Fossil Fools

Chapter 13. Knee trembler.

My guts wretched. Fight or flight? I could do nothing except freeze. I slumped on top of my bony steed as it rose up. It swished its tail, and we gently floated over the top of the Jurassic sea creatures towards the central arena.

It was so surreal! Looking down, I could see laid out below creatures of the Cretaceous, Paleogene, Neogene, and the Quaternary eras. The Paleontology nerd in me was still transfixed by the amazing experience I was having. How can it be that the creatures had been organised into geological eras in descending order right up to the present day? It was all so weird. And what for?

A deafening screeching, honking, shrilling, trumpeting erupted through the stadium. Even the plants and trees rustled and creaked. On the one hand, I felt helpless, like I was being led to my public execution. I realized with a billion eyes on me, for the first time in my boring life I was the star of the greatest show on earth, or not on earth! Somehow that felt like a good thing.

That brief fantasy quickly evaporated. We were now up close, maybe 100 feet away from the Arena. The huge hairy talking tree had a trunk thicker than any I had ever seen, maybe 30 feet wide. It rose like an ancient space rocket. High above, massive Monkey Puzzle type branches swayed in a cosmic breeze. I couldn't help but feel impressed. It truly looked like the leader of the plants, a king of the vegetable world. I was a struggling ant at its feet.

The Ammonite was also vast, at least five times taller than me. Its long silvery tentacles rippled gently, as if it were flowing in a cosmic current. Its huge sized eyes watched my every move, but didn't frighten me. It seemed kind and wise. Those eyes had seen a lot, they were grandfatherly eyes.

The Raptor screeched and spat at me like a wildcat from the other side of the arena. Its murderous stare and curve of its jaw made it look sickeningly psychotic and violent. It was the eyes that got me, clever eyes, cunning, cold, and cruel eyes. Snarling and snorting, it snapped its vicious jaws together, scratching its huge clawed foot back and forth like a monstrous mutated lizard. I was transfixed. Pure hate pulsating towards me.

How many times had I looked at my dinosaur books and imagined being amongst them? Hundreds. Now the moment had arrived, and it was the last place on earth I wanted to be.

The dinosaur nerd was still alive and well, though. I took it all in. Ten metres from snout to the end of its whip lashing tail. I noticed massive sickle like claws on its heels, each about nine inches long. That would make it a Megaraptor from the Late Cretaceous, maybe 100 million years old. Even with all this going on, I recalled my trusty Osbourne Dinosaur Book's vivid description of the Megaraptor. 'A killing and butchering machine'.

It turned to face me, swishing his silvery tail back and forth. Slime oozed from the edge of his gaping mouth. I felt bile and nausea rise in my gut; I wanted to retch. I couldn't sustain the intensity of his lizard stare any more, and I looked away.

The Ichthyosaur made dolphin-like clicking sounds, which reassured me for a moment although I did not know what they meant. Leaning over, I stroked her head and patted her side. More for my reassurance than hers. I shut my eyes and steadied myself.

"This is just a dream, this is just a dream." I repeated the mantra over and over until I actually half believed it.

At that very moment Grandma Rachel's image came to me, as if in a dream. I could see her clearly in her red and white striped apron. She was flapping her arms around, as if shooing geese from the lawn.

"Off with you, leave the boy alone. He has done nothing to you. Pick on someone your own size! Don't worry Jasper, they are just a bunch of old dead bones. How dare they? Be gone with you!"