[Flame]

It seemed, however, that Allorah’s patience had finally reached the end of its tether. Sighing heavily, she turned back from the crackling bonfire just head, retracing her steps towards her home. She figured that would be the quickest way of finding Pip again, since he really didn’t have anywhere else he could have gone. As much as she acted like she didn’t care about him any more than an employer would, she genuinely did care about his well-being. Plus, who knew, maybe a kid decided that he looked like a fun toy, and decided to keep him for Christmas. The little dinosaur was pretty darn cute. Maybe next time around, she’d have to craft an assistant that more closely resembled a full-grown Sickle, or perhaps one of those Clockwork Felloxes. Live and learn.

Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for her to come across a familiar set of tracks in the snow, even despite how disturbed the fluffy surface had since become. After all, it wasn’t every day that you saw tiny velociraptor tracks in the heart of town (or anywhere else, for that matter). Oddly enough, they were headed in the direction she had been walking, meaning that Pip had at least made it this far. Frowning lightly in puzzlement, she turned around once again, retracing her own steps towards the bonfire as she tried to figure out where the tracks led to.

[9 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

Allorah had almost made it back to where she’d been standing and waiting when the tracks disappeared all of a sudden. The frown of consternation on her face deepened as she peered around at her surroundings, looking for any clues as to what could have happened. Had her fears truly been realized? Did one of these pedestrians mistake her assistant for a child’s plaything and pick him up? Was it a Christmas tradition which she wasn’t aware of that dictated that anything that you chanced upon on the street had the first dibs rule applied to it? For all she knew, she might never see her assistant again. Well, wouldn’t that make for an even shabbier Christmas holiday than usual?

Nevertheless, she wasn’t one to give up so easily, and as such, she continued to extend her ring of observation as she scanned the street about her. Everyone seemed busy about their own business, and she figured there wouldn’t be any sense in asking if anyone had seen a small mechanical dinosaur walk by. There was a decent chance that if Pip had indeed been kidnapped, he was already long-gone by this point, so if she didn’t find him in the next few minutes…well, perhaps she’d have to start considering her other options then. Like whether it would be worth putting up ‘missing’ signs, as if he were some sort of lost pet or something.

[10 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

A faint sound that was almost lost in the ambient background noise suddenly caught her ear, and Allorah swiveled her head towards where she thought it was coming from, straining her ears to try and catch it again. It had been soft enough that she thought it might have just been a trick of her imagination, but at the same time, it had also been out-of-place enough to warrant closer investigation just to be sure. She could have sworn that she’d heard a mechanical whirring sort of noise, and one that had nothing to do with the cars going by. It wasn’t the kind of sound that Pip would ever have made – she was a good enough caretaker to know better than to let his hinges get rusty – but at this moment, she was willing to explore any avenue of possibility available to her.

Ah, there it was again! This time, she was sure that she’d actually heard the sound, and now she had a general idea where it was coming from. Wandering down the street, this time more slowly and deliberately than before, she casted about herself to pinpoint exactly where the stuttering whirring was coming from. It was an intermittent sound, but as she drew closer, she could hear another tone occasionally interjecting. She couldn’t make out what it was just yet, but if she wasn’t mistaken, it sounded like a very quiet voice muffled by something thick.

[11 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

“…Help! Can anyone hear me…? Help!”

As muffled and distorted as the voice was, Allorah immediately recognized it as soon as she’d drawn close enough to make out the words. “Pip!” Her voice was a mixture of irritation and relief that he was actually still around for her to find him…wherever that was. “Pipet! Where are you?” It wasn’t often that she actually called him by the full name which he’d given himself, but this seemed like one of the few times when it was warranted. For the moment, she forgot just how much she thought that name was ridiculous. Doing her best not to jostle the passersby walking on the street around her – it had gotten considerably more crowded now that evening was beginning to fall – she made her way towards the side of the street where Pip’s voice was coming from.

The first thing to meet her eyes when she came to a stop where the Velix should have been was a giant mound of snow. It was one of those manmade drifts which was created when the streets were plowed, and snow pushed off onto the side of the pavement for someone else to worry about. As long as there was room for people to walk and cars to get by, no one really paid those mounds any mind. However, it quickly became apparent that that was where Pip’s voice had been coming from. “Pip! Where are you? I can hear you, but I can’t see you!” Well, it was inevitable – Pip was probably in that giant pile of snow somewhere, but as concerned as Allorah was, she wasn’t about to go digging around in dirty snow with her bare hands until she was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that that was actually where Pip had gotten off to.

[12 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

Allorah had begun to circle around the large mound of snow, trying to find any obvious entry points where a small form might have entered. She found no such obvious signs at a casual glance, but then again, it wouldn’t have been much like Pip to just…jump into a snow pile (and a dirty one at that) with no conceivable way of getting himself back out. Of course, she’d heard of such antics being carried out by children on a regular basis – they said it was fun, or something ridiculous like that – but Pip was a professional. Well, now that she actually thought about it, maybe she was being too harsh on Pip. For all intents and purposes, he was in many ways like a child (her child, although she’d again, never consider him as such), despite his aptitude for taking notes down for her. Just because his notetaking was on par with a scientist’s, it didn’t mean much (considering that was what he had originally been programmed for).

As she was pondering her next move, she suddenly heard Pip’s voice again, this time less weary and a little more surprised. “Ally? Is that you?” He should have known better to call her by that name – no one ever did but him, and he knew that Allorah hated nicknames (at least for herself; yes, she was a bit of a hypocrite). “I’m right here! Oh wait…you can’t see me, can you? Here…let me help you out…” There was another brief pause, a little more mechanical whirring (she was going to have to check that out sooner than later), and suddenly, a faint blue glow emanated from a spot off to the side of the snow pile. Ah, Pip must have turned one of his lights on to show her exactly where he was. Well, at least it was assuring to know that his ‘brain’ functions weren’t damaged.

[13 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

Well, Allorah knew what she was getting into when she’d first seen the snow pile, so she supposed there was nothing to it but to rescue her misfortunate assistant. “Alright, hold on. I’m coming to get you.” It didn’t mean that she couldn’t be grouchy about it though. This definitely wasn’t how she had seen this foray into town going. “Well, you don’t have to sound so excited about it, Mom.” Yeah, if there was one nickname that Allorah hated more than ‘Ally’, it was that one. “Hey, you watch yourself, Pip, or else I might just change my mind and leave you to think about it until this snow eventually melts. What’ll that be…two or three months from now?”

Despite her threat, Allorah had begun digging with her bare hands into the snow pile where the blue light was shining through. She hoped that the Velix wasn’t buried too deeply (judging by the volume of his voice, she didn’t think it was that bad), but that still didn’t change the fact that the snow was really cold against her bare skin. Perhaps she should have brought some gloves along with her, even if they were just latex gloves. They wouldn’t have done much against the cold, but she at least wouldn’t have had to worry about getting something gross on her hands. After all, wasn’t it a thing for guys to pee in snow or something? Better not to think of that. She would definitely be finding somewhere to wash her hands very soon after this adventure though.

[14 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

“Hurry! It’s cold in here!”

“Oh, quiet, you. You can’t even feel the cold, and you know it!”

“Not physically, no, but you installed a thermometer in me, remember? It’s a balmy 4 degrees Celcius in here right now, just in case you were curious.”

“Yeah, I know. My hands are telling me that already.” What she wouldn’t do for a pair of cryogloves right now. To her great relief though, her numb fingers soon brushed against something solid and metallic as she dug, and brushing away the snow which she’d loosened, she saw the patterning of Pip’s body embedded in the snow drift. Thank the gods. “I see you – hold on, I’ll have you out in a sec.” Gritting her teeth and ignoring the cold, she went back to shoveling handfuls of snow away, ignoring the odd glances which passing pedestrians shot towards her.

"I swear, you owe me so much once I get you out of here. You'll be doing dishes for the next month for starters." She said that now, but they both knew that the tiny little Velix couldn't so much as go near a sink without falling in and shorting himself out. One of the things that she hadn't really considered when she'd made him was waterproofing. Hopefully he hadn't gotten too wet while he had been basking in the cold of the snow pile. "Or maybe I'll just use you as a thermometer for the stability incubator for a month instead. That should give you plenty of time to reflect on your errors in solitude."

[15 - The Bonfire]

[Flame]

A noise that sounded something akin to a disgruntled grumble came from within the snow pile as Allorah dug, slowly exposing more and more of the Velix’s metallic body as she worked. If anyone had the right to complain, she figured it should be her, considering the fact that the mechanical creature couldn’t even physically feel the cold, or at least be bothered by it. Nevertheless, there was no point in hemming and hawing over those details, since she knew that whatever the situation, she would ultimately end up rescuing him anyways. The sooner she did, the sooner she could get on with her plan for the day and get home to her experiments. The clock was still ticking, after all.

After a few moments of work, she’d uncovered part of Pip’s head, and he turned a mournful eye upon his owner (or at least that’s how Allorah construed his look – he actually had no movable facial features built in other than his mouth). “Give me a second – you’re almost out.” It was only a few moments longer before Allorah was able to extricate her misfortunate assistant from his snowy prison, holding him gingerly by the tail (as his body was still extremely cold to the touch) before setting him back down on solid ground. “There you go. So, tell me, how did you even get stuck in there in the first place?”

[16 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

When Pip didn’t immediately respond, Allorah was puzzled. She peered down at the Velix, who was standing oddly stiffly and unmoving on the snowy pavement. She didn’t think that she’d left him long enough to warrant the silent, ignoring treatment, and she peered down at him, wondering what was the matter. “Mmmph!” was all that she got out of him, which earned him a concerned frown from her in reply. “You alright there, pal? Did you lose your tongue somewhere in there?” Still nothing by means of a normal response.

Crouching down to get a better look at him, she noticed Pip wobbling unsteadily on his legs, which seemed to be set at a rather odd, unmoving angle. A closer look soon revealed the underlying issue; the snow had packed itself into the Velix’s joints, and had effectively frozen them in place so that he couldn’t move even if he wanted to (which she was sure he did, judging by the strained rocking he exhibited). “Oh, I see your problem now,” she said, just as much to herself as to him. Scooping him up in her arms since he couldn’t move under his own power, she began to make her way back down the street in the direction she had been headed before she’d turned back to find him. “I know just the thing that’ll get you back in shipshape order. Or, at least hold you over until we get home and I can get you properly cleaned up.”

[17 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

That being said, Allorah bundled up her frozen assistant into her arms and began to make her way towards a location that Pip couldn’t make out (after all, his eyes were frozen in place still and he could only see off to both sides instead of forward and back). It only took a few short minutes for them to get to their destination though, evidenced by the halt of boots crunching on the semi-trodden snow. All that Pip could make out was a warm, amber glow that seemed to radiate from whatever Allorah was standing in front of, but the source soon became evident when the tell-tale crackle and pop of burning wood managed to seep its way into his blocked ear holes.

Allorah had walked them straight to the large bonfire which blazed in the middle of town, surrounded by people sitting on the logs arranged in a circle around it enjoying the light and warmth. She glanced around, looking for a seat at which to park; after all, this was going to be a decently lengthy pit stop. She intended on thawing Pip out entirely (thank goodness his circuits and parts were at least heat-proof) and making sure that all of the water remaining was completely dried before continuing on. After all, the last thing she needed was for him to rust internally. If he did, more likely than not, she would have to start entirely from scratch to replace him, and she didn’t particularly want to do that. She told herself it was for the sake of time and practicality, but part of her knew that it was because she had grown attached to the little dinosaur. “Here we are,” she announced, but only loudly enough for Pip to hear. Walking over to the fire, she set him down on a patch of dry ground where all of the snow had melted already. Leaving him there, she took a seat on the log next to him, crossing her legs and tucking her hands between her thighs to warm them up. “You should be back to your old self in no time.”

[18 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

Allorah was happy to sit in peaceful silence, listening to only the crackle of the fire and the burble of chatter rising from the other people gathered around the bonfire. The sound of distant bells and music drifted by every now and then from further into town, where shoppers were wandering the streets in search of last-minute gifts for family and friends. With no one to really talk to herself, Allorah settled for simply observing her surroundings, taking mental notes of everything she saw. You never knew when the most random, seemingly inconsequential piece of data would come in handy.

For a while, she watched the older gentleman tend the fire, every now and then grabbing a fresh log to feed the flames. She wondered vaguely how long he’d been at it, and if he was the only person who took care of this bonfire. He certainly didn’t seem dissatisfied or fed up with his job yet. Part of her was envious – the part that wished that she could just do something as simple as this and be happy with it. As far as she knew, she got bored if she so much as idled for more than a few moments at a time. It made her feel as if she were wasting precious time which could be spent solving problems, but at the same time, it definitely put a constant strain on her life as well. Perhaps she should have gone into academia after all – she certainly had the drive for it.

[19 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

It took several long moments for Allorah to realize where her thoughts had wandered off too, and as soon as she did, she quickly shook them off. Really, the only reason why she’d noticed was because of the odd looks the people around her were shooting in her direction – after all, she’d heard that her face tended to get disproportionately serious when she was thinking. She probably looked more like she’d just lost a dear family member than simply in-thought. Just as she was thinking that though, a brief flicker of movement caught her eye coming from somewhere near the wood pile. Whipping her head around (and probably startling a few more onlookers in the process), she tried to pinpoint the source of the movement, ignoring the strange look the fire-tender was giving her.

She didn’t get very long to search though before being distracted by the sound of a familiar voice. “Velix roasting on an open fire…that sounds like a new Christmas classic, don’t you think?” Glancing down, Allorah saw that the little dinosaur had begun to regain control over his moving parts, and he was gingerly testing them out as he shifted his weight back and forth between his two back feet. “I see that at least your humor programming wasn’t damaged during your little adventure,” she replied dryly, but there was also a tone of relief in her voice. She’d been concerned that the process might have fried some of Pip’s wiring, but based on what she could see at the moment, he seemed to be functioning alright, all things considered.

[20 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

Allorah’s gaze was somewhat critical as she looked over her creation, trying to find any signs of physical damage. “We should probably play it safe and stay here for a little while. All of the snow in your joints seems to have melted, but we should wait for the water to evaporate before we get going again. The last thing I need is to have gone through all of that effort to rescue you just to have you short out on me.” She scooted a little closer on her log to where the Velix stood, still basking in the glow of the fire. This close to the flames, she was almost tempted to take off her jacket since she really wouldn’t have needed it with the warmth that was radiating from the bonfire. “So, how did you manage to get yourself into that little conundrum anyways, Pip? I know that you’re accident-prone, but that seemed like a little more than just an accident.”

As Allorah spoke, Pip had proceeded to slowly rotate himself around so that now he faced her, his back turned to the fire. No doubt he was trying to dry himself evenly – she just hoped that it would work for any water that had gotten inside his frame as well. “Well, it’s kind of an embarrassing story,” Pip admitted, somehow managing to look abashed. His little head hung down so that his gaze didn’t meet hers. “See, there was this dog, and he mistook me for a dog toy, and somehow I ended up in the middle of the street before promptly getting plowed away. It’s…all a little blurry, I’ll admit. Everything happened so fast.”

[21 – The Bonfire]

[Flame]

Allorah couldn't help but laugh a little at Pip's recounting, as lacking in detail as it was. She was perfectly capable of filling in the holes in his story with her imagination, and honestly, the way she pictured it was probably worlds more amusing than the way it had actually gone down. It was actually a lot closer to the scenario she'd dreaded (and honestly thought was entirely unlikely to have actually happened), and that alone made for a rather funny story. "Well, I'm glad that at least you came out the other side of this experience all in one piece. After all, I would hate to have to find a replacement for you. Good assistants are getting harder and harder to come by these days. Plus, I put a lot of time and effort into getting you just right. Maybe I'll start working on a size upgrade for you next. I saw some booster packs at the store the other day; how do you feel about a jetpack?" Of course she was kidding. Partially.

In the meantime, the small crowd around the bonfire continued to rotate in and out as people left and new people came in to replace them. There was a wide variety of different folks frequenting the warm respite from the winter's chill, ranging from groups of teenagers to mothers with young children to young couples, apparently blind to anything but each other. That was the one good thing that seemed to come about with this time of year - there was no animosity between people, and everyone seemed happy to be in each others' company, whether familiar or with strangers.

[22 - The Bonfire]

[Flame]

Pip had seemed a little more interested in that jetpack idea than Allorah had anticipated him to be, and so she chose to quickly steer the direction of the conversation away from it, before he got too attached to the prospect of zooming around the lab. As if enough stuff didn't go wrong as it was - the last thing she needed was for a small, uncoordinated rocket to fly around her experimental space, crashing into gods only knew what. The idea of losing Pip was bad enough on its own already; the thought of that coupled with the damage it could do to her work was enough to make her mentally cringe at the image.

Luckily, it only took a few minutes longer for the Velix to dry out completely. It wasn't until after Allorah had done an extremely thorough once-over of him, checking between his metal plates and where she could see the inside of his body for residual water (and to his protests), that she finally set him back down on the ground once more. Satisfied that he wasn't going rust or refreeze while they were out, she stood from her seat at the bonfire, rubbing her hands together to try and squeeze out a little more heat before they left the warm sanctuary. Yes, she most definitely preferred spring and fall to the winter months, but at least she'd thought ahead enough to wear a thick coat to protect herself against the cold. "Ready to resume our mission for coming out here, Pip?" she asked the little Velix at her feet (although it was honestly more of a rhetorical question). Reaching into her coat pocket, she withdrew a small notepad and pen, stooping down to place them into the dinosaur's tiny claws. "I figure we could get some productive research done while we're out shopping as well, so take good notes! This may be the only Christmas we're out and about to actually see for a while."

[23 - The Bonfire]