Have you heard of the legend of the first toy; the first Saviorspraise gift? I’m sure you have. Everyone in Ritrio has heard of Gelandra’s Redemption. We all know how the gift was given; how the king loved it so much he instituted a winter holiday for each of us.
But there aren’t many who know of how this little soldier was made. It’s been so long that we’ve forgotten about the little soldier’s origins; even though she remains in use to this day.
What? Yes, I meant ‘she’; not ‘it’. You'll know why in a moment.
This tale should have taken place on a dark and stormy night. However, like most major breakthroughs and discoveries, this story began on a day that was completely and utterly mundane. The night sky was clear, the stars shone, and the moon lit a small room in a tinkerer’s shop…
“Are you sure I should really be doing this?” Karen looked up at her mentor worriedly.
Karen was a young woman with fiery red locks of hair. Unlock many others with such coloration, she’d chosen the life of a craftsman for her own. That said, she had a lot to learn in order to offer her skills to the world, so she’d had to find a master.
Said mentor was a master artificer, one of the best in the lands of Old Ritrio. The elderly woman had gone by ‘Gelandra’ before she’d been dishonored. Now, she simply went by the monicker ‘Smith’. And right now, Smith had what she thought was a surefire plan to get herself back in the Royal Court’s graces.
All it took was a little bit of help from her apprentice, who was currently strapped face-down on a table.
“I’m really not sure this is a good plan…” Karen wriggled slightly on the cool wood, groaning at how it felt on her skin. On the one hand, it was polished and lacquered; so she had no fear of splinters. On the other, that meant it was abominably cool against her skin; leaving her trembling in the cool winter air.
“I’m positive it is.” Smith laughed, her voice raspy and harsh. She cleared her throat to chuckle in a more matronly manner.
“Yeah, that’s not really helping.” Karen mumbled. “So you wanted me here to be some sort of gift for… Saviorspraise? What the hell is that, anyways?”
“Something from another world.” Smith waved dismissively. “In their language, it sounds like ‘Krisst-mass’. Apparently it’s a time for gift-giving.”
“You mean kissing up?” Karen giggled. She knew Smith was desperate to get back in the reigning house’s good graces.
“Precisely.” Smith clicked her fingers appreciatively. “So, we present our lord’s children with a gift on this little holiday; problem solved.” She went back to her workbench, just a little bit past Karen’s line of sight.
The young woman pouted, trying to get comfortable on the bench. “Honestly, would it kill you to get the heating globes turned on for this?” The worst part was that Karen could see the inert orbs. She knew that if she was just undone for a moment, she could get them going, leave the room nice and warm.
“No no, can’t have it too warm in here. Some of the spells and runes I’m using are temperature sensitive.” Smith chuckled, fumbling with something. Whatever it was, it sounded heavy.
Karen frowned, biting her lower lip in nervousness. “Wait… But aren’t temperature-dependent spells usually related to living things?” She fidgeted a little more against her restraints, noticing for the first time that they were uncomfortably tight.
“They are, yes.” Smith clapped, and the air before Karen shimmered.
The redhead’s eyes widened as a mirror shimmered into existence before her. She could see Smith standing just behind her, holding what seemed to be a giant brass key.
“Um… Boss? What are you doing with that?” Karen laughed weakly, already suspecting the answer.
“You’ll see.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Watch-” Smith paused to heft something, “and find out.”
Karen returned her attention to the mirror, watching Smith lift the key well above her prone assistant’s body.
“Hold still.” Smith muttered.
Karen obeyed without question. No matter what her master was doing, it would only be worse if Smith slipped up. Karen had read the reports of the woman’s disgrace.
“Good.” Smith said. Then she drove the key down.
Karen yelped as the cool gold met with her back. It was uncomfortable, ice flowing through her veins like she was being branded. She whimpered, doing her best not to squirm against the chilly metal. She could feel the round nub of the key poking into the small of her back, feel its weight on her spine.
“How’s that?” Smith huffed, wheeling some of the table’s arms to hold the key in place.
“It’s cold. What are you doing? And why in the nine hells are you doing this to me?” Karen glared at her mentor in the mirror.
“You’ll see.” Smith said, her constant answer whenever she was being intentionally elusive. She smiled wider, following the quirk of her lips with a click of her fingers. The arms holding the key aloft began to press down, and Karen squeaked.
It felt like the key was heating up, small runes tracing from the key onto the girl’s back. She started to squirm in discomfort, feeling the key begin to press deeper. It was almost like the metal was sinking into her body.
A loud click filled the room and Karen’s body shuddered and spasmed. The key had met with her spine, driving into her with great force. Karen yelped and shuddered, her whole body falling still a moment later.
“Whuzzgoinon?” She slurred, her mind still reeling from the sensation of her body merging with the key. She tried to move her limbs, but they couldn’t even budge the restraints. It was like her entire body had gone numb around her, leaving her securely fastened to the table.
“Change. My masterpiece.” Smith grinned, years of age disappearing from her face as she smiled. “This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for.”
“What is?” Karen asked, already suspecting that her mentor wasn’t done with her yet. Her assumptions were correct, a cool sensation rapidly spreading across her back. It was like the key was pouring some liquid across her body, a quicksilver that clung tightly to her skin.
And it didn’t stop at her back; it kept flowing across her body. As it reached her shoulder, Karen inclined her head to get a closer look.
Then she screamed.
The metal wasn’t covering her skin; the metal was her skin. As she watched, her bicep became more and more reflective; shiny and crimson metal. Her forearm was next, and Karen squeezed her eyes shut in disbelief.
Smith chuckled. “This can’t be happening!” She mock-wailed. “That must be what you’re thinking, right? Wrong. This is why I was disgraced. Because I tried ths years ago, when I wasn’t ready. Of course it wouldn’t work, too many minutiae, too many errors! I wasn’t nearly good enough then!”
Karen wanted to keep her eyes closed, but her hands started to feel odd. It was like something else was happening to them, something more than simply changing to metal. She cracked open and eye and immediately wished she didn’t.
Her fingers had fused into an amorphous mitten, a shiny silver lump with a blob for a thumb. Karen groaned aloud, feeling the changes sweep to her chest. And from all she could tell, her chest was rounding out; becoming a mold of a female outline.
Her blind spot made it even worse: she couldn’t see the details but she could feel everything.
Karen could feel her belly button filling up, becoming a smooth red plate. She could feel silvery stripes crossing from her shoulders to her hips. And she could feel small silver and gold buttons appearing on the red ‘jacket’ that was her body.
“Why are you doing this?” Karen screamed, feeling the changes sliding up her neck. She looked back down to her shoulders to find that the joints were exaggerated red balls; no doubt there to give her motion. She’d designed toys like that a hundred times in the past few years; but to become one!
The wave of metal swept up the back of Karen’s head first. Her hair started to become a metal mold, drawing into a bun. Any excess hair swept to the top of her head, where it twisted and reformed into a soldier’s black cap.
Smith sighed, running her fingers along the back of Karen’s hard hair. “Honor. Dignity. To show that my idea was right, if not my methodology.”
“And you think they’ll take you back after—after this?” Karen’s eyes were wide and pleading as the metal slowly slipped over them. Her ears felt cool and she could only whimper as they simply absorbed into her head, becoming
She forced her eyes closed, then yelped as they were pulled open. The metal flowed across her wide eyeballs, changing them into opaque obsidian orbs. Karen gasped and gagged as the metal flowed to her nose next, yanking it from her into a cool peg.
Karen looked up to see her head had almost entirely become a perfectly round ball. All that was left was her mouth and her chin. She tried to think of one last thing to say, one last quip. Nothing came to mind, and she could only watch as her mouth sealed over forever.
Instead of human lips, all she had was a smiling line sculpted into her smooth ball-head. Her cheeks were still flushed; a shade darker than the rest of her peach-tinted metal. She let her head fall loose, hearing more than feeling its dull clunk against the wood.
“We’re not done yet, my dear.” Somehow Smith’s voice was able to carry through to the helpless toy. Karen’s world spun as she was lifted onto her back.
Funny, Karen hadn’t even noticed the restraints being removed. The transformed girl began to realize just how unnerving this world without touch really was. She watched in the mirror as Smith walked behind her, dreading the woman’s next actions.
Sure enough, the woman reached her hands up to the key in Karen’s back. With a start, Karen realized that she couldn’t ‘feel’, but she could still detect the workings of her inner body.
So when Smith held her key, she could feel the new gears and servos in her body tense. Karen could only imagine what would happen when the woman turned her key…
When it did come, it was like nothing Karen could have expected. Her whole body jerked into life, stiffening in a locked posture: arms and legs fully extended.
With the next turn though, nothing seemed to happen. Her gears moved and she felt tense, but nothing happened; she was still a soldier. Her key turned again, and nothing about Karen had changed again.
Except… Except for the world around her. Everything looked bigger. Another turn confirmed this, the table getting even bigger beneath Karen. She shivered mentally as she continued to shrink, down and down.
She dwindled; her form cramping down to just a few inches tall. Karen would have squeaked if she could; she was so tiny! It looked like Smith was twenty times her size, like she was a giantess!
Smith knelt down, picking up the little doll with a smile. She straightened out the toy soldier’s arms and legs, placing her on the table. “My little masterpiece.” She cooed with a fond smile. “Just like that otherworldly toy, yet so much better.”
Karen railed against her confines. She tried to fight, to wobble, or even to at least twitch! But nothing the diminutive girl could do made any difference. Her body was paralyzed, leaving her stuck in place.
Smith grinned, tapping the little toy’s hat. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave you like this.”
Karen’s metaphorical heart soared. She was going to be changed back! This was wonderful news!
Then Smith turned Karen’s key again, a dull haze settling in across the young woman’s mind.
Karen panicked, struggling more. The haze ebbed slightly as she fought it, but Smith turned the key again.
It was like her mind was lost in a thick fog, and her every attempt to free herself left her further and further adrift. She whimpered in distress, feeling herself begin to ebb away. Her memories; personality; even thoughts were leaving her, perhaps forever.
With a small start, the little soldier realized she couldn’t even remember her name. Then she thought better. She was Toy Soldier; she had no other name. Why would she be worried of having lost anything? She was completely; perfectly whole.
As though she sensed that her creation’s mind was fully blank, Smith let go of the little soldier’s key, saying a single word: “March.”
Toy Soldier began to march obediently across the desk, turning with a stiff salute. Then she marched back to her original position, saluted, and repeated. And repeated. And repeated.
“Stop.” Smith’s voice seemed to reverberate through Toy Soldier’s mind.
Toy Soldier ground to a stiff halt, saluting as she did.
“Raise your right leg.”
Toy Soldier obeyed with another salute.
“Raise your left leg.”
Toy Soldier did that as well, clunking onto her backside. It didn’t matter that she had fallen; she’d been ordered to. She saluted as best she could on her back.
“Get up.”
This time, the command was more complex. But Toy Soldier was perfectly obedient. She rolled to her hands and knees, then pushed herself back to her feet. She finished with an obedient salute. Toy Soldier would be proud, if she could still express such an emotion.
“Perfect. Back to marching.”
Finally, her key started to wind down, and Toy Soldier stopped marching. She gave one final salute, ratcheting her arm down as she took a stiff stance.
Smith knelt down, picking up Toy Soldier with a huge smile. “Perfect.” She grinned, placing the shrunken woman into a box. “Sit tight.” She said, shutting the box.
Time passed. Toy Soldier didn’t know and didn’t care. All that she knew was that she would be wound in the future. For now, she had to wait in her box patiently and blankly.
Patiently and blankly.
Patiently and. Blankly.
Patiently. And. Blankly.
Patiently… And…
Blank…
Blank…
B...
And with that last semblance of a thought, Toy Soldier’s story draws to a close. She was gifted the next day in the ceremony we’re so familiar with; that age-old tale.
What? No need to look at me so funnily. I’m sure you’ve heard that the sweetest of tales can have a dark origin.
Besides, it’s done us such good! Thanks to the first Saviorspraise, I have the time to tell you this story. And it’s thanks to Toy Soldier that we had the first Saviorspraise, a time of gift-giving and cheer.
And don’t worry; Toy Soldier’s doing just fine. At least, I assume she is. After all, she hasn’t stopped smiling since she was made, has she?
Now, I think you’d best get a good rest. We’ll have to open presents tomorrow, you know. And if yours aren’t good… Well, remember that I am the current Master Artificer, and that as such I’ve learned every one of my predecessor’s techniques.
Every. Last. One of them.
Well, sweet dreams!