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Some songs are for specific scenes, and some are just there to add to the tone of the story. I claim no ownership of any of these songs.\n\nChapter 6, in order:\n\n‘Pawston Radio’\n[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rMG-x7OR0Y]Go Dog Go[/url] - A. Rae and The Rescue Dogs\n\n‘Happy Birthday, Colby’\n[url=https://open.spotify.com/track/1K4rkVFvbCCaxQRzMW8xnd?si=cff52de5dc524c45]Celebration[/url] - Eclipse 6\n\n‘Party-Time Entertainment’\n[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODqsjTPbgn0]Birthday[/url] - Katy Perry\n\n‘The Truth Is…’\n[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbCeyb9okac]Human[/url] - Daughter\n\n'Present'\n[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMD1PDsf71Q]As You Are[/url] - Garfunkel and Oates\n\n‘Union of Love’\n[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qr0GNruqak]All About Your Heart[/url] - Mindy Gledhill\n\n‘The Nightmare Will Never End’\n[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk261Ns-cj0]Lady on the High Wire[/url] - Alistair Bruce Henry Friend\n\n‘Better This Way’\n[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC3UN8JW1Xk]Again[/url] - grandson & Zero 9:36\n\n‘Gone Dog Gone’\n[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE5lHdKWkG8]Before I Knew[/url] - Basia Bulat", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Today is Colby's birthday, and Cheddar Biscuit wants to make it one to remember.
(Also on AO3)
There's two secrets hidden in the chapter art, can you find them?
Each chapter has it's own "soundtrack"; these are completely optional to listen to, but I feel that these add to the experience as much of this story was partly inspired by music. Some songs are for specific scenes, and some are just there to add to the tone of the story. I claim no ownership of any of these songs.

Chapter 6, in order:

‘Pawston Radio’
Go Dog Go - A. Rae and The Rescue Dogs

‘Happy Birthday, Colby’
Celebration - Eclipse 6

‘Party-Time Entertainment’
Birthday - Katy Perry

‘The Truth Is…’
Human - Daughter

'Present'
As You Are - Garfunkel and Oates

‘Union of Love’
All About Your Heart - Mindy Gledhill

‘The Nightmare Will Never End’
Lady on the High Wire - Alistair Bruce Henry Friend

‘Better This Way’
Again - grandson & Zero 9:36

‘Gone Dog Gone’
Before I Knew - Basia Bulat", "writing": " “Cheddar.”\n\n “Mmhh…”\n\t\n “Cheddar, wake up, honey.” \n\n “...Hmm…?” Cheddar slowly opened her eyes with a yawn as she laid on the floor of the Pawtomotive Garage, looking up to find the blurry outline of her mother kneeling over her and gently petting her cheek. \n “We didn’t see you at breakfast, so we were all wondering where you were,” Maw continued, handing her daughter a cold glass of orange juice. “Why were you sleeping out in the garage?\n “The… the car… the car!” Cheddar looked over at the space in the garage she had been working in as she took the cup; there was the car, completely finished. Once Cheddar got a good look at it as she took a drink and began to fully wake up, she finally remembered that she had, in fact, managed to build it all in a single night. And it looked pretty decent, if she said so herself. It wasn’t anything particularly fancy or stylish, but all the pieces were there and assembled properly. It was a two-seater with a storage trunk in the back, almost identical to Tag’s Barker Buggy but without all the fancy gadgets. Also, instead of Tag’s signature purple and yellow, Cheddar had painted this one in red and orange with small accents of green to match Colby’s dog-tag. \n “Did you [i]build[/i] that?” Maw asked as her eyes widened in disbelief\n “Yeah, Tag taught me how. It’s a surprise for Colby’s birthday today. He didn’t see it, did he?!” Cheddar got up and quickly tossed a tarp to completely cover it. \n “No worries, he’s still back at the house. Last I saw, Gilber was showing him his stick collection.” They both chuckled. “I’m really proud of you, Cheddar. This must’ve taken a lot of hard work. You really love him, [i]don’t[/i] you?”\n Cheddar Biscuit’s cheeks flushed as red as the car.\n “[i]L-love[/i]? I dunno about… ‘[i]love’[/i]…” She laughed nervously as she started juggling her empty cup along with two rubber balls, pretending she had no idea what her mom was talking about. \n “Whatever you say, sweetie.” Maw gave her a kiss on the forehead before catching Cheddar’s empty glass mid-air. “All I’m saying is, I think he’d make a [i]great[/i] son-in-law.”\n “[i]Mooom[/i], you’re [i]embarrassing[/i] me!” Cheddar covered her face in sheer humiliation as her mom began to walk out of the door and back to the house, followed by the bouncing balls she had dropped.\n “I’m your mom. It’s kind of my job!”\n As Cheddar stood alone in the garage, she knew deep in her heart that, as embarrassing to talk about as it was…\n Her mother was right. \n\n Colby didn’t see Cheddar Biscuit much at all that day; just as planned, most of the Barkers found their own unique ways to intentionally distract him while she personally got everything arranged for the big surprise birthday party for Colby in the Party Tree - the tallest, largest tree in Pawston. Everyone she had invited had come to the Party Tree, and after a short but much-needed nap to make up for her nearly sleepless night, Cheddar eventually returned to the garage. \n “Now, for the moment of truth…” Cheddar Biscuit muttered to herself with a grimace, inhaling in suspense as she turned the key in the ignition of Colby’s gift. \n Nothing.\n “No… no…” Cheddar exhaled and rested her head on the steering wheel, devastated that all her hard work was seemingly useless after all. “I tried my hardest… I really [i]tried[/i]… and I still failed…”\n She looked at the manual lying on the seat beside her, picking it up and scrolling through it to see if there were any steps she had missed. \n “I swear I did it all correctly… all three hundred and sixteen steps. Wait…” Cheddar flipped the manual over to the back side, remembering Tag telling her that there were three hundred and [i]seventeen[/i] steps - something she knew her sister would never get wrong. Sure enough, there was one last step on the back.\n “Connect the battery.”\n Cheddar Biscuit took the keys out before hopping out of the car and flipping open the hood, rolling her eyes upon finding that the wires connecting the battery to the rest of the car still weren’t connected. She attached the wires and got back in the car, turning the key one more time.\n\n [i]*VRUMMM*[/i]\n\n She let out a sigh of relief as the engine started [i]beautifully[/i]. But it was still too early to celebrate just yet; she also had to get the car all the way to the tree in one piece. She pressed down gently on the gas pedal, rolling it out of the garage and past the Barker house. She knew there was no risk of Colby seeing his present as Grandpaw Mort had taken him to the backyard as a distraction to show him the small vegetable garden he tended to as a hobby. \n “So far, so good…” Cheddar thought as she headed further down the road and for the Party Tree. To her surprise, she made it all the way there with no breakdowns or issues whatsoever. \n “I can’t believe it, it actually [i]works![/i]” She cheered to herself once she stepped out of the car after carefully parking it hidden behind some tall bushes, taking the moment to bow with pride at what she had accomplished as she imagined an audience cheering for her. \n “Now all this party needs is the birthday-boy himself.”\n\n “...So why are we going to this tree?” Colby asked from the passenger seat as Cheddar drove down the road in Tag’s Barker Buggy she had let her borrow. “You’re not already… kicking me [i]out[/i], are you?” He said these words jokingly, but there was the smallest insecure part of him that wondered. He had noticed those two dogs that were bothering Tag the other day living on top of a tree, after all.\n “Wha-[i] [/i][i][b]NO[/b][/i][i]![/i] It’s just, well I remember you saying you like heights, so I just figured you might like the view from up there. And this is the best time of day to see it.” She put on her best poker-face as she kept her eyes on the road, turning the song on the radio down. “Sorry we haven’t spent much time together today, Colby. Bowowzo and Wowbowzo had a juggling emergency.” \n She hated lying to Colby’s face, but it was necessary to keep the surprise. \n “Sorry, what’d you say?!” Colby raised his voice. “It’s kind of hard to hear anything with these floppy things at this speed!” He lifted his brown ears upwards, letting them go as they flapped in the wind behind him.\n “Oh, here. Let me see…” Cheddar hesitated for a moment before pressing a little button, and suddenly two little robotic arms came out to hold Colby’s ears in place. \n “Heh, wow. No matter how long I live in Pawston, there’s always going to be something that surprises me, isn’t there?” Colby chuckled quietly. “Anyway, what was it you said?”\n “Oh… don’t worry about it. You’ll see.” Cheddar smiled, her heart beating faster as they got closer to the tree - and Colby’s big surprise. \n\n “Wow. That’s quite the ladder.” Colby looked up in awe at the size of the tree once they arrived; it looked even taller up-close than it did from far away. [i]‘This town and ladders, I swear…’[/i]\n “Don’t be scared Colby, this ladder is as sturdy as they come!” Cheddar reassured him with a knock on the yellow wood as she began to climb up. “Just follow my lead, and don’t look down.”\n Colby followed her up the ladder, not looking down just as she had suggested. \n Some time had passed and his eyes began to wander from boredom as they climbed higher and higher, eventually glancing upwards to see how much closer they were to the top. But something he saw just above him made his heart instantly beat faster and his face feel hot. Something he knew he wasn’t [i]supposed [/i]to see. But hard as he tried, he just couldn’t look away; he didn’t [i]want[/i] to look away. Little did he know, Cheddar had been secretly glancing downwards the whole time they had been climbing to see if she could catch him sneaking a glimpse.\n “Enjoying the view?” Cheddar asked innocently, a blush making its way onto her face. \n “Uh… y-yeah. Mm-hmm.” His head immediately jolted straight-forward again, trying to play dumb. \n “We’re almost there, Colby!” The little white clown-dog teased coyly with a grin, pretending she had no idea what he’d been doing. Although this was a completely new feeling to her, she loved that he was privately taking in the view of her underside with that flustered look on his face. “Keep looking up!”\n Colby obeyed. \n\n Before long, Cheddar disappeared beyond the thick green leaves as she emerged through the top of the tree. When Colby followed just behind her, what he saw took his breath away. \n Waiting for him was a large and colorful crowd of dogs - some he had met, some completely unfamiliar. There was his new family the Barkers, the Barkapellas, Cheddar’s clown friends, Wagnes, Manhole Dog, Sergeant Pooch and her son Scooch, among many others. \n “[i][b]Happy Birthday, Colby![/b][/i]” \n They all shouted in unison, with Cheddar Biscuit holding up a large sprinkle-covered birthday cake with twenty-seven candles as a bright rainbow of confetti loudly blasted out of the party cannon. \n Colby didn’t react at all at first, his mouth agape as he looked at the many dogs that had gathered just for him. Then, tears quickly began to well in his eyes. But soon, like finally understanding the punchline of a complex joke, a smile slowly found its way onto his face. The longer he looked at Cheddar Biscuit holding the birthday cake among his new friends and family, he finally began to chuckle, which eventually became a laugh.\n “Heh… heh… hehehehehehahahahaHAHAHAHA!”\n Just what Cheddar had been waiting so long to hear - Colby’s laughter. He laughed and laughed like he had never laughed before, even though the tears kept coming. Only this time, they were [i]happy[/i] tears. \n “Thank you so much, everyone… really. Thank you. To be honest, I had completely forgotten what day it was,” Colby said as he wiped the wetness from his face. “This really… really means a lot to me.”\n “Well go on, Colby… make a wish,” Cheddar whispered with a smile. “The candles are melting.”\n The yellow Lab paused for a moment, making his wish carefully. There wasn’t much he could ever want or need, but if he had one wish…\n He blew out the candles.\n “Hit it, Barkapellas!” Cheddar called over to the three familiar singers on the small wooden stage.\n\n [i]“Ceee-le-brate good times, [/i][b][i]come on![/i][/b][i]”[/i]\n\n They began to sing, and with that the party officially started. There were dancing dogs, jump-roping dogs, cake-eating dogs - one dog was even shot out of the cannon.\n “Dog-cannon! Woo-hoo!”\n “Is… he gonna be okay?” Colby asked as he watched the dog disappear over the side of the tree. \n “Of course, there’s a giant trampoline at the bottom,” Cheddar replied, cutting him a slice of cake. “And by the way, consider this your ‘Welcome to Pawston’ party, too. We Pawston dogs love [i]any[/i] excuse to throw a party at the Party Tree!” She stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek as she handed him the plate, earning a blush from him. She loved making him do that. \n Colby and Cheddar stood closely side by side among the many bouquets of balloons as they ate their cake together for some time, watching all the other dogs having the time of their lives. For Colby, this was so much more than a simple birthday party. It was special moments like these - moments of peace, of happiness, of living, truly [i]living[/i] - that he had fought so hard and so long for. That he had lost so much for. For Colby, this was a celebration of life itself. \n “Hey… can you come with me? I have a present for you.” Cheddar spoke, interrupting his train of deep thought after they had both finished their cake.\n “What? Yeah, of course. But this party is already more than I ever could’ve hoped for, you really didn’t have to get me anything, Cheddar…” Colby rubbed the back of his head modestly as they discreetly snuck out of the party, and he followed her back down the ladder.\n “Yes, I did.”\n\n “Okay, close your eyes.” Cheddar Biscuit grabbed Colby’s paws, placing them firmly over his own eyes. “No peeking!”\n “I promise.” He smiled as he rolled his eyes slightly from behind his paws. He waited for several minutes in silence before he heard the sound of tires rolling against the ground and coming to a stop in front of him.\n “Okay, open them!” Cheddar shouted, followed by the sound of a honking car horn.\n When Colby removed his paws, he was completely speechless by the gift Cheddar had given him. It was an entire car, painted red, orange, and green to match his dog-tag.\n “This is… you really…?” Colby couldn’t find the words to describe how he felt.\n “I hope it’s okay, I … I made it myself. Tag really deserves all the credit for teaching me, though.” The little white Beagador hopped out of the car. “So… what do you think?”\n Colby was silent for a few moments.\n “I think… I wanna take you somewhere.” Colby approached her, tilting her head up and giving her a quick and gentle kiss on her black lips. “Get in.”\n Cheddar felt her heart flutter at his sudden almost-authoritative tone, hopping into the passenger seat just as he said. Colby put the car into drive and slowly pressed his foot on the pedal, driving down the road to a destination unknown to her. \n\n Night had fallen quickly. After nearly a fifteen-minute drive out of town, Colby drove them up to a lookout point on the far edge of Pawston before coming to a stop near a small tree a safe distance away from the cliff. He hopped out, silently beckoning for Cheddar Biscuit to follow him. When they were under the tree by the edge that looked over Pawston, Colby held her paw. \n “This is the exact spot where I first saw this town,” he said, the warm late-spring wind gently blowing through the trees behind them and heralding the beginning of summer. “I remember exactly how I felt back then. I remember thinking, ‘This is my life now… whether I like it or not’.” He looked down at his paw as he remembered that day; just then, a friendly yet fragile lightning bug landed on it, softly flashing its neon green glow before taking off again in search of a mate as Colby watched it fly away. “I remember seeing that big circus tent and thinking, ‘If there’s [i]anything[/i] I could go for right now, it’s a good laugh. I just… I just want to laugh again’.” Colby looked back to Cheddar, standing next to him. “And that’s when… I met [i]you.[/i]”\n “Colby…” Cheddar whispered, having no other words. No other thoughts. She couldn’t help herself anymore. She wanted him. Needed him. [i]All[/i] of him. She lifted her shaky paw, running her fingers up the fur on his chest. Colby returned her affectionate touch, slowly running his paws up her side from her hips to her shoulders. “The view is… beautiful, up here.” She huffed, her breathing becoming increasingly heavy and erratic.\n “It sure is.” Colby whispered as he looked straight into her eyes as the soft orange glow of the city below illuminated their faces, pulling her closer before leaning down to give her another kiss. He broke the kiss after only a moment, but Cheddar Biscuit wasn’t satisfied. She needed [i]more[/i]. She pulled him closer to her this time, her soft black lips now asserting themselves against his as she pulled him down to the grassy earth below. \n Colby’s mind was in a haze as he was smothered by the Beagador’s constant passionate kisses, the sweet taste of her long and flat tongue as it slid delicately past his lips overwhelming him with her unique sugary flavor. His legs weakly fumbled and rubbed against the grass as she straddled his hips - partly in pleasure, partly in protest. He pushed up gently against Cheddar’s small frame, forcing her to break the kiss for a moment. The sound of her desperate and needy moan as he forced her off of him almost made him tempted to let her have her way. But there was something he needed to say first.\n He had to come clean.\n “Cheddar Biscuit… b-before we do anything… [i]rash[/i]…” Colby panted as he struggled to catch his breath, his face - as well as [i]other[/i] places - feeling like it was on fire. “I… I have to tell you something. Something important.”\n “Can’t it just… wait?” Cheddar sighed longingly against his face, her hot breath driving him insane with temptation. “I’ve been wanting this… for so long…”\n “No… no. I need to tell you now. You deserve to know.” Colby sat up in front of the tree, preparing himself for the worst. “I [i]need[/i] you to know.”\n “O-okay… what is it?” Cheddar brows furrowed, wondering what could be so important to interrupt such an intimate moment. \n Colby swallowed. This was it. Confession time. \n “I… I don’t… belong here.”\n “[i]What?[/i] Colby… how can you [i]say[/i] that? Of course you belong here. My family loves you. Pawston loves you… I-I…” Cheddar choked, suddenly finding herself unable to say that one word. \n “No, Cheddar Biscuit. What I mean is… I really don’t [i]belong[/i] here.” Colby repeated as he held her shoulders firmly, his green eyes staring directly into her soul.\n\n “...I am not [i]from this universe[/i][i].”[/i]\n\t\n\n “Hey, has anyone seen Colby lately?” Ms. Pooch asked no one in particular, looking around curiously with her paws on her waist. “Now where’d [i]he[/i] gone and disappeared off to?”\n “Yeah, this is [i]his[/i] party!” Tag added as she was currently twirling Scooch around above her head while she quickly spun in place on one foot. \n “Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve seen Cheddar Biscuit in a while, either!” Gilber spoke up over the loud singing of the Barkapellas.\n\n [i]“So make, a wiiish,[/i]\n [i]I'll make it like your birthday, ev-rydaaay![/i]\n [i]I'll be, your giiift,[/i]\n [i]Give you somethin’ good to ce-le-braaate!”[/i]\n\n “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about those two.” Maw gave a knowing smile as she looked off into the distance in the general direction she had seen two familiar dogs in a red and orange car driving away earlier. \n\n [i]“...What?”[/i] Cheddar Biscuit asked, wondering if she had somehow misheard him.\n “I’m… from another universe.” Colby continued, feeling an icy chill as he made his confession. He dreaded that this might ruin everything between them, but he knew that he needed to tell her the truth. He couldn’t keep hiding this from her anymore. “Everything you know is just one of many realities. I know you won’t believe me, but… just let me [i]show[/i] you something.”\n Colby held out his paw with his palm facing up and his fingers curled. His eyes and dog-tag began to glow a bright neon green in the dark, the brown hair on his head lifting up just a little from the miniscule surge of energy. Tiny sparks of what appeared to be green lightning began to crackle and zap from his palm, creeping up his fingers and forming a tiny but immensely bright glowing ball of swirling fluid - it almost looked like a miniature star.\n “This is plasma. Super-heated charged ions, hotter than the sun. The fourth state of matter.”\n [i]‘I [/i][i][b]knew[/b][/i][i] I wasn’t just seeing things…’[/i] Cheddar thought to herself, remembering the few instances where she thought she saw that strange green static around Colby’s body. “So, that explosion that happened a month ago… was that… [i]you?[/i]” Cheddar asked quietly, still trying to process all of this.\n “...Yes.” Colby replied, dispersing the plasma as his eyes and tag returned to normal.\n “So… what happened that day, [i]really?[/i]” \n “I…” The yellow Labrador sighed, his shoulders sinking. “Cheddar, I really don’t know if you’re ready to hear this.”\n “Please, Colby. You’ve told me[i] [/i]this much. I think I can handle it.”\n “...Okay. If you’re sure.” Colby took a deep breath, trying to find the best way to explain. \n\n “You… died. Everyone died. The entire universe died. Every… single… universe… [i]died[/i].”\n\n Cheddar felt a cold chill run up her spine, but said nothing. Colby exhaled, \t\n “There was something from outside of all reality, and it was eating entire universes… consuming them. Getting bigger. Stronger. I was eventually able to destroy it, and I found a way to bring everyone back. But at a price. This… this isn’t even my original self. I’m more of a… copy. To restore each universe, I had to give up a small piece of my original self. That flash you experienced was, essentially, a second Big Bang. And I’m… [i]not[/i] twenty-seven. Not technically, anyway. When my universe was destroyed, I survived. My family… they sacrificed themselves to keep me alive. But then, I was stranded in an endless white void. Alone. On top of that [i]monster[/i]. Watching it eat entire universes like a black hole, and I was completely powerless to do anything. It felt like[i] [/i]forever. With no exaggeration, a literal [i]eternity.[/i] It could’ve been a year, a hundred years, a [i]thousand[/i] years… or even a [i]billion[/i] years. I have no way of knowing. Time didn’t exist there, so I didn’t age. Never got tired. Never slept. But it was like a nightmare I could never wake up from. I just wanted it to end. I felt like I was losing my sanity. I would’ve done… [i]anything[/i]… for it to end. There were times when… I wanted to…” \n Colby stopped himself. His body tensed up and he breathed faster the more he thought about it, and Cheddar rested her paw on his to calm him. Once his breaths settled, he continued.\n “I’m so sorry for not telling you all of this sooner. I wanted to for so long, I just… wasn’t sure how to. It’s not exactly an easy thing to explain.”\nCheddar was silent for a long time as she processed everything Colby had just told her. \n “Well… I don’t know what I was [i]expecting[/i] you to say, but it definitely wasn’t all of… [i]that[/i].” Her expression was extremely difficult for Colby to read. “This is… a lot to take in.”\n “I know it sounds insane, but there’s so much more I want to tell you. My name’s not even Colby… my real name is actually M-” Cheddar covered his mouth with her finger. \n “I don’t need to know your old name. You’re [i]Colby[/i] now, and that’s all that matters to me.” She lowered her finger again. “I told you before, we’re dogs… we try not to dwell too much on the past. We live in the moment. And… I believe you.”\n “You don’t seem very surprised.” Colby replied, wondering why she [i]wasn’t[/i] giving a more intense reaction. \n “Oh, I [i]am.[/i] I’m confused… I’m [i]horrified…[/i] I mean, you’re basically telling me that during that flash, we were all… [b]dead[/b]… for [i]years[/i]?” Cheddar Biscuit shuddered at the thought of complete non-existence. “But… you know, it actually makes a [i]lot[/i] of sense, now that I think about it.” She gently chuckled, remembering all his odd behavior over the last month she had known him. “You always did seem… different. It’s almost like… like you’re not a dog at all.” She paused. “...So what [i]are[/i] you?”\nColby hesitated, looking down at his four-fingered hand again as he ran his fingers through his own yellow fur.\n “You’re right… I didn’t always look like this. I’m assuming you don’t have ‘humans’ here, do you?”\nCheddar shook her head; the word was like gibberish to her.\n “I was human once. I looked almost like I do now, but with no fur, tail, floppy ears, or this muzzle.” The Labrador felt the snout protruding from his face, still not having grown fully-accustomed to it yet. “But when I came to this world, I guess my body sort of… automatically changed to fit the norm.”\n There was a long silence between them. Colby began to feel tears coming, desperately hoping that Cheddar would say something. Anything.\n “I… I’m so,[i] so [/i]sorry that I kept all of this from you, Cheddar. I hate myself for lying to you the way I did. I promise, no more secrets. But… I’ll completely understand if you don’t-”\n“Sit back.” Cheddar interrupted with a whisper, reaching her paw out and gently pushing against his chest as she pressed his back down to the grass. “Relax… just [i]be[/i] with me for a while. You don’t have to explain anything else.” Her breathing became heavy again as she crept onto his body, her hips lined up and pressing firmly against his.\n “But-”\n “Shh…” Cheddar Biscuit placed her finger on Colby’s muzzle again. “Nothing about your past changes anything. I like you… as you are…” Her muzzle was tantalizingly close as she inched her face towards his, her hot breath filling his lungs with her saccharine scent before she finally broke the cruel distance between them.\nColby’s tears kept coming, relieved that nothing about his truth changed how she felt about him. His heart pounded as her chest pressed against his, his breathing picking up to match hers as their fur-covered bodies sensually slid up and down against one another. He felt himself start to become stimulated as Cheddar’s feminine whimpers and moans filled his mouth. \n Unexpectedly, Cheddar broke the kiss and she sat upright, straddling his hips as she felt his arousal against hers.\n “I’ll take the lead…” She huffed quietly as she reached behind her neck and unbuckled her colorful bowtie collar. The little white Beagador blushed heavily and let out a passionate sigh as she gingerly dangled her bow aside, dropping it on the ground. Colby felt his body shudder with pure desire as he watched her remove the collar from around her now-bare throat; maybe it was the neurons in his canine brain activating, but something about the way she looked with just her collar off made her appear more… [i]naked[/i], somehow. \n “[i]Woof…[/i]” He muttered under his breath lustily, admiring her natural body as the moonlight reflected off her silver fur. He reached behind his own neck, taking his collar off as well before tossing it aside. \n Cheddar Biscuit grabbed each of Colby’s paws in hers, weaving her fingers firmly between his. She lowered her chest back down to meet him, their heated bodies both noticeably quaking and shivering with nervous energy as they resumed their long, deep kiss. Colby eventually began to slowly move his hips, and Cheddar Biscuit moved hers in kind to match his pace. Only the sounds of their erratic breathing could be heard in the silence of the night as their tongues explored each other’s mouths, the pace of their hips speeding up slightly as they shared their bodies. After enough torturous waiting, Cheddar Biscuit finally moved to seal the deal. She lifted herself up and bent her hips at just the right angle, letting out a breathy moan as she slowly pressed her entrance against Colby’s hard bone.\n “W-wait, Cheddar Biscuit… do you have a… condom?” Colby whispered between heavy breaths as he lifted his head up slightly.\n “What’s a ‘condom’?” Cheddar asked with a smirk; she genuinely had no idea what that was, as condoms didn’t exist in this world.\n “Oh, n… nevermind…” Colby lowered his head against the grass again, feeling far too turned-on now to want to stop anyway. \n With one excruciatingly slow movement, Cheddar Biscuit lowered herself down onto him. Colby’s paws clenched tightly onto hers, a quiet dog-like whine of pleasure escaping from both of their lungs as they finally connected. \n Everything felt like a hazy blur as the two shared their entire selves with one another. Each subtle movement was slow and deliberate, both of them feeling like nothing else in the universe existed or mattered in this moment. Their paws clutched each other’s as if their lives depended on it, both of them letting out soft grunts and growls into their tightly-sealed kiss. \n Sometimes their joined hips were in perfect sync - other times, one of their hips would slightly speed up for a brief moment as if to express their enthusiasm and the passionate feelings they felt for one another. Their tongues would do the same, swirling around the other in a slow and intertwining motion one moment before turning into a tug-of-war between their mouths the next. But all the while, their paws never once parted from the other for even a second. \n Suddenly, Cheddar Biscuit gasped as she suddenly felt tears coming from her own eyes as well.\n [i]‘This feels so good… and I’m so happy… so why… am I crying?’[/i]’ She thought to herself. She had never, not once in her life, cried from happiness.\n “Are you okay, Cheddar?” Colby broke the kiss with a worried look, realizing that he was feeling her tears on his face. “I’m not hurting you, am I?”\n “No, not at all…” Cheddar sniffled, smiling as she admired his gentleness and genuine concern for her. “I’m [i]more[/i] than just okay…” \n She resumed the kiss again, the taste of their tears mixing together like a salty cocktail of bliss as their lips met. However, as their hips coincidentally pressed together at the same time with extra vigor, Colby suddenly felt himself locked in place.\n “Oh, shit…” The yellow Lab suddenly broke the kiss again and looked down, realizing what had happened. He cursed himself under his breath for completely overlooking his own canine anatomy that was still relatively new to him. “Cheddar, I’m- I’m stuck. I keep forgetting I have this… [i]thing,[/i] now.” \n “It’s okay…” Cheddar quietly huffed with a look of pure pleasure glued onto her face. “It’s a safe-day for me.”\n “Y-you’re [i]sure?[/i]” Colby grunted as she continued; it almost felt like she was moving progressively faster. “How do you know?”\n “Yeah, as female dogs, we always naturally know when we’re… [i]receptive[/i]…” Cheddar Biscuit moaned as she felt a faint jolt up her spine at the intrusive thought of carrying Colby’s puppy inside her. “So please… do it inside… I want it all… inside… of me…”\n Colby’s entire body felt like he was on fire upon hearing her whisper those words into his canine ear, his pace obediently picking up to surpass hers. It was still relatively slow and gentle, but there was much more intent behind each thrust than ever before. There was nothing holding either of them back now.\n “Cheddar Biscuit…”\n “Colby…”\n Neither of them had to wait much longer. As their sweating paws tightly gripped each other, Colby’s toes curled. Their simultaneous carnal moans became sharp and forceful, piercing the warm and silent night air as Colby’s hips suddenly elevated. There were no fireworks lighting the sky tonight, yet they still saw fireworks nonetheless.\n\n And then, everything was still. \n\n Cheddar gave a sleepy smile as she rubbed her muzzle against the side of Colby’s chest, her arm draped over him as she snuggled up and began to slowly fall asleep. She happily hummed as she took in his natural scent; she always thought there was something strange and unique about the way he smelled, and now she finally knew why.\n \t[i]‘So this must be what a ‘human’ smells like…’[/i] Cheddar Biscuit thought, trying to picture in her mind what kind of strange alien Colby must’ve looked like in his old life. For him to quite literally cross dimensions just to catch her fall that fateful night, there was not a single doubt in her mind now that destiny had brought them together.\n “You know, it’s kind of funny…” She mumbled with a yawn as her boyfriend’s body-heat lulled her to sleep. \n “What is?” Colby asked with a satisfied smile, drifting off as well. He hadn’t felt this kind of relief in a long time. \n \t“It’s funny that… that day we met… when you caught me… the reason I fell… was ‘cause I got distracted… when I saw you…” Her eyes closed, and with a content sigh she drifted off to sleep.\n [i][b]‘What.’[/b][/i] \n Colby’s eyes shot wide-open, his heart sinking. He felt a sick feeling in the deepest pit of his stomach. The reason she fell from that tightrope… the reason Cheddar Biscuit could have [i]died[/i]… was all because of [i]him? [/i]\n While Cheddar slept soundly, dreaming pleasantly sweet yet passionate dreams of her Colby among cotton-candy clouds and rainbow-colored cakes, the yellow Labrador from another world had a difficult time sleeping that night. He had a lot to think about. As he laid in the grass with Cheddar Biscuit’s petite body resting against his own, the night sky above taunted him with its black and infinite vastness. Yet after everything Colby had been through, it all seemed so… small, now. \n The memories of his seemingly-endless struggle for peace came creeping back in. He remembered all of the pain, the sadness, and the torment that he and his loved ones had suffered from his failures. The fight was over now, but still Colby couldn’t feel safe. He hadn’t allowed himself to. The sense that danger could find him or the ones he cared about at any minute was haunting him, now more than ever. \n After several more hours of silently staring up at the twinkling stars, sleep eventually overtook him. \n\t\n [i]“Ladies and gentlemen, step right up to see the one, the only, the amaaazing Cheddar Biscuit!”[/i]\n Colby opened his eyes to find himself sitting in the audience of Cheddar Biscuit’s big circus show, except… something was different. The rest of the dogs in the audience had no faces, there were no protective nets below the tightrope, and the ringmaster was [i]not[/i] Muttfield the Magnificent. Instead, the dog announcing from the center of the tent appeared to be another Colby, wearing a rainbow wig and a clown nose. \n \tCheddar Biscuit rolled onto the tightrope high-above on her unicycle, doing her tricks just as she had done every show as the circus band played her on. Colby looked on, suddenly getting a sinking feeling in his gut as the lights slowly turned from white to red. Suddenly, Cheddar stopped in place, her head slowly turning to face him as she stared down at him directly in the eyes with a blank and expressionless look. Then, almost as if on purpose, she fell off the side. \n\t “No!” Colby shouted as he instinctively ran onto the circular stage, charging the plasma-energy within him to speed himself up just as he had done before. But this time, the center of the stage seemed to be getting further and further away, and Colby’s run slowed into a snail’s pace like he was running through molasses. The band playing circus music in a minor key slowed down to a complete halt. And before Cheddar Biscuit even reached the ground, her broken and lifeless body was already lying on the floor of the circus tent. \n “[i]Uh-oh, folks! Looks like she did a little [/i][b][i]drop![/i][/b][i]”[/i] The clown-Colby laughed as a sad [i]‘wah-wah-wah-waaaah’[/i] played from a trombone, followed by an uproar of maniacal laughter from the audience. \n “Cheddar… [i]NO!”[/i] Colby cried out, in the blink of an eye suddenly finding himself standing at her grave under an overcast sky. The Barkers were there as well, all glaring directly at Colby with tears in their eyes and stares of nothing but pure hatred. \n [i]“Why didn’t you [/i][i][b]save[/b][/i][i] her?”[/i] Paw’s fists clenched tightly.\n [i]“It’s [/i][i][b]all your fault[/b][/i].” Maw bared her teeth.\n [i]“We wish [/i][b][i]you[/i][/b][i] were dead.”[/i] Gilber added, poking him hard in the chest with one of his sticks.\n [i]“...You can’t save [/i][b][i]anyone[/i][/b][i].”[/i] Tag sniffled with bitter sorrow in her voice, her words in particular like a knife in Colby’s heart. \n [i][b]“ALOOONE.”[/b][/i] \n A familiar guttural and omnipresent voice shook the whole world as Colby looked up, fear striking his heart as a massive meteor suddenly fell from the sky and pierced the far horizon with a blinding light. \n “Everyone, behind you!”\n But it was far too late to do anything now, and everyone he knew was gone in an instant. \n His vision instantly faded back into the circus tent. Only this time, [i]he[/i] was the one on the unicycle and balancing from the tightrope, and the audience was completely empty. \n No… not empty.\n A black and formless shadow quickly crept on the inner wall of the tent through his peripheral vision, evading his sight wherever he looked as it gave him the feeling he was being hunted. In his ears, he could hear a flicker of menacing insect wings as it moved. His body shook in terror as he looked down; instead of the ground below, his heart filled with dread as he was greeted by a familiar otherworldly face like that of jagged obsidian. Its circular and unmoving mouth was full of rows of sharp and jagged teeth like that of a lamprey, its many glowing red eyes staring directly at him. \n It was [i]hungry[/i]. \n [i][b]“THE NIGHTMAAARE… WILL NEVERRR… EEENNND.”[/b][/i]\n Colby tried to swallow his fear and cross the rope as if his life depended on it, finding it increasingly-difficult as it bounced up and down more with every movement of his foot on the pedal. However, his hearing deafened to an ominous silence before he heard another familiar voice - one that terrified him like none other. It was feminine and raspy, whispering in his ear clearly with a sound like scraping rusted nails.\n [b]“And your past will [/b][b][i]consume[/i][/b][b] you.”[/b]\n Colby suddenly felt a painful shock in his back like that of a wasp’s venomous stinger before losing his balance, falling over the edge of the rope. His blood ran colder than ice, and he fell into the dark event-horizon. \n\n His eyes shot wide-open, looking up at the clear night sky once again. For a few moments, his ears were ringing much like a flatlining heart-monitor. His palms were sweating profusely, his heart pounding rapidly against Cheddar Biscuit’s cheek as she continued to lay on his chest. She was still sound-asleep with that same sweet and innocent smile still on her face. He held his paw against his own heart, silently pleading for it to slow down. His mouth made him feel like he was dying of thirst. \n With a bitter sigh as it eventually returned to a normal pace, he slowly and gently slid out from under Cheddar before pulling out a pen and paper from behind his back. He began to write. As horribly painful as this was for him, he knew what he had to do. The only way he could protect the ones he loved. \nIt was for the best. \n\n\n “...Mmhh… good morning, Colby…” Cheddar mumbled happily as she woke up to the morning sun shining on her face, slowly opening her eyes. She turned around. Colby wasn’t there. She sat up, looking around in every direction as she blinked in confusion. The car was still there, but there was no sign of him. “Colby?”\n Nothing. No response. \n\n [i]“[/i]......[i]Colby?[/i]”", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "           “Cheddar.”

           “Mmhh…”
\t
           “Cheddar, wake up, honey.”

           “...Hmm…?” Cheddar slowly opened her eyes with a yawn as she laid on the floor of the Pawtomotive Garage, looking up to find the blurry outline of her mother kneeling over her and gently petting her cheek.
           “We didn’t see you at breakfast, so we were all wondering where you were,” Maw continued, handing her daughter a cold glass of orange juice. “Why were you sleeping out in the garage?
           “The… the car… the car!” Cheddar looked over at the space in the garage she had been working in as she took the cup; there was the car, completely finished. Once Cheddar got a good look at it as she took a drink and began to fully wake up, she finally remembered that she had, in fact, managed to build it all in a single night. And it looked pretty decent, if she said so herself. It wasn’t anything particularly fancy or stylish, but all the pieces were there and assembled properly. It was a two-seater with a storage trunk in the back, almost identical to Tag’s Barker Buggy but without all the fancy gadgets. Also, instead of Tag’s signature purple and yellow, Cheddar had painted this one in red and orange with small accents of green to match Colby’s dog-tag.
           “Did you build that?” Maw asked as her eyes widened in disbelief
          “Yeah, Tag taught me how. It’s a surprise for Colby’s birthday today. He didn’t see it, did he?!” Cheddar got up and quickly tossed a tarp to completely cover it.
           “No worries, he’s still back at the house. Last I saw, Gilber was showing him his stick collection.” They both chuckled. “I’m really proud of you, Cheddar. This must’ve taken a lot of hard work. You really love him, don’t you?”
           Cheddar Biscuit’s cheeks flushed as red as the car.
           “L-love? I dunno about… ‘love’…” She laughed nervously as she started juggling her empty cup along with two rubber balls, pretending she had no idea what her mom was talking about.
           “Whatever you say, sweetie.” Maw gave her a kiss on the forehead before catching Cheddar’s empty glass mid-air. “All I’m saying is, I think he’d make a great son-in-law.”
           “Mooom, you’re embarrassing me!” Cheddar covered her face in sheer humiliation as her mom began to walk out of the door and back to the house, followed by the bouncing balls she had dropped.
           “I’m your mom. It’s kind of my job!”
           As Cheddar stood alone in the garage, she knew deep in her heart that, as embarrassing to talk about as it was…
           Her mother was right.

           Colby didn’t see Cheddar Biscuit much at all that day; just as planned, most of the Barkers found their own unique ways to intentionally distract him while she personally got everything arranged for the big surprise birthday party for Colby in the Party Tree - the tallest, largest tree in Pawston. Everyone she had invited had come to the Party Tree, and after a short but much-needed nap to make up for her nearly sleepless night, Cheddar eventually returned to the garage.
           “Now, for the moment of truth…” Cheddar Biscuit muttered to herself with a grimace, inhaling in suspense as she turned the key in the ignition of Colby’s gift.
           Nothing.
           “No… no…” Cheddar exhaled and rested her head on the steering wheel, devastated that all her hard work was seemingly useless after all. “I tried my hardest… I really tried… and I still failed…”
           She looked at the manual lying on the seat beside her, picking it up and scrolling through it to see if there were any steps she had missed.
           “I swear I did it all correctly… all three hundred and sixteen steps. Wait…” Cheddar flipped the manual over to the back side, remembering Tag telling her that there were three hundred and seventeen steps - something she knew her sister would never get wrong. Sure enough, there was one last step on the back.
           “Connect the battery.”
           Cheddar Biscuit took the keys out before hopping out of the car and flipping open the hood, rolling her eyes upon finding that the wires connecting the battery to the rest of the car still weren’t connected. She attached the wires and got back in the car, turning the key one more time.

           *VRUMMM*

           She let out a sigh of relief as the engine started beautifully. But it was still too early to celebrate just yet; she also had to get the car all the way to the tree in one piece. She pressed down gently on the gas pedal, rolling it out of the garage and past the Barker house. She knew there was no risk of Colby seeing his present as Grandpaw Mort had taken him to the backyard as a distraction to show him the small vegetable garden he tended to as a hobby. 
           “So far, so good…” Cheddar thought as she headed further down the road and for the Party Tree. To her surprise, she made it all the way there with no breakdowns or issues whatsoever.
           “I can’t believe it, it actually works!” She cheered to herself once she stepped out of the car after carefully parking it hidden behind some tall bushes, taking the moment to bow with pride at what she had accomplished as she imagined an audience cheering for her.
           “Now all this party needs is the birthday-boy himself.”

           “...So why are we going to this tree?” Colby asked from the passenger seat as Cheddar drove down the road in Tag’s Barker Buggy she had let her borrow. “You’re not already… kicking me out, are you?” He said these words jokingly, but there was the smallest insecure part of him that wondered. He had noticed those two dogs that were bothering Tag the other day living on top of a tree, after all.
           “Wha- NO! It’s just, well I remember you saying you like heights, so I just figured you might like the view from up there. And this is the best time of day to see it.” She put on her best poker-face as she kept her eyes on the road, turning the song on the radio down. “Sorry we haven’t spent much time together today, Colby. Bowowzo and Wowbowzo had a juggling emergency.”
           She hated lying to Colby’s face, but it was necessary to keep the surprise.
           “Sorry, what’d you say?!” Colby raised his voice. “It’s kind of hard to hear anything with these floppy things at this speed!” He lifted his brown ears upwards, letting them go as they flapped in the wind behind him.
           “Oh, here. Let me see…” Cheddar hesitated for a moment before pressing a little button, and suddenly two little robotic arms came out to hold Colby’s ears in place.
           “Heh, wow. No matter how long I live in Pawston, there’s always going to be something that surprises me, isn’t there?” Colby chuckled quietly. “Anyway, what was it you said?”
           “Oh… don’t worry about it. You’ll see.” Cheddar smiled, her heart beating faster as they got closer to the tree - and Colby’s big surprise.

           “Wow. That’s quite the ladder.” Colby looked up in awe at the size of the tree once they arrived; it looked even taller up-close than it did from far away. ‘This town and ladders, I swear…’
           “Don’t be scared Colby, this ladder is as sturdy as they come!” Cheddar reassured him with a knock on the yellow wood as she began to climb up. “Just follow my lead, and don’t look down.”
           Colby followed her up the ladder, not looking down just as she had suggested.
           Some time had passed and his eyes began to wander from boredom as they climbed higher and higher, eventually glancing upwards to see how much closer they were to the top. But something he saw just above him made his heart instantly beat faster and his face feel hot. Something he knew he wasn’t supposed to see. But hard as he tried, he just couldn’t look away; he didn’t want to look away. Little did he know, Cheddar had been secretly glancing downwards the whole time they had been climbing to see if she could catch him sneaking a glimpse.
           “Enjoying the view?” Cheddar asked innocently, a blush making its way onto her face.
           “Uh… y-yeah. Mm-hmm.” His head immediately jolted straight-forward again, trying to play dumb.
           “We’re almost there, Colby!” The little white clown-dog teased coyly with a grin, pretending she had no idea what he’d been doing. Although this was a completely new feeling to her, she loved that he was privately taking in the view of her underside with that flustered look on his face. “Keep looking up!”
           Colby obeyed.

           Before long, Cheddar disappeared beyond the thick green leaves as she emerged through the top of the tree. When Colby followed just behind her, what he saw took his breath away.
           Waiting for him was a large and colorful crowd of dogs - some he had met, some completely unfamiliar. There was his new family the Barkers, the Barkapellas, Cheddar’s clown friends, Wagnes, Manhole Dog, Sergeant Pooch and her son Scooch, among many others.
           “Happy Birthday, Colby!”
           They all shouted in unison, with Cheddar Biscuit holding up a large sprinkle-covered birthday cake with twenty-seven candles as a bright rainbow of confetti loudly blasted out of the party cannon.
           Colby didn’t react at all at first, his mouth agape as he looked at the many dogs that had gathered just for him. Then, tears quickly began to well in his eyes. But soon, like finally understanding the punchline of a complex joke, a smile slowly found its way onto his face. The longer he looked at Cheddar Biscuit holding the birthday cake among his new friends and family, he finally began to chuckle, which eventually became a laugh.
           “Heh… heh… hehehehehehahahahaHAHAHAHA!”
           Just what Cheddar had been waiting so long to hear - Colby’s laughter. He laughed and laughed like he had never laughed before, even though the tears kept coming. Only this time, they were happy tears.
           “Thank you so much, everyone… really. Thank you. To be honest, I had completely forgotten what day it was,” Colby said as he wiped the wetness from his face. “This really… really means a lot to me.”
           “Well go on, Colby… make a wish,” Cheddar whispered with a smile. “The candles are melting.”
           The yellow Lab paused for a moment, making his wish carefully. There wasn’t much he could ever want or need, but if he had one wish…
           He blew out the candles.
           “Hit it, Barkapellas!” Cheddar called over to the three familiar singers on the small wooden stage.

           “Ceee-le-brate good times, come on!”

           They began to sing, and with that the party officially started. There were dancing dogs, jump-roping dogs, cake-eating dogs - one dog was even shot out of the cannon.
           “Dog-cannon! Woo-hoo!”
           “Is… he gonna be okay?” Colby asked as he watched the dog disappear over the side of the tree.
           “Of course, there’s a giant trampoline at the bottom,” Cheddar replied, cutting him a slice of cake. “And by the way, consider this your ‘Welcome to Pawston’ party, too. We Pawston dogs love any excuse to throw a party at the Party Tree!” She stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek as she handed him the plate, earning a blush from him. She loved making him do that.
           Colby and Cheddar stood closely side by side among the many bouquets of balloons as they ate their cake together for some time, watching all the other dogs having the time of their lives. For Colby, this was so much more than a simple birthday party. It was special moments like these - moments of peace, of happiness, of living, truly living - that he had fought so hard and so long for. That he had lost so much for. For Colby, this was a celebration of life itself.
           “Hey… can you come with me? I have a present for you.” Cheddar spoke, interrupting his train of deep thought after they had both finished their cake.
           “What? Yeah, of course. But this party is already more than I ever could’ve hoped for, you really didn’t have to get me anything, Cheddar…” Colby rubbed the back of his head modestly as they discreetly snuck out of the party, and he followed her back down the ladder.
           “Yes, I did.”

           “Okay, close your eyes.” Cheddar Biscuit grabbed Colby’s paws, placing them firmly over his own eyes. “No peeking!”
           “I promise.” He smiled as he rolled his eyes slightly from behind his paws. He waited for several minutes in silence before he heard the sound of tires rolling against the ground and coming to a stop in front of him.
           “Okay, open them!” Cheddar shouted, followed by the sound of a honking car horn.
           When Colby removed his paws, he was completely speechless by the gift Cheddar had given him. It was an entire car, painted red, orange, and green to match his dog-tag.
           “This is… you really…?” Colby couldn’t find the words to describe how he felt.
           “I hope it’s okay, I … I made it myself. Tag really deserves all the credit for teaching me, though.” The little white Beagador hopped out of the car. “So… what do you think?”
           Colby was silent for a few moments.
           “I think… I wanna take you somewhere.” Colby approached her, tilting her head up and giving her a quick and gentle kiss on her black lips. “Get in.”
           Cheddar felt her heart flutter at his sudden almost-authoritative tone, hopping into the passenger seat just as he said. Colby put the car into drive and slowly pressed his foot on the pedal, driving down the road to a destination unknown to her.

           Night had fallen quickly. After nearly a fifteen-minute drive out of town, Colby drove them up to a lookout point on the far edge of Pawston before coming to a stop near a small tree a safe distance away from the cliff. He hopped out, silently beckoning for Cheddar Biscuit to follow him. When they were under the tree by the edge that looked over Pawston, Colby held her paw.
           “This is the exact spot where I first saw this town,” he said, the warm late-spring wind gently blowing through the trees behind them and heralding the beginning of summer. “I remember exactly how I felt back then. I remember thinking, ‘This is my life now… whether I like it or not’.” He looked down at his paw as he remembered that day; just then, a friendly yet fragile lightning bug landed on it, softly flashing its neon green glow before taking off again in search of a mate as Colby watched it fly away. “I remember seeing that big circus tent and thinking, ‘If there’s anything I could go for right now, it’s a good laugh. I just… I just want to laugh again’.” Colby looked back to Cheddar, standing next to him. “And that’s when… I met you.”
           “Colby…” Cheddar whispered, having no other words. No other thoughts. She couldn’t help herself anymore. She wanted him. Needed him. All of him. She lifted her shaky paw, running her fingers up the fur on his chest. Colby returned her affectionate touch, slowly running his paws up her side from her hips to her shoulders. “The view is… beautiful, up here.” She huffed, her breathing becoming increasingly heavy and erratic.
           “It sure is.” Colby whispered as he looked straight into her eyes as the soft orange glow of the city below illuminated their faces, pulling her closer before leaning down to give her another kiss. He broke the kiss after only a moment, but Cheddar Biscuit wasn’t satisfied. She needed more. She pulled him closer to her this time, her soft black lips now asserting themselves against his as she pulled him down to the grassy earth below.
           Colby’s mind was in a haze as he was smothered by the Beagador’s constant passionate kisses, the sweet taste of her long and flat tongue as it slid delicately past his lips overwhelming him with her unique sugary flavor. His legs weakly fumbled and rubbed against the grass as she straddled his hips - partly in pleasure, partly in protest. He pushed up gently against Cheddar’s small frame, forcing her to break the kiss for a moment. The sound of her desperate and needy moan as he forced her off of him almost made him tempted to let her have her way. But there was something he needed to say first.
           He had to come clean.
           “Cheddar Biscuit… b-before we do anything… rash…” Colby panted as he struggled to catch his breath, his face - as well as other places - feeling like it was on fire. “I… I have to tell you something. Something important.”
           “Can’t it just… wait?” Cheddar sighed longingly against his face, her hot breath driving him insane with temptation. “I’ve been wanting this… for so long…”
           “No… no. I need to tell you now. You deserve to know.” Colby sat up in front of the tree, preparing himself for the worst. “I need you to know.”
           “O-okay… what is it?” Cheddar brows furrowed, wondering what could be so important to interrupt such an intimate moment.
           Colby swallowed. This was it. Confession time.
           “I… I don’t… belong here.”
           “What? Colby… how can you say that? Of course you belong here. My family loves you. Pawston loves you… I-I…” Cheddar choked, suddenly finding herself unable to say that one word.
           “No, Cheddar Biscuit. What I mean is… I really don’t belong here.” Colby repeated as he held her shoulders firmly, his green eyes staring directly into her soul.

           “...I am not from this universe.”
\t

           “Hey, has anyone seen Colby lately?” Ms. Pooch asked no one in particular, looking around curiously with her paws on her waist. “Now where’d he gone and disappeared off to?”
           “Yeah, this is his party!” Tag added as she was currently twirling Scooch around above her head while she quickly spun in place on one foot.
           “Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve seen Cheddar Biscuit in a while, either!” Gilber spoke up over the loud singing of the Barkapellas.

           “So make, a wiiish,
           I'll make it like your birthday, ev-rydaaay!
           I'll be, your giiift,
           Give you somethin’ good to ce-le-braaate!”

           “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about those two.” Maw gave a knowing smile as she looked off into the distance in the general direction she had seen two familiar dogs in a red and orange car driving away earlier.

           “...What?” Cheddar Biscuit asked, wondering if she had somehow misheard him.
           “I’m… from another universe.” Colby continued, feeling an icy chill as he made his confession. He dreaded that this might ruin everything between them, but he knew that he needed to tell her the truth. He couldn’t keep hiding this from her anymore. “Everything you know is just one of many realities. I know you won’t believe me, but… just let me show you something.”
           Colby held out his paw with his palm facing up and his fingers curled. His eyes and dog-tag began to glow a bright neon green in the dark, the brown hair on his head lifting up just a little from the miniscule surge of energy. Tiny sparks of what appeared to be green lightning began to crackle and zap from his palm, creeping up his fingers and forming a tiny but immensely bright glowing ball of swirling fluid - it almost looked like a miniature star.
           “This is plasma. Super-heated charged ions, hotter than the sun. The fourth state of matter.”
           ‘I knew I wasn’t just seeing things…’ Cheddar thought to herself, remembering the few instances where she thought she saw that strange green static around Colby’s body. “So, that explosion that happened a month ago… was that… you?” Cheddar asked quietly, still trying to process all of this.
           “...Yes.” Colby replied, dispersing the plasma as his eyes and tag returned to normal.
           “So… what happened that day, really?”
           “I…” The yellow Labrador sighed, his shoulders sinking. “Cheddar, I really don’t know if you’re ready to hear this.”
           “Please, Colby. You’ve told me this much. I think I can handle it.”
           “...Okay. If you’re sure.” Colby took a deep breath, trying to find the best way to explain.

           “You… died. Everyone died. The entire universe died. Every… single… universe… died.”

           Cheddar felt a cold chill run up her spine, but said nothing. Colby exhaled, \t
           “There was something from outside of all reality, and it was eating entire universes… consuming them. Getting bigger. Stronger. I was eventually able to destroy it, and I found a way to bring everyone back. But at a price. This… this isn’t even my original self. I’m more of a… copy. To restore each universe, I had to give up a small piece of my original self. That flash you experienced was, essentially, a second Big Bang. And I’m… not twenty-seven. Not technically, anyway. When my universe was destroyed, I survived. My family… they sacrificed themselves to keep me alive. But then, I was stranded in an endless white void. Alone. On top of that monster. Watching it eat entire universes like a black hole, and I was completely powerless to do anything. It felt like forever. With no exaggeration, a literal eternity. It could’ve been a year, a hundred years, a thousand years… or even a billion years. I have no way of knowing. Time didn’t exist there, so I didn’t age. Never got tired. Never slept. But it was like a nightmare I could never wake up from. I just wanted it to end. I felt like I was losing my sanity. I would’ve done… anything… for it to end. There were times when… I wanted to…”
           Colby stopped himself. His body tensed up and he breathed faster the more he thought about it, and Cheddar rested her paw on his to calm him. Once his breaths settled, he continued.
           “I’m so sorry for not telling you all of this sooner. I wanted to for so long, I just… wasn’t sure how to. It’s not exactly an easy thing to explain.”
Cheddar was silent for a long time as she processed everything Colby had just told her.
           “Well… I don’t know what I was expecting you to say, but it definitely wasn’t all of… that.” Her expression was extremely difficult for Colby to read. “This is… a lot to take in.”
            “I know it sounds insane, but there’s so much more I want to tell you. My name’s not even Colby… my real name is actually M-” Cheddar covered his mouth with her finger.
           “I don’t need to know your old name. You’re Colby now, and that’s all that matters to me.” She lowered her finger again. “I told you before, we’re dogs… we try not to dwell too much on the past. We live in the moment. And… I believe you.”
           “You don’t seem very surprised.” Colby replied, wondering why she wasn’t giving a more intense reaction.
           “Oh, I am. I’m confused… I’m horrified… I mean, you’re basically telling me that during that flash, we were all… dead… for years?” Cheddar Biscuit shuddered at the thought of complete non-existence. “But… you know, it actually makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it.” She gently chuckled, remembering all his odd behavior over the last month she had known him. “You always did seem… different. It’s almost like… like you’re not a dog at all.” She paused. “...So what are you?”
Colby hesitated, looking down at his four-fingered hand again as he ran his fingers through his own yellow fur.
           “You’re right… I didn’t always look like this. I’m assuming you don’t have ‘humans’ here, do you?”
Cheddar shook her head; the word was like gibberish to her.
           “I was human once. I looked almost like I do now, but with no fur, tail, floppy ears, or this muzzle.” The Labrador felt the snout protruding from his face, still not having grown fully-accustomed to it yet. “But when I came to this world, I guess my body sort of… automatically changed to fit the norm.”
           There was a long silence between them. Colby began to feel tears coming, desperately hoping that Cheddar would say something. Anything.
           “I… I’m so, so sorry that I kept all of this from you, Cheddar. I hate myself for lying to you the way I did. I promise, no more secrets. But… I’ll completely understand if you don’t-”
“Sit back.” Cheddar interrupted with a whisper, reaching her paw out and gently pushing against his chest as she pressed his back down to the grass. “Relax… just be with me for a while. You don’t have to explain anything else.” Her breathing became heavy again as she crept onto his body, her hips lined up and pressing firmly against his.
           “But-”
           “Shh…” Cheddar Biscuit placed her finger on Colby’s muzzle again. “Nothing about your past changes anything. I like you… as you are…” Her muzzle was tantalizingly close as she inched her face towards his, her hot breath filling his lungs with her saccharine scent before she finally broke the cruel distance between them.
Colby’s tears kept coming, relieved that nothing about his truth changed how she felt about him. His heart pounded as her chest pressed against his, his breathing picking up to match hers as their fur-covered bodies sensually slid up and down against one another. He felt himself start to become stimulated as Cheddar’s feminine whimpers and moans filled his mouth.
           Unexpectedly, Cheddar broke the kiss and she sat upright, straddling his hips as she felt his arousal against hers.
           “I’ll take the lead…” She huffed quietly as she reached behind her neck and unbuckled her colorful bowtie collar. The little white Beagador blushed heavily and let out a passionate sigh as she gingerly dangled her bow aside, dropping it on the ground. Colby felt his body shudder with pure desire as he watched her remove the collar from around her now-bare throat; maybe it was the neurons in his canine brain activating, but something about the way she looked with just her collar off made her appear more… naked, somehow.
           “Woof…” He muttered under his breath lustily, admiring her natural body as the moonlight reflected off her silver fur. He reached behind his own neck, taking his collar off as well before tossing it aside.
           Cheddar Biscuit grabbed each of Colby’s paws in hers, weaving her fingers firmly between his. She lowered her chest back down to meet him, their heated bodies both noticeably quaking and shivering with nervous energy as they resumed their long, deep kiss. Colby eventually began to slowly move his hips, and Cheddar Biscuit moved hers in kind to match his pace. Only the sounds of their erratic breathing could be heard in the silence of the night as their tongues explored each other’s mouths, the pace of their hips speeding up slightly as they shared their bodies. After enough torturous waiting, Cheddar Biscuit finally moved to seal the deal. She lifted herself up and bent her hips at just the right angle, letting out a breathy moan as she slowly pressed her entrance against Colby’s hard bone.
           “W-wait, Cheddar Biscuit… do you have a… condom?” Colby whispered between heavy breaths as he lifted his head up slightly.
           “What’s a ‘condom’?” Cheddar asked with a smirk; she genuinely had no idea what that was, as condoms didn’t exist in this world.
           “Oh, n… nevermind…” Colby lowered his head against the grass again, feeling far too turned-on now to want to stop anyway.
           With one excruciatingly slow movement, Cheddar Biscuit lowered herself down onto him. Colby’s paws clenched tightly onto hers, a quiet dog-like whine of pleasure escaping from both of their lungs as they finally connected.
           Everything felt like a hazy blur as the two shared their entire selves with one another. Each subtle movement was slow and deliberate, both of them feeling like nothing else in the universe existed or mattered in this moment. Their paws clutched each other’s as if their lives depended on it, both of them letting out soft grunts and growls into their tightly-sealed kiss.
           Sometimes their joined hips were in perfect sync - other times, one of their hips would slightly speed up for a brief moment as if to express their enthusiasm and the passionate feelings they felt for one another. Their tongues would do the same, swirling around the other in a slow and intertwining motion one moment before turning into a tug-of-war between their mouths the next. But all the while, their paws never once parted from the other for even a second.
           Suddenly, Cheddar Biscuit gasped as she suddenly felt tears coming from her own eyes as well.
           ‘This feels so good… and I’m so happy… so why… am I crying?’’ She thought to herself. She had never, not once in her life, cried from happiness.
           “Are you okay, Cheddar?” Colby broke the kiss with a worried look, realizing that he was feeling her tears on his face. “I’m not hurting you, am I?”
           “No, not at all…” Cheddar sniffled, smiling as she admired his gentleness and genuine concern for her. “I’m more than just okay…”
           She resumed the kiss again, the taste of their tears mixing together like a salty cocktail of bliss as their lips met. However, as their hips coincidentally pressed together at the same time with extra vigor, Colby suddenly felt himself locked in place.
           “Oh, shit…” The yellow Lab suddenly broke the kiss again and looked down, realizing what had happened. He cursed himself under his breath for completely overlooking his own canine anatomy that was still relatively new to him.  “Cheddar, I’m- I’m stuck. I keep forgetting I have this… thing, now.”
           “It’s okay…” Cheddar quietly huffed with a look of pure pleasure glued onto her face. “It’s a safe-day for me.”
           “Y-you’re sure?” Colby grunted as she continued; it almost felt like she was moving progressively faster. “How do you know?”
           “Yeah, as female dogs, we always naturally know when we’re… receptive…” Cheddar Biscuit moaned as she felt a faint jolt up her spine at the intrusive thought of carrying Colby’s puppy inside her. “So please… do it inside… I want it all… inside… of me…”
           Colby’s entire body felt like he was on fire upon hearing her whisper those words into his canine ear, his pace obediently picking up to surpass hers. It was still relatively slow and gentle, but there was much more intent behind each thrust than ever before. There was nothing holding either of them back now.
           “Cheddar Biscuit…”
           “Colby…”
           Neither of them had to wait much longer. As their sweating paws tightly gripped each other, Colby’s toes curled. Their simultaneous carnal moans became sharp and forceful, piercing the warm and silent night air as Colby’s hips suddenly elevated. There were no fireworks lighting the sky tonight, yet they still saw fireworks nonetheless.

           And then, everything was still.

           Cheddar gave a sleepy smile as she rubbed her muzzle against the side of Colby’s chest, her arm draped over him as she snuggled up and began to slowly fall asleep. She happily hummed as she took in his natural scent; she always thought there was something strange and unique about the way he smelled, and now she finally knew why.
           \t‘So this must be what a ‘human’ smells like…’  Cheddar Biscuit thought, trying to picture in her mind what kind of strange alien Colby must’ve looked like in his old life. For him to quite literally cross dimensions just to catch her fall that fateful night, there was not a single doubt in her mind now that destiny had brought them together.
           “You know, it’s kind of funny…” She mumbled with a yawn as her boyfriend’s body-heat lulled her to sleep.
           “What is?” Colby asked with a satisfied smile, drifting off as well. He hadn’t felt this kind of relief in a long time.
           \t“It’s funny that… that day we met… when you caught me… the reason I fell… was ‘cause I got distracted… when I saw you…” Her eyes closed, and with a content sigh she drifted off to sleep.
           ‘What.’
           Colby’s eyes shot wide-open, his heart sinking. He felt a sick feeling in the deepest pit of his stomach. The reason she fell from that tightrope… the reason Cheddar Biscuit could have died… was all because of him?
           While Cheddar slept soundly, dreaming pleasantly sweet yet passionate dreams of her Colby among cotton-candy clouds and rainbow-colored cakes, the yellow Labrador from another world had a difficult time sleeping that night. He had a lot to think about. As he laid in the grass with Cheddar Biscuit’s petite body resting against his own, the night sky above taunted him with its black and infinite vastness. Yet after everything Colby had been through, it all seemed so… small, now.
           The memories of his seemingly-endless struggle for peace came creeping back in. He remembered all of the pain, the sadness, and the torment that he and his loved ones had suffered from his failures. The fight was over now, but still Colby couldn’t feel safe. He hadn’t allowed himself to. The sense that danger could find him or the ones he cared about at any minute was haunting him, now more than ever.
           After several more hours of silently staring up at the twinkling stars, sleep eventually overtook him.
\t
           “Ladies and gentlemen, step right up to see the one, the only, the amaaazing Cheddar Biscuit!”
           Colby opened his eyes to find himself sitting in the audience of Cheddar Biscuit’s big circus show, except… something was different. The rest of the dogs in the audience had no faces, there were no protective nets below the tightrope, and the ringmaster was not Muttfield the Magnificent. Instead, the dog announcing from the center of the tent appeared to be another Colby, wearing a rainbow wig and a clown nose.
           \tCheddar Biscuit rolled onto the tightrope high-above on her unicycle, doing her tricks just as she had done every show as the circus band played her on. Colby looked on, suddenly getting a sinking feeling in his gut as the lights slowly turned from white to red. Suddenly, Cheddar stopped in place, her head slowly turning to face him as she stared down at him directly in the eyes with a blank and expressionless look. Then, almost as if on purpose, she fell off the side.
\t           “No!” Colby shouted as he instinctively ran onto the circular stage, charging the plasma-energy within him to speed himself up just as he had done before. But this time, the center of the stage seemed to be getting further and further away, and Colby’s run slowed into a snail’s pace like he was running through molasses. The band playing circus music in a minor key slowed down to a complete halt. And before Cheddar Biscuit even reached the ground, her broken and lifeless body was already lying on the floor of the circus tent.
           “Uh-oh, folks! Looks like she did a little drop!” The clown-Colby laughed as a sad ‘wah-wah-wah-waaaah’ played from a trombone, followed by an uproar of maniacal laughter from the audience.
           “Cheddar… NO!” Colby cried out, in the blink of an eye suddenly finding himself standing at her grave under an overcast sky. The Barkers were there as well, all glaring directly at Colby with tears in their eyes and stares of nothing but pure hatred.
           “Why didn’t you save her?” Paw’s fists clenched tightly.
           “It’s all your fault.” Maw bared her teeth.
           “We wish you were dead.” Gilber added, poking him hard in the chest with one of his sticks.
           “...You can’t save anyone.” Tag sniffled with bitter sorrow in her voice, her words in particular like a knife in Colby’s heart.
           “ALOOONE.”
           A familiar guttural and omnipresent voice shook the whole world as Colby looked up, fear striking his heart as a massive meteor suddenly fell from the sky and pierced the far horizon with a blinding light.
           “Everyone, behind you!”
           But it was far too late to do anything now, and everyone he knew was gone in an instant.
           His vision instantly faded back into the circus tent. Only this time, he was the one on the unicycle and balancing from the tightrope, and the audience was completely empty.
           No… not empty.
           A black and formless shadow quickly crept on the inner wall of the tent through his peripheral vision, evading his sight wherever he looked as it gave him the feeling he was being hunted. In his ears, he could hear a flicker of menacing insect wings as it moved. His body shook in terror as he looked down; instead of the ground below, his heart filled with dread as he was greeted by a familiar otherworldly face like that of jagged obsidian. Its circular and unmoving mouth was full of rows of sharp and jagged teeth like that of a lamprey, its many glowing red eyes staring directly at him.
           It was hungry.
           “THE NIGHTMAAARE… WILL NEVERRR… EEENNND.”
           Colby tried to swallow his fear and cross the rope as if his life depended on it, finding it increasingly-difficult as it bounced up and down more with every movement of his foot on the pedal. However, his hearing deafened to an ominous silence before he heard another familiar voice - one that terrified him like none other. It was feminine and raspy, whispering in his ear clearly with a sound like scraping rusted nails.
           “And your past will consume you.”
           Colby suddenly felt a painful shock in his back like that of a wasp’s venomous stinger before losing his balance, falling over the edge of the rope. His blood ran colder than ice, and he fell into the dark event-horizon.

           His eyes shot wide-open, looking up at the clear night sky once again. For a few moments, his ears were ringing much like a flatlining heart-monitor. His palms were sweating profusely, his heart pounding rapidly against Cheddar Biscuit’s cheek as she continued to lay on his chest. She was still sound-asleep with that same sweet and innocent smile still on her face. He held his paw against his own heart, silently pleading for it to slow down. His mouth made him feel like he was dying of thirst.
           With a bitter sigh as it eventually returned to a normal pace, he slowly and gently slid out from under Cheddar before pulling out a pen and paper from behind his back. He began to write. As horribly painful as this was for him, he knew what he had to do. The only way he could protect the ones he loved.
It was for the best.


           “...Mmhh… good morning, Colby…” Cheddar mumbled happily as she woke up to the morning sun shining on her face, slowly opening her eyes. She turned around. Colby wasn’t there. She sat up, looking around in every direction as she blinked in confusion. The car was still there, but there was no sign of him. “Colby?”
           Nothing. No response.

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