The puppet did not think. That was not entirely true even the spirits of plants had thoughts of their own small simple things that would have been to insignificant to notice when displayed to one of the more advanced being that dwelt on the earth. But they did exist and that was what mattered.

The puppet had been made with a simple set of instructions programmed into it by the one who had fashioned it. He was famous now or at the very least infamous as the name of seven bells was carried far and wide across the lands known now by every child as a monster and a killer. A murderer par excellence who used wooden effigies to claim his victims.  This puppet was one of these effigies though it had not been taken to war to fight with seven bells. After all it was uncontrollable and it simply existed to kill and devour. These were easy commands, the command to obey however was something that it would never understand and thus it was useless to the cause of seven bells.

It was left out in the wilderness to fend for itself if indeed that was the correct term for it. And so it found a lay line and began to drink of the energy that was inherent in the earth.

Several months later.

Akane was not feeling one hundred percent about this indeed she was getting all kinds of weird premonitions about this one. However the lay line had been a constant in her life, stable as the very earth that it flowed through . The fact that something was tampering with the huge source of nature chakra that dwelt within disturbed her on a level that went further than the surface thoughts that rose to the front of her mind.  Those who dwelt within civilisation would stop at nothing to ruin the lives of her people they would not rest until absolutely everything was turned to shit and there was nothing sacred left in the world of the living.  

And so she went out alone to find out exactly what was causing the trouble.

It did not take her practically long to find the cause.

The puppet had absolutely no care in regards to hiding it’s presence and at eight feet in height it would have had very little success hiding on the exposed hill even if it did wish for concealment. Akane gave the construct the same courtesy walking straight up to the automaton  staring right at its painted face the entire time. Whether or not it saw from it’s eyes or not made little difference to Akane the gesture of defiance alone was worth carrying out the action for. The puppet did seem to grasp her presence though and by the way it’s head rotated Akane suspected that it was about to spring some form of attack on her.  Indeed when the machine began to fire needles out at a great rate from hidden guns inside it’s form Akane was not in the least bit surprised.

Using one of the rocks in the area she substituted for it giving her full view of the lone constructs back. Taking the chance she started to accelerate towards it gathering speed as she readied herself to smash it with full force. The blow impacted in the centre of the puppets back causing it to jolt slightly and rock back and forth on it’s legs.  However it did not break which meant that Akane could defiantly expect some manner of counter attack to be forth coming.

Indeed it was. The Puppet span on it’s legs with a blow aimed at Akane’s cranium . It would have hurt like a right bitch if it actually hit but Akane was ready for this she wound her head back and smashed her horns right into the things face. Another shudder and another wobble. But the mechanical man did not fall. This time it’s couter attack took Akane by surprise with it’s speed and ferocity sending her flying a good eight meters and knocking the wind from her lungs. Angry spots of static played about her vision as the sky began to focus in and out . She was tougher than this though  - she needed to get up and back into the fight. After all she was not some stupid village bitch who sat there in the mud and cried for the constables whenever something even the slightest bit bad or worrying happened. She hated the law and the law hated her and thus she would make her own way in life and everyone else could simply go and get screwed by whatever large animal took their fancy.  

The puppets heavy sole came down embedding deep into the loamy soil of the mountainside  where Akanes head had been several minutes prior. Akane leapt back willing her fist into the biggest and most dense lump of carapace she could hope for. The damn thing was HEAVY and she knew that lugging it around for too long would only serve to tire her out. So instead she charged again on a head on collision with the war formed puppet. The puppets defences kicked in and it began to fire needles at an alarming rate towards Akane. However the carapace ball turned out to be a blessing in more ways than one as the needles merely bounced and ricocheted off the hardened limb. Pivoting upwards Akane latched one hand on the puppets shoulder and the flipped high into the air above the puppet. The puppet was faster than she had first anticipated but not nearly enough to avoid the spinning drop Akane made onto it’s head crunching the inbuilt machinery with a highly satisfying cracking noise.  

“Serves you right you stupid mother-XXXXXX. Don’t try to suck out all the earths gods-damn energy  just to power your greedy carcass.”

Now blind the mechanical man started to swing it’s arms in great arcs hoping to clip Akane with one of the blows.
She danced and weaved taunting the puppet with each spring she made. She didn’t care if it understood it or not. There was plenty of torment in the world and it was necessary to spread it around so that it did not pile up on you and drown you in filth.  But alas as it was with such things Akane had begun to enjoy herself too much and everyone who is weaned from their mothers knows that when one drinks well and thorough there will be a hangover to remind them that the world demanded payment.


The payment in this case was the paper bombs that the puppet launched at the ground surrounding it’s feet. This time the impact didn’t just throw Akane but it also set her already fiery hair literally ablaze with the heat.  She hit the soil and rolled hoping that the flames would be smothered by the moist dirt that made up the hill.  Directly behind her rose a large tree and behind that a drop of around 60 feet.  

that might not kill her but she knew that it would damn well hurt if she managed to turn up the bad luck of taking the tumble. And it seemed that the puppet knew where she was.  How was it managing that …..?

Akanes mind clicked. It was her nature energy that was being used to target her. The puppet viewed her the same way it did the ley line as her body acted as a natural conduit and sponge for such energies. Taking advantage of this she flared the nature chakra in her body so that it would act as a beacon to the puppet. The construct picked up steam and Akane leapt into the air with catlike movements her claw like nails (Or was it nail like claws?) digging into one of the branches of the tree.

The wood of the plant creaked as the puppet smashed full force in the tree and Akane held on for dear life.  Latching onto the end of the branch she swung pulling her weight down as hard as she could ripping the limb from the tree as she fell.

The puppet was in the middle of spinning around to face her when she smashed into its legs with the makeshift club crunching it’s ankles in a mangling of gears and springs.  A boot to its chest and the foe was free falling through the air before impacting with the ground blow.

While it was probably out of commission by now Akane didn’t want to take any chances with it somehow creeping away or getting found by some wandering tinker stupid enough to fix the damned thing. She fitted her back against the already unsteady tree and with all her might heaved with her thighs and lower back muscles . The tree creaked and gave way along with a chunk of the ground around it. Akane leapt forward kicking off the trunk and putting as much distance between herself and the ledge as possible.
Before she left she took a look at the puppets remains.

You could tell that it had been something mechanical. But the whats and whys were gone now and the screws and wiring were jarred and bent.

Soon the forest would rise up and devour the remains.

“Good XXXXXXX riddance”

Akane muttered to herself as she walked off.

1569/1500 words