Time had passed, and never had it felt more apparent than for the golem to stride into civilization and feel utterly out of place. Its brethren had gone far in the years it had been sleeping, outlandish shapes incorporating grand technology, accessorized and optimized by techniques that did not exist during its own era. Fragile, beautiful flesh belied titanic strength that once only the Monstrous could possess, but, at the very least, the inconvenience of its size remained; travelling through the city had been like walking on eggshells.

It was a nostalgic feeling while it lasted. Like the first time the doctor allowed it inside the workshop. The first time the guard allowed it to stay in town. The first time the herbologist allowed it to touch that orphaned child. So many years. So many firsts. And there were many more to come, first blessings and first sufferings.

It had been a first too, being inducted into the academy, though it was not a first, seeing the awe and the suspicion, the fear and the wonder, in the eyes of students when it strode through campus. So too was it a first, to see constructs battle each other as a test of skill rather than a trial of survival. Had a peaceful world allowed them to fight without fear that one would take it too far? Or had a violent world allowed them to find joy in the throes of battle? Ayesha, at least, was not drawn into that same atmosphere of brutal promotion. It had observed her through each of her refusals, not out of interest, but out of posterity.

Children were products of their society. As Ayesha acclimated to the wanton nature of her peers, even as she simply aged, the Ayesha who would refuse an opportunity to bolster her reputation would disappear, a flower wilting to feed the next bloom.

It would accommodate her even when she became a warmonger. And if it would do so then, the golem had no reason not to do so now, for a reason as noble as wishing to save someone in dire straits.

A low rumble of assent, as ancient as the mountains themselves, resounded between the jagged slit that made up Adamas’s mouth. The golem, in its smallest form of two meters, charged soon after, hands grabbing and pushing against the ground to propel itself faster and faster. Within moments, the construct was upon the fanged beast, and it launched itself right at them, intending to tackle, before transitioning into a grapple.
[@Hammerman][@Ammokkx]