Prompt: Weather forced or not forced, you appear to have gone into a cave. A rather boring one if you ask me, no werebats, dragons, arachnes or the like. After a while of exploring this vast cavern. You end in a large room with stairs leading to a raised circular platform. You after exploring the rest of the room (Or doing whatever the hell you want to do) walk up the stairs into the circular platform, it is large enough to hold more then a dozen people and in the middle there appears to be a flowerbed...with a women sleeping in it. As if a switch had been flicked, the women's eyes snap open. And she grasps the weapon beside her, it looks like if a axe, really wanted to be a spear, and combined to make a deadly combination. She gets up weapon in both hands and you know...
That this is no human or mamono you have ever seen before. Her skin is a deathly pale and her eyes are a striking yellow, she appears to wear a dress made up of metalsheets surrounded by a crinoline, beneath it is a white ruffled skirt and torn black tights with black strapped shoes. Her arms seem to have heavy amounts of armor around them. It almost seems like the heavy gauntlets could have even been her actual arms...once. Where her belly button is, is a heart shaped hole in her dress, it might have showed something else in the past, because despite being so far away. You can most certainly hear a adubile 'click!' sound every so often coming from her.
Her eyes snap towards you and she carefully readies her weapon, before simply staring at you...after a while, a blush appears to form on her face. As if surpurised by this, her hand reaches up to feel her cheek. After confirming the senesation, her head turns back to you and she tilts it quizcally. Before walking forward to you, axe lance still in hand. But it seems like actually, that she might just drop the weapon any moment now.
Answer:
I stand there, waiting for something to happen, hand resting on my sword's pommel.
"You're not... afraid?" She asks, tilting her head slightly. I smile, assuring her that the Red Council has put me through things much mroe frightening than a girl with an axe spear. She straightens her stance, lifting the weapon once more.
I draw my own blade, holding it tightly. She lunges, using the weapon faster and with more control, than I'd ever thought I'd see from someone so small. I blocked the first blow, letting the metal shaft slide across the blade. I try to step closer, only to be beaten back by several blows with the axe head.
Already I can tell she's not trying to hurt me. She's playing, sparring with me until I run out of stamina to keep going. I smile, knowing this is a game of endurance against an unflagging opponent. I need to change tactics.
Her next blow I dodge, the stand still as another comes at me. It halts just before the axe head strikes my neck. She tilts her head again.
"You don't want to play?" I shake my head. I came here for a reason, and that reason wasn't to play games with a battle doll. She lowers her head and sighs.
"Oh, you want that." She walks back up to her flower bed and starts to ly down again when I stop her. Putting a hand on hers I ask if she wouldn't help me. "I cannot. My maker was very determined that I not help others get it." I nod, sking if she would come with me when I return.
"I-if you find it, and return... then I have no purpose to remain. And it is lonely here..." She sits for a few more moments, thinking. "Yes. I would like to accompany you, should you return. Succeed or fail, return and I shall follow." I nod, turning around and heading deeper. The old cave is filled with many traps passed the entrance room. Pitfalls, rock falls, dead ends and fire spouts seem to be dotted everywhere, sometimes more than one at a time.
I eventually reach my destination. The Toymaker's workshop. The bones of the old toymaker lay in a finely made bed, holding what I'm looking for. I approach him, the finely made jewel in his hands exactly the shape and size I need. I then hear movement behind me.
I turn just in time to see a maul swinging at my head. I duck and leap across the bed, looking at what appears to be an even heavier armoured version of the doll out front. She also has a heart shaped gem where the hole in the other's dress was.
"Leave. Now." I tell her I can't do that, and before I have a chance to explain further she lunges at me, effortlessly using the oversized hammer. She's faster than her sister, possibly because she isn't holding back. It takes everything I have just to hold her blows at bay. Just as I'm considering surrender, an axe head flshes through the air, shearing the mauls head from it's shaft.
"Sister..." The stronger doll looks at the one from the entry room. "Why do you allow this one to claim fathers treasure..." The other doll looks at me, that blush returning.
"He promised to take me with him." She looks longingly at the gemstone in the other's abdomen. "Father trapped me here, giving you my gem. He discarded me, broke me, so that he could finish you. I don't want to defy him." She looks at the bones on the bed with a conflicted face. "But he doesn't deserve my loyalty." The second doll stare's for a moment, looking between the bones, her sister and me. She swings the maul-turned-staff at her sister, connecting and bending it's shaft with the force of the blow.
I take my moment while she's distracted, thrusting my sword into her from behind, the razor edge and tapered tip help to penetrate the armour. I feel something crack, then shatter as the doll cries out in pain, clutching where he stone was. I withdraw and sheath my sword, watching tiny fragments of crystal dust fall between her fingers.
"Now, sister... now you know how it feels." I look to the other doll, her arm is dented and twisted oddly, and one of her legs is snapped at the joint. I ask if she needs help, but she shakes her head.
"I can fix myself, but please. Let us leave now. I don't want to be reminded of the pain." I nod, grabbing the gem from the skeletons hands and scooping the doll into my arms. As we are leaving I hear a soft pattering behind us, but when I stop, so does our tail. When I turn around I see the second doll, hugging herself tightly.
"I...it's so cold... does it ever get warm?" She asks the doll in my arms. She nods, smiling.
"It does, when you meet someone who'll care for you, it get's much warmer." She snuggles into my arms.
"I... I don't want to be here... to be alone... please?" She's looking at me now, and I can't find the strength to refuse her. The three of us make our way back to the Crimson Falls, the red stone cliffs a welcoming sight to me. I enter and tell the council of my success, handing over the star shaped gem.
It's quickly taken to it's home, while I am asked what should be done with the two dolls. The newer one I declare should be made an instructor, her tireless nature and discipline would do wonders to show our recruits their own faults. The other I take as a companion, to join me on missions, and the council grants my wishes. Now I'm content, a loyal, loving travel companion to share my journeys with, and to keep me safe when I'm in dangerous territory.