When you have a best in the world toy collection, you need a best in the world security system to protect it. Danielle already had the standard one to protect her whole home, but she needed something a bit extra just for her toy playroom, and she turned to a witch who lived at the edge of town.

Elspeth was quite thorough, with her red woven strings, her cauldron brew, and her motion sensor cameras, but was enigmatic about what, exactly, her security system did.

“Oh, dearie, you don’t need to worry your pretty head about it. Any would-be thieves will be put right where they belong.”

That was all well and good for Danielle, who thanked the witch for her services and went about her life, secure in the knowledge her toy collection would be kept safe.

A few weeks after the system was installed, Danielle came home to hear it active. Her heart pounding, her curiosity blooming, she rushed to the room to see if everything was alright and was confused. Nothing was amiss. Ignoring the sound of the alarm, she checked the windows, the cabinets, and the dolls. One window had opened slightly, and Danielle closed it, frustrated. She had really wanted to know exactly what the system did.

That’s when the control box gave its final warning and cast its spell. Not on any intruder, but on Danielle herself. She gasped as her body turned to plush, and she saluted vacantly to everyone, and no one. Suddenly locked in an immobile body, she could only stand there as the window she had just closed came open again. A moment later, a woman in a black catsuit came into view, amazed.

“Wow,” she said. “I always wondered what old Elspeth’s security did.” She poked Danielle, feeling her plush body. The new toy struggled and squirmed in her new skin. She could feel it in her stuffing that she had a duty to protect, to defend, but defend what, exactly? The house, the collection, no longer had an Owner. And all she wanted to now, even more than finding a way out of this toy soldier body, was to protect an Owner.

“This collection of yours will make me a pretty penny. But you,” the thief said with a big, Cheshire grin, “I think I’m going to keep you all for myself.”