II – In Another Land
Shanda's breath caught in her throat all over again. Cera's breath seemed to do the same. The sisters just stared at each other.
"What is it, Cera?" asked the swimmer.
Shanda ducked out of sight. Then, before anything else could happen, she turned and made her way back down the hill. She didn't know why. There were innumerable reasons why she'd wanted to step up onto the plateau to confront Cera and the other dinosaurs.
Instead, she returned to the nest. Everyone else was still asleep. Amidst the crickets and the snores of her family, Shanda lay down and closed her eyes, though she remained awake. The more she thought about it, the more it started to make sense… in a way. She couldn't even begin to guess as to why Cera was friends with these strange creatures, but it at least explained why Cera would often disappear early in the morning or late at night. Those must have been the moments when Cera was sneaking off to spend time with her new friends. Shanda hadn't really thought much about Cera's disappearances prior to today, but now the signs were impossible to ignore.
It couldn't have been more than ten minutes later when Cera returned to the nest. Shanda opened her eyelid to peek once, briefly. Then Shanda went on pretending she was asleep, although Cera probably sensed otherwise. Beside her, Shanda could hear the rustling of Cera lying down nearby. Neither of them slept well that night.
The following day, Shanda, Nova, and Pyra were back at the river bottom. It was not as clear and sunny as it had been the previous day, and a faint fog had rolled in. Again the threehorns played around with hitting rocks across the river. Still none of them were able to land any rocks on the other side of the shore, but the eager threehorns kept at it. They were slowly getting better. Or at least, Nova liked to think that they were. If nothing else, Nova would be content as long as she could do better than Pyra, as the two of them were quite neck-in-neck.
Shanda, meanwhile, had a hard time focusing on the game. She was still preoccupied with last night.
She didn't think Cera would join them today, but to Shanda's surprise, Cera did eventually show up, coming out from behind the bushes. This time around, Shanda could immediately see Cera's apprehensiveness.
"Out for another walk?" asked Nova.
"Yeah, I was…"
"Well come on then," said Pyra. "Come play with us."
Cera hesitated, but then she came down and joined them at the shoreline. She and Shanda exchanged furtive glances. It soon became clear to Cera, however, that Nova and Pyra were unaware of what Shanda knew. It was then that Cera began to relax, if only a little.
Shanda had chosen not to tell anyone. As baffled as she was with the strange new creatures that Cera had somehow befriended, she wanted to wait and see how this would play out. Surely Cera wouldn't be able to hold onto her precious secret forever.
The quartet of threehorns spent most of the following day together as well. As far as Shanda observed, Cera hadn't tried to sneak off and spend more time with her new friends, probably because she knew Shanda knew.
The girls explored a new area. It was not as lush as the rest of the valley, with grass that was distinctly more yellowish, more dirt and mud lying around, and even the sky had taken on a slightly surreal orange tint. But the most interesting thing of all was the large, bubbling pool of quicksand.
"What is that?" asked Nova.
"Oh, I heard about this," said Shanda. "It's the Sinking Sands."
Nova took slow, cautious steps toward it. "Looks dangerous…" She grinned. "And fun."
Shanda, Nova, and Pyra all gave each other eager glances, for they were all thinking the same thing. Poking out from the quicksand was a number of rock platforms, all fairly close to each other, which led all the way to the thick patch of grass on the other side. The rocks were just wide enough that one would be able to stand on them.
"Wait! No!" said Cera. "Don't do it!"
"Huh? Why not?" asked Pyra. "You're not being a scaredy-egg, are you?"
"I could cross the Sinking Sands with my eyes closed!" Nova declared proudly.
"The grown-ups said we're not supposed to come here," said Cera, visibly afraid. "What if… well… what if we sink in?"
"Okay, what's gotten into you?" asked Pyra. "You're not normally like this."
"Yeah," said Nova. "Since when do you care what the grown-ups say?"
"I cared after…" Cera hesitated. She seemed ashamed of what she was about to say. "After I nearly drowned in there."
"You've been here before?" Shanda was legitimately surprised to hear this.
"Mm-hmm. I tried to get to the other side. Then I slipped and fell. If Grandp… I mean, if Daddy hadn't pulled us out, we would have…" Her expression went dark. Cera's tale might have seemed unbelievable, but something about her delivery convinced her sisters instantly.
Yet, after a few moments, Pyra frowned. "Wait, you said Daddy pulled 'us' out. Who's us?"
"Err," said Cera, "I meant me. He pulled me out."
Shanda deliberately kept silent, but watched the confused, and perhaps suspicious looks that formed on Nova and Pyra.
"Well anyway," said Cera, "it's dangerous here. We shouldn't be here. Let's go do something else."
A moment of silence. Nova gave one more glance back at the Sinking Sands. "Yeah, okay then. Let's go find some logs to roll down a hill or something."
They departed from the area.