Flying without wings

Chase's regret

As the doors opened, Skye could feel a sudden rush of cold air as she stepped out into the snow, feeling even worse than earlier. She looked around at all of the snow covered trees, with their branches shimmering in the moonlight, the sky was clear and the stars were shining bright, she suddenly felt lonely.
Her ears perked up as the front doors opened again, listening she heard paws behind her the snow crunching as the paws carefully chose their path.

"I'm fine, honestly ever-" she turned as she spoke, meeting eyes with Chase.

"No Skye, you're not. I can tell. I know I hurt-" Skye pressed a paw to Chase's lips.

"Chase... Don't." She turned, taking in a deep breath of the cold air around her. She runs off towards the snow covered beach.

"Skye..."

Chase turned around, knowing what he had said hurt Skye bad. He felt the guilt of causing pain deep inside. He slowly walked back to the lookout.
~~
Skye didn't look back as she ran, focusing on her paws as she ran, feeling the cold wind in her fur, she finally stopped and collapsed to the ground. With tears forming in her eyes, she couldn't stop herself from crying. Suddenly feeling a warm mass beside her, she turned away from it, mumbling more to herself
"Chase... just leave"

"It's not Chase Skye. It's me. I seen you run from Chase, so I wanted to follow you" Everest's voice seemed to soothe Skye as she quickly turned to Everest, burying her face in Everest's soft fur, crying harder into Everest's shoulder.

"Everest..." Skye began, unable to speak the words she wanted to.

"Shhh, you're alright Skye. I'm here for you." Everest was doing her best to try and calm Skye's sobs, licking her head gently. I can't stand seeing Skye like this. I need to get her to speak to me. I need to figure out how to help her again.

They laid in the snow for a few hours, Skye finally falling asleep next to Everest while she kept watch, protecting Skye with her life. Everest's ears perked up at the sound of paws crunching through the snow. She looked around looking for the unknown pup. Spotting Chase, she let out a soft growl.

"Everest, it's just me," Chase began, interrupted by Everest.

"I know Chase, now go back home. Skye needs to be alone" Everest angrily responded, making Chase jump a little bit.

"Then why are you here"

"Just leave Chase. Go home" Everest stood up, baring her teeth. Chase backed away a little bit, whimpering at his defeat. He turns around and walks back home, hanging his head low.

An hour goes by, Skye and Everest are asleep in the snow while the cool winter air surrounds them. As the sun began to rise over the horizon, It's fiery blaze reveals the 2 pups laying in the snow. Skye's golden fur glistened with the rising sun, and in that moment, Everest began to fall in love.

Back at the lookout, Chase watched the sun rise, missing his best friend by his side. He began to reminisce the time he spent with her, all of the early mornings, the late nights... Even the times that they just talked about whatever was on their minds. He began to rethink the words he said to Skye that night. He couldn't figure out what went wrong. Had he been too harsh on her? Were the words that he had said too much for the Cockapoo? Chase let out a low growl as he gently slid to the ground, watching the sun peek over the horizon, feeling defeated.

Everest and Skye cuddled closer to each other as the wind began to blow stronger kicking snow up around them. Everest noticed as Skyes small body begins to tremble. Moving closer to the Cockapoo pup, she hoped to warm her at least a little bit.

"E-Everes-t, c-can we go b-back ho-home?" Skye stuttered, shivering more.

"That's the best idea I have heard today Skye. Let's go, I'll carry you." Everest lowered her body so that Skye could jump on. Skye carefully lifted herself to her paws, putting her weight on Everests pup pack. Everest blushed a little bit as she feels the weight of the small golden Cockapoo puppy on her back. She starts to walk along the snow covered sidewalk, the snow crunching beneath her paws. As she walked, Her mind began to wander, thinking about Skye mostly, getting lost in her own head.
She's so beautiful in the sun, her shining golden fur... There is no way that she would ever feel the same way that I feel about her... She's my friend for crying out loud. I dont want to lose her...

The driveway up to the lookout was covered with snow, making a slippery slope for the Husky pup to traverse. Everest began the walk up the driveway, slipping on some ice and being careful enough so that Skye didn't slip off of her back. She sighed as she noticed the pup who was now fast asleep on her pup pack, her adorable nose twitching with every breath.
Oh god she's adorable... I don't know if I can bring myself to tell her though.. how I really feel.
"Evere-" Chase's voice broke through her thoughts, she turned to face Chase with a look of anger. "N-nevermind..." Chase's smile faded to a frown as he turned to walk away.

"Chase, wait. What's wrong?" Everest shouted after him, gently letting the sleeping Cockapoo down in her heated pup house.

"N-nothing Everest... It's fine" Chase responded.

Judging based on Chase's voice, Everest concluded that Chase was hiding a lot more than he let on.

"Chase, please." Everest kind of demanded, her stern voice made Chase's ears fall a little bit.

"I-I said I'm fine! Leave me alone!" Chase turned and ran towards the big oak tree on the lawn, kicking up snow as he ran.

"Everest? What happened?" Ryder came out of the lookout front doors, a confused look on his face.

"It's Chase. There's something wrong Ryder. He's not acting right,"

"I'll try talking to him. Go inside Everest, you need to get some sleep pup,"

Everest obeyed, walking over to Skye's open pup house to where a shivering Skye laid fast asleep. Everest entered the house, her face blushing a deep red, she laid down next to Skye and closed the pup house door.
I.. can't believe it. She's so cold