T&T in IME - Chapter 1

Once upon a time, there are two inhabitants of the Igloo of Mammoth and Elephant, a house that makes wafer biscuits in the Kingdom of Mondo Blanco. They are two toy cats called Little Yellow and Little Blue. Everyday, they perch on an icicle amongst files and folders, and watch over the activities of the workers of the Igloo of Mammoth and Elephant.

Toad and Turtle work in the wafer-house. Turtle's job is to check the patterns imprinted on the wafers are pretty enough to go with toppings such as treacle, buttercream and cranberry jam. Toad's job is to deliver the toppings in different proportions and designs. He habitually steals away one biscuit most generously and elaborately topped with all goodies conceivable, and shares that with turtle. Every morning, Toad sends a message to Turtle to see if the latter's on her way to the Igloo. Turtle then laments her luck, for that means that Toad's already at work, and she'll need to find hot water to make coffee for him. This is not an easy engineering task, considering the only source of energy comes from her turning over and rubbing her beautiful glossy shell against rock hard ice that has never melted for a million years.

Toad and Turtle live in the Northern and Eastern Horizon of the Mondo Blanco respectively. To go to the Igloo, they need to traverse the glaciers in this only form of public transport available called the Ice-Glider. It is an enormous transparent tube that travels through underground caves. The path it follows and the speed it travels at depend entirely on its mood on that day. It can bring you to your destination in two somersaults or go on and on exploring different parts of the caves. However, even though they operate at their own temperaments, the Ice-Gliders are only early, never late. Thus no commuters have ever complaint about being actually late for work. Tracks for the tube have been carved out on icy underground slopes long ago, the legacy of unknown ancestors. The gliding journey is truly an incredible experience of defiance of gravity, so Turtle retracts all her limbs such that she could enjoy the bumpy ride without getting hurt. Other creatures of Mondo Blanco cope in their respective ways. Many dig or vacuum-press onto the wall of the Ice-Glider with various parts of their bodies. As a result, the Glider has an impressive array of paw marks and tusk marks chiseled into its glassy walls.

Toad and Turtle alight at the stop of the Slope Libera. It follows naturally that they have to scale the slope in question. This is an immense expanse of one-foot-deep snow leading to the top of the Hill of Cordill, where the Igloo of Mammoth and Elephant sits roundly like a gigantic wafer cake. Every morning the slope will be sparsely dotted with Igloo workers, leaving behind little trails and trenches of footprints. At night a fresh storm will smoothen it out again.

One morning, the Ice-Glider from the Eastern Horizon decided to go at an amazing speed and Turtle was early at work. There was only a whole bunch of white mice cleaners cleaning up spare wafer crumbs on the factory floor by nibbling them up. Toad was nowhere in sight yet. For once she didn't have to make coffee the minute she was done climbing the slope. All of a sudden, the roaring start of an engine made her jump. A huge mack truck was moving out, first slowly with grunts, then accelerated to a clatter as it drove down the slope. Turtle had never seen the activities of the Igloo at that hour. She wanted to ask but the mice cleaners were apparently deaf. With unsuppressable curiosity she went to the back of the factory from which the truck made its exit. You would have thought that by the time she reached there, Toad would have arrived, normal operations would have started long time ago. But our Turtle of Mondo Blanco is no ordinary turtle, or she would have never gotten past the Slope Libera.

So Turtle made her way beyond a tall white door, to a part of the factory that she had never seen before. There was a hazy, powdery whiteness in the air and huge sacks were piled high on the ground. Brobdingnagian Ants moving in neat files carried the sacks one by one to a moving belt. At the head of the belt was a row of beavers. As the Ants bit through the string and untied the sacks, white sand showered onto the belt like an icefall. Now being at the downstream of the processing line, Turtle hadn't seen a wafer in its original state, and was truly amazed.

"Just wait till Toad sees this. He'll... atchhooo!" At last the fine suspension in the air was irritating Turtle.

The beaver at the head of the line, one with long legs and particularly dark and sleek hair spotted, turned around. His quick little eyes soon spotted Turtle who was trying to retreat to behind the piled sacks.

~*~*~* to be continued ~*~*~*