CH63 Coming down the mountain range.
The fight with the demon left a big mess. Blood and gore covered an ice spike sticking out of the glacial ground. Strangely, the body appeared to be slowly evaporating. A rather unassuming cloth doll with a chain for playing music sticking out of its back sat there, unmoving in a pool of blood. Now that the music stopped, everything became a bit surreal. A flamingo, a slime girl and a magical girl who looked more like a priestess took in the scene.
“You did really well against a tough opponent. I didn’t want us to cross paths with any demons just yet. And I was hoping we could start off easier with tier one stuff. Those ones tend to be small and only a real threat in large numbers. Anyway, how are Alex and Merumeru?” Fufi craned her long neck.
“Um, it hasn’t really sunk in yet I don’t think.” Alex shook her head.
“Meru!” Merumeru poked the demon corpse with an icicle.
“Gross, don’t touch that thing you don’t know where it’s been.” Alex shooed the slime girl away from the evaporating corpse.
Fufi continued, “I think your doll might have some anger issues.”
“Maybe,” Alex said. “I’d think we should give Hero the benefit of the doubt though. That music was rather metal.” She picked up the broken panel that the plushy had kicked off and set it against the carriage. Alex frowned, taking in the damage to the carriage from all the mayhem.
“We should get out of here. The demons don’t generally have friends but if this one goes missing for too long someone might be sent out to look for him.” Fufi gestured a wing at the upside-down-impaled blue corpse. “Demon hordes are no joke.”
“Hmm, maybe we should go on foot for a bit to not leave as big of a trail? The carriage got damaged quite a bit. Rose, Lily and Edelweiss all need to be repaired as well. Is there a cave or some place sheltered from the elements around here?” Alex looked to the only flier in their group.
“Yeah, we can go a couple miles and there is a ravine. Will that work?” Fufi asked.
“I hope so, it is cold just standing around out here so I’d like to get moving.” Alex wrapped her arms around herself.
Merumeru nodded in agreement.
Dusting off the dolls, Alex and Merumeru returned them and the broken pieces to the carriage. The carriage was then turned back into a card, and with Fufi leading, they continued their journey.
They walked for thirty minutes to reach the ravine and another thirty minutes to descend to its rocky floor. The deep ravine walls offered shelter from the cold wind.
On a flat patch of ground, Alex deployed the carriage card to assess the damage more thoroughly. While the exterior damage was mostly superficial, the fur coverings were severely shredded by ice. Though less visually appealing, sewing could repair it. The exterior wood had a few chips, but the sturdy paneling remained intact, a testament to the nymphs' craftsmanship.
The dolls, however, were in worse condition, with the exception of Edelweiss. Although no parts were missing, their outer shells were cracked, and some gears had lost cogs.
“Ugh, this is going to take a long time to fix.” Alex placed the dolls on the workbench and frowned. “I think the lower hanging fruit would be fixing the carriage.”
Fufi stuck her head around a wall with her long neck. “Hey Alex, I figured I wouldn’t be a good familiar if I didn’t help you improve your magical girl powers. Want to have a bit of a… what is it called, post mortem?”
“Well, post mortem implies someone died. But I guess in this case that would be correct. What do you think? How did we do?” Alex took out a needle and thread and started sewing shut some of the tears in the rabbit furs from getting hit by ice shards.
“You have some strong points and some weak points. I think by far your dance partner ability took the spotlight in that battle. You really were not anywhere near as strong or as fast as that ice demon. But because he was your dance partner and you were the cuter of the pair he couldn’t do anything to hit you,” Fufi said.
“Eh? What does being cuter than your dance partner have to do with anything?” Alex wondered.
“Well, cuteness is the most important thing for a magical girl. If you used that skill in your fight with Sakura I don’t think it would have worked. Her outfit with all those living plants was really cute.” Fufi gushed about the magical girl dryad.
“Oh, I think I get it. That demon wasn’t very cute.” Alex nodded in understanding.
“Exactly!” Fufi exclaimed. “But there is one other thing that I noticed. You can only have one person as your dance partner. So if there were two demons instead of just one then it could have been really bad.” Fufi lowered her beak.
“I guess you are right. We got lucky. I didn’t even get an empowered shot off with Lily before that ice storm did a bunch of damage,” Alex said.
“Yeah, it looks like your dolls don’t benefit from that skill either. So that is another weakness.” Fufi waved a wing.
“What else? I don’t think Rose worked well on the ice demon at all. I suppose they are strong against water.” Alex started reattaching the panel that Heroshi knocked off.
“Yeah, if we run across another ice demon it might be good for her to sit that one out. Though I suppose that in this case the silver lining is that if it was the more common fire demon thing might have gone much worse. A firestorm with all this wood and cloth could have been really bad.” Fufi stomped a webbed foot.
“Oh, everything could have burned that would have been terrible.” Alex gaped at the thought.
“Yeah, this was my fault. I didn't think we were taking a path that would get us too close to where we saw them. There must have been an observer that we, or rather I didn’t notice.” Fufi drooped her head.
Merumeru came out and offered them some hot tea. “Meru!”
“Thanks for getting some water boiling. It doesn’t look like it is giving off too much smoke.” Alex sipped her tea.
Fufi also scooped up some hot tea with her beak and tilted her head upside down to gulp it down. “Thanks Merumeru!”
After dedicating the remainder of the day to repairs, they managed to get the carriage operational again. Though functional, the numerous seams in its fur exterior meant it had lost some of its former charm. With a few daylight hours remaining, Alex utilized the dollmaker's kit to begin mending the dolls.
The Hero plush was placed on the shelf alongside the cuddle bears and other stuffed animals acquired from the initial dungeon, with the hope that the amiable nature of those creatures might temper the violent tendencies of the doll.
They maintained a small fire in the stove with a few pieces of coal to ward off the night's chill. Despite the significant drop in temperature outside, the carriage remained relatively warm, the only indication of the cold being the wind whistling above. Morning revealed a light dusting of snow on top of them. While not enough to immobilize the carriage, their position at the bottom of a ravine restricted any potential movement.
The second day progressed smoothly. The group journeyed further from the temple, returning to the forest without any interruptions.
Upon stopping for the night, Alex spent the remaining daylight hours preparing food and taking apart the clockwork dolls that required rebuilding. The return trip to the forest took an additional four days. Once all the damaged dolls had their gears, springs, and porcelain replaced, restoring them to their original condition, Alex began recreating their outfits. Although not a novice at sewing doll clothes, this was the first instance Alex had done so within the limited confines of the carriage. The dungeon with the game board had offered ample workspace, but tailoring within the cramped carriage after a full day of travel truly tested Alex's skill.
Alex’s phone rang out: [Tailoring has reached level 4!]
Pulling up the stat app on her phone it said.
Name: Alex Parker
Class: Magical Girl
Level 3
Sex: Female
Race: Human
Strength: 11
Constitution: 9
Dexterity: 17
Intelligence: 7
Cuteness: 16
Skills:
Cleaning: 2
Cooking: 1
Dancing: 2
Tailoring: 4
Toymaking: 1
Feats: Empower Doll
Spells: Animate Doll
Lesser Grow Plants
Traits: Mental Resistance: 3
“Huh, I guess this trip required a whole lot of mending and sewing,” Alex said.
Merumeru cheered for Alex when they noticed the familiar noise and voice.
“Congrats Alex, you are really pushing your textile skills and are reaping the rewards.” Fufi flapped her wings and danced a little dance going back and forth from foot to foot.