Chapter 6: Truce

Try as he might, he couldn't get to sleep. He knew Maria was probably sound asleep and he could easily recognized the heavy breathing of Mountainstrong who was asleep nearby. He stared idly at the stars overhead.

'Brooding again?'

'Maybe. You ought to know. You've been doing it too.'

'Hiss. Raptors don't brood, we calculate,' countered the harsh voice inside the young man's brain.

'Whatever, leave me alone. I'm trying to get to sleep.'

'We need the rest,' agreed the other voice.

'Must you keep reminding me of your presence?'

'It wouldn't do to have you forgetting me, now, would it?'

'Not likely.'

The young man rolled over on the blanket and stretched his tail. Idly, he began scraping the bark off an old limb with one of his sickle-claws. He sighed.

'How is this even possible?' he pondered, 'Dinosaurs were supposed to be extinct. Now I'm stuck with you in a land where I'm supposed to be best buddies with prehistoric reptiles.'

'Seems fitting that your meager species is dependent on creatures greater than yourselves.'

'Oh, I suppose that explains why humans rule the world.'

'Hiss.'

The two minds were quiet for a while.

'Maria is right you know,' ventured the human after a while.

'What? You were listening to that woman's little sermon?'

'I'm serious. We can't fight each other forever.'

'So what would you propose?' asked the raptor, skeptically.

'I don't know. Can we at least try to get along? A truce or something...'

'Hah. This is the problem with you humans. You rely on nebulous feelings and emotions to survive. All right, you want a truce, here's my offer. We'll share control. You control for a period of time, then I do for a period of time. You don't interfere with what I do, and I won't interfere with you. Understand?'

The youth sighed. 'At least don't do anything outside the law, like trying to eat interpreters or anything.'

'Very well, but at least see that we get some sort of meat. I'm getting tired of these bread and vegetable dinners.'

The young man chuckled. 'Well at least that's something we can agree on. I'd be in the mood for a steak about now, or even a fish fry.'

The raptor mind chuckled wryly, also. 'Finally you say something that makes some sense. Now, if you don't mind a second opinion, I'd say we'd better get some sleep.'

The young man nodded, rolled back over on his blanket, and slept.

- - -

For the next several days the young man was able to get along with himself, if not congenially at least without too many harsh words. His saurian half seemed contented for the moment to enjoy having some free reign to run and explore and practice long dormant hunting techniques. Meanwhile his human half tried to get used to being in the mental back seat. He found it not dissimilar to being in a dream, where one experiences all the sensations but has no control.

Maria and Mountainstrong kept an eye on the young man from their elevated position. Though their traveling companion had not spoken of this new truce, Maria hoped that he was starting to come to terms with himself.

Their journey continued on without much excitement. A skybax rider did join them for lunch one afternoon. The rider and Maria exchanged news from around the island. Most of it involved people or events the young man knew nothing about, but he did overhear something about there being a small outbreak of fever in the northwest. However this was soon forgotten, because his attention was engaged in examining the skybax.

It was about midday four days after the skybax rider visited when the young man heard something odd.

"Maria, do you hear anything?" he called up to her.

She smiled and nodded.

"A glorious sight, my young friend, it's a glorious sight!" Maria called. She pointed out over the top of the next ridge. As the young man jogged to the top of the rise he heard Mountainstrong give a loud, long trumpet. Cresting the hill he beheld a booming metropolis, and a parade of thousands of festive citizens streaming towards them. The sound he had heard had been music.

"It's your parade, my friend. Welcome to Sauropolis, Capitol of Dinotopia!"