The Search for Shiny Things: Part 24

A second breakfast was consumed, or perhaps it was the second part of the first one, and then another soft knock drew the teddy bear to the door. The hermit crab blinked at it from the outside.

“I would come inside, but your door is much too small,” it complained.

With enthusiastic help from the squirrel and much less enthusiastic help from everyone else, they managed to push the hermit crab inside. “I'm glad you came, hermit crab,” said the teddy bear.

“I have,” said the hermit crab, “after much consideration decided to be a hedgehog. It seems more sensible.”

“Yet you still carry around the knitted house?”

“This is not a house,” the hedgehog said, somewhat insulted. “Can't you see that it's decorations? I know you said you wanted shiny ones, but I had no time to find shiny wool to knit with, so they are simply decorations.”

The teddy bear was very thankful, and the moth splashed some silver paint on the knitting to fix the shininess. Because there was so much of it, everyone started hanging the decorations everywhere. The teddy picked up a few and headed for the tree, passing the cat and the moth who were working on the lower parts of the tree.

“Let me help,” the teddy said, reaching for the higher branches.

With one mouth, all the guests at once exclaimed, “NO!”

Somewhat intimidated, the teddy bear lowered its paw. “No? But I'm good at helping.”

“Yes,” the moth soothed the teddy, “you are a great help. In fact, I think I would need your help to finish all the food that's still left in the kitchen.”

Teddy bears were, the teddy had to admit, better suited for that task. So while the moth and the hedgehog argued about which color knitting fit best with which color wall, and the panda bear and the scarecrow drew tables and diagrams for the perfect ratio of saltiness to caramel, and the squirrel tried to drag the cat into a game on the wolverine's game board, and the plushie grayhound set some candy candles on fire and squealed with horrified delight as they melted, the rest ate a third breakfast, or possibly the third part of the first, or maybe more likely the first part of the second.

And they all had a fantastic Christmas Eve.

The Search for Shiny Things: Part 23

In the chaos of the discussion, the moth was almost stepped on, so the panda bear planted a candle on its head to make sure it didn't disappear among the colors, as it appeared only the teddy bear possessed the power of moth-sight.

Just like that a big gray face appeared in the window.

“Greetings,” said the elephant. “It appears your house is too small for an elephant, but that is fine, I can stand here outside since Christmas is surprisingly warm and cozy in nowhere.”

When the teddy bear opened the door to carry a table outside, so the elephant could at least get food set out, in poured a variety of animals from the League of Extraordinary Animals, one stranger than the next, and all of them happy and carrying beautifully wrapped presents of all shapes and sizes. The presents were stuffed in under the tree one by one, until it wasn't so much a living room with a tree in, as a pile of presents with a tree on top. Luckily by then the presents had ran out, and the next animals brought food instead, that eventually covered the kitchen table as well as the table outside for the elephant and other animals better suited outside.

Everyone started to mingle, and the place got quite warm and noisy. The pony watched in fascination as the wolverine made friends with the rabbit. The panda bear and the plush greyhound bonded over exclusive sodas. The scarecrow and the quiet jaguar spoke in a corner.

Then with a loud bang, the door swung open and in marched the water buffalo – at great difficulty forcing itself through the door – with the heron riding its back.

“Heron commander,” said the elephant, “as you see this place is not at all white and drab but quite colorful. But don't you think it is missing something?”

“Sparkles,” the peacock suggested.

“Sparkles!” the heron exclaimed. And it spread its shiny white wings and the water buffalo huffed and puffed and poof! Glitter rained down on all of them, some who rejoiced and some who just tried to protect the food from this sudden assault, and spread all over the rooms and the floors and the walls until the once white and drab house was literally sparkling with all colors of the rainbow.

And sparkled did the moth too, and the teddy thought that perhaps, perhaps it could excuse this glitter-attack on the food just this once, since it was, after all, Christmas.

Besides, it was a minor miracle that the entire place hadn't caught fire yet, so better just be thankful.

The Search for Shiny Things: Part 22

Morning came and the sun rose over nowhere and the teddy and the moth's rainbow house. The moth had fallen asleep in the living room, one wing bright red, the other striped green and black. Who knew how far into the night the moth had worked, so when there was a knocking on their door the teddy crawled reluctantly out of bed, stepped into its teddy slippers, and went to open.

Outside stood the scarecrow and the pony. "Good morning," said they. "It so happened," continued the scarecrow, "that I found myself without scheduled activity this fine day, and then when I walked down the road to find some activity to do, I stumbled upon this." And the scarecrow and the pony stepped aside and behind them was a spruce as wide and green and fresh as a spruce had ever been and would ever be. The teddy bear awed and puzzled over how the two figures could have hidden the tree behind them, because it was much taller than the pony and much wider than the scarecrow.

"We met on the road when the scarecrow tried to drag the tree here," said the pony, "and then we dragged it here, because you said you were looking for a tree like this one."

The teddy was at once overwhelmed and still puzzling over the hiding. With some prodding they got around to bringing the tree inside, with much huffing and puffing, and there it was, snugly in the corner of the rainbow living room.

The day was better already.

The moth woke up and they all ate breakfast together, when there was another knock on the door. This time came the white cat with blue eyes. "Meow," said it, a little hesitantly, "it appears I found this thing, and then found myself going this way, and your house was a bit hard to find because it is not white and drab as you said but full of colors. But I am not one to give up, and here I am, and here is the thing." And with a gentle swipe it pushed an object across the ground and to the teddy's feet. A sparkling silver star. Touched, the teddy invited the white cat inside, but no sooner had the door closed before it was knocked on again.

This time it was the panda bear and the squirrel that arrived. The panda bear had a big black sack strapped to its back, and the squirrel wore a uniform, with a too big cap that fell into its eyes, and a little camo backpack.

"We are on our way to spend Christmas with family and other relations," said the squirrel matter-of-factly, "but the panda bear's air-balloon goes where the wind goes, so we came here first and will go there later."

The teddy once again pondered how these two were related, but stopped quickly when the panda bear opened up its sack and started picking out candle candies. "I have so many left over," it said, "you should take as many as you can eat."

That was an entirely absurd impossibility, since the teddy could well eat the entire sack and more, but an amount was decided upon quickly and quietly as such things are decided upon between reasonable people, almost as if were the two old friends. Then the squirrel and the moth got involved, and the scarecrow tried to calculate, and the white cat tried to mediate, and the pony just plain interrupted, and it took quite a long time.

The Search for Shiny Things: Part 21

"Don't move!" said the moth's voice.

"I am decidedly stationary," said the teddy and looked around.

"You can't see me now, but if you carefully take a step to the right..."

The teddy lifted one paw. Then the pearly eyes glittered. "You mean your right," the teddy bear said, remembering the moth's terrible sense of direction. And carefully it lifted the other paw and stepped away from the moth. "I'm sorry for dropping that green puddle on you."

"How did you know I am green?" asked the moth, perplexed.

"I can see you right there," said the teddy bear.

Tentatively the moth took a few steps over into a blue puddle. "What color am I now?" asked the moth.

"Blue," said the teddy. "Why are you asking such things, I am a teddy bear, not blind."

"But how can you see me? No one can see me when I take the color of the walls nearby."

"It seems I can," said the teddy bear. "And you should take a few steps to the left into that pink, I think I quite like it, despite being a teddy bear. No, the other left."

Tiredness forgotten, they played a game for a while, skipping around the house trying one color, then the other. Then the moth took up some blue paint and made a checkered pattern on a yellow puddle, and pop, the moth was checkered blue and yellow. It snapped its wings in delight.

"I can be any color and pattern I want, you can always see me and will never step on me," said the moth. "This is wonderful!"

The teddy looked over their colorful house and nodded to itself, satisfied. "I helped," the teddy declared.

The moth appeared to ignore that statement, and instead continued to make patterns and color combinations. Feeling that perhaps all work that a teddy could do was done, the teddy bear retired to bed, and fell immediately into such a deep, dreamless sleep as only teddies could.

The Search for Shiny Things: Part 20

And so, tired after the long journey, the teddy bear came home to the white and drab house and to the moth. The teddy bear found the moth pale gray and exhausted, sitting in their couch with many cans of paint on the floor.

"I am so very tired," said the teddy bear and slumped down on the couch next to the winged friend. "I went so very far and found none of the things I went looking for. What are all these cans doing in our living room?"

"I am trying to choose a color for our walls," said the moth, patting the teddy's tired shoulder with an antennae. "I want a pretty color, because I will take that color too when I sit near the wall. That is what moths do."

"I'm sure you will pick the best one," the teddy bear said reassuringly. Colors was not something teddies picked well.

"But now I can't get out of this couch," said the moth. "I am afraid that if I do I will take the color of the paints, and you will not see me and step on me."

The teddy bear considered this.

"I need to throw these cans away, but I'm not sure how I will do it," said the moth.

It seemed a shame to throw away so many cans of paint, but the teddy sighed and got out of the couch and stretched before the task. "I will help!"

The teddy bear picked up the cans of paint. But when they were all there, curiosity overtook the poor fluffy animal, so much the stuffing heated up inside it. "Just one peek", the teddy thought. "Just want to see the pretty colors before they all go away." And no more had the teddy opened all the cans before an unfortunate fluffy paw landed on a lid and down the teddy went, and up went the cans of paint. Left, right, up and down, suddenly the house was painted all over with all colors of the rainbow and more.

"Oh no," said the teddy as it gained its bearings again. So many colors. Where could the moth have gone now? The teddy carefully lifted each of its paws to check under them, and shuddered with relief that the moth was not there.