Bow Down, or Rise Up!

“Pick up the pace, everyone! We don’t have all day!” Gaol’s barking could be heard from all the way down the hallway that led to the main ballroom. It wasn’t just for show; with the huge crowd moving through, he needed to shout to be heard over the din.

“Yes, if you two would head down there…”

“Thank you for guiding us here, Bebben,” Vanim said, looking anxiously over his shoulder, “but can you still not tell us what we’re doing here?”

“Sorry, sir.” The royal guard shook his head as he paused at the intersecting halls, letting Vanim and Kyrien walk ahead of him. “Confidential. Queen’s orders.”

The queen. Vanim had heard mention of her a few times now, and had yet to see her face. He wasn’t fully confident she was even an iguanodon.

Gaol continued shouting. “Move along! Don’t hold up the line!”

“We better head in, Vanim,” Kyrien said, with a thankful, though wary, nod to their escort. Bebben returned the gesture and disappeared back the way they came, perhaps to find more dinosaurs to herd into the castle.

The pair went further into the wave of dinosaurs, a strange and unsettling sight, every species converging. There were iguanodons, euoplos, and oviraptors—those three were everywhere in Atlantis. But there were also cryos, styras, acros, theris… It was such a wild mismatch that it made Vanim nauseous. In this sort of environment, a fight felt inevitable.

The ballroom itself, however, was an architectural marvel, at least to dinosaurs capable of appreciating it. Banners with Atlantis’s emblem—a silver trident against a blue sea—where strung up all over the domed ceiling, ancient tapestries hung from the walls, and at the far end from the entrance was a winding staircase. It came down from the left and right, and before reaching down to the ground floor, they met in the middle, along the wall. And at that intersection was a throne. Since it was not built for humans, it looked quite different from a human’s idea of one—it was more like a couch, to accommodate a very different body type. And it was, of course, far larger than any throne made for a human monarch.

“I wish Jolene was here,” Kyrien murmured, pressed against Vanim’s flank.

“Looks like the iguanodons are gathering everyone they can find. I’m sure she’ll turn up eventually.” He wasn’t sure where Jolene had disappeared to in the first place. He swore she was with them one moment, and vanished into thin air the next.

“Maybe.” Kyrien didn’t expect her to turn up; he knew better than anyone how slippery she could be when she didn’t want to be found.

Neither cryo knew what awaited them. But they weren’t the only ones. In fact, not far away from them was a cryo they both knew, but hadn’t been able to spot in the mass of bodies. Fainel was standing near the eastern wall, with her two oviraptor charges clinging to her legs. She was very worried about losing Hummingbird and Macaw in the crowd, or worse, having one of them get stepped on by a larger dinosaur in the chaos.

“How many of us are they hoping to fit in here?” she wondered aloud.

“I hope not too many more,” Hummingbird said, her feathers standing up straight. “It’s so noisy already…”

Above all of the surrounding voices, their heads snapped up at an offended gasp. “This is no place for hatchlings!” An iguanodon had stomped up to them, her silver hide adorned with quills. She looked down at Macaw and Hummingbird, fury and scandal in her eyes. “Whoever let you in here?”

Fainel cleared her throat. “Cassia told us to come.”

The iguanodon scoffed. She easily towered over Fainel as well. “Cassia! I should have known that scoundrel was behind this. Are you the caretaker of these two?”

Fainel was taken aback. It seemed like not everyone held Cassia in the same regard Blackmist did. “Ah… Yes. Something like that.”

The iguanodon sighed. It seemed like she decided it wasn’t worth asking why a cryo was looking after two young oviraptors. “Then you should come, too.” She bent down to look the oviraptors in the eyes, and said in a surprisingly gentle voice, “Poor things, you’ll be trampled if you spend much longer in here! Let’s get you somewhere safer. We had fresh watermelons brought in this morning, wouldn’t you like to try some?”

Hummingbird wasn’t sure if she trusted this strange iguanodon, with such a harsh glare and imposing spines… But the crowd was making her nervous. The iguanodons seemed on edge, watching all of their “guests” carefully, and none of the other species seemed to know what was going on at all. Maybe they would be better off away from the crowd.

She looked to Macaw. Even he, ever the silent social butterfly, found the gathering off-putting, never straying far from Fainel’s feet for fear of being trampled, just as the iguanodon had warned. And Hummingbird knew he loved watermelon.

“Yes, we’ll go with you, um…”

“Selena. Would either of you like a ride?”

Macaw’s ruby eyes sparkled. He hopped on her head and up to her shoulders. Hummingbird climbed on more slowly. Selena was so massive that both of them could sit comfortably on her back while also keeping their distance from her quills.

“Thank you,” Fainel said hesitantly. She still wasn’t entirely sure who in the court she could trust, but Selena had spoken so kindly to her charges.

“Please, think nothing of it. I’m sure we can find something for you to eat as well—the monkeys like a bit of meat sometimes, too.”

“The monkeys?”

As they were being ushered out, another pair was making their way in, as mismatched as the cryo and her oviraptors; a monochrome suchomimus with a sea-green utahraptor riding on her back. Swavelli, much like Selena, had realized that it would be much easier to let her smaller friend hitch a ride with her rather than risk losing him in the crowd. Especially with so many iguanodons around.

“There’s so many dinosaurs here.” She tried to be quiet, but with all of the other voices, she had to speak at her normal volume just so Seffe could hear her.

“I wonder what they want?” Seffe scanned the crowd, but there was such a wild mismatch of species and ages that he couldn’t piece anything together. “Maybe they have something to tell us?”

“Let’s hope it’s good news.” So far, the court had hardly been forthcoming with information. Maybe now they were finally putting an end to that.

“Keep it moving!” Gaol bellowed behind him.

“Yeah, yeah, we hear you!” Swavelli shoved through the crowd just to get away from the entrance, which was home to most of the confusion and shouting.

“I think we’ve wrangled the last of them,” Bebben whispered to Gaol, having returned from his most recent run.

“It’s almost time, then,” Gaol said gravely. “Make sure the guard is ready to catch any runners. We’re about to have a flood of them.”

Right on cue, an iguanodon began to make his way down from the staircase. It was Blackmist, one of the highest-ranking courtiers in Atlantis. He stopped to stand in front of the throne.

“Hold yourselves nobly!” Blackmist shouted, his voice booming throughout the ballroom. “You stand in the presence of the Lady of Atlantis, Queen Rhys!”

“The queen?” Vanim whispered. All around him, other dinosaurs began speculating, but the iguanodons were dead silent, heads bowed solemnly.

He caught movement at the top of the stairs. Queen Rhys had begun her descent.

The queen was huge, even by iguanodon standards, with a crest of white feathers crowning her head. Every step was calm, regal, yet resounded with power and control. A small band of primates clung to her, sitting primly along her back or hanging off of her sides. As she made it to the throne, Blackmist backed away to stand at its side. But Queen Rhys did not sit; she remained standing to address her audience.

“My dear guests, on behalf of Atlantis, I welcome you.” Queen Rhys bowed her head briefly. “I hope you have properly admired our grand capital, the seat of our royal court. It is a marvel of aristocracy that all dinosaurs should aspire to. But, I’m sure you’re all wondering why I have summoned you here.”

There were murmurs of agreement among the gathered dinosaurs.

“The truth is that our home is in grave danger. The humans built this marvel far beneath the sea, and for generations, the glass has protected us from the unforgiving ocean… But cracks are beginning to form. Seawater has been leaking into the city, threatening to drown us.”

Seffe swallowed. He and Swavelli had helped to mop some of that mess up, but they never imagined it had such a dangerous source!

“Fear not! We are working to patch up the holes as we speak. We hope that some of you would elect to help us in this grand undertaking. However, I know, too, that our beloved Atlantis is not without its faults. Even if we hold the sea back now, there is no guarantee that we will always be able to do so. So I have set my sights on the surface.

“Every one of you gathered here has seen our work with your own eyes; even now, there are oviraptors scouring your islands, planting seedlings of our Atlantian flora. Should Atlantis fall, we shall make the surface our new Atlantis! We shall bend the will of the land to our own!”

At her declaration, the crowd began shouting in shock and horror. Kyrien shot a nervous glance at Vanim, but the older cryo was shocked stiff. Queen Rhys, however did not falter, and raised her voice with unmistakable authoritative power.

“This is not a time of bargaining! There is nothing you can do to dissuade us from our cause. You are either with Atlantis, a loyal knight under our banner, willing to help us grow our great empire beyond the bounds of the dome… or you are against us, willing to watch us sink beneath the waves, as if you have not spoken with us as friends, acknowledged us as fellow dinosaurs!” She stomped her ice-white foot on the ground, the sound reverberating throughout the room, even as the crowd grew more and more restless. “It is time for every dinosaur to make their allegiance known!”

“They want to take over the islands?” Vanim said, or tried to say, but his throat had gone so dry he couldn’t form the words. He’d had his reservations about the oviraptors when he’d seen them for the first time, with their secretive nature and their mysterious plants… But these iguanodons were going to start a war!

Meanwhile, Swavelli’s mouth was set into a firm line. Seffe squirmed uneasily on her back. “Swavelli, I don’t want to fight, but…”

“But the Atlantians are just trying to find a home. We can’t fault them for that.”

Once, they, too, had been on a journey to find a place to call their own, where they wouldn’t be threatened by angry floats and buzzing insects. They’d only been trying to survive. And the Atlantians, on a much bigger scale, were doing the same. Queen Rhys was looking out for her people—Seffe and Swavelli had only ever had each other to look out for them.

“Only one thing to do, then,” Seffe said, and Swavelli nodded her agreement. Their voices joined the throng in support of the queen, one high and screeching, one deep and bellowing.

Vanim and Kyrien’s hearts swayed in another direction. What the Atlantians were planning put them both in danger. Them, and the families they’d worked so hard to protect. What would become of their grasslands if the jungle encroached into them? The euoplos and iguanodons would surely displace the antelope and horses that they relied on to survive.

Vanim cane to Atlantis seeking answers. He wanted to know whether the oviraptors and their seedlings heralded disaster when they first appeared all those months ago.

Now, he had his answer. And he wasn’t going to stand by and let the Atlantians do whatever they wanted. A look to Kyrien confirmed they were of the same mind.

The sea of dinosaurs was torn in two—those who supported Queen Rhys and her conquest, and those who did not.

“But why reveal it like this?” Swavelli hissed, ending her cry of support. The roar of the crowd was becoming deafening, more frightening than the queen’s decree. “It’s too crowded in here, something’s going to-” She cut herself off with a roar as someone’s jaws clamped down on her tail. She flipped around, yanking her tail from her attacker’s mouth. “HEY! What’s your problem?”

Vanim snarled at her, eyes ferocious despite the vast difference in size between the two of them. “How could you possibly side with them? Why would you help them kick us out of our homes?”

Seffe jumped to the base of Swavelli’s tail, wings spread in an instinctual threat display. “If we don’t, the Atlantians will lose theirs! We all have to work together!”

“Yeah?” Kyrien snapped at the utahraptor’s feathers. “Are you excited to be made into plant food?”

“Don’t talk to my friend like that!”

Someone shoved Kyrien from behind. In the tangle of bodies, it was impossible to tell if it was an accident or not, but Kyrien didn’t think twice. He whirled around and pounced on the anteo standing behind him.

With Seffe’s eyes on Kyrien, Vanim took the opportunity to snatch Seffe by the wing. The raptor squawked and screamed for Swavelli, who was on Vanim in an instant.

The floodgates were open.

The war had begun.

The ballroom erupted with screams and snarls as every dinosaur lunged for the other. Hides were pierced, horns were snapped, and the white marble floor became stained with more blood by the second.

Blackmist watched the scene with little empathy for the dinosaurs below. “Shall we take our leave, Your Majesty?”

“No.” Queen Rhys had settled on her throne, looking every bit like the royal blood flowing through her veins. “Anyone who makes it out—on our side or otherwise—will be worth keeping an eye on.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

The guards near the doors, as well, were poised and waiting for the first dinosaurs to try and escape.

And, far away from the whole ordeal, Fainel, Hummingbird, and Macaw lounged in one of the guest houses on the palace grounds. The small primates attending to them were particularly fond of Macaw; they kept tossing pieces of watermelon into the air for him to catch.

“Fainel?”

“Hm?”

“What do you think is going on in the ballroom?”

Fainel rolled her shoulders in a shrug. “I’m not sure.” She let out a long sigh, stretching her body out across her titanic pillows as a monkey picked through her feathers for insects. “But I think this is for the best. Like Selena said, that place was awful… I’m glad we’re here instead.”

Hummingbird nodded in agreement as she munched on a juicy slice of watermelon.

Atlantis was very hospitable, when it wanted to be.