Morning Preparations

Pen Doe stretched her light-brown arms and yawned as sunlight streamed through the tall windows of Pen Castle. Her small antlers caught the morning glow as she padded across the polished marble floor in her bare hooves.

"Another beautiful day in Draw Metropolis," she said to herself, looking out at the bustling city below. Humans and deer-folk walked the streets together, heading to work and school.

She slipped into her bright blue supersuit, pulling on her black gloves and boots. The sleek black eye mask came last. Her giant magic pen materialized in her hand with a soft shimmer of light.

"Ready for whatever today brings," Pen Doe declared confidently.

But as she stepped onto her balcony, something felt different. The usual sounds of the city seemed quieter somehow. She squinted with her enhanced vision at the streets below. People were moving slower than usual, and many seemed to be looking around with confused expressions.

"That's odd," she murmured, gripping her glowing pen tighter.

The Silent Streets

Pen Doe leaped from her balcony and soared over the city streets. Her keen eyes spotted something alarming below—every storefront and office building had lines of frustrated people standing outside.

She landed softly next to Mrs. Quill, a middle-aged woman with short gray hair and worried brown eyes. The human woman wore a simple green dress and held a stack of blank papers.

"What's happening?" Pen Doe asked.

"Our pens stopped working this morning," Mrs. Quill said, shaking her head. "Every single one. Pencils too. Even the markers at my daughter's school dried up overnight."

Pen Doe's stomach dropped. She watched a young deer-folk boy trying desperately to write his name on a birthday card, but his crayon left no mark.

"The whole city can't write or draw anything," Mrs. Quill continued. "My husband's an accountant—he can't do his job. The newspaper can't print. Even the traffic lights stopped working because they use electronic ink displays."

Pen Doe gripped her magic pen tighter. It still glowed, but she noticed the light seemed dimmer than usual.

"Don't worry," she told Mrs. Quill. "I'll figure this out."

But inside, Pen Doe felt the first flutter of real concern.