CHAPTER ONE: Nightfall
Night came faster than SQP wanted it to. The day had been filled with rich foods and activities. He didn’t want it to end.
But it had to. As the sun set over the horizon, a mix of cotton candy pink and hazy blue, Squappapanda opened his closet door and took out his panda onesie pajamas. He slid into them quickly and snuck downstairs where his personal panda chef was working on his late night snack. Only SQP and his chef knew about how SQP loved his night time snack.
Today it was bamboo crisps sprinkled with leaffer cheese. That was his second favorite, trailing behind vanilla-flavored bamboo straws topped with sweet sugar lemon and chives. It was way more delicious than it sounded.
“Hello, Jaga!” SQP called out quietly. “It smells wonderful in here!”
“Why thank you, King SQP! I have worked hard on your bamboo crisps and I am sure they have been baked to perfection. I have also made you a small glass of randa-panda juice, just to keep you healthy. I hope you enjoy it!” SQP liked randa-panda juice. It had a mango flavor with a slight spicy kick. The flavors went so well with leaffer cheese and bamboo crisps.
“Have a good night, Jaga!” SQP said while waving with the paw that wasn’t holding his food plate.
In his master bed, SQP turned off the lights and turned the television on. He was so focused on his show called Pandas in Flight that he forgot to do his most important duty of the night.
CHAPTER TWO: An Open Book Test
A bright golden light flashed while SQP was sleeping.
Just the TV, right? he thought. I’ll just go back to bed.
But the light appeared once more, this time fiercer. Pandas in Flight isn’t that violent! What is happening? What did I do?
And then it hit him.
SQP jumped out of bed and scrambled around the room. Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? The world would be in mortal danger if he could find it.
Suddenly, a light as bright as the sun exploded throughout the room, leaving Squappapanda in a daze. Head spinning, the king crawled on his paws, trying to find the source of the light. Hazy bursts of golden sun illuminated a spot on the painted ceiling. Clutching his head with one paw, SQP hopped towards the light. Surely that was where the light had come from. He just needed to get there to close the book…
A shadowy figure emerged from the shadows, bathed in swathing gold light. No, SQP thought. It can’t be. But the shadow grew larger, wider, with one ear up and one ear down. Soon, it was clear the shadow belonged to…
“Cinnamon,” SQP breathed. “But how…why…when…what happened…” But Squappapanda’s voice was drowned out by the clatter of metal against metal, the sound of a sword being sheathed, the loud patter of many paws…
And behind Cinnamon, from the book Carrot Land, emerged the one thing SQP had been trying to prevent this whole time.
War.
