Dolphin Watch

by John Vornholt

  The boy scrambled onto Lilith’s back as the dolphins scattered in all directions. The chase was on!

  The Cryptoclidus couldn’t leap like a dolphin, but her four long fins made her a powerful swimmer. All of them were air-breathers, but the dolphins and the reptile could dive to incredible depths on a single breath. Milos was lucky that the water was only about thirty feet deep at the reef, or he would be waterlogged before they caught anyone.

  Lilith spotted Smiley and streaked after the head dolphin. When Lilith closed the distance on the dolphin, Milos knew the chase was over. Whichever way he turned, the plesiosaur used her long neck to tag him out. This time she got him on his tail.

  The other dolphins were quite delighted that their leader had been so easily caught. They squealed and twirled playfully under the waves. Knowing that Milos had to grab a breath, Lilith rose briefly to the surface, then dove back into the game.

  They played Shark for a long time, then they all did water ballet for an even longer time. Milos was amazed that Lilith could duplicate most of the dolphins’ tricks underwater, even if she couldn’t leap the way they did.

  The lad untied the bag that contained his oilskin clothes, and they used it as a ball. The dolphins and the Cryptoclidus were both very good at bouncing it off their noses and catching it in their mouths. But Milos was the only one who could throw the ball any distance. Keep-Away was the only game he had a chance of winning in this company.

  They were in the middle of the ball game when a dorsal fin came streaking toward them across the cove. The newcomer leaped from the water, and Milos was glad to see it was just another bottlenose dolphin. At once, the game stopped as the Sky Jumpers huddled around the newcomer, who chattered excitedly and bobbed his head.

  Milos had no idea what the dolphin was saying. He gazed up at the sky, and it was as dark as a brachiosaur’s belly.

  Without a chirp of good-bye, Smiley and the dolphin pod suddenly sped away. Still caught up in the spirit of play, Lilith followed them, and Milos barely had time to take a breath. With shock, the boy realized they were headed straight toward the reef. A new chase was on, but it seemed to be deadly serious.

  CHAPTER 2

  As they raced along the reef, the dolphin pod strung out into a single file, with Lilith and Milos at the rear. Peering through his dive mask, the boy could barely believe his eyes as the dolphins disappeared one by one into the dense shimmering coral.

  Caught up in the chase, the Cryptoclidus had no thought of turning back as she followed the dolphins into a narrow crevice among the branches of coral. It was almost like trying to crawl through thick thorn vines, thought Milos. Sometimes the openings were quite low, and they had to swim some distance underwater.

  Lilith broke the surface to get a breath whenever possible, but that was like trying to find a hole in a frozen lake. Nothing could make it over the sharp coral, since it was so close to the surface. The only way to move through the solid jungle was to follow the swirling fins ahead of them.

  The lad began to wonder where they were going. At first, he had thought it was just a chase, like Hide-and-Seek. But what if they had a destination? With the coral branches crowding in, all he could do was hang on to Lilith and his breath.

  It was the scariest kind of labyrinth, with every passage looking just the same. Somehow the dolphins knew which crevice to take in the shimmering tunnels. Lilith had to twist and turn, and Milos could see nothing but bubbles and colors spinning all around him.

  At one point, the boy was running out of breath and getting light-headed when he slapped Lilith’s shoulder. After searching with her long neck, the reptile rose to the surface for a moment—just long enough for both of them to grab a breath.

  In that instant, Milos looked around and saw they were in a circular ring of jagged coral. A strange mist obscured the island of Dinotopia behind them and the sea before them. The silence was oppressive. This place was like twilight—the passage between two worlds—Dinotopia and the outside realm.

  The youth shivered, and it wasn’t because of the chill in the air. He was glad to get back underwater, where a dolphin waited to show them the way.

  Lilith soon caught up with the pod, and they were back to chasing the tails ahead of them. Even for the marine mammals, the passage through the reefs was slow and arduous. More than once, Lilith brushed too close to the sharp coral, and both of them got scratched. But Lilith had thicker skin.

  After one encounter, the lad realized he was bleeding from a wound on his shoulder. It was weird how his blood looked green, because the ocean filtered out the red light. In sudden fear, Milos almost leaped off Lilith’s back. But they had already gone too far out—so far that he could never find his way back.

  He gulped down his fear and put his trust in his friends. Maybe they should have talked about this first, but it had all happened too fast. Wherever this strange journey ended, the boy was along for the ride.

  Milos hunched down and closed his eyes, not even bothering to watch the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of color. The sea grew bright pink as they passed through a stand of dead coral. He took some comfort from the thought that no creature bigger than Lilith could ever make it through these treacherous reefs. No human alone would ever stand a chance.

  They surfaced again for air, and he felt stinging rain and cold wind on his face. The waves were pitching and roiling, and a squall was in full force. Dinotopia was nowhere in sight, and neither was anything else.

  We’re in the open sea! Milos realized with a start. He had never been this far from land—so far that it wasn’t even in sight! Heck, nobody from Dinotopia went this far out! He had heard of people who tried to escape from the island—the last being a scoundrel named Lee Crabb.

  Lilith craned her neck around to look at him, and even the big reptile seemed scared by the unfamiliar sea. A dorsal fin broke the surface, followed by Smiley’s scarred, bluish gray body. Bobbing his head angrily, the dolphin popped and chittered at them. It was as if he was telling them that they had better keep up, because the journey wasn’t over yet.

  With the storm wailing on the surface, it was a relief to get back underwater. They cruised through endless slate-blue waters. Used to life near the shore, it was strange for Milos to see nothing but ocean wherever he looked. Even the bottom was too far away to see. He tried to tell himself that the dolphins would take him home. But what if they didn’t?

  After several minutes of steady paddling, following their guides, Lilith swam toward something dark and foreboding on the surface. At first, Milos thought it might be a Kronosaurus or some other huge marine reptile, but then he realized that those animals could never get through the reef. No, it was a boat—a big boat being tossed upon the waves.

  The pod of dolphins circled under the dark hull, showing obvious concern. Milos didn’t want to go to the stormy surface, but he needed air. He tugged on Lilith’s neck, giving her the signal to ascend.

  When they broke the surface, Milos had to gasp for breath and do it quickly. Lilith was normally sure-flippered and made a very stable raft, but the squall tossed her about like a leaf in a whirlpool. Milos had to rub salt water from his eyes to see anything at all, and then he saw it!

  Looming above them was a big, three-masted sailing ship—a bark, if he remembered his lessons. She was in serious trouble. Sailors scrambled in her rigging, but Milos could see that half the sails were torn and flapping out of control.

  The boy crouched low on Lilith’s back, so the men wouldn’t see him. But he could have been a Kronosaurus, and they wouldn’t have noticed—they had their hands full. Booms were swinging and halyards were snapping against the masts as the gale unleashed its fury.

  Even above the howl of the storm, he could hear angry shouting. On the heaving deck, one of the men was berating the others, and Milos wondered if he was the captain. If so, he wasn’t doing a very good job, because there was nothing but chaos on the troubled ship.

  Suddenly, there was a loud crack, and the miz
zenmast snapped at the yardarm. With a rippling sail full of wind, the giant pole raked across the deck and struck the man who had been yelling. The others managed to jump out of the way, but he was swept right off the deck into the raging sea.

  Milos gripped Lilith’s neck as they dove underwater. He saw the dolphins leap into action, rushing to intercept the man who had fallen overboard. As the struggling ship pitched helplessly above them, beneath the waves it seemed calm. The dolphins caught the unconscious sailor under his arms and propelled him to the surface.

  Milos wondered if they would try to return the fallen sailor to his ship. Then he realized there was no way anyone on the bark could mount a rescue effort. In fact, when he and Lilith reached the surface, the sailing ship was already a hundred yards away. The crew were at the mercy of the storm, while the sailor was at the mercy of the dolphins.

  The boy had always wanted to see how the dolphins rescued a sailor, and he got a close-up look. They formed a raft of two abreast, with Smiley on the starboard side. The seaman had a dolphin under each arm, and two more followed them. They nudged and prodded him as needed to keep him on the backs of their comrades. Somehow they kept the sailor above water, so that he could breathe.

  Other dolphins broke off, alerting Lilith. She and Milos ducked underwater and turned in time to see two sinister shapes knifing through the depths. From their big dorsal fins and wide mouths, he recognized them at once. Sharks!

  The pod of dolphins intercepted them, and they plowed into the sharks with devastating head butts. Although the predators made a show of fighting back, they were no match for the numbers and coordination of the dolphins. After the second round of dolphin torpedoes, they fled.

  Milos prodded Lilith to get closer to Smiley, and he finally got a good look at the marooned seaman. The lad was shocked to see how young the sailor was. The man was blond and handsome, but scarcely more than nineteen or twenty years old. Then he’s not the captain, thought Milos with relief. He would have hated to see a vessel deprived of her captain at a time like this.

  Whoever he was, his comrades would think he was dead—lost at sea.

  For a moment, the young sailor opened his eyes and gazed directly at Milos. He smiled and wheezed, “I’ve been rescued by a mermaid!”

  The boy wasn’t going to argue with him, but he clicked his tongue so that Lilith would pull back and follow the dolphin raft. The sailor passed out again, and his rescuers had to struggle to keep him afloat. To save the young sailor, the dolphins had no choice but to bring him to Dinotopia. Would he fit in? Would he like it there?

  Who knew?

  At any rate, Milos was cold and tired, and he was very glad to be going home. Even Lilith was puffing with exhaustion as she struggled through the churning waves. It had been thrilling to accompany the dolphins on a rescue mission to the outside world, but Milos wasn’t eager to do it again. Now the pod was headed to shore, slowed by their burden.

  “You’re not too tired to swim back?” asked the boy.

  “I’m not tired!” snorted the Cryptoclidus. Her long neck undulated into an arrow, as if to say she would learn the way home.

  CHAPTER 3

  After an arduous but slow journey back through the reefs, Milos rolled off Lilith’s back, crawled onto the beach, and collapsed. He heard splashing as the dolphins rolled the blond sailor onto the pebbles beside him. Smiley chirped at him for a moment, then flopped back into the water and swam away, along with the rest of the Sky Jumpers.

  Milos rolled onto his back and looked up at the dazzling blue sky. Although there were still dark clouds to the north of Dinotopia, the sun was shining on this special part of the world. It seemed to be late afternoon.

  Lilith floated in the shallow water, poking Milos with her head.

  “Yes, I know I’m not done yet,” muttered the boy. He reached over and gripped the sailor’s wrist as he had been taught, feeling for a pulse. The young man was still alive, but he felt cold. So Milos pulled his oilcloth slicker out of his bag and stretched it over the half-drowned sailor.

  Then he staggered to his feet and started up the bluff. In his exhausted state, it took Milos about twenty minutes to climb to the top, when it normally took him only ten. At the top of the grassy bluff he found the alarm bell in a small gazebo. It was used to signal a storm, a fishing boat or a reptile in distress, as well as a dolphinback. Sharp peals rang out over the quiet sea and the peaceful coves of Crackshell Point.

  Before Milos could even stagger back to the beach, a plodding Euoplocephalus showed up, pulling a colorful wagon, which was empty. The spiny dinosaur smelled the blond sailor to make sure the trip had been worth the effort. When he was satisfied that the human was still alive, the Euoplocephalus reared back his head and hooted loudly to the sky.

  While Milos climbed down to the beach, the dinosaur chatted with Lilith, no doubt hearing the whole story. There was a flurry of activity in the tall grass, and a Ceratosaurus came running on his hind legs, a dark-haired woman riding on his back.

  “Hullo, Doctor!” called Milos, glad to see the traveling healer, who was named Tavia.

  “Good thing I was in the neighborhood,” she said as she leaped off her mount. Tavia bent over the young man and began to examine him. Being a nurse, the Ceratosaurus hovered nearby, ready to assist. Milos just sat on the beach and watched, trying to keep his eyes open.

  “He’s suffering from hypothermia and shock,” declared the healer. Then she cast a curious eye on Milos. “And how do you feel?”

  “Never felt better,” he lied.

  “You look like you were shipwrecked with him,” said Tavia. “You’d better go home and rest. Want a ride to Abalonia?”

  “Yes, please.”

  While the doctor and her nurse loaded the young sailor into the wagon, Milos waded back into the surf. He stroked Lilith’s head and whispered, “I have to go with them. I’ll see you later, okay?”

  The Cryptoclidus wrapped her long neck around the boy’s waist in a sign of affection. Then she paddled away, ducked her head under the waves, and disappeared.

  Joshua Longacre awoke with a stuffy nose, a wheezing cough, and the feeling that his head was full of wet rags. He’d been having the most curious dream, full of hideous monsters, mermaids, and jumping fish. Plus there was a good storm at sea. Joshua was glad it was over … and that he was back in his own bed.

  His itchy eyes focused on a figure in a striped frock and white apron, whose back was turned to him. That was when he realized he wasn’t really in his dormitory room, or in his suite at home. The walls were lined with shelves holding colorful bottles, ceramic bowls, and delicate metal tools. Perhaps he was in a hospital somewhere, which fit his exhausted condition.

  “Excuse me?” Joshua rasped through parched lips.

  The attendant turned, and the youth cried out in alarm. A more hideous beast he could not have imagined! The thing was man-sized and stood upright, but it had blazing red eyes, a scaly snout, and enough teeth for a grizzly bear. Plus the hands thrusting from the sleeves weren’t hands at all … but long, reptilian claws!

  Joshua was certain he would be devoured in the next instant, but he struggled weakly to get out of his bed.

  “Stay away! Don’t touch me!” he yelled.

  The door crashed open, and a handsome woman with brown hair charged into the room. “Stay calm,” she said, holding her hands up. “You’re among friends.”

  “Friends!” he shrieked, quivering. Joshua’s eyes bulged as he stared at the horrible apparition. “What do you call that thing? A friend?”

  “Why, actually I call her Spearfoot,” answered the lady calmly. “The people in your world would call her a Ceratosaurus.”

  The creature barked and clicked in response to her name, and Joshua recoiled in horror. The elegant lady nodded to the beast, and the creature seemed to understand. With a steely glance at Joshua, the hellish apparition slunk out the door.

  The kindly lady sat on the bed next to Joshua, and he could se
e she was very beautiful, although many years older than he was. He relaxed and sank back onto his bedding. He had already met Beauty and the Beast—who would be next?

  “My name is Tavia,” she said in a businesslike tone. “Do you remember falling overboard during a storm? Waking up on the beach?”

  He snapped his fingers. “I remember a mermaid! Do you mean that dream was real?”

  “It wasn’t a dream. All I know for sure is that you were rescued by dolphins and brought safely to our shores.”

  “Rescued by dolphins?” Joshua scoffed. “Those scavengers of the seas?”

  Tavia gave him a wry smile. “I see you have much to learn. Have you ever heard of dinosaurs?”

  “Dinosaurs?” he asked incredulously. “Sure, those old bones they dig up in the Badlands. What’s that got to do with me?”

  “You find yourself in a land where dinosaurs are not just old bones,” began the doctor… .

  Milos lay in a hammock on the communal boat, where he was supposed to be resting. But he could hear shouting at the other end of the houseboat, so he rolled out of the hammock. The communal boat doubled as a clinic, and one seldom heard shouting. But this was the second time, and it sounded mad, like a man losing his sanity. He wondered if it could be the dolphinback.

  Since no one was watching him, the lad slipped out of bed and padded onto the deck. He moved carefully, because the wounds on his shoulders and back were freshly bandaged. Milos walked along the rail of the houseboat, following the shouts, which were coming from the foredeck.

  There he found Tavia and the young seaman surveying the wharf and the collection of houseboats. Abalonia never looked big, and it was nearly empty at midafternoon. At the other end of the pier, a gang of dinosaurs and humans were unloading a cargo ship.

  “I can’t believe this!” the seaman blustered. “You tell me I’ve fallen onto some fantastic island that’s on no chart? No one’s ever heard of it?”

  “That’s the length of the tale,” answered Tavia with an apologetic smile. She caught sight of Milos and motioned him over. “Here’s someone you know. I believe he’s your ‘mermaid,’ although his hair isn’t really that long. I see someone I must speak with. You two get to know each other.”