Toy Box Wars
$27.95. That was how much Wellington J. Otter cost when he was first purchased from the Periwinkle Stuffed Animal Emporium. However, at the time of his purchase, the stuffed otter toy had no name, he had no personality; in fact his head was full of nothing but air and pollyfill. The laws of nature, or the Gods, or whoever controlled the fates of little stuffed animals, dictated that a stuffed animal did not gain its sense of self until after it had been purchased, and given a name by its new owner. Hearing his name was one of Wellington’s earliest memories. As the world began to come into focus through never used eyes, the stuffed otter found himself staring into the jade green eyes of a ten year old girl. Wellington quickly found out that his new owner had a name, just like he did. She was named Becky, and he loved her without question from the day they first met. Likewise Becky loved Wellington, not only because she loved all of her stuffed animals, but also because her grandfather had given Wellington to her as an early birthday present. Gently Becky sat Wellington down on an enormous, to Wellington at least, chair so that she could properly thank her grandfather. As Wellington observed the world from this new vantage point, thoughts began to fill his head. The most important of these thoughts was a set of rules that he knew without question should never be broken no matter what. The most important of these rules was that, even though he was perfectly capable of doing so, he should never reveal his sentience to his owner. At the same time, the stuffed otter knew what he was. Somehow whatever filled his mind with the rules also, in an instant, taught him everything he would ever need to know to continue his life without worry or care.
A short time passed before Becky returned to retrieve Wellington from his perch on the chair. Becky was so excited to introduce Wellington to all her other toys that she nearly ran up the stairs, taking two steps at a time to reach her room faster. Upon entering his owner’s room, Wellington found himself being held before a full body mirror. As he dangled from Becky’s arms the little otter was, for the first time, able to see all of his body. Up till this moment Wellington had been able to see his little webbed paws and toes as well as most of his arms, legs, and tummy. What he was not able to see, and what fascinated him the most was how the light filtering into the room through the open blinds reflected off of his highly polished black eyes. Wellington decided that he quite liked his eyes, even if they lacked pupils. There was something about the way the light bounced off of his hard plastic orbs filled his little heart with a sense of happiness and pride. Suddenly Becky shifted, the sudden movement startled Wellington at first, but shortly after Becky’s movements had stopped any sense of fear he had disappeared as he caught sight of his nose and mouth. Wellington found that whoever had created him had decided that, rather than give him a plastic nose to match his plastic eyes; they would bless him with a nose made entirely out of very close knit lengths of thread. These lengths of thread decreased in size as they moved down towards his mouth until they had formed a small black triangle. Due to the direction of his nose, Wellington’s eyes could not help being lead towards his mouth. His creator had decided that they would give him a mouth that consisted of a series of Mountmellick stitches that created a small smile across his muzzle.
