1 Phase 01: Boy Meets Comrade

Note: If you haven't read the prologue, please scroll up

They brought him to a new Dreamworld the very next night. Ten minutes after he went to sleep wearing the Dreamworlds headband, Dad and the Prayerman brought him through a series of Gates, and before he knew it, Colin was looking rather doubtfully at the front doors of a fat silver building covered with a glass dome.

Beside him, Dad turned to the Prayerman. "Are you sure about this?"

The Prayerman nodded. "It's very popular with kids his age. I think it's the best thing to do."

Colin frowned at him, but Dad said, "It does look very popular, doesn't it?"

They were not the only ones looking at those front doors. About twenty people were crowded around them, adults and children mixed together.

Dad looked around at the people there. "Hey, Tsion… is that them?"

Prayerman Tsion took one look and said, "Yes. That's Nelson and Blake."

{Uncle Nelson and Uncle Blake…?} Colin started to step away but Dad grabbed him and pulled him along at once.

"Nelson! Blake!" Dad waved. "Are your kids joining this World too?"

Colin wished he could run away and hide.

"Of course!" Uncle Nelson roared. "Jonah! Go say 'hi' to Colin!"

Colin clenched his fist. "Dad… I…"

"Isn't this great, Colin? Your friends are here too." Dad said, smiling broadly.

"They're not my friends." Colin tried to explain. "They don't want to play with me."

"Nonsense! You've been playing together for years!"

"Only because you…"

"Hello, Colin." Jonah was all smiles. He still wore his red tracksuit. He looked at Uncle Nelson just to make sure his dad was seeing it.

"Hello, Colin." Alicia still wore her green dress. Uncle Blake patted her head.

"Hi." Larry, still as plump as ever, was the only one who looked a bit uncomfortable. (A/N: these are the three kids from the prologue)

Uncle Blake frowned at him. "Larry, you should learn to be as friendly as your sister."

"Yes, father." Larry replied automatically, but he didn't sound happy about it.

"Hi." Colin told all three of them shortly.

He still remembered the last time he saw them.

{We don't want you there! You're too clumsy!}

But Dad was here, and their dads too. As long as they were here, Jonah, Alicia and Larry would be nice.

Colin stood there and said nothing.

***

Very soon, a loud voice came from the front door of the building they were waiting at.

"Attention, all new Travelers! Welcome to Nakama World! You are about to start a Journey... ah, hang the speech. Let's just get started!"

The front doors opened, and out stepped a row of nurses in pink nurse uniforms, led by a nurse who had a red uniform. The leader was the one speaking.

"Nakama world is a Dreamworld where people live with Comrades. Comrades are animals who become our friends. They help us with all sorts of things. Travelers like you need Comrades to protect them against wild animals, or to capture Wilds and tame them."

She waved at them with a notebook. "I'm Chief Breeder Larissa. All new Travelers, please step forward!"

"Go on." Dad pushed Colin.

Colin stepped forward. Larry was on his right, then Alicia, Jonah, a short boy with glasses, a tall girl with green hair, a girl with black hair, and a boy who wore a yellow scarf.

"Phillip?" Larissa called.

The boy with the yellow scarf raised his hand.

Larissa checked her notebook. "Katrin."

Black-hair girl raised her hand.

"Jonah. Alicia. Larry."

They raised their hands.

"Henry."

The boy with glasses raised one hand.

"Marita."

Green-hair girl waved. "Just 'Rita', please."

At last, Larissa turned to him. "You must be Colin."

Colin nodded slowly.

"Good. Everyone's here." Larissa turned to one of the nurses behind. "Nami, if you will."

The nurse on the far right stepped forward. Nami had long blue hair, and twinkling eyes. "Hi, everyone. Come on in."

***

They followed her into the building, eight new Travelers and seven other nurses.

Behind them, Larissa was talking to all the parents outside. In front of them was a desk with badges on it.

Nami held one up. "These are for you. Wear the badge at all times – it identifies you as a Traveler and protects you from serious danger."

She gave each of them a badge; a white shield with a black 'T' in the middle.

Colin frowned at his. "There's no pin."

"Just touch it to your shirt." Nami said.

Colin touched it to his vest over the pocket. The badge suddenly stuck to it like a magnet.

He looked around at everyone else; everyone was wearing a badge. The other Travelers had white badges like his; the nurses had purple badges.

"Has everyone got badges?" Nami asked.

Everyone had. She led them down the hall into a big lift, round and wide enough for all of them to stand on and still have space to walk around.

It had no buttons.

"Upper floor." Nami said aloud.

The lift obeyed, moving upwards for a short time.

And then Nami turned to them all. "Once the lift opens, you'll find yourself in a place where you can choose your first Comrade. There are different kinds of Comrades here, but only those with a yellow tag on their collars are ready to bond with a Traveler."

Jonah raised a hand. "What do we do when we find one?"

"One of us will be with you." Nami glanced at the other nurses. "Just tell us when you've made your choice."

The nurses separated, one to each of the new Travelers there. Nami stood behind Colin. "Ready?"

"Ready." They answered.

Nami looked up at the lift's ceiling. "Full Open."

The walls and ceiling of the entire lift split into two and fell away to either side.

Colin stared.

***

"This looks like a zoo." Alicia mentioned.

It did look like a zoo. Now that the lift walls were gone, Colin and the others stood in the center of a huge space filled with room after room, floor upon floor like a stadium. Every room had short walls up to Colin's knees, and most held animals.

"How are we ever going to choose?" Henry's eyes were wide. "There are so many!"

"Actually, the yellow tags are only on the lowest floor. The ones nearest to us." Nami explained. "The others never have yellow tags. Some of them already belong with people and we're just taking care of them for a while. Others have to be bought, or earned, or need special conditions to bond with."

Jonah was the first to step off the lift and take a look at the yellow-tag animals around them. Alicia and Larry followed him, as they always did. Their nurses went too.

Henry went the opposite way. Rita went with him.

Phillip turned to his nurse. "Can you tell me about the yellow-tag animals?"

His nurse glanced at Nami, who shrugged. When that nurse hesitated, Nami answered Phillip herself.

"There are basically four choices this season." Nami said and pointed. "That kind is the easiest to get along with."

Nami was pointing at an orange mouse with long, pointed ears. Henry was carrying it in both hands, and it was sniffing at him curiously. There were many more in the room in front of him and Rita, and Rita was bending over the wall to pick another one up.

"It's called a Lynxmouse. Lynxmice have good hearing and a good nose for finding food."

The Lynxmouse gave Henry a twitch of the whiskers and then put on a big smile that looked just like Larissa.

Phillip looked doubtful. "I don't think it can protect me against anything."

"Any Comrade can grow strong, if you raise it right." Nami told him. "But Lynxmice are popular more for their ability to find food than their ability to fight. And like I said; they're very easy to get along with."

Phillip glanced at Colin. Colin glanced back.

"Colorbits are also easy to get along with." Nami went on, pointing to a room filled with rabbits of different colors. "The Pinkbits are the friendliest. Yellowbits are friendly too. Greenbits and Bluebits are less friendly, while Purplebits and Redbits can be a bit hard to get along with."

Phillip frowned. "Does that mean that the Purple and Red bunnies are the strongest?"

"Maybe." Nami shrugged. "But as I've said, it depends on how you raise them. A Pinkbit can be stronger than a Redbit if you raise it right."

"What are the other two?" Phillip asked.

"Squirrels and Spiders." Nami said shortly. "Flying Squirrels, actually… but they can be a bit mischievous and hard to control sometimes. The purple spiders are called Arachnids, and they're popular for their webbing. Farmers like using their webs to protect their plants."

Jonah an Arachnid in his hands. It was the same size as the Lynxmouse in Henry's hands, or the Flying Squirrel in Alicia's. All the starter Comrades were the same size.

Larry was looking at the Colorbits and the Lynxmice, scratching his head. Rita was walking towards the Arachnids.

Colin looked at Phillip and found Phillip looking at him.

Colin didn't know what to do. He shrugged helplessly.

Phillip turned to the Colorbits and studied them a while.

But Colin looked beyond the yellow-tags, beyond the first ring of Comrades.

He saw different kinds of what looked like small dinosaurs. He saw Comrades that looked like walking plants. He saw creatures that seemed to be mixed up entirely. He pointed to one and asked Nami. "What is that?"

"That's a Rhinotle." Nami said, studying what looked like a mix of turtle and a rhinoceros. "Very strong in defense, but not very clever."

"And that one?" Colin pointed.

"That's a Stag Beetle." Nami told him. "Colin, creatures like those are way beyond what you can handle right now. They're much too strong for you. Focus on the ones you can handle first."

"Mice, rabbits, squirrels and spiders." Colin sighed.

"Exactly."

Phillip had chosen a Bluebit, and Larry had picked up a Yellowbit. Rita found the most active Arachnid in the entire hall. It kept trying to climb out of her hands.

Two rabbits… two spiders… a mouse and a squirrel.

Colin looked at the Lynxmice. He looked at the Squirrels.

Easy to handle mice… they're good at finding food… but they're probably the weakest of the lot… Squirrels are hard to control… they're naughty… and they can fly away.

Colin shook his head. "This is hard."

"Just pick one. You can get more Comrades later." Nami told him. "If you want to catch Comrades, the best one here for the job is the Arachnid."

Colin thought about it. "I don't like spiders."

"Well, whatever it is, take your time." Nami said. "You're already the last one."

"Isn't there any other Comrade I can take?" Colin asked.

"There is." A soft voice said from behind him.

Colin jumped. Nami jumped too, and her nurse hat fell off. Both of them turned to see a lady in a white coat; a lady with a blue visor and dark brown hair.

"Michi!" Nami stared. "Where did you come from?!"

"My lab, of course." Michi answered in that soft voice. She looked at Colin intently. "You will do."

And with that, she held out a bundle of fur.

"What's this?" Colin blinked, as she put it into his hand.

And then the bundle of fur lifted out a small sharp nose and blinked at him with soft brown eyes.

***

It was small. Smaller than the yellow-tag Comrades that everyone else had gotten. This one was about half their size, and fit in just one of his hands.

"Hello…" Colin paused, blinking right back at it. Sharp nose… sharp ears… soft eyes… fur. Soft, white fur. It looked like a wolf cub.

It stood up and Colin saw that it wasn't just a white wolf. Its paws didn't look like a dog's or a wolf's. Those paws looked like a cat's. That tail too.

"A wolfcat." Nami told him. "One of Michi's breedings. Colin, don't take it. Michi's breedings don't do very well."

"What's wrong with my breedings?" Michi asked, in that same soft voice.

Nami growled. "Michi, take back your… {product}. It's so small, and it's {white}!"

Colin stared into the face of the wolfcat cub. The wolfcat cub stared back.

And suddenly, he realized something.

The cub was afraid.

"Me too." Colin whispered. "I don't know what's going on either."

Together, they glanced at the two ladies. Nami was giving Michi a lecture. Michi, on the other hand, was studying Colin. At last, she spoke. "Contact me any time."

Nami spoke too. "Colin, that Comrade's not… normal…" she told him. "It's not!"

"That's okay." Colin told her, and even as he said it, he realized the truth. "I'm not normal either."

"Everybody thinks that." Nami told him flatly.

Colin didn't answer her. Instead, he asked the wolfcat, "What's your name?"

Nami coughed. "Um… Colin… they don't have names… not until you give them names."

But the wolfcat looked back at Colin with soft brown eyes and said, "Yip."

"Shiro." Michi said, as she left. "His name is Shiro."

"Shiro." Colin said. "It's nice to meet you."

"Yip." Shiro replied just as politely.

Nami didn't like it. She kept telling Colin why it wasn't a good idea to Travel with Shiro as his Comrade. "Michi's stuff NEVER does well! He's so small, he has to be weak! And…!"

But Colin wasn't really listening. He felt that Shiro was a lot like himself. He didn't know what Shiro could or couldn't do just yet, but he liked the wolfcat.

Nami asked one last time. "Colin, are you sure about this?"

"Yes." Colin answered.

Nami gave up. "Fine. He's your problem." she said. "We better go. Everyone else has already left."

She was right. Everyone else had already taken their new Comrades and disappeared somewhere.

"Where did they go?" Colin asked.

"To register." Nami said. "Follow me."

She brought him across the place to a room under the second ring of animal pens. Inside, was a camera and a soft black tile on the floor.

"Colin, you and your Comrade need to put your feet down on the black plate together to register."

"Put my feet down…?" Colin didn't understand.

"Just one foot each." Nami explained. "We need your footprint and Shiro's pawprint side by side. After that, you're officially registered as Traveler and Comrade."

"Oh." Colin said, and put Shiro down.

Shiro sniffed at the Plate, then turned to Colin. "Yip?"

"Yip." Colin replied, and put his right foot down on the plate. Shiro put his right forepaw on it.

When they took their feet off the black plate, they left one footprint and one pawprint outlined in white.

"There it is." Nami said, giving them a resigned nod. "Those are the first of the many footprints and pawprints you'll be leaving all over this world from now on.

"Your Journey has officially begun."