Marionette 1x1

[Serah of Silence]

"Master?" She asked, walking over. "Why do they stare so?"  

[Kitalpha Hart]

"They're not used to you." he said, touching her face. She felt like wood, but yet, she didn't. There was something odd about Butterfly. "Come." He walked through the crowd, which split to let him and Butterly through. "I have a room that I've been lodging in while looking for a marionette that wouldn't turn to dust." He looked at his hands bitterly. "You're the first since my father died that one didn't turn to dust in my hands."

 

[Serah of Silence]

Butterfly followed happily, until she heard of his aliment. "All my masters said something about that. Every one."
"Graack!" The crow cackled.  

[Kitalpha Hart]

Lukann froze and look at her. "What?" his voice betrayed disbelief.

 

[Serah of Silence]

"Yes. Every doll turned to dust."  

[Kitalpha Hart]

Lukann shuddered. "I wonder if that happened for them to be forced to meet you. Does it stop after they meet you?"

 

[Serah of Silence]

The marionette looked at him. "Yes. Not right off for everyone."  

[Kitalpha Hart]

Lukann sighed and resumed walking. "How much longer until I can ply my craft once more?!" he groaned. "Why is it that I'm stuck with a marionette a foot shorter than me, and has her own life?!" He continued ranting under his breath as he led Butterfly to the room had had rented.

 

[Serah of Silence]

The marionette followed, but said nothing. She had heard it all before, from her earlier masters. The only one who had not ranted was her first master, the sorcerer that had changed her.  

[Kitalpha Hart]

Lukann sighed as he entered the room, which had a pallet by a fireplace, a table with a pair of stools in a corner and a trunk underneath a window. He went to the table and sat down, signing again. "How well are you at puppeteering?" he asked Butterfly.

 

[Serah of Silence]

"I am unable to be the holder of the strings." She held out her hands, to show that she did not have individual fingers, but blocks with the impression of fingers.  

[Kitalpha Hart]

"Argh. And I'm out of money. The only skill I have is puppeteering, and I don't even know if I can do that anymore! Argh!"

 

[Serah of Silence]

The marionette watched in silence as her master ranted and the crow carrying her soul flew away. When it got too far away, the marionette collasped, her strings becoming visible once more.  

[Kitalpha Hart]

Lukann's jaw dropped as Butterfly fell, becoming a true marionette again. "No!" he breathed, rushing over to her. She still felt too real to be a life-size marionette, but she looked like one. Sighing, he carefully placed her in a sitting position and went to the stable, where he had an elderly horse and a run-down wagon. He led the horse over to the home he had been renting a room from and packed the trunk and lifeless Butterfly into it. He then hopped on and slowly plodded out of the village.

~time skip~

Lukann smiled as he set up the stage, dressing Butterfly, still lifeless, in a beautiful dress. "Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that I was fated to meet you." he said. "I'd been struggling to survive on what I loved. Now, I'm being called for at places that had turned me down." humming, he picked up the marionette and carried her over to the innkeeper's wife, who would put the marionette's hair up, so that he could get ready himself, which consisted of pulling his hair up and out of the way and better clothes than his everyday wear.
"Waah!" he gasped, startled. "You're back!" The strange crow was back indeed. "Butterfly's going to startle people. I hope they don't mind..."

 

[Serah of Silence]

The marionette felt her mobility return. Her soul had not gone too far, so she remembered what had happened over the past few weeks. She remained limp, giving no indication that she could move. She was sure her master knew, though, as she was returned to him.