By me, with art by Sam Messerly.
Click here to read from the beginning.
Colander was sitting behind me when I asked the question, and I heard her gasp. Warbell just kept on walking without slowing his pace.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Colander said. “But it makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“We can fly now,” said Warbell. “I think it’s best if we do so. It gets us off the streets, which reduces the possibility of getting hit by cars since they can’t see us coming. Get ready.”
“Come on, Warbell,” I said. “We just risked our lives for you. Multiple times. We saved your keister. We deserve a straight answer.”
“This is obviously a very sensitive topic,” said Colander. “But I agree with Walter this time. You actually do owe us an explanation. We don’t know what we are getting into.”
“And you owe me a new truck,” I said. “My insurance probably doesn’t cover… whatever it was that destroyed my truck.”
The wind started shaking around us, making our view somewhat hazy. Goosebumps broke out all across my arms and legs. The wind felt like it was snaking through my hair and sorting each strand, and my clothes were being shook loose as well. Then the old lizard took step into the air and we were flying.
I instinctively held on harder to Warbell’s back, and his muscles shifted again, protrusions of flesh clamping onto my legs to keep me steady. Colander nevertheless grabbed on to me for extra reassurance, and I didn’t object.
“I wrote in my journal that there was still much to say and explain,” said the old lizard in a tired voice as we rose into the air. “Earthdancer, or just Ed… she is one of those things.”
Now that we were several dozen feet up in the air, or rather further up in the air than before (riding on the back of a rex already means riding high), I had lost the desire to say anything. Colander filled the silence, however.
“Your daughter’s name is Earthdancer?” she said.
“She was borne while Razzberry and I lived on the earth together,” Warbell said. “We were overjoyed. We felt like the earth was dancing with us. A child—it’s a peculiar kind of joy. I was so glad I had the opportunity to feel that kind of joy.”
“Was your wife’s name really Razzberry?” Colander asked.
“That was her nickname,” Warbell said. “Her real name sounds really pretentious if I translate it into English, but she was not a pretentious sort of person.”
“Oh, thank you, sorry if the question was impertinent,” Colander said.
“To understand the full scope of the problem we are facing, I have to explain something that is difficult for me to say,” Warbell said slowly. “There is a problem with all dinosaurs bearing their children on your earth. They don’t come out with the same intelligence we now have from living in the timeless space of the frozen kingdom. They come out as regular dinosaurs. Ed was originally that way, too—a predatory animal with no ability to speak, though that changed as we used many techniques to boost her intelligence. Now as you can see she is not stupid, but neither is she, shall we say, fully civilized. Her mind works in ways I don’t understand. She could never accept the explanations given her about Razzberry’s death. She was convinced I killed her. Ed is here on a personal mission, without the backing of my people, to bring me to what she sees as justice—any way that she can. And she is not scared of violence.”
Warbell’s voice went dark.
“I’m afraid she thrives on it.”