"Ugh. . ." he grunted, feeling huge pain from his body; it resonates in multiple locations and as of the moment, they throb altogether making him unable to detect where the pain is from. He wasn't sure if it was his head taking all the pain or his body that had numbed from the leading pain that lingers around his head. Slowly recovering himself from the cold pass out, he found the castle still standing. Senses kicking right in, he realized he still has some unfinished business to do. But what doesn't make sense, was where everyone was. Ryder was no where to be found nor his team; the Air Patroller that used to hover above everyone was long gone and unseen. It was odd to how the place fell silent, even the heart of the kingdom in the latter distance doesn't seem to be buzzing about something.

Feeling weird about the surrounding, he decided it was best to search what was going on, and that is to journey further by paw. There was no option left actually, but to seek for answers that would satisfy those questions who feed in his thoughts. As he ventures further, he had only found himself bringing his whole self to the back of the palace. There was nothing there, but an odd rose planted. There was nothing really weird about the sighting, but why would anyone plant a one and only rose in the midst of the castle's backyard – isolated with grasslands and towering stone-brick walls? Not to mention, why was it not in a shrub or bush? Another question swarmed him again, making him all fuzzy inside and his mind fogging up. "I should take another route. . ." his body turned away from the rose as he mentally plotted the new route he'd take.

In spite of doing an excellent job from getting distracted, his senses somehow had the urge to avert back to that lonely rose in the distance. Every rose he saw were just the same. Some had white hue as the frosty snow that you seek every December; some had a unique pigment that you could see the deep blue ocean itself swim in such a small flower; while the common type you see were painted by Spring's skillful hands with a beautiful shade of red. All may vary in lengths, height and color, to him they were just the same. But something about that ordinary rose wasn't so ordinary to him. Somehow. . . It is capturing his attention and luring him back to it.

Try as he might to hold the grudge to step further away from it, the forces sadly were stronger than his own will. A sigh of defeat escaped his system as he approaches bit by bit to it "Okay. . . I hope you have something good to tell me" he told off the never-speaking rose. Once he placed himself to a halt, he just stared at the rose, waiting for something to happen. . . But nothing did. The more he left his orbs lingering on that flower, the more he noticed something unique about it. . . The tips of its petal were a noticeable pink;  travelling further further to the core of it, the colors had faded to a common rose-red. It had no thorns, yet a leaf bloomed on its stem. What an odd plant in his opinion. It was nothing he had seen for himself before, and this kind of rose was indeed rare, and the color formation is quite quaint from the others forasmuch as every rose had a clear color separation from each other; not one blend smoothly with one another – unless it were to rot of dehydration.

"I should focus. . ." He muttered underneath his breath, sighing heavily. One step at a time, he had strayed away from the plant, when he felt scorching heat ghosting him. At first, he thought it was just his body temperature spiking to the roof for the sake he's beginning to feel nervous. But his theories then began to contradict to what he believes; as he swipes his pupils to look to the back, fire began to generate behind the flower, and before he could react and run further away, the flame had caught up before he could have escaped, and now, there he stood in the midst of the ring of fire along with the one and only flower that grew oddly behind the backs of the palace walls.

His eyes began to shake at the sight, and his pasts were daunting him altogether. Voices from the past had re-awakened from its deep slumber and its long wait was over, and now – it is perfect time to attack the German Shepherd to the final point he is weak. Its echoes sent shivers down his spine and had stabbed him invisibly, yet it pains so much that he felt like his body had fractured into two pieces, resulting of a slice in the abdomen and creating a sensation of blood gushing out. It's just memories. Right? But why does it hurt so much?

"Sis? If you were to wish..."

"Nurses. Stop fighting" 

"What would you wish?"

"I'm sorry... Your owner--"

"I wish you could stay like what you are today--"

𝔚𝔥𝔶 𝔡𝔬𝔢𝔰 𝔦𝔱. . .

"I'M NOT GOING BACK."

"--Okay my sweet pup brother?"

ℌ𝔲𝔯𝔱 𝔰𝔬 𝔡𝔞𝔪𝔫 𝔪𝔲𝔠𝔥. . ?

"YOU GOTTA RUN! THEY'RE ON A K̵̙̘̣̘͉̝͙͓͗̏̐̓̊̉̈͒͠I̶̧̘̯͔̞͚̹͙̞͋̎̀́̓̋̇̌͘͝L̴̛͓̹̘̯͋͂̚̚͝͠L̴͖̪̩̼̄̈́̂̇͑͆̀̀͋̕I̴̧̗̱̠̒͋͆̈́́͆͂͠Ń̷̨̦̥͓͖͖͓͋̿̒͌͝ͅG̵̤̬̲͇͐̐̔̚͝ ̷̢̡̫̘̯̼̫̺̹͜͠R̸̨̹̝̊̈́͂͒̽̕̕͝͝AꟼMG̷̨̠̬̟̜̮̣̭̫̽̐̚͜E̷̮͒̈́́̔͊!"

⬤

⬤

⬤

⬤

⬤

"AAAH" there was silence after that long scream. That was when he realized, everyone seems to be back to where they're supposed to be. He was by the East Tower, near to where he fell, but now were safely laid on the ground. Ryder was there, Rocky was too. . . And he doesn't see himself burning and getting eaten alive by the fire that laughs menacingly nor does he have burn marks that suggest an evidence of the horrifying consequences he had went through for who knows how long. "W-where am I? What happened?" were the first set of words he spoke towards anyone after he oddly ventured into a world where he was surrounded by nobody but him and. . . The fire. "You almost fell, Chase. . ." Ryder halfheartedly admit "But luckily, Marshall had rescued just in time" eyes opened wide upon truths were told, it had swung to the dotted white pup who stood beside everyone else with a smile mixed with pain and relief. As his first instinct, he leapt to Marshall and hugged him tightly.

Tears threatened to fall on the German Shepherd's cheeks, but managed to magically refrain it from dripping any further "Th-thanks buddy" he mutters in awe "I. . . Owe you one" Marshall simply flashes him a smile. Ryder then knelt and went to pet Chase "Are you okay now?" the boy asks. Chase – realizing that he wasted maybe quite some time while he passed out, answered "Of course" with no hesitation, as fear and anxiety crept into his mind unknowingly again.
"Then. . ." the boy trails off "If you are, then investigate this spot" Chase's burning auburn eyes gazed at a group of grass nearby the tower were decently covered with soot "We suspected Sweetie's air vehicle's exhaust, but it could have been anything. So we need you to assure it" Ryder spoke in the background while Chase's approaching the said "crime scene". Sniffing the soot "It's definitely something from an engine" He declares, but then proceeds to sneeze at it "But I'm taking a few more test runs" he sneezed, before trying to sniff to use the crime scene for getting more evidences.

"You can use your heat vision goggles if you want, Chase" Rocky blurted, sensing that Chase was – most likely, afraid to ask for his new pup pack's new features "Ah" he replies "Thanks" then barked for it, and his heat-vision goggles appeared from his helmet down to his eyes. Once it stopped leveling down at a perfect eye-level, all he sees is completely filtered with green, and if he looks at his friends – turns into something purple-neon; calling for his zip-line, he zipped himself up to the tower window and had landed safely. "Sweetie's tea set's still here, so this is where they last went" he told nobody. He began to sniff out things that could be potential threat to the PAW Patrol once they've located Skye's location. As he tracks the heat Sweetie and Skye created, he was lucky enough there were some left over heat for him to see, he went to follow their paw-prints and found that Skye was cornered somewhere "escape" is impossible to happen. Drawing nearer and nearer to it, he noticed how much heat the two have applied to that spot "They must've taken quite some time here" he thought "Tch. Cliche villain doings"

He crouched low at the cabinet and found a glowing blue substance. Reverting back to a normal position, he hypothesized it was a serum that most likely knocked Skye out – for a good amount of time at least, and that was probably the reason why she was unable to do anything else before a surge of confidence and sense rushed to her cerebral cortex. Thinking that's all he needs to know, he caught a glimpse of something glimmering underneath another cabinet, he pulled it out with all his might and found a box full of black, red and blue liquid in bottles. Seeing such substances terrified him, but at that moment. He knows what he will be risking.

-----

The Air Patroller dashed rapidly across the sky as it brings the PAW Patrol by the nearest island known in Barkingburg "Sweetie stupidly left a note to where she would keep Skye as hostage" Chase says "But its shady because no one that's skillful in launching crimes would leave such evidence leading to where they are. Not unless it is done on purpose" Ryder gestured the other pups to get in as he and Chase walked side-by-side into the Air Patroller "Once we get there, things will get messy" Ryder reminds him "And that sir, is something I'm ready for"

As the swift wind vibrates the whole air bus, the audible sound of silence and engine roaring blent in smoothly into sound that seems the abyss itself were playing in front of them. Ryder continues to survey his pup-pad and glance at the direction they were heading every once in a while. Every pup seated on the Air Patroller remained quiet and shared worried and nervous glances. At the moment, everyone felt like the hushed environment is better rather to break it. No one's in the mood to do it when the idea that their friend's life is in (maybe) great danger. "She'll. . . Be fine" Zuma finally spoke in the midst of the almost ear-ringing silence "Skye's a strong pup. I know that. We all do" he tried to smile and attempted to drizzle everyone a little hope and faith within them in a bleak-feeling situation. 

Few of them had their spirits lifted and a small smile appeared on them. Hope and faith rekindled within the core of their hearts. The boy saw this and were glad that his pups had a positive outlook – at least a little bit right now. Because all they can do right now. . . Is hope.

-----

"Pups, we're almost there" the boy announced "Get your pup-packs ready. Marshall, standby. Everyone else, you're coming with me" every pup with their Mission PAW gear on changed to their normal ones and as for Chase, he remained in his spy gear; while everyone changed Chase approached Ryder to verify "Am I going to use Skye's copter still?" Ryder thought about it for a moment, and maybe it'd be the great time to use it "Yep, someone's going to hover above the sky to find an entrance – and the Air Patroller can't do that. It'll cause a massive air disturbance among the island, so I am positively sure Skye's small copter won't do that much effect around" Chase nodded as he prepared himself by hopping on her copter and would seat there until Ryder deploys him. As of the moment, he'll be familiarizing himself with the buttons that'll be used. "Sharp memory. Don't fail me now. . ."

-----

The Air Patroller descended down to the coastline of the island and once it was safely docked, the hatch lowered itself and a wave of pups spilled onto the sandy surface as they started to search for Skye, and so did Ryder. Chase on the other hand, had started to bring the Cockapoo's copter roar to life, and once he felt that all engine were set, he pressed the button that sent the rotor mast and tail rotor spinning in a three-hundred degrees – fully. Carefully maneuvering  the copter high above the sky, a bass drum appeared on his chest, and the adrenaline that rushed over him choked him along the way. But with a few steady breaths here and there, he had collected his composure once more.

"Pups, any sign of Sweetie or Skye yet?" Ryder's voice resonated from their pup-tags "We've found a few paw-prints going upward though" Rocky reports "And it leads into a thick forest" Hearing upon this, Chase investigated the upper part of the lone island and found an odd fire coming from there and started to creep up to some pitch-black cave "Skye. . ." he breathed "Guys, there's a fire emerging from the forest. Keep going forward via Rocky's view. You'll find it there" The German Shepherd reports, then the voice of Marshall affirming were heard before all pup-tags went off again. Chase's eyes rattled at the successive events that swarms each and one of them. He felt the oxygen flow to his mind's been blocked as he felt hazy and the need to black-out. "There's no more time. Marshall might not finish extinguishing the fire in time and if I leave right now, the fire might enter the cave"

Options that spawned and were laid out to him, he carefully chose which one would be efficient and at the same time, not carelessly risk the chance of fatality more. "Autopilot!" he yelled his idea then placed his paw on the autopilot button and once the copter stood perfectly still hovering above everyone else, he barked for his zip-line and aimed at the cave and once it was secured, he zipped down towards it. Dropping down from his zip-line, his pup-pack instantly re-packed its portable zip-line. When he was about to enter the cave, he felt the distant heat resonate from a distant fire and could hear the chatter of his friends in doing an orchestrated prevention from the fire continuously spreading. He knew time's limited. So he went in to the cave immediately.

Running as fast as he could inside, all the could hear were his rapid breaths and a few pebbles flicked away from him from his rapid movement. "Let me go!" someone yelled, and it was a bright timbre, and right away, he knew it was "Skye!" he sped up and followed the direction and to his fortune, he found her in a dimly lit place. "Ch-chase? What are you doing here?" Skye stammered in utter shock "Rescuing you, duh" he replies as he concentrates in biting off the strong fibers to snap its grip off Skye. "You should leave me here. There's a trap surrounding us, and one's probably aimed at you" she whispered in panic, not wanting Chase to be in great danger because of her.

He just grunted as a response and continued to munch of the strong rope, right now he wished he has Rocky's tools to cut this off faster than his teeth. "Are you deaf? Get out! You're going to hurt yourself!" she protested, her voice more desperate this time – wishing he'd listen "Just. Please. Let me. I want to do this anyway. I am not commanded." he replies sternly then continues to chew. Skye went silent from a scale of one to ten that immediately. His words bounced within the walls of her mind, she attempted to grasp to what he said. Could it be? That he's. . .

The rope finally snapped and its suffocating grip were long gone. "Come on" he told her as he began to run, it took quite awhile before Skye knew that they were running for escape. "Keep running Skye, were almost there" Chase enthused. Her cherry-pink eyes met with his burning hazel ones, and for a moment, time slowed down, as if time dared to stop and capture this moment. If she could, she'd cherish this feeling and place it in a picture frame. The feeling was too good to be true. Was she living in a fantasy that she only knew that existed in the rare lands of full imaginations?

And then. . . Things began to become clear. All the puzzle pieces came together, and the final piece that she was long searching for were found, and all these evidences she've witnessed for herself and collected for the past few years. . . Something that she couldn't woof it out for a long time ago. . . She've found the voice to yell that one word that had confused her for so long.

Everything felt light-weight and surreal. And her heart soared happily at the new found thing she found from the finer things in life that could never be bought – even by the richest –– that she had almost forgot one inevitable thing. 

POSTSCRIPT:

Hello everyone! I'm sorry the update took longer. Lots of stuff happened and my writer's block added to that. So thanks a lot writer's block :D

But in all seriousness though. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter!

"Can't Woof It Out" will be on break for its second season!

Supposedly it wouldn't have one, but then I realized that I created a crappy plot for the future ones, I decided that I'll be needing some time to rewrite it 😂
So yeah! Season two will be written here as well.
I'm not going to make a separate book for its Season 2 debut because ya gurl is lazy to make another book cover, and I'm sure that its up-coming chapters are still related to the title (hopefully)

Honestly, I was deciding to end the story here with no further additions. But then I realized that I haven't fully explained Sweetie's intentions as to why she did this and that, and I think that the whole story was left in a huge cliffhanger – unanswered (maybe?).

So! Season Two will now be in progress!
Be on the look-out for that!
(because if i have inspiration, the 2nd second might be released earlier than you think!)

Okay, this thing's getting longer now. . .
See ya'll soon!