Mickey falls headlong from his bed, slipping out of his clothes as he plummets through the inky blackness. The kitchen below seems to stretch and warp, drawers yawning open like hungry mouths, a bag of flour bursting in a powdery cloud as he lands with a gentle thump upon a mound of soft dough. Light from the refrigerator spills across the tiles, painting his bare skin with a ghostly glow.
The bakers gather around Mickey, their fingers plucking and kneading until he is no longer himself. They roll him in sweet batter, smooth icing over his arms and pour golden syrup down his back. Mickey laughs, but the sound is muffled as he begins to swell, his limbs thickening, his body rounding, until he becomes Cake—a giant, soft cake monster with a spongy belly and cherry-bright cheeks.
Cake wriggles his new, enormous feet as the bakers layer on thick, glossy icing. His toes tingle beneath the powder, and he giggles, unable to stop. The oven door creaks open, and the heat rolls out in waves, making the icing glisten. Cake is lifted, powdered feet and all, and gently nestled into a pan—now Powdered Feet Cake, ready to be baked.
Inside the oven, Powdered Feet Cake feels the heat prickling his skin, the icing melting into glossy rivers. He wonders what will happen next, a mix of curiosity and dread curling inside him. Suddenly, from the back wall, the bricks begin to crumble and ooze, and strange shapes slither into the light—mud monsters, eyeless and lizard-like, with gigantic feet that slap wetly on the oven floor.
The mud monsters giggle in a guttural, bubbling chorus as they lick Powdered Feet Cake all over, their tongues tickling so much that he squirms and laughs uncontrollably. "Stop, that tickles! Oh, I can’t take it anymore!" The monsters heave him from the pan, smother him in dark, sticky mud, and roll him into a great muddy ball with cake feet poking out. Now he is Mud Ball, and the kitchen fades as the monsters carry him down, down, into the deep mud dimension—an endless world of dripping walls and echoing, sloshing sounds.
Mud Ball is set down in a circle of watching monsters. Time drips by slowly, and he feels the mud seeping into his cake, changing him from the inside out. Gradually, his body reshapes, sprouting scales and growing even larger feet. At last, he is one of them: Stinkers , a mud monster with gigantic, wiggling feet. Two fellow mud monsters approach, their tongues flickering out to greet him.
The two mud monsters begin to lick Stinkers ’gigantic feet, their touch gentle and oddly comforting. Stinkers wiggles his toes, feeling laughter bubble up once more as the warmth and kindness of the others surround him. Slowly, his eyes grow heavy, and he lets out a soft, contented sigh, sinking into sleep with a smile as the mud monsters keep watch, their feet pressed close to his.
