TAoP Chapter 4

Fantasia

Penny stood by the door, watching her homeland get smaller and smaller until she couldn't see it anymore. She felt her eyes water but she brushed them away impatiently. It's not like I'm never going to see them again, she thought as she looked around. The ship was spacious and neat. There were blinking lights everywhere lighting up some panels of buttons and switches. At the front was a huge window that showed the stars and planets. Illiana sat at a seat and was controlling the ship as Jayden sat next to her. She completely ignored him and continued to look out the window, focused. Jayden pushed some buttons and a screen popped up in front of him.

"This is ship #5791, come in anyone at the harbor," Jayden stated clearly to the screen and waited. A few seconds passed and a small creature came into the screen. It was a small chipmunk with a red nose and it seemed to be wearing a red shirt with flowers on it.

"Jayden! Illiana! Where have you guys been? Everyone's been searchin' for ya!" the chipmunk squeaked, jumping up and down in front the screen.

"Never mind that. Can we land soon? I don't know how long this ship can last."

"Alright but just to warn ya, folks ain't too happy that you left. And-"

"Dale, who's on the screen?" Another high pitched voice asked as it came into view. It was another chipmunk but this one had a black nose and was wearing a fedora and a jacket. He turned to the screen and jumped back. "It's Jayden and Illiana! Hey, Your Majesty! It's them!" he called out.

"No wait! Chip! Don't- Your Highness…uh…" Jayden said flustered, looking at Illiana, but she ignored him, keeping her eyes on the window. Penny came closer to where the screen was and found a mouse wearing a red robe. Jayden saw Penny get closer and waved her away. "We were just coming back from a…practice run of the ship…and um…"

"Enough. Just come back and we shall discuss this further," the mouse said as the screen went black.

Jayden sighed and stretched in his chair, "Well, that went well."

"I'm not taking a fall for you," Illiana said quietly.

"I'm not asking you to."

"I've trained way too hard to lose my chance of becoming the best sharp shooter."

"I know. I'll take the blame."

Things were silent and Penny just stood, listening and taking it all in. Even Star was silent through the ride. Pretty soon, a planet came into sight. It had a huge castle that was blue and white. Around the castle was a town that was bustling with people. Illiana slowed down the ship as they got closer to the harbor. She landed next to the dock and opened the door. She got up and moved toward the door. She stopped and looked at Penny, "You better not be lying about the birds."

Jayden followed, motioning to Penny to follow. As she stepped off the ship, she saw how big the town really was. There were people walking around, laughing, talking and children playing in the streets. Not only were there people, but animals that walked like humans. Guards walked and even talked to the townspeople. Each of them had the same crest on their right side, three circles, two smaller ones on top of a larger one.

"C'mon and don't get lost."

Penny walked and turned her head every so often to see something new. There were shops, food vendors, a black smith hammering on a sword; over all a feeling of peace. Starlight sat on Penny's shoulder taking it all in and twinkling with delight when she saw things to her fancy. Penny never left Jayden's side as they got closer to the castle. The gate surrounding the castle was huge and it also had the same symbol as the guard's armor. In front of the gate was a group of people and Jayden groaned.

"Great, everyone's here." Illiana grumbled.

Penny looked and saw the same mouse that was on the screen; two ducks, one was wearing all blue and had a hat on, the other had a white lab coat and a grey shirt underneath; two dogs, the taller one was carrying a shield with green and orange stripes and his clothes matched, the smaller one (though not by much) had a red shirt with green outline and blue pants carrying a shield and sword. The last person was the only human whose deep red shirt and black pants caught Penny's attention. His jet black was long since it was pulled back into a ponytail and he was wearing a smug smile on his face.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," the mouse stated as the three stopped, "Who is this?" Everyone turned to Penny and stared.

"I'm-"

"This is really important! We have to talk before I explain anything," Jayden interrupted.

"What's so important! Did you bring this girl from another world?" the blue duck demanded, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Like I said before, I'll explain everything. Just hear me out-"

"Oh right, like that will stop you from being punished," the black hair kid smirked.

"I don't have time for you, Ace-"

"It's about the Darkness," Illiana abruptly stated. Everyone turned to look at her, but she looked at the mouse, "King Mickey, we have reason to believe that the Darkness are searching for something and are taking control over animals to search for it. They maybe already be at other worlds."

"Hmm…we shall discuss this in the library," King Mickey said, "Max and Ace, you may return to your training. Ludwig, you can return to your laboratory. Thank you for helping us search. Donald and Goofy, if you could follow me. You three also come." He turned and headed into the castle.

"But, Your Majesty-" Ace complained.

"C'mon, we clearly aren't ready for this yet," the red shirt dog, Max, said as he pulled on the other guy's arm. He looked at Jayden and Illiana and winked before they walked away behind the castle.

"Jayden, my boy, you must tell me of your flight after your talk with the King, of course," exclaimed the lab coat duck. He had a very heavy accent that Penny couldn't place.

"Of course, Professor Ludwig."

"C'mon! The King is waiting," the other duck called from the entrance. Illiana followed without a word and Jayden pulled Penny with him.

Inside the castle was huge and spacious. People in fancy clothing walked around cleaning and dusting, but bowed when Mickey passed by. There were broomsticks walking with pails in each hand. As they walked, Penny sensed that there was someone here who was important. It was kind of like the same feeling she got when somebody mentioned Wendy's name.

They had finally reached some huge double doors at which King Mickey opened and everyone followed him inside. The library was huge and filled with books from the floor all the way up to the top of the ceiling.

"Wow…"Penny said in awe and Star agreed. Mickey sat behind the table that was in there and Donald sat on his right as Goofy stood behind the two of them.

Jayden bent down to Penny and whispered, "The King is Mickey, while the impatient duck is Donald. He's a very powerful magic user. The other one is Goofy and he's the Kings personal guard. All three are best friends and go on missions together."

"So you have some information about the Darkness?" Mickey asked, "Why don't you start with the fact that you two left without permission."

"This was all my fault, Your Majesty," Jayden moved forward so their attention was on him, "You see, Professor Ludwig and I had repaired ship #5791 after if came back a complete mess. We even managed to add a couple of new features and we had hoped it work, but that's not really important right now. Anyways, we were heading towards Montressar when something messed up the engine and…"

Penny grew bored with the talk, so she looked around the library. There were thousands of books and all seemed magnificent. She wanted to see how many there truly were but she didn't want to draw attention to herself just yet. She looked back at Jayden and found he was still talking. Penny kept looking back at the group and the shelves as she slowly made her way to the books. Finally she made it and looked closely at them all on the shelf. Unfortunately, she could not read; none of the Lost Boys or Peter could or they chose not to. Still it would be nice to see what they held. As she continued to look, she failed to notice that the group stopped talking and ere watching her. Star flew off from her shoulder and wondered how many shelves there were.

"I dunno, Star. Wanna count them? You have to keep count though," Penny whispered kneeling to start at the bottom. Star lifted one finger. "One." That continued up to five and Penny could not reach the other ones. Star flew around Penny and she lifted from the ground. There were gasps from the group but Penny did not hear them.

The two of them got up to ten when Mickey called, "There are twenty shelves in total. Now miss, I was wondering if I could ask you some questions?"