Chapter 1: The Recipe for Adventure
The playroom called Fight Club wasn't actually a fighting place at all. It got its silly name because Alfie's LEGO minifigures were always having epic battles across the carpet—pirates versus ninjas, astronauts versus dragons, and once, memorably, a single brave hot dog man against an entire army of skeletons.
Tonight, Alfie sat cross-legged at his wooden desk, tongue poking out the corner of his mouth in concentration. His fingers moved quickly, clicking bricks together in that satisfying snap-snap-snap that every LEGO builder knows and loves.
"Whatcha building, buddy?" Dad's head popped around the doorframe. His hair was sticking up in three different directions, which meant he'd probably fallen asleep on the couch again watching boring grown-up shows about people repairing cars.
"I don't know yet," Alfie admitted. "I'm just... building what feels right."
And that was the truth. Something strange was happening. His hands seemed to know exactly which brick to grab next, even when his brain hadn't decided. A red one here. A glowing blue one there. Wait—glowing?
Alfie paused. One of the bricks in his pile was definitely, absolutely, one-hundred-percent glowing. It pulsed with soft golden light, like a tiny heartbeat.
"Dad? This brick is being weird."
"Weird how? Did you leave it near the radiator again? Remember what happened to the melty giraffe—"
Dad stopped talking. His mouth fell open. Because Alfie had just clicked the glowing brick into place, and suddenly the entire build was shining so bright they had to squint.
"That's... new," Dad whispered.
The light swirled. It twisted. It opened up like a spiral staircase made of sunshine, and before Alfie could even squeak in surprise, he felt himself tumbling forward, forward, forward—
With Dad's hand grabbing the back of his pyjama shirt just in time to get pulled along too.
WHOOOOOOSH!
They landed with a soft poomf on something spongy and purple. Alfie blinked. The sky above them was pink with swirls of orange, like someone had spilled a smoothie across the heavens. Strange plants that looked like giant lollipops dotted the landscape.
"Okay," Dad said slowly, picking a piece of sparkly moss out of his eyebrow. "I'm going to need you to explain what just happened."
But Alfie couldn't answer. His heart was hammering like a drum. His legs felt wobbly. This wasn't Fight Club. This wasn't home. This was somewhere impossible, and impossible places could have impossible dangers, and what if they couldn't get back, and what if—
"BORK BORK GREETING SEQUENCE INITIATED!"
Alfie screamed. Then he saw what had spoken and screamed a little bit more, but this time in confused delight.
It was a dog. Sort of. It had four legs and a wagging tail, but it was made entirely of shiny silver LEGO bricks, with glowing blue eyes and tiny rockets where its paws should be.
"I am designated Zigbot!" the robot dog announced, hovering in a happy circle around Alfie's head. "Query: Are you the scared one or the confused one? Both readings are quite high!"
"I'm... both?" Alfie admitted quietly.
"EXCELLENT! Then perhaps this will help: I bark but have no throat. I wag but feel no joy. What am I?"
Alfie's fear paused. A riddle? He loved riddles.
"You're... a robot dog!" he said. "You're you!"
Zigbot's tail wagged so fast it made a whirring sound. "CORRECT! FRIENDSHIP PROTOCOL ENGAGED!"
And just like that, Alfie felt a tiny bit braver. Zigbot zoomed around him excitedly, and Dad was laughing now, and maybe this strange world wasn't so scary after all—
BOOM.
The ground shook.
BOOM. BOOM.
Zigbot's ears flattened. "Oh no. Query: Can you run very fast?"
Alfie turned. Rising over the lollipop hills was the biggest, most terrifying LEGO robot he had ever seen. It looked like a dinosaur made of black metalic bricks and red lightning, with eyes like furnaces and a mouth full of something that glowed like a sun about to explode.
"THE LEGO DINO ROBOT KING!" Zigbot yelped. "His space fire breath melts EVERYTHING! We must find the portal! We must escape!"
"What portal?!" Dad shouted.
The Lego Dino Robot King opened his massive jaws. Heat poured toward them like an oven opening.
Zigbot grabbed Alfie's sleeve with his metal teeth. "This way! But hurry—he's about to FIRE!"
And fire he did.
** End of Chapter 1. What will happen to Alfie, Dad and Zigbot in Chapter 2? We'll just have to wait and see tomorrow night...