Two rockets – a bigger blue one and a smaller orange one – rushed past their mom right into the yard, running around in the snow and screaming: "Hooraaaay! At last! Snow, yaaaay!"

Somewhere around the twentieth lap both rockets stopped, turning into what they actually were – a kitten and a goldfish with legs, Gumball and Darwin, who ran out to play. And with them were their puppet friends – the multicolored, round Howdy, the judicious clown named Grady, and the funny, shaggy little monster named Frank.

"Onward to Imaginationland!" Gumball flopped on his back into the snowdrift and ran all his paws over it, drawing a snow angel. "Let's go for a ride in there!"

"We've got a whole day to ride!" Darwin flopped down next to his brother, too, but jumped up almost immediately, tossing Howdy into the air and catching her deftly. "Whoa! Skiing with Howdy!"

"Or sledding with Frank!" Gumball picked up Frank, tossing him above his head as well.

"Or trying out Grady's snowbike!" Darwin sang as he sat the clown on top of him. "Top-notch, brand-new, cutting-edge one!"

Getting to Imaginationland – especially when you're five, like Gumball, or three, like Darwin – is easy. That's why it's called Imaginationland. In there, your toys actually come to life, and aren't as small as they are in the ordinary world. The brothers were not surprised one bit when the snow-covered courtyard of their home was replaced by the similar white hills and slopes of a magical land. A ski trail descended from one of them – smooth at first, but the lower, the more wiggly and loopy it was getting, looking like a complete mess by the end. And there was the reason behind it, Howdy, trying to get out of a snowball. Frank, the lilac and blue shaggy monster, was holding her under her arms, and Grady tried to shake off her legs and coax her along:

"...Told you we should switch back! At least I've got hands with fingers, not paws with smooth tips. You can't hold sticks with those. Do you like being a snowman now?"

"I couldn't get my eyes off you," giggled the little round puppet. – "Some snowbiker you are, with your knees touching your ears as you sit on it! Think it's not funny?"

"Snowy balls, Howdy rolls, crashing on the way, hey!" Frank chanted jokingly, but then he noticed two small figures on a nearby hill and shouted: "Looky who's here!"

"Master Gumball! Master Darwin!" exclaimed the clown: being the oldest of the three puppets, he always addressed and treated their young masters with reverence. "We'd been needing you, my friends! You see, we can't help our Howdy get out of that snowball by ourselves; could you help us?"

It was a good thing that the skis, sticks, and Howdy herself were unharmed. And her thin tentacle-like paws were much better to hold the steer bar of a snowbike. Just like for the long-legged Grady it was much better to stand on skis and slide down the white slope – smoothly and evenly, like a pencil on paper. Frank and his sled, however, were the only ones who couldn't agree to go down the hill together: every once in a while it was either the sled on Frank's back, or just he alone.

"That's because you're so big," explained Gumball, spreading his paws wide. "Slip closer to the edge and it topples over. We can sit aside and balance it out!"

"It's not me, it's the slide." Frank scratched the back of his head. "Why it has to be that bumpy? I counted about tenteen bumps the time I went down without the sled. Howdy must've bumped into one herself, that's why she crashed..."

"Why didn't you tell us, then?" Grady skied up to his friends. "I know a good place with perfectly smooth slopes. I practiced going down and up on them myself, just a couple of days ago. Would you gentlemen like to try it? I'd be glad to show you…"

"And I'll get you guys there on my sled," offered Frank to the brothers, getting up. "Wouldn't be fair if we each had something to ride and you two had to run on your own."

The place where Grady had brought his friends seemed truly amazing. Full of slides and slopes, from lower to higher, to rocky peaks covered with snow that rose to the sky. And not even a single bump anywhere. Perfect for a year's worth of wintery fun.

"Well now, didn't I tell you? Long live the Wonderful Slopes! Eeeenjooooy – theeee – vieeeew!" solemnly sang the clown, as if standing on the stage. His voice even rang in the friends' ears.

"Ssssh, quiet!" shushed Gumball. "What if you start an avalanche?!"

"Ah, balderdash!" Grady waved his hand and laughed out loud. "There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of, Mr. Gumball! There are no avalanches, really; I know this place like my own cap!"

"...cap! ...cap! ...cap! ...cap!" echoed through the mountains.

The friends looked at each other apprehensively. Nothing. Only a chunk of snow fell on Howdy from a tree branch.

"It's nothing, they do fall down here quite often", assured the clown. Another chunk of snow landed on the top of his head. "Ugh! There, you see?"

A strange rumble was heard in the distance.

"F-f-frank, was that your stomach?" Darwin whispered, lightly tugging the shaggy monster by his fur. He only shrugged.

The rumble grew stronger. Now it was hard to mistake it for something else. Just like the chill that ran down everyone's spine at once, ruffling Frank's dreadlocks and Gumball's fur, and making Grady's legs weak like cooked pasta.

The clown could only barely turn around on his skis – and give a muffled squeak:

"Run..."

..."Come on, Howdy, come on, hurry up", Darwin begged to himself. He could feel her tremble against his own back as she was grasping the steer bar of her snowbike with one paw and wrapped the other one around him, trying her best to hold him firmly beside her. The goldfish boy didn't have the courage to open his eyes – all he could hear was Grady's heavy breathing as he raked away with his sticks, and Frank yelling behind them, flying like a shaggy comet on his sled with Gumball shrieking in terror. If only someone of them could think of a springboard to appear on the way and help them escape the avalanche, but how can one think of anything when thoughts – AAAAHHH! – are all mixed up – EEEEEEEK! – like a tangled yarnball...

Darwin felt a painful sting at his heart when his brother's squeal and Frank's roar were abruptly cut short. The goldfish boy shrieked in pain and flinched. The startled Howdy loosened her grip. The snowbike swerved to the side – Grady and his skis collapsed on its passengers – and the whole pile of friends, scared to half death but alive, slipped away from the avalanche that had finally frozen.

"Mr. Dar... Darwin, wake up, are you all right?"

The blurry silhouette before the goldfish's eyes finally transformed back into Grady. The clown was leaning over his master, holding him by his fin, and calling his name anxiously, trying to bring him to his senses.

"Where are..." Darwin squeaked, afraid to even finish.

Grady sighed. "The only thing I've learned so far is that both we and Howdy are alive and well."

"He's already been all over the place, calling the guys," added Howdy. "Hate to break it to you, buddy, but... it looks like they're really snowed in by now. The snowbike's a goner, too. All I could find was a sled. That's all."

She nodded at the snow pile in the distance. A familiar rectangle with a rope was in fact sticking out of it. "Frank's sled, indeed," Darwin realized as he came closer, and thought bitterly, "It failed to save its owner, again." To think how frightened Frank and Gumball must have been when the avalanche caught them both and swept them away...

Darwin pressed his forehead into the sled, sobbed, and froze.

The snow creaked behind him.

Come on! Last thing he needed now were his friends awkwardly trying to comfort him when he might have lost a brother and a friend forever!

But the creak didn't sound like their footsteps. Something came closer, brushed his fin – something small and furry. A wet nose pressed against his side. And then... something clinked?

"What... Who?!" The little goldfish shuddered, opening his eyes.

At first, he didn't even believe them.

After all, it was exactly the same doggie – funny, yellow, with synthesizer keys on his back and buttons on his sides – that Darwin had drawn by himself a week ago. The same one that, as he saw now, came to life in Imaginationland – and now stood next to his creator, licked his fin and watched in a friendly manner, waiting for his master to give him a command. It must be a good sign from the magical land itself being sent to Darwin!

"No... No, it can't be-" The goldfish boy's mouth went up in a big grin. "Can you guys see him, too? That's my own Keyboard-Dog! I drew him, and he came to life here!"

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Grady." The clown (mindful of his manners, even having just survived a disaster) reached a hand out to their new acquaintance. The Keyboard-Dog eagerly gave him a paw.

"I'm Howdy," the round puppet introduced herself and stroked the dog. "Good puppy! How did you find us?"

"I walk, walk," responded the dog in a synthesized voice. "Then thought a game. Then saw you scared. Then Darwin cried. Brother missing. Smells sad. How to cheer up?"

"Smells… sad, you say?" Grady asked again. "Smells sad... Why, of course!" He jabbed his finger at the sled. "Smell! See what I mean?!"

Now Darwin figured it out. He quickly pulled the sled out of the snowdrift and shoved it under the Keyboard-Dog's nose:

"Sniff it, pal! Track! Track!"

And when the dog, having picked up the scent, ran toward the snowy ridge, Grady got back on his skis with determination, and Howdy dragged the sled behind her, something warm jolted in Darwin's heart:

"They're alive."

And it wasn't wrong.

"Oooooh..." Frank groaned as he came to his senses. "Boy, we've been tossed around... I lost the sled up there, too... Gumball? You okay?"

"Bwwgh?! Gwwgmmmgh..." said the kitten from somewhere in his coat. "Wwwggmm gmm gmm!"

"What?"

"Ugh..." Gumball barely got his head out of his friend's grasp. "I said, open your paws before you squeeze me!"

"So you are okay", Frank sighed with relief. It was a good thing that he all clutched up and protected his master when the avalanche had swept them both away. But he couldn't fully unclutch yet, as he had admitted to Gumball: the snow was getting in the way.

"Maybe it's not even that thick", the kitten objected, barely able to free himself and look around; he could at least see a little in the dark. "Maybe there is a way for us to sneak out. You're strong, after all! Come on, let's try! Heave-ho!"

"Heeeeave…" Frank tensed up, pressing all his paws and back into the snow, "…ho! Heeeaeaave… hooo!"

The snow around them both creaked, but yielded only a little – just enough to make a small grotto. And that was enough for now, said Gumball: first of all, they had to save their strength, and secondly, he would go and check if there was at least a small way out of here. Which he did immediately – even had to crawl thoroughly all around Frank. But the snow on all sides got already so thick that only a good shovel could break it. If only they had a shovel, that is. Or enough space to stretch to their full height.

"Wait!" Gumball, not believing himself, again began to blindly touch the walls of the grotto. "Wait, wait, there's no way that-"

"No, it is like that everywhere", Frank said sadly. "And it's probably five times my height thick above us, too".

"You mean they'll only dig us up by nightfall?! If they find us at all?!" The kitten was frightened and cried out in despair: "Mother! Moooom! Darwin! Daddy! Somebody save us, we're here!"

Not a sound in response.

"Mom... oh- Gumball's moooom!" called Frank. "How-dyyyy-y-y! Gra-dy-y-yyy! We're heeeere!"

The snow drowned his scream like absorbent cotton.

"That's it," sobbed an exhausted Gumball. "That's it, we're lost... I can't scream anymore... I want to Mom..."

He collapsed on Frank's chest and burst into tears.

All the friends could count on now were the Keyboard-Dog's nose, and Darwin's own heart – which was still stubbornly telling his master: Gumball is alive. Alive. And if he was, so was Frank – who, otherwise, would long be lying somewhere, like a lifeless lost toy.

It flinched again, more strongly, when the dog stopped, jumped up onto the high snowdrift, started sniffing, and then barked anxiously:

"There! There! Brother! Dig, dig, there!"

Darwin immediately ran up to him and started digging through the snow with his fins.

"You won't reach deep! Let me help!" Howdy suggested. She poked the snowdrift with a ski stick. Again. And again. It didn't even bother to budge.

Grady was the only one watching them from aside, scratching his chin in thought. It looked like he knew some secret, but was afraid to reveal it yet. Finally he made up his mind. Took off his skis. Approached his friends.

And stood on his head – circus cap right in the hole that Howdy and Darwin had already dug, both legs spread out to the sides, like a living corkscrew.

"What's that?" asked the surprised goldfish boy. "Some kind of trick?"

"I am to blame for getting you all in trouble, Mr. Darwin," answered the clown firmly. "The avalanche came down because of me, and it's me who must help your brother. I am your gift, after all – both your and his! And Frank is my friend too! Now both take me, Howdy by that leg, and you by this leg, and give me a good spin!"

Sounds like a strange request, thought Darwin. But what else to expect from a clown like Grady, who always comes up with a circus solution when there's no ordinary one.

And when the little goldfish saw how Grady's torso began to compress as they began to spin him by his legs, he finally guessed. Why of course! There was a strong spring in his body! How else could he have popped out of the gift box he had once used to come to the kids on Gumball's birthday party! And now, apparently, he had really decided to turn into a living corkscrew – and drill his way to the place where Frank and Gumball were languishing in captivity.

"...Come on, come on… c'mon, go, go, go!" encouraged the clown, drowned in the snow already up to the collar of his jacket. Finally he took a breath and shouted:

"On my signal, jump to the side! Three! Two! GO!"

And, with creaking and rumbling, drilled into a snowdrift, his skinny legs spinning like crazy in mere inches from his friends.

The poor faithful Frank, confused and scared nearly as much as his master Gumball, now could only comfort him as best as he could: hugging the kitten and stroking his back, while he sobbed through the monster's lilac fur how he wanted home to his mom, and how Frank even smelled like her sweater...

A familiar, delicate blue face appeared before the monster's eyes at these words – almost like Gumball's own, only a bit bigger. And a familiar soft voice sounded in his head: "What a funny little fellow... I'll put you under my pillow at night... He'll like you..." Then came another sound, a long, murmuring one, that lulled to sleep like a lullaby even without words. Before Frank knew it, a similar sound (the right one, his heart told him) had emerged from somewhere deep within him and was now enveloping the poor kitten, soothing and bringing him to his senses.

"...we won't get home... ...we'll freeze here forever... No one will ever... ...find us..." Gumball was still sobbing into the lilac fur, but flinched at the strange sound. "Wait, are you- purring?!"

"Am I – what?" Frank was taken aback.

"You rumble like this. It's called purring," the kitten explained.

"Guess I do." Frank tilted his head sideways. "It just… you know, happened. I was just thinking how to make you feel better. I'm your gift, after all! And Darwin's, too. And it's dark in here, like in a sack, I can't see any thoughts." He scratched the ceiling of the snowy grotto with his paw. "And we've been sitting here for long..."

"Hmm… True..." Gumball lifted his head. "We've been sitting here for so long… Then why am I not cold?" He felt the ceiling: there was a deep imprint of Frank's paw in the dense snow. "Did you make it melt?!" He touched his friend's fur, which was not only dry, but also warm as an oven. "Wait a minute…"

Exactly! Gumball had heard and seen that commercial on TV, back when he was just a baby! And Frank, too, was a little toy, a cute shaggy monster puppet who, along with his three multicolored cousins, smiled from the screen while the announcer's joyful voice was broadcasting:

"Furreezies! They'll melt any heart – and yours too! They're not cold at all in their home snowy land! Furreezies! They purr to you! They warm you! They win children's hearts all over the world! Give your child a piece of warmth! The funky Frank! The dreamy Franny! The strong Fillmore! The fidgety Feebie! Find a friend you love! Ask-at-your-local-stores-all-puppets-are-sold-separately..."

"Gumball? Friend, what happened?" Frank's voice interrupted the vision. The kitten turned to him, as if hearing him for the first time in his life, and exclaimed:

"They won't even have to dig us out! Tell you what: try to focus..."

"Eeerm… 'Fraid I forgot my hocus-pocus hat at home," Frank worried.

"Ah, come on... Concentrate, I mean! Try purring some more. It makes you warm, you know? We'll melt the snow by ourselves, even if it's ten times your height thick!"

"Purrr…" Frank honestly tried to, but didn't get any warmer, nor did the sound turn out right. "Mrrrprrr... ugh, come on!"

"Think, think, think," Gumball scratched behind his ear. "If it doesn't work on purpose... Think, think... Don't you remember how it happened on its own?"

"Umm… When you said I smelled like your mom and that you felt like she was around, I remembered her putting me under her pillow before your birthday." Frank smiled. "Mom had been rumbling like that in her sleep all night long, because she loves you so much. I just happened to remember it somehow. Right in here." He put a paw on his heart. "I thought it might make you less afraid... but let you… down..."

Even by the giant's voice alone it was clear that he was in tears. "Oh, really, come on," thought Gumball, and, before Frank himself burst into tears and flooded the grotto, put his arms around his neck and began to scratch his scruff. It worked! In a minute, the plush shaggy monster was not sobbing, but purring loudly, gratefully nuzzling at the top of the kitten's head and hugging him in response, so that Gumball again almost sank into his thick fur. And the walls of the grotto around them in fact begin to melt. The droplets evaporated before they could even touch Frank's fur, and the room around grew larger and larger, until both of them could finally straighten up and stand upright, and there finally was an opening high above their heads.

Grady, as a corkscrew, had already drilled a decent-sized crater in the rubble – but, sadly, nothing but snow had turned up yet. Darwin's stubborn heart and the Keyboard-Dog, however, were only more worried: a little more, who knows how long, and they may reach their friends... Except for Grady needed a break to lie down and take a breath: it's pretty hard and tiring to drill the snow with your own head, let alone when you are wound up like a spring in a clock. Darwin's fins, Howdy's paws and both their legs and backs also were already aching.

"Ummm…" sighed the goldfish. "Even I am already afraid. What if there's nothing but snow all the way down there..."

"'S'alrigh… Mr. Darw'n..." Grady groaned, barely lifting himself up on his elbow as the Keyboard-Dog licked his nose. "I just take a rest and then..."

"I can't feel my paws anymore," complained Howdy, tiredly sitting down in the snow next to the clown, but immediately jumped up: "It's wet!"

"Wet?!" Grady was frightened. But both his jacket and Darwin's socks indeed began to get wet, and the friends themselves were sinking deeper and deeper into the snowy slush. "How?!"

"It's melting!" Darwin guessed. "Watch ou-"

A second later, all four of them fell into the hole that opened beneath them.

Only Frank's empty sled hung off the edge.

"Oh!" Frank shuddered at yet another strange sound. "Now who's purring?"

It didn't sound like purring anymore, though. More like creaking, rumbling and screaming all rolled into one. And it was coming from above, at that! Something loomed in the opening, closed it for a moment, and then burst through the snow, and a tangle of tails, caps, legs, arms, and tentacles fell on both of them. The tangle knocked them off their feet, pinned against the wall of the grotto, and only then disintegrated into Darwin, Howdy, the Keyboard-Dog, and a completely exhausted Grady.

"Brother!" Gumball shouted, clutching the goldfish boy in his arms. "I was about to think you wouldn't dig us up! How did you find us?"

"Better… ask... him," Darwin panted, waving his fin at the Keyboard-Dog. "And him." He nodded at Grady.

Bonk! The sled fell right on top of the clown before he could even say a word.

"Grady!" Everyone was frightened, surrounding the poor man. They didn't have to: his head was intact, only wobbling and spinning while its owner could barely mumble: "Sproinnng… oiinnng.. gooooiinnng… ooooiiinnnng…"

"Don't worry about him, he'll be all right," laughed Howdy. "Frank, wait, don't shake him! Better put him on the sled- carefully! Well now, let's go back home?"

...Grady in fact did wake up soon – in the puppets' house, where they gave him some cocoa and marshmallows, sat him under a blanket, put Frank beside him as a huge heating pad, and started to tell him what had happened.

"...I'm really sorry about your snowbike," the clown finally confessed to Howdy. "It fell apart because of me, after all..."

"Ah, nothing to worry about," chuckled the round puppet embarrassedly. "So what if it even fell apart? Everyone's alive and well."

"We'll make you a new one anyway. With four speeds, and brakes!" Gumball promised. "But later, okay? We've got to think about it really well if you want it to be top-notch."

"Guys, how about we build an igloo tomorrow?" Frank suggested and sipped half a cup of cocoa at once. "I liked the snow grotto, after all. I only wish it were bigger and had an exit, because that one was so uncomfortable..."

"And with a lantern to keep the light on," nodded Gumball. "And you'll be the stove in it!"

"I'm game to be a stove, if you've got fuel!" The shaggy monster waved his paw.

...And a little while later, the two quiet little figures closed the door of the puppets' house behind them. They looked up into the sky of Imaginationland, which was slowly turning into the starry evening sky of the ordinary world. And quietly, hugging their toy friends (who had become small again), they went across the yard to their house, where their Mom and Dad were waiting for them.