The Underworld.

Chapter 25 – A kiss and a danger.

…

"Buck, I'm so sorry," Liza said again.

"He was my friend," Buck said. "He was pretty stupid… but he was still my friend."

They were sitting on a safe distance from Jasper's carcass, but they could still see it.

Liza put a hand on Buck's shoulder.

"It must be terrible to lose a friend," she said.

Buck only sighed.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Liza asked. She felt a little uncomfortable. She had never seen Buck this sad before. She felt like she should do something for him, but she didn't know what.

Buck shook his head.

"There's nothing you could possibly do about this," Buck said. He looked up to the sky. "Curse you, Grim Reaper…"

Liza almost laughed at that, but didn't do it. She didn't want to hurt Buck more.

"Did I ever tell you how I met Jasper?" Buck asked Liza.

Now Liza did have to laugh a little. "Yes," she said. "you saved him from a tyrannosaurus using a clam shell. And you…. As you said it: 'Turned the T-rex into a T-rachel'."

She giggled, and even Buck had to laugh a little. But then he sighed again.

"The poor fellow probably didn't know what was happening to him." He said. "Maybe he didn't even realize Rudy was dangerous until it was too late. I always said that he wasn't very intelligent."

"Yeah," Liza said, and now she suddenly felt her eyes burning.

Buck now finally looked at her. "Are you crying?" he asked.

Liza quickly wiped off her tears. "No." She said.

"Yes you are," Buck said. "I saw it."

"Well, you're crying too." Liza said.

"No I'm not," Buck said.

They were silent for a while.

Liza stared at Jasper's body.

"Do you think we should burry him?" She said.

"How on earth are we going to burry that?" Buck replied. "It's huge. It would take ages. And Rudy is walking around here somewhere."

"Then… why are we still here?" Liza asked.

Buck shrugged. "I don't know."

He was about to say something funny, but didn't really feel like it. There was nothing funny about this situation. It was everything but funny. One of his friends just died.

He didn't feel like staying there, but he also didn't feel like going away.

He looked at Liza, who was still sitting next to him. She looked back at him with one eyebrow braised. "What?" She said.

Suddenly he just couldn't stop himself. He put his arms around her waist and kissed her.

Liza didn't know what to think.

Why was she letting him do that? Diana loved Buck, and Liza couldn't be the one who was standing in her way. She couldn't do that to her own sister, could she?

On the other hand…

Diana had always been the pretty one of the family. She could have any guy in the world if she wanted. And nobody had ever even looked at Liza. She wasn't such a pretty, innocent little thing as Diana was. Everyone was attracted to Diana, and nobody was ever attracted to 'ugly little Liza'.

She had to admit, she liked this attention….

But no, she couldn't break Diana's heart.

Liza pushed Buck away. "What are you doing?" She asked.

Buck suddenly blushed. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said. "I just keep forgetting that you're… well, too young for me…"

Liza bit her lip and thought for a while.

"We should never tell anyone about this," she said then.

Buck nodded. "I agree."

"Please don't tell Diana, Buck," Liza said. "She would be heartbroken."

"I won't," Buck said. "Don't worry, love. I won't tell anyone, especially not Diana. I swear."

Liza sighed. "Thanks, Buck."

Buck looked at Jasper's body one last time.

"Shall we go back?" He said.

"Yes, good idea," Liza said, while standing up.

They walked away as fast as they could, avoiding each other's gaze.

…

Blueclaw sniffed the air.

"What is it, Blueclaw?" Momma Dino asked, looking up from her meal.

"I can smell him," Blueclaw said nervously. "Whiteclaw. He's here."

Momma Dino stood up. "Buck and the light female are out there," she said. "we must warn them."

"and the dark female? Where is she?" Blueclaw asked.

He had seen the old peg-legged weasel and his wife in Momma Dino's home, together with the annoying young male. They were still there.

The Compsognathus and the Junior Dinohunter had just returned. But Blueclaw hadn't seen the dark young female.

"She must be in the jungle too," Momma Dino said. "We have to find them now!"

She left the half-eaten Triceratops behind and walked into the jungle together with the old Spinosaurus. They hadn't walked for very long when they saw Buck and the light female.

"Buck," Momma Dino said. "There you are. Rudy is here."

The Dinohunter spoke back to her in Mammal language, and Momma Dino had to translate his words to Blueclaw.

"We know," Buck said. "he killed Jasper."

"You mean the Stegosaurus with the half tail?" Momma Dino said. "When?"

"Yesterday, maybe the day before that," Buck said. "we just found his carcass…"

"The young dark female, is she with you?" Momma Dino asked.

"Diana?" Buck said. "wasn't she at your house?"

"She isn't there now," Momma said.

Buck rolled his eyes. "I really don't have time for this."

He put his knife on his shoulder and started walking.

"Where are you going?" the light female asked him.

"To find your little sister, Liza," buck answered. "Before Rudy does. Please go back to Momma's house and stay with your family. And make sure Sheldon doesn't come after me. He tends to do that, you know."

…

Diana looked around.

She had just gone walking for a little while, and now she was suddenly lost.

Why did all the trees, stones and flowers look so much alike? And how could they be so different at the same time? It just wasn't fair. Elco, Liza, Dorian and Anna had traveled trough the Dino World for weeks, and now she got lost after only a few minutes.

Where in the world could she be? And why did this always have to happen to her?

Actually she wanted to go and walk with Buck today. She wanted to tell him she wasn't angry at him anymore. But then he had already gone into the jungle. Together with Liza.

Diana had to admit she was a little jealous. Of course, there was nothing between Liza and Buck. Buck had said so himself: he wasn't interested in children. Since he said Diana was practically still a child, and Diana and Liza were the same age, he sure wasn;t interested in Liza. But still….

Diana suddenly stopped. She smelled something.

It was a nasty smell. The smell of rotting corpses. She had only smelled that one time before in this world.

She froze.

There was a soft, warm breeze. But, Diana realized it wasn't a breeze. It was breath.

She slowly looked behind her to see two huge, red eyes staring at her from the darkness.