“Yo let us in!” yelled Bird at the fish. “There’s a dragon on the loose and it wants to kill us!”

The fish let them in and locked the door behind them.

“How did you find us?” asked one of the fish.

“Our spaceship crashed here,” said Bird. “And then we explored around the place because we needed, like, a new spaceship. Then we found this building and we fell into this cheese factory and next thing we know there’s a dragon trying to kill us.”

“Answer this question honestly,” said one of the fish. “Did you touch anything in the main building on the surface?”

“Not me,” said Mushpuff.

“Not me,” said Plagiarize.

“Not me,” said Snorter.

“Not me,” said Bird. “Except my wing might have touched that cube when I was falling down through the trapdoor.”

“NOOOOOOOO!!” shouted all four fish. “What have you done??”

“How is that relevant to the dragon going on a murderous rampage, yo?”

“I shall explain,” said one of the fish. “A long time ago, our kind lived on the surface of this planet in peace. There were plants and trees and it was beautiful. That was until the dragon came. You see, this dragon really loved to eat cheese. And we are made of cheese. The dragon scouted out fish after fish and destroyed everything with its fire and lava. The four of us, who are really good at engineering and stuff, made a deal with the dragon: if we let it have infinite cheese, it would leave us alone. It took that very literally, as it let us specifically alone. It killed all the other fish. As long as it has cheese, it doesn’t bother anyone.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“And so what was the cube all about, yo?” asked Bird.

“That cube is an Energy Cube. There are few of them in the universe. They have an extremely high amount of energy stored in them - enough to power an entire civilization for 500 years at least. We are extracting its energy to power the cheese factory.”

“So there are few of them in the universe and you’re using it to power a freaking cheese factory??” asked Bird. “Why not just engineer a spaceship and fly away with the cube?”

The four fish sat there thinking and realized how dumb they had been this whole time.

“You know, that’s kinda genius,” said one fish. “Let’s make a deal. We’ll make a ship and the four of us plus the four of you shall escape this planet. But we need a new home. You must drop us off when we find a suitable one.”

“Deal!” said the gang. And thus the deal was declared.

“The ship will only take a few hours to construct,” said a fish. “But someone has to get up there and put that darn cube back on its pedestal! There’s a ladder in the facility that goes all the way to the surface.”

“You got it,” said Plagiarize, who was the fastest ladder-climber among them, because of the fact that he was a human, and neither a cat, a penguin, nor a fish can move their limbs in the correct way to be able to climb a ladder. Do not question why these fish built a ladder in the first place even though they are completely unable to use them.

Speaking of “the facility,” that’s the place they were in now. Beyond the walls of the cheese factory was the facility, which was a massive maze of industrial underground tunnels with rooms coming off of them. What was in those rooms, one may ask? That’s top secret. You aren’t allowed to know. So shut up.

“Great, we’ll stay here and hide from the dragon until then. As soon as cheese production gets back up and running, the dragon will be calm.”

Plagiarize entered the door that the fish pointed to and was not surprised to find a ladder. Except this ladder was extremely long. He couldn’t see the top from the bottom. It seemed to extend into infinity.

“This is going to hurt,” said Plagiarize.

“You’re right,” said the goblin sitting in the corner. Don’t concern yourself with this goblin; he will not appear in this story ever again. Anyways, Plagiarize began climbing the ladder. And then he continued climbing the ladder. In fact, he continued until he stopped continuing due to a factor known as The End of the Ladder, which arrived approximately 2 hours later, at which point all of his limbs were in pain.