The KPL

Branch and Maizy descended into the room where they met Grove yesterday.  He was asleep at the same workstation, drooling on an uppee in his hand.  The room was otherwise empty.

Did he sleep here overnight?  Where's his mom?  Jeez!  Poor thing.

"Hah!  Now we know how Grove broke that table uppee," Branch said with a soft grin as they passed and took the next ramp down.  Maizy could hear the Postmaster shuffling after them, muttering something like, "honestly!"

They entered a long hallway, much like the one leading to the library’s storage room—tall, and wide enough for a dozen kads to stand side by side.

They came to a round, red door—just like the one at the Proscribrary.  Except this one didn't have any fancy locking mechanism—just a regular handle and a sign that said, "KPL: Kad Post Laboratory."

Does a round, red door mean it's a pocket dimension?  What even IS a pocket dimension?

Inside was a huge space, similar to the Proscribrary.  The cork flooring—scorched in several places—met wooden paneling that lined the walls.  The high cork-covered ceiling held so many light-emitting wooden blocks that the place was bright as day.

Standing in the middle of the room was a kad Maizy had never seen before.  He was holding a clipboard and wearing a white poncho with a dark blue tie around his neck.

"Greetings, Postmaster.  Is this the new kaydee with the same tail as Patch Cracker?"  He asked.

"She's the one!"  The Postmaster replied with some excitement.

Maizy stopped to sign, "Dad."

"Yeah, that makes sense.  Tails tend to run in the family."  Then he took a closer look at Maizy.  "Oh, you have two tails!  Amazing!"

Branch rolled his eyes.  "You really should get out more, Glen."  He then turned to Maizy.  "Maizy, this is my brother, Glen.  He's in charge of the lab.  He spends his days trying to find new ways to blow up the Post Office—which is why we needed this pocket dimension.  That way, he can blow up whatever he likes and we won't even notice."

"I cause one minor explosion, and they treat me like I could blow up the whole universe at any moment."  Glen glared at the Postmaster.

"Glen, when you were little, you melted the corkrest.  Twice.  Then later, you blew the reinforced doors right off the previous lab and it shook the whole tree!"  The Postmaster shook her head.  "I'm not taking any more chances.  This is why pocket dimensions were invented.  The swans were happy to help."

Swans?  At the university?  Pocket dimension experts or something?  Maizy was really wishing she could talk right now.

The Postmaster cleared her throat.  "Glen, where's the prototype?  Let's get started."

Glen reached into his poncho and pulled out a small wooden cage.  He placed it on the floor and used the glove on his left hand to make it huge.  It was bigger than the three of them put together!

Then Glen opened the cage and rolled out a strange contraption with a giant wooden umbrella attached to a pole in its center.  He smiled and looked at Maizy.  "This is our latest prototype for heavy-lift operations!"

"Right now, it can only get off the ground a little bit, but the plan is to see if it can go higher with a little help from your gift."  He gestured at the device.  "We wanted to borrow Patch for testing, but it's really hard to get time with that kad!"

"Thanks to you, we can do tests whenever we want!"  Maizy thought Glen was a little too excited.

The Postmaster interjected, "No, Glen.  Maizy's just starting her mandatory service, and I'm not going to let her slack off down here with you all day, every day."  She crossed her arms.  "It wouldn't be fair to all the other kaydees and keedos."

Glen looked genuinely upset.  "But Mom!  Opportunities like this only come once in a lifetime!"

"Nonsense.  Look at how cute and pretty she is!"  The Postmaster pointed at Maizy.  "We'll have more kads with mass tails soon enough.  Maybe memory tails too!"

Maizy wasn’t sure what to make of that statement, so she just squinted at the Postmaster.

"Her other tail provides a memory gift?  Fascinating!"  Glen seemed less impressed and more like he wanted to dissect her.

He decided he could argue with his mom later—and maybe abduct Maizy a few times when the Postmaster was out.  "Fine."  He gestured at the contraption.  "Maizy, hop in the pilot's seat."

She obeyed, instantly reminded how small she was.  The seat was far too big, and the two control handles were well out of reach.

"It was designed with Patch—your dad—in mind," Glen said apologetically.  "But no worries!  For this test, we don’t need the controls.  Just turn it on, make it lighter, and we’ll see how far up you go."  He gave a thumbs-up.

"To start it up, push magic into the seat.  That’ll get the pistons going."

Pistons?  Maizy spotted wooden tubes with cylindrical objects poking out.  Each cylinder had linkages turning a gear, which connected to a shaft running under the seat—straight to the umbrella behind her.

Wait, I have to push magic out of my ass?  Is that even possible?  She clenched her figurative magic muscle back there—and it worked.  The machine roared to life, thankfully masking the sound of the possibly-magical fart she’d just let out.

The umbrella at the top of the machine started slowly bouncing up and down.

Glen chose that moment to explain the machine.  "At first, I tried the oscillation symbol for the pistons, but the prototypes were too weak—they couldn’t move the umbrella fast enough.  Then I thought of using the force symbol.  Turns out, if you put it on a cylinder inside a tube, all the force stays constrained—making it far more powerful."

Branch was impressed.  "Genius!  The force can’t go sideways—it can only shoot straight out!"

"Okay, Maizy, increase your magic output and see if you can make it lighter," Glen said as he pulled something like a ruler out of his pocket.  He undid a latch, and the ruler expanded to be about as big as him.

Maizy obliged—and accidentally let out another magical fart.  Her tail glowed pink, and the whole contraption slowly started gaining altitude—one weird, gentle bounce at a time.

"Don't worry if it starts heading toward the walls.  It should just gently bounce right off.  It's already happened a few times, but I'm pretty sure I've got it well-balanced now, so that shouldn't happen."

He walked up and stood his ruler on the floor a few steps from the machine.

This is kinda fun, Maizy thought.  I wonder if I can get it to the ceiling?  She squirted more magic out her posterior.

The machine started bouncing faster, and Glen didn’t seem bothered at all.  "Ah, trying to make it go up faster?  Haha, go for it!  Let’s see how high it goes!"

It steadily gained height, one bounce at a time, until it was higher than Glen’s ruler.  "Excellent, Maizy!  Keep it going."

It was hard to tell from the Postmaster’s monotone voice, but she did seem impressed.  "Wow.  Glen.  Great job.  This could change everything."

Branch was looking a bit worried.  "Maizy, how are you doing?  Let us know if you’re feeling tired."  She smiled and gave a thumbs-up.

Maizy was almost at the ceiling—Glen was giddy—when something broke.  A part of the machine went careening off and embedded itself in the wall.

"Oh no!  Maizy, stop giving it magic and let it come back down," Glen shouted, and Maizy did so.  The machine rapidly stopped bouncing and began to lurch sideways as it gently fell back to the floor.  Thanks to Maizy's gift, it didn’t seem to sustain any further damage.

Glen hopped up onto the machine and had a look.  "Ah, one of the linkages broke.  Branch, can you help me make a new one?"  Then he thought about it.  "Actually, we should probably remake this whole setup to be more robust.  Maizy didn’t seem to be bothered at all by the weight of the machine, so we might as well make it extra strong."

Branch seemed excited and hopped up on the machine.  "Absolutely!  Mom, is that okay?" he asked, glancing at the Postmaster.

Maizy had never seen the Postmaster smile before.  "Yes!  In fact, you should keep experimenting with Maizy until she’s ready for a nap.  You have my permission to request whatever resources you need, Glen.  Amazing.  Absolutely amazing."

There was a knock at the door, and a tall kad entered.  "Postmaster!  You have a meeting with the Woodmaster!"

"Oh!  Right!" the Postmaster said, and the two left the room.

"This is so exciting!" Glen exclaimed.  "I'm so happy to have you here, Maizy.  I'm going to do my best to get you down here, 'slacking off' as much as possible, hahaha.  You can help me test things, and the rest of the time I don't care what you do.  Just relax and eat grapes."  He smiled and pretended like he was biting into a huge fruit.

"That sounds perfect for Maizy, actually.  She's way too young to be working here.  Mom is such a slave driver!"  Branch still felt bad about it.

"Wait—I thought Mom was just borrowing her for a day.  She's actually making her work?  That's not right!  She's way too young!"  Glen pulled out a chunk of the machine with far too much force as he spoke, and it went flying.

Maizy was still sitting on the seat and wanted to be useful, so she chased after it.  The other two didn’t even notice.

She crawled over to the parts: a piston tube and the cylinder that slid inside it.  They were coated in grease, and Maizy instantly regretted grabbing them without thinking.

The top of the cylinder had the force symbol drawn on it.  She pushed a little magic into it and felt a firm pressure—much stronger than a table uppee.

Stronger, but probably not enough to fly, she thought.  Maybe it’s the shape… or the length?

Without thinking, she shoved the cylinder into its tube and sent in more magic.  The tube shot across the room.  "Oops!"  She ran after it and, upon picking it up, had a great idea.

She set the tube on the floor, slid the cylinder in with a satisfying schlop!, then stood on one leg with the other foot on top.  Balancing, she pushed magic into it.

She rocketed upward, smacking the ceiling.  "Ouch!"  Her mass tail slowed her glide back down.

Branch, catching her collision out of the corner of his eye, dropped what he was doing and ran over.  "Whoa!  Maizy, you alright?"

She nodded.

"What happened?" he asked.

Maizy decided to show him.  She set the cylinder in the tube, just like before, and did the one-legged jump again—this time pushing only a tiny bit of magic.  She still shot to the ceiling, but flipped mid-air and caught herself upside down on all fours.

"GODS!  MAIZY!  YOU'RE A GENIUS!" Branch shouted.

"What's going on?" Glen asked, wandering over with a part in his mouth.

"Maizy just invented something incredible—" Branch grinned.  "—but I think I can make it even better."  He glanced up at her still clinging to the ceiling.  "Maizy, come here.  I need to measure your feet."

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Maizy lay on her back while Branch fitted his new invention onto her feet.  "There—that should do it.  They're sort of permanently attached for now, but we can switch to leather straps if this works."

He set her down in front of him, facing away.  She now wore sandal-like shoes with long cylinders jutting from the soles—centered between her toes and heel.  The soles were thin enough that her claws could still grab onto things, and her foot thumb still had decent range of motion.

Holding her hands from behind, Branch said, "Normally, kaydees and keedos can’t walk on two legs until they’re about two wobbles old, so I’ll help you."

Glen excitedly stood by with a clipboard, pencil ready, eyes shining.  "I'm ready when you are, Maizy, Branch!  If this works, my hopperopter will be obsolete—but I’ll be glad for it!  Progress matters more than accolades!"

Branch laughed.  "You can write a book about it.  Then all our names will recorded—Maizy’s name first, of course."  Maizy giggled.

"Okay, Maizy—make yourself light and push a little magic into the sandals.  Slowly.  We don’t want you hitting the ceiling again."  Branch grinned and let go as soon as her tail lit up.

Maizy shot up faster than she wanted, making herself heavy too late.  She hit the ceiling—not hard enough to hurt, but still embarrassing.

"I told you not to hit the ceiling," Branch teased.

"She was so fast I couldn’t even measure it!"  Glen was giddy.  "We need to take this experiment..."—he paused for dramatic effect—"OUTSIDE!"

Branch grinned.  "What do you think, Maizy?  Want to surprise Mister Fisher?"

Maizy glided down into his arms and nodded vigorously.

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They ran up the ramp from the big hallway, passing Grove at his workstation.  He waved, and Maizy lifted a claw from Branch’s back to wave back.

"Grove!  No—EVERYBODY!  Come outside!  You HAVE to see this!"  Branch shouted.

No one knew what was going on, but happy for the excuse to leave, they all followed.

On the main floor, Branch nearly ran into his mom—who was standing beside the Woodmaster.  "MOM!  By the gods!  Come outside, right now!"  He then turned to the Woodmaster, sat up, and bowed solemnly.

"You should come too, Master," Branch said, suddenly calm.  Very calm.

Glen grinned and called out, "Maizy Debugger is about to make history!"

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A crowd gathered in the courtyard around Branch, Maizy, Glen, the Postmaster, and the Woodmaster, with more kads filing in from all over the tree.

A few tree frogs—Mr. Un among them—slapped down from the canopy.  "What's going on?" he asked.

"I don't know," the Postmaster replied, "but my sons think they’re about to make history."  She paused.  "Glen, did you bring your hopperopter?"

"No, Mom.  Thanks to Maizy, it’s obsolete!  Muwahahaha!"  Glen cackled.

Glen decided this was the perfect moment for a historic speech—one that would be remembered for generations.  He’d given speeches at the university before; he knew how to throw his voice.  He’d even prepared the perfect few sentences on the way here to hype the crowd—to prepare them for this great achievement.  For all of kadkind!

Then Maizy took off from Branch’s back like a rocket.

She didn’t even use her tail gift.  She shot into the canopy, made herself heavy for a moment to halt her momentum, and waved at the young hoppers hanging out up there.  She blew them a kiss, then continued her journey skyward.

Mister Fisher IS up here, haha!  She grinned at him, went nearly weightless, tucked in her arms and legs, and waved.

THIS IS AWESOME!  I CAN FLY!

She zipped around the canopy at high speed, passed the library entrance, soared over the crowd, and shot back up again.  Gasps turned into cheers—half the tree was probably watching.

Then—Mom.

"MAIZY DEBUGGER!  GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Uh oh.