A pencil scribbled on a paper in the notebook as Douglas gave a foxy grin. The figure he was drawing started to take shape, slowly but surely. He frowned a bit as he erased a mistake in his favorite part of his drawing. He made a last scribbled, sighed, and lay back as he marveled the sketch drawing he just made.

The figure had the looks of a canine animal in a anime style drawing, but it was standing upright, had a bushy mane, and had hair covering one if the eyes. The figure itself gave a wide foxy grin as one if its hands was in the only patch of clothing; his pants with a belt. The ears were very big, with one folded down in a rather cute way. The tail of this figure was big, very bushy, and was wagging. Also, its paws were unnaturally huge, easily three or even four times the size of its hands.

There were fur marking all over this creature, all in the shape of an paw print, with three toes and a pad that was in a shape of an heart. They were on its ears, its right cheek, its arms, and its tail. There were also paw prints on its pants and belt, though they had four toes this time and the pad was just the usual paw print shape.

Douglas grinned at the drawing (especially the paws), as he pulled out an inked pen. “Now it’s time to-”

Beep-beep! Beep-beep! Beep-!

“-. . . go to the superstore to get some food,” Douglas remarked as he shut off his watch alarm. He sighed as he got off his chair and, looking at the drawing, he puts the pen away. He then closed the notebook and, after a moment hesitation, he took it with him as he left his room.

Douglas walked into the kitchen as he looked at the fridge. He then saw the grocery list his mom made for him on the fridge and took it off. He then folds the smooth paper and placed it in his pocket as he also took the keys from the counter.

Douglas walked to the front door, but stopped when his hand was on the handle. His black eyes widen a bit as he walked back to see the door to his room. It was still open. He then quickly walked towards the door and gave the room a quick look. The floor in and around his closet was covered in plushie-like slippers, mostly new and had a shape of a creature on it. His bed was similarly covered in plushies of all type, from real animals to fictional ones and brought from stores to people who made them for a living. He then shut the door to his room.

Douglas, with notebook and keys on hand and list in his pocket, walked out of his home and into his car.

---

Douglas closed the car door as he took a look at the superstore ahead of him. He walked towards the store, with his notebook on hand, as he crossed the cracked street separating him and the store. When he reached the yellow paint at the middle of the road, his eyes spotted, among the several smaller stores, one store that wasn’t there the last time, which was last week, he came here.

That store, which was a pet store, he remembered, was so empty that even the good old animal smell was gone and the sticky stain on the floor removed, was now open with a small sign hanging over it. It has, “Rings and Plushies Store,” painted on it in blue, the paint looking like it was going to fall apart and yet it looked so fresh. The two small windows had a couple of plushies hanging right by it with set of rings in displayed below them. The door itself had an eerie air around it, as if inviting people to come in and, once they were inside, the door shut tight like a mouth.

Douglas stood there, looking at it for a while, while his mind seemed to be in a constant warfare inside. One side wanted to go into the superstore while just pretending that this rings and plushies store never existed. The other side, on the other hand, wanted to enter the Rings and Plushies Store, just to check it of course. The battle was so violent that Douglas didn’t noticed cars were passing by him, with one coughing out so much smoke that even a man who burned his sense of smell through smelling chemicals on a daily basis would be able to smell it. Even then, Douglas didn’t noticed that there was smoke around him.

Finally, after Douglas gave a hard look at the smaller store, he sighed and walked towards it. Half of Douglas mind screamed at him to go to the superstore, but he ignored it and moves forward to the Rings and Plushies Store. When his hand touched the door handle, the superstore half was reaching the peak of screaming loudly, giving him a mild headache. He, after a moment hesitation, opened the door and quickly slipped inside, barely letting the door ringed its bell.

Douglas hit his head, hoping that would calmed down the screaming brain half. After all, it was a small store so it would be qui-

. . . longer than he expected.

Douglas eyes widen as his jaw dropped and looked at the interior of the store. The inside of the store was huge, easily surpassing the superstore and all of the surrounding areas! Every single shelve in the store always seemed to had a plushie and a ring . . . and maybe had every single plushie and ring in existence. After all, the place reeked of steel, wood, and plastic from the products and there doesn’t seem to be the end of any of them.

Douglas heart pounded in his chest, his breath was quick, as he eyes tried to take in everything . . . fantastic about the place. As Douglas moved forward, a figure quickly and quietly moved around and later behind him. The figure, correcting his red bowtie, grinned like a madman at Douglas confusion.

“Hello!” he said loudly and in a crisped British accent, causing Douglas to jumped and spun around. “Did I scared you?” he asked, chuckling.

“Er, yes,” Douglass admitted, quickly skimming the professor looking man there. “Who are you?”

The man chuckled again as he walked closer to Douglas. “The name’s Undecim Medicus, the owner of this wonderful and great store.”

Mr. Medicus patted Douglas head, causing Douglas to flinched a little. “What’s your name, my little friend?”

Douglas black eyes looked up to Mr. Medicus pale blue eyes. “Oh. It’s Douglas William.”

“Nice name,” Mr. Medicus commented, placing a hand in his pocket. “I believe you came here for one of my wonderful products.”

“Um, no,” Douglas answered shyly, looking away. “I came here to merely look at your plushies before I go shopping for foods in the store next door.”

“Oh. Well, look around and see my products! I assure you that you’ll be here for quite a while,” Mr. Medicus said, winking.

“Yes, I noticed,” Douglas replied, looking around the huge store that looked as though it can go for miles. “How could this store be so big in the inside and still fit in such a small space? I mean, not even the superstore is even a fraction of this store!”

“That’s because the interior and exterior of this store are in completely different dimensions,” Mr. Medicus casually answered, causing Douglas to tilt his head with an eyebrow raised. “It’s like having a cube with the length, width, and height of it a mile long and another one with the sides being an inch long instead. While it’s impossible to fit that huge cube into that small cube due to the size differences, if you take that small cube, go out far enough, and compare the sizes again, you can fit the big cube into the small cube. This store is doing something similar to that.”

Douglas placed his hand on his head, his head pounding. “I . . . have no idea how that works.”

“Good! It means I don’t have to explain more about how that Athrú science and magic works.”

“. . . What?” Douglas remarked, rubbing his head while his other hand gripped the-

Crinkle.

. . . Douglas notebook crinkled? He looked and, when he saw what he was holding, his eyes widen. He wasn’t holding his notebook and in its place is-

“A bag of jelly babies?” Douglas said, turning around and looking at Mr. Medicus.

Mr. Medicus wasn’t paying any attention and instead he was looking at the pages of Douglas notebook. Douglas looked at the notebook, then the bag of jelly babies, and back as Mr. Medicus commented, “That’s pretty impressive, your artistic skills. Though you seems to have a lot of interests in paws.”

“Huh? How did-”

Mr. Medicus waved an hand at Douglas as he went to retrieved his notebook.

“Hmm. . . . Interesting. Hey!” Mr. Medicus shut the book and handed it back to Douglas. “How about I sell you a plush based off of your character?”

“I-What?” Douglas stood there, stunned at the news. “You mean you-”

“No, I don’t have one that looks like your furry character, but I know someone who makes brilliant plushies,” Mr. Medicus explained, extending his arms out like it was the greatest plan ever made. “I’ll get her to make your character and I’ll deliver it to you. It’ll cost extra, but what do you think?”

Douglas stood there, his mind reeling from this once in the lifetime chance. Though half of his head was deeply suspicious about this offer he was getting, he really wanted a plush that looked like his character. After all, plushies were awesome, being so soft and huggable, and being able to hug a plush version of his character would be really awesome!

“Though I should warn you,” Mr. Medicus added to an uncaring Douglas in the same excited tone, “that there’s a chance that you’ll be change into your character since this store, with Athrú technology and magic connected to it, would affect the products being that the Athrú were and still are the geniuses of the art of transforming. The chances will be lower, since it won’t be as exposed to the Athrú transformation powers as the others are, but it’s still there since it’ll take a day for the store to recharge from the time travel. Will you still accept it?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I’ll buy it!” Douglas replied.

Mr. Medicus stood there, staring as Douglas expectantly. After all, he said all the things that would give him the proud title of ‘madman’. Transformation powers, time travel, the usual stuff. But after a few seconds, Mr. Medicus smile slowly faded, seeing none of the usual titles and questions being asked. After all, isn’t this the usual time where people looked at him, asked more questions, then called him a madman while buying his products? Douglas was getting into it, was he? Or did he just ignored it all?

“Excellent!” Mr. Medicus declared cheerfully, patting Douglas back while hiding his confusion. “I’ll get to work on it. Come back tomorrow at noon and you’ll receive your plush.”

I’ll explain it again, Mr. Medicus thought, and if he chose to ignore the warning and stuff these people called crazy, well, it’s his fault.

“Will do!” Douglas replied, starting to walk out the door. “See you tomorrow.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” Mr. Medicus said, grabbing Douglas shoulder. “You’re forgetting to pay for the preorder of your plush.”

“Oh. Right,” Douglas remarked as they went to Mr. Medicus counter with a gold old fashion cashier.

Mr. Medicus punched in a few buttons and said, “It’ll cost you 10 dollars.”

Douglas pulled out his wallet and pulled out a credit card. “Put it on credit.”

“Will do,” Mr. Medicus replied and punched in a few more buttons and soon a receipt rolls out and he ripped it out and handed it along with the card back to Douglas. “See you tomorrow at noon.”

“OK. Be seeing you then,” Douglas declared while dropping his receipt to the floor.

Mr. Medicus watched Douglas until he was out of sight. Mr. Medicus sighed as he picked up the receipt and put it carefully on the counter. Then he pulled out a weird looking cell phone with a number pad on both side of the phone from his cost and, on the front, pushed in 2025. On the back he pushed in even more numbers and applied it to his ear.

He didn’t even asked how could a plush be made within less than 24 hours, Mr. Medicus thought as he heard ringing in his cell phone. Well, he’ll realize that soon enough.

“Hello?” A clear sounding voice said from the phone.

“Hello. This is Mr. Medicus again,” he said cheerfully while pulling out a few pieces of paper that held the drawings of Douglas from his notebook. “Now, I got a job for you, Sheehan.”

----Next Day----

Douglas parked his car in the parking lot as the clock in the car reads 12:00 PM. He’s turned off the engine and removed his keys as he unbuckled his seat belt in a quick pace. He then stepped out of the car and into the warm sunlight shining above.

“Right on time,” Douglas remarked as he lightly jogged towards the plush store. He entered the store and saw Mr. Medicus there, waving behind the counter. On it was a package.

“I do believe this is for you,” Mr. Medicus told Douglas as he quickly walked towards the counter. “Now, before I sell this to you, I need to tell you some things you should know.”

Mr. Medicus repeated his warning while Douglas stared at the package, not hearing anything coming out of Mr. Medicus. He had finally got what he was waiting for after all these years! It took awhile, but it was all worth it.

All worth it.

“Did you listen to me?” Mr. Medicus asked, noticing Douglas observing the package very intensely.

“Um, yeah,” Douglas responded in an unconvincing tone, not even bothering to look up to Mr. Medicus who was rubbing his face in a irritated matter. “So I’ll pay for it now. OK?”

Mr. Medicus sighed heavily, too well aware of Douglas ignoring the warning for the second time. Mr. Medicus gave Douglas one chance and it was blown off! Well, since he doesn’t care about the possible dangers, then might as well let him hit the ground falling.

And later pick him back up.

“OK,” Mr. Medicus said, punching the buttons into his old fashion cashier. “That will be $31.58. About $10 extra since it was made just for you.”

Douglas once again pulled out his credit card and quickly and silently gave it to Mr. Medicus, who nearly dropped it. He quickly examined the card, punch in a few more buttons, and a receipt was printed out. He then put the credit card and the receipt on top of the package.

“Here you go. Enjoy!” Mr. Medicus said cheerfully while ginning like a madman.

“Thank you,” Douglas told Mr. Medicus as he put the credit card back into his wallet and carried the package away, dropping the receipt.

Mr. Medicus, sighing, walked toward the receipt and picked it up as he watched Douglas walked out of sight.

“Annoying, isn’t it?” Mr. Medicus muttered to himself as he puts the receipt right next to the other receipt on the counter. “At least those who don’t believe be actually bother to listen.”

---

Douglas walked into his room, kicking the door shut while grinning wildly. He sat down on his bed and quickly opened the package, nearly ripping it apart with his bare hands. Finally, after years of waiting, he was finally holding a plush based on his own drawings.

The plush itself felt soft and light, with its bright green eyes staring back as Douglas black eyes. The fur on the plush was a very bright orange, with the darker oranges on where the paw prints fur markings were. The inner ears, tail, tip, mane, and paw pads were very bright yellow, with the pads feeling fuzzy to Douglas hands. The pants it was wearing was black and, in an odd sense, was bright too with the paw prints on them bright red. The belt on it, along with the straps, were bright red with a yellow buckle and paw prints. The hair of this plush, nearly covering one eye, was golden in color.

Douglas hugged his plush tightly as he fell onto his bed. There was a shock, which sicken him a bit, but he relaxed when the feeling was gone. As he rubbed the new plush paws, a question, followed by more questions, popped into his head.

How did Mr. Medicus, or even the lady who made the plush for him, created it accurately without any references? In fact, how was it made in one day and night? What was Mr. Medicus talking about? A warning? Why-

Crack!

Douglas eyes snapped open as he rolled off his bed and onto the hard floor. He groaned as he rubbed his back, it feeling like it was hit by a sledgehammer. He panted as sweat started to form on his head, the pain increasing on his back. He then felt a bulged on his pants and-

Rips!

Douglas jerked forward as he panted even harder, the pain started to ceased. Then he felt something . . . bushy hit his head? Douglas looked up and saw something yellow and, once the pain faded enough, he got up and saw that it was a tail! It was very big and bushy to the touch, with the fur being bright orange and had a yellow tip. On the back of the tail is-

“A dark orange paw print?” Douglas remarked when he saw it, tilting his head. “That-”

Crick!

Douglas screamed loudly as his hands become numb. He fallen down to the floor again, his eyes shut tightly, as the numbness spreads across his arms. Then the numbness passed as he opened his eyes, now bright green.

He looked at his arms and saw something growing on them as his nails lengthened and sharpened. Looking closely at his arms, he saw that it was fur growing there! The fur was bright orange, except at the arms near the shoulders, which were dark orange and looked like a paw print. Paw pads were forming on his hands, feeling fuzzy and looking bright yellow.

Douglas looked at his arms and-

Creek!

-scream very loudly as he felt a lot of pain on his head and chest. His black hair lightened to a golden color as it lengthened down to cover one of his head. The back of his head hair changed into a bright orange color as his ears moved up his head and extended into big triangular shape ears with orange and dark orange fur covering it on the back, with the dark orange in the shape of a paw print.

Douglas nose become black and wet as it and his mouth moved forward and fur covered the rest of his head. His nose and mouth moved painfully forward until it looked like a muzzle. The fur on his right cheek was dark orange and also looked like a paw print. His eyes opened and groaned, showing a set of sharp teeth in his mouth. He crawled as his chest under his shirt was feeling very warm. He then saw a mirror and looked at it, seeing the changes done to his body.

“W-what?” Douglas stammered as he lifted himself off the ground. “I-I am ch-changing into my ch-character! B-b-but how?”

Douglas shirt ripped at the top of it, revealing a yellow bushy mane forming there that was still growing. His mouth opened, drool falling out of his mouth, as he fell down onto the ground again, panting.

Crack!

Douglas groaned as he felt intense pain on his feet and spreading up his legs. The pain stopped as the pressure on his feet grew slowly, but intensely. Then-

Rips!

Douglas shoes fell apart as his feet changed into digitigrades and grew in size. Orange fur formed on his feet as they changed into huge paws, easily three times or even four times they would be normally. Yellow paw pads formed on the sole of his feet as parts of his pants ripped, orange fur poking out the holes.

Then it all stopped.

Douglas, feeling very tired from all of this, barely heard a loud sound of machine grinding next to each other. Then the noise stopped and, not too long afterwards, the door opened. The mysterious person put something on Douglas desk that had steams flying out of it before turning his attention to Douglas.

A pair of hands helped pulled Douglas off the floor and onto his bed. Then Douglas felt warm tea being pour down his throat as the man said, in a crisp British voice, “Drink it. It’s my special brand.”

Douglas started to feel more energy being put into his body as his vision cleared and saw the mysterious person was Mr. Medicus. He had a mad-like grin painted all over his face as he petted Douglas hair.

“Don’t worry,” Mr. Medicus told Douglas in a soothing tone. “The worse is over now.”

“What? How did-?”

“My store has a tracker that sense it if a transformation has happen,” Mr. Medicus explained.

“You-you knew that this might happened?” Douglas asked, his head pounding.

“I guessed that it might happened,” Mr. Medicus explained in a cheeky tone. “I did warned you, but you weren’t paying any attention. My guess is that your head was in the plushies land that those times!”

Douglas managed a chuckle. “Yeah. . . . I guess so. But how did this-?”

“Long story short, the Athrú power in my store has been leaking into the products, causing the buyers to change. Yours had a lower chance, but given what happened, it wasn’t enough.”

“And how did you-?”

Mr. Medicus pulled out the drawings from his pocket and gave them to Douglas. “I borrowed them just for references for Sheehan, who made your plush.”

“How? And how did she-?”

“It’s an old trick I learned from some man who pickpockets for a living. As for how she made the plush in record time, I called her in the future asking for a commission, sending her the refs, coming to her further into the future when she was done, and waiting with the plush as the shop recharged for another jump in time to this present.”

“Wait? Time travel? And that shop can travel? But-?”

“It’s Athrú technology seeded with magic. Very advance.”

“I . . . see.” Douglas said, feeling much better. He lifted himself up and looked at his desk, seeing a pair of receipts, a pair of green and blue socks, and a pair of pants that looked like it was from his character. “Thank you.”

“For the pants? I thought you’ll like them, Douglas,” Mr. Medicus replied, grinning.

“Mr. Medicus? Can you called me Marki from now on?” Marki asked, getting off his bed. “That’s the name of my character.”

“OK, Marki. It’s still a nice name,” Mr. Medicus commented, patting Marki head. “What is your chara-um, your species name anyways?”

“Well,” Marki answered, putting his hand behind his back and sticking out his tongue in a cute way, “you can call it either a Califox or an Eevee.”

“Interesting,” Mr. Medicus said, pulling out a necklace with a red jewel on the end of it. “This will change you back into human if you-”

“No thank. I love it like this,” Marki declared, grinning.

“OK,” Mr. Medicus responded, putting it back into his pocket. “Well, I’ll leave you. Have a good day, my friend.”

Mr. Medicus, with a nod, left Marki room and, after a bit, that same grinding metal sound echoed through the house. Soon the sound faded away as Marki looked at the mirror again.

Marki then looked at his paws and, in a curious mood, lifted one up over his other leg and started to scratched on it. It tickled like mad, making him giggled. But he was loving it and scratched it some more, giggling even louder.