Over three years had passed since Brie’s birth, and in the lively town of Pawston, the sun was high in the clear blue sky and every dog in town was happily going about their day. Big dogs at work, little dogs at play, red dogs in blue trees, blue dogs in red trees - dogs of all shapes, sizes, and colors were going about their lives. In this city of dogs was a big house, and in that big house lived a big family known as the Barkers. And in this family of Barkers, one particular yellow Labrador named Colby was playing a song on the piano for his young daughter as she sat cutely on the top while idly swaying her feet from side to side with her paws.
“Well, I have a thing to tell you and it won't take long,
The way I feel about you is a kind of a song,
It starts with an ‘ooh’, and ends with a kiss,
And all along the middle it goes something like this, it goes:
‘Ooooh, Snuggle-Puppy of mine,
Everything about you is especially fine,
I love what you are, I love what you do,
Ooooh, I love youuu’.”
The yellow Labrador affectionately gave his daughter a loud smooch on the side of her muzzle, earning a ticklish giggle from her in response. It hadn’t been easy for him or Cheddar Biscuit to raise a prematurely-born puppy, but every minute of every day had been worth it. The rest of the Barkers had also been an immense help in taking care of her, especially Maw and Grandmaw. Now that Brie was three years old, she was finally adjusting and developing to be a healthy and happy little girl. Colby loved hearing his daughter laugh; he knew he’d do anything to hear that laugh of hers as much as he could. He knew that he’d always be there for her, no matter what.
What Colby Barker didn’t know was that today would be the last day of his life.
“Hey you dogs, Spike’s calling from space!” Tag, who was now eleven years old, shouted excitedly as her head popped through the doorway from the kitchen before she disappeared again.
“You wanna see Uncle Spike, Honey-Brie?” Colby smiled warmly as he scritched the side of her cheek with his fingers.
“Unca’ Spike! Yes! Wanna see!” Brie instinctively reached her little arms out to her daddy for him to pick her up, which he did.
Colby stood beside Cheddar with Brie in his arms as the family was gathered around the kitchen table with the tablet positioned upright towards them. Spike was on the screen; however, Colby noticed the instant he saw Spike’s face that something wasn’t right. His eyes were almost as red as his fur, his breathing was shuddered and he was sniffling repeatedly.
“Hey you dogs…” Spike whimpered under his breath, having trouble finding the words he wanted to say.
“Spike? Is everything okay?” Paw asked as he leaned in, concerned. “Did something happen?”
“Were you kicked outta the Space Cadets?” Tag’s ears drooped in sympathy. She knew how much Spike loved being in the Space Cadets; she couldn’t even imagine how horrible she’d feel if she weren’t allowed to be a Race Cadet anymore.
“Please Spike, just tell us what’s going on. Everything will be okay.” Maw said reassuringly.
At those words, Spike’s quiet crying seemed to escalate further. Wiping his eyes with a sigh, he finally spoke.
“No, I’m not kicked out of the Space Cadets… heck, I wish that’s all it was…” Spike sighed again as he tried to regain his composure. “I’m calling because it’s much, much worse than that. There’s a…”
Spike’s head leaned down as he began to softly cry again.
“Spike…?” Cheddar Biscuit asked, deeply worried. She had never seen her brother this way before, he was always the cool, calm, and collected one - almost to a fault.
Spike raised his head again.
“There’s a… meteor coming.”
A stunned silence fell through the room; none of the Barkers were sure what to think of this news. They all gave each other a glance.
“...So… we evacuate.” Paw finally spoke, resting his hands on the counter as he tried to think of a plan of action. “Warn everyone in town. Right?”
Spike shook his head.
“It’s not going to destroy just Pawston, Dad.” He wiped his eyes again, but the tears wouldn’t stop coming. “From what everyone up here is saying, this is… extinction-level.”
Colby’s brow furrowed as he silently looked down with a scowl on his face. He was deep in thought.
“Oh my Dog…” Maw covered her mouth with her paws in dread.
“So what you’re saying is… we’re all going to…” Gilber began to hyperventilate as the panic started to set in.
Spike nodded ominously.
“How much time do we have left… until…?” Grandmaw Marge asked as she hugged her Mort from the side.
“Less than twenty-four hours.” Spike’s chest heaved as he rested his eyes on his paws. “Somehow, it never showed up on our satellites until recently. It’s a rogue meteor, it wasn’t in any kind of orbit.”
“And there’s nothing the Space Cadets can do about it?” Mort asked, holding Marge closely to him. “Nothing the government can do?”
“We don’t have the time, the resources, or the technology. We’ve run all the simulations. There’s nothing we can do.” Spike answered, breaking down again. “Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.”
“Papa? Why evvy-one sad?” Brie looked up at Colby, unable to comprehend the gravity of what anyone was talking about.
Colby looked down at his wife and daughter, already knowing what had to be done. Giving Brie a gentle kiss on the top of her head, he looked back at Spike on the screen.
“... Do you know where it’s going to hit, exactly?”
“What does it matter, Colby? Either way, everyone’s going to-”
“Where is it going to hit, Spike?” Colby repeated firmly, his voice having shifted to a deeper and much more serious tone. It was like he was suddenly a completely different dog.
“... Ball Island. It’s going to make its impact over Ball Island.” Spike sighed, without even the slightest ounce of hope in his voice. “It’s only about a hundred miles out from Pawston Beach.”
“I know where that is.” Tag spoke up; she had been there once before, five years ago.
“Perfect. Then that’s where I’m going.” Colby stated simply.
“What? Colby, are you insane?” Spike’s microphone crackled slightly from the volume of his voice as he got close to it. “Why would you-”
“Listen.” The yellow Lab gently handed his daughter to Cheddar Biscuit. “I… I might be able to stop it.”
Everyone in the room looked at him, speechless. He continued.
“Cheddar Biscuit has known this for a long time, but I’ve never told anyone else because I didn’t think my past would ever be relevant again. This is my home now. I have the best family I could’ve ever hoped for, and I have a wonderful life. All because I got to meet all of you. But I’m… from another world. Another universe entirely.”
The Barkers blinked in stunned confusion. Colby went on.
“Do you remember that day of ‘The Blink’, four years ago? That was me. It’s a long story of how I got here exactly, but basically… there’s a lot more to me than what I might seem.” He held up his palm, and neon green plasma began to crackle and zap weakly between his four canine fingers. “I used to have power. Unimaginable power. But that was a long time ago, and most of it is gone now. I can’t make any promises or guarantees that I can stop this meteor, but…”
Colby looked at his wife and daughter.
“...I have to try.”
The Barkers stood in silence for a few moments longer, trying to process this shocking new revelation. But if there was one thing they knew for certain, no matter what would happen next…
They were family.
“Well… if you’re going to Ball Island, then we’re coming with you, Colby.” Maw decided as she gave Colby a hug.
“And if this is really the end… then we’ll all face it together.” Paw nodded somberly, placing his paw on his son-in-law’s shoulder.
“...No.” Cheddar Biscuit shook her head as she turned to Colby. “No, I don’t accept this. I won’t… you can’t just…” She held their daughter against her chest as she began to cry. “There has to be another way… there just has to…”
“Mama?” Brie asked, feeling her mom’s wet tears landing on top of her head.
“What other options do we have, Cheddar?” Colby placed his paw on her back, stroking his fingers through her fur. He hated nothing more than seeing her cry. “You heard Spike. We’re running out of time, and fast. If there’s any chance I can do something to protect you, to protect my family… I’m going to take it.”
Cheddar leaned against Colby as she quietly sobbed, with Brie sandwiched comfortably between the two.
“Spike?” Colby looked back at the screen.
“...Yeah?” Spike sniffled one more time with a breath of sadness.
“Can you drop down and meet us at Ball Island? I think we should all be together if… you know…”
Spike was silent for a moment; he was basically being asked to willingly die. Such a question would be difficult for anyone to answer. But in his heart, he already knew the correct choice.
“Yes. I’ll be there soon.” Spike nodded. “I love you all.”
“We love you too.” The Barkers responded, and with that, Spike ended the video-call.
“So, Tag,” Colby looked at his little sister-in-law. “Take us to Ball Island.”
“My scooter’s not gonna be big enough for all of us.” Tag scratched the back of her head.
“Maybe we could take the blimp?” Maw chimed in, trying to come up with any kind of helpful solution.
“Unless it has rocket-boosters on it, I don’t think that’ll be fast enough.” Colby shook his head.
“No, rockets are too dangerous to be near all that helium.” Maw’s shoulders slumped; so much for that idea.
“Tag, doesn’t Sargent Pooch have a helicopter?” Gilber suddenly remembered, but Tag shook her head as well.
“Yeah, but that’s only big enough for two dogs, three at most. There’s no way we’d all be able to fit in there.”
“We need a boat.” Yip, who was now six years old, finally spoke up.
“But where are we gonna get a boat fast enough to-” Tag stopped herself as she remembered something. “Grandmaw! You remember when we borrowed that boat for Maw and Paw’s anniversary that one time? Does that dog we borrowed it from have any other boats? Something fast?”
“Well, sure. He does own the Pawston Maritime Marina, after all.” Grandmaw nodded. “I’m sure he’d let us borrow another boat... even after what happened last time.”
“Wait, what happened ‘last time’?” Colby asked nervously.
“It’s nothing to worry about.” Grandmaw said, brushing it off. “The boat kinda… sunk. But it was already old, and he knows it wasn’t our fault anyway. We’ll just ask to borrow a much newer boat this time.”
“Then we don’t have any time to waste.” Colby said as he and Cheddar’s eyes met.
“Let’s go, dogs, go.”
When they were out the door, Tag stopped in her tracks as she looked over to the blue house on the left.
“Just one second, everyone.” She said as she ran over to Scooch’s house. “I won’t be long.”
Tag knocked on the door, trying to think of what she would say to her best friend. At least, that’s what she still called him. But they had known each other for five years now, and somewhere along the way, Tag began to see Scooch as more than just her best friend.
Scooch, who was now ten years old but only slightly taller than before, answered the door and was immediately met with Tag’s loud weeping and against his shoulder as she kneeled down to hug him tighter than she had ever hugged him before. Sargent Pooch soon came to the door as well.
“Tag? What’s wrong?” Scooch asked, having no idea that the entire world - including everything and everyone he loved - was coming to an end.
“Scooch…” Tag finally spoke as she wiped her tears. “There’s not much time left. The world is ending… and I want you to be with me for it.”
“What?” Scooch chuckled. “Tag, you’re pulling my leg… right?”
His laughter immediately stopped when he noticed the Barkers behind Tag; their faces looked bleak. “R-right?”
“There’s a meteor coming.” Tag continued. “Do you remember Ball Island? That’s where it’s going to hit.”
Scooch and his mom simply stood speechless in the doorway, feeling their blood run cold at the news.
“Colby might be able to do something to stop it, but if he can’t…” Tag looked Scooch dead in the eyes. “...I want my best friend to be with me until the end.”
Scooch looked back at Tag. There was no way he could say no to her. He looked back at his mom for her blessing, who was already pale in the face and teary-eyed.
“We’ll both come with you.” Sargent Pooch nodded as she wiped her eyes. “Y’all are like family to Scooch and me.”
“There’s no one else I’d rather be with, Tag,” Scooch replied as he looked back to his best friend, giving her a hug as he began to cry into her chest. “At the end.”
Before they knew it, the Barkers and the Pooches were cruising at a breakneck speed on the vast blue ocean towards Ball Island. Tag had quickly fitted the navigation system from her scooter to the large speed-boat they had been able to borrow from Morrie, the owner of the Maritime Marina; by using the ‘history’ function she had programmed into it, it was able to guide them on autopilot in a straight path in the direction of the island.
“...I still don’t accept this.” Cheddar Biscuit let out a sigh as she looked over the ocean as she stood beside Colby. Grandmaw was playing with Brie and trying to keep her distracted from the air of doom and gloom around her, so they had a moment alone.
“Cheddar…” Colby rested his paw on his wife’s. “...Do you want to know what my birthday wish was? That first birthday party you threw for me after we started dating?”
Cheddar Biscuit looked at her husband.
“You’re not supposed to tell anyone your birthday wishes, you know.”
“Well, I’m going to tell you anyway.” Colby looked out over the ocean as well, feeling the warm salty air rushing past his face. “My wish was… to always be able to protect you.”
Cheddar Biscuit said nothing, but her fingers interlocking into his said everything.
“That’s why it scared me so much when you told me later that night, after we…” Colby cleared his throat. “…About how you fell from that tightrope because of me. I felt like before I even knew you… I had almost killed you.”
“But you didn’t. Because you caught me.” Cheddar Biscuit reminded him.
“You’re right. I did.” Colby turned back to her, resting his paws under her chin before lifting her head up to look down into her sullen eyes. “And if it was destiny that we met then, then maybe this is destiny too. Maybe… this is what I’m meant to do here in the first place.”
Cheddar Biscuit was silent again. She knew there was nothing she could do or say that would change Colby’s mind. She just had to have faith in him. She needed to believe he could do it. That he would survive this. It was all she could do.
The boat soon hit the sandy shore of the island. Although it had earned the name ‘Ball Island’, there were no longer any balls left to be found, as Fetcher - the island’s unofficial guardian - was still currently away returning the many, many balls back to their original owners.
Just as everyone had gotten out of the boat, they saw a space capsule parachuting down into the ocean, with a familiar red dog parachuting towards them as well.
“Spike made it.” Paw noted somberly. Although everyone was relieved the whole family could be together, they wished it weren’t under such dire circumstances as this.
“Cheddar Biscuit, you brought the clown-cannon like I asked, right?” Colby turned to her once everyone was present.
“Of course.” Cheddar pulled it out from behind her back. “But you didn’t really explain what we need this for.”
“...I need you to launch me. At the meteor.”
Cheddar gasped, as did everyone else.
“Normally I’d be able to fly up there myself, but my power isn’t as strong as it used to be, so I need some momentum. Otherwise… there’s no way any of you would survive the heat even if the meteor doesn’t hit the ground.”
“...Colby…” Cheddar held her husband’s paws in her own.
“Don’t try to stop me, Cheddar. Please.” Colby gave her a kiss on the forehead. “I need to do this. If I don’t… you know what will happen.”
“I was just going to say that… I believe in you.” Cheddar Biscuit leaned up, kissing him on the lips.
“So do I.” Spike nodded.
“We all believe in you.” Tag went up to Colby, giving him a hug from the side. "You’re destined for great things. I just know it."
One by one, the rest of the Barkers joined in as well. They stood together as a family, in the calm before the storm.
Some time had passed as they waited for the meteor’s imminent arrival, with Spike keeping a close eye on his scanner with the countdown until impact. The waiting felt like it took forever and in an instant at the same time. Hours soon became minutes. Colby looked up at the sky, finally able to see the bright light of the meteor as it approached Earth.
“It’s showtime.”
The cannon was aimed, and Colby was ready. But no one else was. They all watched as their doom got progressively bigger and brighter in the sky. It was a very surreal yet terrifying experience for all of them.
“...I can’t lose you, Colby!” Cheddar cried as she held tightly onto her husband. “I just can’t!”
“I can’t say for sure what will happen, but just know that no matter what, I love you.” Colby rubbed her back lovingly as they embraced. “If I don’t make it back…”
“Don’t talk like that.” Cheddar Biscuit interrupted. “You will make it back. You will do this. For your daughter. For me. For your whole family. You’re strong. You’re fearless. You are unstoppable. “You promised me. You promised you would never leave us again. Remember? You have to promise me you’ll make it back.”
“...You know I can’t promise that, Cheddar Biscuit.” Colby pulled away, giving her a stern look. “But even if I don’t make it… you have to promise me that you’ll keep living. Whatever happens, don’t stop moving forward. Even if I’m not by your side, I need you to keep going. Go, dog. Go.”
Cheddar shed a tear, reluctantly nodding.
“...Okay. I promise.”
Just then, Colby felt a tug on his leg.
“Papa, wanna play?”
He looked down at his little Honey-Brie, feeling more resolve than ever before. As a father, he would do anything for her. He would even stop a meteor.
‘I will do this.’ He thought.
‘For Brie.’
“...I’ll play with you in a bit, Honey-Brie. Papa just has to go do something real quick. But I’’ll be back soon… I promise.” Colby picked her up in his arms, giving her a kiss on the nose before handing her to Cheddar.
“Okey, Papa. Love you.” Her little tail wagged as she smiled, completely unaware of what was going on.
“I love you too, Brie.”
“It’s now or never, Colby!” Spike called out to him, showing him the scanner’s countdown getting lower.
Colby got into the cannon, taking one last look at his family. With a sad smile, he held his paws up and made a gesture with his fingers like he was taking a picture with an invisible camera. One last family photo.
“Cheddar?” Colby turned to her.
“I love you.” Cheddar said as her shuddered breath deepened. It felt like this would be the last time she would ever see him. She stood on her tiptoes, giving him one final kiss goodbye. As she held the pull-cord in one hand and Brie in the other arm.
“I love you too.” Colby replied once their kiss had broken. With one last look at her and their daughter, he disappeared into the cannon.
Cheddar Biscuit tightly clenched her tear-filled eyes, yanking hard on the string.
Colby fired straight-upwards out of the cannon towards the fiery meteor that was now entering the Earth’s outer atmosphere, accompanied by the loud honk of a party horn and a blast of rainbow confetti.
The little clown dog looked up into the sky, holding their daughter close.
“...Go.”
Now, all anyone could do was wait together. In a matter of minutes, the world could end. They could feel the temperature getting noticeably warmer as the meteor neared Earth, the massive burning rock in the sky now too intensely bright to look at directly.
“Scooch,” Tag turned to her best friend, kneeling down to hug him tightly. “I know the world is ending, but before it does, I just want you to know that… I love you!”
“I love you too, Tag!” Scooch hugged her back, and they cried in each others’ arms. Everyone gathered around them, all holding each other as one big family as they anticipated the end together.
Now with the momentum he needed, Colby raised his left fist as he charged his plasma energy up throughout his whole body at full strength. He couldn’t afford to spare a single ounce of power. Rather than getting slower as he gained more altitude, Colby was actually flying up faster. And faster. And faster. Until finally, he shot up high into the sky at incredible speed in a literal bolt of neon green lightning.
“For unity…”
The many wonderful memories Colby had made with his family flashed through his mind as the sky turned a deep orange. The happy smiling faces of Cheddar Biscuit, Paw, Maw, Marge, Mort, Tag, Spike, Gilber, Yip.
Brie.
“...it is my duty…”
The meteor eclipsed the sun entirely as it now entered the stratosphere, burning up all the clouds in the sky in an instant. Colby pulled his left arm back, using the gathered energy to propel his right arm forward with a firm fist enveloped in a powerful surge of blindingly-bright green plasma. This was the end. The grand finale.
“...TO FACE MY DESTINY!"
Colby’s fist met the burning meteor, making an impact of unquantifiable energy. In a matter of milliseconds, a massive forcefield rippled shockwaves of an entire rainbow of colors across the point of impact.
Miraculously, the meteor was instantly launched back into the far reaches of space with a deafening boom, never to be seen again. The immense blast of the meteor’s deflection shot Colby back down to the Earth far below, and the ocean waves around Ball Island shook as the massive surge of two powerful colliding forces made landfall.
As his vision - nearly blinded from the meter’s light - went blurry while he looked up at the bright blue sky, the dog from another universe smiled weakly. He had actually done it. He had successfully stopped the end of the world. But more importantly, he had protected his family.
‘Goodbye, Barkers… thank you…’
Below, the Barkers and the Pooches slowly stood up with shaky knees after the shockwave had knocked them to the ground. Though they were overjoyed the world was safe, there was no time to celebrate.
“Colby!” Cheddar Biscuit pointed upwards, noticing he was quickly free-falling from the sky towards them. “Everyone, we have to catch him!”
The dogs all gathered in a circle as they looked up, reaching their arms out. And just as Colby had caught Cheddar’s fall on the first night they met, his family now caught his fall in return.
As they gently set him to the ground, their hearts sank deeply as one thing was now extremely clear:
Colby was dying.
His entire right arm was burnt to a blackened crisp. The brown hair on his head was much shorter and singed. His nose was dry and cracked like a desert, and the folds of his floppy ears had all but melted off completely. Tiny jolts of green plasma sparked weakly around his body, getting smaller with each passing second. The glow of the green light in his tag slowly pulsed, as if it signified his heart. His breathing was harsh and raspy as he inhaled sharply in an attempt to get any oxygen to his lungs. Colby’s once vibrant green eyes were now a completely cloudy and lifeless gray as he was nearly blind and almost completely deaf, though he could still barely make out the members of his family as they gathered around him and their muffled voices as they spoke.
“Colby, don’t leave me!” The yellow Labrador barely heard Cheddar Biscuit cry out. Even through the strong smell of his own charred flesh, he’d recognize that sweet smell of cotton candy anywhere.
“You’re so… beautiful… you know…?” Colby harshly whispered as he weakly raised his good arm, cupping his palm gently against his wife’s wet cheek.
“We need to get him back to Pawston NOW!” Cheddar looked up at the rest of her family in desperation. Colby shook his head.
“Don’t… no time…” He strained his voice between breaths. “Just… be with me… for a while…”
Cheddar broke down and cried. To spare the younger pups the trauma of what was inevitably coming in a matter of moments, Sargent Pooch took Brie, Yip, Tag, and Scooch away from the scene as she tried to hide tears of her own. Although she didn’t know him very well, something about seeing Colby like this was much harder on the blue terrier than she had anticipated.
“I love you, Colby… you can’t die…” Cheddar's voice cracked as she tried to think of something - anything - that could save him. "I can't face a universe without you in it. I can't."
“I… love you… too…”
“You’re not allowed to die, Colby… you hear me?” Cheddar wept as the rest of the family silently cried together as well. “I still need you. Brie needs you.”
“Honey-Brie… will be… okay…” Colby’s dry lips curled in one last smile, the light in his tag flickering as it weakened. “She has… the best… most loving… family… in the universe…”
“Colby… no…” As she sobbed, Colby felt Cheddar Biscuit’s tears dripping on his muzzle.
“Don’t cry… please… don’t cry anymore…” His voice got softer as he wiped a tear off her cheek with his thumb. “No one… wants……. to see……… a sad……… clown…………”
“…………………..”
“…………………..”
“…………………..”
Colby’s eyes closed. His arm fell limp, and the tag’s light went out.
He wore a smile on his face.
“No, no, no, NO, NO! COLBY!!!” Cheddar Biscuit screamed out in pure anguish as her life of happiness fell to ruins before her eyes.
The Barkers gathered around Cheddar and held each other tightly as they mourned the loss of their family member. Some cried a lot, some cried a little, but Cheddar Biscuit cried the loudest by far. Without Colby, she felt she would never be happy again. This couldn’t be real, she thought. This had to be a nightmare. But this was indeed reality, and a life without Colby was a nightmare she would never be able to simply wake up from.
Brie noticed that something was going on where her family was. Why was everyone sad? She had to know. She was sure she could do something to make them feel happy instead. Somehow.
The puppy hopped out of Sargent Pooch’s arms and ran on all-fours towards her huddled family.
“Brie, come back!” Ms. Pooch called out as she chased after her with tears still in her eyes, but she simply couldn’t catch up to her fast enough with her short Terrier legs.
When Brie squeezed her way through her crying family to see what was going on, she saw her Papa lying on the ground with his eyes closed. Being only three years old, she had no way of comprehending what the concept of ‘death’ was.
“Papa,” Brie said innocently as she climbed up on his chest, “is time to wake-up.”
“Brie…” Cheddar reached out for her. “Come to Mama.” But Brie wasn’t listening.
“Why s’eeping? …Why s’eeping, Papa?” She rested her head on his chest, not noticing that he was still as stone. “Wake-up, s’eepy-head. Is time for bwe’ffast. Wake-up wake-up.”
Seeing Brie innocently try in vain to wake her father only broke her family’s hearts even more.
“Come here, sweetie…” Cheddar Biscuit sniffled as she held her arms out for her daughter, trying her best to hide her despair from her. “Papa needs to sleep some more… it’s his bed-time…”
“No-time.” Brie whispered, placing her palm on Colby’s chest as she tried to gently shake him awake. Her green eyes began to glow. “No-time, Papa. We pway. You pwomised.”
“...Let’s go, little Honey-Brie...” Cheddar gently picked Brie up, not noticing the small spark of green plasma as her daughter’s hand separated from Colby’s lifeless body. With their hearts full of sorrow, the rest of the family took a moment of silence to step away from the scene. They couldn’t bear to look at Colby’s disfigured corpse any longer. They would rather remember him as he was.
“...Wake-up….” Brie said quietly one more time as she looked back at her dad lying on the ground, her weeping mother carrying her back to the boat in her arms.
What happened then was something that no one had expected. Brie, having inherited Colby’s strange plasma element unbeknownst to everyone including herself, had somehow manipulated the identically-charged ions in her Papa’s body to temporarily reverse the flow of time itself solely within him. Whether it was Brie’s wish being granted by fate or if it was just pure luck, no one could say for sure. All Brie knew was that she wanted Papa to wake up. But as the small green bolts of neon lightning transferred from Brie began zapping and crackling bigger and brighter throughout Colby’s entire body, his fatal injuries suddenly began to rapidly heal.
The light returned.
Colby suddenly loudly gagged and coughed just before he sat up, taking a deep breath in as if it were his first breath of life. Everyone turned to the sudden noise, hardly believing their eyes.
‘...Am I…?’
“Colby? COLBY!” Cheddar rushed through the sandy beach back to her husband with Brie in her arms, practically throwing herself onto him with their daughter sandwiched happily between them.
“Papa!”
The rest of the Barkers and even the Pooches quickly joined in as well, as soon they were a huge dogpile all affectionately smothering Colby as he tried to regain his breath. Before long, his breaths turned into laughs, and soon the whole family was laughing with joy.
‘I’m alive.’
It was quite some time before everyone finally gave Colby, Cheddar Biscuit, and Brie some room to finally breathe. As they watched the golden sun signaling the end of another day as it set over the ocean horizon, Colby looked down at his healed right paw. He had never been so happy to see that furred paw in all his life as a dog.
Reaching his paw down to rub Brie’s head as she started to doze off in Cheddar’s arms, he turned to the little circus dog standing beside him.
“I want to go somewhere with you.”
“You mean like a road-trip?” Cheddar tilted her head. “Where to?”
“Exactly like a road-trip. And a long one. Anywhere. Everywhere. I wanna see it all. Everything this world has to offer.””
“I would ‘go dog go’ anywhere with you, Colby.” She leaned in and gave him a kiss. “You know that. Always and forever. Till the end of the world.”
Colby looked back over the horizon. He reached for his triangular dog tag hanging from the collar around his neck, rubbing its surface back and forth between his fingers. Colby felt the cold metal edges of the as he was deep in thought. He yanked the tag off, looking long and hard at the symbol he held in his paw. The memento of his past.
Then, Colby smiled.
He pulled his arm back and threw his tag far into the ocean before it sank into the depths below and was lost forever, carrying Colby's message for destiny:
'Find someone else, next time.'
Cheddar looked at him with her mouth agape as she was about to say something, but stopped herself when she saw the serene look on Colby’s face. He was finally at peace, ready to leave his past behind him for good. Instead, they stood together in silence for the wordless eulogy of his former life.
Colby wrapped his arm around Cheddar’s waist, sighing with content as he looked back to the horizon of endless possibilities. He thought about how his entire life had led him to here and now. How, if he hadn’t come to this universe, to Pawston specifically, and if he hadn’t met and fallen in love with Cheddar Biscuit, if anything had gone differently, the entire world itself would have ended today. How, if they hadn’t had their daughter Brie, he would have been dead and gone forever. How, in the end, it really was love that saved the world, and it was love that saved his life.
Love is funny that way.
