Chapter 1:Suspicion

While Bob (yes Bob), the fnooglepuss, was eating his strawberry bagels, leaves, and Swiss cheese breakfast, imported by the flying ants that morning, he realised that the sky was a bit darker, a bit greyish, a bit duller than usual. This was unusual, as it was usually a beautiful day. The sun was sunny-as usual, the clouds were cloudy- as usual, but the sky-blue sky wasn’t a sky blue sky- it was…INDIGO! It was still beautiful, but not quite as beautiful as usual. This bothered Bob, finishing his last slice of Swiss cheese, so Bob went to his wife, Julia (yes Julia). He yelped to his wife Julia, “Eyckfefygolia, Julia!” But you probably wouldn’t know what that meant, so I’ll translate as we go along.

So Bob yelped to his wife, Julia, “The sky is dull, Julia!”

Julia was shocked. She looked at Bob, Wide-eyed, for a moment impatiently, then bobbed outside of the sphere (-their bubble home) and gazed up at the sky. She knew this was serious. It had never happened before.

“Goleckeffefybefjee, Bob!”

I mean, “We have to talk to the Royals, Bob!” she cried.

That night, after Sheila and Rupert (yes Sheila and Rupert) had gone to bed, they secretly hired a babysitter called Kennedy (yes Kennedy), and set off to see the Royals.

King Rubin and Queen ZaZa (yes King Rubin and Queen ZaZa) were sitting in their royal seats with their royal ant’s nests, ready for action (or to make them some strawberry bagels-one of the two). When Bob and Julia arrived at about 8:12pm (and fifty-eight seconds), King Rubin and Queen ZaZa were in a particularly bad mood, an unusually bad mood.

“What do you want! WAIT! I don’t care!” cackled Queen ZaZa, drunkly.

“The sky is dull!” cried Julia.

“You heard my ZaZa! She doesn’t care, anyway-what does it have to do with us, we’re not colours, are we?!” exclaimed King Rubin.

The Royals laughed together, with a faint high-pitched chorus of ants in the background. Bob and Julia sighed and dawdled out, angry and confused.

“What’s wrong with them?!” asked Julia rhetorically.

“I don’t know,” replied Bob, “I just don’t know.” rolling his eyes at the ground.

You see, the Royals were usually such friendly folk. That’s why they were crowned. Sometimes they might help you sow the cloud seeds, or bring you some fresh leaves for tea. Maybe even have tea with them, they’d barely ever sit down, not slumped down lazily, like they were that night.

Suddenly, “AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!”

“What was that!” Bob blurted out.

The two of them ran back to the royal judging room, where Queen ZaZa was lying, unconscious on the red carpet. King Rubin stood still for a minute, glaring at his soul mate ,looking horrified.

“Oh well, nice while it lasted.” yawned King Rubin all of a sudden, “It’s been a busy day for me, I’m going to bed, ants, dispose of…um…Rob and um…Rula or whatever.”

“WAIT!!” yelled Julia instinctively.

“What now, I’m tired.” moaned the King, slowly shuffling round to see them slightly.

“What are you going to do about your wife?!” blurted Julia from the spare of the moment.

“Meh, everyone dies eventually.” replied the King carelessly, “Anyway- carry on.”

The ants skuttered towards Julia and Bob, quicker and quicker, growling at them. The couple stepped backwards slowly, until their backs were curved into the wall.

“What do we do now!” whispered Julia through her wrinkled snout.

“Uuuuuuuummm…”

Bob looked puzzled, yet Julia’s lateral thinking saved them both.

“I know!” she cried, “Follow me!”

She grabbed Bob, tail by tail, and dragged him…over the army of ants! They pounced out of the doors, with barely an ant’s bite on them. Julia slammed the door behind her, exhausted.

“Well that was simple, hectic, but simple.” paraded Bob proudly, like he had done it all himself.

Julia gave him a big nudge with her fluffy pom-pom body.

“OH, and well done Julia for… um…”

“Say it!” persuaded Julia.

“For saving my life! Happy?!”

“Very.” replied Julia, smirking widely, like she’d just been cuddled.

“It was pretty simple-they were ants!”

The two of them stared at the floor for a moment, with nothing to say.

Then they suddenly chanted, “What should we do now…-the police bubble!”

As Bob and Julia rushed to the police bubble, they noticed that some of the houses had been popped, and the sun was changing colour. It wasn’t yellow anymore, it was orange! The sky wasn’t even indigo anymore-it was PURPLE! What was happening? Why was it happening? Yet the two of them wanted to stop, to figure thing out for a minute they knew they had to keep on going. At their arrival, the police seemed very different to usual, they didn’t even seem to notice that anyone was there. No the police were too busy raving and eating Swiss cheese to bother.

“Excuse me!” shouted Julia over the sound of other shouting.

The policepuss at the desk didn’t take notice of her, as he was too busy yelling at everyone (same as everyone else, really).

“ExCUSE me!!! EXCUSE ME!!!!!” screeched the angry fnooglepuss.

“Oh, what now!” exclaimed the policepuss grumpily, “I’m busy, can’t you see?!”

“Someone’s knocked out Queen ZaZa!” rushed Julia.

“And?!” said the policepuss sarcastically, shaking his head as if to say, “Why would I care?!”

“What do you mean ‘And?!’” cried Julia, leaning over the desk impatiently.

“I mean…SO WHAT?!” steamed the police puss, standing up in rage, “Now get out.” he grunted, breathing heavily.

“RRRR!!!!” Julia screeched, stomping on the fluffy floor as she stormed out.

Bob followed her, in fear of what might happen if he stayed.

“What was that about?” asked Bob.

You see, as cloud creatures, they’d never shout or raise their voices to anything, as it was as I said, a peaceful place. Well it was.

Julia stopped, shock her head and got a sort of sudden jolt from nowhere. She looked bug-eyed, with not the slightest idea what had just happened.

“Why haven’t we gone to the police bubble yet?” she asked, looking a bit bemused at it, then glaring back at Bob.

“We have.” he replied slowly.

“No, we haven’t…have we?”

Julia glared harder into Bob’s eyes and started shaking her head again getting more violent every shake. Thinking for a second, Julia walked over to the wall pulled her long, fluffy neck, and released. Realising, as a bubble wall, it was bouncy, she pondered back to Bob, unsatisfied.

“Didn’t work, did it?” said Bob, pitifully, wrapping his tail around hers.

“No.” Julia snuffled with her snout, glancing down at her cloudy chicken feet, “What are we going to do now?” she asked dependable on Bob.

Bob rested his head on top Julia’s.

“We collect Sheila and Rupert, then, we fly to the… the …” He paused.

“The what?” Questioned Julia.

Bob stared up to space inquisitively, and slowly rolled his big eyes back to Julia.

“To the See-ers.”