Kieran locked the doors to make sure that no straggling customers would try to enter the shoppe even though it was clearly marked, “CLOSED”. That happened far too often.

Sighing nonchalantly, he stuck a lollipop into his mouth and looked at the painting his manager had left for him. She’d left it on the floor, propped up against the baseboard of the wall she wanted it hung up on. Honestly, it didn’t look like quite the right fit for this place. It was a cool painting, sure, but what did a medieval castle floating amid a bunch of clouds have to do with ice cream? And why was it so sparkly around the edges?

Kieran moved closer to the painting and knelt down, to get a better look at it. The blue sparkles were seriously getting a little bit out of control. And what exactly did that plaque say at the bottom? Caldwell’s... Academy…

Kieran rocked forward on the balls of his feet, squinting to read the rest of the words. Only, he rocked a little too far forward, and grabbed the painting to regain his balance.

He didn’t get a chance to finish reading the plaque, because as soon as his hands made contact with the painting, he felt a strange sensation, like his whole body burst apart in a blaze of light and was put back together again in a completely different place.

Kieran blinked dizzily, noticing that he was now on his hands and knees, and his hands were pressed against a surprising amount of spongy green grass. Somehow, the lollipop had remained intact in his mouth. The painting he'd touched was nowhere to be seen. Come to think of it, the [i]ice cream shoppe[/i] was also nowhere to be seen.