The parking lot to the Super-D-Duper Mart was filled with anything but cars. Tents, banners, and furs of absurd sizes filled the space. GRAND OPENING read a wide banner at the front of the supermarket. Evan found a parking space a few blocks away and walked towards the commotion.
"Uh, what's all this about?" he asked a young but fat Golden Retriever who was wearing an oversized shirt with the store's logo on it.
"Oh, it's our grand opening spectacular!" he replied. "Free food! Free merch! Go around a take a look! And here!" The dog pinned a button to Evan's shirt.
I SHOP AT SUPER-D-DUPER MART AND I ONLY SHOP THERE, the button read.
"Uh, thanks?" The lion wandered around the makeshift festive for a bit. The Retriever wasn't lying; tons of free food was given out. Burgers, hot dogs, ice cream, even those comically large turkey legs the lion only saw on television. He grabbed a couple of hot dogs and made his way through the crowd, quickly observing that he was easily the thinnest one there. Even the thinnest fur beside him was still double the lion's weight.
From the far end of the parking lot, Evan heard the sounds of cheering. Squinting under the bright sun, he saw there was a small stage set up in the distance with a sizable amount of furs surrounding it.
Three furs sat on the stage, the table in front of them had an impossible amount of pies. While all three were quite fat, the grey wolf in the middle took the cake. Judging by the legs Evan could count sticking from under his enormous body, it looked like the fur was being supported by three chairs. And no wonder, the wolf looked like he weighed half a ton with his gigantic gut spilling out in front on him, pushing his fat thighs apart, and hanging just a foot above the ground. He looked to be wearing a black and grey track suit made out of a silky yet sturdy material. The logo on it, two Ws with a line in between them, could be seen from Evan's distance.
"Wait...is that..." The lion turned to a chunky squirrel next to him. "Is that William...uh, McDuffy? That competitive eater guy?"
"It is!" she squealed. "Can you believe it?!"
The squirrel's friend turned to her and said, "He's probably only here to promote William Wear."
"William Wear? What's that?" asked Evan.
"'Clothes for the huskier fur', I think that's what the stupid ad keeps saying," he replied.
"For the hu-" But Evan was cut off by the roar of applause. He looked over to see the wolf, an innumerable amount of empty pie tins in front of him, face stained with red cherries. A heavyset ferret with a microphone took the stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you're winner, Zaftig City's own William McDuffy!"
The wolf raised an arm that looked bigger than one of Evan's legs in celebration as he dabbed his face clean with a towel. While looking over his admiring crowd, he made eye contact with Evan, an intrigued look soon appearing on his face. Just then, two heavily muscled rhinos approached the stage and helped him waddle offstage and onto a motorized wheelchair that looked more like a short tank with armrest.
Evan watched as William spoke in the ear of one of the rhinos, gesturing towards the crowd. The rhino nodded and scanned the crowd through his dark sunglasses until he spotted his target. He made his way through the crowd, making his way directly towards Evan.
"Mr. McDuffy would like to see you," the rhino said in a firm voice.
"What? Why?" the lion asked.
"That's Mr. McDuffy's business. He'd like to see you now. But Mr. McDuffy understands if you are not available right now. So Mr. McDuffy is willing to host you at his private estate this evening. "