Hello,
At Pangaea's request I have 'remastered' the chapter to provide a bit more depth then was previously present. Note that the first part is the same, but the ending portion is significantly longer and more developed.
Please accept my apologies for not releasing the full and complete chapter, and grant me the fortune of a second review.
Also, a special thanks to Pangaea for offering the idea of 'Siak' whom is his OC.
Caustizer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part VI: A New Friend [Remastered Version]It was night time in the Feral Forest, and the leaves whispered with the song of dire events to come. The place had become near ghostly, as families refused to let their children out of sight and free flight was impeded by the older males who now patrolled the skies ensuring both safety and compliance with the elders’ rules. The only things that would occur now were hushed bedtime stories, the occasional snore, or the gentle rustling of the trees.
Despite the curfew, a certain group of wingtails gathered silently on a branch at the bottom of the Sonicron Hill. Star and the other two teachers had been given some time to meet prior to coming before the council of elders, as Eybron was the one they wanted to speak to first. The three wingtails had been instructed by royal guard to simply wait for the summons to come, so in the meantime they conversed quietly amongst themselves and discussed the reasons why they could possibly be wanted by the wingtail leaders.
“My guess is that we will be changing our curriculum…more to suit the vengeful mood of the rest of the adults,” insisted Thriess, a gray male wingtail that was a few inches smaller then usual.
“In my experience, you are likely correct,” added Syne a yellowish-green female who had an aura of confidence about her, “the elders have rarely seen fit to tamper with our methods like this, which leads me to believe there will be more blood between our race and the sharpteeth… you can count it.”
Star looked uncomfortable at the discussion.
“Well I think that whatever it is, we aren’t going to like it,” contributed the scarlet wingtail, though she was still deep in thought about the matter.
The fact that Eybron had been summoned too, and was now currently inside the Elders’ Tree receiving whatever message they had for him - a punishment if she was lucky – disturbed her. Whatever the white wingtail had done, there was no way his little stunt could have killed Sky. He was too smart to be dead… she just knew it. It was the main thing that kept her from grief and despair, and it gave her the will to continue to teach even amongst the chaos and death that was abound these days.
Thriess opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted when the brownish-green royal guard swooped in and landed on the branch across from them, like it was beneath him to roost with their lot.
“The elders will receive you now,” he said with an impassive expression.
A short flight later and Star and the other teachers entered the Elders’ Tree. They were positioned directly across from the four remaining elders, who had repositioned themselves according to their status within the council. There were a male and a female along the left, and Cinceel occupied the center with Theanol on the right. All of them were watching intently as the guests settled in. Normally the council would consist of six members, representing the six largest and most influential families in the forest, but thanks to Tenebron and the Old One’s deaths the positions were currently vacant.
To her left, Star noticed Eybron sitting on a branch alone. A triumphant smile adorned his face – a sign that whatever he had been summoned for it had worked out well for him. She knew that if something was working out well for the white wingtail, then everyone else wasn’t going to like it.
“Welcome teachers, to the Elders’ Tree,” introduced Theanol the green wingtail in a booming voice so that all present could hear him, “you have been called here on the basis of a change in instruction which we feel is necessary.”
Were they have been out of sight, Star was sure that the other two teachers would have rolled their eyes. It was just as expected.
“The children are to be taught how to react to sharpteeth threats,” asserted Cinceel aggressively, “…whether to flee, or if possible to take them down.”
The forwardness of the female elder made the other three uneasy, but nonetheless they continued. This didn’t prevent the feathers on the back of Star’s neck from rising though as she figured out the reason why they had been called here – the elders were going to make Eybron a teacher!
“I volunteer to perform that duty,” responded Thriess confidently, “if that is what you wish it of me.”
Thriess was the fishing teacher, and at least once a day he would take out the latest generation onto the lake to instruct them on the finer points of catching and eating fish. Of course, his class was the children’s favourite because they got to eat! Syne taught probably the most important class of all – story speaking. It was through her that all wingtail history was passed, though many times the young ones she taught didn’t fully appreciate the significance of the knowledge.
Meanwhile, Cinceel had raised a hand to her chin and was tapping it softly as if debating on what to say next.
“Alright Thriess… you will take on this class in addition to your fishing one with our blessing.”
Thriess bowed slightly at the privilege.
“Now that that business is taken care of you are all dismissed,” stated Theanol with a wave of his hand, “goodbye, and goodnight to you and your families.”
Star, Syne and Thriess were just about to leave when Cinceel interrupted.
“Hold on,” she said in annoyance, like Theanol’s dismissal had insulted her.
“I think it is time we made an important announcement.”
Theanol sighed, like he was hoping not to reveal the more unpleasant topic until a later time.
“After much deliberation,” continued Cinceel, “it is the verdict of this council that the sharptooth attack on our precious monument and our kind was an act of war… and one that is to be punished in kind…”
The venomous female hopped ahead and positioned herself where all the wingtails present could she her better and bear witness to her conviction.
“From this day forward all sharpteeth are our enemies, and are forbidden to set foot or claw inside the Feral Forest. Those who disobey our declaration and choose to remain shall be sentenced to death!”
The wingtail spat the last line, hoping for some sort of objection which she did not get.
“…And further more, we hereby grant Eybron the position of Archon of the Wingtails and grant him the authority to exterminate this threat by any and all means!”
Star gasped, as did the other two teachers next to her. Even the royal guard who was normally impartial widened his eyes in surprise. Archon was an ancient title given only to an exemplary individual in a time of great need. Essentially, it meant that Eybron could order any wingtail to perform any deed within the laws the elders had made which could have terrible consequences for both her and her family. The last one to hold the position was Benzon, who had used it to gather all the males in the forest to unblock a dam that had nearly caused the Abyss Lake to dry up.
“Now you are all dismissed,” declared Cinceel with a dirty glance in Theanol’s direction.
To his credit, the green wingtail ignored it.
As Star left with the others in a depressed state, she took a single glance back and saw that Eybron was looking right at her. The white wingtail was beaming, his face revealing exactly what her future held in store. For the first time in a while, Star wished Glide was here to protect her.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Abyssal Jungle was not known for being a friendly place, nor a forgiving one, but as the bright circle poked through the grey carpet of cloud cover and shined down on the wet leaves around the gang Ruby remarked at just how beautiful the exotic forest was. The huge canopy trees provided enough shelter that they could continue on their way without being too disturbed. The floor was adorned with foliage of many strange and wonderful types the fastrunner had never seen before, and she found their scent thrilling.
Ruby, Chomper, Gentry, Cera, and Thylo followed the river just like the friendly wingtail had told them to, and had been marching along for nearly all of the morning. Unfortunately, Aizon had failed to be specific about what Siak looked like so it felt like they were on a hunt similar to finding the hidden runner. Glide circled above like a sentinel, lending his eyes, ears, and wings to their search.
“So you’re telling me that we are looking for someone you don’t know, have never seen before, for a reason you don’t know, all because some strange wingtail told you to?” butted in Cera as she forced her way to the head of the line where Ruby was.
The fastrunner thought about it a bit absent mindedly.
“Yeah,” replied Ruby with a friendly shrug, “what you said just about says it all.”
“Hrmm,” grumbled Cera with displeasure.
Having an eye to take out her anger on somebody, the threehorn tilted her head and glared at Glide who was sitting on a branch above. The black wingtail returned the favour, and for about ten seconds the staring contest carried on. Sticking out her tongue rudely, Cera broke away and carried on.
“My feet hurt,” complained Thylo as she looked at the ground and examined the bottoms of all her paws in stride.
“Well ya got four of them,” pointed out Gentry, “why not try running a leg short for a tick?”
Thylo was confused, and looked back at the egg-stealer quizzically.
“Try it like this shera mate,” Gentry said as he hopped twice on only one leg.
The green spiketail tried it too, but only succeeded in falling over… much to the egg-stealer’s amusement.
“Hey that looks fun,” added Chomper, “mind if I try?”
While Thylo, Gentry and Chomper had fun walking on one less foot then usual, Cera chose to again push the subject of the purpose of the journey with Ruby.
“What has gotten into you Ruby?” questioned the threehorn impolitely, “we left Littlefoot and the others to get away from snotty stuck up wingtails, and now here we are being followed by one while we do exactly what
another one wants.”
Cera stamped her foot in rage.
“Can’t you see that they all hate us?”
“That’s not true,” countered Ruby with a bit of uncertainty, “… well maybe some of it is true, but what the truth really is is that it’s all different now. They need our help, so it’s up to us to help them!”
“Ha–,” began Cera, but her reply was cut short.
Glide landed directly in front of them with a Thudd, and held one of his fingers to his mouth in a silencing gesture. It was enough to cause not only Ruby and Cera to stop their conversation, but also to quiet down the others as well. With their attention assured, the black wingtail swept his arm in a broad motion, and pointed into the bushes ahead. Something or someone was in there.
Without a word, Ruby slipped past him and pushed her way into the bushes in the direction Glide had pointed. After a moment the underbrush cleared and the runner could clearly see what lacked like another runner standing up to its knees in the river. It was difficult to really tell however what it was, and Ruby squinted to try and get a better look. If it actually was a fastrunner, the colouring was a bit off… usually they weren’t a bronze hue with bright scarlet markings.
Approaching carefully, with the others creeping up silently behind in the ferns, Ruby tip toed up until she was right off the shore of the mysterious creature, nearly within striking distance.
“Hi,” introduced Ruby with courtesy, “we are lost and I was hoping you could help us find someone we are looking for.”
The runner took a methodical step forward, but did not take its head out of the water.
“Umm,” began Ruby again with uncertainty, “Hi... we are looking for someone named ëSiak’, can you help us?”
The stranger suddenly raised her head from the shallows and slowly turned to face Ruby. The most striking part of her appearance was not the thin pointed structure of her nose, or the teeth jutting out from the front of her mouth like daggers, but the veil of wet seaweed that now covered her face, obscuring her vision.
“Yes I believe I can,” she said as the sides of her mouth curled into a smile, “she is me.”
Ruby, Cera, and indeed even the rest of the gang had no idea what to think of Siak, and most of them just sat there with their mouths open. Ruby still had her hand up, like it was a class and she was asking a question.
“Hmm,” said Siak as she swung her head from side to side, “it would be nice if I could see you all… you’d almost think the night circle does this on purpose.”
“A… sharptooth?” said Chomper in both wonder and confusion.
“SHARPTOOTH!” shouted Gentry, and he jumped away so fast that only a cloud of dust remained where he had been.
Instinctively Chomper hid, and Cera followed suit with impressive speed. Soon the only ones around were Glide in a branch above, Ruby and Thylo. The spiketail simply looked on with wide eyes, like it was her dream come true.
“Oh that’s it… run away, just like the others,” said Siak with indignity as she crossed her arms.
“Umm, I’m still here,” pointed out Ruby making her look less silly for keeping her hand up so long.
“Are you?” asked Siak as she shook her head around again and sniffed the air, “what… where are you girl?”
Without thinking, Ruby reached out and slid the piece of water greens off Siak’s face. It slipped off easily, and immediately the spike mouth blinked rapidly and covered her eyes.
“By all that swims how did the bright circle suddenly get so bright?”
Regaining her vision, Siak looked around and saw the runner in front of her holding in her arms a clove of green food, and turned away, holding her arm out to block it like it was being presented to her.
“No thanks, I don’t eat that sort of thing.”
Ruby didn’t know what take of the situation and quickly looked back at Glide, who was struggling to get Gentry off him. The egg-stealer had latched onto him in fright, and the black wingtail was having a hard time getting him off. Cera and Chomper had risen slowly from the bushes in which they had been hiding, and Thylo was still staring like she had met her new idol. Seeing the situation was her responsibility, Ruby sighed.
“This was on your snout, it was blocking your eyes,” the runner stated.
“Oh…” replied Siak in surprise, “well, thank you girl for taking care of that. Ha, I must have looked awfully silly with that on.”
Ruby beamed, and nodded her head.
“A wingtail named Aizon sent us to find you… he said that you could show us to the jungle runners –”
“Bah,” interrupted Siak suddenly, “such rotten, annoying little birds. Do you know what one of them dropped on me the other day?”
Cera and Chomper looked at each other in confusion.
“I don’t know… what?” asked Cera with a roll of her eyes, like it was some sort of test.
Siak wagged one of her fingers.
“You don’t wanna know…”
In the tree above, Glide snorted in displeasure at the remark.
“Well… can you help us?” pressed Ruby, as if she was annoyed that the conversation wasn’t moving fast enough.
In response Siak laughed good-heartedly.
“Of course I can… I owe Aizon a favour, so if he sent you then we can call it even!”
The spike mouth stepped out of the water and shook herself off.
“Hmm, and odd crowed you have here,” the spike-mouth remarked, “it might be difficult bringing him in here…”
She was talking of course about Glide, and the black wingtail glared at her for a moment in indignity before nodding in response.
“Then perhaps it is time I left.”
He spread his wings, and turned away from the scene. Briefly measuring the wind, Glide made ready to jump into the air and take wing.
“Wait!” called out Ruby.
Intrigued, the black wingtail looked back.
“What?”
The fastrunner dashed over to him, and in a single moment wrapped her arms around his body. Glide was so surprised that he stood there, stunned that anyone would do such a thing.
“Thank you,” Ruby whispered sincerely, “…for everything you’ve done for us.”
Glide really didn’t know what to do, and peered over to the others for a potential clue as to how to respond to such outward affection. The children didn’t offer much help, while Siak crossed her arms and dawned a smug, knowing look. It sickened the wingtail to be in a situation so embarrassing.
“Umm… uhhh…”
With much effort, he pulled his mouth into a light smile and returned the gesture similar to how his sister had done many weeks ago.
“…you’re welcome.”
Siak clapped her hands twice in recognition for the difficult deed that shouldn’t have been difficult at all, which only served to annoy Glide even further.
In truth, the black wingtail had actually become quite fond of this group of hatchlings... for lack of a better description. He hadn't ever had any real friends before because of how consumed he was by both caring for Star and training for the Fish Fights that happened once a year, and he found that now that there were others that looked up to him he felt more whole inside. It had occured to him when Aizon mentioned going to the jungle-runners that perhaps he would not be welcome there, but it took the spike-mouth to bring him to his senses. If Glide was to follow them and obey his sister's instructions - as well as making sure they were safe - then it would certainly need to be done in secret.
After a moment the embrace was over, and the black wingtail had once again taken to the sky. As Ruby watched, she couldn’t help but think they wouldn’t see him again for a long, long time. As it would turn out, she was wrong.
…
An hour after the sudden departure of Glide, Siak led them deep into the Abyssal Jungle just like she said she would. The trees whistled with the strange and wonderful sounds of the local wildlife coming out of hiding as the rain subsided. The spike-mouth led the way into the endless green and sometimes got far enough ahead that Cera, Chomper and the others could barely keep up. Only Ruby managed to keep pace, and through the march engaged in conversation with their new friend.
"You're a sharptooth right," began Ruby, "... so how come you're so nice?"
"Oh I'm not that nice at all," laughed Siak, "...if you happen to be a water swimmer."
The statement held a lot of truth, thought Ruby, and she in turn realized that the only reason Sharpteeth came after them was not out of hatred, or vengence, or perhaps a racial feud but simply because they were hungry and didn't have a choice. Her next thought was of Chomper, and the inevitable future he faced. The fast-runner looked back in worry as she saw the small sharptooth shifting through the branches behind. She knew that someday, sooner or later, he wouldn't be able to satisfy his hunger with swimmers or flying buzzers anymore... and will turn on them as the most ancient of all processes takes its toll.
"If I may ask, what would a plains runner like yourself want with your more forest bound cousins? A reunion perhaps... or maybe a message of utmost importance to the safety and future of all dinosaur kind!"
"Something like that," admitted Ruby.
"Really?" replied Siak in disbelief as she started tapping the side of her face with her claws, "hah, I must be a better guesser then I thought!"
Ruby thought about how best to word what she was to do, and eventually came up with a good summary.
"Aizon wants me to convince the jungle-runners to join with the wingtails to stop the king of the sharpteeth."
Siak stopped walking entirely. The halt was so fast that Ruby almost bumped into her.
"That's got to be the silliest thing I have ever heard," chuckled Siak, "And mind you I have heard a lot of silly things!"
"It's true," retorted Ruby, "if we don't join with the wingtails, we will never have a chance to stop all the bad things he's doing."
The spike-mouth turned around to face the fast-runner and slowly looked from side to side, checking to see if anyone else was around and listening.
"Shut your mouth girl," snarled Siak, gripping Ruby by the shoulders, "there are more eyes and ears around here then just ours."
"Wha-what do you mean?" asked Ruby shakily.
"What I mean is keep your wits about you," Siak hissed, releasing Ruby, "Tyron's claw reaches far longer then you can imagine... so don't go blabbing off so everyone can hear you."
Quickly understanding the need for such measures, the runner nodded her head in acknowledgement.
"Mais did not listen, and look what happened to him! I will certainly not stand to have anything the same happen to you children, even if it means the death of me."
"Who was Mais?" asked Ruby naively.
Siak turned away, as if to hide the expression on her face.
"My mate," she said, unable to hide a bit of a titter in her voice, "...but we will not talk about him here."
The conversation ended there, and in the meantime things were providing different near the rear end of the line. The forest was getting thicker, and it was getting difficult for Chomper to keep up. At last he could not keep up the pace any longer, and stopped to rest. The others including Cera, Thylo and Gentry carried on, and soon they were out of his sight.
“Not to worry,” breathed the small sharptooth to himself reassuringly, “I can use my sniffer to follow them.”
But as it would turn out, his sniffer was picking up more then just his friends. A familiar scent hit Chomper’s nostrils, and he sucked in air vigorously for a moment to make sure it was indeed what he had smelt. Turning around, he gasped as he came face to face with the fastbiter, Thudd.
Backing up a few steps, he knew this time he was done for. He and Thudd were even, and now the fastbiter was perfectly within his honour to eat him on the spot. The raptor growled and bared his teeth, but rather then striking he glanced backwards once, and then beckoned Chomper to follow. Without question, the sharptooth obeyed and silently tracked along behind his once bitter enemy. What could Thudd possibly want?
"Thudd... where we going... why are you not eating me like you said you would?"
"Because," snarled Thudd as he reared around to glare at the small sharptooth, "there is something I need to show you."
"So does this mean we're friends?" asked Chomper with an eager grin on his face.
Thudd snorted jerked his head, as he if he was being pestered by a particularly bothersome fly.
"Have it your way."
Chomper felt a warm and fuzzy feeling inside as he followed the fast-biter deeper and deeper into the forest. Thudd was indeed his friend, after all this time of trying to convince him. Maybe then if Thudd could come around... maybe there was hope for the other sharpteeth too!
Up above in the gaps between the trees, the bright circle was visible once more as the rain finally pettered out and came to a halt. Soon... it would be starting again, for a storm was brewing in the far distance...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
