Exit the Dungeon

“Eh?” Emmalyn let out unconsciously, rubbing her eyes. 3 all nighters in a row must have been pushing it, as there was a small bipedal raccoon peering out of a set of old doors that had appeared in her workshop. “Am I the only one seein’ this?” She asked, turning to look at the golems assisting her. The small wooden dolls that had been running around a moment ago turned to look where she was pointing, shaking their heads before moving on with their assigned duties.

“Oi, you. Go check it out.” She said, grabbing one of the passing dolls who nodded feverishly. The small figure fearlessly approached the doorway, tripping over a loose bolt before stumbling face first into the door frame, confirming its existence as a physical object instead of an illusion of some sort. Grabbing a large wrench, she slowly began approaching the mysterious doorway, as well as the strange creature peeking out of it.

“What are you doing Ma’am, I’ve told you many times to not go slamming around more than you need too, and besides…” A voice would call from the other room, opening the door to reveal a large metal golem, his voice trailing off when he saw the raccoon.

“Is this your doing?” It would ask, Emmalyn shaking her head. “Then do you at least know anything about it?” It asked again, earning another head shake. The fwoosh of steam sounded as the golem sighed.

“Then the correct thing to do is to see if it can understand you, not throw a puppet golem at it and then bash it over the head with a wrench.” The metal golem said, approaching the girl and picking her up by the back of her shirt with two fingers. “I’m sorry for this one’s behavior. She’s quite intelligent once you get to know her, she’s a little lacking in common sense but I hope that doesn’t cause any issues.” The golem would say with a bow. Smacking her cheeks with both hands, the short girl came back to her senses.

“Why am I the one getting scolded?! This little thing is breaking and entering!? That’s a crime! You should be catching him not me!” She shouted, flailing helplessly in the golems grasp, earning what she understood to be a stern glare from the golems expressionless eye. “Alright alright jeeze. I’ll do it your way. You be ready to protect me if things go wrong through, kay?” She said pouting, slowly being lowered to the ground.

“Oi, you. You speak?” She asked, finally addressing the raccoon like being.

“Ehh~ so you can speak. Don’t seem very good at it though.” Emmalyn commented, putting her hands on her hips. She looked over the raccoon-like figure in front of her, this time taking the time to look at it as an at least somewhat intelligent being. Now that she could see his body, he was indeed wearing clothes. They looked pretty old fashioned.

“You said you’re looking for warriors, but… why? Those morons do nothing but break things and bring trouble wherever they go. You’re better off staying far away from them.” She said, crossing her arms with a sigh. She couldn’t count the times some musclehead managed to trash her creations in mere moments. If you were specifically searching them out you must be pretty desperate. “Anyways, I don’t plan on letting one of those oafs in here. The’d probably manage to ruin years of work in a manner of seconds. Sorry but no can do. Not out of the goodness of my heart.” She said, sighing and shaking her head.

“But...” She continued, opening one eye, “I may be able to compromise. Your door there looks pretty interesting. I’d like to have a look at it. It’d help your case if you actually told me why you want to meet those thick headed fools.”

“Hah? Oopsy is putting it a bit lightly. You need to get that stutter under control, can barely understand you half the time.” Emmalyn said, putting a hand on her forehead, her words earning her a poke in the back from the iron giant behind her.

“So, um…” She cleared her throat, scratching the back of her head and averting her eyes slightly, “While I don’t want any knuckleheads wandering through here, It’d be a shame for me to let something like this go without first getting a good look at it. I’ve got some stuff lying around that’d probably be enough to compensate for it. In any case, would you perhaps… mind hanging around for a bit? Least long enough to get a good look. If it helps Sterling could probably find you a place to plop that door of yours down. Be a shame if you ended up gettin’ in trouble with property ownership nonsense.” She said awkwardly. It’d been a while since she’d tried to make a deal with someone like this. Heck it had been a while since she talked to someone who wasn’t a golem in general.

“You mentioned somthin’ bout a dungeon right? What’s that all about? I assume it's whatever is behind that door, but when ya think of dungeons a set of wooden doors ain’t usually what you think of nor some place someone should be living. Musty ruins and caves filled with giant spiders seem more like dungeon material.” The short girl commented, referencing what vague understanding she had on the topic. There wasn’t much that interested her on the topic. Most have been explored ages ago and her only interaction with them came from the occasional item or material someone came across there.