Chapter
3 ‘Who Are You?’ Page 11
Tommy was trying to remember what species each of
the dinosaurs were. He still couldn’t
believe he was sitting in the presence of live dinosaurs. He grinned widely.
“Wow! Live dinosaurs! No one is
going to believe this!” he said excitedly.
“What’s a dinosaur?” asked
Kypou.
Tommy pointed at Bonta. “Well,” he said. “She’s a Pachycephalosaurs.”
Bonta stared blankly at him.
Tommy tried to simplify it for her.
“You know, a bonehead dinosaur.”
Bonta shook her head. “No,” she said. “I’m Bonta.”
Tommy sighed. Why didn’t they know what kind of dinosaurs
they were? He knew that he was a human
so why didn’t they know they were dinosaurs.
The idea that the word dinosaur was purely a human expression never
occurred to him.
Jason, who up until now had remained
silent, was growing increasingly concerned about his ankle. He could feel it swelling inside his shoe. If he didn’t do something about it soon he
wasn’t going to make it home.
Kypou stood up. “We should get back to the cave before the
Myrites come by to check this trap.” he said.
This statement seemed to enrage
Harpi. He jumped to his feet. “What!
We can’t take these...” Harpi
glared at Tommy and Jason. “... these
things back to the cave!” He spat the
words out like a nasty taste. “We don’t
know what they are or where they came from?”
The severity of Harpi’s tone was quite overwhelming.
“Harpi! Don’t be so rude, leave them alone!” snapped Kypou. But Harpi ignored him and continued his
brutal verbal assault on the boys.
“Why are you here? Come on answer me!” he demanded.
Kypou’s eyes narrowed with
anger. “Didn’t you hear me?” he
growled. “I said leave them
alone!”
Harpi pointed an accusing finger at
Tommy and Jason. “Their Myrite
spies! I just know they are! I say we leave them here! If we take them with us we’ll only be
putting ourselves in danger!”
Tommy and Jason couldn’t help
feeling uncomfortable. They didn’t know
what they had done to set Harpi off but it was clear he didn’t want anything to
do with them.
“That’s enough Harpi!” shouted
Kypou. “We will help all those
threatened by the Myrites and this is no exception! Understand!” Harpi
remained silent. “I asked if you
understood.” growled Kypou.
Harpi turned his angry glare on
Kypou. “Yes, I understand,” he hissed
through gritted teeth.
“Good,” said Kypou. “Then we will hear no more about it.”
Harpi stepped back a few paces. “You may be willing to risk our lives but
I’m not.” He stormed out of the
clearing and into the jungle.
“Harpi!” shouted Bonta.
“He’ll be back when he’s cooled
down,” Kypou told her. “He always
does.”
Peko got off Bonta’s knee and scooted
closer to Jason. “Yuck!” exclaimed the
little dinosaur. “What’s that on your
face?” Peko screwed his face up in
disgust.
Jason touched his face. It was still covered with dried bug
guts. “We had a bit of an accident with
a dragonfly,” he said eyeing Tommy.
Tommy tried to act innocent but wasn’t doing a very good job.
“There’s a stream along the way,”
said Kypou. “You can clean off
there. Let’s go.”
Jason tried to stand but found he
couldn’t. Tommy crouched down beside
him.
“I knew there was something wrong,”
he said sternly.
Wincing in pain, Jason once again
tried to assure his brother that all was well.
“I strained my ankle a bit that’s all.
I’ll be alright.” But Tommy
wasn’t buying a word of it.
“A bit!” he exclaimed. “You can’t even get up!”
“Is there something wrong?” Bonta
asked them.
“No there---” began Jason but Tommy
cut him off.
“There’s something wrong with my
brothers leg,” Tommy told the dinosaur.
“Perhaps I can help,” said
Bonta. She reached for Jason’s leg but
he quickly pulled it away from her.
Pain rocketed up his leg.
Kypou put a hand on Jason’s
shoulder. “It’s alright,” he said. “Bonta’s a healer. There’s no reason to be afraid.”
Jason, however, was still
apprehensive about anyone touching his ankle, but without help he wasn’t going
anywhere, so he allowed Bonta have a look.
Jason carefully pulled up his pant leg and took his shoe and sock
off. His ankle was badly bruised and
swollen. Bonta took off her shoulder
bag and removed a small pouch made from leaves. Inside the pouch was a light green paste and some red
leaves. She smeared the paste gently on
Jason’s ankle then placed the red leaves on top of the paste. Then Bonta did a strange thing. She placed her hands on Jason’s ankle and
closed her eyes. This went on for a few
moments until Jason’s ankle suddenly began to glow like a light bulb. Jason panicked and tried to pull his leg
away but found that it was paralyzed.
He could feel his ankle getting warmer and warmer. Then the light began to fade. Jason could feel the pain and swelling
receding. Bonta opened her eyes and removed her hands from Jason’s ankle.
“Your ankle will be fine now but
please be gentle with it for a little while.”
She removed the leaves and the now hardened paste.
Jason wiggled his foot. The pain was gone. “How did you do that?” he gasped with amazement.
“I really don’t know,” said
Bonta. “I’ve just always been able to
heal the injured.”
Jason put his sock and shoe back on
and Tommy helped him up. Jason leaned
gingerly on his foot but realized he could put his weight on it without any
pain.
“Thank you so much!” he said to
Bonta. Bonta smiled.
“Come on,” said Kypou. “It’s time to go.”