Dinosaur Hunter Diaries #035: The Water Seekers
Turok: Son of Stone #21
That turtle strives to appear more focal than it really is.
TUROK AND ANDAR ARE RIDING ON A TURTLE
I love this. It has no bearing on the story. The turtle does not reappear after this page. We’re not even shown how or why they wrangled the reptile into giving them a ride. It’s just a totally charming, throwaway page to kick off the story, one that sells how magical the Lost Valley can truly be when you’ve the time to appreciate it, and not being murdered by flora, fauna, or other ferocious things.
The two hear a scuffle from the river tribe’s village, and urge the warriors to use their words. The tribe’s leader Fen has been approached by invader Palk, whose village’s water supply has dried up, and this is the most best bank to access it from.
Rather than fight, Turok offers to bring the water to them, but only if both tribes will help him dig an irrigation ditch. The two tribes comply, but still find ways to fight over this, boasting over who can dig faster and coming to blows over it.
And just when they’ve finished their irrigation ditch, there’s even more setbacks — a triceratops has gone and gotten stuck in it! It’s nothing that can’t be solved with a few of Turok’s poison arrows, but Palk’s men see this as another chance to prove themselves. It’s a nigh-immobile target. How could this possibly go wrong?
YOU FOOL
The triceratops frees itself and runs amok, but Turok does what he should’ve done moments ago. Palk, angered by the death of one of his men, takes his troops and goes home, threatening to take Fen’s land by force to get his water. With Fen’s men, they manage to dig the trench by the next day, and all that’s left is to set the clay…
… but that night, Palk returns with an attack squad to kill the tribe in their sleep! Turok alerts the tribe before he’s clonked across the head, and it’s up to Andar to set the trench ablaze, which sends them packing and puts the finishing touches on the trench’s clay lining. They’ve now got themselves a fully-functioning water line, and the next day set it on its course to Palk’s village…
… which bowls over Palk and his men again, out on another mission of murder. Hey, they’ve no need to fight now! He’s finally courteous enough to thank Turok for his hard work, and Fen can rest easy there’ll be no more hostilities from their neighbours.
Young Earth presents The Armored Ones, of dinosaurs evolution from soft skin to armoured scales, and the various ways to bonk predators on the nose with them. I do love the right panel depicting an allosaurus trying to flip over its prey with its front claws; you’ll see a whole lot of dinosaurs clutching things with their funky digits once Alberto Giolitti takes on primary art duties. It’s a bit of questionable palaeontology that seems to exist only in pulp movie posters — I don’t think any self-respecting scientist ever made a solid case for t-rexes going around manhandling things, but it just looks nifty.
While visiting another tribe, Turok and Andar pay witness to medicine man Wot showing off his magic powers, demonstrated by changing the colour of water. Andar shows him up by pulling off the same trick — all it takes is some crushed herbs! Any bozo could do it!
Wot is a sore loser.
Turok defends Andar’s right to be a heckler, Wot’s ego is wounded — he’s the medicine man! If Turok and Andar are such great magicians, then they’ll have to pass the same test he did — cross the burning sands of the desert! It’s pretty clear this is just a feeble excuse to bunk them off, but they’ve hardly a choice in the matter; they’re Wot’s prisoners for all intents and purposes.
The two are drugged and awake to find themselves stranded in the barren sands, with no tracks to lead them home and no weapons to aid them. It’s only through unintended use of the native pitfalls that they ward off an unexpected dinosaur attack. It takes brute force and ignorance to pull Andar’s head out of a giant plant, though.
Life doesn’t get any easier out in the desert — just when it looks like they’ve found tracks, it turns out to be their own. They’ve been walking in circles! The two are battered by a sandstorm, but once it clears, the sun finally shines through the dust-free sky. And this is to their advantage — although surprised by a massive honker, Turok blinds it by reflecting light into its eyes off his pendant, and the two follow its new course. Maybe it’ll lead them home!
Since his competitors haven’t returned, Wot calls dibs on the dead dudes’ stuff, only for Turok to come demanding it back. While Wot drops all subtlety and begins launching poison arrows at them, Turok trips him up with a handy vine…
… causing Wot to fall on a deadly arrowhead, killing him instantly. His followers don’t seem that bothered, actually.
Turok, a man just died.
