1. The Sleepless Night

Everyone in the world has a gift, though they might not know. You use it subconsciously on others, if you know them well enough. You can see through walls with it or avoid danger while asleep.

The gift? You can tell precisely who is coming just by the sound of their footsteps.

Holog was light and jumped in far leaps. If you heard a soft tap every now and then, you knew he was hopping around your little hut.

Parog was old and shuffled around. If you heard continuous scraping over planks, you knew he was sleepwalking again.

But now Meogg heard something else. Complete silence, a creaking door, a plank nearly split in two, then eerie silence again. She knew exactly what all the other creatures on the ship sounded like.

She did not recognize this sound.

She frog-leaped up to the ceiling, as far away from the entrance as possible. The evening was dark and the sea black. Rocking gently on the waves in her ship, she could not see who entered her room, though she could hear them.

This was no frog. This was no creature she knew. The scraping sounds seemed to come from many places, perhaps hundreds of tiny insects.

But that was to be expected, she reassured herself. Since the Seafarers came and told about the Faraway Islands, she had sat on a ship day and night. Every island was already settled. She had to keep traveling farther from home.

And now they were nearly at the edge of Apra territory. Life here must be quite different from what I know, she thought. And the island we seek must be deserted, because we can’t sail much farther, especially not Parog.

Her black bulging pupils observed the entrance. The next time she heard the strange sound, however, it was behind her.

She was still tired from her leap, but found the energy to spin around and stick out her tongue. She did not taste an insect, but sand.

A sandy being stood before her, his crown touching the ceiling. Two small pits in the face had to be eyes and two arms of sand grabbed Meogg’s face.

“You … want to sleep … sleep … sleep …”

Meogg shook the sand grains off her. She had heard of this mysterious sleeping from other animals before, but had never done it herself.

“You … want to close your eyes … lie on the ground … relax your body … "

“Mostly I want you to get off our ship.”

“Hmpf!”

The creature of sand snorted grains through his nose, right into Meogg’s eyes. She blinked them away, waited a moment, and leaped back up to the ceiling. The sandy creature shrank to about her size and also walked upside down on the ceiling.

He made one last attempt, by conjuring a sandstorm around Meogg that left her with a brown grainy layer on her skin. And a lot of itchiness.

“What are you doing?” asked Meogg calmly.

The creature shook his head. “Hopeless. Bullfrogs are hopeless.”

He changed into a bird of sand and took flight.

“Wait!”

Meogg’s tongue shot at his feet, but of course went straight through the layer of sand. The creature changed into a different bird and flew back.

“Oh yes, indeed, tell no one that you saw me. You’re the first in a very long time, maybe ever, and I’d like to keep it that way. You’re supposed to fall asleep as soon as I come near! Two grains and you’re supposed to be snoring!”

He became a sandy porcupine and studied Meogg head to toe. “I must have tried over a thousand grains on you, on all bullfrogs. And you’re wide awake!”

It slowly dawned on Meogg. “You make animals sleep?”

He turned into a sandy frog and stuck out his tongue, which Meogg circled as way of greeting.

“I’m Claes, the Sand King. I make everyone sleep, even the gods. Although Gulvi, the dolphin, only allows me to put one half of his body to sleep at a time, for he wants to keep his eyes open for danger.”

He briefly turned into a sandy dolphin, before reverting to his sandy frog shape.

“Oh well, everyone sleeps in some way—except bullfrogs. I hoped … well, usually it’s easier if my target is very young.”

“Do other animals know this?”

“No. And I’d like to keep it that way!” Claes’ sand tongue pulled at her legs until Meogg lay flat on the ground. “Does this help? Are you feeling drowsy yet?”

“I don’t know what that is, drowsy.”

“Hmpf! Close your eyes.” Meogg surprised herself by how quickly she listened to this weird Sand King. She closed her eyes. Her world became black and peaceful, which she liked.

“Invent crazy stories. Things that could never happen in real life. And relax!”

Meogg thought about flying elephants. And a tree who could talk, though they apparently did exist long ago. And a land with lamps that burned on their own, without fire or fireflies, which was obviously impossible.

“Are you dreaming yet?” Claes asked impatiently. “This works really well on all the other animals!”

But Meogg just laughed out loud about something she dreamt up. “This is fun!”

“Shh!” He put a sandy finger to her broad, smooth mouth. “One creature knowing of my existence is troublesome enough.”

“Why is that so bad?”

Claes opened his mouth, paused for a moment, then closed it again without saying anything. His form grew until he barely fit in her room.

“I need your help,” he finally said. “You’re on your way to an island.”

“Yeah duh, like we don’t know ourselves.”

“Another ship sails, just out of your sight. They seek the island too.”

“Then we must arrive sooner,” said Meogg immediately. “We can’t sail much longer. Parog is already old. He hardly talks or moves anymore. Please, tell me we’ll be there first? Tell me the island is deserted?”

“Sorry, you’ll arrive too late. You take too many breaks and they have the legendary adventurer Olombos.” Claes briefly transformed into a fuzzy teddy bear to comfort Meogg. “But we can change that!”

“How? Do you control the sea as well? That would be so awesome.”

Claes deliberately conjured sandy eyebrows, just to frown. Meogg quickly switched between sorrow and joy, as if she were two different frogs at once, and he waited a long time before answering.

“This is a very important mission, Meogg. You have to take this seriously.”

Meogg fell silent and anxiously looked around. Then she threw a cloth over the entrance to her room, hiding the conversation from any others. Who, being bullfrogs, would all be awake as well, even at midnight.

“The island you seek,” Claes solemnly stated, “is deserted, but not without reason.”

“Oh no. It probably stinks. Or the floor is lava.”

“Serious, Meogg. This is a serious mission.”

“Yes, of course, sorry.” She heard tapping on the floor above her.

Their ship was a standard model, made for large mammals instead, which meant they rebuilt the ship as they went. It wasn’t long, it was tall. Blocky homes, like apartment buildings, were constructed on the deck and pointed at the moon. This way, you could reach everything with frog-leaps. Such as Meoggs room on the first floor, the rudder on the third floor, and the lookout post at the sixth floor.

Morning arrived. Holog, on the second floor, became active.

“Speak quickly.”

“That island was the site of Cosmo’s Final Flight. Everyone present was blown off the island in an explosion of air. They thought it cursed and never returned.”

“And is it still cursed?”

“It was never cursed. But Olombos knows the truth, or at least the part that matters. He knows a secret weapon lies there which could lead to the extinction of all birds. According to legend, the very last Dodo egg lies there! And it is crucial that we find it first.”