Helical Time

Alrighty, this is a fanfiction based, very loosely, on “Dinotopia” by James Gurney (1994) – how I loved that book as a child! I recently rediscovered it hiding in a wardrobe of mine and it re-sparked my love of dinosaurs! :3  Unfortunately, you’ll be meeting very few characters from the original book, and many of the then-ideas will be adapted, developed so that what you’ll be reading here will come out as something quite different! However, I still fully credit Mr. Gurney for the idea of Dinotopia and all familiar themes there in! The only things I’ll take credit for are the plot lines and (almost all of the) characters. I do hope you enjoy! Viva la Dinotopia~

 This is also being written for April's Camp NaNoWriMo! :D 50,000 in 30 days! Oooh! This story might well be more than 50,000 in the end, but hey, I'll be happy if I can at least cross the threshold by April 30th! ^_^

|| Helical Time  // Prologue ||

This is something my sister can never know.  The newly appointed Mayor of Waterfall City almost despaired at what her sister had left on her doorstep…and the potential scandal it brought with her. Sarenna almost couldn’t decide who to be more angry with: herself for so easily giving in to her elder sister’s demands, or her elder sister for putting her in such a position. As for her nephew – the middle sister’s son – she refused to even acknowledge his part in all of this, although it wasn’t to say he didn’t justly deserve a thorough bollocking…if he ever came within a hundred miles of her again, of course.

Sarenna sighed heavily as she looked down at the sleeping infant, carefully bundled in a drab, while cloth; oblivious to all of the trouble and heartache it had, and no doubt would later, cause. The only noise made in the small room was the comforting ticking of the clock as its spiral barrel wound its way around the mechanism, counting the seconds.  

She was barely three months old, but already her life looked depressingly bleak; Sarenna and her husband had argued for hours and hours and hours about what to do with the infant – she’d hoped to raise it as her own daughter and give the child a chance, but as Sarenna was, too, with child – and six months along – there was no way she could pretend to have born it herself, considering all of the fuss that had been made about her own expectant condition.  Eventually, her husband, Cibor, had suggested that they might place her in an orphanage – no one, therefore would need to know of the scandal surrounding her birth, or of her heritage.

Sarenna had been hesitant at best – an orphanage was among the worst places for a child to grow up – and were prime grounds for slavers.

“It has been done,” Cibor announced, in a respectfully reserved voice as he returned to the room and walked up next to his wife; “’The Hatchling,’ on the southern side of Waterfall will take her; I asked through a channel of three of my closest friends – I’m certain they will not know of the child’s origins or connections,” The man spoke softly, but it still elicited a sigh from Sarenna,

“I still feel guilty for doing it…”

“I know,” He chose his words carefully, “It will be better this way – we can keep a careful eye on her, and no one will feel cheated by us raising an heir not born by blood ,” Cibor comforted, “And you know we couldn’t possibly reveal her heritage to justify her being here…”

“I know that, too…I just regret that this had to happen now – the timing couldn’t have been worse,” Cibor dropped his hands to her shoulders,

“We’ll keep our eyes out for her – makes sure she’ll be alright,”

“She’ll be in an orphanage, Cibor – none of that is alright!” Sarenna began, though the wind was quickly taken from her sails, “But…there really isn’t any other way, is there? We have to pretend she’s of no connection to us – giving up a child is among the gravest of crimes in Dinotopia…along with being born out of wedlock. She’ll spend a life hated for that reason – she needn’t have terms of association to make it worse,”