The odd-looking skeletons closed in around her. One was barely a foot tall, shaped like a squirrel; another resembled a tiny turtle. Others ranged up to four feet, but none exceeded that height.
A panda with a bony belly, a hamster, a pirate crew, a crow, a goose — each was composed entirely of bones, yet the chaotic energy around them sculpted their forms into something appearing alive.
All of them converged on the old woman, rushing forward with unsettling coordination.
Then, from the back, a bizarre figure appeared: a fat, robotic cat. It waddled forward, its round hand slipping into the pocket on its stomach. From the pocket emerged a torch, it clicked the ON button.
"Very big light," the robot cat announced proudly.
A warm, glowing light flared from the torch, washing over the skeletons that encircled the old woman. The bones shivered and rattled as if awakened by the illumination.
