The Search For Aspen

[~Destiny~]

<sub>Roxas entered the jungle, sniffing for his guards. He threw his head back and howled, then waited. A chorus of howls sounded not to far into the jungle. He dashed toward where the sound was coming from, dodging trees and galloping effortlessly through the undergrowth.

He found his team sniffing the ground, running about in circles. "What is going on here!" he barked. The young guards snapped up. "We...there was a female...a dog...she ran by here not long ago...a golden retriever she looked like...we tried to chase her...but she...she just vanished!" One of the guards stammered. Roxas rolled his eyes. "You idiots! Dogs don't just dissapear! Keep searching, she must be around here somewhere!" he roared, lowering his head and sniffing the ground. He caught a whiff of light scent. It must've been the golden. He followed it to a large clump of ferns and other plants. The guards were right. It just vanished.</sub>

[Memo]

Buck raced through the forest, paws flying across the jungle floor. Light treads of his small team of elite guards sounded to his either side. Suddenly he stopped, lightly leaping to a halt. The guards behind him also slowed at his signal. He raised his sharp nose to the breeze and filtered the scents. They were on the trail of a female that had been sighted in the village. He recognized the scent of the female, and also those of another team of guards, led by Roxas. Buck gave a tail signal to the four other dogs in his team and they walked forward on silent pads.

"Greetings Roxas."He spoke in a light, yet harsh voice.["We are on the trail of a female rebel that was sighted in the village, what have you to report, seeing as you are right on her scent."

[~Destiny~]

<sub>Roxas grunted. What had he to report. He hoped that Buck having recieved his own elite team hadn't given him the idea that he was above Roxas. For once in his life, Roxas just rolled his eyes and let it go. There were more important things to worry about now. If they didn't find Aspen soon, Agro would claw Roxas to pieces, and Roxas really didn't think that sounded like very much fun. So he turned, eyes narrowed, to Buck. "My team was following the same scent. They spotted this villager as well, but her scent just dissapeared. I know it sounds rediculous, but it's as if she just vanished into mid-air." Roxas shook his head. He really did sound crazy, but it was the truth. The female was no where to be found. And they were wasting their time looking for her now when they should be hunting for the princess.

Roxas turned to his team who was still frantically searching near the end of the trail. "Forget her!" he barked, "Aspen is the one we want! You're wasting time!" He watched as his team lifted their heads and raced off deeper into the jungle. Roxas turned back to Buck to await his reply.</sub>

[Swifty]

Roscoe sprinted the rest of the way to the jungle, he remembered hearing Roxas say that he would be taking his team to the jungle to search for Aspen. When Roscoe picked up Roxas' scent, he turned and ran the rest of the way into the jungle, leaping over a log and then stopping beside Roxas and Buck.
"Roxas, I need to speak with you." He stated simply, no emotion in his voice at all.
Roscoe stepped a few feet away from the rest of the group of guards and waited for Roxas to join him before he began to speak.
"I talked to Harley and after nearly throwing the mutt off the tallest tower in the palace, she told me she thought it might be a guard. So if a guard helped Aspen escape then he probably won't be among the guards looking for her. Do you know if you are missing any guards?" He explained, asking the question at the end while his red brown eyes gazed around the guards near them to see if he saw any of them missing.

[~Destiny~]

_{Roxas stepped away from Buck to talk to Roscoe for a moment. He listened to what Roscoe was saying, mulling it over for a few seconds before replying. He tried to remember who wasn't at the guards quarters tonight. As far as he could remember...everyone was accounted for. But wait...there was one guard he couldn't recall seeing. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Zane...in quite a while," Roxas mused, "And he has been spending a lot of time down in the dungeon lately." He thought for a moment. A traitor among his own trusted ranks? A low growl escaped as he continued, "Surely he wasn't a traitor!" he growled. How could he have missed this! Perhaps it wasn't true and Zane had vanished for a perfectly good, dark reason...}

[Swifty]

Roscoe narrowed his eyes as he thought of the guard. It was indeed true. Roscoe hadn't seen Zane in awhile either but yet everytime he went to the dungeon to check on Aspen for Agro, Zane had seemed to be the guard on duty.
"It's very possible he is the one that helped Aspen escape. . ." Roscoe murmured so no other dog would hear him.
No one needed to know about their suspicions just yet. Especially if there were more than just one traitor in the palace. They could warn Zane and he could get away with what he had done.
Roscoe began to pace back and forth as he mulled over his thoughts. If it was Zane then he would most likely be with the princess right now. They had to find Aspen. They just had to!

[Memo]

Buck shook his head, fiercely scolding himself. What was he thinking?! Trying to command the dog who rightfully commanded him! He reminded himself that he was leader of only four other guards, telling himself to get that straight. He knew that if he wished to keep his hide, let alone his position, he needed to put himself back where he belonged.

He sat silently as the two head guards talked to each other. Roxas had decided to stop searching for the female golden and move onto the more important target. He figured he would just keep on looking, thinking the dog knew something about Aspen's escape, seeing as she had been in the village on the same night, and that she was a rebel.

What Roscoe said disturbed him slightly. One of their own helping the traitors? That couldn't be good. And Zane? Zane had been a trusted ally against the Rebels. Or so Buck had thought. He had not been smart enough to work out that he was a traitor, it make him feel dumb. That was his job after all, to be clever. But know that he thought about it, Zane never had killed any of the rebels or the villagers, he had never pillaged or plundered. Or not that he had seen. But he was still a guard, a supporter of Agro. Right? He debated with himself inside his head.

He tried to clear his own thought from his head, and focus on the job at hand. His team would be needed on this mission. "Roxas, Roscoe. What would you have us do? I can continue searching for the female if you wish, to see if she knows anything. Or I could bring my team to look for Aspen directly, if you want that instead."He said, sitting back on his haunches.

[Swifty]

Roscoe looked over at Buck and then tilted his head a little when the other male spoke. So much for being out of ear shot, Roscoe thought to himself with a grunt.
"Buck, you and your team search for the golden retriever and see if she knows anything. Me, Roxas and his team will continue to search for Aspen. Send a report if you find out anything useful." Roscoe commanded Buck.
He then turned back to Roxas and gave him a sly grin. Roscoe didn't know about Roxas but he wanted to be the one to find the princess and bring her in. Not go running after some random stray that may or may not be a rebel.

[Memo]

Buck met Roscoe's devious gaze and nodded. "As you wish Roscoe," He said, getting to his paws, muscles rippling beneath his shiny coat. He flicked his ears back and forth, a quick signal to his team. As quickly as they had appeared, they melted into the shadows, silently as the breeze.

He and his team walked over to the end of the trail on silent paws, if she was near, they did not want her to be alerted that the guards had returned. Roxas was correct, as usual. The scent just ended. His sharp nose went immediately to the ground, he gave another silent signal for his guards to do the same. Buck walked forward three paces, about the length a dog of that size could leap. There the scent was! Very faint though, and only there for about a foot or so, then it was gone again. The dog had been jumping and zigzagging through the trees!

This dog was obviously no amateur at hiding her scent and throwing dogs off her trail. He bared his teeth in a silent snarl and shook his head in anger. This would be difficult. But he knew that only a Rebel, or a friend of the Rebels would think of something like that. Only a Rebel would be smart enough in blind fear to do something like this. Buck was experienced though, and knew what he would do to hide his own scent and it was fairly similar to this, perhaps they could find her.

Nose still to the ground, he slowly made his way along the faint trail, only to lose it again a few paces away. Anger and frustration piled over him again. His team moved around him, trying desperately to pick up the trail again. If Roxas and his team couldn't do it, how could he? But he would keep trying. Or perhaps the dog would come out of hiding once it thought the guards had passed...It was to small of a chance. He kept looking for the scent.

[Flinde]

Deisel stamped her huge paw in frustration, crushing a couple of young fern shoots into the earth. She let a grunt escape from her deep chest, no doubt annoying her partner of the moment. She didn't remember his name, and nor did she care to memorize it when he gave it. The dog was of no true importance to her since he did not hold a higher ranking than she. Deisel was really only interested, in fact, in finishing the job at hand so she could go back to the beach to search for washed up things, like the needle fish she found earlier before the more superior guards had called her and the others in to do this ridiculous hunting mission.

Deisel set her thick muzzle close to the ground again as she tried to piece together the path that that retriever dog had made. But for some reason, one scent island would vanish, and then be found as another isolated scent patch just a little ways away. It was baffling.

Deisel raised her head and glanced around, observing the commotion around her. It was one of the things she did best, and it helped her to think things through. Most things anyway.
She watched as the two of the most superior guards, Roxas and Roscoe, took on in heated though definitely private conversation. She moved on to watch with slight amusement as some of the other dogs just seemed to be sniffing in large circles, desperate to find some sort of grip to a steady scent trail.

And then she noticed how purposeful one of the more senior guard's stance was. How careful he seemed in taking in every scent... His snout hardly seemed unglued to the patch of ground he covered. Immediately, Deisel respected the stubborn passion that the guard put into the job, and thought to dist her partner to see what the guard, whose name she of course knew as Buck, was on to.

But Deisel hesitated out of curiousity, wondering if she would get a licking for not doing her currently assigned job with her partner. It wasn't that she was afraid of the guards present, no, but of ultimately displeasing Argo. She lived, as her parents had, to please the Alpha, no matter who that alpha was.

[Memo]

Buck heard a dog come up near to him and he glanced up for an instant, recognizing Deisel as part of the guard, he simply continued to search for the scent. Yet it still confused him. Eventually he had come to a place where there were no other patches of scent. It was gone, fully gone.

He swung his head back in forth in irritation. This female could not have made him more mad. He wasn't sure he'd be able to just question her, he'd probably attack just because of all the trouble she had given him. But he was intrigued by the fact that this female could mix up a trail with seasoned guards right behind her. She was brave, perhaps stupidly brave, but brave none the less.

Buck straightened and looked around to figure his exact position. He found that the thick wall of ferns and underbursh directly to his left. He raised his nose and sniffed the breeze. The air smelled fresh and cool, almost like it came from underground. He figured there was probably a cave down there, but didn't think anything of it. The Golden couldn't have jumped through without leaving a scent, and it was much to long of a leap to make it through.

[Flinde]

Deisel turned away from Buck and the others and looked down at the ground. She simply wished that the stupid scent would come on strong so they could get this over with. She wasn't much of a social dog outside of the very few she half-cared to have a chat with ever so often, thanks to growing up the only dog in her liter. So being in such a large group as this with so much chaos going on... Well it made her feel more emotions such as frustration and anxiety than she liked.
She gave a long sigh and headed back to where she had last found a trace of the dog.

[Swifty]

After a hours of searching the jungle for Aspen and for the other female that had scented earlier, nothing more had been found to help them find out where Aspen had escaped to.
Roscoe growled deep in his chest and pulled his lips back a little to reveal his sharp canines. This was ridiculous! They needed a lead, one that wouldn't get them nowhere.
Roscoe headed over to Roxas.
"I'm going to head back to the palace. Maybe there is someone there who would like to fill us in on where the princess might be." He answered, furious that this was taking so long.
Before he hadn't thought the rebels were capable of anything like this but now he was starting to get angry that were capable of it.
He said good bye to Roxas and then headed back towards the palace at a dead run, detemined to find something helpful.

[Memo]

Buck flicked his ears as he heard Roscoe say a farewell and race off in the direction of the palace, the frustration obvious on his face. A guards faint howl echoed from the direction of the beach. Buck payed it no mind though, his assignment had been clear: find the female.

The scent still evaded him, and he hated the fact that the female had momentarily gotten the best of him. For the first time that his team had ever seen, he showed his emotions. He couldn't hide them any longer if he was to find this female. A snarl ripped through his throat and he let it come. It was a sound of pure and total hate. It would probably alert the female, but he didn't care at this point.

With another growl he leaped through the thick undergrowth and into the cave, perhaps there would be some water there to slake his fiery thirst. He was very surprised to find himself in the middle of three other dogs. What on earth were they doing here? Then it occurred to him, they were rebels. He froze, not moving a muscle. He was going way out of the guards stereotype and not showing even a hint of aggression.