The object in my hands looked, for all intents and purposes, like a ball of thin yarn, albeit with a single wooden pole down the middle. I glanced at the worms, who were happily chewing on some of the unidentified leaves we’d brought back with us. When they realized I was watching them, they stopped chewing and stared back.
“Uh... Thank you,” I mumbled, gesturing vaguely to the ball of yarn.
Creepy.
I turned away from the worms and placed the ball of yarn back with the others—because the clay dolls hadn’t made just one ball but approximately two hundred of them.
I know the worms are massive and all, but seriously, where the hell did this much thread come from? I hope they’re okay... They seem pretty happy, so I’m sure they’re fine.
The next problem was the thread-spinning clay dolls themselves. I knew I’d made them exactly fifty of the reeling poles.
So where did the rest of them come from? Oh—okay, that explains it.
I hadn’t noticed until now, but some of the original clay dolls were mixed in among those I’d created for thread production.
So you guys have been helping out too, huh? I didn’t realize you’d even had a chance to meet one another. Hmm... Referring to you guys by job is starting to annoy me, so from now on, I’m calling you One Eyes and Three Eyes.
Right now, the Three Eyes were staring intently at me. I assumed they were waiting for their next task, but no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn’t visualize anything beyond a tangled mass of thread. If what had happened the first time I’d asked the One Eyes to make a bed was any indication, I’d have to come up with at least a rudimentary pattern for clothes. I peeled off my T-shirt and examined it thoroughly, trying to figure out how it had been pieced together. I might as well have been trying to read a book in a foreign language.
Suddenly, I looked up to realize that the Three Eyes had trotted over to me. They were also peering at the shirt with identically thoughtful expressions—
Hang on. Expressions?
I glanced quickly at the One Eyes. They were standing in the corner of the room, watching us—
Curiously. They’re curious. Isn’t that weird? They’re just dolls! Dolls shouldn’t be able to change their expressions, right?
Whether they were meant to be able to or not, though, they clearly could change expressions—as evidenced at that moment when the thoughtfulness on the Three Eyes’ faces morphed into something resembling frustration. With a start, I realized that at some point, they’d taken the shirt from me and were now turning it inside out to examine the seams.
There was little else to do but sit there, half naked, as the Three Eyes combed over every inch of my shirt; I couldn’t summon up the courage to try to take it back from them. Thankfully, ten or so minutes later, they handed the shirt back to me.
Thank goodness. I was starting to think they were going to keep it forever.
Then, much to my surprise, both sets of dolls leaped into action, regardless of the fact that I hadn’t given them any orders.
Uh, I’m not sure this is a good thing... What should I do? I don’t even know what they’re doing! Can... Can clay dolls actually have thoughts of their own?
I looked over at Spider Boss and the baby spiders; they didn’t seem too surprised by the sudden development.
No, hang on— They do look a little suspicious. Maybe something is wrong here... Oh well. The dolls are really helpful. Probably nothing to worry about.
It seemed like the clay dolls (which I now realized closely resembled a certain blue robotic cat) were gradually maturing with each passing day—if gaining the ability for sentient thought could be classified as “maturing,” at least.
I’ve just gotta think of it as like an AI function or something. It’ll be fine! Right?! It’ll definitely be fine!
I stood in the entrance to the kitchen, altogether too dumbfounded to force myself to take another step. The last time I’d seen the kitchen, it had been a bleak, virtually empty room, with nothing but a stone bench. That was the sight that should have awaited me this morning. I rubbed my eyes, blinked a few times, and looked through the archway again.
Nope... Not a dream, then.
A wooden dining table and matching chairs sat in the center of the room. The kitchen bench was still the same stony gray, but it was the only stone I could now see. The floors, walls, and even the ceilings had been decked out in polished wood, giving the room a warm, rustic ambience, like I’d stepped into a well-loved log house. Raised sections of flooring divided the large room into separate areas for cooking and dining, with a third section off to one side possibly intended as a pseudo living room.
Eight of the One Eyes were still hard at work. I wonder where the other two are? Probably helping the Three Eyes, I bet. More importantly, how and why is the kitchen now like this?!
I faintly remembered mentioning how I wanted to eventually remodel the kitchen into a more relaxing place to eat, with different areas for different purposes—but I’d been talking to (well, at) Koa, and that had only been two days ago.
Oh... There was one of the One Eyes hanging around though, wasn’t there? It must have overheard me. Still, I didn’t expect them to remodel the whole room! I was just daydreaming out loud!
I still had a few questions—like how they’d managed to recreate the dining set I’d pictured in my head despite not even mentioning it to Koa—but I elected to not worry about finding any answers.
I don’t see any problems here, really. I’m just impressed they figured out how much I wanted a dining room/living room combo... Also, I didn’t notice before, but why are all the wolves sitting in the corner?