Galaxy of the Mustelids: A Spinoff of "The Ferret Universe"

Chapter 4

My eyes opened. I raised my head up, feeling groggy.

I was sitting at a table booth. Wincing, I looked at the window on my left. I saw a bunch of comets passing by. Asteroids of all shapes, sizes, and colors flew in various directions.

My head shot up with a start. "What the?!" I made the window disappear for a moment and I peeked my head outside. It turned out I was on....a train. A shiny, platinum train. It was riding through the galactic space, encapsulated within an air tunnel. The railroad tracks materialized as the train zoomed forward.

"How in the heck...." I couldn't tell if I was more confused or shocked. And I refuse to admit I was scared.

"Well! About time ya woke up, sonny."

I whirled around with a challenging frown. Then I gasped.

An elderly white ferret with black feet was hovering there on the aisle, gazing back at me with somewhat of a mischievous sideways smile on his face. I recognized him as Jedidiah, the oldest and strongest Cosmic Warrior.

Besides Jaden, this old mustelid was another one of the few Cosmic Warriors who chose to wear clothing outside of Cosmic Battle Sessions....although it was clear that he didn't take very good care of such clothing. He was wearing a ruffled, dirty-yellow robe that had a bunch of tears in various places. His tiny ears stuck out of the holes in his hood. The weirdo always had this outfit outside of Cosmic Battles...he never cared for using his Elemental Powers to regenerate clothing.

"Hehe," Jedidiah lashed his tail that stuck through one of the tears of his robe. "Ye better not be sleepin' on the job, boy."

I huffed. "What the heck are you talking about, old mustelid? Where am I?!"

Jedidiah gave a wheezy laugh. He paced slowly back and forth on the aisle as he began to explain. "Yer in the tail of the Mustelid Galaxy, inside this here train I created! This train is s'posed to take us back to the Heart of the Galaxy where we all belong."

I gave a dry laugh. "Dude, I was just at the Heart of the Galaxy. I was trying to fight off those damn wolverines from wreaking havoc in one of my planet's cities! How in the black holes did I get here?!" I gasped, then clenched my fists. "No way....don't tell me Zorro summoned a black hole that took me here!"

"I won't," Jedidiah fixed me with a cheeky grimace. "Cuz that ain't what happened...." his playful smirk slowly faded. A serious look came over his face.

I'll admit, I started to feel a bit intimidated by the scrawny old ferret—that serious expression almost made him look like a serial killer.

"Wyatt, sonny...." Jedidiah's voice was lowered. "There was a Great Cosmic Explosion—it destroyed all the Mustelid Planets at the Heart of the Galaxy. All mustelid bodies were scattered—many became swallowed up by spontaneous black holes that formed, which spat them out at random places throughout the galaxy." He leaned closer to me. "You, Oswald, and Felix are the Chosen Trio who must find all those lost mustelids and bring 'em to this train. Then when we get everyone back to the Heart of the Galaxy, we can all use our Elemental Powers to recreate our planets."

I stared at the old ferret, dumbfounded. I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh or roll my eyes.

So I did both.

"Alright!" I said, giving Jedidiah a cocky smile. "Next stop, rainbow planet! I'm sure I'll find Felix and all the minks moon-dancing there!"

The train gave a sudden jolt and I nearly fell over.

Jedidiah gave a grunt. "Dammit....Oswald!"

The black-footed ferret dashed down the aisle.

I sighed, giving a wry look as I followed him. This is all just a crazy dream. Might as well make the best of this.