 | Chapter 1
Tobiah’s Wall of Jumping Foxes
The earth was permeated with one thought. Kaeru was sure of it. She had studied, researched, and calculated until it was perfectly clear that her planet was indeed holding to one primary thought and basically ignoring other thoughts or ideas. What this one thought was, Kaeru wasn’t so sure of-- but that was just a detail, anyway, wasn’t it? She thought so.
The dark-haired girl rubbed her nose and flipped through some channels, lamenting over the fact that the morning run of talk shows had dried up and there wouldn’t be a fresh load until about 2:00. Now everything was soap operas. Kaeru would watch almost anything on TV that wasn’t a soap opera. They’re like sitcoms, except with worse acting, and nothing vaguely enjoyable ever occurs. Such is my predicament. And we don’t have any good videos. Bored, she deliberately flipped to a channel that was showing a commercial. Even smiley pain-killer vendors are better than Johnny marrying Deborah only to find out he accidentally married one of her identical triplet sisters, Kaeru thought darkly.
“Watcha doin’?” a voice came from the kitchen.
“Nothing,” Kaeru sighed, staring raptly at a car commercial. The captions informed her that James Rodgers was not an actor. “Hey, Flower, James Rodgers isn’t an actor.”
“I’ll say,” Flower responded matter-of-factly, chewing on a cookie. “Do we need a new video?”
“I think we just might. Where is Fidelis?”
“I dunno,” Flower shrugged, sweeping her long hair out of her eyes only to have it immediately fall back into its regular routine. “Probably out scaring people again.”
“Tell her to buy a new video.”
“I will if I see her.”
“Hi, guys!” called Fidelis, kicking open the door. “Been out scaring people.”
“I knew it,” Flower grinned. “Kaeru wants you to buy a new video.”
“I anticipated your whim,” Fidelis smirked. The tall green girl produced a colourful children’s video from a purple shopping bag.
“Oh, wow!” Kaeru shrieked enthusiastically. “I really wanted to see this one!!”
Fidelis popped the video into the VCR, then grabbed two jars of cookies from the counter-- pale yellow goblin cookies for her, chocolate chip for Flower and Kaeru. Then she gracefully lowered herself into a lime green armchair, tossing the chocolate chip cookies to Flower, who was sitting on the floor.
“Isn’t it kind of weird that we watch kids’ videos? I mean, shouldn’t we be watching some ‘teenage’ flick?” Flower wondered out loud. “Wouldn’t most people find us strange?”
“Most people find us strange anyway, Flower,” Kaeru frowned. “I mean, come on. Look at us. We’re not exactly the status quo. We’re pondering vegetables and the outer limits while the rest of the world focuses its attention on only one thought.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t distract me, they’re singing,” Kaeru said, annoyed.
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