The Wild Robot

“My face! My beautiful face! Somebody help!” Fink the fox was lying on a log, howling in pain, with a face full of long, sharp quills, when Roz appeared. “Isn’t there anybody else who can help?”

“Would you like me to leave?” said the robot.

“No! Please don’t go! I’ll take what I can get.”

“What happened?”

“I didn’t think that porcupine could see me in the bushes, but when I went for his throat, suddenly there were quills in my face!”

“Why did you go for his throat?”

“Why do you think? Because I was hungry!”

“If you had not attacked the porcupine, you would not have quills in your face.”

“Yes, Roz, I know that. But a fox has gotta eat! I just didn’t expect him to put up such a fight. Look! There are even quills in my paws! I can’t walk! My face is numb! I could die if you don’t help me!”

“What would you like me to do?” said the robot.

“I’d like you to pull out the quills!”

Roz calmly knelt beside Fink and said, “I will pull out the quills.”

The robot started to tug on a quill, but it snapped off in her fingers. Fink yelped and said, “Pinch it closer to the skin!” So Roz pinched the broken quill closer to the skin, and then, very slowly, she pulled it out. The fox winced in pain and said through his teeth, “Please, Roz, pull them out faster. This is agony!”

Roz quickly tugged out another quill. Then another, and another. The fox lay perfectly still, eyes closed tightly, wind whistling through his nose, until every single quill had been removed and placed in a neat pile beside him.

Fink struggled to his feet. “Thanks, Roz. I… I owe you one.” The fox smiled, briefly, and then he limped away.

CHAPTER 24 THE ACCIDENT

As Roz wandered through springtime, she saw all the different ways that animals entered the world. She saw birds guarding their eggs like treasures until the chicks finally hatched. She saw deer give birth to fawns who were up and running in a matter of minutes. Many newborns were greeted by loving families. Some were on their own from their very first breath. And, as you’re about to find out, a few poor goslings would never even get a chance to hatch.

Roz was climbing down one of the forest cliffs when the accident happened. The wind started blowing out of the north, and suddenly clouds were rushing over the island. With the clouds came a spring shower. A downpour, actually. And there was our robot, clamping her hands onto a wet block of stone on the side of the cliff. But the block couldn’t handle the extra weight. And as the heavy robot hung there, cracks suddenly shot through the stone and it started breaking apart. Down went the robot, plummeting into the treetops below. She crashed through branch after branch before finally hooking an arm around one. Then she dangled there, gently swinging as rocks roared past her on their way to the forest floor.

When the dust settled, Roz shimmied down the tree trunk. The ground was littered with broken rocks and splintered wood and pulverized shrubs. And within all that rubble was a goose nest that had been torn to shreds. Two dead geese and four smashed eggs lay among the carnage. The robot stared at them with her softly glowing eyes, and something clicked deep inside her computer brain. Roz realized she had caused the deaths of an entire family of geese.

CHAPTER 25 THE EGG

As Roz stood in the rain, staring down at those poor, lifeless geese, her sensitive ears detected a faint peeping sound coming from somewhere nearby. She followed the peeps over to a clump of wet leaves on the ground. And when she peeled back the leaves, she discovered a single perfect goose egg sunk in the mud.

“Mama! Mama!” peeped a tiny, muffled voice from within the egg.

The robot gently cradled the fragile thing in her hand. Without a family, the unhatched gosling inside would surely die. Roz knew that some animals had to die for others to live. That was how the wilderness worked. But would she allow her accident to cause the death of yet another gosling?

After a moment, the robot started to walk. Carefully holding the egg, she moved through the forest and away from that sad scene. But she didn’t get far before Fink burst out from the bushes.

“What happened?” The fox panted. “The whole forest was shaking!”

“There was an accident,” said the robot. “I was climbing those cliffs when the rocks started to fall.”

“You should be more careful,” said Fink as he checked out the robot’s new scrapes and dents. “I’ll need your help if I ever have more porcupine trouble!”

“I will be more careful.”

“What do you have there?” said Fink, looking up at Roz’s hands.

“A goose egg.”

“Oh! I love eggs! Can I eat it?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Why do you want it?” The fox scowled. “I thought you didn’t eat food.”

“You may not have this egg, Fink.”

The fox sighed. He scratched his chin. And then he started sniffing the breeze. His nose had found the scent of the dead geese. “You can keep your egg!” he said as he trotted toward the cliffs. “I smell something better!”