4. RELATIVES
Deep into the night, a low growling broke the quiet, the sound of something heavy sloshing at the pool fringes disturbing him from his slumber.
Thump!
"Mikey, turn down the TV." he muttered half-asleep.
Thump!
His eyes flickered open in alarm. Now fully awake, he remained motionless; trying to gauge what was outside in the dark.
More sounds – this time the movement of something very large and heavy being dragged in the shallows. The thumping took on the regularity of footsteps, and began moving closer to the hut. Whatever it was, it was big. Leonardo decided to chance a look. Slowly, he sat up. leaning towards the porthole, one hand positioned within arm's reach of his sword. The moon, now hung in its peak in the clear night, pooled a silvery soup onto the land, so that the ponds seemed to reach to infinity. It revealed a massive form, crocodilian in nature, with an enormous domed shell protecting its back. Leonardo guessed that he himself was not even the size of its head. Leathery black skin covered the beast , crackled like a hellish mosaic. Water glimmered and trickled the long way down its body, back to merge into the ponds. The splashing sound, he quickly surmised, was the result of the enormous tail that flailed out behind the beast. The creature opened its maw wide, releasing a shrieking wail, and then thumped its tail back into the ground, splashing the brackish water all around the shore and making the hut shudder.
The smell of the smoked fish just fifty feet from the hut suddenly intrigued the beast. It languidly craned its head toward the frame, its nostrils twitching rapidly at the foreign smell. A slick oily tongue whipped out from between jagged teeth, plucking the top row of fish, seeming to inhale the food down it's gullet. The creature grumbled satisfactorily, continuing to plunder the frame.
"Easy, boy," Leonardo whispered to himself. "Just keep looking that way."
Leonardo picked up his swords, and crouched at the foot of his bed. He considered running, but could not risk the exposure in the marshlands- if it were fast, there would be nowhere to hide. Far in the distance, another reptilian wail split the night, followed by a chorus of replies. The shrieks that they produced were followed by guttural grunts, throaty and short. Tipping his swords to the window, Leonardo caught a reflection of the scene outside: as far as the eye could see, lined all along the edge of the lake pools, hundreds of the giant beasts emerged onto the shore. With powerful claws, the creature closest to the hut began digging into the soft grey earth. It grunted in short bursts before positioning itself over the hollow. Grunting again, large eggs softly plopped into the sandy mud where the creature had dug. Exhausted from the task, the creature began covering the nest.
Leonardo silently watched, awed by the magnificent sight.
"Wow." he breathed out. "I guess I meant to say ma'am."
Some of the loneliness inside him ebbed away, as he watched intently, transfixed by the large turtle-like dinosaurs. It brought him an unexpected comfort to witness what were probably his ancient ancestors, just one generation of the millions before him. All along the vista, the mass of creatures continued burrowing, scooping at the ground and burying their freshly lain young, glistening white orbs in the earth. Before the morning rays hit, just as suddenly as they appeared, every last one of the creatures slipped back into the water in a rustle of growls and splashes, but it would be many weeks yet before he would awaken again to the sound of thousands of the offspring burrowing to the surface, hastily ambling across the shore and slipping quietly into the water.
The silence resumed.
…