I retrieved the seed from the bag and looked at it. "Hungry little thing, aren't you?" I whispered. The seed responded by vibrating. The intensity of the vibrations made it impossible to hold, so I placed it on the ground.
For a long moment, I observed as nothing happened. The surface that once held overlapping scales started to shift. Moving slowly at first, then faster. Until they began to rotate in a strange figure eight pattern, the motion was hypnotic and purposeful.
I couldn't help but be captivated as I watched the seed rise from the ground and float in the air. At first, it hovered just a hand's breadth off the ground. Then it kept rising until it reached around my shoulder.
Something touched my mind, not a voice but a thought that wasn't mine. "Hungry"
"Did you just talk?" I asked the seed that was now reflecting the early morning rays, making it hard to see.
"Hungry," the same thought, stronger this time, more confident.
I stared at the hovering seed or construct for a while. Trying to process what I was looking at. An egg, that's what I had thought. A dragon egg, just like the skeleton in the cave. Except this wasn't organic, it certainly didn't seem to match any object I knew of. It was something from the old world.
"What are you?" I asked.
"Hungry." It replied
I sighed. It was like interacting with a baby.
"Yes, I know that. But are you a dragon?"
The seed stopped moving for a second. I sense it was either thinking or searching.
"Sentinel," it replied, thoughts coming in fragments. "Not dragon. Hungry, follow." It replied haltingly.
Before I could ask what a sentinel was, the seed started to speed away from me, further into the forest. It flew, weaving between the trees. It clearly had a target in mind. I had no choice but to sprint to keep up. My recently healed legs burned in pain, and my breath came in gasps. The sentinel would stop as if checking I was still following before taking off again.
When it finally stopped, I collapsed onto my hands and knees, sucking in air.
"Next time, go slower." I implored.
"Food." It said simply.
I pulled myself into a sitting position. I used my senses to observe the flow of energy. It was clear that the sentinel required energy as a food source. I could sense it now. The energy current that the sentinel had followed. It flowed down into the earth. A small river of energy was being absorbed out of the atmosphere.
I walked over to clay ground where the current was entering the earth and placed my hand on the ground. Once again, energy flowed from my body into the ground. The ground slid from under my feet. I quickly fumbled with my feet to make sure I didn't fall down the hole that had just opened.
I peered into the hole.
Stairs.
They had been carved into the ground, and the stairs were illuminated by the same gemstone magic lights I had seen at the last set of ruins. This time, they were blue instead of green, but the slight glow gave enough light to navigate by. I descended into the hole.
"Food." The sentinel repeated. I could only shake my head at its single-mindedness.
I crept down each stair, using the balls of my feet. Trying to be as quiet as possible. Once I reached the bottom, I was disappointed in the size of the ruins. It was a single chamber carved into the earth. The walls and floors were smooth and intentional. The blue light was giving it an eerie atmosphere.
Yet, I could see clearly. A work table dominated the centre of the space, scattered with tools and components that I couldn't name or understand. More gears and glass containers were sitting on shelves carved into the wall. But the gears had corroded, and the glass containers had long since congealed into some form of sludge.
In the corner was a bed, a small bed perfect for me or any of the halflings. The bed was made of strange dark metal, and the mattress or what remained of it, was covered in fabric that had long since deteriorated. Inside the mattress was a set of springs. I had never heard of a bed having metal inside of it, and I couldn't think it would be comfortable.
I considered the meaning of that. These ruins are clearly more advanced than our current civilisation. The races that could fit in a bed like this are the gnomes, dwarves or the halflings. There was no history of any of them having technology this advanced. Or maybe just like the slavery laws, my teachers didn't deem me worthy of knowing.
A single book sat on the table next to the bed. I wasn't sure if it was a journal or a research book. The pages were brittle from age. I slowly turned them. The script was unreadable; I couldn't even begin to decipher the text, but there were Illustrations.
The book was full of diagrams, schematics and technical drawings. It showed a weapon that defied reason. The person in the diagrams was holding it like a crossbow, but it lacked the limbs or a stirrup to pull.
The schematics mapped the interior, showing a chamber where a round object was placed inside the hollow tube lined with small gemstones. There were notes surrounding the diagrams, but they were undecipherable. I couldn't tell how it worked. Yet, its purpose and method of use could be clearly deciphered. A figure held the stock against their shoulder, peering down the tube to aim. The diagram showed lines coming from the figure into the gemstones and then instructions on pulling the trigger.
It appeared to be instructions for an advanced crossbow. One that required only magic to use and could be used by races that didn't have the strength of the others.
The sentinel hovered over my shoulder. It appeared to be looking at the pages with me. "Fleg gun," it said. "Fleg food, find Fleg"
It seemed the gun ran on magic, or Fleg, as the sentinel called it. The sentinel continued to circle the room, looking for something. It stopped at an empty space of wall. It was devoid of lights or anything else. I could sense the flow of energy. It was feeding off of something. And the lights had started to flicker. I cursed under my breath. Not this again. I turned to run towards the exit, not wanting to be trapped inside, when I saw a hidden panel open. The seal maintaining it had been powered by whatever the sentinel was draining. Inside the compartment was a Fleg gun and a bag. I quickly ran to the compartment and grabbed both the gun and the bag. "Sentinel, we need to go now," I called out to it.
"Food." It answered.
"You will be trapped in here. We need to go," I yelled, already running for the exit. It quickly made its way over to me and even made it outside the door before I did.
I dived as the door was closing. Just once, I wished I didn't need to escape in such a hurry.
"Hungry little thing aren't you?" I said to the floating glutton.