Chapter 19: Hard Work

Ash was laying down, panting. Others around him were laying down, but some were still trying to dig, and they looked tired. Why are they making us work so hard? Ash thought, panting hard.
"Hey!" River, Rusty and Dust's father, was growling. "Why are you all laying down?"
"We're taking a rest, we're tired!" Ash protested.
"That's no excuse!" River snapped, "Start digging again! NOW! FAST!"
Ash and the others resting quickly got to their paws and began digging again. His hole was only about five inches, but he kept digging. It slowly got deeper, but very slowly.
After a minute, Ash began getting tired again. He started digging slower.
"Faster! NOW!" Stone snarled. Ash got faster, still digging. He felt like he'd pass out.
He saw to his left, Rusty was panting, and looked more tired than Ash. Rusty's hole was smaller than Ash's, and kept working.
To Ash's right, Raoul was working, and Ash was shocked to notice he looked as if he was enjoying it. Raoul had a happy expression on his face as he kept digging harder.
Then, Ash realized both Max and Miguel looked happy as well as they were digging their very deep holes. They were sweating but didn't seem to mind as the kept digging with a smile on their faces.
River walked over to Raoul, Miguel and Max. "Nice job, guys, you can take a break."
What?! Lucky! Ash thought, Well... Maybe they're looking enthusiastic because they were almost done.
"No! No! I wanna dig more!" Raoul insisted, and kept digging.
"Me too!" Max insisted, and resumed digging. Miguel kept doing it too.
River looked at them. "Er... As you wish," and he walked over to yell at Windows, who was digging rather slowly.
"Why do you guys want to keep working?" Rusty shouted, "This is horrible!" Then, Rusty quickly shut up as Kabu was walking past.
"This is fun!" Raoul insisted, his tail wagging rapidly.
"It'll be fun when the Firebenders come to the good side!" Ash growled, as he kept digging his still-small hole.
Dell was digging rapidly and looked very exhausted, and she flopped to the ground. But, to her misfortune, Creature was coming. "No breaks! Keep digging!"
Dell quickly got to her feet and resumed digging, despite she looked like she didn't feel like doing it.
Ash noticed that Akumu was wiped out, she seemed to have fainted from working too hard. But, River quickly walked over to her and poked her. Akumu slowly woke up.
"Lose your prey, she-wolf? KEEP AT IT! Dig some more!" River snarled. Akumu, looking weak still, nodded and kept digging.
"Geez, they're being so strict!" Ash whispered to Rusty. Rusty nodded his agreement.
After a long time, everyone was still digging. Ash felt like he wanted to fake passing out to have a little bit of time to rest, but suddenly, there was a yowl.
"Stop!"
Grateful, Ash flopped to the ground. He noticed Tiggerkat was sitting on a boulder.
"Tiggerkat?" Rusty panted, "Why... Why... Aren't... You digging?"
Tiggerkat looked at her paws, then turned to Rusty. "And get all dirty? No thanks. Why are you digging?"
An angry look spread across Rusty's face. "We're being FORCED to!"
Then, Kabu started talking again. "Alright now. Next you're all running twelve laps around the territory! LET'S GO!"

Author's Note:
TFEOB Military style, eh? xD Anyways, I made a new story blog about dogs. Click here to see it!
What do you think about this tough training? It's new, and remember, they said that no one ever did this type of training before...