Authors: Dick King-Smith

Dinosaur Trouble (2 page)

BOOK: Dinosaur Trouble

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A terrifying roar split the air. Aviatrix looked up from her meal of fat flies.

“So there is,” she said.

“Mom,” said Nosy, “hadn't we better push off before it arrives?”

Every time T. rex roared, Nosy could see those long, sharp teeth, and they looked very sharp indeed.

“No hurry,” said Aviatrix. “Time for a bit
of fun. Do you remember what my name means?”

“Yes, Mom. Female flier.”

“And what else did I tell you?”

“You said you were paramount among all pterodactyls in the skills of flying.”

“Quite right, Nosy. Watch this,” said Aviatrix, and she took off and flew directly at the approaching tyrannosaurus.

Seeing her coming, it reared up to its full height and opened wide that huge mouth crammed with sharp teeth. It thought this was going to be an easy meal.

Now Aviatrix showed just how skilled a flier she was. As she neared that open mouth, she suddenly shot straight up into the air. And, as she zoomed over the head of T. rex, she sank her sharp claws into its snout.

T. rex let out a loud bellow, not of pain (for its
skin was too thick to be much harmed by a scratch from a pterodactyl) but of rage at the cheek of the creature. It watched in fury as Aviatrix now put on a show of aerobatics.

First she looped the loop, high above the great flesh-eater, then she dived back down, straight at it, so that the watching Nosy felt sure that his mother's last moment had come.

But no, gracefully she sideslipped past the open mouth and then began to sweep around and around T. rex's neck in tight circles, while it snapped furiously at her. It rocked unsteadily on its hind feet, becoming quite giddy in its vain efforts to catch this pest.

Shooting skyward once more in the steepest of climbs, Aviatrix hovered for a moment high above the tyrannosaurus. Then, folding her leathery wings, she dropped, twisting and turning like a falling leaf, apparently totally out of control.

It looked to Nosy as though his mother was going to go straight down the throat of T. rex. But all its last snap at her earned it was a mouthful of fresh air and another scratch on the nose.

Once more Aviatrix slipped past those gaping jaws and then climbed high, to perform one last magnificent feat of aerobatics. She spread her wings wide and rolled, with first her right wing pointing skyward, then her left, over and over and over, before she finally flew back to the body of the brachiosaurus, toward which the raging T. rex was now rushing at top speed.

“Scramble, Nosy!” she called down. “I think our friend is a bit upset.”

“Gosh, Mom, you really are a paramount flier!” said Nosy as they flew away together. “What was that last thing you did?”

“That,” said his mother, “was the Victory Roll.”

When Clawed eventually woke up, he remembered that something nice had happened. What was it? Oh yes, he was a father, he had a son. Avy had brought the boy along to see him.
What was
he called? Oh yes, Nosy, that was it
.

Clever little chap too,
thought Clawed,
knows some long words already, just like his mother. I don't know any long words. Oh no, wait a minute, I do know some.
Pterodactyl
to begin with, andâlet's see, now
âdiplodocus
and
iguanodon
and
allosaurus
and
stegosaurus
and
triceratops.
Not bad, eh? What have I left out? Oh, I know, horrible old
Tyrannosaurus rex.
Had a nightmare about it, didn't I? Sooner call it T. rex, thoughâshort names are easier. Could shorten
the others, I suppose.

Dip. Ig. Al. Steg. Tri. No, it doesn't work.

Clawed yawned, tired by so much thinking. He was about to doze off again when he heard two voices.

“Clawed!” said one, and “Daddy!” said the other, and the branch creaked as his wife and his son landed to hang upside down on either side of him.

“Hello,” he said. “Where have you two been?”

“Nosy will tell you,” replied Aviatrix.

“Oh, Daddy!” cried Nosy. “We've had ever such an exciting time! We were feeding on a brachiosaurusâ”

“What, eating it?” interrupted Clawed. “How did you manage that?”

“Don't be silly, Clawed,” said Aviatrix. “Nosy means we were on a brachiosaurus, feeding. On flies. Don't interrupt the boy.”

“Oh, sorry,” said Clawed. “Go on, Nosy.”

“And then,” went on Nosy, “what d'you think we saw, Daddy?”

“Haven't a clue,” said Clawed.

“Have a guess.”

“One of our relations, perhaps? Haven't seen my brother for a while. You'd like your uncle Eggbert, Nosy. He's nearly as big as me.”

And nearly as silly, said Aviatrix to herself, smiling fondly at her husband.

“No, Daddy,” said Nosy. “It wasn't a pterosaur we saw, it was a dinosaur.”

Dip? Ig? Al? Steg? Tri?
thought Clawed.
I don't know.

“I give up,” he said.

“We saw a T. rex!” said Nosy. “And Mom did some absolutely fantastic, superlative aerobatics.”

“Which you will probably be able to do just as well when you've grown up, Nosy,” said Aviatrix. “Thanks to your primogeniture.”

“What does that word mean, Avy?” asked Clawed.

“Literally,” replied Aviatrix, “it means the circumstance of being firstborn. If you comprehend the purport of my prognostication.”

Clawed looked blank.

“Mom means I'm going to be a good flier, Daddy,” said Nosy.

Clawed looked pleased.

“You're bound to be, my son,” he said, “with a father like me.”

Aviatrix looked at her large husband with a mixture of amusement and pride.
He may be silly,
she thought,
but he is a good flier. Not as good as me, of course, but faster, I have to admit. With that enormous wingspan of his and his great strength, I reckon he could beat any pterodactyl on earth in a race. I bet Nosy would be surprised. Shall I get old Clawed to show off his speed? Why not!

“Let's get airborne, Clawed,” she said to her
husband, “and then you'll be able to see how well Nosy is doing. Anyway, you need some exercise. You're always hanging about.”

Clawed looked doubtful.

“Come on, Daddy,” said Nosy. “I'd love to fly with you. Mom is a bit too fast for me.”
But you won't be,
he thought.
You're too big and heavy and lazy.

Clawed yawned.

“Oh, all right,” he said. “If I must, I must,” and he unclasped his huge claws and dropped down till he was clear of all the branches of the tree. Then he glided out into the open, where the others joined him, and the three of them set off in line, Nosy in the middle, one parent on either side of him.

“Mom! Daddy! Where are we going?” he asked.

“Let's go to the lake,” said Clawed. “I'm thirsty.”

“All right,” said Aviatrix, “and then we can go on to the Great Plain. Now then, Nosy, we'll give you a start. Show Daddy how fast you can fly.”

Nosy beat his little wings as hard as he could and pulled away ahead of his parents.

“Good boy!” he heard them shout, and then came the flap of much, much larger wings as Aviatrix caught up to him and passed him. A moment later Clawed came thundering by. His wings, Nosy could see, were even bigger, much, much bigger, and although he beat them more slowly, they carried him along at such a rate that he in turn caught up with Aviatrix and swept past her.

Gosh! He's fast! He must be the fastest pterodactyl in the world,
thought Nosy.

In front of and below him now, he could see a great sheet of water. His parents were gliding down toward it. First his father and then his
mother skimmed the surface of the lake, wings splayed wide, mouths wide open. They drank as they flew, and Nosy copied as best he could.

At the far side of the lake were trees that hung out over the water. The family settled there, to hang upside down on a convenient branch.

Nosy shook himself.

“I'm wet, Mom,” he said.

“You have to learn the trick of it,” said Aviatrix, “but you did well.”

“And you flew well, my boy,” said Clawed.

“Gosh! You're fast, Daddy!” said Nosy.

Clawed looked pleased.

“You must be the fastest pterodactyl in the world,” said Nosy.

Clawed looked very pleased.

“He is,” said Aviatrix.

“Oh, I don't know,” said Clawed.

“Yes, you are,” said Aviatrix. “Don't argue. Now then, let's go on to the Great Plain.”

“But, Mom,” said Nosy, “I'm tired. Can't we rest for a bit?”

“Good idea,” said Clawed.

“No,” said Aviatrix. “But I'll tell you what. You can have a piggyback.”

“What does that mean, Mom?” asked Nosy.

“You can have a ride on Daddy's back. That'll give you a good rest.”

“Can I really?”

“Of course you can.”

“But, Avy,” said Clawed, “I wouldn't mind a rest too.”

“Nonsense,” said Aviatrix. “Jump on now, Nosy. Oops-a-daisy!”

Nosy never forgot the thrill he felt when, clinging tightly to his father's back, he looked down and
saw the Great Plain for the first time.

In the land where the pterodactyls lived, there were three different kinds of country.

First, there was the dry, stony desert, where Nosy had hatched. Here, each female would lay her solitary egg among the hot rocks.

Second, there were the woods, full of convenient trees for pterodactyls to hang upon.

And third, there was the Great Plain: miles and miles of grassland, where all the great planteating dinosaurs lived.

Now, as Nosy looked down in wonder, he saw herds of huge creatures such as diplodocuses and ankylosauruses and stegosauruses.

Nosy's parents dropped lower and hovered above a single enormous dinosaur that was moving very slowly, grazing on the coarse grasses.

“Gosh! What's that, Daddy?” he cried.

“Apatosaurus,” said Clawed.

“It's so
big!”
cried Nosy. “They're all so big, all these beasts below us!”

“Second-class creatures, the lot of them,” said his mother scornfully.

“Not a patch on us,” said his father proudly.

“Why not?”

“Because,” said his parents with one voice, “they can't fly!”

At that moment something came out from beneath the giant dinosaur. Something which had been sheltering there and had been alarmed by the flying creatures overhead.

It was a baby apatosaurus.