Barbara leaned heavily to one side.
Each footstep dragged across the stone.
The enormous dinosaur skull hanging from her shoulder was filled to the brim with coal.
Black dust spilled from its jaws with every step.
Several paces behind her, Elias followed.
Naked.
His hide cloak had been fashioned into a crude sack overflowing with coal.
Even then, he struggled beneath the load.
Rosella walked beside him with her arms wrapped around another pile of black stone.
Coal dust coated her bones from fingertips to elbows.
Nobody spoke.
Water rushed beside them as they climbed the slope and turned at the junction.
Eventually—
Yellow light.
Barbara’s eye lights brightened.
“Finally…”
She let out a long sigh.
“We’re back.”
She pushed ahead, gradually leaving the others behind.
“We need somebody to build a bloody cart before our next trip.”
Elias trudged after her.
“Agreed.”
They entered the vegetation.
Then Barbara stopped.
A corpse lay among the pale plants.
Large.
Furred.
Bloodied.
“What on—”
“Oh, you’re back!”
Sid waved enthusiastically from beside the kiln.
Barbara turned.
Coal immediately spilled from the dinosaur skull.
Silence.
Sid lowered his hand.
“So…”
He pointed toward the spear.
“We made some glue.”
Another gesture.
“Then we made a weapon.”
He pointed toward the shattered bones nearby.
“Then Alan died.”
A pause.
Then toward the corpse.
“And we acquired a new specimen.”
Nobody moved.
Elias stared at him.
Rosella stared at him.
Barbara stared at him.
Sid looked between them.
“Barbara, I need you to move this gorgon corpse for processing.”
Silence.
Elias walked past him.
His makeshift coal sack hit the ground.
THUD.
Black dust scattered everywhere.
His gaze moved toward the kiln.
The roof was cracked.
One of the ceramic bowls had nearly split in half.
He clutched his brow.
“So Alan died, then.”
“Correct.”
Sid nodded.
“Oh, and we acquired a toolmaker.”
He gestured toward Edgar.
Edgar raised one hand.
“Name’s Edgar.”
His gaze travelled upward.
And upward.
Until he reached Barbara’s skull.
A pause.
“So you’re the giantess.”
Barbara didn’t answer.
Her attention had settled on Alan.
What remained of him.
Fragments of skull lay scattered across the stone.
His ribs had collapsed where the gorgon had dropped him.
One arm rested several feet from the rest of his body.
Barbara slowly lowered the dinosaur skull.
THUD.
“Shit…”
She approached the remains.
Then crouched.
Her enormous hand hovered over the shattered skull.
“Can you fix him?”
Sid looked over.
“Fix him?”
A pause.
“There isn’t much left to fix.”
Barbara stared at him.
“You built me out of a dinosaur.”
“Yes.”
“And you can’t rebuild him?”
Sid’s eye lights narrowed.
He looked toward Alan’s remains.
Then toward the dead gorgon.
A pause.
“I didn’t say that.”
Kaya immediately looked up.
“Sid.”
He turned.
Silence.
Sid stared at her.
Kaya crouched beside Alan’s remains.
“He was just right there…”
Her fingers brushed one of the broken pieces of his skull.
A long pause followed.
“I hope this time you can find peace.”
She lowered her head.
“Bye, Alan…”
Nobody spoke.
Even Sid remained silent.
For a while.
Coal filled the base of the kiln.
Elias crouched beside it.
CLACK.
Sparks scattered across the tinder.
A faint ember appeared.
Then—
CRACKLE.
Flame.
Elias carefully added more fuel.
The coal caught slowly.
Orange light spread through the black chunks.
Heat rolled from the opening.
Sid immediately leaned closer.
“Oh…”
Elias shook his head.
“Don't.”
Sid stared.
A ceramic bowl rested inside the chamber.
Several pieces of hematite sat within it.
Edgar crouched nearby.
“How long is this going to take?”
“Hours.”
Elias watched the fire.
A pause.
“Assuming it works at all.”
Sid slowly turned.
“Why wouldn’t it?”
Elias pointed toward the base of the kiln.
“Airflow.”
Sid stared.
“The combustion efficiency is abysmal.”
“The what?”
“The fire is consuming oxygen faster than fresh air can enter.”
Elias gestured toward the narrow opening.
“This structure retains sufficient heat for pottery.”
Another gesture.
“It does not provide enough airflow for what we are attempting.”
CRACK.
Everyone looked up.
A fracture spread across the roof.
Silence.
Elias stared at it.
Another tiny piece of clay fell.
Tick.
His red eye lights narrowed.
He stood.
Then walked away.
Sid watched him go.
“Where are you—”
Elias picked up a dinosaur femur.
Then returned.
Sid’s eye lights widened.
“Elias?”
SMASH.
The bone punched through the roof.
Sid recoiled.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
SMASH.
Another section collapsed.
“ELIAS!”
SMASH.
Clay shattered across the ground.
Edgar calmly watched.
Elias finally stopped.
He turned toward him.
“We need more clay.”
Edgar nodded.
“Probably.”
Sid pointed at the destroyed kiln.
“Why?!”
Elias dropped the femur.
“Because I finally understand what is wrong with it.”
The old kiln became raw material.
Elias crushed the fired clay into smaller fragments.
Then mixed them into fresh clay alongside ash and coarse sediment.
He kneaded the mass.
Again.
And again.
Nearly forty minutes later, an enormous mound sat beside the stream.
Elias began rebuilding.
The new furnace was taller.
Narrower.
Its walls thicker.
Near the base, he deliberately left two openings.
Edgar crouched beside one.
“Air?”
“Yes.”
Elias continued shaping the clay.
“The fire requires a continuous oxygen supply.”
Another layer.
“Heat rises.”
He narrowed the upper chamber.
“So we force the hottest gases through the ore rather than allowing the energy to dissipate through a broad chamber.”
Edgar watched him work.
“You’ve done this before?”
“No.”
Elias pressed another layer into place.
“I merely know why the previous one failed.”
Edgar stared at him.
“What did you do before coming here?”
“Nuclear engineer.”
A pause.
“Impressive.”
Barbara approached Rosella.
The smaller skeleton crouched beside several clay molds.
“Rosella.”
“Sí?”
Barbara looked down.
One mold was crude.
Another noticeably less so.
The edges had been smoothed.
The proportions matched.
The cavity within it was almost perfectly symmetrical.
Barbara pointed.
“You said you were a waitress.”
Rosella nodded.
Barbara pointed at the molds.
“Those don’t look like a waitress made them.”
Rosella paused.
“Ah…”
She looked down.
“Before that, I studied 3D design for video games.”
Barbara stared.
“I have no idea what that means.”
Rosella held up her clay-covered hands.
“I made characters.”
Barbara blinked.
“People?”
“Not real people.”
Rosella gestured vaguely.
“Models. Characters. Monsters. Buildings.”
Barbara looked down at the molds again.
A pause.
“So you’re an artist.”
“Something like that.”
Barbara crouched beside her.
“Could you explain it to me?”
Rosella shrugged.
“Sure.”
A pause.
“I can try.”
Edgar stood over the stretched gorgon hide.
Sid crouched beside him with a crystal blade.
“Cut there.”
Sid cut.
“No.”
Edgar pointed.
“Straighter.”
Sid adjusted.
“Good.”
For the next hour, they worked.
Fat was scraped away.
Residual flesh removed.
The hide trimmed into broad sections.
Nearby, Rosella maintained a small fire.
Edgar placed the hardened lump of glue inside a ceramic bowl.
A splash of water followed.
Then he positioned it beside the flames.
Minutes passed.
The cloudy mass softened.
Then slowly returned to a thick amber paste.
Edgar dipped a strip of bone into it.
“Good.”
He applied the glue along the edges of the hide.
“Hold this.”
Sid grabbed both sides.
Edgar pressed them together.
The adhesive slowly began setting.
Then came the ligaments.
Around the seam.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
Until the hide resembled an enormous leather sack.
Sid poked it.
“Interesting…”
Edgar slapped his hand away.
“Stop that.”
He picked up a hollow dinosaur bone.
One of the smaller ones.
Edgar examined it.
Then carved through both ends until a narrow tube remained.
Sid tilted his head.
“A nozzle?”
“A nozzle.”
Edgar cut a circular opening into the end of the hide sack.
Glue followed.
Then ligaments.
The hollow bone was secured firmly into place.
Sid stared.
“What now?”
Edgar grabbed the opposite end of the sack.
Pulled.
The hide expanded.
Air rushed inside.
Then—
He squeezed.
WHOOSH.
A blast of air shot from the bone tube.
Sid’s eye lights widened.
“Oh.”
Edgar squeezed again.
WHOOSH.
Sid leaned closer.
“Oh, that’s useful.”
Edgar nodded.
“Now imagine two of them.”
Sid slowly turned toward the furnace.
His jaw began rattling.
The clearing had changed.
Everyone had fallen into a role.
Barbara stood head and shoulders above the others.
The crystal spear rested in one enormous hand.
She pointed with the other.
“Rosella, that goblin hide won’t dry sitting on the ground.”
Rosella looked over.
Barbara gestured toward it.
“Think you can build something?”
“Sí.”
Rosella immediately headed toward the bone pile.
Before long, several dinosaur ribs had been driven into the sediment beside the stream.
Ligaments stretched between them in neat parallel rows.
The goblin skin hung across the structure.
Nearby, the enormous gorgon hide had been stretched across a second frame.
Kaya moved through the surrounding vegetation.
Armful after armful of dried moss and pale plant matter accumulated beside the furnace.
Soon the pile reached her waist.
Edgar continued working on the bellows.
Elias rebuilt the furnace.
Barbara moved materials wherever they were needed.
And Sid—
Sid dismantled the gorgon.
Methodically.
Hide.
Ligaments.
Cartilage.
Bones.
Each useful component received its own pile.
Everything else went elsewhere.
Nothing wasted.
Nothing ignored.
Eventually—
Sid stopped.
He looked toward the gorgon’s skeleton.
Then toward Alan.
Silence.
Kaya noticed.
“Sid.”
He didn’t answer.
“Sid.”
His head slowly tilted.
The gorgon’s frame was enormous compared with Alan’s.
Longer spine.
Broader ribcage.
Powerful limbs.
A massive predatory skull.
But the forelimbs…
Sid looked toward Alan’s arms.
Human.
Dexterous.
His eye lights brightened.
“No.”
Kaya stood.
Sid walked toward Alan.
“I said leave him alone.”
“He is already dead.”
“That isn’t the point.”
Sid crouched beside the remains.
Kaya stepped closer.
“Then what is?”
Sid picked up one of Alan’s arms.
Kaya froze.
He examined the shoulder joint.
Then looked toward the gorgon.
“Waste.”
Silence.
Kaya’s eye lights narrowed.
“He was our friend.”
Sid looked up.
“And now he is dead.”
“That doesn’t mean you get to turn him into one of your experiments.”
Sid stared at her.
A pause.
“No.”
He looked back toward the gorgon.
“It means I can potentially bring someone else back.”
Kaya stopped.
Silence.
Sid stood.
Alan’s arm remained in his hands.
“You said that you couldn't fix him.”
“I can't.”
Sid gestured toward the shattered skull.
Then toward the gorgon.
“But I can build something complete.”
Kaya stared at him.
“You don’t even know who’ll come back.”
“Correct.”
“And that doesn’t bother you?”
Sid considered the question.
“No.”
Kaya looked away.
“Of course it doesn’t.”
Bone clicked against bone.
The new skeleton slowly took shape.
Most of the frame came from the gorgon.
The spine.
The ribs.
The legs.
The skull.
Only the shoulders and arms had belonged to Alan.
Even unfinished, the creature stood over six feet tall.
Broad.
Predatory.
Wrong.
The others watched from a distance.
Barbara lowered the spear.
Rosella stopped working.
Elias stared from beside the furnace.
Kaya didn’t move.
Sid crouched before the gorgon skull.
Silver crystal in hand.
SCRATCH.
A line appeared across the bone.
SCRATCH.
Another.
The crystal shaved through the skull with almost no resistance.
Mark after mark.
Rune after rune.
Silver light collected within the grooves.
Sid worked slowly.
Precisely.
Until finally—
He stopped.
Silence.
Sid stepped back.
The hybrid skeleton remained motionless.
He looked at Alan’s arms.
Then the gorgon’s body.
Then the enormous skull.
A pause.
“Oh…”
His jaw rattled softly.
Sid pressed the silver crystal into the final carving.
Light flowed.
The crystal dimmed.
Silver spread through the first rune.
Then the next.
And the next.
One after another, the symbols ignited.
Across the skull.
Down the spine.
Through the ribs.
Into Alan’s arms.
Silence.
Nothing moved.
Kaya stared.
Then—
CLACK.
A finger twitched.
Barbara tightened her grip on the spear.
Another finger moved.
Then the hand.
The hybrid skeleton’s spine straightened.
Slowly.
Its massive skull lifted.
Two lights flickered inside the gorgon’s empty sockets.
Not red.
Not silver.
Something in between.
Sid leaned closer.
The lights strengthened.
The new skeleton looked down at its hands.
Then toward the group.
Then at Sid.
A long silence followed.
And it blinked.