PA 3.5: End of a Tail

Chapter VII Part II

Sparky and Olive quickly moved to catch her in case she'd fall forward, but she fell back into a seated position on the bed. Both the dogs wrapped their paws around her arms, intent on keeping her in the bed.

"Okay... One, two-" she said, intent on trying to stand up with the help of her friends.

"Ginger, wait!" Sparky quickly interrupted, putting as much force as he could behind keeping her as motionless as possible. She still tried getting up but to no avail.

"Sparky!" she barked, intimidating the dog. "He has Brownie, but I hurt him! Just get me up and we can finally kill him!"

Olive cringed at the word, taking their paws away from Ginger and grimacing.

"What?! I'm not letting you go- you can't even walk like this, and there's no way you could fight him like this."

Olive took a step away from the argument, covering their ears in an attempt to stop the yelling.

"I'll go!" Rover said, catching everyone's attention as he stood on Sparky's roller bed, getting it messy with dry flecks of dirt. "Yeah! This Patches guy doesn't stand a chance now that I know he has that girl with him!"

Sparky ignored Rover, while Olive seemed rather pessimistic at the moment, and Ginger was trying to force herself to stand up.

"Ginger?" Olive asked as they lowered their paws, getting the dog's attention but not stopping her from slapping away Sparky's grip and trying to get up again. "... You shouldn't have to do this y-yourself. We're your friends, please, trust u-us."

"What?! Like how we trusted him? Everyone got hurt because I didn't keep Patches in purrgatory, and I am not letting that happen again," Ginger snapped at Olive, stunning them into silence. Sheer anger was plastered across her face, and her eyes darkened with it.

Sparky let Ginger go, putting his paw on Olive's back and motioning them to leave the room. "Olive... I'm just going to chat with Ginger. Rover, can you take them outside and meet us in the front of the school in ten minutes, and if you see Luna or Holly, could you take them with you?"

Rover saluted. "Yes, captain!" Then leapt off the bed, making the dirt on it bounce into the air before settling back down on the ruined sheets. He patted Olive on the back and started walking forward with them. "Say, I've got a real sudden urge to show someone my card collection-"

Sparky paused, speaking up just as Rover was about to close the door leading to the halls. "Rover?"

Rover turned around, letting Olive walk out into the hall. "Yeah?"

"... Get me a hockey stick from the gym, and make sure to grab your bat."

The prospect of a fight made Rover's eyes shimmer with excitement, making it clear he had never been in one before. Sparky was amazed the dog was so happy despite everything. Unlike Olive, however, he didn't ever seem to be good at sharing that happiness. Sparky smiled as he turned around towards Ginger.

Ginger seemed to realize her mistake. "Wait... Olive, I'm-" the closing of the door cut her off. Ginger narrowed her eye in guilt, the rest of her face concealed by her long hair. The bloodhound's features weakened as she planted her paws on her knees, beginning to think long and hard about what she had just said.

Sparky was disappointed in her; his voice was equal parts upset and consoling. "... We need to warn Coco; there's no way we can take on Patches without you. I need you to tell the volunteers to stay in the town and make sure not to go near Patches' house."

Ginger nodded. It looked like she was about to cry, but not even a whimper came from the stoic dog.

Sparky gave it a moment, sighed, then continued. "... She'll be coming to Hachiko soon with the others. Now that they have Brownie, they can start making demands- we need to find them before they hurt her." She still sat there, silent, barely nodding.