Free Cragbridge Hall, Book One: The Inventor's Secret by Chad Morris

his enthusiasm.
    “Not likely, rapaz, ” Rafa said quietly, standing close to Derick.
    Dr. Mackleprank led them into a long hall, segmented into small booths. It reminded Derick a bit of the Bridge.
    “Everyone line up so that you can see this one booth,” Dr. Mackleprank said. “Rafael, would you mind demonstrating in a moment?”
    “Not at all,” Rafa said. “ Meu prazer .”
    “Let me explain how you control an avatar. First, we suspend you in the air.” He pulled a cord from the ceiling and hooked it to the back of Rafa’s harness. “The harness makes you lighter on your feet. In this case, we’ll rig it to tip you forward slightly to compensate for the squirrel monkey’s tail. You need to be free to move your appendages in every direction, but it is the fact that you can feel what the avatar feels that makes this successful. As you walk, it walks, but you will feel your feet hit the ground. Without that feeling, all of you would fall. If you reach up and grab a tree branch, the avatar will as well, and you will feel the branch in your hand. If this sensation did not happen, it would be nearly impossible to accurately control an avatar.
    “Once you’re ready, you initiate the system by pressing the button behind your neck. You will only have access to squirrel monkey avatars for now, so you don’t have to worry about choosing an animal. The avatar will be placed by our program into your private practice room, and then you can begin.”
    “But there are no windows. How do we see the avatar?” a girl, with what Derick thought was an Asian accent, asked. Derick had also noticed that the booths were solid walls.
    “You don’t have to see the avatar from the outside,” Dr. Mackleprank said. “You will be seeing the world through its eyes. Oh, and to end a session, simply press on the same button on the back of your neck.”
    After a few minutes, Derick was hooked up. He pressed the button at the back of his neck to log on. A quick pain behind his eyes forced them closed. His head ached. Derick recoiled for a moment, then slowly opened his eyes.
    It was like nothing he had ever experienced before.
    The most massive tree Derick had ever seen stood in the middle of a space the size of a soccer field. It must have been ten stories tall. Derick turned his head, which made him lose his balance and nearly fall over. Pesky tail. Plus, his head felt off balance. Maybe it was larger in proportion to his body than he was used to. He looked down at his hands—furry. He rubbed them against his chest—furry. He rubbed them on the top of his head—furry. He felt like a walking rug. His nose, however, was cold and clammy. Derick was a squirrel monkey.
    “Students,” he heard Dr. Mackleprank’s voice saying, “I’m speaking through a sound system that your ears pick up in your booths, not the monkeys’. That will be important for when you want to join the real monkeys. We can’t have them hearing our instructions and being wary of new visitors.
    “You’ll notice that many things look very large to you. Squirrel monkeys are only twenty-five to thirty-five centimeters tall, so, as you can imagine, you’re looking at the world from a whole new perspective. Everything will seem much larger.”
    Derick began to take a few steps. It felt good—completely strange, awkward, and imbalanced, but also agile and light. He nearly fell to the left, but after spreading his arms as a counterbalance, he managed to stay upright. He was learning to walk all over again.
    Derick heard Mackleprank again. “Off to one side of the room are a series of bars you can use to practice climbing and swinging from branches. Squirrel monkeys live in the canopy of tropical forests in Central and South America. So obviously, much of their lives is among trees.
    Derick turned toward the bars and toppled onto his side. Getting up was a bit of a chore.
    “I’m sure you’ve now felt the imbalance a tail causes. I’ve seen several of you