Roz realized she had caused the deaths of an entire family of geese.Īs Roz stood in the rain, staring down at those poor, lifeless geese, her sensitive ears detected a faint peeping sound coming from somewhere nearby. The robot stared at them with her softly glowing eyes, and something clicked deep inside her computer brain. Two dead geese and four smashed eggs lay among the carnage. And within all that rubble was a goose nest that had been torn to shreds. The ground was littered with broken rocks and splintered wood and pulverized shrubs. When the dust settled, Roz shimmied down the tree trunk. Then she dangled there, gently swinging as rocks roared past her on their way to the forest floor. She crashed through branch after branch before finally hooking an arm around one. Down went the robot, plummeting into the treetops below. And as the heavy robot hung there, cracks suddenly shot through the stone and it started breaking apart. But the block couldn’t handle the extra weight. And there was our robot, clamping her hands onto a wet block of stone on the side of the cliff. The wind started blowing out of the north, and suddenly clouds were rushing over the island. Roz was climbing down one of the forest cliffs when the accident happened.

And, as you’re about to find out, a few poor goslings would never even get a chance to hatch. Some were on their own from their very first breath.

Many newborns were greeted by loving families. She saw deer give birth to fawns who were up and running in a matter of minutes. She saw birds guarding their eggs like treasures until the chicks finally hatched. I… I owe you one.” The fox smiled, briefly, and then he limped away.Īs Roz wandered through springtime, she saw all the different ways that animals entered the world. 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.įink struggled to his feet. The fox winced in pain and said through his teeth, “Please, Roz, pull them out faster. 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 robot started to tug on a quill, but it snapped off in her fingers. Roz calmly knelt beside Fink and said, “I will pull out the quills.”

The wild robot 3