Walden
Prompt 6: Book-reading Prowl

.o.o.o.

"Wha'cha reading?"

Prowl shifted, attempting to ignore a particularly annoying scout and reverted his attention to his firmly held data-pad.

"A book," he quipped before dragging a hand along the glowing surface to 'flip the page'.

Bumblebee tried to peek over his shoulder, taking advantage of the ninjabot's position on the couch. "Well, duh. But what is it?" he asked.

The darker mech sighed and stopped his reading for a moment, "It's called Walden. Satisfied?"

"Why are you reading? Can't you just download the information?"

"Doesn't that defeat the point of recreational reading?"

"How'd you get the book onto the datapad?"

"I went to the library Sari talked about and made an account to access 'e-books'."

"Hm," the scout mumbled without actual response. "Who wrote it?"

Prowl perked up to this question and turned his head to answer, "A human named Henry David Thoreau; he was quite the fascinating individual. He isolated himself from everything to escape corruption and to embrace simplicity. That's what inspired him to write-"

Bumblebee took the chance and grabbed the pad from Prowl's hands while he was distracted. "A field of water betrays the spirit that is in the air. It is continually receiving new life and motion from above. It is intermediate between land and sky… Jeez, this sounds just like you. You should go meet this guy, you'd get along great."

Swiping his data-pad back, the ninjabot frowned, "He's dead, but it would've been nice to speak to him." He returned to his reading, ignoring further comments. If he couldn't speak to Mr. Thoreau, he could at least understand him by reading what he had left for future generations.

He wondered if Thoreau would have ever imagined alien robots reading his work, and a small smile found itself across his dark features as he scrolled again to change the page.