A.N. I read about this cool play called Seussical: The Musical which combined the stories of Horton Hears a Who with Horton Hatches the Egg along with Seuss characters from other stories...including Gertrude McFuzz, who becomes Horton's girlfriend in the play. This inspired me to write this story, which is going to be a midquel for my sequel Horton Hears a Who: Jojo's Future. What would that be called anyway? A sidquel?

A lone blue and green bird flew over the jungle of Nool. She was mostly blue, but with green feathers on her head, a green tail feather, and green wing feathers. Her name was Gertrude McFuzz, and she was traveling to find a new home. None of the previous forests suited her, either they had too many carnivores or were too depressing, or had some other sort of problem. However, Nool looked promising.

"Now this forest looks beautiful." Gertrude said to herself. "If nothing else I'll certainly stay here for a few days to rest up."

She flew down, and saw an elephant leading a group of kids and a kangaroo down a path. The kids were a hippo, a deer, a bird, a strange little yellow furred creature, and a little kangaroo, possibly the larger kangaroo's joey. She listened to the elephant talk for a while, and realized that he was the kids' teacher.

"Well kids, it's recess time so what game do you want to play?" The elephant asked.

"How about soccer?" The hippo suggested.

"Nah, hoof-ball." The deer shook his head.

"But you and Katie are the only ones with hooves." The bird protested.

"How about swimming?" The little kangaroo suggested.

"I can go for that." The hippo nodded.

"Okay, we'll go with Rudy's idea." The bird smiled.

The kids ran off towards the pond, the elephant and larger kangaroo following but slower.

"Hey kids, make room for me cause here I come!" The elephant called out, suddenly rushing ahead.

"Horton be careful!" The larger kangaroo called after him, trying to keep up.

The kids, now in the pond, scrambled for the other side as Horton prepared to jump in. He did, causing a tremendous wave that hit the larger kangaroo. It also hit Gertrude, who had flown closer to the group earlier.

Horton and the kids nervously looked towards the larger kangaroo.

"Er...sorry about that Jane." Horton rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

Jane at first frowned sternly, and then smiled.

"Well, I guess I don't need a bath today after all." She joked.

Horton and the kids laughed. Jane laughed too.

"Whoa!" Gertrude landed on the ground, no longer able to fly since her wings were soaked. "What a wave!" She laughed.

Everyone else noticed her.

"Oh, I'm sorry are you okay miss...?" Horton hesitated.

"Gertrude, Gertrude McFuzz is the name." Gertrude smiled, shaking herself dry. "It's okay, I should have known better than to fly near a group that was planning to go swimming."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Gertrude, I'm Horton and this is Jane." Horton smiled back.

The rest of the kids introduced themselves too.

"Hi, nice to meet you all." Gertrude waved. "Say, is there a spare tree anywhere? I was thinking of resting in your forest for a while before moving on to find myself a home."

"There are plenty of spare trees, but why don't you make Nool your home?" Jane smiled. "We always have room for another friendly face."

"Gee, thanks. I really appreciate it."

"She can stay in one of the trees near my shack." Horton suggested. "I don't really have any neighbors, unless if you count Mayzie LaBird but she isn't always fun to talk to."

"Really? Why not?" Gertrude asked.

"She's vain and prefers singing about herself or admiring her feathers." Rudy explained.

"*Ugh*, I hate that type." Gertrude winced. "I had to deal with a few like that back where my parents live, that's why I left. Oh well, I can put up with one as opposed to a group so I would love to move in next to you."

"Great, I'll take you there." Horton started to lead the way.

"Oh, uh, Horton you did promise to take us to visit the Whos today remember?" Jane said.

"Oh, right," Horton realized. "Well, how about Gertrude joins us and then I'll lead her to her new home?"

"Sounds good."

"Who are the Whos?" Gertrude asked before looking staggered. "Whoa, was that question as weird as it sounded?"

"Nah, though it did sound a little amusing." Tommy chuckled.

"Horton and I will explain who the Whos are on the way to their home." Jane said.

And they did. Horton started, of course, and let Jane cut in now and then when she wanted a gentler description of the way she used to act. They described about how Horton heard a random Who call for help, ran about trying to save the speck the Whos were on, and managed to make contact with the mayor, Ned McDodd. They continued with how hard Horton worked to get the Whos to a safe place, and continued standing up for the Whos even after he was surrounded by a mob and caged up. After finishing that story they told Gertrude the story of helping Ned find Jojo and battling the WhoDevil. By the time they finished they had reached the flower where Whoville lay.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Gertrude looked at Horton admiringly.

"Aw, it was nothing." Horton smiled before turning to the speck. "Horton to Ned, Horton to Ned, come in Ned!"

"Very funny Horton." Ned's amused sounding voice came out of the speck. "Hang on, I'll turn the portal on."

A white rectangle appeared in front of them and Ned McDodd stepped out.

"Hi everyone!" Ned smiled.

Horton and his animal friends said hi back. Ned then noticed Gertrude.

"Well hello, who are you?" He smiled.

"Gertrude McFuzz, I'm a newcomer here." Gertrude smiled back. "So this is what a Who looks like."

"More or less, we actually come in a wide variety of styles and colors. Is it okay if I take Gertrude on a quick tour of Whoville?"

"Sure, at least to meet your family." Horton smiled back. "Later I'm going to show her to her new home."

"Okay."

Ned lead Gertrude and the others through the portal into Whoville and to his home. When they reached the front door Horton suddenly shrank more, startling Gertrude. Jane explained that Horton was too big to fit into the houses so the inventor of the portal, Dr. LaRue, added a feature that automatically shrank Horton further once he reached the front door of any house.

Fortunately, Ned's children were already home from school, as evidenced by the shouts coming from inside. Sally greeted them first.

"Hello Ned, home so soon?" She smiled.

"Oh this temporary, I just want to introduce a new friend of Horton's to the family." Ned explained. "Sally, this is Gertrude McFuzz."

"But you can just call me Gertrude, nice to meet you Sally." Gertrude raised a wing.

"Same here." Sally shook her wing. "Come on in, Cindy is here for a visit too."

Everyone entered and Gertrude was taken aback by the crowd of little Whos who ran up to Horton and greeted him enthusiastically.

"Whoa!" Horton laughed. "Hi girls, how are things going?"

The girls, Ned's daughters, randomly answered. A black and gray Who and a pink and blonde Who then showed up.

"Hi Rudy!" Jojo smiled.

"Jojo, how are things?" Rudy said as they bopped fists.

"Wonderful, but who can complain when you've got a great girlfriend?" Jojo chuckled.

"Oh Jojo." The pink and blonde Who, Cindy, laughed.

Jojo's sisters were then done greeting Horton, finally giving Jojo and Cindy a chance.

"Hello Horton." Cindy smiled.

"Hi Cindy." Horton smiled back.

"Hey Horton, who's this?" Jojo asked, noticing Gertrude.

Horton introduced her. Gertrude then explained that she was going to be living in Nool now.

"Sounds great." One of Jojo's sisters smiled.

Ned had to return to his duties, so Sally, Cindy, and the McDodd children took over showing Gertrude around Whoville.

Afterward, Horton and the others said good-bye to Cindy and the McDodd family, took a quick stop to say good-bye to Ned, and then headed back to Nool. It was late at that point so everyone headed for their respective homes to have dinner. Horton led Gertrude to where he lived, and showed her the various trees around his shack. Gertrude picked one that was the second one from the shack's right and built a quick nest. She would start to build a more elaborate home tomorrow. Horton shared his dinner with her and Morton, who came over to meet Gertrude, and the three of them talked until bedtime. Gertrude gazed at the asleep Horton before also falling asleep.

"He's the kindest, the friendliest, the bravest, and most generous guy I had ever known." She thought. "Not to mention he's so much fun to hang out with and he's great with kids. I think...no...I know I'm in love with him."