Glamour Girl's Unexpected Gift

The first thing that Eryn noticed upon returning to her apartment was the large box at the foot of her bed. She had just spent hours talking to Harry about all of the new licensing deals that he was working on thanks to the incident with Anarchy Grrl, and now all she wanted was to hit the shower and get more comfortable. She tossed her purse on the dresser, kicked off her heels and approached the bed. She didn’t see a card next to the box, but it had to be from Harry since he was the only other person besides her little sister that had a key to her apartment. He probably sent over the gift because he knew how rough the past few days had been on her.

Eryn shook the large box and wondered what could be inside. The box was ornately wrapped in delicate parchment paper with hand-painted details that were so exquisite that she almost didn’t want to rip the paper to open the package… almost… but her curiosity was far stronger than her self-restraint and the paper never really stood a chance.

Eryn shredded the wrapping and noticed that the box had a removable lid on one side. She rotated the box so that the lid was facing up, then she gently lifted it to see what was inside…

It was the most adorable little teddy bear that she had ever seen in her life!

He had soft white fur and his eyes were cute little black beads and he seemed to be looking up at her as if to say “Pick me up!” so that’s exactly what she did. The little guy was heavier than she expected, but he was also incredibly snuggly and extremely warm. Eryn gave him a huge hug and buried her face into his fur, then she plopped him back into the box and reached for her cell phone to call Harry.

“Harry! I love him! Thank you SOOOOO much!”

Harry paused for a moment before responding, “Uhmmm… you’re welcome?”

“He’s adorable! You really shouldn’t have!”

“Uhhh… I don’t think I did,” Harry paused again as he tried to figure out exactly what Eryn was gushing about, “Honestly, I have no clue what you’re talking about kiddo.”

Now Eryn was confused, “The bear… I was at your office all afternoon, and then I came back to my apartment and found the box with the bear... I just assumed it was from you...”

“Nope... Not this time… Is there a card or something? Maybe it’s from your sister or one of your gal pals?”

Eryn shuffled through the torn paper and inspected the outside of the box, and then she picked up the bear and noticed a folded piece of paper taped to the bottom of the box on the inside. She removed the paper and unfolded the note, but unfortunately she couldn’t read what it said.

“Harry… It looks like the note might be written in Arabic or something… lots of squiggly lines and random dots… I have no idea what this says.”

Harry couldn’t care less what the note said, but he also knew that he wasn’t going to be able to get back to work until this little mystery was resolved: “Tell you what, kid… take a picture of the note and the bear with your cell phone and send it to me and I’ll see if I can figure it out.”

“That’s sounds great. I was just about to hit the shower. Call me when you find something.”

Eryn took a few quick snapshots with her iPhone, attached them to an email and sent it off to Harry. Then she gave the little bear one last snuggle before she put him back in the box and headed for the shower.

Eryn pulled back the sliding frosted-glass shower door, cranked up the hot water and then started to strip off her clothing in front of the bathroom mirror. She was happy to see that her bruises were already fading from her battle with Anarchy Grrl a few nights ago. After testing to see that the water was warm enough, Eryn pulled the last bath towel out of the bathroom closet, hung it up on the towel rack next to the shower and slipped into the steamy mist. The water felt luxurious and amazing and seemed to wash away the stress of the day. Steam filled up the bathroom and after a while Eryn couldn’t see much more than a white fog beyond the shower doors.

The only reason that Eryn got out of the shower was because she eventually used up all of the hot water. Reluctantly she twisted the shower lever to the off position, pulled back the sliding frosted glass door and reached for her towel… but Eryn was surprised to find that the towel rack was empty. She could swear that she had hung a fresh towel right there before she had climbed into the shower.

Weird.

She checked the bathroom closet, but there were no towels there either. She could clearly remember pulling out the last towel from the closet. For that matter she could clearly remember hanging that last towel up on the towel rack. Where could it be?

Eryn squeezed the water out of her hair into the sink, wiped her bare feet on the bathmat, opened the bathroom door and headed for her bedroom quickly as water streamed down her naked body and soaked into the carpet.

She found her towel folded neatly on the bed, sitting right beside the box that she had opened earlier. Also sitting right beside the box was the little white bear. Eryn was almost certain that she had left him inside the box, but she had been equally certain about the towel and here it was. She shrugged and chalked the whole mess up to simply being more tired than she had realized.

The bear’s face was blank and expressionless, but from her angle he almost seemed to be smiling at her. His beady black eyes couldn’t blink, which kind of left her with the impression that he might be staring at her. Eryn became uncomfortably aware of the fact that she was just standing there completely nude in the middle of her bedroom, so she reached for her towel and wrapped it around her body.

She almost jumped out of her skin when her cellphone started ringing "Flight of the Valkyries".

As she answered it, Harry cut right to the chase, “So… first off, you were right about the writing… it’s definitely Arabic… I ran it through Google translate as best I could.”

Eryn held her phone to her ear and paced around the room. She glanced up at the little bear, noting to herself how odd it was that he always seemed to be looking at her no matter where in the room she was standing at the time… apparently just a trick of the light and the way reflections gleamed off of its round little eyes.

Eryn was no longer sure if this mystery was exciting or creepy, “Does it say who it’s from?”

“Nope… it’s just a few lines of… I don’t know what to call it… instructions, I guess? …This thing reads like a fortune cookie.”

Eryn sat down next to the bed and placed the bear on her lap, turning him towards her. From this angle the little guy seemed to be looking at her chest, which made her realize that her towel had slipped down a bit too far and was dangerously close to falling off. She pulled the towel back up as Harry continued…

“It says… ‘The maiden’s pleasure is assured’… so I think that means you’re guaranteed to like it. Doesn’t say you get your money back if you don’t though.”

Eryn smiled and hugged the bear, “Well, I do... He’s just so stinkin’ cute! Who wouldn’t love him?”

“It also says… ‘Affection must be given, or affection will be taken’… not really sure what that’s supposed to mean.”

Eryn looked down at the bear, and the bear seemed to look up at her innocently, “Hmmm… not sure either... Is that all it says?”

“The last one says… ‘Let it not observe the maiden’s skyclad form, or the mischievous demon within shall awaken and summon others of his kind’… the word ‘skyclad’ means naked, by the way.”

“I know what ‘skyclad’ means, Harry… so… you’re telling me that I’m not supposed to let it see me naked?” Eryn thought about her mishap with the missing bath towel just moments ago, “Well… that ship has already sailed.”

Harry chuckled, “Damn, girl… you move fast!”

“So are you sure that’s all it says? Nothing about getting it wet, or feeding it after midnight?” Eryn grinned as she imagined Harry rolling his eyes.

“Hey… I’m just the translator. I didn’t write this crap. I take it the sight of your bodacious ta-ta’s didn’t turn it into a multiplying green lizard with sharp teeth and a mohawk?”

“Hmmm… not yet…  If he’s a mischievous demon then he’s just a cute little fluffy one!”

“Well, in that case, I think you’re safe. This isn't the kind of thing I'd bother taking
seriously. It sounds like some kind of silly marketing gimmick. Probably came from a bachelorette party store or something like that. Maybe one of your celebrity BFF’s sent it to you as a prank or something? Just do me a favor and make sure that it doesn’t have a camera in its head or your skyclad boobies might unexpectedly show up on YouTube... Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to doing some real work here. Heffner wants you on the cover of Playbunny for 3.5 million, but I think I can get him up to an even 4 million.  Have fun with your new toy, kid.”

Harry hung up and Eryn set aside her cell phone. She put the bear beside her on the bed and couldn’t keep herself from grinning at his adorable little face. Just to be safe, Eryn squeezed his head to make sure it didn’t have anything inside that was solid enough to be a camera, then she hopped off of her bed and headed for the dresser.

Eryn pulled the first negligée set that she could find out of the top drawer and let her towel drop to the floor so that she could get dressed for bed… but then she froze.

Eryn turned and glanced at the bear and, as she expected, he still seemed to be looking right at her with that adorable and innocent little face. In fact, he seemed to be waiting expectantly for her to continue to change.

“Alright, little dude… I think you’ve had enough of an eyeful for one day.”

Eryn turned and carried her negligée into the bathroom so that she could change in private. After changing and brushing her teeth, she came back to the bedroom, cleared off the bed, grabbed her new bear and crawled under the covers. She kissed his forehead and ruffled the fur around his ears and then she reached for the lamp at her bedside and plunged the room into darkness. She hugged the bear and snuggled him up against her chest… and she could almost swear that she heard the bear sigh with contentment.

Eryn chalked it up to her exhaustion and her overactive imagination before allowing herself to drift off to sleep…

Long-time fans of either myself or SinisterMarauder might recognize that the little white bear could turn out to be trouble. The Fluffy One is his OC.