(This chapter was archived a bit late. The prompt for this one was "Monster.")
Chapter 2: Under Your Bed, Inside Your Head
Lory arrived at the easy-going village near the forest with little fanfare, but who he met there was worth several festivals’ worth of excitement.
The petite fellow with auburn hair was already yanking him through the village roads, chattering away the whole while. “I’m surprised the buses still go anywhere near here, but I guess the bicentennial draws attention and money. Not that I’m complaining, more events means more venues means more-”
“Garnet.” Lory tried to keep his voice firm even as he stumbled along. “You’re crushing my hand.”
“Whoops, sorry.” Garnet stopped, narrowly missing a rear-end collision. He turned around and gave Lory’s hand a brief massage before releasing him and tilting his head. “And you’re crushing whatever’s in your pocket. I bet that hand cramping up hurts more than whatever damage I did to your other one.”
With a bashful chuckle, Lory pulled his journal out of his pocket. “Just this. Mom gave me and my sister notebooks before we set out.”
“Notebooks are for writing in, not for squeezing into bricks of paper,” Garnet quipped before his fiery eyes widened in realization. “Oh yeah! I’ve got something for you back at the house. Let’s pick up the pace!”
“Garn, wait-” While he never expected his roaming friend’s sudden accelerations, Lory’s longer strides enabled him to catch up quickly enough. He became so fixated on keeping up that he didn’t register that he’d arrived at the destination till he walked into the kitchen table.
“Dude, Lor! That sounded like it hurt.”
Lory blinked, and as if the injury was waiting for him to notice it, the area where the table corner had caught his side started throbbing. “Oh. Ow, I guess.”
“You guess?!” Garnet dragged his hand down his face. “You must have, like, no padding on you at all. I’ve never heard a body and table collision that loud before.”
“I doubt it’s going to do anything more than bruise and be annoying,” Lory muttered, wincing.
“Yeah, okay, true, but… actually, wait, now’s the perfect time for me to get your thing! Don’t poke your bruise or anything while I’m gone.” With that, Garnet zipped upstairs.
“That was one time!” Lory called out, only to be left in the dust. He waited patiently, as somehow Garnet never took long to do anything. In that gap, he found himself surprised that the kitchen counters were clean, given his friend’s tendency to whirl from one task to another and leave debris everywhere.
“Found it! Quick, c’mere, pick a hand. One hand has your pressie, and the other has… not your pressie!” The boisterous little man returned and held out his fists, grinning as he waited for the choice.
Lory tapped the right hand, tipped off by a tuft of pinkish-brown fluff peeking out from between the fingers. Garnet unfurled his hand to reveal a round, fuzzy plush of some creature with beady eyes, curly antennae, and prominent claws and toes. With unnecessary caution, Lory touched the plush, and the sheer softness would have made his eyes sparkle if possible. “What is this?” he asked.
“It’s your giftie!” Garnet declared. “One of my sisters snuck it into my backpack on my last trip home. There’s this whole line of plushies themed around making scary monsters cute and squeezable. I find it hard to consider anything about this little guy scary aside from the claws, but I guess anything can be threatening if it’s big enough.”
“Oh… Thank you.” Lory plucked the predatory puffball from Garnet’s hand, giving it a squeeze as he played with the antennae and tried not to squeal outwardly.
“You’re welcome! I knew you’d like it. Now you have a fuzzy to squeeze instead of murdering your journal, which is for writing in, you know.” Garnet chuckled and gave the plush a parting pat. “If you behave, I’ll get you more things to squeeze.”
“Who are you telling to behave?” Any further sharpness Lory intended got blown away by a stray recollection. “I don’t know how broad their scope is, but do those plushie makers have… I think it’s called a mothman? Fuzzy body, glowing eyes, pretty wings-”
“Yeah, they do! The wings are even heart-shaped when put together!” Garnet pulled his phone out of his pocket and promptly began pulling up the product page. “Deal. I’ll get you that for your next pocket buddy.”
“Pocket buddy… I like that idea. Thank you.” A vibration from Lory’s other pocket distracted him, and he pulled out his own phone to see two text notifications. “Looks like Mom’s checking in on me… and Lani arrived safely.”
“That’s nice. I probably ought to shoot my mom and sibs a quick line or something, too,” Garnet muttered as he continued swiping at the screen.
“Mom’s nagging me about eating,” Lory added with a rueful chuckle. “Guess I’d better work on that.”
“Yeah, you’d better! There’s a place not too far from here that makes amazing fried rice, with a surprise secret ingredient that’s totally worth it! You’ve got your fuzzy, so what’re we waiting for?” Garnet reached to pull Lory along once more, only to get swatted away.
“Hold on, let me just finish telling Lani I’m alive,” Lory muttered, squinting at the text on his screen.
Hi Lory! Landed safely, met up with the girls, having a great time! There’s a lot to do to help out with the tournament, so I’ll be busy for a bit.
Below this was a selfie of Lani and her friends: the pink-haired girl with the shiny blue eyes, and the short lady in several shades of green. If he remembered correctly, those two were named Tali and Wynn.
So yeah, I’ll be busy! Don’t worry about me, tell me what’s up when you can!
Sacrificing eloquence for speed and precision, Lory sent his reply:
Landed safely, found Garnet, gonna go eat fried rice, will send you a pic and review. Have fun.
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