A Stuffed Empire

By Joseph Biederman

Once upon a time, in a house not so far away, stuffed animals lived and ruled on a small island kingdom called Toy Room Rug. Things were peaceful and the populous was happy and joyous! But all would not be well much longer. For you see, in another far-off stuffed animal kingdom called Boy’s Club- No Girl’s Allowed, there lived a greedy king who ruled a crowded kingdom. Even though he had many riches, and the people of his kingdom were happy, the subjects knew that the king wanted more land and riches. 

Now cardboard in these times was rare and could only be found in a dense magical cardboard forest called Craft Room Woods. No material the animals had discovered before could compare to the strength of the cardboard, and since the greedy king discovered and took all the cardboard in the forest, he now had the toughest stuffed animal army in the world! The greedy king now had everything he could ever want, but still he pushed onward. Destroying and annihilating every kingdom in his path until there was only one left. 

The greedy king set his eyes on the final kingdom, Toy Room Rug. The greedy king sent out his army to attack using a war fleet of one hundred cardboard vessels. Little did he know that the island would not go down without a fight! On the cold morning of Stuffuary 16th, the one hundred cardboard ship fleet met with the island kingdoms one hundred fifty paper ship fleet!

The S.S. Nin was the first paper ship to attack. A paper cannonball sored through the air and struck a cardboard ship. This attempt and pretty much all the others were futile as the cardboard could not be penetrated. Sadly, through the first and second days the cardboard fleet lost only three ships, but the paper fleet lost 80! Things did not stop there however, they only escalated! Over the next two days, five more cardboard ships were sunk and thirty more paper ships were lost. 

As the subjects of Toy Room Rug were losing faith, the remaining forty ships regrouped and were preparing to go on a final strike of doom when news arrived, bringing a renewed shred of hope that spread throughout the ships. A new invention had been discovered and it was time to strike back! The next morning ten paper merchant ships arrived, carrying five hundred stuffiters of drool taken from the giant human den in the Cave of the Baby Cradle at a very late time of night. The gunnery crews then learned what to do with the drool. 

Later that day the cardboard ships, who were completely unaware of the remaining forty ships’ secret weapons, came into view of the island kingdom. Suddenly, SPLABOOM! A cardboard ship, which was already heavily damaged, erupted as the secret weapon, a giant drool ball, struck and tore apart the ship! The battle lasted one more day, as the cardboard could not take the moisture and weakened until the ships broke apart. As the news of victory spread across Toy Room Rug and the other kingdoms, hope spread that others too would not have to live under the greedy king’s rule. The end.

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