Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek, or any of its reincarnations. They are
owned by Paramount and Gene Roddenberry (many he rest in peace). I also do
not own the concept of Dinotopia. That is owned by James Gurney (may he be
blessed by his vision). I, however, did not like how Dinotopia was
presented in the television series. I will be using the book series and
the introduction movie for my background and I will disregard the TV
series. However, Aaron is my character. Please ask if you want to use
him.
SilverCaladan: just send me an e-mail. Just make sure you have a basic understanding of Dinotopia that is presented in the book series and the introduction movie. I would like to have at least 2 beta readers, one to focus on the Dinotopia aspect of this story and the other to focus on any Star Trek. I wouldn't mind if someone would also look to make sure everything flows smoothly.
The reason for the Bermuda Triangle was to explain why Dinotopia has not yet been found by the Federation or any current society. I also believe that Dinotopia has been entered mostly by people traveling in the Indian Ocean, but this will all be explained in the coming episodes. I would like to thank my new beta reader Cylent Dryagon-san for reviewing this story.
To Go Where No One Has Gone Before: Dinotopia
Episode 2: Castaways
The first thing that registered in Aaron's mind was that his mouth was gritty. He very slowly started to open his eyes. The first thing he saw was a bright blue expanse with white puffy things floating around it. He felt the sun shining on his face. He knew that he was on dry land because he was lying down completely and not half- reclined like he would be if he was still in the water and his floatation device was keeping him alive. However, it had saved his life, because he was still breathing. He could feel its mass on his chest and back. His legs felt very warm and also itchy. He realized that they must be covered by sand. He started to roll his head to the side. He saw water lapping up on to the shore of the beach he was laying on. Turning his head to the other side, he saw what looked like a jungle, or at least a heavily wooded region. He laid his head back down.
He realized that if he did not move to the shade, he would die of dehydration. If he could get to the shade, if he fell asleep, he could survive. His body could go for about 3 days without food, but if he became too dehydrated, he could die in a matter of hours. Already he was very thirsty. Unfortunately, he was still very, very weak. It was all he could do not to slip back into the luxury of unconsciousness. He could not even get to his hands and knees. He slowly started to gather the last of his energy. When he felt strong enough, he started to rock himself from side to side.
This rocking motion dug Aaron out from under the sand that had buried his legs. When he was free, he slowly turned his head to regain his bearings, on his right lay shade and salvation, to his left, dehydration and death. So he started to roll. Over and over and over he rolled. Finally he couldn't roll anymore. He stopped lying on his back. He barely had the strength to move his head. He saw that he was only a few meters away from the canopy. However, he was so tired. It might have just as well been on the moon. He was so tired. He put his head down and prepared to go to sleep. He didn't care anymore.
After all, what did he have to go back to? He was an aging, single, professor. His family was mostly gone. Besides, they were on strained relationships anyways. He had only a few friends. He would miss his students, but there were others who could teach his material. In fact, all he could really miss was his connection to nature. He worried about his pets. He hoped that they would be cared for. Wait a minute! What was he thinking? He still had too much to live for. There were places he had to visit. New and unique animals he had to see and understand. He was not going to stop because he was tired.
Aaron dug down to the very core of his being; drawing upon all of the training he had received studying Tai Kwan Do. He pulled out all of his energy. He poured out his very life. Instead of the energy coming slowly to him, it came in a flood. He could make it and he would. He started rolling again. As he was rolling, he could feel himself getting weaker. If he kept this up, soon he would not have enough energy to breath. The next thing he knew, he was cool. He had made it. He stopped himself and sighed. He was safe. He had just enough energy to keep breathing. With that thought, he let the blanket of unconsciousness cover him.
The next thing Aaron remembered was that he was cold. He realized that he had just woken up. But what had woken him? He took a survey of his body. He was still so tired. But he felt something else. What was it? He knew he had felt this feeling before, but his brain did not want to function. His mind was sluggish. His lips were chapping. His mouth was dry and scratchy. His stomach felt as if it was on fire. What did it mean? He swallowed some saliva that was in his mouth and then he realized what was wrong with him. He was thirsty. He sat up from lying on the ground and looked around himself, trying to find some sort of something that he could drink. However, he could not see anything, but faint shadows on a dark background. Wherever he looked, all he saw was a pale, whitish glow falling on shapes that looked partially like things he knew, but he could not make them out. He realized that it must be nighttime. The biting cold of the wind blowing through the trees sapped the heat from his body like touching dry ice. Aaron remembered that he had stashed various items into his pockets.
He slowly lifted his right arm and started feeling through his pockets. Finally he came across something. It was a bottle of water, one that had been fortified with various nutrients, but did not give the water a taste. He quickly opened the top of the bottle and started drinking. He took several huge gulps and then pulled the bottle out of his mouth. He took several deep breaths, as he had been holding his breath when he drank. The cold water struck his empty stomach like a hot iron. He closes his eyes in pain and started bending himself to protect his stomach, going into a fetal position as much as was possible, considering the restricting floatation device that was still attached to him. After a few heart- wrenching moments, the pain decreased. Aaron did not want to go through that again, so he sealed the top of the bottle and replaced it in his pocket. He started getting drowsy again, but was still cold.
Aaron looked around and spotted what looked like a bush nearby. He realized that the bush might break the wind and keep him warm. Aaron weakly got to his hands and knees and started crawling like an infant towards the bush. He made it to the bush and saw that he could slither underneath it. He then squirmed into the bush and found it made a small hollow space in its center. There was just enough room for him to curl up in. Aaron proceeded to crimp up into a ball and was soon asleep.
When Aaron stirred the next time, he could make out the shapes of the bush he was sleeping under. He realized that it must be daytime, and the sun was shining through the gaps in the leaves. Aaron then proceeded to wriggle out of his temporary shelter and stood up for the first time since he was taken overboard. What he saw was simply lovely. He saw a clear expanse of pure blue ocean stretching as far as he could see. There were light fluffy clouds drifting through the sky. Meeting the ocean was a beach of pure white sand. It glittered in the sunlight, like thousands of tiny crystals reflecting the sunlight in all directions. Aaron turned to look back at where he came from. The dense forest that greeted his sight was enchanting. It was composed of mainly of conifers, ferns, and shrubs. But what surprised Aaron was the size of the trees. They reached into the sky. They were at least 200 meters in height. And that was just some of the smaller trees. However, as Aaron continued to look around, he spotted a type of tree that he did not recognize. He saw that this tree type appeared about one-third as much in the forest as the conifers. Here and there, vines stretched up trees or across the ground. All in all, it was breathtaking. Here was untouched natural beauty. However, even this sight did not keep Aaron long.
He sighed and then removed his floatation device. Once that was done, he checked it to see if the distress beacon attached to it was still transmitting. A quick check showed that the light was still flashing and Aaron assumed that it meant that all systems were operational. With this he should be found within a few hours by the authorities. Then he would be rescued and would face the music back at his university. After checking the distress beacon, he opened the various pouches and pockets of the floatation device to see what is was that he had managed to gather in his mad dash through the hallways of the sinking ship.
In the end, Aaron found that he had gathered enough food to last him approximately 4 days. However, all he had was 2 bottles of water. Aaron knew that without water, he would not survive long enough to be rescued. Continuing on that train of thought, Aaron wondered why he had not been rescued already. Even he was lost on a small island, which he believed he was on; there should have been a transporter or shuttle close enough that it could be sent to find him. For that matter, there were always a number of spaceships in orbit at any given time, and they would surely have sent down some sort of rescue team if they received the distress beacon's signal. Therefore, Aaron had to assume that the beacon must therefore be malfunctioning and not transmitting. Aaron did see that his triquarter was operational, but he immediately shut it down. He did not want to drain the charge in the mechanism. He had no idea if he might need it later.
Aaron nibbled on some freeze-dried and sealed crackers and put the rest of his provisions back into his floatation device and placed it back on. Until he found some useful plants which he could fashion into pouches and the like, it was the most efficient way of carrying his supplies. Aaron decided to set out along the shore to see if he could find the mouth of a freshwater stream. Aaron walked to the edge of the forest and found himself a strong, almost straight stick that was about 2 meters. Using his modified walking stick, Aaron set out in a direction. Aaron traveled close to the forest so that he would not have as much trouble walking through the sand as well as providing him a chance to look at the forest and see if he could spot sources of nourishment or water.
While walking, Aaron noticed various signs of life on the beach. He saw the tell-tale tracks of beach-combing birds and what appeared to be small reptiles. In the forest, he heard the sounds of some sort of great beast. It was a deep throated growl as well as various honks and howls. It sounded like there was more than one of these creatures, as he heard various sounds coming from different directions. He had never heard these sounds like this before. He hoped he did not run into whatever was making those noises. Then he came across a set of tracks that were about one-half of a meter long from end to end, and roughly 3 meters between tracks. The footprint looked like some large animal had made them. It was roughly circular with what looked like 4 or 5 nails on what looked like the front part of the foot. It might have been made by one of those creatures he heard earlier. However, there were a couple of things that Aaron could figure out from the footprints. One was that the animal was a quadruped. He could clearly see that there were two sets of prints and no animal outside of humanoids would walk one right behind the other. The other was that this creature was big and heavy. The footprint was just about as big as an elephant's footprint. This probably meant that it was an herbivore. This was encouraging, because if he could follow it, he might find food and water. A creature that big would be easy to track through the forest, because it's sheer size would leave a large path through the forest.
Aaron continued to walk, except that he was now tracking his quarry. As he walked, he mind kept wandering around these tracks he was following. It looked like the tracks of an elephant, but there was something wrong with them. However, he could not place his finger on the problem. The spacing between the footprints did not exactly match up with those he had viewed of other elephants. He had visited Africa before, doing research on some of the early societies that existed in Africa before the invaders from Europe came and destroyed the African culture and splintered their society. While he was there, he got a few days away to do some camping and hiking in the savannah. While he was not a man who would be considered a hunter- gatherer, one of those survivalists who had existed in the early years following the use of the atomic bomb at the end of the Second World War, he was considered to be a fairly good camper, hiker, and outdoorsman. He did know some of the most ancient ways employed by hunter-gatherer societies to survive in a hostile environment. He was, in fact, proud of his knowledge of his ability to survive without technology, where most people nowadays would be lost without some sort of modern mechanism.
When he did go on his camping trips, he was always sure to wear a communication, tracking device; just in case he happened to get into some sort of trouble that he could not get himself out of, like he was about to be attacked and eaten, but otherwise, he used much more basic essentials to survive than most people. He would carry a polymer sheet to act as his tent, a sleeping bag, some food and water, and basic eating utensils. One other piece of modern technology that he took along was a PADD that he used to store his drawings, his notes, and his thoughts. It also had a book or two in its backup memory, in case he got bored. He enjoyed living by fitting into a nitch in the environment that he had entered.
As the day wore on, Aaron was not getting any closer to his target, and he was loosing strength fast. Soon, he was exhausted. Realizing his need to stop and rest, but he needed to keep searching for that creature. He stopped and then he marked the trail with some pieces of sticks that he found laying on the ground. He formed an arrow and two additional sticks to mark the trail. Then he set around to make himself a small lean-to. He gathered together twigs and made himself the basic frame. Next he took some of the brush he found nearby, removed it from the ground and he strung it through his frame. In a very short amount of time, he had made himself a sturdy little shelter. He took out a couple of pieces of dried fruit. He took a swig of water from his limited supply. Then he took off his floatation device, made it into a primitive pillow and then lies down and went to sleep.
Aaron woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and almost to his full strength. Looking around at his surroundings, Aaron still could not find any sort of edible food or fresh water. However, his trail markers were still in place. And he could still see the tracks of the creature. However, they were a lot harder to see. He placed his floatation device back on and got ready to go. Nibbling on some of his provisions, he started out again. He picked up his walking stick and continued down the path. He still heard those animal sounds coming from the forest, but was not concerned much. He had gotten used to them and could tell that they were not close enough to give him trouble. With this, Aaron continued his tracking of his quarry.
After a few hours, Aaron was starting to get tired. He guesstimated that he had been traveling for 4 hours and needed a break. As he was looking for a place to sit down and take a break, his eyes scanned down the beach. He saw something that looked out of place on the beach. Aaron jogged over to look at the object. He saw that whatever it was, it was half-buried in the sand. He made it to the object and saw that it looked like a man. It looked like a body. Aaron started digging. Soon he had unearthed the torso, legs and arms. As he uncovered a hand, he saw that is was a manlike creature. Its skin was shiny and off-white color. He had a suspicion. He had found a floatation device attached to the body. He then went to uncover the head. After scraping off all the sand from the face, Data's closed eyes greeted Aaron's gaze.
Aaron feverously dug around Data's head, working to uncover it. As Aaron got to the top of Data's head, he discovered that a panel in Data's head was open and filled with sand. Aaron finally just grabbed the sides of the head and lifted. Data's head slowly started pulling out of the sand, and as more was pulled out, the easier it got. Finally Data's head just popped out of the sand and the sand on the sides of the hole left behind slid down to start filling the hole.
Aaron maneuvered the body so it was in a roughly sitting position. He then started looking for the damage that kept Data from running. He lightly blew on the sand that was still in the open panel, trying to remove built-up sand while not driving any particles deeper into Data's circuitry then they already were. He finally got out what looked like most of the sand particles. He then made a thorough check of the open circuits for any remaining particles. He saw a few, but he could not get them without causing further damage. He then closed the panel. He checked around the rest of the head for other open panels or panels that had recently closed. He found that there was one on the side of the head, just above the left earlobe that had sand in it. Aaron did the same thing that he did for the other panel. When he closed the panel, Data did not respond or move. Realizing this was definitely a crisis; Aaron whipped out his triquarter and started taking readings of Data's head. While his right hand held the scanner and moved it over Data's head, the left hand held the triquarter. Occasionally, Aaron taped on the pad to get better resolution. He then opened up the two panels that had sand in them to run the scanner over the circuitry. After a bit of high resolution scans, Aaron found a couple wires that had some buildup on them.
He closed his triquarter and then he looked around his surroundings and spotted a thorny bush nearby. Pulling himself to his feet, he walked to the bush. He pulled off a couple of branches and started stripping off the leaves. As he stripped the leaves, he walked back to his only hope for companionship he had seen so far. Stripping down the branches, he fashioned primitive tools to try and scrape off the contaminants. He worked very slowly. The sweat trickled down his forehead as he furrowed his brow. Finally, after about an hour of delicate work, Aaron thought he had removed as much of the contaminant as possible.
He reopened his triquarter and rescanned the damaged area. The results were encouraging. He used the scanner to try and restart some of Data's basic processors. As he did this, various lights turned on in Data's head and started swirling around. Aaron sat back and smiled. He closed the panel and waited.
Data's eyes started fluttering open and closed very fast. His hands started twitching. Then his arms started jerking. Finally he just finished sitting up. He looked around in a very robotic fashion. His head swung from side to side very fast, occasionally stopping very fast then moving on. His gaze finally settled on Aaron. His mouth opened and he looked like he was trying to speak, but no words were coming out. Data's head tilted to his left side. He tried again to speak. His face showed confusion and puzzlement. He brought his right hand up to touch one of the panels in his head and tried again.
"Aaron. How long have I been out?"
Aaron smiled. Finally, he was not alone and besides, Data might know of some way to get the distress beacons on the floatation devices working. All I know is that I have been aware of the passage of 3 days, counting today. As for how much time I can not account for, your guess might be better than mine."
Data nodded. "My internal chronometer says that 5 days, 13 hours, 27 minutes have passed since we were swept off the ship."
Aaron face took on a thoughtful look. "That makes sense. I would have had to spend a lot of time recuperating from our ordeal. By the way, are you operating at peak efficiency? I found some sand and contamination in your head. Is it interfering with your internal systems?"
Data's eyes took on a glassy look as he did an internal scan. "There is a 1.8 percent loss in processing speed and a 4.3 percent in data transmission through my body. These will be taken care of when we are rescued. However, I appear to be having difficulty moving my legs. Could you assist me?"
"Of course, what do you need me to do?"
"Just be ready in case I have need of your hands."
Data started to try to get up, but his legs would not respond. After a few attempts, Data looked up at Aaron, who had gotten to his feet and said, "If you would be give me a hand up and help me over to that forest."
Aaron responded simply by holding out his hand. Data took the hand and then was pulled up to his feet. From there, Aaron grabbed Data around the middle and dragged Data to the forest. Once in the forest, Aaron set Data down and then leaned against a tree. Data pulled down the top of his pants to expose his upper thighs. He then opened a panel in his right thigh. He looked in it and found corrosion in his leg. He pulled out his own triquarter from the floatation device and ran it over his panel in a manner similar to what Aaron did earlier. Finally, Data looked up at Aaron.
"Could you please hand me whatever it was you used to clean the contaminants from my circuitry, please?"
Aaron just went back to where Data had been laying for the past 5 days and simply picked up the thorns. He then gave them to Data without a word. Data took the thorns and carefully started scraping away the contaminants from his circuitry. Because of his computerized hand-eye coordination and computer reflexes, this time the work went by a lot faster. When Data was finished, he used his triquarter to activate his right leg. He was able to regain mobility of his leg. He then repeated the procedure with his other leg. In a relatively short amount of time, Data was up to optimal conditions, given that he was stranded and was using very primitive tools to repair himself.
At the same time, Aaron decided to explore the immediate surroundings. In the surrounding territory, Aaron found more of the same plants that he has been seeing on this island since he had awakened. However, he found evidence that a large creature has recently passed through the forest nearby. Aaron, after finding this passage, began to follow the trail back to where it had come from and found out that it was the same creature that he had been tracking earlier. Seeing this, Aaron returned to his companion. He came back to find Data standing and moving around.
Aaron walked into the clearing that Data was in. As Aaron walked in, that loud cry that Aaron had been hearing before came out of the jungle. Data looked around, trying to locate the source of the sound. Aaron just lifted his hand and said, "Don't bother. I have been hearing it for 2 days now. I believe that it is the cry of a creature that I have been tracking when I came across. And before you ask, no, I do not know exactly what it is, but I have made a few educated guesses as to what it is."
Data turned his head to look at Aaron. "And what would those be and your evidence to make these hypothesizes?"
Aaron started to talk. As he made each point, he tapped his right forefinger on the corresponding finger in his left hand, using the forefinger as number 1.
"Well, here goes:
1. I have never heard that creature's sound before and the tracks I have been
following do not correspond to any animal I know of.
2. The tracks I have been following must belong to the creature, as they are
the only tracks I have seen since I woke up, and I do not believe that those
sounds are made by birds.
3. That the creature does not originate from Earth. I am pleased to say I
know most of the tracks that are left by native creatures from my outdoor
excursions and I can say without a doubt, that I have never seen these
tracks before.
4. I do believe that this creature is an herbivore. I base this conclusion on the
fact that this creature seems to be rather large, about as big as an elephant,
based on the depth of the tracks I found. I know that most carnivores are
small, fast and rather quiet. Besides, this creature, I believe, needs lots of
food to keep it going and only herbivores wander like this.
5. Finally these tracks are of a quadruped. The tracks do not show any sort
of claws on the paws, and that is simply impossible for a carnivore. That
is too much of a waste for armament."
Data nodded and smiled, "Those are good theories based on your observations. However, a scientist does not simply use his senses to prove a theory. I would advise the making of simple arms to defend ourselves."
Aaron nodded, "You look for some rocks that we can use to fashion our tools and I will start looking around for other things to use as raw materials."
That being said Aaron turned around and started to look around for other long sticks like the one he had been using as a walking stick. He found a few and gathered them together. While Aaron was doing that, Data went down to the beach to look for rocks to shape the wood into javelins and spears. Not finding any on the sandy beach, Data returned to his campground and started digging. He came across some hard packed clay after about 10 centimeters of nice loam. Mixed in with the clay was some round rocks. Data started gathering them to make not only defensive tools, but a campfire ring as well, considering his companion might need the warmth with the coming night.
When night came upon the two castaways, they had gathered around 10 long sticks like Aaron's walking stick, 10 stones large enough to fashion into hand axes, about 10 meters of good strong vine to use as twine, and 20 sling-sized stones. Aaron had also pulled about one meter's worth of thorny branches from nearby to fashion into barbed whips. They had also gathered a small pile of firewood and had a cheery blaze going in a dugout fire pit that Data had made digging for rocks.
Aaron and Data were sitting on opposite sides of the fire and facing each other so that they could talk and work at the same time. Data was sharpening sticks to make javelins, while Aaron was fashioning a couple of bolas from the vine and stones collected earlier. A quick glance around the campsite showed that product of their work. Sitting to one side were 5 heavy spears with a stone tip and 3 javelins. Data was working on another javelin. Sitting nearby were 3 completed hand axes. These creations consisted of about three-fourths of a meter of wood with one end notched and attached to it was a large stone. The stone was held to the wood with vine held under tension and fitted into special groves made in the wood. Also, nearby, were 2 slings sitting nearby, fashioned out of vine with a pouch for stones made out of Aaron's trash that he had saved. These tools could not have been made without Data's incredible strength. Data would look at a stone; calculate the precise angle and force needed to break the stone in the required way. Thus, it took Data only 30 minutes what would take days for Aaron to make.
When that was done, the two castaways divided up their armaments. Each of them got a bola, two javelins, two spears, and a hand axe. Data got the extra hand axe while Aaron got the other hand axe. With that done, Aaron pulled out some of his provisions. He offered a bit of his remaining food to Data, but Data shook his head no.
Data said, "While I can turn organic substances into mechanical fluids that my body can use to keep itself lubricated, I do not need any food now. Save it for yourself you cannot survive without food."
Aaron just nodded his head and then eats a little more of his provisions. He took out his open water bottle and drank. He then saw that the bottle was now empty. He put it back into his pockets. Aaron then looked at Data and spoke, "I believe that our distress beacons are malfunctioning. It has been 5 days since we were swept overboard and no one has come to rescue either one of us."
Data nodded, "I will look at them to see if I can find out what is malfunctioning with them."
Aaron started to get himself ready for sleep. His own floatation device was used as a pillow and Data's was placed over him as a small blanket. Data sat down and closed his eyes, going into sleep mode. And so they slept, the fire burning down to embers.
Aaron slowly awoke. He sat up and stretched his arms while yawning. He then scratched himself on his chest, while smacking his lips. Data came out of sleep mode and stood up. He then placed a few pieces of starter material in the embers of last night's fire and blew upon it. The fire flared back up and Aaron added pieces of kindling to stoke the fire. Finally one piece of wood was added and it burned merrily. Aaron pulled out a couple more rations and ate them. Then he opened and drank from his other bottle of water. When he was done, he put his trash in his pockets and placed his flotation device on. He handed Data his floatation device back and Data pulled out the triquarter that was in its pocket. He started to run scans over the distress beacon.
While Data was scanning the distress beacon, Aaron started to gather their hand-made tools. He tied together all the spears as well as two of the javelins so that they could be carried as a bundle. He set aside two javelins to be carried. He then split the sling stones between the two slings he had made and placed one set in one of his pockets. He then placed two hand axes in his waistband of his trousers. He then squatted down to wait for Data.
Soon, Data put down his triquarter and turned to Aaron. 'There appears to be nothing wrong with the beacon. The triquarter is picking up the distress signal being broadcast from the beacon clearly. There must be something else that is keeping the signal from being received."
Aaron put his chin in his hand and started to rub his rough beard. "Well, we will worry about that later. Right now, I think we should concentrate on finding food and water so we can live long enough to answer the bigger questions."
Data nodded and then put on the floatation device. He put his sling and stones in one of his pockets. He picked up the bundle of spears and tied it to his back. He picked up his hand axe and placed it in his waistband. He then picked up a javelin and bola, while Aaron was putting out the fire. When that was done, Aaron picked up his javelin and bola and the two headed out, Aaron in the lead and Data following.
Aaron walked to the spot where he had found the trail of the creature he had been tracking before finding Data. He pointed at it and said to Data, "Lets follow this creature's trail. Hopefully it will soon lead us to at least water and maybe some food." With that being said, he took off and Data followed.
After a couple of hours of tracking, Aaron and Data came across a small stream of water. Aaron got down and looked at the water. He saw it was a fast moving stream and was relatively clean. Aaron filled up his empty bottle and then put it back into his pocket. The two castaways sat down and Aaron started to rest.
"Well, Mr. Data, what do you think? Nice little forest here. However, I still wish I knew what it was we were tracking."
"You and me both, Aaron. But, while I am standing here, I believe I should teach you a little bit about my circuitry, in case I go offline again."
"That sounds like a very good idea. Wait a minute." Aaron digs around in his pocket and pulls out a PADD. This PADD was the one that had Aaron's notes and ideas.
"Here, download your circuitry schematic into this PADD. Don't worry about what is already on it. It is just notes of mine, nothing important."
Data nodded and set aside his javelin. He took up the PADD and started rapidly typing in information into the PADD. In a few minutes, Data had finished. He handed it back to Aaron, whom put it back into his pocket.
"Well, Mr. Data, I guess we should follow this stream. It might take us out of this forest."
An unknown voice came out of the bushes, "That will take you a long time. Why not come with me instead?"
Note: I am sorry for the amount of time it took to update this story. I was caught up in the real world (god damn home improvements). I hope to have the next story up in about a month.
SilverCaladan: just send me an e-mail. Just make sure you have a basic understanding of Dinotopia that is presented in the book series and the introduction movie. I would like to have at least 2 beta readers, one to focus on the Dinotopia aspect of this story and the other to focus on any Star Trek. I wouldn't mind if someone would also look to make sure everything flows smoothly.
The reason for the Bermuda Triangle was to explain why Dinotopia has not yet been found by the Federation or any current society. I also believe that Dinotopia has been entered mostly by people traveling in the Indian Ocean, but this will all be explained in the coming episodes. I would like to thank my new beta reader Cylent Dryagon-san for reviewing this story.
To Go Where No One Has Gone Before: Dinotopia
Episode 2: Castaways
The first thing that registered in Aaron's mind was that his mouth was gritty. He very slowly started to open his eyes. The first thing he saw was a bright blue expanse with white puffy things floating around it. He felt the sun shining on his face. He knew that he was on dry land because he was lying down completely and not half- reclined like he would be if he was still in the water and his floatation device was keeping him alive. However, it had saved his life, because he was still breathing. He could feel its mass on his chest and back. His legs felt very warm and also itchy. He realized that they must be covered by sand. He started to roll his head to the side. He saw water lapping up on to the shore of the beach he was laying on. Turning his head to the other side, he saw what looked like a jungle, or at least a heavily wooded region. He laid his head back down.
He realized that if he did not move to the shade, he would die of dehydration. If he could get to the shade, if he fell asleep, he could survive. His body could go for about 3 days without food, but if he became too dehydrated, he could die in a matter of hours. Already he was very thirsty. Unfortunately, he was still very, very weak. It was all he could do not to slip back into the luxury of unconsciousness. He could not even get to his hands and knees. He slowly started to gather the last of his energy. When he felt strong enough, he started to rock himself from side to side.
This rocking motion dug Aaron out from under the sand that had buried his legs. When he was free, he slowly turned his head to regain his bearings, on his right lay shade and salvation, to his left, dehydration and death. So he started to roll. Over and over and over he rolled. Finally he couldn't roll anymore. He stopped lying on his back. He barely had the strength to move his head. He saw that he was only a few meters away from the canopy. However, he was so tired. It might have just as well been on the moon. He was so tired. He put his head down and prepared to go to sleep. He didn't care anymore.
After all, what did he have to go back to? He was an aging, single, professor. His family was mostly gone. Besides, they were on strained relationships anyways. He had only a few friends. He would miss his students, but there were others who could teach his material. In fact, all he could really miss was his connection to nature. He worried about his pets. He hoped that they would be cared for. Wait a minute! What was he thinking? He still had too much to live for. There were places he had to visit. New and unique animals he had to see and understand. He was not going to stop because he was tired.
Aaron dug down to the very core of his being; drawing upon all of the training he had received studying Tai Kwan Do. He pulled out all of his energy. He poured out his very life. Instead of the energy coming slowly to him, it came in a flood. He could make it and he would. He started rolling again. As he was rolling, he could feel himself getting weaker. If he kept this up, soon he would not have enough energy to breath. The next thing he knew, he was cool. He had made it. He stopped himself and sighed. He was safe. He had just enough energy to keep breathing. With that thought, he let the blanket of unconsciousness cover him.
The next thing Aaron remembered was that he was cold. He realized that he had just woken up. But what had woken him? He took a survey of his body. He was still so tired. But he felt something else. What was it? He knew he had felt this feeling before, but his brain did not want to function. His mind was sluggish. His lips were chapping. His mouth was dry and scratchy. His stomach felt as if it was on fire. What did it mean? He swallowed some saliva that was in his mouth and then he realized what was wrong with him. He was thirsty. He sat up from lying on the ground and looked around himself, trying to find some sort of something that he could drink. However, he could not see anything, but faint shadows on a dark background. Wherever he looked, all he saw was a pale, whitish glow falling on shapes that looked partially like things he knew, but he could not make them out. He realized that it must be nighttime. The biting cold of the wind blowing through the trees sapped the heat from his body like touching dry ice. Aaron remembered that he had stashed various items into his pockets.
He slowly lifted his right arm and started feeling through his pockets. Finally he came across something. It was a bottle of water, one that had been fortified with various nutrients, but did not give the water a taste. He quickly opened the top of the bottle and started drinking. He took several huge gulps and then pulled the bottle out of his mouth. He took several deep breaths, as he had been holding his breath when he drank. The cold water struck his empty stomach like a hot iron. He closes his eyes in pain and started bending himself to protect his stomach, going into a fetal position as much as was possible, considering the restricting floatation device that was still attached to him. After a few heart- wrenching moments, the pain decreased. Aaron did not want to go through that again, so he sealed the top of the bottle and replaced it in his pocket. He started getting drowsy again, but was still cold.
Aaron looked around and spotted what looked like a bush nearby. He realized that the bush might break the wind and keep him warm. Aaron weakly got to his hands and knees and started crawling like an infant towards the bush. He made it to the bush and saw that he could slither underneath it. He then squirmed into the bush and found it made a small hollow space in its center. There was just enough room for him to curl up in. Aaron proceeded to crimp up into a ball and was soon asleep.
When Aaron stirred the next time, he could make out the shapes of the bush he was sleeping under. He realized that it must be daytime, and the sun was shining through the gaps in the leaves. Aaron then proceeded to wriggle out of his temporary shelter and stood up for the first time since he was taken overboard. What he saw was simply lovely. He saw a clear expanse of pure blue ocean stretching as far as he could see. There were light fluffy clouds drifting through the sky. Meeting the ocean was a beach of pure white sand. It glittered in the sunlight, like thousands of tiny crystals reflecting the sunlight in all directions. Aaron turned to look back at where he came from. The dense forest that greeted his sight was enchanting. It was composed of mainly of conifers, ferns, and shrubs. But what surprised Aaron was the size of the trees. They reached into the sky. They were at least 200 meters in height. And that was just some of the smaller trees. However, as Aaron continued to look around, he spotted a type of tree that he did not recognize. He saw that this tree type appeared about one-third as much in the forest as the conifers. Here and there, vines stretched up trees or across the ground. All in all, it was breathtaking. Here was untouched natural beauty. However, even this sight did not keep Aaron long.
He sighed and then removed his floatation device. Once that was done, he checked it to see if the distress beacon attached to it was still transmitting. A quick check showed that the light was still flashing and Aaron assumed that it meant that all systems were operational. With this he should be found within a few hours by the authorities. Then he would be rescued and would face the music back at his university. After checking the distress beacon, he opened the various pouches and pockets of the floatation device to see what is was that he had managed to gather in his mad dash through the hallways of the sinking ship.
In the end, Aaron found that he had gathered enough food to last him approximately 4 days. However, all he had was 2 bottles of water. Aaron knew that without water, he would not survive long enough to be rescued. Continuing on that train of thought, Aaron wondered why he had not been rescued already. Even he was lost on a small island, which he believed he was on; there should have been a transporter or shuttle close enough that it could be sent to find him. For that matter, there were always a number of spaceships in orbit at any given time, and they would surely have sent down some sort of rescue team if they received the distress beacon's signal. Therefore, Aaron had to assume that the beacon must therefore be malfunctioning and not transmitting. Aaron did see that his triquarter was operational, but he immediately shut it down. He did not want to drain the charge in the mechanism. He had no idea if he might need it later.
Aaron nibbled on some freeze-dried and sealed crackers and put the rest of his provisions back into his floatation device and placed it back on. Until he found some useful plants which he could fashion into pouches and the like, it was the most efficient way of carrying his supplies. Aaron decided to set out along the shore to see if he could find the mouth of a freshwater stream. Aaron walked to the edge of the forest and found himself a strong, almost straight stick that was about 2 meters. Using his modified walking stick, Aaron set out in a direction. Aaron traveled close to the forest so that he would not have as much trouble walking through the sand as well as providing him a chance to look at the forest and see if he could spot sources of nourishment or water.
While walking, Aaron noticed various signs of life on the beach. He saw the tell-tale tracks of beach-combing birds and what appeared to be small reptiles. In the forest, he heard the sounds of some sort of great beast. It was a deep throated growl as well as various honks and howls. It sounded like there was more than one of these creatures, as he heard various sounds coming from different directions. He had never heard these sounds like this before. He hoped he did not run into whatever was making those noises. Then he came across a set of tracks that were about one-half of a meter long from end to end, and roughly 3 meters between tracks. The footprint looked like some large animal had made them. It was roughly circular with what looked like 4 or 5 nails on what looked like the front part of the foot. It might have been made by one of those creatures he heard earlier. However, there were a couple of things that Aaron could figure out from the footprints. One was that the animal was a quadruped. He could clearly see that there were two sets of prints and no animal outside of humanoids would walk one right behind the other. The other was that this creature was big and heavy. The footprint was just about as big as an elephant's footprint. This probably meant that it was an herbivore. This was encouraging, because if he could follow it, he might find food and water. A creature that big would be easy to track through the forest, because it's sheer size would leave a large path through the forest.
Aaron continued to walk, except that he was now tracking his quarry. As he walked, he mind kept wandering around these tracks he was following. It looked like the tracks of an elephant, but there was something wrong with them. However, he could not place his finger on the problem. The spacing between the footprints did not exactly match up with those he had viewed of other elephants. He had visited Africa before, doing research on some of the early societies that existed in Africa before the invaders from Europe came and destroyed the African culture and splintered their society. While he was there, he got a few days away to do some camping and hiking in the savannah. While he was not a man who would be considered a hunter- gatherer, one of those survivalists who had existed in the early years following the use of the atomic bomb at the end of the Second World War, he was considered to be a fairly good camper, hiker, and outdoorsman. He did know some of the most ancient ways employed by hunter-gatherer societies to survive in a hostile environment. He was, in fact, proud of his knowledge of his ability to survive without technology, where most people nowadays would be lost without some sort of modern mechanism.
When he did go on his camping trips, he was always sure to wear a communication, tracking device; just in case he happened to get into some sort of trouble that he could not get himself out of, like he was about to be attacked and eaten, but otherwise, he used much more basic essentials to survive than most people. He would carry a polymer sheet to act as his tent, a sleeping bag, some food and water, and basic eating utensils. One other piece of modern technology that he took along was a PADD that he used to store his drawings, his notes, and his thoughts. It also had a book or two in its backup memory, in case he got bored. He enjoyed living by fitting into a nitch in the environment that he had entered.
As the day wore on, Aaron was not getting any closer to his target, and he was loosing strength fast. Soon, he was exhausted. Realizing his need to stop and rest, but he needed to keep searching for that creature. He stopped and then he marked the trail with some pieces of sticks that he found laying on the ground. He formed an arrow and two additional sticks to mark the trail. Then he set around to make himself a small lean-to. He gathered together twigs and made himself the basic frame. Next he took some of the brush he found nearby, removed it from the ground and he strung it through his frame. In a very short amount of time, he had made himself a sturdy little shelter. He took out a couple of pieces of dried fruit. He took a swig of water from his limited supply. Then he took off his floatation device, made it into a primitive pillow and then lies down and went to sleep.
Aaron woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and almost to his full strength. Looking around at his surroundings, Aaron still could not find any sort of edible food or fresh water. However, his trail markers were still in place. And he could still see the tracks of the creature. However, they were a lot harder to see. He placed his floatation device back on and got ready to go. Nibbling on some of his provisions, he started out again. He picked up his walking stick and continued down the path. He still heard those animal sounds coming from the forest, but was not concerned much. He had gotten used to them and could tell that they were not close enough to give him trouble. With this, Aaron continued his tracking of his quarry.
After a few hours, Aaron was starting to get tired. He guesstimated that he had been traveling for 4 hours and needed a break. As he was looking for a place to sit down and take a break, his eyes scanned down the beach. He saw something that looked out of place on the beach. Aaron jogged over to look at the object. He saw that whatever it was, it was half-buried in the sand. He made it to the object and saw that it looked like a man. It looked like a body. Aaron started digging. Soon he had unearthed the torso, legs and arms. As he uncovered a hand, he saw that is was a manlike creature. Its skin was shiny and off-white color. He had a suspicion. He had found a floatation device attached to the body. He then went to uncover the head. After scraping off all the sand from the face, Data's closed eyes greeted Aaron's gaze.
Aaron feverously dug around Data's head, working to uncover it. As Aaron got to the top of Data's head, he discovered that a panel in Data's head was open and filled with sand. Aaron finally just grabbed the sides of the head and lifted. Data's head slowly started pulling out of the sand, and as more was pulled out, the easier it got. Finally Data's head just popped out of the sand and the sand on the sides of the hole left behind slid down to start filling the hole.
Aaron maneuvered the body so it was in a roughly sitting position. He then started looking for the damage that kept Data from running. He lightly blew on the sand that was still in the open panel, trying to remove built-up sand while not driving any particles deeper into Data's circuitry then they already were. He finally got out what looked like most of the sand particles. He then made a thorough check of the open circuits for any remaining particles. He saw a few, but he could not get them without causing further damage. He then closed the panel. He checked around the rest of the head for other open panels or panels that had recently closed. He found that there was one on the side of the head, just above the left earlobe that had sand in it. Aaron did the same thing that he did for the other panel. When he closed the panel, Data did not respond or move. Realizing this was definitely a crisis; Aaron whipped out his triquarter and started taking readings of Data's head. While his right hand held the scanner and moved it over Data's head, the left hand held the triquarter. Occasionally, Aaron taped on the pad to get better resolution. He then opened up the two panels that had sand in them to run the scanner over the circuitry. After a bit of high resolution scans, Aaron found a couple wires that had some buildup on them.
He closed his triquarter and then he looked around his surroundings and spotted a thorny bush nearby. Pulling himself to his feet, he walked to the bush. He pulled off a couple of branches and started stripping off the leaves. As he stripped the leaves, he walked back to his only hope for companionship he had seen so far. Stripping down the branches, he fashioned primitive tools to try and scrape off the contaminants. He worked very slowly. The sweat trickled down his forehead as he furrowed his brow. Finally, after about an hour of delicate work, Aaron thought he had removed as much of the contaminant as possible.
He reopened his triquarter and rescanned the damaged area. The results were encouraging. He used the scanner to try and restart some of Data's basic processors. As he did this, various lights turned on in Data's head and started swirling around. Aaron sat back and smiled. He closed the panel and waited.
Data's eyes started fluttering open and closed very fast. His hands started twitching. Then his arms started jerking. Finally he just finished sitting up. He looked around in a very robotic fashion. His head swung from side to side very fast, occasionally stopping very fast then moving on. His gaze finally settled on Aaron. His mouth opened and he looked like he was trying to speak, but no words were coming out. Data's head tilted to his left side. He tried again to speak. His face showed confusion and puzzlement. He brought his right hand up to touch one of the panels in his head and tried again.
"Aaron. How long have I been out?"
Aaron smiled. Finally, he was not alone and besides, Data might know of some way to get the distress beacons on the floatation devices working. All I know is that I have been aware of the passage of 3 days, counting today. As for how much time I can not account for, your guess might be better than mine."
Data nodded. "My internal chronometer says that 5 days, 13 hours, 27 minutes have passed since we were swept off the ship."
Aaron face took on a thoughtful look. "That makes sense. I would have had to spend a lot of time recuperating from our ordeal. By the way, are you operating at peak efficiency? I found some sand and contamination in your head. Is it interfering with your internal systems?"
Data's eyes took on a glassy look as he did an internal scan. "There is a 1.8 percent loss in processing speed and a 4.3 percent in data transmission through my body. These will be taken care of when we are rescued. However, I appear to be having difficulty moving my legs. Could you assist me?"
"Of course, what do you need me to do?"
"Just be ready in case I have need of your hands."
Data started to try to get up, but his legs would not respond. After a few attempts, Data looked up at Aaron, who had gotten to his feet and said, "If you would be give me a hand up and help me over to that forest."
Aaron responded simply by holding out his hand. Data took the hand and then was pulled up to his feet. From there, Aaron grabbed Data around the middle and dragged Data to the forest. Once in the forest, Aaron set Data down and then leaned against a tree. Data pulled down the top of his pants to expose his upper thighs. He then opened a panel in his right thigh. He looked in it and found corrosion in his leg. He pulled out his own triquarter from the floatation device and ran it over his panel in a manner similar to what Aaron did earlier. Finally, Data looked up at Aaron.
"Could you please hand me whatever it was you used to clean the contaminants from my circuitry, please?"
Aaron just went back to where Data had been laying for the past 5 days and simply picked up the thorns. He then gave them to Data without a word. Data took the thorns and carefully started scraping away the contaminants from his circuitry. Because of his computerized hand-eye coordination and computer reflexes, this time the work went by a lot faster. When Data was finished, he used his triquarter to activate his right leg. He was able to regain mobility of his leg. He then repeated the procedure with his other leg. In a relatively short amount of time, Data was up to optimal conditions, given that he was stranded and was using very primitive tools to repair himself.
At the same time, Aaron decided to explore the immediate surroundings. In the surrounding territory, Aaron found more of the same plants that he has been seeing on this island since he had awakened. However, he found evidence that a large creature has recently passed through the forest nearby. Aaron, after finding this passage, began to follow the trail back to where it had come from and found out that it was the same creature that he had been tracking earlier. Seeing this, Aaron returned to his companion. He came back to find Data standing and moving around.
Aaron walked into the clearing that Data was in. As Aaron walked in, that loud cry that Aaron had been hearing before came out of the jungle. Data looked around, trying to locate the source of the sound. Aaron just lifted his hand and said, "Don't bother. I have been hearing it for 2 days now. I believe that it is the cry of a creature that I have been tracking when I came across. And before you ask, no, I do not know exactly what it is, but I have made a few educated guesses as to what it is."
Data turned his head to look at Aaron. "And what would those be and your evidence to make these hypothesizes?"
Aaron started to talk. As he made each point, he tapped his right forefinger on the corresponding finger in his left hand, using the forefinger as number 1.
"Well, here goes:
1. I have never heard that creature's sound before and the tracks I have been
following do not correspond to any animal I know of.
2. The tracks I have been following must belong to the creature, as they are
the only tracks I have seen since I woke up, and I do not believe that those
sounds are made by birds.
3. That the creature does not originate from Earth. I am pleased to say I
know most of the tracks that are left by native creatures from my outdoor
excursions and I can say without a doubt, that I have never seen these
tracks before.
4. I do believe that this creature is an herbivore. I base this conclusion on the
fact that this creature seems to be rather large, about as big as an elephant,
based on the depth of the tracks I found. I know that most carnivores are
small, fast and rather quiet. Besides, this creature, I believe, needs lots of
food to keep it going and only herbivores wander like this.
5. Finally these tracks are of a quadruped. The tracks do not show any sort
of claws on the paws, and that is simply impossible for a carnivore. That
is too much of a waste for armament."
Data nodded and smiled, "Those are good theories based on your observations. However, a scientist does not simply use his senses to prove a theory. I would advise the making of simple arms to defend ourselves."
Aaron nodded, "You look for some rocks that we can use to fashion our tools and I will start looking around for other things to use as raw materials."
That being said Aaron turned around and started to look around for other long sticks like the one he had been using as a walking stick. He found a few and gathered them together. While Aaron was doing that, Data went down to the beach to look for rocks to shape the wood into javelins and spears. Not finding any on the sandy beach, Data returned to his campground and started digging. He came across some hard packed clay after about 10 centimeters of nice loam. Mixed in with the clay was some round rocks. Data started gathering them to make not only defensive tools, but a campfire ring as well, considering his companion might need the warmth with the coming night.
When night came upon the two castaways, they had gathered around 10 long sticks like Aaron's walking stick, 10 stones large enough to fashion into hand axes, about 10 meters of good strong vine to use as twine, and 20 sling-sized stones. Aaron had also pulled about one meter's worth of thorny branches from nearby to fashion into barbed whips. They had also gathered a small pile of firewood and had a cheery blaze going in a dugout fire pit that Data had made digging for rocks.
Aaron and Data were sitting on opposite sides of the fire and facing each other so that they could talk and work at the same time. Data was sharpening sticks to make javelins, while Aaron was fashioning a couple of bolas from the vine and stones collected earlier. A quick glance around the campsite showed that product of their work. Sitting to one side were 5 heavy spears with a stone tip and 3 javelins. Data was working on another javelin. Sitting nearby were 3 completed hand axes. These creations consisted of about three-fourths of a meter of wood with one end notched and attached to it was a large stone. The stone was held to the wood with vine held under tension and fitted into special groves made in the wood. Also, nearby, were 2 slings sitting nearby, fashioned out of vine with a pouch for stones made out of Aaron's trash that he had saved. These tools could not have been made without Data's incredible strength. Data would look at a stone; calculate the precise angle and force needed to break the stone in the required way. Thus, it took Data only 30 minutes what would take days for Aaron to make.
When that was done, the two castaways divided up their armaments. Each of them got a bola, two javelins, two spears, and a hand axe. Data got the extra hand axe while Aaron got the other hand axe. With that done, Aaron pulled out some of his provisions. He offered a bit of his remaining food to Data, but Data shook his head no.
Data said, "While I can turn organic substances into mechanical fluids that my body can use to keep itself lubricated, I do not need any food now. Save it for yourself you cannot survive without food."
Aaron just nodded his head and then eats a little more of his provisions. He took out his open water bottle and drank. He then saw that the bottle was now empty. He put it back into his pockets. Aaron then looked at Data and spoke, "I believe that our distress beacons are malfunctioning. It has been 5 days since we were swept overboard and no one has come to rescue either one of us."
Data nodded, "I will look at them to see if I can find out what is malfunctioning with them."
Aaron started to get himself ready for sleep. His own floatation device was used as a pillow and Data's was placed over him as a small blanket. Data sat down and closed his eyes, going into sleep mode. And so they slept, the fire burning down to embers.
Aaron slowly awoke. He sat up and stretched his arms while yawning. He then scratched himself on his chest, while smacking his lips. Data came out of sleep mode and stood up. He then placed a few pieces of starter material in the embers of last night's fire and blew upon it. The fire flared back up and Aaron added pieces of kindling to stoke the fire. Finally one piece of wood was added and it burned merrily. Aaron pulled out a couple more rations and ate them. Then he opened and drank from his other bottle of water. When he was done, he put his trash in his pockets and placed his flotation device on. He handed Data his floatation device back and Data pulled out the triquarter that was in its pocket. He started to run scans over the distress beacon.
While Data was scanning the distress beacon, Aaron started to gather their hand-made tools. He tied together all the spears as well as two of the javelins so that they could be carried as a bundle. He set aside two javelins to be carried. He then split the sling stones between the two slings he had made and placed one set in one of his pockets. He then placed two hand axes in his waistband of his trousers. He then squatted down to wait for Data.
Soon, Data put down his triquarter and turned to Aaron. 'There appears to be nothing wrong with the beacon. The triquarter is picking up the distress signal being broadcast from the beacon clearly. There must be something else that is keeping the signal from being received."
Aaron put his chin in his hand and started to rub his rough beard. "Well, we will worry about that later. Right now, I think we should concentrate on finding food and water so we can live long enough to answer the bigger questions."
Data nodded and then put on the floatation device. He put his sling and stones in one of his pockets. He picked up the bundle of spears and tied it to his back. He picked up his hand axe and placed it in his waistband. He then picked up a javelin and bola, while Aaron was putting out the fire. When that was done, Aaron picked up his javelin and bola and the two headed out, Aaron in the lead and Data following.
Aaron walked to the spot where he had found the trail of the creature he had been tracking before finding Data. He pointed at it and said to Data, "Lets follow this creature's trail. Hopefully it will soon lead us to at least water and maybe some food." With that being said, he took off and Data followed.
After a couple of hours of tracking, Aaron and Data came across a small stream of water. Aaron got down and looked at the water. He saw it was a fast moving stream and was relatively clean. Aaron filled up his empty bottle and then put it back into his pocket. The two castaways sat down and Aaron started to rest.
"Well, Mr. Data, what do you think? Nice little forest here. However, I still wish I knew what it was we were tracking."
"You and me both, Aaron. But, while I am standing here, I believe I should teach you a little bit about my circuitry, in case I go offline again."
"That sounds like a very good idea. Wait a minute." Aaron digs around in his pocket and pulls out a PADD. This PADD was the one that had Aaron's notes and ideas.
"Here, download your circuitry schematic into this PADD. Don't worry about what is already on it. It is just notes of mine, nothing important."
Data nodded and set aside his javelin. He took up the PADD and started rapidly typing in information into the PADD. In a few minutes, Data had finished. He handed it back to Aaron, whom put it back into his pocket.
"Well, Mr. Data, I guess we should follow this stream. It might take us out of this forest."
An unknown voice came out of the bushes, "That will take you a long time. Why not come with me instead?"
Note: I am sorry for the amount of time it took to update this story. I was caught up in the real world (god damn home improvements). I hope to have the next story up in about a month.