//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: A Long Night 
// Story: Factory of the Magical Variety 
// by Conglomerate 
//------------------------------//

It had been several hours, still waiting at the house, but nothing came or went. The night had been going on for a bit, long enough for me to look up at the moon, which had reached its zenith about an hour ago, and hadn't moved since. There must be some really strange celestial mechanics for this planet's moon to do that. I do wonder how long this night was going to last, not being able to see really affected how most prospectors operated. Even most lights weren't enough to warrant action during the night, I really only went out if it was truly necessary.

Just then and there, my radar picked up an entity, being just on the edge of my radar, I couldn't actually see it due to the thick foliage. Not knowing what to expect, I readied my guns, but not turning on my lights, staying hidden was pretty important to me at the moment. A moment passes, and the unknown entity began to make its way towards my tech, quite fast actually, seemingly not impeded by the trees.

Now slightly visible from the trees, I could see a faint, purple mist swirling towards me, zipping through the trees, and eventually settling down right in front of my tech. This strange purple mist started swirling and lashing violently, forming a miniature tornado, said tornado gave way to a jet black creature, which posed dramatically. It silently looked over my tech, which I made sure to not move in the slightest, hoping to appear inactive or inanimate, something told me not to attract this creature's attention.

"What a strange metal construct," It spoke, pausing for a moment, closely inspecting my tech, from the wheels, to the shut off lights, to the guns up top, and finally to the mini drill on the front. It continued, "Perhaps this could be useful, it could possibly drive off those annoying ponies,"

Ponies? Like the horse? And did it want to use my tech? I had no idea if this thing could control it/me, coming from spooky purple mist certainly didn't help. I waited a bit, the black creature finished inspecting my tech, reared up, enveloped itself into the purple mist, and began to approach my tech.

Not wanting to be controlled in any manner, I quickly started everything up, lights and all in an attempt to scare the mist off. It stopped, pausing for a moment before swirling back to it's black form. It looked back up in surprise at me, before speaking once again.

"It is autonomous? But I sense no lifeforce from this construct," It said, mainly to itself. "Golemancy must have progressed in my time imprisoned,"

This thing was imprisoned? Definitely not something I want to be associated with, quickly backing up, and making a mark on where this house was, I sped off, attempting to leave this thing's presence. It stood for a moment, before transforming back into mist and beginning to chase after me. Thankfully, my tech was faster than the mist, but because of all the trees, I could not outrun it directly, so it slowly started gaining ground.

Panic quickly rising, I turned my guns toward the mist and fired, the loud popping of the weak rifles echoed throughout the forest. The mist stopped, not directly affected by the bullets, but instead seemingly appalled that it was attacked, it redoubled it's efforts to catch up to my tech, quickly gaining ground with speed.

There wasn't much I could do, I didn't want to lead it to my undefended base, but I also couldn't outrun it, I had no options but to hope to communicate with it, it had spoken before after all. I stopped, letting the mist catch up, and hoping that it didn't immediately attack me. Fortunately, it didn't, it stopped in front of my tech and once again transformed into the black creature, it looked angry.

"You dare attack me?" it questioned, "Do you not know who I am?"

Man of all the times to not have speakers on my tech, they usually aren't essential, I personally never include them in my designs, I've learned that most other techs who install speakers simply don't care what you have to say. God I hate Big Pete. That aside, not being able to properly communicate was a huge problem, one that I completely forgot about when waiting by the dwelling. How was I going to get out of this situation now?

Due to my lack of response, the creature continued, "No matter, it seems you will be of use after all, your speed and that weapon you used against me shall be quite the method of disposing those annoying little whelps."

The creature once again transformed into mist, I would've ran again, but that wouldn't have accomplished anything, all I had left was to hope that it couldn't control or kill me. The mist quickly enveloped me, attempting to seep into my tech's blocks, then I had an idea. As I was lifted into the air slightly by the mist, I disconnected all the blocks on my tech, shutting off the light in the cabin, and attempted to play dead.

The mist stopped trying to invade my tech, and dropped it, causing the whole thing to fall apart as none of the connection points were activated, effectively making it look like my tech died. The mist coalesced back into the creature again, it looked over my "corpse" and huffed.

"What a waste... however there is no time to figure this out, I still have business to attend to." The creature then turned to leave, but paused. "Perhaps you were of some use after all,"

With that, the creature somehow lifted up one of my guns, bringing it to it's side, and walking away into the foliage, disappearing into the night. I didn't reactivate my cabin for at least an hour, I mean what else did I have to do? I was a little pissed at the loss of one of my precious guns, however I'd rather have my freedom and/or life.

With my cabin pointed directly upwards, I noticed that the moon still has not moved, I began to wonder exactly how it stopped moving, that should have caused drastic consequences to the environment, even if this happens often. I still have no idea how this planets day-night cycle even works.

Another hour of waiting yields nothing, no mysterious creatures looking to use me, and no movement from the moon. Having felt like I waited enough time, I reassembled my tech, still mad about not having one of my guns, I wanted to make sure I made it back to base with at least something worthwhile. I drove back to the dwelling, this time however, the lights were on, I was happy once again until a horrifying realization dawned upon me. What if that creature lived here? Would it try to control me again? I quickly shot down that idea, the doorway was too short for the black creature to actually fit into, and while I don't doubt that the mist could fit, it seems redundant to have a doorway you can't use in your own home.

Steeling myself, I drove up to the dwelling once again, only problem was, I still couldn't communicate, nor did I have a way of knocking on the door. Not wanting to scare off the owner of the resources I very much so needed, I had to find some way to communicate. I couldn't do charades, as fun as that might be, it's kind of hard to do when you only have wheels and blocks. Defeated in this endeavor, I decided to make my way back to my base, having a new task in mind before the Component Factory. Communication.

To be Continued...