She slept like a log. Those twelve hours the girl had promised turned into twenty-four, a freaking day before she woke up. If only I could become an alarm clock, I would have shaken her shoulders like my brothers used to do.
A bear. That was what I wanted to call the girl the first time I saw her, a hibernating girl.
I did not mind since I was a puppet, or at least I believed I was. My body did not need sleep or rest. I did not feel any sensation at all. All I had to do was to check if my presence was still intact inside my body. It would become disastrous if I were not who I am.
Even though I can seal my eyes, I did not. There was no point in closing my eyelids, so I sought the room for anything that could pique my interest. It was more entertaining to look around the place for twenty-four hours, no sarcasm intended.
All I had was time.
There was a frame at the side of her desk. I could not discern the image, given the distance between the board and me. Beside the girl, a handful of needles and cotton stuffing greeted my eyes. It was an entire stack that could become a mattress someday. Too bad I was not into puppets, but beds that would make me comfortable.
The girl probably needed one right now, since she was sleeping in her chair. Sometimes she would budge a muscle and scratch her back. Despite these actions, the girl was still an angel for me to look at.
'If only she could make those mountains of cotton as pillows, the girl might have a blissful night.' I thought, and joked around.
I already knew that the two of us were in a cave. The roof gave it away. If this place was a house, I could effortlessly perceive through the floorings and ceilings.
After waiting for a day, the girl nudged her head and rubbed her exhausted eyes. A soft moan escaped her mouth as she tried to look for me.
"Oh, you're still there! It's not a dream! You never left!" She expressed, and raced through me with crazed hair.
'Did she think I would run away?' I could not help but voiced my concerns inside my head. And even if I could move, I would not flee.
I blinked, using my fake orbs, and tried wiggling my pupils. She carved my face with a pocket-size hole. The girl meant it for my mouth, but I lacked the voicebox to exclaim my words. It was the only thing that I could do to convey my message.
"Ah, yes! The voice! You need a voice. Got it!" Despite waking up, the girl had energy like a monkey. If the cavern had swings, she would sway from corner to corner like a primate. "We just need to go outside and take that bat down."
She unravelled the scroll, which I had seen yesterday. There was thousands of dust accumulated from the sheet. The girl huffed a breath and blew the particles away before reading its contents. It was the same pad with the arrow pointing toward the ominous-looking bat.
'I have a terrible feeling about this.' I wanted to scream and stop the girl, but I couldn't. It was up to the lady to decide what to do and where to go.
She prepared her things and wore a protective grey tunic imbued with something spiralling around it. It fitted perfectly with her gothic outfit, but the girl needed more than that to defeat such a cruel monster. I knew because I had played billions of fighting games in my previous life.
The lass did not have any weapon in her fingers. 'Does she plan on taking them with her bare hands?' I thought, and scrutinized her. If she schemed to take the bad boy down, the girl might want to have something that she can smack the bat with. Something like a baton would do or a pipe large enough to do the work.
But with such energy brimming inside of her, I thought she got this in the bag. The girl needed to win that battle.
After an hour of preparing what she needed, the woman turned around and met my eyes. Her shoulder dropped as soon as she returned my gaze. There was a tear in her eyes that the girl fought to obstruct.
There must be something out there in the wild that made this girl terrified. The unknown was a frightening place, and a little girl should not be in this cave. Her hands quivered as she sauntered towards me. Her breaths became slow as the girl opened her mouth.
"Should I leave you here, or should I carry you there?"
A long pause stood between the two of us. The girl drowned herself in thought, desperately grasping up a plan for what lay ahead. She was undecided about me. After a few seconds of thinking, she trundled onward and extended her arms.
'Did she want to hug me?' Her actions were very confusing to me. But I wanted for something to happen. I just had to wait for it.
"Two strings attached, so I take one away from mine. Let magic pour into the puppet. Let him live his way like humankind. Give him the heart to protect me in time." The girl chanted a peculiar set of sentences to me.
A stream of radiance filled her hands and reached in my direction. The light glowed all of our surroundings, but there was no fire. It was purely the luminance that escaped her palms.
It was magic, an otherworldly existence that we lacked back on Earth. And it was the best thing I ever saw with my eyes.
After her enchantment, everything in and on around me became light. It did not weigh like a feather, but I could move like before.
I stretched my fingers and retracted them afterwards. I tried to kick my legs forward and pulled them out once again. No force hindered me from moving. It was as if my body was again under my control!
But the sensation never kicked in immediately to me. Like a baby learning to crawl, I first needed to walk. It was the other way around.
I stood up from my seat and carried my weight to stand upright. The world around me shifted as I stared at the girl within eye length.
She was in front of me, up close, before I could touch her. And so I did. I extended my arms and caressed her face. There was no soft sensation that ran through my cotton hands, but I knew she was alive. I knew the girl had warmth inside and outside her body.
The little girl widened her eyes as she locked her orbs into mine. She raised her hand and grasped my fingers, touching her face.
"Your name is Mask, okay?" the girl spoke in a cheerful tone.
I nodded in return, telling her I could hear her words. Much to her surprise, the girl elevated her eyebrows. She never thought that I understood her words. But I did. It was loud and clear.
My name was Mask, a doll created by this girl. I had a fresh vessel. The name was ironic, since the word was a translation of my Japanese name. I perceived that the language used inside this world was universal for humans but not for other species, if they had any. But the language itself was not my concern for now.
"I don't want to lose you too," the girl whispered to me, and held my hand. I gripped back and grasped hers as tight as I could.
I used my free hand to wipe the cascading tear from her eyes. She did not want to see me perish, and her expression was showing on her face. I did not want to see her die.
All I could do was shake my head and reassure her I would live. I did not know what past she had come through, but time was different right now. She had me, and I had her. If we work as a team, maybe we could reign victorious against this Dracula or bat, or whatever this world called the creature.
"I need you to stay away from me as much as possible. I can handle myself, okay? Just leave me if things get out of hand," the girl instructed, and pushed the gigantic shelf to the side.
There was a burrow that reached underground. I looked at the abyss, and the abyss looked back.
"Trust me on this one, okay? I can fight those beasts in no time!" Despite fighting against monsters that I did not know, her expression never fades.
The girl still had her wobbly movements and chuffed expression. But her efforts paid off, since I never felt afraid. I was ready to face them. If I needed to protect her and give my life, I would do it all again.
The girl was the only thing in this world that I wanted to live.