Puppy Love (Yaoi)

Dara and the Greenside PAW Patrol (Part Two - The Forest Fire)

Alright. A little peek on the next chap. I'm gonna make Ryder find Sherwood and from there on will have him as an extra... or main character :3        

        Dara sent Jerry immediately to the forest outside of Greenside region. She and the other pups would catch up as soon as she finished attaching hoses on each pups’ vehicle and adding a water hose to their pup pack. As Jerry raced off, the mayor called, reminding Dara of her mission.
            “Have you caught the thieves yet?” He asked impatiently.
            Dara continued with her work as she responded to the mayor with highest respect. “Not yet, Mayor… there’s a forest fire at the forest just outside Greenside perimeter. It has to be stopped or else–”
            “Forget about that stupid forest fire,” the mayor yelled incredulously, his temper, higher than that of before. “You are not leaving Greenside without catching those thieves, understood?”
            “But mayor–”
            “No buts,” he cut off once more.
            Dara massaged her temples with her fingers and brushed her hair with the palm of her hand, containing all of the contempt within her. “Mayor, if you would so kindly listen, it is my–our top priority to prevent casualties and damage.”
            Mayor Davis closed his hand to a fist and slammed it down his wooden table shaking everything that was laid on top of it to fall. “Your top priority is to heed my commands,” he paused and laughed evilly, “If you don’t, I can easily replace you and your pups with other ones.”
            Dara clenched her teeth in anger. As much as she wanted to just punch the mayor in his face, she calmed down and respectfully answered, “I’m sorry but as of now my top priority is stopping that forest fire. And, just so you know, you can’t replace a pup owner just because you want to. The PAW Patrol Center gets to decide who goes where and I have been assigned here so bear with it.” She turned the video call off and rushed to the outside forest with the rest of her team.

            The cloud of smoke was thick and dark from the lookout… much thicker and darker now that Dara and her team approached. The fresh scent of the air was tainted with burning wood but there’s something else mended in them.
            “Phosphorus,” Malta sniffed, “Potassium nitrate, sulfur and magnesium.”
            “Gunpowder,” Sherwood generalized as he rode his tank with a water hose attached to its main gun.
            “And there’s some burning gas too,” Sean added.
            Dara felt hot waves of heat run pass them as they approached nearer. “Shouldn’t have Jerry at least eased out the fire a bit?” She stopped at the entrance to the forest.
            Trees stood with gigantic flames burning them and their area. Smaller plants like shrubs and bushes were already ashes riding with the wind. At the middle of the forest fire, Dara saw Jerry’s fire truck unmoving. She ordered her pups to extinguish the flames that burned the path to Jerry.
            With solid effort exerted, they entered the forest and eased the fire a bit. Dara approached Jerry’s vehicle and saw no one inside.
            “Where could Jerry be?” Malta asked as she extinguished flames that burned near them.
            “Pups, split up, find Jerry and kill the fire while you’re on it.” Dara ordered as she used Jerry’s fire truck to extinguish the fire.
            When the pups had left to extinguish the fire, Dara continued on her automobile, finding Jerry and killing the fire on her way.
            “Jerry!” She yelled.
            A burning branch snapped from above and Dara jumped out of her automobile. The enormous branch that burned crushed Dara’s vehicle, igniting it with its flames. As Dara extinguished the fire, she saw some of it crept into the tank of her vehicle. At the sighting, she ran as fast as she could away from the ignited engine and it exploded knocking everything in its area away, including Dara.
            She rolled on the ground a few times before finally sliding to the rough dirt path that scraped her skin. She moaned in pain and heard a few men walk about her.
            “Well, look who we got here,” a deep male voice said, “It’s the lookout girl.”
            Dara opened her eyes as a vein throbbed at her temple. She saw four men approach her and carried a small brown sack that wiggled as if something was struggling inside.
            “Let me out!” a voice called – Malta’s voice.
            “Malta!” Dara shouted as she stood up from the ground. “Let her go!” She demanded.
            “What’s in it for us?” The man who carried the sack asked.
            From his behind, another man came up front and whispered something in his ear. The man’s expression changed to a somewhat idea struck kind of expression.
            “So you’re a pup owner, eh? You own vehicles and these little pups too?”
            Dara ran to him, trying to fight them off as she tried to grab Malta from them. The man carried the sack up from Dara’s reach and he restrained her using only one hand.
            “Give her back!” Dara yelled.
            “How many pups do you have?” He asked, pushing Dara on the ground.
            Dara didn’t answer. She bit her tongue and attempted once more to retrieve Malta.
            The man ordered one of his comrades to hold the sack, “Since we already got this one’s bag and vehicle, why don’t you take her out on a little swim at the lake?”
            “Sure thing, Bill,” the man answered with a hillbilly accent, violently grabbing the sack and tossing it upwards.
            Dara cried, “No! Leave her out of this!” She begged.
            The man carried another brown sack that struggled with effort. “What could be in here?” he asked. He didn’t ask because of he doesn’t know what’s inside the sack. He knows. He asked because he wanted to tease the poor girl that helplessly lied on the ground.
            “Help, get me out!” Jerry’s voice pleaded.
            “Now tell me where his vehicle is or… you don’t wanna know what happens.”
            “It’s at the entrance of the forest… a hundred meters away,” Dara answered without hesitation.
            The man ordered another of his comrades to retrieve Jerry’s fire truck and the other to come and get the sack. “Burn that pup alive,” he cruelly said, forcing Dara to do whatever she can to help.
            The man spun the sack and tossed it flying in the air to the hellish fires of their surroundings. Before the sack could land on the burning flames, a net was shot and saved Jerry from his demise. The caliber of the net was enough to send Jerry flying back from where he was thrown.
            “Pebble, thank goodness you’re here!” Dara called and ran to retrieve Jerry before one of the men could pick him up. Dara released Jerry from the sack and carried her with him. The man pulled a gun and shot Dara at her left leg when she made an immediate run. Her blood pooled the ground as she winced in pain.
            “Jerry, go with Pebble, find Sean and Sherwood and save Malta. You all can still make it.”
            “I’m not leaving without you, Dara,” the poor Jack Russel cried, shrieking in grief.
            “Do it or else I won’t give you any treats,” Dara’s voice started to cry. She patted Jerry’s head for the last time and scared him off so he would run. “Run in zigzags like in your training for the fire pup challenge!” Dara yelled as she accepted death in her arms.
            The man shot the fleeing Jack Russel but wasn’t able to hit him. Jerry was able to escape.
            Dara tried to escape by weakly crawling out. The man walked to her and stomped a foot on her bleeding leg.
            “Ah!” Dara yelled in pain as the blood gushed out from her fresh wound. The man loaded his gun and directed it to her head, “This is for losing me my bounty,” before he decided to shoot her, he laughed “Do you know how much their vehicles cost in a black market?”
            Dara turned to face him and spat on his face, “You disgust me.”
            The man kicked her thigh and stomped on her stomach. Dara cursed inside her mind, she cursed the man that was stepping on her. If only her automobile hadn’t of exploded, she would have had a fair fight with him – gun to gun.
            The sky that was clouded with thick smoke darkened to a gray color. The thunders rolled and the sky wept for what was happening. The sky grieved for the loss of a life-filled forest and the suffering of a little girl.
            The man kept on beating her with his muscular hands and feet until Dara felt no more pain. She stopped her struggle as the tears of the sky dropped and washed her blood into the soil. Dara was weeping at that moment… who wouldn’t? And she wept on but her tears changed. Her tears weren’t that of pain and suffering anymore, it was now the tears of joy. For the sky to cry for the forest… she was happier now that the fire had subsided.
            The man continued on beating her even though she already stopped moving. He stepped his foot on Dara and moved her to see if she would respond. “Finally… you’re dead!” he exclaimed to Dara’s beaten body. Dara’s eyes were clouded and all she thought of that moment was the safety of her pups.
            When the man had left, she talked to the forest. “I’m sorry if I wasn’t able to save you… at least now the fire stopped. Those men took your life and I would gladly offer mine to you.” She sighed in the numbness of her body and forced to lie back facing the sky. When she was sure that her pups were safe and the forest as well, she bombarded her head with her happiest thought. “Ryder…” A smile formed on her bruised face, “I wish I could have at least lived for another conference meeting.” Her eyes closed and her vision darkened.

            Dara opened her eyes; it was total darkness from where she’s at. “Am I dead?” she asked herself.
            “No…” Sherwood’s whisper echoed. His voice sounded critical. And, he shrieked for every second he breathed.
            Dara didn’t know what to say, after the numbness she felt, her body was entombed with indescribable pain.
            “None…of…them…made it,” Sean spoke with apparent effort. “Sherwood, you tell her.”
            “Tell me what?” Dara asked, wincing in pain as she adjusted in the darkness.
            Sherwood began crying and the sound of his grieving voice was all that was heard. “Jerry and Pebble found us… they told us about Malta so we rushed in to her rescue,” Sherwood paused and his voice growled, “That horrible man!” he barked and his sound echoed through the cave. He continued, “He was playing with Malta… constantly drowning her in the water and raising her back up. We rushed to her aid but she was already dead when we arrived…” Sherwood began crying and he forced to continue, “I could have sworn I still heard her bark when we arrived… I heard her bark when we were already there but when we arrived, she wasn’t moving. Why is that?”
            Dara forced herself up and called Sean and Sherwood to an embrace. “Calm down…” Dara said though she herself wasn’t calm. The two pups felt her faint heart beat and they shrieked in sorrow.
            “A-and Pebble… he was carrying Malta’s dead body when all of the sudden he stopped moving himself. We shook him, and called but it was though as he stiffened… he was hurt the most when Malta died.”
            Sean interrupted Sherwood with his weak voice, “It…wasn’t…anybody’s,” he breathed in heavily and breathed out, “…fault.”
            “Sean, what’s happening to you?” Dara caressed Sean’s fur and touched something damp… thick liquid that was slightly sticky.
            “I…got–”
            “Hush, Sean,” Sherwood silenced him with subtleness. His friend was dying and he doesn’t want him to go faster at the rate he’s already in. “Sean was shot, Dara… before the sky darkened, a man caught Jerry and tossed him into the fire!” Sherwood started breathing fast, Dara couldn’t see but she could tell that Sherwood’s expression is now insanity. It was obvious when he had started to question everything. “Why didn’t it rain when Jerry was thrown into the fire?” he asked, “Why did the rain only come when Jerry was already burning? I heard him cry in the fire! I heard him…”
            Dara’s heart pumped and after two seconds, pumped again. She was dying like Sean who was barely breathing beside her. “Sher…wood,” she called out, breaking him out of her hug. She embraced her arms on Sean and weakly caressed his head.
            “Hug me, Dara,” Sherwood cried.
            Dara nodded her head in disapproval, “W-were dying… you can still live,” she breathed.
            “I’ll have nowhere else to stay… Dara please,” Sherwood begged trying to get back in Dara’s hug but Dara refused to let him.
            “Ad…ven…ture…Bay,” she said. She noticed Sean stiffen and she searched for a pulse spot. Sean is dead.
            For the last time, Dara’s tears ran out of her eyes but she was too weak to even huff in emotional pain. “Sher…wood, my pup pad…”
            Sherwood immediately gets her pup pad and laid it on her weak reaching hand. She turned the voice recorder on and left a message for Ryder.

            Ryder, I know Sherwood would stay here after I die… I can feel him lose his sanity and he might roam this forest and scavenge for food, please take him in, make him feel at home and love him for me. I know it’ll take some time for him to recover this traumatic experience but help him on the way. He’s just a pup. Make him forget what happened –make him forget about me and his previous home. Thank you… and lastly, I want you to know that I have a little crush on you… just…a…little.

            Sherwood moved her pup pad with his nose, “Dara?” he asked as he started to cry. His eyes met insanity and he stormed off the cave hunting the last man down. “I’ve killed three of you and I’m not afraid to kill the last one.”