Mirror, Fox, Key

ONE

clip-clop... clip-clop... clip-clop... clip-clop...

A spotted yak trundled sleepily along the sun-speckled path, drugging the autumn trees with the sweet aroma of chocolate and sugar. Piled atop the beast's back was a mountain of stuffed sacks and knotted bags, rattling pans and clinking cups, and a wooden keg of fresh milk that sloshed with each step.

A few paces ahead, leading the way, a robot child skipped along the packed dirt path, arms outstretched so her sun-bleached cloak could catch the light like a purple heron's wings.

Her blue plastic head sparkled with moving reflections of the sunny trees as she passed. Every now and then, when she spotted a pretty wren or a swift squirrel in the branches, orange light flickered inside her skull like a candle in a ceramic jar. She smiled and hopped, her processors whirring with a merry electronic hum, and chased a white butterfly that zigzagged on the breeze.

A rustle and slither in the new-fallen leaves brought the robot to a skidding halt, and she squatted down with curious eyes.

"Hello, little snake," the robot whispered happily, watching her noodley friend slip between smooth stones. "My name is Kib! I'm a robot. What's your name?"

The snake wiggled its tongue and slithered away beneath a rotting stump. Kib waded deeper through the weeds to see where it went, but she stopped when a gust of wind carried the distant sound of singing.

♪ ...The bird in a cage, high up in the tree,
sings to the flower and sun.
'How pretty you are, so bright and carefree!
But you're not safe, not special like me'... ♪

Orange light flickered giddily and Kib rushed, grinning, back to the road.

"Someone's there!" she squeaked at the sleepy yak and curled a hand in the beast's harness. "Come on, Moo, hurry! We found a customer!"

Moo harumphed in protest, but at Kib's insistence the yak quickened her pace to a steady trot. The bags on her back jangled and rattled as they hurried along the road in the direction of the jaunty singsong voice.

♪ ...Rabbits eat the flowering stems
and darkness swallows the light,
but the bird in a cage sings merrily to this day,
unbothered by peril or plight... ♪

"Helloooo!" Kib called into the twittering woods, a blue hand curled at her cheek.

"Hello? Hello! Is someone there? Someone's there! Hello!" The voice rang out like a jingling bell in the woods. "Unless I'm imagining again! Hello, imaginary friend!"

Kib swept her scanners across the green bushes and vine-wrapped trees, but found only sticks and branches. "I'm not imaginary, I think. I'm Kib! Where are you?"

♪ Up heeere! ♪

The robot looked up.

High above, hugged by the strong branches of a gnarled old tree, was a stout little treehouse with a thatched cone roof. There was only one window and a person dangled backwards out of it, waving upside-down among a silky cascade of flower-print fabric.

"Oh! Hello!" The upside-down man waved a skinny hand. "You're real! And you're blinking! Do little girls normally blink?"

"I'm a robot!" Kib called up to him, an orange light flashing behind her forehead. "Do you want to buy some hot chocolate?"

"Choco-what?" Upside-down man fumbled and wriggled until he was rightside-up in the window, the fabric tangled around his shoulders. "What is it?"

"It's a drink!" Kib piped. "It's warm and sweet. If you come down, you can try some!"