The Doll

Roads were a wonderful thing to discover for him. Instead of stumbling and tripping through the underbrush, jumping at the sound of branches banging against his hollow metal body every time he passed a bush or small tree, there it lay in the middle of no were, a straight line of hard packed soil, occasionally intermingled with bits of rock of variable size and with no grass or trees in arms length it had a delightful familiarity to his home, the Chessboard.
He had only heard of these things called “Roads” was during one game the Master had played with a friend. In between their commands to the Chess pieces they discussed the difficultly they were having travelling to each others homes due to someone being derelict in their duty to protect the Roads from something called “Bandits”.

Although Bishop, the wisest and most intelligent of all the Chess pieces had been gracious enough to explain what a Road was, he did not know what a “Bandits” was. “Perhaps it is an animal that like to eat Roads.” Bishop had hypothesized and so it remained forever a mystery to him while Bishop still moved. “Poor Bishop” he thought sadly for a moment, “He would be fascinated to travel this dirty long Chess board called a Road.”
So he travelled onwards, feeling the texture of the sand under his feet and enjoying the scenery of trees and grass that framed the road when he noticed a large gathering of humans further up the road.
“Oh dear,” he thought stopping dead in his tracks. “Those humans look quite upset…” suddenly one human raised his head over his companions only to stare directly at this cast-iron intruder.
“Oh dear.” He thought again as the man suddenly shouting blue murder brought his friends attention to the forgotten chess piece.

The humans, all men ran towards our hero shouting and having a very grateful look on their faces as they surrounded the chess piece who was far too shocked and confused to try and make an escape.
“Oh, Sir Knight, are we glad to see one of the knighthood along this road!” one of the men cried sounding very relieved.
“Eh?” he thought very confused by the sudden turn of events
“Sir Knight we’ve found a demon in the forest.” Another man said as several more began to push and prod at the Chess Piece from behind, pushing him along. “I think they think I’m just like them, just a human man wearing armour.” The chess piece thought distressed.
“It makes itself appear as a beautiful woman dancing like a ghost in the dark woods.” Another man said “We are too frightened to try and drive the demon off, Sir Knight you must help us!”
If they expected him to respond the human men gave him no chance to do so as they pressed a poorly crafted sword into his iron hands and pushed him off the road and into the woods “the blade should be enough for you my lord!” said the first man who had spoken. “It’s not far into the woods you should see the devil right away!”

The chess piece looked back at the men with despairing confusion before a sound caught his attention before him, the quiet refrain of bells far into the depths of the dark green wood.
Curiosity drove him now pushing his footsteps into the dark and entangled wood that he would not have willingly gone into only minutes before.
He followed the bells, his only guide his sense of hearing even if he had no ears to speak of, tripping over fallen logs and jumping in fright at the sound of snapping twigs or the bang of branches hitting him. Listening to the Bells increasing strength until the forest opened and deposited him before a large house.

It was an elegant house, unlike his Creator’s fortress it was made mostly from wood, crafted into elegant swirls and shapes to make the house look even more magnificent and opulent, at least that’s how it would look if it had not been ravaged with fire damage and decay. Enough for him to guess that seventy years had passed since the fire that destroyed most of the building and enough time for the forest to hide it in its boughs.

He dropped the sword, long forgotten as he climbed the front stair, following the sound of bells, now harmonized with faint violin, oboe and acoustic guitar, he passed through the front doorway, quite possibly stepping in the mortal remains of the door in the process his ruby eyes focused on the creature that kept a graceful magnificent time to the music that played.
She was made of something he had never seen before, not like the iron or cloth or wood that most of his fellow chess pieces had been made off. She was made of something smooth, and supple enough for her to sway and step smoother than anything he had seen before. She wore an elegant gown made of fine silks and cloths, gemstones decorating around her shoulders and collar. She had fine silvery hair wrapped in a neat bun, a tie made of gold keeping it in place.
“What a lovely being this creature is.” He thought marveling as she pirouetted around the floor, dirt dust and debris has been cleaned away it seemed for the soul purpose of allowing her to move unencumbered. “Is this a demon?”

Almost as if she could hear his thoughts she stopped and with her pause the music was stilled. She looked over at him, her eyes solid Amethyst as his was solid Ruby.
“Hello.” She said though her mouth never moved. “I am Allegra. While people lived here I was built to teach dancing.” She tilted her head slightly “Who are you?”
He felt distress and frustration build up…what was he to say? How could he say anything, he had never spoken before.
The doll called Allegra seemed to sense his frustration. “You are a golem like myself,” She said with gentle understanding, “Of couse speaking is hard, and it took ten years for me to teach myself how. Just go slowly and feel the words in your mouth before trying.”
The way she described it was very odd for he had no mouth, only a metal face plate that covered most of his face but the sensation was there as he concentrated hard on what he wanted to say.
“Nnnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiighhhhhht.” He slurred out the word “thhheey kalled mee Ku-nniiiight so I sssssssssuppose thhhat issss maaai naaaaame.” He stepped away embarrassed, how could such a lovely thing be so smart to speak so well so fast while he remained silent for five hundred years?

Allegra laid a hand softly against his shoulder as if to quell his distress “It is very nice to meet you Knight.”
It was then he noticed the look on her eternally frozen face, a look of gratitude, of such joy it looked like she could die from it. “Have you been alone for a very long time?” she asked gently.
He nodded, too afraid to attempt speaking again.
“Were you very lonely?”
He nodded again before Allegra abruptly hugged him. “How could you bear it?” she asked sounding almost if she were about to cry if she had been able to.
“I was going to die you know,” She said “I couldn’t stand being all alone for so long, the humans who come near are frightened of me, so I was going to stop moving.” He placed a hand around her as if to shield her from whatever sadness that made her speak so.  
“But it’s alright now that there’s someone else…You’ll let me stay with you right?”
“Ooof Coaaarsse.” He slurred out once again this time not as embarrassed of his grotesque speech impediment.

She released him from her embrace, no words were spoken but the idea was clear.
“It isn’t a good idea, I don’t know how to move like you,” he conveyed silently, “I am not as light and graceful as you.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She replied equally as silent as she led him to the dance floor, a soft golden melody began floating in the air as the two golems waltzed gently about the room, the dust and ash and decay seeming to fade away leaving only golden light and a strange delight Knight had not felt since the last of his brethren had stopped moving long ago. “Thank you Knight.” Allegra said laying her head against his metal chest. “It has been so long since I danced with a partner.”


A shot rang out and the music was stilled violently as Allegra jerked suddenly. Knight held her tightly as she sank to the floor, green slime soaking through the back of her gown from the bullet hole in her back.

“HA! I knew it was a matter of time before we’d get that golem!” a man’s voice shouted, knight looked up from Allegra’s face as the men from the road piled into the room crowing and cackling like wild animals. “Thanks guy for distracting her, she’d always run away if she saw us coming, must have known we were Bandits or something.”
The man said patting Knight roughly on the back as the men roamed about looking for things to take from the burned ruin.
Knight kneeled on the ground, staring at Allegra’s stilled body. He had watched his kin grow still, one by one, but somehow this pain was even worse than the sadness he had felt then. How dare they destroy something so lovely? How dare they!
“Oooh! Hey the Golem has Amethyst eyes! Those stones will fetch a pretty price on the market!” one man said pointing at Allegra.
“I’ll get em!” the leader said pulling out a large knife “Come on now mate hand over the doll, I promise you can have one of the eyes.” he said to Knight moving to grab one of Allegra’s arms. Knight instead grabbed the man’s arm instead.
“No.” He said, his speech impediment forgotten in his anger
“Ow! Sonova let go you’re crushing my wrist!” the man squawked.
“He’s hurtin’ the boss!” one of the other men shouted.
“What are you idiots waiting for!?! Ice him!” Knight’s prisoner shouted when one of the men clocked Knight over the head with a piece of wood. To the man’s misfortune though, Knight never felt a thing. To the man’s further misfortune he felt a lot when Knight plowed a fist into his face.

“Kill Him!!!” the Bandit leader screamed, his wrist having been freed when Knight had punched the other man. Knight settled for grabbing the barrel of a gun that was pointed at him and set about his task of beating the few men that was in his reach senseless with the butt of said pistol. Several more men set about trying to stab Knight through the holes in between his armour skin only to be rewarded with the hollow screech of metal against metal.
“Holy crap this guy’s a golem too!” someone shouted.


Hours later once Knight had disposed of the Bandits he finished his task for Allegra. Bishop had learnt of the human custom of burying the dead when they had found their master dead in his home, although he knew that burying a creature that had technically never been alive to begin with was rather foolish, he felt that he did not want anyone to try and take the beautiful Allegra apart after he had left. He pried the tiles of her dance floor apart and digging a small depth into the soil beyond that he gently laid Allegra into the soil.
“Thaank yeeew.” He murmured as he carefully placed boards over her burial site then went about the task of replacing the stones and tiles of the dance floor back so it appeared to have never been disturbed.

He left the ruined house, left the forest and returned to the road, changed, but wiser and a little more aware of the world around him. If only he could tell Bishop that a “Bandits” was not an animal that liked to devour roads.