Ruby In The Jungle:
Prologue:
Cloud beat his wings as he flew upon the dying winds of the twilight. Down below in the Great Valley things were settling down into the night routine, with mothers putting their babies to bed and the lesser flyers carrying out their day ending calls. Things were quiet and peaceful, just like they always were, and tonight there was not a cloud in the sky... at least not a white and puffy one anyway.
The dark blue wingtail tilted his wingtips slightly, and descended towards the place he was going on the outer edges of the valley. He knew that if his dad found out about this, he was probably going to be scolded but Cloud was willing to take the chance… he just had to know! Swirling in, the wingtail bolted his legs out and came in for a perfect landing just like his Uncle Glide had taught him to do. All around him was a bit of a clearing with trees sporadically arrayed throughout the area like scales on a water swimmer. In front lay the thing he had been looking for… Ruby’s nest.
The fastrunner was like a second mother to most of the other hatchlings, and early on Cloud had taken a liking to her for her unique personality and almost universal caring. Even though she wasn’t as good at remembering the details as she once was, the fact that Ruby had lived through some of the greatest adventures that any dinosaur could claim to was more then reason enough to listen… and tonight Cloud had need of her wisdom.
“Ruby… Ruby are you there?” inquired Cloud, putting a hand briefly to his mouth to call out.
He received no response.
“Oh well I guess she’s just not here,” stated Cloud to himself, “a bit odd though, since it’s so late at night. I wonder…”
Putting in a decent effort, Cloud rested his tongue on the roof of his mouth and did the best impression he could of Swiftwalker, her mate.
“I come,” Cloud imitated, and he couldn’t resist a chuckle at how accurate it was.
“Swifty!” announced Ruby as she stepped out of a bush a moderate distance away, “I’m so glad your back and safe. The eggs have been so restless I… hey!”
Adult Ruby dawned a look of annoyance and put her hands on her hips.
“Cloud, I don’t know many times I have to tell you that making me think you’re someone else is not very nice.”
“Sorry,” admitted Cloud, “but, that story you told us all today… I want to know more.”
Ruby approached the small wingtail, and smiled as she stood right next to him. She was almost double his height, and this reminded Cloud of why the other children liked her so much… she wasn’t utterly massive like the rest of their parents. Wayne often felt insecure by how his mom tended to boss him and his dad around, and couldn’t do anything about it because she was ten times his size. It was one of the things that brought the two of them together… the threehorn felt like he lived in his mom’s shadow… literally… while Cloud felt the same about his father thanks to the adventurous life Sky had lived prior to settling down in the Great Valley. At times it made him envious too… it would be exciting to have an adventure of his own, without his dad Sky telling him how to do everything or Uncle Glide breathing down his neck about eating right and getting up early to practise fighting.
“Well what would you like to know?” questioned Ruby good-heartedly, “I already talked about when Siak talked about her past life, as well as meeting up with Chomper and his parents. They were really really big too… a bit scary for little ones.”
“No it’s not that,” answered Cloud cautiously, “It’s just that I don’t understand how you became friends with the jungle runners so quickly… I mean from what I was told they are mean and stubborn, and they like to raid our nests sometimes.”
“Shhh!” pushed Ruby, putting a finger to her mouth. Satisfied that Swiftwalker wasn’t around to hear it, she levelled with him.
“They aren’t mean or stubborn or anything like that. They live their own way and sometimes it gets in the way of the wingtails, but that’s not bad. Here in the Great Valley it’s not nice to dwell on such things.”
“But they cause loads of problems,” reasoned Cloud, “even Swiftwalker is at odds with a lot of the Great Valley for trying to steal eggs and pick off hatchlings.”
Ruby sighed. With resentment of runners bred into wingtails like this, it was almost like there was no hope for extended peace between the two races. If Cloud, Sky’s really smart son, talked like this… the other winglings would probably think the same.
“I have a story,” confessed Ruby, “it’s not one I like to tell a lot but it really means a lot to me, and I hope it means a lot to you. It’s about how I came to like one of my jungle friends and eventually… mate… with him.”
Cloud smiled. He loved hearing stories of things past, and sometimes it even filled him with wonder when he heard about his mom and dad and how they acted a long time ago. It was strange to believe that Sky had been like him too once… after all his dad had been his dad forever.
“I’ll start just after Chomper, Thylo, Gentry, Siak and I first met the Jungle Runners. Back then I had just met Swifty, and we exchanged first impressions…”
