The Dark Side of The Moon: The Last of Their Kind
Dinosaurs The Brontosaurus was absolutely relentless. The poor animal had become so panicked and stressed by the lack of food, and the loss of its herd, that it was almost crazed. It could think of nothing but stomping out any nearby threats.
"Quick we need to hide in the undergrowth, He might miss us there." The Professor said as he jumped down beneath some ferns and bushes.
The Brontosaurus knocked over dozens of trees as it stomped around in rage. At first it did miss the two humans and the vampire all of whom tried to crawl slowly to safety. The Brontosaurus was not only in its current state, an irrational creature, but it had very poor eyesight.
When the animal saw it had come to a dead end via a small mountain at the end of the jungle however, it started to go berserk and blindly trampled the woods near it. It very nearly crushed Lindsey and Kirsteen under its gigantic foot without realising, but fortunately they were both able to swerve to either side. In the confusion however, Kirsteen became separated from her two companions, whilst the beast continued to stomp around in panic.
As she tried to get away Kirsteen ended up running ahead of the long necked giant and came into full view of the Sauropod.
The Brontosaurus reached down and prepared to clamp its small jaws around Kirsteen, but she easily managed to dodge the lumbering giant in time.
"You're only supposed to eat plants. Even I know that!" Kirsteen said in annoyance.
In truth however the Brontosaurus was not trying to eat her. It was just using any weapons it could against its enemies. Lindsey ran in front of the angry sauropod and tried to distract it by throwing twigs and dirt at the beast. As soon as it turned its attention to her however, Kirsteen tried to draw it back away from Lindsey.
"Get out of here now." Lindsey shouted.
"Why do you think you can handle it any better? You get out of here."
"Oh for god sake" Lindsey said.
"This isn't a macho thing, I have experience with Dinosaurs I know." Before Lindsey could finish the Brontosaurus' long serpentine neck suddenly darted for Lindsey and scooped her up in its jaws.
Fortunately its mouth wasn't big enough to swallow her, and its tiny pegg shaped teeth barely cut her skin. Still it was strong enough to life and shake her from side to side in its mouth, but even then, the shakes were very slow and just made Lindsey feel a bit sick more than anything else.
The Dinosaur however still lifted Lindsey over 40 feet off the ground as it raised its neck upwards. Lindsey was almost sick at the sight below her. She'd never been good with heights.
Kirsteen could only watch helplessly. She wanted to do something, but if she did somehow manage to distract the Brontosaurus then it would most likely drop Lindsey to her death.
"Where the hell is the Professor." Kirsteen said to herself.
As the Sauropod started to bite harder, its peg like teeth started to pierce Lindsey's skin, and in pain and panic she kicked wildly, with one kick landing straight in the Dinosaur's eye.
The Brontosaurus dropped Lindsey, who fell into a large tree. The branches broke her fall, but she still fell through them until she hit the ground below. She didn't break anything, but she was knocked out and the Brontosaurus started to close in on her.
Kirsteen ran in front of Lindsey and started to throw things at the Brontosaurus for all the good it did.
Just then Kirsteen noticed some of the trees behind being trampled over.
"Oh god there's not another of these bastards." Kirsteen thought to herself.
The Professor however soon came running from the direction of the trampled trees. Behind him, Kirsteen could see what looked like a gigantic predatory Dinosaur, in actual fact an Allosaurus, the most numerous of the large carnivores of the valley. The Allosaurus immediately set its sights on the Brontosaurus, that was was about five times the size of the Allosaurus, though the Sauropod looked far more scared than the Allosaurus.
The Brontosaurus reared up on its back legs, looking even larger than before. The Allosaurus however simply darted around with its much greater speed, confusing and scaring the giant.
The herbivore was forced to stomp back down to the ground after a few minutes the strain on its back legs was too great, and for the few seconds it was disoriented, the Allosaurus jumped on the Sauropods side. It gripped onto the Brontosaurus' body with the long talons on its hands, and cleaved off massive pieces of its flesh.
The Brontosaurus thrashed around in in desperation, knocking several trees down. Kirsteen was barely able to pull Lindsey's unconscious body away in time from one of the Brontosaurus' feet.
The Brontosaurus tried to ram the Allosaurus into some trees, but the meat eater was too quick and crawled onto the top of the larger Dinosaurs back, where it continued to slice more flesh off of the Brontosaurus' gigantic bulk from either side with its jaws. Unfortunately neither the Brontosaurus' neck or tail could reach the Allosaurus' as neither could bend that much. The crafty theropod knew this, and it would always strike at the centre of the beasts body as a result. One whack from the Brontosaurus' tail could kill the Allosaurus.
Eventually after a few minutes the Brontosaurus collapsed onto its belly from blood loss. Too weak to barely raise its tail, the Allosaurus still held on to its back even as the giant collapsed, and would continue to slash away for a few more moments until it was sure the Brontosaurus was down for good.
The Professor ran by the Allosaurus as it feasted on its kill. The carnivore wouldn't give them anymore trouble. It was too focused on its well earned larger meal. The Professor had counted on that when he led it here.
It wouldn't be too hard to find one here he guessed, as there were so many herbivores nearby. It was then just a simple question of leading it to the Brontosaurus.
Lindsey stared at the Allosaurus tearing into the Brontosaurus' carcass with an almost grim fascination. She wanted to take a picture of the gruesome spectacle, but she thought it would look a bit strange in front of Kirsteen.
The Allosaurus itself was a truly remarkable animal. The perfect blend of savagery, cunning and speed. That fact that it was able to bring down an animal five times its size with minimal effort, almost earned it Lindsey's respect. The large meat eaters had always been her favourites as a child after all.
The mighty theropod however soon noticed the awestruck and horrified humans and vampire and let out a large shrieking roar to scare them away.
"I think we should be going" The Professor said.
"I didn't enjoy leading that monster to the Brontosaurus, but he didn't leave us much choice" The Professor continued as they crept their way through the thick jungle, whilst the Allosaurus returned to devouring its kill.
The Professor, Lindsey and Kirsteen soon came upon more Dinosaurs in the woods. Mostly Triceratops' and Hadrosaurs. These two Dinosaur species didn't normally socialise, but as the populations had dwindled so much, various different species had gathered together for protection.
At the end of the forest, the Professor could see what looked like the entrance to a cave system.
Just next to the cave, and beyond the forest was a large open plain, where dozens of Triceratops and Hadrosaurs all congregated, whilst in the very distance of the plains, near the forest Lindsey could see what looked like a pack of Dromeosaurs circling a Hardosaur.
These Dromeosaurs or Raptors were far larger than those Lindsey, the Professor and Kirsteen had seen when they first entered the valley.
They were at least 6 feet tall, and over twice as long. They still looked small however compared to the Hadrosaur.
These Dinosaurs were not exactly as they had been 66 million years ago when they dominated our planet. The magics used to bring them back were often unstable and predictable. As the Professors attempts to recreate the lost literary classics had shown. As a result these Dinosaurs, whilst not quite as twisted from their natural form, as 1984 becoming a bondage tale was, or aliens and Dinosaurs in Charles Dickens. Still these Dinosaurs were in some cases, larger and more powerful and aggressive. The Raptors for instance, in reality these Dinosaurs rarely hunted in groups, but this behaviour was common among resurrected Raptors. (Granted unlike the other changes, this was not accidental. Many of the Dragons and Wizards who brought them back over the centuries would often make the Raptors into pack hunters in order to make them more useful guard dogs, and soldiers.)
These Raptors however were not hunting the Hadrosaur itself. Lindsey could see that several of the crafty pack hunters had made their way to the Hadrosaurs nest in the woods behind, where they were dragging the baby Hadrosaurs away kicking and screaming whilst its mother was distracted by the rest of the pack..
Once they got the infants a good distance away back into the woods, the Raptors killed them either by slicing their stomachs open with the sickle like claws on their feet, or by ramming their claws into the infants necks and choking them on their own blood. The infants screams soon alerted the adult Hadrosaur however who charged back in the direction of the nest.
Whilst the rest of the Dromeosaurs scattered, one descended from the tree tops, like a giant bird of prey. This Raptor looked larger than the rest and was probably the alpha, Lindsey thought.
The alpha Raptor sunk the claws on both its hands and feet into the Hadrosaurs back, and held on, similar to how the Allosaur had jumped onto the Brontosaurus.
The Raptor however didn't attack in quite the same way. Instead it merely held on, whilst the Hadrosaur frantically tried to shake it off.
Even for an advanced pack like this, it was still difficult taking down a 40 foot long Dinosaur such as a Hadrosaur. They preferred to target their offspring instead.
The Alpha held the Hadrosaur off long enough for the rest of the pack to drag the Hadrosaurs infants deeper off into the woods out of sight. The Alpha then retreated back to the tree tops, whilst the rest of the pack scattered back into the woods.
"We should have done something", Kirsteen who had also noticed the gruesome sight said with regret.
"No" The Professor said firmly. "We have to let nature take its course or whatever twisted version of nature exists in this valley, besides we don't have time."
The Professor had barely paid any attention to the Raptors. He was focused instead on the cave. It looked more like the rest of the moon, than the artificial magical landscape around it.
"The magical centre of the valley like I said will most likely be underground" the Professor continued as he walked towards the cave.
"There are a lot of corpses in there. I can smell them. Sadly it looks like our only way forward." The Professor continued.
"There's bound to be more caves around here somewhere." Kirsteen replied.
"Yes but we don't have the time to look for them. This whole valley is holding on by its finger nails." The Professor said firmly before marching ahead into the cave without even looking back.
"He never likes to talk things over" Kirsteen said.
"To be fair he's right this time." Lindsey replied.
"You saw those Dinosaurs floating off into space. He has no idea where those caves lead, but still its not exactly safe out here either." Lindsey said as she saw another one of the Raptors drag a small Hardosaurs away in the distance.
The inside of the cave was surprisingly light. It was grey and dusty however, much like the moon's surface.
"I can sense the magic here. Its stronger than anywhere else. We're on the right track though I still have no idea where this centre is, or how we are going to fix it." The Professor said.
"Well journey of a thousand miles and all that." Kirsteen replied.
"I just hope something doesn't eat us before we finish the journey." She continued
"Well if we run into something hungry you can always sing." The Professor joked, whilst Lindsey struggled not to giggle.
The three time travellers reached the end of the tunnel, where they saw a large cavern below that was filled with the bones of various Dinosaurs and other animals, including human beings.
All of the Dinosaurs and animal bones looked relatively small. Some of them were clearly infants of larger Dinosaur species.
"This is the Raptors cave. They must drag the babies and other animals they kill in here." Lindsey said.
Suddenly several Raptors began to emerge from behind some of the corpses, roaring and hissing.
"Well I think that's our cue to get of here." Kirsteen said
"No" The Professor replied.
"I told you we have to go ahead. It's only Raptors."
The Professor jumped down to face the three Dinosaurs, baring his fangs and roaring. The Raptors were a little taken aback at first. They had hunted many humans, but they had never seen even the largest and strongest humans face them so brazenly.
Still the largest Raptor jumped at the old vampire who easily tossed the Dinosaur aside. The second Raptor meanwhile, the Professor sent tumbling over his shoulder and into a large pile of human bones behind. The final Raptor started to back away a bit in fear, as the Professor slowly walked towards it.
The Raptor tried to hiss at him, but the Professor simply laughed and snarled back.
The vampire however realised too late that it had been tricked, when a fourth Raptor emerged from behind a small pile of bones (which it concealed itself with until the very last second. Even Kirsteen and Lindsey hadn't noticed it.) The Raptor jumped the Professor from behind. Before he could react, the third Raptor then jumped on top of him, as did the first two Dinosaurs who had recovered.
They all slashed their claws into the Professor. Had he been an ordinary human, the Raptors would have cut him to pieces! Still he was unable to break free from the Dinosaurs.
Lindsey and Kirsteen prepared to jump into the cavern below to help the Professor, but as they did, they suddenly heard the sound of several more of the pack hunters behind them.
Three of the Raptors from the forest, with one of them holding the body of a young Hadrosaur by the neck emerged from down the way they came.
To Be Continued