Koda is honestly such a sweet-heart, and I love the dynamics of the Dino Charge team. Do review if you enjoyed the story!
DEFINITIONS
by Tangerine Tales
Dictionaries don't make sense to Koda. He knows what they're supposed to be doing and he understands their function. But no matter how much everyone else seems to believe in the power of the dictionary, Koda would like to disagree.
"Dictionary use words to say what other words are," Koda tells Kendall, who is holding the thick tome in her hand in an attempt to teach him how to look up unfamiliar words. "But Koda, no know what other words mean. So how dictionary work?"
His first attempt at checking the definition of a word (it was "flirt" – something that Kendall had said about Chase) failed miserably.
Flirt (v.)
Behave as though sexually attracted to someone, but playfully rather than with serious intentions
Experiment with or show a superficial interest in (an idea, activity, or movement) without committing oneself to it seriously
He spent hours after that looking up the terms in the explanation that were unfamiliar to him: "behave" (which looked like beehive and that threw him off a little bit), "intentions", "experiment" (wasn't that just something that Kendall did in the lab?), and so on. This search led to even more searches, and it soon became a never-ending quest that seemed to hold no end. After meeting yet another definition that mostly contained words he couldn't quite comprehend, Koda gave up.
"That's why Koda no like use dictionary." He waves his hands in a dismissive way, and knows he has won the battle when Kendall's exasperated expression melts into one of bemused understanding.
She passes him the book. "I'd still like you to have this. It'll come in useful eventually."
"Koda use to rest head," he says, accepting the book with a smile. "Good as pillow."
Because Koda doesn't need a dictionary to tell him what words mean. He can see definitions around him.
The word friendship surfaces whenever he gets tripped up by modern technology yet again: after accidentally spilling a tray full of smoothies onto a customer because he was caught off-guard by the beeping of someone's cell-phone, and watching Tyler (with his trademark smile) and Chase smoothly cut in before the irritated customer can start yelling at him while Riley and Shelby come in with a bucket and a mop.
The word trust when whenever he wonders, "Why blue dino-gem choose a caveman?", the other Rangers turn to him to track down a monster and he always manages to discover the alien; when after a few driving lessons, Kendall gives him the keys to the jeep and asks him to learn the route for their next expedition.
Shelby is generous and Tyler is passionate. Chase is charismatic and Riley is driven. Kendall is intelligent. He sees these words light up in the actions of his friends, and he ponders what words his friends see in him.
"You my dictionary," he explains to Chase on one occasion. Perhaps because they've known each other the longest, out of everyone, the Black Ranger is always able to grasp what Koda's trying to say. "Everyone has words – no… adjectives. Koda asks which is mine?"
Chase smiles, clasping him on his shoulder. "You're our heart, mate."
"Heart?" Koda is confused. Hearts are in bodies, and the Rangers have individual bodies. The idea of him as a heart conjures up the image of the five Rangers forming a huge giant, with Koda positioned at the left of the being's chest – it is a rather gruesome thought that he would rather not be in his head.
"Yea, you're our rock. A centre."
"How can Koda be rock and heart?"
Chase simply smiles. "They're metaphors. See, you say someone's your rock when they're steady, and you know you can depend on them. And they're your heart when they make the team feel more than just a team and more like a home, you know?"
"Home?"
The word home is a tricky one. Koda remembers Home: it is a dark cave with his brother and his family, lit by warm firelight and the smell of something delicious roasting over the flame. It is of his tribe running together in the wild plains, hunting and defending their territory. It is of his tribe elder teaching him how to carve an arrow from flint, how to fight against a sabre-tooth tiger, how to strip a carcass of its skin and find the best meat to bring home to his parents. Home is thousands of years in the past – somewhere he can never return to.
Koda sometimes visits the pre-historic section of the museum after everyone's gone home to look at the wax replicas of cavemen. When he first arrived, he was quick to tell Kendall what was inaccurate about the exhibit and what needed to be added. One of which was to describe Taku so that one of the wax figures now resembled the younger brother he left behind so many years ago in the past, the younger brother he desperately hopes managed to survive without him. Home is Taku snuggled tight in his arms, small and safe.
"We're your family too, Koda," says Chase, in response to the expression on the caveman's face.
Can home also be this new world – with its strange technology and odd machines? With its glass doors that Koda still ends up walking into, and with its mobile phones that startle him too frequently? It's been almost half a year but he still feels as if he hasn't found a place in this new world, and in his lonelier moments, Koda misses home desperately.
"We all need each other," continues the Black Ranger, aware of Koda's hesitation. There is something different in his voice, and Koda suddenly remembers how Chase had arrived in America the same time that he did. It was an impulsive post-graduation solo holiday that led to Chase finding himself in Amber Beach, saving Moana's kitten, and eventually bonding with the Black Energem. When that happened, there was no way he could just return to New Zealand without seeing their mission through – even if that meant his initially two-week trip now extended into what seemed like a permanent stay ("Luckily, I brought my skateboard along," quips Chase, whenever he tells this story – forgetting that his skateboard was how he got into this mess in the first place).
Koda thinks of Riley and how he, too, left everything behind (even Rubik – whom Koda has seen many photographs of, and is very excited to meet one day) to join them as Rangers. He thinks of Tyler and his drifting around from place to place, trying to find out what happened to his dad; of Shelby, who lingers in the base after everyone's left, saying, "There's not really anyone at home right now anyway!" He thinks of Kendall and how often she sleeps over in the base, working on a new experiment or weapon design. And in that moment, he realises he doesn't have to be alone in his loneliness: that they are all alone, somehow, displaced individuals with nowhere else they belong to.
"We one… tribe. We protect each other here-" Koda flexes a muscle. "But more important, here." He points to his heart.
Koda beams at Chase's grin, as he clasps him on the shoulder. "You got that right."
The world may be a strange one that he is still struggling to get used to. It may be frustrating: how difficult it is for him to find the right words, understand new social customs and cues, figure out what sorts of noises and stimuli signal friend-or-foe and resist the urge to attack anything that appears too suddenly. And even as he misses his brother, Taku, and his parents, that longing for the past is no longer as heart-wrenchingly painful; as he looks around at his team-mates, the five individuals who have shone in their brilliance and kindness and love.
He looks at them and sees the word home.