Why The Sky Grows Bleak

Ch. 1: Dredging You Up

Why the Sky Grows Bleak

Hey guys, Charisma here for chapter one finally! I'm so excited to finally get this underway, and I hope you all are too. I need to mention this before I start though: G0ldenFang was a huge help in helping me come up with ideas and plot lines. 👏😄 Alright, now......story time!

Chapter 1: Dredging You Up

August. One of the most beautiful months in Western Canada. Clear skies and cloudy skies alike, birds all about, farmers busy more than ever with their crops and animals. Ryder loved this time of year, the smell of the grass and leaves, the wind howling ferociously yet in a seemingly harmless and blissful way, soothing nature into its pre-winter preparations.

The pups enjoyed it too. Ryder thought about how the pups would go out almost everyday to take up a pile of leaves and then catapult themselves right into it, sending a spray of brown and yellow leaves across half the Lookout's yard, carried so far by the wind. He chuckled, remembering Rubble's first driving experience on leafy roads. He had swerved all over the place and had almost even crashed into Mr. Porter's-

Ryder's Pup Pad buzzed, jumping up and down while the Samsung OLED screen displayed an animated version of Farmer Yumi's head, indicating an emergency call. He sighed. He was just getting into his meditation, sitting beneath a maple tree overlooking the Bay. It was rare for him to get an opportunity to relax by himself. He picked up the Pup Pad.

Farmer Yumi appeared on screen, looking perplexed and very anxious. "Hi Farmer Yumi!" Ryder said, cheery as always. Farmer Yumi cut to the chase.

"Ryder! A tree fell on my fence and Bettina's missing! She must've wandered out of her own and into the woods!" She said, looking even more worried hearing it out loud.

"Don't worry Farmer Yumi, no job is too big, no pup is too small!" He shouted, raising a fingerto the sky. He hung up and pulled out the salvaged flip phone keyboard he used as a call button for the pups. He had of course made improvements. The 6 colours, representing the Main 6, glowed radiantly as he pressed the centre button. "PAW Patrol, to the Lookout!" He yelled, and all the pups echoed "Ryder needs us!" in unison. It was a routine thing, they'd done it for a while already. Almost a year now.

Chase sidled into the elevator alongside all the other pups, except......someone was missing. "Where's Marshall?" He asked, looking around at his fellow friends/coworkers. They all shrugged, until they heard trampling and a "WHHOOOOAAAA!!!" before they turned to see the Dalmatian barreling down on them, rolling on a host of tennis balls.

"OOF!" The pups all said as Marshall collided with the team, leaving them in a heap. Marshall's head popped up from the literal doggy pile. "Wow, that was a ball, huh pups?" He said, and everyone giggled as the elevator began to rise.

(I'm sorry, but we're gonna skip the part we all know very well, up to when they enter the slide. 😉)

"Woo hoo!" Chase barked as he jumped onto the slide, all the way into his police cruiser. As he checked the gauges, shifting the truck into Drive, he noticed the seat was uncomfortably cold, so he turned on the heated seat as well. He floored the gas pedal, tires screaming as he flew out of his parking spot, black tire marks darkening the otherwise placid grey pavement.

Next, down came Rocky, yipping and yapping and scratching his ears incessantly. He was afraid to tell anyone, but he had ticks in his ears. That's why he only ever really scratched it on the slide, where no one else would ever look. He fell into his truck, the forks unfolding and the leather seat giving him a cold surprise. He turned the heated seat on. It had been cold the previous day, even rained a little bit, but today it had been better, a solid 19 Degrees Celsius continuing almost the entire day. "Gotta be the tin roof on this thing reflecting all the heat. Gotta find a way to fix that problem or my tail will fall off in the winter." Rocky thought, his tires screeching, albeit not as loudly as Chase's, as he left the Lookout's ring of pup houses.