The night air felt like Charcoal's claws slicing through her skin.
Charcoal gone. Her brain couldn't comprehend it.
Charcoal gone. The dark wind ripped the tears from her eyes.
Charcoal gone.
Karata flung her head back and screamed. Grief and pain and fury tearing at her throat, filling the island with reverberations of raw emotion.
The whole world was black.
But black was Charcoal's color . . .
She snarled and screamed again, as loud as she could, as long as she could, until she choked and tasted blood in her throat.
Her ears rang with her own anguish. Charcoal gone.
And then they roared. All the dinosaurs that heard her roared back, and all the dinos that heard them reared up and howled until the whole world shook.
In that moment she realized, the beauty, and brutality, and beauty of nature, of it all. She realized that they knew her own pain, and that she had just tapped on something ancient. Primal.
Fishwing jerked under her. She could hear a screech ringing from his beak, and she knew, he had been moved too.
Slowly the clamor faded, but everything seemed clearer, more alive.
Karata landed Fishwing, wishing she could of told Jan. He would of told her not to go, but she had to go.
The men had taken Charcoal. She knew it deep in her heart. They had been talking about her loved ones, and one of them mentioned her mentor, but they decided on Charcoal.
She knew it was a trap.
She didn't care.
She would have to fight. After all, its only a trap if they managed to capture her, and she wouldn't let them.
Fishwing's head jerked up. Karata froze, listening.
Wings beat overhead.
Karata slowly looked up, seeing a massive winged beast, a quetzal, and seeing Charcoal dangling from its claws.
Her Charcoal.
She retained no memory of flying up.
She was listening one moment, and then she saw Charcoal, and then she was leaping off Fishwing onto the quetzal.
People yelling. Dodging bolas that swiped by her feet.
Karata jumped from the feathery tail and landed on Charcoal. He yelped and looked down, seeing her clinging to his scales.
Two twin shrieks split the air.
Relief, terror, anticipation flooded her.
Then she realized that her momentum had knocked them from the quetzal's grasp.
She screamed.
The stream glistened in her eye and she whirled, flinging Charcoal away from her, toward the stream.
Fishwing suddenly swooped under her and she landed heavily in his saddle. A loud splash resonated through the forest.
The pteranodon soared over the river, seeing Charcoal spluttering and trying to get to shore. Fishwing landed on the sand, and the black raptor soon emerged from the water, shaking water from his feathers.
Karata slid off and raced to hug Charcoal.
"I was so worried!" She exclaimed. Charcoal made a purring sound and rubbed her cheek with his.
"Great show."
She whirled around, a snarl forming on her bared teeth.
Rokur grinned back.
It felt like her heart had just fallen from her chest. "You -- you're -- you!" she spluttered.
"Yes, me. I am honestly surprised you made it this far. Stealing your mentor's pteranodon was rather clever."
Karata frowned. How did he know she stole Fishwing?
His smile grew wider. He raised his arms as if yawning, but his left hand motioned downward.
Sharp pricks of pain erupted between her shoulder blades, along her spine, and in the back of her head.
The world wavered, distorting.
"Guh nnigh kra-a." Rokur's voice echoed strangely in her ears.
The sparkling darkness on the edges of her vision finally closed in.
. . .
Karata slowly cracked open her eyes. Her shoulders ached, and she was dimly aware of the sensation of her arms being pulled behind her back. Handcuffs or shackles she realized.
She swished her tongue around her mouth. It tasted bitter.
How long have been out?
Where am I?
The events that occurred before her passing-out flooded her head in perfect clarity. She started and glanced around.
She was in a wooden cage, which was inside a very small metal room. Her hands were shackled behind her back.
So her plan hadn't gone as . . . planned.
She was captured, Charcoal was most likely going to be tormented until he gave in and worked for them, and the same had probably happened to Fishwing.
Karata winced as she pictured Jan's fury, then slumped as she remembered the feeling when Charcoal had gone missing.
Oh, Jan. I'm so sorry.
Then she recalled the dream and clenched her hands into fists as her face flushed red.
And Rokur was on their side!
The memory of Rokur's grin brought another memory to her mind.
How did Rokur know that she had taken Fishwing without permission? Come to think of it, how did the men in the hill-huts know Jan was her mentor?
Maybe Jagged Flame had spies? But . . . maybe the spies would know that she took a pteranodon, but how would they know that she took it without permission?
How could they have known that Jan was her mentor, that Jan owned the pteranodon she had stolen, and where Charcoal resided? The only person who knew that was Jan himself . . . and Ago, whom he reported to.
Jan wouldn't betray her. She knew.
But Ago . . .
The sharp scrape of metal on metal reached her ears. A metallic door she hadn't even noticed opened. Rokur stepped in, and unlocked the gate on her cage.
Karata leapt at him.
She slammed him to the ground, twisting her neck to bite his throat.
He shoved her off easily.
"Didn't know you liked me that much!"
She snarled, wishing her teeth were currently feeling the sensation of his flesh tearing.
"You . . . will . . . pay." She said it with absolute certainty. If only she could just punch him, right in the nose! She closed her eyes, letting violent fantasies fill her head.
"Sure," He laughed. "C'mon." Rokur grabbed her and pulled her behind him.
Her eyes flickered, taking in the stone hallway, absorbing every detail. She twisted in his grasp so he was dragging her. Her heels dug into the stone.
"Have . . . some dignity!" He grunted. She thrashed in his grip. "You little devil!"
Eventually he ended up dragging her wriggling body across the rock tiles with no small effort.
They passed through a doorway framed by burnished-orange columns.
The room they entered was plated with violet metal. Torches lined the walls, glowing with the ice-blue flame of angler gel.
A coppery throne was set in the center of the room. The throne was resting in a cage which was painted pure black. The dark pigment lent an unsettling, spidery feel to the cage.
Someone was sitting on the throne. Robes the color of night shifted as the figure rose.
Cold green eyes stared into hers. The gaze felt like venom-tipped icicles pinning her down, acidic and sharp. The green was not warm and welcoming like Jan's eyes. It was dark and icy and glinted with power and something that bordered the brink of insanity.
"Hello, prophesied one." It was the reptilian voice!
He stepped into the light. Karata gasped.
Parts of his face, his cheek and chin, some of his forehead, they were dark and knotted.
"The burns are not pleasant to the eye, are they?" His voice seemed accusing.
"When the obelisks spoke, they also released three beasts. From the green, a monstrous spider the color of poisoned grass. From the blue, a massive ape who now carries the scar of the defiant Northerners."
He dropped to a whisper.
"And from the red light, a scaly winged beast who held fire in his maw. A dragon, with violet scales and wings the color of his flames reflected in metal."
Fabric fluttered as he gestured to the walls and the throne.
"When I see these walls, I am reminded of this creature's scales. When I look upon my throne, I see the dragon's fire scorching all that I loved.
"So I swore revenge. No death matters to me, for I live only to bring down that monster."
Karata stared into his reptilian eyes.
"You are empty. You say you live to bring down this dragon, but you have no excuse to live at all after all the deaths you've caused. Deaths matter to everyone else, and by being so absorbed in killing this monster, you became a monster yourself."
His chin jutted forward, his teeth baring. She continued on.
"And the fact that you do not care about all the deaths you've caused means you aren't even human anymore. I'll bet you've killed more than the dragon! You are the dragon! Maybe even worse!"
He slapped her.
She fell to the ground, clutching her stinging cheek and spitting blood from where she bit her tongue.
"You have no excuse to live. You and everyone you've 'recruited' will pay. You will cash in your life to attempt to atone for the things you've done. To attempt to repay those lives."
Now he just smiled. "You are everything I hoped for. When I sit upon my dragon-bone throne, you will be my queen."
Karata sprang to her feet. "I will leap into the dragon's maw before you kill it if that's your plan for me!" She took a deep breath. "And you are absolutely insane."
He laughed. "Take her away, Rokur."
Rokur hooked his hand in the shackles and began tugging her backwards toward the door.
"Wait."
Karata twisted to look at the reptilian-voiced man.
He grabbed her and slammed his lips against hers.
Karata froze, her heart thudding. She shoved ineffectually at him, but he locked his arm around her back. His other arm was creeping down her back . . .
Then the world around them shattered. Light poured in, dappled with shadows that swayed like palm trees.
And Jan, staring straight into her panicked eyes.
Burnt-Face was ripped away from her. Karata slumped, taking huge gulps of air as her heart seared in her chest.
She looked up.
Jan was straddled atop Burnt-Face. His spear was stabbed through his cheek. She had never seen Jan like this.
His face was contorted into a million sharp lines. His lips were pulled back to the point where she could see his gums. His eyes were scrunched into obsidian slits of animalistic fury. He was revolving the spear as the reptilian-voiced man screamed in agony.
"Apologize!" Jan roared.
"I -- I'm -- no! She's mine!"
"I am not owned by anyone but myself!" Karata yelled. An abrupt yank from behind startled her, and she realized Rokur was hauling her from the fight. She whirled before he could get a good grip, and the shackles slipped from his hands.
Karata headbutted Rokur in the chest, and she was rewarded by a Guhhh as the breath was knocked from his lungs. He stumbled as she stepped back, so she lashed her leg out, smiling with satisfaction as her foot connected with his groin.
Rokur howled and keeled over, writhing on the ground. She gave him a swift kick in the ear for good measure, then leapt across the room to help Jan.
"Apologize to her!" Jan bellowed.
"For what?" Burnt-Face barked. "For taking what's mine?"
Her vision throbbed. She flexed her knuckles and slugged Burnt-Face in the jaw. Something cracked under her fist.
"Ohh, I feel better!" Karata crowed. "Take that!"
Then Burnt-Face snatched Jan by the shoulders and hurled him off, flinging him into Karata.
Jan landed heavily on top of her with an oof.
"Oh." Karata breathed, because she could feel his body heat through his shirt and he was so close and something close to adrenaline was coursing through her.
He glanced down at her in surprise, so she noticed how flushed his face was.
Then he sprung off her and she felt almost disappointed that the comforting weight of his body was gone.
The reptile-voiced man had vanished.
Rokur was still moaning pathetically on the ground. Karata barely swallowed a scoff, then gazed up as Fishwing descended.
Jan jumped on his back, seizing Rokur in Fishwing's claws. Rokur shrieked before he was tossed out of the roofless room.
"C'mon! Before reinforcements get here!" Karata called to Jan.
He dove down and grabbed her. Fishwing's wings buffeted her with wind for a few frantic beats, before he leveled out and flew at a steady flap.
"That's why it took me so long, by the way," Jan informed her as the land shot under her. "We never found it because it was on the Carnivore Island. Well, I was also delayed because someone stole my bird."
"I -- I'm so sorry." Karata hunched her shoulders sheepishly. "Wait, where's Charcoal?"
"He was the first one I found. He's already on the boat." Even as he spoke, Fishwing dipped down toward a raft.
The black raptor screeched with delight as Karata dropped to the deck.
"Charcoal!" They embraced, Charcoal gently purring.
Jan suddenly wrapped his arms around the two of them from behind.
"Never just leave, okay? Especially with Fishwing. I mean, I love you two more than anything."
A thrill heated Karata's veins. What did he mean by that?
Jan blushed and quickly clamped his hand down on the rudder of the raft as it accelerated.
. . .
They soon reached the shore of the main island. Karata rode Charcoal into the forest, with Jan keeping watch from above.
It felt like only a few moments had passed before they reached the immense gate. Jan hastily told her the access code and she tapped it into the keypad. The door creaked open.
Karata grinned. She felt like a real Dancing Lightning.
She stepped inside the camp, her eyes scanning the fields.
Her heart dropped.
Several of the wooden garages had been crushed by iron-sheathed boulders that laid among the fragments of once-mighty buildings. Many of the houses had been blown apart, the shards settled on the fringe of smoking craters. The putrid stench of charred wood tainted the air.
Ago was addressing the tribe from his podium. He regarded Jan and Karata with a small nod, than returned his attention to the worn and weary people before him.
Karata sprinted to the group to hear the end of Ago's speech.
"This can not be accepted." He was saying. "We will retaliate. Our spies have told us that Jagged Flame will gather at the red obelisk before invading. We will ambush them there."
Ago rubbed his face tiredly.
"Tomorrow . . .
"We go to war with the Jagged Flame."