Information

Recall
Legacy Name: Recall

The Glacier Cadogre
Owner: Pureflower

Age: 8 years, 4 months, 2 weeks

Born: December 8th, 2015

Adopted: 8 years, 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Adopted: December 8th, 2015

Pet Spotlight Winner
March 27th, 2018

Statistics

• Level: 60
   
• Strength: 73
   
• Defense: 10
   
• Speed: 10
   
• Health: 10
   
• HP: 10/10
   
• Intelligence: 83
   
• Books Read: 64
• Food Eaten: 0
• Job: Head Harvester

The warning sensor in her brain was an annoying beep that would not allow her to sink into the fuzzy warmth that kept coherent thoughts from forming. She uncurled her metallic body with a protest of steel joints layered in ice.

She had to move. It didn't matter in what direction. She just had to move before her circuits all froze.

Every part of the landscape looked the same, a uniform field of fluffy white powder broken only by the occasional lump of purple stone glazed with ice. She set her course for a stone that looked like one of her finger-claws. There was no reason for her actions. She just liked the way it was shaped.

She continued her senseless trek through the snow, feeling better as motion forced stiff gears into action. She could not remember anything about her past except a little red wagon. Had it been a food source? A device for transportation? A friend? She simply couldn't recall.

The village of Arctic Frost appeared one day, a spot of cheerful color that pleased her visual sensors. By sheer luck she discovered a snowmobile with a bad engine, lapping oil from a pool on the ground. The taste was wonderful. She did not dare to enter the village main, wary of the shoppers bundled in jackets and scarves that scurried steadily in and out of Icy Goods.

She waited until night to skirt the village, having drained every last drop of oil from the leaking machine. The vast stretch of tundra that stretched out before her had little to offer any creature, whether their skin was flesh or steel. Birds of prey would swoop down on her, lured by the sunlight that bounced off her body, flying away with shrieks of annoyance as they realized she would provide them no food or materials for nest building. One particular snoohok took a liking to her shine, coasting high overhead for hours without ever attempting to attack. She quickly learned to ignore him.

She was relieved to discover an end to the snow as she moved south. A terrible fear she could not understand turned her away from the land of Darkside, leaving her only one path.

Her sleek white body made her stand out in the dark forest of Shadowglen. She learned quickly to roll in the mud, to trick the pesky insects that swarmed her face and made it impossible to see more than a foot ahead. The snoohok came out of nowhere, feasting on the bugs and finding perching places in the trees. He did not seem the least bit concerned about his own magnificent white feathers. He was his own food lure and could easily take to the sky to avoid threats. After a few days, he worked up the courage to perch on her back.

He would flutter a wing in the direction he wanted her to go. His tips led her to piles of dark goo that satisfied her hunger and warned her away from citizens of the dark forest that would gladly sell her for scraps.

She came upon the zombies accidentally. They gnawed their way through a feast from the Underground shops, enjoying the warmth and light of a witch fire.

"You can rattle that jaw until it falls off, but I'll still swear it's true, Tobi."

"You really want me to believe that brain foods will improve my memory? I suppose that next you'll swear that eye cream puffs will give me night vision. You're so gullible, Mikey."

Mikey moaned and took another bite of brain stew. "I'm not saying all Underground foods have benefits, just the ones with brains in them. You could at least try a bite."

Tobi snorted and got to his feet. "I'll stick to finger foods, Rot Breath. Come on. We're going to be late for the wrestling match. I can't wait to see you lose all your coins on Nacho Muerte."

"When I win big, I'll prove my point. It takes a zombie with superior brain power to know how to bet."

She waited until the zombies were out of hearing range to dart forward and devour every scrap of brain chip, brain burger, and brain wrap she could find. Surely now her fuzzy memories would clear.

Nothing happened. She was not discouraged, though. Now she had a destination in the Underground, the source location of brain foods.

She sneaked into Half Baked and The Lost Skeleton in stealth mode, taking morsels from the store rooms and taking great care to leave no evidence. Even the freshest brains would not allow her to recall more than broken memories of a red wagon and a yard with bright green grass.

She allowed the snoohok to guide her once again, brought to a stop at the surface of the ocean. Her keen eyes could just make out the lights of Centropolis on the distant shore. He perched on her head as she swam the distance.

Her first day in the big city was terrifying. Everything was loud and there were many strange Subetans that passed so close she could feel the texture of fur and feathers on her sensitive skin. She huddled at the edge of the sidewalk on Shopp Street, cowering beneath a plate glass window displaying a line of shiny new laptops.

"Are you lost?"

The young man's accent was barely noticeable when he spoke the language of computers. She poured out her story, relieved that there was one creature that would not dismiss her as a stupid machine.

Nico waved her inside his shop, guiding her past customers looking at cell phones and software programs. He set down a bowl full of spare computer chips, a meal she did not hesitate to devour.

"Your memory's been wiped. Nothing angers me more than some fool scientist who treats a beauty like you as nothing more than another toaster to be thrown aside at will." Nico held up a slender strip of silver. "I created this chip myself. No matter how good their wipe was, this will allow us both to see whatever is stored in your memory."

Her eyes widened as the chip was plugged in, playing out her thoughts as a projection.

The boy was allergic to fur and feathers. He loved his mother's tutani well enough, but he longed for a pet of his own, one that would not make him sick but would be capable of thinking as well as any creature of Subeta. He excelled in all his science classes and had a fascination for machines of all kinds. It took a few tries to work out all the bugs but the final product exceeded all his expectations.

She was the best playmate imaginable. She could make sounds like a space cruiser or a fire truck and when he strapped her to his little red rocket, he felt the sensation of flying.

She dug up the gems while he was sleeping, wishing to do her part in saving the family home when the boy's father lost his job. She hadn't realized that not all humans were kind and good like her boy.

The greedy men came in the night, doing their best to change her programming and make her a slave. She resented their sad attempts to alter pleasant memories, sending three flying down the mine shaft they intended to toss her into.

They brought her to Darkside, strapping her down and plugging a terrible device into the port where her boy had once plugged his s-pod so the friends could enjoy a mix of his favorite songs. They wiped her memory completely and shut her down, taking her to the north without fear that their crimes would ever be detected.

Not even Nico's chip could reveal how she had managed to power up on her own. He recognized the neighborhood in Veta Lake easily enough, promising her a guidance device that would take her home. As she settled down, she decided to leave the small cache of gems she had carried all this time to show her gratitude.

She would soon be reunited with her boy. Two little hearts flashed in her eyes before she laid down her head to power down for the night.

Story by Pureflower
Profile by beer
Background image fromPixabay

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