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

Chapter 8

When I woke up, I was back on the train. I turned to Oswald— he still scribbling equations on the hovering papers and whiteboards.

I realized my heart was pounding. I had to save Mildred! And Jaden, Wendy, and Wayne! This was no time to be stuck in the middle of a stupid dream—especially not after it already distracted me from stopping Zorro!

Before I could let the extreme surge of annoyance cause me to make this train explode, I heard Jedidiah's wheezy laugh. I turned to see him sitting at one of the booths in this passenger car, looking like he was talking to someone.

"Alrighty, then!" The old ferret gave a nod to the empty seat in front of him. "Thanks for the update, Eddard! We'll be on our way!"

I clenched my teeth, fuming. The tables beside me exploded as I lashed my tail.

Jedidiah looked up and grimaced in my direction. "Hey, save the energy for later! We are just about to make our first stop to that planetary chunk up ahead," he nodded at the scene out the window, where a piece of giant land hovered up ahead. "Oswald says he can detect the presence of some mustelids over there. The Forefounders of the weasels, minks, and badgers also confirm that their species are there."

"AGH!" I got up and clenched my fists. "Look, I don't care about saving some dumbass mustelids here! I have REAL mustelids to save back at home—which, by the way, is NOT destroyed by some imaginary Explosion!"

Jedidiah turned to me, a half-smile, half-frown on his face. "Boy....who are you to say the mustelids here ain't real?"

I pointed at him. "You're not real! I just saw the real you in the forest on Weasel Planet. You were fighting off the real wolverines!" I clenched my teeth. "And if I wasn't distracted, thinking about this stupid place, I also could've fought them off before they got a hold of Mildred....and my brother, sister, and Jaden." I stomped my foot. "I need to wake up and save them!" I summoned a baseball bat and hit myself on the head with it. Then I ran into the wall, smacked myself on the face, pinched myself....anything to get me to wake up.

Jedidiah dashed forward and rammed me against the wall. I grunted, wincing in pain. This scrawny, old ferret was much stronger than he looked. I felt another uneasy surge as he glared at me with his creepy, intimidating glare.

"Boy," he snarled. "Yer girlfriend and other fellow weasels....they will die here, if you, Oswald, and Felix don't fulfill your duties to find them....and save them."

I yowled. "You want me to save my friends and all the other mustelids in the galaxy?! Let me wake up so I can fight those wolverines on my planet!"

I summoned a wrecking ball that whipped Jedidiah's fragile body off me. Oswald let out a surprised squeak and scurried away from the blackfooted ferret.

Then I caused the windows to break and the entire passenger car we were in to explode. I soared through the air tunnel, then created another air tunnel that branched away from that train.

I whipped my head to my side, gazing at the galactic space outside the air tunnel. I had to let myself die here. I had to do whatever it took to wake up and not get distracted by these dumb dreams again.

But before I could zoom straight into the galactic space, I saw a weasel body hovering toward me. Its eyes were a complete white, devoid of any color. It was summoning air around itself to keep itself alive, while summoning rocks to deflect the asteroid bodies and space particles that flew around it.

It was an Alienated One. I noticed there were other Alienated Ones floating around me—badgers, stoats, minks....all with whitened eyes.

Then a helmet dropped on one of the Alienated badgers. The helmet had a wire attached to it, and the wire was linked to a hovercraft—a hovercraft carrying four black-hooded wolverines.

I gasped, then snarled. Igor, Zorro, and some of their fellow wolverines were in that hovercraft.

Wait....hang on! I cursed at myself inside. The real Igor and Zorro were back on the Mustelid Planets—I had to wake up and fight them there!

I decided I would allow these wolverines to attack me. Hopefully that would wake me up from this ridiculous trip-dream.

Yet, I ducked as Zorro shot a laserbeam in my direction. Then Zorro typed on his gadget and caused the helmeted Alienated Badger to summon a rock. The Alienated One hurled the rock at me—I swerved aside, just centimeters from having my neck sliced.

I growled, feeling my head throb. I was not going to let myself be beaten by Zorro and the wolverines....not even the fake, dream versions of them.

Zorro ducked as I leapt over him. Soon, I was sending a bunch of twisters, whirlpools, and influxes of random materials at the obstacles their Alienated Ones threw our way.

Then some of the wolverines grabbed my arms. I yowled and struggled, summoning a bunch of bazookas that shot at all the wolverines and Alienated Ones crowding around me. As soon as space cleared and I felt myself released, I zoomed forward, not looking back.

I summoned more air, extending my air tunnel so that I could keep soaring away. It wasn't long until I realized I was getting closer to that planetary chunk Jedidiah said we were heading toward.

I dodged an asteroid that shot by. But I lost my position in the air tunnel and tumbled onto the surface of the hovering chunk of land. I sat up and gazed around—I was on a grassy field. Up ahead were buildings that appeared to be part of a city.

A small squeak made me flinch. I turned and saw a tiny wolverine kit bounding up to me. Her eyes were wide with excitement.

"What the...." I winced.

The kit let out another squeak and bounced around me. Then she snuggled against my flank.

I got up and backed away, but she rubbed her cheek against my ankle. She gazed up at me with green eyes, tilting her head and wagging her silky, black tail. Then she summoned an air tunnel and slithered through it, heading toward a bare tree several yards ahead.

I stiffened. There was a grown, female wolverine standing on that tree. I assumed that was the mother. Like me, she had no clothing over her body. But I had no room for surprise over that—this wolverine was staring at me with unfriendly, piercing eyes....something about those eyes made me feel a strange sense of trepidation.

"Hey..." I raised my hands up as I met her gaze. "Your daughter came up to me. I wasn't trying to do anything."

The female wolverine just gazed at me in silence. She lashed her tail, releasing a flurry of fireballs.

"Ahhh!" I ducked, but then realized the fireballs weren't heading toward me— they were heading to my left, where a meteorite was just about to smash me.

I jumped aside as the fireballs collided with the meteorite, sending it flying away from my direction. Then all the obstacles turned into dust that scattered in the wind.

I winced as the dust blew around my face. I coughed a little, flicking my tail to clear the air.

When I turned to look up at the bare tree, the wolverine and her kit were gone.