Activity

Ahab tapped along, deeply inhaling the clean, fresh air. “Ventilation in the walls and ceilings, I suppose,” he mused. He heard the girl — Calixta — trod off in the opposite direction and felt slightly relieved. Now he wouldn’t have to stop to help her — not that he had to anyway. But as he walked, he had time to think. And as he thought, he got angry.

“No telling how much I’ve missed. It’s had to have been at least two days. Saulus was supposed to send out the army, I was supposed to find a way… Then he’ll try to down-talk me as if we haven’t known each other since the middle of grade-school. Jezebel is probably anxious — Stop, Ahab. If I don’t ever get there I’ll never find out what I missed. But—”

He jabbed the stick down extra hard on a stone, and it splintered a quarter of the way up. “ARGG!” he grunted, flipping the long piece of wood over so he was holding it by the split part and tapping with the undamaged half. He continued on, trying to concentrate, but he kept fuming; pondering all he was probably missing, things that were important. His whole plan, all he had worked for, could be gone.

“Don’t say anything, alright?”

He nearly jumped in surprise. Ahab jerked around to behold the girl, limping along right next to him. She was glaring up at his face. Ahab was disgusted with himself. He had been so intent with his thoughts he hadn’t even heard her clumping along until she was right behind him. Dangerous. If she had had that ax free, then by now she could’ve been tugging it free from something else: his back. Now Ahab was irritated with her (and himself), so he sped up his pace. Otherwise he probably would’ve said something. She fell back a bit, but he could hear her breathing hard, trying not to be left too far behind.

Who knows how much longer they could’ve been going on like this when, suddenly, they heard a shriek-lik-scream (this is what it sounded like from that distance and all the plants in the way):

“–Orly acewars! It’s ‘onna krill us!”

Ahab’s brain immediately went: “Mr. Howler monkey. When I find him—” His thoughts were cut short when he heard an answering roar. Though Ahab had been walking for about five minutes, he hadn’t gotten far because of the care he was taking in picking out his path. And so the roar, he figured, was probably from the creature who had made that large nest. It was probably eating Ehud. Then there were several loud cracks. “Gun,” Ahab thought. It was Erin next on the menu. His mind raced, and Ahab was shocked to find himself questioning whether he should turn around to help. “Why should I, the brats?” He thought. “But they’re people,”  a small part of him said. “No different than any others,” he replied. “No, they’re not. But they are still people.”

Why was he doing this? What had they ever done to help him? As soon as Erin had entered the room in the castle, he had found a gun in his chest. And Ehud — he was just loony. Besides, he had already killed innocent people in his life, and he wouldn’t exactly be killing them now. The monster would. “But you shouldn’t have killed anybody,” the tiny part left of him answered. “It was the only way!” Ahab growled back in his head.

“You know you were wrong.”

“I’m too far-gone! This is what it’s like, okay? There may be no one here to taunt me, but I can’t. I’m not that boy anymore! Why am I doing this!?!?” (by the way, this is all going on silently in his head)

Ahab hadn’t realized Calixta was watching him while he grinded his teeth and fumed. He looked away and started to walk, forcefully poking at the stones. Suddenly, however, Calixta froze, and Ahab turned around when he heard a large crash from behind.

A huge beast raced around the bend in the trail. Greenish blood flowed from one eye, and it looked like it was having a hard time seeing where it was going — that was obvious, it was lurching from side to side. But now was no time for thinking — even though that’s what his brain told him to do. Now was time for acting. Ahab grabbed the handle of his iron ball out of his belt, and as the devil raced toward them, he swung it at the wounded side of its head.

CRACKKTZZ.

The beast stopped. It was so stunned it couldn’t blink. Erin, Ehud, and a tiny little blur whizzed around the trail, coming to a halt. Calixta stiffened, and Ahab’s grip tightened on the handle of his ball. After several agonizing seconds, the dinosaur’s one good eye focused: on Ahab.

This was no ordinary dino; otherwise, it would have kept fleeing. It would have tried to escape. But this was Nomor, the terror at the top of the chain. Every beast in the miles-long-miles-wide-green-house shrank from him when they heard his roar. They hid when they smelled his foul breath. And none had ever dared to oppose him.

But now, strange creatures had invaded his turf. And they did not know respect. They poked at his eyes, they shot at him, and they hit him. He had started to run when the gun first blasted, but now his fury was kindled. He would annihilate the first thing he saw, and that was the man with the iron-spiked ball.

Ahab watched as Nomor raised his maimed head, running blood like a green waterfall, and drew himself up to his full height. The beast turned his eye to look at him. And then he roared; bits of food flying out of his toothy mouth and into Ahab’s face. Nomor started to charge.

For the first time in thirty-some years, a string in the back of Ahab’s mind was pulled. The tug at the line of fear was something he had not felt in a long time. A long time. He was usually the cause of fear, and if he had ever had any, he covered it up with anger and adrenaline. But now he was terrified. His heart was racing and his mouth was dry. The iron ball wouldn’t work in close range. Nomor was upon him.

And his sword was stuck in its sheath.

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I hope this is alright; I was thinking y’all could rescue Ahab 😛 But if y’all had something else in mind, don’t be afraid to tell me! I took some liberties with the dino, so really, if you guys wanted to do something else… I wouldn’t mind! 😉