Homeward

3 - A New Guide

I won't bore you with the details of my trek through the forest, but it was strangely beautiful. No, I don't mean that the flowering plants were magnificent to look at and to smell (they were), or that the light of the two suns filtering down to the ground through the huge trees all around me was anything less than breathtaking (it was sublime). Those things were the sort of beautiful that makes you stop every few hundred feet and take a deep, deep breath, like you can somehow get that forest world inside of you and keep it if you inhale deeply enough.

The forest was like that, but it was something else, too. Beautiful, yes, but like looking at something through an old, ruined mirror. The mist that floated all around me looked like breath from an unseen mouth. It was wet and cold and creeping everywhere around me. It felt like I was looking into an aquarium that I knew contained some ancient predatory animal, but one that was cleverly camouflaged and I could not yet clearly see. Only, I kept reminding myself, I wasn't on the outside of an aquarium looking in. I was inside of one.

I'm sorry, I said I wouldn't bore you with details. I suppose it was a beautiful walk, but I couldn't shake that ominous feeling. In any case,  I took my time walking. I didn't want to wake whatever it was that lurked in the forest. I walked for most of an afternoon and evening before finding a patch of soft soil hidden between two huge roots. There, I could rest for the night.

"This'll do," I said to Talson as I removed him from my inner coat pocket and set him atop a knot on one of the roots. He was as unperturbed as ever. "I'm, uh, sorry to do this to you, but I can't have you crawling off to find berries in the middle of the night. You're the only real protection I've got." Just like old times.

I took off the soft, wide belt that was a part of my coat and fastened it around the lizard's furry torso. I tied the other end to a belt loop on my coat. "You let me know if any of those creatures show up. Scream if you need to. Don't worry, won't bother me. I'm a heavy sleeper."

I lay down with my back against the roots and encouraged myself to relax, trying to let go of the feeling of being watched. I told myself that I'd feel a lot better after a good night's sleep on mostly solid ground. "Goodnight, old friend," I said as I glanced at Talson one last time. He was licking his eyeball as sleep quickly washed over me.

Some time later, I found my eyes suddenly wide open and my nervous system on high alert. I had not moved, hadn't even rolled over in my sleep. My unconscious mind told me that the look of the light above me meant that it was just after dawn. I had slept well.

Maybe too well. I hadn't heard the arrival of the robot.

I was basically oblong like a big pill, and it floated a few inches off the ground. It had no arms nor legs, and it wasn't making any thruster noise, meaning that it was held aloft through magnetism or some other soundless physical process. That made me feel a little better about having not heard its approach.

It had a smooth white surface punctuated with black circles the size of small buttons, giving it the appearance of having the inked freckles of one of the courtesans on Sszlaann. These weren't eyes, mind you, but I knew that it was looking at me. You don't live in space habitations your whole life without developing the feeling for when robots are sizing you up. I could also tell that this robot wasn't whatever I had been sensing the night before. This was a totally different feeling: Small and childlike, almost like a friendly dog. What I had sensed last night had been neither small nor childlike; it had felt like the whole forest was stalking me.

A few silent moments passed. It didn't move other than soundlessly bobbing up and down a little. I slid my back up the side of one of the roots, trying to get in a better position for when the robot did decide to move. But, nothing happened. It just waited. Minutes passed. I noticed that the predatory feeling from before was totally gone. It was just me, Talson, and the robot, now.

Talson, by the way, hadn't moved an inch from where I'd plopped him down before sleeping. I glaned at him and he yawned at me, on cue.

Finally, I had had it. I wasn't going to let this become another day-long standoff like the situation with the gralnak.

"Talson. Better put on some coffee," I said through dry lips.

A blue-green light lit up the interior of the robot, highlighting the milky look of its translucent exterior casing. It remained otherwise motionless and soundless. Now, I remember enough from my days in Agency training courses to know that you shouldn't assume beings from another planet will use the same cultural cues as us. That blue light seemed soothing to me, but it could just as easily have represent a warning sign or threat of aggression. Maybe blue-green was the color of Death Itself to whoever built this robot. But still, I took it as a good sign. This seemed like nothing more than a scout to me, not some extermination robo.

Again, if I had known then what I know now! It would have saved me a lot of trouble!

"If we had known you were coming, we would have cleaned up the place a bit," I said as I stood, shaking dead leaves and dirt from my clothing, I tried to act casually as I picked up Talson and placed him back inside my inner coat pocket.

"Alright, let me tell you how I--" I started to say, but was cut off by the robot. I had hoped to explain my current situation, but the robot suddenly moved to my right, in the direction that I had been travelling in the day before. It moved quickly, but not too quickly that it seemed to be fleeing from me or chasing something else. After my mouth had stopped flapping, I took this as my cue to follow after it.

The robot would zoom a few hundred yards ahead of Talson and me, and then stop and wait for us. Besides its eerily soundless overland motion, it was completely without movement. Even though it never twisted or turned in such a way that would make it seem to have a head or neck--like it was turning to look at me--I couldn't shake the feeling that it was closely sensing me the entire time.

As I walked, I peered once or twice into the forest that still surrounded us on every side. The mist was gone, and so was that strange feeling from before. Now, in the dawn light, the forest was really and simply beautiful.

Twice, I was able to pick up a zam berry that had fallen out of the tree canopy above. I ate one myself, and gave the other to Talson.  We were content for quite awhile as we walked along. I couldn't help grinning. Maybe this robot would lead us to some sentient beings that could help us. Maybe my luck was turning around!

But I knew that wasn't likely. Even if we were being led to sentients, there was no way of knowing what they would do with us.

"When we get to wherever we're going," I whispered into my lapel, "you let me do the talking. I know how to deal with this sort of thing."

Sort of.

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Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has been reading along! Leave me a comment to let me know what you think of the story so far! I, for one, can't wait to figure out what this little robot is all about! -Gabriel