The Search for Shiny Things: Part 5

The road went bending round a hill, so much that the teddy figured it would go faster to cut through a little forest. Halfway through however there was a little pond in the middle of it. As the teddy waddled safely out of reach of the water - teddies weren't particularly fond of getting wet because they soaked up the water and got so heavy they couldn't move - someone ahead was splashing and yelling. The teddy jogged, as much as teddy bears now could jog, and found a creature trying to get back to shore. It was bundled into a bright, knitted ball with only its head and legs sticking out. The teddy grabbed the bundle and pulled. As they tumbled out of the water, something sharp came through the knitting and penetrated the teddy's leg and tore some stuffing out.

"Oh my, I am so very sorry," said the creature.

"No need to worry," said the teddy bear, "lucky thing I am a teddy, and not a real bear!"

"Come with me and we shall get it fixed," the creature said.

As they waddled side by side to a rock formation, that looked a little like a giraffe without a head, they had to help each other. The teddy bear's leg was not quite as much of a hindrance as the creature's knitted bundle; the short legs barely reached out, and now that the knitting was wet, it sagged and dragged and kept tripping it.

"Would it not be better to take it off?" the teddy bear asked.

"Can't you tell," said the creature indignantly. "That I am a hermit crab and this is my house on my back." The hermit crab wriggled its back to show the knitted bundle. "Hermit crabs cannot live without a house. It so happens that I am very good at knitting, so I do not need to find a shell to use as home, this is good enough."

The teddy was unsure of what a hermit crab was, and so could not debate it, but there was something familiar about the hermit crab's face that was not really crab-like, and it was fairly sure that crabs did better in water than this creature had. "I am in search," it started, but then they entered a little hovel under the headless giraffe, and the teddy lost his words. The hovel was full of colorful knittings, covering the walls and ceiling. "I am in search of a tree and many shiny decorations," the teddy remembered. These weren't shiny, but they were definitely decorations.

"There are trees outside," said the hermit crab. "You are welcome to them, if you can take them."

"They are the wrong trees," the teddy bear said. The teddy had not quite considered how to take a tree or bring it back, once it was found, but that would be a later question. "What about these decorations, could I have some?"

"These are not decorations," said the hermit crab. "I am trying to make a larger house, but it is very difficult. The knitting keeps collapsing." The hermit crab with great difficulty waddled up to a bunch of yarn and pulled two spikes out from under its knitted shell.

"You are not a hermit crab, you are a hedgehog!" the teddy exclaimed, recognizing the spikes at least.

"Hush," said the hedgehog. "Nonsense. My parents always told me I should care for my home well like a hermit crab, so that is what I am. Come here and I will sew your leg together."

The teddy sat where the hermit crab directed.

"I can't find the right color for your yarn," said the hermit crab.

"It is fine with any color," said the teddy, for while not quite color blind, colors were not teddies' strong suit.

“No, no, it must be right." The hermit crab started waddling around looking at one pile and then the other. "Everything must be done right."

The teddy dutifully looked around. Just over the teddy's head hung some yarn, that it thought seemed somewhat in the neighborhood of what might be considered brown. "Let me help," the teddy said, and grabbed the yarn and pulled.

With a rather anticlimactic flop and drop, the entire knitted construction was pulled apart and fell to the hovel floor. The hermit crab, the teddy bear, and everything else inside disappeared under it.