Revenge
Chapter 3: Outcast
Cherry was dreaming. She was sitting on her couch at home sipping a can of coke as she flicked through the channels. Strange. No matter what show she switched to they were showing birds. Screeching bird. The screeching was giving her a headache! With a moan she gripped her pounding head.
"Oww..." she moaned as she rubbed her head.
She looked around and saw she was in some kind of cave. It was cold and the only source of light was a single burning torch stuck into the wall. Cherry rubbed her head and peered outside.
"CREEEEE!!!!"
With a scream she leapt back to avoid the sudden attack. A huge beak thrust into the tiny cave, barely missing her. Cherry gulped.
"Where am I?" she murmured and managed to summon moisture to her dry mouth.
Standing in front of her perched on a rock was a huge flying monster.
"Who are you?" she asked timidly.
'I'm Longwing!' the monster thundered, 'Silence foolish human! You're a prisoner of the great Longwing! The Master will be pleased.'
"M... as... as... ter?" Cherry stammered.
Longwing swooped at her and forced her back into the cave.
'I do not talk to inferior mammals!'
Cherry ducked as the monster's long beak shot past overhead.
"What are you?" Cherry demanded, "A monster?"
'Monster? Foolish human I'm a pterandon!'
"Pt... eran... don?" Cherry stumbled over the unfamiliar words.
'SILENCE!'
Wisely she shut up and sat down on the hard ground.
~*~*~
'YOUR TURN... TRAITOR!'
Cherry winced as the powerful voice pounded into her head. Where was she? Looking at the cave wall, she remembered.
"Where the hell am I?"
Squawking filled the air as she heard Longwing roar in anger. What was going on? Cautiously she peered outside and saw another of those flying monsters lying on the ground moaning slightly.
"Hello?"
'What do you want?' the monster asked wearily, 'Just leave me alone.'
"What's wrong with you aren't you suppose to be yelling at me," Cherry decided to take a risk, "Monster."
'I'M NOT A MONSTER!' the creature snapped, 'I'm a pterandon!'
"Pterandon?" Cherry muttered, "What on earth is that?"
'Are you a dolphinback?'
"My name is Cherry not Dolphinback... umm... what is a dolphinback?" Cherry asked confused.
'A newcomer... are you a newcomer?'
"I guess so."
The pterandon sighed.
'My name is Sharpbeak... I'm a traitor...'"What did you do?" Cherry asked.
'Sit down human... it's a long story.'
'Dinosaurs and humans have managed to carve a utopia from this island and named it Dinotopia. Certain dinosaurs, like us, have been exiled from the rest of the Dinotopians because we devour living flesh.' Sharpbeak looked wistful as he began talking.
'For as long as we can remember we have encountered a barrier of some sort. A barrier, which keeps us away from the cities...'
Cherry sucked in her breath as somehow an image of a glowing light popped into her head.
'But about a year ago, this barrier seemed to weaken and dim. It seemed to be failing. Our clan leader, Longwing, urged us to attack to reclaim what is ours. It was foolish... eventually we would be defeated but Longwing thought we could conquer the whole island. Fool... if we only show them our gentler side than we could win their trust. We could be accepted as equals. Because of my unwillingness to battle I was branded a traitor,' Sharpbeak smiled bitterly, 'We lost of course.'
"How?"
'The source of these barriers are glowing stones. I believe humans call them sunstonse. We were defeated by one such stone during the battle for Waterfall City...'
"Waterfall City?"
'The largest and most beautiful city on this island. The jewel of Dinotopia, a city of learning and wisdom and we sought to spoil it,' Sharpbeak twisted his beak into a smile, 'A simple human being and another so called 'traitor', Freefall managed to gain access to a stone and drove us away. Soon after that the Master came.'
Cherry frowned.
"Master?"
'Little is known about the Master. Only Longwing has seen him...'
"Why is Longwing so... hostile?"
Sharpbeak opened his beak to reply but was stopped when a familiar pterandon dived at him flapping his wings and jabbing his beak at the smaller dinosaur.
'TRAITOR! GET AWAY FROM HER!' Longwing hissed, 'Fool!'
Sharpbeak whimpered meekly and awkwardly scurried away on his legs into the darkness of the cave.
Longwing fixed his furious glare onto Cherry. The human girl shivered as she saw a kind of primitive savageness in those eyes.
'You can't escape. You're the Master's.'
With those last cryptic words Longwing turned his back on her leaving Cherry to wonder about who the Master was.
~*~*~
Cherry took a deep breath and plucked up her courage.
"What happened in Waterfall City?"
She cringed almost expecting Longwing to start attacking her but surprisingly he didn't. Longwing glared at her and turned around.
'What did the traitor tell you?' he demanded.
"Nothing," Cherry lied quickly, "I want to know what happened."
Longwing laughed harshly.
'We pterandons have been harshly exiled for hundreds of years. Banned from having a proper part in Dinotopian society because of what we eat. They kept us away with that damn light of theirs... that sunstone.'
Cherry jumped when Longwing began laughing insanely.
'A year ago that light began fading. FOOLS! How can they hope to keep us away forever? We did what we had to do,' Longwing was beginning to truly scare Cherry, because he was sounding slightly crazy, 'We attacked! It was great! Humans running away from us as we tore their homes and lives apart. We would banish them to dank caves while we feast upon their rotting flesh! WE WOULD RULE!'Longwing laughed as Cherry began feeling sick.
'All we had to do was tear apart their precious Waterfall City, stone by stone. We would triumph! But that fool Sharpbeak... tried to convince us that attacking wouldn't do anything. Pathetic. Stupid fool... we would have done it. We would have become the Masters of Dinotopia if it wasn't for that stupid human and that other traitor, that disgusting, foul, disgraceful Freefall,' Longwing roared in anger, 'If I get my claws on him I'll tear him apart and threw his worthless carcass over the cliffs. But soon we would triumph... the MASTER will win!'
"The M... as... ter?" Cherry stammered.
Longwing whirled around.
'SILENCE! NO HUMAN MAY SEE THE MASTER! HE IS GREAT! HE IS ALL POWERFUL!'
Cherry cringed as the powerful voice pounded into her head. Longwing hissed and spat at her. With a giant flap of his wings he threw her into a wall.
'NOW! SILENCE!'
~*~*~
Cherry woke up with a groan and gently touched the ugly bump on her head.
"God... I wish this was a dream..." she moaned as she hugged her knees.
She glanced around. Nothing had changed; she was still in her cave.
"This sucks," she grumbled.
Suddenly she stopped talking to herself and listened. The silence was shattered as the sound of screeching echoed around the cave. It was followed by the sound of flapping wings.
Cherry braced herself and stuck her head out of her cave. She recoiled in horror as about a dozen of pterandons suddenly landed in front of her.
'Time to die!' one of them said maliciously.
With a screech it leapt forwards. Cherry ducked to the ground and lashed out with her legs. She felt the beak slash her legs; she grimaced but could feel her feet connected with something. The pterandon landed awkwardly as Cherry forced it onto its back.
'GET HER!' Longwing spat.
Two pterandons immediately lunged for her. Cherry managed to dodge one but the other grabbed her arm in its beak.
'Stop or I'll snap it!' the pterandon hissed.
'Lead her to the Nest!'
Cherry was half carried, half dragged into another cave. The pterandon holding onto her let go dropping her onto a rocky ledge. Teeth chattering Cherry peered over the edge and paled.
"Oh my..."
Beneath her lying in roughly made nests was thousands of screeching young pterandons. She gulped as Longwing landed in front of her.
'Like what you see?'
Cherry didn't answer as she slowly tried to back away but another pterandon landed blocking her path.
'Soon your flesh will feed these younglings!'
Cherry tried to get past the other pterandon but it forced her back with its flailing beak.
'KILL HER!'