Sunset found David in the cadets' quarters, trading stories and jokes with the better part of the squadron over a cheerfully miscellaneous collection of food and drinks. People wandered in and out, taking the impromptu party outside to enjoy the evening. Most Dinotopians preferred to be outside; it was a cultural thing, David had decided, brought on by the fact that they had a good deal more respect for nature than the so-called Outer World.
David, though, stayed inside. He was having a good time; he'd never been much into the party scene, but it was different here. Every now and then, though, he caught himself brooding over Marion and Karl. More accurately, he was brooding over what they might be doing.
He really didn't want to think about it, but he did. It was frustrating and not a little annoying. Why did Karl get everything, while the only thing he got was a wingmate who was barely talking to him?
Romana had returned to the quarters not long after he'd staggered back from lunch. Elwin's parents had outdone themselves, and they had all happily violated the edict about not living to eat for the afternoon. David had barely caught a glimpse of the mysterious Chaz before the elderly protoceratops had shuffled away, snorting, his pink-orange markings faded but nonetheless looking bright in the omnipresent sunshine.
There didn't seem to be many old dinosaurs on the island, now that he thought about it; David made a mental note to ask someone about that.
But at the moment, he was more preoccupied in the story that Aolani was coaxing out of Romana. It involved William Denison and - coincidentally or not, David wasn't sure - Chaz, along with a missing family of struthimimuses and a building six-year storm. Protoceratopsians, David had been given to understand, often served as translators because they could speak a multitude of human and saurian languages with relative ease, and Chaz had not been an exception.
"So after Keelk led them to the Rainy Basin, what happened?" Aolani prompted, leaning forward with her chin propped on her hands.
Romana shook her head, and said around a mouthful of grapes, "No, no, all of you know this story! I'm not going to tell it again."
"David doesn't," Kiyoshi pointed out. "Tell him and we'll listen."
"Yeah, I want to hear this," David said, giving her an earnest nod. He really did, but beyond that, he wanted to make sure that there was no lasting problem between them. As Kiyoshi had said earlier, they were going to be partners for the rest of their time in the Corps.
The others chimed in, until finally Romana smiled and relented. "Fine, okay! After they entered the Rainy Basin. Well, they hadn't gone very far when two tyrannosaurs came charging out of the trees and challenged them."
Remembering his own meeting with the tyrannosaurs, David made a face. Not fun.
"It turned out that their daughter had been taken," Romana continued, "by 'humans who smelled like the sea.' Crookeye and Shethorn wanted to eat my father, Chaz, and Keelk, out of principle, but Father - with Chaz translating - managed to convince them that there was a better chance of recovering their daughter if they all worked together."
"And the names!" Aolani said, visibly excited. "This is the best part," she confided to David in a stage whisper.
"The tyrannosaurs were so impressed by my father, Chaz, and Keelk that they decided to make them honorary tyrannosaurs, and gave them all names. Chaz was 'Slayswithwords,' and Keelk was 'Walksthrustone,' for her determination." Romana's face took on a proud but wistful expression. "Father was 'Thinksthrufear'."
"And Romana," Kiyoshi added, shooting her an exaggerated look of jealousy, "is the only person in Dinotopia who can stroll through the Rainy Basin without becoming a snack, because that little tyrannosaur her father rescued is now the undisputed queen of her kind."
"Prettykill isn't undisputed," Romana disagreed. "Standtall is still vying to regain control."
David laughed, not quite believing what he was hearing. "Wait - you guys keep track of them? The Rainy Basin carnosaurs?"
"Of course," Elwin said, looking like the idea of not keeping track of them was absurd. "They're Dinotopian citizens, even if they are antisocial."
Bridget, whose wingmate, Seif, was outside, cleared her throat and said, "The great ambassador Bix used to say, 'Tyrannosaurs aren't evil..."
" 'They just don't like the vegetables,' " everyone but David concluded, in unison, and then they all laughed.
"It's true, though," Bridget defended to David. He nodded, smiling appreciatively. The Dinotopian outlook was difficult to master, sometimes, but he was finding more and more that it was the way he wanted to see the world.
Romana picked up the thread of narration again. "So my father, Chaz, and Keelk tracked the humans and the missing dinosaurs, and discovered that it was a party of pirates from the Outer World. Father got Keelk's family free, and then eventually got Prettykill free too."
"And all the pirates reformed except for their leader and a few others, who wandered back into the Rainy Basin and were never seen again," Aolani finished, and Romana threw a grape at her. "What?"
Making a face, Romana said, "You tell the story next time." Aolani beamed, seemingly impervious to the criticism, which wasn't serious in any case.
"Speaking of stories," another cadet said, wandering in, "I don't think David's told any yet."
"Oh, Noam's right," Kiyoshi said, grinning. "And we never did get anything out of you during training. It's time for you to stop being such a rolled-up scroll and talk."
Bridget jumped in with, "The Outer World knows about dinosaurs, right? What do they think of them?"
"Well..." David tried to think of what he could tell them, but got stuck on Jurassic Park. It was as good a depiction as any of how dinosaurs were perceived his world. He didn't think the Dinotopians would appreciate it very much, though, if he told them that dinosaurs were seen as monster-movie villains. And then he'd have to explain movies, and that just seemed like far more trouble than it was worth. He shifted on the ground - they were sitting everywhere - and said, "Um... They're studied by scientists - their bones, I mean. Fossilized bones. And, um, a lot of people are interested in learning about them. I think the most popular one is Tyrannosaurus rex ."
"How do you get around, without apatosaurs and ceratopsians?" Noam asked, plainly curious, taking a seat himself. He was Aolani's wingmate, but he didn't sit anywhere near her. David wondered what that meant, then dismissed it as none of his business.
"We use cars - um, automobiles. They're machines, like a carriage, only powered by an engine, and..." David trailed off as he saw a strange look crossing everyone's face.
"Strutters," Aolani murmured to Elwin, who nodded.
Slightly puzzled, David asked, "What?"
Romana said, "That's right, you've never heard what happened to Poseidos."
"It sank," Kiyoshi said matter-of-factly to David's questioning expression. "Chandaran tradition holds that it was destroyed when the people turned their backs on the natural order of things."
"They cast out all the dinosaurs and replaced them with machines," Elwin added. "Ever since then, we've learned our lesson."
With a lecturing air, Noam said, "We live with the dinosaurs, not next to them, and we don't use machines when living things will do."
"Gideon Altaire was from Poseidos," Bridget said absently. "He never fit in."
Seif appeared in the doorway, slightly out of breath. "Hey, everyone, there's something going on at the rookery."
With that one sentence, spoken as it was with a sense of urgency, the mood instantly shifted from festive to tense and concerned. "What is it?" Romana asked, standing. David stood as well, a hundred worries about Freefall filling his mind.
"Nothing bad," Seif said, raising one hand to calm them all down. "But I thought you'd like to know - Strongwing and Galen Theodorakis are doing a night landing."
"A night landing?" everyone repeated incredulously, even as they abandoned the quarters and followed Seif back to the rookery as fast as they dared. On their second day there, they'd been told in no unsubtle terms by Oonu that night landings were too dangerous to attempt, here in Canyon City; the skybaxes couldn't see very well in the dark, and their riders even less well - and unlike a landing in a convential city, there was a very steep drop for those who missed their mark.
David found himself, as always, at the very end of the group. Running when a misstep would send you six thousand feet to your death seemed a bit foolhardy. To his surprise, though, Romana stayed with him, despite the fact that she had no trouble with heights. Maybe things would be okay without his trying.
He'd just reached the base of the rookery when Romana grabbed his arm. "Stop. We won't make it to the top in time. They're already lighting the signal lines."
A row of lights was appearing on the rookery platform, looking amazingly like the runway lights of an airport, although the way they flickered showed they were fire, not electricity. A darker blot against the dark sky was rapidly approaching.
"Galen's in his fifth year. He's trying for instructor," Romana told him. She hadn't let go of his arm yet, which didn't bother him; in fact, he liked it more than he should have. "If they make a successful night landing, they can bypass the other tests."
The dark blot swooped closer, illuminated from beneath by the Sentinels' unwavering light. "Not exactly what I'd call an easy out."
Romana shook her head, letting go of his arm at last and crossing her owns arms over her chest. "I hate this. Everyone thinks they have to do it now, just because Father and Cirrus did. It's stupid and dangerous - which is what Mother told him when she heard about it. Since then, six people have nearly died trying it, and one skybax lost its wing."
"Will you?" he asked, turning to look at her. "When you're up for instructor?"
Her jaw tightened. "I don't have much choice."
Galen and Strongwing ascended sharply, then set down in the middle of the lights as easily as if it were noon. David released a breath he hadn't known he was holding as the spectators burst into cheers, caws, and honks.
"Will you?" Romana asked him suddenly.
He looked at her, then back at the triumphant rider and skybax. It looked difficult, but the challenge intrigued him. "I don't know."
"Mother never did," Romana said, voice uncharacteristically flat, and walked away without another word.