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Chapter Six

I didn't make it home.

I did make it inside a building, though.

As I was flying, a barn suddenly came into view. I only had time to curl into a ball just before I crashed into a closed window and landed onto something soft.

Spitting feathers out of my mouth, I scrambled into a sitting position, staring into something large and pink.

"Moo!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'd rather not be here," I muttered, pushing the cow's muzzle away. She regarded me with sad eyes and sulkily plodded away.

I looked around. Chickens squawked and ruffled themselves up. Pigs romped around in a tub of mud. Horses chewed lazily on hay and stomped their legs from time to time. It looked peaceful. And so wrong.

"AGAIN!"

I swear, the walls around me shivered. Every animal paused what they were doing for a moment before resuming their activities. Grimly, I stepped out of the box of feathers, wondering why anybody needed a full bin of them. The wooden floor groaned under my weight and started to crackle. My eyes widened, but before I could scramble right back into the feathers, the ground fell away and I was falling.

I landed on something cold and hard. Straining my arms out, I tried to grip onto something, but I slipped off and was dumped on the ground. Shaking my head, I looked up.

Smooth boxes cluttered everywhere, hanging out in groups. They all glared at me, an intruder, in the weak light.

"Welkom to the gam of Chans!" a wobbly voice boomed. I covered my ears, hissing against the ringing pain. "In these game, y'all s'posed to worke together. No on 'erson is goin' to git outta here without them others."

"Can you say it any louder?" I grumbled. Wow, my voice sounded weak in comparison. Silence reigned for a second.

"WELKOM TO THE GAM—"

"I didn't mean it!" I shouted, curling into a ball.

It stopped, but, oh, my ringing ears.

"Anyways," the powerful voice continued, "for this levl, you must crake the cody with these dices. When you figur thems out, you kin git out to them next levl, and halp the nixt 'erson outta theres. You gotta that?"

"As long as you do not speak again, I am good as gold." Help, his speech was going to drive me crazy. I could barely understand him.

"Okiys!"

I groaned. "I guess I am not gold then." Sighing, I turned to the blocks. What I had missed the first time was to notice the dots rambling on each face. On one of them, I counted twenty inverted circles while its next face held three. Obviously, the numbers on them were random.

Walking amongst them, the air felt stale and dry. Cobwebs hung in the shadowy corners and I shivered more from the spooky-ness of this place rather from the non-existent chill.

"Oh my gosh, this is not worth my time."

I froze and groaned. Whyyyy does he keep reappearing like a broken dream?

"Hey—is this thing on?" King asked.

I buried my face in my hands and muttered a weak yes.

"Oh, great. You."

"I am just as happy to see you too, don't worry."

I could practically hear his eyes rolling. "Whatever, Violaceous. Tell me, what room are you in?"

"In a place where all numbers exist, King."

He paused. "Not helpful."

"I'm surrounded by a bunch of dice taller than my head with a voice who speaks bad English and does not know sarcasm. Happy now? How are we speaking to each other anyway?"