Winding

Hanging on the walls of the studio were photographs of plant brains. Their convolutions traced winding paths that were both similar to those of human brains and, yet, strangely different.

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Moss

"Moss provides very high sensitivity,' she explained. 'That's why I put it on the inside of my robots' hands, from the palms to the fingertips, as well as under their feet, to improve their balance.'

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Hiking

'Our designer often goes hiking,' commented Cedar 23, 'and sometimes even, she does not comes back until the next morning. But she always brings back rare or unusual plants, flowers, or barks, which she then studies for several days.'

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Branch

'One day,' Cedar 23 went on, 'she brought back a branh which she potted. If you placed your hand close to the pot, the branch would flex slowly and move to meet it. No, we do not know how or why it dit ; only she knows.'

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Grow

'Our designer eventually found out how to get this branch to grow,' Cedar 23 went on, 'and graft it. Soon enough she made it into a network. The humanoid shape, of course, was the most familiar to her, and came to her automatically.'

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Pathway

'From the sunflowers in the fields at the end of this pathway, she took the fibers which make our limbs move. For us, it is not the sun that controls them; we do expose ourselves to it, but only to recharge.'

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Green

"Paint work?" replied Cedar 23. "No. Our designer has always refused to invent our barks when nature provides so many original ones. I assure you, the green-and-white marbled appearance of Maple 2 is entirely natural."

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Hoot

"One quality which our designer gave us to her own surprise is our ability to produce diverse sounds. Beech 12 can hoot in such a way that, even in broad daylight, owls come and and perch on its shoulders."

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Sap

'Sap is used both to lubricate our joints and to carry matter throughout our bodies. We have compartments where we place our nutrients, and others where our waste accumulates.'

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'The leaves on the top of our heads?' Cedar 23 hesitated. 'I would have thought it obvious. It is a form of canopy. like the top side of forests, it is our photosynthesis area. Except for Willow 4, of course, who is covered from head to toe.'

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Prune

'I am indeed the result of multiple grafting,' confirmed Cedar 23, 'but that is just one of the methods used by our designer to create us. Conversely, she would sometimes prune some initial profusely growth into a body.'

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Edge

'The last time we saw her,' replied Cedar 23, 'she was crossing the edge of the forest. No, we did not worry ; it had already happened that she would come back the next morning. But yes, this time it has been three days.'

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Photosynthesis

'No,' replied Cedar 23, 'we will not search for our designer in the forest, for the same reason we are not active at night: too little light, too little photosynthesis. We might shut down while looking for her.'

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Legends

'She? Us? Legends?' Cedar 23 repeated, incredulous. 'We are just plant robots, a simple conjunction of cybernetics and botanics. And our designer is just a common human. We are in no way legendary.'

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Lichen

'We could ask Lichen Zero whether they have any information on her. We are close enough to communicate, but their biologies are different from ours ; they were not created, as we were, by her.'

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Far away

'The advantage of Lichen Zero,' explained Cedar 23, 'is that even though they do not really move as such, their presences cover the entire forest, and they'll know if our designer is there, even if she is far away.'

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Root

'I have additional information,' Sycamore 19 interrupted. 'I have met her as she was leaving, and I asked her what the purpose of her trip was. She told me she was going to look for a root.'

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Humus

I leave Cedar 23 and its peers, and I head into the forest, along the general direction provided by Lichen Zero. Progression is slow as the humus s very spongy and makes it hard to maintain a quick pace. Finding her is going to take a while.

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Croak

Plus, the terrain isn't flat. Sometimes the humus leads into a pond, with its inevitable dwellers. When I hear a croak, I have to watch where I step, for fear of squashing some poor befuddled frog.

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Hut

I've reached a hut. Nobody told me anything about it. I suspect she built it, like she built her robots. She's not there. I imagine it's a base camp for her, and that she went on.

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