Gene DeWeese - Dinotopia 07 by Firestorm

Author:Firestorm
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-03-06T23:13:49+00:00

CHAPTER 10

“Hightop!” Olivia shouted. “Thunderfoot! Fire!”

Stuffing her blanket and canteen into her backpack, she slipped into its harness without even looking. As she turned again toward the flames, Hightop and Thunderfoot burst into the clearing from behind her.

“One of you go wake the villagers!” she shouted over her shoulder as she plunged into the forest toward the distant flames.

Before she’d gone more than a dozen yards, Thunderfoot had crossed the clearing and was racing down the path toward the village, shaking the ground as he thudded along. The Dimorphodon had already launched itself from its basket and flapped up and out of sight. A moment later, Hightop was at Olivia’s side, slowing enough for her to clamber aboard.

Wrapping her arms around the Plateosaurus’s neck, she hung on for dear life as he crashed through the trees and underbrush. Her eyes quickly began to water as they neared the clearing, and a sneeze almost jarred

her grip loose. Another hundred yards and it was so bad that she had to close her eyes and simply hang on.

Then Hightop was lurching to a stop. Eyes still shut against the stinging air, Olivia could feel the heat of nearby flames. Quickly, she found the wet cloth she always kept in the pouch fastened to Hightops saddle. Tears streaming down her face, she wiped her eyes vigorously, then draped the cloth over her nose and mouth.

She opened her eyes—and gasped.

The entire Trilobur patch was ablaze. Flames were leaping a dozen feet in the air. The fire was several times the size of the one Delmont had set. The way the flames were dancing, it looked as if they were creating their own wind in addition to the one that gusted out of the trees.

A massive Saltosaurus stood on the upwind side, just outside the wetted-down area that was—so far— containing the blaze. More than ten meters long, with four elephantine feet and a neck longer than Hightop’s, it dwarfed both Hightop and Thunderfoot. Draped across its brown, speckled back just behind a heavy saddle was what looked like a pair of gigantic, limp saddlebags. They drooped well down its sides, more than halfway to the ground.

So that’s how the water was carried to the fires, Olivia thought. From the saddle itself dangled a rope ladder, which would be needed to mount a creature this size.

Standing next to the saurian was a large man, grizzled and soot-smeared, watching the fire intently. But, unlike Delmont, his hands held no container of water, no water-soaked blanket. Not that such things would do any good against a fire this size if it escapes, she thought worriedly.

Hightop saw the pair, too, and hurried toward them, skirting the flames at a cautious distance. As they reached the upwind side, Olivia’s discomfort faded. With a last swipe at her eyes, she stuffed the wet cloth back in the pouch.

The man seemed oblivious to their approach as he continued to watch the flames intently. A look of satisfaction filled his weathered, flame-lit features.

“What are you doing?’ Olivia shouted over the intense crackling and whooshing of the flames.

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