The Search for Shiny Things: Part 3

The fields left behind, the teddy was growing very hungry. It had been so excited about the journey that it had forgotten breakfast. So when the road reached a little cottage with smoke coming out the chimney, the teddy decided that chimney smoke was pretty much a subtle invitation to lunch, and went inside.

The cottage, that may have been brown or may have been yellow, the teddy was no longer sure now that it was was inside, was full of boiling cauldrons and strange instruments and with numbers and letters scrawled on the walls. A tad peculiar, but still, the smell was amazing, so the teddy was in good spirits.

"Could it be that someone lives here?" called the teddy.

From another room came one big paw and then another, and with it a living breathing panda bear, and while the teddy bear was also a bear, he was much more conveniently sized, so the teddy was no longer sure that this was the right cottage for teddies to be in, even in greater number, and especially not in one.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my cottage?" asked the panda bear.

"I am the teddy bear," said the teddy, trying to sound courageous. Should worst come to worst and the panda bear tried to eat it, which the teddy thought that non-teddies might, it had little confidence in running away, so putting on a brave face was the best defense. "I am looking for things and stuff and such, mainly a tree and many shiny decorations."

"There are no trees and no decorations," said the panda bear.

The teddy looked around. No, indeed. "I have walked far, so perhaps you who have so much food," it gestured to the cauldrons, "could spare some for me?"

The panda bear glanced over, the big black circles around its eyes getting even bigger, at once insulted and amused. "There is no food here," it said. "I am a candle maker. These are candle cauldrons."

The teddy looked into a cauldron. The contents looked nothing like any candles it had seen, but it was in no way a candle expert. "This does not look like candles." It smelled like food, and the teddy's stomach stuffing ached.

The panda bear picked out some figures from a cupboard and set them on a table in front of the teddy. "That is candle wax. These are candles. Perhaps you'd like to buy some? I hear some people put candles as decoration in trees, after all. Let me show you." It lit the candles, that were shaped like stars and moons, and they immediately collapsed, turned into splatters on the table, and the panda poured some water on them to stop the table from catching fire.

"That may not be how candles are supposed to work," said the teddy carefully.

The panda bear sighed. "I have tried everything," it said. "I have half a degree in science, and I know numbers," it waved at the walls full of scribbles. "But no matter what I do, my candles don't turn out right. And nobody wants to buy them." It opened the cupboard, which turned out to be a whole room full of candle creations in all shapes and colors. "I don't know where to put all this. I just want to get rid of it."

The teddy's mouth watered. "I will help!" it said.

Before the panda bear could protest, the teddy had shoved a red diamond candle down its teddy throat, which was none because its head was directly set on its shoulders. And the panda had only started protesting when the second one went down, a green elephant.

"Those are candles, not food!" the panda warned. "They will make you sick!"