Who is this making her way through the crowd? From the safety of
the cave, Baylene watched as the bedraggled figure leaned on Plio for support.
Baylene couldn't see this creature up close right away, yet the elderly
brachiosaur could hear the gasps emanating from the other animals.
"What is happening down there? Why all the shock?," she asked. Kenric,
in spirit, stood by his sister and replied, "That is Glennis. She was to
deliver a message from me, but she never arrived. You see, Baylene, that
night..."
Baylene, allowing herself to gently embrace the brother she both loved and fretted over, didn't need further explanations. For even from the safe distance of the cave, the grand lady could tell that Glennis was a victim of the Fireball disaster. What happened to the pterosaur during that firestorm was a tragedy that not even Glennis wanted to relive, for she bore the scars that not only marred her body, but disfigured her soul.
"Listen to what Glennis has to say, Baylene," Kenric continued. "She is the link, you know. To you, to me, to Aladar if truth be known..."
No wonder Glennis stayed to herself...Everyone called her the Phantom of the Grounds...
~~~~~~
"I was but a wee babe when I first met Baylene's brother. Of course, that was after I was able to fly about..."
Glennis glanced about, her eyes resting the longest on Aladar and the lemurs. She peered into Plio's eyes and finally said, "Yes, dear heart, that island was our home, too. T'was always our home. Our dear mother hatched us there, and I, years later, hatched my own young'uns there."
She glanced about once more, suddenly realizing that these animals stared
at her with a mixture of curiosity and dread. At first she thought it was
a mistake to come and fill in the holes of Sarama's story. But here she
was, standing in the full blaze of the afternoon sun. Now the Herd could
see why Glennis stayed in the shadows, and earned the name The "Phantom
of the Nesting Grounds".
At a distance she looked like any other of her kind, but up close,
one could see the ravages of that firestorm. Glennis' entire right side
was horribly disfigured, the result of third-degree burns. Her delicate
wings were virtually nonexistent for the thin delicate membranes were now
masses of ugly, welted scar tissue. Both hands were gone; one eye had been
lost. Her face and crest were hideously marred as well. However, for some
reason, the beak was one of the few places on Glennis' body that escaped
injury from the blast's intense heat.
She put on a brave face for the gathering animals she thought feared
her. But no, this isn't fear but gratitude. For in the end, it was Glennis'
reminisce of an important missing piece of an ever complicated story. When
she finished her recollection, nearly everyone finally learned the truth
behind two events: Brother Kenric's sudden departure and ill-timed homecoming,
and an egg that fell from the sky.
She turned the prophetic parasaurolophus named Sarama and said, "Dearie, why don't the two of us relate those few hours before the Fireball...Those many years after your darling grandmother met her untimely end, and I, years after that, lost me own mother to a monster..."
Glennis sighed as she glanced toward the cave. "We all lost so many to one catastrophe after another...Me, you, and Baylene...and another lady who lost all her young'uns so long ago. Poor soul – she never quite recovered from that..."
*****
The prophetically gifted parasaurolophus they called Sarama glanced
back once more at the female iguanodon, the same lady who lost her eggs
during a carnotaur attack many years ago.
"It was so long ago, Hadron," she finally said to her mate. "The beast
had to smash every one of those eggs...That means..."
"No, my dear," he replied, "for Mother Adah said that the one who shall
inspired Baylene, and us in turn, was snatched from his nest..."
Sarama looked out across the water and watched the remaining brachiosaurs graze in the green meadows. During the glory years, the magnificent sauropods were plentiful in number; now only a handful remain, thanks to disease and old age. The parasaurolophus' heart nearly broke because neither Baylene nor Ember were among the usual brachiosaur community. Instead, at Baylene's insistence, the pair simply struck out for another part of the valley, preferring to keep to themselves.
"It has been a traumatic time for all of us, Sarama," said Hadron at last. "First the pestilence – nearly all of Baylene's family wiped out. Your grandpa, Japhet, expired the same time as Baylene's mate..."
He needn't remind Sarama again for the hard-won peaceful years following
all the trauma was just that -- Well earned. During that march to the Nesting
Grounds years before, Mother Adah, weakened by disease, age, and a broken
heart, lagged further behind the Herd. Although her family tried to keep
watch over her, it was an impossible task as Adah refused, "Such fussing
over me."
It was during this march, and before her untimely end, that Mother
Adah had a final flash of foreboding.
"She's here, children," she told them just hours before the carnotaur attacked. "The stranger's mother...But she returns empty-handed...Yet the child lives, far from here and amongst strangers himself...In the most cruel fashion, Ember will pre-decease Baylene, leaving her eldest sister to face the world as the last of their kind...The fiery rain comes, so many will die...And Baylene's brother...He is to come home, but he, and his messenger..."
She turned eyes to Sarama and said, "Years from now, when the time comes, tell Baylene's story. Ember made me promise to do so, but I won't live to see all this come to pass...Sarama, watch over your family; watch over Baylene..."
*****
"Those words – her last words to us just before the carnotaurs attacked – are still fresh in my mind," said Sarama as she climbed a low rise overlooking the river and wide plains below. She could barely see them, Baylene and Ember, for they were so far away. The two old brachiosaurs were now the few survivors of their kind; so many sauropods simply died out of old age and illness.
"At least, Hadron, Baylene did get to see my family before moving on...She was especially taken with our Doli. Which reminds me, my love. Where is Doli?"
Doli was Hadron and Sarama's firstborn, and favorite child. At present,
the daughter had gone further upstream with grandmother Ola. Doli was expecting
her first hatchlings that year, and Sarama was so pleased with being a
grandmother. But somewhere in the back of her mind, the prophetic parasaurolophus
had yet another premonition of doom. Those vibes became more intense as
the day progressed.
She turned to her mate, saying, "Something evil is coming, Hadron.
I can fell it, smell it..."
Deep down Sarama knew that something was about to go horribly wrong, and she glanced over the plains again only to see Baylene and Ember's heads disappear amongst the tallest of trees.
"I really must go visit them, Hadron. But first, for some strange reason, I need to find my daughter and mother...I have this sinking feeling..."
*****
"Do not despise the words of prophets..."
"Beg pardon, Baylene?"
On the other side of the river, miles and miles downstream and far removed
from the rest of the Herd, two of the remaining brachiosaurs went about
their daily routine. Ember and Baylene, the last of a noble family, had
aged well following those trying years of pestilence and tragic loss. Baylene's
heart sank as she recalled the Herd's recount an ill-fated journey to the
Nesting Grounds so long ago.
She remembered Sarama's eyewitness accounts of a carnotaur attack,
resulting in the destruction of a female iguanodon's nest. Then there was
Mother Adah's sudden and violent end. The prophetic hadrosaur once again
voiced those visions of fiery rain, tragic loss, and the arrival of the
stranger who would alter so many lives.
Baylene, who allowed herself to sink into a twenty-year depression,
uttered, "Do not despise the words of prophets." However, Baylene
couldn't understand why she said those words; they just popped into her
head.
It was sister Ember's turn to break the silence. "Baylene, it's been so long ago. I feel it's time to go on living...I know you still miss them – Quivier, Amber, and Gemma – but, dear sister, life must go on..."
The elderly brachiosaur raised her gentle blue eyes to meet her sister's
soft brown. O, thought Ember, the depths of pain and torment one can read
in those eyes. Baylene, the family rock, simply withdrew into to herself,
hardly speaking or acknowledging the presence of another.
She finally spoke to her sister, "Ember, these are the twilight years.
Look about and tell me how many more of our kind have died today?
Three? Six? A dozen or more?"
She took a deep breath then continued, "I've taken to heart Adah's
words, and I've worried about the things she foresaw. While I'm not inclined
to believe such things wholeheartedly, I've mulled over her revelations.
That's why the phrase simply popped into my head..."
Ember acknowledged her sister's musing, for indeed the brachiosaurs had aged and died at an alarming rate. There would be no more. How sad, thought Ember as she bent down to take a drink, that there are so few of us left...
Of course, if our brother Kenric is still alive...
Suddenly, without thinking, Ember said, "Dear sister, I'll admit our
brother has been on my mind these days...I often wonder what has become
of him..."
At once Baylene's eyes shot fire; she was about to speak but was distracted
by the hale and hearty voice emanating from above.
"Are you the one they call Baylene?," asked the voice.
Both Baylene and Ember raised their eyes in the voice's direction.
And what a sight greeted them! It was a young female pterosaur en
route to her island home far across the sea. She alighted on a nearby rock
then introduced herself. "I traveled far and wide a-tryin' to find you.
I have some news for you, dearie."
Ooh, what a warm voice full of brogue and burr; it was like pure music.
Normally many of the plains animals feared the pterosaurs because the great
flying reptiles had a much deserved reputation for snatching eggs and small
dinos. But this was no ordinary hunting expedition for this flyer, for
she had the good fortune to stumble upon the female brachiosaurs.
As she spoke again, the musical lilt of her voice helped put her listeners
at ease. "I apologize for overhearin' your conversation, but when your
names were mentioned...Darlin', I've been to the seashore 'cause me home's
just across the water. There's another who looks like you; I believe he's
one of your menfolk. Goes by the name of Kenric, he does...."
Both Ember and Baylene looked at each other in shocked amazement. After all these years -- nearly a generation -- the wayward brother finally makes himself known. But how could it be? How could it be that Kenric is still alive? And where has he been all this time?
The pterosaur replied, "If you're worried about your dear brother, Baylene,
don't fret so. He is well, but he misses his sisters and wants to come
home."
"Did you hear, that Baylene!," exclaimed Ember. "Kenric is coming home."
Baylene still said nothing as Glennis, the flying reptile, brought the
sisters up to date on their brother. Apparently Kenric did blame
himself on all the calamity that befell his family -- Baylene losing her
babies for one. The sickness that returned and claimed the lives
of so many brachiosaurs somehow missed Kenric; he had traveled far to the
south, hundreds of miles from his familiar plains.
"Right now, he's living near the shore, just across the sea from me
island home..."
Glennis' voice trailed off as she was anxious to return to her children and, perhaps, pass along a much needed, long overdue message. To this Ember replied, "Glennis, will you pass along this message?"
She glanced at Baylene who by now had left her company, heading for a secluded spot on the other side of the plains. Humph!, thought Ember, this bitterness has gone on long enough! Baylene and Kenric need to make amends -- Let him come home to those who love him!
"Glennis, when you see our brother, tell him all is forgiven, and that we will welcome his return. We have never stopped loving him...My only hope is that Baylene will be just as open and forgiving..."
*****
"She always brought back something wonderful, and we'd never complain. However..."
On rare occasions, Glennis related, these hunting expeditions would
end in a fight over food.
"There was this time, long ago, when I was just a wee hatchling," Glennis
explained. "Our mum brought us a nice big egg -- Snatched right out of
the river, she told us! Anyway, those blasted little scourges ganged up
on me poor mum. She had no choice but to drop the egg down in the forest
below. From then on she was mighty careful not to let those noisy, pesky
rascals steal our food."
Kenric remembered that conversation with fondness, even if parts were somewhat unhappy. When he asked about the island itself, Glennis only told him, "We stayed high up in the cliffs -- Never ventured down into the forest anyway. Dad said -- and he'd never been down there himself -- that the forest is enchanted, and that little creatures scamper about the great green trees. When Mum dropped that egg, I sometimes wondered if those little sprites got it..."
Glennis said no more about her island home other than her mother, "On
one last hunting trip, flew out over the waters and dove too close to the
waves. Mum had just snatched a nice fat crab when one the monsters of the
deep surfaced and grabbed hold of her."
Soon after, there was a fight, and Glennis' mother lost the battle -- The
mosasaur's powerful jaws closed around the pteranodon's delicate neck,
then dragged her beneath the surface. This entire tragedy was witnessed
by children and grandchildren.
"Never will I forget that sight," Glennis said, and nothing more.
Kenric remembered those words with a heavy heart, but he was more intrigued
with the stories of an enchanted forest populated with sprightly magical
creatures. If only I could find a way across these waters; then I'd make
a home for myself on that island. It sounds like Paradise...
But he pushed those thoughts from his mind as the day faded into twilight.
Of course, he thought with a chuckle, he'd never be able to swim across
the sea if he wanted to. He laughed out loud at the thought of the water
holding up his eighty-ton bulk!
"No, our kind was simply not made for water travel..."
What a glorious sunset! The waning sunlight painted the sky a brilliant yellowish pink, but also conveyed the impression of uncertain change. Whatever was to come would change a certain brachiosaur's life forever -- His sister's life, NOT his.
*****
"Hello there, Kenric!"
The familiar brogue could be heard above the never-ending roar of waves crashing upon the shore. Kenric, the wayward brother, glanced in the voice's direction only to see Glennis' swooping across the beach. She landed on a nearby rock then beckoned the big sauropod to listen. "I got some news from your sisters. And you better listen up!"
She glared at him with a curious mixture of disgust and admiration.
Yes, Kenric had mellowed over the years; the time alone to work out his
problems was time well spent, even if did mean leaving home. As he said,
he had good reason for abandoning his family -- He felt he was the cause
of all the tragedy that befell his loved ones. He also felt that his parents
shouldn't have spoiled him so, but that was now all in the past.
In a way, the dashingly handsome brachiosaur was glad that he found
such a good friend as Glennis. The pterosaur befriended him long ago when
she was just a fledging. He fondly recalled her mother and often wondered
if SHE shared the gift of foreshadowing. Long ago, Kenric scoffed at Mother
Adah's prophecies; however, as time passed, the warnings of trials by disease
and fire fascinated him. Of course, the old hadrosaur was correct, for
since Kenric's departure those many years ago, the pestilence had returned
and wiped out nearly all his family. Only sisters Ember and Baylene survived.
Glennis, upon returning from one of her hunting missions, told him that
much. Now it was her turn again to act as messenger.
"As I said, Ken, I got a message from your sisters. And don't look so
surprised. They want you home, at least Ember does. I have no idea what's
eating the other
one..."
"Oh, Glennis, after all these years, how can I go home again?," said Kenric
as watched a flock of ichthyornis ("The very ones who long ago caused Glennis'
mother to drop that egg," he thought) soar overhead.
He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with fresh salty air. Ah! The
clean crispness of the seashore with it's rich tropical forest not too
far away. It was here that Kenric made his home after years of wandering.
Not too many of his kind in these parts, but it was an appropriate setting
for years of quiet contemplation and soul-searching.
And it was a peace that he finally found in this little paradise. Now,
in his advancing years, Kenric thought over Glennis' message. His sisters
-- well, at least one sister -- were ready tto forgive and forget. Perhaps
it's all for the best; there is no use in staying apart, especially since
Baylene had lost both mate and children.
"Did Baylene say anything? I mean, how did she react?," he asked.
Glennis' musical voice played over Kenric as she replied, "The old girl
said nothing, dearie. I supposed she still a mite sore at you. Hmmm...Didn't
you once tell me that you and her never quite saw eye-to-eye?"
Kenric stood motionless, his imposing form silhouetted against the brilliant
twilight. Then he said, "You know, Glennis. I don't care if Baylene never
speaks to
me again...I don't know why she'd be so bitter..."
He sighed in bitter realization and said, "Oh, yes, I know the real
reason...."
"Which is why you best be a-gettin' back to your sisters. They need
their baby brother more than anything."
The pteranodon glanced at the darkness looming over the western horizon.
"Which reminds me -- I best be getting back to me own family. Now, as for
you, Kenric, go home to your family! You can't run away from your
problems forever, and neither you nor your sisters are getting any younger.
One of these days, someone will pass from this life to the next, leaving
the grieving family to wonder whatever became of..."
"Okay! Okay, Glennis! I hear you loud and clear!"
The pair shared a hearty laugh only to be disturbed by the frantically
squawking ichthyornis overhead. Glennis appeared somewhat annoyed. "Now
what in the blazes are they so fired up about?"
Kenric craned his head to the sky and watched the play of strange lights
streak against the darkness. "No, Glennis. I think it has to do with whatever
those lights are...They look like falling stars, but..."
Suddenly Glennis felt it -- that "something evil this way comes" sensation in the pit of her stomach. She spread her wings in preparation to depart. "Something is wrong, dearie. I need to get home or else me young'uns will wonder what's become of their mum..."
So with that, she and the brachiosaur said their good-byes, then Glennis swiftly glided towards her island home.
It would be the last time Glennis saw Kenric alive...
*****
Sarama stood at the base of the hill, watching for her mother and daughter
to return. Mother Ola and Doli, and Amali (Doli's mate) had gone down to
the forest in search of berries. It seemed young Doli wanted to treat her
newly-found mate to, "The most delicious treats you'll ever taste. There
are more growing further down the Nesting Grounds trail."
But Doli and her grandmother had been gone for some time; Sarama was naturally
worried.
"Hadron, it's not like them to be gone so long after dusk..."
"My love, don't worry so. Doli is a very capable girl, and so is your mother.
Besides, they do have a male escort, so it's not as if..."
The parasaurolophus couple's conversation was cut short by an aging
ceratopsian calling out to them. "Sarama! Have you all seen Ember or Baylene?
They're usually here to greet us on our way to the Grounds."
This was Eema, a one-hundred year old styracosaur who was one of the
Herd's grande dames. Sarama and Hadron were so pleased that Eema would
accompany the Herd on yet another march to the Nesting Grounds as the
old girl especially looked forward to Doli's new brood.
What irony!
Hadron replied, "No, Eema, I've seen neither one of...Wait!"
He turned to his mate and inquired, "Wasn't that Ember heading for the
deep forest? To the berry patch?"
The prophetic hadrosaur nodded, saying, "And they have yet to return...Here,
allow me..."
At once Sarama stood on the hilltop and bellowed at the top of her lungs.
In the far-off distance, she heard the returning calls: One of which belonged
to her daughter; the other voice belonged to an aged brachiosaur. Eema
chuckled in good humor.
"Hmm...That sounds like Ember all right. I guess everything's in hand...But
where's Baylene?"
Her voice fell silent as her attention was drawn to the falling stars
which streaked across the darkening sky. Sarama noticed these as well and
at once recalled her grandmother's prophecies.
"The fiery rain..."
Without stopping to explain, Sarama began to bellow with alarm. The
Herald of the Herd's
foghorn blasts could be heard from miles away; yet
on this night, not everyone would heed the alarm. And, at this very moment,
several lives were about to take a dramatic turn....
*****
*****
*****
Squinting his eyes against the Fireball's brilliant descent, Kenric began thinking of his siblings, especially Baylene. Oh my dear sister, I may never make it home...I may never be able to tell you how much I truly loved you...
*****
Silence at first, then, a brilliant illumination no one had ever seen
before. It took much fortitude on every living creature's part to shield
his or her eyes against a light
so bright that turned night into day.
Then...a sudden jolt, followed by the worst firestorm and convulsing of the Earth...
Copyright©2000 by "Sarama"