Chapter 2 – The Zoo
Mira brought them to her new Cevy Taho and the Warner's began to run around the vehicle trying to get Mira to chase them, which she did for a while then she opened one of the doors and they piled inside and Mira shut the door. Mira ran around to the other side of the SUV only to notice that the door was locked and the Warner's were grinning out the window at her. Mira smiled back and dangled the keys in front of them. She had a remote starter and keyless entry so she wasn't worried too much. She easily unlocked the door and climbed into the driver's seat. "Wakko," she said peering back toward the siblings. They were seated as usual, Wakko seated near the right window, Dot in the middle, and Yakko on the left. Wakko turned to look at the lady to hear what she had to say to him. "Switch places with Dot. I'm not having another sibling rivalry in the car." "Oh, kay." He responded. Dot and Wakko switched places, however that didn't stop the bickering.
Half way there, Dot and Yakko began arguing again, "Why are you reaching over to my side?" Dot would ask her brother. "I needed to get something." He would respond then pull his hand back with nothing in tow. "Yah, right Yakko, you're trying to pick fights again." Dot would retort. "No, I'm not." He would say with a slight whine. "Yes you are!" Dot accused. "Am not!" Yakko retorted. The back-and-forth continued for some time with poor Wakko in the center of the whole thing. When things began to get hairy, Wakko started bursting out into tears, crying up a storm. Yakko and Dot, realizing that they had upset there brother, began to calm him down. When Wakko at last stopped crying, Yakko and Dot simply apologized to each other and sat still. Mira then fumbled with something up front, reached back and handed Wakko a chocolate chip cookie. "Great job Wakko." She said to him, looking at him in the rear-view-mirror. Wakko just grinned and happily ate his prize. Yakko and Dot, realizing they had been duped, looked at each other, dumbfounded.
They arrived at the zoo parking lot and boy was it a nightmare to find a place to actually park the vehicle. But, once Mira found a place to park, the Warner's all piled out of the car cheering and running about. Mira followed the excited children through the front gate and paid for their tickets. The four of them went in and began to look at all of the animals with amazement and excitement. Lions, tigers, bears, sloths, orangutans, chimpanzees, Galapagos tortoises, etc. They went and saw every animal there was in the zoo. Dot especially enjoyed the aquarium, with the dolphins and the exotic fish.
When lunch time rolled around, Mira went to go buy the Warner's some ice cream bars at one of the snack vendors. Suddenly, her phone rings signaling that she had received a text message. When she flipped open her phone, the message read, "A journey awaits your return to home. Six shall move along the path that's shown. Worlds apart as space will bend. Wait for them till their journey's end." This was the fifth message Mira had received this week and it all began with that mysterious e-mail. She put her phone away and continued on to purchasing the ice cream for the Warner's.
She returned to the Warners to present them with their treats, she gave Yakko a toffee crunch bar, Wakko a Drumstick with chocolate in the center, and Dot a strawberry Popsicle. Mira sat down and gave the Warners their treats and decided to tell them, "Hey guys, I just got another one of those cryptic anonymous messages." "Phaboo!" Wakko responded. "You've been getting those for days now. What does that make it, eight messages so far?" Yakko retorted. "My question is; what do they mean?" Mira asked. She then flipped open her cell phone and brought the message back up to show the kids. After reading the message they all stopped to think on it a while. Then Mira suggested, "Let's think on this when we get back. That'll be tonight's homework." "Aw!" the three of them whined. "Hey", Mira retorted, "I haven't given you guys any homework at all this week. This isn't gonna kill you." When she turned to the Warners, there they were lying in coffins and dressed for the funeral. "Ok, if you guys are gonna be that way, you don't need any of my hand made ice cream tonight." The Warners jumped out of the coffins and started to apologize and explain that it was only a joke. Mira chuckled slightly and said, "Oh, alright. Let's get back to my house and review those messages."
The trip back was pretty uneventful, Yakko and Dot stayed quit, not wanting to get themselves fooled by Mira and Wakko again, and Wakko just sat in the center smiling happily the whole way back. When Mira finally pulled into her driveway and pushed the button to make the garage door automatically rise, they discovered an incredible phenomenon inside. There was a brilliant light blue light shining in the dead center of the garage, the center seemed like a small sphere with faded tails prejudging off of it and spiraling around making the whole thing resemble an oval shape. From the light there were several noises most of which sounded like metal being waved to simulate the sound of thunder. As they peered through, the image of grassy hills and a clear stream could be seen inside the oval shape. "Uuuuuuuuh, I think our homework just did itself." Yakko announced. Mira just gave Yakko a dirty look from the corner of her left eye. "Dot, go find Runt and the cats." Mira said with slight fear in her voice.
Dot did as she was told and came out with us and we all looked on in astonishment at the strange phenomenon. Then all of a sudden, they all began to hear a part from the song, "Numa Numa" emanating from Yakko's trouser pocket. Every one stood there and stared at him. "What? It's funny!" he retorted. Then the chorus from "Bad Day" could be heard from a side pocket in Wakko's back pack. Wakko stood there seemingly slightly nervous and with small beads of sweat coming from his brow. "Wakko, I think that's coming from you." Dot pointed out. Wakko lowered his head into the collar of his shirt and simply blushed. Lastly, the sound of the song "Macadamia Nut" could be heard coming from Dot's back pack. It was her brothers' turn to stare at Dot this time. "Oh, don't give me that look. It was my best bit!" she snapped. (Recap: Mira bought the Warner siblings each a cell phone to use in case of emergencies. She also gave them strict rules and guidelines to follow while granted access to those cell phones, along with steep consequences should those rules be broken.) Each ring tone signified that each had received a text message of some sort. "Walk through the light and enter a world unfamiliar and wonderful."
All three of them were now utterly confused. That is, until Ace stiffened up suddenly and sprinted toward the eerie light. "Ace?" I called out as he broke out into a mad dash for the...what-ever-it-was. When he got close enough, he sprang up as high as he could and jumped through the center of the light. As his flesh came into contact with the light, bolts of electricity erupted from where Ace had connected and rather than moving through it, he had entered into it and landed on the grass inside. "Ace you get back here right now young man!" I hollered at him while running to follow him. Before I knew it Runt had bolted past me and ran, head first, in through the strange light alongside Ace. In awe and shock, I stared at their images for a short time. Shaking off my shock, I said to myself, "If ya can't beat em, join em", then ran for the light myself.
When my body made contact with the strange light, I could feel a strange tingling feeling wash over me, filling my body from my nose to the tip of my tail. When the feeling faded away, I opened my eyes to find myself in a wide meadow. Green grass as far as the eye could see, small wild flowers scattered everywhere simply asking to be smelled. The sky was a brilliant light blue and the clouds never looked so white ever before. A feeling of calm and tranquility overcame me and I couldn't help but to feel the urge to take a cat nap right where I stood.
The Warners just saw us plunge through a mysterious hole in space and time, without so much as blinking. So, they all three immediately jumped in at the same time and with that, they nearly all landed right on top of me. When we all looked back, the light had disappeared, and Mira was nowhere in sight. We all just stared at the place where the light used to be, "Did any of you know that would happen?" Yakko asked his siblings. Both of them shook their heads in shock. "We are gonna be in so much trouble." Dot exclaimed. Suddenly, all of their cell phones rang at the same time again. As they flipped open their phones, they noticed that they all had the same message again. "Travel ye, to the silver palace. And seek ye the maiden's chalice. To find a fate so foretold and written, seek guidance and council from the Valkyrie, hidden."