Part 1
A group of mice sat in perplexion on the dusty surface of this mysterious planet. They observed that bluish green sky above them with a mixed expression of confusion and outrage.
In the previous life, they were astronauts and scientists. They were determined to unveil an enigmatic essence of what was happening in this part of the galaxy. The planet somehow was a central point to everything. It defined things that were slowly unraveling here, threatening to undermine the balance of universe. Physical laws that took so much time and painstaking efforts to discover and develop didn't work anymore.
So they headed toward this planet armed with loads of data from preliminary researches and theories of how everything might in fact be. They were pretty sure that they were capable of taking everything under control and hoped to fix things quickly and then move on. The fabric of their scientific work at that point brilliantly described the way the universe was constructed. Few things were missing.
When they arrived at the planet, they immediately turned into mice, and their spaceship turned into a big cabbage. Also, what looked from a distance like a tranquil strip of forest nearby turned out to be, in fact, a massive elongated cluster of bizarre crystals. The crystals weren't even green; instead, they emanated a slightly reddish ominous light.
The planet was covered with dust and lacked any signs of intelligent life. Well, maybe except giant snails whose rudimental intelligence nevertheless allowed them to steal and eat all the provisions the space crew brought with them.
So the space mice were doomed to die from starvation unless they decided to eat the cabbage that previously was their spaceship. They didn't consider this option yet, hoping that maybe at some point forces of vicious magic ruling this place would turn things back into their standard form.
Meanwhile, the planet approached sunset, and everything basked in the iridescent glow of multiple variously colored and shaped suns, approaching the horizon in all directions. Apparently, something was wrong with laws of physics and common sense on this planet as well.
Either that or those suns just circled the planet, which contradicted the rules of cosmic evolution. This thought crossed space mice's minds while they tried to make sense of their predicament. Their thoughts, racing inside their tiny mouse brains, gave them headaches. Their fluffy heads swelled from internal tension, threatening to explode at any moment.
To make things worse, a pack of space cats approached from afar with vicious growls. They looked potent and dangerous. They drove heavy diesel trucks that approached steadily, surrounded by the clouds of violently disturbed dust. Trucks' engines screamed, and gaudy yellow flags fluttered above their cabins.
Part 2
This sight of the dark blue starry sky looked familiar. The scribe saw this picture before but couldn't recall what it meant. The sky was reminiscent of a giant carpet with sparkling crystals and tiny pieces of gold and silver attached to it.
It should've had a more significant purpose, but the parts of scribe's memory containing that information were not available anymore.
He continued to put dots on a slice of parchment. Each dot marked the location of stars with a specific hue that only the scribe with his perfect color vision could discern.
The scribe had a flawless perception of colors. As a downside, some parts of scribe's brain were incinerated to prevent short-circuiting during the procedure when his level of perception had been amplified hundred times.
The scribe saw a giant black dog sitting on top of a huge black rock far away. The dog watched him all the time from the moment when it first appeared there. It was several thousand years ago. The scribe thought that the dog was a guardian of some sort.
Either the forces that came up with this idea of mapping stars wanted to be always up to date on the work progress, or they tried to protect the scribe from something. The dangers that could transpire because mapping stars, in fact, distorted reality.
So this huge black dog sat on top of the mountain located a thousand miles away. The dog waited for a moment when reality would be stretched to the point when it wouldn't be able to withstand the pressure anymore. Then the space-time continuum would be ripped apart like a piece of old fabric.
The scribe looked at his hands. They kept turning into tentacles that emanated a pale glow. His head became translucent, and the space dust dug deep holes in his skin giving it an appearance of pineapple.
The scribe strained parts of his brain that weren't affected by cosmic radiation. He tried to recall an event that happened some several million years ago. Back then the scribe was young, and the universe was young. It was something related to a planet orbiting in the realm of orange giant and populated by mice.
Nobody knew what this planet was all about, but some civilizations worried that it somehow affected reality. In particular, its existence threatened to upend the laws of physics discovered by some barbaric peoples. The timespan of those civilizations was too brief to notice the consistent alteration to which those laws, the reality, and everything had been subjected.
Except for the mice. The Mice were an eternal constant.
Part 3
The galaxy emperor sat on a throne made of mysterious and strange wood that grew only at one single spot in the whole universe. The throne was decorated with diamonds that emitted a mysterious dark light containing enough gamma radiation to kill an elephant in a fraction of a second.
The throne stood at the head of a vast hall. The walls of the hall were covered with plates of pink semitransparent marble. Massive columns supported the ceiling barely discernable somewhere high above. Beneath the ceiling drifted massive conglomerations of clouds, and above the clouds flashed elaborate and exquisite rainbows.
The hall stretched far away to the point where its outlines were no more visible to the naked eye. Then it ran further reaching the spot where its spread couldn't be captured even by most powerful and sophisticated radio telescopes. On its floor stood statues of hedgehogs, solemnly holding baskets of almonds and dried apricots.
The emperor felt bored. He leisurely sipped an exquisite wine from an elaborately designed cup. The acidity of said wine exceeded that of any acid known in the universe at that moment. It could effortlessly dissolve gold and silver and uranium. Fortunately, the cup, containing it, was made of a unique material capable of withstanding any destructive influence. Primarily, because it did belong to an entirely different realm with different laws of physics.
The emperor fidgeted on his throne; restless and impatient he was waiting for mice to break through time-space continuum.
Part 4
When Ano saw the surface of this planet for the first time, everything was brightly illuminated by the sun. An overwhelming sensation of tranquility saturated everything around. Vast green meadows interspersed with flamboyantly colored flowers spread far to the horizon.
The grass shivered, being slightly disturbed by a gentle breeze, which presence could be deduced from wavelike patterns of trembling grass and trees that emerged when mighty air masses, traversing the plain, ruffled them.
White fluffy clouds reminiscent of massive piles of pristine ice-cream drifted lazily through the sky, casting translucent veils of shadows below. Inconspicuous insects and serpents teamed in the grass preying on each other and looking for a larger game that would be capable of filling their bellies and fulfilling their eternal bloodthirst and passion for violence.
Big and clumsy cows skipped among the grass and copses of trees trying to find some edible roots. Now and then they tried to reach seductively colored fruits that hung from the lower tree branches. They stretched their necks to the limits risking to break their necks by this valiant effort. Extreme hunger and desperation showed in their eyes.
Ano was a space traveler. He ran out of fuel in the middle of an unknown galaxy, and now he orbited this planet with empty tanks, trying to make sense of everything he saw below. He assumed that this planet could host the intelligent life, judging by radio transmissions he intercepted.
Ano couldn't figure out most of what he'd heard in those radio exchanges, but what he could tell for sure is that he'd heard voices of intelligent creatures speaking in some bizarre lingo, composed of vowels interspersed with consonants.
Triangulating the source of the signal he learned that several spaceships circled the planet somewhere above him. Probably they observed him, trying to puzzle out his intentions. Like, to decide whether his presence here was a threat to this planet, its ecosystem, and highly developed civilization that existed already for several million years.
But it was Ano's guess only since he couldn't tell with any level of confidence anything. This world might have been so radically different, that the attempts to anthropomorphize the actions and intentions of its inhabitants would fail miserably. So he continued to keep track of everything that had been going on below.
A small storm started. Copses of trees were torn off the ground and flew through the air with a speed of a bullet. Bolts of Lightning hit the trees causing wildfires. Tree trunks hit by lightning exploded in a flurry of sawdust, and the mighty wind carried the sawdust towards the mountains. The mountains, shaken by earthquakes, were falling apart secreting streams of glowing hot lava. The streams of lava spilled down on the meadows and set them on fire.
Everything kept burning and crushing with horrifying thunder, clutter, hissing and screaming. Cows, seeing this sight of destruction, spread their scaly wings and flew away, spouting blood-curdling squeals and roars. Swarms of insects took to the air with sinister hum.
After a while, the storm moved to the south, and suddenly everything sprang back to life. Green blades of grass emerged from the ground with a blinding speed like razor-sharp daggers, penetrating some of the cows too slow and unfortunate to dodge or take to the air immediately. Those were the cows lucky enough to survive hardships of the storm who nonetheless found their fate at this beginning of a new cycle of life on this peculiar planet.
As the spaceship circled the planet in the direction opposite that of the storm, Ano could contemplate a vast city approaching from the horizon. The city was surrounded by a massive wall and boasted a multitude of magnificent spires; towers stretching toward the skies as if trying to reach a sumptuous mass of clouds above.
The city was powered by some powerful magic. The Cascades of iridescent light emanated from spires, producing whimsical patterns of color in the sky. Multiple windows of large buildings at the city center reflected the sunlight, forming a dazzling mosaic of scintillating flames.
A crowd of tall bearded wizards stood on a platform on the top of one of the highest buildings. They waved their hands trying to invoke ancient magic that guarded this place for millions of years. Then the magic crystal was stolen in one rainy morning by a swarm of heinous and salacious dragons after they accidentally inhaled toxic vapors. Those vapors emanated from a crevice in the old mountain once in a year. The substances, comprising those vapors, made the dragons insane and mischievous.
So when the magic crystal had been taken away from a place where it laid for an incalculable period of time, forces of good that protected the city from the monsters (emerging, now and again, from the realm of nightmares) disappeared.
After that happened, everything became maddeningly unpredictable. Monsters sprang out of nothing when nobody expected. Those were massive creatures that looked like a mix of giant centipedes and snakes. Some of them wore heads of cobras, bulls, beetles, or horses. Their sight frightened city dwellers, many of whom experienced life-long psychological traumas. Some lost their ability to speak coherently or do the math.
Also, the monsters stole food supplies from city's granaries, polluted water springs with revolting poisonous slime and emitted ultrasonic waves that scared the stock and the dogs. The latter fled the city and traveled all the way to a high rock, from which they fell into the ocean. There they had been gobbled alive by the sentient algae.
The King strolled restlessly among tall cabinets full of ancient scrolls that contained somewhere deep inside them powerful incantations, allowing to summon a rain of molten gold or radically improve land fertility. Like, to be able to grow magic plants bearing fruits of immortality and omnipotence.