The two found themselves stranded in an unfamiliar land.  In this place they met their first other worldly friend: Key, a tiny shelled creature with glassy black eyes and a short purple cane.  Shortly after meeting this creature, something else captured Beet’s attention.  It was a bizarre being of distorted shape and mottled colour.  It bounded from behind some shrubs and slipped into a similar vortex as had appeared before.  Beet tried to catch it, but merely fell in after the beast in his attempt. 

Frigid cold assailed Beet as he plummeted into thick snow.  Never before had the tropical resident seen frozen water much less an entire landscape of pure whiteness.  Cyrn shortly shot out of the airy vortex and greeted Beet with relief.  They were in yet another strange realm, one of snow and frozen oceans.  Beet was beginning to succumb to the cold.  A monster of this world spied them.  The snowy mass had only eyes to indicate its malicious intent.  Beet and Cyrn fled, but they were unused to the terrain and were quickly trapped.  From beyond the next icy mound, Key appeared with cane in hand.  It summoned an axe with which the snowy creature used to attack itself.  Cyrn pulled Beet from the snow and watched as Key brought forth another swirling vortex.  They plunged through. 

A temperate forest enveloped them as they exited the windy tunnel.  Beet regained life as his body warmed and they quickly got to the task of investigating the region.  From the cover of some trees they saw what appeared to be a hymenopteran in a chariot watching over many small bipedal creatures in chains.  Clearly they were slaves of some kind.  They reminded Beet of Key due to their similar height and glassy black eyes.  Unfortunately, the hymenopteran in the chariot was not the only one about.  Cyrn and Beet were summarily apprehended. 

They were taken along a winding path to an immense structure of wax and earth.  The skies were a misted violet and the ponds were similarly coloured.  Everywhere they looked, those little beings toiled away at some task while the guards watched them with whip in hand.  The two visitors were taken before the apparent ruler of this land.  She declared herself to be Empress Jennybee and Beet and Cyrn to be Valkar and Ressid!  When the captives protested, the Empress explained that they were mercenaries whom had fought against her repeatedly in the past.  Beet began to explain the misunderstanding when he was interrupted by a furor at the entrance of the chamber.  The snowy monster from the previous realm had followed them and was brandishing its two hand axes at the guards.  Empress Jennybee commanded its destruction.  In the ensuing chaos, Beet and Cyrn discovered a secret passage.  Cyrn leapt in, but Beet was held back by an arm of the snowy monster.  Beet had been captured and Cyrn was left alone in a dark passage. 

Beet was put to work in the mine pits along with the other slaves.  He discovered that they somehow dug green crystals out of the ground without touching them.  They dissolved the earth around the stones and then floated them through the air to their destination.  Beet obviously could not mine rocks in that manner, so he started to dig with his short fins around a large, smooth, blue stone.  With great effort, he rolled the stone back and found that it was no stone at all, it was Key!  Further, Key had been covering the entrance to a small cave.  The slaves seemed to recognize Key and soon Beet was in the midst of twenty multi-coloured creatures near a possible escape route.  The guards noticed this suspicious gathering. 

Beet guided the slaves into the cave while Key watched the guards as they launched into the air and headed for the escaping group.  All of the captives were in the cave along with Beet.  Only Key stood outside, with its cane aloft and a glow of fire growing at the tip.  A fierce explosion rocked the cave entrance as Key’s cane blasted aside the first guard.  Alas, Key was also injured.  Beet dragged his little friend into the cave, not noticing that the cane had fallen.  A gnarled wooden hand grasped the cane, a frozen smile appeared, and a snowy head looked at the sky.  Beet named it Snowy, that monster of the winter realm, and it summoned a storm of the utmost ferocity to the skies above. 

Beet cradled Key in his fins.  The darkness of the cave seemed to seep into the mood of everyone.  Key lay motionless.  The vortex appeared in the wall behind Beet.  A glorious light mingled with the turning portal and a regal being passed through.  It was of the race of slaves, but garbed in a red robe lined with fine white furs and atop its head rested a furry black hat.  It was Nii, the guardian of the slave race which it named the Pimi-Mele.  It stated that Key would revive and assuaged the fears of Beet that the hymenopterans would recapture them.  For though Beet knew it not, his closest friend had not been idle in this time.  Cyrn had met with another called Tila who guided him from the Empress’ palace.  They had escaped the ensuing guards with the help of Ressid, an amazing dragon creature which seemed to breathe lightening. 

Now, with Beet in the cave with the enslaved Pimi-Mili and a horde of guards descending, Cyrn offers the merest hope.  Thus it begins...