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Rosie the Plushie: Part Two


by neekoe

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It was a dark night, there were hardly any stars, and the moon was covered by clouds. Rain continued to fall, getting heavier by the minute. Only the dark and dangerous lurked on nights like these.

     A brown Hissi stalked his way around a corner. He held a knife, wore a mask and a cape, not to mention a sinister look on his menacing face. Clearly a thief, no not just your run-of-the-mill pickpocket, but he was a thief who has no mercy and stole from not only the wealthy, but the poor and everything in between.

     But this particular thief had been going on a rough streak. No one to steal from anymore, everyone was so careful. Keeping their things in Safety Deposit Boxes, the Neopoints in the bank, not to mention everything being so expensive anyway. So, when he saw a perfectly fixable plushie sitting in a dumpster, his eyes lit up!

     “Hissssssssssss.” He grabbed both parts of the plushie and slithered down through an open basement window.

     The room was filled with more sinister looking characters than you’d find in the Haunted Woods. It was completely decorated around a round table in the centre of the room where four Neopets sat, playing a heated game of poker.

     A white Moehog peeked at his cards, then a smirk drew on his face. A dark green Lenny eyed him curiously, and the Moehog covered his smile.

     “Fold,” the Lenny declared and threw his cards to the centre of the table.

     “Two threes, a six and an ace,” the Moehog revealed, laughing and pulling his winnings close. The whole table became chaos.

     “You little cheat!” screeched a Korbat, pointing an accusing finger at the Moehog. A Mynci jumped over to the other side of a table. There was yelling and screeching until the Hissi simply went over to the table and placed down a bag of neopoints.

     “New game, then?” the Mynci asked the Hissi, who was holding back the angry Korbat.

     They played for hours. The Hissi was losing; he never really was the best at poker. Finally, he had nothing left, except that plushie he pulled from the dumpster.

     “It’s all I’ve got left,” he declared. The others scoffed but eventually allowed him to play.

     He ended up losing, not to mention owing the Moehog a fair amount of neopoints.

     ***

     The sun rises to reveal a new day. It isn’t bad, but the clouds still look quite angry. Neopia Central is bustling away, but it’s not only the main shops that are attracting attention.

     A small stall sits along the wall in a back alley. It looks like one of those little lemonade stands you had when you were younger, only, not so clean and friendly.

     A Moehog sat behind the stall, sorting through the goods on the bench top. A constant frown strung to his face.

     “Hello there, friend. Interested in buying some rather exclusive goods?” the Moehog says to a passer-by.

     “Erm, what do you have?” replies a regal looking Uni.

     “Only the best, of course. What’s a young lady like yourself interested in?”

     “Well, I mostly like Plushies, but the Plushie Shop is almost always out of stock, anything along those lines?”

     “Why, most certainly! We have haunted plushies, headless plushies—”

     “How about that!” the Uni interrupts, pointing to the broken Kau plushie.

     “If you’re willing to fix it yourself, fine. That’ll be four thous—, I mean forty thousand neopoints!” the Moehog says, obviously aware of the Uni’s wealth and, um, intelligence. She happily hands over the neopoints and trots away with her new plushie, just as he expected she would.

     ***

     By midday the clouds had all dissolved and sunlight trickled down to the ground. Everyone was happy, especially a certain Uni.

     She eventually made her way back to her home and handed the broken toy to her aunt.

     “Violet, I was wondering if you could fix this for me. I plan on giving it to Elu for her birthday. I know how much she likes plushies!” the Uni said cheerfully.

     “Of course, Skye. I’ll wrap it up for you when I’m done,” the Faerie Xweetok replied.

     And so the day flew by, Skye was so eager to see how the young Kougra, Elu, would react to her gift. Her little cousin looked up to Skye more than anything, and so she wanted to make a good example.

     “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Elu, happy birthday to you!” the group sang as they surrounded a very excited baby Kougra who sat in front of a heavily decorated cake.

     “Hip hip,” one said.

     “Hooray!” the group shouted in reply.

     It was repeated twice more before the Kougra blew out the candles, mostly spitting all over the cake, but surely no one would mind.

     After cake it was present time. All the young children started screaming at Elu to open their gifts first, but the mature baby reached for her favourite cousin’s neat package.

     “I wonder what it is!” the Kougra said excitedly, shacking the tightly wrapped gift.

     “It’s something I’ve had for a very long time, I hope you like it. It’s very special to me,” the Uni lied.

     Elu quickly unwrapped the gift, not caring to save the paper to be re-used as many Neopians did in these tough economical times.

     “Aww, it’s so cute, ta, Skye!” Elu said, hugging Rosie tightly.

     Her neck had been stitched back on neatly, but her eye had fallen out, unnoticed. This much loved toy seemed to have aged years in its few months of life.

     ***

     Elu took Rosie everywhere. She loved that plushie; after all, it did come from her role model. (Who unfortunately happened to be a spoilt liar, but what are you going to do?)

     But one unfortunate day, Elu decided to take Rosie in to pre-neoschool. Everyone gushed over her squishy toy, except one rather jealous baby Acara named Kayla.

     “Isn’t she great? My cousin has had her for a long long time and gave her to me for my birthday!” she explained to the other children, most fighting over who go to hold her next.

     The lunch bell rang and all the students left their show and tell items in the class room. All of them ran eagerly outside and began playing in the sand pit, which would end up much to their parents’ dismay once they got home.

     All but one, shifty little Acara.

     Kayla snuck her way into the class room during lunch. She stalked her way around, which was rather unnecessary in a pre-school. Nobody was around, and nobody would be until it was time to come inside.

     She crawled over to the table where Elu had sat showing off her ‘old’ toy. Quickly, she stood and picked Rosie up from the table before running to the bag room.

     Rosie was stuffed into her backpack and zipped in tightly.

     When the children came inside from their breaks, Elu was horrified to se that her beloved plush was missing. Miss Bartem was frantically searching for the missing toy.

     Kayla merely leaned against a wall as the entire class continued the search, even though Rosie was nowhere to be found.

     Finally the day finished, Elu ending in tears. Kayla didn’t have a hint of sympathy for the upset Kougra, and happily went home without a care in the world.

     ***

     The sun began to set over the horizon and another family was going about their nightly routine.

     “How was neoschool, Kayla?” a short red Zafara asked casually as she scooped more food into her mouth.

     “It was okay, I stole—I mean, got given a new toy!” Kayla replied, nervous about what she may have given away.

     “Oh that's good hon—hold on, you stole a toy? How could you, Kayla! I didn’t bring you up this way; it must be from your father’s side... You will take whatever you took to the Money tree first thing tomorrow morning, got it?” she told Kayla, glaring.

     “But—” Kayla tried to defend herself, but the Zafara simply held her finger in the air each time she tried to speak.

     Eventually, Kayla gave up and just ate her dinner in a huff. She would do as her mother said the next morning.

     ***

     “Yes!” yelled a rather tropical looking Kacheek.

     “I finally got something! Something from the Money Tree!” the excited Kacheek said loudly, as though she was trying to get all of the others around her to know what had just happened.

     It was another bright day in Neopia, one of many in recent days. Flowers were blooming, Weewoos were chirping, everything was good.

     “I’ll be able to sell this,” the Kacheek said to herself as she headed to the market place.

     She was skipping along, holding Rosie high and whistling a friendly tune. Before long she was at a little table with a “be right back!” sign on top of the plain white sheet that covered the table.

     “Ah, here’s the opportunity for a little profit,” she said as she dropped the plushie on the table, stapling a price tag to its side.

     Many Neopets passed by, and before long, it was time to pack up.

     “Another wasted day, then,” the Kacheek said, frowning in dismay. She began to pack her table up, before a bright Orange Kougra came racing by.

     “H-How m-much for th-the toy?” she said, gasping for air.

     “Well, you’re a little late, but six thousand neopoints,” the Kacheek replied, a little surprised by the Kougra.

     “How about you give it to me for five, since it’s last minute and all, and you know you want to sell...” the Kougra said persuasively, still slightly out of breath.

     The Kacheek pondered for a moment, and decided the Kougra was right. She did want a nice warm place to stay tonight, and with that she could upgrade her suite at the Neolodge.

     “Sure,” she said as they exchanged items. The Kougra once again ran off, with a simple nod as thanks.

     ***

     The stalls were all closing. Kira knew this was when you got all the bargains. Shop keepers were desperate to sell the last of their goods, not wanting to transport them back to their Neohomes.

     She raced from one to the next, getting major discounts on whatever she desired. Her new temporary friends surely would be impressed with her reselling abilities once she got back to the Neolodge.

     “Hey Kira, how did it go tonight?” asked a curious Pirate Kacheek from inside.

     “Quite well, actually, I got this lovely plushie fairly cheap,” Kira replied as she stepped through the door to a large room with an open fireplace.

     Suddenly the Pirate Kacheek snatched Rosie from Kira’s hands and examined it closely.

     “What... no, it can’t be,” the Kacheek said to himself in disbelief.

     “It’s a Plushie Kau Plushie; they aren’t that rare, Jack,” Kira explained, eyeing the Kacheek’s strange expression.

     Jack turned Rosie over and over, finally finding what he was searching for. On the bottom of the left front hoof of the Kau there was some faint writing.

     It was hard to make out, but the Kacheek managed to read out the words in his head.

    “My name is Rosie”, it said.

     “I must have this plushie,” Jack explained to Kira.

     “I didn’t know you were a fan of plushies, Jack. I thought you were into the more manly things,” Kira mocked.

     “Just, just how much do you want for it?” Jack asked, disregarding her comment.

     “Fifteen thousand,” Kira said with an evil grin.

     “Done!” Jack yelled, throwing some neopoints in front of Kira and running up the stairs with Rosie. Kira was speechless.

     ***

     The Neolodge was mostly quiet. The kids running up and down the stairs of the cheap section of the lodge was the only noise. Everyone else was readying themselves for sleep.

     “SAMMY!” Jack shouted, still galloping up the stairs to the deluxe suite where his family would sleep.

     “What do you want, monster?” the Plushie Kau replied, leaning out the door in boredom.

     “I think I have something that will make you stop hating me!” he replied in a cheerful tone, finally realizing what was happening was real.

     “I doubt it,” Sammy said as Jack reached the top of the staircase, holding Rosie behind his back.

     “Well, don’t you want to see?” he asked with a giant grin on his face.

     “Ugh, fine, show me,” she said, clearly annoyed by his cheerfulness.

     Jack pulled the plushie from behind his back and just held it in front of Sammy for a moment. She straightened up, but said nothing.

     Jack read her tag aloud.

     “My name is Rosie”. He said it with satisfaction as Sammy froze up. He handed the plushie to her, she said nothing.

     ***

     “So much has happened since you’ve been gone, Rosie,” Sammy said happily pouring a cup of pebble tea.

     “Jack got his dream of being Pirate, and I got painted Plushie! The generous Fountain Faerie came and Jack completed her quest and got her to make me Plushie, since he was responsible for your disappearance. Jack was lucky again and won the lottery for his Paint Brush, and he was lucky again to find you!

     “Also, Brightvale is great; you’ll love it when we get back there. We’re only here visiting Grandma. We’ll go home soon. I can’t wait!

     “What have you been up to?” Sammy went on for hours, just talking to Rosie, and Rosie just listened like a good friend should.

     - - -

     “We’re going in ten minutes!” yelled a yellow Acara.

     “Coming, Mum. I just have to find Rosie, I know she’s around somewhere!” Sammy yelled back, frantically searching the entire neolodge for her toy.

     She looked everywhere. Upstairs, downstairs, even knocked on some random doors. She was nowhere!

     “Jack, where did you put her? It’s not funny!” Sammy yelled to her brother, running after him as he bolted off.

     “Nowhere! I swear, please stop chasing me! I just ate, you know!” he yelled back to his sister, still running as fast as his tiny legs could carry him.

     “Where is she!” she yelled again, she wasn’t going to leave her precious toy again, not after just getting her back.

     “I promise you, I don’t know! Please stop! You have four legs, this is sooo unfair!” he yelled back again, breathing heavily with fear in his eyes.

     “Fine. Help me search, then!” She stopped running, and Jack fell into a pot plant.

     “Ah, here she is!” he said cheerfully, while Sammy just glared at him as he pulled her beloved toy out from behind the plant.

     “Okay, time to go, kids,” the Acara yelled again. Both Sammy and Jack walked together outside, waving to all their new friends that they would probably never see again. They looked at each other and laughed.

     “You’re a good brother,” Sammy said.

     “And you’re a nuisance,” Jack said, laughing and running as Sammy chased him down the road.

The End

 
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