Yesteryear Fiction

World of Doors
By Amanda Firefox


“It’s here.” Aranhya whispered.

Bugge looked up, shifted his pack of Dwomish janglebits. “What is?”

“The door.” Aranhya sucked at her lip, bit it lightly. “I know its here.”

“Aranhya.” Bugge said impatiently, then made a wide, expansive gesture with his arms. “This world is full of doors.”

Aranhya closed her eyes and let a sigh pass lightly through her lips.

“I know, Bugge.” She turned, and the colors in her hair shifted, brightened expectantly. “That’s how I know its here!”

“But Aranhya. . .” He glanced from one end of the narrow hallway to the other, took in the endless doors spaced at even intervals as they ran on into the haze of oblivion on and on past the edge of what the eye could see. “There are, so many.” He looked at her again, eyes even, curious but not optimistic. “How will you know the door when you see it?”

“Because it will look like me!” She said excitedly, then turned and padded her hands across another door. She frowned, turned, rushed to the next. “It will have my colors.” She padded her hands across the new door, frowned again.

Bugge looked back and forth down the endless hallway of doors again. Everyone of them for as far as he could see was white, pure white, with no hint of color for as far as the eye could see. He sighed, looked up at her again as she tried another door, frowned again.

“There has to be an easier way to do this.” He shook off his pack, turned and dug through it as she padded her hands across another door. She looked up, smiled playfully.

“Do you have a janglebit that can see my colors?” She asked expectantly, glanced back at the door she was touching and frowned again.

“I have a pair of Dwoggles for shelling tyrangith larvae.” He pulled out a long silver rod studded with tiny, flaring, colored hairs, looked at it, made a non-committal noise, then pushed it into his belt. “The flesh doesn’t exist in just one world, so we use the Dwoggles to see its colors.” He pulled out another oddly shaped janglebit, looked at it, then pushed it back into the pack. Aranhya grinned.

“I’ll find the door before you do, at this rate.” She padded her hands across another door, frowned again.

“All the better.” Bugge smiled tiredly.


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Amanda Firefox is a fiery little blue-eyed brunette who spends as much time at the beach as she can manage. She doesn't write much, but when she writes, it's almost always about her favorite subject: boys.