He was walking across the desert, trying to find his friend. It was very hot, his skin was dry and his little feet ached, but he didn’t stop. He remembered his mother saying that having four legs is faster (and easier) than two, so he decided to transform. He shut his eyes tight and clenched his teeth. His tried to imagine himself as an animal. He felt pain all over his body as a small blue aura started rising from it. The pain made him kneel on the hot sand. He quit… He was never good at transforming…He sniffed, and trying to hold his tears, he picked up his backpack and kept on walking.   



Finally, it became dark. Exhausted, he sat on the sand, trying g to catch his breath.  Feeling the cold tearing through his clothes, he rolled his knees to his chest, and breathed slowly, trying to keep worm. Fire… he needed fire. He reached into his backpack for a book. He found a small one and tore a couple of pages from it. He breathed fired at them. He smiled. Breathing fire is something he can do very well. His home’s curtains knew that very well!



During the night, he could hear weird noises from the distance. It must have been from the machine’s base, where they built new robots. Maybe that’s where his friend went, to be with the rest of his kind. And that’s where Jimmy was going! Even though Cleave was unlike the rest of the machines he hoped he’d find him there.



“Maybe he’s trying to convince the machines that we should be friends. That would be so cool! Machines playing with anthros”. He smiled.



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How far away from the village was he? His systems knew exactly, but he didn’t care… How far away from HER was he? Still not far away. She was still in his mind; he could feel on his lips, he could feel her touch on his metal body. He had to fly further away.



“AAAAAAAHHHHHH”


The scream made him turn around.



“Voice identified” “Jimmy!”


He spread his wings and with no second thoughts he flew towards the voice.



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“This wasn’t such a good idea…” Jimmy thought as he kept walking into the desert. He was just about to quit – better to leave it up to the adults to find him – when he heart a noise – like a heavy machine.  He smiled and run towards the source of the noise, and he saw it. A machine – not big but still bulky – was walking in the sand, probably patrolling the area. As soon as it spotted Jimmy in its sonar, the machine turned slowly to face him. Jimmy was about to smile, but something wasn’t right. He saw a light inside its huge canon-arm. The light was getting brighter and brighter as if it was charging. Charging… to shoot at him…



With a loud scream, he tried to run away from the machine, but his little feet sank into the sand and made him fall down. He turned around and faced the machine face to face. The light in its canon was much brighter and it was just about to shoot at him when…



“WHAAAAM!!”


A large explosion hit the machine and threw it at the ground. Terrified, Jimmy run behind a rock, and looked up to see what caused the explosion. There, above the steaming body of the machine, stood his friend, Cleave. His right arm was turned into a canon and steam was coming out of it. He smiled at Jimmy, but before they could do or say anything, another explosion hit Cleave and sent him a couple of meters backwards.  Jimmy watched in horror as he saw a large tank approaching the scene.



The tank stopped a few meters away from Cleave’s twitching body.  A hatch opened at the top of the vehicle, and a man showed his face. He was a light brown colored griffin with long black hair tied up. He had a white patch above his right eye. He jumped down on the sand and approached the robot.



“Hmm…” he said and gave it a slight kick on the sides “…your weapon works, Steve, but the robot’s still functioning!” Another man jumped down from the tank. He was a Razor with light blue growths along his back. “Well it’s down isn’t it? It just needs one shot. Go on, Jesse, finish it”.



Jesse aimed at the robot with his gun “One machine less…”



“NOOOOOO!!!!” He was just seconds away from pulling the trigger, when out of the blue, he saw a small child running towards them and hugging the robot tight.

“What the…” Jesse couldn’t understand what the kid was doing there. And why on earth was he hugging that machine?

“Please don’t hurt him… he’s my friend!” At that, the two dragons lost it. Steve laughed.



“Kid… that’s a machine! It’s programmed to kill ya know? So, just get out of the way, and let us do our job…” Steve said as he grabbed Jimmy from his sleeve, but Jimmy opened his mouth and breathed fire towards him.



“AAAGH! You burned me! He…Why you…” He reached towards Jimmy but Jesse stopped him. “Wait… let’s listen to him.” Steve stared at disbelief. “Listen to what? It’s a machine for heaven’s sake! It’s down! It only needs one shot!”



Jesse looked at the child. He was hugging the robot with his arms and he was crying. “Please don’t die… please… mommy needs you…” Something was going on here. Jesse approached the child and kneeled next to him. He looked at the machine that now stopped twitching.



“You say this thing here is your friend?” Jimmy sniffed and nodded. “Ok here’s what… we’ll carry it to our base and see what we can do, ok?” “WHAT??” Steve couldn’t believe his ears. “You say we’re gonna FIX  the machine?” Jesse nodded him to be quiet. “Help me carry the body in the tank. Follow me kid”. “I can’t believe I’m doing this… helping out a machine…” Steve went on rumbling as he helped Jesse carry the robot inside the tank.



Jesse helped Jimmy climb into the tank. On their way to the base, Steve was sitting next to the robot, tightly holding his gun and looking at it with hatred.



“Don’t hate him…” Jesse said to Jimmy. “He… he lost his wife and son to a machine attack…” “I’m sorry…” Jimmy said and lowered his eyes. “I lost people I love too…” Jesse said in a low voice. “Who?” He asked. Jesse hesitated for a second. It was very hot inside the tank and steering it was not an easy job. Finally he answered.

“I was a little older than you when I lost my parents… That’s when the people of this base found me and took me in. I’ve been destroying machines ever since…” He stopped talking and looked towards the desert. They were getting close to the base. He didn’t know how to explain them about this machine…



“Listen, kid… I’ve heard of your mother before… she’s a great fighter. So if you say that she likes this machine then… then there must be a reason. A big reason.” “He’s alive!” Jimmy answered. Jesse smiled. “So does this robot of yours have a name?” “It’s Cleave”. “Cleave!” Jesse repeated as if trying to remember it. “That’s an… ordinary name…”

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