Partners (new title)

[Kaak]

Because I don't know if I'll finish it, you can have it in pieces until I'm done. Mwaha.

Quizal-wha
Kaak, five years old, lives with his master rider and hatchery-mother parents in Canyon City.

=1=

Kaak felt the rookery's warmth pressing against his cheeks as he stepped inside and closed its tall doorway behind him. He had come in hopes of finding his mother; a brief scan of the room revealed only skybax mothers, four of them, looking with intelligent eyes from behind long, pointy beaks.

"Hullo," he tried, remembering his father's casual, polite way of speaking with Nightwing. "Have you seen my mother?"

The skybax mothers just stared at him from their nests. In the silence, as Kaak fidgeted and debated whether to venture through the room to the infirmary beyond, there came a squeak from beneath the sleek pterosaur nearest the far door. A skybax hatchling, scrawny with gangly wings sticking out, poked its red-streaked beak out of the nest and looked at him across the nursery.

At the same moment, the door behind Kaak clunked and he jumped, startled, turning to look up at his mother and Andreas, one of the elderly hadrosaur attendants who lived in the rookery.

"Looking for me, Kaak?" his mother asked, settling one hand on his shoulder and propelling him gently across the room.

"I asked the skybax but they don't talk." Kaak said this in a distracted sort of way, looking curiously over his shoulder at the little fledgling. It regarded him just as curiously, its entire head and beak turning to keep him in sight as they passed. "Mum?" Kaak asked, when they'd passed into the infirmary and Kaak had remembered what brought him to the heights. "Father said he's gone with Oolu and he won't be home for dinner."

His mother tsked and turned to Andreas, who was transferring clean linen from one shelf to a basket. "Do we need anything else from the caravans in the morning?" The hadrosaur shook his head and Kaak's mother smiled, turning to take Kaak by the waist and lift him to sit on the edge of her desk. "Did you walk all the way up here yourself?"

"Yes." Kaak inspected the slates of writing on the desk, keeping his hands folded in his lap.

Smiling, his mother sorted through them and selected two. "Do you want a lizard-back ride home? Or would you like to walk?"

Kaak did not hesitate. "Lizard-back ride!" he shouted, and clambered up onto her offered back.

"Hold on tight," his mother warned. "See you in the morning, Andreas," she told the hadrosaur and the two adults exchanged smiles. Kaak, in heaven, clung happily to her neck. As they crossed again through the hatchery, Kaak looked for the small hatchling and was delighted to see the beady black eyes and slender beak peering out from between his mother's legs.

His mother passed the four nests without slowing and then Kaak felt the cold blast of nighttime air against his sandaled feet and bare arms. Pressing his face to his mother's back, he asked, "Can I go with you to work tomorrow?"

"Can you be careful and quiet with the hatchlings?"

"Yes," Kaak promised, a little insulted that his mother didn't trust him immediately.

"Then you can come along. And maybe we'll take lunch in the mural gallery. See your father?" Kaak nodded, pressing his chin into her back, and listened to her talk quietly as they descended the gently sloping canyon trail to their cliff-side apartment.

[Kaak]

As usual, I'll need a title change :P It kind of took off... here's part two. Set five years later, when Kaak's ten. Just for continuity, in Skies Balam and Oolu and a couple other master riders are good friends and have risen to handle most training in the Canyon.

=2=

Kaak's father allows him, when he turns ten, to sit in on a class of beginner riders. The class had gathered only twice before and none of the boys or girls were Canyon-born. It was a different sort of environment than Kaak had expected. He was introduced by his father, then given leave to sit where he liked. Perching on a boulder at the back of the overhang, Kaak wrapped his arms around his knees and sat, balancing, listening to his father describe a skybax's physical features.

"How old do skybax have to be to carry a rider?" one of the girls asks. She looks as old as Theresa, who had celebrated her twentieth year during the last monsoon. Kaak knows the answer but remains quiet; his father allowed him to sit in only if he remained quiet.

"Is that why you teach them, instead of Master Oolu?" Kaak had asked the night before. "Because you didn't know anything either, but Master Oolu grew up here?"

"Yes." His father no longer lifted him up to sit on the table or let him sit on his shoulders. Kaak missed the lizard-back rides. Still, it was good to be sitting on the balcony and holding the heavy twining while his father mended a frayed patch of Nightwing's saddle.

Now, Kaak listens, patient but bored. He imagines going to Sauropolis and not knowing how to read, or to Waterfall City and not knowing how to swim. It must be different for everyone. Kaak's attention drifts, so he is surprised when he only catches the tail-end of a sentence.

"... and so I've managed to convince one of our unpartnered skybax to come as a physical demonstration. That way you can get a better idea. Kaak?" His father speaks to him directly and raises his fingers to his lips. The class turns to look expectantly at him.

Kaak raises his fingers to his lips and whistles three times, the call clean enough to carry forever in a clear enough afternoon. He's very proud of his whistle; he can call Lightwing from further than either Thomas or Ani. He hasn't any idea who he's calling now but he trusts his father.

A ripple of gasps and whispers sweeps the class.

The skybax is young, his crest more orange than red, but his beak is sharp and his wing-sails gloriously splashed. He grips the stone ledge with his talons and throws his wings forward to catch his balance. Kaak recognizes the move for being rather more splashy than his father generally likes, but a glance back at the spellbound class reminds him of the value of a good first impression.

"What's his name, Master Balam?" a young man wearing the colors of the northwest quadrant. The class is a mix-match of colors and styles, from across the island. Kaak glances at his father, who walks the perimeter of the overhang and gestures for Kaak to move out of the way.

Kaak does, hopping off his boulder. He takes up a spot leaning against the rocky cave wall, watching the skybax as his father begins to lecture. The 'bax has no name, for he has been given none by a human. The quetzalcoatlus have names for each other, of course, but a skybax's rider names their partner.

Feeling curiously self-conscious, Kaak looks the 'bax over curiously. He's young, still an adolescent, but strong enough to carry a human. He looks well fed and he looks about the cave with intelligent eyes, taking in each beginner student in turn. When he looks at Kaak, his look lingers.

Balam is distracted, answering questions. Kaak doesn't move, just looks back. He likes this 'bax. He thinks the 'bax and he have a lot in common. At the beck and call of a master, for a start, but they're both young. The 'bax breaks eye contact as Balam reaches up to lightly touch the inside of his shoulder where wing meets aerodynamic fuselage; he clucks softly to himself, as if thinking.

Kaak tears his eyes away, wonder why he can't go over and touch the 'bax himself. He looks out at the canyon instead, tuning out his father's lecture. A rainbow catches his eye, the colors faintly hovering in the spray of the distant Amu. Skybax fly together from ledge to spire, in twos and threes or alone, saddled with their partners kept carefully to their backs.

"Thank you," Balam says, startling Kaak, who realizes he's crossed his arms defensively. He uncrosses them and listens to Balam explain how to thank a skybax. A light caress on the side of the pterosaur's neck and the class laughs with delight at the skybax's farewell trill.

Balam dismisses the lesson shortly thereafter, joins his son on the walk back to the gallery where they'll eat lunch.

"You all right, son?" he asks, putting an arm around Kaak's shoulders.

"Yeah, dad. I knew more of it than I thought I did." Kaak sees the skybax's eyes in his mind, sees the slender body and unfurled mainsails, streaked with splashes like he'd flown through a waterfall of many-colored paints.

Balam smiles and reflects aloud how different it is to be new. Kaak, lost in thought, manages some affirmatives noises until he says he'd like to hike the rim trail that afternoon.

"Take some water," Balam reminds him, as a father ought.

Kaak wonders if this odd feeling is apparent to anyone else, but is treated no differently by anyone in the gallery and returns to his apartment feeling confused and lonely.

[Kaak]

Definitely needs a name-change. Two more parts to go... dunno how it'll all end up. Yet :D I really want to finish this before tonight. We'll see! It's unedited, by the way. I'll fix it before I post on the site.

=3=

Kaak's birthday is only two days before the Festival of Air Creatures and he cherishes the date. His parents don't pay attention their birthdays much, nor do the saurians who make the canyon their home; the years start to run together when you're a hundred and twenty. For Kaak, though, waking at dawn and sleeping at sunset is like walking from one side of the canyon to the other every day. So much happens that he can't keep it straight.

He sees 'his' skybax, as he comes to think of it, from time to time. At first he sees it everywhere, even mistakes Nightwing for it, though the two aren't at all alike. Nightwing's darker, for one thing, purple instead of pale beige, like the color of a bruise just healing, tinged with that lighter yellow-green around the edges.

Balam jokes that Kaak knows a lot about bruises but it's funny because it's true.

Kaak insists on running barefoot and stubs his toes, bangs his knees into things because he stands up too quickly. In the spring, after the sixth member of that beginner class vanishes to meet his skybax every chance he gets, matters are made worse by another growth spurt.

He is twelve years old, almost thirteen. He engages in a spitting contest with Ryan Atabar and wins; he sprints the archway from end to end four times and loses by seven steps to Thomas Ferdinand. Ani Miller has a crisis of career and tries to decide whether to become a famous diplomat or an elite courier.

The quartet spend their days in constant motion, concerned only with trying to out-perform each other. They talk about skybax, sometimes, but they know they're not old enough. Kaak feels different, sometimes, feeling like he'd be ready if someone would only give him the chance.

But he never says any of those private thoughts aloud.

"Andreas asked after you this morning," his mother tells him, taking laundry off the clothesline on their balcony and handing it to him to fold. He does this in good spirits, happy to help with something productive.

"How is he?"

"He's very well. He wondered if you wanted to come up tomorrow morning?" Itzel handed him a pair of bright green shorts and Kaak put them to the side with a grin. Thomas had made fun the last time he wore them, but Ani had given him a kiss on his cheek.

"I was going to go fishing," Kaak said, receiving two shirts and folding them expertly. "Maybe next week?"

"You can't find a skybax partner if you don't ever talk to them," she reminds him gently.

Kaak doesn't know what to say, lets his mouth quip something smart about being too young. He thinks he's gotten away with it and misses Itzel's pursed lips.

"Go to your fishing, then," she tells him. "I'll take the laundry in."

A lingering guilt gnaws at Kaak's belly but he doesn't know why. Ani meets him in the morning, net in hand. He brings his fishing pole. They meet Thomas and Ryan, slap hands for greetings. They are nothing but muscle and bone, conditioned their entire lives by impossibly steep, hour-long trips like the one they take this morning.

Halfway through the morning, Kaak has a momentary distraction. He thinks he sees his 'bax flapping through the canyon and looks up quickly, losing a beautiful red-bellied fish. To Thomas's catcalls, he sternly tells himself that he's not acting like a grown-up. He resolves not to worry about the 'bax. There will be at least four more classes until he's eligible to wear the beginner's patch.

"My mom invited us to the hatchery next week," he tells Ani, when they've caught a wicker basket full of fish and are lugging it up the steep trail. "I think we should go."

"Sure." Ani beams brightly at him. "Will Andreas be there?"

"That old dog?" Thomas swaggers, likes to think of himself as tough for using such edgy words. Kaak doesn't know where 'dog' comes from, just knows it's a put-down used fondly.

"I bet he will," he says, remembering his mother's tone of voice. The feeling of guilt eases a little as they make plans for their week with the skybax hatchlings, then divide their baskets evenly, sling them across their backs, and race each other from corner to corner up the switchback trail.

[Kaak]

Okay, changing the title to "Partners".

Summary: True love in five parts.

I don't know if I like this one. It was really hard to write and part five's chasing me all over like a tyrannosaurus in need of some chocolate. I don't know how I want it to go. Anyway, I promise I'll finish before I leave. Constructive criticism (heck, any criticism at all, please!) is much appreciated. I'd love to get someone else to look at it before I post on the site.

=4=


Thirteen isn't much different than twelve, Kaak thinks. He finds an empty cave and slips inside, sliding down to sit with his back against the wall. He watches the canyon's constant skybax traffic feeling melancholy. Thomas has gone to Treetown for the summer, Ani off to Waterfall City with her parents, most of the apprentices busy studying in hopes of an apprenticeship with Solara, a master rider friend of Kaak's father's.

Kaak rests his head against the wall and fingers his fraying sleeve. He ought to go up to the gallery and find someone to sew it, if only for the company.

A shadow falls across the cave's opening and Kaak shades his eyes from the sun, trying to see who it might be. The lean flier swoops past once more, then lands quickly, dropping from sky to stone without hesitation.

It's his 'bax.

The skybax chirrups a greeting, cocking his head and folding his wings tightly to his back. He looks gangly, as all his kind do, wings tucked against the scrawny body.

Kaak feels like an idiot for not having approached the 'bax before. If he's going to be sought out like this, perhaps he deserves to wait until he's an adult before he can request for the beginner's patch he covets.

"Hi."

The 'bax trills in a tone Kaak recognizes from years living near his father's partner. The 'bax is proud of himself. For finding Kaak? What?

"Were you looking for me?" Kaak asks, trying to figure it out. He gestures to himself, tries not to sound too interested. "Me?"

The 'bax cocks his head to the other side, then darts forward and pokes Kaak in the shoulder with his blunt beak.

"Hey!"

Another chirrup and it dawns on Kaak - the 'bax is teasing him! He, of all people.

"Are you lonely?" Kaak asks, reaching up to catch the 'bax's beak with one hand. He doesn't have a lot of experience at this. Nightwing doesn't like to be touched by anyone but Kaak's father, though Kaak he generally tolerates as Balam's hatchling. "Yeah, I'm lonely, too. All my friends have gone away."

This last he says softly, captivated by the smoothness of the 'bax's beak. Getting to his feet slowly, Kaak reachs up to run his hands carefully up the 'bax's beak. Half expecting the skybax to squawk or leap backwards, perhaps give him a nip about the ear, he's delighted to find no resistance.

"Wish I had your name," Kaak mutters. The skybax's yellow eye looks into his own but the 'bax only clucks only clucks his beak lightly. Kaak takes it for agreement.

Time is an odd thing when you're thirteen. Kaak doesn't know how long he stands there, holding the skybax. As the fog of first meeting clears from his head, he realizes he's being put in a difficult position.

"What am I supposed to tell my father?" he asks the 'bax softly, but answers his rhetorical question before the 'bax can make a sound. "I can't, can I? Not yet."

To him, that the 'bax has sought him out isn't to be questioned. It's happened and Kaak has always been a pragmatic sort. He gets it from his father, Itzel says. Kaak doesn't know a lot of things but he's learned not to let that stop him.

He and the 'bax separate; Kaak's chest gets tight as the skybax, still watching him carefully, walks stiffly to the edge of the stone ledge and extends his wings to catch the air.

The sight of the 'bax, his 'bax, whipping away in a twirl, leaves Kaak with watery eyes. He reaches up to wipe them away and mentally promises himself he's not going to be mad at his father. Because it's not Balam's fault. It's just the way things are.

[Kaak]

Anybody reading? Some reassurance would be nifty. Some response to chap four would be cool as well. If I post another version, would someone critique the two?

[Kaak]

Story cancelled due to stunning lack of interest and impending deployment. I'll post it in its entirety in the fall.

[Rosa]

Hey Kaak,

Pleeeeaaase don't cancel the story! I have been reading it and I'm sorry for not posting a reply earlier. It's just that you write so well that when I read, I find myself getting sucked into the story and forget to reply. I also read some of your other stories when you posted a link to your sight for me to read. Yes, I like your writing styly, though I think that the word 'like' doesn't really do justice to what I'm trying to say. I love your writing style with a passion! Please keep writing Dinotopia stories. You do so well at showing the remarkable bond between the saurians and humans.

I have something to ask you. I myself have been very much into writing, but I'm working on a non-dinotopian novel right now and I must stay focused on it and not get carried away with trying to write all these Dinotopia stories that keep popping into my mind. I have found that creating illustrative Dinotopia artwork helps to ease the pressure. If I woluld send you some of my illustrative Dinotopia pictures, would you be interested in writing a story or two for them?

Keep up the good work!

Breathe Deep, Seek Peace,

Rosa

[Buttercup]

Don't cancel out 'Partners"! You can't! I just started to read it today because I have been busy with Real life but I just read all of what you posted so far and i LOVE it! I want to see more and to learn why Kaak seems to have a problem with the skybax choosing him and why he refuses to blame his father for something but really seems to want to. I must have more, I think taht I am becoming addicted to your writing! ;D

Pretty please, on behalf of Rosa and I?!!!!

[Kaak]

Argh :P

Okay, I've got till Thursday, so I'll rewrite 4 and post 5 by Wednesday night. Just for you :) I still really, really don't like four, but I'm not sure why, so I'll try to clean it up tonight.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. The art seems to get immediate response, but fic just never does. And thanks, rosa, for your reply. That's very sweet of you to say :) If you sent me the pictures, I would definitely write fic for them.

Just try to get them to me before Thursday, or I'll give you my address in Iraq so you can send them in the hard snailmail over there. I'll do my best to write on the laptop and find some internet to post.

[Buttercup]

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D

You have just made my day!!! I can't wait to read it!!!! I will try to give you some decent feedback but I will wait until you have posted whatever revisions you like first.

If you need more penpals to write you in Iraq, post or PM the Iraqi address and I iwll be glad to write to you. I know from my father how boring it can get over there and that hard snail mail that you can actually hold in your hand makes a huge difference to anyone. If you like, that is! I really am a champion letter writer!! ;D

Good luck with the story!