Revenge
Chapter 10: Stranger
David frowned and shook his head trying to get rid of the image playing in his head.
It must have been something very terrible to instil such terror in Cherry, Sharpbeak and Freefall. The three seemed to be afraid of very little but Longwing had shaken them to their cores.
"Longwing," he said softly testing the word, "Longwing..."
A knock on his door interrupted his musing.
"Come in!" David called standing up.
The door opened revealing Romana still dressed in her Skybax Corp uniform.
"Umm... David?" Romana began nervously, "Can I talk to you?"
"Of course. Sit down..."
"No, can I talk to you outside? It's important."
"So let me get this straight. Dinosaurs living on this island somehow managed to survive the big extinction and has been thriving here along with humans for over millions of years in a perfect utopia," Cherry stopped, "Wow."
"But that is not all," Marion pressed on, "there are some plant life that only exists on Dinotopia and nowhere else. Unique elements are also only found here."
"Sunstones..."
The two young women were sitting in Zippo's study with Marion still teaching Cherry about Dinotopia and its way of life.
"How did you know?" Marion asked curious.
"Sharpbeak told me."
Marion nodded.
"As you may or may not know. The sunstones are very important to us. They create light but there more importantly is their ability to deter carnivores."
"Why deter?" Cherry asked frowning, "Wouldn't it be easier to just kill them altogether? I know from Sharpbeak what happened last time the sunstones failed."
As soon as the words came from her mouth Cherry knew she had said something wrong. Marion looked at her in shock.
"No," Marion said softly.
"No." Her voice became stronger.
"It is against our laws to harm another anyway we do not create weapons in Dinotopia. One of the codes to Dinotopia is that weapons are enemies even to their owners. Yes, the sunstones failed last year but all the harm has been undone."
Cherry personally thought it was naive of the Dintopians to think that the sunstones would stop the carnivores. Hadn't Sharpbeak passed through the sunstones in the canyons? She remembered what the pterandon had told her shortly after passing through the stones.
=We pterandons fear sunstones because these stones appear many times in our legend as weapons capable to wiping us out. Fear stops us from entering cities with sunstones. But if Longwing's flock ever rid of their fear then...= Sharpbeak had left the sentence hanging in the air.
Cherry shook her head and wished that she had the same belief in the sunstones as Marion.
=If the pterandons ever rid of their fear...=
~*~
Linkar gently dug her horn into her human friend's leg. Samantha placed her hand on the young triceratops's head as she wiped the tears from her eyes with the other. Linkar snuffed wetly and tried to comfort the weeping girl.
The last few days had been hard, when she was in the company of the outside world she had tried her best to be her normal happy, cheerful self but inside she was hurting. She just wished she could get away from all of this. Go somewhere where people would actually see her for who she really was. Not just Marion's younger sister. If she did leave it wasn't like anybody would miss her.
A small smile emerged onto her face. For the first time in weeks she smiled. Samantha took a deep breath and made up her mind. She was leaving for good.
~*~
Romana sat down beside David and the two stared up at the night sky. An uncomfortable silence filled the cool night air.
Romana remained silent, going over and over again in her head what she wanted to say.
"Umm... Romana what did you want to tell me?" David asked breaking the silence between them.
The blonde-haired skybax rider looked up into David's calm amber eyes and couldn't help but blush.
"Romana?"
Plucking up her courage, she took a deep breath and plunged into speech hurriedly.
"David, well I first met you I was amazed because you were one of the few dolphinbacks who have come and train with the Skybax Academy. I've grown to respect you because of your courage, skill and determination and we've developed a powerful friendship. But..." Romana took a deep breath, "But I feel that our fri..."
A loud squawk overhead overpowered Romana's voice as both Skybax riders looked up. The parrot-like messenger bird let out another squawk and landed somewhat awkwardly onto the ground in front of them.
"This is a message from Petal the proceratops to Romana, the Skybax rider," the bird announced.
David frowned.
=Petal?= he had never heard Romana mention that name before.
"What's the message?" Romana asked as worry creased her face.
"Petal says that her father is ailing. He requests a visit from his dear friend," the bird closed its beak and studied Romana carefully waiting for a reply.
David noticed Romana's face had paled slightly. Suddenly she grabbed his arm and held it tightly as tears began trailing down her face.
"Romana?" he asked gently, "What's wrong."
"I want you to send a reply message, say Romana is coming," Romana said quietly.
The bird-like dinosaurs nodded and took flight as Romana stood up hurriedly.
"Romana?" David asked again.
"I've got to go... now," Romana looked at David and whispered softly, "Sorry."
With that she dashed off leaving behind a very confused David.
~*~
Sharpbeak looked up his eyes gleaming with curiosity as he studied the young woman who was obviously in much distress.
What was her name again? Ah. Romana, that was it.
She bustled around hurriedly inside the skybax pen as she saddled up her skybax, Stratus.
Then it itself was curious. Pterandons' and skybaxes' had terrible vision at night only a skilled or foolish rider would fly at night. Freefall woke up in the nest beside his and looked up just in time to see Romana climb on Stratus's back.
'Romana?' Freefall asked, 'What are you doing?'
Romana easily understood Freefall's screeches and squawks and looked at him sadly.
"I've got to go. A dear old friend of my father is sick."
'Is this friend going to die?'"I don't know. Maybe... maybe not."
Freefall bobbed his head as if nodding to Romana.
'Be careful.'
"Thank you," Romana whispered softly to Stratus as the skybax flapped its wings experimentally.
'Breath deep.'
"Fly high."
With that Stratus took off into the night sky.
~*~
Karl stuck his hand in his pockets and whistled softly. 26 honked excitedly and dashed straight at her 'father', her feet skidded on the slippery tile and she rammed right into his legs almost tripping him over.
"Watch it!" Karl said half-laughing as he bent over to help the infant dinosaur up.
26 honked in reply and began butting her head into his knees.
"Hungry huh?"
Karl laughed at 26's reply and scooped her up.
"Let's see what we can find okay?" he said carrying 26 to the kitchens.
26 squirmed in his hands and honked happily. Karl let go of the squirming youth as she jumped to the ground and sped off.
"Careful you don't knock into someone!" Karl called.
Karl smiled to himself and followed his young charge at a slower pace. He walked past the front door humming one of his favourite songs to himself.
"Creeee.... EAK!"
An ominous creak filled the empty hall as Karl whirled around. The heavy wooden door was slowly opening.
"Who's there?" he called.
The door stopped moving. Karl heard the distinct sound of footsteps running away and immediately he sprinted to the door. Flinging it open, he managed to catch a glimpse of a person clad in a dark cloak before he or she ducked behind a building.
"Okay... that was weird..." he muttered.
Why would anybody be sneaking around? And what for? Karl shrugged and put it out of his mind. It was probably nothing. And 26 was still waiting to be fed... with a final shrug Karl headed to the kitchens.
~*~
"I'm leaving," Samantha told Linkar as she stuffed some of her clothes into a bag, "I'm going somewhere where I'm actually wanted."
With a final determined scowl she stuffed her last piece of clothing into the bag. Angrily she wiped the tears from her face and stood up.
"Goodbye Linkar, don't worry about me. I'll be fine," Samantha managed a teary smile as she opened her door, "Goodbye."
She closed the door softly. Linkar stood staring in shock at the closed door, suddenly she reared her head and a long mournful trill burst from her throat. Pain and grief tore into Samantha's heart as she heard her friend's desolate cry. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to walk away.
"Bye Linkar..."
~*~
Samantha looked around carefully making sure nobody was around. Seeing nobody she walked into the warm spring air and took one final look at her home as she said goodbye for one last time.
"Little girls shouldn't be out at this time of the day," a soft voice said behind her.
Samantha whirled around and stared in shock at the cloaked figure towering over her.
"Wh... ho... are yo... you?" she stammered looking around for help.
She managed to let out a piercing scream before a gloved hand slapped over her mouth.
"You're coming with me."
Samantha struggled fiercely as the stranger tightened his grip on her shoulder. A strange scent assaulted her nose as she felt her eyelids beginning to droop.
=No I've got to keep awake!= she thought desperately.
With that her senses succumbed to oblivion.