(continued from here)

The sky was getting even darker, now, illuminated only by a thick crescent moon. It was late. A few cars drove by under the yellowed light of the streetlights, their drivers so far unaware of the violence that had unfolded only half a block down the street.

When Kaitlyn made it to the end of the block, she went around the corner and pushed her back against the wall. Her breathing was heavy. Sprinting tends to do that to people. So does the realization that someone whom you've lived with for months, whom you've almost even counted as a friend, enjoys killing people. The girl put her hand over her eye, as if to check that it was still there, intact. Just thinking about what happened to that man made her eye ache with empathy.

People who enjoy killing other people are bad, and bad people shouldn't be trusted. The child could not trust Aura to return her to the Sanctuary. Nor could she trust her dinosaur 'sister.' This much was obvious.What wasn't obvious was how the kid could get home at this point.

Several taxis drove by, their headlights nearly blinding her as she stared at them. She stared anyway. There was a nagging thought in the back of her head that she was failing to comprehend something.

Oh! What about Aura's cellphone? Abyss's number was in it. Mars was one of the people who took Kaitlyn to the Sanctuary in the first place, and he was a clone of the big red guy. Abyss and Mars must both be good guys. Either of them would be willing to take her back home. As the girl retrieved the phone from her pocket, she became increasingly aware of the fact that something was running towards her.

Kaitlyn had run away. For a long moment Amber stood still, wavering between following the little girl and trying to find a payphone with which to call Abyss to come and rescue them. Two things convinced her to go after the girl, however. The first and most practical reason was that she couldn't speak. Her hands might just be dexterous and human enough to dial the buttons, but what would she do after that? Chirp into the phone and hope that somehow her adopted father had become psychic, knew that it was her and knew where to come find her? That didn't seem very likely. The second reason was that she had promised to protect Kaitlyn and bring her safely home and that was exactly what she planned to do.

A little unsteady on her feet, Amber ran after Kaitlyn, wondering exactly how to get her attention and, perhaps more importantly, how to convince her that she didn't mean the little girl any harm. Even though Amber knew Aura had only been defending her ad Kaitlyn too, it was quite likely that Kaitlyn didn't know that and the acts that had occurred must have terrified her. Amber knew that she, herself, would probably have nightmares about everything that had happened. Justified or not, people had died and there was so much blood and screaming and chaos, how could she not have nightmares? And if she was this affected by the incident, she could only imagine how much worse it must have been for the nine year old who probably didn't even understand fully what was going on.

As Amber got closer to Kaitlyn, she trilled plaintively at the girl, hoping that somehow she'd get the message to stop. She didn't want anything to happen to her, all she wanted to do was get the girl, call Abyss and go home. The question was, after everything would Kaitlyn realize her good intentions? Would she be willing to call Abyss? Amber just wanted to go home, find a way to turn back to normal and go to sleep. That's all she could possibly want.

The cellphone's screen was cracked, but otherwise it was still functional. Or at least it looked like it worked. All she needed to do now was figure out how to use the dumb thing. Kaitlyn had never owned or used a cellphone before in her life. She'd seen other people use them, but she didn't think that it would be this complicated. When she pressed the most prominent button on the device, what little she could see on the screen told her that it was trying to access the internet.

Ahhh, I can't use this.

When she peeked around the corner that she was hiding behind, the girl saw that the dinosaur had been following her. With a pop, Aura's cellphone became a useless, crumbly pile of plastic and silicon. Kaitlyn hated it when this happened, but that wasn't important now. This kid knew how dinosaurs operate. She saw Jurassic Park once. Being Aura's "sister" only made the bird-reptile-thing seem even more threatening.

She started to run away again, but slowed to a stop and turned around when she heard the creature's chirping. That doesn't sound like it's going to eat me... It sounds sad. Unsure of what to do, the child stood in place and stared at it.

Amber felt a profound sense of relief when Kaitlyn finally stopped running. Did that mean that the little girl still had at least some trust for her? It wasn't her fault that anyone had died, it was those people who had attacked them, it was their own fault that they had died. If not for Aura then it was possible that both of them would be dead right now. Of course, she couldn't' exactly say that to the girl, in fact she couldn't say much of anything to her at all.

When Kaitlyn stopped running Amber stopped too, remaining about 20 ft away. Now that she had finally convinced her to stop, she didn't want to scare her into running off a second time. It seemed best, for now, to take things slowly and try to get across the fact that she wasn't dangerous. All Amber wanted to do was go home where it was safe and warm and take Kaitlyn safely home with her. She trilled at the little girl again, trying to figure out how she was going to communicate. Chirping could only get her so far.

Spotting the broken pieces of plastic literring the ground around Kaitlyn, Amber realized that they were probably all that was left of Aura's cell phone. Amber had a phone of her own but that was back at the flower shop with the rest of her clothes, a very angry mutant tree boy and possibly loads of cops by now. Going back was not an option. For a second time show lowered her head, very slowly to show she wasn't a threat, for Kaitlyn to climb onto her back should she want to. She gestured with her arms for the girl to come closer. Having Kaitlyn on her back might not bring either one of them closer to home, but at least they'd be together and that was better than being a part. As long as the girl didn't accidentally blow her up, but she tried very hard not to think about that.

The dinosaur looked like it was telling the girl to come closer. It was doing that strangely cute chirping thing again. Slowly, cautiously, the kid inched towards the creature. She even more cautiously reached out to stroke the creature's feathered neck when she got close enough, which had been lowered in a gesture that Kaitlyn didn't entirely understand.

"You're not gonna hurt me, are you girl?"

'Girl' seemed to be the proper way to address an animal such as this dinosaur. A remarkably smart animal, but an animal nonetheless. Where did it come from, anyway?

"You're not gonna hurt me, are you girl?"

Amber shook her head. Did Kaitlyn not realize who she was? Did she not realize that she wasn't actually a dinosaur at all but actually a mutant girl who had turned into a dinosaur? This really wasn't a problem that she was prepared to face. How could she get across the fact that she wasn't a real dinosaur without being able to talk? She trilled again at the girl, trying to figure out her dilemma. If only she had a piece of chalk or something.

What Amber had to do, she decided, was somehow show Kaitlyn that she had the mind of a human being rather than a prehistoric creature. Voice or no voice, that would at least be a start. Unfortunately that was easier said than done. With another chirp just to make sure she had the little girls' attention, she raised her head and traced her name out in the air, very slowly and in large letters. Maybe sign language was something she should think about learning in the future. She looked at Kaitlyn and pointed to herself, hoping she got the message. If not, she was at a complete loss as to what to do next.

After an attention-getting chirp, it looked almost like the dinosaur was... writing invisible letters in the air. When Kaitlyn realized this, she started saying the letters out loud.

"A... M... B... E... R. Amber!" Keeping eye contact with the girl, it pointed to itself. Kaitlyn stared at the creature for a few moments. Blinked. "Wha... Amber? You're Amber? How did you... oh."

Amber was a mutant. Yesterday, when they had talked, Kaitlyn learned that Amber didn't know what her power was. Now, both of them knew it. She must have turned into a dinosaur. The kid spent a few moments assimilating this nugget of information.

"I wanna go home," she said eventually. She had no idea how to achieve this goal, though, with Aura's cellphone being destroyed.

Amber jumped into the air and chirped happily at the recognition of who she was, almost losing her balance when she landed back on the ground. Deciding that until she learned how to better control her new form she was going to remain with both her feet firmly planted on the ground going forward, instead she nodded her agreement regarding her identity. So, now that step one was covered, it was time to work on step two.

Once again Amber lowered her head so that Kaitlyn could climb onto her back and hitch a ride, chirping and gesturing with her hand for the little girl to come closer and climb on top of her. Hopefully now that Kaitlyn actually knew who she was, she'd actually figure out what she was trying to show her this time. If she did, then step two would also be completed.

"I wanna go home,"

And that, of course would be step three and probably the most difficult and most important step of them all. A forlorn chirp followed the statement and a nod of her head. Amber wanted to go home too, very much so. She had a vague idea where they were and thought that they might be able to run back to Sanctuary before dawn came upon them, but running for that many hours straight didn't seem like much fun. A better idea might be to find a payphone and a quarter to use it. Hopefully.

Amber looked like she wanted Kaitlyn to ride her. "Uh... are you sure about this? Okay..." the girl spent the better half of a minute clumsily trying to climb onto the dinosaur.

When she had finally succeeded, the kid noticed that a very formally dressed, somewhat overweight man had stopped to take pictures of them with what appeared to be his iPhone. She stared at the man. He looked up from his phone.

"Scuse me, mister," the girl asked, " Is that a phone?"

"Yes Ma'am," he responded in a southern drawl.

"Can we use it, please?"

The man waved his hand at this, as if dismissing the idea. "Can I take a video of you riding it around a bit, first? I'm gonna put it on YouTube."

Kaitlyn furrowed her eyebrows and gave Amber a questioning glance.

Amber waited patiently for Kaitlyn to get on top of her back. She had, of course, never ridden a dinosaur before so she had no idea how difficult it would be to either mount or ride one, but she remembered seeing a cartoon with dinosaur riders on it, so if it was on a cartoon it must be possible right? Her theory was proven right when Kaitlyn was finally on top of her. With a triumphant chirp, Amber readjusted her weight, trying to get used to the feeling of having a little girl on her back.

Once Kaitlyn was settled securely, she turned just in time to see a man snapping pictures of the two of them. She trilled at the man and cocked her head quizzically to the side.

"Can I take a video of you riding it around a bit, first? I'm gonna put it on YouTube."

The man had a phone. More importantly, the man with the phone was even willing to let them use it as long as they let him take a video of them for youtube. Amber had never had anyone interested in taking a video of her before and felt oddly touched that this man wanted to do so. So what if he was only doing it for the novelty of seeing a dinosaur and its dino rider in the middle of the night on the side of the road, he was still interested enough to put them on youtube.

Amber chirped happily at the man, nodding her ascent to the recording. She wasn't quite up to putting on much of a show, still being unsteady on her feet, but she did run back and forth a few times, showing off her feathers and her rider to the cameraman. A short while later she turned back around to face the man and chirped in his direction again. Now he needed to give Kaitlyn the phone so they could call someone to pick them up and go home.

This dinosaur riding business was a bit uncomfortable. With each step, Kaitlyn bounced off of the dinosaur's back; an uncomfortable sensation, if there ever was one. She also had to hold on to Amber's neck for dear life to keep herself from falling off, which nearly happened more than once during their brief performance. Still, there was the novelty of actually riding a dinosaur. Other people dreamed about this sort of thing, feeling hollow for their entire lives because they believed it was impossible. Kaitlyn was living it.

Now that Amber had stopped running, the girl called out to their cameraman: "Is that enough?"

"Sure, kid. Thanks a ton." With a few taps on the device's touch screen, he walked towards the dinosaur rider and handed her the phone.

"Sure. And thank you," the girl said this with as much thankfulness as she could. After the child spent a few moments staring at the screen, she lowered the phone to where the dinosaur could both see and reach the screen.

"Amber, can you put in Abyss's number? I don't know it."

Amber could feel Kaitlyn bouncing up and down on her back and decided that she would have to look into some sort of a saddle if she planned on having riders in the future. Then again, there weren't too many people small enough to actually ride her in her current form without squishing her so unless she got a bigger form it really wasn't too likely to be an issue.

Amber chirped her thanks at the man with the cell phone looked down at it. Could she put in Abyss' number? Well, she did have arms and hands that were at least similar to the ones she was used to, so probably. It was a slow process putting the number in but, after a minute, she trilled her success at Kaitlyn. Now, as long as the little girl was the one to do the talking it would all work out. And if Abyss was actually willing to come and pick them up, of course.

"Yellow?" Abyss answered in a chipper but deep tone. answering the phone with a rhyme of Hello, it was typically passable for a greeting. He heard movement on the other side so he waited for a moment." Hello, can you here me now?" He said walking to the other side of the room, they didn't typically have this problem since they got call routers put in around the sanctuary. apparently being under ground wasn't great for your signal. He appreciated how much the cell phone company could relate and sympathize with the criminal organizations problems.

That sounded like Abyss's voice. It took the girl a few moments to come up with what to say. So much had happened.

"Hi Abyss. It's Kaitlyn. Aura just killed a bunch of people and Amber turned into a dinosaur and Aura told me to call you but I broke her cellphone and now I'm using this guy's." Her words came out quickly, almost frantically. The person who lent them the cellphone had a funny look on his face. It probably had something to do with that remark about killing people. Maybe she shouldn't have said that...

"Can you take us home?"

Amber felt profound relief when someone actually answered Kaitlyn's call and, by the sounds of it, that someone was actually Abyss. She chirped in relieved joy then noticed the look the man was currently giving the pair of them. So maybe the girl shouldn't have been quite so direct about explaining the situation, particularly the part about Aura killing people but not much to do about that now.

Amber trilled at the man, not sure whether she should try to be intimidating or whether it would be better to try and look as undangerous as possible. She decided for looking meek and innocent although, as a dinosaur, she wasn't quite sure how well she pulled it off. The fact that the man didn't run away screaming was a good sign, however.