Water rushed past the forest trees, crashing against rocks and branches through the winding river. It raced toward dips and waterfalls to eventually plummet down into a large pond below. Creating a blanket of falling water, it crashed and then rippled out into a calm flow around the reservoir. This pond was the embodiment of peaceful, the sort of which might be found within a children's fairytale book, or a whimsical movie. It happened to be neither. The pool was in fact a man made body built for the use of a large campground resort. Nothing natural, though most would never be able to tell.
A few tents sat scattered nearby, empty whilst their guests were out fishing or hiking. A lone deer was scavenging through the contents of a packed lunch left unprotected by an unwitting couple. Its tail twitched in what could have been delight as it chewed on the remains of a slice of bread slathered with a thick layer of peanut butter. Suddenly it dropped its meal, raising its head to listen, ears perked. A twig cracked, a leaf crunched, and then a creature emerged from the brush.
Small, plush and blue, it began to hover just above the forest floor, approaching the deer with a bright yellow light radiating from what could have been an eye. The animal stood for but a moment more before leaping off and away from the unusual sight. The floating creature watched it go before erratically hovering over to the fallen scraps of food scattered across the forest floor. It did not have a distinguishable mouth, nor any need to eat, yet it poked at them with a small stalk tipped with a round gripper. It moved them about, analyzing them before finding a cooler the deer had tipped. The strange little being entered it curiously, shoving aside food and drink after a thorough poking.
After picking up a tin can with its suction cup arm, the plush creature began to back out of the bag, then froze. The sound of footsteps on the forest floor approached the campsite. Along with it came the voices of two bickering campers. The being stayed very still and listened.
"I told you you would forget it! You should have let me take it!" Came a woman's voice. She sounded matter-of-fact, her tone stern.
"Well I didn't want you to go spoiling the surprise! You're no good at keeping secrets! All it would take is one call and you'd be blabbing all about it!"
"Better than not having it at all!" The woman retorted.
The footsteps stopped. There was a gasp of anger and disbelief.
"The lunch! It's ruined!" Yelled the woman. She leaned down on her knees to inspect the carnage. "Some animal got into it. You should have kept it in the tent. Another thing you've forgotten, Donny."
"Well, excuse me! I remembered to prepare it, didn't I?"
"Well, that's not worth much when it's been ruined, now is it? Oh!" The woman gave an utterance of surpise as she opened the cooler. "The rest is here! And... oh Donny you didn't forget it after all!"
"Huh? I didn't?" Donny came to stand next to her, peering inside the cooler bag. His eyes went wide for a moment, then he regained composure. "Oh uh, yes. I didn't! Not at all! See Julie? No need to worry now."
"So what is it?" The woman asked, plucking up the strange toy from the cooler bag. She pulled the tin can from its sucker arm and dropped it back into the bag.
"Oh just one of her um, things. The strange monsters she likes! I thought it might resemble something similar so I went ahead and bought it." He smiled, hoping that the lie would be believable enough.
"You did a great job, Donny." Julie spoke with a smile, "But there is something you still forgot."
"Oh? What?"
"It's not wrapped." Julie shook the toy in her hand, "We'll have to leave the campground early and get some paper at the store. We don't want to meet Allie with an unwrapped gift."
"Right." Donny scratched his head nervously. At least he'd gotten away with this one. "Not much like camping when we're going out to stores."
"Well, we didn't come here merely to camp, dear. That part was your idea, remember? This was for your daughter."
The toy did not move as the humans carried it along with them through the woods, their path taking them to a parking lot which broke the natural scenery. Its eye-stalk watched the cardboard bear planted near the front office as it was placed into the back of a car, the cooler bag with the remains of its nourishment settled nearby.
It listened as the engine erupted into a growl and peered upward out the window above. The yellow light that radiated from its eye dimmed and illuminated. "Exterminate!" It vocalized, it's voice drowned out by the roaring motor.
Allie sat at the diner booth, twirling her spoon on the place-mat like a compass arrow. Her eyes were unfocused, gazing passed the table, the chair, even the building's interior itself into an abyss of thought. She had been here a while, just twirling her spoon and gazing off into space as the waitress came now and then to see if the other two patrons she'd be waiting on had arrived.
"Still waiting hun?" The woman asked gently, hoping not to startle the girl. Her low voice didn't have the effect she had wanted. Allie jerked back to reality with a shudder and looked over, trying to cover it up with a smile.
"Not yet. They texted a minute ago. They'll be here in a- oh, there they are." She pointed out the window at a blue convertable, practically ancient in its design. Despite its early model, it had been recently treated to a fresh lick of paint, as if it had just come off the assembly line.
The waitress waited at the table and watched the couple walk to the door, entering with a small box wrapped in star print paper. "Hey Allie!" One of them, a man in his late fifties greeted. The woman, of similar age, repeated him soon after, though in a more formal manner.
"Hey mom, hey dad." Allie responded, "Traffic?"
"No, your father and I were trying to get your gift wrapped." Julie said with a roll of her eyes. She placed the box down and looked at the waitress, "I'll have a coffee please, no cream and light on the sugar. And he'll have one too, sweetened as much as you possibly could and drenched in milk."
Donny shrugged, "She knows me well."
They sat down and the waitress nodded, leaving them with with their daughter. Allie looked at the box. "You didn't have to bring me anything."
"Yes we did! This is the last time we can see you before your birthday. It's an early gift," Donny told her. He had a wide smile. "I say you open it now before your mother blabs anymore."
"I don't blab!" Julie contested.
"Well you told her why we were late. Now she knows it was freshly wrapped!"
"Alright, cut it out before you kill eachother," Allie shook her head. She pulled the gift close and began to peel the paper away. "Huh, so you got me a cardboard box. I could use that to hold my art supplies." Her joke provoked a chuckle from her father. Soon she had all the paper off of the box and was prying the flaps open.
Allie peered inside, then lifted out a blue plush. It was oddly shaped, with a dome head on which two plastic funnels protruded like ears and what looked to be an eye jutted out from a long stalk. Beneath it, two other stalks reached out from its body. One was tipped with a plunger shaped implement, and the other an egg beater looking object. The plunger, or sucker as she wanted to call it was one of the only pieces that wasn't made of fabric, along with the lens of the eye and the strange plastic of its funnel-like ears.
"What is it?" Allie asked. As she did so, the eye began to glow and the head swiveled. It looked at her, returning her gaze. She tilted her head.
Donny spoke up first, "Oh it's one of those new toys! The mechanical ones with the eye trackers and what not! Oh, what do you call them?" He lied, hoping his second attempt would be as successful as the first.
"I can look it up on my phone-" Allie began, but was cut off by the shrill voice of the toy.
"I am a Da-lek!" It said quite loudly, its funnels and eye-stalk blinking at every syllable. A few of the other patrons looked over at the trio and their strange toy.
"A Dalek huh?" Allie said. "Wow, he's adorable! I love him!"
"As per usual, the uglier it is, the cuter you find it." Julie said, "That would be our daughter."
"Now, you need a name." Allie told the plush. Her eyes wandered to some of the objects on the table as she thought. The toy's eyestalk followed her gaze. Her eyes went from the napkin holder, to the silverware, then to the bagel she'd ordered while her parents had been en route to the diner. She smiled, "Bagel. Your name is Bagel."
"Ba-gel." The toy repeated her. "My name is Ba-gel."
"Well would you look at that!" Donny exclaimed, "It's even better than I thought! This should solve the whole loneliness problem!"
Julie was not so enthusiastic, "That thing isn't connected to the internet is it? I've heard of devices stealing information nowadays. If that toy listens, what else can it do?"
Donny laughed, "Oh it's fine. Can't be any worse than the lady in our phones, can it?"
"Well, where did you get him?" Allie asked.
Her father gained a small look of concern on his face for a moment, as if wishing to say something important, but the look of happiness on his daughter's face and the threat of rage from his wife if she were to know the truth caused him to swallow his suspicion. He smiled, "The tech store you always went to back home." Another lie.
"Thanks guys. I love him! He'll definitely be good company in the dorm room!" Allie hugged it to her chest. It twitched a bit, then looked up at her.
"We're glad." Julie nodded, reassured by her husband. "Now we'll be fishing at our campground after this. Your father has been dying to do that, and there's a beautiful pond right near our tent. I think it would be nice if you came along. Do you have class in the morning?"
"Not until two." Allie said, the toy still held under her chin, "I can make it I think. And you can bet I'm bringing Bagel along."
"I swear, you'll treat anything that moves like its a pet. Remember that you're an adult now." Julie sighed, but smiled all the while.
"There are people that have robot dogs nowadays mom," Allie told her, "But I have a feeling that Bagel is going to be a lot more exciting than those ever would." She held the toy out and looked into that yellow glowing eye again. It stared right back at her, in an unblinking and unbreaking gaze.
To be continued...