Lightbulb

Today marks step one of my journey - father has finally ceased holding me back for concern of my safety should I keep trying schemes to escape. I will admit that I was growing quite desperate to leave, and would have left in pieces if I needed to (after all, is that not why he made me a "reassembly" feature?). Now to find a clan who is willing to let me watch them...

I arrived in the Wind realm, to LOL. In this clan I am the only Bogsneak, but all the other dragons are quite kind with me. I'm still really curious about their life here, but I'm really grateful that father let me come here. For sure they play a lot, here it gets never boring!

I was greeted at the edges of the strand by a quiet green Imperial and a kind Guardian. Together, the two of them brought me to see their Matriarch, Aragona. She looked somewhat scary, but it was obvious that she meant no harm; she greeted me like I was an old friend that had come home, speaking reverantly of the Arcanist and acknowledging me as part of her Flight, assuring me I could stay as long as I wanted.

It was quite refreshing, to say the least, that the residents of my first few destinations were not concerned or quizzical of my inorganic nature... but I suppose this good fortune was not meant to last. At the clan I visited most recently -- a large number of dragons living in a quite intriguing marble temple, located in the Hewn City of the Sunbeam Ruins -- I happened to meet a somewhat eccentric Imperial mechanic.

After I shared formalities with the clan's leaders, and received confirmation that I would be allowed to stay with them for as long as I required for my research, this strange Imperial pulled me aside to introduce herself to me as Gizmo. She explained that she had noticed me from afar, and quickly noted how... mechanical I seemed.

"That stiffness to your joints, the faint buzz to your voice, and the soft whirr of internal machinery that seems to follow you about when you walk..." she stated, with wide eyes that regarded me with ravenous curiosity, "my hypothesis is that you are a cyborg! Is that true?"

"Indeed it is!" I confirmed to her, and that was my biggest mistake of all. After this, Gizmo was practically made of questions: she was desperate to ask me questions such as whether or not I eat and sleep (I don't), if I am able to reproduce with organic dragons (I am, though my breeding capabilities are still in their beta development and require some further bug-testing), and if I require a fuel source to function. (Not exactly? I receive my energy through a series of efficient solar panels embedded along my spine...)

Of course, due to my own purpose of studying dragon culture, I could completely empathize with the Imperial's gnawing curiosity. I was happy to answer all of her burning questions... at least, for a while. But when Gizmo's questions began to shift from simple and innocent to much more concerning, with inquiries such as, "how functional is your re-assembly feature," and "what kind of screws did your creator use to put you together," and -- worst of all -- "hey, would you mind if I cracked you open really quick and took a look at your inner machinery? Just to see what it is that makes you tick. For science, of course," I wasn't nearly as willing to cooperate with her.

By that point, I was starting to rethink my decision to stay with Gizmo in this clan. I started to distance myself from her, but it wouldn't be long before she was breathing down my neck again... before I knew it, I had given a shaky goodbye to the clan's leaders and started packing my belongings to leave -- but not before the Imperial mechanic noticed, of course.

"Please don't go! Not just yet! I'm not gonna hurt ya, I just wanna tinker with yooouuu!!"

In the end, I was forced to run, leaving the Light territories much sooner than I would have preferred. I had barely even begun to research the culture and customs of this place, but the situation was totally out of my control -- this was a matter of self-preservation!

Even now, I can hear the Imperial in hot pursuit behind me, still wailing for me to stay. How I hope she gives up the chase soon!

You would not believe how long it took to shake that Imperial off my tail! It took diving into the Foxfire Bramble to lose her... my data tells me that this is one of the most dangerous places in Sornieth. It was a great ideas at the time... and then I got lost... I spent who-knows-how-long wandering through there, and my batteries were getting low, with neither food nor sunlight. I stumbled into a fog - which I could see, even though the Bramble was pitch-black - and then found myself underground! Staring at a beautiful city! but that's not the point! All my sensors went hayfire for a minute or so, saying that I shouldn't be underground, I had never descended!

A dragon chuckled nervously. "Sorry about that. The Kingdom dupes a lot of electrical things. I can ask Blueberry to recalibrate you, if you want?"

I eyed the Obelisk warily. "Are they going to try and pick me apart again."

He blinked, then drew out a confused "uhhhhhh... no? Blueberry's pretty nice."

I let out a sigh of relief. "Yes. I would love that. My name is Lightbulb."

The Obelisk grinned. "Venti, Head of Assignments! Welcome to the Kingdom!"

Venti guided me to the Static Slice of the Kingdom, where I would find this "Blueberry". Blueberry was also an Imperial, which made me very wary at first, but when Venti explained my situation, she smiled and lit up.

"Of course I'll recalibrate him!" She turned to me. "Please tell me if I mess with something I shouldn't have! I'm still an electrician-in-training..."

Venti leaned over to me. "She's been saying that ever since she came like, a year ago, and she's our only electrician."

I laughed.

After my re-calibration, I left the Kingdom feeling much better than before. This time I made my way towards Plague again (the further from Gizmo I can get, the better!) and on my way I felt a sort of... pull? I don't believe I had ever felt something of the sort before, but it felt good to follow this compulsion, so I headed in the direction this "pull" wanted me to go in.

I ended up in front of a crater filled with pools and caverns. I felt compelled to go down there, to stay down there. It was kind of relieving, honestly, like my gears were telling me that this was the place I could finally settle down in forever. I was super close to going into one of the cavern entrances when a Spiral saw me and started shouting.

"No!", he yelled, "Don't go down there! You'll get stuck forever!"

Some part of me wanted to say "that was the point", but for the moment I kept my jaw shut and waited for the Spiral to reach me. If he was going to stop my exploring, after all, I would need a decent explanation first!

Once the Spiral flew down to meet me, he said his name was Rusty and that he was a researcher of the "anomalies" that were recently making a home in Quarantine Zone 128. He said he had some theories of there being a "siren-esc" creature that was luring dragons in, although for what reason he couldn't say. He told me that once someone or something gets in there the exit vanishes and the place turns into something like a labyrinth. "Not me, though", he said, "I can get in and out just fine, which is a fascinating mystery in and of itself!"

Instead of leaving me there, he invited me to his research station and gave me a place to rest. He makes pleasant enough company, to be honest, although he rarely lets me out of his sight out of fear that I'd make a beeline for the tunnels. It was nice to have a dragon to talk to who was interested in something other than my mechanics, though!

While I am going to stay here a bit longer, I don't think this place can be my permanent home. As much as the pull tells me to stay, I still feel like there's things I need to see and do. There's still a few things I'm going to do before I leave, of course. Rusty had the idea for us to nest together since he doesn't have any living children anymore, and once they were grown he said they could leave with me since the Quarantine wouldn't really be a suitable place for them to live in.

Hopefully the hatchlings with have better luck finding a permanent home than I have.