Winning Over Amber (Chapter Five: Falling)

Winning Over Amber (Chapter Five: Falling)

Paxton was lying in the yard. His head was up, listening to the songbirds. The tweeting of a chickadee was suddenly interrupted with the laughing of dogs.
"Really?" Duke laughed.
Paxton pricked his ears forward. What was Duke doing? The thought struck Paxton because it was what he had been wondering in his dream. Duke had even said the same thing in his nightmare.
The dog rose and walked to the fence on the other side of the yard. He walked beside it, trying to pinpoint where the giggling was coming from.
"Oh my! That's too silly."
Paxton stopped when he heard the voices directly beside him.
"Duke?"
"Hey, Paxton!" Duke shouted from the opposite side of the fence.
Paxton sighed with relief. Duke recognized him, that was a good thing.
"What are you doing?" Paxton questioned.
"Just chatting. There is a party tonight. I'm going to be hanging with some of my friends," Duke noted.
Paxton's ears folded back. His face twisted into a look of sorrow.
"Oh, your friends," he said, lying himself down against the fence.
Paxton put his head on his paws. His ears were still pressed firmly to his head.
"Your friends. Well, what about me?" he whispered to himself.
Duke laughed again. Paxton lifted his head and tried to peek through a knot in the wood.
"See you later," Duke said.
"Okay," a female voice replied.
Paxton cocked his head to the side. It wasn't Amber and it wasn't Candy he heard. It wasn't the French Bulldog either.
"Who was that? Who is out there?" he demanded.
Duke didn't reply. The female dog didn't either.
"You still there?"
There was still no reply.

"Oh, you be a good boy. We'll be back tomorrow evening," Mr. Fame told Paxton.
The Fame's were leaving that very day to visit a relative a few cities over. They both rubbed the shepherd's head and closed the back door. Paxton watched the couple cross the house. A few minutes later, he heard their car pull away from the house.
If Paxton was a wilder dog, he'd have celebrated. However, he was more or less a breeding pet. He liked the idea of being alone, but at the same time he knew there wouldn't be a pat to his head for a while.
He pranced through the yard like a love-struck puppy. It was about six. The sun was only beginning to set. He raced from one side of the yard to the picnic table. He launched himself on top of it and sat. He sighed though. He hadn't talked all day to Duke.

"Duke?" Paxton asked.
Paxton was against the fence again. He could hear Duke and some other voices. He didn't recognize any of them.
"We still have thirty minutes until the party. We can go chase night critters," a male voice chuckled.
Paxton couldn't take it. He hated not knowing what was going on. He stood on his back legs and put his front feet against the fence. He tried to look over, but the fence was eight feet tall.
"DUKE!" Paxton yelled.
"Paxton, I'm in the middle of something."
The shepherd scoffed.
"What is so great that I'm left in the dust?" he growled in a low voice.
"Duke, come on!" Paxton yelled.
"If you want to talk, it'll have to wait. You aren't supposed to leave the yard."
Paxton was offended. A majority of the dogs that hung out with one another didn't have permission to leave their homes. Paxton just listened well to his owner's. Maybe it was his one redeeming quality. He was a very loyal dog to his people.
The way Duke spoke it sounded like his mom. He wasn't going to be treated like a puppy. He walked over to the yard opening. He looked around him as if waiting to be yelled at. Nobody shouted, alarms didn't go off, there were no screaming babies. He smiled and stepped outside the yard.
"No stopping now," he told himself with joy.
He pranced to his right where he heard the group of dogs. Duke and them had left already. Paxton grumbled. The top of the hill was covered in trees. There were homes to the right and to the left.
"Um, Duke?"
An owl hooted. Paxton's eyes bugged, he looked back. The fence opening was still visible from where he stood.
"I'm a brave dog. Brave canine!" he stated.
Leaves crunched from the trees behind him. He pricked his ears and stood still.
"Hello? Duke?"
A small breeze unraveled the frightened shepherd. He sighed and rolled his eyes. He started to pick his pace up. He was now two houses down from his own.
"So this is Duke's house?" he asked himself.
It was the third house away from his. It wasn't as large as his home, but it looked inviting. He could see into Duke's yard. Duke's owner must have been a very precise person. The yard was filled with flowers and bushes. The landscaping was perfect. It was no wonder Duke didn't play in his own yard.
Something moved from the woods. Again, the shepherd stopped, petrified. He tucked his tail and swiveled his head around. It was eerily quiet. It was also dark now, only a bit of light was still visible in the sky. In ten minutes, the sun would be completely gone.
"This is not funny," Paxton noted.
There was a growl from the woods. Paxton took a few steps away from them. For a second, he forgot he was a German Shepherd.
"Quit it! I know someone is in there!"
"Jeez, do you like to embarrass yourself?" Duke demanded.
Paxton just about jumped out of his skin. He took deep breaths to calm himself. Duke was standing with four dogs. He saw Candy and Smoky within the group.
"Who are they?" he asked.
"Um, Tex is the Rottweiler, Poofy is the poodle, and Dew is the Maltese."
The three dogs named shook their heads. Paxton wasn't impressed.
"What is in those woods?" he asked.
"Squirrels, rabbits, snakes, opposums," Tex said in a deep voice.
"I heard growling," Paxton told them.
The dogs laughed.
"Don't laugh!" he snapped.
"If you weren't a coward, we wouldn't," Poofy giggled.
Duke rolled his eyes and looked over at the group then at Paxton.
"What are you doing out here?" Duke asked.
"Looking for you. My owners are gone until tomorrow," Paxton explained.
"You should go home. This world is too frightful for you," Dew snorted.
It was clearly true that most dogs didn't like Paxton. They'd heard enough bad things to know he was a jerk.
"I'll have you know, my bloodlines are extremely better than yours!" Paxton yelled at Dew.
Dew mocked the shepherd. Duke cleared his throat and took Paxton aside.
"I don't want you leaving a bad impression. Just go home. It's one thing if you embarrass yourself, another if you embarrass me."
Paxton gasped as Duke went back to his friends.
"Fine! Leave me here to rot! You're nothing, but an idiot anyway! You are a bad friend! You don't know who real friends are! I'm the better friend!" Paxton shouted, trying his best to get his point across.
Duke paused and glared at the shepherd.
"No! I have news for you Paxton! You are the bad friend! I thought you were my better friend. Apparently, I thought wrong. Now go back to your hellhole of a glamorous life and leave me be!"
"So you are just going to leave?"
"Yes, Paxton. I'm leaving. I do enough for you as it is. I must have been wasting my time."
Paxton ran up behind Duke. He was still mumbling things under his breath.
"I can't be left here...not alone You got to at least walk with me when I go...."
"LEAVE, PAXTON!" Duke screamed at the top of his lungs.
Paxton folded back his ears. He gathered himself up and started to run home. He had only one friend in his life. Now, that friend was abandoning him. He sniffled and couldn't believe himself when he realized he was crying. Paxton doesn't cry. He is too good to cry.
Something in the woods came running out. Paxton yelped in fear and ran.
"STOP!" the creature shouted.
"No! I don't want to die!"
"STOP RUNNING!"
"No!"
Paxton had run so fast and so far, he realized he had passed his house. He gulped and kept his pace. He couldn't turn back home now. He was being chased! Again, he was told to stop.
"You are going to fall!"
Paxton realized at the last second, there was a drop. He slid to a halt, but wasn't quick enough. He felt himself tumbling into oblivion. His teeth grabbed a vine just in time and he opened his eyes. He was dangling a good thirty feet from the ground.
"Why didn't you stop? I told you to stop!"
Amber was standing ten feet above him. She was obviously angry with Paxton.
"Don't let go of that vine!" she hollered down to him.
"I'm not," he said in a muffled voice.
Paxton swung oddly against the cliff. It was dark and he couldn't see how far he was from the bottom of the drop. Amber stood above him, her face etched in thought.
"I'll get a rope. Try not to move because that vine will give way," she instructed.
Amber ran, leaving Paxton alone. The shepherd gulped nervously. The forest was spooky. He could hear the wings of bats, but he couldn't see them.
"Grab it," Amber told him a minute or two later.
Paxton watched Amber push the rope over the drop. It was a foot away from him. He knew if he swung, he could easily get to it.
"What are you waiting on, dummy?" Amber demanded.
Amber was risking herself. Her front paws were close to slipping off the edge. Her nails were gripping the cliff as hard as they could. As Paxton watched, he could almost hear future laughing in his head. He knew being saved by Amber was like a bite to the butt. The more he thought about it, the more he despised the situation.
"Paxton! Grab the rope!" Amber shouted.
Paxton's eyes furrowed. He folded back his ears and ignored Amber. No, he thought, I'm not letting her save me! I can save myself!
"What are you doing?" she asked, realizing he wasn't going to grab the rope.
Paxton's jaws were hurting him. He could feel himself slowly slipping down the vine. The leaves were getting caught in his mouth as he slipped. Suddenly, he heard strain in the vine. His eyes widened.
"You are going to get yourself killed!"
Amber's voice seemed distant. The shepherd tried to pull himself onto a ledge, but he slid another few inches. His jaw was aching. He knew his teeth were bleeding. He could taste his own blood.
SNAP! Paxton watched the honeysuckle vine pop a few feet above him. He tried to catch himself on the small ledges, but he began falling backwards. It was almost in slow motion.
"PAXTON! PAXTON!" Amber screamed from above, her voice disappearing as he fell.
The shepherd twisted himself in the air. If he had been a cat, he might have been able to land himself on four feet. However, he wasn't as nimble as a feline. He landed on a rock and then tumbled a few more feet onto the ground. He knew he was alive when he saw the blood and felt the pain.
A small creek crept by him. The babbling water caught his attention momentarily. Paxton tried to stand on his shaky legs, but a pain shot through his front leg. He lifted his left paw. He knew it was broken.
"Paxton!" Amber called out.
The Border Collie had made her way down the cliff. If Paxton knew his way around the woods, he'd have known the drop existed. If he had known, he would have also known that he could run down the side of the hill because it was a flat slope, similar to the way his yard was.
"I can't believe you are alive," Amber scoffed.
Paxton wasn't listening to the dog. He was in a lot of shock. He looked at Amber and was mesmerized for a moment. She looked nothing like she did the day he met her. She was recently bathed. Though her hair was still a little rough at the edges, she was in her own way...pretty.
Paxton looked away from Amber. He was mad at her, he wasn't sure why, but he was. He tried to walk, but he fell and yelped. Amber was immediately at his side trying to help him.
"Go away!" Paxton snapped.
"I'm trying to help," she replied.
Paxton would have replied with a nasty response, but instead he tried to stand again. The pain was unbearable and he found himself drifting into blackness.