Un fabricante de muñecas hace muñecas Wraithvine y amigos como regalos. -- Anon Guest
[AN: Translated - A doll maker makes Wraithvine and friends dolls as gifts.]
The good news was... the village was saved. The bad news was that the heroes who did it had to be dragged back on stretchers. Well. Mostly stretchers. One had to be hauled back on a cart.
Things were much easier when the potion of Giant's Force wore off and Zygorguk returned to their normal size. The Bugbear and the Troll received what care the village could give. At least a Troll could heal rapidly on their own.
Wraithvine woke in a comfortable bed, a lot of bandages, and more than a few splints keeping hir limbs safely still. Over on a neighbouring bed, Kraash the Bugbear was in a similar pickle. Sitting watch across the way was one of the villagers, working carefully on some wood carvings. To be more accurate, he was worrying at the wood with a series of files and one very small starmetal blade.
After a moment of observing the man in motion, Wraithvine cleared hir throat. "Er... What are you doing?"
"Hm?" the man looked up and blinked myopically in Wraithvine's direction. "Oh. A little something to commemorate your victory, I suppose. You'll be getting these prototypes so I'm making certain they last." He waggled his work, which was a headless torso of Elven proportions. There was a hole through the shoulders. "Hard ironwood certainly lives up to its name."
"You're... making dolls of us?"
"There'll be other gifts, for certain," said the toymaker, returning to his grinding work. "From each according to their skills. But I make toys. My eyes were never good for seeing anything at a distance. So I make small things. Detailed things. I sell a lot of them to merchants, to be honest. The toys that stay here are made specifically for the child in mind. And this one," another waggle of the wooden torso, "is for you."
Which was why he was making it out of hard ironwood. So it could last at least a few eons.
By the time they recovered, there was an effigy of each of them, and a set for each of the village children, though the latter were less complicated and only a little less hardy.
Wraithvine's miniature copy was fully pose-able and included details like the patches of hir removable hat, sculpted braids on the head, and intricate patterns on the painted robes.
The children absolutely adored the soft Bugbear toys, and the little Troll poppets.
[Photo by Oxana Lyashenko on Unsplash]
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