strong his feelings for her were, and for how long he had had them. The idea of asking Dusty out didn’t scare Kodi. Yet the thought that she would find him boring and he wouldn’t have anything to say, and that he would have no place to take her, and that she wouldn’t find him interesting enough to stay with scared the hell out of Kodi.

So Kodi’s quest to gain knowledge on showing a girl a good time began. Not really knowing where to start – and not wanting to sound like a complete putts – Kodi began his quest in stealth. His close friends Kirby and Ralph had their fare share of girls under their collar. So that seemed like a good place to start.

At first Kodi began slow and thoughtful, all the while being sure to check himself over and over again so as not to sound inexperienced. He began one evening when Kirby returned from a date and began to regale his friends with everything that happened; like he usually did after a great night. Dusty was asleep. Usually Kodi wouldn’t listen and would go to sleep himself, but now he did and took mental notes too. But his plan to keep himself in check didn’t seem to work.

Questions flew from Kodi like bullets from a machine gun. “So where did you go? What did you talk about? What do you think she thought of you? So you should keep the talk interesting?”

It wasn’t hard for Kirby to tell that Kodi had something else on his mind than a sudden lust to hear about his dating. Nevertheless Kirby played along and told Kodi ever little detail he asked for – as long as it didn’t get down to the nitty gritty. When it neared the end of the night Ralph toddled off to his corner of the room. Having lost all interest in the conversation, he quietly slipped into sleep while Kirby went on about his date.

As soon as Kirby could see Ralph snoring away, he stopped talking, and locked eyes dead on with Kodi’s. “Kodi, now that it’s just me and you, and everybody else is asleep, why don’t you tell me the real reason you’re asking all these questions. I know you didn’t just find my story interesting. Is this about somebody … maybe, Dusty?”

“No!” Kodi shot back forcefully “of course not … I’m, I’m … just um-”

“-In love.” Kirby said full of apathy sounding interest.

Kodi lowered his ears and looked away embarrassed. He shuffled his paws like he was about to stand and walk away. “Well … yeah maybe I am.” Kodi stood. “It’s just that um …”

“You’re inexperienced?”

“Well, not so much inexperienced as …”

“In green around the collar to the dating world?”

Kodi shook his head slow and thoughtfully. “Yes.” He hadn’t stopped himself from looking, what he still thought, as a complete idiot.

Kirby stood with a groan like an old wise teacher would just before sharing the secrets to every problem that plagued the world. “Well.” His voice idealistic and happy. “I guess we’ll just have to teach you.”

So it was in that, that Kodi’s learning truly begun. Kodi began taking long walks with Kirby, talking about what to say, how to say it, how to act, what to roll in so you smell just right before your date. Kodi also took walks with Ralph; but Ralph was more forlorn in his attempt to educate Kodi – even Kodi knew that Ralph was giving bad advice.

But Kodi’s learning only went so far, and stopped cold when Kodi asked a coarse question.

“So Kirby,” Kodi said slyly. They were walking down a back alley on their way back to the boiler room. The evening was beginning to draw to a close. “How do I … you know – get a girl to …”

Kirby raised his ears in shock. His paws stopped cold in the snow and his eyes moved very slow and full of dismay over to Kodi. “What?”

Kodi didn’t really want to repeat the question, but did so anyway. “Well, you know, get a girl to love you … in that special -”

Kirby began moving again, almost as if he had ignored the question completely. Laughter escaped him with mild delight “You got to find that out on your own,” Were his final guiding words.

With Kodi feeling full of fresh ideas and tactics, he set out to take the first step and ask Dusty out. Setting up a little plan in which Kirby and Ralph both willingly participated in for the beginning Romeo, Kodi reveled his plan, which in essence didn’t require much. Kirby and Ralph were to both finish their food as fast as they could and leave together, completely ignoring anything Dusty said to them, then Kodi would make his move. His move had gone horribly wrong when he slipped on some ice and hit her dish of slump, but it had come out unexpectedly well in the end.

“Almost there Dusty, it’s just a little further.” Kodi tried to reassure Dusty.

Dusty growled irritably. “My foot.” She whispered just out of earshot of Kodi. “So what is this place you’re taking me to? All I know is that it’s special.” Her voice was racked with irritation and bitterness.

“Well … it’s um … a surprise. I can’t tell you about it. You can only see it to understand it.”

“What kind of explanation is that?” Dusty balked. She reared herself back up and knitted her eyebrows together. “Tell me what it is that’s so special.” Ordered Dusty.

Kodi stopped walking when he realized Dusty had stopped. “No, I can’t.” He turned half around to Dusty. “You’re just going to have to find out on your own.”

Dusty glared at Kodi, and a very long tense silence passed between the two of them. “I’m thinking I want to go home. Especially if you don’t want to tell me where we’re going. You could be taking me out into the swamp to finish me off for all I know.” She began to turn away.

Jumping to the scene, Kodi flashed past her and faced her full on; his voice easing her down and calming her. “Wait, wait, wait. … Okay, if you agree to go and see it, I’ll tell you all about it.”

That’s more like it. Dusty thought with a smirk, turning back around down the dark trail. Kodi looked in pain to reveal where they were going. “Well?” Dusty snorted when she fully faced the opposite way than Kodi waiting for him to take the lead.

Kodi pushed around Dusty and began to tread his way down the trail; his head hung low in defeat and his paws gliding sluggishly through the mud. Dusty felt a twinge of guilt and sorrow. “Come on and I’ll tell you all about it as we walk.” Kodi said apathetically.

Dusty pushed herself along and up next to Kodi, keeping her front shoulders even with Kodi’s back legs, but always somehow close enough to his side to feel like they were walking in tandem.

“Well,” Kodi began; his mood seemed to have brightened up – at least in his voice. “When I was a pup, my father one day told us, when we were young and ready to get a taste of the world, about this beautiful place that only he knew about.”

“Uh-huh.” Dusty bobbed her head.

“Anyways, my dad set up this picnic for us, our whole family, mom, and all of us.” Kodi grinned. “So, our mom and dad led us on this scamper about the swamp. We weren’t scared is what we all said to each other. But in fact, we were scared to a degree. This was our first steps into the world after all We ran around chasing our tails, playing tag,” Kodi grinned even harder, “And took a few falls into some mud.” He chuckled slightly and looked over his shoulder at Dusty who received Kodi with an understanding grin.

“So what is this place?” Dusty asked calmly.

Kodi sighed with a heartfelt thud that sunk all the way down to his paws and made them trip up, “It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world, and it’s right in the center of one of the ugliest swamps. So that means that nobody knows about it.”

“Uh-huh,” Dusty said, her voice filled with a low seething. “But you still need to tell me what this place is.”

“I know.” Kodi threw over his shoulder; his eyes never opening to look at Dusty. “But we’re already there. So I figured I’d just let you see it for yourself.

Around them the swamp had changed without Dusty even noticing it, and Kodi barely noticing it. Grass suddenly carried their paws along with a regal elevation that sucked them along without thought or effort. The trees that had been twisted hulks void of leaves, constantly staring and threatening, became scrub bushes just a little higher than Kodi’s shoulders and flush with green. Some of them carried thick red berries. The old golden leaves that had fallen from the branches in the fall piled liberally in great mounds under them, only intersected here and there by rabbit trails that squirmed around madly. For nearly a hundred yards in all directions these plants stretched before the swamp took over again in it’s low guttural mire that stuck stubbornly to the fur.

Though neither of them could really see it, they had begun to climb a mound that came up out of the swamp. Near the top of the mound - which from the bottom just looked like nothing more than a little saunter across a nearly flat field - smoke rose in a single thick white column before dissipating away against the backdrop of a red sky.

“What is that smoke?”