by Dreagen
“No, not my neck,” cried TyRoas as VayRonx picked him up by the scruff of the neck and carried him up the hill.
It was truly a sight to behold as DiNiya came up to the top, practically dragging Rex by the ear, while the enormous alpha VayRonx was right behind her carrying TyRoas like a mischievous kitten. The look of misery on both their faces was apparently too funny to keep from not laughing, for everyone roared with it as they watched them be hauled off.
“DiNiya, stop,” Rex said, surprised by how strong she was. “This is embarrassing!”
“Oh, no,” she replied, not relinquishing her grip even a bit. “I’m not letting go of you until you’re back in bed!”
“Oh, come on!” Rex protested.
“Now, now,” said EeNox, amused. “Sure we’ll all be laughing about this for who knows how long, but at least you won’t be the one in the story who is getting hauled off like a naughty cub.”
“Shut up, EeNox,” TyRoas yelled angrily, resulting in everyone just laughing harder.
Back in his room, DiNiya had given Rex an earful about fighting in his condition and that if he did it again she would not let him out for another three days. Rex listened in silence, fearing that anything he would say would just get her more riled up. This must be what it’s like to have a mother, he thought. The lecture continued for another hour before DiNiya finally ran out of steam and plopped down on the bed beside him. “Feel better?” he asked. Looking over at him, she laughed. “You’ve got to admit I was winning, though,” he said with a smug smile.
DiNiya rolled her eyes and conceded. “You were holding your own. I’ll give you that.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” he said, grinning.
“Oh my, Rex,” she teased. “You are so big and strong! Oh, how we are all so small and insignificant in your shadow which covers the land.”
“Sounds about right,” he replied, unfazed by her good-natured teasing.
She smiled and shifted on the bed so she was facing him. “So…how are you doing…really?” she asked now with more concern.
Rex thought about the question for a moment. “To be honest, I’m really not sure. There’s still so much I know I’m not remembering, and it worries me a little. How can I ever really be me if I can’t remember who I really am?”
DiNiya regarded him in respectful silence, unsure how to answer his question. “Maybe that’s what you need to figure out?”
“Who I was?”
She shook her head. “How to be you as you are now.”
“By the way, that OroGon…um, TyRoas. Why was he after me back in the forest? I know he said it had something to do with someone killing someone, but I don’t see why I’m his number one suspect.”
“He’s just scared,” she answered, tucking some of her fur behind her ear. “And it’s not just the OroGon, everyone is on edge these days. It’s been happening to a lot of the others, too.”
“What has?”
“Two days before you arrived, some of the herds began losing babies to something,” she explained. “No one has any idea who is responsible, but many believe it is a predator from a region near the sea.”
“Oh?” he replied curiously.
“Yes. This is the Northern Continent, the northernmost landmass on EeNara. Whatever is behind these killings may have swum here from another continent or have been residing on the coast before moving inland from the west, which is where the killings began.”
“EeNara? So this really isn’t Earth. I suppose I knew that when I first saw the sky.”
“Earth?” DiNiya asked curiously. “Is that the name of where you came from?”
“Well, yeah,” he replied. “I mean, it’s the name of my planet.” Rex found himself plummeting into a state of surrealism at speaking these words aloud. Ironically, he had found himself coping rather well with the amazing things he had been seeing over the past few days. However, the idea of being on another world altogether was apparently one revelation too many for him. He felt sick to his stomach while he desperately tried to fight off succumbing to a dizzy spell.
“But how can that be?” she asked, sitting up and looking at him intently. “How could you have come from…another world?”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” he replied, shaking off the feeling of lightheadedness.
“This is strange,” she said, shaking her head.
“That realization had crossed my mind.”
“No, I mean you can’t be…well, an alien, because you’re clearly a SaVarian.”
“I just learned that myself only four days ago, so I suppose that means I’ve been living as an alien for the past fifteen years back on Earth. My question is why was I there if I’m from here?”
“That’s a good question. One I wish I had the answer to.” She looked off to the side, momentarily lost in thought.
Seeing that she was beginning to stress herself out with mulling the question over in her mind, Rex decided to change the subject back to one of a more pressing matter for her. “Tell me more about this mystery killer?”
DiNiya looked at him for a moment, as if she had forgotten all about it, before adopting a neutral face and continuing where she had left off. “We’ve had no sightings of him or her, but the smell of the sea is always strong where the young ones have been attacked. That’s why TyRoas came after you,” she said, looking at him sympathetically.
Rex in turn looked at DiNiya, who seemed to be hoping for an explanation. “I don’t know why I was covered in seawater,” he replied, slightly irritated but managing to keep it under control this time. “I can’t remember anything before waking up in that field.”
“Nothing?”
“No. Well, I mean yes. Things like where I came from—my town and basic things like that—but nothing really about what brought me here. But it does feel like there is something in the back of my mind…trying to come to the front…but every time I try to reach out it disappears.” He sighed before looking back at her. “Maybe I’m just going crazy.”
DiNiya looked at him and smiled before giving him a playful shove. “No crazier than the rest of us.”
Looking into his eyes, DiNiya saw a sea of churning flame, which seemed to hypnotize and stir something deep within her. So visceral and vivid was this sensation that it felt as if they were waking from a long sleep, one that had been imprisoning and shackling them. Their flames resonated together as they both felt something so new and exciting and yet very familiar. Together they flew through this seemingly endless expanse within each other, moving faster and faster until it was as if they were without form, becoming pure fire.
High above they rose and plunged into the burning red sky where they were at once one with a fire so pure and powerful, something bigger, grander, and more beautiful than anything they had ever felt. They both could feel their flames calling to each other. Their minds felt as if they were one, with the two of them able to sense what the other was feeling. Rex could sense joy in her heart, something that was absent within his, but also something he was familiar with—a great pain born of sorrow keeping her from experiencing the levity she seemed to long for.
Meanwhile, DiNiya could sense the bitterness that lurked within his very being. It was so much like hers, but at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. Where Rex sensed light in her, she sensed darkness in him. Also, where she sensed rage, he sensed fear. Their bodies returned, taking shape, growing stronger, and suddenly they looked at, or rather felt each other, and for the span of time it took to blink, saw themselves as beings so powerful and primal that it snapped them out of their shared vision and brought them back to reality.
“Whoa,” said Rex as he blinked.
“Yeah,” DiNiya replied, breathing heavily.
“Is that a normal thing for you people?”
“It’s called communing,” she replied. “It’s what happens when two flames link together.”
Rex looked down, still taken aback by what they had just experienced. “I could
feel what it was like to be you,” he said in a subdued tone.
“I know,” she replied softly.
“You’re afraid.”
“Yes,” she said, her voice shaking slightly.
Rex raised his head and looked deep into her eyes, but this time with a penetrative stare. “So if I’m one of you, why are you so afraid of me?”
“Rex…I’m sorry,” she said as tears ran down her face. Rising quickly, she pushed through the door and ran out of the room.
Rex stared at the open door for a time, stuck in a daze. What had happened between them? Try as he might he could not shake the feeling. He could still feel her in his head. He wanted to go after her and ask what this meant, but that would require him opening up more to her, something he was not too keen on doing with anyone. Emotional attachments with other people had always been an elusive concept. He had always glided through life like a shadow in a sea of light, completely surrounded by it yet untouched by it at the same time. People moved past him like faceless outlines of individuals that were out of phase. Or had it been he who was out of phase? In light of this new self-discovery of his own origin, he could not help but wonder. Regardless, it was because of this emotional detachment that he had always been a loner. The only other person he had ever felt any kind of connection to was…he grabbed his head as a searing pain stabbed through it. “Damn it,” he said through gritted teeth. He knew his mind was trying to keep him from remembering something, but what? Rex, came EliCia’s voice. Rex, do not push yourself. The memories you seek will return in time.
“No,” he growled as he shook his head. “I want this pain to end now! Why can’t I remember?” The sound of furious roaring began to rise in his head until it sounded as if it filled the room, deafening and growing louder.
You are not yet ready to remember, Rex, she urged. Pushing it will only cause you more pain. When you are ready, the memories with come to you.
“What do you mean when I’m ready?” Rex exclaimed. “What the hell is happening to me?”
Rex, please, you must stop!
The same familiar crimson flames began to rise from his eyes as he bared his teeth in anger. “All of you,” he spoke in an unnaturally deep voice. “Get out of my head!” His voice turned into a fearsome growl, which instantly shocked him back to sanity. He looked around the room and called out, “Hello?” but there was no response now. Slumping back down, he asked, “What is wrong with me?” He looked back to the open door and sighed before standing up and walking out.
DiNiya was sitting atop the ridge overlooking the inner forest where she and Rex had fallen asleep the night before, gazing out at the pristine vista spread out before her. The sun was at its highest point in the sky, bathing everything in its warm glow.
“Found you,” came a familiar voice from behind. Looking back, she saw Rex standing there. She rose to her feet and met his gaze, and they looked at each other in silence for a time. Rex noticed that she had the same look of sadness that she had the previous night.
“Did you climb again?” she asked in a somber tone, breaking the silence.
“No,” Rex replied, shaking his head. “Took the stairs.”
She let out a small laugh, which seemed to dissolve all tension between the two of them. “I wanted—”
“Listen, I’m—”
They both laughed again. “You go first,” Rex said.
“No, please,” she replied. “You go, I insist.”
“Ladies first,” he said definitively, crossing his arms.
She sighed and smiled. “Very well,” she said, taking a deep breath. “Yes, Rex…I am afraid of you, but not in the way you think.”
“Go on.”
“When I’m near you I feel different. I could feel it the day VayRonx brought you here.”
“Different how”
“I can’t say.”
“How am I supposed to trust you if you won’t be honest with me?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you, it’s just that, well, in truth, I just don’t know.” Rex cocked his head, looking at her quizzically.
“You’ve probably noticed that besides me, there are no others with eyes like yours.”
“You mean red ones?”
“Yes, however, even you share one thing in common with everyone else. One thing that I no longer do.”
“What?”
“You and everyone else can ignite their flame…but I can’t.”
“Your eyes,” he said, looking into them. “They look the way mine did before I found myself here. For a long time I thought they made me strange.”
“And now?”
“Now I realize they made me a freak because there was something missing to them.”
“An active flame.”
“What am I? Why am I so different even here? And why are we the same, but not?”
DiNiya regarded him for a long while, silently observing the look of desperation that was slowly creeping across his face. Could she tell him, she wondered. Should she? She gave the matter a great deal of thought, wrestling with it back and forth in her mind, before eventually looking up and smiling. “Rex there are so many things for you to learn about this world, your world, the least of which involves me.”
Rex’s shoulders slumped as he gave what could have almost been a look of defeat before accepting her choice to evade rather than face him head on.
“All right,” he said, walking past her and looking over the edge to gaze out at the pristine expanse. Herds of dinosaurs could be seen below. “This place,” he said. “It’s like a dream.”
DiNiya looked at him curiously and asked, “Earth isn’t like this?”
“No,” he replied with a laugh. “No, it’s not. Looking at this place makes me realize that the majesty died in that world a long time ago.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” she said, turning back to look at the scenery.
“How would you know?” he asked callously. “Ever been there?”
“No,” she replied simply. “It’s just that power, real power, is something that lives deep within, and only comes out when it is truly needed. That’s what happened with EeNara; it was threatened with oblivion, and so it unleashed its hidden power.”
“Which was?”
“Us,” she replied, turning to meet his eyes.
“Who would ever want to harm this place?”
“I suppose that is something that will have to be explained. Still, I think that story is better suited to be told by the one who tells it best.”
“Not very forthcoming today, are you?”
“Are you so different?” she countered, smiling coyly.
Rex looked deep into her dark red eyes and found the same hypnotic sensation gliding over him, like he was slipping into a warm bath. DiNiya also felt herself lowering her guard around this strange young man from another world. She was drawn to him, which scared her, but at the same time wondered if it was really him she was afraid of or rather what it meant for her to feel that she could be so open with him when they had only just met. Finally, Rex smiled and shook his head. “Well, this got deep.”
DiNiya laughed heartily. “Yes, well…sorry about that.”
“The only thing you should be sorry for is making that place sound important,” Rex said irritably, though not at her. “My world—what a joke. You don’t know how lucky you are to live alongside them,” he said, admiring the dinosaurs. “I’ve always felt connected to them, like I knew they were special in some way, but everyone made fun of me for it. They would call me all sorts of names, but the one that stung the most was ‘crazy.’ How could I be crazy when I knew what I knew…felt what I felt.”
“Whom are you referring to when you say they?”
“The dinosaurs.”
“The what?”
“You know, VayRonx and all of them down there,” he said, pointing to several of them below.
“Oh, I see,” she said, suddenly understanding. “You’re talking about the D
yVorians.”
“Is that what they’re called here?” he asked curiously.
“It’s the only name I’ve ever known for them.”
“Makes sense, I suppose. This is another world, after all. Anyway, dino…er…um DyVorians are special. I could never say why, but I always just knew.”
“Are there no DyVorians on Earth?”
Rex looked at her, then up to the sky. “The DyVorians of my world have been gone for a very long time. Only some of their descendants remain. Echoes of the past.”
She placed a hand on his arm and said, “Nothing is truly gone forever, Rex. Like everything in nature, a flame does not die; it just turns from one form to another. I believe the DyVorians of the world you came from were always there with you.”
“None of that matters anymore,” Rex said as he walked up to the edge and spread his arms wide. “That world is far behind me now. I want to know all about this one; tell me everything!”
DiNiya smiled and stepped beside him on the edge. “Well, to the west is the city of Bloodstone. That’s the last settlement before you reach the western coast.”
“Why is it called Bloodstone?”
“Because of an uncommon mineral that makes the land itself a deep red, like blood. The city is built right out of it.”
“Ahh.”
“To the north we have the snowy mountains of ClyVen, home of the most reclusive tribes in all of EeNara.”
Rex’s mind was going wild at the sound of DyVorian cities and wondrous, far-off places filled with untold marvels.
“Let’s see,” she continued. “To the east we have Flamewater Bay. Oh, it’s so beautiful there. Imagine a seaside city whose entire bay is inhabited by the InaStar, the only sea tribe those of the land have continuous contact with. My father takes my brother and me there once every year. Their alpha is supposed to be an enormous sea reptile, though few have ever seen him. I don’t even know what species he is, only that he dwells further offshore in the deeper parts of the bay.”
“Why do they call it Firewater Bay?” asked Rex.
“Because with all the InaStar swimming in such shallow waters, the bay itself is entirely lit up with flame. It’s a beautiful sight.”
