Mercuria

Button made by the lovely Jyxxie!

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Loud stomps in the distance. The shaking ground. The immense noise.
By the time you realize it's that thing, it already blocks the sunlight from reaching you. Everything seems so tiny when it's around.

"Tch." You're annoyed by it for you know it is harmless, despite it's size. It's sensors always detect nearby objects and beings, so the chances of it tripping and squashing you like a bug are measured in permiles.

Still, it's loud, it's annoying, it's unavoidable, and it's making you replan your route since it's more akin to trying to walk around a mountain. It bellows but cannot speak using words and there's blue smoke leaking out of it's every elbow each time it stops.
It's body riddled with all the things it passed through and over before reaching you. A scratch here and there, possibly from brushing with a mountain. A leafy branch stuck behind it's head, in the crevasse between two plates. Leaves and petals stuck to it's hind leg; strips of algae wrapped around it's ear, all dried out from the sun.
You presume it's harmless as it doesn't burn your eyes nor choke you, but still... Annoying.

You let out another dissaproving consonant and turn back. There are other paths to take for you, for this thing just shut down, obvious by it laying on it's stomach on the ground before you. Like a mechanical dog waiting for it's owner contently, it opens it's jaws and that's when the lights shut down, the elbows stop creaking and slowly, peace and quiet returns.

Birds slowly peek out of their hideouts, some more daring even taking a short rest on the giant's open jawline. They know it is harmless now; as if it ever was dangerous; but nobody knows when it'll "wake", restart it's machines and go on, continue it's seemingly endless trot across the Sornieth.

Youngsters will soon get here, for the noise it makes can be heard far and wide, and start climbing it happily. Some will probably do the dare of reaching that stuck branch and bringing it down with them just to prove how far they've grown as a dragon.

But still... Who built it? Where is it going? What is it's task? What operates it?
When will it finally stop moving? Questions without answers. Except for those that claim that "they know" (but there are always a few of those).

Those who claim there is a heart inside of that chunk of metal, even if it's mechanical itself.

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