Cast

Renowned chef Crazivandum Locke throws a backpack over his shoulder, taking one last draught of the warm smells of his lakeside restaurant. He’ll miss this place, these people, but he reminds himself that he won’t be gone forever. Just until he fills his recipe book with new inventions inspired by cultural cuisine around the world. Smiling, he clutches the book to his chest as he closes the door behind him, hearing the lock click into place. He could never misplace something so precious. On the other hand, where did he put his keys…

On a large flat rock in the desert wastes, a wizened tortle named Mildred sits against a sprawling sky painted with violet and orange, though she cannot see it. She plucks a cactus petal and adds it to her antique teapot, already steaming in anticipation. A zebra lizard crawls up and sits beside her as she pours herself a cup. After sniffing at the fragrance, she says in a gravelly voice, “I feel it too, young one.” The lizard crawls up her leg and rests on her knee. “Something strange, something strange…” she mumbles. The lizard licks its eyeball and scurries under the rim of her shell.

Kajin blinks to clear the faerie dust from his eyes. Or, well, he tries to. For some reason he can’t close his eyes at all. Where the hell did those faeries go, and where is he now? This wheat field certainly isn’t the forest glade he had just been standing in. He steps forward, but again his body seems foreign, creaking and jutting in sharp movements. He glances down at his gnarled, tree branch leg and… “What the fuck happened to my body?”