I leap over fallen trees and across rushing streams, running as fast as I can through the woods, and for some reason unknown to me I’m running on all fours, but instead of it being awkward, I’m faster than I’ve ever been. Then I see that my hands aren’t hands but paws–paws covered in chocolate brown fur–and come to a skidding halt on the forest floor.
I’m entirely covered in the same fur and I’ve the body of a Labrador. I glance at my reflection in a puddle and my human face looks back at me with a Labrador crew cut, but that’s the least of my worries. My reflection is off of a puddle of liquid chocolate which can mean only one thing. I’m in Fleegle World again.
As I gaze about me at the trees made of chocolate, Fleegle ambles up the creek bank, chewing on a stick. My guess is that it’s a chocolate stick. He reads my mind when he sees me. “Mint chocolate, keeps my breath fresh, not that I care but I’ve picked up a few things from People World,” he says. “I almost didn’t recognize you, but then you turned your head and I saw your face. You’ve got more than just a tail this time. I wonder why that is?”
“What happened to that syrupy ocean and the Chocolate Rockies?”
“In Fleegle World, that’s like asking what happens to the light when it turns night. Come on, let’s go.”
I follow Fleegle on a path that runs along the bank of the stream. “Where are we headed?”
“Fleegleville. You’ll be able to see it soon.”
When we clear the woods the trail opens onto a vast manicured lawn of the greenest grass I’ve ever seen. It’s so perfect I paw at it to make sure it’s not Astroturf.
“You never need to mow that,” Fleegle says, nodding at the grass as I rub my paw over it. It’s as soft as felt.
In the distance sits a large house. The ranch style shape and blue-grey color is familiar. Then I realize it’s our house, the house Fleegle and I live in back in People World, but supersized as if you were to build an exact replica of it but make it the size of the Rose Bowl. “Fleegleville is our house?”
“It’s the capitol of the world, the funnest place in Fleegle World, maybe even in the whole Fleegleverse, full of cookies and fun.”