Behind The Mask

Snow Rescue Pup

     Rocky kept on thinking about the small conversation he had with Chase. The German Shepherd went back to sleeping for a little bit, hoping to get better, leaving the Mixed Breed in thought.

But he wasn't the only one thinking about the weird riddle that Chase gave the gray dog. The others were thinking about it too, but they had a much harder time figuring it out unlike Rocky. Again, everyone considered Rocky to be the smartest pup in the team, and he has proven it multiple times.

Flash Back

"Don't really know. Sometimes I wonder what people and animals think from time to time." Chase sighed, making Rocky confused again, until Chase faced him this time.

"Hey Rocky?" He asked, getting the recycling pups attention, "Do you wonder what I think about?" Chase asked, adding more confusion to the table.

"U-Uh..." Rocky stuttered, as he obviously didn't know the answer to that question either, as it was a difficult question. Seeing Rocky's confused face, Chase had an idea as he came up with something.

"Hey, can you solve this riddle for me?" Chase asked, and once again, catching Rocky by surprise, but stood silent as he awaited for the sentence to come.

"Hell. Angry. Punishment. Pain. Yearning. Use characters. Sometimes we pretend, just to blend." Chase said, now leaving a confused Rocky. Chase only smiled at the muddled Mixed Breed.

"Lemme know when you've figured it out." Chase happily said and turned away.

Flash Back Ends

What could that possibly mean? Rocky thought about it over and over. Use characters? He repeated again. He repeated the word characters over and over again. Rocky glanced over at the slumbering shepherd and looked back.

Just then, Rocky felt a paw on his shoulder and looked aside to see Zuma sitting down next to him, as his best friend gave a warm smile.

"Hey." He awkwardly said.

"Hey." Rocky greeted back.

Awkward silence sat between the two as they didn't know what to say to each other at all.

"So, awe you thinking about that riddle?" Zuma asked, making his best friend glance at him.

"You heard?" He asked. "Well evewyone did." The Labrador shrugged, making the Mixed Breed sigh.

"I have no clue. He said something about characters, but I can't seem to figure them out." Rocky said in a little frustration as he repeated the words that Chase told him. Hell. Angry. Punishment. Pain. Yearning. What characters does he use?

Then, Rocky had an idea as he took the first letter from those five words and put them together.

Happy

"Happy?" Rocky whispered out, making Zuma look at him in confusion.

Chase shifted a little bit. He was still awake, but made it look like he was asleep. He wanted to see if Rocky would be able to figure it out. He guessed the first part. The sick shepherd thought as he lightly smiled.

Meanwhile, he decided to let Rocky and Zuma talk.

"What?" Zuma asked.

"If you take the first letter of the words. It spells out happy, but is that what it is?" Rocky began doubting. The police pup really put the green pup to the test. Zuma on the other hand looked at Rocky with a bit of a concerned look. He knew Rocky wanted to figure it out, mostly because Chase asked him to do so.

"Hey, dude?" Zuma spoke up and Rocky looked over at him and suddenly, Zuma shoved a tennis ball into Rocky's mouth, who stared at him with shock. 

"You'we bwain might ovewheat. Be caweful." Zuma grinned, making Rocky roll his eyes in a sigh.

"If it helps you, I can give you another hint."

Both Zuma and Rocky glanced towards Chase, who decided to reveal that he was still awake. They gasped a little bit, wondering if he had heard both of them talking. But most importantly, they didn't expect Chase to give them another hint. Surprised by the sudden appearance, Zuma and Rocky looked at each other, and then looked back at Chase.

Rocky nodded his head up and down as he still had the tennis ball in his mouth.

"The characters of those words...I've been recycling it every day of my life." Chase said, now adding more confusion to the two of them. While the two looked back at the ill pup, the German Shepherd then shifted his position and looked at Zuma directly to his eyes.

"While we're at it. Zuma, I wanna ask you something if that's okay." Chase said, now making the Chocolate Labrador confused.

"U-Uh, suwe." Zuma agreed, and before the German Shepherd could even open his mouth, everyone heard a vehicle pulling up to the driveway, which made everyone in the room go silent and confused.

"Uh, are we having more visitors?" Skye asked as she glanced over at Ryder who was sitting next to Katie. Ryder nodded his head side to side, as he didn't expect any other visitors.

Eve walked up to the front doors and studied the outside, and he glanced back at Ryder.

"There's a snowmobile parked outside, and a pup jumping out of it." She described and everyone, aside from some of the pups, looked at her in confusion. Ryder on the other hand knew exactly who Eve was talking about, given just by the pup and a snowmobile.

Wait, I didn't think she was in town. Ryder thought in confusion. He wanted to invite the pup that just arrived, but she lived a little bit further away. Even further from where the Princess lived. Ryder stood back up and looked at Eve with a nervous chuckle.

"Heh, I didn't expect her to be here in town. She's actually one of our teammates." The boy responded.

Just then, the pups heard the front doors slide open and everyone over and their eyes widened as they were surprised to see not just a visitor, but another pup.

But this wasn't any random pup.

It was a female pup, a Husky. She has light brown fur with cream colored markings on her face, tail, belly, and front legs. Her ears and nose are dark brown and she also has bright blue eyes. She also sports a purple collar and a blue pup-tag with a white snowflake.

"Hey guys!" Her cheerful voice greeted and only Marshall, Rubble, Chase, Rocky, Zuma, Skye, Everest and Tracker only looked at her with wide eyes.

"Hey Rocky." She then stared into the Mixed Breeds eyes.

But Rocky was the one who stared at her with the most shock. Rocky suddenly began blushing, as he dropped the tennis ball from his mouth and stuttered her name.

"T-T-Tundra!?"