by Laura Martin
“Shoot! Shoot now!” Todd bellowed. Someone’s pack flew down to smack harmlessly against the creature’s long, sharp snout. It let out a grinding growl and looked past me at Todd and Shawn. I had a full view of its left eye, and my fingers finally closed over an arrow. My arm drew the bow and released as if on its own, and I watched in stunned amazement as the arrow sank into the soft, unprotected center of the spinosaurus’s eye. It jerked and let out a high-pitched, keening cry. Its body twitched. And then its breath whooshed past me as it collapsed.
“You did it!” Shawn was suddenly shaking me. “That was incredible!”
“No time for celebrating,” Todd shouted as the tree groaned and shifted another few inches. “This thing isn’t going to hold much longer.” I shook myself, blinking at Shawn and Todd stupidly.
“I killed it?” I looked to Todd for verification. “You’re sure?”
“It’s not a possum,” Todd called, already starting to climb down the tilted tree trunk, “they don’t play dead. Now move it!” Shawn helped me untie the rope around my waist, and we hurried to follow. Todd dropped from the lowest limb onto the prone figure of the spinosaurus. He motioned impatiently at Shawn and me, and, not really believing this was happening, I dropped the last few feet onto the dinosaur’s massive side. It barely gave as I landed, feeling more like rock than animal.
Todd made his way down the sloping side toward its tail, and Shawn and I were close behind. The creature had a pungent damp smell that reminded me of stale water or mold, and my eyes watered and stung. Its skin was damp, as though it had just come from the water, and I had to fight not to lose my balance on its slick scales. Before I realized what was happening, we were on the ground and running away at a dead sprint.
Moments later, all sound was drowned out by our tree falling onto the dead dinosaur with a sickening crunch. I whirled to see it lying at a forty-degree angle, the spinosaurus’s body crushed beneath its thick trunk.
“Well, it’s definitely dead now,” Todd huffed, quirking an eyebrow at me. Suddenly my knees went weak, and I sat down hard, unable to take my eyes off the dead dinosaur.
“You weren’t sure before?” I asked, my voice sounding as shaky as I felt.
“Not one hundred percent.” Todd shrugged. “We didn’t have a choice, though; it was get down or get dead.”
“Well said,” Shawn groaned.
“That was a nice shot, by the way.” Todd grinned. “You must have hit brain for it to drop like that, and that’s a pretty impressive feat considering how small those things’ brains are.”
“I thought you said it was smart enough to know how to knock down that tree,” Shawn accused.
“Oh, it is,” Todd said grimly. “It’s my fault. I never even thought about a Croc Killer. They usually only hunt in the water. They’re too slow to catch much on land. It must have tracked our scent from the pond.”
Shawn’s face went white. “The pond Sky went swimming in yesterday?”
I stared at him in horror. I’d gone for a swim in that thing’s backyard? I squeezed my eyes shut as I saw my rash dip in the pond in a whole new light. My hand trembled as it went to the compass around my neck, and I held it against my hammering heart. Stupid mistake, I thought angrily. Another one to add to the long list I’d accumulated since leaving the compound.
“I told you taking a bath was stupid,” Shawn said. My eyes flashed open, and I glared at him.
“Don’t you think I know that?” I snapped, and then immediately felt guilty for it. It wasn’t Shawn’s fault that I’d almost gotten us all killed. Again. He just shrugged and offered me his hand. I took it and stood up on shaky legs.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
“Forgiven,” he said simply. We’d been friends long enough that he knew exactly what I was apologizing for.
“Nice work with that rope,” Todd said to Shawn. “That was pretty slick. If you hadn’t gotten it tied and untied so quickly, we’d all be dead right now.”
“It was no big deal, just a simple timber hitch knot.”
“If you say so,” Todd said.
“Not so useless after all, are you?” I said quietly, so only Shawn could hear. He didn’t say anything, but I could tell he was trying not to smile.
“No time to chat,” Todd said. “We need to get our gear.” He headed back toward the fallen dinosaur at a run. Shawn and I followed.
“I can’t believe I killed it,” I said as we approached the dead animal, its size even more impressive from ground level.
“I know.” Shawn shook his head. “You wouldn’t even shoot at that raptor earlier.”
“I must be a better teacher than I thought,” Todd mused as he trotted briskly around to the creature’s head. The spinosaurus’s jaw hung open, revealing long, needlelike teeth the size of my forearm, and I held my breath as I followed Todd over the broken branches.
“Shouldn’t we get out of here?” Shawn asked as he ducked underneath a low-hanging branch. “That wasn’t exactly a quiet encounter. What if this guy had a wife or buddies close by that come looking for him?”
“This isn’t compound life. We can’t just order a new tree pod if we decide to leave ours behind. If we had been sleeping around that campfire instead of above it, we’d all be dead right now. So I think I’ll get my pod back if it’s all the same to you.”
“Good point,” Shawn agreed grudgingly. I looked at him in surprise. If Todd had talked like that to him at the beginning of the trip, he would have gotten angry. Maybe his trick with the rope had made him less self-conscious.
“Hurry it up,” Todd said, looking nervous. “I’m less worried about this big guy’s wife and more worried about scavengers.” I began working at the knots in my tree pod.
“I can’t believe I made such a rookie mistake.” Todd frowned. “Now my bow’s busted.”
“I’m sorry, Todd,” I said, remembering that it was his dad’s bow. “I know how much it meant to you.” He just nodded as he picked up the broken pieces, examining each of them before snorting in disgust and dropping them.
“Yeah, well,” he said, “my mom means more. If we can find her, then this will all be worth it. You two better hold up your end of the bargain.”
“We will,” I promised.
“How long do you think we have before scavengers show up?” Shawn asked, eyeing the carcass nervously as he rolled up my tree pod and handed it to me. No sooner had the words left his lips than an earsplitting screech came from our left. It was our answer.
“Run!” Todd bellowed as the trees began to tremble with the sound of approaching feet. I threw my pack over my shoulder and ran after Todd. Another shriek, followed by growling and ripping sounds, came from behind us. The scavengers had found the spinosaurus and were making short work of him. They sounded big. Bile rose in my throat, but I forced it down, commanding my feet to fly as we zigzagged through rapidly thinning trees. I couldn’t hear anything chasing us, but Todd didn’t lessen his pace. When he finally slowed to a stop a few minutes later, I sank to my knees, my legs no longer functioning now that I was apparently not in any danger of being eaten.
“Scavengers,” Todd panted, wiping the sweat from his forehead. “They will follow us as soon as they finish the Croc Killer.”
“That will take hours!” Shawn gasped as he dug his canteen from his pack and handed it to me.
“Not hours, minutes,” Todd corrected. “Scavengers can smell the blood for miles.”
“Are they like sharks or piranhas?” I asked.
Todd brushed off my question. “Sure. Whatever. But the thing with scavengers is if there’s one, there’s twenty, fighting over that thing’s bones as we speak.”
“How did they get there so fast?” I asked as I pushed sweaty curls out of my eyes. “You shot that raptor yesterday and nothing showed up.”
“It was a quiet kill yesterday,” Todd explained. “Not a lot of noise, not a lot of blood. That Croc Killer made a racket loud enough to bring dinosaurs for miles.
”
“And when they finish with the spinosaurus, they’ll follow?”
“If they can find our trail, they’ll follow. I haven’t spotted any streams to confuse our scent like we did yesterday after that allosaurus almost got you. How much farther can you two run?”
“As far as we need to,” I said as I shoved my canteen back in my pack. “But where are we running?”
“We need to find water. That will help us lose them. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get stuck up a tree again.”
“Nuff said,” Shawn grunted, and we were off and running. The pace was just as brisk as before, and it was a struggle to keep up. Todd was whipping his head back and forth in an attempt to see any would-be attackers, or maybe he was looking for a stream. I was too busy trying to suck air into my greedy lungs to tell which. The minutes dragged on, and the exhaustion of the previous day’s hike and tumble with the allosaurus slowed me down. I gritted my teeth. I would keep up. Endangering my friends was not an option. A screech came from behind us, and I looked back.
A motley pack of dinosaurs in all shapes, sizes, and colors were zigzagging through the trees, but they all had one thing in common: blood. Even from that distance, I could see the blood of the spinosaurus dripping off their pointed jaws and crusted on their talons. My heart lodged in my throat as the ground beneath my feet began to shake. We couldn’t outrun them, and they were too close to risk climbing a tree. We were as good as dead. I hoped that it would be quick.
“Shawn,” Todd yelled over the deafening sound of pounding feet and screeching animals from behind us, “your bow.”
“You want me to shoot them?” Shawn gasped, his face bright red as he fought to keep up with Todd’s long strides.
“Hand me your bow!” Todd yelled again, and this time Shawn understood. He quickly unhooked it from its place on his back and handed it to Todd. Todd stopped running and spun around, his hand already drawing the bowstring back. He released it with a sharp twang, and I heard a scream as one of the animals went down. I skidded to a stop and reached back for my own arrow, but in my exhaustion and panic, I dropped it. Todd released two more in rapid fire before I finally managed to get one to the string and released. It flew harmlessly into the trees, missing my target by a good five feet.
I grabbed for another, but before my fingers could close over it, there was a sharp twang from behind me and one of the dinosaurs dropped. Seconds later another fell, and then another. A few of the smaller ones stopped pursuing us altogether, choosing to rip into their fallen comrades instead. I didn’t have time to turn around to see who our savior was. I aimed and released and saw one of the medium-sized dinosaurs stagger, the shaft buried deep in its shoulder before another through the eye dropped it. A minute later it was over. I stood in shock between Todd and Shawn, my chest heaving as we took in the forest floor, littered with the bodies of dead and dying dinosaurs.
“Ivan?” Todd called, turning to scan the woods behind us. “Is that you?”
“Ivan?” I repeated, confused. “How do you know it’s Ivan?”
Todd waved at me to be quiet, turning to squint into the surrounding trees. “It’s Todd Birch,” he called out. “The son of Jacob Birch of the Oaks? We met a few times when I was a kid.”
“The Birch brat” came a voice from behind us. “Yes, I remember. And you’re still a kid, although quite a bit taller than the last time I saw you. Never grew into that nose, though. Unfortunate.” I whirled and found myself face-to-face with a wiry old man. He peered up at us with cornflower-blue eyes set deep in a forest of wrinkles. His white hair was cropped close to his head, while his beard seemed to have a mind of its own and reached almost to his belly. Two massive bows were strapped across his back with thick leather belts. But the most striking thing about him was that he was missing part of his right arm. It ended only an inch or two after his elbow joint. Attached to the stump was a complicated knot of leather cording that held what looked like a bizarre metal fork on its end.
“Ivan!” Todd grinned as he thrust out his hand to shake the old man’s. “It’s been a long time. You just saved our lives!”
The old man shook Todd’s hand as he inspected him before glancing over Todd’s shoulder at us. His eyes met mine and an odd expression crossed his face. I looked behind myself, certain there must be a three-headed dinosaur or something equally strange creeping up on me to get that kind of look. But there was nothing there, and when I looked back, Ivan was still staring at me, his mouth open slightly in surprise. Not sure how exactly to handle this, I squirmed and looked down. He finally blinked and turned his attention back to Todd. I ran a hand self-consciously through the curls that had sprung loose from their ponytail to hang in a clumpy tangle around my shoulders. I’d known I was a mess, but I didn’t think I was that bad.
Ivan frowned at Todd as he released his hand. “I am assuming that your father’s absence means he’s dead?” The bluntness of his question shocked me. I must have visibly winced, because Ivan’s eyes flicked to me again, searching, before turning back to Todd.
Todd nodded. “Almost three years now. Died on a trading mission.”
“Bloody shame. He was a good man.”
“Thank you, sir,” Todd said with a sad smile.
“I also assumed he’d trained you better. How did you end up with this nasty crew on your tail?” he asked. He strode over to inspect the closest fallen dinosaur. It was one of the smaller ones, roughly fifteen feet in length, with feathered, flightless wings that now stuck out at odd angles. Ivan walked right up to the creature and used his boot to untangle one of its legs. He pulled a knife out of a sheath on his arm and began sawing away at one of the thick curved claws on the creature’s back foot. Faster than I would have thought possible, he’d cut all of the claws off, putting them into a leather pouch slung across his chest. He moved from dinosaur to dinosaur, sawing off a claw here or using massive pliers to pry out a tooth there. Twice he pulled out an arrow and shot straight into the eye or chest of one of the dinosaurs before approaching it. I realized that the metal fork attached to his bad arm was used to brace the bow so he could draw and fire the arrow with his good hand. It was ingenious, and obviously ridiculously effective. I watched in slack-jawed amazement until Todd elbowed me in the ribs, and I followed him to collect some of the usable arrows that lay scattered on the ground. Shawn came to, but he was too busy gaping at Ivan to pick anything up.
“What’s he doing?” Shawn whispered as I pulled one of my arrows out of a nearby tree.
“His job,” Todd said.
I glanced over at Shawn and saw that he looked a little green. I didn’t blame him; Ivan was ruthless. Five minutes later, he rejoined us, his only remaining hand liberally coated in blood.
Before I could open my mouth to introduce myself and ask Ivan about my dad, we heard a long, whistling roar come from the forest behind us. Shawn jumped, but Ivan simply glanced back at the trees before turning to us. He pulled a small bottle out of his bag and yanked the cork out with his mouth before pouring it over the blood on his hand. A sharp alcohol smell met my nose.
“I presume you are expecting hospitality and lodging for the night,” he said grouchily as he recorked the bottle and put it back in his bag. The missing hand didn’t seem to slow him down in the slightest. When we nodded, he huffed into his beard and, without another word, turned around and shuffled silently into the woods. I looked at Todd, but he just shrugged.
“Don’t stand there like a bunch of slack-jawed idiots,” Ivan called from the gloom of the trees. “Get the lead out. I don’t feel like being eaten today.”
“Why can he make jokes about being eaten?” Shawn whispered in my ear.
I shot him a look. “I don’t think he’s joking.”
“No talking until we get out of this section of the woods,” Ivan said sharply. “My house is a ten-mile hike from here, and this area is swarming with lizard beasties.”
“Lizard beasties?” Shawn whispered skepticall
y as Ivan turned around and started walking. Todd just shook his head in warning, and we dutifully jogged after Ivan’s retreating figure. Ivan led us quickly through the trees to a small stream. Without ceremony, he stomped into the middle of it, and we followed, splashing up it for the next twenty minutes. My feet went numb in the icy water, and I couldn’t decide if it was an improvement over the aching pain of blisters.
Hiking in silence was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. I had so many questions swarming around in my head, and the one-armed figure hurrying ahead of me might have the answers. But every time I opened my mouth to speak, Todd gave me a look that made it clear that would be a mistake. Ivan’s walking pace was only slightly slower than Todd’s brisk jog, and soon I found myself breathing too hard to talk, let alone start the conversation about my dad. Every now and then Ivan would glance back at us. He seemed to be sizing me up, and it made me nervous. But then again, he might just be wondering why Shawn and I were huffing and puffing so loudly. I bit my lip, and told myself to be patient. I contented myself with trying to figure out how in the world my dad would have met someone like Ivan. And then I had a thought that made my heart squeeze painfully. What if this wasn’t the right Ivan? The more I thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed that my dad would have ever met the no-nonsense dinosaur hunter who killed with such deadly precision. If he was the wrong Ivan, then I’d wasted valuable time traveling to find him.
Finally, after endless hours of silent hiking, Todd broke the silence. “We appreciate you letting us stay with you tonight,” he said conversationally. “This is Sky and Shawn, by the way.”
“Sky,” Ivan scoffed. “An idiotic compound name. They were always naming their children things like Grass or Seaweed or Daisy or some such nonsense. Like naming their children after the outside world will make up for the fact that they’ll never see it.” I’d never really thought about my name, but now that I did, his theory made sense. I’d had a boy named Leaf in my class, and two girls named after flowers.