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Please let her be okay. Please let her be okay.
The land dropped off slightly and he nearly stumbled over rocks and tree roots as he scrambled down.
But the sound had disappeared.
He stopped in place and turned around to face the hillside behind him.
A loud yap echoed out among the trees suddenly and he saw that Athena was standing in the other end of the open drainpipe, her fur an inky color now, a giant smile on her doggy face.
“Athena,” he sighed in relief.
She barked once and then launched herself through the air.
He traced her trajectory and realized what she was trying to do.
A single tree branch ran parallel to the ground about halfway between the height of the hill and the forest floor. It was slender, but sturdy looking.
He just wasn’t sure it was sturdy enough to hold the weight of a massive Drathian Shepherd.
And even if it was, would she be able to balance on it?
Holding his breath, he said a silent prayer in his mind.
Athena’s front paws hit the branch first, and by the time her back paws found their place, the whole branch was already bouncing under her.
She dropped almost to her belly, bringing her center of gravity down and managed to stay on.
When the branch went still, she jumped again, landing beside him with enough force that he could feel the ground tremble slightly.
“Good work,” he told her, feeling breathless.
He tried to soak in the moment of knowing that his partner was safe.
But her nose was already on the ground, twitching.
Then she was leaping through the trees again, her fur shifting from the dark blue-black it had taken on in the darkness inside the pipe to the same brown hue as the forest floor.
“Agility,” he said to himself, thinking back to her climb through the pipe and her journey down.
Oberon was incorporating the parts of the test so organically he hadn’t even recognized the second phase until it was over.
But if tracking and agility were already in motion, he knew what was coming next.
As if on cue, Athena began to bark excitedly ahead of him.
He pushed himself harder, until the forest seemed to blur beside him.
At last, he emerged in a meadow, where Athena stood vigil in front of a dilapidated wooden shack.
A thin stream of smoke emerged from a metal chimney pipe in the waterlogged roof.
Gage made a rounding-up motion with his hand and Athena trotted around to the back of the shed.
“Come out with your hands up,” he announced.
A flick and a hum emitted from the shack, indicating that the occupant had activated a blaster.
“I’ll give you to the count of three to set down your weapons and come out with your hands up,” Gage called out. “One.”
