Raf sighed as he let the steam of his coffee warm his nose. It was like the last few days. Early mornings and late nights trying to map and analyze the world from afar to avoid any confrontation with Dr. Hinsley. Galen hung another set of encrypted dimension routes to get there. A week of waiting to enter the dimension wasn't going to work for either of them. 

Thanks to Dr. Hinsley, Galen and Raf were able to room together which may have benefited but annoyed Raf. Galen was sure it would be fine since Raf supported his work. The only difference was that Raf finally had to give him a bedtime. Along with more paper. Tacks were going to have to be added to the shopping list. 

“Are ya ready just yet or ya still going to wig out like the last two nights?”

Galen looked up at the coordinates he had just placed. The snow. He had missed it so much. It wasn’t like anything he had seen before. It was sweet like sugar and fluffier than clouds. The sound of the trees was still strongly locked within his memory, chiming at a simple breeze. “Would it be safe?”

“Gal! Ya were the one who said to even start this thing! Comin every night and not even saying hello to see if it would work. Ya don’t even want to explore a little bit? Not even for that bird you found?”

Gal looked back at the headset. He could go. It was paste inspection time so Dr. Hinsley was sure to not disturb their research. Without a word, he walked over and slipped the headset on to the grey screen in front of him.

“That's what I thought,” Raf mumbled to himself, clicking the enter button. 

Gal fidgeted around as he got himself together, waiting for the Dimension to load. No doubt it would take a long time. With the grey being the only thing he could see, he drifted off. Last time there was snow. And tons of trees. What if their climate was like their own with seasons and weather? Would that snow be gone? Or would he even generate in the same spot? Sometimes it worked that way but other times it didn’t. 

“Ah!” He jumped a little at the sudden white glare of the snow. 

Raf chuckled over the mic, “Welcome to your playground, Gal.”

“Oh shush,” Galen mumbled. The snow covered his feet just like before. Same height. Same trees. Same breeze and same chimes. He smiled, closing his eyes and letting the air wash over him. This was the kindest of dimensions he had been in so far. He hoped it would stay that way. The smell was too sweet. Kind of like a fresh mint winter wonderland. 

Snap!

Galen’s eyes shot open to look where the sound had come from. Immediately he was drawn to a red plume of hair peeking over a bush. The strands were much too long for fur and from what he could see, it was only on top. 

“Hello?” Galen called out.

As his voice echoed across the trees, he stayed as still as possible. Moving his eyes he was able to look around but still trick whatever was behind the bush that he had not seen yet. He had tried this with many species and it never seemed to fail. They popped over that bush just slightly-

“I saw that girl run along over there.”

“A Cane? Out here?”

“You never know these days.”

Red flashed in front of his eyes before he was dragged by the red thing that had been behind that bush. Whatever it was, it was going fast. 

“HEY! STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW!”

Galen didn’t dare look behind him and ran with the thing dragging him. Had he really just found human intelligence? Being caught by the law while doing it wasn’t ideal but still! He could see their judicial ranks and imprisonment system. The right to trial if there was any. Maybe he could talk to a few folks. It wouldn’t be half as bad! He’d pop in and out with no real consequences. 

Either way he still wasn’t able to truly identify what was dragging him along. Raf’s mumbles of anxiety and worry weren't much to hear as he continued on. All he could really make out was the red between the snow. Whether it was an animal or not, he hoped it wasn’t about to be his death.

The red thing pulling him jerked to the left, falling into a warp so nauseating he fell over in the real world. He yelped as the side of the platform jabbed his rib. It pulsed up his arm with sharp pains. Thumping feet got to his side and helped him up until he was standing properly on the platform.

“You alright, Gal?”
“Yeah yeah I’m- I’m fine.”

“If there is anything you need, let me know.”

“Thanks, Raf.”

“Who’s Raf?”

Galen looked over at the being who had dragged him for a long time in the snow. It was like looking at a humanization of a candy cane. Red everything from boots to shorts to puffy cropped jackets. The only thing that wasn’t dominated with red was the candy cane spiral tights and the back of their gloves. He held his breath as their red eyes studied him as much as he was studying them. 

“Raf is um…” He didn’t quite know what to say as Raf left his side to analyze their interaction. “He’s an invisible friend of mine.”

“And I can’t see him? Laaaame.” A hand reached up to their red tinted glossy lips as they laughed. “My name’s Pepper. He/Him if that’s okay.”

“Oh- um… yeah that’s okay with me. I go by Galen. He/Him as well.” He looked more at the way Pepper expressed himself. His was short in an undercut with long wavy hair on top. The way it arched to a dip and a big defined swirl next to his ear was something he had never seen before. It would have taken too much time and product to hold that type of a swirl after all of that running. Creative. Determined. Responsible.

After taking time to analyze Pepper, he noticed he wasn’t in the snow anymore either. He was just in a small looking cave with a large round window looking out the mountain side. From what he could tell, he was nowhere close to where they had been before.
“I’ve never seen a Ginger so far from the village before,” Pepper commented as he walked away with a small pep in his step. 

“Ginger?” Galen’s eyebrows tensed as his surroundings and Pepper’s words rattled his brain further. He was far from Ginger. His hair was the murkiest mud of brown anyone had ever seen.

“Yeah. Gingers.” He made it over to a counter where he poured too large mugs of brown creamy liquid. “Like the Ginger breadman. Your kind ye know?” 

Galen blinked as he noticed Pepper’s accent. Had he just picked up on that? Or had he been too overwhelmed to notice. Overall, it was quite fascinating. Would this mean there were nations in this dimension? Cultures? Races? Different behavioural functions? It was already obvious they had developed far already. 

“I’m… just human.”

“Human?” Pepper snickered with a snort as he twirled thick whip cream on top of the drink with an icing pipe. “What kind of Monosaccharide is that?”

“A what?”

“Monosaccharide.” After sprinkling peppermint flaked on the drinks he walked over to hand one of the two mugs to Galen. “Ye know- Gingers, Pops, Nuts, Gumbos, Doughs, Danish, Canes… any of those ring a bell?”

“Um… no… I’m not from around here,” Galen finally said. He hoped Raf had recorded all of those names. His best guess was that those were races of this dimension. To him it was like naming a lot of candy. Which would make sense. “So… which one of those are you?”

“Oh…” Pepper averted his eye and sipped his drink. “Cane.”

“Cane?”

“Ye, if ye don’t like it you aut to just leave. Okay?” 

With the way Pepper’s shoulders tensed and eyes averted, Galen relaxed. He wasn’t sure what just yet but being a Cane must be hard enough in this world. “I’m just curious. I’ve never heard of Canes before.”

“Never?” Pepper asked with softened shoulders. 

Galen nodded slowly to not alarm or scare Pepper more. “Never. I have a lot of questions- if that’s alright- would you have some spare time to talk?”

“Spare time?!” Pepper shook his free hand excitedly, “I have all of the time! Here- I have just the place-”