Road to Anywhere

Hoot and the Dragon Quest

Round 2.1 prompt from Multigenre Mashup Flash Fiction Smackdown, August 2023: Write a steampunk story of maximal 1500 words — suitable for children of up to ten years age and from the first person point of view of a toy.

Word count = 1499

Gwilym, who refused to brush his bushy brown hair despite my insistence, peered around a wooden crate while I perched on his shoulder.

"Most improper, spying on your mother like this," I whispered to him, twitching my metal wings.

"Hush, Hoot," he answered. "I am listening."

Hoot was an inappropriately common name, considering my awesomeness, yet rather endearing coming from an eight-year-old boy. Most think I am a simple owl robot, a mere toy. But no — the boy's mother infused me with magical Life Spark, and now I am a most highly advanced and civilized automaton. With my superior wisdom, I guide young Gwilym.

In anger, Eliza flung off a leather work apron and round goggles.

"Come now, Eliza," growled Baron Herrington, a stout man wearing a black suit and top hat. A huge, rough-looking man with a permanent frown stood beside him. "It is fair, considering--"

"Considering what?"

"Considering you owe a small fortune," the Baron answered, waving a legal document taken from his suit pocket. "A debt that soon comes due. Give me your claim, and I shall tear up the debt. Refuse, and your home and business, everything, will be taken as well. Consider that you and your young son would then be homeless. The streets are not kind."

Gwilym let out a gasp, immediately covering his mouth lest he be discovered.

"The dragon is worth a hundred times the debt!" Eliza's narrowed green eyes rounded, and she pleaded, "Please... I just need more time to find it."

A cruel smile appeared on the Baron's face. "Time, you do not have."

"Why do you want it?"

"Think of it — if I had a fearsome dragon automaton at my command, well..." He marched toward the door, then turned back. "You have one day to decide, Eliza. No more." With that, the Baron and his henchman left, slamming the door behind them.

Head bowed, Eliza leaned against a workbench cluttered with metal automaton parts and let out a sad sigh. "You can come out now, Gwilym."

"Mother?" the boy cried. "Will they take our home?"

Eliza kneeled and gathered Gwilym into a warm hug. "Fear not, my dear son. We will find a way."

"Where is the dragon?"

"Somewhere in the claim, I only need find it." Eliza bent down and kissed Gwilym on his forehead. "Now you do your schoolwork while I go talk to the banker. Surely, he will allow us more time."

Ages ago, a civilization far grander than ours created many marvelous machines, but then came the Great War and society fell. Today, Eliza made a living by finding the old mechanisms, and bringing them back to life — like me, a humble yet thoroughly amazing mechanical owl. She discovered a lost cavern filled with ruins from the old world, and with it, clues to a rare automaton dragon.

Once Eliza chugged away toward the city in the steam carriage, Gwilym returned to his room and dumped the school books from his worn backpack on his bed, then reloaded it with tools, a lantern, snacks, a metal water-jug, and a vial of blue glowing Life Spark taken from his mother's stock.

Firming his expression, Gwilym put on round glass goggles. I fluttered to the bed and tilted my mechanical head. "My dear Gwilym, did not your mother tell you to do school work?"