"Alright Mrs. Goodway, your leg seems to be fine, just try and stay off it for a bit, ok?" Marshall told her. He had just finished giving her a check-up, luckily, nothing major was wrong.

"Ok Marshall, thank you, and you too Everest." The Mayor praised. The dally nodded happily, satisfied with his rescue. Not to mention the fact that he got to do it with Everest which was always nice.

However, the husky was in a world of her own. She was staring off into the forest. She could've sworn that she saw someone. They almost looked like- "Hey, what are you looking at? Everything ok?" Marshall asked, snapping her out of her trance.

"Oh nothing, I just thought I saw someone. I'm probably just being paranoid." She answered as Marshall nodded in response. She looked back and saw no one. Hoping it was just her imagination, she tried to ignore it.

After Mrs. Goodway left, they noticed a very familiar skier walking up to them. "Jake!" Everest shouted as she ran up and tackled him to the grounded, showering him with licks. Even though she didn't live with him anymore, he was still almost like a father to her.

"Haha, alright girl, I missed you too. Think you can get off me now?" He asked. Everest sheepishly jumped off of him and apologized. "You're fine, I'm glad to see you too. So what's up? You guys here for a mission?" He questioned Ryder.

"Yep, but we just finished so we'll probably head back now." The boy replied, much to someone's disappointment.

"Aww, but Ryder, can't we hang out for a bit?" Marshall asked, giving him the puppy dog eyes. Everest was a bit unsure, still thinking about who she thought she saw. But, she just shrugged it off and took her mate's side.

"Alright fine, we can stay for a bit. You two go have some fun." Ryder gave in. Both pups immediately ran off and starting playing in the snow. Jake smiled and turned to Ryder. "Those to really act like pups sometimes."

"Oh man, you have no idea. I don't think I've ever seen those to apart aside from missions since Everest moved in." Ryder responded, laughing a bit as he pulled out his puptag and called Chase to let him know about the situation.

"Hello, Ryder sir! Is everything ok with the mission?" He asked, wondering why he might have called. Usually, the team was only called when someone else was needed, so he was prepared to get the pups and meet them on the mountain.

"Yeah we're done, everything went fine, I was just letting you know that it may be a while before we get back." Ryder answered as he flipped the camera around to show Marshall and Everest playing happily in the snow.

Chase couldn't help but laugh at the two. "Yeah, that seems about right. I'll go tell the others you'll be a bit late, bye!" He replied as he hung up.

After a while of playing, the two pups went over by a cliffside to take a break. They both leaned on each other as they looked in distance, taking in the massive view. "This is beautiful." The husky exclaimed.

"Yep, it really is. Not as beautiful as you thought." The dally replied. Everest blushed a bit and playfully nudged him at his remark. Marshall laughed at her reaction. "Hey, I'm not wrong." He added.

"Oh shush, you're so cheesy sometimes." The husky shot back, but she couldn't help but laugh too. That was one of the things she had always liked about him, his natural sense of humor. He was always able to make her laugh.

The two calmed down and continued to gaze upon the view. It was nice being able to enjoy this moment, they didn't get many like this. Unfortunately for them, it didn't last forever. A new voice called out to them, but it wasn't one they had expected.

"Well, look who it is."

Everest froze in fear the second she heard it. Marshall looked at her confused as she immediately stood up in a panic. She knew who the voice belonged to. She knew it far too well. And now, she was terrified. Not only for herself, but for her mate.

"Marshy, get behind me." She demanded in a worried tone. The dally was about to ask why before she spoke up again. "Just do it." Hesitantly, he did as he was told, still having no idea what was going on. Or what was about to come next.

After a few seconds of silence, someone came out of the forest. A large, dark-colored husky to be exact. Someone that confirmed Everest's worst fear. Marshall looked at the husky for a moment. Suddenly, he realized who he was. The dots had connected themselves. It was Damian.

"H-how did you get here? I-I thought you were gone. I don't understand. W-what do you want? W-why are you here?" Everest asked, clearly panicking. Despite normally being very brave, deep down she was beyond terrified.

Damian only looked at her and smirked, then eyed Marshall carefully before finally speaking up. "So this is where you've been this whole time. And really? You really choose this klutz over me? You remember what I said would happen if you found a new mate, don't you? Yet here we are." He scoffed.

"Don't even think about touching him." Everest warned as she walked in front of the dally, who although wanted to protest the idea of her putting herself in the way of harm just for him, stayed quiet.

"Eh, whatever. It's not him I care for. Listen, I'm feeling generous. Come back with me, we'll go back home, and no one has to get hurt." The larger husky offered.

Everest didn't even take a second question what he had said. "NO! Do you really think I'm stupid enough to listen to you? Our owners never paid attention to us, and you just made my life even more miserable. I'd rather die than have to go back to that." She snapped.

"That was a very poor choice of words," Damian replied, starting to growl. The other two pups knew exactly where this was going. The female husky prepared herself, mainly mentally, and stood her ground. As of now, her number one goal was to keep Marshall safe from harm.

"Marshy, stay out of this. I don't care what happens, let me handle this." Everest stated. Marshall was unsure of how to respond. On one side, he could see she was serious, but on the other, he couldn't just not help her. However, before he got the chance to interject, the two huskies were already attacking each other.

The dally's eyes widened in fear. Of course, he was terrified of seeing Everest fighting like this. Despite putting up a fight, he could tell she was losing. He knew if he didn't do anything, this wouldn't end well.

He was never much of a fighter, but still, he wasn't going to stand there and just watch. He tried to run into the fight and help, but almost immediately, Damian bit him hard in the back. The dally yelped in pain, and before he could do anything else, he was scratched in the face.

Marshall tried to stay up, but was forced to give in to the pain. He fell over, unable to do anything anymore. He could feel his vision blurring, he knew he wouldn't stay conscious for long. However, he could still see well enough to see what was happening to Everest. At this point, the fight basically over. She was covered in her own blood, it barely even looked like she was alive.

The dally tried to move, but he couldn't. It was useless. As much as he wanted to stand and help her, he couldn't. He was forced to watch her slowly bleeding as she laid helplessly in the snow, with a torn-off collar next to her.

"Any last words mutt?" Damian growled at her. Marshall's eyes widened in fear. Everest was about to die, and he couldn't do anything. This was the most scared he had ever felt. Seeing the husky so hurt like this was terrifying in such a different way than he had ever felt. Watching the life run out of the one you love had to be the most painful thing he had experienced.

"Please......don't do it." He forced himself to say, although it only came out as a small whimper. He was too weak at the moment to even speak clearly. 

Using what small amount of strength she had left, Everest turned and looked the dally in the eyes. "I-I......love y-you Marshy." She whispered, but still loud enough for him to hear. And with that, the husky closed her eyes and allowed herself to be pushed off the cliffside, knowing there was no way out of this.

Marshall wanted so badly to scream, to cry, to do anything. He had just watched his everything die before his own eyes. Damian turned and smirked him." You really are pathetic. You couldn't even save your own mate. It's your fault she's dead, you didn't do anything. You should be ashamed."

The dally couldn't respond even if he wanted to, his mind had gone completely blank. The last thing he was before falling into unconsciousness was the husky walking away, leaving him more alone than he had ever felt. 

◾◻◻⬛◻◻◾

Jake and Ryder were both walking around, calling out their pup's names. They knew they should've seen them by now. The two walked around the cliffside, and the younger boy gasped at what he saw. Marshall covered in injuries and completely unconscious. 

He immediately ran over to the dally and checked his pulse. He was still breathing which was a good sign, but he still suffered from the injuries. Ryder grabbed some bandages out of the dally's pup-pack and wrapped them around the wounds. It wasn't perfect, but it would hold the bleeding.

"Jake, where's Everest?" He asked, now realizing that she was nowhere to be seen. The skier looked around, looking for any sign of her, but ended up turning back to Ryder in disappointment.  

"I have no idea dude.  Her collar and puptag are here, but that's it." Jake replied worriedly.

"Wait a minute, their puptags have cameras in them. I can check them and maybe we find out what happened here." Ryder explained. He could tell that Everest's seemed to be broken, so he bent down and carefully took off Marshall's.

The two humans sat down and watched in horror as they saw the events that had taken place. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. Tears started to stream down both of their faces as they realized what had happened to Everest. 

"I-is it possible that she could've survived," Ryder asked nervously. Jake was just starring off in shock before turning back to the teen, and sadly shaking his head in response. 

"Even if she had somehow survived the fall, she would be alone. It would take hours just for us to get ready to go down there to search. There's no way she could live that long alone, she would've needed medical attention almost immediately." He replied dryly.

The two just sat on the ground in tears after Jake had confirmed the worst, before Ryder spoke up. "I'm really sorry, but I have to take Marshall to Katie's now. Do you want to come?" He offered.

Jake shook his head. "I-I think I some time alone dude. I just need to go clear my head." He answered. Ryder nodded, understanding what he meant.

Before Ryder left, he gave the skier a friendly hug. "Before you go, I think you should take this and give it to Marshall. Knowing how close they were, he's gonna be devastated when he wakes up. He might like to be able to hold on to this." Jake explained as he handed the boy Everest's collar and tag.

"Oh no, I didn't even think of that. I don't know how he'll react. But thanks, I'll give it to him." Ryder responded as he pulled out his pup pad and called Chase.

"Hey Ryder sir, what's up?" Chase paused for a moment as he looked at him through the screen. "Are.......are you crying? He asked worriedly. Ryder was silent for a moment before speaking up, his voice cracking slightly in the process.

"Get the rest of the pups and meet me at Katie's."