Dog glared up into the trees. Puss and Kitty had climbed up into the forest canopy, using the branches like the rungs of a ladder, and left him behind on the forest floor. (Okay, sure! Dog couldn’t exactly climb trees, but RUDE!)

As Puss tried to look through the canopy, the branch he was latched onto broke. Puss swung into a plunging drop, but in a lightning-fast move, Kitty grabbed on and made sure he was okay.

“If you wanted to hold my hand, all you had to do is ask,” Kitty quipped.

“Um. Just. Feel free to pull me up whenever you get the chance.”

“Oh, I was just remembering the last time I offered you my hand. Only, that time I believe you had cold feet.”

Puss smiled weakly as Kitty finally pulled him back up. Now they were both on the same side of the tree, standing whisker-to-whisker.

“Well, since we’re on the topic . . . Kitty, um. I am sorry about Santa Coloma. It was wrong, it was cowardly, and I should have apologized for it long ago,” Puss said.

“Don’t eat yourself up too much,” Kitty said. “I didn’t show up either.”

Puss blinked, taking this in. Kitty climbed higher, leaving him behind.

“Wait, what?” Puss asked. He scrambled up the tree after her, but she popped up on random branches, as if taunting him.

“I know I could never compete with your one true love,” Kitty admitted. “‘The legend.’” Kitty pulled the brim of Puss’s hat down on his face before pulling it off him entirely. “I wasn’t going to show up for that guy. But you don’t seem like the same guy anymore.” She put his hat on her head. Then she smirked and climbed off.

Puss pondered for a moment what that all that meant, before turning back to the task at hand. After a bit more climbing, Kitty and Puss came across a vast horizon of magical snow flurries and chimney smoke rising from the tree line. They traveled back down to the forest floor and told Dog their heading.

Kitty, Puss, and Dog approached the cottage warily, like commandos on a mission behind enemy lines (which, to be clear, wasn’t unlike what they were doing). Puss would take the window; Kitty, the chimney; Dog, stay and watch guard.

Dog stuck out his paw. “Hands in, crew,” he said, ready for a team handshake. “Ready, set, go, TEAM FRIENDSHIP!”

Puss and Kitty liked Dog a lot more than they did back in the carriage, but the name was a bit much.

“Team Friendship? I did not agree to this,” Puss said.

“Just a placeholder name, you know. I’ll workshop it. I’ll bring back some other ideas,” Dog replied. “Now. Go get ’em, tiger.”

Dog gave Puss a slap on the rear, like a motivating team coach. (Though, Dog really should have asked for permission. Ground rules, folks.) “You can DO this.”

Puss repeated that to himself as entered the cottage. He could do this. After all, he was the legendary Puss in Boots! He inched open the window of the cottage and took stock. Baby had dozed off, his head resting on the table beside an empty jar of honey. Puss slipped inside just as Kitty made an acrobatic entrance through the chimney.

Puss held onto a hanging lamp. Beneath him was the table, Baby Bear, and, most importantly, the map. With quite a bit of gusto, Puss dropped to the table, crawled through the sticky honey mess, and snatched the map, leaving yellow pawprints all over the table.

Meanwhile, Mama and Goldilocks chatted in another room of the cabin.

“Goldi, I don’t know what your ‘just right’ world means, I just hope we—” Mama started to say. Upon hearing their voices, Puss darted under the chair.

“Mama, it’s, it’s—”

Goldilocks was about to explain, but she glanced at the table and noticed the map was gone! She slammed her staff into the puddle of honey and sweat on the table. “Someone’s nicked the map! Somebody took it!”

Goldilocks suddenly kicked over the chair that Puss was hiding under.

“Heh. Hola . . .” Puss started to say.

“Oi! You criming us? When we just crimed you? No crime backs!” Baby Bear shouted.

Goldilocks’s rage exploded—how dare Puss jeopardize her wish?! She swatted at the map with her staff. It wafted through the air and landed on the honey-covered table.

Like lightning, Puss went to retrieve it, but Kitty dove onto the table from her perch. The pair tried to grab the map but accidentally grabbed one another’s hands. Since Puss’s paws were sticky with honey, their hands became stuck together.

Sealed paw-to-paw, Puss and Kitty stood over the map as the bears surged toward them. Kitty pulled Puss closer as the bears closed in. She had one move left, and she was ready!

“Let’s dance,” Kitty told Puss. Kitty twirled Puss around like a ballroom dancer. She dipped him, and Puss used that move to kick the hot porridge into Mama Bear’s face.

YOW!

“Ahh! Too hot!” called Mama Bear.

Next, Kitty kicked a bowl of nearly frozen cold porridge in Baby’s open mouth. It smacked him with a CLUNK!, taking him out, too.

“Ah! It’s too cold! Brain freeze!” yelled Baby.

Puss stomped on one of the planks on the table, sending one last bowl of porridge wheeling through the air. Papa caught it and gulped it down. He softened.

“Ah,” said Papa Bear blissfully. “This is just right.”

With the bears temporarily out of the picture, Puss and Kitty looked into each other’s eyes, continuing to spin.

Goldi, however, had other plans. Using her staff, she separated the cats. Though she successfully hooked the map, Kitty clung to it. As Puss flew in to attack Goldi, Kitty grabbed the map, unraveling it. Her eyes turned to stars. She’d activated her map!

Since Kitty had possession of the map, the cottage itself quickly splintered apart, opening a path down the center of the cottage. As Goldilocks realized she’d lost control, she reached out and grabbed the map, too.

The cabin responded in flux. The objects inside were suspended and floating, as if the new path idled between the two map-bearers.

At last, Dog darted in to help Puss and Kitty. Abruptly, Goldi grabbed a burning beam to throw at Kitty, but she dodged it. Like navigating a zero-gravity asteroid belt, Puss bounced along floating furniture and debris toward Kitty and Goldi. Papa Bear followed until his armchair flew through and dragged him in the other direction. With the others indisposed, only Goldi and Kitty remained fighting for the map.

“Team Friendship!” Dog hollered as he landed on Goldi’s face, causing her to let go of the map, once and for all.

Kitty used the distraction to grab it and save Puss. She even landed safely on the mantle. (After all, cats always land on their feet!)

The cabin started to come apart again and opened Kitty’s path to Trust Falls. Mountains spiked through the earth and created a canyon. As the pieces of the cottage fell toward the ground, the spikes of earth grew into a mountaintop to meet them. Puss and Kitty clasped paws—was this the end?

Finally, the scene calmed down, and the team landed.

“We did it!” Kitty yelped.

“We have the map!” added Puss.

The mountaintop split and divided the cats and the bears. They ended up on two separate prongs of land, rapidly moving apart.

But one thing was missing . . .

“Oi!” Goldilocks called into the distance. “Forgot something?” She held up Dog, who was getting petted.

“Team. Avenge me!” Dog called out. He didn’t want to be found. Not until they were victorious, anyway.