Charlie and Rygel

Charlie was surrounded. He took a deep breath, trying not to make too much noise in case they could hear him breathing. He snuck a peak from his hiding spot. There were two in front of him, one behind him, and three each to his left and right. There was no way out this time, sooner or later they would find him. He closed his eyes and thought of his mother. She’d miss him, but he knew she would understand that he was trying to save the world. Charlie thought to himself, “I love you, Mum,” and gripped his blaster tighter. He bounced from one foot to the other, readying himself for the fight of his life. He was just about to leap from his hiding spot when suddenly…

“Charlie!” his mother called. “Dinner time!” 

“Aw man,” Charlie said. He stepped out from behind the tree. “Just five more minutes Mum!”

“You said that ten minutes ago Charlie, your dinner’s going cold,” Mum said with a slight frown on her face. Charlie sighed. “And remember to pick up your toys, if you leave them out the dog might eat them.” Charlie gathered up his toys, walked inside to his room and dumped them on the floor.

“You’ll have to try and get me next time guys,” Charlie said with a smile on his face. He headed back to the kitchen to grab his dinner.

Later that night, Charlie was all tucked up in bed, telling his mum about his adventure. She smiled and nodded as she pulled up his covers and kissed him goodnight.

“Sounds like you’ve had lots of fun. Sleep well Charlie, you can play more tomorrow morning,” she said. Mum turned and started to walk out of the room and then suddenly cried out in pain.

“Charlie! You didn’t pack your toys away as I asked you to!” Mum said as she hopped up and down on one foot. She bent down and swooshed the pile of toys into the corner of the room. “Good night Charlie,” she said, turned out the light and left the room.

Charlie closed his eyes. He tried to sleep but he just couldn’t seem to drift off. Finally, just when he thought sleep was about to take over, he heard a clanging noise from the backyard. Charlie rolled over, trying again to go to sleep, but heard another noise. This one sounded like the doggy door on the kitchen door flapping as if his dog, Rygel, had just walked through it.

“He’d better not be trying to get in here and chew my toys,” Charlie thought to himself. He had just rolled over and decided to get up and check on Rygel when he heard the dog give a little whine, and then a blue light flashed through his window. Charlie jumped out of bed and raced to the window where he saw Rygel being lifted into the air by a beam of blue light.

“Rygel!” Charlie called. He raced out of his room, down the hall and through the kitchen, and burst through the kitchen door just in time to see Rygel disappearing into what appeared to be a space ship. Without stopping to think, Charlie ran straight into the blue light and was immediately lifted off his feet and beamed up into the belly of the space ship. There was a loud metallic sound, and a huge trapdoor below Charlie’s feet slammed shut. The blue light disappeared, and Charlie fell softly to the floor. 

“Rygel?” Charlie whispered. He heard a faint bark that sounded like it was coming from somewhere deeper inside the space ship. Charlie looked around him. He seemed to be in the cargo hold of the space ship. There were lots of boxes and crates all around him. He decided that exploring the space ship without any kind of protection was probably a silly idea. He had no idea why these aliens, assuming they were aliens, had stolen his dog. He didn’t know if they were friendly or not. Charlie dug through some of the cargo, but mostly the boxes just seemed to have dog biscuits, balls and dog beds in them. He grabbed out some dog treats and a couple of balls, just in case they might come in useful. Just as he was able to leave the cargo hold and go exploring, he heard the pitter-patter of little feet coming down the corridor. Charlie quickly hid behind some boxes and waited to see who was coming. As he watched, he saw what looked like two small dogs walk into the cargo hold. Charlie thought they looked a bit like chihuahua’s, except instead of being a normal colour, their fur was bright blue. They had blasters strapped to their backs, and Charlie felt glad that he hid. He didn’t think they were very friendly-looking dogs.

“What are we doing down here anyway Pogo?” asked the dog on the left.

“The master thought he saw something else get dragged up by the tractor beam,” said the alien dog called Pogo. “He said we had to check it out before we entered the portal, just in case it was something not friendly.” The two blue dogs walked around the cargo bay, sniffing the ground. 

Charlie knew they would find him eventually. He quickly, and quietly grabbed another ball from the nearest box.

“Hey Zippy, I think I smell something over this way!” he heard Pogo call from behind the box on his left. Charlie stood up.

“Here boy, here Zippy. Here Pogo, come get the ball!” he hoped that the alien dogs liked balls as much as normal earth dogs. Sure enough, with joyful sounding barks, Zippy and Pogo came bounding around the boxes.

“See the ball? Do you want the ball? Go fetch!” cried Charlie, and threw the ball as hard as he could towards the other side of the cargo hold. 

“Ball!” barked both alien dogs, and they took off running after the ball. As they ran, their blasters fell from their backs and clattered to the floor. Charlie raced forward and grabbed the blasters, then took off running up the corridor that the alien dogs had come down. He could hear the two alien dogs fighting over the one ball. He could only hope that the ball would keep them occupied long enough for him to find Rygel. Charlie kept running until he could no longer hear the growling of Zippy and Pogo behind him. As he slowed to a walk, a speaker on the wall next to his head crackled to life.

“We are about to enter the portal. All soldiers to your stations. Ensure you are clicked into your restraints, as the portal trip can be disorientating,” a raspy voice said over the speaker. Charlie looked around, and saw a window on the other side of the corridor, with a pipe running from the floor to the ceiling next to it. He quickly crossed to the opposite side of the corridor and hung onto the pipe. As he watched out the window, there was a roaring noise, like the noise a plane makes as it is taking off. Charlie saw something very odd outside the window. There was a shimmering curtain of light opening up in front of the ship. He realized that it must be the portal and that the ship must be about to travel through it. He hung on as tight as he could to the pipe, and the ship blasted through the shimmering curtain.

Charlie felt odd. A shiver passed over his entire body as if he had just jumped into a cold shower. He blinked as his vision blurred and tiny pinpricks of light danced in front of his eyes. He closed his eyes tight until his stomach stopped churning and he felt normal again. When Charlie opened his eyes, he saw that the ship was descending onto a planet.

“I wonder where we are,” Charlie thought, “that portal probably took the ship to a whole other dimension like in the movies.” Charlie watched out the window as the ship got closer and closer to the planet. It looked like it was heading towards a city. The city looked, strange. The buildings all seemed to be weirdly shaped. As they got closer, Charlie realised that the buildings were all shaped like dogs. There was a labrador house and one that had spots all over it like a dalmatian. He could see buildings that looked like bulldogs and terriers and blue heelers.

“I need to find Rygel and get out of here,” Charlie said to himself. Now that he was feeling better, he took off down the corridor, checking through the doors as he passed them. He could hear barking coming from the other end of the ship. He hoped it was Rygel and not one of the alien dogs. 

He ran around a corner and skidded to a stop. He could see Rygel down the end of the corridor, being led into a room.

“Rygel!” he called, but just as he did, two big green Doberman’s lept from the room, snarling at him.

“Give me back my dog!” Charlie yelled. The green Doberman aliens took another step towards him. Charlie reached into his pocket and grabbed a handful of biscuits. He threw them at the alien dogs, who barked joyfully and started eating. Charlie picked up Rygel and raced back down the corridor the way he had come. He could hear the alien’s chasing them down the passage. Charlie ran all the way back to the cargo hold, but he didn't know what he would do when he got there. How would he and Rygel get home? He managed to get to the cargo hold and hid behind some boxes. Rygel whined in his arms.

“Sshhh boy, everything will be ok,” Charlie whispered. He watched as alien dogs appeared at every entrance to the cargo hold. They were was surrounded. Charlie took a deep breath, trying not to make too much noise. He snuck a peak from his hiding spot. There were two in front of them, one behind them, and three each to their left and right. There was no way out, even if the alien dogs didn’t find them, Charlie had no idea how he and Rygel would get home. He closed his eyes and thought of his mother. She’d miss him, but he knew she would understand that he was trying to save Rygel. Charlie thought to himself, “I love you, Mum,” and gripped his stolen blaster tighter. He bounced from one foot to the other, readying himself for the fight of his life. He was just about to leap from his hiding spot when suddenly…

“Charlie! Breakfast is ready, time to wake up!” his mother called.

“Wha...what?” Charlie said. He sat up. He was in his bed, in his house, and it was morning. Where were the alien dogs? Where was the space ship? Where was…

“Rygel!” Charlie cried out. He jumped out of bed and raced out of his room. There was his mum in the kitchen, and there was Rygel, following along behind her, watching to see if she was going to drop any bacon on the floor. 

“Rygel!” Charlie cried and picked his dog up and gave him a cuddle. Rygel looked a little confused but gave Charlie a big lick on the check anyway. Charlie sat down to eat his breakfast.

“It must have been a dream,” he thought to himself. A few minutes later, however, he realized that there was something in his ugg boot. He didn’t actually remember putting them on when he jumped out of bed that morning. Charlie pulled off his ugg boot and tipped it upside down. One, little dog biscuit came tumbling out. It was a dream, wasn’t it?