The way the chomp saw it - he had a couple of options. Plan A was to abandon Floof and swim to safety. Plan B was hard, but worth the price of his patoot's life. He had grown fond of the old ball of fluff.

He leapt off the patoot and started slurping up the slushy ice cream.

"Slurp girl! Slurp for your life!"

Floof got the idea and started licking up the ice cream with her massive tongue.

It was tough going for both of them - they had to battle the brain freeze from eating too much. But they couldn't afford to stop. Stopping meant sinking into the puddle and becoming the special toy hidden inside an ice-cream scoop come winter.

Dawn graduated to noon as they slurped on, the headaches banishing all thought from their heads. Eventually, they had consumed enough of the contents of the pond that the patoot's paws could reach the bottom without her head getting submerged. The chomp got back on Floof.

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"Let's get out of here girl."

They waded to the far edge of the pond, and he leapt off onto solid ground. Now he needed a way to haul the patoot to dry land. He was tugging at her reins, grunting with the effort when the vile smell was back.

The odor was so bad that the chomp lost control of the reins. Floof meowed in alarm as she slipped back into the ice-cream pond with a splash.

"That was an ingenious solution," said a voice from behind him. The chomp turned around. Standing in front of him was the filthiest chomp he had ever seen. The smell emanating from him was so foul that it appeared to radiate from him in waves.

"They call me Poot," said the smelly chomp.