Zosix and the Singing Dinosaur

To most people, Zosix looked like any other ordinary little boy, but under that layer of Styfroflom® epidermis, lay the gold circuits that acted as his nervous system. These circuits carried electrical signals to and from his multicore processor system. Zosix never knew who had built him and why, but internally he was programmed to know that he was not a real little boy, and that he had a serial number ZSX3320. However, this made no difference to Zosix, for he spoke, behaved and generally felt like any other little boy.

For as long as Zosix could remember (and could remember for a long time, since he had carbon based storage systems that could store thousands of terabytes of data, as memory), he had known Camelon, the Singing Dinosaur.

For as long as Camelon could remember (and he couldn’t remember much, since dinosaurs don’t have good memory, singing dinosaurs having the worst), he had been blue.

This was rather strange, since most people don’t imagine dinosaurs to be blue. But this was not the strangest thing about Camelon. What was strange was that Camelon, like most other Singing Dinosaurs, couldn’t sing. This fact was the cause of many unnecessary conversational formalities, and Camelon hated it. When most people were introduced to Camelon, they would say, “Oh, so you’re a Singing Dinosaur? Why don’t you sing us something?” and Camelon would say, “But, I can’t sing”, they would reply “Come now, don’t be bashful…let’s hear you”. It was not that they wanted to listen to Camelon or that they enjoyed a good song, but they would ask out of courtesy.

Zosix and Camelon were the best of friends. They lived to the east of The Woods, in a well furnished house. Not far from where they stayed was a farming village. The two friends, however, hardly ever ventured out to the village. There was no real need for them to go to the village, since they did not need to buy provisions or food of any sort. Camelon was vegetarian, and his diet consisted of assorted foliage from the forest, as for Zosix, he could eat anything that was carbon based and could be broken down to produce energy inside his Styfroflom® stomach, apart from that parts of his Styfroflom® epidermis acted as solar energy receptacles, so as long as the sun was out Zosix didn’t need to eat. In any case they avoided the village, because the people there were too inquisitive about this strange pair, and inevitably someone would ask Camelon to sing.

Zosix and Camelon did not have a care in the world, though Camelon occasionally worried about the fact that he couldn’t sing, and Zosix was paranoid that someone would find out that he wasn’t a real boy, but then they never told anyone their worries. Zosix and Camelon spent their carefree days frolicking in the woods.

The woods were a large area of trees and plants that belonged to the cretaceous era. However, the flora was the only resemblance to that bygone era of dinosaurs, for the woods were inhabited by animals of a much more modern segment of evolution. Zosix and Camelon would run around through the woods the whole day, taking breaks to stop and observe the little forest creatures. The forest was filled with all kinds of small mammals and reptiles, birds, both large and small, and insects of assorted colours. As varied as the species were that dwelt in the forest, Zosix and Camelon had never come across any other dinosaurs, and everyone figured that Camelon was the last of his kind.

Sometimes they would visit Hashmi Baba. Hashmi Baba was a hermit who lived in the forest.
While he was rather old as recluses are apt to be, no one knew exactly how old he was. Zosix had never asked Baba his age, and it was hard to guess. Like most hermits, Baba had thick, graying locks of hair that flowed down his neck like a lion’s mane, a thick grey beard and deep, dark eyes that gave him a constant look of erudition. He also constantly smoked a large selection of herbs, which he told Zosix kept his spirits up and prevented him from developing his nihilistic streak.

Hashmi Baba had a little hut overlooking a small pond that was the result of a spring. The spring was constantly bubbling sweet water that was refreshing to drink. The view from Baba’s home was indeed scenic. To the west of Baba’s hut was the abrupt end of the plateau on which the forest lay. The water from the pond trickled down the precipice that was the end of the rock bed on which the plateau lay, and during the rains the water cascaded down like a small waterfall, forming a small pool at the bottom of the cliff. On the east giant trees from the cretaceous era, that made up the forest, overshadowed the Baba’s hut.

Zosix and Camelon had spent many an evening watching the setting sun from Baba’s hut. After the sun had set and as the lights gradually faded, Baba would start a small fire around which the three of them would sit lazily, Baba smoking his pipe.

While they sat around the fire, Zosix would trace patterns in the sky using the stars as connectors. His neural networks were so advanced that he had already come up with a few million images in the night sky. Camelon, who could never see a pattern in the stars, loved watching the insects circle around the fire in a ritualistic dance before finally sacrificing themselves to the crackling flames.

Then Zosix would say “Baba, Baba, tell us one of your amazing stories!”
“Oh yes, oh yes, please do”, Camelon would chime in.

“Only if Camelon sings us a song”, Baba would say, and Camelon would look all annoyed. Then Baba would laugh and say, “There, there, you know we’re only teasing!”

And then he would start narrating one of his stories, one of his wonderous tales of adventures in forgotten lands. Baba had all kinds of stories stowed away in his bag of tales. He had stories from all parts of the world, even stories from other planets, stories that involved the gods, stories that involved mythical creatures, stories of danger and passion. Baba had traveled everywhere, and had done everything. He was a veritable know-it-all. Or just a good bluffer.