Chapter 1.5: The parents are worried….

As the morning sun rose over the Gemini forest, a young girl in her teenage years with eyes of amber and hair as white as snow prepared to leave her domicile, a brewery/house located within the edges of a village that was surrounded by a large circle of strange stones. Unbeknownst to her, however, an unusual creature watched her prepare from the ceiling rafters just out of sight.

This creature, at a glance, appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary rag doll with buttons for eyes and a little green dress. But upon close inspection, one could see rusty pins piercing the doll in various parts of its body and that tears flower constantly from its button eyes. This creature was a majimonster known as an Effigy.

The Effigy watched as the young girl proceeded to finish packing and left the house. In a flurry of activity, the Effigy got up and proceeded to walk on the rafters until she got to a specific part of the ceiling. It then took out one of the rusted needles in its body and jabbed upward, opening a hidden door on the ceiling and climbed through it.

The Effigy had entered into a bedroom containing a dresser, a mirror above said dresser and a shelf filled with various knick-knacks made of all sorts of materials and several colorful crystals. At the center of the room was a large bed where a couple, a middle-aged man and woman, was currently sleeping. The Effigy proceeded to crawled on top of the bed and sat where the woman was sleeping.

"Master, your little magpie has flown the nest", the Effigy said to the woman without moving her mouth or making sounds.

"Thank You, Ellie. Now go get some rest", the woman said with a sigh after turning over to face the Effigy. With a bow, the rag-doll monster turned into a shower of blue light and flew into a ring embedded with a blue crystal on the woman's finger. After the Effigy disappeared, the woman turned to her husband and said "You know I don't approve of this trial by fire method right?"

"I am aware darling, but we agreed we wouldn't teach our kids the binding arts unless they somehow bounded a monster on their own. That way we can keep us, that thing and more importantly them, safe from...you know who.", the man replied with weariness in his voice.

"Fine...I suppose the worst case is that she'll run home and not have to follow our footsteps", the woman responded.