Shortcut

Had an idea, a nan interacting with a less refined machine
.
She was stumped, there was roadwork going on on her usual path, and going around would take forever.
She shuffled in place nervously, balancing the groceries bag back and forth, looking left and right, before deciding to hail the machines working on the road.

"e-excuse me!"
They didn't react, her voice drowned by their powertools.

"HELLO!"

One of them heard her, and stopped it's jackhammer to turn to her.
The movement was clumsy, the large machine lacking any form of waist or hip to pivot, it took several stomping step for it to face her.
It fixed her for several seconds with an unblinking, cyclopean stare, before making a beeping that vaguely sounded interrogative.

She pushed her nervousness to the back of her mind.
"h-hi, sorry to bother you, but, hum, I have to go over there, and I was wondering if you knew if there was a shortcut"

It lightly smacked the side of it's tool on it's knee, looking up as if thinking, then looked back at her and started honking. She jumped, not expecting her answer to come from something sounding like an angry mechanical goose.

Fully prepared to be smashed aside from disrupting it's work, it took her a few moments to realize it was just staring at her, what body language she could decipher showing confusion.

Something clicked in her mind and she laughed nervously.
"oh, morse code, sorry ! I didn't expect that... Um, could you repeat that?"

It shrugged, waving it off, then started honking again, at a lower volume this time.

As it described an alternate route, she visibly cringed at how much time she'll lose, on top of what she spent asking for directions.
Noticing her distress, it stopped, twisted awkwardly to look behind itself, then pointed above it's shoulder with a thumb.

She blinked in confusion at it's suddenly higher pitch, the blaring sounding like a question.
"you'd let me go through? Isn't that a problem with your work?"

It shrugged again, dismissing her concern with a hand gesture.
She looked at her legs, then at the rough terrain, then back at her legs, which weren't going to pull her through it without needing a thorough scrubbing afterward. "thank you for the offer, but I'll pass."

It tapped it's head then it's optic lit up, and it started blaring again.

She looked at it wide eyed. "are you sure?"

It nodded, crouching and extending it's free hand toward her.

She tentatively walked on the comparatively massive limb, each finger larger than her leg.

With a surprising gentleness, the machine lifted her, bringing her close to it's torso so she could hold on convenient handles.
Checking to see if she was properly secured, it turned, trying it's best to not shake her loose from it's jerky movements, and simply walked through the torn up ground.

Once in the other side, it delicately lowered her, and she jumped on the sidewalk.

She put down her groceries, turned to the machine towering over her, and curtsied.
"thank you very much, sorry for bothering you!"

Not expecting that, the machine looked left and right, comically shuffling in place like she did earlier. It blared at her to hurry up and have a nice day. She shot it a smile, cheeks slightly glowing, then did just that.

It watched her walking away, waving at her when she looked back.

The last thing she heard from the worksite before turning a corner, was the machine angrily honking at it's co-workers for watching it deal with a civilian instead of doing their job