Tongue Tied (Valentine's Day Special)

Chapter 1: Peculiar Behavior

It was a brisk yet sunny day in the town of Adventure Bay. The city was staying occupied and running smoothly as it should. With Valentine's Day only one day away, everyone who was going to celebrate it was getting ready with what time they had left. All the various shops and businesses were decorated in red and pink hearts, along with other such lovey-dovey decorations to celebrate the occasion. All in all, it was a pleasant and welcoming atmosphere as the day of LOVE quickly approached.

Just outside the town on a peninsula stood The Lookout - the headquarters of The PAW Patrol. The pups and their leader were relaxing and playing as their rescue services were not needed at the moment. The leader of the team, a boy named Ryder, was currently in the top observatory of the tower doing some performance checks on the computer equipment. Test after test, he logged the results down, smiling in satisfaction as the electronics ran smoothly and were up to date.

Meanwhile on the grounds outside The Lookout, the pups were playing around on a homemade obstacle course. On the starting line was a Cockapoo named Skye, the aviator/flight rescue pup; and an English Bulldog named Rubble, the construction/heavy equipment pup of the team. Watching them on the sidelines were their fellow teammates: a Dalmatian named Marshall, the fire/EMT pup; a gray Mixed Breed named Rocky, the technician/inventor pup; and a Chocolate Labrador Retriever named Zuma, the water rescue pup. Just beside the starting line with a whistle in paw stood a German Shepherd named Chase, the police pup of The PAW Patrol.

"You two pups ready?" asked Chase as the other two pups got in position. "You are both about the same size so it should be mostly fair."

Skye did a playful flip and smirked at her opponent. "Oh, you bet I am. Prepare to eat dust Rubble!"

Rubble rolled his eyes sarcastically with a confident look on his face. "Har har. Don't you worry. I'll be eating your dust when you cross the finish in second place."

"On your marks!" Chase began as the two competitors lined paw-to-paw on the edge of the starting line.

"Get set!" said the police pup next, raising the whistle to his mouth. Both Rubble and Skye were now leaning forward a little with their rear legs dug into the ground, ready to dart at full speed once they got the starting signal.

"GO!" shouted Chase as he blew hard into the whistle; letting off a long, loud shrill.

Both pups sped past the starting line at full speed, kicking up a little grass as they took off. Their fellow teammates cheered the two pups on as they approached the first obstacle: a long hollowed out log to crawl through. Although only about twenty feet long, the log felt longer at the slower rate the two pups had to travel as the crawled low on all fours. Both started their crawl well, but due to his bigger build in the shoulders, Rubble kept bumping into the sides of the log, allowing Skye and her more petite figure to take a small lead. Once they reached the end, Skye popped out first and ran to the next part as fast as she could. Seven short seconds later, Rubble emerged from his log as well and bounded over to the obstacle as well.

"Yeah! Woooo! Skye is in the lead!" exclaimed Zuma as he and the other three pups watched with glee.

"Maybe for right now," observed Rocky, "But Rubble is catching up and has a possible chance to make some sort of lead in this next part."

All four pups watched with eagerness as Skye approached the next section with Rubble not to far behind her. For the next part both pups had to test their agility by running in-between traffic cones and up over a few tree trunks. Arriving first, Skye skipped in and out and around the cones, jumping over the first tree trunk gracefully. Zig-zaging through the other cones, Skye took a glance back to see how her opponent was doing. Just a few feet behind her, Rubble was catching up as he started going through the second set of cones.