Dinosaur Stakeout

by Judith Silverthorne

  The Pteranodon swooped by his perch, sending a cascade of twigs and leaves fluttering to the ground. It made a wider loop, scanning for him, but it obviously couldn’t see him, and with a disgusted screech it sailed away. Daniel leaned against a thick branch in relief, watching it disappear. The thing was the size of a small glider ­plane.

  “It’s all right to come out now,” he called to Dr. Roost, not sure where she ­was.

  At last he spotted her some metres off where she’d dived under a giant fern. She waved to ­him.

  “I can hardly believe it’s a Pteranodon!” she yelled. “I thought they died out twenty million years earlier.”

  “Maybe it’s just from the same family,” Daniel called ­out.

  Dr. Roost nodded and began sketching something in her ­notepad.

  Then Daniel saw the Pteranodon suddenly circle back and aim for him ­again.

  “Hide! It’s coming back!” Daniel hollered, clinging tightly to the ­tree.

  Several huge wing flaps and all of a sudden the Pteranodon’s menacing curved jaw pointed straight at him. But this time, with a sudden swerve, it came at him with its deadly clawed feet, snatching at him. In the last second, it veered to miss some branches, but Daniel felt a gust of air and the scratch of its leathery wing membrane against his cheek. He hardly had time to recover before it swooped again. He ducked around a limb just in ­time.

  The third time it came at him, Daniel’s grip slipped. The horrible reptile dove at him again, plucking him out of the tree by a strap on his backpack. Daniel flung himself wildly about and the Pteranodon lost its grasp. He tumbled hard to the ­ground.

  He scrambled to his feet and raced for cover. He could hear the wings flapping as he ran. But he was too far from the safely of the cycads. The Pterenodon lunged at him. Daniel screamed and hit the ground rolling. In a moment it would have ­him.

  Then he heard Dr. Roost screeching at the top of her lungs, and then some fierce sounds of thwacking. He rolled over and sat up just as Mildred Roost charged again and pummelled the creature’s long beak with her cane. Disoriented from the unexpected attack, the reptile flapped its heavy wings and disappeared into the ­sky.

  “Take that you ­flea-­bitten reptile!!!” Dr. Roost shook her cane, breathing hard. “Daniel, are you hurt?” she called out, not taking her eyes from the ­sky.

  “I’m okay,” said Daniel sitting upright and staring at Dr. Roost in ­shock.

  Her eyes were big and dark and round. Her hair, loose from its braid, stuck out in all directions. Leaves and bits of dirt and other vegetation clung to her shirt and pants. She looked like a ragged mountain lion ready to ­pounce.

  When Dr. Roost seemed sure the Pteranodon was gone for good, she rushed over to Daniel’s side and helped him to his ­feet.

  “Are you all right?” she asked ­again.

  Daniel nodded and took a few deep breaths, shaken from the ordeal, but glad to be ­safe.

  “Well, that certainly got my heart pumping!” exclaimed Dr. Roost, as she composed herself somewhat and straightened out her dishevelled ­clothes.

  Daniel found his voice. “Thank you,” he said. “I think you saved my life.”

  “I thought Pteranodons were supposed to eat fish and such,” she ­grumbled.

  “I guess this one was more adventurous,” he said, ­trembling.

  “I’ll say!” Dr. Roost took out a handkerchief and wiped her perspiring face. “We’d better get back right away, before something worse happens.”

  “Yeah, we’ve had enough for one day.” Daniel ­said.

  Suddenly, he heard loud crashing and horrific roaring reverberating through the ­forest.

  “Not again!” Daniel ­wailed.

  “What’s happening?”

  “You’d better take cover. I have to climb up again to see.”

  This time Daniel chose a different tree and shinnied up as quickly as he could. He dug out the binoculars and discovered a pair of Tyrannosaurus rex attacking one another near the edge of the ­woods.

  “What is it?” Dr. Roost called from the base of Daniel’s tree. She hadn’t ­moved.

  “T. rexes fighting!” Daniel hollered. “Don’t move and you’ll be safe where you are. They’re shifting away from us.”

  Daniel watched as their huge tails whipped around, smacking into trees and each other. They wrestled onto the ground, flipping this way and that as their huge mouths and ­sickle-­like claws ripped at one another’s bodies. Furious bellows sent ­bird-­like creatures into the skies, and the whole forest seemed to move with scurrying creatures fleeing the ­battle.

  Daniel was embedded on his branch, watching the shocking scene, thankful that they were several hundred metres away. Even so, the ground trembled with the flailing, gruesome bodies. They crushed everything in their path. Neither would give in. This was a fight to the ­death.

  “Tell me what’s happening!” demanded Dr. Roost, assuming an attack stance, her cane ready to thwack something ­again.

  Daniel reassured her that they were safe, and gave her a quick description of the action, as the pair of vicious beasts shifted towards the riverbank. Closer and closer they moved to the edge, twisting and thrashing. They clobbered one another with sharp lashings of their tails, snarled and tore at each other’s heads. They were one massive ball of deadly giant lizard, rolling towards the edge of the ­embankment.

  “Oh no!” Daniel ­shouted.

  “What?” asked Mildred Roost, preparing to climb the ­tree.

  “I think they’re above the Edmontosaurus mother and her nest!”

  He watched in horror as the bank collapsed and the two enormous snarling T. rexes plummeted over the ­edge.

  Daniel and Dr. Roost kept still. They could still hear horrible screams and growls, then some splashing. From the tree, Daniel saw an occasional thrash of a tail farther along the riverbed. A horrendous roar sounded. Then, instant silence. The fight must be ­over.

  One T. rex must be ­dead.

  Daniel slumped against the branch. He let out a deep breath, tried to let his body relax. The Edmontosaurus was surely dead too. Now he knew how she’d died and been preserved. The embankment had been pushed over on top of her and she had suffocated under the earth, along with her babies. Sadness overwhelmed him as he thought about her. He knew for certain now. This was ­Roxanne.

  And yet… Maybe they’d somehow missed her. He had to find out. He noted the location of the sun, moving higher into the sky, and knew they had to get back home soon. He’d go as fast as he could. He shinnied down the ­tree.

  “What’s up?” asked Dr. Roost, seeing his ­excitement.

  He explained his plan. Surprisingly, she ­agreed.

  “I’ll stay here and keep a lookout, but you must take this!” She rummaged through her backpack and pulled out some kind of a handgun with a long ­barrel.

  “No way!” he said. “That wouldn’t stop anything. Their skins are too tough.”

  “A real gun wouldn’t be any use, Daniel, but this is a flare gun. It might slow them down or scare them enough so you could escape.” She held out the gun. “I won’t let you go alone, unless you take it.”

  “Okay,” he agreed, tucking it into his ­backpack.

  “Be quick, lad!” She raised her bottled water. Her face was filled with lines of tension and she obviously needed to ­rest.

  Daniel kept a wary eye out, noticing that many of the creatures had hidden when the T. rexes began their dreadful fight. Now, as he walked, tentative movements rustled around him. There was no telling when some creature might dart into his ­path.

  Within a couple of minutes, he reached the riverbank, and started to run. Then he stopped. He wasn’t sure where the second T. rex had gone. What if it was still lurking on the beach? Daniel hugged the edge of the overhang, creeping forward and listening intently. The hot, moist air pressed against him, and he heard the eerie cries of the flying reptiles, but nothing close ­by.

  Then he spotted the defeated T
. rex, unresponsive on the beach, half in and half out of the water. Its huge, lifeless body lay twisted, its neck at an odd angle. Daniel descended to the riverbank, giving the lifeless T. rex a wide berth. The horrible smell and ­ripped-­open flesh, the blood pouring onto the mud, was more than he wanted to be near. He hurried on, averting his ­eyes.

  He rounded the bend and stopped. The collapsed bank lay straight ahead. A huge mound of earth had fallen directly onto the spot where the injured Edmonto-saurus and her nest had lain. Daniel sagged onto the ground, tears stinging his eyes. He thought about taking a photograph, but he didn’t have the heart to do ­it.

  Seeing a living duckbill up close had been unbelievably alien to him. Being in the presence of dinosaurs was the most amazing and foreign experience he could imagine and he would never forget it. And he would never forget Roxanne and her nest. He knelt and stared at the huge mound of earth that covered her, remembered how he had tried to feed ­her.

  He felt something nudge his ankle and turned to find one of the hatchlings beside his leg. As he reached out to touch it, the tiny creature brushed up closer. Daniel stroked it gently. He felt the thin, smooth skin, like his mom’s leather purse, felt the bones through the skin, and its teeth like little pins. As he held it in his lap, the little duckbill scratched his hands like a playful kitten, but its claws were ­razor-­sharp and Daniel soon put it on the ­ground.

  It opened its mouth and gave ­high-­pitched squawks. Maybe it was hungry? Daniel scrambled partway up the bank and snatched some pine cones and twigs. He broke them into tiny pieces and began feeding the hatchling. It snatched at the food and ate it quickly, looking around for more. Daniel gathered armloads, enough to leave it some for when he’d ­gone.

  Then he got out the vial of water he’d collected earlier and gave the little hatchling a drink. Fashioning a dip in the mud, he lined it with a leftover plastic sandwich bag and filled it with water from the river. He knew it couldn’t last ­long.

  Sadness engulfed him. What would become of it? He couldn’t stay and protect it, and it was too small to take care of itself. There were just too many predators for the hatchling, just as there were in his world for orphaned fawns and fox kits. But those animals were still in existence, while this incredibly different species was now gone ­forever.

  Suddenly, Daniel realized that he’d left Dr. Roost alone too long. He started to move off, looking back one last time at the baby duckbill. Oh no! The little creature was following him. It probably thought he was its mother. What was he going to do? He grabbed clumps of grass with the roots and dirt attached and made a circular pen around the hatchling, enclosing the water source. It would have food and water for a short time. After that it would have to fend for ­itself.

  He heard the shrilling of the whistle. Mildred must be in danger. A sudden roar farther around the curve of the river brought him instantly to his feet. Maybe the T. rex had returned? He ran to help ­Mildred.

  Chapter Twelve

  Daniel backtracked, using huge ferns and small bushes for cover, jumping over snarled roots and pushing through long vines. He moved as fast as he could, praying that nothing dangerous prowled ­nearby.

  A sudden loud racket in the bushes down the trail brought him to a halt. The sounds came louder, and closer. Whatever it was, it was between him and Mildred Roost. Daniel scrambled towards the tallest pine ­tree.

  Gripped by fear, he instinctively wanted to drop the cone, but if he did, Dr. Roost would be left behind. Swiftly, he clambered up the tree and saw Dr. Roost waving to him with her cane. She held the whistle in her other hand. Her backpack leaned against the tree beside ­her.

  “Hurry! We have to get home!” she called out, starting towards ­him.

  “I’ll get there as soon as I can!” Daniel yelled back, as more noises erupted ­nearby.

  Abruptly, she stopped in ­mid-­step. She stared upwards past him, and then mouthed something silently to Daniel as she pointed behind him. Then she dived for cover under a nearby ­cycad.

  Daniel looked over his shoulder just as a huge head on a long, sturdy neck rose towards him. Glowing orange eyes stared at him and he felt its hot breath on his face. Daniel froze, eye to eye with an ­Iguanodon-­like dinosaur. Not an actual Iguanodon, because they had lived mostly in Europe, in the earlier Cretaceous Period, but this creature had a similar tough, toothed beak, long toes, and a conical spike on each thumb. Its height reminded him of a giraffe, but its body was as along as a school ­bus.

  Moments later, several more of the same creatures appeared. Standing on their thick, ­column-­like back legs, they easily reached the top of the tree Daniel clung to. He cringed as the one nearest to him used its hands to gather leaves next to his head. Its middle three fingers were bound together by a plump pad of skin, and it curled its little finger over to grasp food. If only it didn’t decide to taste him or nudge him out of the ­tree.

  Daniel lost all sense of time, and of his body. But his immobility seemed to save him. The dinosaur nibbling at his tree moved off. Several of the others sniffed the air cautiously, and then began grazing. Daniel didn’t dare call to Dr. Roost for fear they’d discover her. Somehow, though, they had to communicate and get back together so they could get home. She was only a few dozen metres ­away.

  Suddenly, he noticed Dr. Roost creeping stealthily through the trees towards ­him.

  “Stop!” he ­yelled.

  “Just come down,” she commanded. “I’ll be okay.”

  Cautiously, he slipped down the tree, moving as quietly as he could. The stocky ­Iguanodon-­like herbivores shuffled around the tree and he had to jam himself up against the trunk to keep one from crushing him. He glanced over towards Dr. Roost and motioned that he would join her. How, he wasn’t sure. He’d have to distract the giant ­creatures.

  As quietly as he could, he rummaged in his backpack, but before he could pull anything out, a shot reverberated through the air. Daniel screamed. When he looked over at Dr. Roost, he realized she held a second flare ­gun.

  As a flare sailed into the herd, they scattered in panic. Their powerful legs pounded the ground, their ­hoof-­like claws churned up the earth. Dust and debris swirled around the heaving bodies. It was all Daniel could do to keep from being trampled. He flattened himself against the pine tree, but it offered little ­protection.

  Another flare whistled through the air towards him. Daniel sidestepped it and yelled, “Dr. Roost!”

  He wasn’t sure the second flare had helped. The herbivores seemed too panicked to move ­away.

  “Over here!” He could barely hear her shouting over the ­clamour.

  Then he saw her through a sudden break in the stampeding dinosaurs. She shot off another flare and marched towards him at a rapid pace, her cane swinging wildly, as many of the creatures scattered around and away from them. She began to run towards him, then suddenly, went down. Daniel saw her grasp her ankle and cry out. Dust and debris swirled around ­her.

  He had to reach her and drop the pine cone. Otherwise, she could be killed! But how was he going to get through the charging herd? He still had his flare gun, but that only seemed to be making the herd stampede ­more.

  “Get my backpack!” He heard her scream ­again.

  He could see it a few metres away, miraculously still propped up against a tree. The ­Iguanodon-­like relatives were still milling about in frenzy. He groped in his backpack. There was nothing else he could do but fire a flare and hope he could get through. He sent the missile whistling into the air and dodged through pounding feet. He shot two more. At last, he reached Mildred Roost’s backpack. It brought him closer to her as ­well.

  Quickly, he fumbled through the ­contents.

  “Try the starter gun,” she yelled over the pounding ­noise.

  He found another smaller pistol in the bag. Without hesitation, Daniel grabbed it and fired it into the air several times in rapid succession. Momentarily, it stunned the dinosaur herd, but perhaps the sound was too much like
thunder and they soon seemed to ignore it. He didn’t even have a chance to ­run.

  He fumbled through the bag, drawing out more objects. He found several small packages with a peculiar substance in them. He held them up, hoping Dr. Roost could see them. Maybe they could help ­somehow.

  “Light them and throw them,” she hollered, realizing what he held. “They’re smoke bombs.”

  He lit one and prepared to run. He threw the bomb. It took a moment for it to work, but he made it a few metres forward. With the second, he crept a little further. By the third one, though, the giant herbivores weren’t reacting. He was almost close enough to rescue Mildred Roost, but the dinosaurs were ­regrouping.

  “Daniel!” she screamed over the din. “Go home! It’s too dangerous for you to stay.”

  “No, I won’t leave you!” Daniel yelled back. He’d like nothing better than to get out of prehistoric time, but how could he possibly abandon her? He probably wouldn’t even be alive if she hadn’t rescued him from the ­Pteranodon.

  “Nothing is working! You have to go!” she ­insisted.

  Suddenly, one of the giant creatures began advancing towards Dr. Roost. There was no time to lose. Daniel had to save her! He looked at the flare gun in his hand, but it was probably useless. There was only one flare left. What could he do with ­that?

  And then, close to Dr. Roost, he noticed one of the ­teepee-­like structures that he’d made to mark their path. What if he could hit it with the flare? Would it catch fire and distract the dinosaur? He had to try. But he only had one chance. The enormous creature had almost reached ­her.

  Taking careful aim, Daniel fired and hit the branches. After a few terrible seconds, the marker burst into flame in front of the ­Iguanodon-­like dinosaur. It squealed and veered away seconds before it would have trampled ­her.