Chapter Text
It was another humid day that penetrated through the cracks in her structure, though luckily the Sun could also slip through and reach her with it's warmth.
The small white creature arrived, this time with a neuron and a pearl.
"Thank you little creature." She formatted it, and noticed it was from her brother again. "You can stop bringing these, I already have enough. Pebbles needs them too!"
It extended the pearl toward her.
"Oh, you wanted me to read this? I will try my best... it's a bit dusty."
"Oh, it's a Void Fluid filtration system. Do you know what Void Fluid is? I assume you don't." She stopped to think how to explain it simply. "If you leave a stone on the ground, and come back some time later, it's covered in dust. This happens everywhere, the ground slowly builds upwards. The Void Fluid in the bottom of our world is the balance to this, dissolving the bottom of the world constantly–"
It grabbed the pearl from her hands.
"Oh, you wanted it back? It can be a sad topic I imagine, but you won't experience it in your lifetime."
It approached and lied down on her lap, with a worrying stare.
"I might experience it, yes. But it will take a long time, don't worry about it! I've already had a lot
The little island she was on definitely had shrinked. The dust piled, slow yet steady under the water, raising it. Much time had passed, but how much precisely she was unsure of. Her thought was interrupted by the return of the yellow creature.
"Oh, hello again!"
It had a satchel, which it gave to her.
"Hm... all erased by time. These have been working for... probably thousands of millions of cycles! You probably can't understand a number that big. I knew that they had an expiration date but not that it would be... so close."
She handed the pearl filled satchel to the creature.
"At least I can imagine that the scavengers still like them!"
Dust piled
The water was rising, faster. Some cycles the rain carried clumps of dust in it, accelerating the process. She had to stand –altough it was uncomfortable and difficult– to have her torso out of the water. She hoped that something was done about it soon, or she would be buried in a wet grave.
She heard something from the crack in the ceiling. A scavenger poked it's head inside the structure, and through a rough language spoke to the others and directed them inside.
They threw a rope and an improvised raft made out of plates tied with cables and flexible tubes, then lowered to meet her. Some examined her while others spoke between each other.
"I know you can't understand me, but I'm very happy to have visitors." They stopped talking and all looked to her. Some did a strange gesture, similar to a bow, and delivered a pearl, then they helped her get up from the water into the raft, and left.
A few cycles later, they returned. With metal plates they sealed the partially submerged entrance to stop the flow of water from the outside, and with hollow lizard skulls as buckets emptied the water until the original island broke the surface of the water. From then, two scavenger guards would be on the entrance, and although the visits were scarce, they always brought gifts and company.
Dust piled
Her neurons stopped having space to store even a few days, she cherished the memories of old to not replace them with new ones. One cycle she noticed the Sun no longer shined on her, but an artificial light, likely a lantern of which she was gifted many. The rope was replaced with a more complex stair with steps made from pipes.
She heard the scavengers talk in the entrance, the language had evolved and sounded less harsh and more elaborate. A fancily dressed scavenger went down the stairs and bowed to her, offering an ornate piece of headgear, with golden colour and red fabric. Upon grabbing it, the scavenger lowered his head and she put it on the creature's head without thinking.
Dust piled
The trend continued, with generally similarly looking scavengers and crowns for what seemed like an eternity.
Dust piled
"A monarchy!" Her thought was definitely slowed. Her neurons had been running for far beyond what should be possible for her to function normally, through some feat of luck her systems still worked.
Just thinking about that probably took her dozens of cycles. The only light source was a lantern she had on her lap, the light of the entrance was gone, she couldn't hear or see any scavengers there. The stair had been removed.
She heard a sizzling noise underneath her, coupled with a faint tingling. The Void Fluid had replaced the water that surrounded her island, and it was starting to cover it as well.
Her articulations were too rusted and her mechanical muscles too weak to do anything, until she noticed it was exactly what her kin were after. Maybe some had decayed before they reached here, and even those who did had probably passed through worse times, but at last they could be free.
As the Void Fluid reached her chest, she wondered how her brother would be.
Dust piled