The Day The Plushies Took Over!: Part Two

     "To be a pain?" giggled Sasha.

     "Hey, that was mean... true... but mean," snapped Kolmai.

     Kolmai continued to rant and rave about being sold for points in order to obtain a baby paint brush. This to her was a big deal although it did not seem a big deal to her two companions.

     "I refuse to be sold!!" Kolmai shouted in disgust. "I am the most important part of the shelf and I like my place."

     "We have bigger things to worry about right now. Like saving Neopia and all that inhabit it. We can't worry about you being sold. It can't happen for now, since the brush is possibly a plushie baby paint brush," said Billy, as he pushed Kolmai to move along down the road into what was now the plushie tree forest.

     "See, the trees are even plushie. The Neopian world can't survive without plants and real life. Who ever did this may have wanted this done but was very stupid to do it," said Sasha.

     "You better watch wha-!" replied Billy.

     "What?" asked Sasha.

     "Nothing. I just was trying to get your attention so you could... um... could look at this... plant!"

     "Anyhow... we are on the way to go see this plushie person.. How do we know she is there? What if she can't help? I mean, this is a big problem," retorted Kolmai.

     The three plushies walked for many hours. They grew tired and weak; they also grew hungry. All they had was water to drink. The journey was still about two hours off and they were growing more and more tired. They passed plushie trees and plushie pets, and to their horrified amazement a headless plushie! It was as if someone had torn it apart on purpose. This made them begin to run.

     "This is dangerous! I mean look what happened to that poor Kougra plushie. Who would do such a thing?" said Billy.

     "I know, I mean this is psycho to be out here," replied Kolmai.

     "Well we made it, so calm your stitches," said Sasha quietly.

     "NOOOOOOO!!!! AHHH!! SASHA!!" someone screamed.

     Things began to spin and get very blurry, then all the lights of Neopia's forest went out!

     "You don't belong here. Get out! GO! GO!" exclaimed a female voice.

     "You're not a true plushie, you're a traitor! This is all you! Now be gone," she chanted.

     "Wha-where am I? This is not the forest; I don't even think this is Neopia," said Sasha.

     "You're in a dream. This is my land, my castle, and my domain! You stepped foot in it when you were attacked," said the voice with rage.

     "Attacked? What do you mean I was attac- Kolmai! She... she screamed, and the forest, it... went dark. I.. what's going on?! I have to get to my friends! Let me out of here!" cried Sasha.

     No matter how hard he tried he could not break loose of this nightmare he was having. He could not find out what was speaking to him or who was speaking to him. He kicked and screamed although he knew this was not doing any good.

     ***

     Now, my friends, I must take you back to the real world, away from this terrible nightmare. We find Sasha on the ground with a very bad character. Billy and Kolmai screaming in terror at this mostly evil character. "What did you do to him? You... you evil thing! Why?" screamed Kolmai.

     "This little stuffed aggravation has come to foil master's plans. We can't let that happen. In order to rule Neopia, my fellow plush, we must take it by force. My king has helped me to realize that."

     Kolmai and Billy were confused at what this mysterious plushie was saying and they began to wonder who on Neopia this "leader" was, and what it was that he was up to. Why would a plushie come and attack another plushie in the middle of the forests of Neopia? Kolmai and Billy were about to find out.

     "We are going to stop you, you and your master, whoever he or she... or what it might be," cried Kolmai in a sarcastic tone.

     At that very moment a loud bang shook the ground. It was as if a large piece of wood had hit the ground, and indeed, that is what happened. A beautiful plushie Kacheek came running out to see what all the noise was outside of the plushie queen's castle. She ran over and began to speak to Kolmai, but not before tripping over her tail and falling flat on her face. Kolmai thought it helped that she was plushie, as the Kacheek seemed to fall a lot.

     "What is going on here? There shall be no fighting outside of this castle," she said.

     "You must be Lorana, the plushie queen, correct?" asked Billy, while holding his unconscious friend next to him.

     "No, I am not," said the plushie Kacheek sweetly. "She is away on business. No doubt it is to stop all this madness going on in the Neopian lands. I am Natalie, the plushie princess. You can call me Nat."

     "Well Nat, me and my friends, Billy and Sasha, were traveling to the plushie castle to see if something could be done to restore Neopia, when we were attacked by this evil Morguss plushie. He said something about a buffoon trying to take over Neopia and rule it. He knocked my friend unconscious before telling us all this, though."

     Before the two friends and royal plushie could speak again they noticed that the evil plushie was gone, nowhere to be found. All that was left was a piece of string and some cotton stuck on a fallen tree branch. It was as if the plushie ran off in a hurry.

     "Seems as if our little plush friend has run off, but not before leaving a little clue," stated Kolmai, as she grabbed the soft cloth and fluffy lost desert cotton. "What are we to do about Sasha? I don't want him to be left here and I don't want to leave him knocked out while we travel. Should we wake him? He seems to be dreaming about something."

     As she said this she looked over at the unconscious plushie and noticed he had a small smirk on his face, as if to say, 'I have a plan; just let me dream.'

     ***

     Now we turn back to Sasha's dream, where he was screaming and kicking to break from the nightmare. He finally stopped kicking and realized he might have an idea to save himself from the dream and save Neopia.

     "Whoever you are, or wherever you are I wanna stop this. Why is all of Neopia a giant plushie? Who is doing this to it?"

     "We plushies," said the voice, "are merely collectors' items. We are stuffed and sold and then tossed on a shelf for all eternity. One day the leader got sick of this and began to learn plushie magic. Soon he was able to turn almost anything into plushies. Then one day Thorin got the idea to turn Neopia plushie and rule the land of plushies. Finally give us the recognition we deserve. It will succeed and no one will stop it!"

     "YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS!!" shouted Sasha, and at the very moment as he said those words, he was free from the dream. He left the mysterious place he was in and everything came flooding back to him. Billy, Kolmai and a beautiful but odd-looking plushie Kacheek.

     "We have to move! I know who is behind all this and I know why! He is planning to rule Neopia now that it is plushirized. I know his plans, his name, and why he is doing this; I just could not drill his location out. I was awakened... Ow, and in pain... what happened to my face? It hurts," said Sasha, rubbing his cheeks in pain. "His name is Thorin and we must track him down."

     "Sorry 'bout hitting you. Kolmai did not want to do anything," stated Billy in a shy tone.

     "Don't mind the hitting part. The well-being of Sasha is not so important. It is what he said that is important. You said his name is Thorin? We have a plushie Meepit who is very quiet but works very fast in the castle. Meepits have been known to be... well... to be destructive." When Nat said this she put her hands over her head and crouched down a bit. "Last time I spoke of Meepits, one fell on me out the tree and bit my ear, little stinker he was! I think if we talked to him we could discover a few things."

     "That's not a bad idea. Maybe we should go talk to this Meepit," said Kolmai and Sasha simultaneously.

To be continued...