Fluff(y)

A dog stands among some clouds. Its coat’s colour and texture helping it blend in with them. Its black eyes looked like two birds flying off into the sky.

It’s called Fluffy.

A wind moves through the clouds, shaking Fluffy’s coat and making it stand out among the clouds. As the wind picks up, the clouds move away, revealing Fluffy’s surroundings. It stood on a stone centre from which 201 roads radiated out. The roads and the centre itself stood on a glass platform, which showed its face in the spaces between the roads. Below the platform was a thick cloud, giant and pink. Far above all of this was a giant black roof with small holes poking through it which let some pleasant yellow light through. All the roads disappeared off after some distance into a thick grey fog which also hid the edges where the roof would meet its walls.

Fluffy started walking on one of them. This road unlike the stone it stood on before was dirt. It was barely wider than Fluffy itself. The farther away it walked, the farther it seemed and the closer it felt a moment ago. Fluffy walked till it disappeared into the distance. After 3 hours, Fluffy comes back. Its coat was dirty and its breath heavy. It shook itself off and walked onto the grassy path right across the dirt road. It walked what seemed like a long distance for a bit of time. It turns around and walks back to right where the dirt road begins. It pees at the start and then goes back onto the grassy road.

It emerges from the grey fog again, skipping across the entire road, right before it lifts up its tail and pees at the start of the grassy road. This time its coat is whiter than before and it even has a small yellow bow tied to one of its ears. The bow had a bell tied to it that rang every time fluffy wriggled its ears. Fluffy sleeps on the stone circle for 2 hrs, before walking off onto the 3rd road.

This was a road made out of cloth. Fluffy walks onto it but struggles to maintain its balance as the road folds under it. It struggles to hold onto its balance by trying to grab the cloth with its claws but its nails tear into the cloth. Fear and panic grab Fluffy, describing themselves with its barks and the bell tied to its ear. Slowly more and more of the pink peaked through different parts of the road. Somehow, it makes it back onto the stone. It barks at the road and growls at it waiting for it to fight back. It spits on it to aggravate it. However, the road lays there just like it did before, now showing off its damage. Fluffy spits on it again before standing on its hindlegs to pee on the road. It pees on it as far as it can until its bladder is empty. It then decides to walk onto the next road. Its first foot on the road immediately tells it that this road is even flimsier than the last one. This road was made of paper.

Terrified, it chooses the metal road across the paper one. Ten hours later it comes back running, slipping every few steps. The bow was no longer tied to its ear. It lays on the stone road looking at the paper road panting and in relief. It then gets up and walks onto the road made out of bricks. It comes back dirty again. It then walks onto a similar brick road but completely covered in leaves. When Fluffy comes back, it is crying, looking behind it constantly and howling. It was as if it was calling out to someone.

It goes onto every remaining road. Slowly checking them off with its pee. At the end it has been 5 months and 23 days. The only road left is the paper one.

Fluffy stares at it and then looks back on the old roads. It tries to follow it along on the glass but the glass is burning hot. 200 roads and It’d never noticed. It never felt hot enough to even bother thinking about it. It stands there with its head down, lost in thought. It raises its head and turns away from the paper road.

Fluffy walks onto the metal road again, very slowly and stops after 10 minutes. It turns around and starts sprinting, its coat flying in the air beautifully, its black eyes locked onto the paper road. Every step fell on the metal better than the lost. Fluffy didn’t slip once. It jumps when the metal meets stone and flies through the air. Fluffy’s face turns from excitement and pride to fear and regret as it starts to fall down. It moves its legs around trying to turn in the air but it doesn’t work. Fluffy’s entire head hits the glass as its body tears through the paper. The dog falls into the pink cloud, unconscious.

**

A dog lands harshly. The scenery around him is completely covered in trees and resembles a tropical forest. The ground is covered in soil and leaves. The roof above is once again black with tiny holes that let in very little but warm and comforting pink light. The rest of the light came from between the leaves. The dog rustles around before waking up. His rustling moved around some soil which revealed another glass floor with a giant thick green cloud below it.  The soil was soft and the glass cool to touch.

The dog stood among the trees, looking around, trying to find anything out of place. His white coat stood in contrast to the flora around him. His black eyes moved around with an intensity which if applied to an axe could cut through any tree that dared to stand there in one swift swing.

Once he’s calmed down, he finally smells the forest, it smells familiar. All he can connect the smell to is the sound of a bell. He barks once and then chooses to walk into the forest.

His name is Fluff.