Dinotopia

Revenge

Chapter 19: Waiting

"Oh you'll love Waterfall City," Karl told her breezily, "It's a great place. Scenery, great food, what else could you ask for?"

"A T.V.," Cherry muttered.

"What's a T.V.?" Marion asked curiously, "Is that a weapon of some sort?"

Cherry hid a snigger as Karl attempted to explain to Marion what it was. But he only succeeded in confusing her even more. Luckily David came to the rescue.

"I sure Zippo would love to hear that," Marion said thoughtfully after David finished.

Songcall let out a low piercing whistle as Lief sighed in relief.

"Here we are. Waterfall City," he said wearily to his passengers.

Karl yawned as he got up and stretched.

"Finally," he muttered, "I thought we'll never get here."

David rolled his eyes as Lief unravelled the long rope ladder.

"It was fun having you all," he said cheerfully, "First time I got chased around by T-rexs."

"Glad you find it fun," Cherry muttered as she began the descent down, "Maybe next time I'll get Jaws to chase you around."

Karl hid a smirk but David ignored her as he made it to the bottom.

"And this my friend is Waterfall City," Karl said cheerfully as she reached the bottom.

Cherry looked around at all the flowing canals and exquisitely designed buildings. She took it all it listening to the distant rumble of the waterfalls.

"Wow."

"Legend has it that once the falls was silent but then the sabertooth tigers came to cliffs on which this city is built upon. It was said that their loud roaring caused the falls to likewise reply. And to this day their roars can still heard," Marion told her as they continued walking.
"Umm... where exactly are we going?" Cherry asked absently her eyes moving around constantly as she tried to take in as much scenery as possible.

"The Senate Building," Marion smiled brightly at the thought of seeing her father again, "Where you will be properly introduced to Dinotopia."

David walked silently deep in thought as Karl struggled with a squirming 26.

"Does the Mayor know about the kidnapping?" David said suddenly.

Marion stopped walking. David, Karl and Cherry were almost about to walk off until they realised Marion wasn't with them. They turned around and looked at her expectantly waiting for an answer.

"No," Marion said shortly, "mother believes that father has enough to deal with without us adding more problems."

"I think your father should know especially since you and Samantha were both kidnapped," David pointed out.

Marion squirmed uncomfortably as her sister was brought up. Of all the things she wanted to talk about Samantha wasn't one of them. She shoved all thoughts about her sister into the back of her head and continued to talk.

"But it doesn't really matter does it? We were rescued. The threat is gone."

Cherry didn't agree.

"Yeah but that creepy guy is still somewhere out there," she argued.

Marion had no answers for her. They continued to walk to the Senate Building in silence still brooding over the events of the past few weeks.

He peered at him with predator eyes. He was not foolish. He knew that if need be he would kill all of them without a qualm.

Longwing looked away hurriedly as the Master glanced at him.

"Longwing, come," the Master said coldly.

Suppressing his hatred for this mockery of a man Longwing took to the air and landed gracefully on a rocky perch just in front of the Master.

"The time has come."

Longwing smirked, his body almost aching for a battle. He glanced at the giant pterandon army he had assembled and could not stop a smug smile from appearing on his beaked face.

Even as he looked at his army his demented mind slipped back into the past. Back to when all this started...

Flashback

The pterandon that would one day be Longwing had no name. He was an orphan abandoned by his kind on a rocky ledge to die even before he was born. From the very first day of his birth, he had known only pain and despair.

Humans. How he despised them. He hated them with hatred beyond imagination.

Sometimes he wished he could just lie down and die but there was a fire in him. He had to survive no matter the costs. But it wasn't easy.

"Oi! Here's your dinner Scumbeak!"

The whole bar exploded into nasty laughter as his 'owner' poured a foul mixture of fish heads and other unidentifiable remains into his cage. 'Scumbeak' squawked weakly and somehow managed to crawl over to the sticky mess. With another weak squawk he gulped it down hungrily.

"I don't know why you bother feeding him!" one of the regular patrons yelled.

A decent Dinotopian would have been disgusted if they entered the bar. It was a gathering place of the wretched and evil. Every singe country has its unfortunate share of thieves and murderers and sadly Dinotopia was no different. Dolphinbacks dissatisfied with the utopian society all came to this place, a place for them to plot and scheme towards a pointless end but perhaps that was the point of it, to dream and hope and to plot away. But nothing had ever come of it.

And Lee Crabb wasn't any different.

He was still on the run, long after his attempt at trying to leave Dinotopia. This only served to strengthen his hatred for all 'scalies'. Including a young abandoned pterandon.

Scumbeak had no idea how Lee had managed to get his hands on him. But from listening to snippets of conversation he guessed that somehow Lee won him in a bet.

"Eat up!" Lee laughed cruelly as he poured a mug of whatever alcoholic concoction he was swallowing over the hapless dinosaur.

Scumbeak screeched in shock as the alcohol sipped into his eyes and nostrils, blinding and choking him.

For as long as he could remember Lee had abused him. But unbeknownst to the human, Scumbeak was keeping track. Keeping track of every blow, every injustice, every foul word. He would remain silent enduring this man's cruelty. But inside he seethed and schemed. Waiting. Waiting for that perfect opportunity. And then he would strike like a serpent, swift and deadly. And then he would make sure that humans would suffer what he had to endure. Pain, despair and fear. Scumbeak chuckled cruelly and waited his cold predator eyes watching Lee's every move.

One day... one day in the distant future he would make sure that all humans would suffer. All humans were evil. They had to die.

End of Flashback

With a final flourish of the quill Cherry became an official Dinotopian. The latest in a long, long list of Dolphinbacks. Bowing respectfully to the Mayor and the Senate she straightened and smiled happily as the building exploded in happy applause accompanied by the grunts and growls of the dinosaurs.

"Welcome Cherry to the wonderful utopia that is Dinotopia," the Mayor shook her hand warmly as the saurian members of the Senate added in their own congratulations.

"Yes, welcome," a handsome-looking man came forth and shook her hand firmly.

Cherry looked up at him and all the alarms in her head went off. There was a warm smile on his face but his blue eyes were as cold as ice. The only thing marring the handsomeness of his face was his nose, which was a dark red as though he had recently injured it somehow. Cherry listened with half an ear as he extended a polite comment; his tone was just a bit too friendly and sweet to be normal. Cherry had this sneaky suspicion that this man did not like her at all.

In fact, she thought with a flash of intuition, he doesn't seem to like anybody here.

He smiled at the Mayor but his smile was practically plastered onto his face. His blue eyes never stopped darting around as if he was looking for something.

Stop being paranoid, she chided herself, you're just overacting again.

Cherry returned his smile and knew her smile was just as fake as his.

How time flew. It only seemed like yesterday he was a frightened youngling in the clutches of a malicious and manipulative man. But no anymore, Longwing was now a feared fighter, feared because of his determination to win at all costs. Even if it meant cheating.

Fear, he found was a powerful persuader. If not fear for themselves then fear for a loved one. Love was a sign of weakness and Longwing wanted no part in it. It was almost sad; it was so easy to bend one's will when their loved ones were in danger. Longwing knew that very well. How else could he have built his army?

Flashback

It had been fifty long years. Fifty long years since Scumbeak now called Longwing had his first taste of victory. And how he loved it. The look on Lee's face when he realised that he was going to die. Longwing chuckled remembering that rush of adrenaline as his beak flashed down and ended the man's life.

It was him and only him that had pass through the barriers. Longwing still remembered that day clearly. There had been a flash of bright light... but that was all. There had been nothing to stop him from reaching the home of the pterandons but fear. Fear of the sunstones and Longwing had no fear. He had learnt that fear was a weapon. Someone would come along eventually and use it to hurt you. So slowly overtime Longwing had taught himself to fear nothing and no one.

He had learnt an important lesson. The sunstones weren't as powerful as he had thought. Any creature could pass through them if they learnt to overcome their fear. With that knowledge in mind Longwing began planning.

End of Flashback

But all his plans had failed. He had gotten his first taste of what it was like to terrorize the humans a year ago. A year ago the sunstones have failed. How he had rejoiced when the pterandons took flight and attacked Waterfall City. But somehow the humans had gotten their hands on more sunstones. And the pterandons had been driven back. Not for long...

It had been a year ago since he had stumbled across the Master. Back then he had been little more than a half-crazed man more dead than alive. Longwing was about to kill him until he found out that the man had exactly the same plans he had. To destroy all humans in Dinotopia. From that point on the two had schemed together, planning, watching, waiting patiently for that day to come. Waiting for the day when all their plans would become reality.

And now that time was approaching.

Longwing smirked remembering how he had built his pterandon army. It had been hard at first. Most flocks ignored him, uninterested in his plans. Only a few had joined him at first. But it had been so easy when he had captured all the their younglings.

He kept them under guard threatening to kill them unless all the flocks had joined him. Slowly and reluctantly more and more flocks came under his command. More and more came until almost all pterandons were part of his army.

Longwing laughed cruelly as his demented mind calculated how long it would be until he would have his revenge on all humans.

Soon...

Cherry breathed a sigh of relief as they entered the library. She was glad to be out of the bustling streets and into the peace and tranquillity of the library. Plus she got to see Zippo again.

"Hi, Zippo!" she greeted cheerfully spotting the green stenonychosaurus.

Zippo turned around and his face lit up with happiness as he saw who was calling him.

"Marion! Cherry! How good to see you again!" he greeted, "David!"

Zippo's smile fell a little as he shifted his weight uncomfortably. Karl had disappeared with 26 saying that Zippo wouldn't appreciate having a noisy chasmosaurus around in the library.

"What is it Zippo?" Marion asked looking at her old friend worriedly.

Zippo glanced at David at again before he began to talk haltingly.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I'm afraid I have to tell you something you won't necessarily enjoy hearing..." the dinosaur began nervously.

"Zippo," Marion said reproachfully.

"Sorry," Zippo took a breath and began talking rapidly, "Oonu has been stripped of his leadership of the Skybax Corp for defying the Senator's by training Riders in the art of combat."

"WHAT?" David stared at Zippo in shock, "You're joking."

"No, no! I'm afraid it's quite true."

"Whoa! Wait a minute! You're telling me that Oonu has been fired because he's broken some stupid rule?"

"Yes."

Cherry opened her mouth to say something rude but Marion got in first.

"I'm sure there are some good reasons behind the Senate's doing," she said calmly, "I'll be sure to talk to father about it."

David and Cherry exchanged glances. Deep down Cherry was worried. The pterandons was on the verge of war and they have just fired the leader of the Skybax Corp? According to David the Skybax Corp was the only line of defence between pterandons and the rest of Dinotopia. No, they were the second line of defence. The sunstones were the first.

But she couldn't help wondering what would happen if the sunstones failed again. That didn't bear any thinking at all.

Cherry shivered and had the strangest feeling that something had happened to the sunstones.

She shoved her dark thoughts into the back of her head and hoped that the sunstones would hold the pterandons back.

They had to.