Dotty was supremely uncomfortable. She had to bend her tail awkwardly to fit in the chair and her crest scraped uncomfortably against the chair backing.
Whoever designed this chair did not do so with a parasaurolophus in mind.
The white cat sighed. “I know the chair is uncomfortable Dotty, but could you please try to pay attention? This is very important!”
”Yes Captain!” Dotty said.
Captain nodded and continued. “Our group, the Rescue Team, is not big enough to keep the storytravel continuum stable and safe. And even if every storytraveller worked full time, there still would not be enough of us. So I have a plan.”
Dotty nodded her agreement.
”We can bring young characters from different stories to train as storytravellers. The school in which we do that can be as inspiring, educational, intellectual, chaotic, and original as the Cloud itself.”
”Good idea, boss,” Dotty said. “Now can I please get out of this chair?”
Captain laughed. “Go ahead. Tell the other members of The Rescue Team, we can begin this project right now.”
Dotty gratefully exited the painful chair.
1. Kitmar
She was , quite literally, seething with anger. Her father and older brother had gone away again, leaving her to cook dinner.
Kitmar was many things, but a chef she was not. She got the impression they just wanted an excuse to punish her.
Speaking of punishment, her younger brother Eliot had been left with her. Eliot had less IQ than the number of elephants he could balance on a pinhead. He appeared to be watching a toddlers TV show.
Kitmar avoided the kitchen altogether and went to continue her chemistry experiment. She felt like Matilda from the Roald Dahl book, getting revenge on her evil family like this. Acid on their pillows should be enough payback for breaking her fighting stick, hiding her spare batteries, and their general cruel aura.
That was when she realized Eliot was gone.
Instead, in front of the TV was a doorway that looked as though it was surrounded by clouds. Kitmar did not have to think twice to know where Eliot had gone.
Well, wherever that thing led couldn’t be much worse than her daily life. And anyway, adventure was a luxury not many people got.
She packed her small chemistry kit, spelunking kit and toolbox, plus a handful small items of sentimental value, before going through the doorway.
2. Sock.
Sock had just finished helping out his neighbors with odd jobs: digging up underground fruit, gardening, helping to place Earth probes into simulations to avoid them finding the Martian cities, nothing too big a deal. Sometimes they paid him for his help, but he didn’t do it for the money, of course.
When he reached his home pod, his brother Shoes came bounding out and hugged him. “A dinosaur just came!” He said. “It told momma and papa you were invited to an interstorenshonal school to be storytraveller!”
Now, an ordinary person would be cautious. They would recognize this as out of the ordinary, ask questions, and probably not go into the weird cloud-surrounded portal.
Sock was not an ordinary person.
He packed his belongings, exchanged goodbyes with his family, and went through the doorway.
3. Where in the expanding universe is this?
Kitmar felt like she was falling through endless hallways of doors, but also through a kind of mist. The effect was a bit like the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland.
Eventually though, Kitmar reached the bottom. Of course she did, infinite drops were not scientifically plausible. Although… where WAS this?
Next to her was Eliot, sprawled dramatically on the ground. Her gaze drifted over him to a sign that read:
WELCOME TO CLOUD ACADEMY!
YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED HERE FOR YOUR STORYTRAVEL POTENTIAL!
HERE YOU CAN:
MAKE FRIENDS
MAKE MEMORIES
MAKE ENEMIES <——Don’t put that on the welcome sign you bot
EXPLORE THE CAMPUS. HAVE FUN!
This was strange. A castle that appeared to be floating on a giant multicolored cloud was sitting in front of her. It was just like, “hello, I defy the laws of physics, how do you do?” Weird.
Suddenly Eliot tapped her on the shoulder. “It’s ANDROMEDA!” He squealed. “From ANDROMEDAS ADVENTURES!”
Kitmar looked to where he was pointing and saw a character from the babies TV show he was watching. Eliot ran off to introduce himself, leaving Kitmar to explore.
She was wandering around in the gardens, when she saw an eye peeking out of one of the hedges. It was on a long stalk.
She prodded it. Two more eyes poked over the hedge, followed by a humanoid alien creature.
”Hello,” Kitmar said.
”Hello.” The alien creature said.
They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment.
“The nurse gave me this,” the alien creature said, brandishing a giant axe.
”Why do you have a giant axe?”
”School nurse gave it to me,” the alien creature said casually.
Kitmar blinked. “So. My name is Kitmar.”
”That’s a weird name,” the alien creature said. “I’m Sock.”
Kitmar smothered a laugh. “I suppose we both have weird names.”
”Sock isn’t a weird name!” Sock protested. “On Mars, everyone is named after items of clothing!”
“You’re from Mars?” Kitmar asked.
“Yes!” Sock said happily.
This was all very strange indeed.
Kitmar had to say, this might just be the most chaotic day of her life.
Fun fact: it would not be for much longer.