-J-
Smash Rookie
This is probably going to end up being a bit different than what you're used to seeing in the writing portions of gaming forums, that's for sure, but I just could not help myself. 
You see, I've been writing books and have been trying to get my foot through that very tall, very heavy "best-selling novelist" door since I was in the 6th grade, thanks to a heavy dose of inspiration from my teacher back then. I saw this board and figured, "Why not? This place can be a haven for all of my Smash splurges AND writing splurges. Woohoo~!" So, there ya go.
This is the first chapter of my latest work, Project Believe, the first in a four-book cycle, written between 2010 and 2011 with whatever freetime I did have during high school. Hope you enjoy it!
In the darkest corridors of some faraway land, there stood a tall, wispy figure. Every step he took towards a humongous, stone-carved bowl was one of great strength that pulsated throughout the cavernous aisles. If there was anyone else amongst him at the time, those few steps definitely would have made his presence known, though it was speculated even by the ominous man that any lurkers dare not approach him after that. After taking an unfathomably deep breath, the figure set his jet-black eyes down upon the pool of water which was held inside of the great stone bowl, stating in a low and rumbling voice, “Time and space is such a trivial subject, or at least at today’s current date it is. People are people and that won’t change without someone greater causing the change; for they are incredibly lethargic. It is more than likely that they won’t achieve what they are instructed to on time and the idea of space hasn’t exactly been embraced as of late. The continuums of other dimensions—other planes—of the Earths have been brushed off as something ridiculous. Perhaps it’s time to show that space does indeed exist, once more…”
The mysterious, shadowy figure placed his right hand over the pool of water, and from within it appeared the image of a young, dark blonde-haired American man in casual attire consisting of a light blue shirt with black eagle designs and blue-plaid short-pants. He was doing naught but lying about in his bed as a typical lazy lout would. The digital clock to his left revealed the current time to the figure looking through the pool: 11:45 am. The figure thought to himself, “pathetic,” removing his hand from over the water and letting the image slowly pale away. With a swish of what sounded to be a cloak, the figure walked briskly out of the corridors and into an impending light. As the darkness that once surrounded him was swallowed up by the light, he seemed to disintegrate inside of said light, without a single word whatsoever.
All the while, said American young man was just waking himself up and, in the kind of way a turtle would, got out of bed one limb at a time, eventually plopping himself onto the carpet with a soft “thump.” He took a minute or two, realizing that it was surprisingly rather comfortable. Moments later his mother passed by his bedroom door and knocked hardly upon it, yelling “CHANCE RIVERS! Get out of bed right this INSTANT! When you go back to school, you’re gonna be a senior. Do you think grade-A seniors in high school wake up at lunch time?” Chance rolled his eyes and thought to himself, “Sheesh, at least I’m already dressed.” He jumped back up from off the carpet, his mop-like hair getting in his eyes a little, forcing him to brush it back to the side. He slammed open his bedroom door and slid down the rail (as he was advised not to do), eating a bowl of cereal as fast as he could and running out the front door.
Today was the day Chance and his friends were supposed to see a movie— THE movie, to be exact. It was going to be the senseless blood-fest that only certain “types” of film directors knew how to make and make well. He crossed the street from his house to the park across the way with ease, taking a note of the refreshing breeze. Taking yet another moment, Chance lazily plopped himself down on a metal bench to feel the breeze “from a better angle,” or should his rather lame excuse be if his mother or one of his friends found him there when he should’ve been at the movie theaters by now.
Pushing himself off of the coolness of the metal bench and not paying much of an attention to the world, Chance stupidly decided that it would be a fine time to run across the street. There were no cars on the road just yet, were there? Perhaps it was just the overall happy feeling of the day out on the town thus far that made it so the kid didn’t pay much attention, but from the side of his eye came a tall, blue-and-silver travel-bus. It seemed to be running amuck; completely out of control, and when Chance noticed the bus coming straight at him it was far too late to run away. Instead, Chance stood in place, looking towards the oncoming bus with eyes wide open. The cool wind coursing slowly through his moppy hair, he took what he thought was one last breathe of the air about him, accepting his fate.
He cringed as the bus drew nearer and nearer, feeling a presence amongst the Earth about him. Looking back up, he noticed that everything had stopped in its place! The birds were completely frozen mid-air, there was no more breeze, and the bus had been halted but an inch away from hitting Chance! He took a look at the bus driver’s horror-stricken face staring down upon him, eyes near-bulging from the man’s face, with his mouth wide open, seeming to have been mouthing out something such as “MOVE KID!” This was too awe-striking to believe! What was going on here? Was there some supernatural force at work? Was he already dead? All of these questions flowed through Chance’s mind now. He saw his friends across the street at the theaters, stuck in mid-jump, arms thrown up into the air and tears tracking down their faces. When he tried to make an approach for them, Chance realized that he could no longer make a move either.
Suddenly, the feeling of a force greater than anything he had ever felt before started to palpitate throughout the area. Then there came an incredibly loud screech, forcing Chance to drop to the ground, wincing in pain and holding both hands over both ears. Several thuds were heard as the world grew darker and darker before his very eyes. He was certain that this would be the end of his short, seventeen-year-old life!
The shadowy man appeared behind him, revealing that that was truly all he was: a shadow. Everything from his body to his hair to his clothes was pitch black, and when Chance tried to defend himself by punching at the shadow, to his surprise his hand went straight through it! “Who are you!?” Chance asked, backing away from the ominous being and the frozen bus at the same time, scared out of his mind. “Names are not important,” the man replied, sweeping across his cloak as he did earlier, “I’m here to teach you a lesson.”
“So you’re going to kill me?” Chance was absolutely terrified. “Most certainly not the case actually,” the mystery man replied in a calm voice, “Instead, how about you have some fun? Anything is possible, even here on this Earth it’s possible. But you and your kind seem to not believe that. You’re lethargic to the boiling point and it has annoyed us for too long. One person at a time, you will all learn to embrace your lives with a little more gratitude. This project,” the man pointed an index finger out at Chance, “starts with you.” With a sudden movement of his hand, the shadowy man summoned a vortex of sorts from behind Chance. It was emanating an intense blue similar to the one seen in the fountain, and let out a mystical, rippled pulsation of the same color throughout the street. Chance’s eyes seemed to shrink into the back of his head as he was pulled towards the hole by an intense strength.
He fell to his stomach and scratched at the road, trying to gain a grip. He attempted to hold onto the side of the bus, though that only resulted in the side-mirror being flung off into his face. As Chance recoiled in pain, he let go of the majority of the strength he was using for a split moment, and that split moment was all the hole needed to suck him in completely. A muffled scream was heard as he was swiftly pulled down further and further into the vortex. “Have fun,” the man chuckled, snapping his fingers and disintegrating into the light.
The scene was rewound a few minutes, with a few changes to it. The bus driver would still lose control of the vehicle, though would be lucky enough to not hit anyone and to survive himself. The ominous man wondered what use the human lives would be if he just left them alone. In the end, he considered the final answer to be “absolutely nothing.” Falling back into the darkness of his corridors, he leaned back on a chair not visible to the human eye, and laid out his feet on a glass ottoman. Letting out a sigh and looking out towards the bowl of water, he knew that this would be a crazy ride for Chance. He almost felt sorry for the lazy young man, though he knew that what he did was for the best. He got up from his seat and strode gently across to a glass countertop, taking from a drawer an invisible goblet filled with some form of a fine wine. Sipping it gently, he looked on over to the pool again, letting out an even longer sigh…
Down and down the vortex an unconscious Chance went, a booming voice set on repeat within the depths of his mind; “Prepare for an incredible ride,” said the voice with a calm tone. Moments later, “prepare for an incredible ride,” and so on and so on. The voice must’ve repeated itself at the very least forty-four times before it stopped, and when it stopped was when the vortex disappeared completely, fading off slowly into the blinding, near-scorching sunset. Chance looked directly under himself and noticed the moment he fell down to the level of the place below him, he would be diving head first into a torrential ocean on a rather gloomy-looking morning! He tried to readjust himself so he wouldn’t fall in head-first, but he was falling too fast in order to do so, and the overall moment of him half-way spinning was almost enough to knock him unconscious as he smacked loudly onto the top of the water and not a split second later taking in a huge gulp of the saltiness, feeling the need to throw up afterwards. Chance swam back up to the surface, though kept getting battered back down by the incredibly powerful waves. As all hope seemed lost as Chance took in yet another gulp of salt water and nearly passed out, he noted a figure swimming after him at top speed from a distance. He closed his eyes, falling unconscious as the figure, whomever and whatever it was, appeared right by his side.
Several hours later, Chance awoke in what appeared to be a typical hotel room. The room was done up in a familiar style, one that you would see in a four-star kind of space. There were a couple of lamps and nightstands on either side of the queen-sized bed which he lay down upon. An interesting fern with pink leaves and rippled purple strips stood itself near the tall, sliding, white-painted door. The carpet was a simple dark burgundy, as were the rich bed sheets and pillow cases. As Chance got up out of bed, he thought it a good idea to open up the curtains to see where he was. When he did this, he became absolutely awe-struck, almost to the point of fainting once again! Luckily, as he kept his eyes upon the small but fantastic underwater city that lay before him he managed not to falter.
As soon as he turned around, the door slid open, revealing none other than a brown-colored walrus with a great mustache and menacing tusks. He held his head up high, eyes half-way closed and humming a bit of a summery song, or so it seemed.
When he noticed Chance was wide awake, he said boisterously, “HELLO!!! Welcome back to this place which I call home. I am Wal Walrus and I graduated from the Walrus University in Human-Walrus relations with colors which flew. You may call me Wally if you are liking it.” Wally waddled on towards Chance, moving forward with a singular “plop” of a flipper each second. He moved slow due to his larger stature, though he also moved in a near-elegant way. Examining Chance’s watch, he took it with his teeth and crushed it in between, tasting it one moment and spitting it right out the next. “This is what you may be calling chocolate, no?”
Chance replied with a not-so-exuberant “nope,” afterwards mustering up all the politeness he could towards the awkward sea creature who had just eaten his watch to say, “I go by the name of Chance. It’s nice to meet you, Wally,” he extended a hand, to which the walrus took a moment to examine before slapping it and exclaiming, “high one bro!” This sudden change of attitude bewildered Chance, though the walrus didn’t seem to take notice to it. “Well anyway friend let us go off and explore the town, eh? Is that sounding good to you?”
The reply given by Chance was a simple, “yeah sure,” and with that the walrus wrapped two of its flippers around him, throwing him atop his back and swimming out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the lobby with such amazing and surprising speed that everything just seemed like nothing but a blur of gold, white, and red! All he knew was that during the quick journey something brushed up against him and wasn’t exactly sure what, so that kind of freaked him out a little.
Now then, the town itself as stated earlier was rather small, but what they had was enough. There was a movie theater, a school, a general store, a police department, and a hospital. They were all looking a bit like what you’d see up on our dry land, which was mildly surprising. There weren’t many citizens around; in fact the only visibly obvious ones were a sea turtle and a king crab playing a game of chess outside of their wood-built house which wasn’t even the least bit rotted or falling apart! On either side of the main street, named Pearl Way according to Wally, there was an opening leading to an even more scare, almost dry-looking outskirt area. At either opening was a medium-sized blue sign with some unknown writing on it.
Wal pointed at one of the signs and said out loud in a clear voice, “Yes. Welcome to the Ocean Town of Resting.” Chance raised an eyebrow for a quick moment and thought to himself, “Huh, interesting name,” before moving on and following the walrus back inside of the hotel. They took it slow this time around, Wally toddling along slowly through the gold-and-white tiled lobby where few traveling octopi and lobster roamed about, and up the red-carpeted stairs that seemed more exquisitely prepared than any other thing in the entire building.
Sliding open the room door, Wally sat Chance back down on the bed and advised him to stay put as he entered the bathroom area and made a series of noises, including but not limited to “ARF!”, a lot of clashing metal sounds, and a single nose snort. This went on for about five minutes before Wal waddled back on out of the bathroom with a ton of books that read either “human” or “walrus” off to the side. “These are the books of which I learned human language. It is interesting yes?” Chance replied with a fast “yes” as the walrus returned to the bathroom and threw all of the books back to wherever the heck they belonged.
When the walrus came back out of the bathroom this time around, he wiped some sweat off of his brow and plopped himself up on the bed right beside Chance, making the bed shake for a moment. Not a second later did the legs carrying up the bed crack and break apart, moving the two down a good half-a-foot or so. To this, Wal let out a swiftly-said “woops” before asking Chance, “So as a human you may have questions. Do you or of you doing not?” He sat on this question for a while before nodding his head “yes.” The walrus patted him heavily on the back with one of his flippers while asking in a genial tone, “And what question would that be my friend?”
“Well…” Chance began, “you already explained how you speak English, but is it possible that you can explain how on Earth I, and for that matter you, are breathing underwater?” The walrus chuckled in reply, stating in a nonchalant way, “You know what, Chance, I do not know why it is possible that we breathe under water. It’s just how things go I think.” He let out a great walrus smile, which made Chance in turn let out a little laugh and pat the kind creature on the back.
Meanwhile, back in the corridors, the mystery man in the cloak took note that Chance was awfully accepting of this strange world so far. Nodding in agreement to Chance and his new friendship, the man removed his hand from the pool and strode back to his throne, resting his feet on the ottoman once again. “This seems to be going better than I had thought; and so he knew what he was doing when he said to drop the boy in the ocean.” He let out a light chortle. “I wonder what happens next…”
It was very early in the morning, about three-o’clock in the morning to be exact, and the walrus was already up and ready for the day. He didn’t work much of a job beyond what he was doing right now; and that was helping a human get used to the society through what he had learned during his Human-Walrus relations training. He never knew that it would be this “easy” to get to talk to a human, and being his first real experience with one you could just imagine how Chance must’ve felt.
Wally gently slid a flipper across the boy’s back as he was still fast asleep on the couch, snoring, with one hand under his pillow and the other held beside his face in a clockwise position. Chance slept on his stomach, which probably suppressed the sound of his snore a little, but regardless it was so incredibly loud that Wally couldn’t stand it! The walrus held both flippers over his ear-holes in extreme discontent as Chance ignored him entirely, dreaming on. Without much patience left, Wally took a deep breath and held his flipper high up into the air, a moment later sliding it down through the air with such elegancy one wouldn’t believe it was actually a walrus performing the act if they didn’t see his face! The walrus concentrated all of his strength into the mid-area of his flipper, which slammed right into Chance’s face, rolling him over onto his back and, of course, waking him up! Chance gasped for air, which was somehow existent alongside the water, and looked straight into Wally’s eyes, a hand held over his now reddened cheek.
He kept his gaze and yelled ferociously at the walrus, “What’s your problem?” to which Wally let out a few entirely awkward-sounding chortles (“kekeke”) and replied, “Well, boy, I was just trying to get you up and up off the couch! Please, excuuuuse me, next time I will just be leaving you there for the day for the most part!”
Chance’s maddened gaze changed to one of fear as Wally jumped up into the air, slow-motion (presumably because of the ocean water which surrounded them). He attempted to roll out of the way, though just as he was about to start, the walrus held his flippers outward in a fashion similar to that of an aircraft, and crashed right into Chance. The impact was a lot less intense on Chance than the boy would have thought, though that being said he was still hurt enough to wince and scream, “Ow… OWWWWWW!” He smacked Wally’s cheek hardly with the back of his hand as he crawled out from under the walrus, and then shakily sat back up beside the creature on the bed.
“Much rudeness! Won’t you mind manners which must be yours now?” the walrus said in a strangely calm tone, grabbing a black umbrella off of the grounding and walking out of the room in an “exquisite” way, closing the door ever-so-softly on his way out. Chance simply stared on towards the ceiling and whistled the theme song to one of his favorite television shows. He was sure Wally would return in no time.
It just so turns out that Chance was absolutely correct to assume that Wally would come dashing back into the room within a moment or two, though to his surprise, the walrus did not return empty handed. The walrus walked into the room as if he were human, with two flippers on the floor acting as feet and two flippers acting as his hands, carrying a golden platter that emanated some sort of smell that Chance just couldn’t put his finger on. Wally’s beard also appeared to be suddenly slicked back to make for a more formal look, and all of this was done in less than two seconds, which of course boggled the foreigner’s mind.
When Wally got right up beside Chance, standing a few measly inches away from him, he balanced the platter on one flipper and used his free one to lift the top piece off of it to reveal a scented card. “Read it, I so am daring you to,” the walrus declared.
Chance reluctantly lifted his arm outward and retrieved the card from the platter. The first thing he did with the card didn’t have anything to do with reading it though; instead he sniffed the paper to try and figure out just what the scent was. Even then, its odor was indescribable for Chance’s poor nose. There were too many tropical scents, such as pineapple, coconut, and the typical “ocean wave” scent found in certain candle company’s products, that Chance didn’t stand a chance at fully deciphering the name of the aroma. It didn’t stink badly, but it did bother Chance that he couldn’t figure out what the scent was exactly.
Nonetheless, he held the card back from his nose rather quickly and gazed down upon the writing, which was astonishingly well-written in thin, black, calligraphy that was only hard for him to read because it was so elegant.
“We are to begin our journey today, so please make sure that you are entirely prepared for it. – Wal Walrus”
“Wally couldn’t have written this…” was his first thought, though after all of the words had truly processed through his mind, he looked up toward the walrus and asked, “But where do we go first? I assume you have some kind of travel plan?” To this Wally responded with dropping both portions of the golden platter to the ground below their feet, where it suddenly disintegrated upon the floor’s touch, and then proceeded to slap Chance on the back with both flippers, as if embracing him, and jumping about five feet into the air in a great spiral, creating a water tornado. “What the heck is going on here!?” exclaimed a shocked and scared Chance. All Wally could muster was some odd giggle similar in sound to “Weeheehehehe!” before the tornado picked up in strength and bent backwards, throwing the two right out of their room’s window. However, in the Town of Resting’s true fashion, the window opened itself up in two halves and then widened itself, stretching the wall around it as if it were made completely out of elastic, so that Wally and Chance may just be hurled out of it without breaking any glass.
As the cyclone dissipated, Chance and Wally were just hitting the ground, though because of a technique discovered by the walrus some time ago in which he had Chance grip onto his underside as he held all four flippers out in a plane-like manner, gliding slowly into the sand dunes below. Chance jumped out of the buckets of sand fairly quick and brushed off the excess from his clothing, though Wally was nowhere to be seen. After a full minute or two of searching, he found the walrus some ways further into the dune they were stuck in after the slow-mo crash landing and slowly but surely got him out of there and onto the land. When they looked about their environment, they found themselves surrounded by many dunes quite similar to the one they were lodged in but moments ago.
A hopeless Chance murmured, “Great… what do we do now, you bumbling fool?” to which Wally replied, “We of course will walk miles of many and go on a journey of greatness! Do you not know this is how the walruses like to rolling?” Chance let out a deep sigh and stretched out his sore limbs towards the direction of the sun, which was rippling to and fro with the ocean waves above. “I suppose we have no choice, let’s get going.” He let a split second pass before adding in, “Once again though, where in the heck are we going off to now that we’re here? I mean, if you made us come here on purpose, you must have some kind of idea as to where to bring us.”
The walrus nodded in response and started to turn in constant semi-circles, apparently trying to pin-point a direction. After some time, he looked up towards the sun and determined that the Town of Resting was to the southeast of them, “So, the Town of Resting is in the persuasion of being in the eastern south of our exact area.” Chance sighed again, though this time it was more out of relief than anything, “Ready to start trekking back? Or why not just summon another one of those weird tornado things again to shoot us down there?”
Wally chortled and giggled, amused by Chance’s suggestions, “My boy, the Walrus Spin Storm can only be activated once per day! Recharging is what it does indeed need very much and the such. 150MP it uses!” Chance lifted an eyebrow, “So you’re telling me this is some kind of RPG now? Am I in some sort of underwater ‘Kingdom in Chayns’ parody after all?”
“No, not at all my dear boy! Being of no regard, less, however, I do want to be not going back to the Town of Resting! We have a nice supply of many donuts that can support us on a great journey. How about make it off to the amazing Belvue city, just ten hours walking out in the eastern north direction? These dunes long for the walking of human feet upon them.” Thus, Chance and Wally began their first true adventure together, making way for Belvue, one of the most well-known cities of the world below water. As they spent these hours upon hours of endless walking on the dunes, the sand seemed to hold onto Chance’s feet at times, making it harder for him to walk. “See?” Wally inquired, “the sand is loving you.” Chance replied, “I’d rather not think about the details…”
After five hours, they took about fifteen minutes to rest their feet and eat a couple of the donuts from a seemingly random briefcase Wally brought from out of thin air. They made their way towards the direction of Belvue after their breather and, eventually, one could hear the boomingly upbeat instrumental jazz coming from the fantastical city’s big band. Eventually, near the end of the dunes, there came a blue sign planted right in the sand with plain white writing which read, “Welcome the Belvue City.” Looking up, Wally and Chance found themselves standing right outside of the city’s boundaries.
They slowly walked into the city perimeters and onto one of the main roads when Chance remarked, “No wonder the music got so much louder. It sounds so alive… where are the ones playing these songs?” Wally continued walking down the street, which was in all reality bustling in activity with sea creatures of many sizes and shapes brushing past him and Chance, as if he knew just where he was going to visit first in the city. When Chance’s question hit his eardrums, he chortled and guffawed yet again, much to his acquaintance’s annoyance. “You should be looking up,” he said. When Chance did look up, he was amazed to find fish of various species each carrying an instrument, garbed in truly pleasing-to-the-eye, colorful band clothing.
This whole experience, from the sea turtles and giant squid brushing past him on the street, to the fish playing big band songs in mid-air, and the dancing seahorses swaying back and forth alongside the brilliant musicians, was absolutely amazing for Wally, and doubly so for Chance. “We’re going to the theaters so that we can be watching an operatic showing!” Wally exclaimed, suddenly tossing Chance on his back and running further north, jumping above some of the crowd.
Sooner than later, in a blur for Chance, the two came right in front of the regular-sized, wooden, red doors of the Belvue Theater, which somehow opened for them without so much as a single push, pull, knock, motion detector, or camera in effect. The inside was pitch black from the entrance, and a low, rumbling voice came from deep within trying to sway them to come in. Luckily for whoever was the carrier of the voice, Wally just yelled out, “Okay!” excitedly and dragged his friend along with him into the theaters.
Chance could feel that the floor was the same type of carpet used in movie theaters back home, he could tell the air conditioning was on, and he could smell the scent of popcorn wafting through the air, though aside from that, he couldn’t see or tell a thing more. Near the furthest corner of the main hall of the theater was a single, purple door with a blue light illuminating the otherwise still completely-dark patch of rug outside of it through its asymmetrical, double-paned window. “You’re coming in the right direction, do come in…” the voice further swayed Wally’s curiousity, and the walrus burst through the door with Chance before its sentence was even complete.
Wally’s eyes widened and glistened in awe the moment he and Chance entered the lit-up theater, where they ended up on one of the ornately-designed, Roman-coliseum-looking stone balconies overlooking the stage from above. A three-foot-or-so tall enigmatic figure completely garbed in a night black cape floated down in front of the two, cape flapping wildly in the wind it produced while the figure was on the way to apparently greet the latest Belvue Theater customers, and guided them to their seats without a word to say. Then it was revealed that this being was the one who was speaking to them the entire time, throughout their venture to this portion of the theater, when he spoke aloud to the two, “Welcome to the original Belvue Theater! We’ve added on to this place since then, adding motion pictures to our already impressive list of acting-based… acts, but right here is our heart and soul: comedic operas. Enjoy!”
The mysterious man held showed his stubby hands and placed them over his belly, laughing in his deep, gruff voice near-insanely before floating back off into the distance. At this time, both Chance and Wally ran to the very edge of the balcony to get a better glimpse of the stage below, with Wally grabbing two pairs of opera glasses out of his random briefcase so that they may zoom in on the action.
The music being played on a backing track throughout the current song wasn’t as beautiful as the jazz being played outside, in fact it was particularly thrashing, like chalk being grated against a chalk board mixed with the constant boom of boulders crashing into buildings. This being said, the choir and the lead opera singer below nearly drowned out the backing track, though they were equally as chaotic in their harmonies.
Observing the action going on stage with the actors below, it was easy to see why this kind of tune was designed for the play. A massive, approximately ten foot tall and twelve foot wide ball of yellow feathers, with huge, hungry brown eyes and a great orange bill and webbed-feet was flapping its wings, which were surprisingly small in scale to the rest of its body, gracefully up in the air near some ceiling fan-esque prop. There was an abnormally tall, scruffy man jumping up and down, attempting to grab the creature by the foot and bring it back to the earth. Another normal-sized man was running around in circles, not knowing what to do.
At the end of the act, the creature, which appeared to be a duck, opened its great bill up and vacuumed in the two other characters with little to no struggle whatsoever. More and more characters of different shapes and sizes then kept running toward the duck, perhaps in an attempt to stop it, though they too were sucked up. Suddenly, the duck turned toward the choir and sucked them up as well, and then the lead singer also! Eventually, fish, seals, and even other walrus were running toward the duck in groups to attempt to stop it, but they too ended up being vacuumed in by its immense sucking power.
Afterwards, the figure floated down towards it in an attempt to stop it as well, flying around the creature in speedy circles. Eventually, the mystery man ended up falling to the ground out of pure dizziness, and the duck approached him so that it may suck him up as well. Just as the duck was about to open up its mouth to claim its next victim, Wally jumped from the balcony and straight at the duck, holding all flippers to his sides in a missile-like position. He then commenced to dive-bomb the duck, who let a loud “QUUUAAACKKK!!!!” escape from its mouth in pain and fell on its back, regurgitating the twenty-something victims it had just claimed. Much to Chance’s surprise, aside from being covered in thick duck spit, everyone vacuumed up seemed perfectly fine and made their way off stage and back to wherever they came from. The enigmatic entity and Wally assisted each other in lifting the duck back up, and it was then that the mysterious host told the walrus that the creature was known as the vacuum duck, and that it sometimes went out of control but in general it was a generally happy-go-lucky animal. It was being borrowed by one of the local zoos at the time, and the majority of the stagehands seen were actually zookeepers who helped it live its day-to-day life.
Once the duck was up and back on its feet, it was suddenly very calm, almost uncharacteristically so. The figure floated towards the spot that its feet were looming over when Wally pushed it down and retrieved one, shining silver needle from the ground. “Ah, that seems to be the source of the problem! We need to clean this stage more often for fewer injuries like this one to occur…” As the floating man excused himself and the duck, trying to guide the creature backstage, where he would take it back to the zoo, the duck stayed planted in place, eyes becoming just as wide as they were when it went on its vacuum spree. It stared on towards Wally, as did Chance, who was waiting for his friend to return for him up on the balcony so they could leave the theaters because the duck did in fact spook him quite a bit after the scenario which had just unfolded before his eyes.
The figure allowed the duck loose for a moment, letting go of its wing he was holding onto, and the duck waddled on towards Wally slowly, each step producing a “squeak” sound due to its webs. Opening its great bill yet again, everyone was sure that it was going to attempt to swallow everyone and everything in sight for the umpteenth time, but surprisingly for all of them, it coughed something out onto its tongue and waddled in place excitedly, urging the walrus to grab what it had just coughed out. Wally did so without much hesitation at all, and retrieved two tickets to a famous submarine in Belvue, creatively named the Bel-Sub, which brought curious sea creatures on a trip to the surface to see what the world above was like.
Wally slipped the tickets into his briefcase without a peep and patted the duck on its side softly before exiting down the stage, appearing before Chance on the balcony again in mere seconds. “That never ceases to amaze me,” Chance remarked, cracking half a smile on his face for once. Wally, completely disregarding this comment, mimicked the vacuum duck’s waddling back and forth and asked excitedly, “Do you want to be going on a great adventure to above land right now? It is late out, but it is also still light. Shall we be going? Shall we be going!?” Chance sighed in annoyance, though the idea of visiting the “above land” did interest him. After all, he was from an “above land” as well. All of this, despite seeming so randomly strung together, did seem extremely intriguing, and so the boy agreed to visiting this world above the ocean that very same day, despite already having traveled for thirteen hours.
“Great! We may be leaving now!” Wally gripped onto Chance’s arm with his back flipper and started another mad dash, though now the boy who once didn’t believe in a thing was starting to get used to the fact that he was accompanying a talking walrus. Things were looking auspicious for the man in the cloak, who was still keeping an eye on Chance at this very moment. “Things are running smoothly for our boy after all… Good…”
You see, I've been writing books and have been trying to get my foot through that very tall, very heavy "best-selling novelist" door since I was in the 6th grade, thanks to a heavy dose of inspiration from my teacher back then. I saw this board and figured, "Why not? This place can be a haven for all of my Smash splurges AND writing splurges. Woohoo~!" So, there ya go. This is the first chapter of my latest work, Project Believe, the first in a four-book cycle, written between 2010 and 2011 with whatever freetime I did have during high school. Hope you enjoy it!
~
In the darkest corridors of some faraway land, there stood a tall, wispy figure. Every step he took towards a humongous, stone-carved bowl was one of great strength that pulsated throughout the cavernous aisles. If there was anyone else amongst him at the time, those few steps definitely would have made his presence known, though it was speculated even by the ominous man that any lurkers dare not approach him after that. After taking an unfathomably deep breath, the figure set his jet-black eyes down upon the pool of water which was held inside of the great stone bowl, stating in a low and rumbling voice, “Time and space is such a trivial subject, or at least at today’s current date it is. People are people and that won’t change without someone greater causing the change; for they are incredibly lethargic. It is more than likely that they won’t achieve what they are instructed to on time and the idea of space hasn’t exactly been embraced as of late. The continuums of other dimensions—other planes—of the Earths have been brushed off as something ridiculous. Perhaps it’s time to show that space does indeed exist, once more…”
The mysterious, shadowy figure placed his right hand over the pool of water, and from within it appeared the image of a young, dark blonde-haired American man in casual attire consisting of a light blue shirt with black eagle designs and blue-plaid short-pants. He was doing naught but lying about in his bed as a typical lazy lout would. The digital clock to his left revealed the current time to the figure looking through the pool: 11:45 am. The figure thought to himself, “pathetic,” removing his hand from over the water and letting the image slowly pale away. With a swish of what sounded to be a cloak, the figure walked briskly out of the corridors and into an impending light. As the darkness that once surrounded him was swallowed up by the light, he seemed to disintegrate inside of said light, without a single word whatsoever.
All the while, said American young man was just waking himself up and, in the kind of way a turtle would, got out of bed one limb at a time, eventually plopping himself onto the carpet with a soft “thump.” He took a minute or two, realizing that it was surprisingly rather comfortable. Moments later his mother passed by his bedroom door and knocked hardly upon it, yelling “CHANCE RIVERS! Get out of bed right this INSTANT! When you go back to school, you’re gonna be a senior. Do you think grade-A seniors in high school wake up at lunch time?” Chance rolled his eyes and thought to himself, “Sheesh, at least I’m already dressed.” He jumped back up from off the carpet, his mop-like hair getting in his eyes a little, forcing him to brush it back to the side. He slammed open his bedroom door and slid down the rail (as he was advised not to do), eating a bowl of cereal as fast as he could and running out the front door.
Today was the day Chance and his friends were supposed to see a movie— THE movie, to be exact. It was going to be the senseless blood-fest that only certain “types” of film directors knew how to make and make well. He crossed the street from his house to the park across the way with ease, taking a note of the refreshing breeze. Taking yet another moment, Chance lazily plopped himself down on a metal bench to feel the breeze “from a better angle,” or should his rather lame excuse be if his mother or one of his friends found him there when he should’ve been at the movie theaters by now.
Pushing himself off of the coolness of the metal bench and not paying much of an attention to the world, Chance stupidly decided that it would be a fine time to run across the street. There were no cars on the road just yet, were there? Perhaps it was just the overall happy feeling of the day out on the town thus far that made it so the kid didn’t pay much attention, but from the side of his eye came a tall, blue-and-silver travel-bus. It seemed to be running amuck; completely out of control, and when Chance noticed the bus coming straight at him it was far too late to run away. Instead, Chance stood in place, looking towards the oncoming bus with eyes wide open. The cool wind coursing slowly through his moppy hair, he took what he thought was one last breathe of the air about him, accepting his fate.
He cringed as the bus drew nearer and nearer, feeling a presence amongst the Earth about him. Looking back up, he noticed that everything had stopped in its place! The birds were completely frozen mid-air, there was no more breeze, and the bus had been halted but an inch away from hitting Chance! He took a look at the bus driver’s horror-stricken face staring down upon him, eyes near-bulging from the man’s face, with his mouth wide open, seeming to have been mouthing out something such as “MOVE KID!” This was too awe-striking to believe! What was going on here? Was there some supernatural force at work? Was he already dead? All of these questions flowed through Chance’s mind now. He saw his friends across the street at the theaters, stuck in mid-jump, arms thrown up into the air and tears tracking down their faces. When he tried to make an approach for them, Chance realized that he could no longer make a move either.
Suddenly, the feeling of a force greater than anything he had ever felt before started to palpitate throughout the area. Then there came an incredibly loud screech, forcing Chance to drop to the ground, wincing in pain and holding both hands over both ears. Several thuds were heard as the world grew darker and darker before his very eyes. He was certain that this would be the end of his short, seventeen-year-old life!
The shadowy man appeared behind him, revealing that that was truly all he was: a shadow. Everything from his body to his hair to his clothes was pitch black, and when Chance tried to defend himself by punching at the shadow, to his surprise his hand went straight through it! “Who are you!?” Chance asked, backing away from the ominous being and the frozen bus at the same time, scared out of his mind. “Names are not important,” the man replied, sweeping across his cloak as he did earlier, “I’m here to teach you a lesson.”
“So you’re going to kill me?” Chance was absolutely terrified. “Most certainly not the case actually,” the mystery man replied in a calm voice, “Instead, how about you have some fun? Anything is possible, even here on this Earth it’s possible. But you and your kind seem to not believe that. You’re lethargic to the boiling point and it has annoyed us for too long. One person at a time, you will all learn to embrace your lives with a little more gratitude. This project,” the man pointed an index finger out at Chance, “starts with you.” With a sudden movement of his hand, the shadowy man summoned a vortex of sorts from behind Chance. It was emanating an intense blue similar to the one seen in the fountain, and let out a mystical, rippled pulsation of the same color throughout the street. Chance’s eyes seemed to shrink into the back of his head as he was pulled towards the hole by an intense strength.
He fell to his stomach and scratched at the road, trying to gain a grip. He attempted to hold onto the side of the bus, though that only resulted in the side-mirror being flung off into his face. As Chance recoiled in pain, he let go of the majority of the strength he was using for a split moment, and that split moment was all the hole needed to suck him in completely. A muffled scream was heard as he was swiftly pulled down further and further into the vortex. “Have fun,” the man chuckled, snapping his fingers and disintegrating into the light.
The scene was rewound a few minutes, with a few changes to it. The bus driver would still lose control of the vehicle, though would be lucky enough to not hit anyone and to survive himself. The ominous man wondered what use the human lives would be if he just left them alone. In the end, he considered the final answer to be “absolutely nothing.” Falling back into the darkness of his corridors, he leaned back on a chair not visible to the human eye, and laid out his feet on a glass ottoman. Letting out a sigh and looking out towards the bowl of water, he knew that this would be a crazy ride for Chance. He almost felt sorry for the lazy young man, though he knew that what he did was for the best. He got up from his seat and strode gently across to a glass countertop, taking from a drawer an invisible goblet filled with some form of a fine wine. Sipping it gently, he looked on over to the pool again, letting out an even longer sigh…
Down and down the vortex an unconscious Chance went, a booming voice set on repeat within the depths of his mind; “Prepare for an incredible ride,” said the voice with a calm tone. Moments later, “prepare for an incredible ride,” and so on and so on. The voice must’ve repeated itself at the very least forty-four times before it stopped, and when it stopped was when the vortex disappeared completely, fading off slowly into the blinding, near-scorching sunset. Chance looked directly under himself and noticed the moment he fell down to the level of the place below him, he would be diving head first into a torrential ocean on a rather gloomy-looking morning! He tried to readjust himself so he wouldn’t fall in head-first, but he was falling too fast in order to do so, and the overall moment of him half-way spinning was almost enough to knock him unconscious as he smacked loudly onto the top of the water and not a split second later taking in a huge gulp of the saltiness, feeling the need to throw up afterwards. Chance swam back up to the surface, though kept getting battered back down by the incredibly powerful waves. As all hope seemed lost as Chance took in yet another gulp of salt water and nearly passed out, he noted a figure swimming after him at top speed from a distance. He closed his eyes, falling unconscious as the figure, whomever and whatever it was, appeared right by his side.
Several hours later, Chance awoke in what appeared to be a typical hotel room. The room was done up in a familiar style, one that you would see in a four-star kind of space. There were a couple of lamps and nightstands on either side of the queen-sized bed which he lay down upon. An interesting fern with pink leaves and rippled purple strips stood itself near the tall, sliding, white-painted door. The carpet was a simple dark burgundy, as were the rich bed sheets and pillow cases. As Chance got up out of bed, he thought it a good idea to open up the curtains to see where he was. When he did this, he became absolutely awe-struck, almost to the point of fainting once again! Luckily, as he kept his eyes upon the small but fantastic underwater city that lay before him he managed not to falter.
As soon as he turned around, the door slid open, revealing none other than a brown-colored walrus with a great mustache and menacing tusks. He held his head up high, eyes half-way closed and humming a bit of a summery song, or so it seemed.
When he noticed Chance was wide awake, he said boisterously, “HELLO!!! Welcome back to this place which I call home. I am Wal Walrus and I graduated from the Walrus University in Human-Walrus relations with colors which flew. You may call me Wally if you are liking it.” Wally waddled on towards Chance, moving forward with a singular “plop” of a flipper each second. He moved slow due to his larger stature, though he also moved in a near-elegant way. Examining Chance’s watch, he took it with his teeth and crushed it in between, tasting it one moment and spitting it right out the next. “This is what you may be calling chocolate, no?”
Chance replied with a not-so-exuberant “nope,” afterwards mustering up all the politeness he could towards the awkward sea creature who had just eaten his watch to say, “I go by the name of Chance. It’s nice to meet you, Wally,” he extended a hand, to which the walrus took a moment to examine before slapping it and exclaiming, “high one bro!” This sudden change of attitude bewildered Chance, though the walrus didn’t seem to take notice to it. “Well anyway friend let us go off and explore the town, eh? Is that sounding good to you?”
The reply given by Chance was a simple, “yeah sure,” and with that the walrus wrapped two of its flippers around him, throwing him atop his back and swimming out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the lobby with such amazing and surprising speed that everything just seemed like nothing but a blur of gold, white, and red! All he knew was that during the quick journey something brushed up against him and wasn’t exactly sure what, so that kind of freaked him out a little.
Now then, the town itself as stated earlier was rather small, but what they had was enough. There was a movie theater, a school, a general store, a police department, and a hospital. They were all looking a bit like what you’d see up on our dry land, which was mildly surprising. There weren’t many citizens around; in fact the only visibly obvious ones were a sea turtle and a king crab playing a game of chess outside of their wood-built house which wasn’t even the least bit rotted or falling apart! On either side of the main street, named Pearl Way according to Wally, there was an opening leading to an even more scare, almost dry-looking outskirt area. At either opening was a medium-sized blue sign with some unknown writing on it.
Wal pointed at one of the signs and said out loud in a clear voice, “Yes. Welcome to the Ocean Town of Resting.” Chance raised an eyebrow for a quick moment and thought to himself, “Huh, interesting name,” before moving on and following the walrus back inside of the hotel. They took it slow this time around, Wally toddling along slowly through the gold-and-white tiled lobby where few traveling octopi and lobster roamed about, and up the red-carpeted stairs that seemed more exquisitely prepared than any other thing in the entire building.
Sliding open the room door, Wally sat Chance back down on the bed and advised him to stay put as he entered the bathroom area and made a series of noises, including but not limited to “ARF!”, a lot of clashing metal sounds, and a single nose snort. This went on for about five minutes before Wal waddled back on out of the bathroom with a ton of books that read either “human” or “walrus” off to the side. “These are the books of which I learned human language. It is interesting yes?” Chance replied with a fast “yes” as the walrus returned to the bathroom and threw all of the books back to wherever the heck they belonged.
When the walrus came back out of the bathroom this time around, he wiped some sweat off of his brow and plopped himself up on the bed right beside Chance, making the bed shake for a moment. Not a second later did the legs carrying up the bed crack and break apart, moving the two down a good half-a-foot or so. To this, Wal let out a swiftly-said “woops” before asking Chance, “So as a human you may have questions. Do you or of you doing not?” He sat on this question for a while before nodding his head “yes.” The walrus patted him heavily on the back with one of his flippers while asking in a genial tone, “And what question would that be my friend?”
“Well…” Chance began, “you already explained how you speak English, but is it possible that you can explain how on Earth I, and for that matter you, are breathing underwater?” The walrus chuckled in reply, stating in a nonchalant way, “You know what, Chance, I do not know why it is possible that we breathe under water. It’s just how things go I think.” He let out a great walrus smile, which made Chance in turn let out a little laugh and pat the kind creature on the back.
Meanwhile, back in the corridors, the mystery man in the cloak took note that Chance was awfully accepting of this strange world so far. Nodding in agreement to Chance and his new friendship, the man removed his hand from the pool and strode back to his throne, resting his feet on the ottoman once again. “This seems to be going better than I had thought; and so he knew what he was doing when he said to drop the boy in the ocean.” He let out a light chortle. “I wonder what happens next…”
It was very early in the morning, about three-o’clock in the morning to be exact, and the walrus was already up and ready for the day. He didn’t work much of a job beyond what he was doing right now; and that was helping a human get used to the society through what he had learned during his Human-Walrus relations training. He never knew that it would be this “easy” to get to talk to a human, and being his first real experience with one you could just imagine how Chance must’ve felt.
Wally gently slid a flipper across the boy’s back as he was still fast asleep on the couch, snoring, with one hand under his pillow and the other held beside his face in a clockwise position. Chance slept on his stomach, which probably suppressed the sound of his snore a little, but regardless it was so incredibly loud that Wally couldn’t stand it! The walrus held both flippers over his ear-holes in extreme discontent as Chance ignored him entirely, dreaming on. Without much patience left, Wally took a deep breath and held his flipper high up into the air, a moment later sliding it down through the air with such elegancy one wouldn’t believe it was actually a walrus performing the act if they didn’t see his face! The walrus concentrated all of his strength into the mid-area of his flipper, which slammed right into Chance’s face, rolling him over onto his back and, of course, waking him up! Chance gasped for air, which was somehow existent alongside the water, and looked straight into Wally’s eyes, a hand held over his now reddened cheek.
He kept his gaze and yelled ferociously at the walrus, “What’s your problem?” to which Wally let out a few entirely awkward-sounding chortles (“kekeke”) and replied, “Well, boy, I was just trying to get you up and up off the couch! Please, excuuuuse me, next time I will just be leaving you there for the day for the most part!”
Chance’s maddened gaze changed to one of fear as Wally jumped up into the air, slow-motion (presumably because of the ocean water which surrounded them). He attempted to roll out of the way, though just as he was about to start, the walrus held his flippers outward in a fashion similar to that of an aircraft, and crashed right into Chance. The impact was a lot less intense on Chance than the boy would have thought, though that being said he was still hurt enough to wince and scream, “Ow… OWWWWWW!” He smacked Wally’s cheek hardly with the back of his hand as he crawled out from under the walrus, and then shakily sat back up beside the creature on the bed.
“Much rudeness! Won’t you mind manners which must be yours now?” the walrus said in a strangely calm tone, grabbing a black umbrella off of the grounding and walking out of the room in an “exquisite” way, closing the door ever-so-softly on his way out. Chance simply stared on towards the ceiling and whistled the theme song to one of his favorite television shows. He was sure Wally would return in no time.
It just so turns out that Chance was absolutely correct to assume that Wally would come dashing back into the room within a moment or two, though to his surprise, the walrus did not return empty handed. The walrus walked into the room as if he were human, with two flippers on the floor acting as feet and two flippers acting as his hands, carrying a golden platter that emanated some sort of smell that Chance just couldn’t put his finger on. Wally’s beard also appeared to be suddenly slicked back to make for a more formal look, and all of this was done in less than two seconds, which of course boggled the foreigner’s mind.
When Wally got right up beside Chance, standing a few measly inches away from him, he balanced the platter on one flipper and used his free one to lift the top piece off of it to reveal a scented card. “Read it, I so am daring you to,” the walrus declared.
Chance reluctantly lifted his arm outward and retrieved the card from the platter. The first thing he did with the card didn’t have anything to do with reading it though; instead he sniffed the paper to try and figure out just what the scent was. Even then, its odor was indescribable for Chance’s poor nose. There were too many tropical scents, such as pineapple, coconut, and the typical “ocean wave” scent found in certain candle company’s products, that Chance didn’t stand a chance at fully deciphering the name of the aroma. It didn’t stink badly, but it did bother Chance that he couldn’t figure out what the scent was exactly.
Nonetheless, he held the card back from his nose rather quickly and gazed down upon the writing, which was astonishingly well-written in thin, black, calligraphy that was only hard for him to read because it was so elegant.
“We are to begin our journey today, so please make sure that you are entirely prepared for it. – Wal Walrus”
“Wally couldn’t have written this…” was his first thought, though after all of the words had truly processed through his mind, he looked up toward the walrus and asked, “But where do we go first? I assume you have some kind of travel plan?” To this Wally responded with dropping both portions of the golden platter to the ground below their feet, where it suddenly disintegrated upon the floor’s touch, and then proceeded to slap Chance on the back with both flippers, as if embracing him, and jumping about five feet into the air in a great spiral, creating a water tornado. “What the heck is going on here!?” exclaimed a shocked and scared Chance. All Wally could muster was some odd giggle similar in sound to “Weeheehehehe!” before the tornado picked up in strength and bent backwards, throwing the two right out of their room’s window. However, in the Town of Resting’s true fashion, the window opened itself up in two halves and then widened itself, stretching the wall around it as if it were made completely out of elastic, so that Wally and Chance may just be hurled out of it without breaking any glass.
As the cyclone dissipated, Chance and Wally were just hitting the ground, though because of a technique discovered by the walrus some time ago in which he had Chance grip onto his underside as he held all four flippers out in a plane-like manner, gliding slowly into the sand dunes below. Chance jumped out of the buckets of sand fairly quick and brushed off the excess from his clothing, though Wally was nowhere to be seen. After a full minute or two of searching, he found the walrus some ways further into the dune they were stuck in after the slow-mo crash landing and slowly but surely got him out of there and onto the land. When they looked about their environment, they found themselves surrounded by many dunes quite similar to the one they were lodged in but moments ago.
A hopeless Chance murmured, “Great… what do we do now, you bumbling fool?” to which Wally replied, “We of course will walk miles of many and go on a journey of greatness! Do you not know this is how the walruses like to rolling?” Chance let out a deep sigh and stretched out his sore limbs towards the direction of the sun, which was rippling to and fro with the ocean waves above. “I suppose we have no choice, let’s get going.” He let a split second pass before adding in, “Once again though, where in the heck are we going off to now that we’re here? I mean, if you made us come here on purpose, you must have some kind of idea as to where to bring us.”
The walrus nodded in response and started to turn in constant semi-circles, apparently trying to pin-point a direction. After some time, he looked up towards the sun and determined that the Town of Resting was to the southeast of them, “So, the Town of Resting is in the persuasion of being in the eastern south of our exact area.” Chance sighed again, though this time it was more out of relief than anything, “Ready to start trekking back? Or why not just summon another one of those weird tornado things again to shoot us down there?”
Wally chortled and giggled, amused by Chance’s suggestions, “My boy, the Walrus Spin Storm can only be activated once per day! Recharging is what it does indeed need very much and the such. 150MP it uses!” Chance lifted an eyebrow, “So you’re telling me this is some kind of RPG now? Am I in some sort of underwater ‘Kingdom in Chayns’ parody after all?”
“No, not at all my dear boy! Being of no regard, less, however, I do want to be not going back to the Town of Resting! We have a nice supply of many donuts that can support us on a great journey. How about make it off to the amazing Belvue city, just ten hours walking out in the eastern north direction? These dunes long for the walking of human feet upon them.” Thus, Chance and Wally began their first true adventure together, making way for Belvue, one of the most well-known cities of the world below water. As they spent these hours upon hours of endless walking on the dunes, the sand seemed to hold onto Chance’s feet at times, making it harder for him to walk. “See?” Wally inquired, “the sand is loving you.” Chance replied, “I’d rather not think about the details…”
After five hours, they took about fifteen minutes to rest their feet and eat a couple of the donuts from a seemingly random briefcase Wally brought from out of thin air. They made their way towards the direction of Belvue after their breather and, eventually, one could hear the boomingly upbeat instrumental jazz coming from the fantastical city’s big band. Eventually, near the end of the dunes, there came a blue sign planted right in the sand with plain white writing which read, “Welcome the Belvue City.” Looking up, Wally and Chance found themselves standing right outside of the city’s boundaries.
They slowly walked into the city perimeters and onto one of the main roads when Chance remarked, “No wonder the music got so much louder. It sounds so alive… where are the ones playing these songs?” Wally continued walking down the street, which was in all reality bustling in activity with sea creatures of many sizes and shapes brushing past him and Chance, as if he knew just where he was going to visit first in the city. When Chance’s question hit his eardrums, he chortled and guffawed yet again, much to his acquaintance’s annoyance. “You should be looking up,” he said. When Chance did look up, he was amazed to find fish of various species each carrying an instrument, garbed in truly pleasing-to-the-eye, colorful band clothing.
This whole experience, from the sea turtles and giant squid brushing past him on the street, to the fish playing big band songs in mid-air, and the dancing seahorses swaying back and forth alongside the brilliant musicians, was absolutely amazing for Wally, and doubly so for Chance. “We’re going to the theaters so that we can be watching an operatic showing!” Wally exclaimed, suddenly tossing Chance on his back and running further north, jumping above some of the crowd.
Sooner than later, in a blur for Chance, the two came right in front of the regular-sized, wooden, red doors of the Belvue Theater, which somehow opened for them without so much as a single push, pull, knock, motion detector, or camera in effect. The inside was pitch black from the entrance, and a low, rumbling voice came from deep within trying to sway them to come in. Luckily for whoever was the carrier of the voice, Wally just yelled out, “Okay!” excitedly and dragged his friend along with him into the theaters.
Chance could feel that the floor was the same type of carpet used in movie theaters back home, he could tell the air conditioning was on, and he could smell the scent of popcorn wafting through the air, though aside from that, he couldn’t see or tell a thing more. Near the furthest corner of the main hall of the theater was a single, purple door with a blue light illuminating the otherwise still completely-dark patch of rug outside of it through its asymmetrical, double-paned window. “You’re coming in the right direction, do come in…” the voice further swayed Wally’s curiousity, and the walrus burst through the door with Chance before its sentence was even complete.
Wally’s eyes widened and glistened in awe the moment he and Chance entered the lit-up theater, where they ended up on one of the ornately-designed, Roman-coliseum-looking stone balconies overlooking the stage from above. A three-foot-or-so tall enigmatic figure completely garbed in a night black cape floated down in front of the two, cape flapping wildly in the wind it produced while the figure was on the way to apparently greet the latest Belvue Theater customers, and guided them to their seats without a word to say. Then it was revealed that this being was the one who was speaking to them the entire time, throughout their venture to this portion of the theater, when he spoke aloud to the two, “Welcome to the original Belvue Theater! We’ve added on to this place since then, adding motion pictures to our already impressive list of acting-based… acts, but right here is our heart and soul: comedic operas. Enjoy!”
The mysterious man held showed his stubby hands and placed them over his belly, laughing in his deep, gruff voice near-insanely before floating back off into the distance. At this time, both Chance and Wally ran to the very edge of the balcony to get a better glimpse of the stage below, with Wally grabbing two pairs of opera glasses out of his random briefcase so that they may zoom in on the action.
The music being played on a backing track throughout the current song wasn’t as beautiful as the jazz being played outside, in fact it was particularly thrashing, like chalk being grated against a chalk board mixed with the constant boom of boulders crashing into buildings. This being said, the choir and the lead opera singer below nearly drowned out the backing track, though they were equally as chaotic in their harmonies.
Observing the action going on stage with the actors below, it was easy to see why this kind of tune was designed for the play. A massive, approximately ten foot tall and twelve foot wide ball of yellow feathers, with huge, hungry brown eyes and a great orange bill and webbed-feet was flapping its wings, which were surprisingly small in scale to the rest of its body, gracefully up in the air near some ceiling fan-esque prop. There was an abnormally tall, scruffy man jumping up and down, attempting to grab the creature by the foot and bring it back to the earth. Another normal-sized man was running around in circles, not knowing what to do.
At the end of the act, the creature, which appeared to be a duck, opened its great bill up and vacuumed in the two other characters with little to no struggle whatsoever. More and more characters of different shapes and sizes then kept running toward the duck, perhaps in an attempt to stop it, though they too were sucked up. Suddenly, the duck turned toward the choir and sucked them up as well, and then the lead singer also! Eventually, fish, seals, and even other walrus were running toward the duck in groups to attempt to stop it, but they too ended up being vacuumed in by its immense sucking power.
Afterwards, the figure floated down towards it in an attempt to stop it as well, flying around the creature in speedy circles. Eventually, the mystery man ended up falling to the ground out of pure dizziness, and the duck approached him so that it may suck him up as well. Just as the duck was about to open up its mouth to claim its next victim, Wally jumped from the balcony and straight at the duck, holding all flippers to his sides in a missile-like position. He then commenced to dive-bomb the duck, who let a loud “QUUUAAACKKK!!!!” escape from its mouth in pain and fell on its back, regurgitating the twenty-something victims it had just claimed. Much to Chance’s surprise, aside from being covered in thick duck spit, everyone vacuumed up seemed perfectly fine and made their way off stage and back to wherever they came from. The enigmatic entity and Wally assisted each other in lifting the duck back up, and it was then that the mysterious host told the walrus that the creature was known as the vacuum duck, and that it sometimes went out of control but in general it was a generally happy-go-lucky animal. It was being borrowed by one of the local zoos at the time, and the majority of the stagehands seen were actually zookeepers who helped it live its day-to-day life.
Once the duck was up and back on its feet, it was suddenly very calm, almost uncharacteristically so. The figure floated towards the spot that its feet were looming over when Wally pushed it down and retrieved one, shining silver needle from the ground. “Ah, that seems to be the source of the problem! We need to clean this stage more often for fewer injuries like this one to occur…” As the floating man excused himself and the duck, trying to guide the creature backstage, where he would take it back to the zoo, the duck stayed planted in place, eyes becoming just as wide as they were when it went on its vacuum spree. It stared on towards Wally, as did Chance, who was waiting for his friend to return for him up on the balcony so they could leave the theaters because the duck did in fact spook him quite a bit after the scenario which had just unfolded before his eyes.
The figure allowed the duck loose for a moment, letting go of its wing he was holding onto, and the duck waddled on towards Wally slowly, each step producing a “squeak” sound due to its webs. Opening its great bill yet again, everyone was sure that it was going to attempt to swallow everyone and everything in sight for the umpteenth time, but surprisingly for all of them, it coughed something out onto its tongue and waddled in place excitedly, urging the walrus to grab what it had just coughed out. Wally did so without much hesitation at all, and retrieved two tickets to a famous submarine in Belvue, creatively named the Bel-Sub, which brought curious sea creatures on a trip to the surface to see what the world above was like.
Wally slipped the tickets into his briefcase without a peep and patted the duck on its side softly before exiting down the stage, appearing before Chance on the balcony again in mere seconds. “That never ceases to amaze me,” Chance remarked, cracking half a smile on his face for once. Wally, completely disregarding this comment, mimicked the vacuum duck’s waddling back and forth and asked excitedly, “Do you want to be going on a great adventure to above land right now? It is late out, but it is also still light. Shall we be going? Shall we be going!?” Chance sighed in annoyance, though the idea of visiting the “above land” did interest him. After all, he was from an “above land” as well. All of this, despite seeming so randomly strung together, did seem extremely intriguing, and so the boy agreed to visiting this world above the ocean that very same day, despite already having traveled for thirteen hours.
“Great! We may be leaving now!” Wally gripped onto Chance’s arm with his back flipper and started another mad dash, though now the boy who once didn’t believe in a thing was starting to get used to the fact that he was accompanying a talking walrus. Things were looking auspicious for the man in the cloak, who was still keeping an eye on Chance at this very moment. “Things are running smoothly for our boy after all… Good…”