The world around Diggix seemed to spin; his optics were playing tricks with him. Finally, he lost his footing on the Altar and fell to the ground, hitting his head causing a severe dent on the side. His vision went blurry; he could see distorted lines and static. He waited for a while, and finally, his vision returned.
Everything felt different; his systems were not functioning as well as before. Scanning most of the senses he had back was impossible. All thermal, visual, and audio sensors were malfunctioning. Unfortunately, there was not much he could do; Diggix knew only one thing that he could do that usually worked when he encountered a glitch. He needed to reboot.
Slowly everything turned off until Diggix could no longer feel, hear or see even the darkness of the malfunctioning components. The humming of his drives and cooling system also seized as all his hardware and software went into a hard reboot. Diggix had grown accustomed to the process after his repair as many of his functions were damaged and required him to reboot too many times.
The first thing to reboot was his central processing units, memory banks, and sensory and hydraulics systems. He opened his eyes, and everything was strange; the world's color was all inversed, weird colors that caused Diggix’s cores to overheat as it tried to process what he was seeing. As soon as his eyes focused and he could make out what he was seeing around him, the cooling system was allowed to do its work.
The little robot tried to make sense of the world around him; he could not understand what had happened. His audio sensors worked just fine; the loud noises of the forest changed. It was a constant harmony of different sounds. Then, it changed into a loud mixture of different sounds coming from countless creatures.
Some of the sounds were so close that Diggix thought a beast was upon him, though there were none. Diggix did not know this, but he was safe within the pillar circle around him; many animals were too afraid to enter the area; they all had the immense fear of being trapped there. The pillars did not look the same as before to Diggix either; the colors were inverse. It had been a white stone before, now it was blue and black, the darkness of the deep forest also changed color, it was light green and white. Diggix could almost see what was lurking beyond.
He realized his power crystal had drained, remembering what the entities had told him before he knew only one place he could return to for a safe rest to recharge his crystal. The ruins were far away from him; he might only make it in time or not make it at all. He decided it was time to take a walk back to the ruins of his master; rushing was not really an option due to his low heart crystal.
It was difficult for the little robot to determine what time of the day it was unless he could find the sun. The beams breaking through the trees from the sun were barely visible. Diggix only knew that it was nearing nighttime; he had spent two days in the forest, lost and unable to complete his tasks. He had one more stone that needed to be placed within the jungle, but he did not know if he had the strength or the time to still do it.
Diggix left the safety of the pillars, not knowing that they were keeping him safe. He could hear footsteps approaching all around him, some large, some small, and others distant and some close. Diggix tried to look around him to see if he could spot any movement, but there was none.
The beast that left him alone by the Altar could have helped him back to the ruins, but it was not seen anywhere. He could not hear his heavy footsteps; it was the single most telling aspect of his presence in the surroundings. Diggix found it hard to process that a giant beast could quickly vanish without a trace, leaving no evidence of its existence in the leaves or the surroundings. Diggix began to wonder if the beast ever existed to start with.
Everything was moving; footsteps were exchanging intensity all around him though the one thing that Diggix failed to detect was the wind. The leaves on top of the trees did not move, sway, or a creek came from a tree; it was silent like the world had stopped turning and the weather with it. It meant nothing good; Diggix had to get back to the Citadel or shelter as quickly as possible.
Diggix tried to remember from which side they came from, it should have been a relatively simple route, but everything looked so much more different with his visuals all messed up. There was not much he could do but follow his instincts; there would not be any help from anyone this time. Even the odd vibrations from the stones he had picked up were gone; they were silent.
The little robot did not waste any time; he quickly walked in the direction he thought he had come from. The trees were more spaced out; it was wide enough for a beast of the size of the one he followed to walk through. The footsteps around him intensified, he was being stalked, but he was unsure by who or what.
Beneath him, he could feel the ground moving; there was something below him, perhaps one of those furry worms, he thought to himself. His hurried walk turned into a run, he tried hard with his short legs to pick up speed, but it didn’t seem to help. The pattering of feet on the leaves all around him kept up with him; for a third time, Diggix looked around but couldn’t find anything following him.
Perhaps he just imagined things; the thought eased him and made him stop to preserve his energy. Again, Diggix studied his surroundings, and he could see movement this time. Fargesrats were circling him, like predators circling their prey. Then, beneath him, the ground moved, and a few feet away from the little robot, one of the furry worms appeared. Small flying creatures also surrounded him before it was too difficult to notice them, with his processors still getting used to the inversed colors. They were all landing on him but not doing anything but walking over him.
Diggix had no choice; he began running again, trying to avoid the animals as much as possible. The little robot knew nothing about combat; his functions were for duties within a controlled, non-hostile environment. Nevertheless, the animals all followed him; for the first time, he was experiencing something he never thought possible: fear.
The jungles were relentless; the plants and the trees with their roots sticking up from the ground and the endless thick blanket of leaves on the floor made it impossible for Diggix to run. However, the animals around him were used to the forest conditions and gently glided through the thick undergrowth as if it was second nature to them.
The power crystal was draining fast as his internal systems tried to keep everything cool. The running caused all his systems to run at total capacity. He had to continuously calculate his every step, every plant and tree passing him, and where he was heading. He never really turned to see how many animals were actually following him. The fact that the animals did not attack him straight away was a strange one Diggix could not comprehend. None of the animals approached him except for the tiny creatures that landed on him and crawled all over his body. Most of them were still there.
The light in the sky seemed to fade quickly; darkness was creeping over the land, making everything more difficult to see. Finally, his vision being inversed helped in the growing night; all the darkest places of the forest floor became clear to him. The running footsteps around him also started to die down to a point where Diggix was positive that nothing was following him anymore.
The little robot stopped to rest his power crystal; it too was overheating and running out of energy fast. Diggix did not have to switch on his eye lights because of his inverse color blindness. Finally, he realized that it would become a big problem if he couldn’t find a way to fix it.
Diggix looked around and saw nothing; even the earth beneath his feet was silent. So he sat down and looked inward to run diagnostics. It quickly came up, but more than a thousand errors appeared everywhere in the Diagnostics. Reading through a few Diggix was surprised that he was still functioning. The ones that alarmed him the most were Systems Offline, Please reboot, and Sensory systems offline.
Diggix was optimistic that all his sensory systems were operational; he could see, hear and feel with his thermal receptors. However, he was unsure what his diagnostics were referring to. So once again, Diggix decided to do a hard reset to see if he could do away with these errors.
