A magical girl, a flamingo and a slime sailed south along a river in a small boat.  Their destination:  The bog bordering lady Yvne’s barnony and the baroness of beauty’s holdings. The weather was a bit dreary.  With fall in full swing, the weather felt crisp.  Reduced sunlight during the day made everything look softer. Clouds often shrouded the sun.  Getting rained on was more likely than not getting wet.

After the quaint waterway poured into another, larger river they sailed on something that looked like it might be something big enough to ship supplies up and down.

 

Alex eyed the river bank that had a bunch of nothing on the side away from the woods. “Looks like this might have been a good spot for a trading post.”

 

Fufi nodded.  “I bet it was.  Many of the rural areas in Terre tended to just be one town fiefs.  Someone with noble class looking to be a landed noble could settle right there, build a dock and some buildings.  Their class could go from non-landed noble to landed noble if a higher ranked noble gave them the quest to prosper a land.”

 

“Can’t they just start a town and get it going?  Why do they need peer approval?” Alex thought it was silly that someone couldn’t just build in an unclaimed spot.

 

“Peerage has rules and expectations.  These classes are powerful but the obligations that they come with really tie people down.  Unless the kingdom is very nomatic building a permanent settlement someplace is a very strong statement.  Aristocracy live or die by their reputation.  In some cases having a bad reputation can ruin their ability to level.  Only a king or queen can confidently say that any place I want can be part of our new kingdom.” Fufi entered full teacher mode.

 

“I feel bad for Ki.  It is only going to get tougher being here.” Alex adjusted the sail, trying to stay in the deeper part of the river.  “How many other demon vassal fiefs are going to bug her?  And she has to be polite?”

 

“Well, just to make things more confusing, fey culture is its own thing.  The courts are all arranged alongside the seasons. So depending on what season it is, how things work can be completely different.” Fufi explained yet another confusing concept. “As for demon vassals, I don’t think they will go out of their way to get her if they know she’s not human.  That is why Sakura’s plan, while incredibly cold, was quite sound.  If there are no humans then the demon queen doesn’t care.  If their leader doesn’t care then it makes sense to only expect local demon controlled forces to try anything.  Demons are always probing everything for weaknesses.”

 

As they sailed down the river the land became flatter.  The river’s width became wider.  And the edges became very shallow.  The landscape was dotted with small islands with different kinds of plant life that could grow in water saturated areas.  The autumn weather was a little warmer but the increased humidity negated any rise in temperature from the reduced elevation.  They had entered the swamp area that was the southern boundary of Ki’s barony. The swampland stretched out to the west as far as the eye could see.  To the east there was some vegetation but not far past the river’s bank it was lifeless wastelands.

 

“Well, what should we do now? It looks like we are almost to the neighboring barony.” Alex looked at Fufi and Merumeru.

 

“Meru!” Merumeru ran a hand through the muddy water.

 

Alex gave her a stern look from getting her white gloves dirty.  “Merumeru, stay out of the water.  It is really dirty.”  Alex grabbed the slime girl’s wrist with one hand and dusted the glove clean with her feather duster.

 

The slime girl smiled and admired her now-spotless white glove.

 

Alex steered the rudder into the shallows.  And after a few feet the boat scraped against the bottom.

 

“Hmm, it looks like we are stuck.” Fufi unhelpfully commented.

 

“Yes, we are a little bit too deep.  I can pull the dagger board and the rudder but we’ll have to lower the sail and row.  We probably shouldn’t keep going south past the border without meeting with the nereids first.” Alex pulled the sail down and lifted the rudder and daggerboard out of the slots.  The boat was more of a rowboat now than a sailboat.  Alex grabbed both oars and started rowing into the muck.

 

They rowed for a half hour until Alex needed to take a break.  Trying to keep the slime girl from jumping in the mud was also a problem.

 

“What’s wrong?” Fufi asked when they stopped.

 

“I’m just tired, I’m not as strong as I used to be.”  Alex brought the boat to rest up against a rocky outcropping and tied a line to it. “Let’s take a break. I think there is enough space here to summon the carriage. Is anyone thirsty?” A couple tugs on the line confirmed that the small boat wouldn’t drift off on its own. 

 

After throwing the card onto a flat spot on the rock, everyone gathered inside for some tea.

 

“I’m surprised no one has come to greet us.  When we came back from the icelands there were some nymphs that noticed us right away. I guess trees are a bit sparser here so maybe treestride isn’t an option.” Fufi sipped some tea with her beak.

 

“Can nereids treestride? Or whatever the water themed equivalent is?” Alex asked no one in particular.

 

“Meru!”  Merumeru knew the answer and didn’t hesitate to share it.  However, no one seemed to pay her any mind.

 

“That’s nice merumeru.” Fufi patted the slime girl on the head with a wing.

 

“Hmm, well I guess we can just wait for a while?” Alex sipped some tea and started fidgeting. “I will go check on the plushies I guess while we wait. I’m not sure how much further we can go into the swamp without getting stuck.  Slopping through the muck on foot doesn’t sound like fun.”

 

“It is also bad for your stats.  Getting dirty lowers your cuteness.” Fufi added.

 

“I know.  Fighting in a sewer would be the worst battlefield for me.  I came out of that alive though.  I’m not sure if a swamp is better or worse.  Anyway, let's go check on the plushies.” Alex opened the panel that had the little workshop area of the carriage.  The animals from the first dungeon were on top of a cabinet and the three clockwork dolls were at table height.  A naughty hero plushy sat in the corner.

 

“What are we going to do with you?” Alex glanced at the hero doll and idling plucked at her phone.  While browsing the different submenus, the magical girl noticed a slightly altered bluetooth symbol and clicked it.

 

Fufi craned her head over her shoulder and glanced at the phone.  “What are you looking for?”

 

Alex said, “Oh just pushing random things while I come up with an idea.  The plushy hero is not only extremely violent but also incredibly annoying when anyone pulls the string to make it talk.”

 

Merumeru took this as an invite to pull the string. 

 

“You can run, but you can’t hide from justice.” The hero doll let out another eye rolling line.

 

Both Alex and Fufi cringed.

 

Merumeru pulled the string again.

 

The doll let out a recorded noise. “I don’t need a weapon. I am the weapon.”

 

Alex and Fufi both waved their hands about encouraging Merumeru to stop. She pulled the string yet again.

 

“You can’t escape me, I’m everywhere.” The hero confidently stated.  “You may have hurt my friends, but you’ll never break our bond.  We’re more than just a team. We are family.” And another pull, “You’re a fool to underestimate me. I have a secret weapon that you’ll never see coming: my hidden potential!”

 

“Merumeru, please stop, we can't take anymore!” Alex pleaded with the slime girl.

 

The blue girl in overalls chuckled and stopped pulling the string.

 

Alex and Fufi let out a sigh of relief in unison.

 

“Anyway, what is this here?” Alex noticed that there was a pairable device showing up in the settings menu.  It was listed as hero_plush_01

 

“I’m not sure.  How does your phone normally work for such things?” Fufi asked.  Of course she didn’t know much about wireless communication.

 

“Normally, this would allow the two things to send and receive data.  Like you could play music on the phone but the sound would come out somewhere else.  Or you could talk into a microphone instead of a phone on a phone call.” Alex pressed the button for the hero_plush_01

 

[Connect to hero_plush_01?] (yes / no)

 

Alex pressed yes.

 

[Connected]

 

A directory popped up.  The root directory had two files [setup] and [play] with another subfolder called [sounds].  Alex pressed the folder and numerous files that were called [voice01] [voice02] filled the screen.  There were a lot of them.  Whoever made this plushy really wanted it to have a lot of different things to say.

 

“What are you doing?” Fufi asked.

 

“I’m just looking at what is here.  This looks like the recordings that will play whenever someone pulls the string.” Alex scrolled through the many pages of files.  Going back a directory she pressed the setup file and it showed the list of things it would play.  “Hmm, I wonder if I can change what it’ll play.  Let's see if we can upload some music from my phone to the doll.”

 

Alex backed out to the home screen and opened the folder that had the music in it.  Alex scrolled down and selected the file that played in the demon fight, the one about ripping and tearing.  After fiddling around a bit the file started uploading to the doll.

 

[File transfer progress 0% rip_and_tear.mp3]

 

“I wonder if there is enough space.” Alex watched a progress bar fill for a couple seconds.

 

[File transfer progress 100% rip_and_tear.mp3 successfully uploaded]

 

“What did you just do?” Fufi blinked, looking a bit confused.

 

“If I did this right. I copied a song from my phone to the doll.” Alex pulled open the folder with the sound files and gestured to the new one there.  “Now lets see, maybe in setup I can change what it plays instead of those cheesy one liners.”

 

Alex pressed the setup executable and a menu popped up. It had a list of checkboxes for all the sounds.  Currently, everything from the folder was selected.  Alex didn’t see the uploaded file as a possibility. “Hmm, maybe the wrong directory?”  Technology was finicky sometimes.  Alex moved the file over to the directory with a copy / paste and went back to the setup.  Rip and tear showed up but without the check mark selected.  Alex unselected all of the other files and only had rip and tear with the checkbox marked.  There was a little play button next to the file.  “I wonder what will happen if this song plays.”

 

“Um, Alex I’m not sure that is such a good idea.  You remember what happened last time.” Fufi looked around nervously.

 

“There are not any demons around I don’t think.” Alex looked outside to make sure no demons were around then pressed the test sound button on the track.

 

The sound of a distorted bass guitar with synth rhythm filled the small room.  But this time it came from the doll instead of Alex’s phone.  After a few seconds the plushy twitched a bit on its own.

 

“You are not dancing.  That’s not you?” Fufi half-asked, half-stated.

 

Alex shook her head. Whatever powered this doll it wasn’t the animate doll magic this time. “Okay, this is creepy.  I was just trying to kill some time while we figured out how to contact the nereids but I can almost see why the purity worshipers don’t want anything to do with the hero around them.”

 

The hero doll narrowed his button eyes and tilted his head back.  It raised a fist towards the heavens. An intense killing intent could be felt through the room like the doll cursed heaven, hell, the world everything it had a grudge against.

 

Alex quickly pressed the stop button before anything escalated it.  “I think this is enough of that.”

 

The hero plush slumped back down on the table when the music stopped.

 

At the mention of contacting the water nymphs, Merumeru perked up and darted out towards the muddy water.

 

Alex stopped her before she could dive in.  “Where do you think you are going, young lady?  If you jump in there you’ll get really dirty.”

 

Merumer squirmed when she got pulled back from hopping into the swamp and explained that she was doing what they needed to. “Merumeru me me ru meme ru.”  She had a very cross look on her face like they were not treating her fair.

 

“I guess we'll just have to wait a bit longer. I can create some armor for that Hiroshi plush.  I think he’d look good in green armor and a helmet with a vizor.  Maybe we can make some weapons later.” Alex drug the slime girl back to the carriage and got to work making armor out of stuff stored in the carriage.  There were scraps of wood, green paint, a glazed bit of glass that could be cut to make a visor.  It would actually be a bit easier than the crafting for the three dolls because the hero plush was quite a bit bigger.