Martin carried the Usuki to the front of the store and placed her gently on the counter. Something about the little doll had sparked his curiosity. He continued about his day -- cleaning the shelves, keeping the stock neat, and greeting customers -- until it was almost time for closing. He was just about to turn the sign in the window around when...

"I'm sorry, we're--" he started to say.

"Closed? I thought so," the Cybunny interrupted, her face fallen. She looked devastated.

"What's wrong?" Martin could not help but ask.

"Well... it's my sister's birthday tomorrow and I haven't gotten a present for her. I was saving up all of my Neopoints to get her something really special, but I couldn't save enough in time." She sniffed, swiping a paw across her face. "I was hoping I could find something here," she added.

Martin hesitated. His legs ached from a good day's work and he felt like doing nothing more than locking the shop and settling down at home with a nice, warm cup of hot chocolate. However, looking at the other 'pet's tear-stained face, he sighed.

"All right," he said, "take a look around quick."

The Cybunny's face lit up with disbelief and then pure joy.

"Thank you, thank you!" she cried and headed into the depths of the store. With a sigh, Martin turned the sign around so that it read, in a cursive hand, "Closed."

He did some last minute cleaning while he waited for the Cybunny. She certainly is taking a long time, he thought while wiping the countertop. Martin checked his watch. Sure enough, it had been close to fifteen minutes.

"Excuse me?" he called, but there was no answer.

Martin frowned. Where had she gone? Setting the cleaning rag aside, he...

"Oh, this one looks perfect!" he heard the Cybunny exclaim. Relieved, Martin quickly replaced the plushie and walked in the direction that the voice was coming from.

Standing at the counter near the front of the Shoppe, the young Cybunny was swooning over what appeared to be an Usuki doll. As Martin came closer, he noticed the doll happened to be the very one he had found earlier that day -- the tattered Beautiful Bride Usuki, to be exact.

The Cybunny's eyes sparkled as she turned the doll over in her paws. "This would make a lovely present for my sister!" she exclaimed. "She's always loved Usukis!"

Turning to Martin, she held out the doll and asked...

Martin didn't know how to respond to the question. He just said, "I found it lying around. I don't know how it got here. I highly doubt it's missed."

"Oh. So, how much?"

"No charge. You can have it."

The Cybunny's eyes lit up. Martin could tell she was happy. "Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!"

She ran back to the front of the Shoppe. On her way, she yelped and a thump hit the floor. Martin was concerned, so he checked on her. She had apparently tripped over a Yellow Eyrie Plushie.

"I thought I picked this up," he muttered to himself as he put the old toy back. "Are you alright?"

The Cybunny got up and nodded. Without another word, she ran out the front door. Now that she was gone, Martin could leave.

The next morning, Martin was ready to go to work. Though it had happened the previous night, his thoughts gravitated to the plushie on the floor. He could've sworn that he had picked it up; also, he thought it strange that he hadn't heard the Cybunny run into it.

Those thoughts stopped when he walked into the Shoppe. In there, he saw...

The room was silent, and the Eyrie that had once filled the center of the room was now gone. Where, Martin hadn't the faintest idea. He stared. On the floor, where it had fallen the day before, was the Eyrie plushie. Beside it was a scrap of fabric that looked like it belonged to a cloud-colored plushie, or had belonged to one, but there was no way to tell for sure.

Martin disbelievingly picked up the Eyrie, fidgeting with it in his hand a moment, before taking the plushie behind the counter with him. Maybe no one should buy this for a while, until I have this figured out, he thought.

As he turned the sign outside the door to "Open," Martin couldn't help but feel the little button eyes of the plushie boring into his back. He shivered. Who could Martin take the plushie to that would know what to do with it?...

Swallowing hard and not taking his eyes off the plushie, Martin stepped backward and flipped the sign back to "Closed." There was no point in selling anything until the issue with the Eyrie plushie was fixed.

Lunging forward, Martin snatched the Yellow Eyrie Plushie off of the shelf and stuffed him into a bag. There was only one Neopet who was more experienced with plushies than he was.

"Bah, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that!" The red Bori practically threw the Yellow Eyrie Plushie back to Martin.

"Donny, please take another look -- there's something about this one that I just can't lay a claw on." Martin pleaded, gingerly pushing the plushie back over the table toward the Bori.

The old Bori sighed and lifted a wing of the plushie. He raised his eyebrows and scrutinized the plushie further with his eye loupe.

"Interesting. Quite interesting, as a matter of fact."

Martin's heart pounded. "What's interesting?" he breathed, hoping that the creepy plushie would do no harm.

"I've only heard of these plushies appearing when a dearly loved toy has been separated from its owner and given to a new one. These are the plushie avengers." Donny stared hard at Martin, who was now a pale shade of yellow with dread.

"Have you sold any toys that were previously owned and loved?"

Martin stared at the Bori, and then the plushie. The latter seemed to glower at him, its eyes grating at Martin's nerves.

The Ruki stared back helplessly, unable to answer...

"That's easier said than done. I don't know where the girl I gave the toy to went and I don't know who originally owned it, either. How does he know the original owner didn't give it to me because she was done with it, anyway?" Martin asked, his temper flaring in the face of such a daunting task.

"If the original owner did not miss their toy dearly -- if she had given it up freely -- then the plushie avengers would not have been alerted," the Bori answered.

"You keep saying 'avengers.' Does that mean there are m-more of these things?" Martin asked.

Donny nodded gravely. "Oh, yes. According to the rumors, there are many avengers hidden within ordinary plushies, waiting in slumber until the desperation of one who lost their beloved toy awakens them."

"Ordi... ordinary plushies," the Ruki mouthed. His store was filled with plushies! Also, the Plushie Palace was just across the Plaza! The color drained from his face entirely; he snatched for the Yellow Eyrie Plushie. "I need to get back to my store!"

The Second-Hand Shoppe was still standing and there wasn't even an army of pitchfork-wielding plushies standing outside, awaiting his arrival. What he did see, though, was a small Xweetok. As he approached, she ran up to him. "Mister! Mister! You sold my sister that Usuki, right?" she exclaimed.

Martin didn't bother to argue that he had given the Usuki to the Cybunny. Instead, he nodded. "Yes... why do you ask?" he added hesitantly.

"Ohhh... ever since Lily brought it home, weird stuff's been happening. Bad stuff! You need to come quick!"...

"What kind of bad things have been happening?" Martin asked. Inside he could feel his heart begin to race, as the house in front of him terrified him greatly.

"Oh... at first it was small things, like toys being found in different areas, but it progressively got worse. Around midnight I heard my sister scream. I ran into her room and she was sitting on the bed crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said that the Usuki was walking around like it was looking for something. She also said that, when it saw her, its eyes flashed red and the Usuki began to growl. Then that black cloud appeared this morning. Oh, please mister! Do something!"

Martin looked into the pleading eyes of the little Xweetok and sighed.

"Okay. You know how your mother used to tell you not to take things that don't belong to you?"

"Yes sir, but I don't see how that has anything to do with a toy that was bought."

"Well that's just it.. your sister didn't buy it. I gave it to her, however it wasn't mine to give away."

"What do you mean? It was in your store."

"Yes, but I think someone may have left it there by accident."

"So, your saying that the toy is alive?"

"I know it's confusing, but yes."

The Xweetok looked at the shopkeeper with thoughts running through her mind. She wondered if he was crazy. Toys can't be alive, can they?...

"What's going on?" Martin began to say, but his question was answered once he entered the house. Angry-looking plushies were flipping tables and pulling down curtains. In the corner of the dining room, the Cybunny could be spotted standing on a chair as if trying to make sure the toys couldn't touch her.

Martin made his way through the growling toys and the red-eyed plushies and helped the shaking Cybunny off of the chair. Martin didn't want to waste any more time. "I need to know where the Usuki I gave you is."

The Cybunny just pointed. Martin followed her paw to the Usuki that seemed to be looking for something, just as the Xweetok said it had the previous night. Martin slowly walked toward the plushie, not really knowing what he was going to do. If he were to grab the Usuki, would it just let him hold it or would it attack? He had no way of knowing and there was no time to waste thinking about such things, anyway. There was only time for action. "Here goes nothing," the Ruki said with a sigh.

He quickly picked up the Usuki and hurried out of the house. The plushie squirmed in his hands, hitting him every once in a while with all of the force the small toy had. Relatively speaking, Martin was happy with the outcome of this, his most recent decision. He would have looked back to see if everything was now back to normal at the Cybunny and Xweetok's house (or if there was an angry mob of toys following him), but he was too focused on the task at hand: finding the previous owner of this plushie and returning it to him or her...

He at last neared the Second Hand Shoppe and placed the Usuki, gnashing its teeth spitefully, next to the peculiar Eyrie. The latter's eyes seemed to bore into Martin before it, too, stood up, navigating toward the riled beautiful bride.

The two toys turned toward Martin, a temper unlike anything the Ruki had ever seen present in their tiny features. A sense of practicality gripped him and he realized this was only because he had never before seen "angry" plushies.

Swallowing hard in a mostly vain attempt to calm his trepidation, he spoke, tremulously, "We're all on the same side here." The toys seemed unmoved by his claim. "With utmost sincerity, Usuki, I apologize to you and to your... companion, whomever and wherever she is, for giving you away, and I only want your quick return to her."

The Ruki looked at the Eyrie. "I'm only trying to help."

The plushie looked up at Martin with wide eyes, but they were eyes of authority. "As you know," it boomed in a deep and masculine tone, "I am a plushie avenger. She cannot speak; I speak for her. It is my duty to return toys to deir loved ones... if you are willing to help with dat, I suppose I cannot disagree... despite da way you treated me and her."

Slowly nodding, Martin extended a hand toward the avenger.

"If I shook your hand I would accept da thought we are equals." The Eyrie just glared at him; Martin, with a tinge of sorrow but moreso of fear, withdrew. "Now," the avenger continued, "I tell you what to do, and you do it."

Martin closed his eyes and nodded. When he opened them, the Eyrie was again lifesize.

The Ruki started and almost fell backward out of shock.

"Grab her and jump on," the creepy-looking thing boomed.

After an unnaturally quick (yet silent) flight from Neopia Central to the Haunted Woods, the three landed near the Brain Tree.

"So, I'm to ask him where the plushie came from?" Martin inquired.

"Indeed, you go dere."

The Usuki, having calmed down substantially by now, willingly let herself be carried to the Brain Tree. Martin then started to walk away; however, the Eyrie called him back. Wordlessly the avenger extended his hand and Martin, gingerly but with a wan smile, shook it.

The Ruki again approached the tree. "Could you tell me the origins of this doll?"

"Can you tell me when and where Samantha Emilia died?" the Brain Tree boomed.

Martin stole a quick glance backward at the plushie avenger, only to realize it had disappeared. On to a next assignment, probably.

"Er..." Martin trailed. He had no clue and really didn't want to do a series of Esophagor quests.

The Usuki tapped him on the shoulder and he looked down at it. It just stared at him with beaming red eyes, and the Ruki feared the worst... but then five words appeared in his head; it was as though the doll was communicating something to him telepathically. "May third in Neopia Central," he repeated.

"CORRECT!" the tree boomed before leaning in to take a closer look at the doll.

The Ruki, dumbfounded, brought her closer to the tree.

"She is a very old doll," he started, and Martin barely resisted the urge he had to roll his eyes; this fact was obvious. "For decades she has rotted away in the Second Hand Shoppe, even before the Second Hand Shoppe was the Second Hand Shoppe."

This came as news to Martin. The not-for-profit had moved into and fixed up the dilapidated location, but it never occurred to him that it may have once been a household. She had been there longer than he had. She must have been there, waiting, waiting, for her owner to return. He wondered what had happened to her.

"Her owner resides at 4277 Tombstone Road," the Brain Tree finished before straightening himself with the superiority only he had a right to possess (at least in his opinion).

"Thank you," Martin replied with a brief nod.

"As you should," the tree somewhat condescendingly agreed.

Tombstone Road was aptly named. Though a light scatter of houses lined the street, most plots had their residents six feet underground. Martin shuddered... he had an irrational fear of this kind of stuff, propagated by too many zombie and ghost tales in his youth.

At last, he came upon 4277 and sighed; it was a cemetery. "Not surprising, though," he told himself, "considering the length of time you were apparently there for," he said to the doll.

She began to kick again and he set her down. The Bride started to walk among the graves and he followed her, reading some of the tombstones as he went (including some unfortunate fellow whose stone was completely covered in grime and someone, with their finger most likely, had written "GRIMEY" into it).

At last he stopped by the old and cracking stone of one... "Samantha Emilia," he read aloud with a sigh. At last something made sense. He read the inscription: "Taken in the prime of her youth, yet not before she touched all of our lives."

For some reason, Martin smiled. Rubbing away some of the dust, he saw a picture of a little Usul holding an Usuki engraved above the name. He smiled wider and gazed back at the doll, who was still behind him... except she was no longer. Instead there was a little girl there, an ethereal little Usul, clutching what was now a Ghost Bride Usuki and giving it a large hug. With a whispered thank you resounding about the scene, the two flitted away, mist evaporating into the midnight sky.

Martin wiped away a tear in his eyes. It was over. It was done.

After a frightening experience (though nothing would be more frightening than his recent adventure) getting lost in the cemetery, the Ruki exited and made the long trek back to Neopia Central.

"What is it, Mariah?" a Xweetok asked her sister a few days later. Though she was excited, there was a hint of fear, too. Gifts seemed like something malevolent now.

"I don't know, Lucy," the Cybunny replied as she opened the box that appeared on the doorstep earlier in the morning. With a sly grin, she continued, "I think it's for you, though."

Inside was a Beautiful Bride Usuki, clean and fresh and new. "Ooh!" Lucy said with wide eyes... but she quickly frowned. "Will it do the same thing as last time?"

Mariah just stared at the doll, and then back at her sister. Underneath the doll was a note that the Cybunny promptly read aloud:

To you and your sister,
I sincerely apologize for the recent harrowing events that I inadvertently drew you into. Do know, however, that all is well with the doll -- she has found her rightful place again, and will disturb neither you nor me any longer.

Please accept this new doll as recompense. Should you grow to love it... never, EVER let anyone else have it, as consequences could be dire.

Do not worry about that, however. I have every confidence that you shall cherish it for as long as you live... and beyond.

Happy belated birthday to the Xweetok,
--The Ruki from the Second Hand Shoppe.

Her sister grinned. "So, it's safe."

Mariah was still skeptical, but she managed a wan smile. "I sure hope so."

Hugging it tightly, Lucy wandered off to play.

The End