Chapter 3

It was the night after Miranda had awakened her pterodactyl sister and told her someone had opened the wormhole at the Jurassic Lodge, then teleported away to greet them and let everyone know she'd found her sister. Unfortunately, her pterodactyl but sometimes human sister, Murielle, didn't remember how to teleport, and it hadn't occurred to Miranda that she could teleport and still carry her sister as a passenger, so the winged reptile had to physically fly all the way from the east coast of whatever continent they were on, to somewhere in the middle, where Frank, Tanya and Lisa had built the lodge where they'd lived for the last ten or twelve years.

Exhausted from flying all day, Murielle found a high, safe place to sleep. There was no sign, no mental contact from Miranda, but she knew something was terribly wrong. Aside from that soul-searing great cry of anguish, Murielle had felt nothing of her sister's mind.

The second night, Murielle was still completely alone and had not felt any contact from her little slug sister at all. She worried terribly, but after flying all day again, she simply had to rest. Maintaining her shape as a giant pterodactyl to protect herself against nocturnal predators, she tried to sleep.

'What if she left with the others? I know she promised to return, but what would happen if they didn't let her come back for me? Would she leave me behind to forage for myself? I suppose I can get along without her, but I really don't want to – it would be a lonely existence with no one to talk to ... Oh, Mira ... little slug, I hope you are all right.'

A week of hard flying, and Murielle estimated she was finally nearing the lodge. Her heart ached at the thought of what she might find – or worse, who she might not find – but she continued, anyway. Her body grew thin, as she now relied solely on her Phoenix fire to give her sustenance. She was in too much of a hurry to stop and hunt for food.

Finally, she felt the faintest whisper from Miranda. She was dying. Something terrible really had happened. Someone had taken her fire.

'Don't die, little slug – I'm coming! Please hold on awhile longer ... I'm only a day away... '

The sight that greeted the nearly exhausted pterodactyl's eyes was bleak, to say the least. On the other side of her little slug sister's walled nest were several raptors – stalking a small, unmoving body lying in the grass. Every minute or so, one of the raptors would snarl and leap at Miranda's body, then jump away, as though something had slapped it in a different direction. The young pterodactyl didn't understand that strange dance the raptors were doing, but she realized that they were a threat to that little animal she loved so much and she was going to have to do something about them.

Dive-bombing the raptors, Murielle screeched at the top of her lungs, then blew a tornado of Phoenix fire at them. A direct hit exploded one raptor and two others fled. One remaining raptor decided to fight back, and leaped at the giant pterodactyl as she touched down. Murielle was quick, though, and speared the raptor right in its belly as it attacked. Gripping the snarling beast with both wing claws, she pulled it off her beak and bit its head off.

Tossing the dead beast to one side, Murielle anxiously transformed back to human. Her thought processes immediately evolved from pea-sized to human-sized as well, and she cried out for her sister as she raced to her side. "Mira! I'm here! I'll help you!"

And immediately bounced backward several feet. "What the hell..." she groaned as she staggered to her feet. "Mira? Are you okay?"

Moving forward more slowly and holding her hands out in front of her, she found there was invisible shielding that had prevented the raptors from being able to reach her sister. She had no idea that Mira had that kind of power, but she was immensely relieved that nothing had been able to eat her. That also explained that strange pattern of movements the raptors had been performing. They had been circling, then pouncing, seeking a way to reach their intended prey.

"Mira, let me in," Murielle pleaded. "It's me, Muri – Murielle. I'll protect you now. You can let down your shield." There was no response from Miranda. In fact, she hadn't even moved during the brief battle that Murielle had had with the raptors. And she smelled...

'She's dead.'

"Mira, please..." Murielle sobbed. "Please let me in..."

Moments went by and Murielle stopped struggling against the shield. She knew there was nothing she could do for her sister. That body in front of her smelled like it had been dead for days – maybe a week. She didn't know what was holding the shielding in place, or how Miranda may have somehow created it before she died, but she knew it was all lost. Her fervent week-long race to reach Miranda had ended in failure, and she no longer had a sister.

Murielle leaned against the shielding and simply stared, wishing without hope that it would all go away. Now that she looked more carefully, Murielle could see the ravages of insects and decomposition. The pterodactyl part of her knew that her sister wouldn't even be good to eat anymore. Putting that in her stomach would just make her sick.

She didn't know how long she stood there, but even as the sun began to set, she didn't feel like moving. It was all over – their adventures together, going places they had never been, snuggling with each other against the chill at night – it was not to be, ever again.

And because of that damned shielding, she couldn't even properly say goodbye, not that she wanted to actually touch Miranda after she'd been rotting for a few days, but she thought it would only be proper to convert her body to ashes so that she wouldn't be ... desecrated by greedy insects that were even now nibbling away, tearing her into tiny pieces so small that no one would even be able to recognize what she had once been and then feeding those little bits to baby insects so they could go out and tear another dead animal up into little tiny...

Murielle fell forward with a startled yelp as the shielding around Miranda dissolved. She immediately ran to her dead sister's side, then backed away as the rotten stench overpowered her. She hadn't realized that most of the putrid smell had been contained inside that mysterious shielding, and now she was completely unable to breathe as her throat closed up in nauseous self-protection.

Backing away until she could breathe again, Murielle realized that this might be her only chance to give her sister a final farewell. Forgetting that she was in her human form, she called forth her Phoenix fire and was surprised to find her special abilities responding. She was glad, though, because she didn't want to send her sister's ashes into the sky as a pterodactyl. Whenever she was a pterodactyl, she tended to think in terms of whether or not something could be eaten. That was too limiting for this sad occurrence.

"Goodbye, Miranda," Murielle sang out as she raised her hands, "I'll always love you..." Cool, blue fire surrounded her hands, flowing down her arms and flickering out from her fingertips. 'Maybe this is what she needs to come back to life, ' Murielle hoped, desperately wishing for it to be true, but Miranda really smelled, and she doubted there was any life left at all in her corpulent, bloated corpse.

With tears in her eyes, Murielle directed her fire into her sister's dead flesh. Almost immediately, the gasses that had collected inside her ignited, sending a shower of sparks, rotten meat and an even viler stench into the air. Murielle, though she could eat just about anything as a pterodactyl, gagged and turned away. She fell to her knees, her stomach heaving with disgust, grieving that her sister's life had ended like this.

After a few minutes, she was able to look up and view the sputtering remains. There were still quite a few pieces of her sister left. She was going to need more fire. Doing her best to control the heaving of her stomach, Murielle sent more flame at the leftover mess. It took another few moments to reduce her sister's remnants to ashes. There was no blue flame indicating even the tiniest bit of life – only yellow and red and orange. The only blue flame was the fire that enveloped Murielle's hands and arms as she used her fire to feed the funeral pyre.

After the flames receded into embers, Murielle lay down in the grass, keeping a silent vigil over the scorched grasses, tears trickling down her numb cheeks until she eventually fell asleep.