9
See part one for explanation and disclaimers. I don't own 'Dinotopia', James Gurney does. Hallmark still owns the characters and I'm still not profiting from this. Hope you're enjoying this. Still recommended for teens and up for action/violence and mild language.
2
As soon as Jack hit the water, Karl muttered an oath. Abandoning the chase, knowing that the albino pterosaur and its rider would be long gone by the time he fished Jack out of the water, he landed Pterra near the river. He debated with himself whether outsider thieves or well-meaning, but hopelessly nerdy, younger brothers caused him more headaches. Karl found Marion among the small knot of shoppers who had come to the rescue of the yelling, sopping wet Jack. Jack was clinging to one of the poles where the smaller boats tied on when they stopped in the city.
Marion was trying to coax him into letting go with one hand so she could help him climb over the stone wall of the canal to the safety of the street, but Jack wasn't having it. The plane crash and swim through the turbulent waters near the Razor Reef had instilled an utter terror of the water in Karl's half-brother. Marion gave Karl a look as he joined her on the bank, and Karl shook his head. Leaning over the wall, he extended a hand to the figure clinging to the pole and joked, "Nice stand, Custer. Didn't I tell you to stay put?"
Jack dared to turn his head just enough to see his brother. "Karl? Did he get away?"
"Yep. Give me your hand," Karl ordered. He kept the rebuke out of his tone, since Jack looked sufficiently humiliated. Jack reluctantly let go of the pole with one hand and reached for Karl's outstretched hand. With the help of Marion and several passerbys, Karl hoisted the dripping form from the canal.
"Sorry, Karl, Marion," Jack apologized.
Marion patted his shoulder. "You're not to blame for the outsider's escape, Jack."
"And speaking of which, would someone mind telling me how that guy got himself a pet pterosaur!" Karl directed the question at Marion. "I thought pterosaurs only flew for trained riders?" What he meant, of course, was for well-trained Dinotopian skybax riders.
She said simply, "No one holds ownership over a pterosaur or any other saurian. You of all people know that. Saurians choose or reject their own human life partners---even if it's an Outsider, I suppose. Though I'm surprised an Outsider would accept a saurian partner given their opinion of the dinosaur population"
"I'm surprised a saurian would fly with a saurian hunter," Karl added.
Marion's face fell a bit. "You shouldn't make accusations like that when you can't be sure of yourself, Karl," she said defensively.
"Come on, Marion---why do you stick up for him!"
Not for the first time, she wished that she'd been the one to find David when the off-worlder had first become marooned on the island. If the outsiders hadn't got to him first, there was a chance she could have prevented him from being poisoned against the island and its way of life…
As Marion had rowed the tiny boat back to the beach, she'd been focused on only one goal: Getting back to Waterfall City before sunset. There was a slim hope of survival within the city. If the predators caught her out here, in the forest, she was as good as dead. Already, the absence of the sunstones' glow was becoming painfully noticeable against the darkening sky. The cries of carnosaurs---T-Rex, velociraptor, pteranodon, and other horrors Marion didn't want to imagine---were still a ways off, but were getting closer with each passing hour. Things were about to get bad…very bad. She stared down into the water of the bay, but there was no sign of the submarine that had just sank into its depths. If Karl, Jack, and Cyrus didn't find working sunstones in the underwater caverns soon, it would be unthinkable. The human population of Dinotopia would never survive it. She'd done all she could do to help, providing the power source for the submersible. It was up to her friends now. They would succeed, she promised herself. They had to succeed. If they didn't, then her place was with her family in the city, defending her home against the coming onslaught of predators, helping as many people as she could until the end...
Distracted, and with her back to the shore, she failed to see the figures deployed along the length of the beach until it was too late. They were, without question, Outsiders. Worse, they were quite clearly waiting for her. She knew a few of them on sight---Doris Le Sage, an ambitious woman at best, stood beside Quantro, a filthy, ridiculous little hanger-on. A dark-skinned, muscular man Marion knew to be a skilled dinosaur hunter named Payden. Not far from them was a lanky white-haired man with a cigarette clenched between his stained (and in some places missing) teeth whom Marion would have known anywhere. He was their pack's leader, another hunter who murdered dinosaurs without discriminating friendly saurians from predators. He was the only pack leader who armed his followers against all conventions and beliefs of the Dinotopians. The knowledge of the atrocities Gabriel Dane had committed was repugnant to the matriarch's daughter.
Marion had never wanted to meet him in person, but she had no choice now. He was already moving to intercept the craft and there was no place else to land unless she wanted to row miles up the coastline in the fading light. There were at least two-dozen of them, so she doubted she could outrun the whole lot. Her only chance was to assert her authority and attempt to reason with the group, make them aware of the peril they were facing.
She spoke before Gabriel Dane could even open his mouth. "What's the matter with you all? Do you see the sky? Do you know what's happening?"
Marion took in the scene, searching for a gap in the ranks of his pack, for someone who might be reasoned with. Their attention was on their leader and the 'topian girl…all but one. Marion sensed something---different---about the young man who stood a distance from the rest of the pack. He was perhaps the youngest of their group, curly-haired, blue eyes (insanely, that seemed wrong to Marion), one of them marred by rapidly swelling bruises. As she took a longer look, she saw that he was imperceptibly holding his ribs. There was a split in his lip and a cut over his eyebrow that was going to scar. There was no pain betrayed in the young man's stance or in those eyes.
Then she knew what was different. She saw the tattoo on the back of his hand, the hand that was gingerly holding his ribcage. It wasn't the picture that drew her interest, she was used to seeing the occasional tattoos on Outsiders; it was the date that had been woven into the design of the artwork. It was hard to make out at the distance she stood from him, but it appeared to read: "Shō Y2K-The End of Civilization Tour". Karl had told her that 'Y2K' was an abbreviation the off-worlders used when their calendars changed to the year 2000. According to the off-worlders' calendars, this year was 2003. He was an off-worlder…and a new arrival to the island at that. That's what was different about him. The Outsiders must have found him before the Dinotopians, or else he---like Karl and his family---would have been directed to the Council and educated in the peaceful ways of the island.
She tried to reach him, tried to brush past the pack leader, but Dane caught her by the arm and jerked her back to stand in front of him. He was smirking, breathing his rancid breath and smoke in her face. Her fear was not reflected in her steady voice, but Dane saw it in her eyes. "I was trying to get to the ginka plant…it will help with the swelling." She indicated his battered friend. "You should be thinking of your injured. The carnosaurs will pick them off first…"
"Survival of the fittest, girl," Dane answered coldly. She saw, then, that Dane's knuckle was split and bleeding, leaving no doubt just who had provided the off-worlder's injuries.
"Do you know who I am?" That earned a round of laughter at her expense from everyone but the off-worlder. He was staring at Marion with such intensity that she was suddenly self-conscious. He was watching her, but, unlike his friends, who gave Dane their full attention, she knew he was also listening to her…knew it. Marion spoke to Dane, but directed her message to the off-worlder now and prayed she would at least get through to him. "You should be taking cover, all of you. You need---"
She saw the young man's eyes flicked skyward, just for a moment.
Dane grabbed her face with his strong fingers and squeezed hard enough to leave bruises. "What I need, you're much too frail a fawn to give me, girl." The pack snickered at that. Marion glanced to the off-worlder, hoping for help.
He was gone.
"What was that boat we saw?" Dane's free hand gestured in the direction the submarine had gone. "Perhaps you scalie-lovers hide a way off this island from us?" His grip tightened so that Marion couldn't have answered if she'd wanted to.
"Forget the girl, Gabriel. She's right. Look at the sky." This remark came from Payden. "We need to get to safety. I know a place not far from here---"
Dane released Marion's face, but held fast to her arm. "A boat like that can go beneath the Razor Reef. We will be free of this island. That is the only safe place to go, yes? I think, for her, they would trade us that shiny boat."
"You're an idiot." The unexpected sting came from Le Sage, who made her the center of attention now. Dane whirled on her, glaring, but the woman glared back at him, eye-to-eye. "The boat's gone…and I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going, too." She waved for those willing among Dane's pack to follow her into the forest, in the opposite direction from the din of approaching predators.
"Le Sage!" Faced with a mutiny, Dane shoved Marion towards the nearest member of his pack without looking. Arms came around Marion from behind, holding fast…but not brutally. One hand touched her elbow, holding lightly. Another hand settled over her mouth, not quite touching her lips. She caught a glimpse of ink on the back of that hand.
"Back towards the forest. Don't take your eyes off the pack." Marion didn't have to look over her shoulder to know the off-worlder was behind her.
A burly blonde man appeared at their sides, speaking to the off-worlder, also backing towards the forest with them. "I'm so sorry, mate…I should have done something. I'll have your back next time, my word on that." The blonde sounded ashamed.
"S'okay, Al, it wasn't your fault. There was nothing you could have done," the off-worlder answered quietly.
"You shouldn't have gone and pissed him off like that," the blonde added. "Why did you do that?"
The off-worlder hesitated. "The damn thing introduced itself."
He had Marion's full attention now.
His friend, 'Al', sounded dubious at best. "He what?"
"I heard it in my head. It said its name was Freefall. What was I supposed to do?"
Marion listened attentively. "You make an empathic connection to a Saurian?" she asked, muffled by the hand covering her mouth. That was extraordinary. If he could sense the thoughts of a skybax, then this off-worlder was of the Sky. He belonged with the Dinotopians…
Al ignored the question. "Stay out of Dane's way. That's what you should've done, you idiot. You should've stuck the critter and made Dane happy, not set the thing free. It was just a damn scalie---no scalie's worth your life!"
"I beg your pardon!" Marion disagreed.
Al and David still paid her no mind. They were concentrating on Dane, who was too preoccupied with Le Sage to notice the trio making a break for the forest. "I'll take the girl, David, you need to go before Dane turns his attention back to you."
David, however, made no move to escape. He guided Marion up the slope that lead away from the beach and into the edge of the forest. They almost made it before something happened that made the off-worlder stop in his tracks. On the beach, Le Sage had turned her back to Dane, and the pack leader had drawn his dagger. David shouted a warning, "Doris!"
Smoothly, Le Sage spun and kicked the blade right out of Dane's hand. Her next move was slamming her fist into his face. Dane dropped, blood spurting from his nose. Le Sage inclined her head in thanks to David. There was something very---intimate---in the way she smiled at the off-worlder before she led the rest off the pack down the beach. Marion felt a strange pang of jealousy seeing that look.
On his knees, clutching his nose, Dane turned and scanned the beach until he saw the fleeing trio. "Barrett!"
Al swore, "Damn…run!" He took Marion's other arm, and, together, he and David dragged her into the forest.
They ran, spurred by the sounds of Dane's shouts, which soon grew faint behind them. When his cries ceased altogether, the outsiders finally stopped. Marion sat in the grass, winded, listening to the roar of carnosaurs and watching her rescuers. Al paced, not showing the least exertion. David leaned against a tree, working hard to catch his breath, which was coming in ragged gasps that alarmed Marion. She remembered David had been holding his ribs before and wondered if his injuries were more than bruises. "Are you all right?" Marion moved to stand.
David waved her off. "I'm…fine," he lied. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a green leaf that he'd learned about from the pack during one of Dane and Payden's only useful botany lessons. The leaf tasted like mint and worked almost as well as off-world inhalers in warding off asthma attacks.
"How long have you been on the island?" Marion asked him.
David coughed and managed a deep breath. "Too long."
"Is your family here?" she wanted to know.
"You just met my family. How do you like them?" David joked.
Marion wasn't kidding. "I meant your real family." She regretted the question at once. Sadness flashed in his blue eyes for the first time...and something else she tried to put her finger on.
Loneliness.
"You're alone aren't you?" she asked.
"We are his real family, girlie." Al's words brooked no argument. He watched the darkening sky as he waited for his friend to recover from his asthma attack. "You know the way back to the city, right?" he asked Marion.
"Of course."
"Good." David cut in. "Don't take this the wrong way, but don't come back. Dane's no one to screw with." He glanced at the trail and the trees around them, getting his bearings. Then he headed for a trail that led in the opposite direction from Waterfall City.
Marion took a step after him. "Are you crazy? That path will take you right into carnosaur territory. You should come back to the city with me."
David paused, "Lady---"
"Marion," she introduced herself.
"Marion…this whole island's about to become carnosaur territory. Do us a favor---go fix your sunstones." David turned to Al. Some unspoken communication passed between them: David arched an eyebrow and the blonde sighed.
"You're a bloody nut. You can't outrun him in your condition," Al said.
David didn't deny it. "Just make sure Dane follows me, bro, then get the hell out of here as fast as you can."
"Yeah…no problem there."
David gave the matriarch's daughter a mock salute good-bye. "Nice to meet you…Marion."
"He's one of Gabriel Dane's pack! Dane murders dinosaurs just for kicks," Karl was ranting a bit.
Jack groaned, "Here we go again…" He found a bench and made himself comfortable. He knew what Karl would say next, and said the words right along with him. "…Barrett's with Dane's pack, then Barrett's a hunter, too."
"You think this is funny?" Karl asked his brother.
Jack scratched his head. The truth was that there were few people in the world who got under his brother's skin the way that outsider did, and just about everyone on the island knew it. If Jack weren't sick to death of listening to Karl's tirades every time Barrett snagged food from Earth Farm or supplies from the marketplaces of the island or medallions from the sanctuary, watching his normally ultra-cool brother get bugged to distraction by the outsider's antics would have been great fun. "Yeah, a little," Jack admitted.
Karl took his first real look at Marion then. Her usually immaculate hair had been pulled loose from its braid in the scuffle with Barrett. Her clothes were a wrinkled, rumpled mess and her eyes were still blazing. It would have been quite sexy, he thought, that disheveled and fiery look, if the memory of how she'd got that way wasn't making him ill. "One good thing---on that albino of his, Barrett should be real easy to spot. What about you? You okay?" he asked her.
"I'm fine, but we have a problem."
"Don't worry, I'll get your medallion back," Karl promised.
"What's he gonna do with that sunstone anyway?" Jack wanted to know. "It's not good for anything. No offense, Marion."
The matriarch's daughter agreed, "You're right, Jack."
"I am?"
Karl blinked. "He is?"
"The only reason to take it would be to upset our people," she said.
"Barrett never needs another reason besides upsetting us," Karl grumbled.
Marion shook her head. "But that's not the problem I meant…not the only problem, at least." Mindful that there was still a crowd around them, Marion linked her arms through theirs and guided them away. What she had to say wasn't for public knowledge, not until she spoke to her parents and the Keeper of the Temple. "You must keep this confidential---I mean it, Jack. The outsider had a piece of meteorite, a very old piece. It had a gold setting and the inscription---I think it was a Tohma Faiere. Fortunately, I don't think he knew what it was. He probably can't read the footprint language."
Jack stared blankly. "A what?"
"It means 'faith stone', Jack. Would it kill you to try and learn something about Dinotopian language and history?" Karl snapped. He had started reading all he could about the island, its history, its language, and its artifacts from the first night he and his brother had come to Waterfall City. Conversely, Jack simply wasn't interested, despite the best efforts of everyone to involve him in the activities of the island and make him feel at home. The only thing I want to learn about his island, bro, is how to get the hell off of it, was Jack's attitude. No wonder Twenty-Six wanted nothing to do with him, Karl thought.
"Well, what is it, if you're so smart?" Jack challenged, defensive.
Naturally, Karl was drawing a blank. "It's---uh---it's an old prayer stone. Right?"
"It's more than that, Karl," Marion said. Jack smirked at his brother. "Our ancestors believed they yielded enlightenment."
Jack snorted, "Why don't any of your space rocks ever yield stacks of gold bars? Or maybe zap you off the island and back to the real world? Like on 'Star Trek'---"
"Jack!" Karl barked.
"Well, why bother with a rock if it can't make you rich?" Jack pouted. "Not like a prayer rock is valuable like a sunstone or that rock that made the T-Rexes go gonzo."
"You think enlightenment isn't valuable? Wait, look who I'm asking…"
Marion interrupted before the brothers could launch into another full-blown argument. There wasn't time for their bickering, not with David Barrett, the faith stone, and her medallion getting farther away each minute. "Its powers aren't strictly 'enlightenment'."
Jack went pale. "I knew it---that space rock does something freaky, doesn't it? They always do something freaky…"
Karl swatted him lightly across the head. "Will you calm down?" He frowned at Marion. "Er, does that space rock do something freaky?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, good…" Karl sighed.