1st 5 Pages October Workshop- Zhu

Name: Mayee Zhu

 Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Title: THE DREAMWALKERS

Chapter One: A Star-Aligned Meeting

Traveling by star was a sweet but salty treat. Ari Pippin could see the universe zoom by and get to her destination faster than a speeding bullet, but hearing the opinionated stars insult her, and everybody under the sun dear to her, left a lot to be desired.

Ari could have been the Pope or the President of the United States, but if a star was driving her, no one was safe from the star’s roasts--not even an insecure best friend, sickly grammy or three-legged, sugar-sweet puppy.

Even worse was that stars were scorchingly curious and sought new information as avidly as Google. They devoured all the knowledge they could about the different worlds. The combination of the stars’ breakneck speed and acidic remarks made them undesirable transport for the weak of heart.

Noticing Ari, the star Pyxis flipped her head of platinum-colored hair that would cause Rumpelstiltskin to froth with jealousy. “Where are you headed, ginger pits?”

“Hey yourself, glitterbomb,” Ari said. “I’m going to Mintaka’s mansion.”

“That stuck-up hag who brings as much joy as week-old toenail crust? You’ll get along like me and your money.” Pyxis exhaled a stream of silver light and patted her back. “Hop on.”

Riding a star always seemed daunting at first, but Ari was a pro by now. She didn’t flinch when Pyxis casually reached underneath her shirt’s left, removable flap and into her glowing chest to snap a complete rib off. Stretching and wrapping it around her arm like a noodle, Pyxis offered the other end to Ari. Ari accepted it as if it was a stirrup attached to a horse, and sat on Pyxis’s back, which concaved like a hammock.

“To the most boring meeting in the universe!” Pyxis announced with faux chipperness, and her legs fused to launch off Handmaiden’s Hub with a low hum.

Ari tuned out Pyxis’s caustic commentary as Earth shrunk farther away and other stars speeded by. It all started seven years ago. The first time she arrived at Handmaiden’s Hub, where Ari saw the stars lounging against opaque, silvery pillars, she wanted to high-five her brain for conjuring up such a stunning dream. But then a star had to open her mouth and the dream-like quality came to a skidding halt.

When Ari’s parents still lived together, and her best friend was her twin sister, Ella Pippin, the most exciting moment of her fifth birthday was going to Mandy’s Meadows: Petting Zoo and Extraordinary Pets Breeder. Merino lambs there nuzzled their faces against Ari’s palm and face when she stroked them. Their wool was what Ari imagined a perfect cloud would feel like.

When it was time for bed, Ari talked to her twin about the animals at Mandy’s Meadows until Ella grumpily said, “Let me sleep. You talk too much. I could feel the chicken I ate for dinner trying to listen to you.”

So, Ari spent the last couple of minutes of her birthday mentally replaying the vision of the lambs, African Pygmy Hedgehogs, and Nigerian Dwarf goats, which were just a few of her favorite animals she saw that day. She closed her eyes and the memory of feeding one baby hedgehog a bit of strawberry floated before her. It bobbed its head, the strawberry slice growing smaller and smaller...and the next thing Ari knew, she was being insulted three different ways by the stars at Handmaiden’s Hub.

Ari was jolted back to the present with a stop so jarring, her red hair whooshed over her wayfarer glasses. She brushed her bangs back.

“That will be twenty-seven dzaras,” Pyxis said.

“Are you kidding me?! Last week, Yesi took me twice as far for eighteen.”

“Price hike. My bank account might as well have been swallowed up by a black hole with all these new taxes on simple stars like me.”

“And these laws were passed between last week and now?” Ari paraphrased doubtfully.

“Do you want proof, cheapskate?” Pyxis sneered.

Even though she doubted Pyxis, Ari rummaged in her knapsack for the money. She pulled out the glowing dzaras. They looked like bioluminescent jellyfish and floated dreamily in small circles above her hands.

Taking off the rib used as a harness, Pyxis pummelled it as easily as it was pizza dough. The star dumped the dzaras into the makeshift bag and tied it up, fastened the rib to her side, and sped away without so much as a goodbye.

Mintaka’s home loomed over Ari. A behemoth made out of rare jewels twinkled, and curved turrets created serpentine shadows onto the stairs.

Ari took a moment to just stare at the spectacle, and the castle preened like a purebred, prize-winning Siamese cat. The balcony’s guardrails curved into a smug smile, and one of the two windows’ blinds above it shut and open, like a coy wink. Ari waved, immediately felt stupid, and began her trek up the winding, moonrock steps.

Mintaka was the youngest triplet in Orion’s Belt. It was rumored she had an inferiority complex towards her two siblings. Her mother conceived all three of them at the same time but popped each daughter out a few million years apart. That was the way of the stars. Although stars felt time differently than humans, a million years was still quite a haul to them. Mintaka was destined to be the unfavorite of the bunch before she was even born.

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 comfortable bed on Earth, she still felt physical exertion whenever she dreamwalked, or as the professional lingo called it, worldhopped. She rolled her eyes at the platinum door knockers, which were carved in the likeness of Mintaka, and banged both against the why-not platinum double doors. The knocks echoed throughout the house.

She waited for a minute before Mintaka’s satin voice slithered out the sound system: “I’ve been waiting for you, little one.”

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

“Come to the parlor,” Mintaka invited.

“I might need help finding that as this place is a tad big,” Ari said.  

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 said automatically, even though she did nothing wrong.

The tongueless man turned away from her and slowly walked forwards, his iron ball and chain dragging behind him. They walked through many hallways and rooms. Ari stopped counting after she reached fifty. Two perfectly good parlors passed by.

There were absurd rooms with no clear purpose. One had two voodoo dolls in the middle of the floor. Another had only a painting of a very macho star in uniform. And a third had a customized dartboard that was President Lyndon Johnson’s face. Ari didn’t know what Mintaka’s beef with that president was, but she hoped by the end of their meeting that her face wouldn’t be used for target practice, too.