what is it?”

Dusty turned away, her face moving to a combination of pain and heartache that flew through her face in what looked to be the beginning of tears forming on the sides of her eyes. Even her fur looked hurt and in pain as she breathed unsteadily.

“Dusty, are you okay?” Kodi leaned in close to her. Dusty stepped away until she stood sideways to the pool with an open spot of sand between. “Dusty?” Kodi stepped to her side between her and the pool; this time she didn’t move as Kodi leaned in close. Is this some kind of emotional breakdown? Kodi asked himself as he nuzzled his cheek against hers.

Then Dusty sniffled ever so lightly. “It’s, it’s … just that … I got you exactly where I want you.”

“Huh?”

Before Kodi could even act, move, breath, think, Dusty threw herself into Kodi’s side with everything she had, nearly knocking the breath from Kodi’s lungs. Kodi’s toes danced along through the sand as his body hurled towards the pool. But just as he was beginning to regain his balance, he tripped and rolled into the warm blue water.

Coming upright and soaked to the bone knee deep in the warm water, Kodi looked hard at Dusty who sat with a self-satisfied sneering of her eyes and a rising of her lips at Kodi.

“What did you do that for?” Kodi demanded

Dusty smirked even harder until she beamed with pride in her feat. “Because I wanted to see you in such a pitiful state.”

For the first time Kodi looked down at himself and how thin and weak he looked. All his fur rested flat and smooth against his body, down his legs, along his back, and under his belly. The only place that his fur didn’t lay flat was on the top of his head between his ears where about twenty long strands stood straight up like some plant. Water dripped from his fur and from the tip of his nose. Kodi did feel pretty stupid and foolish.

“Now,” Dusty stepped forward. “You get to watch a pro swimmer show a land dog like you how to do it.” She moved forward with the grace of a model. Her paws entered the water and the mud began to dissipate away. She sunk fast as she walked. Passing Kodi without even noticing his speechless stare that followed her until she sunk completely below the water.

Dusty then raised her head from under the water; fur standing on end between her ears just like Kodi’s. Her legs kicked furiously below her as she motored around the pool with no real direction in her movement.

Kodi still stared.

After swimming out nearly twenty feet, she turned back and kicked her way straight towards Kodi, stopping when her paws touched the bottom and her shoulders broke the water. “Well, are you just going to stand there with your jaw open, or are you going to come in and join me?”

Kodi closed his open jaw. “Um, uh… yeah-no … I mean um … uh … yeah!”

Dusty giggled “Well then, come on.”

Leaping into the water like a frog into a puddle, Kodi exploded after Dusty, who swam to the deeper water. Kodi began to paddle after her and together they raced each other in the pool. They continued on for nearly two hours, leaping and playing like children. One would tag the other, and then run into the trees. The other would run after the first, only to find the first one had gone back to the pool and began to swim around. Hours passed in games, and fun, and excitement, and a special click that neither of them had with anybody else ever. It passed so fast that the sun vanished the stars came out before they began to slow down.

Kodi sat up on the bank, he was tired and exhausted. His tongue lolled from the side of his mouth and dripped saliva down onto his party dry fur. In front of him under the light of the stars Dusty was just finishing up her last little dip. She swam for Kodi, only her head above the water. Her paws struck the mud on the bottom and she rose from the water towards Kodi.

Watching Dusty rise from the deep, Kodi felt something he hadn’t before. Dusty’s body moved with a certain agile up the bank, her muscles looked smooth but firm. Curves came down along her neck and around her shoulders, moving all the way down along her tail. She just never looked so beautiful to Kodi; and it made him want to cry out that he loved her.

Dusty sat next to Kodi and looked up at the sky, ignoring his star struck look that moved from her to the sky. Above them the sky opened bright and brilliant and stars arched across the veil of black. Dusty slowly let her head fall against Kodi’s shoulder. A sigh of safety escaped her. She never felt so wonderful and in love in her entire life. It was a wonderful sigh, and meant a lot to Kodi.

“So was the trip worth it?” Kodi asked.

“Hmm?” Dusty raised her eyes to meet Kodi’s; her voice full of love “What did you say?”

Kodi opened his mouth to repeat his question, but couldn’t because the mood was to perfect “Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”

Dusty continued staring straight into Kodi’s eyes with a tranquil peace.

“What is it?” Kodi asked. Dusty’s eyes continued staring.

She then spoke slowly. “If you wanted to nuzzle me, this would be the time.”

Kodi grinned and slowly brought his face down next to Dusty’s. And there, under the light of the stars, next to a beautiful pool of water, hidden from anybody, Kodi and Dusty shared a special moment with one another.