The Search for Shiny Things: Part 15

Some distance from the river the teddy saw a forest in the distance. At least it thought it was in the distance, until it could reach out and touch it.

“Here we have trees,” thought the teddy bear out loud, “but they are so small, each one could probably possibly only carry one decoration, shiny or not. I wonder if this counts. Perhaps I will take one and see.”

And it gripped a tiny tree around the roots and pulled. Immediately, a humming sound reached its ear and the teddy swatted in the air, then wondered why because mosquitoes did not like teddy stuffing and, like the greedy leeches they were, therefore rarely came to visit.

“Step back from the tree!” a voice commanded in the teddy's ear.

Standing up straight, the teddy looking around, and found the largest mosquito it had ever seen hovering in the air like a ghost. The teddy would have been struck with terror at such a sight, except terror was a concept teddies had difficulties with.“I, I just wanted a tree and many shiny decorations for Christmas,” the teddy stammered. “Please don't eat my stuffing, giant ghost mosquito!”

The giant mosquito looked quite taken aback. “I am a hummingbird,” it said confusedly, “a pacifist one, at that, and the ghosts are in the other forest, the big one.”

The teddy decided to forever hence stay away from big forests.

“As for the trees, these are not for Christmases, or festivals, or new years – Chinese or otherwise. These are living trees.”

The teddy studied the trees and concluded that they were in fact living, and wondered if there were other kinds of trees. Like there were real bears and teddy bears, were there also teddy trees, and if so, where could one fine a teddy tree? The teddy bear opened its mouth to ask, but when it looked that way, the hummingbird was gone.

To be polite, the teddy first searched the nearest vicinity, and waited for a spell, but more patience than that did not come in the teddy variation, so it once again wrapped its paws around the tiny tree trunk.

“Stop!” the hummingbird declared.

The teddy stared at it, instantly convinced that it was a ghost. For a creature that made such a noticeable humming sound to come and go so unnoticeably. Which meant this was the big forest, and the teddy must be gigantic. The teddy turned around to see if it could see the river and the boat, because it might be fun to frighten the plush soldiers, but it saw the exact same thing as before. Disappointed, the teddy turned to the hummingbird.

“Why can't I take a tree?”

“I had a home, somewhere here,” said the hummingbird, “but I can't seem to find it, the trees all look the same from above, and whenever I go in between them I get lost.”

“Oh is it only that,” the teddy said, and decided to use its newfound giantness, “Let me help!” And it took the two closest trees and tore them out of the ground, and proceeded with another few.

“Oh stop, no, wait!” the hummingbird hummed, but the teddy was having much too much fun to hear.