DISCLAIMER: I don't own Dinotopia and I don't want to. I have not and will not make any money off this story. Basically, what I'm trying to do is reconcile some of the conflicts between the books and the miniseries. The M rating is for content that will show up in later chapters.

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When the plane I was flying on crashed into the ocean, I thought I would die. But amazingly, I was rescued by dolphins and carried to the shore of an island named Dinotopia.

I had vaguely heard of Dinotopia; an author named James Gurney had claimed to have found the journals of some nineteenth-century explorer detailing his shipwreck and subsequent life on Dinotopia. But the book was published as fiction and, even if it weren't, I would have assumed the whole thing was made up anyway.

So you can imagine my shock when I woke up disoriented on the beach to find a dinosaur leaning over me. Its markings were pink and turquoise stripes, but other than that, it looked something like a big ostrich.

"Wha—what—" I stammered, scuttling backward in the sand.

"Easy, easy," the dinosaur said, reaching a hand toward me. Its voice was squawky, and it had a heavy accent, but with my prior exposure to all manner of foreigners, understanding this one was easy.

"Whoa! You talk?" I blurted.

A series of squawks that I took to be laughter emanated from the dinosaur's mouth. "Of course," it said. "My name is Soneera Malat. What's yours?"

Still reeling from the unreality of the situation in which I found myself, I started babbling. "Jennica Martinez. I have an Irish mother and a Mexican father, in case you're wondering. My friends call me Jenni."

Soneera placed its – uh… "Are you male or female?" I asked.

"Female."

Okay, so Soneera placed her hand against mine and said, "Breathe deep."

"Huh? I can breathe fine. I'm just hungry and—"

Soneera made that squawky laugh again. "No, no, you don't understand. 'Breathe deep' is a greeting. In response you're supposed to say 'Seek peace.' So… breathe deep."

"Seek peace," I parroted tentatively. "Uh, excuse me, but what are you?"

"I'm a Struthiomimus. My kind are commonly called struthies."

"So… where are we?" I asked, still completely weirded out.

"We're on an island called Dinotopia," Soneera replied. "It is a place where humans like you and saurians like me live together in harmony. We have great cities and sleepy villages, and wonders beyond measure. I think you will like it here."

I decided to ignore the I think you will like it here for the moment. "So… are all, um, saurians as smart as you?"

Soneera laughed. "Yes, of course! Most of them don't speak human language, though. You will pick up Saurian as time goes on."

"Saurian is a language?" I asked, confused. "I like languages. Is it hard?"

"Yes, it's a language. Is it hard? That's hard to say. How many languages do you speak already?"

"English and Spanish, fluently. I've studied a little bit of Arabic and French, but not enough to have a conversation." I shook my head, wondering how I could possibly be having a conversation with a dinosaur.

Soneera touched my arm. "What?" she asked, ignoring my involuntary flinch.

"I just can't believe it, that's all. Dinotopia is actually real?"

"Of course it's real—" Soneera stopped. "Wait a minute – are you saying you had heard of Dinotopia before you got here?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, sort of. See, there's this author named James Gurney. He wrote a book about it. He said he found some guy's journal, I think. But the book was published as fiction, and I just thought he made it up."

"Whose journal did he find?" Soneera asked, fascinated.

"I don't know. I didn't read the book. I just saw it in the store. Sorry."

"Hmmm…" Soneera tapped her chin in thought. "That's interesting. Does the name Arthur Denison sound familiar?"

I shook my head. "No."

"But you say you didn't read the book? That would be why you haven't heard of him. It must have been Denison's journal your author found. He wrote in one of his later journals that a copy of his first one fell into the sea and vanished. Yes, that must be it. Now let me get this straight – you say that everyone who read the book thought it was fiction?"

"I would assume so, yes."

"That's good to hear. We wouldn't want the outside world hearing about us."

That made me curious. "Why not?"

Soneera sighed. "Please keep in mind that I mean no offense to you. But the fact is, the outside world is dangerous. People lie and cheat and kill each other. In Dinotopia, the saurians have taught the humans to grow beyond such infantile and uncivilized behavior. The humans have given up their wicked ways and their weapons for good. But that means, of course, that we have no weapons to defend ourselves should an outside army attack. Being discovered by the outside world would mean our destruction. For that reason, we cannot risk discovery."

"I understand," I said slowly. "So people are always nice to each other here?"

"I wouldn't say that everyone is always nice. But for the most part, we help each other whenever we can. Cheating and fighting are practically unknown here."

"Hmmm." I smiled up at Soneera, from where I still lay on the ground as she had found me. "So people don't beat each other up here? Must be nice. I'm ready to meet some decent people for a change."

Soneera grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. "Come on, let's go meet some of those decent people. I'm on my way to Pooktook to visit my family. I'm sure they'll be glad to meet you. And then when I go home to Waterfall City, I'll take you with me so you can register and begin your education."

"Education? You mean, like a study-abroad program?"

"I have no idea what that means. But leaving is impossible because of the razor reef. No, we wouldn't want you to try to leave, since you'd just end up dead. We welcome all dolphinbacks with open arms, since we know that you're here for the rest of your life. But don't think of it as being 'stuck' here, since things are much better on Dinotopia than anywhere else. We all help new arrivals, and the first thing I can do to help you is take you to Pooktook. Come on, climb on my back and let's go."

I took a moment to think about that. I didn't know what a razor reef was, but it sounded bad. But did that really mean I couldn't go home? Was that what she meant by "I think you will like it here?" The thought was horrifying, but I couldn't see any reason to believe that Soneera was lying, if what she said about people being nice was true. Well, okay. If I couldn't go home, I better start adjusting to life around here. Then I forgot my predicament as my brain caught up to the last thing Soneera had said: Come on, climb on my back and let's go. My eyebrows went north as my jaw dropped. "You want me to ride you?" I asked in disbelief.

Soneera smiled. "Of course. We saurians carry humans all the time. Besides, in your condition, you couldn't possibly walk all that way. We're still ten miles outside of Pooktook."

Wow, I thought as I climbed onto Soneera's back. This is just about the coolest thing ever. I can't worry about going home now, not when I'm having an adventure a lot of people would kill for. I held onto her shoulders, and she began to walk. I quickly adjusted to the way she moved, and rolled with her as she walked.

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