They trudged over grassy hills and plains for three hours before they found anything. "Check it out," Phoenix said. "Looks like a farm."
"Farm of what?" Jade asked, not recognizing the red fruit.
"Beats me. Let's go."
They climbed to the top of a hill and looked down, their jaws following their eyes. A small village was spread out in the nook of the valley. Out on the edge were what looked like moving statues of dinosaurs. "Those look like Brachiosaurs," Jade said. "You think it's a town of paleontologists?"
"They don't look very high tech," Phoenix pointed out as they made their way down the hill. "Kind of the opposite actually."
On the edge of the village was a kind of marketplace. They approached an elderly woman selling quilts and rugs. "Hello, dears. Are you interested in a nice throw rug? Or perhaps a quilt, they're the finest on the island."
"Um, no thanks. May we use your phone?" Jade asked.
The woman frowned. "Phone?"
"Yeah, our boat sprang a leak and we washed up on the shore, we need to contact the mainland," Phoenix explained.
"Oh, you're newcomers!" the woman said in realization. "In that case, I suggest you take a bus to Waterfall City where you can register."
"Register? Look, ma'am, we're just looking for a phone," Phoenix said impatiently.
Suddenly there was a squawk and a tiny, two-legged lizard jumped onto the counter. The girls jumped back, surprised. "Oh, god..." Jade breathed, recognizing the animal. "That's a compsognathus!"
"A compass-what?" Phoenix asked.
"Compsognathus. I call him Compy," the old woman said fondly. "My life mate I only found three years ago. When I was young, I had dreams of bonding with a Brach or Stag, something large that couldn't be pushed around. But I found Compy here, and couldn't be happier."
"Are you talking actual dinosaurs here?" Phoenix asked.
The woman smiled. "The bus station is in the square. Go to Waterfall City," she insisted. "They can explain it far better than I can."
"We don't have any money," Jade said. "How do we buy a ticket?"
"Barter goods or services," she said. "I'm sure you can come up with something."
"Thank you," Phoenix said, a sarcastic bite to her voice as she pulled Jade after her.
"You could have been nicer to her, Phoenix," Jade said. "She was just trying to help."
"A lot of good she was too," Phoenix grumbled, side-stepping a tall two- legged dinosaur who was pushing a wheel-barrow. "This place is messed up, where the hell did all these dinosaurs come from?"
"Hey, I think that's the bus station," Jade said, pointing to a booth on a platform. Next to the platform stood a towering brachiosaur being fitted with armor plating, a ladder leading to a type of carriage on its back.
Phoenix jumped up to the ticket booth. "Hi, we want two tickets to Waterfall City," she said.
"Very well, the next bus leaves in fifteen minutes, you're just in time. The cost for two tickets is five scales," the man said.
"We don't have any money, some lady said we could barter," Phoenix stated.
"Indeed. What do you have?"
"Um..." Phoenix pulled her old boyfriend's class ring off from around her neck where it hung on a chain. "How about this? Derek cheated on me and never asked for it back. That's real gold and ruby."
The booth master took out an eyeglass and inspected the ring carefully. "This is very valuable, worth far more than five scales. Along with your tickets, I can give you five hundred scales and a note for you to give my counterpart in Waterfall City, he can give five hundred more, totaling one thousand. Do you believe that's fair?"
Phoenix shrugged. "I guess. We're new around here, we're not really sure what's fair."
"In that case, why don't we total it to twelve hundred?" he suggested. "So when you do understand, you bear me no ill will if you believe it was worth more?"
"Phoenix's eyes widened. "Dang, talk about honesty," she said.
He smiled and disappeared form the window. He returned, handing them a leather bag and three scraps of paper with footprint like stamps all over them. "Now these two are your tickets and this is the note."
"Thanks," Phoenix said. "Is that thing over there the bus?"
"The Brach? Yes."
"Why is it being fitted with armor?" Jade spoke up.
"The path to Waterfall City goes through carnivore territory," he explained. "But don't worry, they rarely attack buses and the driver brings extra food to appease them."
"This keeps getting better and better," Phoenix fumed as she grabbed the ladder and began climbing.
When she got to the top of the ladder, she climbed into the topless carriage and helped pull Jade in. The carriage was occupied by four other people; one was obviously the driver, portioned off in his own little seat. There was also a couple dressed like they were from the fourteenth century huddled together and a man in his mid or late twenties slouched in his seat, carving something from a stick of wood with his feet on the opposing seat. He had dark hair and eyes, dressed in black pants and a halfway unbuttoned cotton shirt; the chest underneath was smooth and muscular. Phoenix's snapshot opinion of him, taking from his posture and body language: he was good-looking and knew it too well for his own good. He looked up when they climbed in and raised an eyebrow. "Excuse us," Phoenix said to him when she realized that the only remaining seats were under his feet.
He looked up and she saw a defiant, humorous glint in his eyes. "For what?"
"OK, I'll rephrase," she said with mock courtesy. "Excuse you."
"I still don't know what you're talking about."
She glared at him, further angered by the slight smile on his lips. Finally, she hefted his boots off the seat and they made a solid thunk on the wood of the floor. She sat down and crossed her arms and legs, giving him a superior look. He just grinned at her and looked towards Jade. He looked back and forth between the twins a few times with a deepening frown. He gestured to the both of them with his knife. "You're newcomers, aren't you?"
"What do you mean?" Phoenix asked, frowning.
"New to the island," he clarified. "Your clothes are different, I can tell."
"We are," Jade nodded.
"And since I haven't had anything to drink all day, I'm guessing you're sisters."
"No, distant cousins," Phoenix said sarcastically, a chilly bite to her voice.
Jade hit Phoenix's arm. "Twins."
He nodded, narrowing his eyes at Phoenix just slightly and cocking his head. "Tell you what, my father is the first advisor to the mayor of Waterfall City. When we get there, I can take you to him to register."
"What do you mean register?" Jade asked.
"Register as Dinotopians," he said. "Then you can enroll in the Habitat classes."
"Look, we don't want to enroll in any classes, we need a phone so we can call home," Phoenix said.
"I take it that means no one's told you," he said, returning to the carving.
"Told us what?"
He looked up again. "We don't have phones on the island," he answered in a bored voice. "Newcomers for the past hundred years or so have been asking for one."
"Yeah, probably because they don't want to be stuck in this hellhole either," Phoenix snapped.
"Hellhole?" he asked incredulously. "From what we've gathered, it's a lot better here than any place else on Earth. Last we've heard there was the Second World War going on."
"That was over fifty years ago," Phoenix said with a withering glare.
"Well, that was the last time we had a newcomer," he said, returning it. He was quickly tiring of this game.
"So how do we get home?" Jade asked quickly.
"You are home, sweetheart. There's no way off the island. It's surrounded by a razor reef and storms so don't expect to catch the attention of passing plane or whatever. You're stuck here, kiddo," he said callously.
"Hey, you don't have to be a such a jackass about it," Phoenix snapped.
"Ooh, tough words," he said. "You know how to bite back, I like that in a woman."
Phoenix sighed in disgust and sat back as the Brach began moving. "Believe me, mister, you don't want to get into a verbal spare with my sister," Jade told him. "She's been known to make men twice your size cry."
He chuckled. "I'll take your word on that. So what are your names? I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of each other."
Phoenix clammed up, crossing her arms and legs, watching the terrain pass. "I'm Jade, she's Phoenix," the other twin declared.
"Any way I can know how to tell the two of you apart?" he asked.
"If you're around one or the other more it's easier to tell," Jade said. "But Phoenix has more muscle, tattoos and piercings than I do."
"Piercings?" he repeated skeptically.
"Yeah, I have four, she has six," Jade answered.
He studied their ears carefully and jerked his head at Phoenix. "I only see five on her."
"She's got a belly ring," Jade answered.
He nodded. "Right. So I guess it's acceptable for women to have tattoos now?"
Phoenix gave him a look. "Why wouldn't it be?"
"Well the last newcomer we had was in the nineteen forties," he shrugged.
Jade nodded understandingly. "So what's your name?"
"Connor," he said, holding out his hand. Jade shook it but Phoenix just glared.
A horn sounded and the brachiosaurus started moving.