Beagle Embarkation: Part 3

Beagle Embarkation: Part 3
They all squished in the little opening in the tree trunk and it spun around until they were on the other side, they then darted towards the direction of south west, avoiding the different purple trees and bushes that stood in their way. "How's your scent?" Tailya asked, "Is it getting stronger?" "Yes, a little bit, but it seems like we need to go north now." Trooper changed directions and turned to north, the siblings followed. They darted north for about fifteen minutes until they noticed a change in atmosphere, the trees and bushes changed from purple and dark brown, to swampy green, the ground started to look rougher and the lush grass started to change into yellow, worn out grass or no grass at all. There was no more lavender scent or fresh dew smell from trees, instead it started to smell of lots of animals and swampy water. They realized that they were now on the Wild Side of the mountains.
"We're on the Wild Side now brothers, so be cautious. Rincon, stay behind me, Trevor, keep leading." They all kept darting through the mountains towards north, "My scent is getting stronger, This Way!" Trooper and the pups changed direction towards North East and saw in the distance a river.
They darted towards the river and once they got there, they ran into another problem. "How are we gonna get across this river?" Trooper asked the others, "Simple," Tailya said calmly, "We'll just jump over it like most small animals do," Tailya and Rincon suddenly both jumped over the river with such grace and landed perfectly at ease. Trooper backed up, hesitated, and darted as fast as he can towards the river. At the last second, he unexpectedly lost his footing and instead of jumping gracefully over the river, he fell head first into the swampy water.
Trooper perked his head up and saw that the currant was munurving him down the river, fast. "TREVOR!" Tailya and Rincon both yelled in panic as they both plunged into the water to rescue him. Now they were all racing down the river and were all stuck. "Oh no, that's not good." Rincon said as he saw the upcoming waterfall up ahead. "Everybody! Hang on!" Tailya screamed just as they all met. They hung on to each other and each held their breath. They then all dropped into the raging lake below.
They each perked their heads up as they emerged from the water, "Oh my days! We actually survived!" Tailya said in amazement, "Thank goodness we're all okay!" "Wait!" Trooper suddenly said, "My scent! It is stronger than ever! My owner must be around here somewhere_" "Wait," Tailya interrupted, "This water is too provoked for us to be in, we have to get on stable ground somehow,". "Look there!" Rincon shouted over the rain and waves, There's rocks all over the lake! They look stable enough for us to stand on!" "How will we ever get to those rocks?!" Trooper asked Tailya, "We're going to have to swim, it's the only way! But don't worry, Rincon and I are excellent swimmers, just follow our lead."

Tailya and her little brother both hurried over to the nearest rock in the lake and Trooper followed close behind. "Everyone!" Tailya ordered, "Stay close and keep an eye out for upcoming waves! We're gonna have to dodge them!" The three beagles swam fiercely through the even fiercer water. They dodged waves from every angle and swooshed from side to side to dodge them.
Once they got to the rock, one by one, the beagles climbed up it and each stood triumphantly once standing on the rock, They we're all soaking wet and tired from the swimming, they did not look so good on a majestic rock.
But as Trooper looked around from the rock for his owner, he suddenly saw him (Me) on the ledge way above and watching over the lake. We both stared at each other. We just gazed, and gazed, not believing that we actually found each other, that we were actually seeing each other right now.
Meanwhile high up on the cliff where me and Uncle Earen were, I was saying, "It can't be... it's actually him, Trooper!" "Wait_Where!?" I pointed to the rock Trooper was on, "Well would you look at that..." Uncle Earen said surprised, "It's actually him!, on that rock! Do you think he's in trouble?" "Poor thing... He probably is! We gotta rescue him and bring him home, but how we get to him?" "Well first," Uncle Earen began to say, "We got to get down the cliff somehow, and that's where our rock climbing skills come in!" "Okaya, no," I said firmly, there is no way I'm going rock climbing down that cliff with you, that's just too much of a risk." I saw that to the right down the way, there was luckley a smoother, less taller way down. "I'm going the longer way, that's the only way I'm getting down," "Okay, Okay, fine," Uncle Earen whined, "We'll go that way..."
We jogged down the pathway on the right and reached where it went rocky and went downhill into the water. "Remember Sam, sidestep right here," "Okay Uncle Earen..." I called as I sidestepped down the rocky wet path. Once we got down, we realized we had another problem to face, we had to travel all the way to Trooper who is on a rock in water, but the problem was that we had no way to actually get to Trooper. "Wait, Uncle Earen, how are we supposed to actually get to Trooper in the water?" "That's why we have the raft!," Uncle Earen said while taking out the raft from his backpack." "And how are we gonna blow it up?" I asked, "And that's why we have the Pocket Generator Sam, these things really do come in handy!" Uncle Earen set the raft down on the ground and started blowing it up with air. This only took about 2 minutes but felt so much more time consuming in this situation. Once it was fully blown, we both quickly put on our life jackets and got in. Uncle Earen then sailed it off into the real water.
The water was so fierce that it tossed the raft around like if it were a hacky sack. I wasn't used to turning from side to side and forward and backward, so I started to get seasick. We held on tight as the raft was being tossed around and hoped we weren't going to get thrown overboard. Suddenly, we saw a big wave coming our way, "Get ready Sam," Uncle Earen called, "This wave in going to do some damage."
We tried to paddle out of the way to avoid the wave but we were already too late, the wave came and hurled over us, soaking us with water, but luckily we weren't thrown off the raft and kept our balance. We then saw another upcoming wave and this one was even larger and more fearsome than the last. "Hang on!" Uncle Earen warned, "This one is an even bigger wave!" The wave came hurling towards us as we tried to paddle out of the way, the wave was too fast and towered over us with great force, and this time we weren't so lucky. The wave hit us with water and the blow was too strong to keep balance, we were thrown overboard and the raft flew over the water and landed facing down in the distance.
We had our life jackets on so we stayed afloat, but we still needed some way to get to each other and the raft. Uncle Earen tried to call something out to me, but I couldn't make out what he was saying over the rain. We both tried to communicate with each other but couldn't when we couldn't hear each other. We gave up trying to call each other and started attempting to swim to each other.
         Uncle Earen looked at the raft and then at me in the water, he knew that the raft was getting away farther and farther, but knew that I need help the most. He started to expertly swim to me through the salty water and waves as I tried to stay stable in the water. I suddenly thought to myself, I knew this was completely crazy and irrational, but I knew that my dog needed me, He was probably so terrified, he really did need to be rescued, and after all of this, things could go back to normal.
         Uncle Earen came to me through the water and completely worn out. "You Okay Sam?" I nodded, "I couldn't just leave you behind like that, but at the same time, our raft is getting away, we need to go after it." I nodded again. We both swam after the raft as fast as we can, trying to catch up with our only transportation. We eventually took a moment to catch our breath, "We'll never catch up to it at this rate!" I admitted over the rain. But luckily, there was a pretty big wave that came in front of us and started to hurl over to our raft, the wave knocked the raft backwards somehow and the raft came hurling over to us. "Well, that was convenient." Uncle Earen said surprised as we got into the raft. We saw the paddles right beside us and quickly leaned over to grab them. We then started paddling over to Trooper who was still a fair distance away.
         "Wait a minute..." I just started to realize that Trooper wasn't the only animal on that rock... I saw two more beagles just like him appear behind him, There was one to the right of him who looked like a female, she was slightly taller than Trooper and had a graceful posture and a beautiful brown, white fur coat. She also had radiant looking eyes but showing a disturbed look currently. There was also a smaller looking pup who looked like a young boy, he had a small, flexible body and a scruffy fur coat. All three beagles seened frightened but sort of eased down at the sight of our presence. Trooper instantly however barked in excitement at the presence of me and Uncle Earen and continued barking restlessly at me and the other pups.
         We approached closer and closer to Trooper and the pups and          we we're all thinking more confidently now. Just as we we're almost there, a piece of driftwood came floating out of nowhere and suddenly punctured a hole in our raft. "Oh no!" I said worriedly, "That's definitely not good. Our raft has a hole in it, and we're sinking!" I started to panic, "But look!," Uncle Earen said to calm me down, "We're so close to the rock now that me can just swim to Trooper!" And that's exactly what we did, we got out of the raft with our life jackets on and started to swim to the rock.
         Once we got to the rock, we ran, again, into another problem. We had to get up to the top of the rock somehow where Trooper and the other pups were. "I know!," Uncle Earen suddenly suggested, "We can use the grappling rope and climb up the rock!" Uncle Earen got out the grappling rope out from the backpack and slung the "hook part" of the rope over the rock so it can hook onto a groove. He held the rope sturdy and held on tight, he then expertly climbed up the rock with ease and hopped onto the surface of the rock. "Come on Sam! I know you can do it! Just hold on to the rope tight and keep a good balance." Thunder boomed across the dark sky. I hesitated, but then hopped onto the rope and started climbing up slowly, I took long to climb up all the way onto the rock, nut I eventually managed to climb up all the way and join Uncle Earen and the pups.
Once I caught sight of Trooper and Trooper saw me, he instantly jumped into my arms and we hugged each other so tight, it felt like so long since we'd seen each other the last time I left. "Trooper! My boy! I've missed you so much ever since we left and you left and_I'm just so happy to see you after all this time! Where have you been all this time?" I asked, Trooper suddenly hesitated and turned to his new brother and sister. Of course he couldn't communicate with me in his language but tried to tell me what happened.
He looked at the two other beagles and then at me. He barked something to me and turned his head to the pups. "I_I don't understand," I said confused, "What are you trying to tell me?" He pointed to himself and then at the two other beagles, "Ar_Are you all family? With the two other beagles?" He nodded and sagged his tail. I just started to notice how identical they looked. Trooper nodded and waged his tail. "I didn't even know your family was still out there, I mean, we rescued you from the dog shelter, you were lost and needed a owner." Trooper wagged his tail again and started to bark something, he then started to backup to join his brother and sister. "Oh..." I said, a little disappointed, "You wanna be with your family now, start a new life with them..." Trooper's ears started to droop and he started to whimper. "Trooper no, I get it, I know how much your family means to you and how much you wanna start a new life with them..." We were in a total trance and both were looking strait at each other's eyes. "Trooper, I would never stop you from what you want to do, I would always want the best for you, So I'm totally okay with you being with your family, I think it'll be for the best.
         Thunder boomed and lightning flashed across the sky. "Uh. Sorry to ruin the moment but..." Uncle Earen interrupted, "We really gotta get out of here and back to shore! The storm's only getting worse!" We all looked up at the sky and the darkening clouds. "We really do gotta get out of here!" I admitted, "But how? Our raft has a hole in it and we have no way back to shore!" Now we were really in trouble, we had no way of transportation across the water and we were still stuck in the middle of a storm. "There's only one thing we can do" Uncle Earen said suddenly, "We have to build a raft somehow, one out of wood probably." "And how would we do that?" I asked, "There's a lot of driftwood floating around this rock." Uncle Earen said while pointing to the surrounding pieces of driftwood, "I'm gonna have to swim around and retrive it, you Sam stay with Trooper and the pups on this rock, I'll go search for pieces of driftwood and throw it up to you. I nodded and joined Trooper and the beagles. He plunged into the water below and began gathering driftwood.
         He herded about ten long pieces of driftwood and started tossing them up one by one. Once he finished, he climbed up the rock again and hopped onto the rock to join us. "Now, we gotta put the raft together. Uncle Earen used the rope from the grappling rope to tie the driftwood together. "Now, lets see if ii floats." He tossed the raft into the water and it actually float! We climbed down the rock slowly and boarded the raft. Trooper and the beagles hopped of the rock and landed on the raft. "Is everyone here!?" Uncle Earen called. I looked, and then nodded assuringley. The raft moved away from the rock and started to enter the rest of the lake.
         Now we were sailing through the lake, dodging waves and tilting side to side. We did our best to paddle with our hands and the pups helped too. The waves were even bigger now but luckily we were able to dodge them in time. Thunder kept booming across the sky and lightning kept crashing, but we still stayed focused. Suddenly, a really big wave came running towards us. "Everyone! Paddle to the right!" Uncle Earen ordered, We paddled to the right to avoid the big wave and maneuvered past it.
Another big wave came at us, "Everyone! Paddle to the left!" We paddled to the left just avoiding the wave, the smaller beagle lost his balance but luckily the older beagle caught him just in time. We saw the seaside just ahead in the distance, "We're almost there!" I exclaimed while pointing to the seaside. We paddled as fast as we can to the seaside in the distance, but suddenly, another big wave came from behind and picked us up in it's water. It then pushed us the rest of the way to the seaside.
The raft floated softley until it hit the surface of the seaside. We got up from the raft tired and wet, but we then stretched and began walking to the rocky uphill land elevation. We sidestepped up the uphill path slowly and carefully until we reached the top where the path led to the cliff.
We continued walking up and up until we reached the cliff ledge. "Well then, I guess this is goodbye Trooper." I said while sitting down with him. Trooper started to whimper and his ears and eyes drooped. I rubbed him on the head smiling, "It's gonna be Okay boy, you're gonna love your new life with your family, trust me." I picked him up and set him on my lap, as I always did. "Maybe I can come visit you sometime, that way we can still see each other. Trooper started to calm down, his tail starts wagging. "I love you Trooper, I've always had. Nothing in this world can break our friendship" He got out of my lap and started licking me on the cheek. I gave him one last hug and he then ran off to join his family.
"Tailya, how are we going to find our way back to the middle?" Trooper asked quietly, "It's Okay Trevor, I know how to get back to the middle anywhere, just follow lead." Trooper, Tailya, and Rincon all started walking off in the distance. "Goodbye Trooper! Take care! Have fun with your family!" I wiped a tear off from my cheek. "Come on Sam! Lets go!" I followed Uncle Earen through the trees and bushes into the rest of the mountain environment. "I hope your not too disapointed about leaving Trooper Sam..." Uncle Earen said carefully. "No Uncle Earen, I'm alright, really, I am. We then walked through the trail, not saying a single word, with the dawning sun watching over us.

Thank You for reading my novel. I put a lot of dedication and hours into this novel that is not expected from a thirteen year old teenage boy. I am very proud of completing my very first novel and I hope to expand my writting ability in the future. Thank you for all your support and for reading my work.