Deinos

6

   The thing crashed into the ground, sending a boy rolling away until he stood and ran back to the creature. It was like a giraffe sized pterodactyl, large and thin and bony. It scrambled upright and spread its wing enough to show the Rider's mark. The boy stumbled when he saw Beradante, who had gotten to her feet, but didn't linger on her long. He pulled a gun out of his pocket and stood next to the flying lizard, whose jaw- beak?- opened with a long hiss.
   The creature pursuing them circled above and stared at them with hawkish eyes. Even in the chaos I could only notice how it was unlike anything I'd even heard of before. It was like a giant, thick serpent with four pairs of wings, three batlike ones making different sized circles under it like a hoop glider and the largest feathered pair forming the v-shape of a falcon as it dove with alarming speed at the boy and the winged dinosaur.
   The pair shared a knowing look and the boy ran to us while the two reptiles battled in the air. "You're the rest of them, aren't you?" he said, trying to catch his breath. "Get to the woods, we'll meet you there in a minute and talk."
   Harper nodded and Connie ran to Beradante, who vanished in a flash. Velona tilted her paw for me to see the mark and I vanished, too, and we all set off at a run down the mountain road, sticking to the inside to stay hidden. The boy and the winged dinosaur were low over the town now. Velona looked back in time to see the person on the roof with the dog jump on the flying creature's back. We made it to the woods with Socrates panting and the rest of us gasping for breath. Soon the two boys and the dog joined us, just as exhausted.
   I looked at the dog again and realized it wasn't a dog, but some other kind of four legged animal I couldn't identify. Like some mix of a bear and a dog.
   Harper looked between them. "So you're the others with extinct animals, I assume?"
   The boy with the winged dinosaur opened his mouth, then hesitated and looked at the other who made a few gestures. "Yeah. We are. Amiran is a quetzalcoatlus and Jau is a bear dog."
   The shorter, blond boy with the bear dog gestured some more.
   "It's fine, Teigan. We can trust them," the taller said, probably louder than he meant. "Amiran and Jau just appeared yesterday," he said to us. "We've been looking for some explanation. Do you guys know anything?"
   "Garrett..." Teigan hissed, mistrust still evident in his eyes. Garrett didn't seem to hear.
   "We know some stuff," Harper said. "I'm Harper, and this is Zoe and Connie. The dog is Socrates, the triceratops is Beradonte, and the miacid is Velona."
   Teigan started gesturing again, snickering at one point.
   Garrett must have noticed me staring at Teigan. "It's sign language."
   "Oh. You're... deaf?"
   He nodded. "I can read lips but sign language is easier, especially for explanations like the one I hope I'm about to get."
   "Okay. How much do you know about the Riders?" Harper asked.
   "If that's what we are then you can probably tell," Teigan said. "Garrett figured out that if you focus on the mark thing you can sort of fuse together. Beyond that even Jau doesn't know anything."
   "That's something... The Riders are people who bond with mythical creatures. Something happened in your case. We just know it has something to do with the Royals, the Rider royal family, and that they want you captured. There are five total, and we have four."
   "And everyone we found so far goes to Lavender's," Connie added. "I think I remember you from there, right?"
   "We both go there, yeah."
   "Well, now we have to find the last one," Harper said with a pointed glare at Connie. "You'll be safer as a group since I've met all of you being attacked, and then we can figure out what to do about the Royals. I'm assuming the thing attacking you was sent by the Royals, too."
   "Great. More people," Teigan muttered just loud enough to hear.
   "There's gonna have to be one more, Mr. 'Nobody Can Hear Me Muttering'." Teigan scowled at Connie's words but didn't say anything after a sideways glance from Garrett.
   "Once we find the last one of us I guess we'll figure out what to do," I said, trying to distract them from each other, but it didn't work as well as I hoped.
   If it helps, I heard some of what the the creature and Rider were saying when they chased us, a telepathic voice said. At first I couldn't tell who it was, but Amiran moving so that he could see us all clearly was tell enough. A small smile crossed Garrett's lips and his hand went to his ear for a moment, but nobody else but Teigan seemed to notice. They must have forgotten to hide their speech, because I heard exactly where they are hiding.