Woodland Animals in Space

The journeys of three woodland animals. In space. Need to go to a certain chapter? All our posts are tagged in numerical order! Ex. Want to get to the first post ever? Search "1"

[waisrox]

Sun Squirrel

Sun Squirrel came out of history with a mix of trepidation and excitement. They had been assigned a project to work on with partners, due the following week. Sun Squirrel had decided that Hunk Hunk Squirrel would be like the Cloud Squirrel of school. They just needed to get closer, and what better way to become closer to someone who would be your brother at boarding school than a history project?

“Hey, Hunk Hunk Squirrel, wait up.”

Hunk Hunk Squirrel turned. His entourage stopped and turned to look at Sun Squirrel as well.  Sun Squirrel hesitated. He had planned on asking Hunk Hunk Squirrel by himself, not with all the fools he called friends.

There was a pause, until Hunk Hunk Squirrel spoke up. “Did you say my name?” It was in a sociable enough tone, like he genuinely didn’t know if Sun Squirrel had spoken.

Sun Squirrel cleared his throat. “I was wondering if you would want to work on the history project with me.”

There was a silence. Bird Squirrel, the squirrel with the stupidest name Sun Squirrel had ever heard, coughed. Hair Squirrel, the creepy one, just stared. Rock Squirrel, lurking behind them, wiped his nose with his sleeve.

Then Hunk Hunk Squirrels friends started reacting.

“You? Why would Hunk Hunk Squirrel want to work on a project with you?”

“Hunk Hunk Squirrel’s the smartest squirrel at SQUASH. He doesn't need you.”

“You’re such a teacher’s pet. I bet Lancaster keeps you on a leash outside of class.”

“Guys, shut up,” Hunk Hunk Squirrel scowled at the morons. It was like Cloud Squirrel was fending off the rogue chipmunks in the glade behind the public school all over again!

“But, sorry Sun Squirrel. It’s just that I don’t really know you. I'm not quite comfortable working with you, y’know? You have kind of a reputation.” And with that Hunk Hunk Squirrel walked away.

Sun Squirrel was sure one of them had misunderstood or misspoken, until Hunk Hunk Squirrel turned back and kept walking away. Sun Squirrel bit his lip hard to try and stop the tears, but it just made them come faster because he still had his cut there.

“Damn you, Balthazar.” Sun Squirrel crumpled the assignment sheet in his fist and sniffed. Then he remembered that he needed to turn it in with the report and tried to unfold it. He sighed as he tried to hold back the disappointment welling up, like a wave crashing in to drown someone. He guessed it would be a solo project after all.

“Hey Sun Squirrel?” It was Gardenia. “Do you think, for the project, I mean, if you’re ok with this…do you think you could put my name on the report as well? You need a partner and I need a project to turn in so it’s win win!”

She took Sun Squirrel’s lack of words as an affirmative. “Thanks Sun Squirrel! You’re the best.” Gardenia ran off without a glance backward.

“Damn you, Balthazar. Damn you to Hell.”

[waisrox]

Sun Squirrel

Sun Squirrel picked himself up and dragged himself out of bed the next morning sore and stiff. He had bruises from the wrestling match everywhere, even in places he couldn’t see. He went to the cabinet and pulled out the special heat salve stocked in there for this purpose. He rubbed on through his fur as best he could and could feel it penetrating the skin, soothing the bruises and loosening the muscles.

Sun Squirrel wearily pulled on his uniform and wandered out into the common area for the boys in his class. Remembering the ill-fated wrestling match of the previous evening, he stuck to the fringes, keeping his head down. He didn’t want Clay Squirrel to have any access to his face ever again. Though it was healing fast, Sun Squirrel could still feel the black eye and puffy lip, and knew if anyone looked at him, they would see it too.

After last nights “wrestling match” Sun Squirrel had developed an intense dislike for his dorm-mates. Loathing didn’t begin to describe it. It was more of a deep, concentrated beam of hatred burning its way from his soul to theirs. Or something like that.

All except for two squirrels who had neglected to participate in Sun Squirrel’s humiliation.

One was another squirrel on the small side, Leaf Squirrel. Sun Squirrel could see the fear in his eyes as he retreated to his bedroom. Sun Squirrel had seen Leaf Squirrel on the various obstacle courses and knew that he was agile and strong, but knew that sometimes it wasn’t enough. It didn’t stop him from resenting Leaf Squirrel slightly, but he didn’t feel the need to take out his stress ball and deform it at the sight of Leaf Squirrel.

The other was Hunk Hunk Squirrel. He too had been writing in his journal, though Sun Squirrel didn’t know how personal he was getting. As the taunts and insults began to fly, Hunk Hunk Squirrel looked up and shook his head. He had watched Clay Squirrel pin a writhing Sun Squirrel to the ground, but had intervened before things could get too far.

“Idiot, get up.”

“But Hunk Hunk Squirrel, we were just having a bit of fun with him.”

“I don’t care. It’s getting late and we all have training tomorrow. We don’t want to be sore on the almost obstacle course.”

“Giving us a break, Hunk Hunk Squirrel. We is not to be sore from wrestling this small rodent!” This came from Kill Mice, the only non-squirrel at SQUASH. No one really knew how he had gotten into a private school for squirrels, but no one really seemed to care.

Sun Squirrel had looked at Hunk Hunk Squirrel with a mixture of gratitude and deliberation. He knew it wasn’t a good idea to get too close to any of these squirrels, but Hunk Hunk Squirrel was so much like Cloud Squirrel! He didn’t stop Sun Squirrel from getting into the fight, but he got him out in an almost timely fashion.

[waisrox]

Nova Fox

It was an Orange victory that day, bringing their ranking to third overall, behind Black Team and Gold Team. Blue Team unfortunately dropped to sixth.

It had been a long and hard battle, however. Two hours of fierce gameplay. In this precarious arena, only three Orange mates had been left standing by the end.

Nova Fox wrenched his arena suit off. He grabbed a towel, the academy’s oak tree emblazoned on it in black ink, and headed to the shower room.

Gelatin bombs would be his downfall, he was sure of that. This was the third game where he had been removed due to one. But they weren’t even one of the worst obstacles. This was only the fourth month. The worst was yet to come. He didn’t even want to think about those.

The senior year at the Southern Nygylfi Training Academy was the worst. Everything, your whole future depended on this final year. Nobody gave two Balthazar Farts for the previous years. Nobody. Especially the Intergalactic Space Academy. This year, Nova Fox would be subjected to a variety of maddening examinations. Not to mention his team had to keep their place in the top five of the standings for the rest of the year. Unless you were a prodigy, and Nova Fox was confident about his lack of status there, only mates of the top five teams had even a chance to qualify for ISA.

It was only the fourth month out of ten. Six more months, and the arena game would gradually get harder and harder. They learned it in their freshman year— secure the glowing orbs and place them inside the holes in the platforms to earn points. Shooting others got you a few points too, but not as many.

Nova Fox printed his essay and then shut down his tablet. With luck, he’d be able to get seven hours of sleep tonight.

So much work just to get into the ISA. It was prestigious— they had an acceptance rate of 5%.

“You all right, Nova Fox?” Meteor Hare patted him on the back.

“Just tired.”

“Aren’t we all? It was a good game today, though…”

Nova Fox nodded as he shut off the lights. Good game… Fun game.

His parents had always planned for him to attend ISA. Every parent who named their child with a space object followed by the species hoped for a future Lieutenant in the ISA. Other kids got normal names… like Robert. Or Billy.

Everybody wanted to be someone. And only someones were accepted into the ISA. But it was just so much work…

[waisrox]

Nova Fox

“Good shot there.”

The rain was coming down thicker now. Usually they had goggles, but of course Planet Mouse had taken his pair and lost them. Wiping his arm across his eyes, the shiny uniform sleeve did little to help his vision. But in the corner of his eye, he made out a glowing red sphere.

“Orb. West. Right next to the palm tree,” he muttered into his headset. “I’ll get it.”

He slowly teetered his way from platform to platform until he reached a small island.  

But Cloud Coon awaited him. He had already grabbed the orb, which glowed menacingly in his two-armed grasp.

A heavy one, then. Nova Fox blasted the unarmed sucker right in the head. Taken by surprise, Cloud Coon let the orb go sprawling from his arms, rolling slowly down the sandy slope.

“Blue orb retrieved,” said his headset.

Nova Fox shot the raccoon, who was lying stunned on the ground, right in the chest, and then sprinted to the red orb. He scooped it up.

“Red orb retrieved,” he said, still pointing his blaster at the unfortunate raccoon. “Protection required.”

“Got you covered,” a bucktoothed hare said with a grin. “Let’s go… ah…”

A giant, gelatinous turtle splatted down, exploding as it hit the island, sending goop and teeny particles of sand everywhere.   

Nova Fox screeched as it sent him flying into the sizzling liquid.

“Don’t worry! I’ve got the orb!” the hare panted, grabbing the red sphere with one mighty hand and hopping away from the glutinous remains.   

“Damn you, Balthazar,” grunted Nova Fox as he let himself be carried away by the current.

“Orange Team leads, with 280 points! Blue Team: 150 points!” Jenkins projected the numbers onto the ceiling that nobody bothered to look at. “Orange Team has suffered eight— no, nine removals!”

[waisrox]

Sun Squirrel

Sun Squirrel sat in the corner of the common area outside of all the bedrooms that night, while the other squirrels were being stupid and wrestling. Sun Squirrel pulled out his journal instead. All the students were encouraged to keep journals, but it was no secret that the staff read them during the day. Sun Squirrel found it an entertaining pastime to write completely untrue things, or even true but unbelievable things, and see how the teachers treated him (but mostly the other students) differently.

Clay Squirrel wet the bed again tonight. I don’t know how people can stand to be around him.

Sun Squirrel read it again, and then scribbled it out. He wasn’t cruel.

…stand to be around him. I feel…confined. I want to get out of here. Not get out as in outside, but get out as in go somewhere where no one knows me. I don’t want to stay here and be treated like some sort of outcast just because I don’t believe we should attack every bear or fox or whatever that we see.

Sun Squirrel read the last sentence and scribbled it out.

…whatever that we see. I don’t want to be forced into using the creepy shower just because I'm the smallest.

Sun Squirrel took great pains to hide his distaste of SQUASH, and he knew any sort of pacifist talk could earn him a spot in the counseling group. He also really wanted them to fix the creepy shower.

“Hey you! In the corner! What’s your name again? Love Squirrel?”

“Wait, I think it’s Baby Squirrel!”

“Mama’s boy Squirrel!”

Sun Squirrel watched the lesser minds amuse themselves with a detached look; he had already thought of a thousand infinitely more clever names to call them. However, he knew resistance was futile. They wouldn’t understand half the things he said anyway.

“Hey Tiny, come wrestle with us!”

“Yeah, we’ll go easy on you,” this came from a squirrel with patchy fur and a funny nose. Why would they associate with this lowlife, but make fun of Sun Squirrel because he was small?

“Rock Squirrel, go blow your nose. You look disgusting.”

Never mind.

“No thanks, I’m fine,” Sun Squirrel gritted his teeth, knowing he could take them all down in theory, but not particularly wanting to test that theory.

“Oooh, is the ittle wittle baby scared?” Of course Sun Squirrel was scared. He was stuck in a room full of stupid squirrels who wanted to try and pin him to the ground with their muscle and body weight.

“Of course I’m scared. I’m stuck in a room full of stupid squirrel who want to try and pin me to the ground with their muscles and body weight.”

The room went silent. Even Rock Squirrel, upon entering the room was able to read the signs and keep silent.

“Just kidding…”

[waisrox]

Moon Bear

As Moon Bear ambled along on the forest floor, past other tree houses and through the foliage, his boots squishing in the soft mud, he thought about school and what might come after.

His grades were very poor, as he rarely showed up to all his classes, and he participated in no extracurricular activities whatsoever: no clubs, no sports, and he had quit the bear scouts while he was still a cub; he didn’t even have any real friends. He used to have friends, maybe a year or two ago, but as he started coming to school less and less often, he and his friends drifted farther and farther apart, until they no longer so much as nodded to each other in the hallways. On a typical day after school was over, if he had even gone to school that day, Moon Bear would wander the more distant parts of Woodlanimaltopia, where the trees were thicker and the bushes wilder, and there were few, if any, tree houses.

Often he brought a few bottles of Jordan Brewers, purchased at the rather shady liquor store run by the one-toothed badger, and drank by himself, until he was so drunk that he couldn’t think straight, that he couldn’t remember the fact that his life was going nowhere and that he would probably be stuck on this god-forsaken planet forever. He drank until the pain went away and his mind became a clean, empty slate, not happy, but not sad either. He would lay down on the forest floor and let everything drain away until he no longer felt anything, but was hollow, empty; void of all emotion. Occasionally he used to stroll through the downtown area, where there were shops and restaurants, but now he had come to prefer the quiet and solitude of the deep woods. Besides, what was the point of going downtown by yourself, when everybody there was surrounded by friends?

The school was just outside the downtown area, just over a mile from Moon Bear’s house. Within about twenty minutes he was crossing the wide parking lot off the side of the school toward a side door. The school, which was called The Blue jay Learning and Training Center (named after one of Nygylfi’s greatest leaders, Bright Blue jay, and commonly referred to as BLT by it’s students) was a large, grey-stoned building with dark wooden doors. It was originally a university, about thirty years ago, but enrollment dropped as bears began attending schools in other galaxies, so the building was simply turned into a pre-university training school.

However, this meant that the building was quite old and not in prime condition: the ancient chalkboards were cracked, desks were falling apart, the steps and the doors creaked, the lights were dim, and the classrooms were freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer. It was an extremely depressing place that did not exactly inspire one to pursue knowledge, which was a large part of Moon Bear’s problem. He often wondered how he would fare at another school, one where the teachers and the students truly wanted to be there, to teach and to be taught. A school that possessed the latest technology in the galaxy, that had the best training gear, that even had some air-conditioning for gremlin’s sake. His teachers were always telling him that he was a smart bear, that he could do well if only he applied himself, but how was he supposed to apply himself in a place like this?

[waisrox]

Nova Fox

Giant numbers began to project upon the arena ceiling in flashing colors.

A 4x4 square foot of tile beneath Lt. Commander Jenkins’ boots began to shake. Suddenly, they skyrocketed towards the top of the arena. Jenkins leaned over the circular keyboard that had sprung up around him (partially so he wouldn’t topple off) and looked down at the scene below him. A tablet docked on his right was displaying a zoomed in view of the center of the empty arena.

Massive pipes along the walls of the arena churned gallons of sizzling liquid into the arena. More tiles began to spring up, although not nearly as high as Jenkins’ towering pedestal, floating among the surface of the waves. From chutes higher up on the walls, little boxes fell to the waters with a splash while shiny metallic orbs descended slowly from the ceiling.

Jenkins’ licked his buckteeth coolly and rubbed his gloved paws together. Wiggling his rabbit fingers and cracking his knuckles, he turned to enter some numbers into the keypad on his left. The number ten was flashing upon the ceiling…

He hummed a little space shanty to himself.

Meanwhile, Nova Fox was anxiously rubbing his foot with one hand, listening to the mysterious churning from above. From the depths of the pit, he and his fellow mates couldn’t see what was going on above.

Five seconds…

“Oh, I shall be evil!” Jenkins tittered tapping a few more keys. From the wall chutes, fat, gelatin turtles dropped.

Two seconds…

The sloping wall of the pit molded into stairs. Orange Team scurried orderly up the steps, Nova Fox slightly limping in the middle.

One second…

“ARE YOU READY?” Lt. Commander Jenkins roared into his microphone, gesticulating wildly to the skies as artificial rain began to fall. He then opened up the umbrella and took a seat, watching the game going on below on the little tablet.

“Up, up, over, come on now!” Orange Team Second-in-command, Asteroid Skunk, roared, giving his smaller mates a hand over the wall separating the top of the pit from the arena.

Captain Dust Badger shouted commands.

“This is a tricky arena. Defense will have a hard time, but Blue Team’s offense isn’t too great, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It’ll be easy to lose mates in this arena. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be more careful than fast here— you fall in because you go too fast, that’ll be an automatic removal. Go slowly, you’ll hopefully only get shot a few times— but let’s avoid that. Defense, the goal isn’t backed against a wall this time, so I want a perimeter around it—”

Meanwhile, Blue Team Captain, Gravity Toad, brandished his laser blaster threateningly from his end of the arena and bellowed, “CHARGE!”

A few of the first blue-capes to emerge lost their balance and toppled into the sizzling liquid. “REMOVAL! REMOVAL! REMOVAL! REMOVAL! THAT IS FOUR REMOVALS FOR THE BLUE TEAM!” bellowed Jenkins into the microphone.

Gravity Toad halted his charge with a blast into the air. “Defense, to the platform. Offense, get to your positions— it’s almost the five minute mark! Gatherers— get started! Go gather! Shooters… SHOOT!”

Blue Team surged forward, jumping from tile to tile with near-perfect balance. The six defense mates followed the tile path to the left, where a giant, circular platform alit with ten glowing holes on the sides floated gently in the liquid.

Nova Fox drew his laser blaster, both hands on the coarse grip. He glanced over at Sun Stag, leader of Orange Team’s shooters, who gave him a curt nod.

There wasn’t much room to take a running start. Nova Fox barely cleared the first platform; his tail hissed as it brushed against the bubbling concoction below.

Blue Team was still out of shooting range.

“Should I wait for them to come here?” Nova Fox muttered to himself as he shifted his weight on the bobbing platform.

Taking large steps, Nova Fox leapt his way towards the midfield line.

“Watch out: vision obstructions from above,” said a voice from his earpiece.

Nova Fox chanced a quick glance up and received a plump raindrop in the eye.

“Damn you, Balthazar,” he grunted for the second time that day.

The platforms were beginning to float with the current. He began his travels again when suddenly his laser blaster began to vibrate.

PEW! PEW! PEW!

Blue bolts just barely missed his head. “WATCH OUT, NOVA FOX!” someone shouted in his ear, but amidst the cries and shouts of mates on both teams, he could barely hear the warning.

His boots slid against the slippery platform, nearly sending the fox tumbling into the waters. A hedgehog, caped in blue, pointed the barrel of a blaster to his head, but with a series of random, rapid fires, Nova Fox sent the animals tumbling into the waters.

[waisrox]

Sun Squirrel

It was the third day at the Squirrel Academy for Super Heroes, more commonly known as SQUASH, and he had already screwed up.

Sun Squirrel sat in the tree on the edge of the almost obstacle course, a precursor to the pre-obstacle course, which in turn came before the actual practice obstacle course. As SQUASH was primarily a school for defense training, the curriculum was comprised of many interactive training courses. However, as he had been pulled out of that day’s lesson, Sun Squirrel merely dozed in the warmth of the afternoon.

The light filtered through the trees and his vision was drawn upward by a fly circling around his head. He swatted at it with his right paw, but missed. Just like everything else I've been doing lately. Sun Squirrel had been unhappy since the initial day at the academy, but there was nothing much he could do. He had no friends.

The small squirrel ran both paws over his face and shook his head. He stared at the beautiful sky, clear with just one cloud shadowing the sun. The cheerful sun seemed to mock Sun Squirrel and, not for the first time, he wished he had been named something else. All his life, he had been expected to keep his chin up, but his stature had drawn bullies to him like flies. He wished his tormenters would actually turn into flies so Sun Squirrel would be the biggest for once, but was reminded that flies tormented him as well.

He took another swipe at the fly, this time with his left paw, but it was ineffective. Sun Squirrel wanted a vacation. He wanted, no, he needed a change of scenery. He needed a whole new world.

Sun Squirrel knew there were other planets out there, but since no one he knew had ever been to one, everything he knew was basic, rudimentary knowledge. On other planets, children of five IS years knew more than he. But at SQUASH, no one ever mentioned interplanetary travel. It just wasn’t taught.

His eyes refocused on the other squirrels leaping through the trees. He longed to join them, but ever since the combat suit incident he had been banned from physical activity with the other squirrels for one week. It wasn’t his fault, not really. He just had an excessive amount of energy and an overactive imagination. Although, to be fair, he supposed he wouldn’t like it if someone had punched a hole in his training suit because they thought they saw a spider crawl into it.

Sun Squirrel wrenched himself out of the unpleasant memory and gazed out in the other direction, but all he saw were more plastic redwoods.

Sun Squirrel was not a fighter. He was clumsy, and more inclined toward diplomacy than any sort of physical combat. However, he seemed to be the only one who realized it. His parents, not knowing what to do with his energy or unorthodox ideas had sent him to SQUASH with the hope that he would learn how to dedicate his mind to something, but so far all he had learned was not to touch the other students’ clothing.

He sighed, and turned back to Gardenia, the only other squirrel not participating. Gardenia had notoriously bad eyesight and was excused from participation in GYM class, the general youth mountain-climbing class. But, since they were in the SEP class, squirrel exercise program, Gardenia was just skipping class.

Sometimes Sun Squirrel wondered how Gardenia had ended up with her name. It was out of the ordinary, and while on another squirrel it might have been interesting, on Gardenia herself it was simply distasteful.

“Do you ever think about what would happen if one of those buffoons fell to their death?” Gardenia was a bit morbid.

“Never,” Sun Squirrel actually didn’t mind the thought, because he was not overly fond of any of them. Not even Gardenia, though his ban from SEP had forced him to spend more time with her.  He had often thought about escaping the monotony of Forestia for a more exciting life, but there had never been anywhere to go. Woodlanimaltopia was out of the question; there were bears out there.

Sun Squirrel was aware that Gardenia had continued talking, but he didn’t really care, so he closed his eyes and tried to listen for the sounds of the river. It was ridiculous, there was no river anywhere near the school, but when he lived at home, a river ran outside his window. Sometimes he could still hear it if he was homesick enough.

He imagined his home, an expansive tree house that was always full of life. Most of the life was Sun Squirrel, because he had the most spastic behavior, but his four siblings added to the noise and confusion that had made up Sun Squirrel’s life from the moment he was born until one week ago.

Sun Squirrel missed his family, but he missed his brother Cloud Squirrel the most. Cloud Squirrel was six years older than Sun Squirrel and had always looked after him. He may not have taken care of him, he actually had put Sun Squirrel in danger many times, but Sun Squirrel had always known he was cared for.

“BRAAAAAAAP,” a bullhorn sounded the end of SEP. Hathaway, the coach, yelled at them to get back inside. “You! Sun Squirrel! Inside, now!”

Sun Squirrel dragged himself up. Gardenia never shut up, did she?

“Gardenia, shut up.” And still she didn’t stop! What was wrong with Gardenia? Did she have trouble understanding things?

“Gardenia, do you have trouble understanding things?” Apparently so. Sun Squirrel felt a migraine coming on.

[waisrox]

Moon Bear

Moon Bear awoke to a glaring light shining through the gap in the curtains. He groaned and slowly sat up, blinking in the harsh light. His head felt as though it were splitting in two, and when he tried to remember why, his mind was blank. That usually meant one thing.

 But he had other things to worry about besides his aching head, it was already 8:47; he was late for school. He stumbled to his closet; his legs shaking with the effort of standing up, pulled out some clothes at random and threw them on. He hurried downstairs, still yawning, and went into the kitchen.

 There were dishes in the sink and the daily newspaper, the Woodlanimaltopia Times, was still sitting open on the round wooden table in the center of the room. His parents must have already left for work; they had long since given up attempting to make him go to school. They had tried for a while after that meeting with the school counselor: waking him up early, making him breakfast, watching him get on the bus. All to “show him that they cared.”

 But after the notes started coming home again, notes saying that their child had been marked absent in several classes, they gave up. They claimed that they thought he was “responsible enough to handle things himself,” but Moonbear knew what that really meant. They were tired of dealing with him. They didn’t really care. They could pretend all they wanted, but he knew the truth. They were done with him. Too lazy to pay attention to their own son.

 “’Responsible enough,’” Moon Bear said under his breath. “What a load of squirrel poo.”

 He walked across the brightly lit kitchen, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, and opened the refrigerator to get some milk for his cereal.

 The shelves were empty but for an empty bottle lying on its side, dripping a reddish juice; there was no milk to be found.

 Moon Bear’s eyes swam with tears. “Damn you, Balthazar,” he whispered. “Damn you.”

 He slammed the fridge door closed and stormed out of the kitchen, forsaking breakfast entirely. He grabbed his schoolbag from the hall closet, then opened the front door and exited his family’s tree house, beginning the long walk to school.

[waisrox]

Nova Fox

Lieutenant Commander Jenkins was busy shouting himself hoarse at the cauliflower that had once again appeared on the arena floor.

It was the seventeenth time this had happened in a month. Either somebody, and Nova Fox has a nagging feeling whom, kept dropping that cauliflower on purpose to annoy Jenkins, or the vegetable patch had been sprayed with Bio-High! again.

Nova Fox glanced at the frozen clock. He knew it was frozen. But he looked anyways. In the arena, it was always 2:59.

“THAT WAY,” Lieutenant Commander Jenkins had told them, “IT ALWAYS SEEMS LIKE YOU’RE ABOUT TO BE DISMISSED. AND YOU GET YOUR HOPES UP. BUT THEN YOU REMEMBER THE CLOCK IS FROZEN. AND YOUR OPTIMISM IS SQUASHED LIKE THIS TITCHY LITTLE CAULIFLOWER RIGHT HERE.” Jenkins then had proceeded to crush the sad little vegetable underneath his boot.

Nova Fox glanced at Jenkins to make sure the Lieutenant Commander was still distracted and then quickly took a sip of water from his favorite water bottle. A wheezing Cloud Raccoon suddenly hopped down next to him.

“Lemme have a sip of that water, would’ya?” the raccoon coughed, reaching for Nova Fox’s favorite water bottle.

He handed it over and nervously glanced once more at Jenkins who was grabbing the mushy squashed remains of the cauliflower and sniffing them. Jenkins’ ears did a full 360, wriggling as they turned like some sort of creepy eyestalks.

“NOVA FOX. CLOUD COON. WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING DRINKING WATER? YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE PREPARING FOR THE SCRIMMAGE.”

Yelping, Nova Fox scrambled from the sideline and grabbed his laser blaster.

Cloud Coon wrenched it violently back, spewing the contents of Nova Fox’s favorite water bottle everywhere. “Hey man, that’s mine.”

PEW!

Once again, Nova Fox yelped as a bright orange beam blasted through his foot.

“Oh man. Sorry about that,” Cloud Coon said, his eyebrows wriggling with bemusement. “That is your laser blaster.”

The raccoon looked under the bench and found his own blaster and began to walk to the other side of the arena.

Nova Fox kicked off his boots, examined the nasty burn smoldering from his paw, and moaned. “Damn you, Balthazar,” he swore to the heavens. “Damn you!”

“ENOUGH WITH THE DAMNING; THE SKIRMISH STARTS ON THE DOT: YOU’VE GOT TWO MINUTES—”

At least the laser blaster was locked on low mode for the skirmish. Even with these practice blasters, when set on high, second-degree burns could arise. Gritting his teeth, Nova Fox slid the boot back on and half-skipped to the other side of the arena where his fellow orange-caped teammates knelt in a small pit underneath the main ground level of the arena.

Lieutenant Commander Jenkins, known as Dark Matter Rabbit before becoming a Lieutenant and earning a real name, hopped over to the levers on the eastern side of the arena.

Speaking into the microphone, he rumbled as he pressed a variety of colorful buttons on the walls, “The Orange Team versus the Blue Team. Match Number: 14. Arena: Random. Items: Random. Ball: Random. Countdown begins… now.” 

[waisrox]

YEAR 3410 BEGINS

[waisrox]

The End of the End of the Beginning: Year 4015

Jerry’s open beak slowly closed in confusion. “Balthazar? Gremlin king, Balthazar?"

"Yes," replied the sphere.

"B-b-but Balthazar was destroyed. Nearly five hundred years ago, right?"

"He has returned."

Squeaking in excitement, the pigeon nearly shot himself with his laser blaster. “AGAIN? Oh Milox’s burp, are you serious?"

It was the sphere’s turn to pause.

"Again? But he has never returned before."

"Yeah he did! Wait- did you say you were Commander Nova Fox? Dude, you were THERE! Back in the days, man. You’re in our history textbooks!"

There was another short pause before the sphere tentatively asked, “What year is it?"

"4015, sir."

"And the planet?"

"Nygylfi. This is the Woodlanimaltopia district."

Suddenly the voice let out a chuckle.

"It seems you have come across one of the few inactivated logs, Jerry.

The pigeon’s eyes were as round as flying saucers.

"Logs like these were recorded and scattered throughout all the universe zones. It seems like this one was never found. Until now. How nice."

Jerry fluttered his wings. “Woah."

With a jump, he cried, “Can you tell me about? Can you tell me about EVERYTHING? Can you tell me about WAIS? The space race? The wars? Balthazar?"

The voice sighed. “I suppose. I’ve been dead for quite a while, so I guess this is the closest my essence will ever get to talking to someone."

As he plopped his tail feathers on the ground, underneath his bottom, Jerry waited intently for Nova Fox’s essence to start the story of a lifetime.

[waisrox]

The End of A Beginning: Year 4015

A pigeon scratched dolefully into the dirt.

Something was amiss. He could feel it in the tips of his wings.

He continued to scratch. Little flecks of dirt flew willy nilly over his head until a teeny speck of silver gleamed from the hole.

The pigeon wriggled his beak in confusion. He gave the dime sized glimmer of silver a peck.

Suddenly, the dirt erupted from underneath the pigeon's claws. With a yelp, the pigeon was soon buried underneath a foot of roots and soil.

A large silver sphere now floated gently above the ground.

With a muffled grunt, the pigeon shook himself out.

“Hello?” he called. His eye suddenly caught the sphere. He jumps back. “Woah!”

There was a grinding noise as the sphere separates cleanly in half.

“Hello?” says a voice from the floating ball.

The pigeon hesitates, until the voice calls again.

“What are you?”

“This is Commander Nova Fox speaking.”

There was a pause.

“My name is Lt. Commander Jerry,” stuttered the pigeon. His wing tentatively grasped the laser blaster on his belt. 

The voice resumed. “You are listening to a transcript of a Commander’s Log, recorded many, many years ago. This is a warning.”

“Warning?” gasped Jerry.

“Balthazar is coming. Please inform the rest of your planet promptly. There is little time to waste.”