Thermala 6

Kaak said goodbye to Altanden in Powdertop, climbing down from the Rookery there and setting out on the cold trail north. He was wearing a jacket of furs over his warm flying pants and his regular, long-sleeved flying shirt with the red apprentice badge visible on the side.

The first few houses he passed in the few days that followed weren't surprised to see him there. As he climbed higher towards Thermala, the air began to slow him down and when he finally came over a hump in the wide track and saw the lights of the city below him in the darkness, he breathed a sigh of relief and didn't bother to pull out his tent for the night, but pressed on down the hill instead.

He missed the sight of the large carnivore, though he was slowly gaining on it, walking a good clip in the darkness until they reached a flat sheet of ice and he saw the enormous being in front of him. Kaak was confused for a minute, unaware of there being such a large saurian so obviously away from home up here, but he shook his misgiving off when he saw the beast limping so badly.

A quick mental debate as to the wisdom of revealing his presence was settled as he remembered his father's insistence on always living the Code, and he raised his voice in a shout. "Good evening, there!" he called, slowing down carefully and edging around the tyrannosaur, careful of his tail. "Are you all right?"

Trex-rage started to limp off course disastrously. No matter how he tried, he just didn't have any energy to stay on course. He was thankful to his grand-rexes that he could even walk at all. He was just about to give out when he heard small noises from behind him. He tensed up and turned abruptly, ready to defend himself. That was a mistake. He became off balance and put all his weight on his injured leg. With a roar of pain and frustration he came crashing to the ground. He tried getting up again but it was useless. He could not go any farther. He looked at the last stretch of ground to cover to the town. No more than 200 yards away.... but it was useless now. Then he remembered the sound. He looked at the direction the sound came from and tensed up again; ready to lash out at anything moving. Then he saw a human running towards him. He relaxed somewhat and waited for the human to come closer. After all, he came here in the first place to get help from them...

Kaak felt the great carnivore relax with the familiarity of one long accustomed to working with saurians. He dropped his backpack in the snow and walked forward so the tyrannosaur could see him without difficulty.

"My name is Kaak," he said, in the blanket version of saurian with as much of a theropod twist as he could manage. He was never the linguist, but tried to put as much of a soothing tone into his voice as he could, slowly stepping toward the rex's leg. "Did you twist it? It doesn't look broken, but you should never have let yourself walk so far on it without help... and you are a long way from home."

Trex-rage shot him a look that indicated the great carnivore had caught the chastising tone, but Kaak ignored him and tried to remember what his mother had told him about legs. "Relax, buddy. The village is close, and you can get warm somewhere in one of the barns, with healers to tend you. Can you really not walk, or do you think you can make it?"

As he spoke the gentle words, he stepped forward and slowly put a hand on the tyrannosaur's flank, running his hand down the scaled leg and feeling the tensed, bruised and swollen muscles. "I don't know much about you, but I have it on good authority that whenever something's this out of shape, there's a problem." Kaak looked up at the rex, his face creased in a frown.

"So tell me, shall I go there," he gestured to the village. "Or shall we go together? I can get help, though it may be mastodons to help support you in the last few meters..."

Trex-rage looked at Kaak. He understood everything he said and knew that this was a descent human if any to trust. With a deep breath he prepared to speak the human's language best he could. This is going hurt my throat but I must, he thought.

" Thaaannnkuuuii..foor oar elllp. Iiiii...mmmussssssssst gett ttooooo nyy...estation...." Trex-rage said the best he could. Kaak seemed taken aback by Trex-rage's sudden ability to speak in the human language.

"How do you know how to speak human?" Kaak asked, amazed.

"Pllleeeeasssssee, Iiii nussst gettt ttooooo theee villlaagge...."

"Oh, of course. I'll be right back with a few mastodons to carry you in. Just stay put, ok." Kaak said.

"Uuurrrrrryyy..." Trex-rage replied. With that, Kaak set off for Thermala.

His pack lay in the snow where it had been dropped, and the apprentice rider found the packed down snow of the track heading into Thermala, breaking into an even, steady jog towards the city.

It was already dark, the air frosty and biting at his lungs, but he jogged into the city streets and found a large building, an inn by the looks of it, sitting with the lights on inside and a warm, roaring fire. With his thoughts on the tyrannosaur, he stepped up to the porch and opened the door, stepping into the warm room.

He looked around, taking in the various dinosaurs and humans, and other creatures, all enjoying the evening. Lost, he stood there, obviously wondering what to do next, and unable to find anyone who looked like they were in charge. Now for someone to spot him...

"Who's that?" Kilo said lazily. Everyone was dropping off to sleep. The two raptors that had joined them, one in human hatchling's clothes were already fast asleep saving energy for the journey. These raptors have an energy sapping system, thought Kilo, who could walk for miles without tiring.

Quickstride, the young Gallimimus, looked to where Kilo was staring placidly. "He looks in trouble," she said worriedly, snapping up the attention of the other dozing-off saurians and humans.

Ajzik got up to her feet, helping Mathaira up too, as Kilo stared the long awkward process in standing himself. Blue Eyes and Highsoar shuffled out the way just in time to miss a blow from his tail. Klaw wasn't so lucky. With a THWAP, Kilo's tail that had just swung lazily with no power behind it went straight into Klaw. Mathaira covered her eyes not wanting to see the effects, when she finally re-opened them she saw Klaw standing quite happily, in one of his clawed hands was the tip of Kilo's tail. He'd caught it!

"Oh, I'm so sorry Klaw! This thing swings like you wouldn't know.. Good catch though," Kilo apologized finally stood up.

Klaw nodded, ecstatic to have done something good. "Yeww avee very armoorrr tale. It do lot of bad iff Klaw adnot caught," Klaw laughed a peculiar hooting sound and Kilo joined in with his gurgling chuckle.

No one else had noticed the soaking traveler who was still looking about blankly, amazed at the amount of creatures in the inn. Even Mack, Kilo's human friend and headwaiter of the bar, was too busy to notice. Swiftly the group headed towards the man. Quickstride, in the lead, easily got there first, followed by Mathaira and Ajzik. By the time Kilo arrived, the situation had been assessed. Mathaira was already wrapping a warm fur over the man who, as Kilo could see, was quite young.

"Kilo, can you lift a Tyrannosaur?" Quickstride asked him nervously.

"I can give it a go, probably not on my own though. How big?"

Full grown," Ajzik replied.

"I can elp," Klaw added

"Still Klaw, I don't think we'll be enough. We'd need ropes too."

"I can get ropes," Blue Eyes spoke up. "I passed a ropey-looking store on my way here." Quickstride nodded and the smaller Troodon, amour clinking, dashed off out the Inn.

"Mastodons," Mathaira said.

Highsoar, who was getting increasingly more uncomfortable under a roof, looked at her quizzically.

"We need mammoths to help pull," the young man, at this statement, nodded happily, he'd be waiting for someone to talk human, not realizing that the saurians all knew it well anyway.

Suddenly a tall, African looking man spoke up from behind the bar. "Kilo, there's a place down the road that's home to a friend of mine and her two mammoth friends." It was Kilo's friend Mack.

"Where?" Ajzik replied knowing this area well. Mack was soon babbling away to the Smilodon about directions.

"I'll go with Ajzik and get these mammoths, you four better start going. Highsoar it might be best if you flew about and kept a pterosaur eye view on our movements, help Blue Eyes to find us," Mathaira said.

"I was gonna say that," Quickstride said laughing.

"Would you like a ride my friend? You look exhausted," Kilo said to the young man in human tongue. He nodded and gratefully climbed aboard Kilo seating himself between two shoulder plates. His feet came down beside Kilo's head.

In a flash the party was gone. All that remained in the Inn was a big flat piece of fur that they had flattened and two sleeping raptors.

Highsoar whistled with joy as she sailed up high into the crisp night air. Mathaira was seated on Ajzik's broad back as she bounded away down the street. Quickstride had sped ahead with the man. The young man had decided that a ride on a Gallimimus was a lot comfier and quicker than trying to not fall off on a lumbering Kilo. Klaw, who was fast enough to keep up with the Gallie, decided he'd stay and keep Kilo company. Kilo lumbered at his fastest pace; he looked the equivalent to a running cow. Still quite fast but not graceful. Klaw kept up with ease. They followed Quickstride's footprints.

A black boulder in the distance soon became larger and started to breathe, as they found themselves face to face with a Tyrannosaurus. Surprisingly Kilo wasn't nervous at all. He knew full well that anything that wanted to take a piece out of him had to ambush him to even get close to getting at him. He knew his size strength and amour and he used it to his advantage.

A glowing yellow eye looked at him; this eye knew the Stegosaur's game too and they shared the joke. Quickstride and the man were quickly assessing the tyrannosaurs situation as Blue Eyes pelted up to them, sides heaving he dropped roll upon roll of rope in front of Klaw.

"Harness. Anyone know how to make a harness?" Blue Eyes asked. The man smiled and came over grabbing a rope in one hand he got to work on Kilo constructing a strong harness that sat in all the right places to make sure it wasn't going to hurt Kilo. Kilo could tell by the mans soothing words and touch that he was a dinosaurs kind of human.

Blue Eyes couldn't help but shiver, in the cold his armor felt like sharp needles poking into his skin. He paced impatiently as the human worked on the harness and attached it to Kilo. His tail waved back and forth slowly, keeping his balance. Where he could he helped, but for the most part he was useless to the humans and saurians. His injury prevented him from being able to help pull and his constant shivering made it very difficult to help with the harness.

Quickstride was worried. Concerned though she was for the tyrannosaur, she was still thinking on the importance of reaching Blackfeather as soon as possible in order to evacuate the imperiled village. She needed to start off in the morning, but was too experienced to hazard doing so after a hard day's climb to Thermala and no sleep in between. She surveyed the scene before her. The only one capable of tying reliable knots was the human, with his opposable thumbs. Diligent though he was, the Troodon warrior was having a hard time of it and despite his enthusiasm to help Klaw was only complicating things by getting in the way and inadvertently fraying the ropes with his claws. The only one who could pull was Kilo. Quickstride could feel the ground quake rhythmically beneath her feet, and a moment later Highsoar swooped from the darkness announcing the impending arrival of Mathaira, Ajzik, and the mastodons. Quickstride decided now was the time to take charge.

"All right, there are more people here than we need," she announced. "Klaw, knight, I want you to come back with me to the inn, we're only in the way. Mathaira will be here short- correction, Mathaira IS here-" for the mastodon team had arrived on the scene- "to help tie the knots for the harnesses, and the mastodons can pull. Ajzik can stay as a runner for supplies, and Highsoar as a messenger and aerial observer for the time being." Klaw and Blue Eyes protested to being pulled away from the action. Quickstride sympathized with them greatly, but knew it was in everyone's best interest that they depart. "The situation is under control," she said gently. "Our presence can only complicate things. Ajzik or Highsoar will come for us if we are needed. Right now, we will do more good if we rest up for the journey we have ahead of us tomorrow. Now come." With one final longing glance at the activity surrounding the fallen tyrannosaur, and the sad creature itself, the reluctant trio set off into the night to go back to the inn.

"Heave!" Mathaira and Kaak both shouted in Mammalian tongue. Kilo lunged into his harness, feeling it pull tight around his forearms and chest. He wasn't pulling; he was pushing. Kilo had to hand it to the mastodons though; they had far more muscle and size than he and were pulling more successfully too. Kilo strained again. In the distance he could see the faint figures of the three departing friends. His tail lashed furiously with momentum, as if powering him to move forward. Once or twice Mathaira feared he'd slash through the ropes. The big Tyrannosaur groaned behind them as Kaak and Mathaira hurriedly placed furs under the giant's body to stop snow burn. Ajzik took over the role of encouraging the three big herbivores as slowly, but surely, they ploughed through the snow and headed towards the village.

The sky was just paleing when finally the party arrived into the village. Kaak hurriedly slashed away harnesses so the exhausted herbivores could drink. Kilo bound over, shaking the ground, to the nearest water trough. There, he took a long, satisfying drink, accompanied by two trunks.

The Tyrannosaur, who was equally exhausted and ill, lay in the town center. Helpers of all kinds came to his aid and fussed around him. Observers, too, appeared and for the first time, lay eyes upon a big Rainy Basin inhabitant.

Kilo panted, watching as Mathaira and Ajzik approached him. They looked as tired as he was, movements very labored.

"To the Inn," Kilo said in his best heroic voice, making the two laugh. They wandered off, Kilo pausing to say great thanks to the two mastodons who had already been thanked many a time by everyone.

The warm Inn air swept over Kilo as he entered the familiar setting once more. He headed swiftly over to the small group composed of Quickstride, Blue Eyes, the raptors and Klaw. Even as they spoke, a bedraggled Skybax shuffled into the Inn again; it was Highsoar. Kilo went and lay down next to the group. He could feel Ajzik's warm, furry body by his chest and Mathaira near too as his eyelids drooped. His last vision though was of a hyped up raptor in children's clothes asking Quickstride readily when they'd leave. Kilo let out a long sigh and drifted into a deep sleep.

TREX-rage opened his eyes to take in his surroundings. He already knew that he was in a barn of some sort when he was listening to the sentiments that came in and out while he was asleep. As he opened his eyes, he also took a good long breathe of air through his nostrils and took in the smell around him. As he smelled, he could tell that he was in a barn cautiously surrounded by some mammoths. They all kept their distance, and he was happy for it. He lifted his 8-ton bulk off the floor and looked out the barn window, 20 feet up. He carefully tested his legs to see if they were okay. He felt a slight pain in his left leg but it wasn't much. He turned towards the mammoths and wondered how he should communicate with them. Then he thought to go outside and see exactly where he was. He remembered the humans and dinosaurs that helped him into town. He got a good look at a Stegosaurus before he went unconscious. Now he nudged the great pine doors open and stepped outside...

Kaak could tell his group was exhausted, so he followed them back into the inn and ordered dinner, eating in the corner near the fire while the group disappeared somewhere to sleep.

The apprentice rider took the time alone to realize his backpack had been left behind, and he went out to fetch it, returning to the inn a good half hour later to spill his gear out onto the hearth, sorting it as dawn came. Again, he couldn't sleep, but then he heard noises and two of the group were walking downstairs, perhaps the first of the rest.

Kaak blinked at the skybax, thinking for a moment he saw Altanden, but then he realized the skybax was older, with different coloring. The apprentice turned, sitting cross-legged in front of the fire, and tucked his water bottle back into his pack.

"Good morning," he greeted them. "Though it's almost afternoon now. Thank you for your help last night."

Eaglefeather sniffed the wind for the usual signs of the Hunter -- the pale smell of decomposition and death -- but found none. He was free for the moment to enjoy the beach. He lowered his great muzzle from the wind, thinking of how, even now, she guarded him, if he was ready for her warnings.

His scars ached, as if telling him something, and he remembered how long it had been his body had been free of the torment of the giant's bullets, how good it had felt to finally be rid of their poison. He hoped to distract himself from the aching scars now, to soothe them in the salt waters of the kind ocean.

It was then he found the boy. He didn't find him, really, it was much more like the boy had found him, in some strange sense of prescience. The dolphinback human, with white, tender skin and blonde hair, had been walking along the beach when maybe his weariness fell him here. The boy, asleep and drenched on the shore, had dozed off when he fell, showing no mind over matter, only vulnerability and weakness. The worried Raptor cursed under his breath, thinking of what could've happened if the Giants found him. Eaglefeather quickly took up the boy's collar in his mouth to drag him to the brush where the sun wouldn't burn.

At that moment, when the saurian's well intentioned, but cold, blue snout touched the boy, it awoke him with a start, shouting and screaming. The raptor stood back in amazement -- he had meant to help the poor dolphinback, but the child must have been having nightmares! Eaglefeather extended a long-clawed palm, one he admitted might have been a somewhat scary first-time for a dolphinback child's initiation, in a sign of the traditional Dinotopian way the raptor prince-in-exile was only lately getting used to. The boy had a look like he might have run, or picked up a rock; it was plain on his face he felt that desperately alone. But the old raptor prince had learned not to retract his vulnerable palm once it had been offered, so he simply held it there. And he took the initiative.

"Suyok ssurowa, tiyo-ae," Eaglefeather repeated a blessing in his own ancient language. It meant, stay your heart, nestling. And somehow, the boy understood. He gazed at the saurian, amazed at his attempt to communicate (yes, the boy was just now getting it), and raised his hand and tried to repeat the words. The raptor laughed in his rumbling way, and decided to use a line he had learned from a strange man at a farm or something nearby.

"Weilcome, wee laddie," and with that, he joined his hand to the blistered, wounded hand of an orphan named Gabriel.

As Eaglefeather told the young man, an unexpected and surprisingly smart child, about the Giants that had routed his family in the last battles of his dynasty, the boy took on a strange expression. All of the sudden, one day, when the raptor prince was mentioning the beauty of the palace of his childhood, the boy sat up like a rocket and howled. By reflex, Eaglefeather crouched at the sound, thinking something had hurt the boy, and he readied himself with the warrior rites of the ancients, hoping it wasn't a very smart opponent. The boy stopped, and told him that whatever it was was gone. When he asked the boy what it was that spooked him so, Gabriel answered simply, "Something put a shadow over the moon's light, so I howled till it was afraid and left." Eaglefeather was beginning to think the boy had either swallowed too much ocean on the dolphin's back, or caught too much sun on the shore. That was the last time he questioned Gabriel though, because then, it was Gabriel's turn to tell his story.

He had made up a story quickly when the raptor woke him up, saying that he was an orphan boy, an outcast, and a cabin boy aboard a pirate vessel that crashed. But Gabe had been infected by the Dinotopian Code, in small ways, and had decided to take up honesty, so that he could have a real friend in Eaglefeather.

This boy was no stranger to giants. In his youth, he told his companion, he had assassinated one, and that was why he was so afraid of shadows.

"There's going to be an explosion on this island. Do you want to know why? because it's the last island on earth where people and saurians, like you and me, can be best friends. Do you know why they call it Dinotopia?"

And in truth, the raptor, with all his royal blood, didn't know, because this was not his kingdom, or the place he had been born. Such knowledge hadn't been given to him. But Gabriel knew.

"I have a secret to tell you, Eaglefeather. In as much as you have true royal blood running through your veins, and even in your sleep you mumble in your language of the four winds, I know why you can't ever reclaim what your family lost."

Eaglefeather was dumbfounded. He had been thrown out for his differences, his beliefs, his bloodline, all his life, but never had a child like this talked down their nose at him. He was tempted to be infuriated, yet something in the boy's eyes told him to listen. "Do you know why I was afraid of you when you touched me? What woke me up from my nightmare? Your scar had the feeling of the same poison that runs through my veins. Not only that, but I was raised all my life to hunt and kill saurians, innocent and beautiful people, like you. But when I woke up, I realized you were just like me, someone who had feelings and emotions raging inside of him that he didn't understand, something different when I needed it most -- a friend."

Eaglefeather could barely speak. He was overcome with the things this child said. Did he hear Gabriel right -- that he was one of them? Instantly, his feathers rose up and his blood screamed to him to slay this child of the giants where he stood. But he swung his tale in agitation, and reluctantly asked, "What is it that you think keeps me from reining like my closest family did -- with victory?"

Gabriel looked at him in a way that made him feel suddenly warm, all over. It was like nothing he'd ever felt before. It enchanted him, and entranced him, and made him feel sleepy. It even made him feel alert, in a very odd sense. And the next words that came from the boy's mouth punctured any doubt or premonitions that had told him to kill the boy.

"Eaglefeather, I apologize for not being honest with you, like you were with me, but I really did have to be sure. But if you are still lacking faith in my trustworthiness, I'll give you the best I can. I'll give you my side of history. All my life, yes, all 8 years of it, I've been enslaved by the Order of Mankind. All these years, I knew they were hiding something, but I wasn't sure just what. Then, one night, I rebelled against my father's commands and stole a look at the blueprints of his plans. It was that moment that I realized just how insidiously evil and dark the hearts of "Mankind" had become -- this machines sole purpose was to destroy life, not to create it.

"Eaglefeather, I was a prince, just like you. But when I saw those blueprints and got caught, it was as if my parents had never seen me, like I didn't even exist. They told me I'd dishonored them for the last time, and then they locked me up. They were the king and queen of the world, and they put their most trusted bodyguard between me and the way out. That was a mistake. Their most trusted bodyguard was dead in the morning.

"Now understand, I did not want this man dead. I didn't want to kill any of them. I just wanted to get out of that house, no matter what the cost. None was to great, and I can see that I was just in time.

"If what you say about receiving scars from bullets of pure poison is true, then you truly came from another island. Am I correct?"

Eaglefeather nodded; there had clearly never been such a thing as gunshot on this island, at least, not as far as he could tell. That of course, could have been because he had smelled none of the giants here. Anywhere where he couldn't smell giants had become like sacred ground to the forever-running raptor; it was places like these he could stop and take stock of what he had, and maybe find out if he would be ready to fight soon.

"Let me tell you an ancient story, one my parents told me when I was just a little boy in their lap. It's an evil story of pride and hatred, but I always thought it wasn't true. After seeing this place, I am beginning to believe that this is where it happened!"

"What? A war, a plague? the Giants?" Eaglefeather stamped his feet and swished his tail with excitement -- he felt like he was finally getting somewhere, getting closer to that moment when the four winds might turn and give him a sign to follow against the giants. His nose was telling him, the old scars throbbing with a strange warm glow.

The boy continued, and though he was young, he told the story with a commanding voice and the utmost respect for what he said. Eaglefeather wondered if he had learned that from his evil parents.

"There was a legend that in ancient days, the kingdom of my fathers was double-crossed by the people of a great city of the sea, a city that consisted mostly of an island. Those people rebelled against our rule, saying that they had found a sign that the favor of the gods was not with the Order of Mankind at that time, and that the priests and scribes of this city were going to find whatever secret my kingdom used to rule and free the world from it. It was said that, that city was our head library, and in the wisdom of the ancients, the hand of the gods was summoned to destroy the city. The machine they used evoked such power that it cast the citizens of the beautiful city as far from their beloved island-home as the eastern trade winds from the west, with the force of many beating wings, and the blood of what the ancients called 'rebellious hearts' cursed the land so that the city's secrets were lost forever. According to that legend, the rebellion of those people caused the entire kingdom to fall to a level of ashes compared to its former glory. The ancient rulers of my kingdom blamed it all on the rebellion of the city peoples, but I think the people just wanted to be free, and it was the elders fault that the 'hand of the gods' cursed them too. I never spoke of this to my parents, the king and queen, of course, because I knew they'd denounce me the moment I doubted the Old Order. You see, the Old Order had always loved what they called 'dragon fights,' but after this cataclysmic bombing of an innocent people, all the dragons disappeared, as if they had grown wings. As if freedom was as easy as the people of that city made it sound. But I think, after all these years, I finally found the secret the elders of the Order have been looking for, and after having found you, an exiled prince, hunted by the shocktroopers of my family that you call 'Giants', I can no longer consider all I've gone through mere coincidence!"

He could tell by the look in his eye, this boy was talking in earnest, and was telling the saurian everything he thought true and worthy mentioning. He was just a boy, after all, he shouldn't have had to feel he had something to hide. It was his parents that were the real problem.

On the legends, Eaglefeather was no scholar, not about the matters of Dinotopia, but he had heard a few things, so he nodded his head and pricked his feathers with interest. "Those people of that city never died, but were carried by dolphins to safety -- on these beaches! And if I'm correct, my father the king's trying to raise the lords of the World Beneath as his allies. The volcanic eruption is a cover-up, because they know they cannot beat the combined strength of the saurians and the refugees when we stand united! We must be the princes we were meant to be here and now if there is ever going to be hope for saurians or mankind living together in peace!"

Gabriel, now quivering, put his hand on the creatures' snout, in a gesture that vexed the great prince. "It was you, my brother, that taught me to say, with palm extended, Fly high, Breathe deep, but Seek peace. Would you die for that peace, the peace here on Dinotopia, as if they were friend and family? Would you die with me, Prince Warrior?"

Then was the moment Eaglefeather roared like never before, and it was a roar there has yet to be an equal of from any raptor, anywhere.

They say the Giants heard it and shivered.

Klaw was the first to awaken the next morning. Quickstride, whether out of fatigued forgetfulness or consideration for the other sleepers (even she couldn't remember, later) had not set her sunstone alarm (a device which measured time by the amount of sunlight, once set to the proper weather conditions) by the window, and so was still sound asleep. Curled next to her and buried under a large mammoths' wool blanket for warmth, he carefully rose to his feet, so silently that not a single of the room's occupants stirred even a little. Wrapping the large blanket about him for warmth (Quickstride said that underground volcanic activity kept Blackfeather a bit warmer than the surrounding area, but that didn't help him now) he crept to the door. While normally extremely shy among others, the blanket hid his bizarre form and gave him security. He looked back at the Gallimimus asleep on the rug. Quickstride was nice to him. He had always been wary of ornithomimids especially, after his own Struthiomimus tribe had ostracized him, but he sensed that Quickstride knew what it was like to be different, a feathered saurian in a land of scales. Of course, he thought, she at least has a place with others like her. He turned away. He wasn't going to be gone for very long, he was simply excited about all that had happened last night and all that was supposed to happen today, and wanted to explore a little. Plus, he could smell the musty odor of Tyrannosaurus nearby, meaning that the rex must have been brought into the city. How exciting! Draped in his blanket, Klaw stepped outside, blinking in the morning light.

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