Could It Be You?

The Hike Attack

Scott woke up again to David's tiny body holding him for dear life. The cutest thing he's ever seen in a while. 

He snuck out of bed carefully, trying not to wake the boy up. He put on his hiking gear and went to go meet Jeff at the hiking location. He had to bring Link too since she hadn't been walked in a while.

Link was in a bad playful mood for some reason. Being more hyper than usual. 

Scott held on tightly to Link's leash as she pulled him along the sidewalk. Jeff was at his side, holding onto Nerf's leash loosely and playing on his phone.

Nerf, being a lot more chill than Link, was pulling on Jeff a lot less and mostly just stuck to his side.

Link quickly got distracted by a nearby butterfly and began to pull Scott in a different direction, down the path towards the cliff. Jeff saw them over the top of his phone and followed them up the path, Nerf bumping along happily at his side.

Scott could see the small monarch butterfly fly past the cliff and whistled at Link. "Come on, girl!" He called, hoping he could get her to turn around and head back to the main path.

Of course, Link didn't listen, continuing to rush up the hill.

Next thing Scott knew, he heard a snapping sound and Link took off toward the edge of the cliff in search of the butterfly.

"Link!" Scott screamed, loud and hard enough that his voice cracked.

Jeff's eyes shot up from his phone and he immediately dropped both the device and the leash. Nerf calmly sat down as Jeff sprinted toward the other dog.

Scott had dropped the leash and was running after her as fast as his legs could carry him. Jeff was only about a foot behind and was catching up.

"Link! Come here! Link!" Scott called as he panicked.

Jeff sped up as much as he could, his calves tense. He made it in front of Scott and lunged forward, practically tackling Link as he grabbed her collar.

As soon as Scott discovered that Link had been secured, his dropped to his knees, his lungs burning as he panted hard. His eyes were shut tight as he attempted to hold back his tears.

Jeff reached forward, taking one of Scott's hands. "Hey, hey," he said quietly. "Shh, look. Look, Scott, she's okay. She's here. I've got her."

He guided Scotty's hand to Link's fur and his eyes slowly opened. The dog barked cheerfully and leapt forward, licking the tears from his face.

Jeff quickly scooped up the leash, examined it, and found that the clip at the end was broken. He detached the other leash from Nerf's collar and snapped it onto Link.

When Jeff looked up, he found that his best friend was crying hard, eyes red. He was breathing heavily and his grip on the dog's collar hadn't loosened, even after she was hooked onto the rope.

Jeff reached to take Scott's hand again as Nerf walked up to join them all.

"Scott..." Jeff whispered. "Scotty, hey, why are you crying? Come on, it's alright. Everything's alright."

Scott didn't answered, simply wheezing some more.

"Hey, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Jeff repeated, squeezing his hand.

"I-I don't know!" Scotty replied, choking on the lump in his throat.

Jeff had wrapped the leash around his wrist and cautiously wrapped his arms around Scott's waist. He laced the fingers of his right hand through Scott's silver locks.