Bonded by Bubbles

The sticky, gooey mud clung to Dino’s snout, tickling his nostrils and making him sneeze a mighty, splattery sneeze. Pippy, who had landed with a comical *sploosh* right beside him, let out a series of bubbly giggles that sounded like a brook burbling over smooth stones. Spike, bless his heart, was attempting to shake off a particularly large glob of mud that had plastered itself to his back, and in doing so, managed to flail his tail plates with such enthusiasm that he sent a fresh shower of mud directly onto his own head.

“Oh, for goodness sake!” Spike exclaimed, his voice muffled by the mud coating his face. He blinked, the mud crusting his eyelids together for a moment, and then, with a sigh that was more like a happy puff of air, he started to chuckle. “Well, that’s just… that’s just the way it is, isn’t it?”

Dino watched Spike, a wide, muddy grin stretching across his own face. He’d never felt so… so *ridiculous* and yet, so incredibly happy. The initial shock of the mudslide, the sheer surprise of being tumbled and coated from head to toe, had quickly dissolved into something else entirely. It was the sound of Pippy’s uninhibited laughter, the sight of Spike’s earnest, mud-covered attempts to regain some semblance of dignity, and the feeling of the cool, surprisingly refreshing mud itself.