Normally Ordinary: Oddness Emerges

Sarah couldn't see anything through the thick, periwinkle-colored smoke which suddenly swirled around her. She could, however, hear someone coughing quite close by.1

'Ummm... is this a new kind of fire drill?' Sarah asked, reaching her hands toward where the water fountain should have been in an effort to orientate herself. 2

Someone attempted to speak; 'W-w-elcome *cough* w-war-rior *cough* of the stars *cough* *cough* Menta! *cough* *hack* Milo, *cough* cut it out already!'3

'Isn't there supposed to be an fire alarm going off?' Sarah continued her query as a soft breeze sprung up and the smoke began to clear. To her surprise, the ornate room emerging from the purple-blue haze was very different from the scuffed school hallway she had been standing in. Over-flowing bookshelves of varying shapes and heights lined the walls of an elliptical room, the ceiling of which was an elaborate cone contrived of mismatched pieces of light and dark colored wood. At regular intervals where the ceiling touched the mostly obscured walls of the room were realistically carved and sculpted representations of fantastic creatures, which stared at Sarah with expressions as surprised as the one she stared at them with. The floor of the room was also made of colored woods, depicting scenes and making mazes in contrasting values that were mostly unfollowable due to the many oriental rugs and intricately arranged chairs, tables (one of which Sarah was clinging to, having originally mistaken it for the water fountain, which indeed it resembled strangely), and seemingly miscellaneous junk. The room had no visible entrances or exits.4

The little white haired man, coughing fiercely and flailing at persistent wisps of the pretty smoke, hadn't really seemed to notice Sarah's confusion yet.5

'Where am I?' Sarah asked in growing alarm.6

'That's more like it.' The little man sighed, breathing deeply and only coughing once or twice. Sarah took a deep breath herself, whether to use it to cry for help or to launch into a torrent of questions, she hadn't decided yet. As it tuns out, she did neither, since she caught up a wisp of the the smoke along with the clear air flowing into her lungs and had to use the breath for coughing, instead.7

'Welcome war- I say, are you all right, my dear?' said the man as, having been composed back into his smile and greeting, he rudely interrupted himself to belatedly ask about Sarah's wellbeing.8

'...Marshmallows...?!' Sarah manages to gasp.9

'Ah... yes... um...' The little man looked confused for a moment, then his face resolved back into its beaming welcome, '*Marshmallows* warrior from the stars!' Clearly, he had misinterpreted her statement.10

'..No,' Sarah shook her head and tried to clear her throat of the lingering smoke. 'The smoke *smells* like marshmallows' she tried to say, the words coming out as a periwinkle-tinged wheeze instead.11

The little man continued beaming as he politely waited for Sarah to catch her breath. His face certainly looked friendly, Sarah decided; 'welcome' and 'be comfortable' flowed almost tangibly from his harmless-looking visage... But then again, surely not all kidnappers were terrifying.12

Once she could breath again, Sarah slowly looked around the room once more, then pinched herself- hard.13

'Ouch!' She yelped, much to the little man's alarm.14

'DON'T SAY THAT!' He cried, leaping forward and clapping his hand over her mouth. 'Do you *want* it to rain in here?'15

Sarah struggled away from him, 'Don't you come near me-' She stopped, the little man was looking at a spot over and behind her right shoulder and muttering something that sounded like 'gesundheit' apologetically under his breath. With an odd sense of foreboding, Sarah slowly turned to follow his gaze.16

Precariously perched upon a pile of parchments was a lizard whose body was the length of her arm, not including its tail. The creature was staring at her with curiously bright and eager black eyes, exuding marshmallow-scented smoke from its nostrils, wagging its tail, and gently flapping its wings.17

'A... DRAGON?!' Sarah wished she would just faint and hit her head hard enough to jar herself awake... however, she'd never fainted before and, unfortunately, was unable to manage it now. If she had, it would have been much easier for the poor characters inconvenienced by her presence there to send her back to the school- but then there wouldn't be a story to follow.18

Perhaps, in the long run, then, it was a thing good she didn't lose consciousness on this occasion.19

"NOT a *dragon*!" The little man exclaimed in horror at her persistant social fauxpauxs [spelling?], "a *Drakin*. A periwinkle one, in fact. Notice his lovely color." The little man was beaming again, somthing which Sarah felt she should have been irritated at, but once again felt strangely comforted by.20

"Let's start," Sarah said deliberately through clenched teeth, "With who you are, and where this is."21

"Certainly, certainly!" The little man exclaimed, "I am Senior Greeter Frephleven, and this," said with a gesture at the reptile, who was looking mildly put out at the shortness of the to-do over the mis-use of the word 'ouch', "is Prenglenklofzipt. Called as 'Milo', for short. We are currently in the fifth experimental library of the 'H' bulding, of course. Though now," He said as the room suddenly whirled away above them, "we are not."22