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Authors: Dick King-Smith

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BOOK: Dinosaur Trouble
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That first meeting, with all its misunderstanding of Banty's “rescue,” did indeed lead to friendship between the two families of dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
The mothers in particular became great friends. They would now meet regularly by the lake or on the near part of the Great Plain. Obviously this was simpler, for the pterodactyls could fly to these meetings. The adult apatosauruses would have
had great difficulty in making their way into the woods. Trees would be falling everywhere before the impact of their bulk.
“It will be so much easier for you, Gargantua,” said Aviatrix. “It's not the least trouble for us to fly to the lake or the Great Plain or wherever we want to meet. We are, after all aeronauts of remarkable facility and versatility.”
“How I admire the way you have with words, Aviatrix,” said Gargantua. “It is such a pleasure to talk with you. And you are all such good fliers.”
I just said that,
thought Aviatrix.
Ah well, maybe I can improve her vocabulary.
Which, to some extent, she did.
Gargantua learned to say
perambulate
instead of
walk, enumerate
instead of
count, cogitate
or
deliberate
instead of
think,
and many other long words that, though familiar to Aviatrix, were quite new to the apatosaurus.
 
 
“Not the most erudite of creatures, those apatosauruses,” said Aviatrix to her husband later.
“Come again?” said Clawed.
“They don't know very much.”
“Oh,” said Clawed. “Not as much as we do, eh?”
As I do
, said Aviatrix to herself.
“She's not too bad,” she said. “What d'you think of him?”
“Who?”
“Titanic.”
“Oh, him. Well, he's a fine figure of an apatosaurus, I must say.”
And he called me “sir,”
he thought.
Not a bad start.
“He's all right,” he said. “Probably not all that clever, like we are.”
If Aviatrix had possessed eyebrows, she would have raised them.
“Perhaps you could teach him a thing or two, Clawed,” she said.
Fat chance
, she thought.
 
Meanwhile, Banty's parents were talking about the pterodactyls.
“I must tell you, Titanic,” said Gargantua, “that I have changed my mind about little Nosy's mother and father.”
“Have you, Gargy?” said her husband. “Because they rescued Banty, you mean?”
“Of course. But also because they turned out to be much brighter than I thought they'd be.”
“He was?” asked Titanic.
He, too, would have raised his eyebrows if he'd had any.
“Well, perhaps not,” replied Gargantua, “but she seemed quite intelligent.”
Now, when one set of parents met the other, usually by the lake, it was generally mother who talked to mother, and father to father. Because of the great difference between the two species, these conversations were always conducted in the same way. Each pterodactyl would fly to, and hang from, a branch high enough for each apatosaurus to stretch its very long neck to the
fullest extent. Then each was able to speak to the other, face-to-face, one face, of course, being upside down.
The mothers talked about all kinds of different things. Their conversations were lively—and filled with long words. It was somewhat different when Clawed met Titanic.
To begin with, neither male quite liked to look the other in the eye. Their faces may have been close, but Titanic tended to look up into the sky or out to the lake or over to the Great Plain, while Clawed, partly because he was upside down and partly because talking to Titanic
made him feel sleepy, usually stared straight down at the ground. In contrast to the conversations of their mates, theirs were short and pretty dull.
Clawed would fly in and hang up, and Titanic would make his heavy way to the tree in use and stand beneath it and stretch up his long neck. A typical exchange might be as follows:
Clawed: Morning.
Titanic: Good morning, sir. I trust you're well?
C: Not too bad.
Longish pause.
C: Nice weather.
T: A trifle hot, I fear, for someone of my size.
Makes walking tiring.
This last word would make Clawed yawn.
T: How fortunate you are, sir, to have the gift
of flight. How pleasant it must be in the upper air.
C: Yes.
T: Your family well?
C: Yes.
Longish pause.
C: Any sign of T. rex?
T: No, I think he must be on the other side of the Great Plain.
C: Hope he stays there.
Short pause.
T: If you'll excuse me, sir, I'll go down to the lake for some waterweed, if I may?
C: Please do.
T plods heavily off.
C goes heavily to sleep.
These family meetings between the pterodactyls and the apatosauruses suited Nosy and Banty
perfectly. With their parents close by in case of trouble, they could spend time together, chatting and playing.
They invented some games, like hide-and-seek, where Nosy closed his eyes and counted to a hundred, while Banty went to the lake and submerged. Then, when time was up, Nosy would skim the surface of the water, searching for those two little nostrils that were all that would show of his friend.
Another game was “Cry T. Rex!” Nosy would wait till Banty was peacefully grazing and then he'd suddenly fly hastily toward her, squeaking, “T. rex! T. rex! Run, Banty!” and she would run (or rather waddle) as quickly as she could for the safety of the lake, while Nosy watched happily.
To pay him back for frightening her, Banty would sneak up behind a branch on which he was hanging, as quietly as she could, and then suddenly cry, “T. rex! T. rex! Scramble, Nosy!” She would grasp the branch in her mouth and shake it violently as the awful monster might have done, and then roar with laughter as Nosy flew off in a panic.
The thought of T. rex was in everyone's minds, but for a long time there was mercifully no sign of Hack the Ripper.
He was hunting on the far side of the Great Plain, where many dinosaurs had laid their eggs some months ago. Now there were dozens of nice fat newly hatched babies that made easy and very tasty meals for Hack. A river ran by this side of the plain, so that there was no need for the tyrannosaurus to visit the lake for a drink.
But gradually the slow brains of brachiosaurus or iguanodon or triceratops took in the fact that they were losing a lot of their babies, and that perhaps they had better migrate across the plain.
The herds made for the lake, thinking they would escape from Hack the Ripper.
But they were to be disappointed.
He followed.
Both Nosy's and Banty's families noticed that there were a great many more dinosaurs around the place. Though there was as yet no sign of the T. rex, they became worried that Hack might come to hunt there again.
The three pterodactyls took it upon themselves to do regular aerial surveys of that part of the Great Plain nearest to the lake. Flying up to a good height, they had a fine pterosaur's-eye view
and would be able to give warning in time for the apatosaurus family to take cover underwater, save for their nostrils.
Aviatrix then arranged a duty roster. Each morning she would fly out first, to be relieved later by Nosy, who in turn gave way to his father. (Clawed did not like early rising.)
One midmorning, Nosy left the woods and flew off to take over from his mother. He saw no sign of her in the skies, but then caught sight of her as she skimmed low over the partly eaten body of a stegosaurus. Clouds of insects were busy about it, and she was busy about them. She flew up when she saw Nosy approaching.
“Well,” she said, “what d'you think killed that, my son?”
“T. rex?”
“Exactly. He's back. I haven't seen any sight of him yet; he's probably busy digesting this breakfast of his. But you keep your eyes peeled. Daddy will be along later.”
After his mother had gone, Nosy flew up high to scan the plain below. A number of herds of different dinosaurs were grazing below him, but then suddenly, they all began to move about nervously, and then, in a kind of mass panic, to hurry away, to the left or the right, as though some fearful enemy was coming.
T. rex?
thought Nosy.
He flew lower over the hustling herds, and sure enough, there, marching forward toward the lake on his two great hind legs, his tiny forelegs held against his massive chest, his jaws agape to show those long, daggerlike teeth, was Hack the Ripper. He was growling, and soon his growls turned to roars.
There's nothing I can do to save any of these wretched beasts below me,
thought Nosy,
but I must alert Banty and her ma and pa so that they can get into the water
, and he set off toward the lake. Halfway there he saw a solitary figure, its head buried in the grass of the plain,
quietly eating. It was an apatosaurus. It was a young apatosaurus. It was Banty!
Quickly he flew toward her and hovered above her.
“T. rex! T. rex! Run, Banty!” he squealed.
Banty did not even look up.
“Not now, Nosy,” she said. “Not while I'm having my lunch. Anyway, I'm a bit bored with playing Cry T. Rex! We'll have to think of another game to play.”
“But this isn't a game, Banty, this is real!” squeaked Nosy. “Can't you hear him? Look, you can see him now, and he's coming straight for you!”
At this Banty raised her head, stretched her neck, and saw Hack.
He was no more than ten apatosaurus-lengths away, and the lake was about the same distance from Banty. She would never reach it in time; he was
so much faster on his two legs than she was on her four. At the sight of her, Hack roared even louder.
If only Mom were here,
thought Nosy,
she could fly at him and scratch his snout like she did before. There's only one thing for it—I'll have to try to do the same.
But at that moment, he saw his father come flying from the woods, across the lake, and over the fleeing apatosaurus.
“Daddy, Daddy!” he squealed. “It's T. rex! He's going to kill Banty! Can you do something? Please!”
Clawed may have been slow-witted, but now he showed how quick he could be in action.
“Out of the way, boy!” he cried, and he dived upon the fast-approaching Hack the Ripper.
Then, spreading his great wings wide, he hovered directly in front of the tyrannosaurus so as to obscure the creature's view of the way ahead.
Snap and snarl as he might, Hack could not shift Clawed out of his path. So he didn't see Banty reach the lake, splosh into it, and submerge.
As Clawed wheeled away, Hack dashed on down to the water's edge, but there was nothing to be seen except, some way out, a small pair of nostrils. These, of course, Hack the Ripper did not notice, as he stood knee-deep, cursing the pterodactyl that had blocked his view of the prey.
“Gosh, Daddy!” said Nosy as they circled above. “You were amazing!”
BOOK: Dinosaur Trouble
6.41Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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