“Slow down!” shouted Kit Gold.
“Okay!” shouted Quinn Wing. They were playing tag.
“Got you.” said Kit. Then they saw something strange rustling in the leaves. A wind caught them like a tornado and they spun into a different world. They didn’t know where they were. The world had blue leaves on the trees and all the things looked different. Everything was dark and misty, not like in their forest which was bright and sun-shiny.
“Where are we?” asked Quinn.
“I don’t know,” said Kit, picking up one of the blue leaves and barking angrily.
“We’re not supposed to be involved in some kind of magic wind. My mom told me about the magic wind in stories. But I didn’t think it was all supposed to be true.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Kit. “But we’ve gotta find a way to get out of here.”
“First,” said Quinn, “we’ve got to find out how the magic wind got us and brought us over here.”
“Well, I know the tornado kind of got a little dimmer every time I thought about going
home. And then it just vanished and dropped us here. Maybe we could think about not going home, to go home.”
“That doesn’t make sense, but we could try,” said Quinn.
“Okay! Three. Two. One. Go!” said Kit.
And they both tried not to think about going home. And none of it worked.
“We’ve gotta keep thinking but first … AH! WHAT IS THAT?” screamed Quinn.
They saw something weird in front of them.
All the leaves around them started closing in and fire shot out of the ground. Fire was the same color. Some of it was blue and some of it was orange-reddish.
And then suddenly, Quinn blinked. They were swept upside down and crashed into a big pile of leaves that were greenish-orangish. They were in the same world, but on a different continent.
“I get it,” said Kit. “We think about some things, like not going home and then we go somewhere completely different.”
“Like what?”
Kit said, “Like flying up with your wings. You can fly up and tell me what you see.”
So Quinn flew up and saw a big, black cloud.
“Yeah!” screamed Quinn while he was spinning upside down back to the forest floor.
“Well, that didn’t work,” said Kit. “You shouldn’t be looking upwards all the time, not focusing on what’s on the ground. You might get blown up by something.
“What do you mean blown up?” said Quinn.
“You know what I mean. Not actually blown up.”
“Oh, right. Should we just find a way to get out of here?” asked Quinn
“Well, yeah that’s what we’re thinking about.”
“Did you hear that?” asked Quinn.
“What?” said Kit.
“That,” said Quinn, pointing out the boinging sound.
“Oh, right. What is that boinging sound? Should we go check it out?” asked Kit.
“Maybe,” answered Quinn.
“Okay, first let’s figure out what that thing is.”
“Okay!” said Quinn. “But what?” asked Quinn.
“That,” said Kit, pointing to some strange creature. “It was snapping its jaws wide open and closed. I think that’s just a plant, I guess?” said Kit.
“Kit?” said Quinn.
“What?” answered Kit.
“Did you notice how many of them there are?”
Kit blinked. He hadn’t noticed so many of them were there.
Kit said, “Can you fly us out of here, Quinn?”
“Yes, probably,” said Quinn. “Get on my back,” said Quinn.
Quinn soared up into the sky, trying to find the magic wind again. Suddenly, they found the black cloud again. Quinn flew straight into it. And suddenly it was all quiet. Super quiet.
“So, I think we landed in the middle of nowhere,” said Kit.
“Uh, not exactly,” he said. “Look, we landed on a single leaf.”
“Oh, then I guess we shrunk because the leaf is falling and it seems super super big.”
“Yes,” said Quinn.
“When are we landing?” asked Kit.
“Pretty soon, I think,” answered Quinn.
“Well, I think we already did. Because, look at the trees, they’re gigantic. When we were up there, they were very much smaller. I would guess they were really below us.”
“Well, I think we should get off this leaf. Just, let’s fly,” said Quinn.
“Yeah, we don’t want to get stomped on by some giant rabbit.”
“Did you forget?” answered Quinn. “They’re only gigantic to us now. But soon when we’re back normal size, they’re pretty much going to be normal size.”
“Okay,” answered Kit. “Just get me on the ground and we can get out of the way of everyone–”
“STAMPEDE!” interrupted Quinn.
Kit quickly got on his back and they soared over all the animals.
“Well, look at it this way, we should just–”
“Just what?” asked Kit.
“We should just try to find something that we could use from here to get back to our hometown Stuffyland.”
“Yeah, let’s look for that thing if there is.” Suddenly they heard rustling in the leaves. Kit looked down and said, “I think I’m floating.” No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t reach Quinn.
“I think we’re going DOOOOOWN!” shrieked Quinn. He twirled down and down and down. “We went up quite high,” he said, bonking his head down.
“Well, let’s get searching,” Kit said.
“Okay, but first we gotta find something.”
“Mmhmm,” Kit answered while looking up.
“What’re you looking at?” asked Quinn.
“I think I’m staring at that tree, not exactly up.”
Quinn looked too. What he saw was jewels instead of leaves. “I think one of those jewels is gonna help us get back closer to our home, but not exactly to there. Should we choose one?” asked Quinn.
“Yes, we should,” said Kit.
“Yes, we should,” mumbled Quinn to himself.
They looked at the tree carefully and saw one that was quite different from the others. Quinn flew up to that jewel and plucked it out from the tree.
“Think this’ll work?” asked Quinn.
“It should. C’mon. 3, 2, 1, let’s fly.”
Kit and Quinn soared up high and they saw the black cloud again. Before going in, Kit blew on the jewel four times and then they went in.
They were somewhere closer, Quinn knew it. They hadn’t been here before. “Why was everything so small?” Quinn asked himself. “Before things were huge,” he said, stomping his claws.
“Yeah we are,” said Kit, bounding forward on his four paws. Suddenly they felt like they were shrinking.
“Oh, why are you here?” Quinn asked something on the ground. Kit rolled around and looked at what Quinn was looking at. Quinn was looking at Softy from their world.
“Oh, what are you doing here?” Kit asked Softy the bunny.
“I thought I might help you,” said Softy. “What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know.” said Kit. “AHH!” Quinn shouted. Suddenly, everyone was pulled into the ground. They heard a scream. “HELP!” They ran into a big room and saw the screaming Princess Keeah.
“Just what is going on here?” Asked Softy.
“That?” said Quinn.
“Probably,” said Kit.
“What’s that?” asked Softy.
“Oh. That. You mean snakes that are behind her?”
“Uhhh, yes! Now stop fiddling, and let’s go.”
“Okay.”
“Softy!!” groaned Kit.
“Okay, okay.”
Suddenly, Softy started freaking out. He was scared of snakes.
“Guys!” said Keeah. “Should we just go up?”
“How?” asked Softy.
“Like this,” answered Keeah, jumping up on the little ditch that was on top of her.
Softy bounded back on the grass. “Come on, Quinn, Kit, come up!”
“Okay!” answered Kit, boinging out of the ground.
Quinn flew out. “Come on, let’s start running!”
“Sssss.”
“Uh oh,” said Keeah.
“Snakes!” gulped Softy.
“Woah!” said Kit. “Come on, Quinn, you’re the only one that can fly.”
“Okay, get on my back, Kit and Softy. Princess Keeah, you can fly too, can’t you?”
“Oh, yes I can!”
“So let’s go!”
They all flew up into the sky. Kit was looking down.
“You know, we’re all afraid of something,” he said. “And this is not the time for me to be afraid of heights, which I am.”
“Not exactly a problem,” said Quinn. “Because we’re going down now.”
“Oh, phew. That was close,” said Kit when he finally put his paws down on the grass again.
“ACHOO!” sneezed Softy. “Now, I think we accidentally flew through a portal without noticing. Because this place is very dusty.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” said Keeah.
“Okay. What do we do now?”
“ACHOO!” said Softy.
“Uhh, I think we have a problem here,” said Kit. “I think Softy’s allergic to dust.”
“I am–ACHOO!” said Softy.
“That is a problem,” said Keeah, tapping her head. “Now what do we do?”
“Umm, fly? Because if Softy’s allergic to dust and up there’s dusty, we just might be able to stop him from sneezing all day.”
“So?” Softy got on Quinn’s back and Quinn flew up, up, up.
Suddenly, Softy shouted, “Hey! You guys! Come up here too!”
“Huh,” said Keeah, but took Kit’s paws and went up.
“Well, now that we’re all together, I have something to show you,” said Quinn.
“Here we GOOOOO…” said Softy, bolting with Kit through a big dark cloud.
“Oh, we’re supposed to go through there?”
Silence.
Then Keeah said, “Why don’t we go in too, Kit?”
“Okay!”
Keeah took a deep breath and also bolted into the black cloud.
The next thing Keeah saw was Quinn and Softy waiting for them on the ground.
“Well, I’m glad we escaped the snakes,” interrupted Softy.
“Well, yes. But I don’t think we exactly saved them from, uhhh, raining?”
Everyone looked up and saw hundreds and hundreds of snakes pouring out of the blackest cloud in the sky.
“Oh dear,” said Quinn.
“Time to get out of here!”
“Uh huh,” said Keeah.
“Maybe we should run!” said Kit, grabbing Softy’s arm.
The next thing Quinn thought was, Maybe I should run too.
“I’m staying,” said Kit when Quinn caught up. “You’re not that fast.”
“Uhh, I am fast when I’m flying!” said Quinn, hovering over the ground.
“Okay, whatever. Now that we got away from the snakes, we can at least have the nuts I still have in my sack,” said Keeah.
“Well, at least we have something to eat.”
“Phew! At least we don’t have any more snakes to deal with,” said Softy, finally getting warm.
“Well, if I thought, now that we finally escaped, we can finally go to sleep like usual.”
After they laid down, Keeah started to worry. What if we never come back to the right place? she thought.
But Softy seemed to read her thoughts. “Oh don’t worry, Keeah, we’ll get back.” And then they all fell asleep.
The next morning, they woke up. Keeah was the first one to wake up and she was really good at making stuff. So she found four curved sticks and stones. She laid them out and decided to crack her nuts. Then Softy woke up, saying he would go exploring.
“Hey, Keeah!” said Softy when he got back. “I found a nearby stream! Except the water’s completely blue there.”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter. Just wake up the others, and I’ll try to find that stream.” So Keeah went and found the stream. Keeah grabbed her water bottle and opened the lid. She took out the water and drank. “Mm. Fresh. Water. Looks like Softy could have mentioned that when he got back.”
“Keeah, come on!” said Softy from the distance. Keeah ran back to their tiny hut or cave.
She had her water bottle and she showed Softy how she curved the stones she had washed in the stream.
So while Softy curved rocks into the right shape, Kit tried to find the biggest rock he could find. When he got back, he had a very big rock. Then Keeah grabbed the rock and started pounding it with her fist which she had to use magic until it curved in. Then, she put it around the sticks that she had tried into a cauldron. It made a good one. So Keeah put the ginormous rock in the center.
She said, “Softy, do you know how to make a fire with your magic?”
“Sure do! Why do you need me?”
“Oh, just to make breakfast for all of us.”
So Softy used his powers to light the fire.
Since Keeah still had millions of leftover nuts, so she just poured them all into the water that she had put into the giant rock. Then she found a perfect stick that would make a good spoon and she found many others that looked different but were still good. So after she had washed them and came back, she started mixing the nuts into the bottle. Then she asked Softy to go find something else that would be very good to put in.
Softy came back with apples, and Keeah said they were very good. So she used her power to split them and also put them in and start mixing the nuts and the apples together. Soon all the cooking and working was finished and they could finally eat.
“Mm! This is very good. Where did you learn to make such good stew, Keeah?” Asked Softy.
“Oh, well, when we were back in our forest, we had three cookbooks, and one of them had this recipe in it!”
“Can I have one copy?”
“Ha! Sure,” giggled Keeah. “Okay, now we can go searching for some way to get out of here and get home.”
“Oh, good idea! Just, I’ll grab your water bottle and the sack before we go,” said Kit.
“Good old Kit!” said Softy when Kit came back with all the things in his four tiny paws.
They had very much fun getting across the river.
“Woo hoo!! This is an absolutely crazy walking day,” said Softy and Keeah together.
“Uh, yeah, it is,” said Kit. “Uh, something is making us feel like something’s watching us.”
“Uh, I think nothing is,” said Keeah.
“No, I think something is,” said Kit, pointing. “Something with stripes that was orange with a very long tail.”
“TIGER!” screamed Keeah. Keeah flew up with Softy in her arms and Kit and Quinn decided that they would both go together.
“Well, I’m not sure how many dangers there are on this island.”
“Oh, yes,” agreed Quinn.
“Well, should I have something to tell you? We found the black cloud again!”
“Cool! Let’s go in!” said Kit.
So, the four friends zoomed off into the cloud.
“Okay, now I notice something.”
“You noticed what?”
“Hey, where are you guys?” asked Kit.
“Over here!” said a familiar voice. Suddenly Kit saw something. It looked like a bunny covered in dust, but he wasn’t so sure.
“Oh, hello, Mr. Dust Bunny!”
“No! It’s me! Softy!” came an angry voice.
“Ohhh. Where are the others?”
“Over there! You’re also covered in dust, silly.”
“Ohhh,” said Kit when he saw himself. He shook himself out of the dust and took himself to the others who were also covered in dust.
“Well, now we’re just in a giant dust pile!”
“If I get covered in dust again, don’t call me Dust Bunny!”
“Okay,” said Kit. “If I recognize you.”
“Okay, okay you guys. It’ll be much harder to find a cloud in a place of dust. Look, the trees are dust, the river is dust–”
“ACHOO!” screamed Softy really loud.
“…and that too,” finished Keeah.
It was cloudy and was so dusty that Kit thought Softy might sneeze out the whole world!
“I want my mom!” said Softy. “Looks like I’m catching a cold.”
“You’re catching an allergy to dust,” reminded Keeah.
“Oh, right,” said Softy.
“Guys! I found a way out,” Quinn interrupted Keeah’s humming.
“Oh! Right,” said Softy. “Now I can– ACHOO!” He flew out.
“Well, now that he learned to fly, let’s go!” said Quinn.
“You guys didn’t go to school yet,” said Keeah.
“Stuffies don’t go to school!” said Kit, turning around.
“Sooooooooo,” said Keeah when they got out. “This is dust world, I should say.”
Kit started humming himself a beat, Keeah started cartwheeling, and Softy decided it would be best if Quinn flew up with him so that he didn’t sneeze-a-rama all day.
“Who are you calling sneeze-o-rama?” said Softy, looking at Quinn’s ears.
But Quinn kept flying. He noted that if he found that black cloud again, he would scream so that the others would fly up and see the black cloud.
“Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock,” said Keeah. “When are they coming down here?”
“Eeeeee!” came the ear piercing scream from the sky.
“Sounds like we,” said Keeah. “Let’s go!” So they flew. And they flew. They flew up-up-up and saw the black cloud again. Quinn was still screaming and flying with his eyes closed and Softy to scream in his ears.
“Hello! Quinn! Stop shouting! They’re here!”
Suddenly, there was a giant growl. Everything went black. Then, “WOWEEEEEE,” Keeah heard, opening her eyes finally.
“Home! We’re home!” she heard another voice say.
“Well, we better get asking Keeah all the questions we had for her!”
Then Keeah heard a voice saying, “Keeah! We’re home.”
Keeah burst up and looked around. And then she started jumping up and down. Her jumping made the ground shake a little bit so much that the squirrels got kind of terrified.
The end!