Oliver wandered, arms wrapped tightly around himself, feeling the rough earth beneath his feet. Each step sent a shiver up his spine as unfamiliar bird calls echoed overhead. The deeper he ventured, the more the world seemed to close in, the trees crowding him from all sides.
the voice intoned, lilting and odd. Oliver froze, staring down at his toes, which seemed to stretch and swell, the skin shimmering with a faint green hue. The ground beneath him shifted—blades of grass wriggled up around his ankles, slipping off his battered shoes and caressing his bare soles with a mischievous, ticklish touch.
Oliver yelped, stumbling and giggling uncontrollably as the grass tickled him mercilessly. He dashed through the woods, his feet ballooning with every frantic step, his body morphing and swelling until his clothes vanished in a puff of green mist. When the tickling finally stopped, Oliver—now Melon , a green alien with gigantic feet—slumped onto the dewy earth, strangely at ease in his new, otherworldly skin.
Melon flexed his toes and wiggled them into the cool earth, delighting in the squelch of mud and the strange power surging through him. He ambled through the woods, marveling at his reflection in a puddle—a towering, foot-heavy alien with a goofy grin. Just as he began to adjust to his new existence, the mysterious voice returned, its tone shifting from playful to commanding.
"You shall be rolled into a ball and buried deep below," the voice boomed. The giant feet squeezed Melon tight, rolling him into a perfectly round, dirty green ball— Melon Ball —before shoving him down through the earth. Down he tumbled, spinning through darkness until he burst into a warm, fragrant underground bakery.
The dough swaddled Melon Ball , and he was plopped into a sizzling oven, baked until he glistened. Suddenly, the hole in the wall yawned, and with a whoosh, Melon Ball was sucked in, swallowed whole and tumbling through darkness. In a blink, he was himself again—still green, still round, but now slimy, rolling down a slick, glimmering slope.
Slick rolled to a stop, stretching his gigantic feet and laughing as the mud squelched between his toes. The swamp embraced him, and he flopped down into the muck, feeling utterly at home in the ooze. For the first time in his wild journey, Slick closed his eyes, letting the mud cool his skin, and smiled—content at last in the heart of the alien wilds.
