Disclaimer: Still don´t own Dinotopia
Chapter 3 : Camp site stories
"It´s going to be dark soon." She told them after they had been walking in silence for awhile. Well, he had been walking. She was still riding on her T-Rex.
"So we better find a place to rest, while we can still see.."
"I thought Carnivores were good at seeing in darkness, why don´t let we do him the work of finding a good place ?"
Apparently she ignored his sneering remark.
They walked on for a few minutes, when she suddenly told her partner with an invisible sign to stop. Cyrus also came to a halt, confused.
"What´s the matter ?"
"There are other T-Rexes in front of us. They´re on a hunting trip right now. If we would move, we might warn their prey and they would be unsuccessfull."
She told him seriously.
"Oh, I see..of course.." He didn´t really sound convinced, rather making fun of her.
None of them spoke in the next minute. Then the final cry of a herbivore echoed through the forest, together with the sound of breaking bones and flesh that was teared apart.
Grunting and smacking noises followed.
"I guess they are done..are we now ´´allowed´´to go on ?"
"Of course."
They soon found a nice place to rest. Once a huge tree had been standing there, now it lay destroyed - maybe hitten by lighting ? - on the ground, providing them with a good camping place alltogether with dry twigs for a fire.
While the girl collected some twigs, Cyrus sat down, and was soon followed by the T-Rex, who made himself comfortable, lowering his massive body, leaning against the remaining parts of the tree.
With a mixture of disgust and caution Cyrus moved a bit away from him.
One may be able to ride on him, but one never knows if this scaley won´t satisfy his nightly appetit on the nearest human.
So rather be safe, than sorry...
When the girl returned with her arms full of twigs she kneeled down and tried to arrange a few of them so they would make a good fire, supporting the ends of the twigs she placed in a circle around them.
From her bag - that had till now rested on the T-Rex´s bag - she produced a fire stone.
Kneeling over the twigs once again, she hit it together with another stone in an attempt to make fire.
Barely seconds later a spark flew over to the wood and a small fire started crackling, growing bigger once she blew into the flames.
Satisfied of herself she leaned back, against her dinosaur´s big belly.
Once more she opened her bag, roaming through it.
"Want something to eat ?" She asked him.
A little startled he answered: "Why not ?"
"What was your name again ?" One hand still searching around in the bag´s inside.
"...Cyrus ?"
"Exactly."
"Ok, then there you go, Cyrus." She said, handing him over something that looked like a pale tomato.
"Whazzat ?" He asked, examining the pink clot in his hands.
"Meat, of course." She said, taking out another one and bitting into it.
Had he understood right ?
"Meat ?" He asked again, raising the ball.
"Yeah, or how do you expect me to feed Seth ? He can´t live on plants like Herbivores you know..."
"Right,...right.." Somewhat confused he eyed the meat, till now his only encounter with meat had been fish; he had hated the fish bones.
Slowly he bit into it...and was surprised at how well this unfamiliar kind of food tasted.
"It´s good ! Indeed.." He told her, only to see the amusement glistening in her eyes.
"What ?"
"Oh, nothing..I just tend to forget that everyone else on this island is a more or less forced vegetarian.." Laughing she shrugged her shoulder, bitting into the the meat ball once again.
Did he see the spark of rebellion glimming inside that girl ?
Could it be ?
Probably just imagining it..
"So...do you hunt down the ´´going to be meat´´ for you dino ?" He asked her after a while of eating in silence.
"Partly...most of the time I search together with him after animals we could possibly kill this day - often the older ones, who came here to die anyway or these, whose flock had become too big -..then,..well, I sit on his back and help in case he isn´t able to overpower our victim by himself."
"A wholehearted hunter, aren´t ya ?" Cyrus commented, gulping down the last piece of his meat.
"Not much to do for someone with a T-Rex as a partner, is there ?"
"How did you get it anyway ?"
"´´It´´ ? His name is Seth, remember ?" She half scolded him.
"And I´m Jessie, in case your memory is bad."
"Alright, Jessie...how did you get Seth ?" His tone full of sarcasm.
"To be honest I found him...almost three years ago..he had barely hatched, not more than a few days old, when I stumpled over him... See, I originally was looking for fruits or something else to eat when I found all this T-Rex eggs lying around..Most were broken..
I wanted to leave again, disappointed that I weren´t goingt to have a rich meal, after all.
Then I saw his eyes blinking through the bushes.
I´m not sure, either he was afraid or he tried to play hunter on me..
I already asked Seth about this, but as it is with most old memories, he can´t remember..now can´t you, you big baby ?" She playfully asked her partner, crawling the scales of his throat.
"Anyway, that´s when this idea hit me..guess he and I had no other perspectives anyway..with no one else to care for him..
And from this time on we´re partners, the Rainy Basin our territory together with the other carnivores..." When she had ended her little speech she took Seth´s head into her arms so that it rested on her lap. Seth didn´t seem to mind this opportunity to get crawled.
While her fingers wandered between his forehead and his eyes Jessie looked up again.
"Any questions ?" She asked Cyrus.
"Uhm, yeah !" He answered a little taken aback, this rather rare view had kept his mind absent.
"Why did ya name him ´´Seth´´ ?"
"Well for one I still partly believe in the old gods-"
"Sorry ?"
"Oh, sorry, I again forgot." She laughed, slapping her forehead.
God, it make her look so young and different from the one that had told him about hunting.
"When I´m referring to ´´the old gods´´ I mean the Egyptian gods, like Ra, Bastet, Anubis...ever heard of them ?"
He nodded. Once he had read a book about it and only shaken his head.
"Right, and since I´m half-egyptian myself I can´t help but think of and somehow believe in them.."
"Seth, by the way, is a very old, powerful god. It depends on which story you believe, but he´s told to both god of destruction..and yet change..also in a positive way."
"I see..makes kind of sense for a T-Rex.."
She laughed, her clear voice echoing through the night.
"Now doesn´t it..finally someone who agrees except Seth himself !"
He couldn´t help but fell into a short laugh to - if with or over her, he wasn´t sure.
Later, he asked :
"And ya did this all on ya own ? What about ya parents, why don´t they lend a helpin hand ?"
She suddenly became silent, pushed Seth out of her lap and prepared to lie down.
"It´s better if we rest now, I guess...Good night, Cyrus."
"G´night.." But not without raising a curious eyebrow.
But on the same time he couldn´t really complain, this way he was able to look this strange pair over without having it to be considered ´´starring´´.
His eyes wandered to Jessie´s face, which had a strange shade of exotic in it.
She must be tellin the truth about being half-egyptian.. He mused.
Her skin had a far darker tone than he was used to, nontheless not as dark as the skin of the true black ones, former africans.
Everything - except her eyes - was smaller than in an european face, more delicate, like it couldn´t stand a life outside, yet it did, every day.
Her eyes were closed, nontheless he knew that they were of a dark blue color - a contrast to his light blue almost grey ones - as he had studied them before.
His view wandered higher to her deep dark eyebrows, strong archs that showed her strong mind he had got to know by now.
Even higher he looked at her hair, which had the same black color as her brows, falling loosly and at shoulder length around her face.
Turning to Seth the first thing Cyrus noticed was the moody dark green tone of his skin, alltogether with yellowish clawed like stripes along his back.
Then of course the huge head with all this sharp teeth.
When his eyes trailed off to the dinosaur´s short and almost useless arms, he could have laughed and kind of felt sorry for this oh so feared reaper..
..Another who´s partly invalid due to destiny..
Shaking his head one more time, he lowered himself too, then - once his head touched the warm ground - he closed his eyes and let sleep overtake him.
Reviews and beta reader would be welcome :)!!