#i don't have an exact datation point

[drawnecromancy]

I find myself thinking back on these characters my dad made up for my sister and I when we were kids.

He read us The Hobbit as a bedtime story, and when it was over, we asked him for more. So he thought, all right, I make TTRPGs, I have been a game master, surely I can create a story for my children.

And he starts, by telling us that there is a magical land, where the earth is hollow. There's the outside, which looks a lot like our world, but with magic ! And then there's the inside of this earth, which is inhabited by large, somewhat anthropomorphic mole people, and there's a sun made of jewels inside that brightens during the day and dims during the night. There's large holes linking the two sides, and they're great areas of trade between the outside and the inside ! Unbeknownst to most people, sometimes, tiny holes exist and can let people through.

And then he introduced us to Firolin, Odji, and Jennifer.

[Pictured : Odji, Firolin, and Jennifer. I don't know why i drew them in this order, when my dad would always start the list with Firolin.]

Odji and Jennifer live in a human village. Odji's the son of the... the blacksmith, I think, or the lumberjack, I am not very certain anymore. Jennifer is the granddaughter of the village's wizard, and her parents are convinced that she is developing magic, but she is certain that she isn't. They're both 12, which was older than my sister and I at the time.

Firolin is a catboy, pretty literally as he's an anthropomorphic cat and a boy. He's also 12, and his 13th birthday is coming up soon, where he's going to get his first feather on his hat ! The cat-people call themselves the roulotteurs, which I am choosing not to translate because I think it's cute. They're a wandering people, of merchants and loyal fighters, and I am only now realizing my dad saw that we liked the Puss in Boots from Shrek and decided he needed a character that was kind of like that but also a child like the others. Also, as you can probably tell by the length of this paragraph, Firolin's my favorite.

I don't remember all of the story. My dad obviously relied on twists and turns for the new chapter every evening ! So while I do have memories of plot points, I don't know if it's all of them, and... some of the following paragraphs might be partial reconstructions based on what i DO remember, really.

The story starts while all three kids are hanging out in the forest together, because they're best friends, and they love spending time with Firolin when he and his family are around. And then.. Jennifer falls in a hidden, tiny hole, and her friends follow her in.

They wander, lost in the insides of the earth, until they meet some kind mole-people who offer to help them get back out. But they discover that currently, the mole people are being ruled over by an evil prince, who wants them to dig jewels from the earth for him, and not give anything to anyone else !

Of course, our brave kids want to do everything to stop that evil prince, and they embark on an adventure. They meet sky pirates, with boats that can fly ! They get in a fight with them, the captain thinking he might get a ransom from their parents, until they convince him to help them with 1) telling him that if he helps them stop the evil prince, that will get him more money than asking random villagers for a ransom and 2) Jennifer IS magic actually and she IS accidentally summoning a WHOLE ASS STORM that risks killing the pirates.

And so, they befriend the pirates, and are on their merry way to fight the evil prince. There is an epic sky battle near the jewel sun at the center of the earth, where the three realize something ghastly : the prince wants to explode the sun to get all the jewels from it ! That won't do. They manage to get on his skyship, divert it from its course, and make it explode while they safely get back to the pirate ship, and the pirates steal all the gold and jewels that were also stashed on the prince's ship.

Eventually, they go through one of the big holes to get back home, still aboard the pirate ship, because the captain said he'd drop them off. When they get back, enough time has passed that all of their parents were worried sick, and a tearful reunion happens. They explain everything that happened, and their parents are incredibly proud - Jennifer's parents congratulate her for finding a way to use her magic to help her friends, Odji is praised for being brave, and Firolin gets his first hat feather, because he had a wonderful adventure, even if it's not quite his birthday yet.

I keep this story close to my heart still. I love these little buggers.