"When are you going to talk to your daughter?"

Markus Jersey looked up from the files he was reading, only to find his wife's frowning face. "Let's give her some more space" he tried to say.

But Bethany didn't seem willing to give up this time. "We've been 'giving her space' for days! How long are you going to wait?". As she said those words she slammed her fist on the desk, a gesture that was enough to make her husband jump.

Markus couldn't blame his wife. It could be said that, in recent times, the family had not really had a very good relationship.

When they finally got back from the forest, Jocelyne looked healthy and in fact the exams proved that she hadn't contracted any virus or disease, which was extraordinary since she hadn't eaten cooked or sterilized foods for days, thus exposing herself to any virus or parasite. However, the nightmares had begun to haunt her from the early nights. She often had hallucinations and panic attacks when someone touched her without her wanting to.

For the first few days everyone had tried to ignore this, hoping it was just a passing situation, but the more time passed the more it seemed to get worse. In the end Markus called a psychiatrist and aked him to examine his daughter. The outcome was what everyone expected: the little Jocelyne suffered from post-traumatic stress disturb.

After all, she had been kidnapped, beaten and almost forced to marry a stranger, only to witness a brutal carnage and spend over a week in constant fear that something would have come and eat her. Although the company of the gentle spinosaurus had helped her a little, she had nevertheless experienced things that would have twisted the psyche of an adult, let alone a girl of her age.

Jocelyne then started seeing a psychiatrist once a week. Unfortunately, science was still powerless against the problems of the mind: the doctor could only dig into those traumas and try to make her go further. At least the therapy so far had seemed to go well: after a couple of months Jocelyne still had nightmares, but much more less intense than before, and besides, she no longer trembled like a leaf if someone accidentally touched her.

However, despite her condition, her behavior wasn't affected: she was still jovial, childish and innocent, and she was studying hard to take her father's place one day. She could find the positives in everything and she hadn't presented any fear of going out or anything like that, even though she now demanded that there was always at least one guard in front of her room and that the windows were barred.

She also developed a particular interest in dinosaurs. No one was surprised: her savior had been one of them after all, so it was only natural that Jocelyne was eager to know everything about them.

Initially, it was limited to the endless purchase of biology books on dinosaurs, then she began to take an interest even on a more academic level. The more time passed, the more her interests had begun to include all the other animals that lived in the forest that covered the continent of Maakanar, then also the plants, the climate, the ecosystems, finally he had extended her curiosity to practically the whole world.

Her enthusiasm was clear and as she went on she seemed more and more thirsty for knowledge. However, very soon that enthusiasm had died away, replaced by a furious rage that had led the girl to shut herself up in her room and never leave it even for meals. And Markus knew that it was largely his fault.

********

Some days before...

"How could you do it!?"

Jocelyne was furious, to put it mildly. Markus couldn't remember ever seeing her daughter so angry. The friendly smile that was normally painted on her face had been replaced by a grimace so contracted that he could see her teeth under her lips.

"I was just trying to protect you..."

"Protect me? You used me!" Jocelyne shouted. "You told my story in front of all those people like I was some sort of freak! You didn't even ask me if I agreed before you did! You didn't even tell me anything! I had to find out from one stupid magazine article!"

Markus knew he was wrong. Indeed, disclosing the story of Jocelyne and the spinosaurus to the scientific world had been his decision alone. He hadn't even considered talking to his daughter about it. He had never wondered how she would react. From his point of view, any girl of that age should have been happy to have a little fame. Jocelyne, however, didn't seem to think so.

Besides, Markus hadn't said anything to her even after the press conference where he'd revealed her story to the world. He hadn't done it partly because he was too busy with more pressing matters, partly because he didn't see it as an important issue, partly because he didn't want to add further burdens to his daughter's already folded mind. So in the end he just forgot about it.

Unfortunately for him, Jocelyne wasn't a person who lived out of the world. She didn't usually leave her house and surely after what had happened she wouldn't have done it for a long time, but in the modern era an Internet connection was enough to know everything that was happening in the rest of the planet. For a few weeks Jocelyne had been too busy battling stress and nightmares to bother checking the news, but now that she had become interested in the world of biology, it didn't take long before a scientific journal article that told of Mitch's expedition ending before her eyes. From there, it didn't take long for the little girl to connect the pieces and by surfing the Internet and asking the other people in the house she quickly discovered what her father had done.

"You treated me as if I were an object! You sold me to scientists! You used my misfortune as it was some kind of show! Mom told me that you even made arrangements to make me appear in a fucking documentary! What were you hoping to achieve?"

"I just wanted to protect you, I told you. Now that everyone knows your story, another kidnapping is very unlikely..."

"Would this be your solution? Use me as a bugbear? Turn me into some kind of witch who calls dinosaurs when she is threatened?"

"But don't you understand that it's a good thing? If people are afraid, nobody will..."

"I don't want people to be afraid of me! I don't want them to look at me like I'm some kind of rare creature! Now, no one outside this house will ever look me as a human! For some I will be the monster from whom keep away, for others I will be an interesting scientific case, for others I will be a poor child to feel pity for! Every time someone looks at me, he won't even feel that we belong to the same species! I am not a freak! I am a person!"

"Jocelyne, don't say that. Nobody will ever not consider you a person..."

"YOU consider me a person! You, mom, our servants, our soldiers! But outside these four walls, no one will see me like this now! Every time someone sees me on the street, or at a party, or in any other context, they will always say: 'hey, that's the girl who tamed the spinosaurus'! Whenever someone comes to have conversation with me, their first words will always be:' hey, it is true that you were saved by a spinosaurus?'! Nobody will ever care about me as a person! Nobody will ever take me seriously again! I'll always be just an interesting phenomenon! An anomaly! Those bastards who kidnapped me destroyed my life, and you totally ruined it!"

Markus frowned; okay that her daughter was angry, but now she was exaggerating. Being compared to those motherfuckers was way too much for him. "Don't you dare talk to me like that!"

"Why? Because am I telling you the truth?" Jocelyne seemed to have completely lost her common sense. "You have ruined my life! And not only mine! Now it too is in danger!"

Markus was confused for a moment. "It...?"

"I'm talking about the spinosaurus that saved my life!" Jocelyne yelled. "You have heralded its existence to everyone! Now anyone will want to catch it, if not kill it! Every hunter will want its head as a trophy and every scientist will want to lock it up in a enclousure to study it! It protected me for nine days, it fought against terrifying predators for me, it fed me, it brought me back to you, and is that how you repay it?"

Markus shook his head. "I don't understand what the problem would be. If they caught that animal, it would only be good for it. You saw it yourself, the forest is full of dangers. In a fence it will be safe"

"Of course, because it is well known that trading freedom for security is a great deal!" Jocelyne growled. "So, at this point, why don't you marry me to someone? I'll be safe if I already have a husband! It's the same thing, isn't it?"

"Jocelyne, don't ...!"

" 'Don't' what? Don't talk to you like that? You've condemned me to be treated like a bizarre phenomenon all my life and my savior to be imprisoned, and you expect me to thank you!?"

"You can't understand! Sometimes certain sacrifices have to be made!"

"It's easy to talk when you're not the one being sacrificed!"

"I did it for your own good! I...!" Markus was starting to scream as well, but suddenly he froze. Whatever he was about to say died in his throat. All he was able to do was stare at her daughter's furious face with wide eyes.

"I DIDN'T ASK YOU!" Jocelyne roared in a tone that seemed impossible to belong to such a small girl. "I didn't ask you to protect me or to do anything else! I can decide alone what 'my own good' is! What you did wasn't protect me! You decided for me, without consulting me! You swapped for me an iron cage with a golden cage! You decided the fate of the animal that had saved me, condemning it to a life as a fugitive! You decided my future, turning me into a kind of freak!"

"Jocelyne... your eyes...!"

"I don't intend to talk about it further! My life is not something you can use at your leisure! I'm not a machine you can program as you want! I am a person! A person, understand!?" The little girl turned and strode towards the door. "Don't you dare to do it again! I hate you, father!"

And having said that she walked out and slammed the door, leaving Markus alone in the room. Markus could have chased her, stopped her, yelled at him. He didn't have the courage to do anything.

***********

After that day, Jocelyne had sealed herself up in her room. The few times she went out she made sure she didn't cross paths with her father. Indeed, Markus had discovered that she had made an agreement with the servants to always tell her where he was, so that she wouldn't risk meeting him even by mistake.

"Now you go into that room, enter with or without her permission, and talk to her!" Bethany exclaimed.

"She has locked her door"

"Well, call a blacksmith! I don't care what you do, as long as you talk to her!"

Markus shook his head. "She will never talk to me willingly. I think I really made her angry..."

"Of course you made her angry! That's why you have to talk!"

"... and for that, I'm afraid she won't listen to me even if I break into her room. Maybe it's better if you talk to her first"

Bethany was tempted to slap her husband. That was the most pathetic excuse she had ever heard. She was already raising her right hand, ready to leave the mark of her five fingers on the man's cheek, when something stopped her.

Markus was looking at her with a strange look. One that Bethany didn't remember ever seeing. It was a look similar to the one her husband had sported those few times he had been confronted with a really dangerous opponent. However, this time it was different. It was as if that mix of worry and fear had deepened… almost as if he were silently begging her to go talk to their daughter.

This confused Bethany. Markus Jersey had been a man who had never really been afraid of anything. Even in the face of the worst challenges, he hadn't hesitated to fight hard, even as the whole world seemed to be rowing against him. He wouldn't have attempted to make Jocelyne his heir to her if she didn't have that personality type, as virtually everyone outside their home disapproved of that choice. It could be said that Markus Jersey had never shown true fear, at least not in front of her.

Yet, at her request to go talk to their daughter, a shadow had appeared in the man's eyes that Bethany could only associate with true fear.

Markus Jersey was afraid to talk to his own daughter. Bethany didn't know how this was possible, but she was sure that was the case. That was enough to change her mind. "Okay, I'll go" she said. "But only this time. Next time, you will talk to her"

Markus didn't even answer her. Bethany said no further words: she left her husband's study and headed for the door of her daughter's room.

"Jocelyne, I'm mom. May I come in?" she asked knocking on the door. For a few seconds, no sound came from the other side. Then, she heard the sound of a key turning and the lock clicked.

When she entered she found Jocelyne lying on her stomach on the bed, doing something with her laptop. Beside her several biology books were open showing the most disparate creatures.

Bethany coughed, trying to find the right words. "Sweetheart, forgive me if I intrude too much, but lately I've been looking a little down, so I'd like to know if there's anything I can..."

"Father sent you, didn't he?" Jocelyne asked without taking her eyes off the screen. "You can tell him that I have no intention of talking with him"

Bethany sighed. She knew that it was impossible deceive the intuition of her daughter. It was really hard to remember that even though she was just a child and always behaved lovely she still possessed the intelligence of a worthy heir to the Jersey family. "Yes... and no" she admitted, deciding that lying was useless. "He's worried about you, but I am too. I was the one who wanted to talk to you"

"About what? If it is about meet him or something, I'm not interested"

Bethany frowned and she took the laptop out of her daughter's hands. "Don't try to talk to me in that tone, girl! I'm your mother, show a minimum of good manners!"

But Jocelyne just looked at her with a look halfway between stern and bored. "Did you know? That he would show what happened to me in front of the whole world?"

Bethany had never seen her daughter so disrespectful. She was tempted to get her an earful, but by drawing all her patience she managed to stay calm. After all, something told her that at the moment it wasn't scolding that her daughter needed. "I didn't know, at least until he did that press conference. After that, I got mad at him too, but..."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought you had enough problems already. I knew you would be angry, and with everything you were already going through, I wasn't sure if a tantrum would help you"

"So you also think you can decide what's best for me. Very good"

Bethany shook her head. Maybe her daughter, because of everything she had gone through, had unlocked what in other countries people called 'rebellious phase'? "It is normal for parents to think they know what is best for their child. Very often we make mistakes, but it's normal. I'm sorry if that offended you" she told her. "I know your father is wrong and you have every reason to be angry. But being locked in here won't magically solve things. I'm not asking you to forgive him, just to try and talk to him"

"I know staying in here won't change things. But I'm afraid if I see him again I'll punch him in the face"

Yes, she was definitely in her 'rebellious phase'... maybe. Bethany hoped it was really just a phase. "If I had a coin for every time I wanted to hit your father, now I would be richer than him. Don't let such feelings stop you. In the adult world you have to learn to maintain self-control even in the worst situations. I know you still don't. you are an adult, but... it's never too early to learn"

Jocelyne seemed to reflect on her words for the first time since she had entered the room. Bethany hoped this was a good sign. "Okay, I'll think about it" she said at last, even if with an unconvinced tone.

Bethany sighed, but she decided it was enough for now. She didn't want to push her daughter too hard. If she did, she could have achieved the opposite of reconciliation. "Thank you. I'm glad you listened to me" she just said. "Now let's change the topic. Why don't you tell me what you're doing? You seem... pretty busy"

The bed where Jocelyne was lying was full of books, papers, magazines and who knows what else, randomly scattered all over the sheets, some of them even open or torn. Jocelyne had always been a very neat girl, but it seemed that her time in the forest had made her a little wild. Bethany imagined that after she Jocelyne had to fight for her own survival, things like order became secondary in her mind. After all, keeping your room tidy didn't guarantee you a meal at the end of the day if you lived in nature.

Bethany remembered what Jocelyne had been like on the first night after she was find. When they got home, she touched everything as if she didn't believe she was really there. When they gave her clean clothes, she hugged them as if they were a priceless treasure. When it was time for dinner, for a moment she seemed willing to take the food with her bare hands, remembering only a second later that cutlery existed; and when a piece of roast finally landed on her tongue, she practically burst into tears. She had devoured everything on the table with no attention to her good manners. And when she was finally time to go to sleep, she threw herself on her bed without even putting on her nightgown.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for the little girl to remember again how humans lived in the civilized world. Despite this, she had retained some 'bad' behaviors. But Bethany and Markus had avoided focusing too much on them: after what Jocelyne had been through, not keeping her room in order seemed the least.

"I was reading some articles just published on university sites," Jocelyne explained, pointing to her laptop. "Apparently, on Tegrom a new species of very resistant climbing plants has recently been discovered"

"Uh... good" Bethany replied, even though she had no idea what her daughter was talking about. After all, she didn't care what happened on another continent almost on the other side of the world. "You are really passionate about these things, right?"

"Yeah, right" Jocelyne replied with a tiny voice. Then she looked down and whispered: "It won't survive"

Bethany was a little surprised. "Who? The spinosaurus?" she asked confused. Initially everyone thought the spinosaurus would die from its wounds, but they didn't tell Jocelyne for obvious reasons. However, the professor Morgan's expedition had found the animal, so they were wrong. "I don't understand. I know that you read about professor Morgan's adventure, so you know that it is fine..."

"I'm not talking about that dinosaur. I know it can defend itself" Jocelyne said. "I'm talking about the forest"

With one hand she turned the computer and showed Bethany what was on the screen: it was a satellite image of the mining colony built by Odaria, where Cartago was also located. "This area until two years ago was covered by the forest up to the mountains. Now there is nothing. It is nothing but a barren desert"

Bethany didn't know what to answer. Unfortunately, he had no way of arguing: that the colony's oil wells and coal mines had caused an environmental disaster wasn't an unknown topic. "Yes, but there is still a lot more forest, so..."

"We'll invade it" Jocelyne interrupted him. "Nations around the world want the wealth that the forest hides. Oil, coal, wood, soil... piece by piece they will sweep it away. All that heaven, all those creatures... they will all vanish. There will be nothing left"

Jocelyne was a child, but she already had a clear understanding of the dynamics of the adult world. Until then, however, she had disinterested in what was happening in the colony because it seemed useless: her father owned only a few oil wells and a few mines there, the rest was held by other shareholders. However, after she got home, she started to get hooked on the 'nature' subject.

First she had done it only out of interest in the spinosaurus who had helped her, then something had changed. Although due to her experience she had learned to associate that place with Hell, she couldn't deny that this place had something magnificent, exotic, a kind of wonderful casket that kept wonderful secrets for her to discover. She had started to love that forest, and then to love nature in general, with all its beautiful living creatures and all their strange shapes...

And Jocelyne, sadly, knew that all of this would have disappear quickly. Humans wanted the riches of the forest because they were the answer to the global economic crisis. No matter how much the environmentalists and scientists screamed, nations and big corporations didn't care.

They would eat the forest piece by piece, and in the end there would be nothing left but a desert.

Jocelyne couldn't bear that paradise disappear. Even though she had only been interested in it for a few months, she had already discovered amazing things about it. Thanks to the power of the Internet, she had admired animals of all kinds, lush trees, flowers of the most disparate shapes, wonderful waterfalls, even rivers that due to the algae they contained took on different colors...

And all that magnificence would be destroyed to give way to oil wells and coal mines, poisoning the air and making the soil sterile...

"I know it's not a good thing" Bethany tried to say, "but that's the way it is. Besides, not everything is bad. The new colonies will destroy acres of forest, yes, but they will employ a lot of people"

"And can't we give them work in another way? Do we have to sacrifice thousands of other living beings?" Jocelyne asked in a tone that was somewhere between reproach and disappointment. And then? What would humans do when trees would disappeared and animals went extinct? Even if they had survived without them, what kind of life would it have been without ever being able to know those extraordinary beauties that animated the world with their mere existence?

Jocelyne felt that she wasn't saved by accident. She had never been a religious person, but the coincidences of her experience had been too many. It was as if someone from above had sent that spinosaurus to protect her, or at least had crossed their paths. Moreover, it was precisely that experience that made her passionate about nature and made her understand the danger she was running.

That's why she thought she had a mission, a mission willed by God: to prevent human beings from destroying the paradise that it had created for them. The problem was that she didn't know how to do it, and that was the cause of her depression.

"I don't know what to tell you. Unfortunately, some things just happen. And I fear that progress cannot be stopped" Bethany only managed to mutter.

"I know" Jocelyne replied.

Bethany stayed with her for a few more time, than she left the room, leaving her alone again. Jocelyne could finally sigh. She didn't know why she felt so much empathy towards the forest: perhaps because she had lived there for a while, or perhaps because she had pleasant memories of it (albeit few), or perhaps... because she felt some kind of affinity. The forest was defenseless, completely at the mercy of humans... just as she was at the mercy of other people's decisions.

She hated feeling helpless. She hated that someone choose for her. She hated that her life was written by someone else. Maybe the forest felt the same towards human beings. Maybe that was why she wanted help it.

But she didn't know how to do it. Everything that came to her mind (funding research on sustainable energy, helping environmental agencies, joining protests) left a bad taste in her mouth because she knew that would be useless. As her mother had said, progress couldn't be stopped, and if it could be stopped she certainly didn't have the power to do it.

She needed help, or even just a chance; if it showed up, she would have caught it instantly.