Discovery 3.3

(Horror)

March 20, 2011

It was a beautiful day outside. Sun shining brightly, clouds floating by, dew-covered flowers beginning to bloom….

Not that Horror knew what beauty was. It was still having trouble with the concept of living things choosing to kill and eat each other. Horror didn't need food, so why did the small furry animal choose to eat the hard brown things that fell from the tall brown and green plants?

And why did the larger furry animals with pointed ears choose to attack the small furry animals by ripping them apart and eating them like the small furry animals did to the hard brown things?

It didn't make sense. ~I never understood either. Steroids always says they needed the energy from their bodies, but the Sun was always enough for me.~ Do they not get power from the Sun?

So yes, it was a beautiful day, but Horror was far too focused on wondering where the birds were. Over the past few hundred Sun cycles, they had popped in and out of Horror's peripheral vision, taunting it with their cries and squawks. Even now, it waited for one of the oldest ravens to flit through the tree branches as it always did early in the morning, taunting it as it plucked small animals from tree branches. Then, in a flash of shiny black, Horror spotted them.

The Flock.

The original seven birds, six ravens and one red bird, which followed Horror all the way from the mountains. The birds were larger than they had been at the start, bulkier in the chest and head, wings longer than normal, feathers stiffer and more numerous. Horror still tried to hit them with its beam every now and then, but the birds of the Flock always managed to dodge its attacks. With every improvement Horror achieved by increasing its accuracy, power, or rate of fire, the birds still managed to dodge. Sure, some of the younger followers were killed every now and then, giving Horror a moment to dance on their corpses, but the seven of the Flock were still there.

Horror wanted them dead, but it couldn't hit them. ~Try the lightning gun, you haven't touched it since the monster.~

Oh that's right, it picked up the weird weapon in the monster's wake, didn't it? The weapon didn't do much to the monster, but to the birds…

Horror laughed as it turned its head rapidly, looking for the nearest of the Flock. On a branch two tall plants away, sat a raven, black as the space between the stars. Other than the eyes at least.

It was one of the middle-sized ravens, with a larger wingspan and red-tinted eyes. Cackling madly, Horror aimed the gun at its enemy, one of the birds it's despised since the beginning, and pulled the trigger.

The *CRACK* that pierced the sky was louder now than it had been during the monster's attack ~It isn't louder, there just isn't any background noise.~, but the beam was the same. Lightning arced out of the muzzle through the air, moving at a speed far faster than both Horror, and hopefully the birds, could follow. Horror gave off a snort as it watched the other birds from the Flock flee from the flash of light, and returned its attention to the falling form of its enemy.

The dead form of his enemy.

"Heheheheheheheeeeee." Horror laughed with glee as it tore apart the crispy body lying on the ground.

Horror got one.

It finally got one. ~I hope then leave us alone now.~

Now it just had to get the rest.

It hoped they enjoyed the taste of lighting as much as little furry animals.

The sun was halfway across the sky when the Flock finally disappeared in the distance. Five were dead, and the only ones left were the largest and the red bird, each for their own reasons. The largest had taken a bolt of lightning to its center and lived, which annoyed Horror greatly, leaving Red, who had somehow dodged the bolt. The largest screeched at Horror after it was shocked, before chirping at Red and flying away, Red following close behind as it spun in circles around the arching lightning.

Horror was now sulking as it crunched up the bodies of the other members of the Flock, making sure they didn't come back. ~Some creatures do that. You have destroy enough!~ Horror hoped they would stay gone, but it couldn't be sure. ~I hope they aren't leaving to find guns.~ But if they did return, it would have more lighting ready for them.

Horror nodded to itself then hopped its way through the trees. He didn't know where he was going, really, but anywhere was better than staying still or returning to the mountains where the monster attacked. ~We must always move along. Staying still never helps. If we move we gain experience, and we grow.~

So Horror walked through the woods, stopping to observe an odd plant every now and then, when all of a sudden, Horror though it recognized something. ~That one's a flower! It's much smaller than normal though…" It didn't know why though. Poking it had caused the flower to wilt and lose a few ~petals~ petals, so Horror stopped and stepped back. Did Horror hurt it? It didn't want to hurt anything, except birds, the monster, and maybe that machine that cursed at it, but not a flower!

The flower hadn't annoyed Horror with noises or left it behind to be extinguished, all it had done was sit there and look red.

Horror sunk its head in grief, and turned away. It didn't want to look at the poor flower it might have killed anymore.

The radiation runt then left behind the corpse of the flower, and mourned.

There was a piece of tall brown and green plant in front of Horror, but it was cut up into a rectangle. Peering at it closely, it noticed bits of metal in the corners, and flicked the metal with its paw. A sharp *thock* sounded out of the weird cut up plant, and he heard a gasp from the other side.

Backing up abruptly, Horror spun its head around trying to find whatever had made the noise. There was creaking coming from the other side of the cut plant, and it saw flickers of movement through the cracks in between the pieces. Flashes of legs, a body, and bright blue came to Horror's eyes, and he recoiled back even further. ~Careful! Blue humans are usually bad! Even if it seems tiny!~

Then, all of a sudden, a head popped up.

'"Doggy!"

It was a tiny human, speaking at it with noises that made no sense.

It was pointing at it, so he followed the appendage ~Finger~ until he saw the target.

Horror?

Horror meant 'Doggy'?

The small human seemed to know many things then. Maybe he could learn to speak this odd language from the little one? ~Horror learned Trashtalk from Steroids, a massive human, why not another language from a tiny one.~

"Hӓroh" Horror spoke, pointing at itself, and watched as the human shook its head at it and pointed again. "No. Doggy!"

"Dah-ggy?" Horror was translated as Doggy then. And 'no' was a negative? It was a start…

"Doggy!" The human nodded in agreement.

Turning the attention on the small human, Horror pointed its paw at the little one. "Hüm?"

"My name is Tyler!"

What? That was a long word for human. Horror cocked its head to the side at the little one, then waited.

"Tyyy leer." The human's mouth was oddly shaped now. The corners were down… maybe the beginning of what the little human said was an introduction?

"Tyyleeer?" Horror asked.

"Yay, you got it!" Horror had no idea why the human was smacking its hands together. It looked so dumb.

"Tyleeer." Horror pointed at the human, then turned its paw towards itself "Doooggy?"

The human laughed at Horror ~not at us~ so it grinned and began to laugh as well.

Then the human vanished from the top of the cut plant, and Horror was left alone again.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Just as Horror was turning to venture into the forest again, a piece of the cut plant swung outwards.

Jumping back, away from the swinging piece of cut plant, behind one of the tall plants, Horror waited a few moments before peeking out. The small human was there, making the weird face with its mouth again and glancing around.

Horror let out a sharp noise, and was presented with a hopping human rushing towards it.

~Don't let it touch! It could die like the flower!~ Horror jumped as its thoughts collected, then turned its paws towards the tall plant and climbed.

"Aww, Doggy climb tree. Down Doggy! I wantsta plaaay!" The small human was stomping its feet and hitting the tall plant. Did it want Horror to come down? He didn't want the human to lose its head petals.

"Ty ler. No."

"Why? I wansta play fetch!" Horror was lost now. They hadn't gotten very far in translations, and already the human was sounding angry.

Translation was much easier when the humans were larger, like Steroids.

The small human had run off while Horror thought, and was now holding up a small piece of cut plant at it.

"Fetch the stick Doggy! Stick!" Cut plant was 'sticks'? At least the little one was still trying to teach Horror up in the tall plant.

"Stiick."

"Yes! Go get the stick!" The human yelled up at Horror as it threw the stick far into the forest.

Did… did the human want Horror to bring it back or something?

"Get the stick Doggy!"

Well, Horror supposed it could humor the little one for now, as long as it kept away from Horror.

Nodding down at the small human, who raised its hands and laughed, Horror leapt to another tall plant in the direction of the thrown stick.

A grin grew on its face as Horror watched the small human jump around beneath it.

Humans were much nicer than birds.

The Sun was falling past the horizon now, and Horror was getting tired of chasing things. At first, chasing the 'stick', the 'ball', the 'baseball bat' and the 'frisbee' were fun! It was learning so many new words also, such as the right names for tall plant and small furry animal! ~Tree and squirrel! Brilliant!~

But now the small human wasn't teaching Horror many words, and was even beginning to close its eyes every now and then! Horror saw that the little one was beginning to fall asleep, and let out a mournful noise. Why did everything have to go to sleep? It was such a waste of time!

But the small human was beginning to wobble as it walked after Horror, and its eyes were starting to stay closed for longer and longer periods of time.

"Ty ler." Horror barked at the human, jolting the little one awake.

"Mmm awake! Where… Oh, Doggy! Hi!"

"Hi."

"It's dark soon… Oh no! Mommy's problee looking for me! Dinner time!"

"Dinner?" the human had been so proud when Horror had learned how to ask questions. It made learning a new language so much easier.

"Like food! I need food. Oooh, maybe mommy's making spaghetti!"

Horror decided that it would rather not learn about what humans ate. If birds at squirrels, what must the much larger humans eat? Whatever 'spaghetti' was, Horror did not want to know. It could be even more threatening than birds! What would Horror do then, if he found something worse than the largest and Red! Horror wasn't sure it could kill a spaghetti if he couldn't kill some of the birds.

"Doggy? Do you want to come eat spaghetti?"

Horror shook his head in fear and squeaked out a "No!" before backing away "Doggy no want spaghetti."

"But spaghetti is reeaally good! Are you suuure?"

"Doggy sure."

"Ok. Want to play tomorrow?" What is tomorrow?

"Tomorrow?"

"You know, when the sun comes up again in the morning! Tomorrow!"

Horror sighed and frowned ~Ty ler said frowning meant sadness or anger. What a great word! Frown. Froooown. Frrrrowwwn. Frown.~

"No, Doggy has to go."

"Aww." The human was frowning. It didn't seem angry, so the frown must mean sadness.

"Sorry, Ty ler. Doggy must go."

"Ok, Doggy." The little one then grinned at it. "But I wantsta play again later!"

"Maybe, Ty ler. Doggy will try."

"Ok!" Just like that, the small human was cheerful again "Bye bye!"

Horror watched the human, no, Ty ler, run off towards where the fence was.

He hoped the birds didn't get him before he found his mommy.

Tyler ran through the forest, finding his house really quickly.

He had fun playing with Doggy all day!

It was fun telling him what a tree was, and what clouds were, and what the Sun was.

Playing fetch was fun too, even if he couldn't pet Doggy like the Doggy he was.

Poor Doggy didn't want to be pet.

Suddenly, as he passed through the gate to his backyards, Tyler started coughing.

After he stopped and wiped his mouth, he looked at his hands and saw specks of red staining his skin.

Tyler shrugged.

Maybe he skinned his hands while playing fetch?

He'd ask mommy to help after dinner.

He smelled spaghetti coming from the kitchen, and grinned.

Today was great!

Horror left Ty ler behind physically, but the human never left its mind.

Horror had learned so much from the little one, and would be forever grateful to the human. ~He was very nice for a blue-wearing human. All of the other ones tried to kill us after smashing the rock diamond, or after being around Rogue.~

Yes, it would still be cautious of humans in the future, but they weren't all bad.

Ty ler was proof enough for Horror.

And then a noise came from the above, interrupting Horror's happy thoughts.

It was the same sound as the cursing machine.

A low roar sounded throughout the sky, preceded by a blinding white light that stopped above its head.

Oh.

This one was a little larger than the last one.

…

…

…

Did Horror hurt its baby?

It didn't mean to! The baby had cursed at him! Babies shouldn't curse!

Horror was still trying to rationalize hurting the maybe-baby of the massive machine in front of him, when a hatch opened on the side facing it.

It froze, before jolting suddenly and darting around a tree. Could it hide from the angry mommy? Robot always knew how to find Horror, what if the mommy tried to kill it!

Tyler said that his mommy would do anything for him.

And this mommy had what looked like… ~Miniguns? What! Run away!~

Oh no…

The hatch finished lowering to the ground, and Horror peeked out from behind the tree.

It was a human with long hair flowing from its head, extra flesh bags on its front, and a smile on its face.

It was happy?

"Heya! How are you?"

"Scared. Mommy's gonna hurt me for hurting baby."

The human had frozen its face. What did that mean? Tyler never froze like that!

"Oh, you can talk! We though you could only speak in the other language."

"Learned from Ty ler. Played fetch."

The human froze again! What did it mean? ~She's acting like Robot did…~

"Well we finally found someone who spoke your language if you want to use him? It might be easier."

"No. Cursing bad." The human was laughing now, which meant happy? Horror didn't understand this human. Wasn't it upset about the baby it might have hurt?

"Sorry, we weren't sure what it meant. We thought anything in your language would make you happier."

Horror nodded. So the baby was like it was with Ty ler and made a mistake. It could believe that.

"Is baby okay?"

"Baby? What baby?" Did she not know that the baby machine bird was hurt?

"Little flying robot."

"Ah, no. It was just a drone."

"Drone?"

"Umm, no intelligence?" At Horror's unmoving face, the human continued "It wasn't alive, it was something for, er, someone to speak through."

Horror nodded. That made sense. It wasn't like Robot at all!

"Do I need to come out anymore, mommy?" A voice came from the large flying machine. ~Is that… It sounds like him…~

"Well it might be easier. He sounds like a third grader or something. Might have learned from one."

Clanking sounds came from the ramp, and Horror had to control himself from squealing in glee.

"Robot! You are alive!" ~He made it too!~

But Robot wasn't moving. And neither was the human.

"Robot?" "I am not designated as Robot."

What? ~What?~