Chapter One: Arrival on Dakadania

It was a happy time at Tony Oldman's home overlooking a cliff near the beach in Bullet Bay, California. He was being visited by his best friend Phillip Douglas, and Phillip's wife Simone. Tony's wife Stephanie had an envelope that she held up to show everyone.

"This is a notice that Tony got in the mail earlier today," Stephanie excitedly announced, "Tony won a Hugo award for his graphic novel Dakadania!"

"Tony, that's fantastic!" said Phillip. "Ever since we were in high school I knew you were going places in the comics industry!"

Tony grabbed a bottle of champagne as his wife Stephanie handed out champagne glasses to the other three. Just as Tony popped the cork and began pouring champagne into the glasses of the eagerly awaiting celebrants, when the doorbell rang. Stephanie walked to the door and opened it, and a beautiful young woman with a tan complexion, long light brown hair, and hazel eyes stood at the door.

"Can I help you?" Stephanie asked.

"My name is Nirvana. I came from a great distance. I would speak with your husband Anthony."

"Tony, do you know this chick?" Stephanie asked, as Tony, Phillip, and Simone tried to get a good look at her.

"No, but let her in! She can celebrate with us!" said Tony.

Stephanie ushered her in, and Nirvana approached Tony.

"Congratulations on your victory!" said Nirvana. "Winning a Hugo award is no small task."

"How did you know about that?" Tony asked. "I only found out myself today!"

"There are many things I know about you!" Nirvana replied.

"Like what?" Tony replied. "And how?"

"I know that you and your wife eloped in Mexico when she was eighteen, but you had a formal wedding six months later where your family attended."

"How could she possibly know that?" Stephanie asked. "Tony, are you involved with this woman?"

"I've never seen her before in my life, I swear!" Tony said. "Nirvana, how did you know that? Not even our closest family or friends knows about that!"

"What I am about to tell you will be difficult for you to believe."

"Try me!" said Tony.

"I am a time traveler from fifty thousand years in the future. I am a college student at a university where I am majoring in sociology and psychology. I am going to give you a device that grants wishes, and can take you anywhere in the universe. Wherever you go, I will monitor you and document your actions, but I will be forbidden to interfere."

Tony picked up a copy of his graphic novel. "Could I travel to Dakadania? The world of my graphic novel?"

"Yes, but it would be dangerous there. I can not guarantee your safety. You might get devoured by one of the thunder children."

Stephanie took Tony by the arm. "Honey, why would you travel there?"

"I want to meet Alicia and Christine, the two main characters!"

Nirvana pulled out what appeared to be a magic lamp, similar to what would be used in a film or play about Aladdin. "Now that I've piqued your curiosity, let me present you with the lamp!" Nirvana handed it to Tony. "You have three wishes, and anyone else who comes into possession of the lamp will have three wishes. Once your wishes are used up, they're gone; you can't wish for more wishes."

"How do you know this lady isn't a fraud?" Simone said. "You should ask her for proof, Tony!"

"Can you demonstrate the lamp for us?" Tony asked.

Nirvana took the lamp and rubbed the side. "Lamp, give me four immortality pills!" Instantly, four blue pills appeared on the coffee table near the lamp. Nirvana picked one up.

"If you consume one of these, you will never be able to die of old age! Distribute them among yourselves."

Tony took one, Phillip grabbed the other three and took one for himself, and gave the other two to Stephanie and Simone.

"Okay, I believe you," said Tony. "But why did you come here today, why choose me to conduct your sociological experiment on?"

"History records that you disappeared on or after today's date. You were the perfect specimen for my experiment!"

"She's right, Tony!" said Phillip. "You've got nothing to lose!"

"What happens if I refuse to participate in your little experiment?" said Tony, taking the lamp from Nirvana and putting it on the coffee table.

"Then you will disappear! Nothing you do can prevent your disappearance! I offer you salvation! You can journey to a place of your choosing!"

"But if I take the lamp and journey to Dakadania and never return, it would be because of your involvement! You're personally tampering with history!"

"The laws of society in my era are different than yours, and don't protect you from being forced into a situation like this." said Nirvana. "I can't be prosecuted for causing your disappearance."

"Well, if you put it that way, it looks like I have no choice!" said Tony, picking up the lamp. "I guess I can journey to Dakadania! If I die there, it will be among characters and a society I forged!"

Stephanie grabbed Tony around the shoulders. "Oh, Tony! Take me with you if you go!"

"I can't!" said Tony. "It's too dangerous, Stephanie!"

"He's right!" said Phillip. "Dakadania is a society populated by sadistic teenagers who are 36 times bigger than we are! And they like to swallow people our size who end up there!"

"Yes I know, Phillip, I've read the graphic novel!" said Stephanie. "Tony would print out each page as he finished it, and I would be the first person to read it!"

"Then you know journeying to Dakadania is basically a death sentence! Once there, it's only a matter of time before Tony gets captured!"

Tony held the lamp and hugged his wife. "It looks like I have no choice. I'd like to take you with me, but Phillip's right, it would be too dangerous! Even my safety isn't guaranteed, and I created Dakadania!"

Tony took a step away from his wife, so she wasn't touching him. He rubbed the lamp, and said: "For my first wish, I wish I was at the hidden nexus point near the entrance portal from Thanatar the disk golf park on Dakadania!" In an instant, Tony was gone, leaving the lamp behind.

"Hey, why didn't the lamp go with him?" Phillip asked, as he picked up the lamp.

"He should've made it his first wish for the lamp to go with him!" said Nirvana. "He left in such a hurry, I didn't have time to explain everything about the lamp!"

"If a Dakadanian gets the lamp, can they make a wish?" Phillip asked.

"Yes!" said Nirvana.

Tony rubbed the lamp and said: "For my first wish, I wish for the lamp to travel with me on my journey! For my second wish, I wish to go wherever Tony is right now!"

In an instant, Phillip was gone, and the lamp with him. Nirvana pulled out a newspaper, and handed it to Stephanie.

"This is a newspaper from six months in the future. Both Tony Oldman and Phillip Douglas are still missing!"

"So that's it?" said Stephanie. "Our husbands are gone to some whacked out land of giants and we're stuck here on Earth without them for the rest of our lives?"

"That about sums it up!" said Nirvana. "I apologize if that inconveniences you, but this project is my junior thesis, and my whole college career is riding on the outcome of this social experiment!"

Nirvana turned to leave.

"Wait a minute!"" said Simone, Phillip's wife. "Can't you give us some kind of a viewer, so we can observe them?"

"Would that be breaking the rules?" Stephanie asked.

Nirvana fished around in her handbag and pulled out what looked like an electronic tablet, and handed it to Simone. "You can observe them with this! If and when they perish, I'll return to take it back from you. I'm not supposed to be doing this, I'm doing it as a personal favor."

"Thank you so much!" said Simone.

"This tablet belongs to both of you, so don't fight over it, share it!" said Nirvana, as she turned and left through the front door.

Meanwhile, it was daytime at a park on Dakadania. The trees, the foliage, and the park benches all existed on a scale thirty-six times larger than they would have been on Earth. Tony was hiding beneath a huge bush when Phillip tumbled out of nowhere with the lamp.

"What are you doing here?" Tony asked.

"You left the lamp behind!" said Phillip. "I had to use up two of my wishes to get here with the lamp!"

"This is a hidden nexus point not far from one of the gates where Christine will enter!"

"She's the cute one, right?" Phillip asked.

"Yeah!" Tony replied. "Alicia is a little older, and will mentor her."

"Won't interacting with them interfere with the story?" Phillip asked. "Couldn't we mess things up?"

"There she is!" said Tony, as he pointed out a 13-year-old girl almost two hundred feet tall who materialized a distance equivalent to several football fields away from them. "It doesn't matter, I understand how Christine thinks, and we'll need that advantage to avoid getting swallowed! Look, there's Alicia!"

A giantess girl a year or two older than the first giantess approached her, and introduced herself.

"Tony, we need to think this through!" said Phillip. "Just because you created Christine and Alicia, doesn't mean we can trust them! Did you have a plan for making first contact?"

"Not really!" said Tony. "I was just going to play it by ear."

Just then, another girl materialized at the exact location where Christine had first appeared.

"Who's that?" Phillip asked.

"I don't know!" said Tony, "I just drew the panel where Alicia introduced herself to Christine, I never anticipated what happened next!"

"So you don't know who that girl is?" Phillip asked.

"No!" said Tony. "But she should meet up with a mentor soon!"

Like clockwork, another giantess showed up and met up with the new girl who had just arrived.

"Hi, my name is Audrey Filchner, I will be your mentor! Welcome to Dakadania!"

"Dakadania?" the girl asked.

"Dakadania is a refuge for runaway kids, where we stay and get tutored until we're old enough to return to Thanatar! What's your name?"

"Caitlin! Caitlin Snare!"

"When I first arrived here, I was greeted by a mentor who tutored me and taught me the ways of Dakadania, and I will do the same for you!"

"Cool!" said Caitlin.

Just then, beneath the bush where Tony and Phillip were hiding, the lamp began to vibrate, and a hologram was projected from the lamp. An image of Nirvana could be seen, larger than life, with a message for Tony and Phillip.

"This is a recorded message for you, Tony!" said Nirvana.

"It's drawing attention to our hiding spot! We'll get captured if we can't shut this thing off!"

"What's that?" Caitlin asked. Audrey turned her attention to the bush.

"It looks like light is coming from that bush!" said Audrey. "Maybe it's tiny people!"

"Oh, there's tiny people here, too?" Caitlin asked.

"Yes!" said Audrey. "But we have to catch them first!"

Both of the giant girls ran toward the bush, which from their perspective was only a dozen or so yards away.

Meanwhile, beneath the bush, the Nirvana hologram was still going strong while Tony and Phillip tried to simultaneously run in a direction that took them away from the two giant girls. Caitlin and Audrey saw them, and raced to intercept them. Caitlin and Audrey simultaneously grabbed Tony and Phillip at the same time.

"According to the rules of Dakadania, they belong to both of us!" said Audrey. "When we get them registered, we will be co-owners. You can hold them if you want."

Caitlin was excited to have captured two tiny people from Earth, and while her attention was on Tony and Phillip, Audrey scoped out the bush and found the lamp. She stood up and walked over to Caitlin.

"I wonder what this is? This must have been what was making the light show!"

To Be Continued!