Hi, all- I met a little guy coming across the Bridge the other day. Well, he wasn't that little. Actually, he was kind of a hunk! All the nearby jills were watching him out of the corners of their eyes. He was long, dark, and handsome. His name was Max the Chomp. He came across the Bridge calmly, sniffing his way along, very curious! Max had his Business waiting for him, Makai and Salena. The three of them spent some time bringing one another up to date, and exchanging a little gossip. They had lovely things to say about their daddy, Tim! Well, Max told me about a place he'd been dreaming of during his final illness. I helped him strap on his new wings, and off we went! We flew over green, grassy fields and dark forest. We kept the high mountains on our left, and flew until we could smell the salty tang of the sea in the air. Finally we could see it, blue and green and flickering bright in the sun, coming up over the edge of our world. We glided down to the beach, fighting the off shore breeze all of the way. It was actually a pretty tricky piece of flying, but Max handled it very well. He landed a little hard, but fortunately sand is a pretty forgiving landing surface. We took off our wings and strapped them around the thin trunk of a mangrove tree, there by the water's edge. It wouldn't do to let them blow away in the breeze! Max launched himself toward the pinkish granite rocks jutting from the surf with a cry of pure delight. I was not far behind. There were wet, slippery rocks to scramble up and down and around on! Green and brown ribbons of kelp to nibble! Things to sniff! Smashed crabs and little chalky black-shelled snails stranded above the tide to lick! Shallow tide pools with sandy bottoms and schools of tiny fish to snorkel in and splash through! Oh, it was a wonderful place! We spent perhaps an hour there until we became too warm to be comfortable anymore. There was crusty salt in our fur! We walked back to the mangrove thicket and retrieved our wings. Then, we flew all the way to the Fruit Bar. There is a cold, clear, freshwater spring right near it, surrounded by a ring of cat tails and wild purple flag irises. We didn't just drink the sweet, refreshing water, we dove into it and paddled around, trying to get the salt out of our coats. We emerged, dripping, and rolled on the grass frantically, to dry ourselves in the sun. Then, without saying a word, Max fixed his gaze on the nearby Fruit Bar. His head then turned, and his eyes met mine. I could smell the sweet scent of honeydew Melon and fresh prunes. The race was on! Afterwards, as we lay on the grass watching that day's sun set, our bellies round and full, Max commented that he thought he was really going to like this place! You know, I hear a lot of that. Sandee [Posted in FML issue 4395]