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Gingerly, Toy the plushie Draik took out a spool of thread
and a needle out of his little sewing pouch. He had acquired a tear across his
his foot while wandering through the woods and he didn't like leaving rips unmended.
He plopped himself on the ground and sat crossed legged so he could reach the
offending foot. With a practiced grace the squishy plush Draik began to stitch
up the rip.
Toy was a rather quiet fellow. Only speaking
when he found it necessary. He usually sought the solitude of the forest when
he wanted to think, or escape the chaos of the Shadow Alliances. Triano had
offered him a position in the SA and he couldn't exactly refuse. His owner,
Operafloozy, was good friends with Keeta and was at the Shadows Alliances more
often then not so it only made since that Toy was recruited. It didn't mean,
however, that he had to enjoy living there. There was always too much going
on and it frazzled the poor plushie Draik He was rather sensitive to how others
treated him, and offhand comments that weren't meant to offend hurt him. Things
like "Aww Toy, Is there anything other then fluff in there?" In fact, It had
given him such a complex he'd taken to reading as many books as he could devour.
He sighed slightly as he finished mending his foot.
All and all, at the moment he was rather weary
and there was no way he could get any rest back at the SA Headquarters so he
flopped onto the ground with a thud and went to sleep under a nearby tree.
***
Whistling to the best of her ability a little girl with stubby sticky fingers
skipped through the forest, a little bit ahead of her Lupe. Her blonde hair
was done up in thick curly pigtails with tiny pink bows and she wore a short
lavender frock and tiny black shoes. A perfect image of innocence. She giggled
and beckoned for her Lupe to catch up.
"C'mon Lady! Try and catch me!" she told the
red Lupe as she ran as fast as her little chubby legs could carry. Lady, the
red Lupe, happened to be none other then the lupine that ran the Toy Store in
Neopia Central. She had taken the little girl into her charge when she saw her
wandering about Neopia trying to "catch" a neopet of her own. She didn't seem
to have any sort of family so Lady was happy to take care of her. Trotting half
heartedly Lady chased after the girl.
"Oh no. How will I ever catch you?" Lady
asked in mock exhaustion. "You are much too fast for these old legs!"
"You're not old Lady!" the girl giggled, but
as she did so she tripped over something soft and smushy on the floor. She went
tumbling to the ground, her knees getting nice red scrapes. Sniffling, her wide
brown eyes began to well up with tears.
"Oh dear, Don't cry! Please..." Lady pleaded
to the little girl, but the thing she had tripped over caught the Lupe's eye.
She quirked her head down and saw a Draik plushie sprawled across the floor.
"Look at this child! A Draik Plushie!" Lady said picking up the plushie and
offering it to the girl. She sniffled, wiping her tears away with her fist and
taking the plushie in her hands.
"He's cute Lady. I want to keep him." The girl
smiled widely, squeezing the plushie tightly.
"I think this toy... is a puppet. Look, See the
strands sticking out from the top? It seems as if his strings were pulled right
off of him. We should fix him and put on a puppet show!" Lady suggested excitedly.
"We could invite a bunch of younger Neopians and their owners, they would adore
it! And this little puppet could be the star. What do you think little one?"
"That would be fun Lady!" the little girl squealed,
clapping in excitement. She absolutely loved puppet shows.
"Well let's get this guy back to the toy shop
and see what we could do about fixing him then!" Lady replied, smiling fondly
at the little girl and their newly found puppet. Too bad that it wasn't actually
a puppet...
***
"Are you done yet Lady?!" the girl bounced up and down impatiently, trying
to peek up over the red Lupe's shoulder to see the progress being made on the
puppet. She couldn't wait to play with him, she adored new toys.
"Almost..." Lady replied as she finished attaching
the last puppet string to the plushie. She picked it up by the piece of wood
that was used to moved his arms, legs, and head. Testing it, she tried putting
him in different poses, smiling in a satisfied manner. "There we go... try him
out and tell me what you think."
Taking him in her thick little fingers she swung
him around her head carelessly like a helicopter. Lady winced as she thwacked
the puppet into the wall repeatedly. Children were so careless with toys these
days, why, when she was just a pup...
"Oooo..." a low moan echoed throughout the the
workroom of the toy shop. The little girl's eyes widened as she flung the puppet
to the floor and looked around the room wildly, trying to find the source of
the noise. She whimpered and clung to Lady's leg.
"Don't worry... it was probably just a customer.
I'll go--" The Lupe's jaw dropped as the Draik puppet pushed itself to its feet
and muttered darkly to itself. That was a strange occurrence if Lady
had ever seen one. She bopped herself in her nose to make sure she wasn't imagining
it. Nope, it was real. The girl was openly gaping at the moving Draik plushie.
It had yet to spot either of them, because at the moment it was looking around
the room in pure and utter puzzlement.
"Where on Neopia am I?" The plushie said blankly.
Sighing in frustration and trying to figure out what was going on.
"Lady! Lady! You made the puppet come alive!"
the little girl yelled ecstatically running towards the puppet and grabbing
him. "You and me are going to be best friends!" she announced, giggling. Lady
just continued to stare blankly.
"Hey, hey Get OFF. I am not a puppet! I'm a real
neopet!" the Draik plushie, who happened to be toy, protested in shocked dismay.
He didn't seem to have noticed the strings that dangled from his body just yet.
"No! You're my puppet, Stop being mean,"
the girl told Toy placidly with her hands on her hips in a condescending fashion.
"Look kid, I'm really not up for this
I'll just be going home now-- What is all of this?!" he asked suddenly becoming
aware of the puppet strings that hung lifelessly from his squishy body.
"Well... strings. We thought you were a broken
puppet so we fixed you..." Lady finally spoke, biting her lip a bit, hoping
that the Draik plushie, no plushie Draik, wouldn't get TOO upset when he found
out that the strings couldn't be removed by any normal means.
"...Great. Just great. Could you please remove
it now so I can go home?" Toy asked in an exasperated fashion. He didn't appreciate
being flustered in such a manner.
"There's... a slight problem. I attached them
to you with this adhesive that well, is never suppose to break." Lady put a
paw behind her head sheepishly. "Sorry, erm, about that... besides, you can
stay here with us, and be the one and only live puppet! This girl here will
be frightfully upset if you leave..." the Lupe trailed off, frowning slightly.
"You're kidding me," was all Toy could muster
in response.
"No. Not really. You see it was made by this
company "Myyth's Diabolical Products". They're supposed to be very good about
these sort of things." Lady nodded sagely. The little girl scowled, tugging
at Toy's shoulder and ripping his seams.
"You're mean!" was all she could say angrily.
"Gah! Stop it you little psycho!" Toy flopped
on to the floor and buried his head in his hands. "Why? Why always me? Why not
Lain? Or Libby? Or Garudi?"
"This toy is dumb! I don't want it Lady!" the
little girl kicked Toy one last time before storming into her bedroom and slamming
the door shut.
"I guess it's pointless for you to stay now,
I was only keeping you for her anyway... go ahead go home." The red Lupe shrugged,
a bit irritated that she had gone through all the work for nothing.
"Gee, Thanks," Toy's voice dripped with
sarcasm as he sauntered out of the toy shop and found himself in the middle
of Neopia central. That had been quite an ego boost, and now he was a walking
puppet. Splendid. All he did was fall asleep. Next time he'd try and refrain
from that.
***
"Hahaha, no you can REALLY be Triano's minion! His little puppet!" Lain, the
Halloween Tonu snorted upon seeing Toy's newly acquired strings. "How can you
be stupid enough to sleep through that?!"
"You're really not helping Lain. Honestly. My
ego just exploded, I believe. Into a million shattered pieces. Thanks," Toy
said despondently.
"Don't worry, Toy. We love you all the same,"
Operafloozy, his owner said with that stupid smile she always wore. "And if
you really hate it that much, we'll call this Myyth company and find out what's
going on. Alright? I'm just so happy to have you back." She squeezed Toy.
"Oh yes. I'm absolutely thrilled to be back like
this," replied Toy bitterly. A real life puppet. How exciting. He rolled his
eyes and tried to accept his face.
The End
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