"To the Look-Out!" Coruscates their tags, gleaming a brighter hue than the original color painted upon it, as they leaped up from their comfort zones and dashed forth the tower.

          Speedily, they changed into their uniforms along with Everest's new one, before the elevator rang a simple melody — announcing that they have arrived.

          Their paws sprung forward and formed themselves into a neat line that has their face facing the boy.

          But upon their arrival, it seemed that he was pacing back and forth with his eyes glued onto the metallic floor. His finger was hanging onto his teeth, and his overall pacing was quite unnerving.

           The vibe he gave off was something related to seeing paranormal activities, and basically looked quite pale, and his hair was unusually disheveled into brown stochastic locks.

          Chase said his usual catchphrase, more properly and correct this time, but Ryder hadn't flinched nor stopped himself from whatever he is doing.

          Of course, Chase had to say his lines a little louder — he really doesn't have a choice and did so, which luckily did the trick.

          As his cheeks flushed pink in embarrassment, he quickly muttered an apology relating to his trance and immediately proceeded into discussing today's mission.

          It wasn't anything major but a usual task. According to Ryder, there were a bunch of penguins that had gotten loose in the sixth Street of Adventure Bay; and the mission calls for Rocky and Everest.

          Rocky needed to be deployed, as he'll be needing to repair the cart that's supposedly the one containing the penguins; and Everest, who'll be needed to round the penguins up due to her having knowledge of snowy biomes.

          A few days back, after all the mess and unnecessary extra tasks that were thrown at them that made assigning Everest a role almost impossible to do, was done and instead of having to share tasks with one of them, Ryder decided to add a new one.

          Something she's familiar with.

          Although she still hadn't gotten a proper vehicle and still had to come with someone, she was given the role of being in charge of snowy tasks.

          Once everything that Ryder wanted to say was told, the duo leaped off of the ground swiftly, and rode the slide down immediately, while the boy himself, rode down the fireman pole to access his quad bike.

»»——⍟——««

          Arriving at the scene, Rocky had stopped by to fix the broken cart — the wheels were busted flat, the door hinges snapped loose, and there were minor dents that may or may not cause inconveniences later on.

          "You begin fixing that, Everest and I will round up the penguins." The boy says, as the Mongrel nodded in affirmation and had reverted his focus and attention into the persisting problem.

          Driving themselves to a plausible place where the penguins could've fled off to, Ryder questions the Husky where they should begin searching.

          Everest looked upon the surroundings. She was quite unsure which places those few flightless birds of the Arctic could've taken interest from.

          From her previous experiences within these "snowy" biomes, there weren't any penguins inhabiting her place. Maybe occasionally they have crossed paths, but she never knew, she just simply assumed that they were already dead meat digested by her and the pack.

          Clueless of what to do, Ryder was about to worry when he heard squawking somewhere in the nearby area. Both figures swiftly lift their chins up and looked into the direction of where the noise was coming from.

          There were about three penguins waddling around Mr. Porter's shop, two of them entertaining themselves with what the shop has to offer, and one of them has decided to leave.

          Not too long though, it began to rapidly run away when the city horns of various vehicles honked. It squawked as it leaves.

          "Round up those two penguins, I'll try catching up with the other one." He commands, as Everest leapt upon her paws and ran towards the probably suffering penguins that could not handle the bay's heat.

          The husky reached Porter's humble shop, not exceeding than a minute, and one of them is attempting to break in to the shopkeeper's chest freezer.

         "Oh no no!" She tells the penguin, despite it being incapable to understand simple English.

          It squawked in disappointment back and lonely looks at the cool wonderland that he could've gotten, but to his dismay, it was locked away with one or two tempered glasses — the one thing that's keeping them from uniting.

          Scanning the area, with all the present materials that she has seen, she thought of ways on how to round these two penguins up.

          Realizing that these penguins are attracted to cool, she went inside to ask Mr. Porter if he wouldn't mind if she'd take two popsicles and a basket, and promised him she'd pay him back.

          Acquiring a plausible deal, he gestured his hands that she could take all the materials she'd needed. And so with that, she lured the two penguins into the basket. Although, the other one seems to not respond to the cool.

          Checking upon it, its eyes were closed shut, and was heaving in a ragged and rapid way. "That's not good.." She eventually concludes, as she placed the poor penguin into the basket and carried back to where Rocky was.

          Rocky's finishing the repair on one of the broken carts, and he, later on, noticed ragged breaths from behind and looked back. He found Everest with a worried face plastered upon her face, and in the distance came Ryder along with the other penguins that were missing.

          "Rocky," The husky announced in an exhausting way. Dropping what the mongrel currently was doing, he drew closer and went to inspect what she has to say.

          No words were told and she had just pushed the basket of two penguins; right away, the grey mongrel knew what was up.

          Just in time, Ryder had arrived along with the other penguins and have seen the little scene that stood before him. He looked at the bunch that's in the basket and fished his pad out.

          "I'm calling back up." He says without any further explanation, as the dial tone hummed. It lit up.

»»——⍟——««

          As the engines had slowly halted themselves and roared anti-climatically, a familiar figure made a beeline forth the patient with all its needed materials in his pup-pack.

          "Marshall, you gotta help the poor penguin. It must be suffering from this heat! I can't imagine being—" The dally cuts her ramble short and shushed her as he stepped forward to examine the supposedly suffering patient.

           Everest just stood behind the medic as he performed his duties; feeling antsy and all that, her vision just basically went South, and truly was she out of touch from reality.

           "Are you okay?" Someone asks. Her eyes blinked in confusion and surprise, lifting her chin up to properly see the one who just spoke. Upon seeing its face, it smiles warmly at it.

           "Yeah, I'm fine.. " Her lips were carved into a smile, though the sense of being boggled was very present in it "..Thank you, um.." As the figure drew nearer, she notices that it seemed genuinely concerned and its expression's only on its way at the end of the storm.

           It was offering its paw, so Everest placed her young and fragile paws onto it. Being pulled back upon her paws, she finally had gotten a clearer view of the figure.

           You could clearly sense the pure youth and innocence within those features that were almost conflated with the tundric environment. Something inside his body and soul seemed like a horrible past, but it was his youth that kept him together.

            Everest couldn't help but smile at this, as something in that heart that's implanted along with her soul — had been complete. It wasn't exactly the piece she's been searching for years, it wasn't a perfect fit, but it was enough to patch it up and give her hope.

           The figure laughed for catching her off-guard with a simper pastiched onto her face. Shaking his head in amusement "I'm Eirwen. Nice to meet you—?"

           "Everest." She says, though the blow came out like uncertainty. Skeptical at first, she just proceeded with what she wanted to do "My name's Everest." She says with finality this time.

          There was a short beat of silence played for them. Soon though, he offered "Wanna come with? You seem lonely out here?"

          Grinning like a fool for a priceless candy, she accepted his offer and trailed behind him in this white-filled area. "Yeah, I'd like that."

          Flabbergasted, she found Marshall's spine-shivering gaze locked onto her orbs. "You what?" He mouthed to her, as Ryder in the background, announced that Marshall and Everest can go ahead and take the penguin to a special veterinary hospital.

          "We'll swing by soon, just as I finish repairing these hinges," Rocky tells them, as he diverts his attention back onto the unfinished project that's still in front of him.

         Not saying a single thing, Marshall immediately brought the patient into the back of his ambulance and ordered Everest to get in along with the penguin.

          Sounds of steps against the rocky and dusty played in the background, and soon came a loud door thud, these noises were nothing to her and registered in her mind as blank.

          Blinking thrice, she skimmed her gaze onto the ceiling of the vehicle. White. It was all she saw. It was flawlessly that and only that color painted onto it.

           The seeming useless sentimental color brought such events that Everest wanted to forget so badly. Its pure white hue reminded her juvenile periods, oh how silly was she to think that her life would only get better? But poor young Everest was given a present by Life, and opening its mysterious box was a happily bouncing punch to her face.

           Laughing at her. And so was she.

          But it wasn't your typical laugh, it was a laugh of irritation and regret and cringe altogether. A kind of laugh where you're just unsure of how to react, and your sense of clarity and sanity had decided to be so foreign to you. Nothing was generally funny, but the thought of how ridiculously upsetting the situation was made it seem hilarious.

          It was merely as if yesterday she were by Eirwen's side, racing with each other along the rolling snowy hills, picking pansies, and competed on who would get the most. To her unfortunate fate, it was a race on who'd get to escape the toxicity of the pack, picking options with that sand slowly dissipating itself.

          Oh, how she wishes to turn back time. Sadly though, it is not a game where she could just restart what she's progressed with, and delete all that data. She has to finish what she had started and fix what she's broken along the way, no matter how impossible it is to repair.

          Repair.

          "What happened to this poor lil' guy, Marshall?" She began, as she looked upon the penguin that has an ice pack on its body.

          "Heatstroke." The dally bluntly replies as silence followed his words again. Having the conversation cut short and clogging its flow, Everest struggled to converse with him and produce a topic to talk with him.

          "Why're you awfully quiet now?" Was what she said next "No reason." Was what he said, replying so short at her query again.

          Everest was utterly flabbergasted at what is going on with him. Perhaps, he had an issue back at the lookout? Or maybe was it because the penguin's state was more serious than she initially thought, and had just replied with an excuse that would put her at ease?

          No. It doesn't make sense. Everest recounted the past events and there was nothing she did that would make the Dalmatian himself, upset with her irrational impulses. In fact, she's been careful for a couple of hours already, and she's aware that none of them was infuriating.

          "Marshall—?"

          "You and I both know that we don't want to interact with each other. So stop making an effort to build a conversation."

          Lost for words, she fell into silence as her eyes had fallen onto the floor of the ambulance, completely pushed and taken aback by his response, she now knows what's behind this dally.

           Actually — complicated dally. She now knows that.. This Dalmatian refuses to converse with her. Those past events where they both were laughing at something — heads thrown in the back and hung so loosely and effortlessly with light chests, and the time when she felt that he truly accepts her—

          Everest concluded that.. They were only caught up in the moment.