Petey was Digging once again.

Eventually, his smell-seeing stopped detecting the faint trace of Dave's chew toy, and he got very sad at that point, but then he'd had the idea to Dig up instead of walking up. The new approach felt a lot faster.

Chomping through the soft rocks with his mouth, Petey was excited to start smelling grass and trees and stuff again, but also some new scents that he hadn't smelled before. Looking behind at the pack of hoomans and the not-hooman following him, with Leula holding onto the base of his neck tightly, Petey released an excited woof and then burst through the ground.

Shaking himself off, Petey looked around curiously. He'd expected to end up somewhere near the side of the mountain where he'd come in, but instead, he was surrounded by tall trees with lots of drapey bits, a thin layer of humid smog covering the ground and wisping all over the place. He tried to catch one of the wisps, but it evaded his mouth. Focusing a little harder, Petey tried again and succeeded, the piece of fog snapping off of the main bit and hanging out of the side of his mouth. Not for the first time, Petey was pleasantly surprised. That had never worked with the chilly fog that had sometimes swept over his super-tiny yard back with owner number three.

He blinked, surprised. Since when did he know how to do numbers?

Shaking it off, he turned around and sat down, waiting for the hoomans and the not-hoomans to come out. Crawling up his neck and clutching at his head-fur, Leula complained, The sun! It hurtsss! Twisting his head awkwardly, Petey gave her a good lick, and she glowed for a moment. After a few seconds, she admitted, It hurts less. Thank you.

A few seconds later, the hoomans finished filing through the hole and stared around at the swampy area, their mouths falling open. Petey's head titled in confusion. Most of them were crying now, but... weren't sad? A little bit confused but happy to help regardless, Petey started handing out (pawing out?) hugs and kisses, and the people patted him happily, staring at the foggy sky and the wet grass like they were dog biscuits.

Oh, what Petey wouldn't give for a dog biscuit.

A sound filtered in through all the frogs - wait, there were frogs!?

Distracted, Petey dove past the ferns and bushes, looking for the hoppity frogs and their funniness. It'd been so long since he'd seen a frog! Not since that one time he'd been locked in that small room with the toilet for a week and the frog had come through! He'd almost eaten it, but he'd really needed a friend at the time and the frog had kept him company for most of the time. He'd avoided drinking the water for as long as he could, but he'd had to at some point.

Anyway! Sniffing around with his sniffer held close to the soaked ground, Petey looked around, pushing through the undergrowth and greenery and accidentally pushing over a tree or two until he found the frog!

Or at least, he thought it was a frog. The webbed feet in front of him were kind of big for the frogs he was used to - huge, in fact.

Looking up, Petey saw that the feet were attached to legs, covered in black pants, and were secured from there to a dapper vest and dress shirt. Widening as it went up, the outfit looked quite nice, until it came to the head.

There, it was awesome.

It was a frog! Or it was a hooman. Or - maybe it was both? Petey was having a slightly difficult time figuring out what exactly this startled-looking creature was, but it hadn't attacked him yet, so that was a good thing.

Excitedly, Petey jumped up on the frog/hooman and began furiously licking his face. Tripping over backward, the frog/hooman fell on his butt and started laugh-croaking in a really deep voice. "Rrrrribbaha, what's a dog doing here? I don't suppose you'd lend me an ear?"

Leula peeked over Petey's head and stared at the frog person in mild surprise. An anuran? I didn't think I'd ever meet one in my life.

The frog person - anuran? - saw Leula and jumped backward, whipping out a whippy, thin chew toy with a ball surrounding his hand, settling into a knees-bent stance. "My friend, you've got a spider atop your head! Sit still a moment, and I will render it dead!"

Petey tilted his head. What was the anuran talking about?

A moment later, Petey's hoomans broke through the underbrush and saw the anuran with his chew toy outstretched, and yelped in surprise. Smool hooman Alana (wait, when did Petey learn her name? much confusion.) charged forward, waving her hands. "Wait, no! Stop! That's Petey! He's really dangerous?"

The anuran's chew toy dipped uncertainly, and Leula hurriedly skittered back down Petey's head. "My pardon, dear humans, but that's a dog! Besides, what might you fellows be doing in this bog?"

Petey realized something. The anuran's words were matching each other! Well, not all of them, but all of the ones at the end. It was a funny way of talking.

Alana shook her head. "No he isn't! He's a deity. At least, we think he is. He's - well, he doesn't get hurt, and he's really strong, and he glows, and his licks heal and stuff."

The anuran chuckled, putting his chew toy back at his belt. "Aha, but I cannot imagine such a thing. Why, look at him! I would sooner expect him to sing."

Petey could do that! Raising his head to aim at the sky, Petey sucked in a breath and howled as loud as he could. He kept it going for a long while, building in volume as it went on, and then cut it off with a happy, satisfied woof.

Looking back at his surroundings, Petey discovered that the trees were leaning away, their leaves shivering in the gusts of wind still emanating from Petey. The anuran looked a lot less fancy with mud splattered all over him, but his suit wasn't letting the dirt stick to it. The mud just sort of fell off of the fabric. As for the ground around Petey, multiple circles radiated out from him, lowering in height the farther they went.

With a cough, the anuran half-shouted, "I must say, I can now see what you mean. A dog with that kind of power I've never seen."

Petey tilted his head. Why did he make his words sound like that?