If you’ve followed my stories up to now you’ll have noticed that they don’t follow me. I personally find the mundane life of a writer to not be the source of much excitement, with a missed deadline usually being the biggest event of a given month. I’d rather tell of things that give me a thrill, and hopefully you’ve kept reading because you agree. However, I feel that this is one story of mine worth telling.
I have spent a lot of time moving around this continent and I’d like to consider myself a bit of an expert on the lay of the land, with an insider knowledge of each city. But recently it has been different, places I knew existed seemed to have completely disappeared, towns that I had never heard of cropped up all over. My normal methods of information gathering seemed to no longer be accurate and to fix this my vests map needed to be updated, so after many days of travel, I arrive at the city now known as Ocral.
The last time I was here was only a few moons back, when I needed to find a library with tomes of magic as I was attempting to become a proper human, instead of this foxy version of myself. Goodness and gallyops! The city sure has changed in this short amount of time. It has always been a city devoted to education, but before now I had never seen education as a marketable product to be sold in bulk. Having finally found my way through the mountain path and seeing the city I was amazed. Gone are the many small buildings that created the city. Instead a thick, tall wall has been erected. Inside the walls is the largest castle I’ve ever witnessed. The many libraries that used to comprise much of the city-scape have merged to become the entire city, now one massive building of books and classrooms.
As I walk up to the gates I am stopped by a human and dwarf who are dressed in robes adorned with a variety of scripts and runes, they welcome me to the city and asked how long I plan to stay. After explaining that I am looking to update my maps they tell me to follow the left path to the war rooms. I thank them and quickly speed on my way.
I enter the area known as the war rooms and am immediately in awe. The main chamber has enough head room for one giant to stand on another’s shoulders and still not reach the painted ceiling with their hands above them. The mural on the ceiling is a detailed map of a globe – without dwellings or townships upon it, only the physical characteristics of the world. The floor, made of a green tinted marble and the walls of a deep coloured wood, capture and reflect the scarce natural light beautifully. There are five intricately carved archways leading to other rooms.
Immediately I notice a smaller model of the planet and upon inspecting it I find the familiar landmass of my home. Now recognizing this planet as my own I realize the moons are in the wrong positions and there is one too many.
“What has the cat done this time?” I say aloud, to no one in particular, startling the others in the room. “I need to look at some history books.” I mutter to myself as I quickly ensure I have all my personal effects and hustle out the door.
Normally I wouldn’t be so abrupt so I should explain myself. At this point I’m thinking that green goop either teleported me to an alternate dimension or Science Cat has somehow drastically altered reality. Both thoughts terrify me. It’s bad enough not being in my own body.
It takes two cycles for me to finally find the history section. Turns out it is right next door to the war rooms, now I’m tired and slightly embarrassed. Fortunately I find the appropriate books quickly, and after only a few grains I’m starting to come to the conclusion that I must simply be in the future. I find very quickly that the cat-tastrophy, as it’s called, must be the event that sent me through time. Also that it has had many lasting effects, including a large, permanent wild-magic storm, whatever that is. The extra moon appeared a few hundred years after that, and has been associated with all sorts of strange events, whether this is superstition or if this moon actually has power is something I’ll be investigating when I have the opportunity.
Listener’s Note: I left out references to the Church of the Cat [a group that worships Science Cat] as at the time, and based on the perspective of the writers of the books I was reading, it simply appeared to be an irrelevant fringe group. I have since learned that they play a significant role in many aspects of the world.