Chapter 3 – The Scarf

"Look, Lep," Sand sighed. "We wolves here need to leave the forest. Some humans are roaming about with chainsaws." Dusk nodded.

"Come!" Lep said, and started walking towards the steel building.

"Are you mad?!" Sand yelled. "I'm not going near that place!"

"Come!" Lep repeated.

"Maybe it's for the best, maybe it's trying to lead us out of the forest somehow," Dusk whispered.

"I don't care! I would rather have my home destroyed than go in there!" Sand scowled.

"You're such a coward!" Dusk said as she followed Lep.

"Alright, alright," Sand said, frowning. "I'll come with you." Dusk smiled and they all went inside the building.

"Do not be loud," Lep beeped at a low volume.

"Alright, shush then!" Dusk whispered. After about a minute, Lep and the two wolves reached a blue scarf, thrown onto a chair.

"Take the scarf," Lep said.

"Why? It's a scarf, why would I need that?!" Sand whispered to Lep angrily.

"Take the scarf," Lep said again.

"I'll do it," Dusk scoffed, and took the scarf in her mouth.

"Come!" Lep said, heading for the door.

Back in the forest, Dusk sat down on the grass. "So, tell me why we need this again?"

"It is a time-traveling scarf," Lep said.

"Time-whatchamajigger?" Sand said. Dusk laughed.

"You sound like an old man!" Dusk said.

"I am not old, I am middle-aged!" Sand said with a scowl. Dusk smirked.

"Time-traveling," Lep said, startling Sand and Dusk.

"What does that even mean?" Dusk asked.

"Put it around your neck," Lep beeped. Sand and Dusk both put their heads underneath the scarf, which was lying on the ground. Lep also did this. Suddenly, in a flash of blue and yellow light, with a loud "poof" and a "woosh", they were all gone.

Chapter 2 – The Friend

The robot leopard scanned the area around it, the dark forest. The forest was silent, except for the occasional rustle of leaves or hoot of an owl. After a moment or two, the robot started walking into the forest.

Eventually, the robot passed two wolves, one black and the other brown.
"What is that?!" the brown wolf hissed to the other, and the robot could understand this, because it was programmed to understand all languages.
"I am robot," the robot leopard beeped.
"Robot, huh? Sounds weird," the other wolf said.
"Do you know what a robot even is, Dusk?!" the brown wolf exclaimed.
"Erm, no? Because I'm not nuts? Man, you are so weird, Sand," Dusk laughed. The robot kept silent.

"Look, robot," Sand said, whipping his head over to the robot leopard. "You came from Tall-Steel, correct?"
"Where is Tall-Steel?" the robot said.
"That big metal humanhome 'round a half-mile from here," Sand replied. "We wolves avoid that place. There's a human in there who once took one of our alphas a long time ago, when I was a young pup." Sand looked very elderly, so that must have been quite many years ago.
"What are ya, anyway? One of them big cats?"
"I am robot," the robot repeated.
"No, nincompoop!" Sand said. "What are you shaped?"
"I am robot," the robot repeated again.
"Dude, stop, you're confusing it!" Dusk said, chuckling. Dusk looked rather young, and had a small scar on the end of her tail.
"I'm not confusing it, it doesn't even have a brain!" Sand yelled. Dusk laughed and flopped over on her side.

"You look like one of those leopards from ancient times," Sand said. "The extinct wildcat things..."
"Lay-pords?" Dusk said. "You ARE nuts!" Sand ignored her.
"I'm going to call you Lep, alright?" Sand asked the robot.
"O.K.," the robot beeped.

Chapter One – The Escape

"Now, robot," the man said, "hold still."

"Yes," the robot leopard said, turning completely stiff. The man then turned off the robot.

"You're too nice. You need to be more... evil," the man chuckled. The man then removed the forehead plate of the robot leopard, and twiddled around a wire or two with a screwdriver. He then put the metal forehead plate back on the robot, and the robot turned back on.

"Hello," the robot said again.

"How do you feel, robot?" the man smiled.

"I am afraid I do not have feelings, creator," the robot leopard replied.

"That isn't what I meant," the man scowled.

"I am sorry. What did you mean?" the robot said.

"What do you want to do?" the man asked, hoping for something evil.

"Anything you want, creator," the robot leopard said.

"Do something evil!" the man yelled impatiently.

"I am afraid I will not do anything evil," the robot replied.

"Why not?!" the man shouted.

"Doing evil things are not good," the robot said. The man eventually stomped away angrily, looking at another robot.

"Another robot failed," he muttered.

That night, the robot was accidently left on after the man had left. The robot then said to itself, "I do not want to be with my creator. I will leave." It then walked into the door and opened it with it's head, and walked out.

Prologue

It was a rather cloudy day in the year 2023. A large, silver, and somewhat dusty building hidden in the deepest part of the woods brushed the treetops. Inside the building, a tall man stood, leaning over a wildcat-shaped robot. The man had tussled black hair, and he was wearing a long white lab coat over a faded blue shirt, with black gloves and shoes.
"This robot leopard is coming along perfectly," he chuckled to himself while screwing in a bolt to the robot's ear. Suddenly, the robot leopard's green lightbulb eyes lit up.

"Hello," the robot leopard said, in a monotone, as all robots do.
"Why hello, robot!" the man replied, laughing.
"I am robot," the leopard said.
"Yes, you are," the man said.
"Who are you?" the robot asked, its left paw raising up.
"I am your creator and your master," said the man, laughing to himself.