1st 5 Pages October Workshop- Zhu Rev 2

Name: Mayee Zhu

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Title: THE DREAMWALKERS

PITCH:

Twelve-year-old Ari Pippin enjoys traveling to different worlds in secret. For many magical, wonderful years, she had hitched rides from speeding stars, foraged for life-saving plants on exotic islands, and explored the infinite multiverse.

Her easygoing days abruptly screech to a halt when a star cryptically warns her and refuses to reveal any more information unless Ari retrieves the fabled Heartsword. Ari knows she cannot ignore a high-born star’s foresight, as whenever they prophesize it’s about desire or death.  

Just as the legendary sword is almost in Ari's grasp, an impish boy her own age steals it from her. The thief, Cavan, fatefully transfers to her class, but refuses to give back the Heartsword.

As if the snarky, sword-stealing Cavan wasn’t enough to deal with, Ari also has to worry about Cavan’s fellow members of a wide-spanning secret society--the New Wheel. The New Wheel wants to improve the world by feeding shady bits of souls to black holes. Ari wants to drop-kick into the next galaxy whoever first thought that was a good idea.

THE DREAMWALKERS is a 71,700-word middle grade fantasy novel. It is the first book in a series, but works as a standalone novel, too.

FIRST FIVE PAGES:

Traveling by star was a sweet and sour treat. Twelve-year-old Ari Pippin could see the universe zoom by and get to her destination faster than a speeding bullet, but hearing the mouthy stars insult her through several galaxies left a lot to be desired.

Ari watched Earth shrink further away. She would rather be at home instead of heading to a meeting where she might discuss her future death. But ignoring the situation would gnaw at Ari even more than confronting it.

Other stars sped by, their fused legs humming.

“What’s the deal with your mannish eyebrows?” The star Pyxis asked as they hurtled past Jupiter. Ari leaned back so she wouldn’t be repeatedly smacked in the face by Pyxis’s billowing hair and tightened her grip on the stretchy starbone attached to Pyxis’s bicep. “Obese caterpillars look better.”

Stars could have passed for wingless angels if it weren’t for their smack talk. At least here in the Core dimension, stars wouldn’t flash-fry bystanders like the gas giants in Ari’s reality.

Pyxis screeched to a halt.

“Yo!” Ari yelled angrily. Her red hair whooshed over one hazel eye, and she smushed face-first into Pyxis’s shoulders. Letting go of the starbone, Ari hopped off Pyxis’s back and brushed her hair back. “What gives, glitterbomb?”

Pyxis caught her breath. Silver light streamed from her mouth when she exhaled. Her legs unfused.

“Twenty-seven dzaras. Cough up, ginger pits.”

“Whoa there, Twinklebell. Last week, Yesi took me twice as far for eighteen.”

“Price hike. A black hole might as well have swallowed my bank account with all these new taxes.”

“And these taxes were created between last week and now?”

The star’s golden lip curled. “Do you want proof, cheapskate?”

Impatient to see Mintaka, Ari didn’t argue further and rummaged in her knapsack for the money she had earned from foraging plants. She pulled out the glowing dzaras. The neon blue jellyfish floated dreamily in small circles above her hands.

Pyxis swept the dzaras into a coin purse strapped to her thigh. After swallowing all the dzaras, the purse belched.   

Pyxis saw Ari’s brooding expression. “Don’t worry. Mintaka’s only the second most awful being I know. You’ll get along like me and your money.”

Before Ari could sarcastically thank her, Pyxis zipped away as fast as Superman on steroids.

Sitting on top of Melon Moon, Mintaka’s home loomed over Ari. The twinkling castle was a behemoth made out of rare jewels. Curved towers created serpentine shadows onto the stairs. Ari grimaced. She hated snakes and over-the-top eyesores. Trust Mintaka to have both.

Noticing it captured Ari’s attention, the castle preened like a prize-winning, purebred Siamese cat. The balcony curved into a smug smile, and one of the two windows’ blinds above it shut and open, like a coy wink. Ari waved and began her trek up the winding, moonrock steps.

Mintaka was the youngest triplet in Orion’s Belt. Even though being Orion’s daughter made her unofficial star royalty, it was rumored she had an inferiority complex towards her two siblings. Ari grumpily thought this rumor must have some truth to it as she clutched the stair railing for the fiftieth time to catch her breath. A swirly stair post curled around her hand. Not trusting this strange place one bit, Ari slapped it off.

Wheezing once she reached the top, Ari thought, No one’s calling me Ari Swolzzenager anytime soon, that’s for sure. Though she looked asleep back in her bed on Earth, she still felt effects from dreamwalks, or as the technical lingo called it, worldhops.

One time, a star didn’t dial down her heat all the way before Ari clambered aboard. Ari’s hand came away with a severe burn that still ached after she woke up. Even though only Ari’s soul traveled while asleep, it could still feel pain that manifested physically.

Ari rolled her eyes at Mintaka’s platinum door knockers, which were carved in the striking likeness of Mintaka, and banged both against the why-not platinum double doors. The knocks echoed throughout the house. One mini-Mintaka’s eye whirred and opened, revealing a camera microlens. It zoomed in on Ari.  

The doors opened soundlessly. Ari blinked. The interior obviously didn’t want to be upstaged by the exterior. Expensive-looking artwork decorated the walls. A jeweled chandelier sparkled from the ceiling. Ari wiped her feet on the welcome mat. It purred.

Mintaka’s satin voice slithered out the sound system: “I await you in the parlor, little one.”

“I need help finding that as this place is a tad big.”

Mintaka whistled. With a rattle, a gaunt man with a gold collar around his neck and a ball and chain around one ankle appeared so close to Ari she took a step back.

“Hello,” she greeted politely.

The man glared at her and opened his mouth. He had no tongue.

“Sorry,” Ari automatically said, even though she had done nothing wrong.

The tongueless man turned away from her and slowly walked forwards. His iron ball and chain dragged behind him. They walked through many hallways and rooms. Ari stopped counting after she reached fifty. She passed two perfect parlors.

Many rooms had no clear purpose. One had two voodoo dolls in the middle of the floor. Another had only a painting of a macho star in military uniform. A third had a customized dartboard that was the current US president’s face. Ari didn’t know what Mintaka’s beef with that president was, but she hoped by the end of their first meeting that her face wouldn’t be used for target practice, too.

Mintaka’s slave stopped. He gestured to a room that Ari could partly see through an arched entrance. As Ari turned to thank him, he vanished.

“Don’t mind him, Oliver resents anyone hopeful.” Mintaka chuckled. “He’s been that way ever since he disobeyed me and lost his speaking privileges.”

Someone reads too many villain handbooks, Ari thought, unimpressed instead of scared.  

Stars were a diverse bunch. There were some, like Pyxis, who squeegeed through their lives by being glorified taxi drivers. Then there were high-born stars like Mintaka who foresaw the future. Whenever they had a vision, it had to do with desire or death.

Ari stepped into a room larger than her entire house. A marble fountain spewed stardust and the walls were embedded with glass displays filled with bobbing dzaras. Ari shielded her eyes when she saw Mintaka. The willowy star sparkled much more violently than Pyxis.

“My fault.” Mintaka dimmed herself enough so that Ari could comfortably look at her, but still be awed by the flecks of diamond light she scattered on the walls. Her robes flowed and shimmered like silk, but was opaque like frosted glass. Her pearly hair and clothes fluttered gently, though there was no wind. “Have a seat, child.”

Ari sat in an identical recliner opposite Mintaka’s. “I’ve thought about your warning since you sent it to my Core mailbox yesterday.” She pulled out a slip of paper and read, “Beware the forbidden fruit you seek, for its guardian snake lies on its other cheek. Mintaka, smiley face." She looked up. "Care to explain?”

“As stars are forbidden from interfering with fate, I already wasn’t supposed to tell you anything. But…” For a second, Mintaka’s amber eyes gleamed like a polished knife, before it was replaced by her standard pleasantness. “I’ll risk breaking the rules, if you get something for me.”

“Another palace, my queen?”

“The Heartsword from Centaurus.”

“...I understood only half the words in that sentence.”