Revenge
Chapter 8: Jealousy
"Something is wrong..." Cherry muttered, "But what?"
'It is not your problem, keep your beak out of it,' Sharpbeak warned her.
Cherry nodded, not really listening to the flying dinosaur. Sharpbeak sighed and wondered why he had even bothered.
~*~
Karl ran his fingers through his unruly hair distractedly. A deep frown appeared on his face as he continued to wonder.
=How on earth did she understand 26?=
'Guess both of you have thick heads,' 26 snorted with laughter.
'Not funny!' Both of them had snapped at the same time.
26 gently head butted his leg, hooting softly. Distracted, Karl stroked his saurian friend's head. 26 cooed with joy and ran her head against his leg. Karl envisioned the strange young girl. He guessed she was around his age, she was pretty cute with her shoulder-length auburn hair and sparkling green eyes. But that still doesn't explain why she had understood what 26 was saying.
Lucky guess?
No way, she probably didn't even know what saurian speech was.
No it had to be something else...
"But what?" he growled.
Karl would be among the first to admit that he didn't like mysteries. That stuff was for movies or TVs. He liked his world to behave just the way he wanted it to. But if his life had gone the way he wanted it to, he would be now relaxing on a beach in the Bahamas with some ditzy blonde as his girlfriend. Instead he was in Dinotopia fighting with his half-brother for the attention of a girl he would have normally never noticed.
Zippo was right: life was strange. And so was that girl.
~*~
"Well this totally sucks," Cherry growled to herself.
She had argued the point that she was feeling perfectly fine but Rosemary and that fussy dinosaur nurse had firmly told her to stay in bed.
Honestly, what the heck did they think she was supposed to do? Stare at the earthen ceiling and admire the shadows on it as the sun slowly moved across the sky?
She almost wished she was sitting in class right now.
First she was captured by pterandons and almost killed by them, now these people were trying to bore her to death.
Cherry got out of bed, she had to do something or she'll go crazy!
~*~
With a final excited squeal, the baby brachiosaur ran for the doorway.
"Dedira? Where do you want the..." Samantha began as she walked into the hatchery.
The young brachiosaur, which was the size of a small German shepherd, squealed in distress as he slammed into Samantha's legs. Samantha managed a gasp of surprise as her legs came out from under her.
"WAH!!!!!" Samantha instinctively stuck out her hand trying to lessen her impact but her hands came down onto the poor baby brachiosaur.
"Oh! I'm sorry! Are you okay?" Samantha picked up the squealing baby gently, "Did I hurt you?"
She stopped seeing the odd angle of the brachiosaur's leg.
"Is something wrong?" Dedira, one of the hatchery workers, came running into the room when she heard the squealing, "Oh my..."
"I didn't mean to hurt him! It was an acciden..."
Dedira cut her off.
"Jasmine! Get Marion! Now!" she yelled calling for one the hatchery helpers.
Marion checked the tightness of the bandages one more time and smiled.
"He's going to be fine as long as he doesn't try to move his legs too much," she smiled at her younger sister, "Don't worry it's not really that bad."
Samantha smiled at Marion.
"Oh, thank the saurian gods!" Dedira said somewhat over-dramatic, "As for you..."
She turned to look at Samantha.
"It was an accident Dedira," Marion said calmly.
"Accident or no accident it shouldn't have happened," Dedira sighed, "I guess I can't really blame you... if you were anything like your sis..."
"I think I better go," Marion told Dedira coldly. Her voice became warmer, "Don't blame yourself Samantha."
Marion stood up and walked out calmly before she did something she would regret.
Samantha stood shocked for a second.
=More like her sister?=
She ran the back of her hand over her face as tears flooded into her eyes.
"Samantha? Sorry, I didn't mean to say that..."
Samantha looked up and shocked them both by smiling.
"Don't apologise for telling the truth," her voice broke sharply.
Suddenly she burst into the tears and ran down the hallway as sobs wracked her body.
=I didn't mean to hurt anyone! It was an accident!= she thought bitterly as she continued running.
'BAM!'
She suddenly collided with someone but didn't even bother to look back.
"Hey! What's wrong?" an unfamiliar voice yelled, "STOP!"
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Samantha wailed as she continued running.
She burst outside and fell to her knees as more tears poured down her face. She hated Marion! Marion gets all the attention: she's so smart and she helped save Dinotopia. It was always Marion, Marion, Marion! It was never her. She was unseen, unnoticed... she was unwanted.
~*~
Cherry picked herself up and winced as the cuts on her back throbbed painfully. Who was that girl? And why was she crying?
"Okay, why is everybody in this place acting so weird?" she muttered.
First it was that boy and that pterandon, Freefall and now this strange little girl. Cherry shook her head and walked off. First she had to find Sharpbeak.
~*~
Freefall glared at Sharpbeak, his eyes cold and he could barely keep the fury out of his voice.
'Stop pretending you don't know... Longwing wants me back doesn't he?'
Sharpbeak sighed.
'Yes, he wants you back so he could kill you,' Sharpbeak snapped, finally out of patience.
'So you do admit that you came here to take me back! I knew it!' the albino pterandon crowed.
Sharpbeak clacked his beak together, the pterandon version of gritting your teeth. He was about to snap back when a familiar voice called.
"SHARPBEAK!"
~*~
Cherry laughed and ran to Sharpbeak. Ignoring Freefall's glare, Cherry rubbed her friends beak.
'What are you doing here? You are supposed to be recovering!' Sharpbeak snapped.
Cherry snorted.
"They were trying to bore me to death! So rather then going nuts I came here to see you."
'Oh how sweet,' Freefall drawled.
'Watch it Freefall,' Sharpbeak growled.
Freefall turned to the girl.
'Who are you and what do you want?'
A pair of emerald eyes met his glare.
"Why do I have to tell you?" she snapped rudely.
Freefall was about to snap back when he heard his master's voice. Cherry winced as the sound of arguing reached her ears. Her head pounded and she rubbed her temple ruefully.
=So, okay maybe I should have rested more.=
But she had to find out who was arguing.
~*~
"Oh bull!" Karl snapped at his half-brother, "I have no idea what you are going on about!"
Humans and dinosaurs alike rushed past trying not to stare at the two arguing teenagers.
"I'm not stupid! I can see what's happening!" David snarled.
"When you must be delusional to think there is something going on!"
26 chirped in distress and struggled to push the two boys apart.
"Not now!" Karl thundered.
David grabbed a fistful of his brother's shirt.
"Oh, that's really sweet. If only Marion could see this side of you."
"What the hell are you going on about?" Karl demanded.
David didn't answer but tightened his hold on his brother.
"You know what I'm going on about!"
"I have no idea what the hell you're going on about!"
Karl began to lose to his temper and was ready to punch his brother in the face.
"Whoa! Break it up!"
The strange girl stood between them holding David's arms back.
"Get lost!" Karl and David yelled.
"I'm not going until both of you stop trying to kill each other," the girl said firmly.
David let go of his brother and stalked away. The girl turned to Karl and eyed him curiously.
"What's going on?"
~*~
Karl sat across from the girl and sighed.
"So... what's your name?"
"Cherry," the girl said promptly, "And your's?"
"Karl Scott."
Cherry nodded absently.
"What's going on with your... umm..."
"Brother?"
"Brother!?!"
Karl smiled at the girl's shock.
"We don't look alike do we?"
"No, not at all," Cherry stopped and took a breath, "What's with him?"
"Don't know," Karl shrugged, "He used to be okay but now something's wrong with him."
"And you have no idea what?"
"Nada," Karl stopped, "That mean's..."
"I know what is means!"
Karl stared at her.
"Do you come from the outside world?"
"Sure do."
Karl took a breath and asked the questioning he had been wondering about.
"How do you understand saurian speech?"
Cherry stared at him.
"What do you mean?"
~*~
A small triceratops laughed and ran up to her friend.
"Oh, hello Linkar," Samantha said dolefully.
Linkar gave a questioning whistle. Samantha sighed.
"I really hate this... I really hate her." The little girl picked up her triceratops friend.
"I mean I really respect and admire her... it's just that.... it's just that..." Samantha stopped, "Nobody notices me. They know me as Marion's sister... that's it. I'm just a nobody..."
~*~
Cherry had a frown on her face as she petted Sharpbeak's beak.
'What's wrong,' Sharpbeak asked.
"I don't know. I talked to Karl..."
'Who?'
"Freefall's rider's brother," Cherry glanced at Freefall," Freefall's rider, David, is acting really weird and nobody knows why."
Freefall pretended not to listen as he ran preened his wings with his beak.
"David seems almost... jealous of Karl but nobody knows why," Cherry sighed, "He seems sad and depressed. Everybody tries to help him but he pushes everyone away."
Freefall cocked his head and listened intently. Sharpbeak peered at the albino pterandon.
'Are you sure nobody knows?'
Cherry nodded.
"Yeah, Karl told me that."
Freefall surprised them all by gently tapping his beak on Cherry's shoulder.
'Perhaps I can help.'
Cherry blinked in surprise as she stared at Freefall.
"What do you know?" she finally asked finding her voice.
Freefall stared at her for a while and closed his eyes. He remembered to what David had told him a few days ago.
~*~ FlashbackFreefall was worried. He knew something was wrong. Gently he nudged his rider's shoulders.
"It's nothing," David muttered stroking his friend's beak.
Freefall squawked and looked at him. David rubbed his eyes with his hands and sighed.
"I can't understand it! WHY WOULD MARION CHOOSE KARL OVER ME!?!" he yelled.
Freefall watched his friend's pain and rubbed his beak against his arm.
"THIS SUCKS!" David snarled, "Why? Why? GOD DAMN IT! WHY?"
David could feel his anger subside. He sighed. What was the use? Just forget about them and move on. He wished it was just that simple.
"Why him?" he murmured into his friend's ear, "Why Karl?"
End of Flashback~*~
"But Marion never did choose," Cherry whispered.
She stopped.
"Unless... unless he got the wrong idea about something..."
Cherry took a breath. There was someone she had to see.