Stormbird

Flowers and Spears

The morning dew shone on the fresh grass, making it look like a green lake of sparkles. The purple and white flowers seemed to have been washed overnight, adding some coloured tints to the light.
Few birds sang innocently in the trees, creating a soft melody that ran through the quiet woods.

Some Striders wondered calmly around a piece of fallen tree. Their horse-like heads straightened up each times a noise came troubling their peace. But even if they had a really good hearing, they couldn't notice the presence of the red-haired young boy that ran alone not far from there.

Aio picked up a rock and dropped it in the small leather pocket that hung from his belt. He collected few more before kneeling down in front of a huge tree. At its base, wild flowers ruled over mushrooms and moss.
He took one delicately in his hands. His eyes shone with an interested light. He had been obsessed with flowers since he had been abandoned in the Far North. The Wilds had been his home for twelve years and the young boy knew them really well. He knew how to make antidotes and healing potions out of berries and flowers.

But Aio hadn't been able to heal the Insane Machine.

When he was nine, a big shining bear had attacked him. Aio had tried to shoot arrows from his handmade bow, but nothing seemed to harm the animal. He had escaped by climbing a tree and throwing himself down a cliff into a river. The redhead now kept a long scar on the right leg.

The redhead had later understood by spying on The Tribe that this was no living animal but a machine.
Something not alive that could move and kill. It had everything an animal had: a heart, lungs and a brain. But none of it was flesh. All metal. And The Tribe had killed it and stolen its insides.

Aio did not understand why The Tribe hunted the machines. They weren't aggressive if you avoided them... In fact, the young boy didn't know a lot about things other than the Wilds and its habitants.

He knew how to speak as well, at least, knew some keywords. He learned by listening to The Tribe, watching their movements and the words that came with them: "Follow", "Wait", "Machine", "Kill"...
But the red-haired boy had no one to converse with.

Aio held the purple flower tight on his chest. He observed it for a moment then put it in his pocket as he walked quietly away.

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Five silhouettes silently showed up on the hill. They moved toward the unaware Striders down the hill. The tallest one led the others to a group of pine before hiding behind the large trunks.

Aio had seen The Tribe hunt during his whole life. He knew their strategy by heart, even though he had never tried it. The boy didn't hunt machines. Why would he? As long as they left him alone, he didn't need to worry about them. But over all, Aio was scared of the mechanical animals. They were so unpredictable...

One day, the boy was coming back to his little camp after harvesting some herbs, and the Striders had let him pass as if he were one of them. He even got to touch one of them on the head.
But two years later—that was how often he would be confronted to them—a Sawtooth has attacked him on sight.
Aio had run and climbed in a tree. That day, he had promised himself never to approach machines again.

A yell slapped him out of his confused thoughts.

A Strider had been taken down by the group leader of the day. Holding a huge spear, the tall man stepped back. The rest of the men ran towards the Strider pack to make them run away. Which they did.  The hunters harvested the robotic parts they wanted.

They were so absorbed by their work that they missed the faint noise of a machine moving.

But the young boy didn't.

Aio took his bow in hands and ran out of cover in the plains.
The hunters heard him and stood up, taken by surprise by the Sawtooth racing towards them at incredible speed.

The leader shouted something as they all started shooting arrows at the metallic beast.
But they didn't have the right arrows for a machine like this one. They kept shooting the weak points of the machine, not understanding that the beast's weakness was fire.

Aio sprinted for three more seconds then slid down while aiming at the Sawtooth's belly.
He let the fire arrow go and rolled on his side as the beast's oil component exploded.

The redhead turned to see the robot's corpse burning intensely on the bright green grass.
Aio had aimed perfectly and killed the huge predator in one hit.
A smile lit up his face as the hunters watched the burning body. But he soon felt fear sneak into his muscles as the leader walked up towards him, a serious look on his face.