Under Eye

     "Alright, but it's not as embarrassing as me looking for some toy to grant me a mask so I can cover up my hideous—" She stopped and sniffed carefully. There was something . . . . It wasn't just one thing, but a bunch of things all at once.

     Her glance darted around the clearing, then she dashed to a tree nearby that had large protruding roots. Using her claws, she swiftly dug the leaves and other detritus from under one particularly large root, creating a space where she could hide from sight. It was late at night, but she didn’t want to risk anyone hearing or seeing her asking a Plushie for something to help cover her face entirely.

     She sniffed again as she peeked out from her hiding place, trying to determine where each of the smells she detected were coming from. She stepped on a wrapper from what seemed to have been an opened gift. "This must be where that Plushie throws all the prizes on the ground." She took a breath. "Now to be as quiet as I can be." She dug herself out of the hiding place and hid in the bushes where she could not be seen.

     The Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity was lying on a branch of the tree she'd sniffed out. The wind blew in the forest, but nothing dropped into Rhesdira's paw.

     “Honestly, if that little doll doesn’t give me what I want, I'm going to—” She paused to nod her head. “I’m going to eat ‘em. All I need is something simple, a beautiful mask with a gorgeous painted face, to show the world how amazing my sense of style is and to hide my . . . ." She coughed, not even wanting to say it aloud, then thought the rest to herself. To hide how I really look. She thought about all of the other insecurities she felt about herself. Even something like a mermaid’s tail to cover this awful mess I call the twin tails of terror, would help. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be so clumsy, bumping into everyone with one tail or the other. Honestly, it’s not like I’m hurting them. It’s just a light tap that I can't quite control. Maybe it’s . . . just the Lutari in me, we love to say hello . . . .

     Trying to soften her approach to those around her, Rhesdira had learned to curl her tails on top of her head to make them look like the big fluffy ears of a cute Neopet, maybe an Aisha or a Cybunny. She'd never actually used the trick though. She bit the ends of both tails at once, angry that they were part of what she believed made her ugly. She'd become a Mutant because she heard it was “in” at the time and saw how well it was working for other Neopians. They made it seem so fun, so glamorous. But when she transformed using a potion, all she got was judgment from her friends and family, even those she worked with at the Neopian Bank. Many knew her as a Pink Lutari, but here she was now, as a Mutant who always seemed to be clumsily bumping into others by accident with her large beastly body. There weren't even any cute clothes for her to wear, even if she could afford to buy them, and so instead, she dressed in a large ruffled pink dress and red cape.

     She minced forward to stand in front of the toy. "Okay, little doll from another world." She gestured with her tails to make the cute ears. With only a Plushie to see her, what could it hurt? "Do your thing and give me a beautiful makeover. What magical gift do I get?" She kept her body crouched low to the ground to stay hidden as she held out her paw to catch whatever fell from the sky.

     Nothing fell.

     Rhesdira's face fell as a tear slid down her cheek. She sighed with a disappointed laugh. “Guess it was just a dumb story after all—"

     In between her two tails fell a glowing magnifying glass. She instinctively caught it and looked through its lens. Its view shifted as the lens went from black to see-through depending on where she held it over the ground. Curious to find what else would show as transparent, she walked around the clearing with it to search for clues.

     When she finally looked up, she was standing directly in front of the Grundo's tree. A lamp post and a few candles lit in the area. A shiver of fear travelled down her spine as she realized she could be seen by anyone who passed by. She spun around quickly to check no one was around when suddenly the magnifying glass shone brightly, catching her eye. She saw there was an eerie pink glow on the ground. She followed the glow with her magnifying glass, and soon it became a hole. Or rather, she saw what appeared to be a rift splitting the ground open, but strangely, it could only be seen through the lens of the magnifying glass! The Lutari looked at the ground beneath the bizarre gift in her grasp and saw that it was indeed just normal ground, no fissure anywhere. Confused, she moved her paw and the magnifying glass into the rift, itching to see if it was really there; to see if nothing was really there. It looked like she was reaching her paw through solid ground as if by magic! But to Rhesdira, there wasn't anything there—nothing but space for her arm to reach further into the rift. A pink glow surrounded its walls and illuminated a rather strange object. She leaned in closer for a better look. It was a door! But, it wasn't a normal door. It was knitted. Instead of wood, it was made from different colours and shades of wool, its knob a ball of black yarn.

     “What a childish-looking door. It’s not even attached to anything, no walls, nothing.”

     The more she looked and tried to make sense of this rift, the more anxious she felt. She stressed about how ridiculous she must look right now to anyone who might be watching nearby. Wrapped up in her own head, she let go of all her inhibitions, just for a brief moment, enough that she took the plunge and reached her claws forward to grab the yarn ball and turn it.

     Her eyes widened in disbelief at her actions. She didn’t think she had the courage anymore to take risks, not after she'd been shunned by those she knew most of her life. As a result, she'd started hiding all the time. She worked from home when she could, but her family hated seeing their little Lutari no longer the same Pink sweetheart she used to be, and Rhesdira grew tired of the headaches her brute strength created as she constantly bumped into things and knocked them over or broke them. She often wondered if her life would ever make sense as a Mutant. Her family and friends told her just to drink a Pink Lutari potion and be done with it, but as times change, so do the laws in Neopia. A recent policy change at the Neopian Bank prohibited employees from having more than one species or colour change every three years. So, here she was, stuck being a Mutant for the next three years.

     The door opened as she pulled the ball of yarn. Unconsciously, she tilted her head to the side and smiled, astonished at the grit she was displaying in public. She snorted in dismay, then started to raise her tails to cover her head, but before she did more than twitch, her body was magically pulled upward as if pinched by the ends of her tails to jingle in the air. She struggled, but then, instead, decided to just let go to see what happened next. She turned her head up to see that her tails were not really being harmed. For a moment, she felt almost as if whatever was grabbing her tails was petting them softly. Maybe this was going to be some kind of magical knitted warmer that transformed her twin tails of terror into a cosy tail in what she hoped to be fancy wear.

     Without warning she was suddenly released and she fell back to the ground, face first. But, it didn’t hurt. She didn’t really even try to roll forward when she fell. Her body just did it. She finished by landing on her tails, now both balancing her to sit upright, her head drooping forward. She couldn’t move at all, but she could see everything in front of her. Her thoughts raced, worry being foremost in her mind. She tried to growl in distress, but nothing came out.

     She glanced around and noticed the magnifying glass lying on the ground, forever attached to her paw. When she concentrated on it, she saw that the mystical gift reflected the image of the sad-eyed Grundo Plushie lying on a tree branch, crying alone. What followed was a series of images of other Neopet Plushies tossed on the ground, each waiting for somebody to come play with them. Finally, it showed Rhesdira herself in the lens. She became, or rather, perfectly transformed into what everyone in her life wanted back. But, her Mutant appearance didn't disappear. Instead, she looked like a unique collectable Plushie that some Neopians would consider to be extremely rare. Even more intriguing was the loving energy she felt when she saw herself. This Mutant Lutari Plushie came with a tiny magnifying glass stitched to its paw and constantly changed images in its lens to different sparkling colours to the naked Neopian eye. She'd likely be swept up immediately by an early worm walking around in a few hours from now.

     But I only wanted new clothes, or some ornament to make me beautiful. Rhesdira bawled in her head. The Grundo doll should have warned me. She didn't want to be trapped as a toy for the rest of her life because of a meddlesome magical Plushie. She only asked to be pretty, and not to bother anyone with her clumsy tails or long claws anymore. Why, oh, why had she opened that door? Did she really want to change that badly? The magnifying glass went black, then began to glow faintly as tiny lights formed a few letters. "A-ha! . . ." She read it and mentally cocked her head to the side, her knitted eyes focused on the lens. Then, as she watched, another letter, an "H", appeared at the front of the other letters. She couldn't see what was so funny to the magnifying glass. She missed being able to use her claws to easily shred papers at the bank. If she could, she'd use them now on the cursed object before her. Unfortunately, she couldn't move even an inch, let alone know if her knitted eyes moved as she looked around in front of her.

     She glanced away to stare at nothing. Life had always seemed like a game to her. Her world was composed of both animate and inanimate versions. She was proud of how she was able to find the Grundo Plushie from the odours she'd detected upon entering the clearing. However, as she sat on the ground with her head drooping down, a magnifying glass sewn to her paw, all she could discover now was the dirty ground. Why did I open that door?

     As time passed, she calmed down and came to accept her life as a Plushie. Once at peace, Rhesdira was determined to control what she could. She knew if she could hear the "haha" in her head as well as the sound of her own laughter, she could probably come up with a plan to revert to normal, or at least find a way to have a life that didn't involve sitting here for the rest of her days.

     Chirping Petpets could be heard faintly as the first denizens of the town began their day. The image in the magnifying glass dissolved, turning to pink, then black, and continued going back and forth between the two colours, catching her attention. She felt like the Pink Lutari she'd been before had never left. After transforming, she'd still chosen to be with her family and to say hello in the friendly way Lutari does around anyone. It didn't matter if the bank wouldn't let her change her appearance again for three more years, because here she was now unexpectedly as a Plushie, changed, and unable to work, even from home. She thought about what it would be like to be a plaything for a random child, causing the magnifying glass to go white. Then, she thought of the many ways she could possibly greet the little one who would likely become her friend, which was all she imagined would be left for her now, or maybe just for a while, she hoped.

     The magnifying glass pulled her arm up and continued going, carrying Rhesdira with it, her fleecy body hanging in the air. She prayed she'd be released from this nightmare. Could she have dozed off earlier, maybe somewhere in the bushes when she was looking for the Grundo? Oh, please let this—from the Mutant Transforming potion to the knitted door—all just be a bad dream. Let me wake up and be a Pink Lutari again.

     She fell to the ground. She looked around and saw the same ground she was sitting on moments ago, still a Mutant. She could tell because the first thing she felt was something soft flopped over her face, two things in fact. They were both of her tails, and she turned her body around in joy to hug them tight. She even made a heart shape with them. A single tear ran down her cheek. "Why do I keep doing things I don't expect?" She tapped her chin in wonder, and her claws nipped a little of her skin by accident. She sighed knowing it was just her way of saying hello to herself as she smiled intently.

     Rhesdira glanced at the Grundo Plushie. The chirping from the forest grew louder. “A-ha!” she said, remembering her plan to eat the Grundo. But when she opened her mouth, she laughed, then froze as the world around her stopped too. The Grundo Plushie shed a tear as the world remained frozen. From Rhesdira’s point of view, all of Neopia zoomed out until she saw it all, then none of it. Everything went pink and continued to zoom out into different colours that made up a new world this time seen from the Grundo Plushie's point of view as it laid on the same tree branch, day after day, that it always did. This was the real Neopia, where the magical Plushie would hand out gifts to all Neopians who visited it. In order to choose the gifts, it looked into the visitors’ lives, with the magic bestowed in its Plushie heart. On rare occasions, the Plushie would see the visitor's life, in this case Rhesdira's, and be so moved that it would choose to hand out its own image. The Grundo Plushie longed for a friend to love it the way it is, as a toy, and it's made many of them over a long time it's been visited on its tree limb by each and every Neopian.

     To say thanks, the Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity has dropped you a gift of its avatar that you can now use to remember it as the same lovable Plushie you always are inside no matter who you are.

     The End.