C'était Lui Qui M'a Aidé (It Was He Who Helped Me)
I cared not about my days. They simply dragged on enough to torment me. My nights, however, were far more interesting. So, as the darkness filled my cell, I watched the robots file out and another one come in.
He landed from the window above my head and clanked almost inaudibly beside me. I was sure if my senses were not on extreme high alert, I wouldn't have heard. But, as it was, my predatory senses were still horridly obvious and I heard him.
"Good evening," I said brightly as his laser eyes turned to look at me.
"Hello." Came the solemn reply.
"Thanks for breakfast." I told him, crossing my legs and shooing bugs away from my feet.
"You're welcome." He answered quietly.
My stomach rumbled audibly and I sighed. "You wouldn't be willing to do it again, would you?"
"I need you to help me tonight," he answered. "Will you accept if I give you food?"
"I would anyway," I answered. That was true. I was willing to help out a friend, even when I was the one in need of help. Ick. My empty insides didn't agree with me, it seemed. "But…" I added, embarrassed. "Food would be nice."
He smiled and tossed me two carcasses. One was still warm, but the other had grown cold from death. I weighed the colder carcass, finding it long and scaly, a slit in the throat having killed it. The other was a rabbit. I bit my lip, thinking of my friend Cream back home. But, as the carcass of brown rabbit was still warm and fresh, I pulled apart the slit across its heart that had killed it and stuck my tongue into the insides.
He watched with with apparent curiosity, almost exactly like me. His shadows hit our obvious differences, only to amplify just one. I guess I should've felt some shame, devouring mercilessly the food he'd brought without offering any to him, but I soon found out it was just another difference not obvious at first.
"What's it like?"
"Hmm?" I looked up from my feast, swallowing the chewed rabbit's heart. It was the juiciest part of the creature, to be sure.
"Eating. What's it like to eat?" He sat, crossing his legs and looking eagerly at me.
I finished off the rest of the rabbit and tossed aside any inedible parts, then further ripped apart the slit on the snake's neck, being careful to eat around the many tiny ribs on the skeleton. Eating to fill one's empty stomach is a feeling almost impossible to describe. I probably wouldn't have known how to answer were it not for my fast.
"A strange feeling," I sighed with delight. "But, an awesome feeling. It's like…I don't know," I licked my lips and closed my eyes as the last of the snake meat disappeared into my gullet. Now I knew how to explain. "Food is wonderful. As you chew it, it becomes mushy. Then, it travels down your throat when you swallow and hits your stomach and fills your whole body with warmth." I opened my eyes.
"It sounds wonderful."
"It is." I yawned in spite of myself. "Why do you want to know?"
"I am a robot. I have never eaten."
I sat up straighter. "Oh." Then… "Can you make your stomach growl?" I wondered randomly.
"I can."
"You actually have one?" I was surprised.
The robot's lasers turned off. I assumed that was the equivalent of closing his eyes. "I was modeled after you, remember? Even internally. I am only…I have no need for rest."
"Make your stomach growl." I insisted.
"That I cannot do."
"Why not?"
"You are not hungry."
I understood, although the knowledge came slower to me than usual. "Oh. You need to connect with me to do that."
"Yes, and that is when I feel your hunger."
I could feel that I was still undernourished, but I was sated for now. "All right. What is it you need to know?"
The robot's lasers glowed and he proceeded to ask me questions about my friends, about past events, about Eggman, about everything.
And…I came to know him better then.