Blackwood Flats Safari: Part 8

Tamith took a sip of her warm mug as she listened to the two gentlemen sitting across from her. The Chandaran Speaker was discussing the dolphinbacks and their lucky arrival because of the severity of the storm that had just passed, a storm who’s last tendrils still raged above Dinotopian skies. Movement coming from the staircase caught her eye. Recognition dawned on her and she gasped.

“LiquidFire!” she called at the Utharaptor now making her way down the stairs. Upon seeing the human youth, LiquidFire altered her direction in order to greet the girl.

“Breath Deep,” she said.

“Seek Peace!” Tamith replied happily. “What brings you to Chandara? I haven’t seen you since our unexpected meeting in your Clan’s grounds.”

LiquidFire made a face and Tamith wasn’t sure if she was grinning at the memory or looking at it with regret. “Yes, it’s been a while. And I’m here right now to assist the local healers in what I can with the wounded from the storm.”

“Oh!” Tamith exclaimed, “Then you’re the one upstairs with-”

“You’re companion, yes. Sadly, that’s me,” LiquidFire responded. “He isn’t the easiest patient I’ve had and honestly, I’ve seen better behaved hatchlings!”

Tamith grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, Dylan isn’t very fond of healers. But, before I forget,” she said turning towards the other occupants of the table, “This is Gareth, who aided us with the dolphinbacks, and this is the Chandaran Speaker,” she finished pointing at the Deinonychus.

LiquidFire nodded her greetings then turned to the empty water bowl in her hands. “I better go get some more of this to finish disinfecting his wounds and if he spills it again, I swear I’ll spill the contents of a cauldron over his head!”

The rest of the table laughed.

“Is he really giving you that a hard time?” Gareth asked curiously. “He seemed in no shape to complain, let alone cause major damage.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised what Dylan can do when he sets his mind to it!” Tamith said smiling.

“I can testify to that,” LiquidFire agreed with a toothy grin.

“Would you like our help?” Gareth offered.

Tamith laughed. “I’m positive he’ll behave if we’re both there to witness is tantrums.”

LiquidFire nodded. “Please! I’ll go fetch some more water; you two can keep him busy for a bit.”

The two humans excused themselves from the Speaker and followed LiquidFire to the kitchens. Once they had all the necessary items, they went back up the stairs to the room Dylan was staying in. Tamith knocked on the door and called to her friend but, to her surprise, no one responded. After several attempts with similar results, they opened the door and stared into the room. Everything was as LiquidFire had left it except for an opened window from which the light rain now poured into the room and no Dylan.

“He’s gone??” LiquidFire asked, puzzled.

She put the bowl of water on the wooden nightstand in the corner of the inn-room then walked to the window. In the distance, she could vaguely see the contours of large buildings but the rain blocked the activity of people on the streets from view. Not that anyone who hadn’t very urgent business would be out in this weather of course.

Nothing was to be seen down on the pavement either. Dylan wasn’t the kind of person who would jump from windows; he must have climbed down somehow. But if he did, he had done so in a very original way since the outer wall seemed too smooth for a human to find hand and foot-holds in and the classical, if not slightly cliché, ‘rope’ of bed sheets tied to the window and waving in the wind wasn’t there either.

A few moments, later the innkeeper had been warned and the Inn searched, which resulted in the turning up of the inn keeper’s wife’s long lost favorite left earring, but no Dylan. This was worrisome. She wondered if she shouldn’t send her pterosaurian city-guide to warn the authorities or at least the hospital.

“Any ideas as to what place in Chandara he wants to visit badly enough to climb out of windows?” she asked Tamith in her own language since she still didn’t master basic Dinotopian too well and Tamith’s knowledge of raptor-dialects had increased greatly since a close encounter in the Basin.

By now, everyone in Inn was staring at the strange little group with amusement, curiosity, or concern.

Tamith stared blankly out the window in the inn lobby as she considered LiquidFire’s question. Little water droplets where tapping on the window surface in an almost musical fashion and, for a moment, she just stared at them totally at a loss for words.

“Oh no,” she muttered. “He wouldn’t…”

“Wouldn’t what?” the Utharaptor asked, slightly puzzled as the human girl rose from her seat in an almost dreamlike state.

Without giving any explanations, Tamith crossed the lobby and walked out the front door of the inn. LiquidFire gapped after the girl and in a swift movement was after her as well. When she caught up to Tamith, she was sprinting down the city alleys.

“He has to be there,” she muttered. “Where else would he go?”

“Go where?” LiquidFire insisted, still totally lost.

The final alley opened up into the sandy coast of the bay and only then did Tamith slow down. Panting for breath, she scanned her surroundings.

“Here?” LiquidFire said incredulously. “What kind of idiot comes to the bay when it’s raining outside? Not to mention he was wounded and-” she stopped short and looked in the direction Tamith was pointing, still too breathless for words. Her jaw fell open. Sitting some twenty meters from them, starring peacefully out into the bay was Dylan. For a minute, she just starred speechless and truly pondering the workings of the male human’s brain, because for the life of her she could not figure it out.

Dylan seemed to notice their presence because he turned in their direction and, with a giant grin, waved them towards him. Tamith was already half of the way there and she wasted no time catching up to her.

“YOU LITTLE IDIOT OF A MAMMAL!” LiquidFire exclaimed. “What were you thinking?” Her wonder and confusion increased further when she saw that Dylan was completely wet. It almost looked as if he had decided to jump in the bay for a swim.

“I….umm… fancied a swim,” he said sheepishly confirming her ludicrous theory. She simply gapped at him. He had decided to go for a swim in the middle of a storm. That was beyond rash, even by human standards. She looked at Tamith incredulously but, strangely, the human girl didn’t look surprised at all.

“You!” Tamith said hugging her friend. “You had us worried sick! You should have told me you’d be here! Half the inn is looking for you, you little sneak!”

“I’m sorry,” Dylan said smiling at her. “I just didn’t want to risk going through her again.” At this he motioned with his head at LiquidFire, who was standing there totally at a loss for words.

“Well,” she said finally reacting. “You didn’t want to spend a night in a hospital, now you’re gonna have to! Swimming in this weather! And you were wounded, irresponsible! What were you thinking! Let me look at those again.”

Dylan tried to move away from the healer’s grasp, but he was in the middle of both his friends so he couldn’t squirm away. LiquidFire was muttering something about a loss of perfectly good bandages as she undid the wet and useless ones he was wearing around his head to inspect the wound further. If she had been confused before, what she discovered made her jump backwards. The deep wound he had had that had been freely bleeding but hours before was gone. In fact, there wasn’t any trace of it ever being there at all. She blinked a few times then got a grip of him again and searched for the multiple cuts he had on his arms and chest. They were gone too.

“What the…” Liquidfire muttered. “How did…”

“Well,” Dylan stuttered. “Good job to you, doctor; I’m all better now!”

“Nuh-uh!” LiquidFire exclaimed suddenly. “Not like that you aren’t!”

Tamith just sported a big grin on her face. The severity of the situation didn’t seem to stun her at all. She sat back, allowing her friend some room to stand up.

“So you guys finally found him.”

The three of them turned around to see Gareth walking towards them. He must have seen the two girls walk out of the inn and followed.

“Yes!” the healer Utharaptor exclaimed. “He... He… I don’t know! But something’s not right here!”

Dylan ignored the debate that was surely going to start roaring at his back soon and walked back towards the semi-stormy waters.

“Where are you going?” Tamith asked him walking to catch up.

“I’m gonna wash the sand off,” he told her. “Obviously, I’ll be expected back at the inn now with evil healer pouring in with concerns for my health.” Tamith caught the slight hint of sarcasm and laughed. Dylan grinned back and walked into the foamy waters.

“How can you do that?” Tamith asked. “It must be freezing in there!”

“Naw, it’s quite warm actually,” Dylan replied after ducking under the waves once. “The wind is what makes you feel cold.”

He was waist deep in water before turning to exit. He was almost out when he felt himself grow cold. Dylan narrowed his eyes and winced at the pain that suddenly ripped his insides. Before he knew it, he was on his knees gasping at the sudden pain and his vision blurred. He shut his eyes and when he opened them, he saw that he was surrounded in blood. He looked back towards shore, but Tamith was nowhere to be found. All he could see where blurry images of people in motion. All he knew was that someone somewhere was dying.

“DYLAN!”

Tamith’s voice broke through the dreamlike state he had been in. He opened his eyes and saw her worried face above his.

“He’s coming about,” another voice said.

“Irresponsible! Straight to sick bay for you!” the third one exclaimed.

“I’m alright…” he muttered sitting up. He looked around him and was surprised not to find the blood he had seen seconds before. He thought about what he had seen before turning to the people around him.

“We’ve gotta go now,” he stated seriously.

“You bet we do!” LiquidFire snapped.

“No you don’t understand,” Dylan said turning towards Tamith, who had suddenly gone very pale, “They’re dying, all of them.”

“Who’s dying?” Gareth asked.

“The dolphinbacks,” he replied quietly. “They’re all going to die.”

The party had now stopped for nightfall. Kael, Hikari, and Azonthus were busy setting up tents for them to sleep in while Allen and Ressa had taken it upon themselves to start a fire and get dinner on its way. Standtall was taking a break from all the heavy walking and munching on the top leaves of one of the last tall trees they’d be seeing for a while. Some fifteen minutes later, each member had the food of his or her choice and was sitting around the fire, watching the still cloudy sky above them.

“How much longer, do you think?” Hikari asked Kael when he sat down for dinner.

“A few more days,” he replied while sipping some of the soup Allen had cooked up. “We’ve made great time thus far. With any luck, we should be there within the next three days.”

“We’re lucky to have Standtall with,” Allen spoke up. “I could have already been there, but it would have taken you non-fliers forever to arrive!”

Kael smiled. “Not all of us have the advantage of being skybax riders. Where did Highwind go, anyway? I haven’t seen him since we started camp.”

“He and Featherlight went for a hunt,” the blonde rider replied. “They’ll be back.” He excused himself and went to wash in the nearby stream they had found after he had finished dinner. Hikari and Ressa where deep in conversation, swapping stories by the looks of it.

“You know,” Azonthus spoke to Kael for the first time since dinner had started. “You’re nothing like what I expected at first.”

Kael looked surprised. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Azonthus laughed in a raptorian way. “Well, you’re an O’Connor,” she said. “By rights and what I know from your family, trouble follows your every step. And you can be a bit reckless.”

The human laughed. “Oh, I see. My brother’s reputation precedes me!”

“Not in a bad way!” Azonthus quickly put in. “It’s just that I never thought I’d meet a non-hyper O’Connor!”

“I know what you mean, I think,” Kael told her. “Dylan and I are just as alike as we are different. It made growing up... interesting.”

“I bet!” Azonthus said. She watched him a moment longer.

It seemed as if his attention had suddenly drifted from the conversation he was having and focused in a point somewhere in the southern horizon. A cold draft blew across their camp making Hikari run for one of the blankets in her tent before returning to her chat with Ressa. She turned her attention to Kael again and frowned. His complexion had changed. It almost looked as if he was in pain, though his attention was still fixed on the horizon.

“Are you feeling alight?” she asked, getting up and walking towards him. For a moment he didn’t respond, but then, almost as if it caused him a lot of effort, his attention returned to her.

“I’m sorry....” he stammered feeling his forehead and snapping his eyes shut. “It’s just... I suddenly got this really bad feeling about my brother.”

“Dylan?” Az asked.

“Yeah...”Kael answered, though he still looked like he was caught between his thoughts and their conversation. “Featherlight told us he had been injured, but it couldn’t have been that serious, I didn’t feel... Point is, something’s wrong with him now.”

“I’m sure he’s well taken care of,” Azonthus told him. “You said Tamith was with him; I’m sure he’s alright.”

“It’s not that,” Kael said looking sideways at the fire. “It’s just...” He seemed to think better of what he had been about to say and stood up. “I’m sending Featherlight ahead as soon as he returns. I hope he’s up for it. We’ll rest a few hours before starting off ourselves; we better move fast.”

Az knew that whatever Kael had seen was serious. Despite what others may have to say about it, she believed him.

"As soon as he's back, we need Allen and Featherlight to go find out what's going on. Until then, I'm going to sleep." The raptor curled up next to the fire and was quickly sound asleep.

It wasn't long before the skybax returned. Kael immediatly sent them on to the coast, demanding they find out what had happened.

He was about to turn around when he felt a hand lightly touch his shoulder. Before he could stop himself, he ducked downwards, spun and placed a tightened finger spread on the person’s larynx. Tamith almost fell over backwards as she stepped back, glaring angrily.

“What was that for?”

Gareth blushed.

“Sorry, force of habit. Try not to sneak up on me like that. I didn’t even hear you coming. Must be losing my touch.”

“You’re going to lose something else more important if you don’t watch it there. You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“I’ll try not to next time. I can’t promise anything though; old habits die hard and you had to be quick in the colonies.”

Tamith raised an eyebrow inquiringly “Colonies?”

“Oh! No, don’t worry about it. Long time ago. Anyway, why did you come sneaking into my room in the middle of the night?”

Tamith fingered her throat. “Not long enough, evidently. I wanted you to come up to Dylan’s room and talk to him. Goodness knows what’s gone wrong with him, but I’m worried about him. He almost threw himself out the window at one point and it’s taking all Liquidfire can do to keep him from running straight back to the Flats. I don’t know what it is, but something’s gone seriously wrong. I’ve never seen him like this before. I thought you might be able to help.”

Gareth sighed. “Okay, I’ll have a talk to him. I’m not going to get much sleep anyway with this racket going on.”

With that, he walked to the door and opened it, turning to Tamith as he left. “And, I’d appreciate it if you could figure out some sort of search party if you really think it’s that bad. We can’t rely on the skycore; they have more important things to do and the Chandarans are still clearing up after the storm. I think it’s going to be just us and maybe a few of the others if possible. Oh, and I might be able to find a little help around here somewhere if we need it.”

~~~~~

In the centre of the city, Paki’tar stood on the steps of the senate house of Chandara, gazing into the floodlit depths of the great fountain that was the heart of the city. Neptune stared haughtily down from his lofty position, gouts of brilliant water shooting from his upraised trident. The deinonychus was troubled. In his entire speakership, he had never received a group of Dolphinbacks before and now he received a message that Dylan had been discovered swimming in the ocean in the middle of the night, yelling that they were all going to die. He wondered briefly why this sort of thing always happened to him. First storms, then prophets. What next?

He sighed and walked back into the senate. The huge building was brilliantly lit, as always, by the small sunstone that sat in its Atlas cradle in the roof of the foyer. A few humans and dinosaurs were still visible in the balconies, either engaged in a book or meditating, though some were praying in the small booths near the roof. The senate house was not only the political heart of Chandara, but also the social, educational and religious one.

He felt completely exhausted after spending the day and most of the night alternately organizing aid for the town, aiding in the repairs himself or welcoming the new arrivals to his city. Paki wandered back into his office and sat down on his couch, pulling a roll of parchment from under his desk as he did so. Producing a quill from the leather harness he usually wore, he began to write a quick letter to the authorities in Sauropolis, asking them for a few supplies needed for the repair of the sauropod barn and alerting them to the coming of another group of Dolphinbacks. That done, he got up, rubbed his eyes and promptly collapsed to the ground, wheezing gently in his sleep

It shouldn’t have come to as a surprise to him what had happened, such occurrences were common in his family, but it had. It had always been a toy to him more than anything else; nothing serious had come from it. Yes, it had come in extremely handy on several occasions and he had managed to save the life of someone dear to him because of it, but it had always come to him in a pacific way, not like it had happened earlier that night.

His head felt like it might split in two. He still didn’t know what to make of the visions he had seen, but he was sure they were true. Logically he was worried for the new arrivals, but what could he do? Yes, a group of them was here, yet the others weren’t. Had what he seen been regarding those here, or there? Or both? For some odd reason he felt the later was true. If he had just taken the time to train his mind to understand this better he might have...

Soft knocking on the door interrupted his thoughts and he felt something burn inside of him. He just wanted peace to think, was that too much to ask for? Grimacing, he made up his mind on what to do. If he couldn’t find peace here, then he’d go somewhere he could. He opened the door and walked past Gareth, who looked at him startled when he just walked past him and down the stairs. He felt a swift pang of guilt, after all, these people were just worried for him. However this wasn’t something he’d just talk about and there were many things he had to sort out with himself. He made his way around the shadows of the inn, making sure he wasn’t seen until he reached the back door and exited. He made his way into the barn sat down next to his partner. Karua noticed his presence and also his strange mood and nudge him comfortingly. Dylan rested his head on his partner’s side and smiled thinly. Karua offered his support, understanding his need to be alone. He closed his eyes thankfully and lost himself in the labyrinth of his mind. When he had put himself together, then he’d go and apologize for his strange behavior. For now, however, he’d focus on himself before he aided others.

Namir nudge Lucas’ head. He smiled weakly at the great cat and raised a hand to scratch the back of his head. His eyes narrowed on his arm. White.... He was pale as Death itself. Namir noticed his sudden change in mood and nudged him again, slightly more forcibly, as if urging him to survive.

“I’m working on it...” Lucas whispered, but even then he knew his chances of surviving another night as the one that had just passed where slim to none.

Already he could begin to feel a fever creep into his system, ready to shatter whatever defenses his body might have left. He closed his eyes a moment, enjoying the warm rays the rising sun was sending his way. Cold as he was, he knew this blessing would soon become a burden as his inability to move would not allow him to seek shelter in the nearby trees when the heat of the day reached its peak. He smiled at the cruel irony of his situation. He had survived a shipwreck only to be attacked by a shipmate; he had lived through the night just to have to face the day that might prove to be even more merciless than the cold dark. His pain began to slowly melt into numbness as the full weight of the ordeal began to fall on his shoulders and he grew suddenly tired. Perhaps he should rest now, before the beating sun inhibited such luxury.

“Some things never change,” he said his partner. Highwing turned his head understandingly, then announced their arrival to shore.

Up ahead, Allen could spy a blue horizon that was the ocean. Now, in full daylight, finding a small camp and a group of people would be a lot easier than it had been at night. He nudged his partner to follow the shoreline. Featherlight had also volunteered to aid the search, but he was just a dark speck to their right as the little flier alos surveyed the surface.

It took another hour, but he finally spotted what looked like the remnants of a camp. Highwind circled lower for his rider to get a better view. Allen furrowed his brow in confusion. Something was wrong with the camp. There seemed to be no activity whatsoever, despite the fact that it was almost noon. Not only that, but he could spot only two people... Where had the rest gone? From what he understood, this camp, if in fact these were the people he was looking for, should be bursting with activity. Where were the habitat partners and the rest of the people that there should have been here? He quickly decided to fly lower to make sure he had found the right camp.

His confusion turned to horror as Highwind lost altitude. Both humans below him were simply lying on the ground as if lifeless, despite the fact that the arrival of a skybax rider always caused spurs of activity.

“Land,” Allen told his mount and, the moment they touched down, jumped from the saddle and dashed to the camp. He had almost reached the human nearest to him when an orange shadow intercepted his path. He jumped back, startled at the appearance of the saber-like cat.

“Nice kitty,” he murmured, taking a cautious step backwards. The tiger fixed his yellow eyes on him like hunter on prey as every hair on his back rose, making him seem twice his size. Allen risked a look behind the cat and saw that he could spy light breathing coming from one of the two men there. He seemed very badly wounded and in need of immediate aid. A low growl made him focus his attention once more on more immediate danger. The tiger seemed to have absolutely no intention of letting him approach, and Allen has beginning to suspect it might no let him leave either.

“Please... I’m only trying to help!” he said in frustration. The big cat paused in his approach for a second before lowering his head once again and preparing to pounce. Allen didn’t need more motivation than looking at the bared fangs and claws of the powerful animal to realize he would get no where with this. Slowly, and never taking his eyes off the tiger, he began to move backwards. Almost as if he had crossed the imaginary line of the cats territory, the tiger stopped following him after a few meters, making it obvious he wasn’t going to hunt him, just prevent him from passing to where the two humans were.

The blonde skybax rider paced back towards his partner and checked his saddle pack. He glanced back towards the wounded humans and realized he didn’t have to medicine or materials to aid them much either. Cursing himself for his lack of vision, he pondered on what to do. The tiger wasn’t letting him get close, and he wouldn’t help the travelers by getting himself killed in the process. It didn’t take long for him to reach a decision. He’d fly back towards the others from Waterfall City and get Kael to come. Highwind might just let the other human ride him. Heck, if anyone else could ride his mount, it was Kael. His friend had always been the better healer of them and, by the looks of it, those humans were going to need all the help they could get. Kael might even figure out a way to get past the big cat! He climbed back on his mount and motioned the directions. With any luck, this trip would take him a few hours. It’d take Kael a few hours to get back, so if the wind was with him, he’d arrive at nightfall or shortly after. Allen nodded. So be it. Now all that was left to do was pray that these people could hang on long enough for him to return.

[Top] [Back] [Next]