"....Unnngh...."

At the center of a huge field in the Oostelijk Countryside, there had been a huge explosion, full of lights and what seemed like fireworks. When the billowing clouds of smoke cleared, five vague unconscious bodies could be seen, all in a crumpled heap. They seemed to be arranged in a circle, and at the center of that circle there sat a strange book, which had this odd glow about it. However, none of this was on the mind of Gillan Ketzo, one of the strangers who appeared in the explosion of lights.

Standing up, Gillan rubbed his head, unaware currently of his surroundings. As his vision cleared, he saw the strangest of people all unconscious around him where he stood.

One of them looked like a teen, but at the same time he had black fur all over his body, with white on the ends of his feet, arms, tail, and neck. His hands and feet ended in very sharp thick claws. He was wearing a red muscle shirt which hung somewhat loose on his body, and a pair of denim trunks, worn and frayed with age. Cat-like ears poked out of his messy brown hair.

A girl of about sixteen was opposite of him. She had long black hair, was wearing a black hoody, and had pale skin. But other than that she looked casual. She was lying on her side, and was breathing evenly as if though asleep.

Next to her, a few feet away, was one of the strangest sights Gillan had ever seen. He was like a regular person, but like the black cat, he was covered in fur, a brownish sort of fur that had white on his lower arms, neck, lower face, and the underside of his dog-like tail. From the waist down he had the body of a dog, making a grand total of six limbs -- he was a taur. He was wearing a shirt that read "Mustang, Since 1964" with red, gray, and blue stripes running across the chest.

Finally, the last unconscious person was a metal man, but there wasn't a single nut or bolt on him. His head was a spherical shape, his eyes closed, but protruding from his head like goggles. He had no visible mouth, and he was easily five feet tall. His light gray metal gave off a sheen that reflected the morning sun. One of his arms was a little bit bigger than the other, ending in a large claw.

Figuring it wouldn't be a good thing to leave them alone, Gillan walked up to the nearest unconscious person, who was the cat anthro boy. After a brief shake, the boy opened his eyes, and looked around, noticing each of the other unconscious people in turn. He sat up, and, with a wonderous look in his eyes, asked Gillan, "Who are you?"

Thinking it wouldn't hurt, Gillan replied, "Gillan Ketzo. Who, may I ask, are you?"

"My name is Kit," said Kit, and got to his knees, and then to his feet. "Do you live here?"

"I was going to ask you the same," said Gillan, crossing his arms. "But no, I don't. Anyway, can you help me wake everyone else up?"

Kit nodded. Gillan strode over to the taur and began to shake him a little while Kit did the same to the metal man. Both of them awoke slowly -- albiet in a different fashion -- and began to examine their surroundings.

"Hey," said Kit to the metal man. "Are you okay? What's your name?"

"I'm fine, and my name is Skerge," said the metal man, despite the fact he had no mouth. "My head feels funny, like I fell from a high place...." He began to rub the back of his head as Gillan proceeded to tap the taur on the shoulder.

"Hey, sleepy!" said Gillan, as the taur began to blink groggily. "C'mon, time to wake up!"

"I'll wake up the girl," announced Kit, as Skerge stared around at everything. He blinked once, and said nothing. When the taur opened his eyes, he sat up, his four feet curling up on the ground, and his upper body standing up straight. He looked around at everyone, and asked, "What's going on?"

"What's your name?" asked Skerge curtly to the taur.

"Jay," said Jay, and looked around again, still slightly tired. His eyes widened somewhat when he saw Skerge, but didn't note on the matter. "But what's going on?"

"I don't think any of us know, Jay," said Kit, as the girl began to stir. "Who are you?" he asked to the girl.

"My name is...." said the girl, yawning. "Knonoko. Who are you?"

"Kit," said Kit. He stood back up and said, "I think we should all just introduce ourselves as not to waste anymore time."

"Who made you boss?" asked Skerge, pointing.

"No one," retorted Kit. "It's just a suggestion. Nothing more." He shrugged.

"Fine," said Gillan, throwing up his arms. "My name is Gillan."

"M'name's Kit."

"Jay."

"Knonoko."

"Skerge."

After a few minutes of an awkward silence, Knonoko spoke up. "Any of you know where we are?"

"Beats me," said Gillan. "Looks to me like we're stranded."

"We can't just sit here all day," said Jay, crossing his arms. "We should try and look for some civilization. When we find a town or something, we can ask around."

"Good idea," said Skerge. He looked at Kit, who was stooped toward the ground. "What's your opinion on the matter, Kit?"

"Hmmm?" said Kit. He stood up, and in his arms was a thick book, about twice the size of a large Webster's Dictionary. "I saw this on the ground....Did any of you drop this?"

Everyone else shook their heads. Kit propped it against his arm and opened it to the middle. After reading a paragraph or two, he announced, "It's just a dictionary."

"Hmm," said Skerge, and took the tome from Kit. "I say we burn it. It has no use to us."

"What? Why?" said Knonoko, and stood on her tiptoe to read the book from Skerge's arms. "Could be useful."

"Gimme that," said Gillan, and took it. "It looks kinda old. I doubt this thing has any worth at all." He propped it open, and flipped through all the pages. He stopped when he saw that the last three pages in the back were completely blank. "And it looks like who or whatever made this didn't do it too carefully."

"Let me have a look," said Jay, and took the book from Gillan. He flipped it over, so the front cover was visible to him. "This definately doesn't say 'dictionary'. It looks foreign."

"What's it say? What's it say?" asked Kit eagerly, standing on tiptoe to reach Jay's sheer height as a taur. "I wanna see!"

Lowering the book slightly so the shorter of the party could see, Jay said, "Umm....Skerge, right?"

Nodding, Skerge strode up to Jay. "What?"

"Do you have like...a translator or something?"

"Yes," said Skerge, his red eyes glowing ever brighter. "I can convert almost any language into any other language."

"Can you decipher this?" asked Jay, and turned the book to face Skerge. "It's in some different language, and I can't pronounce it."

Still on tiptoe, Knonoko and Kit watched as the tome was passed to Skerge. His eyes glowed, and a red infrared laser scanned the front of the book, as Gillan, Jay, Kit, and Knonoko watched in awe.

"It reads, 'Veranderend Woordenboek'." said Skerge, giving the book back to Jay. "In English, that means 'Changing Dictionary,' or 'Changing Lexicon'."

"Changing?" repeated Gillan. "I don't believe it. How does it change?"

"Probably confuses the people who reads it, I expect," said Kit, fingering his chin. He paced around, deep in thought, as Knonoko took the Veranderend Woordenboek and sat down in the grass to read a few sentences. "Nothing out of the ordinary," she announced.

"See?" said Skerge. "It's just a stupid dictionary. I say we burn it right now."

"No no no!" said Kit, and stood in front of Skerge as he readied his weapons to eliminate the Changing Lexicon. "Something as old as that book must be worth something! It's not worthless, it's an antique. We could probably sell it for a lot of money."

"Oh yeah, that'll work," said Gillan. "May I remind you we are in the middle of freakin' nowhere?"

Knonoko sighed as she shut the book. "I wish you guys would stop fighting."

There was silence. Kit opened his mouth as if to retort against Gillan, but he shut it again, as if something had stolen his voice. Gillan did the exact same thing. But they were ignored by the others.

"We could use the sun to see what direction North is." suggested Jay.  "That'd be useful,"

"It's noon," said Knonoko, putting her head in her hands. "We can't tell now. We'd have to wait a couple hours."

"I could use my built-in radar to see where we are," said Skerge. "I could find a large gathering of life signals which would mean a town or a city."

"Good thinking," said Gillan. "Find it quickly. I'm starving." With that, Skerge began to beep with the sounds of a rader looking for nearby lifeforms.

Easily being the shortest, youngest, and smallest, Kit felt a little left out. He quietly took the Changing Lexicon from Knonoko's hands, unnoticed, and began to read from its pages. Taking a spare pen from his pocket, he decided to doodle in the back blank pages.

"Well, guys, this is really wierd," said Knonoko. "Why were we brought here? And do any of you remember what you were doing before we came here?"

"Yeah, actually," said Jay first. "I was....I...was..." he stopped.

"I was at my..." started Skerge, but also stopped midway.

"I remember that...." announced Gillan, but he shut his mouth, unable to remember.

"Wierd," said Knonoko. "So no one is able to remember what they were doing before they came here?"

Everyone shook their heads, except for Kit, who was deeply interested in the Veranderend Woordenboek.

"What about you, Kit?"

"Hmm?" he grunted.

"Do you remember anything from before you came here?"

"Not really," said Kit. He had doodled a picture of a snow cone, his favorite treat on hot days. The sun was beating down on them all: Kit was sweating slightly, Knonoko covered herself in her sweater for shade, Jay was panting, Skerge had the ominous sound of a fan whirring inside of him, and Gillan was fanning himself with his hand.

"Look, guys!" said Kit. "I drew a snow cone!" No one listened, nor did they cared. Again he felt left out, and began to lick the snow cone that he held in his hand.

Snow cone? In his hand?

Screaming, Kit dropped the snow cone. How could it have just suddenly appear there like that? Everyone else jumped in surprise. Skerge said, "What now?"

"L-l-look!" said Kit, pointing at the remains of the snow cone on the ground. "I...didn't...how did that get there? It just....poofed!"

"Poofed?" repeated Jay. "I think the sun's getting to you. Things don't just poof--"

"But I wasn't holding a snow cone before!" said Kit. "Gillan, you remember, right? I wasn't holding anything!"

Gillan had to admit that Kit wasn't holding anything at all while he was unconscious. He explained that to those who were still skeptical.

"It is irrational for things to suddenly 'poof' out of nowhere," said Skerge, as he continued to beep as his radar continued its search for life.

"I have to go with metal man on this one," said Knonoko. "I just don't believe it."

"But I swear, it's the truth!" said Kit. He picked up the book, and said, "I think it was the book!"

"Excuse me?" said Gillan.

"The book!" said Kit. "I drew a picture of a snow cone, and then it appeared in my hand! The book did it! It had to have been!"

Everyone stared at him quizzically. Was he going to be the clown of the group? All of them doubted he was telling the truth.

"Guys, I'm not a guy who lies!" said Kit, his feelings hurt somewhat. "I wouldn't. I just wouldn't, y'kn--"

"I have detected life," said Skerge, and pointed into the distance. "A megalopolis by the name of Ville Noire is located NNW, at approxomately 50 miles away. Walking at about three miles per hour, we'd make it there in a little over two days. Maybe less."

"Well, what're we waiting for?" said Gillan. "Let's get a'hoofin' it." And with that, everyone got up and started following Skerge toward the Ville Noire city. The Veranderend Woordenboek was safely held by Kit, who was the last one in line. As they began their trek to the city, the Veranderend Woordenboek created a new blank page to make up for the one Kit drew on.