Astrosaurs 17

by Steve Cole

  “Well . . . Jingal and I only eat plants,” said Humm.

  “So do we,” Teggs replied. “But the allosaurs eat meat, so it can’t be that.”

  “We have scaly skin, but yours is wrinkly,” Iggy suggested, putting down a very full bucket.

  Gipsy nodded. “Er . . . we have tails and you don’t.”

  “We can blow bubbles with our toes,” said Jingal.

  “There must be hundreds of differences,” Teggs groaned. “And no time to find out which one matters.” He clonked his makeshift mega-metal cauldron down on the table. “What are we going to do?”

  Baby Arx looked over at the despairing stegosaurus. “Mama!” he squeaked. Suddenly, he wriggled out of Gipsy’s grip and jumped toward Teggs – but missed and landed right in the armoured helmet!

  “NO!” Teggs yelled as the triceratops made a splash. “That thing’s full of time-water!”

  Jingal hid her eyes. “If your friend wasn’t doomed before, he will be finished now for sure . . .”

  Chapter Nine

  AGE ALARM

  Iggy and Gipsy rushed up beside Teggs, staring down at the helmet in horror. Baby Arx had disappeared. Now, there was only an egg rolling about in the time-water.

  “Arx,” whispered Gipsy, tears brimming in her eyes. “Oh, poor Arx . . .”

  But suddenly, the helmet exploded – as something large and bright green shot out from inside! Gipsy yelled, and Teggs and Iggy jumped back in alarm . . .

  To find a familiar, full-size triceratops standing in front of them!

  “What?” Teggs gasped. “Arx, is it really you? Are you OK?”

  “I’m not sure. Everything is so hazy . . .” Arx blinked, looked around – and blushed. “Hey, I’ve got no clothes on!”

  “But apart from that, you’re back to normal!” cried Gipsy. “Fantastic!”

  “It sure is,” Iggy agreed, clapping him on the back.

  But Humm and Jingal were cowering away behind a desk. “Er, I hate to be a spoilsport,” said Humm. “But there was quite a lot of time-water in that helmet, remember?”

  Gipsy looked down at her damp uniform. “It’s splashed all over us!”

  Teggs realized his face was soaking wet – and Iggy’s top was dripping. “Oh, no!” Iggy groaned.

  “I’m so sorry,” wailed Arx. “What happened? How did you cure me?”

  “It wasn’t us,” Teggs admitted. “You jumped in the water, turned into an egg – and suddenly, time twisted you back.”

  “And now it will turn us into babies too,” said Gipsy, her head-crest glowing white with shock. “I feel funny. It must be happening already . . .”

  Arx walked up to her and frowned. “I don’t think you’re getting any younger . . .” He swung round to look at Teggs and Iggy – and jumped in the air in alarm. “In fact, you’re getting older!”

  “What?” Teggs looked at his reflection in the back of a metal tray.

  It was true – his face was starting to wrinkle. Iggy’s brown scales were growing paler. Gipsy was beginning to stoop.

  “It’s happening to you like it happened to us,” Jingal realized, her wrinkled grey-blue face full of sadness. “But why? Your friend and the toothy ones all became younger.”

  Teggs thought harder than he’d ever thought before. “We were trying to find differences between you and us to explain the time-water working differently,” he muttered. “But perhaps we should think about differences in the time-water itself . . .”

  Iggy scratched his head, but Gipsy got what he was driving at. “Arx and the allosaurs were splashed with water from the top of the lake, but Jingal and Humm were splashed with water from the bottom of the lake.”

  Arx nodded slowly. “When I fell in the water it was hot from the sunshine.”

  “But Humm said the water that splashed him and Jingal was cold,” Iggy remembered. “Right, Humm?”

  “Freezing,” Humm agreed, pointing over to the little trickle of time-water in the tunnel. “That stuff has seeped through old, cold rocks a long way from any sunlight.”

  “So it’s the temperature of the water that matters,” Teggs breathed. “Maybe that’s how the Guardian survives in the lake – it moves between hot and cold time-water to stay the same age!”

  Gipsy nodded. “So if we can just get back to the surface and splash ourselves with warm water—”

  “We should get back to normal!” Iggy jumped in the air – and pulled a muscle in his hip. “Ow! I was forgetting, I’m not as young as I was.”

  “So what are we waiting for?” said Gipsy. “Let’s go!” She bustled over to the door and threw it open . . .

  To reveal Vice-Marshal Frentos in the doorway, his terrifying troops crowding behind him! He roared and lunged for Gipsy, claws bared . . .

  Arx sprinted forwards and slammed the door shut with a butt of his horns. “Not today, thank you!”

  “Let me in, astro-fools,” snarled Frentos.

  “So you can gloat at us again?” Teggs jeered through the door. “I don’t think so. We really haven’t the time.”

  Frentos growled in warning. “I don’t know who’s helping you, but I’ll scrunch them too unless you surrender straight away.”

  “Forget it,” Humm shouted. “You’ll scrunch us anyway, you big toothy bully.”

  “It was awful of you, leaving those little ones all alone,” Jingal added. “You should be ashamed.”

  “I’ve had enough of this,” said Frentos. “We got past your stinky dung. We knocked down your barricade. Now we’ll smash our way in there and make you sorry you were ever hatched. Ready, lads? GET TO IT!”

  A loud THUMP shook the sturdy doors.

  Teggs turned to Humm and Jingal. “Is there another way out of here?”

  Humm shook his head sadly and pointed to the trickle of time-water. “Only into the cave through there.”

  “Do you have any weapons?” asked Iggy.

  “No,” said Jingal. “We’re explorers, not soldiers.”

  BANG! The doors almost wobbled off their hinges.

  “There must be something we can do!” Gipsy cried. “If you were still an infant, Arx, your dung might distract them again.”

  Iggy grimaced. “Instead, all we’ve got is a big bucket full of baby wee.”

  “Wait,” said Teggs, lifting up the brimming bucket. “That might just be enough.”

  “What?” Gipsy peered at Teggs. “Captain, you haven’t lost your marbles already, have you?”

  Teggs opened his mouth to reply – but then, with an almighty WHUMP, the doors crashed open. Biting and snapping, the slavering allosaur hordes forced their way inside . . .

  Chapter Ten

  GO JUMP IN THE LAKE!

  Frentos glared round at astrosaurs and aliens alike, roaring and ready to pounce. But Teggs calmly raised the bucket and sloshed him with baby Arx’s wee! The other allosaurs stopped rigid as Teggs splashed all of them as well.

  “Bleurgh!” Frentos spat. “What was that?”

  Teggs smiled. “Just a bit of time-water, that’s all.”

  “WHAT?” Frentos bellowed with rage and raised his deadly claws. “I shall destroy you for this!”

  “You’d better be quick.” Teggs ducked the attack and splashed even more wee over him and his troops. “You’re getting younger and younger now – and only we can cure you.”

  “Right,” said Gipsy, playing along with her captain’s trick. “So you’d better put down your guns and do as we say.”

  “We need to get back to the lake,” Teggs went on. “And quickly.”

  “The lake?” Frentos was scarlet with rage. “You are lying. There is no cure.”

  “Oh?” Arx strode boldly up to Frentos. “Just look at me!”

  “You? But . . . but you were splashed,” Frentos stammered. “I saw you getting younger.” He grabbed Humm by the throat. “Tell me the truth. How did this triceratops reverse the twist of time?”

  Humm pointed to the trickle of time-water dripping do
wn beyond the other door. “If you must know, he took a bath in some of that stuff over there . . .”

  “Quick!” Frentos shoved Humm aside and charged towards the cold dripping time-water. His panic-stricken troops crowded in after him, desperate to get wet too.

  “I really wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Teggs warned him. “It will make you old and wrinkly.”

  “Yeah, right, of course it will,” Frentos sneered. “You’re trying to trick us. Well, as soon as we’ve cleaned up here, we’re going to get you . . .”

  “There’s no telling some people,” said Teggs. “Come on, everyone!”

  Jingal and Humm led the way, and the astrosaurs followed them as quickly as they could. But for Teggs, Iggy and Gipsy old age was setting in fast. Teggs felt stiff and wobbly all over. Iggy kept bumping into things as his eyesight grew blurred. And Gipsy was panting for breath after only a few moments’ running.

  Arx gently nudged his friends onwards. They had to reach the lake of time-water before it was too late.

  “Hey!” came a distant shriek from Frentos. “We really are getting wrinkly. Just wait till I get my claws on those astrosaurs . . .”

  “Now the allosaurs will chase us all the way back to the lake,” Humm realized.

  Teggs nodded, rubbing his aching back. “If they calm down we can cure them for real.”

  “First, we’d better cure ourselves,” wheezed Gipsy.

  Limping, hobbling, staggering and stumbling, the stricken astrosaurs and their friends finally made it out onto the baking surface of the tiny planet. Teggs and Iggy had grown incredibly wrinkly. Gipsy was starting to look like a stripy green prune. Jingal and Humm leaned on each other as they waddled along. And all the time, Arx kept them moving. “Come on, you can make it . . . It’s not far to the other side of the valley . . . Keep up and keep together . . . Just one more hillside . . .”

  Finally, hot, bothered and gasping for breath, Teggs reached the top of the slope. “I’m over the hill in more ways than one,” he puffed. “But at least we got here.” He gazed out over the lake, which was glittering darkly in the glare of the giant sun.

  “Thank space for that,” gasped old Iggy, squinting in the sunlight. “What are those little golden things down on the plain?”

  “Buckets of time-water,” said Granny Gipsy. “The allosaur troops dumped them there before they chased us.”

  “I’ll fetch one,” Arx volunteered. He rushed off down the slope, found a full bucket, and brought it back. “There. But you’d better be careful – it was sheer luck that I soaked up enough cold time-water to twist me back to my normal age – give or take a year or two. So splash on a little at a time – or you could end up too young.”

  “Let me help you, Gipsy.” Teggs sloshed his friend with a little of the warm water. Gipsy splashed him back, and each drop made his scaly skin tingle. Then she shook her wet hooves over Iggy.

  “I wonder how long it will take?” said Teggs impatiently.

  Jingal and Humm had grabbed some more buckets – and were emptying them all over themselves. “Well, after all,” said Humm, “we’ve got two thousand years of twisted time to roll back!”

  Suddenly, a laser bolt sizzled past Teggs’s head. He turned to find an elderly army of grey, stooped allosaur troops coming closer. Some of them seemed very shrivelled, using their rusty guns as walking sticks. Frentos himself was looking extra-rotten and wrinkled, kicking and shoving his soldiers up the hillside and firing his weapon into the air.

  “Uh-oh,” said Humm and Jingal in unison.

  “Forget the fighting, Frentos,” Arx called. “A quick dip in some warm time-water is the only cure for that cold shower you took.”

  “Pah! You must think I’m stupid.” Frentos let rip with his death-laser and his troops did the same. “You’ll pay for ruining my plans!”

  A blistering barrage of laser bolts filled the air around the astrosaurs. They dragged Humm and Jingal out of range over the crest of the hill, and then started to run down towards the time-water.

  “The only cover is those rocks on the far side of the lake,” Teggs realized. “We must try to reach them.” But the time-water was making him feel dizzy. He saw Jingal and Humm run onward, taking the lead – but couldn’t keep up. Iggy and Gipsy were finding it hard to run too. They stumbled to the ground – which started to shake.

  “Not again,” groaned Arx. “The Guardian of the Lake – it’s waking up!”

  Sure enough, the hideous head of the giant wormy monster was starting to push through the dark surface of the weird waters.

  “Come on,” said Jingal, “we can’t hang around here.” She and Humm turned back to face the astrosaurs – who gasped at the transformation. The grey-blue alien pensioners had become strapping, blue-bronze creatures with smooth, handsome faces. “Here – let us give you a lift.”

  To Teggs’s amazement, Jingal lifted him up into the air with her large, flat hands and hefted him away. Humm did the same for Iggy, while Arx placed Gipsy on his back and galloped away after the two aliens. Beside them, the Guardian writhed and wriggled as it reared out of the time-water and turned towards them, growling with menace . . .

  But then a storm of laser beams peppered its tough, glistening skin. The Guardian shrieked with anger and whirled round to face Frentos and his doddering troops as they stormed over the hill.

  Clinging onto Jingal as she reached the shelter of the rocks, Teggs saw Frentos fire at the monster again and again. “Who needs armoured astrosaurs?” the vice-marshal screeched. “Who needs to be young and fit? We can beat this monster all by ourselves – right, lads?”

  But his troops’ only reply was a wail of despair as the monster swooped down towards them. With a swipe of its pincers, it knocked the whole lot of them into the lake. The cruel carnivores struggled and splashed in the churning black waters, slowly slipping under, vanishing from sight . . .

  “Hey, I think the warm time-water’s working,” Iggy said excitedly. “I can see properly again!”

  “My face is getting smoother,” Gipsy said excitedly.

  “My aches and pains are fading.” Teggs grinned. “I’m starting to feel young again!”

  Arx smiled. “I wonder how young Frentos and his troops will soon be feeling?”

  Several long minutes bubbled by as the astrosaurs watched and waited. At last, thirty or so large speckled eggs popped up to the surface of the lake. With a dismissive sweep of its tail, the monster knocked the eggs out of the water and onto the shore. Then, with a purr of satisfaction, it plunged back beneath the waters and was lost from sight.

  Teggs blinked. “It’s gone.”

  Gipsy nodded. “And those evil allosaurs have been well taken care of.”

  “While we are finally back to our normal, dashing young selves,” said Iggy with a grin.

  “So are we!” said Humm, grabbing Jingal in a massive hug.

  “Now we can fix up our spaceship and travel back to our own galaxy.” Jingal beamed. “And it’s all thanks to you four.”

  Teggs saluted them both. “We could never have won through without your help.”

  “Very true,” Arx agreed. “But, Captain, I do have two small questions. First – what are we going to do with all the allosaur eggs?”

  “Send them back to Allosauria for hatching,” Teggs decided. “Let Frentos and his troops grow up all over again. Perhaps this time they might turn out a little nicer.”

  “What’s your second question, Arx?” Gipsy wondered.

  “How much time-water do you think we should take back to Admiral Rosso?” The triceratops grinned. “It’s the scientific discovery of a lifetime! Just think – with a few warm drops you could recycle just about anything. Or with a few cold drops you could turn seeds into trees in two seconds flat and feed millions . . .”

  But Teggs was shaking his head. “Sorry, Arx. I think we should leave the time-water right where it is, and never breathe a word about it to anyone.”

  “It is simply too
dangerous for any race to possess,” Humm agreed.

  “Oh.” Arx sighed. “I suppose you’re right. But what if someone else comes here?”

  “I know! The allosaur ship!” cried Iggy. “It can turn itself invisible thanks to some gadget on board, right? Well, with a bit of fiddling, I bet I can boost its power. We can turn this whole planet invisible!”

  “So the Guardian can live in peace, out of sight, with no more unwelcome visitors.” Gipsy nodded happily. “That’s a brilliant idea!”

  “And I’ve had a brilliant idea too,” said Teggs. “As soon as Iggy’s done that, let’s get back to the Sauropod for another adventure.” He grinned. “Because, give or take the odd twist of time, you’re only young once – so let’s not waste a single madcap, marvellous moment!”

  THE END

  The Astrosaurs will return in

  THE SABRE-TOOTH SECRET

  About the Author

  Born in 1971, Steve Cole spent a happy childhood in rural Bedfordshire being loud and aspiring to amuse. He liked books, and so went to the University of East Anglia to read more of them. Later on he started writing them too, with titles ranging from pre-school poetry to Young Adult thrillers (with more TV and film tie-ins than he cares to admit to along the way). In other careers he has been the editor of Noddy magazine, and an editor of fiction and nonfiction book titles for various publishers. He is the author of the hugely successful Astrosaurs, Cows in Action, Astrosaurs Academy and Slime Squad series.

  ALSO BY STEVE COLE:

  Read all the adventures of Teggs, Gipsy, Arx and Iggy!

  1 Riddle of the Raptors

  2 The Hatching Horror

  3 The Seas of Doom

  4 The Mind-Swap Menace

  5 The Skies of Fear

  6 The Space Ghosts

  7 Day of the Dino-Droids

  8 The Terror-Bird Trap

  9 The Planet of Peril