Dinotopia: Windchaser

by Ciencin, Scott;

  “So what does that mean?” Raymond asked, repeating the short string of tones. “Tell me, please!”

  “Sssoulll hasss whattt boddyyy lackkss,” Windchaser said.

  “I don’t understand,” Raymond said.

  “Waaattccchhhh.”

  The Skybax ran a short distance, unfurled its winged arms and leaped into the air. He glided swiftly by, then passed back again.

  The breeze from his wings was sweet to Raymond, because with it came understanding. Those words were a simple riddle: What does a human soul have that an earthbound body lacks?

  “Wings!” Raymond shouted.

  With a cry of triumph, Windchaser descended to the ground and continued the lessons afresh. The Skybax seemed amused. Once again, he would have the opportunity to “train” a human.

  CHAPTER 11

  “Well,” Bix said, “I heard about your little adventure. I’m relieved to see you in one piece.”

  Raymond shuffled uneasily. The morning had been spent participating in the weekly celebration for new inductees. In the afternoon, he had transferred his belongings to the second phase of Skybax Camp, the gold buildings.

  After an introductory speech by Hikaro, who would follow the students through all three stages of the camp, Raymond was allowed several more hours of liberty. He found Bix with the cleanup crew in the central fairgrounds.

  “I found him,” Raymond told Bix. “I found Windchaser.”

  “So Hugh told me.”

  Raymond nodded. He was not surprised his friend had kept their adventure from everyone except the Protoceratops. “Bix, I need to make him understand.”

  “Understand what?” she asked patiently.

  “That things can get better.”

  Bix stared intently at Raymond, then gave her blessing to his enterprise. “In the process of helping him, you may well heal yourself.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You don’t have to. Follow your heart, and all will be well.” She looked up. “Why don’t you invite him to help us?”

  Raymond was startled. He glanced to the skies and saw Windchaser circling above. Waving his hands, Raymond signaled his friend to come down. Raymond honestly didn’t think that Windchaser would accept his invitation.

  But to Raymond’s surprise, the Skybax was soon cruising to the ground. Several people and dinosaurs cleared the area uneasily. They looked to Bix for guidance. The sight of the small Protoceratops standing firm helped prevent panic.

  Windchaser joined the humans and Saurians in their task of clearing the grounds. Raymond was with him constantly. Together they picked up debris and deposited it in a nearby cart.

  After about an hour, a Skybax and rider came to the camp to deliver a message. Windchaser abandoned the cleanup duty and went over to the other Skybax.

  Raymond watched the odd interplay between Windchaser and the messenger. At first, they seemed to be having a heated exchange. Then Windchaser turned and flew off.

  Raymond ran from the fairgrounds, following the Skybax from below. At the edge of camp, Windchaser suddenly changed course. He circled directly above Raymond a few times, then landed close by him.

  Rushing forward, Raymond wrapped his arms around Windchaser’s head and soothingly caressed the clearly agitated creature. Both of them looked around to ensure that they were not observed.

  “What is it?” Raymond asked, his heart thundering. “What did the Skybax say?”

  “Beginnn ttto tttrrrrainnn againnnn. Jjjjoinnn withhh othherssss.” Windchaser suddenly turned away. “Affffraidddd.”

  “Don’t be,” Raymond said brightly. “I know just how we can start.”

  As evening came, many of the children were playing games in the fairgrounds. Raymond went to Hikaro, who was teaching them a Japanese rhyme.

  “Honorable teacher,” Raymond said. “I have a friend who would like to join in the games. May he?”

  “Of course!”

  Turning, Raymond hollered, “Windchaser!”

  The children froze as the Skybax emerged from his hiding place behind one of the tents in the fairgrounds. Hikaro looked as if he might raise an objection at any moment, but he remained silent. He watched closely as the Skybax approached.

  “Let us see,” Hikaro said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “What game could your friend play with the others? He is a shade larger than they are.”

  Before Raymond could say anything, one of the children approached Windchaser. The young boy gently stroked the Skybax’s head. A trilling sound expressed Windchaser’s pleasure. He bent lower and was taken completely by surprise when the child leaped onto his neck!

  Startled, the Skybax raised his head up, lifting the child high into the air.

  Raymond was terrified that a sudden movement from Windchaser would send the boy flying. Instead, the child slid down Windchaser’s back. He laughed, then cried out in delight as he hit the ground.

  Windchaser looked toward the other children. They were all lining up for their turn!

  On the edge of the fairgrounds, Bix and Hugh watched in amazement as the Skybax became a Saurian slide.

  Windchaser was clearly pleased. He suddenly let out a call that sounded like a chorus of flutes. Everyone waited for several tense moments until the call was answered. A single reply. Two more.

  In a few minutes, three other Skybaxes appeared. At first, Windchaser was shy in their presence. Then the games began again, and Windchaser was in the thick of things, playing and enjoying himself.

  “And here I thought he was a bleedin’ monster,” Hugh said. Even Hugh’s heart was lightened by the sight. Then, suddenly, Hugh’s mood began to change as a frightening feeling of loss crept over him.

  “Hugh,” Bix said, sensing the sudden change in the boy. “Raymond will always be your friend. Perhaps Windchaser could be as well. After all, you and the Skybax seem to have quite a lot in common.”

  “In common? What do we have in common?” asked Hugh. But Bix said nothing more. She simply wandered off, leaving Hugh to ponder his own question.

  The next day, Hugh was relieved to have some time away from his normal chores at the camp.

  Besides Raymond and Bix, Hugh had made no real friends here. That had not been the fault of the Dinotopians.

  The other Skybax handlers had been quite friendly to Hugh. There had been none of the coolness he had feared. He had been treated just like anyone else, despite being a newcomer.

  So why didn’t he feel like everyone else?

  With a sigh, he tried not to think about this. Instead, he gazed at his surroundings.

  This morning, he had been assigned what he considered guard duty. He was happy—it was very easy work. No work at all, actually. His task was simply to watch the high wire.

  The wire had been strung between two tall platforms and located in a field off to the west of the final training area. Here students could get used to heights and hone their balance on the lines.

  This morning the safety nets below had been removed for repair. For the next three days, the area would be a hazard. Hugh’s job was to keep watch and make sure no one wandered into the dangerous area.

  He scanned the bright, cheery, open field and was relieved to find no one in sight. He had no timepiece except the sun in the sky. After close to two hours of pacing and sitting, sitting and pacing, he began to dislike this simple assignment.

  How much longer was he on duty, anyway? Would they leave him here for hours with nothing to keep him occupied except his own thoughts?

  That might prove dangerous.

  An urge he had resisted for days came upon him. Muttering a curse, Hugh reached into the pocket of his pants and withdrew a crumpled sheet of parchment. Memories flooded back as he unfolded the brittle page and stared at the writing.

  The secret for turning base metal into gold.

  In the outside world, such knowledge would make him a god among men. On Dinotopia, it made him no one special.

  “Come on, O’Donov
an. Throw it away,” he told himself. “You can do it. It’s bloody well not going to do you any good here, and there’s sure no way off this island. Not unless…”

  He shuddered.

  Not unless they were lying to him.

  “Now you’re really going around the bend, old friend. You’re even talking to yourself, like some nit in the pages of a bloody Yank dime novel.”

  Hugh felt ashamed of his own thoughts. Nevertheless, all this friendliness and openness frightened him terribly. He was used to thinking of the world as divided between two kinds of people—those who made up the rules and those who followed them. And he knew exactly where people like him belonged in that grand division of things: slipping right between the cracks.

  Suddenly, he was startled from his thoughts by a shrill scream. He spun, searching the grounds. Who had cried out? He saw no one.

  Then he shifted his gaze upward. He saw a boy dangling from the high wire. If the boy fell, it would be fifty feet straight down. He wouldn’t have a chance.

  Hugh raised the horn he had been given to call for help. A loud, rich sound came from it as he ran toward the high wire. Abandoning the horn, Hugh leaped for the highest rung he could catch on the high wire’s north ladder.

  “Hang on!” he cried. His heart thundered and his every nerve was on fire. How could these Dinotopians have been so stupid? There were too many directions from which a stray boy or girl could wander into this area!

  There should have been a fence, he thought angrily. Why did they put him, of all people, on this duty? They should have known better—

  No, he suddenly demanded of himself. Stop making excuses!

  “Help me! Please!” cried the boy hanging from the wire.

  Hugh raced up to the platform, praying he would get there in time.

  CHAPTER 12

  Hugh was relieved to see the child holding on with both arms circling the wire. The boy’s face was pale, his features twisted into a fearful mask.

  “You’re going to be all right!” Hugh said, suddenly feeling wobbly as he looked down. The boy needs solid ground, not your stupid words, he thought. Help him!

  Drawing a steadying breath, Hugh took in the situation. The boy was six feet out onto the wire. Too far for Hugh to simply extend his hand and pull him back. How on earth was he going to save the boy?

  Suddenly, a squall sounded from above. He glanced upward and saw a Skybax circling near the sun.

  “Yes, come! Help us!” Hugh cried. He tried to catch sight of the Skybax again, but the sun’s glare blinded him. He looked away, rubbing his eyes as fireworks seemed to dance before his vision. Then he scanned the sky again.

  He saw nothing. Where did that Skybax go?

  “I’m scared!” the boy shouted.

  So am I, thought Hugh.

  He had to think of something fast. The child looked as if he might lose his grip any moment now. Seconds ticked by, and Hugh felt frozen in his tracks, completely useless!

  Finally an idea came to him. Maybe he could allow himself to dangle from the line. Then he could move toward the boy by climbing hand over hand. The boy could cling to Hugh’s neck as he took them back.

  Hugh froze again. What if the added tension on the line caused a vibration? It could make the boy lose his hold.

  Blood and thunder, the boy might fall no matter what he did! But he had to try something!

  “I’m slipping!” the child screamed.

  “Just hold on!” Hugh snarled impatiently, immediately regretting his harsh tone. “I’ll save you! I will!”

  Hugh crouched down and tried to reach out for the wire. His hands were trembling and he could not make himself take the line.

  Do it, he thought. You have to!

  The tips of his fingers touched the wire in time to feel it vibrate in his hands. He heard a scream!

  The boy had fallen!

  He watched the impossibly fast descent, and was amazed that the child wasn’t screaming. Had he passed out?

  Don’t look, don’t look! a voice inside Hugh warned, but he could not tear his gaze away.

  A sudden gust of wind struck him and nearly blew him off the platform.

  A Skybax dove toward the ground at an impossible speed. The boy was perhaps fifteen feet from disaster when the Skybax swept under him. It scooped him up, breaking his fall.

  Hugh cheered as the Skybax sailed a few hundred feet, then glided to a landing. It gently deposited the fallen child onto the ground. A group of people raced toward the child and his rescuer.

  Hugh’s burst of happiness was over in a heartbeat as he remembered his own failure. With a heavy heart, he began the long climb down to the ground.

  He did not see Windchaser circling the area above and watching everything with keen interest.

  Much later, Raymond found Hugh in a secluded area almost a mile from camp. The older boy sat at the edge of a small pond.

  “How did you know where to look?” Hugh asked.

  “A Skybax Rider saw you heading this way. I had a feeling you wouldn’t go too far.”

  “Why did you bother? Haven’t you heard what I did? I was too much of a coward to save that boy.”

  Raymond sat beside his friend. “But the boy was saved.”

  “The people here knew I was a troublemaker. Now they must think I’m a worthless coward. I don’t belong here, and this just proves it.”

  “That’s not true at all—” Raymond began.

  “But it is!” Hugh interrupted as he withdrew a crumpled sheet of parchment from his pocket and handed it to his friend. “I never want to see this again.”

  Raymond saw the formula on the page. “This again.”

  “Yes,” Hugh said. “If I hadn’t been daydreaming about how rich and powerful those symbols would make me in the real world, none of this would have happened. Just goes to show, some people don’t deserve the trust they’re given.”

  “Why are you so unhappy here?” Raymond asked.

  “Because I don’t belong in Dinotopia! For a time, I held a speck of hope that somehow I could fit in here. But I was wrong. Hope is the enemy back where I come from. There was a saying there: Those who sit around on the street dreaming that things will get better are more likely to be hit by a wagon!”

  Raymond shook his head. “You’re wrong, Hugh. Hope matters. Trying matters.”

  Hugh would not look his friend in the eye. “You don’t understand. I thought Dinotopia was different—and it is—but I’m not. What happened today proved that. I’m sorry, Raymond, but I’m not good enough for this place. The dolphins made a mistake. They should have left me to drown.”

  A rustling sound came from a nearby cluster of trees. Bix suddenly stepped forward. She’d been listening all along. “I beg to differ,” she broke in. “You saved Raymond’s life!”

  “That was different,” Hugh said, not surprised at all by Bix’s sudden appearance. By now Hugh had gotten used to Dinotopians appearing almost magically out of thin air.

  “How was saving Raymond different?” Bix asked.

  “I didn’t have any time to think about that. A storm was raging! Daggers and cutlasses were flying. I just did it. This time I had to make a decision—put myself at risk or let someone else die. I couldn’t do it. If that Skybax and his rider hadn’t rescued the boy, he would have been killed.”

  Bix shook her head. “You should not be so hard on yourself. There are always second chances. Especially on Dinotopia.”

  “Second chances? Not for people like me,” Hugh said, turning from his friends and walking away.

  Raymond started to go after him.

  “Don’t,” Bix said. “Hugh needs some time alone. He’ll be fine.”

  Raymond watched Hugh’s departing form and wished he could believe that.

  The next day, a celebration was held to honor the bravery of the Skybax and rider who had saved the young boy. Hugh was there, but he watched only from the edge of the fairgrounds. He was half-hidden behind a large tree, well beyond th
e crowd.

  In his mind, the coolness he had expected from the Dinotopians had finally arrived. He had been taken off guard duty for good. Hugh knew it was nothing less than he deserved. Why should they trust him to fail again?

  He dreaded the looks he sometimes got from the people he had come to admire. Raymond claimed it was all in Hugh’s own mind. But Hugh believed he knew people better than Raymond did!

  All his life Hugh had been nothing more than a gutter rat. Being loathed was part and parcel of his former existence. If only the Dinotopians hated Hugh, then he would know what to do—hate right back! But this was far worse.

  They didn’t hate him. They pitied him. He just knew it!

  The sidelong glances they gave him seemed to say, “He can’t help himself. He’s just a worthless Dolphinback.”

  Yes, he thought. And a coward.

  One thing was clear to Hugh—he didn’t deserve friends like Raymond and Bix. Come nightfall, he was going to leave Skybax Camp.

  Backing away, Hugh heard a sharp cry. He spun and saw that he had stepped on the foot of a girl. She was about his own age and quite pretty, with short black hair and Asian features.

  She smiled broadly. For a moment, Hugh found himself staring dumbly at the dark color of her eyes.

  Chiding himself, he downturned his gaze, muttered an apology, and started to walk away.

  “Oh, so that’s how it is,” she said. “Step on my toes, then act as if I mean nothing to you. I swear, boys on this island are all the same.”

  Hugh stopped abruptly and took another look at the young woman. There was something very different about her. “Are you Hikaro’s daughter?”

  “Hah!” she said. “He’s Japanese. I’m Chinese. Big difference.”

  Sorry.

  “No need. I just didn’t want to miss my chance to meet the terrible Hugh O’Donovan.”

  “Terrible,” he said. “Yes, I suppose I am at that—”

  She frowned. “I was teasing you! You know, joking…” She looked him up and down. “It is as I was told, you are all too serious. You must learn to have more fun in life!”

  “Oh?” Hugh wondered who this girl was. “You have me at a disadvantage.”