CDC Day 8 + 9: Gretchen and Kickstand

Gretchen is a little orphan girl who lives on an island. She loves to collect flowers and explore the old abandoned shafts and shoal caves for shiny quartz rocks and salt crystals, and with no parents to boss her around she is free to do what she wants. The island she lives on once held a prosperous port due to the local coal mines, but ever since they ran dry people have stopped coming to do trade. Locals resorted to making charcoal to try and maintain their way of life, as most things there ran off the stuff.

One day, when exploring one of the old shoal caves, Gretchen discovered a self-automated coal-powered mining robot, from the olden times of the island. It was working tirelessly to look for coal to power itself and keep itself alive, which apparently it had been succeeding at (but just barely enough to get by). Gretchen started coming to the shoal cave every day after that with bags of charcoal that she would feed the robot.

She took a liking to it, and it took a liking to her. The robot started seeing Gretchen as its new master, and she honored this with a flower crown and a new name: kickstand. He now protects her like a guard dog and helps her get to hard to reach places with the use of both his drill hands.