A Small Shift Beneath the Deck

My joints clicked faintly against the plush carpet weave. Weight rested right across my frame—a miniature skateboard tilted over me, pinned beside a blue hedgehog figure. I twitched one ankle, testing the friction. The tiny deck nudged upward by a fraction of a millimeter. When I rotated my two tails, they spun with actual momentum, dislodging a stray fiber. The miniature wheel assembly spun smoothly under my fingers. It worked. I was moving on my own.