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.