10. Epilogue
Donte collapsed to his knees at the sight of the statues. His brother stood there, still taller than him, but encased in stone. The magma from the explosion had wrapped around his brother, then cooled, and hardened not long after.
The rest of the Dino Nest met the same fate. Even eggs had been preserved in rock.
There stood his father. Rexes, the largest of all, still displaying sharp teeth and a fierce gaze. Encased in thick layers of stone, with deep lines where lava must have flowed. A lifelike statue that hands could never make.
And he looked to the sky.
The clouds suffered a similar fate. The endless debris in the air suffocated them. Clouds could not die, but they could get sick or vanish.
The huddled herd continued through the thick snow. At least some sunlight shone through the gray clouds here, but it wasn’t enough for the handful of plants who still dared grow.
The first few weeks Donte had to stay in the cave. The Gosti went out, climbed the trees, tried to gather food. If he moved around, he needed too much food. They cared for him, even though he didn’t understand why, because it cost them almost everything.
Mami kept saying how sorry she was for her choice. Maybe that’s why.
He was smaller, thinner and weaker than ever before. The same went for the other dinosaurs, but now they saw it was an advantage. They could fly better and better. The new children were smaller, with thinner bones and forelegs that looked more like wings.
Although the dinosaur that crash-landed in the snow proved their flights did not yet last long. They were not strong enough yet. Legs were not yet wings. But Cosmo was happy and had already proudly named this group “Protobirds”, which apparently meant birds before they become birds.
It was also the only sense of pride the gods showed.
Darus ran around the Stone Dinosaurs and felt the rock. His tail drooped.
“No, they are no longer alive inside.”
Mami slid off Donte’s back and climbed over the statues to him. “I’m so sorry. Again. You said the impact would be worse than we thought.”
Darus shook his fur. “It happened. The gods ultimately voted to let it happen, so it’s our fault. We didn’t know how serious it was.”
“Something has only crashed down once before,” said Feria. “Back then it didn’t do much. Darus made his mountains, we got a moon, that was it. We thought this time would be the same.”
“But we forgot,” said Eeris, who didn’t want to walk with the group, “that we now had a world full of life. With water, plants, animals that need food and clean air. It’s not your fault or mine, Mami, it’s my family’s fault.”
Eeris cried again and stomped away from the statues. Gulvi slid toward her through the snow. The paths he constantly left behind were already being used by Small Ones for traveling.
He also had little good news. The lack of sunlight caused almost all the plankton in the sea to die. Because of that, all sea creatures also had barely any food. They might have survived the asteroid, but not the consequences.
“We have to be more protective,” said Bella. She initially wanted to stay home, but joined the group anyway, just before they left. “We do indeed have a world full of life. We can certainly adjust the rules a bit, make our presence felt, if that prevents such … disasters.”
Mami felt as if she had to care for the dinosaurs her whole life, to make up for her mistake.
No, not only the dinosaurs. The Gosti felt responsible for the damage they had allowed to the entire world, and might never lose their guilt.
Donte would not stop searching until he found Nisah.
The Third Ice Age had begun. And three-quarters of the world had gone extinct.
And so it was that life continued …