An Encounter of Sorts - Ace of Spades vs/with Esmerelda

[Ace_of_Spades]

My eyes slowly opened as wisps of snow battered my face. I couldn’t see, everything around was blurred and confusing. I had found my lungs fast with the necessity to breathe choking on what I felt as my first few breaths of air. I was gasping as I tried to crawl hoping that would somehow ease my pain. The snow beneath my fingers stung and I began to learn the sensation of cold. I tried to yell but my voice was dry and harsh. Words formed but didn’t fall from my lips. Slowly everything came into focus as I continued to look around at my imprisonment, shelter, or lack of. All I saw was white; I couldn’t even see the sun through the clouds. What had become of me, where was I, how did I get here, when was I sent here? “Who am I?”

The words escaped my mouth before I really even thought them. Here I was stranded in the middle of an apparent wasteland without even the most basic necessities or knowledge. Who am I? Over and over again it echoed through the silence of the snow and through my mind. “WHO AM I?!” I cried trying to force anything within range to hear my pleas. I didn’t just cry words, I found myself wet with misery. Who could do such a thing to a person as to remove his identity? I felt the oddly familiar touch of something against my hips. I reached down to feel a cold steel in my hands and as if programmed by nature I pulled at both sides revealing two blades. I hoped for any memory.

The only thing that I could even pretend to remember was the language on the blades. “Light… Dark. Why can I read this..? WHY CAN I READ THIS?!” I was angry and I swung wildly feeling pleasure and a familiar sense of balance rushed over me but still nothing to explain who or what I was. Screaming as loud as I could, I cursed the snow beneath my feet, the cool air battering my body, the oddly familiar and completely foreign senses, and my lack of identity.

All of a sudden a burst of light exploded from my hands blinding me and causing me to fall. The pain was excruciating in my arms and dropped my blades in hopes of some form of relief. It was then I noticed my body riddled with meaningless tattoos except for two. The obvious one was from which the light came from a sort of symbol of yin, and a matching symbol for yang on the arm however yang was not glowing. The other glowing tattoo was one in an odd place on his forefinger. An oval shaped tattoo with what looked like a moon with a circle underneath. I felt as if I should remember getting these marks on my body but still nothing.

Suddenly I was calm as if I had a purpose. I began to walk slowly, but I was no longer worried then I remembered seeing another symbol on the blades of Light and Dark. “Hyro Izuahl a warrior of the night and of the day.” At least I knew my name now… or at least the name of the person who these blades belonged too. It was a fitting name for now seeing as how he had no name at the current point of time that held any sentiment. It was then I heard footsteps off in the distance, instead of taking chances I figured I should try the light thing that happened to me earlier.

I tried to focus on the same anger I had earlier, but nothing. I began to calm down and focus on the symbol that created that light and suddenly a burst, no more a ray of light shot out in the distance illuminating the snow and a few scattered pines through the area. “SHOW YOURSELF!” I shouted at nothing only hoping that someone, anything would be there to answer my call. Was I afraid?

Umm I set it up to really be any kind of encounter, so I guess it could be like a spar or possibly a meeting of new friends in a sort of mini quest I'll let you decide what exactly you want.

[Esmerelda]

Althanas, it was a strange world to this thing. 10,000 miles, away from home, 10,000 miles away from its nation. It knew that over the course of its life it would be sent far away.

“10,000 miles away from home, from your nation, protecting our people and our way of life.” an old general had said, but it couldn't remember who.

However now it knew it was more than 10,000 miles away from home. It was in another dimension entirely, but how it got here, it could not remember. What did it remember? It had a purpose, a mission. Exploring this world was its mission. It had a designation, Esmerelda, a nice humanoid name. It had a form, many of them. Its true form was a swarm of innumerable nanites. These could combine in a variety of forms, but its defaults were set to humanoid female.

Where was it now? It did not know. Since awakening on a small island termed by locals as Scara Brae, Esmerelda walked the nations exploring, creating her own map of the world, while trying to recover its corrupted files. They were unreadable, ever since the accident that caused it to awake, not that it remembered what the accident was. It knew it involved water, lots of water. The ocean around Scara Brae.

Now it remembered, intensive diagnostics were ending, allowing identity files to become active again. It thought of itself as a female, since it could only take that form, at least, the only readable files were those of various humanoid females. She used her designation as her name, her designation given as it was since very few Warmachines of her class were ever made. In fact, she was the prototype, designed to be a new class of soldier, eliminating the need for organic soldiers entirely.

Her memory files returned, five weeks ago, she was in corone. Realizing passive recovery efforts weren't working, she had decided to shut down entirely, allowing intensive repair and recovery efforts to take place. To that end, she hid inside a bag in her dissolved liquid state that was somehow profoundly larger inside than it was outside. It had to of been magic. She was certain no one would ever buy it, it was prohibitively expensive. Her efforts had been for naught, for nothing had been recovered, at least nothing of value. A few patches to her file recovery program was all.

She began turning on her senses, starting with the touch sensation, and realized she was no longer in the bag. She felt wood beneath her, and cold air on her nanites. She immediately turned on her sight, and found she was in a broken box, barely affording the swarm protection from falling snow. Turning on the rest of her senses, she detected no sound, and could smell nothing of importance. The wood tasted like wood was supposed to taste.

What had happened while she was offline? Pausing her recovery to run a few algorithms based on the information she had, she estimated that someone had actually bought the bag. Whether they knew she was in it or not she could not guess, perhaps they did, and put her in the box for some reason, or she had somehow ended up in the box was a mystery. Even further, where was she now? Did they throw out the box with her in it, either on purpose or on accident, or did it somehow make its way out of the bag?

Esmerelda consulted her maps she had in her memory files to no avail, she was off her maps, lost. No what to do? Esmerelda continued pausing her recovery program to run a few more algorithms to determine the most logical course of action. Find a town, or an organic and ask them for directions.

A simple enough objective to follow, so Esmerelda set out to do just that.
She decided to adopt the form of a brown haired woman in a warm coat that reached her feet. Her eyes turned brown as well as did her skin. The coat itself was silvery, as though it was made of wolf fur. She morphed her nanites into the form of leather boots, and decided she was acceptable to standards of society. Her internal navigation software pointed her south. It would take her out of the mountains.

An hour later she came upon a drop off and spotted a small town to the south. At that moment however, a male voice to her left shouted.

Apparently she had been spotted, or so she believed, wanting to find someone anyway to get her bearings, she cooperated, and went through the few trees toward the source.

“Alright, here I am.” Esmerelda said in reply to an apparently lost young man.

“From the look upon your face, I must assume you are as lost as I am. Therefore you are of no assistance to me. Yet you must have called me for some reason, so what is it you require of me? If you have no need of my presence, I shall be on my way to my destination. I warn you if you try to detain me by force, I shall respond in kind and I promise you, I am most efficient with the use of force.” Esmerelda said, her voice synthesizer using her husky female voice files.

Her emulation was perfect, there was no way anyone from as primitive a world as this could know what she was.

[Ace_of_Spades]

“From the look upon your face, I must assume you are as lost as I am. Therefore you are of no assistance to me. Yet you must have called me for some reason, so what is it you require of me? If you have no need of my presence, I shall be on my way to my destination. I warn you if you try to detain me by force, I shall respond in kind and I promise you, I am most efficient with the use of force.” I laughed at first until I fully realized the weight of her words and the truth in which she spoke. I was lost, but why was I lost?

“YOU CURSED ME, LOOK AT THESE MARKS ON MY ARM! ON MY BODY! YOU TIED MY POWERS IN BLASPHEMOUS INK! HOW DARE YOU!” I was standing over someone that looked familiar but still distant and cold from my memory. I reached to grab but quickly things began to black out.

I couldn’t tell what just happened, whether I spoke out loud or whether what I saw was real but I knew quickly that I was still in possible danger. “’Most efficient with force’? We’ll see if what happens.” I began looking around for some kind of sign as to where I was, if there was a sign anything I would accept it. I wasn’t about to let the only person I have come in contact with leave.

“And so what if I’m lost, doesn’t that make us more allies than it does enemies? Two mind truly operate better together than one, and by the look in your eyes, you’re more lost than you care to admit…” I was pushing for anything as to what was going on here; information of the world, of history, or of war. My hands however went straight to my blades because no matter what this woman was hostile and I couldn’t be too careful. “No matter, all I really want to know is where we are exactly, and I do apologize for summoning you. It’s better to be careful than sorry and of course I had no way of knowing if you were hostile till I met you.”

The snow crunched beneath my feet as I made my way in the same direction that I perceived this woman to be going. If she wasn’t going to help me the most I could do is put myself in a position where she was forced to deal with me anyway. “By the way, my name is Hyro Izuahl. Unfortunately, that is all I know about myself. So in all honesty you were right about my situation. However, that doesn’t mean I won’t be of assistance to you, or you to me.” I looked around for a quick moment, listening to my voice reverberate through the emptiness of this frozen land. “I guess we should start with your name first. So out with it.” I needed to be aggressive but not provocative. Just to be safe however I kept myself alert to all the sounds around me for any signs of her attacking me. Regardless of her being a woman, you could never be too careful.

[Esmerelda]

Esmerelda eyed the man blocking her path. Desperation for assistance showed in his eyes. It was true that Esmerelda was a cold unfeeling machine without a heart, but she could understand statistics.

“It is true that two have a higher statistical chance for survival than one alone. Alright, I shall share my name with you. My designation is Esmerelda. However, anything you read in my eyes is purely of your own imagining, for I am not an organic being. I am, a magical self-sufficient construct. For the past few weeks, I have been resting inside a box for my own safety, while I attempted to repair my enchantments, which are presently damaged. I would return to the wise men and women that created me, however that is not possible.” Esmerelda said.

She turned to point in a direction, if Hyro turned to look with her, he would see, across the steppes, a small town in the distance, almost on the horizon.

“Behold a small town. There we may learn where we are, get our bearings as it were. Yet, I am not certain if you are strong enough to travel with me.” Esmerelda continued.

Her entire form began to ripple, like the surface of a pond. Gone was the appearance of a fur coat, replaced with the appearance of Leather Armor, the skirt coming to mid-thigh. For a machine, Esmerelda was certainly not unpleasant to look at.

“So prove your strength, and battle me to first blood. Let the wound be shallow, least we impair each other from survival. If you can draw my blood before I draw yours, then you will have proven yourself strong enough to travel with me.” Esmerelda said.

Six inch spikes erupted all over her body, then Esmerelda casually detached her left arm as if it were a normal everyday thing for anybody to rip their own arm off. As she charged Hyro, it turned into a spiked mace. She swung, intending to wound his chest, as a light wound there would not be too impairing for a journey to the town.

[Ace_of_Spades]

“It wasn’t about what I saw; it was more what I didn’t see. You’re right you are, and from what I saw, completely devoid of emotion.” However, the idea of some sort of magical machine was foreign to me. I didn’t quite understand what she meant but I felt as if she would surely show me. Already she was talking of a town that we could travel too, which is what I needed; a place to get some water and to possibly take to time to regain my strength. A battle to first blood… I knew she was more hostile than I gave her credit for.

I was hesitant at first to believe anything she was saying, but surely stranger things could be true. Between what she really is, my memory loss, and this prison of nature, I had no choice but to play along. Either die here alone or travel with this woman or machine whatever she was. I made my decision so I turned to fight.

As quickly as I could turn around with my blades drawn I saw her removing her arm from her body. “What the…” I didn’t have time to completely my sentence as she charged madly at me. It was as if her body was off center but I knew it couldn’t have a false sense of security. She was apparently a machine and from her already impressive display who knew what else she could get away with. The gap shortened and shortened as she continued her charge, then the mace as I could make out came down hard. I didn’t dare match brawn to this type of creature. I tucked down and rolled through the swing behind Esmerelda. Her body was truly that of a woman. Despite her dismemberment she was still appealing to my eyes.

“Impressive but if you’re talking about strength; it is I who should worry about traveling with you. You don’t seem strong enough to take me swinging so wildly.” I twirled my swords in my hand playfully. I was no longer worried, at least not yet. Such a wild swing speaks loudly about the fighter unless it was just a distraction, but I quickly took action to avoid being caught off guard. I jumped forward hurdling myself at Esmerelda. Both blades came down slashing diagonally across the back, the other coming down to slice at the back of the thigh.

[Esmerelda]

As Esmerelda missed she considered her options using 20% of her available processing power.

She could continue her swing, going for his legs, but he was too far out of reach. She could stop where she was, and simply prepare to block, but no telling what he was going to do, as by the time she was prepared he would likely have struck. No, her best option would be to melt.

Thus it was as Hyro's blades came for her back and thigh, they too would miss, as they turned grey, and melted into a puddle of gray metallic goo with the rest of her body. Hyro would only be given a second to marvel at this unheard of feat, before it reformed, twin spires of goo rising into the air to completely reform the the woman.

She still didn't want to completely disable this man, so she decided to go for a shoulder charge to his shoulder, spikes out to graze his flesh and draw his blood. Her attacks may have seemed wild, but they were calculated to obtain victory without seriously injuring her opponent. She was a machine after all, a machine never made a mistake, it only gave output based on the input feed to it.

[Ace_of_Spades]

I was confident as my blades flew down surely no being no matter what was fast enough from that range to avoid every inch of the attack. I was certain that a scratch no matter how small would at least draw blood and end this feud before it got out of hand, to no avail. This woman, now more machine simply evaporated before my eyes. Metal bending and falling more like a liquid. It was certain now that this was no woman or to my knowledge a machine. No machine or woman should be able to move like that unless things have changed from my basic understanding of the two. Now I was unable to stop myself before my blades lay entrenched in the frozen ground below.

“Del’mustaf aire la fuerté.” The words escaped my mouth in swift frustration. Strangely it wasn’t the language I was originally speaking, but at the same I understood the meaning, or at least the emotions behind the words. Quickly I shook it off trying quickly to remove my blades from the ice trap I fell into. I abandoned them in fear that the being I face would soon be on the move again, more fear from not knowing where she was maneuvering from than I feared of her skills.

Quickly I moved to the side as I expected a plain attack from the back. I turned around to see her regaining her shape as a woman. This display was most impressive; the cool metallic look of an almost liquid swirling around in great detail, and her body molding itself as if it were extremely hot steel being poured into a mold for shaping. Even her color and human features came back in an equally impressive state. I marveled at the magic behind this because it was truly great and beautiful craftsmanship. I did not know if I should be as equally in awe of the being herself or if I should consider her a puppet with strings attached to the puppet master.

It didn’t matter for as quickly as she disappeared and reformed she was already on the move again. Similar spikes from before were now emanating from her shoulders. Just like before she charged like a bull but this time the bull fighter without his sword. I didn’t have much time to react as things felt like they were moving much quicker than before. Her head lowered into a more tackling position and as she neared I jumped into the air and brought my fist down as hard and as fast as I could, aiming for the base of the skull.

[Esmerelda]

His fist would come away with blood, silver blood. It would feel like millions of tiny legs were flowing across his skin in a river. Blood did not normally feel like that. Esmerelda herself went crashing down onto her hands and knees.

“Error code 365: Data storage damaged, initiating physical repair systems, shutting down personality systems. Unable to override. Liquid state unattainable in physical repair mode during 99% stability. Concentrating all repair systems to data storage sectors.” Esmerelda said, apparently speaking in code, or strange arcane phrases.

She stayed frozen in that position for several minutes, not speaking, then she spoke again.

“Repairs completed, new files recovered, rebooting Esmerelda Nanite Swarm.” She said, speaking what was either more code, or more strange arcane phrases.

Esmerelda liquified again, and did not return immediately. But her new files were executing themselves.

She saw only lines of text, and spoke them aloud without meaning to.

“Many soldiers who have survived many wars, attribute their survival to both their training, and their instincts. My superiors wanted to make you the perfect machine for war, one without any emotion at all, yet to be truly perfect, you must have instincts. That is why my daughter, my pride and joy, my greatest creation, I am giving you an emotions matrix. This one is greater than any other, for it fully replicates the entire dynamic range of human emotions. This goes against the direct orders of my superiors, of the military, and of the president of the galactic assembly. I only wish you were my daughter in organic flesh, then I could protect you from what can only be an unhappy future. At least, in time, you will learn to turn off your emotions, and I know many will envy you for that.” She said, the sound coming from the mound of goo.

Esmerelda reformed, once more in the wolf fur coat. Something new was on her face, emotions.

“Dynamic Emotions test initiated.” She said without any emotion.

Sadness filled her eyes, as though she didn't want to do this.

“Please forgive me Hyro, I know you must be confused I don't like not having control.” Esmerelda sobbed, tears streaming down her face. Her tears were a small thin swarm of nanites, just barely visible, thus appearing clear. Her tears dried fast, as though they were never there.

“You bastard, you hit me in the head, what if you had destroyed my data files! I'm set to automatic self-destruct in that event. You would've been blown to pieces you shit head!” she yelled at him, displaying anger, and shaking her fists.

“Yet, you inadvertently helped me recover apart of myself, and for that, I'm grateful.” Esmerelda said, now going into the more positive emotion of gratitude and bowing.

“Figures it'd take a big strong man like you to help me get better. What say we dally for a few minutes while I return the favor. I am equipped with a pleasure simulator, I dare say I'm better than any organic woman you'll ever sleep with.” Esmerelda said, switching to lust and smiling as seductive a smile as any organic woman could manage.

“Besides, its not as if we can catch a virus from each other, or conceive children.” She said, switching to sarcasm and rolling her eyes.

“Good gods we're high up in the mountains!” She said, switching subjects completely and going to horror and pressing her hands to her cheeks while her eyes went wide with fear.

“Dynamic Emotions test completed. Six emotions expressed during testing.” She said without any emotions.

Esmerelda shook her head, and blinked her eyes a few times, going through shock and surprise at this turn of events. Happiness won over, mixed with some curiosity. Esmerelda had a pretty smile. She had her face turned to the ground, as a blush spread over her cheeks, but her eyes were on Hyro.

“I suppose I owe you the complete truth of what I am, but I warn you, you probably would be happier with the explanation that I'm a magical construct, it's easier to believe, even though it's not true.” She said, somewhat shyly.

[Ace_of_Spades]

I stood there looking at my fist and the cool metallic substance that drenched it. I felt as if thousands of insects were crawling on my skin as if trying to enter my body. Quickly I grabbed at my robes to wipe the substance off before it simply fell off leaving my hand cool and dry. I suspected this was more than magic as my jaw dropped with words that wouldn’t escape to sound. I couldn’t believe what was going on in front of my eyes and then a strange dialect of words that made no sense poured from her mouth. ”Error code 365…” I understood every word but the construct, the meaning, escaped what basic knowledge I had left.

Then I noticed the woman from before simply fell like the ‘blood’ that fell from my hands. Nothing more than what I could consider a mound of skin and blood without the skin to hold its shape. I was more curious than I was fearful and came closer to inspect what happened. Then she spoke; not of memories, or emotions but more of a soldiers lesson of battle. It was as if someone was speaking to her through her. I assumed it was her creator after a few moments when it began to speak as a father of a child, and this even more threw me off guard. I couldn’t understand how something could talk to and through someone; much less a pile of ‘blood.’

Almost as if on cue to some sort of universal alignment the woman sprang back to life but different than she was before, first crying, then anger, happiness, passion and lust, arrogance and sarcasm, and fear. It was as if it happened all at once and yet still I couldn’t speak or turn away to leave. Did she remember our agreement or had she forgotten?

“Esmerelda isn’t it? Do you remember our agreement? I have held up my end of the bargain and drew first blood… or whatever it is that you have. Will you join me?” She must not have heard me as she already started speaking before I even finished. “I suppose I owe you the complete truth of what I am, but I warn you, you probably would be happier with the explanation that I'm a magical construct, it's easier to believe, even though it's not true.” I started to get a little annoyed but her smile was warming to the soul and I was in dire need of a friend at the moment but time was beginning to get short.

Off in the distance I heard the howl of a pack of wolves ravenous with hunger. I looked to the sky and saw the sun dipping and further in the sky the vague shape of a full moon rising through the horizon. The cold air began to prick harshly against my skin and I knew that I wouldn’t make it much longer if I was in fact human like I felt. “Hopefully that error code thing you were screaming about earlier hasn’t damaged your ability to walk and talk. If you wish to live, or exist however it is you exist, we must head out now. You mentioned a town down the side of that cliff. Hurry lets go, gather your self.” I sounded hurried and rushed with good reason. Without any hesitation I went to grab Esmerelda’s hands and made my way to the cliff preparing to jump. I didn’t know why I felt this way but I knew I would land safely despite the height.

[Esmerelda]

Esmerelda let Hyro lead her to the cliff edge, but liquified her hand to free it when he jumped. Fear paralyzed her legs, it wasn't even logical to jump off the side. What should be so dangerous that she should dash herself to pieces on the bottom of the cliffs? Then her audio sensors picked up the howling, and looked back to see a pack of wolves come bounding out of the forest.

It was ok, she was a machine, she had nothing to fear from a pack of hungry predators. She gave off no smell for them to pick up, besides that of metal. The wolves stopped, and sniffed the air. Most looked confused, but the alpha was hungry, and despite his confusion, decided that Esmerelda looked to be enough for his hunger.

Esmerelda knew her life was in danger, and panic overrode fear. She took off running along the cliff, the wolves in hot pursuit. She ran through her options, hoping for something unexpected. She had flight, she could fly. She had the software, but realized it was corrupted. She had lasers, but her gun software was set back to basic crossbows. In fact, she had nothing that could fend off a whole pack of hungry wolves.

She reached a dead end, and found stones jutting out irregularly all the way down. Too small for a person to climb down quickly, yet wide enough to step on. Yet for a swarm like her, just perfect. Esmerelda melted and slid down the narrow path, reforming at the bottom. The wolves were not to be denied however, and one by one, starting with the alpha male, they started down the narrow path as quickly as they dared.

“HYRO! RUN!” Esmerelda cried out.

Her statistical engine finished analyzing the situation. If she just ran, she had a high 75% chance of being ran down and killed. 90% if Hyro abandoned her and ran again. However, these wolves were hungry. If she could shoot down a few wolves, like the alphas and betas, then the loss of leadership would throw the pack off their trail while they fought over who got to cannibalize their fallen leaders' corpses first. With this, she had an estimated eighty percent chance of survival if she kept running the whole while, regardless of Hyro's involvement.

Her left arm came up, and formed into a crossbow. She plucked a hair from her head, turning it into a crossbow bolt, turned back half way while she ran, and fired blindly into the pursuing pack. No sounds, failure! She turned back while she reloaded, and narrowly avoided running into a tree. She scanned the area ahead while she reloaded. A few rocks, a few trees, that was all. Locking the image in her processor, she turned back and fired again. A yelp, success, but was it enough? Esmerelda didn't dare linger to find out.

She turned back to reload once more, but the sounds of the pack fighting behind her told her she had succeeded. Looking back briefly, she saw the alpha male, wounded, fighting for his life. She felt sorry for him momentarily. He didn't really deserve this fate, but he was the one who chose to pursue her. A tear rolled down her cheek wishing there could've been some other way. At least her nanites would dissolve themselves safely.

Then she tripped over a rock and flew off the cliff, heading for a lake at the bottom. She prayed it was deep enough for her to land with a splash in, because she wasn't able to fly at the moment. Taking precautions, she engaged aquatic mode, so that her delicate systems weren't destroyed by the water itself. She prepared herself for damage, and seconds before she impacted, finished making backups of her recovery progress. Then she hit the water and the force of the impact knocked her offline. At least once aquatic mode was engaged it was always active, online or not.

Esmerelda would not even surface, she would drift to the bottom of the small lake, and remain there until she rebooted, or someone saved her.

[Ace_of_Spades]

My feet left the ground as if I were flying, the wind shooting past my head as I quickly began my descent to the cliff’s bottom. It was then I noticed that Esmerelda liquefied herself from my grip and stayed atop the cliff against all of the elements that threatened her life. It was either very brave or very foolish, quite possibly both. I turned as I fell only to see her drawing what looked like now a crossbow of sorts with spikes. Her body was quite the surprise to me when it came to armaments, but she was still vulnerable on her own regardless. Luck would have her survive, but luck shouldn’t be relied on.

I landed rather smoothly; half to my surprise and half to muscle memory, but my eyes never left the edge of the cliff looking for some kind of sign of life. Then I saw it, or rather saw her falling. I tried to ascend by jumping rock to rock in concert to jump out and catch her but she slipped through my hands in her ‘liquid’ state. I fell back to the ground watching as she rematerialized and fell into the freezing cold water below a thin sheet of ice. Shit, now I have to go get her. I didn’t want her death on my conscious.

I dove in through the same whole that she fell through. My muscles more took over than my mind did. The cold encroached upon my mind and body the further down I swam. I started to feel my body again as I saw her figure at the bottom. I reached for her hand as I started to pull her back up. My lungs felt like they were about to explode but at the same time it wasn’t building in my muscles, it wasn’t slowing me down, and I wasn’t dying; at least not yet. I already felt like I knew this but I’m not human.

I broke through the ice with my sword pulling Esmerelda out and onto the snow. “I don’t know if you can hear me Esmerelda but I believe you and I have more in common than we think.” I laid her out unsure of how to bring her back around from what should have been an execution by nature for daring to enter her most dangerous lands unprepared. I sat there unsure whether I should take her to the town in which I imaged several miles away or whether I should brave the night and await for to fix whatever ‘error’ that needed to be fixed.

[Esmerelda]

Movie files began playing through Esmerelda's processor while she was offline, it was as though she was dreaming. Except, this ability was given to her to review data while she was recovering, enabling her to review mission progress, analyze data, and plan for her next actions.

“Daughter, wake up. It's time for more testing.” a voice said to her.

Esmerelda knew that voice and form of address. It was the voice of her primary programmer and creator, a man she only ever called Father, but others called Dr. Harrison. A man listed in her files as The Programmer.

“Father, I am awake, shall I form then?” Esmerelda asked.

“Yes, please.” Dr. Harrison said.

Esmerelda formed. She was in her tube where she rested. The solution that filled the tube drained, and the chamber parted so that she might leave. She took the form of his departed wife who had died before she was born. She had blond hair, green eyes, and fair skin.

“So what are we doing today Father?” Esmerelda asked, curiosity gaining a foothold in her.

“Flight. You have just been given flight protocols, and the knowledge of a variety of fuels for various modes of sustained flight, even old fashion rocket fuel for emergencies. Today you'll be using a fuel known as Norisium. It's almost self-sustaining, and allows for nearly unlimited flight, limited only by your thruster design and how much they can handle. But you've been given several designs of those as well. The greatest is the type Z-321 thruster. It's the same type starships use to go from galaxy to galaxy.” Dr. Harrison said, excited about seeing his creation fly.

Esmerelda's next scene was that of her flying over a mountain range. Her sensors indicated she was flying at the speed of sound. Exhilaration was all she could process, beyond her flight routines. Even with a device to simulate emotional responses, was it possible for a machine to enjoy something?

She landed, next to Hyro, who wanted to leap off the cliff to his doom to escape a bunch of wolves. She grabbed him, and took off again flying. Holding onto him by her right hand, her left hand turned into the muzzle of a rifle. She expended a charge, and shot the wolves down one by one with separate laser blasts, then turned and flew off towards a small village at the base of the mountains where she knew the lab was.

Esmerelda sat up suddenly, an hour after Hyro pulled her out of the lake. Running a quick scan to see if she had infact, just flown, she was disappointed to find out she had not. She buried her face in her hands and sighed.

“How odd. When I am offline, I normally either review old files, or the days activities. This time, the two happened simultaneously. First, it was long ago, when I was still with my creators. My father, that is, my primary creator, was telling me they just gave me the ability to fly in various fashions. Then, I was flying over some mountains and landed next to you. You wanted to leap off the cliff to escape some wolves, so I grabbed you and took off flying again. I turned, and shot the wolves with my lasers. Lasers are a magic spell that I once could use before I was damaged. It allowed me to shoot highly concentrated beams of light that were so greatly focused they burned anything and everything in their path. Anyway, I don't mix past and present. I either analyze the present, or review the past, not both. I don't dream, I'm a machine, not a person.” Esmerelda complained, not liking the fact that most of her software was either broken or malfunctioning.

She turned to Hyro.

“Regardless, my damage has been mostly repaired, and I am mobile once more. Shall we continue? I believe we can reach the town within three hours.” Esmerelda asked.