Hello again! It's been a week (or almost a week) since I updated, and I apologize. I would've updated much quicker since I already have some of the chapters of this story written out, but I got busy. I will try to update more regularly though. So both Mackenzie and Miriam have prominent roles in this chapter and the sharpteeth that they encounter will play a bigger role later on (they're Spinosauruses by the way.) Enjoy!
After yesterday's...argument about whether or not to travel to the Great Valley, Amelia and Tristan hadn't spoken to each other all day; it seemed like they were practically trying to avoid each other. They did use small forms of communication, such as hand gestures and movements of their head, but they didn't engage in an actual conversation. It was almost completely silent, save for the sounds of the other animals which resided in the area.
When it came time to turn in for the night, Mackenzie skittered over to where Miriam slept. Miriam had been making herself comfortable by adjusting the blades of grass in her bed of grass with her feet. When she had finished, she noticed Mackenzie just standing there. "Mackenzie? What are you doing here? And where were you all day?"
Mackenzie raised her index finger, as if she was going to give a reason for her actions, but she had none. "Yeah, about that," she began. "Bad sleep story. I was wondering if I could sleep with you, just for tonight?"
Miriam blinked. "I thought you were 'Mackenzie the Fearless'. Whatever happened to that title?"
Mackenzie huffed and folded her arms across her chest. Her sister was rather opinionated for someone so weak. "Well, for now I'm 'Mackenzie the Scared'. Okay?"
Miriam shook her head, chuckling as she did so. "Relax. I was only teasing. Of course you can sleep with me tonight." She scooted over to make room for her sister, and soon enough, they were both sound asleep.
The next morning, Miriam was the first to get up. It came as a bit of a surprise to her, for she rarely ever got up before the bright circle rose. The mysterious beyond looked mysterious as always, but she never got to see it like this. The mist had engulfed most of the land in a foggy blanket, making everything look eerily mysterious. It was an intriguing sight for an adolescent dinosaur who hadn't seen much of the world, and for Miriam, it was. Her curiosity was suddenly sparked, so she slowly edged away from her sister who was still asleep. She had to take small and quiet steps so she wouldn't wake her, and when she had just stood up, Miriam heard her name. So much for trying to be stealthy.
"Miriam?" Mackenzie mumbled in a questioning tone. "Where are you off to so early?"
"Oh, uh...just taking a walk." Well, it wasn't a complete lie.
Mackenzie narrowed her eyes. "Ugh, what is it with you and walks?"
"Well, at least it keeps me healthy." Miriam countered, trying to keep the rudeness out of her voice.
Mackenzie looked offended. Well, as offended as someone as tired as her could be. "Are you saying I'm not healthy?"
Miriam gave a light shrug. "No...I'm just saying that being healthy doesn't include doing almost nothing but eating and sleeping. You need to go outside once in a while. And keep your voice down, mom and dad are still sleeping. You could come with me if you'd like?"
"Yeah, no thanks." Mackenzie spat, going back to sleep.
Her response didn't really affect Miriam in any way, so she thought nothing of it and continued on her way. As she grew farther and farther away from the gave, she noticed how thirsty she was. A visit to the watering hole seemed to be in order. Although, Miriam was a bit unsure about that thought. She had never gone to the watering hole without her parents. Then again, there was a first time for everything. And she had gone there enough times to know the way there by heart. It wasn't too far from her home, but it was close enough to the sharptooth territory, which was why her parents always accompanied her there.
As she made her way over to the watering hole, she could already see the light of the bright circle causing the watering hole to sparkle, like it was a pond of stars. Once there, Miriam didn't hesitate to dunk her head into the water, and take a drink. It was so soothing against her dry mouth. Everything was so peaceful at that very moment. Although that peace was soon interrupted by the sound of rumbling, and the shaking of the water which caused it to splash everywhere. Miriam quickly pulled her head out of the water, only to see two sailback sharpteeth. One was an indigo color, while another was a nice eggplant purple, and slightly bigger than the other. These kinds of sharpteeth got their name from the huge sails on their backs, and they were bigger than normal sharpteeth. They were running in Miriam's direction, but they didn't seem to be searching for prey. Their eyes didn't have that glare of fierce determination. Instead, it seemed as if they were...running from something? That was a first. In most cases, other dinosaurs were running from them. Or so Miriam heard.
The two sharpteeth darted towards the watering hole, so Miriam quickly steered clear of them while attempting to dodge their feet. Those feet were gigantic, and could probably crush someone to death. Now Miriam knew why other dinosaurs avoided sharpteeth at all costs. Almost every part of them was lethal. Their long tails could sweep a dinosaur off their feet with just one swipe, and their teeth could probably bite through a boulder.
Miriam had noticed this in just a few quick seconds of observing the sharpteeth. And just when she thought she was safe, the ground shook again. Maybe whatever caused the shaking was what the sailback sharpteeth were running from? She didn't get much time to ponder on it, because she looked up to see a foot. It didn't seem much bigger than those of the other sharpteeth, and Miriam wondered it was the huge sails on their backs that made them bigger. As she examined the sharptooth, she noticed the striking resemblance he had to someone she had heard of. This particular sharptooth was brown, with one red eye which had a scar under it that led all the way to the left claw of his right hand. The blood from the scar seeped into the claw, turning it a blinding red. She had heard several stories about a sharptooth who looked just like him. He was described as the biggest and meanest sharptooth of them all. Could it be? Was this...Red Claw? She didn't get a chance to think about it any further, because she was soon pushed out of the way. When Miriam sat up, she saw Mackenzie right beside her, and they could both see Red Claw continuing his hunt.
Miriam shook her head; she was certain she hit a few rocks when Mackenzie pushed her out of the way. "Mackenzie?"
Mackenzie didn't even ask if Miriam was alright. She just cut straight to the point. "What were you thinking? You almost got killed by Red Claw! Would it hurt you to be a little more careful at times?!"
"Sorry..." Was all Miriam could say, because Mackenzie was right. If it hadn't been for her, Miriam probably would have been dead already.
Mackenzie simply let out a sigh of irritation as she massaged her temples. "Whatever. Let's just go home. Mom and dad are going to kill us if they find us gone."
However, their parents had already found out about their disappearance. And they were worried sick.
"Tristan, don't worry. They'll come back. They couldn't have gone far..." Amelia tried to reassure her husband, and hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "...I know I shouldn't talk about this, but...this is exactly why I think we should go to the Great Valley. That way, we won't have to worry about losing them if they wander off."
Tristan's eyebrows creased into a thin line. Amelia had a good point. But he was persistent. "...We'll be fine."
It took all of Amelia's willpower to not scowl at him or push the issue any further. "Fine."
Miriam began heading the way she came until she was stopped by Mackenzie. "Wait! I have a shortcut."
Miriam showed a bit of reluctance before answering. "Okay...what is it?"
"You see those trees?" Mackenzie pointed to a small forest of trees not far from where they were standing. "You just have to cut straight through the trees, and once you've done that, there's a path in between those two cliffs. Just take that path and bam, we're home!"
Miriam considered this for a moment. It was definitely a much shorter route than the one she had used, which had made her weary. But she had heard of dinosaurs who took shortcuts and ended up getting lost in them forever. But even so, it couldn't hurt to take the short way around, right? And they wanted to get home as quickly as possible. So, she and Mackenzie had ended up taking the shortcut.
"We're almost home," Mackenzie said, to which Miriam nodded. "We better be, because I don't want to be getting yelled at."
Mackenzie was about to say something more, but was interrupted by the sound of agonized roaring. Both dinosaurs shifted their attention to the source of the noise; the same indigo colored sharptooth that had been running from Red Claw. She seemed to have slipped, and several vines messily entangled her foot. She struggled to reach for the vines that had trapped her, letting out more agonized roars when she ended up slipping again with each attempt. Miriam felt bad for her. She began approaching the sharptooth, when she was suddenly stopped by Mackenzie. "Miriam! What are you doing?"
Miriam didn't even flinch. "I'm only setting her free. If another dinosaur is in trouble, then we should help them regardless if they're a sharptooth or not. Besides I saw her running away from Red Claw with another sharptooth like her earlier. Maybe they have eggs, or children at home. We have no right to deprive the children of their mother."
Mackenzie looked at her sister as if she had gone mad. "What? She'll kill you if you set her free! Run! Go, now!"
Miriam didn't change her mind, and continued walking towards the sharptooth, who was baring her teeth. As Miriam got closer, the sharptooth snarled, as if trying to warn her off, but Miriam didn't flee. She was an inch away from the sharptooth, and stopped. Normally if a dinosaur got this close, they were already dead or in the sharptooth's stomach. Miriam then hopped onto the sharptooth's nose, stumbling a bit as she met her huge sky blue eyes. Miriam could see her reflection in them, and they gleamed like sapphires. "How beautiful..." Miriam whispered in awe. The sharptooth, however, seemed surprised. This plant eater wasn't screaming in fear or running away. Instead, Miriam slowly made her way over to the sharptooth's foot, having to spread out her arms to maintain her balance. Eventually, she made it. She took the vines into her hands, snapping through them with her teeth. She let the vines fall to the ground, and before the sharptooth could move, Miriam hopped off. "There you go."
As soon as the sharptooth was back on her feet, she let out a powerful roar. One that definitely belonged to a predator. She brought her head down to Miriam's level, giving the rainbow face a sloppy lick of affection. Just then, a much louder roar sounded, and the eggplant purple sharptooth from earlier appeared. The female sharptooth stopped paying attention to Miriam, and immediately rushed over to her...mate? They shared a quick embrace as they touched noses, grunting gently. They really loved each other, it seemed. The male grunted something to the female, and soon they were both gone. A small smile tugged the corners of Miriam's mouth upwards as she watched them stomp away, their tails bobbing up and down with each step.
"Okay, now that that's over...we should probably get going!" Mackenzie urged not so gently.
Miriam tutted, unable to resist the force of her sister's pushing. "Alright, alright! No need to get so pushy."
Meanwhile, Amelia was trying her hardest to resist the urge to chew on her own claws out of her nervousness and worry. Normally, she wouldn't be so worried as her daughters liked to wander around quite a bit. But in this case, they left without telling anyone. There was no telling how far they might have gone by now.
Tristan on the other hand, just groaned under his breath as his chocolate brown eyes narrowed. Amelia shifted her worried gaze over to him, and Tristan immediately knew what she was feeling. "Amelia, relax. You said it yourself, they'll be fine." He said in a slightly annoyed voice. This was clearly getting under his skin.
Amelia wasn't satisfied. Her sea blue eyes were fixated onto the landscape, desperately searching for a sign of either Miriam or Mackenzie.
Tristan felt bad for being so cranky. So, he loosened up a bit and moved closer to his mate. "Hey...I'm worried too. But all we can do right now is try not to worry and believe they'll be back." Amelia nodded, but was still worried. She was a mother, after all. She couldn't help being worried for her children.
Just as the two parents were about to go searching for their children themselves, Miriam and Mackenzie walked in.
Amelia wanted so badly to pull the both of them into a hug, but she conveyed her worry by talking instead. And her tone of voice came out differently than intended. "Where. Have. You. Two. Been?!" Even Tristan flinched at the sudden rise in her voice.
Miriam looked to Mackenzie, who shook her head as if telling her to just make up some story instead of telling the truth. But Miriam would never be able to live with the guilt of lying to her parents. "Well...I woke up early and decided to go off on my own for a bit. I-I assumed I would be back soon enough...or at least before you and dad woke up."
Amelia raised a skeptical brow, giving her daughters a glare. She could be cold when she wanted to be. "Mhm. And where exactly did you go? What happened there?" She questioned, her voice rising a few octaves.
"I just went to the watering hole. Mackenzie came along later. I planned to go home after a short drink and a bit of looking around but then there were sharpteeth-"
"Wait, sharpteeth?!" Tristan intervened suddenly. "Are you two alright? What made you think it was a good idea to go off on your own?" He sounded more like he was yelling at Miriam and Mackenzie rather than just asking them a few simple questions. But his yelling made Amelia realize something. She yelled at her daughters just a few moments ago because she was worried about them, she never truly meant to yell. That was why Tristan yelled so much. He was just worried about the safety of his family. Honestly, she was somewhat glad that Miriam and Mackenzie had wandered off. It gave her a chance to see things from Tristan's perspective. However, the sound of Tristan's yelling found a way to bring her back to reality. She put a hand on his shoulder to catch his attention, then gesturing to Miriam and Mackenzie, whose heads were hanging in shame.
Tristan sighed, his expression softening a little, but the slight softening wasn't very noticable. "Just...tell someone before you decide to go off an an adventure, okay? We don't want this happening again." He looked to his daughters before walking off.
Mackenzie was clearly angry, and was about to say something until her mother put out a hand to tell her not to press the issue. She knew her daughter would say something in a fit of anger, which was not what Amelia wanted. Then Mackenzie stormed off as well, leaving only Miriam and her mother.
"Mom?" Miriam began as she walked over to Amelia.
"Yes?" Amelia responded gently.
"I helped a sharptooth...is that bad?"
Amelia motioned for her daughter to take a seat next to her, which Miriam did. "Miriam...I-I don't know. While that is a great act of kindness which I have never seen done by anyone before, you also know that they're our greatest enemy. We're always on the run from them. So it's a bit hard to say whether what you did is a bad thing. But I'm glad you're growing up to be such a sweet girl."
Miriam threw her arms around her mother, pulling her into a tight hug. Secretly, Miriam was glad she didn't leave that sharptooth to be trapped in those vines forever. Maybe she and that other sharptooth did have a child, and if they did, Miriam really did hope that maybe, just maybe, they could become friends one day.