Chapter IX: Dinner is Served

 Dan hyperventilated and slapped his palm on his aching chest. Deep breaths, Dan, deep breaths, he thought. It was only an Arthropleura. Yeah, an eight-foot-long millipede who tasted him! What scared them away, though?

 Dan coughed and flipped his body, standing on his hands and knees. Oh, gosh, he was going to throw up again. Dan crawled to the beach gully and did it there. "PPMC!" he screamed afterward. Dan tried calling her, but his shaking index finger missed the button. When he managed to hit it, PPMC didn't answer. Not only that, but the ground under Dan shook, kicking up a few stones, and something roared in the atmosphere.

 Meteors rained down from the sky. While most of them burned up, a few landed on the horizon of both the ocean and the mainland. "PPMC!" Dan yelled again. "Ow!" He collapsed onto his side and clutched his thigh. He swore—Chenoa and his dad so owed him! There had to be somewhere safe around the beach, but where?

 Dan coughed into his palm and rapidly searched the area. His eyes were knocked together with the shaking, and his head hurt like a son of a gun. However, then he saw her.

 The Hylonomus he met jumped out of the coal forest and scurried to Dan.

 "It's you," he whispered, feeling weaker by the second.

 Stay with me, Dan, read her eyes. The Hylonomus bit his finger and gently tugged it. She urged Dan to his feet, but a seismic roar chucked them into a log buried in the sand at the forest's line.

 Dan's world went black, but the Hylonomus shook out her head. She stayed close while the meteor shower continued for a few more minutes. Once everything was peaceful again, the Hylonomus attempted to wake Dan.

 She bit his finger again, but when that didn't work, the Hylonomus flicked her tongue into his ear.

 Dan woke and rubbed his temple. "Ugh, I've had enough for one day." Between the volcanoes in the Precambrian Time and now the tetrapods, Arthropleura, and meteor shower, he just wanted to sleep. And what the heck was going on with PPMC? Why wasn't she answering his calls?

 Dan removed his overcoat and tank top and stepped into the ocean to clear his mind. Saltwater wasn't the best way to wash up, but it was what he had until PPMC found him.

 The Hylonomus stayed with Dan's gauntlet on the beach, and he searched the sky for the starship. Wherever she was, she'd better find him soon.

 As the Sun began to set, Dan went into the forest and collected wood for a fire. He built one on the beach with two rocks.

 The Hylonomus returned to the woods—Dan assumed to look for food—but he remained with the light. He rested on his side, but his flight and fight response was so intense that he could not fall asleep. He jumped at every sound and watched the ocean and forest for tetrapods and Arthropleura.

 "Where are you, PPMC?" Dan whimpered.

***

 Dammit, something was wrong. PPMC's time machine sparked like it did through the wormhole. She even had trouble lifting off the ground. That was a meteor shower earlier, and Dan was somewhere out there during it. Becca had better be watching out for him! How badly injured was he? PPMC already killed one person; she couldn't murder another, even if he was a jerk. How else would she pry the truth about Becca from Dan? Hoverscooter 23 was an option, but she was still charging.

 PPMC played around with her time machine until it stopped malfunctioning. Nonetheless, she still couldn't lift herself. "Maybe I need to charge like Hoverscooter 23," she guessed. She hoped that was true; nevertheless, she couldn't risk exposing herself overnight. While no other Temnospondyli had discovered her, it was better to be safe than sorry.

 Considering that, PPMC's hands traveled to a new button in her cockpit. Before pressing it, she noticed her time machine's emergency time period button flickered slightly. "Eh," PPMC said, "it's no big deal." With those words, she punched the new button.

 Outside in the prehistoric world, PPMC disappeared, but a huff from her engines said she was still there. At least her invisibility cloak worked. How long would that last, though? PPMC needed to figure out what was wrong with her time machine quickly. She refused to travel to the emergency time period unless it was just that—an emergency. At the moment, there was no risk of getting trapped in time, but where on Earth was that Daniel Matton?

 PPMC would find out soon enough.

***

 The Hylonomus returned empty-pawed to the beach, leaving Dan frustrated but relieved that he wasn't alone. The fire was dying, and he didn't feel like exploring the forest with Arthropleura on the loose. Seeing one at night would be even more terrifying than the day.

 Dan yawned and let the Hylonomus squeeze in beside him. They were ready to doze off when a sudden splash overtook the beach's lapping waves. Dan's eyes widened. He sat so quickly that he almost crushed the Hylonomus.

 She went low and studied the ocean with Dan.

 An animal stepped out, its tail waving back and forth.

 "Eee!" Dan shrieked. Like the Arthropleura, that tetrapod could swallow him whole. It looked like a walking Great White Shark that feasted on its own kind. There was no doubt it was larger than the Temnospondyli earlier.

 "What does it take for a guy to sleep in prehistoric times?" Dan mumbled. At least it was merely one tetrapod, though, right?

 Wrong!

 The animal swished its tail and batted the ocean's surface. Flat heads popped out of it, and the tetrapod seemed to smirk.

 Before Dan knew it, prehistoric lizards stood before him and the Hylonomus. They opened their mouths as if chomping but soon shut them again. A few lizards licked their lips.

 All right, that was it. Dan was taking the Hylonomus and returning to PPMC. The Hylonomus abandoned her family for him, so she obviously liked him.

 Dan picked her up and set her on his shoulder. He left the beach and sprinted through the coal forest. His leg burned, but Dan pushed through the pain. He could still walk and run.

 The Hylonomus held on for dear life. Dan felt her dangling.

 The tetrapods chased them. They slipped and tripped a lot but didn't give up like Dan.

 He and the Hylonomus passed the Hylonomus's swamp, but then they reached the one Dan had fallen into earlier.

 Dan recognized the overgrown, steep hill and pointed at it. "There!" He begged for PPMC to still be at the top. He ducked into the hill's ferns and crawled up the best he could. Shuffling around him said the tetrapods were also in the ferns, but Dan heard them rolling down them. They weren't the brightest creatures, weren't they?

 It took effort, but Dan finally reached the hill's top. He kicked a rock, which tumbled down it and hit a few tetrapods. Dan's ears rang with their screeches. He searched the area for PPMC but didn't see her. No, no! Where was she? There were tetrapods after Dan and the Hylonomus!

 The Hylonomus leaped onto the forest bed from Dan's shoulder. She hurried toward the open area PPMC had landed in when he and she first landed in the Paleozoic Era.

 Dan reached for her. "Little Hylonomus, don't leave me for the blue-plate special!" He struggled to stand and limped after her. "PPMC, please! Where are you? It's Dan!"

 The Hylonomus stopped suddenly and turned, opening her mouth.

 "Don't leave me!" Dan repeated, closing his eyes. He sprinted like a marathon runner and crashed into something in midair.

 Oof! read the Hylonomus's face.

 "Ugh." Dan fell onto his back and stretched his arms. He felt his injured leg bleeding again.

 The few tetrapods who reached the hill's top backed up when PPMC's hand appeared in the clear arena.

 "That's quite enough, boys! You should be ashamed of yourself. Nobody hurts my master!"

 What the—? PPMC could turn invisible? That would've been helpful earlier.

 The Hylonomus jogged to Dan, still stunned, and licked his cheek.

 Groaning, he sat and massaged his head. "Aw, man, that's gonna leave a mark."

 The tetrapods lunged for PPMC's hand and latched onto them, but she shook them off and chucked them over the hill. "Be gone! Find an eight-foot-long millipede to pick on, but not my master and his friend!" She scoffed. "Cheapskates." Once the amphibians' screeches died, PPMC's second hand appeared. She smacked them together and said in a slightly Southern accent, "That otta do." Eventually, she faced Dan and his friend. "Welcome back, Daniel Matton."