“Your body… It is broken… What happened to you…?”

A mechanical arm came out of the darkness into the dimly lit room. The room was extremely open, though barely any of it could be seen; a single light shone down in the middle of the room, illuminating a broken robot, shaking slowly back and forth. Sparks flew out from its metal crevices, with tattered, live wires.

“What happened… My dear…? What did this do to you…? “

The hand that sat at the ending of the metal arm almost caressed the machine. It calmly grabbed the wires and held them for a moment, then taking itself away from it.

“Oh, I am so sorry… I am so sorry that this happened… Do not worry, I will fix you… Do not worry… Shhhh…”

Its spindly fingers delicately touched the cold metal, sliding its fingers gingerly over the delicate wires, afraid that it would accidentally ruin the machine work. Two other hands came down too, also inspecting the injured robot.

“This may hurt… but it will be alright…”

An electronic scream came from the corridor, bouncing off of the walls. There was a sound of welding, or something like that, and a spew of sparks came from the machine. After a second of silence the three hands lifted away from the machine and went back up into the darkness.

“Are you alright now… My dear?”

Again, there was silence. And after that silence the robot lifted itself up into the hair, hovering above the ground slightly.

“Good job…”

A slight chuckle escaped from the voice of the massive machine.

“Are you kidding me?”

From the icy cave came an upset voice.

“You came here to tell me that that machine found the broken one?”

“Yes, I am sorry.”

A clicking sound came from the middle of the cave, and after it came a small fire.

“Did you allow it to?”

“No, ma’am.”

The light from the campfire showed what was speaking inside of the cave. It was a woman and man—the woman was elderly, showing her age, and the man was young. They both shared the same hair color and skin color, that being black hair and tan skin. One would assume that they were related in some way or of the same ethnicity.

“And what of that other one? The one that you shot?”

“It… fell to the ground. It began seizing and… Then it stopped moving.”

“Did she get to it?”

“No, she did not.”

The woman held a wooden cane which was most definitely as old as her; it was a knotted branch, ripped from a tree. When she walked the sound of the staff could be heard tapping on any sort of surface that she went upon. She hobbled over to the man and stared him in the eyes.

“Though you failed, you did alright, Tomki.”

“Thank you,” he said.

“You don’t need to thank me,” the woman responded to him as she walked over to the other side of the fire, her black shadow being cast on the glossy, icy wall.

“But… Mother said it was best to thank your elders.”

The woman swiftly turned around, snapping her neck in the direction of him. “I am not that old, you know!”

Tomki grinned. “Yes you are.”

She shambled over to the boy, the sound of her old shoes clanking on the ground. “Do not call me old! I may look old, but I am still young!”

“Maybe young in thought…”

The old woman sighed and turned to the fire. “Yes, young in thought.”

The boy sat in silence and watched the woman look into the fire. After looking at her for a while he walked to the beginning of the uphill slope towards the exit of the cave.

“Do not go out there, boy; it is too cold. Your fingers will fall off!”

“No they will not. It is not that cold out.”

“Yes it is!” She mumbled something to herself. “You should also listen to your elders.”

“I heard that!”

“Oh, be quiet!”

Tomki climbed up the slope, eventually coming to the exit where he peeked his head out. Above him were the stars in an everlasting night sky. The frigid winds stung his eyes, resulting in him deciding to slide down the slant, back into the cave.

“Did your fingers fall off?” the old woman asked.

“No, appremeni,”—which means grandmother—”they did not fall off.”

The woman walked over to one of the corners of the ice cave and grabbed a leather pack. She took a blanket from the pack and put it over her shoulder like a shall. The appremeni then walked past the fire and took another blanket over to him, putting it in the boy’s hands. “The night is cold.”

“I know.”

She smiled at him and then put her hand on his face, cradling it. Her hands were cold on his skin, though he was already cold from the environment he was in.

“I can see her in you.”

“I know; you have said that so many times.”

“But it is true, appre”—which means grandson—”I tell you this multiple times because I want you to remember that. She would be so proud of you right now, taking care of your appremeni.” As she said this, Tomki blushed—though, the red in his cheeks might have been from the cold. “Here,” she said as she pulled out a pair of gloves from her coat pocket. “Wear these.”

“No, you should wear them. Your fingers will fall off more easily.”

“Shh, appre. Wear them.” She set the pair of gloves on the blanket that he was wearing.

He fit them on his hands, quickly warming them and restoring the heat that they should have had beforehand. After doing this he put the blanket that she gave him over his shoulders like she did. It did, indeed, keep him warm. He rubbed his hands together, warming them even more than they already were under the gloves.

“I saw the shadow of her.”

“You saw her shadow?”

“Yes—it was… looming.” Tomki turned back towards the opening of the cave.

“I forgot that you had not seen her before.”

“When did you first see her?”

The old woman sighed before she responded, almost as she was composing herself. “You have heard of the Sleeping City, correct?”

“I have.”

“I was here when it fell.”

“Oh… How come you never told me this?” he questioned.

She looked at the fire once again. “I had decided to suppress it from my memory.”

Tomki felt as though he had opened up something that he should not have. Thankfully, though, his grandmother cut off the conversation.

“But, that is a story for a different time.” The grandmother hobbled over to the fire and put her hands over it, warming them. “It is time for us to rest. We have had a long day, have we not?”

He walked over to where his grandmother was. On the ground next to her lay two blankets. Tomki sat down on one and she sat down on the other. Quickly, she fell asleep, as her tired and old body needed rest as much as possible—but unlike her, Tomki was not able to fall asleep. He only looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the thing he saw. “Her”. Of course, he had no idea what “she” was. The only thing that he knew about “her” was that “she” was something that orbited Makemake, like a moon, and that it was a machine—but other than that he knew nothing else. This thought of not knowing anything about something that was so close to him and impeding absolutely terrified him. He could not sleep at all.

Now, because of this, he left the cave-like he did before, but instead of poking his head outside of the entrance he instead actually left the cage. The cold from the ice below his feet went straight through his boots, making it hard for him to walk. He took the blanket that he had been given from his grandmother and wrapped it around the bottom half of his face, protecting it from the frigid winds that blew along the surface. Tomki only walked for a minute, for it was so dark that he could barely see where he was heading to and he did not wish to become lost out in the frozen wilderness. Though it was completely dark and no light could be seen save from the light that came from the opening of the cave he could feel the shadow of the colossal mechanic being above him. A humming sound came from it all of the sudden, making him begin to shake; the sound was unnatural, and it was almost as though it should not be a noise. It was, in simple terms, unsettling.

This noise that the artificial moon produced was enough to send Tomki back to the cave where he and his grandmother were residing. Like the time before, he slid down the ice slope, but he did it in such a fashion so that he did not wake her. He came to his feet, but instead of going over the bed and attempting to fall back asleep, he went over the fire and sat in front of it, warming himself.