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.
7
Alano had no idea where Freefall had been before the dinosaur rendezvoused with him at Rock Cove, but there was a coat that didn't belong to David tangled in the ropes Barrett used in lieu of a saddle. "What happened to the owner of this?" Alano had asked the pterosaur. "You didn't eat him, did you?"
The pterosaur had beat its wings one time, the wind generated by the sweeping motion almost knocking Alano over. "I hope that wasn't a 'yes'."
"Maybe David would like to be the one sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere with no one but a scalie for company---no offense." Alano didn't want to tick off the huge dinosaur. "Wish you could tell me what he's up to."
There had been nothing to do but wait. Alano had been sitting on a hill in Rock Cove for a full day now, bored to tears, wondering if Barrett had already gotten himself killed by Gabriel Dane or Doris Le Sage before Freefall had showed up. He didn't know why David wasn't with the pterosaur and wished for a moment that he had his friend's ability to communicate with the beastie just so Freefall could tell him what was going on. It was too soon to give up on David, but Alano hated waiting.
"I'll bet he'd sit here for five minutes before he decided to go into hiding at a nice tavern instead. Some place with a fire. And food," Alano continued his monolog while the ptearsaur watched impassively. "Crossing Gabriel Dane again…why do I listen to him? I should have pounded David into the ground the first time he messed with Dane is what I should have done. For his own good. Knock some sense into that off-worlder brain of his."
Freefall turned his massive head towards Alano and made a sound like a growl.
"Oh, don't get that way. I'm just thinking out loud, that's all. I don't mean nothing by it. But David should know better than to trust---"
"Le Sage?" The woman in question asked.
Alano spun to find Doris Le Sage and her pack standing at the bottom of the hill. He scowled at the pterosaur. "Well, thanks for the warning!"
Freefall whuffed innocently.
"Where'd you come from?" Alano asked her. "Where's David?" His friend's absence made Alano that much more nervous.
"Where's the medallion?" she countered.
David had told her that Alano had the sunstone? He must have---how else would she know who had it and where Alano was hiding if David hadn't told her? Alano's problem was trying to determine if David had told her because he wanted her to retrieve it, or told her right before she stabbed him in the heart and came to steal it---and if so, was she moments from stabbing Alano as well. "I asked where David is, woman," Alano snapped.
"Keeping the dino-scouts entertained," Le Sage explained as she climbed the hill. "What? You don't trust me? Where's the medallion?"
"What medallion?" Alano asked.
A knife pressed to Alano's neck and a voice that could only be Gabriel Dane's whispered in his ear: "Don't be cute with us."
"Back off Dane. You need to learn some trust. Alano was about to hand it over---weren't you?" Le Sage held out her hand.
Alano handed it over to her—what choice did he have? Gabriel pulled the knife away from the large man's throat. "If you've crossed David…"
She wasn't intimidated in the least. "You'll do nothing. David can take care of himself." She turned her attention to the pterosaur. "Will that smelly pile of dinosaur hide obey you?"
Freefall 'growled' in warning. The pack raised spears nervously, thinking the pterosaur was about to attack. Alano held up a hand to hold them off. "He'll obey me just fine." He gave Freefall a glare of warning, just so the pterosaur didn't do something stupid that would get them both killed on the spot.
Le Sage nodded. "Good." She addressed Dane. "Where's the boat?"
He held out his hand. "Give me the medallion."
"See ya," she turned on her heel and started to march away. Dane's pack raised their weapons to stop her---only to instantly find themselves staring at the blades belonging to Le Sage's own pack.
"Very well…you a stubborn woman, Doris," Gabriel conceded, not in a position to argue. Her pack still outnumbered his; he couldn't take the medallion from her by force. "Follow me…and bring the scalie."
Freefall beat his wings. Alano knew what it wanted to do and grabbed the rope around its thick neck. "Just you wait, beastie. David's not in any danger if he's with the scalie-lovers. He'll be all right. Worry about us for now."
The saurian Keeper had been alerted to the recovery of the Tohma Faiere. Noree was waiting when the strange procession reached the Temple, holding the glass box in her claws, ready to receive the gem. Marion took the stone from its pouch, careful not to make direct contact with it as she did so, and carefully replaced it within its container.
"Thank the ancestors. Well done, Marion, Karl. I was afraid that outsider would---gah!" Noree let out a yelp when David, flanked by the saurian guards, followed Karl, Marion, and Romana into the temple. "You!"
David grinned, enjoying her reaction immensely. "Doesn't anyone just say 'hello' anymore?"
Noree clutched the box protectively, making sure to keep it well away from the outsider's reach. "Pah---the sooner we figure out what you've done to violate our faith stone and set it straight, and send you back to your ch'kra blasphemers, the better…" She was rather petulant, but then, she was still suffering the effects from the smoke bomb the outsider had lobbed into the Temple to steal the Tohma Faiere.
"Noree!" Marion interrupted.
The Keeper's harsh glare softened. She made a visible effort to collect herself. "Yes, you're quite right, that wasn't a very kind thing to say. I apologize."
David shrugged. "I've been called worse."
"No, Noree, we have another problem…Karl, show her," Marion explained.
Karl hesitated---not anxious for what he knew was coming---and waved for Noree to open the box. Noree offered the stone with a look of confusion and suspicion. Karl reached inside and gingerly touched the meteorite with just one finger.
It flared to life, and again his vision went blue.
The storm raged. Karl had done everything his father taught him, but somehow he'd steered the small aircraft into the squall. It had come from nowhere, inescapable and deadly, assaulting the plane like a living thing, tossing it up, down, and sideways, trying to dash it to pieces in the turbulent ocean below. Their dad wrestled with the controls, trying to keep the plane aloft, but Karl saw real panic in his eyes. He knew they were going down even before their father warned them to buckle up. It seemed a waste of time---Karl knew enough about aviation to know that hitting the ocean at high enough speed wasn't any different than hitting concrete.
The plane sputtered one last mechanical breath and died completely. His stomach did a flip-flop as the craft plunged, nose-first, towards the black water…
Mercifully, the vision didn't last long. Marion reached out and pulled Karl's hand away from the stone. The light winked out at the loss of contact.
"Oh dear…" Noree said.
"What were you were saying about 'violators'?" David smirked. Marion stepped between him and Karl before the skybax rider could respond.
"Th---that's not---I mean---you prayed to the Tohma Faiere?" Noree asked.
Karl protested, "I never touched it!" If that outsider doesn't stop smirking, I'm going to deck him.
Noree closed the box. "We'll see about that. You'll both---" She turned her reptilian head to indicate both Karl and David. "---have to participate in the ritual if we're to get to the bottom of this."
"Ritual?" David held up both hands. "Wait a second. Look, if you're talking about anything involving burning incense or smoking weird plants or wearing weird costumes or drinking weird potions or having to like wear nothing but feathers and dance around to a bunch of tribal drums…well, hell, count me in."
"I'm going to hit you," Karl warned.
The outsider wasn't fazed a bit. "Repressed."
"SIT!" Noree boomed, thumping her long tail to get their attention. She guided them to the benches, which had been arranged to form a square at the center of the temple. The temple's sentinel towered above them. Karl and David took a seat on benches opposite of each other. The outsider raised an eyebrow at the statue. "I know this guy---fought Godzilla and Mothma, right?"
Noree paid no attention. She sat on the stone floor between the two humans, at the foot of the sentinel statue. The Keeper opened the Tohma Faiere's case and began an incantation in her saurian dialect. Karl and Marion listened with strict attention. Karl closed his eyes when Noree instructed him to do so. Noree glanced impatiently at David when he didn't move a muscle.
"Can you try that again in English?" he requested.
"What's wrong---don't know Saurian, Barrett?" Karl asked, opening just one eye.
David extended a hand and made a distinctly off-worlder gesture with it. "I know sign language, Scott."
Noree and Marion simultaneously cleared their throats. Marion translated for the Keeper: "The Tohma Faiere's gift is enlightenment. Through its power, we can insight to those things which have been, those things which are, and those things which might have been. It's gift was abused by those who believed it had the power to grant the heart's fondest desires, to recreate the world as they would have it. Those who do not understand its true powers still pray to it to grant their wishes and reshape reality."
David raised an eyebrow. "You guys aren't serious with this 'reshape reality with a space rock' crap, are you?" Marion and Noree gave the outsider scolding glances, and he obediently shut up. "I guess you are." All right, just play along…whatever gets you out of this scalie temple and back to the submarine the fastest…
"Those who abuse its power are marked by the stone---it will glow at their touch…as it did for both of you. The spell that was created by both of your prayers to the rock…" Marion continued her translation.
"I did not pray to that rock!" Karl and David said in unison.
"….must be undone by both of you. That which you have changed with its power is illusion and the illusion must end. You will close your eyes, put your hearts and your minds at peace---"
"Oh, brother." The outsider mumbled.
"---and seek to discover the life which the Tohma Faiere has given you and the life which it has taken away. Both of you, touch the Tohma Faiere at the same time."
To make sure they did so, Marion grabbed their wrists and physically wrapped their hands around the faith stone. The Tohma Faiere's light flared with renewed brilliance. Beams of light radiated out and slammed into Karl and David like balls of lightning. The impact knocked the breath out of both of them and sent them flying from the benches into the clay walls, knocking them cold.
"What happened?" Marion was torn, undecided which one to help first. Noree and Romana quickly moved to check the outsider while Marion did the same for Karl. Both were unconscious, whether from the stone's power or the impact with the wall, Marion wasn't sure. She lifted Karl into a sitting position, propping him against the wall, and laid a hand against his forehead, using her innate empathic abilities as her mother had taught her to determine that the skybax rider was dazed, but not injured.
"The ritual failed," Noree pointed out the obvious.
Yes, I can see that… Marion moved now to check on the outsider. A moment's touch told her David, like Karl, was stunned but otherwise unharmed. "But, you said it would work if everyone who prayed to the stone…"
The Keeper nodded. "Yes, that is precisely what I said."
"I don't understand---you mean someone else used the Tohma Faiere?" Marion guessed.
Noree gave a very human shrug. "That can be the only conclusion."
"Who? Le Sage, maybe?"
"I do not know." Noree indicated the unconscious David. "But he might."