The Plushtopia Chronicles Seryn

by shadowlugia249

A Flammie plush TF. A Flammie fanatic's dream comes true when he adopts a lifesized Flammie plush. But when it starts to act and think for itself, he realizes that it is not as simple to deal with as he thought...

The Plushtopia Chronicles: Flammie (Seryn)

By shadowlugia249

Author's Note: This one came out of absolutely nowhere. I don't know why I didn't use this theme before, but I could think of no one better to use for this story than the Flammies. But keep in mind that this is a oneshot, so this has nothing to do with the "Flammie and Glory" series. The facts in here should not be taken seriously since they do not match the ones from the other stories. But keep an eye out for familiar faces. This hopes to be my most unusual and interesting series ever, but I'll leave that up to you. Enjoy!

Karmen Aridos was having a bad time doing any kind of business without some sort of consequence. For the past three years in a row, he had had some kind of disaster involving his own merchandise and the customers he sold them to. The first time, it had been a complete misunderstanding (Author's Note: That was Alex and the Lugia costume in "Fit for a God"), the second instance was more of an attempt to keep him out of business ("Fit for a God 2: Era of Darkness") and the third incident involved a personal rivalry ("Fit for a God 3 Light and Shadow Versions"). But now that he had rebuilt for the third time, Aridos had finally ironed out all of the kinks in his works. True, he had finally abandoned the whole "possessed costume" shtick, but he felt that this much more innocent approach would keep him in business a little longer. He had finally removed his "adults only" restriction and had taken a whole new approach when using his magic. He was so confident now that he was even willing to risk finally being put out of business by the Wizard's Council.

He had been given just one last chance to prove that he could handle the responsibility of creating magical merchandise. And this was indeed his last chance. After that, he would be stripped of all his knowledge of magic and his supply of Elixir of Life would be stopped. And as much as he loved his long life and magical dealings, Aridos was willing to risk it all in one last chance to prove that he was a good guy when it came to magic.

So after his last fiasco, Aridos had cleaned up, stored all of his cursed costumes away where no one would find them, turned up the lights in his shop, redecorated and reopened his doors. "Aridos' Magical Medleys" was now "Plushtopia" – a place where children could come to pick out the plush of their dreams and take them home where, if he was right, they would immediately bond for life and be best friends forever. He had dropped his "I-don't-care" attitude and was now thinking of the children. He could just imagine their little faces when they took one of his magical plushies home and had the time of their lives.

Of course, it wasn't just a child thing. Aridos' shop was open to all ages young and old. He had had an epiphany after his last store closure and was determined to show the world what he could do with his magic.

Now... if only he could get a sale...

My name is Skyle Kelvin and so far, I'm pretty annoyed with life. I had been living in my spare, two-bedroom apartment for over two years and let me tell you, I thought I was going to die of boredom.

Maybe I should take that back. I didn't think about that when I said it. It's true, I have a hobby, but that appears to be all I have. I have my own personal DSL connection on my computer, on which I spend most of my free time browsing the Internet looking for rare and unusual merchandise. I had no job, no TV and no car. The only things I had in my life were my computer, my Internet connection and... I'm ashamed to admit it... my collection of plushies.

Yes, it's true. An 18-year-old like me is interested in toys! But to be more precise, they're called "plushies". They're little stuffed animals that always seem to bring comfort and joy into younger kids' lives. But I've never been one to act my own age. Deep down, I've always been fond of the little things. I'm not talking about your average Beany Bears, but more in the direction of those cheap stuffed animals that you find in those crane games. Yes, I have an addiction to those things, but Fate has granted me a boon and blessed me with the ability to win at those things. And for only 50 cents a pop, I can win a prize from those things two times out of three. That's pretty good for those kinds of games. Most people would blow their entire allowance to try and win at those things, but I seem to be a natural. I almost never lose when I put my mind to it!

But even so, I was still not satisfied with my current haul. I had over 200 different plushies in my spare room, but none of them bring me the joy I had first expected from them. I still enjoy leaping into my pile and swimming through the various animals, but over time, I started to grow dissatisfied with my collection.

It was like there was something missing from my collection that I could not find. I had everything – tigers, foxes, cats, exotics – but there was something out there that I could not find that was waiting for me.

But that all changed when I clicked on a strange site online during my endless hours of down time...

I was searching Google for "rare and unusual plushies for sale" when I noticed a new site at the top of the search list that had never been there before. It called itself "Plushtopia" and was offering "rare and unusual plushies for sale". I was curious to see what it was, so I clicked on it and hoped for the best.

In all my previous experiences with plush sites, I had never seen one with a selection as wide and as well-thought-out as this one. The number of models that were there was astronomical! I had never heard of such creatures! Lugia, Shiron, Legendz, dragons in every shape, size and color – it was unbelievable! And they were so cheap! The person who owned this site was practically giving them away! I had never seen such prices before in my life! The most expensive one I could see was no more than ten dollars while others were a little over a quarter!

I browsed the inventory, looking for the one particular plushie that would be just perfect for my collection. I needed one that I would look forward to curl up to and sleep with at night. But I couldn't make up my mind. There were just so many! I didn't want to gorge myself, but I didn't want to choose the wrong one.

But then I clicked on one that said, "Flammies – all sizes!" and went hunting. It turns out that "Flammies" were various-colored bear-like creatures with not two... but four large, feathery wings. I had never seen a creature as bizarre or as cute as the one that was looking back at me.

Make that eight. There were eight different colors of Flammies in six different pictures side-by-side. From left to right, they went in this order: ruby-red, sapphire-blue, emerald-green, creamy-yellow, shadowy-violet, rose-pink, ice-blue, clear-white and jet-black. Each of the different models came with its own unique traits. For example, the shadowy-violet one had four fangs sticking out of the roof of its muzzle whereas the other ones except for the black one had only two. The black one had one fang on one side and two on the other side, but this one was a little bit bigger than the rest. The green one had clear-blue hair on top of its head while the red one had black pads and claws.

Decisions... Decisions...

I couldn't make up my mind. They were all selling for about seven dollars apiece, but I just wanted one. There were just too many options to pick from. So to narrow down my choice, I looked at the various sizes that they came in. It turned out that the creamy-yellow one was the ideal size. It was known as a "life-size" whereas the other seven came in either "full-size" or "pygmy".

"Life-size" meant that it was no smaller than six feet in length whereas "pygmy" was about the size as a normal-sized plushie. The only one that was "full-sized" – a staggering ten feet in length – was the violet one. Figuring that a life-sized one would be just enough to satisfy my lust for something soft and furry, I clicked on the "Add to Cart" button and filled out the necessary online paperwork to purchase the life-sized plushie. After an intensive screening process, I received an e-mail that said it would be at my place in two days. I had paid the extra few dollars to have it rushed to my place. I was that anxious to see it. Now all I had to do was wait.

Back in Plushtopia, Aridos was checking his stocks when he head his new computer going off. Sighing to himself, he walked over to it and went through his e-mail account. His wrinkled face lit up when he found his first online order opening before him. Finally! It had been over a week since he had opened and he had yet to get a single sale. Most people had stayed away from his place after hearing about his string of bad luck in his previous occupations, so he was desperate for someone to try out his plushies. He wasn't worried about sales – money meant very little to him – Aridos just wanted to spread the joy of his plushies throughout the city and reach out to the hundreds of potential customers out there.

So you could imagine his happiness when he saw that he had received an order for one life-sized creamy-yellow Flammie plush. He spun around with happiness and did a few aerobatics that would normally be impossible for someone of his age and then went to check his stock.

Aridos had everything sorted in their own individual shelves in his back room, so it was rather easy to find the shelf marked, "Flammie: Seryn". After sliding down the rows on a librarian's ladder, he stopped outside the nook with the creamy-yellow life-sized Flammie plush.

"Well, Seryn..." said Aridos as he slid the plush out of its hole. "Congratulations! You've been sold! Now come along. We need to get you ready to go." He was talking to the plushie as if it could talk back, but that would be impossible in its current state. It had to show interest in its owner before it could... whatever.

So to see if it was possible that they could be compatible together, Aridos printed off a picture of Skyle that he had somehow acquired. He had enchanted his computer to acquire everything he needed to know about his customers, even under an alias, and produce a full-color picture of the customer to present to his wares to see if they would work out together. No, he wasn't a hacker, but he wasn't that kind of person to steal someone's identity. He could care less for their address or social security number, but the enchantments to his computer enabled him to pull up a complete history of the person whenever he wanted.

Now that he had Skyle's data, he downloaded that information to a small Jumpdrive, which he took to the costume and inserted it in a special port he had installed in its neck. It took a few minutes, but once all of Skyle's data was uploaded into the plushie, it knew everything about him from start to finish, so he simply pulled out the temporary port and sealed the hole shut.

Aridos chuckled to himself as he set the Jumpdrive aside. The plushie was all ready to go and he could ship it out in the morning. But for the moment, he needed a bite to eat. He was going to celebrate his first sale that hadn't hurt anybody yet and sleep well tonight. Life was good.

Waiting two days felt like an eternity to me. I couldn't concentrate while I was online and I eventually gave it up altogether. I would sit for long periods of time in my bed, staring up at the ceiling. I was so bored that all I could do was try and sleep it off.

But even when I would sleep, the Dream World would not let me ignore my lust. It was taunt me with images of the life-sized Flammie plush that I was awaiting ever so patiently. It wasn't fair! I was doing my best, damn it! Why does Fate have to treat me like this?!

And then at noon of the second day, I was greeted by the heavenly sound of the doorbell. I was at the door in seconds. The man who was waiting at the door was a little alarmed at my expression when I saw the large box at his side. But he said nothing as I signed the document and took the box inside.

"You're a little lighter than I expected," I said as I carried the box into my room. "And smaller than I though, too."

The box was only two feet in size and it worried me if the web site was really telling me the truth. It certainly had enough tape on it. I had to use one of my meat knives to pierce the multiple layers of tape dividing me and the plushie apart. Finally, I managed to get the box open and take my first look at the Flammie plushie.

There wasn't enough space in the box for any packaging material. The plushie was curled up in it and took up every last square inch that held it. But the sight of it curled up made me feel a little better. It was obviously much bigger than two feet and all of that space must have been compressed.

Before I removed it from the box, I took a moment to feel its outstanding fur. It was about an inch in length and very, very soft. I couldn't believe the softness of the fabric that had been used to make it. I had felt alpaca fur before and I was certain that it was not even close to this soft. I wasn't even sure I had ever felt anything like it.

Not only that, but there was a distinct aroma to the fur that I was unaware of. Pressing my face up to it to get a good sniff, I felt like an angel and just run its wings over me. The fur was so soft, it was almost unnatural. Getting back to the scent, I gave it a few good inhales before I recognized it as a smooth, creamy vanilla. And it wasn't weak like those scented dolls with the fragrant hair; it was strong enough to make me remember my mother making cookies on the weekend. It wasn't offensive, either. It was just the right degree that I would not get bored smelling it but would not stink up my skin after constant contact.

Now that I had gotten that out of my system, I dug my hands into the sides of the box and heaved the plush out of its container. As soon as it was free of its container, the plush uncurled itself in my arms so it was like I was carrying a body. Setting the plush down on the floor, I was able to get a good look at it for the first time.

It was about six feet in length from the tip of its head to the tip of its tail – the site hadn't lied to him about that. It "stood" on four short, pink-padded paws. Each of its front forepaws had three short yellow digits each tipped with an ultra-hard brown talon. It also had a dew-digit at its side like a human thumb. This was different from its hind footpaws, where they were slightly broader but only numbered at three digits apiece. As for its tail, I noticed that there was a velvet-like orange plating running from the tip of it, over its front and all the way up to the underside of its throat.

The Flammie also had the thing I had first noticed in the first place – two pairs of different-sized feathery wings. The feathers felt as if they were made from actual bird feathers, but much more authentic. There was also a blue stripe running over the tips of its feathers that I hadn't noticed before.

Now, I turned my attention to its face. It was rather cute for an animal. It had a short, curved, furry muzzle with the same pair of pointed fangs sticking out of the top of its maw. It also had a mat of thick, straw-yellow hair on top of its head. And it had a pair of long, deer-like ears with a green-and-blue tip on them.

As for its eyes, I had expected them to be cheap, plastic buttons that were stitched into its skull like most plushies had. What I did not expect was to see an incredibly-detailed, sharp, baby-blue stitching in the exact shape and size of the eyes I had seen on the Internet. It looked like whoever had made it had gone the extra distance to make the eyes appear real. In fact, the stitching was so fine, that you had to look especially hard to see the threads in its eyes. It looked practically real!

Now that I knew what I was working with, I turned my attention to a tag attached to its ear through a small, plastic tie that you saw on most plushies. It was written in small, fine writing that I had to look extra close to read.

""Hello. My name is Seryn."" I took notice on its name; it obviously came with one, so I didn't have to trouble myself looking for a suitable one on my own. ""I am a female Flammie from the world of Plushtopia." Gee... isn't that nice?" What I read next made me think. ""I have been programmed with all of your biological data, so there is nothing I don't know about you. I hope that we can be friends forever, especially after I "awaken"." Huh? Programmed?"

I poked my fingers all over its body in an attempt to find any circuits that had been embedded in it. I don't remember telling my personal life to the person who ran the site, so this struck me as odd. But there was nothing mechanical inside the plushie that I could detect; and I had given it a pretty good probing. So unless it ran on magic – and I highly doubted it did – it was just a regular, although super-real plushie that I could use whenever I wanted to cuddle up to it.

"Okay... "Seryn". What do you say that we settle you into your new home?" I carried the plush into my bedroom where I set it on my queen-sized bed. "This is my... uh... our bed, I guess now. It's big enough for the two of us to get a pretty decent night's sleep. And this..." I went over to my closet and opened it. "...is my clothes closet. It's got a lock, so I can lock you in here if you're ever naughty, which I doubt you will be." I chuckled at the staring plushie, trying to imagine it ever acting up. Walking over to it, I picked it up again and brought it into my computer room.

"This is my computer room and these are your fellow roommates." I indicated my cache of over 200 plushies sitting in a massive pile in the corner. "I expect for you to get along, so I hope I never have to separate you."

I looked at the plush again, wishing that it could understand me. I then picked it up and took it out to my kitchen.

"This is where I can cook up all sorts of tasty meals for you if you ever get hungry. I'll try to keep the grease to a minimum. No sense in spoiling that exceptional fur coat of yours." I stroked it on its straw-yellow mane and then tickled it under its chin. "I don't know what you eat, but I'm sure I can figure something." I said this so it wouldn't "feel bad". I had no intention whatsoever of feeding it any normal food.

"So, that's roughly about it. I'm not sure how you fared in that box, but I guess you could use a nap for the rest of the day. You must be beat. Come on." I heaved it back into my arms and carried it back into my bedroom, where I laid it under the covers and rested its head up against a pillow. I smiled at it and stroked its side.

"Sleep tight. I'll be back tonight. We're gonna be the best of friends. I just know it."

I looked at the lifeless plushie for a moment and then went back to my computer room to do some more research to see if I could find something to help make it feel more at home. Although I had no idea what Flammies needed, I guess I could take a look online and see what I could do.

Later that day, I was brought to attention by a sudden clatter somewhere in my house. I stopped working and listened around. It had stopped as suddenly as it had happened. Shrugging it off, I continued my work.

A few minutes later, I heard it again. This time, I got up and went out to my living room to check what was going on. The windows and doors were all locked and there was no indication that no one had broken in. I checked the kitchen and everything was in order. There was nothing wrong here, so I went back to my computer room. The only other thing in this house was Seryn, and I highly doubted that she would be acting up. It WAS a lifeless plush, after all.

The rest of the day went without much happening. I couldn't find a single person online that had heard of Flammies, but then again, they didn't know what one looked like. So for tomorrow, I was going to get a picture taken of Seryn and upload it onto my computer. It should be enough to convince them what a Flammie was.

But my entire world was thrown for a loop when I returned to my room that night. When I opened my closet to put on a night shirt, I noticed that there were a number of shirts missing that I had had before. All there was were a couple of empty clothes hangers.

"What the...?! Where'd my clothes go?" I looked all over my house, but the shirts appeared to have vanished off the face of the planet. Huh.

I was too tired to argue, so I simply put on a different shirt and crawled into bed, shutting off the light. I then turned to my life-sized Flammie plush and pulled her close to me. She felt so soft and comfortable that I felt I would finally get my first good night's sleep in quite a while.

"Good night, Seryn. Sweet dreams. I'll see you in the morning."

Of course, I didn't expect it to answer, but if I had been looking at it in the light, I would have noticed a scrap of my favorite blue shirt sticking out of its muzzle as if it had eaten them, but I was too tired to notice. Soon, I was just another visitor to the Dream World.

But try as I might, I could not bring myself to dream that night. I remained in an empty, black space of dreamless sleep, but there was a definite comfort to it. I may not have dreamt that night, but if I had had to choose between the normal chaos that was my Dream World or this soft, warm, comfortable darkness, I would have taken the darkness hands down.

That morning, I awoke feeling more refreshed than ever before. It was as if I had been reenergized overnight by that warm darkness somehow. It felt... good. There was no other word for it.

But when I came fully to, I realized that something was different. Even in this near-total darkness, I could feel something on top of me that hadn't been there before. It wasn't very heavy, but it had a kind of feathery feel to it. It was as if something had wrapped itself around me with a feathery blanket.

But the only thing with feathers in this room was... the plush. I made to life my hand to feel what was covering me, but it was tangled in something that appeared to be holding it. It had wrapped my arm in its own and had pressed it against a velvety surface.

When I pulled my arm out of its grip, I realized that something was very different. The plushie's tail, which had been trailing off the bed the previous night, was wrapped around one of my legs.

The final straw was the deep... breathing that I heard in my room. It didn't belong to me, so it could only belong to...

I scrambled out of bed and quickly turned on my lamp. My first shock came when I looked at the plushie's finely-stitched eyes. They appeared to me... closed... somehow. How could a plushie close its own fabric? Not only that, but I could see that it had been its wings that had wrapped themselves over me. It... it didn't make any sense!

Finally, the biggest shock came when the plushie twitched! It moved! It moved in its sleep! But it didn't stay asleep for very long. Against all the forces of nature, the Flammie plush opened its eyes and moved its irises to look directly at me! It then smiled and opened its muzzle to speak.

"Good morning, Skyle. Did you sleep well? I know I did."

It spoke! It spoke!!! How...?! I mean...! What...?! Ohh...

The next thing I realized, I had somehow been dragged out of my bedroom to my kitchen floor. A sudden sharp pain was tearing through my skull as if I had hit it hard on something. I couldn't see properly and there was a voice echoing in the next room.

"He's okay. He took it a little hard, but other than a big bump on his head, he's fine." The feminine voice paused for a moment. "Yeah, I guess I overdid it when I had myself wrapped all over him. Do you think I cam on too fast?" Another pause. "I see. But he already knows I'm alive, so I can't really pretend anymore." After a lengthy pause, it spoke one last time. "I'll do that. I don't want him to panic, but I don't want him to abandon me. He'll understand if I explain everything to him all at once."

I moaned from the pain and the voice seemed to hear me.

"Oh! He's up! I'll see you later, sir. Wish me luck! Bye!"

It had obviously been talking on the phone because I heard the receiver clatter and a small shuffle from nearby.

The next thing I knew, I was feeling a cold, damp feeling on my forehead. Someone had pressed a damp rag on my bruise and was standing over me, giving off a familiar scent of... vanilla. Could it really be true? Could it really...?

"Seryn...?"

I felt a hard, narrow object touch me on the lips and I realized that it was a claw or a talon.

"Shh... You kind of scared me when you fainted and hit your head on that nightstand. I made sure you were comfortable and tended to it just like you always were." She paused. "And it's "Seryn", not "Seryn"."

I blushed as I looked up at those baby-blue eyes of the Flammie plushie. I had been pronouncing her name "Ser-een" when it was actually "Ser-in." But I was still confused as to why my own plushie was taking care of me.

Seryn shifted in her position so that she was in front of me. "Can you sit up?"

"I... I think so." I struggled to sit up, but I was assisted when Seryn put her paws on my chest and back to help me get fully upright.

I could no longer avoid the obvious. "Seryn... you're alive!"

Seryn blushed as she looked away for a moment – something I didn't know a plush could do. "Last time I checked. I've been alive for the past day, if you've noticed." She suddenly coughed and piece of cloth flew from her mouth. She caught it and looked embarrassed. "I guess I should have warned you first."

I recognized that orange cloth anywhere. "It was you! You ate my clothes?!"

Seryn blushed even deeper and put the cloth on my lap. "I'm sorry. I was just so hungry after riding in that box for so long. I wanted to tell you, but you were already asleep."

But my expression was more frustration than rage. "Those were all the clothes I had! Now what am I going to wear?!"

Seryn appeared to have anticipated this. She sat back on her tail and rubbed her velvet belly for a moment. "It's okay. I can get them back for you. Watch."

Her belly started to make a grumbling noise, followed by a gurgle and a belch from Seryn, but nothing happened.

"Excuse me. Hold on a second." Something appeared to be appearing in her mouth because her cheeks suddenly bulged out and she spat out my old orange shirt. "Here you go."

I thought I was going to be sick. "Seryn! That's really gross!"

But she seemed to have expected this. She put the shirt in my lap and smiled at me. "It's completely fine. Feel it. It's just like before."

I was speechless when I felt the shirt, completely dry and as old-looking as before. It was as if she had never eaten it and it still had the same smell of being in the drier as before.

"How did you do that? Don't you have guts like me?" I immediately slapped a hand to my mouth. I hoped she didn't take that the wrong way.

Thankfully, she understood. "I do, but they're nothing but cloth and fabric like I am. Go on... give me a poke." She presented her armored belly and I looked at her funny. "It's fine. Give it a feel."

I did so and it felt just like she normally did. In fact, despite her meal, I could not feel a single bulge in her belly that told me where her "organs" were.

I looked at her again and raised an eyebrow. I couldn't help it. "You're really weird."

Seryn giggled and sat on her back paws again. "I guess I'm like that. Maybe I can let you feel for yourself sometime. Need a hand?"

She had extended a paw for me to take. I hope she didn't mean what I thought she meant. Could she really...? Nah... I took her paw and got to my feet.

Standing at her highest, Seryn was about six inches shorter than me, but that was because a good part of her was tail.

"So... do you want anything to eat? I can cook up a hearty breakfast for you if you want."

I blinked at this remark. "You can cook?"

Seryn nodded and wrapped her arms around my torso to give me a cuddling hug. "You forget: I know everything about you. Even what you like to eat. I may be a stuffed animal, but I can be pretty handy in the kitchen."

I was up for a test. "Okay. Uh... I've got some pancake mix in the cupboard that I never use. How about some pancakes?"

Seryn let out what I assumed was a chirp. "One batch of pancakes coming right up! You go get dressed for the day. I left some clothes for you to use in your room.

I went to my room, watching her get out the proper cooking utensils for pancakes. When I got to my room, I found a shirt that I knew didn't belong to me. It was a white shirt with a picture of a Flammie with its wings spread out painted on the front. My pants also had a feather-like pattern running all down the sides. It looked like I was wearing a harpy's wardrobe. Without asking Seryn, I realized what this was. Since she was a creature made out of fabric, she used fabric as sustenance. She could then regurgitate the clothes as if she had never eaten them and she could even make completely original clothes just like a factory could on the fly.

I donned these new threads and went out to find Seryn pouring the pancake batter onto a griddle. Man, she could work fast!

Seryn squealed with delight when she saw me wearing her custom clothes. "Do you like them? I made them myself."

I had to admit. They were rather comfortable and the designs were pretty original. "I like 'em. You seem to know my style preferences." I then held up my hand automatically. "I know. You know everything about me. Is breakfast ready yet? I'm starving!"

Seryn waved one of her wings at me and continued cooking. "Not yet. Just go find something to do and I'll call you when it's ready."

I didn't know what to do, so I sat down at the table and waited patiently. Now that I thought about it, Seryn was my idea of the perfect woman. My previous girlfriend thought that she was too good for me, but Seryn knew just what I liked. It disturbed me that I was falling for a stuffed animal, but she was very loyal and she didn't seem to be avoiding me like most women did. She always knew what was best for me and would do anything to please me. Now that was a woman for you!

Before I knew it, Seryn was approaching me with a plate of fresh pancakes smothered with syrup and butter like I liked them. She noticed me staring and giggled.

"If you keep that up, your eyes are going to fall out of your head. Eat up, I made them special."

I shrugged and dug in. Almost immediately, I could taste something I could never get to work by myself – strawberry juice. I had had some fresh strawberries in the fridge and she had obviously found them and incorporated them into my pancakes. From the first bite, I was in love in a different way. I couldn't get enough and soon, they were all gone. Damn.

But as soon as I was done, Seryn dumped a fresh plate in front of me. When I looked up at her, she simply smiled and stroked my hair with a velvety paw. "I made extra in case of this. Do you like them?"

"Yeah! How did you do this? I could never get mine to stay in one piece and you've got them all nice and uniform."

Seryn chirped and gave my face a little lick with a smooth, almost balloon/rubber-like tongue. I was amazed that a plushie could generate its own saliva. But then again, she wasn't your average plushie.

"I have a knack for cooking and I didn't even know it. I'm probably what you refer to as the "perfect woman"."

I blushed as she said this. She knew what I was thinking. That was scary!

Seryn simply tapped me with the tip of her wing and went over to my couch to grab a pillow. Bringing it back over, she sat down and looked at me.

"Mind if I have something to eat as well?"

I frowned. That depends. How often do you have to eat?"

Seryn simply balanced the pillow in her paw like a weight and shrugged. "I usually eat about this much a day, so not often."

I put aside my fork and knife and turned to look at her. "How DO you do it? I've never seen a plushie eat cloth before."

Seryn blushed again and curled her tail around my leg underneath the table. "It's nothing fancy."

"Go ahead. I'm curious."

Seryn sighed and held the pillow up to her mouth like a burger and gave me a smile. "Okay. Here goes."

Seryn sank her fabric-filled teeth into the pillow much like a person ate a hamburger. I had expected some resistance, but she pulled the pillow away from her mouth, a fresh, clean chomp through it. And although I knew it was in her mouth and she was chewing it with relish, I was in utter shock. She had decimated that pillow like it was a piece of pie. And when she swallowed it like a regular piece of food, she looked at me with a grin on her face.

"Convinced?" she said sweetly.

I nodded. "Very. But I can't figure where you're putting it all."

Seryn chirped and wrapped her left wings around my back and continued on with her meal. When she had a free moment, she explained.

"Since we're both fabric, my body can convert it into pure energy. That's probably why you never see me... you know..."

"I do, actually. That's good, because I've never had to share a bathroom with a woman before, stuffed or otherwise."

Seryn nodded and took another huge bite of the pillow, leaving just a quarter of the comfort object left. When she was finished chewing, she told me something I didn't know.

"Since I can regurgitate whatever cloth I've eaten and eat it again, you never have to worry about buying anything extra for me, but I do prefer a variety every now an then."

"Don't we all?" I said and the two of us broke out laughing. Seryn smiled and finished her pillow with a good chomp and swallowed it relatively easy. She let out a little belch but covered her mouth and excused herself.

"So what do you want to do today?" she said, getting up and taking my leftover pancakes and put them in the sink.

I got up and crept up on her to give her a small kiss on the cheek. "I dunno. I bet we could find something."

Seryn saw me coming and she suddenly looked alarmed. "What are you doing, Skyle? You're creeping me out."

I continued to come towards her, my arms spread wide. "It's called "human affection". You know everything about me and yet you don't know that?"

But Seryn looked scared out of her mind. She backed off a little as I continued to advance. Common Sense told me to stop, but there was something about her that turned me on.

"Affection? I dunno. I can try." She stopped and allowed me to approach her to kiss her on the muzzle. I was convinced that she was going to let me touch her, but all of a sudden, the tables were turned on me.

With a sudden lunge, Seryn's maw opened super-wide and wrapped itself around my shoulders, lifting me clean off my feet. What was happening?! She was eating me?!?! I screamed at her out of fear, but my pleas were lost inside her throat. But adjusting her jaw, he was able to slide me a few more inches down her throat, her rubber-like tongue lapping at my front.

I continued to kick and scream as I entered a silk-like passage that I assumed to be her throat. It was not wet or smelly like I had expected but was instead warm and soft with the distinct aroma of vanilla permeating around me. I could feel my calves slide into her mouth and with one final gulp, she had swallowed me whole.

I came to rest inside a soft, dark chamber, curled up like a sleeping cat. The light that was shining down from Seryn's open mouth cut out as her jaw returned to normal.

I could not believe that my own plushie had eaten me! "Seryn!" I yelled, kicking and fussing. "What did you do?!"

Seryn sounded like she had made a mistake. "Didn't I do it right?"

"NO!!! You were supposed to kiss me, not eat me! I don't wanna be digested! Get me outta here!"

Seryn seemed to double over from the fight I was giving inside her gut. She patted her unusually trim belly and tried to reassure me that everything was alright.

"I'm not going to digest you, Skyle. I know better than that. But I'm not going to let you out just yet."

"WHY NOT?!?!" I practically screamed.

"I like the feeling you are giving me. And if you just calm down, you'll feel the same, too."

I forced myself to stop struggling and take in my surroundings. Other than the fact that I was curled up in the dark, it was actually very comfortable in here. It was very warm and dry, just like Seryn said it would be. And her smell of vanilla seemed to soothe me to an amazing degree.

"It's actually not that bad in here. But will you let me out eventually?"

Seryn trilled and sat down on my couch, rubbing her belly again. "I will. but for now, I want you to go to sleep. I have a few things I need to do before the day is over. I promise you will be alright."

I should have asked her what she meant, but her "body warmth" was too overpowering. I soon felt myself drifting off to sleep. If she knew all about me, she would keep her word and let me out when she was ready. It really wasn't all that bad in here. I had never been eaten before, but I was sure that if I was eaten by a real animal, I would be in a lot more pieces than right now. I yawned and shut my eyes, soon drifting into the Dream World once again.

Meanwhile, Seryn had taken it upon herself to leave Skyle's apartment to go to an appointment she had made with her creator, Aridos. Since she had somehow kept her belly from bulging out when she had swallowed Skyle, she could make her way through the sky without falling out of the air.

Even though she was a plushie, she was still very air-capable. All she had to do was spread her four wings and push herself off the ground where she could alternate flapping each of them and stay in the air. True, she now weighed a good deal heavier than she did before, but the magic she had been blessed with made her air-worthy nonetheless.

As she flew, she felt Skyle turn in his sleep, making her chuckle lightly and pat her belly to calm him down. She had no intention of converting him to energy like she did with her normal meals for two reasons. One: the only part of him that she could digest was his clothes. And Two: she would never do that to the one she had grown to appreciate. He was too much a part of her now, directly or indirectly to just get rid of him. She knew everything there was to know about him and knew just how to make him happy.

But there was something about him that was not quite... satisfying about him. He was a flesh-and-blood creature while she was a cloth-and-cotton creature. They would never be perfect for each other unless... hmm... maybe he could do something about that.

She kept flying across the country with amazing speed. She had to talk to her creator directly and ask him the questions that had been bothering her since she had been awakened by Skyle.

Some time later, Seryn touched down outside a colorful building somewhere in Minnesota. She hadn't seen it before, but her instincts told her that this is where she was created.

"Plushtopia," she said to herself. "This must be the place."

But before she could get to the front door, Seryn felt Skyle start to awaken. She panicked slightly and thought quickly. He couldn't wake up here! Not now! Against her better judgment, Seryn took a few deep breaths, stoking her internal warmth and fluctuating her stomach to lull Skyle back to sleep. It was a tense moment, but he was soon deep asleep once again. Now that her gut had settled down again, Seryn went up to the front door and pushed it open.

Plushtopia was everything she had remembered. Its bright colors made even the littlest kid feel right at home. The colorful displays of enchanted plushies made her heart feel at ease. The hundreds upon hundreds of plushies all looking back at her made Seryn a little uncomfortable, but then again, she could feel the looks of the plushies since she was one.

Seryn made her way to the lone register and rang the bell. Almost instantly, the door to the back room opened and out came her creator – Karmen Aridos. She had to admit that he looked kind of quirky in his colorful getup, but that was probably used to attract customers.

Aridos came up to the counter, which was slightly shorter than him, and looked up at his customer. At first, he thought he was seeing things, but then he smiled and nodded his head.

"Well, if it isn't my first sale herself, Seryn. Come in! I had a feeling that you were coming. Would you like some dye or paint to drink?"

Seryn smiled at the offer. "That sounds delicious. I'd love some! I wanted to come see you to see if you could answer a few questions."

Aridos nodded and opened the back room door for her. "Sure. Anything for a work of mine. You must have flown here, right? Come and have some refreshments."

Seryn followed the strange old man to the back room. He seemed happy to see her, so she decided to go along with her.

As Skyle continued to sleep, Seryn and Aridos held a casual conversation over a cup of the finest dye and cotton balls for Seryn and tea and biscuits for Aridos. He was amazed to learn how much Seryn had done for her owner and was even more surprised when she told him she had swallowed him.

"A little extreme..." he said, shrugging a little. "...but as long as you are both happy, I'm fine with that. So, you had a few questions to ask me?"

Seryn bit into a cotton ball and chewed it slowly, trying to think about what to ask him first.

"I guess it was when he first advanced towards me that I really started to think about it. It's kind of strange for a human male to fall in love with a Flammie plush. I don't really see the connection."

Aridos raised an eyebrow and pulled out a notebook and a pen to take a few notes. "You say you've fallen for him?"

Seryn shrugged and absentmindedly rubbed her belly. "I'm not sure. It seems that we both have feelings for each other, but I'm not sure if we can make it work."

Aridos jotted down an important note and circled it. He was behaving just like a psychiatrist, but he didn't care. Anything for his "children".

"I've heard a rumor that some of you could fall for your owners, but it seemed to occur more when I was dealing in costumes."

"I know this is a strange question..." Seryn said, trailing off.

Aridos chuckled and shook his head. "No question is strange as long as you want to know the answer."

Seryn smiled weakly and twiddled her talons for a moment before asking. "You managed to infuse me with his data before I left but... could you make him like me?"

Aridos misinterpreted the question. "Doesn't he like you already?"

The Flammie shook her head. "No... could you make him... like me?"

Aridos had to think for a moment before his expression brightened. "You know... I think I have just the thing." He got up and went to a drawer in one of his cupboards and pulled out a small, unmarked, brown-glass bottle and brought it over to Seryn. "Just mix a few of these in his food three times a day. He should feel the effects within a week. Mind you, he won't like it, but if you really have this obsession for him, it will bring the two of you closer together than just him swimming in your gut."

Seryn took the bottle and turned it in her talons. "Are you sure? Isn't there a faster or easier way?"

Aridos shook his head. "I'm working on it, but that's the best I've got so far. You'll have to tell me how it goes when it all works out."

Seryn sighed and swallowed the bottle whole to store it away until she got home. She trusted Aridos, but she was concerned if it would really be worth it. She finished her dye and shook Aridos' hand before saying her good-byes. She then left the shop and flew back to Skyle's house, all the while thinking about if this was really in her best interest.

I can't remember when I have ever slept as well as I did that day. My dreams were filled with Seryn's presence all around me. We would go out together and fly side by side even though she was too small to carry me on her back. We would dance in the moonlight, the moon making her unbelievable fur shine in the night. We would also swim together, despite her situation with the water. We were happy together and I hoped it would never end.

But like all good things, it, too, came to an end. I woke up to a light that I realized belonged to the sun. Seryn must have regurgitated me back onto my bed early that morning and gone to make me some breakfast. I could smell something egg-based cooking in the kitchen and slid out of bed.

"Something smells good, Seryn! What's cooking?"

The plushie chirped as I came into the kitchen and dropped everything she was doing to come greet me. "Good morning, love! Did you sleep well?"

She wrapped her heavy paws and her wings around my body and gave me a little lick with her rubbery tongue. She had obviously gotten over her original shock the previous day and had accepted me as her owner.

"I slept great! It was like I was balled up in a sleeping bag all night. Can I do it again sometime?"

Seryn didn't appear at all offended by this request like I had hoped. She simply ran a talon over my cheek and nuzzled my chest. "We'll see. To be honest, I kind of enjoyed it."

Seryn and I separated and she returned to her cooking. She was making a quiche with some hash browns and ham chunks cooked into it. When she was done, I ate like a king while she dove into another of my couch cushions. I never did like those things and I had too many of them to worry about them.

"How does chili sound tonight, Skyle?" Seryn popped the question out of nowhere.

I looked at her for a moment but then smiled and gave her a pat on the head. "That'd be swell. I haven't had chili in a while. It's too much to make on my own. But you seem to know what you're doing."

Seryn nodded, but there was an uncertain look in her eye. But she seemed to know this and acted quickly.

"I was just thinking about life without you. You really seem to complete me somehow."

I raised an eyebrow at her and spoke the obvious. "What does that have to do with chili?"

Seryn shrugged and gave a curious chirp. "Nothing."

But then the two of us broke out laughing. It was good to have her with me. It made me feel good to know that someone thought I was good enough to hang around. And she was cheap, too. But that's beside the point.

"So... until then... what do you want to do today?"

I had a feeling that I knew what I wanted to do. I had been wanting to do this ever since Seryn had come to life.

"How about we go to the mall? I've got a few acquaintances that I've got a bet to settle with. And we can use the money to get you some new threads to eat. But..." I looked her over for a moment. "You need to look a little more decent than this? Can you stand wearing clothes while we're out?"

Seryn nodded. "It's fine with me. Basically, it's like wearing a loose, second skin." She looked off to one side and took a few breaths but then looked back at me. "Want me to make you anything while I'm at it?"

I had never had anyone ask me what kind of clothes I wanted before, but I immediately knew what type I liked.

"The type I'm looking for is a tuxedo but not quite. It could pass for a short-sleeved jacket, but it's much thinner and finer than that. It's got a button-up front and a flapped pocket on its chest. Something in black if you don't mind."

Seryn closed her eyes for a moment, envisioning the masterpiece within her and then she opened them and smiled. "Okay. Anything for pants?"

I also knew which style I liked. "I like long pants, but they don't really have a lining in them. I work well with something blue, but I'd like a design like you have on these marvelous feathers of yours," I added, running my hand through her wing.

Seryn chuckled and gave my face another lick. "Okay, hombre, let's see what I can do."

She took a few breaths and closed her eyes for a moment. A small rumbling sounded in her stomach and something was pushed up her throat to her mouth, where her cheeks bulged out a little before she finally spat it out into her paws.

"Will this do?"

I took the velvety black shirt in my hands and whipped it out in front of me. It was just like I had wanted and it was so finely done that I was sure that very few people could reproduce it as well as she did.

"It's marvelous, Seryn! I should recommend you for a designer's production line."

Seryn smiled and ran a talon over my cheek. "Don't get ahead of yourself just yet. Now I have to make the pants. Just a moment..."

She repeated the same procedure to procure a pair of long pants for me. When she handed them to me, I was nearly beside myself with glee.

The pants were just the perfect softness that I wanted and were made with fine, dark-blue thread. But the best part was the collection of various-colored lightning-bolt-shaped flashes on the sides. It looked like my pants had been electrocuted with color. Cool.

But Seryn wasn't quite done yet. She suddenly started coughing and spat out a pair of black socks, one after the other. I took them and gave her a hug before I got up to go put them on.

"I'll be right back. You just get ready while I'm gone."

Seryn nodded and began picturing her own clothes. When I finally got my new threads on, I came back out to the living room and presented myself to her.

"What do you think?" I said, turning around with my arms out.

Seryn clapped her paws a few times and chirped happily. "Very nice. You look like a million bucks. How do I look?"

Seryn had donned a white T-shirt with a Flammie logo on it that I recognized as the same make of shirt that she had first made for me. She had also donned a pair of silver shorts with an elastic waistband. She did look nice... but...

"I think it's a bit of a giveaway if people saw you with wings sticking out of your back. No offense, but can you hide them in your shirt or something?"

Seryn nodded. "I can do better than that. Watch!" She folded each of her wings into a large bunch on her back. I watched in amazement as they seemed to belt flawlessly into her back, leaving no indication that she had had any wings whatsoever. Not only that, but the holes in her T-shirt had sealed shut, leaving her back completely "flaw-free".

She also seemed to be reading my mind. "I'm not changing my tail. I just wouldn't be a Flammie without it."

I blinked and then shrugged this off. It was a little dull to see a Flammie plush without a tail to have with it. After all, the bet with my "friends" didn't specify that my girlfriend had to be human. And if it wasn't, I was promised a double payout. Joy!

So now that we were considered "sociable", Seryn and I left the apartment and headed for the mall. It was less than two blocks and across the street from my apartment, so it was much easier to walk to. Boy, were they going to be jealous!

Before we reached the mall, there were a number of looky-loos from the cars on the street we crossed. They were stunned to see a furry animal standing on two legs and wearing clothes like everyone else and nearly caused an accident from being distracted. When one man honked his opinion at Seryn when we crossed the street, I simply sighed, but Seryn turned around and winked at the man, causing his jaws to become dangerously low and nearly hit the car in front of him.

I was surprised that no one called the police on us for not having my "pet" on a leash, but Seryn and I didn't stick around long enough for them to get a better look.

We got a number of funny looks in the parking lot and we bypassed a photographer, who had been doing a story on the stores at the mall. He had lowered his camera to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but we were already through the door.

A number of funny whispers were shot our way as Seryn and I walked through the mall to the Foot Locker store that my "friends" hung out at. Geez... you'd think they'd never seen a full-sized walking plush before (and they probably haven't), but I was currently on top of the world, so let them look. They weren't going to take her away from me!

When we reached the outside of Foot Locker, sure enough, they were there, loitering around as usual. But the store was on a corner, giving me an idea.

"Seryn, you wait here. I want to build up the mood. Come out when I call for you."

Seryn trilled obediently and did so. She waited by the jewelry store on the other side of the corner and listened for her opportunity.

When I approached the leader of the pack, Mark Ramos, I watched his friends acknowledge me.

"Well, look who's back in the hood, Marker," said one of the boys.

Mark noticed me for the first time and we looked at each other for a moment. But then he grinned and held his hand up to make a modified handshake. I took it and we bumped up against each other for a moment in a quick hug.

"Fancy seein' you here, Skyle," he said in complete respect for me. "I thought you were locked up at home 'cause you ain't got the money to be around here."

I smiled and looked away in mock distraction. "Funny you should mention money, because I've got a bet to cash in with you."

"Marker" raised his eyebrows and looked on either side of me. "Is that so? I don't see your so-called "girlfriend" here. Did she have to be somewhere?"

Marker's two flunkies chuckled, but I didn't lose my cool.

"Not really. It just so happens that I do have a girlfriend and she's here at the moment."

"Really? I don't see her anywhere."

"Not just yet. I believe you know the stipulation for our bet?"

Marker nodded and pulled out his wallet. For a no-good punk, he was always loaded. I never did find out where he got all that money. "The bling-bling's all here. 200 greenbacks if you found a girlfriend within a month and she stays with you past your first date. Half a G if it ain't human. You'd better have the money soon, 'cause you goin' under soon."

I sighed and shook my head. "Quite the contrary, I believe I will be cashing in on this bet." I turned to the corner where Seryn was hiding. "Come on out, love!"

The looks on their faces when they saw Seryn coming from out of the corner were beyond priceless. They couldn't believe that a full-sized animal they had never seen before was walking towards them and were even more astonished when Seryn put her arms around me and we gave each other a quick kiss.

"Are these the boys you were talking about?" she said, looking at the boys in what I assumed to be pity. "They don't seem like real hotheads."

If the sight of a furred female Flammie didn't shock Marker out of his mind, the sound of her more-than-real voice did the job.

"How... what... she... you...!"

Seryn simply giggled and flicked her tail in plain view. The boys were shocked as to what force could cause a stuffed animal to come to life, and they weren't really doing a good job of hiding it.

Marker was next to speechless. He gulped, hung his head and admitted defeat. He pulled five crisp hundred-dollar bills out of his wallet and handed them to me without looking at me.

"Half a G. Go on, take it."

I took the money and pocketed it. Seryn, however, was about to put the icing on the cake. She went over to Marker and put a talon under his chin so that they were looking eye-to-eye with each other.

"Don't worry. You'll get lucky someday."

She then gave him a small perk on the cheek and came back to me, where we walked off into the mall to get spend my new winnings.

Marker, meanwhile, had put his hand to his cheek and blushed – something he never did. "I'll never wash this cheek again."

We spent most of the day in the mall, shopping or hanging out in the various stores. I had 500 bucks to spend, so I was going a little nuts in my purchases. But most of them were for Seryn. I bought her a special blanket for her to have as a three-course meal one of these days. And for myself, I had Seryn order some pizza from the pizza buffet that was in the mall. She was more than happy to get it for me, and to the amazement of the cashier, she ordered a trio of Meat Lovers' slices and a couple strips of garlic cheese bread.

While I was waiting for Seryn to get back with my pizza, I was staring off into the local Build-a-Bear Workshop with a grimace on my face. If they could only see the plush that I had gotten from a place that was so much better than them! Plushtopia was the best place in the world and the Workshop only specialized in young girls and babies. I had half a mind to go in there right now and show off Seryn to all of them.

But I was better than that. Gloating about Seryn would only make me look like a bad owner and I would probably have security on me within a minute. Oh well...

I was so busy thinking that I didn't see Seryn take something out of her shorts pocket and press it into one of my slices of pizza, burying it among the collection of meats that covered its surface. She was trying to get me to eat something, but I was completely unaware of her actions.

When I turned around, Seryn had hidden the container the item came in and was leaning on her paws, looking innocent. I grew suspicious of her behavior, but she was just too sweet to stay mad at.

"Thanks for the pizza, love. Are you going to eat, too?"

Seryn pulled out a small, kid-sized, frilly white dress that I had bought her and pretended to be embarrassed. "I'm not really hungry, but a sweet like this can't be passed up."

"I thought you'd like that. I guess it's what you call "plushie candy", right?"

"Rightio. I think I'll eat it now."

As Seryn took her time savoring the frilly lace, she glanced at me out of the corner of her eye and watched me eat my pizza. When I bit the part of the slice that she had hidden the foreign object in, she grinned and continued her snack.

When we were all done, the two of us cleaned up and went back home. I still had about $200 left, but no sense in spending money on things I'm not going to use.

Just like she promised, Seryn made me a few bowls of homemade chili while I was in the computer room, uploading some pictures I had taken of her and me with a digital camera I had bought. I was making a beeline for the Plush Forums where I hade built up a reputation of owning rare and unusual plushies. Wait until they saw these pictures of me and Seryn in all these different poses and even one with her peace-posing with her wings out by herself! They were going to be so jealous!

Meanwhile, Seryn had taken out the bottle that she had gotten from Aridos and was looking it over for a moment before tipping a few items that appeared to be cotton seeds into her paw and mixing them into the chili. I was still in the dark as to her true intentions, but she would one day confront me with her actions – just not now.

When I had finally uploaded all of my pictures onto the forums, Seryn called, "Skyle! Soup's on!"

I logged off and followed the smell of the delicious chili all the way to a hot, steaming bowl of it in the dining room. I sat down and helped myself to some crackers and cheese that Seryn had laid out for me and began to eat.

While I was eating, Seryn was off in the other room. She had refused my offers for her to sit with me and insisted that she was tired. At first, I thought nothing of it. I figured she really was tired, but as the week went on, I began to grow suspicious.

It all started the next day. I had suggested to Seryn that she take a break from cooking and I would make myself some sandwiches, but she insisted that she make me something hot and fresh. I raised an eyebrow at her but simply went to the computer room to check my forums. While I was in there, she had fished the bottle of seeds out of her pocket again and laced my taco meat with the strange items. On a hunch, she decided to mash them in to mix them up a little. She had a dirty little secret that she was still considering telling me one day.

While I was blissfully unaware of her actions, I was nearly overwhelmed by the number of replies I had gotten at the forums. There were a good two dozen of them on two separate pages full of people practically begging me to tell them where I had gotten Seryn. My answer was the same: go to the Plushtopia web site and order their very own magic plush and try it out for themselves.

But there were a few non-believers that strongly accused me of doctoring the photos. They demanded video proof or they would report me to the forum manager. I had no choice but to ask Seryn if she would make a little home movie with me.

After I had eaten, she said that she wasn't feeling well and left the apartment to go for a walk. I asked her if plushies ever got sick, but she was gone before she gave me an answer.

Seryn continued her unusual behavior for the rest of the week. She seemed to be avoiding me and spent most of her free time on the streets. Against my knowledge, she continued to lace my food with the strange seeds and would suddenly vanish shortly after I had eaten. Soon, she stopped eating altogether. She wouldn't touch the fabrics I had gotten her and would spend long hours in my room, asleep.

Finally, I decided to confront her about her behavior this week, only to find out that she had left completely. There was a note in her pawwriting that said quite clearly: "There's some things I need to have looked into. Be back in the morning. Seryn"

Now I was sure that something was wrong. She wouldn't just leave me all of a sudden unless something was very wrong with her... or me. I couldn't determine who it was, but I had a feeling that Seryn was breaking up with me. It didn't make any sense. She knew everything about me and appeared to be the perfect woman, stuffed or otherwise. Why would she leave me?

I couldn't think of what else to do, so I turned in for the night.

For some reason, I woke up in the middle of the night with my insides hurting like nothing I had ever felt before. It felt like I was being gored internally and I was going to be sick. I stumbled out of bed and made for the bathroom to blow chunks.

As I was hunched over the toilet, I was heaving up my lunch like I had eaten the mother of all meals. I never even knew my stomach could get that big! But just when it seemed to subside, I flushed the toilet and felt a sudden pain in my chest like I was having a heart attack. The pain was unbearable and it felt like I was burning all over my body.

And then I started to get weirded out. I had already cleaned out my stomach, but I was now heaving chunks drenched in what I knew to be blood. I couldn't stop being sick and my body was being emptied of all of its body fluids. The "chunks" soon became apparent that I was throwing up my own shredded organs! How could this be?! I was dying and heaving my guts literally!

Finally, it was all over. But I didn't understand. I had just emptied myself of all my vital organs and yet, I was still alive. Not only that, but my skin was starting to itch like crazy. I tried to scratch it, but it felt like I was clawing at cotton. The itching persisted and I couldn't soothe it.

When I finally had the sense to look at my skin, I screamed so loud that I still couldn't believe that my landlord wasn't breaking my door down. I was so shocked that I still cannot describe it in full today.

Long story short – I was now a human plushie! My skin was cloth-like, my sides were stitched, my flesh was cotton-like and my insides, I soon realized, were stuffed! My eyes were stitched, my hair was made of fabric and I had not a single blemish on me any longer.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I felt as if my insides were being shredded again. I hit the floor, writhing in pain from the pure agony I was in. But my body had not finished changing yet.

My fabric-like skin suddenly started sprouting what I assumed to be fur. It grew like wild-fire and soon, I had a thick, warm coat of creamy-yellow fur that looked familiar... somehow...

I was still in agony when my legs suddenly gave out, dropping me to all fours. If I had had any bones left, the pain would be indescribable. But all I felt was a muffled crunch as my legs shrunk slightly and my feet fattened out slightly. Four of my toes fused with each other until I had only three short digits left. From those digits, a hard, plastic talon grew from them while rubber-like pads appeared under them. Soon, I had paws! The same experience happened with my arms, except that I had one extra digit to serve as an opposable thumb.

Just then, something practically sucked my manhood into itself so that I was an "it" now. And in its place, a long, thick, cotton-filled tail practically exploded out of my backside. And after that, the fur on my front all the way down to the tip of my new tail fused together to become orange, rugged and velvet-like.

Finally, my skull seemed to liquefy as it molded itself into what was unmistakably a Flammie's head. It had the same short, curved muzzle, the deer-like ears, the thick, straw-yellow mane of hair and the noticeable two fangs sticking out of my maw. The only thing about my eyes that changed was the color. It went from a dark-brown to an emerald-green shade. That was all.

When it was all over and done with, standing in the place of Skyle the human was Skyle the Flammie plush.

I don't know if I had finally blacked out from the pain or if I fell asleep from exhaustion. All I know was that I was no longer in the Real World, spiritually at least.

Before I had gone through such an ungodly transformation, Seryn had flown straight for Plushtopia to ask Aridos the thing that had been bothering her for so long: did she do the right thing?

Aridos had been expecting her and had opened a special skylight in his back room for her to fly though and land safely. He had set up a series of landing lights atop his shop for her to follow into the skylight. When she did, she went straight for the chair he had set up for her and helped herself to the cup of dye he had set up to cool her after her long journey.

"I've been waiting for you, Seryn. You seem even more troubled than the last time we met."

Seryn brought the cup up to her muzzle, but she was too distracted to drink and set it down without touching it. "I think I've waited too long to tell Skyle about my feelings for him. He's back at home in who-knows-how-much pain from those cotton seeds and I'm halfway across the country drinking dye like I could care less. It really bothers me that I'm not there for him and yet I have a nagging suspicion that he knows about me feelings for him."

Aridos didn't touch his tea, either. "You shouldn't keep your emotions bottled up inside of you. If you have feelings for Skyle, you should have told him about them before you spiked his food. He might have accepted what you wanted to do to him and you two would have been better off together.

"But now it's too late for that. The changes are irreversible now, so you have to live with your decision. But remember this..." he added as she looked glum. "If you can convince Skyle that he is better off as a plushie, you two will be inseparable. But you have to really convince him in his state."

Seryn looked uneasy as she realized that that was easier said than done. Skyle was undergoing his conversion at this moment. How could he possibly be convinced that life as a Flammie plush would be better than his human life? She certainly had her work cut out for her when she got back and there would almost certainly be hell to pay for this.

Seryn set aside her undrunk dye and bid Aridos a good night. She then flew out through the skylight and headed back to Skyle's house. She had no idea how she was going to do this, but she had to try. She couldn't take back her actions now, so she had a choice to make: try and somehow convince Skyle that life as a plushie was better or abandon him completely and let him fend for himself. Since she was too far into this to consider the latter, she had to work fast to convince Skyle of the benefits of his new life. She just needed to think...

That morning, I woke up in my living room as a brand-new Flammie plush. I wasn't confused as to what had happened, nor was I angry that my human life was now stripped from me.

I was actually more disappointed than anything else. I couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed it before. Seryn had been avoiding me for the past week because she was nervous what I would think about me becoming a plush. She was so ashamed of herself that she hadn't even been here for me during my transformation. It just showed me the true extent of her "feelings" towards me.

But for the first time, I understood why she had done it. I had taken her in and given her a life of meaning and privilege and this was her way of paying me back. She had been so ashamed that she couldn't join me in the flesh-and-blood world that she had done just the opposite. She had given me a new way to live as a plush, which was all she could do to repay me for my kindness towards me. I understood her intentions, but that didn't make them any more bearable. I was now a stuffed animal, but for some reason, I was not upset in the slightest. I knew she had meant well by giving me a life that only she knew how to live as repayment for my kindness, but I wish she had warned me about it or told me about her feelings towards me before she started the whole charade.

(Author's Note: Not exactly a person's first feelings after being transformed against their wills, right? I thought I'd try something different this time.)

Now that I fully understood my position, I decided to find something to eat. My former liquid-like organs were no more, but I now had a silken masterpiece of internal plumbing to work with. They were there in a way, but if you were to reduce me to stuffing, there would be no indication that they were there. It was magic, people! Not everything needs a scientific explanation.

Since Seryn had dined on pillows and clothes since she had first awoken, I figured that the same diet would work for me. I wasn't sure how they would taste, but I realized that I had no other choice now. Heading back to my room, I fished out the blanket that I had originally bought for Seryn and held it in my stuffed paws. I was contemplating whether or not if I should eat it, but after my experience last night, my energy was low and I needed food of some kind.

I took a deep breath and bit into a corner of the blanket. Something about being a plushie allowed me to tear off a piece of it like taking a bite out of a sandwich. The cloth was instantly sheared by my plastic teeth and a piece of the blanket was in my mouth. Rolling the blanket around in my mouth, I let the "flavor" flow over my tongue. I had held my breath when I bit into it but finally let it out and swallowed the pulverized cloth like I would with normal food.

"Say..." I said to myself, opening my eyes and looking at the blanket. "Not bad! Maybe this won't be so bad after all." I chirped to myself and continued my first plushie meal.

The taste of the blanket could not compare to any food I had ever eaten before. It wasn't bad. In fact, it was one of the most delicious things I had ever put in my mouth. My plushie senses had given the blanket a taste all its own and I was liking it! It didn't taste a bit like the thick cottony flavor that I would have noticed as a human. Instead, it had a magnificent flavor that I could learn to like.

In fact, I was so impressed by its taste that before I could stop myself, half of the blanket was already gone. I finally got my head on straight and stopped feeding my face, setting the now-tattered blanket back into the bag. Seryn had been looking forward to that blanket, so I had some explaining to do when she got back.

Now that my energy was back up, I could now start practicing how to walk on my back legs like Seryn did so often nowadays. Normally, she was a quadruped, but she had trained herself to walk on her back legs like a human. She had even gained a few inches in her legs and arms so that she looked more like an anthro Flammie than anything else.

But I was still getting used to my new body and my first couple attempts to walk upright resulted in me falling to all fours again. I was too light to make much noise to the people below me, but I was coming down with enough force that I was surprised they weren't breaking my door down.

Just when I was about to take more than three steps walking upright, the door opened and I fell to all fours again. I suddenly started to panic and looked in the direction of the door. But when I saw Seryn coming around the corner, my disappointment returned full-circle.

For the longest time, the two of us looked up or down at the other. I was looking up at her with a feeling of disappointment on my face while Seryn looked down at me with an expression of guilt and embarrassment. I felt slightly betrayed that Seryn had done this to me, but I understood her purpose now. She had wanted to live a fuller life with me and the only way she could do it was to turn me into a plushie. But that still didn't make it right.

As Seryn knelt down to comfort me, I frowned and lashed out with my plastic claws, parting the fabric in the part under her neck that the orange plating did not reach. Normally, this would have killed a normal person, but since Seryn did not bleed, all she did was wince from the short and sudden pain she felt when her "skin" split open. I knew that it would heal over on its own, but that didn't stop Seryn from sighing and putting her paw in my mane.

"Thanks. I guess I deserved that."

"Yes..." I said, sighing as well but then propping myself up on her to give her face a lick. "You did. But now that we've gotten that out of the way, I have something to ask."

Seryn stood up and looked down at me. "You're not mad?"

I shook my head. "No. I'm just... disappointed. You could have told me about this before you started all this, but I guess bygones will be bygones."

Seryn's face beamed as she curved her tail around my own. "Thank you, Skyle. This means a lot to me."

I propped myself up on my back legs and took Seryn's paw in my own. "Not as much as this will. Seryn the Flammie Plush... will... you...?" But for some reason, I couldn't spit it out. I had suddenly frozen up and I couldn't get the words out.

But she seemed to get the picture. She smiled and nearly went to tears – something I didn't realize that plushies could do.

"Skyle... I... yes! Yes, I will! I will, my love!"

Later that afternoon, Seryn and I were flying back to the Plushtopia store in Minnesota. I didn't even have to practice flying at all – the ability came with the body. I was a natural.

My fiancé and I had left our old life behind to return to the place where she had been created. Shortly after I had proposed, Seryn and I had gotten a phone call directly from Aridos about a revolutionary magic he had developed. He was so excited that he hadn't said what it was, but he wanted us to be the first ones to try it.

This was why Seryn and I were each carrying a bag full of items we figured we would need when we got there. He had told us that we would never have to worry about our former lives ever again, thus our light packing. The only things we had packed were a few spare clothes and blankets that we would be using and/or dining on in the near future.

When we finally got there, Seryn and I followed each other through the skylight in Aridos' shop she had used last night. And when we touched down, we both saw Aridos working on what appeared to a large, metal arch on a blank wall in his back room.

"Welcome back, Seryn!" he said, pausing in his work to greet us. "I don't believe I've met your friend. Would you care to introduce me?"

Seryn cooed and turned to face me. "Skyle Kelvin, meet my creator, Karmen Aridos. Aridos, meet my fiancé, Skyle."

I was still unable to stand on two legs for very long, so I simply crawled over to Aridos and shook his hand with my paw.

"Seryn's told me all about you," said Aridos, smiling and motioning to the arch behind him. "I wanted you two to be the first to try my new Plush Gate."

""Plush Gate"?" said Seryn, coming over to me. "You didn't have this up last night."

"That's because I've been working on it since you left. I wanted to give my plushies and their owners their own place to live. It's a dimension that I've developed that enables plushies to live in peace. Granted, you two are the only ones who will be using it at the moment, but it will soon fill up as I make more sales."

Seryn beamed at me as she realized what this meant. "This is amazing, Skyle! We can live together among our own kind from now on! Isn't that great?"

Normally, I would have been upset to learn that I was no longer living on Earth, but now that I was a plushie, my priorities were different now. My human life had no real purpose anymore, so I was looking forward to this new life. I nodded and curled my tail around hers in response.

"Yes, it is. I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you."

Aridos nodded and pressed a button on his "Plush Gate". There was a click, a whir and a hum before several arcs of electricity ripped across the gate and then an image appeared in the middle of it. It looked like a small city made up of plush and plastic paraphernalia. There was only a single home at the moment, but I had a feeling that it would get bigger with time.

"So, what do you think?" said Aridos, motioning to the world in the Plush Gate. "It doesn't seem like much now, but with enough plushies, it will be a stuffed animal's paradise."

Seryn didn't seem bothered by it. She turned to me and nuzzled my chest, our paws folded with each other. "It's the perfect place for us to start over. What do you think, Skyle?"

I chirped with happiness and dropped back to all fours. "I can't wait! Let's go, Seryn!"

Without waiting for her, I charged into the portal and disappeared through it with a fizzle-like snap. Seryn, meanwhile, stopped next to Aridos and smiled at him.

"Thank you for all you've done, Father. You've made my life worth living again. I have the love of my life and a place to live in peace. I am forever grateful to you."

Aridos gave a rare smile and patted his creation on the paw since he was unable to reach her head. "It's alright, my daughter. Seeing you and Skyle happy is all I live for. Now go. Your mate is waiting for you."

Seryn let out a wail of ecstasy and charged after me. Aridos sighed and closed the gate behind her. His daughter was happy and she had brought happiness to her owner. That was his purpose of life and he felt satisfied that he had lived up to his expectations. He left the back room, humming a strange tune and returned to his shop.

The world of plushies, which Seryn and I had the honor of naming "Plushtopia" in memory of Aridos, was everything I had hoped it would be. There was plenty of food and even a few places for us to act like normal humans would in the real world. There was also a lake made up of a strange liquid that we could swim in without fear of ruining our fur. We would also spend the nights flying over the countryside in peace. It was truly a place to behold.

As for Seryn and me, our lives together would only get better as time went on. Soon after we arrived, Seryn became pregnant and laid a clutch of cloth-like eggs, containing a trio of Flammie plushies. I was the father of my own clutch and I was finally able to grasp my true purpose in this new life. Like Aridos had said, as long as the two of us were happy, that was all that mattered.

We plushies are in need of a friend and a home. Will you take us with you?

END

Future chapters in the "Plushtopia Chronicles":

Lugia

Flammie (Mana)

Krystal

Klonoa

Sidian

Flygon