The trio of siblings were not used to ever seeing their mother get so sad, or so mad as she was earlier. Everything happened so fast, none of them really knew how to feel; Buddy, their brother, gone? Forever? Their Dad gone forever? It seemed too impossible to be real, yet the wounds on Laura and Mr. C seemed to make it sink in. But they were adults. Adults dealing with adult things, right?
This view changed when they got to see their friend.
Inside the train station were beds for the troodon employees, though many were turned into medical beds. Had the troodon people not been so smart as to outright make time travel technology, they wouldn't have had the medical abilities to help the more willingly peaceful dinosaurs with their injuries. Wounds and broken bones of various dinosaurs who could fit in the beds were being tended to, the group surrounded by panicked voices and groans of pain. Mr. C took the group to the back of the facility turned medical ward and stepped past a curtain, pulling it aside to show a bed with a small figure in it. Shiny instantly jumped up onto the foot of it and was making to run towards him, but stopped when her eyes fully saw him. Don and Tiny climbed up as well before pausing. Gilbert was laying atop the covers on his right side, his eyes closed with his head propped on a pillow while his left leg was held up with a makeshift stirrup of small vines, a large bruise in the middle of it as it was held in a splint. What bothered the kids more was how his tail suddenly stopped, covered in raggy bandages that were white at one point but had soaked with red.
"G-Gilbert?" Shiny choked out. The sight of their friend, someone who they were familiar with and was around their age, having been so physically beaten, hit home for them. Don and Tiny sat at the foot of the bed, starting to sniffle. Mrs. P stepped over to them, wrapping her wings around them. Shiny, however, lowered onto all fours and crawled closer to Gilbert's face. Mrs. P motioned to call her back, but Mr. C put a hand up, letting her know it was all right for her to get close.
"Can... you hear me?" Shiny asked as she crawled up to him, looking at his face. He had a bit of blackness on his body and he wasn't sporting that familiar smile she adored. Her heart thumped harder in her chest as she felt her eyes starting to burn, knowing that he might not wake up. She continued looking into his face and gently stroked his cheek with a hand. "Gilbert?" she warbled. "Gilbert... you... you gotta wake up... you can't be gone." a few tears rolled down her beak, dripping onto his face, which she still stroked. Mr. C said nothing, but took his hat off as his eyes welled up with tears. Mrs. P looked up from Shiny to him, her eyes widening as she recognized what that gesture meant before she looked back at Shiny, still talking to Gilbert and slowly stroking his cheek. "Y-you see, we still gotta go walk along the beach and collect shiny things... W-we still need to sit and stare at the sky at night and count the shiny stars... S-so it'd be rude if you m-m-missed out on that." she said, though the longer she stroked his cheek, the faster the tears came, and soon she couldn't talk anymore. Only pained squawks came from her beak as she kept trying to talk, but her sobbing strangled the words.
No one dared move.
Shiny sniffled and rubbed her eyes, forcing a smile onto her face as she held back the sobbing long enough to speak.
"B-but most of all..." she swallowed as she leaned her head down, her face reddened from the tears. "Wh-when we are done counting the shiny things... and we're together... I h-have to give you th-this..." her beak parted as she closed her eyes and tilted her head. She slowly leaned in, locking her beak around his lips as she ran her tongue along them, kissing him the pteranodon way. Don and Tiny didn't know what to make of it, choosing to look away in the middle of their tears. Mrs. P and Mr. C's eyes welled up more as they watched her give what had to be her first real kiss to Gilbert. Shiny remained locked with him for a while, her eyes squeezing shut tighter, trying to stop the tears and let her enjoy this one more moment, before her heart finally sunk to the bottom of her chest.
She slowly started to pull back, but suddenly found herself stuck for a moment, her tongue caught between his lips. She went to pull it back again, but again it was stuck. She was confused at first, until a small hand stroked the side of her face. Her eyes sprung open, her vision still blurry, but soon clearing as she felt a warm tongue rubbing her own tongue as the hand still stroked her cheek. Soon the lips let go of her and she slid back from the kiss to look at his face, seeing his pretty eyes looking back up at her from a half lidded expression.
"Gooooood afternoon little lady..." he said, his voice notably weak as he tried to say his usual greeting, though he smiled as his hand kept stroking Shiny's face. "I'm so glad that the first thing I see when I wake up is something so beautiful..." he said, which made Shiny's heart throb hard enough that she thought it'd rupture out of her chest. "I'll be sure to get lots better for you... I want to walk along that beach with you..." he said. "Though, I think I found my favorite shiny-thing." he said, letting out a little chuckle at his corny line, but Shiny took it to heart as a new wave of tears assaulted her face and she hugged him as best as she could without bumping his leg. Gilbert tried his best to return it with one hand, doing his best to hold her tightly.
Mrs. P turned to Mr. C and spoke softly.
"Is... is he going to make it?" she asked, dreading the answer.
"Well, troodon have made a lot of scientific advancements. The main danger is blood loss from his tail being cut. We couldn't risk a blood transfusion with the other predators around who may go a little nutty if they smell too strong a scent of blood in this time of stress." he said, trying to keep his tone down. "but Gilbert woke up..." he wiped a tear from his face as he smiled. "he got past the hard part... it'll be dangerous for a while and he'll need lots of care. He'll also need better medical treatment, but this is some of the best right now... mainly, we're short on hands." he said as he cupped his hat in his hands and fidgeted with it. Mrs. P looked at the two youngsters, smiling and hugging each other, terrified to let go.
"I think you found a volunteer." Mrs. P said with a smile. "Think you could take a break from train duty and teach Shiny about medicine?" Mr. C blinked several times at the proposition before he smiled widely.
"Why, I certainly can!" he said with enthusiasm he'd been lacking since he saw the family earlier that day. He looked over at the two young lovebirds and flushed a little before chuckling. "But... I think they can use a few minutes alone." he said. Mrs. P agreed as she scooped up Tiny and Don and Mr. C pulled the curtain.
Thank you kindly. It was a lot of work to make this scene as sad as I imagined it. A few details may be off, but the are bound to be lost in the translation between image and imagination.
Thank you kindly. It was a lot of work to make this scene as sad as I imagined it. A few details may
Thank you. The images are trying to capture the emotion i wrote out into the stories of which these snippits come from, and I think Trias has been doing a good job. Thank you for the kind words :)
Thank you. The images are trying to capture the emotion i wrote out into the stories of which these
