Morning in the Towers

Ms. Doodle Sheep stretched her fluffy white arms as the morning sun painted the walls of her mansion bright gold. She pulled on her dark blue supersuit and adjusted her light blue gloves, making sure her black mask sat perfectly around her big expressive eyes.

"Another beautiful day in Canvas Meadow City!" she said, looking out from the crayon tower's window. Below, the streets buzzed with humanoid sheep, goats, deer, and humans heading to work.

Her phone buzzed. A text message from Mayor Inkwell: "Emergency meeting at City Hall. Something strange happening with art supplies around town."

Ms. Doodle Sheep's pink snout twitched with worry. She'd noticed her own marker collection looking a bit sparse lately, but hadn't thought much of it.

She activated her flight powers and soared between the pencil and pen towers, then out over the city. The wind ruffled her wool as she spotted Mayor Inkwell waiting anxiously outside City Hall, pacing back and forth.

The Vanishing Canvas

Ms. Doodle Sheep landed softly beside Mayor Inkwell, who was wringing his hands nervously. The humanoid deer mayor's brown eyes darted around the empty plaza.

"Thank goodness you're here," he said, adjusting his red tie. "We have a crisis. Every art supply store in the city has been cleaned out overnight."

"Cleaned out?" Ms. Doodle Sheep's pink snout twitched. "You mean sold out?"

"No, I mean empty. Completely bare shelves. No crayons, no markers, no pencils, no paint—nothing." Mayor Inkwell pulled out his phone and showed her photos. "Mrs. Bristlehair at Creative Corner says she locked up last night with full shelves. This morning, everything was gone."

Ms. Doodle Sheep studied the pictures. The stores looked like they'd been swept clean by a tornado.

"There's more," the mayor continued. "I just got a call from the elementary school. All their art supplies vanished from the supply closets. Same with the community center and the library's craft room."

A sparrow landed nearby, chirping frantically. Ms. Doodle Sheep noticed it was trying to build a nest but had no materials—even the twigs and leaves seemed to have disappeared from the area.