There was a loud yawn along with a blast of stinky breath. All I could see was sand and dirt flying, falling, burying me in it.
Something scooped me up and then I was shrieking, flying in the sky, before being gently caught and tossed again. The sand of the hill gave way to show wrinkly skin and plated armour. The giant dinosaur caught me once again and gave another yawn, stretching all of his limbs and then his back. He shook himself and I was buried once more under piles of rusty coloured sand.
I half swam and was half dug back out by him and we laughed at each other. I felt familiarity with this friendly giant and hugged him. There was a gentle nudge and a suggestion that I jump up to ride on his back. The dinosaur lowered himself down for me and I jumped and climbed until I reached the ridged plates on the base of his neck. There, I clung on for dear life to a plated scale with knobs while he stood up and began to take slow steps toward our line of cars.
The distance that had taken me a long time to cross on foot was now crossed within a few footsteps. The dinosaur passed the barrier and it rippled in the sunlight, helping to sweep more sand and dust from off the giant's skin. He stopped near the line of cars and lowed a greeting.
Through me, Shigure recognised he was hungry and then everyone helped to unload the double trailer truck. The big dinosaur smacked his lips at the sight. To save time, he opened his mouth at the entrance to one of the trailers on the back of the truck. The pallets were dropped into his mouth, cardboard boxes, wooden pallets and all.
He chewed, spat out the pallets and swallowed. Then he opened his mouth for more. It could be seen how much he enjoyed the food by the way his body and tail wriggled with glee.
It took me some time, but I managed to interpret his exclamations after some time.
*"Sweet. Sweet. Delicious. So good. What's this called?"*
As Shigure was better at replying in the same style of communication full of complex sensory information, colours and emotions rather than words, he was our spokesperson. He spoke to the Desert Father through me. It seemed like I was being used like a radio that could be tuned to improve clarity of reception and like an autro-interpreting app to allow improved two-way communication.
In order to speak through me, their minds tended to convene in my head. It was noisy and a bit tiring.
*"Watermelon,"* Shigure replied. *"A type of sweet melon."*
*"Melon,"* another image returned from the giant that was small, yellow and round with a bitter aftertaste. *"Different."*
A pallet of hay bales and grass clippings later, there were bags of various seeds and cereals. The Desert Father loved these as well. But it was the watermelons he enjoyed the most.
After he had finished both trailers, he shook himself with satisfaction.
*"Enough. Need water,"* he said.
He waited patiently for us to pack up and called me to him.
*"Ride with me,"* he told me.
Shigure passed me the sunscreen and Apricorn helped me to put it on and adjust my hat on my head so that I wouldn't get too sunburnt. The big dinosaur found all this fuss very interesting and kept sniffing at the scent of the sunscreen.
With a few leaps, I found my riding position. Once the calvacade was ready, we left. The Desert Father took a detour to the river and I watched him with amazement as he sucked up so much water that the fish downstream flopped in the mud for a moment. His neck thrummed and vibrated when he sucked up the water.
*"When we get closer to where your mother is,"* he told me with a serious voice, *"help me wash. I need to look good for her."*
Shigure heard this and I wondered in the team chat group whether we had brought any brushes or brooms with which we could help him scrub the years of accumulated dirt and sand that still clung to his skin and armoured scales. Shigure called various people in the calvacade and we found that someone had indeed brought a broom and dustpan. We decided that would do.
A car was sent with the truck back to the city for more cleaning brushes and tools, as well as oil to help polish the old dinosaur's skin and scales. The truck was meant to bring back more watermelons and food for the Forest Mother. It would meet us on the other side of the gulf when we were closer to the Tangled Ranges. How we were going to carry all of it with us when we travelled though, I wasn't sure.
Riding the Desert Father was great fun. He could travel as fast as the vehicles without even breaking into an earth tremoring trot. The wind blew in my face and he sang me a lot of old songs. The songs conveyed emotions rather than anything else and we're immensely interesting. They fluttered and streamed with colours that I wanted to touch and catch. Director Worth asked me to record as many of the songs as possible. I enjoyed the attention until partway through the afternoon, I conked out and fell off his back.
The giant didn't feel me fall, but he felt how my mind suddenly went into shut down, freaking him out for a moment.
Shigure later told me that he too had panicked, seeing me fall from such a height. Although the giant could barely feel my weight, the moment I began to fall, he estimated where I was and somehow caught me with the top of his head, breaking my fall. Otherwise I might have broken my head open or broken bones.
The cars stopped and Shigure had raced out with Apricorn to pick me up, while the Desert Father had stomped his feet in panic, until Shigure managed to reassure him that I wasn't dead with some difficulty since they couldn't completely understand each other without my assistance.
According to the Desert Father later, the conversation had been like talking to a bat what it could see or asking a fish about flying in the air. Shigure had likened it to talking to someone who expected us to know his language but refused to bother to try learn ours. I heard that brick walls were less stubborn than the old dinosaur.
Shigure proposed that my falling unconscious might be because we had constantly been using my abilities for Shigure and the gentle giant to communicate through me since early morning. The big giant had reluctantly agreed. After I had been laid in the car to sleep and Shigure had calmed the anxious giant down with difficulty, we had continued our journey.
Some cars had already gone ahead of us to prepare the campsite, so when we arrived by a lake on the edge of the forest surrounding the Blue Inlet, where the Blue Gulf ended, the tents had already been set up and dinner was ready. They didn't wake me up, but allowed me to continue to sleep.
We hadn't actually expected to make such good time, but when it was seen how fast the Desert Father could move, the proposed camping site had been relocated. Feeling worried about me, the big dinosaur insisted that I sleep by his side where he could see me. Shigure said they had had an argument, but the big giant had won in the end by sending a picture ultimatum of having all the cars in the calvacade tossed over if I wasn't handed over.
So it was that when I woke up in the morning, I woke up wrapped in my sleeping bag, still covered in dust and sand from the previous day tucked between the knees of the giant's forelegs. When the sun came up, the giant insisted I undress so he could examine and clean me up.
I didn't understand what was going on until my sleeping bag was torn away along with some of my clothes. I was unceremoniously tossed into the lake, where he gently held me down and used his tongue and the lake water to 'wash' me clean. It was quite a shocking awakening.
Especially the stink of his morning breath and insistence that his slimy, smelly tongue was 'clean'.
My shock and surprise brought Shigure and Apricorn running. When they saw what was going on, Shigure and the big giant borrowed my mind for another argument over what was considered the best care for me. It made my head hurt. They only stopped arguing when they realised that my head was hurting so much. In a huff, the giant strode into the water with me to soak, cool off and take a bath himself.
"Sorry, Uki-chan," shouted Shigure. "I tried. You're on your own with this one."
I rubbed my face and aching head. I tried to jump to the shore, but the old dinosaur was surprisingly fast and sharp. He caught me gently in his mouth before I could get far, causing some people to freak out, thinking I was about to be eaten. He brought me back and gently chastised me, releasing me back into the cold water. What could I do?
Getting rid of the rags that some of my clothes had become, I asked for the broom to help scrub the giant down.
The Desert Father, in his huff, refused to let anyone close to us, so someone used their telekinesis ability to toss me some bathing clothes and the broom.
When I started scrubbing, the dinosaur moaned with delight. It took all day for me to scrub him clean to both of our satisfaction. Feeling exhausted, I lay on his back. He was finally willing to come out of the water, allowing the late afternoon sun to dry him off.
Shigure brought my shivering figure into a tent where Apricorn had heated some water for me to wash and warm up. Apricorn helped me wash my hair because my arms were too sore. Once dry and in clean clothes, I was helped back out to see the old dinosaur admiring his tail that the Director and others were polishing with oil. He nodded at them with pleasure while they continued to help oil his skin. In the meantime, I was put to bed with three hot water bottles.