“What’s it look like I’m doing?” he chirped, continuing to beat a spiny shelled seed against the boulder they were sitting on… standing on in his case. At first glance, he looked like a dirt-colored bird, but that wasn’t quite true. Atom was an automaton, one of the mechanical beings created by her people that had a true soul, and he was the first that she had ever constructed only just a few months ago. Most automatons were typically bipedal and designed for strenuous labor, but not Atom. She had modeled him after a type of bird that commonly roosted in her backyard, and his only purpose in life was to give her the one thing that she had always, so desperately wanted. A best friend. 

“I’m… honestly not entirely sure,” Sapphiria remarked, watching in confusion as the small bird continued to beat the seed against the boulder. Scratching her head, she finally smiled, “Slowly descending closer to becoming one of your feathered cousins?” 

“Pfft! As if,” he snorted, pausing briefly to look at her disdainfully. Sapphiria giggled as he turned his beak up, “I am far too magnificent to compare to those feather brained morons. Not a single one of them could ever hope to hold a feather towards the grace that is my splendor!” 

“Then why exactly are you beating a seed against the rock?” she asked, grinning as he frowned at it in thought. Since she had no friends and nothing else to occupy her time, Sapphiria had turned to more scholarly pursuits to keep herself busy, specifically engineering. Over the long years, she had studied every aspect of engineering she could find, even the more complicated parts meant for the academics of the capital city. With all the free time that she had, she had quickly become quite the adept, allowing her to finally construct her first automaton and acquire the friend that she had always wanted! 

“Again, I thought it would be obvious,” he chirped, smacking the seed a few more times. Setting it down, he grabbed it and pried off the shell before plucking the large, emerald core the shell had been protecting, “Weipei nuts are supposed to be nutritious, right? Well, I figured you needed something to eat since it’s been a while!” 

“Oh, I guess it has been,” Sapphiria said with a laugh. Taking the seed’s core from him, she smiled at it warmly and continued, “They aren’t exactly what I would call filling, but they’re better than nothing!” Plopping it into her mouth, she chewed for a moment before swallowing it and smiling at him, “Thanks for thinking of me!” 

“Hey, that’s what best friends are for, right?” he asked with a proud smile. Hopping to his right, he patted a small pile of nuts he had collected, “I collected a few of them, so if that wasn’t enough, I’ll just open the rest!” 

“Wow, when did you have time to collect all of those?” she asked with wide eyes. 

“Uhh, hello?” he asked, looking at her in confusion. He smacked a wing against his face as she stared at him blankly, “You don’t realize how long we’ve been out here for, do you?”

“Uhh, no,” she said, groaning and wincing as she glanced up at the star. “It’s been over an hour now, hasn’t it?”

“Closer to two, actually,” he chirped, Sapphiria groaning and hanging her head. Chuckling, he shrugged as she looked at the horizon dejectedly, “Cheer up! That’s the whole point of coming out here, right?” He turned and followed her gaze, green jungle stretching off as far as either of them could see, “This is the one place in the world where we can relax and forget all about your people!”