Chapter 20: The Run

Still tired, Ash found himself in a line, Dell in front of him and Max behind him. There were four lines, and many animals in each line. Everyone was already panting from the hole-digging; Ash could see all the big holes in the ground some yard away.
"Alright!" Kabu said, on top of a boulder, "You're all running fifteen laps around the territory. The seniors will be following to make sure you do so!"
"I swear when this is over with I'll kill that lion," Rusty murmured, who was on Ash's left.
"If you don't run fifteen, laps, I'll have you digging holes again and right afterward running fifteen laps again! So run! Ready... Set... GO!"
Twister sprinted off, running ahead of everyone else. Ash decided to start out slowly. He trotted forward, and Dell was running, trying to get ahead. Max passed Ash and sprinted past Dell, past Spots, and ended up side-by-side with Miguel.
Raoul, who was put in the back, had sprinted past everyone and was going ahead of Max and Miguel. Laughing, they sprinted to catch up with Raoul, all of them were apparently having a good time.
How can they be having fun?? This is hard work for nothing! Ash thought angrily.
"ASH! FASTER!" snarled River. Ash quickly picked up the pace, running past Dell, but not going quite as fast as Raoul, Miguel and Max.
Ash was panting now. Rusty sprinted ahead of Ash, and then slowed down, and Ash could tell Rusty was having troubles too. Rusty began to walk.
"Keep running, Rusty! No breaks!" Diamond ordered. Rusty nodded weakly and kept running.
Ash felt like collapsing. His sides were in pain from running, but if he'd slow down then he'd get in trouble. He looked behind him, and saw that Dust was getting tired too. Charlotte was now kind of limping, obviously her sides were hurting too from all of the running they were doing.
"Charlotte! Dust! KEEP MOVING! GET YOUR LEGS INTO GEAR!" snapped Stone. Charlotte quickly went back to running. Dust gave a gasp and fell to the ground, fainted.
Ash noticed that Stone was getting irritated. She walked over to Dust and bit him. He quickly jumped to his paws, yelping.
"Keep running!" Stone ordered. Dust nodded and ran faster.
Raoul, Max and Miguel still didn't look tired. They were all laughing about something, and then Raoul sprinted ahead of them. "Race you guys!"
"Right on!" Max exclaimed, and began running fast. Miguel sprinted after his friends. Ash was amazed that they were able to run faster; and were very fast at that.
Soon, after a long time, Ash came back to where he started.
One... Down... Even Ash's thoughts were tired, f-fourteen to go...!

Author's Note:
Wow, harsh. Poor Dust. What do you think is up with this hard training? Imagine running fifteen laps around the territory - the territory is more than a mile! :O Seriously, during gym I had to run a mile and my sides were hurting. Running a mile is harder than it sounds.