Stanley stood at the base of the door. Upon his scaled back, Toby was on his hind legs, holding up Crocodile by the tail, between his two large, saber-like teeth. Purple Bear stood firmly on Crocodile's snout, and Beary topped the pile of animals on Purple Bear's shoulders.

    Beary's left paw reached higher, towards the doorknob. He growled "I can do this! I knoowww I can!"

    It was at that moment that Stanley hiccuped. This caused Toby to choke on Norman's tail. Norman, in turn, couldn't breathe because Purple Bear's padded feet were blocking his nostrils. Thus, Crocodile opened his big jaws to gasp for air. Purple Bear fell into the crocodile's open mouth with an angry snarl. And  Beary, who had gained some height in all this, dangled helplessly from the doorknob, unable to turn it.

    "Ohhh noooo!" whined Emo Bunny, "That cannot be good. Not good at all."

    Happy Bunny simpered smugly, "Shall we show 'em how it's done, honey?"

    "Ohhhh, if we muust." Emo Bunny continued, with an overly tragic lilt. His ears folded downwards, almost as if to cover his eyes.

    Happy Bunny leapt up from her place beside Emo Bunny, where they had watched Crocodile's reckless attempt at opening the door. She landed on her boyfriend's ears with fluffy grace, and they sprung up, sending her catapulting up towards the doorknob.

    Thud! Crash!

    Happy Bunny landed on the bedside table, beside the door, knocking down a small lamp. She got up, smiling innocently.

    "Ohhh noooo, we missed..." Emo Bunny whined.

    Beary cocked his head to one side as he looked up at Happy Bunny on the edge of the table. He was still on the doorknob, paws clamped tightly around it.

    Below him, a snarling, growling, hissing mob of toys was tangled, paw over tail, leg over snout. Whiskers the Lion, Norman  the Legless Sheep and Frank the Otter looked on in disbelief.

    Emo Bunny, however, now had his ears clamped over his large, plastic eyes. Thus, he was not looking on in disbelief. He quivered, chanting to himself, "This can't be good, this can't be good, nooo not at all, not at all, this can't be good, this can't be good..."

    Happy Bunny made another graceful jump, and landed daintily on Beary's paws.

    "Hrrmph!"

    "Sorry, Beary!" she apologized.

    "Grr... just help me turn this knob."

    "Swing your feet from side to side, and I'll swing parralel to you."

    "Rrr... parralel?"

    "Nevermind, Beary, just do as I said."

    And as Beary's feet began to sway back and forth, gaining momentum, Happy grabbed his paws in hers, and turned with him at the moment she reckoned he was about to loose his grip.

    They fell, side by side, and landed amidst a brawl of animals. Their fall interrupted the fray, and all eyes turned to the edge of the door. It now stood open a crack, and the orange carpet behind it looked ominously foreign to their eyes.

    Whiskers sniffed the air, "Did you hear something?"

    Emo Bunny lifted his ears, suddenly paying attention.

    "Meeeow." Distant.

    Whiskers frowned, "I smell kitty."

    Frank laughed, "You can't smell!"

    Beary moved forward to open the door.

    "Shush, I was pretending, Frank."

    The door swung open, and knocked over Purple Bear. She stood, adjusted her bow tie, and said her first words of the day in a thick London accent, "I dare say, Beary, ouch! That was very... ouch."

    "Baaaah!" Norman baaaahed with excitement as Toby picked him up in his jaws. And the troop of toys marched through the open doorway, chanting nursery rhymes from their owner's books.

    Emo Bunny was the only one who noticed, down the hall, a threat to their fellowship. And he frowned, assuming that everyone else around him also noticed.

    At the end of the hall, waiting patiently at the head of the stairs, were two kittens. Each had gray stripes over a dark body. They stretched, and yawned, their tails waving about innocently.

    A stray thought occupied Stanley's mind, and he accidentally voiced it, "I wish I could have incinerated the door. Yes, I much would have liked to burn it with a single breath."

    Emo Bunny, for all his sadness, was good at sympathy. And thus he padded Stanley behind one scaled, plastic ear as they finished a verse of 'London Bridge Is Falling Down', which they sang at Purple's instruction. She had claimed it was the pinnacle of sophisticated, London 'culture' to sing it, especially while out on an 'adventure' such as this.

    And, as the kittens began to stir, it was then that Norman began to lead the others in a round of 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep'.

"Baa, baa, black sheep,"

Emo Bunny glanced down the hall, and shuddered.

"Have you any wool?"

The kitten on the left eyed Norman, licking its lips.

"Yes sir, yes sir,"

The advancing group of animals remained oblivious.

"Three bags full."

Whiskers stopped in his tracks and began to sniff the air.

"One for the master,"

A kitten stood.

"One for the dame,"

The other stretched, and rose as its companion began to advance towards the toys.

"And one for the little boy"

Stanley frowned, but kept singing in a draconian bass, quietly rumbling down the hall.

"Who lives down the lane."

They stood, ready to pounce, and it was then that Crocodile realized what stood before them. A pair of kittens. Ready to play. However, he reckoned they would not play nice.

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Adrenaline brought her back up, but when she used her injured foot, it gave way again.

excerpt from Miranda   by Amo1143