Chapter 1
Different Dimension
The shadow grabbed my hand, and the trees vanished. A vast field appeared where the trees and streams had been. "Believe you do, welcome to Zooloo. Trust us you will, that is, until..." He did not end his sentence. I looked over at him. He was the strangest thing I'd ever seen. He looked like a unicorn made of Jello. "You will until. Why until?" Clyste didn't turn my way, so I tried to think of a way to say what I wanted to say by rhyming. "Why your sentence don't you end? Is there something bad my friend?" He looked at me this time and said,"You do not need to know. It is none of your concern. Take your business elsewhere, and never ever return." I looked harder at him. He seemed taller than usual. I heard the strange sound of soft jellowy hooves on the ground behind me. I turned to see a centaur running towards me. He was yellow and jellowy. "I am Clyste, I am he. Go away Joker, let my friend be!" The unicorn took off running, and the centaur trotted up to my side. "Why made of this are you? It looks like jelly, Jello too." He turned to me, and he was smiling when he spoke. "Different kinds of goo are we. Different from you maybe." "Very different from you am I. I can't believe the purple sky! Doesn't it hurt your eye?" He shrugged as he said,"Not at all, used to it we get. Oh! Follow me, you must see my pet!" He took off running, and I ran after him, ignoring the strange whirring sound behind me. The field was amazingly big. It looked like a wheat field, but the ‘wheat' was half as tall as normal wheat. I galloped after Clyste, and soon caught up to him. "Who was that unicorn named Joker?" He glanced at me as we ran and said,"He grabbed the queen and would have choked her. Not good is he, evil maybe. But never good, lets get some food. Some food we must get, then may you see my pet." I thought of that for a moment before saying,"Evil maybe is he? Why don't you know for sure? He tried to choke the queen, what happened to her?" "Do not talk, do not walk. We must run, if we're to have fun." I shook my head and spread my wings. I shot up into the air as the strange wind currents took me upward. "Safe is it not. Come down, it gets hot." I soared up higher and higher, and I soon learned what he meant. I was going farther and farther up into the sky, and the farther from the ground I got, the hotter it got. I flapped my wings against the wind and dove downwards. I landed gracefully on the ground, and tucked my wings into my side. "Safe it is not. Why is it hot?" Clyste shrugged and said,"We do not know. Come, we must go. My home is near. So near I fear. It is not a happy place. I can not let them see my face. To unicorn I must go. We must approach so very slow. They do not like creatures that run. They do not like anyone who has fun." "But why are they so cruel and mean?" "They assisted in choking the last queen. Queen after queen rises to power. The four in my home are not dainty flowers. Though they appear fragile and sweet, their favorite food is unicorn meat. Stay at a distance, never draw near. Or we will have our lives to fear." I shuddered at his last words, and wondered why we were going to his home if the place was so awful. "Why do we go, if it is as you say? Shouldn't we leave, and come another day?" "Better it never will get. I must first fetch my pet. I wouldn't have left him alone. But he hates traveling to creatures homes. The kingdom is like this, I am afraid to say. The best time to go home, would be today." I nodded. We walked up a small hill, and I saw what the small town looked like. It was just a bunch of stick huts with hay on top. We walked to the nearest hut and walked in. Immediately other jellowy figures ran at us. They were horses. "Away you must go! Leave us alone!" They screamed and yelled. Clyste rolled his eyes and turned human. Only, he was a very wiggly, jellowy human. "Away I will get, but first get my pet!" The creatures stopped as soon as they saw his face, and they backed off mumbling to themselves. One human ran off to another part of the small hut. It was a three bedroom hut. There was a small table sitting in the middle of the room, and a circle of rocks where they cooked their food. "Away you get, if we give you your pet?" "This promise I make, pet I will take. Away we will go, and not at all slow! We will run away this very day!" The creatures jumped up and down and called the human back. He came running back with a big bird-like creature in his hands. Clyste grabbed the creature and turned it around a few times. Then he nodded, sighed, and scrambled for the door. He quickly turned unicorn, and bounded out into the field. I bounded out after him, and we made a run for it. The creatures ran after Clyste and I. The bird flew to the air, and showed us where to run. We ran across the field, and the creatures followed. I glanced back, and saw them changing to wolves. "Why change they can? To wolves are they. Some explanation please! Good or bad will you say?" Clyste was breathing harder now as he ran. Finally, he was able to run at a steady pace, and that gave him the breath to tell me what I wanted to know. "Bad news, I am afraid to say. Change they can, but not us today. Must see a wolf, in real life I mean. Then can we change, but we must see the queen! She is the only one, who can save us now. Follow me quickly, soon they will howl! With a howl, they'll gain amazing speed. Then we'll be captured, and they'll perform an evil deed. To bits we will be, roasting and cooked. Run faster we must, you gave me your trust. Now that you believe, you see them deceive. Not many can discern, we must make a right turn!" We scrambled right, and the wolves ran past, trying to slow down and turn to run after us. "Discern as a woman, not many can. You are special, look where they ran!" I glanced behind me, and caught the wolves about two hundred feet behind us. "Behind us they are! We turned way too tight. They could not stop fast, but soon we will fight. They gain much too speed, and we slow too fast. We must make them run, run right past!" I thought for a moment, and looked to my left over Clyste's unicorn shoulders. "Idea have I! We need bird in the sky. Have it fly to the queen, the queen will be mean. Fight we cannot. Not fly, it's too hot. But queen will be strong. We need to correct wrong. Fight them she must. I gave you my trust. You said I'd be alright. But now we must fight. Please do this, my friend. This can't be the end."
Tears ran down the jellowy unicorn's cheeks as he said,"Fast she can not do. Slow is she. She would die too. Another plan, maybe?" I shook my head and found tears streaming down my face also. Suddenly, it hit me. "Dragon have I! Fight I can do! Stop by those trees. You can fight too! Look at your pet, bird you must get. Change to it please, we can do this with ease!" We were both smiling as we changed. I changed to dragon, and Clyste changed to the bird-like creature. The wolves ran at us. I spoke to them, but my words were slurred. "Come toward us and fight. You're no match for our might! Kill you we will! Kill you until, there's nothing see. After that, we'll let your nothingness be." At least, that's what I tried to say with my injured jaw. The wolves ran at us, and I mockingly smiled. We would win. I was sure of it. Clyste hovered overhead, shouting his own threats. We were smiling as the wolves attacked us. Their teeth bit into my scales. They yelped as Clyste dove down at their noses and mouths. He ripped at them with his talons, and bit their ears. Rip, tear, rip, tear, bite, slash, rip, tear. The wolves kept attacking, but two hung back. The other two ran at us again, but I opened my mouth as he jumped at me. The wolf hit my mouth, and my jaw broke. I screamed in pain, and Clyste landed limp on the ground. I jumped at the wolves, slashing, swinging my tail, and biting. I had a broken jaw, but I could still hurt them a little with my teeth. They jumped back and ran home, yelping and howling. Howling was a good thing. It meant they wanted to get home very fast. I sat on the ground and cried until I had no tears left. My jaw hurt badly, but I would need to be dragon more than unicorn in this strange dimension. When I could see through my tears, I walked over to Clyste. His limp little body was so light, as I picked him up. I checked for breathing. He was just barely alive. I felt his body, and discovered a broken sternum. The sternum's the breast bone. One of the most important bones in your body. I stroked his little head. I was able to see what the creatures looked like now. It was just like a bird, except for it was a stunning red. It had blue tail feathers, and yellow on the wing tips. There were hands at the end of each wing, and it had a blue beak. I caressed his head feathers gently, and whispered softly to him. It was hard for me to whisper. It was mostly just some nice breathing sounds mixed with sounds made from my throat. I didn't move my jaw. I knew it would hurt badly, and that I would scream. I rocked Clyste in my arms as I stood. He was the size of a hawk, and was a little bloody around the chest area. I snuggled him safely into my arm, and walked toward the queen's palace. I didn't know what to call it. When I got closer, I found it to be nothing more than a cave. I guess it was better than the stick and straw huts. My jaw bled down my chest and down my legs. My nose bled into my hanging mouth, and my arms were scratched up. I felt an awful pain in my back, suddenly, and cried out in pain. I leaned back to keep from falling, and nearly fell backwards. I held on tight to Clyste, and whimpered. I had slightly moved my jaw while an arrow had come zipping into the middle of my back. Now my back and jaw hurt. I crept forward, step by step, whimpering to myself. "I must save Clyste. I must stay alive. Brayan needs me. I need to get back to Brayan. My back! My jaw! The pain! No, I can't think of that now. I need to concentrate on walking." Most of my talking was just little sounds here and there. I couldn't move my jaw; I had to keep it still. I saw a green jello unicorn standing in the field to the left of me. He was holding a bow, and five arrows. I had remarkable vision as a dragon. He wasn't aiming at me, but rather was standing in awe. He watched as I struggled toward the queen's cave with my hurt friend in my arm. I bent my neck down farther so I could see what Clyste was up to and block the unicorn out of my vision. I lifted a scaly hand, and felt his wings. The right one was broken, so I gently draped it over my left arm; the arm I'd been carrying him in. "There there, little guy. You'll be alright." Tears ran down my cheeks, and I felt the salt of them on my tongue. I wanted to lick my lips, but that wouldn't do any good. It would do so much more bad than good. I stumbled forward, finding it harder and harder to take another step each time I took one. At the entrance of the cave, a guard looked at me. He scowled, but spread his arms wide and gestured for me to walk into the cave. He did not escort me to the queen, because there was only a narrow hall leading to a large room. I walked down the hall. It was just rock; nothing special at all. My mouth was dry. I tried to clear my throat, but that only brought more blood to my mouth and jaw. I gurgled as I breathed, and had a great urge to just stop there and sleep. I had to rest. I couldn't walk any farther. "No, I must keep walking. Must keep going." I lifted a hand to my jaw and slapped it hard. I no longer wanted to rest. Now I wanted to scream. I stopped the scream in my throat, and used the energy to keep walking. I stumbled into a big room, and saw a beautiful dragon sitting on a rug. Actually, she was sitting on a pile of rugs. This dragon was not made of jelly or jello. She was real. I walked toward her, with my little friend in my arms. My friend was no longer jello. The bird creatures were not jellowy. She smiled as I came closer, and I almost fell. The room was spinning, and I wanted to sleep. I smacked my jaw again, and cried out in pain. The queen stood and rushed to my side. "N't ee el ow y ee." She stooped down beside me as I fell to the floor, and asked,"What? Say again. You must live! Tell me what happened!" I gurgled a little more, and blood pooled around my head and broken jaw. "Dun't nee helt ow ny keen." "Don't need help now, my queen? Is that it?" I smiled a tiny smile and nodded. She grabbed my arm, and yanked me to my knees. I stayed where she put me. I would not lay there in front of my queen. I could at least stay on my knees. She grabbed Clyste from my arms and cried out. "Clyste! Oh, my poor little Clyste. What has happened to you?" She turned him over and over, examining every wound. "Ishabar, take care of Clyste! Bring him back to good health. Okay?!" The jellowy dragon nodded, ran to Clyste, and scooped him up. He ran off into another room with him. I looked at the queen and said,"I urn unicor." She nodded her head, and I slowly changed to unicorn. My wounds disappeared, and my aching muscles were no more. I sighed and said,"Take care of Clyste. I mustn't stay. I need to get back to my test. He was trying to warn me of something; what I do not know." She nodded, and snapped her fingers twice. Two guards rushed in and she said,"Stay here. I'll be right back." The guards saluted, and each guard took his position by the cave entrance. We walked through the hall, and back outside. She told the guard to stay there, and that she's be back momentarily. The guard also saluted, and watched us walk across the field. "It is time you go home. I will learn about you from Clyste. He is truly a remarkable little fellow. We are not of good intentions here, and I would hate to break your wonderful conscience. So, home you go." I sighed and nodded. I wanted to learn more from Clyste, but I did not know what else I would learn. She took my hand and said,"My name is Kleen. Come back when you think you're ready. If you ever think you're ready." She smiled, and I smiled back. Kleen grabbed a piece of the wheat-like stuff that covered the field. I changed to centaur, and stood across from her. I grabbed on end, she grabbed the other, and we said together as we pulled the wheat in two,"Goodbye. I must go home."
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