Nida stood at the feet of the colossal four-legged machines, and fiddled with some device in her hand.
One of the stryders dipped its head toward the ground and I made a fool of myself by jumping in front of her.
Even though I knew it was a machine, I'd still half-expected it to snatch her up in its metal jaws to eat her alive.
She shook her head at me with a smirk, and then she turned to grab handholds to haul herself up onto its neck.
From there, she was able to scramble up onto its back, where a sort of saddle platform folded into place seemingly from nowhere for her to stand on.
After a moment, the second stryder dropped its head for my benefit, but I opted to follow the girl up to where she was standing on the first one.
It seemed wiser to learn from her how to tame and ride these behemoths before attempting it myself.