoulders and down her back, warming her up.
"Mmmm, I like that," purred Rain.
"Rain, look," said Zuma pointing north.
As Rain turned to see what Zuma was pointing at the sky burst into a dazzling display of green and pink streamers of light.
"Oh my, that's incredible," said Rain, "I've always heard about the Northern Lights. I guess I never really thought I'd get to see them."
"I'm glad we got to share the experience together," said Zuma, tightening his paws around her.
"Me too," said Rain, she turned and looked into Zuma's amber eyes. They both closed their eyes and their lips met. Zuma began stroking Rain's ears and neck. They both lingered on the kiss a moment longer. Zuma slowly pulled away and smiled.
"You're a great kisser," Rain said, somewhat breathless.
"You are also," said Zuma. "I'm so glad you came to the wedding and I got to meet you."
"I wouldn't have missed Cinder's wedding for anything," said Rain. "But the bonus of spending time with you has definitely been the highlight of the trip." The two labs leaned into each other again. The snow melted a little bit beneath them.