The Wounds We Heal

Chapter five: Deep Trouble!

Chase panted, with the hobbling jog of a gait he'd set for himself, in pursuit of his little owl friend. But was soon halted by a whistling noise that he strangely recognized, but couldn't quite place. And as a result, those pursuing him came up short right into him and he gave them an odd look when looking back on them.

   "Oof! Chase? Why'd you stop?" Rubble asked, still lying flat on the ground behind the pile of pups.

   "I heard something." He answered, shifting himself up to walk forward a couple paces and look around attentively.

   Suddenly the sound came again and a certain Dalmatian recognized it near immediately. 

   "Fuzzy!" The gosling came flapping from seemingly nowhere and came up to them right away, arriving at the Dalmatian in particular as they unstacked themselves. Fuzzy, as well as Hootie had noticeably grown, but still remained small compared to what their adult selves would measure up to. Yet still the growth they beheld, was enough to notice.

   "Wow, look at you!" Marshall beamed, observing the gosling nuzzling his head against him. "You've gotten bigger since we last saw you!"

   Fuzzy whistled and honked, and flapped his wings expressively.

   "Awww. You guys have more feathered friends?" Snowflake commented, as she watched Fuzzy

   Skye heard some clicking and sniffing advance to her left.

   "Aww!!" She gushed. "Bunnies!!" The small creatures hopped further out from their hiding spot under the brush of some nearby bushes.

   "Haha! Looks like we got some furry friends here too!" Marshall chuckled, and those among him laughed with him.

   "How many animal friends do you pups HAVE? I don't think I've met them all before," Snowflake commented.

   "Simple answer?.." Marshall began, when another noise interrupted him to earn their gaze.

   "A lot." He finished with a bit of a flat tone.

   Chattering squirrels scampered and chirping birds flapped about the trees overhead. Some beavers and a deer went wandering by; even stopping a moment to look at them.. and actually decided to stick around for a short while before heading their way again.

   "Man, we sure are popular today." Rubble commented.

   "Ah-choo! *sniff* In more ways than one!" Chase sniffled, shifting away from a patch of blooming white daisies.

   "You ok, dude?" Zuma wondered, still smiling.

   "I'll be ok." Chase shrugged lightly. "As long as I stay away from all these flowers."

   "Well.. now what'do we do?" Chester wondered. And a series of various animal noises sounded and he glanced around wondering what the commotion was about.

   Hootie floated down and hopped on Chase's head, earning the pup's glance. Then a golden feather dropped on his nose for him to sneeze at.

   "*sniffles* hey! Where's Fuzzy?" Chase realized, noting that the feather that'd just made him sneeze was one very likely to be one from the gosling in question. Then the rest of the pups glanced around.

   "He was just here." Marshall stated, searching the area carefully. "Fuzzy?!"

   "There's no sign of him, anywhere." Rocky said.

   "Where did he go?" Marshall thought aloud, then after a moment he stopped and turned his gaze on Chase, the others doing the same.

   "Don't look at me." The German Shepherd protested. "I don't know where he went."