Yo Ho Yo Ho, A Plushie's Life For Me: Part Two

He picked me up off of the ground and walked into the dark cave. I was facing the cave entrance so I was able to witness the doorway gradually fill itself up as dirt climbed up into piles by itself. When the entrance ceased to exist, it was pitch black in the cave, but only for a moment, for my captor lit a torch.

     The fire emitted a soft glow that twisted eerie shadows along the wall, but I admit the shadows were better than absolute darkness. From my position, I could see books, books, and more books. The whole cave was covered in books, and at that moment, I no longer thought of my captor as an insane neopet, but as an intelligent one. On a thin, long table, glass bottles held liquids of all sorts, from clear to cloudy to solid and all the colors to exist in Neopia. It was a rather magnificent collection.

     I was placed on a wooden stool where I had the grand view of a wall. I no longer felt fear, however, from anticipating the unknown. I felt excitement, for all the potions reminded me of the enthralling story of Kayla the Zafara. Perhaps my mystery captor was like Kayla, who made potions for the greater good of Neopia!

     I heard glasses clinking and water boiling. I waited for what seemed like forever until finally, all the noise ceased. Who knew potion making could take so long? At last, the mystery neopet turned me around, so I could be facing the room once again.

     Unlike before, the room had become a complete mess. Spillages marked the floor, and broken glass was piled together in one corner. Many books were flipped open and lay on the floor, some discoloring from the spilled liquids. Then, alongside a wall, I noticed a black cloak, lying there like a sleeping Grarrl.

     I immediately turned my attention to the 'not so mysterious anymore' neopet. He had a deformed appearance marked by scars and tarnished fur. Tufts of fur were pulled out all over his body, and his color varied from dark green to blackish brown. He reminded me of a poor Acara who had a misfortunate encounter with some ravaging meepits.

     I was so entranced by his grotesque appearance that I had no realized he was talking to me. With his incredibly low voice, he spoke, "...I am Akuroe, and as you can tell by my humble home, I am a potion maker. Now, I have been searching for a plushie for quite a while to experiment with. All my previous ones have been complete failures, so I was quite delighted when my little helpers found you riding all alone in the back of a wagon and set all those potholes for me ahead of the wagon..."

     As he continued talking, I concluded once again that he was indeed insane. He was talking to me, a plushie, as if a real neopet, and although I could understand what he was saying, that was really beside the point, for it was quite silly of him to expect me to be able to. But then again, who was I to say that there were not other plushies just like me, desperate to communicate? Perhaps this Akuroe character knew something...

     "... And this may hurt," he continued to say, "but I have never tested on myself so I seriously would not know. Oh well, you are a plushie, so chances are, you will not feel a thing."

     Did he say hurt? Well, it was not like I would know that feeling, but the way it was described in books, I really did not want to know. While I was contemplating all the stories where an unfortunate character deals with pain, Akuroe surprised me when he drenched me with whatever liquid he was holding in his hand.

     The feeling was strange... It did not hurt, which was a good thing. Then again, if I were to hurt, I probably would not know how it felt, but since the feeling was not all that irritating, I made an assumption. On the contrary to what Akuroe believed, I felt quite relieved... It was a pleasant feeling... as if all my worries were fleeing my body. It also felt like I was being hugged tightly, as if whoever was holding me was afraid to let me go, and that feeling definitely was comforting.

     ...But then I was let go and quite suddenly too. There was none of that release feeling you get when you let go of a hug. It just ended. I wondered if that was supposed to happen. All that time he spent on the potion, and the results were just an abrupt, invisible hug? What a waste of time, right?

     I looked up at Akuroe to find him watching me with curiosity. He simply stared at me for several minutes, silently, until all of a sudden, he knocked me off of the stool and screamed in frustration, "Why won't you explode?! I read the book several times, and I measured everything SO carefully, and I KNOW I did everything exactly correct, so what did I do WRONG? Ugh, and the potion of detonation is suppose to be the easiest potion to make. Yeah, right!"

     I was shocked to find out I was supposed to explode. This Acara was definitely no Kayla, for I was sure that making me explode would not help the greater good of Neopia. Akuroe replaced me onto the stool and then left me to begin digging through the books ferociously, while muttering through clenched teeth. The green and blue dots that normally followed him around while he walked drifted over to me. I decided to call them his failure dust instead of little dots, because first of all, they were small like dust, and second of all, they belonged to a failure. Pretty clever, huh?

     The failure dust began to cover me, from head to toe. Perhaps since I was now a failure too, they were going to devour me to join them as dust. Some failure dust began to bounce around on my nose, and it incited the most strange reaction I have ever experienced. It was irritating, tingling, and felt like I really was going to explode.

     I could no longer contain myself, and with an "Achoo!" I exploded. Everything turned black, and I felt myself fall onto the ground. I heard Akuroe stop rustling and call out, "Who is there?" I wondered why he asked that, for it was obvious that he succeeded in making me explode.

     ---{ A New Way Of Living}---

     Several seconds passed by before Akuroe continued searching through his books. As I lay there, dead, I wondered how long it would take for me to become a ghost or a zombie. Then I realized, perhaps the reason why I was still having these thoughts was because I already turned into a ghost or zombie! I just wondered how to get out of the darkness, though.

     Nearby, I heard someone speak. It was not Akuroe, though, for unlike his, the new voice was high pitched and female. She said, "Hello? Open your eyes!" I wondered whom she was speaking to when I felt an abrupt shaking. "Open your eyes, silly!"

     It took me a while to realize she was talking to me. I thought to myself, 'How can I feel her touch when I am no longer living? I must be a zombie then! ...And to open my eyes? Well, I have never been able to even close them when I was a plushie. I must have gained the ability of blinking after the explosion!'

     It did not take me long to learn how to open my eyes. It was like a simple reflex. I was so glad to be a zombie instead of a ghost, because as a zombie, I could somewhat live a normal lifestyle! I would be able to touch things and hold things! Oh, how excited I was to think I could finally live! I adored how ironic it was to become alive through death.

     For the first time, I truly smiled. I was able to move! I looked at my body, which was in okay condition with a few small tears and dirt stains. I touched my face, my tail and my wings. It was just so hard to believe. I was so ecstatic! I stood up and turned around to be face to face with a green moltenore and a breebly. I was excited to try speaking, so I asked, "Are you zombies too?" with a lot more enthusiasm than I probably should have used when referring to such a sensitive subject.

     I was shocked by my high pitched voice, but it was better than none. I smiled, waiting for the reply from my two new companions. They looked at each other for a second with a look I recognized as thinking, 'Is he crazy?'

      The tiny breebly spoke to me first. "We are not zombies, and neither are you."

     I recognized her as the female who spoke to me earlier. I was confused by her statement, though, and asked, "Then... Am I a ghost?"

     The moltenore snorted, while the breebly replied slowly, "No..."

     I was then frustrated by confusion, and asked angrily, "If I am neither zombie nor ghost, then what am I? Why am I able to converse with you two? And how am I still 'whole' after exploding?"

     "Exploding? You did not explode, though. The potion was a failure. Well, not a complete failure... I mean, look at you! You are like... lively! Conversing with us indeed... Akuroe must have mixed up the potion's recipe. He never was organized..." replied the moltenore, who evidently was male.

     The breebly chuckled at the last statement and whispered, "Because of us."

     The moltenore and breebly started giggling, but I was still confused. "Then what happened while I was on the stool?" I asked slowly and unsurely.

     The breebly and moltenore shared a glance before bursting out in full out laughter. They hushed each other really quickly and looked around at Akuroe, who was completely deaf to our conversation and continued rummaging through books.

     I frowned at their response and waited for a reply.

     The breebly laughed quietly again and apologized, "I am sorry, but you thought you died because you sneezed? You sneezed! That is all. You are not a zombie nor a ghost, and now, you are a very much alive plushie."

     I remembered all the times Ketarue got the sneezles and how he frequently he would sneeze. Wow, I could not believe I sneezed! I stared at the two with my mouth hanging open and filled with disbelief.

     It took me a while for me to realize that the breebly was talking. Actually, I needed the moltenore to flick me in the head to realize. I believed that was the first time I felt pain, and oh boy, was that exciting!

     I turned my attention to the breebly, who was still talking. "...Akuroe is training to be a wizard like the powerful Gelert Wizard. However, we do not want him to become a wizard for this life of solitude is quite dreary. We hope failure will discourage him and allow us to move outside of this cave. That being said, you must leave now. He cannot know he succeeded in doing something. Come follow me, and quietly too so as to not draw any attention to yourself."

     I followed them back to the cave wall where there used to be an entrance. The moltenore quietly began reciting the same gibberish Akuroe did earlier and gave a pitiful attempt at a snap. Slowly, but surely, a tiny hole began emerging in the wall. Gradually, it got larger until it just stopped, barely big enough for me to fit through. The breebly giggled at the somewhat failure, but the moltenore merely shrugged and replied, "I am not the one training to be a wizard."

     Before I escaped through the hole, I had to ask them one question, "Is Akuroe insane? He spoke to me as if I understood him."

     The breebly shrugged before replying, "Well, from the sounds of it, you did understand, didn't you? We use to think he was insane from the way he talked to all his plushies, but after meeting you, I guess not really."

     I said my goodbyes and squeezed through the small hole. As soon as I reached the other side of the wall, the hole gradually filled itself with dirt. My last sights of the moltenore and the breebly were of them dissolving into the little green and blue dots before fleeing to attend Akuroe. Soon the hole was entirely gone, leaving the mountain looking whole and solid. I had been given a gift, and I must put it to use. I decided to go searching for Ketarue. Perhaps with my new feature, he would be more willing to play with me.

To be continued...