Chapter 3-3

In the books, it always said that when you were about to die, your life flashed before your eyes. But when the dinosaur came their way, Milly had no such flashback. Instead, the only thing she had on her mind was that she would never get to find out what happened to Jayn in The Courts of Avanthar. And then there was a blurry patch in her memory, with a lot of screaming and panic. The next thing she knew, Milly found herself in a tree with no idea of how she got there, and no dinosaur in sight – but foot-deep imprints of giant feet and trees strewn about like toys on the floor of a child’s bedroom.

A dark form rose from a muddy pond nearby. Milly shrieked in panic before she saw it was Leonas, covered in mud. “I’ve chosen better spots to hide, but you don’t have to be so terrified about it,” he said. He looked with dismay over his ruined dress shirt.

“Y-you’re alright,” she said, aware that her voice was high, cracking with uncertainty. “Where’s Anjanette?”

“Shit,” Leonas said. “Milly, get down from their, I’m going to go looking.”

“Wait! I can’t climb trees!”

“Well, you did a good enough job getting up there,” he yelled, hurrying out into the distance.

Milly frowned. Leonas’s concern for his partner was admirable, but it would have been nice to get her down from there. How had she gotten up here, anyway? Probably just some latent survival instinct that she was unable to replicate now.

She decided to head back on her own, and stared at the ground below. The ground far, far below, which seemed to be spinning and uncertain. Her head snapped back from fear. Okay, that was a bad idea. Stubbornly keeping her eyes on the wooden bark right in front of her, Milly began to inch her way down the trunk.

* * *

Leonas gasped when he saw Anjanette. She was laying face down on the ground, her
red haired splayed around her head like a halo of blood. Around her was the impact of a dinosaur track. Leonas immediately rushed to her side.

“Anjanette, are you okay?” No response. “Are you alive?”

“No,” Anjanette answered. She rose, perfectly intact.

“You... y-you...”

Anjanette laughed in his face. “The thing missed me by a mile. You blinded it, remember.”

Leonas stared at her, looking torn between hugging her and hugging her throat with his hands. Hard.

“Oh come on, you should have seen your face. ‘Oh Anjanette, what will I do without you? Why, cruel world?’ Ha! And you say that you’re the master thespian here.”

Leonas continued to give her an iron stare. He couldn’t hold it for long, though, before bursting into laughter. “Okay, my bad. That was pretty nice.”

“Why do you think I did it?” said Anjanette.

“Okay, good show, we’re all alive. Now let’s get Milly out of that tree.”

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