Chapter
6 ‘The Great Stone’ Page 22
Egbert watched what was going on
with Tommy from a distance. Now was his
chance. Tommy was physically and
mentally weak. Befriending him would be
easy. The dinosaur strutted over to
Tommy and tapped him on the shoulder.
Tommy jumped with fright and cringed up against the was until he saw
Egbert’s face. He relaxed. He recognized the dinosaur from the stream
the day before. He was glad to see a
face he recognized. After all Egbert
was friends with Kypou and the others, wasn’t he?
The Oviraptor smiled.
“Egbert says hello to friend of
Kypou. You are Egbert’s friend as
well?”
Tommy smiled. The dinosaur seemed harmless enough, and
since he was in this horrible place too, then that meant Egbert must be a
prisoner of the Myrites. But, wondered
Tommy, where was Egbert’s branding mark?
All the dinosaurs he had seen since he had been put to work in the pit
had the same branding mark. So where
was his?
“Sure,” said Tommy, glad to have any
kind of allie.
Egbert toothless smile beamed.
“Egbert says this is good,
good!” He produced a pick ax from
behind his back. “Egbert will help new
friend.” He strutted closer to Tommy.
“Egbert would like to know if
perhaps friend Kypou will be coming to rescue his new friend?”
Tommy thought for a moment. Jason and the others would almost certainly
be planning something to get him out of here.
Jason wouldn’t let him remain at the mercy of the Myrites. He was sure of it.
“Yeah,” he said. “Kypou will be coming for me.” This thought gave Tommy a little mental
boost.
The dinosaur smiled again.
“Egbert is happy to hear this.” He patted Tommy on the shoulder. “Egbert’s new friend will soon be free. Good good.”
“Tommy. My name’s Tommy.”
For a brief second Egbert’s eyes
narrowed and glinted with mischief.
Then his face softened.
“Tommy,” he said quietly.
As the hours past, Tommy grew more
and more exhausted. He felt like his
arm was going to fall off but he didn’t dare stop mining for crystals. The guards were watching him closely, on
Lerix’s orders no doubt. One slip up
and he was sure they would make quick work of him. He would have to lay low, do what he was told and wait for Jason
to come rescue him.
In the meantime, Tommy had managed
to fill his basket with crystals and was beginning to wonder what he was
suppose to do with it now. He didn’t
have too long to wait as one of the guards soon came over. It pointed a sharp gnarly claw at Tommy,
Egbert and the two dinosaurs beside them, and ordered them to pick up their
baskets and follow.
They made their way through the pit
towards a path which led up into the jungle.
Tommy struggled with the heavy basket as he followed the dinosaurs for
about ten minutes up the jungle path.
Stationed at various locations along the path were more Myrite
guards. Whatever was at the end,
thought Tommy, must be very important.
Finally, the path ended in yet another clearing with still more guards
surrounding the area.
Almost immediately, Tommy began to
feel very dizzy. The warm jungle air
was alive with a strange red pulsating light.
The guard stopped at the end of the
path and motioned them all forward.
Without hesitating, Egbert and the other two dinosaurs walked forward
and dumped their baskets into an opening in the ground. Tommy, however, did hesitate. He didn’t know what was going on. He felt sick to his stomach and very
scared. The guard shouted at him to get
moving. Egbert and the dinosaurs had
already completed the task and were now waiting for Tommy.
Tommy slowly moved towards the
hole. Around him the air was heating up
and crackling with strange energy. He
could feel some kind of invisible force pushing down on him.
When he arrived at the edge of the
hole, Tommy was shocked to see a large rock, about the size of his Mom’s
minivan, resting at the bottom of a crater.
It pulsated and hummed like a bee hive.
So this must be the Great Stone he had heard so much about.
Tommy wasn’t an expert or anything,
but he was sure this rock was a meteor of some kind.
His mind swirled and his thoughts
seemed to come and go at will. Tommy
felt the intense need to get away from this thing and the strange force it held
over him before his head exploded. He
quickly dumped his basket. The crystals
landed on the meteor and all but one was rapidly absorbed, giving off nothing
more than brief flashes of light. The
single black crystal he had dug out earlier, however, fizzled and sparked
sending off a plume of thick black smoke.
The guard immediately bounded forward landing beside Tommy. It grabbed him and yanked him away from the
crater’s edge. The dinosaur screeched
at Tommy.
“How dare you feed a forbidden
crystal to the Great Stone!”
Tommy was petrified. The Velociraptor continued to reprimand him.
“Never ever do that again,
creature!” It spat the words out like
venom. The dinosaur let Tommy go then
pushed him towards the path.
Tears streamed down Tommy’s
face. How was he suppose to know the
black crystal was forbidden. He
desperately wanted to go home. The guard
cracked it’s whip above the heads of the other dinosaurs.
“Get moving!” it growled. The dinosaurs scurried after Tommy back down
the path.
Once they were back in the pit, the
guard told Egbert and the others to get back to work. It leered at Tommy.
“You, vile thing, are coming with
me!” it snapped.
Tommy swallowed hard. This was it! He was done for! The
Myrite guard pushed Tommy ahead of it until they reached the stone
pyramid. Egbert watched them go, then
with an evil smile, the crazy dinosaur slipped away into the crowd.