"It's these stupid numbers that they use nowadays. Makes finding a book on a certain subject a lot harder," he muttered, as he continued to scan book titles.

As he made his way to the next shelf, still intent on what he was looking for, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Not only was there no title on the spine, but it seemed to be glowing.

"Curious," he said, pulling it down. The dark purple book failed to have a title on the front as well. And as he stared at it, the book suddenly opened and flipped pages, stopping on one certain one, with only eight words on it.

"Watashi no omocha o mezame sasete iki saseru" he read aloud. "What does that mean?"

He was shocked at what happened next...

It was as if he was peering into the mouth of madness itself, and Finneus was certainly beginning to regret his habit of reading everything aloud.

And then, as quickly as the insanity began, it stopped. The book slammed shut, it's glowing rapidly subsided, and the dark purple cover shifted to a surprisingly pleasant orchid.

The silence afterwards was somehow almost as unsettling as the vision.

That was when Finneus heard something. A slight shuffling, and perhaps even a partially-subdued cough, from somewhere behind him. The last thing he wanted to do was turn around and see what was there, but he had to muster up the courage.

After a couple of deep breaths, Finneus whirled around and saw...

The plushie was of a more-or-less standard size for such a toy; small enough for a child to carry around everywhere. The toy was standing upright--were the legs wire-reinforced, Finneus wondered, or was it remaining balanced by magic alone?

For there was clearly magic involved here. The plushie was looking up at Finneus with glassy eyes, shifting a little from one foot to another.

He stared at the plushie for a few moments. The plushie stared back.

Finneus cleared his throat. Though the circumstances of the strange plushie's appearance had been... well, somewhat ominous, the little toy didn't appear to be immediately threatening. "Ah... hello?" he said.

The Lenny plushie's beak dipped in a nod, but made no verbal response.

Well, it was a plushie, after all. Plushies couldn't generally speak.

Of course, they didn't typically move, either. Finneus had to admit he wasn't terribly knowledgeable on the capabilities of magically-animated plush toys.

He was startled to hear a sudden thump off to one side.

It was his little Meepit plushie. He'd left it sitting on a shelf while investigating a book, but now it had leapt down onto the floor, where it was now making its way over to the Lenny plushie.

"I--I say, Ponti," Finneus said. The Meepit plushie, hearing its name, paused to look up at Finneus with beady eyes.

"You're... moving," said Finneus.

Ponti looked steadily up at Finneus, who felt a little silly for stating the obvious. After a few moments, the Meepit plushie turned back towards the Lenny plushie, walking over to stand beside the other toy.

They seemed to study each other for a few moments. Some silent communication seemed to pass between them, and they both looked back at Finneus.

The plushies began a strange pantomime, putting wings (in the Lenny's case) or forepaws (in Ponti's) together, as if holding something that they were moving around.

After a moment, Finneus said "Oh! You want to write something?"

The plushies nodded in unison.

"Well. Ah." Finneus cleared his throat. "Perhaps I should take you back to my office. If it's all right if I carry you...?"

The plushies both nodded.

Carefully, Finneus picked up both the plushies, walking back to his little office and setting them gently on his desk. "Sorry about the mess--here, there's some blank paper and a quill right here," he said, handing Ponti the quill.

The Meepit plushie gave a little bow, as if to thank him. The plushie toddled over to the inkwell, dipped the quill, and began to write...

The Meepit wrote it quite plainly, in a child's handwriting.

Finneus was confused. As far as he had known, this Meepit had sat on his desk for Finneus' own tenure. When he was accepted to the position at the Archives, he found the plushie left in the empty office that was to be his. He found it cute. He assumed it had been left behind by the previous archiver, and paid it no mind. Occasionally, on long days in the office, he would find that the plushie had moved: on a collection of new reports, in front of the Zoology section in the archives, just plain fallen off the desk.

But, in light of current events, he was now considering that maybe this plushie had held life the entire time. He chewed on some feathers of his wings, thinking. The plushies met his eyes with their own glassy, plastic beads.

He looked at the piece of paper, then back at the plushies, who were now motioning back to the book that had started this whole ordeal. It was still glowing that beautiful orchid colour.

"Well," he thought. "If this started it, maybe it shall end it, as well." He picked up the plushies and sat them next to the glowing book. They seemed warmer in its purple shine. Finneus opened the book, just to see if anything had changed. Another vision, as intense as the first episode.

The book began to open, unfurling its paper all over the room, corner to corner, window to window. It seemed to melt and move, more like water than paper, then fold and contort so swiftly that the room shook from the force. The paper folded and folded, each crease and crinkle growing more and more intricate, until finally, in front of Finneaus and the plushies, there stood...

How will this story end?

Finneus gaped. Newfound plushie appearance aside, he recognized this Lenny—would have recognized him anywhere. “Nephew?!” Finneus sputtered out.

“Uncle!” the Lenny Conundrum Wizard replied, equally stunned.

Finneus started to ask where his nephew had been and what had happened to him, but with the book still glowing in his hand, those answers seemed obvious. That, and before he really had a chance to form the words, his nephew was speaking quickly.

“We have to hurry,” he said. “It’s still here!”

The Meepit and Lenny plushies nodded in agreement.

“What’s still here?” Finneus asked with trepidation.

“What walks on four paws and feasts on written magic?” The Plushie Lenny asked. “Oh, never mind. It’s the Devourer. I was looking for inspiration for a new puzzle here, and it finally caught up to me. I escaped into the book along with Reynold over there, but it, well, ate some of the spellwork as we were jumping in.”

“What do we do about it?”

Ponti broke into another pantomime, and Finneus quickly put a second sheet of paper in front of him. This time the little Lenny plushie helped too, and when they finished, there was a new spell written on the paper.

“We just have to—“

But the Devourer found them first. It burst into the room, knocking over two shelves of books, which buried all three of the plushies. Finneus barely had time to snatch the spell out of the stack and read it before the flaming beast was on top of him.

It vanished in another one of those dizziness-inducing displays. Immediately, Finneus began digging through the piles of books to free Ponti, the Wizard, and the blue Lenny plushie.

It turns out, they didn’t need much help. When the Devourer was banished, the magic locking them into their plushie selves snapped too. Only the Meepit needed any assistance extricating himself from the piles, and that was because he wouldn’t let go of one of the books.

When everyone was free of the mess, Finneus took the book from his plushie’s—from his petpet’s?—grasp. It was the one he’d been looking for all along.

The End,