8. The Falling Stars

Mami wrapped her front legs around Donte’s thick neck, as far as she could, and smiled wide. “Donte! Sweet Donte!”

“Gosti? Sorry, you never told me your name.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m Mami.” She held on even tighter.

“Well, not that bad.”

Mami had spent hours convincing herself that she would tell Donte. Don’t doubt, just do it. That sentence over and over. But now that she lay on his warm back, it was harder than ever.

“I did something stupid.”

Donte stopped walking. “No, I did something stupid. Mami, go sit with Nisah. I’m not carrying you on my back towards dino danger again.”

“What are you planning?”

“Helping gods defend their throne.”

“But … but … they’re the villains!”

“No villains. Would you rather have the gods as rulers or those dinosaurs?”

Mami cried and held on to his scales even tighter. “It’s my fault. I told the gods they should let the asteroid through. That it’s what the Small Ones desire. It’s all my fault. We have to turn around, run, run, and then I’ll tell the gods it was a mistake and they have to stop it after all.”

Donte just smiled. “You think they listen?”

“They apparently find the Gosti pure wisdom. Not so wise, if you ask me. Just don’t be mad, okay?”

“No time for mad. Just survive.”

Still, Donte hesitated. Frighteningly loud growls sounded in the distance. A dinosaur silhouette slowly toppled over and flattened trees with cracking noises just as loud.

The battle had begun. The asteroid was a falling star in the sky, hotter and hotter, faster and faster.

“Yes, it’s dangerous. But this time I choose to go on your back. Just like them.”

During the conversation, ten more Small Ones had crawled onto Nisah’s back. A few young Gosti tried stealing the leaves from her mouth. They had no clue about the danger, no clue as to why their mother had placed them on a dinosaur neck.

“Okay. Wanted to shout something brave, but dinosaurs no word.”

Mami laughed. “A hero. We call that a hero. The heroes are coming!”

Donte sprinted along the longneck, leaving a forest full of green trees and tall hills, traded for white trunks and pink leaves, until he found the crossing where the Green Path and the Throne Path met.

The place where the gods decided enough was enough.

Rexes bit towards Eeris, each tooth as big as her head. She curled her neck away and pulled five trees out of thin air, which hit Rexes under the jaw and nearly flipped his neck backwards.

He had barely recovered when high flood waves washed him and Donte’s brothers to a spot fifty treelengths away. A dolphin jumped from the river and froze all the water flooding the fields, forcing the dinosaurs to ice skate, which they certainly couldn’t do.

“Hey!” Mami shouted. She was unable to rise above the noise.

“Listen to my little Gosti!” Donte tried. He got the attention of a few smaller dinosaurs nearby, who had paws on their sides and a mountain of feathers, but they just laughed at him.

The gods are … divine, Mami thought. Before her eyes, they conjured forests from the earth, stomped waves back into oceans or turned them into blocks of ice, then morphed the entire landscape to trap dinosaurs in caves. Every dive of Cosmo caused a whirlwind that blew a group of dinosaurs into trees further away.

And still they never seemed to win. The dinosaurs could take anything. There were too many. They were too hungry, too aggressive, incomprehensibly wild.

Bella sat on Eeris’ back and commanded the gods. She probably shouted very wise strategies, but to Mami it sounded like a raccoon screaming in panic.

Feria slid across the ice until she stood right in front of Rexes. A tiny fox in the shadow of a giant. Rexes laughed at her.

Some things, however, are so small that you don’t even know they’re there.

Thousands of wasps descended on the dinosaurs. Feria smashed the ice with her tail, and right at that moment all the wasps stabbed their stingers between the leathery scales.

The dinosaurs shrieked in pain. Their tails lashed so wildly that they hit their own faces, but each of those blows also killed hundreds of wasps.

Donte tried to run around the battlefield. Far enough to not get hit, but not so far that the gods couldn’t hear them anymore. The feathered dinosaurs chased after him, but he was faster.

“The gods don’t want to use deadly force,” Mami whispered. “That’s why they’re not getting any further.”

“Then what?” Donte looked back with a frozen stare. The asteroid was close. Almost here. Cosmo had already given up and joined this battle. Only Darus still stood on a hill, waving his tail.

“I changed my mind!” Mami shouted. Only Cosmo looked at her, surprised, or maybe irritated. Two seconds later he was knocked from the sky by a dino foot.

“Look up! Look up, you fools!” Donte shouted at his fellow dinosaurs.

Rexes’ eyes briefly locked with those of his son. He didn’t obey the command. None of the dinosaurs did, as they continued their flight.

Only the feathered dinosaurs slowed down.

They looked up.

They saw the asteroid, a fireball that could no longer be missed. What seemed an innocent brick at first, had grown large enough to compete with Darus’ mountain range. It was headed for the other side of the continent. The gods pretended that was a safe distance, as if nothing lived there and all would be well, but Mami felt differently.

She spoke loudly: “The Small Ones have changed their minds—”

The entire field burst into flames. Through the flames leapt a saber-toothed tiger that sent lava ghosts at every dino that came too close.

Ardex was the fire god, and Ardex was angry.

Rexes had to walk backwards. The flames licked his feet, blurred his vision. Many dinosaurs turned around and fled, back to the Mouth of Din, back to the nest where they stood strong.

Ardex didn’t let up. He set all the trees on fire and shot lava rivers from his feet. Burning leaves fluttered down onto dino bodies, like falling stars. Small Ones squeaked and ran away from the fire. They climbed into the gods’ fur, they climbed onto Donte’s back, they climbed into trees.

The feathered dinosaurs looked at him. With their feathers and weak front legs, they couldn’t flee as fast as Rexes.

So they bowed their necks and let small animals walk onto their backs. These dinosaurs, at least, joined the gods.

A frenzied audience for an unbelievable spectacle: the asteroid hit.