Luka stood in the shadow of a tree, watching one of the park’s newest employees. Vale was a pseudo-god-thing, responsible for reincarnating Luka’s daughter against his wishes. Although now that Annie was back alive, he couldn’t be happier.

Some, namely Mayor Tram, questioned his decision to invite Vale to work in the park, but Luka had yet to second guess himself. The god-thing’s powers were sealed away by a handful of other gods, rendering Vale’s divine power to nothing. She, in doing so, became mortal and got a second chance at life.

Currently, Vale worked as the park greeter. Her job was simple: welcome people into the park and thank people for coming when they left. She meandered around the entrance, walking back and forth like a soldier on guard. But where a soldier defended and protected, Vale handed out pamphlet maps and offered directions to the park’s many headline attractions. The park was getting bigger by the day, and “themed lands” was still a confusing concept to the newcomers.

Such was the reality of opening an amusement park in an alien world. To most people on Earth, understanding that a park was usually broken up into sections with their own themes and rides was commonplace. But here, in this world Luka had yet to learn the name of, getting that concept across was slow going.

Maybe I should take out a newspaper ad? Luka asked himself. Explain the park in its entirety?

“Hi, welcome to World Walker Park,” Vale said, twisting to greet a guest. “Hello, welcome to the park,” she said to another. “Welcome in,” to a third. “Welcome.” “Hello.” “Hiya.” “Hope you all enjoy.”

Luka took a piece of paper from his pocket, then reached down to pick up a fallen stick from the grass. With a flicker of magic, the stick morphed and pulled, stretching like taffy before hardening into a thin rectangle. With another hint of magic, the air hardened around the rectangle, turning solid. He held on to the two layered rectangles, slipping the paper over top of them like a clipboard.

Scanning down the page, Luka found the entry for Vale and gave her a checkmark. Daily rounds through the park was a tedious job, but it was important. If something was broken, he was the only one who could fix it. If something was inching away from his vision for the park, again, he was the only one who could put it back on track. The others, of course, did their part where they could, but this specific job was what he wanted to be doing.

In the back of his mind, Luka knew daily rounds reminded him of Earth. Back when he was making bombs and guns in his previous life, he carried a similar clipboard and visited the many manufacturing plants a few times a year. But—that life was far behind him, even if carrying a clipboard still gave him a semblance of control. It was comforting, in other words. Something to keep him busy during the day so he could spend the nights creating.

“Ready?” Luka asked, looking down at little Leo. The puppy dire-wolf stared blankly ahead, watching Sebby, the adult dire-wolf.

Sebby shyly stepped around a group of guests just arriving at the park. The group was a mixture of orcs, humans, and a few beastkin. They arrived in wagons pulled by dire-mounts—maybe dire-dachshunds if Luka was guessing. They were long, canine creatures with brown silky fur coats and pointed snouts longer than a rowboat. They held their head high, eyeing the crowds with a pompousness usually found only in noble humanoids.

Luka eyed Sebby as he attempted to sniff the butt of one of the dachshunds, only to get snapped at by the other. Sebby then walked away; his tail tucked between his legs. Leo yipped, then whined, lowering himself as they watched the show.

“Go hang out with your friend,” Luka said. “Looks like he just got rejected.”

Leo tilted his head up, his expression asking, You mean it?

“Yeah,” the World Walker said, giving his buddy a scratch. “You don’t need to help with my rounds. Thanks though. I’ll find you for lunch, okay? Go have fun with your friend, he needs it.”

The puppy sprang to his feet and trotted over to Sebby. When he passed by the dire-dachshund pair, he glared at the male one. The dachshund didn’t so much as notice the little guy.

Luka took a deep breath and shook his head. Sebby’s seemingly random estrangement suddenly made sense—he was looking for a mate. “Poor Leo,” he muttered walking into the park, “his friend is looking to settle down.”

Just past the entrance to the park, Emberwood Forest flanked either side of a grassy path. Eventually, the path would be overhauled and changed to brick or cobble—but that day was not today. A fork in the path came, with a sign directing to the first of the park’s lands.

Off toward the left, the Constellation Kingdom expanded. With a setting reminiscent of Earthen science fiction, an alien landscape terraformed the tall emberwood trees and paved a rocky landscape of jagged desolation and hidden life. Red spiraling rocks reached for the sky, dozens, hundreds of them clustered around the land and far off into the distance. Technically, none of this was real, however.

Illusion magic was something of a crutch, if Luka was honest. Instead of building an alien landscape, he could simply imagine one then utilize magic to create it for him. Would he want, if he had the resources, to create the landscape out of actual rocks and allow guests to explore it? Yes, very much so—and eventually the park would get there. But again, that day was not today.

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Constellation Kingdom wasn’t very big yet. It was a stretch of walkable area with two rides. The first was God Neb’s brainchild: Cosmic Rebirth. As the park’s first rollercoaster, the ride drew a line. Luka walked past guests and a few shops and poked his head through the illusions.

Standing in line through the forest, hundreds of guests waited patiently. They pointed at illusionary things—rocks, alien life, and the expansive, beautiful starry sky. Within the land, it was perpetually nighttime, and the stars moved and breathed as if perfectly placed there by God Neb himself… which they were.

Looking behind the scenes so to speak, Luka counted the minutes for a particular guest to reach the top of an incline from the bottom. Seven minutes, in other words, a bit slower than usual.

What’s the hold up, he asked himself, reenabling the illusionary magic. Anyone could dispel or apply the illusions, though why would they? Countless glyphs littered the area, carved thinly into the base of the trees and across the stone floor queue. The effect was total theming, an area as alien as the dark side of the moon.

Unfortunately, the illusions were the reason the Guilds brought Luka to court—but he didn’t want to think about that right now.

Instead, he pushed his way through the queue, cutting everyone. People were rightly annoyed with him, but one glance at the spinning gear pin on his chest silenced them. Everyone knew what the pin meant—that he was the World Walker and owner of this little slice of heaven.

The pin was Mayor Tram’s idea. She always told him he needed to be eccentric, something the people of this world already expected of World Walkers. And while Luka didn’t want to be eccentric, he saw the need. He dressed up in a flamboyant purple suit, he sometimes carried a cane, and he always wore a tacky, spinning gear pin.

Luka passed shiney white buildings made of plastic—more illusions. They were the “story” of this land: research vessels for the “explorers” investigating the kingdom. And while the buildings drew many critical eyes from this world’s architects, he didn’t care. They were practical in purpose… and directly copied from the lunar base concepts of Earth’s sci-fi.

Cosmic Rebirth’s load and unload station sat within one of these research buildings overgrown with thick vines and covered in dust. The place was outfitted with bubbling vials, neon red plant samples, and diagrams of the stars and the science behind their luster. It was cluttered, yet clean—very clean.

Chalkboards lined the walls, and blueprint sketches explained the ride’s vehicle—the experimental Worldrover.

It was a long, multi-train rollercoaster styled with minimalistic angles and flared, stubby wings. Wind bent around the aerodynamic shape, and oscillating light glyphs highlighted its journey through the alien world. White and black metal protected the shuttles from space debris and the odd insect or two, adding to the rugged—but obsessively—clean vibe.

The shuttle rushed into the loading bay, and the lap bars released. Guests stood, exited, and a new round of guests took their places. They sat in pairs, four to a train, all raring to go. The ride operators gave each other a thumbs up, and both activated their twin-start controls. The ride then pushed forward, and soon it climbed the first lift hill.

Cosmic Rebirth shot guests through the unexplored wilderness of this alien world, sending them diving through cracks in the ground and around strange rock formations. It was quick, it was fun, and it was by far the park’s longest queue time.

Luka didn’t care about that right now, however. He kept cutting through the line, eventually ending up at the front, where he threw his legs over the barrier and headed to talk to the ride operators.

“Hey guys,” he said to the pair. One of them was an original Emberwood Villager and the other was a new hire, a lad from Sneerhome.

“Hi, Mr. Luka,” the lad said.

“Luka!” the villager practically yelled. If there was one thing to be said about orcs, their subtlety was not it. “We might have a problem!”

The older man’s name was Roger. And although Luka hadn’t had much personal time with him, he liked him a lot. “Something to do with why you’re behind schedule, right? Not another Gnomeeee scheme again, right?”

Roger scoffed. “Heavens no. Those little buggers are staying clear after ol’ Gr’rok and biggin’ Tank threw the thieves out!”

Luka nodded thankfully. The Gnomeeee gang was a gang of, well, gnomes. They were experts in corporate espionage and had tried to steal, bribe for, or outright copy park secrets more than once. In the two months the park had been open, a dozen Gnomeeee members had been thrown out.

The Sneerhome lad spoke up, “We had a… gentleman refuse to get off the ride.”

“Gentleman” was code for “adventurer,” a prudish, egotistical type of rugged man who often attempted to use their monster hunting skills to get what they wanted from park employees.

The lad continued, “But not for the reasons you think. He was missing his legs, you see. Said a frost hyena got them. He had trouble getting up and out.”

Luka nodded slowly. “I’ll see what I can do about adding a handicap section to the trains. If the side of the train opened like a door, would the man have had an easy time getting out?”

“Most definitely,” Roger said. “We could’ve slid his wheely chair up next to the train and he easily could’ve scooted into it. But since he had to go up and over the wall of the train, not so much.”

I knew that’d come back to bite us, Luka thought, thinking of the rushed development of the ride. Everything was put into place in a day, meaning important, but small, things were forgotten about. Disability accommodation needs to be higher on my checklist. He scribbled down a note.

“Alright, thanks guys,” he said. “Keep up the good work and make sure to stop by the employees lounge during your breaks. I think Vladdy made another batch of root beer to taste test.”

“Ah, sick man!” the lad said. “I can’t get enough of the stuff!”

“See ya, Luka,” Roger said.

The World Walker exited through the attached gift shop, checking another box on his clipboard. After a quick once over of the products on the shelves, he checked another. He stopped outside to find the next thing he had to go see—and smiled. Speaking of Luka’s son-in-law, Vladdy was next on the list.