Chapter Text
The portal was gone and they had searched all over Waterfall City to get the four pyramid stones back. And yet, they didn’t find anything. Mayor Waldo Seville should have felt relieved, after all now he didn’t have to explain to the outsiders - and perhaps even to his own citizens - why none of them could use it. Why none of them could go and see the outside world, if they didn’t want to risk getting sick and dying in a matter of days. It also meant that the Scotts would remain here, even though they - born and bred in the polluted air of american cities - had been the only ones who could use the portal, could have even used it to come and go, to visit David in Canyon City. While both Frank and Karl Scott had their flaws, had caused trouble time and again, they had also become … yes, perhaps even friends. And certainly they had provided entertainment.
Waldo could understand their pain of having to live on this island against their will - and felt sorry for them. If only he had asked the council to let them go home earlier. But he first had to know for sure that the Scotts would keep their secret, wouldn’t tell the outside world, the scientists and the fortune-hunters, that there was an island on this planet, where dinosaurs were still alive and had grown into sentient beings with a language and a writing system of their own.
Now he knew for sure that neither Frank nor Karl would have told on them, would have risked the exposure of Dinotopia and the damage the outside influence could have on this civilization. And now, just when they had allowed their new arrivals to go back to their home, resume their lives in the US, …
Waldo sighed and rubbed his head. He could hear Rosemary enter the room, heard her come over to him, but he didn’t look up.
“It’s not your fault, Waldo”, he heard her say. If only he had her confidence in him.
“Isn’t it? We have had six months to send them back. Six months.”
“We didn’t have the approval of the council. And think about all the things they had done. Using this radio to contact the outside world. And the cars. And stealing sunstones. It’s not like they gave us reason to trust them for a long time.”
“But they also saved us, time and again. All dinosaurs, all of them, would have been dead without them. And even before that they saved us from the T-Rexes more than once”, Waldo protested, even though it was almost funny how the roles were reversed right now. Usually Rosemary was the more forgiving, always believing in the good of people while Waldo had been inflexible and stern for such a long time. That he had grown more flexible, sometimes even a little daring, was also the result of the short time Frank, Karl and David Scott had been with them.
“I know. What I am trying to say is that-”
“Yes, yes. I know, it’s not my fault. But why does it feel that way, then?”
She pressed a kiss on the back of his head. “Because you always want what is best for your people. And in their case the best would have been to have them go home. They would have never been completely happy here.”
There was silence between them for a while. Not the good kind of silence, rather the suffocating one, filled with their mutual pain and regret. Then Rosemary said: “At least this way we don’t have to try to mend Marion’s broken heart.”
That wasn’t the comfort it should have been. Sure, their daughter wouldn’t have to say goodbye to her boyfriend - if one could Karl that -, and live with the knowledge of never being able to be part of his world, because her body couldn’t deal with the pollution of the industrialised, globalised world either. But having to live with a person who would give you up in a heartbeat? Who would only stay with you, because the preferred alternative wasn’t available anymore?
“After Karl made her dream about exploring the outside world, and then was willing to leave her for it when she couldn’t join him?”, Waldo asked with a grave voice. “They will need time to work through their issues - if they can manage at all. In a way I believe on a long term basis it would’ve been better for Marion if Karl had gone home. Out of sight, out of mind might not be as easy as we think it is - but there’s a truth to every proverb, too.”
Rosemary sighed. “I guess, in the end this is something only the two of them can figure out. We are her parents and we will of course be here for her if she needs us - but we have to stop forcing our influence upon her. We have to let her be the adult that she is.”
Another thought for Waldo to hate. And yet he knew Rosemary was right about it - just as she was right about it not being his fault that the Scotts had to remain here on Dinotopia. If only that would help with the onslaught of emotions he had to deal with.
Chapter Text
The weeks went on, and one could still feel that something had shifted between the Sevilles and the Scotts. They were still friendly with one another, but there was some kind of melancholy in every of their interactions. And Marion and Karl … It was like there was an invisible wall between them.
The same could be said about Karl and his dinosaur partner. Twentysix was too young to understand that her human had wanted to abandon her. Oh, he would have left her in the care of Zippeau, sure, but the Troodon librarian was just not the same as a human partner. And while the little Chasmosaurus hadn’t realised what had happened, Karl struggled with himself, with being the partner the baby dinosaur needed.
Waldo did his best to still be the Mayor Waterfall City needed, while Frank once again played the bartender at the Trading Post. But neither man’s heart was really in it, anymore. And it didn’t help that Rosemary had gone back to Earth Farm to be the Matriarch of the Hatchery. It was her job, Waldo had known that before they had even married. Long before he had retired from the Skybax. But he found that it got harder not seeing his wife around all that often, the older he got.
In a way, he even longed for some scheme of the outsiders or a Tyrannosaurus attack. Anything to keep his mind from wandering into the depth of thoughts he had problems coping with. How could three newcomers, three new humans who had washed up on their shores, change so much, stir up so many new emotions?
So it was a welcome change when all of a sudden there were people in his office he had never seen before.
Oh, Waldo was the Mayor of the biggest city in Dinotopia, but he sure didn’t know every inhabitant of their island. Hell, he hadn’t even known that there was a whole town that had been lost for decades or even centuries, until Karl’s little accident had had him stranded there.
But Waldo sure knew these people were not from here. Everything about them screamed outside world. Their strange technology, their clothes, the way they looked around. Oh, he could tell they found his office to look primitive. “May I help you?”, he asked, because that was what a good Dinotopian had to do.
“We certainly hope you can.”
Chapter Text
Waldo had listened to their proposal carefully. He was glad they had came to him, instead of asking random Dinotopians on the street. That might have caused an uproar. But Waldo knew what to say: “Certainly not. I know for a fact that my family and I could not survive outside of our little island society. Your technology and industry makes your air toxic to us. Our lungs have never learned to cope.”
And they had asked for somebody who was used to living among dinosaurs. As much as he would have liked to give the Scotts another chance of getting off the island, Frank had never had a dinosaur partner and Karl had just begun his journey of becoming partners with his little Chasmosaurus. Neither of them could understand or speak the language of the dinosaurs yet, they couldn’t read their writing and didn’t know which dinosaur ate what. David could, perhaps, he was among the best Skybax. But he had spent more time helping the food convoys and search parties that were needed time and again, than he had spent learning the basics. Also, David had been the one who had wanted to stay here, keep flying his Pteranodon.
“You don’t understand. The place we would like to invite you to is not … well, it is not on your earth. Our air is clean and there is no greed, no war where we come from. None of those things you seem to fear from the world beyond your shores.”
And just like that Waldo once again found himself asking the same question. Was he holding his people, his family back by shutting them off? It had been easy when he had known that the air in every part of the so called civilised world was toxic to them. If you know that the grass on the other side would kill you, it could look greener than your all it wanted, it still held no appeal. But now?
Oh, he had known that Marion had always wanted to see the world. That while she had been born to be the Matriarch one day, it had never felt like that had been enough for her. And he had known that his own wife, the current Matriarch, had also once tried to run away from all of this. She got into danger and he, the young Skybax cadet had saved her. That perhaps he had been the reason she had accepted the role that was her fate ever since she had been born. But had that stopped her from longing for more, he wondered.
And what about him? He himself had been daring when he was young, but had he been content knowing that beyond the ocean there were lands he could never see? He had grown passive, his daughter had said, not more than a few months ago. And he had, hadn’t he? Was he too comfortable in his place as Mayor and member of the council, that he had grown so conservative he became the enemy of progress? That he himself was holding everyone around him back when they could be so much more?
If only Rosemary had been here to tell him that he was perfect the way he was. That he wasn’t at fault. But would that be what she had to say, knowing that there was even more out there than they had ever thought possible? Knowing that there was a secure way off the island? He remembered how excited she had been when they had found the radio and for the first time in her life she had been able to hear music from outside the island…
“Is … is this a two way portal?”, he heard a voice and his heart sank. Marion. He had thought she’d be at the Trading Post, but of course she hadn’t been. She and Karl were still struggling after all. And tomorrow was a school day, so she would have to get up early.
“Marion…”, he said, and had wanted to sound stern or at least cautious. Instead he sounded old, Waldo realised. He had grown so old and tired of always questioning himself, always having to think about everyone else.
“Let them answer my question, dad. Please.”
“It is”, one of the strangers replied. “Although we have found that the urge to check in back home lessens the longer people live with us. But perhaps you are the exception from the rule.”
“Can we have time to think about this? To discuss?”, Waldo asked. He saw his daughter’s look. Once again she seemed to think her dad was too passive, too scared of anything new. But this time he didn’t feel bad about it. “We first need to talk to your mother”, he reminded her. “And if we go, we need to tell the council. There’s so much to consider, so much to plan before we go, if we go.” They needed to find a new teacher for the kids. And somebody to take over Earth Farm. And how was he supposed to explain to the others that he was leaving? Was there a way to take the Scotts with them, even though they didn’t speak Dinosaur? Could Twentysix and Freefall join them? And perhaps Zippeau?
What if they liked it there? If they wanted to stay? Was it fair not to offer everyone on the island the same chance? Well, not the Outsiders. If they hated dinosaurs here, they wouldn’t exactly feel great about living with dinosaurs anywhere else, right? Oh, why couldn’t the moral questions, the doubts, the decisions stop, just for once?
Chapter Text
Expedition was what they called it, at least in public. Because there was no way people wouldn’t notice so many of them being gone, especially not two esteemed members of the community, their former leaders. Waldo and Rosemary had given up their positions, yes, but people still knew them, still looked up to them. So they had to give an explanation. And after the - not exactly legal - expedition to the world inside, where they had found the new stack of sunstones, it wasn’t all that unbelievable that they were sending out other expeditions, right? And this time they were sending people they trusted.
And they planned to come back. They didn’t know what the future held, but they had sworn themselves to at least visit Dinotopia every now and then. If they actually wanted to stay in that strange new place, that is.
And now here they were. Marion, Rosemary and Waldo Seville, Zippeau, Twentysix and Freefall, as well as the baby Pteranodon as their dinosaur companions, and all three Scott men - two of them already discussing what they should eat first. The sound of ‘steak’ still made Waldo’s stomach churn, even though he had been told that in this new world meat could be eaten without harming any living being. But who was he to deny Frank and Karl their steaks and burgers?
No, really, who was he? In this new world, who would he be? Not the Mayor, not any leader.
Well, there was only one way to find out. And so they made their first steps into a new life.
What they saw when they arrived was overwhelming at first, especially for the born Dinotopians, both human and dinosaur. So many fancy machinery, so many different species out there on the streets. So many different styles of clothes and a multitude of plants they had never seen before.
But then they made their way to the local dinosaurs and all of a sudden everything fell into place. Freefall, the albino Pteranodon and the albino baby, for once in their life, were not shushed away or attacked by others of their species, but were accepted with open arms. And where the Pteranodons had been predators, enemies in Dinotopia, here they seemed friendly enough.
Zippeau had brought along some scrolls of his favourite books and soon found himself in amicable discussion with a fellow dinosaur scholar.
Within hours Rosemary helped keeping the egg of a Triceratops warm so its mother could go and find some food and Marion found herself explaining some baby dinosaurs what gravity was, since they were wondering why chestnuts were falling down from a tree.
Waldo sighed. He was not sure what his place here would be. But he knew they weren’t likely to go back just yet.
And maybe, for once in his life, he began to wonder what else there was to explore. And if everything was safe here, if there were no predators trying to kill them in this strange world, maybe, just maybe, in a far away future, he could think about asking other Dinotopians to join him here. He wasn’t sure if they would want to come, or how many. Giving up one’s life and culture was hard.
But maybe…
Oh, only time would tell.
For now he had to go help, because he had seen a Brachiosaurus that had stepped onto a huge thorn. It would need help to get it out. And that’s what he was here to do, wasn’t he? Help build up relations between dinosaurs and humans - and, well, perhaps other species.
Time to get his hands dirty making a good first impression.
AlterEgon on Chapter 4 Sat 14 Jan 2023 09:11PM UTC
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