| Subject: Re: that's history by a day or two |
Author:
Eaglefeather
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Date Posted: 17:34:46 12/02/01 Sun
Author Host/IP: 1Cust225.tnt6.gainesville.fl.da.uu.net/63.29.227.225
In reply to:
Eaglefeather
's message, "Tale of Beginnings, i.e., Unlikely Crossroads" on 15:21:19 12/02/01 Sun
As Eaglefeather told the young man, an unexpected and surpisingly smart child, about the Giants that had routed his family in the last battles of his dynasty, the boy took on a strange expression. All of the sudden, one day, when the raptor prince was mentioning the beauty of the palace of his childhood, the boy sat up like a rocket and howled. By reflex, Eaglefeather crouched at the sound, thinking something had hurt the boy, and he readied himself with the warrior rites of the ancients, hoping it wasn't a very smart opponent. The boy stopped, and told him that whatever it was was gone.
When he asked the boy what it was that spooked him so, Gabriel answered simply, "Something put a shadow over the moon's light, so I howled till it was afraid and left."
Eaglefeather was beginning to think the boy had either swallowed too much ocean on the dolphin's back, or caught too much sun on the shore. That was the last time he questioned Gabriel though, because then, it was Gabriel's turn to tell his story.
He had made up a story quickly when the raptor woke him up, saying that he was an orphan boy, an outcast, a cabin boy aboard a pirate vessel that crashed. But Gabe had been infected by the dinotopian Code, in small ways, and had decided to take up honesty, so that he could have a real friend in Eaglefeather.
See, this boy was no stranger to giants. In his youth, he told his companion, he had assassinated one, and that was why he was so afraid of shadows.
"There's going to be an explosion on this island. Do you want to know why? because it's the last island on earth where people and saurians, like you and me, can be best friends. Do you know why they call it Dinotopia?"
And in truth, the raptor, with all his royal blood, didn't know, because this was not his kingdom, nor the place he had been born. Such knowledge hadn't been given to him. But Gabriel Knew.
"I have a secret to tell you, Eaglefeather. In as much as you have true royal blood running through your veins, and even in your sleep you mumble in your language of the four winds, I know why you can't ever reclaim what your family lost."
Eaglefeather was dumbfounded. He had been thrown out for his differences, his beliefs, his bloodline, all his life, but never had a child like This talked down their nose at him. He was tempted to be infuriated, yet something in the boy's eyes told him to listen.
"Do you know why i was afraid of you when you touched me? what woke me up from my nightmare? Your scar had the feeling of the same poison that runs through my veins. Not only that, but i was raised all my life to hunt and kill saurians, innocent and beautiful people, like you. But when i woke up, i realized you were just like me, someone who had feelings and emotions raging inside of him that he didn't understand, something different when i needed it most -- a friend."
Eaglefeather could barely speak. He was overcome with the things this child said. Did he hear Gabriel right -- that he was one of them? Instantly, his feathers rose up and his blood screamed to him to slay this child of the giants where he stood. But he swung his tale in agitation, and reluctantly asked, "What is it that you think keeps me from reining like my closest family did -- with victory?"
Gabriel looked at him in a way that made him feel suddenly warm, all over. It was like nothing he'd ever felt before. It enchanted him, and entranced him, and made him feel sleepy. It even made him feel alert, in a very odd sense. And the next words that came from the boy's mouth punctured any doubt or premonitions that had told him to kill the boy.
"Eaglefeather, I apologize for not being honest with you, like you were with me, but I really did have to be sure. But if you are still lacking faith in my trustworthiness, I'll give you the best I can. I'll give you my side of history. All my life, yes, all 8 years of it, I've been enslaved by the Order of Mankind. All these years, I knew they were hiding something, but I wasn't sure just what. Then, one night, I rebelled against my father's commands and stole a look at the blueprints of his plans. It was that moment that I realized just how insidiously evil and dark the hearts of "Mankind" had become -- this machines sole purpose was to destroy life, not to create it.
"Eaglefeather, I was a prince, just like you. But when I saw those blueprints and got caught, it was as if my parents had never seen me, like I didn't even exist. They told me I'd dishonored them for the last time, and then they locked me up. They were the king and queen of the world, and they put their most trusted bodyguard between me and the way out. That was a mistake. Their most trusted bodyguard was dead in the morning."
Now understand, I did not want this man dead. I didn't want to kill any of them. I just wanted to get out of that house, no matter what the cost. None was to great, and I can see, that I was just in time."
"If what you say about receiving scars from bullets of pure poison is true, then you truly came from another island. Am I correct?"
Eaglefeather nodded; there had clearly never been such a thing as gunshot on this island, at least, not as far as he could tell.
"And there was once a man named Lee Crab, who always said that the people were the slaves of the saurians, and that he died trying to get away from the island?"
Eaglefeather was no scholar, not about the matters of Dinotopia, but he had heard a few things, so he nodded his head and pricked his feathers with interest.
"That man never died. He was my father. And if I'm correct, he's trying to raise the lords of the world beneath as his allies. The volcanic eruption is a cover-up, because he knows he can't beat us if we are united! We must be the princes we were meant to be Here and Now if there is ever going to be hope for saurians or mankind!"
Gabriel, now quivering, put his hand on the creatures snout, in a gesture that vexed the great prince. "It was you, my brother, that taught me to say, with palm extended, Fly high, Breathe deep, but Seek peace. Would you die for that peace, like friend and family? Would you die with me, Prince Warrior?"
Then was the moment Eaglefeather roared like never before, and it was a roar there has yet to be an equal of from Any raptor, Anywhere.
They say Lee Crab heard it and shivered.
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