One more time.
I swear.
Chapter 1
In the yard of the Tall House in Derr Villiage of Ckaloatia, three very strange girls stood in an almost triangular-shaped huddle and giggled.
They all lived together in the Tall House, which had an unspecified – though large – number of floors and an as-of-yet unidentified – though more than adequate – number of rooms. Their names were, from tallest to smallest, Isiwaru, Setryuk, and Dusplooma. Collectively, they were simply called The Odds.
The Odds weren't usually found standing in their yard in an almost triangular-shaped huddle and giggling, but they couldn't control themselves now. Next door, to the immediate left – or right, depending on which side of Derr Villiage you were on – of the Tall House, their strange neighbors were also huddled together in their own yard, but these strange people were talking seriously. There were five of them, all of them old and all of them grumpy, each dressed in long, flowing cloaks despite the warm, sunny day. They claimed to be powerful and magical people. Most of Ckaloatia claimed them to be just cheesy. They told everyone about all of the things they could do with their magic in other Worlds. No one ever saw them prove these things in Ckaloatia, however, and they weren't believed.
The Odds were now glancing up at the sorcerers in the next yard every once in a while, quickly putting their heads back in the huddle and giggling again. It wasn't long before one of the sorcerers noticed this.
"We refuse to take this disrespect! We don't deserve it!" the oldest and grumpiest shouted at them.
"Why don't you have your little sorcerer meeting INSIDE the house, then? In private?" Setryuk called back, her dark blue hair seeming to match the look of sarcasm on her face, adding to the effect of her blunt remark.
The sorcerer grumbled indistinctively and put his head back in the sorcerers' huddle.
One of the other sorcerers suddenly backed out of the huddle, grabbed what looked like a large twig out of his cloak, raised it high in the air, pointed it at a nearby tree, and yelled out a funny, unrecognizable word. Nothing happened. Watching this spectacle, The Odds burst into uncontrollable laughter. The sorcerer stared at the tree for a while, slowly lowering his twig, finally accepted his failure, and rejoined the huddle, his head hanging sadly in defeat.
"You know it's never worked before, Earl," one of the female sorcerers in the huddle told him gently. "It seems our magic doesn't work in this World."
"I know, Martha, but I feel so helpless without my magic…"
The Odds continued watching and giggling at their neighbors for a while. It started to become boring, however, so they started to go back into the Tall House for tilch. But before they reached the door, Isiwaru ran off into the sorcerers' yard, and started walking in fast circles around their huddle. The sorcerers watched her in confusion for a few moments, but she started making them dizzy and they stopped.
"Is this another sign of disrespect? Is it?!" the oldest and grumpiest sorcerer demanded angrily.
Setryuk and Dusplooma came over to the sorcerers' huddle and giggled together at the sorcerers' confusion.
"That's it. I can't take any more of this. We shouldn't have to take any more of this. I'm putting a stop to this once and for all!" the oldest and grumpiest sorcerer said, reaching for something under his cloak.
"No, Ed, you must control your temper! They're only a couple of dumb kids!" one of the female sorcerers protested.
"I've had enough, Norma," the sorcerer apparently named Ed said stubbornly, his hand still in his cloak.
Isiwaru stopped walking in circles and came over to Setruk and Dusplooma. The Odds laughed hysterically at the cheesy sorcerer's frustration.
Ed pulled out a twig much like Earl had a little while before, pointed it directly at The Odds, and before they could stop laughing, shouted something very loudly and very angrily at them. They couldn't tell what he'd said, but they were suddenly violently pushed off their feet by some invisible force. But they didn't land on the ground of the yard as they would have expected. They didn't land at all. They were falling through a dark void and they could only see blackness below them, above them, all around them.
The Odds didn't get a chance to think about what happened because they were so shocked and this was all happening very fast.
But all of a sudden, as fast as it had started, the swirling blackness stopped.
The three of them finally landed on grass. But it wasn't the grass of the sorcerers' yard. It was the grass at the edge of a dense forest. And it was now night. They suddenly found themselves lost in the dark near a forest that was probably filled with vicious animals.
All because they had laughed at their neighbors.