Me: you end the chapter with them being all adorable and then it's like okay back to adventure

Dino: the mood was like -gets scissors and cuts it all in half-

Rupert: … -stares a little angrily(?) at the scissors-

Me: Let's not bring up that one story that Rupert dies in

Jkonna: and that Jkonna dies in

Dino: and that Dina dies in but Dino doesn't die in because he is the best

Jkonna: and then Jkonna punches him in the face

Rupert: … -_-
-just annoyed but isn't childish so he doesn't punch Dino too-

The Stone Fossil Fighter

Chapter 20: Daddy and the Butler

Dino

Here it comes. The battle that will determine it all. The battle that will show off all greatness in the world. The battle that will... be the battle to end all battles, because it's just that serious of a battle. Any and all must watch out for the start of this specific battle.

Droplet mentions something about redundancy, but we all just pretend that she doesn't exist to make the world a better place. It kinda works.

The moment those thoughts sprout from my brain, just like the notions, petals and seeds burst out of nowhere and begin to cover the carpet ground completely. First the carpet, then the cobblestone sidewalks I hadn't noticed until now, then the walls—but wait, those aren't walls, I'm in open air. The sky, then. The sky is being infested by flowers. I didn't even know that was possible, but, like, cool. They can watch the battle to end all battles.

My vivosaurs consist of my usual. Y'know. Droplet. Pippy. Duna. Harei. Rosie. All of my girls and their greatness, of course. Duna mentions something about it being rude to ignore Droplet, and then about how rude it is to call Pippy a girl, but like, I thought she was a girl, so it's not like this is wrong or anything, yeah? Plus, shut up: we have a battle to win, and now none of that matters. Only the battle matters. Just... just the battle, nothing so insignificant as a gender.

Duna again tries to herald me with information but I again don't care and instead curiously watch all of the budding flowers that currently infest the universe, wondering why they're here and where they came from, anyways. Me? I guess it was me. The more thoughts that run through my head, the bigger they bloom and the more they create: it's like a jungle of ugly, uncoordinated bouquets. Good for them? Why the heck is there a carpet on cobblestone anyway? What's the use of that?

Whatever. None of it matters in the end. Just the battle. This perfect battle of all battles. Me and my girls, we're gonna be in this battle, naturally; we're gonna clobber whoever it is against us because it's just that kinda battle. So I gotta be ready for anyone, cuz I thought it'd be Saurhead but I don't think the guy on the other side'll be him. Nah. This one feels... stronger, I suppose.

Pop.

My head zings around in a full circle with the rest of my body awkwardly following but I don't catch where that came from. That innocent plucking of one of the flowers I randomly summoned: hey, they're like my children now, what the heck! Don't go plucking children, that's just like weird. Whoever did it, I think their shards of dignity just drowned. That's okay. Not really. Gray eyes chip off into the jungle but I still can't find much of anything, just shadows.

But shadows are normal, ri—?

Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop pop pop. Pop.

Oh my gosh go away. This is a little creepy now. I don't really notice where it happens, but I can tell that color's leaving the air around me. The sky, a plain of flowers, seems to lose its luster. Like, it's not even blue anymore underneath all of the roots and shoots and stuff. Just... thick. Gray. No no... that's not gray, all the way as far as the horizon of my eyes see: no, that's like... black. Huge. Massive. Dark, dark, dark spluttering in harsh and relentless black. Pretty... pretty weird. Where the heck is my opponent anyways? Cautiously, my vivosaurs crawl out from their medals and sit in the flowers.

As the popping popping continues to only buzz harsher and louder, not long after mine are out in open air, a glistening figure begins to materialize just out of my sight. It's a red blob for a few moments until it lumbers onward. The closer it comes though makes it all watery, thick blue for some reason; its scales sharpen and its eyes hue of a cut plum. Claws and a sail arch him out fully and his forked, incredibly blue tongue flickers.

Is... that's a... like... some sorta dimetro, right..?

Behind it lumbers something even fatter and even slower, which acts all pompous and blue at first but slowly, just like its buddy, takes some sort of freaky transformation where the fan around his head alternates from blue-and-pale to red-and-cyan. He's a very messed up sunrise, almost. His stout tail flickers; the three horns on his head gleam. Scary. I dunno if I like this short, fat, creepy... tricera thing.

Okay, if these are the vivosaurs: where is... where are they? Where's my opponent? Come on, I wanna do my battle already! This is getting weird! Okay, so it was always weird with the flower part, but now it's just getting worse and worse and... strange, I guess. Real strange.

I never catch the names of the weirdos walking for us. I can tell that they're both male, which is funny since all of my vivosaurs are females—shut up Pippy why are you talking—but I can't tell who owns them and I feel pretty sure there's more than just a couple of funky-colored dimetros and triceras in this team. It just feels like that sort of puzzle that's still missing a few pieces.

So then... where is the owner, anyways? Why is someone still being weird and killing all the flowers off?

Still in the background it goes, a haunting song till the end of my days: poppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppoppop

Stop killing flowers, man. What did they ever do to you?

Of course they don't stop but I thought I'd silently ask. Standing there, all alone other than my vivosaurs and their vivosaurs, my eyes glaze around rather redundantly about the place, in areas that are steadily leaking, inking blacker with no real showing of why. Kinda... weird.

When suddenly it hits me. It literally hits me; one frigid hand sidled up into my shoulder and icing it with utter, black, charred chill: my breath sinks deep inside of me and doesn't come back out again. Frantically I turn and am shoved straight into the angular face of a girl whose big, haunted gaze fills my entire life with the sight of that spoiled amethyst.

It's not scary to be randomly touched by a girl; even the cold hand part; that's all not so bad. It's when thick coils of sunrise-orange hair, just dazzled in silvery specks, shoot over around her face and I catch a better look at her alternating gray-and-white scaled body that I'm scared. Because I know who this is. But even that isn't so bad, to suddenly see her again.

It's the part where her rotted eyes shine through dull, full nothingness to see me and glimpse past, and the aura of rancid darkness permeates her, brims her, stuffs her in it, until she's breathing it and it's not even her it's a shadow of her, and I understand that she's losing it, that that thing from so long is still there and it's consuming her: that's when I'm really scared.

Hands reach out desperately to at least grab her away from it.

"DINA!"

Ow. Oh. Ow ow ow. My head goes bang into some glorious appendage of wood and I cry out, biting my tongue and ow that stings too. What a great way to wake up. I roll over, expecting to pummel Jkonna's body, but then I recall some hazy upbringing of last night about her complaining she has to get up early and go... do something about the Guild Area and clothes and some little kid's mom. Pff... some little kid's mom... What the heck are you up to, weirdo?

The dream... well, nightmare sinks back into me. I stare glazed out into the walls surrounding me: that tidy room of Jkonna's in the Fossil Center that we're sharing, into the purple carpet, the cream covers, and the celeste walls, all so very bright and nice, little hues where the white comes in and softens it all. But I don't let it do that to my nightmare; I hoard that little fun dream into some hole in the back of my head to keep it protected, so that it can't be dulled and made soft of squishy things like Duna and the Guhnash battle and all that.

Why the heck was I dreaming about a battle, anyways? We're all sorta really out of the thought of fighting junk. I mean, yeah, a vivosaur comes out and they've got their vivosaur instincts and they wanna fight other vivosaurs mostly that makes sense. But... well, after a lot of things, we're still searching for something we'd rather do, now. There's people everywhere, even if there isn't a lot of them: shopkeepers, the interns, Diggins himself, oh, and Ms. Nosh, too, I guess. She owns the orphanage now, and has for... as long as I've been alive. I think. I dunno. I was there when I was two and she still feels like this solid, never-ending memory of a stout, snug woman, like a cupcake, her blush pink hair spilling out past her waist, that all backgrounded by the notions of the orphans.

It's funny. I thought I was an orphan for so long but I'm not. Ha... I was a special case, I guess. The entire reason I was dumped on Vivosaur Island in the first place after nice, safe Maia Island is because of a creepy boat driver—well, Travers isn't so bad now—who had this letter and like told me we had to go. Which now makes sense, since Duna wrote the letter trying to find me because she thought it was me even though I looked like a human and it just made everything easier. Oh, fun times.

It's funny how I spent so long at such a snug place but every time I invoke the memories now they're like the ocean: bobbing a little closer, a little back, and listless in comparison to the sunset above. It's like I've only just opened my eyes to the world as I entered my island here, and everything before that was blinding and... shorter than now. Somehow shorter, I dunno.

Either way, I'm... very thankful for my time here. I have Jkonna and others to show for it. Oh my gosh, Jkonna. She's so great. She just is.

To interrupt my sulking and shifting in bed, a sudden rap! rap! rap! on the door forces me to try to yell something in response:

"Yeah, whatever, come in!" I have such a weird, loud voice. It's like scraggly and sunny and a little deep but not very deep at all. I have the feeling of the voice of a kiddy pool. But it's for the older kids; the kiddy pool is deeper than that.

In pokes the head—tall person, wow—of scales dressed in morning blue, his cloud-like strands of long hair peeping as well. Slowly, gently, his long and elegant—elegant—hands peel from the entrance as he saunters closer to me. His traveling garb, that prudent purple cloak, the cuff of the neck and the wrist lined in gold, rustles around him and makes it hard to observe much else than the gigantic hump where his wings must be hiding. So quiet and so calm and so Dynalistically sweet is his manner alone.

Nodding cheerfully, his eyes shine down on me. "Hello, my son," he murmurs. His hands find their way onto the folds of the covers, where they rest and one of them gently pats, searching, searching for where the rest of my body might be. I'm half propped up with my elbows stuffed in pillows, so he can't tell much of the rest. I'm half bent over, having almost rolled into where Jkonna's supposed to be, my tail coiled off to one side because I don't know, tails are weird.

Sometimes I wonder if my colors are an eyesore in the mornings. Well, whether they are or not, Dad probably couldn't care less. When out of nowhere the door brooonnnngs inward and awkwardly, a bright red, somewhat-shorter-than-Dynal face of marine peeps awkwardly toward us. Oh, hey, look, it's Raptin; what the heck is he doing here, too?

He quickly makes his way onto my bed and sits on the edge, silently fuming with himself before muttering the curt, mandatory greeting of "Hello, Dino."

Oh my gosh, he's so embarrassed. I never thought this moment would come. I need to save this memory and tell Jkonna everything about it, how Raptin's usually gliding and thin figure has hunched angrily into knotted, red embarrassment, his head not in his hands but staring off into the doorway as he tries to swallow all of that blush and fails. Probably thinks he's doing better than he is.

"Hey, guys! Dad; Raptin. What are you doing over here now? Like... that's kinda random, heh..."

Blinking, my dad, like a moon from the corner of my window, smiles his little half-smile. "Ah, we just were worried of how you were faring and wished to visit you. It perhaps has only proceeded in a small allot of time to you, but to be far from my son for even days can be quite disheartening for me. As well, Raptin fretted and worried for you as if he himself were your elder brother—"

"Aahh, that is not true, Dynal! You lie—!"

"Do not accuse a king of treason when you both know what the truth is, Raptin." He further slumps in his insignificant corner. Aw, poor Raptin. He's so embarrassed. Dynal's own little smile only strengthens. He's joking. Not about the Raptin part but he's teasing that poor guy. "Either way, we are pleased to find you in one piece; although I do fret, excuse me, on where Jkonna lumbered off to?" I always have loved my dad's voice. It's like a cream, soothing in all the right places and softly moving onward in place. And it feels like a comforting white: like the blankets I'm in.

Raptin mutters in his deeper and more obviously annoyed tone, "Dynal..."

I always liked how differently the dinaurians say things, or I guess how different the humans did. Like... they call him "dee-nal," not "die-nal." And they call themselves "dee-naw-ree-ans," not "die-naw-ree-ans." I wonder, then, if it was originally spelled Dyno and Dyna before we ended up where we are today and the humans surrounding us immediately corrected it how they saw fit. And then of course there's the ever-classic "jih-hah-nah," just a glide straight over the "kuh" in her name.

Dinaurians are alpha anyways. They accidentally created humans and tabula rasas and nomadistinians and everyone when trying to plant seeds to recreate their own selves. Well, I guess we'll like... repopulate and stuff. Not like me or my dad but... I wonder what Raptin's future mate looks like. Or if he gets one. Ha.

"So, uh," I stutter a little and shamelessly look away, "what are you here for, exactly? You wanna... do anything?" The sudden thoughts of where I can take my dad and Raptin shine straight through my head, all those dig sites we can go exploring in and it would be great. A chilling, blistering thought about those two new ones only master fighters can go to since they're so extreme flash in my head threateningly but I'd... still rather not. Anywhere else is pretty fair game, though. It's been almost two weeks so I'll live with going to like Bottomsup Bay or Rivet Ravine. Plus, grudges are stupid, and they... they're technically my friends. More like nannies but also friends.

Overcoming his blush, Raptin decides this is the perfect moment to stretch himself out and lay on the bed, his back submerged in wrinkling sheets. Held in such a precarious position, it's not long before he slides right off.

BUUuuump.

And he's silent from embarrassment again. Awwww, poor Raaaaptiiiin. Is it strange how badly I wanna hug him now? Whatever: I'm gonna do it anyways, crawling out from my warming cocoon and, transformed as a beautiful teffla, I spring off from the other side and bang my head against the desk right next to the bed. In a mangled heap I land beside my buddy.

"Ow! Ugh, darn it!"

The choking silent laughter is evident. Freaking... Freaking stupid Raptin. I try to elbow him and he nimbly dodges without attacking back, just like the Raptin he is. His old, yellow, rose orbs glitter amusingly for me, and I try to dodge that too but of course I can see him and he can see me. It doesn't change if I attempt to lurch back a bit. He's just, like, there.

Curiously, long, thin strands of white hair drape over us, my dad still high and mighty on his feet. His eyes glimmer as he murmurs, "It would appear that the two of you are well acquitted for the day, no?" He doesn't exactly offer to help us up, since we're all men and it'd be a real strike to one's honor to be stuck on one's bum like so and not get up on one's own. I shove myself to my feet, tail wagging gallantly from behind in its swooping black fashion. Sparkly, too, since it's all scaly. Raptin, because of his mostly old rose pattern, all that musty yellow of a color, doesn't sparkle all that much; but for some reason I feel he likes it more that way.

Did Duna sparkle, back in her day? Yeah, she did. Lots of sparkles. Her face, since it was more like Dynal's, could allow lots of shine on it; her magenta begged to be bright, which is funny because it's completely unlike the magenta in Rosie. Her limbs are all dark and craggy like Raptin's, sorta, but hers had this glow to them. I wonder if it's because she was a girl. Oh, gosh, I hope not. That's so weird.

We stoop over and waddle up to my dad, both of us plopping on the side of the bed again. Maybe it's because I'm literally right there but Raptin doesn't hunch over all red again. Achievement? Seeing us both then in the same place and probably as still as we're gonna get—I poke him every couple seconds and a couple seconds after that he snorts—my dad nods in his agreement. "Well, Son? We did come here to visit you. If there is a stop in mind you would enjoy exploring, we would particularly take to such an event. Is there anywhere in mind?"

I'm assuming he's gonna make sure Raptin and I don't accidentally kill ourselves or each other so he'll be there too. For some reason, that sounds a lot cooler than just "my dad is going to a dig site with my 'brother' and I." Maybe because it's not just Dad but it's Dynal, freaking king of dinaurians and he's able to transform into a vivosaur at will: and I mean all of us can do that but he's got wings and horns and I dunno that traveling cloak is pretty snazzy. Smiling the slightest, like he can hear these thoughts of mine, he nods over our heads.

But first I turn to one side. "Heeey Raaptiiin?" His eyes narrow upon hearing my Raptin call. "You wanna go, or are you, like, too old for this?" Like how I thought Diggins was too old for this and then he turned out to be one of my level-up battle masters, back when I had to fight those people to prove I have learned stronger, better skills and stuff and then they'd like admit me into the next level, the next dig site, though I heard that because not everyone's so strong that most dig sites can be assessed by them when they at least try anyways. But then Diggins didn't even make me fight him cuz I fell asleep and he decided I was good to go. That's always nice.

So anyways, is Raptin too old for this or is he faking?

Because that's important.

And because that's an answer, his somewhat cloudy blue head lowers. Big, hulking spikes of hair, lesser and neater than mine, shadow over his already narrowed eyes as he mutters, "I would rather accompany you on where you would prefer to be today. If that is this 'going' you speak of, then it is this 'going.' If the king would go so bold as to call me a 'big brother' I may as well elaborate that I would like to explore alongside, where you, as the 'little brother,' wishes." A pause.

"Am I ever gonna hear you talk that much in one go again?"

Another snort. "Most certainly not."

Another pause. "So like, you sure you don't wanna date my sister when we find her again?"

"Absolutely not." That elegant, sloping face of his—more similar to hers than Duna's anyway, Duna's was more like Jkonna's, as in practically square—pinches in all the weird places and darn it I thought I was gonna get him to go off on another tangent. I guess I shouldn't try so early on. "I am not your puppet, Dino."

"You sure?"

"Very sure."

"Awwwwwwwwww."

His discontent is so obvious that he doesn't have to say anything. Then again, that weird burble of a tickle in my throat and the wetness behind my eyes is probably a whole load of guilt that I said that in the first place. Opening my mouth, I'm ready to apologize when his tail whacks me over the edge of the creamy, half-made bed and I end up with my head into the door on the further side of the room. It's white, too. It's soft. But not soft like the covers. "Let us just get a move on already."

Dynal, shaking his head the softest, which I hear from his only gently brushing hair, laughs as well: "I suppose brothers will be brothers. Shall we be off?" His shadow descends upon me and a hand clasps over my arm as he tugs me off the ground again, this hand then ruffling my hair. Wow. I'm such a child. That entire momentum just takes a moment from me and I pause.

"We are not actual brothers, Dynal!" cries Raptin once more, but his voice plunges as he mutters, "or suit yourself, I suppose, as you will not listen to this plea of mine." He scoffs softly, case closed long ago.

Turning around, my scales all shiny in the sun, I offer this huge smile. "I love you, Raptin~!"

His response comes right back to me, the way he's facing so opposite of the window that he's shrouded in his own shadow. "Hush, Dino."

Of course. Finally, the three of us, my dad, my not-brother and me, head out from the suffocating purple of the Fossil Center, of course after they've taken in the gawking effect that the morning sun has on a person who lives in space mostly. It's not like they aren't allowed to move in here; I think they started to prefer the starship over land or something. But it... it helps in ways: apparently once they get a few missing or broken or something functions working, and they hook up all the dolls again, they'll be able to search more deeply on where Dina is on the planet.

Dina.
It's still...
Kinda hard to...
Think about her...

Upon reaching Beth, her smirking face, and the pink booth that drops people off to dig sites, Droplet's gone and done us the favor of slinking out of her big blue medal and resting her dripping, dribbling fins on pink over wood. A great big smirk rests on her maw. Why, hello there, Bethy Beth. What a nice day it is, no? I'm just gonna... Her body stretches into the most languid, space-taking-up position possible. Why am I not surprised like at all.

Droplet comes into the picture, but the picture's invalid until a relatively larger, cocoa brown creature, his eyes bright as gems, also comes into that picture and they're together, because I swear, even when it was just the two of them and they hardly knew each other, they've always been a pair. We have lovely Harei and not-so-lovely Lone, and sorta Iggy too, but Droplet and Pippy, it's always them together just as much as it can be. D-Droplet...

Hello, Piiippyyy~ Her tail casually waves for him. The face Beth's making at me slowly grows nastier. Her dull, brown hair and all that makeup only gets more evident of irony the more hate that she shows. What a nice day, isn't it?

Droplet, why are you acting so... weird? Again? I suppose that by now this is the norm for such a girl as you, bu-but I can't help myself to worry, a-and you know that, Droplet!

A snort. Why yes I do know that. And, hey, I get worried when you cry! And you cry a lot, Pippy. A whole—hey! Don't start crying on me! Oh man, her voice is cracking. P-please! D-don't cry! I d-don't want a s-sad Pippy!

Wow. What the heck just happened. More confused than I'm gonna admit to, I shove past the krona and the seismo, resting my own arms on the pink and staring up at taller and older Beth. Her nose has the longest, biggest slant I've ever seen on a person oh my gosh. Behind her, twittering with her face bright red and her eyes stuffed in nervous tears, stands the redhead Sue. Her arms twist together as her gaze flutters to the ground. She stays right behind and beside Beth: that height difference is almost staggering.

My dad and brother slip along beside me. Dad, being the kinder person he is, raises a hand to wave the slightest; Raptin just looks like he's sulking or something. Maybe he was trying to tell Dynal again that I have no brothers and he knows it, he's my dad. But I guess it's too late for that. Quietly, I wonder if deep down, my dad... wants to bring him into our family. I mean, his family has always been close to ours... and now he's the only one left... and there's no way he'll want to marry my sister—or me, for that matter, just putting it out there. I... I think I'd like that.

Anyways. Back to the most boring of Beths and the shakiest of Sues. At some point, between her boredom showing through and taking out that weird, black, webbed machine that she uses on her eyelashes and Sue stuttering and us trying to figure out where to go in the first place, and Droplet and Pippy being Droplet and Pippy and then Harei joining out of nowhere, it takes some time to reach any sort of turning point and thus consensus, but that's okay. I just like being around all of them at once. It's a good... a good feeling. It just is.

I'm not sure why, but after the crazy shiny boat sails in and the guy with the brimmed straw hat enters us, and we're moving, I'd in the end asked for reliable—enough—Rivet Ravine. I... haven't been there in awhile. But I'm only just remembering now that it's either ride a mine cart up into that forsaken land or use the gondola thingy that's attached on slim metal to a seat to crank up and up and up.

Darn it, Dad, why can't you fly with your wings? Why the heck can none of my vivosaurs fly, for that matter? Why the heck is this dig site so messed up? Why the heck do I wanna go here in the first place?

Never do I get those questions answered, but that's because they're stupid or obvious or I chose Lone over a flying vivosaur, back when I was still building my team of lovely idiots together.

He drops us off once the gondola's been accessed and now I really don't wanna do this. Of course, it's not until I manage to stake off all of my fears, yank my hand over the crank, use it, use it, easy, easy, not too fast or else I'll start to fall down again after it gives but not too slow so that I keep sliding weakly down anyways, bit by bit of morsels of claimed land until this awkward, horrible creature is pinned as I reach and scramble onto as dry of land as we're getting this high above the earth: and it's here I realize none of the people I came with went this way. Like, what? There's only one gondola. Why aren't they here. Why didn't I notice this until now.

It takes awkward seconds of waiting as I begin to nervously walk in circles that finally the face and snort of Raptin make themselves present, his lighter arm poking my stark black but shiny one. He's taller than me by a slim, aggravating chunk, but besides that we're nearly one and the same. "Where were you? How did you... shimmy your way up here so quickly?" He's genuinely confused. My gosh.

"What the heck do you mean, 'shimmy your way up here so quickly?''" I squeal back, "I went the freaking right way! On the gondola! Yeah, that shabby thingy that you guys weren't on for some reason! I mean, what the heck? Like, wha—"

His hand comes out of nowhere and covers my nonsense-spewing mouth. He waits a few seconds as I continue ranting in his hand until it's moist with residue. Then when I start to shut up, his golden eyes wander over me and he smiles and murmurs in his deeper, somewhat dark, but stronger sort of Raptin voice: "There was a hole toward the side of the structure that the kind boater pointed out toward us on the way here. I believe it has been present for a time as well, so to why you used a different method when a staircase of sorts was right there..?"

Shamefully I mutter into his hand that I didn't know and nobody ever told me.

"Ahh. That is alright, Dino. You found... your own way up anyways. I do not mind; I am just happy you are here as well with us. I am just happy that you are acting much happier and seem to be this much more full of yourself. Like the Dino I know."

I move back from his grip and ask him quietly, "And love?"

His face screws up again but there's the tiniest of laughs in there too. And love.

We kinda stare at each other: he overwhelmed by the surging dig site that is Rivet Ravine, I overwhelmed by the fact that he's right here with me. I do remember, if I dare think about... back then, that he was with us, too. But he never liked Dina. Never. I guess because of... the monster in her, that made others worried about her state too. Well, whatever, I-I love her a-and that's what matters... and now it's time to stop thinking about it before I start to cry.

Awwwwww... Dino, are you okay? Do you need any hugs? I-I can give you hugs, i-i-if you want... I can give you hugs wh-whenever you need them, t-too...

That... that's great, Harei. I honestly can't hold in the random, bubbling laugh that slaps into me after she says those words, all sweet as they're dancing in my head. The golden ourano, upon making me laugh, accidental or no, squeaks on the spot as she falls back on her bum and Lone's tiny, purple body joins her for no apparent reason, she squeaking—happily. Lone's still quiet; she doesn't yell much anymore. But whatever we love her all the same. Yeah, we love her.

Casting a sidelong glance toward the awestruck Raptin, probably from the combination of hearing my vivosaurs out of nowhere and of course this massive dig site of stifling browns and rocks and mine carts just sitting here, right in front of him, high in the sky, covered by clouds, stuffed in McJunker's soot: all for us. For everyone. My gosh, I had no idea Dynal took this long climbing up stairs. Or maybe he's taking his time on purpose. Or maybe he's gone exploring or something.

Nah. He's probably watching over us somewhere. He knows who I am.

"Tag you're it!"

Like the ditz I am I rap my friend's arm and take off sprinting as fast as I can, even as I know he's faster and that was rude and there's no way he'll want to play afterwords. Plus, I'm so bad at this. I'm always the spontaneous tagger but then I'm out of the game for the rest of it. Wait... Raptin knows what tag is... ri—

His face is right in my face as he casually taps his finger onto my forehead. "You are it, no?" And he's gone. Darn it, darn it, I'm so bad at this. Ummm... now how do I first find him, cuz I don't see him anywhere, and how then do I, like... attack him? Glancing up—oh my gosh, the sun, it.. it's so freaking bright, waah.

In my pockets, voices conglomerate.

Lone wants to plaaayyy! Of course you do.

Ooooh... u-um... I-I'm not very good, but it would be fun, too! I-I think! Yes, we should all play and have fun, if we can! That's Harei, if I've ever heard her before.

Droplet?

Pippy?

Okay, great, now we have four new players. And judging by a few of them, though I know they'll be in their smallest form—same size as Lone, then, since she'll shrink too just a bit—as they run around, I mean, I'm faster than Pippy, I'm faster than Droplet sometimes, and I'm usually better at Harei when it comes to not tripping very often. Usually. They all spill into their colored forms and, as presumed, take off. Before Pippy gets very far at all—my poor, slow, adorable seismo—I tap the top of his brown, scaly head and he squeals and it's so cute but yes I'm not it anymore.

As expected, Droplet whispers things as she waddles up to him, allowing his sandier form to touch her wet one as she executes a plan to go hide off in some bushes really stuffed in berries to—she's waiting to catch Lone. Oh my gosh. She's gonna try to catch Lon—

VVVVWEEEEEEEEEEE—AAHHHHHHAHAHAHHHH!

Lone's sent flying off as a gigantic, wet paw slaps for her—and misses. But Lone, being both herself and oddly hungry, even though vivosaurs don't even need food, crawls up toward the berry bush again and stations herself, waiting to see if anything will attack her again, which is of course the bane of her existence because it means Droplet just waits for five seconds before slapping the ground at her tagging her this time. You're it, Lonie! she cries rather happily.

This is the time of Lone: where the tiny whirring thing begins rampantly squealing as she dodges around the place, tearing through shrubs and rocks and small friends of people as her cyan eyes go wide and somehow, from somewhere far off into the distance, I swear I hear a yell of proclamation, of being tagged. Oh man, so she did get Raptin. But before her speed bowls over she rams straight through me and I slam to the ground and oop out of air ow ow ow.

Kinda dislodged there, like a... like a pendem or something left on its back, shell and everything sticking out all awkward, I cough some. And here, this is when the great, gentle, calming smile of my father blocks out the sun and pulls me up into... into a big, warming hug. Oh my gosh what did Harei say to him. But it's... it's nice, to be hugged by my dad, so I don't go yelling about it or anything. I guess this entire time he's just been on the sidelines, waiting and knowing that someone's gonna get hurt.

I lean into him without trying to move myself.

The game inflates further out of control once Harei's tagged later because she's slow and she has huge hips and she's clumsy and she gets nowhere fast, so it's not until Pippy tries to cough himself up as a sacrifice—but he's even slower—and then Droplet ends up doing it for him because she's Droplet, that we get anywhere fast. At some point, a scraped and annoyed Raptin does show his face again, himself moving much slower than I deemed possible for him, so at one point we all sit together on the musty dirt where I know there aren't any random holes to trip us up, and in the background we still find the chatter of my excited vivosaurs.

Panting, tired, dirty, panting, panting, we lean on each other for support. Raptin being taller, he takes the manlier stance as my head rests on his shoulder and his above and nuzzled against mine. We're just taking in huge, agonizing breaths because why is Lone so agonizingly fast and why is everyone else so agonizingly strong and good at tackling and oh my gosh done done done help us Dad. He's watching and laughing softly as he sees our tuckered states mirrored upon each other. I wonder how Jkonna'd feel if she was here. Maybe that's why I didn't choose Knotwood Forest, in the end the next one over. Because she... wouldn't like that. If we went to Knotwood Forest. I'm just proud of myself for not taking us to Secret Island, because that is a very dumb place to take yourself with the other dinaurians. It just is.

Between our breaths is sandwiched Dad's wording: "The both of you... silly. Just like brothers, as I have said. The both of you make such brothers... ahaha." That tiny grin of his. "Either way... it is nice to see the both of you interacting so kindly and well, in all due means. Dino? Do you... perhaps, have you ever heard of a... 'moel?'" Wait.

"What?"

A small smile only grows stronger. "Oh, I only saw the name... the Moels, they called themselves boldly, on the sign affront the hole you did not take but Raptin and I did. 'Lemo' and 'Oh-Mel,' they also called themselves?" His soft, thrumming tone goes a little peculiar on the thought of it. Lemo... O'Mel, I think it is. Those guys—I heard them yelling, or at least I think it was them, it was those names at each other, at the Nick Nack party, but otherwise I don't think I've heard much about them. "That is fine, if you do not know. Heh... I was marginally curious to an effect about who they may be," and murmuring, he leaves it at that for a time.

Turning over, I eye Raptin. "Hey, uh... you know that girl that was with us a lot of the time? Not your sister—um, Rosie?" Without speaking, he nods at this. I think I exhausted his speaking measures earlier. We're still a little rough on the edges, but he did talk a lot and I don't think he cares much for many words. "You think she's doing okay? I guess you know the whole story, and, um, is it..?"

Nodding. "Yes. I suppose she will be okay in the end. Not now, but..." Silence again. I think he prefers it that way. But I don't mind it, and I think Dad prefers it sometimes, like right now, our legs out and eyes for the big, bright ball of warmth just above us. It's all warm and pretty and gleaming, saturating us in its eternal warmth. It's always there... like a lot of things. Mom.

As we're being quiet and sleepy, a new voice suddenly splits out of nowhere into my head. Thou shalt seemest to tire? You? Dino? Tired? I never thought you would run out of energy... although, I hast to supposed you must, for you do sleep much and do much. Strange, strange child. Groaning, that deep and strong tone's trying to get under my skin again and I don't like it...

Iggy... what are you doing..? In the end, I decide it'd be better not to scare him away, or ignore him, like I usually do. It'd probably be nicer to try to listen to his woes for once, since he has them so much. My mind idly trundles around the thoughts of Rosie and the moels and whatever else there is, Mom, Dina, all of them, but I'm training on Iggy now, for... a couple of reasons. One is because I want him happy... and I've been trying to figure out what sort of combination of things will help him, though it doesn't look like much has happened so far.

What art I to do? He listlessly mumbles back. I feel as if my purpose has all but dried, although perhaps it is better for me, with a rotting brunch of insane ancients attempting to feast within life again but in the souls of you young living ones. Like the one did with your sissy, wherever she be. Perhaps it better that I am free of such a burden, but...

Here it comes. You miss Thomas, you want Thomas back, both of you ancient buttheads, without Thomas you're useless, alllll that. I know. He tells me way too much of the time. The sun, still heightening above us, seems only to grow hotter in place.

Iggy softly growls in his nonviolent Iggy sort of way. He never was big for fighting. Listen, already, pesky Dino, you child. You and Jkonna are together, and Raptin wishes to join you as well, as you can easily tell. But what about me; o lost and lonely me? I wish to say I could find comfort in our pesky friends, but I cannot... especially as Droplet and Pippy come oh, oh so together as well.

Iggy

As I ramble and ramble unto my fears unto the boy, I cannot help but addle in my mind if this is the wisest of ways to tell him how I feel. I believe it must be. While I trust the boy, the strangely too strong boy who was able to findeth of me in the first place, he hast less of an appetite for other things. Like listening. Like understanding at times. As much as I do adore the frig—Thomas and should be fine to live this life without him, to see him in another: all of them, they are all so very restless.

It hast been blankly obvious in the showing of others. The parents of the gir—Jkonna; the Guhnash fellow and his original awakenings; that... what hast they called him—Zongazonga, I believe? Yes... he had stirred and possessed as well. Well then he is a good-for-nothing thief like the lot of them, I say. Oh, yes, I do say. But I suppose they are restless and without Dino finding them going crazy... and now I fear for the health of the frigi... of Thomas, excuse of me. He prefers being called Thomas.

I can hear him in the breeze. I can hear him in my fitful attempts of sleeping. Thine shall be lost, he sayeth of himself, thine shall be lost to the nothingness of the world. It is all going rampant in these remote parts, and without the insight of Dino... of that boy... I fear for Thomas's safety. There are still chances; there are always chances. At the very least may we please bring him back into the world?

Perhaps it is a bold accusation on one so young: perhaps he leans into the age of the "adult" by his meager scrap of a nineteen years, but I am hundreds of millions, since the age of time, as I father vivosaurs, as do Thomas and the others, and most usually one must be much older if they ever wish to listen to us.

People are so naïve of late. What hast become of the elders, why, I cannot say, but they are dispersing by the load and goodness these ancients... it is pathetic of them. I cannot relate with them where I am now, in my flaming yet sedated form. I only wish kindly of Thomas. Yes, yes, I see: Thomas this and that and everything Thomas, but that is simply my way of being. We are connected, no?

Are thou and thee not the same?
Droplet... and Pippy? And others... always others...

And if I have such a foundation of this seizing wisdom, and I knoweth how to saveth of him, where dost the otherwise even try to begin?

Dino? And he stirs again, if not of the slightest. I suppose now would be the best time to disturb of thou thanest of ever. To simply allow these seeds to plant in him, that I must see Thomas, that we must at least save of his poor soul who dost not deserve of this divine punishment of old. Zongazonga's possession and then that of his daughter's—I fear to wonder what sort of unearthly wrath nature of time must have for us all.

But... if we are to at least save him..?

Lots of others are affected, but perhaps with Thomas we can end this malfunction, we can pull the plug that his sister has living in her and end all of this annoying turmoil, to show nature we hast the sorrow of what we hast dost to our souls.

We... how very strange of me to find an affliction with these others. Though I supposeth it was of destiny, perhaps in the end.

Dino, if I happen to hast stirred in my mind a potential way to save of Thomas... could we perhaps embark on..?

What the Bullwort fellow did to my...er... friend... I cannot take back. But his soul still litters out there having been wronged by a near insanity, and we can still bring him back. He be there... he be there...

I feel violating, as in those likes of the others who pester his soul to join them. The Saur-head and the Nick-nack and the... and she.

So... please... from the goodness of your heart, may we at least try such a ploy?

And once we try this.. we can try more... and I will try not to rush the wilted flower of a male, and perchance we may saveth of others and... end the insanity of these sadistic fellows of ancients. That would be rather rewarding.

But I must take heed; I can easily rip his poor mind, shatter his heart to the core, if I am too fast in teaching him.

Dino... my... my friend, may we?

Yay, Iggy chapters where he complains about Thomas and mentions the stuff Dino's been too scared to think of! (like his sister ;w;)

Dina: A-ah... wh-who now? They... described a p-po-possessed... gi-girl... w-with the Zoazo-

Me: IT'S NOT YOU KOFFKOFFKOFF

Dina: ;w;

Me: SHHHHH IT'S NOT