
“I came into the small town on the Jeogeot continent as a plane, soon to be a dog again. I could pick up on my driver’s thoughts since we were, you know, kind of one and all flying in. Her name was Rose. Or Emily. Both at once somehow.” His brain hurt again. Princess Pinky Gumm and Fink and he had been at it for one hour. The grilling, the grilling! The ol’ dog can’t take much more, I sense.
“You said 5 years, Jack. You said you’d been with her for 5 years. That accounts for *1/2* of what we need. We’ll get to you, Fink, soon.” Here she points to the teenage human sitting beside the orange, human child sized dog in her castle in the center of everything.
“Yeah, she bought me on a lark then. Or so her thoughts told me. I personally don’t remember it, huh. Soon as I entered the town.”
“She jumped out the plane when landing.”
“Yeah, *I* landed that plane safely. Not her.”

“Right, okay, but you separated from her. What happened next?”
“Well, Fink walks up. Just out of the blue. Didn’t you Fink? What had it been? 5 years?”
Aha! thinks the princess, hearing that amount of time again. “I guess,” answers the teenage human about the same, trying to remember. Hard. Wasn’t quite working yet. Good Jack went first, he thinks. He scratches his head again.
“Yeah, Fink was with me, by my side just like old times. Then we spotted the Candy Shoppe on the edge of town. Figured you might be within. Since it was, I don’t know, candy or filled with candy and you’re the ruler of candy and all. I guess.”
“Sooo, where does the castle fit in?”
“*Your* castle?” speaks up Fink, looking straight at her.
*My* castle? thinks the princess, staring straight back. Jack’s time to scratch again.
(to be continued)