Part V: Countdown until Dawn
As the night settled down upon the Feral Forest, familiar sights and sounds began to take place. The crickets began to chirp, or whatever other insects that made their residence in the trees and plants bellow were. Wingtail parents quietly ushered their offspring into the safety of their nests high above in the canopy of the trees. As the Great Circle set once more and shifted its gaze away from the known world the hustle of the twilight began to fade until nothing but darkness and silence remained. Silence of course with the exception of Eybron’s tapping feet.
The white wingtail had been waiting… and not just for Star. The council of elders had a strange schedule that often kept them busy for days at a time taking care of various matters within the forest. Being as old as they were routine was everything and even with all the events that had aspired to his favour over the past week, they had refused to meet with him until all else was as it should be. It made him angry to be subjugated to their will like this… but such was how things worked. All that really mattered was that no matter what he did they were always on his side – as the hatchlings say, a good survivor knows how to run… but a great survivor knows the sharptooth.
Sharpteeth… their very existence in the world disgusted him, and apart from his desires with Star he could think of no better pursuit then to wipe them off the face of the earth. The wingtails around him pretended to be as tough and clever as he was, while the hatchlings idolized him as a role model for when they grew up… but none of them could ever possibly know what he had been through. It was one of the reasons he hated being around children – their cries of joy and laughter only reminded him how ignorant they were and how fast it could and would end. Sometimes, when no one else was around, he heard their dying screams once again…
“Is everything alright my lord?” inquired Barrau, who had roosted next to him while they waited for entrance into the elders’ tree.
He stopped tapping his feet and turned slowly to face his aide, who recoiled slightly at his gaze.
“How long until the elders said they would return?” countered Eybron as he returned to facing forward and tapped his foot.
“Precisely at great circle down my lord… Cinceel has been gone three days negotiating with the jungle runners regarding the disappearance of more eggs…”
Eybron snorted. ëNegotiations’ with the jungle runners usually resulted in a mud slinging war of threats and counter threats, followed by a tussle or enraged departure. It was why Cinceel was chosen to do it – it was her specialty.
“And in addition to this your father has been –”
“You will not refer him as my father under any circumstance… am I clear?” interrupted Eybron harshly.
“As you wish,” Barrau relented.
It would appear as though the two of them had issues… issues that he as a servant couldn’t possibly understand. Not that he wanted to, as it wasn’t his duty. A few minutes of silence passed as the two wingtails waited for their admittance into the elders’ tree… and it just seemed to drag on and on. Finally the attendant poked his head out of the leaves.
“The elder’s council will see you know.”
“Finally,” growled Eybron as he pushed his way through the brush, Barrau close in tow.
…
The gathered elder wingtails were of course completely silent as Eybron and his faithful aide entered the canopy with purpose, and settled down in the lower branches.
“Good evening, my son,” extended Tenebron, who was in his usual position as head of the council.
Eybron only responded with a low growl, silencing his father.
“I trust your quest has been fruitful…” started Cinceel with a touch of sarcasm, “otherwise you would not have dared see us at such a late hour.”
Try as she could, the wingtail couldn’t stop the yawn and covered her mouth with her wing as she did so.
“Indeed,” answered Eybron with confidence, “I have with me the Occular, as you requested.”
With a small ring, the white wingtail withdrew the clear lens from inside his wing and slowly set it down inside the narrow beam of moonlight that lit up the centre stump of the roomy chamber. The edged surface was so perfectly shaped it reflected the light upwards in all directions illuminating the looks of wonder covering the faces of the gathered elders.
“You have done well young Eybron… we knew we could count on you,” praised the eldest male of the group.
“Good show,” added a younger male elder, who rarely spoke at all.
“I’m actually impressed,” declared Cinceel who crossed her wings and puffed up her chest, “but where is the other we assigned this task too… Glide was his name wasn’t it?”
The others were wondering that as well and looked to Eybron for the answer.
“He is… spending some quality time with his family. I shall be sure to pass this on to him as well,” responded the white wingtail.
“Humph,” snorted Cinceel, “and what of Sky’s fate… is he dead as we demanded?”
There was a whoosh of gasps from the others.
“We never demanded such a thing!” blared out the younger male elder.
“Of all the preposterousness…” mumbled another female elder.
“Sky is a traitor, a thief and an eternal stain on our kind… if I wasn’t the one to declare it then you all were implicating it,” snarled Cinceel.
“Enough!” shouted Tenebron, “our discussions on this subject are not for this time Cinceel.”
“Is Sky dead, or is he not?” demanded Cinceel of Eybron as she leaned forward ignoring the statements of Tenebron.
“Be silent Cinceel or so help me!” hollered Tenebron.
The female elder turned and hissed at him, triggering a maze of shouts and gasps from the rest of the nine councillors.
“Stop this… both of you!” interrupted the oldest male elder, who seemed to hold enough power to stay the shouting match and stop it from degrading into violence, “You should be ashamed… all of you… now is not the time and place for our disagreements. A serious matter is at hand and you are to listen to and trust the will of our current leader – of which Tenebron is so.”
The answer was met with mumbles of agreement.
“Alright,” started Tenebron, “Eybron, my son, is the one who is the cause of this mess now deceased?”
“No,” answered Eybron, “but I have reason to believe that that should be our goal.”
“And what would this reason be?” asked Tenebron uncomfortably.
Eybron paused for a moment, to work out a way to best present his answer.
“I have discovered that Sky may be in league with the sharpteeth… in league with Tyron.”
Whether the fact was true or not it did not matter… it got the exact reaction Eybron had desired. Suddenly, the death of Sky seemed like a much more appealing option to him. With Sky dead, not only could he get vengeance for his theft of the Occular, but that would ensure Star was a completely free female – at least until he claimed her. Eybron relished the thought.
“You see Tenebron… your indecisiveness on this whole matter has caused this,” snarled Cinceel, “If I was the head of the council, I would have dealt with this swiftly and mercilessly as it should have been done long ago.”
And once more the elders started arguing. Such dis-unity wasn’t pleasing to Eybron, who simply sighed and rolled his eyes. At last he couldn’t take it and shouted.
“Give the task to me, and Sky will be dead within a single day.”
The elders all stopped what they were saying and turned in his direction.
“One day…” repeated Tenebron with disbelieve, “son you can’t be serious.”
In response Eybron laughed. It was a sound that none of those gathered had ever heard before – and it was only the second time in his life he had done so.
“Are you questioning my dignity?” spat Eybron towards his father, “I can guarantee that I will kill Sky within a single day… tomorrow in fact.”
Eybron was dead serious, and nobody else in the canopy was about to question him. Sensing the fish was in his mouth, the white wingtail took a verbal step back.
“That is with your permission of course.”
There were worried glances about the gathered elders, but not because of fear. When Eybron laughed about something, it meant that someone somewhere was going to get hurt and get hurt badly.
“By all means, do what you have to do,” stated Cinceel after a long pause.
Eybron smiled.
“In fact… you all can come and watch me.”
“But… how?” asked the oldest male who looked shaken at Eybron’s sudden delicious confidence.
“You will need to wake up really early I’m afraid,” said Eybron as he checked his nails casually, “say at… oh… the very break of dawn.”
…
“If I must ask my lord, how do you plan to do it so quickly?” asked Barrau as the two wingtails flew home from the meeting.
It had all gone so well that Eybron felt the need to celebrate. Perhaps he could convince Star to…
“You will see… along with everyone else,” the white wingtail said with a bit of annoyance.
Barrau knew that now his master did not want to be asked questions – perhaps he himself did not know what he had promised. Something told him though that this was not the case, for Eybron was just too sure for this to be false.
“There is something I would like you to do for me Barrau before you rest tonight,” continued the villainous wingtail.
“What is it my lord?”
“I want you to get me one of the children out of the hole… they will be important for what I have planned for tomorrow.”
“As you wish,” obeyed Barrau as he swerved off into the night towards the Abyssal Caverns.
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The Verdant Valley was so vibrant, so alive that Ali didn’t know where to start. Compared to the other places they had visited in their travels, or indeed the places her herd had visited over the past couple seasons it was almost what she would consider ëcrowded’. There were different types of dinosaurs everywhere from longnecks to spiketails to threehorns. Since there was a lot of food to go around, they all lived together in harmony just like the Great Valley.
The young female longneck spent the morning after their arrival trying to make new friends, or just find out more about where they were. Strangely, nobody seemed to have any time for her.
“Hey… get out of my way,” pushed one male longneck about her age as he shoved by her.
How rude… if it wasn’t for the complete paradise of the location she would have been on her way out already. About lunch time she encountered Petrie, who was feasting on a bushel of sweet bubbles he’d picked out earlier.
“Hey Petrie, this is such a lovely valley isn’t it?” she commented, unsure of what else to say since she had never really spoken to the flyer too much.
“It nice but… other flyers so busy and mean,” responded Petrie with a sigh.
“Yeah, it’s the same thing with the longnecks,” said Ali with distain, “I wish I knew what everyone was so rushed about.”
Petrie shrugged.
“Just the way it is, me guess.”
Another thought hit Ali, and she decided to change the subject.
“Say Petrie, I was wondering if you could help me with something.”
The flyer stopped eating, and started listening. Ali continued with her thought.
“See… I want to get Sky something for his Star Day, but I don’t know what you flyers really like…” she said nervously as if unsure how to word the question.
Petrie laughed.
“Oh that easy, just get him something really really shiny!” he exclaimed, flapping his wings in emphasis.
“Really, it’s that simple?” asked Ali timidly.
Petrie had to think about it for a second.
“Sky like shiny things right? He carry that shiny rock under wing in case he want to look at it.”
“Yeah I guess your right,” admitted Ali, “I’ll find him the biggest, shiniest stone he could ever look at.”
And on that note Ali left on her quest to find Sky’s Star Day present, leaving Petrie alone amongst the branches.
“Hmm, I wonder where Sky is?” thought Petrie.
Most people did not know that Petrie actually thought rationally, but when it came to speaking his mind it always came out a bit garbled. His mom knew right away because her father had a similar problem until he was much older. It was a family affliction, and it tended to affect the male side once every second generation.
Having nothing else better to do, the small flyer decided to spend his time seeking out Sky, who had become somewhat of a mentor to him. Having another big flyer around just like his uncle Pterano was rubbing off on him and he was starting to be less and less afraid. Maybe one day Sky would take him through the dreaded sky puffies so he didn’t have to face his fears alone.
….
It took Petrie an hour and half to find Sky, but when he did the blue wingtail was in deep conversation with another, strange flyer that he had never seen before far away from the rest of the group. Being polite, the small flyer waited until the talk was over before taking off and eventually landing next to Sky.
“Wow this nice valley… I glad we stop here,” Petrie commented.
Sky was surprised by his sudden landing, and jumped back on the branch away from Petrie. With a sudden turn in the small flyer’s direction Sky growled with displeasure.
“Oh, did me scare you?” asked Petrie apologetically, “me sorry…”
“How long have you been here, how much did you hear?” asked Sky aggressively.
“Nothing, me wait until you done with strange flyer… who he anyway?”
“That’s none of your business!” shot Sky, “you shouldn’t be here.”
Petrie was shocked, the blue wingtail was always so calm and considerate and he had never treated him this way before. He must have done something to make his friend angry with him.
“Me do wrong again,” sobbed Petrie, “me so sorry!”
Sky sighed as Petrie looked on the verge of tears. He had really hoped it would be easier to leave them here so he could continue on with his task, but it would seem that events were catching up with him. The little flyer couldn’t ever know what he had just flew in on – and Sky could only hope that he hadn’t heard what had been said.
“I will be leaving now,” the blue wingtail proclaimed as he turned away, “and you and your friends cannot follow me – this journey is mine alone, you shouldn’t have come.”
Petrie started crying.
“But why… why you do this?”
Sky remained with his back turned to Petrie, so that the young flyer couldn’t see the enormous look of guilt on his face. He had actually become quite fond of the children and enjoyed their company, but at this point bringing them any further would endanger their lives. This was his responsibility, and he couldn’t bear the thought of them all going down with him. Maybe someday Littlefoot and his friends would understand that what he was doing was out of love, but now he had to make sure they didn’t follow him and the only way to do that was through a false regrettable betrayal.
“I didn’t ask for you to come with me,” Sky shouted as he rounded on Petrie, “It wasn’t my wish for you to risk your lives going wherever I led you… this has gone far enough!”
Sky pointed aggressively back into the center of the valley.
“Go back to your friends where you will be safe, and don’t follow me or I will see to it you will never fly again.”
Sobbing lightly, Petrie took to the air and did as he was told. In a few moments he was gone, leaving Sky all alone. With a deep flap of his wings the wingtail took off and glided towards the northern edge of the crater-like basin that housed the Verdant Valley. As he reached the edge of the green paradise he made a soft landing on the cliff face and looked back, brooding over his decision to leave the children behind.
They would be safe here, Sky reasoned, so they didn’t need him anymore. Unfortunately that didn’t make the goodbye any easier, and as he took one final glance at the setting sun he wiped a single tear away before leaving into the depths of the dark desert.
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