//------------------------------// // Night 1: Extra Cozy? // Story: 8 Magic Nights // by The Blue EM2 //------------------------------// Life was fairly quiet in Topeka, Kansas, and Katrina Miller had little to do. The summer was oddly quiet for her, as some of her friends were off in other parts of the world, and others still were occupied with life, work, and other things. It was also a Sunday, so she was back from church (small c, not big C. Small c is the building that rings its bells once a week) with not much else to occupy the sabbath. "Why am I so bored?" she asked. Normally she appreciated all that life sent her, as good things can be given, and then just as suddenly taken away. Her mind drifted to one of her other friends, Tom. Only earlier that summer, he and another friend, Jimmy Hook, had had a crazy few days in Brentwood, California. Katrina hadn't been given all the details, but the fact that the speaker's voice on the other end of the phone was different each time had given her a little clue. Just then, her phone went off, playing its familiar ringtone of My Lighthouse by the Rend Collective. Jumping a bit, she went over to it to pick it up. "Hello?" she asked, not sure who would be calling her at this hour. "Hi Kat!" said the voice at the other end of the line. Katrina instantly recognised it as Tom's voice. "How does life find you in the West?" "Quiet, to be honest," Katrina replied, with a sigh. "Where are you? Wouldn't you normally be in bed now?" "I've just touched down at Orlando Airport," came the reply. "Come again?" "I've just touched down at Orlando Airport," Tom replied. "Jimmy, myself and John Rooke had booked a trip to Walt Disney World from this Monday for 8 days." "Lucky," Katrina said. She hadn't been there in years, although she still had a MyDisney account from when she had booked her Fastpasses. "We've hit a slight snag. John has had to cancel at the last minute, and instead of refunding me, the company is letting me transfer his booking and tickets to a friend. They've also wiped the Fastpass bookings so the new recipient can put in new ones. The question is... would you want to join us?" Tom's offer hung in the air for a moment, before Katrina grabbed it with both hands. "Would I want to join you guys? Count me in!" "I thought you would." Suddenly, a loud bong interrupted the voice. "Blast it. I've gotta go. Jimmy's flight is due in any minute now, and I need to pick up the hire car. The details will be moved to your account, all you need to worry about is booking a flight and your Fastpasses!" The line went quiet. Katrina looked around in disbelief. This wasn't happening, right? She pinched herself to check she wasn't dreaming. Sure enough, she wasn't. She sat down at her laptop, and, after finding her login details for MyDisney, went onto her account. After all, she had her Fastpasses (and a flight) to book. The plane touched down the next day at Orlando International Airport, at 5 in the afternoon. After stumbling off the plane and finding her suitcase flying around on the carousel, Katrina wandered out into the exit hall, to see a very familiar face standing there. The same brown eyes and hair, combined with a blue shirt and grey pants, though they had last seen each other a little over a year ago. "Am I glad to see you!" Tom exclaimed. "Was the flight OK?" "As good as it could have been," Katrina replied. "Flying never was my style, as it gives me back ache." "Same," Tom mused. "Shall we be heading to the park? We're booked into the Grand Floridian, and Jimmy's already there setting stuff up for you." "Anything odd happen?" Katrina asked. "If by 'odd', you mean 'spontaneous transformation into children's cartoon characters, then no," Tom replied. "Shall we get going? My first booking kicks in at 8, on Soarin' Across the World." "Sure, by all means!" Katrina exclaimed. Extending the handle, she and Tom set off for the parking lot. The car rolled into the entrance gate, underneath a monorail line. A monorail whooshed over and headed off into the distance, another load of happy passengers on board. "Those are the new Mark VI's!" Tom exclaimed, as the Cars soundtrack blasted from the speakers. "They have those working all the lines on the resort monorail system, as well as the Epcot shuttle!" "If you say so!" Katrina replied, grinning with glee at the scene all around her. Ever since she had been a kid, she had loved most things Disney related. This had never gone away, and even now in adulthood (18) that had never gone away. Neither had the narrator's habit of repeating himself. Tom took a side road, and then drove to the parking lot of the Grand Floridian. He stopped the engine, and got out of the driver's seat. "Well?" he asked. "What are you waiting for? Adventure awaits!" And he went around the back and opened the boot so that he could help Katrina retrieve her bags. After a short walk through the halls to the rooms (check in was easy), they arrived at rooms 102, 103, and 104. Having rooms close to one another was a smart move, as it meant that they could easily talk to one another or coordinate. As they stopped, a man with long, messy brown hair and red glassed stepped out of room 104. He had brown eyes, and was wearing a red polo shirt, white shorts, and white trainers. "Ah, Tom!" he said, in his distinct and cheerful American accent. "I've just finished setting up your room! The lights are a little awkward, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem." "Indeed," Tom replied. "Katrina, you're in 102, Jimmy's in 103, and I'm in 104. That way, we can easily stay in touch. Speaking of which, we'd probably best be off into the parks as soon as you're done unpacking. I need to get to Soarin'." "I need to head to Space Mountain," Jimmy added. "My slot runs out at 7." "Good thing it's the next stop on the route, eh?" Tom replied. "Katrina, you told me your first Fastpass is in Animal Kingdom. That's not on the monorail system, so you'll need to take the bus. Make sure to get on the right one, or else you may end up in Disney Springs!" Katrina nodded, and then went into her room. After getting changed and having a shower, Katrina caught the bus to Animal Kingdom. It was a relatively smooth ride, given the dreadful reputation of WDW buses, but Katrina didn't complain. It was that or drive, something she wanted to avoid or else incur a $25 parking charge. That would really cut into her finances. As she hopped off the bus and walked past the Tree of Life, a host of happy memoriea of coming here with her family flooded back into her mind. Those had been some of the happiest days she remembered, but they were always in her heart. Enough referencing Tarzan. As Katrina walked into Dinoland, USA, she wondered what it would be like to be a little kid again. She really should have been more careful what she wished for. As Katrina walked toward the Fastpass+ line for Dinosaur, she suddenly felt her shoe come loose. Assuming the laces had come undone, she stopped to tie them up, only for it to fall off entirely. As she looked in confusion, her socks became loose as well. She could clearly see her toes moving back in her socks. She could also feel it. Her feet were shrinking! Letting out a high pitched, girlish shriek, Katrina ran for a nearby tree as the world started getting bigger around her. She dived into cover, the inches melting away off her height, before it stopped. Her clothes hung loosely off her body, and she grimaced as her hips narrowed and her breasts shrank. To any bystander, she looked like a preteen girl. Her skin turned pink and her eyes changed from their usual hazel tone to red. Her hair shrank up her back, and began to grow again on top of her head, forming into a vast maze of curls. It then turned an icy blue colour, compared to the usual brown. As Katrina was still unable to process a single coherent thought as to what was happening, her clothes began changing. Her shirt turned white from grey to white, gaining a colour, and becoming softer. Her jeans shrank onto her body before the legs merged together, making a skirt, and shrank up to just above her knees. The zip and button vanished, and the skirt turned green. Then, more green fabric began to grow, snaking up her front and back before joining together on the tops of her shoulders but leaving the top button exsposed, making a sleeveless dress. As her shoes transformed into a pair of black formal shoes, a white hairband appeared in her hair, completing the transformation. Katrina went over to a puddle to try and process what on Earth had just happened. Cozy Glow looked right back at her. Cozy looked around her. "Well, I'd better get in line!" she exclaimed, before heading off to the Fastpass line and checking her Magic Band was still secure. She'd hate to lose it. After successfully scanning her Magic Band at the start of the line, Cozy joined the line and walked in. The staff were probably used to kids joining queues, hence their lack of surprise at her age. As she walked through the queue, she looked in interest at the galleries and displays on the prehistoric world they were about to enter. "Look!" a boy shouted, pointing to the central dinosaur in the main atrium. "A T-Rex!" Cozy giggled. "T-Rex's don't have horns, silly!" she said. "That's a Carnataur. Or, 'meat eating bull', in Greek." "Interesting," said the boy's mother, who up to this point had been trying to keep her daughter under control. "What's your name?" "Ka- er, I mean Cozy Glow, ma'am!" Cozy replied, trying to save face as best she could. "That name rings a bell," the woman replied, focusing her attention on her daughter again. "These creatures eat misbehaving children, which will include you if you don't behave." The child fell quiet almost immediately. The ride video explained the story; a scientist was trying to bring back an Iguanadon from the Cretacious era, and was recruiting the riders to hijack a CTX Time Rover to do so. This was against protocol, as they were dangerously close to the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs. But the scientist assured them nothing was dangerous. "What could go wrong?" he asked the riders rhetorically, as the doors to the loading bays opened. "Where have I heard that one before?" Cozy asked rhetorically. This story felt oddly familiar. She sat down and attached her seatbelt, then sat back as the Rover rumbled forward into the darkness. The ride was exceptionally bumpy, as the vehicle lurched from dinosaur to dinosaur, racing round bends, flying up and down hills, and narrowly avoiding being eaten by carnotaurs. At last, when it seemed they had failed and the carnotaur had got them, they found their iguanadon and scanned it. They then returned to the present, with an extra passenger in tow. Later that evening, she sat eating her evening meal of a burger and fries at Restaurantosaurus, the nearby eatery. "The only problem with that ride," Cozy noted, "is it was so dark and fast that you could barely see anything." Just then a thought flashed into her mind. What had happened to Jimmy and Tom. She grabbed her phone and dialled Tom, waiting for it to pick up. "Hello?" asked a female voice on the other end.