Dotty's Quest

Dotty’s Quest
By Jennifer Dann ("Sheba")

Rating: PG
Category: Animal Crossing
Genre: Humor/Parody
Warnings: None, really, besides silliness
Notes: English is not my native language, so I might have a few spelling and grammar issues in here. Sorry about that!

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Dotty was on a quest - and it was a very important one.

It had all started not too long ago, with Dotty deciding to move to a new town called Pandovia. She hadn't been unhappy in her old town, but things had been really, really strange there; with days seemingly passing without her having any memory of them, lots of people coming to town to ask everyone to move to other places and the mayor running around with unkempt hair all the time (okay, so maybe that last point wasn't all that strange, but Dotty couldn't help but to find it a bit unprofessional for a mayor).

Just when she had decided to move and finished packing her belongings, the mayor of Pandovia had appeared out of nowhere to ask if she wanted to move there. Without a better plan, Dotty had agreed and indeed, Pandovia was a much nicer place. Time seemed to pass normally again and without any new memory loss Dotty felt far less, well, dotty. There was, however, one thing in Pandovia that upset her a bit and that was that everyone was so very, very tall.

Dotty had always dreamt of being famous, writing autographs and the like, and while she was normally rarely sad, it was hard to ignore the fact that basically everyone towered over her, making her feel really unimpressive. The cat, Kabuki, was the one closest in size to her, but he was a rather grumpy guy, so she wasn't spending that much time with him. Then there was Baabara, but sheep were already much taller than cute rabbits and Baabara had made fun of Dotty before, so Dotty wasn't exactly best friends with her anyway. And well, the rest of the villagers were even worse when it came to height – Axel was an elephant, Cesar a gorilla, Lionel a lion, Renée a rhino and Papi a horse. Pinky, her best friend, was a bear and while they were all really nice, Dotty just felt irked by the whole height issue.

However, she fully planned to change things now!

Two days ago, the mayor had invited everyone to a fair taking place in a nearby town. With Isabelle, of course, refusing since there was so much work to do (did that dog ever sleep? She would clearly get wrinkles early like that!) and Porter unable to come since there needed to be someone in the train station, only the other villagers, Reese and Cyrus had decided to go, excitedly boarding the train in the morning and hoping that it wouldn't break down from Axel's weight (all muscles, of course, as he claimed).

After reaching the fair, everyone had split up rather quickly. Dotty explored together with Pinky at first, but lost sight of her after a short time because, again, she was much smaller than everyone else. Reminded of her short size by simply being stuck in a crowd of so many taller creatures, Dotty had fled the main area – and collided with another rabbit called Bunnie (secretly wondering if Bunnie had ever sued her parents for that name). Bunnie had only wanted to check out the fair quickly since she was actually in the process of moving and from the few minutes they had talked, Dotty had already gotten the impression that she and Bunnie were destined to be great friends. And if the mayor could run around and invite animals from other towns to move in, why shouldn't Dotty do the same? Bunnie had been eagerly listening to Dotty talking about Pandovia and finally agreed to wait with her decision of where to move to until the evening while her new friend would find the mayor to ask for permission.

The approval wasn't the quest, though. Dotty had no doubts that the mayor would approve. Cesar was actually thinking of moving out anyway and would do so very soon, so a spot would be free. He had tried to talk to the mayor about it, but whenever he tried approaching her, the mayor was suddenly running into the opposite direction. Really, Dotty admired the mayor; she clearly was working hard for the town all the time!

Besides that, the mayor was…odd. She was really nice, but a bit crazy in the head. For example, unlike normal animals, the mayor went to the island at night instead of during the day and while everyone else sold furniture to Reese, the mayor always brought tons of bugs. (Dotty remembered the incident well when Cyrus had mistakenly opened the wrong door in the backrooms of Re-Tail and the shop had been swarmed by hundreds of bugs being kept in there by Reese. The resulting, spontaneous indoor Bug-Off tournament had been great fun.)

However, the main reason why Dotty was so sure that the mayor would approve was that the mayor always approved of everything. She got a lot of new suggestions for the town and the first public work projects – two new benches – had become a great success; especially with the mayor paying for them out of her own pockets.

But then, Kabuki had asked for a Drilling rig, just as a joke, but the joke had been on him the next morning because a Drilling rig was exactly what was now next to his house.

Of course, everyone – including Kabuki – hated the ugly thing and now, they were all more careful with suggestions. But the mayor kept approaching whoever she found in the large amounts of breaks she took during her swimming sessions (maybe she was freezing in water since she had no fur?) and so, there were lots of things in town basically screaming that the mayor indeed approved of whatever everyone wanted and even paid for it.

With the confidence that everything would work out under her non-existing belt, Dotty tackled her quest. Said quest was, of course, finding the mayor, which clearly would prove to be a real problem. Dotty had no idea where to look, so she just followed the crowd; not that she could do much else anyway.

Thankfully, luck was really on her side. (She had once heard from someone that the feet of rabbits brought luck, so it probably wasn't even surprising, given that she had two of them.) Not too far away from her, she saw familiar, pink fur through the legs of everyone rushing past her. "Reese! Hey, can you hear me, wee one?" Trying to push her way towards Reese, Dotty did her best to not get stepped upon.

"Oh, Dotty!" Reese smiled friendly as usual when the little rabbit actually managed to arrive.

"Yo, squirt." Cyrus, standing next to Reese, waved. "You okay there? You look kind of out of breath."

"I'm fine, thank you. But I'm looking for the mayor, wee one! Have you seen her? It's a bit of an emergency." Dotty tried to spot others from her town, but only the two Alpacas seemed to be here. They were standing in front of something called 'Tunnel of Love'; a funfair attraction where white boats decorated with fake roses were slowly swimming into a tunnel with a heart-shaped entrance. Obviously, this was something that Reese would swoon over.

"I'm sorry, but we haven't seen her." Reese smiled apologetically. "However, there were others like her, without fur or feathers, near the Ferris wheel. We left there quite some time ago, though."

Dotty looked up, spotting the Ferris wheel thankfully not too far away, towering over everything else. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to get on it; it looked rather scary. "Okay, thank you, wee one! I'll check there!"

"Good luck, squirt! Though maybe we should come with you? You're a bit on the short side and there are lots of animals here, so I'm a bit worried that you might get into trouble." Cyrus thoughtfully looked at Dotty, seemingly pondering how safe it was for a little rabbit to weave through the crowd.

Said little rabbit was about to snap at him, but Reese immediately latched onto Cyrus' arm. "I'm sure Dotty will be fine. She's not a child, after all! I would really like to check this out!" Predictably, she pointed at the Tunnel of Love.

"Hmm…" Cyrus turned to the attraction and Dotty just waited for the second where he would start to run away, screaming. However, to her surprise, Cyrus nodded eagerly. "Alright! Good idea! Just look at the wood color of the boats, I think that clearly could be changed!"

Reese giggled. "You have the day off, Cy-Guy! You're so silly sometimes." She winked at Dotty and the rabbit got the hint, stepping away slowly back into the crowd.  "They're sooo cute, wee one!" she giggled and then started her journey towards the Ferris wheel.

The fair was, from what she could see, really exciting and she would have loved to check it out more, but for now, she had to hurry. But all the blinking lights, the music and various stalls were so awesome!

When she stopped to watch a rollercoaster in awe, there was suddenly a scream behind her. She quickly turned around, but many others did so as well and she couldn't see anything. Curious enough, though, she pushed forward and finally saw quite a few of the furless people standing around someone. Wondering if the mayor might be one of them, she approached.

When she finally managed to make her way through the crowd, she saw that a girl about as old as the mayor, with short, blonde hair and a flower in it, was holding up a little, white squirrel who was clutching his tail. "Marshall, are you alright? Did someone step onto your tail?"

The answer of the squirrel was more or less drowned out by all the others cooing over him. "I wish I could have him!" "So adorable!" "He's so cute!"
Dotty paused. Her first instinct had been to help as well, seeing as Marshall was even smaller than her – maybe someone that tiny would be a great neighbor as well! – but that guy was obviously a star! With big eyes, Dotty watched the scene. Why wasn't she so popular? If Marshall was a star because he was cute and small, she should be one as well! Wanting to solve that mystery, she went forward and tugged on the dress of the girl holding the squirre. "Excuse me, wee one?"

"Hm? Oh, it's Dotty!" The girl smiled when she saw the little rabbit.

"What?!" Dotty stared. She was sure she had never seen the girl before. On top of that, the other people surrounding Marshall were looking at her as well now and more than one seemed to recognize her. "I don't think we've met?" she stammered a bit nervously.

"Oh, we haven't, but you're a cute one. If you ever want to come to my town, I'd love to have you. I totally want your picture!" The girl put Marshall down. "I love rabbits, you know!"

Her picture?! Had someone just asked for an autograph?! This was amazing! "I would love to give you one, wee one! I sadly don't have one with me, though! If only I had known!" She had no clue why everyone knew who she was, but it sure felt great.

"Aww, too bad, they are worth quite a bit, too", a boy said next to her. "I really love collecting them."

A bit overwhelmed by now, Dotty looked from one person to the next, wondering if they weren't just pulling her leg because this could hardly be true. Had she become famous somehow without even noticing? Well, maybe these people knew where her mayor was, then! "I can totally send you some with a letter, maybe", she insisted, wondering if Pete delivered to other towns. "Right now I'm actually looking for someone, wee one. She's a mayor and she has pink hair!"

Everyone started chuckling. "We're all mayors, you know?" the girl said. "Each of us takes care of a town. I have seen quite a few with pink hair today, actually."

"What?!" Maybe all mayors had no fur, then? But hadn't Tortimer been a mayor once? …But then again, he didn't really have much fur, either. "Uhm, uhm, how am I supposed to find her now, wee one!?"

"Well, there is a tent on a plaza near the Ferris wheel where lots of us sit and chat about…mayor things, I suppose", the girl offered as help. "Maybe she'll be there."

Dotty perked up. That clearly sounded like her best bet and was probably what Reese had seen as well. "Thank you, I'll try my luck there, wee one!" She immediately felt bad for not bringing much with her or she would have given the nice girl something; maybe one of her shirts or a chair or a toilet. "I have nothing as a reward, wee one! I'm sorry!"

"Aww, you're such a cute, peppy bunny." The girl laughed. "Don't worry, I got enough stuff to fill up my pockets for the day. Run along now!"

"Thank you, wee one!" Dotty waved goodbye and rushed off into the crowd, feeling confident. People knew her! This was great! Maybe she had been worried over nothing! Still, she wanted Bunnie to move to Pandovia, so she definitely wasn't ready to abandon her quest.

When she reached the plaza with the big tent, it was already slowly getting dark. It was only 6pm and she still had twelve hours until the next day would begin, but Bunnie would probably go to bed early since she had a hard day ahead of her, so Dotty decided to hurry. A bit nervous, she approached the tent and peeked inside. There were a lot of tables and chairs inside, with many mayors – if they really were all mayors – sitting there. Dotty was really glad not to be one; clearly, you had to work even in your free time with such a job. Slowly, she entered the tent.

A young mayor with sunglasses sitting with another near the entrance sighed. "Yeah, I messed up and Diana is in boxes. Feels horrid to have her move out."

"What?" The other mayor stared. "Diana?! Can I have her? I offer fifteen million bells. Or you can have Ankha when she leaves; she isn't as cool as I thought she would be."

"Hm, I'd always wanted Ankha to see how she is." The first mayor nodded. "Okay, you can come over to my town in a bit and get Diana."

Dotty froze and then hid in the shadows of the tent walls. What…was going on?! What were they talking about?! That sounded like slave trading or something! But that was clearly stupid. However, Dotty did remember how, in her old town, people had always come and asked other villagers to move to their places. Dotty herself had gotten asked by the mayor of Pandovia, after all! This was really a bit scary!

Sneaking along the walls and getting away from the creepy people at the entrance, Dotty slowly circled the tent, looking for the familiar pink hair of her mayor. It was hard to make anyone out in the more crowded middle, but finally, she spotted the one she had been looking for. "Missy!" she shouted, calling the mayor by the nickname Kabuki – of all animals – had invented and which had caught on.

The mayor of Pandovia winced when others laughed good-naturedly and turned around, but started to smile then. "Dotty!" She waved the rabbit over and turned to the other mayor she had been talking to; a girl with blue pigtails and a crown (mayors obviously liked weird hair-colors and headgears, Dotty noted). "This is my Dotty! She's one of my dreamies and I got her from someone cycling!"

"Huh?" Confused, Dotty looked at the mayor, not really sure what she had just said, but 'dreamie' sounded rather good.

"It means you're my favorite villager right now", the mayor explained before looking at the other girl again. "She's so cute!"

"Yaaaay!" Dotty beamed. Really, she obviously shouldn't have worried at all! Not only was she a star now, the mayor also liked her the most! Now she could only hope that there were no squirrels moving in, ever. "I'm so happy, wee one!"

"What are you doing here, though?" The mayor looked at Dotty and frowned. "Did you get lost? Weren't you with Pinky?"

"I was, but then I got totally lost indeed, wee one." Dotty fidgeted. This was the big moment. "However, I was looking for you not because of that, but because of something else. See, I made a new friend. She wants to move tomorrow and has already packed everything, but doesn't know where to yet, wee one. Her name is Bunnie and I wondered—"

"Bunnie?!" The mayor jumped up so suddenly that Dotty almost fell backwards in shock. "Here?! And she's moving?! …Who does this town even belong to?"

"No clue." The other mayor shrugged. "It's not like our towns, is it? Things get even sold and bought with some other kind of bells here, so I'd say Bunnie is a free giveaway for whoever comes first?"

"Dotty! Take me to Bunnie's house right now!" The mayor quickly straightened out her kimono. "I'll make her move to Pandovia and if it's the last thing I do! And then I will reset until she puts her house next to yours!" Enthusiastically, she marched towards the exit of the tent after waving goodbye to the other girl and Dotty had some trouble to keep up with her short rabbit legs.

"Wait for me, wee one!" Dotty was still rather confused by the turn of events. Did the mayor know Bunnie? Bunnie hadn't said anything about that! And what was a reset? Living near Bunnie sounded great, though, so Dotty decided to simply go along with everything. "She can really come, yes?"

"Yes, of course! We have a free spot anyway, even with Cesar being so slow to move out." The mayor winked at her. "And after she's moved in, I'll build you guys something cool. Baabara wants a tower, I think. But now, let's hurry!"

They only barely made it before Bunnie's bedtime since a large crowd of protesting people blocked the area in front of the out-of-order Tunnel of Love because Cyrus was painting the boats of it red.

~End~