Trinka and The Robot - Ocean Tigrox

It was finally time to escape. Finished with her chores, the young ferret scampered to the ruins first chance she could. Her adventure pack, slung over her shoulder, bounced against her soft grey fur. One of the first treasures she brought home from the wastelands, the knapsack was now her vessel to take her tools to the field and her discoveries home.

It was a bit of a march through the woodlands to the ruins. Once one reached the border though, it was like night and day. The trees stopped abruptly, the low-level shrubbery came to a halt, and even the soft ground turned into a lifeless hard rock in which only a few veins of grass and weeds could forge through. The fact that all natural life seemed to stop here was a good enough indicator to most why this land was forbidden. To Trinka though, it was just a large playground full of mysteries waiting to be solved.

Looking out past the forest, the ruins looked like a wasteland of weird rock formations. Except they were more than just rocks. Strange tools and trinkets made up of different materials scattered a landscape of broken down structures. A few constructs still stood but the ferret did not trust them enough to venture inside. There were plenty of open spaces from walls that had crumbled due to time and weather, along with assorted craters and scarp piles that made for great excavation sites.

The grey mustelid scurried along, long tail slinking behind her, to the spot she marked out the day before. While digging about yesterday, she uncovered smooth, metal sheets, five in total and each with a long slit down the middle. They were large, longer than her when she spread out on top of them. She had recorded them down as one by one-half Trinka-lengths. Today she hoped to find more. Maybe they were connected somehow.

It wasn't long after she reached her dig site when a sparkle in the ground caught her eye. She scampered over rubble and pushed any rocks and wreckage away. Clawing the dirt out around the shimmering object, she found it wasn't another sheet but a shiny box. The ferret squeaked with happiness and admired her grey smiling face in the reflection on the dented side. Digging out more, she found it also came with a handle. It was perfect. Trinka wrapped both paws around the handle and tugged the box out of the ground.

"Stink-a! Shouldn't you be at home cooking or something?"

Trinka's ears flattened against her head; her shoulders slumped and she grumbled. "Shut up and go away, Firr."

A rock whizzed past the young girl. Trinka turned to look at the white-furred ferret atop the nearby hill. Firr stood defiantly, grinning like a fool down at her.

"You know you shouldn't be out here in the ruins. The elder's always telling us how dangerous it is out here." Firr stuck his tongue out at her.

"Then why are you here, stupid?" scoffed the girl as she turned her back to him.

Firr's ears flicked back and he scrunched his face. "I don't need a dumb girl to tell me what I can and can't do." He snorted. "Someone's gotta watch you since your momma can't."

The fur on the back of Trinka's neck bristled. She didn't respond. Instead, the girl went back to looking over her shiny box.

"How can we be so sure you won't hurt anybody else?" continued the voice on the hill.

It was Trinka's turn to throw stones. She grabbed the first one she saw and twirled around, tossing it at the hill. The boy had to duck as it flew over his head.

"Just leave me alone!" she squeaked and stomped her feet.

"Ugh." Firr rolled his eyes. "I should get out of here before I get hurt too." He scampered off before more rocks could be thrown in his direction, white tail flicking behind him.

Trinka screamed until her lungs ran out of air. It wasn't her fault Mom was hurt. She was just excited to show off one of her discoveries. How was a little girl supposed to know that one treasure would break like that? The medicine man said she would be fine, though the look on Mom's face didn't convey the same confidence. She didn't seem to be improving as time went on either.

Tears welled up in Trinka's eyes. She gripped the handle of the box and swung it at the ground with a resounding smash. Something underground gave way as the dirt and rubble beneath the ferret began sucking her feet in. Trinka squeaked and tried to claw her way out, but something gripped her ankle and pulled her down with it.

Everything was a blur as Trinka fell through the earth. Pulled further and further down until her and the box slid into a large chamber from above, collapsing on the floor with an echoing thud. The girl groaned and rubbed her back. Maybe exploring was more dangerous than she gave it credit?

With the dim light that poured in from above, the ferret's eyes were able to make out the objects in the small chamber. She sniffed in the smell of stale, dry air and looked about trying to gain her bearings. A few large devices hugged one of the walls and a couple of tables stood adjacent to the opposite wall. Scattered between them and in piles lay smashed black boxes, thick torn books, and other assorted trinkets that would need to be examined. Still, none of these items stood out like the object in the middle of the room that held her gaze. An oddly shaped boulder, a statue of weird lumps and shapes, called out to the girl. Something akin to an ugly, lumpy giant egg which, although boring to the average eye, was like nothing Trinka had ever seen during her adventures.

The ferret stepped closer to the egg and sniffed at it. Musty smelling dust swept up her nose and caused her to sneeze. Despite its magnificence, it was still quite dirty. Trinka looked over to see her adventure pack had the decency to fall down with her and she bounced over to it. She pulled out a rag from inside and wiped down the dusted curves of the statue. Ferrets may be long, but they certainly aren't tall. Trinka's grey paws could only reach so far up the rock, so she dragged a table over to use as a step up and clean the top of the statue. The grey mustelid ran her cloth over each rounded corner and edge. Upon closer inspection, she found etchings skittered about in rigid lines that traced over the surface of the entire rock. Digging her claws in, the ferret removed all the muck from the markings. Once satisfied, Trinka stepped back to bask in her hard work and take in the beautiful statue that seemed to shimmer a dusty yellow in the pale dim light. Now to just figure out what it was.