The night continued on in the clearing with the three tents. The only sound was the gentle noise of the crickets. That was all Momma Dino needed. Very slowly she entered the clearing towards the tents. She was careful not to let her footfalls make too much noise for it might awake the creatures. Momma had given her hatchlings strict instructions not to follow her into the clearing. She knew they were curious and inquisitive about almost anything in the jungle. And that was unsafe right now, especially since Rudy survived the fall into the deep chasm and was now madder then ever. She had made it clear with a victory roar that she had defeated Rudy in battle. Now Rudy respected her and her strength, but only to some extent. He didn’t like her or her kids but kept to his territory none the less.
Putting that aside, Momma started to circle the tents. She had never seen structures like these before but that was not what she was here for. The sweet odor that wafted in her snout from one of the structures was what got her attention. That odor was something she had picked up from one of the twoleg creatures.
Momma sniffed again and approached the structure with the opening in its flaps where the smell was strongest. Slowly she eased her snout inside of the structure and then her whole head.
The sweet odor was strong now and Momma looked down to see one of the twoleg creatures asleep. She sniffed it inquisitively taking in the odd smells and as she cocked her head to one side to look at it some more she realized it was a male hatchling. She knew it was a hatchling because of the size and odor.
Momma had no intention of hurting a hatchling. But she came here to teach these creatures a lesson and that was what she was going to do. Leaning down she opened her jaws and gently clamped them down on the blue materiel that the young twoleg wore around its lower body. It had a rubbery taste to it but she disregarded it as best she could. Slowly, she carried the still sleeping twoleg out of the structure and held it in her mighty jaws.
The creature stirred in its sleep but did not wake up.
Momma had no idea what she was going to do with the little twoleg but she knew she had to leave now while the others were still asleep.
She turned to the forest and disappeared into the brush among the trees leaving behind large footprints in ground.
Ken didn’t know what had happened when he had fallen sleep in his tent. One moment, he was laying flat on his stomach sleeping and then the next, the seat of his Speedos were grabbed by the jaws of the same terrifying tyrannosaurus he and group encountered earlier that day. In his tent he was uncertain if it was a growl he heard outside his tent. In the middle of the night in the semi darkness his eyes came open and he was awake and he thought he heard a growl. It was not the wind. Turning his head slowly to the left of his tent wall he saw the shadow of the tyrannosaurs head. It terrified him. The animal had somehow found its way into the campsite and now he was looking at it right in the face. He saw the shadow move over to the entrance to his tent and cursed to himself. He had carelessly opened his tent flap and left food around on his sleeping bag. ‘Soo stupid!’ he thought furiously to himself. ‘I’m soo stupid!’
He forcibly tried to act as if he were asleep to fool the rex. He kept his body as still as possible and made sure his breathing was slow.
Ken felt the tent shutter as the rex poked its head through the flaps. He could feel it now within the tent with him. He could smell it, too. A malodorous smell of rotten meat and the sweetish blood-smell mixed in with the stench of the carnivore.
Ken was dizzy with fear, his heart pounding inside of his little chest.
Then he felt the snout of the tyrannosaur rub against his backside. He felt the rexes hot breath on his body and the growling it made deep in its throat.
Then he felt something else. Something tugging on his swim Speedos from behind. Then he felt himself being lifted out of his tent and into the dark night. At first he wanted to scream. Scream soo loudly that it would alert the others and they would awake and Josiah would shoot it with his stun pistol. Unfortunately, if he so much as yelped, the rex would drop him. It was nineteen feet down to the ground and Ken had no intension of breaking his neck. So he kept his mouth shut and his eyes closed.
An eerie morning mist swirled through the campsite as Josiah and Shelly woke up. When they saw Kens tent ruined and empty they desperately looked around the clearing.
“Ken!” cried Shelly. “Ken, where are you?!”
“Ken!” Josiah shouted as loud as he could. “Answer us! Please!”
There was no answer in the clearing or in the surrounding jungle.
No sound of Ken. Their voices simply joined the chilling chorus of grunts and squawks and eerie ancient cries that hadn’t been heard in 65 million years.
Then they saw the tracks of the tyrannosaur. Upon seeing them, Shelly shook her head and tried not to cry. ‘It couldn’t have eaten him,’ she thought. ‘There’s no blood inside the tent.’
Josiah went over to the trampled tent and rummaged through it.
He picked up what looked like to a bag of cookies, which was now empty. Now he knew why the rex had come into their campsite. Ken had thoughtlessly left food lying around in his tent.
A rex could scent for miles and it probably picked up the smell of the cookies and came running.
“That stupid kid!” he yelled as he hurled the bag on the ground soo hard that small pieces of cookies went everywhere. “He had food in his tent! That’s why the rex came here!”
Shelly couldn’t say anything. She was still upset about finding her brother gone.
“We gotta find Ken and find him fast. For what its worth, that brother of yours maybe still alive,” he said this while packing his backpack. “A rex usually brings live prey back to its nest for its offspring feed on. By then, we should be able to catch up with ‘em.”
“Do you think he’ll be alright, Josiah?” she asked finally.
Josiah gave her a reassuring smile in spite of himself. “He’ll be fine, Shell,” he said. “And believe me, there is nothing that Ken Blake can’t handle.”
Ken awoke that morning hanging upside-down from his Speedos.
When he tried to look upwards he saw only the snout and the teeth of the rex. He was frightened and a bit woozy from all the blood rushing to his brain. Luckily his Speedos didn’t rip from all that swaying. He was thankful that he had rubber ones in his pack.
His gray shirt was folded over his head so he couldn’t see much. As the rex continued to carry him, ken tried many ways of right himself. But those didn’t work. All they did was make him dizzier. Maybe if he talked to the dinosaur that would help.
He was a little bit scared, but he had to do it.
“Huh, excuse me?” he said timidly up to the tyrannosaur. The rex didn’t seem to hear him. It just let out a snort and kept moving through the jungle. He decided to try again, a little louder this time.
“Excuse me, miss tyrannosaur? Could you please put me down? I’m getting a bit queasy here.” To add to the effect he faked a retching sound as best he could.
The dinosaur looked down at its prey and snorted with a growl. Ken knew it was impossible to convince a dinosaur to do anything.
“Your going to be fine, Ken.” He told himself in a whisper. “Everything’s going to be alright, you’ll see.” The rex finally arrived at a clearing. It had a flat jungle area with a cliff and a small pond. In the distance he saw a waterfall and a river that ran through the jungle.
‘This must be her home,’ he thought. ‘This must be where she lives.’
Looking around the clearing for danger, the tyrannosaur lowered her captive to the ground and let it go.
Ken didn’t know what to do next. It was ether run or stay put where he was. If he ran, the rex would have him in its maw again.
If he stayed put, the dinosaur would eat him anyway.
Ken looked around the clearing then back up to the rex. The animal watched him like a hawk over its prey. Ken tried moving away but the rex followed his every move. Finally he had to give up. There was no way he could get away from this super predator without getting eaten alive.
Knowing that her prey could not get away, Momma Dino turned to the bush and called to her children. The three baby tyrannosaur ran over to their mother and nuzzled her closely. She then motioned over to Ken with a soft growl. They looked at him then at her, clueless as to what to do with him. She nodded her head toward ken, telling them to eat him. Ken started to back away. Whatever those nods meant he did not like it.
“No way! Nuh-huh!” Ken said, backing away from the hungry dinos. “I don’t wanna be eaten by the likes of them!” he went on, looking at Momma Dino “Look at me. I’m too skinny to make a decent meal for your kids, Miss Momma!”
Ignoring Kens please, the mother seized him by his Speedos again and dangled him over her kids.
Ken could see the little t-rexes eyeing him, considering him.
“No, no, no!” He told the dinos, trying to keep his bare feet away from them. “I’m not yummy, you guys. I’m way too skinny and you’ll probably not like the taste and…”
Before he could finish, Momma rose abruptly and tossed Ken high into the air.
He screamed his arms and legs flailing frantically. Before he could hit the ground however, Momma Dino caught him in midair by his t-shirt.
“Stop that, Momma!” He yelled behind him at the dinosaur. “What do you think I am? a salad for you to toss around?!”
Momma snorted and dropped him on the ground. Ken let out a yelp of pain as he landed on all fours and turned his head upward to the young dinosaurs. They looked down at him with curiosity and one of them with the blue eyes wagged its tail. Then without warning, one of the dinosaurs leaned forward and nipped him on his backside. He yelped in surprise by the unexpected attack and rubbed the spot where the Dino had bit him.
“Cut that out!” he snapped at the baby dino. “You are not eating me!”
The baby dino backed away from him, and when ken tried to make a run for it, Momma dino lunged and knocked him gently to the ground with her tail. He yelled and scrambled to his feet, but Momma pounced, and pinned him to the ground on his stomach. He tried to crawl away, but Momma grabbed him by his Speedos once again.
“No! Let go!” Ken shouted as he once again hung from his bathing suit. “Heeeelp!”
Elsewhere in the jungle, Josiah and Shelly moved quickly and quietly through the trail, following the tyrannosaurs tracks. A sudden high-pitched scream came from out of nowhere, echoing around the forest. Shelly recognized the cry immediately as her brothers. “That’s Ken!” She exclaimed to Josiah.
“He must be farther up the trail,” Said Josiah. “We gotta move fast!”
Shelly nodded, and they continued up the path with sprint.
In the distance, a pack of raptor-like guanlongs watched the humans from a rocky perch. Silently, they began to creep after them.