A robin swooped into the tree and began screeching and fluttering around Roz. The bird had recently finished building herself a new nest. It was a little work of art, a delicate basket woven from grass and twigs and feathers, and it was right above the robot’s head.
“Screech! Screech!” said the robin.
“I do not understand you, robin,” said the robot.
The robin continued screeching and fluttering, and then—splat—she splattered her droppings across the robot’s face. This bird was serious. So Roz scooted away, farther out on the branch, until she heard a quick, sharp crack. Before Roz knew what was happening, the tree branch snapped under her weight and she went crashing to the forest floor. She hit the ground hard and lay there as broken branches and pinecones and needles showered down on top of her. There was another splat. And then quiet returned to the forest.
CHAPTER 17 THE CAMOUFLAGED INSECT
Roz was a mess. She lay under the tree, covered in a heap of broken branches and pinecones and needles. She still hadn’t removed the sticky resin from her body. And then there were the bird droppings. She was about to get up and give herself a rigorous cleaning when she noticed a peculiar twig. The twig was moving. It was crawling along one of the broken branches on the ground. With a gentle touch, the robot picked up the twig.
“Hello, stick insect, my name is Roz. You are very well camouflaged.”
The stick insect’s body was long and thin. He had the same shape and colors and markings as a real twig. But if you looked closely, you just might see two tiny eyes and two spindly antennae. The insect didn’t make a sound, and he sat perfectly still. As still as the robot. The two of them sat still and silently stared at each other for a while.
“Thank you, stick insect,” said Roz as she placed him back where she found him. “You have taught me an important lesson. I can see how camouflage helps you survive; perhaps it could help me survive also.”
CHAPTER 18 THE CAMOUFLAGED ROBOT
As you know, reader, Roz had always liked to keep herself as clean as possible. But her desire to stay alive was stronger than her desire to stay clean, and our robot decided it was time she got dirty. Roz was going to camouflage herself.
She’d gotten the idea from the stick insect, but Roz quickly realized that camouflaging herself as a twig was out of the question. No, the robot would have to blend into the landscape itself. She began by smearing handfuls of thick mud over her entire body. Then she plucked ferns and grasses from the ground and sank their roots into her new muddy coating. She placed colorful flowers around her face to disguise her glowing eyes, and any bare patches were covered with tree leaves and strips of moss. Our robot now looked like a great tuft of plants walking through the forest. She waited for darkness, and then she padded to the center of a clearing, nestled herself between some rocks, and became part of the landscape.
A few hours later, the sky was brightening, the fog was lifting, the nighttime animals were slinking home, and the daytime animals were beginning to stir. It was just an ordinary morning on the island. However, there was that new tuft of plants in that one forest clearing. Only the bees had noticed the tuft. They buzzed around it, completely unaware that the robot was hidden beneath. And so Roz sat there, right in the open yet completely unseen, and observed the wilderness around her.
She watched flowers slowly turn toward the sun.
She listened to rodents crawl through the weeds.
She smelled the moist, piney air.
She felt worms wiggle against her muddy sides.
A week later, the tuft of plants was gone, but there was a new clump of seaweed on the shore. A week after that, the clump of seaweed was gone, but there was a new bramble on the mountain. Then there was a new log on the riverbank. Then a new rock in the forest.
CHAPTER 19 THE OBSERVATIONS
Clouds scudded through the sky.
Spiders spun intricate webs.
Berries beckoned to hungry mouths.
Foxes stalked hares.
Mushrooms rose up from leaf litter.
Turtles plopped into ponds.
Moss spread across tree roots.
Vultures hunched over carcasses.
Ocean waves beat against the coastline.
Tadpoles became frogs, caterpillars became butterflies.
A camouflaged robot observed it all.
CHAPTER 20 THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANIMALS
It started with the birds. They had always been skittish when the robot was near. They would stare and screech and then scatter. But now that Roz was camouflaged, she could secretly observe their normal behavior, right up close.
Roz noticed chickadees fluttering through the same flowers and singing the same song every morning. She noticed a lark who swooped down to the same rock and sang the same song every afternoon. She noticed the same two magpies singing to each other from across the same meadow every evening. After weeks of robotically studying the birds, Roz knew what each bird would sing, and when they would sing, and eventually, why they would sing. The robot was beginning to understand the birds.
But she was also beginning to understand the porcupines and the salamanders and the beetles. She discovered that all the different animals shared one common language; they just spoke the language in different ways. You might say each species spoke with its own unique accent.
When Roz first listened to the chickadees, their songs had sounded like “TWEEE-tweedle! TWEEE-tweedle!” But now when the chickadees sang, Roz heard “Oh, what a lovely day it is! Oh, what a lovely day it is!”
Deer spoke mostly with their bodies. By simply turning her head, a doe could say to her family, “Let’s look for clovers by the stream.”
Snakes often hissed to themselves, things like “I know there’s a tasty mouse around here sssssomewhere.”
Bees said very little. They used their wings to buzz a few simple words, like nectar and sun and hive.
Frogs spent much of their time searching for each other. One would croak, “Where are you? I can’t see you!” And then another would reply, “I’m over here! Follow my voice!”
When Roz first stomped across the island, the animal squawks and growls and chirps had sounded like nothing more than meaningless noises. But she no longer heard animal noises. Now she heard animal words.
CHAPTER 21 THE INTRODUCTION
There was an hour each morning, in the dim light of dawn, when all the island animals were safe. You see, long ago they had agreed not to hunt or harm one another during that hour. They called it the Dawn Truce. Most mornings, the island residents would gather in the Great Meadow and spend the hour chatting with friends. Of course, not everyone attended these gatherings. The bears had never made an appearance. And the vultures just circled high above. But on this particular morning, an unusually large group of animals had come out to discuss some important news.
“Settle down, everyone—I have something to say!” Swooper the owl hooted to the crowd from the lowest branch of a dead tree. “Last night I saw a mysterious creature right here in the Great Meadow. It seemed to be covered in grass, so I couldn’t get a good look at it, but I think it may have been the monster.”