The Matriarch stepped off of the bus platform and stood still for a few moments, looking around at Waterfall City. In her arms she carried a crate just big enough so she could carry it by herself. She felt better knowing she was the one carrying it, not that she'd distrust someone else with the precious cargo, she just felt better carrying it herself. She found Zippo's house quite easily and smiled when she saw her eldest daughter through the window. She knocked on the door and Zippo answered. His face revealed that he was quite surprised to see her there.
"Matriarch?" he asked surprised. She smiled at the kind dinosaur.
"Breathe deep, Zippo," she said and she passed him and entered his home.
"Yes uh, seek peace…" he said getting over his initial shock and closing the door behind her,
"Mother?" Marion asked, equally surprised to see her there.
"How goes the search, Marion?" the Matriarch asked noticing the red marks all over the map laying on Zippo's table. Marion looked down at the map then back at her mother.
"We fear they may have fallen at Tenax Cliff. A ledge and passageway have been found, though. We are hopeful," Marion responded and the Matriarch nodded her head.
"They are there, I know it," she said convincingly. Marion smiled, reassured in her hope.
"What brings you here, Matriarch?" Zippo asked setting a tray of tea down on the table by the map. The Matriarch sat down in a chair at the table, keeping the crate in her lap. Marion sat down too and poured three cups of tea.
"My request to see you was a bit urgent, and I would not expect you to leave your post, so I brought what I've found to you," she answered. Marion looked at the crate in her mother's grasp and wondered what it contained.
Karl had leapt off of the bed and now he and Amelia had their backs against the far wall from the door. The dinosaur's snout came to an inch away from them, enabled by its shoulders on the outside of the house and a short neck. Its jaws grasped the bed Karl had been sitting on and banged it back and forth on the side of the house until the bed frame was nothing but splinters of wood. The dinosaur stretched and wrangled its neck, trying to get its jaws close enough to clasp onto their flesh. When it couldn't reach them it moved in every direction as if trying to destroy the house. Through the roaring and destruction Karl and Amelia heard a whistle, which the dinosaur obviously heard too. It ended its attack, removed its head from the house, and left. After a few regaining breaths Amelia and Karl opened their eyes and looked at each other.
"You okay?" he asked her. She nodded.
"What do we do now?" she asked him.
"Stay here," he said enforcing it with his hand. Carefully he stepped around the debris and over toward the door.
"Are you crazy!" she yelled to him in a whisper.
"Stay there!" he repeated the command, also in a yelled whisper. He stuck his head carefully out of the doorway, and then his torso. Amelia yelled in surprise as two claws came down and grasped onto Karl's shoulders and picked him up into the air.
"Karl!" she yelled and ran to the door. She took a few steps outside before claws came down and grasped her shoulders too. They pulled her up into the air and she could see Karl being carried away in front of her. The dinosaurs swooped around beams of rock and through a large arch that led into an area smaller than the first cave but just as high. There was a bigger waterfall at the far end and a small stone island in the middle of the small lake the waterfall formed. The island was joined to the rock by a long stone bridge which Karl and Amelia were dropped onto. They stood up and looked at the island where their appeared to be a chair, almost a throne. The man sitting in it stood up and walked over to them. As he got closer distinct features could be seen. He had waving blonde hair, a handsome face, a good build and a noble walk. He also had yellow eyes, sharp, claw like finger nails, and scales on the tops of his arms and coming up his neck and on his face a bit. He smiled when he saw them, but smiled mostly at Amelia.
"Welcome home," he said to her.
The Matriarch set the crate up on a table and pried the lid off. Marion, Zippo, and Earhart peered into it eagerly. It was a dinosaur egg wrapped in straw with a sun stone laying next to it to warm it. The Matriarch carefully pulled the egg out of the crate and held it gently in her arms.
"An egg?" Earhart asked questionably. The Matriarch nodded smiling and looking down at the egg. Marion studied it carefully.
"What type of dinosaur will come from it?" she asked, not recognizing it. The Matriarch looked at her daughter pleased.
"That's it, we don't know. No one has ever seen a dog like this before, and look," she said as she rotated the egg so they could see the other side. On the egg was a small design made of circles and lines.
"What does it mean?" Zippo asked her.
"We don't know. Samantha found the egg in a wooden, airtight capsule laying on the beach. It was surrounded by a type of yellow moss no one can identify."
"Was the design drawn on or is it there naturally?" Earhart asked her.
"It looks drawn on, but no one can be too sure," the Matriarch answered them.
"Impossible," Zippo said already retrieving books from his collection and searching through them, looking for the symbol.
"Have you got something, Zippo?" Marion asked him.
"Just a distant memory. That symbol looks familiar," he answered as Marion opened another book and started searching for the symbol as well.
"The ropers have arrived," a Skybax rider told David. David nodded and walked after the rider to where three people were preparing to climb down the side of the cliff to the ledge. Three others were helping them with their tying and so on. They looked like the mountain climbers from the rest of the world, only with no nylon. The three ropers carefully made their way down the side of the cliff, David's hope growing as they descended. The lead roper reached the ledge first. He stood on the ledge before unbuckling his strap. Suddenly the ledge gave out under his weight and he grabbed a hold of his rope before he fell with it. The other two ropers helped him secure himself again before then climbed back up. The lead roper was just a little guy, did wasn't even Karl's size, or even Amelia's. There was no way it'd fall out under him and hold Karl and Amelia. They hadn't landed on the ledge, David decided and his heart sank again once into worry.
"What!" Amelia and Karl demanded from the man at the same time. He laughed at their surprise and his laughter echoed through the cave. Karl's first thoughts were of Mr. Shadow, and Amelia's secret. Was she from the World Beneath? Was she lying about Amelia Earhart landing here?
"What are you talking about? Who are you?" Amelia demanded from him. The man grinned.
"I am a shadow," he said with a glance at Karl who's eyes opened wide, "and a god," he added and Amelia and Karl both looked at him questionably.
"Okay…" Amelia said.
"I am called Valde, I am a god, so are you," he said pointing to Amelia. She started to laugh, while Karl was just a little unnerved.
"Me? A god? Yea right. How could I be a god?" she asked him laughing. Valde walked over to her, spun her so she was facing way from him, and lifted up the back of her shirt.
"Hey!" she yelled in not enough time for him to stop. Karl narrowed his eyes, concentrating his vision on her back. It was a strip of, of scales along the center of her back, from her neck to her hips. He found himself walking over to her and running his hand down them. They were scales. Amelia was silent, she just looked at the ground sadly. Karl looked at Valde who was just grinning.
"I'm sick," Amelia said softly, "have been for as long as I can remember. They're from the disease. I'm the only person who has it. There is no one else."
"Oh you're not sick!" Valde said spinning her around to face him and Karl again. Amelia wouldn't look at Karl.
"You have scales?" Karl asked just to verify it. She nodded.
"You're not sick, Amelia, you're a god! At least half a god," Valde told her.
"Stop it! Okay! Stop it!" she yelled at him and he grinned.
"Tell me, Amelia, who is your father?" Valde asked her.
"What?" she asked him.
"Who, is, your, father?" he repeated.
"His name was Levo, he was a miller," she responded and he smiled. Valde turned around and walked back toward his throne.
"Forty years ago, the first ruler of this Kingdom knew he was soon going to die. After being abandoned by all but a few dinosaurs, he collected clay from the riverbank. He made it in the shape of a man, half human, half dinosaur, and he gave it life. This new god began to show an interest in the Outer World, and the first god questioned if he was a good heir. So the first god took more clay, and created another man, half human, half dinosaur, and gave him life. The first creation now felt no obligation to this place, and he made his way to the Outer World. While there the first god died and the second creation took over the land. The first creation married a human woman, had two children with her, and left. I am the second creation, the first creation, was named Levo," Valde explained and turned around to wait for her response. Karl was still too shocked to do anything, and Amelia was too shocked to speak.
"Your older sister, had scales," Valde said walking closer to Amelia again. Amelia's eyes began to tear.
"She wasn't sick, only I'm sick," Amelia said.
"What happened to your sister?" Valde asked her.
"She, she slipped. And, she fell, into the river," she said as tears fell down her cheeks. Valde moved his lips close to her ear.
"She jumped," he whispered.
"No!" Amelia shouted and flung her fist into the side of his face, almost knocking him over. He quickly regained himself and slapped her across the face. Karl came out of his daze and punched Valde in the jaw. Valde fell over so Karl turned to see if Amelia was okay. She was holding her cheek in more shock then pain. Valde got to his feet and ran at Karl, the claws on his hand open wide. Valde stabbed his nails into Karl back by his right shoulder and Karl cried out in pain, falling forward when Valde retracted his hand. Amelia caught Karl and cringed at the sight of the five bleeding holes in his back.
"You disgusting mammal!" Valde yelled at him, "take them away!" he yelled and the two flying dinosaurs swooped down and picked them up again, causing Karl to yell in pain.