Eric was about to nod off to sleep when he was prodded with a very sharp nose.
"Wake Up!Wake up!" a tiny voice shouted in his ear.
Eric rolled his eyes around to see where the sound was coming from. He could not move his head as he was covered with restraints that were holding his body down to the ground. Just out of the corner of his eye he could make out the little being who was poking him and shouting in his ear. He could scarcely believe it! It looked exactly like the creature from the Museum - the one who had tied him up in the first place. It was exactly the same, only different. And in the most amazing respect. THIS creature was only about four inches high!
"You little twit! Undo me!" demanded Eric.
"No! No! Not until you grant me my wish!" shouted Zoot.
"Grant you a wish? What does THAT mean?"
"Yes. You must grant me a wish. Or you will never return to your world."
"I'm not sure what world you're talking about . . ." but even as the words came out of his mouth, Eric began to realize that, indeed, this was a very different world.
Looking off in the direction of his feet he could see that, while most of the landscape was in proportion to what he was accustomed to, the colours of this world were not like anything he had ever seen before. Mountains in the distance looked like shimering bands of reds, oranges and yellows. A river flowing from the mountains appeared in beautiful shades of purple and cerise.
(Look at this for a peek into the world of Zoot) And the creatures he could see moving about in the distance seemed to be "painted" with designs and colour combinations he had never seen before.Only Zoot remained a total mystery, as Zoot seemed to be the smallest and most insignificant creature on the planet.
"You're kind of a shrimpy fellow", Eric said to Zoot, "Don't you think you're taking a chance with a giant like me?"
No, I have friends. And I resent being called "shrimpy". In fact, I resent it A LOT, you silly man." And with that, Zoot poked Eric in the neck with his sharp little nose.
Zoot's nose poke felt like a pin prick.
"Hey, I thought you were trying to get me to grant you a wish? That's no way to treat me!" Eric told the red-faced Zoot.
"Wish. Schmiish! You just lie there a while and see how it feels to be helpless." Zoot said, and then, under his breath, "Shrimpy...shaaarimpeee, I HATE THAT!"
"What was that? Did you say something to me?" Eric asked.
"But Zoot had already pranced off to his little hut in the tiny village of Zootlet.(Which was in the larger world of .)
"You're lucky that little pratt didn't hear you." Eric said to the narrator.
"So what do you want, Eric? Feeling a bit "stuck" are you?" I replied.
"Yeah, but then that would be mainly your doings then, wouldn't it?" Eric said,"I mean, you've got all the controls, don't you? Think you could loosen these binding a bit?"
And as the bindings loosened, Eric thought of what Austin Powers might do and began to plot his escape.
Just then, night fell on Nano.
Meanwhile, the rescue party had just discovered Jan, the Art Maven, who had been most distraught and sitting alone in the African Gallery.
Jan had related the story of how she and Eric had gone to the Museum and while she was putting away her umbrella, Eric had gone ahead to the Gallery. Five minutes later, when Jan arrived upstairs, it was already too late to help Eric, who had been kidnapped by "bizarre little creatures" who had tied Eric to a chair. Jan had had to watch helplessly while the creatures tortured Eric with strange stories and weird poetry.
Now the rescue party was poised to enter another dimension, a whole new world. Moto, Kozo, Moshe, Dani and the second Xuptil, Ian, Ken,Susie and Jan were all prepared to enter
Chapter 7 Back to Options Please E-mail me if you enjoyed the new chapter...and illustrations by Ana....
© 1997 phildynan@msn.com