Um, hi. Call me Starry's Light, or Starry. Whichever one is easier on you. Anyways, I welcome you to my first fossil fighters story! You will be wrapped into the silly tale of a boy named Dino who experiences quite serious situations and doesn't take them very seriously whatsoever. Wish him good luck, and happy reading!

Dino: -mild grumbling in corner-

The Lost Fossil Fighter

Chapter 1: The Orphanage

Already, there's a bright bulge of sunlight rudely trying to kill my eyes, once again. Quick as I can, I peel the things open before wonderful sun's shine can filter in and practically murder those pupils. A bright slash of burning sunrise goes ahead and burns sight for a moment, but that's what to expect when good ol' Ms. Nosh specifically puts you underneath the window in the bedroom. Someone has to be there, gotta admit. There's too many of us guys for all of us to safely not be placed with their bed right in front of that stupid window. Moaning angrily at the thought of waking up, I kick away the really gray sheets and proceed to tumble out of bed, smacking into wooden floor below. A scaled quadrupedal breathes down my spine as one of its stumpy feet totters me to the side. Of course. To be expected. Ms. Nosh has to do something with her vivosaurs, now that she's the owner of the orphanage and not a full-time fossil fighter. Eventually, I decide the floor isn't comfy anymore and manage to pull myself over my big, olive-colored feet, gray spikes of hair clumping over gray eyes. Stupid hair. I just shove it around and hope it doesn't fall in my face before actually moving again.

First things first, gotta get some man clothes on. I drag myself from oak floor and tumble into the gigantic dresser behind. Stacks and stacks of a rainbow of clothing greets me as I stare around at the tons of fabric. As usual. I dunno, maybe I'll wear another color today. Nah, I like gray. Plain old gray all over me is how I roll. I dunno why, I just like gray over all the colors. Whatever. My best friend dons all red all the time. Not like he's any better. With that thought in mind, I fork out the rainy-day-gray shirt and shorts, huge on me as usual, and step past the beds cooped up in the room, trying to blink sleep dust outta my eyes. It's not working. I walk into a fluffy wall of vivosaur on the way out the room. I swear, Ms. Nosh needs to learn to keep a handle on those things. Yeah, they're fun to battle with and whatever, but now there's fur all over my face. She knows it's that time of the month. Andrarch is gonna absolutely flood the place with his hair.

Limply, slapping a big ol' wad of hair from my face, I tromp onwards to the bathroom, down the wooden hallway and a steep right. I turn to face the large bath tub to my good ol' left, a really giant sink, and the tall mirror on the right wall. I step over the even-more wooden floor, oh joy, to stare at myself. Same as ever. Dark gray hair, spiked up everywhere, a pair of light gray eyes, my olive-colored, also known as tan-on-gray skin, and of course, the lanky gray t-shirt and big ol' shorts, coming down much further for no reason whatsoever despite the fact that I'm not all buff and stuff and I'm not growing anymore. I'm so... gray. Hah. Like it like that. Makes me Dino-tastic. Ha ha ha.

I manage to sleepily crawl to the end of the hallway and down five wooden steps -how many years have I counted them?- to the there-is-food-and-television-and-bean-bag-chairs area and front door, meaning a door in front of me by a few feet and then shoved to the side of the oval-shaped, wooden room are a table, surrounded by cupboards, a not-average sized, as in laaaarrrge fridge, and counter in between. Squishy pillows for seats litter the place, and a big, silent screen hits the other wall. I ransack the fruit bowl so-called made from some vivosaur bones or another on the counter and start to peel a banana's yellow hide.

Chewing the yummy stuff, I toss the banana peel at the waste basket near the fridge, straight in front of me. It plops against the floor. Scowling, I end up knocking a random wooden chair over on the way to picking the yellow waste up and normally flopping it into the trash. Then I get to the front door, don the gray socks and shoes nearby, and get the heck out.

While I'm moving once again, I stare out into scenery leading up to the waterfall and lake, also known as the best thing ever, especially if your parents are dead and no relatives decided to claim you- lake opens up into sea. It's pretty basic, I think. I dunno. I've only lived on Maia Island my entire life. Either way, since I think our planet, the weirdest-name-ever of Vivaldi-Isles, is really small or something, meaning trees, trees, grass, tall grass, a house or two, and trees. Not many towns. Not the most interaction between others. Unless you're an orphan. Especially an orphanage that just gave all their girls to families. I dunno why the girls always get picked. Personally, I find myself quite charming.

And just as I think of our bonds, my ears groan to something slapping the ground a bunch until a nearly-out-of-breath kid catches up to me. He's got light red hair that sticks up like mine, super tan skin, and red clothes, like mine but not the color, duh. See, told you he was worse. "Cooper!" I call out to the other boy. We have no idea what our actual ages are, but I can tell that he and I are about the same.

He smiles. "Hey! I saw ya walking to the waterfall so I decided to join. I'm pretty sure some of the little dudes are already there, and I'm pretty sure Nosh knows she can't trust you to watch them. Genius excuse!" Cooper chuckles. He holds out his tan hand to me. "Oh, come on, Dino, why can't you high-five like a normal Vivaldi for once in your life?" Nah. Don't feel like it.

Walking on, I make my bro catch up to me. "Yeah. She'd expect me to do something like that. Not the high-five. I mean kill stuff... And believe it." Which is also true. Mrs. Nosh doesn't trust me, like, at all, which is weird since it's not like I've done much... except for the times I've tried to ride her vivosaurs out of the house, or that one time I nearly drowned in the lake, or that other time I started screaming at some visitors... or... Wait. I guess she has a reason to be wary. Darn it all. I'm still the oldest kid here by far.

At the perch of sparkly waters, I halt. Its blue surface ripples like a broken mirror, another discipline I'd done- even though it was an accident then that had awarded us that long one in the bathroom.

To the left is a giant cascade of water falling down, sparkling droplets completely terrorizing the batch of lake below. I can spot a couple shirts and shoes lying near a tree, so I know there's more than one kid here. I almost consider to jump in myself, instead but kick off my socks and shoes and shove my almost tan feet into the water instead. Cooper copies my movements, placing his red socks and shoes by my own, easily proving that my feet are larger than his dainty doll ones, and forcing his dark feet within the blue confines. I sigh, staring out into the morning horizon and not paying attention to the kids. Unlike Cooper. "I counted three," he mutters beside me. I don't exactly listen, but give a tired nod instead. No matter how early I get up, I'm always tired. No idea why I do that in the first place, when I can sleep in. Whatever.

I keep staring at the pretty orange sunshine until my eyes start to burn, reminding me of the episode from this morning. Blinking like crazy, I cover my pebbly-gray eyes with hands. "One day!" I growl. "One day I will get you, stupid sun! You can't burn my eyes and peel my skin forever!" Laughter beside me. Mission accomplished. When I uncover my eyes again, a couple kids are staring up at me. "...They the ones you counted?" I mutter.

Beside me, Cooper's red hair flashes as his head bobbles like a vivosaur tail. Speaking of which, I see a finned bit sticking out. That lady has way too many vivosaurs, I swear. Don't care if they're a race to our world. It's creepy, man. "And this one." He scoops a third kid from the water. When it stares at me, I flinch and give a glare back. As if I slapped him, kiddy starts to cry. Cooper sighs. "Stop doing that.."

I turn around to attempt and soak up a bit more sun before it burns my olive skin. And am rudely stopped. By a giant vessel-like thingy. It's white, floating in the water. And there's a sweet paint job too. Not any streaks I can see, and shiny. By the vessel's blue wind shield, a dude with a straw hat, vest, tropical island pants, sweet shades, and dark skin like Cooper's happens to stand. He glances at us and gives a weird smile. What do I think? Creepy man. Very creepy man. Too creepy.

He stops his vessel-like thing at the shore, a bit too close to me. I feel the undeniable urge to bite -I don't care that I'm at least a late teen- the strange man's hand. I look at Cooper to see his thoughts, but his light orange eyes show nothing. I let mine bore into him, trying to pry an explanation. But Cooper blinks my way and mouths a "stop staring." I stop staring and turn to face the white vessel some more.

The very strange man climbs down from his shiny, white boat and gives me -not one of those annoying kids, not even Cooper- an even creepier smile. I can see blonde hair stick out of his hat like the straw from his head's falling apart or something, making me give a snort. "Dino! That must be you!" The creepy man's voice sounds creepy jolly and creepy nice. He holds a wrinkled sheet of paper in front of his narrow face. "Yep. Says that's you."

Immediately I'm faced with stares by my peers and supposed friend. "What?" I hold up my hands like a slave from one of the war games we play. "I didn't do nothing. That weirdo- I know nothing of him either! He has the wrong address! The wrong Dino! Come on guys, can't you believe me?" I give my best impression of the "Tyranno-hatchling eyes" for emphasis. The kids giggle, so I've won their idiot minds over. But Cooper?

My friend sighs, giving in. Score. "Okay... okay, fine. I don't know him either." The tan boy grabs his red shoes and my gray. "We should probably go and talk to him," As he says that, two oval-shaped structures zoom past my face. One hits my forehead. I open my mouth to retort, but Cooper beats me to it- "Sorry!" I just shrug like whatever and don my shoes. Together, the kids of gray and red walk up to the strange, tall man. "Excuse us, but I believe you have the wrong person. You see, I've known Dino for years, but I know he doesn't have to go with you. Neither of us have seen you in our entire lives before, sir. You may wish to run along now... We're orphans." Cooper uses his words like tall, strange man is a child. He was always good at that. Makes me feel like I'm four or something.

The strange, tall guy chuckles, and shows me the letter he's holding. "Read this," he responds in that stupidly jolly voice, "and everything should make more sense." His dark hands shove the parchment with lettering in my hands. I look up with confusion, but creepy tall guy only gives a smile of encouragement. Stupid guy, egging me on. I bet he ran over Ms. Nosh's water vivosaur back then. I sigh and read aloud.

" 'To the residents of vivosaur island- There is an orphan that I request to be brought to your land. I want him out of the orphanage and brought to your island to become a fossil fighter. I have enclosed G in this letter for money to give the broke kid. His name is Dino. You can find him on Maia island in the Orphanage. If you do not take him, I will know. Be warned if you choose the wrong side. -Anonymous' ... Weirdo. I betcha it's Nosh herself, trying to rid of me!"

Cooper sighs again beside me. "Excuse my best friend, sire, he's a bit of a troubled lad." I step on his foot. "Yes, that proves it. Ms. Nosh is a nice, quiet lady, and really has a kind heart. She would never try to rid herself of one of her dear orphans, especially this gray boy she's loved for so long! She loves them like her own children!" They're both laughing now, like it's fake. I don't like them agreeing about me. I do what I want, dang it. You killed that vivosaur over there, I bet you did. You did. "So seeing this odd letter... maybe it's for the best we see him off?" I now hate you, best friend.

The strange, tall, narrow man smiles and takes the paper. "So you're coming! Glorious!" Stupid Cooper's selling me away. A hard grip strangles my wrist until I want to bite the man like last time.

I stare up at the man. "I don't wa-"

The captain shuts me up with a booming voice. "No time for that! We gotta get you to Vivosaur Island now! Don't you want to become a fossil fighter?" I don't care that the weirdo's question was rhetorical. I don't wanna go on a stupid boat ride to a stupid Vivosaur Island and get some stupid vivosaurs that can be all cool and prove Nosh wrong. Stupid... wait. Wait a second.

My mind stops working on overtime and I face a choice. Darn it, now I actually wanna go with the scary boat man. But because his hand isn't getting any tighter, and not because I've made a choice, I growl, letting the strange, tall, narrow man lead me onto his shiny, vessel-like thingy. Boat. Whatever.

When I arrive onto the shiny vessel, my eyes want to pop. Super shiny. Like super powerful power shiny. This beauty is so amazing, darn it. "Oy, Dino! You can sit anywhere you want, as long as it's in a chair!" Oh well, guess that means I'm not sitting on the floor because I totally want to do that obviously. Weirdo guy. After glancing around, I spy a pointy bow beginning at the front. To the left is the opening I'd came in from and a rectangular-end. Immediately I race to the back of the shiny vessel and sit on a soft cushion. Softer than my bed. Excuse me- old bed.

The strange guy's voice comes on some loud, hidden speaker. "This is Captain Travers speaking! Our capacity of one has arrived. Welcome, Dino!" Vivosaur noises softly rustle and growl in the background. "Okay then. The ferry is starting!" And to a loud rumble, the ferry boat vessel thing kicks in and skims water. I still don't like the guy.

I turn around and watch behind. I also spy my friends -no, my life, my old life- growing smaller with the length the ferry's moving, so I throw in a thumbs-up with my right hand before he's a smudge in the landscape and the waterfall near him is simply a wet stain in my vision. And the orphanage -a large, rainbow bump with windows tacked in behind the red and wet smudges- is disappearing. Fading from my vision. Forever. Until after the shiny, white ferry speeds up, when it's gone. Wow. Can't believe I just gave up my entire life just for this guy. I feel like I should be worried or something, darn it.

When I turn my head around, all we got is more tons of fine and dandy water. Blue's massing everywhere. I can feel a stab of freaking-out when I think of it squashing us in on the ocean. Being stuck in blue goo and never coming out. But the soft hum of the engine and calming speed of the ship helps to kill my awkward fear. Hey, I've never been on this boat thing before. Shut up.

The sea has been calm with soft ripples like aqua ribbons of the ocean under the shiny ferry's wake. The calmness makes me remember my tiredness. How I was sleepy throughout most days. I let myself fall into a calming sense of security. It's a peaceful swirl of a towel, tying around my head in fat loops. The bright, beating warmth of the sun easily swings into my skull, warmly moving around the place. As of now, I do not want to kill the sun.

It's easy to lose track of time like this... Vivaldi-Isles is a wonderful, wonderful world built up with mostly islands, islands, water, and more islands, so it only makes sense that we're taking a long boat trip to get to wherever we're going. Vivosaur Island, was it? Geez, could've named it Vivaldi Island and made it just as... insulting-to-races. Whatever. I hope I get an actual vivosaur. Those things I heard are like super cool and there for you and it's fun and junk. I don't know much, but I do know Ms. Nosh has some sick vivosaurs that we got to cuddle with all the time. Sunshine continues mauling my mind as I slip in and out of remembering what the heck I'm doing and where the heck I'm going.

Vivosaur Island, was it?

Yep yep, Vivosaur Island.

The loud sound of speaking nearly makes me lose it. "So, Dino. You're from Maia Island, eh?" I give a sharp glance back to Travers. What does it look like, stupid? I'm from the ocean? Yeah, I'm totally from the ocean and not Maia Island since it's not like I came from there or anything. Oh, oh no, I'm from outer space, darn it. You know nothing, butthead.

"Yeah," I talk over the roar of engine and waves. Might as well be nice for now. "I've lived in Maia Island for long as I can remember. Which is pretty long, I guess. Parents died there, so I ended up at Nosh's orphanage." Memories; memories. Ah, how sweet. Lots of knives and blood and death. Well, I lived. And it's not like I can really remember my parents anyways.

"Maia Island. That's named after that giant, pink, healing vivosaur, maia. That's cool." Oh, stop it you. He leave us in stony silence, only the shiny, white vessel making noise. I stare at the water again and frown at myself. Then the great idea to spit at my reflection comes to mind, and before I know it, I'm lobbing spitballs at the water. The ripples break my reflection's face, making me smile. "So," Captain whosit starts up again, "you're given a choice between two vivosaurs: would you prefer a carnivore, or an herbivore, eh?" Uh. I dunno. Ms. Nosh didn't tell us much about her vivosaurs besides species names since we all sucked at remembering their actual names, and that they like cuddles.

Hmm... gotta sit and think for a moment. Vivosaurs are either classified as ones that, well, are gentler or bigger and meatier. Pretty much teeth size. A carnivore means sharp teeth, and herbivore is pretty much the exact opposite. Hard thing is that I have no idea which of them is cooler. They both seem similar. Then again, isn't maia an herbivore? Think so. I decide to go with the ones that aren't maias. "Big, meaty carnivores~"

Travers chuckles slowly. Stop laughing man, it's just getting worse. "Yeah. They're impressive. But do you prefer big ones or small ones? Both have extremely different attributes when it comes to battling." Which is true. I've heard stories of the greatest fossil fighters, like Ms. Nosh, hint hint, who used big and small vivosaurs, ending up with tons of different teams and a good reach to fighting every vivosaur. But then again... isn't maia large?

Yeah, she is. Let's be rude to the name of my island again. "Go small vivosaurs~" I answer. They're the best now. Not giving up, and doing the little stuff that effects big later on, or whatever they do. I dunno. Then again, I do know that the t-rex is probably the best known t-rex out there. Er, vivosaur. The fact that I'm not choosing a gigantic t-rex gives me Dino pride.

"Well then, Dino: I bet you're a v-raptor fan!" I have absolutely no idea what the heck a v-raptor is, but judging by what I hear from all the other fossil fighters, I'd probably be able to tell if I saw one straight in front of me or something. Again, no clue how fossil fighting or any of that works. I just want a snuggle buddy.

Captain I-keep-forgetting-your-name catches my kinda-gleaming eye, my lukewarm eyeball, and gives a still creepily large smile from the driver's seat. "Dino the v-raptor fan: I'll remember that." Oh joy. "Say, here we are now! Vivosaur Island, next stop!" Oh boy, he's gonna remember me. Not soon enough, may I add, Travers pulls me off to a smooth, gray walkway with the markings of a vivosaur head with long, sharp claws of teeth at the front. Near that is a small booth with two tall girls in matching outfits, meaning they're official adults and they've got on jumpsuits. Those seem to be all the rage for people in staff members or working crews. They stand under a pink, large umbrella, which matches the booth nicely for some reason. As I get closer, I can start to make out the colors and shapes on the outfits. And hear a serene tune flow through the nice looking place.

I hop on towards the edge of the boat and open the white flap, scattering away from the shiny, white vessel. And when I look back, I can see a matching shape of a vivosaur head with sharp teeth on the boat. Only yellow. As I stroll closer to the girls, the weirdest bundle of giddiness bites my heartstrings. Oh, oh, oh, oh boy...

Me: There you have it! Chapter one of The Lost Fossil Fighter is now done! YAAAYYY! -happy dance, happy dance-

Dino: Outta the orphanage! What a great day that was! -holds up hand to high five me-

Me: Totally. -attempts to high five but Dino slaps me instead-

Dino: YOU GOT TO EARRN THAT HONOR!

Me: TTwTT St00pid Dino.