Otherworldly Beasts : Finding the Royals (ONC Entry)

Chapter 2

"Floufli the Amazing?" Sarah looked at the talking beast on the picture. The gears in her mind working rapidly trying to make sense of it all.

She turned the page over, looking for a battery operated voice box. There was none. She flipped to the very end of the book. "There has to be something that makes the picture talk."

"Oy, oy, little human! Can you open my page please?"

"It's a trick. I know it is. Just have to figure it out," Sarah informed her brother. She proceeded in shaking the book and listened closely for any noise that would direct her to a clue to solve this mystery.

"Please stop. You are making me dizzy and I just had dinner half an hour ago," the muffled voice said from inside the book.

Sarah turned back to the page of the picture. "Floufli or Fluffy?"

"Floufli the Amazing, if you please," the creature replied.

Sarah regarded the beast. It was an unusual creature. Its fur was vertically stripped. Thick magenta and black stripes covering its body head to toe. The fur looked so smooth and soft, Sarah's hands were itching to touch it. Yet, she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Sarah's eyes glided along Floufli's body. The beasts' legs were so chunky that could be easily mistaken for tree trunks of an oak. Floufli had a flat belly and arms so long that almost touched its feet.

Its ears, though small and round, kept shaking around, much like those of a hippopotamus. Floufli's eyes were round and black with extremely long and densely glowing purple feather like eyelashes sprouting from it's eyelids. It had a big head, similar to the size and shape of a gorilla. Its bushy blue eyebrows were almost hidden beneath his eyelashes. A bright lime green snout and thin pink lips. The hair was pitch black and sleeked back.

The beast blinked both his eyes and in an instant the two siblings were no longer in Luca's bedroom. They were transported on the page.

Everything around them was white.

"Wow! You are tall!" Lucas gestured at the beast, raising his arms in the air while he jumped trying to reach Floufli.

"You speak the truth, human boy."

Lucas started to approach Floufli. Sarah grabbed him before he could make it very far. She held both his hands. "Lucas, are you ok?" He nodded.

"What are you?" Sarah questioned.

"I am what I am," was Floufli's reply.

"Huh?" Both siblings stared at him.

"Oh my! Everybeast went on the mission and I am here, stuck with two little humans. Perhaps I wasn't loud enough. The pages must be drowning out the sound somehow," the beast muttered. Floufli took a big breath and slowly but loudly said, "I am what I am."

"Okay, what are you?" Lucas shouted back at the beast.

"Oh dear, this is not going to work out. Perhaps I should sign it out or write it out." Without saying another word the beast turned his back to them and walked into the depths of the page. It's figure becoming smaller and smaller as it put more distance behind it, leaving the siblings looking at Floufli confused. After a minute the beast disappeared from their sight.

"Lucas, pinch me!"

"No."

"Lucas, pinch me. This is most definitely a dream and we need to wake up."

"No, this is not a dream."

"Fine, I'll do it myself." Sarah closed her eyes and proceeded to squeeze the skin on her forearm as hard as she could. Opened her eyes and looked around. She was still standing in the middle of the page. "Hmm, it usually works in the movies."