Rudy could not take his eyes off the female baryonyx, who was called Flood by the two two-legs, and saw that she was very beautiful. She was big and slender with blue eyes, long, black claws, and a face he found so beautifully carved that he had nothing to which he could compare it to. Her scales were gray and blue, and very smooth.
Flood moved over to where he was laying.
“It’s good to see you again, Rudy.” She said, a little nervous of Rudy’s gleaming red eyes locked on her.
“It’s good to see you too, Siva. Or should I start calling you Flood?” he said, half smiling.
She giggled a bit and moved closer so that she was snout to snout with Rudy.
“You can call me Flood if you like, Rudy,” She said. “I don’t mind.”
Both theirs eyes met, and Flood turned away, her face turning slightly red.
Josiah and Shelly watched the two baryonyx talked to each other. When Shelly saw Flood turn away, blushing, she sighed and said, “Oh, Josiah, I think Rudy and Flood are in love.”
“He sure knows how to catch a girl’s eye, that stud,” Josiah said while nudging Shelly.
“I think there’s hope for him yet,”
As the two kids watched Rudy and Flood, Josiah got an idea.
“Say, Shelly? Why don’t we liven up the mood for those two?”
Shelly gave Josiah a raised eyebrow. “How do you mean?” she asked, seeing him rub his hands together.
“You know what I mean…Shelly,” he teased. “Let’s sing them a little romantic song to get them going.”
Shelly nearly laughed at that idea. “Are you kidding?” She said. “What’s there to sing to them?”
Josiah rubbed his chin and said, “Well…we could sing them one of the songs we know from momma mia. You and I could sing it together. And I know just the one.”
Shelly looked at her friend like he was not right in the head. This was no time to be singing love songs to two dinosaurs. This was about getting Rudy free.
“This is not the time or the place for singing,” She told Josiah. “We have to get Rudy free, and I mean now.”
He sighed and nodded. “Your right, Shelly, your right. We’ll save the singing for later.”
“Much later,” she added.
They both rolled up their sleeves and got back to work.
Flood and Rudy watched as the two two-legs got back to work moving some of the rocks around Rudy’s tail. Flood was a bit perplexed as to why anybody would get close to Rudy, much less help him.
Flood turned to Rudy and asked seriously.
“Why are you allowing those two two-legs to help you?”
Rudy was almost caught off guard by the question. Why did he allow the two to stay by him? In the beginning, he viewed the two-legs and the other as prey, and nothing else. Now they were willingly helping him get free from the boulders that had him trapped.
“THEY wanted to help me, Siva. I didn’t really ask to be help, now did I?”
Flood shook her head and sighed. “No. I guess you didn’t,” then she said, “but, what else could they do? Leave you to die?”
“Well, that happens all the time,” he replied. “If you’re not strong enough you don’t survive.”
“Is that you talking?” she asked, tilting her head. “Or your mother?”
Rudy paused, slightly surprised by the mere mention of his mother. “She always said that being stronger was an easy way to grow into a sufficient adult that could survive anything. And now look where I am.”
“Your mother, Rudy, lived away from the pack in those days,” Flood said. “She thought that having lean and tough hatchlings outside the pack would better her chances. That was a mistake.”
There was an awkward silence between the two baryonyx. Then Flood said,
“Why are you down here?”
Rudy shifted his gaze back to her.
“What’s the difference? No one cares. I mean, you didn’t even come to greet me outside the cave when I came by.”
Flood frowned a bit at this cold remark.
“Now that’s not true. I was the only one in the cave with the others who didn’t growl at you to go away. You and I both know that we can’t be together because you’re an outcast.”
Rudy let out a soft growl escape from his jaws.
“Do not remind me, Siva, alight?” the way she said it made him feel angry and ashamed.
“I’m sorry,” She said, looking uncomfortable. “It’s just that if my grandfather found out about us, wanting to be with each other, he’d shun me out of the pack.”
“Yeah, so?” Rudy said. “It’s your place to be in the pack, remember? You have a life back there. I don’t.”
And then he added. “And how can we keep any eggs safe?...that is if we ever had any eggs.”
Flood said truthfully, “I don’t need any eggs to be happy, Rudy.”
“But what about later when the others in the pack have eggs?” he ask, almost questioningly.
Flood beamed and said, “Then I’ll have you by my side.”
Rudy felt his face go red. In the first time since he’d been on his own, he felt a wave of emotion creep into his heart. He never in his life felt anything like this before. Not since the day he first laid eyes on Siva’s beauty. He knew there were no dinosaur mates for him, and he would never be able to have one. All because of the way he looked and acted.
Flood laid down beside Rudy and nuzzled him under his chin, purring. Rudy nuzzled her back, feeling the tenderness from her love.
He whispered in her ear, “Your pack will be angry, Siva.”
She snorted and said, “I don’t care. I want to be with you, Rudy. I don’t care if my pack knows. And I don’t care if my grandfather knows, either.” She licked him across his snout lovingly with her pink tongue. “All that matters is that I found my perfect mate for me.”
Rudy looked up into Flood's eyes and said, “You mean that, Siva? You really mean that?”
Flood and Rudy nuzzle
“Yes, I do.”
From their view, Josiah and Shelly both romantically sighed, content that Rudy and Flood were in love.
“Good for them,” said Josiah.
Shelly moved a rock aside and said, “A mach made in heaven.”
Josiah smiled and then moved over to Rudy and Flood.
Flood looked down at him, lowering her head so that he was eye to eye with him.
“Flood, do you think you can help us remove some of the larger rocks around Rudy?” he pointed to the large boulders on each side of and on top of Rudy.
She turned towards the boulders and then back at Josiah. She knew she could help with her great strength to save Rudy. And this was as good as any to do it.
After thinking it over, she nodded with a grunt.
Clapping his hands together, Josiah said, “Great!”
He turned to Shelly and waved, “Shelly, we got us some extra muscle. Baryonyx muscle!”
Flood worked with Josiah and Shelly all afternoon till sundown. They had spent so much time moving rocks off of Rudy that they did not become aware of the fading light.
So Shelly took out a battery-powered lamp out of her backpack. When twilight descended, she tuned it on and placed it on a boulder to give them some light when they worked.
“Do you think we’ll have Rudy free by tomorrow, Josiah?” She asked.
“Let’s hope so,” Josiah yawned, stretching himself. “I think we’ve done everything we could to get him unstuck.”
Meanwhile, Ken and the three baby dinos were in a bit of a ‘plant’ situation. Apparently one of the incautious baby rexes bit into a reddish fruit plant on a stem in the middle a round-like clearing. This resulted in several vines shooting out of the ground and coiling around each of the ankles of the dinos and Ken.
The vines rose suddenly, moving like cranes as they lifted them above an enormous green blossom. The blossom opened, and then the huge petals started closing in on them.
“Oh, man!” Ken panicked as the flower slowly surrounded him and the baby rexes. Thwoop! A second later, the flower had completely encased them.
Momma had heard the whimpering screams of her babies and had arrived to save them. But she knew that she could not just attack the carnivorous plant. If she attacked it from the roots recklessly then it would clamp shut even more then it was now. Momma knew she was too big for any carnivorous plant to eat her, but that didn’t mean her babies were. She knew the only way of getting out of any plant was to go to the bottom from the inside and pull open a flap that covered the plant’s blue and red stamens.
From inside, Ken was pressed up so close to the baby rexes; they were nearly kissing one another.
That’s when he felt it.
“Uh, guys? I feel kind of tingly.” All at once, the baby dinos turned to Ken with disgusted looks and raised eyebrows.
He quickly turned to each of them and retorted, “I didn’t mean ‘that’ kind of tingly! I mean ‘prickle and burn’ kind of tingly!”
All four heads looked down and Ken saw thin-green liquid beginning to rise.
‘Uh-oh,’ Ken thought. ‘This is not going to end well.’ He knew it took no less then an hour for plants like this one to fully digest large prey. But he and the baby dinos didn’t have an hour. Since they were small prey, the plant’s digestive fluid would work quicker. The plant would drink them. Drink them and then excrete the bones out, and whatever’s left.
Ken had to think of something, and fast before he and the dino kids ended up as a pile of bones.
‘Wait a minute!’ Ken realized. ‘Carnivorous plants, like this one, secrete their ooze from the bottom. Maybe…’
The ooze had reached the baby dino’s necks. Ken took out his Swiss-army knife and plunged to the bottom of the flower. ‘just gotta’ hold my breath for a few minutes,’
It was hard to see and to breathe under the ooze. The baby dinos held their breath as the liquid rose past their mouths.
At the bottom, Ken pulled open the flap that covered the plant’s blue and red stamens. He squinted and looked back and forth between the red stem and blue stem-he had no idea which one to cut. He reached for the red one and cut it, sending threatening-looking foam rushing through the fluid.
‘Eeek!’ Ken thought. ‘Wrong one!’ he hysterically tied the red stem back together and then he cut the blue one.
From outside the flower, Momma saw the plant begin to shudder and tighten.
‘What’s happening?’ she thought in alarm.
Then, without warning, the flower began to distend and inflate like a balloon. Momma knew what this meant. The flower was going to explode. She turned and ducked, just as the plant burst. Digestive juice splashed all over the place.
Momma turned back and saw her babies dropped down near her feet, covered in plant ooze and gasping for air. She rushed over to make sure they were okay.
The young dinos whimpered as they stood in front of their mother with ashamed looks on their faces. Momma gave them reassuring growls to let them know they didn’t mean to get in so much trouble. Then she suddenly stood up and looked around the clearing. Where was Ken?
She turned around and then back at the clearing where the dead plant was. There was plant goop everywhere, but no ken.
As she turned around, her babies started chitterling and pointing at her rear. She cocked her head, wondering why her babies were pointing at her.
Then momma heard it; a muffled yell, “Momma, whatever you do, don’t sit down!”
It was then Momma knew where Ken was. When the plant exploded, digestive juice must have flown everywhere. Which meant Ken must have gone flying and ended up splattered on her rump.
From his position, Ken was not happy. Not happy at all. Not only was he covered in plant slime from head to foot, but now he was stuck to the butt of a tyrannosaur!