Primordial and Beyond #1: The Divided Ones

Chapter 8

Later that day, Bronto was gazing in the distance, watching as his mate and his best friend stood before each other, in front of the Confinement Territory. He heard Zara's voluminous voice as she explained to Trex about the repercussions of his actions.

Meanwhile, Trex was slowly nodding, keeping a saddened gaze on the ground. Soon, Zara had stopped talking in her raised, commanding voice, and Trex was walking slowly to the Confinement Territory behind them. Zara watched him head in, her gaze firm, yet with a hint of sympathy in her eyes.

Bronto was about to head over, but then he heard a bunch of laughing. He turned to see five Pachycephalosaurus juveniles throwing rocks at the sky. Bronto gasped, realizing they were throwing rocks at Ebenezer.

"Aghh!" Ebenezer clumsily shifted around. He easily dodged the rocks, looking livid. "Enough! I am a Herd Leader and Flesheater Assassin! There are repercussions for treating a Pterosaur of my class this way!"

"Oh yeah! Like there are repercussions for letting your pet Flesheater run loose!" Laughed a Pachycephalosaurus juvenile.

"Hah!" Another Pachycephalosaurus juvenile laughed and threw a rock. "Velina ended up in the Confinement Territory before her Trial Period was even over! You failed as a Trial Trainer! LOSERRR!"

Ebenezer let out a furious snarl, clenching his talons and seething at the young dinos.

"Hey Ebenezer!" Called another Pachycephalosaurus juvenile. "What makes you so special as an Assassin, huh?"

Ebenezer huffed and gave an annoyed flap of his wings. "Well! If you've listened to any of my stories, you'd remember that I committed many noble heroic acts—"

"Those stories are all fake! Do you have anything REAL to say about yourself?"

"Yeah! Anything special you can actually SHOW us?"

"Show us a cool skill you can do—something that no other Assassin can do!"

"How insulting for you to ask such a thing of me!" Ebenezer held his head high. "I am not a sky performer! I shouldn't have to show or prove anything to you!"

"Well..." one of the Pachycephalosauruses crossed his arms. "All the Assassins can show us something cool about them. Gordon's super buff– he can carry three Flesheaters at once. Angie is elastic. Zona can make herself insensitive to pain. Barto can battle a bunch of Flesheaters at once without getting touched. But you?! What the heck can you do? There's nothing special or noble about you!"

Ebenezer's expression faltered. He was silent for a moment.

Bronto felt a pang of sorrow. He shook his head and stepped forward. "Guys!" He frowned at the juvenile Pachycephalosauruses. "Leave Ebenezer alone! I doodled some fire-breathing Styracosauruses by the meadow around the corner– make fun of those instead!"

The Pachycephalosaurus juveniles turned and frowned at him. "You can't tell us who or what to make fun of!"

"I also have a racetrack half-prepared by the Smoky Trenches!" Bronto added. "If you leave Ebenezer alone, I'll let you participate on the raceteams there!"

The juvenile Pachycephalosauruses suddenly looked interested. They turned to make faces at Ebenezer, then hurried off.

Bronto watched the juvenile Pachycephalosauruses disappear. He sighed. "Aghhhh, Trex won't be at race-coaching later. Dangit, that means I'll have to act as both the racetrack designer and the obstacle organizer!"

"Bah! An actor....that's all I am to them," said Ebenezer, his voice full of bitterness and exasperation. "They think everything I say about myself is all just an act to win favor from others....and not a reflection of who I truly am."

Bronto turned to the Pterosaur. "But you truly believe you are as great as you say you are. Right? An actor would know they are being someone they are not."

"Whatever. I supposed you could say I'm just a delusional actor. I thought I was so worthy for being a Flesheater Assassin, a Herd Leader, and of a superior species that is the Pterosaur." He narrowed his eyes. "Hmph...but those young ones are right. There's nothing special about me. There's nothing I can do that can make me stand out from all the other Assassins."

Bronto blinked at him. "You don't have to 'stand out' to be someone worthy of respect!"

Ebenezer rolled his eyes. "Easy for you to say– you have no problem standing out, thanks to your eccentricities and scatterbrained idiocy. But obviously, you don't gain respect for that– of course, you'd kill to be ordinary and unremarkable."

Bronto fumed. "Bahahaaa! I'd kill you right now– but anyway! Ebenezer, I wanted to ask you something. Did you ever catch Velina doing anything suspicious? Not just with the Flesheaters hatchlings, but with Leafeater hatchlings?"

Ebenezer kept his narrowed gaze on the sky as he replied. "Hmph, I don't know. I failed as her Trial Trainer. I did a terrible job monitoring her. I wouldn't have caught onto anything she was doing even if it was right under my own beak."

"Failure doesn't mean you lack the potential to succeed," said Bronto, his face looking a little more serious now.

Ebenezer grumbled under his breath, still looking disheartened.

Bronto blinked. "Hey, did Velina ever make you do anything that may have been out of your comfort zone?"

"Hmph...absolutely," said Ebenezer, giving a dramatic flap of his wings. "Somehow, she made me get involved with some things that I didn't even realize I had gotten involved in, until it was too late..."

Bronto's eyebrows raised. "Oh, dino-droppings. Like what?"

But Ebenezer didn't notice his question. He placed a hand on his chest and stared across the horizon with a determined frown. "Now that raptor knows how to use her skills to her advantage! She is twisted....but I must admit, her shrewdness makes her so worthy of respect!" He flapped his wings and began to fly away. "Now it's my turn to do something to gain the respect I deserve..."

"Ebenezer, wait!"

Ebenezer didn't hear the orange Sauropod. He soared over the land, muttering under his breath. "The world must see that I'm not just an ordinary Pterosaur, nor an ordinary Assassin, nor an ordinary leader. They will come to see what I'm truly capable of....and I shall win the respect I deserve for it."