“Just hear me out.” Alex finished placing the green armor pieces on the hero and a visored helmet. “We could make the hero plush a trap for the carriage.” The hero sorta fit next to the Fufi’s wooden-clockwork-power-armor-suit thing.
“That sounds like a terrible idea.” Fufi stomped her webbed foot. “Most people just curse the hero. He’s the default target for anyone’s misfortune. If the temple of purity wasn’t so sparsely staffed they would have thrown that doll away for sure when they were cleaning.”
“Considering the hero doll’s destiny was the trash bin does that mean a magical girl came and saved him?” Alex made a silly joke. Fufi apparently shared the whole world’s disgust for the hero who gave up and led to demons conquering the world.
“I am not sure about keeping him. I mean, the thing moves on its own. If it wasn’t found in the temple of purity I’d wonder if it was demon possessed.” Fufi warned.
“Can a doll be demon possessed?” Alex hoped Fufi was joking.
“Yeah, demons can cultivate in a way that makes them non physical and take over objects or even people.” Fufi’s warning was grim. “Though there are not any low tier demons that are like that. They have to break through cultivation levels enough to sluff off their physical body for an ethereal one.”
“Eww, and I thought charm abilities were evil. I think possession might be worse.” Alex changed the subject. “We still haven’t found any water nymphs though. Are we even in the right place? I thought Ki said that they protected the bog to keep demons out of the forest.”
“Meruuuuuu!” The slime girl stomped in anger then jumped into the muddy swamp water.
“Darn it!” Alex had tried to keep the small slime girl out of the mud but she finally slipped away and dove into the muddy water. “That troublemaking girl there is no way we can fish her out of the water. Is she going to disappear for days again?”
Merumeru slipped beneath the muddy water with ease. The fact that she couldn’t drown and was more at home in the water than any of them didn’t lower the worry that Alex felt. A muddy slopping noise announced her departure.
“Merumeru’s always been a free spirit. I bet she knows something we don't. Maybe give her a little bit of trust?” Fufi placed a calming wing on Alex’s hand. “She’s been gone for days at a time before.”
Alex huffed then ran a hand through her long hair. “Sorry, I’m just a little overwhelmed by this whole situation. I’m worried we are way over our heads here. I know that my quest is to defeat the demon queen and over the past six months I’ve defeated one demon total. That is not a great rate. It was a near thing and if all the demons are as aggressive as that ice one I don’t think I’ll stand a chance. We are going in blind almost into this enemy barony and we are counting on the water nymphs to give us intelligence to come up with a plan. But they are not here. We are sitting in a bog and Merumeru just ran off on her own. It is like things are spiraling out of control.”
Fufi patted her wing on the magical girl’s hand again. “Be brave Alex. We can take things one step at a time. Look at all you’ve accomplished so far. We took a boat down here and no one had a sailing class. Anybody should be impressed with that.” Noticing that Alex was still in a bit of a panic, Fufi continued, “I know, how about we test out the doll suit thing a bit more. You can help me practice while we wait.”
In an effort to distract Alex, the flamingo got the clockwork suit out of the carriage and walked around. Her voice was muffled from inside. “What should we test with the suit?”
Inspired by the cute clockwork construct, Alex came up with a silly idea. She drew a circle in the dirt. “I know a dance from my world, maybe we could try it. It involves a lot of standing on one foot. How do you feel about that?”
“There are no single foot standers better than flamingos. I’m in.” Fufi’s confidence was inspiring.
“Okay, follow my lead.” The magical girl stood up next to the circle. “First, left foot in.” Alex stood on her right foot and lifted her left foot to a position inside the circle. She looked at the clockwork-clad flamingo and waited.
Fufi walked up to the circle, a ticking noise echoing the movement. The key in the back of the suit turned slowly with each movement. She lifted her left bird-shaped-wooden-clad leg and thrust it forward. Luckily, the mechanisms of the suit were sound and she didn’t fall over by standing on one leg.
Alex clapped. “Now, left foot out.” The black-haired girl retracted her left foot and stood normal.
Fufi followed and took her left foot out.
“Left foot in and you shake it about.” Alex placed her left foot in the circle and shook her foot around in little circles.
Fufi tried to do the same thing but didn’t have the same range of motion so it was a little bit different because the joints were built to match bird legs instead of human legs and feet.
“Right foot in.” Alex placed her right foot in the circle.
Fufi switched to her right foot in the circle.
“Right foot out.” Fufi copied and giggled a bit.
“Right foot in. Right foot out. Right foot in and shake about” The pair started to get the simple dance down.
Alex paused and considered a slight alteration. “Left wing in, left wing out, left wing in and you flap it all about.”
The pair continued their silly dance until they got good at it. The clockwork suit ran out of power so they took a break to wind the key and started back with their shenanigans. The simple folk dance was a nice break. It brought back memories when Alex was a child at a roller rink surrounded by childhood friends whose name she had long forgotten. It made the panic of standing in a soggy bog with gray skies attempting to start a task that seemed insurmountable less of a looming threat and more of something that could be managed more easily.
Just when they really got into the dance and started laughing and smiling a splash came from the murky water following but clapping. “Merumeru” A dirty slime girl trudged out of the muck and onto the small island they were standing on.
“You are in big trouble. Look at how dirty you got.” Alex pulled out her feather duster and brandished it menacingly.
But Merumeru wasn’t alone. A second figure emerged from the swampy water. She was dressed in a blue robe with light blue skin and blue hair. Even her eyes were blue. She matched Merumeru’s blue quite well. “Hello Fufi and Alex. I’m Aqua. Do you remember me?”
Alex pondered the blue haired girl for a bit. She’d done class acquiring ceremonies in the grotto a few times and some of the people that came there were water nymphs but they looked very similar. Wood nymphs had different kinds of plants for hair but water nymphs' differences were much more subtle. “Hmm, I think so. Stuff at that time was a bit of a blur and being in front of everyone caused me a lot of anxiety. But if you said we met I don’t have any reason to doubt you.”
“Meru ru me me.” Merumeru waved her arms excitedly.
“Merumeru says that we met in the stream when she was working on a water wheel for the dam at Bob and Martha’s farm.” Aqua gestured a pale hand at the slime girl.
“Whoa! Can you understand Merumeru?” Alex gaped at the nereid.
“Yeah, she speaks the same language as us. We are both creatures of water. Anyway, Merumeru said you were looking to meet up with the nereids in this area.” Aqua smiled and patted the slime girl on the head.
Merumeru beamed.
“Wait, yeah we wanted to sneak into the neighboring barony but why are you changing the subject?” Alex scrunched up her face.
Aqua smirked. “I’m sure Merumeru told you lots of times. If you can’t understand her, maybe you could at least trust her a bit more.” Aqua and Merumeru both nodded in unison. “As for the barony, we’ve been keeping an eye on it for years now. What would you like to do there?”
“I wanted to sneak in. The baroness contacted Ki inviting her to come visit noble to noble but she can’t go and it is likely a trap. I thought we could sneak in and get some information but doing it blind seemed like a bad idea. Ki said that your kin would have some information.” Alex pointed to the south.
“Merumeru me me.” The slime girl said seriously.
“She says she has something important that she’s been trying to tell you for a while,” Aqua said.
Alex listened.
“Ru ru meeee merume!” Merumeru spoke excitedly, waving her little arms about.
“She said she found your house.” Aqua translated.
“What? That’s impossible, my cabin is in another world. Don’t make stuff up. I know Fufi keeps telling you all these fantastical stories about magical girls but I don’t think finding something from another world is possible.” Alex gave the slime girl a stern look.
Merumeru pouted. “Me me me ru ru ruuuu.”
“She says it is the truth. When you were playing around up north at the temple of purity she flew up into the sky and found it on a cloud.” Aqua looked like she wasn’t convinced either.
Alex facepalmed. “This sounds like something out of one of Fufi’s magical girl stories. Fufi what have you been filling this child’s head with?”
“It wasn’t me, I can’t understand her either. I did tell her some about magical girl Cosmos’s sky islands back in the era before the hero and the demon king. Maybe she’s playing pretend like when we were an adventurers guild with the dolls and Merumeru in an adventuring party?” Fufi pondered the possibilities.
“Merurururu meee.” Merumeru stomped again and crossed her arms.
“Merumeru says that the sky island is real. She met magical girl Cosmos there and has been making bricks to build a castle up there. Magical girl Cosmos has been helping.” Aqua gaped at the mention of the famous magical girl. “Wait, you met Cosmos? I thought she hadn't been seen in over a hundred years.”
Merumeru nodded. She and Aqua exchanged some words that didn’t sound like anything close to a language.
“Cosmos? She’s been retired and that was part of the accords. She can’t step foot on the planet in exchange for concessions made by team evil. Now she’s on the moon working in the escalation department. Though the current mess shows how the demons figured out a way around the accords anyway. There are almost no magical girls on Terre anymore.” Fufi’s voice still sounded muffled from within the clockwork suit.
“Not sure I understand this right. But something called a foreclosure tried to steal Alex’s property. Magical girl Cosmos rescued it from that monster and floated it above Terre. She decided that she liked the cabin and has been taking a vacation there and helping build a castle the past couple of months.” Aqua looked nervous, like the tale seemed a bit too fantastic to be true.
“Who is Cosmos anyway?” Alex asked. “Is she even still alive? Sounds like her adventures took place over a century ago.”
“Oh, she’s one of the greatest magical girls that ever set foot on Terre. She and her party fought creatures that came from the stars and rained down meteors on all the cities. They were like parasites who consumed a planet and then moved on to the next one. Her magical girl team fought them off in a long drawn out battle that took years. She was the only one that survived, she even lost her familiar. That is the main point of the accords. Cosmos and her team all had their flamingos killed by the aliens within the first year. She even lost one of her friends when they captured her flamingo and exchanged herself to spare her life. So when the people upstairs were negotiating concessions to get Cosmos to retired, giving her the right of satisfaction to anyone that hurt one of Luna’s Flamingos was the thing that got her to agree to finally step back.” Fufi excitedly told another magical girl story. “As for her age, have you looked in a mirror lately? You’ll discover that you look younger than you did when you came back from the temple of purity as a different person. Magical girls don’t age. If they do then their class will slowly youth them back to the age a magical girl would be.”
“Are you telling me magical girls are immortal?” Alex boggled at the concept.
“Yeah, though they can still die. Just no one with that class will die from old age.” Fufi explained.
“Oh that has got to piss the demon cultivators off so bad.” Aqua laughed out loud. “The whole point of them cultivating is to gain enough of their element to pass the limitations of mortality.”
Alex’s head spun at the revelations. They had really gotten off topic. Weren't they supposed to be planning to sneak into the demon occupied barony?
Thanks for the chapter, and I hope your hand finishes healing up soon. ❤
Thank you for the kind words.