With a sigh, Armonie stepped into the kitchen ready to make a cup of tea when the house shook slightly. Frowning, she waited it out; it was by far too short to be an earthquake. Because it was Saturday, they all had they day off and were prone to sleeping in; only Armonie woke up early.
She walked quickly up the stairs, poking her head into Romhild's room. Amalia and Antonio were both heavy sleepers, so it was unlikely that they would even notice the small tremor. Romhild, however, was a light sleeper but thankfully not prone to having a large imagination.
Her brown-haired daughter was sitting up on her bed, looking out the window to her left at the grassy meadow and forests beyond. "Morning, Mama." She greeted in her usual dry way: like her mother, she wasn't much of a morning person, but she wasn't a grouch either. "Something fell from the sky out near the forest. Will the trees burn down?" she asked in genuine worry, but not for them: of the three adventurous ones of the family, she actually cared about her surroundings.
Armonie shook her head and kissed her daughter's forehead. "I don't think so, but I'm going to go check. If Padro wakes up before I get back, tell him what happened, okay?"
Honey-brown eyes wide with awe of her brave mother, Romhild nodded. Glad she was wearing jeans, Armonie left, walking quickly across the meadow and breaking into a light trot when she reached the cover of the trees.
It wasn't hard to find where the thing fell. Judging by the amount of splinters and shattered trees and branches (a few of which were smoking gently or tipped with a small cap of flame) it was a rather large object, and it landed not too far from where she stood.
Now she tread carefully, trying to see if the little fires would start a larger one as she came across the big crater. The fires were embers or close to it, so she didn't have to worry, but just to be careful, Armonie stomped out whatever she could while still gaping at the crater.
The crater was empty, but formed a long furrow in the cool, wet earth. Enormous trees had fallen haphazardly around the area, some uprooted as the thing skidded to a stop, or knocked silly as it fell.
Looking around, Armonie recognized the place and realized that she had gotten pretty far away from her house: she was about a mile away near a popular lookout for high school students to make out or whatever else high school students did there.
A rough voice growled something from behind her and startled, she whirled to find a large, burly man growling something else, leveling a rather large, formidable shotgun at her face and chest. She squinted slightly, straining to catch what he was saying. She only got three words out of the long ramble (mostly because it appeared that he was I'm-almost-dead drunk and he slurred a lot), but it was straightforward enough: ours go away.
As a multi-linguist, Armonie knew more than two languages: she was fluent in Italian (of course), German, and Spanish; she was close to being fluent in Gaelic and English after giving up on learning French. The drunkard waved his gun at her, obviously expecting to understand his mess of words and sounds.
A less-drunk and sober sounding voice echoed from a ways away, and not taking his eyes off Armonie, shouted something back to them that sounded something like "Ge' o'er 'ere".
Armonie backed up slightly until she was backed into a pine, the lowest branch a little above her shoulder. The drunken man slurred something else at her, leaning suggestively toward her, gun pointed down and obviously thinking Armonie too scared or weak to punch his lights out.
Boy was he wrong.
A hard uppercut to the jaw, then a jab at his great gut and a hard kick to the groin was all it took to send him backwards on his back where he stopped to blink as if asking the universe 'why am I on my back?' Armonie took his gun and chucked it into the crater before leaping into the tree and climbing as high as she could as the drunkard's friends appeared through the bushes.
As high as she could go – without being afraid the branches would break – Armonie stopped, clinging to the trunk and peering cautiously down at the four bending over the downed drunkard who was (Armonie though) cursing wildly.
Another waved his shotgun up at the tree and in Armonie's general direction – perhaps arguing about her, she mused – roaring something at the man; she could hear the echoes of his yell as he turned to look up at her, squinting his eyes and shading them with his hand against the morning sun which happened to be right behind her.
He called something up in broken French, to which she responded by yelling insults down at them in Gaelic. The man, obviously not knowing Gaelic, thought then tried again, this time with even more broken (if that was at all possible) Spanish.
Another interrupted the atrociously-spoken Spanish with German. "Do you speak German?"
Armonie fell silent, thinking her answer over. "Yes." She called back at last.
"Come down," he called in a false-friendly tone. "That way we don't have to talk without having to shout."
"Fat chance. Your friend pointed a gun at me, and I bet you'd all like to shoot me if you get the chance." She snapped back.
"We can just shoot you now if you like." Another called up in false earnestness. There was a loud bam! and with a startled shriek, Armonie clutched the tree as it shook and fought to stop the ringing in her ears. The birds nearby leapt into the air with startled shrieks as the shot echoed through the forest, becoming softer and softer as it passed. The tree stopped shaking and Armonie glared down at the three Americans – who else would be stupid enough to do that? – as they guffawed at her.
Growling, she shouted down more insults (still in Gaelic) down at them. She was about to begin again in Italian (which they apparently didn't understand) when she felt the tree give the tiniest of shakes. Mouth open to deliver another scalding rant of insults and curses, she felt the tree shake again, marginally stronger than the last one. Slowly, she closed her mouth and looked around with wide eyes.
A third shake came, and the trees around her rattled along with hers. It was like footsteps, she realized, watching as a fourth one came. Pressing her eyes shut and her forehead to the rough bark of the three, Armonie sighed. It was just her day: she was either going to be shot or eaten by whatever made those enormous footsteps.
After a while the steps slowed to a stop, and the group of men below stopped laughing, talking amongst themselves in English about what to do with her. From what Armonie could gather, they had been camping (illegally) a few minutes away and heard the meteor (or whatever it was) crash. Evidently thinking they could sell it and get loads of money, they threatened anyone who came to the site (meaning Armonie).
Unfortunately, two were absolutely cratered, one of them knocked out where he fell after Armonie kicked him, and the other leaning against her tree for support. That left three other less-drunk Americans with guns. The other trees were too far for her to jump, and she was too high to get down and start running. That left her trapped up there until she got help – which was unlikely.
That was, until she noticed the flash of bright scarlet in front of her, close but not visible or obvious to the drunkards. Turning, she gaped as the enormous shape whose armored head was level with hers. As it stepped out into the open, not a sound was made, and Armonie realized that it must have made those enormous footsteps though it was being quiet not.
The drunken idiots caught sight of it and yelled in surprise, frozen in fear. Then the giant robot did something Armonie didn't expect; it spread its legs and bent into a crouch, fingers spread and bent into claws. Metallic "lips" peeled back to reveal sharp "teeth" which it bared. Blue lights shone through its eyes, zeroing in on the group of men. It opened its mouth and Armonie nearly fell from the tree at the great, thunderous growl that emanated from the robot thing. Screaming, the men turned and ran, tripping over themselves and their guns as well as rocks, roots, and branches in their way.
Armonie sucked in a breath as with a chuckle, the scarlet being straightened and looked at her calmly. The "lips" had covered those formidable "teeth", but it still looked scary to her. But now that she thought about it, it didn't seem all that bad: it wasn't killing her, at least.
Mouth moving accordingly, the giant robot asked, "German?"
Armonie frowned slightly. "Yes."
"Ah. Now, tell me, if you please. Why didn't you run away with them?" the robot's voice was warm and gentle but obviously male, and Armonie found herself staring in awe at how human it's – his? – voice sounded.
"I figured it's no use: if you wanted to hurt me, you'd catch up to me anyway. Besides. In case you haven't noticed, this tree's rather large, and it'll be hard to get down." Armonie found herself explaining. Blinking, she looked down at the ground at least twenty feet down, she shuddered, imagining the horrible things that could happen to her if she slipped.
"Then allow me to assist you." she could hear the smile in his voice as he walked over, lifting a hand so she could scoot nervously on. Slowly, he bent and put her on the ground. "Now will you run?"
Armonie frowned up at him. "Not unless you want me to." She grumbled back. She locked at her watch and gasped. "I gotta get back home. Amalia's probably up by now and worrying." Casting a last glance at him, she ran, but not because she was afraid.
She jumped when she heard the sound of an engine growling – much like the robot had – behind her. A scarlet Ferrari pulled up beside her and flicked open the door. Looking in, she found it was empty. "Get in. I'll take you there." After a brief moment of hesitation, she stepped in. "So. What's your name, girlie?"
Armonie scowled at the steering wheel which rotated gently in front of her. "Armonie. What about you, Mr. Giant Robot?"
He laughed as her house came into view. "Me? My name's Hot Rod. Nice to meet you, Armonie. Here's your stop."
The door opened and Armonie hesitated. "Thank you." she said at last, stepping out and walking into the house. She didn't stay to see if he left.