Gnotus

"It's time to get up, my little Debugger," Mom declared.  "We're going to the Post Office today."  She then wrenched Maizy from the blanket dimension—just as she was in the middle of a strange dream about beetle juice.

"Breakfast is ready."

She plopped Maizy down in front of a plate of leaf-green insect larvae—again—but this time, there was something new: A rather crispy-looking grasshopper in the middle.

Maizy bent forward and stretched her front arms like she was bowing before the breakfast gods.  She pointed at the grasshopper, then looked up at Mom and signed, "What that?"

"A swarm of them came through the tree last night.  Our neighbor, Miss Dew caught a whole load of them and dropped off a great big basket for us."  Then Mom leaned in close and whispered like she was sharing a secret, "I used them to make my legendary cookies, but I saved one just for you—it's cooked!"

Cooked?  When did she do that?  Maizy blinked, amazed at her own ability to sleep through seemingly anything.

The grasshopper or locust—whatever it was—was huge, compared to the larvae.  Its body was spilling over the edges of the plate.  Maizy got her nose close to get a good sniff and desire instantly filled her heart.  It smelled great!

She stopped herself.  I must learn to control my instincts!  It took every ounce of willpower she possessed, but she ate the larvae first.

"Wow!"  Mom exclaimed.  "I'm impressed that you could resist!  I certainly couldn't—I already ate four, haha."  She motioned toward the grasshopper.  "Try it!  I want to know what you think!"

Maizy tore off one of its legs and ate it.  The ridges tickled her tongue as she chewed.  She closed her eyes and let her whole body snake with delight.  It was delicious!  All restraint vanished in an instant as she gobbled down the rest of the bug.

Then she did what every kid does after tasting something amazing:  She composed herself, turned toward the gatekeeper of delight, opened her eyes wide, and tried to look as adorably pitiful as biologically possible.  She signed the word, "please."

"Oh my gosh, you're so cute!" Mom exclaimed, then quickly looked away, trying not to be ensnared.  "Sorry, sweetgum, that was the last one."  She pointed at a cookie jar sitting on a strangely short, wide pedestal off to one side of the room.  "But you know what?  My cookies taste even better!"  The jar was absolutely full of cookies.

When did that get there?  Maizy's mouth began to water as thoughts of devouring delicious cookies flooded her mind.

She bolted for the cookie jar as Mom tsked and shouted, "Get control of yourself, my little kaydee!"  She giggled, already anticipating what was about to happen.

Maizy leapt onto the pedestal—only to be flung into the air and launched across the room.  She spun into a backflip and landed on all fours.

What just happened!?  Maizy was instantly snapped back into self-control.  Did Mom use magic to pull me away or something?

It didn't last.  She ran and jumped on the pedestal again, and—just like before—she got thrown off.  This time, she was flung into the wall and crashed ungracefully to the floor.

Mom laughed.  "Haha!  I told you to get control of yourself!"  She sat up, crossed her arms, and added, "That cookie jar is under the protection of powerful Mom magic.  Even if you somehow manage to reach it, you still won't be able to open it."

"Now come here.  I need to get you ready to go out."  She gestured with one hand, and Maizy came.  Grooming was a pleasant activity.

I need to investigate this pedestal thing and come up with a plan, Maizy thought as Mom began combing her fur.

"We might get to see your father today," Mom said idly while she was working on Maizy's tails.

Ooh!  I was wondering about that!  One of Maizy's tails glowed a gentle blue as she curled them in excitement.  She signed, "He moves door?"

Mom suddenly wished she had a memory tail.  "Who told you that?"

"Scary.  Bird.  Up.  Sky." Maizy signed.

"Oh, right!  Mr. Fisher!" it dawned on her.  "Yes, your dad has the same tail you do—the one that makes things heavy or light.  There's a great big safe at the university with a very heavy door.  He's the only one who can open it."  She stopped grooming Maizy for a moment and added, "And Mr. Fisher is nice.  No need to be scared.  His people eat fish, not kads."

Well that's a bit underwhelming, Maizy thought.  He's just some sort of glorified door-opener?

Mom could tell Maizy seemed disappointed in her explanation, so she elaborated, "Your dad is actually amazing.  When he teams up with the Froskin, they're basically invincible.  I saw him fight a gravelback granolith when I was still a Proscribrarian's apprentice and...  Oooh!  Sexy.  That hammer."  She shuddered.

Maizy then did her best to spell out, "F R O S K I N?"

"Oh, right!  Your memory tail makes it easy to forget you only emerged four days ago!  Hehe!"  She smiled proudly at her young one.  "The Froskin are the tree frog peoples that keep us safe.  Think of them like the tree security force."

"Frogs... strong?"  Maizy signed.

"Oh, yes!"  Mom stopped grooming Maizy for a moment to visually demonstrate something.  "They have the magic symbol for hardening on their backs—it's sort of built into their physiology, if you know what that word means."  She then started punching the air.  "They can make their bodies hard as steel, but they can also use it to snap their muscles into place instantly when they punch or kick."

Mom then executed a perfect jumping kick—Maizy was impressed.

She continued, "Not only that, but they have these huge webbed feet.  That webbing can behave like a sharp blade whenever they want.  I've seen Mr. Un—he's the head of tree security—kill a huge boar that was terrorizing the unicorns.  He leapt onto the boar's head and cut right into its skull."  She made dramatic chopping motions.  "Chop chop chop!"

Did she say UNICORNS!?  Maizy was suddenly much more interested in this world.  This place sounds way cooler than I thought!

Maizy sat up in excitement to spell out, "U N I C O R N?"

"Unicorns?  They're... cattle.  But they're smart!  You can talk to them, but..."  Mom paused, trying to find the right words.  "They don't say much.  They're great big animals that eat grass and peas.  They have this long horn on the top of their head that looks like this..."  She drew a corkscrew spiral shape in the air with her finger.

Maizy remembered the cover of the book that had been difficult to shrink.  That must've been a unicorn on the cover.

Her tail glowed blue as she examined the memory; the image came into focus, and the title leapt out at her.

"CURSES"

Whoa!  There are curses in this world?  Then again, it might just be a book of swear words.  Oh!  Maybe that's how you curse someone—by swearing at them!

"Ki ki ki," she laughed.  That must be why keedos and kaydees can't speak!  She continued laughing.

Mom heard Maizy's laughter and raised an eyebrow.  Apparently, she thinks unicorns are very silly.

She shrugged and continued, "The Kittay—I'll explain who they are next—gather milk from the unicorns, and the Chessafolk—they're lizard people—use it to make cheese."  She laughed.  "The Chessafolk are obsessed with cheese.  They're so ridiculous about it!"

"Wait, do you know what a lizard is?"  Mom asked.

Maizy nodded.  When did she learn that?

"What about a cat?"  Maizy nodded again.

"OK, great!  Well, that's what the Kittay are—they're cat people."  She drew a big circle around her head with both hands.  "They have loads of fur around their heads, backs, and arms... but the rest of their bodies are furless!  It's so weird!"  Then she stopped herself.  "I shouldn't have said that.  They're not weird—they're nice."

I could've been reincarnated as some cute cat girl!?  Maizy suddenly regretted not asking WHAT for that.

"The Kittay won't be around for much longer," Mom added with a frown.  "They're all refugees from another world, and they've mostly lost the ability to reproduce.  They can only seem to have female children."

REFUGEES FROM ANOTHER WORLD!?  Maizy’s suddenly achieved maximum curiosity on the nosy kid scale.

She jumped and signed, "Other," "World?"

"Pretty neat, right?"  Mom replied.  "There used to be a great big magic gate that connected Gnotus to other worlds."  Then she sighed.  "It had to be shut down about 250 wobbles ago because of the great calamity.  Grandma remembers that time."  She smiled.  "You'll get to meet her soon.  You should ask her all about it!"

I am DEFINITELY going to do that! Maizy thought excitedly.  We DO have a star gate!  Wait...

Maizy was curious.  "What W A B U L?"

"A wobble," Mom said, making the sign for it, "is what our world does.  It's confusing, because it's not normal."  She thought for a moment, then continued, "Do you know what 'orbit' means?"

Maizy nodded, so Mom went on.  "A normal world orbits its sun, and one trip around is called a cycle, or year."  She held up one finger and ran circles around it with the other.

"Our world doesn't do that."  She changed from circling her finger to moving it side to side in a gentle arc.  "Instead, it goes around to one side, slows down, goes back to the other side, then repeats.  We have nine seasons!"

Maizy looked perplexed and signed, "What!?"

"Hah!  You're not the only one who doesn't get it!  I'm not an astronomagician, but as I understand it, it's because our sun's at the very edge of our universe, and it's traveling away from the center at the exact speed that the universe is expanding.  Which is really fast!"

"It's so fast, in fact, that when our world comes around to one side, it hits the edge of the universe and bounces back."

"Well, that's not actually how it works—it has something to do with how gravity behaves near the edge of the universe—but, close enough.  It's best to think of our world as dangling from our sun via an invisible string, wobbling back and forth.  Like a pendulum—if you know what that word means."

Mom then walked over to her desk and put on her poncho.

"That's enough storytelling.  It's time to go.

Mom pulled a pink ribbon from her poncho, stood in front of Maizy, and did the neck scratch thing again.  Once again, Maizy fell victim to it, lifting her chin as Mom tied the ribbon around her neck and pushed some magic into it, making it hard as steel.

That's when Mom remembered something, squinted her eyes, and looked at Maizy suspiciously.  "How did you get your ribbon off yesterday?"

Maizy just smiled—her face still lit with wonder—and climbed into Mom's pouch.