4. The Trone of Tomorrow

When Mami’s mother used to tell her about the godchildren, she forgot to mention that their throne is the most beautiful place in the world.

Mami watched with mouth agape and unblinking eyes. The stairs to the entrance were decorated with diamonds and along the side ran a waterslide. Over the years, ivy had fought its way through the stone and wide trees formed a roof over the last hundred steps.

Feria stood before the wooden gate, also decorated with gold and jewels, large enough to let a dinosaur through. It was always left ajar, mother said, because the gods wanted the animals to be able to visit anytime.

And that’s why Mami had not believed, for the whole trip, which took a day, what Feria said about them wanting to let the asteroid hit.

She heard splashing. Gulvi the dolphin, god of water, took the slide upwards. A high squeaking sound was his greeting, after which he swam on, through a maze of small rivers built into the castle. Not much later a large bird landed on the door.

“You better have a good reason, Feria.”

“Cosmo, you’re not going to pretend you’re terribly busy again, are you? Nothing flies in this world. Of what are you even playing god?”

“I have a wise lesson for you, called insects.”

“They don’t fly higher than treetops. Darus swears he can’t even see them!”

“Maybe if you give them a little hand …”

Cosmo flew inside.

When they stepped into the throne room, Mami felt like an intruder. She didn’t belong here. All those divine beings and she was just a small helpless pre-monkey who didn’t even know her own opinion. Should the asteroid hit? But then … then Donte will die and the forest will be destroyed. But the dinosaurs are the very reason I’m so small!

“What’s the meaning of this?” Bella, a raccoon with a shiny fur coat, sat on her throne. Her voice sounded sweet, but her face was thunderous.

“The dinosaurs. They know an asteroid is coming.”

“How?”

“That … I forgot to ask. I sent him away, I don’t want any more bites taken out of my tree.”

Bella stood up. “That news is very bad. If the animals find out we’re deliberately letting the asteroid through now, we’ll lose their support forever.”

“But,” said Mami’s faint voice. She wanted to crawl back into Feria’s fur again, but it was too late now. “You can stop it?”

Cosmo huffed and flapped his wings. “Of course! Darus can break it into a thousand snowflakes. And I can blow mighty winds until it flies past us safely. A small task for gods, I’ll have you know.”

“How much time do we have left?” Feria already stepped aside, hearing noise behind her.

“At most a couple of days. The asteroid seems to be a chunk broken off of what was once the planet Karet. We already redirected it so it hits precisely on the other side of the supercontinent.”

“Not so super anymore,” said Gulvi. “Plates are already breaking off into their own continents.”

Eeris hopped through the entrance, but had to bend her long giraffe neck quite a bit to do so. Not much later Darus followed, a wolf leaning against the wall as if exhaustion had overtaken hem.

“Geez you guys, why did you have to put this castle so far away? And has the stairway suddenly received a hundred more steps? Again?”

“You’re the one who absolutely wanted to live in your mountain range,” Feria joked, and they bumped their snouts together.

“Silence!” Bella called out. “We vote again.”

“Maybe,” said Eeris, “if we want to keep the animals’ friendship, we should let them vote on this?”

“There’s too many. The dinosaurs will of course vote fiercely against. We have no time and will achieve nothing.”

Eeris picked up Mami until she hovered above everyone. “We can at least ask one creature. An intelligent creature.”

Everyone looked at Mami. She felt naked, even more powerless than under dinosaur feet, while she now actually held all the power.

A little plan formed. And she said it oud loud before doubt could creep in. “Let the asteroid go through. But pretend you tried to stop it.”

Eeris placed her back on the ground, a disappointed look on her yellow face.

“Against,” she said. “Always against.”

“For,” said Bella. “And Ardex would be too if he was here.”

“Against,” squeaked Gulvi.

“For,” said Cosmo.

“Against,” said Darus. “The impact of such an asteroid is terrible. The stone and earth take centuries to recover!”

Everyone looked at Feria. Her voice would be the tie-breaker.

Loud footsteps echoed through the hall. Growling, panting and buzzing turned the corner until a colorful collection of small animals stood in the throne room. Young dinosaurs mingled with lizards, snakes, crabs and even a swarm of insects.

“This day just keeps getting better,” Bella sighed.

“The dinosaurs,” said the frontmost lizard. He glanced sideways at the baby dinosaurs. “The big, scary kind. You know them. They … they’re on their way here and destroying everything in their path.”

“Don’t know everything,” squeaked a little purple dino with a stump from which a horn was meant to grow. “But heard of a plan once. A collaboration with the Chiefcloud.”

Feria stamped a small dent in the stone floor. Her voice was soft.

“For. Let the asteroid through. While we pretend to fight it, actually redirect it towards the dinosaurs.”