Angie and I finished making the flexible face for Lilly, as well as the hard cover for the top of her head, Lilly was playing with the colors of her wings, and shifting them between several different colors.
"Why don't you have wings, Ayla?" Lilly asked.
"I don't know. I was kind of surprised you got them." I told her as I finished attaching her face. Angie had already attached the temporary covers over my current body, they were kind of blocky, and firm, much like my current frame parts.
We added temporary elbow and knee pads to Lilly, so she could have a bit more freedom of movement than she normally could, and we all filed into the van, and headed to Jody's workplace.
"IDs please." I heard come into the window as we neared the university. "Oh! how are you Professor Grey?"
"I'm doing alright, Chuck, thanks for asking."
"Say, I saw the live broadcast on Channel 31 earlier. Is it true that there is an Andronis at your place."
"No, they are both with me." I heard him say, and I stuck my head into the front to look out the window toward the guard. he was a nerdy looking guy, and if I didn't know any better, I would have called him a Halfling, but his head was slightly too large for that.
"Are you a Gnome?" I asked.
"Yes I am, Princess, and before you ask, once you were seen on the news, the ambassadors from the Andronis City revealed who you were, and that you were now in control of the city, instead of the humans. So all of that is now common knowledge." I nodded, and sat back down in my seat.
we drove through another gate, but this one didn't have a guard, and Jody backed up to a door, Angie got up, and walked hunched over down the isle in the van, and opened the back door.
"We figured this would be better if we need to get away and cause you as little issue as possible." Jody said. "Booger is used to coming in this way, but its not where I normally park."
I followed Angie out the back door, and Lilly landed on my shoulder, and leaned back like I was a lounge chair, her wings fluttering slowly.
most of the humans stopped walking when they saw our little troupe, but we just walked straight to Jody's classroom, and walked in.
there were 12 students in the class, and they all stood up quickly when I walked into the room. Lilly took the opportunity to fly around us, and then landed on the desk.
"You two, go ahead and take a seat, it looks like Lilly has already found hers."
"I've never seen a walking Andronis." one of the boys said.
"I'm the first to reawaken." I said. the class seemed to be surprised with the fact I could talk.
"Yes, Class, this is Princess Ayla Andronis. the matriarch, and current Gatekeeper of her family's resting place. and as she said, the first of her kind to reawaken, and hopefully not the last. and this little girl up here, is her first invention since her awakening, an Andronis-Fair hybrid."
At this the class seemed to get rather interested. Jody spoke on the things he had learned in the city over his month in, as well as the things I had taught him. he even called one of the students up to demonstrate the gyroscope the same as I had done.
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After about a half hour, he asked if anyone had any questions for me, so I stood up, and started answering them.
"What's the last thing you remember before waking up?" was the first question asked, so I answered partially honestly.
"I died. I know I died. and then I woke up here, " Next question.
"When you woke up, did you know you were the princess?"
"No, not until the elf at the gate called me that, but I knew I was a part of the Andronis Family."
"How can you hear?" was the next one. at this question, Jody pulled out a microphone, and handed it to me.
"This device, its rather small, and it looks like a wire with a bauble on the end, well this bauble is able to move, and take the vibrations in the air, and convert them to electrical signals so I can interpret them, and hear. think of this wire as a mechanical version of the bones inside your ear." this answer seemed to confuse them. so I walked up to the white board and drew the drum, hammer, anvil, and stapes, and explained how they worked, then drew the microphone, and gave the same explanation.
"Wait, so you know the anatomy of our kind, and how we function, then base technology off of that?" Another student asked.
"Somewhat. Lilly here was built today. her frame is based off a miniaturized version of the human skeleton, with some obvious modifications, we were attaching pistons, and servos to the bones instead of muscles and ligaments. Angela and I initially planned on using this chassis to test how parts would function and see if it would be a good idea to build a frame like this for me."
"So then the stories are true, if injured, you can just move yourself to a new frame, and the bomb was the only real way to kill your kind during the war."
"I don't know if that's true. Angela and I were just playing with this idea and Lilly came to life. and I will not do anything to her without her permission. she is a completely separate being to me, and that's not an experiment I want to attempt with another living being." my response seemed to calm them down some. "As for the bomb, I don't know anything about it."
after a few more questions, class was over, and the four of us went back to the van. another Gnome ran out of a hallway in front of us, and I heard a groan from Angela.
"Booger, Booger, Booger!" Is it true, you and your dad found a living Andronis?" she looked from him to me, I turned away and started walking toward the van again.
"Yes, Leo, that's the Princess there. now could you please not shout that embarassing nickname every time you see me." I looked over my shoulder and saw her fulfilling that nickname, but kept walking.
"Is it true, she, she, she, claimed you?" he said excitedly.
"Yes, I am hers. please leave us alone Leo." she said, still acting on her nickname.
The Gnome put his hand on his forehead and started repeating 'Wow' over and over again with large eyes. by the time he realized we weren't there anymore, we were already back in the van, and pulling out of the University's parking lot.
I never did get the university's name. oh there it is. "Brenden Anthropologic University"