Raven II
Raven stayed extremely still, as if she was staring down a Manticore.
Okay, perhaps she was overstating it a little - but she was still a little weirded out by the open eye. Raven wracked her brain to remember if the doll's features were always like that - until she realised she was freaking out over a bloody doll. Yes, of course the doll's features were always like that - a doll couldn't possibly move on its own!
Unless wood spirits exist, but Raven was a little iffy about that.
Raven gently touched the doll's eye, feeling the glassy texture of the eyeball - like a marble - and the porcelain eyelids. There weren't any joints there - and who would put so much effort into making miniscule joints for eyelids anyway - which meant the doll's eye had always been open. She had to admit, however, that the marble used to pose as the eyeball was incredibly detailed, as if it was a real eyeball.
Not that she had any point of comparison, Raven never had any dolls before - nor were there any in the Branwen Tribe. Besides, when she thinks of dolls, she imagines small handheld plastic toys - not whatever this thing is.
"You okay, sis?"
"...Yeah," Raven replied, "I got the left leg out, what about your side?"
"I got the right foot out, but its hand is really stuck in the ground."
"Really? You can get a leg out but not a hand?"
Qrow stood up, brushing off his trousers with an exasperated look.
"Well, come and try for yourself then!"
Raven made a show of sighing, before accepting his challenge. She crossed over the legs of the doll and knelt down, gripping the forearm of the doll and tugging upwards - to no avail. Pressing her lips together, she tried pulling some more, but it was as if there was something anchoring its hand in the earth.
"See? What did I tell you?"
Raven ignored him, instead starting to dig in the area around the hand to find what was holding it down. After scooping the dirt out of a little pit, she finally found the doll's right hand, clenched tightly around a root. Raven gritted her teeth and attempted to unpry its fingers, but the ball joints were as stiff as the wood itself. Well, it made sense, the doll likely hadn't been oiled in decades, maybe centuries.
Nevertheless, Raven turned around and raised an eyebrow at Qrow, gesturing to the root that the doll was holding onto.
"Yeah yeah," her brother drawled, "Bask in your condescension."
"Do you even know what that word means?" Raven asked as she began excavating the root to find the thinnest place to cut it.
"Dunno, but I heard dad tell mom that once. Bet it means you're a prick."
"You know father only tells mom that when she's right, right?"
"Well, you're right - but also a total bitch," she could just feel Qrow shrugging behind her, "...Hey, what's that?"
"What's what-"
Raven paused, lightly brushing away some dirt from the top of the root. There was a binding - a cloth wrapping around the root - the kind one would see on polearms to show where to grip. Raven glanced backwards, sharing a look with her brother. Qrow wordlessly knelt beside her, and began scooping up dirt with his bare hands, helping her dig up the not-root.
After what could've been hours - but was likely not - the both of them slumped backwards, sweating all over. In front of them was a massive pit, in it a massive weapon - as long as a man was tall, and even longer. Its handle was unpolished wood, curved and crooked - in the centre of the haft was a metal hinge, clearly meant to fold the weapon in two. Lastly, hinged to the end of the weapon was a vast curved blade with an unpolished, yet wickedly sharp edge.
A scythe.
"So…" Qrow started, "Some sort of proto-mechashift weapon?"
"More importantly," Raven raised her voice, "Why does a doll have one?"
She really ought to ask mom about those wood spirits - or any spirits at all.
Raven crept closer, running her fingers across the scythe's blade, feeling its rough texture beneath her digits. Shoddily forged, and likely never whetted, considering the cracked and jagged edge - and despite that, the blade was still a beautiful thing. Murky grey, like staring into smoke, black ripples and contours swirling within its depths. Raven had never seen a metal like it before. Upon closer inspection, she found that the blade was edged on both sides, and still quite sharp.
She tried to fold the weapon, but found it ridiculously stiff - and realised that the hinge was also probably caked with dirt and muck, and hadn't been oiled in an age. Just as she was about to give up, Qrow pushed her away and took her place, fiddling with the weapon.
"What-"
"Why would a mechashift weapon - even one as simple as this - fold so easily?" Qrow snorted, "There must be some mechanism, a lever or something, which would unlock the hinge and allow it to fold. Can you imagine if your spear folded on you in the middle of a battle?"
Raven silently winced, "Well, I'm not a weapon-freak like you, alright?"
"Yeah yeah, so let's call it even."
"Fine."
She heard an audible click, and the scythe proceeded to snap and fold on itself, sparks flying as the ancient hinge creaked violently - throwing dirt into the air. Qrow flinched, scrambling backwards, and Raven could admit she did so as well.
"Okay… so what now?"
Raven slowly got to her feet, dusting herself off as she did so.
"Help me get it upright."
"This is more effort than hunting, I swear to the gods."
"Quit whining, you big baby."
Qrow crossed over the doll's legs to the other side, and gripped the doll with both hands. Raven did the same on her side, holding the doll's shoulder as well as its waist.
"Ready?"
"Yeah."
"One, two, three-" Raven groaned as she lifted the doll up, muscles straining as she heaved.
"Gah!" With a single mighty heave, the both of them raised the doll and leaned it against the tree.
As Raven backed away, wiping her sweat away, she thanked whatever gods there were that the doll did not collapse on itself. Either the joints at its legs were caked with enough grit to stiff it completely, or the creator of the doll designed it to be so lifelike it could stand on its own. In any case…
"Yeah…" Qrow decided, "We ain't bringing that thing back to camp, much less base."
"No," Raven agreed - and she rarely agreed with her brother, but this time he had a point, "We definitely aren't."
Maybe it was the fact that the doll was half-buried, or maybe it was the fact that the doll was sitting down. Either way, they had severely underestimated its size - forget life-sized, the thing was larger than life-sized. It must be at least seven feet tall - she and Qrow were tall for their age, and yet the doll comfortably stood head and shoulders over them, maybe even more.
Even the massive scythe still gripped in its hand was dwarfed by the doll.
Furthermore, as proven by their strenuous effort to lift the doll up alone, porcelain was much, much heavier than she initially thought. Well, could you blame her? It wasn't like she had much exposure to boujie ceramics - hells, the tribe still used wooden and clay bowls!
"Think its owner had a fetish for giant women?" Qrow nudged her.
"Giant women… with scythes?"
"I think scythes are kinda cool," Qrow nodded, "Well, I guess why not?"
Raven palmed her face, "This is so stupid…"
"Hey, this was your idea in the first place."
"Right," Raven sighed, "Well, it's not like we can convince father to get a team out here just to drag back one giant doll… how long do we have until we have to return to base?"
"A day or two, I think," Qrow wetted his lips, "But… maybe we can dismantle it? It's the porcelain that's valuable, right? Take her clothes, dismantle her - and sell it all off."
"You can find porcelain anywhere in cities these days, Qrow," Raven sighed, "What's valuable here is the antiques - this doll very certainly belonged to a nobleman. We will get much, much more if we auction it off."
"Hey, it was just an idea-"
thud
Raven and Qrow flinched in unison, heads snapping to the doll. The scythe had extended, somehow, and was slammed butt-first into the ground. Raven hesitantly glanced downwards, and noticed a solid metal pommel at the butt of the scythe that she hadn't noticed before - one the size of her head. Likely used as a counterbalance, she thought, but also as a bludgeon.
But the blade - three feet of solid, razor sharp steel - was pointed straight at them. Both of them slowly backed away, very cautiously.
"Okay… Miss Doll didn't like that idea, very sorry miss… haha… ha," Qrow sucked in a deep breath before whispering in her ear, "What the fuck is going on?"
"You think I know!?" Raven harshly whispered back, "Maybe the scythe had an automatic extension… thing, or something."
"Automatic? In a hinge that simple?"
"You tell me! I don't know anything about mechashift!"
"This isn't even mechashift technology, it's fucking physics!"
"Shut the hell up, Qrow!" Raven snapped, "Why the hell are we even arguing about this!? Maybe the hinge is just faulty, okay!? Or your Semblance is telling you to stop being stupid!"
A sudden shift in light jolted them out of their argument, the entire forest dimming as the sun began to set. The shafts of sunlight shining through the canopy began to tilt at extreme angles, before disappearing completely, enveloping them in darkness.
"Okay," Raven breathed in, forcing herself to calm down, "We don't have time for this, so how about we just hide the doll here, then come back tomorrow to deal with it."
"You still want to mess with the doll!?" Qrow cried incredulously, "You're about to get us cursed or something!"
"Shut up!" Raven snapped again, "We're doing as I say."
"Alright!" Qrow threw his hands in the air, "Fine!"
Together, they hastily grabbed the doll and gently lowered it to the earth - or Qrow gently lowered it to the earth, and Raven was forced to follow his lead in order to not tilt the doll. Once the doll was sitting down on a tree root, leaning against the trunk, Qrow carefully grabbed its arms and rested the scythe on its lap.
"Okay…" Qrow muttered, "I said I'm sorry, alright? Please stop staring at me…!"
"Staring at you? Raven asked, "Qrow, what the hell are you on about?"
"T-The doll, it's staring at me," Qrow gasped, "I-I swear to the gods!"
"It's a doll, it can't stare at anything!"
To prove her point, Raven waved a hand in front of the doll's face, only to elicit no reaction at all. She even lowered herself to meet the doll's gaze, only to see it staring off into nothingness - as a doll should.
Raven stood up sharply, turning to face her brother, "See!?"
"Yeah… yeah, you're totally right," except, even as he said that, Qrow continued to stare at the doll, as if he was in a staring competition with it.
Raven swiftly cut in between him and the doll, grabbing her brother by both shoulders and shaking him.
"Listen to me!" she snarled through gritted teeth, "Get your fucking emotions in check, man, or you're going to kill both of us! And I sure as hell don't want to die because of your bloody delusions!"
She proceeded to slap him for good measure, which seemed to finally break him out of his trance.
"Fuck… man," Qrow mumbled, "Let's just… let's just go."
Qrow wasted no time in setting off back in what she presumed was the location of their campsite. Raven took a final glance at the doll, which was still staring off into the depths of the forest, before following after him. And yet, even as she kept her focus on the path ahead, she couldn't help but feel an itch at the back of neck, as if someone's gaze was boring into the back of her head.
Bloody wood spirits.
The forest nightlife grew in fervour around them as they made their way back to camp - the chirping of crickets, the golden glow of lightning bugs taking flight. There was a plethora of eerie noises, the crunching of dead leaves and the whisper of the wind, the sounds of nocturnal beasts prowling in the night - but they kept their calm all the same.
Keeping calm may just be the single most important thing to learn, for a bandit. They lived without walls, and so from birth they were trained to bury their emotions on command. Grimm could taste fear from leagues away, and can track you just as far. You don't take that chance, not if you valued your life.
Those 'civilised' folk probably don't realise that meditation was just as important as combat training, when living in the wild.
Raven soon came to hear the gurgling of running water, and within moments they emerged on the banks of the stream that marked the boundary within the forest. Leaping over it, they continued making good progress towards their campsite, even as the moon began to rise over them - bathing the forest in silver glow.
Abruptly, Qrow stopped in his tracks, and Raven instinctively brought a hand to her sword.
"Grimm?"
"No," Qrow murmured, "Someone's at our camp, the fire's burning."
"The fire- no, there's no other tribes around," Raven walked past him, "Probably just a messenger from base."
Even as she said those words, Raven unslung her rifle and ensured it was loaded. Bullets don't do much to Grimm, but they sure as hell punch a lethal hole in living beings - humans not excluded. She stepped carefully, stalking forwards silently.
Raven could smell the smoke in the air.
Arriving at the vicinity of the campsite, she noticed the warm glow of a lit campfire and swiftly hid herself behind a tree. Peeking out, she saw a single man sitting down by the fire, his back facing them - and his posture relaxed. From what she could tell, there was no one else around.
"Who is it?" Qrow whispered.
In response, Raven stepped out of behind the tree, making no effort to disguise her steps. If the man truly was out for them, he wouldn't be so careless.
"You from base?" she asked loudly.
The man glanced backwards, "Bit late, aye?"
Raven sighed, "Kostas, what does father want this time?"
Kostas eyed her, before averting his gaze to Qrow.
"Looks like you didn't catch anything," the man scratched his cheek, "Bad day, hm? Well, nothing for it. I got some fowls, sit down."
Raven waited for Qrow to catch up, before shooting him a heavy look. He shallowly nodded, and just like that they agreed to not speak a single word of the mysterious doll they found. Raven moved to the seat opposite of Kostas, while Qrow sat between them.
She picked a skewer from the fire, the skin brown and slightly burnt - just how she liked it.
Qrow took a bite from his own skewer, chewing for a bit before swallowing.
"Are we the last ones?" he asked.
"Nah," Kosta ripped a chunk out of his own skewer with his hands, before stuffing the meat in his mouth, "Surprise surprise, the Chief has called everyone back."
"Something came up?" Raven leaned back, "More important than food?"
"Aye," the older man glanced upwards, eyeing her, "A potential raid."
Raven could just feel Qrow stiffen up. They had participated in raids before, but never frontline roles - usually only for support, or looting, or simply observation. She knew the reason for it is so they get used to death and combat, all the children their age also went through the same process. The fact that father had sent Kostas to fetch them meant they had an important role - and Raven was willing to bet it would be the front line.
"Which village?"
"Furuzaki," Kostas simply said, "Our pickets scouted a large Grimm movement running north of the place."
She didn't respond, and neither did Qrow. After eating in silence, Kostas threw his wooden skewers into the fire and stood up, brushing off his trousers. He turned around, and only then did Raven realise the man had set up his own tent opposite of her's and Qrow's. Just before he entered the tent, the man glanced back at them.
"Take a good night's rest," he smiled, crow's eyes showing, "We leave at first light."
"Understood."
Raven shared a glance with her brother, before bowing her head to look down at her half-eaten fowl skewer.
What shitty luck.
Author's Note:
Oh yeah, feeling that rush of ideas and words I just have to write down before the momentum ends. Which is dumb, considering my mid-years are next week. See you all next time, maybe in a week, maybe tomorrow.