Dark Fangs: Forbidden Fugitives

Chapter Seven

Swifty padded nimbly at Drake's side, and Coco was nestled between her thin shoulder blades, gripping her black and white fur with his little pink talons. Drake tried to keep up with Swifty's quick, energetic pace, but he wanted to study everything; the jungle here was more beautiful than he'd ever expected. The flowers burst with vibrant colors, the sky was blinding with golden light, and every plant was a new, unique shade of green, as if in a fairytale.

     Swifty wanted to smell everything, that was the difference between Drake slowing down and staring at all of the beauty. Whenever Swifty did, she'd leap to the next bush in a heartbeat, startling Coco. Her long, thin plumy tail whipped the foliage and her own flanks, and her paws stepped lightly, as if her body was made of air. Her eyes darted every millisecond to something new, and her muscles followed, springing to propel her into a new clump of grasses or trees or thick bushes. Drake couldn't help laughing and rolling his eyes. He was just happy for Swifty's enjoyment. If she was having a great time, he certainly was.

     "Swifty, come look over here." Drake spotted something gleaming in the sunlight under a broad, silky leaf, and he jumped to study it. "Swifty!"

     Swifty's head shot up and she yipped a bark of delight, springing in long, high bounds towards him. Coco slipped off her back and screeched, flapping after her crossly.

     Drake stooped to brush the leaf away. Underneath the green frond a shiny golden mottled feather lay, in perfect condition. It was tipped black, flecked with a red-brown, with white lining the sides. It had some light brown swirls, like faint paint brush strokes curved and mottled. Drake's cobalt eyes widened, and he smiled, lifting it off the ground delicately. 

      Swifty broke through the foliage and snatched the attractive feather from Drake's hand in a single heartbeat, startling Drake. "Swifty!" he called as she bounded away, sprinting across the road to their left.

     "Swifty!" Drake hared after her, not even close to matching her speed. 

     Coco trilled angrily, fluttering swiftly at Drake's shoulder as he ran. The Cockatiel's wing beats almost matched Drake's footfalls, but still, no matter how quickly Drake accelerated, the half-sighthound dog was always going to be faster. Coco was keeping pace with Drake, though both of them knew he could fly much faster.

     "SWIFTY!" Drake roared, tearing after her, vaulting over logs, dodging trees and thick tangles of dark vines with surprising agility. He slithered around a hollow in the earth, and Coco yelped, flapping around it as if worried he'd fall into the pit from the air. Drake focused only on Swifty's black and white haunches disappearing quickly through and around vegetation, her blurring paws, and her streaking tail. 

     Then, abruptly, the jungle broke off, and a stretch of creamy sand appeared, leading a few hundred yards into an aqua-blue extent. Drake stopped, panting like a racehorse, and Coco screeched in a volley of high-pitched squawks, flittering through the open, vastness over the beach.

     Drake's brilliant blue eyes scanned the beach, and he briskly caught sight of Swifty, frolicking on the water's edge, tearing the glorious feather into pieces. He sighed. The first bad thing you've done since you got here, and I don't blame you, he thought, staring at the tall, lithe dog romping like a foal on the shore. You were locked in a crate for days on a boat. 

     Drake jogged down to the shore, watching the pacific waves roll with foamy tips towards his shoes. Swifty continued to play with no scrutiny to Drake's presence. 

     It's glorious...Drake took in the wondrous expansion of landscape, his eyes watering with the intense, open glare of color against the shade he'd known in the jungle canopy. He sat down on the pale sand for a while, letting Swifty play and Coco fly wherever he desired while Drake breathed in the salty ocean oxygen and enjoyed the beguiling view.

     A good twenty minutes passed, and Drake at last stood, brushing sand off himself. He whistled to Swifty, and the now tired dog walked to his side, panting heavily, her flanks heaving. Coco fluttered down on Drake's shoulder, nuzzling against his cheek with a chirp. Drake smiled, brushing a finger across his bird's head as he started back for the jungle. I have somewhere to be. He thought, heading back on the trail for the warehouse. 

     In silence, it took him around thirty minutes to reach the warehouse, and the first thing that struck him as odd, was a blue roan mare tied to a T-post near a wide-open door next to the massive, shut garage door on the front of the building.

     "What? Who's horse is that?" he wondered aloud. Coco gave Drake an acute twitter of misgivings.

     Drake shared his bird's qualm. 

     Drake treaded carefully forward. Swifty was at his side, silent, her Border Collie-like ears pricked forward and her hackles bristling like her fur had been electrocuted. The three went forward, making their tentative way for the open door. The horse paid them kittle attention, aside from a neigh of question and a prick of her ears. 

     This is a bit creepy. Drake thought, stopping at the door to look back at the horse.

     A girl's voice came from inside, soft, calm, sweet...

     Who's that? Drake's mind buzzed with worried questions and images. Has one of the dinosaurs learned to speak? 

     The thought sent a shiver down his spine. He could picture a freakish Velociraptor speaking in a ghostly girl's voice.

     No. That can't be it. Drake clamped one of his hands around the door edge and peered in. Coco's flapping of his sharp long wings scared Drake first, where the parrot perched on his shoulder cautiously, but the grotesque, black-scaled face of the Indoraptor whipping towards him pushed his nerve the worst.

     "Drake!" Jae stood from behind a blanketed cage, where she'd been hiding from in front of the Indoraptor's cell. Her green eyes were wide with fear and she put a finger to her mouth as a sign to be quiet.

     Drake sighed, but his spine didn't cease the rigid tightness it was wound up in. "What are you doing?" he whispered sharply, but then he realized he wasn't the one who should be asking that question. He'd come here to do the same thing Jae was doing.

     Jae rolled her eyes in annoyance. "What are you doing here?" she shot back quietly.

     But before Drake could answer, the sound of a motorized vehicle growling down the road towards them, and the Indoraptor screeched, making Jae and Drake clamp their hands against their ears in pain. Swifty whimpered, clawing her ears in pain, and Coco twittered, fluttering out the door before Drake could notice.

     When the roaring stopped, Drake looked up, his heart thundering in his chest as he met Jae's frightened green eyes. 

     Hal is here. He thought with a crippling feeling of terror shooting through his body. Hal is here, and there's no excuse for our being at the warehouse.

     He swallowed. For breaking into the warehouse.