A Little Story

stefan de velociraptor
a little story...
Sat Jun 7 07:14:25 2003




Dishier sat quietly by the flickering fire, his scaly body sinking into the rich but coarse mammoth-hair carpet. His amber eyes absorbed the fire and the flames glinting off the edges of his coat of emerald scales, causing tiger-orange stripes to waver over his body. The Troodon lay curled like a dog but his mind was still sharp with the activities of the day. As he lay he cast his thoughts back over the festival while the final notes of music drifted in through the window, mingling with the fresh night air, the singing breeze causing the scales on Dishier’s back to raise slightly, trapping the warmth of his avian body close to his skin. A deep, soft song heralded the end of the festivities, the brachiosaurus crooning on their way back to the great, vaulted barn where they slept.
Dishier fondly remembered his part, the great honour of the post of the envoy of the carnosaurs in the great festival of peace. The colours of the day still swam in front of his eyes. The orange dawn and the brilliant blue of the midday sky, the extravagantly garish costumes of the human performers and the flashing of precious metals woven into dancers costumes. He thought about how he had played the ‘hunt’ again, a game he had not taken part in since his coming of age, darting through the trees, following the ‘prey’ and shouting orders and taunts to his friends as they let their instincts overcome them in a ritual he knew his ancestors performed over a millennia and a half ago. He thought of the great procession, the tellings of the story competitions and the flashing wings as the skybax dived and swung in formation above the city. He sighed.
Uncurling himself slowly from his bundled pose he rose slowly to his feet, muscles sliding across bone with a slickness he had not felt for several decades, his body responding more smoothly to his commands than it ever had before. He walked slowly out onto the balcony that stood above the crystal waters of dolphin bay, the great delta of the polongo. A narrow spume of deep brown flowed out through the centre of the bay, sediment from the rains upstream near the hadro swamp. Dishier could see the grey forms of the dolphins swimming slowly near the surface of the water from his lofty vantage. The twinkling torchlight of the city created a visible dome of light over the city, like some mystic shield, holding the darkness at bay. Dishier’s tail wound itself around his small forearm, coiling and uncoiling itself as was a habit. He wondered briefly why he did it but then dismissed the notion and returned to sweep his gaze over sauropolis. The moon’s white light glinted off wings as the skybax that had participated in the celebration of the founding of modern Dinotopia swooped off their perches on top of the sauropod barn, drifting silently up towards the clouds, flying back to the great canyon.
Dishier heard quiet footsteps behind him and turned slightly as Juhin, his partner, walked softly up towards him. Though she was short for a human she was still taller than Dishier by the best part of a foot but somehow she had the gift of always seeming to be level with him. As she stepped out into the night he admired her as he always did. Not her ‘human’ beauty, though she was indeed beautiful by human standards, he, a dinosaur, felt nothing of humanity’s concepts of beauty. He admired the way she held herself, graceful yet strong and confident with a readiness that only a carnivore or a hunter could admire. She placed a slim hand on his shoulder.
‘You should sleep. You look dead tired. You can consider your bragging rights tomorrow, eh’ her eyes twinkled in the light as he stared into her face. Dishier grinned inwardly, widening his eyes and putting on what she called his ‘dog face’ and looked innocently at her
‘What? I would never brag. I was simply considering the, uh, magnitude of my position, yes that’s it’
‘Oh come on. I just boiled the kettle. There’s some fresh Lavender and Articus in the pot. It’s not a holiday tomorrow you know’
‘Yes it is, just not for us, every day is a holiday on Dinotopia.’
They turned together and walked back into the house. Outside, the moon set over the great expanse of water that surrounded the land apart from time.

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