It took much of the day to reach the other barrier island where they now hid.

‘This is your fault. They don’t even know about me. Only you.’ Maggie said. ‘They will come here next.’

They had circled until out of view of their hunter. But Peter remained uneasy. Since they did not know the location of the manisaur, they might be close and about to pounce on them.

‘How did the day go by so fast?’

‘Yeah. Getting dark already. But I’m sure we’re safe now.’ Peter didn’t know, or want to think, what might happen the next day.

Fish flashed fast until the water’s surface shimmered as if wind-whipped. Peter flopped on sand still warm from the sun. Maggie lolled in the shallows like a seal. The water was cooler in the seaward lagoon, but here the inner lagoon was solar-heated, and less mixed with the cooler ocean.

‘Why do you think Moby vanished?’ Maggie said after a time.

‘You feel it too? He’s gone. I thought we might see him today.’

Maggie roused herself. ‘We need find a place to watch for the manisaur.’

‘We need to drink,’ said Peter.

A coconut tree’s lean was so far sideways Peter could walk along the trunk. He found two coconuts and they had managed to crack one with a rock. Now they took turns sucking the coconut water from it.

Hidden amongst the bushes they had a view over to the other island where they saw the canoe pulled up in plain sight. Away to the west the sun slipped towards the horizon. They did not notice a shadowy blob in the sky beyond the Black Spire island.

‘There must be a way to get a stick into the coconut’s green part,’ Peter said between sips.

‘I’m not even sure this is a coconut,’ Maggie said. ‘ The ones I saw were small brown ones at church fairs at the coconut shie. Not these huge things with this thick outer part.’

‘I’ve had green ones like this before. But they used a machete to cut a square out. We could try a big big rock next time. Smash it open.’

‘Don’t want to make a lot of noise.’

‘Yeah.’

They had not still seen the manisaur but with the canoe in sight they relaxed. But then it occurred to him the manisaur might create a sense of safety that way. Perhaps they might swim across under cover of darkness.

But I’m sure manisaurs can’t swim. It would have got after me before… when I swam away the first time.

Maggie interrupted his thoughts. ’So the sun goes anti-clockwise across the sky in the southern hemisphere, but clockwise in the northern hemisphere.’

‘Hmmm,’ said Peter afraid to say anything. Perhaps this was conversation, letting the other person talk for a bit.

‘But the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west,’ said Maggie. She was silent for a time and Peter was about to speak when she continued. ‘I’ve got it… When looking at the sun in the south of the sky, movement east to west appears to be left to right. But when the sun’s in the north, east to west is right to left.’

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‘Yeah,’ Peter said. ‘I reckon.’

Maggie leaned back and smiled, but Peter could not think of anything more to say.

In the quiet Peter had almost decided that it was okay not to talk. But not saying anything in the presence of another person was a new experience for him.

‘Man,’ Peter said. ‘Living back home was so easy. Shops, bikes to get everywhere, a bed to sleep in.’

‘I know,’ Maggie said. ‘Staying outside all the time. It’s positively…’

‘Weird.’

They both laughed at the shared sense of strangeness.

Not seeing Moby after getting used to him everyday had affected him. It was like they had lost a favorite dog. They had been used to him jumping in the air and slapping the surface. Or rushing up towards the beach causing waves. Now it was just the two of them. And there were no eggs to eat.

‘There’s a nice sweet meat inside the nuts,’ Peter said. ‘If we could get at it. I'll give it a go. When we’re not being chased.’

The neighboring island seemed a lot like Moby’s Island but closer to the outer reef. Ocean waves rolled onto the reef with a boom of white foam, then broke upon the coral sand of the beach. The constant rumble of breakers and the sighing of waves underlaid all they heard. It was the sound of loneliness. The quiet between them grew oppressive to Peter.

He rose and drew Maggie from the hiding place and through the brush.

‘The manisaur’s canoe… It’s an outrigger.’ They worked their way up the beach amongst the dark scrubby screw-pines above the high tide mark.

‘We need to look out for it,’ said Maggie.

‘Should we keep moving like this?’ Peter said. ‘We need to stay hidden.’

A small clearing amongst the brush and screw-pines on the island formed a green walled room. A hidey-hole. ‘Here’s a good place.’

‘Manisaur?’ Maggie sat beside him. ‘Why do you call them that?’

She had passed the eggs to Peter and smoothed the T Shirt. Now the four eggs sat on the wheel, their faint glow just noticeable in the shade.

‘Yeah.’ Peter said. ‘Maybe they’re aliens, from another planet. Or this is another planet, and we’re the aliens. Except a lot here reminds me of Earth. The coconuts, the fish, and crabs…’

‘But Moby…’ Maggie trailed off.

‘And I’ve seen birds with hands and teeth. Bonkers.’ Peter fell silent as he was hit again by where he was.

‘The ones in that big canoe the other day… those were manisaurs,’ Peter said. ‘Big ones, and small ones.’

‘Scary. All that drumming,’ said Maggie. ‘I hid, so I didn’t see any aliens.’

‘The canoe had pulled up on Black Spire, at a beach further on. I snuck close, before I thought properly about what I was doing. Freaked me out when I saw. They’re scary monsters. But I wanted to steal some fire…’

‘Didn’t see Moby all that day,’ said Maggie. ’They scared him off. Until he brought you here.’

‘Some manisaurs were rowers, paddlers… whatever… slaves keeping to the beat of the drums. But on the beach when they rested… one of them saw me, and gave me this.’ Peter held up the bedraggled feathered talisman threaded on his necklace. ‘Made it on the spot in front of me. They have two thumbs…’

‘Slow down. You’re not making sense.’

‘The manisaurs — aliens. They’re kinda like birds, but without wings. They have feathers, and their movements are sort of owl-like… or something. Intelligent. With piercing eyes, in a strange face like they have binoculars on all the time.’

Maggie leaned in to study the talisman. She had dried the T-Shirt but he was still conscious of her closeness.

‘This feather-thing is quite pretty now.’ Maggie twirled it and stroked the feathers. ‘Almost like jewelry.’

‘I think they might be dinosaurs,’ Peter said.

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Dinosaurs are basically birds without wings.’

‘That can’t be right. Dinosaurs were big old lizards.’

‘They’ve found dinosaurs with feathers. Even T-Rex had feathers. And they’re warm blooded, even lived in the Arctic. Some of them.’

‘Golly. That is the strangest notion.’

Peter laughed. ‘It’s true. I think maybe manisaurs are like dinosaurs that evolved to be a lot like men. Parallel evolution somehow. But they have tails like birds.’

‘So this is Earth, but millions of years in the past?’

’I don’t know. Perhaps not the past. Maybe a different planet even. But’s it’s weird how lots of things are the same as Earth.’

‘You make this sound too much like a nightmare. I don’t want to be hunted by some human-dinosaur-lizard.’

‘Yeah. About that. The ones in the canoe on the beach. They had killed a manta. One like Moby.’