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Post by thundertail on Jul 29, 2007 16:27:11 GMT -5
EIGHTEEN: "Movers and mayhem - and more movers!"
Several days passed by in clan Thundertail, and things seemed to be getting back to normal. One morning I awoke in my cabin, and found Mayday snuggling against me, her face a mask of bliss in her private dreams. I smiled as my mind began to decipher what went on last night as it serenely drew itself out of slumber. Once our visitors had gone and the cabin was once again our own, Mayday slowly began to inch her sleeping mat closer and closer to mine until they were both together like a double bed.
I then remembered what we did that night and smiled! As I slowly rose, Mayday began to stir; and she embraced me in a kiss as her eyes smiled at me upon waking.
"Morning.", Mayday mumbled. "Sleep good?", she stroked my stubbly chin.
"Every sleep is a good sleep when I have someone as wonderful as you to look forward to seeing in the morning!", I replied softly.
"You talk too much!", she kissed me. "What time?"
"Early.", I said. "The hunting party should already be gone by now."
"You on hunting party!", she remembered getting to a sitting position. "You late!"
"They'll just have to start without me!", I said as I noticed our armor sitting side by side where we left them last night. Thier hands were intertwined and thier green and amber eyes twinkled knowingly. "Hey! Were you guys peeking last night?!"
"Yes.", Klamath droned.
"It was wonderful!", Zandra said.
"Well, next time no peeking!", I scolded as Mayday giggled throatilly. Both sets of eyes dimmed and became opaque.
We then decided to get up, untangling the bedclothes from us as we did so. We put on our clothes and went to sit into our suits. They closed up around us and we stood up as one; then we went to the door and stepped outside. The hunting party had definitesly left a little while ago; but Greach the Ovaraptor and rellas the dilophosaur, who were the guards this morning, were causing a scene by the western path.
We both ran in that direction, and saw the reason for the commotion almost right away. There was a cart stopped by the guards in the path, and a pair of pachycephalosauruses were pulling thier human passengers. They were halted from entering the camp, and they balked repeatedly at the two carnivores stopping them. We stepped through the growing crowd, which was mostly Kirkys at present, and went to see what was going on.
"Welcome to clan Thundertail, fine travelers!", I greeted the humans formally. the pullers brayed constantly until the human male there began hushing them. "What brings you this deep into the Rainy Basin?"
"Greetings. I am Miles Krieger.", The human male said, setting the reigns down. "This is my wife, Melissa.", she nodded. "This is my son, Greg,", the boy waved at all the scary carnivores. "And these are our Pachycephalosaurus Partners, Sauron and Chillet.", they nodded thier domed heads. "We have come from the Northern Plains. Our farming community has banished us from there for our crimes."
"What crimes?", I asked. "You can't seek sacntuary here if you are criminals!"
"It is a crime not so insidious as the eating of meat.", Miles said. "Our farm had been overrun by vermin, and we had devised an ingenious way of ridding ourselves of them. Our traps worked, and killed many of them. However, they had decimated our crops so much that our food dwindled to near starvation. When it was found out that they tasted good when cooked, we had been using them as a dietary suppliment ever since. When the others of our community saw our vermin trouble ended, they inquired about where we were disposing of the little corpses."
"So they eventually found out you were eating them.", I concluded.
"We have also tasted meat.", Sauron rumbled for himself and his mate.
"And thus was the reason why we were banished.", Miles nodded. "They said that all carnivores should live in the Rainy Basin, and said that we should go there before they told the local magistrate. So, with fewer words than that, we packed up and left."
"We had heard of a place in the Rainy Basin run by noble and wise carnivores.', Melissa took over. "Carnivores who have banded together for thier common good. Ones who see the benefit of others, and assist those in distress. We seek that place and those creatures. Is this the place we seek, and are these those creatures?"
"Those descriptions certainly tells of what goes on around here,", I said, not exactly agreeing with her. "But it's not really up to me to decide who stays or leaves. Our leader is king Thundertail, and I believe he is heading this mornings' hunting expedition."
"I see...", Miles said, looking at his family.
"But until then,", Grond broke in. "I think we should find a place for them to put thier cart. It's blocking the path!"
"Yes! Right.", I said, looking at the cart. "How about putting your cart over there, by those small tents? I'm sure the Kirkys won't mind."
"Certainly sir.", Miles had the Pachys turn the cart in that direction.
"Hey mister!", came the little boy voice of Greg from the back of the cart. "My name is Greg. Where did you get that armor?"
"Hi Greg!", I said cheerily. "My name is Stinger, and I got this armor a long, long time ago.", I turned to some of the Kirkys and Veloceraptors still present. "Now, let's see about some refreshments! I bet you're all pretty thirsty from your trip - and hungry, too! Whitetail, could you see to that?"
"yes, Stinger.", Whitetail scampered off.
Pretty soon everyone cleared the area and went about thier previous duties as the newcomers parked thier cart in the indicated area. The Pachys were unhitched by Miles Krieger and were allowed to mill about, but decided to stay in the general area of the cart. Melissa Krieger set little greg on the ground and told him not to wander far. Since they were so near the Kirky camp, many of that troop milled around doing thier duties near by.
Alvin Kirky walked by and saw the youngster staring at all the things going by with a bored look on his little face; so he ran to his tent and came back with his juggling clubs. He smiled as he returned and put on a little show for the tyke; and many more Kirkys saw this and decided to join in as well. They danced about in thier clown outfits and several minstrels came by playing thier instruments and singing in thier squeaky voices, much to the delight of little Greg! Suddenly melissa looked up from preparing something in thier cart and held a hand against her mouth before speaking.
"I know who you are now!", she said to the group. "You're the 'Kirky Circus'!"
"That's right, ma'am!", Alvin said as he dropped a club, making Greg laugh. "How'd you guess?"
"You performed at Sauropolis when I was little.", she said. "My papa took me to see you when I was a girl; but you were a much bigger group back then..."
"Times are tough.", Alvin said simply. "My father told me of all the grand performances we did all over Dinotopia. Back then our entertainment really meant something to the people. Now adays, folks like thier entertainment more..., sedate.", he took a saurian step toward her. "You know, we were outlawed in many cities and towns over the years. They said our acts were too suggestive; and some got hurt trying to imitate us. That's why we went to the Rainy Basin: you go where the action is, know what I mean?", he picked up his clubs and continued juggling. "Anyway, we found ourselves here, and now things are looking up!... LOOK OUT!", he scrambled out of the way as all his clubs came crashing down, sending little Greg pealing with laughter!
"Miles darling!", Melissa called him from tending Sauron and Chillet. "These fellows are from the'Kirky Circus'! Remember me telling you about them?"
"This new home is going to be fun!", Greg said as he watched the other performers.
"Yes dear, I remember.", Miles twirled his mustache. "And it would be even more fun if mister Thundertail says we can stay."
Just about then Whitetail came over with thier meals, assisted by two of her female kin and two female Dilophosaurs. The humans got steaming plates of vegetables and a slab of cooked leftover meat with a meat sauce over all; and the Pachys got large portions of greens with the samd meat sauce as well. The humans dug in with unrestricted gusto while the Pachys took a more civilized approach to thier grazing.
They were just finishing up when a roar was heard, and several carnivores entered the far side of the camp dragging thier latest kills. These hunters didn't notice the newcomers nor thier cart as they were busy arranging thier kills in the feeding area. I saw them arrive, and ran toward Thundertail, head hung low because I knew I was supposed to be with them on this hunt!
"There you are, Stinger!", Thundertail noticed him after a moment. "I thought we lost you out there for a minute. I was about to send out a search party!"
"My king, I am truthfully sorry for missing out on this mornings' hunt.", I apologized formally. "I guess I overslept.", my head hung low.
"You did? Well, things like that happens sometimes.", Thundertail looked away, had another thought and turned back. "You're not getting sick, are you?"
"No, it's not that, I think.", I said.
"Hey Stinger! Missed you on the hunt!", Rex said as he came over to give me a nuzzle. he took a snuffle, wrinkled his nose and looked at me. "Say Stinger, you smell different today. Dad? Doesn't he?"
"Let's see...", Thundertail took a whiff. His eyes lit up with the recognition of the scent of what I did with Mayday last night. A Tyranosaurs' sense of smell is many times more acute than humans'! "Ah, ha! So that's why you overslept, you rascal!"
"Uh, huh...", I said in a shy way.
"Well then! If that's the case, I don't blame you for sleeping in!", Thundertail told me.
"Why did he sleep in, dad?", Rex asked innocently.
"Later, son!", Thundertail told him.
"Guess that's why I needed the sleep!", I said impishly.
"Don't we all!", Thundertail chuckled.
"What?", Rex was confused!
"REX!", both of us yelled, and that shut him up!
"Uh,... my morning was not spent idly, my king.", I continued. "We have yet more guests in our midst; and they wish to ask a favor of you."
"My goodness!", Thundertail feigned exasperation. "This place is getting to be the busiest place in all of Dinotopia!... Please take me to them, stinger!"
I led the way to the Kirky tents with Thundertail and Rex in my wake. They got thier first glances half way there of the covered cart, the three humans and the two Pachycephalosauruses; whose noses told them that instinctual danger was approaching and they balked. As I drew nearer I called out and alerted the newcomers of our arrival.
"Greetings once again, strangers!", I said as I stepped into thier midst and the two Tyranosaurs stood many feet off. "I would like to introduce Thundertail, king of clan Thundertail; and his son, Rex.", I indicated each dinosaur in turn.
"Greetings, king Thundertail and Rex.", Miles Krieger said bravely, but was still too leary to approach. "I am Miles Krieger. This is my wife, Melissa; and the young one is my son, Greg. Our Partners are Sauron and Chillet. We thank you all for your hospitality so far, and beg friendship for the rest of our stay here."
"Well met indeed!", Thundertail said as I translated. "Stinger here says that you have a favor to ask. What is it?"
"First sir, our story.", Miles said and Thundertail nodded. "We come from a farming community in the Northern Plains; and our crops were rice okra and other types of crops. One day we noticed our crops were being overrun by small mammals who ate the crop and decimated out land. We found out that other farms were suffering the same fate. We found out that trapping and killing them worked well; but our land was so run down that starvation seemed eminent. We discovered that eating these creatures proved to be a fine suppliment to our food intake. The others found out about this, despite our secrecy; and voted to ban us from the community unless we stop eating meat. So we decided to leave."
"We have traveled all over Dinotopia looking for a place to call home.", Melissa took over. "A place unfettered by edicts that control what one eats, thinks or does. We had heard of a place in the Rainy Basin about a band of creatures that utilizes the skills of many carnivore species for the benefit of all. Ones who are friendly to strangers and helpful when in need."
"What we ask, oh noble saurian,", Miles continued. "Is if we may live here, and serve this clan to the best of our abilities."
"We'll be good!", little Greg cut in. "Honest!", Melissa quietly hushed him.
Thundertail chuckled at the cute child, then seriousely considered thier dilemma. What a sad story, and what a ridiculed life these poor creatures suffered! To be banished from a home they had no doubt had for a long time, all the people they thought were friends suddenly turned on them; and all for a trifle of what they choose to eat? Thundertail was mortified!
These people might have different ways and ideas, that seemed true; but true realms fail if those who administer over people fail to listen to them! The rest of Dinotopia must be backward indeed in thier thinking if they condone actions like this! At last Thundertail looked at these five newcomers and cleared his throat.
"Strangers from a strange land, you speak a strange story indeed!", he announced as I translated. "The injustices placed on you for what you do saddens and enrages me to no end! Here we do not tout a person for what they do or what they think; and if you were ridiculed for doing those things elsewhere, you certainly won't be ridiculed for them here.", he looked at them each in turn before speaking again. "You may stay for as long as you wish, and live with us as if it were a family!"
Miles could not believe his ears! His jaw quavered before he spoke. "My king! You do not know what honor you bless us with!", he finally stepped up to him. "I will serve you well - we all will!", he took Thundertail's two-fingered hand and bowed with it.
"Welcome home, persecuted travelers! May you find peace here!", Thundertail bent and gave the human a nuzzle, then regained his composure as he stepped back. "Now, what tasks should I assign your group? You say you are farmers. We have two gardens to tend - three or more before long, if my information is correct. We grow a variety of crops, but no rice or okra. You may work there for now until we see about any other skills you may have."
"We will do this with honor, my lord!", Miles said.
"And you Pachys. I assume you are strong.", Thundertail continued.
"Yes we are, kind saurian.", Sauron said through my translation.
"And we are also skilled in many agricultural tasks.", Chillet added, taking her mate's hand.
"Very good.", Thundertail acknowledged. "And I assume you are skilled in apropriate domestic endeavors?", he addressed Melissa.
"Oh yes, your honor!", Melissa said. "I was also a seamstress before I was married."
"Also a useful skill!", Thundertail admitted. "And now for another thing: where to house you all.", he looked around until he spotted Harold in the growing crowd of Kirkys. "Oh, Harold! Come here please.'
"Yes boss!", Harold scampered into view, looked at the newcomers and nodded. "I got ya', boss!", he turned to his comrades and yelled: "Hey guys! guess what!"
His group of Kirkys knew what was coming too! The 'Big Top' tent, taken down only yesterday, lay in a pile near where it was previousely set up; and they were sick of the task, so they balked! "Oh no! No way!, "We just tore it down!", "here we go again!", they said stronger things than that, too!
Instead of saying anything, Harold took on a really scary look and chased his kin around the area until they were forced to comply. As soon as Harold saw they were getting to work, he scurried next to the Kriegers and said: "Up in a jiffy!", and went to oversee the operation.
Thundertail, Rex and I all laughed at this hyjinx, but the newcomers just stood there, mouths agape!
"Kirkys funny!", Greg laughed as well, breaking them out of thier dunbfounded look.
"Don't worry!", I whispered to Miles. "You'll get used to it!
Miles just shook his head and helped Sauron take a few things from the cart that they needed at the moment. I helped a little; and during this time Miles inquired about my armor. I explained that it was a special suit of armor with special weapons of attack and defense, and I had earned the right to wear it. He asked if he was going to get one, and I told him that it depended on if we could find another one in the ruins of the temples and in the city of Halcyon or elsewhere.
A little more than two hours later the 'Big Top' tent was erected, and the new family began moving thier belongings inside. When they were done unloading it, thier cart was parked over by where the Kirkys had parked thier carts. It looked like we were getting quite a collection of them lately!
By evening they were all moved in, and a feast wass prepared in thier honor; for they were the first humans to be admitted as clan members since Mayday and I had the honors. Sauron and Chillet were also honored because they were the only vegetarian dinosaurs ever to be admitted as clan members - not including our prey, of course! The Kirkys performed thier acts and played thier music, the meals were placed; and the whole clan had a wonderful time that night.
In the morning little Greg was placed with the other saurian children in my class, and I began to teach them to speak English; of which only the human child really grasped the concept. Miles and the Pachys were shown the gardens, and my patch of potatoes that were ready for harvesting. Melissa was shown around and met all the female dinosaurs in the area courtessy of Mayday, Ursula and Selma.
Before the week was long, these new humans and thier Partners had begun to grasp how things were done around here; and soon had full knowledge where things were in the general area of the camp. They even went on a brief tour of the Incan pyramid and the ruins in the forest all around it. These folks looked like they would fit in around here perfectly! Just about the only thing not explored about them yet was thier hunting abilities; and it was a good thing that we didn't as of yet because we discovered more unknown dangers in the dense jungles of the Rainy Basin!
We were out hunting one day, and organized two hunting parties since it was reasoned we would be more successful if we split up. The party I was in went in a southwesterly direction; and the party that included Rex, Mayday and most of the rest of the Tyranosaurs went southeast. We split up in the general area where my jet crashed and stalked the underbrush as we were known to do. My group hadn't gone more than three miles when one of the Veloceraptors pushed down a branch and we heard a loud, snapping sound, then the Veloceraptor's startled screech! We all ran to his position, figuring he had injured himself!
"Look!", the Veloceraptor hissed. "Me step on branch and this thing snap at me! I no know what it is!"
"Looks like a bear trap!", I said as I studied the cruel looking wooden contraption. "Are those teeth?!"
The trap definitely looked like its' steel counterpart in the outside world, only three times as large! It was made predominantly with two thick bowed pieces of branch lashed together with thick leather straps and rigged to a wooden trigger mechanism and other lashings to make it work. The most disturbing thing about it was the business end of the thing was lined with shark teeth; but these teeth were four inches across each! I asked which kind of shark has teeth that large, and Whitetail said they belonged to a Megladon, a gigantic shark more than fifty feet long - and extinct everywhere else but the shores of Dinotopia!
"Now the big question.", I said as everyone had a look. "Who could have put this thing here?"
"LaSage?", Whitetail suggested, and I nodded vigerousely.
"You know, if there is this trap here, there may be more all over the place!", I concluded. "This area is too unsafe to hunt in. I suggest we get out of here and hunt some place else."
"Wait!", Whitetail said. "If traps all over, we should find! Traps hurt more than us! Maybe others get hurt too! Let's find!"
"Well,...", I said. I was in charge of this group. "Ok, but watch yourselves! These things look like they could snap you in half!", I tossed the trap down as hard as I could. It didn't break, but bounced into the bushes. "*chocolate* Lasage!", I said in a whisper.
The Veloceraptors, aided by the Kirkys that came along with us, scoured the area; and covered an area of about a square mile. Only two other traps were found. One was spotted by a Kirky and his Veloceraptor counterpart tripped it with a stick. the other one was already sprung, and the leg of the poor Struthie in it was nearly severed off. We decided to leave the area and join up with the other group of hunters; so we gathered up the traps and the dead Struthie and left the area. We plodded through the jungle with extra caution for fear of encountering more of those traps; and madfe it back to the point where our two hunting parties split up.
It was relatively easy for the Veloceraptors to pick up the scent of thier Tyranosaur friends; but the Kirkys had a more difficult time due to thier slightly less acute noses. We traveled southeast, hoping that our friends hadn't made the same discovery we had made - and prayed that it wouldn't be the hard way! About a mile later we saw some of the other hunting party dragging through the forest the largest dinosaur I had ever seen on Dinotopia!
It was clearly sixty feet long, and must have weighed dozens of toins! Every Tyranosaur in the group was pulling it through the jungle, and they were all having a most difficult time of it. mayday was at the tail end of the giant beast, pulling with all the might that Zandra had; and I jumped in to help at her side, putting all of Klamath's strength into it. Leaving the traps and the Struthie to the Kirkys, the Veloceraptors joined in with this massive job. I turned to Mayday and gave her a strained peck on the cheek.
"What is this thing?", I asked between breaths.
"It young Brach.", she panted. "Bracheosaurus to you."
"Never guess what we found.", I panted.
"One Struthie...", That all?", Mayday grunted.
"No...", I gasped. "Someone has... been setting traps!", I pulled.
"We know...", strained Mayday. "Found pitfall trap..., lined with stakes!", she heaved some more. "Tyranosaurs fill with... trees and brush... so no one fall in."
"We found... foot traps.", I groaned, pulling wrong.
"No!...", Mayday stopped pulling a second to get a better grip. "Who do this?"
"Need you ask?...", I said. "This has 'LaSage' written all over it!"
"There no writing on pitfall trap.", Mayday said.
"It's a figure of speech!", I chuckled. "It means that this is exactly what Lasage and her henchmen would do."
"Yes.", Mayday grabbed hold again. "I no put past her!"
"We got to have a meeting tonight and figure out what to do.", I said grabbing hold myself. "With all these traps around, it might be too dangerous around here to hunt!"
"We starve!", Mayday worried.
"We won't starve.", I said. "But I think it's about time to put Lasage out of business in the Rainy Basin!..."
It was early afternoon before we had dragged the multi-ton bohemoth of a Brach into camp; and once they saw what we brought, everyone came rushiung over to help drag it over to the feeding area. It was so large that we had to carve it up for dispersal to everyone in the clan; and when the clan had eaten thier fill, we bagan to discuss what we had found during the hunt.
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(Continued in the next entry.)
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Post by thundertail on Jul 30, 2007 20:24:46 GMT -5
EIGHTEEN: "Movers and mayhem - and more movers!" (Continued.)
We let any clan member that wanted to inspect the three wooden foot traps and the ten foot long, eight inch thick pointed spear that one of them pulled out of the pitfall trap before they filled it in as we told our tales of the hunt. Miles Krieger told us that Lasage's men had raided thier community several times over the past few years; and he had heard that they had ransacked many other outposts all over Dinotopia many times over the years.
I asked them why the authorities didn't take charge and either wipe them out or force them to disband; but Miles said that it was not the Dinotopian way to use force, and that they were waiting for them to turn themselves around on thier own. I told them the only way to handle bullies such as these was to fight back and FORCE them to stop. Violent reaction was the only thing violent people understand! Miles just shook his head and said that it was not the way it was done on Dinotopia. I shot back and said that it WAS the Rainy Basin way!
Thundertail ended up disagreeing with me, but only just a little bit. he said that all carnivores deserved a chance, and these land pirates were no exception. He said that it was true that we should track and monitor thier activities, especially any activity in the Rainy Basin and more so any that was in our territory; but we would only use as much force necesary that would deter them from those activities.
He went on to say that the rainy Basin was OUR territory, and no interloper was going to disturb our way of life. However, we would go about it subtilely at first, then we would gradually use stronger tactics until they wouldn't dare show thier faces in the Rainy Basin again! I volunteered to spearhead this project, reasoning that I was used to handling lowlifes like those; and that the world was just full of people like that, and i knew what to do. Thundertail ordered Rex to accompany me on this mission, just so i didn't break any laws too badly!
With these plans settled, the rest of the clan got back to everyday business. Soon things got pretty quiet, and nothing much happened for the next several days. The two hunts went over fairly successfully, and no more traps or other unsavory things were found. We worked some more in the temples, cleaning and catalogueing evrrything we found, and made great progress with the expansion of our gardens. Not too long after that another event occurred; but it wasn't a very unpleasant event to say the least!
Thistlesnarl, who had pulled guard duty that day, recognized the man tending the Tricerstops-driven cart right away; but she didn't recognize the Triceratops or the others in the cart. She let out a bellow of greeting to them all, but ended up startling them instead! Most of the clan near by heard this commotion and looked in that direction; and pretty soon those who recognized Shawn Branko came running up to greet him as well!
"Shawn Branko, that you?", Mayday was the first human clan member to approach. "Good to see you! Me Mayday. Remember?"
"Most definitely!", Shawn said, taking her hand. "You're looking well."
"yes! We all do well.", Mayday replied as Grond stepped up, gave him a sniff and purred. "Grond say he happy see you too!"
"Ah..., I bet you're wondering why I'm here...". Branko began.
"Ooh! Copro cart!", Mayday guessed. "We use it, but you come for it! I go get it!"
"No, no! Not that, I assure you!", Branko cut her off. "I came for two things, actually."
"Better wait for king Thundertail.", Mayday said as Rex and I came near. "Here Stinger and Rex!"
"Shawn Branko! How you been!", I climbed on the cart to shake his hand, and Rex snuck in for a lick. "What brings you here?"
"I came for a visit, and NOT because of the Copro cart!", Branko chuckled. "Also to ask a favor."
"What is it?", I asked.
"First things first. This is my sister, Sarah.", Branko introduced. "This is her husband Mark Sereno; and these are thier children, Holly and Francis."
"Nice to know you all!", I said cheerily. "And what is your name, noble saurian?"
"My name is Doppo.", the Triceratops answered. "Breathe deep."
"And seek peace!", I said in kind. "I see that this is definitely not a Copro cart. Does it belong to your brother in law?"
"No. I switched professions.", Branko told us. "I am now with the delivery sect."
"I see.", I said. "And Doppo is your new Partner?"
"Not really.", said Branko. "Just of the business variety."
"Do my eyes deceive me?", Thundertail roared as he wove his way through the growing crowd. "Shawn Branko! It's you! How's my third favorite human?", I translated.
"Fijne, just fine!", Branko replied. "I just stopped in for a visit; and there's something else..."
"Ah yes! The Copro cart!", Thundertail interrupted. "I will have someone bring it over. We had been keeping really good care of it, you know!"
"No sir! It's not that at all!", Shawn said.
"I see all your belongings are in the cart.", Thundertail continued. "Are you moving?"
"No. Not that either!", Branko replied.
"Then what is it, dear boy?", Thundertail asked. "Tell us!"
"Well, it's my family, sir.", Branko began. "Where thay lived, they were being picked on by the townspeople."
"What ever for?", I asked.
"See, they used to live in a fishing village on the Crackshell Coast. They caught fish that the caravans of Brachs used as tribute when going through the Rainy Basin.", Branko began.
"Ah! Those convoys!", Thundertail remembered. "You stay near a path and wait until one goes by. Then you roar, and they give you a ton of delicious fish!...", he licked his chops!
"Yes sir,...well...", Branko continued. "My relatives broke the rules by actually eating the fish they caught. They did it only once, but that branded them as carnivores. They can never show thier faces there again!"
"And you were wondering if we could put them up.", Thundertail concluded. "You just assumed..."
"Not that! If you don't want to, I'll turn the cart around and leave!, Branko blurted all at once.
"Please relax!", Thundertail said and waited until he did. "My son, since you have left us, I have decided to help those oppressed by the Dinotopian ethic about eating meat." he indicated the Kriegers and thier Pachy Partners in the crowd. "Why would I go against my decision and turn your lovely family away?!"
"You mean they can stay?", Branko got it after a moment. He turned to his inlaws and announced: "Hear that? You can stay!"
"Welcome home, wayward travelers!", Thundertail greeted formally as he bowed.
"Uh sir...", I went up to my king and said. "Where do you suppose we house them all? All the cabins and tents are full."
"That IS a problem...", Thundertail began to ponder the problem.
"Hey boss!", Harold the Kirky stepped between his king's ankles. "I got an idea! Y' know the pyramid and temple?"
"Yes, little one.", Thundertail looked down.
"Well, we been doin' a lot of work on 'em,", Harold continued. And me and the boys got some of the rooms reconditioned; and they are good enough to live in! They ain't furnished or nothing, but they're dry and sturdy!"
I had been in the Incan pyramid temple recently, and Harold wasn't lying! They had done an excellent job of cleaning up the centurys' worth of dirt on the floors, revealing the gold and silver inlaid stone floors; and they cleaned and painted the glyphs and murals on the walls, brightly colored so they looked like the day they were first etched and painted! The pillars and other structural supports were done on gold, jewels and other rare earths, noe polished to gleaming; and were painted in patterns of rds, blues, greens and many other basic colors. Sure, some of this finery was a bit incomplete. Jewels and gold artifacts were missing thanks to looting over the years; and the very top of the pyramid lacked the artifacts that once were houed there; but otherwise the Serenos could move into the finished areas provided proper furnishing were arranged. judging from thier cart, they had brought along plenty of that!
"Harold Kirky, you and your crew have outdone yourselves!", Thundertail said. "I proclaim that the Sereno family can stay in the pyramid as long as they want! I would also suggest that the other humans can move in there as well, and any other clan member as room in there permits. Thier current dwellings can be apportioned out among the rest of us."
"What fine idea!", Mayday said, then turned to me. "We get REAL place to stay!", I chuckled, grasping her hand.
"Well sir, us guys already took the liberty of movin' in there.", Harold said meekly. "I had all th' females about to lay eggs make thier nests in there. We only took a room or two - we're small! There is plenty more roome, though. We average fixing up a room every other day!"
"Very well, Harold.", Thundertail said grudgingly. "You're doing the brunt of the work in there, you deserve some of the benefit."
"Thanks, boss!", Harold bowed and moved off.
"Very well then!", Thundertail said. "Now let us meet everyone and get these fine humans settled in!"
Introductions were had all around as Doppo was unhitched from the cart so he could move about a bit. The Sereno's belongings were unloaded and set by my cabin for now. The new humans were given a tour of the immediate area, and I told Shawn what was going on around here lately. I told him of the progress at the temples and the traps found in the forest, which was suspected trechery by LaSage and he had to agree. Little Greg Krieger was sought out and introduced to Holly and Francis Sereno. Holly looked about two years younger than Greg, and her dark blonde ponytails and crude dolly that she always carried showed it. Francis's darker and shorter hair with budding musculature indicated he was in his late teens.
"Look Greg!", Mayday told him as they were introduced. "You have new playmates!"
"But she's a girl!", he pointed.
"I a girl, and you like me. Right?", Mayday coaxed smilingly. He hesitated.
"Well, if he don't want to play with me, he don't have to!", Holly stuck her tongue out at him!
"And I don't play little kid games!", Francis said, hands on hips.
"Here Doppo. You hungry?", Dragonfly came over with a double armload of greens.
"Uh..., don't mind if I do.", Doppo replied, unnerved to have a Veloceraptor wait on him. However, it seemed like a refreshing change to him! "Thank you, sir!", he dug in.
"So you see, I told them everything that happened once i got to Prosperine.", Shawn Branko said as we walked near the meeting area. "They thought I hit my head or something because they didn't believe me! I told them many times; and then they told thier district magistrate. She said that things like that weren't possible, that I was lying to cover up the loss of my cart and Partner! They said i was lucky to make it out of the Rainy Basin alive!", he drank from the water flask I gave him. "Those guards we met were no help either! They told thier superiors that they drove off the carnivores that were chasing me, and they rescued me from you!"
"The nerve!", Thundertail barked.
"That ain't the half of it!", Branko continued. "They made all possible haste to get me out of Prosperine and to Treetown. I told my story to my superiors there, and they made ME lible for losing the Copro cart and getting my Partner killed! I had to pay for the cart with nearly all my life savings, and they ended up telling what happened to the matriarch at Earthfarm. She decreed that, for the mistreatment of my Partner, I was never to have another one again!"
"*chocolate* shame.", I commented.
"So, even though I work with Doppo now, I can never be his Partner - not that he would want one with my reputation!", Branko continued. "I met him when I was out of work and wandering the streets because i had nowhere else to go. He said that he needed drivers for his delivery company. Having nowhere else to make a living, what else could I do but accept the offer?"
"This is just the thing that gets me!", Thyndertail said, fuming! "Slandering the reputations of decent creatures just because of what they do! Don't they realize that we are decent creatures too, and are only trying to help people?"
"Please don't fret, noble saurian.", Branko told him. "Sentiments like this happen all the time on Dinotopia."
"I guess that no matter where you go, there is no place that's perfect.", I said.
"Sad but true.", Branko agreed.
"Shawn Branko, friend of clan Thundertail.", Thundertail announced. "If you wish, you may stay here as well. We may not be like everyone else on Dinotopia, but we certainly wouldn't ridicule you for what you are."
"Thank you for the offer, noble king.", Branko replied. "But I am on probation of sorts. Doppo is being nice enough to help me with my family; but if I go off and live here, I would never be able to show my face around Dinotopia again!"
Later on, during the evening meal, Branko told us of how Mark Sereno's father was in the Skybax corps; and his noble deed of fending off a thousand Pteranodons that attacked Pteros twenty five years ago. We related the attack of Pteranodons that happened to us recently, and he said they get bold from time to time. Long into the nigfht we swapped stories, and the Serenos were temporarily housed in my cabin while mayday and i slept with our Partners.
In the morning the portion of the clan not engaged in hunting, repair or other duties around camp helped the Serenos, the Kriegers Mayday and I into the Incan pyramid. the Serenos were awestruck as they toured the place, and marveled at the palace-like rooms decked out in golden finery. The rooms chosen for them may not have had any windows, but one of them had a well in it that had dried up centuries ago, and the Kirkys couldn't figure out how to make it work again!
By the end of the day we were all moved in, and thus began my life of splendor on Dinotopia...
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Post by thundertail on Jul 31, 2007 20:13:14 GMT -5
NINTEEN: "LaSage's Match!"
The very next day, Shawn branko left clan Thundertail and went back to his own life; and more than a week later, the relatives he had left with us were just beginning to get used to life among us carnivores. Since they fished, it was also prudent to train them how to hunt; this being added to thier regular duties around the clansite. So a regimen of training was organized, and each of the new humans, Serenos as well as Kriegers, were required to be taught by any other clan member that chose to help out at any given time.
Mark Sereno said that he fished with nets and spears, so he was to be trained on spear throwing and swordplay. Sarah Sereno, Shawn branko's sister, was good at filleting the fish they caught and also repaired fish nets, so she would be trained on knife wielding as well as knife throwing and defense with a staff. Miles Krieger proved to be the least experienced fighter among them, but he was being trained with staffs and clubs or other weapons that pummeled. Melissa, his wife, said she had an aptitude for the bow, but no such weapons were available as of yet; so she got sword practice instead.
Francis Sereno insisted he wanted to train too, so we had him start with the staff for now. Greg Krieger had a few more weeks practice on the staff, even though he was sizes smaller than francis; so we had the two boys practice together, and little Greg beat Francis two falls out of three! Little Holly Sereno was way too young for any type of fighting practice as of yet, so we put her in with the veloceraptor hatchlings to learn how to stalk!
One fateful morning we set out on our daily hunting expedition, just like every other time. I was assigned leader of the whole party because Thundertail wanted toi stay behind and supervise the newcomer humans' training excercises. We set out in the direction our Dilophosaur trackers said was a herd of Stegosaurus last night. They said they had stopped in a thinly forested area of the Rainy Basin; small bands of fields punctuated by thick rows of forest, and the Dilophosaurs said we should be most successful beacuse of it!
We followed thier lead for many miles through the jungles and across marshes until we made our way to our first small clearing. This area was in the extreme southern part of the Rainy Basin, land once developed by homesteaders. The power of the Sunstones had difficulty reaching this area, so it was left abandoned as was evident by all the ruined structures around; and the jungle was just now reclaiming the land.
We stalked around clearing after clearing, and pretty soon the plated backs of the many hundreds of beasts could be seen among the trees. They had no idea of our persence because we stayed well hidden and well down wind of the giant herd. We all slowly stalked around to encircle the herd and waited for everyone to get into position.
All of a sudden the wind shifted and several of the Stegosaurs reared thier heads and bolted; and this sent the rest of the huge herd scattering willy nilly in every direction! The chase was on, and pretty soon every one of us had thier own Steg to chase. I singled mine out from a group of three; and using Klamath's speed, began to give chase. This one took to running through the trees, and pretty soon was far ahead of me. Klamath's tracking senses never let me lose sight of him, but I was being drawn farther and farther away from the main group of hunters.
At a smaller clearing many miles away from the botched ambush, I caught up with the beast enough to use my stunner on him, and he went down in a grunting heap. I walked over to the downed Stegosaurus and casually put the finishing touches on the beast with Klamath's twin daggers, severing the spine at the base of the neck. That was when the crossbow bolt struck the beast's neckplate several feet behind my head!
I turned with a start, and saw several dozen grubby humans armed with crossbows, spears and other killing weapons. They were laughing and chortling among themselves, prodding each other and pointing in my direction. As the group took steps closer, a taller one with long dark hair pinned back with a headband stepped to the front of the group.
"What'd we catch, Quint?", someone from behind him asked.
"Someone stealing our Steg, by the look!", the one named Quint said.
Seeing my cue, I spoke. "Greetings strangers!", I called. "Lovely day to be out and about! But I think you have made a mistake! This is MY Stegosaur! I killed him fair and square."
"Oh! But he looks far too big for you to carry away!", Quint sounded concerned, but his friends chuckled lowly. "There's enough of us to carry him, so why don't you let us take him off your hands for you?", more laughs.
By this time Klamath had informed me that the rest of the hunting party noticed my absence, and tracked my scent to this area. They didn't know what to make of these strange humans, so they were hanging back, out of sight in the trees to see what would happen next. Rex, on the other hand, was sneaking up on the scene; using the bulk of the Steg carcass for cover until he got close.
"That won't be necesary, honest!", I said, stalling for time. "My friends should be around any time now, and we'll take care of it. Thanks for the offer, though!"
"I don't think you understand!", Quint came to within feet of me. "We are taking this Steg - like it or not!"
I smiled. "It seems like there is a gross misunderstanding on who this Steg belongs to!", I said flatly. "Perhaps we could take this matter to the high council at Waterfall City and they can straighten this out."
"ENOUGH OF THIS!", yelled a female voice from the back of the crowd. She pushed away those in front of her, then spoke some more. "Quint! What's going on here? I thought you were getting us dinner!"
"This man won't let us take our Steg.", Quint told her, walking her way. "We were trying to convince him otherwise!"
"Dolt! You can't negotiate worth copro!", she pushed him aside, presenting her hand as she approached, like she wanted me to kiss it or something. "Torres LaSage, at your service.", I merely shook the clammy appendage. "They say you won't let us have our Steg. What gives?"
"Name's Stinger.", I said. "Well, in reality, I was tracking this Steg, and finally downed him. I was putting the final kill on him and your merry men showed up."
"Oh yeah? How do you explain the crossbow bolt?", LaSage indicated the projectile stuck in the Steg.
"They shot at me.", I said. "Look, why don't you just go away and we'll forget this ever happened.", Klamath told me that the whole hunting party was in the area now, and Rex was crouching just behind the Steg kill.
"Stinger...", LaSage chuckled. "I don't think you understand! We outnumber you, and you are overmatched.", she took my arm and led me away slightly to whisper. "I would take your own advice and go away if I were you!"
"LaSage!", I chuckled. "You really don't know what you have here, do you?", I gave a wolf whistle.
Just then Rex slowly walked around the Steg carcass and eyed the whole group of humans. LaSage's eyes went wide and let me go, running to her men. Just then the rest of the Tyranosaurs in the hunting party showed themselves. They had encircled the group, but were dozens of yards off; grunting and swaying in anticipation. The Veloceraptors and others in our group were still hidden, but they were much closer than the Tyranosaurs! The group of land pirates huddled in a group where they were, too petrifyed to move!
I bolstered myself up. "I'd like for you all to meet my buddy, Rex.", I indicated my Partner. "And this is the rest of my pack.", I waved an arm at all the other Tyranosaurs. "See, we live here. We HUNT here!", I looked at Lasage. "We don't like it when you... people... come here and steal our kills!", just then Mayday showed up in Zandra's full armor, Miasaurus mask and all. "Oh, Hi Mayday.", I said as she sidled up to Quint, staff in hand.
"What catch?", Mayday asked, eyeing Quint with Zandra's amber eyes like one would inspect a prime cut of meat.
"Thieves.", I told her.
"Slim pickings.", she replied. She unfurled her mask so her dark beauty showed through. She smiled evilly at Quint, and he stared back in dread as she edged closer. Mayday made moves to touch Quint's hair, and I just had to intervene!
"MAYDAY!", I yelled, and she instantly backed away from Quint, hissing loudly at me. She brandished her staff as I gave LaSage a cheesy smile.
"Stinger!", LaSage smiled cutely as she got up enough courage to approach me again. "Friend Stinger! I'm sure we could work something out!", she steered me away again, whispering softly and sweetly. "Look, why don't you join us? You are obviousely a strong and skilled hunter. With us you could sure go far! We could ransack all of Dinotopia, and keep all the spoils for ourselves! What do you say? Want to join us?"
I pretended to think a moment, then spoke. "Wait a minute.", I whispered. "I'll go see if it's all right."
I turned to the carnivores all around me and began speaking Tyranosaur, and hoping these land pirates didn't understand it. "I want you to all to follow my lead, ok?", I yelled. "When I snap my fingers, I want you to capture two of this group. Do not hurt them, just capture them. Bring them back to the campsite and imprison them for now. Otherwise, agree with everything I am about to do. When I'm done talking, I want you all to laugh; even those still hiding. Ok now, laugh!", I turned around to face LaSage.
The whole area erupted in saurian laughter! I broke down and laughed like what LaSage told me was the funniest thing I ever heard in my life! I walked over to LaSage and placed a hand on her shoulder apologetically before my laughing fit ended!
"Oh, LaSage! You're soooo funny!" I still chuckled as I gasped for breath. "What makes you think I would EVER betray my clan?", I laughed some more. "You know, my offer still stands. You can walk away from this and we'll forget this ever happened..."
"No Stinger. There's something YOU don't understand.", LaSage said coldly as she reached for something. "I don't take no for an answer!", suddenly a knife was at my throat!
"Oh, really!", I said amusedly as I grabbed her wrist. "Nice knife!", I chuckled as I used some of Klamath's strength to wrench it from her grasp. I tossed it over my shoulder and it landed one inch above the crossbow bolt in the Steg.
"Anyway...", I let her wrist go and picked her up by the front of her vest. I looked her square in the eye. "I think it's time you learn to take no for an answer!"
I lifted her high in the air using Klamath's strength, LaSage struggling to no avail. I walked her over to the Steg kill and plastered her against the side of it as roughly as I could and got right into her face.
"NEVER underestimate the carnivores of the Rainy Basin, sweetie!", I whispered with venom only inches away from her eyes.
I extended Klamath's daggers and they glinted before her shocked eyes. I thrust forward, and both daggers hit the Steg below each of her ears, and she was impaled there. As its' blood drueled onto her shoulders, she gulped and stopped struggling. I then retracted the daggers and let her drop the foot to the ground. I turned and walked away a bit as she got up and rubbed the blood off her neck, staring at me acidly.
"You'll pay for this, Stinger!!", LaSage croaked.
"Don't count on it!", I shot back. Looking around with a smile on my face.
I snapped my fingers; and that's when all hell broke loose! Four Veloceraptors fell on a man in the back right hand side of the crowd of humans, dragging him away kicking and screaming. Three Dilophosaurs took out another on the other side of the group, pinned every appendage, and he was whisked away as well! This happened so fast that the rest of the men were just now getting into defensive stances, crouching and looking in every direction for more attacks. LaSage scampered to her men and took up a spear as well; and once she saw her ranks thusly thinned, she got up from her crouch to look at me.
"Hey Stinger! What's the meaning of this?", she yelled.
"Well, we were figuring...", I began nonchalontly. "What's a great meal like this without a little dessert?!", I patted the Steg as the rest of the hunting party laughed in a saurian way. Then I got serious. "If I see your face around the Rainy Basin again, I will hunt you all down myself; and you'll be thew main course! Get it?!"
"You've made grave enemies today, Stinger!", LaSage threatened. "I wouldn't sleep too deeply at night if I were you!", as a group, the pirates began to slowly back away.
"Oh goody! I love suprises!", I said to her, then turned to Rex. "I think they have worn out thier welcome, you think?"
Rex nodded and addressed the rest of the hunting party in Tyranosaur. "Let's run them out of the Rainy Basin!"
With that all the other Tyranosaurs began advancing on the humans, who backed up accordingly. The Veloceraptors joined in on this, and began to corall them away. Everyone roared loudly, and that sent the humans to run away, dropping most of thier weapons as they did so. The Tyranosaurs halted at the edge of the clearing; but the Veloceraptors gave chase, and dogged them all the way back to thier castle. Whitetail later described how fast they barricaded themselves in!
The rest of us just stood before my Steg carcass and laughed heartily. Rex thumped me playfully as Mayday sprung into my arms. I twirld her around and let her go, still chuckling.
"That was sooooo funny, Stinger!", Rex guffawed. "You sure handled them good!"
"You did it!", Mayday hugged, then pulled away. "But me almost ruined it! me sorry..."
"What? Oh that.", I pulled her back in. "Well, not really; but it was a nice touch!"
"But you no mad?", she said. "I thought you jealous!"
"Not at all!", I said.
"Good!", Mayday told me. "I thought he cute!"
"I thought he was cute too!", I laughingly gave her a kiss. "Oh Mayday, you're funny!... But you know, you doing that might come in handy after all."
"What mean?", Mayday looked at me confused.
"You know,... flirt with Quint.", I told her. "That would throw him off guard. He'll make mistakes, and that would make it easier to get to LaSage. get it?"
"No, but what if I find I really like him?", Mayday asked, but instead of answering, I kissed her hard!
"Say guys.", Rex said breaking the mood. "I think it's time we start back to camp. I'm going to need help if we're going to get this Steg home."
"I suppose you're right.", I said as I let Mayday go. "I wanted to see how our new 'guests' are doing anyway!"
We gotr busy and joined the reat of the Tyranosaurs, who had gone back to thier kills less than a mile away. We all made it back to camp a little less than an hour later. By the time we had organized our kills, some of the Veloceraptors that had chased LaSage were returning. Just about then a Kirky came over, complaining about the two men we had brought back home with us. He said they would not stopp kicking and writhing or settle down enough to approach!
Hearing this, I went to where they had them tied to a couple of trees near the crux of the boomerang shaped clearing. Many clan members were around them, keeping a really close watch on them - well out of range of thier flailing feet. Thier eyes were blindfolded and thier moughs were gagged; but thier feet should have been tied once they were brought here. I walked over and took off thier blindfolds, and thier eyes told me how livid they were! I just scowled back at them like they were some disgusting thing I found on the bottom of my boot!
"I hate to say this, but welcome to clan Thundertail.", I told them. "This is where you'll spend the rest of your miserable lives."
They squirmed in thier restraints.
"How well you behave here will determine how long you will live.", I continued as I bent to remove thier gags. "Cooperate and you will live to a ripe old age. Do anything we don't like and I can't guarantee your longevity. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes sir.", the younger one gulped. he had short, scraggly hair and ragged teeth.
"Yeah...", the older one barked without enthusiasm. His was a head of quarter inch stubble.
"Good!", I said cheerily. "Now, what are your names? We can't go about calling you 'hey you' or 'come here stupid', or something like that; now can we?"
When no answer immediately came, I crouched by the younger one and asked nicely: "What's your name, son?"
"Diego, sir.", Diego only breathed.
"Welcome to clan Thundertail, mister Diego!", I said in triumph as I turned to look at the other one. "What about you?", I asked him flatly.
"Name's MacDougal.", MacDougal rumbled, not liking this situation one bit.
"And glad to meet you too, mister MacDougal!", I said as I got up. "Around here they call me Stinger. I have been given special permission to tend to you newcomers to our clan. That means your butts are MINE! Get it? Screw up once and I'll hear of it!", I turned as if in thought. "Now, I think I'll assign you to someone from the clan, and they will teach you the ropes, as it were.... But before that, I'm sure you must be hungry and thirsty from your ordeal.", I turned and called for Thistlesnarl. "Oh Thistlesnarl, could you see to that?"
"Yes, Stinger.", Thistlesnarl rumbled, nodded and left.
The rest of the carnivores in the crowd rumbled uneasily as i untied them from the tree and led them to a standing position by the extra rope that still bound thier hands. Diego looked around at them, eyes wide and sweat pouring off him, not knowing what was going to happen next. macdougal sneered at his captors, looking like he wanted to spit at us all! i led them to a log by an unlit campfire, and i had them sit after I frisked them both for any weapons the others might have missed. I found a tiny jacknife on Diego, and a straight-edge razor on MacDougal; but otherwise they had done a pretty thourough job!
"Now, the time has come to meet your king, Thundertail the wise.", I told them. "He will tell you what he has planned for you; but for right now, you can eat."
Thier meals were placed before them by two kirkys, who stuck thier tongues out at them as they left. I cut thier bonds with the straight-edge, then i saw some trechery in MacDougal's eyes.
"Oh, and if you plan on taking off any time soon; I'd plan otherwise!", I told them both. "See, by now everyone knows what you smell like; and you'd be tracked down and killed before you made it a hundred feet!", I smiled. "Sounds like fun, huh?"
MacDougal simply grunted, Diego nodded warily and both began to dig into thier food with such savagry even unbecoming of us! They pawed at thier food, spilling much between thier fingers, totally ignoring the eating implements provided for them. Finally I could not stand thier ediquate any longer and gave a whistle, which halted them in mid chew.
"WOAH GUYS!", I yelled, then spoke to them as one would a slow child after I picked up thier utensils, a kind in each hand. "This is a fork, and this is a spoon.", I said, then switched them all into one hand, lifting the other. "This is a HAND! Hands are made to hold a fork and a spoon. It is NOT to be used as a substitute for a fork or a spoon!", I tossed thier implements into thier laps. "Please use them!"
They slowly did, handling them like one would a shovel, but it was a start! I nodded, turned and left them to thier meal; but others took my place; sitting a ways off but always within sight. I sought out Thundertail to tell him what went on during today's hunt - provided nobody told him yet!
I wanted to ask him if I could be in charge of these brash, uncouth humans in my own way, and I knew I'd need his permission to do so. Nobody here knew how to handle people like that, who were more trecherous than the most cunning wild animal and twice as smart. I had shadows of doubt about my own abilities to handle Diego and MacDougal, but ones of thier kind are plentiful in the outside world; and I've handled plenty of those in my day, let me tell you!
I found Thundertail over by the feeding area, inspecting the Stegosaurus kills. Rex was at his side, and so were many of the clan that went with us. Rex was in thew middle of vigorousely telling him about the hunt, and of the dispickable people we had met! Thundertail turned his head in my direction as soon as he smelled me and gave me a toothy grin!
"Well, Fly With A Stinger! I hear that you lived up to your name today!", he boomed. "My son tells me that you had a run-in with our human nemesis!"
"LaSage's men were trying to steal my kill, and I convinced them otherwise.", I explained. "I knew how to handle bozos like that, so I had the others follow my lead."
"And he said that you brought us some dessert.", Thundertail said. "Or else he lies!"
"Actually sir, I had the hunting party capture two of them.", I told him. "I merely TOLD LaSage that we were going to eat them; but in reality, I think there may be hope to rehabilitate them. With some work with them, I think we can turn them around and make them live upstanding lives. If you allow me to work with them, I think I can even make them valuable members of this clan! What do you say?"
"I have my doubts, but if you say so, Stinger.", he dipped his head for a bite of Steg. "Have some?"
We had our meal secluded from the prisoners; and they had an extremely uncomfortable time sitting on that log all day. I finally went back over to them and led them back up by the rope ends of thier hand restraints that were tied on them again. I didn't need to coax Diego to get up, but MacDougal kicked out and bucked before he complied! I led them over to the meeting area, where the bonfire was lit to ward off the darkening sky. It was there that Thundertail saw them for the first time.
"You want to save THESE creatures' lives?", Thundertail balked. "I must say you have your work cut out for you on this one, Stinger!"
"My king, I believe that there is good in ALL creatures - no matter how rotten they are on the outside.", I began. "I intend to find that good in these men, and see about thier seperate abilities as they grow with us. They will either change for the good or I'll kill them in the process!", I said this for the benefit of our prisoners, of course!
"You caint keep us here!", MacDougal barked in protest. "It's again' ever law in Dinotopia!"
"So is stealing, pilaging and killing!", I sneered at him. "You two people had it made here! A perfect life in the best place in the world; but you let LaSage trick you into the destructive life! You couldn't learn the easy way, so now you're going to learn the HARD way!"
"An' what if we refuse?", the older bald man asked with venom.
"You're among carnivores...", I shrugged. "What more needs to be said?"
"Well, good luck teachin' me!", MacDougal huffed.
"It will be your BAD luck if you don't learn!", I told him levely.
"Phah!", he spat and fell silent.
"Now, to teach you both properly, I think you should be split up.", I told them, along with everyone at the meeting. "I will need a few volunteers to take them in. Who wants to help out?"
"I will.", Bross Dilophosaur spoke up. "I will take the hatchling."
"I'm no hatchling!", Diego protested. I'm twenty three!"
"Do you want to be twenty four?", I asked, but continued before he could answer. "Then shut up!", I glared at him and he cringed! "Ok, Bross gets Diego. Now, who wants MacDougal?"
"Can I have him, Stinger?", Pincushion asked meekly. "I always wanted a Partner, like Rex has you!"
"Oh, he won't be a Partner, Pincushion.", I told him. "MacDougal is a prisoner and a criminal. He can not be trusted, and will always try to cause trouble. He will be your student, and will have to do everything you say.", I turned to him. "Even though he's so bad, do you know why we will not kill him?"
"Because a dead person doesn't learn anything?", Pincushion remembered his Path Of Shame!
"Correct!", I said. "And for that, you can have MacDougal, and teach him how to be a member of this clan!"
"Bah! I ain't havin' no scaly keepin' track o' me!", MacDougal scowled.
"This is going to be fun!", Pincushion said and nudged his new ward off the log, and the whole clan chuckled at it!
"Hey, ye'...!", MacDougal balked as he tried to right himself.
"Now, take your charges back to your places and you may begin in the morning.", Thundertail commanded. "Perhaps the first thing that should be done is to teach them our language. Until they learn, you could work out some hand signals or something.", he shooed them away.
I translated this for the two pirates, which when they heard it, didn't know what to expect. The Sereno family and the Krieger family were well on thier way to understanding carnivore speech; and they seemed to naturally understand not to have anything to do with these criminals. They stayed well away from them during this meeting!
"Come with me, pup.", Bross rose and drew up the younger ones' rope, almost pulling it faster than the young man could walk. "This way.", he led him to his lean-to in the forest.
"Come on! get up!", Pincushion nudged his charge to a standing position as he grabbed his rope. "I live over here.", he led him over to his nest for the night. "Hurry!"
"Aw, shaddup, ya' scaly!", MacDougal growled.
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(I will continue this chapter later.)
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Post by thundertail on Aug 2, 2007 6:36:38 GMT -5
NINTEEN: "LaSage's match!" (Continued)
With no other important thing needing to be discussed that evening, most of the others decided to turn in for the night as well. I stayed behind since I was not assigned to be on the hunting party the next morning, and so did several others. As soon as everyone else left, we continued with small knots of muted conversation around the nearly dead bonfire.
"Stinger, you sure you know what you're doing?", Rex asked me at my side. "Those two look like nothing but trouble!"
"This is just what they need.", I told him. "They need the chance to make ammends for the lives they have led. What would have happened if you were rescued by someone that was mean and cruel? I would guess that you would have grown up to be one mean Tyranosaur! Am I not right?"
"I guess so...", Rex answered.
"Well, that's exactly what happened to these guys.", I told him. "I want to give them a chance to unlearn what they have learned under the influence of LaSage. I want to give them a second chance, and let them see that thier lives needn't have turned out like they have, and they needn't have turned out so rotten."
"That LaSage is a witch!", Thundertail commented.
"Do you know she even tried to tempt me to join her pirates?", I said. "Of course, I laughed right in her face!"
"She didn't like that very much.", Rex said. "She pulled a knife on you!"
"I was in no danger wearing Klamath.", I told him.
"What was the reason for splitting them up?", Thundertail asked. "And why give them to those two?! Bross is too demanding, and Pincushion is too trusting and naiive!"
"It's all psychological.", I explained. "I know that, sooner or later, there will be conflicts between them. When there is, I'll step in and make things right. That way these pirates will think I'm on thier side, and then they will respect at least one of us. It will be easier for them to connect with us if they think that one of us is on thier side. See the logic?"
"No, but I guess that happens when human minds are involved!", Thundertail told me, chuckling. "Good luck with this project, Stinger!", Thundertail got up and headed in the direction of his nest. Rex and I followed him; I going in the direction of the Incan pyramid and he going to his nest near his fathers' nest.
In the morning I was assigned to help out catalogueing more of the hyroglyphs in the Incan Pyramid, so my walk to work was a short one. We had done everything we could possibly think to do in the upper levels above ground; and we were nearly done with the chambers directly below ground. Our next course of action was to start deciphering the clay tablets and scrolls, copying them down in either the modern saurian alphabet ot translate them into English script.
We even were trying to catalogue the other strange artifacts and machine-like devices found in the chambers below; and tried to guess at thier functions, but describing what they were to us and what they really were for were two different things! But all of this was slow work with all the renovations going on all around us at the same time! Fortunately, my work was going to be on the outside of the pyramid today.
After kissing Mayday good morning, I set out to prepare the Krieger's cart so I could transport the needed materials to the pyramid so the Kirkys and I could get started. I went to where Sauron and Chillet the Pachys were housed to see if they were ready, for they were assigned to the project too. When asked if they wanted to help out, they were more than delighted! They had only seen the pyramid from a distance and wanted a close-up look; and they were also curious as to what was inside, so I promised them a tour once the work was done.
"Almost all hitched up, sauron!", I said as I patted his flank. He violently swatted my hand away! "Ok, big guy...", I finished hitching him up dejectedly.
"Pardon me, Stinger.", Sauron replied. "But our kind does not like to be touched."
"I'm sorry.", I said.
"No offense, but we're not a very affectionate species.", Chillet said, her head turned toward me. "We rarely even let our Partners touch us."
"Ok, I see.", I told them. "But that doesn't mean we can't still be friends!", I smiled as I finished putting the rigging on them and they backed into thier spots in front of the cart and I hitched them to it. "All set, guys?", I asked and they nodded. "Ok, let's go!"
We went to where the Kirkys had told me the things they would need were prepared. A spot next to the river contained hundreds of long, slender poles and many coils of vine, buckets and jars of paints and other material. There were wooden pulleys, hammers and tools, animal skin tarps, reams of blank parchment and writing paraphanalia; and also a fair supply of food, which was obviousely thier lunch. All of this was to be loaded up and transported to the Incan temple.
I spent the next twenty minutes or so loading up the covered cart, of which the covering was now taken down; and now resembled a buckboard wagon common in the Wild West. When I was done loading, we took the first load back to the pyramid, which was a relatively short trip.
The two Pachys' mouths hung open at the size of the structure as they drew near. They couldn't believe that something this huge ever existed! I smiled at them as I began to unload the supplies myself; but soon some of the Kirkys noticed our arrival and began scurrying over, yelling for more of thier kin to help. Kirky jabber filled the area as instructions to the other workers were rattled off and they scurried off with thier burdens to where thier assigned work areas were located. After I was done helping and the Kirkys disapeared, I unhitched Sauron and Chillet so they could pace about and get a feel for the size of the place.
The Incan pyramid was clearly four hundred feet tall and eight hundred feet on a side. Steps led up each side of the complex, and each tier rose fifty feet above the one below with a fifty foot ledge on each tier. There was a temple-like structure at the top; and the last time I had been up there, I noticed it had some strange devices built into the interior walls, as well as some sort of recepticle imbedded in a stone pedistal at its' center. This temple was a mystery to all of us, and we decided to renovate the top of the pyramid last.
The Kirkys' main objective this week was to clear off all the overgrowth clinging to the outside of the pyramid, or so I was told. They had already had crews go along the top of each tier and pull out any weed or small tree that grew along them; but now they were going to remove the viny growths that crept up the sides of the tiers! The poles and vines we brought were going to be used to make scaffolding so the miniature workers could safely perform this part of the operation. A few of them even boasted that they were going to paint the outside of the pyramid so it looked as new as the day it was made! The Pachys and I amusedly watched the Kirkys' scurrying work for many moments; and since we weren't needed until they needed more supplies, I had an idea.
"Say, you two want a tour of the place?", I asked them. "They must have all the lights put in by now!", of course i was referring to the wall scones, and the torches in them that were constantly lit and tended these days.
"Certainly!", Sauron said as he clasped his mate's hand.
I led the way through the ground level entryway, which was just barely tall enough for sauron and Chillet to walk through without ducking; but it was easily wide enough to let four of them to pass through abrest. They marveled at the golden painted scenes played out on the walls as they passed, and the glyphed descriptions of ancient events as they traveled to the first intersection. This was supported by lavishly painted columns painted in greens and reds and laced with gold and silver finery that seemed to rise up into the darkness above forever.
Sauron balked at a particularly gory scene depicting a chest operation on a Bracheosaur; but I explained that this could have also have been a hospital as well. As we explored the branches of this section of the pyramid, little Holly Krieger stepped out of the rooms her family lived in and waved at her mommy and daddy's Partners before skipping off toward the exit.
At another intersection of the pyramid, where a rampway spiraled down into the lower bowels of the pyramid, many Kirkys were sitting at a table; and they were meticulousely trying to glue together shards of pottery and broken tablets. They were so intent on thier task that they complete ignored me when I said hi to them! We had just made it to the bottom of this spiral, where the tablets and pottery were found, that we began hearing my name being called through the tiny stone vents that channeled throughout the temple complex, that was another miracle of the ancient technology of the place.
"I guess the tour is over!", I said as we turned and made for the exit.
"What a wonderful place!", Chillet commented.
"It would be even more marvelous to see it when it's completely restored!", Sauron agreed as he followed his mate up the ramp.
We squinted at the sunshine outside, and i found one of the Kirkys that seemed to be in charge. "Yes?", I asked him. "We're here!"
"There you guys are!", Jerry the Kirky squeaked. "I thought you left already!...Yeah boss, we need another load of stuff to finish up the scaffolds. I'll have Zeeka and Sam go back with you to show you what we need."
"Sure thing, Jerry.", I said as we went back to the cart. As I hitched Sauron and Chillet back to the cart, the two mentioned Kirkys were located, and they scurried up the sides of the cart.
We headed out a few moments later; and all along the way the pair of Kirkys were singing and jabbering away to each other. It seemed like they were part of the singers of the circus! Sauron just rolled his eyes at thier foolishness and grunt at his mate at all of thier antics. All of a sudden Sauron found one of them on his back!
"More fun than a three ring circus, eh Sauron?", Sam leaned to chirp.
"get OFF me!", Sauron nearly bucked him off.
"Ok, ok!", Sam retreated. "Touchy, ain't we!"
"I'll explain later.", I hushed him.
We made it back to camp a short while later without much more trouble than that; but the trouble was evident the moment we rolled into the clearing. I saw an angry Pincushion pinning MacDougal to the ground and growling at him menacingly! I jumped down off the cart and ran over to intervene!
"WOAH!! Woah, Pincushion!", I said as I tried to push him off. he finallky moved aside, panting angrilly. "What in the world is going on here?!"
"I was trying to teach him Tyranosaur, but he won't co-operate!", Pincushion growled.
"I wuz jes showin' ya' I knew what ye meant, ye nit!", MacDougal defended as soon as he got up. "No need to get so terse!", he dusted himself off.
"Well, it was an unusual approach, if you ask me!", Pincushion huffed, then he told me the whole account.
Pincushion was having MacDougal learn Tyranosaur a word at a time, showing him objects and saying thier names in Tyranosaur. The human didn't seem to get it at first, so Pincushion began to pick up the object and say it with more force. MacDougal suddenly got this look, either of revelation or mischief, Pincushion couldn't tell; and he began to say the word in Tyranosaur - and actually THREW the object at Pincushion! 'Stick'... Right in the eye! 'Rock'...against the skull! 'Dirt'...Right in the mouth! Finally, Pincushion had had enough, and roughly told him to knock it off, swatting him to the ground with his snout.
"I see...", I said. "First off. Pincushion, you should be a little more patient with him. He is not used to being around Tyranosaurs - much less learning things from them.", then I turned to mister MacDougal. "And you shouldn't be so mean to someone who is trying to help you. I don't know what you went through in your life to make you so hateful to them; but dinosaurs are really nice and caring at heart.", then to both of them. "Now, I want you both to make up and try again. Only this time, try to be a little more reasonable. Ok?"
"Well..., ok Stinger.", Pincushion nodded.
"Never thought ida had a scaly fer a teacher...", MacDougal mumbled, then looked at Pincushion. "Aw! Alrighty! Put'er there, pal!", they shook. "Now, let's give another go!", he picked up a rock. " 'Rock!' ", he said, and simply dropped the rock.
Nodding, I left the area and found out where the cart I was using went off to. Sauron and Chillet had witnessed my exchange with pincushion and Mad=cDougal for a moment, and them went where Sam and Zeeka wished them to go. I went past thier tents, now fewer in number thanks to thier occupying the pyramid lately, then near the gardens; but I was sidetracked from my assignment once more because there was a disturbance going on there as well!
I rushed over and saw Bross standing over Diego, who was cowering on the ground; the former braying in anger at the latter. I ran over and nearly shoved Bross away and looked at them, steaming!
"Ok Bross! Hold on a minute and tell me what's going on!", I yelled.
"This pup will not work!", Bross said. "He only makes little holes in garden! Not good enough! Tubers need deeper holes!"
"What's he complaining about?", Diego said, still on the ground. "I learned the stupid language. What more do he want?", he changed to saurian. "I learn!"
"I can see that.", I told him. "Bross has taught you well in speaking our language. But you must do other work too!", I turned to Bross. "Perhaps it's better if you don't push him."
"He's lazy!", Bross defended. "He doesn't want to do work!"
"Perhaps gardening isn't his thing, as we newcomers say.", I told him. "Perhaps he should try something he's good at.", I looked down on him. "What do you like to do, son?"
"Fighting.", Diego said sulkily.
"He can not fight! He's a prisoner!", Bross said. "He's better off doing honest work, like gardening!"
"Please! Just try letting him do something else.", I said. "Maybe there are other things he can do, like letting him run the Copro cart or something..."
"I ain't driving no Copro cart!", Diego balked, getting up.
"It's 'am not', and you'll do whatever we tell you to do!", I told him sharply. "Now, both of you, try again!"
"yes, Fly With A stinger.", Bross said, looking at his charge. "You must know what you're doing..."
"What choice do I have?", Diego grunted as he picked up his shovel. "Is this the right way?", he resumed his work, and Bross helped by driving the blade deeper.
Smiling, I went to my own work for the rest of the day. A week passed, then two; and the two prisoners looked like they were beginning to get used to this strange, involuntary situation they found themselves in...
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Post by thundertail on Aug 5, 2007 15:05:31 GMT -5
TWENTY: "Rehabilitation."
Even though mister MacDougal didn't seem much interested in doing much work around here, he had mastered many of the carnivore languages and gotten used to all the carnivores he was constantly surrounded by. And even though Pincushion didn't press the issue of work with him, it was found out that he was a whiz at fixing mechanical things. One time the Copro cart broke down with a broken axle, and he repaired that in little time at all. The hinges in the doors to our cabins and shacke were of the most primative type, but these were no problem for him either!
During practice one day the Kirky's trampoline came down with some broken springs on one side, and MacDougal had those restrung in no time at all! The miniscule chan on Ursula's pedal-driven rickshaw came off one day, and she thanked him personally for the service. I was even going to ask him if he could fix the retracting mechanism on Klamath's daggers, which had mysteriousely became stuck one day; but Klamath said he wouldn't let someone of his caliber work on him!
Diego was really starting to connect with some of the members of the clan, especially the younger human personnell. One time I saw him give Francis Sereno pointers in his staff practice; which wasn't really needed as the younger boy beat him four falls out of five! One time Holly Sereno had lost her dolly, and Diego helped her look for most of a day. One time little Greg Krieger came by him kicking around a stuffed leather ball one of the female Veloceraptors made for him. He joined in with all the other kids - human as well as saurian - in a game of kickball, and they all ended up in a laughing knot!
The young adult was put to the test many times by Bross of late, and would always see him doing one task or another. He never seemed to complain about it, but I saw him many times entering his quarters by the Dilophosaur lean-tos extremely exhausted. I had no doubt that Diego was really trying to turn his life around!
Never the less, I didn't dare show him the Incan pyramid, the temple tower or the city of Halcyon. I made sure nobody else told them about them either. These two were still prisoners, after all; and if they should escape, they could return to LaSage and tell her about them. Knowing her, she would come and ransack those places!
And speaking of Torres LaSage, we had been hearing rumors of her exploits in the Rainy Basin of late as well. Even though there was no sign of her dirty work in our territory - we made sure of it - There were other clans of carnivores all around the Rainy Basin not really affiliated with us; and some of them had thier tales to tell us, let me tell you!
During a hunt in our northern territory we encountered a Tyranosaur that looked like he had something on his mind. He was that Tyranosaur we had met while delivering Shawn Branko to Prosperine so long ago. Snaptail was his name, and he told us that his leader, Brokentooth, had stepped into a cruel toother trap and had his foot severed completely off. Of course his clan had to put him out of his misery; and that made Snaptail the new leader. But that didn't diminish the affront the makers of that trap had done!
We told him we knew who made that trap, and were in the middle of catching them. We said that the safety of creatures in the Rainy Basin was everyones' business, and it was up to us to make sure of it. Snaptail was grateful for the news, and offered to have his clan join our clan once the villian was caught. We welcomed them into the clan because we knew LaSage would have justice served to her!
Another report of LaSage's activities came from a rogue band of Veloceraptors, who met our Veloceraptor scouts one day. they said they were out hunting struthies, and were giving them chase. Suddenly the herd of Struthies jagged left and bolted into the forest for some reason. The Veloceraptors knew the path doubled around, and would be easier to follow the path and intercept thier quarry, so onward they went.
The reason for the Struthies' sudden change of direction became apparent about a mile further. All of a sudden half thier pack disappeared down a hole that opened up in front of them. Looking inside, they saw all thier comrades either dead or dying, impaled on stakes driven into the hole's floor! These Veloceraptors had heard of us, and traveled far and wide to find us and tell us about this affront on thier pack. Our Veloceraptors told them what we had told Snaptail, and they too vowed to join our clan if justice was served!
After this we decided to employ more drastic measures to prevent LaSage from pillaging the Rainy Basin like she was doing. We literally put out an all-points-bulletin to all the creatures of the Rainy Basin, and asked if they would report any other such activity to us. (Zippeau, if you are still confused as to what an A.P.B. is, just ask the Scotts - they'll know!)
We set out to scour every forest, every valley and ravine and anywhere they were known to cause trouble. We even went to her hideout so we could gain knowledge of where her next exploits would be. This was made easier when we discovered a secluded route to the Crackshell coast via caves and hidden pathways. With all this into play, we began knowing where and when they would spring thier next capers!
Of course, we kept all this activity a secret from MacDougal and Diego. They had enough to do getting used to things around here to worry about what we were doing concerning thier former boss!
One day I saw MacDougal carrying an armload of metallic objects toward his and Pincushion's area of the clearing, and a short time later I saw Pincushion doing the same. I didn't think much of it, figuring they were repairing the metallic pans and whatnot for use around camp. Not long after that i heard pounding and hammering coming from that area, and went to investigate. What I saw there wasn't to be believed! It was a collection of copper and tin pots, connected by funnel shapes and curlicue pieces of brass tubing; set on low fires and steaming briskly!
(I don't know if you know what a 'Still' is Zippeau; but it is a device for distilling alchoholic beverages. I knew the configuration because my grandmother used to own one when she lived in Upstate New York!)
I saw MacDougal ripping up some cloth and stuffing it into the lid of one of these pots, and my face turned livid! Needless to say that I stormed into the area on a fuller boil than the ingredients in the still!
"What in the world is going on, MacDougal?!", I yelled. "Where did you get all this stuff?!"
"Why, I'm just washin' me skivvies!", MacDougal said innocently. "I ain't doin nothin'!"
"Oh, hi Stinger!", Pincushion lumbered into the area, carrying some firewood. "How do you like the machine MacDougal made? He's really good at putting things together!"
"Boy, I'll say!", I glared. "Pincushion, do you know just what this machine is, and what it does?!"
"Beats me, Stinger.", Pincushion set the wood down. "But MacDougal said that it will make something really special!"
"It's called a 'Still' - a distillery! It is used to make alchoholic drinks.", I explained to the naiive dinosaur. I turned to MacDougal. "Now, where did you get the stuff to make it?"
"This junk came from the Incan pyramid, and from Halcyon.", Pincushion told me. "The Kirkys there said they didn't need it any more; and MacDougal said he could find a use for the stuff."
"And I suppose you told him about everything inside them too...!", I was steaming! "Well, isn't that just GREAT!!"
"Oh no, Stinger!", Pincushion told me. "I never told him that!"
"He knows now...!", I said.
"Now pull it back a bit, Stinger!", MacDougal said in a placating tone. "I knowed about the pyramid all along. I see it right over yonder!", he pointed. "The lad didna tell me where this 'Halcyon' is, so please calm doon!", he sat and pleaded with his eyes for me to do likewise. "Noo please sit. Have a drink?"
I took a look at Pincushion's innocent face and deflated. "OH!... Why not?", I sat. "But after this, I want you to take this still apart! Ok?"
"Aye, but just a wee snifter...", MacDougal reached for a small crockery flask, dispensed an ounce directly from the stopcock and handed it to me. "Nay drink too fast! It hasna aged yet!"
I took a whif of the heady alchoholic aroma and found nothing amiss there. I gathered courage to take a sip - and promptly sputtered it back out! "You're making paint thinner for the Kirkys. Right?", I said as soon as my throat unclenched. I roughly placed the flask on the log and wiped my mouth.
"Wot?!", MacDougal protested. "That be me own secret recepie! Ye just wait till it ages a bit! Smooth as silk, I say!"
"Whatever!", I snapped. "Look, just take this contraption apart and don't let me catch you making another one!", I stormed away. What happened immediately after that I had to find out later!
"He don't like me hooch!", MacDougal said sadly. "Maybe there be something wrong with it...", He filled the flask and tasted the batch.
"Stinger said you should take it apart.", Pincushion told him. "I guess it's best to get started..."
"I knoo what's wrong, sonny!", MacDougal snapped his fingers after taking his taste. "I forgot to warsh th' stuff owt before using it! It kinda tastes tinny."
"Maybe we can use this stuff to make another kind of machine...", Pincushion studied the still, not listening to a word MacDougal was saying.
"What we need is a way to clean it owt!", MacDougal continued. "Mebbe a wee bit of cleaner will do the trick!"
"What are you talking about, MacDougal?", Pincushion asked at last.
"I forgot to clean it out, laddy! That's why Stinger hated it!", MacDougal explained. "We need to clean it out if the hooch'll taste food. We need a good cleaner to warsh it out proper, but we have no soap. However, there IS another cleaner I can make!"
"What's that?", Pincushion was curious despite himself.
"It's called 'Bleach'.", MacDougal said. "To make it, all I need is one ingredient."
"And what's that?", asked Pincushion.
"All I need is this:", Macdougal reached for a bucket on the ground and offered it to the Tyranosaur. "Could you go in the bucket, lad?"
"WHAT?!", Pincushion was shocked.
"You know... GO!", MacDougal urged. "Make water..., Pee!... Know what I mean?", he paused to explain. "Bleach is made of distilled urine. I canna make all I need by meself, you know!"
"That's sick!", Pincushion said, taking the bucket. "Well, ok MacDougal. You must know what you're doing...", he retreated to the treeline and disappeared into them.
In the mean time I strolled over to where I saw our other prisoner working. Diego had been hard at work collecting copro, and was taking his lunch by a path that led to onr of our dumpsites. A sweaty Deathflower was pulling the cart, and busy with her own Struthie lunch. I walked right up to them as Diego was spooning his stew to his mouth and leaned on the cart right next to him.
"So, how's things?", I asked nonchalontly.
"Been better.", Diego blew on his bone spoon.
"Where's bross?", I asked.
"With his pack. Planning hunts, I guess.", Diego told me. "Said I had to clean all the copro in camp by nightfall. This is our second load."
"I see.", I said and turned to Deathflower. "And how are you, fine huntress?"
"I'd rather be hunting!", was Deathflower's reply between bites.
"Well, every task is important.", I said. "How is Diego doing?"
"Not bad for a human.", she rumbled. "He learns quick!"
"I even speak Tyranosaur.", Diego rumbled raggedly. He tried to say something in Ovaraptor, but failed miserably. He turned to English. "Some languages are hard!"
"You'll get it, I know it!", I told him. "You know, I'm really proud of how far along you've come."
"Thanks, but that makes one of you.", Diego spooned another bite. "Bross thinks I should be doing better."
"I think Bross is a perfectionist.", I told him. "He wants everything to be up to his exacting standards - including your training."
"Well, I don't like him.", Diego said, setting down his bowl. "Every time he thinks I make a mistake, he hits me - just like my father!"
"I see!", I said. Now we were getting somewhere! "So, was that why you ran away from home?", I asked. "And then later you hooked up with laSage."
"Something like that.", Diego looked at me. "See, I grew up to be much larger than my father. He always saw me as a failure, just like he was - just a poor farmer! He must have been mad at that, and he hit me something terrible! Finally I couldn't take it no more, so I hit the road.", he drank from his water flask. "So, a few jobs later and I found myself in bad territory. Quint tried to rob me, but found I had nothing; he brought me back with him, and Torres made me an offer: work for her or die. What could I do? I fought my way through the pecking order, and that's about it...", he bowed his head. "I really hated that place!"
"So, is this place any better?", I asked meekly.
"I guess so.", Diego said. "Sure, there's loads of work; but it's not nearly as bad as anywhere else I been. I guess I could get used to being here.", he cracked a thin smile.
"Well, thank the fates for second chances, ay son?!", I chuckled. "look, if you do a better job around here, I'll talk to bross about not hitting you. Sound like a deal?"
"That's the best news I've heard all day!", Diego piped up as he climbed into the Copro cart and into the driver's seat. "Thanks, Stinger!", He waved and took the reigns as I scooted out of the way. "Ready to go, Deathflower?", he rumbled in Tyranosaur.
"Waiting for you!", Deathflower purred. The Copro cart presently trundled down the path and was lost to the jungle beyond.
Later on that evening we all had a meeting concerning the upcoming capture ofTorres LaSage and her men; for her rampage throughout the Rainy Basin had gon on for far too long! Bross had informed his pack to co-operate with the rest as they did thier part in the plan to come; and pincushion was not included as well. Both had to keep thier charges busy while this operation was under way.
Thus said, we plotted out just how we were going to trap them. most of it is still pretty top secret, so I won't go into much detail on it here. Let's just say that we were going to have Sauron and Chillet act as bait and lure LaSage's pirates on a merry chase through the forest, and trap them near the area where I had first entered Halcyon my first few days here. From there we would seperate LaSage from her men and send the men packing.
From there we would get LaSage confused and put off guard by making her travel through the depths of halcyon. We'd have guides lead her out to the courtyard where i had my first camp - and then read her the riot act, as it were! We had been working on a contract of sorts, legally telling her to stay out of the Rainy Basin or else!
More than an hour later everything was all settled, and the meeting took on a more domestic tone. Discussed was how the temples were coming about, the restoration of halcyon and how soon we could move in there as well. With our prisoners doing a lot of the work around here, that would allow more of us to work on these projects; but it would put a burden on those who were assigned to watch out for those prisoners. The responsability would ultimately fall on me since I was officially in charge of them, so it was my duty to report of thier progress so far at this time.
"Mister MacDougal seems to have a knack with building and fixing things.", I ended up saying. "He shows promise in many other ways; but his absolute dislkie of 'scalys', as he referrs to you saurians as, makes him a creature not to be trusted around here. I had him paired up with Pincushion in hopes that his gruff exterior would melt under Pincushion's youthful naiivitie. The trouble is this process might take a long time as MacDougal is an older human. As we newcomers say: 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks.'!"
"And this Diego?", Thundertail asked.
"Mister Diego is basically a little boy lost in a young man's body.", I stated. "He has always meant well, but he always got punished by his father for no apparent reason. He ran away from that problem, but always seemed to find himself in the same situation everywhere he went.", I looked at Bross. "That is why we shouldn't treat him that way again. He needs a fresh start, with different stimulus than what he has been getting. He feels that this place is a better situation than what he has had, but not as good as being completely independant."
"Are you saying I should be more lenient with the hatchling?", Bross asked. "My father treated me thusly, and I grew to be the leader of the Dilophosaurs!"
"What I'm saying is one must learn to treat different people different.", I told him. "That type of punishment must stop! If he does something wrong, hitting him is not the answer! Talk to him, and explain to him why something he did was wrong. All hitting someone does is raise lumps, and doesn't fix the problem!"
"I will try, Stinger.", Bross said. "Perhaps it's time to teach THIS old dog a new trick or two!"
"You'll both be better people because of it!", I smiled, then stood down because my part of the meeting was over.
The very next day we began to prepare everything, and clue everybody in on what they were supposed to do. the first thing was to tell the Kirkys to halt all thier activities in Halcyon, for our plans included it. LaSage didn't need to know we were renovating the place to live in, dodn't she! It would look almost like we had never touched it anyway; for all they did was sweep the many centurys' worth of dirt off the main thouroufares of the city. However, what was revealed in that task was extrordinary! All the main streets of Halcyon was literally paved with solid gold cobblestones!
We had them lock up any door that would and leave only the torches lit that shone from the spiral stairs and entrance to the small chasm I had used to enter the place so long ago. Once LaSage was in there, we would have a group of escorts, disguised as an archaeologist team sent by Waterfall City, escort her back to the surface. Being the gratious host, she would be given a gourmet meal before we discussed any business.
Anyway, with all those plans made and in the works, we dispersed to our assigned tasks for the day. I was walking across the clearing and saw smoke rising from the trees near the western path. I figured that it was somebody's campfire that had gotten out of control, so I yelled for help to put the fire out and ran into the area as fast as Klamath would let me.
I soon saw the emergency wasn't like I had feared; so I screeched to a stop right in front of the still I had told MacDougal to take down! Hands on hips, it took me only a moment to decide what to do; so I bent down and began ripping pots and tubing from the still warm contraption!
"Woah there, buck!", MacDougal rushed into the area with a new armload of firewood, dropping it in his haste to stop me. "Avast there!"
MACDOUGAL!!...", I panted. "I thought I told you to take this thing DOWN! Where's Pincushion?"
"Here I am!", Pincushion lumbered over with his own load of firewood. "Our old wood got wet, so we went for more."
"Look matey, I knoo you told me to take doon the still.", MacDougal said calmly, hoping I'd be the same. "But I figgered owt why ye didns like it."
"MacDougal didn't clean the still out!", Pincushion finished for him. "He said it made the 'hooch' stuff taste awful!"
"That's not why I said that!", I told them both. "Having the still around and making liquor is not allowed on Dinotopia! Mayday told me once that they banned all alchoholic beverages over a hundred years ago because it insighted violence and mayhem from otherwise upstanding citizens. Did you know that if we were caught with this thing, we could gat into BIG trouble?!"
"Awk! Hogwash!", MacDougal said. "I been makin' hooch all me life, an LaSage says we can drink all we want!"
"Well, I ain't LaSage!", I spat. "Now, take it down!"
"Aw, but please! At least give it a taste!", MacDougal pleaded. "I made a fresh batch. It orta be nice n' tasty now!", he offered me a flask of this now deep amber liquid.
"Stinger, please?", Pincushion pleaded as well. "We worked really hard on it...", I couldn't resist Pincushion's eyes!
"Oh, brother!", I grabbed the flask roughly and looked at it. I smelled it and it smelled just the same. I took a sip, and it tasted like any medium brand of Scotch whiskey! "Hmmm..., not bad..." I mumbled. "Has a woody aftertaste, and something else; but I'm not sure..."
"How is it, Stinger?", Pincushion wanted to know. "Is it good?"
"Now wot ye say?", MacDougal asked. "Do I make a fine hooch, or wot!"
"It's pretty good.", I said noncomittally, then looked at them both as they begged with pleading eyes. After a full minute, I expelled a breath and told them: "Look, you can keep the still; but keep it under cover. And PLEASE! Don't make big batches!", They whooped at the news; then I had a little thought. "Is there a bottle somewhere and a stopper? I need some of it for a plan..."
"What are you going to do, Stinger?", Pincushion asked.
"Never mind!", I told him, looking for said materials.
"Eere you are!", MacDougal handed me a flat pint sized bottle.
I went to the spigot and drew a full bottle. I grabbed the cork handed to me and looked at the deep amber liquid. "This should do fine!", I said.
"Are you going to drink the whole thing?", Pincushion asked.
"Ye better watch out fer th' hangover!", MacDougal chuckled.
"What's a hangover?", asked Pincushion.
"Oooh! Bad, lad!", MacDougal said.
"Pincushion, remember when we took mister Branko home?", he nodded. "Remember when you got too close to the Sunstones?", again he nodded. "Like that, only it doesn't go away for a while!"
"OH!...", Pincushion winced. "Then why do you drink it?"
"Every one likes a good challenge!", said MacDougal, chuckling.
I chuckled too and turned to leave. "Now remember, keep this hush-hush!", I left the area.
"Humans are wierd!", Pincushion said, grasping MacDougal gently by a shoulder. "But you're the wierdest!"
"Aw! You don't knoo the half of it!", MacDougal chuckled.
"Hmm... Wonder what it tastes like...", Pincushion bent to sniff the still. "Smells AWFUL...! Wait a minute! What's that smell?", he took a long whif. "Kind of smells like..., ME!", he turned his head. "Hey!... Wait a minute!"
"What is it, lad?", MacDougal asked.
"Did you remember to rinse the still out?", Pincushion asked. "It smells lind of strange."
"Might've left a little in there. Why?", MacDougal didn't like the way Pincushion was looking at him!
"Isn't bleach poison?", Pincushion's eyes went wide! "macDougal! You've poisoned poor Stinger! By the will of Othgar, please tell me you didn't leave any in there!"
"It was a little joke...!", Was all MacDougal got the chance to say before Pincushion leapt on him, knocking him down and roaring in his face!
I was only fifty yards or so away, and heard the commotion start up behind me. I turned and saw what was going on; and i had klamath make all possible speed to get back! Yelling for him to stop, i pushed and pushed; and finally Pincushion got off macdougal, huffing and spatting in contempt. I helped the poor man up and glared at the both of them in utter disgust.
"OK! Mind telling me what this is all about?!", I shouted.
"The lad's daft!", macDougal accused.
"Are you going to tell him, or do i have to?!", Pincushion growled.
"Tell me what?", I asked.
"MacDougal cleaned the still out with bleach!", Pincushion told me. "He left some in the still, and you drank it!"
"It was a wee amount, i think.", MacDougal said.
"How much is a wee amount?", I asked.
"The whole thing...", MacDougal shrank.
"You left the whole BUCKET in?!", Pincushion nearly roared.
"I don't understand.", I said.
"Stinger, you, of all people should know what bleach is made of!", Pincushion said. "It's made of urine, right?"
"Yeah...", I drank urine?
"See, he had me fill the bucket, saying he wanted to clean the still. If i knew he was going to pull a prank on you, I would never have done it!", Pincushion admitted. "Oh Stinger! You're poisoned!"
"Shhh...! Relax Pincushion, just relax!", I said softly. "I'll be all right, honest!", I stroked his saddened muzzle. "See, when you distill bleach, the harmful properties are purifyed away. In some distilleries back home, they use bleach to enhance the liquor's flavor."
"You mean you're not going to die?", Pincushion looked relieved.
"Not for a good many years yet!", I smiled and he smiled back. "See, mister macDougal may have thought he was playing a joke on me; but it turned out it backfired on him!"
"Foiled by me own wit!", macDougal said, pouring a bit for himself and tasting. "Hmmm! dandy!"
"Yes it is!", I said. "Now all we need is a name for it."
"Caint think of none.", MacDougal said.
"Me neither!", Pincushion added.
"Hmmmm...", I said, eyes closed deep in thought. "How about..., 'Tyranosaur Breath'?"
"Tyranosaur breath?", Pincushion asid. "Why is that?"
"Well, you can't hardly call it the other thing!", I laughed out loud.
"That's a fact, lad!", MacDougal chuckled. "A dandy name!", he roared laughter, hugging Pincushion's muzzle.
"But please, MacDougal! No more pranks!", Pincushion became serious. "Any more stunts like that and I'll eat you - I swear!...
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Post by thundertail on Aug 6, 2007 6:01:37 GMT -5
TWENTY-ONE" "Ultimatum."
Deep in the dense rainforests of the Rainy Basin, two adult Pachycephalosauruses stood in a tiny clearing by a well worn game trail. thier domed heads bobbed and dipped for forage, alternately raising thier heads to survey the area for predators. The ragged human hiding in the forest's undergrowth near by saw this and smiled; for he was the advance scout sent by LaSage to find food for her horde, and maybe there would be a reward for him if he could capture these scalys!
He slowly backed away from hiding, and scurried deeper into the forest; where many of his mates lay in wait for word of what he had spied. Less than a half mile later he made it to the first of the crew. This one was a rather tall and strong one that he dared not cross. He pulled the giant's sleeve, and got a crack across the face for the effort!
"Martino! Never sneak up on me again!", the giant hissed. "What did you find?"
"Two domed scalys about a mile that way.", Martino pointed with one hand while rubbing his face with the other, "Make for good eatin', I say!"
"Shut up!", The giant hovered near him."You're not here to say, just look!", He turned to the remainder of the men and barked: "Move out!"
"But Quint. You don't give the orders, LaSage does!", Martino said as he grabbed his spear.
"Shut up!", Quint swiped at him, and it was a good thing that Martino was out of range! "I'm ni charge when she's not here!"
"That's right, boys!", came a feminine voice from the forest behind them, they turned. "Now, what have you caught me for dinner?"
"Domed scalys, ma'am.", Martino reported. " 'Bout a mile that way.", he pointed.
"And why aren't they caught?", LaSage asked nicely.
"Because... they haven't been hunted yet?", Quint guessed.
"RIGHT!", LaSage pulled Quint up from his crouch by the ear and gave the rest shooing gestures. She smiled as they scurried off into the forest. "Dolts!", she mumbled as foll;owed them at a more sedate pace.
In the mean time, the two Pachys hadn't moved more than a few feet. They didn't have to know that the hunters were now on thier trail; for Jerry the Kirky hiding in the underbrush on the other side of thier clearing nodded to them that thier bait was now taken! Still they browsed and chewed, waiting for those dispickable humans to arrive; and they didn't even need to look aroiund to notice thier arrival, for one of them rattled his bow quiver and gave them all away! Like a shot, both thier heads rose and looked around worriedly - just like they practiced; and once they saw the top of one of these two-legged hunters' heads, they took off like a shot in the other direction, braying all the way!
Quint swatted the offender in the head, and the whole group of humans took off at a run after these two domed saurians, wailing and yelling like a crazed pack of Veloceraptors on the scent of prey. A single Velovceraptor saw that the chase had been engaged, and rapidly found and told the rest of his group, who slunk through the forest in a pursuit of thier own. Little Jerry, knowing that his part of the mission was over, circled around the whole thing and went back to our camp.
The Pachys, in the mean time, dodged and wove thier way through the dense jungle at a pace they thought the humans could match; but it was proving too grueling for thier pursuers and they slowed down some more. Right behind them, the humans took to scouting and tracking rather than a blatant chase; and were combing the forest for thier tracks, which made them fall hopelessly behind!
"This isn't working!", Chillet said at a run. "They're lagging behind!"
"We'll have to slow down some more, then!", Sauron replied. "I got an idea! Let's pause at the next clearing."
"What for, my mate?", Chillet asked.
"You'll see.", Sauron said, then slowed his pace as the next small clearing was seen. As the group of hunting humans came almost to within sight, he continued. "Now, let's argue!"
"What about?", Chillet was confused.
"Nothing. Just yell at eachother.", Sauron told her quickly. "Let's butt heads, just for effect!"
"Ooh! Like the fun we had as yearlings?", Chillet amiled.
"Yup!", Sauron smiled too. "Let's go!"
Both Pachycephalosauruses grunted and brayed at each other many times for a few moments, they they began to circle one another menacingly. Both bobbed thier heads threateningly for a few seconde, then lowered them and began to charge! The crack of thier eight inch thick skulls echoed around the dense jungle, making the humans hunting them notice and locate the direction of the noise in one quick motion! The humans stalked closer for a look and could not believe thier eyes. These two domeheads were fighting!
"What's going on?", LaSage asked as she got into the midst of her group.
"The scalys are fighting.", Quint pointed. "They probably blame each other for being hunted!"
"Scalys don't blame anyone, you lug!", she slapped at him. "Thye're just sooo full of forgiveness!", she touched the cleft of her chin with a finger cutely; and when she noticed nobody was hunting, yelled. "Well...?! AFTER THEM!!"
The two Pachys looked up from thier playfighting and saw the horde of human hunters coming after them once again, and didn't need to be told twice to get a move on! They brayed in mock suprise and took off once again in a direction contrary to thier pursuers. The Pachys were merely at a trot, and pretty soon they were pacing along a path; but before their pursuers knew it, they were back into the woods again.
Not long after that the area between the trees grew steadily rockier, and they found themselves running between boulders and rills of rock. They were beginning to lead LaSage's horde into the trap the others had set for them; and to prove it, several Kirky and Veloceraptor heads were seen poking from behind bushes, rocks and trees - only to pop back into hiding as they passed by.
The horde of humans saw that the going was becoming rough; but that was good because it would slow thier quarry down. They all redoubled thier pace, readied thier weapons on the run and increased thier bloodcurdling yells. LaSage just rolled her eyes at these louts. They were going to attract every carnivore in the Rainy Basin at this rate!
Little did she know, but our trap was rapidly closing around them all; for Sauron and Chillet saw many more of thier comrades hiding wherever it suited to hide - and even saw a Tyranosaur or two along the way. Every one of the clan they passed by scooted back into hiding, and soon LaSage's men could be seen running into the ever closing trap.
The rocky rills which crowded in from all sides now turned into a shallow, narrow canyon of sorts with many paths of escape; but all of these were guarded by hidden saurian hunters. Thier pursuers' confidence soared when they realized that thier quarry was trapped, and ran on with gleeful determination. A steep cliff loomed up at the back of this ragged canyon, and two skinny paths snaked away on either side of the ravine. Each took thier hidden path and was suddenly lost to the human hunters' view.
Before the human horde could reach that spot, a dozen Veloceraptors took the Pachys' place, sneering and screeching at the now dismayed humans, stopping them dead in thier tracks! They turned to a side passage in the rocks and found that exit blocked with teeth and claws - at every turn they met up with carniverous death! LaSage, in the middle of her group, hissed and winced at each turn; and her men drew weapons and crouched in an ever tightening knot of quivering flesh. As my friends drew closer to this mob, I stepped from the group in Klamath's full compliment of armor to observe the scene. I then unfurled Klamath's mask so they could see who they were dealing with!
"Well well, fellas!", I said in a surly way. "Looky what we caught!"
"STINGER!!", LaSage managed a yell. "Why did you spoil our hunt?! Those domeheads are OURS!!
"They make great bait, don't they?", I said to her with a satisfied look. "And with them, we caught the slippriest fish of them all!", the saurians around me chuckled menacingly.
"Clev-ver!", LaSage said sneering. "Now, what's the meaning of all this?!"
"We have been sanctioned by all the creratures of the Rainy Basin to seek you out.", I said officially. "They have petitioned us to make you stop hunting here, and make sure you never set foot in the Rainy Basin again. Your pillaging of this place must stop - RIGHT NOW!!"
"And what are you going to do if we don't?", she daringly asked.
"With my friends surrounding you, need you ask?", I said. "Now LaSage, come out here!"
"NO!", she tried to slink into the middle of her men.
I approached the quivering human crowd; and when nobody would give me access to LaSage, I unfurled Klamath's twin daggers. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!", I sang meanly.
I took a few steps closer, and finally the ranks split. I reached in and roughly dragged LaSage to her feet, flinging her into the waiting arms of Mayday. Zandra's strength was too strong for her, and she stopped struggling after only a few seconds. I turned to the rest of her men and scowled at them.
"Can you find your way home, or do you need us to lead you by the hand?", I asked them.
"Don't worry about us.", said the giant with long hair and headband. They stood.
"Wait! What's your name, Jack?", I asked him.
"Quint.", he replied.
"Quint, huh?...", I thought. "Did you have a relative named David Quint?"
"He was my great grandfather.", Quint repplied.
"I knew him.", I told him. "From what I can tell, the sapling doesn't grow far from the tree!"
"What's that supposed to mean?", Quint asked defiantly.
"Never mind, you idiot!", I said. "You may go now..."
I looked at my friends, and they let them have an avenue of escape; and with much coaxing roaring from the saurians around them, bolted back the way they had come. Many of the Veloceraptors gave chase and made thier departure a permanent one!
Up on the cliff, Sauron and Chillet witnessed this exchange, and whooped for glee at thier leaving. They nuzzled each other and turned to leave for home as thier part in the capture was over; they brayed in excitement all the way home! In the mean time I turned to LaSage and put on my cheesiest smile.
"LaSage!... Darling!...", I said cheerily as Mayday brought her forward. "Are we having fun so far?"
"You're horrible!", she spat.
"You should talk!", I shot back. "Search her for weapons!"
As Mayday held her, two Veloceraptors felt her clothing up and down, LaSage squirming with every touch. They found two daggers hidden in her boots, a long dagger sheathed in her vest and her riding crop hid a short sword as well. Once they were done, I inspected her personally. I saw a strange ornamented object sticking out of her clevage; and being the gentilman I was, had Mayday extract it for me. She handed me a tiny knife with a strange handle designed to be sheathed there, and I looked at it a moment.
"Hmmm...! Isn't that just adorable?!", I said sweetly.
"Every well-dressed villian shouldn't be without one!", LaSage said. I chuckled despite myself, handed the tiny weapon to Whitetail behind me and then got serious.
"Now LaSage, you have two options here. You can be eaten here and now, or there's another option.", I told her. "See that small cave over there?"
"Yeah...", LaSage said as she looked.
"Get in there!", I shoved. "Better do it quick! I think my friends are getting hungry!"
"You wouldn't!", She struggled in Mayday's iron grasp as she was led to the opening.
"Woiuldn't I?", I said as Mayday threw her to the small, dark hole. "GO!... GET!... SCAT!..."
The veloceraptors near the small cave entrance allowed her access to it, growling and spitting anyway; wanting so badly to lunge out at her. She cringed at the sight, but slowly did as was told. She crawled down the tiny hole on her belly until she was lost to sight. It reminded me of the time I had used this very same hole to escape the Tyranosaurs that were going to eat me so long ago!
I turned and smiled at Rex, who had sidled beside me so he could watch. A nod was all it took, and he raced to the hole and roared loudly down it, right on LaSage's retreating ankles! Her slow crawl turned into a swift scrabble as she screamingly retreated down the hole as fast as she could! We all broke out in laughter, and once that moment was over, I turned to my friends.
"Well guys.", I said chucklingly. "It's time to set up for the next step! Let's go, everyone!"
We mounted our steeds, grabbed our things and headed down the path that led to the courtyard by the main entrance to Halcyon with all due speed. There were others with LaSage in the bowels of Halcyon, and I found out what happened later, when the operation was over. This is how it went:
LaSage slid down the rocky hole, making tatters of her vest. She landed with a gasp in the wet depression at the tunnels' end. She cursed when she found she was now all wet, but regained her composure as she started to examine her current surroundings for a way out. Thinking it would be an unwise idea to climb back out the way she came, she began studying the stone darkness for another way out.
A faint glimmer of light coming from a crack near the back of the space caught her eye, and she maneuvered around toward it to see if there was another way out. She slithered through the crack and came out into another chamber supported with natural pillars and partially blocked with huge boulders that she snaked her way around those obstacles. She was glasd to notice that the ever increasing light was coming from somewhere ahead of her.
Little did she know that she did not notice that she was not alone in this chamber, for as she passed a shadowy alcove without noticing the Dilophosaur remaining perfectly still, appearing to be just another rock outcropping and not daring to move until she was well past. this creature silently slithered out of hiding and followed her with his darkness adapted eyes as she made her way further into the gloom ahead.
In a chamber whose walls were covered with stylized neolithic paintings, she paused to get her bearings. LaSage turned with a start at a slight noise, but figured it was simply rock dust falling from the ceiling of the chamber. She moved on until she saw an opening at the other end of the chamber, silhouetted by the ever increasing torchlight coming from there. She went through the portal and into the tunnel beyond. A tunnel covered with Egyptian style cartuches all over the walls.
At the end of this chamber, in one of the ancient iron scones, a single torch was lit. That was when she KNEW someone was down here with her! Taking the torch and all the caution she had, she went through the portal at the end of the chamber and came out into a chamber so gigantic that her torch could not penetrate the gloom all the way to the other end of it!
The first Dilophosaur came into the chamber LaSage had occupied only a moment before, and; seeing that his comrade hadn't moved from the alcove she was standing in, jostled her stilled arm. She woke with a start, evidentally she had fallen asleep! Hushed murmurings and they both headed out the doorway and continued following thier victim well out of reach of her torchlight.
A confused LaSage looked around this huge chamber, trying to get her bearings. She looked down at her feet and noticed the yellowish sheen coming off the cobbles - was it made of gold?, she wondered. Just as she looked up from this, she noticed another glimmer of torchlight coming from a spacious doorway to her right. Peering inside, she saw this really tiny scaly up on a scaffolding, examining a hyroglyph in front of her and making profuse notes on a piece of parchment. LaSage licked her lips and approached the little scaly.
"HEY, YOU!", LaSage yell echoed around the chamber. "Know where I am?"
The little dinosaur rose her head with a jerk and nearly toppled off the eight foot scaffold she was on - which would have been a three storey fall for her scale!
"Lordy! You nearly scared the daylights outa me!", the little Kirky squeaked. "Don't ever sneak up on a person!"
"You speak English!",LaSage ststed. "That's convenient..."
"Next time announce yourself first!", the Kirky shot back. "What can I do you for?"
"I'm kinda lost.", said LaSage. "Know where I am?"
"I know that you're in a cave with a pint-sized dinosaur asking fool questions!", the Kirky told her.
"Listen, you squeaker!", LaSage took steps closer as the Kirky took steps back on her scaffold. "I'm looking for a way out of here! I don't need any of your sass!"
"Oh...! You're lost...", she cooed smilingly. "Hear that, boys?"
"What do you mean, 'boys'?", LaSage looked around.
"My guides, of course!" the Kirky said. "Think I could find this place all by myself?", she looked to the doorway and scowled. "I heard of this place from the library at Waterfall City. I'm an Archaeologist by trade.", she smiled. "Nice place, this. Full of history!", she indicated the wall. "I was just readin' about this battle of sorts. It was actually a story about a king who was telling a STORY about a battle, and..."
"ENOUGH!", LaSage shouted, silencing the Kirky. "Are you going to help me get out of here, or what?!"
"Oh! Sure thing, kid!", the Kirky said in a calming way. "What's your name, by the way?"
"LaSage.", she told the tiny creature, who was just climbing down the scaffold. "What's yours?"
"Wen.", Wen said.
"I want to know NOW!", LaSage said, becoming more irritated by the minute!
"Wen's my name, stupid!", Wen said. "Now, where are my guides?... LEETER!... RIVEN!... Where you at?"
The two Dilophosaurs, who had been lurking just outside the doorway, loomed in front of it before slinking through it, taking many steps inside. From there they bowed and grumbled something to Wen for a monent. In the mean time LaSage cringed back at the sight of these carniverous, twin-frilled monstrosities; who smiled evilly at her fear. Seeing this, Wen smiled and came closer to the stricken human.
"THOSE are your guides?!", LaSage choked.
"Best guides in the world for these dark places!", the Kirky whispered. "They got great night vision!"
"They're homely!", continued LaSage.
"Well, you ain't no beauty queen yerself, sugar!", Wen chuckled, which gave LaSage a start. She turned to the two Dilophosaurs and asked. "Now, where you two been - asides skulking around the place?"
A brief grumbling from them and Wen shouted! "Off sleepin' again! I thought I told you to finish bringin' in the supplies!", she turned to LaSage. "Can't find good help these days."
"Ain't that the truth!", LaSage mumbled. "My oafs took off on me. And you know why? All because of a little trouble with those sharptooth scalies out there! They spoiled my hunt!"
"You hunt, dearie?", Wen asked, then said. "Well, I wouldn't go a-hunting in these parts! This whole area belongs to clan Thundertail, and they don't take kindly to strangers hunting thier game!", she looked at her guides. "We had to get special permission from king Thundertail himself just to be allowed to come here!"
"So, you gonna help me find my way outa here, or what?", LaSage repeated.
"I guess I had better or you'll NEVER let me get back to work!", Wen said, sighing as she grabbed a waterskin. "C'mon..., follow us..."
Wen the Kirky, pretending to be an Archaeologist for Waterfall City, turned and picked up an unlit torch, turning toward the crazy human female before her. The human cringed until she saw the little scaly merely wanted to light her torch. Taking the lead, Wen went past this human and headed for the portal of the chamber they were in. Leeter and Riven the Dilophosaurs, pretending to be the ficticious Archaeologist's assistants, filed in behind the human female after she tenatively passed them. They smiled in her wake at how frightened she was of them! Wen turned the corner and came out onto the main thouroughfare of Halcyon, even though LaSage didn't know that this was indeed halcyon.
"You seem leary around dinosaurs, miss.", Wen commented absently. "Why is that?... I mean, carnivores is one thing, but little old us?..."
"I hate them!", LaSage said, voice echoing in the cavernous space. "They smell!... And they're too cursed nice..."
"Well, you don't smell like no bed of roses yourself!", Wen said. "And pardon me for saying; but you'd appreciate it more if you were a little nicer yourself!"
"I'll probably have to take a few dozen baths after this!...", mumbled laSage before Wen's other comment struck home. "HEY! I'm nice!..."
Wen then yelled so Riven and Leeter could hear. "Why don't you guys scout ahead. Make sure things are safe!", she turned to LaSage as soon as the Dilophosaurs fanned out into the darkness. "This place is just loaded with traps and dead ends - heavy ephasis on the word 'dead'!... But if we stay on the main streets, we should be ok."
"How comforting.", LaSage said and fell silent as she followed this tiny, extremely mouthy scaly.
The human female and the female Kirky silently walked through the streets of Halcyon, listening to thier footfalls echo in the darkness. Wen did not choose the shortest rout to the surface; rather, she led LaSage through nearly every nonconverging street she cpould to throw her off! One time shuffling could be heard off to thier left or to thier right, and the wraithlike forms of one or both Dilophosaurs were briefly seen flitting by just on the edge of thier torchlight. This unnerved LaSage to no ebd, and the Dilophosaurs knew it; for they repeated this performance many times! After about a half a mile of travel, LaSage slowed and stopped; and when Wen saw thier combined torchlight decrease in intensity, turned to see LaSage leaning against a stone pillar she had found.
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(Continued in the next entry.)
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Post by thundertail on Aug 8, 2007 6:18:59 GMT -5
TWENTY-ONE: "Ultimatum." (Continued)
"What's wrong, sugar?", Wen asked as she returned to the human.
"Let's rest a bit, huh?", LaSage said. "I ain't used to all this walking - especially if I don't know where I am!
"Ok by me.", Wen crouched on the golden floor. "But I thought you were all hot to leave."
"I didn't know leaving would take so long.", LaSage told her, looking around. "What happened to your goony friends, by the way?"
"They come and go.", Wen said absently. "Good thing I brought water.", Wen uncorkerd her waterskin and drank. "Have some?", she offered.
"I think I'll pass.", LaSage said. She was thirsty, there was no doubt; but the thought of having a scaly's mouth on the waterskin first unnerved her! "Say, I been meaning to ask. These roads. Are they really made of gold?"
"Solid, sister!", Wen said, rapping the yellow bricks with the butt end of her torch. "But you know, the real treasure is the knowledge hidden away here. You know that place you found me in? We believe that was a library complex. Think of all the literature in there - waiting to be deciphered!"
"Knowledge is fine.", LaSage replied, standing. "But give me treasure I can spend and you'll get no complaints from me!"
"To each thier own!", Wen said as she got up too. "Ready?", she turned and led the way without looking back.
LaSage followed this scrawny scaly once again with a surly look on her face. Imagine her: being so helpless that she had to get the help of this worthless scaly! Never the less, she followed the little creature - what choice did she have? It was either this or become hopelessly lost in this dark, dangerous place - it was her only shot!
After another hour of walking, Wen at last led her to the beginning of the huge spiraling saurian staircase. Leeter and Riven appeared out of the gloom as if by magic around that time too. The Kirky nodded at her two assistants before they led the group up the stairway. By the time LaSage was nesrly at the top, she was thouroughly winded again!
The light of a large slit of a window became apparent one turn in the staircase later, and Wen parked her torch ijn a wall scone while LaSage did the same. Soon the window came up on the right, and LaSage ventured a look outside at the jungle beauty beyond.
All she got was a glance before a toothy monstrosity loomed into the window, and slobbering fangs were all she saw next! The Veloceraptor was perched on the ledge right outside the window, and lunged in, screeching at its' new victims! LaSage leapt back as Leeter engaged the smaller monster. Riven turned to help, and bowled LaSage well past the window with her tail as Wen looked on in mock horror!
"My contract with Waterfall City didn't state I would be attacked!", Wen yelled as LaSage got up and prepared to run in the other direction, toward the outside. "You're on your own from now on, sister!", her assistants evicted the Veloceraptor and both were helping each other up. "Come on, boys!", they ran back the way they had come.
"HEY! Come back, you jerks!", LaSage yelled after them. When no reply came, she hissed and looked at the remainder of her way out. "Ditched again!", she continued up the stairway.
After one more lazy turn in the saurian scale stairway, LaSage found herself looking out through a gigantic portal onto a wide avenue that led into a grass covered courtyard. She saw no carnivores as of yet, but near the far end of this vast space a crude table was set up - and it was just loaded with platters of banquet fare! Was her eyes deceiving her?!
She took a dozen paces out into the courtyard, then almost trotted down the slight incline toward the mirage she could now smell. Two Veloceraptors carrying spears quickly came out of hiding and flanked her progress, but she was totally unaware of them. she slowed as she got within a few paces of this presumably imaginary feast.
Standing on pedistals on either side of the narrowing clearing stood two statues, or so she thought. One was in the form of a yellowish humanoid Miasaurus and the other one was that of a black humanoid Tyranosaur. The two guards behind her hissed and nodded to the twin figures, and that was when LaSage noticed them. She turned back to the statues just as I moved Klamath off the pedistal and walked over to the table, sitting down in the chair. Then I unfurled Klamath's mask, revealing my own not too unhansome face!
"STINGER!!", LaSage nearly screamed! "What is the meaning of all this?!"
"Glad you could make it, LaSage!", I smirked. "You must be absolutely famished after your ordeal.", I gestured she sit, and she did. "Come!... Eat!... Manja, manja!"
"You put me through all that copro, and you expect to butter me up with food?!", LaSage was livid! "I don't know what your game is, mister; but I'm having none of it!", she got up and turned around, but froze in her tracks when she saw Rex, Deathflower and Thistlesnarl suddenly fill the courtyard behind her with thier bulk. She wisely decided to sit back down!
"Please! Just relax, will you?", I made a halting gesture. "It seems more than obvious to me that we have a lot to discuss; but we have plenty of time to do that. I think it's more civilized to conduct our business in a more relaxed manner. What's more relaxed than a friendly meal?"
"Well, it looks like I have no other choice in the matter, so why not.", LaSage said, warilly eyeing the massive creatures surrounding her from a distance. "And I AM rather hungry...", she lifted a covered lid to see what was under there.
"Good! Now, I had prepared a variety of vegetables, squash here and carrots over there.", I pointed. "Gravy is in that boat over there; and the entre' is chicken-roasted Strutheomimus!", I rattled off the parts of the meal as I slid over a plate and began filling it for myself. Whitetail came over with a steaming tourine of potatoes, and nodded as she set it on the table. "And roast potatoes too! Whitetail, you think of everything!", I turned to laSage. "She's an excellent cook, you agree?"
"Fine...", Lasage said between bites. "Now,... about the things we need to talk about?..."
"In due time.", I said. "We have no wine, but Selma makes this delightful jinka/citrus tea.", I poured us each a glass.
For almost an hour we ate in silence. It was strange, eating with someone that was supposed to be my enemy; but it was the only way I knew to soften her up enough for us to tell her everything she needed to hear. She eyed me strangely over her tea glass as she wiped her mouth and looked around the clearing once again. I felt that she was looking for a way out of our clutches, so I made my move.
I cut the leg off the roast Strut on the large center platter. I looked toward Rex and nodded for him to come near. I bobbed the leg up and down, indicating if he wanted the food. Rex huffed and nodded like a playful dog, nearly begging for the Strut leg! I held it out and placed it into his massive mouth; and Rex chewed once and swallowed it whole, much to the horror of LaSage!
"I love it when my buddy's well fed!", I chuckled as I stroked under his chin. "Have you had enough to eat, LaSage?", I asked as Rex moved away.
"I think I had enough!!", LaSage said like she was fed up!
"Good!", I said like she answered the question properly. "Then I think it's time we got down to business! Mayday, the papers?", I grabbed the satchel Mayday handed me and began drawing out parchment sheets.
"You know, you really don't have to do this.", LaSage said in the mean time. I can just leave now and there will be no more problems..."
"On the contrary.", I cut her off. "There will ALWAYS be a problem when you and your men carry on the way you do and insist to cause trouble here. The reason why you're here is to make sure this doesn't happen again."
"And how do you suppose to do that?", LaSage leaned back in her chair, placing her palms on the table before her.
"I don't knjow if you're aware of this or not, but this clan is working its' way toward being civilized.", I told her. "Your activities in the Rainy Basin are preventing us from doing this, so your activities must end NOW!", I glared at her. "Now, since we are becoming civilized; we are going to deal with you in a civilized way, and with all the legality that we posess."
I sorted the papers in front of me before continuing. "Now, I want you to hear what's going on with you - from the lips of king Thundertail himself.", I switched to Tyranosaur. "Thundertail, we're ready for you, I think."
LaSage cringed as the massive Tyranosaur came out of the trees and approached the table. Thundertail eyed her with an acid stare as he got near, and LaSage's eyes showed utter terror! Rex came up beside his father, staying a few Tyranosaur steps back. Thundertail roared directly into her face, sending her jet black hair flying back in that fetid breeze. He then spoke to her as I translated.
"Torres LaSage, I am extremely displeased with your conduct in the Rainy Basin.", Thundertail said through me. "You defile our land, you spoil our game, you hurt and kill our neighbors and act with behaviour not fit to be called Dinotopian, let alone civilized!", he glared at her, she cringed. "I want all these activities stopped immediately, and I want you to never set foot in the Rainy Basin again. What Stinger has prepared, I want you to sign. I want you to obey what is written there; and if that contract is broken for ANY reason, we will track down you and your men and kill you all!", Thundertail huffed in her face and turned away to retake his former spot. Rex followed and did the same.
"So you see, you've made many enemies here.", I concluded. "These enemies are far more powerful than you could even hope to handle. I suggest you sign and honor this contract. It is basically a treaty of peace and trade; and there will be no further hostilities unless the treaty is broken. I seriousely suggest you sign it or I can not guarantee you will survive this."
"We'll be ruined! Where will we hunt?", LaSage said as she scanned the document.
"Our influence does not extend outside the Rainy Basin...", I suggested.
She set the document down after a few moments. "I don't get it! You say we must never come back here again; and yet you say we get a cart load of supplies per month. How will we get it if we can't come back?"
"King Adolpho's castle is only a short distance beyond the Rainy basin.", I told her like it was common knowledge. "It shouldn't be a problem for us deliver it to you."
"Just a minute! How do you know where we live?", she asked. "That's a secret!"
"About how long have you known about us?", I asked her instead.
"A few months. Why?", LaSage returned.
"We have known about you for almost two years now.", I informed her. "We have scouts that go all over Dinotopia and gather information for us; and they do it with such stealth nobody knows we do it. If I so choose, I could have one of them slip into your bedroom and steal all your jewelry while you sleep - or even slit your throat!" I smiled impishly. "But that's not my style!", I became serious, but in a teasing way. "By the way, where in the world did you get all those horrible clothes in your closet?"
"What?!", LaSage balked.
"Never mind.", I said, chuckling a moment. I then got serious and looked at her a moment. "Have you read and understood the treaty in your hands?", she nodded, so I continued. "When you sign this, you can never set foot in the Rainy Basin again. This contract also entitles us to use what force necesary to stop you if you breach the contract. Did you read and understand that part?"
"Yeah, yeah! I got it!", LaSage was getting anxious to leave! "Just let me sign the stupid thing so I can get outa here! Where's the pen?"
I handed her a feather stylus and an inkwell. If this was a contract being signed in the outside world, it would have been signed with a ballpoint pen! I took out the other copies and placed them before her.
"It's in triplicate, of course!", I told her.
"What for?", laSage asked as she finished signing the first copy.
"One copy is for you, one is for us and one copy will go on file in the court of Waterfall City.", I explained. I rolled up the first copy and tied it with a leather cord. I repeated the procedure with the second copy, and finally the last. "There we are! All nice and legal!, I handed her a copy.
"This means that the council at Waterfall City can do nothing to stop you!, LaSage suddenly realized. "We can't go ask them to help us with you!"
"Precisely! I said, smiling as I set the other two copiesin the sachel beside me. "You see, we had to be this thourough to make sure you stop your activities here. If we didn't do it this way, we would have been branded criminal ourselves."
"Touche'!", LaSage said. "Stinger, you're one of a kind!"
"Thank you!", I replied as I got up. "And now Torres... Can I call you Torres?... I think it's time to toast this new deal of ours. Don't you think?" I produced the freshly labeled bottle of MacDougal's hooch and two small flasks. "It's a little something we whip up occasionally...", I handed her a glass. "To your continued health!", I toasted and we both drank.
LaSage gasped as the firy liquid careened down her throat! "What IS this stuff?!", she choked, and I turned the bottle so she could see the label. "Hmm..., 'Tyranosaur Breath'?... Boy! I'll say!", I chuckled.
"Got plenty of bite!", I snapped my teeth together, then set my glass down. "Now, about seeing you home..."
"I can manage...", she began, but I cut her off.
"On the contrary! We don't want you to know the location of this place; so if you don't mind, you will be blindfolded and led away from here.", I said as Ripper and Snapper came from behind and held her hands fast behind her.
LaSage struggled in thier very strong grasp as Mayday came by with some rope. She lashed her hands together and made sure to leave plenty of length to be used as a lead. She then went to the table and took a bag and stuffed lasage's contract into it. She added a waterflask, and I added the remainder of the Tyrranosaur breath for good measure - her look told me she wanted to bite me! I tied the blindfold on her head, slung the bag onto her shoulders and maneuvered in front of her.
"I'll have these two Veloceraptors escort you to the nearest signpost.", I told her. "I'm sure you can find your way home from there."
"I'll get you for this, Stinger!", LaSage yelled as her escorts dragged her away, disappearing down the dense jungle path. "MARK MY WORD!!"
All of us stood in silence as she passed out of sight. We waited a good twenty minutes until she was well out of earshot before the whole courtyard erupted in cheers and roars! After many moments, I tried to shush them, and finally succeeded.
"Ok, guys. Let's clean the place up and get back to camp.", I said as everyone nodded. Pretty soon the courtyard was just the way we found it; then as a grioup went back home.
In the mean time, Ripper and Snapper was having very little trouble with thier human female captor. She just strolled along at thier direction being led by the rope, nudged this way or thet as bumps and turns in the path indicated she should change direction. LaSage grunted as she tripped over a root, and Snapper dragged her back to her feet. Inside of two hours a signpost advertising the way to Treetown came up ahead of them; and LaSage was jerked to a halt.
"What now?", LaSage asked, and continued after a moment. "Can you speak English?"
Ignoring her for now, Ripper got on top of Snappers back like the Kirkys had made them practice so they could take LaSage's ropes off. Snapper got close while Ripper lashed out and severed the ropes, which fell to the ground limply. LaSage rubbed her wrists before taking off the blindfold. The first vision her eyes saw was these two monstrosities leering at her menacingly! They both lifted thier spears and pointed down the path.
"You...Go...NOW...!", Ripper croaked in English; but when she didn't take the instruction, they both huissed menacingly, crouching to attack!
"Ok,... OK!", LaSage stepped back. "I get the hint already!... I'm going!...", she turned toward the sign and slowly walked toeard it.
When Ripper and Snapper took steps toward her, she turned and bolted down the path and out of sight. Snickering at each other, Ripper and Snapper high-fived one another and bolted down the path, back toward thier home.
Back at our camp many hours later, our celebration was well under way. With all the festivities going on at our victory over the land pirates, it seemed to me like new Years Eve and the Forth Of July all rolled into one! I was congratulated many times, and congratulated everyone who participated in LaSage's capture.
I displayed the copies of the treaty to those that were absent, and explained to all the power these pieces of paper had over Lasage. The council at Waterfall City would surely consider it a legal contract; and by thier own laws, LaSage was honor bound to obey it - provided there was a shred of honor in her entire body! I drew everyone near as the festivities began to wind down; and with Ripper and Snapper in each arm, I began to dole out the verbal accolades to this fine band of hunters and huntresses.
"My friends, I would like to thank the bravest warriors in our clan: Sauron and Chillet Pachycephalosaurus!", I said as roaring cheers welled up and they stood. "These two bravely encountered LaSage and her men, and were hunted mercilessly!", All chuckled.
"It was fun!", Chillet said. "Like playing tag as hatchlings!", she got chuckles for the statement.
"It was a most exciting time, to be sure! The best part of the ordeal was watching all of you giving them what for!", Sauron said, then looked at me. "Stinger. For your genious in devising this plan, you may touch us if you like."
"That won't be necesary, kind saurian.", I told him. "I would do nothing to dishonor such worthy clan members."
"It is you that is the honorable one!", Sauron bowed, and they both milled back into the crowd.
"And for the smallest huntress of all, and the ones protecting her; I give you Wen, Leeter and Riven!", I said as they got thier own dose of cheers.
"That LaSage wasn't so smart!", Wen said. "I could have taken her all by myself!", she gave me a look. "Smart move having me act like an Archaeologist, though! Had her fooled good!"
"We loved scaring her!", Riven said. "Most fun we had in a while!"
"There are no booby traps in Halcyon, but there sure was a booby in it!", Leeter said as the rest of us chuckled.
"To all the rest of you hunters who kept LaSage and her men corralled so they would fall into our trap.", I continued. "No finer band of dinosaurs I have ever met!", most of the rest cheered.
"And to all the rest who prepared for this event: your help made my little encounter with her all the better!", I said to them all. "To Mayday for her kind assistence, and Whitetail and her helpers for preparing that delicious meal! Even to mister MacDougal for his unauthorized beverage, which went over marvelousely!", all chuckled. "To Rex, my friend, for being there as my moral companion, showing LaSage that we can be kind as well. To king Thundertail, whose stern demeanor toward her told LaSage more than words on paper that her activities were less than appreciated here... And lastly to my two boys, Ripper and Snapper...", thier hands were still in mine. "Whose bravery and obedience proves they are worthy members of this clan as well as thier pack!"
"But most of all, to you, Fly With A Stinger.", Thundertail said. "For devising this operation, you helped us prove that we are well on the way to civilization!", my cheers were louder than all the rest!
Soon the mutual congratulations rose and fell around the bonfire that was lit to ward off the darkness of night. We all began talking about the uncertain future this clan might be up against, and more of the worries and conmcerns our new treaty with the islands' worst criminal.
"I don't think that LaSage will let something like a piece of paper stop her.", Mark Sereno said. "From what I heard, she laughs at such attempts.
"She wasn't laughing when we caught her!", Rex told him.
"That may have been true before, my friend.", I told Mark. "But with THIS treaty, we have the power to make her obey it.", I said. "Isn't it true that the other Dinotopians hand out writs and other documents of compliance, and they expect the persons' honor to hold them to it?", he nodded. "With her, she has no such morals. But the thing she doesn't realize is our determination in this matter! We will make her obey the treaty if necesary. Right everyone?", cheers rose up.
"That's not according to Dinotopian ethics.", Mark said.
"Neither is what she is doing!", I said. "If she wants to break the laws, it's up to someone to make her stop. This means, to make her stop breaking the rules; we might have to break a few laws to make her stop!"
"You, being a newcomer to Dinotopia, probably do not know of the strong principals we live by.", Mark told me. "Even if we simply threaten her with violence, the council will consider us as criminals to thier laws."
"Is this the same council who made laws that banished carnivores to the Rainy Basin? And the same council that made laws that spurred such predujice that you were exiled to this place too?", I told him. "Perhaps we should consider trying to change the whole island, instead of just oine bad group!"
"But what you are talking about is starting an island-wide revolution!", Miles Krieger spoke up. "A thing like that hasn't been attempted since Othgar the great attempted it many millenia ago!"
"King Othgar tried to take over Dinotopia by war.", Klamath said. "Perhaps things change; and it would be possible to attain the same result by negotiation and politics instead."
"Perhaps it's high time for a change all around.", I said simply.
"What of our attempt at civilization?", Grond asked. "Would this revolution send that to a grinding halt?"
"I believe that because of our attainment at civilization, revolution would come about naturally.", I said. "The opposite is true too. The revolution will bring about our achievemrnt of civilization. They will come hand in hand.", I crouched to the ground, speaking confidentially. "If things are done slowly and carefully, both will come about; but for right now, we have done enough. Let's wait until LaSage makes the first mistake; then we will see what we can do from there."
"A logical course of action.", Thundertail agreed. "We especially can do nothing more tonight! So, if there isn't anything else of importance to discuss right now, i suggest we should retire for the night and continue with things tomorrow."...
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Post by thundertail on Aug 10, 2007 6:26:30 GMT -5
TWENTY-TWO: "Talon"
For the next few days, life at camp went on like normal. We hunted, we planted the next seasons' worth of crop, we coexisted in peace and we socialized.
The Kirkys were nearly completely done remodeling the pyramid itself, and they were beginning to renovate the chambers we found Zandra in many levels below ground. They had asked many in the clan to help, and this time they asked for as many Dilophosaurs and Veloceraptors that could be spared for thier next phase down there. To completely renovate these rooms, everything had to be vacated from them. This meant that all the tablets, scrolls the shelves and racks they were on and any other object that wasn't structurally a part of those rooms. Let me just say that for the next few days there was a long line of crestures carrying things out of the temple, like a line of ants traveling through the bush!
With the growing number of creatures wishing to join the clan recently, finding volunteers to do work like this was no problem. This proved to be a good thing for the Kirkys assigned to catalogue and conserve these artifacts, for it allowed them full view of each item in full daylight. These items would later be housed in the upper chambers of the pyramid, and returned to where they were found when thier chambers below were done.
There were so many new faces around here lately, I had trouble remembering everyones; names! The down side of this population explosion was it put an extra burden on our hunters to obtain enough food.
We had at last found out about the temple complex at the top of the pyramid, and what it was used for. When Mayday saw the place, she said it looked familiar somehow; and so did the Kriegers and the Serenos when they went up there as well. They all agreed that the central pedestal once held a Sunstone, and the machinery along the walls of the temple made it link up with the other Sunstones around the island. The problem was the machinery was corroded to uselessness - and someone had stolen the Sunstone! They said the configuration of that machinery did not match up with the other arrays they had seen, and might have been set up for another purpose entirely.
No sooner than the Kirkys began this project in the Incan pyramid, more of thier brethren got to work in Halcyon. As soon as the main buildings and chambers in the downtown area were catalogued, they got to work renovating and painting the place. Again, they wished to renovate and conserve all the hyroglyphs, and make the city as pristine as the day it was built, or at least as new as when it was last occupied.
There was a major problem with the city that they found out about nearly right away; and it was probably the reason Halcyon was abandoned. There was no water to be found there, for it had all dried up for no apparent reason! We had discovered forty cisterns and wells all around the city, some as much as sixty yards deep; but all but two of them were bone dry. One well had water in it, but it only went up to my waist as I explored it; and another had ankle deep water in it when the kirky explored that one! That meant that if we wanted to live there for any length of time, new sources of water would have to be found down here - or we would have to find other ways to import water to Halcyon. Thundertail made a decree that no more than twenty creatures could stay down there on a short term basis, and only as far as Archaeological and conservatory efforts demanded until the problem could be solved.
The various other objects being collected around halcyon began piling up in some freshly reconditioned storerooms, and we were wondering what they could be used for. For some of those objects, thier purpose was obvious; but others baffled those who were assogned to study them. There were tools like wrenches, hammers, screwdrivers and things of that nature; and some were made for humans while others looked to be more comfortable in saurian hands.
There were more complex devices like sunstone torches that resembled a flashlight on the outside world, optical devices like crude telescopes and cameras. There were parts for other devices, like antique phonographs, old style telephones and other devices that Dinotopians had developed but never quite used. One object held our attention for the longest time, and none of us could guess how the thing worked. It was a device that converted the energy of a Sunstone into electricity; for if you touched it you wouyld get a mild shock! A similar device was found not long after, but this machine turned the Sunstone's power directly into kenetic energy, evident in the gearing along the side of the device that we found still turning after all these centuries! We had found plans for these devices, along with plans for many other Sunstone-driven machines in scrolls and tablets all around Halcyon; but we lacked the knowledge and skill to put them all together, provided we had all the required parts to assemble them!
They only one we knew in the clan that had any knowledge whatsoever on how to put things together was a man we did not trust very much. Even though Pincushion was getting better at spotting his hyjinx and diffusing any trouble it may cause, mister MacDougal seemed to be his old self on the surface! Many of these pranks he'd set up would have been quite hurtful if any of us found out about it the hard way, but Pincushion would always cover for this older human - I guess he liked him!
So, against the opinions of nearly every other clan member, I led MacDougal to the Incan temple with the excuse of giving him a tour as a reward for being here all this time - and for the invention of Tyranosaur Breath! MacDougal whistled as he got to the foot of the massive structure - a thing like this he had never seen before! Giving somewhat of a tour while I decided what I was going to show him, I explained that some of us actually live inside. I led him in and showed him all the newly painted hyroglyphs, explaining to him what we thought they said; and showed him many rooms that some of us stayed in as we passed them.
"Before we got here, all these colors were all muted and faded. Some places were merely bare carved rock.", I told him. "The Kirkys are expert painters. They repainted and renovated everything as you see right now."
"You mean those pipsqueak scalys did all this?", MacDougal was amazed.
"Well, sometimes they need help form us larger folk.", I told him. "And they don't appreciate being called scalys!"
"Phah! They'll get over it!", MacDougal shot back and smiled as he spied a relief that was gilt in solid gold.
"We'll... Anyway, how do you like the place so far?", I changed the subject.
"I never thought a place like this existed!", MacDougal said.
"I mean, how do you like being in our clan?", I corrected.
"Ain't bad, really.", He said noncomittally. "At least I can do as I like. An' that one, Pincushion! He's a real character! Big as all get-out, but still wet behind the ears! He and I get along fine."
"That's good to hear!", I said as we climbed a stairwell in the center of the pyramid. "He really likes you, you know. He just wishes you'd be a little nicer to everyone."
"He told me what he done to ya'.", MacDougal told me.", Not that it was my business, but he seemed pretty guilty about it."
"I don't expect you to care about dinosaurs, MacDougal.", I said flatly. "But they love thier family just like humans would, and I love them too!...", I paused my step and mouth at the same instant. "Anyway, up ahead is a room that has things taken from all over the pyramid complex. We can't make heads or tails out of most of the stuff, and we wanted to see if you can figure out what they are, seeing as how you are good at tinkering with things."
"I can sure try, lad.", MacDougal said as we entered the room.
We spent the next hour or so in there, me pointing out certain objects and directing his attention to a scroll or tablet. He would intermittently study the glyphs on the walls and finger this object or that beforethumbing his scruffy chin and announce what a certain object was. The more modern looking devices he had no clue, and I had to tell him what I thought they were; but more often then not we had differein opinions on what a certain object was! After a certain time was up, he had finished giving his impression of the objects in the room, and made a few suggestions on what we could use them for.
"I could sure use the tools.", MacDougal went over to the table just full of them. "At least with those I could make other useful stuff from these other parts, and fix the equipment we got already."
"What about the other stuff?", I asked. "Do you think you could find a use for any of them?"
"Maybe, lad.", MacDougal said.
"Good!", I said. "That can be your new job! You can try to invent new gadjets from these parts. Maybe reinvent the technology of the ancients!"
"Nay lad!", he said. "See, I have that Ursula scaly have me makin' her medicine with me still. She said she had an ideer to make refined medicines! 'add Jinka!', 'add Beloma!', add this or add that!", she say!... I be just too busy, laddy!", he nodded his head in mock weariness. "She made me make four other stills jes' fer her medicine!"
"Ah! Doesn't it feel wonderful to be so useful?", I sighed blissfully. "That's ok. You can take your time with this project. Making medicine is more important in my book!"
"I suppose...", MacDougal said as he touched the energy converting device that produced electricity - and yanked his hand back abruptly! "Lorda Mercy!...", he then took a more cautious approach to his examination!
After many moments more examining the devices stored in this chamber, I led him down, past the main chambers and into the lower chambers. His awe was surely struck as I concluded the tour. Once we were done, I led him back up to the surface. We climbed to the top of the temple, and he couldn't make heads or tails out of that place either!
On the other hand our other prisoner seemed to never cease to amaze us. Mister Diego had begun to be increasingly cheery toward every clan member of late, and he began to take a real interest in his assigned tasks. He would even go ahead and do things on his own if nobody asked him to do it. He would even make suggestions on how to make a cretain task run a little smoother.
He took a real interst in the children of the clan, and would help them overcome thier childlike problems; and it didn't matter whether or not this child was human or saurian! Yes, he was really becoming an intergal part of the clan in his own right! I asked him one day how he liked it here, and he said that things were definitely looking up since the day Bross sat him down and had a little talk with him.
He described it like this: They were both repairing some of the Veloceraptors' communal shacks, which had flooded out during the recent rains and were now unstable. At a break for lunch they sat by thier load of supplies they were working from and eyed each other as they ate. After many moments of wordless feeding, Bross spoke up.
"Everythig ok?', he said absently.
"That southern corner needs a new support beam.", Diego said. "I don't think we have one long enough."
"We might be able to lash two together. We probably won't need one as big as you think.", Bross said. "Did you notice something recently?"
"Yeah. I noticed that the Incan temple over there got a new paint job.", Diego said, looking in that direction. "Wonder why the Kirkys are doing that."
"I'll tell you later, and maybe even show you one of these days.", Bross said, then tried to get the conversation back on track. "But that's not what I meant. I meant if you noticed something else, between you and me."
"No, not really.", Diego said after a thought. "Unless you mean you seem less forceful with me."
"I stopped hitting you!", Bross yelled, then said softer: "I mean, I still yell at you, but that's just my way.", he leaned toward the human. "Do you know why I stopped hitting you?"
"No, but I'm not complaining!", Diego smiled at the Dilophosaur that was not. "I been wondering, though..."
"I stopped because one creature hitting another creature is wrong.", Bross said flatly. "It doesn't matter the reason; for no reason would justify such an act."
"Then why were you doing it?", Diego asked.
"That was the way I was brought up.", Bross admitted. "My father believed that discipline and violent enforcement makes a person more responsable as an adult. True, With this method I grew to become the leader of my pack: but it was a tough road, of that there is no doubt! When I was a hatchling, my father hit me for no apparent reason at all; and I got hit worse if I complained about it! I grew up believing this very same thing, and have done this many times with my hatchlings!", he then bowed his double crested head. "It was the advice of a mutual friend that made me realize that violence begets violence, and that such behaviour must cease."
"Wow, Bross! My pops treated me the same way!", Diego told him. "Looks like we share similar experiences. Trouble with me is I ran away from home because I couldn't stand it no more! Ever since then I'd been running into trouble time and time again!"
"This is why I vowed to never hit you again.", Bross told him. "I would never see another creature suffer any more than is his or her lot in life.", he sniffed and looked at Diego raptly. "I wish to ask if you will forgive me for the way I have been treating you. I promise never to do it again, and will try to be more understanding and supportive in the future."
"Well, of course I will, Bross.", Diego reached for his clawed hand. "I always knew you were only trying to help me - at least I know for sure now!", he smiled, and Bross gave his toothy one. "Maybe we can teach eachother to be more understanding!"
They leaned into eachother in an awkward embrace. Once they realized what they were doing, they pulled away.
"Uh..., perhaps we had better get back to work, son.", Bross said as they looked at each other in a queer way.
"Sure thing..., Pops.", Diego said, at last realizing what they both called each other. They both chuckled and got back to work.
So things were going a lot better for those two; and because of this things really began to look up for Diego. I slowly began to see that Diego was becoming a good person at long last. I was seriousely considering either suggesting that he become a full clan member, or that we let him go back to a normal life!
During this time we had not heard much from LaSage or her goons; and for this we were most grateful! It seems that, after she was taken away and presumed missing, Quint took over; and the rest fought over who would be second in command, or so our spies told us. When LaSage finally showed up at king Adolpho's castle, she saw the raw mayhem that was too barbaric even for her tastes, and summarilly routed them all into shape once again. Quint would not take kindly to his being usurped, and fought LaSage from one end of the castle to the other with swords; but she was too good with them and nearly killed him!
Once order was restored over there, LaSage told them what she went through; and she also told them about the contract we had with them. Once she was done reading it to them, she promptly threw it in the braiser in the center of the castle courtyard amid her mens' cheering!
"Listen up!...", she tried to regain order. "It's not going to be safe for us to go into the Rainy Basin for a while; so let's lay low.", she sneered at the thought of her ordeal. "Let the scaly lovers calm down a bit. Maybe they'll forget all about it!"
"But what about other jobs?", Martino asked in leiu of Quint; who was still not on LaSage's favor.
"The scalies don't cover outside the Rainy Basin...", LaSage kicked out at him. "Do I have to think of everything myself?!"
Of courde, these activities didn't effect us because it was outside of our territory, and there was legally nothing we could do about it anyway. True, we could stop them from crossing the Rainy Basin if thier path of mayhem led in that direction, but that was about it. Little did we know, but it had serious reprecussions in future relationships with the rest of Dinotopia.
Unlike them, we did not breach our side of the contract we made with Lasage. At the apropriate time we prepared a cart and loaded it with thier supplies. It was the Krieger's cart we used, not the Copro cart like nearly everyone wanted us to use! We loaded many sacks of grains, baskets of fruits and nuts, sides of left over meats, plenty of firewood, clothing made of dinosaur skin and lots of other things they might need to keep a hundred or more humans alive for a month. Along with this we had MacDougal bottle up a whole case of Tyranosaur Breath in quart bottles; figuring we HAD to give those goons some type of entertainment!
We drew straws on who was going to go because nobody wished to volunteer to go do such a repulsive job, and it was a good thing i wasn't chosen to go! Mayday got the job of driving the cart, and Sauron and Chillet were to pull the cart. Ripper and Snapper were chosen to guard the cart, and Wen was also elected to come along as well. We really didn't trust these thugs very much to speak of, so a squad of ten Veloceraptors were chosen to go along with them. They would hide near the castle and act only if there was trouble. Mayday later told me just how thier little encounter went.
The trip to the Crackshell Coast was relatively uneventful. Even though the Sunstones were really far away, and thier destination of king Adolpho's castle contained no such stones; the Amulets of Protection the carnivores wore still glowed softly. They came up on the cliffside escarpments that blocked the sea, and traveled the path to a coastal plain that was dotted with sparse, stunted trees and scraggly bushes with a few boulders strewn in for good measure. Over a rise in the plain they saw the grey edifice that was king Adolpho's castle, and the hideout of torres LaSage and her gang of cutthroats.
The veloceraptor escort scattered and got under cover as the wagon approached the main gate, and Sauron and Chillet balked in thier harnesses at the foreboding structure before them. The area outside the main gate was strewn with barbed logs, traps and other types of flotsam as the occupants inside chose to throw there. It was evidentally an attempt to discourage anybody from getting too close. Either that or they were just plain slobs!
Mayday had the Pachys stop many yards away from the wreckage ahead, and scanned the debris for a way through to the huge oaken doors beyond. She dismounted to have a closer look as Wen popped her head over the supplies in back she had been resting on and hopped into the driver's seat to have a better look. Ripper and Snapper flanked the cart and proceeded to the heads of Sauron and chillet where they waited. They would be there in an instant if Mayday should get attacked!
Mayday got to the door and rapped on it with her staff, then pounded on it with her fist. All of a sudden she was surrounded by many surly men, who had come out a smaller side entrance just around the corner! They chuckled meanly as they circled her, brandishing daggers, belaying pins and other weapons as they vied for position. Ripper and Snapper were just about ready to spring, but Sauron and Chillet held them back.
Just about then a tall man came out of the group, smiling at this amber clad figure. He had long black hair tied with a headband and brandished a crossbow. mayday knew from thier previous encounter that he was named Quint. He sauntered out and bulldozed his way through his comrades; and those who dared jostled him back! He walked right up to her and glared in her face, but she just smiled politely anyway.
"What are you doin' here, scaly lover?", Quint asked gruffly.
"I deliver goods, like contract say.", Mayday told him, equally gruff. "We unload, or you come get?"
"There's no need to unload it, dearie.", Quint said as he eyed some of his men. Those men retreated and circled around to the cart. "We'll just take the whole thing!", the Veloceraptors hissed at the approaching men, and they halted thier progress.
"It only cart we have!", Mayday told him. "You no take or not get more supplies!"
"We take what we want, sweet thing!", Quint got close, as if to embrace or kiss; but his menacing look told Mayday otherwise. "And I think I'll take YOU!"
"Real tempting offer...", Mayday said as she stroked a cheek. She had Zandra turn on the stunner feature at the same time, and he went down like a sack of socks! "But you slim pickings!", she said to the twitching giant on the ground. She walked to the cart. "YOU!... Unload cart!... NOW!", the men there scrambled to do what this armored monster told them!
The side door opened once again, and this time Mayday saw where it was located. Out of it marched Torres LaSage, dressed in some frilly nightgown of sorts, indicating she had recently been asleep. She saw the commotion going on and stomped over to the prone form of Quint laying on the ground, who was just now coming to. Good thing Zandra only gave him the mildest of zaps!
"What's going on here?! Get up, you oaf!", LaSage said as she stooped to pull the much larger man to his feet by the ear. "Is this your doing?", she looked at Mayday.
"Me Mayday, from Rainy Basin.", Mayday told her. "Me deliver supplies, like it say in contract."
"What did you do to Quint?", LaSage looked at the still groggy pirate.
"He get fresh!", Mayday scowled in the man's direction, and he cringed! "Next time maybe I no be so easy on him!"
"Where's Stinger?", LaSage asked. "I thought he'd be doing the deliveries."
"He busy. Maybe he deliver one of next carts.", Mayday told her.
"What's he doing that is so important that ha can't see me?", LaSage continued.
"He ask what you do, but you no tell.", Mayday told her. "What think he tell you what he do?"
"Ok, whatever.", LaSage said, looking at the ragged men unloading the cart. "Are you slugs gonna unload that cart, or does Mayday have to do to you what she did to Quint?!", the men hurriedly complied.
"You need find better men!", Mayday commented.
"Ain't that the truth!", LaSage mumbled, Then she said after a thought: "Say, do you know if Stinger packed any of that booze I had at the treaty signing? I haven't had any good hooch since you guys ate MacDougal!"
"You mean this, sweetie?", Wen suddenly popped up from the seat and went back to the crate of Tyranosaur Breath. She pried up the lid and displayed a bottle.
"Agh!... YOU!", LaSage drew back from her own searching that same second. "Are you with them too, you pipsqueak scaly?"
"Yup sugar; but ixnay on the alyscay, ok?", Wen said as she handed her the bottle.
"Huh?", LaSage wasn't sure if Wen was speaking her native language or not! "So I take it you're not really an Archaeologist like you said.", she said instead.
"Had you fooled good!", Wen chuckled.
"You know each other?", Mayday asked finally.
"We've met.", LaSage told her, then looked at her mens' progress. "Aren't you done yet?!", she yelled. "QUINT! Take this to my quarters.", she drew out the case of Tyranosaur Breath and shoved it into his hands.
"Yes, LaSage.", Quint said as he struggled with the crate. He gave mayday a sidelong look as he passed. "Slim pickings..., huh!"
The rest of the unloading was done with littlr further preamble, at least as little as these hoodlums could achieve! Mayday looked on in silence as Sauron and Chillet brayed and balked if one of these pirates got too close to them. Wen busied herself by trying to have a one-sided conversation with LaSage, but she was ignoring her; looking on at the progress with growing impatience. The now emptied cart felt much more maneuverable to the Pachys as they turned it around of thier own accord. They wanted to get out of there as soon as possible! At the end of her crews' task, LaSage turned to Mayday and smiled.
"Well, I can't say this has been fun!", she offered her hand. "Tell Stinger my reguards, and I guess I'll see you guys next time.", Mayday did not accept her handshake.
"Keep your end of bargain and we keep ours.", Mayday said instead as she mounted the cart's seat.
"Catch 'ya later, sweetie!", Wen called from the back of the cart. Ripper and Snapper giggled hissingly!
"What a comforting thought...", LaSage said softly as the cart rolled out of sight. When she was sure they were gone, she shouted: "QUINT!... Get over here!"
"Yes.", Quint pantingly said.
"Keep an eye on miss Mayday, if you please.", she instructed. "Try to get close to her, find out more about them through her."
"Yes! It will be a pleasure!", Quint cooed, then turned to her. "But what if she kills me?"
"Then there'll be one less oaf in the world!", LaSage shot back. "Now, get outa' here!!"
_____
(Continued in the next entry.)
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Post by thundertail on Aug 11, 2007 20:24:39 GMT -5
TWENTY-TWO: "Talon." (Continued.)
As soon as the cart made it's way into the forest beyond the cliffs, the rest of the veloceraptor escorts came out of hiding and piled into the back of the cart. they all were chattering excitedly as Ripper and Snapper hopped in back to join them. they all wanted to know how the little encounter went! Sauron and chillet brayed and balked at hoe Mayday handled the whole affair. Wen actually commented that she would miss the old girl, which got strange looks from everyone in the group!
"I can honestly say that i'm glad to be out of THAT place!", Sauron told his mate.
"I think I'm going to need a mudbath after this!", Chillet repolied, which got chuckles from the whole group!
Thier laughing and carrying on lasted long after they arrived at camp; and when I herad the story, I did likewise! Once our little committment had been fulfilled for the time being, we once again got down to going about our daily lives. This serenity didn't last long; for there is never a dull moment in the Rainy Basin!
One day our hunting party came back from thier daily hunt; and only brought down enough game to last a day or so. We had just finished doling it out to the growing community when all of a sudden shrill cries began to be heard in the extreme distance!
"What's that!", Sarah Sereno yelled, looking off into the sky.
"Is a storm coming?", Deathfloweer asked at her side.
Off to the west a dark mass began forming on the horizon, and we all thought it was storm clouds until we started getting a good look. At first it looked like a swarm of locusts or some other kind of insect pestillence, but insects do not make the noises this glob of darkness was making! As we watched it grow, we noticed the batlike shapes and began to realise what they were: It was a swarm of Pteranodons!
"Everyone take cover!", Pincushion began to roar. "Those are Pteranodons!"
"How many do you think there are?", Thistlesnarl asked him in passing.
"Hundreds...!", Pincushion continued running. "Thousands...!"
In a natural maneuver to protect our children, we all coralled them in one place we thought they would be safe; and the thick stone walls of the Incan pyramid was the safest place we knew, and could be used as a last-ditch defense if everything went wrong. Just as we got the last of the little ones into the shelter, we noticed yet another dark cloud looming in the distance behind the first swarm!
"They're massing!", I yelled as I handed the last three Kirky hatchlings to Selma, who ran them inside the pyramid. "Everyone hide!"
This swarm did not seem to be joining the first swarm; on the contrary, it seemed to be attacking the first swarm. They were seen, dipping, challenging and egging each other on in midflight by ones and in groups! The dogfighting flocks got closer to our camp in thier rampage across the sky; and soon they were wheeling and dodging right above our heads!
"Everyone stand down and hide, like Stinger said!", Thundertail roared instruction. "They do not appear to be attacking us. Do not engage them unless you are personally attacked!"
Everyone really didn't need to be told to do this, for within minutes nothing was seen moving in camp save for hundreds of eyes looking up out of the surrounding cover. We all watched the aerial combat going on above us, and thanked the fates they were attacking themselves and not us! As the battle unfurled, many screeched off chasing one or many of thier foe; and then we could see that there were two different types of Pteranodons at odds with each other.
One group had jet black bodies and deep grey wings while the other type had deep brown bodies with slightly lighter brown wings. The black ones was the far larger group, but thier skills of flying seemed less acute than thier brown adversaries. They fought fiercely due to thier number; but the brown ones showed more skill in the air, and that made both parties an even match.
The battle raged on for nearly an hour, and many hundreds of Pteranodons fell out of the air from both groups. This was bad for the combatants, but would prove good for us; for in battle there are many casualties, which meant free meals for us! We waited and watched the battle above us, silently cheering for one group or the other and drooled at the thought of the feast that would come once the battle was over!
At the beginning of the next hour of battle, the tides of the battle hed turned. the remainder of the brown Pteranodons gave up and flew off toward the west. Presently the black Pteranodons gave chase, and thier whole swarm took off after them. Thundertail led the clan out of hiding and began to survey the aftermath. Soon cheering and jabbering began to well up at the sight of all the Pteranodon bodies!
"Ok everyone!", Thundertail called to us all. "Let's drag them all to the feeding area."
"It seems that we needn't have gone hunting today after all, my clan brother!", Grond said after he dragged his down from a low tree. "Today our prey comes to us!"
"Indeed!", Thundertail grinned and picked up one of his own.
"Hey! This one is still alive!", Pincushion said to a Kirky as he stopped near the river. This one's wings were bent in a zigzag pattern, and was mewling pitifully. He bit the poor things' head off. "But not anymore!"
"I wonder if these things taste like chicken...", I wondered as I dragged one off a bush.
"What chicken?", Mayday asked as she dragged hers off the roof of a mud hut.
I smiled, then turned my attention to the river; where many Mosasaurs were also enjoying thier Pteranodon feast. Vying for the kills and rending them apart with thier death rolls. Suddenly I detected tapping on my shin armor and looked down.
"Say boss...", Harold Kirky looked up to me. "Better come over here..."
"What is it?", I asked as I followed at a trot.
"One of them landed over here.", Harold told me. "I think he's not terminal. I sent for Selma and Ursula..."
The brown Pteranodon lay sprawled over the Copro cart, wobbling his beaked head and mewling in agony. One wing lay spraddling the driver's seat and the other dangled out the back, almost touching the ground. The Copro cart hadn't been emptied, which made for a smelly but soft landing for the creature. The bird was struggling to mget up, but his pain was bringing him back down again; and the three Kirkys in the cart with him were having a hard time holding him still and preventing him from hurting himself further.
I moved to the beaked head of the frightened creature, trying to calm him by stroking the thrashing beak and cooing for him to calm down. Klamath listened to the agonizing cries the Pteranodon made to get a fix on the language, and after a while he made a string of squawks himself that made the creature calm down somewhat. A second later a stream of language entered my brain, and I could understand too. I told him to stay still and we would help him, and please try to relax. I couldn't understand his reply at first; but I got the impression that he was a female before she passed out once more.
Just about then Selma Ovaraptor came into the area, and rushed over to examine the many cuts and abrasions on the creature; then she cackled softly examining the badly damaged wings. Ursula came by in her rickshaw a few moments after that, and they both conferred softly with each other after Ursula examined the creature herself from beak to tailstub.
"She got cuts all over, but they're not too deep.", Ursula told us and Selma cackled agreement. "But those wings! The right oine is broken just before the wrist joint - may never heal. What's worse is the left wing. It's torn nearly in two, from the middle rear fibril almost to the leading edge! She'll never fly again, I'm afraid!"
"Wait! There must be something!", I said. "Can you make her well enough so she can tell us just what that battle was all about?"
"Maybe we could ease the pain a bit; but you don't understand!", Ursula told me. "We'd have to physically saw this wing back together and set the other, and I'm not sure if they'll work properly if we do! She'll be in pain the rest of her life!"
Selma squallered a moment, and Ursula nodded. "Selma's right. It's best if we put her out of her misery..."
"Wait! i got an idea!", I told them, then looked around. "MacDougal! Could you come here a minute?"
"Aye, lad?", MacDougal panted as he came by a moment later; then he noticed the Pteranodon. "Oy! This ones' a goner!"
"Get me a bottle of Tyranosaur Breath.", I told him. "The kind with the highest concentrations of Jinka and alchohol you got - and hurry!"
"Tis noo time ta be drinkin, laddy!", MacDougal told me. "But orders is orders, I guess!", he sauntered toward his stills.
"What do you have in mind, human?", Ursula asked me.
"Well, if we can reattach the wing and set the other one, she will survive.", I told her. "The two big things is to prevent infection and keep her out long enough to perform those operations. The Tyranosaur Breath can be used as an anesthetic, and can be used in the wounds as an antiseptic."
"Where did you learn that?" Ursula asked. "You been practicin' medicine behind my back?!"
"Just your basic Dolphinback medical training!", I said as I noticed the Pteranodon coming to and tried to still her struggles. "I read it somewhere, ok?"
"Well then, by jinky, I think it'll work!", Ursula said. "Selma, can you talk to her? Tell her we'll try to save her, and try to keep her calmed down."
Selma complied, and we all got busy extracting the stricken and screeching Pteranodon out of the smelly Copro cart. macDougal arrived many moments later with the requested jug, commenting on how stinky the beast was, and actually lent a hand holding the broken wing straight as we carefully carried her to my old cabin, which was now sauron and Chillets, but didn't mind being evicted temporarilly.
Once we laid her carefully down on the floor, I fed her small doses of the tyranosaur Breath. She complained about the taste more than her pain, but soon the stuff was having its' effect and she began to doze lightly but fitfully. Ursula mixed some of the stuff with fat renderings to make a salve to apply to her smaller cuts whils Melissa Krieger and Selma prepared sewing paraphanalia and cast materials to repair her wings. More of the Tyranosaur Breath and the female Pteranodon was out for the duration of the operation.
While Selma straightened the broken wing and applied the bark from a variety of Birch growing naturally in the Rainy Basin, clamping it onto the wing with ropes until it set; Melissa got busy sewing the other wing together with extremely thin sinew thread. Within two hours both operations were completed, and Ursula inspected both jobs along with the many bandages she had applied to the cuts and nodded in satisfaction. She deemed that the Pteranopdon had a chance to live after all, but stayed with her long into the night and well into the next day.
During this time Thundertail asked me why we would save one of those who attacked us so many months ago, and i told him that we needed to know why they went to war. I reasoned that we could even try to befriend this creature, and maybe she could join us and help us hunt for game from the air. Thundertail tenatively agreed wiuth my logic, and allowed the healers to continue attending her.
During this time we feasted off the female Pteranodon's comrades as well as her enemies. Most were found dead, but some of them were found clinging to life; and all but a few of those didn't survive the trip to the feeding area. Within a day and a half the whole area was cleaned up, and pretty soon all that was known of the pteranodon battle was its' memory and the lone survivor. Many days later, she began to finally come around, and squawked at her bandages and bindings that wrapped her almost like a mummy!
"Easy child!", Ursula cooed as she saw the bandaged beyond recognition, winged creature struggle to move. "You had a bad time!", a mewl of pain was the response. "Selma, if you would?", Ursula called aout the door.
Selma worked to tell her that she would be all right, and not to thrash about so much. Both thier languages seemed remotely similar, but the dialect problem made communication a chore at best - they reason why it took many tries to tell her this! By the end of the day i stopped by to see how the Pteranodon was doing; and when i saw her there wrapped up like a spider would a fly, I stooped down and looked into her reddened and asddened eyes.
"How are you feeling?", I asked as Klamath translated.
"I hurt...", she leaned for my offered water. "Where is here?"
"You are in the territory of clan Thundertail.", I told her. "We saw a sky battle, and when it was over we found you.", I gently pushed her head down because she was trying to rise. "Please don't move. We have you put back together with sewing thread and good intentions as it is!", I smiled.
"Not worth moving anyway.", she croaked. "Who are you? You are human, and humans do not live in the Rainy Basin."
"They call me Stinger.", I told her. "And what are you called?"
"I am named Talon.", Talon said. "I come from the Crevice Aerie to the northwest. Is there any news from my flock?"
"When we saw the battle, we took cover until it was over."", I told her. "The black ones outnumbered and overpowered the brown ones. The last we seen of the brown ones, the black ones chased them away."
"Then we have lost our home!", Talon wailed. "The black ones of Temple Aerie moved thier nests too close to our territory. We fought them after many attempts to reason with them. We were just too few!"
"By our count, only a handful of your flock survived to flee.", I said. "The rest were driven out of the sky, and fell to thier deaths. You were the only one that survived your fall, but you were severely injured just the same. You had fallen into our Copro cart, you see..."
"So that is why I smell this way!", Talon chuckled.
"There's no real need to be worried!", I chuckled. "You'll be all right soon, and then you can return to your flock."
"No human. All of my flock are dead - I know this!", Talon said. "For those black ones are devils! They will not rest when any of thier enemy still lives. They would track them all down one by one. My flock is doomed!..."
"But at least you're alive, and that's a good thing.", I told her. "Your enemies might not even know you're alive. And even if they did, you're here with us; and we can protect you."
"You would do that, to one who attacked you so long ago?", Talon said. "I remember you now! You were the black armored creature on the cliff in our gorge!"
"So, that was your group that attacked us.", I concluded. "We were merely there rescuing some of our friends, who fell into the gorge."
"I saw that, and that was why I hung back from my flock.", Talon crowed. "I know it is no crime to help others; even though you were in our territory!"
"And for that, we're grateful to you.", I said. To answer a question; yes, we would probably protect you from your enemies while you're here. We give all creatures the opportunity to join us if they wish. You might be able to help us with your flying talents!"
"Like this?!", Talon indicated her bandaged body with her beak. "I can not fly like this! besides, who ever heard of other carnivores helping one another! I would have to see for myself before I can believe it can work - let alone wish to join it!"
"We'll leave that option open for now.", I smiled. Ursula and Selma came in with more medicines, food and bandages. "Well, I guess I should be going now. Get well soon, Talon!", I stepped out the door.
"Now sweetie, that's enough excitement for one day!...", I heard ursula coo as she gave talon the once-over for the dozenth time since she had been with us.
Many more days pass, and Talon beacme much stronger aided by many mmeals ans our healers' medicines she had. Soon she was healed enough to rise from the nest in the cabin to hobble about a little with aid; amd many more days passed before she could do it all by herself. Her wings, though battered and broken due to her battle, slowly became healed enough to not need so much support the body-encasing splints had provided.
Now merely in a pair of wing slings, she is allowed to venture outside the cabin; and she squawls in amazement of how all these different carnivores behaved as they went about thier seperate duties about the camp! As the days pass, she is eventually introduced to nearly everyone in camp; starting with the tyranosaurs and other major creatures in camp to the humans, and from the youngest in the clan to the oldest.
In her opinion, so i asked her one day, she thought that this was the beginning of a grand symbiosis of creatures; and it seemed to her that it was working out well for everyone involved. her negative adititude of a fortnight ago gradually melted to a point where she applauded such a venture!
At our monthly meeting, and after she had given her account of the aerial battle, she stated to us that, for our help and hospitality during her convelescence, she would be more than happy to help out around here as soon as her injuries were healed enough to do so. Of course, by this time her other injuries were healed enough so her mobility wasn't hindered much, even though her wings still had a way to go before she could atleast attempt to fly.
It was soon deemed unnecesary for talon to have the slings on altogether, and upon mild testing it wass found that the the stitches held long enough for the fibrils to begin knitting back together; and the scar on the outside of the wing was merely a thin line that might not show a scar! The bones within the other wing seemed to have knit back together with very little distortion; and even though thier movements seemed to be a bit stiff to her, Talon's rather optimistic reply indicated to us that she would once again be flying in very little time at all!...
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Post by thundertail on Aug 12, 2007 14:59:13 GMT -5
TWENTY-THREE: "Clan, family and the World Beneath."
The community of carnivores was quickly becoming so populous with all the creatures wanting to join us as well as those coming in for a visit that it was decided to utilize every space available to accomodate them. Soon all the finished chambers in the Incan pyramid, both above and below ground were housing as many as six creatures per room; and plans were under way to renovate and utilize the chambers inside the temple tower a half mile away from the pyramid; of which we found out the name for this temple was the 'Temple Of Orous'.
We even tried to get some of us to start living in Halcyon for extended periods of time. Of course this was limited to the amount of water available in the cisterns there; and it was deemed that only thirty or so of our number could live there at any given time. The jungles surrounding Halcyon and the temples hid many strange things, like the remains of stone walls and pedistals and broken statuary they once rested on. We found out that the giant pedistal in the courtyard of the main entrance of Halcyon once held a fifty foot tall statue of Othgar the great, whose crumbled likeness littered the jungle just feet away from it; and the Kirky conservatores were at a loss as to how to restore it!
Truely the environs of Halcyon spread out far and wide across the area, proving that it was a metropolis that spread across from the Forbidden Mountains all the way to the tributary of the Polongo river that we used. It included the Incan pyramid as well as the temple of Orous, and many miles west into the trackless jungle; but when the water table shifted, presumably due to tectonic activity, it sent the inhabitants fleeing to seek better living conditions.
We had hoped to restore this area so it could support some kind of population. A growing civilization needs a city as a base to grow from, you know!
When the clan realized that they had to expand or deplete the land they were currently using, proposals for building shelters in the forest surrounding Halcyon was considered; and many went there to start clearing land, removing the stone edifices there for ease of construction. I had argued that those foundations could be used as foundations for our own structures; that the former buildings lasted for hundreds of years on them, and so could ours. A better suggestion, or expansion of my own suggestion, was to completely renovate those crumbled buildings to what they originally must have looked like, and live in them like the former owners used to. The main problem was the project could take many generations to complete! It was then decided to simply make our shelters out of more conventional materials for now.
It was at about this time that I met up with an emergency of the most personal nature. I was with Mayday, helping her and Deathflower, Waterkill, Mark Sereno, Miles Krieger and many of the Kirkys build a row of adobe-like structures to be used as guest quarters. I was in charge of helping place log supports atop the mud walls as support for the roof of one, where Mayday and many of the Kirkys would later thatch and layer with more mud to make the roof strong.
All of a sudden Mayday let off a tremendous shriek and doubled over! Many of our group rushed over, and I pushed my way through to her side and lay her down.
"What is it?", I asked. "Did you hurt yourself?"
"N..., No!...", Mayday winced and gasped. "Me think baby come...! Oooooh...!"
"Our baby?!", I asked dumbly. I had completely forgotten! "Oh, God!... Somebody!... ANYBODY!... Get Ursula - and hurry!...", Pincushion took off like a shot.
In the mean time Mayday convulsed through waves of pain as a contraction took over her body. I asked Zandra to release Mayday, and she complied immediately; unfolding from her body likr the rind of a banana. The others there quickly put together a stretcher of sorts out of vines and construction material, and I gently lifted Mayday out of the armor and onto the litter.
Several moments later Pincushion returned with Ursula on his back and selma tagging along at his heels. The Kirky healer scrambled down as the Ovaraptor healer scrambled beside me with the bag of instruments; and both gave the writhing Mayday a quick examination.
"Yup! Gonna come out any time now.", Ursula stated as she lifted the Stethescope end off Mayday's middle. she took out a Jinka extract and made her swallow. "You shouldn't have her work in this condition, Stinger."
"I forgot.", I said. "Are you sure it's this soon?"
"Sonny, I've been deliverin' babies since you were one yerself! I've brought thousands of hatchlings into the world,", she told me. "And at least a hundred of 'em were human!", at Mayday's moan, she looked about. "Let's get her home.", and at another one a second later: "Better make that the nearest shelter! I don't think the kid's gonna wait!"
The nearest shelter was one of the adobe huts we had finished only yesterday, which was three huts down from the one we had been working on. We gently scrambled to get the moaning and writhing Mayday inside. I was at the head of the litter and Mark Sereno was at the foot; and as soon as we placed it down on the earthen floor, ursula and selma began shooing us males out. I stayed on anyway, defiantly clasping Mayday's hand as another contraction took her over, holding her head down as she convulsed.
Presently Melissa Krieger came into the hut, and Selma took her into a corner to tell her what to do. Next more females came into the small structure, bringing blankets and other birthing paraphanalia. Finally, as a last resort, Ursula walked up to me, gave me a pinch and scowled in my face - I looked up at her as Mayday moaned again.
"Now Stinger, you just have to leave!", Ursula told me sternly.
"You're only going to be in the way!", Melissa added, helping Selma arrange the instruments they'd need.
"We can handle it from here.", Sarah Sereno said as she prepared some linens she brought.
"Deliverin' babies is women's work!", Ursula drew my hands away. "Why don't you go boil water or something?"
"Water?", I asked dumbly.
"Yeah, water!", Ursula told me. "You always supposed to have hot water when deliverin' babies - don't ask me why! Now SCOOT!", I rose and looked back at Mayday as I closed the wooden door.
I backed away from the mud hut, nearly tripping over some ground litter; when all of a sudden the import of what was happening finally hit me! I WAS GOING TO BE A FATHER! I turned and woodenly went to do as requested: boil water! Yeah, right; that's the ticket! So I went to the nearest dwelling to do so.
It was the mud hut currently occupied by Goerlatch and Riven Dilophosaurs, and I started a fire in thier circle of stones and dragged thier cauldron over to it. Like a fool, I placed the cauldron on the fire without thier metal tripod and the logs sputtered and went out. I forgot to put water in the thing anyway! While I was fumbling with this task, a gargantuan form hovered by, blocking the dappled sun coming through the leaves high above. I looked up with a start.
"So, this is it; right Stinger?", Rex asked as he gave me a nuzzle.
"Yeah.", I said as I righted the cauldron on the tripod and scanned the area for the Dilophosaurs' waterbag they use. I tripped on thier doorsill as I went for it!
"You must be nervous.", Rex observed.
"That's not ehe half of it!", I said as I rubbed his muzzle. "I'm not afraid of very many things; but every time I have a baby, I get the willies!", I relit the fire.
"I wonder what it's going to be.", Rex bent to watch my progress. "Females are swell, but males are special!"
"That doesn't matter to me, bud.", I rubbed his close muzzle. "So long as it has the right amount of parts - nothing extra and nothing missing - it will be a perfect baby!"
"How you think Mayday's doing?", Rex asked, but was answered by another of her wails in the distance. "Ooooh!"
"She's one tough female.", I told him, looking pretty worried myself. "She gave no indication until the very end."
"I hope she's all right...", Rex said as he rose to his feet as I went to pour the water into the cauldron. Maydays moans were heard again!", "That sounds just awful!"
"Say Rex. When the baby's born, guess what you'll be.", I said conversationally.
"What?", Rex asked.
"You will be his or her uncle!", I smiled, and so did he as he walked away.
I tended the fire for a few moments, then I stood and went to the nearest tree, looking in the direction of the adobe building. I leaned on the tree for support, thinking about the implications of my beloved in there, going through the agony of delivering my child! I grasped a large rotted branch near my head and bowed; and a crashing sound to my right startled me so bad that I crushed the branch I was holding! I looked at my armored hand sheepishly, then looked up into the concerned face of my leader.
"Courage, my clan brother!", Thundertail rumbled. "Having offspring is a harrowing experience for all fathers."
"My king!", I bowed awkwardly. "I am sorry that construction of those buildings are delayed. Mayday is having my child."
"I know this! That is why I ordered the whole project postponed until Mayday is ready to leave yonder building!", Thundertail smiled. "Can't have the workers disturb her or the baby with thier noise, can we?!"
"But sir, my work!", I stammered.
"Nonsense, my boy!", Thundertail motioned that I should sit back by the fire. "At a time like this, family comes first. You are excused from any work until matters at home are settled. You have a new family to tend to - and that will be your new assignment!", he nuzzled me, and I returned the gesture.
"Thank you, sir.", I said as I drew away.
"If I may ask, what is the purpose of boiling so much water?", Thundertail asked before he left.
"When birthing babies, it is the thing to do.", I told him. "I don't understand it either; but go ask Ursula if you really want to know."
"I know why!", Thundertail chuckled triumphantly. "It is to get rid of the father so the females can deliver the baby!", he guffawed and trundled out of the area.
I smiled, not feeling so nervous any more. This only lasted a moment before I felt a tapping on my armored leg. Little Holly Sereno was there, looking up hopefully at me. She had her dolly in her hand, and it looked like she was crying!
"What's wrong, sweetie?", I asked her.
"Uncle Stinger, have you seen my mommy?", Holly asked meekly. "I can't find her anywhere!"
"Your mommy is helping aunty Mayday right now.", I said sweetly. "She'll probably be busy for a while."
"Oh. What is she helping her with?", she asked, mouthing her dolly's hand.
"Aunty Mayday is having a baby, and your mommy's helping her.", I told her. "Do you know what that is?"
"Oh yes! Mommy had me, and she had my brother, Francis!", Holly said. "My mommy didn't need any help with us, though!", I chuckled.
"Well, maybe Mayday is new at it.", I said as seriousely as I could. "Why, with all the experience your mommy has, I'm sure that she was the first one she'd ask for advice!"
"Uncle Stinger. What kind of baby do you think aunty Mayday will have?", holly asked shyly.
"Oh, I don't know!", I said. "But I'm sure it will be really special to her!"
"I hope it's a girl!", Holly smiled. "That way I can play with her and my dolly!"
"That sounds like fun!", I told her smilingly. "Especially when you got a swell dolly like that one!"
"Yeah! She's a real special friend!", Holly hugged it. "Have you seen my daddy?"
"He was working with me making the new houses, but uncle Thundertail told us to stop.", I told her. "Maybe he has him doing other work..."
"I'll go find him, then.", Holly got up and turned. "Bye bye, uncle Stinger!", she skipped off.
Just then Mayday's moans sounded through the trees.
"Such a sweet lass!", the voice behind me said, startling me once again!
"MacDougal! What are you doing here?", I said as I turned.
"Aye, havin' kids is a chore, I say!", MacDougal sat on the log beside me. "Had four meself in my day, I did! 'Twas a nervous wreck ever time!"
"Thanks for your concern.", I was suprised he even found me, let alone cared! "That all you came for?"
"Nay, lad!", MacDougal said, smiling through missing teeth. "Wid all me youngins, I needed something ta brace meself up. Looks to me you could use the same treatment!", he produced a small bottle of Tyranosaur breath! "Me best batch yet! Had it aged three whole weeks, I did!"
"Let me see that.", I said, taking the bottle and downing some as soon as I uncorked it. "You sure know how to save a life!"
"ye deserve it, laddy!", MacDougal said. "Ye done a bonny job already!", he chuckled as I handed him the bottle.
"You know, macDougal, you're all right after all!", I told him, feeling calmer for the first time in a while. "If all goes well, pretty soon I'll see if we can let you go."
"Now, ye donna want ta do that!", MacDougal said after he drank. "I could go back to LaSage an' tell her all about th' place!"
"You like it here, don't you?", I said after his little joke sunk in.
"Aye! Caught me again!", MacDougal chucklingly admitted. "Least with this place I can do what I want because it's whot I want to do, not because I got to! An' that Pincushion! What a lad!"
"I must say, my friend; you sure changed a lot since you've been here!", I said as I noticed the cauldron just now beginning to boil. "I think you've really turned yourself around these past few months. You'll make a fine clan member before long!"
"Thanks lad! I'll try ta live up ta that!", MacDougal got up after placing the bottle at my feet. "Good luck wid yer nipper!", he left.
Riven Dilophosaur slowly lumbered into the area, looking at me curiousely for a moment before going into her mud hut I was in front of. She saw that I was using some of her things, but did not complain. She had obviousely heard of what was going on, and figured I needed those things to help Mayday. She resumed going into her hut when her name was called from the adobe building Mayday was in.
"Oh, Riven!", called Ursula, who was at the door and saw her. "Could you come in here, please? That Mayday is one strong girl!"
"Yes, healer!", Riven replied and started over.
"Stinger! Is that water boiled yet?, she then called to me.
"Almost!", I yelled back.
I tested the water, and it was just slightly hotter than bath water. I lifted the crock off the tripod and brought it over, riven helping at my side. Ursula had Riven take the crock completely from me as I neared the adobe building and shooed me away again! The briefest glimpse I had inside revealed Mayday on the litter, legs splayed under sheets; but the rest of the females were surrounding her as she gasped and panted, and that's all I could see inside.
I went back to the campfire near Riven's place, extinguished it and snagged the bottle from next to the log. I then resolved myself to stay near the adobe building, sitting with my back to the wall. Here the moans and screams were more intense, but I found myself dozing a little anyway. The rest of the clan was either too busy to visit me or figured there was enough on my mind at the moment to bother me; so I got no more visits for the longest time.
I lifted my head with a jerk after a while as I heard the loudest moan I ever heard mayday make, quickly followed by the tiny cries of a baby; and this snapped me to attention in a flash! The building had no windows, so I could not see anythinjg; but less than twenty minutes later Selma came to the door. She squawked sweetly and beconed me inside with one clawed finger and shushing me with the other over her beak. I quietly followed her inside and saw Ursula and the humans in the corner tending to something small. Riven daubed Mayday's shiny forehead with a cloth, mewling to her as she dozed fitfully. I rushed to Mayday's side and took over the task Riven was doing.
"How are you feeling, my darling?", I asked in a cooing way.
"Stinger...!", Mayday said tiredly. "You have a son...!", she weakly kissed me, then slumped back again. "But no do that to me again...!", I chuckled.
"I won't. I promise!", I wiped more sheen from her brow. "So, it's a boy.", I said. "Then we'll name him what we agreed on?"
"Of course, my love...", Mayday smiled with perfect teeth and lay dormant for a while.
The way we came up with the names of our children were simple enough: we'd pick out several names we liked, then played a game of 'Paper, Rock, Scizzers' to see which name goes where. If it was a girl, my picks were Eileen and Gwen; and Mayday's choices were Havarra and Gulhara. If it was a boy, my choices were Hamilton and Quinten while hers was Musafa and Somala. I won first pick for the first name and she won second pick for the middle name; so my new son's name was going to be 'Hamilton Somala Decker'!
Melissa Krieger came over with a swaddled little form and placed it onto Mayday's bared chest. I looked at the little creature there and marveled at the shock of thin curly black hair and carmel brown, almost tanned skin on the head. He gurgled as he reached with his head to feed, and Mayday encircled him in a motherly embrace. I looked down on them both in rapt happiness. I now felt whole in this place, for I now had a family here!
I placed a hand on the baby's back and he gurgled under the gentle, stroking pressure. A moment later he paused his nursing and rolled his head to squint through barely open eyes at me. I smiled back like a fool!
"Well, hello there, little one!", I cooed softly. "I am your papa. Happy birthday!"
The baby cooed and gurgled while Mayday looked down raptly at his sweet little head. I heard shuffling coming from all around me and looked up at the others in the room like a caught child. With the import of the moment, I had completely forgotten they were there! All of them slowly sidled up to the litter and viewed the new family as I looked back down on my son.
"Do you know what your name is?", I looked directly into his eyes as he burbled. "Your name is Hamilton Somala Decker! Like that?", Hamilton merely jiggled a bit.
"He will grow up strong!", Mayday murmured weakly. "He put up BIG fight!"
"Did you beat up your mama?", I asked softly but playfully. Hamilton hitched, then cooed laughter at the silly face I was making.
"Well, I think he's a fine hatchling!", Ursula said. "But I think it's time to get mom cleaned up! Stinger, could you scoot again?"
"Certainly!... Is it all right if I take Hamilton outside?", I asked as I slowly rose from the litter. "I want to show him to everyone."
"I think it's ok if it's ok with Mayday.", Ursula said, and Mayday nodded weakly. "Only wrap him up good! Hatchlings get chilly easily!"
As I gently lifter hamilton off Mayday, Sarah Sereno came over and wrapped the baby with a smallish blanket. As I held him, Sarah showed me how to hold the baby, and Melissa Krieger opened the door for me. I was so intent on trying to hold the baby the proper way that I didn't notice what was waiting for me on the other side of the door - until I looked up!
Everyone in clan Thundertail was out there, waiting for me and my new arrival! Ripper, Snapper and Whitetail were near the door; and Rex, Thundertail, grond, Pincushoon, Deathflower, Waterkill and Thistlesnarl stood a short distance off. The forest surrounding the adobe shack was littered with all my comrades, from the largest and most important to the smallest and least in the clan!
It was plain to me that word had gotten around, and everyone had halted thier activities to greet me and my new son as soon as I came out. I was shocked to silence, and so was Melissa as she stood there aghast too. I scanned thier faces and expressed my gratitude with my eyes; and only when I was done with that could I at last use my voice.
"My clan and my king!", I said so all could hear, voice breaking as I spoke. "I present to you my son: Hamilton Somala Decker!"
Everyone cheered just then, only muted so as not to frighten the little one. I walked toward Thundertail with my little burden. Little Hamilton hitched and cried at the large intrusion as Thundertail took his scent. I let Rex do the same thing as the baby writhed in my hands. Suddenly Rex noticed my bleary eyes and spoke:
"Stinger! Why are you crying?", Rex asked. "Are you sad?"
"No, son. Sometimes humans eyes leak when they are very, very happy.", I said, voice hitching as I spoke. "This is the happiest moment of my life!"
"Humans are soooo wierd!", Rex said softly, which made everyone near laugh! All this noise made Hamilton writhe and cry; and wouldn't stop no matter how much I tried to soothe him.
"Ooh! There, there!", I cooed. "It's all right. These creatures are friends!", then I found something warm and wet!
"Oh! I see!" I said and looked at Rex. "Looks like Hamilton sprung a leak of his own!", I chuckled nervousely as Thundertail took a confirming sniff. "I guess I better get him back in!", saurian cheers met my back as I dodged inside.
For the rest of the day and most of the next, we stayed secluded in the adobe building; and were visited by nearly everyone small enough to enter as we tended our new son. They each marveled at the light brown creature in the reed-woven bassinet next to the pair of pallets brought in for us to sleep on. Those wicker pieces of furniture were woven by Whitetail and many of the Kirky females on the spur of the moment as gifts to honor our new son.
The tiny Hamilton Somala Decker mewled and cooed at his visitors, but balked and cried when his saurian visitors got too close. The only saurians he really didn't seem to mind being near was Selma, Ursula and Riven; who were all present at his birth. After another day or so, the excitement of the very first human to be born in clan Thundertail began to wear off, and everyone reluctantly went back to thier former duties.
About this time it was decided to move Zandra where she still lay in the leaf litter of the adobe hut we were working on before all the excitement started. Many of those who tried couldn't lift her four hundred pound weight, and she couldn't move on her own without someone wearing her; so both human females were asked by Thundertail to performm the task. Sarah Sereno volunteered because Melissa Krieger said that the suit of armor scared her, and she warily laid down in the suit and it began to encase her. The walk back to the Incan pyramid and into our chambers there were uneventful, but she said it was an extremely disorienting experience; and never wanted to do it again!
The very next day it was time to move my family back to our quarters in the Incan pyramid. I led the still weak Mayday the near mile to the pyramid on one arm and carried the bassinet containing my son in the other. I found our home in the pyramid transformed slightly into a nursery of sorts, where a makeshift cradle and a changing platform had been installed. Everyone wanted to pitch in and help, but it seemed like too much help as it was only one human child!
Pincushion told me a few days later through Thistlesnarl that the adobe building that Hamilton was born in was going to be an historical landmark of the clan. it was tha place where the very first human baby was born in clan thundertail - or any tyranosaur clan at all, for that matter! He said that it would be called 'The Hamilton Somala Decker house' - what an honor for the little guy!
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(Continued in the next segment.)
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Post by thundertail on Aug 14, 2007 20:21:31 GMT -5
TWENTY-THREE: "Clan, family and the World Beneath." (Continued.)
Among the considerations for the new arrival, plans were being made on how to properly feed him. Mayday would no doubt be hard pressed to produce enough for him; and the other human females wer not prepared to, even though they gratiousely volunteered and would if they could. The manufacture of other baby food for Hamilton Somala Decker was not a problem as it was relatively easy to puree meats, fruits and vegetables in suitable quantities; but he wouldn't be able to digest that until he was a little bit older, I figured.
Sarah Sereno had told us about the Forbidden Mountains, and a community there called 'Tentpole in the Sky', where Mammoths there live and work with humans; who were mostly descendants of Bhuddist monks marooned here hundreds of years ago. The Mammoths produce milk year round, Sarah told us; and it was so rich that a gallon could be watered down to make ten. She said it was the richest milk on Dinotopia! She said it would be easy to strike a deal with them to acquire some, for it kept for many days in undiluted form. We had mineral saltto trade, grains, fruits and other items these mountain dwelling creatures would need!
Another way, suggested by Melissa Krieger, was to make milk out of certain plants she knew of that were akin to soybean plants. Even though the milk produced this way tasted nothing like real milk, it would have the same or higher nutritional value; and could prove beneficial to the growth of little Hamilton. Other suggestions came in the continual flow of gifts and useful items that the clan constantly gave us; from bone and gourd rattles and other toys to diapers and ointments for rashes to all sorts of baby sized clothing. I saw that plans for the well being of my son were well under way, so within a week I decided to ask king Thundertail if I could resume my tasks for the clan.
Thundertail told me that I would need to stay close to my family for a while yet, so he had me do light jobs in and around the pyramid. I helped harrow the forth field further up the Polongo river with many others, I helped to repair and rebuild some dwellings that had gotten too waterlogged to live in and any other domestic chore asked of me. He told me that hunting and doing anything in Halcyon or other places too far away was off limits! That was why I wasn't in on the discovery of the Strutter chamber in the World Beneath or the third and forth suits of the armor of othgar - but I certainly heard about it later!
They never even told me an expedition to the World Beneath was planned, let alone who was going to go along! it turned out that Rex was going to lead the mission since he had been down there before. Bross was going because he knew the way from the chamber of zandra to the chambers below, and due to his excellent night vision. Diego was elected to go because his integrity around camp aloowed him the extra treat of exploration.
A team of a dozen Kirky Archaeologists were going too so they could map the route to the Strutter chamber, and possibly make sense out of the hyroglyphs that would no doubt be found down there. A whole platoon of Veloceraptor guards were also going for safety, and Ripper and Snapper were going to lead them. Miles Krieger was so impressed with the findings in the Incan pyramid that he wanted to go along too for curiosities' sake. so, without my knowledge, they all congregated in the chamber of Zandra in the bowels of the Incan pyramid and began thier descent into the World Beneath.
The group descended the spiraling stairway, Veloceraptors first and the Kirkys hanging back making note of the frescos along the walls, illuminating them with makeshift miner's helmets rigged with Sunstones imbedded into a polished metal cone on thier heads and invented by MacDougal. Rex remembered certain landmarks, especially the Sunstone scones along the walls that throbbed as thier Amulets of Protection passed by them. he could also make out his faint scent in the flooers ahead of them, and that made him sure they were going the right way. To Rex, nothing had changed since his first excursion down here so many months ago.
"Careful guys.", Rex said in a roar, whispered so the echo wouldn't travel far. "There's an intersection ahead; and I think we go this way..."
He led on, Kirkys lagging behind to note an ornate doorway or an interesting glyph on a wall. Many of the others lagged behind too, looking this way or that in the gloom or into one doorway or another; and Rex saw this and slowed his pace, figuring it would take a long time considering all the neat stuff they were finding! As he waited for them at another intersection, he scuffed a clawed foot, absently looking at how his Amulet of Protection glowed, and further down at the silvery surface under the century's worth of dirt his foot had uncovered.
"Hey guys! What do you make of this?", he called them over.
"Looks like the street is paved in silver.", Miles Krieger commented as some of the Kirkys rubbed more of the dirt away.
"Must be worth a fortune!", Diego commented, crouching to get a closer look.
"The whole complex is worth vastly more than mere riches, Diego!", Bross told him.
"I'm sorry!", Diego smiled. "I guess it must be the pirate still in me!"
The group gave a bit of a chuckle at the comment and moved on. At the final turn that Rex remembered, they came upon the gallery of chambers where the other Amulets of Protection were found; and that chamber hadn't changed a bit either. This was the extent of Rex's knowledge of the place, but he remembered Zandra saying that this whole area was the place where all the technology of ancient Dinotopia was invented, and the chamber of the Strutters was not very far away. The only thing that bothered him was wich direction did the chamber of the Strutters lie?
He had the whole group fan out among the ruins and explore the surrounding galleries for openings to other chambers. Maybe they could find a clue to where it was. Perhaps they could find something etched on a wall, or a scroll or tablet telling where the chamber could be. An hour later, nothing of that nature was found; but as they delved deeper into this section of the complex, they noticed the utilitarian nature of many of these buildings.
Ancient shops, taverns and other businesses lined the streets in many places, or so the deciphered signs next to each depicted; and this showed that this was once a thriving metropolis. One of the Kirkys found a plaque emblazoned on the wall of a larger structure, and her deciphering came up with the name of this section of the World Beneath: 'Kinan-Van', or so it translated. The plaque also made reference to the city of 'Poseidos'; of which Miles Krieger told them sank in Saphire bay long before the current civilization on Dinotopia got started. The Kirkys made note of the discovery, marked the site for future study and they all moved on, deeper and deeper into the World Beneath.
On the other side of this section of the World Beneath, they came upon a hall with a series of huge portals at the end. There were three, hewn out of the surrounding stone and more than large enough to accomodate a Bracheosaurus; and all three seemed to lead off in three different directions. Stinkweed scurried down the left portal and came out about ten minutes later; informing them that it went straight for more than the quarter of a mile he traveled down. Ripper took the center one, and came out after a few moments; saying there was a cave in down there several hundred yards in, and would take a long time to clear it. They all decided to try the right portal, and found it jagged sharply to the right; then it began to slope steeply for as far as our Sunstone lamps could reach.
"Let's go, guys.", Rex said as he led the way. Thier lamps began to activate the Sunstone scones along this sloping passageway, which was so straight the lights shrank to infinity, causing a rather disturbing optical illusion!
"Sir, if my calculations are correct,", said Lisa Kirky. "We are directly under the foothills of the Forbidden Mountains."
"I guess the World Beneath is a big place!", Rex smiled down at her and continued descending.
Down and down they went; and the rampway proved not to go on forever like it appeared. The slope stopped at a landing that turned right and went on for another hundred feet; then at the end of the landing another rampway presented itself on the right once more. This rampway did not go on for nearly as long as the first, but opened up to reveal a huge chasm opening up on the leftt and a series of chambers along the right hand wall.
At the end of the rampway they passed through a huge arch that didn't appear to hold up anything; and then came out into the cavernous space that was the apparent floor of the huge chamber they had skirted. The sheer floorspace of this area was large enough to boggle the imagination, for the light of our Sunstone lamps failed to reach the other side! What the light did reach in this enormous space was enough to baffle the imagination of everyone present!
Strutters!
Dozens of metallic creatures sat in baylike formation, either mostly intact or mostly in pieces. The Kirkys scurried out into the space and explored among the wreckage to observe them more closely as Miles Krieger tried to identify as many of the metallic shapes as he could. There were Tyranosaurs, crabs, Brachs, Chasmosaurs, Sorolophuses, and many more in pieces like severed legs and heads, torso s and smaller pieces scattered on tables beside many of them.
The walls of this space had hundreds of portals, niches and chambers of various sizes and purposes. Many of them had strong looking doors of either stone or ironclad wood; and all of them were either shut and locked tight or open from all the way to a crack.
What dominated the center of this awesome space was a stone tower that rivaled the tower of the temple of Orous nearly a half mile above thier heads and several miles away. It spanned the height of the chamber, and was hard to see all the way to the top. A faint sparkling was coming from high above on the tower, which made the Sunstones in thier Amulets of Protection and thier Sunstone miner's helmets shimmer as well. Nearly as one they all realized that there was a massive Sunstone up there.
The group split up, taking thier own seperate ways throughout this massive space. they all agreed to meet up at the base of the tower in a little while; whose Sunstone was somehow increasing it's light intensity from a weak glow to barely illuminating the entire chamber, and growing brighter by the minute.
The Kirkys split up into teams of two. One would look and experimentally touch this object or that while the other would take notes on what the other touched. Diego went off with Bross, and they methodically began testing the doors to the chambers around the perimeter of the huge space. Each open door, or door that would open, revealed items full of either parts for the Strutters or other workshops whose functions they could not yet fathom. The other doors seemed to be locked up tight, and they gave up after a few brief group efforts.
Mark Sereno explored around the more intact Strutters with Ripper and Snapper, who told the rest of the group of Veloceraptors to fan out and look for dangers. Mark would climb atop this Strutter ot that and look at the controls in the cockpits and sit in the operator's seats. Rpiier and Snapper contented themselves with examining the Strutters' exterior capabilities and try to open the small hatches evident on most of these strange machines.
Rex walked to the base of the tower in the middle of the gargantuan space, studying the curlicue etchings around the structure and trying to see if there was some kind of access to its' interior. As the Sunstone high above intensifyed in brightness, he could just barely see the far end of the chamber directly behind the tower, and what he saw there at first gave him pause; then it made him roar loudly and run to the huge arched dias that was just now being illuminated.
Dwarfed by the arch that surrounded it, a bust and a face of some kind of statue stood, which seemed to rest on some type of obelisk. As Rex got closer he saw that it was not an obelisk at all, but massive stone or metallic clasps that held some kind of crimson thing resembling a human with the face of a Triceratops. The rest of the explorers had heard the roaring, and were just strarting to run to where Rex now stood.
The Tyranosaur was just regaining himself enough to take steps near this strange statue. Rex's Amulet of Protection was pulsing and glowing profusely the nearer he got, and he turned with a start when Snapper's clawed hand touched his ankle.
"What IS that thing?", Snapper asked.
"I don't know...", Rex sniffed. "A statue, I think."
"It looks familiar somehow...", Diego spoke next, Bross at his side in a moment.
"It looks like what Stinger wears.", Bross guessed.
"Is it the armor of Othgar?", Ripper asked.
"Maybe...", Rex answered.
Just then many of the Kirkys showed up, and they got near the inert thing clamped there. They circled it, getting a good look at every aspect of the armor; but as a few got even closer, the eyes of the thing began to glow red due to the proximity of the Sunstones in thier helmets!
Everyone scrambled back as the seams of the armor began glowing as well; and soon the metallic clamps holding the armor split apart and mechanically sank into the stone dias. Once this was done, the eyes glowed a blinding crimson; and this made them step back a little more! That was not the thing that unnerved them the most, because a moment later the armor began to speak!
"I am Triphus, armor of Othgar!", it said in a booming way. "Who dares to disturb my sanctorum?!"
"Uh..., sir...", Rex said after nervous looks to his comrades. He was thier expedition leader, and figured it was his place to speak to this armor. "We are on a mission of exploration. We were sent to find out as much as we could about the World Beneath. We did not mean to disturb your rest, and are sorry."
"I see... I understand Tyranosaur.", Triphus considered. "Some of my best friends are Tyranosaurs. Also some of my worst enemies!"
"We were just exploring and found ourselves here. We call it the chamber of the Strutters.", Rex told this creature now standing on its' own.
"Yes, but Strutters are not the most formidable thing you'll find here.", Triphus told them. "I was forged for battle, and defeated many a foe. I was placed here to guard the machinery of war and make sure nobody uses them for such purposes again. I advise you to leave here immediately or i will destroy you all!"
"We mean no harm, your honor!", Rex reconfirmed with trepidation. "But we DO have friends, and perhaps you might know them."
"Who, saurian?", Triphus demanded. "Speak!"
"My Partner currently wears Klamath, and his mate now wears Zandra.", Rex said. "They are the armor of Othgar, just like you are."
"Klamath?! My superior officer!", Triphus said. "And sweet Zandra! They still function? Where are they? I would speak to them."
"They are well, your honor.", Rex told it. "However, they are elsewhere, performing other tasks."
"No doubt seeking other lands to conquer!", Triphus chuckled. "Those two always had larger ambitions than I!"
"They are performing tasks no more important than assisting thier wearers in raising thier young.", rex said meekly. "In my clan, family comes first."
"Ah yes! The purpose of war is to insure the safety of family.", Triphus told them. "When there is no more war, it is time to tend to domestic matters.", his eyes glowed as he scanned them all. "I see that many of your group are of different kinds. I would like to know how this came about, and get to know you all. It has been many millennia since i had other creatures to talk to!"
"It would be a pleasure, sir!", Rex bowed, becoming quite relieved about now. "My name is Rex, son of thundertail, king of clan Thundertail of the Rainy Basin. I am a direct descendant of Stinktooth the great. Perhaps you have heard of him?"
"The most famous Tyranosaur of all time!", Triphus said. "Yes, I have heard of him. He was one who saw benefit in the interaction of other kinds!"
"Yes! And my father is expanding on that notion!", Rex told him excitedly. "He has expanded our clan to include many types of carnivores, including humans. We are working our way to our own form of civilization in this place. It was a human who first facilitated this change from our old ways."
"Ansd I see you have humans with you.", Triphus stated. "Are you the ones that made the change?"
"No, your honor.", Mark Sereno said, figuring it was his turn to speak. "My family was banished from our outpost for the crime of eating meat. The tyranosaurs in this clan took us in."
"And you, son?", Triphus asked Diego.
"I ran away from home when I was young.", Diego said. "I then mad ascociation with a group of criminals; but was captured by clan Thundertail. Since then i have been accepted as one of them."
"Thank the fates for second chances, eh?", Triphus chuckled. "Now you veloceraptors. How came you with them?"
"Sir, my mother's pack was caught stealing food from clan Thundertail; but Stinger proposed he become leader of our pack and joined us with the Tyranosaurs.", Ripper blurted all at once.
"And who is this Stinger?", asked Triphus.
"He is the wearer of Klamath.", Snapper answered.
"I see! A fine strategy to promote unity.", Triphus told them. "So, if Stinger wears Klamath, who wears Zandra?"
"Mayday wears Zandra.", Bross told the metallic creature. "She is also Stinger's mate."
"I see. And how did you become affiliated with the tyranosaurs?", triphus asked.
"We were caught scavenging, but Stinger suggested we could scout prey for the clan at night.', Bross told him.
"I see little ones. can you explain this?", Triphus asked, so Lisa approached his knee.
"Boss, we also intruded into thier camp.", she squeaked. "We are performers, see; but our acts are not permitted anyplace else. These kind ones took us in, and we entertain them and provide other services as seen fit - we're very versitile!"
"A notable arrangement, and a wise one!", Triphus said. "What better protection from the dangers of the Rainy Basin than to be within a clan of Tyranosaurs!"
"I guess that's about it, sir.", Rex said at last when he saw nobody else had anything to say.
Very well then! Wer are well met indeed!", Triphus said at last. "My duty to my maker is strong indeed; however, i yearn for company such as i have heard. I would be honored if one of your humans would wear me. I will not fail you, and you will attain power like you have never dreamed!"
"I can not!", mark Sereno said. "I have a family to think of!"
"Well, I don't know...", Diego said, thinking.
"Wait, guys!", Rex intervened. "I don't think we should do this... No offense, your honor! It's just that I think we should tell my father and have him decide what to do. I may be his son, but i am not yet qualifyed to make a decision on who should wear you."
"I suppose that is a wise decision under the circumstances.", triphus said after a moment. "Rex, son of Thundertail. You will make a fine leader one day if you make decisions such as this! I will wait for his decision. What is a little while longer when I have been waiting as long as I have?!"
"Thank you for understanding, sir.", Rex told the armor. "We should leave soon so we can return that much faster.", he nodded and everyone prepared to leave.
"Before you go, I've noticed you utilize Sunstones.", triphus halted them. "If I may, could I request to have one? my energy levels are approaching critical!"
"Certainly, sir.", Rex said, turning. "We have enough, I guess; but how can you use it if you do not move?"
"If one of you would place one in my chest cavity, it will suffice.", Triphus said as a hatch there began to ratchet open.
"Like this?", Lisa squeaked as she removed the Sunstone from her miner's helmet, which was embedded into a metallic cone used as a reflector. He had her remove the Sunstone husk allready there and replace it with the new one. the hatch closed up when the procedure was done, and Triphus's crimson eyes glowed more steadily.
"Thank you, child.", it said. "I was growing weak!"
"Don'r mention it, sir.", Lisa returned to her comrades.
After apropriate goodbyes were said to triphus from the entire group, they turned and made thier way back to the surface. It took only half the twelve hours to get back to Zandra's chamber in the Incan pyramid because they had remembered the way back, and they didn't dally around exploring thier surroundings this time! Like I said, i had no idea they were going to do this, and i didn't find out about it until i got back from my next assignment a day later...
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Post by thundertail on Aug 15, 2007 20:37:20 GMT -5
TWENTY-FOUR: "Triphus, armor of Othgar."
One of the many chores that Thundertail allowed me to do besides taking care of my son, Hamilton Somala Decker, was to deliver the second load of supplies to Torres LaSage and her band of huligans. I was the only one deemed able to handle such shifty characters, and the fact that I wore the armor of Othgar didn't hurt, either! So I helped loading the cart with tubers and rice and other things they would need and choose the ones that were going along with me.
Since it was getting time to harrow the first field before the rainy season flooded it out, Sauron and Chillet would not be able to pull the cart for me. I chose Thistlesnarl this time, and Greach the Ovaraptor to help unload the cart when I got there. I took a small contingent of Veloceraptor guards with me to cover my back, and Leeter Dilophosaur to guard the cart itself.
When all the plans were set, I kissed Mayday and my son goodbye and we all headed down the trail that led to king Adolpho's castle, my group fanning out into the forest as we left camp. The trip there was rather uneventful save for the two young Chasmosaurs we scared up and the Veloceraptors gave chase and brought down. One of these beasts we loaded into the cart as extra meat for our unwanted beneficiaries, ate all we could of the second and hid the rest to eat when we returned. Fairly soon after that the castle by the sea came into view and the Veloceraptors commenced getting into hiding, and would only act if there was trouble.
Thistlesnarl pulled the cart as far as she could to the main gate, but she was still many yards away due to all the traps and debris up against it. I saw a narrow opening to the big double doors and made for it, weaving my way through the obstacles. I pounded on the door, remembering what Mayday had said about the other entrance off to the side; but nobody magically appeared from it or the door I was knocking on, so I tried again many more times with the same nonexistent results!
Sick and tired of all this, I pushed on the double doors with all of Klamath's strength. In a moment the thick wooden beam they used to bar the door splintered and broke, and a moment later I shoved both doors out of my way. They slammed into the stone door casing with an earthshaking thud. What was framed in the doorway was a sight that I could not help but laugh out loud at. It reminded me of one of those Three Stooges comedy shorts I saw on TV once!
Dozens of men were standing around in a frenzy of excitement while several others with swords were parrying and chasing each other around the battlements. Shouts and namecalling grew to a deafening pitch as a knot of combatants passed by my position without even noticing me - or what I did to thier door! I stepped out of the way as someone threw a punch at someone else and sent him sprawling at my feet; and I stepped over the fallen one to get into the center of the fray.
"Hey guys... Guys?... HEY! GUYS!!", I yelled. "S'cuse me!!... I'm here with your supplies!... HEY!!!", nobody would listen to me!
Just then five guys came down the steps to my left, tied in a knot of struggling and fighting frenzy. As the group got to the foot of the steps, the knot exploded as all of them were sent sprawling onto the cobbles. In the center of that group stood a tall one with long hair and headband. He was the one named Quint, a strong little bugger! I smiled as I turned to him, and he smirked back as soon as he noticed me.
"Want a piece of this, scaly lover?", Quint sneered. "Hey guys! Look what blew into town!"
"Naw! You're not my type!", I said to him. "Actually, I'm looking for that other dark-haired cutie. Seen her?"
"Ain't I good enough?", Quint asked in a pose.
"Actually, NO!", I said and turned away. "LASAGE! YOU HERE?", I yelled.
Soon another knot of sword wielding men came barreling around a corner, turning every once and a while to do combat with thier single attacker. LaSage kicked out into the knot and sent two of them sprawling while the rest massed with an attack of thier own. It was at this time that Quint decided to jump me while I was watching this. Klamath's automatic defenses warned me of the attack, and I simply lifted a foot in his direction at the right second and caught him in the sternum; and he fell in a heap at my feet without me even looking at him. LaSage saw this, dispatched her adversaries in short order and stormed over to pick up her fallen comrade.
"What are you doing fooling around, moron?!", LaSage whispered to him as she tossed him into the rest of the pirates. Then she looked at me with a cheesy smile. "Fancy meeting you here, Stinger! Have you come here on business or pleasure?", she offered me a hand to kiss, but I merely shook it again.
"Hi yourself.", I said instead. "I came with this months' worth of supplies, like we agreed; but I see I've come in the middle of recess!"
"You have now?", LaSage looked at the yawning opening that used to be her main entry, and the yawning Thistlesnarl beyond. She then turned back to me. "I see you did a little redecorating around here!"
"Sorry, the doorbell was broken, so I knocked.", I said, then indicated the mayhem still going on around us. "No one would let me in!"
"I see. But are you going to repair it?", she asked, then recanted. "Never mind! So you say you got our stuff?"
"It's right outside.", I told her. "So, if you and your goons want to help unload...?"
"Say, is that scaly tame?", LaSage looked at the Tyranosaur outside again.
"I'll ask.", I said, and called in Tyranosaur. "She wants to know if you're tame, Thistlesnarl."
"Do I have to be?", Thistlesnarl roared.
"Yes, you got to!", I said in English.
"Aw!", she rumbled.
"Yeah, it'll be ok.", I told LaSage with a smile. She just loked at me sideways as she turned to her men, who were still fighting!
"Ok, you goofs! Listen up!", she barked, and when this didn't work, she gave off a shrill whistle; and that brought the mayhem down to a low roar. "Our load of supplies are here! I want you and you and you and you and you to unload it...", she selected the men and cuffed them toward the doorway. "I mean right NOW!!!", the men shuffled to the doorway and looked at the full looking cart and the hungry looking carnivores!
The men moved like they were going to thier own excecution as they left the crashed open gateway, then looked up in horror at Thistlesnarl the Tyranosaur sneering back at them, then Leeter the Dilophosaur doing likewise when they reached the back of the cart. They didn't even notice Greach the Ovaraptor until he screeched at the man he handed a crate to! The man recoiled and jerked back on his feet, miraculousely still holding the crate. The other men began to reach into the cart and pull out boxes of thier own, leary of more suprises. As LaSage and I watched thier progress, Quint stepped beside his leader; making sure to stay well away from me, and watched as well.
"So, where's Mayday?", Quint asked as he watched.
"At home.", I told him as I turned to him. "Taking care of our new son.", he gave me the queerest look!
"So, ah...", LaSage cut in. "Been thinking of my offer?"
"I try not to.", I told her as the first load of supplies were trundled inside. "I been thinking more of what you been doing outside the Rainy Basin."
"Like what?", LaSage asked, swiping at a man who dropped a sack of grain with her riding crop.
"Oh, like how you go after folks that don't fight back; and yet you leave us alone.", I said, turning to her. "Why is that? We too tough for you, or what?"
"Well. you know...", she smiled at me sweetly. "A good strategy is to take the route of least resistence."
"How about to leave well enough alone!", I shot back.
"And that's why you don't bother us with that.", LaSage stated.
"Let's just say that it's out of our territory.", I told her.
"What about us?", LaSage asked.
"Pretty much the same thing.", I told her as the second load of supplies started coming in.
As LaSage's men continued to take thier supplies from our cart, Greach Leeter and Thistlsesnarl would harass them. they took great fun as they growled and snapped at these already jumpy men if they got too close! I went out to the cart as the last of the supplies were brought in, and I palmed Thistlesnarl's muzzle. Oddly enough, LaSage and Quint came out with me; but they stayed well away from the three ton monster. All of a sudden, Thistlesnarl grumbeled something to me that neither of the two pirates could understand.
"What girl?", I asked and got a repeat rumble. "Oh, yeah! Sure thing!", I replied and began to unhitch Thistlesnarl from the cart!
"STINGER!...", LaSage shouted in dismay. "What are you DOING!"
"Little dinosaur's room...", I said as the last of the harness came off. Thistlesnarl nuzzled me and rushed off down the path. "Females are all alike, I guess!", I smiled cheesily.
"That thing's gonna annihilate us!", Quint said, slowly backing into the castle.
"Well, that might take a while.", I said, turning to LaSage. "In the mean time, it looked like you were having a little fun. Am I not right?"
"That's right!", LaSage said. "You wanna take one of us on?", she led me back inside.
"I was thinking more of taking YOU on.", I told her. "I want to see what you got!"
All the pirates gathered in the courtyard of king Adolpho's castle to watch thier leader combat this scaly lover; but they didn't know that Leeter and Greach had snuck to just within the gate opening, waiting to watch the spectacle too! LaSage marched right through the crowd of pirates and reached a rack of swords. She chose one for herself and one for me; handing it to me as I got near. I examined the blade as Klamath decided it was not worthy to wield. I tossed the substandard weapon half way across the courtyard as Thistlesnarl got back and joined the duo at the door.
"I like my own blades best.", I said and had Klamath deploy one of his. It sprung from my back as the men around us gasped. I caught it deftly, examined it and nodded in satisfaction.
"Fancy!", Lasage scoffed. "But can you use it? That's the question!", she got into a stance and made flourishes in the air before me.
"I promise to go easy on you.", I said as I performed a few parrys of my own.
I stood right where I was as I waited for ther first attack, of which i blocked easy enough and thrust her sword hand away without changing my stance. Seeing this had no effect, LaSage changed tactics and began circling me, of which i let her get behind me without turning. All the while cheers and catcalls began erupting from the ever growing horde. It seemed that word had gotten around to the rest of the pirstes in the castle, and many more began showing up, crowding for a view in the ever shrinking courtyard.
I spun suddenly and caught the hilt of LaSage's sword with my own as she spun out of it and slashed for my neck. The block was so powerful that her blade snapped a third of the way from the pommel. I backed off a few paces as she examined the damage, then I stepped up to have a look for myself. Of course, Klamath's blade wasn't even dinged; for his blades were made of an irridium/tungsten/steel alloy and virtually indestructible!
"Hmmm...", I took the hilt from her. "Must have been a flaw in manufacture.", I handed my sword to her. "Here, use this."
"Thanks!", she said as she hefted the much heavier blade.
Her sneer told me she was going to strike, so I had Klamath deploy his other sword and blocked her swipw in the blink of an eye. Suprised at the speed, LaSage backed up and tried for a series of flourishes; all of which I blocked with such force it staggered her back a few more paces, and I advanced those paces as well. Seeing her trick had no effect, LaSage circled me once again, guarding with the sword point as she tried to figure out an effective point of attack on me, of which there was all but none!
After many moments of this, I gave off a sigh and lowered my sword; and seeing this as her shance, she lunged at me with all of her weight. Klamath's speed made her tumble past me. and she landed with a thud on the cobbles. This sent a wave of laughter through her crew, of which she looked at them with a sneer as she got back up and resumed her stance.
"Hey scaly lover!", Quint yelled from the crowd all of a sudden. "What makes Mayday like you more than me?"
"I guess she likes honorable men.", I replied as I blocked LaSage's next attack, tossing her back easily.
I retreated two steps and took a stance as LaSage came forward brandishing her weapon. I figured it was my turn to go on the attack, but I didn't actually want to kill her; so I slowly advanced on her as I increased my speed and force. I made sure the blows landed on the sword as I advanced further, and she parried the blows nicely. The faster I sped up the more frantic her blocks became as I slowly drove her around in a lazy circle around the area her thugs would allow us.
As an act of desparation she climbed the steps now behind her and led me up them, fending off my blows with each step. I followed, noticing the other men following the action as we ascended. Quint was in the lead, and the whole group saw how I was beating the tar out of thier leader at swords. Many of them were taking bets on who would be the winner!
All of a sudden LaSage jumped off the stone railing and landed in a small cart below. I followed, flipping up using Klamath's agility and strength, flying up over LaSage's head and landing beyond the cart with a thud right in her intended path of escape! The men let out a collective gasp of astonishment!
"What are you made of?", LaSage panted desperately.
"Rocks and snails and puppydog tails!", I quoted the childhood saying. "How you holding out?"
"I'll do.", she said as her breathing leveled off somewhat. "You're good."
"You got lots of stamina yourself.", I complimented back. "Want to quit? You look parched!"
"Just resting!", LaSage sprung and fought her way off the cart, and I let her circle me once more.
This time around I let her make me back up, and I led her a merry chase all around the courtyard. I must say that I was giving the pirates who were betting on me to win a bit of a worry doing this! I led her around past the sword rack and over near the broken down entrance and back around to the stone steps again. All the while I met her blows with my blocks, throwing in a few flourishes and feints for good measure.
I knew what I was doing, leading LaSage on like this. I was trying to tire her out so she would give up on her own accord, but I never dreamed she would go for as long as this! Finally I swung and began putting the killing blows on her, so to speak. I pounded on her sword with mine, bearing down with increasing force, using Klamath's strength and skill, beating her to the ground and giving all the men present a gasp.
At the last instant before she was completely on the ground, her sword dropped from her hand as she lay there nearly prone; trying to get up but could not. I sheathed my sword, picked hers up and sheathed that one too. Then I slowly drew her up and led her to the stone steps to rest. LaSage's defiant eyes told me she wanted to bite me, but her weariness told me she needed the assistence!
"Nod bad, Torres.", I said soothingly as I stood. "You lasted almost twenty minutes!"
"That's LaSage to you!", she could barely say it. "You're absolutely unstoppable! Where did you learn a sword like that?"
"I'm used to wrestling T-Rexes!", I said as I produced a small flask of Tyranosaur Breath. "What's a little swordplay after that?!"
"Gimme that!", LaSage grabbed the flask and drank greedily. "Who makes this stuff?"
"See Leeter over there? He's the Dilophosaur.", I told her. "His brother, Rellas, makes it.", I lied. "He won't tell us the recepie. Doesn't trust us with it! He just says ' a sprinkle of this, a dash of that', you know how it is...!"
"How much of it did you give us this time?", LaSage asked after considering the information.
"Two cases this time.", I told her. "Only this time leave some for your men!"
"They don't deserve it.", LaSage said after wiping her mouth.
"I don't know...", I looked at thier faces beginning to hover around us, sneered and they backed off somewhat. "They do most of the work around here, right? They deserve something!"
"Look, you run your place your way and I'll run my place my way!", she spat, then looked around. "Say, don't you think you've worn out your welcome?"
"It IS getting late at that.", I said, looking into the sky. "Got to get my friends home soon. They might be getting hungry!" This news unnerved the men!
I turned around and started to walk over to the entrance of king Adolpho's castle; but before I could make it more than a handful of steps, many of the men maneuvered around to encircle me! The closer I got to the doors the tighter they made thier circle until they made they were mere feet from me, allowing me no way through the many-man deep crowd. I just smiled at them and tried to advance, but Quint muscled his way through the others and stood almost nose to nose with me. My dinosaur companions saw this and prepared to spring to my rescue, and the Veloceraptor guards were advancing on the castle, preparing to do the same.
"You realize there's a tax for crossing that threshold.", Quint growled as the men behind him chuckled. "You also have to pay for that door!"
"I do now...", I growled back.
"QUINT!... Let him alone.", LaSage ordered as loud as she could, but was drowned out by all the grumbling coming from the mass of men all around me.
"Yeah, the way we see it, you owe us big-time!", Quint continued, getting even closr.
"How much do you want?", I asked him, not backing down one bit. "I have no money."
"No money?... We'll just have to take it out on your hide then!", Quint tried to shove me - twice! The weight of Klamath's four hundred pound weight prevented him from even budging me! "Boys?..."
With that every pirate in the place rushed me!
They all grabbed me and started pummeling me with fists, pulling and shoving to try and drag me to the ground and eventually dismember me. The suit of armor was designed for such an attack, and thier blows landed on hardened armor; and thier efforts to knock me off my feet were defeated by the weight of the armor. The blows that were aimed for my head were deflected by Klamath's mask that had formed over my face at the first instant of attack.
As the attack reached fever pitch, Klamath charged up his pusher beam, or Cza-Voon, and encased his whole body with it. Like leaves in a hurricane, the men flew from me with such force that they splatted against the stone walls of the interior of the castle, knocking most of them unconcious. The shockwave from the blast rippled the air and knocked over anything not fastened down, and smaller debris wafted around in its' wake. LaSage had the presence of mind to hang onto the iron braiser in the center of the courtyard or she would have met the same fate as the cart that splintered against the wall beside her!
"Like I said, it's been fun, but now I got to leave.", I boomed in Klamath's voice, his green eyes blazing brightly; which unnerved the still dazed men. "You should know better than mess with the armor of Othgar!", I walked toward the entrance of king Adolpho's castle, not being hindered this time.
I walked out to my friends standing just outside the doorway and led Thistlesnarl to the cart, where I presently hitched her back up. Leeter and Dulock chattered on about the exchange I had with those pirates, but I hushed them with a finger and motioned that they should follow the cart. As we left the scrub dotted clearing in front of the castle, the squad of Veloceraptors emerged from hiding and hopped onto the cart behind me, rasping and grumbling as they situated themselves for travel. It wasn't until king Adolpho's castle was well out of sight that I gave out a whoop of joy, and the others began chattering on about the encounter as well.
"You sure gave LaSage what for!", Leeter said as he paced the cart beside my head. "She didn't have a chance!"
"I thought you were a goner when they jumped you.", Thistlesnarl said. "I was so worried!"
"Yeah, they were kind of unpredictable.", I said offhandedly. "But remember, if you give them back what they give you, they'll always back down. You know, bullies are really cowards underneath it all."
"You are no coward, this is a fact!", Greach squawked. "You stood up to them like they were the size of Kirkys!"
"I was wondering, Stinger.", One of the Veloceraptors in back asked and I turned. "You bring us along, and yet we're never needed. Why let us come along at all?"
"Well, Pondscum; it's called insurance.", I told him simply. "They might be more powerful then they let on. If so, then we have you guys to back us up!"
"Oh...", Pondscum said and became silent.
"Thanks for unhitching me back there.", Thistlesnarl said as she pulled.
"Well, when you got to go, you got to go!", I told her and she chuckled.
"Stinger, can I tell you something?", she continued.
"What is it?", I asked. "If it's something private, cover your earslits, everyone!"
"Well, it's about Rex.", she searched for words. "I mean, I like him and all..."
"Did he do anything to you? I'll have a word with him, if you like...", I offered.
"No! Nothing like that!", Thistlesnarl said quickly. "It's just that... Well, I like him and all that...", she chuckled. "I thought it was funny the way he described how he fell off that log a while back...!", she got to the point. "Anyway... "Do you think he likes me too?"
"I think he likes you.", I told her. "You, him and Pincushion have been buddies since we first came here. I don't think there would be much to break up friendships like that!"
"That's not what I mean!", she sounded desperate! "I mean I like him - I really, really like him. Get it?"
"Oh! That!", I sounded relieved. So, she had a crush on him! "I'm sure he might like you in that way. He's still young - and so are you - but you two are almost grown up enough to be thinking thoughts like that. Why don't you have a little talk with him. Explain things. You know!"
"I don't know!", Thistlesnarl paused her travel to look at me. "What if he doesn't like me? What if he loves someone else?!"
"Listen to me. You are the only female Tyranosaur his age in the clan, right?", she nodded. "Now I'm sure that, with the friendship you two already have, true love could emerge from that. Right?", again she nodded. "And the only other one to worry about is Pincushion."
"Him?! He's my brother, for crying out loud!", Thistlesnarl huffed at the thought. "To me he's just a gawky kid!"
"Then there you have it!", I said triumphantly. "Nothing to worry about! All that's left to do is to talk to Rex and you'll be all set!"
As we neared the area where we left the Chasmosaur kill, we noticed a great disturbance in the area. The Veloceraptors got down off the cart and scouted ahead as we waited. Half of them came back moments later, saying that there were a pack of Veloceraptors there that they did not recognize. I unhitched Thistlesnarl and we all rushed over as quietly as we could; and we all saw what our Veloceraptors told us.
The dead Chasmosaur was dragged out of where we had hidden it, and eight other Veloceraptors surrounded it. they were cursing and snapping at each other, vying for the right to be first to feed. I had our Veloceraptors make themselves known to these interlopers, and soon a stalemate took place; for they claimed the right to the kill, even though we had killed it! It was just about then that i stepped out to be seen by the whole group.
"What's going on here?", I yelled. "It seems we can't leave our stuff anywhere without it being stolen!"
"Who are you?", demanded the larger Veloceraptor of the rogue group.
"We are from clan Thundertail, from the Rainy Basin.", I told this upstart. "We were on our way to a diplomatic mission of sorts, and hunted these two Chasmosaurs; and we were going to bring this one home with us. Thanks to you, I guess that idea is ruined!"
"We see kill. We eat kill.", one of the other upstarts hissed. "It ours! Finders keepers!"
"It seems we DO have a problem here...", I thumbed my chin. "You Do realize that you are hopelessly uotnumbered here.", I began. "Do you realize what we could do to you if we so choose?"
"Your threats fall on closed earslits!", the first one said defiantly. "We own this kill fair and square.
"I don't think they are going to back down.", Thistlesnarl informed softly.
"We could hunt another Chasmosaur...", suggested Leeter.
"No, wait! I think I got a way around this!", I said to our group, then turned to the others. "Maybe we can work out a compromise. That is, if you're willing to listen."
"Speak, human.", the larger Veloceraptor said.
"That chasmosaur is large enough for all of us.", I began. "We are not too far from home, and we would only require a small amounts to suffice us. If this is acceptable, we could eat our fill and be on our way; and then you can have the rest. Does this sound fair?"
"Since we are evidentally outnumbered,", began the leader Veloceraptor after a moment of consulting his friends. "This sounds like an acceptible suggestion. We will feed as soon as you leave."
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(Continued in the next entry.)
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Post by thundertail on Aug 18, 2007 18:10:46 GMT -5
TWENTY-FOUR: "Triphus, armor of Othgar." (Continued.)
The group of rogue Veloceraptors turned and stood a little way off to let us have access to the carcass. Thistlesnarl was first, taking two dainty fifty pound mouthfuls before backing off to let Leeter feed. He took three bites and backed away while Greach took several beakfuls. Our Veloceraptors went at the carcass in groups of three; and when they were done I cut off a seven ounce slab for myself.
Appetites sated, we bowed as the other Veloceraptors fell on the kill; and we waited until they were done before wishing farewells to them. At length I invited them to join us if they wish, perhaps at a later date; but they adamantly refused, so I didn't press the issue. We turned and continued on our way, and by mid afternoon we arrived in the campsite that king Thundertail ruled over.
We were greeted in the usual way by our clan members that were near, then I led Thistlasnarl over to where we stored the carts and unhitched her; and after another nuzzle by her, let her go her seperate way. When I got back to the campsite proper, I went over where thundertail was; and rex was there, telling him excitedly of how his day went. As they saw me approach, they paused thier conversation, waiting for me to get there. At this same moment Mayday came by with little Hamilton in her arms, of whom she lovingly deposited into my arms. I noticed that everyone had concerned looks on thier faces, but I started talking about my little adventure with LaSage anyway.
"You'll never guess how my day went!", I began, but Thundertail halted me with a grunt and spoke.
"I think you better hear what Rex has to say first, Stinger.", he instructed. "Repeat your story, son."
"Ok.", Rex said and turned to me. "My father had me and a few others explore the World Beneath. We went down past where we got the other Amulets of Protection, and came out onto the Chamber of the Strutters."
"You found the Strutters?!", I said. This was an important Archaeological find!
"Yeah, but that's not all.", Rex continued. "We also found one of Klamath's kind. He was fully intact, too.", then he addressed Klamath. "Do you know one named Triphus, Klamath?"
"Why yes, I do!", Klamath said with gladness. "He was one of my finest generals. How does he fare?"
"He's ok, I guess.", Rex said. "We gave him a small Sunstone because he was weak; but we didn't dare do much more for him."
"I see...", Klamath turned to Thundertail. "Your highness. You have seen the benefits of having two of my kind around. This benefit would only increase with three."
"What is the nature of this Triphus?", Thundertail asked.
"He is very strong, ans a cunning warrior.", Klamath told him. "He may not be as intellegent as I, and he might have a bit of a brash disposition; But he is loyal to a flaw, and would do anything for the cause of justice."
"It is true, your honor.", Zandra added. "Triphus would be a great benefit to the clan. He has assisted me a number of times in the past!"
"As you know, there are other places to explore down there. We have yet to discover the Sunstone Cave and many of the other points of interest rumors of the World Beneath have indicated.', Thundertail told us, then continued after a thought. "And it is true that having the armor of Othgar in our service is a help. Perhaps it is wise to allow Triphus to awaken.", then cocked his head. "But who do you suppoe should wear him?"
"Triphus showed a great interest in the two humans we brought along with us.", Rex said, then at Thundertail's nod, continued. "Mark Sereno refused, saying he had a family to think about. Diego was unsure about the whole situation, so he didn't know one way or the other.", Rex looked at me. "But Diego was a pirate and former Outsider! Do you think he can be trusted with the responsability?"
"I don't know.", I told my Partner. "He has shown great improvement around here. The way he is starting to take charge of the tasks he's given and how he loves and takes care of the children shows he really cares about the clan.", I turned to Thundertail. "It is your decision, of course, my king; but in my opinion, he will do well wearing the armor of Othgar."
"Triphus will teach him honor.", Klamath added.
"We should ask him if he wants to wear it first.", Thundertail said. "He might have changed his mind."
"I think I got a better idea, if it is acceptable to you.", I told him, and at his nod, continued. "We could have him lead me and Mayday to the Chamber of the Strutters all by himself. That would give him confidence enough to take on the challenge of wearing Triphus. Besides, I think Triphus has already chosen him!"
"This may be true.", Klamath added.
"Very well then, human.", Thundertail said. "You know more about this than I do.", he then looked at his son. "But Rex will also come with you. Also two Veloceraptor guards."
"As you wish, my king.", I said as I hiked Hamilton firmer in my arms and left his presence.
Mayday followed me as I headed in the direction of the Incan pyramid. I needed a bit of a rest from my encounter with LaSage - and I never even got a chance to tell anyone about it! Mayday drew up along side me, and I handed our son off to her. I kissed him as she held him and we walked, cooing nothings into that increasingly inquisitive face. I looked up to see where I was going, and Mayday looked at me like there was something wrong with me.
"I beat LaSage in a swordfight today.", I blurted to her. "We fought until she was exhausted!"
"Sound like fun.", Mayday said. "I start teach Hamilton to walk."
"You walked?!", I said to his gurgling face. "Why, you'll be running before I know it, I bet!"
"How Quint?", Mayday asked.
"Still alive, I'm afraid.", I told her. "He asked about you. I told him about Hamilton."
"You think he harm my baby?", Mayday asked, suddenly worried.
"With all these carnivores around?", I tisked. "He'd be crazy to try!"
"He crazy, try or no!", Mayday replied, and I laughingly kissed her. Hamilton laughed too, but didn't know why!
We entered the pyramid and began the domestic duties ascociated with the raising of our son, me taking a small nap for an hour or so; then Mayday and I got ready for this evenings' feast. Mayday had one of the Kirky females that was taking care of her own seven offspring in the next set of rooms over to tend to Hamilton until we got back, promising to bring her some leftovers in the bargain. The feast commenced like usual, and the trio of Parasolophus that was captured by the hunting party turned out to be extra delicious.
Afterwards I finally got the chance to tell everyone about my adventures delivering LaSage's supplies over the dying campfire. Rex retold his story of the exploration of the World Beneath, and everyone that went along with him addded thier take on the adventure. the whole clan thought that both adventures most entertaining indeed!
"You know, we're really going to have to go back there.", I said offhandedly. "The World Beneath, that is. Those Strutters could be a great help around here. They could carry heavy looads and perform many other tasks."
"They were built for war!", Grond said. "How could machines like that be put to good use?"
"Well, we could strip any weapons off them, then learn how to use them properly.", I suggested. "I'm sure MacDougal can get them working again, given time. He can take the weapons off them while he's at it."
"And then there's that other suit of armor down there, too.", Thundertail said. "What would become of that?"
"These suits are only operational if someone wears them.", I said. "Maybe another human can wear it. You've seen the usefullness two suits of Othgar can be, This would be magnified with three suits among us."
"We only have a handful of humans that are old enough to wear it.", Thundertail said. "I suggest we ask for volunteers."
"I don't want to do it.", Mark Sereno spoke. "I got to think of my family. What would happen to them if I get myself killed in the thing?"
"I can do it!", Greg Krieger volunteered.
"No! You're too young.", Melissa Krieger told him. "The suit needs an adult to operate it. Am I not right?"
"I suppose.", I said.
"AW!", Greg balked.
"Well, don't look at me!", Melissa said defensively. "How about you, dear?"
"I don't think so.", Miles Krieger said. "I have a family too!"
"Nay, lads!", MacDougal said when he noticed everyone look his way. "I be too old to be galavantin' around in a contraption like that!"
"I might have worn Zandra before,", Sarah Sereno said. "But I never want to do THAT again!"
"What about you, son?", I asked, turning to Diego after all the other humans gave thier reasons. "I know it's a lot to ask..."
"Me, sir?", Diego stammered. "Why me?"
"Well, you've already been there.", I explained. "You've already seen him, and you know the way there. From what I hear, Triphus really wants you to be his wearer."
"I guarantee the experience will be well worth it to you.", Klamath added.
"But I'm a pirate! An Outsider!", Diego balked. "Do you think you could really trust me with it? I could turn and destroy everything this clan stands for...! And I don't want to do that!..."
"The very fact that you don't want to destrroy us with Triphus is the very reason why you should wear him!", I told him. "That statement right there proves that you are a worthy member of this clan. Would a pirate or an outsider care enough about others to refuse the power to destroy them?", I then said softer. "You have just proven to us that we can trust you to wear Triphus, so what do you say? We need a guide to show us the way anyway..."
"Well...", Diego said slowly, weighing the implications of his decision. "If it's all right with king Thundertail, I suppose i could give it a try."
"Then it is agreed.", Thundertail officially said to the clan. "Diego will lead a group to the World Beneath. He will wear Triphus, armor of Othgar; and from then on will be considered a full member of clan Thundertail. Agreed? Opposed?", there were only a few that opposed.
"Father, can i come along too?", Rex said for Diego's benefit only. "I have also been there."
"I was just gettingto that.", Thundertail said. "You may also go along, as well as two Veloceraptor guards. It is still a dangerous place down there!", just then Ripper and Snapper raised thier clawed hands to volunteer. "Yes, Snapper and Ripper! You twi may be the guards!", he nodded.
"We like to guard!", Ripper said.
"Especially guarding Stinger!", Snapper added.
Pretty soon after that, the conversations around the campfire became reduced to scattered, muted conversation. Some of this entailed the planning of our trip to the World Beneath, which would be tomorrow if everything went right! We laughed and joked around for many hours, telling tales and swapping experiences and minor opinions haphazardly. As the stars began to take over the night sky from the nighttime clouds, many of the clan had decided they had had enough; and we all decided to turn in for the night, no less I because I was going on tomorrows' expedition!
That nights' sleep left me with something else to be desired, but I woke up refreshed never the less. We had Whitetail babysit Hamilton, and mayday and I descended into the depths of the Pyramid, to the chamber of Zandra. We waited, and when everyone arrived there, we inspected all our supplies for the all day journey to the chamber of the Strutters. Once done with this, we descended down the circular stairway; and Rex led the way, but we soon fanned out as soon as we reached the bottom. We traveled through the streets of Kinan Van and neared the chambers where the other Amultes of Protection were procured. This was the limit to my knowledge of the place, si we had Diego lead us the rest of the way.
At the intersection where three massive archways stood, we paused as Rex explained them to us. he said the left archway led in the wrong direction, and blocked off with a landslide about a mile in. The one straight ahead was blocked off a few hundred yards in as well, and the right hand arch led down to the chamber of the Strutters.
We took that passage, and the mile or more of stairs beyond led us to a cavernous space, of which Klamath said went on for quite a distance and was filled with all sorts of massive machinery. As the group finally made it out to the main floor of the Strutter chamber, the effect of having Klamath and zandra there at the same time made the Sunstone at the top of the central tower to glow brightly almost immediately, illuminating the giant space to an almost sun-bright intensity.
Now the full scope of the Strutter chamber became apparent to us all, for the whole space looked to be as big as four whole football stadiums, (Zippeau, ask the Scotts how big one is!) and nearly three times as high! There were hundreds of Strutters littering the floorspace, and nearly all of them were in various states of disassembly with thier parts either strewn around or on stone tables next to them.
I scanned through the sea of Strutters and spotted a headless Tyranosaur Strutter near the far end of the cavernous space. I wove my way through the other along the way, stopping every now and then to look at a strange strutter or to pick up a small part on tables along the way. Mayday was right behind me, doing pretty much the same thing; and we both made it to the mechanical tyranosaur at about the same time.
"Hey Rex! Look!", I called to him as I pointed. "Meet 'Robo-Rex'!"
"Where's the head?", Rex called back from fifty yards away.
"On table over there.", Mayday informed. It lay on its' side, blank eyes seeming to glare at me.
"Let's see what kind of choppers it has...", I said as I went over to it. I pried the closed jaws open using Klamath's strength. It creaked from lack of movement all these centuries, and I looked inside suprised! "Hey, look! There's a cannon in there!", the small bore muzzle loader was where the tongue would have been, and was similar to those French cannons on ancient naval ships I've seen in nautical museums. This one was painted bright, ornate colors; and the scenes on it depicted blood, destruction and death.
"That do a lot of damage!", Mayday said as she inspected the device. "Maybe all Strutters have cannons!"
"Well, if we're going to use these things one day, the cannons will have to go!", I said. "MacDougal is going to have his work cut out for him on this project!"
"We found the armor over there.", Rex pointed with his snout, in the direction of the Sunstone tower.
We all presently folowed him, Ripper and Snapper tagging along, then fanning out among the machinery and becoming lost to view. We soon passed the tower and saw the crimson shape of Triphus encased in his maetllic clasps like he looked when the first group of explorers discovered him.
He was made tiny by the alcove archway his standing form was framed by, and made even tinier by the huge twin statues of Othgar looming over him on either side of the archway. These statues were obscured by the gloom of the place the first time, so they unnerved everyone there at the sight. Klamath and Zandra quickened thier pace at the recognition of thier comrade, and made it there before all the rest. Triphus's carmine eyes glowed dim at our presence, then flashed to almost blinding as he seemed to recognize who was before him.
"Triphus! My old friend!", Klamath boomed as he stood before him. "It has been an eon! I am pleased you are still functional."
"My leader, I have been waiting for so very long!", Triphus said as his clasps seperated and sank into the stone dias he was on. "My duty since we last met was to guard the Chamber of the Strutters, and this I have done as per the orders of Othgar the great and technician Shetsetskafti."
"Was he an Egyptian?", I had to ask, disturbing the reunion somewhat. "That sounds like an Egyptian name."
"It is quite possible that ce could have traveled to that land when Posideos sank, human.", Triphus said. "You are Klamath's new wearer. Who be you?"
"I am colonel Charles Decker.", I said. "They call me Stinger around here."
"Klamath relates to me that you are Dolphinback.", Triphus said. "Is this true?", "Yes, sir.", I said. "My flying machine crashed in the Rainy Basin about two years ago, and I encountered Klamath shortly thereafter."
"And who wears Zandra?", the red armor asked.
"Me Mayday. Many mothers Kenyan.", she told the armor. "Me in transportation guild, but Partner get eaten. Me met Stinger, then clan Thundertail, then year ago wear Zandra."
"They all have been nothing but a help ever since we met them, sir.", Rex added, and Ripper and Snapper nodded. "It was a wise decision that my father opted not to eat them!"
"I see.", Triphus chuckled. "And now the question I've been meaning to ask. Who will wear ME?"
"We have decided that Diego here will wear you.", I said as Rex scooted Diego out from behind him so he could be seen.
"He seems too timid.", Triphus said. "Are you sure he's worthy enough?"
"He comes highly reccommended.", I said.
"He good boy.", Mayday added.
"I'll do the best I can.", Diego whispered as soon as he found the courage to speak and stand alone.
"Then come, son!", Triphus said as his Triceratops helmet split down the middle and retracted behind the collar that was the frill of the Triceratops shape. "I will offer you power and glory like you have never dreamed!", the parts of the suit split open like a fruit: torso, arms, legs and neckpiece. Diego stepped up closer to the creation, inspecting the interior a momment; then looking back at us in worry.
"Go ahead, son.", I coached. "Just back into it and let it close around you. It's a bit disorienting at first, but that quickly passes."
"Well...", Diego nodded and reluctantly complied.
I walked over as he backed up, positioning his arms and legs into the appendage halfs; then Triphus began to close up as I backed away. His red eyes glowed bright crimson and the joints did likewise as the whole suit of armor shuddered; and i heard Diego's muffled gasps coming from the mask. A moment later the armor became still, and Triphus's mask scrolled away from Diego's extremely bewildered face. After a moment, Diego looked around and gained a knowing look before he spoke.
"That was the strangest thing that ever happened to me!", Diego breathed, then looked at Mayday and the rest of us. "It was like learning how to think all over again; and then mu mind became full of all kinds of deeds I have never done before!"
"Diego, we are now one.", Triphus said. "I will serve you well, and you will learn many honorable things."
Diego and Triphus took a first unsure mutual step, wobbling slightly until thier balance was regained. They stepped off the dias as we all backed up, and they turned a full circle; seeminhgly enjoying it. Diego flexed his now armored fingers and his now armored arms as he looked at us once more, smile broader than i had ever seen on the lad! Soon that smile was obscured as Triphus reactivated his helmet, and Klamath's and Zandra's helmets did the same; for a long awaited reunion was about to take place.
"It's such a pleasure to be whole once again!", Triphus shook Klamath's hand, ending in a brotherly embrace. "I missed you all!", he turned and grasped Zandra in a true affectionate hug.
"It has been a long time since we were a team.", Zandra pulled away, talking Klamath's hand. "I hope that we are never split up again!"
"And so brings us to our new mission.", klamath said, breaking the moment somewhat. "The people of the outside world have developed a civilization of thier own. they would not take kindly to any enforced changes in thier way of life, Stinger has suggested a more diplomatic approach to winning them over, but it must be obtained slowly and carefully."
"We have given our services to the creatures of this day and age.", Zandra sais to the frilled mask. "We are leading the creatures of the Rainy Basin into a civilization and culture of thier own. From there it would be easier to address the rest of the population."
"So war is not an option this time.", Triphus concluded. "Such a shame! But i suppose you would attract more insects with honey rather than vinegar!", he chuckled. "I will do what is necesary to assist in your policies, my lord!"
"You were always my most faithful general.", Klamath praised and Triphus nodded.
"And now, my lord.", Triphus said. "I would show you what else i have been guarding all these millennia!"
He turned and faced the dias, standing in the direct center of the massive arch. He stepped on a stone at his feet that was in the shape of a Triceratops and it lowered an inch. The eyes of the twin Othgar ststues began to glow softly and pulse as if thier hearts were beating. Triphus raised his hands toward each of the statues and his hands began to glow, causing the ststues' eyes to glow brighter and steadier.
All of a sudden a split appeared in the alcove beyond the arch, and the grinding sounds of machinery was heard working beneath our feet. The two halfs of the alcove split apart and scrolled aside while the dias sank to floor level. This created a wide stairway that lowered down to a sloping passageway lined with Sunstone sconces that lit up almost immediately. Triphus lowered his arms and turned to us.
"Behold!... Beyond lies the workshops of Shetsetskafti!", Triphus announced. "Greatest scientist in all of Dinotopian history!", he turned to us and nodded that we should follow. "Follow me.", he descended the steps, and we all followed.
"Beyond the portal ahead no soul has seen in ten thousand years!", Triphus said at the end of the hallway. He placed his right hand on a raised stone on the wall beside the portal.
The door slid up into the ceiling in a split second, but the darkness beyond showed that the lighting had failed. As triphus entered the darkened space, a light gasping was heard from inside. We moved in cautiousely as a slight squeaking was heard as whatever was here noticed our presence, then became silent. Klamath informed me that he detected nothing living in here; but Rex's concerned claw on my shoulder told me he sensed something dangerous!
"I don't think this chamber is as abandoned as you claim, my friend Triphus.", i murmured to our guide as we entered.
"All right, intruder!", Triphus announced loudly. "We know you're in here! Show yourself!"
"Leave here!", came a squeaky metallic voice from the blackness beyond. "You're not allowed here!"
"We are on a mission of peace!", I told it. "We also posess the armor of Othgar!"
"You don't belong here!", it squeaked again. "Go away!"
"I am Zandra.", Zandra said. "Please, we wish to help. What is your name?"
"Flit.", Flit said.
"What are you?", Diego asked.
"I am a posession of Shetsetskafti.", Flit squeaked. "I am his helper. I will only answer to him. Go away!"
"I've had enough of this!", I thought to Klamath. "Can you light the chamber?"
"Yes.", Klamath thought back and suddenly opened the hatch across his chest.
The green aura eminating from his chest gave the whole chamber an eerie luminescence. It illuminated workbenches and shelves lined with parts and contrivances that were in a much better state of repair than the ones outside in the Strutter chamber. We saw complete robotic creatures no bigger than a small dog, devices that looked like hand weapons, other things we could not even guess at; and, off in a far corner stood another complete suit of othgar's armor, helmet designed after a Parasolophus. The workshop still seemed as lifeless as a crypt; that was until the armor of Othgar turned toward us!
"Ok, OK!", the armor spoke. "You caught me!", it shuffled from the corner. "Please don't hurt me!!"
"I know you - yet the voice is different.", Klamath said. "You are Proboke!... Master tactician for my armies!"
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(Continued in the next entry.)
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Post by thundertail on Aug 20, 2007 20:17:38 GMT -5
TWENTY-FOUR: "Triphus, armor of Othgar." (Continued again.)
"Sorry, sir.", the metallic voice squeaked. "Proboke had been completely disassembled by Shetsetskafti. His lifeforce has perished.", the armor shuffled. "I did not know what to do all these millennia, so I reassembled him... I could not restore his lifeforce, and I am sorry."
"Proboke?... Dead?...", Zandra sounded like she wanted to cry!
"Who are you, really?", Diego asked. "Please show yourself."
"Yeah! Give!", Rex echoed as Ripper and Snapper silently entered the room, sniffing this way and that.
"Very well. I'll show you.", Flit said as he made Proboke move to the center of the room. "But be warned! I look like nothing you would expect!"
Flit had Proboke's husk seperate, and inside was a creature that was as beautiful as it was hideous! The Triceratops mask unfurled to reveal a bald, metallic head with twin arrays of multicolored eyes that scanned us all with a rainbow luminescence. A series of grilles below that where a nose would be lay just above an opening that contained a speaker of sorts - kind of like a mouth. On either side of this misshapen cranium were two more slits that were probably this creature's ears. Below this, where the neck would start, was a rounded node that sprouted many tubular metallic appendages that writhed snakelike and unfurled from Proboke's extremities.
As Flit stepped out of the armor, two longer appendages with spadelike endings bent thusly for feet propelled him out to the floor. These resembled the capture tenticles on a giant squid; and the upper pair of shorter tenticles ended with four smaller digits connected to it with a wristlike nodes. The middle appendages had pincerlike manipulators at thier ends, and wrapped around the nexxus just below the head.
"I was master Shetsetskafti's finest creation.", Flit took two spidery steps toward us.
"You're a robot, right?", I said. "I never heard of a robot looking like you before!"
Snapper looked up into the artificial face and cringed back slightly. His brother, Snapper, growled softly at it. Flit flinched slightly at this, but looked back up at us almost a full minute later. He cleared his metallic throat and finally answered my question.
"We do not use that term on Dinotopia. I am an artificial life construct.", Flit said to me. "I am fully mobile and fully manipulative. My memory systems contain all the knowledge of my master, and I can recall anything I have been exposed to since the day I was activated."
We all considered what Flit told us about himself as we looked about the chamber and Flit activated some of the lighting in the chamber. Mayday absently fingered a device that looked suspiciousely like a laser handgun while Snapper sniffed at a staff that looked remarkably like plastic. I picked up an object that looked like a timepiece, but could not read the time - if that was what it measured. Rex towered over us all, examining everything with his eyes.
"Why did you reassemble Proboke?", Klamath asked Flit as he fingered the scaled protrusions on his armlets, testing his stunner activator. "Why, if you could not restore his mind, didn't you deactivate him?"
"I guess I got lonely...", Flit admitted. "You try being cooped up in here for ten thousand years and not go stir crazy! I needed someone to talk to, didn't I?", he became solemn. "Even though the conversations were rather one-sided!"
"Wait a minute, Flit.", I said, having an idea. "The armor of othgar were constructed with the entities of other living creatures incorporated into thier systems. Are you similarly constructed?"
"Affirmative..., I mean, yes.", Flit said. "In life, more than ten thousand years ago, I was Flit, Shetsetskafti's Partner. About two years before he left, he created the construct you see me in today. I volunteered to become incorporated into its' design because I figured I could serve him better utilizing the powers this construct has.", Flit paused as if in thought - or was it regret? "I was once just a little tiny Compsagnathus..."
"And Compsagnathuses do get lonely sometimes.", I concluded. "Flit, would you like to come with us to the outside world? I guarantee you'll never be lonely again!"
"You're right, I guess.", Flit said, backing into the husk of Proboke. "It serves no purpose to stay cooped up in here and do nothing for the rest of eternity. Besides, I miss the company!", before the Parasolophus mask retracted over the artificial face, he continued. "This is the most excitement I've had in a millennia!"
"Stinger! What are you doing?", Rex whispered to me. "We agreed to have Triphus join us, but nobody said we could have FOUR of them; not to mention that 'robot'! What would my father think?"
"Relax, Rex.", I told him in an equal whisper. "I think Flit and Proboke might be very useful to us."
"Rex right, Stinger.", Mayday said, overhearing us. "Thundertail say yes to Triphus, but not know about other two. First ask him, then let come when say ok."
"All right.", I said, then addressed the contrivance among us. "Flit, we are going to need permission before we can take you along.", I said. "I'm sure the decision will be yes, so don't worry. If you can wait just a little bit longer, you'll soon see the sun again!"
"I will leave your master's workshop open so you may move about.", Triphus told it. "But please do not venture out beyond the Strutter chamber."
"Ah,... Yes, sir!", Flit responded as he went to the corner he had occupied once before. "But before you go, could you do me a favor?"
"What is it?", I asked.
"Could you tell me what's going on?", Flit asked meekly. "It's been ages since I've heard any news!"
"We'd be delighted!", I said.
I told this mechanical creation before us all about me and ny adventures on Dinotopia so far. I boasted on how far the carnivores in the Rainy basin had come, from near barbarism to near civilized behaviour. I told him about how we deal with others in the Rainy Basin, from our allies to our enemies. I indicated that thr rest of the Dinotopians did not adhere to our ways, and had a different civilization all thier own.
Rex told him of how his clan was run, and all the recent changes in the traditional ways; saying it had all happened in the blink of an eye by thier standards. Diego told him about life with Torres LaSage and her band of bandits, and all the crimes he witnessed and participated in under her sway. Mayday related to him the ways of life the other Dinotopians live; from the more utilitarian to the more opulent, and the pride these people take in thier everyday lives.
Ripper and Snapper told him about thier life in the pack, and the recent boon they had attained for joining the clan of Tyranosaurs. Klamath, Zandra and Triphus told thier parts in the wars following the sundering of Dinotopian technology; as well as all of thier exploits after that. Flit was so entertained by this news that the two hours it took to tell it seemed to fly by for him. It was clearly the most news he had heard for a long, long time!
After some more brief conversation, and farewells were said all around; we presently left the workshop of Shetsetskafti, leaving flit to dance his multicolored eyes over our retreating forms. We crossed the massive strutter chamber and made our way up out of that space and into the streets of Kinan Van. Within six hours we emerged back into the chamber of Zandra, and within moments was outside the Incan pyramid.
Triphus seemed to smile at the sunshine that he hadn't seen in ten thousand years; and all along the way from the Strutter chamber to here we continually gave him a tour. he had informed us that these places were not unlike the way he had remembered them so long ago, and complimented the renovators in thier accuracy in restoration. He was still looking around into the pristine jungles as we traveled toward camp that he barely noticed Thundertail as he emerged on the path in front of us. With all his years of battle, Triphus got into a defensive stance, deploying his wrist lance; much to the apologetic dismay of Diego inside!
Klamath rushed up and stayed his hand, and bid him to unfurl his mask so the bewildered Diego could stare up at his king with a strange smile on his face! Soon the whole group was smiling at him, and this transferred to our king's face.
"Well, well!", Thundertail boomed. "So this is our new arrival! I assume your name is Triphus. My name is king Thundertail. Klamath has told us a lot about you!"
"I am Triphus, warrior armor for my lord Othgar.", Triphus bowed. "I beg that I fall under youre service for the duration of your wise reign, sir."
"Granted, noble sir.", Thundertail said in kind. "How does your wearer feel about all this?"
"It is the strangest experience I've had in my whole life, sir.", Diego said. "But Triphus indicates he will help me through it."
"Excellent!", Thundertail told the lad. "Just like how Stinger helped you through your rehabilitation from LaSage's influence!"
"Yes, a distasteful part of a life that no longer is.", Diego told him. "I am glad that life is getting better!"
Thundertail chuckled at the comment as we all walked the rest of the way to camp, having us briefly relate the rest of the journey into the World Beneath. He remained amazed still at the robot creations that Strutters were, and took special interest in the workshop behind Triphus's lair. Thundertail listened intently as we described the two occupants in that room, and agreed that they would be a help. Even though he was as sad as klamath that the other suit of armor was lifeless, but thought the character of Flit seemed quite amusing!
At length he decided we should summon them right away, and include them into our ranks. he reasoned that, with the technological expertise flit had, he could be useful to help fix the equipment we already use, and make other machines down there available for our use. He could assist macDougal in these matters, and teach the old human how to repair the machines of our ancesters - as well as help rebuild the Strutters down below.
Within a few days Flit and Proboke were summoned, and both seemed to take great pleasure in the new world they were now surrounded by. All the creatures in camp wished to witness these robotic contrivances, and greet them in a way that carnivores in clan Thundertail were known for! It tooki many days for these two to be shown everything going on around here, and for them to get used to being in a society of any kind due to thier seclusion for so long. Many days later Flit, encased in Proboke, were used to the place enough to begin thier services to us; and it took just as long for us to get used to these strange new devices...
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Post by thundertail on Aug 21, 2007 20:17:54 GMT -5
TWENTY-FIVE: "Skybax."
"Er..., could you hand me that big wrench over there?", Flit asked MacDougal down in the bowels of the World beneath, in the Strutter chamber. "And for Pathos' sake! Hold that leg joint straight!"
"Aw, bugger off, ya' tin can!", MacDougal grumbled, but complied anyway. "First it's scalys orderin' me 'round, next it's metal mouths!", he shoved the indicated piece in place. "Who died an' made YOU boss?"
"Othgar the great, that's who!", Flit retorted as he disengaged from Proboke, slithering around the other side of the Bracheosaur Strutter they were working on. Pincushion was there, dragging the next leg section near the gigantic machine. "Pincushion, can you do anything with him?"
"I tried many times!", Pincushion said as soon as his jaws let go of the piece. "I guess you can't teach an old human new tricks!"
"Fah!", MacDougal spat. "Are we goon to get this beastie together, or are we goon to stand aroond all day?..."
Actually, the past several weeks were quite productive thanks to our new arrivals, along with everyone else working on the project in the World Beneath; for not only did we locate every piece to every Strutter in the complex, we had organized all the parts for easy assembly. The Kirkys made great haste in catalogueing all the parts and other items in the main chamber, and they even began to decipher the records kept down there; which were evidentally plans to assemble the Strutters.
The closed chambers around the perimeter of the Strutter chamber were opened, and thier contents surveyed and catalogued. One chamber of special note needed an array of control Sunstones to open; and that one contained a fully assembled Skybax Strutter! Me and my Air Force training couldn't wait to get it out and try flying it!
The only thing preventing any of us from operating any of these Strutters was all the Sunstones that powered them were still missing! We searched all over the complex, but no Sunstone large enough or the right shape to fit in the recepticles under hatches on thier backs. We decided to search for these stones while we worked to get these Strutters back together.
So much time was spent down there that it would seem that our other duties on the surface turned lacking. It turned out not to be the case, for everyone not involved with restoring the World Beneath pitched in and helped; even the newest members of the clan and the many visitors we kept on having. It wasn't beneath his honor for Triphus to engage in menial work; on the contrary, he felt it a refreshing change to making war or standing around in the World Beneath like he had been doing! Diego took more authority as the instructions his suit told him was proven time and time again through the work he did; and his newly discovered strength thanks to the suit made all the jobs he did that much easier!
As little Hamilton grew to be a toddler, so did the responsability for his well being. I had to stay closer to the pyramid, trying to help Mayday with the ever growing lad. The rest of the clan were most helpful to his care in many ways from the tiny to the immense. The Kirkys, humans and other saurians fashioned toys and other items for him, and many more gave gifts beneficial to his care. Pretty soon rattles of bone, other toys and small utensils of various design and composition became everyday sights around the nursery. The clothing and other accessories proved to be quite a help indeed!
The Krieger family volunteered to take the recently cleaned Copro cart, driven by Bross and Chizpa Dilophosaurs, to Tentpole In The Sky to strike a deal with the Mammoths and the Hindu monks there. They wanted to make a treaty where they would trade the milk the mammoths produced for mineral salt, fruits, grains and other things absent to those who endured that frigid climate. Thier one week journey ended with a resounding treaty with those peace loving beasts. not too long after that, caravans of Mammoth driven carts began to enter the Rainy Basin, full of other trade goods as well!
As Diego's lessons with Triphus went on, his reputation among the clan escaladed tenfold; and even though it was always hard on him, he always found the fortitude inside himself to perservere. His reputation tripled the day he volunteered to escort the next load of supplies to torres LaSage and her band of cutthroats.
He realized that LaSage thought he and MacDougal were dead as far as she was concerned, and everyone in the clan thought it wise to let her continue to think so! It was decided, mostly by Triphus, that Diego not show his face while he was at king Adolpho's castle, and Triphus would do all the talking. They would bring along the usual number of Veloceraptor guards; and Rex would also go along in case Diego decided to defect back to his former gang.
As soon as the other cart was loaded with supplies and Sauron and Chillet was hitched to the cart, Diego and Triphus left camp on thier way to Diego's former home. The trip to the castle was relatively uneventful save for a bevy of Struthies the Veloceraptors had ambushed along the way. This time they left no leftovers, and the ones they didn't eat was brought with them so LaSage and her 'gentilemen' could have some fresh meat to eat.
Diego recognized the castle from a distance, and he had the cart go faster down the all too familiar dirt path that led to it. The Veloceraptors fanned out and used the sparse scrub that dotted the clearing around it for cover. Rex paced the cart as he walked toward the castle, and Diego wearing Triphus drove the cart to it like he did it every day of his life. Sauron and chillet knew the way too, but it wasn't exactly thier most favorite place to go!
Usually there would be sentinels on the battlements who would warn those below of any kind of visitor. Diego knew because he had spent many a day doing just that. All the walls looked empty to him, and far too quiet for his liking; but Triphus told him there were still plenty of lifeforms inside, and to be prepared for anything. They stopped the cart many yards from the barricaded main door, but Diego knew that door would not be where the trouble would come from; for there was a smaller door to the castle, hidden from view from the main gate. There would be a literal flood of pirates pouring out from there to greet them any time now!
When nobody came out for many moments, Diego got kind of nervous; for nobody goes unaccosted when waiting in front of LaSage's lair! Triphus had to calm him down a little as he dismounted the cart and told Rex to wait there. He walked over to the side door, motioning to knock when he noticed something strange. The door was open a crack, and he sensed nobody there to greet them! Triphus pushed the door open softly and crept into the main courtyard. When this produced no results, Triphus scanned the area and located where in the castle the men were. They were up in a side room, sitting at tables and not moving very much from thier spots.
Finding his way using Diego's knowledge of the layout of the place, they found the door to room the men were in closed; and many shouts and laughter wafted out to them through the door. All in one quick motion Triphus swung the door open, startling the group out of thier gluttony and corousing.
"Excuse me, gentilemen!", Triphus boomed as the pirates quickly stopped what they were doing and drew swords and knives!
All dozen of them slowly got up and maneuvered around the table, quickly approaching; and the snarling looks on thier faces told triphus and the quivering Diego inside him that they were not happy in the least at being disturbed! They got within feet of this maroon armored, Triceratops frilled thing before them and halted; brandishing thier weapons and groaning menacingly. Suddenly a shorter man pushed his way through the crowd and scowled at this apparation like he meant to do harm!
"What d'ya want?", he said, and Diego knew his name was Martino - smaller than he, yet twice as tough! "Get owta here! We're busy!"
"I have come with your shipment of supplies from clan Thundertail!", Triphus told him.
"And you think you can just waltz in here and tell us that?", Martino drew his small knife to Triphus's eyes, still slick with the food he had been carving. "You are either stupid or brave, but I'd wager the former!"
"What would Torres LaSage think and she saw you guys like this, Martino?", Diego said in Triphus's voice. "We have your supplies, for crying out loud! It would look good for you if you come get it, you know!"
"Hey! How do you know what she'd think - and how do you know my name?!", Martino asked, then grinned at his comrades. "I don't think you know anything! What do you say, boys? Let's cut this tin can open and see what makes it tick...!"
All of a sudden all twelve of them rushed Triphus and Diego, but Triphus's automatic defense kicked in; they all were sent sprawling across the cobbles and table, clattering to the floor at the mercy of Triphus's massive arm swipe. Most of them got up, but most of them wisely stayed where they fell; and Martino sneered as he scrabbled for a sword and got back up. He sneered at this beast that hadn't moved from its' spot, crouched and got into a defensive stance, edging his way to this strange foe.
"I got my can opener now!", Martino said as the rest of the pirates chuckled, getting up themselves. "Let's see what you got!"
"I really do not have time for this.", Triphus said as he lunged forward with lightning speed and wrenched the sword from his grasp. He then snapped the blade in half over his knee like one would break kindling! "Now, are you going to help unload your supplies, or do I have to do that with your bones?"
The smarter ones behind him got the hint, nodded and began to move to the exit. Martino stood there, still crouched; looking down at his broken sword and scowling back up at this superhuman creature. As most of the pirates began to move past him, Marting got the hint too, and joined them. Diego chuckled at the whole thing silently; for it was probably the first time he had ever beaten any of them in a fight!
Triphus backed up a pace to let them all pass, then followed them out the door and through the halls to the main courtyard of the castle. Many of them, seeing that they were being followed by this armored monster, quickened thier pace. Several of them went to remove the heavy wooden bar off the hasps so they could open the main gate; but ran back in fear at what they saw waiting for them on the other side!
Rex had taken it upon himself to remove the traps and debris in front of the main gate, and was just finishing up this task when the doors swung back and several of those pesky human pirates met his smiling gaze! Behind him Sauron and Chillet snickered at the astonishment on thier faces; and many of the Veloceraptors in the underbrush enjoyed the spectacle as well! Triphus walked past the stricken humans and walked right up to Rex to rub his muzzle, then he looked back and made a welcoming gesture toward the cart; of which the pirates eventually got the hint, but were too afraid of the half grown Tyranosaur before them to comply!
"Don't worry! He won't bite..., YET!", Diego said through Triphus's voice. "Let's give them some room, ok Rex?", both backed away from the path and let them get to work. The pirates gingerly scooted past rex, and made it almost as one to the Copro cart - which still smelled slightly - and to thier waiting supplies. Chillet brayed defiantly at one of them as he got too close while sauron reached out and snapped at another one that looked at him wrong; but other than that, the unloading went fairly smoothly for the next ten minutes. Once all the pirates were done, martino got as close as he dared to this frilled thing before him and sneered.
"Say, don't I know you from somewhere?", He asked meanly.
"I don't know.", Triphus replied. "Have you ever been to the World Beneath?"
"Aw! Never mind, tin can!", he backed away and turned his attention to the supplies now stacked or tossed in the courtyard of the castle. "Hey! half that stuff is mine!...", was heard until the doors were closed by two more thugs, and any further banter was muffled.
"Well, that was interesting!", Rex commented.
"Those birds never change!", Diego replied.
"So, how do you feel about them now?", Rex asked as they drew near the Copro cart.
"I feel like I need to take a bath when we get home!", Diego answered as he and Triphus mounted the cart, and got some chuckles from the whole group.
"Then let's get you home!", Rex said as the cart was turned around. "I feel kind of dirty myself!", he gave the now helmetless Diego a lick, and Diego returned by rumpling his muzzle.
As before, the Veloceraptors came out of hiding as the cart entered the forest and piled into the back of the cart. the trip home was pretty uneventful at first; that was until the veloceraptors smelled some humans coming up the path right for them. Everyone sprung into hiding, and some Veloceraptors concealed the Copro cart tracks as sauron and chillet hid it behind a stand of fallen trees deeper into the woods. From thier hiding spots, they saw it was LaSage and the rest of her men, coming back from some unknown bit of mischief.
The ones they had left at the castle would surely pay dearly for messing up thier dining room, as well as trying to horde their monthly supply of provisions, Diego thought; and Triphus thought that she might be leinient on them for a change, but Diego knew it wouldn't be the case! As they passed, many in the group were talking about where they had been. It seems they had visited an outpost near Waterfall City, a tavern of sorts run by mister John Scott, who was a newcomer just like Stinger.
It turned out that no real harm was done by these pirates - just a little drinking, gambling and horseplay. The event on everyone's tongues was the little fight Quint had gotten into with a river captain who insulted him. This little bit of information the others would surely want to know about, and they all agreed to tell the others once they got home.
At length, they all made it back to clan Thundertail with no further incodent; and when they got there, they were received with all the welcome of conquering heroes! Thundertail himself was especially pleased that Diego's aditude toward his former ascociates had changed, and glad to hear they met with no real resistence - he laughed at thier exploits thare! A proud Diego told of how Triphus broke Martino's sword, and had the situation under control from the first few moments. I stepped up to Diego and personally congratulated him on the success of his first solo mission for the clan, and welcomed him as a new full fledged clan member. The look of pride on his face was the only thank-you I needed!
I had led the hunting party back home a while ago, and a feast was soon prepared for him in his honor. The Kirky band piped up and thier acrobats and tumblers performed many daring stunts. Pretty soon merriment was abundant all around camp. Even MacDougal stopped by and gave the lad a congratulary slap on the back!
However, the cebration did not last for very long as two dark shapes shadowed the camp from high above. We all looked up and saw two large flyers swoop into view, They landed in the clearing behind us, and quickly wished they didn't for the sight of all the carnivores slowly convergiong on them! I noticed thier avian harnesses, thier rather large size and the humans who were just dismounting from them and knew they were from the Skybax corps from canyon City, and rushed into the growing fray to try to regain some kind of order.
"Greetings, flying travelers!", I yelled through the building commotion. "How may we help you?"
"Hello, sir.", The man said. "I am David Scott, from the Skybax patrol. This is my wingman, Romana Dennison.", I shook his hand and hers in turn.
"David Scott...", I said as I disengaged my hand. "I remember you now! You were here over a year ago, if I'm not mistaken."
"Yes, I was.", David said. "I filed a report on you; and word has been received of your exploits since then. Let us just say that this is a most unusual situation indeed!"
"What do you mean?", I asked.
"Well, the council at Waterfall City has made a decision on what you and this clan are doing here.", David replied, turning. "Romana, the writ please?", she reached into her saddle bag on her Skybax and handed it over.
The carnivores that were around gave room for thier king; and Thundertail looked these two new humans and thier flyers, then grumbled a few words to me.
"What's going on, Stinger?", he asked in a rumble, which made the flyers nervous.
"The council at Waterfall City has reached a decision about us.", I explained in Tyranosaur, which gave david and Romana pause. I turned to them and translated what was said. "King Thundertail wanted to know what was going on."
"I see.", David said and concluded unrolling the scroll. He cleared his throat and started reading. nearly every creature there leaned in to witness the reading.
"To king Thundertail, clan Thundertail, Rainy Basin.", David Scott read. "From mayor Waldo Seville, speaker of the High Council, Waterfall City.", everyone hushed. "We, the distinguished members of the High Council, have hereby decreed that all activities in the lost city of Halcyon, the temples of Orous and Teeklan and the recesses of the World Beneath; to cease and quit forthwith. Furthermore, all activities concerning restoration of said places to be disbanded."
David glanced at those around him before continuing. "The rasons for such a decree are as follows: 1) Said facilities are considered holy places by us, and our founders agreed to never again enter them. 2) The carnivores of the Rainy Basin have been sworn to guard such facilities, and never to inhabit them, as per original treaty. 3) Said facilities contain dangers in the forms of unsafe areas, devices and other objects that contain magical or unknown powers, and are made of unknown purposes; and such devices placed in the wrong hands could spell disaster.", David flinched as he looked up again at all the rapidly angering carnivores listening to him - including me!
"Uh..., there's more. From mayor Seville himself, no less!", David said, hoping he wasn'r eaten before he was through. "Do not let us be understood, kind saurians! We commend you all for what you have done so far, and wish you all the best in your trek toward civilization. However, the fact remains that the above activities are against every applicable law on Dinotopia! We hope you will do the right thing and desist these activities, for we hold these places in the highest reverence; and we would be saddened in any way. With all my best..., Mayor Waldo Seville..."
At first nobody in the clan could speak. We all couldn't believe that the high council would deem that we had to stop our activities, or had the audacity to attempt to hinder us! We actually couldn't blame these two people or thier flyers for delivering this grave news; but the growing tension was almost too much for us to take! Pretty soon nearly all of us were grumbling, balking and protesting the news we had heard! As the noise in the clearing reached a fever pitch, Thundertail gave off a tremendous roar and brought the rest of us to near silence.
"You mean to tell us that they forbid us from gaining our right to civilization?! Are they MAD?!", Thundertail roared, and I translated. "We need these places if we are to thrive! We can not nurture and expand our civilization without them!"
"I know this.", david said. "I'm all for you making a place for yourselves here; and I agree that you might need these places to live.", he turned to Romana. "But the fact remains that they want you out of these areas, and there is nothing you can do about it."
"We realize that you may think you need these places to live, and these ruins seem like the ideal places.", Romana dennison told them in a pleading tone. "But these structures are our most holy places, and it would be a crime if you defile them with your presence. We are an extremely traditional people, and our history means a lot to us. these ruins are a part of that history; and a history well left as it was!"
"We are not exactly without historical sentimentalities ourselves.", I told them. "With every step of work done on the ruins so far, we have catalogued and preserved records of everything as the way we found them before we took measures at restoration and conservation. We have amassed a small library of notes and observations of what exactly was here. We have restored every area as exactingly as we could make it, and faithfully reproduced everything as it was when it was new. We never intended to destroy anything here, just to make it the way it was, and render them livable once again."
"I see that.", David looked over his shoulder at the freshly painted Incan pyramid. The pyramid of Teeklan, according to the writ. "And you should be commended for your efforts. But I didn't make this decree. They did!"
"I am certain there can be another way you could attain the goals you seek.", Romana said. "I see that you have a viable community right here, in the forest. Perhaps you could start fresh from there..."
"Our population is growing at an alarming rate.", I told them. "If such a community were to exist, we would deplete our rescources in short order. This is why we decided to rebuild these places. Our citizens can live in the cities, and our land could be given over to farming and other productive endeavors."
"That is a well thought out plan, by the sound.", David said. "Perhaps the council could be lenient in this case?"
"What the council has already decided MUST be obeyed!", Romana told him. "These places are sacred!"
"Romana. Can I ask you something?", I asked, she nodded. "Does the council think we have a say in where we should live? From what I can tell, thier jurisdiction doesn't exactly cover the Rainy Basin."
"It is expected that all Dinotopians obey the will of the council.", Romana told me. "Any other action is considered unthinkable. If you and this clan are true Dinotopians, you should obey this decision."
"But to obey the council means to betray ourselves!", I nearly shouted. "I think we need to talk about this. Thundertail, my king; what say you?", this I also said in Tyranosaur.
"We all need to discuss this in private.", Thundertail said. "My clan, please meet me over on the other side of the clearing!", this I did not translate, but most of the carnivores obeyed thier leader anyway.
"We need to discuss this.", I told the Skybax riders. "If you wait here, we will give you a reply to give them."
"Sure.", David Scott said as he and she stood by thier Skybaxes.
Talon hung back to have a look at the two other flyers. She sidled closer, but at a discreet distabce; and then the pair began to notice her. She began to chortle greetings at them, of which the both of them mostly ignored. She asked in her language like how things were, the weather conditions in thier area and the like; but the dialect was strange to the two larger beasts. the only one that seemed to respond slightly was Freefall, but the other one hushed him. At these squawkings, I turned around and noticed what was going on!
"No flirting over there, Talon!", I called scoldingly, and Freefall cackled laughter.
I turned my head just then and completed my short walk to where most of the other carnivores were. There was plenty of grumbling going on already, but the ones who were the worst were Thundertail and Grond! As i stepped into the middle of the disgruntled carnivores, most of them began quieting down and looking at me. I did not know what they were expecting of me, but Thundertail made all thier wishes clear when he spoke to me next.
"Fly With A Stinger, this is grave news indeed.", Thundertail said to me. "You, being human, and more able to understand these ways, should be able to come up with some course of action we could take. What say you, my most important human?"
"First of all...", I began, choosing my words carefully. "The hugh council of Waterfall City does NOT hold jurisdiction over the rainy Basin. They can not, legally, enforce the writ they have sent.", I looked at my comrades a moment. "These Skybax riders have merely delivered a friendly advisory to stop what we are doing, and the council expects to stop just because they say so."
"But we can't stop now!", Pincushion said. "That would ruin our future prosperity!"
"This is what they do not understand.", I told them. "They say we must stop because we are Dinotopians; but we can't stop because it woill spoil what we've been working so hard to achieve: to create our own civilization. To them it means that, if we continue, we will be breaking thier laws and be branded as criminals."
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(Continued in the next entry.)
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