LOCATION: AGARA — MOUNTAINS

“Welcome to my place, kid,” Sid says quietly.

His vertical truck door swings upward, and the heavy hum of the engine completely dies out. Echa sits frozen in the passenger seat, glaring out at the artistic wooden house, fiercely questioning whether she can actually afford to trust this stranger or not. Her sharp green eyes bore into the rustic structure before shifting suspiciously back to Sid. Still, she remains completely rooted to her seat.

Slowly, letting out a quiet sigh, she places her hand against the side of the metal frame to balance herself and finally steps out of the cabin.

The crisp mountain wind greets her the moment her boots touch the ground. She takes a slow look around, absorbing the massive peaks and the stunning scenery enveloping the valley.

“You got a view here,” she notes in a calm, even tone.

Sid lets out a soft laugh, clearly amused as he watches her guarded reaction.

“Yeah, you're right about that.” His voice is relaxed and gentle, his brown eyes studying her with a warm, friendly smile.

“So,” Echa begins, taking a deliberate step toward him. Her voice is calm but thick with curiosity, her eyes darting between him and the surrounding area. “You told me not to speak or ask anything until we reached this place. Why?”

She takes another step closer, her tone dropping into a soft, demanding whisper. “And how can you even see me? Why didn't you just tell me to get off your truck when you knew the whole time I was hitching a free ride?”

Sid just stands there with a relaxed smile. He takes a slow step toward a pair of wooden chairs and a small table set up near his garage. Tapping the back of one chair, he looks over at Echa.

“Sure, why don’t you just take a seat? We can talk about it.” His voice is entirely calm, a warm smile resting on his face.

Echa shifts her gaze between him and the chair. Hesitating for a brief moment, she walks over slowly, pulls the seat out, and sits down directly across from him. Sid smiles, takes his own seat, and locks his eyes onto hers.

“You can call me Sid,” he says gently. “The reason I told you not to speak on the way here is...” He trails off, halting his sentence for a moment.

Echa glares at him with intense curiosity, hanging on to every single word he speaks.

“Our code is broken,” Sid continues, his eyes turning serious. “We can’t live for more than twenty-three hours, forty minutes, and twelve seconds at a time. When the clock runs out, we forget everything. Our data and our souls completely reset.”

He looks closely at Echa. She tilts her head, her lips parting slightly in sheer shock, but she keeps her mouth shut, deliberately choosing not to interrupt him.

“So, Oshna ran experiments on our data,” Sid explains. “She figured out a way to extract our memories and store them safely inside a machine... which happens to be standing right beside you.”

Echa quickly whips her head to the side. Standing right next to her is a small, red wheeled machine covered in deeply scratched metal paint. It looks right back at her, its optical sensors blinking as it speaks in a tender, incredibly cheerful tone.

“Hello! I am Index... Sid’s assi~!” the machine chirps happily.

Startled like a cornered cat for the second time today, Echa leaps straight out of her chair in sheer panic, completely loses her balance, and face-plants hard into the loose sand.

“OUCH!” she groans miserably from the ground, slowly turning her head to glare at the tiny robot.

Index slowly rolls a few inches closer to her as Sid bursts out laughing from his seat, leaning back and resting one hand on the table. “You startled her,” Sid chuckles, thoroughly enjoying the chaos.

“Oh, I am sorry...” Index replies, its mechanical tone instantly dropping into a soft, sad, and incredibly apologetic voice.

Echa just stares at the scratched-up robot for a moment. Letting out a heavy, defeated sigh, she finally stands up and begins dusting the loose sand off the back of her clothes. Locking her eyes onto the machine, she mutters, “Okay, okay... let’s just forget that ever happened.” Her voice is quiet, calm, and desperately trying to salvage her dignity.

Echa slowly walks back toward the small robot and gives a gentle, curious poke to the metal chassis right near its optical sensors, rewarded with a soft, cute electronic chirp from the machine.

Index rolls backward a few inches in surprise before Echa pulls her wooden chair back up and sits down across from Sid once more.

“This is all just code?” Echa asks, her voice dropping as she looks between Sid and Index. “How could it get broken like that? Are you all... dead?”

“We are, in a way,” Sid replies, his calm expression softening as he glances over at Index.

“And we don’t even know how,” his voice lingers quietly in the open air.

Echa gazes at him, a soft, deeply understanding look replacing her previous defensive glare. “Oh,” she whispers, her voice so small it carries the weight of a quiet breath as she casts her eyes downward.

“So, what’s your name?” Sid asks in a relaxed tone, a gentle smile returning to his face as the mountain wind catches his hair. He reaches up, detaches the grey-silver mechanical glasses from his forehead, and snaps them securely onto his belt loop.

“Yeah! If you say it now, I can store it safely in my core,” Index chirps happily, rolling a few inches forward. “That way, Sid will remember you for as long as I am here.”

“Echa,” she says simply, nodding her head as a small, genuine smile touches her lips while looking at the two of them.

The sun slowly dips below the jagged mountain peaks, casting long shadows across the valley as the twilight settles. Only their voices linger in the quiet evening air.

“Did you have a boyfriend? I mean, you were talking about someone called Fheshas earlier,” Sid’s voice cuts through the quiet, carrying a completely teasing, mischievous tone.

“Aww~!” Index coos right on cue, the faint, cheerful whir of its wheels echoing on the porch.

“Boyfriend?” Echa’s voice echoes back, completely flat and utterly confused by the foreign concept.