The Dimension Wanderer *HIATUS*

Chapter Six ~turbulence~

"Bongo!"

The fingered-penguin in question blinked up at her now, its face the very picture of childish innocence mixed with a tinge of concealed guilt. Aelia clenched her jaw.

"Bongo? I'm not playing games. Now tell me what the heck is going on! How do I help you?" she called. Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat and tried again. "I know you can understand me and I know you can respond. So tell me!"

"Aelia," Kellan said slowly.

Aelia whirled around to face him. "I'm not crazy and I know how it looks. But this has gone too far and I want to know what is going on," she said. A breeze blew a strand of brown hair into her mouth, and she spat it out in frustration.

"Aelia, that's not it." Kellan pointed at Mrs. Spring, who was babbling along on her phone.

"Yes, officer! A whole herd! Yes!"

No. No, no, no. Don't get the police involved. Aelia looked hopelessly to Kellan. "If the police come, they'll take the creatures away," Aelia whispered. Though Tiny the mouses's inprisonment was bad enough, these creatures would suffer far worse if the government seized them. Injections, mutations, and a life behind bars. And that was if the government let the creatures live.

Kellan acted first. He grabbed the phone out of Mrs. Spring's hand, who whimpered and simply sat down on the spot. Hazen awkwardly rubbed her back, leaning away from the chihuahua that bared its teeth at him. Aelia had to give it to him; though small and annoying, the little dog could somehow look pretty frightening when he wanted to. She nudged him with her foot. The chihuahua tried to bite it. Little rat.

Kellan brought the phone up to his face and spoke into it. "Hello? Hi, this is Kellan Bayberry, and I'm taking care of the situation. It's all okay. No, sir, no. I don't need help. It's okay; you don't need to-"

"Kellan..." Aelia grabbed the phone from his hand in turn. "What my friend is trying to say, sir, is that we're afraid Mrs. Spring is a bit senile. She's only imagining things." She waited for the response, chewing her bottom lip.

"Well, miss... Who is this?"

"Aelia, sir. Aelia Wicker."

"Well, Miss Wicker, I wish we could believe that, but we have another account of this as well."

"What?"

"We have another account as well, miss."

"But..."

"We'll be there in five minutes. Don't worry."

The other end clicked off, and Aelia stood still for a moment in shock, then tossed the phone to Kellan. "They have another account."

"What? From who?" Kellan ran over to the railing of the stairway. "There's no one else out here."

"Windows, Kellan. We have windows in our apartments. Whoever saw the creatures must be too scared to come out. I don't blame them." Aelia's hands found their way to the sides of her nose and massaged the skin up and down, up and down. "What are we going to do? Oh gosh."

"First off - if I may made an interjection here, what was that thing you two were talking into? Was that a radio, like the one you were talking about before?" Hazen asked.

"Kinda, sorta, not really," Kellan said. "We'll explain later." He cocked his head. "Do you really not know what it is?" Pause. "Never mind. It shouldn't surprise me anymore."

A creature down below that looked like a walking, horned squid bellowed out a complaint, then fell silent again, its horns turning from pink to red.