I’ll spare you the details of the months it took to get to the machine. Food and water was a constant struggle but, surprisingly, I wasn’t the only survivor. While my people were laid to waste, others tribes still roamed trying to survive. Flecks of metal had flaked off in the machine during its entry, raining steel across the land. I still had my mind and imagination, so this allowed me to trade when I could for supplies, and more often, defend myself. While I still wasn't the warrior my father had been, I proved heartier than the other survivors. As I said, I already viewed my inferior peers as animals, so feasting on their flesh wasn't much of an adjustment.

It took a whole season, but soon the ground shook with every step. From there, it was easy to find the base of the machine. All I had to do was followed the upturned and flattened earth. Rocks the size of houses fell all around me, pressed on. The machine was as ignorant of my present as you are the insects you tread upon.

The trepidation was palpable as I climbed onto the massive foot. I flinched and waited for the machine to squash me. A full minute passed before I let out my breath and looked closer at the metal.

It wasn’t like the crude weapons I crafted from its metallic leavings. The craftsman ship was made from hands far skilled than my own. Tracing my hands along the metal I felt seams, adjustable slats that ever so slightly adjusted with the giant's movements.

It had been so long since I knew fear. There are always predators on any world, both from the natural and social orders. But I always remained confident that I could outthink or outmaneuver anything that challenged me. Scaling the leg of an alien machine that reached into the skies though…this was something I could never fathom. As I made my ascent, I was once more a pathetic child born into a tribe of warriors.

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Vindication blew those misgivings aside like a hurricane. At the titan's knee, there were more shifting metal plates, to allow the mechanical joint to move the same as a biological one. I waited for the knee to make a slight adjustment, making a crack large enough for me to slip inside.

It was like falling into a swamp. Heat raised around me, drenching me in sweat. A thick coppery scent filled my nostrils and my mouth filled with the taste of blood. I swallowed my fear. Unlike my people, I learned to stop fearing the shadows long ago. A strike of metal against flint brought my torch to life, and I gasped as I studied the inside of the machine.

I had been expecting more metal, of course, but I had not been expecting the blood. The machine was more than just mechanical parts. Interspersed with the metal were structure of bone, muscle, and fat that you would see inside the corpse. The walls were thick with raw meat and my mouth quickly watered.

Of course. It all made sense when I saw it. The being was as much alive as it was machine. Its body was coated in metal to protect its insides, which functioned more like a biological organism. That's how it was able to walk like a living creature. It had all the muscle, fiber, and tendons that it required. The machine wasn’t just harvesting the ore and metal from the mountains, but living tissue from every creature on the planet.

Good.

I could use that to my advantage.