When Kaydence opened her eyes, it was eleven in the morning and her head throbbed like a cartoon finger smashed by a hammer.
It took her a lot of groaning to start piecing together the events of the previous night. It came back to her in flashes and impressions, piece by piece, and it took her a while for her to put them together in any semblance of any order. Let's see... There was the club. That was a good time - she'd be disappointed if it hadn't been. There was that cute guy she met - that had been a very good time indeed. And...
She looked to her bedside table, and saw the plain white card on there.
Oh. There had been that.
The images slowly crawled back into her mind like scolded puppies. Coming home to find the envelope on her bedside table. The other dimension she'd been suddenly brought to - the vibrant colours, the sunshine, the smell of the air. Meeting the metal woman - Lindy, her name was - and. Scattered bits of info on this... Parallel Games thing. What it was about, and why she'd been invited.
She stared at the card for a long, long time.
Then she pulled herself out of bed and ambled to the kitchen.
This tournament thing... how come she hadn't heard of this thing before? Surely Dawn, or even Vent, the two Kobbers who'd had the biggest knowledge of inter-dimensional travel, would have mentioned this before, even if in passing. Why had it only now come to the attention of anybody in this particular dimension? Why hadn't anybody from the Zoofights universe been invited beforehand?
Old, die-hard instincts demanded that she immediately grab the stickiest energy drink she had in the fridge. She ignored it and flicked the kettle on. Coffee sounded like a much better solution.
What was the prize? That was a question that she should have asked right up top. It had to be something big for a tournament that took place across the infinite parallel dimensions. But did they already announce that beforehand, or did they keep that a secret for when the tournament began? And if the latter, why? Would it be something dangerous? Something that would give Dawn horrible flashbacks and require Jumpropeman to stand by in case of emergencies?
She turned on the hob, put a pan on, then began throwing her ingredients together. Egg, cheddar, home-made ketchup, pepper and parsley. Throw that between two slices of toasted bread.
Mmmmh. Pure genius.
Why her? There were plenty of other candidates in the Zoofights universe alone for this thing! People way stronger than her! People who'd done really cool shit! Why not her boss, or any of the other OG Kobbers out there who'd done it for way longer? And even if not, why not somebody from that Weav place? Why not a Planeswarden? Why-?
She stopped chewing as she realised why she was thinking like this. She remembered how she felt as the tournament was explained to her, and recognising why she was feeling that way.
She drew in a breath through her nose.
And then... she calmly and quietly finished her breakfast. She took two paracetamol and chased it down with the last of her coffee. She took a long shower, paying special attention to her hair. She found some clean clothes and put them on, and then picked up her dirty ones, threw them into the washing machine and set them to go. And by that time, the headache was mostly gone.
She went back to her bedroom and picked up the invitation from her bedside table. She looked at it for a long, long time.
Then she looked up, although she couldn't quite explain why.
"Lindy?" she said aloud. "I've made my decision-"
And then she was gone again.
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