Rocky added some more wood to the fire, looking over at Zuma. He was stretched out by the fire, warming his paws up.
"Good, you're up. I was starting to get worried," said Rocky walking over the Zuma.
"It takes a little more than a fweezing water wescue to take me out," said Zuma, puffing out his chest.
"Yeah right," said Rocky nudging him, "If I hadn't gotten this fire started, you would've died of hypothermia."
"Well, pwops to you for that, I guess," said Zuma, smirking.
"Props to me... I saved your life!" said Rocky putting a paw to his chest as if he was offended.
"And I saved youws, so now we're even," said Zuma, licking Rocky's cheek. Their playful banter was just a way to hide the fear they both felt for the other's safety.
"Now that we've finished cheating death, what do we do?" asked Rocky.
"Hmmm...I think we should explore the island and try to find out where we are," suggested Zuma.
"Good idea, but maybe we should find some food first. I'm starving," said Rocky, stomach growling.
"What food? We're on an island in the middle of nowhere." question Zuma, exasperated.
"Good point," admitted Rocky sadly.
"We'll just have to tough it out. Come on, let's go explore," said Zuma, walking towards the cave entrance.
Rocky thought about putting on his suit but decided against it. It wasn't made to keep you warm.
Rocky followed Zuma out of the cave, carefully arranging the brush back around the door.
The wind had stopped whistling, and the waves had calmed down. There was still a lot of snow on the ground though.
"Hmmm, this is going to be hawd to walk thwough," commented Zuma, pulling his paws out of the snow.
"Let me see something." Rocky's paws began to glow. A glowing ball of green appeared in the sky. "A shovel should do the trick," said Rocky forming a glowing green shovel with his powers. He then looked it over. "It'll do." he finally said. Rocky sent the shovel ahead of them, clearing away the snow as they walked. Rocky and Zuma looked around, taking in their surroundings. Not that there was much to take in mind you. It was nothing but a vast expanse of white, which blanketed everything. After walking for a bit, they stopped for a rest.
"Honestly, I was expecting more," said Zuma dryly.
"Yeah, me too. It's going to be so boring waiting for Ryder to find us."
"Agweed," said Zuma. As the duo stood up, Rocky tripped over something.
"Oww!" said Rocky, yanking back his paw. There was a small laceration on his skin, and it began to bleed a little.
"Whoa, dude, you gotta be more caweful." Said Zuma, bending his head to lick Rocky's paw. Some Zuma had licked his cut clean.
"Thewe. That should help," he said.
"Thanks, Zuma. It feels a lot better now," said Rocky examining his paw.
"What did you twip over dude?" inquired Zuma.
"That dumb rock over there," said Rocky, pointing a paw in the direction of the rock. Zuma glanced at it and said,
"You mean this one?" he said pointing.
"Yeah, that one, why? It's just a rock." Rocky said.
"No, it looks more like a squawe," said Zuma, looking at the rock more closely.
"Big whoop, a square rock," said Rocky sarcastically. Zuma pressed the rock with his paw and it sunk into the ground a little with a grinding noise.
"I don't think this is a rock, it looks like it's a trigger of some sort." Zuma looked around.
"There's another one!" said Zuma, running over to it and pushing it down with his paw.
"There's one right over there too!" said Rocky, catching Zuma's excitement. He pressed it, and like the others, it went down a little with a grinding noise.
"What do you think they do?" asked Rocky
"I don't know? Maybe they are switches to a secwet entwance or something... like you see in the movies.
"That's preposterous," said Rocky, watching Zuma go over to another stone and push it in.
"These rocks totally don't do any..." the rest of what Rocky was going to say was lost to the ages as a large square rock rose out of the ground. It had a picture of a dog carved into it, and it was made from the same material as the other stone.
"What were you saying?" said Zuma, smirking at him. Rocky's jaw hit the ground.
"What...how did... huh?" he babbled. Zuma walked over to the raised stone switch.
"Hey, Rocky, there's a symbol carved into the stone. It looks like a pup tag. Rocky cautiously joined his partner. "What? Oh... it really is," said Rocky. The symbol looked like a pup's tag with three arrows going in circles around it.
'"It looks just like your pup tag!" said Zuma, bouncing around excitedly.
"This doesn't make any sense...why is this here?" said Rocky confused, one paw touching his pup tag.
"Does any of this make any sense? No, it doesn't. But you're hewe for a weason, and I intend to find out why. Come on Wocky, put it in the slot."
"Well okay, but if this goes bad, it's your fault," Rocky warned him
"Fine, now put it in already!" exclaimed Zuma. Rocky unbuckled his pup tag and nudged it into the slot. Nothing happened.
"Humph... It thought something was going to..." The large stone began to open up from the middle, going out towards the sides. Dust fell into the cavern and there was an eerie glow. Coming from it.
"My tag!" exclaimed Rocky, who quickly withdrew it from the slot it was in. The hole slowly began to close.
"Let's go, Rocky before it closes!"
"I...I can't we don't know what's down there!"
"And we'll never know if we don't jump!"
"I...I...I..." said Rock, panicking.
"Looks like we're doing this the hard way."
So just before it shut, Zuma pushed Rocky in and jumped after him. The fall wasn't far, and there was a bed of leaves conveniently placed at the bottom. They both managed to land on their paws, Rocky with extreme grace.
"DUDE! That was totally uncool!" said Rocky, flustered.
"Yeah, maybe, but you wouldn't have gone otherwise."
"You could've gone by yourself."
"And let you miss out on all the fun? Never." Seeing Rocky glaring at him, he whimpered and bowed his frontside, ears against his head, looking submissive.
"I'm sowwy Wocky, but I just have this feeling that we need to be here. I just don't know what came over me, it was like I needed to push you. I'm sowry for being a bad pup." Zuma whimpered. Rocky's heart melted seeing Zuma like that.
"Oh, Zuma, you're not a bad pup, you're my best friend! But don't do that again." Zuma sprang back up and bowled Rocky over, licking his face incessantly.
"Okay, I forgive you, now please stop. Zuma stopped licking him and just stared into his hazel-brown eyes with a goofy, grateful smile on his face. Rocky looked up at him and smiled, red just barely tinting his cheeks. Zuma licked his nose and got off of him.
"Let's go explore!" he said walking down the narrow passageway.
"Wait for me!" said Rocky getting up to catch up with Zuma.
The two trotted down the hallway as silently as they could. As they rounded a corner in the passage they noticed what the walls were made of.
"Zuma, this looks exactly like the meter in the lookout!"
"You're wight! It is the same stuff." Rocky and Zuma placed their paws on the massive meteor and their paws glowed.
"I feel more connected to my powers hewe, like I have more contwol over them," said Zuma, drawing water from the air to prove his point. "I could never do that before..." he trailed off looking and Rocky. Rocky was looking straight ahead of them.
"Look Zuma, there's the source of the light!" said Rocky, picking up the pace. As they traveled a little farther, a golden glow washed over them.
"This must be the center of the entire structure," observed Rocky. "Every path connects here." As he looked around he saw multiple paths branching off from the room they were in, going different directions. In the very center of the room was a circle with symbols carved into them that looked intricate, but neither Rocky nor Zuma could figure out what they meant.
"Zuma, I feel weird, my head hurts," mumbled Rocky, collapsing on the ground. The glow in the room reached an almost unbearable brightness.
"Rocky, what's going on?" said Zuma fearfully
"I feel like something is separating from me like I'm being emptied."
"Rocky, we should get out of here, this place is doing something to you." Zuma went to help Rocky to his feet, but Rocky began to levitate off the ground. Zuma just stared at him in awe.
The white light that had filled the room was offset by the emerald green color that started emitting from Rocky. Rocky looked around in fear. This isn't natural, why is this happening!"
Then Rocky heard a voice
"It's okay, It'll all be over soon." The voice sounded like Rocky, but he (Rocky) wasn't saying anything. Rocky was slowly placed back on the ground. Zuma ran over to him.
"Are you okay...WHOA! What happened to you?!" Rocky looked semi-transparent.
"I feel so empty...what's going on?" Rocky said looking down at himself.
"Ahhh! I can see through myself! And I can't feel anything, it's like I'm...no, it can't be! Zuma, am I a ghost? Am I dead?" Zuma's heart leaped in his throat for a minute as he looked at Rocky.
"No, I don't think you're dead..." he mumbled, not really sure.
"No, Rocky, you're not dead." Zuma and ghost Rocky jumped back in fright.
"Wocky, that sounded..." Rocky finished the sentence with him, "just like you/me!"
"Alright, I've had my fun, I didn't think I could scare myself so easily."
Rocky slammed his not-there paw down on the ground.
"You'd better show yourself, and give me back my body!" A figure emerged from the light and sat down beside them. It was...Rocky? The pup looked exactly like him, except he was pure white instead of gray. He too was semi-transparent. "Goodness, it took forever to get you here. Creating hurricanes without you isn't easy, neither is controlling an entire ocean easy either. And I almost couldn't get you to jump down into the hole, but our friend was very useful for that. Oh, and Zuma," he said looking at the amazed brown lab, "Thanks for keeping him safe, or us safe or... sorry, having two of the same pup, it's kind of hard to tell who I'm talking about. I made sure to keep you alive, even though you almost froze to death."
"What are you talking about?" spluttered Rocky inching closer to his double. "Who are you?"
"As I said before," he said, "I am you. Now listen, I'm going to tell you what's going on. And please don't be afraid of me, I'm not going to hurt you. And I'm not going to hurt you either, Zuma, you're my best friend. Now sit tight, I'll tell you what's going on."
Rocky calmed his breathing, and Zuma sat down very close to him.
"Before I begin, I'll tell you my name. Even though I'm you, Rocky, things might get confusing concerning who's being talked about. So for all intents and purposes, you can call me Michael."
What in the world just happened? Rocky and Zuma find a secret passageway under the island, made of the same meteor that fuels their powers. Rocky is split in two and doesn't have a body anymore. Rocky's double, who's calling himself Michael, says it was he who started the hurricane and apparently took control over Zuma. But why? Who is Rocky? Who is Michael? What is the secret room up under an abandoned island? Find out next.