Chapter Text
Birds are chirping.
The grass rustles softly.
It's a lovely day for catching butterflies, Frank decides.
He rests his bug net over their shoulder and sets off on a familiar path out of Home.
The path leads to his favourite bug-catching clearing. An absolute beauty of nature, with a stunning cherry blossom at the centre, its thick branches reaching for the sky.
Frank arrives to familiar tall grass, just above their knees and smiles, admiring the scenery.
"What a lovely day," he breathes a sigh, shrugging off the bug net and looking around.
The sun is just peaking over the nearby hill on a bright and pleasantly chilly morning.
They spend a while walking around, examining caterpillars and grasshoppers, when he notices something bright red out of the corner of their vision.
He turns, excitedly, expecting a monarch butterfly or a large poppy flower but...
Their mouth falls open in a gasp, bug net slipping from his hand and into the grass.
There is a person curled up against the side of the cherry blossom, tiny and shivering
Raggedy Ann wasn't sure what happened... Or how. Or where. Or even when.
One moment she was talking with her brother Andy, then the next, she blinks and opens her button eyes to foliage.
"Andy?" She asks, confused.
The only answer she gets is the rustle of the leaves.
She stands slowly (when did she get on the ground?), looking around.
All she can see in every direction is trees, grass, bushes, and more trees. The grass is up to her hips outside the circle she stands in. She tries not to dwell on the weirdness of it. Not now.
"Guys...?"
Ann glances up, and notes with growing dread that she can barely see anything past the many leaves, but the sky is darkening, and fast.
The doll gulps, looking around more frantically. Her candy heart picks up speed.
Without thinking she picks a direction at random and begins speed walking, shoulders hunched.
Branches of all shapes and sizes whack her in the face and sides, even as she lifts her arms to protect her head.
An unfamiliar sound from her right has her gasping, turning heel and taking off in the opposite direction.
Just a few steps later her foot catches on something hard and she goes tumbling to the ground.
Except the ground is slanted and—
Ann's eyes widen, arms flailing as she starts rolling and tumbling down the hill with a yelp.
Something sharp stabs her in the side but she does not get the chance to even react before she's getting a face full of green as she rolls to a jarring stop.
She just lies there for a moment, panting and trembling as wind rushes past.
The doll's eyes begin to sting and a blink later, a hot tear runs down her cheek. Then a second. And a third.
In just a few moments, Ann breaks down into sobs, confused and scared.
"An- Andy," she hiccups, "Andy, where are you? I- I need you..." Her heart throbs in her chest painfully. Grief and fear striking deep.
Her surroundings have long gone dark by the time she finally calms her sobs. Silent tears roll down her face as she stares into the darkness.
I need to find shelter, the logical part of her mind says.
But I'm so very afraid, the other side whimpers back.
Ann curls up, shivering, and stays like that for a while.
Until something rustles in the distance, too loud to just be the wind. Leaves and sticks crunch underfoot.
Ann tenses, wide eyes shooting up to stare ahead.
Through the barely visible shapes of leaves and grass, she makes out a shadow.
The vague shape of two triangles and a mound between twitches and that's all the warning she gets. She blinks, eyes widening as something large pounces on her, sending her toppling onto her back.
Ann raises an arm to protect herself or distract the thing from her face or anything.
She hears more than feels the loud RIIIIIIIP as whatever is attacking her bites down onto her flailing arm and pulls.
Seams pop out of place, stuffing bursting forth and filling the animal's maw.
The thing jumps back, hacking and gagging.
Ann doesn't wait for another chance, she stumbles to her feet and bolts.
Leaves and branches block her path, obscuring her already barely existing vision as she stumbles through. Her right arm bounces against her side uselessly, stinging.
She doesn't dwell on it.
Instead, she runs, only coming to a stop once the foliage around her thins, and the moonlight finally breaks through the treeline, showing off the prettiest tree she has ever seen.
She tries to keep her trembling breaths quiet as she looks back over her shoulder into the darkness.
She holds her breath for a moment, waiting.
A few moments pass.
Nothing happens.
"Phew," Ann breathes softly, letting her tense shoulders slump in relief.
Slowly but surely, the panic ebbs away, leaving her exhausted and achy. Her legs throb in protest.
The doll sighs and carefully approaches the pretty tree. It's a gigantic thing, the stem (that's the word for plants, right?) is thick and tall, like the rest of it.
Ann doesn't think about the dirt or the bugs as she leans her back against it and slides down to the ground.
Her candy heart finally calms in her chest, though tremors still consume her.
She hugs her hurt arm to her chest and lets her eyes slip shut, keeping a keen ear out for even the tiniest sound.
She doesn't notice her limbs getting heavy, or the calm washing over her until she's already almost asleep.
The doll faintly wonders if she's supposed to be going to sleep in some unknown place before she drifts off.
Frank takes a step closer, blinking in disbelief.
"Ex- excuse me?" They approach cautiously, and freeze when the redhead flinches hard, wide eyes shooting up to stare at him fearfully, "Are you alright?"
"I don- don't know," The tiniest whisper of a voice responds and they frown when he notices their tear-streaked cheeks, "I just wan- want to go ho- home..."
"Alright, uhm," Frank steps closer slowly, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"I- I could use some help..." They say, a little louder.
"Well, I'm confident everyone in the neighbourhood would be happy to help," Frank offers a wobbly smile, "I can take you there, if you'd like, it's not far."
"O- okay..." They give a tiny nod and his smile becomes a tad more genuine.
"Would you like help getting up?" Frank asks carefully, not quite within arm's reach.
"Yes, please," The fellow puppet (well, they vaguely resemble a puppet at least...) whispers.
Frank takes a few steps to get to their side and offers out a hand, "Ah, where are my manners, I'm Frank Frankly. I'd like to be addressed as he and they."
A small hand takes his and Frank almost misses what they say when he notices their lack of fingers, like an oven mitt. Fascinating.
"Uhm, I'm Rag- Raggedy Ann." They respond slowly, "Just she is fine."
"It's a pleasure to meet..." They trail off after helping Ann up and noticing her other arm. There is a huge patch missing, cotton fluff sticking out in bulk, "Oh goodness! Your arm!"
"Yeah... Some animal attacked me in the woods last night," she answers, voice going tiny again.
"Oh, dear," Frank frowns, steadying her when she wobbles upon taking a step, "We need to get you to Poppy, quickly. Can you walk?"
"I- I think so?" Her eyes meet their own, a frown on her round face, "How- how far is your... Your neighbourhood?"
"About a ten-minute walk," He guides her good arm over their shoulder and starts leading the way, "But it frankly might take a bit longer."
"Oh," Ann whispers, sighing, "That's alright..."
They begin walking towards the path, then down it and all Frank can think about is how different she looks from everyone they've met before, not to mention her tiny stature. Heck, she's probably shorter than Wally, which is saying something.
"Say, Ann," he speaks up after a minute of shambling along, "Where are you from?"
"I think it's called Arcola, but I'm not sure... They don't really talk about our home city, only out- outside it in geography."
"Never heard of it," Frank admits, his curiosity piqued, "What's it like?"
"Oh, well, I usually only see a few pla- places, the yard, the park, the market and the "kinder garden"."
"A garden?" Frank looks down at her, brow raised, "What plants do they grow there? Any flowers?"
"That's the thing..." Ann says, "It's a building where there are most- mostly little kids and almost no plants, eve- even though it's called a garden."
"Huh. Strange." Frank tilts his head in fascination, trying to imagine it, "But very interesting."
"Yeah—" Ann wobbles and he steadies her with their free hand.
"Careful," Frank mutters, getting the puppet up to her feet again when a thought occurs to them.
"I hope this is not too rude to ask, but what exactly are you?" The grey puppet asks, "You vaguely resemble a puppet but I'm just not sure."
"Oh," Ann giggles softly, "I'm a ragdoll, silly."
"Never heard of that before," Frank admits quietly, then looks down at her again, "You are just a ball of mystery, aren't you?"
"I sup— GAH!"
Ann hunches forward suddenly, injured arm rising to her chest and desperately grasping at her apron.
"What's wrong?!" Frank gasps, skidding to a stop, free arm lingering in the air between them.
"My chest—" Ann cries out, pulling her good arm off of his shoulders and to her chest, grasping at the material with trembling hands, "It hurts... It hurts so bad..."
"We need to get you to Poppy right now," Frank says and only hesitates for a moment before looping a hand behind the doll's back and legs and lifting her up.
He huffs at the weight, just barely lighter than Wally, arms trembling but sets off sprinting anyway, fuelled by adrenaline alone.