She heard of wild vivosaurs being at the top of the mountain but Cora didn't buy into Todd's story. Todd was the hyper, quick thinking, scaredy cat and she didn't really care for him to begin with. It was a wonder how he got the idea to go look for said wild vivosaurs in the first place.
Cora looked at Todd and Dina, curious as to why this was going on. Dina wasn't the kind to go off willy-nilly like, not as Todd did at odd times.
"You're too young." Twelve year old Todd said before rushing out the door of the Girls Cabin. He poked his head back in. "Come on, Dina, I want to find myself a vivosaur before supper." Then he was gone again.
"I'm only two years younger than you guys." Cora finally said looking at her cousin.
"Just stay here. I want to make sure Todd doesn't get himself killed." Dina said before leave herself.
This camp thing was for those that didn't quite understand fossil fighting or all the different vivosaurs that were out there. Led by some of the higher ranking fossil fighters, Vivosaur Camp was a summer camp located in Colorado, away from any town or city. It was large for the fossil battle demos that were being taught to the kids. There were about ten cabins, a rec hall and a dining hall. Five boy cabins and five girl cabins where five occupants could sleep comfortably in them, each with a Leader in each cabin, this was how the camp was situated. Anyone could come to camp for an entire summer but for Cora, and her cousin Dina, this meant it was a good way to prepare for their lives as fossil fighters. But it wasn't all that fun especially with Todd Sanders hanging around.
Todd, the very thought of the bright eyed hyperactive jumping bean made Cora roll her eyes as she was putting on her gloves and boots. With Todd, they were always getting into trouble, trouble that Dina got them out of. With Friday being Free Day, campers could do what they wanted. And on this day, Todd decided to sneak out of camp, which is highly prohibited, and sneak off to Smilo Mountain. Cora opted to follow her older cousin, and the green clad dimwit. She was in for her own fun.
"They must be around here somewhere." Cora mumbled two hours later.
She was on top of a mountain but from the looks of things, she wasn't on the mountain top where her cousin and dimwit had gone off to. She had lost them on a trail to Smilo Peak, she hadn't realized it but Cora had taken a different path all together. She was lost too. Now she was starting to worry as she stopped to look around.
Cora stood in a clearing looking at a satellite image of where was located on the tablet that she owned. She had managed to built this from a broken tablet that she had found in a dumpster, fixed the screen and made it sync up to the FA database and could access all the good stuff that the FA had to offer. It was one thing that Todd always tried to take from her, without asking so she had to hide it from him. He wanted it so badly. Well now Cora was using it to see where she was at.
"Now look who's the dimwit. I got myself lost." Cora mumbled shoving her reddish auburn hair out of her face. Unlike her naturally pretty cousin, Cora was sort of, blah in her opinion.
Thud, thud, thud…something was moving towards her through the woods that surrounded the clearing. Cora looked up, her face tightened and she concentrated on where the thuds were coming from. Four footed, not two, which could be a good thing if it was a vivosaur.
Hello, who's there, a voice said, it was almost like Cora could hear it in her head.
"Uh, it's just me I suppose." Cora squinted, thinking she saw a flash of red through the mix of greens and browns of the foliage.
A black, orange and yellow head came out of a bush near to where Cora was. Shocked, Cora tripped and fell backwards on the lush grass under her feet. Looking through her hair, the odd Stegosaurus like vivosaur took a few tentative steps out of the bush. It stopped, unsure as if what had happened was just a figment of their minds.
Are you okay? I didn't mean to scare you, the red vivosaur said, still sounding like it was in Cora's head.
"I'm, I'm fine." Cora said pushing at her hair as she stood up. "It's just, I can hear you in my head."
Really, my last trainer didn't, or couldn't. All of us tried talking to him but lost the connection.
"You're a Yango, right?"
Yep, if that was a smile, Cora hoped it was. I've been hiding from an Allo. I lost him near Smilo Peak.
"Smilo Peak, that's east of here. That's where my cousin's going with that dimwit of a friend of hers." Cora jerked around and started heading back towards the path that she had been on but stopped and turned around. "Come on, better not separate from each other, especially if there is an Allo around."
Hesitant at first, Yango nodded. Okay.
Together, Cora and the Yango looked like an odd pair traveling together. Even a pair of crows cawed their laughter at the pre-teen and the fire type Chinese cousin to the Stegosaurus vivosaur. The human and the vivosaur walked down the mountain path together, Cora at the lead and Yango trying her hardest to keep up, but for a lumbering giant, she was really slow.
If I was advanced enough, it would be easier to keep up. Yango said after a while of silence between the two of them.
Cora stopped at a distance ahead of Yango, her head lowered as she sighed. This was not working as she had hoped it would, she had forgotten how slow Yangos were, like most heavyset vivosaurs that had a lot of armor. Cora took a few soothing breaths and turned back to Yango. She didn't say anything as she walked back to the smaller Stego like vivosaur.
She smiled. "My cousin's smart, unlike Todd. I think they'll be okay. Let's slow down, you look tired."
Thanks, I really am.
There was a bolder next to the mountain path, Cora sat down on it and sighed. "Yango, do you think I can be a fossil fighter some day?"
Why, do you think you won't be?
Yango leaned against a tree, more like a small clump of trees. She was like a cow, or a horse, she couldn't lay down without having trouble getting up. The trees bent under her weight as she looked across the path at Cora. Cora was in thought, kicking at a pebble with her boots, the ones that she had done so much house chores and small jobs to get from the FossilDig Company.
"Honestly, I don't know. Something makes me question if I will ever be a great fighter some day."
What makes you feel this way?
"Todd, he makes me feel like I am a little kid just because he's two years older than me. I wasn't supposed to follow them but I did. Todd thinks I'm stupid when he goes in search of wild vivosaurs." Angrily kicking the pebble one last time, she watched it bump and bounce it's way down the path. "He's always getting into trouble. You're not supposed to leave the Camp, at all, unless you have a camp councilor with you. But he did because he wants to find a wild vivosaur."
How did he come to this conclusion?
"Well for one, someone told him about these wild vivosaurs living at the top of Smilo Peak, and I think he took my cousin to her doom. One time he broke a window at home and blamed it on me, when I wasn't even there at the time. Luckily I had been playing around with spy cameras and showed video evidence to my aunt and uncle, he had to pay for the damages himself."
He doesn't sound like a nice guy. Why does your cousin put up with him?
"She's sorry for him, I think. He's not really popular at school so I guess she wants him to have at least one friend."
A moment or two passed when Cora finally stood from the bolder. When turning her head she felt a few pops and the tension in her neck subsided. Good, she didn't need a headache for later.
"Let's get off this mountain. If I take you back to camp then they'll know what to do." Cora finally said looking at Yango.
What about your cousin?
"She'll make sure Dimwit will be safe. I know my cousin, Dina will make sure everything turns out right."
Yango attempted to speak but a shadow fell upon the path. Looking up, just about the tree tops, a Pteranodon, or Ptera flew. Yango strained her head up, tilting it sideways to see from one eye. With Yango having eyes on the side of her head, she couldn't see with both eyes, she had to tilt her head from one side to the other just to see what was going on.
There is someone up there. Yango said, looking at Cora slightly.
"Someone's riding the Ptera?" Cora asked squinting up.
Having to shield her brown eyes from the glare of the midday sun, Cora finally could make out that there was someone up there. The person looked male in appearance but that's all she could see.
Yango and Cora watched as the Ptera landed gracefully with a whoosh, whoosh, whooshing sound of its wings in front of them. Cora stood in front of Yango, who was cowering behind her back in fear. There was a man on the Ptera wearing a weird spiked brown cowboy hat, like the horns of a Tricera it looked like. The man had a long brown coat, black pants, weird brown boots with brown leather fringes and he had a pickax attached to his back with a leather strap. He was an adult, something that was a little unnerving to Cora as she watched the man slide off of the Ptera's back with ease.
"Howdy there, Pards, I see yah found my last rogue vivosaur." The man said, tilting his hat in a welcoming manner.
"You look familiar." Cora stated, feeling less scared at the thought. She had seen him before on television, he was someone everyone respected. "Are you Joe Wildwest?"
"Sure am, pard. I reckon yah have seen me on television, right."
"Um, sor of, my cousin Dina and her friend Todd watch you a lot. I'm from Vivosaur Camp so we watch a lot of matches from the best fighters around. We see a lot of your matches."
"Dina and Todd, you say? Why I had them help me wrangle an Allo over yonder on Smilo Peak. Dina's your cousin, right?"
"Yeah, is she okay, is she hurt?" Cora stepped forward, in anticipation and fear that something bad had happened to her cousin.
"Oh, she's un hurt, and she's a plum good fighter. She fought the Allo with my Aerosteon, my Aeros, a high attack vivosaur. Speaking of vivosaur, this one here seems to like yah, small fry." Joe said, nodding to Yango.
"Well, I'm helping Yango out, trying to get her some help. I was going to take her back to camp and see if they could help her out in some way. She was abandoned yesterday by her real trainer, sounds like he didn't like her because she was weak or something."
"Why not keep her, yerself? I mean, she does seem to like you." Joe was looking at the Yango, who was now standing at Cora's side.
She can keep me? Yango asked, looking at Cora and then back at Joe.
"Of course she can keep ya, Yango Girl. It's obvious she cares enough to help you. Not a lot of people are willing to do that." Joe smiled, his blue eyes gleaming in an emotion Cora couldn't understand.
"Wait," Cora held up her hands, Joe looked at her in confusion. "Wait, you can understand Yango, too?"
"Course I can, any good fighter worth their lick can understand their vivosaurs on a deeper level. Yet, some can't do that, pard. Yah must be a special fighter then if you can understand a vivosaur."
"I'm not a fighter."
"Not yet, but someday you oughta be a plum good one. I reckon with training you'll be even better at it than me. That's how high you have to go, be better than me to be the best."
"I want to be a great fighter but I also want to work for the Fighters Association Research Center near my home in Miami. Can't I be both?"
"Well grease my bacon, that sure sounds like a right good idea, small fry. So as an officiate for the Fighters Association, I hereby give yah yer first vivosaur, this Yango here."
"My first vivosaur, really," Cora looked at Yango. "Can I call you Yang? It sounds better than just Yango."
I like that, Yang does sound better. The fire type vivosaur said, giving her best smile to the dark haired girl.
"Well, I best be off myself, pards. Can yah get down the mountain on your oown?" Joe asked as he stepped back up to the Ptera.
"Um, yeah we can do that. Yang, can you get back into your medal so I can try to beat Dina and Dimwit back to camp?" Cora asked.
In a flash of light, Yang turned into a small metal disc that jumped into Cora's hand. Stuffing the medal in her jeans pocket, Cora turned to look at Joe.
"Thank you, Joe, this read means a lot to me."
"Get back to camp, small fry. I wouldn't want yah getting' in a whole lotta trouble with the camp councilors." Joe said rubbing the underside of his Ptera's beak.
Cora ran all the way back down the mountain, which it occurred to her was name Machai Mountain. She hardly stopped to rest until she practically ran through the Tricera cabin door. Breathing heavily, it was a wonder no one was in the cabin at all. This was what she had hoped, that she beat Dina and Todd to the girl's cabin.
As she was pulling off her gloves, her breathing had sort of returned to normal. The cabin door opened and in walked Dina, with Todd following behind. Todd was talking excitedly about something, it was too jumbled together for her to understand. Cora had just put her tablet down on the table, which Dina caught sight of.
"Have you been researching the FA again?"
"No," Cora shook her head.
"Well pay attention kid we have something to tell you. Of course you wouldn't believe me when I say…" Todd started but Cora cut him off.
"That you got attacked by an Allo, Joe Wildwest rescued you and Dina chose Aerosteon to fight the Allo with. I know, Joe told me." She said taking the dino medal out of her pocket to put it on the tablet.
It took a moment for Cora's words to sink in, but Dina understood.
"You followed us?" She asked, leaning on the table.
"Yeah, but like Dimwit, I got lost. I lost your trail to Smilo Peak, I ended up on Machai Mountain where I encountered a vivosaur too."
"So Joe had to rescue a baby, huh?" Todd smirked and crossed his arms.
"No, Yango was abandoned by her owner yesterday. So I was going to bring her back here and to get help but we met up with Joe Wildwest. Since Yango trusted me, Joe said I could have her. Trust is key to a fossil fighter and the bond with vivosaurs. Now Dina and I have out own vivosaurs, how many do you have, Todd?" Cora asked, smirking right back at him.
"This is so unfair. How can a baby like her get a vivosaur before me?"
"Stop calling me a baby, you coward! It's because of you that I hate you so much!" Cora finally yelled, so loud that Dina and Todd jumped in shock. The once quiet girl erupted in front of them.
"What is she talking about, Todd?" Dina finally asked, looking at her friend.
Cora stomped off to the door. "It's nothing, Dina. I have to go find out cabin leader and tell her what happened and why I have Yang. Don't worry, I won't get you in trouble." Flinging open the screen door, Cora stomped out, leaving the two friends in the cabin alone.
