A Marionette's Tale: Book 3

Chapter Three

We sat there for a while and when nothing happened we moved from our hiding place to investigate what was going on, slowly we made our way to the entrance of the caves and when we saw nothing we grew confused.

"Maybe they left?" I suggested, Chanda shrugged but when we moved into the soft moonlight and the moment our needle thin feet touched the grass the snarling began again. I looked around trying to spot any sort of eyes or anything to tell us the twisted ones were still around but I saw nothing, fear began growing in my chest when I realised Chanda too had vanished. The growling died down not long after but I was still on edge, had Chanda left me or had the twisted ones taken her was my main question.

"Are you alright?" Came a dark yet gentle voice, I turned around to see a large black bear animatronic leaving the edge of the tree line. I nodded confused, I hadn't seen him around before.

"I am Ashton, the one those friends of yours spread lies about," he greeted with a bow, there was something about him and his eyes that struck fear into me yet I felt so calm and unafraid.

"I'm Marionette, and how do I know you aren't lying?" I questioned eyeing him cautiously, he raised his hands as he stepped back.

"You have no reason to trust me but I am merely trying to save you from them, they hurt me and my brother a while ago and ever since then they have been out to make us out like bad guys just because we wanted to help them see the damage they were causing," he explained, I thought over his words and they seemed to make sense. The others never really told me what happened during the battle because of "reasons" they would always say, the fact this animatronic showed no sign of causing me any harm made me relax a little.

"Why would they be so nice if they wanted to cause damage?" I blurted out, I rubbed my arm sheepishly but he didn't seem offended rather he held an understanding expression on his face.

"You see, you look like Chanda and to them that means you are automatically powerful, I can help you find your powers but I need you to trust me first, and, I need to be able to trust you not to use them against me and my brother, our faulty creations weren't meant to scare anyone, when we created them we created them because we wanted friends but those "friends" of yours set fire to our base of operations and it caused their wires to falter and now they are the way they are," Ashton explained, taking a deep breath I took a step towards him.

"Alright....... teach me how to use my powers but I don't want to be left in the dark on anything alright?" I agreed, he nodded as he held out a hand for me to take. I hesitated a moment before placing my hand in his and in moments we were somewhere else, I looked around in amazement at the large factory. Many machines were still working they just needed a little helping hand from some human items and other machines were too broken to repair and would need to be replaced, I examined every inch of the building with curious eyes. I only stopped exploring when I noticed a pair of curious blood red eyes watching me, I looked down and rubbed my arm feeling rather embarrassed for my strange behaviour.

"Nightmare this is Marionette, I filled her in on the truth behind her "friends", her terms for coming with us are we don't keep her in the dark and we show her how to use her powers," Ashton explained, Nightmare gave me a smile after hearing this and I let out a sigh of relief. I was happy they didn't show any sort of judgement towards me but my trust for them would come in time, they seemed nice enough but I still missed the company of the others.

"Marionette is it?" Came a rather dark and strange voice, I turned around to see Nightmare had come up behind me.

"Yeah I'm Marionette, you're Nightmare right?" I questioned, I needed to make sure I got everyone's names down for later just incase.

"The one and only, I heard about what happened with the cave incident, I'm sorry they left you, if it were me I wouldn't have ditched such a fine thing like you," he chuckled, I felt my cheeks burn as I giggled.

"Thanks, yeah I'm not sure what happened, I was looking around and the next minute she was gone, so much for hide in a cave where they won't find you plan, anyways it's nice to meet you Nightmare," I greeted nervously, he gave me a smile as he turned away.

"Come on let me show you around, plus from what I can tell you need more sleep, I don't blame the twisted ones for their faulty wires and confused thinking but they like to play the scary pranks on those who hurt us, that's in the past however," Nightmare offered, I nodded and followed him down the halls. The factory to my surprise was in a pretty good shape, burn marks on a few walls told they hadn't lied about the twisted ones catching fire. So far their words made perfect sense which I liked, the others hadn't really given proof to their words which I only now realised was odd.

"This place looks cool," Nightmarione whispered in the back of my mind, I couldn't argue there this place was pretty cool.

"Yeah it looks awesome," I muttered trying not to sound like an idiot who talked to themselves, if Nightmare had heard me he didn't make any stance to force me to tell him.

"Here is where you will be staying, don't mind the mess it's been a long time since we've had any sort of guests," Nightmare chuckled rather embarrassed by the few scraps of metal and such on the ground, I gave him a thankful smile as he left.

"A few scraps of rusted metal never hurt anyone but it's nice to know they care, plus sleeping on a slightly broken bed is better than sleeping on the cold hard ground," Nightmarione pointed out, I nodded as I laid down on the bed. Today had been rather eventful, with a sigh I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift back into a much needed sleep.