PAW Patrol: Marshall Gone Missing.

Chapter 37

The first thing Marshall felt as he slowly began to come into consciousness was the warm wrappings around him. He didn't feel any pain, nor did he feel cold. He tried to remember the last thing he saw and soon it all came back to him. Running away. The bear. The cold. His final moments. Did... did I die? He slowly opened his eyes, but didn't see puffy clouds or rays of unearthly light. Rather a warm cottage bedroom  where he was under the covers of a warm bed. "Huh, not what I expected heaven to look like."

"Marshall! You're awake!" shouted a familiar voice as Marshall nearly gasped upon seeing Everest jumped onto the bed, wagging her tail. She proceeded to lick him a few times before she stopped and blushed. "Um, sorry about that."

"Everest? You're in puppy heaven too?" asked Marshall in shock.

Everest giggled. "I'm not dead. Neither are you. Me and Jake found you in a cave three days ago and brought you back here."

"I'm... not dead?" whispered Marshall as a smile began to grow on his face. He was about to jump up with joy, but he hissed and touched his wound which was now bandaged up.

"Careful, you're still not fully healed," said Everest, forcing him back on his pillow. "You were really weak when we found you. You gotta take it easy."

Marshall nodded. "Thanks, Everest. I owe you my life."

"No problem! I'm just glad we rescued you! Arf!" said the husky with a smile, she then frowned before asking, "Hey, Marshall? Why did you run away? Ryder and the pups were really worried about you."

"T-they were?"asked Marshall in shock. Ryder he could understand, but didn't the pups hate him?

"Yeah, Ryder had them looking all day when we last had contact. Rocky seemed to be really upset, said it was his and the other Pups' fault and they wanted to apologize or something," said Everest.

"R-really?" asked Marshall as a tear dropped down from his eye. "They were looking for me? Where are they now?!"

"We don't know. My communicator tag isn't able to transmit due to the snow storm outside. We haven't had outside contact in three days. You're lucky we decided to search for an extra hour before having to turn in because of the intensity," explained Everest.

Marshall sighed and cursed the weather. More than anything he wanted to see his friends again, and go home where he belonged. "Will the snow storm be leaving soon, Everest?"

"Should be gone in a few hours, dude," said Jake as he entered the room with two hot cups. "Glad to see you back from dreamland, Marshall. For a second we thought you weren't gonna make it. Everest here didn't even move from your bed for a whole day."

"J-Jake!" hissed Everest in embarrassment which made the boys laugh.

Jake handed over Marshall a cup of hot tea, which the pup eagerly accepted. When he tasted it, however, he nearly gagged. "Eww, liver flavored."

"Oops, that's mine." Everest took the cup and began to sip it. "Mmmmm. Good."

Accepting a warm regular green tea, Marshall felt his inner body light up as he drank the tea. Jake put the tray away before he asked, "So Marshall, why did you decide to skip down, and head into the woods on your own?"

Blushing, Marshall, rubbed his paws and whispered, "Actually, I was trying to get here. I wanted to live with you guys for a while."

"Why? I mean, not that I'm happy that you'd want to hang out here for a bit dude, but why leave your friends?"

Marshall explained how that day started with him messing up everyone's day, and the big fight that he had with the other pups when he broke the TV. He talked about how he ran away, and all the bad stuff that happened along the way, including the crash and the bear. Everest gasped and hugged Marshall, sobbing after he explained how he had given up and was ready to die until they saved him.

"You should really thank Everest. She picked up your tracks and we found you in that cave," said Jake with a rare serious look. "If we didn't find you, dude? I'm afraid you'd be cold and gone.

"Yeah," whispered Marshall, shivering at the fact that he was so close to death's cold touch and narrowly escaped it. He turned to a teary-eyed Everest and gave her a warm smile. "I really owe you, Everest. Thanks."

"Silly, pup," chuckled Everest, blushing, as she wiped away her tears. "But Marshall, I don't think your friends hate you. Rocky looked really worried and scared for you when I saw him. I'm willing to bet all my liver treats that every one of the pups were hoping to find you and apologize."

"R-really? You think that?" asked Marshall, hope filling his heart.

"I know so!" proclaimed Everest. "And as soon as the storm clears and we get a signal, we'll be able to get in contact with Ryder and the others."

Marshall nodded as he couldn't help but wonder what the other pups were doing right now. It's been three days. I wonder if they're still looking for me.