The Velveteen Toychest
-How it happened you may never know, but it was quite a surprise when you woke, finding yourself not in your warm comfy bed... but instead in a cage of iron, suspended by a thick rope a good ten feet above the ground. You're not quite certain why you're there.. but from the dank apperance of the place, the unfriendly and sleeping guard, and the unpleasant sound of fellow prisoners you're less then thrilled to stay.

You just need to find someway to get out. The bars are very thick and too close together for a human to fit through, but Carl might be able to slip out. The lock rests within the door.. it seems you might need a key.. a perhaps a way to not fall the large distance once the door is open. Hurry hurry! You never know when the guards will come for you.-



Carl had been hopping around the cage for a long time now and his feet were sore something awful. The avian was by no means used to the hard surface of metal beneath his claws, nor at all familiar with having ever seen this room before in his life.

Not that he would have wanted to. The room was small and dank, smelling of age and lit only by the low flickering embers that remained in burned out torches that hung from the sconces on the wall. The walls themselves appeared to consist of dirt and stone, loosely dusting the floor with the occasional layer shed – although still too thick to have ever been dug through by any prisoner, great or small. Cobblestones made up the floor. This was hardly seen for the dirty hay and earth that caked them multiple shades of brown. A puddle or two was scattered here and there to reflect what little light was offered, and whatever became illuminated as it ventured near the pools of filth. Rats bordered these, and those who’d made them.

Three cells were carved out from the west, east, and southern walls. One held two inmates, while the others only held one occupant each. They were temporary. Their lives were near done. In the northwest corner, a makeshift table served as a pillow, as well as a dining tray for a rather fat and greasy looking guard, who to all the world looked as though he’d keeled back on the tiny stool and died choking on the multiple chins sported beneath his quivering lips. From these came snores reminiscent of dying swine.

Wine was carelessly sloshed over the plywood table, this soaked into two half loaves of stale bread. As for the keys? Where else. They hung on the lower back hip on the guard’s left side. Only a small person or a nimble thief could retrieve them without waking him. And only one cage held such a thing as that. This cage was his own. It was small, cramped with only a bird and his master that had not yet wakened.

And Carl hopped around his cage. His feet were sore something awful, and until his owner woke he was quite alone. The avian peered from behind the cast iron bars. He knew that they had to get out. They had to get out soon.

Donna stirred a quarter to seven. There were no windows or clocks to tell her to rise, but rather her internal instinct that she needed to get up and begin the day – as every morning before, and this one to. In her usual routine she would sit right up and feel the pillow, before swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and pushing herself up from the soft nest. Without knowing her surroundings she made to do so, but today there wasn’t a pillow and there wasn’t a bed. Her hand met cold iron. She opened her eyes, and a startled cry fell from her lips.

“Holy frew!” The words resonated softly, but the guard did not stir. Only the rats scattered, and did Carl hop over and onto her knee. He looked up into her features and chirruped softly. Her attentions turned to him and she extended an arm. The bird scuttled up it and took his perch on her shoulder – a shaky station, but more comfortable than where he’d been moments before. Now Donna was up and quite awake. She stood at the brink of the cage and clutched at the bars, taking stock of her surroundings while trying to figure out just WHAT was going on.

It was apparent, that. They were very high off the ground, there were cages everywhere, and for some reason she wasn’t even wearing her pajamas? No. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt all of the sudden. The body trembled at the thought of some one having done it, but her thought was to find and kill that person once she figured out how the hell to get down from there.

Donna sunk to the bottom of the cage and coaxed Carl onto her hand. He willingly came and arched his neck for attention, receiving in turn a soft stroke while his mother pieced it together. There was no chance of jumping. Even if she could get a body part through the bars – she’d get stuck, and they were way too high off the ground to land uninjured for escape. From what she was assuming, the rope wasn’t a help either. The impact would be taken by the cage of they cut it, but that would just attract every guard and official the place had. If anything – the real problem was the lack of lock. There didn’t seem to be one hanging off the door that they could just break off. It would be IN the door. Meaning they needed a key they didn’t have. Yet.

Pushing herself up with the idea, she quietly began to relay instructions to her child bird. From every movie she’d ever seen – she pretty much knew where the keys were and that was safe enough assumed, for every snore the guard let loose, he would jingle slightly. She pointed Carl at him and whispered. “Carl…see the fat thing? I need you to fly over and very very very quietly get a BIG ring off the fat thing’s hip.” She pointed at her own hip and made a ring with her fingers. “Try not to make any noise, and bring me back the ring as fast as you can without waking him up, `kay?”

Carl cocked his head slightly before nodding, and then with his mothers help he slipped through the crack in the bars and began gliding down.
Then things started getting complicated.

“`Ey young miss! Whatdya think yer doin?” One of the older prisoners and shakily risen and now stood by the bars of his cell. He looked ornery and unwilling to take much from anyone. The man was old alright. A wispy white beard curled near to his ankles, dried blood speckled the mass here and there – and he looked as though food hadn’t passed his lips in days.

Donna followed the sound to the other side of the cage and looked down. “Shhhhh, you’re gonna wake the guard…” Her tones were quiet, but frantic. She didn’t particularly want to stay there any longer than she had to.

“SO?!” His ragged fist was shaken at her, before dipping to catch a stone and throw it at her or the guard. Whichever he saw fit.

“SHHH! Old man…if you stay quiet I’ll do you a favor…”

THAT caught his attention. He tossed the stone up and down within one palm, his brow arched quizzically. “What kind of favor…”

The woman pointed to her bird.

He waved his hand and leaned back on the bars. “Tcha…don’t count your chickens afore they hatch. `E aint gonna get the keys that easy.”

And he was right. Carl had been circling over the guard for a long time now, unsure of precisely when and how to strike and obtain the prey without causing its vessel to awaken and take its wrath upon him. The man was huge. 700lbs to say the least, and even then looking as though he could easily tuck a baby whale beneath one of his gelatinous rolls. The bird was all but given up for an aerial pursuit. He’d have to land to pull this off.

Thus he did. A soft ‘tak tak’ followed his steps and claw met cobblestone, the only thing muting it being the dirt and grime that had accumulated over years of negligence. Carl inclined his head one way and then another, hopping all of the time closer to see what he could see from the right vantage point. Now the keys were visible every time the guard inhaled. The stool beneath the giant creaked and groaned beneath the weight, and knowing that sort of sound – the stool had not much longer to last.

He approached said stool and began climbing his way up one of the stubby legs. There was just enough room for grip, and the six inch bird was taking up every inch of it as he scuttled along its edge and towards the thigh the keys were belted upon. The guard snorted, Carl froze. A good few minutes passed in silence, before the usual grind began and the man began snoring vociferously. One two…the breaths passed. Every time the man inhaled, the bird would quickly reach in and work on using his talons to cut away at the belt before withdrawing slightly and waiting for the next breath to be taken.

In a matter of minutes the keychain was loose, too loose and too filled to fall without a great clatter. This was where he had to stick his neck out – literally. Carl hesitated…waited…and then plunged his head in quickly to grab the keys and pulls them back to his feathered breast to silence them. His own breath stalled. The room held quiet. The guard continued his slumber, before finally the avian opened his wings and silently began his ascent back to his mothers cage.

Donna opened her hand. And was rewarded with the heavy thud of keys falling into the palm as smooth as silk. This she took back towards the old man, an held it up for him to see.

He chuckled softly and nodded. “Fair fair `nough…and whatdya intend to do? What’s keepin me from wakin old baggy guts?”

She longingly stroked the keys. “Well…if you keep quiet and help me, I’ll..I’ll…I’ll let you out once I get down.”

“And how do ya figure to do that?”

That she hadn’t thought of. She sunk to the bottom of the cage and began to think again, all while Carl circled round and round beneath the cage, impatient to leave and unhappy to still be here. The only thing in the cage or consisting of that offered any rest were the bars. Donna leaned up close to them and lay her head against one, before casting a sad gaze down to the old man who stood waiting.

It was then a plan formulated.

His bars! The bars to the cage that held him – were much thinner. Just thin enough for Carl to break open…and for what better purpose than to get her down. Finally she addressed him again. “A ladder. I’m going to make a ladder.”

“Outta what?”

“Your cell. If you keep everyone quiet, I’ll make a ladder from the bars of your cell and let everyone else loose as soon as I get down. If I don’t keep my word you can turn me in.”

He tilted his head one way and then the other, scratching his chin in deep contemplation until finally he nodded a slow and knowing nod. “Sounds likea plan ta me…Get me outta here!”

“Shhhhh”

“Oh…sorry…”

Donna summoned Carl back and gently lay a kiss on his brow. He craved and adored the attention and trilled a pretty few notes, while his mother caressed him still. “Carl…” He looked up and into her eyes. “I know it’s hard and I know it’s so far to go…but I know you can do it, if you try. Please…break those bars and bring them back to me, without a sound, so we can get out of here…”

Without answer he flapped his wings hard and started off towards the cage where the old man stood. No words of chirps were needed for the task, for both were now a kinship in spirit to liberate all there to a life of freedom. The old man would help keep the bars quiet, while Carl took hold with both feet and strained and worked until the metal cried and broke apart into his waiting grasp. He would bring Donna a support and Donna would send him back – until finally the man was free and she had enough for a ladder to make.

Now all that remained was the lock. Donna handled this on her own, and slid her hand through the bars to try each key one by one. She must have gone through a hundred keys before she found it, but once the key was found – the sweet and soft melody of the lock opening filled her senses. She smiled.

Carl soon returned after the man had left the cage. He was needed for this to and knew her not strong enough to bend those iron bars. That he would do. Donna held out the bar one piece at a time, allowing him to wrap his talons and beak around them and bend them just so that they clicked together like pieces of a puzzle. It only reached seven feet down, but that was enough.

Donna got on the ladder and descended until the end, before jumping nimble; she landed on the floor of her keep. There the old man met her.

“You gonna keep that promise?”

The woman nodded in reply and went to the other cells to free the inmates. Soon one and all were fine and feeling frivolous, and with one mighty revolution of his stride, Carl released a heart wrenching cry of joy to their cause.

And that woke the guard.

But as all endings are – it was a happy one. The old man took up the guard’s wine bottle and bust it over the mans head, causing him to go into an even deeper sleep than before.
Before anyone even came to relieve the dictator of his post.

Donna, Carl, and every prisoner they’d kept – was gone into a world where they would never be kept again. Into the real world…where…whether they would ever know why or not, the jail they’d been in dematerialized around them and again the two were back where they’d begun. In a cool bedroom on a warm summer morning – no one but they ever the wiser, for the journey they had taken.


The end