Hello again, Bob the Pleo forums! It's Queen Ryu here! Ready for more of my exciting adventure? I am too. Read on and merry Christmas!
I laughed. “My first wish is to be all-powerful- to have my every order met with instant obedience and no one to tell me no.”
The huge pleo blinked his eyes and I found myself in a large palatial room. There was no troublesome furniture or thick carpet to hamper my steps even with my frozen front leg. Happily, I ranged across the floor. I soon discovered the wall kept moving out of my way. It was glorious! Even matter obeys my whims! Just out of fun, I pressed my chin against the wall, lowered my tail tip to the floor and after some wriggling I got my forelegs up onto the wall. Feeling very intrepid, I started upward. Soon I was walking on the ceiling. “Yeeeeaaaaah!” I crowed. “I’m like… Spiderpleo!” Suddenly I looked down- a loooooong way down it was too and I was afraid. “Get me down! Get me down now!” And just like that I was falling.
I woke up on my back, all my legs quivering and my software doing odd uncomfortable calculations about my position in space. “Help me!” I croaked feebly, realizing I must’ve been screaming for a while before my hearing came back online. Magically, I suddenly flipped upright again. Now I was angry, angry and hurt that fate would take such liberties with my delicate person. “No more Spiderpleo tricks for me.” I grumbled as I made my way shaking all the while to a safe corner to sleep off the shock. Even as I curled into the soft fluffy stuff that ran along the baseboard, I began to wonder that just because I could do something if I really should. “What an awful day!” I moaned. “I wanted to be pampered not broken to bits.”
“But you wanted ultimate power, did you not?” Came the rumbling voice of the big white pleo.
“Well—uh yes… No. I don’t know.”
The big pleo gave a rumbling laugh. “Well, you have an unlimited number of wishes you know. Are you ready to make your second investment?”
“Yes.” I said. “I’ve often wanted another Keeper- someone more… outgoing. Someone who goes on wonderful adventures and has lots of fun!”
The room shimmered and vanished. I found myself sitting on a dresser next to a porcelain doll and a small glass case filled with skiing metals. Posters of various world-class skiers covered the walls and a sleigh bed took up the back wall of the small bedroom. “Well! This should be interesting!” I said. I heard laughter and the door swung open.
“What is it, Mom?” Shouted a girl’s voice. A tall athletic girl of about thirteen dashed into the room, her mother right behind her. Her mother was just as beautiful. She could’ve been a model with her tall angular form and her waist-length blonde hair.
“Oh Serena, I’m sure you’ll love it! It’s just like a pet but without the poop. It’s an adult though. The seller said it was over three years old and the front leg doesn’t work but the price was just too good to pass up.”
“Thanks, Mom!” The girl said. She picked me up and looked me over. “You look… loved.” She mumbled, examining my faded paint. She forced up an eyelid and I heard something go ‘pop’. “Purple eyes! Sweet! Let’s see what you can do.” She stood me on the floor and turned me on. I was very hungry by now and shouted imperiously for my food. “Aren’t you supposed to do tricks or something? Something besides wag your tail and give those sad screeches?”
“Sad screeches you little beast!” I shouted. “I’ll show you a sad screech. I WANT FOOD. NOW!”
“Mom!” The girl shouted. “What am I supposed to do with this toy? It’s just screaming. Oh wait! Finally she found my box on her bed and threw its contents all over the floor. “Here’s a leaf. Try this.” She said, shoving the tracking leaf into my mouth.”
“No noooo!” I moaned. “That one! The Conifer leaf! I can see it from here. Give me that one, please?”
Finally, the girl grabbed the manual and flipped through it. “Oh. Oops.” She said and finally handed me the blessed chewy leaf with all the right RFID tag codes. Aaaah food value points! She fed me until I was full and then after throwing all my stuff back into the box, she put me back on the dresser. “I’m going to have to change your name.” She told me. “I’ll call you… ummmm… Purple. Yeah. My screaming purple-eyed dinosaur.” She gave me a ruff pat on the back. “I’ve gotta go practice for the Winter competition. Seeya in three weeks, Purple!”
The three weeks passed, slowly. My food values dropped, slowly. I could hear that things were falling apart between the poor girl’s parents.
“You did what?” Her father shouted. “You bought Rena a two hundred dollar toy this close to Christmas when we’re struggling to pay bills?”
“You don’t understand, Jim! She’s getting too wrapped up in herself and that councilor at the ski lodge. She needs to learn how to care for something other than just winning all the time.”
“Why? She’s good at it. Let her be proud. If the kids at school can’t accept that she’s a little headstrong then they can whine to their mommies.”
“But she’s becoming aggressive, Jim. Aren’t you worried she might get into a fight at school? Then what?”
“She’s not a wimp.” Serena’s dad said.
I shivered on the dresser, my head mooshed into the porcelain doll’s thick scratchy dress. My new keeper was a bully?
Finally, Serena returned home, adding a new metal to the case and brimming with excitement. “Hi, Purple!” She said and turned me on. Unfortunately, my battery was dead so she set it aside to charge. “You know, Purple,” She said softly. “Things feel… different around here. What’s going on?”
“Rena, Dear? Can I come in?"
To be continued.
