Donny’s Apprentice

      Icy winds whipped around Fablar, a Royalboy Cybunny, as he tried to scale the last of Terror Mountain. He pressed through resolutely, though, remembering why he was there. After all, he had broken his best friend Gley’s beloved Light Faerie Snowglobe. Although Gley tried to keep the sadness off her face when Fablar broke her favorite snowglobe, he knew she was miserable about it. Gley was currently away promoting her Beauty Contest entry, so Fablar secretly collected all the shattered pieces and began asking around for advice on how to repair it.

      First, he tried his own hand at fixing it. It was a disaster that only led to him pricking his hands on the jagged edges of the broken snowglobe glass.

      Second, Fablar visited the Toy Shop, the store where Gley first purchased the Light Faerie Snowglobe. The owner, however, had no idea how to fix the snowglobe.

      “I only sell, I don’t make or repair any of my inventory. And I certainly don’t offer refunds!” the Lupe said. “Now, if you aren’t looking to buy, please be off, for I am a very busy shopkeeper!” She pushed him towards the door as she went over to help another customer.

      Fablar sighed, already out of options. He leaned on the side of the Toy Shop considering his next move. And that’s when he heard –

      “Psst!” came a voice from around the corner, close to the nearby woods. “I overheard you talking in there, you said you needed something fixed?”

      Fablar turned around, following the voice. He was surprised to see a Plushie Aisha behind the Toy Shop. The Aisha was wearing a dark sweatshirt with the hood up. He looked terribly suspicious, but Fablar was quite desperate for help.

      “I do,” Fablar said, showing the strange Aisha the remnants of the Light Faerie Snowglobe. “But the Toy Shop owner said there is nothing she can do.”

      The Aisha peered over at the broken snowglobe. He hummed for a moment before finally asking, “Have you heard of the Toy Repair shop?”

      “Um… no,” Fablar replied. Although the Aisha seemed shady, Fablar was willing to hear him out. According to the Aisha, there was a small store on the top of Terror Mountain that boasted the ability to fix damaged toys for a small fee. After sharing that information, the Aisha disappeared into the shadows, so that was all that Fablar had to go with. Skeptical but still hopeful, he quickly went home to Brightvale to prepare for the cold that Terror Mountain was famous for.

      Bundled up, Fablar had already passed through the jovial Happy Valley, braved the slippery Ice Caves (falling only twice!), and was now about to reach the top of Terror Mountain. Squinting through the falling snow, Fablar noticed a modest store with a large “Toy Repair Shop” sign. This was it! Fablar clutched the bag that held his best friend’s Broken Light Faerie Snowglobe closer and continued on.

      Fablar passed the Shop of Mystery, ignoring Tarla as she hawked her mysterious wares at him. Finally, he pushed open the small door to the Toy Repair Shop, and there was a slight chime to alert the store that someone had walked in.

      “Hello?” Fablar called out. His eyes scanned the cramped space, but no one was behind the wooden desk in the center of the room.

      “H-hi! Sorry for the wait, we’re a little backed up with work,” a bustling Plushie Aisha said as he stumbled in from the backroom. He was wearing an apron and heavy-duty goggles atop his head.

      “Wait!” Fablar exclaimed. “But it’s you! I thought Donny was supposed to be a red Bori!”

      “Oh,” the Plushie Aisha said, smiling sheepishly. “About that…” he started, before brandishing a proud hand. “My name is Devalos! You can call me Devos, and I’m Donny’s apprentice!”

      Fablar looked around, confused. “But… why couldn’t you have told me that when we met at the Toy Shop?”

      Devos laughed. “Well, wouldn’t that have taken away the mysterious allure of this place?”

      “Well,” Fablar said. “I’d say the mystery of Terror Mountain belongs to Tarla’s shop. I would’ve preferred if you were honest with me. My request is quite important to me, I’ll have you know.” He passed the bag with the broken toy over the table.

      “I didn’t lie to you,” Devos said with a wink, accepting the bag. He peered inside it. “You brought the Broken Light Faerie Snowglobe, eh? Well, let’s see what we can do about that.”

      “What do you mean, we?” Fablar asked. “I don’t know anything about toy repair.”

      “Not you,” Devos laughed. “Donny and I, of course. He’s working in the back. Sometimes taking customers is too menial for Donny’s genius, and I’m happy to take over. It’s gonna be 553 Neopoints to fix, we take payments in advance only.”

      “Of course,” Fablar said, before shelling out the fee. “How long does the repair process usually take?”

      Devos frowned, considering. “We don’t give estimated wait times, as Donny works at his own pace. You are welcome to wait here though!”

      Fablar sighed, thinking about Gley. Ideally, the snowglobe could be repaired before she returned home. Either way, he would rather not brave the icy cold for longer than he had to.

      “I’ll wait here,” Fablar said resolutely.

      After Devos had collected the fee, he returned to the backroom with the Broken Light Faerie Snowglobe. Donny, the master repairman, looked up from his work desk.

      “What do you have fer me?” he asked gruffly.

      Devos showed him the broken toy. “It’s a cracked snowglobe, sir. Truly sentimental piece.”

      Donny looked over the shattered pieces. “This one was a looker fer sure, real rare. I’ll see what I can do.”

      “Um, sir?” Devos said shyly. “Could I maybe work on this one with you? I’ve been watching you work on difficult cases for weeks now and I thought maybe it’s time I tried my hand at it.”

      “Why, Devos, I don’t know if you have it in ya to fix somethin’ so delicate.”

      Devos shifted his feet. “I know, I just feel invested in this one, you know?”

      Donny had a slight glint in his eyes as he smiled. “I know that feelin’ all too well. Why don’t you pull up a chair?”

      “Really, sir?” Devos asked in disbelief. Although he had experience fixing smaller toys, like plushies and puppets, he had yet to be allowed on harder fixes, like snowglobes and music boxes. He quickly pushed a chair over before Donny could change his mind.

      “Alright, my boy,” Donny started, laying out all the pieces of the snowglobe on the worktable. “Look here, this particular fixer-upper is like a puzzle, ya see?”

      Devos tilted his head. “I can see the edges of the glass pieces that used to belong next to one another…”

      “Yes! Everything that breaks is just looking to be whole,” Donny said, carefully placing the snowglobe together. “These pieces want to be put back together, see, and they want to be together so badly they give us clues.” He pointed to two glass shards that had matching sides. “See, there.”

      After the two assembled the pieces together, Donny smiled. “There ya go, youngin’,” he said to Devos. “Lookie there, now we just gotta keep it all together.”

      “And how do we do that?” Devos asked. He had sewn back plushies and fuzzles, restrung puppets and click klacks, but he did not have the faintest idea how to repair glass.

      Donny chuckled. “Magic,” he said, before taking out a bottle of Super Amazing Strong Glue. “This is the secret of the trade, my apprentice.”

      A few hours later (mostly just waiting for the glue to dry), Devos finally pushed the door open into the front room.

      Fablar jumped up from his sitting area near the door. He had clearly dozed off waiting. “How did everything go?” he asked earnestly.

      Devos gave a wide smile. “Everything went perfectly, thank you for your patience.” He set the newly repaired Light Faerie Snowglobe on the table.

      “Wow!” Fablar exclaimed, picking it up. “It looks brand new, Gley will be so happy to see this! How did you and Donny fix it?”

      This time, Devos gave a smile. “Magic.”

      The End.