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"Hey Puppet, do you know why I love flowers so much?"
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The Harmless Forest
The trees were still as motionless as ever whenever you looked at them, all lining up next to each other like a silent parade. The sun was still just as slow as it drifted through the sky and the wooden house that rested within this forest hadn't moved an inch since it first appeared. Everything was just the same as usual. Except this time, the owner of the house had finally gotten a visitor.
"So you're like a… like a… A puppet?" Elizabeth6166, the Florist, kept a stunned expression as she kept looking up and down at the supposed owner of this house as they shook hands. Each second that went by only seemed to make her feel even more incredulous at the sight. The duration of their handshake was unusually long but the Florist failed to notice that.
Elizabeth0466, the Puppet, silently nodded.
"Wow…" Was all the florist could say at that moment. She had questions. Many questions. But she wasn't sure where to start.
During all this, the Puppet remained completely stationary, her eyes staring widely at the Florist without blinking even a single time.
Eventually, the Florist's attention was diverted to the house itself. She had been so flabbergasted by the Puppet's existence that she had almost completely forgotten about the fact that there was a random house planted right in the middle of nowhere inside a deserted forest.
"Is this your home?"
For a moment, the Puppet didn't move which concerned the visiting Elizabeth. Was she not loud enough or did she say something offensive? She prayed it wasn't the latter. After a brief moment of silent wind blowing by, the Puppet nodded her head, yes.
"Oh… wow…" The Florist had never seen such a building up close, mainly because fakes like her usually weren't allowed anywhere near human structures, "It looks very nice."
"…"
"You know, I have never been so close to a building like this before, let alone, standing in one."
"..."
Neither of them seemed to know what to do. It's also important to note that during this entire exchange, they were still shaking hands. If there was silence, which there was a lot of, then the mechanical-like sound of the Puppet's body moving from their handshake was all they could hear. The Florist continued giving the Puppet the "up and down" type of look whereas the Puppet's deep gaze was targeted directly at the Florist's face. The Puppet hadn't blinked a single time throughout this entire interaction.
"So... you're definitely a fake?" The visitor asked for a second time.
The Puppet nodded.
The flower Elizabeth slowly nodded back at her, "and you've changed your skill tree?"
The Puppet nodded again.
"Right... Sorry, I just... didn't know it was possible for fakes to look different from the original- I mean you still look somewhat similar to the original but..." The Florist started rambling while not properly finishing most of her sentences, "...You're definitely way more distinguishable from other Elizabeth fakes... But the curse should've... hmm... I guess skill trees really can break any rule huh... or maybe the skill tree you picked is just... different... if so, that actually makes you quite special, you know."
Throughout all of this rambling, the Puppet didn't move nor did she cease the handshake. As for the Florist, it seemed like her train of thought was derailing every few sentences so she didn't really seem to mind it at all.
"Oh well, no use thinking about it." The florist shrugged off all of her pointless theories before looking around the house with curious eyes.
Noticing this, the Puppet finally let go from their everlasting handshake and gestured her hand towards the front door. The door opened by itself.
"Oh, I can come in? Are you sure? I'd hate to interrupt if you're in the middle of something."
This time, the Puppet eagerly nodded her head with a bit too much speed. She was nodding her head so eagerly that her mouth involuntarily made the klacking noise.
In response to this, the Florist simply replied, "Well if you insist, I'll come on in then. Thank you, I've always wanted to know what a house like this looked like from the inside."
The sun shined brightly on the place as the two Elizabeths went inside.
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"Whoa…" The Florist exclaimed, her eyes lit up the moment she stepped foot into the house.
Out of everything there, all of her attention was immediately grabbed by the existence of the stairs. She ran up to them and quite literally got on her knees so she could caress the surface of the first step. "These are stairs, right? So this place does have two floors. That's so cool! I've only heard rumours about houses like this. C-can I go up?"
The Puppet nodded while standing by the entrance.
The Florist clung onto the wooden railings with both her hands before slowly raising her foot. Once she was fully standing on the first step, she turned to face the Puppet with wide bright eyes and her mouth fully opened as if she couldn't believe it. She picked up pace after the next few steps. The Puppet followed her to the second floor.
Once they were up there, the Florist looked back down at the first floor, admiring how high up they were.
That was only the beginning of her reactions to the house. All of the things the Puppet had grown too used to were now astounding discoveries for the Elizabeth visitor. She almost melted at the sight of a real bed, running her hand over the sheet countless of times. The view of the forest that the house provided via the attic left her speechless for several seconds. She would touch every couch in the living rooms as if she needed to confirm they were real. Every time she spoke, it was always something along the lines of "is this real? Whoa! I've never seen something like this before! You know, I've never sat on an actual chair until now." Between each of these exchanges, she also attempted to find out more about the Puppet but that quickly proved to be a bit tricky after she realised the Puppet was indeed incapable of speaking.
"So what's it like living in a place like that?"
The Puppet slowly looked over at the Florist with the same inanimate expression that's been on her face ever since she first woke up in this house, "..."
The Florist softly slapped her forehead, "Oh. Right. Sorry. I forgot."
As they were exploring, the Puppet made an abrupt halt in the middle of the first floor. The middle of the first floor was a relatively thin hallway that consisted of the stairs, the front door and the back door. The reason for the Puppet's sudden stop, however, was that something new had been added to this hallway. Underneath the wooden stairs were a flight of downward steps that lead to a single door at the bottom. Unlike the rest of this house, these steps were made out of grey smooth stone.
The Puppet stood completely still and motionless at the top of these stone steps, staring deeply at the door that waited for her at the bottom, in its own pocket of darkness.
The Florist, who was previously playing with all the drawers in the kitchen, quickly noticed this and went over to her.
"Whatcha looking at?" She stood right next to the Puppet where she too finally noticed the stone steps. She crossed her arms as a mixture of concern and curiosity washed over her expression, "Oooooh... what's that room for?"
The Puppet remained motionless for a few more moments before shrugging her shoulders.
"You don't know? But you do live here, right?"
The Puppet nodded.
"Oh... well that's quite strange." The more she looked at the door, the more ominous it felt to look at, "Are you going to go down there?"
They both made eye contact for a few silent seconds before looking back down at the steps. It was hard for her to tell what the Puppet was thinking as her expression always remained exactly the same. But then, instead of being slow or cautious, the Puppet began descending down the steps at a surprisingly normal pace. The Florist followed after her. Each step they took made a light tap noise on the stone material.
Once they were at the bottom of the steps, the Puppet pulled out a key from inside her clothes and without hesitation, inserted it into the lock. As for where that key came from, neither of them knew which only made the Florist even more confused. Before she could question it, the door was opened which quickly grabbed her attention as she peaked over the Puppet's shoulder.
The room inside was actually a lot more illuminated than expected. This was thanks to a single window that was placed on the wall near the ceiling, which allowed the sunlight from outside to seep in. Inside was a long row of glass empty cabinets on the left that went right up to the left corner of the room and a slightly shorter row of identical cabinets on the right, forming a short hallway. The perimeter of the room seemed to form a perfect square. From the doorway, the opposite side of the room was entirely hidden thanks to the row of cabinets on the right that stood along the centre. The only way to see what lay beyond them was to walk straight down the narrow aisle, until you reached the far end where a gap broke the line, offering passage to the other half of the room.
The Florist hovered behind the owner of the house, her hands instinctively gripping the Puppet's shoulder as her eyes darted around nervously, scanning each of the empty cabinets as if afraid they'll be something in one of them that'll jump out.
But without hesitating, the Puppet began walking forward with the Florist lagging behind.
The transparent faces of the glass cabinets towered over the Elizabeth pair as they walked through. You would usually be cautious when turning the corner at the far end but the Puppet never changed her pace as she turned right into the gap and stood in the right corner of the room, waiting.
The Florist reached the gap in the row of cabinets at the end, turned her head to peek at the other side and saw... nothing. Just another row of cabinets that kept going till they met the wall. For all that buildup, it was quite anticlimactic that nothing was here. Seemed like the Puppet already knew that somehow.
"Oh... so it's just a... it's a..." She fished around in her head for the word before finally finding it, "basement! It's a basement! Right?"
The Puppet nodded, already knowing what it was called since it was named in her skill tree.
The cabinets were organised in a way that was perfectly symmetrical, leaving an equally spaced walkway on both sides of the room. Besides the glass cabinets, the basement contained nothing else except for the cold stone walls and floor. With nothing else to look at, the pair made their way back upstairs.
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The Puppet led the Florist back to the living room. Besides the basement, there was actually another new thing that had appeared in the house which she sensed earlier when the Florist first arrived. Out of all the drawers and cabinets, the Puppet knew exactly where it was as the first drawer she opened contained a mishmash of wooden building blocks that weren't there before.
"Oooo, are those... umm... wait, what were they called again..." She knelt down next to the Puppet as she tried hard to find the right word, "Toys? Yeah, toys. I believe that's what humans give to their children as a form of entertainment."
The Puppet slowly began taking out each of the building blocks, neatly spreading them out across the carpet. Surprisingly they came in all shapes and sizes like cylinders, cubes, rectangles, mini archways and a bunch of other random shapes that had no name. After they were all taken out, both Elizabeth fakes had the sudden playful urge to start building things. And so they did exactly that. There they were, laying on their stomachs on the carpet as they began randomly combining the building toys into whatever they could think of. They found that certain pieces were designed to fit together in certain ways, which were like little discoveries that slowly enhanced their builds, bit by bit. Everything they tried to create was a jumbled mess that didn't look like anything, although, neither fake seemed to mind.
"So does anyone else live here?" The Florist randomly asked as she attempted to balance a certain building piece on top of another.
The Puppet shook her head.
"No?" A look of concern flashed across her face as she stopped playing for a moment, "So... it's just you? In this big house?"
The Puppet nodded.
"Oh... isn't that..." The Florist hesitated for a moment, glancing between the Puppet's rigid face and the random thing she was trying to create with the building blocks, "... doesn't that get lonely?"
The Puppet nodded again before continuing to play with the toys.
The Florist didn't say anything as she deeply observed the Puppet's eyes. The Puppet's face never changes. Aside from her mouth, it cannot move, making it physically impossible for the Puppet to display any sort of expression. However, at that moment, it almost seemed like the Florist saw something in the Puppet's eyes for the first time. Although she was instantly distracted by the fact that the Puppet had somehow made a roof for her mini house with the building blocks.
"Wait, how did you do that?"
With gravity in play, making things like roofs should be impossible.
Before, the Puppet had been using her fingers to play with the blocks. But she quickly discovered that she could make them move on their own. The Puppet demonstrated this by creating whatever she wanted, allowing the pieces to defy gravity as long as they were connected to another piece.
"Whoa..." The Florist leaned in closer to observe the pieces move by themselves with great fascination. But then she stood up and her eyes darted around the room as another realisation hit her, "What else can you move?"
The Puppet proceeded to demonstrate just how connected she was to this house by moving the couches, the cabinets, even the height of the ceiling.
"Oh. My. Goodness…." With an index finger pointed at nothing, the Florist slowly spun around as she observed all of the movement, "That's amazing! Wait, so can you make the walls move over to-"
The Puppet spent a good chunk of time showing the Florist this ability as the Florist kept giving random experiential requests to test just how much she could alter the house. For example, the florist asked if the Puppet could make all the furniture hang from the ceiling which the Puppet was able to do effortlessly. Regardless of how random each request was, the Puppet made sure to fulfill each one of them under the Florist's quirky guidance. Before they knew it, the sun went down, causing everything to go dark. It was easily the quickest sun time the Puppet had ever experienced.
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In the dark, the Puppet carefully led her guest to one of the bedrooms. The Florist didn't seem to realise just how tired she was until her back made contact with the soft surface of the bedsheets.
Her entire body practically melted under the warm embrace of the blanket, "Ahhhhh… this feels soooo nice. I've never... slept... on a... bed before..."
Her eyes rolled back as her eyelids slowly fell, covering her vision like the blanket draped over her body. She snuggled comfortably into the bed, shielded from the cold night that the Puppet could never feel. She mumbled a few more random things which only got more and more incoherent as she drifted further and further into sleep.
The Puppet knelt down right next to the bed, her wide glassy eyes still staring deeply at the Florist's sleeping expression. The Puppet saw and heard everything: the way her breathing would cause her chest to go up and down, her occasional incomprehensible sleep talking and even the way the wrinkles of the pillow would move every time the sleeping Elizabeth shifted positions in her sleep. All these human-like features had been stripped away from her even since becoming a puppet. For hours, she watched every detail, every movement, and every change.
More hours of night time passed, however the Puppet never budged from that spot. She never made a sound, nor did she ever blink once as she continued watching the sleeping Florist with a stare. Even when more time went by, the Puppet kept kneeling beside the bed, hugging her knees as she deeply observed every minuscule movement of her sleeping visitor.
The only time the Puppet looked away was to watch the sun rise once more into the sky.
For the first few hours of the morning, the Florist still remained asleep so the Puppet kept watching her slumber in silence.
Eventually, the Florist's eyelids gradually began moving up again, ever so slowly. With sleepy half opened eyes, the first thing the Florist saw when awakening was the Puppet staring right back at her. They made eye contact for a good solid minute.
Still half asleep, the Florist reached out her arm and started gently rubbing the Puppet's synthetic hair, she then yawned, "Good morning."
The Florist stretched her arms a bit but remained laying on the bed as if wanting to savour the feeling. The Puppet also remained kneeling by the bed, not moving from the spot she had spent all night seating on.
"You know, for a moment, I thought yesterday was just a dream," The Florist finally spoke as she stared up at the ceiling, "I mean it's still hard to believe I got to sleep on an actual bed. It's no wonder humans can sleep so easily on these things. Oh sorry, I don't even remember when I fell asleep. I hope I didn't leave you hanging or anything."
The sun is typically a cue for most people to start their day. But at this very moment, the Florist chose to stay in bed, savouring every second of the unfamiliar softness beneath her, a luxury that cradled years of her exhaustion away. The Florist started talking. From an outside perspective, she sounded like a crazy woman who was talking to her hallucinations. But it seemed like the Florist had already grown used to the Puppet not being able to reply to her. She could somehow tell that the Puppet was perfectly content with just listening just by looking at her. Which was unusual since the Puppet's face always remained exactly the same. She went from talking about beds to skill trees to humans to fakes to whatever other random topic she would stumble into. Eventually, she found comfort in just having someone who actually seemed interested in listening to all her rambling, regardless of how random it was.
"So there really is no one else living here?" The Florist randomly asked in the midst of her talking.
The Puppet nodded.
The Florist paused.
"Well then, would it be okay if… if, umm…" She paused, trying to do her best not to sound too rude or entitled. She ended up rephrasing her question despite it not making much of a difference, "Can I live here with you-"
The Puppet rapidly nodded. She was nodding so quickly that her face almost turned to a blur and her mouth involuntarily went klack klack klack multiple times. The Puppet's body was trembling, her plastic-like hands gripping the edge of the bed causing it to slightly vibrate while her eyes stared wildly without blinking a single time. She couldn't seem to stop nodding as her head leaned it closer.
While many others might've considered this to be very creepy, the Florist's eye lit up like sparkles in the night sky as a relieved smile took over her expression. As if referencing the first time they met, she placed her hands on the Puppet's cheeks and gently pulled her face closer to hers. The Puppet stopped nodding and trembling as the Florist softly pressed her forehead against hers while the palm of her hands remained planted on both of the Puppet's cheeks.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" It was the loudest she had ever spoken since arriving here. Her hands, although shaky, became less and less tense as seconds went by.
The Puppet closed her eyes, as if trying to focus on the solid sensation of the Florist's hands on her face and her head pressing against hers. She felt the Florist breath out a heavy sigh of relief that sounded like it had been locked in her chest for decades. She must've been through a lot before arriving at this forest. Similar to how the Puppet ended up here.
The Puppet placed her hands on the Florist's face and started pinching her cheeks again. The Florist softly laughed as the Elizabeth pair stayed like that for a few heartfelt moments.
Then, the Florist pulled back with a look in her eyes that indicated she had just made a decision she had been contemplating ever since yesterday, "Hey, you want to see something pretty I made?"
The Puppet nodded.
"Follow me." The Florist's body sprung to life. She got out of the bed, grabbed the Puppet's hand and practically dragged her out the room.
The Florist seemed excited now. While tightly squeezing the Puppet's hand, she guided her out the bedroom, through the hallway, down the stairs, through the front door, through the verandah, down the two wooden steps and into the grass-
The Puppet let go. The Florist, now standing on the sea of grass in front her house, turned around as soon as she lost her grip with the Puppet's hand.
"Come. Come. it's not that far. Trust me, you're going to love it." The Florist quickly waved her hand, gesturing to the Puppet to follow her.
The Puppet didn't move.
The Florist quickly realised this and asked, "What's wrong?"
The Puppet still didn't move.
They stared at each other for a few seconds.
Elizabeth stood on the grass as she lifted her arm and pointed at the horde of harmless trees, "You can't see it from here but it's really close, I promise. It's not a trap if that's what you're worried about, haha."
The Puppet remained motionless, standing at the very edge of her wooden verandah as her gaze seemed to pierce straight through the Florist's eyes.
"Are you perhaps… scared of going outside?"
The Puppet shook her head.
"So what is it then?"
The Puppet raised her arm and pressed her hand against the invisible wall. When she did, an alert noise played in her mind that only the Puppet could hear as a box of text, only visible to her, appeared in front of her vision.
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Warning, you may not leave the designated area.
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Even though the Florist heard and saw none of that, she gazed at the way the Puppet's hand seemed to be pressing against something she couldn't see. It slowly began to dawn on her, "Ooooh… are you not able to leave the house?"
The Puppet nodded as she kept her palm firmly planted against the invisible wall for the Florist to see.
To test this mysterious barrier, the Florist went up and down the two wooden steps that connected the verandah to the sea of grass that covered this whole forest. She brought her face closer to the Puppet's hand, observing it from all angles as she swayed her head in and out of the invisible barrier. A barrier that prevented the Puppet from exiting the house but was completely fine with letting the Florist go in and out.
The first thing the Florist thought of doing was to grab the Puppet's hand as if they were about to do another handshake. With their fingers interlocked, the Florist watched closely as she slowly pulled her hand out the barrier. To her bewilderment, even though the Florist's arm had no problem going through, the moment the tip of the Puppet's fingers was about to cross the line, an invisible force kept any part of her hand from crossing. The fact that they were holding hands didn't seem to make any different.
"Is it okay if I try pulling harder?"
The Puppet nodded.
"Alright, let me know if it hurts." Said the Florist before she hardened her grip and pulled with all her might.
To her surprise, the Puppet didn't even budge no matter how hard the Florist tried. She even found that she could hold onto the Puppet's fingers, lean backwards and still not fall onto the grass behind her as long as she held onto the Puppet's hand. So not even her entire body weight could pull the Puppet out.
During all the pulling, the Florist repeatedly kept asking whether it hurt or not and each time, the Puppet simply shook her head, no.
The Florist stepped back onto the grass with her arms on her hips as she kept staring at the invisible wall, "That is so strange."
She looked to the left side of the verandah, "Have you tried jumping over the railings?"
The Puppet nodded.
"What about the back door?"
She nodded.
"The windows?"
She nodded again.
The Florist crossed her arms over her chest as she proceeded to start thinking about any potential solution, "You can move anything inside the house right? Have you tried making a new door or removing the walls like you did yesterday?"
The Puppet had indeed already tried that. In fact, it was the first thing she did when she first learned how to alter the house's layout. She once even removed every single wall in the house at one point and yet the house remained standing while she remained locked inside.
The Florist went back to thinking deeply about the next potential solution. She tried stretching every mental thought and ideas in her brain, desperately clawing at any potential solutions. After a minute or two, she clicked her fingers and gasped as if a really good idea had leaped into her mind, "The attic!" She exclaimed, "It's a bit high but have you tried-"
The Puppet nodded once more.
The Florist sat down on the grass, defeated, "Oh, you've already tried… yeah I guess I should've figured huh."
Her elbow rested on her leg while her chin rested on the hand of that same elbow. She stared aimlessly forward while the Puppet silently kept looking at the Florist who was seating on the grass that she could never touch.
"What about the house itself? Can you move where the house is placed?"
The Puppet shook her head.
"What about the window in the basement?"
The Puppet didn't move. It's true that the basement only appeared yesterday and because she was busy with the Florist, she had completely forgotten to give it a try. The Puppet promptly went back inside the house. Only to come back a minute later, shaking her head.
"Still no luck, huh." While she was hopeful in the basement idea at first, the Florist also wasn't surprised by this point. It didn't seem like this hurdle was going to be solved that easily.
Just mere moments ago, her eyes were bright and full of excitement from wanting to show her new puppet friend what she had created. But now her spirits had been dampened greatly by this emotionless wall that she couldn't even see. Admittedly, like many others, the Florist's skill tree also had strange limitations for no explicable reason so this wasn't exactly the strangest thing in the world now that she thought about it.
While there was no use in thinking about the 'why', the existence of this barrier had brought up a different question that was worrying her now. She hesitated to ask. A deeply concerned expression began to wash over her face as the realisation of the Puppet's situation slowly began piecing itself together in her mind, "How long have you been here exactly?"
Even if the Puppet could speak, she wouldn't be able to answer that question, for even she had lost count.
When the Puppet gave no answer, the Florist boarded her train of thought once more. The Puppet continued staring as the Florist continued thinking. Two Elizabeth fakes, one standing on the verandah while the other sat on the clean flat plain of grass, a world of green that one of them could never reach despite it being right in front of her. The trees continued forming a perimeter around the house, creating an eerily symmetrical circle around the building as if they were always observing them.
After a few moments of silence, the Florist stood up, "I'll be right back."
Without saying anything else, the Florist turned around and started running towards the horde of harmless trees. The Puppet placed her other hand onto the invisible barrier, triggering the warning alert noise once more. All the Puppet could do was watch the Florist's fleeting form as she disappeared into the forest.
Just like that, the Florist was gone. Nowhere to be seen. As if she had never been there to begin with.
Klack…. Klack… Klack…
Klack….
The silence that followed after her departure was almost deafening. A silence she should've been used to by now. The Puppet was once again left alone, locked in her own house. Even when her teleporting rocking chair appeared behind her, she didn't sit down. Instead she remained standing at the top of the two wooden steps on her verandah, her two hands firmly pressed against the barrier.
Seconds went by…
Then minutes went by…
Then-
She spotted the Florist appear again from the trees, running back towards the house whilst carrying something in her arms. The Puppet never took her eyes off the Florist as she came closer and closer.
Panting, the Florist went up the two wooden steps and onto the verandah. The object seemed relatively heavy for her but despite that, she lifted it upwards above her head as if using herself like a pedestal to put the object on display.
"Tada!" She exclaimed.
It was a purple flower, stored comfortably in a circular light brown pot filled with soil. She quickly lowered the pot down from her head as she was struggling to carry it. She brought it closer, allowing the Puppet to have a closer look.
Klack. Klack. Klack. Klack. Klack.
"You like it? It's very pretty, isn't it?"
The flower looked so delicate that the Puppet didn't dare touch it. It wasn't rock solid like the walls and its purple colour looked so much more vibrant compared to the wooden floor boards that it almost seemed like it was glowing. It also had a fascinating shape, with five thin petals surrounding a little tip with five little thin arms protruding from it, forming a small star shape.
"According to my skill, it's called a…" The Florist looked to her left as her eyes frowned at something even though there was nothing in front of her, "Platy…codon… Grandi..flo…rus? Grand-if-lorus?"
She gave the word a few more tries and each time she produced a different guess as to what the real pronunciation of the word could be. Although she quickly gave up, "I don't know if that's how you say it but let's just call it a purple flower."
As the pair went back inside, the Florist immediately went to the dining room and placed the pot right on the middle of the table as if she had already planned to put it there beforehand.
"Not far from here, I activated a skill that created an ENTIRE meadow of flowers just like this one." The Florist spread her arms out to try describe just how expansive it was. The more she talked about this meadow of flowers, the more excited her eyes grew, "I'm telling you, there are literally hundreds of flowers over there. With so many different colours and shapes that it looks like a rainbow. It's genuinely the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. And they each have their own really long interesting names as well that I don't really know how to say, haha."
The Florist took a seat at the dining table and so did the Puppet. They both admired the small yet meaningful addition to the dining room. The Florist continued rambling about her field of flowers and how excited she was to expand it even further. She ambitiously claimed that it might stretch over the entire forest by the time she's done with it.
The Florist then looked out the wooden window and right at the wide open patch of grass that neatly waited outside the steps of the Puppet's verandah.
"If only I had met you a few days ago."
Her expression faded as a subtle look of regret seeped into her eyes.
"I would've put my meadow right over there," She raised her arm and pointed where her eyes were imagining what it could've been, "in front of your verandah. It would've looked so nice."
"…" The Puppet also started imagining what it could've looked like and how nice it would've been to have something to look at besides the plain trees, grass and sky.
The Florist quickly lightened up with a bright smile, "Oh well. Who knows, maybe one of us will unlock a skill that'll allow us to move our things. Or maybe I'll be able to create a second meadow. When that happens, we'll definitely combine our creations together."
The Puppet nodded eagerly before placing her attention back on the table where the flower rested. It was the first sign of the outside world that had ever graced the presence of this house, aside from the Florist herself, of course. Compared to the cupboards, the doors, the tables, the chairs; the flower seemed so fragile, so frail. And yet that made it all the more precious. To think this was just a mere taste of what that idyllic meadow had in store for her. The first, but also the beginning of much more to come.
The day continued as usual. The sun and moon rose and fell just like it did any other day, however, for once, the Puppet finally had something to look forward to.
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To be continued.
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A/N So umm, last time I posted was about half a year ago. I'm really sorry about that, that's probably been the longest I've gone without posting. Half the reason was due to big changes in my life and other half was due to procrastination XD. I was also dragged into a long family holiday trip for the Christmas holidays last year which didn't help at all because I wasn't able to write at all during that trip. Happy new year by the way, I'm three months late to be saying this but oh well XD. Basically, a lot of life stuff got in the way as well. I can promise at the very least that the next chapter won't take half a year XD.
For those who remember, in my previous chapter, I said this chapter was going to be the penultimate one before the finale of this long flashback. But turns out I'm wrong XD and can't estimate my future chapters properly. What happens in the next chapter was meant to be part of this chapter but I figure I should try stick to the 3000-5000 word range that I set for myself, the best I can. I also didn't want to make you guys wait any longer than you already have. But that unfortunately does mean the finale of this flashback will be prolonged by one more chapter but I hope it'll be worth the wait.
Once again, if you're reading this, thank you all so much for reading this far and for even remembering that this story still exist XD. I appreciate all the comments and feedback as well which I will try to reply to the best I can. And once again, feel free to join the discord server for anyone who wants to track the progress of future chapters. Thanks again and I'll see you guys in the next one.
This chapter was finished on the 19/03/2025
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