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Abigail's tongue rolled happily out of her mouth as she tried bounding through the high snow. She paused in her attempt at running to yip at her brother to catch up. She knew, of course, that it wasn't his fault for being younger and smaller and slower. God was he slower. But she actually tried to listen to her parents when they tried to teach them manners and did her best to wait for him to catch up. "Coop, come on! Mama said we only get four hours to practice our searching before we have to go back." She tried to put a stern look on her face as he caught up. "And you've already wasted time by getting distracted so much. Mama said we had 4 markers to search and find, and who do you think has already found two of them?" She arched her brow as she teased him slightly. She knew he hadn't really found his passion for search and rescue yet, but she hadn't given up on trying to help teach him either.
Cooper did his best to wiggle a path through the snow. If only Abi would let him use the path she made, things would go much faster. But as older sister, she claimed she had rights to tell him orders. He gave a small sigh as he conceded in his head that it was true she was usually the one paying attention during their lessons and probably 'knew best' anyways. "I can't smell anything in this snow" Making sure she could see his small pout as she looked over her shoulder again. "And all this snow is freezing my paw pads." He lifted his nose to the air and gave a quick sniff for any markers that might have been placed near by. He understood the importance of what they were doing, but with so many siblings, couldn't he possibly get a chance to do what he wanted and just explore nature without having an agenda? You missed so many interesting things when your head was full of one purpose.
Abigail rolled her eyes as she could see her younger brother's attention drift off. She ignored the little rise in her chest as she had watched him finally put his mind on their task and lift his nose to the air. But not a few moments later his eyes were clouded with dreams as they scanned the area. Her muscles were starting to get sore from all the high stepping she had to do and tried to remember her brother must be having it worse. She wouldn't always be around though, and she wanted to see he could make his own path through the snow. "I think mama said the two other markers were to the south, so we should go straight from here." It was then she heard the happy yip as her brother jumped past her and ran with all his might. "COOP! Slow down, you're gonna get hurt!" She ran after him, falling snow starting to obscure her vision. She had no idea what had put a fire under him but going blind in the snow was almost worse than keeping her bogged down. Abigail finally caught up to him at the mouth of a cave. Her tight body springing on him and causing them both to tumble into the cave mouth and hitting a wall near the entrance.
Then there was darkness.
Cooper's head popped up out of part of the snow bank that had collapsed on top of them, trapping them into the cave. Now he really scowled as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. At this point it was almost like he could feel his bones chattering inside him from the cold. "What was that for?!" His voice ringing in his ears as he tried to shove what he assumed was snow and his sister off of him. "You said to go straight so I went straight!" Of course, he would have never admitted to her or any of his other siblings that he had started to run from hearing one of his favorite bird calls in the near distance. He wasn't sure what the were called, but he loved seeing the plump flashes of red every time he saw one. At last it seemed his eyes were adjusting to the soft glow around them and he could properly talk into the direction of his sister when he complained. "Are you gonna dig us out, cause my paws are too frozen to dig."
Abigail was rubbing a paw against her muzzle where it had presumably hit against the wall of the cave, or her brothers thick skull. "MY mess?" She whirled around to face him, though her eyes had not adjusted yet, her ears were sharper and could tell her brothers whine over his echoes. "Who's idea was it to run straight Into A Cave" her annoyance emphasized "When mama said the markers were all in the open field or by the woods?" Her eyes squinted as the thought occurred to her "What were you running for, Coop?"
The question sounded more accusatory than Coop was willing to admit as he winced, because she had been right. Again. "I uhhhh...." His mind was quick when he had no distractions around, but guilt could also be a distraction. "I thought I had smelled a marker, and then you jumped me and I went off course." If a dog could cross his arms and snub his head, he would have. Instead, he gave a sniff as he lifted his head. "So you are really the reason why our entrance is covered in 10ft of snow." With his eyes as adjusted as they were going to get, he turned back to look at her, a sly grin now on his lips "And I don't see any digging yet."
Abigail had had enough of her brothers sass and fibs and decided now was as good a time as any to stuff his face back into the snowbank. A smile of her own crept up as she heard him coughing and spitting out part of the snow that now buried them. "Will you be quiet? I can't see as well as you in the dark and I can't hear anything over your sniffling. I swear, the only time you bother to sniff is when you are whining." She heard no remarks back and felt a pang of guilt as her own words echoed in her mind. "And there's no use trying to dig our way out of this mess. We'll just have to stay here till mama or papa can find us." She had always admired how quickly her parents could find things that needed rescuing. It was because of them she had such a love for the job they were training for. All they had to do was wait the two other hours they had been given in their search, and soon after Abigail was sure they would come looking for them. The hard part would be waiting those two hours in the cold cave.
Cooper's head hung low as he took the tongue lashings his sister gave him. He had never really been the type to bite back, especially when he had been caught daydreaming and letting his excitement for nature take control. It was in the silence, with his head hanging close to the cave floor that his nose picked up the faint whiff of something other than fresh snow and cave wall. As he lowered his head, it was almost like the scent danced up from under his frozen paws and into his nostrils that he was able to place the scent. Rabbit. There had been rabbits in this cave at some point. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his sister look over at him then away again. He was sure she thought he was probably crying to himself. 'Fine' he thought to himself. 'If you have given up on finding a way out, then I will. It's too cold in here for me.' He shifted forward so his nose was as close to touching the cold floor without having to feel the sting of cold. It was there! There was a break in the side of the cave! It wasn't just a small indent in the hill, but one with a path!
Abigail was just about to suggest they huddle together for warmth when she heard his claws scuff against the rock floor. It wasn't often she allowed herself to feel smug, but she was glad he had given into the need of warmth before she had. Then instead of the sound growing closer, it started to grow fainter. Her head tilted as she did her best to look in the direction his scuffing had come from. "Where are you going? If you get too close to the back wall its going to be even colder." He was always complaining about the cold. The sounds became lesser still and her brows knit together in confusion. "Coop! Where are you going?" As she got to her feet, she stepped as quietly as she could to try and follow him. She had never been as good as him at seeing in the dark. One of the strengths he had that made the pain of losing his talents for search and rescue even more painful.
Coop waited for her to catch up, he knew her ears would be able to pick up even his breathing in this quiet place. "I smelled something. I noticed the track leads down this narrow walkway." He turned to see she was with him now and tried his best to sound strong and keep the whine out of his tone. For now. "And you know I can't handle this chill for however long it's going to take mama to find us." He didn't wait to hear her retort before moving again. He was sure she would have a dozen reasons why they should stay there. He only needed the one reason why not to. "And before you say anything, can't you feel the air coming from this direction?"
It took all her might to not mention the air could be coming from a ceiling vent. Or that the path might drop off feet away from whatever exit this path might lead. It was nice for a change to see her younger brother take charge for once. Nicer still to be in charge most times, but she could give him this once, or even a few more if he ended up leading them someplace that led to freedom. Or at least warmth, she silently admitted to herself. And as long as their parents found the cave, there was not much harm in letting him think he was doing something productive. With that she made up her mind to continue to follow him for now.
It felt like only moments when Cooper began to see more detail of the cave walls. He had known his eyes had already adjusted, which meant only one thing: Light was coming in from someplace! He quickened his pace, making sure Abigail could still follow. he had faith her eyes would soon see the difference and be able to keep up quicker. With confirmation he heard her happy yip and saw the streak of brown run past him. Feeling his heart give a leap of excitement, he quipped back "Now who's running?" His breath running shallow by the time he caught up with her at a different cave entrance, more from the cold than his running.
They pranced around each other in the open air. Abigail splashing snow up into his face with laughter. "You did it Coop!" She rolled onto her back, out of breath with glee. "And now we can go home without mama finding out we were in trouble." Her eyes opened as the silence became palpable. Confusion swamped over her as she got to her feet, her brother as still as the cave they had just left. When she turned to see what he was looking at she froze. In the distance was their mother. Standing at the entrance that had once been their prison. Abigail did not need to be able to see her mothers face from this distance to be able to see the stern body language she held. One word echoed between them. One that sent shivers up their spines, one that signaled many things. But in this instance, they both knew it meant two things. Fall in line, and there was trouble ahead.
"Pups"
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