Scream of Solitude

Mechanimals

When Starscream woke up again, the sun had risen on the sky. He felt a little better, rested, though his wings were incredibly sore from being forced in the same position for several hours. He carefully sat up, leaning on his hands behind him. His wounds didn't hurt anymore, at least nothing too bothersome. Maybe a bit itchy, but nothing miserable.

Using the nearest wall for support, Starscream slowly and carefully got onto his feet. He carefully undid his work with the metal sheet around his torso, slowly pulling it off his frame just in case it hadn't healed. As he removed the sheet, he saw to his relief that the three large wounds had stopped leaking and had more or less closed, though the scars remained and could probably still open with little force. He still had to be careful.

Despite having rested and his wounds having healed the worst, he was still a bit low on Energon and would have to go fuel on more. He threw the used metal sheet away and waited a couple of seconds before initiating jet mode. Despite the sudden movements, he felt no pain or wounds opening, so he felt himself inclined to take off into the sky to search for Energon.

He decided to ignore the cobalt forest he had been in the previous day. It was uncertain whether the Insecticon - and its possible fellows - was still there, but in any case it was too risky to settle down in an area with so little Energon. The less Energon there was, the greater the competition would be for it, Starscream imagined. Even among the mechanimals.

After having flown for a little over half an hour, Starscream eventually found a different forest, and this time he could clearly see Energon from the sky, in the form of a river. He descended and reverted to bot mode, landing near the river but still having to walk for a few minutes before reaching it.

This Energon river was a few mechanometers wide and stretched throughout the forest, which seemed to be made up mostly of osmium-oaks. The Energon in it seemed as bright and cyan as the pond in the cobalt-pine forest.

Just to be safe, Starscream knelt down and tested the Energon's quality by dipping his fingers in it. It felt as harmless and cool as the other Energon he had found. He settled down on both knees and started sipping the Energon with his cupped hands.

This time Starscream managed to fuel for several minutes without getting in a conflict with any other thirsty mechanimals. Because of the river's size and length, the risk of encountering others was smaller than at the single, tiny pond. Despite this, Starscream did see, on the other side of the river, a few mechanimals emerge from the forest to quench their thirst on occasion. Nothing bigger than himself though, just a pair of petro-rabbits, a few lilleths and even a dioptas-deer. They came, they drank their fill, and then they left again. Starscream would pause in his own fueling to just watch them for a while, not used to being so close to wild mechanimals.

At one point, a turbofox emerged from right across the river, right in front of him. Again Starscream paused in his consumption and stared cautiously at the turbofox in front of him, a few mechanometers away. The turbofox stared right back at him with its glowing red eyes. Its spiky mane stood a bit to the sides and its ears perked in attention.

They both stared intently at each other, unsure if the other was a threat or not. The turbofox was smaller than him, but they were among the fastest of mechanimals on Cybertron, and had a reputation of being extremely vicious and no intelligence whatsoever. Even lone turbofoxes could easily rip apart a lone Cybertronian like Starscream, and fast.

After about a minute of staring each other down, the turbofox slowly and carefully lowered its head and began lapping at the Energon, but kept its gaze at Starscream from across the river. Starscream hesitantly returned his hands to the Energon to scoop up more to drink, slowly, also while keeping his gaze on the turbofox.