The sound of Micro’s bare feet splashing through puddles echoed endlessly down the twists and turns of the cave as he walked, following the pixie’s guidance whenever he came to a branch in the rocky corridors.

  “Are you sure this is the right way?” Micro asked the pixie doubtfully.

  “Why do you ask?” she replied curiously.

  “There are no signs anywhere…” Micro said politely, but he was clearly concerned. “Is this… are we not on a road…?”

  As his eyes had begun to adjust to the surroundings, and as he’d started to get used to having eyes, the surface he was standing on became clearer to him. The daunting realization brought him to a sudden stop. He looked around at the cave, dimly lit by the blue light of the caged pixie.

  “What are you talking about now?” Blue laughed. “Do they not have caves and mountains in your world?”

  The shock on his face only multiplied at her confirmation.

  “I thought this was a tunnel…” Micro gasped. “I can’t drive in caves… My tires…”

  His shock evolved into panic as he once again fell to the ground grasping his head.

  “Huh?” The pixie frowned, but the boy was only getting more upset by the moment.

  “I can’t do this anymore!” he cried. “This is wrong! I’m not a bicycle, Blue. I need tires!”

  He gestured to his bare feet in distress as the confused pixie tried to make sense of his dilemma. The overwhelming panic he’d recovered from earlier brought him to his knees once again.

  “Listen, Micro,” she said while stifling her laughter. “Listen, I know this is a lot to take in. How about this? Tell me more about your world. Who is the old man you mentioned earlier? Was he your master?”

  Her soothing words did little to comfort him, but mention of the old man caught his attention. After catching his eye, she waved her hands and continued.

  “Who was he? Did he train you?” she asked again.

  “He was my driver…” the boy lamented. “He fuelled me, drove me, fixed me… We travelled everywhere together…”

  Blue wasn’t sure exactly what he meant, but the warmness in his eyes when he spoke of the old man made her smile.

  “He sounds like a boring—I mean, wonderful fellow.” Blue went on. “How about you tell me more about him while we move, and we’ll see about getting you some tires or whatever as soon as we’re out of this mess?”

  Her reasoning proved effective, and the boy seemed to be coming to terms with his situation.

  “If I’m here, then what is he going to drive…?” Micro mumbled as he composed himself. “But if my body is there, but I’m here, then…”

  “Shut up and move!” Blue snapped. “Still not sure we are going to survive.”

  “Thanks…” He smiled sadly as he picked up the cage. “You’re a good passenger.”

  They continued on down the cave, guided by Blue’s self proclaimed expert sense of direction, but Micro eventually grew tired from the long walk, and his feet were cut and bruised. He came to rest in a large cavern by a pool of clear water. Micro placed the cage at the water’s edge so Blue could reach it. She reached out and touched it with a look of great satisfaction. She didn’t seem to drink any of it though.

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  “Aren’t you going to drink?” she asked the boy who seemed completely uninterested in the water. “Humans still drink, don’t they?”

  “I don’t run on water,” he explained patiently. “That would do terrible things to my engine.”

  “I’m not sure what you drank in your world, but that body is obviously in need of water,” she argued. “Don’t act tough. What’s an engine, anyway?”

  “Like I said, I don’t run on water!” Micro laughed. “After all, I’m a—”

  “You’re a…?”

  Micro paused and looked down at his body.

  “Oh…” he spoke mournfully. “I don’t have a gas tank anymore…”

  “Enough about gas, you odd child,” Blue chuckled. “Just try some and you’ll see. If you can’t take the energy out of the water, drinking it is the best you can do anyway.”

  He hesitated for a while, but after some careful consideration, he did realize he felt thirsty. It was a new sensation, but when he looked at the water, he had to admit it was calling to him the same way an oil change would have in the past. Micro knelt beside the pool and copied the pixie’s method of making a cup with her hand and placing it in the water to fill it. He looked down at the water in his hands, then brought it to his mouth. However, his first attempt ended with him coughing and spluttering as the pixie laughed.

  “You look like you’ve never had a drink before!” Blue giggled and pointed at him. “Come on, tilt your head back a little. Honestly, you’re too much…!”

  Enduring her laughter gracefully, he did as she described and was able to successfully transfer the water in his hands to his newly acquired stomach, a strange but satisfying feeling.

  “That’s not bad,” he said with a satisfied smile, and returned his hands to the pool. After taking a few more sips, feeling refreshed, he lowered his aching feet into the cool water. He closed his eyes and smiled. “Ah, almost like a cool breeze through the grill…”

  “Well, that’s because it’s not air… It’s water…” The pixie shrugged.

  “Do you not drink?” Micro asked.

  “I’m a pixie,” she replied. “Not an animal.”

  “Oh, wait… Does this mean I’ll also need food?” Micro gasped.

  “I don’t know, maybe.” She crossed her arms nonchalantly. “You do already have a core, so you could probably get by on the energy of the world around you if you practiced, though jade cores aren’t super efficient…”

  “And what is that?” Micro pointed at the surface of the water.

  “What are you talking about—” Blue’s eyes widened. “What is that?!”

  A large pair of glowing eyes looked up at Micro from beneath his feet, deep in the water.

  “Is that a pixie?” Micro asked curiously.

  “No, that’s—”

  Without warning, the pool of water erupted with a gigantic splash that swept Micro and the pixie violently back to the edge of the cavern. The pixie coughed and sputtered as the water slowly receded. Micro rubbed a steadily bleeding gash on his forehead, his eyes slightly crossed.

  “Why is skin so soft…?” he complained. “Humans have it rough.”

  As he regained his senses, he realized that the pixies light was no longer illuminating the cave. In its place, an ominous yellow glow nearly blinded him. Squinting, Micro made out the form of a large, yellow object, much taller than himself, towering about him.

  “You come here to drink my water!” the giant yellow creature roared, exposing long sharp fangs that could easily puncture the tire of any vehicle, big or small. “And then you put your dirty feet in it?!”

  Micro stood up and walked over to the cage holding the panicking pixie and picked it up carefully.

  “You should really be wearing a seatbelt,” Micro spoke with concern.

  “Don’t worry about belts right now!” Blue screamed at the top of her little voice. “That’s a Yellow Dragon!”

  “Not a school bus?” Micro looked back at the creature, whose long body was writhing in anger.

  “Why do you not know anything?!” Blue shrieked, but she quieted down as the giant creature turned its gaze toward her.

  “Well, it came to a complete stop, so it can’t be that dangerous.” Micro replied.

  With the cage in hand, he walked back to the edge of the pool and looked up at the great beast.

  “Human child…” the dragon grumbled through its teeth. “I sense no fear in you…”

  Though its eyes were wide with anger, the dragon was intrigued by the lax demeanour of the boy standing before him.

  “I’ve never had a problem with a school bus in the past,” Micro said, then awkwardly smiled. “I’ve never talked to one before though.”