Metal and Stingers

The truth is told, albit painfully

The road stretched way out ahead of you, endless and flat. Usually this was the most boring thing that you had to experience. This time though, it was different, mostly because you were with your guardian, blasting your favourite music through his speakers and shouting along, the windows open and the wind whipping your hair around.

You were currently on day two of your long weekend, aka Saturday, and therefore you could spend some time with your favourite bot. Raf was currently stuck doing something with relatives who had come down to visit him and his family, so it was just you and Bumblebee.

The lyrics to the song currently playing slipped past your lips freely into the air; you didn't care whether or not you were singing along well, or that your voice cracked in a few places while belting out the higher notes. You were having some carefree fun in the seat of your guardian, and that was enough.

Bee rolled the windows back up for you when he swerved off the road and onto the desert, sand kicking up behind his tires like a mini storm. You turned the volume down slightly on your music so you could question him.

"Hey, where are we going?"

"I thought of something I wanted to show you! I discovered it a couple of cycles ago around here and thought you would like it."He buzzed.

"Oh?" You said, intrigued as he started down a bumpy incline into a canyon.

"What is it?"

"Just wait a minute, you'll see." He replied. You snorted at his vagueness.

"That didn't answer my question." You had a second of déjà vu then, remembering Primus. For some reason it made your anxiety start to rise. Your hands tightened on the wheel.

"Can you please tell me what you're gonna show me? Please?" You said, a little desperately. Bee slowed down to a stop completely, the music fading out entirely.

"Hey hey, it's okay, I'm not sending us over a cliff or anything; I just found some fossilized animals in the ground that I thought you'd enjoy seeing."

"Oh really!?" You said, a large smile arcing across your face.
"That's amazing! Thank you!"

Bee let out one of his cute beeping chuckles.
"It's no problem. Unbuckle yourself and pull your legs in."

You did as he asked, wrapping your arms around your legs and ducking your head a little. Bee transformed around you, your position making it easy for him to move you from the front seat to his left servo. Your sunglasses slid down your nose in the process, and you scrambled to cover your eyes from the sun as he looked down at you, his head tilted so that you sat in his shadow and his eyes closed slightly in his own smile. You made a happy sound and smiled back at him.

"Okay, the fossils are just a few of my pedsteps away and around this corner. It's a bit of a squeeze for my alt form, which is why I'm carrying you like this instead. It'll only take a minute."

His digits curled slightly, securing you in his palm as he walked the few meters to the alcove, bringing you closer to his chassis so he could fit through the gap. Once through, he pointed with a digit on his other servo to the wall.
You gasped in delight.

Embedded in the million year old sandstone was a partial fossil of what looked like something akin to a dolphin, weather worn but still intact.

"Wow! I think it's an ichthyosaur?" You urged him to set you down, and you jogged over to the fossil, sitting down on your knees to look at it better.
"I've never seen a fossil this close before." You thought aloud in awe.

"Have you seen any before?" Bee asked.

"Yeah, a few times! I loved watching animal documentaries when I was younger, and they made ones about dinosaurs too." You traces your fingers over the skull. It looked like the jaw of the animal had been torn away, leaving it with only the top half of its teeth. Your hand stilled on its eye socket.