Chapter One
On a cold, blustery night in November, a family was sitting down for a story by a cozy fire. The room this family sat in was quite spacious, save for a beautifully convoluted chandelier, some paintings lining the walls, a fireplace brightly burning, an oval rug, and a comfortable yet elegant loveseat. In front of this sofa was a small table, and on it were four mugs of cocoa, save for one that was made with vanilla, since one of them had a chocolate allergy.
The family gathered together on the love seat, the oldest one sitting first, and the three youngest take spots on her lap. She pulled the story book from behind her, flipped gently to the first page, and began.
"Once upon a time, in a beautiful realm very close to ours, there lived a desperate King and his people."
"What's 'desperate' mean?"
"Shhh!"
"Don't shush your brother, he asked a question. When someone is desperate, they are searching for an answer to a problem with great urgency."
"What's 'urgency' mean?"
"Now, now, you'll learn in due time; you're a smart boy. Let me continue. Where was I? Ah, here we are: The King was fighting a great battle with an evil monstrosity known as the Dragon Rider, a vicious, masked man who wished to rule over the Realm, but needed to dispose of the King first!
"The Dragon rider sent out a hoard of violent minions to burn every town and city, and then raid the castle where the king stayed, but the King's knights were right there to fight them at each town… sadly, many lost their lives. The King could see, by his extensive losses, that he was fighting a losing battle. So, in order to strengthen his men and ensure his victory, he sent for a witch to turn his knights into powerful bears."
"Oooh!"
"That's strange…"
"It's part of the story… now, let's see what's next… here we go: After each knight was transformed, the witch demanded payment. Even after all she had done for him, and after all the power she had used, the selfish King instead denied her money! Out of anger, and using the last of her strength, she pulled out her magic staff, aimed at the King and his knights, fired a spell, and then… the King was dust. He was just… dust… and the knights, when they opened their eyes, found they were five times smaller than before!"
"What?!"
"Now, now, settle. It's going to be fine. Now, pay attention. The Bear knights, without their King and his leadership, were hopeless, and lost, and even more so without their height. They would soon lose their wonderful Realm to the evil Dragon Rider, and it would fall into darkness forever! But, there was hope. The Knights discovered the Witch's spell book after she had faded away, and saw a prophecy. It foretold that a hero would descend from our very own world and take the King's place. He would lead them to victory and peace… and this Chosen One's name was…"
Mrs. Cramdilly turned the page, and frowned. Eyebrow raised, she fingered the inside of the book. Her three young kittens, named Gordon, Waffle, and Mr. Blik, gazed up at her with their large, bright eyes in confusion.
"Why did you stop," asked Waffle, the gray kitten with hanging ears and blue stripes wrapped around his ear and tail, "Do you have intestinal distress?"
"Well, this is odd…" muttered Mrs. Cramdilly aloud, "But the next page is missing." She passed her long, bony finger once more over the thin, ripped root of what was supposed to be the final page of the fable entitled, "The Dragon Rider". She continued with, "It looks as if someone has torn the page out… oh my..."
"It wasn't me," said Gordon, the white kitten with the stumpy orange tail and patch over his eye, gesturing to himself with his tiny paws. Mr. Blik, the black kitten did the same, with his even tinier paws, and shook his head. Waffle only kept staring up at the old Mrs. Cramdilly, and she, noticing the true innocence in his eyes, knew it was not him either. She shook her head, and began to say, "All right, that's all for now," but was interrupted by a voice from the entrance to the room.
"Might I suggest that I look for it?" The voice was accented with light English, and was raspy, yet sophisticated. The man's shadow stood in the archway that led into the other rooms of the mansion, and was only a silhouette. However, as he stepped into the light of the fire, his figure became clear.
The man was tall and mostly thin, but not as thin as old Mrs. Cramdilly. He stood with a dignified posture, his hands clasped together behind his back, and his chin held high. His hair was jet-black and thinning. His attire consisted of a white collared shirt with a black tie beneath a black formal jacket, brown slacks, and shiny, black pointed shoes.
"Ah, Hovis, thank goodness you're here!" exclaimed Mrs. Cramdilly, closing the book in her arms and ushering the kittens gently from her lap. "Would you be a dear and find it? The kittens are desperately waiting to see who their story's hero is." Hovis bowed lightly. Mrs. Cramdilly pushed a frail strand of gray hair out of her long, pointed face and smiled. She then asked the kittens to collect their mugs and bring them into the kitchen, and lifting up her long, pink dress, went off to meet them. As she passed Hovis, she patted his shoulder and whispered, "You may wish to check the basement."
Hovis stood, now alone, in the family room, watching the flames from the fireplace crackle and dance in the tight space. He would have to put them out soon, not wanting to risk the entire mansion burning down. With a swift turn of his heels, the butler was out of the family room and down the hallway to the first place he wished to look: the basement, which Mrs. Cramdilly had just mentioned. Many, many things ended up in the Cramdilly mansion's basement, and it served as a lost and found for a lot of the kittens' trinkets and toys. With a deep sigh, Hovis clutched the knob of the basement door with his left hand, turned it with a squeak, and pushed forward.
Stepping into the dark space, he shut the door behind him and flicked an off-white light switch beside him. A staircase came into view as the walkway brightened from three single lamps hanging on the high, slanted ceiling. Stepping cautiously, he moved down the cracked and battered concrete steps, taking care not to step on any cobwebs. After a fairly long descent, Hovis found himself in the Cramdilly basement. To his right and left were monoliths of junk piled high to the seemingly topless ceiling. Ahead was a narrow pathway that allowed one to walk amongst these mountains. With a deep sigh, Hovis stepped forward, chose a single pile, and began to sift through it.
For what seemed like hours, he walked among the piles of stuff, searching for that one measly sheet of paper that would grant him a nice relaxing day tomorrow. If only it were easier said than done. Each pile was like a jigsaw puzzle: random pieces clumped together, needing to be sorted into their respectful places. For him, finding one scrap of paper to a children's story book was like finding a needle in a haystack. As he crawled, clawed and clambered through each pile of things, he would come across the strangest items that had no relation to what he was searching for. At one point, he had come across his old band's first and last record, which, in total disgust, he threw aside. In the next heap of stuff, he came across a wide variety of medieval weaponry, no doubt belonging to Mrs. Cramdilly, and a color coated assortment of bouncing balls.
As Hovis check and rechecked his watch, the hours ticked by. He wanted to find it now and get it over with, but it was no where near simple. He swore he had been through every pile at least three times, and each time, they seemed to have more stuff than before. He had seen it all: a fighter jet, an assortment of superhero motor bikes, a hoop of fire… but not one little sheet of paper. Not one. Hovis had given up. With one last sigh, he leaned back to take a seat on a redwood table… WHOOSH!
As he sat back, the object gave way beneath him, sending him crashing to the floor on his backside. His weight made the thing act like a teeter-totter. The object's other end flipped up, sending a baseball soaring through the air. It knocked into a lone encyclopedia standing upright on a box high above him, and it tumbled downward, slamming into Hovis's skull. He gave a hiss and clutched his head in both hands. He drew his knees to his chest and waited for a moment, waiting for the pain to stop.
"Careful, Hovis," a voice said. It rang in Hovis's ear like a symbol that had clanged too close. He got up shakily, his vision returning to normal, and saw the shadow of Mrs. Cramdilly. She held a candle between her bony fingers, and the firelight lit up her face in a way that made Hovis cringe. "You don't want to hurt yourself down here, especially with all of these horribly dangerous objects. Someone might not be able to hear you."
"Oooh… I'll be alright, Miss. Please, go back to bed; I'll be up in a moment." With a quick rub of his head, Hovis quickly redefined his posture.
"Oh, no need. I have something important to tell you anyhow. You see, dear, when I discovered that the storybook page was missing, I knew something was wrong. Something was unbalanced."
"I'm sorry, Miss?" Hovis inquired. Unbalanced, he thought, what could she possibly mean? Perhaps she is sleepwalking.
"That's right Hovis. Something is terribly wrong." Slowly, Mrs. Cramdilly shifted her candle to her right, revealing a strange and empty golden doorframe. The frame itself was strange because of it's odd shape; it seemed to curve off into an 'r'. "What's left of this doorway his behind you, on the ground, Hovis."
Hovis turned about and looked down on the object he had just knocked over. There was a redwood door, a boxy pattern etched into its front side and a glistening gold doorknob sitting left and center.
"That door had fallen from the doorway a short time ago, and at the same time the page had gone missing. I came down here to see what had happened and if I could help in any way, but it seems my age has overcome my strength. I cannot lift that door myself." As Mrs. Cramdilly explained, Hovis was glancing back and forth between the old lady, the doorway, and the strange 'r' shaped door, utterly confused. "Hovis, that door is a portal to another world."
"Miss, I am sorry if I sound rude, but this is insane! All this nonsense of portals and falling doors…" Hovis trailed off as Mrs. Cramdilly frowned.
"This is no nonsense, dear. You know, I have had my share of fantastic discoveries, and this is one of them, and one of my favorites. Sit down, and I will tell you about it." With that, Hovis took a seat on a box, being sure that this one would not fall from beneath him. The old lady began to speak.
"It was not too long ago in my travels to India that I came across this door in an antique shop. Intrigued by it's design and how splendid it might look in the mansion, I bought it from the salesman who ran the shop. Before I left, however, he warned me that this door had a 'story' behind it, and that I would have to keep track of it. It was my duty, he said to me, and handed me a book: this one, to be exact." Mrs. Cramdilly pulled the storybook from behind her back; the one she had read to the young cats.
"Upon returning home, I had the door installed to my bedroom, and had not yet opened the book. But, one night, as I walked to my room, I did. And my, when I opened that door, did I get a surprise! I had stumbled into a world like none I had ever seen. Men and creatures roamed everywhere! Clouds were like little bricks, the ground was not always solid where I stepped, and mountains were topped with sherbet. Why, my first day there, I scaled one of those mountains just to get a treat!" She giggled with delight. "The world was topsy-turvy, upside down and right side up everywhere I went. It was marvelous. Then, as I left that world and returned to ours, my book shuddered beneath my arm. I opened it, and there it was! That world's story had begun, and ever since that day, I have been keeping track, page by page.
"But, not all was well all the time. At some points, the story would halt, and I would have to enter that world myself and attempt to fix the situation. There have been a few instances where I have been cut, scraped, and bruised by goblins, ghouls and monsters, but in the end, everything had turned out fine. Then, after a while, the problems all stopped. Everything was perfect, and for years afterward, the stories continued. I thought that my duty was over. When the kittens were born, I decided to read this book's many stories to them. But tonight… oh, tonight is something else. In my condition, there is nothing I can do. I fear that world will fall into peril. That is why you, Hovis, are down here."
Hovis cocked an eyebrow at old Mrs. Cramdilly. Her story had interested him so, and he had sat back and listened intently. But now, she was suddenly addressing him as some kind of solution. He wasn't sure what to say. It wouldn't matter.
"Hovis, may I ask you to reattach the door?"
Without a word, Hovis took a short bow, turned about, and hoisted the door into his arms. He then squabbled his way to the empty doorframe, positioned the door upright, and attempted to lock it into place. The door, surprisingly, flung from his grip and did it for him, a glow of light emitting from the door's rim once it was in place. Hovis stood in amazement. Mrs. Cramdilly had been right: there was another place beyond this doorway.
"Hovis, I ask so much of you on this night. You are so much stronger and have so much more stamina than I could ever hope to re-obtain. Therefore, I ask you to travel into my storybook's world, assess the current situation, and correct it. Once this is done, the story will flow smoothly along, and a new chapter will be completed. If you cannot do this in time…" Mrs. Cramdilly shuddered, "Disaster."
"I understand," Hovis answered, "But why me?"
"I am weak, and the kittens are too young. If anyone else were to learn of the place beyond that doorway, who knows what could go wrong!" With that, the old lady took a step backward. Hovis turned to face the glowing doorway, and with a gulp, he grabbed and turned the knob. The door flung toward him, and he jolted back just in time to avoid being hit. A white light glared through the doorway, and Hovis sheltered his eyes. He turned back to his Mistress.
"By the way, Hovis," Mrs. Cramdilly projected over the whine of the door's light, "Time between here and that world is parallel, whatever amount of time you spend there will pass here as well. Please, be wary about how much time you spend there, or you may lose your sense and return too late for your own good. I wish you the best of luck, Hovis. Godspeed."
Hovis felt an unnatural force surround him, like a hand gripping his entire body. He felt an immense rush of air as he flew forward, ripping through the portal to this 'new world'. Colors and sensations and lights and sounds surrounded him. He wanted to scream, but everything else drowned his voice. He was flying and falling all at once, spinning and spinning and then…
Darkness… and silence.
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Author's Notes: Well, I hope you all have enjoyed this first chapter... cause you may not get another one in a while. I've been so busy with school, but I will have a tiny bit of spare time. I'll get to work on Chapter 2 soon. I can't promise anything, however. Peace. - Xegrot