A kaleidoscope of bizarre brilliant colors exploded around them as they hit the water. The colors danced and winked around them like bubbles in a glass of soda before bursting into familiar shapes and settling into the landscape. Gradually, all the colors took a form.
“Whoa…where the slag did this Magical Mystery Tour take us?” Bez thought.
They all stood on top of a hill, looking over a vast valley. The grass was a vivid shade of green and glinted gold when the pumpkin-orange sunlight hit it. The sun sat in a grape-purple sky and seemed to nod good-naturedly at them when robin’s-egg-blue clouds skipped gleefully over it.
“Matrix, where the-whoa!" Bez stopped abruptly.
Ameh, still held in Pippi's arms, startled awake. "What?" Then her eyes went wide. A second later, she was standing just in front of Pippi.
Everyone turned to stare at Bez.
Something was very strange about her voice.
“Hey, now, what’s-” She stopped again, frowning as she puzzled over the change in her voice.
"Huh?" said Indy, who's eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the sound of her own voice.
A slow smile crept over Bez's face. “Matrix, I sound like a drum set!”
Bez's voice did indeed sound like a drum set. The timbre was distinctly like her own voice, but it was undoubtedly drums. The beat of the drums formed words in an odd rhythmic manner.
“Talk, everyone! But one at a time. I want to know what instruments you sound like!”
“Shouldn't we try to figure out why we sound like instruments?” Sigma asked, her own voice sounding remarkably like a fife.
“Oh, Matrix can handle that. Talk!”
“My, my, impatient, aren’t you?” Matrix mused. He brightened. “Oh, cool! I sound like a synthesizer!” He giggled. “That’s so 80s!”
“Matrix, we could make a band!” Bez drummed. “We just need some guitars…Criter, Thande, you talk!”
“And say what?” Criter said.
Bez’s laugh sounded like a crash of cymbals. “Criter, you’re a bass guitar! You wouldn’t happen to be left handed, would you?”
He nodded. “Though I don’t see why that matters.”
Bez looked over at Matrix knowingly. “It doesn’t, unless we get two more guitar voices.”
"Testing one two three." Capri's rock guitar voice rasped in. "Oh, cool! You got a rock guitar, guys!"
"And I am a - " Indy tried. "Clarinet I think!"
“Your turn, Thande.” Matrix said.
Thande cocked his head.
Bez sighed in exasperation. “Oh, just say something. Say your name.”
“Thande.” He said.
“A cello.” Bez said with a smile. “Very nice, Thande, very nice. Hey, now it’s you guys’ turn!”
"I Am Gretel - the coolest saxophone around!"
"I am Madonna. Oh! A flute!"
"Ameh chase here, - oh, I'm a steel drum!"
"Pippi." She hummed a few notes. "French Horn. Neat."
NT couldn't say anything. She was doubled over with laughter and sounding like a harp.
“This is all cool,” Sigma said. “But, really, shouldn't we figure out why we sound like this?”
Bez sighed. “Fine, fine. Matrix, you enjoy this kind of thing the most, so kindly fill everyone else in.”
Matrix nodded. “All right, listen up, everyone. If my theory is correct, and I’m assuming it is, then we are in a dimensional hole.”
Sigma nodded. “Oh, now that you mention it, that makes sense.”
Matrix looked to the others. “Am I right to assume you don’t have experience with dimensional holes?”
"I haven't heard of those." said Capri.
"I have." said Gretel.
"Show-off." said Capri.
"Never been in one, though." Gretel retorted.
NT continued laughing uncontrolably. It was a good thing she got to sound like a harp and not something loud like a trombone, tuba, or electric guitar. The others had no trouble talking over her as if she was just background music.
“All right," Matrix continued, "then I’ll explain that too. The universe is chock-a-block with dimensional holes-ehm, rips and tears in the fabric of reality. We’re still not sure why they’re there, but it stands to reason that a massive high-energy explosion would be able to rip up our dimension like that. So, these holes are all over the place. They can be tiny, or absolutely huge. Getting in one is fairly easy. All you gotta do is touch it. Getting out can be much harder. Seeing as we have Gretel’s rings, though, I don’t think that will be a problem. Since dimensional holes are separate dimensions from our dimension, they follow different rules than ours. They are, in essence, blank slates, empty space. Now, here’s where it gets trippy. Listen close. There are certain events that have such an impact on the history of a people that they create-ehm…event echoes. It’s like…like when you can go to a place hundreds of years after something important happened there, but you still feel as if it just happened. Important events sort of…resonate, and these resonations are like the essence of the event. Am I making any sense? Gah…Sin could explain this better. Anyway…based off what I’ve seen and heard here, I’m going to assume that this place is a collection of musical event echoes. After all, music has had immense impacts on people, so it stands to reason that an entire dimension could be based off it. The grass, the sun, the air we breath…even the people! This whole place is music.”
“Which decade? Which planet?” Bez asked eagerly.
Matrix grinned slyly. “Look at the color scheme. With colors this random and vivid, I think we have a formidable slice of the 60s and 70s, a chunk of 80s, and pinch of 90s.”
Bez chuckled. "Groovy, groovy. Where do we pick up our Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band uniforms?"
Matrix smiled playfully. "Maybe you ought to ask one of the locals."
A small crowd was moving toward them from a cluster of buildings down in the valley.
"Far out, man. Let us co-mingle." Bez said, loping down the hill.
Sigma looked at Matrix. "Is she going to keep using dated lingo?"
Matrix chuckled. "Oh, count on it. But hey, don't lose your cool. Can you dig it? "
"Oh, not you too."
Madonna laughed.
"Catch you on the flip-side!" Matrix shouted playfully, before following Bez down the hill.
Sigma sighed. "We might as well."
She and the others followed Bez and Matrix down the hill to the crowd of locals. Bez was attempting to make casual conversation.
"Hey, cool beans." Bez said with a smile. "Matrix, these're some real cool cats. They're not going to bogart their tunes."
"Dude, out of sight." Matrix replied. "Gnarly scenery."
A music child looked up at them with a curious expression. "Why're you talking so funny?"
"Because of the dimentional hole," Madonna said, grinning back.
Bez laughed. "Hey, hey, that was a bit rude. S'pose you're right though...the only words I actually like from all that are 'groovy' and 'bogart'."
"And 'gnarly'." Matrix added.
"True." Bez agreed. "Aw, man, I forgot to use 'wizard'!"
"Maybe we ought to keep moving." Sigma suggested quickly.
"Oh, fine." Bez said. "Keep on truckin'!" She called to the locals before they headed deeper into the valley.
"Now what?" asked Indy.
Pippi shook her head. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like my normal voice back."
NT nodded, looking particularly flushed, and still trying to stop laughing.
Bez frowned. "Ah, party pooper!"
"I'm not sure we'd sound like this the whole time we're here anyway." Matrix commented. "After all, this might just be a result of dimensional radiation. There's always a spike of it when you cross into the dimensional hole."
Bez laughed another loud clash of cymbals. "So we might sound like this because we have musical dimensional radiation sickness? Trippy."
"You say it like you're enjoying it." Sigma said, frowning slightly.
"Oh, I am!" Bez exclaimed. "This is awesome!"
"Well, enjoy it for a few more minutes. After a bit of recalibrating to this particular dimension, I've gotten a fix on our radiation levels. They should be back to normal pretty soon." Matrix declared.
"Aw, man!" Bez frowned. "Not fair. I was really digging the drum- aw, phooey." Her voice had faded back to its un-drum-like normal sound.
"Hmmm...well, I for one am glad I don't sound like a fife anymore." Sigma said. "I was starting to annoy myself."
"Wha-?" Bez exclaimed. "Fifes sound cool! Was I the only one thoroughly enjoying sounding like an instrument? Oh, don't bother answering..." She added moodily. "Just admit it, we'd've been an awesome band. But we'd probably've broken up, anyway...all the good ones do." She sighed. "Well, let's head into town."
"Um," Pippi tried her own voice, and sighed with relief. " It's not that it wasn't cool sounding like that, but the lack of control over it, the change, not knowing when and if we'd get our voices back to normal."
"Yeah," said Indy. "This is even weirder than Sarah's Morph Vox program."
Pippi nodded. "I like voice changers and playing around with them in our own world, you can turn them off and leave them when you're done and go back to sounding normal. This was a bit unnerving."
"It even worried me for a moment," said Gretel. "It was amusing, sure, but, whew."
Madonna nodded.
Ameh and NT made no disernable response other than quietly looking around them.
They all walked through the valley toward the town. The buildings were an eclectic hodgepodge of designs and colors, each one representing some element of a song or music in general. It was a pleasantly busy place, with booths and stands set up along the side of the roads. A small pack of children ran past them, chattering eagerly and pointing toward the main square.
"And what do you think is up, m'm?" Bez asked, looking around the street as they moved toward the square.
"Who knows?" Matrix said with a shrug. "All I know is that it looks like a big deal."
"Hey, Matrix, you think they take credits here?" Bez asked, eying one of the booths.
"Dunno. Why?"
"I want to try some local grub." She replied, breaking from the group and heading to the booth.
"Hey, wait up!" Indy was the first to dash after her, followed by Gretel, then Madonna, and the others all eventually caught up.
"My good man, would you be so kind as to tell a traveler what you're selling?" Bez asked, looking over the licorice-black pastries displayed on the man's stand.
He smiled. "Absolutely, miss!"
Bez winced. "Eh, just Bez, thank you."
He nodded good-naturedly. "Bez, then. My name is Obbligato Pizzicato, and this is my humble baked goods establishment. These, are clefs."
Bez smiled. "As in, bass and treble clefs?"
Obbligato nodded. "Indeed! Bass clefs are richer, more savory. Treble clefs are light, sweeter."
Bez chuckled. "Fantastic! How much do they cost?"
"Cost? Don't you know what today is?"
Bez shrugged. "I'm from out of town, remember?"
"Yes, but-you'd have to be terribly out of town to not know what today is. Just where exactly are you from?"
Bez smiled dryly. "Want a perfectly honest answer?"
Obbligato nodded.
"Way out of town," said Indy, "You probably never even heard of where we're from."
"My friends and I are from another dimension."
Obbligato stared at Bez for a moment in silence. He shrugged. "Well...I've heard more preposterous things. Would any of your friends care for some clefs? Today, all the food is free."
Bez looked over her shoulder. "Hey, anyone want some munchies? Bass and treble clefs over here!"
"Oh, neat!" said Madonna, and she and Indy playfully jostled each other as they grabbed for the same bass clef.
"Hah! Tough luck, guys, I got this one." Gretel reached over from behind them and snatched it with a wicked grin.
One by one, everyone took theirs and began to munch, and were pleased with how delicious they were.
"NT?" Capri looked around for her.
She got no response from anyone as it was quite crowded and noisy. Capri scanned the group of friends and couldn't see NT among them. Looking around and beyond the group, she thought she saw the girl, lagging far behind.
She called out and motioned her to hurry and catch up.
She watched the girl apparently struggling, caught in the crowd, looking lost.
Hang on guys, I'll be right back." With that, Capri cut out of the group and went to get NT.
So, you lost us for a while, eh?" she said, coming up to her. "C'mon, you want to try some edible clefs, don't you?" She ushered the girl through the crowd and back with the group, but it was slow going, and Capri couldn't figure out why. "what did you do, laugh yourself into a near coma back there?" she teased.
There was no response.
Capri frowned, perplexed.
They were finally at the front of the line. "Hmmm, edible clefs, - I - don't know - w-which - - one - I - want," stammered NT.
Capri looked at NT in concern, wondering why her speech had become so little and halting. For now, she chose to say nothing about it. "Why not take one of each, I'm sure he wouldn't mind." she said instead, as she got herself a bass clef.
"All right, now, explain to me what's so special about today." Bez said, taking a bite of her bass clef. Her eyes went wide. "Oh, that's good..." She mumbled.
"It'd be easier to show you." Obbligato said. "Stretto! Stretto! Oh, where is that boy?"
A young man with tousled black hair trotted over from another stand.
"What's up, Dad?" He asked.
He looked at the group, and his eyes glinted curiously.
"These people are travelers," Obbligato said, leaving out the alternate dimension details. "and they are from VERY far away. I'd like you to show them around while I run the stand."
Stretto nodded. "Hey, sure. Today's a great day to be showin' newcomers around." He looked over the group. "Okay, no one get lost! Follow me!"
He headed to the front of the group, not without looking curiously up at Thande, who was busy nibbling at a treble clef.
"First thing's first, I'm Stretto Pizzicato. If you all could tell me your names..."
Everyone introduced themselves to Stretto.
"Good, good." He said with a nod. "Today, is the Celebration. It's an annual festival sort of thing. Every city has its own Celebration. In our good town of Capriccio, the Celebration involves-well..." He smiled slyly. "You really ought to come and see."
He headed into the square, followed closely by the group. There was a large crowd surrounding a circular stage. The crowd instantly shushed when a long line of people filed out of an ornate building and up onto the stage.
"Bez!" Matrix whispered. "Have you noticed anything about the people?"
"Like what?" Bez whispered back.
"Tell you after the show." Matrix said, after being shooshed angrily.
The performers settled into their positions. There was a feeling of excitement in the air so thick it was nearly tangible. One of the performers cleared his throat.
"Here we go!" Stretto whispered gleefully.
The main performer looked over the crowd and sang out a note. It was clear and strong, like a morning wind. Bez watched in awe, for the sound was not alone. A slash of blue streaked over the audience, perfectly in sync with the performer's voice. A trio of performers behind him each sang out a different note. Ribbons and bolts of color appeared, each controlled exactly by the voice of the performer. Soon, the entire stage was alive with music, and the sky above the audience was an indescribably magnificent phantasmagoria of light.
Everyone's attention was locked onto the music and the light, so intently that the passage of time seemed to slip away. When the show ended, and everyone came breathlessly back to their senses, there was a sense of timelessness, as if they had all been transported to somewhere in their dreams.
"Wow..." Bez breathed. "That was-that was incredible. So here-here, music is more than just sound. We just SAW music, guys!"
"That...was fantastic. I doubt my memory banks will do it justice." Matrix said.
"It was...something truly otherworldly." Criter commented.
"That it was..." Sigma said with a soft smile. "What did you think of it, Thande?"
Thande nodded. "I have never seen its likeness."
"And I doubt we will again." Bez said.
"Wow. Just - wow!" Gretel breathed.
"That was beautiful." Pippi sighed, dabbing away a tear or two.
"I - remember..." NT breathed, nodding slightly.
There were other reactions of amazement and joy from the group.
When things settled down a bit, Indy touched NT's shoulder. "You remember? Remember what?"
NT raised her head and turned to look at Indy, but there was an odd expression on her face. "The feeling..." she said quietly.
"What's that?"
"I - remember - " NT paused and shook her head, fanning her face with one hand.
"What are you talking about?"
If NT tried to answer, it got lost in everything else that was going on.
"Okay, Matrix, what did you need to tell me?" Bez asked presently.
"H'm? Oh, right. At first glance, these people look just like you'd expect a humanoid to look. But, being the curious bot that I am, I looked closer. Much closer." He smiled. "They're made of notes. Like we're made of cells, they're made of notes. And that's not all of it-the kinds of notes you find differ by age. For instance, the older the person, the more whole notes there will be. Those children who ran by us earlier had a high concentration of sixteenth notes."
Bez laughed. "Well that's a nice tidbit."
"I hate to interrupt," Stretto said. "But another event isn't scheduled for about an hour. There are still plenty of booths to look at. So, meet back here in fifty minutes?"
"Hey, sounds good!" Bez said. "All right, everyone, meet back at this spot after having a gander at the festival!"
"Sounds good, pardon the pun." Capri quipped.
Several people groaned.
Capri grinned.
So, everyone went their separate ways.
Gretel found another consession stand that sold various edible music related items, deep fried cassettes, peanut caramel type mp3 players with a sort of shiny type of butter icing representing the lcd, Ipods that came in blueberry, chocolate, licorice, strawberry, cherry-vanilla, plain vanilla and other flavors, cds and vinal records that were actually made of candy. Appealing as they looked, she decided on a deep fried cassette. It tasted something like a cross between French toast and banoc.
Bez dragged Matrix over to the same stand, and after perusing through the various options, found several flavors of 8-tracks.
“Much thanks!” She said cheerily as she picked several.
She and Matrix headed toward a small crowd of people clustered around a large square of shimmering material.
“M’m! Matrix, you have to try this one.” She said, breaking a corner off a dark-chocolate-cherry 8-track. “So, what’s this attraction?”
Matrix looked over the heads of the crowd. “It appears to be…swing dancing. Huh. I seem to have missed a decade.”
Bez laughed, pocketing her 8-tracks. “Come on, let’s do it!” She tugged Matrix onto the square just as a new song began to play. It was “Good Golly Miss Molly” by Little Richard.
“Hey, it’s your favorite song, Matrix!” Bez said. “Let’s dance!”
Ameh tried her hand at the musical tick-tack-toe booth. Then she moved on to music hockey, similar to air hockey except that the pucks were in the shape of whole notes and they were moved around via staff sticks. The table played music, which varied according to who scored, who missed the goals etc. The staff sticks and pucks were made of some uncannily smooth material that somehow reminded one of music whenever they came in contact with human skin.
Thande had gone off on his own, and was contenting himself by watching the teeming crowds and the delighted reactions of the participants in various activities.
Sigma and Criter passed by the dance square.
Sigma laughed. “Look at ‘em.” She said playfully. “This place has something for everyone.”
Criter smiled and nodded.
“Let’s look over there!” Sigma said, gesturing to a booth.
The pair headed over to it.
“So, what’s this booth’s specialty?” Sigma asked, looking over the various pieces of equipment in the booth.
The man behind the booth smiled. “A one of a kind treat, I assure you. I’ll take a musical scan of you, and put it through this machine. Once the machine processes it, you will be presented with a song that is completely unique to you.”
“Oh, cool!” Sigma exclaimed. “I’ll give it a go.”
The man nodded and placed several sensors on her. A few minutes of scanning and processing later, and a small cartridge popped out of the machine.
“Here you are, miss.” The man said, handing Sigma the cartridge. “You can give it a listen on that machine while I hook your friend up.”
“Great, thanks.” Sigma said, removing the sensors.
The man gave them a quick cleaning and hooked Criter up. He flinched.
“Hey, don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt a bit.” The man reassured.
“That’s not what I’m worried about.” Criterion replied.
The man shrugged and turned on the sensors. Sigma plugged her cartridge in, and music and colorful streaks of light filled the air. Sigma’s song was light and playful, building up to a powerful crescendo and then calming down at the end.
She giggled. “Cool.”
By the time her song finished playing, Criterion’s cartridge was ready. Sigma pocketed her own and motioned for Criterion to plug his in. After removing the sensors, he moved somewhat hesitantly to the machine. His song had three distinct strains to it. One was subtle and sinister, another brash and aggressive. The last was rich and melodious. The three melodies and their corresponding lights wove around and through each other, as if fighting for dominance, growing louder and more distinct until they reached a frightening climax. For a few moments, there was silence. Then, a new melody quietly emerged from the silence.
Criterion shuddered and pocketed his cartridge.
“Thank you.” He said distractedly, as he and Sigma left the booth.
“Hey, do you want to sit down?” Sigma asked, frowning.
Criterion shook his head. “No, I’m fine. Just a bit of a headache.”
“Let’s find some water.” Sigma suggested, leading Criter through the crowd.
Indy and NT moved off together, and Indy suggested trying the musical chair booth to see which song they'd play and what the music would look like.
NT said nothing, she only shook her head. She couldn't seem to keep up with Indy's normal pace any longer.
Indy, starting to notice something was a bit off, stopped, and suggested getting something more to eat, and a refreshing drink.
But NT only shook her head. She still had part of each clef in her hands.
"What's the matter? You were fine a while ago," Indy said to her.
NT shrugged and opened her mouth. She appeared to be trying to speak but nothing was coming out.
"What?" Indy probed, reaching over to put a hand on her friend's shoulder.
NT appeared to waver, and Indy noticed she was not looking quite right.
"Are you sick?"
NT shrugged. "Light-headed," she finally managed to get out, but Indy could see it was difficult for her to speak.
"In that case, how about you go sit down and I'll come back in a bit.
"Lie - down," NT breathed.
Indy nodded. "Let's find you a place to rest. Sheesh, you look like you're fading away."
They moved slowly along until they found a shady spot on a patch of grass in a park area, and Indy had no blanket, but she helped make sure NT was comfortable, and then left her to recover or even take a nap if that was what she needed to do.
Indy went back to the musical chairs booth. When she sat in one of the chairs, "That's The Way I Like It" started playing, and the colors that accompanied, swirled about her in time to the music.
"Hahahaha! Cool!"
Gretel found some music light-up stuff at another booth, but in order to acquire any, she had to do a karaoke number. What was more, she couldn't choose the song, they did, and if she knew it, she could sing it and get the mini-music light show she expressed an interest in having. If not, she wouldn't get it, and the next person who tried might have better luck.
The song they assigned for her was "A Song For You" a Carpenters tune. Gretel's smile broadened, this was one she knew, and had always liked.
To her surprise, when it started, musical color swirled around in time to the music, and she found singing was so much easier somehow than it was back on Earth.
"Oh, I love that song." Pippi said to Capri as they walked along, passing by the magical karaoke station.
"It's a gem all right," Capri replied. But then she took a second look. "Is that Gretel up there?"
"Sure looks like it." Pippi said curiously, and waved to Gretel.
Gretel grinned and waved back.
"That's her." Pippi said with a soft laugh.
When the song finished, those around the booth applauded, and Gretel received her prize, a portable music and light show that could be turned off and on, and it never needed recharging since its energy source was music. It was about the size of her Ipad.
"Hey! Look what I got!" she crowed, coming up to Pippi and Capri.
"What is it?" asked Capri.
Gretel gave them a small demonstration.
Both Pippi and Capri were definitely impressed.
The three wandered around some more, looking at and trying things from more booths.
Back at the "Musical You Defined" booth, Indy took her turn.
Her song started out with a hiphop beat, which kept going while the music around it changed. It went from comical to angry, to mellow, when the drum faded. Then it turned to a fever-pitch din of clashing chords in rapid succession, then turned to heart-breaking despair. Then, the hiphop beat returned, and so did the music moods that changed around it. Each time the music turned dark, the recovery sounded more pronounced, and finally the song faded away with a mega power-drum set.
"Awesome!" Indy grinned as she came out from listening.
She had tried out the musical chairs, the hall of mirrors that played notes along with showing you strange reflections, more food stands, and then she suddenly remembered that it was getting near time to go back and meet the others.
“Whew!” Bez exclaimed as she and Matrix waited for the others at the square.
They were pleasantly winded from swing dancing, and had snagged a prize for their enthusiasm. It was a miniature jukebox, equipped with special software to learn the preferences and musical taste of its users.
Thande soon joined them.
“Hey, Scaly!” Bez chirped. “Look at the gear prize Matrix and I won!”
Thande cocked his head. “Gear?”
Bez sighed exasperatedly. “It’s 60s slang-like groovy or fab. Dig it?”
Thande regarded her evenly.
Bez threw her hands up in the air in a gesture of mock surrender. “I give up. I really do.”
Eventually the rest of the group started filing in, until they had all assembled. All except...
"I wonder what's keeping NT?" Pippi asked.
Indy gasped. "Oh, stupid me, I was going to check on her - she needed to lie down somewhere. I don't remember exactly where. I went off to try all sorts of things and just forgot. Sorry about that, guys.""
There, there, don't take on that way, I'll go look for her." Capri reassured. "If I have to resort to magic, let's just hope it doesn't have some tripped out interaction with this place. Be back soon or I'll message if it takes me too long." with that, Capri strode quickly away."
She returned in a while, but all was not as it should be.
There was no sign of NT, and in Capri's arms was a screaming newborn. Capri herself appeared to be quite unnerved.
Thande’s crest rose slightly and he tensed.
“Hey, what’s up, Thande?” Bez asked.
“That.” He said simply, nodding in Capri’s direction.
“What, the baby?” She smiled slyly. “Didn’t know younglings phased you-”
“It is NT.”
Pippi's mouth opened in shock.
“Say what?” Bez asked, looking over at the infant with a mixture of curiosity and surprise.
“I cannot explain it. But it is her.” Thande confirmed.
"What!" and "Huh!?" chorused Madonna and Ameh.
“Ehm…” Bez frowned, shifting her weight from foot to foot. “Okay, now I’m phased. Can anyone explain? Or at least guess?”
Capri nodded. "I think this place might've set her back to being the baby she was supposed to be born as.
This was met by a few puzzled looks.
"To make a long story short, Ariel was in pretty dire circumstances when she was about to have her, so she helped NT along to ease the process a bit and try to keep her from dying. As a last resort, fairies sometimes have to magic it up a little. So, she turned NT into music and then into a - grown woman who could walk, talk and take at least some basic care of herself. And then Ariel nearly died and got taken away right in front of NT's eyes. NT started out in the world as music, and then the person we know."
“Hey now, wha-at?” Bez asked, a mixture of confusion and curiosity on her face. “And here I thought musical voices were far out.”
"Oh!" Indy suddenly exclaimed. "Maybe that's what she meant after that seeable music show, where we all got caught up in - she said she 'remembered' the feeling. I didn't get it at the time."
"Oh, goodness." said Pippi. "This makes perfect sense. But how and are we going to get her back - to, well, the NT we know?"
"You have me there." said Capri, frowning. "She's cute this way, but - even I'm not used to my friends suddenly getting whooshed into another state unless they can get out of it."
"Maybe this will wear off soon. Our voices went back to normal here after - quite a while." Ameh suggested.
"Let's hope." Capri replied.
“Well, now, that strikes me as a reasonable hypothesis.” Matrix began. “Since we are from another dimension, the dimensional radiation affects us is innumerable ways. That and the fact that this dimension has a different set of universal laws than our own dimension’s universe…” He shook his head. “Getting side-tracked. Anyway, I’d say once she gets out of this world and any trace amounts of dimensional radiation dissipate, she should go back to normal.” He shrugged and shifted his weight from foot to foot. “In…theory, at least.” He mumbled.
"So - what now? Should we go back to the Wood?" Gretel asked. "I'll mark the pool to this place so that if we want to go here again, we can."
"Sounds good," said Indy, "I'm ready for a bit of a rest - not that I'll do much of that now, though...Freaky."
"Let's go for it. Maybe she'll be back to normal there." Ameh said. "Though I'd like to hold her for a little bit first."
All agreed, and a few people took their turn holding the baby.
Doing so brought about some very mixed feelings. Knowing what they knew, they couldn't just hold and coo over her in carefree admiration the way they usually would over a new family member or friend's newborn. It was like something had stolen one of their group and replaced her with this baby.
As before, Gretel transported everyone, a few at a time, back to the Wood. She took Pippi and NT last, and on the way up, the water-like substance caused the baby to make swimming motions.
"Hold on." Pippi laughed, holding her firmly but still very gently.
"Don't let her get away on you or we'll lose her between worlds and dimentions." Gretel cautioned.
"Don't worry, I got her."
They finally came up and joined the others.
"Well, was this trippy enough for you?" Gretel quipped.
"Fun, but weird off the map." said Ameh. "Now what're we gonna do? It doesn't look like NT's getting back to normal."
"Well, if we're going to go anywhere else, we can't take her with us in this state. Who knows what could be in the next place? Until she's back to normal, I think she should be returned home. It'll be a big shock for Ariel, but she's got a right to know, and to be the one to take care of her."
"Will Ariel recognize her?" Madonna asked.
"Yes. I did, and Thande did, so Ariel certainly will." Capri assured.
"Should I take her back for you?" Pippi volunteered.
"No, thanks, I think I should be the one to do that. Do you all want to rest up and wait for me to come back before going on to the next place, or just go ahead?"
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like a bit of a breather." said Gretel. "I can keep setting my alarm to go off every so often so we don't completely succumb to oblivion here."
This was agreed upon, and when Capri had disappeared with NT, everyone else lounged about, sometimes engaging in quiet conversation.
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