this story starts with chapter eight of the book
I must've dosed off, because around midmorning I awoke to something nudging my foot. I opened my eyes to see a little humanoid figure trying to get inside my shoe. It was stiff-limbed and awkward, and it had gotten itself tangled up in the laces. I watched it struggle to free itself for a minute, then go rigid, a wind-up toy on its last wind.
I untied my shoe to look at it. I turned it over looking for a wind-up key, but there wasn't one. Up close it was a strange, crude-looking thing. Its head a stump of rounded clay, its face a smeared thumbprint. It wore a few small pieces of cloth that looked like they were supposed to be an army uniform.
"Bring him here!" someone called from across the yard. A boy sat waving at me from a tree stump at the edge of the woods. I picked up the clay thing and walked over. Arranged around the boy was a whole minagirie of wind-up men, staggering around like damaged robots.
as I drew near, the one in my hands jerked to life again, squirming as though it was trying to get away. I put it with the others and wiped shed clay on my pants.
"I'm Enoch," The boy said. "You must be him."
"Guess I am." I replied.
"Sorry if I bothered you," he said, herding the one I'd returned back to the others. "They get ideas, see. Ain't properly trained yet. only made 'em last week." he spoke with a thick Irish accent.
dark circled ringed his already deep-set eyes and his overalls - the same ones I had seen in the pictures - were streaked with clay and dirt.
"You made these?" I asked, impressed. "How?"
"They're homunculi." he replied. "sometimes I put doll heads on 'em, but this one was a hurry and I didn't bother."
"What's a homunculi?"
"More than one homunculus." he said it like it was somethimg any idiot would know. "Some people think it's homunculuses, but I think that sounds daft, don't you?"
"Definitely."
The clay soldier I'd returned began wandering again. Enoch nudged it back to the group with his foot.
they seemed to be going crazy, bumping into one another over and over again. "Fight, you nancies!" he commanded, which is when I realised they weren't just bumping into each other, but hitting and kicking.
one wasn't interested in fighting, however, and when he began to totter away, Enoch snatched him up and snapped off his legs.
"That's what happens to deserters in my army!" he cried, as though he was just a child playing with dolls. He tossed the crippled figure into the grass, where it writhed grotesquely as the others fell apon it.
"Why do you treat all your toys that way?"
"Why?" he said. "Do you feel sorry for them?"
"I don't know, should I?"
"No." he laughed. "They wouldn't be alive at all if it wasn't for me."
I laughed, and Enoch scowled at me. "What's so funny?"
"You made a joke."
"You are a bit thick, aren't you?" he said. "Look here." he grabbed one of the soldiers and ripped off its clothes. then with both hands he cracked it down the middle and removed from its chest, a tiny, unevenly beating heart. the soldier instantly went limp. Enoch held the heart between his thumb and forefinger for me to see.
"It's from a mouse." he explained. "that's what I can do, I take the life from one thing and give it to another, either clay like this, or something that used to be alive but ain't anymore." he tucked the stilled heart into the front pocket of his overalls. soon as I figger out how to train 'em up properly, I'll have a whole army like this, only they'll be massive." and he raised an arm above his head to show just how massive.
"what can you do?" he said.
"Me? nothing really, I mean, nothing special like you."
"Pity." he replied. "Are you going to come live with us anyway?" he didn't say it like he wanted me to, exactly, he just seemed curious.
"I don't know." I said "I hadn't thought about it." that was a lie, of corse. I had thought about it, but in a daydreaming sort of way.
He looked at me suspiciously. "But you don't want to?"
"I don't know yet."
Narrowing his eyes, he nodded slowly. As though he had just started to figure me out. Then he leaned in and said under his breath, "Emma told you about raid the villiage, right?"
"Raid the what?"
He looked away. "Oh, it's nothing. just a sort of game some of us play."
I got the feeling I was being set up. "She didnt tell me." I said.
Enoch scooded closer to me on the stump and placed a hand on my knee. "I bet she didn't." he said. "I bet there's a lot of things she didn't tell you.
"Oh, yeah? Why?"
"Cause you'll see it's not as great as everyone wants you to think, and you won't stay."
"What kinds of things?" I asked.
"Can't tell." he said, flashing me a devilish smile. "I could get in trouble." he removed the hand from my knee.
"Whatever." I said. "You brought it up."
I stood to go. "Wait!" he cried, grabbing my sleeve.
"Why should I if you're not going to tell me anything?"
He rubbed his chin. "It's true, I ain't allowed to say anything, but I reckon I couldn't stop you if you was to go upstairs and have a look in the room at the end of the hall."
"Why?" I said. "What's in there?"
"My friend," he grabbed my sleeve a little tighter. "Victor. He wants to meet you. Go up and have a chat."
Hey yall! I really hope you enjoyed this first chapter! Don't forget to vote and comment and stuff. See you later!!
