"I have found.. another cake!" Puss proclaimed, his chest puffed proudly as he revealed the confectionery in question.

He grinned at his accomplishment. How lucky it was that the Muffin Man had made a spare cake. Though his smile soon faded, if just a little, at the look on Shrek's face. It was fairly obvious that his friend had been acting a little strangely today, more foul-tempered than usual, though he hadn't known that was even possible.

He hadn't really thought much of it, in fact everyone who noticed Shrek's shift in mood, they all had thought nothing of it at all. Everyone was satisfied assuming the ogre had just woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but surely even Shrek couldn't stay mad at this celebration for his little ones. Puss had been so sure he would soon relax.

But all party-goers stood frozen and in silence as the ogre's huge fist suddenly slammed down, right onto the cake Puss had just freshly presented, effectively destroying it. He almost wanted to be annoyed with Shrek for that, but he was more overwhelmed with shock and concern for his dear friend, much like the rest of the party guests. If something had really been bothering Shrek today, he hadn't said anything of it, not at breakfast this morning, or even during the flight to Far Far Away. He'd been completely silent about whatever it was that had caused him to be this way. But the mystery would still remain as such yet.

Shrek took one long, furious look at their frightened faces, shoved a table out of his way, then stormed out of the building.

For several moments, the room was painfully silent and tense. Donkey, unsurprisingly, spoke up first, and voiced what they were all thinking.

"What on earth was that all about?"

"I don't know..." Fiona replied.

She looked terribly worried and even heartbroken, and Puss almost wanted to say something, to try and console her. Though he didn't much get the chance.

"I'll go and talk to him," she continued. "Why don't you all just continue to party, and we'll be right back."

"You heard her," Wolf's famously monotone voice sounded, seemingly emotionless as always. "Party on." He then began to inflate a balloon, only to have it pop right in his face almost immediately. Puss had noticed he'd been doing that for basically the entire time they'd been here, either not realizing the combination of his sharp teeth and his powerful breath wouldn't allow him to blow up a balloon properly, or not caring. But as far as Puss knew the wolf, he could guess it was the latter. He just hoped they had enough balloons to spare...

In any case, as per Fiona's wish, the party resumed as she went outside to talk with her husband.

Puss and Donkey exchanged an uneasy glance at first, but they had faith in Fiona, and more yet in hers and Shrek's relationship. They had to believe everything was ultimately fine.

And for a while, all was well, aside from Shrek's absence that is.

"Hey, where's Shrek?" Donkey asked, as a very distraught looking Fiona returned.

"I don't know what's gotten into him... but I think he just needs a little space and time to cool off right now. Let's just all enjoy the party for now."

Donkey looked as though he wanted to say more, but Fiona was too quick to turn and walk away.

Later that evening, the party had long since ended, and Fiona along with the triplets, and Puss and Donkey, had planned to return to the swamp, but Shrek had still been absent, and Fiona hadn't wanted to leave the kingdom without him. Instead, they all decided to stay at the castle and hope that Shrek would turn up soon.

"Man, he missed half the party and dinner, and he's still totally AWOL!" Donkey complained. "Where do you think the big guy's gone off to?"

Puss shot Donkey a look. Donkey had always seemed to have an utter lack of subtlety and didn't always handle situations quite with the delicacy needed. But Donkey, as usual, didn't seem to realize he had done anything wrong at all in that moment.

Fiona was too distracted to respond as she and Lillian gathered the triplets, who had fallen fast asleep, and prepared to go put them to bed. Lillian hadset up accommodations in one of the castle's numerous rooms for the triplets some time ago, for whenever the occasion arrived that the ogre family would stay in the castle for any length of time. It seemed to prove especially useful tonight.

Puss had noticed that something was really bothering Fiona, even during the whole of the party, though she had done her best to feign a cheerful demeanor for the children. It seemed there was more to the situation that she wasn't telling, that it wasn't just Shrek's disappearance alone that was bothering her. It made Puss wonder what happened outside the party, perhaps they had gotten into an argument. Though over what, he couldn't guess. Up until today, it seemed like their lives were perfect, they were living out their happily ever after and all was well. But Shrek's outburst and overall behavior earlier in the day certainly raised some questions.

Outside, a storm that had arrived earlier in the evening still raged on. Puss hoped that, wherever Shrek was, he was staying safe and dry. No doubt the ogre was responsible enough to take care of himself, after all he'd lived alone is a swamp for very many years before he'd met Fiona, but Puss still couldn't help but worry anyway. At the same time, there wasn't much that could be done for it at the moment.

Puss and Donkey had sat watching the fire burn in the fireplace for a while, before Donkey told Puss he was going to call it a night and promptly left up the stairs to another floor. Donkey also presumably had a room of his own somewhere in the castle, but Puss didn't know where as he'd never bothered to visit it. The few times they'd stayed in the castle, Donkey had almost always been the first to leave his room and go to greet Puss, and the pair of them would then go and greet Shrek and Fiona. That had been the unofficial routine before the triplets had arrived anyway. Since they could walk and talk, the triplets had always been both the first to go to bed and the first to wake up in the morning, Shrek and Fiona always were to wake up right after as the triplets had no problem climbing into their parents bed each morning and making that happen.

Thinking of the ogre again, Puss couldn't help but to be concerned yet again. He wandered over to the nearest window and rested on the sill, idly watching the heavy rain fall. He hated water, in fact it outright terrified him, but he somehow still found that watching and listening to rain was oddly soothing to him. So long as none of it touched him.

He thought maybe laying here and watching the rain, he might begin to fall asleep. But something rather strange happened, that could only make him more alert. At first he missed it, there was a bright flash of something in the corner of his eye but by the time he looked over there was nothing that he could see out of the ordinary. He began to think it was just his imagination, it had been a very long and exciting day and it made reason for him to be very tired by now. But then it happened again, another bright flash elsewhere. This time, Puss shot upright eyeing the streets with full attentiveness. The winds blew and trash can into his view and Puss flinched as it barrelled towards a store window and he prepared to watch the glass shatter, but it suddenly vanished into a bright flash of gold which faded away as quickly as it had appeared. He began to think he wasn't imagining things after all. Especially when, one after another, various other objects began disappearing in yet more bright golden flashes. He could hardly fathom what was happening, but it was right in front of his eyes. When the streets became empty, buildings began to crumble away and rise towards the sky in an ever growing cloud of dark particles. He then realized with a surge of fear that whatever this was that was happening, had started from a distance and was approaching the castle fast. He jumped down from the window to go warn the others, but when he turned around, he saw Donkey running down the hall towards him. It seemed he had noticed it, too.

"PUSS-"

Donkey was only a few feet away from Puss as he called out the cat's name, but was suddenly cut off as he burst into a flash of gold and vanished. Puss wanted to cry out, but his voice caught in his throat, his fur stood on end and his heart raced. He was absolutely terrified, more than he'd ever been in his life. Suddenly the walls around him began crumbling apart, just like he had seen earlier. He was helpless as the world around him came apart around, there was nothing around him for miles outside the castle but a vast see of glittering golden light. Then his whole body started to tingle, almost painfully so.

Then he burst in a flash of gold and vanished completely.

Gold turned to black as the world went dark. There was no castle, there was no Far Far Away, there was nothing at all. A vast utter nothingness.